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02

Feb, 2020

Here's the Truth

  • wicked
  • chaff
  • two words
  • faith in God


Here’s the Truth

Psalm 1:4 | February 2, 2020

What are your favorite two words?

  • Carpe Diem
  • Hakuna Matata
  • Keep Calm
  • Inhale Exhale
  • Work Hard
  • Thank You
  • Be Kind
  • Call Me
  • Game On
  • Christmas Break
  • Spring Break
  • Summer Break
  • Free Sample
  • Hot Coffee
  • Apple Pie
  • Fresh Bacon

Or as famous boxing trainer Lou Duva once said about boxing:

Lou Duva

You can sum up this sport with two words: you never know.

In 2002, the Las Vegas Visitors Authority developed a new slogan to attract visitors that goes like this:

“What happens here, stays here.”

That slogan has become pretty famous and synonymous with the scary notion of “do what you want – there’s no consequences”.

It was reported last week that the Las Vegas Visitors Authority is making plans to change two words in that slogan – the new slogan is supposed to be:

“What happens here, only happens here.”

The marketing idea is that Vegas would be the “only” place where you can find the best entertainment and the best food and the best shopping – and with a new NFL team – the best in sports.

Here’s the thing, though – neither slogan is true.

The new slogan won’t work because the best entertainment in the world is a Christmas program at a preschool.

The best food is the rib roast at your mom’s house or the plate of skillet-fried fatback at your grandmother’s house.

And I live with and know and research shoppers and at the end of the day the best shopping in the world is usually whatever the next store is.

And we all know that the best sports in the world is a tee-ball game of 5-year-old boys or a soccer game of 6-year-old girls.

And the old slogan won’t work either.

Why?

Because whatever happens, does not stay there.

No matter what city you are in, consequences follow you always.

How do we know that?

Well, there are two words that help us answer that question.

What are those two words?

Let’s find out.

Listen to Psalm 1, verse 4:

4 The wicked are not so,

The two words are right there – “not so”.

So, who are the wicked and why are they “not so”?

Well, we have to back up to the previous sentences to find the answer.

Listen to Psalm 1, beginning with verse 1:

Psalm 1:1

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

 

Psalm 1:2

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.

 

Psalm 1:3

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content is the person who refuses to plan their life around the advice of people who disregard God and God’s ways.

And happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content is the person who refuses to casually spend the majority of their life submitting to and engaged in activities that openly disregard God and God’s ways.

And happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content is the person who refuses to join in with people who criticize God and God’s ways when life doesn’t happen the way they think it should.

Rather, happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content is the person who delights in the truth of God.

And happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content is the person who does not see the Bible as some boring, out-of-touch-with-reality book, but rather sees it as sweeter than honey and finer than gold.

And that person – the person who loves the truth of God – that person will be like a tree planted by streams of water – their heart will have the love it longs for the most and their mind will have the comfort it longs for the most and their soul will have the hope it longs for the most.

But not so for the wicked.

  • No true love
  • No true comfort
  • No true hope

The wicked will not have any of that.

This transition by the psalmist from happy and blessed to “not so” feels pretty strong, right?

How many people have seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder?

Were you like me the first time you watched that moment near the end where Wonka responds to Grandpa?

Gene Wilder

It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks. You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized. So you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!

I was terrified.

I was like: “Whoa, what just happened?”

It was so tense – I just immediately wanted the Oompa-loompas to come out and sing a happy song.

This scene in Psalm 1 has that same vibe, but it’s not a movie.

This is the promise of the one, true God who created and sustains the entire universe.

The one, true God who was and is and is to come.

The one true, God who is holy, holy, holy – there is no one besides him.

And in his holiness, he is unswervingly just.

And usually at first glance people don’t like this idea of God being holy and unswervingly just.

Why?

Because it makes us feel uncomfortable.

We want a God of love because all you need is love.

But if our hearts are honest with us, we don’t really believe that.

We might fight against it, but we want divine authority and justice.

