Sunday Sermon explores Psalm 42, where King David's flight from Saul or Absalom reveals how physical separation from the tabernacle caused profound spiritual absence despite God's omnipresence. The speaker contrasts David's subjective despair, fueled by enemies mocking his faith, with the objective reality that Christ was forsaken so believers would not be. Drawing on Matthew 18:20 and Revelation 7, the sermon argues that true hope lies in corporate worship rather than private intimacy, urging Christians to use God's promises as keys to escape Satan's ministry of despair. Ultimately, this message empowers believers to master grief by trusting that God who began a good work will finish it, culminating in an announcement for the 2023 Theonomy and Postmillennialism Conference. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
Time
Text
Special Presence in Praise00:14:40
Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show, would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five star review?
This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible.
Thanks.
All right, we're continuing our series through the Psalter this morning, this Lord's Day.
Our psalm is Psalm 42.
If you were with us last Lord's Day, I spent the entirety of that sermon giving an introduction to this psalm, speaking through.
Well, exegeting Numbers chapter 16, the sons of Korah, who they were, and setting the stage for this psalm.
I believe that the author of the psalm was King David, and that it's attributed to the sons of Korah because the sons of Korah, a worship band, a worship team, for lack of a better description, they were a worship team in Israel under the old covenant, and the sons of Korah so often sang this particular psalm that it was likened to them.
But I do believe that King David was the original author, and I believe that the setting in which he wrote this particular psalm is when he was on the run.
He was banished effectively from Israel, and therefore the tabernacle, the temple was not yet built.
It would later be built by his son Solomon.
But the tabernacle, it dwelt in Israel.
David was on the run either from King Saul before David came into the kingship, or He was banished effectively from Israel on the run from Absalom, his traitor son, who betrayed him.
And the scripture says he slowly but surely won all the hearts of Israel away from his father.
He would stand outside of the palace when people would come to David with some kind of conflict, some kind of problem, needing a solution and wisdom from their king.
Absalom would meet them on the way so that they never made it to David, and he would resolve their problem.
Not with justice, not with righteousness, but rather he would resolve their problem, seemingly resolve it by telling them what they wanted to hear.
And the Bible says, by doing so, the son of David, Absalom, someone that David had raised up and trained his very own and loved and cared for, he secretly, without the king knowing, he secretly won over all the hearts of the people by telling them what they wanted to hear.
And once he had accrued enough power, Enough influence, enough people were on his side.
He then turned on his father, King David, and threatened his life.
David ran from his own son.
I can't imagine how painful that must have been.
And as David is now fleeing and hiding, most likely among the Philistines, he's surrounded by his enemies.
His enemies are taunting him day and night.
They're mocking him, saying, Where is your God?
And what we see in Psalm 42 is David again and again saying, I long to appear before the Lord.
I miss the presence of the Lord.
And this is the same David I said last week, I'll say it again.
This is the same David who wrote in the Psalms, Where can I go from your presence?
Where can I go that you would not be?
Where could I or how could I hide from you?
Right?
Even if I'm in the depths of Sheol, that is the belly of the earth, the grave, you're there.
If I find myself in the sea, You're there on the mountaintops, the valleys, wherever I might be, there is nowhere that I can go that I might hide from you.
So, the same David who thoroughly understood the theological principle of the omnipresence of God, that his presence is everywhere, this same David cries out with anguish and torment, saying, I long to be in the presence of God, which seems like a contradiction.
The same David who says, There's nowhere I could go that your presence would not be, and yet this same David who understands that God is with him, Still is lamenting this perceived absence of the presence of God.
Why?
Well, because although it is true that God's presence is everywhere because He is omnipresent, there is a particular presence of God that dwells among His people and inhabits His praises.
And so, by David being cut off from Israel on the run for his life, what was most significant is that he was cut off not merely from the nation or the cities, but what was there in the nation and the cities, namely the tabernacle.
David was cut off from the tabernacle of the Lord, and he was cut off even further from the people of the Lord who at the tabernacle would praise the Lord.
So, by virtue of being cut off from God's people who would sing God's praises, David was effectively cut off from God's presence.
Absence of the people of God and the praises of God, that is, the corporate praises of God sung collectively, corporately by the people of God.
David recognizes if I don't have the people of God singing together the praises of God, then I don't have, in a very real sense, the presence of God.
Although He is omnipresent, there is nowhere I can go to hide from His presence.
There is a special presence of the Lord, a particular presence of the Lord that inhabits the praises of His people.
