Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / Psalm 119:113-120 - Samek

Transcript

Psalm 119:113-120 - Samek · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

• 0:00
  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
• 0:03
  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
• 0:07
  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
• 0:10
  you to know Christ, grow in his Word, and show his love to
• 0:14
  others. Let's dive right in.
• 0:15
  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we're in Psalm 119 and we
• 0:19
  are looking at verses 113 through 1/21/13 through 120.
• 0:25
  And all of these verses begin with the Hebrew letter SEMEC,
• 0:29
  some MEC. And this Psalm 119 is all about
• 0:34
  the Word of God from A-Z. And so let's read through these
• 0:38
  verses and see what the Lord has for us for today.
• 0:42
  I hate those who are double minded, but I love your
• 0:46
  instruction. You are my shelter and my
• 0:49
  shield. I put my hope in your word.
• 0:52
  Depart from me, you evil ones, so that I may obey my God's
• 0:57
  commands. Sustain me as you promised, and
• 1:00
  I will live. Do not let me be ashamed of my
• 1:03
  hope. Sustain me so that I can be safe
• 1:06
  and always be concerned about your statutes.
• 1:10
  You reject all who stray from your statutes, for their deceit
• 1:14
  is a lie. You remove all the wicked on
• 1:17
  earth as if they were dross from metal.
• 1:20
  Therefore, I love your decrees. I tremble in awe of you.
• 1:25
  I fear your judgments here as I look at the Psalm, that the
• 1:31
  thing that sticks out to me the most is the love for God that we
• 1:36
  are called to have as a result of His work.
• 1:40
  That as we think about how God operates, what He does, how He
• 1:45
  treats the world around us, how He treats evil, that it ought to
• 1:50
  spark in US love for God. So let's look at this together,
• 1:55
  beginning in verse 113. I hate those who are double
• 1:59
  minded, but I love your instruction here.
• 2:03
  These that are double minded, this would be those that
• 2:05
  deceptively say one thing but actually think or do something
• 2:10
  else that they would say, Oh yeah, I love you.
• 2:14
  That's so great that that presentation was amazing.
• 2:17
  And they say that to your face. But then behind closed doors,
• 2:20
  they go, listen, this guy is terrible.
• 2:23
  I think he's a liability to the company.
• 2:26
  It's that kind of thought, perhaps even in a family
• 2:29
  relationship, there's like, oh, I, I love you.
• 2:32
  Yes, I'm so glad you're here for the holidays.
• 2:35
  And then behind closed doors, they're like, oh, I just cannot
• 2:39
  stand them. Hey, do you know, she said this
• 2:43
  to me or she said this about you?
• 2:45
  And so I, I just couldn't believe that she said that about
• 2:48
  you. You know, it's those kinds of
• 2:50
  people. It's the people that they're not
• 2:52
  genuine with you. They'll, they'll say one thing
• 2:55
  to your face, but then they'll stab you in the back.
• 2:59
  You know, they, they, they smile, they give you a hug, but
• 3:01
  they have a knife and that they're actually stabbing you in
• 3:03
  the back for. It's those kinds of people.
• 3:07
  And truthfully, I know human nature right now.
• 3:11
  You're like, Oh yeah, I remember this Co worker or this family
• 3:14
  member and they are that. Let's be real, none of us are
• 3:19
  perfect. All of us have times when we
• 3:22
  have been less than genuine with another person, maybe because we
• 3:25
  were afraid of what reaction that they might have towards us,
• 3:30
  possibly because, you know, we didn't want to hurt someone's
• 3:36
  feelings. But all of us can fall into
• 3:38
  this. But what I see here in this
• 3:40
  Psalm is the the writer says I, I hate those who are double
• 3:44
  minded, but I love your instruction.
• 3:48
  Well, what's different about the instruction of God?
• 3:51
  He tells us like it is. He doesn't cut corners, He just
• 3:55
  tells us straight up who we are. He also tells us that we're
• 4:00
  loved and accepted and can be forgiven and restored.
• 4:04
  All of that is true, but God actually just shoots straight
• 4:07
  with us and I love that about my God.
• 4:11
  I never have to worry about what His feelings towards me are.
