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

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00:00:18.280 Today's text is Psalm 67. Psalm 67.

00:00:23.260 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word?

00:00:26.940 I'll read our text for us in its entirety.

00:00:29.160 when I finish reading the text I'll say this is the word of the Lord at which point I would

00:00:33.640 appreciate if you would respond by saying thanks be to God one final time our text for this Lord's

00:00:40.060 day is Psalm 67 the Bible says this may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to

00:00:48.220 shine upon us say law that your way may be known on earth your saving power among all nations let

00:00:56.380 the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for

00:01:02.680 joy. For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the

00:01:10.660 peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth is yielded its increase,

00:01:16.620 God. Our God shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him. This is

00:01:25.360 the word of the Lord. You may be seated. I'm going to go verse by verse through our text today,

00:01:32.420 beginning with the first verse and in chronological order. Sometimes I will focus my exegesis on just

00:01:40.140 a portion of the text and sometimes we'll kind of change the order of the text in order to

00:01:46.540 draw out a certain principle going in logical order rather than chronological order. However,

00:01:53.020 today. It will be verse by verse and it will be in order as we find it in the text because I think

00:01:59.980 that the point is plain and clear and we'll see it with the natural flow of the text without any

00:02:06.220 altercation. Verse 1, verse 1a if you will, my God or may God be gracious to us and bless us.

00:02:17.300 I want to pause there. There's much that can be exegeted from this simple phrase. May God be

00:02:25.960 gracious to us and bless us. Brothers and sisters, let us never forget that there is no blessing from

00:02:33.120 God apart from grace. God cannot bless any man apart from his grace. For all have sinned and

00:02:41.820 fallen short of the glory of God, and therefore every single one of his blessings comes as a gift

00:02:48.620 of grace. It comes as unmerited favor. It comes as something that you and I do not deserve.

00:02:55.880 Anything other than the floor opening up beneath us and a chute sliding us directly into the fire

00:03:04.820 of hell is grace. Anything other than that, your next breath is grace. Now notice this is not

00:03:12.080 merely speaking of salvation. It's not merely may God be gracious and therefore eternally save us

00:03:19.560 in and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith in him alone.

00:03:26.180 No, it's broader than that. Certainly salvation is the pinnacle of the blessings of God,

00:03:31.880 but it is much broader than merely salvation as christians we should never speak of anything less

00:03:39.080 but we should speak of something more all of god's blessings are of grace the food that we eat

00:03:46.940 the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening relationships between spouses

00:03:54.280 and parents and children and friendship all of these things are a gift from god good wine is a

00:04:02.120 gift from god which is why i believe that if a christian can do so responsibly they should drink

00:04:07.900 and they should do so to god's glory but those who abstain abstain to god's glory they're simply

00:04:14.400 referenced as those with weaker faith according to the scripture everything is a gift from god

00:04:19.780 A glass of wine, a dry-aged, bone-in ribeye steak, all of these things are of grace.

00:04:28.320 In your notes, I've written this.

00:04:30.580 Most Reformed theologians interpret 1 Timothy 4.10.

00:04:34.760 I'm sorry, let me read 1 Timothy 4.10 first.

00:04:37.900 For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God,

00:04:44.140 and this is where it gets complicated theologically,

00:04:46.300 who is the savior of all people especially those who believe this has plagued many biblical

00:04:53.900 commentators and theologians and christians and pastors for a very long time the idea that god

00:04:59.620 is the savior of all people especially those who believe the idea of god being the savior of all

00:05:05.900 people is not a problem for the calvinist it's not it's it's fairly easy to resolve that

00:05:13.420 appearance of tension and the idea that you know first john chapter 2 i believe it's verse 12

00:05:21.980 it says that you know that that god is um it says that not only us that he's not only savior of us

00:05:29.580 but all people right so you can read that and say okay well that means each and every individual

00:05:34.800 will be saved in which case you have drifted into heresy the heresy of universalism because

00:05:40.420 the Bible plainly teaches that many will perish apart from the saving grace that's found in Jesus

00:05:45.580 Christ or you can interpret that to mean all kinds of people that the author is saying that he's not

00:05:51.180 only the savior of us aka Jews those who are people of Israel according to the flesh but he is also

00:05:59.700 the savior of the world right we have that kind of language all is a word that is used often in the

00:06:06.700 New Testament, but also the word world, and both in context that speak of salvation. In terms of

00:06:13.760 the world, well, God saved the world in the midst of the flood. The scripture uses the very same

00:06:20.080 term, world. God saved the whole world. I thought you wiped out the whole world. No, he saved the

00:06:26.320 whole world by virtue of saving eight persons. Noah and his wife, their three sons, and their

00:06:33.220 three sons' wives. And God considers this saving the world. And it was. God didn't destroy the

00:06:40.860 world. He cleansed it. He cleansed the world from a deadly plague, an actual deadly plague.

00:06:48.920 Not to confuse anyone with deadly plagues today, but an actual deadly plague,

00:06:53.940 an eternally deadly plague. It's known as sin. God saved the world. He cleansed the world.

00:07:00.840 And so the idea of God saving the world, it simply means every tribe, tongue, and nation.

00:07:07.540 That God is not merely the God of Israel, but that He is the God of the Gentiles as well.

00:07:13.620 That they have been grafted in.

00:07:16.060 Grafted in is important. It's not two separate trees.

00:07:19.760 There is not a tree with a root to Christ for ethnic Israel, and then a second tree for the Gentiles.

00:07:28.380 two trees of life two trees of salvation one for the jews and one for the rest of the world this is

00:07:34.780 not biblical it is not the language that the scripture uses the the scripture speaks that

00:07:41.100 there is one tree with one root the son the son of jesse his posterity the king of kings the king

00:07:49.720 of israel the promised messiah the lord jesus christ he is the only root john 15 says he is

00:07:57.000 the only vine and israel sprang forth from that root one tree one natural olive tree but god did

00:08:05.900 not plant a second tree for the gentiles but rather he cut off many of the branches of this 0.96

00:08:12.880 tree and grafted the gentile nations into that one tree so that all both jews and gentiles alike 0.71

00:08:20.880 have one source of blessing, one source of salvation, one root, one root. God in this way

00:08:29.660 has saved the world. So the word all, the word world does not indicate each and every individual

00:08:36.120 person who has ever lived or ever will, but rather this inclusive language simply is meant to convey

00:08:43.500 that God is a savior of all kinds of people,

00:08:47.900 all tribes, all tongues,

00:08:51.120 that God is not a respecter of persons,

00:08:55.240 that God, as James says, does not show favoritism

00:08:58.540 when it comes to the outward appearance of man.

