Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 14, 2024 | Summer in the Psalms - Psalm 7: Approaching a Righteous God

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July 14, 2024 | Summer in the Psalms - Psalm 7: Approaching a Righteous God · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: Let's address the elephant in the room first.
0:06
SPEAKER_01: Despite popular belief, I'm not Connor, okay?
0:10
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: I know we look the same.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: We're both tall.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: We're both we're both tall.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's that's all we got.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: Um no, I'm just kidding.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: My name is Spencer.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Uh Spencer Kovac, for those of you that are interested.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, you may have seen me walk around church the past couple months.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: That's because I've had the honor of being one of the six summer interns with the youth group, um, and I've had such a good summer.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: We've been doing camps, we've been doing um games, one-off nights, uh discipling the student students pouring into them, doing sermons, um, and it has been so tiring for me, uh, but it's also been extremely life-giving.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: Um, I genuinely want to thank all of you.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: I want to thank TBC because I've had points in this summer where I just sat down and I'm like, God, I feel the most fulfilled that I've ever felt because I'm doing your will.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: And that is solely because TBC um accepted me.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: So I just want to thank you guys.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Um so some of you may recognize me from last year.
1:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh I preached a sermon, but my hair was like down to my shoulders.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: So that's why you're like, do I know this guy?
1:28
SPEAKER_01: You do.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I was here a year ago.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm beyond honored to have this opportunity again because one of my main passions is that of preaching.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's what God has gifted me and it's what He's called me to.
1:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, I go to Moody Bible Institute getting my preaching degree there.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: I have one more semester left, which is crazy to think about.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I am honored and humbled that Connor would give me another opportunity to preach here in this series.
1:54
SPEAKER_01: So before we get into it, I want to pray, not because, like, oh yes, it is a good thing to do, and we should just do it.
2:00
SPEAKER_01: But I'm a genuine believer that as we go to God's word, it is alive and it is active, and that we should submit ourselves under it and ask God to move and ask God to work.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: So if you will, humble ourselves in front of God and pray with me.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Lord, thank you for today.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, thank you for this time we get to hear from your word.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Again, Lord, I pray as I've prayed before, that you will soften all of our hearts.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: Transform us, use your word to help us see the true reality of your love.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Help us to see truth and to see the lies that we are believing.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that your your the truth of your word will cut into those lies and that we can live in boldness before you.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: In your name I pray.
2:49
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: So at Moody, like I said, getting my preaching degree, uh, taking preaching classes, Bible classes, but part of my program is I have to take four semesters of biblical Greek.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I remember there was this one time, I was like a year into it, and uh I had a final, this huge final.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: It was a 10-page exegetical paper on a very highly debated passage, and my professor was like, all right, I need you guys to study this passage, study in the Greek, go to the commentaries um and figure out what your opinion is and be able to defend it.
3:24
SPEAKER_01: And you have 10 pages to do that, which 10 pages is not enough.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Um so I did that.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: I went head in and I tried everything that I could.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: I I studied, I was thinking about it, I was praying about it, even when I wasn't writing it, I was still thinking about it.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I got to this point where I'm like, all right, I know what I believe, and I know this this is what makes sense.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: I can interact with the scholars and be like, this person says this and that makes sense, but this person says that, and I don't think he's right because of this.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Um and I felt confident in my position, and this is one of the papers that I'm honestly most proud about.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: I spent so much time into it, and I was confident.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: Then I turned it into my professor, waited for the grade.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the grade eventually came and I looked at it, and I noticed that it was compared to all the other students in my class, it was actually below average.
4:15
SPEAKER_01: I'm still passing, okay, but it was below average.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, this is weird.
4:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, so then I made the mistake of deciding to open up the paper and see the comments that my professor wrote on the paper.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: You see, my my professor, he's such a great guy.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: He's so caring, he's kind.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: He used to be a pastor, uh, but now he's working full-time at Moody.
4:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, such a great guy.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: But one of the things about him is he's really smart.
4:43
SPEAKER_01: He knows his stuff about biblical Greek, which is which is good.
