“Grace and the Law” – Exodus 20:1-17

In 1989, a Philadelphia financial analyst purchased an old, torn picture of a country scene for $4 at a flea market in Adamstown , PA because he liked the frame. Later, when he tried to detach the frame from the painting, the frame fell apart in his hands and he found a folded document between the canvas and wood backing which appeared to be an old copy of the Declaration of Independence. A friend who collected Civil War memorabilia advised him to have it appraised.

It was real -- one of 500 official copies from the first printing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. (Only twenty-four similar copies were known to exist before this find, of which a mere three were privately owned.) This rare document was offered for sale by Sotheby's on June 4, 1991 and the lucky find fetched even more than had been anticipated: the $800,000 to $1.2 million estimate turned into $2.42 million by the sound of the gavel.

Last month (June 2000) Donald Scheer of Atlanta , who purchased the original copy for $2.42 million put it up for sale a second time. Months prior to the auction, Sotheby's confirmed the printed broadsheet not only as authentic but also as one of the three finest known - as crisp as it was on the evening it was printed by John Dunlap to carry the news of America's independence to the people of the thirteen colonies. This time, the find that was purchased for $4 at a flea market went for a whopping $8.14 million in an on-line auction!

If that handwritten note, signed by the 56 founding fathers that declared America ’s independence from Great Britain was worth $8.14 million, think what an original hand-written note from God must be worth! (Wayde Wilson, Sermoncentral)

In Deut. 9:10, Moses says that God wrote with His own finger the 10 Commandments and then gave them to Moses to give to the people. Now, I want to ask you to put yourself in a place that many of you probably like to go. I want you to put yourself in God’s place. If you were God and you had created man and all other things, what would you do?

Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”Colossians 1:16 reiterates the point: “All things were created by him and for him.”

So, you are God and you created something you called “very good” and now you want all people to know what is expected of them, right. How would you do it? How about just right it down? You could just tell Moses and let him tell all the other people but then Satan would come along and do just what he did to Eve in the book of Genesis and say, “C’mon, did God really say that? I think you misunderstood.”

So, now, the people have written in stone exactly what is expected of them if they are to stay in good favor with you. In fact, if you were a king back in the old days you would probably do something similar. You might draw up a legal document stating that because you are the king and you are sovereign then this is what will be expected of your subjects and as long as they are obedient then they will have your protection.

Even today, in most places of business the boss will draw up an employment handbook and give it to all employees so they will know what is expected; what will get them promoted and what will get them fired. That is what we have with the 10 Commandments in the book of Exodus. And the beautiful thing about these commandments is that they are perfect. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the LORD is perfect.” James 1:25 says it is the perfect law that brings freedom.

So we have this perfect law communicated perfectly but the problem is it is given to an imperfect people. Just how imperfect? You can read in the 32^nd chapter of Exodus that while Moses was still on the mountain getting the 10 Commandments from God that the people sinned. They saw Moses go up the mountain and they saw the fire. They felt the mountain shake. There was smoke and fire and thunder and lightning and they could see, hear, smell and feel that Moses was doing business with God.

And before he even came back down the people said to each other, “Hey, let’s build a golden calf and worship it.” “Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.” So that’s what they did, within sight of the mountain, they melted all their gold and made a baby cow to worship.

When Moses came down from the mountain his face was shining like a lamp, his clothes were singed and smoking, his hair was white and his eyes were flashing. He had just been in the presence of holy God in a way that no man before or since ever has and as he came through the smoke and the cloud, I can just picture him looking around and wondering where everybody went. And he sees that they have built an idol and they are worshiping some chunk of gold.

“Seriously people? I was gone like 10 minutes and this is what you do?” You can’t blame Moses for being a little frustrated. You can’t blame God for being upset with us even today when we have His perfect law. It is written down in black and white. We all understand the words. And yet we all break those commands just like Moses broke the tablets. Honestly, it’s enough to make you wonder why God gave us those laws to begin with. Why would He give the perfect law to people so imperfect?

Well, let’s read these laws and then maybe we can find out the purpose behind them. Turn toward the front of your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Exodus and find chapter 20, verses 1-17.

And God spoke all these words:²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.³ “You shall have no other gods before me.⁴ “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.⁷ “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.¹³ “You shall not murder.¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.¹⁵ “You shall not steal.¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Now, after reading this passage it would be the perfect time for me to expound on each one of those laws and explain further what each one means and what they mean for us today. I could even take each one as a separate sermon and preach every week for the next 10 weeks on how you are messing up. I could tell you that you are making your job into your god. I could tell you how your language needs to be cleaned up and how wrong it is not to come to church on Sunday; how you are stealing from God by not tithing and how comparing yourself with your neighbor is wrong and how guilty you are; all from this passage, and I could do it for at least 9 more Sundays, more if I halfway tried. And honestly, that would preach. That’s good stuff. Nothing wrong with that.

And isn’t that why they are in there? Aren’t the 10 Commandments there so I can tell you how poor of a job you are doing in keeping them? It’s almost a“to-do” list. Yep, got that one, got that one. Oh, honey, that’s the one you did yesterday. I told you not to do that. Got that one, check. I’m doing that one right now. But we always end by saying, “Well, I’ve never murdered anybody and I’ve never robbed a bank so I’m not as bad as some.”

