True Repentance

True Repentance

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

Pastor Matt’s sermon on Psalm 51 presents David’s repentance after his sin with Bathsheba as the biblical pattern for true repentance. He shows that when we sin, we must not deny, excuse, rename, or hide it, but run to God in humility, recognizing that Christ is our only hope, confessing our sin honestly, and asking God to cleanse, renew, restore, and uphold us. The sermon emphasizes that repentance is not self-improvement or confidence in our own sorrow, but a God-centered work of grace: God breaks the sinner’s pride, creates a clean heart, restores the joy of salvation, and produces renewed worship, obedience, and witness. In the end, the believer’s confidence rests not in the perfection of his repentance, but in God’s steadfast love, abundant mercy, and faithfulness to keep His people.

Sermon Transcript

Scripture Reading: Psalm 51

Psalm 51 is where we will be today. And so let's read the word of God. It says to the choir master, a psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, and you alone have I sinned. And done what is evil in your sight.

so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being. And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God.

and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.

You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices, and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered. on your altar.

Opening Prayer

Father, we do, thank you, and we praise you for your word, as we now turn our attention to this great psalm, the psalm of David, the psalm of repentance that he prayed. Lord, we pray that you would do the same for us, that you would create in us a clean heart, that you would be steadfast to us in your mercy and in your love. Lord, that you would restore us when we do fall, and when we do fail, and we do thank you that you are a gracious and merciful God to all of us. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated.

David’s Sin and the Occasion for Psalm 51

The psalm begins before the first verse with a short introduction. And it's written and addressed to the choir master, And then it tells us it is a psalm of David, and then it tells us the occasion upon which this psalm was written. It says, when Nathan the prophet went to him, went to David, after he had gone into Bathsheba after he had sinned with Bathsheba.

This moment in David's life is His greatest defeat. David was a man of great victories. David was a man after God's own heart. David was a man used by God and anointed by God. But he was also a man. He was a mortal man, a flesh, really man, a human being, and he, therefore, was a sinner. And David, in this situation with Bathsheba, had sinned and sinned greatly.

David, the king of Israel, had sent his armies out to war. And instead of going out and leading his armies, he stayed back in Jerusalem, and one night as he was on the roof of his house, the palace overlooking the city, He gazed upon a woman who was bathing. Her name was Bathsheba. And David inquired of his servants, who is this woman? And they said it is Bathsheba, The wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah the Hittite was one of David's closest and most faithful companions. One of David's mighty men, as they were known. And he sends his servant, he says, go and fetch her for me. He brings her to him and commits adultery with Bathsheba.

Afterwards, she returns to her home, and then some days later, she discovers that she is pregnant, and she sends word to David. I'm pregnant. So now not only has David sinned, but now there's evidence. A baby. And her husband is off at war.

And so David decides, I need to cover up my sin. I need to hide my sin. And so he hatches a plan. He sends for you, Uriah, to come back from the front lines of battle. Thinking, if I bring Uriah back to Jerusalem, He'll obviously go and visit his wife. And when a husband who's been at war comes home and visits his wife, I don't need to explain to you the birds and the bees. It's obvious what will happen, and this will cover up my sin, and everything will be fine. So David sends for Uriah, Uriah comes to him, and David inquires how's the war going? Oh, it's going, this, that, and the other.

David says, okay, great. You know, just spend the night here in Jerusalem, and then you can go back to the battle tomorrow. But Uriah doesn't go down to visit his wife. Instead, he stays in the courtyard of the king. He camps out outside and sleeps at the palace courtyard. When word of this gets to David, David brings Uriah to him the next morning and says, why did you go to your wife last night? Uh, I was just kind of curious.

He says, how can I? go and take comfort in the arms of my bride? When the armies of Israel, with my companions, with my brothers in arms are out fighting for God on the front lines of battle, how in the world could I do that? You see, Uriah was proving he was an honorable man.

David decides, you know what? Oh, okay. Here's what I'll do. I'll get Uriah drunk. I'll get him so drunk, he won't know what he's doing, and he'll just sort of stumble home, and that'll be my way of hiding my sin. And so David invites Uriah to a feast with him. They feast, they drink, he gets Uriah well drunk. Uriah stumbles his way out of the palace, but yet remains in the courtyard of the king and refuses to go and visit his bride.

And so David says, We will have to take more drastic measures. So David sits down and writes a letter to Joab, the commanders of his army. And in this letter, it says, place Uriah at the front of the battle where the war rages. The hottest. When you have placed Uriah there, have the armies pull back. so that Uriah will be killed in battle. David writes this letter, he seals it with his royal seal. He takes this letter, and he goes and he places it in the hand of Uriah. And sends it and delivers it, says, deliver this to Joab. Joab opens the letter, reads the letter, places Uriah on the front lines of battle, tells the armies to retreat, and Joab, Uriah then, is killed in battle.

Word reaches David, Uriah has been killed in battle. David then takes Bathsheba to himself, to be his wife. and says, it's all taken care of. No one will ever know. I've tidied up my mess. I've cleaned up my mess. Except for the fact that God saw all of it. God saw everything. Though it was hidden from the eyes of everybody else, it was not hidden from the eyes of God.

And so God sends one of his messengers, a prophet, a man named Nathan, to go and to confront David for his sin. And he confronts David in a very poetic way. He confronts David in a way that makes David angry. for somebody else in a different situation. And David, when he hears of this parable, this story that Nathan tells David, David says, surely that man deserves to die. And then Nathan famously points his finger at David and says, you are the man. You are that man. You are the man who has stolen another man's wife and had him murdered. to cover up your sin.

And when David is confronted with the word of God, Confronted with the realities, the depths of his sin. He repents. He is broken. He humbles himself. Much unlike his predecessor Saul. who when Saul had sinned against God, hardened his heart. made excuses, blamed others. David does the opposite. David is broken over his sin, and he repents of his sin.

What Do We Do When We Sin?

Which brings the question before us, when we sin, what do we do? When we sin, what do we do? And my, of course, my great hope and desire for you is your pastor is that you would not sin. That would be the best thing. Let's just not sin. But when you do sin, What do we do?

Do we, like Saul, deny it? Blame others? Mislabel it. Not call it sin, but Call it a mess up. I was just a little thing. It's my hang up. It's just sort of the my bad habit that I fall into. No, friends, it's sin. Let us not mislabel it. Let's not deny it. Let's not blame others. Let's not harden our hearts. Or indulge in it or hide it from others. See all of these other things. They only compound the issue and make matters worse, producing more destruction in our lives.

So if we shouldn't do those things following after the pattern of Saul, when we sin, what should we do? Well, we should follow the pattern. of the one who was called the man after God's own heart. David shows us in this psalm what to do when we sin and how we should repent.

David shows us what true repentance looks like. What true repentance looks like. And David, when he repented, he not only turned from his sin, But then he also took the time to compose this psalm, this prayer. From the repentance that flowed from his soul. He had this private moment of confession and repentance with God. But then he took what flowed from his soul in repentance, and he formed and fashioned it into this song, this psalm. Then he then, it says, entrusted to the choir master. That's the lead worship leader. who presided over the praises and the worship and the songs of God, and he entrusted what he wrote to the choir master so that it would be put to music.

that it might be sung in public worship. And thereby instruct the people of God and teaching them in the pathway of true repentance. And what it looks like to have restored fellowship with our creator. And so my hope in preaching Psalm 51 this morning as we get into the text today, is simply to highlight it for you. I want to shine the spotlight. I want to commend it to your spirit. that you would know where this psalm is in your Bible and that the pathway, the way to this psalm, that it would be well worn in your Bible. and well worn in your heart that you would know where it is and that you would be able to return to it again and again.

The Remedy for Sin

The bad news for all of us this morning is that we are all sinners. But the good news. The good news of the gospel is that there is a true remedy for sin and its destructive power. And that remedy for sin and its destructive power is found as we look to Christ in faith and confess and repent of our sins. And this psalm shows us what that looks like. You'll see in your Bible, in your text, that it's broken essentially into 5 paragraphs. And so I'm going to use the paragraphs in your Bible as five headings to show us what true repentance looks like.

1. Christ Is Our Only Hope

And the first is that Christ is our only hope. We have to recognize that Christ, when we sin, that the only hope that we have is Christ. Look at how David begins in verse one. Have mercy on me. Oh God. Look at how God centered this is. When David sins, he doesn't run from God like Adam. He doesn't hide his sin like Adam and Saul. What does David do when he has found out when he is confronted with the word of God by the prophet of God? He runs to God.

Because he realizes his only hope is in God. Have mercy on me, O God. According to your steadfast love. according to your abundant mercy. This whole psalm is so God centered. The remedy for sin. The answer for sin is not found in us. It's found in God. It's found in Christ.

The answer for sin isn't simply be better. Stop sinning. That is not the answer for sin. In and of ourselves, we do not have the strength to overcome sin. The answer to sin is to look to God, to look to Christ, the sacrifice for sin that God has provided. And God has provided this sacrifice according to his steadfast love, his faithful love. That even when we are sinners, God still loves us. What wonderful news that is.

God not only loves us when we are walking in faithfulness and walking in victory over sin, God loves us even when we do sin. God loves sinners. God loves you. And his love is a steadfast love. It is a steady love. It's not a love that is hot and then cold. It is not a love that wanes and waxes. It's not a love that increases and decreases. God's love for you is steadfast. It is faithful. It is more sure than the ground beneath your feet. It is more sure than the sun in the sky. God loves you. And God will have mercy upon you, not according to your goodness, or your ability to walk in faithfulness, or your, you know, devotion to him, that is not the basis of God's mercy and forgiveness to you.

No, the basis of God's mercy to us is his love for us. It is steadfast. that is faithful, that is sure, It's not like the horizontal love that we experience in this life. His love for us is perfect. And it says, according not only to his steadfast love, according to his abundant mercy. I'm so glad that God's mercy isn't just mercy, but it's abundant. Abundant mercy. The Bible says his mercies are new. Every morning. New every morning. Every morning you wake up, there is more mercy for God for you and your sins. Why are his mercies new every morning? Because you used them all up the night before? His mercies are inexhaustible.

New every morning. Whatever faces you today, sin and temptation before you, there is mercy for you. Abundant mercy from God. David says, cleanse me. From my sin. I haven't even addressed what sin is this morning. The Bible tells us what sin is in 1 John 2.1. It simply says that sin is lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. transgressing God's law, breaking God's commandments. And all of us have done that.

All of humanity has broken God's law, broken his commandments. Some of you are thinking, well, who is God to be able to tell me what to do? Listen, God's the creator. He made the world. He made everything in it. He made you. He made you a moral creature. responsible to him for how you live your life.

Though the world would teach us that we're just animals, The Bible tells us, no, we are image bearers. That means we are morally responsible to God for our lives. And he has given us his law. He's given us a conscience. He's written his commandments there. He's given us his word that teaches us explicitly, And all of us have chosen, in one way or another, to break God's law.

That is sin. And sin has a defiling effect in our lives. Sin has a destructive effect in our lives because sin separates us from God who is holy. We sang that this morning that God is holy, holy, holy. Sin separates us from a holy God.

God is the source of life. When you cut something off from its source, it produces death and decay. And so the wages of sin is death. Our sin must be dealt with, or we will enter into at the end of this life eternal death.

That's not God's desire for any of us. And so, God sent his son Jesus. to offer up his life as a sacrifice for our sin. to shed his blood, to wash us clean. And so we look to God, we look to Christ as our only hope, cleanse me from my sin. Wash me from my sin.

That's what the cross is all about. It's Jesus going and offering his life, bleeding and dying because we deserve death. But he died for us. in our place for our sins, so that we might look to Christ and call out for him to cleanse us, cleanse me, O God, David prays.

You see, friends, Christ is the only means by which God is provided for us to be cleansed. There's no other way for us to be washed clean. If we're looking to our own good works or our own good deeds or whatever else it might be to wash ourselves up, friends, it will fail every time. If Christ does not cleanse us, we will not be cleansed. If Christ does not wash us, we will not be forgiven of our sins. This is not according to our good deeds. No, it's according to God's grace, God's mercy, and God's steadfast love which he has shown to us in Christ. Look to Christ.

He is our only hope.

2. We Must Confess Our Sin

The second thing that we see in this next section is that we must confess our sin. We must confess our sin, and this is what David does in verses 3 through 6. He makes a confession. He's not hiding his sin anymore. He's been exposed. He's been called out. The word of God has been preached and declared to him, and his actions and his deeds have been laid bare.

He's not hiding from anybody. He thought he had got away with it, but he heard the word of God. God revealed to him, I see it, I know. And so David says, I will humble myself under God. God, David confesses his sin. He says, I know my transgression. And my sin is ever before me against you, and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

David says, I'm not hiding it anymore. I'm confessing it. God, you are right. I have sinned against you. So David confesses his sin, and so must we. If we're going to walk this pathway of repentance and renewed fellowship with God, It starts with us looking to Christ as our only hope, but then we must confess our sins.

What is confession? It is an admission of guilt. That's what a confession is. Admitting that you are guilty. It's a declaration of wrongdoing. And ultimately, it's a wrongdoing against God. as the ultimate. David says, against you, and you alone have I sinned. You know, I read that and I think, well, Uriah might have something to say about that, David.

What David is saying in this is that his yes, he sinned against Uriah, no doubt. But his sin against God was so much greater. The affront to God, as perfectly holy and perfectly just. is so much greater. It's such a greater offense. That he can say against you and you alone have I truly, ultimately, sinned.

Yes, he had done wrong against Uriah. But the one to which David is ultimately responsible is God and God alone. And so a confession is this admission of guilt, this declaration of wrongdoing against God. God, I have transgressed your law. God, I have broken your commandments. God, I have disobeyed what your word teaches.

We must confess our sins if we will receive forgiveness of them. The New Testament teaches us this as well, 1 John 1:9, if, We confess our sins. Notice that word there. If. It's a conditional statement. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you are not willing to confess your sin to God, it means that you're not looking to Christ to forgive your sin. If you're not admitting that you're a sinner, that you've sinned and violated God's law, You're hardening your heart like Saul. The refusal to confess sin is exposing in you that you are not looking to Christ and trusting in Christ. This is why this is a conditional statement.

We must confess our sins, and then he is faithful and just, and this is beautiful to forgive us and to cleanse us. to wash us clean. James 5:16 says, therefore, confess your sins to one another. And pray for one another. that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Confession is part of the Christian life, confession of sin. Declaring it to God, and even at times confessing it to our fellow man that we might receive prayer, and thereby be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

So if we are taught to confess our sins to God and even to one another, Why is it that we oftentimes do not? What is it that stops us from confessing our sin? Is it not pride? Is it not pride? Is it not us wanting to maintain some sort of our own goodness? within our own hearts, and in front of others. Isn't that not the truth?

If we refuse to confess our sin to God, if we refuse to admit our guilt before God who is holy, is it not that we are trying to maintain our own righteousness somehow before God? Is it not that we are trying to maintain some sort of a facade? On the outside? before others.

Truly, there's no place for pride within the church. Because admitted to the church begins at the cross. Where we say, we are sinners who need a savior. How in the world can we then say we are not still, we don't sin. We haven't sinned. No, I'm not sinning.

The gospel is that we have sinned and we need a savior. That's the point of entry, and that's the place in which we stand, the apostle Paul says. We must stand on the gospel. We must rid ourselves of every notion of our own self goodness, our own self righteousness. We must affirm what the scripture says about us, that our righteousness in the eyes of God who is holy is as filthy rags. If there be any goodness in us whatsoever, it's only because of the grace of God in our lives.

He goes on to say in verse 6, that you delight in truth in the inward being. Confession is walking in the truth. In the inward being. Being true with God, being honest with God, Jesus says that God is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

Not hiding from God, not being like David, thinking that he got away with it, that God didn't see it. No, God sees it. So you might as well confess it. God delights in it. delights in us being truthful, confessing our sin and walking in the truth.

It begins on the inside. We have to stop lying to ourselves. We have to stop wanting to put on this holy facade in the eyes of others. that why do and why do we do that? Because we want praise and glory. Listen, God's the only one who deserves the glory.

All of us have sinned. All of us will sin. That's the reality. If you don't understand that, you will walk in so much pride. Which by the way, is a sin. that must be confessed to God. God delights in truth on the inside.

He says, teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Teach me the wisdom of your word, of your ways.

3. God Must Do His Work in Our Lives

The third thing that we see in this, after we look to Christ and confess our sin, is that God must do his work in our life. We see that God must do his work in our life. God must do his work. David cries out to God. Look at all the things David asks for in verse 7 through 12. Purge me. wash me. Let me hear the joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquities, create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Notice God is the one doing all of this action. God is the one who saves us. God is the one who cleanses us. God is the one who washes us and heals us.

And even breaks us. breaks our hearts that we might learn not to trust in ourselves and our own righteousness, but that we might trust in him. that we might cling to him and cling to the cross. God must do his work in our lives.

If we are going to walk in repentance and renewal. It won't be us looking to ourselves and our own strength. It will be us looking to God and saying, God, cleanse me. God, wash me. God, forgive me. God created me a clean heart. Wash the sin from my life. You see, God has to break our hearts.

God has to break our hearts for us to look to him. And David was a man whose heart was broken. David says, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit. That right spirit is right desires. that we would want what God wants, that we would desire, what God desires, that we would align our soul, our emotions, our desires with what God's word says, that we would not desire sin. The temptation would lose its strength in our lives. That is what a right spirit is. that the desire for sin, that it would be broken in our lives. that we would delight in God's law, that we would delight in keeping God's commandments and obeying his word.

This is why David says, uphold me with a willing spirit in verse 12. Uphold me with the willing spirit. We must be broken over our sin, and David says that you've broken my bones and let these bones, let them rejoice. Let me rejoice that you have convicted me of my sin. that you have exposed this for me.

This is the heart of a true believer who is trusting in the gospel. that even when we are confronted of our sin, and yes, it is painful, it's like a bone being broken. We can rejoice because we're looking to Christ. We can rejoice that God loves us in His mercy to expose this in our lives that we might be healed and set free from it. And this is why David says, restore to me the joy of your salvation, that we would rejoice in the gospel, rejoice in the grace of God, and that in this rejoicing, The power of sin would be broken in our lives.

4. God’s Work Enables Our Response of Faith

The fourth thing we see is that the work of God, the work that God does in our lives, enables us to respond in faith. So God's work, God the initiator, God the one who is purging, washing, cleansing, creating a clean heart, restoring God's work in David's soul enables him to respond to God the right way. God the initiator. Us, the responder.

So look at the right response. What is this? In verse 13 through 17. David says, then, then, so after you have healed me, created in me a clean heart, washed me, purged me, then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

All of this here in these verses are what flows out of God's work of renewal in our lives. It shows us how we should respond to the grace and mercy of God. We should then teach others the word of God. To teach others. This is what God's word says.

He says, then I will teach others your ways, transgressors your ways, and sinners, the result of that is sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Verse 15, O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

What's a right response to the work that God does in our lives? We sing his praises. We worship him. We don't just have, like, warm fuzzies that we bottle up inside, like some stoic, you know, philosopher or whatever. We praise God. with our lips.

Has God forgiven you? Sing to him. Has God delivered you and washed you? Praise him with your lips. Praise him with your mouth. Declare the praises of your God, who is so gracious and merciful. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

He says, for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You would not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. We need to allow the word of God, just as David did, when the prophet Nathan went to David, declared to him the word of God, it convicted him, it broke his heart and his spirit, and we must likewise do the same as the word of God is declared and preached, that our hearts would be broken.

That we would have a broken spirit and a contrite heart. It says, God does not despise these. To be contrite means to be deeply sorrowful, remorseful, not to be hardened, but to be softened, broken. over our sin and broken by the love and the mercy of God, who is so good and is so faithful and does not deserve us to sin against him, and yet we have how that should break our hearts.

And when our hearts are broken over our sin, God does not despise this. In fact, this is what God is looking for in our hearts as a symbol of true repentance. Not just praying a prayer with our lips, but having true heart brokenness on the inside.

And it is his work in our lives that enables our response.

5. Renewed Confidence in God’s Faithfulness

Which brings us to number five, the conclusion of this is David ultimately has a renewed competence in God's faithfulness. Confidence, not in his work, not even confidence in his repentance, confidence in God's faithfulness in who God is. How can we be sure that our sins are forgiven? Because God is faithful to his people.

Look at what he says. He says, do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on your altar. What David here is saying is that God is going to be faithful to his church.

God is going to take pleasure in Zion, his people. God is going to protect them, guard them. He is going to build up the walls of Jerusalem. He's going to keep his people. Jesus says that no one can snatch us out of his hand.

He is protecting us. He is watching over us. He is keeping us. In fact, the Bible says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist temptation, that with every temptation God provides for us a way of escape.

He is watching us. He is keeping us. No weapon formed against us will prosper, and we can be confident that our sins are forgiven. Not because we have repented the right way, that's us still trusting in ourselves. But because God is good, and God is faithful, and God's word is sure, and God's word is true, and God is going to be faithful to Zion, to his people, to the church. He will delight in our sacrificial praises, and he is always faithful to his word.

Conclusion: The Pathway of Repentance

This is the pathway of repentance. This is the pathway of renewal. Looking to Christ in hope. Not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in Him. Humbling ourselves, confessing our sin, allowing God to do his work in our lives, not resisting him, but allowing him, even though that process oftentimes is painful.

knowing that his work in our lives produces good fruit, a clean heart, a renewed spirit, upholding us with a willing spirit. And in the end, ultimately, our confidence is not in us, but is in God and God alone. Amen.

The Great Invitation

The Great Invitation

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

Pastor Matt’s sermon on Psalm 27, titled “The Great Invitation,” presents David’s prayer as a call to live all of life before the face of God. He shows that David’s confidence begins with the Lord as his light, salvation, and stronghold, which drives out fear and exposes every false refuge. David’s central desire—to dwell in the house of the Lord and gaze upon His beauty—becomes an invitation for Christians to seek God’s face continually, now fulfilled through Christ, who has opened access to God’s presence. The sermon urges believers to live Coram Deo, with a constant awareness of God’s presence in every part of life, and to wait on the Lord with courage, believing they will see His goodness in the land of the living.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

We are in a series, a year-long series called Year of the Bible, and we're working our way through the Bible together as a church. At the beginning of the year, in January. We produced a reading plan for all of us to be reading through the Bible together. Many of us started that journey together. And as happens typically in a Bible reading plan, there are great victories.

There's also days where you end up falling behind, that is, just how it goes. But right now, we are in the book of Psalms, and I just want to encourage you whether you started with us in January or not. whether you fell off at some point in Leviticus, or Chronicles, or all those other Bibles, books of the Bible, where Bible reading plans go to die, whether or not that happened to you, right at the beginning of your handout, you can see the chapters that we're going to be reading this week. And we'll be in the book of Psalms now for another 5 weeks or so.

And Psalms is just a great book of the Bible to jump into at any point of the year, at any point in time. and just read a few chapters of the Word of God each day. So I really want to encourage you, let's be reading the book of Psalms this week. I have a really bad habit of thinking that whatever passage of scripture I'm studying is the best passage of scripture in the whole Bible.

And that happened again to me this week as I was studying our chapter that we're looking at Psalm 27. So if you have your Bibles, you can open to Psalm 27. As I was reading and studying Psalm 27 this week, I was just in awe, just in awe of the word of God, and how many layers there are and how deep it is, and how you can follow this little trail and that little trail, and pull on this little thread, and it takes you here, and it takes you there, and I was just amazed. I was thinking, this has to be my favorite psalm.

Psalm 27 is the best psalm in the whole Bible. And then I had to settle myself down a little bit and just remind myself, this happens every single week, whatever passage of the Bible you are studying. But Psalm 27 is our passage this week. I am just so in awe of what the Lord communicates to us in his word through Psalm 27, I pray that the Lord would help me to communicate it to you in a way that's beneficial to you this week.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 27

And we'll start this morning. Let's start just by reading through the whole psalm together. So I invite you to stand with me as we do here at Christ's King Church. As we read the word of God together, we stand to honor the word of God, to remind ourselves that this isn't just any book, that this is the holy Bible. It's separated, it's set apart. It is the word of God.

Amen. And so it says at the beginning of David, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war rise against me, yet I will be confident.

One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in the shelter, in his shelter, in the day of trouble, he will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me.

And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face, my heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help, cast me not off, forsake me not, O God, of my salvation.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have arisen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.

Opening Prayer

Father, we do thank you for your word. It is so precious to us. Lord, I pray that these would not just be words on a page, but Lord, that they would be words spoken from you, from your heart to our heart. Lord, that it would, that hearing from you today, hearing from your word, would change us, would, would mold us, would shape us, into the people that you have called us to be.

God, we thank you for your son. The word made flesh. who dwelt among us. who pursued us, who has laid down his life for us to save us. Lord, it's through him that we can do all things. With your help, we can do anything. Without you, we can do nothing. But with God, all things are possible. Help us, Lord Jesus. Let us glorify you in the name of your son, and seek to do that every day.

It's in his precious name we pray. Amen. You may be seated this morning.

Sermon Introduction: The Greatest Invitation

I wanted to just walk through this psalm together and I'm going to use 4 questions as sort of guideposts and signposts along the way as we make our way through this psalm 4 questions for us to consider and to ponder. In this chapter, in Psalm 27, we see David's approach to living, how David lives his life. His worldview, the way he sees life. And I think there are some things from this that we need to learn on how we should live our lives.

on his philosophy that we should adopt and implement in our own life. I've titled the sermon today, the greatest invitation, the greatest invitation. And as I said, there's 4 questions that I want to draw your attention to, to help us organize ourselves as we walk through the Psalm together. And the 1st question is this, who is your light? Who is your light?

Question 1: Who Is Your Light?

David begins this psalm, this prayer, this poem to the Lord by saying, the Lord is my light. And my salvation.

The Lord is my light. So who is your light? The Lord was David's light. Who is your light? Who is the light of your life? It might be wondering, what does that mean? What does that mean for someone or something to be the light of my life? David says, the Lord is his light. What does he mean by that? Your light is what illuminates your life. What shines into your life.

People put it this way in our modern language, they will say things like, that's my North Star. Have you ever heard someone say that? That's my North Star. That's the direction that I'm heading. That's the thing I'm orienting myself around. To say, the Lord is your light is to say that he is what illuminates your life. He is the light by which you see everything in your life.

Another aspect to this is, you could say, your light is what brings you joy. What brings you joy? What brings you joy, it lightens your countenance, doesn't it? You can be having a bad day, a dark day, a sad day, and then you hear some good news or something in particular that brings you joy, and what does it do? It lightens your countenance. It illuminates your life. So you can say, what is your light?

It's what brings you joy in life. As I mentioned, the North Star, you can also say that your light is what gives direction to your life. It's what illuminates your path. David says, the Lord is my light. Can you say this about the Lord? Can you say that it is the Lord that gives direction to your life? It is the Lord that illuminates your path, that it is the Lord that brings you joy.

Ultimate joy. That it is in him and him alone that you are seeking after joy. Is the Lord your light? Can you honestly say that? You know, this is the starting point, not only of this psalm, But the starting point for everything that flows from this psalm, and there's some really wonderful things in this psalm. But none of them will be experienced in our life if the Lord is not our light.

If the Lord is not the one that we are searching after, seeking after orienting our lives around, the guiding principle of our life, All of the wonderful things in this passage flow downstream from this. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Now, what if he's not? What if the Lord is not your light?

What if you are examining your heart even in this moment, and you're searching your heart and searching it honestly, and you have to say no? As I look into my heart, as I look into my life, there is something or someone else that is guiding my life. There's something or someone else that I'm orienting my life around, and it's not the Lord. What then?

Number one, you have to be honest about it. Be honest about it. Don't lie to yourself. Don't deceive yourself.

Be honest about it. And then take it to the Lord. That's the 1st step. Take this to the Lord. Confess it to him, Lord. There have been other things and other people that I have been seeking, pursuing above you. I have had a different light. I've been living my life according to a different rule book, a different plan, a different play, a different orientation.

Lord, I need to confess this to you. And I need to ask you for help. If you will do that, The Lord will not turn you away. He will never turn you away. It says a broken and contrite heart, he will not despise. If you go to the Lord in honesty, Truly, Bring it to the Lord. He will receive you, and he will help you.

Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of God. We have to recognize if the Lord is not our light, And he should be. I need to go to the Lord with that. I need to confess it to him. And he will help begin to reorient our lives. We sang it this morning. There's a 100 different ways to express this sentiment. David's doing it this way in this poetic term of light, but we sang the song this morning.

Lord, rain in my life. It's the same thing. It's the same thing. Is there an area of your life where the Lord is not reigning over? where you are reigning over that area of your life, where you are not submitting your life to his word in that area. In that area, he's not illuminating your life. You're not allowing the light of his word to shine into and permeate your life, that you might thereby walk in that path that he has laid out.

Is that the case? Take it to the Lord. Confess it to the Lord. Ask him for help. You know, sometimes, many times when we are living in this way, where there's an area of our life where he is not reigning, where he is not our light. We feel that conviction of the Holy Spirit, but we also, at the same time, listen to the condemnation of the devil. And so we feel ashamed, we feel embarrassed.

We don't want to take it to the Lord because we know better. And we're afraid that the Lord is going to rebuke us, be angry with us, turn us away. But the Bible tells us that perfect love casts out all fear. That there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Take this to the Lord, and he will receive you. He will receive you, you will receive your sin.

He will pay the price for it, and he will give you the help that you need. Everything flows downstream from this. The Lord is my light. And my salvation.

We can't seek salvation in any other place than the place by which he has provided it in his son Jesus. We cannot seek salvation in things. We cannot seek salvation in other people. We cannot seek salvation in material possessions, in our bank account. We can't seek salvation in our own good works, and good efforts, and good deeds. Truly the Lord must be our salvation.

As we trust in him and the work of his son Jesus, the blood that he shed to pay the price for our sin. And as we do this, if the Lord is your light and the Lord is your salvation, Then comes this next statement. Whom shall I fear?

If God is for us, who can be against us? If the Lord is your light and the Lord is your salvation, you have nothing to fear. He goes on to say, the Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

In verse 3, he says, though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Three times in these first three verses, David mentions the word fear. But every time that he mentions them, that word fear, it's in the context of not being afraid. Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? My heart shall not fear. Why? Because the Lord is his light and his salvation.

Because the Lord is his stronghold. The place that he runs when trouble comes. The one who is protecting him, the one who is keeping him, the one who is guarding him is the Lord. If it is the Lord who is protecting you, who can touch you? No one.

And if no one can touch you, because God is protecting you, we have nothing to fear. No one to fear.

The Lord is the place where David runs when he is in trouble. David had armies that were chasing him. I don't know what you've got going on in your life. But there's not an army out there waiting for you.

David was often in very real trouble. His life hanging in the balance. Not knowing if he would survive the next day, and he says, the Lord is where I run. The Lord is my stronghold. I'm not, he says, I'm not looking to the walls of this city to protect me. I am trusting in my God to protect me. The Lord is the place that I run. And because of that, when trouble came, he wasn't afraid.

The armies encamped against him, though his enemies came, he says, to eat up my flesh. Man, that's really graphic. says, I'm not afraid. I have no reason to fear. Because God, God is watching over me.

Where do you run in times of trouble? Who or what is your stronghold? for your life. What are you seeking after when hard times come, difficult times come, difficult days come? Where do you turn? Turn to the Lord. Let him be your light in your salvation. Let him be the stronghold of your life. Remind yourself of his providential care and his sovereign protection and watch your fears melt away.

Remind yourself, it's God who's watching over me. It's God who's protecting me. It's God who will deliver me and watch your fear. Vanish. Watch your worries and your cares and your anxieties. Fade into the background. Listen, when fear comes and worry comes and anxiety comes, that's not coming from God. That's the enemy using some situation in your life to lie to you.

And to tell you, God's not watching over you. God's not going to protect you. God's not going to deliver you, and he's not going to do it because of this in your life, that in your life, because you did this when you were 14 years old.

The enemy uses the events in our life to lie to us. It's why we need the word of God. We must remind ourselves. No, the Lord is my stronghold. The Lord is my deliverer. The Lord will set me free from this affliction. The Lord will bring me through to the other side. Remind yourself of the truth of God's word.

And watch your worries and your fears fade into the background. If you find that you are overcome with fear and worry and anxiety, Could it be that you have a different stronghold that you have taken up safety in? Could it be that you are running to a different place of safety? Could it be that you are living your light, life according to a different light? That you have placed your ultimate trust in something or someone else.

Everyone else will fail you. But he will never fail you. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. Make him the stronghold of your life. Who is your light? May we say it is Christ and Christ alone. Amen?

Question 2: What Is Your Prayer?

The 2nd question I want to ask you is what is your prayer? What is your prayer? We see David's prayer here in verse 4. He begins by saying one thing I have asked of the Lord. And that will I seek after. One thing he has asked of the Lord. Now, we know that David asks many more things of the Lord than one thing.

In fact, I can count even in this psalm, at least 8 other things that he asks for. If you have your Bibles open, you can see just a handful of them. In verse 7, he says, hear me, O Lord, be gracious to me. Answer me. These are all requests. He says, hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. Cast me not off. Teach me your way, lead me on a level path.

Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. These are all requests of the Lord. So how is it that David can say, he's only asked one thing of the Lord and then goes on to ask 8 more things of the Lord? What does he mean by this one thing? What David is saying by saying one thing I've asked of the Lord, he's saying, this is the most important thing to me. That's what he's doing.

He's underscoring this. It's like he's, you know, if you're crafting an email, you're bolding it, you're underlining it, you're italicizing it, you're making it in big fun. Don't miss this. That's what David is doing. They didn't have bold and underlined. So he has to use language to underscore his words. And so he's saying, one thing I have asked of the Lord.

He's saying, this is the most important thing. Another way of saying this is, Lord, if you only answer one thing, Lord, if you only answer one of my prayers, let it be this one. Let it be this one prayer. And so what is this one thing? What is this most important request that David has? I'll be honest, I think it's quite surprising. One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that will I seek after.

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life.

His one prayer, his most important request that he brings to the Lord, he says, is God, I want to be in your house? Every day. I want to be in your presence every day all the days of my life. What a prayer. What a prayer.

Now, if we had to all say, I have one prayer that I want the Lord to answer for me. And I asked you this question before I brought you to Psalm 27. Or if you looked at your last week of your life, and the petition you brought before the Lord the most, what would that one prayer be?

I would be willing to bet a million dollars, even though I don't have a million dollars, but if I had a million dollars, I would be willing to bet a million dollars. that not one of you, your most important prayer and your most frequent prayer, this last week was, Lord, please have them open the church every day of the week. So I can go to church every single day. I would be willing to wager a whole lot of money.

that not a single soul in here prayed that prayer. this week. In fact, I'd even be willing to wager that at least one of you this morning, on the way to church, actually prayed, Lord, Please let the sermon be a little short today. One thing I'm asking of you this morning, that Pastor Matt would be brief. this morning.

If we look at our prayer life, the things that we pray for, And then we look at David. and his life. Even as enemies are encamping against him, even as those the people are coming against him. He says, Lord, the most important prayer to me. Lord, the one thing that I am after, the one thing I've asked of you, the one thing that I'm seeking after, the most important thing, Lord, that I would be able to dwell in your house.

All the days of my life. This is the same man who would say, Better is one day. In your courts, in your house. than a thousand. Any other place.

The David would trade a thousand days. anywhere else. Any other place. to spend one day, in the presence of God. to spend one day in God's house.

I think if we're being honest with ourselves, we would all say, That's not the philosophy by which I'm living. my life. I've never even considered this as a guiding principle or philosophy for my life. Your church is only open one day a week, so how could I even do it?

Just think about it for a moment.

Think about what David is saying. He wants to spend his days in the presence of God.

Is that how we want to spend our days?

One thing. To be with you. To be with you, Jesus. Let every day of my life be a day I spend in your presence.

Why does he want to do this?

Why would David, the king? who had, to us, what we would consider nearly unlimited resources. Why is this his most important priority? Well, he tells us, He says, I want to do this so that I may gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.

That I could just... marvel at.

God's majesty, God's glory. that I could just be there with him.

In his presence.

He says, then notice, for he, he says, will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. These are the things that happen in the presence of God. Protection. Concealment, exaltation.

This is why David wants to be in the presence of the Lord. because he knows that in that place, he will be safe. He will be safe. And so it is with us. In the presence of the Lord. Protected by the Lord, we are safe from all of our enemies and all of our foes.

And this is why David, for all of his flaws, and faults, and failures, and sins, of which there was ample evidence in the Bible. This is why David, for all of that, in spite of all of that, He is regarded as a man after God's own heart. Not because he was perfect. But because the Lord was his light. This is what David was seeking after.

Question 3: Who or What Are You Seeking After?

Which brings us to our third question. from the Psalm, who or what are you seeking after? We know what David was seeking after. Who or what are we seeking after?

One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that will I seek after.

In verse 8, David says, you, speaking to the Lord, you have said to me. Seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord. Do I seek? This is why I've titled this sermon The Greatest Invitation. Because God has given to his people. the invitation for us to seek his face.

David says, you have said to me, seek my face. The Lord has said to us, seek my face. God has given us the invitation to seek his face, to come into his presence. Is there a better invitation than this?

You can look for your whole life trying to find a better invitation. But truly, you will not find it. You will not find a greater invitation than this. There is no greater invitation than the one from God to his children that we might seek his face. Never has someone so high, invited someone so low, to have an audience with them.

It really is astonishing. when you think about it. I don't know if you know this right now or not.

But the spurs are in the playoffs right now. I don't know, I don't know if you knew that. You did not think I was going there.

So there's all these news stories about the Spurs and everything going on with the Spurs right now. And I've been a lifelong Spurs fan. My dad was a Spurs fan. I remember going to games at the Hemisphere Arena. Yeah, okay. We know what that's about. My dad used to tell me stories about the iceman, George Gervin. Oh, I wish you could have seen George Gervin play.

So there's all these stories about the Spurs right now, and I read this story about this particular group of fans called the Jackals. I don't know if you've heard anything about the jackals. The jackals are 83 Spurs fans that were hand selected by Victor Wimbanyama himself. to form this group of fans, And he offered to them, after hand selecting 83 of them, to attend the whole season, Every one of the home games and the playoff games, For $1,000.

$999, which comes out to $24 a game. And they are in direct communication with him on what cheers to do at what time of the game, and he's giving them feedback on the way that they're cheering and the way that they're dressing, and it's this very tight knit group with Victor Wimbanyama, he hand selected these guys, and I was reading this story this week, and you know what I thought? Man, that'd be a sweet invite. Man, to be invited to be a part of the jackal?

Wow. What a gig. You know, it's a lifelong spurs fan, and maybe you're not a Spurs fan, maybe you're not a sports fan. 'm sorry. I'm sorry, but I'm certain that you're a fan of something or someone else. Maybe a poet, an artist, a musician, a songwriter. Imagine being invited into their inner circle, and when they would write a new song, they would send it to you 1st and say, hey, what are your thoughts on this?

Or you get an advanced copy of their latest novel to read before anybody else. What an invitation. Just imagine, you know, somebody that you love and admire from a distance, somebody high and above you that you would have no, you know, opportunity to meet in life, and yet they invite you into this inner circle. And it's so interesting to me. I was reading this story about the jackals and I was just thinking, man.

I want to be a jackal.

I'm reading that on, you know, one browser tab, and then on my another browser tab, I have a commentary on Psalm 27.

And at some point, the Holy Spirit, for me, sort of, you know, connected the dots in my mind that were so far disconnected and said, hey, uh, There's a greater invitation that's been issued to you. by somebody infinitely greater than Victor Wimbanyama. He invited them to 41 home games, but... The King of Kings has invited you into his throne room. Every day.

And because you were so filthy, he came and shed his blood to clean you up. to wash you, to make you acceptable, to clothe you with garments that are fit to walk into the presence of a king. He's made every provision for you. He's made a banquet table in his presence to feast on his goodness, to gaze upon the beauty of his holiness.

He's issued this call to you to seek his face. And hear you're fantasizing about what it would be like to be a jackal.

We have been issued such a marvelous and glorious invitation, but so often it goes unanswered. The invitation is stuffed away, hidden from sight, put in the junk drawer of our minds, ignored and forgotten. What a tragedy.

How brokenhearted would I be to find an old email in my junk filter from Victor Wimbanyama? Hey, you want to be a jackal? Ah, I missed it. And yet every day. This invitation. to be in the Lord's presence.

How much greater, how much better. May this not be true of us, that this invitation is forgotten, that it's ignored and hidden away. May we, like the psalmist, say, your face, Lord, do I seek? Hey, we answer the invitation. to seek the face of God.

What does it mean to seek the face of God? We sang it this morning during our prayer time. Lord, I seek you. What does that mean?

There's this phrase, this Latin phrase, that encapsulates what it means to seek the face of God. I know you didn't come expecting to learn Latin today, but it's ice cream sundae. It's also Latin Sunday. I don't know how you say ice cream in Latin. Somebody can look that up, but it's this Latin phrase, you may have heard it before. It's called Korum Deo. Coram Deo, C O R A M, D E O, Coram Deo.

It means before the face of God. Before the face of God. What does it mean to seek the face of God? What does it mean that David says, I want to be in your presence. I want to be in your house every day. I want to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. What is he talking about?

He's talking about living life with the constant awareness of God's presence in our lives. See, David, in his time, he had to go to a physical place where the glory of God dwelt. He had to go in Jerusalem. The capital city, where the temple was, to the temple grounds. He wasn't high priest, he couldn't go into the holy of holies, but he could be near and adjacent to where the glory of God dwelt.

But all of that is done away now that Christ has come. The veil has been torn. Christ through his own body, the veil of his flesh has opened up for all who are in him, the presence of God throughout all the whole earth. So that wherever you are, you can experience the presence of God. Wherever you are, and even the body, now, for believers is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

But even though we carry the Holy Spirit of God with us, even though God's presence is with us and is everywhere all the time, so often we go through life unaware. We're not living life, Koram Deo. We not living life, beholding the face of God in the presence of God. We just wake up, put on our shoes, get out the door, go about our day.

And live our lives like a pagan with good morals from the book. That's not the Christian life. The Christian life is to live Coram Dale before the face of God, living your life with the constant awareness of God's abiding presence. Let me give you an example. We're in the year of the Bible. We're reading through the Bible.

You can, if you want to, read the Bible like any other book. You can open it up, you can read the words on the page, you can close it. Or you can read the Bible with the awareness that God is speaking to you. From his heart to you or heart. And if you've done much Bible reading, you know there's a difference. You know there's a difference. You know there's a difference in, well, it's Tuesday.

What are my chapters I got to read this week? Because I said at the beginning of the year that I was going to read the Bible. Let me just knock this out so I can check it off the box as some religious duty. You can do that. Or, when you open the word, it can be a face to face meeting with Christ himself. The invitation is open to you. Do the words on the page change?

No. It's the same words on the page. So what changes? It's the orientation of our hearts that must change. It's the receptiveness to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our life that must change. We live all of our lives in the presence of God wherever we go, but are we aware of it? You remember Jacob when he fled from Esau, He lay down and slept, and as he slept on that night, the heavens opened and God came down from heaven and visited with Jacob that night, and he woke up.

And what is it that Jacob said? He said, wow, behold, The Lord was in this place. And I was not aware. Let that not be us. Let us be people who live ever, Coram Deo, live ever before the face of God, seeking the face of God, seeking to live all of our lives with the Lord as our light. The Lord, the one illuminating our path in constant awareness of his abiding presence.

Let me ask you something. If you live that way, what would it do to your marriage?

Let me ask you another way. If when you got home, Jesus Christ was sitting in your living room. Would it change the way you interacted with your spouse?

If you don't say yes, you're either a liar, asleep, or dead.

If Jesus followed you, I'm talking about physically. Everywhere you went, you turned around, and there he was, everywhere he went, you turned around, and there he was. Would it not change everything about your life? What's the difference?

What's the difference? It just that we don't see them. We don't see them. because we're not seeking his face. He's here. He's there.

If Jesus was sitting in your lazy boy, You get well then, we did not change what you turned this station to on your TV. Be honest.

He's there. He sees all. He knows all. You know, Adam is the one who thought his actions were hidden from God's sight. Adam thought he could sin and get away with it by, you know, sowing some fig leaves on. And we look at that, we're like, Adam, what a fool. God saw it? Hello?

And yet. There's a little bit of Adam in each of us. God knows all God sees all. To seek the face of God is to live with the constant awareness of God's abiding presence, to live in constant communion and fellowship with him. through the way he has provided his son, Jesus Christ. to make your living room his throne room, to make everywhere you go a place where God's glory can dwell.

Question 4: Are You Waiting?

The 4th question I want to ask you. And I am having to skip over some verses here for the sake of time this morning.

But the verses that are there flow from seeking the face of God as you read over those again this week, meditate on the petitions that he makes. see them as ways to seek the face of God. The 4th question I want to ask you this morning is, are you waiting? Are you waiting? You're like, yes, I'm waiting. I'm waiting for you to finish this sermon. I'm waiting for us to take communion, and I can't wait for that ice cream.

Yes, I'm waiting. Are you kidding me? That's not what I'm talking about. Let's look here at verse 13 and 14 as we get ready to close today. David says, I believe. that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord. In the land of the living. Is that what you believe? Listen, this way of living, getting in God's presence, seeking his face, it transforms the way you see the world.

It transforms you. If you tend to be a pessimist, and I tend to be a pessimist, you know, a glass half full kind of guy, I'm like a glass 10% full sometimes. I'm just, I can kind of be that way. I could be a little bit negative sometimes. But when you get in the presence of God, it changes your outlook so that your vision for the future isn't negative. It's positive.

Why? I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord. Why? Because the Lord is good. And I believe that because I've been in his presence. I've been face to face with him. I've been in communion and fellowship with him. I've been seeking his face and now it changes my outlook on life. And I'm believing for a better future, a brighter future, a brighter tomorrow.

I believe this is what David believes. What do you believe? Would you believe about the future? is based on what you believe about your God and who he is. He says, I believe I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So he concludes, therefore, with this imperative, this command, this directive, that we should all take to heart, wait for the Lord.

Wait for the Lord. What does he mean? Wait for the Lord. Wait for him to do what?

Wait for him to answer your prayers.

When we do seek his face, when we do offer petitions to the Lord, as we see David, he offers a lot of petitions to the Lord. He concludes by just saying, God, I'm going to wait on you. I'm going to wait on you and your timing. I'm gonna put these things in your hand. I'm not gonna seek to meddle. I not going to seek to manipulate. I'm not gonna seek to say I'm putting it in your hands, but then taking it in my hands, and then make a mess of it.

I'm putting it in your hands. To wait on the Lord is to wait for him to act, and it's to anticipate him acting. It says, as we wait on the Lord, we are to be strong and let your heart take courage to encourage yourself in the Lord. Wait, he says, on the Lord. Are you waiting on the Lord this morning? Or are you seeking to to manipulate circumstances? Look, just give it to him.

