The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Every Good And Perfect Gift ｜ Psalm 67

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00:00:18 Today's text is Psalm 67. Psalm 67.

00:00:23 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word?

00:00:26 I'll read our text for us in its entirety.

00:00:29 when I finish reading the text I'll say this is the word of the Lord at which point I would

00:00:33 appreciate if you would respond by saying thanks be to God one final time our text for this Lord's

00:00:40 day is Psalm 67 the Bible says this may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to

00:00:48 shine upon us say law that your way may be known on earth your saving power among all nations let

00:00:56 the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for

00:01:02 joy. For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the

00:01:10 peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth is yielded its increase,

00:01:16 God. Our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him. This is

00:01:25 the word of the Lord. You may be seated. I'm going to go verse by verse through our text today,

00:01:32 beginning with the first verse and in chronological order. Sometimes I will focus my exegesis on just

00:01:40 a portion of the text and sometimes we'll kind of change the order of the text in order to

00:01:46 draw out a certain principle going in logical order rather than chronological order. However,

00:01:53 today. It will be verse by verse and it will be in order as we find it in the text because I think

00:01:59 that the point is plain and clear and we'll see it with the natural flow of the text without any

00:02:06 altercation. Verse 1, verse 1a if you will, my God or may God be gracious to us and bless us.

00:02:17 I want to pause there. There's much that can be exegeted from this simple phrase. May God be

00:02:25 gracious to us and bless us. Brothers and sisters, let us never forget that there is no blessing from

00:02:33 God apart from grace. God cannot bless any man apart from his grace. For all have sinned and

00:02:41 fallen short of the glory of God, and therefore every single one of his blessings comes as a gift

00:02:48 of grace. It comes as unmerited favor. It comes as something that you and I do not deserve.

00:02:55 Anything other than the floor opening up beneath us and a chute sliding us directly into the fire

00:03:04 of hell is grace. Anything other than that, your next breath is grace. Now notice this is not

00:03:12 merely speaking of salvation. It's not merely may God be gracious and therefore eternally save us

00:03:19 in and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith in him alone.

00:03:26 No, it's broader than that. Certainly salvation is the pinnacle of the blessings of God,

00:03:31 but it is much broader than merely salvation as christians we should never speak of anything less

00:03:39 but we should speak of something more all of god's blessings are of grace the food that we eat

00:03:46 the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening relationships between spouses

00:03:54 and parents and children and friendship all of these things are a gift from god good wine is a

00:04:02 gift from god which is why i believe that if a christian can do so responsibly they should drink

00:04:07 and they should do so to god's glory but those who abstain abstain to god's glory they're simply

00:04:14 referenced as those with weaker faith according to the scripture everything is a gift from god

00:04:19 A glass of wine, a dry-aged, bone-in ribeye steak, all of these things are of grace.

00:04:28 In your notes, I've written this.

00:04:30 Most Reformed theologians interpret 1 Timothy 4.10.

00:04:34 I'm sorry, let me read 1 Timothy 4.10 first.

00:04:37 For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God,

00:04:44 and this is where it gets complicated theologically,

00:04:46 who is the savior of all people especially those who believe this has plagued many biblical

00:04:53 commentators and theologians and christians and pastors for a very long time the idea that god

00:04:59 is the savior of all people especially those who believe the idea of god being the savior of all

00:05:05 people is not a problem for the calvinist it's not it's it's fairly easy to resolve that

00:05:13 appearance of tension and the idea that you know first john chapter 2 i believe it's verse 12

00:05:21 it says that you know that that god is um it says that not only us that he's not only savior of us

00:05:29 but all people right so you can read that and say okay well that means each and every individual

00:05:34 will be saved in which case you have drifted into heresy the heresy of universalism because

00:05:40 the Bible plainly teaches that many will perish apart from the saving grace that's found in Jesus

00:05:45 Christ or you can interpret that to mean all kinds of people that the author is saying that he's not

00:05:51 only the savior of us aka Jews those who are people of Israel according to the flesh but he is also

00:05:59 the savior of the world right we have that kind of language all is a word that is used often in the

00:06:06 New Testament, but also the word world, and both in context that speak of salvation. In terms of

00:06:13 the world, well, God saved the world in the midst of the flood. The scripture uses the very same

00:06:20 term, world. God saved the whole world. I thought you wiped out the whole world. No, he saved the

00:06:26 whole world by virtue of saving eight persons. Noah and his wife, their three sons, and their

00:06:33 three sons' wives. And God considers this saving the world. And it was. God didn't destroy the

00:06:40 world. He cleansed it. He cleansed the world from a deadly plague, an actual deadly plague.

00:06:48 Not to confuse anyone with deadly plagues today, but an actual deadly plague,

00:06:53 an eternally deadly plague. It's known as sin. God saved the world. He cleansed the world.

00:07:00 And so the idea of God saving the world, it simply means every tribe, tongue, and nation.

00:07:07 That God is not merely the God of Israel, but that He is the God of the Gentiles as well.

00:07:13 That they have been grafted in.

00:07:16 Grafted in is important. It's not two separate trees.

00:07:19 There is not a tree with a root to Christ for ethnic Israel, and then a second tree for the Gentiles.

00:07:28 two trees of life two trees of salvation one for the jews and one for the rest of the world this is

00:07:34 not biblical it is not the language that the scripture uses the the scripture speaks that

00:07:41 there is one tree with one root the son the son of jesse his posterity the king of kings the king

00:07:49 of israel the promised messiah the lord jesus christ he is the only root john 15 says he is

00:07:57 the only vine and israel sprang forth from that root one tree one natural olive tree but god did

00:08:05 not plant a second tree for the gentiles but rather he cut off many of the branches of this 0.96

00:08:12 tree and grafted the gentile nations into that one tree so that all both jews and gentiles alike 0.71

00:08:20 have one source of blessing, one source of salvation, one root, one root. God in this way

00:08:29 has saved the world. So the word all, the word world does not indicate each and every individual

00:08:36 person who has ever lived or ever will, but rather this inclusive language simply is meant to convey

00:08:43 that God is a savior of all kinds of people,

00:08:47 all tribes, all tongues,

00:08:51 that God is not a respecter of persons,

00:08:55 that God, as James says, does not show favoritism

00:08:58 when it comes to the outward appearance of man.

