Psalm 37:23-24

Introduction: Context of Encouragement for Tried Saints

0:02 The message was delivered on Sunday morning, October 16th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Psalm 37 and verse 23.

0:19 A man's goings are established of the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Now let us again seek the face of God and ask the aid of God's Holy Spirit as we seek to understand his own word of truth. Let us pray.

0:51 Our Father, we thank you that with the psalmist we have made our confession. In the singing of those words, that your word is settled in heaven. And we thank you that we come this morning to a certain word embodied in the very words of scripture. And yet we very keenly feel our present need of the present ministry of the Holy Spirit.

1:26 Not to give us additional revelation. But oh Lord. To grant us illumination with respect to the revelation already given and deposited in this blessed book. We pray with the psalmist open, undress our eyes.

1:46 That we may behold wondrous things out of your law. And we pray that this day the very spirit who spoke this word through the psalmist will be present in this place. Enabling us to understand that word and to make due and proper application of it to our own lives. That each one from the youngest to the oldest, from those who sit here strangers to your grace, to the most mature saint that not a one will leave without knowing what it is that you the living God have said to his heart through your word.

2:28 Grant us this desire. Grant us this desire of our hearts we plead through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The people of this congregation for approximately three and a half months, morning and evening with but an exception of two and a half Lord's days, heard this question.

2:57 Are you for real? And that question was used as the framework to engage. In a very concentrated season of self-examination in the life of this congregation. In 23 messages I was seeking to help us all to obey the very clear injunction of 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 5.

3:25 To examine ourselves, to prove ourselves, to see whether indeed we were in the faith. And many in the. This congregation have borne witness that God has had deep dealings with their own hearts through this series of sermons. And that they now possess a more firm and a more well-grounded assurance than they have ever known before.

3:56 And it is for just such saints. Those who came to the word of God with that openness. Openness and preparedness to have the word of God judge their professed experience willing to be shown that it was spurious if indeed it were a spurious experience. But having come through such a season and having sought to assess what they are in the light of the word of God and having come to the fresh conviction that yes by the grace of God.

4:35 They are. For real. It is to just such people that I felt it would be a matter of biblical balance to bring several messages opening up text of encouragement to these tried and tested saints before launching into our verse by verse expositions in the first epistle of Peter. Well last week we considered that marvelous statement.

5:04 Embedded. In the prayers of the apostle for the Philippian church namely Philippians one and verse six being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. Now this morning I want to direct your attention to another such text one which contains the choices. To those who are for real for those who have indeed come through the narrow gate and are walking upon that restricted or that compressed way which alone leads unto life and that text is Psalm thirty seven in verse twenty four though he fall. He shall not. He shall not. He shall not.

General Nature of Psalm 37 and the Focus of Verse 24

6:05 He shall not. He shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Now by way of responsibly taking up the text let me address very briefly two introductory concerns. First a brief word concerning the thirty seventh psalm in general.

6:26 It is one of those several psalms in the Psalter that is called both an acrostic psalm and along with many others. It is a didactic psalm. In this particular psalm with just a couple of abnormalities every other verse begins with another letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order as I said with but a couple of abnormalities and the more knowledgeable commentators have sought to figure out the rationale for those abnormalities and I leave it to them to debate that issue. But like so many of.

7:05 Those acrostic psalms it is primarily a didactic psalm. There is little in this psalm that would precipitate direct engagement of the heart in the worship of God in the language of the text itself. Unlike many of the psalms that one cannot pick them up without immediately having his heart directed into personal communion with the living God. This psalm.

7:35 Is a teaching psalm. It has many things about it that one would think it was taken out of the book of Proverbs. So just those few words with reference to the matter of this psalm in general. Its theme is quite clear.

7:55 It is a constant contrast between the security and blessedness of the righteous on the one hand. And the. Security and the foreboding prospects of the wicked on the other. And just the very cursory reading of the psalm will validate that that is indeed its major theme.

8:19 But then secondly I want to say just a word concerning who is in focus in our text. Verse 24. We have someone referred to. Though he fall.

8:33 He shall not be uttered. He shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholds him with his hand. Now of whom is the psalmist writing. Well obviously this is one of the parts of the psalm in which he is speaking of a dimension of the blessedness which God has promised for the righteous.

