The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Pastors Who Shut Down Their Churches ｜ Psalm 63

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.

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00:00:18.080 One final time, our text for this Lord's Day is Psalm 63 verses 1 through 3.

00:00:23.360 The Bible says this,

00:00:24.560 O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you.

00:00:32.500 As in a dry and weary land where there is no water, I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

00:00:39.120 seeing your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips

00:00:45.160 will praise you. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated and we'll begin.

00:00:51.840 By way of introduction in your notes, if you'd like to follow along, I've written the following.

00:00:56.640 Psalm 63 begins with a heading that says,

00:00:59.980 A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

00:01:04.280 A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

00:01:07.560 If you were with us last Lord's Day, we had a similar context for the writing of that Psalm.

00:01:14.580 The context was that David was a fugitive.

00:01:19.060 He was hiding out.

00:01:20.460 His house was surrounded by militia, men who served King Saul.

00:01:26.040 But there's a difference in the context of our text today.

00:01:29.060 Very similar in many ways.

00:01:30.600 David is on the run.

00:01:31.740 Once again, he's in the wilderness. 0.75

00:01:33.660 He has been effectively severed from the kingdom of Israel. 0.79

00:01:37.420 And therefore, by being severed from the kingdom of Israel, he's been severed from the temple. 0.84

00:01:44.220 He's been severed from, well, the tabernacle at this point

00:01:47.000 because his son Solomon ultimately built and constructed the temple.

00:01:50.380 But he's been severed, separated from the place of worship.

00:01:55.480 The place where the glory of God dwelt.

00:01:58.820 The place of the presence of God.

00:02:00.840 Where there was the praise of God, the people of God, and the presence of God.

00:02:05.540 But this time, what has ultimately cast David out as a fugitive on the run,

00:02:11.180 what's cast him out into the wilderness to this dry and weary place is not king saul and his

00:02:17.900 persecution but very clearly from the text we see that that the source of david's exile in this

00:02:24.480 particular circumstance is actually his own son it's actually absalom we know this because later

00:02:32.700 in psalm 63 namely verse 11 david is clearly already king see when he was on the run from

00:02:40.780 king saul david had been anointed by samuel the prophet to be the new king of israel at a certain

00:02:47.040 point but he was not yet king he had not yet come into the throne but psalm chapter 63 verse 11 tells

00:02:54.040 us that david is already king and so we can assume by using inductive reasoning that that david must

00:03:02.620 be on the run a fugitive in the wilderness separated from israel and the tabernacle and

00:03:08.600 the dwelling place of the presence of God because not of Saul's persecution but rather his own son

00:03:15.480 Absalom. There are really only two key moments that David is a fugitive. It's when he's being

00:03:20.780 persecuted and hunted down by Saul and later on it's when he's being persecuted and hunted down

00:03:26.120 by his own son Absalom. Allow me to read 2 Samuel chapter 15 verses 2 through 5 to provide a little

00:03:33.780 bit of context for his son Absalom and what was going on this mutiny that his son that his son

00:03:41.500 acted upon it says this and Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate and

00:03:49.420 when any man had a dispute to come before the king that being David for judgment Absalom would call

00:03:56.220 to him and say from what city are you and when he said your servant is of such and such a tribe in

00:04:03.380 Israel Absalom would say to him see your claims are good and right but there is no man designated

00:04:10.280 by the king to hear you the king is not he's not personal he's a good preacher but not a good

00:04:17.700 shepherd right he doesn't he's not empathetic if only we had an empathetic leader right I mean

00:04:24.180 good policies who cares if only there was someone like me says Absalom as he intercepts notice what

00:04:31.760 he's doing he's intercepting people they're on their way to the king the king would have dealt

00:04:36.760 with with their circumstances he would have he would have executed justice the king was more

00:04:41.980 than happy to meet with his subjects to meet with the people of israel but absalom he's standing in

00:04:48.420 between the people and his father the king he's intercepting them on the way and he's saying i

00:04:54.560 like just the language here i like how he says from what city are you and all the person has

00:05:00.220 actually said at this point in their response to that very very specific question is i'm from such

00:05:05.720 and such a tribe in israel they haven't even really made their claim yet and absalon says

00:05:10.720 man you are wise your claims are true right i mean now there's a million applications for this

00:05:18.720 i can't help and this is self-serving and i'll i'll confess that up front i i don't think i'm

00:05:23.920 so much trying to serve myself as it's just my experience so i automatically think of well this

00:05:28.420 is what i think of i think of many senior pastors plights this is not the case connor is fantastic

00:05:34.520 so please hear that disclaimer but many senior pastors who are sinners themselves they've had

00:05:40.240 plenty of faults on their own but there are cases where a senior pastor has an absalon as his

00:05:46.060 associate pastor my dad's shaking his head he you know he's come from pastoral ministry and it's a

00:05:51.980 common thing where where the senior pastor he's usually most often in the pulpit and and he's the

00:05:58.020 buck stops here guy and not the buck stops here after uh shifting blame to every single party you

00:06:03.580 can imagine and then saying the buck stops that you know you guys might be familiar with examples

00:06:07.640 like that but an actual buck stops here a guy who actually takes responsibility and then

00:06:12.440 responsibility that's not even really his often is attributed to him because again he's he's the

00:06:17.780 visible he's the tip of the spear he is the visible leader so there can be a plurality of elders which

00:06:23.120 i would argue for i do believe that that's the biblical polity that there should be a plurality

00:06:27.260 of elders and that those elders should have equal weight and authority when it comes to making

00:06:30.920 decisions for the life of the church that the senior pastor doesn't get two votes so that so

00:06:35.840 the elders are equal in weight and authority but it does make sense that one elder right because

00:06:41.060 because we're not egalitarian and there is a difference right so there's there's a difference

00:06:45.860 in in a plurality of elders who have equal weight and authority um versus saying that they're all

00:06:51.760 the same equality and sameness androgyny are two different things see our culture has has

00:06:57.740 completely hijacked the word equality and made it androgyny so we can't be equal unless we're the

00:07:04.380 same right so you can't have a difference of people and an equality of worth and value

00:07:11.760 under the law without androgyny which is precisely just for the record i mean that's that's that's 1.00

00:07:19.160 what, you know, at least second wave, not necessarily first wave feminism, you know, 1.00

00:07:23.540 working, you know, on the widget factory and helping to build planes for World War I and 1.00

00:07:29.080 II, that's a little bit different. And even there, we had some roots coming in. But second

00:07:32.940 wave feminism is the idea of liberating. It's liberation of women from what? From the misery, 1.00

00:07:42.880 the absolute misery oh the horror of being in the home that prison the home that i'm a wife

00:07:51.500 and a mother and everyone knows how miserable it is to have children goodness gracious could you 0.96

00:07:57.380 imagine a worse sentence than motherhood you know and so so feminine feminism and all its compassion 0.97

00:08:04.920 and all its great kindness liberated these poor oppressed trapped women from the home and and now 0.99

00:08:11.200 what we ultimately have. Employers loved it, by the way. You know who loves feminism more than

00:08:15.160 women? Men. Wicked men. Behind every feminist, pulling the strings, laughing maniacally, is a 0.70

00:08:22.400 man. In the name of feminism, women are going to just go ahead and hand out sex like candy. 1.00

00:08:29.000 Who benefits from that? Not women, right? In the name of feminism, all of a sudden, 1.00

00:08:36.240 And corporations, 99% of the time, led by a male, all of a sudden, they can pay half 1.00

00:08:43.400 the wages, right?

00:08:45.400 I mean, if you look back to 1950s, 1960s, it was common to have a single income home.

00:08:53.120 That one income, employers, they knew that it was their obligation, if somebody was a

00:08:58.920 good worker, if they were faithful and had integrity in their work, in their vocation,

00:09:03.740 It was the obligation of an employer to pay them a livable wage.

00:09:08.320 And a livable wage meant to provide for a wife and children.

00:09:12.300 But now, often what you'll hear employers say, even if you go humbly and ask for a raise,

00:09:17.300 and if you were to even bring up the excuse of, well, I need a raise not because I'm trying to be greedy,

00:09:22.800 not because I'm trying to be lavish, but because I have a wife and children.

00:09:27.240 What an employer will be at least tempted to say, if they don't outright say, is this.