00:09:03 Rich or poor, black, white, male, female,

00:09:08 brazilian hebrew and god is not a respecter of persons in these regards so first simothy

00:09:19 4 10 for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living god who is the

00:09:26 savior of all kinds of people is the way we should read it but this is the most difficult verse in my

00:09:33 opinion because it says especially those who believe if it just said he's the savior of all

00:09:40 people the arminian no doubt would give us grief all people the provision of christ for all and

00:09:49 we would say all simply means all kinds of people not each and every individual and the issue would

00:09:55 be settled what's difficult is that there's a subgroup that's explicitly labeled and identified

00:10:02 namely those who believe so this verse doesn't merely say that god say that god is the savior

00:10:09 of all kinds of people but that he's the savior of all kinds of people and in a particular sense

00:10:15 those who believe which begs the question in what way does god save the pagan in what way is god

00:10:25 saving the reprobate in what way does god save people that he actually doesn't save

00:10:32 that seems to be what the verse is saying now there are multiple ways in dealing with this text

00:10:40 most reformed theologians interpret first simothy 4 10 to say that the living god through the work

00:10:46 of his son jesus christ is the savior of all kinds of people as i've already discussed

00:10:50 especially and they would interpret that word especially to mean that is to say or particularly

00:10:59 those who believe in other words god shows no favoritism based on ethnicity gender age

00:11:05 socioeconomic status god has not willed to save each and every individual which would be again

00:11:12 the heresy of universalism but rather god has willed to save his elect from among every kind

00:11:18 of people from different kinds of people so according to this interpretation which would

00:11:24 be a reformed interpretation and the majority report according to this interpretation they

00:11:30 would say that the word especially simply means that is to say so it would read like this

00:11:36 the living god is the savior of all kinds of people not just the jews but every tribe tongue

00:11:43 and nation. However, when I say that, I mean only those elect, only those who believe among every

00:11:52 tribe, tongue, and nation. That's how that would be read. I think that's a faithful interpretation.

00:11:57 There's a reason why that's the majority report. I don't think that that's wrong. I simply think

00:12:03 that there's more to it than that. And of course, I could be wrong. But I think that there's more

00:12:08 to it than that. See, some Reformed theologians have suggested that 1 Timothy 4.10 means that

00:12:14 God is the Savior of all people in the sense of physical preservation. That he is saving all

00:12:19 people. And the word all in this context, that it actually does refer to a universal sense to each

00:12:25 and every individual. And so he is saving in one sense universally. In what sense? He is physically

00:12:33 preserving all people he is temporally saving all people in that sense and that God is the spiritual

00:12:41 or eternal savior of only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in other words according

00:12:48 to this interpretation God would be we might say a common grace savior of all but God is a special

00:12:56 grace savior only of some namely the elect i personally think that both interpretations are

00:13:05 faithful and true and i don't believe that there's any contradiction in that we believe

00:13:13 i believe i'll speak for myself that when it comes to hermeneutics and the way that we interpret and

00:13:20 read and understand scripture, that we should have a historical hermeneutic. We should have

00:13:27 a literal hermeneutic. We should have a grammatical hermeneutic. We don't read the Psalms the same

00:13:38 way that we would read a gospel narrative. There's a difference between historical narrative. There

00:13:43 are different genres of scripture, so they're not all to be interpreted in the same way. There's

00:13:49 poetic literature and then there is historical narrative literature wisdom literature and so a

00:13:58 grammatical hermeneutic but the tradition the reformed tradition has held that there should

00:14:03 also be in addition to these things an allegorical hermeneutic an analogous or an analogical hermeneutic

00:14:13 Or a typological, you might say.

00:14:15 A typological hermeneutic.

00:14:16 Some have said a Christological hermeneutic.

00:14:20 Ultimately, this is really the bedrock.

00:14:24 This gets down to the very bottom of the issue.

00:14:26 The distinction between a Calvinistic Baptist and a Reformed Baptist.

00:14:31 Or a Reformed Presbyterian. 0.94

00:14:33 And in defense of the Reformed Presbyterian,

00:14:36 they would say that the Reformed Baptist is not quite allegorical enough.

00:14:40 that the doctrine of analogy goes a little bit further.

00:14:45 But they would tip the hat to someone like me

00:14:48 and say, you're close, you're getting there.

00:14:51 So, but the Calvinistic Baptist,

00:14:53 John MacArthur would be a wonderful example,

00:14:55 incredibly faithful man.

00:14:57 But John MacArthur, in his defense,

00:15:00 I don't know if I would have done any different.

00:15:02 In the providence of God, are we not so much,

00:15:05 I mean, we're entirely a product of God's grace.

00:15:08 And to a large extent, we're a product of God's providence, the time and place that he put us.

00:15:16 So for John MacArthur, it lasts, what, 52 years of ministry?

00:15:20 As people are getting cutesy with biblical text, 1.00

00:15:25 oh, I think you could be gay and the Bible allows for it. 1.00

00:15:28 Or, oh, I think that you can interpret. 0.92

00:15:30 So John MacArthur, in order to stand against people getting cute with the word of God,

00:15:37 He held ferociously to a literal hermeneutic.

00:15:42 And so he despised any typological hermeneutic.

00:15:47 He was like, it's not worth it in his assessment.

00:15:50 It's not worth it, maybe, but it's not worth it

00:15:53 because with that might come in an understanding

00:15:56 of Old Testament messianic prophecies pointing to Christ,

00:16:01 but with it also is a floodgate of iniquity.

00:16:04 It drops the standard, the dam holding back the waters, the floods of immorality and the progressive Christianity that we've seen become so prevalent in our day.

00:16:16 And so I sympathize with John MacArthur and I respect him greatly.

00:16:19 I disagree, however, like Luther, who said against Rome when they said,

00:16:26 if you translate from the Vulgate, the Latin, into the vulgar tongue, which simply meant

00:16:32 a common tongue, the way that people speak, to where every individual Christian has a

00:16:38 Bible on their mantle and can read the scripture and interpret it from themselves, there will

00:16:43 be thousands of schisms in the body of Christ. 0.98

00:16:48 There will be a floodgate of iniquity, to which Luther responded by saying, so be it.

00:16:56 And ultimately, what Luther was getting at was he didn't disagree with Rome on this point. 0.67

00:17:01 Because Rome was right.

00:17:03 We have thousands of denominations.

00:17:07 They were right. 0.99

00:17:09 Translating the Bible into the common tongue has produced a massive flood of division and heresy. 0.72

00:17:18 But ultimately, the difference is this.

00:17:20 because again Rush Duny said it's not whether but which it's not whether but which from which

00:17:30 direction from which source from which oligarchy from which authority would you like to be fed

00:17:37 heresy because you're going to have to confront heresy so you either have one standard like Rome

00:17:44 who twists the word of God

00:17:48 to where no one can find the truth,

00:17:52 where mass is done in the Latin

00:17:54 that people don't even speak.

00:17:56 Did you know the phrase hocus pocus?

00:17:58 This mystical, magical, hocus pocus,

00:18:01 the wave of the wand.