00:09:03.140 Rich or poor, black, white, male, female,

00:09:08.980 brazilian hebrew and god is not a respecter of persons in these regards so first simothy

00:09:19.560 4 10 for to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living god who is the

00:09:26.500 savior of all kinds of people is the way we should read it but this is the most difficult verse in my

00:09:33.000 opinion because it says especially those who believe if it just said he's the savior of all

00:09:40.300 people the arminian no doubt would give us grief all people the provision of christ for all and

00:09:49.320 we would say all simply means all kinds of people not each and every individual and the issue would

00:09:55.900 be settled what's difficult is that there's a subgroup that's explicitly labeled and identified

00:10:02.480 namely those who believe so this verse doesn't merely say that god say that god is the savior

00:10:09.280 of all kinds of people but that he's the savior of all kinds of people and in a particular sense

00:10:15.900 those who believe which begs the question in what way does god save the pagan in what way is god

00:10:25.200 saving the reprobate in what way does god save people that he actually doesn't save

00:10:32.380 that seems to be what the verse is saying now there are multiple ways in dealing with this text

00:10:40.400 most reformed theologians interpret first simothy 4 10 to say that the living god through the work

00:10:46.140 of his son jesus christ is the savior of all kinds of people as i've already discussed

00:10:50.700 especially and they would interpret that word especially to mean that is to say or particularly

00:10:59.400 those who believe in other words god shows no favoritism based on ethnicity gender age

00:11:05.720 socioeconomic status god has not willed to save each and every individual which would be again

00:11:12.300 the heresy of universalism but rather god has willed to save his elect from among every kind

00:11:18.840 of people from different kinds of people so according to this interpretation which would

00:11:24.700 be a reformed interpretation and the majority report according to this interpretation they

00:11:30.880 would say that the word especially simply means that is to say so it would read like this

00:11:36.400 the living god is the savior of all kinds of people not just the jews but every tribe tongue

00:11:43.440 and nation. However, when I say that, I mean only those elect, only those who believe among every

00:11:52.480 tribe, tongue, and nation. That's how that would be read. I think that's a faithful interpretation.

00:11:57.700 There's a reason why that's the majority report. I don't think that that's wrong. I simply think

00:12:03.260 that there's more to it than that. And of course, I could be wrong. But I think that there's more

00:12:08.720 to it than that. See, some Reformed theologians have suggested that 1 Timothy 4.10 means that

00:12:14.260 God is the Savior of all people in the sense of physical preservation. That he is saving all

00:12:19.700 people. And the word all in this context, that it actually does refer to a universal sense to each

00:12:25.460 and every individual. And so he is saving in one sense universally. In what sense? He is physically

00:12:33.420 preserving all people he is temporally saving all people in that sense and that God is the spiritual

00:12:41.860 or eternal savior of only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in other words according

00:12:48.580 to this interpretation God would be we might say a common grace savior of all but God is a special

00:12:56.700 grace savior only of some namely the elect i personally think that both interpretations are

00:13:05.400 faithful and true and i don't believe that there's any contradiction in that we believe

00:13:13.300 i believe i'll speak for myself that when it comes to hermeneutics and the way that we interpret and

00:13:20.420 read and understand scripture, that we should have a historical hermeneutic. We should have

00:13:27.940 a literal hermeneutic. We should have a grammatical hermeneutic. We don't read the Psalms the same

00:13:38.820 way that we would read a gospel narrative. There's a difference between historical narrative. There

00:13:43.900 are different genres of scripture, so they're not all to be interpreted in the same way. There's

00:13:49.100 poetic literature and then there is historical narrative literature wisdom literature and so a

00:13:58.420 grammatical hermeneutic but the tradition the reformed tradition has held that there should

00:14:03.700 also be in addition to these things an allegorical hermeneutic an analogous or an analogical hermeneutic

00:14:13.300 Or a typological, you might say.

00:14:15.300 A typological hermeneutic.

00:14:16.860 Some have said a Christological hermeneutic.

00:14:20.540 Ultimately, this is really the bedrock.

00:14:24.200 This gets down to the very bottom of the issue.

00:14:26.300 The distinction between a Calvinistic Baptist and a Reformed Baptist.

00:14:31.520 Or a Reformed Presbyterian. 0.94

00:14:33.800 And in defense of the Reformed Presbyterian,

00:14:36.080 they would say that the Reformed Baptist is not quite allegorical enough.

00:14:40.420 that the doctrine of analogy goes a little bit further.

00:14:45.620 But they would tip the hat to someone like me

00:14:48.320 and say, you're close, you're getting there.

00:14:51.600 So, but the Calvinistic Baptist,

00:14:53.660 John MacArthur would be a wonderful example,

00:14:55.400 incredibly faithful man.

00:14:57.240 But John MacArthur, in his defense,

00:15:00.180 I don't know if I would have done any different.

00:15:02.440 In the providence of God, are we not so much,

00:15:05.100 I mean, we're entirely a product of God's grace.

00:15:08.140 And to a large extent, we're a product of God's providence, the time and place that he put us.

00:15:16.540 So for John MacArthur, it lasts, what, 52 years of ministry?

00:15:20.200 As people are getting cutesy with biblical text, 1.00

00:15:25.480 oh, I think you could be gay and the Bible allows for it. 1.00

00:15:28.040 Or, oh, I think that you can interpret. 0.92

00:15:30.700 So John MacArthur, in order to stand against people getting cute with the word of God,

00:15:37.340 He held ferociously to a literal hermeneutic.

00:15:42.540 And so he despised any typological hermeneutic.

00:15:47.440 He was like, it's not worth it in his assessment.

00:15:50.700 It's not worth it, maybe, but it's not worth it

00:15:53.400 because with that might come in an understanding

00:15:56.260 of Old Testament messianic prophecies pointing to Christ,

00:16:01.160 but with it also is a floodgate of iniquity.

00:16:04.740 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.

00:16:16.680 And so I sympathize with John MacArthur and I respect him greatly.

00:16:19.540 I disagree, however, like Luther, who said against Rome when they said,

00:16:26.080 if you translate from the Vulgate, the Latin, into the vulgar tongue, which simply meant

00:16:32.500 a common tongue, the way that people speak, to where every individual Christian has a

00:16:38.640 Bible on their mantle and can read the scripture and interpret it from themselves, there will

00:16:43.600 be thousands of schisms in the body of Christ. 0.98

00:16:48.840 There will be a floodgate of iniquity, to which Luther responded by saying, so be it.

00:16:56.080 And ultimately, what Luther was getting at was he didn't disagree with Rome on this point. 0.67

00:17:01.920 Because Rome was right.

00:17:03.980 We have thousands of denominations.

00:17:07.520 They were right. 0.99

00:17:09.120 Translating the Bible into the common tongue has produced a massive flood of division and heresy. 0.72

00:17:18.320 But ultimately, the difference is this.

00:17:20.320 because again Rush Duny said it's not whether but which it's not whether but which from which

00:17:30.080 direction from which source from which oligarchy from which authority would you like to be fed

00:17:37.200 heresy because you're going to have to confront heresy so you either have one standard like Rome

00:17:44.440 who twists the word of God

00:17:48.460 to where no one can find the truth,

00:17:52.440 where mass is done in the Latin

00:17:54.320 that people don't even speak.

00:17:56.300 Did you know the phrase hocus pocus?

00:17:58.640 This mystical, magical, hocus pocus,

00:18:01.520 the wave of the wand.