And by virtue of being cut off from that, there is a sweetness of the presence of God that I no longer have, that I'm missing, and that I long for.
And that's the setting for our psalm.
Let's go ahead and dive in.
Verses 1 and 2 say this: As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
Whether on the run from King Saul or his son Absalom, David has been effectively cut off from the land of Israel and most significantly, the tabernacle.
Therefore, the psalmist is deprived of the presence of God, the people of God.
I'm sorry, the praise of God, the people of God, and the presence of God.
He is consumed by a desperate and even violent thirst, like a deer that's about to die.
If you were holding it back with ropes or chains and put water before it, it would tear at its own limbs in order to get to the water because it's so desperate, a desperate and even violent thirst for the pleasure and privilege of the presence of God, which is uniquely found in a particular and special sense.
In the public worship of God with the people of God.
David is longing for this.
Psalm chapter 84, verse 7 says, They go from strength to strength.
Each one appears before God in Zion, not just anywhere.
This is a psalm speaking of the people of God appearing before God in a particular place in Zion, on the holy mountain, where the presence of God dwells.
We all stand before God.
God is always watching.
Every thought and inclination of our heart will one day be laid bare because God is witness.
God is seeing.
God is here.
He is near.
He's with us.
And yet, there is a special presence of the Lord at Zion.
There's a special presence of the Lord in the tabernacle, in the temple, in Israel, in Jerusalem, the holy city, where the people of God gather together and make melody in their hearts, singing his praises and honoring him.
So, too, even under the New Covenant, even for New Testament Christians, there is a special presence of the Lord that uniquely and exclusively belongs to the corporate assembly.
How do we know this?
Because this principle is reaffirmed by Christ Himself.
In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus expressly says, Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.
Well, Jesus is always there.
The Spirit, right?
He is seated at the right hand of His Father, but the spiritual presence of the risen Christ is always with all believers by virtue through the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
If you're in Christ, you've received the Holy Spirit.
You're no longer your own.
You were bought with a price.
Your body is now a temple of the Holy Spirit.
So if you're in Christ Jesus, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
You have the Holy Spirit.
You have received Him.
That's what 1 Corinthians 6 says.
If you have the Holy Spirit, you have the Spirit of the risen Christ.
So if you're a Christian, if you're in Christ, you have the Spirit.
By virtue of having the Spirit, you have the Spirit of the risen Christ.
Meaning, All Christians, all ways, all Christians in all places at all times have the presence of Jesus.
So, why does Jesus say in Matthew 18, wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them?
If one Christian is isolated, all alone, Jesus is there.
The Spirit of the risen Christ is there by virtue of the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.
So, what does Jesus mean?
It's the same principle, it's the same concept.
It means that when two or three are gathered in his name, Christ is present spiritually in a special way, in a unique way.
And one of the things that he's present with is not just a sweetness and an intimacy, but he is uniquely present with authority.
Matthew 18, where he says, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.
This is the same text, the same context that Jesus speaks about the keys of the kingdom and the authority of the church for binding on earth, and it will be bound in heaven.
And loosing on earth, and it will be loosed in heaven.
He says, I give you the keys.
I give you this binding and loosing power.
But this power is not severed from the king.
The king is the one who in him is endowed all authority.
And so the power can only, the authority can only be exercised when the king, the one who truly wields the authority, the church is wielding it, but the king possesses it.
So this authority can only be wielded and exercised by the church when the one who actually possesses the authority is present.
Who is Christ?
And Jesus expressly says, when the church assembles, that word church in the New Testament, it's ecclesia, is a Greek word.
It literally means assembling, it means gathering, it means to congregate, to come together.
You may have heard people say, the church is not a building, the church is the people.
And that's true.
I don't know how to do it, but the little children thing where they're like, you know, here's the church and the steeple and open it up and here are the people, something like that.
But that's true.
The church is the people of God, it's not a building.
But there's also a sense in which the church is the people of God when the people of God do something particular, when they gather.
See, the church is the people of God.
Monday through Saturday, we scatter.
And we are still the church insofar as we are still the bride of Christ or the body of Christ.
So we can be as the people ourselves, as the people.
We are the church on the Lord's day and the rest of the week, even when we're no longer gathered together.
We are the people of God, we are the church.
But there is another sense in which the word church is used, and it's the primary sense actually.
It's not secondary.
The primary sense, ecclesia, is gathering.
And so the church is not the building, the church is the people.
But we can biblically say that the church is not a building, but it is in fact an assembly.
It is a gathering of the people.
So it's not just the people of God in isolation, all watching YouTube videos and following Jesus personally.
