Complexity I - Part 1 of 2

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, The praise of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace. This is Lisei Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast for the Baptist Bible Hour. When I can read my title clear to mansions in the skies, I'll bid farewell, I'll bid farewell, I'll bid farewell to every fear, And why my weeping eyes should earth against my soul engage, And fiery thoughts be heard.

Then I can smile, then I can smile, Then I can smile at Satan's rage and face the crowning world. There I shall make my weary soul in seeds of heavenly rest, And not awake, and not awake, and not awake of trouble across my peaceful rest. I would like to invite you to visit our website. Maybe you've never been to it before, and hopefully if all has gone according to schedule, our new design is up now. That's at baptistbiblehour.org.

You can make a donation there if you'd like to help keep this broadcast on the air. Let me dwell in you, O Lord, on the mountain tops of mounting, Lift me up above the shadows, for the storms are raging high, Lift me up, my blessed Savior, let me to Thy bosom fly, Then O evil think and touch me over on the shining side, Lift me up above the shadows, let me evermore abide, Lift me up above the shadows, lift me up and let me stand, On the mountain tops of mounting, let me dwell, let me dwell and heal the land. Lift me up above the shadows, out of sorrow into joy, Lift me up above my grief, Lord, give me gold for my alloy, Then when death must claim my spirit and the storms of life are past, Lift me up above the shadows, till in heaven I stand at last, Lift me up above the shadows, lift me up and let me stand, On the mountain tops of mounting, let me dwell, let me dwell and heal the land. Turn with me to Psalm 119. We read beginning with verse 161.

Verses 161 to 168 in Psalm 119. Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of Thy word. I rejoice at Thy word as one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying, but Thy law do I love. Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments.

Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation and done Thy commandments. My soul hath kept Thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.

I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies, for all my ways are before Thee. In these verses we have the complexity of Christian experience. He speaks of trials, of joy, of things that he hates, things that he rightfully hates. He speaks also of praise, of peace, and of hope. Christian's experience is indeed one that is quite varied. We sing to him, mixtures of joy and sorrow I daily do pass through.

There are seasons of light, of seasons of darkness, seasons of great joy, and of deep sorrow. And so several of the experiences that God's people are accustomed to in their Christian walk are laid out before us in this psalm. First we see reference to trials in verse 161. Princes have persecuted me without a cause. Trials are many and varied in the Christian's life.

We need not be surprised by them. God's Word says that we will have sufferings and trials from time to time if we are truly serving our Savior Jesus Christ. Back in the 23rd verse of this psalm, David spoke of princes who were opposed to him at that time, describing their opposition simply as speaking against him. Now we come to this 161st verse and he says they are persecuting him. So this opposition that the enemies had against David had elevated. First they spoke against him. Now although he doesn't describe the specifics of the persecution, obviously there's more involved.

They are set out to harm him, to do whatever they can to destroy him. And you may have experienced some of that where a person first would speak against you in way of criticism or slander you and then ultimately move on to other tactics to intimidate you and harm you in your effort to serve God. It's interesting to trace what the psalmist says about affliction and trials throughout this psalm. I couldn't really make reference to all of them in our limited time, but in the 50th verse he speaks of the comfort that he found in affliction. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened me. How good to know that the Lord has not left us alone. Though trials and afflictions are to be expected, God has promised to be with us saying I will never leave thee nor forsake thee that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper. And so we have comfort even in the midst of our difficulties and trials.

Verse 71, it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. Not only do we have comfort that comes to us from the word of God, but we learn something. We learn more of our weakness, of our need to dependence upon the Lord. Hopefully in our trials we learn to hate sin and to love righteousness. We learn of the sufficiency of God's grace. Many things are to be learned and David said it was good for me that I've been afflicted.

Though it was painful no doubt, difficult, trials seem to linger on and on. We wonder when the end will come, but it was good for him because he had learned from it. Now in verse 87 he says, they had almost consumed me upon earth, but I forsook not thy precepts.

Quicken me after thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. His enemies had almost consumed him. They had continued after him to such a degree that whether it was with a faint heart or physical afflictions that followed the opposition that came from his enemies or whatever the specific was, he felt he was just about down for the count. They had almost consumed me. Verse 107 says, I am afflicted very much, much affliction.