00:18:02.480 Do you know where that comes from? 1.00

00:18:04.300 It comes from the Latin mass.

00:18:06.980 I can't pronounce it,

00:18:08.220 so I'm not even going to attempt to try,

00:18:09.940 but there was the Latin phrase

00:18:11.340 that sounds similar to hocus pocus

00:18:13.860 which was the phrase that the priest would utter when he would transition the eucharist and the

00:18:21.080 wine into the literal body and blood of christ which is a doctrine that we would deny transubstantiation

00:18:28.800 but he would utter the phrase that sounded very similar to the phrase we now are familiar with

00:18:35.780 hocus pocus and we get the phrase hocus pocus even in our culture today because what we're

00:18:41.360 referencing when we say hocus pocus is wishy-wash mysticism gobbledygook weirdness magical fantasy

00:18:53.280 fantasy that's just that's dreaming that's that's fanatical it's it's it's silly that's where the

00:19:00.600 word comes from and it's absolutely appropriate because roman catholicism certainly during the 0.84

00:19:08.000 dark ages right before the reformation was silly silly is a perfectly wonderful word

00:19:14.380 to describe roman catholicism it was absolutely silly the people had no clue what was going on 0.74

00:19:21.720 that's where they we get the word hocus pocus that shows you how in the dark the people were

00:19:27.460 they didn't know what the priest was saying and that's why the priest relied so little on content

00:19:33.020 word right we believe as protestants that we are a word centric church that the church should be

00:19:39.200 centered upon not what we see but upon the word faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of

00:19:47.900 god but the catholic priests and bishops and cardinals they relied so much on imagery not

00:19:54.280 only did they break the second commandment and having graven images and worshiping idols and

00:20:00.920 statues made to saints exalting mary as a co-redeemer with her son but in addition to all

00:20:07.780 this they had robes and tassels and colors and prisms and lights and and all these different

00:20:16.100 decorations and and artifacts and this is holy and that is holy and holy water and everything

00:20:23.920 was about sight it was meant to wow see that that's what you do when you don't have an argument

00:20:30.400 when you don't have an actual argument based on substance what do you do well you have to you have

00:20:39.500 to spruce it up and some other way to where it won't be questioned right how can you go against

00:20:46.820 rome how do you disagree with the guy who speaks a language you don't even understand

00:20:52.520 and how can you disagree with a guy whose hat is so big i mean surely a hat that size

00:20:58.760 communicates a certain degree of credibility, does it not?

00:21:01.860 I mean, they don't just hand hats like that out, willy-nilly.

00:21:05.820 I mean, this guy, he must be trusted.

00:21:08.560 Look at the length of his robe.

00:21:10.500 Look at how big that Bible is that he's carrying,

00:21:13.260 that no one can read.

00:21:14.980 And he's saying that this is what it says,

00:21:16.780 and no one can fact-check him.

00:21:19.840 There's no way to offer a counter.

00:21:23.440 Proverbs says, one is thought right until another cross-examines.

00:21:26.320 but what do you do if there's no potential for cross-examination because you can't see the data

00:21:32.280 you can't you you don't have a common source that you can both go to and reference see as

00:21:41.000 protestants we both have the scripture we still disagree but at least we're both able to point

00:21:47.100 to something outside of ourselves it's not just me versus you it's thus saith the lord

00:21:54.480 now do we speak for the lord wrongly at times even often yes should we be much more careful

00:22:04.300 about that yes matthew henry the great puritan he said that every time we misinterpret the scripture

00:22:09.660 and communicate it to someone else it is to take the lord's name in vain

00:22:13.400 because we're putting the lord's name onto a doctrine that is not his

00:22:20.380 so mis-exegesis is a breach of the third commandment so it is a serious thing to

00:22:28.280 to grapple with the text to interpret the scripture and martin luther he said given the

00:22:36.400 choice of there being one church one denomination no schisms no factions no divisions one translation

00:22:44.840 I mean, how many translations in the Bible do we have?

00:22:47.840 So one translation, one ecclesiastical priesthood,

00:22:53.080 one cohesive doctrine,

00:22:56.040 given that choice versus thousands.

00:22:59.260 Martin Luther's pushback was not,

00:23:00.960 you're exaggerating Rome.

00:23:02.520 It won't be that bad.

00:23:03.520 No, that's not his disagreement.

00:23:05.360 His disagreement is, it will be that bad.

00:23:08.600 But the point is this,

00:23:10.120 better to have 3,000 different versions of the truth

00:23:14.840 but the actual truth to be present, to be available.

00:23:21.960 3,000 different falsehoods, but the truth can be found.

00:23:27.500 It'll be difficult to find it, but it can be found.

00:23:32.240 Versus to have one falsehood where the truth is completely absent.

00:23:39.460 See, what we have today is this, massive amounts of false doctrine.

00:23:44.840 but true doctrine can be found

00:23:49.600 by grace,

00:23:51.840 through prayer,

00:23:54.260 through diligent study,

00:23:56.240 for the people in Rome,

00:23:59.560 underneath bishops,

00:24:01.280 priests like Tetzel,

00:24:02.900 selling indulgences

00:24:04.340 to the most downtrodden people

00:24:08.840 you could imagine.

00:24:10.280 There was no.

00:24:12.020 Think of it,

00:24:12.720 if I was to use an analogy,

00:24:13.740 think of it like this.

00:24:14.840 A needle in a haystack versus a singular piece of hay, but no needle at all.

00:24:24.540 That's the choice.

00:24:26.500 That's the option.

00:24:28.280 One stalk, one bushel of hay, but there is no needle.

00:24:36.560 No one can find it, even if they tried.

00:24:40.060 Versus a haystack, what we're dealing with today, it's hard.

00:24:45.620 It may take me 50 years to find the needle.

00:24:50.220 But it is there.

00:24:54.040 That's ultimately the dichotomy that existed.

00:25:00.260 And it's worth mentioning that that's really what we have today as well.

00:25:03.240 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.

00:25:16.920 So we have the Reformation with Luther, and we have the Gutenberg printing press.

00:25:22.880 And that's not a coincidence in the sovereignty of God.

00:25:25.180 and today i see once more a resurgence and a reformation in the church again and we have

00:25:33.960 the dawn of the internet social media podcasting where all of a sudden ultimately what you have is

00:25:41.660 well you have a removal and a replacing of the gatekeepers rome was the gatekeepers

00:25:48.200 and we've had gatekeepers in evangelicalism in our day some of them have been faithful and many

00:25:56.220 have been faithless but then all of a sudden you can get a following without having their

00:26:04.220 approval used to you had to go to seminary you had to jump through the hoops you had to work

00:26:13.580 your way up in the Southern Baptist Convention or the PCA. You had to get the tip of the hat

00:26:19.580 from whoever was in charge, the leaders, and then eventually you might get your conference.

00:26:26.980 Eventually you might get your platform. Eventually you might get your following.

00:26:32.800 And now a little guy like A.D. Robles with a webcam and a home office can speak to

00:26:42.480 thousands of people.