And privately.
No, the church is the people themselves, not the building, not the place, but the people when they come together.
And Jesus says, when the church assembles, Avengers assemble, right?
When the church assembles and the people of God come together, he who is always present with all believers at all times by virtue of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, he becomes uniquely present, particularly with authority, when the church comes together.
Together.
And the idea of two or three gathered in my name, that doesn't just mean two or three Christian college students in their dorm room with a djembe and an ovation, acoustic guitar, singing kumbaya.
No, it means two or three gathered in my name.
All Jesus means by that is not just two or three believers coming together in an informal, unorganized way.
No, what Jesus is saying there is it's when the church gathers, and here's the good news you can have a small church.
All it technically takes to constitute a church in biblical terms.
Because the Bible actually does give us criteria for what the church is.
And technically, all it takes for it to be a biblical, legitimate, bona fide church is two or three people who are gathered together in the name of Jesus, committed to making disciples and baptizing the nations and teaching them to obey all of Christ's commands as they seek diligently to follow those commands themselves.
So, two or three gathered is not Jesus saying, oh, it's not the church.
No, that's just Jesus saying it's okay if it's a small church, which I am incredibly encouraged by, given our current status.
God's Anger and Absence00:15:45
So, all that being said, that's what David's longing for.
He is longing for the unique presence of God that is bound to the people and praise of God.
And that's not just an Old Testament reality due to the tabernacle and the temple, but that is a New Testament principle as well that is reaffirmed by Christ.
In Matthew 18, Psalm 42, verse 3 says, My tears are my food day and night, while they say to me all day, Where is your God?
See, David is so overwhelmed by grief that he cannot even eat.
He has lost his appetite.
David does not merely grieve deeply for a moment or for an instance, but he is grieving deeply day and night, is what he says.
My tears are my food, not just for a couple hours, but day and night, continually.
Perpetually, meaning that the psalmist does not find himself in a moment of grief or a moment of sadness, but a prolonged season of sadness.
One of the reasons David's grief is so perpetual is because he is unable to recover what he is grieving about, what he has specifically lost, namely the praise and people and presence of God.
He has been cut off from these precious things with no visible hope.
In the natural, in terms of his circumstances, there's no visible hope of these things being restored.
And yet, another reason David's grief is.
Is perpetual and continual, is due to the constant reminders that he receives from those who are mocking him.
See, one method of dealing with our grief, although not a real solution, is distraction.
In seasons of sadness, there's a profound desire for us to try to forget our sorrow.
It's trying to forget, trying to distract ourselves from the hurt, from the pain.
Unfortunately, David's contemporaries, presumably the Philistines, who he is hiding among, are taunting him relentlessly.
They continually insist that his God has abandoned him.
Just as the miserable counselors of Job insisted that God must be punishing him, so too the only counsel David receives is the constant assurance that he has somehow failed the God he loves and that his God is angry with him.
Matthew chapter 27, verse 46 says this, And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lemma sabachthani.
That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why have you forsaken me?
Christ experienced the same thing that David did.
There are many ways in which, in the Old Testament, David, King David, is a type of Christ.
The difference is, David felt forsaken, Christ was.
Christ was forsaken.
The Father turned his face away.
This does not constitute an objective break in the Trinity.
I'm not saying that.
This does not constitute a moment where the humanity of Christ engulfed his divinity so that he was no longer divine, so that we no longer have a Trinity for a moment, but we actually just have the Father and the Spirit.
That's not what I'm saying.
But there is a very real sense where Christ, in his human nature, which has been imputed with sin, He who knew no sin became sin.
Christ in his human nature at the cross, now imputed with sin, is forsaken by the Father.
Jesus Christ, the eternal second member of the Trinity, who has only ever known perfect communion and fellowship with his Father, has now, for the very first time and the only time in human history, been cut off.
David felt forsaken.
Christ was forsaken.
And Christ was forsaken so that all those who trust in Christ would never be forsaken.
The reason why David isn't objectively, in a real sense, forsaken by God in our text, the reason why he merely feels forsaken in a subjective sense but is not actually forsaken by God is because hundreds of years later, Christ, David's offspring, would actually be forsaken so that David never would.
David was not forsaken, and you also, likewise, are not in a literal objective sense forsaken by God.
We may feel abandoned.
We may feel at times in moments as though God is angry with us.
And there may be a real moment of the fatherly displeasure of God.
The Puritans would speak of that.
But it's still God as Father.
So whether we're under His rod, His discipline, like Hebrews 12 speaks of, whether we're in the season of His fatherly displeasure because of our willful sin, He never ceases to be the Father of those who've been born again by grace through faith.
