Psalm 138:8 "God Finishes What He Starts" October 21, Shall we open our Bibles this morning to Psalm 138 verse 8.

Transcription

1 Transcription of 18TM838 Psalm 138:8 "God Finishes What He Starts" October 21, 2018 Shall we open our Bibles this morning to Psalm 138 verse 8. David writes this Psalm primarily to talk about the faithfulness of God, but He ends with a statement, actually three little phrases, that stress one truth that I think we would be wise to latch onto, and if we don't know, you should know, because it really does change the way you live for the Lord. And the lesson is fairly clear. In fact, I'll give it to you in one sentence in case you to leave early: God is going to finish with you what He started. He's not quitting on you. And that should be good news for each one of us, that God isn't done with us yet. God did not save you so that halfway through the process He could retire. When Paul began his ministry on his secondary missionary journey in Europe, the first church that was really planted was a church in Philippi. He stayed there for a time. They eventually kind of chased him out of dodge, but later on Paul got news that the Philippian church was doing really well, that they had survived, even though their opposition was terrible. So when he wrote that little letter in your New Testament to the Philippians, he said in Chapter 1 verse 6, "I'm comforted by this one thing, and I'm confident in this one thing, that He that began a good work in you will complete it." He'll finish what He started. Notice that David writes here, "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." And with great joy Paul wrote back, "I know that God's doing a work." Years later when Paul wrote to the Hebrews church, it was an entirely different situation. They were Hebrew Christians who had come to believe that Jesus was coming quickly, and He hadn't; at least not quick enough for them. The Romans had turned on the church in great measure. These Jewish saints were suffering twice: Once in leaving their Jewish faith -- their families 1

2 oftentimes just set them aside -- and now the Romans were after them because they were believers. And there was a real movement in this Hebrew Christian believing church to maybe go back to Judaism. It was a little bit safer to participate. It could take a lot of pressure off of you. And Paul spends chapter upon chapter arguing that the end result of their Jewish faith was centered upon a found Messiah that came in Christ. But then he said to them in Hebrews Chapter 12 verse 2, "Making sure that you look to Jesus, both the author and the finisher of your faith." And he spoke of the completed work that God comes to do. Well, David finds that confidence here in 1,000 BC. Hope for his life, an understanding that would strengthen his walk. And I think it should strengthen yours and mine to know that God is actively involved, making sure that you get there from here, especially on those days when you've failed yourself and your expectations of yourself in your service to the Lord. When I was a young Christian, there was a phrase that was floating around the church. It was on bumper stickers and on shirts, and it said, "Please be patient with me. God's not finished with me yet." And I always liked it, because it's an excuse for just about anything. And I'm not arriving yet. But it contains a truth; right? It is one of my favorites. God isn't finished with me. Even when sometimes I'm finished with me, He's not. And it gives me great hope for my life, and to be honest with you, it gives me patience for yours. God is not finished with you yet, and He's still doing the work that He's promised to do. Most people carry with them in various degrees daily fears about the future. Sometimes it is the bridges that they've never crossed or may never have to cross. They are unsubstantiated fears of what might possibly be difficult in the future. I've heard people say, and probably you have as well, "I don't know what I would do in that situation." Or, "I hope that never happens to me." And our imaginations can conceive of these horrible possible scenarios that just fuel our fears all the more. And so people tend to live, some of them, their lives with that kind of worries. What ifs. The what ifs or, supposing this happened to me, and their minds are tormented. At best as a Christian this morning, those fears are unwarranted. In fact, when Moses stood before 2

3 the 3 million people that he had kind of brought to the edge of the land of promise and he gave them the book of Deuteronomy, which was nothing more than a 30-day review and cheerleading session, he turned to them in chapter 33 of Deuteronomy, in verse 5, I think, no, no, no -- like 20-something. Anyway, it's in Chapter 33. And he said this to them: "As your days go, so shall your strength be." God will meet you wherever it is that you need His help for that day. I don't know if I can handle it. Well, probably right now you couldn't, but if God allows you to go there, He'll give you the ability to handle it. Just the way it works. You just don't get grace for stuff you don't need until you need it. Some people are so paralyzed by these kind of fears that they have difficulty functioning in the present tense. It's always a woe that's about to happen, a devil behind every tree, an oh, woe is me. David had a much more biblical, I think, confidence as he looked forward. I know that God will finish what He starts. If you are not a Christian this morning, if you are not God's child, if you haven't received Jesus into your life, then I think that the fears you entertain in your hearts are understandable. Because I can't look around the world and get much optimistic of a view. I think without Jesus, your outlook and this generation's outlook and the world at large doesn't promote any kind of optimism at all. The world is getting worse, not better. The Bible would teach that anyway. Crime is closer to your home than it once was. Terrorism around the world is in record numbers. And it certainly appears that the majority of the next generation will not know the meaning or the blessing of a traditional two-parent home. The society in which we live is boiling over. Opinions, disagreements, sharply divided people that have now driven into the streets with violence and anarchy. The moral climate of our country is, as it has never been, at a low mark. We determine to embrace and legislate sin and perversion, and call that acceptance. We kill innocent children before they're born as a modern means of birth control to cover up irresponsible lives. We call it choice and freedom. God calls it murder and gross sin. We've legalized drugs because that's what the people want. We have a confused generation that doesn't know the difference between male and female. And this ever-widening gap between godliness and abomination. 3