Not just something that happened occasionally, not just something that was rather insignificant but soon passed away, but I had much affliction. Verse 143 says, trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, yet my commandments are my delight. Trouble, anguish of spirit, great turmoil within, great discouragement that he had to deal with. And in verse 157 he speaks of many enemies, not just one but many that opposed him. So the idea of God's people living a life free of affliction, trial and trouble is foreign to the Word of God.

Radio listener called me this week, first made it appear that this was a desire for information, but as the conversation progressed, soon became evident that it was a desire to inform me. However, I readily rejected the information because it wasn't biblical. The idea was that if we just had enough faith, no one would ever be sick. That basically God wants to heal everybody and he's just waiting on us to produce enough faith or looking to those that she felt had special gifts and were able to heal. I pointed out that the Apostle Paul had one of his fellow laborers who was sick and sick to such an extent that it disturbed the church to hear about his sickness.

They were concerned for his welfare. Paul as an apostle had the gift and did heal others, but he didn't heal this man. It becomes evident that it is not within the providence of God, it is not his purpose to heal everyone that is sick.

And she was insistent that all of the gifts that the apostles had were still in operation today. I said, well, I read where the apostle resurrected a young man from the dead after he fell out the window and when you can tell me that there's somebody raising the dead, I'll take a second look at it. But I haven't heard of that occurring. Obviously, God is able to do whatever he is pleased to do. He's not hindered by any lack of power, but those signed gifts were given in the days of the early church to confirm that God was working in that place and blessing his people. And once the scriptures were complete and the gift of the apostleship was over, we now turn to his word to see the confirmation that we need and the evidence of God's truth for us in our lives today. So affliction must be expected. Now, God's word is our guide in the midst of these trials.

He says, though princes have persecuted me without a cause, my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I'm not trying to chart my own course. I'm not trying to figure all this out on my own. I'm not trying to use just everyday common sense to say, what's the best procedure? How do I handle this?

What should my choices be? I stand in awe of thy word. I'm amazed at what a marvelous book it is. I'm amazed because this is truth that is making a difference in my life.

I stand in awe of it. So no matter what we face, we must respect God and his word. Something comes that we cannot understand. We don't understand why this situation has unfolded as it has. We don't understand why. Maybe God didn't intervene and protect us from it. We don't understand all the ramifications of it. But though we do not understand, we still must respect our God, know that he's on the throne.

He's working his will and what he does is right and respect his word. So that we're going to obey it. That's going to be our God. That's going to be our standard. No matter how we may feel on a given day, no matter what other advice or counsel may be offered us, we're going to stand in awe of the word.

We're going to still come back to it and say, this is the final test when other ideas have passed by me and some have tried to convince me of another course of action. If I come to the word of God and here's the instruction, that's what I intend to obey. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10 verse 28, Jesus said, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

In other words, our respect must be not for the opinion of others. We don't have to fear men, see sheaf of man whose breath is in his nostrils, but we do fear God and we're going to honor his word. As brother Huffman has been speaking to us from the fourth chapter of the book of Acts, we find the apostles there giving their testimony as to a total commitment to do what was right before God. Acts chapter 4 verse 19, Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Doesn't matter how you threaten us, doesn't matter what the consequences may be, doesn't matter what anybody else says or thinks, I just ask you, is it right for us to obey you or to obey God? This is the whole issue here.

In our trials, in our afflictions, are we going to trust God? It's amazing as to how many excuses people can make for not doing what is biblical. Somebody say, it just doesn't seem that that's going to work for me. Or, well I've tried that and it didn't work. Now wait a minute, a person's going to say, I believe the Bible and here's what God says and I've tried God's plan but it just didn't work. So I'm ready for another one.

What's that indicate? Have you lost confidence in God, confidence in His Word? David said, though trials come, though princes persecute me. He's talking about people in a position of authority and power and influence, people that could really harm Him, prominent people. But he says, I still stand in awe of thy Word.