• 4:15
  I can know emphatically, yes, I am loved and accepted in Jesus.
• 4:20
  And right now this sin that I'm in, God hates that sin.
• 4:24
  And he says it's actually like destroying my life and it'll
• 4:27
  destroy, you know, my family, it'll destroy my marriage, it'll
• 4:31
  destroy my job, it'll destroy my church family.
• 4:35
  That's what God's word tells me. It tells me who I am, what my
• 4:39
  identity is, what my grounding, what my eternity is.
• 4:42
  And he tells me when I am wrong. I want to encourage you.
• 4:47
  Love the Lord for his like forthrightness with you, that
• 4:50
  even when he doesn't tell you what you want to hear, he does
• 4:53
  tell you what you need to hear. Verse 114, You are my shelter
• 4:58
  and my shield. I put my hope in your word here.
• 5:03
  I'm going to look real quick at what these words are Here
• 5:07
  shelter is the word sitter. It is a hiding place, a
• 5:12
  covering, a protection. And then here the shield.
• 5:15
  It's it's an ornament. It's a protection that one has
• 5:20
  here shelter. It's when life rains on you,
• 5:25
  when there's some, you know, heavy waters, I'll say flooding,
• 5:32
  not as in that'll pick you up and take you away because the
• 5:34
  shelter is not going to protect you from the flood, but it'll
• 5:37
  protect you from the downpour. It'll protect you from the sun
• 5:41
  that you don't get, you know, heat stroke.
• 5:43
  And here a shield. It's as Satan comes against you
• 5:46
  with his fiery darts that you are able to have protection.
• 5:49
  What is our protection? What is the thing that keeps us
• 5:52
  safe throughout life? What is the thing that even
• 5:55
  though there might be pain and sorrow and craziness and
• 6:00
  wickedness all around us, what protects us?
• 6:04
  It is God. And here the psalmist says, I
• 6:06
  put my hope in your word. It is what God has decreed to us
• 6:10
  that says that we are safe. Because if we look at the world
• 6:14
  around us and we think that we ought to be insulated from every
• 6:18
  hard time and every crossword, and we should never struggle
• 6:22
  financially, and we should just have the most idyllic
• 6:26
  relationships with everyone, the other person on the planet, If
• 6:29
  we think that that's what we deserve or what we ought to get,
• 6:32
  then when we encounter difficulties, we go, God, where
• 6:36
  in the world are you? But as we trust in God's Word,
• 6:40
  as we see the way that Jesus was treated, as we see what God says
• 6:45
  about the human condition and about our free choices that
• 6:48
  we're able to make and the free choices of others that they are
• 6:51
  able to make, then we realize, OK, God, you are protecting me.
• 6:55
  You're not protecting me from everything and every scenario
• 6:59
  that I would want to be protected from.
• 7:02
  But my soul is safe. My soul is secure, and there are
• 7:06
  things that I still have in my life even with all of the
• 7:09
  difficulties. And so realize that God is
• 7:12
  protecting you, whether or not you realize it or whether or not
• 7:16
  you wish that He would protect you from more things.
• 7:19
  So God is protecting you. Be grateful for it.
• 7:24
  And you can even pray and ask, hey God, there is this
• 7:27
  situation, this hardship that I'm encountering right now.
• 7:30
  Would you also protect me from this?
• 7:32
  Call out to the Lord. He will never be put out by your
• 7:36
  prayers. And you can ask him, always
• 7:39
  remember, pray according to the will of God.
• 7:41
  Say God, if it's your will, like Jesus prayed, let this cup pass
• 7:46
  from me, but be willing to hear his answer either way.
• 7:49
  Verse 115 depart from me, you evil ones, so that I may obey my
• 7:55
  God's commands. Here there is a desire for
• 7:58
  relationship for fellowship with God more so than relationship
• 8:03
  with these other people. This is a truth that we really
• 8:08
  struggle with right now in America.
• 8:11
  I I'm certain that that same struggle happened in all of the
• 8:16
  centuries prior to us too. But I see a lot of this as a
• 8:20
  pastor that people, they get into romantic relationships with
• 8:24
  people that they should not be in a relationship with.