4 700 BC Isaiah the prophet stood up in his generation and the Lord gave him these words to speak: "Woe to those who call evil good, those who would call good evil; that would replace light for darkness and darkness for light. He who would put forth bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." Habakkuk, shown by the Lord the things that were going on in his generation, said to the Lord early on in that short little book, "Lord, I don't want to see any of this anymore. You show me iniquity. You show me the causes for trouble. There is plundering and violence before me; strife and contention. The law is powerless, justice never goes forth. The wicked surround the righteous; and perversion is the judgment of the day." And had it not been for the Lord to say to Habakkuk, "Hang in there, buddy. I'm doing a work. I can't explain it to you, you'll never get it. But trust Me, I'm handling it." But he found himself just at odds with the culture that he found himself in. To the unspiritual eye, to someone who doesn't know the Lord, I think the future looks abysmal. It is certainly a hopeless view, and without having God or His word, despair runs as deep as the increase of suicides worldwide would suggest or indicate. And if that isn't enough, you guys live in California. When's the next one going to hit? When's the big one coming? What about those house prices? If you are God's child, however, you have absolutely no reason to fear the future. God has brought you this far, and He's not going to quit now. He's going to perfect that which concerns you. The word perfect, "gamar" (gaw-mar )in Hebrew, means to complete or to finish, or to perform. God isn't interested in stopping now. He's got a work to do in your life. You're not there yet, but He's getting you there. Paul faced many life-threatening circumstances. When I read through the book of Acts, I can't hardly but blame John Mark for quitting early. It seems to me if you hung around with Paul, you'd be in trouble before the day is over. You'd be imprisoned or beaten or stoned or thrown overboard. He was the early church prototype of Indiana Jones, I'm pretty sure. He was the guy in high school that always got in trouble, except Paul got the trouble for living Jesus out loud. He wrote about his perils in several books, mostly in II Corinthians. He said to the church there, "We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency of the power might be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, but we're 4

5 not crushed. And we're perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken. We're struck down and not destroyed. We carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that His life might be found in us." Three chapters earlier, same book, he said to them, "We were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength. We despaired even of our lives." Pretty powerful words. And this is a guy right where God wanted him to be. And though we have this sentence of death in ourselves so that we wouldn't trust in ourselves, but God who raises the dead, God has delivered us. God is delivering us, and we believe God will yet deliver us, because God doesn't quit on you when He begins a work. He will finish what He started. Paul would write in II Corinthians 11 some of the things he had gone through. He said, "I was in labor more abundantly and stripes more often, imprisoned more frequently, in death, often from the Jews, five times, 40 stripes, minus one, three times beaten with a rod. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Spent a day and night in the deep. In journeys often in peril, perils of water, of robbers, of my own countrymen, of the gentiles, of the city, of the wilderness, of the sea from false brethren. I was weary tired and hungry and sleepless and thirsty and naked." And then we go, all right, Paul, we get it. Not easy to live with you. And then he adds at the end, "Oh, yeah, now I got to take care of the church every day." It wasn't a life that was easy to live, but God saw him through. We sing that song "I have decided to follow Jesus. Though none go with me, still I'll follow. The world's behind me, the cross is before me. No turning back." And we can sing it in absolute confidence because God is the One that'll get us through. I need to know what David knew. You need to know what David knew. God will finish what He's begun. When they interviewed the astronaut who sat there on the moon and looked back at the earth, the reporter asked him how he felt standing next to the lunar module, looking down at the earth and seeing so far away, and having such a unique experience. And his answer was kind of surprising. He said, "You know, I realized that everything we do on the earth follows the principle of 5

