A Firm Place To Stand – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Have you ever been in a pit of your own making or a pit caused by the dilemmas of life? If so, you'll appreciate the wisdom found in Psalm 40, where you'll find a firm place to stand. Today we begin a brief series on lessons from the Psalms, so stay with us.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, the Psalms are a never-ending source of understanding as they point us to the God who can pull us out of the troubles we encounter. And you know, Davis, I think of this Psalm that I'm speaking about on this broadcast. I'm reminded of reading it along with a man who had been unfaithful to his marriage. And through God's grace, his marriage survived.

How thankful we are for that God who pulls us out of a pit. Now, there are many people who are listening, and as you continue to listen today, would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's somebody who helps us regularly with their prayers and their gifts so that millions of people can listen to these messages. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

I should have mentioned, go to rtwoffer.com. When you're there, click on the endurance partner button, and let us rejoice that we have a message of hope for those who have fallen. Let me begin today by asking you a question. Have you ever been in a pit? I'm not talking about the sand dunes. I'm talking about the pit of your own experience, the dilemmas of life, the mire and the muck. Take your Bibles and turn, if you would please, to Psalm 40, because this was David's experience, and as we shall see at the end of the message, it was also the experience of someone else. You'll notice he says in verse 1, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry, and he lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire. The imagery in the text is that of a swirling water, and you are in that water, and no matter where you step, the simple fact is that you keep going down deeper as you try to walk.

There does not seem to be any possible way out of it. It could be a pit of failure, moral failure, the entanglements of life. Some people live their lives because of a series of very bad decisions. Could be those kinds of entanglements. It could also be a snare that someone else has put out for you, and you're either afraid of falling into it or you have fallen into it, and now you're stuck in the mire of your experience. One thing we can be sure about is that it's the kind of pit that can be described as number one, it's too deep for you to get out of on your own, because every step that you take, you take two further down, and number two, it is so steep and so slimy that others can't get you out of it either. They can wish you well, they can tell you that they're going to pray for you, but they can't get you out. What I'd like to do in the next few moments is to delineate five blessings that came to David when he was there in the pit or as a result of being in the pit, and then most important, we're going to tell you how those blessings can be yours too. What are the requirements to receive those blessings when you're in the pit? We sometimes use that expression, don't we? We say, I'm in the pits. I haven't heard that for a long, long time.

Maybe it's because nobody is there anymore, or maybe it's because the expression has lost its luster, but we all understand what it's like, don't we? What are the five blessings? Number one, he heard me, verse one. He inclined his ear toward me, one of the translations says. It's as if God bent down his ear and said, I'm listening to you. He heard me.

That's blessing number one. Have you ever talked to somebody and you wonder whether or not they're listening? One day I was having a discussion about the book of Job with someone who was on the couch and we were talking about it because we had a different interpretation and I was giving an exposition as to why my view was correct. And I noticed that he drifted off to sleep.

And I didn't notice it until there was no response. I thought, well, you know, he's buying what I'm selling, but he was sleeping. Do you sometimes feel that way about God? Is that why we keep telling him the same thing over and over again because we're not sure whether or not his ear is listening?

The imagery is so beautiful. Of course it's figurative, but he inclined his ear. He bent down so that he could hear my cries and my whispers. I remember Jim Cymbala, Brooklyn Tabernacle, answering the question of why 2000 people would come on a Tuesday night for a prayer meeting and he said, you'd come too if, number one, you believe that God was listening and number two, that your prayers were going to make a difference.

Of course you'd come if you really believe that God was listening and that your prayers would make a difference. And thank God we still have some people here at this church who do believe, you know, that God hears and makes a difference. So he says, number one, he heard me. Number two, he lifted me. We're still actually here now in verse two. He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and the mire. God came and did what no human being could do. The situation needed intervention and God was there. And it was clear that God was there because you can't get out alone. You know, if you're walking along through a pasture and you get to a certain place and you see a fence post and on the top of that fence post, there's a turtle. You know that some human being was there ahead of you.