00:18:02 Do you know where that comes from? 1.00

00:18:04 It comes from the Latin mass.

00:18:06 I can't pronounce it,

00:18:08 so I'm not even going to attempt to try,

00:18:09 but there was the Latin phrase

00:18:11 that sounds similar to hocus pocus

00:18:13 which was the phrase that the priest would utter when he would transition the eucharist and the

00:18:21 wine into the literal body and blood of christ which is a doctrine that we would deny transubstantiation

00:18:28 but he would utter the phrase that sounded very similar to the phrase we now are familiar with

00:18:35 hocus pocus and we get the phrase hocus pocus even in our culture today because what we're

00:18:41 referencing when we say hocus pocus is wishy-wash mysticism gobbledygook weirdness magical fantasy

00:18:53 fantasy that's just that's dreaming that's that's fanatical it's it's it's silly that's where the

00:19:00 word comes from and it's absolutely appropriate because roman catholicism certainly during the 0.84

00:19:08 dark ages right before the reformation was silly silly is a perfectly wonderful word

00:19:14 to describe roman catholicism it was absolutely silly the people had no clue what was going on 0.74

00:19:21 that's where they we get the word hocus pocus that shows you how in the dark the people were

00:19:27 they didn't know what the priest was saying and that's why the priest relied so little on content

00:19:33 word right we believe as protestants that we are a word centric church that the church should be

00:19:39 centered upon not what we see but upon the word faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of

00:19:47 god but the catholic priests and bishops and cardinals they relied so much on imagery not

00:19:54 only did they break the second commandment and having graven images and worshiping idols and

00:20:00 statues made to saints exalting mary as a co-redeemer with her son but in addition to all

00:20:07 this they had robes and tassels and colors and prisms and lights and and all these different

00:20:16 decorations and and artifacts and this is holy and that is holy and holy water and everything

00:20:23 was about sight it was meant to wow see that that's what you do when you don't have an argument

00:20:30 when you don't have an actual argument based on substance what do you do well you have to you have

00:20:39 to spruce it up and some other way to where it won't be questioned right how can you go against

00:20:46 rome how do you disagree with the guy who speaks a language you don't even understand

00:20:52 and how can you disagree with a guy whose hat is so big i mean surely a hat that size

00:20:58 communicates a certain degree of credibility, does it not?

00:21:01 I mean, they don't just hand hats like that out, willy-nilly.

00:21:05 I mean, this guy, he must be trusted.

00:21:08 Look at the length of his robe.

00:21:10 Look at how big that Bible is that he's carrying,

00:21:13 that no one can read.

00:21:14 And he's saying that this is what it says,

00:21:16 and no one can fact-check him.

00:21:19 There's no way to offer a counter.

00:21:23 Proverbs says, one is thought right until another cross-examines.

00:21:26 but what do you do if there's no potential for cross-examination because you can't see the data

00:21:32 you can't you you don't have a common source that you can both go to and reference see as

00:21:41 protestants we both have the scripture we still disagree but at least we're both able to point

00:21:47 to something outside of ourselves it's not just me versus you it's thus saith the lord

00:21:54 now do we speak for the lord wrongly at times even often yes should we be much more careful

00:22:04 about that yes matthew henry the great puritan he said that every time we misinterpret the scripture

00:22:09 and communicate it to someone else it is to take the lord's name in vain

00:22:13 because we're putting the lord's name onto a doctrine that is not his

00:22:20 so mis-exegesis is a breach of the third commandment so it is a serious thing to

00:22:28 to grapple with the text to interpret the scripture and martin luther he said given the

00:22:36 choice of there being one church one denomination no schisms no factions no divisions one translation

00:22:44 I mean, how many translations in the Bible do we have?

00:22:47 So one translation, one ecclesiastical priesthood,

00:22:53 one cohesive doctrine,

00:22:56 given that choice versus thousands.

00:22:59 Martin Luther's pushback was not,

00:23:00 you're exaggerating Rome.

00:23:02 It won't be that bad.

00:23:03 No, that's not his disagreement.

00:23:05 His disagreement is, it will be that bad.

00:23:08 But the point is this,

00:23:10 better to have 3,000 different versions of the truth

00:23:14 but the actual truth to be present, to be available.

00:23:21 3,000 different falsehoods, but the truth can be found.

00:23:27 It'll be difficult to find it, but it can be found.

00:23:32 Versus to have one falsehood where the truth is completely absent.

00:23:39 See, what we have today is this, massive amounts of false doctrine.

00:23:44 but true doctrine can be found

00:23:49 by grace,

00:23:51 through prayer,

00:23:54 through diligent study,

00:23:56 for the people in Rome,

00:23:59 underneath bishops,

00:24:01 priests like Tetzel,

00:24:02 selling indulgences

00:24:04 to the most downtrodden people

00:24:08 you could imagine.

00:24:10 There was no.

00:24:12 Think of it,

00:24:12 if I was to use an analogy,

00:24:13 think of it like this.

00:24:14 A needle in a haystack versus a singular piece of hay, but no needle at all.

00:24:24 That's the choice.

00:24:26 That's the option.

00:24:28 One stalk, one bushel of hay, but there is no needle.

00:24:36 No one can find it, even if they tried.

00:24:40 Versus a haystack, what we're dealing with today, it's hard.

00:24:45 It may take me 50 years to find the needle.

00:24:50 But it is there.

00:24:54 That's ultimately the dichotomy that existed.

00:25:00 And it's worth mentioning that that's really what we have today as well.

00:25:03 But it's interesting to me that the Reformation in the church, in God's providence, seems to coincide with technological advancements in the culture.

00:25:16 So we have the Reformation with Luther, and we have the Gutenberg printing press.

00:25:22 And that's not a coincidence in the sovereignty of God.

00:25:25 and today i see once more a resurgence and a reformation in the church again and we have

00:25:33 the dawn of the internet social media podcasting where all of a sudden ultimately what you have is

00:25:41 well you have a removal and a replacing of the gatekeepers rome was the gatekeepers

00:25:48 and we've had gatekeepers in evangelicalism in our day some of them have been faithful and many

00:25:56 have been faithless but then all of a sudden you can get a following without having their

00:26:04 approval used to you had to go to seminary you had to jump through the hoops you had to work

00:26:13 your way up in the Southern Baptist Convention or the PCA. You had to get the tip of the hat

00:26:19 from whoever was in charge, the leaders, and then eventually you might get your conference.

00:26:26 Eventually you might get your platform. Eventually you might get your following.

00:26:32 And now a little guy like A.D. Robles with a webcam and a home office can speak to

00:26:42 thousands of people.

00:26:45 And with it comes a new flood of iniquity.

