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Spiritual Stability, Part 3 Humility and Faith (Philippians 45–6a) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Those of you who have been with us over the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: last number of weeks know that we are considering the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: theme of spiritual stability. And we are looking at the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: text of Philippians chapter 4 where the Apostle Paul gives
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: us the principles that create or generate a spiritually stable life.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: You know, this entire society in which we live struggles
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: with the matter of stability. It ought to be obvious
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: to all of us that we live in a very
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: unstable world and we are in the midst of very
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: unstable people. Our world is filled with anxiety. It is
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  Speaker 1: filled with an inability of folks to cope with circumstances
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  Speaker 1: in life. There are a myriad of solutions but not
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: many that work or any that work apparently as the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: society continues to escalate in its instability. Sad to say,
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  Speaker 1: our particular culture and maybe even sadder to say, the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: church itself continues to direct people in the wrong direction
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to find the solutions to their anxieties and their instabilities.
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  Speaker 1: We have bought into the psychological lies that indicate that
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: man can solve his problems through certain psychological principles, certain
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: introspective self-adjustments. And those have proven not only to be
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  Speaker 1: unsuccessful but to be diversionary so that people pursuing the
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  Speaker 1: wrong thing and the wrong area come up with the
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: wrong answer and not only that but they then therefore
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: miss the right answer. The legacy of philosophy and psychology
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  Speaker 1: to this particular day and age has been to sell
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a whole generation snake oil. which doesn't do anything that
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it promises to do. This was pointed out rather forcefully
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to me by an interview that I read with Dr.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Robert Coles, C-O-L-E-S. Dr. Robert Coles is a social psychiatrist.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: He is perhaps as esteemed as any man in our
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  Speaker 1: country in terms of his area of psychiatry. He is
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  Speaker 1: an M.D., He is a research psychiatrist for Harvard University.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: He is professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at Harvard
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Medical School. He has written 36 books. He has authored
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  Speaker 1: 600 journal articles of one kind or another. And in 1973,
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  Speaker 1: he received the Pulitzer Prize. He is a very decorated, esteemed,
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  Speaker 1: and respected psychiatrist. This interview points up the futility of
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: his own area. While understanding superficially some things about Christianity,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: he will not call himself a Christian, does not believe
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: he is a Christian, and makes that clear in another
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  Speaker 1: part of the article. But his answers are very interesting.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: They asked him why he was not a surgeon. His answer,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sloppy, not a great quality for a surgeon. He said,
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  Speaker 1: when you get a combination of a befuddled slob who
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have the necessary toughness and is a little mixed
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  Speaker 1: up himself, you've got a psychiatrist. A befuddled mixed up
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  Speaker 1: slob with no toughness is a psychiatrist. The question is,
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  Speaker 1: a mixed up psychiatrist? Coles, of course. Question, is it
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: futile then to search for ultimate answers in psychiatry or psychology? Coals.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: The futility is in searching for ultimate answers in the
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  Speaker 1: entire secular culture. Psychology happens to be a temporary secular religion.
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  Speaker 1: How long will it last? Fifty years. Secular religions come
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  Speaker 1: and go. Today it's psychology. Tomorrow it will be weight
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  Speaker 1: reduction or cholesterol or getting to the moon or Mars.
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  Speaker 1: Who knows what our culture will be preoccupied with next?
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  Speaker 1: But none of this is going to give us answers
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  Speaker 1: to the moral, spiritual questions that we ultimately hunger for.
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  Speaker 1: Psychology isn't equipped to answer those questions. Psychology gives us
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  Speaker 1: some information about the mind, but the mind is not
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  Speaker 1: the soul. Question. Psychology, then, can help a person's mental health. Coles.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: We shouldn't even use words like mental health. The question
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  Speaker 1: is not, what is mental health or do you have
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: mental health? The question is, what do you do with
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  Speaker 1: your life? Question. But even ministers today are becoming psychologists, coals.
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  Speaker 1: That is paganism. Question. Pastoral counseling is the term for it, coals.
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  Speaker 1: It's paganism. My mother was dying here in Massachusetts General Hospital.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: A minister came to see her. He wanted to negotiate
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  Speaker 1: her through the stages of dying. She wanted him to
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  Speaker 1: pray for her. She knew she was dying. He wanted
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  Speaker 1: to talk about anger and denial, but she wasn't angry
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  Speaker 1: and she wasn't denying. She just wanted him to pray
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  Speaker 1: for her. Question, is this all part of the same
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  Speaker 1: syndrome we all want to worship the expert coals, the
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  Speaker 1: secular expert? Who are these secular experts anyway? What do
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  Speaker 1: psychologists and psychiatrists know about the Christian life? What can
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: they tell us? Quite an interesting response, isn't it? You
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: get the feeling he's been dropping his bucket in a
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  Speaker 1: dry well and he's come to that conclusion. Where do
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  Speaker 1: you go to find stability in life? Where do you
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  Speaker 1: go to learn to cope? Where do you go to
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  Speaker 1: learn to deal with anxiety? Where do you go to
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  Speaker 1: deal with circumstances that you find debilitating you and pressuring you?
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  Speaker 1: Where do you go to get your life really stabilized?
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  Speaker 1: You hear people all the time say, well, I just
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  Speaker 1: got to get my own life together. We are literally
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  Speaker 1: living in a sea of people who are emotionally unstable.
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  Speaker 1: Let's look at a biblical illustration of stability, Psalm 1.
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  Speaker 1: This is one of the first Psalms I ever memorized
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  Speaker 1: as a child. It is the foundation song of the Psalter.
