Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, Psalm number 39, we will read, starting in verse number one, we'll read the subtitle there as well. Psalm 39. To the chief musician, even to Jeduthun, a psalm of Asaph. So apparently the song service at the temple, or at the tabernacle, as it were, in the time of David, was not too much different than our church.
[00:00:22] You know why?
[00:00:24] Because you read a lot of time to the chief musician, a psalm of David, and the chief musician is Asaph. But every once in a while, you see three times actually, in the Psalms, you see Jeduthin as the chief musician. So they. They changed song leaders too, and they rotated out sometimes as well. So that's. We're biblical, firmly biblical, brother Ari. See, and you didn't even. You didn't even know it. You just trying to give people opportunities. Didn't even know you were biblical.
[00:00:49] So Jeduth, in Scripture, he's mentioned three times as the chief musician in the Psalms.
[00:00:53] And he was actually, according to 1st Chronicles 25:3, he was a harpist. And according to 2nd Chronicles 35:15, he was a seer, which is a prophet. And what's interesting is in The Scriptures, in 1st Chronicles 25:1, listen to this verse. This is interesting. It says this. Moreover, David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun. And who should prophesy? Notice what it says. Who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals? Now, my question is this. How do you prophesy with musical instruments?
[00:01:37] How do you prophesy with musical instruments? It just struck me as I was reading that and what it did, because prophecy generally deals with speaking the word of God. That's kind of the core, core idea behind prophecy. And yet they're doing it by means of musical instruments.
[00:01:56] That reminded me of something. For those of you who have musical abilities, number one, you have a superpower that a lot of the rest of us don't have.
[00:02:07] Seriously, you do.
[00:02:09] And not only that, but by means of your music, you have the power to. To do the same basic thing that the preacher does when he preaches God's word.
[00:02:22] You convey truth by your song. In fact, we know the Book of Psalms is a book of songs that were sung, and you have the power to do that. And I think, listen, I think for those of you who are. Who are musically inclined, I think first, you should take every opportunity that you're given to use that for God. And I think you should take it seriously. And I think you should consider and pray about what you're going to sing and pray about what message those things convey and those of us who listen. You know, almost every time we come into Wednesday night service, you know, our crowd is usually about like this on a Wednesday night. And sometimes the singing is not as lively as it is on a Sunday morning. Perhaps sometimes it's better, depending on how we're feeling on Sunday morning. But, you know, what we get out of the singing really is a relation of what we put into our singing every song service. But those of you that have the ability to sing and play instruments and those kinds of things, pray about that thing. Ask the Lord to prophesy through you. Right. Ask the Lord to encourage, uplift, strengthen and help God's people through what you do. Because it's not a small thing.
[00:03:42] These people were appointed to these places to prophesy, to give God's word to others through their music.
[00:03:50] All right, let's go on to the first verse. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.
[00:04:03] I was dumb with silence.
[00:04:05] I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred.
[00:04:10] My heart was hot within me. While I was musing the fire burned. Then spake I with my tongue. Lord, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days, what it is that I may know how frail I am.
[00:04:25] Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity Selah.
[00:04:38] Surely every man walketh in a vain show.
[00:04:41] Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them.
[00:04:49] And now, Lord, what wait I? For my hope is in thee.
[00:04:53] Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
[00:04:57] I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because thou didst it.
[00:05:01] Remove thy stroke away from me. I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
[00:05:06] When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Selah.
[00:05:18] Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee and. And a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Oh, spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more.
[00:05:34] Would you join me in prayer.
[00:05:37] Our fathers, we come to your word, Lord. We just want to. We want to be strengthened and edified. We want to grow and be encouraged by what your word says here this evening. So would you please guide our study and the way we hear it, that we might hear the word of God with wisdom, that we might take these things that our fellow St. David spoke in a time of trouble and hardship, that we might take them and take them to heart ourselves.
[00:06:05] And so bless our time together. Lord, help me to help your people. I pray in Jesus name.
[00:06:11] Amen.
[00:06:13] So notice what he says in the first several verses. He says, I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.
[00:06:20] I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is yet before me.
[00:06:25] I was dumb with silence. I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. So what you see here is what's repeated over and over is David is saying, I'm not going to talk.
[00:06:37] I'm going to hold my peace.
[00:06:39] Now, what is going on in this psalm? It's a little hard to perceive, but it's somewhat, I think, similar to what we studied last week in Psalm 38.