00:09:30.980 they'll say well what gives you the luxury to think that your your household should be able to 1.00

00:09:38.020 be sustained on one income why is your wife not working so so second wave feminism liberating 1.00

00:09:44.300 women from the home well i mean all it did ultimately was it gave employers an excuse to 1.00

00:09:48.980 pay half the wages right because it should be two incomes to support a family which that was not the

00:09:54.640 culture before now my whole point in saying that is with that also came birth control now why birth 0.98

00:10:00.220 control getting back to egalitarianism equality versus androgyny because a woman will never be

00:10:06.660 the same as a man never just biologically it is impossible unless unless i mean it still doesn't

00:10:15.120 make her the same but at least in one instance men can't get pregnant but women can until the

00:10:21.520 birth hormonal uh hormonal pill and then but but what if somebody still gets pregnant where they

00:10:26.520 forget to take their pill what if it doesn't work you know 99 effective abortion did you know the 0.97

00:10:32.660 whole idea of abortion being a woman's right which is an abomination an absolute abomination which we 0.90

00:10:39.940 should hate it is righteous for us to hate what the lord hates but that concept a big part of it 0.99

00:10:45.340 was equality a woman must be able to abort her child first she needs to be able to take um all 0.82

00:10:51.840 these kinds of of preventative measures so that she never gets pregnant because again the horror 1.00

00:10:56.920 of of children the horror of pregnancy good good lord we've got to save women from that that disease 0.68

00:11:02.600 called pregnancy um and so first you do all that but if a child slips through we have to have a way 0.98

00:11:09.100 to to handle even that situation so that a woman is exactly the same as a man so that she has the

00:11:16.820 same rights so the point is our culture thinks that equality is not merely an equality of worth

00:11:23.660 and value but it's androgyny it's sameness and all that back to the elders analogy i'm praise

00:11:30.840 god i'm remembering how i got here but the the elders analogy equal weight and authority does

00:11:36.660 not mean sameness in terms of gifting and so if one of the elders happens to have a unique teaching

00:11:43.580 gift all the elders must be according to scripture able to teach that's titus one that's first

00:11:48.620 chapter three but if one teaches teaches better than the other elders then it only logically

00:11:55.720 makes sense that he would teach more often and the scripture affirms this when the first sympathy

00:12:00.680 chapter five when it talks about honoring elders the idea that we should give a tribute double

00:12:06.560 honor to the elders who rule well. And then it says, especially those who labor in the preaching

00:12:13.980 and teaching of the word of God, which implies what? Implicitly what's being said in that text

00:12:18.160 is that some elders labor more in teaching than the others. But the scripture also says two

00:12:23.940 chapters earlier from first sympathy five to first sympathy three, that all elders to even be

00:12:28.800 qualified must be able to teach. So all able elders are able to teach as a term of their

00:12:34.000 qualification and yet the scripture says plainly that some will teach more meaning what they're

00:12:39.520 equal in weight and authority a plurality of elders but they're not the same do you see the

00:12:44.960 difference between equality and sameness so so even though they have equal authority they're

00:12:50.220 they're not necessarily the same in their gifting all right and all that being said bringing it back

00:12:56.340 to absalom bringing it back to david david what was happening is he's sitting on the throne he is

00:13:02.640 we're meant to assume because he's a man after God's own heart we see all of his righteous

00:13:07.600 exploits as well as his sin but his righteous exploits we're meant to assume that David is

00:13:12.920 more than able and more than willing to execute justice to do what is needed for the people of

00:13:20.500 Israel as they have a need as they have some kind of crisis David is willing to meet with them

00:13:26.880 David is willing to to handle their situation what's happening is not that David is this hard

00:13:32.620 man that he is this uncaring unsympathetic man what's happening is that Absalom is standing in

00:13:39.580 the way he is intercepting the people and he's lying about his father the king he's lying and

00:13:47.040 he's saying oh if only there was somebody in Israel who is dedicated if only this king cared

00:13:52.620 about the people he's a great warrior he's good with policy Israel has been blessed by his

00:14:01.300 leadership? No doubt. But the one thing he's not good at is interpersonal care and compassion for

00:14:08.540 people. And that, I'm telling you, the applications are limitless. You can do associate pastor,

00:14:15.280 senior pastor. That line's going to get peddled a million times in a million different churches.

00:14:21.500 But you could also apply it to a president and then members of his administration. You know,

00:14:27.720 if only the president was his caring,

00:14:29.700 if only, what you're really saying is this.

00:14:32.020 Absalom, what he's really saying is this.

00:14:33.500 He's saying, if only I were king.

00:14:36.020 Right?

00:14:36.540 Is that not what he's saying?

00:14:37.480 If only I were king.

00:14:39.300 I would be better.

00:14:41.140 I would do this for you. 1.00

00:14:43.240 But the problem is that we have a jerk in office 0.99

00:14:46.080 when what we need is an empathetic, caring leader. 0.99

00:14:49.540 Because policies that mirror the law of God

00:14:53.020 at the end of the day may have some value,

00:14:56.100 But if it comes along with an annoying Twitter feed, I mean, can we really measure how much damage that does?

00:15:03.260 Wouldn't you rather have someone responsible for ending thousands of lives with torture and murder in Afghanistan but who is empathetic 0.78

00:15:09.780 than someone who seems, you know, kind of annoying and harsh and foolish in their Twitters? 0.96

00:15:16.240 I remember Jesus said something about this. 0.95

00:15:19.060 There was a parable of two sons.

00:15:21.400 The father asked both of them to go into his field and to work.

00:15:24.840 Now, one son, in his word, right?

00:15:27.760 Word and deed, word and deed.

00:15:29.000 In his word, he said, yeah, I'll do it.

00:15:32.480 But then he doesn't show up.

00:15:34.360 And the other son, in his word, he fails.

00:15:36.360 And it is a sin.

00:15:37.620 So I don't want to act as though it's completely absolved of moral responsibility.

00:15:42.180 He tells his father, no, it's disrespectful.

00:15:44.460 It's not honoring his father and mother.

00:15:45.900 It is a sin.

00:15:47.780 But in his deed, that's in his word, he sends.

00:15:51.220 But in his deed, he shows up.

00:15:52.560 Now, Jesus asked the question, and the answer is clear.

00:15:57.360 Jesus asked the question, which one did better?

00:16:00.840 The son who showed up.

00:16:02.760 So according to Jesus, given the dichotomy, pitting word against deed,

00:16:09.140 in the mind of Christ, the guy who gives the wrong word,

00:16:13.880 but who does the right actions, still is not ideal.

00:16:18.180 there's still sin but it is an improvement from the one who gives the right words but then does

00:16:24.440 the wrong thing i wish the church knew that about nine months ago i wish we remembered that

00:16:34.380 so absalom takes the throne how does he take the throne he does it by winning the hearts of the

00:16:42.140 people oh that i were judge in the land then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me and

00:16:48.700 i would give him justice and whenever a man came near to pay homage to him here's another one this

00:16:54.560 is it's literally i it's almost comical it is almost comical it's so similar it's eerie he

00:17:01.520 would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him shaking hands kissing babies right i mean

00:17:09.400 he's just the quintessential politician this guy you know and just for the record that's on both

00:17:14.420 sides of the political aisle you know but this idea he's he is winning the people but it's through

00:17:20.540 flattery it's not sincere it's not real he doesn't care i mean he cares deeply about someone but it's

00:17:30.200 himself and so he's he's shaking hands he's kissing babies he's campaigning he's doing a

00:17:36.740 smear campaign but with careful language so it doesn't sound like it if only there was i were

00:17:41.880 judge in israel but but implicitly what he's saying is my father the king does not care about

00:17:46.720 the needs of the people so he's doing smear campaigns but but crafty smear campaigns he's

00:17:52.440 shaking hands he's kissing babies he's intercepting he's ultimately what he's doing it's a mutiny

00:17:58.000 it's rebellion it is rebellion against the king is rebellion against the order that god has

00:18:05.820 established. Now, all that being said, it's not really a defense of Absalom, but it's an explanation

00:18:11.800 of the sovereignty of God, even in the suffering of David. This came about as a fulfillment of the

00:18:17.480 word of the prophet Nathan because of David's sin with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan said,

00:18:23.160 what you did in secret in your adultery is going to be done by a member of your own house 0.90

00:18:28.980 in broad daylight. And that's exactly what happened. David is cast out into exile. The

00:18:34.540 people side with Absalom because the people don't know they're easily swayed an empathetic leader

00:18:41.480 wow wow an empathetic taxes are gonna you know triple but but he's he's caring though he's caring

00:18:50.640 people are gonna die all over the world but he's caring right and so they Absalom sways the hearts

00:18:57.680 of the people who are uninformed perhaps they had some fake news going i don't know but they're

00:19:03.240 uninformed, sways the hearts of the people. The people unite with Absalom where it's a majority

00:19:08.020 and they push out David. And while David's fugitive in the wilderness, in exile, Absalom

00:19:15.020 takes his concubines, his father's concubines, onto the roof of the palace. And you know what happens.