In Christ, He is near, He is with you, He loves you.
He may be displeased for a moment, He may be disciplining you for a season, but He always loves you, and He is always your adoptive Father.
You and I are not forsaken in the same way that David was not forsaken because Christ was forsaken in our place.
Psalm 42, verse 4 says this These things I remember as I pour out my soul.
David is speaking now of prayer.
He's speaking of fervent prayer, diligent prayer, passionate, zealous prayer.
That in prayer before God, he is pouring out his very soul.
I think of the Apostle Paul who says to Timothy in his second letter, he says, Even now I'm being poured out like a drink offering.
Meaning that the Apostle Paul was suffering and being persecuted and he knew that his end was nigh, right?
That he would soon be martyred.
He would soon be put to death.
He says, Even now I'm being poured out like a drink offering.
And he's saying this to his true son in the faith, Timothy.
But he also, as he's being poured out like a drink offering, he is also bearing his soul to the Lord.
So when David says, I remember these things as I pour out my soul, what he's saying is this He's saying, In those times of deep and fervent and desperate prayer to God, I am mindful.
I recall these particular things.
What things?
How I would lead the throng in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
See, in response to his agitators, those who were surrounding David, likely the Philistines, as he was hiding among them on the run from either Saul or his son Absalom, these Philistines are mocking David.
They're taunting him.
Where is your God?
It's not a real question.
It's a statement.
They're saying, We know where your God is.
Either he doesn't exist, or what's more likely, the Philistines were fine with a plurality of gods.
They had their pantheons with multiple idols.
So they probably weren't saying, Your God doesn't exist, David.
Your God's not real.
It's less likely that they're saying that, and more likely that they're saying, Your God exists, and he's just a bad God.
He's a mean God.
Or they might even be saying, Your God exists and He's just and fair.
You're just a really lousy person, David.
And so He has done the right thing by abandoning you, by forsaking you because you must be in sin.
Right?
That's the very same counsel that Job receives.
When Job's suffering, when he's suffering from Satan directly, right?
But Satan only doing this because God in His sovereignty has permitted it.
When Job is enduring this suffering, his three friends come.
And their whole concept, their whole principle is there's no way this would be allowed by God to happen unless you did something wrong.
You must be in sin, Job.
You must have done something wrong.
There must be some way in which you have failed God.
Otherwise, God wouldn't let this happen.
It's very likely that this is the same counsel that David is receiving from the Philistines.
Sure, your God exists, right?
We've seen his work before.
We know that the God of Israel exists.
We even know that he's a mighty God.
So we're not saying that, where is your God?
Meaning he doesn't exist.
We're saying, where is your God?
Meaning he's forsaken you because you have failed.
David probably longed to distract himself from his grief, from his pain.
But he couldn't because his contemporaries, these Philistines who surrounded him, who he's hiding among, would prod and prick him all day long, mocking him, reminding him of his pain, and assuring him that somehow he had done something wrong, that God truly had forsaken him, and that this was God's just response to David's sin and failure.
So, in response to his agitators, David pours out his soul.
He devotes himself to prayer.
Meaning, this David doesn't believe the negative report that he receives.
He doesn't listen to the bad counsel he keeps getting.
He's surrounded by miserable counselors telling him, Your God has abandoned you because you have failed him.
If David listened, he wouldn't press in.
Right?
To receive that counsel, to follow that counsel, would say, God's angry with you, so why don't you give God some space?
God's angry with you, so why don't you back off?
Why don't you just stay away?
And why don't you try to clean up your act?
Why don't you try to atone for your own sin?
Why don't you try to make it up to God before you go back and approach Him?
But David doesn't listen.
Right?
And we know he doesn't listen because even though he continually is mocked and taunted by the Philistines saying, Where is your God?
He's angry with you, he's mad at you, he has abandoned you as a just response for your failure.
David responds by pressing in even further.
By pressing into the presence of God in prayer, even deeper, he pours out his soul.
He devotes himself wholly in prayer to the Lord.
His enemies seek to remind David of his failures and God's apparent absence.
But David, while in prayer, combats this constant assault by reminding himself of the sweetest moments of God's presence.
Notice David's fondest memories.
And get this, church.
David's fondest memories.
This is such a stark contrast to many people that we would talk to today who would profess Christ.
And many of them are actually Christians, but I think there's a level of spiritual immaturity.
See, David, when he recalls his fondest memories of the presence of God, it's when he's surrounded by the people of God.