4:46
SPEAKER_01: That's what you want in a teacher.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, but as I looked through the paper, he tore it apart.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: You say he was saying things like, uh, where is it?
4:58
SPEAKER_01: This is a great exaggeration.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: I doubt that.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: Twice he said, significant lot logical problems here.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: In my favorite, which he said, not once, not twice, but four times, he circled something and said, no, and a thousand times no.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: So that made me feel great.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: Um and it's it is funny looking back on it.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: But if I'm honest with myself, in that moment when I was reading that, it tore me apart.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: Because I put my everything into that paper.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: And I was confident in it.
5:38
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, all right, I know my stuff, I'm going into this confident, and he pointed out every flaw, everything wrong, every illogical thought, and it tore me apart.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: I genuinely had to lay down on my bed and prevent a panic attack because of how this hit me.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: It made me not confident in my ability to do Greek anymore, um, even though I was a year in, and um most importantly, it affected my the perception of my relationship with my professor.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: Because even though he was kind, even though he was loving, receiving this, and this is one of my best works, and seeing how he tore it down, put like a block between us.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: And I was I was scared to go to class.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't looking forward to it.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: And it I couldn't, it was a hard time, I was having a hard time relating to him because I was I was scared because it I knew that even though he was kind, somewhere in the back of his brain he knew how much I messed up.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: And that scared me.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: And that that kind of took me out of relation with him.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: And I think if we're honest with ourselves, we do this with our relationship with God.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: We're a Bible-believing church.
6:53
SPEAKER_01: We believe that God is righteous, that God is holy, that God has a high standard, and that is true.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: But when we approach him, we can feel the weight of our sin.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Especially when we have just sinned and we we realize the sin that we've just committed, whether it is just a little lie.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we gossiped behind someone's back.
7:16
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we actually stole something.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it is that we watched something on the computer that we shouldn't have.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we committed blatant adultery.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: How can we stand before a righteous God when we know this is staining us?
7:35
SPEAKER_01: When he's able to point out every failure, every flaw in us.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: It puts a wall between us and God.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: And the truth is, we are sinners.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: So in this moment, when we do approach God, it's usually very timidly and like, God, please forgive me.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: But as we're gonna see in Scripture today, David approaches God with this weird sense of boldness.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: So that is a question that we're going to be talking about today.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: How can we boldly approach a righteous God?
8:20
SPEAKER_00: How can we do that?
8:23
SPEAKER_01: And today we're gonna be in Psalm 7 as we've been working through the Psalm series.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: So now you can open up your Bible to Psalm 7, and uh we're gonna read through the entirety of Psalm 7, all 17 verses.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: But what I want you guys to look for is use the lens to see how confident and how bold David is in approaching God.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
8:43
SPEAKER_01: So um have it in front of you, but I'll also have it up on the screen.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 7.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: Lord my God, I seek refuge in you.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: Save me from all my pursuers and rescue me, or they will tear me like a lion, ripping me apart with no one to rescue me.
9:02
SPEAKER_01: Lord my God, if I have done this, if there's injustice on my hands, if I have done harm to one at peace with me, or have plundered my adversary without cause, may an enemy pursue and overtake me, may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Rise up, Lord, in your anger, lift yourself up against the fury of my adversaries.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: Awake for me.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: You have ordained a judgment.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: Let the assembly of the peoples gather around you, take your seat on high over it.
9:37
SPEAKER_01: The Lord judges the peoples.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: The one who examines the thoughts and emotions is a righteous God.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: God is a righteous judge, a God who shows his wrath every day.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: If any one does not repent, he will sharpen his sword.
10:05
SPEAKER_01: He has strung his bow and made it ready.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: He has prepared his deadly weapons, he tipped his arrows with fire.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: See, the wicked one is pregnant with evil, conceives trouble, and gives birth to deceit.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: He dug a pit and hollowed it out, but fell into the hole he had made.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: His trouble comes about on his own head, his own violence comes down on top of his head.
10:30
SPEAKER_01: I will thank the Lord for his righteousness.