00:19:25.860 So all of the prophetic word of Nathan comes to pass. And there is a very real sense in which this

00:19:32.300 is the earthly consequence for david's sin so david is not innocent in this so it's not to say

00:19:38.900 that the guy at the top is a victim of of the of the two-faced deceitful mutinous underling

00:19:48.120 that's not that's not the the whole picture of the story absalom is responsible he is two-faced

00:19:53.240 he is mutinous he is deceptive all those things are true and david is an adulterer who sinned

00:20:00.520 against the Lord, and this is the consequence for his sin. All that is going on, and that's the

00:20:06.900 context for our text today. David is a fugitive. He's in a dry and weary land, not just physically,

00:20:13.780 that's true, but also spiritually. He is separated from the people of God, and therefore the praise

00:20:18.960 of God, and therefore the presence of God. And we've already had some texts like this, as I've

00:20:25.040 already mentioned where david is cut off effectively because of exile whether it be on the run from

00:20:31.140 saul or on the run from absalom there there are multiple psalms where david in that frame of mind

00:20:37.640 in that context he cries out to the lord and he pins a song to the lord a prayer and a song to

00:20:44.780 the lord where he where he confesses to the lord he declares his thirst for god his hunger for the

00:20:52.680 presence of the god that he loves and in these psalms he often and our psalm today is an example

00:20:59.640 of this he often mentions in his thirst for god that is always it is always in some measure

00:21:07.380 correlated with his desire with his deep longing for the presence of god in the sanctuary the

00:21:15.920 tabernacle and what i'm trying to say is this we'll get to this point in a moment but david

00:21:23.040 understands what many evangelicals for the last year and a half have forgotten

00:21:27.620 that there is a sweetness of the presence of god that is unique to the assembly of god's people

00:21:34.420 that worshiping privately alone in your daily devotion is biblical it's right it's not only

00:21:43.980 permissible or beneficial but but it's mandated it's commanded and yet there is still a unique

00:21:52.500 sweetness to the presence of god on the lord's day when the saints gather together to administer

00:21:59.340 right the officers of the church administer the ordinary means of grace to god's people

00:22:05.120 preaching the word praying the word and all this public corporate public preaching of the word

00:22:10.060 public praying of the word, public singing of the word, and public seeing of the word. The only

00:22:14.840 sight that has been prescribed to New Testament Christians seeing the word, as it were, in the

00:22:19.860 sacrament of baptism and the Lord's Supper. There is a sweetness. Jesus is present uniquely.

00:22:27.700 Remember Matthew chapter 16, I believe it is. No, Matthew chapter 18. So Matthew chapter 16,

00:22:35.180 remember Jesus says, who do you think that I am? To his disciples and Peter, right? I mean,

00:22:39.800 Peter's like Babe Ruth, so he's always going to swing as hard as he can, so he's going to get the

00:22:44.080 most home runs. You got it, you got it, give him credit, and also the most strikeouts, right? Babe

00:22:49.180 Ruth and Peter the Apostle, two peas and a pod in that regard, but this is one of the moments where

00:22:54.020 Peter, he knocks it out of the park. He says, you are the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus says,

00:23:00.820 blessed are you, Simon of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father

00:23:04.620 who's in heaven and i say that your name cephas uh that your name simon will be cephas peter which

00:23:11.560 means rock and on this rock not peter as as roman catholicism teaches but the rock being a true

00:23:17.620 confession of the christ which you have just demonstrated by the by my father who has revealed

00:23:24.020 it you could flesh and blood doesn't do this so peter you didn't do this on your own strength

00:23:27.900 but god sovereignly revealed to you my deity that i am the messiah the christ that there is one god

00:23:34.180 and one mediator between man and God,

00:23:36.780 the man, the God-man Christ Jesus.

00:23:39.320 And that revelation from the Father

00:23:41.740 as a confession, a profession of faith,

00:23:45.420 that is the rock on which I will build my church.

00:23:47.920 And then Jesus goes further and says,

00:23:49.360 and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

00:23:52.920 And then he says, I give you the keys.

00:23:55.120 This is authoritative language.

00:23:56.900 I give to you the keys.

00:23:58.060 And now at this point, I would argue exegetically

00:24:00.280 that Peter is standing in representative of the apostles.

00:24:03.280 So Jesus now says, I'm giving you, being plural, the apostles, Peter representing this,

00:24:09.200 I'm giving you, the apostles, the keys to the kingdom, the authority to do what?

00:24:14.700 To bind on earth and it will be bound in heaven, to loose on earth and it will be loosed in heaven.

00:24:20.140 Now here's what's so interesting.

00:24:22.400 In Matthew 18, that's Matthew 16, but in Matthew 18, where we have the famous passage of church discipline,

00:24:30.040 Jesus, all of a sudden, he transitions the subject from the apostles to the church.

00:24:36.900 The ecclesia is the Greek word.

00:24:38.940 The assembly, the gathering of the saints for worship.

00:24:42.780 And what Jesus says is this.

00:24:44.680 He uses the language, you know, if your brother sins against you,

00:24:47.360 go and tell him his fault privately between you and him alone.

00:24:50.040 If he listens to you, you've won your brother over.

00:24:52.300 But if he does not listen to you, then bring along one or two witnesses,

00:24:56.560 so that or one or two others so that the testimony may be established in the presence of two or

00:25:01.800 three witnesses but if he does not listen to them then tell it to the church and if he does not

00:25:07.140 listen to the church then hand him over it's the same kind of language as Paul saying hand them

00:25:12.520 over to to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander first Timothy chapter one I have handed these men over

00:25:17.700 to Satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme any longer and Jesus says then treat him as an 0.80

00:25:23.840 outsider a tax collector or a gentile which were both outsiders outside of the people of god and

00:25:29.640 thereby outside of the presence of god but then the very next words out of jesus mouth right after

00:25:35.540 that church discipline passage is this he says whatever you bind on earth so he doesn't specifically

00:25:42.380 say in matthew 18 i give you the keys he says that in matthew 16 but matthew 16 with the apostles i

00:25:47.660 give you the keys whatever you bind whatever you lose that's matthew 16 matthew 18 he now is not

00:25:53.600 speaking to the apostles but the church the assembly of the saints and he uses the same

00:25:58.380 language so it's implicit that the keys now belong to the church because he says he gives the authority

00:26:03.860 and the responsibility to the church to do precisely what the keys do which is again he says

00:26:09.100 whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in

00:26:14.460 heaven and then jesus goes one step further in matthew 18 he says for wherever two or three

00:26:22.380 are gathered in my name there i am in your midst now this is funny it's peculiar because

00:26:32.540 for new testament christians and for all christians for that matter because we've all been

00:26:38.180 saved by grace through faith in christ either looking forward as an old testament saint

00:26:41.780 to the christ or looking back as a new testament saint to the to the christ but but for the

00:26:47.600 christian for the christian our body is what first corinthians chapter 6 it's a temple of the holy

00:26:55.040 spirit whom you have received from god you are not your own you are bought with a price therefore

00:26:59.400 honor god with your body shall i take the members the members of christ and unite them with a 0.89

00:27:04.900 prostitute may it never be right and so our bodies are a temple of the holy spirit which means what 0.97

00:27:10.720 every single christian has the presence of the holy spirit and what does the holy spirit do

00:27:16.940 What Jesus says in John 14 and John 15,

00:27:19.340 He says that the Spirit guides you into all truth.

00:27:21.620 He'll bring to remembrance all the teachings of Christ.

00:27:24.440 And ultimately what the Spirit does is He testifies to

00:27:27.780 and even exudes and exemplifies the ministry of the risen Christ.

00:27:33.780 So this can be said.

00:27:35.480 Jesus Christ, who is physically seated at the right hand of the Father

00:27:38.780 because He has come, He has lived, He has died, He has resurrected

00:27:42.420 and now bodily ascended, bodily resurrected and bodily ascended

00:27:46.300 to the right hand of God, Jesus Christ is physically present at the right hand of the

00:27:50.520 Father. But Jesus Christ, by virtue of the ministry of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is

00:27:55.920 spiritually present with who? Wherever the Holy Spirit is present, the spiritual presence of the

00:28:01.840 Lord Jesus Christ is also present by virtue of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So all that to say,

00:28:08.680 God is omnipresent, and Jesus Christ is the second member of the Godhead, is uniquely even

00:28:15.980 present not just in his omnipresence but uniquely present with all believers in all places at all

00:28:22.980 times not just when we gather together on the lord's day not not not just in church but but

00:28:28.380 if you're a believer in the lord jesus christ the spiritual presence of jesus the resurrected christ

00:28:33.820 his spiritual presence is with you by virtue of the fact that the holy spirit is with you and the

00:28:39.740 holy spirit is guaranteed to be with all those who trust in jesus because of first corinthians

00:28:44.480 chapter six your body is a temple of the holy spirit all that theological framework to make

00:28:50.900 this point if you're a christian jesus is present with you so what in the world does jesus mean in

00:28:57.240 matthew 18 where he says wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name there i am in your

00:29:03.260 midst because it seems that statement seems to discount the fact that jesus is present with a

00:29:10.600 with a christian by virtue of the ministry of the holy spirit even if they're alone right if a

00:29:16.180 christian is is persecuted and taken captive and placed in prison jesus is present when when when

00:29:25.000 peter was imprisoned before the earthquake came and the angel who let him out jesus well actually

