Move Toward Christ

It is a blessing to be with you. It is a blessing to be with you. I'll be preaching from Psalm 28 this morning. You would please join me there. A great struggle I've always had in the pastorate and in preaching is the problem that you're dealing with a congregation that's a bit of a spectrum on where they're standing and where they need to go or ought to be going.

As it is a narrow road, sometimes I've had the sense that if I tell the congregation, take a step to the left, some are going to fall off that way. If I say, take a step to the right, some are going to fall off that way. I was talking to a mother in the congregation saying, if I tell the congregation, You need to hurry up and have a bit more zeal. You know, we've got these zealots over here that are just going to go completely off the rails. And if I say you need to calm down a little bit, your teenage son might drop into a coma.

So how do you deal with a flock and move the flock. Well, I was talking to a young man, I think he's in his late 20s, and he blessed me with a little bit of wisdom that I hadn't been expecting as I was describing my conundrum. He said, well, what if you just tell them all to take a step towards Christ instead? Shepherding is leading, feeding, and protecting. This being led aspect that even the best that Paul could do would be say, follow my example as I follow Christ.

This morning, many of us are dealing with pains and sorrows and disappointments. We deal with the afflictions in our own hearts as we deal with the corruption of our hearts. Many of us deal with the sorrows in our households as we deal with the corruption in the members of our household, the imperfections there, or just the tensions that are existing because we're both sinners. We deal with the tensions and the conflicts within a congregation, in a denomination, and in the world. As we deal with these sorrows and these pains, one of the great helps that we have is understanding that Christ understands sorrow and rejection and conflict. He understands all of these things on a deeper level than we can understand them.

If we look at the Scripture and we remember that even in the Old Covenant, the prophets were carried along, the Scripture says, by the Spirit of Christ, We know what God thinks by what the prophets say when they say, just saith the Lord. We also, as we move to the Psalms, we specifically see Christ's heart being expressed in this art form of singing. It is the very heart of Jesus Christ that's being expressed in the Psalms. So when you sing the Psalms, and you read the Psalms, and you look there, and you can say, that's what my heart says too.

That's the sorrow that I have too. That's the affliction that I have too, in my heart, in my house, in my church, in my denomination, and in the world. We're able to look and we're able to see the footsteps of Christ as He responds to affliction and sorrow and persecution and rejection. He was known even as a man of sorrows.

You and I have the opportunity to look and to see the heart of Christ. To put on the heart of Christ. Putting on the heart of Christ in our life. and putting on the heart of Christ in our worship as well. This is a comfort for you and a hope for you. And I stand before you following the Good Shepherd, not telling you to take a step to the right or take a step to the left, but to take a step towards Christ Jesus.

Let's look at Christ. And I expect if you know the life of Christ, you can imagine where he is as he is crying out in this way. To you, Lord, I call my rock. Do not be deaf to me, for if you are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your holy sanctuary. Do not drag me away with the wicked and with those who work iniquity, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.

Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices. Requite them according to the deeds of their hands. Repay them their recompense, because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor heed, nor the deeds of His hands. He will tear them down and not build them up.

Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplication. The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart exalts, and with my song I shall thank Him. The Lord is their strength, and He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save your people, and bless your inheritance, and be their shepherd also. and carry them forever. We look here and we see the calling out to God. I've always thought of that wrongly. I thought of it only as like a call for help. Save me. That word for call there is deeper than that with a greater meaning than that.

It's the same word used for when God called the light day. There's a designation in calling on the Lord. When we call on God in the assembly, we are saying, this is who you are, and I am convinced of this. You are the God who is. And you are the God who is a rewarder of those who seek Him. We designate Him as Most High. We announce Him as He is.

When we do that with a joint testimony, we are in agreement with one another. He is our God and we are His people. There is a certainty, a confidence, and a joy in being in the assembly where we believe the same thing. Where we have hearts that have been persuaded by the Holy Spirit what reality is, what it has been, what it is now, and what it will be. That Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Because of that we have a confidence We have a hope We call on the name of the Lord together.

This calling on Him who is the Yahweh, the Jehovah who is. When He announced His name, He described Himself as full of loving kindness and truth. Describing Himself as the God of mercy who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. And yet will by no means leave guilt unpunished. Mercy. and justice. In Psalm 85, it's described that there's a place where these two kiss one another, where they are brought into a harmony with one another, and that is in the cross. Mercy and justice accomplished through the God who is, and we call on Him together. To You, O Lord, I call. We can imagine the psalmist being here and saying, and what will I compare God to? What could I say he is like? What could I call him that would be adequate?

When I was a young man, there was a great elm tree on the corner at my scout camp. One time I was being chased by this big guy who was gonna beat me up, and I ran and I scrambled up into this tree where he couldn't get me, and I thought, this is a good tree. I am protected in this tree. I have a rescue in this tree. Many of you know what happened to the elm. I went back to my scout camp and this good great tree is rotted and it's gone. It's been cut down. It is no more.