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  Speaker 1: It is the foundation Psalm and it speaks directly to
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  Speaker 1: this issue of stability. It says in verse 1, how
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  Speaker 1: blessed is the man who does not walk in the
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  Speaker 1: counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners,
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  Speaker 1: nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight
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  Speaker 1: is in the law of the Lord, and in His
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  Speaker 1: law he meditates day and night. And he will be
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  Speaker 1: like a tree, firmly planted by streams of water, which
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  Speaker 1: yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does
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  Speaker 1: not wither and in whatever he does he prospers. Now
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  Speaker 1: that is the kind of life that most people would
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  Speaker 1: really like to live. They would like to be firmly
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  Speaker 1: planted in a place that flourishes with all the delights
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  Speaker 1: of life. They would like to produce significant fruit. They
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  Speaker 1: would like not to dry up and wither away, but
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  Speaker 1: to flourish throughout their lives and whatever they do to prosper.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that is the scenario that anybody could paint
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  Speaker 1: for his own life. That's the stable life. That's the
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  Speaker 1: spiritually stable person. Look at the contrast. Verse 4, the
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  Speaker 1: wicked are not so. They're not firmly planted. They're not
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  Speaker 1: benefiting from life. They're not producing fruit. They are withering
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  Speaker 1: and what they do does not prosper. They're not like that.
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  Speaker 1: But rather, they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
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  Speaker 1: And anybody in an agrarian culture who knows anything about
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  Speaker 1: chaff knows it is absolutely worthless. And what is the
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  Speaker 1: psalmist saying here? This is remarkable. He is saying there
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  Speaker 1: is a man whose life is deeply rooted and firmly planted,
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  Speaker 1: who sucks up the pure water of life, a man
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  Speaker 1: who is productive, a man whose life is sustained in
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  Speaker 1: its flourishing capability, and a man who does things that
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  Speaker 1: really count and prosper. And then there is a man
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  Speaker 1: who's just like chaff, just blowing around without purpose, without value, shapeless, worthless, rootless, unstable,
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  Speaker 1: good for nothing. Now, which would you rather be? The
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  Speaker 1: first one is the one who walks with God. The
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  Speaker 1: second one is the wicked man who rejects God. Would
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  Speaker 1: you notice that the key to the first life is
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  Speaker 1: found in verse 2? His delight is in the law
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  Speaker 1: of the Lord and in His law He meditates day
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  Speaker 1: and night. Two things contribute to a stable life, delighting
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  Speaker 1: in the Lord, that's having a living relationship with the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: and then meditating in His Word so that life is
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  Speaker 1: viewed from a divine perspective. On the other hand, you
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  Speaker 1: have the shifting, blowing, useless, worthless, flotsam and jetsam, the
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  Speaker 1: chaff of this world headed for judgment. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: about you, but I'd rather be that productive, stable life.
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  Speaker 1: And that is offered every Christian. That is God's desire
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  Speaker 1: in salvation is to root you and to make you productive.
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  Speaker 1: It's a marvelous description of the godly, of what God
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  Speaker 1: wants you to be, spiritually stable. Now, we're learning how
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  Speaker 1: to be spiritually stable here in Philippians 4, so let's
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  Speaker 1: turn back to it. Would you notice Philippians 4, verse 1,
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  Speaker 1: and let me briefly review. In Philippians 4, verse 1,
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  Speaker 1: the key statement is, stand firm in the Lord. That
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  Speaker 1: means be spiritually stable. Don't be like those who are
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  Speaker 1: tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind
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  Speaker 1: of doctrine. Don't be like the man in James who
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  Speaker 1: is unstable in all his ways, wavering like the sea.
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  Speaker 1: Be firm, be strong, be stable in the Lord. We
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  Speaker 1: ought to be the very demonstration of spiritual stability. But how?
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  Speaker 1: That's the little word so. Thus, or in this way,
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  Speaker 1: stand firm in the Lord. Here's how. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: tell you how. Here's what it requires to be stable. Now,
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  Speaker 1: what we already learned, I briefly reviewed. Point number one.
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  Speaker 1: Spiritual stability demands cultivating peace in the fellowship of love.
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  Speaker 1: Spiritual stability demands cultivating peace in the fellowship of love.
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  Speaker 1: And we noted that in verses 2 and 3, two women,
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  Speaker 1: Euodia and Syntyche, were causing discord in the church. Paul
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  Speaker 1: exhorts them to harmony in the Lord in verse 2.
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  Speaker 1: Then he asks Syzygus, which is the proper name translated
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  Speaker 1: true comrade, he asks Syzygus to help those women who
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  Speaker 1: have been a help to him and among others been
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  Speaker 1: a part of his ministry. And what he's saying here is, look,
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  Speaker 1: If you're going to experience firmness and stability, you've got
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  Speaker 1: to be in a stable environment that is not being
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  Speaker 1: ripped by conflict. We pointed out a couple of weeks
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  Speaker 1: ago that where you have a church environment that is
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  Speaker 1: in conflict, you will not only have an unstable environment,
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  Speaker 1: but you will have unstable individuals who will literally be
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  Speaker 1: affected by that instability. But where you have harmony and unity...
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  Speaker 1: and love and peace in the environment of the church,
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  Speaker 1: it becomes the strength to the individual and so they
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  Speaker 1: experience personal stability. Harmony in the church is a great stabilizer.
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  Speaker 1: The unity of believers stabilizes the individual. So if I
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  Speaker 1: want to experience spiritual stability, then I want to be
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  Speaker 1: a peacemaker. I want to demonstrate love. I want to
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  Speaker 1: eliminate discord. I want to do all I can to
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  Speaker 1: cultivate peace, to cultivate harmony, to cultivate unity in the
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  Speaker 1: fellowship of love so that I become a strengthening, stabilizing
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  Speaker 1: influence so that the environment begins to produce a stabilizing
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  Speaker 1: bond among Christians who can stabilize one another. The second
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  Speaker 1: thing we talked about, the second principle if we are
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  Speaker 1: to be firm in the Lord is not only to
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  Speaker 1: cultivate peace in the fellowship of love, but secondly, to
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  Speaker 1: maintain a spirit of joy. Verse 4, rejoice in the
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  Speaker 1: Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. This too is
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  Speaker 1: directly related to spiritual stability, cultivating an attitude of joy,
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  Speaker 1: maintaining a spirit of joy, incessant joy, independent joy in
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  Speaker 1: the sense that it doesn't depend upon circumstances. Please notice,
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  Speaker 1: rejoice in the Lord, not in your circumstances. You can't
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  Speaker 1: always rejoice in your circumstances, but you can always rejoice
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  Speaker 1: in the Lord, in your privileged union with Him, that's
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  Speaker 1: the idea. That's a joy no circumstance can touch. So
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  Speaker 1: to be spiritually stable requires maintaining the habit of constantly
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  Speaker 1: expressing joyful wonder when contemplating an eternal, unchanging, enriching relationship
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  Speaker 1: with God through the living Lord Jesus Christ. Great truth.