Just put it in his hands. I know that's a very broad statement. You're saying, Wow, what does that exactly mean? Listen, if I get into that, we'll never get out of here, okay? So just pray about it and meditate on it. Let the Lord speak to you, okay? Amen. All right.

Conclusion: Christ Sought Us First

These four things, these four questions. that we are considering. Who is your light? What is your prayer? Who are you seeking? And are you waiting?

We can only do these things because Jesus has 1st sought us. We can't do these on our own strength. We have to do them with the help of the Lord. We have to do it with the help of the one who came to seek and to save the lost.

But because Jesus has saved us because Jesus has found us, we are invited to live in his presence. And we can only approach the throne of grace. We can only enter into the throne room. on behalf of him and his sacrifice, if we are clothed in his righteousness. And I pray, dear friends, that you are. Amen.

Salvation Belongs To The Lord

Salvation Belongs To The Lord

Matt Bell

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Sermon Transcript

This morning we're continuing our time in the word. If you have your Bibles, grab your Bibles this morning. If you're new to the church, I want to say welcome. Thank you for being here with us to worship this morning. We're in a a series throughout this this year where as a church, we're reading through the whole Bible together. At the front of your handout is the chapters that we as a church are reading this week. And last week we made it to the book of Psalms, the book of Psalms. And so this this time of the year, we're calling this our summer in the Psalms. As the next seven weeks, we'll be reading through the book of Psalms together. Psalms is the prayer and worship book of the Bible. There's 150 of these psalms which are songs and prayers offered to God. The book of Psalms is also known as the psalter. Uh it's a little easier to say than the book of Psalms every single time that you want to reference it. And so it's known as the psalter. And it has played this book has played a huge part in the spiritual life of God's people. Doug referenced one of those psalms that the Lord had placed on his heart before this trip about calling out to the Lord. And throughout the the life of God's people throughout the millennia, this book has been integral to the spiritual life of God's people. The Hebrews used these psalms in their worship of God in the temple. The early church Christians began to sing them in their gatherings as they would gather for worship. And throughout the last 2,000 years of church history, they they have continued to give expression and be used in prayer and in worship. And as we begin our service here every Sunday morning at Christ is King Church with a call to worship. Nine times out of 10, it's a reading from Psalms. The book of Psalms, they teach us by example how to approach God, how to draw near to God. The book of Psalms gives us language that we can use to express what's in our hearts and to express ourselves before God.

And they are full of comfort for weary souls and for souls that are in distress. And for many reasons, Psalms is many Christians favorite book in the Bible. Many believers begin their day each day by reading a psalm. The Psalms show us that it's okay to be human before God. The emotions that are expressed in this book are real. They're raw. They're powerful. And we find that they have something for every season of life. Whether you are at a really good place and you feel like you're on a mountaintop right now or you're walking through a valley or somewhere in between. There are prayers, there are songs in here that speak to that experience that we can use in our worship and in our prayers before God. And it shows us that we can take our feelings, our emotions to the Lord, whatever they are.

Feelings of hurt and pain and anguish as well of feelings of celebration, joy, and victory. One of the things that is so powerful about the book of Psalms is it always leads us from where we are, where we start, wherever you're starting today. It meets us there and then it leads us into praising God. It takes us from where we are, which is sometimes not so great. Can we be honest? And it takes us to a place of worshiping and praising God. And it shows us how to go from a not so great place to a place where we are exalting and glorifying God. And so for the next seven weeks, we will be in the book of Psalms, taking a selection each Sunday and reading it and preaching through it together. This morning, our psalm is Psalm chapter 3. Psalm chapter 3. So I invite you to open your Bibles there with me. And if you would stand with me as we read this psalm together.

Eight verses, very short reading. And we see that this psalm is broken into five different sections.

O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!

Psalm 3:1–8

Father, we do thank you for your word. We do thank you for the book of Psalms that teach us how to go from a place of distress to a place of prayer, from a place of hardship to a place of praise. Lord, I pray as we study this psalm this morning and all the psalms that we will be looking at over the next few weeks, Lord, that you would draw us closer to yourself, Lord. That you would teach us to praise you at all times, Lord. that we would not only exalt you and glorify you when things are going well, but Lord, that you would be our glory. That we would glorify you even when our circumstances are not as we would wish.

That we would still look to you and trust in you. Lord, we thank you for our church and our our time together in your word. Lord, help us to be more like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated this morning. The title of the sermon is taken from the last line of verse, or the beginning of verse 8. It is that salvation belongs to the Lord.

Salvation Belongs to the Lord

We see in this psalm that it is broken into five different sections, and we're going to walk through it here this morning.

I. David’s Problem

We see David’s problem here in verses one and two. The psalm begins with a little note at the top. It says, "A psalm of David when he fled from Abselum, his son." This little note at the top before the psalm begins, it gives us the circumstances, what was happening in David's life, the circumstances under which he pinned this psalm. Now David was a man who was no hard no stranger to hardship and difficulty in his life. David did not have an easy life. Though David here is the king of Israel as he is writing he his whole life was a life of hardship of struggle of many great victories and also many defeats.

He began his life as the youngest of seven brothers serving his father Jesse faithfully as David was sent out to take care of his father's flocks. And even though David faithfully served his father, even at times engaging with wild animals to save the sheep, risking his own life to save his father's sheep, at a very critical time, David is overlooked by his father. As David's father considers his seven brothers greater than David, David goes from serving his father Jesse to serving the king of Israel, King Saul. And like he served his father, David faithfully served the king. But David was such a remarkable man. And God was using David and elevating David King Saul became jealous of him.

And King Saul was so filled with rage and jealousy, he began to try to kill David. He saw David as a threat to him and his throne and to his legacy. And so David has to flee from Saul and flee for his life. running out into the wilderness. David spends the prime years of his life, his 20s, these 10 years in the wilderness as a fugitive on the run, hunted by Saul, living in caves. He has to flee into an enemy nation just to survive. Saul eventually we know is killed in battle and David becomes king. But when David becomes king, his troubles do not go away. In fact, they become more personal. They become closer to him as his own family and his own children become his source of grief.

David's firstborn son, a man named Ammon, will rape one of David's daughters, his halfsister, a woman named Tamar. Unfortunately, David ignores this offense. So, another one of David's sons, Abselum, takes matters into his own hand and murders Ammon. David's firstborn son, the heir to the throne, is murdered by one of David's other sons, Abselum. Because David is already bererieved of one of his sons, his daughter having been violated, instead of requiring from Abselum the death penalty, he instead exiles Abselum, sends him away. But this only allows Abselum to plot further revenge against his father, eventually turning the whole kingdom against David, staging a coup, declaring himself to be king.

And with the army behind Abselum, David has to flee from Jerusalem. He has to flee the capital city. He has to flee his kingdom running out of the city to save his life. Just as he had to flee from Saul, flee from Jerusalem running out into the wilderness, now he has to flee not by a mad king, but by his very own son who has turned a nation against him. And this is what is going on in David's life as he writes the words to Psalm chapter 3. Notice here in the first two verses how the word many is used. It's used here three times.

O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”

Psalm 3:1–2

When we read the account of David fleeing from Jerusalem, we read of of those who were heckling him, who were cursing him as he fled. We read some from Saul's own house who who saw David constantly as an enemy who were so overjoyed to see David so disgraced. As David passed and left in shame, they were hurling rocks and curses at David, saying of him, "There is no salvation for him. He He trusted in God. Where is God now?" And so David's troubles are are not just his son. David's troubles are not just his foes and his enemies that are rising against them. Many as though they are.

David's troubles are compounded by those who are speaking out against him. Those discouraging voices who were surrounding him. And notice here what they are saying is not true. what they are saying in verse two that there is no salvation for David in God that is not true that is a lie and I want you to see here that Satan's greatest weapon against you and against us is lies. Lies. Lies come to us in many different shapes and forms. And here this lie comes in the form of discouragement. These discouraging voices shouting these lies at David. We need, you need to have godly voices in your life. That when your dark days come, when hardship comes, there are those who will speak to you, not discouraging words, but will speak to you the truth of God's word that will encourage you, that will build you up in the Lord.

It's so important the people that we surround ourselves with who can speak the truth of God's word to us, who can encourage us and and and and say, "Yes, you're going through a difficult season, but God is your provider. God is your healer. God can restore your soul. God can restore your relationships. God can restore your marriage. We need that kind of voice in our life. Not those who will come around side of of us and say, "Well, you know, the reality of the situation is we need those who will say, "Hope in the Lord, trust in the Lord. Now these negative voices that can speak into our life, they can come from people that we know personally, we got to be careful about that.

But they can also come from places and people that we don't even know. And I want to I want to caution you. I want to make you aware of something that in the day and age in which we live that we are saturated by words, by messages, by media, saturated by other people's thoughts, whether that's music or or movies or TV or the news. So much of what we consume through media is coming from a world view that is antithetical to God, the gospel, Christ, God's word, the truth. It's coming from a worldview. It's coming from a place from people who do not acknowledge Christ as king.

The assumptions that are being expressed are there is no God. The assumptions that are being expressed are are the same that were expressed to David. There is no salvation for your soul in God. And so when our spiritual diet ends up being a steady stream of these lying voices with these ungodly underlying assumptions, it weakens our soul. It weakens our foundation so that when times of distress do come, even our own thoughts that have been trained in these other patterns can be the tool the enemy uses to preach these lies to you. We must be very careful about the words that we are allowing into our lives that we are feeding our souls with.

We need to guard our heart. Guard our soul. The book of Proverbs says, “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). What are you allowing into your soul through your ears, through your eyes? What sort of assumptions are underneath it? Is it affirming the truth of God's word or is it antithetical to the truth of God's word? You say, "Well, I'm not in a time of distress. I'm doing pretty good right now. Yes. But it can weaken your foundation. The Apostle Paul says, “Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Look here at the very first two words words of of this psalm. The very first two words. What does he begin with?

Oh Lord, when the trial comes, here's the question for you. Where do you turn? Where do you go? Where do you run in times of hardship, in times of difficulty? What is the first place that you turn to? We know where the world runs, don't we? I was watching a movie this week. A guy got fired. Guess what happened? Guess where he went? To the bar. Yes. He went and got drunk. That's where the world goes. Just something to numb the pain, to dull the pain. We know where the world turns. Where do you turn? Where do the people of God turn? Well, where does David turn? Oh Lord, my son has turned against me. The kingdom that you gave me has been torn from me. I am having to flee again into the wilderness.

Oh Lord, he takes it to the Lord. For David, God is not the last resort. God is the first resort. God is the place to which we must run. And that brings us here to this second section this morning.

II. David’s Solution

In verse three and four, we saw his problem. But let's look at his solution. But you, but you, this was my problem. This is what's going on out there. But David then turns his eyes to the Lord.

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill.

Psalm 3:3–4

So often our instinct is to run to others for help and for comfort. Is that not true? Is that not true? You know, we're good, godly Christians, so we would never run to the bar. So, we run to others with our problems. We'll run to Facebook or whatever we use to blast all of our problems to explain how everyone is wrong but us. We We'll go to a sympathetic ear. We'll go to friends. We'll go to family. We'll go to counselors. We'll go to doctors. And often when none of those can help us as a last resort, as a Hail Mary, well, I guess I'll ask God for help.

I'll ask God to intervene. Now, listen. Friends, family, counselors, and doctors, are those good things? Of course, those can be good things. But they should never be the first place that we run. I would even say before you run to your spouse, run to the Lord. Go to him first. Go to him first. Why? Because he can handle it. Whatever it is that you have got, he can handle it. your family, your friends, your counselor, your doctor. I don't know if they can handle it or not, but he can. He can take it to him first. The first place that we go, the first place that we run must be to the Lord.

And what does David do when he runs to the Lord? But you, oh Lord, you are a shield about me. What is David doing there? He's assaulted by his son. He's run out by the the army. He's being assaulted by these discouraging voices that say to him, "There is no salvation for him and God." But David says, "Those are lies. I am going to remind myself of the truth." That's what David is doing here. They're saying there's no salvation for me and God, but you, oh Lord, are my shield. You, oh Lord, are my strength. Those are what that's what they're saying. But it is lies because this is the truth. David reminds himself of the truth of God's word. And so when we are in distress, when things are are are not going well, when we get the news we never thought we would hear, when we've been betrayed, when we've been lied against, when we've been fired, when whatever it has happened that has happened unjustly, or maybe we even deserved it, we still need to first run to the Lord and remind ourselves of the truth.

The truth The truth is our only weapon. It’s called the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Instead of having our thoughts trained by falsehood, we must have minds that have been steeped in the truth, the word of God, to combat Satan's lies. Why am I trying to get all of you to read the Bible this year? Because I want your mind and your heart saturated in the word of God, the truth of God's word, so that when the lies of the enemy come, that the sword is ready at hand. that it's not we're not having to go dig it out of a closet somewhere and and dust it off and it's all dull and and rusted from some Bible verses you memorized in 1980 as a child.

No, that the word of God is as ever ready at our side, ready to be deployed when the lies of the enemy come. And they will come. They will come. the discouraging voices that assault our soul to combat it with the truth of God's word. David here says, "You are a shield about me. The Lord is my protector. The Lord is the one watching over me. The Lord is the one keeping me safe." The Lord is the one who says, “No weapon formed against me will prosper” (Isaiah 54:17). Remind yourself of the truth of God's word. David says that God is his glory. His glory. What does this mean?

Well, as a king, you have all sorts of sources of glory. As a king, you have all manner of ways of displaying your glory. your wealth, your military might, your throne, your crown, your the size of your herum, right? All of these things are meant to display your glory. But David has had all of those things stripped away. The crown, the throne, his kingdom, even his own son has turned on him. David says,"None of those things are my glory. I glory in God and God alone. I glory in him. He is my glory. He is where I take refuge. He is my shield. He is the one who lifts my head."

Is your head turned down today because of whatever is going on in your life or the world? It is the Lord who lifts our weary head. He is our glory. There's so many different things that people put their glory in. their fame, their wealth, their job, their family. All all all all sorts of things that we glory in that we should truly lay aside and say, "God is the one I glory in. Him and him alone is who I seek to exalt, who I seek to magnify, who I seek to glorify. This is David’s solution to his problem.

III. David’s Result

I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

Psalm 3:5–6

David had to flee out into the wilderness, being hotly pursued by his son. But after David takes his problem to the Lord, he lays down and takes a nap. He is so contented. He is so His soul is so at rest. He He doesn't toss and turn. He says, "I lay down and slept." He's saying, "I slept like a baby." Why? Because the Lord sustained me. What a transformation. What a transformation from verse one to verse five. so much peace in the midst of great turmoil. He says, "I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around." David says, "I am surrounded by enemies who want me dead, but I'm going to lay down and take a nap cuz God's on the throne and he's watching over me. He's going to take care of me."

What is his secret? The Lord is his shield. To put another way, the Lord was his shepherd. The Lord was his hedge about him. David's confidence, his glory was in the Lord. And we do, don't we? Don't we find ourselves often trusting in other things than the Lord? If we find ourselves trusting in other things, they have become an idol for us, a sense of false security. So many people trust in again their job, their family, the economy, politicians. These are false senses of security. The only shield we have is the Lord. Therefore, he's the one we should look to at all times. Jesus Christ and him alone. Let us in times of distress, stop looking around for help and start looking up.

Start looking up to the Lord. Start crying out to the Lord. Even as David said, I cried aloud to the Lord. And if you will do that, if you will truly hear me, if you get one thing from this message, get this. In your time of distress, if you will press into that place in the presence of the Lord, you will find this kind of peace. You will find it if you can press in beyond the lies, beyond the condemning thoughts in your own mind and soul. if you can enter boldly to the throne of God’s grace (Hebrews 4:16), you will find this kind of peace. I will not be afraid. The Lord sustained me and you will even be able to lay down and take a nap. God bless you.

Coming from this, David now makes a petition. We see this in verse seven, our fourth point this morning.

IV. David’s Petition

Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

Psalm 3:7

Now, the first part of verse seven, this is pretty normal for us. Yes, Lord, arise. I'm I'm still I'm trusting in you, but I'm I'm still in distress. So now I am going to call out to you, my shield, and I'm going to ask you to move. So he moves from that place of distress into the presence of the Lord where he has peace in his soul. And now he moves into a place of asking the Lord, a petition. God, save me. God, deliver me. My enemies are still chasing me. I'm at peace, but I'm going to need salvation. So he moves to that place of petition of offering that request to the Lord.

That's good. It's good to look to the Lord. It's good to cry out to God. It's good to say, "Save me. Arise, God, move on my behalf." All of that's normal and good. This second part sounds a bit strange to our Christian ears, do they not? When's the last time you asked for God to break the teeth of the wicked? This is what is called, this is the first example of it in Psalms. And there's about a dozen or so of these psalms. They're called impregatory psalms. Impregatory psalms. And to our Christian ears, they do sound strange. These are psalms that call on God for help as his people are threatened with harm from their enemies.

The enemies are often called the wicked and these are the unfaithful who persecute the godly. Impregatory psalms are called this because an imprecation is a curse that is invoked where you ask for misfortune upon someone calling down God's judgment upon them from heaven. And to us as Christians, this sounds strange because we have Jesus example of turning the other cheek of going the second mile of Jesus on the cross not praying down fire from heaven. Not praying God break all their teeth, but on the cross, what does Jesus pray? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And so as we look to the book of Psalms as our prayer book, our worship book, do we just leave those impregatory psalms aside or do they still have a place for the people of God?

I want to give you some principles in understanding these passages. I want to help you understand what is happening here. First, you need to understand that the people being cursed, the the imprecitation coming down, they are not enemies over trivial matters. This isn't somebody cutting you off on I 10. God, break their teeth. God, crush them, destroy them, and their offspring forever. This isn't when they mess up your order in the drive-thru and you make it home and you're missing your 12count nugget. That's not what this is. These are people who hate the faithful precisely for their faith. These are those who mock God and use ruthless and deceitful means to suppress, oppress, and persecute God's people.

They are hardened and set their face to oppose God. The second thing you need to know is that these curses happen in the book of Psalms, which is a book of poetry. And so these curses are stated in poetic form, which is often exaggerated expressions. And of course, with every prayer, the fulfillment of that prayer is left up to who? To God. No matter what we pray, God's the one who has to decide what to do with it. It's not like, "Oh, David said I got to break their teeth, so here I come." They're poetic expressions in this book of poetry. The third principle is that these curses, they're expressions of moral indignation, not of personal vengeance.

Moral indignation, not personal vengeance. You see, for someone who knows God and knows his ways, it's unbearably wrong that those who persecute the faithful and turn people away from God, it's unbearable to our soul that they would get away with it and even seem to prosper. Our souls cannot bear up under the injustice. the injustice being done in the book of Psalms and even the injustices being done in our world and they're expressions of that moral indignation but not of tit fortat personal vengeance. The fourth is you need to know that the whole biblical ethic is one that forbids personal revenge. This is not calling for personal revenge on people who have slighted you. This is asking God to deal with those who are opposing him and his kingdom.

And we are never ever ever allowed to take personal vengeance on someone else. Period. That's Old Testament. That's New Testament. And finally, fifthly, our Christian witness following the Lord Jesus requires us to have a desire that those who are guilty, even for those who mean harm to the church, who oppose and oppress the people of God, our greatest desire is that they would repent of their sin and come to faith in Jesus Christ. The best way to destroy the wicked is to convert them to Christ. And these are just some principles to help you understand these lines like, "Oh, God, strike them on their cheek and break their teeth." If you want to incorporate that into your worship, oh, that's up to you. Just know that it's not about personal slights. It's about the evil and the wicked that we see in our world.

God do something is what the psalmist is crying out for. Finally, that leads us to our last point.

V. David’s Declaration

He ends with this wonderful proclamation declaration of praise.

Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!

Psalm 3:8

Salvation only comes from one place. Why do we run to the Lord in our time of distress? Because he's the only one who can save us. He's the only one. We must run to the one from whom salvation comes. David recognized this. David was a man in desperate need of salvation. Quite literally, he needed to be saved. David's enemies were strong. But hear this. We too need salvation. And our enemy, the enemy of our soul is even stronger than the enemy that was pursuing David. Our salvation likewise is only found in one place in Christ and Christ alone. And so when we are in distress, when our souls are in anguish, when life is falling apart, and even when it's not, we must run to Christ when we are being tempted.

Run to Christ when your thoughts are being assaulted with the lies of the enemy. Run to Christ. Call out, "Oh Lord, save me." There's the story of Peter as he saw Jesus walking on the water and Peter had the great idea, hey, I think I should try that, too. Jesus, if that's you, tell me and I'll come and walk with you on the water. And Peter Jesus says, "Come, it's me. Let's chat out here in the middle of the storm walking on the water. And so Peter gets out of the boat and he begins to walk on the water. But Peter, what does he do? He takes his eyes off of Jesus and he places his eyes on what? The wind and the waves. His circumstances that were surrounding him.

And as he took his eyes off the Lord and placed them on his circumstances, what began to happen to Peter? He began to sink. And then he drowned. And that was the end of the story for Peter, right? No. When Peter began to sink, what did he do? Cried out. He cried out. Save me, oh Lord. Oh Lord, save me. If you feel like you are sinking today, and I've been there. What you need is him. Cry out to him, oh Lord, save me. Look to him in spirit and in truth. Genuinely cry out to the Lord. Ask him for salvation. Just as he reached down and saved Peter, the Lord will reach down and save you. The Bible says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Salvation belongs to the Lord. He is the only source of our salvation.

Conclusion

I want to conclude this morning with a brief quote from John Newton. Some of you will know John Newton and his story. a man who was a slave trader. By his own admission, he was a man who was very evil and very wicked until he found himself in the midst of a violent storm at sea which caused him to cry out to God for salvation. This began a long process of looking to God and of sanctification in his life. And eventually John Newton was ordained as an Anglican minister. Newton is best remembered as the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I am blind, but now I was blind, but now I see. Newton was a man who knew what it meant to be lost and what it meant to be found.

And as John Newton approached the end of his life, these were some of his dying words. He said, quote, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things. That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior. What two things do we need more than this? Yes, we are great sinners, but Christ on the cross has defeated sin, has defeated death, has defeated Satan. The enemy of our soul has been defeated. We need only look to Christ. Are you sinking today? Are you sinking in your sin and temptation? Are you a great sinner? I've got news for you that is very good. Christ is a greater savior.

And he is victorious over every sin, over every temptation, and over every weapon that the enemy fashions and forms and sends your way. He is the shield about you. Look to Christ today.

God & Suffering

God & Suffering

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

The following establishes a biblical theology of suffering grounded in God's absolute sovereignty and omnipotence. Rejecting the shallow, transactional tenets of prosperity theology, the text emphasizes that God utilizes tragedy for the ultimate good and purification of His saints. Pastoral application demands relational depth—offering quiet, steadfast presence rather than unsolicited theological rationalizations in moments of acute grief.

Core Theological & Pastoral Themes:

• Divine Sovereignty Over Suffering: God orchestrates and filters every event—including the machinations of Satan and natural disasters—to accomplish His unsearchable purposes.

• The Heresy of Prosperity Theology: Suffering is not definitively linked to a lack of faith or hidden sin; such accusations mirror the rebuked counsel of Job’s friends.

• The Sufficiency of God's Presence: The resolution to human grief is not intellectual satisfaction, but a deeper revelation of God's character, goodness, and wisdom.

• Relational Depth in Crises: The church must prioritize compassionate, incarnational presence over doctrinal dissertations when comforting the brokenhearted.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction to Job and the Reality of Suffering

That brings us to the book of Job. The last several weeks we have been reading through Job, and today is going to be an overview of the whole book. It's some 40 chapters long. It's a longer book of the Bible. And I want to give you an overview of it and pull out some lessons from it.

It is, I think, one of the most important books in the Bible. And the message that it contains, and the truth that it contains, is something that every Christian needs to understand, needs to know, because of the things that we will face—all of us, we will face in our lives. The book of Job speaks to that.

And so what we're going to do this morning, just this way of beginning this book, is we're going to read the first chapter. The first chapter really helps us orient in the story and sets up the rest of the book for us. And so if you would stand with me this morning, the first chapter is about 22 verses, so it's not super long. And it will very much help us in our understanding of the message of this book.

Job 1:1-22 (ESV)

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, there came anotherand said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Father, we do thank you for your word. It is precious to us. You've given it to us to illuminate our path, to help us understand the world in which we live. God, without your word, we are in darkness. Without your word, we are stumbling. Without your word, we cannot understand the events of our world or the events of our life. But your word shines into our darkness. It pierces our hearts with the truth. It illuminates for us the path of righteousness. It shows us and points us to the only hope that we have, the gospel of your Son. Lord, as we spend time looking at this all-important book, help me to deliver your word to your people, and may it be profitable to their lives, in the advancement of your kingdom. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

The Affliction of Job and the Folly of His Friends

You may be seated. As I said, I think Job is one of the most important books of the Bible because it speaks into the most sensitive areas of our lives. The book of Job meets us at our most critical moments. The book of Job meets us at that place when in our lives, there is a disaster that strikes. When in our lives, there is tragedy, there is suffering. The book of Job touches our lives in the times when we are most vulnerable, when we are the weakest, and it serves to strengthen us in those times when we are the most weak.

The theme of this book is the theme of God and suffering. How are we to understand the pain of life, the sufferings that we endure, in relation to God who is in heaven? What part does God play in the suffering that we endure in this life? And all of us truly, all of us, will experience in our lives difficulty, hardship, pain, loss, grief, death, and suffering. Not a one of us will make it through this life without days like we've just read.

Now, the book of Job and Job's situations are very pronounced. It's told in such a way to draw out just the catastrophic circumstances, the greatness of the loss he endured. But truly, there are times in all of our lives where we feel like our whole life has collapsed. Where we feel like the future that we thought was going to happen, it becomes apparent to us that future is gone. And what do we do in those moments? And what does that say about God who is in heaven?

Job suffered great losses. He lost his property. He lost his wealth, he lost his possessions. He even lost his own children. And yet, how does Job respond? It tells us that Job responded by worshiping the Lord. He tore his robe, he shaved his head, he fell on the ground. He grieved and he worshipped. He worshipped, and he grieved. The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

But as the story continues, Job's losses don't end here. If we continue reading into chapter 2, Satan again goes to the Lord, and the Lord is seated on his throne in heaven, and the Lord says to Satan again, "Hey, have you considered my servant Job? You said he would curse me to my face, but you took everything from him and yet still he worships me. Still, he has not cursed me. Still, he maintains his integrity."

And Satan says to God, "Yes, of course, but you're still protecting his health. Take his health from him and he will curse you to your face." And Satan then gives God permission to take Job's health, to take everything from him but the breath in his lungs. And so Satan comes and he afflicts Job with this incredible disease. It says, from the sole of his feet to the top of his head, he is afflicted with these skin lesions, these boils, these sores. He's just laying in agony and grief and pain. You can't even get up. It says, to comfort himself, he would take a broken piece of pottery to lance his boils, so the pus could alleviate the pressure. It's very graphic.

He loses everything, including his health, and in this state, it says, his wife comes to him. His wife, who, no doubt, was grieving herself, having just buried her own ten children. And she comes to Job and she says, "Are you still going to worship God? Are you still going to maintain your integrity before God?" She says, "What are you doing? Just curse God and die." These are the words of a grieving mother who has lost everything.

But Job responded to her, "Those are foolish words," he says. "Stop talking so foolishly. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" Again, it says, in all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

Job does not curse God and die. And also, Job doesn't run from God. As the story continues to unfold, what Job does is he runs to God. He runs to God with his pain, with his grief, with his questions, with his confusion, with his emotional state that is all up and down. He runs to God with all of it. And if you've read the book of Job, if you read it with us this week, and you're thinking, "You know what? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense." Yeah, sometimes grief doesn't make sense. Sometimes when we are hurting so much, the words out of our mouth don't make a lot of sense. But Job takes all of that to the Lord. Yes, his emotions are all over the place. Rightfully so. But the direction he takes it—he doesn't run from God, he doesn't curse God, he runs to God with his grief and with his questions.

And in his grief, the story continues that he has three friends who come to comfort him. The Bible says they come to comfort him. And the reason why there's a handful of people laughing is because they know that when these friends come, they do not comfort him. What these friends do is they come, and they, instead, accuse Job. They say, "Job, the reason this has happened to you is because you have hidden sin in your life. You must have hidden sin in your life. Why else is God afflicting you so badly? If you were truly a righteous man, God wouldn't treat you this way."

But the book began by telling us no, Job, in fact, was a righteous man. He was a man who feared God. Of course, he wasn't a perfect man. There's only one perfect man, it's Jesus Christ. But he was godly. He sought the Lord; when there was sin in his life, he made sacrifices. When his own children sinned, he made sacrifices for them. He loved the Lord. He served the Lord. He kept the Lord's commandments. Job did not have hidden sin in his life, and yet, for nearly 40 chapters, Job's friends accuse him. "Confess your sin. Surely you've done this. Surely you did this, maybe it was this, maybe it was that," and they lay out all manner of sin that they accused Job of having hidden in his life. And Job says, "None of those things. I don't understand why God has afflicted me. It makes no sense to me."

And maybe you have felt that way with events in your life. Maybe there have been things that have happened that you just don't understand. You cannot comprehend. It makes no sense to you. The message of the book of Job is for you. It's for the most difficult moments in our life.

A Personal Encounter with Grief and False Theology

For me, the most difficult moment of my life, I found the book of Job to be the healing that I needed. It was the healing touch of the Lord for me. Some of you know a little bit of my background, a little bit of my story, and the story of our family. But the most difficult moment of my life, truly, was the day my dad passed away. That was the most difficult moment, the most difficult season for me. Some of you have suffered much greater losses than that, and in no way am I trying to compare our pain or compare our grief. It would be foolish and silly to even try to do that. The point being is that whatever we have lost and whatever grief that we do have, the book of Job speaks to it.

But my dad, as some of you know, was the pastor of this church, a very wonderful man, a very godly man. In fact, I think you could say what it says about Job, I think you could say it about my dad, David Bell. That he was an upright man who feared the Lord and turned away from evil. He wasn't a perfect man. I saw his faults right up close, right up, you know, at a front row seat to all of them, but he was a man who loved and served the Lord. He was a wonderful father, a wonderful friend, and a wonderful pastor of this church.

And yet, on one Sunday morning, May the 6th, 2012. A Sunday morning, not unlike our Sunday here today. Wonderful time of worship, praising God, celebrating him. But yet in the middle of our worship, we could not find my dad. He was nowhere to be found. And so we went looking for him and searching for him, and my brothers found him in his office, having passed away from some heart issue, heart attack, stroke. I don't know what the issue was, but his heart failed him. On a Sunday morning, while he was getting ready to preach God's word. As he was getting ready to come and deliver to this congregation a word from the Lord, God decided to take him home. He was a young man, not even 60 years old. In good health, played tennis three times a week. No signs of any health issues whatsoever.

And in that moment, watching the EMS come in and try to work on my dad and not being able to do anything for him and watching them carry my dad out on a stretcher. On a Sunday morning of all days, when we were supposedly in the presence of God, and yet, this happens here to the pastor, to my dad, to my friend. It shattered my view of God in that moment. It shattered it.

You see, I had this view of God that if you do the right things, God will bless you. That was sort of my theology. If you do the right things, God will bless you. You'll experience God's blessing and favor in your life. And of all the people I ever knew, the one person that I could say did the most right things was my dad. My dad left a very lucrative software career to take a not very lucrative pastorate, and to raise five boys on a very meager salary and to make incredible sacrifices. And I watched how he endured baseless criticism, and people attacking him within the church, and I watched how he constantly loved and served, and gave and sacrificed for the Lord, and for his kingdom, and for his people. And this is what he gets. This is how he dies.

All of a sudden, "if you do the right things, God will bless you" didn't add up to the events I was experiencing, and my family was experiencing, and our church was experiencing at the time. And I remember in my grief just saying, "God, I don't understand this. God, this makes no sense to me. God, I can't comprehend how you could allow this to happen to our family, to our church."

And I was expressing those things as we do to the people in our lives, the people that are close to us, the people that care for us. And I'll never forget a minister took me out to lunch shortly after my dad passed away. And I was just, I was broken. I was absolutely broken. I didn't understand. Yes, I love the Lord. But I didn't understand. And I was just pouring my heart out to this man of God that I respected greatly. I said, "I don't understand how God could allow this to happen. I don't understand why my dad died."

And he said, I'll never forget his words. He said, "I know why it happened."

I said, "Really, explain it to me." You see, when we found my dad, we prayed for him. We surrounded him. We confessed scripture over him. We declared what the Bible says, that by his stripes, he would be healed, and that we prayed that God would raise him up. And the leaders of the church were there, and we were praying, and we were calling out to God to heal my dad, in faith, believing God. And yet at the end of the day, my dad didn't walk out of his office. He was wheeled out on a stretcher.

And so I'm saying to this minister, "How could God allow this to happen? Why didn't God answer our prayers?"

He says, "I know why it happened." I'm all ears. Right? This is my question that I have to answer. He said this: "If your elders, the leaders of the church that prayed for your dad, if your elders were real men of faith, your dad would still be alive today. If your dad was a real man of faith, he would still be alive today."

I sat there. I listened. Listened to everything he had to say. And I walked out of Mama Margie's, I sat down in my car, and I said, "I don't know if that's true or not. But what that guy just did to me, I am never gonna do to somebody else. I don't know if that's true or not, but I'm never gonna go to somebody whose heart is broken into a million pieces and come and tell them that it's their fault."

And so what this did for me was this led me to say, "God, I believe in you. I believe in your son Jesus. I know that you have saved me. And you have filled me with your spirit. I believe that. But everything else is up for grabs. Everything else. Because the things that I believed, the things that people I respect are telling me, I don't know if they're true. Because I cannot handle the situation that I find myself in. My doctrine, my theology, it cannot process these events."

And so I took everything that I had been taught, and I pushed it to the side. And I said, "God, I want to know you. There are things about you that I've believed that are not true. There are things about you that are true, that I have not believed. God, I want to know you." And so where do we find that? Right here. And so for the next two years, it was me and my Bible and nobody else. I didn't want to hear this preacher. I didn't want to hear that preacher. I didn't want to hear from this perspective or that perspective, or this camp, or that camp. It was me and my Bible. "God, I want to know you. Reveal yourself to me. Help me see what I cannot see. Help me know what I do not know."

And in reading my Bible, there's the book of Job. In the book of Job, it tells us some things about God. And I have three things, three points I want to draw out for you from the book of Job that will help you. Whether you're in a situation like this of great loss and suffering, whether you've been through one, or you haven't yet been there. We all need this message.

Before I get to my three points, I need to tell you that what that minister told me at Mama Margie's was wrong. Absolutely, categorically wrong. What I did not know about that man and his theology—I didn't know it, I hadn't studied it, I didn't understand it—was that that man was a word-of-faith preacher. He believed in this false, heretical gospel that teaches you you can have whatever you want if you have enough faith. It's called word-of-faith. There are many, in fact, probably the most popular teachers teach this heresy today. Kenneth Copeland is a heretic teacher that teaches word-of-faith theology. I'm getting a little bit animated right now. Maybe I need to dial it back. Creflo Dollar? Jesse Duplantis. And then there are others that teach word-of-faith light. If I go down that list, we would be here all day.

They teach that you can have whatever you want if you just have enough faith and speak it with your words. It's called name it and claim it, blab it and grab it. If you're sick, if you're poor, it's your fault, because you don't have enough faith. It's not true. And the book of Job tells us it's not true. Job was a real man of faith. He trusted God. He trusted God so much that when all of his blessings were taken away, he still worshiped God. That theology is satanic, it's demonic. It's not true. Whether you have a lot of faith or whether you have a little bit of faith, Jesus says, in the world, we will all have what? Tribulation, hardships, struggles. But yet he says that we can take heart because he has overcome the world.

You see, Job's friends came to him and they said, "You have secret, you have hidden sin in your life. That's why you're enduring all of this suffering." Well, at the end of the book of Job, you know who shows up? God shows up. And you know what God does? He rebukes Job's friends for the lies they've been saying. He rebukes them. And what that minister told me at Mama Margie's, 14 years ago, is just another version of that. "You didn't have enough faith." Well, what's that? That's some hidden sin in my heart. "You had sin in your life, that's why you didn't get what you prayed for." No, it's not true.

1. God is Absolutely Sovereign Over All Things

The first point that the book of Job shows us so clearly is that God is absolutely sovereign over all things. He's absolutely sovereign. Where do we see God? He's on his throne in heaven. And what is he doing? He's holding court. And what is he ruling and reigning over? He's ruling and reigning over everything, including the earth. And even the devil himself has to come and give reports to God on his throne. God is seated on the throne of heaven, and he rules and reigns over all things.

This can be described as God's omnipotence. He is almighty, he has all power. And that means, because God is sovereign over all things, that there are no accidents in this life. That everything, because God is sovereign, everything in this life has a purpose. Everything in this life has meaning. It is so clear that because of no fault of Job's, God allowed these events to happen in his life. There was a greater purpose for it. Job didn't see it. Job didn't understand it. And yet God was doing something through it. These weren't just random accidents that afflicted Job. There was a purpose. There was meaning behind it.

Now when I say that God allowed this to happen to Job, at first glance, this can make us uncomfortable. It can be an uncomfortable thought. God allowed this? How could God allow this to happen? Why didn't God stop this? Why didn't God just flick Satan out of heaven and say, "Get out of here"? Why did God highlight Job? It wasn't Satan that brought up Job. It was God. "Hey, Satan, have you considered Job?"

And because of this tension between God's sovereignty and our suffering on this earth, many people just outright reject the idea that God is sovereign. And they will say that there is suffering in the world, not because God is sovereign. "God is not sovereign over suffering." They will say this, quote, "because people have free will." Because people have free will and they choose to sin, it produces suffering in the world. Yes, that is a secondary cause. And yes, people are responsible for their sin. God, though he is sovereign, is not the author of evil, nor does he do evil, nor is he responsible for evil. We are responsible for the sin in our lives. But all the suffering in the world is not because of free will. God is sovereign over all things.

And this alternative that God is not sovereign over suffering is so dark and depressing. Why? Because it removes God's power. And in doing so, it removes all meaning and purpose from suffering. If God is not sovereign over everything, then the evil we endure, the suffering we endure, the hardships we endure, if they're just simply the random acts of evil men, truly your suffering is meaningless and purposeless. That's very dark. Not only is it dark and depressing, but that's not what the Bible says. So there's that too.

It's not just the sinful actions of evil men that produces Job's suffering. Fire from heaven comes down and consumes all of his sheep. A tornado strikes his son's house and kills his children. These are not the actions of evil men. These are the actions of nature that God gave Satan control over in this moment. In verse 10, Satan says this to God: "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has?" Satan says, "Of course, Job worships you. You're protecting him. You're watching over him. You're blessing him. There's a hedge around him. I want to get to him, but you won't let me, God."

And truly, hear this for all of God's children. His protection, his hedge, is about all of us. God had a hedge around Job, but guess what? God has a hedge around you as well. The Bible actually says that we are in Christ. We are hidden with God in Christ. That means that anything in our lives is allowed there by God. And if he has allowed it into our lives, it's because he has a great meaning and purpose for it. God's protection extends to all of his children. Satan cannot touch Job without God's explicit permission, and neither can he touch you. So whatever comes into our lives is allowed there by God for a greater purpose.

In Luke chapter 22, Jesus is speaking to Peter:

Luke 22:31-32 (ESV)

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Satan came to Jesus to ask permission. To sift Peter like wheat. What does sifting like wheat mean? They would put it in a grate, and they would shake it back and forth, and throw it up into the air, and it was this violent shaking so that everything but the wheat would fall off. He's saying Satan has demanded to have you, that he might shake you, torment you, afflict you, buffet you, attack you.

And if I was Peter, I'd be sitting there thinking, "And you told him no, right, Jesus? You told them no, right? You told him—you remember Jesus, how you told me? 'Get behind me, Satan.' You told him that, right?"

But this is what Jesus told Peter. He says, "But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail." You see, Jesus gave something greater to Peter than protection. He gave him prayer for the most important thing—that Peter's faith would not fail. I think the sifting as wheat refers to the night where Peter denied Jesus. I think it refers to that darkest moment of his life where he denied Jesus three times. Because Jesus says, "I prayed for you that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."

What Jesus is saying is, "Peter, I'm going to allow this trial into your life because it's going to purify you. It's going to refine you. It's not going to destroy you, but it's going to make you stronger. And when you emerge from this trial, having been purified like gold, I want you to then turn around and strengthen those who are weak. I want you to carry those who are weak with the strength that I'm going to form in you, in your character, in these moments. Because, Peter, there's people in your life, there's people around you who are going to need the strength that you can give to them."

And so it is with you and me. Yes, we would love it if we could just ride through this life on a cloud. If we could just ease through this life, and it was all cotton candy and rainbows, and we pull every slot machine, and it's bing, bing, bing, 777, and it's just awesome all the time. And we see examples of people whose parents are very wealthy and they live lives like that. And what do we call those kinds of people? Spoiled. Because their character never develops. Does our character develop in good times or in hard times? Hard times.

So God allows Peter to go through it, to produce the character of Christ in him, that he might be able to share it with others, and that is what God does in our lives as well. Yes, we wish he would take the trial from us. Yes, we would pray, "God remove this thorn from me." But like he told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you because my power is made perfect in your weakness." God is a shield about us, a hedge about us. Whatever he allows in, whatever we experience in our life, it has gone through his filter so that we might draw closer to him, that we might cling to him, that we might draw strength from him and thereby strengthen others with what he has done in our lives.

And so this hedge about us, it should produce a great confidence in the people of God. God is watching over me. God is watching over you. And he will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability. He provides for us the strength that we need in whatever challenge that we face. Therefore, whatever comes into my life has been approved by God for some greater purpose of his.

2. God is All-Wise, All-Knowing, and All-Good

The second thing that we see in the book of Job is that God is all-wise, all-knowing, and all-good. We see this at the very end in chapter 38, when God comes and speaks with Job. And God never gives Job an answer. He never says, "Job, this is why you endured this suffering." Instead, he does something even better than that for Job. He reveals himself to Job. He gives Job a greater revelation of who God himself is.

And when Job sees this vision of God, glorious, almighty, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, all-good, Job himself repents. Job himself covers his own mouth and says, "I didn't understand what I was saying in my grief. But now, God, I see. I see who you are. I see that you are all-wise, that you know what you are doing, God." He says, "I repent of the words that I said. I should have trusted in you. I shouldn't have questioned you," is what Job says. Even though God didn't rebuke Job, he only revealed himself to Job. Job himself repents of the words that he had said. He had this greater revelation of God.

Listen, when you are going through a trial, you don't need answers. You need God. That's what you need. You just need him. You just need more of his presence in your life. God does allow things in our life. Things that we don't understand, things that we wish were not there. But what we really need is not an explanation from God on why those things are there. What we need is more of God. We just need more of him.

We often don't see God's greater purpose. We often don't understand it. We don't know what he's doing. It may take years to see what God was doing all along. Like Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, who some 40 years later will say, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." God uses Joseph in his life in slavery and life in prison, and having lost his family, he uses it to bring deliverance and salvation to the people of God. What you meant for evil, God meant for good. Job saw it some 40 years later.

It may be years before we ever see what God was doing all along with our pain and our suffering. And we truly, in this life, we may never even see it this side of glory. The book of Hebrews talks about the great patriarchs of the faith, and it says they all died in faith. They all died, having not yet received the promise, but believing God was faithful. We may not see it in this life. But we need to be like Job. We need to be like the great heroes of the faith, that no matter what comes to us in this life, we're gonna cross the finish line in faith. We're going to cross over, believing in God, believing in his word, holding fast to him.

I don't know what tomorrow holds for me or for you, or for our country, or for the world. But God does. And truly, that is enough. And so the book of Job, it becomes this invitation to let God be God.

3. We Can Trust God at All Times

Let God be God. So because God is sovereign, and because God is omniscient, all-knowing, all-wise, all-good, therefore, we can trust him at all times. Whatever life brings, you can trust in God. Trust in him, believe in him, hold fast to him.

One of the things that has often brought me comfort in life when I don't understand the events that are transpiring around me is to look to Christ and his suffering on the cross. The suffering of Christ on the cross was the greatest evil that has ever been done in the history of the world. What could be more evil than murdering the Son of God? It was the greatest act of injustice ever done. Jesus had never sinned. He did not deserve that death that he died.

And yet, when Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost, he says this: This death of Christ on the cross was God's predetermined plan to bring about the salvation of mankind. And so if God can use the most evil act, the greatest injustice ever known, to bring about the greatest good that there will ever be, how much more can God take the events of our lives? The evil done against us, the suffering we endure, to produce something good and glorious and beautiful in the end.

If God can turn the cross into the resurrection, into the salvation of the world, he can turn your pain into something beautiful. He can use it, and he will use it, the Bible says.

Romans 8:28 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

All things are working together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Even our pain, even our suffering, even when we don't see it. God is working in it all. So let us trust God at all times. Let us trust God when things are good. Let us trust God when things are bad. Let us trust God when things are ugly. Let us trust God with our grief. Go to him with your pain, go to him with your grief. Go to him with your questions. Just go to him. Just go to him.

Conclusion

I wanna close with this story. It's a story many of you may have heard before, but it's about a man who endured a similar situation and loss to Job. His name was Horatio Spafford. And he was a successful lawyer in Chicago in the 19th century. He was also a Presbyterian minister and a friend of D.L. Moody. But as he lived in Chicago, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, as it swept through the city, it destroyed all of his real estate investments, leaving him almost impoverished. And prior to that tragedy, of economic downturn, he had already lost his young son to scarlet fever.

And so, in the midst of losing everything and hoping for a better future and rest and outcome, he put his wife, Anna, and their four daughters on a ship to sail to England. As they got to England, they were planning to join D.L. Moody and his evangelistic work in Europe. However, as they were about to leave on their trip, business demanded that Horatio stayed behind, and he stayed in Chicago. And so he sent his wife and his four daughters ahead. He put them on the ship as they crossed the Atlantic, and he stayed behind in Chicago.

But as they were sailing, their ship was struck by another vessel. And the ship that they were on sunk in 12 minutes. That's really fast. His wife Anna survived. She was pulled from the water unconscious by rescue efforts. But all four of their daughters drowned: Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta. When his wife Anna reached Wales, she sent a telegram to Horatio with these words: Saved alone. What shall I do?

Horatio boarded a ship immediately to go to his grieving wife, a ship that sailed the very waters in which his daughters had perished. And as he crossed the Atlantic, the captain, knowing what had happened, came as they were at the very spot where his daughters had perished, and he pointed out to him the place where they had drowned. And gazing at the empty waves, Horatio said this: "It is well. The will of God be done."