Here's an example of what we're talking about. First Peter chapter 3, instruction is given here as to how a wife is to live with an unbelieving husband. Tells us in verse 1 that she's to be in subjection to her own husband that if any obey not the Word, they also may without the Word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. What kind of a sermon is going to be delivered? Not that a wife who has an unbelieving husband is going to sit down and present a lengthy discourse that she's going to deliver and be preaching to Him three times a day.

That's certainly not going to lend itself to any kind of peace and tranquility within that marriage. But she's going to preach a sermon about what she does, by how she lives, by her chaste conversation, her chaste godly way of life. Who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of the plaiting of the hair and wearing of gold or putting on of apparel.

Some of course carry that to a great extreme and claim that the scripture is saying that you must not plait your hair, you must not wear gold. That obviously is not the lesson because he's simply talking about seeing that the emphasis be put on the hidden man of the heart, not on the outward appearance. Let it be, verse 4 says, the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great prize. Have you seen any magazine articles recently on the subject, the benefit of a meek and quiet spirit?

Have you heard any of the talk show hosts saying that this is something that all women ought to pursue, this is very beneficial? That's certainly not the thinking in our day, is it? But this says that a meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God. If it's of great price in the sight of God, then it is something that every woman ought to desire to possess because God says that's valuable. That's something that means something to Him that's worthwhile. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any amazement. Often a person is presented this truth and a woman will say, well it just won't work in my case.

I've got this overbearing unreasonable husband and I don't think it's going to have any positive effect on him. Or just really I fear that if I really tried to live with a meek and quiet spirit and didn't stand up for my rights and make a few demands, he'd just run over the top of me. I'm just afraid. You know what this text says? Sarah obeyed Abraham, whose daughters ye are, so long as ye do well, that is do what God says, and are not afraid with any amazement. That is, that you are not overcome with fear. That you are not intimidated. That's what it's talking about, without any amazement. That you're not going to be intimidated.

You're not going to draw back and say, well this just won't work, I'm sorry. Do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe all Scripture is given about the inspiration of God?

God says, this is my plan for the way a believing wife is to conduct herself in her marriage when she has an unbelieving husband. Now, how many other areas, how many other places in our experience in life do we come to a situation very similar? Here's something that God says He requires of us, and we start making all of the excuses about why it won't work. Well, you just don't understand my situation. Well, now let me let me tell you about some other attendant circumstances over here. Well, you just, if you just knew the people I'm having to deal with, and on and on and on the list goes. But what David is saying is, in the midst of my affliction, I stand in awe of God's Word.

I'm ready to submit to it. No matter what the situation is, no matter how I may feel at the moment, no matter how many people are telling me, you don't want to do what that preacher told you. I agree, if it's just the preacher telling you, you've got no obligation to him.

But if he's telling you what God's Word says, you have obligation to God to obey Him, to do what God says in His Word. Certainly it's a comfort to us in the midst of these trials to know that God has even a purpose in our trials and is indeed working through them to bring us into a closer walk with Him. In the book of James chapter 1 verse 2, he says, My brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations or testings knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience and let patience have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. He says the ultimate goal is that you become spiritually complete or mature and so be patient in the midst of your trials.

As you pass through them, God is teaching you. I don't think any of us would ever say, you know, I just really want this trial to go on and on because I'm confident I'm learning something so I'm just happy for it to continue. If the trial is indeed a trial, if it's painful, if it's burdensome, it's difficult, we want it to be over. And there's nothing wrong with praying that. Lord, according to your timetable, I pray that you'd deliver me and save me from my troubles. But in the meantime, help me to be patient, help me to learn what you have for me to learn. So the first thing we see in this portion of scripture is a reference to great trials.

In this case, specifically, persecution. Jesus Oh I'll break down stilling tide and reach my heavenly home. We'll wait till Jesus comes. We'll wait till Jesus comes. We'll wait till Jesus comes and we'll be gathered home. If the messages you hear on this Baptist Bible Hour broadcast are a blessing to you, we'd like to hear from you. Address your letter to Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Till we greet you at the same time tomorrow, this is Lasere Bradley Jr. bidding you goodbye and may God bless you. It is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. It is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, praising my Savior, praising my Savior all the day long.