So when David thinks of the sweetest moments of God's presence and he recalls these moments to memory, unlike many people in the church today, For David, these are not moments in his car listening to worship music by himself on a road trip.
Or they're not moments in his room with the lights turned out, quietly just praying.
No, when David recalls the sweetest moments that he can remember of the presence of God, every single one of those moments involves other people.
They're not private moments.
David's fondest memories of God's presence are not private memories.
They're public memories where he's surrounded by the people of God, a multitude making festival.
When David is leading a throng of people, I don't know exactly what a throng is, but it sounds like a lot of people, right?
And if we weren't sure, we could just kind of interpret scripture by scripture, and just later in the same verse, it says multitude, a multitude giving festival.
That's what David remembers.
And David is using moments of the past, remembering the presence of God in the past.
To combat the subjective feeling of the absence of God's presence in the present.
So when David feels like God isn't there in the present, David remembers all the times when God was there.
And that lifts his soul.
That gives him hope.
It gives him confidence.
It encourages him.
It strengthens him.
Why?
Why?
Why would remembering God's presence and faithfulness in the past give us confidence and encouragement when we feel like he's not present?
In the moment, because he who began a good work in you is faithful to bring it to fruition.
Meaning, if I can recall a single moment of God's faithfulness and kindness and presence with me in the past, I know that I'm gonna make it.
Not because I'm good at following Jesus, but because Jesus keeps his own.
The shepherd doesn't lose his sheep.
It's not that I'm clinging fast to Jesus, it's that Jesus is clinging fast to me.
I know that he is both the author and the finisher of my faith.
And so, if I can point to objective moments of the past where I can say, he started something, he began a good work in me, he authored faith, he did something, he started something, then I know from his promises in his word that he'll finish it.
Jesus never starts a project that he doesn't intend on finishing.
So, if I can remember moments of the sweetness of the presence of God, His faithfulness and kindness in my life at all in the past, it gives me hope in the present because I know He'll finish the work in the future.
Revelation chapter 7, verse 9 through 12 says this After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, not a private honeymoon suite with you and Jesus.
That's weird.
Don't do that.
That's just weird.
There's just so much of this lovey dovey intimacy, like dudes in the church writing love songs to Jesus as though he was their boyfriend.
It's weird.
It's queer.
Faith Beyond What We See00:13:09
And I mean that in both senses of the term.
So, no, that's not what the Bible is talking about.
That's not what David remembers.
That's not what we need to remember.
And that's not what Revelation chapter 7 says.
After this, I looked and behold, I saw me and Jesus in heaven alone.
No, I saw a great multitude that no one could number from every tribe and nation and people and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
And all the angels were standing around the throne.
And around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.
This is the moment that we're waiting for.
This is what we long to see.
There will be streets of gold, but that's not the point.
The heaven that we long for, what makes it so wonderful, is not heaven itself, but the king of heaven.
It's being in the presence of Jesus.
But this is not this private, intimate, lonely moment, just you and him.
Part of what makes it so sweet is not just that we'll be with Jesus, but we'll be with each other.
We will be with Jesus corporately.
And the closest we ever come to heaven, ever, in this life, is right now.
It's the Lord's Day.
It's the gathering of the saints.
It's our corporate worship.
It's the ordinary means of grace being administered on the Lord's Day to the gathered church.
It's the public, not private, but the public preaching of God's word, the public praying of God's word, the public singing of God's word.
And the public scene of God's word, as it were, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and baptism.
John Bunyan, the best Baptist there's ever been, John Bunyan, he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, and he said that in Pilgrim's Progress, there was a place in this journey of Christian, the main protagonist, and he had two companions, faithful and then hopeful, but on their journey, there was a place where they had still not yet made it to the final destination, to heaven, the celestial city.
But there was a place where they could just barely make off in the distance a glimpse of the celestial city.
It was the Delectable Mountains.
And on the Delectable Mountains, there were shepherds who would tend to the wounds and the needs of weary pilgrims, weary sheep who were making their way, their progress to the celestial city.
And there were all these trials.
There was the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
These great enemies that they had to battle.
There was Doubting Castle, Giant Despair, all these different challenges.
But along the way, from time to time, there were places of refuge.
The house of the interpreter.
But there was also the Delectable Mountains.
And this was perhaps the sweetest place in Christians' journey that side of heaven, that side of the celestial city.
And what made it so sweet is that the shepherds who represented pastors, Elders, they would tend to Christian's wounds, they would instruct him and teach him glorious truths and wisdoms about God, and it was a safe place, a place of refuge and security.