There's no explanation for that except for the fact that somebody picked up the turtle and put him there. He can't get up there alone. There are times when we are in the pit when it's very clear that God is there because if God isn't there, it wouldn't happen. It is, as we like to say, it's a God thing. And so he says, God picked me up. He personally came to me in my need and gave me his aid. And it was very clear that this was of God. He lifted me. He did what no human being can do. And if we had testimonies here today, hundreds of testimonies could be given of people who are cleaned up from their sin, taken out of the pit of their sin and given cleansing and confidence and a whole new life. And God keeps doing it over and over again. So he says he lifted me from the pit.

Third, he said he established me. We're still in verse two. He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand solid rock so that even though the tide is still there and the water is swirling around, you find a rock right in the middle of the mire and the muck. Now here we come to an interpretive issue. Is it really true that when we cry up to the Lord and he hears our cry that he always delivers us from the circumstance?

I'm going to be commenting on that in just a few moments, but hang on to that for a moment. I think first of all that the solid rock is basically confidence in God. That in the midst of the swirl, in the midst of circumstances over which we now have no control, maybe at one time we could control them, but now they're beyond our ability to control that even there God gives us the deep settled confidence that he will walk with us and that we can stand even though everything around us seems to be going through the throes of destruction and it's beyond our control. So it's confidence, the solid ground, but also in addition to that, eventually, eventually God may bring us total and complete deliverance, but maybe not as soon as we would like to have it. You'll notice that even in this Psalm 40 we think, well, in the opening of the Psalm, David got rid of all of his problems because now God lifted him. No, I was surprised to read in verse 14, may all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion.

May all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. He still got evil people after him. You read the rest of the Psalms, there are still the wicked who are plotting their vengeance. I read just this morning in my devotions in one of the Psalms that says that the wicked they do injustice and they say to themselves, we have the perfect plan. That still might be happening even though you have confidence in God.

Eventually there will be total and complete deliverance, but maybe not right away. So he says that God established me. He says in verse three, God inspired me. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

Does that mean that he wrote a new song? Well, maybe he did because David was a songwriter, but I'm not so sure that it means that we need a brand new song to give praise to God as much as it means that we sing the old songs entirely differently. There is no one who rejoices as much as someone who has just been snatched from the jaws of a slimy pit and put upon a rock and whose goings have been established as one who has joy and praise to God for the deliverance.

That's why God lets us be in the pit. That's why deliverance sometimes is not so instant because when it comes, we discover suddenly that we can sing again. God opens our mouths to give praise to God.

God opens our mouths that we might be able to speak his blessing and his ministry and give a testimony of his entire and beautiful grace. So he said he inspired me. It's not that he gave me a new song with words. He gave me a new heart so that I could sing differently. I remember one woman saying that she was in church and she was planning to commit suicide.

The pills were already in her purse, but she thought she'd show up at church one last time just to say goodbye to God. And everyone was singing, oh say but I'm glad, I'm glad. You remember that song? We haven't sung that in years, but you know there is a song.

Those of you who are older will remember it. Oh say but I'm glad, I'm glad. She felt like screaming.

Oh say but I'm mad, I'm mad. You can't sing the songs of Zion. You can't sing, oh say but I'm glad, I'm glad when you're planning to commit suicide.

Thankfully she went into the prayer room and stayed there until God met the deep needs of her heart and I wrote to her years later and she said thoughts of suicide have never returned though my physical problems have remained. God gives a new song to those who cry unto him and who wait for him as we shall see. Number five, okay, he heard me, he lifted me, he established me, he inspired me, he used me in verse five. It says, did I say verse five?

I of course meant the last part of verse three. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. You'll notice that the power of personal testimony is overwhelming. You see, when we have personal testimonies here at the church, what's being communicated is this, if God can get this person through this difficulty, if the Lord can give someone grace even though they've discovered that their mate is cheating on them and somehow God enables them to walk through that mire and that muck and gives them a place to stand and confidence, then it says to other people in the congregation, I can handle my relationship because if God is faithful there, I know that he can be faithful elsewhere and so you see the testimony inspires faith because we look at the lives of others and we see what God has done through them and therefore we say to ourselves, as a result of God sustaining grace to someone who was that low in the muck and the mire, surely God's going to be with me. I want you to know today that you do not just suffer for yourself, you suffer for everyone who's watching you and who knows you because the way you suffer is a test of your faith and therefore God allows us to suffer that we might be a testimony and that others will see it in fear and say he endured, therefore I can endure. Stuart Hamblin converted under the Billy Graham ministry in Los Angeles.