[00:06:49] Psalm 38 was about David's, about David being under God's hand of correction. David was suffering physically. He was suffering emotionally and mentally as a result of God's corrective action in his life. And so in this psalm, if you look at verse number eight, he says, deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. For verse 10, remove thy stroke away from me.
[00:07:17] I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. And in verse 13, he asked God to spare him and recover his strength, his physical strength, for fear that he might die. So apparently David is messed up again.
[00:07:30] He's messed up again.
[00:07:32] The Lord's correcting him by use of these means physical suffering once again.
[00:07:41] And so what we can take away from this is this truth that David is, without question, in a bad way.
[00:07:50] David is in a bad way. And you read this psalm. Most of this psalm is dark.
[00:07:57] It's not uplifting, it's not joyful. Like many of the psalms that we've studied, David's thoughts are negative.
[00:08:05] And. And David's thoughts are a bit dark.
[00:08:09] Now, what I want to remind everyone of before we get to the first three verses and look back at them is that all believers at some time or another are subject to these kinds of dark thoughts.
[00:08:25] All believers are and will be subject to some kind of doubt, some kind of unbelief, some streak of sinful thoughts that invade our mind.
[00:08:38] All of us will be attacked with, be it from without or from within by some kind of questions or some way that we mistrust God. Or perhaps it'll be in the form of worry.
[00:08:51] There is not a saint alive that is not going to have dark times.
[00:08:57] How many of you can identify with dark times in your life that there were thoughts in your head that should not have been there, there were doubts and mistrust in God that should not have been there. There were sinful thoughts that were in your mind and in your heart that were serving to tempt you that should not have been there. That there was anxiety in your life that should not have been there. How many of you can identify with that fact? And every one of us has dark periods.
[00:09:28] So no matter. And we're going to get to this a little bit further, a little bit later.
[00:09:34] But if you have. If I have.
[00:09:37] If you look at some great Christian, maybe it's a spurgeon, maybe it's a. Maybe it's some Christian that you know personally, some preacher, maybe, that you venerate. If you look at any man walking on two legs or that has walked on two legs, of course, course, accepting the Lord Jesus, but he had his share of suffering as well, and you think that they are somehow above this kind of thing, that they do not have dark thoughts, doubtful thoughts and sinful thoughts?
[00:10:06] We would be grossly mistaken.
[00:10:10] Grossly mistaken.
[00:10:14] That is just not a biblical view of man. And you got to remember every single person that you or I might venerate and honor as a great man or woman of God is but a man, nothing more, but a man. God might use a man. But if. But absent the Lord, what is he?
[00:10:36] Vanity, Right? You see it just a puff of air.
[00:10:41] Just a puff of air. And we have to keep that in mind. I believe we should venerate people that are worthy of honor.
[00:10:47] Do you believe that? And if you know of a preacher or you know of a Christian, that is a great example to you, you should venerate that person. But you should venerate that person with a measure of realism, biblical realism, that he is but a man.
[00:11:05] He is but a man. And so when he messes up and he has dark thoughts or he acts out or he says something out of turn or whatever, it should not surprise us all that much. And that's certainly true of me.
[00:11:19] It's certainly true of me. But I don't think anybody here has Any false notions of me, for sure.
[00:11:27] So all believers are subject to these kinds of dark thoughts. And they will come to you, and they will come to me.
[00:11:37] But notice what I want you to see in these verses here. He says, so this is the place David's in. He's dark, he's discouraged, he's cast down. He's perhaps doubtful, he's entertaining thoughts that should not be in his head.
[00:11:53] Verse 1. I said, I will take heed to my lip, to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me that is in front of me.
[00:12:06] I was done with silence. I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. So he's sorry, he's at a low point. But notice when you're sorry and when I'm sorry. When we're in a low point and our mind is filled with questions and sinful thoughts and mistrust of God and worry and doubt and unbelief and any other thing that might invade our mind and our heart, we must not give those thoughts expression.
[00:12:39] We must not give those thoughts expression with our words.
[00:12:46] It is one thing to have thought in your mind that's not right, that's not godly, that's not in faith.
[00:12:55] It's one thing to have a thought. But the minute that you put that thought in a car and you send that booger out of your mouth, the minute you send it out of your mouth, it now has the ability to harm another person. When it's in you, it's only harming you. But the minute it comes out of our mouth, it has the potential to do harm to others. In this case, in verse number one, he mentions, while the wicked is before me, what you know and I know that the wicked are hoping for, they're joyful for a believer for something, something. Be it a sin, be it discouragement, be it something that's, you know, a dark period in the. In this case, an unbeliever, a wicked man, someone who is looking for a pretext or an excuse, will seize upon words that we speak that are coming out of a heart in a dark place.