The psalmist could look around and say, what about the flowers? Does God like the flowers? And all he has to do is wait until the sun comes up and goes over and burns them and they wither and they're gone. The psalmist looks around and says, to what could I compare my God?

Something that doesn't wither, doesn't rot, isn't gone. And he looks around and he says, my rock. My rock. That rock has been there from my youth. That rock is still there. Stories are told about that rock. It is there and there is a certainty to it. My God, my rock. The one in whom there is certainty. The one who will not be removed. Who is from everlasting, is to everlasting. We have a confidence there. And David calls out, and Jesus calls out, my rock.

Because if you are silent to me, he says in verse 1, I will become like those who go down to the pit. To the place of destruction. And we can look and we can see that Jesus walked that path for us. He did go down to the pit on our behalf. My professor in seminary asked, why did Jesus say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the answer was, so we would never have to. Christ did descend to the pit. Christ did go into the abyss.

He went on your behalf and my behalf. He faced the wrath so that we would never have to. And he cries and he stands at God's right hand and he makes intercession. And he says, even on your behalf, save him. For he will be like the one who goes down to the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications. As Christ lives continuously, making supplication for you. He is there so that death will not be yours. It's the death that He faced on your behalf. It is to be bringing us to a place of worship. To a place of hope. To a place of confidence. That you and I, as we are in Christ Jesus, we will not be undone. We will not be abandoned. But we will be brought along. We will be brought along with Him. In verse 2 then, hear the voice of my supplications."

What are you allowed to pray? What ought you to pray? Do we pray for everything and anything? Do we pray for whatever we want? This voice of supplication We have a certainty that God both is and that He is good and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. This is at the very heart of faith. And we know without that faith, it is impossible to please God. But we pray in accordance with the promises of God. We have a hope. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you for help.

There was a place where my depravity was uncovered and unveiled with a friend of mine. He had asked me if I would go see some fireworks with him. And I lived in the city in Pittsburgh. And I must have shrugged and said, sure. Later, a much better option came up, someone that I enjoyed much more.

And they weren't going to see fireworks, which I don't enjoy at all. I don't like staying up late. The sun goes down. I want to go to bed. And I don't like big noises. So a better option came up. And when he approached me and he said, are you ready for the fireworks? I said, ah, I'm not going. So-and-so invited me to do this. He said, you said you would do this with me. In my depravity, I tried to wiggle around and get away. And I asked, did I promise? And he rightly stepped forward and poked me and asked, is that what it takes to be sure you're telling the truth? Do I have to get you to say, I promise? When God speaks, He does not have to make a vow or an oath. He does not have to promise.

We understand that from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And Christ is the Word. Christ is the very Word of God. We understand that He is the exact representation of God's nature. Christ is that Logos. The Word of God. His heart displayed. When God speaks, It is certain, and it is true. It is right, and it is good, and it is holy. We look and see what He has said, and we know these things are so. I marvel as I consider Abraham making the plea when Sodom was about to be destroyed. And he says, shall the judge of all the earth wipe away the righteous with the wicked? He says, far be it from you, Lord. Far be it from you.

Who you are and your character is a certainty. As Abraham stands and makes this argument. This being in the place where we're recognizing and we're lifting up our supplications or our prayers in accordance with what He has said. Romans 10, 8-10, but what does it say? The word is near you. In your mouth and in your heart.

That is the word of faith which we are preaching. that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. So Romans 10, 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.

I was surprised studying the word faith in the Greek recently. It means to be persuaded or persuaded by God. Your faith is you've been persuaded by God of things hoped for. These convictions of things not seen. Operating from the place of being persuaded that God is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Working faith in our hearts as Him. Persuading us of reality. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. The expression of reality. Jesus being in that place where He completely loved the Father, we see that that's where this rescue is coming from that you and I abide in.

Because He has loved me, Psalm 91 14, because He has loved me, therefore I will deliver Him. I will set Him securely on high because He has known My name." He's known mercy and justice. He has operated mercy and justice. He has known My name. Are you in that place? Do you know His name? Mercy and justice accomplished in the cross. Do you call on His name from that place? You have shown me mercy because you have accomplished justice.

You stand in a place of confidence and pray in accordance with a confidence. You are, and you are a rewarder of those who seek you. 1 John 5, 14 and 15, this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

In 2 Corinthians 1.20, for as many are the promises of God In Jesus they are yes, therefore also through Him is our amen to the glory of God through us. All of the promises. All of the promises.

This is putting on the heart of Christ in our life and our worship. We continue on, look with me in verse two now, the second portion. When I lift up my hands. I struggled with this idea of lifting up of the hands. I don't know if anybody did that this morning in our worship. Did we lift up our hands?

I was in a debate about our worship and someone said, I just don't feel like I can express myself at all in our worship. I don't feel like I could show any enthusiasm. I don't feel as if I could show any grief or any remorse. And my answer was, I do it all the time. There is an enthusiasm to my worship and there is grief in my worship.