Some three years later, Horatio Spafford would take these words and put them to music. And today we know this as the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. Listen to the words that he penned:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

This man, like many other men, lost more than he thought he could bear. Yet he took his grief to the Lord. And he found in the Lord a healing that only the Lord can do. God is sovereign over all things. God has a purpose for all of the events in our life. We may see it, we may not. But he is working in all of it for our good and for his glory. And until our faith becomes sight, may the Lord teach us to sing: "It is well, it is well, with my soul."

God, I'm going to worship you. I'm going to trust in you. I'm going to believe in you. I'm going to hold fast to you as the anchor for my soul. We all go through storms in life. What do we do with our pain? Do we take it to the Lord? Do we run from the Lord? Do we curse God and die? Let us just worship. Let us just trust Him. Let us say whatever comes my way, your praise will be on my lips.

I invite you to stand with me this morning. You know, I found that when difficult times come, what people really need is a friend. What people really need is someone to love them. People don't need theology and doctrine. When people are suffering, they don't need you to show up and give them your exhortation on your theology of God's sovereignty. I think those things are best kept for sermons.

When people in our lives go through grief, what they really need is presence. They need a loving hand. They need a shoulder to cry on. They need someone to say, "I don't understand this either. But I love you. And I'm here for you. And we're praying for you. And we're going to walk with you." That's what we need. Answers, they're in God's hands. When we show up with answers, what we think are answers, oftentimes, we're putting ourselves in the place of God. We need to be content to let God do his work in people's hearts and us just be the hands and feet of Jesus that love on people when they're hurting.

So when you see someone hurting, when you see someone going through a difficult time, don't show up with your exhortation, your dissertation on six points of God's sovereignty, or why they don't have enough faith, or they must have hidden sin in their life—unless you want to be rebuked by God like Job's friends, which I don't want to be. Let's learn to love people. Let's learn to care for people. Let's just be a shoulder to cry on and prepare a meal and just be there for people. That's what the body of Christ has been for me, in my moments of need, and what we've endeavored to be for others, and that we can be for our friends and family, and our fellow man. Amen?

God's Providential Care

God's Providential Care

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Matt examines the doctrine of God’s unseen providence through the Book of Esther, demonstrating that His sovereign care is continually active even when His presence feels entirely withdrawn. Because God is the supreme sovereign orchestrating human history, His providential care for His covenant people is universal (reaching even the exiles who remained in pagan Persia), ordinary (utilizing mundane human circumstances and weaknesses rather than suspending natural law, thereby maximizing His glory), and mediated (working through the active, faithful obedience of His people rather than passive fatalism). Ultimately, Esther's intercession serves as a typological foreshadowing of the Gospel, illustrating how Christ left His royal position to mediate for a condemned people, orchestrating a great reversal from death to life.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction: The Book of Esther and God's Providential Care

We are continuing our series, our year-long series, working our way through the Bible, the year of the Bible, reading through it together as a church, and looking every Sunday morning at a passage that we read that week. This morning, the sermon's going to be a little bit different in that we're not going to look at one specific passage, but we're going to look at an entire book of the Bible, the book of Esther.

We read this book last week. Some of you, of course, love this book, and for good reason, it is a wonderful book of the Bible. And instead of looking at one specific passage, we're going to look at the main theme of the book of Esther and how to apply that theme to our lives today. The book of Esther is 10 short chapters about God's providential care for his people. God's providential care for his people. And it tells us about how God from heaven is looking down through his unseen hand of providence. He's providing for his people and protecting his people, watching over them and caring for them. So that's the book, that's the theme.

A Foundation from Psalm 37

I'm not going to read a text here at the beginning. Well, actually, I am. And it's not from Esther. It is from Psalm 37. So if you have your Bibles open to Psalm 37 with me quickly, this won't be on the screen because I just right now decided to do this. Psalm 37 speaks of God's providential care, and it fits beautifully with the book of Esther, the themes of the book of Esther. So we'll look at a few verses here, just to whet our appetite for the direction of the Book of Esther, from Psalm 37.

If you have it, and even if you don't, I invite you to stand with me to read from Psalm 37 this morning. We'll read this, we'll pray, and then we'll recap the story of Esther in case you're not familiar with it, and then we'll start looking at some specific scriptures from Esther. Looking here, starting in verse 7, it says:

"Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who carries out evil devices. Refrain from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not yourself. It tends only to evil. For the evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. In just a little while, the wicked will be no more, though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy to slay those whose way is upright. But their sword shall enter their own heart. And their bows shall be broken, be broken. [Verse 16] Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous."

Lord, we thank you, God, for these beautiful words, these words of this psalm, and Lord, the book of Esther. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your providential care for your people. Lord, that you are watching over us. Lord, your word teaches us that we are close to you and that you are close to us and that you never leave us or forsake us. Lord, I pray that as we spend time in your word this morning that you would help us to see your unseen hand, that you would help us to see how you are constantly providing and protecting your people. And Lord, that it would help us to trust in you, even when we don't see you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The Story of Esther

You may be seated this morning. A little bit of overview on Esther: It takes place during the time that the exiles, the Jewish exiles, were returning to rebuild Jerusalem. God had previously removed the Jewish people from their land because they had been unfaithful to the Lord. They had rejected the Lord. They had pursued idolatry. Though God had sent many messengers, many prophets to call his people back to him, they had hardened their hearts in rebellion. And so God exiled them. He tore them out of the land that he gave them. He carried them off into foreign lands, and they were there for 70 years.

Now, after 70 years, the king of that foreign land, King Cyrus, the king of Persia, issued a decree that the Jews could return to Jerusalem to rebuild their nation, to rebuild their city, to rebuild their temple, to rebuild their culture, their society. But even after the king of Persia gave this invitation that the Jews could return to their land, we read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that only a handful of the people that were exiled returned. The majority of the people chose not to return, to rebuild, but they chose to stay where they were comfortable, where they had planted their families, purchased land, started businesses. They didn't want to return to a land that was desolate, decimated, no economy, no business, just wide-open wilderness that had been destroyed. The majority of the people didn't want to go and rebuild. They stayed behind in Babylon and Persia.

And so the book of Esther tells us the story of the Jews that stayed behind in Persia, tells us what happened to them, those that didn't return to Jerusalem. And it begins in chapter one with a great feast thrown by the king of Persia. During that feast, he wants to show off his wealth and his power. He wants to show off his glory. And so he calls for his queen, who is a beautiful woman, and he wants to show her off to his kingdom. Well, she refuses to come and be paraded in front of the people. And so he decides, you know what, I'm just gonna get a new queen, then. And so he sets out on this four-year process to find the most beautiful and pleasant young woman in his whole kingdom, this massive kingdom—127 provinces from India to Ethiopia, this massive kingdom that he reigned over. He seeks the most beautiful woman in the whole kingdom. It takes him four years. Four years to find his new queen.

And at the end of this process, he lands on this poor orphan peasant, Jewish girl named Esther. And he chooses Esther to be his queen. Though he doesn't know she's a Jew, that her nationality, her race, is kept secret at the time. No one knows her origins. And during the course of time, while Esther is queen, one of the very powerful men in the kingdom, a man named Haman, he grows in his hatred towards the Jewish people. He makes a plan to destroy them all. He is so bent against destroying the Jewish people. He goes to the king—rather, he goes to the king. He manipulates the king to issue a decree that on such and such a day, all the Jewish people are to be killed, and all of their property is to be seized by whoever kills them.

And so it throws the kingdom into disarray. It throws the Jewish people into disarray. And at this point that Esther's cousin, the man who actually raised her, a man named Mordecai, he comes to Esther, he pleads with her, to do something, to intervene on behalf of her people. He says, you can't just sit there. You can't just sit idly by as the queen hiding behind the crown while your people are slaughtered.

But Esther is caught in a dilemma. The only way that she can enter into the king's presence is with an invitation. No one can simply barge into the presence of the king. They have to be invited. And if anyone comes into the king's presence without an invitation, the sentence for that act is death. And so she is placed in a very difficult position where she has to approach the king, but it might cost her her life. The only way that sentence could be averted is if the king raised his golden scepter to the person who approached him, and in that case, he would be granting them mercy. That would be a great exception. But it would be a great violation for her to presumptuously enter the king's presence, and remember, this is a king who has a history of getting rid of queens that displease him.

Nevertheless, Esther decides, I'm going to risk my life on behalf of my people. She fasts for three days. She goes into the presence of the king to plead with him. He raises his golden scepter to her, pardoning her, granting an audience with him. And through her bravery, this wicked man, Haman, his plot is uncovered, and he himself is hanged on the very gallows that he built to hang the Jews upon.

Everybody loves a story like Esther. It has all the makings of a great story. It has this love story between the king and the queen. It has a great heroine, Esther, who goes from rags to riches. She's a peasant that becomes a princess who intervenes on behalf of her people. It saves her nation, saves her people. It has this evil man, every great story has a great villain, and Haman is this wicked, evil man who's scheming and plotting. And yet, because of Esther's bravery and her sacrifice, there's this very satisfying turn of events where all of the evil that he plotted against these people come back, it comes back on his own head. And everybody lives happily ever after. Everybody loves a story like Esther.

The Unseen Hand of God

But when you read the book of Esther, when you read its 10 chapters, there's one thing in the book of Esther that is noticeably absent, especially from a book of the Bible. There's something that you will not find anywhere in the book of Esther. And that is any mention of God. The 10 chapters in the book of Esther, God, the Lord, is not mentioned one time. Not one time.

Esther is the only book of the Bible that doesn't mention God. He's not named, he's not even prayed to, nobody even prays in this book. When Esther calls a fast, it's not a fast with prayer. It's just a fast. God is notably absent from this book. In fact, this great omission has led some people to argue that this book should not even be included in the Bible. One of the very famous people that argued for that was the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. He didn't even think this book should be in the Bible because it doesn't even mention God.

But what this book, Esther, is showing us by the author not mentioning God is he is showing how God, even when he is not seen, is still protecting and providing for his people. That's why the theme of this book is God's providential care. God's providential care, that God from heaven is the one who is orchestrating the events. God from heaven is the one who is moving things and setting things up and placing this peasant girl into the right place at the right time. And he is the one who is turning everything around for his people. It is a story about God's providential care. That God is the supreme sovereign. He rules and reigns over all the events of history, over the events of nations, and over the events of our lives. And what Esther reminds us is that even when we don't see God moving, he is still there. He is always with us, even as Jesus himself promised that he would always be with us.

So there's 3 things about God's providential care from Esther I want to draw out for us this morning.

1. God's Providential Care is Universal

The first is that God's providential care, it is universal. It is universal. And what that means, what I mean by that, is that his providential care extends to all of his people, wherever they are. You see, these are the Jews that didn't go back to Jerusalem. These are the Jews that chose not to sacrifice, not to go back and rebuild, not to go be surrounded by the temple, not to go back to the Jewish homeland, but they stayed behind. Most likely because they had some sense of prosperity in this pagan land. They stayed behind in Persia. And yet, God still protects them where they are. God's providential care is extended to all of his people.

Now, you may be wondering, there's times in our life where we go through all kinds of difficult things, times when it seems like God is not there. And in those times, you may be wondering, asking the question, does God see what I'm going through right now? God, do you see what's happening in my life? God, I don't understand, and certainly the exiles is there in this foreign land. The king's judgment comes down, this decree comes down: all the Jews get to be slaughtered on this day. God, where are you in this? You may be wondering, does God see my problem? Does God see my pain? Does God see the suffering that I am going through? Have you prayed prayers like that? God, where are you? Where are you in this? Or God, how could you allow this to happen in my life?

I think if we're all being honest—and I think church is a good place to be honest—we would all say there are times in life where God seems like he's a million miles away. Where we go and we pray before the Lord, and it seems like our prayers don't even reach the ceiling, much less to God in heaven. God, where are you? God, you feel so distant. You feel so removed.

If you've ever felt like that, the story of Esther serves as a reminder to us that even in those times, God sees what we're going through. And he not only sees us, he is there with us. In every trial, in every storm, in every temptation, in every calamity, God is with his people, whether we feel his presence or not. Whether we feel his presence or not. In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus says this. Speaking of God's care for his people, he says:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?"

Isn't that true? Two sparrows are sold for a penny? No, we don't really sell sparrows anymore. I don't know if you go to PetSmart. Probably inflation's gone up quite a bit to... to sparrows. But anyway, Jesus says, are not two sparrows sold for a penny. They're almost worthless in our eyes, is what Jesus is saying. But he says:

"And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father."

What Jesus is saying is that God's providential care, it extends even to the sparrows. He sees even the sparrows. There's that wonderful hymn that says his eye is on the sparrow. But Jesus argues—he's making an argument. It's a logical argument from the lesser to the greater. Verse 30, he says:

"But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."

Look, if God is paying attention to the things that seem to us so mundane, so unimportant, how much more is he paying attention to the things that are important? God is paying attention to every single detail of your life. Down to the number of hairs on your head. What an insignificant thing that is. Who cares? God cares. God cares. God cares for you so much, he cares how many hairs are on your head. That's how intimately he is acquainted with every last detail of your life. God cares more than you do. And what Jesus is saying, if God so cares for the sparrows, how much more does he care for you?

And so when we go through those hard times, those difficult times, those seasons where it seems like God is not with us, those seasons where it seems like God is absent, absent, those seasons where we pray and pray and pray and pray, and yet our prayers go unanswered, and we are confused, and we don't understand, and none of it makes sense to us. We must remind ourselves of the truth of God's word that he sees and he cares for us. We must strengthen our hearts with the truth of God's word. This is why God has given us his word for this very purpose: so that we would not be overcome, that our hearts would not be overcome with our feelings in moments of great difficulty. But that through his word, we would hold fast to God, hold fast to his promises, not giving in to despair when things look bleak, when things look difficult, that we would pray like the psalmist, "Though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." That we would hold fast to God and his word and trust in him.

This isn't just theory for me. I've lived this in my own life. I've had to live this out. There's been many seasons in my life where God feels far, where God feels distant. There's been seasons in my life where I'm not, I don't understand what God is doing, where I'm confused, where I'm emotionally all over the place. Where my emotions are out of whack, where my feelings are out of whack. I know that's not really a proper preaching term but... The temptation is to give in to despair, to give in to our feelings, to forsake God. Can we just be real here this morning? Life is not, you know, a highlight reel. Life is not a highlight reel on Instagram that, you know, it's just awesome all the time. A lot of times, life is really hard.

And even in those hard times, sometimes it feels like God is not there with us. And in those moments, we have a choice. We have a decision. God, I'm going to trust in you or I'm not. I'm going to believe in you or I'm not. I'm gonna hold fast to you and have my feet planted firmly on your word, or I'm not. Which is it? Do we run to God in our moments of difficulty and hardship, even when we feel like he is not there? Or do we run from God? The book of Esther teaches us and shows us that God is the place we must run to. He is the one who is watching over us and caring for us.

I want you to know that God, for me, has proven to be faithful to His Word every time. I've never seen God's word fail. I've never seen it. He's proven himself time, and time, and time, and time again to be faithful to his word. Now somebody is sitting there and you are thinking right now, well, yeah, but that's because you're a pastor. Of course, you're closer to God than we are. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons. This promise of providential care, it's universal. It extends to all of God's people. Are you one of his children? Have you put your faith in his son Jesus? His care extends even to you right now where you are. Even if no one else sees, even if no one else understands, God sees and God understands. Therefore, we can go to him in our moments of great difficulty.

2. God's Providential Care is Ordinary

The 2nd thing about God's providential care that I want to draw your attention to is that it is ordinary. It is ordinary. It's accomplished through ordinary means. It's accomplished through ordinary means. And we see here in Esther chapter 4, here in verse 13, when Mordecai goes to his cousin, and he's saying, you need to intervene. Look at the conversation that takes place here. It says:

"Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, 'Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?' Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 'Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.'"

The means by which God accomplishes his providential care are often very ordinary. This is not some miraculous intervention from heaven. This is not some miracle that happens here. This is a queen going before the king. This is not the Red Sea parting. This is not fishes and loaves being multiplied. This is not blind eyes being opened. This is not Jesus walking on water. This is not a miracle that's taking place here. This is just the ordinary course of events of human life.

What I mean by ordinary is, I mean, it's not miraculous, it's not the suspending of the natural order of things. God moves through ordinary circumstances. Now, we have an appetite for the spectacular. We have an appetite for the extraordinary. But typically God doesn't. Typically, God loves using ordinary, everyday things to accomplish his purpose. Yes, sometimes God does part the Red Sea. But more often than not, he uses the ordinary to bring about the extraordinary.

So God will use an exiled prince with a stuttering problem to deliver his people. God will use a shepherd boy with a few rocks in his pocket to bring down a giant. God will use a peasant girl to save her people. God will use his crucified son to save the world. This is God's pattern. This is what God does. He uses the ordinary things to accomplish the stupendous. He does the incredible through things that just seem everyday.

Why does God do this? Well, because really nothing is impressive to God. Right? I mean, God's upholding the universe by the word of his power. God speaks a word and existence comes into being, right? I mean, what he enjoys doing is the surprising thing. The taking that thing that everybody sees as just insignificant, overlooked, not valuable in the eyes of anyone or the world. And then taking that unassuming thing and then doing something that's absolutely mind-blowing with it. Why does God do that? Because then God gets the glory. It glorifies him when he does this.

So Paul will talk about in 2 Corinthians 12, how God loves to do this. And he talks about this through talking about this difficulty, this hardship that he was going through. He called it a thorn in the flesh that God gave him to keep him humble. So in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, it says:

"So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations..."

Paul is saying, God was giving me all of these revelations, and he knew that I, in my flesh, tended towards pride, so God gave me, he allowed Satan to attack my life in a certain way. Paul calls it his thorn in the flesh, to keep me close to God and to keep me humble is what he's saying he has done in his life.

"A thorn in the flesh was given me, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me."

So Paul goes to the Lord. God, please take this away from me. This thorn in the flesh. Now, there's much speculation about what the thorn in the flesh was. Guess what? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. We know it was a messenger of Satan. That's bad. That was given to him by God, God allowed it into his life. So let that mess with your prosperity gospel and name it and claim it and all of that. So he goes to the Lord and pleads with the Lord. Take this from me. He says:

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"

He's saying, Paul, if I didn't give you this thorn in the flesh or allow it into your life, if I didn't allow Satan to attack you in this way—what way is that? We don't know. Some speculated it was a health issue, some speculated it was his own conscience for the things that he had done before he was a Christian, some speculate it was the Jews who were persecuting Paul everywhere that he went. We don't know. We know it was bad enough that the Apostle Paul felt it was a great hindrance to him and his ministry. I could do so much more for you, Lord, if you would remove this thorn from me. But God says, I've allowed it in your life to keep you from becoming proud. He says, my grace is sufficient for you. I'm going to give you—I'm not going to remove it from your life, but I'm going to give you the power to overcome it. I'm going to give you the power to rise above it. I'm not gonna remove it, but I'm going to give you my strength, my power, so that you will not boast in your strength, but that you will boast in my power. Because everyone's going to see this problem, this circumstance, this situation, and they are going to see Paul, that the power and the strength that you are living in, it is not your own, but it has come down from heaven. And through that, I will be glorified and not you. So he says to him:

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Are you weak here this morning? I've got good news for you. The Lord has power for you, not to remove that thing, that thorn in the flesh, that obstacle, that thing that is coming against you, not to remove it, but to give you the strength to be victorious over it. This is what God does. Because then his power is put on display.

When we go through hardship, we can pray that God will remove the hardship. That's okay to do. Paul did that. He did it 3 times. But at some point, we should also pray, God, give me the strength to endure. Or if you're not going to remove this, give me the strength, give me the power. And Lord, let your name be glorified in my life and in my weakness. So that when I am weak, I can be strong. May we be like the Apostle Paul, who will say, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of his name, for the sake of his glory, I will be content with weakness. I will be content with insults. I will be content with hardships. I will be content with persecutions and calamities. Yes, for the sake of Christ. Yes, for the glory of Christ.

We need to be content with the ordinary things of life. Because it is through the ordinary things of life that God puts his glory on display. Let us be careful that just because we're not seeing miracles, like we would like, we think we should see them, that we then conclude and assume that God, therefore, is not moving in my life and on my behalf. I think a lot of people, when they pray for a certain miracle, they don't see it the way that they told God it should happen. They presume that God is absent. He's far, he's distant, he hasn't heard their prayer. He hasn't answered their prayer. That he is not working on their behalf.

But that's not the truth of what the Bible says. In fact, Jesus in John 5:17 says:

"My Father is working until now, and I am working."

That God is always working on our behalf. He's always working. He's never taken a day off. He's working on our behalf. And so often he's working in the ordinary things of life. He's working through the ordinary means of grace. The word of God, the Lord's table, worship, prayer—on the surface, these things seem very ordinary. But underneath them, there is the supernatural power of God.

There's this wonderful quote from C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity about the power of prayer. It's a little bit of a longer quote, but I do want to read it to you because it shows us that, just because it's ordinary, it doesn't mean that there's not incredible things happening as we pray. This is what he says:

"An ordinary, simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He's trying to get in touch with God. But if he is a Christian, he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God. God, so to speak, inside of him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ. The man who was God. That Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray. Christ is praying for him. Do you see what is happening? God is the thing to which he is praying, the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside of him, which is pushing him on the motivating power. God is also the road or the bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So the whole threefold life of the three-personal being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers. The man is being caught up into the higher kinds of life. What is called the Zoe, or spiritual life. He is being pulled into God, by God."

God loves to use these little ordinary things of life. And just because they're ordinary on the surface does not mean that God is not moving in a very powerful way through them.

3. God's Providential Care is Mediated

Number three thing I'm going to draw your attention to is that God's providential care is mediated. It is mediated. What I mean by that is, Esther has to engage. Esther has to go. Esther did what was right. So we can't simply say that, well, God is sovereign, and his care is providential, therefore I don't have to do anything. And God's just going to do what he's going to do irregardless of my actions. That's not the way his providential care is carried out.

And so we see in Esther chapter 5, verse one and 2, that she goes into the presence of the king:

"On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight, and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the tip of the scepter."

Just because you can say, yes, God is providential, yes, God is sovereign, it's not an excuse for being passive. God carries out his sovereign purpose through the faithful obedience of his people. When we faithfully live in obedience to God, God's plan and purpose is carried out in the world. We are the body of Christ. We are the hands and feet of Jesus. And so if we see people in need, let's be the body of Christ. Let's go to them in love and care and support. Let's encourage them. Let's pray for them because through us, God's providential care is extended. We can be the mediators of God's care to others in the world.

And in that, we get to be a part of what God is doing. You see, Mordecai told Esther, if you don't intervene, somebody else is going to. God's going to bring deliverance some other way. You can be a part of what God's going to do or not. I want to be a part of what God's doing. I want to be a part of how God's building his kingdom in the world. This means that God's people need to be active applying their faith, living out their faith in the ordinary things of life. Because when we do that, God does extraordinary things through his church in the world.

Conclusion: Esther as a Picture of the Gospel

In the end, Esther becomes for us a picture of the gospel. We see that in that there's this great reversal of fortunes. God's people are slated for death. They're as good as dead. But because Esther is willing to intervene, because she's willing to sacrifice herself, God's people are saved.

And just as we are dead in our sins, that is how we were without hope. Christ left his place of comfort. Left his position of royalty and came and laid down his life. He intervened on our behalf. He became the ultimate mediator for us, so that we who have trusted in Christ, we have passed from death to life. We have passed from being sinful to righteous. We were without hope, but because he paid the price for us, our future now is bright. And we have a promise of eternity with him, world without end. So whatever this life holds for us, the future is bright. Whatever challenges we are in the midst of and facing, God is going to be faithful to his word. And when we step out in faith and obedience to him, God can accomplish incredible things through our lives, putting his glory on display. Amen.

Scripture...

Scripture...

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

This sermon, based on Nehemiah 8, explores the foundational role of Scripture in the life of a believer and the church. Contextualizing the passage within Israel's return from exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the speaker outlines seven key principles about the written Word of God: it is God's actual word, it must be central to our lives, it must be read, it must be honored, it must be taught, it brings holy conviction of sin, and ultimately, it produces spiritual strength and joy. Emphasizing that believers should actively read and obey the Bible rather than treating it as a mere artifact, the message concludes by encouraging the congregation to find victory over sin by rejoicing in the finished work of Christ.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction and Context

So if you would open with me in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah chapter 8 this morning.

We're in a series this year where we're working our way through the whole Bible together. And this week, we were in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. You can read along with us. This week, we're starting a new book of the Bible, the book of Esther. And then later this week, we'll start the book of Job. In your handout, there are the chapters that we are reading as a church together.

Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of God's people, the children of Israel, coming back into the land. You see, God had made a promise to Abraham to put his people in this land, but because they had disobeyed God and pursued idolatry, God had taken them out of the land. And the land had been destroyed. Their homes, their cities, the temple, everything had been destroyed because of their idolatry.

And the Old Testament really is the story of the work that God did through humanity to bring Jesus into the world, who would be the savior of the whole world. In that story of God bringing Jesus into the world, it teaches about his dealing with mankind. And so while they were in exile for 70 years, the land was desolate. It was overrun, it was destroyed. But after 70 years, God allowed his people to return to the land, to rebuild it, to be replanted, to be the people through which God would bring the Messiah, Jesus, into the world.

They had come back into the land of Israel, to the city of Jerusalem. The first thing that they did when they returned was they rebuilt the temple to reestablish the worship of God and to make that central to their life as a people. And then later on, they had performed in the book of Nehemiah a construction project to rebuild the walls surrounding Jerusalem.

And so where we are in chapter 8 is the temple has been rebuilt, the walls have been rebuilt, and now here is this service of dedication. They've been back in the land nearly a hundred years at this point. And there's this time of dedicating the city again to the Lord and themselves to the Lord. To affirm that they will be faithful to God and faithful to his word and faithful to his covenant.

The Reading of God's Word

In chapter 8, we read this story of this dedication ceremony, and I invite you to stand with me as we read this passage of scripture. We're looking at 12 verses here. And I want to let you know, in these 12 verses, twice there are lists of names that I am not even going to try to pronounce. I tried this week to learn these names, and failed. You can ask my children how it went as I tried to read it to them. Something about Hebrew names just triggers my dyslexia. I cannot read these names. I have tried. So when I get to the names, we're just going to move on past them this morning. But starting here in verse one:

And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood [a bunch of wonderful people, I'm sure they were the best people, but you see their names there]. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Also [here's another wonderful group of people that were there, it tells us that they were Levites, they were priests], they helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved." And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

Father, we do thank you for your word. It is precious to us. Lord, speak to us as we endeavor to hear from you this morning. Open our hearts to your word, in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated this morning.

Here in Ezra and Nehemiah, they're rebuilding a nation. They're rebuilding a city. They're rebuilding a people. They're rebuilding a culture. And one of the main thrusts of these two books is that it's not just the physical structures that need to be rebuilt. It's not just the temple, it's not just the walls. It's the hearts of the people that need to be renovated as well.

And so to do this, as the temple's been rebuilt, the walls have been rebuilt, they have this time of reading scripture and teaching scripture to the people. From this passage today, we see several things about scripture that I want to draw your attention to this morning. Scripture is the word of God that is written. Several things about this written word that I want to highlight for you this morning. I figured on Mother's Day, you wanted a very long sermon, so I brought for you today seven things to highlight for you. It won't be as long as Ezra's sermon. I can tell you that. But how long it will be only the Lord knows. We're going to move through these quickly here this morning. As I was looking at my notes again this morning, more points started to come to my head than the seven I already had, but I said, I'm just going to keep it to these seven. But I might throw in a few bonus ones here and there.

1. Scripture is God's Word

The first one is from verse one. And as I said, I'm going to move through these quickly. The first one we see is that scripture is the word of God. Scripture is God's word.

Here we see it says that Ezra the scribe, he read the book of the law of Moses, that the Lord had commanded Israel. Did you see that? Do you notice that? It wasn't just Moses' words. It was the words that God had given to Moses, but they were not Moses' commandments. These were the commandments that the Lord had given. I want you right here at the beginning not to miss this, that scripture, the written pages that we call here the Holy Bible—these aren't just the words of men. These are the words of God. Yes, God used Moses to write them. But the words that Moses wrote were not his words, they were God's word.

In 2 Timothy chapter 3, I don't have this scripture here on the screen, but if you want to flip over there with me quickly, you can. It tells us this about scripture. It's the Apostle Paul writing, and he says that all scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. All scripture, the written word is breathed out by God. It's the very words of God, the very breath of God, and it is profitable to us. It's profitable to teach us, to reprove us. That's to bring us under conviction, to correct us, and to train us to be righteous.

One of the reasons that we believe that the scripture is the Word of God, we see it here. It says that it is. But the Lord Jesus taught us this as well. In Matthew chapter 22, again, I don't have this verse here on the screen, but if you flip over with me a couple pages to Matthew 22. Jesus here is in a debate, a discussion with the religious leaders of his day, and he's correcting them. And in verse 31, Jesus says this: "Have you not read what was said to you by God?" And then he quotes from the book of Exodus. He says, have you not read the written word? Have you not read what was said to you, not by Moses, but by God.

And so if we believe in the Lord Jesus, we believe he died and he rose again. We believe he's the Son of God, come from heaven to earth. Because we believe in him, we believe his words are true. And Jesus taught clearly that scripture is the word of God. We see that here in Nehemiah chapter 8: the words of the law of Moses, that the Lord had commanded Israel.

2. God's Word Must Be Central

The second point that we see here—I told you I was going quick, you didn't believe me, but I'm moving—is that God's word, scripture, must be central. It must be at the center of our lives.

We see that the first thing that they did after they rebuilt the temple and they rebuilt the walls, and they gather for this festival on the seventh month. It was a month of celebration, a time of celebrating the Feast of Trumpets, a time of celebrating the work of God and his goodness in their lives. They gather, and at the center of their gathering, we read that they brought the word of God to the center of their life as a nation. In verse 2, it says, so Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard. The word of God was central to their lives, and the word of God must be central to our lives as well.

Another way to say it must be central is the word of God must be the foundation. It must be foundational. When they rebuilt the temple, the first thing they had to do was they had to lay the foundation. And as we endeavor to have God be the author of our life and the author of our story, His word must be the foundation upon which our life is built. This is, of course, what Jesus himself taught as well in Matthew chapter 7. If you flip over there with me, I don't have it on the screen this morning, but Jesus said this:

"Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them"—not just to hear them, but to do them, put them into practice, to endeavor to live them out—"will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock."

What is the foundation of your life? What are you building your life on, or what have you built your life on? There's all sorts of things that people trust in to build their life on. Economic security, their charisma, their charm, their gifts, their ability to go out and get things done. Their relationships, the people that they know, the family they came from—people build their lives on all kinds of things.

But Jesus here says there's only one true foundation for our lives, and it is scripture. It is the word of God. Jesus says, if you will build your life on the word of God, not just hearing it, but doing it, you will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And when the storms come, the storms of life, which come for all of us—none of us will go through life without experiencing hardship, difficulty, unexpected loss, things coming out of the blue, tragedy, catastrophe. Listen, all of us experience those things in life. The question is, when the storms come, will our house stand? When the storms come, will our life come crumbling down around us? Jesus says, if we build our life on his word, our life will stand.

He goes on to describe the foolish man. He says:

"Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

What have you built your life around? Is God's word central in your life? They're rebuilding their nation. They're rebuilding their culture, and they say, we have to bring the word of God. We have to gather around his word, around his law. We have to read it. We have to make it central. We have to know it, we have to understand it, and we have to obey it, is what Jesus says. What have you built your life upon? The shifting sand of anything else? This world that we live in is so topsy-turvy. You put your faith in one thing, and you think it's solid, you think it's secure, and then something happens, and it's not what you thought it was. We only have one rock to build our life on, and it is scripture.

3. Scripture Must Be Read

The third thing that we learn from this passage is that scripture must be read.

So what does Nehemiah do in verse 3? It says that he opened the book and read from it, facing the square before the Water Gate, from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the law. It must be read.

Ezra here preaches, I don't know, a five-hour sermon. I don't know what early morning is for you. I would say early morning you could say is sunrise, right? Could we all just agree, say sunrise? So the sun comes up around 6:30, 7 o'clock. And till midday? If you want to say noon, that's five hours. That's five hours of Ezra standing up and reading the Word of God and the people saying amen and falling on their face and being convicted. That's a five-hour sermon. I love this passage. Because anytime somebody says, "You preach too long," I just say, hold on a second. Have you heard of a man named Nehemiah? Have you heard of the scribe Ezra? Let me tell you about this man's sermon. Five plus hours.

He's reading and explaining to them the law of God. Most likely the passage of scripture he's reading from is the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Old Testament, the law of God that is restated to the children of Israel as they go into the promised land. This book is the Word of God. Because it's God's word, it has power. Words in themselves have power. The Bible says life and death is in the power of the tongue. With our words, we can build up somebody, with our words, we can tear down somebody. With our words, we can speak life, with our words, we can speak death. We can destroy or we can bring life with words. Words have power. Words shape culture. Words direct the course of a nation. And that's just human words. How much more powerful are the words of God?

But let me tell you something, dear friends. These words have no power as long as they sit on a shelf with the book closed. These words have no power when the book is just collecting dust. For these words to have power, the book must be opened, and the words must be read. And so that's what Ezra does. He opens the word of God.

When I was a child, it was popular for families to have a family Bible. I would go over to both sets of my grandparents, had a family Bible, and it was this Bible that was like two feet thick. It was so huge and so massive, and so ornate, and had gold gilding and frilly stuff. And it was the family Bible, and it sat there on the coffee table. And I don't ever remember that book being opened, that particular Bible. I noticed too, as I went to other families' houses and friends' houses, there was often this very expensive, very ornate family Bible that just sat there closed. It was almost like some people treated it almost like a good luck charm. "We have the word of God in our living room. It's right there." Friends, if you don't open it and you don't read from it, it's not going to do anybody any good sitting there. The power is in the word. The power is in the scripture. It must be opened. It must be read from.

I'm thankful that both of my grandparents, both of my sides of the family, were people that opened the book and read from the book on a daily basis. To have the word be central in our lives means much more than just having a Bible in our house. It doesn't do anybody any good when it is closed shut. For it to be foundational and central, it must be obeyed like Jesus said. To obey God's word, you have to know God's word. To know God's word, you have to read God's word. To read God's word, you have to open the book. The psalmist says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." The only way to hide God's word in your heart is to read it, to get in it. To study it. So the word of God must be read.

4. Scripture Must Be Honored

Number four, the word of God must be honored. Scripture must be honored.

We see the way that they honored the word of God in verses 4 through 6. Let's look at them here together. It says, Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose, this very special platform that they built for that day to elevate the Word of God, to lift it up so that he could stand up and declare it, and that they could see him and hear him clearly. In the King James Bible, on this verse, it actually says a wooden pulpit. And so in our church, we have a wooden pulpit, and this is not here just for decoration. This is here to elevate the word of God and to in a very physical way and a very visible way, say that we honor God's word above any other word. And so they had built this, especially for this occasion.

And then in verse 5, it says, Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. So he opened it and they could see that he was opening it because he was above the people as he stood on this platform. And then it says as he opened it, all the people stood. Why do we stand when we read the word of God together? To honor God's word. To show that God's word is being honored. And as he read as a way of showing verbal honor to it, the people answered, "Amen, amen." What does that mean? Amen means let it be. Amen means I agree. So when you hear somebody shouting an amen in church, they're saying, "I agree with that. Yes, let that be. Let that come to pass. Let it be so." But then they also bowed their faces to the ground, and they worshiped the Lord.

The word of God must be honored. It should have an honored place in our heart. Now, these are just external actions that they did. They built the stage. They built the pulpit out of wood so that the Word of God could be seen. They stood when it was open, when it was read, they bowed their faces to the ground. All of that's external. And that's good, but more important than external posture, more important than external actions, is the posture of your heart. Because I can say, let's stand and read the word of God, and you can stand with your legs and still be seated in your heart. You can stand as I read the word of God, and you can be thinking about, where are we going to lunch today? Will we get out in time to beat the crowds? Will the Spurs win today? Et cetera, et cetera.

Where is your heart? I'm glad that you stand. I'm glad that we're a church that stands when we read the Word of God. I think that's good. I think that's proper. But that's external. What's the internal state of your heart? Hopefully, these external things also reveal and are in accordance with what's happening in our heart, the condition of our heart. Now, the condition of our heart is hidden to our fellow man. I can't look at you and see your heart. I can't look at you and see what's happening in your soul. But while it's hidden to your fellow man and it's hidden from my eyes, you know who sees your heart? God sees your heart. God sees all of our hearts. Which is why we never have to pretend before God. We never have to put our show on in the presence of God because he sees our hearts.

We should ask that God would put a reverence in our heart for scripture. That God would put in our hearts an honor for his word, a true honor. That we would honor it in such a way that not just when it's read, but that we would continue to honor it an hour later when we leave this place. That we wouldn't be getting into fights in the parking lot with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And we wouldn't leave and go and bring reproach upon the name of Christ by the way that we live our lives. Oh, that we would honor his word truly and deeply by putting it into practice in our lives. Listen, if you find in your heart that you don't honor scripture, you don't feel like you honor the word of God. That's something to confess before the Lord. That's something to bring before the Lord and confess that and ask for his help. Ask and plead with him to put that in your heart.

5. Scripture Must Be Taught

Number five, the word of God's scripture, it must be taught.

We see this here in verse 7 and 8. These wonderful people here, they helped the people understand the law. They didn't just read it on that day, but they explained it to them. While the people were there and they heard Ezra reading from the law, these priests went out among the people, and they were explaining it to them. It says in verse 8 that they read from the book, from the law of God clearly. They made it clear to them what it meant. And they gave the sense of it, the meaning of it so that the people understood what was being read.

Ezra, he was a scribe and a priest, and the scribe's job was to meticulously make copies of the word of God, to make sure that it was copied properly. They didn't have copy and paste. They didn't have Xerox back then for there to be copies of scripture. They had to sit down and meticulously, word by word, letter by letter, go through, and make sure that they were making accurate copies, and they were trained in this work. But the scribes would not only copy God's law, they would study scripture with an equal attention to detail so that the word of God could be preserved for future generations, and so that the word of God could be taught to God's people so that they could live it and obey it.

In Ezra's day, the people didn't have their own copies of the scripture. It wasn't like our day where if you want a Bible, you can have a Bible. It's pretty easy to do. And if you don't have a Bible, we'll give you a Bible. We've got lots of Bibles here. We'd love to give you your own copy of the Bible. But you can also just download the Bible app and you can have the Bible with you wherever you go. It wasn't like that in their day. They didn't have access to God's word like we do today, which is to say, we are so blessed. We are so blessed, supremely blessed. And so the scribe's job was to preserve the scripture and to teach the scripture.

And in the New Testament, likewise, the apostles, they themselves say, "We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." And so even within the New Testament, there's this idea that the Word of God not only needs to be read, it needs to be taught. It needs to be explained. It needs to be broken down. It needs to be applied. How does this book and these words impact my life today and how do I live it out?

This is a great application for you mothers on Mother's Day. Not only do your children need the care and the love that you give them, the physical care of making sure they've got some clean socks to wear and some food in their bellies, and the emotional care of the love that you show them and the support that you give them, but they also need the spiritual care. I can remember very clearly both my grandmothers and my mom explaining to me the Bible, applying to me scripture when my way would be wayward. Which, let me just say, I gave my mom ample opportunities to explain the scripture to me, and to show me how my life was not in accordance with the word of God. And my mom was always so faithful to bring God's Word and explain God's Word and to apply God's Word to my heart and to my life. This is something that's, yes, I believe fathers have a central role and responsibility in doing this, but it's not just only fathers, but mothers as well.

We read later in the New Testament, a young man, a godly man named Timothy, who became Paul's assistant, and then a pastor in the city of Ephesus, that his father was not a believer. But his grandmother and his mother were. And they handed their faith, this godly grandmother and mother handed their faith, taught the scriptures to this young man, Timothy, who became Paul's right-hand man and carried the mission of the gospel forward after Paul had gone off the scene. His father wasn't a godly man, but his mother poured the scripture into him. So the word of God, not only must it be read and honored and central, it must be taught. It must be explained.

6. Scripture Brings Conviction

And number six, we see here at the end that the word of God brings conviction.

In verse 9, it says, as they read, they had to tell the people, do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept as they heard the words of the law. The people wept because as the law was read, as the words were explained, they recognized we have broken God's law. God who has been so good, so faithful, has blessed us with so much, has singled us out, has forgiven our sins. He has been so good to us. And we have been so unfaithful to his covenant, to his word. They wept. It broke their hearts. The word brings, the scripture brings conviction of sin in our lives.

And likewise it is for us. When we open God's Word and we're reading God's Word, His word is that lamp. It shines into the dark places of our heart. It's a mirror the Bible says, it exposes who we really are. You know, when we live our lives in the world, then we just compare ourselves to one another. Sometimes, especially if you're very prideful and tend towards pride, you could feel by looking at people around you, "You know what? I'm doing pretty good. At least I'm not like so and so." But when you open the book, and you read God's word, and you read God's standard, and you read about how Christ lived, and you read the words that Christ taught, and how he taught us how to live, you hold that mirror up to your face, and it produces in your heart a conviction of sin. It shows you who you really are, if you're being honest with yourself.

If you're honoring the word, if you're making it foundational, if you're reading it, if it's being explained and applied to you, that word is bringing conviction of sin. I pray you know this conviction of sin in your life. Not to live under the condemnation of the devil. There's a difference between these two, by the way. The devil wants to condemn us. And what condemnation does, when we sin and we feel that condemnation from the devil, that condemnation drives us away from God. That's what condemnation does. It makes us want to run from God. But what conviction does is it places on us this holy desire to get rid of the sin in our life and to run to God, not to run from God, but to run to God, confessing our sins, looking to him, looking to Christ, who paid the price for our sin, confessing it, asking the Lord for forgiveness.

You see, conviction draws us to Christ. Conviction is Christ drawing us to himself. Condemnation is Satan, the enemy, driving us away from the Lord. Condemnation is things like, "God could never love you because of the things that you've done." Condemnation says God is angry with you, "You go to God, you come to church, he's going to squash you like a bug." I remember in college, I had some friends that I was inviting to church, and they said, "Man, if I walk into church, God's gonna strike me dead." I said, "No, he's not. If he wanted to do that, he could have done that already. If you come into church, you get in a relationship with him, he's not going to strike you dead. He's gonna make you alive, brother." And so conviction is a brokenness over sin, but it's one that says, "Come to me. Bring your sin to me. I'm the one that paid the price for your sin." And it leads us to want to live a life that is holy as unto the Lord.

7. Scripture Produces Joy

And so finally, number seven, the seventh thing that scripture does is scripture produces joy.

First came the mourning, the conviction, the brokenness, but the leader said, "No, no, no, you can't weep. Today's not a day of weeping. Today's a day of celebration." You see, God had given them these feasts to celebrate the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, to remind them that their sins were forgiven. And all of these feasts, these days of celebrations, they were pointing towards the work of Christ. They weren't in and of themselves effectual in forgiving sins. They pointed to the work of Christ that would eventually be the means by which all sin is forgiven.

And so they're saying, "No, no, no, today's not a day to weep. Today's a day to celebrate." And so they tell them, go and celebrate, go and eat the fat portions. That's like the best wagyu beef that you could ever find. Go and, it says, drink the sweet wine. Go and celebrate. Throw this festival and share with those who didn't bring anything.

And then this beautiful passage, this beautiful truth here that Nehemiah tells them in verse 10, he says, do this because the joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Now what kind of strength is he talking about here? He's not talking about physical strength. He was talking about spiritual strength. The strength to do what? The strength to live a holy and godly life. Yes, they were broken because of their sin. They felt the conviction of their sin, but he's saying, if you want to live a life of victory over it, it comes from rejoicing in the Lord. Rejoicing in the Lord, rejoicing in what he has done and accomplished for us.

And likewise it is for us. If we want to live a life of victory over sin, we need to have the word of God central in our life. Let it produce joy that tells us of the gospel, the great glories of what Christ has done for us. And let us rejoice in what Christ has done. Let us celebrate that our sins are forgiven. Let us celebrate that as far as the east is from the west, he has removed our sins from us. The Bible says that he casts our sin into a sea of forgetfulness to remember them no more. That is good news.

And even as Satan would come and try and bring us back under condemnation, would try and come and remind us of our sins, Scripture says, "Satan, God has forgotten my sins. So I'm not going to live under condemnation for something God has already forgotten." And he has forgotten our sins because of his son Jesus. Because Jesus came and lived that life without sin. And he went to the cross and shed his blood for our sins. He paid the price. And for us, this must be our source of strength.

If you find that you are spiritually weak, if you find that temptation has a grip on your heart, let me ask you, are you rejoicing in the Lord? Are you rejoicing daily in the work of Christ? Are you making scripture central in your life? Not just reading it and going on, but meditating, applying, rejoicing in what Christ has done for you. When you do that, you will find that you are filled with a strength to live for God, wherever it is that he has you. Amen.

From Faith To Fear

From Faith To Fear

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this exposition of 2 Chronicles 20, Pastor Matt addresses how believers can transition from paralyzing fear to active faith when facing overwhelming circumstances. Drawing from the historical account of King Jehoshaphat facing the combined armies of Moab, Ammon, and Mount Seir, the sermon identifies a biblical, four-step framework for confronting anxiety and impossible odds. Rather than relying on human military strategy, Jehoshaphat immediately models seeking the Lord. The sermon breaks down this response into practical applications: beginning with honest and structured prayer (praising God, reciting His promises, presenting the problem, and petitioning for help), anchoring the soul in the objective truth of God’s Word rather than cultural negativity, stepping out in worship as an active demonstration of faith, and gathering with the covenant community for strength. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to let God fight their battles by resting in His sovereignty.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

If you do have your Bibles, I invite you to open with me to the book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. We're in a series together as a church, a year-long series, where we're working through the whole Bible together. We call it "The Year of the Bible." If you're new to Christ the King Church, a year-long series is actually a short series for us. Sometimes our series last multiple years, but this year, we're only doing one year, and we're reading through the whole Bible together as a church. Every Sunday, I'm taking one of the passages that we read the previous week and using it to preach through the Word of God through this year.

This week will begin two books of the Bible called Ezra and Nehemiah. I would encourage you, if you have been or if you haven't been reading through the Bible with us, jump in with us this week. In your handout are the chapters. Read with your church community, and let God's Word work in your life.

The Reign and Crisis of King Jehoshaphat

Before we read this chapter, I want to give you a little bit of background on what has been happening in the previous few chapters. In chapter 20, we're dealing with a king named Jehoshaphat. As a kid, I was fascinated by this story in 2 Chronicles 20. I think probably half of my fascination came because the man's name was Jehoshaphat, and anything that had the word "fat" in it, I thought was hilarious. I still think it's hilarious. It is quite an interesting name.