• 8:28
  It's someone that that doesn't know the Lord, that does not
• 8:31
  walk with the Lord, and it's a professing Christian that's in a
• 8:34
  relationship with this person. Contrary to what we read all
• 8:38
  through the Old and New Testament about the way in which
• 8:41
  we're supposed to pursue romantic relationships.
• 8:44
  Those that we, if you will, tie ourselves most intimately with
• 8:49
  the person that we we choose to spend the rest of our life with.
• 8:53
  Now, if you're married to a person and you're a Christian,
• 8:57
  they're not a Christian. Scripture actually has a lot to
• 9:00
  say about that too, about how you are to interact with your
• 9:04
  spouse in love and respect and submission and care.
• 9:09
  Not abandoning them, but for as long as they'll have you.
• 9:13
  That you are a light of Jesus into their life and that they
• 9:18
  might even eventually come to know the Lord and walk with
• 9:21
  Jesus as a result of your relationship with them.
• 9:24
  But for those that are not married to a person, I want to
• 9:27
  encourage you, if you are a Christian, you should not be in
• 9:31
  a romantic relationship with someone that does not know and
• 9:35
  follow and walk with Jesus. Hear the full part of that.
• 9:42
  It's not enough, especially in America.
• 9:44
  It's like 60 to 70% of people in America say that they are
• 9:49
  Christians. Just because someone believes in
• 9:53
  Jesus, quote UN quote, or just because they aren't an atheist
• 9:59
  does not make them a person that you should pursue a romantic
• 10:03
  relationship with. You should pursue someone that
• 10:07
  knows and loves and walks with Jesus.
• 10:10
  And if the person that you're currently with, if that does not
• 10:13
  describe them, I want to encourage you with this verse
• 10:17
  where it says depart from me, you evil ones, so that I may
• 10:20
  obey my God's commands. When you can't even perhaps
• 10:25
  attend church with your romantic partner if you are not married
• 10:31
  to them. I want to encourage you that is
• 10:33
  a relationship according to the word of God that you should
• 10:36
  break off 2nd Corinthians would tell us there there is no
• 10:42
  connection that there's no true fellowship to be had between
• 10:49
  those that acknowledge Christ as their Lord and their Savior and
• 10:52
  they follow him and those that do not as as Paul describes it
• 10:58
  there. What what relationship does
• 11:00
  Christ have with the devil? He says so don't be unequally
• 11:06
  yoked together with unbelievers. Don't have that connection with
• 11:10
  people that do not share your faith in Christ and that do not
• 11:14
  follow the Lord. A lot of people could save
• 11:18
  themselves a lot of heartache in their future.
• 11:21
  They could save a lot of heartache in the future of their
• 11:23
  kids if they would follow what the word of God has to say in
• 11:27
  that circumstance. And then for some people, it's
• 11:31
  not a romantic relationship. It's just friendships that every
• 11:34
  time you're around that person, you don't talk about things that
• 11:38
  would be glorifying to God. You, you don't talk about good
• 11:41
  things. Your vocabulary changes so that
• 11:44
  you just have a a perverse mouth.
• 11:48
  You go and you do things that are not right with the Lord and
• 11:55
  it's just not a good friendship. Do not be.
• 11:58
  Do not choose to be around people in that kind of way.
• 12:02
  Jesus was around unsaved people and He loved them and He prayed
• 12:05
  for them and He cared for them and He shared meals with them.
• 12:09
  He was accused of being a wine bibber and a glutton.
• 12:12
  You can't be accused of that if you never share a meal with
• 12:17
  people. You can't be accused of that if
• 12:19
  you are never spending time with those that do not know the Lord.
• 12:23
  It's why they called Him friend of sinners.
• 12:25
  That was a pejorative statement that they said about Jesus, that
• 12:29
  he wasn't holy enough. He was a friend of sinners.
• 12:31
  Being a friend to those that are sinners is not a sin.
• 12:36
  But here, as we read in this verse, don't, don't allow your
• 12:42
  friendship with people that do not yet know the Lord.
• 12:45
  Don't allow that to make it so that you are no longer obeying
• 12:49
  the commands of God. If others sin results in your
• 12:54
  sin, that's not a person that you should be around.