Some would say I wouldn't lift up my hands, I wouldn't want to draw attention to myself. I've started when we worship, when we sing the Psalms, I leave the stage now and I go down because If I'm doing this, I don't want people to think it's because I want you to look at me and see how holy I am lifting up my holy hands without wrath and dissension in the midst. Well, this lifting up of the hands, we see that it's a statement.

Paul makes the statement in 1 Timothy 2.8, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and without dissensions.

We're going to move to the heart of this and I'm going to give you a difficult illustration as I do this. Sometimes my illustrations flop because afterwards people might just remember the story and have no idea a spiritual reality that's connected to. That could be my fault if I don't frame my illustration right. If you're not going in and I say this is what I'm going to show you and then I show you and then I tell you this is what I've shown you. Or it's your fault. if you're just not paying attention and you're being lazy. So I'm going to let you judge and you try to take this illustration about lifting of hands.

Pull three concepts out of this. Death, cleanliness, and surrender in the lifting of hands. A death, a cleanliness, and a surrender. The illustration is from World War II. American soldiers had battled through with their friends being killed, and by the time they come towards the end of the battle, some Germans come out and they raise their hands, they say something in German, and the American soldiers shoot them dead. One soldier turns to the other and asks, what do you think he said? And the other said, look, Ma, I washed for dinner. There's a death, a surrender and a cleanliness in this illustration.

And I want you to think of you lifting your hands and also think of Christ lifting his hands. In the Older Testament, in Leviticus chapter 9, Aaron offers the sacrifices and he comes out and he lifts his hands and he announces a blessing on the people. The same way we do at the end of our worship service. The pastor will lift his hands and he'll announce a blessing.

Now, when Christ came, and Christ was our sacrifice, Thomas was saying he wouldn't believe. He wouldn't believe unless he stuck his fingers in his hands. Unless he saw the nail prints himself. And when Jesus manifested, he said, Thomas, take your finger. Take your hand. place them here.

Jesus, then, the only time it's recorded that Jesus lifted his hands and gave a blessing, it was at the ascension. The people had come together, Jesus looked at them, and he raises his hands and blesses them. All of them there could think, I've seen this before. I've seen this blessing before, but I've never seen it with the nail prints before.

Jesus had gone in. He had done the sacrifice. He comes out and He turns to the assembly. He raises His hands, announces the blessing. They see the nail prints on His hands. And He ascends and He goes into the Holy of Holies. And He lives to make intercession for you. There's a surrender in the lifting of our hands. When I lift my hands, I hope you'll all note, oh, no nail prints there. That's not Him. But I lift my hands and I remind you of Him. Of a sacrifice. Of a death.

And now a cleanliness. that we have been washed. We have been cleansed. We are blessed by God Himself. Psalm 24, 3, 4, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully, We see the cleanliness of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ. And we take on this surrender of our own. We take on His death in us. As we too are set apart unto Him.

1 John 3.5 You know that He appeared in order to take away sins. And in Him there is no sin.

In Romans 1.17, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. That is, from assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, to the assurance of things hoped for, to the conviction of things not seen, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith.

Christ came as that perfect sacrifice for you. Clean. He surrendered Himself to the wrath of God on your behalf. He died on your behalf. He was raised from the dead and He announces a blessing on you as you enter into that death with Him. If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

I can't tell any of you to take a step to the right or to the left. I don't know you well enough. But I can tell all of you to take a step towards Christ. I hope you've heard something this morning. I hope there was some light shone on your feet. Some light shone on your path. I hope you heard some part of Jesus. A reminder or something you hadn't considered before. A deepening. Something you haven't considered before.

Closing Prayer

To make you love Christ more. To make you want to come nearer to Him. Because that's the best I can offer you. That's the best I can do, is to point you to our good shepherd that you'll put on his heart every day in your life and in your worship. Let's pray.

Our Father, we love you. We love you because you first loved us. We love you because you have worked faith in our hearts. And our Father, we thank you that you saved us for this very purpose, that we would proclaim the excellencies of Christ, who has called us out of darkness into this marvelous light.

We turn ourselves to you now. We repent of our sin. Help us see the ways that we have been living in accordance with the desires of our flesh, in accordance with our pride and our lust. Our God, may we turn to You now, rejoicing in You, trusting in You. It is in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Please join me in our next psalm, Psalm 134. I got to preach this last week to my congregation and my daughter-in-law came to me and said, I'm surprised we didn't respond with Psalm 134. I said, I'll make a note of that and maybe next time. Here we are. Psalm 134.

Behold, bless the Lord, all servants of the Lord. You who serve by night in the house of the Lord, lift up your hands. to the sanctuary. Bless the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion. Here we are. He who made heaven and earth, it is our blessing as we lift our hearts and our hands to Christ. Let's stand and sing Psalm 134.