[00:13:54] But think about your brothers and sisters in Christ.
[00:13:57] They can be anybody that hears your words can be negatively affected by your words.
[00:14:05] Let me give you another example of this.
[00:14:08] How many of you know what it's like when you wake up in the morning and you know in yourself that you're out of sorts?
[00:14:18] So two of us, three of us. I'll add every One of you know what that's like. You wake up and you're just in a bad mood.
[00:14:27] How many of you know what it's like to not walk in the spirit? And you know you're not right with God. You know that you're not walking in fellowship with God. You know that you're grieving him.
[00:14:39] I think all of us know what that's like, too.
[00:14:42] So we know when we're walking according to the flesh, right? We all have those times.
[00:14:50] Here's the principle in these three verses is this. When you know that whether you're in a dark time like we saw before, or whether you're just. You're not walking, right, you're out of sorts. You're walking according to the flesh. You're not guided by the spirit of God. When you know you're in that place, that is the wrong time.
[00:15:11] That is the wrong time to open our mouth.
[00:15:14] Because again, it's one thing to have an issue inwardly, but the minute we open our mouth, in that case, we do harm to others.
[00:15:24] So David says I was dumb.
[00:15:27] That's what I put in my notes. You look at my notes here, it says I was dumb.
[00:15:33] Sometimes it's good to be dumb because you and I should not trust ourselves. You know what it's like when you're at a source. You're in a dark place. You want to vent. You know what? Venting is one of the worst things you can do. I know psychology tells you you need to vent. You need to vent. I know some people have given advice that, you know, you should look for an opportunity to vent. But it is never right.
[00:15:58] It is never right to vent evil, to get it off your chest and to give evil expression. That's not okay.
[00:16:10] Psychologists describe. But that's not okay because it violates God's word. Furthermore, you put what's on the inside, which is already corrupt and harmful, and you express it to others, and that harms them. Now you touch them.
[00:16:28] The reality is, all of us have periods when we're low, when we're carnal, all of us.
[00:16:34] Let us do our best. You know, that's easier said than done. Let us do our best to keep our mouth closed at that time. To be dumb, right? Like the Bible says, to be dumb with silence.
[00:16:46] Because no good is going to come of it.
[00:16:50] But there is one exception.
[00:16:55] There is one exception.
[00:16:56] Look at verse number three.
[00:16:59] But my heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned.
[00:17:05] That's that tendency when something's in your heart.
[00:17:08] You Want it? You feel like it's gonna erupt out of your mouth, right?
[00:17:13] That's human nature. That's what he's describing here. Notice what he says then spake I with my tongue. But note to whom he's speaking.
[00:17:24] Lord, make me to know mine end.
[00:17:28] So when you're in a dark place, a sinful place, a carnal place, during those times, expressions of your words should be made to the Lord only make those expressions of doubt, expressions of expressions of whatever it might be. Worry, mistrust, evil thoughts. That's the time to take it to the Lord, not to other people.
[00:18:04] You know, we see it in the Psalms. David does this a lot, does he not? He constantly is taking his complaint to the Lord.
[00:18:12] Some Psalms are composed entirely of those complaints. Where he's in a dark, low place and he's expressing his doubt to the Lord. That is perfectly okay. That is where the expression needs to be. You know, Every one of us should have a secret place with the Lord there where only God knows some things, right?
[00:18:37] Only God knows some things.
[00:18:40] Because expressing it to any person, any person breathing would do only harm.
[00:18:48] So we take it to God. It's not going to harm him for sure.
[00:18:53] Charles Spurgeon said this in the treasury of David. Of this verse, he said, the firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil's work.
[00:19:05] Let me repeat that.
[00:19:07] The firmest believers are exercised with unbelief, and it would be doing the devil's work with a vengeance if they were to publish abroad all their questioning and suspicions.
[00:19:21] Notice what he says. I love this statement.
[00:19:24] If I have the fever myself, there is no reason why I should communicate it to my neighbors, right?
[00:19:36] Some of us have spiritual fevers from time to time, right? I know I do.
[00:19:41] But there's no cause for me to pass it to you or to anybody else. So just be dumb, right? Be dumb.