He was a good king, the Bible has told us up to this point. We began reading about him in chapter 17, and it tells us that he was a good king because he walked in the ways of David, the previous king of Israel and Judah. He was faithful to the Lord. He was faithful to the Lord's word. In fact, he had brought reformation to the nation and had sent out priests as preachers to go to all the cities of Judah and to teach the people the law of God. I don't know of any other king that did a reformation in that way, sending out the priests to teach the people throughout the whole nation God's law. Though he wasn't perfect—and we read in some of the previous chapters about some of his imperfections as he entered into some questionable military alliances—nevertheless, up until this point, his report card has been overwhelmingly positive.

Which brings us here to chapter 20. There's a big problem. Three of the nations that surround Judah—which was a very small nation; there had been a split, and the ten northern tribes, the majority of the nation, had forsaken the Lord, resulting in a period of civil war with this one tribe of Judah—now three surrounding nations gang up, enter into a military league, and bring their armies to destroy Judah. That's what they're facing. They are hopelessly outnumbered, and there is no amount of military might, maneuvering, or skill that will save them. They are facing, as a people, complete, total, and utter destruction.

As we read this passage, I want us to be thinking about this question: when we face hardships in life, when we face difficulties, when the future doesn't look good, when we've received word that is very alarming and very troubling, where do we turn? What do we do when we are afraid? What do we do in moments of great difficulty and fear?

The Reading of God's Word

With that, let's turn to the Word of God. I invite you to stand with me. We're going to read the passage here together. It is a little bit of a longer passage, but we'll read through it, and then we'll walk through it. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, it says:

After this, the Moabites and the Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi). Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.

And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you willhear and save.’

“And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy—behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Meanwhile all Judah stood before the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”

Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,

“Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.

Father, we do thank you for your Word. It is precious to us. Lord, I pray that through our time in your Word that you would produce faith in our hearts. Lord, we may have come in here this morning afraid. We may have come in here this morning with many worries, many fears, many anxieties. Lord, I pray that you would help us through your Word to move us from fear to faith. Lord, that we would be people who would believe your Word, who would stand on your Word, who would take all of our cares to you, and that we would see you move on our behalf, because you are the God who fights our battles for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated this morning.

The Reality of Fear in the Believer's Life

The beginning of the passage lays out for us the circumstances that they are facing. They are dire circumstances. These three surrounding nations have aligned themselves against Judah, and they've come in with their armies to destroy them. This word comes to the king of Judah, Jehoshaphat, and it says in verse 3 that Jehoshaphat was afraid.

Jehoshaphat was afraid, and rightfully so. He was facing the total annihilation of his people. The threat he was facing wasn't imaginary. It was very real, and he was powerless to do anything to stop it. There was nothing that he could do in and of himself that could secure the victory for his people, so he is afraid.

Fear is an awful emotion. It's something that we have all faced, from the youngest to the oldest. We've all been afraid. We've all faced things that have caused great fear in our hearts. Fear comes because we are uncertain about the future. It's an uncertainty about what will happen in the future that manifests in the present, and in the present, it robs us of our joy.

There are all kinds of things that cause fear in our hearts. We see what caused fear in Jehoshaphat's heart, but when we look at our lives and in our world today, there are many things that we could be afraid of. In fact, a lot of our culture traffics in fear. The news, of course, is infamous for trafficking in fear—selling fear, using fear to hook people into watching what is going on in the world. There is no lack of things that would cause fear in our hearts today.

There's economic uncertainty. Because of wars and rumors of wars, we don't know what the future is going to hold. We don't know how this war with Iran is going to develop, or the war in Ukraine and Russia, the war with Israel. It's just wars and economic uncertainty that looms on the horizon, especially if we're tuned in constantly to the drumbeat of every day. Very rarely on the news is there ever any good news. You notice that? It's always bad news, because we have this insatiable desire for negativity. It's bizarre.

But that's not the only thing. There are personal things in our life that can cause fear. We go to the doctor, and there's a negative health diagnosis. That causes us great fear. There are relational conflicts that we have where we don't know how things are going to turn out. They're saying now that AI is going to take all of our jobs in the next three years. We're all going to be jobless; we're not going to have any way to make money and provide for ourselves because AI is going to take over. That could cause fear in our hearts. It's because the outcomes in our mind are not certain, and we think in these negative outcomes that rob us of our joy by producing fear in our hearts.

This fear paralyzes us. It torments us with these worst-case scenarios of what might be in the future. When we are afraid, we feel stuck. We feel trapped. This is where we find Jehoshaphat: filled with fear, stuck, trapped, not knowing what to do.

Yet, at the very end of this story, he's not afraid. At the very end of this story, fear has been replaced with something far more powerful. Jehoshaphat has been moved from fear to faith. His fear has been replaced with faith, and he is filled with so much faith in God that when he rallies the people to go face this army, he doesn't send forth his most mighty and powerful warriors. Instead, he sends the choir out front to go sing the praises of God to their enemies. That is how much faith he is filled with.

How does this happen? How did he move so quickly from being filled with fear to being filled with so much faith that he sends the choir to face the army? That's what we're going to look at here today, because all of us will face things in our life that will cause us to fear. If you came in here this morning afraid of what the future holds, that's okay. Jehoshaphat was afraid. But I want you to know, God has something better for you than fear. I want to show you the process that God took Jehoshaphat through to move him from fear to faith, that we all too might move from that place of fear and move into a place of faith. That, of course, is the title of my sermon this morning: From Fear to Faith.

Step 1: Turn to Prayer First

What's the first thing that he does when he sees this army? When he sees the odds that he is up against, what's the first thing that Jehoshaphat does? Does he rally his generals? Does he rally his military leaders and say, "We got to get a plan together. We got to get a strategy together." Is that what he does? No. The first thing that he does is that he prays.

When we find ourselves afraid, we must pray. This is what he does—not as a last resort, but the first place that he turns. We read it in verse 3: Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord.

Where do you turn when you are afraid? Where do you turn when you receive bad news? Where do you turn when things are not going in the direction that you thought they would go, that you would hope that they would go? For the people of God, our first place must be God. Let us turn to God first. Let us turn to God often. Let us go to the Lord in prayer, taking our cares to Him.

I want to show you four things in Jehoshaphat's prayer that teach us how to pray. You might say, "Well, I don't know how to pray. What do I say? I try to pray, but I don't know what to say. It doesn't really flow out of my lips. It's kind of clunky. It's sort of hard. As soon as I try to pray, I'm so distracted." Jehoshaphat's prayer is a model prayer for us. I want to show you the four parts of his prayer that will help you in your prayer.

First, he begins with praise. Then he moves to reciting God's promises. Then he tells God his problems, and then finally he makes a petition.

1. Praise

He begins by praising God. In verse 6, he says, "God, you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. And in your hand are power and might so that none is able to withstand you." He begins by exalting God. He begins by putting his eyes on the Lord and elevating God over his problem. This is the first thing that we must do when we go to God in prayer: we must exalt God. We must recognize that God is above whatever problem we are facing. Whatever issue is at hand, God is above it. God is over it. God is sovereign. This is what Jehoshaphat begins by doing—recognizing God's power over these enemies that he's facing. Listen, if God's not above your problem, there's no point in going to God. So we must begin by praising Him: "Lord, I'm facing this, but this is who you are. You are the all-powerful God. You are the almighty God. You're the God who hung the stars in the sky. You're the God who rules the nations. I'm coming to you, the sovereign King of all."

2. Promises

Then he moves on to reciting the promises of God. The covenant promises of God. He says, "God, you promised to place your people in this land. You've placed us in this land. Lord, you've promised to hear our prayer when we assemble here at this temple." Lord, you have made these promises to us. When we come to the Lord in prayer filled with fear, we begin by praising the Lord, but then let us recite the promises of God. "Lord, your Word says that you will never leave us, you will never forsake us. Lord, your Word says that no weapon formed against me will prosper. Lord, your Word says that you will supply all of my needs according to your riches in glory. Lord, your Word says that by your stripes I am healed." This is what people call pleading the promises of God—taking them before the Lord, reminding God of His Word.

3. Problems

Then he moves on to his problem. "Lord, we've got a great issue. We've been surrounded by these people." Notice he is even saying, "God, this isn't fair. This is not right. Lord, when you brought us out of Egypt, we passed through these other nations, and you told us that we couldn't fight with them. You told us not to destroy them, so we didn't. And now they're repaying our good with evil. God, this is not fair. God, this is not just."

There are all these bad ideas that sometimes people have about prayer. One of them is that you should never complain to God. Another one is that you should never question God. I don't think that's a biblical thing. Jehoshaphat is complaining to God, saying, "God, we did what was right. They're repaying us evil for our good. This is unjust. How are you allowing this to happen?" If you read the book of Psalms, which is a songbook and a prayer book for the people of God, it's filled with complaints. It's filled with questions. This idea that you shouldn't bring your complaints to God is an unbiblical idea. If we don't bring our complaints to God, you know what we do? We take them to everybody else. The first place we should not go is online to blast everybody and vent. If we're going to vent, we vent to the Lord. We leave it with the Lord.

4. Petition

And then he makes his petition in verse 12. It's such a beautiful thing that he asks the Lord to do. He says, "O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you." When you're faced with fear, let this be your prayer: "God, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are on you. I'm putting the situation in your hand. I'm asking you to move, to intervene, and I'm going to trust in you to do so."

In Philippians chapter 4, Paul tells us this: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." And he says if we will do this, "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." What a beautiful promise. Are you facing fear, worry, anxiety, trouble? Go into your prayer closet. Bring it before Him. Be honest with the Lord. You don't have to pretend. You don't have to start talking in King James English, like you're Shakespeare. Be real with the Lord. Why? He already knows what's in your heart.

First Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." We have a God in heaven who cares for us. What is it that you're facing today? God cares about it. God never gets tired. God never sleeps. He truly is that friend that sticks closer than a brother. We must recover this lost art of prayer. When the fear and the anxiety comes, take it to Jesus. Where's the first place that you turn? Is it ChatGPT, or is it Jesus Christ? We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

Step 2: Feed on the Word of God

The second thing that God uses to bring Jehoshaphat from fear to faith is He uses the Word of God. In verses 13 through 17, it tells us of the prophet Jahaziel who arose in the midst of the assembly and proclaimed the Word of God to them. Thus says the Lord: "Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's."

This word that came from God built faith in their hearts. When you are faced with things causing fear, you need to take it to the Lord in prayer, and then you need to get into God's Word. You need to remind yourself that this battle you're facing is not yours, but it is the Lord's. In verse 17, he says that we will not even need to fight. We only need to stand firm—to stand firm in our faith and to trust in the Lord.

We need our souls to be filled with the Word of God, and we need this Word every single day. Because every single day that we live in this life is some kind of a battle. The three enemies that we face on a daily basis are the world, the flesh, and the devil. No matter who you are or where you live, you have to contend with them. And what is it that we fight with? We must fight with the Word of God. It is our weapon. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" Jesus is saying that just as we need natural nourishment for our natural lives, so every day we need spiritual bread. Where do we get that? We get it from the Word of God.

When we come to the Word of God, we have a choice on whose report we're going to believe. I'm either going to believe my fears and the negative things being said around me, or I'm going to believe the Word of God. What are you feeding your soul on? My algorithm on social media is finely tuned to my preferences. I get served up Christian content regularly. But it is amazing to me how much of the Christian content that is served to me is still negative. Scandals, this thing, that thing—even though it's Christian, it's not building my faith. We must fill our souls with the Word of God so we might feed on things that build our faith. Romans 10:17 says, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

Step 3: Worship as an Act of Faith

The third thing that we see in this passage is that Jehoshaphat moves into worship. He gathers the people of God, they pray, they receive God's Word, and then they bring their worship to the Lord. In verse 18, it says he bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord worshiping.

Then in verse 21, this really interesting thing happens: he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise Him in holy attire. They got their choir robes on—not their breastplates, helmets, and swords, but their church clothes, their Sunday best. He sent this choir out in front of the army to sing, "Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever."

From a natural standpoint, if you're only looking at military strategy, they would be slaughtered. But in verse 22, it says, "And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed."

There are two realities that we live in. The reality we are most familiar with is the natural world—our five senses. But there's another reality, and that's the spiritual world. When we come to Christ in faith, our spirits are made alive, so that now we live in both of these worlds. Jehoshaphat goes to battle first spiritually. He trusts God so much, he believes the Word of God so much, that he sends the choir first to proclaim the goodness of God over their enemies. As he begins to worship, God intervenes on their behalf and turns the armies of one against the other so that they destroy themselves.

I want you to see this: praising God is an act of faith. Faith is believing what we don't see with our natural eyes. Faith is saying, "God, Your Word says this. I don't see it with my natural eyes, yet I'm choosing to believe You, and I'm choosing it so deeply that I'm actually going to put it into practice." Worship is an act of faith. We sing His praises in spite of the challenges we're facing in our bodies, in our marriages, in our country, at our workplace. When we come in and freely worship the Lord, something begins to happen in the spiritual realm, and God will begin to fight your battles for you.

Step 4: Rely on Christian Community

The fourth and final thing woven throughout this whole passage is this aspect of community. In verse 4, King Jehoshaphat gathered the whole assembly to seek the Lord. In verse 13, it says all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children. He didn't just seek the Lord on his own, but he brought the people of God together to do it together.

Likewise, when we face challenges, obstacles, and opposition that would cause us great fear and worry, we need to not isolate ourselves. We need to gather together with the people of God. When things are not going well, the first thing that should come to your mind is, "I need to get among my brothers and sisters in Christ because I need the strength and encouragement that only comes through fellowship." When you are being attacked by the enemy, it doesn't make sense to isolate yourself. What makes sense is to rally together with other people who can face the enemy with you.

We at Christ the King Church have many wonderful ways of building community, like our life groups. But you don't even have to do it through an official church program. You can call up a brother or sister, get together, share what's going on, and believe God together in prayer.

Conclusion

These are the four things that God uses to move Jehoshaphat from fear to faith: prayer, Word, worship, and community. I know this is not rocket science. Sometimes we make things so complicated, when really it is the simple truth of the Word of God that we need in our lives.

What are you facing today? Have you taken it to the Lord in prayer? Have you steeled your heart with the promises of God? Have you given yourself to the Lord in worship, surrendering and trusting in Him? And are you practicing community, not doing it on your own strength, but with the strength of the brothers and sisters in Christ that God has placed around you? I believe if we will do those things, God will move us from fear to faith, that we would stand for the Lord, and that we would see Him move on our behalf. Amen.

Fire From Heaven

Fire From Heaven

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores the transition from the Old Covenant's physical temple to the New Covenant's spiritual dwelling—the Church—inaugurated by the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Grounded in 2 Chronicles 7, the message contrasts the conditional and temporary nature of Solomon's temple with the completed, eternal work of Christ, emphasizing that the promises of God are now fulfilled exclusively in His chosen people, the believers. Addressing the contemporary tendency toward idolatry, the exposition underscores that true national and personal renewal cannot be achieved through political salvation or natural lineage. Instead, genuine revival demands that the Church recognize its spiritual bankruptcy, confess its sins, reorder its affections to seek God's face, and enact true repentance—a transformation exclusively wrought through the preaching of the Gospel.

• The Temple's Progression: The dwelling place of God moves from the temporary Tabernacle (Moses), to the physical Temple (Solomon), to the eternal Church (Christ).

• Covenantal Contrast: The Old Covenant was conditional and temporary; the New Covenant is superior, permanent, and secured by Christ's shed blood.

• The Antidote to Idolatry: A mandate for the Church to practice humility, heartfelt prayer (confession), seeking God's face (demoting idols), and actively turning from wicked ways.

• True Hope for Renewal: Healing and revival are born of Gospel-driven heart transformation, not political maneuvering or human leaders.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction: The Dedication of the Temple

Second Chronicles chapter 7. If you have your Bibles open with me there in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, we're going to look at a verse this morning that may be familiar to you if you've been around the Christian faith for a while. Second Chronicles 7:14 is a very famous verse that is often quoted and used. It was even this week read by the president of the United States, as there's a group of people in Washington, D.C. over the last week who were reading through the Bible straight through. When they got to this portion in 2 Chronicles, chapter 7, they had President Trump read this verse from the Oval Office. So this is not an uncommon verse. In fact, if you know any verse from Second Chronicles, it's probably this one.

It providentially happened that as we're reading our way through the Bible in our "Year of the Bible" plan, this passage, 2 Chronicles 7, was in our text this week. I thought it would be a good one to look at this morning. This verse is an important verse, and the idea contained in here is a lot bigger than how it is often used and applied. There are ways in which this verse cuts to the very core of who we are as human beings. I'm praying that God would use our time together in His word to cause all of us to examine our hearts at the deepest and most fundamental level. I pray that the Holy Spirit would convict each of us today, that we would not leave here just having had a good time in church, but that we would leave convicted by the Holy Spirit, and that we would be changed to be more faithful to the Lord.

The context of this passage is that the third king of Israel, King Solomon, David's son, has built a house for God, a temple for God. You may recall several weeks ago, King David said, "I want to build you a house, God." And God said, "You're not going to build me a house; instead, I'm going to build you a house," speaking of David's lineage, which culminates in Christ. But God also told David, "Your son, which comes after you, he will be the one that builds me a house. He will be the one that builds me a temple."

David has passed away. Solomon now is king, and he has spent seven years on this construction project building God's temple. In chapter 6, he offers a prayer of dedication. There's this huge celebration of the Ark of God, which represents the presence of God coming into the new temple that's been built and dedicated to the Lord. That's chapter 5. Chapter 6 is a prayer that Solomon prays in front of the whole nation, on his knees, with his hands lifted to the Lord, praying on behalf of the nation. Chapter 7 is what happens after Solomon prays his prayer.

We're going to jump right in. I invite you to stand with me as we read the word of God today. We're going to look at the first three verses of chapter 7, skip a portion that talks about how many sacrifices they made and the celebration, skip down to verse 11, and then read through the end of the chapter.

2 Chronicles 7:1-3, 11-22 (ESV)

As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."

Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished. Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’

"But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’"

Father, we do thank you for your word. I pray that you would speak to each of our hearts this morning. Lord, we've all come in here today from many different places, many different stages of life, all different parts of the city, even different cultures, different backgrounds, different upbringings. But Lord, we share one thing in common: that is you. You have called us to yourself; you have chosen us to be your people. Lord, speak to us, your people, through your word today, and help me to deliver your word faithfully this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

Fire From Heaven: The Accepted Offering

My title this morning for the sermon is Fire From Heaven. There are three sections we're going to look at this morning. The first is those first three verses where the offering that Solomon made was accepted. He offered over a thousand sacrifices. In fact, earlier it tells us that there were so many that they could not be numbered on this altar, in this temple, to dedicate what he had built for the Lord.

Solomon prays this prayer of dedication, and it says that as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, to show that the offering had been accepted, fire came down from heaven. This was God's sign, God's stamp of approval. He did it publicly so that all the people could see that God's glory had filled this house.

Imagine that. Imagine being there on that day, seeing this temple which was so glorious, so magnificent. The kings of the surrounding nations streamed into Jerusalem to see the temple that Solomon had built and to hear the wisdom that Solomon had to give. The glory of this house, overlaid with gold and marble and precious stones and precious woods, was beyond comparison and beyond parallel. It was glorious. But on that day, when Solomon prayed, something more glorious than just the physical building happened: fire came down out of heaven.

What would that have been like? I've been in certain places where there are pyrotechnics, where they set off some sort of flame. I was at the Spurs game a few weeks ago, and when they were announcing our team, they had fire shooting up out of the goals, and I could feel the heat of the flame. And that was just a little fire. I can't imagine what that flame must have felt like on that day as fire poured out of heaven. I bet you Solomon's eyebrows were burned off. It was so shocking that all the people's natural instinct was to just fall on their face in humility before the power of God. The offering was accepted. The house had been dedicated. It had been filled with the glory of God.

The New Covenant: A Better Temple

But this is not the only time in scripture that this happens. There are actually two other times where something very similar to this happened. The first time was the first version of this temple, which was a temporary version called the Tabernacle. It wasn't a permanent building. It was a temporary tent that God had instructed Moses to build while the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. It had to be mobile. But when Moses and the children of Israel had finished putting the Tabernacle together and dedicated it to the Lord, guess what came down from heaven? Fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. This is a picture of God's presence filling that place.

The third time that this happens is the final version of this temple, which is not a physical building, but the church of Jesus Christ. On the day of Pentecost, when the church was assembled and gathered together, God poured out His Spirit upon the church after Jesus died for our sins and rose into heaven. Jesus said it is better that He go to the Father, because then He would send His Spirit upon the church. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, on the day of Pentecost, Jesus poured out His Spirit. And there was seen fire burning above the heads of those who received the Spirit of God.

This day of Pentecost marks the inauguration of this New Covenant that Jesus had instituted. We see this three times: It happens with Moses, it happens with Solomon in the temple, and it happens with Jesus' temple, the church. The day of Pentecost inaugurated the New Covenant, marking the transition from the Old Covenant to the New. It means now that the church, the people of God, are the place where God's Spirit dwells. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We carry the glory of God wherever we go.

The apostles and writers of the New Testament state this in explicit terms.

2 Corinthians 6:16 (ESV)

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Did you know that? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God's Spirit has filled you. The same way He filled the temple with Solomon, the same way He filled the Tabernacle—you carry the presence and the Spirit of God. This promise that God made in the Old Testament was speaking about the church, about the New Covenant, about the reality that we have today because of Christ.

Paul also says in Ephesians chapter 2 that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets:

Ephesians 2:20-22 (ESV)

...built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The inauguration of the New Covenant on the day of Pentecost marked the moment when fire came down from heaven and filled the church, filled the people of God. When we come to Christ, when we confess our faith in Him, the Bible says that if we belong to Christ, we have the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us at our moment of conversion. We pass from death to life, and we have God's Spirit.

This is a blessing, a benefit, and a part of why the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, to be in the presence of God, you had to travel to Israel. You had to travel to Jerusalem. You could only go into the presence of God if you were a Levite—meaning you were an Israelite, Jewish, and of the particular tribe of Levi. To go into the very presence of God, the Holy of Holies, only the high priest could do that, and he could only go in one day a year. One man, one day a year.

Here we have this abundance of riches. Here we, as a part of the New Covenant, can experience the presence of God, the goodness of God, the Spirit of God all day, every day. We can gather together with the people of God, the church, and experience Him building us together as a dwelling place for His Spirit whenever we want, wherever we are. We don't have to travel to Jerusalem. In fact, if you go there, you won't find a temple; you'll find a mosque. We are the temple that Jesus is building. We are the temple that Jesus is filling.

Here is what is happening with Solomon as part of the Old Covenant, but there are a couple of things you need to know about this Old Covenant as you continue reading through the Bible.

First, the Old Covenant was conditional. God had said, if you do these things, then I will bless you, but if you turn to idols, curses will come upon you. The people entered into that agreement with God. Did the people remain faithful to God? No. That's the whole story of the Old Testament. The New Covenant is not based on our works; it's based on God's work. It's based on the work of Christ and His merits on our behalf, meaning it is far better and far superior.

Second, the Old Covenant was temporary. It was never intended to be permanent. The arrangement God instituted at Mount Sinai was meant to eventually point people to Christ. The whole point of the Old Covenant was Jesus. It was always Jesus—to create the conditions which would be perfect for Christ to come into the world and be the Messiah, the Savior, not just of the Jewish people, but of all people. Jesus repeatedly says that the Old Testament scriptures were written about Him. So what we're reading today was written to them, but it's ultimately about Christ, and it has its fulfillment in Christ.

Finally, the Old Covenant was completed. Before Jesus goes to the cross, He serves His disciples the Lord's Supper, gives them the cup, and says, "This is the cup of the New Covenant." The Old Covenant has passed away. It is fulfilled. It is over. Now that Christ has come, there's no more need for that Old Covenant. We are not cleansed by the blood of animals, which can never take away sin, but we now have our hearts sprinkled clean by the very blood of Jesus. It is a better covenant with better promises, a better sacrifice, a better high priest, and a better temple. Everything about the New Covenant is far superior in every way.

The New Covenant people of God is the church of the living God, made up not of one race, but of every race. Every nation, tribe, and tongue is being called into the New Covenant people of God. It's not based on your ethnicity or your bloodline; it's based on the blood of Jesus.

Who are God's chosen people today? God's chosen people are those who belong to Christ. If you belong to Jesus, you are God's chosen people. Jesus was so clear about this. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There's only one way to be in covenant with God, and it's through Jesus Christ.

That is the most offensive idea in the world. You only have to change one word in that sentence to make it totally agreeable to everybody. Change the word the to the word a, and nobody has a problem with it. But Jesus didn't say, "I am a way." Jesus said, "I am the way." If you say, "Jesus is my way, you have your way to God," you're not following Jesus.

If you reject Christ, according to Jesus, you are not one of His people, irregardless of your natural bloodline. We are not saved by being born into the right family. We are saved by being born again by the Spirit of God, having the work of Christ applied to our lives.

There's a lot of confusion about this today, especially regarding Israel because of the war with Iran and all the politics. A lot of people today think that the Jewish people have this Old Covenant with God that's still going. They don't. It's over. The only way to be in covenant with God is through faith in His Son, Jesus. That's it. Everyone is called to believe in Jesus—Jew and Gentile. In fact, Jesus speaks to the Jews of His day and says to them, "You're not sons of God. You are sons of your father, the devil. You brood of vipers." This idea that anyone is in relationship with God outside of Christ is an antichrist idea. By definition, everybody needs Jesus. Even if you're Jewish, He is your Messiah.

I know this is a bit technical this morning, but this is an important point because so many people are totally confused about this today. Even many of our politicians who claim to be Christian apparently don't even know there's a New Testament. Our allegiance is to Christ, His church, and His kingdom, above every other nation, even our own nation. The kingdom of God will last forever, and that is the kingdom that you and I are a part of.

Just as the fire showed the sacrifice had been accepted in Moses' Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple, so it is with Jesus' temple, the church. The fire that came down on the day of Pentecost with the Holy Spirit shows that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross has been accepted and applied.

The Answered Prayer: Humility and Repentance

Moving on to the next section we read this morning, the prayer that is answered. The Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said, "I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice."

Verse 13 hits us kind of strange if we only read chapter 7: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people." Where is that coming from? That's specifically coming from the prayer Solomon prayed in chapter 6. Solomon had prayed, "God, if your people turn from you and turn to idols, and you in your justice and your discipline send hardship upon us—drought or pestilence—Lord, if that happens and your people turn back to you, God, hear our prayer and see our repentance." God is just answering the prayer Solomon prayed.

He says that if His people are being disciplined because of their sins, "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." We see examples of this as you continue to read 2nd Chronicles, where God's people stray, but then prophets come, the word of God is rediscovered, reforms are brought, and the nation is renewed.

But for us here today on the other side of the cross, who are the "my people" today in 2026? The New Covenant people of God is the church. So this verse is something for the church. What is His name? His name is Jesus. The question for us is, is this how we are living? Are we living a life of humility, of prayer, of seeking the face of God, of turning from sin in repentance? Or are we, as the people of God, living lives seeking after other things?

The Bible calls seeking any part of creation above God idolatry. Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 1. The human heart has this bent—iniquity—towards idolatry. We naturally tend this way in our fallen human nature. It is incumbent upon us as God's people not to just hear the gospel one time, say, "Yes, I believe in Jesus, I've got my ticket punched to heaven," and then la-di-da, wait for Jesus to come back. No, it's incumbent upon us to constantly examine our hearts to see if idolatry has creeped in. The culture around us is doing everything it can to get our eyes off of Jesus. To slip into idolatry, all we have to do is nothing.

This past weekend, it was one of the rainiest weeks I ever remember in San Antonio. I needed to mow my backyard, like, two months ago. I was shocked when I got out there to mow the yard just how quickly the weeds had taken over. Weeds I could not see at the beginning of the week were up to my waist. What did I have to do to get those weeds to grow? Nothing. You don't have to do anything to have your whole yard taken over by weeds. And so it is with the human heart. To have idolatry take root in your heart, all you have to do is nothing.

God gives us wonderful blessings: relationships, marriage, children, recreation, food, intimacy, money. But when I make the goal of my life pursuing anything else other than Christ—when I take my eyes off of Him and His glory—it becomes an idol in my life. So we have to constantly go through this process of humbling ourselves, praying, seeking God's face, and turning from our wicked ways.

First, humble ourselves. What does it mean? It means we recognize that God is right and we are wrong. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," which means recognizing our great spiritual need. The songs we sang this morning were tailored to helping us recognize this:

Jesus, thank you for your blood.

Thank you for washing away my sins.

I'll never know how much it cost,

To see my sin upon the cross.

They're designed to help us see that we are spiritually bankrupt in the presence of a holy God. We must not sit there in pride and arrogance saying, "I'm doing good. Maybe these people need grace, but I had a pretty good week." The Bible says God resists the proud, the arrogant, the self-sufficient. He opposes those who think they can live life on their own terms separated from their Creator. But He gives grace to the humble.

"The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that are mere fleabites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind." – C.S. Lewis

In fact, to rightly approach the communion table is an exercise in humility. We come to the table saying, "Jesus, if it's not for your grace, your mercy, your sacrifice on the cross, your shed blood, I am a condemned sinner."

Next, humble ourselves and pray. The type of prayer he's talking about here is the prayer of confession. This isn't just a la-di-da prayer of "God bless this, God help me hit green lights and find a close parking spot." This is an impassioned prayer of confessing our sins, asking for forgiveness, and begging for mercy for the sake of His Son.

In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of two men praying. One is a proud, quote-unquote righteous man who says, "God, I thank you that I'm not like these sinners, not like this tax collector over here." That is the prayer of pride. Then there's the tax collector, who wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast and prayed, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus said the tax collector went away justified. Every week when we come into the presence of God and sing of the glories of Christ, we should not sit there with hard, callous, stony hearts. We should beat our chests and say, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Not a one of us is without sin. The good news is that the fire came down, the sacrifice was accepted, and our sins can be forgiven.

Then, seek my face. This means to forsake seeking after idols. Whatever we were pursuing other than God, we demote it, and we seek after God. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." If we put anything else first, we might not bow down before it physically, but we're bowing down before it in our soul.

Finally, all of that is for naught if we don't turn from our wicked ways. True repentance is not just in word; it is in action. It is a 180-degree turn. It is ceasing from the sinful behavior.

The only way this humility, prayer, seeking, and turning can be brought about in the soul of a person is through the preaching of the Gospel. It shows us our need for a Savior, humbles us, brings us into His presence, and leads us to turn from our wicked ways. And then God says, "I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land." This is a beautiful promise. I believe every nation can have true renewal, but it only comes through the preaching of the Gospel.

The Futility of Putting Hope in Man

There is a third and final point that underscores everything we've seen so far: the instructions God gives to Solomon.

God told Solomon, "If you will walk before me as David walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you... then I will establish your royal throne." But He also said, "If you turn aside and forsake my statutes and serve other gods... then I will pluck you up from my land, and this house I will cast out of my sight and destroy it."

Did Solomon remain faithful to the Lord? No, he did not. Towards the end of his life, Solomon built altars and idols to foreign gods and led the people in the worship of idols. It was a conditional blessing, and Solomon chose that path. The people followed him, and God did exactly what He said He would do: He destroyed that temple.

Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. God bestowed upon him knowledge and understanding more than anyone. He was also the greatest king who ever lived. Mankind has never produced a political leader so gifted. Under Solomon's rule, the nation flourished with economic prosperity the likes of which the world had never seen. Silver was regarded as worthless; gold was as plentiful as stone. He had the strongest army, expanded the territory, and made peace with surrounding nations.

And yet, even Solomon fell into the sin of idolatry. This underscores the futility of putting your hope in man. If putting your hope in Solomon was misplaced, then certainly putting your hope in any political leader we have today is misplaced. Yet so many Christians put their hopes in politicians, thinking, "If we just get this person elected, everything will be okay."

There is only one we put our hope in. It is the one who said of Himself, "Something greater than Solomon is here"—and that is Jesus. The hope for our nation is not politics or politicians. The hope for our nation is Jesus, His kingdom, His gospel, and the church living it out. True national renewal will not come through political means; it will only come through the Gospel advancing and true heart revival. We don't need more politics; we need more preaching. Our hope is in revival, not in Republicans, Democrats, or libertarians.

There is some good that can be done politically, and I thank God for that. I celebrate some of the political wins in my lifetime, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But hear this: that was done through political means. What can be done politically can be undone politically. Because hearts were not changed, abortion just moved from clinics outside the home to people taking pills inside the home. It just moved location.

We need a fundamental change at the core of our being. We need new hearts, and the only way we get new hearts is through Jesus. It starts with us. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways. When we do that, I believe the fire will fall in the church, the presence of God will fill the church, and the church will go out into the world to expand the kingdom of God, and we will see renewal in our land.

Find The Book

Find The Book

Mark Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Mark explores the story of King Josiah from 2 Kings 22, focusing on the rediscovery of the Book of the Law during the temple's restoration. The pastor contrasts Josiah's righteous reign with the wickedness of his predecessors, Manasseh and Amon, highlighting that one is never too young to pursue the Lord. Through the narrative, the message emphasizes three main points: the recovery of God's Word, which must remain central in our homes and churches; Josiah's broken, repentant response to hearing the Law; and the reality of God's holy wrath against sin, which was ultimately absorbed by Jesus Christ on the cross. The sermon concludes with a call to prioritize daily Bible reading and an invitation to trust in Christ's saving work.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction: The Divided Kingdom and Wicked Kings

So last week, we looked at a king in the northern kingdom of Israel. And last week, Pastor Matt talked about how the kingdom of Israel had split after King Solomon ruled, and when his son took over, there was a civil war that took place, and the kingdom split in two, into two kingdoms. One kept the name of Israel, and that was the northern kingdom, and then the other kingdom was the kingdom of Judah, which was the southern kingdom.

And in our passage today, when we come to 2 Kings 22, about 200 years has passed. And during that time, the Northern Kingdom has been taken away into captivity by Assyria. At that time, Assyria was the leading power of the world, and they came and conquered the northern tribe of Israel, and took them away into captivity. This was done because of their wickedness and because of their rebellion. And because they refused to heed the warnings of the prophets who came and prophesied to them, saying, if you do not repent, judgment is coming. They didn't obey the prophets, they continued to go against God's word and serve idols and pagan forms of worship. And so the northern tribe was taken away into captivity. And so now only the southern kingdom of Judah remains.

And as we come to 2 Kings today, we're going to be looking at a king whose name is Josiah. But before we read about Josiah, I think it's important that we look at the previous two kings before him. So Josiah's grandfather, his name was Manasseh. And Manasseh ruled Judah for 55 years. He was the longest reigning king over the kingdom of Judah. And Manasseh was more than likely the most wicked of all the kings in Judah. So not only did he reign the longest, but he was the most wicked, and so he created this culture in Judah that was full of idol worship and pagan forms of sacrifice. Manasseh even offered up one of his own sons to the false god Molech in child sacrifice. He built altars in the temple that Solomon had built for the worship of the one true God, Manasseh built altars for false idols, for false gods in the temple. He was a wicked king. He introduced the worship of the sun, moon, and stars, and he was involved in the occult with witchcraft and divination. And so imagine 50 plus years of a nation just steeped in this wicked form of worship and idolatry.

And Manasseh, we don't see it in 2 Kings, but actually in 2 Chronicles, which details the same account. It does mention that Manasseh before he died, he did have a period of repentance, but the damage that he had done throughout his whole life was hard to stop that momentum. And so after Manasseh died, Josiah's father, Amon, ruled for two years. And he went back to the wickedness that Manasseh had done before he repented. There were two more years of that. He only reigned for two years because some of his own servants came and assassinated him and killed him. And so after Amon, now Josiah is now the king, and this is where we come to our passage today. Josiah takes over the throne after his wicked grandfather and his wicked father.

Reading the Word: 2 Kings 22:1-13

So if you could stand with me this morning, I'd like to stand as we read this passage together. We're going to be looking at verses one through 13. And it begins by saying,

"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, 'Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people. And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house.'"

Now skipping down to verse 8, it says,

"And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, 'Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.' Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, 'Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.' And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying, 'Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.'"

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you for this book. Lord, I thank you that your word is alive. Father, as we look at some truths from this passage today, Lord, I pray that you would stir within us a desire for more of you and more of your word in our lives. Lord, we thank you for this. In Jesus' name, amen.

Josiah's Early Reign and Care for God's House

Amen. Well, you may have a seat. So I've got three points this morning as we work our way through this passage, but first, I think it'd be good if we could just acknowledge the fact that Josiah was only eight years old when he began to rule this nation. Imagine this. Just imagine the state of the nation as he takes over. It's full of spiritual decay. It's full of idol worship, child sacrifices. It's just steeped in pagan rituals. And here comes an eight-year-old boy to rule the nation. And I think it's absolutely fascinating that it says that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

I think perhaps the reason it tells us who the name of his mother was is so that we could recognize the work that his mother had done in raising Josiah. Josiah was eight years old when his father was killed. He didn't grow up with his father in the home. Even his father was wicked, his grandfather was wicked, but somehow he was raised in the ways of the Lord. I don't think it's too much assumption to say that his mother had a big part to play in that.

But what we see in this is that you're never too young to begin your walk with the Lord. I know we have some young people in here. I don't think we have any eight-year-olds in here. I think they're all at Sunday school. But I do know we have some teenagers in here, some young people, and I want to encourage you, don't wait until you're older, whatever that means. I don't know what it means to be older or getting older. But I remember when I was younger, when I was a teenager, I almost had this sense of, I believe in Jesus, but the grownups, they've got it figured out. They're kind of holding down the fort with the spirituality and God's house. And when I get older, I can start taking my faith more seriously. Don't fall into that trap. Jesus said when he was talking to the children and the disciples were trying to keep them away, saying, Jesus, what are you doing talking to these kids? Don't you know that the things of the Lord are for the older people? He said, no, let the children come to me.

Listen, young person, Jesus is calling you today. Jesus is drawing you close today. The kingdom of God is not just for adults. So whatever age you're at, maybe you're eight years old, maybe you're 88 years old, God is calling you today and God has a plan for your life. And as you continue reading the chapter of 2 Kings 22 and move into 2 Kings 23, you see what a life submitted to the Lord can do. As later, we'll see that Josiah will bring reforms to the nation of Judah. And so, don't sit on the sidelines, just waiting to get older to get serious about your faith. If you're young in here today, trust in the Lord, pursue him with your whole heart, and he will use you to do great things. I truly believe, like he used Josiah here in this passage.

So continuing now with this story in verse three, Josiah begins this project to renovate the temple. He notices that it's becoming disrepair, not only in disrepair, but there were things added on to the temple that had to be torn down as there were altars built to these false gods in the temple. And so Josiah sends his secretary to tell the high priest to collect the money in the temple. They had this money box that when you came to worship, you would drop in your money. And I imagine that was still going on even as people came to worship false idols and false gods, they were still adding to the offering box. And so Josiah tells the high priest to collect all of this money and let's begin restoring the house of the Lord.

And I want to highlight here Josiah's care for God's house. This is a lesson that I think all of us can learn, that it is good for us to take care of the house of the Lord. And I'm so thankful that we do have a generous church that gives weekly, and part of your offerings, it goes towards keeping this house in order, keeping it updated, keeping things in repair. And so as you're sowing into the kingdom, part of that investment is doing just this, what is going on here is helping to keep God's house in order. And so we all play a part in keeping this church a nice place of worship. And I'm very thankful that we do have a nice place to come and worship the Lord. I'm thankful that we can have air conditioning and electricity, but all of this is only possible because of your generosity and because you care for God's house. And so let's continue to have this care for the house of the Lord as we see Josiah did as well. And so Josiah begins this project to renovate the house, to repair it, to restore it.

1. The Recovery of God's Word

And so now we come to verse 8. And this brings us to the first of our three points that we see today as we look at this story, and the first is the recovery. We're going to look at the recovery as God's word was recovered. So looking again at verses 8 through 10, this high priest, he comes to Shaphan the secretary, and he says, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord. I have found the Book of the Law.

What an amazing discovery. I can't think of a greater discovery in all of the world. Scientists are finding out new things and new species as they go lower into the ocean. These are great discoveries. They're finding new universes and planets and galaxies, which is amazing. But I don't think any discovery is greater than what is found here as the high priest finds God's word. And what has been found here, this Book of the Law, this refers to the first five books of the Old Testament, which was known as the Torah or the Pentateuch. These first five books that Moses had written. And the fact that it was either hidden or it just had been completely lost, just shows you where this nation was at spiritually. That God's word was nowhere to be found, more than likely over the span of 55 years as Manasseh and Amon had ruled the nation.

And this never would have happened if the kings had been obedient to what God's law had prescribed for them as kings. Before the monarchy took place, before Saul was even king, before the Israelites had even gone into the promised land, God, through the voice of Moses, commanded the people on what the king should do when he sits on his throne and begins to rule. And we see this in Deuteronomy 17. And Deuteronomy 17 verses 18 through 19, it says:

"And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them."

This had not been happening. I don't know how long this had been neglected. We are told later that once Josiah begins his reforms, he reinstitutes the Passover, which had been, it says, neglected since the time of the judges. So we know that none of the kings of Israel nor Judah had kept the Passover. So what that tells me is, I think that not one king obeyed this command that God had prescribed for all of the kings to do. Because if any of the kings had done this to write down the whole copy of the law and to read it daily, they would have seen, hey, I'm supposed to keep the Passover. And we're told that none of the kings kept the Passover.

And so it's no accident to see how, and it's not a coincidence, that the nation of Israel had been taken away into captivity because they had abandoned God's Word. And when you fail to read God's word, when you fail to obey God's word, it doesn't matter if you're a king or a commoner, moral compromise and rebellion will always coincide with that. Failure to read God's Word and obey its commands will always lead to moral compromise and rebellion.

And again, I find this interesting that the law was found inside the temple. That all the while, while this pagan worship and idolatry was going on inside the temple, God's word was there, but it was just collecting dust. It wasn't being opened. It wasn't being read. And sadly, over the last 50 years, there's churches in America where the same thing has been going on. Where they've been so concerned with their programs and appealing to the culture, and trying to please the lost with their programming, that they've lost sight of the word of God. And so their sermons are now more of self-help, and how do you find your best life now, and we'll throw a couple of verses in there if it will help support my argument. But God's word isn't the center of the Sunday morning in many churches, sadly.

And we know that this was going to take place. Paul tells us this in 2 Timothy chapter 4, where he says:

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

And so sadly, this is happening in some churches today where sermons are dumbed down and movies are brought in because we need Hollywood to enlighten us on how to follow Jesus. So we'll watch a movie and say, this is what the movie says about our Christian walk with the Lord. Or we have props and smoke and flashing lights, and I'm not saying that if you have those things, you're a church that's condemned to hell. But a lot of pastors have lost sight of the centrality and the power of God's Word, and they're focusing more on what the world wants. And the sad thing about that is, when that is your approach, you're constantly going to be chasing the next thing, what's popular, what's a fad.

But Isaiah 40, verse 8, it tells us this:

"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever."

And so I'm thankful that as a church here at Christ the King Church, that we elevate this book. We make sure that God's word is magnified, that God's word is exalted, that we make God's word central, not just on Sunday mornings, but in all of our lives. And I know that that is one of the reasons why you're here today is because you know that when you come to church on a Sunday morning, the book is going to be open and read.

And so, there's another application for us here. This idea of having the book in the house, but it not being opened, it not being found. And that's in our own houses as well. When I ask you, where is the book in your house? Where is God's Word in your house? Is it somewhere sitting on a bookshelf all the while? If you would look at your week and how you spend your time, that everything else is elevated above the Word of God. Let's not let that be said about us. Let's open the book. Let's find the book. Let's treasure God's word. Let's read his word and endeavor to obey it.

Fathers and husbands, listen, this responsibility falls on you all the more as leaders of your home to find the book and to open it and to read it, not just with yourself, but with your family as well. Let's let God's word be central in our home. If someone stepped into your house for a few days and they watched how you orchestrated your home, they should be able to say, in this house, God's word is central. And if it's not, why is that? Maybe work has gotten busy. There's a stressful time of your life, and you're getting home exhausted, and you just want to unwind and chill, or spend time with your family, which is great. It's good to rest. It's great to spend time with your family. But if that is what's taking place over you spending time daily in God's Word, it's going to be an endeavor that is not going to bear fruit. But when you open God's word, even when you're tired, even when you're exhausted, and you endeavor to do what it says, and you recognize this is the living word of God, you will receive power and strength from his word, and that will allow you to be fruitful as you do these other things in your home.

And so I want to charge you and encourage you to recover the centrality of God's word in your life. I want to echo what Pastor Matt said last week that the daily reading of God's word and reading through God's Word, from Genesis to Revelation daily over the years, is the greatest way that you will grow in your life spiritually. If you are looking to grow in your walk with the Lord, there's no better way to do it than to open God's Word daily and read it. Now, there's a lot of other ways that you can grow spiritually. I'm thankful that we have sermons to listen to, and there's great podcasts and content, things that can teach you God's word and help you grow, but nothing can take the place of the daily discipline of spending time in God's Word.

And so maybe at the beginning of the year, you were inspired and challenged to get in God's Word, and you maybe were reading through the plan pretty well the first couple weeks or first couple months, but now you've found yourself in April, and you've fallen off of that. I want to encourage you to go home and pick up the book, to go find the book and share it with your family. I have found the word of God again, and we are going to read God's word and start today. Don't worry about catching up. That happened with me a few times when I would do a Bible reading plan. I'd get so far behind, I would just say, well, I'm so far behind. I'm just not gonna read the Bible anymore. This year, I'll wait till January next year to try again. Don't let that be you. Don't burden yourself with trying to catch up on the front of your bulletin today. It shows you where we're at today in the Bible reading plan. Just go home, open there, and start reading. And I promise you, if you do this daily and you submit to his word, that you will grow in your walk with the Lord. Okay, well, let's move on here. So that's the first thing we saw, the recovery.

2. The Response to God's Word

Now let's look at how Josiah responds to this book being found and read. Let's look at the response that we see in verse 11. It says, when the king, when Josiah heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. Josiah was cut to the heart. Josiah was undone. When Josiah recognized how not only him, but the whole country had been failing to obey God's law, it produced this brokenness and this mourning inside of him. In those days, to tear your clothes was a sign of mourning and brokenness and contrition. A lot of people would tear their clothes when they heard that a loved one had died. And so in a way, Josiah was saying that he recognized the spiritual death in the nation as he was exposed to the word of God.

Josiah, the first thing that he focused on as a king was the physical problem. He was trying to restore the temple and remove the idols, the things that he could see physically. But as he heard God's word read to him, he recognized that the problem was much greater. That there was a spiritual problem in the nation as well. And I imagine that as he heard that account of Deuteronomy being read, and he recognized that him as a king, his responsibility was not only to read this law, but to write it down and have the high priest examine it, to make sure it was accurate. That broke him as well as he recognized all the ways that as a king, he was failing to obey the word of God.