And from the Delectable Mountains, they could see off in the distance the final destination, the city of God, the celestial city.
To remember, it's real.
It's real.
There are moments in life where you just can't see it for a moment.
And that doesn't mean that you've lost your faith.
That doesn't mean that God's abandoned you.
That doesn't mean you lost your salvation.
But there are moments in this life where our own sin from within is so great, or the sin of others pressing down on us and attacking us is so great that we can't see God.
We can't see heaven.
And we begin to doubt and wonder if it's really true.
Is it real?
I mean, Christian also has this experience in Pilgrim's Progress at the very end, after he's made the whole journey, the last thing is the river.
On the other side of the river is the celestial city.
The river represents death.
He has to die.
He has to cross over the river.
And there are some pilgrims who they cross through the river and the water only goes up to their ankles or maybe their knees.
Right?
That's what we would call dying in virtuous hope.
They never doubt, even on their deathbed, Christ is Savior.
He is promised, He is faithful, and I will die in virtuous hope.
And you read those stories.
You read about certain men of old, great theologians and pastors who, you know, the tale is that the legend has it that their final words on their deathbed were some.
Profound, wonderful truth about God and their great confidence in Christ.
But there are many other Christians, like Christian, the main protagonist in Pilgrim's Progress, where he goes to the river and the water comes up to his neck and begins to have billows and waves and it begins to roll over his head.
And he's crying out to his friend Hopeful, who's walking with him.
Meaning, Hopeful is holding his hand as a true brother in the faith as Christian dies.
He's with them to help him die well.
And Christian, there are moments where the water's over his head and he can't see the city.
He can't see it.
He's doubting that it even exists.
And all he can do, he can't see the celestial city, but he can hear the voice of his friend reminding him You've come all this way.
The Savior won't let you go.
We're almost there.
It's okay.
It's right ahead.
You can't see it, but I can.
I can see it.
I see the city.
I see Him.
I see the Savior.
You'll make it.
You'll make it.
And he keeps going and he goes, even though he can't see.
He walks not by sight, but by faith.
And faith comes not by what we see, but by what we hear.
And how will we hear unless someone preaches?
And sometimes we need a friend preaching to us the truths of Christ, preaching to us the glorious redemption that we have, preaching to us that Christ is the author and the finisher, and that He never lets us go, that He is faithful, faithful, faithful.
And so there are times when we cannot see, but there are times when we can.
And the closest we ever get to heaven in this life, It's the Lord's Day.
It's the delectable mountains.
It's the nourishing of the shepherds.
It's the fellowship of the sheep.
And it's the glimpse from these mountains as we're caught up into heavenly places in our worship on the Lord's Day.
It's that view that we get, if only for a couple hours, if only for a moment, the far off, distant view of heaven and of the King of heaven that he's real.
And that all of this that we're doing, our whole lives, orienting them around God and his word, that it's not in vain.
It's what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, where he says, If Christ wasn't really raised from the dead, it's all been in vain.
I remember I had a friend in college, and he thought that he had had a profound revelation, but apparently he had not yet read 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
But it was so meaningful to him, and he was so frustrated with me because I probably could have done it more gently, but this was like emotionally really meaningful and profound for him, and I just immediately burst the bubble.
But he said, You know, I just had this moment.
In chapel this morning at the college as we were worshiping, where I just realized even if Jesus doesn't exist, I don't regret it.
This is all, this is the, you know, the Christian faith and the friends that I have and worshiping Him and all these things.
It's been such a positive, sweet experience in my life.
Even if He doesn't exist, I don't regret it.
And I said, I do.
And then I opened 1 Corinthians 15 and read it to him, and he felt foolish and embarrassed and frustrated with me.
And so, but the point is, Paul doesn't say, hey, even if Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, there's still a lot of good morals that come from the Christian Judeo worldview.
That's not the Apostle Paul's view.
That's not his opinion.
I mean, there are.
Sure, there are.
I mean, following the Word of God is just a better way to live.
There is truth in that.
But Paul says it's all a loss, it's all a waste.
He says, we, if Christ hasn't raised from the dead, we, that is Christians, are of all people most.
To be pitied, we're foolish, it's embarrassing.
People should feel sorry for us, and we should feel sorry for ourselves.
But Christ has been raised, and we too will be raised.
He's real, it's all real, it's true.
And there are moments where we can't sense that reality, but there are moments when we can.
And the Lord's Day in the gathering of the saints is one of those moments.
Skipping forward, verse 5 of our text, it says this Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation.
See, David, while overwhelmed by grief, does not give his grief the reins.