To borrow from another film, in the courtroom scene of “A Few Good Men”, the character known as Colonel Nathan Jessup defends himself with these words:

Jack Nicholson

You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall – you need me on that wall.

Now, I am in no way saying that God is like Colonel Nathan Jessup – so, don’t go tweet that.

But the principle is similar:

We might reject it or we might mock it or we might ignore it, but we need the grace of God and we need the mercy of God and we need the kindness of God and we need the love of God and we need the justice of God and we need the sovereignty of God because without those things we are desperately lost and helpless and without hope in this world or the world to come.

Sure, they may have some fun in this life, but soon and very soon the wicked will not be happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied and content.

Sure, they may have some good times and some nice things in this life, but the wicked will not be planted by streams of water.

On October 16, 1987, a hurricane hit the south of England.

Listen to this – 15 million trees were knocked down!

There was one tree known as Turner’s Oak that sat in the Kew Gardens in London – it was about 200 years old and the caretakers knew that it had been unwell for some time.

The storm completely lifted it out of the ground including the root plate and then set it back down in the ground slightly leaning.

Kew Gardens was a disaster zone of fallen trees and it took years to cut and remove them all and after 3 years they finally got around to cutting down Turner’s Oak and when they got there they discovered the tree was alive and flourishing.

Tony Kirkham is the head of the Arboretum (arba-reedum) at Kew Gardens and this past week he described what happened to Turner’s Oak:

Tony Kirkham

…on that night, nature picked the tree up out of the ground, shook the roots back in, and then lots of porosity in the soil, so that the oxygen could get back down to the roots and then any water.

I’m no arboriculturist, but I think what he’s saying is the roots of that tree were suffocating and the storm shook those roots and brought it back to life.

Let me ask you a question:

Are your roots suffocating?

Is your life being pressed down with bitterness or anger or fear or stress or worry or pride or anxiety or arrogance or apathy or immorality?

Do you need to have your roots shaken?

If so, please don’t wait for the storm.

Hear God’s Word today and let his truth shake your roots and bring you back to him or bring you to him for the very first time.

By God’s design, the truths found in the Bible can shake the roots of your soul and bring spiritual oxygen and living water to those areas pressed down with sin and discouragement and loneliness and frustration.

In other words, God has designed the truths of the Bible to keep you like a tree planted firmly by streams of water.

Not so for the wicked.

What happens to the wicked?

Listen to what the Psalmist says next:

4 But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

What is chaff?

Someone described it with peanuts.

Have you ever been to a restaurant that offers you peanuts in a little basket when you get there?

You crack open those peanuts with your hand and eat the nuts and then what do most people do with the shells?

Throw them on the floor.

You might be like me – I just can’t do it.

I have to keep my shells in a little pile and clean them up myself.

I just don’t have any litterbug in me.

But for those of you who enjoy that fun freedom of tossing the shells on the floor – what happens to them?

They get stepped on and stomped on and shred up into dust and then the wait staff or the custodians have to sweep them all up and toss them in the dumpster.

That is a picture of what it means to die without Christ – blown away like a discarded shell.

That’s not my opinion as some mean, intolerant Baptist.

That is the message of Jesus, the Christ.

The same Jesus who loved children and respected women and showed mercy to prostitutes and with his own hands and his own words made the blind to see and the lame to walk and the deaf to hear and even raised the dead.

That same Jesus said there are only two ways to live – with him or without him.

One day Jesus was teaching up on a mountain and said this:

Matthew 7:21

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

 

Matthew 7:22

Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?”

 

Matthew 7:23

And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

Not everyone will enter the kingdom of God – not so.

Jesus does not say they will depart and be annihilated and cease to exist.

No – as someone has put it, every single person in the universe – past, present, and future – will live forever – either as a friend of God or as his enemy – living forever as an enemy of God doesn’t sound wise or hopeful.

António Guterres is the Secretary-General of the United Nations and last week at the annual World Economic Forum he said this:

António Guterres

I would use two words to describe the state of the world today: uncertainty and instability.

There is nothing more uncertain and unstable than being chaff that the wind drives away.

That is God’s honest truth for those who are not right with him.