8:59 In verse 16 the very term the righteous is used. Better is a little that. The righteous. Half than the abundance of many wicked again in verse 17 but the Lord upholds the righteous and in verse 21 the righteous deals graciously and gives.

9:22 And so here in verse 24 the spirit of God is obviously focusing upon one of the many blessings that God has promised to his righteous. The one described earlier in the psalm as the man who trusts in the Lord the one who delights in the Lord the one who finds it is joy to commit his way unto the Lord who rests in the Lord and we could go through the psalm and call out these many manifestations of the character of a righteous man. Righteous. Someone who has in the New Testament language with which we have been working in recent weeks someone who by the grace of God has come through the narrow gate of true of sound biblical conversion and is found upon that restricted way which leads unto life. Now having taken care of those matters of the general.

The Condition Envisioned: Though He Fall

10:34 Frost and content and nature of the psalm and who it is that is in focus in verse 24 I want us now to park in this text as a word of encouragement to try and to tested saints those who perhaps in seasons of great searching of heart have indeed wondered in recent weeks is the root of the matter in me. And yet through all. Those wrestlings you have come to the conviction yes if I deny that the root of the matter is in me I actually cast aspersions upon the gracious work of God obviously wrought in my own heart in getting me through the narrow gate in putting me upon and keeping me on that restricted way which leads to life to you I speak this morning from this text and we'll consider it under.

11:34 It's very obvious divisions we have first of all the condition in vision though he fall and then we have the promise imparted he shall not be utterly cast down and then we have the explanation provided for the Lord upholds him with his hand first of all then the condition in vision. The righteous man is in the focus of the psalmist mind and yet the condition in vision in our text is one in which this truly righteous man this man who is for real experiences what the psalmist calls a fall though he fall pattern of the righteous man's walk is the way in which himself. Delights according to verse twenty three be and he that is to hold the delights in the way of the righteous man.

12:48 This man whose way the overall pattern of his life is one that reflects that God is wrought in him a true work of grace it is yet this man who under as a fall now the sixty four dollar question is. What did the psalmist. Mean when he said in envisioning this condition though he fall and look at the word it fall he that it's the most general word you're falling the Hebrew text we find it early in Genesis you'll remember that when the Lord expressed his displeasure at the offering of Cain that it is said he was angry and his countenance fell it's the very word you describe of someone falling into a.

13:51 Deep sleep it is used with reference to people falling upon their faces or the fear of God falling upon men it is used in a broad spectrum of ways the Old Testament so then we say well if the use of the particular word does not give us a clue as to what the psalmist has in mind then is there something in the immediate context which does and the last as we look at the immediate context though there may be. Might be a suggestion in the overall contrast between the righteous and the wicked and we might be warranted to say that the fall of the righteous is the falling into calamities which may seem to indicate upon first glance that he is not living under the canopy of divine blessing the kind of falling into manifold trials to

14:54 use the language of James in James 1 and verse 3 when he says my brethren counted all joy when you fall into manifold trials yet that's only a suggestion drawn from the larger context of the psalm and the issue really cannot be determined from that context and so we are left to what we call the analogy of scripture is there a general teaching of the Bible it's self that does not contradict the language of the text but is perfectly consistent with the language of the text and the overall teaching of the word of God and my thesis this morning is that there is such a general overall teaching of the word of God perfectly consistent with the language of the text and that is that our passage could indeed be referring to a

15:54 specific kind of fall that is of a most grievous nature to the truly righteous man namely a fall into sin and this very word fall is used in conjunction with being overcome by sin of one sort or another in Proverbs 11 5 Proverbs 22 14 and in Jeremiah 8 and verse 4 so one is not wrenching the word out of its usage in other settings and in the parallel passage we have a very general statement psalm 145 and verse 14 which rather than again limiting the sense of fall to some specific aspect of a providential trial is general 145 14 the Lord upholds all that and raises up all those that are bound in the Hebrew parallelism the fall is something