It's okay to grieve, it's not okay to put your grief in charge.
That's what's not okay.
The mark of a Christian is not someone who has a complete absence of sadness.
The true mark of a spiritually mature believer is not someone who never grieves.
Jesus was a man of many sorrows, Isaiah says.
So to be a mature believer is not to never grieve, but it's not to ever be led by your grief, not to be mastered by your grief.
So what David does is while experiencing grief, what he does is he speaks to his grief.
He doesn't let his grief have the final word in counseling him, but rather he.
He contests with his own heart, his own emotions, his own grief.
He challenges his grief and says, Hey, grief, I'm in charge, not you.
I'm leading you.
And grief has been given to me in this moment sovereignly by God to produce something in me, but it doesn't rule me.
It's here to serve me.
God allows suffering and sadness into our lives, but not as a leader, but as a servant.
Suffering comes into our lives at times under the sovereign banner of God for our service.
Suffering is your slave, not the other way around.
Bad circumstances serve you, you don't serve them.
Sadness serves you, you don't serve sadness.
All these things God allows in moments in our life, in His sovereignty, to serve us by producing something in us for God's glory and for our good.
So the goal is not to have a suffering free life, it's not to have a grief free life.
Free life, but it is to be in all moments self controlled, sober minded, and master of those things which God allows into our life, recognizing that they are sent by God to serve us and not the other way around.
David does not allow grief to get the final word, he doesn't allow grief to lead him around like a leash by the neck.
At times when his grief becomes so powerful that it begins to overwhelm him, the psalmist corrects himself.
For giving too much credence to the sorrow of his present circumstances.
When the circumstances of the present are daunting, we must take our cue from David.
We must look to the past and remember the sweetness of the presence of God.
If there is any sweetness at all to be remembered in the past, then we must look forward with confidence to the future, recognizing that for the Christian, the very best moments all lie before us.
In other words, the key to unlocking the dungeon of despair is the promise of hope.
Satan's Ministry of Despair00:05:01
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who has been born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.
And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5, verse 18.
Through 20.
See, 1 John, this text that I've just read, it says, We know we are from God, that is Christians, and that the whole world, that's the rest of the world, unbelievers, lies in the power of the evil one.
Now, throughout 1 John, he draws a sharp line of distinction between Christians and non Christians, the rest of the world.
There's no middle ground.
A person is either of God or they are of the world, and if they're of the world, they are lying in the power of the evil one.
Some translations actually say the world is lying in the arms of the evil one.
The picture, the image is this that the world, that is, unbelievers, they're not lying in the power of the evil one like prisoners taken captive who are frantically and desperately trying to break free.
No, they're lying in the arms of the evil one like a small child, an infant lies in the arms of its mother.
Those who are not in Christ, the unbeliever, they're not just merely being held captive by Satan, although there are texts in Scripture that paint that image.
But their captivity is a willing captivity, an even happy and joyful captivity.
They enjoy and gain security and pleasure by lying peacefully, restfully in the arms of their father, Satan.
John chapter 8 says that if you're not a child of God, you are a child of your true father.
The devil.
That's the image that we see.
The devil has blinded their minds.
Satan is their father, and unbelievers have a certain affection toward him because he's deceived them and blinded their minds, according to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4.
So, therefore, here's my point Satan's chief ministry with unbelievers is a ministry of deception, but his chief ministry with believers, like David in our psalm, is a ministry of despair.
That's the difference.
For the unbeliever, the chief ministry of Satan is a ministry of deception.
He has blinded their eyes and he is holding them in his arms.
Again, the 1 John 5, 18 20 text, what it says is it says that for us, those who have been born of God, if we've been born of God, God protects us.
That's verse 18.
He protects us and the evil one does not touch us.
And look at the contrast.
The contrast is.
The opposite is for those who are not born of God, who are unbelievers, not only does Satan touch them, but Satan is holding them and rocking them like a baby.
So, for the unbeliever, Satan is holding them and rocking them as they lie peacefully and blindly, deceptively in his arms.
But for the believer, for the Christian, Satan can't even touch us.
If you've been born of God.
So, what John is getting at, what John is getting at in 1 John chapter 5 is this If you've been born of God, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
The Spirit of God testifies to the truth.
So, when it says that Satan can't touch you, it doesn't mean that you can't experience hardship like Job did.
Satan, it sure looks like Satan touched Job.
It really looks like Satan touched Job.
Well, he did, in a sense.
In a sense.