According to Jesus, uncertainty and instability are the only true possessions of someone who is not right with God.

When the psalmist says “not so” the indication is one of uncertainty and instability and insecurity.

Why?

Because the person who is right with God is delighting in the truths of the Bible, therefore, that person is like a tree planted by streams of water – they are stable and secure.

Someone might say, “Well, even Turner’s Oak got pulled up out of the ground.”

Yes, and then it got put back in the ground and it flourished.

Listen, we all might have moments where we lose our minds and get pulled up out of the ground and look like and sound like we are not delighting in God’s Word and have lost our confidence in him.

But those need to be moments not manifestos.

In other words, most of the time we should look and sound like people who have been rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of light.

Most of the time we should have faith in God.

Most of the time we should think and talk and act like he rules and he reigns and he cannot fail and he must prevail.

And how does that happen?

By delighting in his Word.

If we aren’t delighting in his Word, we will get blown away by every social media post and news update and health scare.

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be current with news or not be diligent with our health needs – it just means that we should not live as the wicked blowing in the wind of fear and worry and anger and stress all the time.

Will storms come?

Yes.

Will they sometimes pull us out of the ground?

Yes.

But if we are in Christ, we remind ourselves that never alone are the least of his Children.

Never!

We have faith in God because he watches over his own – even if the way he watches over us means that we leave this world to be with him.

But not so the wicked – the wicked do not have the certainty and stability and security of God’s care.

So, who are the wicked?

Many people think of wicked people as terrorists and clearly the psalmist is referring to people who are hateful and hostile toward God and God’s ways.

But wicked can also mean “transgressor” and the King James Version of the Bible translates wicked as “ungodly”.

Why do those synonyms matter?

Again, listen to the words of Jesus:

Matthew 7:21

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

C.H. Spurgeon

Many people imagine that if they do not commit positive sin they are all right.

What is positive sin?

Not your sin, no-no-no, just the kind of sin that makes it on the nightly news.

Not your sin, no-no-no, just the kind of sin that only happens in Vegas – you know, the kind of sin that stays there and never has any consequences in any other areas of someone’s life.

Spurgeon goes on to describe how a person like that might think:

C.H. Spurgeon

“I don't fight against God, I am no enemy to Christ, I do not persecute his people, in fact I even love his ministers, I love to go up and hear the Word preached.”

C.H. Spurgeon

“I should not be happy if I spent my Sunday anywhere but in God's house.”

And then he shows how that person is awakened to the “not so” from the psalmist.

C.H. Spurgeon

“But still that must mean me, for I do not go up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. I do nothing. I am an idle do-nothing. I am a fruitless tree.”

But then he softens things up a bit:

C.H. Spurgeon

You occupy a seat, you have had it these years; how do you know but that you have been occupying a seat which might have been the place where some other sinner would have been converted had he been there?

C.H. Spurgeon

It is true you sit and hear the sermon; yes, but what of that, if that sermon shall add to your condemnation?

Much softer, right?

What does all of that mean?

It means when you read the Bible or when you sit in a Bible study or a Sunday school class or a sermon don’t listen for someone else – always be checking the reality of your own heart when you come into contact with the truth of the Bible.

Or as I heard it put this week – we might should try to be a legalist with ourselves and be merciful to others because the opposite is usually true – we expect everyone else to do the right thing all the time and show no mercy to them for anything they might do wrong but we are quick to brush off our own sin and give ourselves a blanket of mercy.

So, is there any encouragement in all of this heavy stuff about wicked, ungodly people blowing away like chaff or dust in the wind?

Yes – first, if you are not a Christian, you don’t have to die in your sin and blow away like chaff.

Jesus Christ was crucified and buried and risen on the third day so that you could be rescued and redeemed and be made right with God.

Repent of your sin and turn to Jesus today and find the only hope that can satisfy your soul forever.

Second, if you are a Christian, have faith in God – I know that sounds overly simplistic but really – have faith in God.

I was reading an article by Tony Reinke (rhine-key) and he shared the following quote from 38 years ago:

John Piper

What I have learned from about 20 years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books.