And this is what God's word does. This is one of the reasons that as you read God's word daily, it will help you grow in your life because God's word exposes the sin that you have in your life. God's word confronts you where you're at. It illuminates our failures and shortcomings. That's one of the reasons why we have God's law. It acts as a mirror to us in our lives. It shows us the character of God. It shows us what God cares about and what he's asked of us. And as we read God's word and see his commands and his laws, it exposes our shortcomings. It exposes our sin.

Hebrews 4:12, it says:

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

How many of you have experienced that piercing sword in your life as you have read God's Word? A lot of times, honestly, it can be painful, feeling that conviction, recognizing where you've fallen short, recognizing what God is asking of you, the reformation he's desiring in your life, the things that he's asking you to forsake and get rid of. It can be painful. It can be challenging. But our response should be that of Josiah, when we recognize how we have fallen short, our response should be brokenness and contrition.

Also, in the book of Hebrews in chapter 3, verse 15, it says this:

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."

This rebellion was talking about the people of Israel as they were wandering in the wilderness, and they continued to harden their hearts against the Lord. Even in that time, God was speaking to them. God was giving them his word, yet they were hardening their hearts. Listen, do not harden your heart against God's word. God has given us his word so that we can know how he wants us to live and how we can relate with him. But if we read his word and our heart is hardened and we have no desire to obey it, it's a fruitless endeavor, and we will continue in our rebellion.

So heed the words of this passage as you hear God's voice, as you hear his word preached, as you hear his word, as you read it daily, allow the Lord to soften your heart. And this is only a work that the Holy Spirit can do. So this is a prayer that all of us as believers need to have. Lord, soften my heart today to receive from your word, to hear from your word, but also to have the desire to obey your word. And so when you're confronted in your sin, don't harden your heart.

Josiah could have hardened his heart when he heard the word read to him, he could have said, you know what, tuck that away. Let's not tell anybody about this. I didn't know about this. Obviously, my grandfather didn't know. Let's just tuck it away, forget about it. Let's keep doing what we're doing. But he didn't. He had a brokenness and that brokenness, as you continue reading the passage, you'll see it leads to reformation, that Josiah brought about a period in the nation of Judah of reform. As he tore down the idols, he reinstituted the Passover. He brought the nation back to a true form of worship, and that all started with him, his response to the word of God when it was read to him. So that's our second point.

3. The Reality of God's Wrath and Christ's Grace

Now, our final point this morning is the reality. And what is this reality? Well, looking at verse 13, the second half of verse 13, Josiah said:

"For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us."

Josiah realized that God's wrath was being poured out on the nation because they had refused to obey his word. And that is the reality for all mankind who is lost in their sins as well. That there is coming a day of judgment where God is going to pour out his wrath on all of those who are not in Christ. You see, the law had exposed Josiah to his shortcomings. He realized that he was a sinner, and he realized, no doubt, as he read Deuteronomy chapter 28, and it talked about what God would do to the nation if they refused to obey his commands. The blessings that would come with obedience, but also the curses that would come with disobedience. And the same is true for us today who are in our sin.

Romans 3:23, it says this:

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

You see, nobody is immune to sin. There's not one person in here who has never sinned. And so that means that there's gonna come a day of judgment where God is going to pour out his wrath on all sin that has ever been committed. Now you might say, well, that doesn't sound very loving. Why would a God who is loving pour out wrath on mankind? Because yes, God is loving, but God is also holy. And God is also perfect and righteous and pure. And God is also a judge and as a holy and righteous judge, God cannot tolerate sin. If God were to just overlook sin and say, well, you know what, I just love everybody, so I'm not going to judge sin. He wouldn't be a good judge. He wouldn't be a righteous judge. And so you can't separate God's love from his holiness. You can't separate God's love from his righteousness. These things have to work together. And so all sin will be punished.

Romans 6:23, it tells us:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

And so all of us have sinned, what we have earned because of that sin is death. But God. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Listen, if you are in Christ today, that wrath that you deserved, that wrath that you earned, that death that you earned for your sins has now been applied to Christ. That is why Christ in the garden, that's why he was sweating drops of blood. That's why he was praying, Father, if there was any other way, take this cup from me. The cup that he was talking about was not the cup of pain and suffering he would feel physically on the cross. The cup that he was talking about was the cup of wrath that was going to be poured on him for the sins of his people. But then Jesus said, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And so because of Christ and because of his love for you, he went to the cross.

Romans 5:8 tells us this:

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

So all of us at one point were lost in our sins. We deserved God's wrath, but even while we were lost in our sins, before we had decided to follow Jesus, Christ died for you, making it possible for you to be reconciled back to him. You see, the love of Christ was manifested on the cross. That is why Good Friday is a good Friday because it's the greatest display of love that has ever been poured out as Christ died on the cross, absorbing our wrath, absorbing our punishment, absorbing the death that we deserved. It was poured out on Christ.

But not only does Jesus take your punishment, this passage tells us he gives us eternal life as well, which Romans 6:23 told us. We have been given his righteousness. So not only now do we not have to fear that day of judgment, we can look forward to that last day where we are going to meet Jesus face to face because we are covered in the righteousness of Christ. But not only do we not have his wrath poured out on us, as Peter said, as he preached on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:17), he said, God's spirit is now being poured out on you. So we in Christ don't have God's wrath poured out on us. We have his spirit now poured into us, and we can now walk in the fruit of his spirit and in the power of his spirit. And this is only possible because of the work of Christ.

Conclusion and Invitation

And so wherever you're at today in your life, know this, that Jesus Christ has given his life so that you can be saved. You may have come in here today far from the Lord. You may have come in here today lost in your sins. You may have come in here today with your heart hardened, but as you have heard the gospel, as you've heard God's word, even over the last few minutes, God is stirring your heart. Listen, do not harden your heart. Look to Christ. Look to our sacrificed Messiah who laid his life down for you because of his love for you, and trust in his sacrifice, and you will be saved. Look to Christ today.

But the first step is that brokenness over your sin. Have you experienced that brokenness? Have you experienced that point where you've recognized what your sin is in light of who God in his holiness is? Let's have that response of Josiah, let's be broken over our sin, and let's repent and take it to the Lord and trust in Christ today. As you do that, you will be saved. You will find healing, you will find restoration. There will come reformation in your life as you submit to Christ, and then you open his book.

If you're here today and maybe this is you, maybe you're hearing what Jesus Christ has done for you and you're choosing today to serve the Lord, but you're thinking, oh, this is great, but I don't have a Bible. Come talk to me after church. I will get you a Bible today. There's nobody in here should go home today without a physical Bible if you do not have a Bible. We will get you a Bible today because we want you to start this journey of following Jesus and getting into his word every day. So look to Christ today. Stop trying to live a life of your own good deeds, of your own merits to get you into heaven. Listen, no good deed will ever be enough to get you into heaven on your own merits because all of us have sinned. We've all fallen short. We all need the saving work of Jesus Christ. So look to him today.

Why don't we stand this morning? I believe that there are some of us in here today that if you're honest, you have lost the book. That the cares of this life, the busyness of life has distracted you. Maybe you've been bitter against God for some reason. For whatever reason, you have stopped reading God's word. You have stopped opening his word. You have stopped leading your family in the reading of his word. Look, if that's you today, there's no condemnation. I think if we're all honest, we've all had that time in our lives where we've not read God's word as we should, or maybe we didn't view God's word as it really is, his living word spoken to us.

Maybe recently you've just viewed God's word as a checklist that you just go to every morning to knock it off your day so you can mark off that box saying, I've read the Bible today. Maybe you've lost sight of what God's word really is, his living word speaking to us. Let's go back to the book. Find the book. Open his word daily. Ask the Lord to stir within you that desire to read his word. And then as you read it, obey it. As you read it, tell others what it says. As you read it, share it with your family. And I truly believe that as we do this daily in our lives, that our lives will flourish, our families will flourish, our communities will flourish, and like what happened in Josiah's day, we will see revival happen in our city and in our country.

But look, if those that are in here today, if we're not opening the book, if we're not opening God's word daily, who's going to do that? And so let's endeavor today to go back to God's word. There's no better day than today to begin your journey of reading through God's Word. And we can reclaim this year of the Bible. Like I said, maybe you've fallen off. But you can start again today. And again, it's not just so you can say, oh, great, I read the Bible today. No, it's because of what happens when you read God's word and submit to it daily. Amen.

The Final Word

The Final Word

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores the narrative of 2 Kings 1, where King Ahaziah of Israel suffers a severe injury and foolishly seeks counsel from the false god Beelzebub rather than the true God of Israel. In response, God sends the prophet Elijah to confront the king’s idolatry and pronounce judgment, leading to a dramatic standoff where God’s supreme authority is demonstrated through fire from heaven until a third military captain humbly surrenders to the Lord's mercy. Contrasting this Old Testament judgment with the grace found in the New Testament, the pastor points to Luke 9 to show how Jesus—God's ultimate and final word—came not to call down fire on rebellious sinners, but to absorb God’s wrath on the cross, inviting everyone to turn to Him alone in times of crisis.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

We are going to open our Bibles to the book of 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter one, which is in the Old Testament. We're in a series as a church this year called the Year of the Bible. What that means is that as a church, we are reading through the whole Bible together day by day, week by week; there's a Bible reading plan. And the great thing about doing this is that you can jump in at any time. Even if you didn't start the Year of the Bible with us, it's the whole year and you're here. And so you can jump in with us at any time, at any week, and every week, we have the chapters that we as a church are reading in your handout. And so if you look in your handout, you'll see on the bottom of the second page, on the inside, there are the chapters that we are reading as a church this week.

Now, we're starting a new book of the Bible this week, the book of 1 Chronicles, and with each new book of the Bible, when we begin that book, we're producing an introduction video and an overview video that explains the whole picture of that book and what you're going to find in there and helping you to understand it a little bit better. And if you want to see these introduction videos, there's a slide on the screen there. You can sign up to receive them via email or via Telegram, or if you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you can get it there as well.

And we really believe at this church that the Bible is the Word of God. And so this is why we're putting this emphasis on it this year. And I can say honestly that for me, the greatest catalyst to my own personal spiritual growth has been the discipline of daily spending time reading the Word of God. Nothing has caused me to grow more as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus, than every day opening the Bible and just reading what God's word says. Every single one of us in here daily nourishes our physical body. We're all going to eat something today to give our bodies sustenance, to give our bodies some calories, some strength to burn. And it's the same with our spiritual life as well. We need nourishment. We need fuel for our spiritual life. And the Word of God is that fuel. Jesus said, man does not live by bread alone or calories alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So let me encourage you, jump in with us this week. Watch the introduction video to 1 Chronicles. I think it'll be illuminating for you.

Background on the Kings of Israel

So, we're in the book of 2 Kings chapter one. I want to give you a little bit of background because this is sort of an obscure part of the Bible for many Christians. Many Christians spend the majority of their time reading the New Testament. The New Testament, of course, tells us about Jesus. And so that's not a surprise that we would want to spend our time reading about our Savior, our King, our Lord, God in the flesh. But one of the things that Jesus says in the New Testament is that the Old Testament is about him. So all of the Bible is all about Jesus. And so even as we're reading through some of this history of the Old Testament, we can still see Jesus in there, and I'm going to, at the end of the sermon today, show you where we see Jesus in this very wild story that we're going to read from 2 Kings.

So let me give you a little bit of background. For the past few weeks, we've been reading through the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings. And it comes as a surprise to no one that the subject of the Book of Kings is kings. Very good. You're paying attention. Kings. More specifically, the kings of ancient Israel. And these books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings, they cover roughly 400 years of history. From, give or take, 1000 BC, a thousand years before Christ, to roughly 600 years before Christ came. That's the period of time that we're dealing with.

Now, most people are familiar with the most famous king of Israel: King David. We're familiar with King David, not so much because of his life as a king, though some of the things that he did in his life as a king were pretty infamous. We're mostly familiar with David from his younger years and a story of a great battle that he had with a giant named Goliath. So because of this story of David versus Goliath, which transcends the Bible—I mean, that's just in the culture. You could say to anyone, "That's a real David and Goliath situation," and they'll know exactly what you're talking about. So most people have heard of the most famous king of Israel, King David.

But what most people don't know is that Israel, the nation of Israel, as a united kingdom of the twelve tribes of Israel, only had three kings. Israel only ever had three kings. David was the second king. A lot of people know about the first king of Israel, King Saul, then King David, and then most people know the third king of Israel, Solomon, David's son. And that's where most of our knowledge of the kings of Israel drop off drastically.

But the books of 1 Kings and 2 Kings tell us the history of the children of Israel after King Solomon. And after King Solomon died, this kingdom of Israel, these twelve tribes, had a civil war. And they split. And so that's why I say Israel only ever had three kings because after Solomon, that nation disappeared. And two new nations were formed. There was the one tribe that stayed loyal to David, the tribe of Judah. They stayed loyal to David and David's house, and the lineage of kings that came from David. That nation became known as the kingdom or the nation of Judah. There was one very tiny little tribe, Benjamin, that joined them. They were in the South. Their capital city was Jerusalem, where the temple was.

But the ten northern tribes rebelled and entered into a civil war, and they broke away from following David's house and the lineage of kings that came from David. And that nation became known as the nation of Israel. Not to confuse anybody, but they took the name of the nation, and so not always, just because something has the name Israel on it, doesn't mean it's the exact same as what came before, just so you know.

So, the kingdom of Israel only ever had three kings, the United Kingdom. After Solomon, the third king, there's a civil war, there's a split into two different kingdoms: Judah in the south, Israel in the north, the upper ten tribes. In our text today, it centers around a king named Ahaziah, who was the eighth king of the northern kingdom of Israel. And he was the son of an extremely wicked king named Ahab, and his mother was Queen Jezebel. That's his parents, Ahab and Jezebel.

Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 22 and 2 Kings 1

So with that little bit of background, why don't we stand to read the Word of God this morning? And we're actually going to start at the end of 1 Kings. The very end of 1 Kings, in verse 51, it starts with Ahaziah's background a little bit. So let's look at 1 Kings chapter 22, verse 51:

Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. He served Baal and worshiped him and provoked the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger in every way that his father had done.

Now, 2 Kings chapter one:

After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and he lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, "Go, inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron, about whether or not I shall recover from this sickness." But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite (he was a prophet), "Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron?'"

Father, we thank you for your word this morning. I pray that you would help us see what you want us to see today. To hear from your Spirit what you want us to hear today. That we might live for you as we sang this morning, "Lover of my soul, I want to live for you." Lord, help us to examine our hearts and to see if there's any place in which we are not living for you, that we might confess that, receive forgiveness, and to walk in your ways. In Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated.

Two Questions: Where Do You Turn?

This passage in 2 Kings one begins with two questions. The title of my sermon today is "God's Final Word, The Final Word." And this first section has two questions. One question from King Ahaziah, and a more important question from God himself.

It begins by telling us after the death of his father, King Ahab, that a surrounding nation, Moab, rebelled against Israel. It saw that Israel was in a weakened state. And so they rebelled. During King David's reign, he had conquered the people of Moab and subjugated them so that they were now subjects of the kingdom of Israel. And they had to pay tribute to the kingdom of Israel. But when Ahab dies, they recognize there's this political upheaval, and they don't have to do this anymore. So they refuse now to live as subjects of the kingdom of Israel and King Ahaziah, and they refuse to send their taxes to King Ahaziah. And so his reign, King Ahaziah, his reign begins with political upheaval and economic downturn.

But then it goes on to tell us that he suffers a great accident that leaves him bedridden and ill. He's walking on his roof. He leans up against the lattice, the railing, and the railing gives way. And he falls from the upper story down onto the ground, and he is greatly injured. In fact, he probably has some sort of internal injury that's causing him to run a fever. He's not able to get up. He's bedridden. And so in this state, when he experiences this political crisis and now this personal health crisis, he decides he's going to seek help from an outside source. And his question is, "Will I recover? Will I recover from this illness? Will I recover from this sickbed? Or is this the end of my life?"

Now, the problem is not that he has questions. The problem is where he goes with his question. He doesn't go to the God of Israel with his question, the God who had appeared to his ancestor and called his ancestor Abraham. He doesn't go to the God who had delivered his people from Egypt and slavery. He doesn't go to the God who had delivered his people into the nation of Canaan and given them the promised land. He doesn't go to that God. He goes to a false god. He seeks the counsel of an idol, Beelzebub. And this is not a one-off action with Ahaziah. This was the pattern of his life, as we read at the end of 1 Kings. His whole life, he had abandoned being faithful to the covenant that God had made to the children of Israel, and he was an idol worshiper, just like his parents before him.

Now, here's a question we all need to answer this morning. Because it's not only King Ahaziah that suffers crises in their life. We all will face confusing times, difficult times, personal crisis, health crisis, relational crisis, economic crisis. In this life, we will have tribulation. That's what Jesus said. The question we all need to answer this morning is when those moments come, where do you go? Where do you turn in those moments of hardship? Where do you look for answers? To whom do you seek counsel from? It wasn't that Ahaziah had questions. That's not the problem. The problem is where he went with his questions.

God's Question for King Ahaziah

Now, I said that this section has two questions. The first from King Ahaziah, but somebody else has a question. And we read it was God. God has a question for King Ahaziah. And so he sends Elijah the prophet to intercept Ahaziah's messengers with this question.

And this is something that God would do regularly. He would send his messengers, the prophets, who would go and they would confront the kings of Israel. The kings of Israel were called to be God's servants, to execute justice in the land, to apply the law of God, God's law that he had given them, the Ten Commandments. The king's job was to make sure the Ten Commandments were obeyed by the people, and that God was worshiped. And when they strayed from that responsibility, when they would stray into idolatry and false worship, God would send prophets, his messengers, who would go and pronounce to them the word that God had spoken, calling the nation and the kings back to faithfulness and to the true worship of God. These prophets like Elijah, their primary ministry was preaching, calling people to repentance and faith in the true and living God. Calling people to turn, literally, to turn from their idols and to turn back to the God who had saved them and delivered them.

And the question that God puts in the mouth of Elijah, and the question that God wants answered from King Ahaziah is this: Why are you inquiring from idols? Why are you seeking answers from idols? Remember the psalm we opened with this morning? Psalm 115. Idols have eyes, but they can't see. Idols have ears, but they can't hear. Idols have mouths, but they can't speak. Why are you inquiring of this false god? Is it because there is no God in Israel that you have to seek counsel from idols?

Now, this section ends in verse 4. We only read through verse three, but let's look here at verse four. After Elijah asks that question, he says this in verse four. Now therefore, this is God's pronouncement:

"Now therefore thus says the Lord, You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die." So Elijah went.

God pronounces this judgment upon King Ahaziah. You're not going to come down, but you are going to die because you have sought after idols.

The Messengers Return

Now, the story continues in verses 5 through 8 with two more questions. There are a lot of questions in this section, in this passage of scripture. There's two more questions, and in this section, King Ahaziah has both of them. Let's look at them in verse 5 as the story continues:

The messengers returned to the king, and he said to them, "Why have you returned so quickly?" And they said to him, "There came a man to meet us and said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and say to him, Thus says the Lord, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.'"

This first question that King Ahaziah asks is, "Why are y'all back so early?" That was quick. I sent you out to go to another country, to go to another nation, to go inquire of this other god, and you barely got out of the castle, and now you're coming back. What's up with that? That's his first question. Why are you back so quickly?

And the messengers deliver not the word from Beelzebub, which no doubt would have been, "Yes, you're going to be great. Everything's gonna be fine with you." They come back with a word from God, the true and living God. That's not what he sent for. It's like if you send your family out to—this is a really bad illustration, but you send your family out. There's no way to make this illustration work, so I'm just gonna leave it. You send somebody out for something, and they come back with something else, and I'll let you fill in the blank on what that is. Oh, no, you know what? I just thought of it. Okay. Say you're a vegan. No shame, no condemnation. There is no problem with that. And you send your family out to go get you some vegetables, some green beans, some bean soup, you know? Some healthy stuff. And they come back with steak. What? What is this? What is this? That's the situation here. They came back with some real food. Not some rabbit food. They came back with steak. Look, there's grace for everyone here this morning. I want you to know that.

So he continues with his second question. He says in verse 7:

He said to them, "What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?" They answered him, "He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist." And he said, "It is Elijah the Tishbite."

Ahaziah immediately recognizes who this man is. Immediately. He is Elijah the prophet. Elijah was someone who was known to King Ahaziah's family. He had had many run-ins with his parents, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, in many heated confrontations, one very famous one where fire fell down from heaven in this confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. We read about that in 1 Kings. And so King Ahaziah knows exactly who he's dealing with. He knows that Elijah is a true prophet of God who operates in the power of God, who declares the true word of God.

And what tells him it's Elijah is his wardrobe. He's wearing a garment of hair, camel's hair most likely, and he's tied that garment with a leather belt. Elijah, a quite fashionable individual. What I want to ask you, does this wardrobe sound familiar to you at all? Yes. That's a KBI graduate right there that had the answer to that. There's another man later in the Bible who wears the exact same outfit. It is John the Baptist. The forerunner of Christ, the man who was sent to prepare the way for the ministry of the Messiah. And this forerunner of Christ, it was said he would come in the same spirit and power as Elijah. And he also came in the same wardrobe. Just so that no one missed it. John the Baptist said, "I want the same outfit," and he went to a designer and had him make the exact same wardrobe. So, the same spirit, power, and wardrobe as Elijah is what John the Baptist ministers in.

A Conflict of Authority

And so he recognizes this as Elijah, and so he now sends messengers to Elijah. We read about this in the next section, where true power and true authority are put on display. Here now is a conflict between authority, between power. The king, King Ahaziah, he believes he has power. He's the king. Even though Moab's rebelling against him. Now, he's going to have a confrontation, just like his parents did, between his power and authority and God's power and authority.

And so we read in verse 9:

Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and he said to him, "O man of God, the king says, 'Come down.'"

You have been summoned by the king. You must come now. He sends a captain of fifty men with his fifty men. "Go and bring me Elijah, bring him to me. Command him, he must appear in my presence." This is a conflict of authority. Who has the true authority? Is it the prophet, the true prophet, with the word of God? Or is it this false king sitting on a false throne serving a false god? Who's abandoned the Messianic line of David, who's set up in his family heritage his own glory and his own kingdom. Where is this true authority?

And so Elijah responds by saying, in verse 10:

But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty."

Elijah says, this is a test to see where the true authority is. Is it in these idol worshippers and this false god? Or is it in the God who made heaven and earth, the true God of Israel? Here is the test, he says. It will be a test of fire.

Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

Now, this would have been a great opportunity for King Ahaziah to say, "Whoa. I'm dealing with something powerful here. This is not like the idols who have all of these worshipers but have no power. I'm dealing with the true and the living God. I better humble myself before him. I better return to him and to his word, and to his law, and to his covenant." But does anybody here think that that's what he does? No, that's not what he does. No. He thinks, let me try that again.

So in verse 11:

Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty. And he answered and said to him, "O man of God, this is the king's order, 'Come down quickly!'"

"I don't know who you think you are, Elijah, but the king is commanding you. I don't know who you think you answer to, but you better obey this king. Here is his order: Come down quickly."

But Elijah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty." Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

I think if I had been sitting on the throne, if I had been King Ahaziah, I would have said at this point, "Maybe I should alter my course a little bit. Maybe it's time to course correct." This is an opportunity for repentance. This is an opportunity for a change of heart, a change of direction. But not King Ahaziah. King Ahaziah says, "Let's do it again." That's double, that's triple down. Double or nothing, double or nothing. This is King Ahaziah.

The Third Captain's Humility

Verse 13:

Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him...

So the first two come in the authority of the king. They come on the king's side. They come as a part of this regimen and this system of idolatry and rejecting God. But this third captain, one guy in the story wises up. He says, "If I do the same thing as these other guys, I'm gonna get the same result. I'm going to try something different. I'm going to try coming with contrition. I'm going to try coming with humility. I'm not going to come with arrogance commanding the man of God, and essentially commanding God that God has to get on this idol's terms, I'm going to come humbling myself, begging God for mercy."

So he comes on his knees and he falls down before Elijah, and he entreats him. He says:

"O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight."

He's saying, "We're here because we have to be here because King Ahaziah has sent us, but we're not his servants. We're your servants. We serve your God. Please spare our lives. Let our lives be precious in your sight. We are your servants."

Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So he arose and went down with him to the king.

And so this captain, this third captain, comes and he doesn't approach the man of God with arrogance, with pride, in the false authority of this human king. Instead, he comes in humility. He surrenders himself to the Lord. You see, the first captains, they came in opposition to the word of God. They came standing over and against and in judgment of God and his prophet and God's word. But not this last captain. He comes surrendering himself. He comes in humility. He comes asking God for mercy. And what does he receive? Mercy.

There's a scripture in the Bible that says God says to the proud, "I will show myself proud," but to the humble, "I will show myself humble." I will show mercy to the humble. There's another scripture in the Bible that says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. This man experiences grace because he approaches God in humility, surrendering his life to the Lord, not in service of this idol and its false king.

God's Final Word to Ahaziah

And so Elijah comes down, and we see here in the final section God's final word. God's final word to King Ahaziah. Now, all of these other words, this question that was sent by Elijah, this question that was sent by his messengers, these signs of fire from heaven—these were all opportunities for this king to repent. But King Ahaziah refused to repent. And so he hardens his heart in pride and unbelief, and so God's final word comes through the prophet Elijah.

And we read in verse 16:

And he said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Beelzebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?—therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.'" So he died according to the word of the Lord that Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Here God gives his final word. And judgment falls on him. He worshiped false gods. He led Israel to do the same. When he is confronted by the true word of God from the true God of Israel, he refuses to repent, he hardens his heart. But as it turns out, there was a God in Israel. As it turns out, that God's word stands above every word. As it turns out, that word supersedes even the word of the king, that there is no word above the word of God. His word, God's word, stands above even the kings of the earth. Even the kings, even our president, even our governor, every authority is under the authority of the word of God. And when kings and people in authority refuse to humble themselves under the authority of the Word of God, the Bible is very clear that they will experience this kind of judgment from God, in this life and in the life to come.

And so it is with all of us. If we harden our hearts against the word of God, against the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we approach God's word in arrogance and in pride, setting ourselves up as authorities over the word of God, not humbling ourselves under the word of God, not approaching God in humility, but in arrogance, thinking that we are somehow sufficient on our own, we too will experience this kind of end to our lives. And friends, that's not what I want for anybody here this morning. God has the final word. His word is decisive. His word is the end.

Jesus is God's Final Word

Now, there's a story in the New Testament that connects to this story here. It's in the life of Jesus. And Jesus, like God, has been rejected by the people of Samaria. We read at the beginning that this happened in Samaria. Samaria was the capital city of these ten northern tribes of Israel. And Jesus, in his life, some 800 years later, is on his way to Jerusalem where he will die for the sins of mankind. He's there on his way to go do what God sent him to do: to redeem the world. And as Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, he passes by the same city, Samaria. The same city that we read about here. And this story we read about in Luke chapter 9.

And so Jesus, on his way to the cross, sends messengers ahead of him to the people of Samaria. Just like before, when God sent messengers to the people of Samaria, his prophets to the kings of Israel, calling God's people back to covenant faithfulness. Jesus, on his way to the cross, sends messengers ahead of him to go and see if they will welcome him in Samaria. You see, God was not welcome in Samaria, in the kingdom of Israel, in the time of the prophet Elijah. The question now stands: Well, Jesus, will God in the flesh, will he be welcome in Samaria as he approaches the cross?

And so he sends messengers into these towns ahead of him to see if they will welcome Jesus in, that Jesus might minister there to them. We know that wherever Jesus went, what did he do? He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He cast out demons. He opened blind eyes, he unstopped deaf ears. He taught them the word of God. He fed the multitudes. I mean, what more could you ask for? And yet, when the messengers enter into Samaria and say, "Jesus is on his way, would you like him to stop by and bless you?" They reply by saying, "He is not welcome here. Just keep walking on by, Jesus. Don't bother stopping. You can't come to Samaria."

So they refuse him. They reject him. And two of his disciples, named James and John, they have an idea. They say, "That sounds familiar. God's messengers rejected in Samaria. What happened the last time? Fire came down from heaven. Jesus? Would you like us to call down fire from heaven on these Samaritans?"

Now, when you read that story in Luke chapter 9, if you don't know the background, if you don't know this story, it seems like that's kind of an extreme escalation there, John and James. Kind of went from, like, one to 100 really quick. But they're logically concluding, Jesus is God's Messiah. Jesus is God's messenger. And this is what happened the last time they rejected the word of the prophet.

But Jesus tells them, "No. No. No. We're not calling down fire from heaven." Jesus rebukes them and tells them, "You are operating in the wrong spirit." Jesus says, "I did not come to destroy life, but to give life." And we read in John 3, verse 17, that the Son of Man did not come into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world through him might be saved.

You see, there was a time for the ministry of Elijah. There was a time for the ministry of John the Baptist, who came in the spirit of Elijah. Their job was to prepare the way for Christ. These men, they were bulldozers. There's no question about it. But Jesus did not come to be a bulldozer. Jesus came for a different purpose. Jesus didn't need to prepare the way; Jesus came to be the way. Not to pour out wrath from heaven, but to absorb God's wrath for us on the cross. Jesus says, "You're operating from the wrong spirit here, folks."

And Jesus—hear this—Jesus is God's final word. God's final word is Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh. And so we need to be very careful in the world in which we live. What spirit are we of? In the world that we live in that not a day goes by where we don't see people rejecting our Savior, blaspheming our Savior, taking his name in vain, living in open-handed, high-handed sin, rebellion, idolatry. We need to be very careful that we don't find ourselves with the wrong spirit in our hearts.

Jesus came to save sinners. And if we're operating in the spirit of, "I wish I could just call down fire from heaven on these people right now"—there was a time for that. But we live in a different time. We're to be of a different spirit. We're to be of the ministry of Jesus, the one who absorbed the wrath of God, who came to save the world, to save sinners, to call them to himself. Jesus is God's final word.

Where Are You Turning?

And so when you find yourself in a crisis, when you find yourself not knowing which way to turn, not knowing which way is up, your world turned upside down. Where do you turn? Where do you go? Friends, turn to Jesus. Turn to Jesus. He is God's answer to whatever it is that you are facing.

You might say, "Jesus, he won't accept me because of the things that I've done, the way that I've lived my life." Look at him on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God on your behalf. Look at him on the cross with arms outstretched, welcoming all who would come to him, who would come to him in faith and who would trust in him and in his word. You can come to Christ today. I don't know what burden you carry. I don't know what crisis you are in, but I do know that Jesus is the answer. Jesus said in the world, we would have tribulation, but he said, "Take heart, because I have overcome the world."

Where do you turn in moments of crisis? To friends, to neighbors, to lovers, to substance, to therapy devoid of the scripture, devoid of God? Where are you turning? Where are you placing your hope? Where are you going to for answers today? Let it only be Christ.

Now, friends are good. I'm not saying you can't go to friends. Counsel is good if it's godly and based on the word of God. But let us put our hope and our trust in our Savior, the one who bled and died to overcome the world.

You say, "I don't know if Jesus can handle my situation." Friends, he defeated death. He rose on the third day. If he can overcome death, I can promise you whatever you've got going on, he can handle it. He can deal with it. He is the true king, not on some manmade false throne. He is the true descendant of David. He's the true heir. And he sits on the throne of heaven, ready to hear, ready to act, ready to engage on your behalf, if you will come to him in faith. If you will trust in him.

Jesus is God's final word. Let us go to Christ in faith. Let us forsake all idols. Let us forsake all other forms of seeking answers outside of Christ, and let us go first to him and to him alone.

I'm not saying we can't go to doctors. I'm not saying we can't take our medication. That's not what I'm saying. I have to be clear about that. Those things are fine, those things can be good, those things can be used by God. But we don't put our faith in them. We don't trust in them. We trust in God. We put our faith in God, not in the pill in the bottle. God may use that, and glory be to him. But Jesus is where I'm putting my trust. And I pray that you would as well.

Easter Sunday 2026

Easter 2026

Matt Bell

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Good Friday 2026

Good Friday 2026

Matt Bell

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God's House

God's House

Matt Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon on 2 Samuel 7, preached on Palm Sunday, Pastor Matt explores David's well-intentioned desire to build a physical house for God and God's surprising response to instead build an eternal house for David. The pastor highlights how God’s promise of a lasting dynasty is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Son of David, who is actively building His indestructible church. Believers are challenged to respond to God's unmerited grace with humility and praise, recognizing that the church is the true, living house of God. Finally, the congregation is called to live as sanctified instruments, ready and useful to the Master in building His eternal kingdom.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction and Scripture Reading

Second Samuel chapter 7. We're going to look at the whole chapter here this morning, but we're going to begin by reading the first three verses today. Second Samuel chapter 7, verses 1 through 3. It says:

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent." And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you."

Father, we do thank you for your word this morning. I pray that you would plant it deep within our hearts. Lord, that as we study about this house that David wanted to build for you, and as we read about your promise to David, God, that we too would have a zeal for your house. We too would have a zeal for the work that you are doing in the world, and that you would use us to advance that work in the earth today. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated this morning. This is Palm Sunday today, and as we began our worship service this morning, reading from that account of the Israelites welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem on that day, that Sunday before he was crucified, it begins Holy Week.

I was looking at whether or not to continue our Year of the Bible series—as we've been going through the Bible together, taking a passage that we read and preaching from that passage that week—or pausing the series to do a Good Friday... or not a Good Friday, I'm sorry, I'm thinking ahead—to do a Palm Sunday sermon. But then I looked at the passages that we were going to be reading this week, and I saw that we were reading this passage from 2 Samuel chapter 7. Honestly, there's not a better Palm Sunday text in the Old Testament than this text we're going to be looking at today. So we're going to preach Palm Sunday from the Old Testament this morning. It wasn't a plan when I laid out the Bible reading plan at the beginning of the year. I don't think that far ahead. This is just a happy accident, or God's providence, that he placed this here for us this week.

The title of the message this morning is God's House. We're going to be talking about God's house today.

David's Desire to Build God a House

We saw here in these first three verses, the story begins with David, and he is in his house. David has come into his kingdom. God has established David as the king over Israel. The first king of Israel, Saul, God removed him. Even though Saul persecuted David, sought David's life, and tried to do everything in his power to stop God's plan of making David king, it didn't matter. God's plan and God's purpose stood, and God removed Saul and established David firmly as the king over the twelve tribes of Israel. It is now a proper kingdom that's united under David.

David had brought the Ark of the Covenant in the previous chapter, which represented the presence of God, back into the city—or for the first time, really, into the city of Jerusalem, the capital city. David had built a complex for himself, a palace. And God had given David rest, it says, on all sides from all of his surrounding enemies. David had gone to war with the Philistines and had conquered them, and there was peace in the land. There was peace, there was prosperity. The economy of Israel was doing well. Everything is going good for David in his kingdom.

He's living in this palace, the king's complex that he built, and he's looking at how wonderful it is and how magnificent it is, and how everything is going so well for him and his kingdom. Then he looks out and he sees God's ark, the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of God. He sees it out under a tent. Not in a house, not in a temple, but under a tent. That had been God's pattern up until that point because when God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, they were in the wilderness for 40 years; they were mobile. They had to go from place to place. So, God had prepared a tabernacle, a tent, to cover the ark.

But now everything has been firmly established, and the presence of God, the house of God, is just this shabby, temporary, worn-down, beat-up, 400-year-old tent. David looks at where he's at in his palace. It says a house made of cedar. It was glorious, it was magnificent. The intricate woodwork, the carving, and everything that he lives in is beautiful. He looks out, and he sees God's presence dwelling in this rundown, raggedy old tabernacle.

He looks at this picture and he says, there's something that's not right about this. It's not right for me to dwell in this kind of place and for God's presence to dwell in that kind of rundown tent. So David expresses this to the prophet Nathan. He says, "This isn't right. I want to do something about this. I want to build God a house."

And the prophet Nathan gives David his approval. He says, "God's with you. Whatever he's put in your heart to do, go for it." Nathan gives David the approval because David's desire was a right desire. David was motivated to generosity because of how good God had been to him. God had prospered David, blessed David, provided for David, taken care of David, and fulfilled his word that he had spoken to him. Now David is reaping all of the blessings and prosperity that have come to him from God. He says, "How is this right that I am so blessed, but God's house is in such shambles?"

This is a right motivation. He was motivated by how God had blessed him. Nathan gives his approval: "Go do it. Knock yourself out."

I think that there is much we can learn from David's example today as the people of God. David was a man after God's own heart, the Bible tells us. That means what God was concerned about, David was concerned about. What motivated God motivated David. David wasn't living for his glory; he was living for God's glory. He was concerned about the glory of God being expressed in the earth. That, too, should be a concern of ours as well. We should have a concern for the house of God. Are you concerned about God's house like David was? I don't think it's right for us to experience the blessing, provision, and protection we have from God and ignore his house. The place where God is worshiped should be a concern for his people if we're going to be people after God's heart.

Ultimately, as we read this story, David won't be the one who builds God's house. David won't be the one that builds the temple. But when the temple is eventually built, David will be the one who finances it. He personally finances the building of the temple. His son Solomon builds the temple, but David pays for it. He invests his wealth that he has acquired, that God has blessed him with, into the building of the house of God. I think there's something we can learn from that, church.

God's Promise to Build David a House

As the story continues into the second part, in verses 4 through 17, God makes a promise to David. David has this concern: "I'm concerned, God, about your house. It's not glorious. It's rundown, it's old, it's shabby. I want to do something for you, God."

That night, it says that the Lord came to Nathan. When Nathan had told David, "Go build the house," he was just operating out of his own mind, his own thoughts. He didn't hear from the Lord about what to do; he just gave David an answer off the top of his head. That night, God comes to Nathan and sort of knocks on his door and says, "Hey, Prophet Nathan, you maybe should have consulted me before you gave David the green light." God brings a word to Nathan to go and redirect David.

Let's look at that in verse 4:

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'"

God says, "I haven't been concerned about this. This isn't something that I've asked for."

Then in verse 8, I want you to pay attention to who is doing the action. Who is the active party in this promise that God makes to David?

"Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

This chapter begins with David wanting to build God a house. But God had other plans. David found out that his plans and God's plans weren't exactly the same. God sends the prophet Nathan with his word to realign David's plans, to get David's plans in alignment with God's plans. And hey, guess what? Sometimes we need that in our lives as well. Sometimes we have our own plans that aren't really lined up with God's plans. God will realign our plans with his word, getting our feet on the right path.

Not that David's motivation was wrong, but God had something bigger. God had something greater in store for David and his people. The plan God has is not for David to build him a house, but God is the one who is going to build a house for David. This is even better than what David had envisioned. David had envisioned him building a physical temple for God, but God comes and says, "I've got better plans for you." Listen, God's plans for you are better than your plans for you. Whatever your motivations are, God's plans and his ways are higher.

God is doing a play on words here. He's not going to tear down the castle that David built and build him a better one. When he talks about David's house, he's talking about a dynasty of kings that will come from David. A lineage, a heritage, offspring that will come after him, of royalty and kings who rule over this glorious and magnificent kingdom.

I asked you to take note of who was acting in these verses. It's God who is performing the action. It's not David in his scheming, his political maneuvering, or his military might that's going to bring all of this about. Eight times in this passage, God says, "I will." Over and over again, God tells David: I will make for you a great name. I will appoint a place for my people. I will give you rest from all your enemies. I will raise up your offspring after you.

God says, "David, you wanted to do this for me, but guess what? I'm gonna do something for you. And it's even greater than what you could have ever imagined." God is the one who is going to build this house because the house God wanted to be built was a house that no human hands could build. God will sovereignly act through history to accomplish the building of his house.

God says three times in this passage that the house he builds is a house that will stand forever. Think about that. When I'm in my house and I look around, I see this house is not going to be here forever. I hope this house makes it to next week, sometimes! The houses we build, the buildings we build, no matter how great and grand they are, are all temporary. The house that David desired to build for God would have been grand, but it would have been temporary. But God says the house I'm going to build for you—the dynasty, the legacy, the kingdom—is a house that will stand forever.

This is an incredible promise. A king's main concern is what will happen after he is gone. "What will happen to everything I've built? Will it last, or will it be squandered and destroyed? My son coming after me, what kind of king will he be?" But God gives David this beautiful promise: "No, David, your kingdom will be a kingdom that lasts forever."

David's Prayer of Praise

Next, we see how David responds to this great promise. He responds with this prayer in verses 18 through 29. What God promised to David was not based on who David was; it was based on who God was. David didn't earn this. It was God's grace being expressed to David. So the prayer that David prays is instructive for everyone who has received the grace of God.

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. And your name will be magnified forever, saying, 'The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,' and the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.' Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever."

When David hears this promise, he recognizes that God's promise is pure grace. He recognizes that he does not deserve it. Contrast this response with the previous king of Israel, King Saul. After King Saul had partially obeyed God—which we know is actually disobeying God—King Saul was so impressed with his partial obedience that he set up a monument to himself. He was so full of himself. But God comes and gives this promise to David, and David responds: "Who am I? Who am I?"

This is the right response to the grace of God. In verse 20, David is speechless. He says, "What more can I say? I have no words left. All I can do is overflow with praise." We see that in verse 22. "You are great, O Lord God. There is none like you and there is none beside you."

He goes on to say in verse 25, "O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken," and in verse 26, "and your name will be magnified forever." David's concern is not with his name, but with God's name and the glory of God. Finally, in verse 28, he responds by strengthening his heart by God's promise: "And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant."

Have you known the grace of God? How ought we to respond to God's grace? I think we should respond in the exact same way. If we have known something of our gracious God, we should like David cry out, "Who am I, O Lord? Who am I that you have saved me, that you have called me out of darkness, that you have put your love upon me, undeserving though we were in our sins and trespasses, yet you have saved us by the blood of your Son."

I don't know that we should ever get beyond marveling at the grace of God in our lives. The Apostle Paul never did. He referred to himself as the least of the apostles because he had previously persecuted the church of God. Paul says, "I'm the chief of sinners," yet God, by his grace, has saved me. We must never forget who we were without Christ. We must never forget where God took us from and where he is taking us, lest we be puffed up with pride. If there's any holiness in our life, any good fruit of the Holy Spirit, friends, it's God working in us.

David is concerned about the glory of God. "Lord, if you fulfill this promise to me, let it be to the praise of your glory." Likewise, we should live with the glory of God in view. Does the way you're living bring God glory? You have God's name on you, Christian. We must be zealous like David for the glory of God.

David holds fast to the promises of God. He says, "Your word is truth," and may we remind ourselves that God's promises are sure. Just like David didn't see the fulfillment of this promise in his day, we too are looking forward in faith to promises we won't see fully in this life. But it strengthens us on the fact that God is true and his word is true.

The Fulfillment of the Promise in Christ

I want to look at how this promise was fulfilled. As you continue to read 2nd Samuel and move into 1st and 2nd Kings, you see that Solomon, David's son, does become king after David passes away. Solomon does build a physical house, a temple for God. But unfortunately, Solomon was unfaithful to the Lord. At the end of his life, he was led astray to worship false gods, and to even build houses for them.

Because of this, God brings judgment on Solomon's house. The nation splits into a civil war, into two nations. Eventually, it leads to the downfall of both Israel and Judah and the destruction of the temple. The house that Solomon built was destroyed by the Babylonians. From that point, it took about 400 years for that to happen. Then, for 600 years, there was no kingdom of Israel. There was no throne. There was no descendant of David ruling.

The people of God kept coming back to the promise: "God, you said you would place a descendant of David on his throne forever. And yet there's no kingdom, there's no king, there's no throne. Where is your promise?" This is what the people of God wrestled with for 600 years.

Into that questioning, God would send his prophets to reassure the people that he has every intention of keeping his word to David. An example of this is from the book of Amos, chapter 9, verse 11:

"In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old."

God would tell his people, "Just wait. A day is coming when God will fulfill his promise." Like the people of God in the Old Testament, we live in a period where we have the promises of God, but we don't always see them fulfilled yet. We need to be reassured by the word of God. That's why we need messengers to preach to us the word of God, to remind us that he keeps his promises.

As you turn the page from the Old Testament to the New Testament, the very first verse says, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." The son of David who would reign eternally over his house is Jesus. Jesus is that son God had in mind when he made this promise.

That's why the crowds on Palm Sunday shouted what they shouted. Matthew 21:9 tells us they were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The crowds recognized Jesus as the rightful heir, the descendant of David who would establish the kingdom of God that would last forever.

When Jesus enters Jerusalem, where does he go? He goes to the temple, to the house of God. The temple had been rebuilt, but it hadn't been rebuilt for the glory of God. It was built for political purposes and the glory of men. When Jesus goes in, he cleans his house. He flips the tables. When he leaves the temple, he says, "Not one stone of this house is going to be left standing." This house is fading away. But what else does Jesus say? "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Jesus said, "I'm going to build the true house of God."

The True House of God: The Church

In Acts chapter 15—hang with me, I know this is getting kind of technical, try and hold these threads together—after Jesus dies, rises again, and ascends into heaven, Gentiles are entering into the church. The apostles don't know what to do about this. Everything God has been doing up until this point has been centered around the Jewish people. Now all these Gentiles are coming into the church. What do we do?

They get all the apostles together to discern the will of God. When you're trying to discern the will of God, the first place you should go is God's word. The apostles have a Bible study. The apostle James says:

"Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written..."

And then James quotes that verse from Amos, word for word:

"After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old."

What does this mean? According to the apostle James, the Gentiles coming into the church is the fulfillment of the promise God made to David! The promise to build David a house that would never end is being fulfilled by the nations streaming into the church.

What God had in view was not a physical building that could be destroyed. It was a house that no human hands could build. That's why God says, "I will build it." And that's why Jesus says, "I will build my church." There is no army on planet Earth that can destroy the church of God. Every power in earth and in hell has been trying to stop the advancement of the kingdom of God for the last 2,000 years, but friends, you and I are here this morning. We are part of the house that God is building.

Application: Being Useful to the Master

I began the sermon 43 minutes ago by asking you: Are you concerned about the house of God? Are you concerned about the church? We should be. David's concern was for God's house. This isn't just a place that we come and hang out for an hour and then go about our day. Our lives should be ingrained with one another. We should be encouraging one another, lifting each other up, sharing the word of God, and reassuring one another.

Yes, we should care about the condition of our church, but let us also never forget that the house God is building is done by God. Jesus is the one building his church. But you and I are the instruments that he wields in the construction of his house. You and I are the hammer that he swings. You and I are the materials that he uses. The master builder gets the credit, but we are the instruments he chooses to use.

I have one last scripture as I wrap this up today. It's in 2 Timothy 2:20-21. Paul says, speaking of the church:

"Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work."