00:26:45.860 And with it comes a new flood of iniquity.

00:26:49.760 A million different wrong interpretations.

00:26:53.780 But the truth is present.

00:26:57.820 The last way I'll say it is this.

00:26:59.460 Better a thousand falsehoods where the truth is present

00:27:02.180 than a unified falsehood where the truth is absent.

00:27:08.320 And it's a mercy of the Lord.

00:27:10.440 It's a mercy of the Lord.

00:27:11.980 all that back to the point of our hermeneutic back to the point of the way that we read and

00:27:17.220 understand and interpret scripture better to have a typological analogical hermeneutic in addition

00:27:23.460 to a grammatical historical literal hermeneutic knowing that it will be abused by progressive

00:27:29.720 christians knowing that it will be taken as license for twisting and perverting the word of god

00:27:36.860 and a whole host of manners.

00:27:40.360 But knowing that it also allows us

00:27:42.540 to read the scripture rightly.

00:27:45.300 Knowing that it allows us to read

00:27:47.120 especially the Old Testament rightly.

00:27:50.920 To see certain portions of scripture

00:27:53.420 and how they point to Christ.

00:27:57.060 Having a covenantal understanding.

00:28:02.560 Dispensationalism is simply the fruit

00:28:04.420 of a hermeneutic that is not it has no room or place for a typological reading of the text

00:28:11.900 that's how dispensationalism has come about it has come about as a reaction

00:28:17.920 to people taking liberty with biblical text and then removing an analogous understanding of

00:28:26.000 reading the scripture for fear that it might be abused dispensationalism i might add has also

00:28:32.600 come about as a result of people getting very excited about israel becoming a sovereign nation

00:28:37.720 about 75 years ago as well that has something to do with it also but my point in all of that is to

00:28:44.920 say that how we read the scripture our hermeneutic our understanding our analogous understanding of

00:28:52.340 the scripture matters and with that all being said therefore it is quite possible and even i think

00:29:00.260 probable in many cases and with many texts of scripture that there can be more than one meaning

00:29:07.400 to the text the logical fallacy and the unbiblical understanding is when we say that a text can have

00:29:16.720 more than one meaning and those two meanings or interpretations are contradicting

00:29:22.040 that is what the christians should have no tolerance for so the most common example would be

00:29:31.300 a bible study perhaps performed in a home where you go around the room and each person says what

00:29:38.240 the text means for them the bible doesn't have individual interpretations the bible doesn't mean

00:29:48.520 anything for you insofar as it meaning something exclusively for you the bible was not written to

00:29:57.140 you and you alone the bible was written to people it was written to nations it is corporate by nature

00:30:08.740 so the bible doesn't it doesn't mean something for joel webin and then means something else for

00:30:14.940 connor hensley and those two things contradict how often have you been in that kind of environment

00:30:20.300 where 15 people are seated and all of a sudden we get 15 different personal interpretations

00:30:26.100 and seven of them contradict one another and if you ever even begin as terribly as possible to

00:30:34.200 push back the the counter that is presented as this well that's my interpretation as though

00:30:42.880 each individual has some kind of inalienable right to a private and personal interpretation

00:30:49.480 that's not true you don't have that right you don't get to have your private and personal

00:30:58.460 interpretation however that does not mean that a text can't have more than one interpretation

00:31:05.320 so we can't throw out the baby with the bathwater as we try to resist a lack of clarity

00:31:14.240 division confusion with interpreting text we cannot go so far as to say well every text only

00:31:21.840 has one interpretation it's never analogous it's always literal and that's the way it is

00:31:28.080 no a text can have more than one interpretation a messianic prophecy would be a perfect example

00:31:33.440 david means something by what he says and it is relevant and true for israel in that day

00:31:43.880 and yet in a deeper more eternal prophetic sense it means something about the king of all kings

00:31:51.280 the one who one day will come and sit on david's throne and it means something spiritual as well

00:31:58.400 is literal two texts can have more than one interpretation so long as it's not a private

00:32:04.500 interpretation it is corporate always in both senses and it is not a contradicting interpretation

00:32:11.680 all that said i believe both these interpretations with first timothy chapter 4 verse 10

00:32:18.220 are correct i believe that in one sense what paul is saying to timothy is that god is the savior of

00:32:26.620 All kinds, not universally, each and every individual, but all kinds of people.

00:32:31.820 However, only those who believe.

00:32:34.920 That's a faithful reading.

00:32:36.440 I also think that this text means that God is actually, in a universal sense,

00:32:41.880 the Savior of each and every individual.

00:32:45.280 In a physical preservation saving sense.

00:32:49.040 But he is only the eternal and spiritual Savior of the elect,

00:32:53.600 of those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:32:56.620 That God is a common grace savior of all and a special grace savior of some.

00:33:06.380 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.

00:33:18.500 Ecclesiastes says it like this, that God causes it to rain on both the wicked and the righteous.

00:33:26.620 God works providentially through agency, natural agency, human agency.

00:33:33.320 But it is always God as the original mover, the unmoved mover, the original cause of all things.

00:33:44.260 Meaning that every good and perfect gift that comes down from heaven, it comes from the Father of lights.

00:33:50.640 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.

00:34:02.240 God is the source of all good in this world.

00:34:07.540 And every good and perfect gift, every blessing that comes to any person, both the believer and the unbeliever alike.

00:34:16.120 eternal blessings most certainly to the believer but even temporal and physical blessings to the

00:34:23.560 pagan all have their root in God he is the source of all goodness he is the source of all blessing

00:34:32.240 so psalm 67 verse 1 may God be gracious to us and bless us

00:34:41.680 there is no blessing apart from god's grace there can be no blessing apart from god's grace

00:34:51.480 we know that that's true when we think eternally we know that that's true when we think spiritually

00:34:58.220 we know that that's true when we think of salvation for the people of god

00:35:04.140 all I'm saying is that we should think more broadly that should be the pinnacle of our thought

00:35:12.500 but not the extent of our thought not only is it of God's grace that he eternally saves sinners

00:35:19.900 but it's of God's grace that child molesters get to eat and it's of God's grace that rain

00:35:28.680 falls from heaven. It's of God's grace that we're given marriage. It's of God's grace that we have

00:35:36.460 homes. It's of God's grace that I'm able to take my very next breath. May God be gracious to us

00:35:46.060 and bless us. The psalmist cannot even begin to call upon a blessing from the Lord without first

00:35:54.140 saying, may God be gracious

00:35:56.680 because there is no blessing from the Lord

00:36:00.060 apart from grace.

00:36:03.820 And to think otherwise

00:36:05.120 is to minimize the holiness of God

00:36:08.920 and to make light of the severity

00:36:11.560 of humanity's sin.

00:36:14.440 Psalm 67, verse 2,

00:36:15.900 that your way may be known on earth,

00:36:18.040 your saving power among all nations.

00:36:21.380 The revelation of God's law

00:36:22.760 is a wonderful blessing.