00:29:33.200 that's yeah jesus i was thinking timeline was this during jesus earthly no it's after he's

00:29:39.120 resurrected and ascended so the spiritual presence of jesus is with peter by virtue of the holy spirit

00:29:44.000 and peter is not gathered with any other believers he's completely alone so when jesus says in matth

00:29:49.120 18 where two or three are gathered in my name there i am present we must we must exegete that

00:29:55.480 to mean that jesus is uniquely present that there is something special a greater degree a heightened

00:30:02.860 a heightened blessing a greater blessing a more profound sense of the presence of jesus when we

00:30:11.160 come together he's always present even when we're alone by virtue of the holy spirit but he's

00:30:16.360 uniquely present when we gather together and david all that back to our text david recognizes this

00:30:24.240 he recognizes that there is a uniqueness there is a sweetness to the presence of god that is

00:30:32.440 uniquely belonging exclusively to the assembly the people of god and so therefore if he is cut off

00:30:41.340 from israel and cut off from the tabernacle and cut off from the people of god and the praise of

00:30:47.400 god he is therefore cut off effectively at least in one sense from the presence of god that doesn't

00:30:54.140 mean in every sense if david thought he was cut off from god in every sense there would be no sense

00:30:59.760 in him praying our text today why pray to god if you're completely separated from his presence

00:31:06.260 and david who wrote psalm 63 is the same david who also said where can i go from your presence

00:31:12.520 right whether i'm in the in the depths of shield or whether i'm cast into the sea

00:31:16.440 there is nowhere that i could go that i would be cut off from your presence so david recognizes

00:31:22.440 the omnipresence of God, but David also recognizes the unique sweetness of the presence of God

00:31:30.400 that exclusively belongs to the assembly of God's people. In other words, you cannot merely worship

00:31:38.860 God with a worship CD in your car or live streaming a sermon and say that it is a sufficient

00:31:47.600 substitute to the church. And yet Christians, many, have been doing this and saying this 0.83

00:31:57.060 for a year and a half. And here's the kicker, not only that, not only saying it's permissible, 0.91

00:32:05.940 but condemning those who gather and saying that they're doing it because it's a sufficient

00:32:11.320 substitute for the church, which is theologically and objectively wrong, and it's loving to their

00:32:18.820 neighbor. Right now, we are hating our neighbor in the minds of many who profess to be followers

00:32:26.160 of Jesus. I get the comments on YouTube all the time. You guys have probably seen them. Feel free

00:32:30.900 to feel free to come in there and make a defense. Sometimes I can't. The trolls are overwhelming. I

00:32:35.240 have to just, you know, let them go. But if you want to get in there and have a YouTube comment

00:32:38.560 battle you're welcome to do so be polite be respectful but i mean you see it all the time

00:32:43.800 you're hating your neighbor what are you doing this isn't loving this isn't loving but it is

00:32:50.060 we've been commanded we have been commanded to gather with one another that doesn't mean that

00:32:54.500 there are no circumstances that the church might might skip a gathering because of some serious

00:33:01.220 serious threat the reality though is that was you know doug wilson says that's the position he was

00:33:07.600 like, I used to be a reasonable man. You know, there were circumstances that I could think of

00:33:13.140 where I would have said, all right, we're going to miss this Sunday because there's a tornado coming.

00:33:17.660 And he said, but after the last year and a half, if I heard that report from the government,

00:33:21.580 I wouldn't believe it. They said a tornado was coming. I'd have to assume that they were lying

00:33:27.100 and we'd probably just go ahead and gather. So there are actually circumstances where the church

00:33:31.340 may not gather but to not gather for for so long for such for such a small risk i mean just it

00:33:39.920 denies the scripture first and foremost but it also denies the last 2 000 years of church history

00:33:45.060 i mean to quote martin luther or charles spursion who both had epidemics in their time and where

00:33:51.560 they say you know i will not go where my presence is not needed lest i unknowingly inflict harm on

00:33:57.340 my neighbor. Yeah, that's good. That's great. But number one, they weren't talking about church.

00:34:04.240 And number two, I'm not going to like this. Number two, they were talking about real sicknesses.

00:34:11.360 Are you a COVID-19? No. But I'm just saying by comparison, the Black Plague is not like COVID.

00:34:19.960 It's not. You know when there's a serious pandemic, we need to close churches. When someone's walking

00:34:25.560 down the street ringing a bell saying, bring out your dead. I mean, just last week, I had the

00:34:30.640 opportunity of speaking to two men who are bivocational elders in their local churches,

00:34:36.500 but their day job is that they own funeral homes. And they said, man, you know, we've been, I know

00:34:43.920 it sounds a little chagrined, but we've been disappointed. We were promised that business

00:34:48.680 was going to be boning.

00:34:50.500 And it's been exactly the same 0.54

00:34:52.080 as any other year.

00:34:54.860 Now, this doesn't mean

00:34:55.760 that hospitals haven't been overwhelmed.

00:34:57.720 Right, we don't,

00:34:58.300 see, here's the thing.

00:34:59.480 There is a baseless denial

00:35:01.140 that is actually

00:35:02.300 a thinly veiled form of cowardice.

00:35:06.440 So you can be, right,

00:35:07.620 we want to be courageous,

00:35:08.640 but did you know, 0.78

00:35:09.300 you can be cowardly 0.97

00:35:10.420 in at least two ways. 0.99

00:35:12.300 You can be cowardly 0.98

00:35:13.360 by sitting in your basement 1.00

00:35:15.080 for the rest of your life,

00:35:17.520 you know,

00:35:17.860 and getting booster shots every three weeks. 0.97

00:35:19.820 You know, like, you can be cowardly in that way. 0.93

00:35:22.220 But you can also be cowardly by a baseless denial.

00:35:26.220 We don't admit it, and we may not even be consciously aware of it.

00:35:29.360 But one way that we kind of avoid things that scare us

00:35:32.180 is we just, we deny them.

00:35:35.140 It's not real.

00:35:36.400 So we do need to be careful.

00:35:37.980 We need to be seasoned and reasonable.

00:35:40.520 Like, we don't need to have the pendulum over-swing

00:35:45.000 and end up in the ditch on the other side of the road

00:35:48.200 and our ability to try to auto-correct.

00:35:51.500 If that makes sense, right?

00:35:53.440 So COVID is real.

00:35:55.360 Connor, he's a nurse.

00:35:57.120 Hospitals have been packed.

00:35:59.080 There are some real things going on.

00:36:01.780 Now that said, some of it's COVID

00:36:03.300 and it's amazing that COVID cured the flu, right?

00:36:06.400 There's no flu anymore.

00:36:09.160 But so anyway, so even with that,

00:36:10.920 you gotta take it with a grain of salt.

00:36:12.240 We need to be discerning in this time.

00:36:14.560 But the point is, the things that were going on in the days of Martin Luther, the things that were going on in the days of Charles Spurgeon, when they said, I don't want by my presence to inflict unknowingly, accidentally harm, they're talking about two different things.

00:36:30.900 One, they're not necessarily talking about the Lord's Day gathering.

00:36:33.780 And number two, they are talking about diseases that wiped out a third of the population.

00:36:40.340 Smallpox and polio are not the same as COVID.

00:36:44.220 Just not.

00:36:45.080 My mother's dad, from the age of 25 to the day he died, was in a wheelchair because of polio.

00:36:52.000 So you don't have to be anti-vaccine to say,

00:36:56.020 I think there's some fishy business with this particular virus.

00:36:59.540 and this particular vaccine

00:37:01.540 and what we're hearing in this time.

00:37:04.720 And so we want to be careful with that though

00:37:06.300 because we need the caveats.

00:37:09.320 We need the disclaimers

00:37:10.380 because we don't want people to tune us out 0.95

00:37:12.840 as wacky weirdo Christians. 0.91

00:37:15.360 We want them to hear what we have to say 1.00

00:37:17.320 because we have something from God's word,

00:37:19.640 something that's true,

00:37:20.600 something that's beneficial,

00:37:21.980 something that is helpful.

00:37:23.180 So all that being said,

00:37:25.500 the gathering of the saints together

00:37:27.620 is radically important.

00:37:29.680 Look at verse 2 in our text.

00:37:31.620 I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,

00:37:34.540 seeing your power and glory.

00:37:37.580 David is recalling.

00:37:38.860 He's bringing to remembrance.

00:37:40.500 He's savoring and reminiscing

00:37:42.600 the sweetness of God's presence.

00:37:45.080 But where?

00:37:46.460 He doesn't say,

00:37:47.220 I've seen you in the wilderness.

00:37:49.260 And that's not that God's not there.

00:37:50.980 I've already gone to painstaking,

00:37:53.340 exegetical links, theological links

00:37:55.560 to talk about the omnipresence of God

00:37:57.220 even when you're isolated, all alone in the wilderness.

