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Past Ponderings

Sunday, July 1, 2018

PONDERING... How Can You Approach The Holy God? (Psalm 5)

How Can You Approach the Holy God? (AM Sermon Notes)
GIST: Come expectantly by grace because of His abundant, steadfast love.
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 5
Today, we are going to look at Psalm 5. It’s a beautiful picture of the wonderful blessing of the Gospel. I don’t think we need much introduction to see this!
1 Give ear to my words, O Lord;
   consider my groaning.
2 Give attention to the sound of my cry,
   my King and my God,
   for to you do I pray.
3 O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
   in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;
   evil may not dwell with you.
5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;
   you hate all evildoers.
6 You destroy those who speak lies;
   the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
   will enter your house.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
   in the fear of you.
8 Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
   because of my enemies;
   make your way straight before me.
9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
   their inmost self is destruction;
their throat is an open grave;
   they flatter with their tongue.
10 Make them bear their guilt, O God;
   let them fall by their own counsels;
because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
   for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
   let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
   that those who love your name may exult in you.
12 For you bless the righteous, O Lord;
   you cover him with favor as with a shield.
Like I said before, we’re given a beautiful picture of the Gospel here. It speaks to both how and why we can approach the Holy God. Technically, this psalm can be divided up into about four parts. And as you read it, you can pick up on these transitions. However, there seems to be two major sections, and I want to try to focus on these today. So, if the question is “how can you approach the Holy God?”, what’s the gist? Come expectantly by grace because of His abundant, steadfast love.

I.  COME EXPECTANTLY (1-3)
I considered breaking this passage into two sermons and just preaching on these first three verses this morning. It opens with a picture of prayer, and there is so much here for us to think about. Nonetheless, we’re going to take the whole psalm together because the rest of the psalm sets the context for the prayer--it gives us the “why is this possible?”.  That being said, let’s look at these three prayer verses under three headings: When, What, and How?
When(3)?: The setting is...in the morning. Now, I know there is always the danger of sounding legalistic when addressing passages like this. “If you don’t have your quiet time (your intentional time of prayer and Scripture reading) in the morning, then you’re not really a Christian.” I won’t say that. Here’s the principal: give God your best time. If you work a night shift, early in the morning probably isn’t that time. If you’re more of a night owl, early morning might not be that time. Whenever you’re at your best, give Him that time. I can’t tell you when that is. Yet, I would venture to say that for most people, mornings are amongst the least distractible times. Nonetheless, all of that aside, we cannot avoid this important truth: regardless of when you are having your quiet time, the first thing you do in the morning should be coming to Jesus. Remember what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount? “31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33 emphasis added) This was convicting for me this week. What do I do when I first get up (after the “bathroom requirements” that is)? We have so many distractions at our fingertips today. We know we should be praying, but maybe we’ll check the news first, or log on to facebook, or some other social media...or whatever other mindless distraction calls to you in the mornings. I’m just as guilty of this as you. Even as I type up these sermon notes, I’ll find myself thinking, “oh yeah, I need to post that sneak peek on facebook, or remind everyone about that upcoming event”. Then, I get sucked into the vortex and emerge much later having wasted so much valuable time that I now don’t have time to pray anymore. I might have gone on too long here, and I’ll try to be more concise in the remaining points, but let me give you the challenge I have given myself. Don’t do anything else in the morning, until you’ve come first to God.
What(1-2)?: So we see the when, in the morning--first thing, but what is he doing? We’ve already established that he’s praying, so we don’t need to rehash that. However, I do want to make a quick observation about the nature of his prayers. He starts by saying “Give ear to my words” but then moves to “consider my groaning” and “Give attention to the sound of my cry”. So, yes, he is actually speaking to God. However, at some point, words fail him, and he’s left with just noises. This should remind you of a fairly recognizable New Testament passage. Romans 8:26-28, “26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Oh, Amen! In the morning, lay your heat bare before the Lord, even when you don’t know what to say. When I don’t know what to say, I think I am more prone to ramble than to groan, so I need to remember this wonderful truth: I am praying to the God who understands and knows exactly what needs to be done even when I am at a complete loss!
How(1-3)?:  So we see when and we see what; now, I just want to take a quick second to consider the how. I actually listened to a sermon by Alistair Begg on this passage, but I was driving at the time so couldn’t take notes too well, but he noted that you could break down David’s approach into five categories. These are probably pretty similar to his, and are worth noting. In fact, we could spend the entire time just looking at these. But don’t worry, we won’t ☺.
Humbly (my King and my God) Though David is himself a king, he comes before God acknowledging who’s really in control. We would do well to have the same attitude.
Directly (to You do I pray) This might not seem that big of a deal to those of us who have grown up in the protestant tradition, but this would seem completely foreign to others. Just the other day we were watching a children’s cooking show, and a little girl said something about praying to a saint. Elizabeth caught it, and immediately asked, “Did she say she was praying to Jesus?” And Melissa was quick to respond with, “That is who she should be praying to.” Remember when Jesus died on the cross the veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn. We can come directly to God in the name of Jesus. We need no other intercessor!
Regularly (in the morning) I’ve probably already spent more time than necessary addressing this point, but lest we forget: this wasn’t a one time deal!
Sacrificially (I prepare a sacrifice) Could David be referring to an actual, Old Testament sacrifice? Sure. But what did we read from Hosea 6:6 last week about the true nature of a sacrifice that pleases God? “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” We come, giving Him our everything.
Expectantly (and watch) This is the one I wanted to draw special attention to this morning. We come humbly, directly, regularly, and sacrificially expecting God to hear and answer...because He does! How much expectation in there in your prayer life? Are you mummering words, or speaking to your Heavenly Father?