Paul says that if we will work with the Holy Spirit and allow that cleansing process to take place in our lives, we make ourselves available for Jesus to use in the building of his house. I want to be useful to the Lord in the eternal house that he is building.

On this Palm Sunday, let us remember Christ is the King. He established his kingdom on the earth, a kingdom that will never end. The nations of this world are teetering and tottering. They will eventually be in the dustbin of history. But the kingdom that God is building is eternal, and it cannot be shaken. Let's make ourselves available to be used by the Lord in the building of his kingdom. Amen.

The True & Faithful King

A Tale Of Two Kings

Mark Bell

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Sermon Summary

This sermon, Pastor Mark examines the life of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15, highlighting three critical failures that ultimately led to the kingdom being taken from him: disobeying God's explicit word, blaming others for his sin, and fearing man over God. Though Saul claimed he had performed God's commandments, his partial obedience in sparing the Amalekite king and the best of the livestock was exposed as outright disobedience. By contrasting Saul's compromises and excuses with the perfect, sacrificial obedience of Jesus Christ—the true and better King who willingly took responsibility for our sin and submitted entirely to the Father's will—the congregation is challenged to give God their absolute best, own their sin in true repentance, and cultivate a reverent fear of the Lord rather than seeking the approval of men.

Sermon Transcript

And we are going to be continuing our journey, as we're calling 2026, the year of the Bible, continuing to go through God's Word. And so if you could open with me this morning to 1st Samuel chapter 15. We'll be looking at 1st Samuel 15 this morning, but before we begin, I'd like to pray.

Father, we thank you for another day to live for you, and another Lord's day, God, to be in your house. Lifting you up, magnifying you, the one true king. Lord, I pray that you would bless this time of your word going forth, Lord, that you would prepare hearts to hear from you today. We thank you for this, in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Year of the Bible

So if you're new to our church here today, we're calling 2026 the year of the Bible. And we've created a Bible reading plan for all of our church people to be reading through the Bible every day with the endeavor to read through the entire Bible this year. And so each Sunday we're taking a selected passage from that week's reading and preaching through it. I want to encourage you if you've been going along with us in this reading plan, and maybe you fell behind a little bit, not to give up. We print the following week's reading in the bulletin. So if you have your bulletin today, maybe you fell behind a little bit. Maybe you lost the Bible reading plan. You don't even know where it is. Instead of giving up, you can just pick up where we are continuing today. So you can look in there. And if you're new to the church, and this is the first year hearing of it, I want to encourage you. You can follow along as well. You can go to our website and pick up one of those Bible reading plans.

Israel Rejects God as King

This morning, we're going to be looking at King Saul. This week in our reading, we read all about King Saul. The reason there is a king is because the Israelites rejected God as their king. When God delivered the people out of Egypt, he brought them into the promised land, he gave them his law. He showed them how it was to live. God was their king. God ruled over the people of Israel through his law. Yes, there were judges who helped to apply God's law. There were the priests who taught God's law and showed how to worship. But God was their king. And a king's job is to establish law and uphold justice. And so Israel didn't need a king because God was their king and God had given them his perfect law.

But as you read this week, Israel rejected that law. They rejected God as king. And in 1st Samuel chapter 8, verse 5, Israel comes and they say to Samuel, the prophet, we want a king like the other nations. They had rejected the system of the judges. They said, we no longer want judges. We no longer want to be ruled by God's law. We want a king to rule over us like all the other nations. All the other nations at the time were pagan nations. So really what the Israelites were asking for was a pagan king. And so God gave them what they wanted. What we see in the life of King Saul is that he indeed was a king just like the other nations. And so we're going to look at this pivotal point in Saul's life today in 1st Samuel 15.

This morning, we're going to look at three failures of Saul that ultimately led to the kingdom being taken from him. Three failures, and then we're also going to look at Christ. Christ, the true and better king, and we're going to see how where Saul failed, Christ obeyed. As we look to Christ's example, we too can be obedient in our lives as well.

The Command to Destroy Amalek

So if you have your Bibles, hopefully that was enough time for you to find where 1st Samuel 15 is. Let's go ahead. I'm going to read verses 1 through 3. We're going to work our way through this whole chapter today. I'm not going to read the whole chapter up front. We'll look at a few portions and then talk through it and continue in that pattern. So 1st Samuel 15, verses 1 through 3, it says:

And Samuel said to the Lord, "The Lord sent me to anoint you"—he's talking to Saul—"king over his people Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have.'"

So here God commands Saul and his army to go and completely wipe out, annihilate, take out the Amalekites. And this might be hard for some of us to read because it goes on to say, leave no one, no survivors. Man, woman, child, infant, that all were to be what God says "devoted to destruction."

Now, it's important to know the context behind this. God says the Amalekites have opposed Israel, that they opposed the Israelites as they came up out of Egypt. We see this in Exodus chapter 17. If you've been reading through the Bible, maybe you remember that account where Israel went to fight the Amalekites, and Moses had to keep his arms in the air. As long as his hands were raised, Israel was victorious over Amalek, but if his hands began to fall, they would lose in the battle. So Aaron and another man came and held up Moses' hands, and as long as his hands were up, they were victorious. And so Israel was indeed victorious over Amalek on that day.

But what led to this was an unprovoked battle. Israel wasn't looking to go to war with Amalek. What happened was Amalek and the Amalekites actually came to the back of Israel's camp while they were traveling, and they started attacking the elderly and the children as they would be the ones in the back of the camp. If you've ever been on a hike with someone before or tried to hike with your little kids, they slow you down a little bit, right? You want to go at one pace, but they want to go at another. Multiply that by a million plus traveling through the wilderness. It was the elderly and the children who were behind in the pack, and the Amalekites came and started killing these elderly and children. And so this started this battle. Ever since then, up into this point, the Amalekites have been a thorn in the side of the Israelites.

And so God had decided here in this account, coming to King Saul, that now was the time that he was going to blot out the Amalekites. We see that God promised Moses that this would happen in Exodus 17:14. God says to Moses, after they had won the battle:

"Write this as a memorial in the book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

So God comes and gives a word to Saul, essentially saying, today is the day that I have decided to uphold my word, that the Amalekites are going to be no more. And I want you to understand, this wasn't a battle of conquest like they had done taking the promised land, where they were to take that land and hold onto that land, and they could keep some of the spoil. This was a battle of judgment. God was using the Israelites as his hand of final judgment on the Amalekites because of what they had done previously to Israel.

And if you see here where God says to destroy them, devote them all to destruction. The Hebrew term for this phrase "devote to destruction" is spelled H-E-R-E-M. It's pronounced herem. And what it communicates is to set something apart that belonged to God. So what God was coming and saying to the Israelites is, the Amalekites are to be no more; you are to give them all to me. Their time has come. Save none of them, save none of their flocks, save none of their possessions. All of it is to be destroyed. All of it is to be offered up to me.

And so Saul gathers 210,000 soldiers and they go and they defeat the Amalekites. And if that's all Saul did, if he obeyed God perfectly, this would be a very short chapter and a very short sermon. Maybe some of you are in here thinking, man, I wish Saul really would have obeyed. Because it's already getting late and I'm hungry. But that's not what happened.

Failure 1: Disobeying God's Word

So, Saul did defeat the Amalekites, but then we come to verse 9. And here we see the first of Saul's failures. So today we're going to be looking at three of these failures. The first one is that he disobeyed God's word. Let's look at verse 9. It says:

But Saul and the people spared Agag—

Agag was the king of the Amalekites.

—and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction.

So, they wiped out most of the Amalekites, but they saved the king and they saved the best of the cattle. Verse 9 is really the turning point of Saul's life. And it begins with a "but." Now, there are some good "buts" in the Bible. Ephesians 2 is one of those really good ones where it lists who we are, we fall short, we're sinful, we deserve God's wrath, but then it says, "but God being rich in mercy." That's a really good "but" in the Bible. This is not one of those. It says, but Saul and the people spared Agag and all of the best of the flock.

They didn't just keep some of the flock; they made a decision. We're going to keep the best of the livestock, and we're going to give God the worst. We're going to devote the worst to destruction. We're going to herem—we're going to consecrate to the Lord—the leftovers.

Giving God Our Best

And we need to be careful that we are not living in this way, where we give everyone else our best and we give God our leftovers. There are a lot of applications we can think about for this, but I want to look at a couple.

One of them is in our giving, in our tithing. That we don't wait till the end of the month and see if we have anything left over, and then if we do, well, that's what we'll offer up to the Lord with our giving. No, we should give God our first and our best. In the Old Testament, this type of giving was called a first fruit offering. They wouldn't wait to see after their crops if they had any left to offer up to the Lord. They would give the very first of their harvest unto the Lord. In doing so, they were saying, God, I trust in you that you're going to provide for me the rest of this season, that you're going to be faithful to me. And the same should be true with our giving. When we give our best to the Lord, when we give our first, when we budget our giving and our monthly budgeting first, instead of waiting until the end, what we're saying is, God, I trust that you are going to provide for me. God, I know what your word says, and I'm going to stand on it, and I am going to be faithful in my giving. So we want to be sure that we are giving God our best in our lives.

How about coming to church for worship? Are we giving God our best? What does it look like to give God your best when you come to worship on Sunday morning? Well, first, it would be being here. So everybody that can hear me and see me right now, in person, congratulations. You've taken that step of giving God your best on the Lord's day. Another one would be being here before 10 o'clock. It's amazing to think about, but that's what time church starts. And if we're to give God our best, being on time for church would certainly fall in line with that. I could poke y'all a little bit more on that point, but I would like Pastor Matt to have a church to come back to next Sunday. So I'll continue on.

But this is something important to think about, not just in giving and coming to church, but in all areas of our lives. What would giving God my best in this situation look like right now? This morning we were singing this song of laying our crowns down and giving our lives as an offering. This is what it means to give your life as an offering, that you give your best to the Lord in every area of your life. And when we do that, we are being obedient to God. There are passages that back this up, but one of them is whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly, as unto the Lord, and not unto men, that we are to give our best to the Lord.

The Danger of Partial Obedience

Okay, so now back to Saul's disobedience. God could not have been more clear. Leave no survivors, not even the king, not even the prize-winning rams and cattle. All of them were to be devoted unto the Lord. But Saul failed this, and God was not pleased. And we see this in verse 10. Verse 10 says:

The word of the Lord came to Samuel: "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night, and Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal." And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord." And Samuel said, "What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?"

This is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. Saul comes up. He has the audacity to come to Samuel and say, I have done exactly what the Lord has asked, all the while he's got this petting zoo just right over his shoulder. Samuel says, no, you haven't. You have not obeyed the Lord.

But here Saul thought that his partial obedience would be pleasing to God. He wiped out almost all of the Amalekites. He destroyed some of the livestock. Surely this was good enough. And if we're honest, we can be guilty of this too. We can put up an appearance of doing everything right. I have done what God asked. I've obeyed the big commandments. I haven't killed anybody. I haven't committed adultery. I'm not stealing anything. I have done what God had commanded. All the while, we've got these sheep and oxen just making all sorts of noise behind us in our lives. Let it not be this way.

Maybe there is something you're holding onto. Maybe there's some unforgiveness in your heart, maybe there's some jealousy, maybe you've seen that you're provoking your kids to anger. Maybe you've been looking at something that you know is not appropriate and you're saying, yeah, but that's just a little sheep. That's just a little cattle. I'm doing everything right in all of these other areas. Partial obedience is disobedience. And Saul had convinced himself that he had done the right thing. He says, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. But he was walking in disobedience.

Christ's Perfect Obedience

So now we've looked at man's king. We've looked at the king that the people wanted. Let's look at Christ's example for a minute. Everything that Christ did on this earth was in perfect submission and obedience to the Father. Jesus didn't come and just obey God up until the point that it was convenient for him and then say, you know what, that's enough. This is going to get uncomfortable if I have to continue obeying what you're asking me to do. No, where Saul's obedience was partial, Christ's obedience was total.

If Jesus had taken Saul's approach and only obeyed up until the point that it was convenient for him, none of us would be in here today. There would be no Christianity. There would be no gathering of the saints. There would be no Lord's Day to celebrate because there would be nothing to celebrate. But where Saul spared the life of the king and the livestock for his own benefit, where he spared the king's life, Jesus Christ gave up his own life for the benefit of us.

Let's look at Jesus' prayer on the night of his betrayal in Luke 22. Starting in verse 41, it says:

And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done."

Where Saul said, not your will, God, but mine be done. Jesus said, not my will, but yours be done. Paul says this of Christ in Philippians 2:8:

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So Jesus' obedience to God, it cost him his life. But he willingly went to the cross because of his love for us, but also because it was the will of the Father. It was what God was asking him to do. And God has now revealed himself to us through his law, through his word. We know what God is asking us to do as his children. And so there's a question that comes to us, are we going to live like Saul or are we going to live like King Jesus? Are we willing to obey the Father no matter what the cost, no matter how difficult, no matter how uncomfortable it might make things? And we can do this. We can be obedient as we look to Christ, the true and faithful king, the better king, as our example.

Failure 2: Blaming Others for Sin

Let's continue on here with verse 15. Saul then. So Samuel says, what is this that I hear? Notice the language here that Saul uses. Saul says:

"They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God. And the rest, we have devoted to destruction."

So when it was something bad, they're the ones that did it. But when it talks about devoting to destruction, notice he includes himself. We have devoted to destruction.

Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night." And he said to him, "Speak." And Samuel said, "Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, 'Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?"

And Saul said to Samuel, "I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek"—which he should have left that part out because he was just confessing his sin—"and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal."

So here we see Saul's second failure, and that he blamed others for his sin. When Saul was confronted with his sin, he did not accept responsibility. He didn't say, Samuel, you're right. I led poorly. I was supposed to be the leader of these people. I was supposed to be setting the example of what it looked like to obey God's word, and I failed. I have sinned, forgive me. He didn't do this. He dodged responsibility. He passed the blame onto everybody else.

But we must never have this attitude. We need to own our sin. When we are confronted with our sin, when we are convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit, we don't say, well, if only you knew what was going on in my life. If only you knew how stressful work was today, it wasn't my fault that I yelled at my kids. It was my boss's fault for giving me that report five minutes before I was supposed to leave. Maybe you've had this attitude before. Or maybe you just blame Adam for everything. If Adam wouldn't have fallen in the garden, I wouldn't have this sin nature. So really it's his fault.

No, we need to own our sin. Stop making excuses for your sin. Stop trying to justify it. Take it for what it is. I believe it was R.C. Sproul that said all sin is cosmic treason against the God of the universe. There's no little sins, there's no minor sins. All sin is cosmic treason. Recognize what your sin is, own it. Repent of it, confess it. And guess what? When you do that, you will find healing. You will find forgiveness.

But when you just ignore that sin or you say, well, it wasn't my fault, it was their fault. What did that lady think wearing that dress? What was I supposed to do? Not look at her? All the ladies are wearing yoga pants at the gym. What do they expect? No, you can look away, everybody. You can look up. Gyms have TVs up there, look at the TV. Scripture says to take every thought captive, not blame every thought on everybody else. Take responsibility for your sin. King Saul was called to lead his people, and he failed in his calling. Many of us are called as heads of households to lead our families. Let's not fail in this calling because we're dodging responsibility, and we're blaming everybody else for what is our problem, what is our sin.

Taking Responsibility Like Christ

So let's look to Jesus. Now you might be thinking, well, Jesus never sinned. He never blamed anybody for his sin because he had no sin. But you see, on the cross, Jesus did take responsibility for sin. He took responsibility for your sin. On the cross, Jesus took the wrath of God that was due us for our sin, and he said, I'll take it. Put it on me. Nevertheless, God, not my will, but yours be done. I will take of the cup for their sin.

I don't have time to read it today, but if you would like to this week, read Isaiah 53 and look at all that Christ did for us. He was bruised, he was crushed. He took on our iniquity. He took responsibility for our sin. And so when we blame others for our sin, we are following King Saul. When we take responsibility for our sin, we are following King Jesus.

Failure 3: Fearing Man Over God

So now let's look at the conclusion of this passage today. Starting in the second half of verse 23. Samuel says:

"Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king." Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord." And Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel." As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. And Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you."

Notice here, Saul finally confesses his sin, but it isn't until after he finds out what the punishment for that sin is. I don't think he was truly repentant of this sin. I don't think he was grieved that his sin was harmful to his relationship with the Lord. I think his concern was saving face politically. Notice he says, Samuel, come back with me. Don't depart from me. Let's show the people that me and you are still in good standing. He was concerned about the optics.

But this isn't true repentance. Repentance isn't feeling bad for the consequences of your sin. Repentance is being moved in your heart, being grieved in your heart, recognizing what your sin is in light of who God is. So here Saul gives his motivation for why he did this at the end of verse 24 where he says, I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

The third point today, Saul's final failure was a fear of man over a fear of God. Saul feared men more than he feared the Lord. Saul cared more about what the people wanted than what God had commanded. And you see, fear of man will lead to compromise. When you care more about what man thinks of you and what their feelings are and trying to please men, that's going to lead to a life of compromise. Whereas fearing the Lord leads to a life of obedience.

So think of the times in your life when you've given in to peer pressure. This happened because you cared what people thought about you. You didn't want to disappoint people. You wanted to be a people pleaser. You wanted to go along with the crowd. You didn't want to let them down. And we've all been guilty of this before. And I think we are where we are as a nation because we've been living this out over multiple generations where people don't want to make others uncomfortable. We don't want people to think that we're hateful, or we don't want to have difficult conversations with people because that might make things odd or awkward.

So we're not going to speak out about abortion because we might be viewed as having anti-women's rights. Or I'm not going to challenge the family member that I know is living with his girlfriend and in a relationship that's not right, because that could make things difficult on Thanksgiving. And when we get to the table together, it's going to be really awkward. Listen, this is having a fear of man over God. And I think as we play this out over multiple generations, now this is what we see in the culture where the darkness is really taking over. It's because we haven't been willing to speak out and carry the light, because we have had a fear of man over a fear of God.

Now, of course, in all we do, when we talk to people, we do it in love. We share the truth of God's word. We don't have to be ugly with people. But if we do love those in our lives, we should be willing to speak up. Because of who God is. Because of what God has done for us. Galatians chapter 1, verse 10, Paul says this:

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Listen, you can't have two masters. You can't be worried about serving man and also serving Christ. Man is always going to rise up to the top. We need to have that right fear of the Lord. God being holy, holy, holy, righteous and just and true. You see, eternity is at stake here. Your soul is at stake. The glory of God is at stake. So the question is, who will you serve? Are you going to serve man and their opinions, their preferences, or are you going to serve Christ and his kingdom and be obedient to his word?

Christ's Command to Fear God

Once more, let's look to Jesus as the better, true king, the better example. What does he say about this? Well, Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 10, he says:

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."

Where are you denying Christ today? Where in your life are you choosing man over God because of your fear of men? Submit that to the Lord. Jesus had been telling his disciples right before this, look, you're going to be persecuted, you're going to be beaten, you're going to be flogged. But who cares? The worst thing they can do is usher you right into my presence. Have a right fear of the Lord. And we know the disciples took this to heart. They obeyed it, and countless others all throughout history have lived this out. They've been willing to sacrifice their lives, to stand for the truth of God's word, to defend the faith, no matter the cost. Because of that, the church is still standing today. And the church will continue to advance. God's kingdom will continue to advance as men and women stand up and say, men can do whatever they want to me. I follow Christ, I serve Christ. I'm going to speak the truth of Christ, whatever may come. Christ is my king. Amen.

And so do you have this fear for the Lord? This isn't a terror of the Lord, where if you sin, you're looking over your shoulder that God's going to strike you dead for your sin. No, it's a reverence for him. It's recognizing that he alone is holy, holy, holy. It's having a deep respect and admiration for who God is. Do you have this desire to please the only one who is worthy of praise?

Peter had this desire. Peter had a right fear of the Lord on the day of Pentecost. But what we see with Peter is also true for us. Peter in himself, in his own flesh, there's no way he would have been able to stand up in front of 3,000 Jews and say, you know what? It was actually you who crucified Christ and put him on the cross. Nobody could get up in their own power and do that. But he was given the Holy Spirit. And that same spirit that is in Paul, that same spirit that is in Peter, that same spirit that was in the disciples, that same spirit that was in Polycarp, that same spirit that was in Martin Luther, that same spirit that was in Leonard Coote, who founded this church 85 years ago in 1941, that same spirit is in you. And in the power of his spirit, you can stand up and say, I am going to follow Christ my king no matter what the world does to me.

Conclusion: Following the True King

And so maybe today you found yourself caring more and more about the opinion of man and less about pleasing the Lord. Look, repent. Don't make excuses. Don't say, well, you don't understand all the pressures at work. If I don't go to happy hour and have one or two or ten beers, everybody's going to think that I'm a bad person, or I don't care about socializing with your teammates. Look, who cares? If they think that, they think that, and if you get fired, you get fired, but your witness hasn't been harmed and Christ has been glorified. That needs to be our approach, not just at work, but in every area of our lives, and that is what it looks like to rightly be obedient. That's what it looks like to follow the one true king.

So this morning, we've seen two examples of kings. We've seen Saul and his three failures. He disobeyed the Lord. He blamed others for his sin, and he feared men over God. But also we've seen Christ's obedience. We've seen the one true, faithful king. We've seen that he obeyed God's word, he took responsibility for our sin, and then he feared God over man.

And so I pray that we'll all look to Christ's example. We'll all remember his example, but not just remember his example, but live it out and live it out every day of our lives in submission to our true king. Amen.

Hannah's Song

Hannah's Song

Matthew Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores "Hannah's Song" in 1 Samuel 2, presenting it as a prophetic portrait of God's character and His upside-down kingdom. The message is structured around around three main points: who the Lord is (holy, our rock, all-knowing, and the ultimate judge), what the Lord does (ruling sovereignly by reversing the natural order to exalt the humble and bring down the proud), and our required response (a life of total worship and surrender). By contrasting earthly kingdoms—where rulers lord their power over subjects—with the kingdom of God, demonstrated supremely by Jesus washing His disciples' feet and dying on the cross, the sermon emphasizes that God uses the weak and lowly so that He alone receives the glory. Ultimately, the message points to Jesus Christ as the true King and Messiah who will judge the earth and reign forever.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

We're going to jump right into the word of God this morning. So if you have your Bibles, open with me to 1 Samuel chapter 2. We're in a series called The Year of the Bible. We're taking the year of 2026 to work our way through the whole Bible together as a church and to read through the Bible together as a church. In your handout, you'll see that the chapters for this week are there printed for you. I encourage you to be reading along with your church family this week.

Just at the end of last week, the last couple days, we made our way into the book of 1 Samuel. And so for the next couple of weeks, we'll be reading through 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. These are incredible books of the Bible. Some people's favorite books of the Bible, because of the stories that are in here—just fascinating stories that not only are good to read, but also edify the soul. So I would highly encourage you to be reading with us the next several weeks, through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel.

Today we're taking our sermon from 1 Samuel chapter 2. First Samuel chapter 2 is known as Hannah's song. I want to give you a little bit of background from chapter one, and then we'll read the text and work our way through it this morning. But in chapter one of 1 Samuel, we're introduced to a family of a man who has two wives. One of his wives is very fruitful and has lots of children. His other wife is named Hannah, and she is barren. She's not able to have children. And she goes to the Lord, to his tabernacle, and she cries out to the Lord, and pours her soul out to the Lord because of her brokenness of not being able to bear children. It's something that she desperately wants to do and desires to do.

I don't know exactly what the relationship is between your husband's other wife. I don't know if that's a formal relationship, but her counterpart—we'll call it that—made life very difficult for her, mocking her, belittling her. It was a difficult life that Hannah had because of her situation. And so she goes to the Lord, she calls out to the Lord, she cries out to the Lord, and she pours her soul out to God. And the priest who's there at the time, a man named Eli, mistakes her for being a drunken woman because of how sorrowful she is and how expressive that she is. And when she says, "I'm not drunk, I'm just brokenhearted," Samuel says to her, "May the Lord give you the request that you've prayed for."

And as we read the rest of 1 Samuel chapter one, the Lord gives her a son and she names that son Samuel. And she takes Samuel to the Lord and dedicates him to the Lord, and Samuel lived his whole life in the presence of the Lord and in the work of the Lord.

Well, chapter 2 of 1 Samuel, this prayer or this song that Hannah prays or sings to the Lord, it's a song of thanksgiving and celebrating of the work of God and what he's done in her life. But it's placed here at the beginning of these books, 1 and 2 Samuel, foreshadowing the events that will take place. Foreshadowing the events that will take place in these stories that revolve around the kings of Israel, specifically King Saul and King David. And it's foreshadowing not only King Saul and not only King David, but the fulfillment of the kingdom of God, that is only realized in Israel's true Messiah, Christ Jesus. And so all of that is in this song. And so with that introduction, why don't we stand again this morning as we read this song?

Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 2:1-10

1 Samuel chapter 2. We're looking at verses one through 10 here this morning. It says:

And Hannah prayed and said, "My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the Lord: for there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed."

Prayer

Father, we do thank you for this song, your word. Lord, we thank you for the way it shows us who you are, the way it shows us what you do. And Lord, I pray that as we dive into this morning, that you would speak to each heart that is here. Lord, you are the God who speaks today. You speak by your spirit. You speak through your word. We're here this morning to worship you, to be in your presence, and to hear from you. Lord, I pray that you would help me to communicate what it is that you want your people to hear this morning. Lord, that we would be edified, that we would be strengthened, that we would be built up in our faith, that you would use us for your glory in the earth today. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.

You may be seated this morning.

Point 1: Who the Lord Is

There's three things in this song that I want to draw out for you this morning from Hannah's song. As I mentioned, she's weaving together these themes of kings and kingdoms, of the Lord's anointed. It ends with saying that the Lord will give power to his anointed. This is the first time in the Bible that this idea of the anointed one being a person is used. We've read through the Bible of certain people being anointed for ministry. The priests were anointed with oil. But this is the first time that someone is called his anointed. And the word anointed is the word Messiah. It's the word for Christ. This is the very first time that we're getting a glimpse of the king above all kings, this figure who will rule and reign over God's kingdom. And in this, we see glimpses of Saul, the first king of Israel. We see glimpses of David, the greatest king of Israel, but it's all pointing us towards Christ, who truly is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

In this song, there's really three things that stand out as we read through it. And the first is who the Lord is.

It begins by telling us that the Lord is holy, verse 2. There is none holy like the Lord. This idea that God is holy, or that the Lord is holy—this is God's defining characteristic. Who is God? God is holy. Twice in scripture it tells us that God is not only holy, but that God is holy, holy, holy. This three-times repetition of the attribute of God's holiness is exalting this attribute of God to the highest degree. In Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3, it's speaking of the angels in the throne room, and it says, they say to one another, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory." At the end of the Bible, John, in the book of Revelation, he has another vision of the throne room of God. And it says, the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around them and within, and day and night, they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come."

Both of these visions that the prophet Isaiah has, that John the Revelator have, they're visions of God in heaven, seated on his throne. And no other attribute of God is exalted to the highest degree like God's holiness. There are other things that we read about God. God is love. God is just. God is merciful. God is patient. God is kind, but there's only one attribute that is exalted in this way, that is highlighted in this way, and that is God's holiness.

What this means is that holiness is God's defining characteristic. This is who God is. God is holy. And what this means to be holy, it means to be totally separate in a category all by himself. That's why the next verse says that there is no one besides you. There's no one beside God. There's no one who stands next to God as his equal. We just saw the Olympics a few weeks ago. They have the gold medal, the silver medal, the bronze medal. They put them on the podium. And the gold medal stands a little bit taller than the silver medal, but the silver medal's next to them. And then the bronze medal is a little bit lower and next to them. But that's not how God is. There's no one next to God. There's no one besides God. There's no one, he says, no one holy like the Lord. Only God is holy.

And this is describing God in his transcendence, in his glory, in his majesty, just how high and far above us and all of creation that God is. The angels aren't holy. Nothing a part of creation is holy. Only God is holy, totally separate, totally exalted, totally transcendent, totally perfect in everything that he does. God is in a category all by himself. There is none beside him. We sang that in our song this morning. I don't know if you remember that. We sang that, "Holy, there is no one like you. There is none beside you." What is that saying? It's saying there's no one who compares to God. At all. He's in a category all by himself. No one is God's equal and all are subordinated under him.

Unfortunately, humanity in our fallen state, we do not live in this revelation. Since we ate of the fruit in the garden, ever since then, we have thought that we can be like God. That we are not under God and under God's authority and his rule and reign, but that we can be like God, determining good and evil for ourselves. But that is not the truth. The truth is that only God is holy, and that he is high and exalted. That's the first thing that this song tells us about God.

It goes on to say in verse two, not only is God holy, not only is there none beside him, but also in verse two, it says there is no rock like our God. What does that mean? It means God is our shelter. It means God is our protector. It means God is our strength. It means God is our sure foundation. In Psalm 46:1, it says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Are you in trouble? You need God. Is our world in trouble? Our world needs God. God is our refuge and strength. God is our rock. There is no rock like our God. In Psalm 34:8, it says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." God is our rock. He is our shelter. He is our stronghold. He is our protector.

And because of that, we can trust in God. When the world is topsy-turvy, when we don't know what's going to happen from one day to the next, where do we look for our security? Where do we look for our sense of protection? What are we trusting in as the people of God? Are we trusting in our military might? Are we trusting in our strength? If that's what we're trusting in, our faith, that will never keep us. That is not enough. Strength in natural means is not enough. Natural means will always fail us. Are we trusting in our political leaders? I hope you're not. I hope you've learned by now in life that whether they're from the left or the right or from Mars, wherever they're from, men will fail you. So the Bible tells us, do not put your trust in princes or men, but place your trust in the Lord. God Almighty, he is our rock. If the events of the day don't show us just how feeble and frail and imperfect and prone to error human leaders are, mankind is, I don't know what will expose that to you. If you feel uneasy in the times that we are in, could it be because you've been placing your trust in something or someone other than God and God alone? Everything and everyone but God will fail. God is our rock. And there is no rock like our God.

She goes on to say—I'm not used to saying that, so I might say 'he' a few times—she goes on to say that God is a God of knowledge. The Lord is a God of knowledge. We see this in verse 3. So not only is God holy, not only is God a rock, our shelter, our protector, but God knows all. God sees all. This is wonderful news because it means that nothing is a surprise to God. Nothing catches him off guard. Nothing happens that is outside of his ultimate plan of redemption for the world because God is a God of knowledge. He knows all, he sees all, and he is sovereign over all. God knows the events of our lives. God even knows the very thoughts and intentions of our heart. God even knows us better than we know ourselves. You know, you can deceive yourself. But you cannot deceive God. God is all-knowing, he sees all. He knows all that has been and all that will be.

In verse 8, it tells us not only does God know all, but that God is the Creator God. He's the one who has created the world. He's the one that has set it into motion, and he is the one who upholds the world as the book of Hebrews tells us, upholds the world by the word of his power. The world is sustained by our God, our Creator God.

And finally, in verse 10, it tells us that he will judge the ends of the earth. The Lord is the judge. The judge of the living and the dead, he is the one who judges mankind. God is the faithful judge. This is who our God is. He is holy. He is our rock. He knows all. He sees all. He's the Creator. He formed and fashioned each one of us in our mother's womb, and he is the one who gave us our life, and the one at the end of our life, who we will ultimately stand in front of. This is who Hannah tells us the Lord is.

Point 2: What the Lord Does

Then she moves on from who the Lord is, to what the Lord does. That's our second point this morning. Who the Lord is, now what the Lord does. And in these verses, she gives us an Old Testament portrait of the kingdom of God. We can see how the kingdom of God will play out under the rule of King Saul. We can see how it will play out under the rule of King David. And even in these stories, it tells us to hope for and to long for a future king who will sit on David's throne forever and ever, who we know is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.

But in verses 4 through 8, it tells us how God, who is King over all kings, how he governs the world, what the Lord does. The first thing is that the Lord rules sovereignly. He sovereignly rules. Listen to what it says in verse four:

The bows of the mighty are broken. But the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren have borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and the Lord brings to life. He brings down to Sheol, that's the grave, and he raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts.

And then verse 8:

He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts up the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them, he has set the world.

This is a portrait of the kingdom of God here in the Old Testament. In the kingdom of God, we know is an upside-down kingdom. It's an upside-down kingdom from the kingdoms of the world or the kingdoms of men. It's not like the earthly kingdoms of the world, and Jesus will tell us this in Matthew chapter 20 and all over the gospels. We see ways in which Jesus says that his kingdom, the kingdom of God, is not like the kingdoms of men. It's not like earthly kingdoms.

And in Matthew chapter 20, we have this story of the mother of James and John coming to Jesus, and in Matthew 20, verse 20 and 23, it says, the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, kneeling before him. She asked for something. And he said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom."

Now, a couple things here. First, we've just learned and we've been reading that God is holy. And there's no one beside him. And so this tells us that John and James' mother has a lower view of Jesus than what he really is. Or she has a very high view of her sons. It's one or the other. And so she says, when you come into your kingdom and you are seated on your throne, and you are exalted, I think it'd be great if my two sons were right there next to you. One on your right hand and one on your left. What's better than one throne? Three thrones. This is gonna be great. This great idea.

So that's the first thing, is she has a lower view of God and an elevated view of man. Obviously, she doesn't know here that Jesus is God in the flesh, that hasn't been revealed to her yet. Jesus' glory was veiled in his humanity, in his flesh. That's something that's perpetually being revealed to them. And so, having not this revelation yet, this statement is absolutely absurd on its face. But the second thing I want to bring out to you is the weasel-like nature of James and John that sends their mother to ask this question of Jesus, that they couldn't do it on their own, that they had to get their mother involved in this. So there's that going on there as well.

Jesus does not say, "Hey, that's a great idea. I wish I would have thought of that." No, that's not what he says. In verse 22, he says, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" The cup, if you'll recall, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is praying, pleading with the Father, he says, "Father, if there is any way, let this cup pass from me." The cup was a representation of God's wrath that would be poured out on Christ for sin. It was a picture of all that Christ was going to endure in his ministry of substitution on the cross. So he's saying, you want to be exalted like me. Are you able to drink the cup that I'm going to drink, the suffering that I'm going to endure? They said to him, "Yeah, we are able. We can do that. No problem. Sure." He said to them, "You will drink my cup"—what he's saying there is, you are going to suffer. You are going to suffer. They're not going to suffer in the same way that Christ did, but we know that both James and John will suffer greatly for their witness as apostles of Christ. He says, "You will drink my cup." They didn't know what they were saying, but Jesus did. "You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

Now, look at this in verse 24. And when the ten heard it—that's the other disciples, the rest of the disciples—they were indignant at the two brothers. They were angry at them. And I think they were probably angry because they didn't get their mom to go ask Jesus this first. They beat them to the punch. And Jesus, trying to tamp all of this desire for self-glory, self-glorification down in the hearts of his disciples, he calls his disciples to him, and he says, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles," the kingdoms of the earth, the kingdoms of men, "you know that they lord it over their subjects, and that they exercise authority over them." Basically, the kingdoms of men press people down. They're totalitarian. They abuse people, they lord their authority over them. They subserviate people. He says, you know that this is how the world works, the kingdoms of men, the Gentiles. But verse 26, he says, "It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you, must be your servant. And whoever would be first among you must be your slave. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Jesus is in explicit form saying what Hannah had sung about in her song, that the kingdom of God is not to be like the kingdom of men. To be great in the kingdom of God means to be the least, means to be the servant of all. Do you want to be great in God's kingdom? Serve others. Sacrificially give to others without expecting anything else in return. Serve others, love others, give to others in the name of Christ, without any expectation whatsoever, only to be a blessing. Jesus says, it is those who live this way who will be great in the kingdom of God, and that you are to follow my example just as I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life.

The greatest pictorial, practical example of this that Jesus does for his disciples is in John chapter 13, when Jesus does what? He washes his disciples' feet. There's such a shocking thing that Jesus would do this, and that day it was so far beneath a teacher, a rabbi, to do that for his followers, his disciples. That was the task reserved for the lowliest of servants or slaves. And yet Jesus takes off his outer garment and wraps himself in a towel, dressing himself as a servant, and goes around and washes each of his disciples' feet. When he gets to Peter, Peter says, "You cannot do this. I will not allow you to do this." And Jesus says, "If I don't wash you, you have no part in me." Jesus is saying, I have to wash you. I have to cleanse you and say, a picture of the saving work of Christ.

How humbling it is to have Jesus wash us. How humbling it is, because we were so broken, because we were so unable to clean ourselves. Like a small child who's unable to take care of itself or to change its diaper. Or an elderly parent who's lost the ability to care for themselves, and now they have to be cared for by their own children. What a humbling experience, to have Christ stoop so low to wash us. Christ has washed us much more. He's washed much more than just our dirty feet. If it was so shocking to the disciples that Jesus would stoop so low to wash their feet, how much more shocking and humbling to us should it be that Christ left heaven's throne to be born in a manger, to die on a cross, the most shameful and wretched of deaths. To shed his blood to cleanse our sins. Something we don't deserve, by the way. We don't deserve. We don't deserve it. It's so humbling to be washed by Jesus. To need his salvation because we are so weak, because we are so broken, because we are so sinful. Not a day goes by, not a week goes by that we don't need his cleansing power. We could try as hard as we like. It's still not enough. We still need his cleansing every single day. How humbling it is to need to be washed by Jesus. Much more humbling than a parent needing to be cleansed and bathed by their own child.

Do you feel that? Do you feel that in your soul? When we take communion, when we look to Christ, when we sing of his work of redemption on the cross, his great cleansing power, are you humbled by that? It should humble you. It should humble you that Christ would stoop so low to wash us clean of sin. But Jesus says to his disciples, as I have done for you, now you go and do likewise. As I have loved you, if I have served you, as I have washed and cleansed you, you go and love and serve others. That is what it means to be great in the kingdom of God.

See, the kingdom of God is a great reversal of the natural order. The natural way of things. The kingdom of God is the opposite of that. It's upside down from that. It's not for my glory, it's for God's glory. It's not that I exalt myself, but it's that I humble myself. Jesus says, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

As the story in Samuel continues, Saul, the first king of Israel, he's someone who represents the kingdoms of man. The children of Israel, they cry out, they say, give us a king like the other nations. We want to be like the other nations. So God says, all right, I'll give you a king like the other nations. And he gives them a king who looks the part. Who is head and shoulders above everybody else, he is strong, he is tall, he is physically superior. He has an intimidating presence. Everyone looked at Saul and said, that's a king I can get behind. He looks like a king. But Saul lacked the inward strength of character. He had the physical attributes of someone that we would think looks like a king, but he lacked the heart of a true king to rule in God's kingdom.

And so David, the second king of Israel, represents the king of the kingdom of God. He's a picture of Christ. He did not look the part, but he had the right heart. David didn't look like a king. When Samuel, the prophet, goes to anoint David to be the next king of Israel, David is overlooked. He's overlooked by others, he's overlooked even by his own father, that it didn't even dawn on him that maybe Samuel's here to anoint David. He just left David out there taking care of the sheep. He was young, he was small. He wasn't much to look at. Isaiah 53:2 tells us that Jesus wasn't much to look at either. He didn't have a physical presence about him that was appealing, it says, in Isaiah 53.

And so the kingdom of God is this great reversal. It's a reversal of the natural order of things. And so we read about that in verses 4 through 8. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap. If that's not a picture of salvation, I don't know what is. Lifting us from the dust, lifting us from the great spiritual poverty that we are all in in our sin. This great reversal of the natural order. The natural order is death and decay. That's the natural order. But the kingdom of God is not death and decay. The kingdom of God is death and resurrection. Death and resurrection. This is why it says, God brings down to the grave, but he raises up again. Who is it that can lift us up? Who is it that can raise us from our spiritual poverty? Who is it that can bring the dead back to life? It is only God. It is only God. It's a reversal of the natural order. It's death, and then resurrection. We must die to ourselves, and the apostle Paul will say that I die daily. We must die to ourselves, to our flesh, to our natural desires every day. Why? So that the resurrection power of Christ and the Holy Spirit can live in us, can be resurrected in us.

The good news is that God is still building his kingdom today. God through Christ on his throne is still establishing his kingdom in the world, not by the strength or the wisdom of man, but with those whose hearts are fully surrendered to him. Sometimes people think, well, God can't use me because I'm not smart, I'm not strong, I don't look the part. I'm not famous. Nobody knows me. I come from the lowliest of families. I come from this side of San Antonio, from this kind of family. I went to this kind of high school. There's no way that God could use me in his kingdom. Friend, if that's you, that's exactly the kind of person God loves to use. God can't use me, I'm like this. God can't use me, I'm not like that. God loves to use the lowly. Because then he gets the glory. He gets the glory.

We read about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26. Paul writing to the Corinthians, he says, "Consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards." That's kind of a funny thing to say to people. Consider this, church: Most of you aren't very smart. Just consider that. You didn't go to Oxford, you didn't go to Yale, you didn't go to Harvard. When I bring in speakers who do, you look at them and say, what is this guy talking about? I bring Joe Boot to talk to you, and you all just, what is this guy saying? If that's not an affirmation that we're not wise, according to earthly standards, I don't know what is. Look, we're not the best educated. That's what Paul's saying to them. If it fits for you, you can say, thank you, Jesus, I take that. "Not many of you were powerful," Paul's writing to the Corinthians. You don't have a lot of earthly power. When you walk into a room, nobody stands up, nobody notices. "Not many of you were of noble birth." We don't come from prestigious bloodlines. Maybe you do. I don't know. I know I certainly don't. He says, consider this. Think about this. These are worldly standards. These are things that the world glories in. Where did you go? Who do you know? What's your natural bloodline? These are the ways of men. These are the things that men take pride in. He says, not many of you were from that sort of background. Verse 27, "But God chose..." God chose you. "God chose what is foolish in the world." Why? "To shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are." Why did God do it this way? "So that no human might boast in the presence of God." Why did God choose you? Because you were so messed up. He could get the glory out of you. So that any good, any fruit that comes from your life, everybody knows, it had nothing to do with them. That has to be God. That has to be God.

The kingdom of God is a great reversal of the natural order. What the world thinks will bring about victory, God is using the opposite to establish his kingdom in the earth. Are you uneducated? That's okay. God can still use you. Are you from a poor background? It's okay. God can still use you. Do you have a bloodline that is more complicated than X, Y, and Z? God can still use you, and God delights to use you. God loves to use people like that, so that he can get the glory in our lives.

Is this the first thing that God does? Am I still on the first thing? I don't know what I'm on. Okay. Look at something else God does in verse 9. "He will guard the feet of his faithful ones." He will guard the feet of his faithful ones. Some of us have alarms at home. We set the alarm when we leave the house, we set the alarm when we go to bed at night. It makes us feel good that we have somebody watching out for us. How much better to know that God himself is the one who's guarding us? God himself is the one who is guarding the feet of his faithful ones. This is what God does for his people. He guards us. He protects us. He keeps us. He ultimately is guarding our hearts against the assault of Satan. Remember, Satan comes and he asks Jesus, he says, "I want to sift Peter as wheat." That means I want to shake this guy until almost nothing is left. And I'm sure Peter was thinking when Jesus told him this, "And you told him no, right? Jesus? You told him you weren't going to let him sift me as wheat. That's what you told him, right?" But what does Jesus say to Peter? He says, "Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail." I would be thinking, "Oh, could you just tell him no?" But the truth is, that what he told Peter should have brought Peter so much comfort. In the days in which Peter was preaching the gospel and being persecuted, days in which Peter was being thrown in jail and beaten for his witness: Jesus prayed for me. Jesus is interceding for me. Jesus is upholding me right now. He is the one who is the guarantee, the author, and the perfecter of my faith. Amen. This doesn't rely on me and my ability and my natural strength. God is the one who protects the faithful, who guards the feet of his faithful ones. He's the one who guards our hearts against the attacks of the enemy. This is good news for us.

Verse 9, he says not only does God guard the faithful, but "the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For not by might shall man prevail." No matter how strong you are, you cannot stop God or his sovereign plan. "The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces," it says in verse 10. Those who oppose God and oppose his plan and oppose his work and actively work to stop and to thwart and to undermine the advancement of his kingdom in the world, they will be shattered like pottery. They will be broken to pieces. This means broken beyond repair. God is the sovereign actor in history. His plan and purpose is what will prevail. He will guard his faithful ones, the wicked will be cut off. No one can oppose him. History truly is His story. God is writing his story across the pages of history.

And ultimately, at the very end, we will all stand before him, as it says, the Lord will judge, not just this kingdom that we're in, the kingdom of Israel as Hannah singing this song, but the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will judge the ends of the earth. And Paul tells us this in Acts 17:31, that God will judge the ends of the earth because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. We will all stand before Christ one day. Are you ready to stand before him today? We're not promised tomorrow. We have to be ready to meet the Lord today. We could be ushered into his presence at any moment. He could return at any moment. No man knows when he is coming. And when we are in his presence, we will stand before him, and he is the judge. And we will either be found clothed in the righteousness of Christ that comes through faith in his finished work on the cross, or we will be found clothed in our sins, which are as filthy rags. He is the judge.

And finally, she concludes by saying, "He will give strength to his king and exalt the power of his anointed." This is looking forward to Christ. This is looking forward to the true Messiah, the true anointed one, the Christ, the King of all kings. That God will raise his exalted and seat him at his right hand as we know exactly that that is what God has done in Christ. In Acts chapter 2, verse 30, Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, says this, speaking of David and the Psalms that he wrote, he says, "Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him, to David, that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, that David foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ"—that's Jesus—"that he was not abandoned to Hades." He's not still dead. "Nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, 'The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'"

So Peter concludes that reflection on the Psalms and everything that David had written. And he says this: "Let all the house of Israel, therefore, know for certain that God has made him"—that's Jesus—"both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Listen, Jesus is exalted. He is at the right hand of God. He is expanding his kingdom. His kingdom began through his death and resurrection and ascension, and he right now is building his kingdom in the earth today, and he is sitting at the right hand of the Father until all of his enemies are put under his feet. We can either be a part of his kingdom, or we can oppose his kingdom, but there is no in the middle. And what happens for those a part of his kingdom? His faithful ones, he guards, and he protects. Those who oppose him are crushed. This is the reality of the kingdom of God. This is what the Lord does, and this is who the Lord is.

Our Response

Which brings me to my concluding third and final point today, which is our response. And our response is worship. And she began with this in her song. And so in verse one, she began by saying, "My heart exults in the Lord. My strength is exalted in the Lord. I rejoice in your salvation." Our response to who God is, who the Lord is, our response to what he has done is to worship him, to exalt him, to magnify him, to glorify him. To live our lives, not for our own name, but for the glory of his name. That he would be exalted in our lives.

