Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker begins with a prayer, asking for God's grace and guidance. They mention the current state of the world, noting a sense of wickedness and darkness. They discuss a psalm written thousands of years ago that feels relevant to today's world. The psalm discusses how the wicked use their words to destroy and how God uses his word to bring hope. The speaker emphasizes the power of words and the harm they can cause. They encourage prayer as a way to combat the wickedness and seek God's justice. They also discuss the temptation to seek vengeance and the importance of leaving it in God's hands. The speaker concludes by discussing the Lord's deliverance and the hope that comes from trusting in Him. They mention the importance of prayer and the role it plays in seeking justice. They also touch on the concept of imprecatory prayers, asking God to judge the wicked. The speaker clarifies that this is not about personal revenge, but rather seeking God's justice. They emphasize the Our most gracious and merciful Heavenly Father, we plead your mercies and we plead your grace this morning that you would be with us as we continue to worship you, as we hear your word, as I proclaim your word. I pray that you would be with me, that the words of my mouth would be honoring to you, that they would be true in every way, that I would stay close to your word, and I pray that you would take this preached word by your spirit and that you would use it to open up the hearts of every single person here this morning, man, woman, and child, that all would hear what you would call them to this morning, that you would fill them with hope in our Savior, Jesus Christ, that you would give us repentance where we need it, and that you would give us a strong trust in you. I pray that you would do this work for your own glory and for our good, and I pray it in Christ's most precious name, amen. Well, having sung this psalm this morning, which I found it to be so powerful, just the setting of that psalm and the way that that psalm was put into English for us, and then now having heard the word of God read, I don't know if you're like me, and just thinking that psalm sounds so contemporary, so relevant to the day in which we live. There's a certain sense in which there is nothing new under the sun. It's not as if we are in the first generation that has endured sin and wickedness in the world, and yet I think if we're honest, and most of us can probably see this, we feel it, there is this kind of dark sense of wickedness in our culture that is something that most of us have never known and never seen, and I imagine most of you feel that. You just have to look at the world around you. This is a psalm that was written almost 3,000 years ago, a song to help God's people deal with the troubles in which they face, and yet it feels like it could be ripped from the headlines, doesn't it? The godly one is gone. The faithful have vanished from among the children of man. What is it that makes times bad? As I was preparing this sermon, I came across this quote from Matthew Henry in his commentary on Psalm 12, and I really can't put it better than he did. Ask the children of the world what makes times bad. They will tell you scarcity of money, decay of trade, the desolations of war. Those are the things that make times bad, but the scripture lays the badness of the times on causes of another nature. When piety decays, times really are bad. When the poor and needy are oppressed, then the times are very bad. When wickedness abounds and is countenance by those in authority, then the times are very bad. You see how contemporary this psalm is, because Matthew Henry is exactly right. Those are the things that make times bad. And this morning, I hope to leave you not just simply in despair, certainly not in despair about how bad the times are. I'm not simply going to come up here and tell you the times are so bad. You know that. What I hope, by God's grace, to leave you with is hope, hope in the face of how bad times are, so that we don't walk out this morning, as is so easy for us to do when we look around us, in despair, in despair at how dark the world is quickly becoming. Actually there are two points in this sermon. I didn't do a three-point sermon this time. It doesn't really make sense with this psalm, because this psalm really does break into two halves. And the first is showing us how the wicked use their words to destroy. So that would be the liars of this world, how they use their words to destroy. And then the second half of the psalm is how the Lord uses his word to give us hope. Really is that simple. The lies of this world, the way that the wicked use their words to destroy, and the way in which God uses his word to build us up and give us hope. So let's look then at our first point. The liars of this world, the way in which the wicked, those who do not know the Lord, they use their words to destroy. Have you ever heard the phrase, I'm sure you have, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me? That's not true, is it? I don't know who came up with that, but that is so untrue. And we tell our kids that perhaps, but I think we should stop. Sticks and stones may break my bones. So I know we're trying to encourage people, but words can be and probably are the most painful experience in the world, much more than physical pain, I think. Words can wound and hurt and destroy more than just about anything. And in these opening verses of the psalm, we see in a variety of ways how the wicked of the world do use their words to destroy. David here, when he's pleading to the Lord, things have gotten so bad that, much like Isaiah later, he feels all alone. He doesn't even think there's a godly one left on the earth to come to his aid. And the reason for