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  Speaker 1: As long as I contemplate the Lord and what He's
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  Speaker 1: done for me and is doing for me and is
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  Speaker 1: planned to do for me, I find my joy there.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, that is a command. It is no
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  Speaker 1: less a sin not to rejoice than not to repent
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  Speaker 1: or not to do anything else God commands you to do.
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  Speaker 1: We rejoice in the Lord. You remember in Luke 24,
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  Speaker 1: the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus met
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  Speaker 1: with them, talked with them out of the Scriptures, describing
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  Speaker 1: the things about Himself. Finally, they came into the house,
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  Speaker 1: and in the breaking of bread, He revealed Himself to them,
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  Speaker 1: and it says their hearts burned within them. What is that?
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  Speaker 1: That's the burning heart that is the result of a
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  Speaker 1: relationship with the living Lord. It was in the joy
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  Speaker 1: of His presence that they experienced the burning heart. Stable
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  Speaker 1: people are people who bring peace to situations, who create
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  Speaker 1: in the fellowship of love a unity, who are a
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  Speaker 1: stabilizing influence in discord. And the spiritually stable are those
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  Speaker 1: who in the ebb and flow and rise and fall
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  Speaker 1: of circumstances in life always maintain joy. Joy is at
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  Speaker 1: the heart of stability. Let's go to the third principle.
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  Speaker 1: Spiritual stability also requires learning to accept less than you
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  Speaker 1: might think you're due. Learning to accept less than you
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  Speaker 1: might think you are due. Verse 5, let your forbearing
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  Speaker 1: spirit be known to all men. Now that's a very,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: very important statement and a very important element in this
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  Speaker 1: matter of spiritual stability. It is really speaking about contentment.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: It could read, let your contentment be known to all men.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, I suppose that for every translation of this
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: text there is probably a different word used here because
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: this is one of those almost untranslatable Greek terms, epiekes.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: It's practically untranslatable if you're talking about translating it one
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  Speaker 1: word for one word. It means more than any one
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  Speaker 1: English word can capture. If you've studied it long enough,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you get the feeling of what this word means. For example,
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  Speaker 1: it has the sense of sweet reasonableness, that you are
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  Speaker 1: responsive to an appeal. That there's a gentleness about you
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  Speaker 1: when someone asks you something, you're sweetly reasonable about it.
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  Speaker 1: It also could be translated big-heartedness. Not only are you
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  Speaker 1: sweetly reasonable, but it goes beyond that. You are very generous.
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  Speaker 1: It could be translated goodwill. Since you only wish good
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  Speaker 1: or will good on others, you tend to almost bend
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  Speaker 1: beyond what would be expected to grant them good. Some
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  Speaker 1: have suggested it could be translated friendliness. That seems a
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  Speaker 1: little bit thin when compared to the others. Some have
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: chosen the word magnanimity. Let your magnanimity be known to
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  Speaker 1: all men. In other words, your over generosity. Some have
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  Speaker 1: suggested it means charity toward faults of others. Some have
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  Speaker 1: said mercy toward failures of others. Some have said the
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  Speaker 1: best word is leniency. Some have said it should be indulgence.
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  Speaker 1: Let your indulgence be known to all men, not your
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  Speaker 1: personal indulgence in sin, but your ability to indulge all
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  Speaker 1: of the failures of others and not be personally offended
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  Speaker 1: or unkind or bitter, retaliatory, or vengeful. It is a
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  Speaker 1: kind of patience which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace, mistreatment,
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  Speaker 1: without hatred, without malice, without retaliation, without bitterness, without vengeance.
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  Speaker 1: Now if you add all that up at the risk
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  Speaker 1: of standing against a lot of better Bible scholars than
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  Speaker 1: myself in the translation process, I would suggest the best
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  Speaker 1: word I can think of is graciousness. Let your graciousness
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  Speaker 1: be known to all men. Certainly in sweet reasonableness there
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  Speaker 1: is grace. Certainly in big heartedness there is grace. there
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  Speaker 1: is grace. Certainly in goodwill there is grace. Certainly in
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: forbearing there is grace. Certainly in friendliness, magnanimity, charity, mercy, leniency, indulgence.
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  Speaker 1: You're demonstrating graciousness. And that word probably in a Christian
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  Speaker 1: sense embodies it. But there's another element to it that
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  Speaker 1: we have to go into to understand it. It is
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  Speaker 1: the graciousness of humility. which basically says, you may have
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  Speaker 1: offended me. You may have mistreated me. You may have
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  Speaker 1: misjudged me. Worse than that, you may have misrepresented me.
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  Speaker 1: You may have maltreated me. You may have not given
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  Speaker 1: me what I deserve. You may have given me what
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  Speaker 1: I do not deserve. You may have ruined my reputation
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  Speaker 1: with some. You may have acted in hostility against me unjustly.
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  Speaker 1: I may be the recipient of your inequity, injustice, and mistreatment,
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  Speaker 1: but I humbly and graciously Accept it. That's what it means.
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  Speaker 1: And again, isn't that exactly what the grace of God
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  Speaker 1: is like? You may have hated me. You may have
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  Speaker 1: been my enemies, God could say. You may have shaken
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  Speaker 1: your fist in my face. You may have blasphemed me.