II. By Grace Because of His Abundant, Steadfast Love (4-12)
I know I spent a lot of time on that first point, and we still have well over half of the psalm to cover. Don’t worry, I will be more brief here (at least, that is my intention☺). In the rest of the psalm, we see more about why and how we are able to approach God in this way. Essentially, we’re given a picture of the Gospel. Bare in mind, this psalm would have been written nearly 1,000 years before Christ! God’s grace is not some New Testament invention.
God is Holy (4-6). He comes to God because He is holy and does not tolerate sin. Man, there is rich and controversial language here. The condition of the ungodly is not cast in anything close to a positive light. Does it really say God hates evildoers? Yes. I know this is hard to swallow, especially in our modern context, but let’s not try to sugarcoat the truth. The purpose of these verses seems first and foremost to be talking about the character of God. He. Is. Holy. Period. And, He loves us. Why? Why in the world would He love us? What have we possibly done to deserve that? Nothing. And before you accuse me of glossing over the word hate by throwing out the word love, let’s remember why He hates sin. It destroys us and separates us from Him. I know I’ve said this before, but do you really want a God who is indifferent to that? So, yes, those who are choosing sin are rebelling against the very God they were created to serve. They are destroying themselves. And He hates it. If you’re a parent who has a child addicted to drugs, are you indifferent, or do you hate that? Hating that which destroys those you love is not unloving, being apathetic toward it is unloving.
We Deserve Hell (9-10).  So David comes to God because He is holy, and he comes because the alternative is complete depravity. That is the picture we’re given in verse 9. We by nature are completely sinful. Because of that, we deserve verse 10. We’re hellbound. The key here is rebellion against God. One commentary (Broyles, NIV Biblical Commentary) I read this week pointed out that verse 10 actually summarizes the twofold way Hell works. 1) It is punishment from God (make them bear their guilt...cast them out, for they have rebelled against You) and 2) it is self-inflicted, or a choice (fall by their own counsels). We need to remember this: Hell is not going to sneak up on anyone. You won’t have people who wanted Jesus, but weren’t clear enough in their intentions and ended up in Hell by mistake. Hell is prepared for those who willingly reject Jesus Christ and His salvation. They don’t want Him.
Yet, We Are Saved By Grace Because of His Steadfast and Abundant Love (7-8)! And this is the beautiful “yet” of the Gospel. By nature we are sinners against God’s eternal holiness and heading straight to the Hell we want. Yet, Jesus came and died for us that we might have life in Him, have Him! Look at verse 7,  “7 But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.” I am coming into your house knowing who You are, bowing in fear, and reverence, and astonishment. Why? How is this possible? Only because of Your abundant and steadfast love! Amen! Amen! Amen! Notice how in the previous passages the wicked were described morally (we were told what they are doing), but here the righteous are described by grace (they receive mercy and love God). Oh, may we remember it is not by the merits of our hands that we stand before the Lord, but only by His amazing grace!
Verse 8 then takes up the prayer. Show me how to follow You and Your righteousness (as opposed to my natural path) because of my enemies. Again, I could spend an entire sermon on this, but let me just give you these three observation about that phrase “because of my enemies”
1. Because of their negative influence. Sin is tempting and easy to be pulled into.
2. So they will see who you are following. Live above reproach. Don’t give them a reason to doubt.
3. So that they may see and believe! Again, the sermon on the mount: “16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). They are sinners, just like you. Point them to the truth!
And The Result Is Joyous (11-12)! Oh, how joyous it is! Look at verses 11-12 again. This is what Christ purchased. Do you see the joy sandwich here at the end? Reminders of His provisions are smacked right next to responses of joy!
Refuge. Rejoice. Sing for Joy. Protected. Exult. Blessed. Covered with Favor. Shielded.

TAKEAWAYS
We have covered most of these as we went this morning, so take this as “review”.
  1. Come to Him first and expectantly.
  2. Come to Him humbly, remembering His abundant love and steadfast grace!
  3. Live for Him in front of those those trapped in sin.
  4. And, oh, rejoice in His provision!

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