6 the lowest bidder. I hope this machine takes off again." I thought it was such a great insight. I'm not sure I would have thought about that, but he did. But that's not so with you. God made you, He values you, and He'll keep you. I'm not sure what life will hold. I suspect there will be dangers and pitfalls and challenges and setbacks, plenty of uncertainty, and disappointments and sorrow and pain. The mystery of God: Why are you doing that now? Where are you when I need you? And I'm only basing that on past experience. But I know where I'm headed. I know the path isn't easy, that no life gets through unscathed, but God is faithful. And I know where I'm going to end up. The Bible tells me exactly where I'm going. It's the Bible that God honors above His name. Knowing that God will perfect or complete what He has begun in you should bring great rest to many areas of your life. I don't know if you ever worried about getting on the wrong path or getting caught up in the wrong thing, or maybe losing your way. I have driving, and probably you have as well over the years, made a couple of wrong turns and ended up for an hour trying to figure out where I was. I, like, most men, have the belief that asking for directions is something that only people without male instinct would do. I've argued with my GPS and lost. My wife shakes her head when I say, "Oh, that's not right. It's the other way." I dislike those housing tracts where you can go in and there's no other way out. It seems to me that's not biblical. It's a way that seems right unto a man, but I can't get out of here. I don't want to leave the path of straight and narrow when it comes to the Lord. I don't want to get caught up in the myriad of false teachings that is plaguing our country and our land and the church to this day. I want to stay on the path that leads to life. And He's told me that He'll keep me. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He'll direct your path. So I need only stay in contact with God and I'll have the road map that leads to eternity. I won't get lost along the way. I can be assured. He's going to keep me on that road. I won't make a wrong turn. And I'm depending on God to do that, in a culture that just has 100 ideas and none of them are biblical. 6

7 As I've gotten older, I've thought about finishing well. Have you ever run out of gas in your car? It's a horrible feeling. It's inconvenient. It's timeconsuming. It's embarrassing. "Hey, dude, can't you read a gauge? Too busy to pull over? Driving by faith now, are we?" There's a year my wife had a little truck that would chime when the gas got low. I was driving it home from here one day and the engine just stopped, and I was perplexed. I didn't know what -- I'm not a great mechanic, but I couldn't figure out what it might be. Got someone to help me push it over to the gas station and I said to the guy, "What's wrong with it?" And he went, "You're out of gas." And I go, "Yeah, you're a funny guy. It didn't chime." "Oh, yeah, the indicator, that's broken." I felt like an idiot. Well, I don't want to run out of gas following the Lord. I've seen unfortunately over the years many people run out of gas. They started off well enough. They were in church. They were in ministry. They were serving. They were excited about God and what God had done. They couldn't have been more encouraging and more fruitful, and then at some point they disappeared, and I don't see them anymore. Or when I see them, their hearts are far from that person I once knew. Now, I'm not going to try to explain to you what's happened to them, or what the consequences are, or where do they end up and what does that really mean. But I'll say this to you: I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to run out of gas. I want to run the race to win. And I don't want to follow their example. It seems to me the church is filled with professional Christians who used to run well, but now are sitting on the sidelines. I don't want to be that guy. And God's promise to me is that He will finish the work that He's begun. David knew it, Paul knew it. We should know it. It is the same assurance in my heart that convinces me that God isn't dissatisfied with my life; that when I fail or come up short, that somehow the Lord is discouraged with me. In fact, I think this second portion of this verse is written for that purpose. It says, "Your mercy, Lord, endures forever." Knowing that God will finish the work that He started, I'm also encouraged about when God started His work with me, because James said to the church in Acts 15, "Known unto God from eternity are all of His works." John would write that Jesus knew who would come and who would not 7

8 come to follow. And God knew everything about me the day that I got saved. When I came to Him that first Thursday night in Bellflower at a home Bible study, He looked back over my life and He took me anyway. Some of you we wouldn't pick if we knew about you. But He chose me. He knows everything. And the day that I came to Him and He looked back over my life, He also looked forward to what I would yet do, where I would yet go, the decisions I would yet make, and He still chose me. From that sense, nothing I do disappoints Him. By definition, disappointment is what happens when you expect something of someone and they don't live up to it. God never expected me to do much better. He knew me inside and out. I have been and often am disappointed with myself. I would say to you, it's a common daily occurrence. Why did you say that? Why did you do that? What were you thinking? I have been disappointed with others. I thought I could trust them, I thought they were more committed to the Lord than they were, I thought they might stand by me when things got tough. I didn't think they would lie to me to my face. I didn't believe they could betray me. I didn't think they thought so little of our friendship. Lots of disappointments with people. But God's not disappointed with us. He knows us very well. So Lord, don't quit the work you've begun. Finish it. And when you find failure, extend mercy. The word mercy in a general sense means not getting what you deserve. God, don't give me what I deserve. In my failures, in my shortcomings. Finish the work You began and cover my failures. When I fall, His wings of mercy cover me. Psalm 103, "He knows my frame. He remembers we're just dust." So with great joy I remind myself every day, His mercy will endure; not for a while, not till next Thursday, not till December, but forever. And often as I stand and consider my failures, I wonder how long the Lord is going to put up with me. I wouldn't put up with me. And Satan is very helpful to help around that debate. Tells me I'm skating on thin ice. One more trip up and it'll be history for you. He whispers it in my ear. As long as I'll listen, he'll talk. But God's words tell me that the lake is frozen solid. I'm not going through the ice. I'm standing on the rock. 8