[00:19:50] Notice what he says in verse four. His prayer is, make me to know mine end and the measure of my days. What it is that I may know how frail I am.
[00:19:58] Behold, thou hast made my days as in hand breadth. That's this four fingers right here.
[00:20:03] It's an ancient form of measurement. So you have the cubit, which is fingertip to elbow, approximately 18 to 20 inches. And then you have the hand breadth, which is this, approximately three inches. Just different ways they measured is found in other parts of Scripture as well.
[00:20:19] And mine age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Notice the descriptions of man in this.
[00:20:31] Surely every man walketh in a vain show.
[00:20:34] Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. Then you drop down to verse number 11. He says this. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity. Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth.
[00:20:51] Surely every man is vanity to know one's end to no one's end. You know, the world really is averse to thinking about their end.
[00:21:05] That is not a subject people like to talk about. And we know in the flesh that's not something we like to just sit around and discuss.
[00:21:15] But the Lord says it is better to go into the house of mourning than to go into the house of feasting.
[00:21:21] For that is the end of all men. Here it is. And the living will lay it to his heart. So paying attention to your end will help you and it will help me. And that's what David is saying. He says, make me to know my end. In other words, he sees.
[00:21:36] He doesn't see his end as he should. He doesn't see the brevity of his life. It hasn't put it into.
[00:21:43] He wants God to put his life into perspective, lest he get this idea that he has plenty of time and that he can put off things for pleasure's sake. That should be priorities.
[00:22:00] And that's what knowing you're in and measuring your days will do. It'll take things that you know should be priorities and first in your life.
[00:22:09] And it'll make you understand that you don't have forever. I don't have forever. So what is priority needs to be moved up, right? Make me to know my end.
[00:22:23] There is wisdom in thinking about one's end. But as I said, the world doesn't want to think about that. In fact, they heap pleasures. They give themselves over to pleasures. For what purpose? To drown out that very thought.
[00:22:37] To drown it out because it's unpleasant.
[00:22:40] You know, you think about when you think about your end. You think about how many days you have as a hand, breadth, brief, as a shadow, as a vapor. Other scriptural illusions. There, of course, the first thing it makes us think of is our eternity. Because if you think about your end, you automatically are going to be thinking about the one second after that.
[00:23:04] That's an important question to think about, you know, and on this. Let me pause for a second. You know, when we share the gospel, we give the gospel to other people. Sometimes we ask the question, if you were to die today, where would you go? You know, that's a valid question. It's a true question, right?
[00:23:23] But when you think about that question, a lot of times people take that and say, I don't know. I don't care.
[00:23:33] That's 50 years from now. I don't care about that.
[00:23:36] You see what they're doing, though? They're avoiding the question of the end, right?
[00:23:39] But here's the thing. That question is not just a question of later. That question is a question of now.
[00:23:46] Because as a person is now, when they perish, so will they be when they die. That's the truth of it.
[00:23:55] That's why that question is an important question.
[00:23:58] But when we. In other words, when we share the gospel, we have to realize we're not just talking about something that is in effect when we die. No, we're talking about something that is now, which has its conclusion when we die. So don't forget, when you share the gospel, you're not just talking about the future. You're also talking about the present. You're also talking about the present.
[00:24:20] David speaks of frailty. He says that, I may know how frail I am. Is it not a good thing for us to know our own weakness? Frail means.
[00:24:29] It means to be weak, to be vulnerable, to be weakened by infirmity. Look at a couple of verses. Matthew 26 and Romans chapter 8. Look at that, if you would. Matthew 26 and Romans chapter 8. Talking about frailty. Now, we are aware of physical frailty. And if you, as a young man or a young woman, how many of you were. Raise your hand if you have no pain or adverse. Anything in your body, raise your hand that you're aware of.
[00:25:02] Everybody sheepishly like this.
[00:25:05] If you don't have any pain, say, thank the Lord, I don't have any pain in my body. None.
[00:25:09] Right?
[00:25:11] I could have said that up until about three days ago. Brother Ari knows why.
[00:25:16] I could have said that up until about three days. But that's. Honestly, that's changing quick. Quickly. That's changing quickly, you know, so we talk about frailty and weakness. You know, you have the body kind, right? In your body.
[00:25:31] Just give it enough time.
[00:25:33] The Lord, he'll convince you, you know, that you're not as strong as you think you are. And that strength and that vigor and energy that you and I have had, right? All of us know what that's like, right?