See, 1 John 5, when it says that Satan can't touch those who have been born of God, what it's saying is Satan cannot ultimately deceive those who have been born of God.
While Satan has a stronghold on those who are unbelievers.
And so, the point is this the distinction between the strategy of the enemy, For those who are in Christ and those who are not, who are still in Adam, is this for those who are in Adam, for the unbeliever, Satan's strategy is to keep them deceived, to keep them blinded, to keep them in the dark.
But for the believer, for those who are in Christ and have been born again of the Spirit, Satan's ministry is not deception because it doesn't work, because the Spirit preserves us, the Spirit protects us from being deceived and testifies within us the truth.
Escaping the Grip of Despair00:05:37
Of God's Word.
So, what Satan does with us is what he does with Job, it's what he did with David, it's what he did with Jesus in his earthly ministry.
It's not deceiving, it's trying to get us to despair.
It's not a ministry of deception for those who are in Christ, but it is a strategy of despair.
It's to get you to doubt, it's to get you to despair, it's to get you to grieve and to hand over to your grief the reins.
And to be led by sorrow, to be led by sadness, to despair even unto death.
One final quote from Pilgrim's Progress.
Can't help it.
About midnight, they began to pray and continued in prayer till almost break of day.
Now, a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, broke out in passionate speech What a fool I am, thus to lie in this stinking dungeon, that is the dungeon and doubting castle.
Ruled by giant despair, when I may as well walk at liberty.
I have a key in my bosom, right next to his heart, in his pocket, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.
Then said Hopeful, That's good news.
Brother, pluck it out of thy bosom and try.
Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom and began to try at the dungeon door, whose bolt, as he turned the key, gave back, and the door flew open with ease.
And Christian and Hopeful both came out.
For the unbeliever, they are deceived.
For the believer, Satan tempts us to despair.
But when you despair, remember you have a key.
The way out of despair is not like climbing a 300 foot cliff.
Now, here's the beauty there's a lot of things that are challenging in the Christian life, there's a lot of things that require diligence and persistence.
It requires us to push through, to run the race.
But when it comes to despair, If you find yourself locked in Doubting Castle, in the dungeon ruled by giant despair, here's the beauty.
There are so many other trials that will require a lot of work.
But getting out of despair is one of the easiest things that the Christian can do.
The solution is not something far off.
It's not like some rare flower that only grows on the top of Mount Everest and you have to scale the cliffs and find it and make some kind of secret potion.
No, no, no.
The solution to despair is reaching into your jacket pocket and pulling out a key called promise.
What is that promise?
It's the promise of God.
It's the promise of the Savior.
It's the promise of Christ.
See, what David does is this when he is tempted to despair, even unto death, when his heart and his own soul are warring against him, agreeing with his enemies and taunting him that God has forsaken and abandoned him forever.
What David does is this he reaches into his jacket pocket, he pulls out the key to unlock the dungeon of despair, the key called promise.
And what is that promise?
What's the proof, I should say, the evidence of that promise?
It's the moments of the presence of God in the past.
David remembers the throng.
He remembers the multitude.
He remembers appearing before his God with great glad shouts of joy.
And David says this if God did it once, he'll do it again.
And he pulls out the promise of God.
He breaks the bolt on the dungeon of despair and he walks out a free man.
And you, by God's grace, can do it too.
And you, by God's grace, can do it today.
Let's pray.
Father God, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the liberty we have in Christ Jesus.
Thank you for the redemption and the salvation we have.
And thank you, God, that you have protected those who have been born of the Spirit from deception.
And although Satan may tempt us to despair, in the moment of despair, we are not deceived.
Meaning that we have, by your grace, the strength to see clearly.
We have, by your grace, even in moments of despair, because you do not allow us to be deceived, we have the ability.
To remember your truth, to remember your promise, and to wield promise like a key and unlock any dungeon of depression, of anxiety, of despair, of grief, of sadness, that we do not have to be mastered by our grief, but that we can master our grief by trusting in your promises and allow grief to work for us and produce in us greater hope.
And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.
Thanks for sticking around.
I've got an important announcement to make.
That's the Theonomy and Postmillennialism Conference 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Theonomy and Postmillennialism.
We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up.
That's Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, non doctor Pastor Joel Webbin.
But we also have a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity.
Perhaps you've heard of him.
If not, you should start listening to his podcast.
It's fantastic.
Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team.
Theonomy Conference Announcement00:00:25
We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write in questions and get them answered.
We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas style barbecue meal on Friday that's a part of your registration fee.
All that is covered.
So you need to get that.
This is how you do it go and register right now at RightResponseConference.com.