00:26:49 A million different wrong interpretations.

00:26:53 But the truth is present.

00:26:57 The last way I'll say it is this.

00:26:59 Better a thousand falsehoods where the truth is present

00:27:02 than a unified falsehood where the truth is absent.

00:27:08 And it's a mercy of the Lord.

00:27:10 It's a mercy of the Lord.

00:27:11 all that back to the point of our hermeneutic back to the point of the way that we read and

00:27:17 understand and interpret scripture better to have a typological analogical hermeneutic in addition

00:27:23 to a grammatical historical literal hermeneutic knowing that it will be abused by progressive

00:27:29 christians knowing that it will be taken as license for twisting and perverting the word of god

00:27:36 and a whole host of manners.

00:27:40 But knowing that it also allows us

00:27:42 to read the scripture rightly.

00:27:45 Knowing that it allows us to read

00:27:47 especially the Old Testament rightly.

00:27:50 To see certain portions of scripture

00:27:53 and how they point to Christ.

00:27:57 Having a covenantal understanding.

00:28:02 Dispensationalism is simply the fruit

00:28:04 of a hermeneutic that is not it has no room or place for a typological reading of the text

00:28:11 that's how dispensationalism has come about it has come about as a reaction

00:28:17 to people taking liberty with biblical text and then removing an analogous understanding of

00:28:26 reading the scripture for fear that it might be abused dispensationalism i might add has also

00:28:32 come about as a result of people getting very excited about israel becoming a sovereign nation

00:28:37 about 75 years ago as well that has something to do with it also but my point in all of that is to

00:28:44 say that how we read the scripture our hermeneutic our understanding our analogous understanding of

00:28:52 the scripture matters and with that all being said therefore it is quite possible and even i think

00:29:00 probable in many cases and with many texts of scripture that there can be more than one meaning

00:29:07 to the text the logical fallacy and the unbiblical understanding is when we say that a text can have

00:29:16 more than one meaning and those two meanings or interpretations are contradicting

00:29:22 that is what the christians should have no tolerance for so the most common example would be

00:29:31 a bible study perhaps performed in a home where you go around the room and each person says what

00:29:38 the text means for them the bible doesn't have individual interpretations the bible doesn't mean

00:29:48 anything for you insofar as it meaning something exclusively for you the bible was not written to

00:29:57 you and you alone the bible was written to people it was written to nations it is corporate by nature

00:30:08 so the bible doesn't it doesn't mean something for joel webin and then means something else for

00:30:14 connor hensley and those two things contradict how often have you been in that kind of environment

00:30:20 where 15 people are seated and all of a sudden we get 15 different personal interpretations

00:30:26 and seven of them contradict one another and if you ever even begin as terribly as possible to

00:30:34 push back the the counter that is presented as this well that's my interpretation as though

00:30:42 each individual has some kind of inalienable right to a private and personal interpretation

00:30:49 that's not true you don't have that right you don't get to have your private and personal

00:30:58 interpretation however that does not mean that a text can't have more than one interpretation

00:31:05 so we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater as we try to resist a lack of clarity

00:31:14 division confusion with interpreting text we cannot go so far as to say well every text only

00:31:21 has one interpretation it's never analogous it's always literal and that's the way it is

00:31:28 no a text can have more than one interpretation a messianic prophecy would be a perfect example

00:31:33 david means something by what he says and it is relevant and true for israel in that day

00:31:43 and yet in a deeper more eternal prophetic sense it means something about the king of all kings

00:31:51 the one who one day will come and sit on david's throne and it means something spiritual as well

00:31:58 is literal two texts can have more than one interpretation so long as it's not a private

00:32:04 interpretation it is corporate always in both senses and it is not a contradicting interpretation

00:32:11 all that said i believe both these interpretations with first timothy chapter 4 verse 10

00:32:18 are correct i believe that in one sense what paul is saying to timothy is that god is the savior of

00:32:26 All kinds, not universally, each and every individual, but all kinds of people.

00:32:31 However, only those who believe.

00:32:34 That's a faithful reading.

00:32:36 I also think that this text means that God is actually, in a universal sense,

00:32:41 the Savior of each and every individual.

00:32:45 In a physical preservation saving sense.

00:32:49 But he is only the eternal and spiritual Savior of the elect,

00:32:53 of those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:32:56 That God is a common grace savior of all and a special grace savior of some.

00:33:06 And all that is to say, James 1.17, every good gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of light.

00:33:18 Ecclesiastes says it like this, that God causes it to rain on both the wicked and the righteous.

00:33:26 God works providentially through agency, natural agency, human agency.

00:33:33 But it is always God as the original mover, the unmoved mover, the original cause of all things.

00:33:44 Meaning that every good and perfect gift that comes down from heaven, it comes from the Father of lights.

00:33:50 There is not one good thing that has ever happened to any person in the history of all humanity that was not ultimately done by God.

00:34:02 God is the source of all good in this world.

00:34:07 And every good and perfect gift, every blessing that comes to any person, both the believer and the unbeliever alike.

00:34:16 eternal blessings most certainly to the believer but even temporal and physical blessings to the

00:34:23 pagan all have their root in God he is the source of all goodness he is the source of all blessing

00:34:32 so psalm 67 verse 1 may God be gracious to us and bless us

00:34:41 there is no blessing apart from god's grace there can be no blessing apart from god's grace

00:34:51 we know that that's true when we think eternally we know that that's true when we think spiritually

00:34:58 we know that that's true when we think of salvation for the people of god

00:35:04 all I'm saying is that we should think more broadly that should be the pinnacle of our thought

00:35:12 but not the extent of our thought not only is it of God's grace that he eternally saves sinners

00:35:19 but it's of God's grace that child molesters get to eat and it's of God's grace that rain

00:35:28 falls from heaven. It's of God's grace that we're given marriage. It's of God's grace that we have

00:35:36 homes. It's of God's grace that I'm able to take my very next breath. May God be gracious to us

00:35:46 and bless us. The psalmist cannot even begin to call upon a blessing from the Lord without first

00:35:54 saying, may God be gracious

00:35:56 because there is no blessing from the Lord

00:36:00 apart from grace.

00:36:03 And to think otherwise

00:36:05 is to minimize the holiness of God

00:36:08 and to make light of the severity

00:36:11 of humanity's sin.

00:36:14 Psalm 67, verse 2,

00:36:15 that your way may be known on earth,

00:36:18 your saving power among all nations.

00:36:21 The revelation of God's law

00:36:22 is a wonderful blessing.