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  Speaker 1: You may have mistreated me, misjudged me. You may have
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  Speaker 1: done all of that, and I still reach out to
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  Speaker 1: you in love. Boy, when you have that kind of
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  Speaker 1: an attitude, you're a stable person. Spiritual stability belongs to
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  Speaker 1: the humbly gracious. Let's use that phrase. Let your humble
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  Speaker 1: graciousness be known to all men. You don't demand... your rights.
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  Speaker 1: You get into that kind of mentality and you will
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  Speaker 1: become an unstable person. The philosophical mindset of our day behind, say,
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  Speaker 1: the contemporary psychology that's infiltrated not only our country but
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the church, the philosophical mindset is primarily the mindset of existentialism.
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  Speaker 1: And existentialism basically says, bottom line, every man has a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: right to do whatever feels good. That's existentialism. By the way,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: existentialism is a reaction to humanism. Humanism made man a machine.
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  Speaker 1: Humanism says we're nothing but biological machines. And we really
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: don't have choice and we really don't have solutions to problems.
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  Speaker 1: We just function like an animal. And in a really
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: a reaction to the humanistic, that's a materialistic humanism. Materialism
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: says man is a machine. In a reaction to materialistic
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: humanism came existentialism, which says, I don't buy that, man.
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  Speaker 1: I got dignity. I'm somebody. And so existentialism says, you
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  Speaker 1: are somebody, and you ought to feel good about who
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  Speaker 1: you are, and you ought to do whatever feels good.
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  Speaker 1: And so we talk about human dignity as a reaction
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  Speaker 1: to materialistic humanism, and we talk about the fact that
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  Speaker 1: man ought to be whatever he wants to be and
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  Speaker 1: do whatever he wants to do, and whatever feels good,
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  Speaker 1: you ought to do it. And therefore, what you get
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  Speaker 1: is massive self-centered pride and ego. With everyone wanting to
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  Speaker 1: react to materialistic humanism philosophically, though they don't see it
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  Speaker 1: as that, and be someone and be who they are
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  Speaker 1: and that's who I am and I have a right
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  Speaker 1: to what feels good to me, that's what existentialism says.
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  Speaker 1: That's the only value in existentialism is do what feels good.
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  Speaker 1: And the only rule is if... What feels good to
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  Speaker 1: you hurts me. You can't do it. But if it
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: doesn't hurt me, what's the difference? That's why you have
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: homosexuals saying, why is homosexuality against the law? It doesn't
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  Speaker 1: hurt anybody. That's existentialism. That's philosophical existentialism. If it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: hurt anybody, what's the difference? If it feels good to
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  Speaker 1: me and doesn't hurt you, then forget it. Well, AIDS
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  Speaker 1: has shot that argument down. Could end up destroying a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: whole generation of people. Sin always eventually hurts somebody else.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: But when you have a world of basically pragmatic existentialists
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: like we do, and that's the kind of world we
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: live in, absolutely the kind of world we live in.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: What does Burger King say? Have it your way. I'll
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: tell you what, I've been to Burger King a lot
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: of times. I have never yet had it my way.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: You know what my way is? I get the hamburger
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I don't pay. That's my way. They're not giving it
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: to me my way. I pay every time. That's their way,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: not my way. The bottom line, existentialism doesn't work. It
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: doesn't even work at Burger King, let alone in philosophy.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But that's what's the mindset of our day. You've got
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: to feel good about yourself, elevate yourself, love yourself, develop yourself.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And that kind of thinking is in the church to
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: an incredible degree. I was listening to a tape today
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of a friend, Dr. Paul Brownback. And in this tape
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: he was saying, and I hate to say this, but
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: he said, I believe this is true, that if you
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: and I went into a Christian bookstore, Christian bookstore, and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: we pulled off the Christian books that are being written
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: today and took highlight pens, and I highlighted everything that
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: came out of Carl Rogers' self-love theory, and you highlighted
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: everything in those books that came out of the teaching
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: of Paul, I would run out of highlighters before you would.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: That's how insidious this is and how far into the
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: church it's come, the cult of self-love, which means whatever
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: feels good to me, whatever satisfies me, whatever builds me up,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: whatever gets me over my inferiority complex, whatever gives me
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: a better self-image, whatever gives me better self-esteem, that's what
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: I do. On the other hand, what Paul says is
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: be humble, gracious, don't demand anything. Give charity to those
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: who are committing crimes against you. Give mercy toward the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: failures of others. You'll be a stable person. You see,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: you cultivate all that self stuff and you don't create stability.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You give them a never-ending trail to greater and greater
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: instability and unfulfillment. Tragic. We are to be characterized by
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the right virtues. Spiritual stability. Comes when I have no
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: demands for myself. Then if I get something, fine. If
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: I don't, fine. If I'm treated a certain way, fine.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: If I'm treated this way, fine. Doesn't really matter to me.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not concerned about me. That's what makes Paul say,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: and he's the living illustration of all of this, as
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: we shall see in the next session, in whatsoever state
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I am, therewith to be what? Absolutely content. Why? Because
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Paul's not the issue. I'm not an issue. So I
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: can have a forbearing spirit. I can have a gracious, big-hearted, magnanimous, humble,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: charitable spirit. That's stability. Well, you can't get knocked off
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: your pins. Some people live and die in that revolving
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: door of listening to what everybody says about them and
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: taking in personally every single thing that ever happens in
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: their life and filtering it through their little ego process.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And if it's wounded them in any way, they're in...