• 12:59
  Verse 116 sustain me as you promised and I will live.
• 13:03
  Do not let me be ashamed of my hope here he says God, I need
• 13:09
  you to keep lifting me up because I am hoping in you.
• 13:13
  I'm trusting that you're going to get me through this and can I
• 13:15
  tell you the more and more that you trust and rely on God to get
• 13:19
  you through each day. You will find Him faithful day
• 13:22
  after day after day, and on the day when He no longer sustains
• 13:26
  you, when you don't make it through the day, you will find
• 13:29
  yourself all of eternity sustained by His incredible
• 13:33
  power so you can trust in the sustaining of the Lord.
• 13:37
  Verse 117. Sustain me so I can be safe and
• 13:40
  always be concerned about your statutes.
• 13:44
  Are you concerned about doing what God wants you to do?
• 13:47
  Or do you have a sin that you're holding on to that you say it
• 13:50
  doesn't really matter what God says.
• 13:53
  I just really love this sin. I want to remain in a
• 13:56
  relationship with this person. I really enjoy this extra income
• 14:01
  that I have that really I, I shouldn't be, you know, skimming
• 14:06
  this off the top of whatever it is.
• 14:10
  We should not love our sin more than we love our Savior.
• 14:13
  We shouldn't love our sin at all.
• 14:15
  And so I want to encourage you be concerned about following the
• 14:19
  commands of God. Verse 118.
• 14:21
  You reject all who stray from your statutes, for their deceit
• 14:26
  is a lie. The truth is this, if the Holy
• 14:30
  Spirit of God really does live inside you, you will have that
• 14:34
  still small voice that encourages you to follow the
• 14:37
  Lord, to do what is right, to obey the word of God.
• 14:40
  And if you just don't have that, if you don't have that desire to
• 14:44
  follow the Lord, maybe even something that I've said today
• 14:47
  or something I've said in the past on the podcast from the
• 14:50
  word of God, you're like, well, I know it says that, but I want
• 14:55
  to encourage you. Your soul may be in danger.
• 14:58
  Just because you're a religious person, just because you're
• 15:01
  listening to Tabernacle talk, does not mean that you have
• 15:04
  actually been born again, that Jesus has become your Lord and
• 15:08
  your Savior. You can pray a prayer and not
• 15:11
  truly be born again. You can be baptized and not be
• 15:14
  born again. You can be a pastor of a church
• 15:17
  and not be born again. It is about what the Holy Spirit
• 15:21
  does in you and if there is no desire in your heart to give up
• 15:25
  your sin, then I want to challenge you.
• 15:28
  You may not be saved and you may need to turn the keys of your
• 15:32
  life over to Jesus Christ and ask Him to be your Lord and your
• 15:37
  Savior so that you can have the desire to be rid of your sin.
• 15:42
  I just want to be faithful to consistently tell people, don't
• 15:47
  assume that you are saved just because of some action in the
• 15:52
  past that you took. Don't be.
• 15:56
  Don't assume that you're saved because you were raised in
• 15:59
  church or because you know a lot of religious stuff.
• 16:02
  None of that means that you are on your way to heaven.
• 16:05
  Instead, the Holy Spirit of God is the quintessential thing that
• 16:10
  we look at Romans chapter 8. I was telling someone online
• 16:13
  just the other day that Paul says if someone does not have
• 16:18
  the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
• 16:22
  If you do not have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit of
• 16:24
  God is one that prompts you through your conscience to do
• 16:28
  what is right in line with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit
• 16:31
  will never just affirm your feelings.
• 16:33
  The Holy Spirit will not just agree with you in every
• 16:37
  circumstance. And frankly, if you're not every
• 16:40
  week at least, or every day, if you're not hearing from the
• 16:44
  voice of the Spirit, and I want to encourage you, you might have
• 16:48
  a seared conscience. You might have, as Paul warns us
• 16:51
  about in Ephesians 4, you might have quenched the Spirit.