00:36:24 We preach God's law here

00:36:26 in this church

00:36:28 week in and week out

00:36:29 because it's biblical,

00:36:32 because it permeates

00:36:34 all of scripture,

00:36:35 because I think it's right

00:36:37 and proper

00:36:37 to be a part of a church's liturgy

00:36:40 and church history

00:36:41 seems to support that.

00:36:43 And because it's also been

00:36:45 largely forgotten

00:36:46 by the church today,

00:36:48 the church has become

00:36:50 antinomium.

00:36:52 An absence of law, not just against law, but an absence of law.

00:36:58 Many churches have completely thrown out the third use of God's law,

00:37:02 that the law of God has no function in the life of the Christian.

00:37:07 Certainly the law does not save us, but the law is a lamp unto our feet. 0.86

00:37:11 It does not show the Christian the way to inherit salvation,

00:37:14 but it does show the Christian the way to respond in gratitude

00:37:18 for the free salvation we've received

00:37:20 by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

00:37:24 And yet many Christians,

00:37:26 for fear of being called legalistic,

00:37:29 and in order to welcome the seeker

00:37:31 into their churches,

00:37:33 have foregone any application

00:37:36 of the law of God today.

00:37:39 So the law of God is necessary.

00:37:42 I believe even more necessary

00:37:44 in this current time,

00:37:46 because it's been forgotten and neglected,

00:37:48 And yet, all that being said, is wonderful and good and holy and right as the law of God is,

00:37:55 it is still not the most significant blessing that God has bestowed upon humanity.

00:38:01 The revelation of God's law is a blessing, and it is wonderful, and it must be preached,

00:38:07 especially in our lawless generation.

00:38:11 But the law of God still pales in comparison, not in the mind of God himself,

00:38:17 But in terms of the benefit to the Christian, the law of God pales in comparison to the gospel and saving knowledge that comes through faith in Christ Jesus.

00:38:31 At first glance, the phrase, your way, at the beginning of Psalm 67, verse 2, it may appear to be a reference to the law of God.

00:38:40 David says elsewhere in the Psalms

00:38:42 that you show me your way

00:38:46 speaking of God's law

00:38:47 or you are a light unto my path

00:38:50 speaking of God's law

00:38:52 and so at first glance

00:38:54 this phrase your way

00:38:55 it may appear to be a reference

00:38:58 to the law of God

00:38:59 but the phrase your saving power

00:39:01 in the second half of Psalm 67

00:39:04 verse 2

00:39:05 removes all doubt

00:39:08 that the person and work of the coming Messiah

00:39:10 is what the author ultimately had in mind.

00:39:15 This Old Testament human author

00:39:18 inspired by the divine author

00:39:19 who is the Holy Spirit

00:39:21 did not know the name of the Messiah,

00:39:25 did not know all the intimate details

00:39:28 and workings of the Messiah

00:39:30 as we do today

00:39:31 on the other side of the cross.

00:39:35 But they did know that there was a Messiah

00:39:38 and that there would be no salvation found in anyone else.

00:39:43 They knew that ultimately they needed a substitute,

00:39:47 a lamb of God to take the penalty for their sin.

00:39:51 They knew that there was a Christ, a son of God,

00:39:56 who eventually one day would come,

00:39:58 the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head.

00:40:03 The seed of Abraham through whom all the nations would be blessed.

00:40:08 The son of David who would rule the nations with an iron scepter in truth and in justice upon his shoulders would be a government of peace and his advancement would know no end.

00:40:25 and it was just as you and i are saved for these old testament saints including the author of our

00:40:32 text today it was by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone that they were saved

00:40:40 that's right all of them in christ alone they knew this and so i believe that the author what

00:40:47 he's getting at under the inspiration of the spirit is the gospel that your way may be known

00:40:54 verse 2 on earth that is to say in all the earth not just a mystery concealed in heaven

00:41:03 that angels long to look into as hebrew says but something that has been revealed a mystery now

00:41:12 manifest and not just in heaven with angelic beings but on earth with men and not just in

00:41:19 some remote corner of the earth for a few elite individuals but on all the earth every tribe

00:41:26 every tongue every nation that your way may be known to all men here on earth

00:41:36 and what way is that the law of god in this case i believe no what way is that

00:41:45 your saving power among all nations your gospel your son the messiah that he would be known

00:41:59 in all the earth among all the nations the author cannot be speaking of the law in this sense

00:42:07 because romans 3 3 says for what god has done for god has done what the law weakened by the flesh

00:42:15 could not do.

00:42:20 By sending his own son 0.99

00:42:21 in the likeness of sinful flesh

00:42:23 and for sin,

00:42:24 he condemned sin in the flesh.

00:42:28 That is to say,

00:42:29 the law is powerless to save

00:42:30 and not because there is some flaw

00:42:33 in the law.

00:42:34 It rhymes, so it must be true.

00:42:36 We know how that goes.

00:42:38 It's not because there's a flaw in the law,

00:42:40 it's because there's a flaw in the flesh.

00:42:45 But either way, the law still, because of the flesh, is powerless to save.

00:42:55 Titus 2.11 says,

00:42:56 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

00:43:02 It's the grace of God.

00:43:04 The saving grace of God.

00:43:06 The grace afforded to us by the person and work of Jesus Christ.

00:43:11 that your way may be known on earth,

00:43:15 your saving power among all the nations.

00:43:17 This verse cannot be speaking of the law of God.

00:43:20 It must be speaking of the work of Christ.

00:43:26 Which, C.A.,

00:43:28 is precisely why we have to have a typological hermeneutic.

00:43:32 We have to be able to read texts like this

00:43:34 in light of the New Testament,

00:43:37 under the banner of analogy.

00:43:39 knowing that it will allow

00:43:44 those who want to pervert the scripture

00:43:47 it will allow opportunity for them

00:43:49 to get cute with the text

00:43:50 and let our response

00:43:52 as those who are classically reformed

00:43:54 be as Luther's response to Rome 0.57

00:43:56 so be it

00:43:59 Psalm 67 verse 3 through 4 says this

00:44:03 let the peoples praise you O God

00:44:05 let all the peoples praise you

00:44:07 let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations

00:44:14 upon earth. Selah. John Gill, the Baptist version of John Calvin. So fantastic, but not quite as

00:44:24 good, but still really good. He says this, meaning not the people of the world, commentating on these

00:44:33 two verses verse 3 and 4 meaning not the people of the world at the last day at the general judgment

00:44:40 with a final judgment of all men which will be righteous when God will judge the world in

00:44:48 righteousness according to the strict rules of justice and equity by him whom he has ordained

00:44:54 but rather verse 3 and 4 according to Gill and many other reformed theologians verse 3 and 4

00:45:02 refers to the righteous judgment

00:45:05 which will be executed

00:45:06 on the enemies of Christ's church 0.97

00:45:09 and people in this life

00:45:11 is the implication

00:45:12 which will be a matter of great joy

00:45:15 to shouts of great gladness

00:45:20 verse 3 and 4 again

00:45:23 let the peoples praise you

00:45:26 oh God

00:45:27 let all the peoples praise you

00:45:29 let the nations be glad

00:45:32 and sing for joy.