9 So David's hope, God will finish what He started, and when He finds failure, He brings mercy, and it's a mercy that endures forever. And so his prayer, don t forsake the work of Your hands. I'm Your work. One of the most revealing pictures of God's work in the lives of His people is that portrait of the potter and the clay that you find scattered throughout the scriptures. From the day that I was saved back in 1972, every change that has come into my life can be attributed to God's work, His goodness. He's changing me. He's the potter, I am the clay. If you've watched a potter go to work, they usually start with a big bag of clay, and you'd think, all right, get started. No, no. They just start beating it up. I can relate to that. They'll tell you it's to get the lumps out. Nobody likes lumpy clay on a wheel. It'll just tear loose. And I don't suppose the Lord likes lumps that hinder the work in our lives. I hate lumpy mashed potatoes, I'm just saying. But the time comes when the clay is ready to be put onto the wheel and the purposes of God slowly can be realized one step at a time. But everything on that picture is in God's control: The foot pedal to run the wheel at the speed He desires, the pressure from His hands on the clay to see how much can be lopped off at once. I find myself lobbying with Him, telling Him not too fast, or speed it up, or don't push so hard. In reality, the clay has no instinct. My best bet is to be putty in His hands. I'll only discover what His will is by letting Him have His way. If there's any problems, it's always with the clay, not with the potter. Uncooperative clay. Jeremiah speaking to the nation in Chapter 18 used that example and said, "Sometimes clay is marred in the hands of the potter and he has to put it away and start over." And then he went on to say, "As clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel." I don't know how many times I've said to the Lord, I don't want to be a flower pot. I want to be a candy dish filled with chocolate, or a soup bowl filled with clam chowder. Thank you, Lord. But He's got His own plans. Paul in writing to the Ephesians in Chapter 2 began with talking about how we were lost once, but the Lord came to find us. Said in verse 7 of that chapter, we're saved by grace, and you get to verse 10 and he says, "You are His workmanship." The word is "poiema"; creation, poem, masterpiece. Created in Christ Jesus to walk in the good 9

10 works that He has before ordained. So I think it's important to know where we stand with God as His people and that we can count on His work, both in the present and in the future. David ended with great hope. God will perfect, not may but will that which concerns me by His mercy which is always available to me, for my weakness His everlasting mercy so we can always pray: Oh God, do not forsake the work of Your hands. In 1937 the Golden Gate Bridge was finished. It cost in those days $77 million. Doesn't sound like much today. But they started off kind of slow, because over the process, because of the height in which these workers were asked to work, 23 people fell to their deaths. And it wasn't long before people wised up and went, yeah, we're not building this, and no one could go to work. And for months the project sat, kind of not even halfway finished, when some ingenious person stood up at a meeting and said, "You know, maybe we should before we build a bridge, we should put a net under it, so if someone falls, at least they won't kill themselves. We'll catch them." Someone on the committee said, "Well, how much is that going to cost? He goes, "$100,000." He goes, "Well, that's too much money." "We don't have to finish then I guess." Well, they agreed that it would be the thing that they needed to do, and they did it. Productivity that year went up 25%. 10 people that fell off the scaffoldings, and all were spared and saved. If we know God has a hold of us, we don't have to live such reserved lives. We can get out there and start serving God. Oh, I don't know if I can say anything, I don't know if I know anything, I don't know if I'm very talented, I don't know if God can use me. Just shut up and go, because the Lord's going to finish what He began. So you don't have to excuse yourself. Is there a net? Yeah, there's a net. His mercy endures forever. There's a net. Don't be slowed down by the fears that you won't make it. You kids probably remember, I do as well, that when the kids were little and we'd cross the street, I'd always hold on to their arm or their hand. I never would ask them to hold on to mine. And the logic was pretty simple: If danger came, they could rely upon my strength for safety, not their own. Still the same way here. 10

11 I don't think you should worry so much about hanging on to the Lord's hand. Just be sure you know He's hanging on to yours, and get out there and get busy. Give Him your life. And then wear a shirt that says, "Please be patient with me. God's not finished with me yet." 11