00:36:24.660 We preach God's law here

00:36:26.320 in this church

00:36:28.020 week in and week out

00:36:29.760 because it's biblical,

00:36:32.180 because it permeates

00:36:34.140 all of scripture,

00:36:35.940 because I think it's right

00:36:37.160 and proper

00:36:37.900 to be a part of a church's liturgy

00:36:40.160 and church history

00:36:41.060 seems to support that.

00:36:43.140 And because it's also been

00:36:45.040 largely forgotten

00:36:46.040 by the church today,

00:36:48.720 the church has become

00:36:50.320 antinomium.

00:36:52.760 An absence of law, not just against law, but an absence of law.

00:36:58.420 Many churches have completely thrown out the third use of God's law,

00:37:02.980 that the law of God has no function in the life of the Christian.

00:37:07.260 Certainly the law does not save us, but the law is a lamp unto our feet. 0.86

00:37:11.740 It does not show the Christian the way to inherit salvation,

00:37:14.860 but it does show the Christian the way to respond in gratitude

00:37:18.860 for the free salvation we've received

00:37:20.940 by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.

00:37:24.200 And yet many Christians,

00:37:26.400 for fear of being called legalistic,

00:37:29.180 and in order to welcome the seeker

00:37:31.500 into their churches,

00:37:33.440 have foregone any application

00:37:36.180 of the law of God today.

00:37:39.540 So the law of God is necessary.

00:37:42.240 I believe even more necessary

00:37:44.180 in this current time,

00:37:46.380 because it's been forgotten and neglected,

00:37:48.860 And yet, all that being said, is wonderful and good and holy and right as the law of God is,

00:37:55.600 it is still not the most significant blessing that God has bestowed upon humanity.

00:38:01.800 The revelation of God's law is a blessing, and it is wonderful, and it must be preached,

00:38:07.740 especially in our lawless generation.

00:38:11.640 But the law of God still pales in comparison, not in the mind of God himself,

00:38:17.620 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.

00:38:31.220 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.

00:38:40.020 David says elsewhere in the Psalms

00:38:42.980 that you show me your way

00:38:46.180 speaking of God's law

00:38:47.720 or you are a light unto my path

00:38:50.860 speaking of God's law

00:38:52.440 and so at first glance

00:38:54.480 this phrase your way

00:38:55.860 it may appear to be a reference

00:38:58.180 to the law of God

00:38:59.180 but the phrase your saving power

00:39:01.960 in the second half of Psalm 67

00:39:04.320 verse 2

00:39:05.340 removes all doubt

00:39:08.080 that the person and work of the coming Messiah

00:39:10.980 is what the author ultimately had in mind.

00:39:15.840 This Old Testament human author

00:39:18.080 inspired by the divine author

00:39:19.820 who is the Holy Spirit

00:39:21.100 did not know the name of the Messiah,

00:39:25.200 did not know all the intimate details

00:39:28.640 and workings of the Messiah

00:39:30.400 as we do today

00:39:31.980 on the other side of the cross.

00:39:35.300 But they did know that there was a Messiah

00:39:38.040 and that there would be no salvation found in anyone else.

00:39:43.120 They knew that ultimately they needed a substitute,

00:39:47.560 a lamb of God to take the penalty for their sin.

00:39:51.900 They knew that there was a Christ, a son of God,

00:39:56.320 who eventually one day would come,

00:39:58.760 the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head.

00:40:03.600 The seed of Abraham through whom all the nations would be blessed.

00:40:08.040 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.

00:40:25.440 and it was just as you and i are saved for these old testament saints including the author of our

00:40:32.800 text today it was by grace alone through faith alone in christ alone that they were saved

00:40:40.000 that's right all of them in christ alone they knew this and so i believe that the author what

00:40:47.620 he's getting at under the inspiration of the spirit is the gospel that your way may be known

00:40:54.920 verse 2 on earth that is to say in all the earth not just a mystery concealed in heaven

00:41:03.100 that angels long to look into as hebrew says but something that has been revealed a mystery now

00:41:12.760 manifest and not just in heaven with angelic beings but on earth with men and not just in

00:41:19.400 some remote corner of the earth for a few elite individuals but on all the earth every tribe

00:41:26.200 every tongue every nation that your way may be known to all men here on earth

00:41:36.260 and what way is that the law of god in this case i believe no what way is that

00:41:45.460 your saving power among all nations your gospel your son the messiah that he would be known

00:41:59.520 in all the earth among all the nations the author cannot be speaking of the law in this sense

00:42:07.100 because romans 3 3 says for what god has done for god has done what the law weakened by the flesh

00:42:15.100 could not do.

00:42:20.060 By sending his own son 0.99

00:42:21.940 in the likeness of sinful flesh

00:42:23.620 and for sin,

00:42:24.740 he condemned sin in the flesh.

00:42:28.340 That is to say,

00:42:29.180 the law is powerless to save

00:42:30.960 and not because there is some flaw

00:42:33.180 in the law.

00:42:34.840 It rhymes, so it must be true.

00:42:36.400 We know how that goes.

00:42:38.360 It's not because there's a flaw in the law,

00:42:40.580 it's because there's a flaw in the flesh.

00:42:45.100 But either way, the law still, because of the flesh, is powerless to save.

00:42:55.140 Titus 2.11 says,

00:42:56.940 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

00:43:02.100 It's the grace of God.

00:43:04.300 The saving grace of God.

00:43:06.620 The grace afforded to us by the person and work of Jesus Christ.

00:43:11.820 that your way may be known on earth,

00:43:15.200 your saving power among all the nations.

00:43:17.140 This verse cannot be speaking of the law of God.

00:43:20.840 It must be speaking of the work of Christ.

00:43:26.120 Which, C.A.,

00:43:28.340 is precisely why we have to have a typological hermeneutic.

00:43:32.060 We have to be able to read texts like this

00:43:34.400 in light of the New Testament,

00:43:37.080 under the banner of analogy.

00:43:39.220 knowing that it will allow

00:43:44.020 those who want to pervert the scripture

00:43:47.240 it will allow opportunity for them

00:43:49.460 to get cute with the text

00:43:50.700 and let our response

00:43:52.500 as those who are classically reformed

00:43:54.760 be as Luther's response to Rome 0.57

00:43:56.500 so be it

00:43:59.400 Psalm 67 verse 3 through 4 says this

00:44:03.860 let the peoples praise you O God

00:44:05.960 let all the peoples praise you

00:44:07.580 let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations

00:44:14.560 upon earth. Selah. John Gill, the Baptist version of John Calvin. So fantastic, but not quite as

00:44:24.960 good, but still really good. He says this, meaning not the people of the world, commentating on these

00:44:33.060 two verses verse 3 and 4 meaning not the people of the world at the last day at the general judgment

00:44:40.520 with a final judgment of all men which will be righteous when God will judge the world in

00:44:48.300 righteousness according to the strict rules of justice and equity by him whom he has ordained

00:44:54.700 but rather verse 3 and 4 according to Gill and many other reformed theologians verse 3 and 4

00:45:02.520 refers to the righteous judgment

00:45:05.600 which will be executed

00:45:06.960 on the enemies of Christ's church 0.97

00:45:09.000 and people in this life

00:45:11.560 is the implication

00:45:12.400 which will be a matter of great joy

00:45:15.580 to shouts of great gladness

00:45:20.440 verse 3 and 4 again

00:45:23.260 let the peoples praise you

00:45:26.420 oh God

00:45:27.220 let all the peoples praise you

00:45:29.640 let the nations be glad

00:45:32.140 and sing for joy.