00:45:34 For you judge the peoples with equity

00:45:36 and guide the nations upon the earth.

00:45:40 Speaking of the final judgment,

00:45:43 no.

00:45:45 In this case, it is more likely,

00:45:47 I believe the more faithful interpretation is to say,

00:45:50 for you judge the wicked in this life,

00:45:57 here on this earth,

00:45:59 In temporal ways, you break them to pieces, you shatter them, and in your wind of wrath, you blow them away to the four corners of the earth like chaff. 0.98

00:46:17 And what should the righteous respond with? 0.98

00:46:22 Again, verse 3.

00:46:24 Let the peoples praise you, O God.

00:46:28 Let all the peoples praise you.

00:46:32 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. 0.99

00:46:37 Do not fall in to the arrogance that is so prevalent among Christians today

00:46:45 that asserts that we are somehow more compassionate than God himself.

00:46:53 Stop it.

00:46:58 I get angry when I hear what ultimately amounts to people claiming to be more loving than God.

00:47:11 God gives us the proper response.

00:47:15 Let God be true and every man a liar, as the scripture testifies elsewhere.

00:47:21 God tells his people how to respond when he shatters the kneecaps of his enemies and breaks them to pieces.

00:47:34 And the proper response is gladness and praise and rejoicing.

00:47:42 so when God begins to topple powers and principalities in this world and he will

00:47:54 it is not a matter of if it is merely a matter of when he will do as he did for Israel great

00:48:03 and marvelous wonders in our midst

00:48:06 it may be a frightening time to be alive but i think the excitement in this season far outweighs

00:48:15 the fear or at least it should for the people of god i'm excited to be alive i am excited like

00:48:24 psalm 2 says when i see the rulers of this world shaking their fist at god in heaven

00:48:32 and attempting to sever the bonds

00:48:34 of his sovereign rule over all things,

00:48:38 I get excited knowing that my Bible tells me

00:48:41 that God sits in heaven and he laughs

00:48:45 and holds them in derision.

00:48:49 And I get excited thinking,

00:48:53 in what way will we get to witness

00:48:57 God in his marvelous power

00:49:01 bringing to nothing the authorities and pagans of this world could you imagine being among the

00:49:11 people of israel and bondage in egypt and in god's sovereignty being chosen as the generation 0.94

00:49:19 where he would send marvelous wonders ten plagues the parting of the red sea could you imagine i

00:49:29 I mean, the fear, as you're hearing all over Egypt, the screeches and wailing of mothers and fathers and little brothers and little sisters as they're discovering that their firstborn son has died in his sleep because the angel of death has gone in and killed him.

00:49:53 the fear the terror but also the wonder knowing that the blood of the lamb

00:50:02 is on the mantle of your door and that you and your children are covered

00:50:10 are blessed are secure in the promise of god can you imagine the the fear yes but the

00:50:23 The wonder, the exhilaration, the awe of seeing God in his providence allowing you to be cornered between the mountain and the sea and the quickly advancing armies of Pharaoh.

00:50:44 and then all of a sudden moses holds up his rod

00:50:49 and says behold people of israel the people of god he has promised that he shall do great wonders

00:50:58 marvelous works in your midst and he holds up his rod and all of a sudden a great wind from heaven

00:51:05 blows down and two walls of the sea rise up

00:51:10 and all of Israel walks through on dry land.

00:51:15 And the Presbyterian gets excited

00:51:17 because the New Testament says they were all baptized.

00:51:23 I can't imagine.

00:51:26 I cannot imagine.

00:51:29 And I'm not saying that we're going to get

00:51:31 to witness things like that.

00:51:34 But I believe with every fiber of my being that the Lord is doing a marvelous work in this generation.

00:51:44 Romans 9 says this.

00:51:48 What if God raised up Pharaoh so that his glory, his power to the righteous might be revealed?

00:52:00 see for God to show off and he does not in a vain fleshly arrogant way but God does delight 0.55

00:52:10 to show his glory but for God to show even the tip of the iceberg of his power his majesty his

00:52:21 wonders his might he has to create and sustain and prop up his own opposition that's how strong

00:52:33 our God is our God is so powerful so mighty and so glorious if he doesn't use and delegate at

00:52:40 least a portion of his own power to sustain his own opposition there'll be no opportunity to show

00:52:47 how strong he actually is.

00:52:50 Did you know that?

00:52:51 So God actually had to designate

00:52:53 a portion of his power

00:52:55 to propping up Pharaoh.

00:52:58 Because by comparison,

00:53:00 Pharaoh is so weak 0.98

00:53:02 and so puny 1.00

00:53:05 that all of his power

00:53:07 as the leader of the most powerful

00:53:09 empire in the world at that time,

00:53:12 all of it is like

00:53:14 is like a gnat trying to make it through niagara falls i believe that's a paul watcher quote

00:53:23 it's a good one it's nothing so god has to supernaturally sustain and raise up pharaoh

00:53:33 just like he does all rulers of this world god has to delegate a portion of his own power

00:53:40 to propping up an enemy

00:53:44 just so that his people can marvel

00:53:49 when he knocks it down.

00:53:53 I believe that that's what he's doing presently.

00:53:58 That he is holding up 1.00

00:54:00 a weak, feeble, foolish old man in the White House. 1.00

00:54:08 just so he can knock them over 1.00

00:54:12 and so that the people of God

00:54:15 can praise the Lord,

00:54:21 be glad and sing for joy.

00:54:25 Let us fight.

00:54:27 Let us resist.

00:54:31 But when we win, 1.00

00:54:34 a lot of Christians don't have a plan for winning 0.93

00:54:36 because their theology doesn't include winning. 0.99

00:54:41 They don't think they'll win.

00:54:45 And they shoot themselves in the foot

00:54:47 as though to help Christ out,

00:54:50 to speed up their loss,

00:54:51 which is precisely what they think he wants.

00:54:54 I'm going to try my best to be faithful

00:54:56 by losing even faster

00:54:58 because that's God's will

00:55:03 and that's what God loves.

00:55:05 God loves a losing church.

00:55:11 I don't believe that doctrine.

00:55:13 I used to.

00:55:15 No, I believe that Christ wins. 1.00

00:55:18 And to be fair to the pre-mill, 1.00

00:55:21 they believe Christ wins also. 0.97

00:55:24 But as I said before, I think the difference is,

00:55:26 does Christ win despite his losing church?