that is because everywhere he looks, all around him, what does he see? He sees liars. Everyone utters lies to his neighbor. He sees a world in which deception is the norm. People want something, and they can't get it in an honest way, whatever that is, power for themselves, money, anything. They can't get it honestly, and so they resort to lies and deception to get what they want. That's the way of the world, and David is overwhelmed by all of this deception swirling around him, and he looks and sees flattering lips, flattery. Flattery is one of those respectable sins that's a little bit harder to detect at times. Flattery often looks a lot like just simply praising someone for doing good. There's almost no outward difference between telling someone you've done a good job and flattering them. It's about what's in the heart. It's about what your motivation is. Why do we tell someone that they've done good? Well, do we want to encourage them? That's a good use of our words. That's a good use of praise. You see someone who's done good. You see your children, that they've done something well. They've honored the Lord in some way, and you praise them. You do that because you love them and you want to build them up. That's using your words in that way, but flattery could be almost the exact same thing. Flattery is when you tell someone something that they've done that is good, but you're doing it for yourself. You're doing it because you desire to get something out of that relationship. You want them to be lifted up and built up so that they will do the same for you. I scratch my back. You scratch yours. David looks around, and he sees flattering lips everywhere. He sees a double heart. What is a double heart? It's hypocrisy. People who pretend to be one thing, but on the inside, there's something else. Most people, I suppose at least most people in the past, wanted to be seen as virtuous. They wanted to be seen as righteous in the world. I guess really that hasn't changed. It just happens to be that in our day, utter wickedness is seen as righteousness. And so people want to be seen as righteous in the sight of the world. It's the common temptation to man. We want people to think well of us, even if we know on the inside that we don't reflect that. We don't have that righteousness within us. So David looks at that, and he sees that everywhere around him, there's a double heart. That's hypocrisy. There are these tongues, verse three, that make great boasts, the arrogance of the men of his day. Nothing new under the sun. The arrogance of those in our day. If you heard that phrase so common these days, are you on the right side of history? Now, whatever the issue of the day is, do you take the right culturally popular position on homosexuality? If you don't, you won't be on the right side of history, you're told. That is nothing but an arrogant tongue making great boasts. Do you want to be on the right side of history? Well, I hope you do, actually. If you want to be on the right side of history, then you better make sure that you're on the side of the author of history, God himself. That is the only way to be on the right side of history. But it happens to be that we might not ever appear to the world to be on the right side of history. We might suffer, and we will, for standing firm on the truths of God's Word. But ultimately, we will be on the right side of history because we will be on the side of the author of history. So David feels all alone because of all of this wickedness. Notice in verse 8, I know this isn't in the first half of the text, but in verse 8, he also emphasizes the wicked prowling around, almost as if they're beasts at this point. Coyotes or hyenas circling him. The wicked are prowling, and vileness is exalted among the children of man. It's not enough, he's saying, to simply be wicked, but vileness is praised. This reminds me of what the Apostle Paul says at the very end of Romans 1, and we saw this text. I can't remember if this was in Dan's Sunday school, so Dan was talking about this. The very end of Romans 1, Paul says of the sinners of this world, he says, not only do they sin, but they give approval to those who sin. And this is something that actually baffled me for many years. I wondered why it seemed like Paul was saying that giving approval to sin is actually worse than committing the sin itself, because you would think it would be the other way around. And finally, it dawned on me, I read a commentary and the light bulb went off. What Paul was saying is much like what David is saying here. When sin is praised, when sin is put forward as righteousness and as virtue, that is actually far worse than just an individual who sins, because it's creating an entire culture, an entire world of sin. It is making it such that those who in previous times, when sin was seen as shameful, would have kept that sin to themselves. They would have tried to hide that sin from others, and that's a problem in its own right. They obviously need the grace of the Lord to deal with that. But when sin becomes open, when it becomes praised, when vileness is exalted among the children of man, when we praise that which is wicked, everyone suffers. More and more people feel free to let themselves go and to give themselves over to sin. And it's devastating for everyone, not just for us as individuals. Now this is the setting for David's prayer to the Lord. That he feels that he is all alone. There are no godly men around him. The faithful have vanished from among the children of men. He looked around him, he saw all this sin, he saw the ways in which the wicked used their words to destroy, and he was nearly overcome. I think that's our temptation as well today, because we live in a very wicked age. This is not the world that I grew up in. This is not the world that