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: immediate instability, anxiety. You can't be knocked off balance by inequity, injustice,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: unfair treatment, lies, humiliation, if you're not the issue. If
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: you're not the issue, that's humility, humble graciousness. So, spiritual
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: stability belongs to those who cultivate peace in the fellowship
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: of love, those who maintain joy, and those who do
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: not demand what they might be due, but are graciously humble.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Let me reduce those to three virtues, love, joy, humility.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Let's look at one more, number four. And this is
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: at the heart of everything. Verse 5, back to it again.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Let's put verse 5 and 6 together. The Lord is near.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Be anxious for nothing. Stop there. Boy, in those two sentences,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: there is so much to say. That's our fourth point.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Here it comes. Spiritual stability requires resting on a confident
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: faith in the Lord. Spiritual stability requires resting on a
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: confident faith in the Lord. And I'll say it again.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: I've said it before. Your view of God is what
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: stabilizes you. This is crucial. Look at verse 5. The
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Lord is near. That's a great statement. The term near, Angus,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: can mean near in space or near in time. Just
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: like the word near can be near in space or time.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: I could say that pew is near. That's near in space.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I could say Monday is near. That's near in time.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Same near, just used in different terms. It can be
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: a spatial word. It can be a time word, a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: chronological word. We have to decide which in this text.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: The Lord is near. What do you mean? He's near
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in time? You mean soon He's coming? Soon He will
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: be here? Are you talking about the rapture? Are you
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: talking about Christ's return? Well, that certainly could have been
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: in His mind. After all, chapter 3, verse 20, our
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly the Lord
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: was near in terms of time. I mean, there was
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: going to be a return of Christ sometime soon. Soon
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: obviously was a relative term. We still say it's coming
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: as soon relative to the history of this world and
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: to eternity. So it could be that he's got the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: rapture in mind, the Lord is near, stop worrying. Well,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: maybe it's used in the sense the Lord is near
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: in time because you're going to die pretty soon. Well,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: that's a possibility that he is saying, well, you're going
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to die soon anyway, so the Lord's going to be
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: around to take you home. He'll come and take you
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: to be where He is, and you'll meet Him face
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to face and all of that. So since you're going
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to see Him soon and He's very near, don't be anxious.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: Now I don't want to say that those two thoughts
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: are not in the mind of the Apostle Paul or
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit because they may well have been a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: part of what he was saying here. But it seems
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: to me that the real strength of this exhortation is
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: that the Lord is near in terms of space, if
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: we can use that concept. It's not so much that
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: He's near in terms of His coming in the sense
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: that He's near in terms of His immediate presence. That
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: He's there. He's encompassing you. Personal presence. That's what the
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: psalmist meant in Psalm 119, 151 when he said, Thou
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: art near, O Lord. Thou art near, O Lord. You're here.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: You're near. The Lord who will come, the Lord who
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: will meet us in death is now near. Don't you
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: live your life in that confidence? Don't you live your
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: life in the confidence that God Even when you think
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: a thought, He's near enough to read it. When you
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: whisper a prayer, He's near enough to hear it. When
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: you need His strength and His power, He's near enough
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to provide it. In fact, is He not living in you,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: providing the very spiritual life which is your life? It
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: is the life of God in your soul. We are
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: dependent on that. And I think that's what He's saying.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: The Lord is near, so don't be anxious, so don't
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: be unstable, so don't be wavering, so don't be collapsing,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: having a breakdown, paranoid, or whatever. Understand the Lord is near.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: Now we have to understand not only that the Lord
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: is near, but we have to understand who this Lord
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: is who is near. And now we get to the
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: crux of the issue. Because your view of God will
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: control your conduct. Can I give you an illustration? Let's
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: go back to 1 Samuel, chapter 21. 1 Samuel, chapter 21,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: verse 10. David is running from Saul. He's really in
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: no man's land, right? If he's going to get away
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: from Saul, he's got to get out of the area.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: So he runs to the next region, which is Philistia,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and he winds up in Gath, and he goes to Achish,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the king of Gath. And so, I guess in a
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: sense he was looking for some kind of asylum from Saul.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: But the servants of Achish said to him, to the king,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: is this not David, the king of the land? Did
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: they not sing of this one as they danced, saying,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish,
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: king of Gath. David's running for asylum, exile, in a sense, protection.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: The servants of Achish run and they say, hey, you
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: don't want this guy around here. If you think Saul
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: is a formidable foe, the song goes, Saul has slain
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: his thousands and David is ten thousands. This guy is
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: a warrior. This is the rightful ruler and he's even
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: greater than Saul. And so they tell the king this. Well,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: David finds out that they told him that and now
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: he panics. Assuming now he's right there in the environs
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: of the king who can kill him on the spot.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: And in his panic, he has to come up with
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: a ploy to get out of there. So he disguised
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: his sanity before them and acted insanely in their hands.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: David decided to act like a total maniac. He scribbled
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: all over the doors of the gates. I mean, this
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: is the king. This is David scribbling on the gates
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and let his saliva drool all through his beard. Like
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: a madman. And, of course, that was a desecration of
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the symbol of your maleness, the beard. Why did he
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: do this? I'll tell you why he did this. He
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: got unstabilized. He was so fearful that he was taking
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: things into his own hands. And Achish responds, the thing worked.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Achish says to his servants, behold, you see the man
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me?