00:55:30 Or does Christ win through his church?

00:55:35 I don't think that it's just the church gets weaker and weaker and loses more and more.

00:55:40 And then finally, in the bottom of the ninth, Christ steps in and wins the game.

00:55:47 So the church benefits from his victory.

00:55:51 But the church itself was losing terribly.

00:55:56 No, I believe that Christ wins not despite his church, but through his church.

00:56:01 And one of the scriptures that I would point to is I will build my church.

00:56:06 All authority in heaven has been given to me.

00:56:10 I will build my church so the church will not shrink but advance.

00:56:16 And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

00:56:21 The gates being a defensive mechanism.

00:56:23 So the church is not on the ropes taking blows from hell.

00:56:27 but rather Christ is building his church in such a way

00:56:30 that hell is on the defense

00:56:32 and the church is the battering ram of Christ

00:56:36 that is knocking down the gates of hell.

00:56:41 So it's not if it happens winning, victory.

00:56:48 It's when it happens.

00:56:51 And I believe that verse 3 and 4 of our text

00:56:54 cause us to carefully consider

00:56:59 what our response will be.

00:57:03 And I would suggest that it should not be

00:57:06 a response of arrogance and gloating

00:57:08 as though we brought something about

00:57:09 in our own strength.

00:57:12 But it should be a response of joy and gladness.

00:57:17 That when the enemies of God are put to open shame,

00:57:21 that the people of God should not be so arrogant

00:57:25 as to pretend we're more sympathetic

00:57:28 and compassionate than God himself.

00:57:33 We should not, essentially this is what we do,

00:57:36 we should not indirectly chastise God

00:57:41 for doing that which is just.

00:57:45 Let the people's praise.

00:57:47 I think that's the difference.

00:57:49 In a nutshell.

00:57:50 When God gains for himself victory on earth, do we praise God?

00:57:58 You have done right.

00:58:03 Or do we chastise God?

00:58:07 You have been harsh.

00:58:11 Just wasn't very loving.

00:58:13 and the way you defeated your enemies

00:58:16 and put them to shame, I just,

00:58:19 but was it nice?

00:58:22 That entire thought process

00:58:26 is not rooted in compassion.

00:58:30 It's not rooted in love.

00:58:32 It's not rooted in humility.

00:58:34 It's rooted in arrogance.

00:58:37 Thinking that you know more

00:58:39 than the infinitely wise God

00:58:40 and thinking that you love more

00:58:42 than the omnibenevolent God.

00:58:47 Repent of your pride.

00:58:52 Bringing the plane home.

00:58:54 Psalm 67, verse 5 through 6.

00:58:56 Let the peoples praise you, O God.

00:58:58 Let all the peoples praise you.

00:59:01 The earth has yielded its increase.

00:59:03 God, our God, shall bless us.

00:59:05 The psalmist is likely speaking here

00:59:07 in a spiritual sense of the Christian church.

00:59:10 The word of God preached in the world

00:59:12 is the seed which is sown into all the world. It converts to Christ. Its converts to Christ

00:59:19 are the increase or the fruit of it. And this increase is of God. It is the work of his grace

00:59:27 which is promised to accompany the preaching of his word. 1 Corinthians 3.6. You're probably

00:59:34 very familiar with this text. It says, Paul speaking, I planted, Apollos watered, but God

00:59:41 gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives

00:59:49 the growth. So the progression of the text thus far is this. The psalmist cries out and asks the

00:59:56 Lord for a blessing. But before he does, he first recognizes that there can be no blessing apart

01:00:03 from God's grace.

01:00:06 Implicitly, he is acknowledging his sin

01:00:08 and the sin of his nation 0.61

01:00:10 and the sin of the nations

01:00:12 plurally before the Lord,

01:00:15 but asking the Lord

01:00:16 because not on the basis

01:00:17 of human merit,

01:00:19 but on the basis

01:00:19 of his own character

01:00:21 that he is the gracious God.

01:00:24 On that basis,

01:00:25 the basis of the gracious

01:00:26 character of God,

01:00:28 he asked for a blessing

01:00:29 that God's face would shine upon.

01:00:33 And he asked for this using the best motive that you could ever set before the Lord.

01:00:40 God's own glory.

01:00:43 Would you bless us out of the abundance of your character, not what we deserve, but out of your character, your nature, your mercy, your grace.

01:00:51 And would you do it, God?

01:00:53 Not just for our good.

01:00:56 But would you do it that your way may be known on the earth?

01:01:01 Would you do it that your glory might be manifest in the world?

01:01:05 Would you do it, God, to show people how awesome you truly are?

01:01:13 But knowing that the pinnacle of your glory, what brings you praise,

01:01:20 is also your saving power that does us good.

01:01:26 And when you do it, oh God, when you save your elect from among all the tribes and nations of the world, would you also bring to nothing the enemies of the church?

01:01:44 Would you shatter them like glass and blow them away like dust?

01:01:52 And when you do, let us, let our response not be to chastise the Lord for being too harsh,

01:02:00 but to praise the Lord for his justice and doing that which is right.

01:02:09 And when your enemies are scattered and brought to nothing,

01:02:14 let the increase of your work increase all the more.

01:02:20 That's verse 6.

01:02:22 And let it all be a cycle, an unbreakable, unstoppable cycle of the good of God's people and the glory of the gracious God.

01:02:35 That you would pour out blessing for your glory.

01:02:39 And you would bring your enemies to nothing for our good and your glory.

01:02:45 and that that would set the landscape

01:02:47 as your enemies are pushed back

01:02:49 it would set the terrain, the landscape

01:02:51 the context for you to

01:02:53 to increase the church

01:02:56 even more for your glory

01:02:58 and then if it be your will 0.57

01:03:01 if you want to prop up another enemy like Pharaoh

01:03:03 simply so that you can knock him down

01:03:06 to show off a little more

01:03:08 let the people praise you

01:03:10 and rejoice

01:03:11 it's this cycle of God

01:03:13 increasing his people, shattering his enemies for his glory and our good, for his glory and our good.