17:09 which makes a man to be bound and again that could not only be trials in general but that which is the greatest of all to a true man that is to sin and surely when we turn to the scriptures with the question is it possible for someone clearly designated in the Bible as a righteous man to fall into a specific sin a sin of the most grievous nature and still be clearly identified as a righteous man the answer of the Bible is clear throughout the Old and the New Testaments I give you but a sampling God could say of Noah in the generations that so precipitated his wrath and grief and anger that he obliterates the entire generation save Noah and his family he could say of Noah in Genesis 6 and verse 7 these words which clearly identify him as a righteous man chapter 6 I'm sorry and verse 9 these are the generations of Noah Noah was a righteous man and blameless

18:38 in his generations Noah walked with God Noah was the real thing he was and yet the scriptures record in Genesis 9 verses 20 and 21 that this blameless man who walked with God this in his generation is the man who fell into drunkenness and into shameful nakedness now he was not a drunkard as a pattern of life he was not a flash as a pattern of life but he grievously fell into the sin of drunkenness and shameful nakedness and yet God did not rewrite his estimation of Noah a righteous man and blameless in his generation who walked with God Abraham father of the faithful the great example of conquering faith as he is set before us in Romans chapter 4 who considering his own body as good as dead in the deadness of Sarah's womb he was not weakened through unbelief but waxed strong in faith

20:06 giving glory to God with what he had promised he was able to perform a man of tremendous courage a man of tremendous courage just recently in my Old Testament reading or listening through the Old Testament Abraham going out like a warrior with his 318 servants and taking on what was probably a far greater number of men tremendous man of courage and yet yet Abraham is set before us as the man who at least on two occasions fell into the sin of dishonesty unbelief and cowardice eternal expediency in Genesis 16 at the suggestion of his wife he takes the house servant as his wife to produce the seed to help God rather than to wait upon God to fulfill the promise through his legitimate God-given wife Sarah later on we find him in that situation with Abimelech where he lies about the identification of Sarah not about how old he is showing unbelief in God's ability to keep him but exposing his wife's virtue to the lust of a pagan that's Abraham faithful Abraham whose nobility

21:32 in Genesis 22 shames us all take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and offer him in the place that I will show you and there's no indication that there's any tinkering with God any arguing with God he would be less than human if he did not have deep tumultuous struggles of soul but he plants his feet in the path of obedience Abraham who goes out not knowing where he is going Abraham a righteous man who is a pattern of life lives a life of faith a life of courage a life of confidence in God yet he falls into the sin of unbelief he falls into the sin of cowardice he falls into the sin of unbelief he falls into the sin of a shameful exposure of his wife's virtue for the sake of spanking his own neck if they know you're my wife you're a beautiful woman they'll kill me to get you say you're only the sister and she ends up in that man's bedroom and only the powerful restraining hand of God keeps him from consummating the relationship at that point I tell you Abraham's no knight in shining armor he's a shameful coward God records his fall David

23:02 the man after his own heart and all is that he is manifestly a man who is a righteous man a man of faith a man of courage a man of deep sensitivity he does one little secret act of shaming the king by cutting off a square inch of his robe and it says his heart and he had no peace to live with he made full confession to Saul the man who was out chasing him as though he were some common felon seeking to take his life yet it is this David who commits the shameful sins of wanton adultery murder duplicity he commits the shameful sins of presumption he's a man in the way righteous man yet he is a man such as we have described in our text though he falls and when we come to the New Testament before and after Pentecost the picture is no different there's Peter saying this other crowd be weak enough to deny you Lord but not me though all others take you I'm prepared and the scripture tells us that under the pressure of the little servant girl

24:29 he binds himself with solemn oaths and maldictions he brings down curses and oaths upon himself he brings down the

25:03 that you must go and minister the word in the house of this Gentile man Cornelius that wasn't the end of it we come to Galatians chapter 1 and find Paul saying I had to withstand my fellow apostle because he was sitting and socializing with Gentiles until the Judaizers came and then he split and he would only hobnob and socially find himself involved with the Jewish Christians Barnabas son of consolation the man who had much more breadth of exposure to Gentiles in his background from his origins and from his ministerial experience the scripture says Barnabas was carried with his dissimulation Peter was not only guilty of the sin of ongoing prejudice but he was a stumbling block to that godly man Barnabas he fell and when we turn to the epistles we see true Christians falling into the most grievous kinds of sins in the epistles of the Corinthians for the subsequent history of the man who is in focus in 1 Corinthians 5 is clear that man showed that the root of the matter was in him by his subsequent repentance but he fell into the sin of an incestuous relationship