10:33
SPEAKER_01: I will sing about the name of the Lord most high.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: But then in verse eight, in this translation it says, God vindicate me, but in other translations it says, God judge me.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: When was the last time you said, God judge me?
11:00
SPEAKER_01: Pour out your judgment upon me.
11:02
SPEAKER_01: I've never done that.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: So, where does David get this confidence?
11:09
SPEAKER_01: This boldness to approach God?
11:13
SPEAKER_01: And that's that's the first question I want to ask.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: And for those of you taking notes, at the top of your notes, just write down where and why.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Just where and why.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: Because first I want to tackle this question of where does David get his confidence to approach a righteous God.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: The only way we'll be able to answer this question is if we figure out the situation that David's in.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: David's in a specific situation, uh a specific conflict that he's crying out to God.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: So we need to figure out what that is.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: If you look down at your Bibles, uh, some of you may have this uh right before the beginning of Psalm 7.
11:49
SPEAKER_01: It says, A Shigeon of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush a Benjamite.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: So here we have some hints on what the what the uh context is, what the situation is.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: So I first had to figure out what a shigeon was, because I've never heard of that word.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: So I went online, talked to the scholars, and they're like, We don't know what a shigeon is.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: Like they guess it's some sort of like musical term or something like that, which would make sense, but they can't be specific, so that's of no help.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: Um but that's okay, because we have this whole which he's saying to the Lord concerning the words of Kush.
12:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we know Kush is a Benjamite, um, and that word looks familiar, so like where else in scripture does does it say Kush?
12:31
SPEAKER_01: I asked the scholars and they're like, yeah, we we don't know.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
12:35
SPEAKER_01: Because this word Kush, it does come up, but that's like generations before David.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: So we don't know exactly who this guy is and what situation David is in.
12:45
SPEAKER_01: Some of the scholars suggest that this is the period where Saul uh was chasing David and uh Kush was maybe one of Saul's officers.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: And that that does make sense, but again, that's just something that we can't be entirely for sure on.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: So we're kind of left in the spot of like, all right, what's going on?
13:02
SPEAKER_01: But if we look at the first three verses, we can start to piece together some things and figure out what the situation is.
13:08
SPEAKER_01: And I'll just I'll just give it to you right here.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: The situation that David is in is Cush is accusing him and slandering him of something, and it's to the degree of David's life is at stake.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: And David's calling out to the Lord on that.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: That is the situation that Cush is accusing him, is slandering David, and saying that David did something, and David is crying out to God.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: So that is that is the situation that now we can approach this verse from the right angle.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: It says, Lord my God, I seek refuge in you.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, or they will tear me like a lion.
13:44
SPEAKER_01: Again, I just talked about this, but this is where his life is at stake.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: This is a life or death issue.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: If God doesn't show up, David's gonna die.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: And die in a way that is equivalent to being torn apart like a li from a lion.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: But we can see David's boldness here because in this life or death situation, he is fully depending on God.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: He's not depending on his men, on his chariots that may or may not be there.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: He's deponing, he's depending on God because he knows God is the only one that can save him.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: So he finds his refuge in God.
14:24
SPEAKER_01: And this is where we begin to see his boldness.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: But still we ask the question of where?
14:31
SPEAKER_01: Where does he find this boldness?
14:34
SPEAKER_01: I like to propose to you a little recipe, two ingredient recipe, um, that once we go through this this uh the next couple verses, we'll begin to see where it's coming from.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: So this first ingredient shows up in verses three through five.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: Lord my God, if I've done this, if there's injustice on my hands, if I've done harm to the one at peace with me or plunder my adversary without cause, may the enemy pursue and overtake me.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: May he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: Do you see what David is saying here?
15:11
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, if what Cush is saying to me is true, may he kill me.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: May I die?
15:19
SPEAKER_01: If I have done this evil thing, then Lord, kill me right here.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: Lay my honor to the dust.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: How in the world can he say something like that?