01:03:22 He increases his people out of grace. And when he shatters his enemies, we praise. He increases

01:03:29 his enemies or his people out of grace and he shatters his enemies and we praise and so on and

01:03:36 so on and so on until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the water covers

01:03:43 the sea. And he finishes in verse seven by saying, God shall bless us. Let all the ends

01:03:52 of the earth fear him. It seems peculiar the way this psalm ends. It's the blessing of

01:04:02 god if you are the people of god by grace through faith alone if you belong to god

01:04:10 if the blood of the lamb is on your mantle what is there to fear

01:04:16 and it's especially peculiar that he would end the psalm by by saying let all the peoples of

01:04:26 the earth fear him which is common throughout the scripture but that he would preface that

01:04:33 statement not just statement but command to fear the lord by saying god should bless us

01:04:40 you would imagine that he would say god will destroy his enemies so let all the peoples of

01:04:47 the earth fear him but he says no god shall not just god could or he might no he's saying god

01:04:55 will bless us not if but when it is merely a matter of time more surely than the sun's rising

01:05:03 tomorrow morning is the blessing of God that is coming for his people you can take it to the bank

01:05:12 it's a guarantee he has set his seal upon it it will come as surely as anything else you can

01:05:20 imagine and more certain even than that god's blessing shall come to us so fear him

01:05:29 we do not fear god because of his blessings we fear god so that we might receive his blessings

01:05:37 see psalm 67 7 says god shall bless us in other words god's blessings are certain they are sure

01:05:44 to come, therefore, if God's blessings are so certain to come, then let all the ends

01:05:50 of the earth take haste to fear God.

01:05:54 Why?

01:05:54 Because the fear of the Lord is precisely the necessary posture in order to receive his

01:06:01 blessing.

01:06:04 Luke, finish with this, chapter 1, verse 46 through 50.

01:06:12 It's Mary's Magnificat.

01:06:14 It is her song of praise and response to the word of the Lord delivered by the angel Gabriel that she should be the mother of the Messiah.

01:06:25 This is her joy filled song.

01:06:28 This is her delight filled ode to the Lord in response and gratitude for this marvelous promise of blessing.

01:06:38 that would bless all the peoples of the earth

01:06:40 but uniquely her

01:06:42 in the great honor of being

01:06:45 our Lord's mother

01:06:46 she says this

01:06:48 my soul magnifies the Lord

01:06:51 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

01:06:53 for he has looked upon

01:06:55 the humble estate of his servant

01:06:58 for behold from now on

01:07:00 all generations will call me blessed

01:07:02 for he who is mighty

01:07:04 has done great things for me

01:07:05 and holy is his name

01:07:07 and don't miss verse 50 and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation

01:07:18 you see the beauty of psalm 67 perhaps after my study this past week perhaps my favorite psalm now

01:07:26 the beauty of psalm 67 is that the final verse brings us full circle back to the first verse

01:07:34 The Lord shall bless us.

01:07:37 Therefore, let all the earth fear him.

01:07:41 Why?

01:07:43 Not fear him for his blessing,

01:07:46 but because fear is the necessary and appropriate posture of the people of God

01:07:50 in order to receive his blessing.

01:07:53 So he ends, the psalmist ends it by saying,

01:07:55 the blessing is coming, it is certain,

01:07:59 so now, right now, don't delay.

01:08:03 With haste, posture yourself like the woman in Elisha who says the Lord is going to pour out oil and bless you, this poor, humble widow.

01:08:18 And what you need to do is quickly go to all of your neighbors, your family, anyone that you can and get as many jars as possible

01:08:26 So that you will be, you will be appropriately positioned to receive as much blessing from the Lord as possible.

01:08:36 As possible.

01:08:38 That's how the psalm ends.

01:08:39 The psalm ends and I want, as the one preaching the psalm today, I want you to feel the urgency.

01:08:46 That we would go out from our Lord's Day worship today with a sense of urgency.

01:08:52 Not an urgency of a fear of punishment or dread.

01:08:54 but an urgency of a fear of wonder

01:08:57 of the great God who punishes the wicked

01:09:00 but pours out such a blessing

01:09:02 that his people cannot contain it.

01:09:04 And with urgency we would go 0.82

01:09:06 to posture ourselves to fear

01:09:08 our great and gracious God

01:09:10 so that we have room to receive

01:09:13 as much blessing as possible.

01:09:15 The psalmist ends this psalm by saying

01:09:17 the blessing is coming, so fear him.

01:09:21 And that brings us all the way back to verse 1.

01:09:24 that says, may God be gracious to us and bless us.

01:09:29 See, Mary speaks of fear, saying,

01:09:32 and his mercy is for those who fear him.

01:09:36 The final thing the psalmist says in our text today

01:09:38 is to fear God.

01:09:41 Mary says that God's mercy is for those who fear him.

01:09:44 And it brings us all the way back to the first verse.

01:09:47 It says, may God be gracious,

01:09:50 Or we might say, merciful and bless us.

01:09:54 So, let us fear the Lord that we might be blessed.

01:10:01 Let's pray.

01:10:02 Father God, we thank you for your word.

01:10:05 We thank you for your truth.

01:10:06 We thank you for your grace.

01:10:08 We thank you for your blessing.

01:10:11 We also thank you for your justice.

01:10:13 We thank you for your power.

01:10:15 We thank you for your might and your glory.

01:10:20 And God, we believe that you are doing a marvelous thing in our day, and we are humbled, and with great and holy anticipation, long to witness it.

01:10:33 Father, we pray, we pray that your power might come quickly.

01:10:41 We pray, Lord, that not despite the church,

01:10:43 but through the church, through your people,

01:10:46 through courage, through righteousness,

01:10:49 and through humility,

01:10:51 that you would use your people

01:10:53 to bring about a great victory

01:10:55 over these present powers of darkness,

01:10:59 over the present tyranny,

01:11:01 the present perversion

01:11:04 in our day, in our nation.

01:11:08 father we pray that you would use us and we pray lord that the victory would be great

01:11:15 and if perhaps now you are holding that inevitable victory at bay simply to to prop up your enemies

01:11:24 a little taller so that you might gain even more glory when you use your church to knock them down

01:11:31 so be it.

01:11:34 But we trust that it will happen

01:11:36 and we trust it will be marvelous in our eyes.

01:11:41 Father, we pray that we would work towards this end

01:11:44 in a righteous manner.

01:11:47 And Lord, we pray that we also would respond properly

01:11:50 when it comes, not with gloating,

01:11:53 but also not with pretense,

01:11:57 imagining ourselves to be more loving than you.

01:11:59 we pray that we would respond to your glory as it's revealed here on earth in grace to your

01:12:07 people and justice to your enemies that we would respond to both with praise and shouts of gladness

01:12:15 and pray this in jesus name amen oh hi i didn't see you there thanks for sticking around i've

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01:12:39 Dr. Gary DeMar, non-Doctor Pastor Joel Webin, but we also have a bonus speaker, and that is

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01:12:49 listening to his podcast. It's fantastic. Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team. We're

01:12:54 going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write in

01:12:59 questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas-style barbecue

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The NXR Podcast - December 25, 2022

SUNDAY SERMON - Every Good And Perfect Gift ｜ Psalm 67

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