26:30 and there in that church that was the darling of Paul's heart from which we took our text last week and I imagine it must have been a very very tense moment when as Paul has written the epistle in one of the elders or readers that given Lord's day is reading that epistle to the people and all of a sudden the word is coming to these two prominent ladies named Iodia and Syntyche maybe as their names are first mentioned they sit up and preen themselves thinking we're going to get some commendation and then the blush begins to creep up the back of their neck and into their ears and across their cheeks where he says I beseech Iodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord here were women of eminence who had fallen into the petty sins of cattiness apparently some kind of perhaps rival disagreement of the best way to exercise the kind of benevolent ministries for which darkest was known we don't know what the specifics were but you see the Bible does not hide from us the reality that truly righteous men and women can fall into sin and therefore as we take up our text this morning under this first heading

27:59 the condition envisioned I'm asserting that the condition envisioned in our text is that of a righteous one who yet falls consequences of which may unfold for generations to come as in the case of Abraham and David and of Noah and the chastisement of which may send them as gracious men who have fallen now dear people the same Bible from which I sought to extract the standards by which to press you to ask yourself the question am I for real a Bible that showed us the marks of the true Christ in John 10 showed us the marks of circumcision in Philippians 3 that same Bible that showed us from Romans 8 that there are only two realms of moral existence flesh or spirit

The Promise Imparted: He Shall Not Be Utterly Cast Down

29:28 from which we saw the nature of that narrow gate through which a man or woman must pass if he is ever to end up in the consummate glories of eternal life and that compressed restricted narrow way on which one must walk the table from which those the Bible that records can dis a man but then notice secondly the promise imparted set before us vision envisioned a righteous man falling but we have promise imparted he shall not be utterly to translate one Hebrew word some have rendered it shall not be cast off others will not others it's the same word used in a couple of familiar historical records

30:56 that even the kids will pick up on immediately you all know the story of Jonah and you remember when the great sea was turbulent because of God's displeasure with his disobedient prophet and finally the mariners single out Jonah and they know that he's the impending danger upon them and Jonah acknowledges it and he says in Jonah 1 in verse 12 cast me into the sea and all will be well in verse 15 says they cast him into the sea that's our word promise imparted he's away used in the familiar story against David and David comes in to play his harp you remember and Saul grabs his javelin probably with his right hand I instinctively grab mine with my left and he seeks to pin David against the wall within it and the scripture tells us in 1 Samuel 18 11 that he cast his javelin or his spear that's the same word you see the sense of the word is clear it expresses the promise of God that even though the

32:19 and grievously and shamefully fall he will not love and of his keeping power prostrate captive by that sin so as to be cast out of the way of holiness as the pattern of his life surely the New Testament and counterpart of this promise is Romans 6 14 sin shall not have dominion over you God nowhere said shall not have dominion as desire shift you as wheat that I have your faith fail not and when you have turned again indicating sin will have a temporary but it will not

33:46 turn again strengthen your brethren and the promise imparted every trial tested child of God is this that the whole world will know about eventually it may be a secret sin but an area has a narrow game you're pursuing on the compressed way and you fall what is God's word to you though you fall you shall not men may greatly abuse such words but in 2nd Corinthians

35:07 chapter 1 we are told this very wonderful thing by the apostle and we must allow no potential abuse of any part of the word of God any promise of the word of God to keep us from this that is our blood-bought heritage 2nd Corinthians 1.18 but as God is faithful our word to you is not yea and nay we do not come with a gospel that affirms and then the moment you begin to reach out to take what is affirmed we pull it back and say no , our gospel is not a gospel of yea and nay for the son of God Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us even by me and Silvanus and Timothy was not yea and nay now notice for however be the promises of God in him is the yes therefore through him is the amen unto the glory of and my own understanding of this passage is that shared by most of the commentators that I have read God is saying how many soever are his promises ultimately every promise ever given to any saint in any epoch of redemptive history was a promise