Can you sing this with Hannah this morning, that my heart exults in the Lord? And I live to worship him, to exalt him, to magnify him, not just on Sunday, but on Monday through Saturday, that he is the one who has our heart. He is the one who has our affection. He is the one we are living for. He is the one we are laboring for. Not to build a name for ourselves, but to build a name for Christ in the earth. I pray that that is what you are living for. I pray that it is to Christ that you have devoted all of your life and all of your heart. Let our lives be devoted to the Lord, the anointed King, to the one who alone is holy, holy, holy. Let our lives be completely devoted to the one who is sovereign over all. The one who protects the faithful and destroys the wicked. The perfect judge who judges in perfect righteousness, a judge who is not swayed by political pressures, a judge who is not swayed by the changing tides of culture, a judge who cannot be bribed or cannot be blackmailed, but the one who is the perfect judge of all history, let us live our lives in complete surrender and total adoration to Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.

Sin & Compromise

Sin & Compromise

Matthew Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon on Judges chapter 2, Pastor Matt issues a warning against the dangers of spiritual compromise and incomplete obedience, using the Israelites' failure to fully drive out the Canaanites as a cautionary tale. The message is anchored in two main principles: first, that small compromises with sin inevitably lead to a downward spiral of major spiritual problems, requiring believers to aggressively uproot sin before it grows; and second, that faithful, consistent worship brings the spiritual strength necessary to resist the enemy. By drawing parallels between Israel's history and the modern Christian's daily battles, the speaker concludes by challenging the congregation to prioritize weekly worship as a vital means of remembering Christ's saving work and securing victory against spiritual opposition.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction: The Book of Judges

If you have your Bibles this morning, you can open with me to the book of Judges. Judges is the seventh book of the Bible. Judges chapter 2 is where we're going to be this morning. We're continuing our year of the Bible where we're reading through the Bible together as a church, and every Sunday morning, I'm bringing a sermon based off of a passage that we read that week. Just the last couple of days, we finished the book of Joshua and moved into the book of Judges. In your handout, there are the readings for this week, and I would encourage you to join the church this week as we read through the Word of God together.

The book of Judges is a difficult book because it really is a warning. It's a book of warning to the people of God of what happens if you compromise with sin. It's a book of cautions and cautionary tales of things not going well. I'm going to lean into that this morning, because I believe that we likewise need to heed these warnings, to hear these warnings, and to live in light of them, recognizing that just because we're believers in Jesus, just because we're saved and on our way to heaven, it doesn't mean that the enemy is not still working in our life and trying to destroy our lives here on the earth, and to rob us of what God has for us. So we're going to lean into this this morning, and I believe it will encourage you and hopefully inspire you to live faithfully for the Lord.

The Historical Backdrop

Just a little bit of backdrop before we read Judges chapter 2 this morning. The book of Joshua, just one page over, ends with him gathering Israel, the nation, to himself. The people had been delivered from Egypt under Moses. They had entered into the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God had brought them in under Joshua's leadership. Now, at the end of Joshua's life, he gathers Israel together and he says, "Guys, God has been so faithful to us, but are we going to be faithful to him? Who are you going to serve? Are you going to serve the Lord, the God who set you free from Egypt, the one true and living creator God? Or are you going to keep worshiping these idols that are among you, and the peoples that you live among? Are you going to worship their gods?" And the people say, "No, we will worship the Lord." And Joshua says good, and he has that very famous saying where we often quote it, and we print it, and we put it on signs in our house: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

That's how Joshua ends. Then the story continues on into this book of Judges. Chapter 1 begins by telling us that they were not faithful to the Lord. The people had been told that when they entered the Promised Land, they were not to make compromises with the people that lived there. God was judging the people that lived there because of their great wickedness and sin. The people there were idolaters, and they would even offer up their own children in child sacrifice—a land full of sexual perversion. God brought the children of Israel into that land to give it to them, but they were also to dispossess the people there as God's righteous judgment against that evil and that wickedness.

However, as you read chapter 1, it tells us over and over again that the people of Israel did not drive out the Canaanites, the people that lived in that land. If you have your Bible, you can look at it there in chapter 1. In verse 21, it says the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. In verse 27, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants; it says they put them to forced labor, but they did not completely drive them out. Verse 29, Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites. Verse 30, Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants. Verse 31, Asher did not drive out the inhabitants. Verse 33, Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants.

So the backdrop of chapter 2 is that they had not completely obeyed the Lord. As we move forward into the message that the Lord has placed on my heart for us today, we need to keep in mind that they had already compromised. They had already not fully obeyed the Lord. They had already taken the easy road and, instead of doing what God had asked them to do, had made peace with the enemy.

Scripture Reading: Judges Chapter 2

That brings us to chapter 2, and we're going to read all of chapter 2 here this morning. It gives us the complete picture. I invite you to stand with me as we read the Word of God here this morning. Judges chapter 2:

"Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, 'I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.' As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord.

When Joshua dismissed the people, the people of Israel went each to his inheritance to take possession of the land. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers.

And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, 'Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.' So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua."

Father, we do thank you for your word today. Lord, I pray that you would speak to each heart that is here today. Lord, I pray that you would use your word. Lord, use it as that sword of the Spirit in our life today that can cut even to the deepest parts of our soul. Lord, use your word as that mirror that shows us who we really are and who you really are, and that you would help us to live lives, not of compromise, but lives of holiness, devoted completely and totally to serving you with all our heart, mind, and strength. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

You may sit down this morning.

Point 1: Small Compromises Bring Big Problems

I have two points for us this morning. Not three, not four, just two. The subject we're looking at this morning, the title, is "Sin and Compromise." We see that here in this beginning of the book of Judges. The people had sinned; they had compromised. They had compromised with the enemy.

Now, the Canaanites represent for us sin. They represent for us the abiding sin that's in our lives after we come to Christ. Just as God had delivered the children of Israel from Egypt—which is a type of the world and the oppression of the devil—and brought them through the Red Sea—which is a picture of baptism—through the blood of the Lamb they were delivered, the Passover. Just as Christ and his blood on the cross has delivered us and set us free from the power of Satan and the enemy, and we've been washed through the waters of baptism, there is now this question: Will the people of God compromise with sin? Or will they put it to death in their life and walk in holiness? The book of Judges plays out for us the spiritual realities that we read about in the New Testament. It plays them out in a physical, tangible form that we can see with our eyes, the realities of what happens when we compromise with sin.

The first point is simply this: that small compromises bring big problems. We saw in chapter 1 that they didn't fully drive out the enemy. For them, it certainly would have seemed like a small compromise. What difference does it make? Just let them live here among us. In fact, it'll even be better because we'll put them to forced labor. It'll be easier for us on both accounts: we won't have to go to war, we won't have to fight, and they'll serve us. It'll be better for us. This is the way the enemy works so often in our lives. He brings temptation to us and he disguises it as a good thing. He makes it look appealing. He makes it look rewarding. He makes sin look satisfying.

This, for them, would have no doubt seemed like a small compromise, because in Joshua's generation—this first generation that went into the Promised Land—they didn't bow down to those gods. They didn't serve those other gods. It says that they were faithful to worship the Lord. The writer of Judges is careful to tell us this, that all the days of Joshua's life, the people of Israel served the Lord. That's a good thing. And even all the elders who outlived Joshua, who were part of his generation, as long as they lived, the people of Israel worshipped the Lord. They served God. They didn't bow down to other gods. So they were faithful in their worship, but they did not fully obey the Lord.

The downfall that we read about later on in the chapter began with the small compromises that were made by Joshua's generation. It didn't start with that generation that ended up bowing down to other gods. It started with the small compromise in Joshua's generation. Yes, they didn't serve the other gods, but the compromise was enough to set the trajectory of where the nation was headed. The other gods became a snare to the next generation. What we see is that incomplete obedience by one generation sets the stage for full disobedience in the next generation. Incomplete obedience by one generation sets the stage for full apostasy and abandoning of God in the next generation. Small compromises bring big problems.

The Downward Spiral of Sin

Later on, when we read about how this sin takes effect and takes root and begins to produce fruit, in verse 19, it talks about how the Lord was raising up judges who would deliver the people from their oppression. When the judge lived, the people served the Lord, but as soon as the judge died, they turned back, and the people were more corrupt than their fathers. What was happening here was not a plateau of sin, but a downward spiral of sin. This compromise with sin, this unrestrained sin, brings a downward spiral in people's lives. There is no bottom to sin. It doesn't bottom out at some point. It keeps going. But it begins with small compromises.

The enemy never shows up and says, "Today, let's just commit adultery. Today, let's just blow up our family. Today, let's just go and flush everything down and ruin our lives." No, he starts with small compromises. A little bit of lust here, a wandering eye there, not putting in place the boundaries that we should have as men who love and serve God. The enemy doesn't just show up one day to people that are loving and serving God and have a thriving marriage and say, "Hey, let's just go divorce today." That's not how it happens. It begins with small compromises. A little bit of unforgiveness here, a little bit of resentment there. A little bit of disrespect here. And it begins to grow and grow and grow. Small compromises and unrestrained sin bring a downward spiral. God would bring a judge, deliver the people, and they would serve the Lord in those days, but as soon as the judge died, they were more corrupt than the previous generation because there's this downward spiral to the effects of sin.

In the book of James, the apostle James warns us of this. He puts it this way in James chapter 1, verses 13 to 15. He says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one." You can't blame God for your sin. In fact, later Paul will write and say, when we are tempted, God provides a way of escape. God will not allow us, he says, to be tempted beyond our own strength. So whatever temptation you face, God has provided you with the equal and more powerful power to resist that temptation through Christ. There's always a way of escape. I cannot say, "Well, God tempted me. It's his fault. He shouldn't have allowed this into my life." No, God will not allow us to be tempted beyond the spiritual strength that we have. So whatever temptation you are facing, you have the strength through Christ to resist it.

But he says in verse 14, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." How wonderful it would be if, when we came to Christ, God would change all of our desires. How wonderful it would be if we were born again and gone through the waters of baptism, that all of our sinful desires would be flushed away. Wouldn't that be wonderful? But we're not in heaven yet. We're still here on Earth. As long as we are in these mortal bodies, we must fight the good fight against sin and temptation. This past Wednesday night, for First Wednesday, I shared on the daily battle, the daily wrestling that we must do to fight against sin. It is a daily fight.

We're tempted when we're lured and enticed by our own desire. We have desires that are not in accordance with the Word of God—these desires of the flesh. Then verse 15, this is the downward spiral: "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin." Temptation comes and says, "Oh, wouldn't that be nice? This will make you happy. This will satisfy you." That produces in us this spiritual baby, and when we give in to that desire, that temptation, we're giving birth to sin. But it doesn't stop there. It says, "and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." It doesn't stop. Small compromises bring big problems. There's this downward spiral to sin.

It starts with temptation. The Lord has given us the tools to resist temptation. Jesus himself was tempted, yet without sin. When Christ was tempted, what did he do? He used the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. He quoted the Word of God, the law of God from Deuteronomy: "Man shall not live by bread alone. You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." He had the Word of God in his heart, and when he was tempted, he was able to use it with his mouth. The Lord has provided his Word for us to be a sword to fight against temptation, that we might not give in to this desire, so that sin might not be conceived and brought to birth in our life, and that when sin is fully grown, it would not bring forth death.

Putting Sin to Death

There is no such thing as a small sin. Why? Because small sins grow big. They don't stay small. They grow, and they don't stay isolated in one area of our life. They grow and they bring death and decay to every area of our life. We have a real enemy, an enemy of our soul. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He comes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The way he devours and brings destruction to our life is through compromising with sin. This is how Satan can destroy even the lives of believers in Jesus: through compromising with sin.

So, what sin are you tolerating in your life today? What sin are you compromising with in your life? What sin are you, like the children of Israel, surrendering to? Not fighting against, not battling, not pressing up against with the Word of God and with prayer. What sin are you making peace with? It will bring forth death. Sin always brings forth death. Unless the sin is uprooted through repentance and confession, that sin will continue to grow and it will destroy your life.

I don't have this verse on the screen, but Colossians chapter 3. If you want to flip over there with me in your Bible, Paul is speaking about the battle against sin. I want to look at verse 5, but verse 1 is important. It says, "If then you have been raised with Christ," which is all of us who believe in Christ—we've passed from death to life, we've been born again, our baptism is a picture of that resurrection. Since we have been raised with Christ, we must "seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." There's coming a day when we will be completely transformed and sin will be no more, and on that day when he appears, we will also appear with him in glory. What a great and glorious day that will be.

But until that day, we must set our minds on things above. We must make every thought obedient to Christ. We must, as he says in verse 5, "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you." And then he goes on to list what is earthly, or worldly, or fleshly, or sinful: "sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." He goes on to outline the things that we must put on—the fruit of the Spirit, essentially.

We must put sin to death by the power of the Spirit. We must do it. We must uproot it. Again, how do we do it? It's through repentance. It's through repentance and confessing our sin to God. That's why I think it's so important that we observe the Lord's table every Sunday. It's an opportunity for repentance. It's an opportunity for confession. It's an opportunity of making ourselves right with God again, of renewing fellowship. Whatever the sins were of the week—and we've all sinned this week—have we confessed those sins to God? We say, "Well, it wasn't that big. I didn't kill anybody. I didn't steal anything. I didn't break any of the Ten Commandments, so to speak." Friends, there's no such thing as small sin. There's no such thing as small compromise. Where are you compromising? Where did you sin this week? Confess it to God. Repent of that sin. Don't nurse it. Don't let it take root in your life. Don't tolerate it. Don't tolerate a little bit of pride in your life. No, confess that sin to God. Lay it before the cross. Don't tolerate a little bit of lust or a wandering eye. When you find that in your life, confess that sin to God. Repent of that sin immediately.

If you will do that, it's much easier to kill sin when it's a baby than when it's full grown. What's easier to do, take out a little midget? I'm sorry, I know that's not politically correct. A little small something? I'm sorry, please understand, that was not meant to be in any way against anybody. I'm just trying to make an illustration. It's much easier to take out somebody small than somebody big. Before it grows big, kill it, uproot it, defeat it. Why face a big giant tomorrow if I can defeat a small sin today? That's what Paul is telling us. That's what Judges is warning us of. They didn't defeat the enemy when it was weak, and they allowed the enemy to grow strong. And then the enemy defeated them.

Don't tolerate a little bit of pride. Don't tolerate a little bit of lust. Don't tolerate a little bit of bitterness, or anger, or wrath. Don't tolerate a little bit of disrespecting your husband, wives. I've been going after the husbands a little bit on the lust; I'm gonna go after the wives here a little bit. Don't tolerate disrespecting your husband, even in your heart. Husbands, love and serve your wives as Christ loved the church. Wives, submit to and respect your husband. Don't tolerate any ounce of disrespect of your husband in your heart. Why? Because it will grow, and it's much easier to deal with when it's small than when it grows big. Where are you tolerating sin? Where are you tolerating being unfaithful to God? Where are you not fully obeying God's Word? Deal with it today before it grows big.

Going back to Judges chapter 2, verse 10, it says there arose after Joshua's generation died another generation who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. This is a sad situation because God had done so much for Israel. But for whatever reason, that generation did not hand down the faith to the next generation. There was Moses' generation that came out of Egypt and died in the wilderness. There was Joshua's generation that came into the Promised Land, and this is the children of Joshua's generation. We read about that just a few weeks ago when we were in Deuteronomy chapter 6. This word "know"—it says they did not know the Lord—is more than just head knowledge. This is a relational knowledge. This is covenantal knowledge. This is the same word that's used of Adam knowing his wife, Eve, on a very intimate level. They were not intimately acquainted with the Lord and the work that he had done. They lacked this heart knowledge of loving and serving the Lord. I don't know if Joshua's generation was so focused on fighting the enemy that they neglected their responsibilities at home to disciple their children. We don't know exactly where the breakdown happened or why it happened. But it appears to me that Joshua's generation was faithful in their worship—they didn't bow down to the idols—but they were unfaithful in their discipleship in their home. You can come to church and be faithful in your worship, while at the same time being unfaithful in your home and in your discipleship. We need to be faithful in our worship and faithful in our discipleship.

Point 2: Faithful Worship Brings Spiritual Strength

Which brings us to the second point this morning. I'm going to state it in a positive way, even though it's stated in Judges in a negative way, and that is that faithful worship brings spiritual strength. If we look at verses 11 through 15 again, when the people abandoned the Lord, it says the people of Israel—this next generation—did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and they served the Baals. That's the idols. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went after other gods, from among the gods of the people who were around them, and bowed down to them. That's worship. And this provoked the Lord to anger. Verse 13, they abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. In verse 14, so the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out to battle, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned. God had told them this is what would happen. And they were in terrible distress.

Joshua's generation was able to go into the land. They were able to dispossess the people there. And if they would have continued on, God would have given them great success, but they became weary, they became tired, and they compromised. But Joshua's generation's strength in their battles was tied to their faithful worship of God. When the next generation came and was unfaithful in worship, they were no longer able to stand against their enemies. Why? Because God's not going to give them victory while they worship other gods. He's not going to give them victory over their enemies while they're bowing down to Baal and even offering up their children in child sacrifice—which they end up doing; it's a horrible story. Obviously, God's not going to give them victory when they're worshiping idols, worshiping demons. How foolish of them to think otherwise as they march out to battle, thinking they're going to be victorious.

Likewise for us, why would we think that we can walk in victory if we are not faithfully worshiping the Lord and gathering with the people of God? If we are neglecting faithful worship, why would we think that we would have spiritual strength? Why would we think that we would have victory if we're not worshiping God? Does God change? No. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. When they faithfully worshiped God, they were able to stand against their enemies. But when they forsook God, they had no power and became slaves in their own land.

The Necessity of Sunday Worship

What this means is if we want to have spiritual strength to resist the enemy in our life, we have to prioritize worshiping God faithfully. We must make this a priority in our lives. I know I'm preaching to the choir here today, because I know this is Spring Forward day, right? You're all here an hour early today. Why are you here? Because you prioritize worshiping God faithfully. Not only that, there were a few sprinkles today, and you know how hard that is to drive through. So I know I'm preaching to the choir today, and I'm just trusting that's the providence of God.

Let this encourage you in your dedication to worship the Lord, to gather with God's people on the Lord's Day no matter what. No matter what obstacle is in your way, no matter if we jump forward an hour, no matter if there are a few sprinkles outside. We will serve the Lord. We're going to worship the Lord. We're going to gather with the people of God. Why? Because we need strength. We fight battles every day. And if we're fighting them in our own strength, we're going to lose. In my flesh, I do not have the power to resist the devil. But if I submit to God and resist the devil, then he will flee. If I'm not walking in submission to God, if I'm not gathering for worship with the people of God, if I'm neglecting faithful worship like the children of Israel here, why would I think that I'm going to have strength to resist the devil? Where does my strength come from? Our strength comes from the Lord. It's not by strength, it's not by power, but it's by my Spirit, says the Lord. This is Christianity 101. This is step one in having spiritual strength: come to church on Sunday morning and worship God in spirit and in truth.

Maybe you've thought, "It's difficult to come to church. It's not easy. I work six days a week. I need a little 'me time.'" No, you need a little Jesus time. That's what you need. You don't need any more "me time." He must increase, and we must decrease. The last thing you need is more of you. What you need is more of him. And where will we find it if not gathering with the people of God, in the presence of God, to worship God? If we're going to resist the devil, we have to have spiritual strength, and we will not be spiritually strong when we neglect to gather with the people of God for worship.

If you think it is difficult to come to church, let me ask you: Why do you think that is? If you find difficulty waking up on Sunday morning, getting the kids dressed and out the door to be here by 10 o'clock... I'm pretty sure Monday through Friday, y'all are showing up somewhere before 10 o'clock. I don't know any school that starts at 10 o'clock. I don't know any job—maybe there are a few—but you can get out the door Monday to Friday to be somewhere by 6:00 AM, 7:00 AM, 8:00 AM. But for whatever reason, Sunday rolls around and it's hard to get somewhere by 10:00 AM. It's because there's real opposition. There's opposition to be here. The devil doesn't want you here, because the devil wants you weak. Have you noticed how there's never any resistance to get out of the house to go see a movie? It's real smooth. Not a whole lot of arguments in the car on the way to see a movie, or to go out to eat. "Hey, come on guys, we're going out to eat!" Everyone lines up. It's amazing. "Hey, we're going to go worship God," and all hell breaks loose. Why do you think that is? Because the enemy doesn't want you here, because the enemy wants you weak.

Maybe it is difficult, but it's worth fighting for. If all hell is breaking loose in your house on Sunday morning, heads of household, you might consider laboring in prayer on Saturday night. You might look at how you're structuring your weekend and start fighting some spiritual battles.

Conclusion: Who Are You Serving?

I need to bring this to a close this morning. I could go on and on about this. I got one deacon that said, "Carry on," so I'm just going to take that as a sign from the Lord here. No, I'm joking. I want to draw your attention to something in verse 11. It says, "The people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals." That word "served" is an important word. In Hebrew, it's translated different ways at different times. Here it's translated "served." In other places, it's translated as "worship." In other places, it's translated as "work." They labored for these idols. In fact, when God put Adam in the garden, it says God put Adam in the garden to work the garden. It's the same word. When God sent Moses to Pharaoh, Moses went and said, "Let my people go that they may serve me." It's the same word. It's for work, it's for worship, it's for serving.

The idea here is that if you abandon serving God, you're going to serve somebody, to quote Bob Dylan. It's not just neutral. They abandoned serving the Lord, working for the Lord, worshiping the Lord—which was the purpose for which God brought them out of Egypt, which was the purpose for which we were created. But it has to go somewhere. If it's not towards God, it's something in creation. That's what Paul talks about in Romans 1: they exchanged the worship of God for worshiping created things. You're going to serve somebody and something. Maybe it's not bowing down to an idol, but a lot of people today are serving themselves. They themselves are their own idol, worshiping themselves and their own comfort, joy, enjoyment, or happiness. They're seeking it apart from God.

So the question is, who are you serving today? Are you serving the Lord? Not just on Sunday, not just gathering with God's people—and I'm glad that you're here, praise God, it starts here—but on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Are you living all of your life in service of the King? Are you living all of your life in service of Christ? That's what it means to worship him. That all of my life is lived as an expression of gratitude and thankfulness for what God has done for me, how God has set me free in Christ, how God has delivered me, saved me, and redeemed me. Therefore, all of my life is to be lived in service to him, under his authority. That's what it means to seek first the kingdom of God.

They turned from serving God who had saved them to worshiping these other gods who had not delivered them from Egypt. Baal had not fed them in the wilderness or driven out the Canaanites and delivered them into the Promised Land. The Lord had been so good and so faithful to them, and yet somehow, somewhere along the line, they forgot. They forgot about what God had done for them. They forgot how God had been so good to them. They didn't continue to live in light of the faithful remembrance of God's saving acts in their life. What God had done for them and how he had saved them was no longer the defining piece of their identity. They forgot.

But may we never forget. They forgot what God had done for them, but may we never forget what Christ has done for us. May we always remember how God has saved us, the great salvation that he has purchased for us, the eternal inheritance that awaits us when he returns. May we never forget worship and faithful worship, making a determination that "I will worship the Lord with the people of God every Sunday." Worship is how we remember. Worship is how we remind ourselves of what Christ has done for us. We sing the songs, the melodies, the music, the lyrics—it awakens our heart, it touches our soul. It wraps us up in the love of Christ. It reminds us again. We come to the table where Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." This faithful worship reminds us that we might never forget, that we would always live and serve the Lord, that we would not compromise with sin, but walk in faithful obedience, and that the Lord would use our lives and deliver us into all of the good promises that he has for us and our children. Amen.

Strong & Courageous

Strong & Courageous

Matthew Bell

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Sermon Summary

Drawing from Joshua 1:1–9, Pastor Matt emphasizes that while Christ has accomplished our ultimate salvation and secured our spiritual inheritance, believers are still called to actively engage in daily spiritual warfare. Just as Joshua was tasked with leading Israel to fight for the Promised Land following the death of Moses, Christians cannot passively coast through life; we must forcefully take hold of the kingdom of God. The necessary strength for this battle is not physical, but a steadfast strength of character that resists cultural compromise and stands firm for the truth. This courageous character is cultivated through three vital provisions from the Lord: resting confidently in God’s objective promises, meticulously meditating upon and obeying God’s precepts, and taking deep, unshakeable assurance in God’s abiding presence—knowing that, as Robert Murray M'Cheyne observed, Christ is always interceding for us.

Sermon Transcript

Joshua chapter one is where we will be today. This year, we're spending the year walking through the whole Bible together. We're calling it the Year of the Bible. And as such, we've put together a Bible reading plan. We're reading through the Bible together as a church, and I highly encourage you to be doing that with us. Even if you've fallen behind or fallen off track, you can jump in with us this morning. In fact, in the handout, there are the readings for the week, the chapters that we are reading today and for the rest of the week.

We will spend the majority of this week in this book of Joshua, and then, at the end of the week, moving into Judges. Moving into Joshua, we've made it through some of the most difficult passages in Scripture. The first few books of the Bible are not the easiest of reads. There are some really difficult, hard-to-get-through passages in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The good news is that for the next several months, all of the passages are narrative. There's not a whole lot of Levitical priesthood codes, laws, or building schematics for the tabernacle. It's all narrative for the next several months. And so, if you've fallen off the plan sometime in the first two months—which happens to a lot of people in their Bible reading plan, I understand it's not always easy going—I want to encourage you to jump back in with us today. Our community groups and our life groups are centered around our readings for this year, and I really want to strongly impress upon you to daily be in the Word of God. If you're not on this plan, be on some plan to daily spend time in God's Word together. Amen?

Reading the Word: Joshua 1:1–9

This morning, we're looking at Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine. We're just going to jump right in, so I invite you to stand with me. I know you just sat, but we are going to stand again, and we are going to get into the Word of God together.

"After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 'Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.'"

Father, we do pray that You would add Your blessing to the reading of Your Word this morning, that You would speak to each one of our hearts today. Lord, we've come from many different places, many different backgrounds, many different circumstances this week, but Your Word is active and living, and I pray that through Your Word and Your Spirit, You would speak to each one of our hearts today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated this morning.

Strong and Courageous

The title for my sermon today is "Strong and Courageous." It says here in verse 2 that Moses had passed away. Moses was the leader that God had chosen to bring the people out of slavery in Egypt. God had always intended for His people to go in and to possess this land, this land that He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That first generation was not able to go into the Promised Land because of their unbelief. Moses was not able to go into the Promised Land because of his sin. He sinned in front of the people of Israel by striking the rock when God had told him to speak to the rock. And so now that older generation has passed away. Moses has passed away, and now this next generation, led by Moses' assistant, Joshua the son of Nun, is going to lead them in.

As we were reading this this week, my children said it was so sad that Joshua didn't have any parents. I said, "What are you talking about?" They said, "Well, he was the son of none." I said, "No, his dad's name was Nun. He had parents." So I had to point that out to them—Joshua, the son of Nun. I'm not joking, that actually was said in my house this week. The things that they say... I told my kids on Friday, I said, "You have to be really careful what you say on Friday and Saturday, because it's probably going to end up in the sermon if it's good."

Anyway, the leader that raised Joshua up, the leader that God had used to do all of these incredible things to deliver the children of Israel, was gone now. And now Joshua has been anointed to lead the children of Israel, to lead this great people to inherit what God had promised to them, to lead them into this natural homeland. They were to lay hold of this natural country, and this was going to require natural warfare. They were going to have to fight to possess this land, because this land was inhabited. It was inhabited by the Canaanites and all the nations that lived there.

The Spiritual Battle for Our Inheritance

I want to draw your attention to this here this morning: though God had given it to them and said it was theirs, for them to have it, they had to fight for it. The inhabitants of the land didn't just hand it over and say, "Okay, here you go, take our land." Israel had to take possession of what God had promised.

And so it is with us, the church, the spiritual descendants of Abraham. God has likewise made many wonderful promises to us, the new covenant people of God. Though we are not physical descendants of Abraham, we are spiritual descendants of Abraham by faith in Christ. As His spiritual descendants, we have received from God spiritual promises—not to inherit an earthly kingdom, but to inherit the kingdom of God. And just like the children of Israel in the old covenant, these spiritual blessings are ours. However, we must fight to take possession of them. Yes, they have been declared ours by God. But just as the children of Israel had to fight, so we too must fight to see the kingdom of God manifest in our lives.

Just as the Canaanites didn't hand over the land to the children of Israel, Satan is not just going to roll over in your life because you are a Christian. In fact, one of the things that we are repeatedly told in the New Testament is that the Christian life is a spiritual battle. I'm going to read some scriptures to you this morning that tell us that. I'm not going to comment on them, but I just want to impress on you the repeated refrain in the New Testament to the children of God, to the church, that we are engaged in a spiritual battle:

2 Corinthians 10:3–5: "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

Ephesians 6:10–13: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm."

1 Timothy 1:18: "This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare."

1 Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

And then finally, at the end of Paul's life, he will tell Timothy, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith."

We are in a spiritual battle. We don't see our enemy. Our enemy is not flesh and blood; our enemy is these spiritual forces, these dark demonic powers that exist not in the natural realm, but in the spiritual realm. And this battle that we are engaged in as believers is a daily battle.

I am convinced that one of the most effective tactics that Satan uses against the people of God is to hide this reality from our eyes, to obscure it, to hide the fact that we are in a war every single day. He does it through many different ways—through distractions, the busyness of life, and through temptations to pursue comfort and leisure and just waste our time on meaningless things. There are so many distractions available today to take our eyes off of the fact that we're in a battle for our souls.

I was reading this week about how many years of content are on Netflix right now. It would take the average person 100 years to watch everything that's on Netflix. And 3,600 hours of video is added to Netflix every year. It's not static; it's growing. And it's not only Netflix anymore; it seems like there's a thousand streaming services that are all vying for your attention. "Watch me, watch me, watch me." I'm not saying that you can't watch anything, but what I am saying is that this can become a distraction in your life to take your eyes off of the fact that we are to be daily engaged in a spiritual battle.

You are in a daily spiritual battle. And if you are not actively engaged in that fight, you are losing ground. If the enemy is warring against your soul every day and you're not fighting back, that means he is gaining victories in your life.

There is a real spiritual inheritance for all of us, just as there was for the children of Israel, but we have to fight for it. Yes, salvation is accomplished for us by Christ and Christ alone. Yes, He has saved us and justified us. We do not add anything to His work on the cross. It is all of Him, it is all of grace, and we receive it by faith. Just as God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt by His mighty acts and His outstretched arm. Yes and amen. But to go in and inherit the Promised Land, they had to fight. Jesus has delivered us from spiritual Egypt; He's delivered us from the power of Satan, sin, and darkness. But to inherit the kingdom of God, to walk daily in the blessings that Christ has purchased for us, we must fight for them.

Sometimes I think that we who rightly rest in the finished work of Christ—we rightly Sabbath in that, we rightly say, "I don't add to my salvation, I am trusting in Jesus"—sometimes get this idea that for the rest of our life, we just sort of coast. We just put it in neutral and wait for Jesus to come back. But that's not the picture that the New Testament paints for us. The New Testament paints a picture of advancing the kingdom of God in every area of life through a spiritual struggle. We have to be like Joshua. We have to be strong and courageous.

Where do we find strength and courage to fight the battles that we are called to fight? God gives Joshua three things that will make him strong and courageous. These same three things that worked in Joshua's life will also work in ours.

1. God's Promises

The first is God's promises. We see this in verses 2 through 6. He had promised them the land. So He reminds Joshua, "Look, the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I am reminding you of this promise." He also makes another promise to him in verse 3: every place that your foot touches will be yours. He tells him in verse 5 that no man will be able to stand against you. Everyone that you face, you will defeat. The fourth thing He tells him is, "Joshua, you are going to be the one to cause this people to inherit this land." By holding fast to these promises, by meditating on them, by receiving them in faith, this was going to give Joshua courage. As he reflected upon what God had promised, it would make him strong in what God was calling him to do.

Just as God made many promises to Joshua, God in Christ has made many wonderful promises to His people today. Do you need strength today? You need to meditate on the promises of God. Do you need courage today? Does living in 2026 require courage to live for Christ? Yes, it does. What are some of the promises that God has made to His people?

How about this one: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Whatever is in front of me, whatever it is that God is asking me to do, through Christ I have the strength to do it. Why is it important to remind yourself of that? Because when Satan comes and tempts you to sin, he tells you that you don't have the strength or the power to resist this temptation. We have to remind ourselves: no, through Christ, I do have the power.

What about this promise: No weapon formed against you will prosper. What a beautiful and glorious promise. That's similar to the promise God gave Joshua—no one will be able to stand against you. Whatever the enemy aims at you, shoots at you, it will not ultimately accomplish its purpose; God's purpose for your life will stand. What about the promise that He will supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory? What about the promise that God hears and answers our prayers? We could go on and on about all of the promises that we have in Christ.

In 2 Peter 1:3–4, Peter writes:

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire."

His power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. What do you need to live for Christ? He has given it to you.

2. God's Precepts

The second thing God gives Joshua is His precepts. Precepts is a word for God's law or His commandments, and I picked it because it goes with promises: precepts and promises. Let's look at Joshua 1:7–8 again:

"Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

Look at what He tells Joshua: take great care to obey the Word of God. Don't waver to the left hand or to the right. Don't compromise on any of it. Then He tells him, it shall not depart from your mouth. What does that mean? It means you don't just think about it in your mind, but you speak the Word of God. What are the words that are coming out of your mouth? The Bible tells us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

This reminds me of what we looked at last week from Deuteronomy 6 about teaching our children. "These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." This day and night meditation of the Word of God. How much care do you give every day to obeying the Word of God? How much is God's Word the lamp to your feet and the light to your path on a daily basis? That's what it means to be led by the Spirit. To be led by the Spirit, we have to be filled with the Word of God. Otherwise, we will just fulfill the desires of the flesh.

God tells Joshua, "Then you will prosper and succeed." Joshua is about to engage in a military campaign, and it's interesting to me that God doesn't come with military strategy. He doesn't come to Joshua with combat techniques or how to order the army into different battalions. God comes and says, "Joshua, you're going to war, and what you need to do is have a Bible study." I imagine Joshua might have thought, "Could you maybe just give me some tactics?" But how often do we, too, think that success will come from following other paths? I would argue that true success in any endeavor—success as defined by God—is only found through following the Word of God.

The strength God is talking about is not physical strength. He's not telling Joshua to hit the weight room and bulk up. He is speaking of strength of character. What does that look like? Strength of character is doing what is right when what is right is unpopular. It's believing what is right when what is right is not believed by everybody else around us. It's holding fast to the truth when the world around us is living by lies. If our understanding of what is right and wrong is informed by the culture and not the Word of God, we will not have the strength to stand for Christ. We will just be pushed around by every whim of the culture. But if we want that spiritual inheritance, we must cultivate a strength of character that only comes by meditating on the Word of God.

3. God's Presence

Which brings us to number three this morning: God's presence. The three things that God gave to Joshua for him to be strong and courageous: God's promises, God's precepts, and finally, God's presence. Let's look at verse 5 and verse 9.

In verse 5: "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." And in verse 9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

This was not only true of Joshua; this is true of you in Christ as well. Jesus says, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." As believers, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We carry the presence of God with us wherever we go. What this means is that all of life is sacred. All of life is holy. In the Old Testament, God tells Moses, "Take off your sandals, you're standing on holy ground." It was holy ground because the presence of God was there. But God's presence is with us everywhere we go, so our whole lives are holy. That word "holy" means separated. Our whole lives are to be lived separated as unto the Lord, lived as worship unto God. Not just on Sunday, but throughout the week.

How much strength should that give us? If you were going to get into a fight with somebody, would you feel more confident if you had Shaquille O'Neal with you? How much more confidence would you have if Shaquille O'Neal was standing behind you? If you don't know who that is, he's a really tall, massive guy. Listen, we have somebody stronger than Shaquille O'Neal standing behind us. We have the Lord Jesus, died and risen, King of kings and Lord of lords.

There's this wonderful quote by the 19th-century minister Robert Murray M'Cheyne. He said, "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me." Christ even now intercedes for us without fail. Whatever trial, temptation, or circumstance is in front of you, Christ is praying for you. Think about how much boldness that would place in your heart.

Conclusion

So whatever you are facing today, have courage. Have strength. Remind yourself of the promises of God. Speak them out. Declare them. Hold fast to the Word of God, allowing your conscience to be trained by it. And continually remind yourself that Christ is always with us.

Yes, we must fight for the spiritual inheritance that Christ purchased. But through Him, we can apprehend everything that He paid for, and we can leave a great legacy of faith to the next generation. I want to encourage you to not only hold these things for yourself but to also hold them for others—to remind others of these three things when they are battling. That is such an important role that the body of Christ plays. We need the strength that comes from God's promises, God's precepts, and God's presence, but we also need God's people. I just made that up right now. It's another 'P', and it's really good. We need God's people to remind us of these things, to pray for one another, and to be with one another in the fight.

This world is a wild place. We don't know what tomorrow holds. But what we do know is that God is with us, and we can be victorious. It won't happen by accident. It will happen through strength and courage. So let's get engaged in the battle. Let's fight for the promises that God has made for us and for our children. Amen.

Multigenerational Faith

Multigenerational Faith

Matthew Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon focusing on Deuteronomy 6, Pastor Matt emphasizes the importance of multi-generational faith and the blessings that result from obedience to God's law. Exploring the context of Moses’ final plea to the new generation of Israelites, the message is organized around four key themes: the purpose of the law, which is meant to bring blessing and flourishing; the pathway of faithfulness, rooted in loving God and diligently passing that faith down to our children; the priority of gratitude, which anchors our hearts to the Giver rather than merely to His gifts; and the picture of the gospel, where instructing children in God's commands provides natural opportunities to share the story of His salvation. Ultimately, the sermon challenges believers to weave a love for Christ and His Word into the everyday rhythms of their homes, ensuring that a genuine, abiding faith is authentically handed down to the next generation.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction

We are in a series at the church that we call the Year of the Bible, and we are as a church reading through the Bible together. And I want to encourage you, even if you've fallen behind or fallen off track, you can jump in with us this week with your church family in our reading of God's Word together. This past week, we spent the majority of our time in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy is an important book of the Bible. It is the retelling of God's law to the generation of Israelites who had grown up in the wilderness. The name Deuteronomy is taken from the phrase "second law" in the Greek language. Now, it is not a new law, but it is the preaching of that original law to this new generation of Israelites.

You may recall that when God first delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, he met with them on Mount Sinai. And there he gave them his law, his teaching, his statutes. He was instructing them how to live as his people, showing them how to live when they would enter into the Promised Land. But as we continue to read the story of the book of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, we found that those children of Israel that had come out of Egypt, they were a very rebellious people. The Bible calls them a stiff-necked people. And they quickly, astonishingly, deserted the God who had set them free from slavery and reverted to worshiping idols. Time and again, these people grumbled and they complained, and they rebelled against God. And all of this attitude, it culminated as God was trying to lead them into the Promised Land, and they said, "We will not go. We will not go into this land because we do not believe that God is able to deliver it to us."

And so that generation, that generation that grew up in Egypt and had been delivered by God, because of their refusal to believe God and to obey him, they were forced to spend out the rest of their days wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. During that 40 years of wandering, the older generation eventually died off and their children came of age. And Deuteronomy is Moses, the leader of God's people, preaching God's law to this new generation, this generation that had grown up in the wilderness.

In Deuteronomy, Moses holds out for them the blessings that will come from faithfulness to God and to his law. But he also holds out for them the consequences that will come from unfaithfulness. Now, Moses will not go into the Promised Land with this next generation. And so this is his final appeal, his final sermon. And it's an impassioned plea to these children, these children that he has raised in the wilderness, for them to be faithful to God and to be faithful to his law.

The Influence of Deuteronomy

Now, Deuteronomy is one of the most influential pieces of literature that has ever been written. Maybe you have never read this book, but I promise you that your life has been profoundly shaped and impacted by the words in it. Deuteronomy is the Old Testament book most quoted by our Lord Jesus. Three times in the wilderness, Jesus himself was tempted by the devil, and three times Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was also the book most quoted by the founding fathers of this nation in their personal and private and public writings. It's had a profound impact on the world that we live in. And the whole thrust of God's law, and the whole thrust of Deuteronomy, is that faithfulness to God results in multi-generational blessing. Faithfulness to God results in multi-generational blessing.

Scripture Reading and Prayer

And so with that introduction to Deuteronomy, I want to invite you to stand. We're going to read the first three verses of Deuteronomy 6. We're going to look here this morning at the whole chapter, but we're going to begin here with these first three verses. It says:

"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey."

Father, we do thank you for your Word. It is so precious to us. It is, as the psalmist says, a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Lord, the grass of the field and the flowers fade and wither, but your Word is firmly fixed and established in the heavens. Lord, it never fades, it never changes, it never goes out of style. It is a sure and solid foundation, and has been for your people for millennia, and it certainly is for us, your people, in this day. Lord, even as the winds and the waves of culture are constantly changing, Lord, you instruct us, you teach us, you guide us. Lord, that we would not be tossed to and fro by every whim and wind of doctrine that blows around. But, Lord, that our hearts and our minds might be firmly fixed on your Word. And, Lord, that you would produce in us good fruit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

A Multi-Generational Faith

You may be seated this morning. If you look here, even in the first three verses of this introduction to Genesis—I'm sorry, not Genesis, to Deuteronomy 6—you see that what is in view is multi-generational faith, multi-generational blessing. In verse 2, he says that you may fear the Lord your God, and that you and your son and your son's son may be growing up in this faith. And so this faith that we see here is a multi-generational faith. The faith we see in the Old Testament and the faith we see in the New Testament, it is a multi-generational faith. When God saves us, he's not just saving us as individuals; his desire is to see our whole family come to serve the Lord.

And so I have four headings for us this morning as we look at the entirety of Deuteronomy 6. We'll walk through it together. I have been frantically cutting things from my sermon this morning. As I printed out my notes today, I was shocked to see how many pages there was. There's a lot I want to say. And so I've been cutting, cutting, cutting, to try to focus this for you this morning. That's the good news for us. The bad news is it's still a lot of pages in the sermon, so I'm going to be moving quickly today. I hope that your ears can listen quickly for us this morning. There is a lot in these verses and in this chapter. The first two of the four points will be the longer two, and then at the end, we'll see the last two.

1. The Purpose of the Law

The first I want to draw your attention to is in these first three verses, and that is the purpose of the law. The purpose of God's law, the law that God was giving to his people. And he says it so clearly that the purpose of God's law is blessing. The purpose of God's law is to bring about blessing in the lives of his people. God wanted to bless his people.

So if we look back at Deuteronomy 6:1-3, we see that it says that you should obey. God gave you these rules, he gave you these commandments that your days may be long. That's a blessing. Long days. And it tends to be that those who live for the Lord and serve the Lord and apply the Word of God, that they tend to live longer than those who spend their life in reckless debauchery and wild living. Does that mean that everybody who follows the Word of God will have a very long life? No, of course, that's not how principles work. It's not necessarily a one-to-one promise, but in general terms, generally speaking, when you apply the Word of God, you generally live longer days than those who are just living lives of total headlong life into sin and death. That your days may be long. That is a blessing. That it may go well with you. That's in verse 3. That you may multiply greatly and to fill the land that God is leading you into. These are the blessings of God that are brought about by faithfulness to his Word.

Now, if you look in your Bibles down at verse 18, he again says that it may go well with you. If you look at verse 24, it says, "The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always." And later on in that verse, it says that he may preserve us alive. There's a preserving aspect to the law of God. There's a goodness to our life. He gave them his law for their good. God gave them his law to show them how to live. They're going into this land. It was to keep them from sin and the destructive power of destructive behaviors and the destructive power of sin.

Why does God do this? He does this because he loves these people. He loves them. He delivered them from Egypt. He's sustained them in the wilderness for 40 years. He's being faithful to the promise that he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All of this is an expression of his love. God's law is an expression of God's love. Just as loving parents instruct their children, teaching them right and wrong, guarding them from things that would harm them, teaching them things that would prosper and flourish them, so God does the same with his people, with his children.

Faithfulness to God's law will result in his blessing, but disobedience to God's law will result in their disaster. And this is a pattern that we will see play out all throughout the Old Testament story as we continue to read through the Bible. When God's people are faithful to him, and worship him, and keep his commandments, they flourish. They're blessed. When God's people rebel against him, serve idols, forget his law, disaster ensues. And it's this pattern that plays out: that faithfulness produces blessing and unfaithfulness produces disaster.

The psalmist in Psalm 1 reflects on this. He says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." Meditating on the law of God, obeying God's law day and night, produces blessing in the lives of God's people.

So there is much for us to learn from studying and meditating on the law of God and applying the principles that we find in it. Last night, as we were reading with our children, we read in, I think it was Deuteronomy 18. We were reading about what Israel was to do when they were to have a king. And it said that when you have a king over you, when he becomes king, what he is supposed to do is he is to write out a personal copy of God's law by hand. And that is to be his personal copy that he reads from and references to as he leads God's people. What a beautiful idea. Wouldn't that be a nice principle to apply even in our day? How about that? To have the commands of Christ, to have our president, and our senators, and our governors, have them have to write out the teaching of Scripture, the law of God, their own personal copy that they wrote with their own hand, that they would have to reference as they sought to lead and to govern the people. How amazing would that be?

The Law and the Believer Today

So there is much to learn from studying and meditating on this law that we find in Deuteronomy. But it's here that many Christians object to this idea that there's anything of value to be found in God's law, and they will say things like, "We're not under the law, we're under grace." And this is a profound misunderstanding of the teaching of the New Testament.

Now, it is true that we are not saved by our good works. Amen. We're not saved by keeping the law. And so as regards salvation, the salvation of our souls, our eternal destinies, it's not tied to whether or not we keep the law of God. We've all sinned and fallen short of God's law. We've all transgressed God's law, so we will not be saved by keeping God's law. So when Paul says we're not under the law, we're under grace, he's talking about salvation. We receive salvation by trusting in Christ and his perfect work, and his finished work on the cross, and we receive it by grace. Only by grace through faith are we saved in Christ and in Christ alone. Amen.

But then the question arises, okay, how should the saved live? How should those who have been saved by grace live? And if God's law exposes for us what sin is, wouldn't it flow that after we have been set free of sin that we wouldn't continue to live in sin? And so wouldn't it make sense that we should know what sin is? Therefore, we wouldn't enter into sin and continue to live in sin. And where do we find out what sin is? But in the law of God. So yes, we're not under the law as if we could keep the law and make ourselves holy and by some way contribute to our salvation. No, of course Christ has saved us completely and totally. But the question is, how do saved people live? How do the children of God live? And the law of God shows us the principles by which God's children should live.