[00:25:47] It'll start to taper off and go away. It will.
[00:25:51] And all of a sudden, we'll be faced with our weakness. That, you know, the Bible Says that young men glory in their what?
[00:25:57] Their strength. But one day that's going away.
[00:26:01] The Lord wants us to be faced with this. He wants to know our frailty, to see it now, right? But then you have frailty, spiritually.
[00:26:11] Weakness, infirmity. Matthew 26. Notice what the Bible says here in verse number 41. This is in the garden.
[00:26:20] Jesus says to his disciples, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak, frail, infirmed.
[00:26:35] Listen, Peter did not know he was weak, right? He bragged, oh, though all forsake you, yet will not I these. Did he understand his frailty? No way.
[00:26:45] No way. You know, gentlemen, watch what you're at. You better be careful what you see on the Internet, what you're looking at, because one little thing pops up, you think, oh, I don't need to worry about that. You just, you need a good dose of your own frailty. That's what we need. We need to know we're weak and we will fall given the chance. And I'm sure that's true of ladies.
[00:27:08] Well, that's why we need to understand our own weakness.
[00:27:13] They thought, hey, we're good. I could take a nap. I probably would have been taking a nap too, to be honest with you.
[00:27:21] Because we're frail.
[00:27:23] That's what Jesus is saying.
[00:27:25] Your spirit's there, but you don't know your weakness. Look at Romans, chapter 8, if you would.
[00:27:33] Romans 8, verse 3.
[00:27:41] Romans 8, verse 3. Notice what it says. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.
[00:27:48] God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
[00:27:54] Do you have flesh still?
[00:27:58] Do you have flesh still?
[00:28:00] You do, right?
[00:28:03] So therefore verse 3 still applies to you.
[00:28:06] You're still weak, right? Look at verse number 26.
[00:28:12] This same infirmity is mentioned in 26. It says, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.
[00:28:20] That means you're weak.
[00:28:22] This is in the context of prayer, but that means you and I are just, are weak. And, and the Lord wants us to understand and know that. But he also wants us to understand that that is also true of everybody else.
[00:28:37] It's true of everybody else. That's what I was talking about with that preacher. That you venerate, that Christian. That's an example to you. Look, you should honor people like that, that help you, strengthen you, set an example for you. But you should do it tempered with the reality that they are weak and frail just like you.
[00:28:55] They really are you know, sometimes people do not. People get preacher mentalities and they follow preachers around and they think, you know, they do. They think, you know, they're.
[00:29:09] This is the only guy that can preach. And this is the only, you know, people get that mentality. In fact, I've. I've been like that.
[00:29:17] But the Bible says they're.
[00:29:20] We have to have a biblical view of who we're dealing with. We're dealing with frail men.
[00:29:26] And then he talks about the brevity of life.
[00:29:29] He talks about the vanity of man. Look at verse number six. It's striking. Surely every man notice every, every, every. Look at verse 11. Surely every man. In three times it says every man, every man. You know what that is?
[00:29:44] That includes every person, every individual, you and me.
[00:29:52] He says every man is. Verse number six. Walketh in a vain show. Man. I just. Is that not a striking word for God, For God to speak to us? Every man walketh in a vain show, a show. In other words, we're just all putting on.
[00:30:08] We're all totally consumed with what people think of us.
[00:30:12] We're all trying to just. We're all trying to cover up what we really are to some measure or another. It says every man. You say, I'm not like that. I'm just real. No, you ain't.
[00:30:26] Does it not say, every man walketh in a vain show?
[00:30:31] Every one of us gives thoughts to what other people think of us.
[00:30:35] We do.
[00:30:41] Every man at his best state is altogether vanity. I thought to myself, what would be the best state?
[00:30:49] I mean, it's only a few things.
[00:30:53] Perfect health, right? You see a guy who's ripped fit, right?
[00:31:00] Plenty of money.
[00:31:02] The Elon musks, right?
[00:31:05] Power, the Donald trumps.
[00:31:08] You know, you take whatever category you want and you say, what's the pinnacle of that? The best state, Every bit of it.
[00:31:19] Not one particle of any of it will last. Think about that. Not one particle of any of it. Not the power, not the money, not the health.
[00:31:29] None of it will last really long at all.
[00:31:38] That's just striking.
[00:31:43] Verse seven.