Are the 10 Commandments there so we can feel guilty or are they there so we can feel better about ourselves than others? I want us to look this morning at why the Law was written by looking first at why it was notwritten. And, no, it was certainly not written for us to feel better about ourselves but the first reason I would like to share is that it was not written to save us. And when I say that you should be praying, “Thank you Lord!” Thank you Lord that it is not by keeping all of your Laws that provides my way to heaven and to eternal life with you and keeps me out of a literal and fiery hell.

Let’s go back to putting yourself in the place of God. It just makes sense to us that if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds then you are ok, right? That’s how we would do it if we were God. But if you have the law spelled out and every single person blasts through the vast majority of them over and over again, how can you say that person is good?

If you are a king in the old days and you have made a covenant with your people that if they follow your laws then you will protect them but otherwise there are consequences and if those people break those laws over and over again, what kind of king would you be to say to every single person, “Oh, that’s ok. It’s all right. I forgive you.”? You would have to be a just king or you would be a bad king. So, what do you do? The law does not save. Romans 3:20 says, “no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.” The law is about justice. There is no mercy or forgiveness in the law. It’s black and white and if you break it you must pay the price. So the law is not there to save us.

It is also not written to give us goodstanding before God. We all like to think that we are good people but Romans 3:10 says, “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Yes, but I do good things now. I’m not perfect but I do some good things. Isaiah 64:6 says, “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” We all want to be in good standing with God just like if you were to sell your corporation, the person you are selling it to would want a certificate of good standing with the government. So, you call up your local gubmint official and tell him you want that certificate. He tells you that you haven’t paid your taxes. You have failed to meet the requirement necessary to get that certificate. You can beg and plead and make threats and tell all about how you used to pay your taxes and how your brother works for the gubmint. It doesn’t matter. It’s the same with God. The Law is not written to give us good standing with Him because we have all failed to meet the requirement of keeping that Law.

Lastly, the Law was not written to sanctify the saints. It was not written to make Christians holy. I am quite sure that there are some non-Christians out there that live a more moral life than I do. I’m sure that some people who never darken the door of a church could say they are better people than I am since they have broken the 10 Commandments fewer times than I have. Paul himself says in Romans 7, “¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

The Law doesn’t make us holy or sanctified. Even as Christians we blow through the 10 Commandments like Grant taking Richmond so why was it written? I’ll give you 3 reasons why it was written. First, it was written to show us the character of God. Just like you have certain characteristics that make you who you are, so God has characteristics that make Him God. And the fundamental thing that makes God who He is is that He is holy and righteous. The holiness of God is declared in the 10 Commandments as much as anywhere else. The book of Leviticus says several times, “Be holy, for the Lord your God is holy.”

Going back to the scenario of you being God, you would probably be a pretty cool God, right? You would cut folks some slack when they messed up because you know how it is to mess up. It’s hard not to sometimes and so you would go easy and not be all “righteous and holy”. I mean, that’s so Old Testament, right? Well, you are not God…and I’m glad. And while we all know that we are not under the law but under grace, there are still consequences for sin. It doesn’t matter if you are Billy Graham or Charles Manson. God still calls sin a sin and there will always be consequences to that sin because of God’s righteous and holy character.

Secondly, the reason the Law was given is so that we would see our own character. The Law is the plumbline that we hang down and compare to the crookedness of our own lives and characters. I read the first part of Romans 3:20 earlier, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law.” But the last part says, “Rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” When we look at the law and then look into a mirror we see a great difference. That is not our character and hasn’t been since Adam and Eve fell in the garden.

How many of you have honestly prayed to God for forgiveness but told Him that even now as I pray there is a part of me that wants to go do it again! As I sit here asking for forgiveness there is a part of me that want to go wallow in that mess of sin some more. Oh, Lord have mercy on us! But there is no mercy in the Law. There is no forgiveness. There is only justice and consequences. But thank God there is one more reason that the law was given.

Lastly, the reason the Law was given was ultimately to lead us to Jesus. Galatians 3:24 says, “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.” Paul says that the Law was our “paidagogos”. It means in the original Greek, to lead a child. It was used of the servant in the house who took the child to school. The Law leads us to Jesus in the same way.

When I see that the law is perfect and yet I am not; when I see that the law can’t save us, give us a good standing before God or sanctify us as Christians, I see that I am in trouble because there is no mercy or grace in the Law. When I see the righteousness of God and how holy and perfect He is I realize there is no way I could ever earn my way to heaven no matter how many good things I did and so when the New Testament tells me that God loved me so much He sent His only Son to die in my place I want to scream, “Give me Jesus!” But if it weren’t for the Law in the Old Testament I would never know what was required.

That is why the Law was given so many thousands of years ago. And I would expect that most of the people here this morning know this already. You already know that righteous God requires a death sacrifice to pay for our sins and that He sent Jesus here to earth to show us grace where the law could not. You know that it is because of His death, burial and resurrection that we can be seen as righteous before God and have good standing with Him, through grace, not of ourselves, lest any man should boast. You know all that.

But I’m not going to mince my words here. You know that and I know that but I have reason to believe that TJ and Shannon who live across the street don’t know that. I have reason to believe that the precious older couple right behind us, the Ezells, don’t know that. What about Melissa down at the store? What about Keith who lives a couple of streets over? What about Tony in Runaway Bay ? What about your neighbor who was out working on the car this morning and you waved to him real friendly as you came to church? We are literally surrounded by people who have broken the Law of God just like we have but they have not accepted Jesus to be the Lord of their life and their substitute for punishment for their sin.