• 16:54
  And if you are no longer hearing God telling you in your soul,
• 16:57
  hey, that wasn't right. That word that you used, you
• 17:00
  shouldn't have used that that way that you treated that
• 17:02
  person, That was wrong. Hey, that action that you just
• 17:05
  took, that was not glorifying to the Lord this, this relationship
• 17:08
  or this friendship. This needs to end if you are not
• 17:12
  regularly experiencing the voice of the Holy Spirit telling you
• 17:15
  no. And I want to encourage you to
• 17:18
  pray and ask the Lord to show you, God, am I saved?
• 17:23
  Do I know you as my Savior, Do I have the Holy Spirit?
• 17:26
  And if you do, then ask the Lord God, would you help to refresh
• 17:30
  my spirit and my conscience so that I can hear and feel you
• 17:34
  speaking to me again, so that I can act in accordance with what
• 17:39
  you have told me. Verse 18119 Why is this
• 17:44
  important? Why would I care about whether
• 17:47
  or not you were truly saved? Because of verse 119.
• 17:50
  You remove all the wicked on earth as if they were dross from
• 17:54
  metal. Therefore, I love your decrees.
• 17:57
  Everyone agrees with this. When it comes to the worst of
• 18:00
  the worst, when it's Hitler, when it's Stalin or Lenin or you
• 18:05
  know, some big serial killer, everyone goes, yes, you remove
• 18:08
  the wicked from the earth, God. But the truth is, all have
• 18:11
  sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and every person
• 18:15
  one day is going to stand before God.
• 18:17
  So my job as a pastor is to warn you to say, do you know Jesus as
• 18:21
  Savior? Is he your Lord?
• 18:22
  Is he the one that you are walking with each and every day?
• 18:25
  It does his Holy Spirit live inside of you?
• 18:28
  Are you gathering with his people in obedience to his word?
• 18:33
  And do you love him? It is so important.
• 18:36
  There's no more important message that I could ever give
• 18:39
  then the message of salvation. If you don't know the Lord
• 18:42
  today, you can give your life to Jesus, recognizing that he came
• 18:46
  to earth. He lived a perfect sinless life.
• 18:48
  He died in our place. That the judgment we deserved,
• 18:51
  He took on Himself. He was buried three days later.
• 18:54
  He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven 40 days
• 18:58
  later. And one day he is going to
• 19:00
  return to judge both the living and the dead.
• 19:03
  For everyone that places their faith in Christ, they turn to
• 19:06
  Him as their Lord and Savior. They asked Jesus to forgive
• 19:09
  their sins, that his sacrifice would be applied to their
• 19:12
  account. And as they turn the keys of
• 19:14
  their life over to God, making him their Lord, they're no
• 19:17
  longer in charge of their life. Jesus is the one that is in
• 19:20
  charge of their life. Every person that confesses
• 19:24
  Jesus as Lord will be saved. You go, OK, well, how do I
• 19:29
  confess Jesus as Lord? Well, Scripture would tell us
• 19:32
  certainly we, we believe in our heart, but then Scripture tells
• 19:35
  us, how do you tell other people that you're saved?
• 19:37
  Well, you, you can tell people that you're saved, but you're
• 19:40
  also called to follow the Lord and believers.
• 19:42
  Baptism, that was Jesus's first action in ministry was to be
• 19:46
  baptized. And so I want to encourage you,
• 19:48
  if you have never been baptized, that that is a step that you
• 19:51
  should take in obedience to the Lord.
• 19:54
  Verse 120 as we end today, he says, I tremble in awe of you.
• 19:59
  I fear your judgments. The goal of the word of God, the
• 20:02
  the goal of obedience, the goal of listening to the Holy Spirit,
• 20:05
  the goal of all of the Christian life, the goal of reality and
• 20:09
  existence itself is so that we would know, worship, love and
• 20:15
  follow God. I don't want to be in the Bible.
• 20:19
  Just as a religious habit, I want to be in the Bible because
• 20:22
  I can learn about my God there. I can learn what He loves and
• 20:25
  what He hates, what I'm called to do and what I'm called not to
• 20:28
  do. And as I do that, I want the
• 20:31
  Lord to be glorified in my life. And I hope that that's your
• 20:34
  desire too. I know I went over a ton of
• 20:36
  different subjects today, but thank you for tuning in and see
• 20:39
  you next episode as we continue in Psalm 119.