00:38:00.120 If you're a Christian, you have the Spirit of God dwelling within you,

00:38:03.240 and by virtue of the Holy Spirit, you have the Spirit of the risen Christ present.

00:38:07.800 But even then, there is a uniqueness to the presence of Christ

00:38:11.700 that is exclusively belonging to the Ecclesia, the assembly,

00:38:16.940 where two or three are gathered in my name.

00:38:20.700 David is thinking of that. He's thinking of the sanctuary.

00:38:23.460 He is longing and missing the unique sweetness of the presence of God that is pleased to inhabit no other place.

00:38:32.580 God is enthroned upon the praises of his people, the corporate collective praises of his plurality of people.

00:38:42.240 There is something undeniable, both by experience, I and you, I'm willing to bet, have experienced it in our lives as Christians,

00:38:51.160 But even more profoundly, by scripture, there is something undeniable to the uniqueness of the presence of God when believers come together.

00:39:00.400 Especially on the Lord's day to worship God in spirit and in truth through the administering of the ordinary means of grace.

00:39:10.560 David misses that.

00:39:12.320 I've looked upon you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and glory.

00:39:16.580 but for now as my son Absalom has has committed a full-fledged mutiny and lied and cut me off from

00:39:26.100 Israel and therefore cut me off from the praise of God the people of God and the presence of God

00:39:30.940 I am longing for the sanctuary you're with me if you if you weren't with me I want to be wasting

00:39:36.520 my breath I want to be I want to be writing this down I want to be praying this and crying out to

00:39:41.100 you. You're with me, but not like the sanctuary. The way that you're with me when I'm with other

00:39:48.760 believers in the sanctuary is unique. It's irreplaceable. There is no equivalent, not on

00:39:56.860 earth. There is no sweeter place. Charles Spurgeon said that though the church swarms with many

00:40:03.200 faults, it is the sweetest place I know. It's the sweetest place I know. Many of you perhaps have

00:40:09.500 been burnt by the by by your previous church right i mean there are so many people who you

00:40:16.140 know i and i feel for you i feel for you like so many i experienced this you know i experienced

00:40:21.340 this not not because i was passing a church i didn't experience it with myself um but but i

00:40:25.780 did experience it with other elders they're like many of us were either a part of a church as a

00:40:31.100 member or serving on an elder board in a church and and and we thought that we were being led by

00:40:37.800 or leading with a certain caliber of man, right?

00:40:43.020 We thought this is the kind of man who is my pastor.

00:40:47.080 And then all of a sudden we realize

00:40:49.220 that's not the kind of man who's actually my pastor.

00:40:53.320 Like he talks a big talk, right?

00:40:56.960 He can have dramatic pauses in his sermons.

00:41:00.400 He's watched enough Paul Washer sermons

00:41:03.380 to mimic the style and sound really sincere,

00:41:06.400 sound really serious,

00:41:08.080 but when the rubber hits the road,

00:41:11.300 when catastrophe comes,

00:41:13.740 he's hiding in his basement.

00:41:16.620 And he is repeating, regurgitating

00:41:20.440 the same rhetoric as Gavin Newsom.

00:41:25.980 What happened to him?

00:41:27.740 Nothing happened to him.

00:41:29.720 This is who he is.

00:41:31.360 It just got revealed.

00:41:33.280 And it's a mercy.

00:41:34.660 I want you guys to see that as a loving mercy from God.

00:41:38.440 It is a mercy that God, by way of his sovereignty and providence,

00:41:43.060 has revealed to his sheep.

00:41:45.500 Right? What does Jesus say?

00:41:47.280 He said that the sheep, they're like sheep without a shepherd.

00:41:50.220 He weeps for Jerusalem.

00:41:52.960 He says, the sheep, you would come to me.

00:41:55.440 He says, oh, how you would come to me, and I would long to gather you.

00:41:59.180 As a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings.

00:42:02.740 But you're not coming, and Jesus says, why? 0.65

00:42:06.120 He says, because those who will not enter,

00:42:09.780 they will not enter themselves,

00:42:11.520 and they're also keeping you out.

00:42:14.580 He's speaking to the religious rulers.

00:42:17.020 He's speaking of the guys who preach at the big conferences.

00:42:22.180 He's speaking about the guys in Big Eva of his day.

00:42:26.820 That's who he's talking about.

00:42:27.700 He's saying, these guys won't enter themselves,

00:42:30.280 and they're keeping you from entering

00:42:32.940 by telling you that you're not loving your neighbor

00:42:36.900 if you obey my commands.

00:42:40.920 They're lying to you.

00:42:42.800 They're keeping my sheep away.

00:42:46.580 And Jesus weeps over Jerusalem 0.98

00:42:48.760 where that is the case.

00:42:50.860 And many of you, you've been burnt.

00:42:52.780 You've been shocked to find out

00:42:54.220 that when the rubber hit the road,

00:42:55.800 when the American evangelical church

00:42:58.820 finally actually had a practical challenge, right?

00:43:03.120 Why are we so bloated?

00:43:04.380 Why are we so lethargic and apathetic?

00:43:08.240 Because we've had it easy.

00:43:09.980 That's why, right?

00:43:12.360 We're all learning in the last 15 minutes

00:43:14.500 what we should have learned over the last 15 years,

00:43:16.920 including myself, right?

00:43:19.940 I had to learn alongside all of you

00:43:21.980 the proper exegesis of Romans 13.

00:43:24.660 I got it wrong, right?

00:43:27.540 All of a sudden, I was told that we can't have church the next Sunday because everyone will die.

00:43:32.680 And I didn't know, just like nobody knew.

00:43:35.960 And I had to tell my people some kind of reason.

00:43:38.920 I want it to be a biblical reason why we shouldn't gather.

00:43:41.860 And so I did a video, a 10-minute video on Romans 13.

00:43:46.260 And it was horrid.

00:43:48.120 And then I had to get in front of my church and apologize to them four weeks later

00:43:53.100 when I realized that this was a bunch of hullabaloo and we should be gathering.

00:43:57.540 now sadly a lot of pastors a year and a half later still haven't changed

00:44:02.240 and i think in some ways even more tragically many pastors have changed

00:44:06.620 but they never in word admitted it does that ring a bell

00:44:11.900 how many pastors that we know all of a sudden they did change their position in terms of action

00:44:17.420 which is a part of repentance it's very important it's very important so all of a sudden they

00:44:23.160 weren't gathering and then all of a sudden now they are gathering but what they didn't do is

00:44:29.060 they didn't say previously i was wrong you know what happens you know what happens when a leader

00:44:34.460 especially a spiritual leader a pastor in a church when a leader repents in their deed

00:44:40.480 but not in word at least what many things happen but at least one one negative effect of that is

00:44:48.460 is a lack of clarity for the people of God.

00:44:51.280 It's confusion.

00:44:53.080 Because what it implies

00:44:54.740 in the perspective of the people

00:44:56.920 is that we shouldn't gather. 1.00

00:45:00.100 That's right and biblical.

00:45:02.720 And now we should gather,

00:45:04.460 even though nothing's changed,

00:45:06.100 because that's also right and biblical.

00:45:08.460 So what it says in the mind of the people is

00:45:10.620 you can really do whatever you want.

00:45:13.880 Right?

00:45:14.380 You have options.

00:45:15.480 No, you don't.

00:45:16.180 You have commands.

00:45:16.860 you don't have options you have commands but but what that says even though they're not verbally

00:45:22.120 saying it by by by the example they're setting in their actions it sets up an example that

00:45:27.700 communicates to the people implicitly that both of these options are valid biblical options even

00:45:33.800 though logically they radically contradict so when you when you say the church is going to gather

00:45:39.000 this next sunday and then the night before all of a sudden there's a court ruling and you say

00:45:44.620 that the ninth district, the ninth circuit court

00:45:47.540 is the highest law of the land

00:45:48.840 and we as Christians are commanded to obey the law of the land

00:45:51.660 so therefore we're actually not going

00:45:53.400 even though we said we are going to meet on Sunday

00:45:54.860 we're changing our mind and not meeting on Sunday

00:45:56.620 because we obey the law of the land

00:45:58.440 and then a month later you say

00:46:00.360 Christ not Caesar is head of the church

00:46:02.740 these are contradicting positions 1.00

00:46:04.800 now the second one is right

00:46:07.220 and I am so grateful

00:46:08.500 that they're doing the right thing

00:46:10.280 but how hard is it

00:46:12.420 to simply say

00:46:14.120 Christ not Caesar is head of the church

00:46:16.060 and what I said 30 days

00:46:18.300 ago radically and

00:46:20.100 directly contradicted that and I was

00:46:22.100 wrong I'm sorry

00:46:23.080 it's not that hard

00:46:25.460 it just takes a little bit

00:46:28.120 of humility

00:46:28.560 and your refusal

00:46:32.040 as a leader to be

00:46:34.160 humble the

00:46:35.660 casualty of that among many

00:46:38.200 things but at least one is confusion

00:46:40.560 the people are

00:46:42.000 confused so we can't just change right to repentance to turn we can't just turn in our