I’m not trying to preach a “fire and brimstone” sermon at all but Revelation 20:11 says, “whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Because God is a good and righteous judge we have to believe His word and believe that He means what He says. So, I’m going to end with just this question: who are you going to talk to about Jesus today?

“The Prosperity of the Wicked” – Psalm 73

How many of you noticed a small cut in your pay check this month? Most all of us did due to some taxes going up. How do you feel about that? Is that fair? Well, the good news is that not everybody in America is feeling the pinch. That’s good news, isn’t it? Don’t you feel glad for actress Jennifer Aniston who made $27 million this year? What about baseball player Alex Rodriguez who made $34 mil? That’s fair, right? TV host Kelly Ripa only made $8 mil so I feel a little sorry for her. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, even after the cheating and divorce and the scandal still brought down $110 mil. Not bad for playing golf all day. Actor Will Ferrell made $31 mil for acting like a goofball. Now, I know Beyonce is a singer and maybe an actress but is she really worth $80 mil? And she just married rapper Jay-Z not long ago and he’s bringing in $82 mil so they probably live pretty comfortable. I’m glad for them.

Yea, real glad. Actually, no, I’m not. I’m not really glad that people whose job is only to entertain make ridiculous amounts of money. That’s not right, not when school teachers and cops and firemen and…pastors don’t make much. I mean, that’s why I got into this job was to make money! You believe me, right? J

Is it fair that Tom Cruise makes $15 mil and looks like…Tom Cruise? And don’t get me started on Brad Pitt. If I was Brad Pitt I wouldn’t own a shirt. I would just walk down the street shirtless holding hands with Angelina Jolie all day and buying stuff. I have to admit that it sometimes bothers me that some people seem to have it made. They have everything. They have wealth, health, good looks, beautiful girlfriends (some of whom actually exist, unlike that Manti Teo guy from Notre Dame) and it is easy to forget everything with which I have been blessed when I look at them. But I’m probably the only one who has ever felt that way, right?

Actually, no, there was at least one other person who has felt this way and his name was Asaph. Asaph was a musician and an author who was a contemporary of King David. You might say that Asaph was the music minister while David was the preacher in the temple. And poor Asaph sometimes doesn’t get what he deserves even today. I’ve told you before that if I am going through the Psalms just for fun and I see “A Psalm of Asaph”, I probably skip over it until I see “A Psalm of David” and then I read that because I feel like I know David. Since I was a little boy until now, I have studied David from when he was a little boy until he was an adult. But Asaph I don’t know much about.

In Psalm 73, Asaph was going through a difficult time in his life. He was a mature believer in the one true God. He had a relationship with God and knew God to be loving and good but at the same time he could see the people around him who were not believers and who lived their lives only for themselves, he could see them prosper and live well and they were having wild and crazy parties and doing things that were morally and even legally wrong but they still seemed to continue to prosper. And so he bares his soul to God in Psalm 73 and I would like to read that passage this morning.

All through January I have concentrated my sermons around the topic of prayer. We have looked at what we should do when Satan attacks and how to handle it when it seems that God doesn’t hear our prayer. And in this passage we see how we are to pray when things don’t always make sense. It’s one thing to go to God as Job did, basically saying, “Who do you think you are to do this to me?” and it’s another thing to go to God as Asaph does here and humbly say, “Lord, I have some questions. Would you please help me understand?” Let’s read the 73^rdPsalm.

A psalm of Asaph.¹ Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.³ For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.⁴ They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.^[a]5 They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.⁶ Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.⁷ From their callous hearts comes iniquity^[b];their evil imaginations have no limits.⁸ They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.⁹ Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.¹⁰ Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.^[c]11 They say, “How would God know? Does the Most High know anything?”¹²This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.¹³ Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence.¹⁴ All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new punishments.¹⁵If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children.¹⁶When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply¹⁷ till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.¹⁸ Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.¹⁹ How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!²⁰ They are like a dream when one awakes; when you arise, Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.²¹ When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,²²I was senseless and ignorant ;I was a brute beast before you.²³ Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.²⁴ You guide me with your counsel ,and afterward you will take me into glory.²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lordmy refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.

The problem with Asaph was that he had bad eyesight. Not his physical eyes but his spiritual eyes were distorted. He was looking in the wrong direction for the wrong reason and so I want us to see this morning the way that Asaph was looking and where he should have been looking and the outcome of looking correctly. In you bulletin insert you will see that Asaph was looking outward when he should have been looking upward and if he had it would have changed how he looked inward.

I love how Asaph starts his prayer. That word “surely” or “truly”can also be translated “nevertheless”. Asaph has these doubts and fears that are making him miserable and so he goes to God to ask Him about them and starts out by saying, “Nevertheless” or“No matter what answer you give or don’t give, I know that God is good. I don’t understand you but I know that you are good. Now here is my problem.”