00:45:34.760 For you judge the peoples with equity

00:45:36.800 and guide the nations upon the earth.

00:45:40.060 Speaking of the final judgment,

00:45:43.840 no.

00:45:45.640 In this case, it is more likely,

00:45:47.780 I believe the more faithful interpretation is to say,

00:45:50.340 for you judge the wicked in this life,

00:45:57.240 here on this earth,

00:45:59.640 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

00:46:17.540 And what should the righteous respond with? 0.98

00:46:22.580 Again, verse 3.

00:46:24.980 Let the peoples praise you, O God.

00:46:28.000 Let all the peoples praise you.

00:46:32.080 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. 0.99

00:46:37.580 Do not fall in to the arrogance that is so prevalent among Christians today

00:46:45.280 that asserts that we are somehow more compassionate than God himself.

00:46:53.740 Stop it.

00:46:58.000 I get angry when I hear what ultimately amounts to people claiming to be more loving than God.

00:47:11.500 God gives us the proper response.

00:47:15.820 Let God be true and every man a liar, as the scripture testifies elsewhere.

00:47:21.580 God tells his people how to respond when he shatters the kneecaps of his enemies and breaks them to pieces.

00:47:34.340 And the proper response is gladness and praise and rejoicing.

00:47:42.840 so when God begins to topple powers and principalities in this world and he will

00:47:54.240 it is not a matter of if it is merely a matter of when he will do as he did for Israel great

00:48:03.200 and marvelous wonders in our midst

00:48:06.340 it may be a frightening time to be alive but i think the excitement in this season far outweighs

00:48:15.200 the fear or at least it should for the people of god i'm excited to be alive i am excited like

00:48:24.740 psalm 2 says when i see the rulers of this world shaking their fist at god in heaven

00:48:32.120 and attempting to sever the bonds

00:48:34.900 of his sovereign rule over all things,

00:48:38.460 I get excited knowing that my Bible tells me

00:48:41.760 that God sits in heaven and he laughs

00:48:45.540 and holds them in derision.

00:48:49.040 And I get excited thinking,

00:48:53.520 in what way will we get to witness

00:48:57.440 God in his marvelous power

00:49:01.420 bringing to nothing the authorities and pagans of this world could you imagine being among the

00:49:11.540 people of israel and bondage in egypt and in god's sovereignty being chosen as the generation 0.94

00:49:19.900 where he would send marvelous wonders ten plagues the parting of the red sea could you imagine i

00:49:29.700 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.

00:49:53.860 the fear the terror but also the wonder knowing that the blood of the lamb

00:50:02.520 is on the mantle of your door and that you and your children are covered

00:50:10.460 are blessed are secure in the promise of god can you imagine the the fear yes but the

00:50:23.280 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.

00:50:44.160 and then all of a sudden moses holds up his rod

00:50:49.160 and says behold people of israel the people of god he has promised that he shall do great wonders

00:50:58.160 marvelous works in your midst and he holds up his rod and all of a sudden a great wind from heaven

00:51:05.620 blows down and two walls of the sea rise up

00:51:10.340 and all of Israel walks through on dry land.

00:51:15.500 And the Presbyterian gets excited

00:51:17.700 because the New Testament says they were all baptized.

00:51:23.840 I can't imagine.

00:51:26.060 I cannot imagine.

00:51:29.080 And I'm not saying that we're going to get

00:51:31.260 to witness things like that.

00:51:34.180 But I believe with every fiber of my being that the Lord is doing a marvelous work in this generation.

00:51:44.480 Romans 9 says this.

00:51:48.020 What if God raised up Pharaoh so that his glory, his power to the righteous might be revealed?

00:52:00.620 see for God to show off and he does not in a vain fleshly arrogant way but God does delight 0.55

00:52:10.160 to show his glory but for God to show even the tip of the iceberg of his power his majesty his

00:52:21.740 wonders his might he has to create and sustain and prop up his own opposition that's how strong

00:52:33.120 our God is our God is so powerful so mighty and so glorious if he doesn't use and delegate at

00:52:40.540 least a portion of his own power to sustain his own opposition there'll be no opportunity to show

00:52:47.860 how strong he actually is.

00:52:50.300 Did you know that?

00:52:51.780 So God actually had to designate

00:52:53.920 a portion of his power

00:52:55.520 to propping up Pharaoh.

00:52:58.680 Because by comparison,

00:53:00.960 Pharaoh is so weak 0.98

00:53:02.580 and so puny 1.00

00:53:05.460 that all of his power

00:53:07.920 as the leader of the most powerful

00:53:09.980 empire in the world at that time,

00:53:12.880 all of it is like

00:53:14.480 is like a gnat trying to make it through niagara falls i believe that's a paul watcher quote

00:53:23.220 it's a good one it's nothing so god has to supernaturally sustain and raise up pharaoh

00:53:33.220 just like he does all rulers of this world god has to delegate a portion of his own power

00:53:40.280 to propping up an enemy

00:53:44.280 just so that his people can marvel

00:53:49.760 when he knocks it down.

00:53:53.180 I believe that that's what he's doing presently.

00:53:58.540 That he is holding up 1.00

00:54:00.860 a weak, feeble, foolish old man in the White House. 1.00

00:54:08.580 just so he can knock them over 1.00

00:54:12.700 and so that the people of God

00:54:15.840 can praise the Lord,

00:54:21.340 be glad and sing for joy.

00:54:25.480 Let us fight.

00:54:27.580 Let us resist.

00:54:31.280 But when we win, 1.00

00:54:34.500 a lot of Christians don't have a plan for winning 0.93

00:54:36.820 because their theology doesn't include winning. 0.99

00:54:41.840 They don't think they'll win.

00:54:45.080 And they shoot themselves in the foot

00:54:47.520 as though to help Christ out,

00:54:50.120 to speed up their loss,

00:54:51.880 which is precisely what they think he wants.

00:54:54.560 I'm going to try my best to be faithful

00:54:56.720 by losing even faster

00:54:58.260 because that's God's will

00:55:03.180 and that's what God loves.

00:55:05.820 God loves a losing church.

00:55:11.160 I don't believe that doctrine.

00:55:13.620 I used to.

00:55:15.960 No, I believe that Christ wins. 1.00

00:55:18.580 And to be fair to the pre-mill, 1.00

00:55:21.620 they believe Christ wins also. 0.97

00:55:24.140 But as I said before, I think the difference is,

00:55:26.680 does Christ win despite his losing church?

00:55:30.060 Or does Christ win through his church?

00:55:35.060 I don't think that it's just the church gets weaker and weaker and loses more and more.

00:55:40.940 And then finally, in the bottom of the ninth, Christ steps in and wins the game.