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Because David is completely convinced in his innocence.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: David is convinced of his innocence.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: You see that how this verse is structured is it's actually structured as an oath.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: He's given an oath to God saying, if I did bad, kill me.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Like, no questions asked.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: It's an oath because David is so confident that he is innocent in this specific situation.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: In this situation with Kosh, he is innocent.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: And that is our first ingredient.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: That David is convinced that he is innocent.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: He knows that he didn't do the thing that Kash accused him of.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: He knows that Kosh is just trying to undermine him.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: So that's the first ingredient.
16:21
SPEAKER_01: Let's go into the next section and figure out the next ingredient.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6 Rise up, Lord, in your anger.
16:29
SPEAKER_01: Lift yourself up against the fury of my adversaries.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: Awake from me.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: You have ordained a judgment.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: Let the assemblies of the people gather around you.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: Take your seat on high over it.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: What David is saying here is he's calling upon God to say, God, I want you to judge me.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: I want you to judge Kash.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: I want you to judge this situation.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: So what David is boldly doing is he calling upon God to exercise his judgment.
17:01
SPEAKER_01: And that's the second ingredient.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Um I want to give you guys an extra little, extra little nugget that's apart from the uh sermon.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: Um, but something that that hit me.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: You see these words, rise up, lift yourself up, awake for me.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: What scholars are are thinking about with these words is that David is saying, hey, God, I know that you're going to do this.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: I know that you're going to judge, because you are a just judge, because you promise to judge, it doesn't look like you're doing it right now.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: So I'm calling upon you to do what I know that you're going to do.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to do it now.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: And as Christians, we have the ability to do that.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: Where if there's a promise in Scripture where it looks like God isn't fulfilling that promise, we can still go to Him and cry out and be like, God, I don't understand.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't get what's going on.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: You say that you'll do this, but I don't see it.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: And you can express that to God.
18:06
SPEAKER_01: And God is faithful to hear.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: And he will answer in his own way, yes or no in his timing, but you can still approach God in that.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: So that's just a little nugget for you.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: Um so going back to these two ingredients.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: David is convinced that he is innocent, and David calls upon God to exercise his judgment.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: What do we get when we when we mix these two things together?
18:35
SPEAKER_01: What do we get?
18:37
SPEAKER_01: Well, we get the answer to where David finds his confidence.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's displayed in verse 8.
18:45
SPEAKER_01: It says, The Lord judges the people, vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, God, judge me because I am innocent.
18:57
SPEAKER_01: And he knows that a righteous judge will judge him correctly.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: So David finds his confidence in his innocence before a righteous judge, and this is important.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: David finds his confidence.
19:11
SPEAKER_01: This is the boldness that he gets to approach God because in this one situation, he knows he is innocent.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: So he can cry out to God and say, God, judge me, because he knows.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: He knows that God is gonna judge him favorably and put the evil to an end.
19:29
SPEAKER_01: That is where David's boldness lies.
19:33
SPEAKER_01: So that's where he gets his boldness and his confidence.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: But remember, I had you write down where and why?
19:41
SPEAKER_01: Now we gotta talk about the question of why can David be so bold before God.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: You might be sitting there and thinking, okay, Spencer, sounds like the exact same question.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit different.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I'm going I'm asking this question is because as we explore the answer to this question, new truths will be fleshed out that will give more meaning and more purpose to what we've had before.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: So let us ask this question.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Why can David be bold before God?
20:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's answered in verse 9.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: Let the evil of the wicked come to an end.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: Let the evil of the wicked come to an end.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: David is calling upon God to judge the wicked by bringing it to an end.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: And David knows God will bring it to an end.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: Why?
20:34
SPEAKER_01: Because God hates wickedness.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: Look down in your Bibles to verse 11 to 13.
20:43
SPEAKER_01: God is a righteous judge, a God who shows his wrath every day.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: If anyone does not repent, he will sharpen his sword.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: He has strung his bow and made it ready.
20:52
SPEAKER_01: He has prepared his deadly weapons, he tips his arrows with fire.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: This picture that is painted for how God interacts with wicked people is this picture of God going to battle with them, preparing for that battle, sharpening his sword, drawing his bow, and pointing it in the direction of the wicked to protect the righteous.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: He prepares his deadly weapons.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: God is preparing for battle, and he's preparing to kill.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: That is the picture that is painted with this.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: And this shows that God hates wickedness.