And some here would object, "We're part of the new covenant. This is the old covenant. This law, it doesn't apply to us." For that objection, let's go to Jesus. Let's look at what he might say about this. We'll just go straight to the top. Jesus might have a word or two to say about that God's law has no place in the life of the Christian and the life of his disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says this: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets." What are the Law and the Prophets? The Law and the Prophets is the Old Testament. That's just shorthand for the Old Testament. Jesus says, "I didn't come to abolish the Old Testament. I haven't come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away..." Let's look around here today. Have heaven and earth passed away? Okay, so until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until it is accomplished. The iota and the dot, that was the punctuation of the law. If the periods and the commas of the law haven't passed away, how much more the teaching and the principles of the law of God? Therefore, Jesus says, "Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus says, "I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law." What Jesus meant is that he came to establish God's law in its rightful place in the life of his followers, and to expose the true meaning behind what was written in the law of God. And so Jesus will take the law of God and he'll say, "You've heard it said, you shall not murder one another. You should not commit murder. But I say to you, if you harbor hatred in your heart or anger in your heart against your brother, you've committed murder in your heart." Jesus is not setting aside the law of God; he's applying it rightly in the lives of his followers. Jesus will say, "You've heard it said, do not commit adultery, but I say to you, if you look at anyone with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery in your heart." So all of Jesus' teaching doesn't set aside the law of God. It exposes the rightful meaning that it might have the rightful place in our lives.

There are others who would say, "Well, we live in a different time in a different culture. Certainly these laws, these antiquated laws about how to farm and raise cattle, and all of these caring for animals—certainly, this doesn't apply to us." For example, we read in Deuteronomy 25:4, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain." Now, for those of you who have oxen, that might be important for you. But for those of us who don't have oxen, which is probably all of us, we would be tempted to read this verse and say it has nothing to do with me. I'm not raising oxen, I'm not raising cattle. I don't have grain, they're not running a mill.

But what's interesting is the way the apostles and the way Jesus apply these laws. The apostle Paul will take this verse from the law of God about treating your oxen and he will apply it to how you treat your pastor. Look at 1 Timothy 5:17-18: "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,' and, 'The laborer deserves his wages.'" So Paul takes the principle of not abusing a beast of burden that is there for your benefit to serve you. He takes that principle from the Old Testament, the law of God, and then he applies it to the New Testament church that was abusing its pastor and taking him for granted, treating him as a beast of burden. So there is much to be gained from meditating on God's law. Let us not be so quick to dismiss two-thirds of our Bible as irrelevant, especially when you consider the blessings that are promised to God's people when we faithfully keep his law. The purpose of the law was blessing.

2. The Pathway of Faithfulness

The second section we see here is the pathway of faithfulness. That's verses 4 through 9, the pathway of faithfulness. In Deuteronomy 6:4, it says:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Here we see in this section the pathway of faithfulness. This pathway begins with what's called the Shema in Hebrew, or what the Jews call the Shema. It's simply the word "hear." We see that here at the beginning, verse 4. Listen, pay attention. Hear, O Israel. And this Shema is something that the Jews, even to this day, pray twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening: "The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

The first stop on the pathway of faithfulness is the identity of God. Who is our God? And here Moses is contrasting the one true and living God, the God who delivered them from Egypt, with all of the many pantheon of gods that the Egyptians served. The Egyptians were polytheistic, many gods. The true faith, the Christian faith, is monotheistic, one God. We serve one God. There's only one God. And who is this God that we serve? Well, as the story of Scripture progresses, the picture of God becomes more and more clear until we come to the pages of the New Testament, and we read about Emmanuel, God with us. We read about the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. We read about Jesus, the Son of God, who came and died on the cross for our sins. It starts with the identity of God. The pathway to faithfulness always begins with God. He is the initiator. He is the savior. He is the one who delivered them out of Egypt. He is the one who has delivered us out of sin and death and darkness. It starts with God, it begins with God: who he is, his nature, his character, and his mighty works. If we want to walk the pathway of faithfulness and experience the blessings that come from it, we have to know God. Who is God? He is Jesus Christ. There's only one way to the Father, and it is through faith in Christ. It begins with God.

He goes on to say in verse 5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might." When Jesus is questioned, "What is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus will quote this here from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 5. Jesus will say, "The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind." With everything that you are, love God. That is the greatest commandment. But the Scripture, the New Testament, exposes for us why we should love God. And it tells us that we love him because he first loved us. Yes, we are commanded to love God, but we should love him because he first has loved us. God had first loved the children of Israel, and how had he shown his love to them? By delivering them from Egypt. And God has shown his love for us how? In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We love him because he first loved us. If ever you find in your life that your love for Christ, your love for God is growing weak, you don't need to focus on your lack of love. You need to focus on his abundance of love for you. Look to Christ. Look to his life, look to his death, look to his resurrection, look to the ways in which he has loved you. And as you focus in on him, your heart will be warmed to him and to the things of God. So love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your might. That's with your affections, that's with your thinking, that's with your strength, with your actions, with the things that you do.

The third thing on this pathway to faithfulness, he says, "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart." Keep God's Word in your heart. Meditate on God's Word. Read God's Word, study God's Word, think on God's Word. Have God's Word on your heart. Now, we have God's Word in our heart. Why do we do this? Because we love God. Because we love God, we want to know what he has said. We want to know what he has spoken. We want to know who he is. And he's revealed himself in his Word. We want to know his will and his ways revealed in his Word. Because we love God, his Word is in our hearts. We hide his Word in our hearts because we love him.

Instructing the Next Generation

And then finally, he says, take this Word that's in your heart and teach it to your children. "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Because his Word is in our hearts, because we love him, because he's loved us, his Word just overflows from our hearts into the everyday things of life. It's not like it has to be forced out of us. It's in our hearts. The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If you want to know what's in your heart, look at what's coming out of your mouth. If what's coming out of your mouth doesn't line up with what's in the Word or what you would hope would be coming out of your mouth, you need to get more in the Word of God and hide God's Word in your heart that it might come out of your mouth, that you might teach it to your children, that it would overflow out of your heart into the everyday things of life.

The home is to be the place where the gospel is seen and heard. It's not just when we come to church that the gospel is seen and heard. He says that you would teach them diligently to your children, talk of them when you sit in your house. I want you to notice here who bears the responsibility to instruct children in the ways of God. Notice here there's nothing in here about pastors, Sunday school teachers. It is parents. "You shall teach them diligently to your children." Parents, you need to feel the weight of this responsibility. This is what God expects of you. This is what God expects from you as parents. And we have not met our obligation of teaching and instructing our children in the ways of God simply by dropping them off at Sunday school. We must teach our children our own faith; the faith that we have, we must impart to them.

And here's the truth. You will do that. Whatever faith you have is the faith you will impart to your children. If it's a real, true, genuine, abiding faith based in love for God because he's loved us, you will have no problem talking about God and the things of God. If your faith is at the center of who you are, that will be handed down to your children. But if your faith is just some sort of Sunday go-to-meeting faith, or "Oh, it's the first Sunday of the month, so I'm going to go to church," or "I'm a C.E.O. Christian" (Christmas and Easter only, that's what C.E.O. stands for), you're going to hand that faith onto your children as well. Whatever faith you possess, you will hand down. If you're a hypocrite, you're going to hand that down to your children. Yes. It's the truth. You train up your children in the way that you live your life. Paul tells Timothy, "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well." They handed their faith on to Timothy. And we must, in the same way, hand our faith on to them. We must share our love for Christ with our children.

You might be asking, "Well, how do I do that? How do I share my love for Christ?" Well, how do you share your love for anything? When you love something, it's not hard to share it with people. When you find a new restaurant and it's really good, you don't have a hard time telling people about it. You don't have a hard time taking people to it. When you're obsessed with a sports team, everybody knows it. How do you hand your love on to your children for the San Antonio Spurs? It's not hard. You watch the games, you take them to the games, you buy them the swag, the jerseys. You tell them the stories. "Let me tell you about Tim Duncan. Let me tell you about Manu Ginobili. You think Wembanyama's cool? Man, you should have seen Tim Duncan in 2003. Unstoppable. You should have seen him in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. He scored a quadruple-double, something that nobody ever does, but they didn't give him two of his blocks, and so it's only a triple-double, but he really... look at the blocks." Right? You do those things, right? It's not just me. Y'all do those too, right? I'm not just insane. Okay. So, it's not hard to pass on what we love. If you find it hard to pass on your love for Christ, I would say evaluate your love for Christ. Do you really love him? Or is it only lip service that you are giving him on Sunday morning because that's what you think you ought to do? These are hard words, but they cause us to evaluate our walk with the Lord because that is the walk we will hand on to our children.

In verse 7, he says to teach them. That word "teach," it literally means to sharpen, as if you were sharpening a knife. And so the image of sharpening is one of constant repetition. Just as if you have a dull knife, you don't get out the knife sharpener and run it by once and say, "Alright, this knife is now sharp." One stroke of the blade doesn't sharpen it. And likewise, one instruction of your children in God's Word and his commandments will not be of much effect. Because we live in a world where it's constantly pulling us away from God, away from the things of God, towards itself and the things of the world, and it dulls us to the Spirit of God. And so without continual, constant repetition and instruction in the Word of God, the souls of our children will become dull to the things of Christ. Teach them diligently. It's hard work, but it's good work. It's a continual sharpening day by day.

Notice here, he says, "Talk of the things of God when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way" (you could sub in there "when you drive in your car"), "when you lie down." It's when you go to bed at night, when you wake up in the morning. Notice there's no portion of time that is left unoccupied with meditation on the law of God. Whether they are at home, whether they're out and about, whether they're headed to bed, or rising for a new day, Moses says, place the law of God, the commands of God, the teaching of the Word of God, place it before your children. Remember the psalmist in Psalm 1: he meditates on the law day and night.

Binding the Word on Our Lives

He goes on to say in verse 8, "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Now, the Jews of Jesus' day took this literally. And even modern Orthodox Jews to this day, they will tie on their hands and tie around their head leather boxes that contain scrolls, parchments, of passages of the Torah. And they bind these little boxes—they are called phylacteries. They bind them on their hand. They bind them around their head twice a day as they go to pray, to observe what here is taught by Moses. And they think and they thought, especially in Jesus' day, that by strapping on these little boxes to their foreheads and their arms, that they had fulfilled what God was asking them to do through this. And in Jesus' day, he rebukes them for this behavior. Because they were making their boxes really big. "Look how holy I am. Look how much Scripture I can carry around on my head and on my hand." This sort of external, ostentatious mark of holiness. Jesus rebukes them and he says, "What are you doing? That's not the point of this."

So what does Moses mean here? These are figures of speech to say that God's law should rule over every area of life without exception. So to bind them on your hand is representative of your actions, that your actions, the things you do, should be submitted to the Word of God. You should obey the Word of God with your actions. That's what it means to bind it on your hand. To keep it as frontlets between your eyes, that is your thoughts, your thought life should be dominated by the Word of God. Paul will say, "Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ." That our thought life matters. What are you thinking about? What are you meditating on? Are you meditating on Christ? His Word, his kingdom, his will, his ways? Or is it just the mundane things of life? Are you keeping his kingdom? "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness." Is it in your thoughts? That's what it means, frontlets between your eyes. He goes on to say, "On the doorposts of your house." It doesn't mean to put up a sign that says "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" on your door, though that's fine if you want to do that. But if you do that, you better make sure when you go in that house, that you're serving the Lord. So it's not about putting it on the door of your house. It's about your private life. Are you serving the Lord in your home? And then "on your gates." That's as you leave, as you go out into the public square, public life, that you are serving the Lord in public, just as you are in private. So your actions, your thoughts, your private life, your public life, Christ should be king over every area of our lives.

3. The Priority of Gratitude

Now, I told you the first two would be the longer two. The next two are going to be shorter, but the third thing that we see in this passage is the priority of gratitude. The priority of gratitude. And in verse 10, he says:

"And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full..."

He's saying, look, God is going to bless you, and he's going to bless you greatly, and he's going to bless you mightily. And when God does bless you with all of these incredible blessings, verse 12:

"Then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear."

He says, be grateful. Be grateful to the Lord. Don't forget about him. Continue to serve him with a heart of thanksgiving and gratitude. Gratitude, when we are thankful for the blessings God gives us, gratitude is what anchors our heart to the giver of the gift and not the gift itself. If you want your heart to be anchored to the giver and not the gift, cultivate an attitude in your heart of thanksgiving. Gratitude is what anchors us to God and not simply his gifts and his blessings.

The truth is that no amount of keeping God's law puts us in a position to be deserving of God's favor or blessing. Let me say that again. No amount of keeping God's law places us in a position of deserving God's blessing. We are all undeserved recipients. That's what the gospel teaches us. God blesses us because we are his children. We don't deserve to be his children. We are only his children on account of the work of Christ in our lives. So when we are blessed, and every good and perfect gift comes down from God above, let us be grateful and hear me, we are blessed. We are some of the most blessed people who have ever lived. Let us not forget where our blessings come from. Let us be grateful. Let us be thankful every day.

You know, this is why we end our service every week by singing the Doxology.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow...

I don't know if you listen to those words; we sing them every week. You might have just thought, "Oh, that's a catchy little tune that makes us feel good as we go out to get our chips and salsa." It's meant to be more than that. It's meant to cultivate in us a heart of gratitude for the great and many blessings that we have, and even that we've experienced that morning in worship. Praise God. Bless God. Give thanksgiving to God. Take care lest you forget the Lord.

4. The Picture of the Gospel

And then finally, in the fourth heading, we see the first point in this passage, Deuteronomy 6, is the picture of the gospel. The picture of the gospel. In verse 20, it says:

"When your son asks you in time to come, 'What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?'"

He says, when you teach your children the Word of God, when you teach your children to obey God's commandments, when they ask, "What is the meaning of this?" They're going to ask. They're going to ask when you teach them, "What does this stuff mean?" And he says, when they ask you, then you shall say to your son:

"We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us."

When our children have questions about God and his Word and his commandments, which they will have if we are teaching them to our children, that's an opportunity to share the gospel with them. He says to the children of Israel under the old covenant, "Tell them about the salvation that God gave you that brought you out of Egypt." But when our children ask us about the Word of God, it's an opportunity for us to tell about the salvation that we have through Jesus Christ. A much greater salvation than the one that they had, by the way. And look how lengthy this story of salvation is.

This is a time for us to teach our children: God has saved me by his grace. I was dead in my trespasses and sins, but God, who is so rich in mercy, has bestowed his grace and his favor upon me. Why do I keep the teachings of Christ? Why do I obey the Word of God? Because God has loved me. Because God has set me free. Because God has set his affection upon me, and how could I do anything else but serve him? This isn't something I have to do, this is something I get to do.

Every week, my children ask me, "Do we have to go to church?" Not every week. I shouldn't say that, not every week. It feels like every week. Often, my children will ask, "Do we have to go to church?" And I will say, "We do not have to go. We get to go. We get to go to church. We get to go and worship God." This isn't a have to. This is a get to. This is a privilege to gather with the people of God, and to worship the Lord, and to celebrate what he's done in our lives, to remind ourselves of the great salvation that he has worked in us with his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, that he left heaven and came to earth. And when your children ask you about the commandments, it's an opportunity to teach them the gospel. But they will not ask if you do not teach them. You have to be teaching them.

Conclusion and Application

So just in closing, a few points of application. The first is that we would warm in our affections for Christ. That we would focus on Christ constantly, that we wouldn't be so silly as to tie Scripture around our head, but that we would focus on it in our thoughts day and night, meditate on it day and night, meditate on Christ day and night. That we would let his love for us warm our love for him. And that our love for Christ, that it would produce in us a love for his Word. Jesus says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." If we love him, we'll study his Word that we might be diligent in walking in obedience to him. Not because we have to, but because we get to. We're part of his family.

Let us also be faithful to teach our children God's commandments. Every day, like sharpening a knife, a little here, a little there. Every day, all throughout the day, when we wake up in the morning, when we go to bed at night, when we sit in our house, when we drive in the car, let us be faithful to be talking about the Word of God, the things of God. Let us teach our children the Ten Commandments. Let us teach our children the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Let us teach our children to love God and to love their neighbor as themselves. Let us teach our children to treat others the way they want to be treated.

And children, when your parents are instructing you in the ways of the faith, cooperate with them. Recognize that in their teaching you the Word of God, as they're reading from the Scriptures as we go through the Bible, recognize that they are being faithful to what God has asked them to do. And I would encourage all the children to be faithful to pay attention and to receive the instruction from their parents. Amen.

So, Deuteronomy 6, it really encapsulates the whole heart and the whole affection behind God and his law. God didn't give his law to his people because he was some mad, angry ogre. He gave his Word to his people because he loved them, to teach them the pathway of blessing, to show them the pathway of faithfulness that isn't for just one generation, but it's to the next generation, the next generation, the next generation. And this doesn't stop in the Old Testament. On the first day that the gospel is ever preached, Peter says, "This promise is for you and for your children." And that God is faithful to a thousand generations. Let us be faithful to our great God, who has set us free from sin and death, and who has given us his Word, that we might walk in it and experience his bountiful blessings in our lives every day. Amen.

Snake Bit

Snake Bit

Matthew Bell

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Sermon Summary

In this sermon, Pastor Matt explores the story of the Israelites in the wilderness from the book of Numbers, focusing on their grumbling against God's provision and the subsequent discipline they faced through fiery serpents. He breaks the narrative into four main points: the people's sin of impatient complaining, God's loving but painful discipline, the people's prompt repentance, and God's remedy through Moses' intercession and the bronze serpent. Pastor Matt connects this Old Testament account directly to the Gospel, demonstrating how the bronze serpent prefigures Christ on the cross, who became sin so that whoever looks upon Him in faith will receive eternal life, and he concludes by challenging believers not to grow entitled or bored with Jesus and the ordinary means of grace.

Sermon Transcript

Journey to the Promised Land

And so Abraham's family, the children of Israel, found themselves enslaved in Egypt, and they called out to God to deliver them. God sent them a deliverer, a man named Moses, who delivered his people from slavery in Egypt. God was leading his people into the land of Canaan, which God had promised to give to Abraham, so we know that land as the Promised Land. He was leading his people into that land, but his people rebelled against God and said, "We cannot go into that land because we will be killed if we try to do this. If we try to take the land from the people that live there, we're not strong enough, we don't have enough weapons. We're outnumbered, they will kill us."

They didn't trust God to help them. Because of that, God judged them and made that unfaithful, unbelieving generation live out all of their days in the wilderness. For 40 years, they wandered in the wilderness until that generation would pass away, and a new generation would come of age that God would lead into that land of promise.

Where we find ourselves in this story is they are very close to the end of that 40 years. They're ready to now enter into the Promised Land, and they ask their cousin, Edom—Edom was descended from Esau. If you remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, these are the descendants of Jacob. They ask Esau, Edom, "Can we just cut through? Can we do a shortcut and cut through your territory on our way to the Promised Land? Instead of having to go all this long way around back to the Red Sea, all the way around this treacherous territory. It's a really nice shortcut, we'll just cut right through. We won't mess anything up. We won't take any of your stuff."

And Edom said, "Absolutely not. You may not pass through our territory," and they sent an army out to fight against them, to keep them from entering through their land.

So they're right ready to go into the Promised Land, this next generation, and then this delay comes. This opposition comes, and now they have to go all the way back around, through this treacherous territory, to go into the Promised Land. It's on this trip it says they went out back to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And it's in this moment that we see this story.

My title today for the sermon is Snake Bit. I have four points for us this morning from this passage.

1. The People's Sin

The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the people's sin. They first begin, it says, they became impatient on the way. Remember, they only had to pass through. They were so close, and now they have to go all the way back around, and they become impatient. It says the people spoke against God and against Moses. They said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food."

Their accusation is against God and against Moses: God, after this 40 years of provision and protection, you're just going to kill us again in the wilderness. We have no food, and we have no water. Now, if you've been reading the story, I want to ask you, is that true? Were they out of food and water? No, it's not true. We know it's not true by their own lips because they say, "We have no food, we have no water, and we loathe this worthless food." So they do have food. They do have water.

Twice, God had provided water for them from the rock. God was also providing for them bread from heaven every single day that was called manna. I just want you to think about how amazing it would be for God to provide food for you every single day. All they had to do was to walk outside of their tent, and this manna, this bread-like substance, was on the ground. It was collected with the dew, and they just had to go and scoop it up. It would nourish them. It said it was sweet like honey. It was like tortillas from heaven, if you could imagine. Or sopaipillas, right? It's God raining down bread every day, and it was the nourishment that they needed, sustaining them in the wilderness for 40 years. Yet they counted God's provision as worthless. They became discontent with what God was providing.

At some point this week, I blurted out to my children, "Y'all are so entitled." I only remember this because they said, "Dad, what does that mean? What does entitled mean?" I had to think for a second, and I said, "It means you think you deserve things you don't deserve." That's what entitlement is. You think you deserve things that you don't deserve.

They had become so accustomed to God's blessing in their life that they thought they just deserved it. They looked down upon God's provision, and I just wonder if the same might be true of any of us. God so richly provides for our needs every single day, and we become so discontent. We find ourselves longing for other things that he has not provided, but things that are flesh, desires, and wants. When we do that, in a way what we're saying is we are not grateful for the provision that God has provided.

We know earlier in Numbers, they became bored with the manna, and they began to long for the fish that was in Egypt. Oh man, they had great fish in Egypt. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have fish? It says they wanted the cucumbers and the melons, and the onions, and the garlic. They had this longing in their flesh for something that God had not provided for them in the wilderness. Essentially, what they were saying is, "Couldn't we just get some spices to put on this manna? Couldn't we just spice this up a little bit? A little bit of garlic, some paprika, or some cumin? Just something to spice this up. It is so boring, and it is so bland."

And yet it nourished them. God was feeding them. But their hearts became discontent, and so they grumbled, it says. They complained. They spoke against God and against Moses. Now again, if you're reading the story with us, you know that this is not the first time they have grumbled and complained against God and Moses. The first time they grumbled and complained was just as soon as God had led them out of Egypt; when they came up to the Red Sea, they grumbled and complained. "Why did you bring us out of here to die in the wilderness?" They complained they had no water. When God provided water, they complained the water was bitter; it wasn't to their tasting. They complained about a lack of food. They complained after the spies went in and reported. They wanted to return to Egypt.

These people have been complaining and complaining and complaining. Now if you're a parent, you know exactly what this is like: no matter what we give you, it's never good enough. And the children of Israel—I'm sorry to spoil the punchline—are a picture of the church. This is God's church in the wilderness. This is the congregation of his people. And it is so true of us as well, that so often we become discontent and we even complain about what God has blessed us with.

It says here explicitly that they complained against God and against Moses. Earlier in Exodus chapter 16, verse 8, reflecting on one of these complaining stories, it says:

"And Moses said, 'When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.'"

Every time they grumbled against Moses, they weren't just grumbling against Moses. They were grumbling against the Lord. When they grumbled against the leaders that God had placed in their life, they were grumbling against the Lord. When they grumbled against the blessings that God had given to them, they were grumbling against the Lord. Listen, God is sovereign. His providence is over all things. When we grumble against our situation in life, we're not just grumbling against that situation. We're grumbling against the Lord.

And the way that this story reads—because later they have to confess after the serpents come and bite them, they have to go to Moses and say, "We have sinned"—because of that fact, it reads that they were grumbling in their hearts. This wasn't even a vocalized grumbling. This was an internal discontent that they had harbored in their life.

I want to warn you, I want to caution you against grumbling, against complaining, against this spirit of discontentment that is so prevalent in our culture. Our culture complains about everything. You will not find anything happening that people are not grumbling and complaining about. The most silly things, the most ridiculous things, the most non-consequential things, the things that truly don't matter at all, people will find reason to grumble and complain about.

I'll illustrate it for you. The last three weeks, people have been grumbling and complaining as if it's the end of the world about the NFL's choice of the Super Bowl halftime show. As if this is some grand affront, the end of our union. People get whipped into a fury over the most ridiculous things. Who cares? I'm talking about for the people of God, for the children of God who are part of the kingdom of God, who cares? So then, some other organization decides they're going to have their alternative Super Bowl show. And as if you know anything about that, you know that didn't satisfy everybody either.

Look, we need to not be led by the spirit of the world that is just grumbling and complaining about everything all the time. Has God not blessed us richly? Do we not have reason to be grateful for the blessings that we do have? How ridiculous is it that we would let the most silly little things rob our joy, our peace, and our contentment in Christ? As if they picked some better artists, like that would really bring you joy. It wouldn't even make it to the end of the football game if your team lost! So if it's not going to bring you lasting joy, why are you letting it bring you so much anger, discontentment, and grumbling?

We need to be grateful for what God has placed in our lives. As our grandparents used to tell us, don't curse the darkness, light a candle. Be thankful. Moses wasn't a perfect leader. He had his issues. Apparently, he had some anger issues; he struck the rock. But yet, they were called to follow him. He was the leader God had given them. So Moses says, "When you rebel against me, you're rebelling against God." When we rebel against what God has placed in our lives, it's ultimately against God, is it not? Let us be careful that we don't allow the culture that we live in to lead us, but that we are being led by the Spirit with a spirit of gratitude towards God every day.

That's why we pray before we eat, by the way. It's not because we're worried that it's poisonous, or that praying is going to reduce the calorie count. That doesn't work. The prayer before we eat is to give God thanks. Thank you, God, for your provision. Because everything good and perfect comes from you.

Yesterday, we were driving in the car, and my children were having a conversation. The conversation was: "Would you rather not be able to smell or to taste?" Asher speaks up confidently, and he says, "I'd rather not be able to taste." I thought, Hmm, that's interesting. How awful would that be, not being able to taste? And then Charity is like, "Why?" He says, "Because then I could eat mom's food." I just thought, that poor guy, man. He needs to have a little bit more gratitude in his life for the provision that God is giving him! The prayers that we're praying before we eat our meals aren't really landing with Asher just quite yet. We need to be grateful for what God has provided for us.

2. God's Discipline

The second point is God's discipline. We see that in verse 6:

"Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died."

God brings discipline on his people. They want to act like snakes, so God sends them snakes. They want to bite and devour the leader that God placed in their life; God's going to send them some snakes as discipline.

And truly, this is discipline, not judgment. Judgment from God is reserved for his enemies. These are not God's enemies; they are God's people. Discipline is reserved for his children, and discipline is how God draws his children back to himself. Discipline is how God keeps his children on the path that he has for them. As they begin to wander off, God will bring discipline into our lives to put us back on the right path. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of this in Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 5:

"And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

'My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,

and chastens every son whom he receives.'

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

God was disciplining his children, and God will also discipline us in our lives. I want to bring out four very quick things from this passage in the book of Hebrews.

The first is that God does discipline his children. As we stray from him off the path he has for us into patterns and lifestyles of sin, God will bring discipline. The discipline the writer of Hebrews is talking about here is persecution. These people were enduring great suffering, and the writer is saying, God is disciplining you. We need to make sure that we don't impose upon God our culture's secular version of parenting that says parents should just approve of everything their children do. No, that's not God's way. God's way is to bring correction to our lives when we stray.

The second thing in verse 7 is that God's discipline is proof that we are, in fact, God's children. When God allows things into our life to chasten us and bring us back onto the straight and narrow path, that is proof that we belong to him. He does not discipline those who don't belong to him. Just like I don't go around disciplining children that are not mine—though often I would like to! I have enough to take care of in my own house. God doesn't discipline the children that are not His. He lets them go headlong into their sin. But not his own children. He arrests us. He brings us correction. He does not give us over to our lustful and sinful desires. He guards us and keeps us.

The third thing is that God's discipline is for our good. He says that explicitly in verse 10.

And fourthly, God's discipline is painful, but it produces good fruit. The good fruit that God is producing in our lives through his discipline is holiness. It says that in verse 10, "that we may share his holiness." It's unpleasant, it's painful in the moment, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. God is more concerned with our holiness than our temporary happiness.

So if we find ourselves undergoing various trials, it is right and good for us to ask the Lord to search our hearts to reveal if we have any hidden or unconfessed sin. Now, when God brings this discipline on his children, as soon as the snakes show up and start biting people, the people know exactly what's going on. They know what God is disciplining them for. I want to be careful that I'm not saying every trial in our life is because we have some hidden sin. But there are times where God will bring trials that point us back to him.

We all know this is true. When our life is going really good, our spiritual life typically is not as fervent. When life is difficult, do we not cling to God more closely? Do we not pray more? Do we not spend more time in his word? Yet when life is easy, do we not find our spiritual discipline lowering? So God, as a loving father, will allow things in our lives that loosen the grip that temptation and sin have on us. Not all trials are the result of sin—Job is a great example of someone who suffered trials not due to sinful behavior. Yet those trials drew him closer to the Lord. God does use trials to sanctify us.

3. The People's Repentance

If you find in your life the discipline of the Lord, look at what the people did in verse 7. The third point: they repent of their sin.

The people said in verse 7, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you." It's interesting to note that it is only after they experience this chastening of the Lord that they confess their sin and repent. Had the discipline never come, the people would have continued in their sinful behavior to their destruction. But because the Lord disciplined them, they go to Moses and confess, "We have sinned against God, we have sinned against you."

Dear friends, if you find that you are in sin, the first thing we must do is run to Jesus. We must confess our sin to our great High Priest. 1 John 1:9 says:

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

When we sin, we are being unfaithful. But even when we are unfaithful, if we confess our sin, he does not respond to us in kind; instead, he is faithful and just to forgive us. Are you burdened with sin today? Take it to Jesus. Call out to him in repentance and faith, and he will cleanse you. Jesus is our High Priest, our mediator. We go directly to him.

4. God's Remedy

The fourth thing I want to draw your attention to is God's remedy. We see the remedy in two ways.

The first is Moses' prayer. Moses prayed for the people at the end of verse 7. This is a prayer of intercession, standing in the gap. He takes them before the Lord. But we have an even greater intercessor than Moses: we have the Lord Jesus. Romans 8:34 says:

"Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."

Paul is calling back to Romans 8:1, which says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and says, How could we be under condemnation? Jesus is the one who died for us, shed his blood for us, was raised to the right hand of God, and is interceding always for us. Moses was a man, temporary, sinful, and flawed. But Jesus is the God-man, eternal, always making intercession for us. Hebrews 7:25 says:

"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."

Jesus is praying for you right now. Just as the people found themselves sinful and snake-bitten, and Moses interceded for them, Christ right now intercedes for you.

The second part of the remedy was the bronze serpent that God tells Moses to make. He says, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." This is a picture of the gospel. This is a picture of Jesus. Anyone who would look upon that bronze serpent when bitten by the snake would be healed.

The reason I say this is a picture of Jesus is because Jesus himself says it's a picture of him. In John 3:14-15, Jesus says:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."

What was happening here in the book of Numbers was a picture of Jesus on the cross. Jesus himself, who never sinned, goes to the cross willingly because of the great love he has for his people, to lay his life down so that we who have been bitten by the snake might have eternal life. Those who looked upon the serpent were healed of the snakebite temporarily. But we receive something much greater when we look upon Christ: life eternal. All they needed to do was look and live. Jesus says, All you must do is look to me, look to my sacrifice, and believe.

Friends, this is the good news for us in the wilderness of this life. This is not just the message for the sinner or the pagan; it is for the children of God as well. We will live out our days in this wilderness, tempted by the devil, experiencing things not going the way we planned. There are many times where the snake would come and bite us, where we may find ourselves complaining about God's plans. All the remedy we need is to look to Christ and to live.

Some of you may be thinking, If it's a picture of Christ, why is it a snake? Jesus is the lamb of God, not the snake of God. I wrestled with this until one day I realized that on the cross, Jesus became the serpent. Jesus became sin on the cross. He became the object of God's wrath against sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Jesus took our sin upon him, and all who look to him in faith will live. All of humanity have been bitten by the snake, but if we will look to the one hanging on the cross, we will receive healing from the deadly poison of the serpent.

Clinging to Christ and the Ordinary Means of Grace

As we close today, I want to draw your attention back to the children of Israel and their complaint. They called the provision of God worthless: "We despise this worthless food, this manna. It's boring. I could just use a little bit of Tabasco, it would go a long way on this manna." Later in the gospel, in John 6, Jesus will say, "I am the bread of life." He will say, "I was the bread that came down from heaven in the wilderness." The manna is a picture of Christ. The rock which Moses struck twice was a picture of Christ. So what they really became bored with in the wilderness was Jesus.

Because they became bored, God allowed this fiery trial in their life to cause them to put their eyes back on Jesus. I want to pose the question for you: Have you become bored with Jesus? Have you become bored with the gospel? It's so easy in our flesh to become accustomed to the provision God has made for us in Christ, to become so familiar with salvation and mercy that his grace is no longer amazing to us anymore, that we become entitled.

The Puritans used to speak of the "ordinary means of grace"—the ways in which God would show his grace to us and give us spiritual nourishment. The ordinary means of grace were the Word of God, prayer, and the Lord's table. There's nothing spectacular in the natural sense with the Word of God, prayer, and the Lord's table. It's all quite ordinary. But there is supernatural life there. There is grace there. How often do our sinful hearts become bored of these means of nourishment? We become bored of worship, preaching, and our time in the Word. If we find ourselves in that condition, we're no better than the Israelites who called the manna worthless.

In our flesh, we want things to be spiced up. We want the gospel to tickle our ears and entertain us. When that happens, God, who is a good father, allows trials in our lives to keep our eyes fixed firmly on Christ, that we would not esteem his provision as worthless but that we might cling to it with all our might. We must hold onto his unmerited favor and make all use of the ordinary means of grace that he has provided, receiving them daily with thankful hearts.

We all need spiritual strength. We live in incredible times, with the lies of the enemy running rampant through our culture and families. Where are we going to get strength? It's from the Word, prayer, worship, and the Lord's table. If we look to them in faith and with gratitude, we will receive the strength we need for each new day.

Hebrews chapter 12, I'll close with this today:

"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

May we all nourish ourselves on Christ and the provision that he has given to us. Amen.

The Better High Priest

The Better High Priest

Abraham Abu-Rabih

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Sermon Summary

In this exposition of Leviticus 16, Pastor Abraham demonstrates how the Old Testament Day of Atonement serves as a profound shadow pointing directly to the finished work of Jesus Christ. He highlights the absolute holiness of God in contrast to the deep, pervasive sinfulness of humanity, explaining that a holy God dwelling with a sinful people requires a blood atonement. By examining the high priest’s restricted access to the Holy of Holies, the sprinkling of atoning blood over the Ark of the Covenant, and the release of the scapegoat bearing the people's sins, the sermon illustrates the comprehensive nature of God's forgiveness. Ultimately, Pastor Abraham calls the congregation to stop striving for self-justification, recognize Jesus as the perfect, once-and-for-all High Priest and sacrifice, and rest confidently in His eternal redemption.

Sermon Transcript

Introduction: Finding Jesus in Leviticus

So this morning, I'm tasked with a portion of Scripture in a book of the Bible that many people see their Bible reading plans die in, okay? In this book, there's a lot of death and animal sacrifice, and sometimes Bible plans end up going that way as well. We're actually this morning going to be in the book of Leviticus, specifically Leviticus chapter 16.

Now I want to preface it with this. I love what 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 says. It says all Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And God's people said, amen.

As we're going through Leviticus 16, we are not going to go through an expositional way of verse 1 through 34. We'd be here until the Super Bowl starts. So we're definitely not doing that this morning. But really, my efforts this morning are to show you Jesus. To show you Jesus even here in Leviticus 16. How many of you know we need Jesus in our lives? We need Him for everything. I'm reminded on the road to Emmaus, Jesus talked to a couple of disciples, and He went through the Old Testament scriptures and pointed to Himself, and that's exactly what I endeavor to do this morning: to show you Jesus.

So this morning, why don't we stand and I'm going to read just the first six verses of Leviticus 16. Open your Bibles there to Leviticus 16.

"The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, 'Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house.'"

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before You, God, in Your house with reverence for Your Word. But also with hearts that are open and grateful for the Word of God. God, I pray that You would speak through this passage and You would speak through Your servant this morning. God, I yield my words, I yield all my faculties this morning to You, Holy Spirit. Lord, we can do nothing apart from You, God, and we want to hear from You. We want Your Word more than anything, Lord. So I pray that Your Word would go forth in power this morning to Your people, to pierce the hearts of Your people. And even so, Lord, draw those who are not in Christ this morning, draw them to Jesus, Lord. May we see Jesus here in these short verses. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen.

Well, you may be seated this morning.

The Problem: A Holy God and a Sinful People

So how did we get here? Israel, the people of God, have just been constantly in sin, in rebellion toward God's covenant that He had given them. If you remember, Pastor Matt talked about a verse where they said that all the Lord has spoken, we will do, back in Exodus. So they're like, "Lord, we're going to do everything You said. We're going to follow everything You have spoken." And not too long after that, they're worshiping a golden idol at the foot of the mountain while Moses was speaking with God. There's idolatry, there's sin, and rebellion already seen in the beginning pages of Scripture and in God's people.

But how many of you know God's a God of mercy? Amen. And you can see His mercy even here. You can see His grace, His provision, even here. Despite God's people's rebellion, God wanted to dwell with His people. God wanted to have a tabernacle set up where He would dwell with His chosen people. And at the end of Exodus chapter 40, it ends off saying that God's glory filled this tabernacle that was built because God is going to dwell with His people.

And you might wonder, how can this be? Our God who is holy, amongst people who are sinful? I've already shown how sinful they are. Leviticus starts off and you see, even in the first few chapters, this sacrificial system is already set up. They provided multiple different offerings, such as the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering. I encourage you to go back and read these and study these in depth. But it spoke to the brokenness of man and really the holiness of God. In these chapters, we're also seeing that sin requires death. It requires substitution, and it requires blood.

Then as we progress closer to where we're going to be at this morning, we see this priesthood is ordained, and this priesthood was in charge of the tabernacle. There were laws of cleanliness and uncleanliness, and that brings us to what's known sometimes as the heart of the first five books of the Bible. The heart of the Torah: the Day of Atonement here in Leviticus 16.

Again, there's this tension: how can a holy God dwell with a sinful people? God is holy, man is sinful. Because of that, atonement is absolutely necessary. This wasn't just a problem for these Israelite people. This is a problem for all of mankind, for every single person. Atonement is the covering, removal, and cleansing of sin so that fellowship with God can be restored. That idea of covering sin is really seen here in Leviticus 16. But this idea that a price must be paid, blood must be shed, a life must be given in exchange for life—if God is going to dwell with His people, God provided in His grace this Day of Atonement. This day that was considered Israel's holiest day, this day of Sabbath.

Point One: Our God is Holy

When I started reading just this chapter alone, I could not get my mind away from the holiness of God. The songs we sang this morning testified of God's holiness. Our God is holy. There is nobody like our God. He is distinctly unique. He is in a category of His own. He is perfect in every single way. There is no fault in our God at all. There is no flaw in our God whatsoever.

Isaiah 6:3 says, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Revelation 4:8, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty." Our God is holy. And His holiness defines everything about Him. His love is holy. His mercy is holy. His wrath is holy. His justice is holy. Everything about God is holy because He is holy. It's His otherness. He literally stands above it all, perfect, all by Himself. 1 Samuel 2:2 says, "There is none holy like the Lord." And God's holiness demands separation from sin. So this makes atonement necessary when a holy God and a sinful people are to be together.

Point Two: We Are Sinful

Point number two, we are sinful. This is an objective fact, y'all. Every single person here, you don't even have to go past yesterday. You could even think about maybe this morning, maybe getting the kids ready this morning, to see your need for God, your need for forgiveness of your sin. We are infected by sin, and man from his very birth is infected by sin. We are sinners literally by nature. It's not just that we choose to do sin—we do—but we're sinners by nature and by choice.

I like what Psalm 51:5 says. This is what David said: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 5:12, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." Every single one of us is born a sinner. Nobody is excluded from this.

And the depths of our sin—I don't know if we have enough time to talk about that this morning. But it affects everything. We are corrupted to the very core of who we are: our minds, our consciences, our hearts, our motives, our desires. Everything is touched by sin. Romans 3 talks about how none is righteous, no, not even one. We stand therefore guilty before a holy God, and our sin brings separation from God.

So what do we do with this sin problem? The greatest issue humanity has ever had? We can't fix this on our own. The sin that enslaves, the sin that dominates, the sin that corrupts—we need atonement. We need God to fix this problem. Has God provided hope? Spoiler alert: He has. And I love what the Old Testament does in these shadows and these types. It's all pointing toward someone. It's all pointing toward Jesus.

Point Three: Sir, We Wish to See Jesus

Point number three is, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." In John 12:21, these people came to Philip and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." That's who we need more than anything in this life. As we go through Leviticus 16, have this in mind: we're going to see how Jesus is better in every single way.

In these first couple of verses, the tone is actually set by what happened six chapters ago when two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, go into the Most Holy Place, just flippant, not how God prescribed. They did it however they wanted to do it. It's never a good idea to go against God's way. Ever. It's always best to go God's way when God says we do. Period. End of story. But we need His help in this every day. So they get struck down because of this.

In verse two, God speaks to Moses: "Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil." We can only approach God on His terms. We can only come at His invitation. There was an appointed time, an appointed way, and an appointed place.

Going into this Holy of Holies—just imagine what the tabernacle looks like. Inside this rectangular tent of meeting, the beginning part is the Holy Place. Then there's this big curtain that separates a back room, the Most Holy Place. It's where the Ark of the Covenant was laid. God's presence dwelt there on top of the mercy seat, the ornate lid on top of this rectangular box. On the mercy seat is where atoning blood was to be sprinkled. And God allowed only the high priest, one person, one time a year, to enter this place. That is restricted access.

But today, the access looks a little bit different. This access has been opened wide because of what Jesus did on the cross! What was once restricted has now been opened, and now as God's people, you have standing, unlimited access to God because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is nothing that we did; it's all because of what He did on the cross. Because of this, Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

We can come confidently because of what Jesus has done. We are a needy people. And the depths of our need we can't even explain, but Christ has it all. I don't know what need you've come in here with today, but Christ is your answer. If you're bearing sin that feels like this unbearable weight, give it to Jesus today. If you need healing today, Christ is your answer. Do we live in such a way that we go in prayer to our God, believing with confidence that He will provide for our needs? I pray that we do.

Aaron’s Offering and Our Greater High Priest

If you're reading Leviticus 16, Aaron's offering is seen in verses 6 and 11 through 14. Notice something: this high priest would have to make atonement for his sins first. Why? Because everybody is a sinner. That didn't exclude somebody with the title of high priest. Before he could come and minister to the people, before he could even come and atone for the sins of Israel, he had to first deal with his own sin and the sin of his house.

This morning, where do you stand with God? Are you right with God today? Is there unrepentant sin that you have in your life this morning? Give it to Jesus. Deal with your sin, lay it at the feet of Jesus. This also gave me a picture for the husbands. You are priests in your home, put in position there by God as representative heads of your home. Are you harboring secret sin today? Or is there sin in your household that's running rampant? Go to God on behalf of your family and ask Him to take care of that sin. Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

We serve a greater High Priest than Aaron. Our High Priest, Jesus Christ, had no sin. He was the spotless, sinless Son of God. He didn't need to go and atone for His own sin, but He bore our sin upon Himself. Hebrews 4:14-15 says, "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." He is intimately acquainted with what you're going through.

Also, it says over twenty times, "Aaron" or "he shall," showing how only this one person would go in to do this work of atonement. He went in there alone. Similarly, Christ did it all on His own. No one helped Him. His work was perfect and sufficient once and for all time. Are you living this morning trying to earn your standing with God? Let me tell you right now, that is a fruitless endeavor. Stop it today and trust in Christ.

The Atoning Blood that Covers the Law

I want to point out something that happened when Aaron would go in. When he would sprinkle the atoning blood of that slain animal, he would sprinkle it on the Ark of the Covenant. What was inside that Ark? Inside was a representation of the sin of man. There was a jar of manna that represented Israel complaining against God. The tablets of the law were there, showing that the people of God were lawbreakers. And later on, there was this budding almond rod, which was a response to Israel's rebellion.

Picture this: God's presence is above this mercy seat, and underneath are these reminders of the rebellion of His people. "You broke my law. You complained about my manna. You resisted my authority." But this atoning blood would be sprinkled there. It would be this covering blood of another that would go between and cover the contents of what represented the sin of God's people.

In the same way, Jesus Christ has covered us in His blood. For 364 days out of the year, the law cries out, "You've broken my law! You've rejected my authority! Guilty!" But on the Day of Atonement, God saw the blood. Jesus offered us His perfect blood. Hebrews 9:12 says, "He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption." Have you been covered in the blood of Jesus this morning?

The Scapegoat and the Removal of Sin

Now we shift to the people's offering. We see this sin offering that was brought for them with two male goats. One would be sacrificed, and one was called the scapegoat—one literally escaping death that would be released out into the wilderness.

The first goat was slain for the sin of the people, making atonement for the Holy Place, the tent of meeting, and the altar. You see words like uncleanness, transgression, and sins, showing the depth of Israel's sinfulness. This should draw us to have more gratitude for what Christ has done for us. Don't become numb to the reality of the perfect sacrifice He offered for you.

Then the high priest would put his hands on the scapegoat. He would press down with pressure and confess all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the people onto the head of this animal. And then this goat was released into the wilderness. Charles Spurgeon talked about how they would let this goat wander, escorted out into the wilderness, until you could see it no more. The sin was gone. It is a beautiful picture of what Christ has done for us. I'm reminded of Psalm 103:12: "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." He remembers our sin no more.

Resting in the Finished Work of Christ

During all this, the people were to afflict themselves, to humble oneself and even fast. It was a time of confession. Warren Wiersbe put it like this: "On that day, God called His people to get serious about sin." But they were doing no work, because atonement was being made for them. Salvation is entirely a work of God. It is not ours. We have a tendency to try to contribute to the work of Christ. We have to strive to enter the rest of God, to rest in the finished work of Jesus.

Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Are you resting fully in the finished work of Jesus Christ this morning? Charles Spurgeon said Christian believers should do three things as they appreciate this atonement: we should afflict our souls in humility and repentance, rest from our works of self-righteousness, and behold our High Priest in His glorious garments.

This Old Testament sacrificial system was repeated every single year. It was temporary. We know what it looks like when something is unfinished. But Jesus Christ provided a finished work, and He sat down because the work was complete. Hebrews 9:24 and 26 says, "For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly... for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Jesus is the better High Priest. Jesus is the better sacrifice. Jesus is the better scapegoat. Jesus has the better blood. These shadows were temporary, pointing to the eternal substance of what was accomplished in Jesus. Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

I plead with the unbeliever in this place today who does not know Jesus savingly—not just know about Him, but who doesn't know Christ as Lord and Savior. Turn to Jesus this morning. Forsake your sin, repent, and trust Him with all that you have. Jesus came from heaven to earth, offered this perfect sacrifice for our sin, died on the cross, and didn't stay dead. He rose on the third day in victory and power. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and the work is finished.

I pray that we would take our sin seriously, that we would treasure the cross deeply, and that we would rest fully in Christ. Amen.