00:55:47.100 So the church benefits from his victory.

00:55:51.320 But the church itself was losing terribly.

00:55:56.940 No, I believe that Christ wins not despite his church, but through his church.

00:56:01.540 And one of the scriptures that I would point to is I will build my church.

00:56:06.640 All authority in heaven has been given to me.

00:56:10.860 I will build my church so the church will not shrink but advance.

00:56:16.980 And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

00:56:21.040 The gates being a defensive mechanism.

00:56:23.820 So the church is not on the ropes taking blows from hell.

00:56:27.000 but rather Christ is building his church in such a way

00:56:30.420 that hell is on the defense

00:56:32.300 and the church is the battering ram of Christ

00:56:36.120 that is knocking down the gates of hell.

00:56:41.600 So it's not if it happens winning, victory.

00:56:48.380 It's when it happens.

00:56:51.840 And I believe that verse 3 and 4 of our text

00:56:54.360 cause us to carefully consider

00:56:59.680 what our response will be.

00:57:03.900 And I would suggest that it should not be

00:57:06.020 a response of arrogance and gloating

00:57:08.040 as though we brought something about

00:57:09.940 in our own strength.

00:57:12.100 But it should be a response of joy and gladness.

00:57:17.760 That when the enemies of God are put to open shame,

00:57:21.220 that the people of God should not be so arrogant

00:57:25.720 as to pretend we're more sympathetic

00:57:28.720 and compassionate than God himself.

00:57:33.020 We should not, essentially this is what we do,

00:57:36.080 we should not indirectly chastise God

00:57:41.180 for doing that which is just.

00:57:45.400 Let the people's praise.

00:57:47.820 I think that's the difference.

00:57:49.380 In a nutshell.

00:57:50.020 When God gains for himself victory on earth, do we praise God?

00:57:58.820 You have done right.

00:58:03.240 Or do we chastise God?

00:58:07.040 You have been harsh.

00:58:11.720 Just wasn't very loving.

00:58:13.500 and the way you defeated your enemies

00:58:16.820 and put them to shame, I just,

00:58:19.180 but was it nice?

00:58:22.260 That entire thought process

00:58:26.340 is not rooted in compassion.

00:58:30.420 It's not rooted in love.

00:58:32.480 It's not rooted in humility.

00:58:34.880 It's rooted in arrogance.

00:58:37.440 Thinking that you know more

00:58:39.100 than the infinitely wise God

00:58:40.720 and thinking that you love more

00:58:42.960 than the omnibenevolent God.

00:58:47.560 Repent of your pride.

00:58:52.100 Bringing the plane home.

00:58:54.360 Psalm 67, verse 5 through 6.

00:58:56.600 Let the peoples praise you, O God.

00:58:58.980 Let all the peoples praise you.

00:59:01.380 The earth has yielded its increase.

00:59:03.180 God, our God, shall bless us.

00:59:05.300 The psalmist is likely speaking here

00:59:07.320 in a spiritual sense of the Christian church.

00:59:10.300 The word of God preached in the world

00:59:12.440 is the seed which is sown into all the world. It converts to Christ. Its converts to Christ

00:59:19.660 are the increase or the fruit of it. And this increase is of God. It is the work of his grace

00:59:27.080 which is promised to accompany the preaching of his word. 1 Corinthians 3.6. You're probably

00:59:34.480 very familiar with this text. It says, Paul speaking, I planted, Apollos watered, but God

00:59:41.940 gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives

00:59:49.400 the growth. So the progression of the text thus far is this. The psalmist cries out and asks the

00:59:56.640 Lord for a blessing. But before he does, he first recognizes that there can be no blessing apart

01:00:03.800 from God's grace.

01:00:06.640 Implicitly, he is acknowledging his sin

01:00:08.860 and the sin of his nation 0.61

01:00:10.700 and the sin of the nations

01:00:12.680 plurally before the Lord,

01:00:15.000 but asking the Lord

01:00:16.100 because not on the basis

01:00:17.760 of human merit,

01:00:19.060 but on the basis

01:00:19.760 of his own character

01:00:21.260 that he is the gracious God.

01:00:24.280 On that basis,

01:00:25.540 the basis of the gracious

01:00:26.740 character of God,

01:00:28.000 he asked for a blessing

01:00:29.280 that God's face would shine upon.

01:00:33.800 And he asked for this using the best motive that you could ever set before the Lord.

01:00:40.880 God's own glory.

01:00:43.560 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.

01:00:51.260 And would you do it, God?

01:00:53.620 Not just for our good.

01:00:56.640 But would you do it that your way may be known on the earth?

01:01:01.240 Would you do it that your glory might be manifest in the world?

01:01:05.880 Would you do it, God, to show people how awesome you truly are?

01:01:13.140 But knowing that the pinnacle of your glory, what brings you praise,

01:01:20.500 is also your saving power that does us good.

01:01:26.740 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?

01:01:44.580 Would you shatter them like glass and blow them away like dust?

01:01:52.660 And when you do, let us, let our response not be to chastise the Lord for being too harsh,

01:02:00.700 but to praise the Lord for his justice and doing that which is right.

01:02:09.420 And when your enemies are scattered and brought to nothing,

01:02:14.900 let the increase of your work increase all the more.

01:02:20.120 That's verse 6.

01:02:22.620 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.

01:02:35.500 That you would pour out blessing for your glory.

01:02:39.980 And you would bring your enemies to nothing for our good and your glory.

01:02:45.240 and that that would set the landscape

01:02:47.660 as your enemies are pushed back

01:02:49.720 it would set the terrain, the landscape

01:02:51.960 the context for you to

01:02:53.940 to increase the church

01:02:56.320 even more for your glory

01:02:58.420 and then if it be your will 0.57

01:03:01.080 if you want to prop up another enemy like Pharaoh

01:03:03.640 simply so that you can knock him down

01:03:06.140 to show off a little more

01:03:08.380 let the people praise you

01:03:10.300 and rejoice

01:03:11.640 it's this cycle of God

01:03:13.900 increasing his people, shattering his enemies for his glory and our good, for his glory and our good.

01:03:22.900 He increases his people out of grace. And when he shatters his enemies, we praise. He increases

01:03:29.380 his enemies or his people out of grace and he shatters his enemies and we praise and so on and

01:03:36.660 so on and so on until the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the water covers

01:03:43.280 the sea. And he finishes in verse seven by saying, God shall bless us. Let all the ends

01:03:52.720 of the earth fear him. It seems peculiar the way this psalm ends. It's the blessing of

01:04:02.720 god if you are the people of god by grace through faith alone if you belong to god

01:04:10.140 if the blood of the lamb is on your mantle what is there to fear

01:04:16.240 and it's especially peculiar that he would end the psalm by by saying let all the peoples of

01:04:26.280 the earth fear him which is common throughout the scripture but that he would preface that

01:04:33.580 statement not just statement but command to fear the lord by saying god should bless us

01:04:40.700 you would imagine that he would say god will destroy his enemies so let all the peoples of

01:04:47.560 the earth fear him but he says no god shall not just god could or he might no he's saying god

01:04:55.420 will bless us not if but when it is merely a matter of time more surely than the sun's rising

01:05:03.800 tomorrow morning is the blessing of God that is coming for his people you can take it to the bank

01:05:12.020 it's a guarantee he has set his seal upon it it will come as surely as anything else you can

01:05:20.700 imagine and more certain even than that god's blessing shall come to us so fear him

01:05:29.020 we do not fear god because of his blessings we fear god so that we might receive his blessings

01:05:37.260 see psalm 67 7 says god shall bless us in other words god's blessings are certain they are sure

01:05:44.220 to come, therefore, if God's blessings are so certain to come, then let all the ends

01:05:50.980 of the earth take haste to fear God.