We have talked before about the kind of prayer that God will answer and I just picture God hearing Asaph start like this and God leans out to the edge of His royal throne and says, “I’m listening, dear one. I’m listening.” How powerful it is to think of having an audience with the Creator of the entire universe who listens to us when we have a problem! And Asaph not only starts his prayer well, he is also very honest with God and that is important. God knows what is going on with us but it is important that we are honest with ourselves before God. You are not fooling Him. Humbly coming to God with our doubts and fears is biblical. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

In the next verses, though, Asaph shows that he was looking outward. He says in verses 2 and 3, “² But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.³ For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

I often make mention of how much I appreciate the way this church looks outwardly and not inwardly. You have shown that you are not as concerned about yourself as you are other people and that is the way we are supposed to be but the problem comes when you look at other people and start comparing your life with theirs. When you start seeing all the ways it looks like they are blessed compared with how you are blessed it is easy to think that God is unfair and that is like walking on a sheet of glass. Asaph says his feet had almost slipped.

I think it is important for us to consider what Asaph really means when he says his feet had almost slipped. What does it mean when any Christian slips and falls like he is talking about here? He is talking about slipping into sin by envying the wicked. When we slip and fall out of our faith and into sin do we lose our salvation? No, of course not. The Bible says in several places that nothing can snatch us out of God’s hand once we are there. The problem is that most of us take it to the other extreme. We don’t really worry about a little slip and fall most of the time but Asaph seemed to understand what it really meant to slip out of God’s favor and out of God’s will and out of God’s fellowship. He understood the consequences not only to himself but to all the others around him if he were to be found slipped away and so he goes to God with this prayer, praying that God would help him not to fall.

He goes on to say how the wicked seem to not have any struggles. They are healthy and strong and because of that they get proud and he says they wear their pride like a necklace. Asaph doesn’t seem to understand that what he is seeing is part of the answer to his prayer. God despises pride so much He won’t tolerate it in His children and so often times He allows us to struggle to keep us from becoming proud. That was a big part of last week’s message. But because Asaph is looking outward all he sees is people that are proud of themselves for what they have and he admits to being envious.

In verses 8 and 9 Asaph relates that the wicked “scoff and speak with malice and their mouths lay claim to heaven and their tongues take possession of the earth.” Dr. Carl Sagan was a scientist, astronomer, astrobiologist and astrophysicist. In other words, he was a pretty smart guy. You know, I started to do some of that myself when I finally got out of junior college but I decided it wasn’t for me. Anyway, Sagan was known for his brilliance and intelligence especially in relation to the cosmos. He published more than 600 scientific articles and authored nearly 20 books. And in his words, “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.” That is laying claim to heaven with tongues taking possession of the earth. And people all over the world hear that and think that if Carl Sagan said it, it must be true.

When Asaph was looking outward he saw and heard the wicked and he had to admit that their lifestyle and their philosophy were starting to look pretty good. In verses 13 and 14 he says, “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure because all day long I am plagued.” All day long I suffer while the wicked are having a good time! And you can just almost see his feet start to slip. He is tottering and about to fall trying to figure out why it is that he tries to do the right thing and it seems like he is punished but the wicked people thrive and prosper.

And then we get to verse 17. Verse 17 is the hinge on which all of this turns. It is the verse that sheds light into the darkness of Asaph’s thinking; it is the key that unlocks the door out of the maze. He was confused, oppressed and feeling punished until that moment he started looking upward. “Til I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.”

The question is, “”Where is the sanctuary of God?” I need to know because, like Asaph, I sometimes have doubts and I don’t always understand why things are happening. Where do I need to go to understand? Is it this sanctuary? We call this room the sanctuary and you could say that it is the sanctuary of God but honestly just being in this room, while I know it is holy and special, it does not always give me understanding just being here. Do I have to go to the sanctuary in Jerusalem where Asaph worshiped? Tell me it ain’t so. And if not, then what is the address and I will go now?

The word sanctuary here means a consecrated, holy place set apart for God. And while it is sometimes used as the name of a place in the temple, here it is used not in the physical sense but in the spiritual. It is a spiritual place in our heart where God abides and when our heart is pure and our hands are clean we can go there and have an audience with the King. Spurgeon says Asaph stood where the thrice holy God stands and he gazed within the veil. Asaph came before God. He didn’t go to a place. He humbly brought all of his concerns and doubts before the great I AM and left them at His feet with a new understanding of Who God is and who he was and with his eyes focused upward everything started to make sense.

What was unfair to Asaph, he now understood to be the will and work of the sovereign Creator. What was tempting before now he saw as futile and ridiculous. What was inviting was now disgusting and horrible all because he looked upward. You see when we look outward it changes and distorts how we look upward but when our look upward is clear and pure it changes how we look inward.

Now, looking inward, Asaph saw himself and the wicked as God saw them. He saw that the wicked were the ones on the slick ice. In verse 18, he says, “Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.” He sees that God purposely put these people in prosperous but treacherous circumstances, not to bless them but just the opposite. Their position was dangerous and so He did not put His friends there but his enemies.

I love the word picture that Asaph draws in verse 20. “As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise o Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.” In a dream, your circumstances seem so real and so important sometimes to the point of scaring you real bad but how many times have you thought that dream was so awful but now that you are awake you can’t even remember what it was about? That’s the way the wicked are to God. They won’t even be remembered.

Continuing to look inward, Asaph says in verses 21 and 22 that when he was grieved and bitter it was like being a senseless animal, a cow whose eyes only see the grass and never the sunshine. Before God, Asaph felt like a fool for feeling the way he had.