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Do I lack madmen? I love that. Do I need
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: another one? I got you, right? I don't need another one.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Don't bring me another one. Get him out of here.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I don't need some guy scribbling on the gates and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: drooling all over the place. Get him out. I don't
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: want him in my house. So David's little ploy works. Oh,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: he's off the hook. So he's still got to run
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: from Saul. Where does he go? Chapter 22, he departed
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: from there, escaped to the cave of Adullam. You know,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: panting in the cave. It worked. It worked. He sits
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: in the cave and starts to think about what a
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: jerk he had just been. Do you think God could
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: have delivered him from Achish? Did he think God could
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: have delivered him from Achish? Theologically? Yes. Practically? Yes. Panic
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: set in. It was in the middle of that that
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he apparently, from historical notation, wrote Psalm 57. And he
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: starts to put his theology back together. He says, be
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me. My
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: soul takes refuge in you. In the shadow of your
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by. I
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: will cry to God most high, to God who accomplishes
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: all things for me. He will send from heaven and
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: save me. And he goes through this tremendous statement about
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: the power of God. My heart is steadfast, verse 7,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing, yes,
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I will sing praises. Awake, harp and lyre, I'll awaken
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: the dawn, I'll give thanks. He launches off in this
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: great stuff about God. Well, if he'd have remembered that
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: up there in Gath, he wouldn't have acted like such
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: a jerk. He wouldn't have embarrassed himself and been such
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: a reproach to God as if the God of David
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: couldn't deliver him from that little man named Achish. But
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: that's the way we live our life so often. Our
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: theology works on Sunday, but when we hit the wall
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: on Monday through Friday and we get some trauma in
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: our life, then we start, you know, drooling in our beards,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: metaphorically speaking. We lose our self-control. We flip out. And
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: it's a lack of confidence in God. You see... If
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: I have a confident trust that the Lord is near,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: what am I worried about? What am I worried about? Well,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter to me what men say against me.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how I'm treated. The Lord is near
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: and the Lord knows the truth about everything. And the
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: Lord is the ultimate equalizer. All things are equitable in
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: His hands for everyone else and me. And this is
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the source of my security, trust in the presence of
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: my God. If I understand who my God is and
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: that He is near, that's all I need to know.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Let me give you another illustration. Turn to Habakkuk. And
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: if you don't know where it is, look in the index. Habakkuk.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: In Habakkuk, there was an interesting prophet in Judah, and
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: he had an interesting problem. And this will speak volumes
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: to us about our own problems. Habakkuk, in verse 2,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: cries out to God. His little prophecy is very important.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: How long, O Lord, will I call for help? Lord,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I've been calling for help for a long time. This
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: is a prophet who's doing more praying than prophesying. God,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: what are you doing? Look at your people. They're a mess,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: and you're not listening. You won't hear. I told you
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: about violence, and you won't save. Why do you make
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: me look on this iniquity? Why do you make me
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: look on this wickedness? Why do you make me look
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: at the destruction and the violence in Judah? The strife,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: the contention, the ignoring of your law, the terrible miscarriage
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: of justice, wicked surrounding the righteous people, justice being perverted. Why, God,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: are you tolerating this? This is, remember us, Judah, your people.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Why don't you bring revival? Why don't you cause repentance?
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Why don't you turn this thing around? So God answers him.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: Verse 5. Look among the nations, observe, be astonished, wonder,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: which is an old way of saying, I'm going to
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: blow your mind with what you're going to hear. You're
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: not going to believe this. I'm going to do something
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: in your days that you wouldn't believe if you were told. Apparently,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: that's why he hadn't told him up to now. He
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: wouldn't have believed it anyway. I am raising up the Chaldeans,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: that fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: to seize dwelling places which are not theirs. They are
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: dreaded and feared. Their justice and authority originate with themselves.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: They have no law but themselves. Their horses are swifter
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: than leopards. And this, by the way, is poetry. And
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: this entire book was meant to be played on a
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: stringed instrument and sung. That's why it has these poetic hyperboles.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: The horses are swifter than leopards and keener than wolves
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: in the evening. Their horsemen come galloping. Their horsemen come
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: from afar. They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: moves forward. They collect captives like sand. They mock at kings,
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: and rulers are a laughing matter to them. They laugh
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: at every fortress and heap up rubble to capture it.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: but they will be held guilty, they whose strength is
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: their God. Here is an utter pagan nation who believe
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: only in their own might. And they're a law unto themselves,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: and they sweep into, he says, they're going to come
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: and just wipe you out. Now he's got problem number two.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Problem number one, why doesn't God bring revival? Problem number two,
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: how can God use a worse nation to punish Judah?
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: How can you take the Chaldeans? They're worse. And how
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: can they be your instrument against your covenant people? None
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: of this makes sense. You're a holy God. You ought
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: to revive your people. You're a covenant God. You keep
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: your covenant. You're a just God. You don't have a
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: worse people punish a better people. Doesn't make sense. I
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: don't understand this. Heavens are silent. No answer. How am
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I going to deal with this? You say, was he
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: seriously traumatized? Yeah. Seriously traumatized. How seriously? Chapter 3, verse 16.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: My inward parts trembled. At the sound my lips quivered,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: because I must wait quietly for the day of distress
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: for the people to arise who will invade us. This
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: guy should be hospitalized. He's shaking on the inside. All
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: his organs are going up and down. His stomach is
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: in knots. His whole inside, his heart is beating irregularly
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: or uncommonly. His lips are shaking and quivering. His bones
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: ache through his whole body, and he's shaking from head
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: to foot. This guy is really traumatized. Now, what's he
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: going to do? Let's go back to chapter 1. Here
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: stands a totally distressed prophet in a state of panic,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: not over an imaginary problem. Not an imaginary problem. Like,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: I don't like the way I look. No, no, no.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: I just can't cope with life. I'm overweight. No, no, no.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: He's talking about the wiping out of his nation. This
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: is a real problem. I'm not understood at work. No, no, no.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: This is a real problem, major problem. What am I
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: going to do? I'm shaking all over. I can't deal
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: with it. Here's what he does. He starts to remind
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: himself about his God who is near. You want to know?