00:46:47.520 deed we must do that right so there's a way of repenting a word that doesn't repent indeed

00:46:52.540 there's a way of saying i'm sorry to the lord but but then continuing the very same actions

00:46:58.380 that also is sin but there's also a way of changing your actions which is radically important

00:47:03.800 and again i cannot under emphasize how grateful i am for those pastors who have taken a stand in

00:47:09.820 their actions but oh how much more powerful of a witness would it be if they in addition to

00:47:16.680 repenting indeed turning in actions if they added to that a repentance and worth if they also said

00:47:23.680 and what i previously said since you're not all a bunch of blockheads right i think it also it's 0.97

00:47:28.160 insulting it assumes that everyone's stupid like they can't see the contradiction no the people of 0.99

00:47:34.540 God are not stupid. And so giving them their dignity and defending clarity, theological clarity 1.00

00:47:42.320 by saying, we're now going to do this. And because you're not stupid, you might realize that 30 days 0.98

00:47:47.380 ago, I said we're going to do the exact opposite. And these things cannot be simultaneously true. 0.99

00:47:53.680 This one was wrong. Right? 50 years of ministry, you've been right 99% of the time you can afford

00:48:00.100 to just once be wrong.

00:48:02.460 That would be awesome.

00:48:04.400 That would be awesome. 0.98

00:48:06.560 The problem is we have cowardly pastors. 0.97

00:48:08.940 The pastor I was just mentioning, 0.95

00:48:10.200 not going to name,

00:48:11.160 very grateful for him.

00:48:12.400 He's not a cowardly pastor.

00:48:13.800 But I'm talking about other guys now. 0.97

00:48:15.380 We have cowardly pastors, 0.74

00:48:17.300 but then we also have prideful pastors. 0.99

00:48:20.620 There's cowardice.

00:48:22.420 There's arrogance.

00:48:23.720 All these things hurting the people of God.

00:48:26.560 All these things tempting the sheep,

00:48:28.700 assuaging their consciences,

00:48:31.860 even guilting them

00:48:33.520 if they even try to attempt obedience.

00:48:36.260 And what it has done is it has scattered the sheep

00:48:38.320 all across the world.

00:48:40.140 It's scattered the sheep in our nation.

00:48:41.760 And all of us in some capacity, like David,

00:48:45.680 like David, have been thinking,

00:48:48.000 oh, how I miss looking upon you in the sanctuary.

00:48:52.900 I remember in that context,

00:48:55.780 the uniqueness of your presence

00:48:57.320 where I saw your power and glory.

00:49:01.040 Because your steadfast love, I miss it.

00:49:04.480 It's better than life.

00:49:07.020 And because of that, even in isolation,

00:49:09.740 I will praise you.

00:49:10.960 Some of you, that's been your testimony

00:49:12.700 for the last year and a half.

00:49:14.660 Wandering in the wilderness.

00:49:17.040 Wandering in a dry and arid land.

00:49:19.800 Oh God, you are my God.

00:49:21.340 Earnestly, I've been seeking you for two years.

00:49:24.000 My soul, it thirsts for you.

00:49:25.820 My flesh, it faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

00:49:30.380 And I remember the sweetest moments in my Christian life in the past where I looked upon you with a great throng and procession with the saints gathered together on the Lord's day.

00:49:43.520 I saw you as it were with spiritual eyes.

00:49:46.720 I saw you through the eyes of faith in the sanctuary, in the gathering of your people on the Lord's day.

00:49:53.560 I miss church.

00:49:56.480 So many people, I miss church.

00:49:59.320 And here's the problem, it's twofold.

00:50:01.180 It's not just I miss church

00:50:02.940 because churches aren't allowed to gather.

00:50:06.140 Well, a lot of them are now.

00:50:07.920 At least in our state, praise God.

00:50:10.700 But people are still missing church.

00:50:13.060 Did you know that?

00:50:14.340 Some of you definitely know that.

00:50:15.760 That's why you're here.

00:50:18.100 There are Christians still missing church

00:50:19.380 because even though their churches can now gather,

00:50:21.760 in God's providence of what previously happened,

00:50:24.540 the veil has been lifted, and they've realized, even though the church may now be gathering,

00:50:29.640 I can't gather there anymore. So it's not, I can't gather there because they stopped gathering,

00:50:36.780 but even now that they've resumed, I still can't gather there, because their complicity

00:50:42.920 and their horrible exegesis and twisting scripture to hammer Christians who had courage over the head

00:50:50.380 and guilt them and chastise them for biblical courage.

00:50:53.760 Their actions, their rhetoric, their decisions, all of it.

00:50:59.780 Now, I cannot in clear conscience before the Lord

00:51:03.240 gather where I used to gather.

00:51:06.560 And so even though churches are gathering in states like ours,

00:51:09.940 there are still displaced Christians, 1.00

00:51:14.520 misfit toys all over our nation 1.00

00:51:17.900 saying, well, I mean, yeah, some churches are gathering now 0.94

00:51:21.720 and this one down the road is gathering,

00:51:24.160 but I can't go there.

00:51:27.360 I can't go there.

00:51:28.820 I can't gather with this church

00:51:31.020 that every single Sunday

00:51:32.900 is talking about how disparities equal discrimination.

00:51:38.520 I can't go to this church that literally,

00:51:41.420 and children's ministry is gonna train my children 0.94

00:51:44.680 if they're white, that they're guilty. 0.96

00:51:46.960 I can't go to this church that I can't even distinguish 0.99

00:51:50.640 what the pastor's saying because he's wearing a mask

00:51:52.820 during the sermon.

00:51:54.480 And where everybody's wearing a sticker,

00:51:57.660 the greeters are wearing stickers outside

00:51:59.200 that says, I got vaccinated.

00:52:01.520 Not saying that it's what, but the convey,

00:52:04.460 the message that's being conveyed is like,

00:52:06.440 you must do this or you're immoral.

00:52:09.420 I can't go there.

00:52:11.360 And so even though churches are gathering,

00:52:12.800 what God has done is he has so ripped off the lid

00:52:15.940 with our evangelical leaders

00:52:18.220 that there are still displaced Christians.

00:52:21.660 Many of you are like David,

00:52:24.360 longing for the sweetness of the presence of God

00:52:27.680 that is special and uniquely and exclusively here on earth

00:52:34.300 belonging to the gathered assembly.

00:52:36.860 But it's not just any gathered assembly.

00:52:40.140 It is a church that biblically constitutes as a church.

00:52:45.940 So it's not just two or three gathering in the name of the Lord Jesus and then doing whatever they want.

00:52:52.200 It's two or three being gathered in Christ's name, covenanting together as a local church,

00:52:57.380 and covenanting to be a church according to biblical standards.

00:53:03.340 Church is not a free-for-all.

00:53:06.140 There are things that make you a church, and if those things aren't there, it's not a church.

00:53:12.300 There may still be many Christians, but it's not a church.

00:53:15.940 It's a weekly Sunday Christian ministry, but to be a church, the Bible gives us a criteria.

00:53:26.280 The word faithfully preached, and not just exegeted, but applied.

00:53:32.500 The word faithfully prayed, the word sang, the word seen, and the Lord's Supper and baptism

00:53:40.780 with biblically qualified elders

00:53:43.040 and biblically qualified deacons.

00:53:46.780 All these things.

00:53:48.320 John Calvin summarizes it like this,

00:53:50.220 and it's helpful because he makes it simple.

00:53:52.800 Wherever the word is rightly preached

00:53:54.340 and the sacraments rightly administered,

00:53:56.640 there a church of God exists

00:53:58.000 even if it swarms with many faults.

00:54:01.120 But it's got to be there.

00:54:02.900 It's not whatever you want. 0.97

00:54:04.640 And oh, how Christians have been longing for this. 0.95

00:54:08.300 I want to end by just reading.

00:54:09.620 this is something that I wrote back in April.

00:54:12.200 So this is actually a portion of a sermon

00:54:14.140 that I preached to the church I was pastoring

00:54:16.120 in California back in April of 2020.

00:54:20.220 But I think it fits with verse two of our text today.

00:54:23.940 I wrote this, those who maintain that churches

00:54:25.900 should continue to physically gather together,

00:54:27.960 which we would be among those,

00:54:29.840 during the pandemic, we're often relentlessly citing

00:54:33.040 Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, and let us consider

00:54:35.920 how to stir up one another to love and good works,

00:54:39.060 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.

00:54:42.960 Now, although I wholeheartedly agree that this text,

00:54:46.140 don't neglect the gathering, Hebrews 10.25,

00:54:48.860 it applies to the situation.

00:54:51.280 But I simply wish that more Christians have been better equipped,

00:54:54.180 including myself, to explain why it is so vital for believers

00:54:58.460 to obey this particular command.