In verses 24 and 25 he spells out the benefits both here and now on earth and in heaven later on. He says that earth has nothing I desire except you. When we meet with God and do business with Him we realize how foolish it is to chase after worldly things; how foolish it is to want more and more stuff, bigger tv’s and newer cars. None of that matters in light of Who God is and just being in His presence.

He says in verse 28, “But as for me, it is good to be near God.” Can you say that? Does the thought of being near God scare you or fill you with dread? Yes, we are told to fear God and that is true but when we come to God with our doubts and fears and problems and lay them before Him we have nothing to fear. David said in Psalm 51, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart , O God you will not despise.” It is time this morning to come to God with a broken and contrite heart and lay down your doubts, confessing all your sins and coming before him with clean hands and a pure heart.

And when all of that has been done, as Asaph says in the very last sentence, then “I will tell of all your deeds.” And I’ll end with one more quote from Spurgeon, “He who is willing to declare the works of God shall never be silent for lack of wonders to declare.”

What a Delight! - II Cor. 12:7-10

I asked for strength that I might achieve;

He made me weak that I might obey.

I asked for health that I might do great things;

He gave me grace that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

He gave me poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;

He gave me weakness that I might feel a need for God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

He gave me life that I might enjoy all things.

I received nothing I had asked for;

He gave me all that I had hoped for.

If you are on our email list you got an email from me this past Friday in which I told you that I was going to tell you the secret of life. If you are not on our email list and want to be just fill out one of the cards in front of you and get it to me and I’ll make sure you are added for next time. But if you came this morning wondering what I was going to say, what smart-alec thing I was going to come up with, well in all seriousness, I would like to propose to you this morning that the poem I just read IS the secret to life.

If you can understand, accept and fully embrace these words then you can have what Jesus came to earth to give you and that is, as it says in John 10:10, a full and abundant life. Who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want to live their life in a way that at the very end you can say, “I did everything I was supposed to and wanted to. I am done. I ran the race the best I could and now I am ready to go home.”? That’s what happens when we embrace what this poem and our passage for today are talking about.

The problem is most of us get hung up asking the wrong question and so we never get the answer we are supposed to get. Most of us keep trying to figure out why God doesn’t answer our prayers like we think He should. We all know that prayer works. We would never admit to doubting the power of prayer. We talked last week about the kind of prayer God can’t wait to answer. We all know He has the power and the knowledge to answer our prayers but somewhere in the back of our minds; in a place we don’t want to admit exists, we doubt that God is going to answer our prayer.

Oh, sure we all, as mature Christians, know that God is probably not going to answer our prayers for a new 2013 Corvette ZR-1 in Velocity Yellow. Although, as I have said, I could bring God glory in that ride! I could. I would paint “Christ Fellowship” on the side and John 3:16 on the hood and everywhere I go I would say, “Look what God provided!” But nobody is seriously praying for that. What we are praying is, “Lord, my friend Robert Miller has cancer and I humbly ask that you would heal him.” “Lord, your servant Nadi lays unconscious in a bed in Nicaragua and the doctors don’t know what to do. Please help.”

 

And even though I am praying fervently and in the name of Jesus there is something at the back of my mind that thinks that these prayers are too big for God to answer. I know they are because I have prayed like this before and God still allowed the worst to happen. Oh, I’m not going to admit it to anyone; certainly not from the pulpit and probably not even to myself but it’s there, gnawing at me and proving my faith to be fruitless. And then I get mad and frustrated, wondering why God would waste His breath telling me to come boldly before His throne with my requests if He wasn’t going to do what I asked!

Why doesn’t God answer our prayer like we want? As I said before, it is the wrong question to ask but we will use it to get us to the right answer and to the secret of life that is found in II Corinthians chapter 12 verses 7-10. In my opinion these may be some of the most profound words ever written down in the history of the world. Next to the words of Jesus Himself in John 3:16, these words can be the most life-changing ever recorded. Paul wrote them to the church in Corinth ; a church that he started and where he spent so much time and effort.

Paul had a passion for this church that burned deep inside of him and he prayed for them and taught them and wrote to them and just when he would seem to think they were beginning to understand he would get word that some false teacher had gone in and undermined everything Paul had been telling them and modeling to them. And so it is out of this frustration and pain that Paul writes these words.

^“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

In the passages before this Paul talks about God allowing Paul to see some incredible visions; visions that were too incredibly great to even be able to share with anybody. And so Paul says that he was given a thorn in the flesh to keep him from being conceited about the fact that God had showed him these things. And isn’t that the tendency we all have? When God reveals Himself or does something supernatural in our lives we all just have a way of making it about us, don’t we? “I must be doing something right. God must think I’m something pretty special. I’m kind of a big deal with God.”

Some Christians are like this woodpecker that was pecking on the trunk of an old, dead tree when all of the sudden lightning struck the tree and split it right down the middle and left nothing but splinters. The woodpecker was able to fly away unharmed but as he looked at where the old tree used to be he thought, “Wow! Look at what I did!”

So that leads us to the first of the four reasons Paul outlines for us in this passage as to why God doesn’t answer our prayers like we want.

1) It humbles us.

2) It draws us to Him.

3) It displays His grace.

4) It gives us power.

If anybody ever had reason to brag on themselves it was Paul. Not only had he seen these incredible visions but he had started numerous churches all over Europe . He had seen and done incredible miracles and had felt God’s power in ways that most of us will never know. And so in verse 7 he says that he had been given a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble. Bible scholars and historians have long wondered and speculated on what Paul was exactly talking about in reference to the thorn. Some have said it was his eyesight or some disease, migraines, back problems or even a speech impediment but we really don’t know.