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: Look at verse 12. And it's in the form of questions.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: He's asking questions of himself. This is a catechetical exercise.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: He's going to develop a catechism of theology proper and
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: try to respond to himself so he can get back
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: on the rock. And so he starts to talk about God.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: He says, verse 12, Aren't thou not from everlasting? God,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: aren't you eternal? You are, is implied. You are. You're eternal,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: which means you're before history, you're after history, you're above history,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: you're outside of history, you're independent of time, you're independent
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: of history. You reign in eternal timelessness. You're bigger than
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: this little deal. You're way beyond this little thing. There
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: is a massive eternal plan that is way bigger than
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: what I'm seeing here. I feel better already. Somehow this
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: fits the eternal perspective, even though I don't understand how
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: you can do it this way. And then he says this,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: O Lord, he uses Yahweh, my God, O Lord, my God, Yahweh.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: That means I am, the eternal I am, the uncaused
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: cause of all causes and effects. You are the eternal is,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: No beginning, no end. You are self-existent. That's what he's saying. God,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: you are eternal, above, beyond, outside of time and history,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and you are self-existing. In other words, you are uninfluenced.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: Did you know that? Did you know that God by
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: nature is uninfluenced? He is uncreated. He is unperturbed. He
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: is the God who exists in perfect, unperturbed tranquility, uninfluenced
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: by anything or anyone. You're self-existent. So you're not falling
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: under the spell of someone who's giving you bad information.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Then He says this, my Holy One, you're also holy.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: That means you don't make a mistake. You're too perfect
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: to make a mistake. In fact, you're also so holy
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: you have to deal with sin. Down in verse 13,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: your eyes are too pure to approve evil and you
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: can't look on wickedness with favor. So this has got
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: to fit your holiness. I know you're punishing us because
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: of our sin. And if I follow that, you'll punish
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: them because of their sin too. God, you're eternal. God,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: you're self-existent. God, you're holy. And then he says, we
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: will not die. God, you're faithful. He's reminding himself that
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: God made a covenant. We won't die. We can't die.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: God had a covenant. God is true. God can't lie.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Then he says, thou, O Lord, hast appointed them to judge.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: You're almighty. You're using them for your own purpose. You're sovereign.
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: You're in control. You're never a victim. You see what
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: he's doing here? God, you're eternal. God, you're self-existent. God,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: you're holy. God, you're faithful. God, you're almighty. Everything I
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: know about you tells me to quit worrying about this problem,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: even though I don't understand it. I don't have to
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: understand it. In the first place, my mind is too
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: small to understand it. What egotism that I should be
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: even trying to understand it. So Habakkuk's starting to feel better.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: Just saying that made him feel a lot better, a
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: lot better. Chapter 2, verse 4, he puts it into
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: a principle. The end of verse 4, the righteous will
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: live by his what? There's that wonderful statement, the just
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: shall live by faith, that Paul uses. He's starting to say,
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to have to trust God for this one.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to have to believe, even though I
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: don't understand. Go to chapter 3, verse 17. See how
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: strong his faith was. Chapter 3, verse 17. Well, he says,
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: I'm going to trust God, even though I'm shaken. I'm shaken.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: I'm going to trust my glorious, self-existent, eternal, sovereign, holy, almighty,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: faithful God. So, verse 17, though the fig trees should
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: not blossom, not likely, fig trees blossomed. That was normal.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: And there be no fruit on the vines. Not likely.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: That was normal. Lots of fruit, lots of vines. And
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: though the yield of the olives should fail. Boy, that
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: would really have been abnormal. Do you know those little
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: statues they carve in Bethlehem that we get when we
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: travel over there? They have to cure the wood 400
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: years before they can carve them because they're so full
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: of oil. We saw olive trees in the garden over
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: there that they told us were little seedlings when Jesus
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: walked the earth. Those things last a long time. He's saying, look,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: if all the normal things of life you always count
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: on all of a sudden stop, and the fields produce
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: no food, and the flock is cut off from the fold,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and there is no cattle in the stalls, what's the
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: next verse say? Yet I will exult in the Lord.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Lord God is my strength, and he has made my
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: feet like the feet of mountain goats, and he makes
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: me walk on my high places. Ooh, boy, that's confidence.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: He says, I don't care if the whole world goes wacky.
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: I don't care if everything I always depend on falls apart,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: if everything is reversed, if everything you can always count
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: on you can't count on anymore, if all of nature
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: is skewed completely out of its normal course, I will
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: still rejoice in the Lord, I will still put my
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: hope in God, and God will give me the ability
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: like a mountain goat to walk upon the precipices along
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: the cliffs of life confidently. That's what he's saying. That's
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: a stable man. that is a stable man and his
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: stability was directly related to his assessment of his God
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: now let me tell you some folks the Lord is
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: near And this is the Lord who is near, the
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: capable God of the Scripture. And if you will delight
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: yourself in Him, and if you will meditate on His
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: law day and night, on His word day and night,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: you will then know the God that He is, and
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: you will know how He acts, and that will be
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: the source of your own confidence. Now, what is the
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: result of knowing the Lord is near? Be anxious for what? Nothing. Nothing.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: What am I going to be worrying about? Something God
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: can't handle? Wait a minute, that's blasphemy. If you fret, worry,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: are in trauma, are unstable, if you launch off into
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: everything from anorexia to schizophrenia and all kinds of things,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: you are really saying, I can't cope with life. I
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: can't handle life. And if you, whatever mechanism you use
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: to manifest that inability, the real demonstration, and I want
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: to say this with love and graciousness, the real underlying
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: demonstration is you really don't trust whom? God. That's a
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: form of blasphemy. Two ways. One, if you imagine that
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: God can't help you, then you have created a God
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: other than the true God, and that's blasphemy. You have
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: created a God who is not God, too. If you
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: believe that God could help you but won't, that's blasphemy, too,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: because you're questioning not His character but His integrity and
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: His Word. So the key to a stable, firmly planted life,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: back to Psalm 1, is to be delighting in the Lord.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: I delight in who He is and meditating on His law,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: I become very familiar with how He acts. and as
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: I understand who He is and how He acts, I
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: can look at my life and say, that's the one
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: who's near, this is who He is, this is how
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: He acts, I'm not going to worry. And again I
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: go back to what I said, the great weakness of
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: the Christian church today is a lack of understanding about
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: who God is and how God acts. They do not
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: understand the majesty of His wonderful attributes and that is
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: why we have such wholesale instability because we do not
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: know God, we do not trust God to act consistently
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: with His revealed character and His revealed history of acts.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: So what do we do? In the church we've got
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: all these unstable people with all their problems. Instead of
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: giving them God and His character and His attributes and
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: the history of how He functions and how He acts
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and the amazing integrity of all of His acts, we
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: try to give clever human solutions to the instability, which
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: in the long run projects that instability into a way
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: of life and gives no solution at all. In the
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: last generation, A.W. Pink, in his book, Gleanings in the Godhead, wrote,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the God of this century no more resembles the sovereign
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: of holy writ than does the dim flickering of a
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: candle resemble the glory of the midday sun. The God
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: who is talked about in the average pulpit, spoken of
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: in the ordinary Sunday school class and mentioned in so
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: much of the religious literature of the day and preached
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: in most of the so-called Bible conferences is a figment
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: of human imagination, an invention of maudlin sentimentality. We aren't
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: even giving people a knowledge of the true God in
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: His character and His works. As a result, there is
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: tremendous lack of confidence in Him. No wonder people have guilt, fear,
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: and anxiety. They have an inadequate knowledge of God and
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: an inadequate trust in God. Both are blasphemous. If you
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: imagine God to be other than He is, that's an idol,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: that's blasphemy. If you imagine God to do other than
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: what is consistent with His own character and promise to
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: His people, that too is blasphemy. It questions His integrity.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: And instead of teaching God and getting people into the
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Word of God, most churches are trying to patch up
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: the unstable by giving them human solutions, and worst of all, psychology,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: of which even psychologists say it has no answers. There's
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: only one resting place for the soul, and that's in God.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: We stand fast in the Lord. We stand firm in
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: the Lord. Back to verse 1 where He said that.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: Martin Luther said to Erasmus, your thoughts of God are
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: too human. And Paul here is saying what the poet wrote,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: I cannot know why suddenly the storm should rage so
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: fiercely round me in its wrath, but this I know,
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: God watches all my path. And as a result, be
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: anxious for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. Stop worrying. Don't
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: get knocked over by trials and temptations and the fact
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: that your little world isn't absolutely perfectly the way you
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: wish it was. That's a form of unconscious blasphemy. Don't worry.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Can I close with this text, Matthew 6? By the way,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: this teaching of Paul is consistent with the teaching of Jesus,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: so let's see what our Lord said. Matthew 6, 25.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: For this reason I say to you, do not be
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: anxious for your life as to what you shall eat,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: or what you shall drink, nor for your body as
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: to what you shall put on. Don't worry about that.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: You say, we don't worry about that. No, we're a
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: long way from that kind of culture. They were worried about,
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: where am I going to get something to eat? Where
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: am I going to get something to drink? And where
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: am I going to get something to keep warm? We
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: don't think, the only time we think about eating, we're
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: worried about eating too much. Our society is worried about
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: drinking too much. The only thing we have to worry
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: about with clothes is not, will we have some, but
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: which ones do we choose to wear? But they had
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: real basic problems. We got people today who get all
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: kinds of apoplexy in our world where they have all
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: of that stuff. They're not even struggling with anxieties over
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: real needs. They're only perceived and imaginary peer pressures. They
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: aren't even real needs. Those people had real needs, food
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: and drink and clothing. And Jesus says, hey, look at
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: the birds of the air. They don't sow, neither do
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: they reap nor gather into barns. I mean, they don't
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: work to provide for themselves. Your Father feeds them. Aren't
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: you worth more than they? Then in verse 28 He says,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: you're worried about your clothing? Why don't you look at
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: the lilies of the field? They don't toil and they
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: don't spin, but even Solomon in all his glory didn't
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: clothe himself like one of these. And then in verse 30,
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: the sum of it all, if God is so concerned
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: with the plants of the field, which are alive today
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: and tomorrow are thrown into the furnace, will He not
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: much more do so for you who will live forever,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: O men of little faith? Your problem is you're anxious
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: because you don't believe God. That's the bottom line. So
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: don't be anxious then, verse 31. Don't say, what do
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: we eat? What do we drink? You know, what do
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: we close? That kind of fretting that's behind so many
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: contemporary phobias and anxieties. That's what the pagans seek. But
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. Just
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: shall be added to you. Do not be anxious for tomorrow.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: of its own. Now, boy, that is a great point. Look,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: you got enough trouble. Why add anxiety to the trouble?
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Now you got double trouble. Then you got to go
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: to the counselor. You got triple trouble. It's going to
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: cost you 75 bucks a week. Look, just take the trouble,
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: will you, and leave it at that? And trust your God.
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: How can I be stable? Love, seeking peace and harmony
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: and the fellowship of love. Joy, cultivating a joy that
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: I have that is deeper than my circumstances, that it's
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: in my relationship with the living Christ. And then not
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: only the graciousness, but the graciousness of humility that demands nothing,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: accepts anything, commits it to God, and then that great
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: confident trust in the Lord that knows that He's got
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: it all under control. That's how to have a stable life.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: And there's more when we come back to our text.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: Let's pray. Our Father, we do thank You for such
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: a clear passage to put us back on course that
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: we might be stable. Help us to know that our
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: stability comes from you. We don't want to be the
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: product of a confused culture. We don't want to get
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: diverted down tracks that don't lead to stability but just
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: lead to increasing instability. We want to be where you
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: want us to be. We want to be delighting in
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: you and we want to be meditating day and night
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: in your word. And we want to be every bit
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: the biblical spirit-filled Christian that you want us to be
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: who can be stability to those around us who can
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: be firmly planted like a tree by the streams of waters,
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: flourishing with fruitfulness, prospering, not withering, in the midst of
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: a world of chaff blowing in every direction. Make us stable, Lord,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: not for stability's sake, but that being firmly planted, we
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: may bear fruit to your glory in Jesus' name Amen.
• 59:32
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• 59:35
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• 59:39
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• 59:42
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• 59:48
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• 59:53
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• 59:58
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