21:41
SPEAKER_01: Back to verse 9.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: But establishes the righteous.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: But establishes the righteous.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: So we know God is going to punish the wicked, put an end to the wicked.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: What's he gonna do to the righteous?
21:54
SPEAKER_01: He's going to establish them.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: And what this word's being is like to have a firm.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Foundation, to provide a solid foundation.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: So when there's things of this life or the enemies push against the righteous one, they can stand up tall.
22:11
SPEAKER_01: They won't be fallen over, they won't crumble, they will be established and they will be firm.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: So we see what God does in his judgment is not only does he punish the wicked, and that's what we mainly think about judgment, but he also judges the innocent in establishing them, in making them firm, giving them that firm foundation.
22:33
SPEAKER_01: That's what God does as a righteous judge.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: But there's more.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: The one who examines the thoughts and the emotions is a righteous God.
22:45
SPEAKER_01: David appeals to this idea that God is all-knowing.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: God examines the thoughts and the emotions.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: Other translations say the minds and the heart.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: God knows the entire situation, knows every thought that David thought, knows every thought that Kush thought, and knew every emotion that each of them felt.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: And knew the sins that they committed in their head and the sins that they've actually committed.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Or the sins that they've committed physically.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: God knows it all, knows the entire situation so he can make the right, correct judgment.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: And that's what David finds comfort in.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Because with our human judges, with our human judges, we don't have that security.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes, they do their job in trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong and convicting the wrong person, but we know that judges aren't perfect.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: They're humans too.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: So even though you stand before a judge and you know you're innocent, there's always in that back of your head going, they could still convict me.
23:56
SPEAKER_01: They have the power to, and they could be wrong, and you could go to jail.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: But David, he doesn't have to worry about that.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: Because his judge is the God that sees everything, that sees who is truly innocent, and who will establish the innocent, and who will put an end to the wickedness.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: So the answer to the question of why?
24:24
SPEAKER_01: Why can David be so bold before God is because God is a righteous judge.
24:31
SPEAKER_01: A righteous judge is one that punishes the wickedness, establishes the righteous, and knows all of the details about the situation, and David can rest in that.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: That is where his boldness and his confidence come.
24:49
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows he's innocent before a righteous God that knows for sure that he is innocent.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: So he doesn't have to worry about a thing.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: That's why he can make an oath to God to say, God, if I am wrong, kill me.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: That's how confident he is.
25:05
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows God will see the truth.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: And David knows what the truth is.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: And David rests in that.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: Here's the cool part.
25:17
SPEAKER_01: This is specifically something that pours over onto us.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: What does this mean for us?
25:24
SPEAKER_01: Just like David, we can find refuge in God when we are in situations where we are innocent because he's a righteous God.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: When there are those moments in your life when you've lived long enough to have people accuse you of things, to have people angry at you, but you know that you are innocent.
25:45
SPEAKER_01: You can rest in God, knowing that he is a just judge, that he will establish you, and that he will punish the wicked.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: This punishment of the wicked will happen in this life or it will happen in the next.
25:58
SPEAKER_01: Later on in the scripture, it's talking about how the wicked one digs a hole and hollows it out, and then he falls into it.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: And that's this idea that on this earth they they get punished and however God seems fit.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: But in other times the punishment will be later in life, so we may not see it.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: However, we can trust that God is a just judge, that he is your avenger, and that he will establish you because you are innocent.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: He sees all the facts, he can't be persuaded by anyone, what anyone says, he knows that you are innocent, so you can rest in that.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: That's a beautiful, beautiful truth.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: And I could end there.
26:47
SPEAKER_01: That's what this passage seems to be saying.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: That's what we can take away from this passage, that in those specific situations in which we are innocent, we we can rest.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: But if you really think about it, I haven't fully answered the question proposed at the beginning of how can we boldly approach a righteous God?