And actually the word translated“thorn” may be better translated “stake” which indicated the suffering Paul was enduring. It wasn’t a little thorn in his finger it was a large stake. And then Paul says it was from a “messenger of Satan”. We like to think that God wouldn’t allow anything bad to happen to us but this would teach otherwise, as would Job chapter 1 where Satan approaches God asking to attack Job and God agrees. Or consider what Jesus says to Peter in Luke 22. “Satan has asked to sift you as wheat but I have prayed for you.”

Make no mistake. Satan’s attack on Paul was not outside of God’s will. God is sovereign over all of His creation and will use even the forces of the kingdom of darkness to accomplish His righteous purposes. Paul was critical to God’s redemptive plan and He would keep him humble by any means necessary, including using a demon. God sometimes allows Satan to bring devastating suffering on His saints to achieve their greater usefulness. (John MacArthur) And sometimes He doesn’t answer our prayers like we want in an effort to humble us and keep us useful.

Not only does God not always answer our prayers like we want to keep us humble, it also draws us closer to Him. I like to think that Paul was a praying man. I like to think that he knew from where his power came and from where his peace and joy and comfort came. In fact, Paul says himself in the very first chapter of this book, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles…” Paul knew that it was through a relationship with God through His Son Jesus that he was comforted and yet God wanted Paul to spend time with Him so much He allowed Paul to continue on with the thorn in his flesh.

Paul did the same thing that was modeled by Jesus Himself in the garden. Jesus prayed 3 times to God to deliver Him in Matthew 26. Paul drew near to God in the intensity of his pain and it was the most blessed place that he could be just as it is for us. What happens when we go through pain and suffering? The universal response to pain and suffering is almost ALWAYS to turn to God. It’s the theory behind there not being any atheists in foxholes. God knows how we think and our relationship with Him is so important that he sometimes allows us to go through bad things so we can trust in Him and Him alone.

C.S. Lewis said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, and shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”(The Problem of Pain) Everybody in the world goes through pain and many of us right here this morning are enduring our own thorns in the flesh. I have said before that everybody we know should be at the top of our prayer list. But our relationship with God is so important that He sometimes allows us to continue in our pain because it draws us closer to Him.

Paul prays 3 times and when it says that he prays 3 times it doesn’t mean he brought up the subject to God 3 times. It means there were 3 periods of time in Paul’s life – maybe days, weeks, months or even years that Paul went before God and poured out his heart. I happen to think there is reason to believe that the thorn was actually Paul’s grief and concern about this very church. He was so concerned about the church in Corinth knowing the truth and having a relationship with God through His Son Jesus that when false teachers came in it pained Paul to his very core.

 

Now you would think that surely God would answer that prayer. Paul was praying for the health of the church. What could be more God-honoring than that? And yet what is God’s answer to Paul? “My grace is sufficient for you.” God didn’t remove the pain because it kept Paul humble and drew him closer to God but instead God chose to display His grace in the circumstance. We know that grace is God’s undeserved favor on mankind but if it is God’s favor then why allow Paul (and us) to continue going through pain? What kind of favor is that?

It is the kind of favor that does not give you something good so that ultimately you will get something better and God will get more glory. Did you hear that because this is the key that unlocks this big secret of life? In fact, repeat after me: Grace is God not giving you something good so that ultimately you will get something better and God will get more glory. That is grace. Grace makes pain spiritually productive.

This family has been wonderful to continue to pray for my friend Robert Miller. As most of you know Robert has a rare form of cancer and he has gone through all the chemo and radiation and all the pills and therapy and everything else that can possibly be done. He will find out Tuesday what his status is officially but they believe that the tumors have all but disappeared. And thank you Lord, that’s wonderful but the doctors say there is a 100% chance that they will come back.

Robert is dying and he knows it. The chemo has given him some more time but who knows how long it will last? And in my prayers for Robert I know that God can heal him. I know that He has the power to do that and so I think to myself, “God why don’t you? Robert is a wonderful Christian who has always been bold in his witness for Jesus. Why would you take him so early? It’s not fair! Why don’t you just be the Superman I know you can be and get the glory of healing him?”

I talked to Robert just a few days ago. He called me as I was driving somewhere and we chatted for a second and then I asked him how he was really doing. I didn’t ask him for some deep theological nugget of motivation. I didn’t tell him I needed some great quote for a sermon. I just asked how he was doing and he said first that he was pretty tired but then he said, “You know, this whole cancer thing has just about been worth it for all the people I have gotten to speak to about Jesus.”

That’s the secret to life! That’s “my grace is sufficient for you”! When you look up “my grace is sufficient for you” in the dictionary you see Paul’s picture and right next to Paul is Robert’s picture! Why? Is it because Robert deserves God’s grace? No. As good as Robert is he doesn’t deserve God’s wonderful, boundless, immeasurable grace. If he did it wouldn’t be grace. That’s why it is grace.

Blogger Jon Acuff says, “The truth is, grace is offensive. Grace offends in its’ generosity. Grace offends in its’ availability. Grace offends in its’ depth. Grace offends in its’unwillingness to be controlled or owned or manipulated. Grace is offensive, and when I see people who I think don’t deserve it, I am reminded of ultimately how desperately I still need it.” God loves you so much He sometimes allows us to continue in our pain to humble us, draw us closer to him and to display His grace; His wonderful, boundless, immeasurable and offensive grace. And thank you Lord for it.