00:55:01.300 Now, see, Hebrews 3, verses 12 through 13, says this. 0.95

00:55:04.900 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you

00:55:08.160 an evil, unbelieving heart,

00:55:10.040 leading you to fall away from the living God.

00:55:12.500 But exhort one another

00:55:13.840 that none of you may be hardened

00:55:15.800 by the deceitfulness of sin.

00:55:17.980 So, Hebrews 10, 24-25,

00:55:21.400 when properly placed in context

00:55:23.320 with Hebrews 3, 12-13,

00:55:26.280 it provides for us

00:55:27.340 both a biblical and logical explanation

00:55:30.200 for the tragedy of apostasy.

00:55:33.400 These two texts,

00:55:34.780 when cross-referenced with one another,

00:55:36.560 I believe it shows us

00:55:37.980 It paints a very detailed description for us to see how apostasy happens.

00:55:42.920 In other words, apostasy meaning how some individuals who once belonged to the visible church

00:55:49.000 ultimately chose to abandon the faith and fall away.

00:55:52.760 How does it do this? By way of implication.

00:55:55.600 Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 through 25,

00:55:58.500 it informs us that the weekly gathering of the saints is the primary context

00:56:02.620 for stirring up one another to love and good works.

00:56:06.280 Right?

00:56:06.460 If you look at Hebrews 10, 24,

00:56:08.220 stir up one another to love and good works.

00:56:09.940 And then it doesn't even have another sentence.

00:56:12.140 Comma, not neglecting the gathering,

00:56:14.980 as is the habit of some.

00:56:16.480 So what the apostle, I believe it was Paul,

00:56:18.860 but what the author of Hebrews is saying is this.

00:56:21.840 He's saying, stir one another up to love and good works.

00:56:26.280 And here's the chief context where that happens.

00:56:28.840 The gathering.

00:56:30.220 Right?

00:56:30.360 He's not, it's not a schizophrenic weird.

00:56:32.700 Paul's not doing what I often do on Sundays

00:56:35.620 and his brain is all over the place.

00:56:37.940 No, what Paul's doing is he's making a systematic argument.

00:56:40.880 They absolutely correlate with one another.

00:56:43.500 Stir up one another to love and good works

00:56:44.980 and therefore because you need to stir up one another

00:56:47.440 to love and good works, don't neglect the gathering.

00:56:49.720 Which implies what?

00:56:50.680 This gathering of the saints is the chief context

00:56:53.660 where we stir one another up to love and good works.

00:56:56.180 So that's the first step of the process.

00:56:58.040 But then the next step, the next step is Hebrews 3, 12-13

00:57:01.360 informs us that exhorting one another, which is the same phrase actually as to stir one another up

00:57:08.460 in the Greek, is one of the church's most effective strategies for guarding its members against being

00:57:15.000 hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, which eventually causes people to fall away from the

00:57:20.940 living God, aka commit apostasy. So let me pause there for a moment. Hebrews 3, 12 through 13 says

00:57:27.640 says this be careful brothers lest there be found in any of you an evil unbelieving heart causing

00:57:33.280 you to fall away from the living god but exhort one another which is the same phrases stir one

00:57:39.920 another up hebrews 10 24 exhort one another as um and i believe it says today as long as this is

00:57:46.840 called today and especially as you see the day nearing and so if we take these things together

00:57:52.920 But Hebrews 3, 12-13 says that many, the implication is that many, at the end of the day, it's not that they'll lose their salvation, but they, 1 John 2, 12, I believe, if they go out from us, it proves that they were never one of us.

00:58:10.260 So they never had salvation to begin with.

00:58:12.020 So Hebrews 3, 12-13 essentially says this, that many will be found to have an evil, unbelieving heart that leads them to fall away from the living God.

00:58:20.260 but right the implication of that word but is so do this to guard against that so how do you guard

00:58:26.620 against many being ultimately in the end found to have an unbelieving evil heart that leads them to

00:58:31.580 fall away from the living god and the deceitfulness the hardness of heart that comes from the 0.97

00:58:35.400 deceitfulness of sin how do you guard people from falling away exhort them exhort them that's hebrews

00:58:43.680 three, 12 and 13. Take that cross-reference with Hebrews 12, verse 24 and 25, by exhorting one

00:58:51.700 another, right? Same phrase, exhort, stir up, stir one another up with love and good works,

00:58:57.960 not neglecting the gathering. So basically what Paul is doing is he's providing a three-step

00:59:03.380 process. He's saying, gather. Because in the gathering, that's where we stir one another up

00:59:10.760 to love and good works and exhort one another.

00:59:12.760 And if we don't do this,

00:59:14.660 if we don't gather, we don't do this.

00:59:16.500 And if we don't do this,

00:59:18.420 people fall away.

00:59:20.420 People commit apostasy.

00:59:21.960 People fall away from the living God.

00:59:23.560 So all that is to say,

00:59:25.820 let me find my place again. 1.00

00:59:28.400 In other words, Christians are commanded

00:59:29.940 not to neglect the weekly gathering of the saints

00:59:31.960 because it is the necessary environment

00:59:33.840 for fulfilling their Christian duty 0.74

00:59:35.480 of stirring one another up

00:59:36.640 and stirring one another up

00:59:38.220 or exhorting one another

00:59:39.500 serves as a powerful defense against the deceitfulness of sin which creates a hardened

00:59:43.640 unbelieving heart and finally an unbelieving heart is what ultimately leads people to fall

00:59:48.840 away from the living god so in short here's the conclusion the logical conclusion for the past

00:59:54.900 18 months christians and especially pastors have been presented with a simple choice either forsake

01:00:00.440 the gathering to minimize the physical threat of death to our bodies or continue to gather to

01:00:06.240 minimize the spiritual threat of damnation to our souls now some overly zealous calvinist might

01:00:12.540 object at this point by insisting that god is sovereign over salvation which is true and

01:00:17.160 therefore he is capable of preserving the souls of his elect even the absence of physically gathering

01:00:22.600 together on the lord's day however i might remind these zealous calvinists that the same god who is

01:00:28.480 sovereign over salvation is sovereign over everything and therefore he is also quite

01:00:32.780 capable of preserving the health of his people as they diligently seek to obey his commands

01:00:37.180 the choice has been this for a year and a half every christian has had to wrestle with it

01:00:43.600 and certainly ever every pastor has had to wrestle with it at the end of the day the choice is

01:00:48.600 do we neglect the gathering to preserve the body from the threat of the virus or do we risk

01:00:57.000 gathering do we risk gathering try not to be foolish but risk gathering in such a way that

01:01:05.200 we mitigate the spiritual risk to the soul and what we discovered in our nation and in nations

01:01:12.500 across the whole world is that pastors who've been charged with preaching the word of god

01:01:17.500 and esteeming and defending those things which are ultimately eternal when push comes to shove

01:01:23.580 They care more about the physical, present reality

01:01:27.000 than the spiritual, eternal reality

01:01:29.760 that they said they cared about.

01:01:32.860 We saw it.

01:01:35.080 So we don't have to ask anymore, right?

01:01:37.220 Like God looks at, you know,

01:01:38.640 man looks at the outward appearance,

01:01:39.700 but God alone sees the heart.

01:01:41.200 And yet, and yet Jesus says,

01:01:43.160 you'll know them by their fruit.

01:01:44.180 So there is out of the abundance of the heart,

01:01:45.840 the mouth speaks.

01:01:46.680 So God sees the heart, we don't.

01:01:48.520 But there is a way in which,

01:01:50.140 there is a sense in which we see the heart of a man

01:01:52.840 by what he says and by what he does.

01:01:56.020 You can make judgments based off of a person's fruit,

01:01:59.140 their life, their deeds,

01:02:00.980 and out of the abundance of their heart,

01:02:02.680 their mouth speaks, so their words.

01:02:04.420 And what we have seen,

01:02:05.960 what I'm saying is, church, don't fall for it.

01:02:08.540 Don't go back.

01:02:11.000 Right, well, no, no, no,

01:02:11.660 I really believe the spiritual thing.

01:02:13.360 No, no, but when the truth serum

01:02:16.180 was put down your throat,

01:02:18.280 providentially by way of circumstance,

01:02:20.300 you said you didn't.

01:02:23.220 So once the Delta variant calms down,

01:02:25.960 and now that 80% of the population has been vaccinated, 0.82

01:02:28.860 and then pastors say, but the spiritual matter,

01:02:31.100 you've got to get in church, people.

01:02:32.320 Of course they want you to come back to church now.

01:02:36.000 No, no, no.

01:02:36.820 How do we know if we can trust them?

01:02:38.480 Well, maybe some of them have repented.

01:02:39.940 But here's how you know when you can really take someone by their word.

01:02:43.680 When there's risk.

01:02:46.840 When there's a challenge.