27:13
SPEAKER_01: Because this righteous God that we serve is one that knows the entire situation and knows you at your depths.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: This righteous God is the God that says, Be holy, for I am holy.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: This is the righteous God that sees the moments that you are innocent, but also sees the moments in which you are guilty.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: And as you stand before Him, he sees it all.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: He sees the times in which you've lied.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: He sees the times in which you've stolen.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: He sees the time in which you've slandered people behind their backs.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: He sees the times where you looked up on the internet that thing that you shouldn't have.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: He has seen the times that you've blatantly committed adultery.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: How can you stand before a righteous God with that on your back?
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Knowing that all of that is behind you.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: Because he sees it all.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: And he has this standard, this standard of holiness.
28:19
SPEAKER_01: He sees it all.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: The thing is, we can't.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: We have all sinned.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: And this sin has to be punished.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: It has to be.
28:41
SPEAKER_01: We don't want a God that doesn't punish sin.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: Because what that would mean is God would go over and look at the Holocaust and be like, oh, it's fine.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: He's forgiving.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: He's a sinner, like just kind of move on from there.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: We don't want that.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: We want a God that is angry over that because that is evil, that is killing innocent people.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: Because God loves every single one of those lives that were taken.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: We want a wrathful God.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: We want a wrathful God that looks at those people that kidnap children and sell them into trafficking.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: And we want him to be angry.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: We don't want him just to look over and be like, yeah, it's fine.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: They're sinners, just kind of move on with life.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: We don't want that.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: We want a God that brings justice.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: We want a God that is angry about those things because we are angry about those things.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: But what we realize is that we too sin.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: We too are wicked.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: And when we approach this passage, the bow that was once drawn to protect us is now pointed directly at us.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: So this fear in approaching God, this this uh this posture of like God, I can't, I can't do anything in the presence of you.
30:05
SPEAKER_01: We should be echoing with Isaiah when he he meets God and says, Woe is me, for I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: We should be echoing that.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: Because as humans, we deserve the wrath of God.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: But as Christians, we will never have to suffer that wrath.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: As humans, we deserve the wrath of God.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: But as Christians, we never will have to.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: Because on that one fateful day when Jesus was on the cross, the entirety of God's wrath for my sin and all of your sins, past, present, and future, were poured out onto Jesus, and he took that wrath instead of us.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: He died in place of us.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: This is the gospel.
31:13
SPEAKER_01: That is what it is.
31:15
SPEAKER_01: And you know what that does?
31:18
SPEAKER_01: That buys our innocence before a righteous judge.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: So to answer this question, how can we boldly approach the righteous God?
31:28
SPEAKER_01: We find our confidence in Christ, who bought our innocence before a righteous judge.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: It is nothing by our own doing.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: When we stand before a God that sees everything that we have done and will do, all the good and all the bad, and he is able to forgive those sins because that punishment was paid and it was paid in full.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: So we arrive at this upside down reality where we can find refuge from our sin in a righteous God.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: Where we can approach God with clean consciences because his righteousness, Jesus' righteousness, was transferred to us.
32:21
SPEAKER_01: We are declared righteous by God.
32:23
SPEAKER_01: That's what justification is.
32:25
SPEAKER_01: It's a declaration of our righteousness.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: Even though I approach God and I'm like, God, I've sinned here and I've sinned there and I've done this and that, I'm still able to approach him because the veil was torn.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: We can have that relationship with God because he wanted that relationship with God.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: He wanted that relationship with us.
32:52
SPEAKER_01: Because the wrath that we deserved was fully and completely paid for and taken care of on that cross.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: This is it.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: This is how we find our boldness before God, that he desires us to approach him boldly.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: But also it is still true that in those specific situations in which we are innocent, we can we can reflect David and saying, God, I am innocent.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: Establish me, protect me.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: And we can trust that he is a just judge.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: But we also don't have to fear our future.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that we will be with relationship with him forever.
33:38
SPEAKER_01: And that's what eternal life is.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: So what do we do moving forward?
33:44
SPEAKER_01: What do we do with when the rubber meets the road?