Lastly, sometimes God does not answer our prayers like we want because it actually gives us power. God told Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” God not only wanted Paul to be humble but also strong. John MacArthur says that “it was necessary for the fires of affliction to burn away all the dross of pride and self-confidence” in Paul.

Paul had done everything humanly possible for the Corinthians and still he could not fix the situation. He was at the point where he had to totally trust in God’s will and power. And what better place to be? See, nobody is too weak to experience God’s power but many of us are too confident in our own strength. God sometimes allows our suffering, anguish, disappointment and failure to squeeze the impurities of pride and self-confidence out of our lives so that we are a clear channel for His power to flow through.

So, though his circumstances had not changed, Paul could say in verse 10,“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul got it. He understood the secret of life. He understood why God doesn’t always answer our prayers like we think He should and so he didn’t even ask that question anymore. He said he delighted in all of his difficulties. Can you say that? Can you relax and be still and know that He is God and that He loves you and wants all the best for you, instead of just some good things?

Can you accept that God is sovereign and is in control of everything including your pain and suffering and sometimes allows it to continue to make you more like Him? When you can delight in that fact then you can have that full and abundant life in John 10:10 and that is the secret of life.

“What Should We Do?” - Acts 4:23-31

Amazing Grace is a wonderful song and it is also what it takes for us to get out of our comfort zone and do something even if it is not in the area God has gifted us. I have encouraged y’all to do that over and over and you have and so that is what I tried to do.

 

You have been my models for what a church should be lately. Almost every day I see somebody do something that models the first church. I see compassion and giving, stepping up to do something that needs to be done instead of just expecting somebody else to do it. I see people teaching and cleaning and singing and leading and ministering, giving of themselves, their finances, time and resources and I’m just so proud to be a part of this church.

 

I’m so proud to be a part of a church that just wants to be obedient to what God would have us do; a church that’s not as concerned about their own comfort as they are going, doing and being what the Lord wants. I want to be a part of a church whose highest priority is not being entertained but instead leading people to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ-no matter what it takes.

 

As I have said lots of times, this church is very much like the first church in the New Testament. That church started out small with just a handful of people and prospered in a time when following Jesus was extremely unpopular. It was a time when the national leaders were corrupt and full of pride and it seemed like if they would just open their eyes and truly see what was going on they would understand but their pride and love of power blinded them to the truth. Maybe things haven’t changed much in 2000+ years.

 

We all knew that when we started this church that it was going to be difficult. We didn’t go into this with our eyes closed. We all knew the difficulties of starting a church like this and what I love is that nobody was interested in just “playing church”. Nobody wanted a cookie-cutter, plain Jane, run of the mill church like is on every corner in most towns. We don’t have a lot of rules around here. The criteria for starting this church have always been that we wanted a place where we can worship in Spirit and truth and a place where we can minister to the community. There is really no other reason for us to be here and it is biblical and Godly and since we have been obedient in this we have seen God bless us, haven’t we?

 

The problem is we all know what comes next. When we are obedient then God blesses, right? And what always happens next? Satan attacks. Satan can’t stand it when a group of people get together and put themselves last and other people first. He is highly offended when people give of themselves to help people who will probably never be able to repay them. It ticks him off when people get together and truly worship when everyone else said, “You can’t do that. You don’t have enough people. You don’t have any talent or experience and you have too much debt and too much baggage.”

 

And all this church said was, “You’re right. We can’t do it but God can and it was His idea and His will for us to be here and so we will do it as long as He wants us to!” And when Satan hears talk like that he gets scared. He is scared of us here at Christ Fellowship. All 6 (or 10 or 12) of us! And when Satan gets scared he attacks. You see it all through the Old Testament to the New Testament and right on into our lives and in the life of this church. When the people are obedient God blesses and then Satan attacks.

 

It happened to the first church and it is happening to us. God has allowed us to get here and get started and get our legs under us and He continues to bless us as we worship and minister in the community. But now we are under attack and the way Satan likes to attack is to do so in ways that you don’t realize it’s him. He wants us to think that it is just sickness that’s going around, a bad economy and a spiritually apathetic world. He wants us to think that somebody is not doing us right and that we are being taken advantage of and we need to stand up for our individual rights instead of just talking about Jesus.

 

But, make no mistake, we are under attack. Our battle is not against flesh and blood and it never has been. Our battle is against the prince of the air, the father of lies and the roaring lion who wants to kill us dead. The question is, “What should we do?” Well, if you don’t know the answer to something you can always Google it or ask Siri. But I would like to see what the Bible has to say about this. In fact, there is a wonderful passage in the book of Acts that tells us what the first church did in a very similar situation.

 

In the first part of Acts we see that Jesus has left the disciples and ascended back to Heaven leaving them with the monumental task of spreading the Good News to the entire earth. The church officially starts up with just a few folks but grows quickly in spite of the difficulties and the disciples and all the church are obedient to what Jesus told them to do and so God blesses them with a time of peace and refreshment; a time that they can get their breath and prepare to do battle. And that is what we see happen here for the first time. The church is attacked.

 

When Jesus left He promised to send the Holy Spirit Who would give them power and in Acts chapter 3 we see that Peter and John are arrested for healing a crippled beggar. They are sent to the Sanhedrin who were some of the same people that tried Jesus just a few months before and sentenced Him to death. The Sanhedrin threatened Peter and John and warned them not to speak about Jesus ever again and then sent them on their way.

Let’s pick up the story in Acts chapter 4, verses 23-31 and we will see what the first church did in the face of Satan’s attack.

 

²³ On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.²⁴ When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. ²⁵You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? ²⁶ The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.²⁷ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. ²⁸They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.²⁹ Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

 

A little boy was saying his bedtime prayers with his mother. “Lord bless mama and daddy, and God, GIVE ME A NEW BICYCLE! Mom said, “Son, God’s not deaf. The little boy answered, “No but grandma is and she’s in the next room.”

 

So many of us know that we are to pray but we pray in a way that is not the best. We think if we say just the right words in just the right way that maybe, hopefully, possibly God will hear a little bit of it. But in this prayer of the disciples we see one of the most powerfully effective prayers in the entire Bible and there are really only 2 aspects of it. I want us to see the 2 aspects and they are:

 

1) Acknowledge God for Who He is

2) Ask God for what He wants

 

It says that the very first thing that Peter and John did was go back to their friends at their church and they prayed. That is the answer to the title of the message. What should we do when Satan attacks? We should pray. But there is more to it than just telling God what we want to happen. There is more to it than just naming off some names on the prayer list and some wishes off the wish list. Prayers like that show a misunderstanding of Who God is and how He works. The first church knew God to be sovereign and they said so in the first word of the prayer.

 

In verse 24 they pray, “Sovereign Lord…” That word, “sovereign” is the same word from which we get our word “despot”. A despot is a ruler that exercises absolute authority and power. Simeon used the same word when he held baby Jesus in the temple in Luke 2. When we use the word today it is almost always used negatively but when used in reference to God, what a comfort it is, as Simeon felt, to know that God is in complete control of our circumstances.

 

It was knowing that God is sovereign that allowed Peter to later go to sleep in chains between 2 guards the night before his trial. It was the knowledge of God’s sovereignty that allowed Stephen’s last words to be, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them” as they stoned him for preaching the Gospel. It was because God is sovereign that Paul and Silas had the peace to be singing Amazing Grace at midnight in their jail cell. And it is because God is sovereign that we can get through whatever Satan throws at us. Maybe God will perform a miracle and our chains will drop off like they did for Paul and Silas and maybe we don’t make it out alive like Stephen. But whatever happens we know that God is in control and since we believe John 3:16 and know that God loves us it will not affect our peace or our obedience.

 

And it not only helps to know that God is sovereign but we also see here that the first church knew that God was the Creator. In verse 24 they tell God they know that He made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In Nehemiah 9:6, Nehemiah prayed the same way. I bet Job wished he would have prayed that way because since he didn’t, God reminded him. When Job was whining for 37 chapters about why God had done this to him, finally God answers him with, “Where were you when I told the oceans where to stop? Where were you when I told the eagle where to fly? Where is the place where the lightning and the winds are kept?”

 

It’s not that we need to tell these things to God to flatter Him and hope that He shows us mercy based on that. We aren’t reminding God of Who He is and what He has done. We are acknowledging God for Who He is and reminding ourselves of our place in this world compared to Him. When we see Who God is and who we really are, our prayer life will change dramatically. The first church acknowledged God for Who He is and we should too when we pray.

 

The next thing we see the first church do is to ask God for what He wants. They got their minds right about their relationship with the Sovereign Creator and then asked for God to do a few things. Let’s look at it again in verses 29-30.

 

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

 

It’s very interesting to me what they did not pray for. They didn’t pray for the building to collapse on the Sanhedrin. They didn’t pray that they would not be persecuted or for God to even change the minds of the Sanhedrin. They simply asked for God to be mindful of their situation but they were asking so that they would be more effective witnesses for God. Do you think God will answer a prayer like that? Absolutely!

 

Oh, but I hear what you’re saying. “Yea, but they also prayed for healing.” Yes they did but do you know why? They asked for miraculous signs and wonders. Do you know what signs are for? They point you in the right direction. A sign does not point to itself. It points to something else. These miracles that the apostles and others were able to do pointed to Jesus. They didn’t have the canon of scripture like we do to share with others so they used miracles to validate their testimony. They weren’t just praying for Aunt Bessie to feel better. They were praying for more opportunities to point others to Jesus. That’s a prayer God can’t wait to answer.

 

 

 

 

I want to close by looking again at that last verse. Read verse 31. “^After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” I want that. Oh, I don’t care about the building physically being shaken. I want the power of God to be obvious in this church. I want it to be obvious to people even as they drive past much less when they walk in that those people in that church could not have done that without supernatural help because that is absolutely the truth.

 

There was a little church in a community like this one time that caught fire. Everybody in town went running toward the church to help put out the fire even the town atheist. As they got to the fire one guy turned to the atheist and laughingly said, “Well that’s the first time I ever saw you run toward the church.” The atheist said, “Well, that’s the first time I ever saw the church on fire.”

 

I want a church so on fire for the Lord that even the atheists will come running and when they do, I know this church will welcome them just like the first church did. And we will because we know that they need that same amazing grace that we found when we first met Jesus.