John Piper

What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two.

John Piper

I do not remember 99 percent of what I read, but if the 1 percent of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don’t begrudge the 99 percent.

Tony took those thoughts and applied it to his own life when he and his wife were expecting their first child.

They were sitting in the hospital and he was holding his wife’s hand in one hand and with his other hand he was holding a book and reading out loud.

The book was “The Precious Things of God” by Octavius Winslow and these were the sentences that gave him a life-changing insight.

Octavius Winslow

Thank God for the least degree of faith, though it be less than the grain of a mustard seed, for the smallest measure will conduct you fully into heaven.

Octavius Winslow

And yet forget not that there is no difficulty that faith in God, however small, cannot surmount, no mountain it cannot level, no tree it cannot uproot, simply because it deals with the power of God.

Dear Christian, be of good cheer, we are dealing with the power of God!

The smallest measure of true faith in Jesus Christ can:

  • Keep us from foolishly entertaining sin
  • Rescue us from paralyzing discouragement
  • Truly conduct us to heaven

The psalmist gives us two words that can define your life today and your eternal destiny – “not so”.

But there are two words that can change your life today and redefine your eternal destiny – “Jesus saves!”

Message by Dow Welsh |

February 2, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-page-that-changed-my-life-tony-reinke/

https://www.amazon.com/Precious-Things-God-Octavius-Winslow/dp/1941129161

https://gracegems.org/W/precious_things_of_God.htm

 