36:37 given on the crown that Christ would be the redeemer actual purchaser of all blessings but in the mind and reckoning of God he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world Jesus that Abraham saw my day and he was glad he rejoiced and therefore all promises in Jesus come to us with God's yes and when they are received by faith in the heart of the believer we answer with our amen and when God's yes in gospel promises is answered by our amen faith is glorified and so God comes to us with a promise he envisions this condition the righteous man falls though he falls marvelous promise that is imparting utterly away life

The Explanation Provided: For the Lord Upholds Him With His Hand

38:02 luring chastisements as in the case of David yes with grief in terms of the progeny of that incestuous relationship when Noah fell into drunkenness and incest with his own daughters yes passed away but then we come thirdly having looked at the condition envisioned though he fall the promise imparted he shall not be utterly cast down the explanation provided with his hand during of the 1911 but in the margin his hand those of you who have the new King James will notice that the words with are in italics indicating that they are not words that are there in a literal rendering a formal equivalent rendering of the Hebrew the old authorized version new King James version has the words in italics now if it is a case where responsible translation should supply

39:26 the words which is a marvelous truth confirmed in many other portions of the word of God that though that he is not uttered down so as never to rise again why the explanation provided is the Lord of capital H with his hand Jehovah sovereign grace and mercy made the man a righteous man in the first place when having set his love upon him in eternity in Christ in time he sent his son to die for him in the life history of that man or woman boy or girl in conjunction with the gospel he arrested him and brought him through his feet upon the way bound to that believer in the same spirit who dwells in the believer dwells in his own son and it is that according to Romans 8 among other things which will even secure the resurrection of his body the whole unrighteous man made a righteous man or woman by the grace of God and it is a truth taught everywhere in scripture that the ultimate rationale the ultimate explanation provided for why

40:55 a righteous man he is not utterly cast down that God is committed to his preservation and therefore God holds him with his hand that truth is taught in verse 17 of this very psalm the arms of the wicked shall be broken but the Lord upholds the righteous and you have that marvelous promise in Isaiah 41 10 it's the last passage that I had the privilege of reading to our dear sister Marjorie Nixon several days before she went into the presence of her Lord fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I help thee and notice it is not strength and help from afar with the right hand of my righteous it's one thing for someone to stand the other side of the ditch into which I have fallen say I'm going to help you buddy talk to me give me your hand I will uphold thee with the right hand my righteousness now that's the truth

42:24 taught here it's a marvelous truth that I do not believe there's any necessity to add the words and that the more literal rendering is the mind of the spirit of God in this passage and it's not my independent opinion Dalish argues very convincingly for it in his commentary and several others that I've consulted and this is how it reads this is the explanation provided though he falls slung out like a javelin from the hand of the athlete no for the small age the hand of whom the one who has fallen Dalish comments accordingly that the believer who has and isn't that precisely what the Lord said to Peter in the passage already alluded to Luke 22 31 Satan has desired you to sift you as wheat

43:50 that I for you and when and we have the standard word for conversion epistrepho and we have an aorist active participle having been turned but Peter again you remember it's when he stayed within close enough proximity to his Lord in the hours of his trial that it was one loving languid piercing yet gentle look from Christ the Lord his heart and sent him out to weep bitterly and a few days later by the shore of the lake the Lord Jesus singles him out and he begins to probe him and as it were negate one by one his three denials with the three affirmation of his love and his recommissioning of his servant to feed his lambs to shepherd his sheep and to feed his sheep and therefore I see no necessity

45:19 in terms of the analogy of scripture to add the words but to let the text speak as it speaks what is the explanation provided for the fact that this man falls he is not utterly cast down the answer is Jehovah confessing his grace in the economy of redemptive provision in Christ and by the Holy Spirit he holds the hand G-d of that fallen believer and trying to think of a picture that would convey this accurately at least somewhat accurately I thought of the experience that has been part of my life for many many years being the second oldest of ten children I had the joy of being like second daddy I'll never forget the first time someone asked me if one of my kid brothers when I took him out for a walk was my kid and I very humbly said ah nah just my kid brother but boy down underneath I felt I'd made it someone thought I was a daddy and so being the older brother to all the younger kids and then being part of this church over the years where the couples have babies like old time Catholics all kids around and this is experience every father every big brother anyone who's alert to little