most of us grew up in. The world has changed in ways that are striking. There is this darkness of sin being praised, being unleashed in ways that I didn't know as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult even. And the temptation for us as God's people is to give in to despair when we look around and to be exactly like David, to think no one who is godly is left. All I see around me is wickedness. All I see around me is the wicked who use their words to do harm to all, to make these arrogant boasts to say, are you with me? Then you're not on the right side of history. There's another temptation though. And that temptation is to take vengeance into our own hands, to see the wickedness of the world and to say, I'm going to fight fire with fire. So David, and ultimately God, doesn't leave us there just showing us how bad things are. But we need to know as God's people how to respond. How to respond when we see all this wickedness swirling around us. What should we do? How should we respond? So that brings us to the second half of the psalm and to our second point this morning. The Lord's deliverance. Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise, says the Lord. I will place him in the safety for which he longs. God himself is speaking there. David has stopped and the Lord has taken over and the Lord is speaking a word of hope and a word of comfort to David and through David, because David recorded this for all of God's people, to all of us in every generation, a word of hope. How do we not despair? How do we leave vengeance in the hands of the Lord? We know that we must. The Apostle Paul said this in Romans 12 and he's quoting from the Old Testament. Never avenge yourselves, beloved. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance is to be left in the Lord's hands. Vengeance is to be left in the Lord's hands. And we, as God's people, have to fight constantly that temptation to seek vengeance when we're wrong because living in this world where the wicked prowl, the vileness is exalted among children of men, we are going to be harmed by the words of the wicked. If we are being faithful to the Lord in those different places, his places in our schools and college, in our workplace, maybe even among our neighbors, if we are standing firm on the truth of God's word, we are going to face the assault of the words of the wicked. They're going to use their words to hurt us. And in this fallen age, they will often be successful. They will be successful in hurting us with their words. I'm sure that you've experienced this and maybe this is at work. Maybe this is somewhere else. You've experienced the harm that the words of the wicked can do to you. And the Lord says, don't take vengeance into your own hands. Don't seek to make things right in sinful ways because they've sinned against you. That's one temptation. Now I will say here, if you were to continue in Romans, Paul says in Romans 13, something that's very important that we often forget, which is that the governing authorities of this world are God's ministers. He actually calls them ministers of God and servants of God. And he says the governing authorities of this world, he even calls them avengers, uses the exact same word that he had used in chapter 12. Vengeance is the Lord's. Well, how does the Lord avenge evil? One way he does it is through the civil magistrate, through the servant of God who is an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Now again, we live in a fallen world and they don't always pursue justice. Those who have been appointed to that position don't. But that is what God has called them to. He's called those who govern us to rule righteously and to avenge those wrongs done to us. And we're to expect that, we're to pray for that, we're to seek to promote that as much as we can where God has placed us. And that's one way that we can see that the Lord will avenge wrongs done in this world. But because we live in a fallen world, because Christ has not returned, that won't always be the case. We won't always receive justice now, here and now. And that's when it's going to be particularly difficult. When the words of the wicked have done harm to us, to leave vengeance in the hands of the Lord. Well, what does David tell us? How do we do this? How do we leave vengeance in the hands of the Lord? Well, we pray. That's the first thing that David leaves us with, pleading with the Lord in prayer. Verse one, save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone. David is pleading. He's crying out in anguish, even, to the Lord to save him and to deliver him. And the Lord hears his prayer, just as he will hear your prayer, brothers and sisters. Every one of you, when you're in these moments, when you're in these situations, the Lord will hear your prayer. You see what it says in verse five, because the poor are plundered because the needy grown. And that, by the way, is every one of you who is in Christ. In the Psalms, the poor and the needy. It's those who are suffering in this world because they've entrusted themselves to God. That's the poor and needy of the Psalms. Those who love the Lord more than they love life itself. They love the Lord more than all the treasures of this earth. And because they love the Lord more than anything else, they often suffer at the hands of the wicked. And the poor and needy, then, are crying out to God. And God hears their prayer, and he says, I will now arise. I will place him in the safety for which he longs. What a wonderful promise, that God will place us in the safety for which we long. Now, there's another aspect of this psalm, and this is one that's a little bit more difficult sometimes for Christians. And that is what David says in verse three. We are to pray to the Lord, but there's a specific kind of prayer in this psalm. It's what we call a psalm or a prayer of imprecation, a praying that the Lord would judge others. David says, may the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? Maybe we think that we can remember that Christ himself said to turn the other cheek when you're wrong, do not return evil for evil. If that's the case, if we're to turn the other cheek not to return evil to evil for evil, then if someone has wronged us in this way, why would we pray like that? Why would we say, Lord, cut off those flattering lips, cut off those arrogant boasters, bring them down, destroy them? Should we pray like that as Christians? Maybe we just have a vague sense that that was back then. That's the Old Testament times. This is now Christ has come. New Testament times. We would never pray that way. I don't believe that's the case. These are prayers in the prayer book of God's people. These are prayers for Christians even today. But it's important that we understand how to think about these prayers. There are differences between us and Israel. The main difference is we don't have a divine promise and a divine mandate to take the land. God hasn't called us to go to a place and to to wipe out the inhabitants of that land. Holy War. What was Holy War in the Old Testament? It was a picture of the final judgment. Israel was to go in and as they wiped everyone out, God was exercising his strict justice. And he gave Israel that mandate. That's not true of us as God's people. We don't have the authority. We don't have the power of the mandate to pick up the sword and to go after unbelievers in the world and to destroy them. That's not true anymore for us. But that doesn't mean that we are not to pray that God would he would destroy even those who are wicked. Now, this is not about personal revenge, either. We have to be very careful about it. Someone has has wronged you. And Jesus says, forgive them. Turn the other cheek. Don't return evil for evil. If someone wrongs you, you're not to seek vengeance and to seek revenge against that person. That's going to be our temptation as Christians every time is to take revenge when we're wronged. And that's not what David is saying here either. But he is looking around and he is seeing the utter wickedness of the world around him. And it is wickedness that's not just hurting him as a king, but it's hurting all of God's people. That would be one principle for us today, when we see the church assaulted and we see the words of the wicked against the church, that we would call out to the Lord, we would pray to the Lord that he would end that assault, that he would show his justice in this world, that we would pray in exactly the same way. And this is not in any way contrary to loving our enemies. But we do have to admit as Christians, if we're faithful, we are going to have enemies in this world. If we're faithful to God, the world, as Christ himself said, will hate us. We will have enemies. And in fact, this is not contrary to loving our enemies. It's not contrary to loving our enemies. And the reason for that is because we are leaving this up to God when we pray in this way. We're not going out and trying to destroy those who have done wrong to us. We're praying to God that he would show justice. We're praying to God that he would cut off the flattering lips, that he would cut off the tongue that makes great boast. We're praying that God would would show justice in this world. And we're leaving it to God. That's actually vital for us to love our neighbors, to love those who have wronged us, even is that we don't seek vengeance ourselves, but that we leave it up to God. We pray to him to show his justice and then we forgive those who have wronged us. We do turn the other cheek. We don't return evil for evil, for those who have done evil to us. We leave it in God's hands and we pray that God would do this very thing, that he would cut off the flattering lips of this world. Well, then, once we have prayed to God, David finally shows us that we trust him. We leave justice in God's hands. In verse five, the Lord promises deliverance. And it's for us to trust him. That he will truly arise, that he will truly place us in the safety for which we long. In verse six, we read of God's pure words like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times. That's not some random insertion into the psalm where we just say God's words are great. He's talking about that previous promise, the promise of deliverance from the Lord, that he will place us in that safety for which we long. Those are the pure words of the Lord, the silver refined in a furnace on the ground, because when we face the assaults of the world. We need nothing more than to find our refuge in the Lord, our God. He's promising us, absolutely promising us that he will place us in the safety in those moments for which we long. I want you to take that in and to to think on that for a moment. It's it's it's staggering. There's no exception here. The Lord's not saying sometimes I'll place you in the safety for which you long. Sometimes I'm sorry, you're going to have to suffer. Sometimes I'll place you in the safety for which you long, but sometimes the assaults of the wicked will overcome you. So what do we do when it seems like the assaults of the world are overcoming us, when the words of the wicked seem to have triumphed over us, when they've hurt us, when they've caused us to suffer in this world, has God forgotten about us? Is that the one time in which his promise here is not true? Each one of you in the various trials that you face as Christians will know the pain and the difficulty of those moments, and I know you'll wonder in those moments, how could the Lord say that he will place me in the safety for which I long? Does this, brothers and sisters, does this seem to match your experience? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ, he promised us and he gave us this example himself that we must suffer before we enter into glory, just as Christ himself suffered before he entered into glory, can losing your job because you stood firm when sexual assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and 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assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assaults and assault I want us to think about the Lord Jesus Christ himself, in particular, the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on the cross. What is it that Christ cried out on the cross? He said, quoting Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? A cry of anguish on the lips of the Lord. What did Jesus mean by that when he cried out in anguish? Because many of us, if we are faithful to the Lord, are going to also cry out in anguish, just as David cries out in anguish. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? To feel that pain and that anguish in that moment. But did you know that is not the end of Psalm 22? And Jesus Christ knew that very well. Jesus Christ was not crying out to God as if his Heavenly Father had ceased to love him in that moment. Sometimes the psalm is wrongly taught in that way, as if Jesus Christ was cut off, truly cut off from the love of his Heavenly Father. That is impossible. The Trinity, the Eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit cannot be broken. The Father cannot have a rupture between him and his Eternal Son. There cannot be that break between the Father and the Son. What is Christ crying out, though? He is expressing the anguish of his soul as he stared at the face of God's judgment, the depths of the anguish of his soul. How does Psalm 22 end, however? And Jesus knows this very well. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. Even as Jesus cried out in anguish, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He knew that his Heavenly Father, in whom he entrusted himself on the cross, would deliver him, that he would rescue him. Christ knew that and that gave him the hope, that gave him the strength to go to the cross and to face the full force of the wrath of God on our behalf. Christ is our example, brothers and sisters, to show us that God will not forsake us. Even in the darkest moments where we suffer the wrath of this world, the wicked assault of the world, the words of the world that would destroy us, Christ will not forsake us. He himself said, Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Blessed, even in that moment, the safety for which we long is ours. Where will you find the safety for which you long, brothers and sisters? Where will you find it? Will you find it in your health? No, your health will fail you. Will you find it in your wealth? No, your wealth can be taken from you in an instant. Will you find it in the praise of the world? Will you find it in job security? Will you find it in advancement in this world? All of those things can be taken from us and ultimately all of those things will be taken from us. None of those things are eternal. Will you find the safety for which you long in anything in this world? And we know the answer is no. The only place that we will find the safety for which we long is in the Lord Jesus Christ himself who gave himself on the cross for us, for the forgiveness of our sins. The Apostle Peter, in the opening of his first letter, he said that we've been born again to a living hope, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. God is guarding us. He is protecting us. He has already placed us, if we are in Christ, in the safety for which we long. Eternal safety. Eternal joy. Eternal blessedness. That is the safety for which God's people long. It's the safety for which we must long. And we are already placed into that safety. Nothing can ultimately harm us. Nothing can take that away. We have the fullness of salvation in Christ and God will guard us. He will protect us. He will keep us in that safety until the last day. And so as a final word, I really can't do more or do better than also to quote from the Apostle Peter. He says this in chapter 5 of his first letter. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. Our God is a just God. He loves justice far more than you do. Far more than I do. He cares about justice far more than any of us do. And our God will always do right. He will always be just. He can bring down the enemies of God's people even in this age. And He often does. And we can trust Him that He could do that. But if He in His perfect wisdom allows us for a time to suffer, we have not been taken out of the safety for which we long. And it's for us in those moments to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God because at the proper time we know He will exalt us. He will show perfect and final justice, and every wrong will be made right, and every tear will be wiped from our eyes. We are in that safety if we are in Christ, that safety for which we long, and it can be never taken from us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we can so easily be overwhelmed by the wickedness that swirls around us, by all the sin that we see in the world and even in our own hearts, and I pray that You would please fill our hearts with the hope and the promises that we see in Your Word, that we would know this safety for which we long, that we would find rest for our souls in Christ who loves us, who gave Himself for us, that we would know that You will show perfect justice on the last day, that You will exalt us at the proper time. Please fill us with hope and strength to go out into this world in total confidence in You, even in the darkest of times, and I pray these things in Christ's most precious name. Amen.