33:47
SPEAKER_01: You see, there's probably some of you in this room who are thinking, Spencer, I get that.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: I get that up here.
33:54
SPEAKER_01: Like I understand it, but I still just don't feel it.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: Like I feel this weight of my sin.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: And I get that.
34:03
SPEAKER_01: I have been there.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: That is something that I struggle with.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: So what do you do?
34:12
SPEAKER_01: You meditate on your innocence before God because of Christ.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: You meditate on it.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: There's this lost art of biblical meditation where literally all it is, is just thinking about, mulling over your head and just thinking about it.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Because what this does, biologically, it puts new neural pathways in your head for your mind to easily go that direction.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: Now, so when you're feeling these things, if I feel this weight and I feel this condemnation, you can remind yourself, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: You can remind yourself, I am innocent before God because all of the punishment that I deserve was on him.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: And you can speak back to those lies.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: And you can say, no, I know what is true, and what is true is in the Word of God.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: And this is the process of meditating.
35:03
SPEAKER_01: And as you do that more and more, it'll become easier and easier to really truly believe this reality that as Christians, we can boldly approach God's throne.
35:16
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's some of you in this room that are thinking, okay, Spencer, I got that.
35:20
SPEAKER_01: I love approaching God and I understand I'm innocent before him.
35:25
SPEAKER_01: First off, praise God.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: That's such a good thing.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: But something that you can do is to approach God and praise him with more boldness.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: There's that we can we can go before him and be like, God, it's it's crazy what you have done.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy what you've done for me.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: Even though I was a sinner, you still love me enough to die for me and to suffer that wrath.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: We can go before him with more boldness.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: And we can continue to meditate on this.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: But whether you are in the first group or the second group, you can find refuge in a righteous God as sons and daughters of Christ.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: You can find refuge in him because he's paid the price and made you innocent.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: Now there's one more group I want to address.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: Because all of these truths are true for those that are in Christ, for those that know Christ.
36:25
SPEAKER_01: But I don't want to make the assumption that everyone in this room knows Christ.
36:32
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't know Christ, I'm saying this because I love you.
36:37
SPEAKER_01: But the truth of the matter is, you will suffer the wrath of God.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: You will.
36:47
SPEAKER_01: And I don't want that.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: And God's desire is for everyone to be saved.
36:52
SPEAKER_01: That's what God's desire is.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: So if you're sitting here in this audience and you you feel like, you feel like you get the weight of your sin and you're like, God, I'm a sinner, and I can't do anything about it.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: But I'm starting to realize that I don't have to do anything about it.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: I can just have faith in you and faith that your sacrifice was enough to cleanse me from my sins.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: And if that is you in this audience, I'm going to pray a prayer really quick.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: And I want you just to follow along with me.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: To be in relationship with God.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: So pray with me.
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Lord God, I am a sinner.
37:39
SPEAKER_01: And my sin is ever before me.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: I may try to do right, but I still sin.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: And I still deserve your wrath and your punishment.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: But God, I trust that your sacrifice was enough to forgive me of my sins.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: I believe that you lived bodily on this earth, that you died, that you were buried, and that you rose again on the third day, conquering death, and that you rose up to be seated with God above all.
38:21
SPEAKER_01: And I want to repent from my life, from my life of sin, and I want to walk towards you to be made more in the image of you.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I commit my life to you.
38:37
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray for those people that prayed this prayer.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you will continue to be working in their hearts, Lord.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: I pray that they will tell their family, that they will tell their friends, that they will tell people here at TBC, and we will be able to come around them and shepherd them and point them closer to you.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: But Lord God, we thank you for your sacrifice.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for what you have done.
39:02
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that we can boldly approach you right here, right now, in front of you, on your throne with the angels singing, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: And we can approach your throne and say, Abba, Father, we thank you and we praise you for that.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Lord, as we go about this week, I pray that you will help us to meditate on our innocence before Christ.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: For those of us in situations where we are being accused in slander, help us to find our refuge in you.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you for how much you love us, even when we don't deserve it.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: In your name I pray.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: Have a good week.