46:48 kids around will have a kid is just beginning to get the feeling of his pins and he wants the independence of being able to walk alone so in a well padded carpeted living room he may sit down on the floor a few feet away and tease him or her to come and they do that funny little walk that they do getting their legs out and they make it and then everyone cheers and they're the little hero or heroine and just as they're beginning to get their pins and they feel some of that independence when you go outside into places where there's much more danger than in a well carpeted domestic situation of the living room you take the child's hand you may just grab the wrist as a safety measure and the little fellow's walking along and you're holding him by the hand rather loosely but nonetheless you've got his hand he thinks he's doing it all on his own but if his feet slip and he starts going face first into the pavement what do you do you tighten your grip and instead of being utterly cast down where he'd end up splitting his forehead open you enable him to do what not to pick him up so his legs just flail and carry him off somewhere he doesn't want that he's walking now and you grab him firmly until he gets his pins underneath him again and he's able to walk on his own I think that's something of the picture in the text

48:17 here is the man who is walking in the way of righteousness his heart is set upon marking out his life by the precepts of the Lord but then he reaches , starts to fall and if that fall could have its ultimate end apart from the intervention of God's hand enables the child of God to get back into the way of obedience the way of communion with his heavenly Father for you see the one who holds his hand has a whole body of the one who has fallen and the rationale given for this marvelous promise though he fall he shall not be utterly cast out Jehovah himself uphold but to keep him from spiritual ship and disaster

49:44 I will not let utterly totally fall away from and so in I say to you to a fresh conviction based upon the word of God honest dealings with your own in the presence of God I am not I'm not a formalist I'm not a rich I'm not some simply to Jesus years ago by the grace of God I've been brought to repudiate at that gate all righteousness of my own is the ground of my acceptance I've repudiated self will and self serving as the pattern of my life I've repudiated the reign and the pattern of sin at which I brought me through the gate and I am upon the way the way of gospel or a centered efforts to live a life pleasing to God knowing that my

51:13 best and most ardent devotion has enough sin in it to be worthy of damnation I'll never change the ground of my confidence it's Christ at the gate Christ in the first step Christ in the last step and with our dying it will be your presence for the sake of the righteousness of your son you can say I'm on that way where I am no longer fundamentally living for myself but for him who loved me and gave himself for me and for others sin is no longer my delightful companion but my greatest burden and the world is no longer the strumpet with whom I joyfully and willfully keep tryst and though she bears her thigh and exposed her cleavage I have divorced her seeking to know what it is to have the cross of Christ make me utterly crucified to the world and I to the world the world unto me and I unto the world that's my condition but at the end of the day if I'm honest I must say Psalm 37 24 describes me I fall and God says to you though you fall you shall not be utterly cast off and what's the explanation it's because

Application 1: An Obvious Objection Answered (Antinomianism)

52:42 the Lord is upholding your house so worked in you that he brought you through the gate and has brought you along the way wherever you may be upon that way is the Lord who is committed to hold you until he brings you safely into his presence now on the basis of the teaching of that text as I've sought to expound it under those three simple heads I want now to bring three simple words of explanation application number one an obvious objection answered some may be sitting here saying but Pastor Martin if I were to teach that won't people have known nothing of coming through the narrow gate and know nothing of walking upon the compressed way who have none of those marks of the new birth delineated by John in his first epistle won't they take hold this and use it as a license for sin and say oh well if I fall the Lord won't let me go I won't be cast off hold my hand wicked men will always in the grace of God into lasciviousness ignorant and unstable people Peter says will always rest twist the scriptures to their own destruction but listen

54:10 perverse people want to take the choice bread of God and choke themselves to death with it that's their problem to the nourishment of my soul and my dear preacher friends never let the potential abuse of the freeness and the certainty and the efficacious nature of God's grace never let the freeness of those blessed commodities be hedged up beyond the word of God because of the fear that some may abuse those truths it's the gospel that caused people to come along with the devil's logic and say well Paul if I preached what you preached and believed what you believed then everyone would be going around saying huh if where sin abounds grace does much more abound let's continue in sin that grace may abound if no one's ever accused your gospel of being too simple and too easy you're probably not preaching the biblical gospel and if in our reaction against easy believism and shallow decisionism we feel the answer is to constrict the freeness that will just make a bunch of pharisees to go along with a bunch of hypocrites and God knows we don't need more of that