[00:31:45] And now, Lord, what wait I for? In other words, what is there to hope in, right? What am I waiting on? You know, remember hope. Hope is faith with the future perspective, right? And he's saying, what is there? What am I hoping? What's my expectation?
[00:32:02] Everything's vanity.
[00:32:05] That's exactly the point.
[00:32:07] That's exact. David looks at all this. It's vanity. My life's vanity. My health, gone. You know, he's hurting right now. You know, power, money. David has all that kind of stuff. It's just vain.
[00:32:19] The Lord wants us to get to that point.
[00:32:22] Because when we get to that point and everything we see in us, in others, everything we see, even at its best state, is just smoke, what are we left with?
[00:32:35] The only thing that lasts.
[00:32:38] The only thing that matters.
[00:32:40] The only thing that's worthwhile in your life. We've got to have food. We got to have money.
[00:32:46] But listen.
[00:32:49] The only thing that matters in your life and in my life is Christ.
[00:32:58] Is that not true?
[00:33:00] He is the only permanent thing.
[00:33:02] He is the only thing of value, and he is the only thing that will last.
[00:33:06] That's it. The sum total. There's a song that says hallelujah. All I have is Christ, right?
[00:33:16] This is the conclusion David came to. I have all this to look around. No hope.
[00:33:22] God, you're my hope. You're the only thing. You're the only thing of permanence at all.
[00:33:27] And lastly, that I would like to point out to you is this. Hear my prayer, verse 12.
[00:33:32] O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears.
[00:33:38] For I am a stranger with Thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
[00:33:44] 1st Chronicles 29:15 says this. For we are strangers before Thee and sojourners, as were all our fathers.
[00:33:53] Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding. Notice how it overlaps.
[00:33:58] Strangers, that's an alien.
[00:34:02] Someone who is in a nation and in a country that is not their own.
[00:34:07] A sojourner, that's someone who is traveling through.
[00:34:11] They do not have a permanent place here. They're just staying the night to go to their final destination. They have another destination.
[00:34:19] Spurgeon again said this. God made the world because notice it says here I am a stranger with Thee. That means God is a stranger in this world. Think about that. God. God himself is a stranger in this world. Spurgeon said this. God made the world, sustains it and owns it. And yet men treat him as though he were a foreign intruder. This is our world.
[00:34:46] They mouth off to God, did they not? This is our world. What are you doing here? We don't want you in here. You ain't supposed to be here. This is our world and he made it.
[00:34:55] John 1:10 says, he was in the world, and the world was made by him and the world. What does it say? Knew him not. He was a stranger in his own world.
[00:35:08] But you are with him in the same way that this world did not know him, the same way that it did not recognize him in the same way that he was a foreigner even in the world he created. So you are.
[00:35:24] So I am.
[00:35:25] So as a stranger, as an alien, I don't know if it's illegal or legal. Human beings are not illegal.
[00:35:33] Y' all heard that before.
[00:35:36] As a stranger.
[00:35:38] A stranger does not quite fit in among those among whom he dwells. And we were missionaries in Cambodia. We didn't dress like the Cambodians in every way. I mean, we walked up and they. They saw that we were different.
[00:35:50] Like, why? Well, it's because the way I've always dressed and, you know, it wouldn't have made any difference had I dressed like them, just in case you're wondering. Because they don't care. They didn't carry away.
[00:36:03] If a person is identified with a different country, should he not be dissimilar?
[00:36:11] Right.
[00:36:13] In other words, you know, in Christianity, it seems everybody is terrified of being different.
[00:36:19] Right? There is an ugly streak in Christianity. It's. Everybody's afraid of being the oddball and being different and not being. And the world looking at them and saying they're weird.
[00:36:32] Why?
[00:36:33] Why? The Lord tells you you're a stranger, you are going to be different.
[00:36:40] You are going to be different. You're going to act different and look different. You're going to have ways that. That are different because you're part of a different land, a different country, different laws. That is not a point of shame that we should shy away from. That's a point of glory.
[00:36:59] That means your identity is clear.
[00:37:02] You don't belong here. Neither do I.
[00:37:08] But we have to remember this, that we're strangers with God.
[00:37:16] So even in that, even as a foreigner, as we travel through, this is not our home. It's just vain. It's all vain. Right? It is. It's passing away.
[00:37:27] We're never going to be quite comfortable. We shouldn't be, because we don't belong here.
[00:37:32] But even in that, the Lord shares in that experience with us.
[00:37:39] Let's pray.