So what are your two favorite words? What? What are your two favorite words? Maybe it's "carpe diem" (from Horace). Maybe it's "Hakuna matata" (from The Lion King). Maybe it's "keep calm" or "inhale, exhale," are your favorite two words. Or "work hard" or "be kind" or or "thank you" or "call me." You know, maybe your favorite two words are game home. Or maybe it's "Christmas break" or "spring break" or "summer break" or some other kind of break. Maybe your favorite two herds are "free sample." You know you're heading to Costco and Sam's today, hoping to get something, right? Maybe your favorite two words are "hot coffee" or "apple pie" or "fresh bacon." You know, there's a lot of good two words out there or his famous boxing trainer, Lou Duva, once said about boxing. You can sum up this sport with two words, "You never know." [trails off] ...three words. In 2002 the Las Vegas Visitors Authority developed a new slogan to attract visitors. At that time, the slogan goes like this, "what happens here stays here."  It's become a little bit of ah, famous slogan. It's also become synonymous with the kind of scary notion of Hey, you can do whatever you want to. There's no consequences. Well, the Las Vegas Visitors authority supposedly is going to be changing two words in the slogan and reworking it a little bit in The new slogan is going to read like this. What happens here on Lee happens here. The marketing idea behind that is, Hey, you know what the best of the best is going to be in Vegas? That's why you want to come to Vegas, that the best sports, the best entertainment, the best food, the best shopping is all going to be in Vegas. That's the idea behind it, but sadly, bless their hearts. Neither one of their slogans is true. I mean, the new slogans Not true. I mean, the best entertainment in the world is the Christmas program at a preschool. I mean, there's there's not even a contest, You know, there is no entertainment better than that. I was just coming up at the end of the year. Come on back, you'll see. It's great. The best food is probably the rib roast at your mom's house. Or maybe the plate of skillet fried fat back at your grandmother's house. I was the only one, huh? I could taste it right now. It's fantastic, and I live with, and I know and I research shoppers and anywhere in the world. A true shopper knows that the best place to shop is the next door that you go into. You know, there's just no stopping just let's just keep going. Let's just keep shopping. So it's not in Vegas. It's pretty much anywhere. And all of us know that the best sports they're on Vegas, the best sports is a five year old boys T ball game. Okay, or maybe a six year old girls soccer game. If you've never been go, they're amazing. Best sports you'll ever see. The best is not in Vegas. Sadly, the old slogan won't work, either. Why, Because what happens there? I will not stay there no matter what city you are. In the consequences of anything that you do, we'll follow you Well, how do we know that's true? Where there's two words in the Bible that can help us answer that question and they come from Somis Psalm, Chapter one, Verse four. The wicked are not so Those are the two words, right they're not. So So who are the wicked and why were they not? So what is this about? Will understand that we've got a back up to the previous sentences. Start back in inverse. One of someone goes like this. How blessed is the man who does not walk in the Council of the Wicked nor stand in the path of centers nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But verse, to his delight, is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. 1st 3 he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does, he prospers happy and blessed and fortunate and satisfied. And content is the person who refuses to arrange and rearrange their life around the advice of people who disregard God and God's ways. Happy and blessed and fortunate and content and satisfied is the person who refuses to submit to an engaged in activities in their life constantly that disregard God in God's ways. Happy and content and blessed and fortunate and satisfied is the person who refuses to join in with people who mock or criticized God or gods ways. When things don't work out the way that they fault, they should work out rather happy and blessed and fortunate Content and satisfied is the person who delights in the truth of God. Happy and blessed is that person who does not look at the Bible of some old worthless book that's out of date but looks at the Bible and sees within the truth there. Life, they look at the Bible, and they say What? I'm what I'm finding from this book. It is sweeter than honey. It's It's finer than gold. And that person, the person that loves the truth of God, that person will be like a tree planted by streams of water. In other words, their heart will get the love that it longs for the most. Their mind will get the comfort that it longs for the most, and their soul will get the hope that it longs for the most. But not so with the wicked. No true love, no true comfort, no true hope. The wicked will not have any of that. This transition by the Psalmist feels kind of strong, right? I mean, he goes from from blessed and happy to not. So it's It's a big shift. How many have you ever seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? The first? Not now. Not the news from the old. Were you like me in that scene toward the very end when Wonka and Grandpa were talking? You remember that scene? This will walk us it. It's all there black and white. Clearest Crystal. You stole fizzy lifting drinks. You bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized. So you get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir. I was terrified. I mean, like what just happened in this movie? I did not see that coming this really Wonka And he just he just lost it. And I was hoping for the Lupus to come out and sing a happy song like right then It was like, I need this to change right now. There was a shift. It was strong and it caught your attention. The psalmist says kind of doing the same thing here. There's a shift here and the shift is clear. But But this is not a movie. This is the truth off the one true God who created and sustained the entire universe. This is the answer of the Onley God, who was and is and is to come. This is the answer from from the Onley God, who is Holy, Holy, Holy! There is no one besides him. And in His Holiness he is unswervingly just now. Generally speaking, most people don't like the idea of God. Being unswervingly just makes us a little uncomfortable because we think, Hey, man, I just need a God, that's all love, you know, because hey, all we need is love. But in our hearts, if we're honest with ourselves, we don't really believe that in our hearts. If we're honest, we want to know there is some sense of divine authority and divine justice. We want it there to borrow from another movie in the courtroom scene and a few good men. Character known is Colonel Nathan Jessup. He defended himself with this line. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about it. Parties. You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. No, I am not saying that God is like Colonel Jessup for I don't go tweet that anywhere, right? That's not what I'm saying, but the principle is very similar. We may market, we may fight it. We may reject it. We may ignore it, but we need the mercy of God and we need the love of God and we need the kindness of God. We need the patience of God. We need the four Barents of God. We need the sovereignty of God because without all of those things, we are completely lost and helpless and without hope in this world and in the world to come, we need him, even if we don't know. The wicked may have some fun in this life, sir, the mind. But soon and very soon they will not be blessed and fortunate and happy and content and satisfied. The wicked may have some nice things in this life. They may have some good times, but they will not be planted by streams of living water. On October 16th 1987 a hurricane slammed against the south of England. 15 million trees were knocked down. 15 million trees were knocked down. One of those trees affected by the storm was known as Turner's Oak. It was in the few gardens in London before the storm came. The caretakers had known that this particular oak had been unwell for some time When the storm came through, it completely lifted Turner's oak out of the ground route, played in all and then and then set it back down. And it was just kind of leaning over a little bit. The Kew Gardens was a disaster zone of fallen trees, and they began to try toe, cut them down and remove them and clear up the damage. But it was a long, long process. It was three years before they got around to dealing with Turner's Oak, and when they got over to the oak, they were shocked to see that the tree was alive and flourishing. Tony Kirk, um, is the head of the Arboretum at Kew Gardens, and this past week, an interview. He described what happened to Turner's. Okay, this is what he said on that night nature Pick the tree up out of the ground, shook the roots back in, and then lots of paroxetine in the soil so that the oxygen could get back down to the roots and then any water. Now I'm no agriculturists or our Bora cultures. That's a real thing. I looked it up, but I said it wrong. But I think what he's saying is this, that the roots of that tree were getting suffocated, that people have been walking around that tree for so long. A tree was already 200 years old before the storm came through, and after all that time, that soil had been pushed down and press down on, those routes were suffocating. It's it's kind of what I'm picking up on this. But that storm it pulled that tree out it it freed up those roots, and all of a sudden the tree could come to life again. So let me ask you a question. Do you feel like your roots air suffocating? Do you feel like that? There's enough stress and worry and fear and anger and frustration and anxiety or pride or arrogance or immorality in your life that you just feel like you're suffocating, that you're feeling pressed down and compacted like it just can't breathe. If so, please don't wait for the storm. Hear God's word today Let God's word shake your roots and bring life again. God, by his own design, has made the Bible the type of book that has the kind of truth that brings spiritually oxygen and living water back to our thirsty souls. In other words, God has designed the truth of the Bible to keep planting us by streams of water. But not so the wicked, the wicked are not planted by by streams of water. So So what happens to them? Psalms tells us next part of verse four. But they're like chaffing which the wind drives away. What is chaffing? Somebody described it using peanuts. Have you ever been to a restaurant where they give you a little basket of peanuts there at the table when you first get there? You know, you sit down, you start eating peanuts and you break open the show. You're the nut, and then most everybody does what throws the shells on the floor. You might be mad at me. I can't do it. I got no litter bug in me. You know, I gotta do my little pile on hire for your way to clean it up myself, you know? But most people, if you enjoy the freedom of tossing that on the ground. But what happens to your shelves later on? Well, they get stepped on. They get stopped on as the day goes. Owners, the peanut shells they shrivel up, become broken up and they turn into dust. And the wait staff for the custodians have to come and sweep, follow up and throw it out at the end of the night. That's a picture of what it means to die without Christ to be blown away like a you shell. That's not my opinion of some mean and tolerant Baptists. That is the message of Jesus the Christ the same Jesus that loved Children, same Jesus that respected women, the same Jesus that showed dignity and mercy to prostitutes, the same Jesus that through his hands and his words, healed people he made the blind to see and the lame to walk and the deaf to hear and even raised the dead. That same Jesus said, there's only two ways to live, either with him or without him. There are no other options. One day Jesus was up on a mountain teaching. This is what he said Matthew, 7 21 Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven will enter. He goes on. Many will say to me on that day, Lord Lord, did we not profits? I in your name and in your name Cast out demons in in your name. Perform any miracles and then I will declare to them. I never knew you depart for me. You who practice lawlessness Not everyone will enter the kingdom of God. Not so Jesus doesn't say that they will depart and be annihilated and just cease to exist. No, If someone has put it, everyone in the universe past, present and future will live forever. They were either live forever as a friend of God or as an enemy of God. And being an enemy of God doesn't sound wise or hopeful. Antonio Guterres is the secretary general the United Nations. This past week at the World Economic Forum, he said this I would use two words to describe the state of the world today. Uncertainty and instability. There is nothing more uncertain. Nothing Maur unstable then being like chaffing that the wind blows away nothing more unstable than that. That is God's honest truth for those who are not right with him. According to Jesus, uncertainty and instability are the Onley true possessions of someone who is not right with God. When Osama says not so, the indication is one of uncertainty. It's one of insecurity. It's one of instability. Why, because of the comparison? Because, see, the person who is right with God is delighting in the truth of God. They're delighting in God's word. So they're like a plea to a tree planted by water. They're stable. They are secure, someone might say. But hey, even Turner's oh, got pulled up. Come on, you're right. It did get pulled up. And then it got set back down in the ground and its roots came alive and the tree started to flourish. Listen, we're all going to have moments from time to time where we might lose our minds. We might be getting pulled up by our roots in some situation in life, and we might sound like people who are not delighting in God's word. You don't have confidence in God, but those should be moments, not manifest Er's most of our life should look and sound like a person who has faith in God most of our life because we're delighting in God's word. It should look like and sound like an act, like we think that God rules and he reigns and he can't fail and he will prevail. So that's what delighting in God's word will do. It keeps this planet. It feeds our roots. It all happens from God's word. If we aren't delighting in his word, though, we'll get blown away. You get blown away before you leave the parking lot today. Serious? This can happen to any of us. We could come into this room. We can worship God. We can hear great prayers and great music. We can hear an average sermon and and then we can leave and get in our car and we can pull up our How about let's forget the parking lot in the hall. You can walk out in this hall, bring up social media and immediately get blown away right after you leave church. The power of the Prince of Darkness is is pretty strong, and what he loves more than anything is to tell us. Stop delighting in the truth of God, be afraid. Be angry. Be worried about anything in the world. Oh, but don't be confident. Don't be confident of God if we aren't delighting in his word will get blown away by every social media posts by every news update by every health scare. Now, look, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be current with news. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't be diligent with our health. It just means that we should not be like the wicked blowing away with every wind. A fear or worry or anger or frustration or stress or anxiety will have moments. But it shouldn't be who we are not if we're in Christ now, will storms come? You bet. Well, they pull us out of the ground sometimes. Absolutely. But because we're in Christ, we get to remind our souls. So never alone is the least of his Children. That can't change. So when the storm comes when we're pulled up, we can still preach the gospel to ourselves. We can still sing the gospel to ourselves. We can still pray the gospel to ourselves. We have faith in God because he watches over his own. Even if his watch means that he takes us home to be with him forever. But that's one way he can watch over us. But not so the wicked, the wicked do not have the certainty and the security and the stability of God's care over their lives. Thomas is not so. So who are the wicked? Well, I think most of us and we heard the wicked. We go some crazy terrorists on the other side of the world. They're wicked, and it's true. I do think that the Psalm Mrs is referencing people who are hostile tour God and hostile toward God's ways. But the world wicked can also be translated as transgressors, and the King James version of the Bible translates Wicked as a new godly. Now, why do those synonyms matter? Listen again to what? Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my father, who is in heaven, will enter trust, Virgin said. This many people imagine that if they did not commit positive sin there, all right, that's what's positive, since it's not your sin, know who did it? Not your sin It's just the kind of thing you see on TV at night, just just on the news. Not not yours. It's not your sentence. It's just the kind of sin for those people in Vegas are some other city, you know, the kind of sin that stays there, but the consequences never go anywhere else. You know, it's just it's just that sentence is not yourself. I'm being sarcastic. Virgin goes on to describe how person like that might think. I don't fight against God. I'm no enemy to Christ. I do not persecute his people. In fact, I even love his ministers. I love to go up and hear the word preached. I should not be happy if I spent my Sunday anywhere but in God's house. And then Spurgeon says, what they start thinking when they hear the psalmist say not so their thoughts change, but still that must mean me, for I do not go up to the help of the Lord against the mighty I do nothing. I am an idol. Do nothing. I am a fruitless tree, but then it gets a little softer, softens it up a bit. You occupy a seat. You've had it these