55:38 and so we must let God's word loose in all the freeness and fullness of its graciousness yes that is an objection but you see no Christian desires to fall look at verse 31 of this very psalm describing the same righteous man who though he falls shall not be utterly cast down he doesn't desire to fall he doesn't in that sense plop oh well I can fall here and fall here and in every instance God will take me by the hand no the law of God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide in other words because God has put his law within his heart he has a disposition to universal obedience he can say with the apostle Paul I delight in the law of God after my inward man and when he reads verse John 2 1 my little children these things I write unto you that you may not sin he says oh God but I want with all of my being but if any man sins though he fall he will not be utterly cast out at the point of his sin he has an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous one someone says well how will I know if God's really holding

57:08 my hand unless I fall how will I know my dad's really got me unless I stumble on the sidewalk thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that's the thing if you are what you claim to be and what you say your father says you are from heaven in the waters of Jordan hasn't he promised he'll give his angels charge over thee thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God when you hear in your true Christian and put God to the test into some grievous shameful sin do and know of it David did Sam did you are tempting God and it would be right in such cases for God to abandon you and let you become an utterly miserable shameful apostle so the objection doesn't wash for the true child of God he will not turn this precious promise into a license for sin and that leads me secondly a needful exhortation issued not only would I answer an objection going out of this text but I'd issue a needful exhortation

Application 2: A Needful Exhortation Issued (Using Promises)

58:36 dear children of God as you go on in the restricted way learn how to use these promises of God I deeply appreciate and I tell people wherever I preach there's no group of people that I find more joy in preaching to than you dear people here any place else is away this is home but you see it's not enough that you listen eagerly some of you take careful notes and even use the notes as part of your devotions you've got to take what you hear and learn how to turn into sharps of the spirit with which to fight a plian you remember and I went back in my preparation to that incident in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress it was while he was in the narrow way he hadn't turned aside but there Apollyon straddles the way this encounter with the devil is not something that came as a chastisement but devil's initiative brought him into contact with Christian and you remember he's angry that he's lost one of his subjects and he said isn't right you belong to me and I love Christian's answer he said well I promised you allegiance when I was a little kid didn't know what I was doing called it my nonage besides I count the prince capital P under whose banner I now stand is able to absolve me and to pardon me you , even in terms of my compliance with you

60:05 and to tell you the truth Apollyon I like his service his wages his servants his government his company and his country better than yours ah that's a true Christian speaking I like the service of my new master his wages his servants his government his company his country therefore to persuade me further I am his servant I am his servant I will follow him and Apollyon says do you know what you're saying and then he begins to threaten him begins to bring up horror stories to try to scare him and then Apollyon knows how to get to him he reminds him of his past fall listen Apollyon did you not faint in your first bond and did you not attempt wrong ways to be rid of your burden whereas you should have waited to your prince had taken it off remember when he came to hill legality did you not sinfully sleep and lose your choice things remember he lost his role and he slept in the other the devil knew how to remind him of his fall you were almost persuaded to go back at the sight of the lions lack of faith and courage Abraham sin and when you talk of your

61:35 journey and of what you have seen and heard you're in with these desirous of vain glory and all that you say or do the devil reminds him past falls and to that Christian answers all this is true and much more that you've left out I've got a better list prince whom I serve and honor is merciful and ready to forgive but besides these infirmities possess me in your country for there I suck them in and I've grown under them been sorry for them and have obtained pardon of my prince and at that Apollyon broke out into a grievous rage saying I'm an enemy to this prince I'm an enemy I hate his person his laws his people and I've come out on purpose to withstand you and then he goes on to describe that tremendous furious battle and just at the point when it appears Christian has had it what happens what happens then Apollyon espying his opportunity began to gather up close to Christian and wrestling with him gave him a dreadful fall and with that Christian sword flew out of his hand then said Apollyon I am sure of you now and with that he had almost pressed him to death so that Christian began to despair of life but as God would have it while Apollyon