01:02:49.000 How do we know that the church fathers,

01:02:50.840 How do we know that they actually were committed to following Jesus even unto death? 0.93

01:02:56.720 Because they profess, like Polycarp, Christ as they were being martyred. 0.96

01:03:01.500 You don't have to wonder. 0.98

01:03:03.700 Is he being truthful?

01:03:05.060 Yeah, I think so.

01:03:07.000 Right?

01:03:07.320 When Christians are going to the lions because they will not deny Christ, we know that their faith is genuine.

01:03:16.720 But when Christians go, I'll say it like this.

01:03:19.600 When Christians are willing to go to the lions rather than deny Christ, we know they're serious. 0.96

01:03:24.360 But when Christians won't even go to church for a virus that kills 0.1% of the population, we know they're not serious. 0.95

01:03:33.920 They're not.

01:03:35.280 And I'm not trying to be harsh.

01:03:36.740 I'm trying to be truthful.

01:03:38.460 We must be consistent.

01:03:39.880 We can't.

01:03:40.700 Things will eventually change.

01:03:42.020 There'll always be a new boogeyman.

01:03:43.300 There'll be climate control.

01:03:44.040 Whatever it is.

01:03:45.440 Right?

01:03:45.820 There'll always be a new boogeyman.

01:03:47.260 There'll always be some new crisis, because crisis, you can't let a good crisis go to waste.

01:03:51.380 And crisis serves the left.

01:03:52.900 So there's always going to be something.

01:03:54.120 But one day, this thing will eventually not be so prevalent in the minds of people.

01:03:59.820 And what I'm trying to tell you is this.

01:04:01.640 Don't forget.

01:04:04.160 Don't forget the last 18 months.

01:04:06.120 When the Delta variant calms down, when the hospitals aren't so overwhelmed,

01:04:09.460 when the rhetoric and media and politics begins to die down and it shifts to something else,

01:04:15.020 don't forget.

01:04:17.260 Don't forget, because it's not that people can't change their mind, it's not that God

01:04:21.920 can't grant repentance, but when it comes to discerning the motives of the heart, the

01:04:27.300 clearest sign, the most accurate litmus test is when the person is under pressure, under

01:04:35.840 pressure.

01:04:37.260 What did they do then?

01:04:39.540 It's not, what do you say after the fact?

01:04:41.940 You make a lot of bold statements after the fact, once more data comes out.

01:04:46.200 Once we realize, oh, anybody can do that.

01:04:50.720 But in the midst of the battle, when it was raging all around you,

01:04:55.260 there's a lot of guys who can shoot a gun at a range.

01:05:00.440 But if they're in a shoot-off and bullets are whizzing past their face,

01:05:05.080 what do they do then?

01:05:06.180 That's the test of a man.

01:05:08.620 That's the test of character.

01:05:10.800 That's the furnace.

01:05:12.400 The furnace for gold, the cauldron for silver.

01:05:15.740 But it's trials, it is trials that test the caliber of a man.

01:05:22.100 And what we just saw through the last 18 months of trials

01:05:25.760 is that we don't have a lot of men.

01:05:28.240 We don't.

01:05:30.280 We don't.

01:05:32.320 And again, I know this sounds self-serving.

01:05:33.920 And so I will confess that.

01:05:36.680 And the Lord searched my heart, if any of it is.

01:05:39.020 It doesn't have to be this church.

01:05:40.760 It doesn't.

01:05:41.360 Because we are not the only ones, right?

01:05:42.840 Elijah did that.

01:05:43.480 Well, I'm the only one, right?

01:05:44.520 He had threats in his day, but the Lord, Elijah was bold, but he also reserved 7,000 other men 0.76

01:05:50.060 who would not bow their knees to Baal, who would not comply, who would not compromise. And likewise, 0.80

01:05:55.380 there are thousands of other men and thousands of other churches by God's grace that are also

01:06:01.080 courageous and faithful. We are not the only ones. We are a small piece of the puzzle that God is

01:06:05.880 using to bring about his manifold wisdom and his glory throughout all the earth. That said,

01:06:10.440 there are other men we're not the only one that said it's slim pickings there are others

01:06:18.200 but not nearly as many as we thought 18 months ago and for us to miss that is naive for us to

01:06:26.220 miss that is foolish good churches good churches don't grow on trees and if you find one it's

01:06:35.080 It's worth the drive. 0.88

01:06:37.880 It's worth the commitment.

01:06:40.180 If you find one, man, if I've learned anything over the last 18 months,

01:06:45.000 similar to David, I haven't been on the run for my life,

01:06:49.320 but similar to David, what I've learned is that there is a sweetness

01:06:53.320 of the presence of God that belongs to his people assembled together

01:07:00.300 and that that place, the sweetest place on earth, as Spurgeon said, the church,

01:07:05.080 there are a lot fewer and further between than I thought.

01:07:09.180 And for me, and I hope for you,

01:07:11.860 I hope that your value and your esteem 1.00

01:07:15.120 of Christ-exalting churches 1.00

01:07:18.140 would have been immensely grown during this last season.

01:07:23.120 And that you would cherish Christ by cherishing his bride.

01:07:27.300 And that you would do everything you can to love her,

01:07:29.820 to serve her, and to be committed to her.

01:07:33.200 All right, let's pray.

01:07:34.940 Our Father, we thank you for your word

01:07:36.200 and we thank you for your church.

01:07:38.880 We thank you for this church,

01:07:40.320 but Lord, we thank you for all those other churches.

01:07:43.160 We are not the only ones.

01:07:45.520 We are not the hero of the story.

01:07:47.080 Christ is the hero in the story.

01:07:50.700 As Christ in the parable that he told,

01:07:54.520 our reply on that final day

01:07:56.480 when he says, well done, good and faithful servant,

01:07:59.240 our reply is, we are merely servants.

01:08:01.500 We merely did our duty.

01:08:05.120 You are the hero, Jesus.

01:08:07.960 You're the hero of the story.

01:08:09.320 And so, Lord, we pray for our church,

01:08:11.760 but we also pray for all these other churches in Texas,

01:08:15.540 in Williamson County especially,

01:08:17.400 in our nation and across the world.

01:08:19.160 We pray for Christian pastors and Christians

01:08:22.360 and churches in Afghanistan. 1.00

01:08:24.720 We pray for little house churches 0.59

01:08:27.700 in the police state of Australia.

01:08:31.560 We pray for pastors like James Coates and others in Canada.

01:08:37.240 And Lord, we recognize that we are not the only one

01:08:40.780 and we are humbled to be a part of this remnant

01:08:44.700 that you have reserved, that you're building,

01:08:47.240 that you're expanding.

01:08:49.100 And just like what Jesus, what you said to Peter,

01:08:53.360 blessed are you, Simon of Jonah,

01:08:54.720 flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.

01:08:56.360 Lord, we thank you that our understanding

01:09:00.040 of the civil magistrate,

01:09:01.200 our understanding of Romans 13,

01:09:02.720 our understanding of the importance

01:09:04.760 and value of the church,

01:09:06.780 flesh and blood didn't reveal it to us.

01:09:08.680 In fact, in the last 18 months,

01:09:10.820 flesh and blood,

01:09:12.040 evangelical pastors, they failed us.

01:09:14.260 Flesh and blood failed us. 1.00

01:09:16.000 And yet there is a remnant of Christians 1.00

01:09:17.540 all over the world that get it

01:09:19.960 because the Father in heaven,

01:09:22.220 through his word, revealed it to them.

01:09:24.300 So Lord, help us to cherish,

01:09:26.360 cherish these pearls, these treasures,

01:09:28.200 this revelation, the things that you've taught us

01:09:30.640 over this previous difficult season,

01:09:32.900 let it prepare us for whatever lies ahead,

01:09:35.720 whether it be relief

01:09:36.660 or whether it be even greater challenges.

01:09:39.300 We pray that in all of it, it would glorify you.

01:09:42.060 In Jesus' name, amen.

01:09:44.720 Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.

01:09:46.580 Thanks for sticking around.

01:09:47.620 I've got an important announcement to make.

01:09:49.580 That's the Theonomy and Post-Millennialism Conference,

01:09:52.680 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th,

01:09:56.140 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

01:09:58.200 theonomy, and post-millennialism. We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up. That's

01:10:02.760 Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, non-doctor, Pastor Joel Webin. But we also have

01:10:08.640 a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity. Perhaps you've heard of him.

01:10:14.040 If not, you should start listening to his podcast. It's fantastic. Dale Partridge is going to be

01:10:19.300 joining our team. We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll

01:10:24.380 be able to write in questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered

01:10:28.040 barbecue, Texas style barbecue meal on Friday. That's a part of your registration fee. All that

01:10:34.040 is covered. So you need to get there. This is how you do it. Go and register right now at

01:10:38.920 rightresponseconference.com. Again, that's rightresponseconference.com. God bless.

The NXR Podcast - December 18, 2022

SUNDAY SERMON - Pastors Who Shut Down Their Churches ｜ Psalm 63

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