01:05:54.100 Why?

01:05:54.740 Because the fear of the Lord is precisely the necessary posture in order to receive his

01:06:01.960 blessing.

01:06:04.440 Luke, finish with this, chapter 1, verse 46 through 50.

01:06:12.200 It's Mary's Magnificat.

01:06:14.220 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.

01:06:25.520 This is her joy filled song.

01:06:28.820 This is her delight filled ode to the Lord in response and gratitude for this marvelous promise of blessing.

01:06:38.240 that would bless all the peoples of the earth

01:06:40.520 but uniquely her

01:06:42.620 in the great honor of being

01:06:45.160 our Lord's mother

01:06:46.640 she says this

01:06:48.360 my soul magnifies the Lord

01:06:51.400 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

01:06:53.960 for he has looked upon

01:06:55.740 the humble estate of his servant

01:06:58.420 for behold from now on

01:07:00.260 all generations will call me blessed

01:07:02.440 for he who is mighty

01:07:04.080 has done great things for me

01:07:05.800 and holy is his name

01:07:07.780 and don't miss verse 50 and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation

01:07:18.500 you see the beauty of psalm 67 perhaps after my study this past week perhaps my favorite psalm now

01:07:26.100 the beauty of psalm 67 is that the final verse brings us full circle back to the first verse

01:07:34.800 The Lord shall bless us.

01:07:37.320 Therefore, let all the earth fear him.

01:07:41.680 Why?

01:07:43.740 Not fear him for his blessing,

01:07:46.900 but because fear is the necessary and appropriate posture of the people of God

01:07:50.960 in order to receive his blessing.

01:07:53.320 So he ends, the psalmist ends it by saying,

01:07:55.860 the blessing is coming, it is certain,

01:07:59.480 so now, right now, don't delay.

01:08:03.820 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.

01:08:18.440 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

01:08:26.560 So that you will be, you will be appropriately positioned to receive as much blessing from the Lord as possible.

01:08:36.340 As possible.

01:08:38.080 That's how the psalm ends.

01:08:39.980 The psalm ends and I want, as the one preaching the psalm today, I want you to feel the urgency.

01:08:46.900 That we would go out from our Lord's Day worship today with a sense of urgency.

01:08:52.000 Not an urgency of a fear of punishment or dread.

01:08:54.700 but an urgency of a fear of wonder

01:08:57.940 of the great God who punishes the wicked

01:09:00.600 but pours out such a blessing

01:09:02.280 that his people cannot contain it.

01:09:04.660 And with urgency we would go 0.82

01:09:06.320 to posture ourselves to fear

01:09:08.580 our great and gracious God

01:09:10.860 so that we have room to receive

01:09:13.440 as much blessing as possible.

01:09:15.560 The psalmist ends this psalm by saying

01:09:17.820 the blessing is coming, so fear him.

01:09:21.840 And that brings us all the way back to verse 1.

01:09:24.040 that says, may God be gracious to us and bless us.

01:09:29.400 See, Mary speaks of fear, saying,

01:09:32.280 and his mercy is for those who fear him.

01:09:36.080 The final thing the psalmist says in our text today

01:09:38.860 is to fear God.

01:09:41.460 Mary says that God's mercy is for those who fear him.

01:09:44.920 And it brings us all the way back to the first verse.

01:09:47.580 It says, may God be gracious,

01:09:50.000 Or we might say, merciful and bless us.

01:09:54.920 So, let us fear the Lord that we might be blessed.

01:10:01.020 Let's pray.

01:10:02.540 Father God, we thank you for your word.

01:10:05.100 We thank you for your truth.

01:10:06.960 We thank you for your grace.

01:10:08.920 We thank you for your blessing.

01:10:11.120 We also thank you for your justice.

01:10:13.760 We thank you for your power.

01:10:15.880 We thank you for your might and your glory.

01:10:20.000 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.

01:10:33.440 Father, we pray, we pray that your power might come quickly.

01:10:41.300 We pray, Lord, that not despite the church,

01:10:43.980 but through the church, through your people,

01:10:46.020 through courage, through righteousness,

01:10:49.120 and through humility,

01:10:51.820 that you would use your people

01:10:53.540 to bring about a great victory

01:10:55.960 over these present powers of darkness,

01:10:59.380 over the present tyranny,

01:11:01.660 the present perversion

01:11:04.220 in our day, in our nation.

01:11:08.480 father we pray that you would use us and we pray lord that the victory would be great

01:11:15.420 and if perhaps now you are holding that inevitable victory at bay simply to to prop up your enemies

01:11:24.520 a little taller so that you might gain even more glory when you use your church to knock them down

01:11:31.720 so be it.

01:11:34.080 But we trust that it will happen

01:11:36.060 and we trust it will be marvelous in our eyes.

01:11:41.720 Father, we pray that we would work towards this end

01:11:44.520 in a righteous manner.

01:11:47.440 And Lord, we pray that we also would respond properly

01:11:50.200 when it comes, not with gloating,

01:11:53.660 but also not with pretense,

01:11:57.160 imagining ourselves to be more loving than you.

01:11:59.780 we pray that we would respond to your glory as it's revealed here on earth in grace to your

01:12:07.180 people and justice to your enemies that we would respond to both with praise and shouts of gladness

01:12:15.060 and pray this in jesus name amen oh hi i didn't see you there thanks for sticking around i've

01:12:21.800 got an important announcement to make that's the theonomy and post-millennialism conference

01:12:26.280 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Theonomy, and Postmillennialism.

01:12:34.480 We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up. That's Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot,

01:12:39.120 Dr. Gary DeMar, non-Doctor Pastor Joel Webin, but we also have a bonus speaker, and that is

01:12:44.400 Dale Partridge from Real Christianity. Perhaps you've heard of him. If not, you should start

01:12:49.120 listening to his podcast. It's fantastic. Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team. We're

01:12:54.680 going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write in

01:12:59.280 questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas-style barbecue

01:13:04.180 meal on Friday that's a part of your registration fee. All that is covered. So you need to get that.

01:13:10.020 This is how you do it. Go and register right now at rightresponseconference.com. Again,

01:13:16.080 that's rightresponseconference.com. God bless.

The NXR Podcast - December 25, 2022

SUNDAY SERMON - Every Good And Perfect Gift ｜ Psalm 67

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