63:04 was fetching of his last blow drawing his arm back to give him the death blow thereby to make a full end of this good man Christian missed out his hand for his sword caught it saying we rejoice not against me oh my enemy and you know what text he quotes out of Micah 7 8 which made him give back his one that had received his mortal wound Christian perceiving that made at him again saying nay and all conquerors through him that loved us and with that Apollyon spread forth his dragon's wings and spread him away and Christian saw him no more you see the lesson Bunyan is imparting to us yes the devil if he does out accusing in the very presence of God in the theater of our mind of our false

64:31 724 my hand and he illustrates it again very powerfully in the whole when we find Christian and companion had indeed gotten in a situation because of their sin Christian and hopeful got into the Doubting Castle why they were looking for an easier way than the straight and narrow way and they saw a way that seemed to run parallel and they went through the turn style they said it seems to keep close by this other way but it looks so much easier what's Bunyan saying when you start trying to turn the restricted constricted compressed straightened pressured way into an easier way you're going to be a sitting duck to end up in deep spiritual trouble so they end up where they end up in doubting and what happens giant despair and his wife diffidence go to work on them and they try everything even try to get them to commit suicide and God gives them enough sense to know no that would be to escape one problem only to bring on an eternal and worse problem but what is it that finally brings them out of that castle

66:00 well on Saturday about midnight they began to pray and continued in prayer till almost break of day now a little before it was day good Christian as one half amazed broke out in this passionate speech this speech who clothed he am I dungeon when I may as well walk at liberty I have a key in my bosom called promise and persuaded open any lock in doubting castle then said hopeful that's good news good brother pluck them and try then Christian pulled it out of his bosom and began to try at the dungeon door whose bolt as he and the door flew open with ease and Christian and hopeful both came out then as he went to the outward door that leads into the castle yard and with his key opened that door also after he went to the iron gate for that must be open too but that lock went very hard yet the key did open it then they thrust open the gate to make their escape with speed and that gate as it opened made such a creaking that it waked giant despair who hastily rising to pursue his prisoners felt his limbs to fail for his fix took him again so that he could by no means go after them then they went on and came to the

67:29 king's highway again and so were safe because they were out of his jurisdiction and it was one thing that brought them out the key of promise dear children of God promises your salvation and they are meant to be used not done in beautiful calligraphy and put up on the wall without that helps you to use them higher but I fear we have more promises in promise box in beautiful calligraphy on our walls than we have as keys in our bosom when we feel and despair the promises in this way and then finally in my application I've sought to answer an obvious objection issue a very needful exhortation then I would close with an earnest entreaty my unconverted

Application 3: An Earnest Entreaty to the Unconverted

68:59 friend I challenge you to do something this afternoon take just ten minutes and carefully read Psalm 37 and put a little tick mark in a pencil if you want to underline it doesn't bother you to underline the Bible underline in red everything it says about the horrible and precarious place you are in outside of Christ caught off and yet a little while in the wicked shall not verse 13 the Lord will laugh at you when he sees that your day as a wicked man wicked boy it says about the righteous in this passage can be yours but it can only be yours in the one in whom all the promises of God are treasured and that's the Lord Jesus and you've got to get into Christ and there's no way to get into Christ to turn from

70:28 your sin and to lay hold of him as he's offered in the gospel cry to God and offered in Christ the scriptures cry holds out the sinner in the gospel of his dear son and then you too can have this as one of the precious exceeding greatest promises to be your companion in the remainder of your journey though he fall he shall not be utterly cast off for how we thank you for your holy word thank you for this blessed promise and we pray that by the enabling of the holy spirit saint will lay this promise to heart Christ who is indeed your true child may lay in his or her bosom we ask in that last day

71:57 fully we pray that it may reveal that in this day you worked in our hearts measure of your grace by enabling us to understand and take to heart this word of promise and for those for whom it is no word of promise Lord make them jealous we pray they would be provoked to jealousy to have such a marvelous promise surrounding them amidst all the uncertainties of life and the certainty of death and the certainty of judgment oh God in mercy arrest them and draw them to your son seal then your word to our hearts continue to bless us throughout this day as we commit to you through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen