Finding Help in Affliction, Part 2

In This Sermon we see the Psalmist clinging to the merciful God of the Word so that we might learn the second and third of three insights about finding help in affliction.

1. Your Greatest Need is a Merciful God (vv. 153-54)
2. The Wicked are without Hope without the Word (v. 155)
3. God’s Abundant Mercy is the Foundation of our Hopeful Plea (v. 156)

Transcript:

Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 119. Turn your Bibles to the 119th Psalm. As you're turning there, I just want to remind you, in Psalm 119, we're discussing the topic. We're discussing the topic of the word of God in the life of the child of God. And as I've said again, and I make no apology to say time and time again, when we read Psalm 119, we're reading about how the word of God is the means of grace. That is to say, it's the means that God uses to grow Christians. He uses the word of God in our life. And if you're sitting in life wondering, "I just would love to hear from God," well, open your Bible. Open your Bible and look with me at Psalm 19, verse 153. This is the word of God. And the word of God, and the word of God alone, is a sure revelation of God's purposes, his plans, his character. It's a sure revelation of what we need to go to heaven, what we need for the life to come. It's a sure revelation of every serious major question in life. If you have a serious problem in life, the Bible can help you solve it. And it's the only book that can do that because it's the only book that's the revelation of God. It's the only book he's designed to help the believer. And Psalm 118 is showing us that. It's showing us how, in every angle, in every aspect, and in every facet of life, the Bible helps the believer. And we're looking at verses 153 to 160. We saw this last week: the Bible helps us in affliction. Well, read with me:

"See my affliction and rescue me, for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to your word. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Many are your compassions, oh Yahweh. Revive me according to your judgments. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not turn aside from your testimonies. I see the treacherous and loathe them, those who do not keep your word. See how I love your precepts, oh Yahweh, revive me according to your loving kindness. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments is everlasting."

Let’s pray.

Father, we come before you longing to hear from you. We love you. We love your son, and we want to know what you have to say to your people. And so we pray that you'd be with me as I preach your word, that it would not simply be my words, but your word clearly explained and properly applied so that the people of God will be built up. So Father, work today. Work in your people. Humble me and exalt your word. And Lord, as we hear your word, may we be not only hearers but doers of your word. May we apply it to our lives. May we see Christ exalted. May we see the gospel on display. May we see the power of your word. And Father, as we think about suffering, as we think about the difficult things of life, the unpleasant realities, the crooked rod that we cannot straighten, we just ask, Lord, that you would be teaching us to suffer well, Lord. That you'd be teaching us the principles that we need to respond appropriately to suffering, the principles we need even to live in this fallen world. So we pray these things in your precious and amazing son's name. Amen.

Amen.

Well, the Bible teaches that suffering is the product of human sin. The Bible teaches that suffering is the product of human sin. And ever since the fall, it has accompanied the human race in this fallen world. Suffering then is an unavoidable reality of this life. Suffering cannot be avoided. To try to avoid suffering is like trying to run through a parking lot in the rain and not get wet. You can't avoid suffering in life. It's like trying to go to the beach and not get sandy. You can't avoid it. It's an unavoidable reality of life because of the fall of man, because of sin. Sin begets suffering and will never cease to do so until God purges it out of existence.

But for the believer living in the fallen world, the task becomes not to avoid suffering, but to respond to it in a godly manner. And that's what we saw last time. We saw this reality of the philosophy of a Christian in a fallen world, that he's not trying to avoid suffering, but he's trying to actually respond in a godly manner. And every Christian, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, will be persecuted. That's the promise of scripture. All of us will suffer, especially if you're trying to live a godly life. And we know this. I mean, and we should know this, just because our Lord suffered. I mean, if our Lord suffered and died for us, then wouldn't those who are being made like Christ have to suffer? And this is God's call for the Christian in a fallen world; he calls us to suffer.

So, every Christian is going to find their faith tested in this imperfect world. Every Christian is going to find the need to take up their cross. This is a summary of the philosophy of the believer. They don't avoid suffering. They respond to suffering in a godly manner. They don't seek comfort. They seek Christlikeness. They don't seek to make themselves happy in life. They seek to obey. This is the Christian's attitude to suffering. And every passage in scripture fits within this framework, every passage in scripture that describes suffering at least fits within this framework. They all contribute to a bigger picture of how a believer responds to suffering, and our passage contributes to that as well. And we started seeing that when we look at Psalm 119:153-160, the believer is suffering. The psalmist says, "See my affliction and rescue me." He's suffering, and to a certain extent, he does want to get out of his suffering. But he's responding to suffering, and it's his response that really teaches us something. And his response teaches us a new lesson about suffering. It teaches us to seek God's mercy.

Now, last time we defined mercy. Mercy, you could call it God's compassion, or you could call it God's willingness to alleviate the suffering of fallen creatures. And we understand mercy specifically deals with misery. God sees the misery of human beings due to sin, due to the fall, and he wants to alleviate that. And these people don't deserve mercy; otherwise, it wouldn't be mercy, it would just be justice. But God gives them mercy because he is a merciful God. And so what this passage teaches us is, as we live in a fallen world, as we suffer, we're to seek the merciful God. And I noted last time there's kind of a hinge in this passage. It hinges in the middle in verses 156 and 157. He turns from saying, "Many are your compassions, oh Yahweh. Revive me according to your judgments," to saying, "Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, yet I do not turn aside from your testimonies." And so what we see is the believer himself, as he's comforted by a merciful God, begins to be faithful and cling to the word of the merciful God. And so we see a natural division. In the first half, which we've been in, is this idea in verses 153 through 156 of clinging to the merciful God of the word, clinging to the God of the Bible who reveals himself, who offers the gospel, who offers hope, who offers to alleviate our affliction. And then the second half, what we'll see, is clinging to the word of the merciful God, that as you cling to the God of scripture, you begin to cling more and more to scripture itself as that which reveals God. And the believer becomes faithful in spite of affliction, in the face of affliction. And this is what we see with believers, is this need to respond in a godly manner. So those are two sections, but today we're looking at the first half of that. We're still in clinging to God's merciful. So today, as we look at Psalm 119:150 through 156, we're learning about our need for a God of mercy, for a merciful God of the word. So we see the afflicted psalmist clinging to the merciful God of the word so that we might learn three insights about finding help in affliction. And these are the three insights:

1. Your greatest need is a merciful God.
2. The wicked are without hope, without the word.
3. God's abundant mercy is the foundation of our plea, of our prayer.

So, first, your greatest need is a merciful God. Second, the wicked are without hope, without the word. And third, God's abundant mercy is the foundation of our hopeful plea. And we saw last time we were in the first point, your greatest need is a merciful God. We were in verses 153 and 154. We saw the psalmist say, "See my affliction and rescue me, for I do not forget your law." He said, "Plead my cause and redeem me. Revive me according to your word." And so last time we saw that we need God's mercy. When you suffer, when you live in a fallen world, the thing you need most is mercy. You need God to alleviate your affliction. You need someone who would see your affliction. You just think about that as you're suffering: "Man, if only someone could see what's going on in my life." Well, that's what the psalmist prays for, for God to see it. "If only someone could get me out of this, could pull me out of this trouble." That's what the word "rescue" means: "tear out." He said, "If only someone would be on my side, would be my advocate. You know, who's gunning for me? Who's helping me? Who's on my side? Who has my back?" Well, that's what the psalmist asks God to do. He says, "Plead my case and redeem me." He combines this idea both of an advocate who, or a judge who's sympathetic, who pleads the cause of a person, and also this idea of a kinsman redeemer. The guy who would go, in ancient Israelite society, and buy back his relative who was in debt and had to serve to pay off that debt as a slave. And so there was a person, a relative whose job it was to go free that man and pay for his debts. And that's exactly what we need for God. Those word pictures are so beautiful and vivid for the kind of God we need: a merciful God, a God who sees and is inclined to help us and who indeed works on behalf of the believer. So we saw that.

So today we're going to look at the second two points. We're going to see, starting with the second point in verse 155, the wicked are without hope, without the word. Let's look at that. Well, in verse 155, the psalmist says, "Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes." "Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes." And here we see the psalmist asserting the miserable condition of the wicked resulting from a negligent disposition. The psalmist is basically, we see two things here. First, there's an assertion, there's a claim. And then there's the cause of that claim. The claim is the condition of the wicked, that salvation is far from them. They're miserable, right? He says they're in this miserable condition, this misery, this lostness. And then he talks about what causes that. He says, "For they do not seek your statutes." So there's the cause, a negligent disposition.

So we'll look at each of those two. And I think there's a lesson in each of these. There's a powerful lesson in each of these. First, the lesson to pity the wicked who are without hope, and then second, to learn from their critical error and avoid their negligent disposition.

So let's look at our first lesson that we see in "the wicked are without hope." Our first lesson that we see is "salvation is far from the wicked." You know, by this he's making a claim about their miserable condition, that they're in this misery of being lost, that they are so far from God and his salvation. And it's a little ironic that we see him saying this because you think about it, he's in the middle of being persecuted by these people. So these people are making up things about him. They're gossiping and slandering about him. They're plotting against him. They want to kill him. They're trying to destroy his life. And he's describing the fact he needs to be saved from these people. And yet when he looks at them, what he sees is not the fact that they're destroying him, but he sees the fact that they're lost and they're in need of a far greater salvation. There's just this irony of faith. He looks at the wicked and he sees that they're lost.

And so, who are these people he looks at? Well, first he looks at the wicked, and there's three—this word "wicked" in English is the Hebrew term "rash." You know, and I mean "wicked" is a perfect translation. Every English Bible uses the word "wicked" to translate this term. But there's three characteristics of a wicked person. Like when the Bible says someone's wicked, what does it mean? Well, there's usually three characteristics. First, there's a hostility towards God. They're always hostile to God. They're practical atheists, if you will. And that's to say they're indifferent towards God and his claims to own their life. You know, Psalm 10:3-4 speaks of the wicked and says, "The wicked boasts of his soul's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns Yahweh. The wicked in the haughtiness of his countenance does not seek him. All his thoughts are, 'There is no God.'" And so the problem with the wicked is that they're a practical atheist. They don't think about God. And they may say they believe in God. They may even go to church, but they're indifferent towards God in their heart. So that's the, that's at the heart of wickedness, is a practical atheism. And then second, this hostility towards God also, it doesn't just, you know, find itself pointing hostility towards God, but they're also hostile towards others. They're also hostile against other people. The wicked people are enemies, not just of God, but also of others. They break with the community. Psalms 11:2 says this, "For behold, the wicked bend the bow. They make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in the darkness at the upright of heart." So Psalms 11:2 describes the wicked as waiting in ambush. You know, they're trying to snipe the righteous people. And so they have this hostility towards other people. Wicked people are hostile towards others. Their sin doesn't just, isn't just a lack of love for God, but a hatred for their fellow man. And Psalm 119 talks about this. You know, the psalmist says in verse 61 that the cords of the wicked were encircling him. He talks about this in verse 95, "The wicked hope for me to destroy me."

So, we see this: every wicked person is not just hostile to God, and they're not just hostile to other people, but lastly, they're unrepentant. And this is the real defining characteristic of a wicked person because all of us have some level of wickedness in us. All of us have some level of hostility towards God because of the flesh, because of our sinful human nature. There's some part of us that bristles at times when God's claims and God's commandments are read, at least the ones that deal with stuff we don't want to do or things that we want to do but aren't allowed to do. And all of us have some level of hostility towards others. But the real characteristic of the wicked, what really makes a wicked person, is that they're unrepentant. This is the defining characteristic of a wicked person, of a guilty person, that they don't stop with their wicked deeds. They don't ever turn from them. And that's what allows their sin to define their life. Because a repentant person, sin doesn't define them because they put it off. They turn away from it. They say, "That's not me. I hate that now. I'm turning away from that." But an unbeliever, a wicked person, just continues in sin. Continues. Whenever he has a wicked thought, he defends it. He says, "Oh, that's not really a problem." Whenever he has a wicked action, he goes, "Okay, whatever." He just says, "Ah, that's kind of what I want to do. That's just me." But in God's eyes, true and genuine repentance, which is accompanied by faith in Christ, wipes away every sin. So we realize that, you know, the righteous person has turned from wickedness, and the wicked person does not.

So this is a wicked person, and the psalmist looks at these people, and I think I wanted to describe that to you because the reality is we often abstract terms like this. We just think, "Oh, wicked person, that's that guy over there I see on TV." But wickedness is a very real thing in our hearts. Wickedness is a very real thing in the lives of the people around us. Wicked people are everywhere. They even come to church sometimes, right? They come to church, and they have these sly, subtle attacks on God, these sly, subtle undermining attacks on others. And that's why we have to watch out because if we're not careful, that could be us. That could be us, right? Because they love their sin, and they don't want to stop that sin. And so we have to be aware of the characteristics of a wicked person. But even more than that, when we think of wicked people, when we think about the wicked, like we saw in Psalm 73 that we read this morning, where Asaph is looking at the wicked people who prosper, you know, we're tempted to look at people who are successful in this life and to envy them. You know, they've attained something that we want. They've attained, you know, maybe the glory and acclaim of others, the praise of others. They've attained wealth or a standard of living or quality of living or health or something that we just wish we had. And maybe even it's not them, just the thing that we envy. But we need to realize that the real issue when we suffer, the real principle at the end of the day, is godliness. And so at the end of the day, we have to pity the wicked. That's the lesson we have to learn. We have to pity the wicked because these people are so far from salvation. The psalmist says they are far from salvation. "Salvation is far from the wicked." So we have to pity them. And this is faith. A person who can look at another person and define them not by the physical outward characteristics, not by the qualities a person has, but by their standing in Christ. To look at someone and go, "Well, I don't look at this person based on their wealth. I don't look at this person based off of, you know, their looks. I don't look at this person based off of their charisma. I look at this person based off of Christlikeness." This is defining for him.

And this is defining for many Christians throughout history. Faithful brothers and sisters who looked at other persons who were slandering them, people who were vicious slanderers, and were more concerned about that person's soul, who more defined that person by the fact that they were outside of Christ. People who preached the gospel and had their freedom taken away, who had more concern with freeing the souls of their captors than freedom, who had more concern with the eternal lives of their executioners than their own temporal lives. That he sees the big picture and he realizes far better to lose and to gain Christ. It's like our Lord in Matthew 10:28 saying, "And don't fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." And when you do that, when you see that God has power over life, and when you see that the greatest issue is whether or not you stand right before God, not whether or not you're experiencing comfort or blessing in this life. When you see that reality, then you'll have the power to look at people and pity them. To pity them because they're lost. Pity them because they don't know Christ. Pity them because not because they don't suffer, but because they will suffer one day. This is the real standard that allows a person to suffer properly. So when you go to work with your unbelieving co-workers, pity them. Pity your unbelieving co-workers. When you go to the grocery store, pity your cashier who doesn't know Christ. When you go home to be with your unbelieving family, pity your unbelieving family because they don't know Christ. That's what the psalmist says. He's judging people on the basis of their standing in Christ. And so he pities the wicked.

And I think to do that, we need to really understand their misery. We need to really understand what it means to be far from Christ. And I just want to list a couple things to kind of help you see that, to see like the psalmist says in Psalm 73 that, you know, "When I went to the sanctuary, I saw their end, how one day they're going to receive their just due from God and no longer envy them." Well, we have to see the misery of the lost. Here's their misery: first off, in no specific order, their fears are all going to be materialized. Every single thing that the unbeliever fears is going to happen to them, but worse. You know, Proverbs 10:24 says, "What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted." They're going to live their worst nightmares for an eternity.

Second, the misery of the wicked is that they lack peace. Isaiah 48:22 says, "There is no peace for the wicked." And Isaiah repeats this line several times throughout Isaiah. There's no peace for the wicked. They don't have peace. And he describes them like a stormy wind-tossed sea, like churning waters. There's no peace for unbelievers, for wicked people. Unbelievers, they don't know the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ that Jesus described when he said, "Peace I give to you," in John 14:27. They don't know that peace of the one who surpasses understanding, the one who can give us a perfect peace, the one who holds us securely. They don't know peace. They also have a short-lived success. We have to pity them not just for their future sufferings, but the present success they have, which is so small, so fleeting. Proverbs 11:7 says, "When a wicked man dies, his hope will perish." And the expectation of vigorous men perishes. You know, their hope only lasts as long as their life. These poor lost sinners who are so far from salvation have no hope of achieving an escape velocity in the sufferings of life. Their earthly success will do nothing for them in eternity. As Proverbs 11:4 says, "Wealth will not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness will deliver from death." All their success, all their success, it's going to do nothing for them in the day of wrath. So their hope, a false hope, is to go on living for as long as possible. That's all they got.

Fourth, they will be an eternal object of divine wrath. And this is the most pitiful of them all. Ultimately, unbelievers' refusal to repent will subject them to a righteous judgment, which will begin with their physical death. And for the wicked, physical death is only restrained by the patience of God. The only thing holding them back from death, which we all deserve because we've all sinned, we all deserve death. The only thing holding us back is the patience of God. Psalms 7:11-12 speaks of this. It says, "God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day. If a man does not repent, he will sharpen his sword. He has bent his bow and prepared it." You know, God has described in his wisdom as one who has prepared a weapon to strike down the wicked. And you think of that every time you look at an unbeliever, every time you talk to them, imagine God having a giant hammer over their head. Imagine God having a giant sword ready to strike them down. And then you ought to feel pity for them. You shouldn't envy them. You should pity them because God's patience is the only thing keeping them alive. Romans 9:22-23 speaks of this reality. It says, "What if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, having been prepared for destruction, in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory." So, Romans 9 describes it like this, that God in his perfect providence has two groups of people in mind. He has one group of people that he designed in order to demonstrate his wrath, and another, us believers, who he has designed to demonstrate his mercy. Both groups deserve judgment. And yet this group receives mercy, and this group receives what they deserve, God's wrath. And so God's whole design for these people in eternity is for these people to look down and see those people and shudder and realize we deserve that.

So, we ought to pity these people. We ought to pity these people. And this pity ought to drive us to action. You see, whenever we see the wicked or any unbelievers, we ought to want to preach the gospel to them. We ought to pity them. We ought to want to almost grab them by the shirt and say, "Sir, you need Jesus. Sir, you need to hear this. You need to hear this message. It's your only hope." That's what this, at the end of the day, ought to drive us to. Even as we suffer our suffering, even in the midst of our suffering, we should be thinking of the mercy of God. And the mercy of God should be driving us to look at those who have not received his mercy yet and to long that they would receive it, too. To long to tell them of the merciful God who says in Isaiah 55:7, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh and he will have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." This should be the desire of our hearts, is just to preach, to pray, to plead with them. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:10, "For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect so that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." And so that should be, that this should motivate us, even suffering, thinking of the mercy of God should motivate us to preach the gospel, to pray, and to do everything for the sake of the elect that they might receive Christ. That's the, that's the first half of our lesson that we learn when we see that the wicked are without hope.

But I think there's another lesson we ought to learn when we see the wicked. There's another lesson we ought to learn when we're looking at life and we're seeing wicked people who aren't yet receiving justice. I think we need to learn from them. We need to learn from what got them there. Because the big question is, why are these people so far? Why is salvation far from the wicked? God's salvation shouldn't be far from anyone in theory because he can save anyone. Why is it so far from them? Well, the reason it's so far from them is said in the second half of verse 155: "They do not seek your statutes." And that's our second lesson. We realize we have to learn from these people's negligent disposition. We have to learn from the fact that they don't seek the statutes. That's why salvation is far. Salvation is far from them because they're not looking for it, because they're looking for something else. They're not even looking for salvation. That's why it's far. And this is really negligence. There's nothing other than negligence. What causes the wicked to perish is their own negligence. And negligence is when someone fails to exercise a level of care. This is a, this is the legal definition, that a reasonably prudent person would exercise. The question for negligence is, would a reasonable person in your same situation exercise the same level of care that you were supposed to? For example, a careless accountant who overlooks embezzlement is guilty of negligence because an accountant should know better than to not look at the accounts and see the embezzlement. A distracted driver who gets into a serious accident because he ran through a stoplight is guilty of negligence because he should know better than to look at, you know, to not be looking at the stoplight. A performance-driven manager who ignores crucial safety protocols and has an accident is guilty of negligence because he should know those safety standards. He's the manager, and he should have followed those protocols. He should have followed those rules written in blood. So time, but time and time again, the reality is, is negligence is so destructive, and yet there's always going to be those who ignore the rules. There's always going to be those who see the rules written in blood and think nothing of it and then prove the rule. There's always going to be negligent people. And so for those of us who don't want to be negligent, we just, it's our job to learn from them. In the same way spiritually, it's our job as believers to learn from the disposition of those who are negligent. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians. He's talking about the Old Testament Israelites. He's talking about their time in the wilderness in 1 Corinthians 10. And he says, "What happened to them was written for our instruction." You realize we're supposed to learn from the people in the Bible. We're supposed to learn from the people around us who are negligent.

Spiritual negligence, though, is far worse. It's far worse. And the psalmist describes it as failing to seek the statutes of God. And I think the word "statutes" here is particularly, it's a fitting word because the word "statutes" in Hebrew refers to both, you know, it both refers to, emphasizes the written character of God's word because it's something that's carved or written. But it's used at times in scripture of a boundary line. You know, when God set a boundary for the ocean, some of the Psalms and the book of Job describe God setting a boundary line for the ocean so that it wouldn't pass onto dry land. And that's the word "ho" right there, "statute." So the idea of statutes at times is kind of like this idea of a boundary. It's kind of a written boundary, a written set of regulations, kind of like those safety protocols we just talked about in our illustration. And so I think this connects well because what the psalmist is saying is, the reason salvation is far from the wicked is because they ignore the boundary lines that God has set for them in life through his word. They ignore the clear guiding guidelines of scripture, the safety protocols written in blood, and they go on with their wickedness. And so what causes the wicked to be wicked? Well, sadly, it's negligence. It's negligence. It's, it's sadly as simple as negligence which never got corrected. You know, Psalm 14:1-3 speaks of this. Speaks of the wicked fool says in his heart, "There is no God." "They act corruptly. They commit abominable deeds. There is no one who does good. Yahweh looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is any who has insight, anyone who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. Altogether they have become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." And so Psalm 14 describes the wicked fool, the practical atheist, the man who says in his heart, "There is no God." And I just want to point out to you like, don't take this too literally because quite likely the person who says in his heart, "There is no God," didn't say that at all. Rather, all he did was forget that there was a God. All he did was forget that God says, "You can't do that." All he did was forget to even think, "Hey, maybe I should check the Bible before I do that. Maybe I should talk to a pastor before I do that. Maybe I should figure out if this is okay." All he was was negligent. All he was was someone who simply pursued what he wanted to do. And this guy may have even gone to church. This guy may have even been in church his whole life. This guy may have gone to the temple in the Old Testament and sacrificed offerings. He may have said that. He may have done that. But his life didn't reflect it because he was a practical atheist. He was negligent. So wickedness that we see is, it's just atheism in practice. It's just negligence in practice. So anytime you do anything wicked, it's just an expression of this spiritual negligence, this practical atheism.

And what's really scary, what's really scary, is that even professing Christians can fall away from the faith. Even professing Christians can practice this spiritual negligence. Hebrews 3:12 warns us, says, "See to it, brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God." So you see, when a person doesn't truly believe what the Bible says, it's inevitable that they start slacking in their work. It's even for those who believe, it's easy to start slacking. It's inevitable for those who don't believe. It's inevitable for those who don't have faith, a spiritual decline. And this spiritual decline, it almost always starts with personal worship and the means of grace. It almost always starts, it almost always starts to manifest in the private realm of our life. The parts of our life that no one else sees, the parts of our life that no one else is watching or checking up on you. Your private spiritual life, it's a bulwark. It's your most crucial defense because it's this that protects you against negligence. It's the private prayers that you neglect that make you start slipping. It starts with not examining and confessing sins to God, with not thinking, "Hey, what did I do today? Was that okay? Was that sinful?" With not dwelling and thinking about the sinfulness of sin. It starts with unguarded thoughts, with undetected pride, with a desire to lift oneself up, with uncaught selfishness. You know, it starts with indulging our flesh and entertaining sin in any form. It always starts with negligence. It starts with just being a little slack. And all of that just reflects a lack of faith. All of that reflects that in that moment at least, whether you're a believer or not a believer, in that moment at least, you didn't believe that there's really a God who hates sin. A God who stands in the heavens, who hates sin and will judge those who sin, and a God as described in Psalm 7 who stands in heaven, who has sharpened his sword and bent his bow and prepared it. Because if you were sitting there, and this is something that Justin said to me once that was so helpful in my sanctification, he's like, "You know, like if you were to really believe that there was a pit of lava that you were going to fall into, would you sin in that way? You know, if sinning in that way was, was you would cause you to fall into a pit of lava. If hell would open beneath you and you'd fall, would you do that?" Of course not. And we're negligent because we don't really believe that there's a wrathful God whose mercy we need. It starts with a lack of faith. And that's why we must always be those who seek the statutes of God. Whenever we see a wicked person, we shouldn't think, "Oh yeah, I'm way better than that guy. Good thing I'm not as bad as that guy." No, we should think, "That could be me." "That could be me." 2 Timothy 4:7 says, "Train yourself for the purpose of godliness." And we should take that seriously there. The Christian has a spiritual duty to grow in godliness. You have to go to your spiritual gym every day for your personal worship. You need a time, a place, and a plan. You need to know what time you're going to do it, where you're going to do it. It needs to be private so that you're not distracted. And you need to have a plan of what you're going to do. You need, you need to have that. This is your best defense. You can't be negligent. You can't afford to not believe that this is going to affect you. You can't afford to believe that it's not going to happen to you of all people. You know, that's what soldiers in World War II would realize. All the veterans, they come back and they say, "You know, there came a day where I just realized I'm not any different than the guy next to me who caught the bullet. I'm not any different than that guy. It could happen to me. It happened to him. It could happen to me." And they just said they were waiting for the day when it would happen to them. In the same way, you can't look at sin. You can't look at other people's sin and be like, "Oh, that, I'm special. That would, that would never, I would never do that." No, you can't be negligent. You have to realize it could happen to you. You could do that.

Now, regarding this negligence, I just want to give us a quick reset because it's so easy to slip. So easy to slip. We need to reset our worldview. I just want to give you a quick reset. And you know what's, what's outrageous? You know what's outrageous? Is that man was made in the image of God. That the God of the universe, the living God, created man to know him and love him. That man was made in the image of God. He was formed from dust in the likeness of the invisible God to rule over all creation. And that great, in that great invisible God, that great invisible God privileged him, privileged him with the privilege of being over all creation. He privileged him with a beautiful wife. He privileged him with marriage, a perfect marriage, a match made in heaven as it were. He privileged him with a, with a high dignity and a great office. You think of all that privilege, and that's, that's something that comes to a human being, that you are a piece of dust whose dignity comes from the fact that you're made in God's image. Aside from that, you're just dust. Aside from that, you're just an animal. That's your dignity. That's your, and it's a powerful and high dignity. It's a lofty dignity. So, the Christian is a mirror. He is a restored mirror. He is a mirror whose surface has been reshined, who reflects Christ. And his whole purpose is to reflect the glory of another. And in our hyper-individualistic society, all everyone wants to do is to draw attention to themselves. All everyone wants to do is to say, "Look at me." And they do that with everything in their life. They do that with their clothing. They do that with their attitude, their hobbies, their career, their speech, their friends, everything. It's all designed and cultivated to point back to them. And that's the exact opposite of God's design. And they're miserable, and they don't even realize it. If they're smart, they realize it. They're depressed. Why? Why are people depressed? Why are people sad? Why are people depressed? Well, they're depressed because God designed you to reflect his glory. So, of course, the mirror is depressed when it doesn't reflect. How can a broken mirror be happy? How can you be happy if you're a glory thief? If you're stealing God's glory, and for a human being, that's a failure. A failure of design. You know, if a hammer can't hammer nails, you throw it away. If a screwdriver can't screw in screws, you throw it away. And I'm not saying people should be thrown away. But I'm saying we should look back to our design. We should look back to our design. It's a, we're a failed human being if we don't glorify God. And you don't stray from that because what the world says is, the world says you need to seek and pursue experience to eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. The world says that you need to seek personal fulfillment, that you need to self-actualize, that you need a career that makes you happy, that you need friends who make you happy, that you need to love yourself. There's a word for that. That's selfishness, sin, right? Everyone loves themselves. You don't need to love yourself. Everyone loves themselves, you know? And people who don't like the way they look, who struggle with self-image, for example, this is just one example. People who struggle with self-esteem, you know, their problem, they love themselves so much that they're not up to their own standards. That's just self-love disguised with a realistic view of the human body and the, and the human ability. That's just a human being who knows they were, they were created to reflect something far greater and just isn't recognizing. They recognize the problem is that they're reflecting something that isn't God, and they were meant to reflect something divine instead of solving the problem by repenting and turning to God and reflecting him. Their whole goal is just to make themselves better. And the mirror says, "Well, maybe I need a green paint coat. Maybe I need a black paint coat. Maybe I need a blue paint coat." No. What you need is to strip all that paint off and reflect the glory of God. That's the Christian. And this is what you need to realize. Don't forget that you're a child of God. That you were made to glorify God. That you, as the child of God, are living in God's world. And you're supposed to live by God's word. That's God's design for the believer. That's his design that we ought to seek.

So even as we, as we look at that, as we, as we see this, we realize. So that's, that's our first point that we've seen. We, we, we really need God. We, we really need him. And we see that because the wicked are without hope without his word, without the word, without, without seeking his word. That they're without hope. And that negative example drives us back to God. And this brings us to verse 156 where the psalmist says, "Many are your compassions, oh Yahweh. Many are your compassions, oh Yahweh. Revive me according to your judgments." And what we see here is the psalmist acknowledging the abundant compassions of God even as he requests life. He says, "Lord, I need life. I need you to revive me." This is the same prayer he's been praying. Three times he prays this phrase. He says, "Revive me according to your judgments." Three times he says, "Revive me." He needs revival. Because he's suffering so intensely that he feels like he's dead. He feels like he's dying. He feels like his only hope is that God gives him life. And his prayer for God to give him life, to show him mercy. The basis of his prayer is the character of God. This is how we ought to pray. When you pray, when you pray, you ought to be looking at God and you ought to say, "Lord, I need your mercy. Lord, I, I see you're a merciful God. Show that same mercy that you delight to show to me." You should be looking at God. You should be praying for things that he wants according to his character. That's, that's how we get forgiveness, is because God is a forgiving God and he loves to forgive us. So that's how we ought to pray. That's how we ought to seek God. It's like a wise salesman who looks to sell things to people that they actually want. You don't sell things that people don't want. You sell things that people want, right? Well, the same way when you pray to God, it's not manipulation because they want it, right? When you pray to God, you're praying for things that he wants. So you pray because God is a merciful God. "Lord, show mercy to me." And we could go next time, we'll go into the attributes of his mercy, the sovereignty, the paternality of it, and the enduring nature of it. But I just, I just want to skip to the end of our point with this. I just want to skip to our end of our point that we need to see how much we need mercy. That we need God's compassion. At the end of the day, man's greatest need is compassion. His greatest need is compassion, and his only hope is a compassionate God. This is because in spite of what the world would say, man is not capable of tackling his problems by himself. Man's not capable of, he's not strong enough. He's not wise enough to live independently of God. You aren't capable. You aren't enough. You were never enough. This is why people get addicted. By the way, addictions is just dependency on a drug to provide something that only God can give. That's what addictions are. You're addicted to something. That's a dependency. You as a creature trying to find satisfaction and fulfillment from a substance rather than from the God who created the substance. That's why people struggle with addiction. It's because they're dependent. You were made to depend on something.

So man, you're, and there's two real facts about this. First, that you're a creature, therefore you're dependent. And second, you know, in this context talking about suffering, you're mortal. This is why you need compassion. You're a creature and you're mortal. First, you're a creature. You're created by God and you're created to depend upon him. And this, this started the moment that God breathed man into existence. He breathed the breath of life into man. And for that moment, man was dependent upon a God who allowed him to live, who gave him life. And ever since then, man's been dependent upon God. And people forget this. They, they want to live as if this weren't true. They want to live as if everything was on them. And Isaiah 29:13 speaks to people like that. It says this, "You turn things around. Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay? That what is made would say to its maker, 'He did not make me.' Or what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He has no understanding?'" You know, the pride of people who want to live independently of God. They forget you're the clay. You're that mug that God made. God's the maker of the mug. So, of course, you depend upon him. Of course, you need him. And it, it's the epitome of sin. This is the essence of sin. The, the mug, the little, the little pot who says to the potter, "I don't need you." That, that's not just a version of sin. That is sin. That's the essence of sin. Every other sin that we commit flows out of that sin, that pride that says, "I can live without God." That the Eve in the garden eating the fruit because she wanted to be like God. Adam eating the fruit because he wanted to be like God. That's the essence of sin. That's at the root of sin. And that's, that's sin itself is you need God's compassion.

And not only do you need God's compassion, not only are you dependent upon God, but more than that, you're mortal. Scripture says that you're dying. Not just that you're going to die one day, but you're dying right now. Every day you grow older, you die a little. We're all dying. The human existence is a, is an existence of death. It's just a slow decay. And that's because we're made from dust. And after the fall, we're going to return to dust. And we're just in a slow process of returning to dust. And we ought to be astounded that God is merciful that it takes so long, right? Psalm 103:14-16 says this, "He himself knows our form. He remembers that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flowers. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more and its place acknowledges it no longer." So the Bible says, the psalmist says, you know, God has to be compassionate. And part of his compassion is he recognizes that we're just creatures made of dust. He knows that. He knows we're mortal beasts. He knows that we're like a flower, right? You see the flower, it's, it's here. And you know, if I'm taking care of that flower, it's gone pretty fast, right? And we, we see that, we see that flowers die so quickly, and man, we, our life is so short. We're mortal. You're dying already. You're dying already. And that's why you need God's compassion. That's why you need God. You need God to replenish your mortal frame. Like Psalm 93-6 says about our condition, about our slow death. He says, "You turn man back into dust and say, 'Return, O sons of men.' For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it passes by or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood. They fall asleep. In the morning they're like grass which sprouts anew. In the morning it blossoms and sprouts anew. Toward evening it withers away and dries up." You know, you just see this. You see the reality of history that time passes on and generation after generation go and meet their maker. Generation after generation passes by, and I love looking back at history, and you, you look back at young people, and you know, you see like in the Napoleonic Wars, to see the way they dress, and you think they thought they were so cool. They look like such a dork, right? And I look at that, and I, and I just think, "Wow, like that's us in like a hundred years. People are going to look at our clothing, and they'll be like, 'They wore that.'" Right? And they're going to look at the way we acted. They're like, "They didn't have, you know, we look back at them, we go, 'They didn't have cell phones or internet. How backwards of them, right?'" And that's our, that's our pride, and that's their, they're humbling. God's humbling them by allowing the next generation to look back and go, "What are you?" Right? And that's, that's, that's life. That's history. Because the reality is it's just a blip, and you're gone. So you need God's compassion. Your, your only hope as a mortal being, as a being that's dying, is to turn and give your life to the only one who can rescue you from death. Your only hope is to look to the only man who has overcome the grave. There's only one person who's ever died and come back and who offers eternal life to all who seek him. There's only one person who has the power to raise dead sinners to life. There's only one. Your only hope is to look to Christ. Your only hope is to turn and give your life to that man. As Christ says in John 12:24-2, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal." You, you're presented with an option today. Every day, we're presented with this option. You can turn in faith and repentance to Christ and trust in him and, and trust in the one who came to earth, who became a man, who lived a perfect life, who died a sacrificial death on the cross. You can turn to him, and you can give him your life, and you can, you can die to self in repentance, dying daily, taking up your cross, looking to him and, and look for his mercy. Or you can live a life of sin, and you can perish in that sin. That's your option. That's what God presents you. That there's only one path to obtaining eternal life, and that's to die. To die with Christ. You must die to live. You must die to your life of sin and selfishness. Die to your self-determination and pride. Die to your self-righteousness and die to the world and to your fear of man. And you must live to Christ. You must turn to him. Turn to the one, the only one who can save you from death. Turn to Christ. Let's pray.

Father, we're so grateful to learn about suffering. And Lord, we realize the rules for suffering are the, the same as the rules for the rest of life. That even as the believer suffers, they just look to the gospel. They look to the hope of eternal life, and they long for it. We look at unbelievers, and we don't envy them, but we pity them because they don't know Christ. And that action, Lord, turns us back to remembering our need for Christ. Lord, we look at their negligence, and that action turns us to, to strive even harder for, for faith, to trust you. So Lord, please give us strength. Lift up your children like eagles. Lord, allow us to run. Give us strength to stand and, and perseverance to run the race of faith. So we might trust you, we might follow you faithfully in faith. Work in your church today in Jesus' name.