years. How do you know? But that you have been occupying a seat which might have been the place where some other center would have been converted had he been there. It is true. You sitting here The sermon. Yes, but what if that if that sermon shall add to your condemnation much softer, right? What's all that mean? Let me just simplify this way. It means when you're reading the Bible or when you're sitting in a bottle study or when you're in a Sunday school class or when you're listening to a sermon, do not listen for your spouse. Do not listen for your kids. Do not listen for your jerk. Boss, do not listen for your difficult teacher. Do not listen for your immoral politician. Whoever it don't listen just for other people first and most listen for you when you hear the word of God read or you're reading it yourself or you're listening to it on the Bible. App is you're riding down the road or you're listening to a teacher or a preacher. When you hear God's word, you take it to you, you own it, you say, What does this have to do with me. Or as I heard it this week, we need to learn to maybe be a little more legalistic with ourselves and a little more mercyful toward others. Because that's not how you usually is. Right who? No, we are quick to be legalistic with other people. We won't. Our pastor and our politicians. We won't our doctors and our nurses. We want our parents, our spouse, our kids, our boss, our fellow. We want everybody else to do the right thing. And if they don't we are quick toe hold, a legalistic stroke over their head. But when we send when we fall out, Wu man, we get that blanket mercy fast around us. Maybe we need to be a little more legalistic when we hear God's word for us and show a little more mercy to others. Here's a question. What if that were happening in our nation's capital today? What if, when men and women in positions of power are men and women sitting in the pew of the church, hear God's word? They say, Whoa! Is May the center. God help me. How would that change? What difference would that make in the church and in the world. So in the midst of all of this heavy stuff, in the midst of the wickedness, in the midst of of the wicked, being blown away like dust like Jaff, Is there any good news? Yes, there is. If you are not a Christian, there is amazing news from the gospel for you. You don't have to be blown away like half you don't have to be blown away like dust. Jesus Christ has given himself. He was crucified, buried and resurrected so that you could be rescued from sin so that you could no longer be chap but that you could be a child of God. There's great hope. Repent today turned to Jesus so that your soul confined the hope that lasts forever. And if you're Christian, and then here's the hope in all of this, have faith in God. Come home, doubt a little more in that I got nothing else for you. I know it's overly simplistic, but seriously have faith and God. But when we hear not. So when we hear the wicked or not, we go it. I need you to have faith in God because he's always changing my story. I was reading article this week by Tony Ronchi, and he shared the following quote from John Piper from 38 years ago. What I have learned about 20 years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that changed my life, not books. If you're bad reader, this is huge encouragement for, you know, just get one sentence and you're fine, all right. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a longstanding dilemma. And these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read. But if the 1% of each Booker article I do remember is a life changing insight than I don't begrudge the 99% can I say This is my experience in life, too. It's usually the one sentence and you just can't shake. So Tony took that, and he applied it to his own life. Begin looking and remembering back to when their first child was born, and he said he was sitting in the hospital and then sitting by his wife's bed. He's holding his wife's hand in one hand and He's holding a book in the other hand, and the book he has, in the other hand, was booked. Octavius Winslow and the stylist is called The Precious Things of God. And just a reminder. If I ever say anything like this, go to my sermon notes on the website, and I usually have a link to the book or to the article. And this week, this book you can read online too. So there's several links there. So he's reading from this book and and what he described it as is the page that changed my life. And this is what he said. This is him courting Octavius Winslow what he had had in the book. Thank God for the least degree of faith, though it be less than the grain of a mustard seed, for the smallest measure will conduct you fully into heaven. And yet forget not that there is no difficulty that faith in God, however small, cannot surmount no mountain that cannot level no tree. It cannot uproot simply because it deals with the power of God. Dear Christian, be of good cheer. We're dealing with the power off God of your away and that power. That faith that we have in that God, even just the smallest kernel of true faith in Jesus Christ, has great power. It has the power to keep us from foolishly entertaining sin. It has the power to rescue us from paralyzing discouragement. Please don't miss that. It has the power that that little true grain of faith has the power to conduct us to heaven. Thomas gives us two words. Two words that we cannot ignore. Two words that that define your life today and and made to find your eternity. And those two words air Not so listen, don't let those two words define you. Here's why. Because the Gospel, the Gospel has two words, too. The gospel has two words to give us that will change your life today, and we'll give you hope for your eternity that cannot be removed and cannot fail. So what are those two words? What are those two words screaming from the throne of heaven? What are those two words screaming from the power of the cross? What are those two words screaming from the authority of the empty, too? These two words are simply this Jesus saves Jesus saves Jesus saves


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