I guess Billy Graham would say Los Angeles. In 1949, you remember he wrote that song, it is no secret what God can do, what he's done for others he'll do for you, with arms wide open he will pardon you. It is no secret what God can do and if God can do it for Stuart Hamblin who is in the muck and the mire and if God can deliver people who've gone through excruciating circumstances that are too much for us to even think about, surely, surely we can face life. I remember reading Corey 10 Boom's book about her life in the Nazi prison camp, you remember that? And I've forgotten a lot of the details but there is one line that I remember to today and will remember it until the day I die. After living through all that horror, after seeing her relatives killed and abused and living there in the worst possible conditions being victimized, she wrote in her book, there is no pit that is so deep but that God is deeper still.

Because of her many saw God and feared and trusted in the Lord. Now of course the question is here are five wonderful blessings, how do we get in on them? That's what you're asking.

I know what you're thinking. I know that's what I'm thinking is how do we benefit from these blessings? How do they become ours?

You'll notice two things, first of all, here are the conditions now. Verse one, I waited patiently for the Lord. You see there are seasons in God's deliverance. I waited patiently for the Lord. Patience is so foreign to our nature that it is a gift of God. Did you know that patience is a gift of God? It says in Ephesians that we are strengthened by patience, that through the Holy Spirit of God we are strengthened by patience. I always think of myself as a very patient person.

The thing that confuses me is why the people around me don't think so too. It's confusing to me because I think I'm very patient. I may get a little exasperated if I miss one turn in a revolving door but I'm very patient. And if I'm standing at an elevator where the button is already pushed to go up because it's already lit I may push it again just to make sure that it's pushed but I'm patient. I learned that the word patience is derived from the Latin which means suffering.

Suffering. And while we are waiting the work that God does in our hearts is much greater than the end product of the work. I waited patiently for the Lord. It may not happen immediately but we wait and we yield and we commit and so we wait. We wait for God's timing. Well my friend this is Pastor Lutzer and I have some very good news.

Messages like the ones that you are listening to on running to win are heard all throughout the Middle East in Arabic. Here's a report of someone who listened to the program and prayed a prayer something like this. Lord Jesus I believe that you are the truth and the only way. Please forgive me and my ignorance. Forgive that I've been blind to the truth and thank you for accepting me no matter my sin. Thank you Lord for sending me the episodes of running to win so that I would come to know you and love you.

I accept you as my Savior. Amen. My friend people just like you have a part in these testimonies. Many of you have listened to running to win and you've never connected with us.

You have never supported this ministry. Would you consider becoming an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Of course the amount that you give is entirely your decision. You need info? Hope that you have a pen and pencil handy? Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Thanks for helping us get the gospel to millions of people right now.

Go to RTWOffer.com, click on the endurance partner button or call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's time once again for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Kathy contacted us and has some serious questions about observing the Lord's Supper.

Here's what she wrote. 1 Corinthians 11, 23-32 talks about the Lord's Supper. I am confused by verse 27. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

What does an unworthy manner mean? Thank you so much for your question and we need to understand that in the church in Corinth there was a tremendous misuse of the Lord's Supper. What happened was that the church came together something like a potluck dinner and after they came together there were those who actually drank and they became drunk at the Lord's Table. You see what they did is they had their supper and then the Lord's Table was a part of it. So the Apostle Paul is writing to admonish them and when he says that you should not eat or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner and then you're guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord it means that you are really desecrating what this is all about. You are participating for the wrong purpose.

You don't understand its meaning. As a church you are having factions the Apostle Paul says and your guilt is not merely against other members of the body of Jesus Christ it is against Christ himself. So it does not say that we should not eat or drink if we are unworthy to eat or drink. On one level all of us are unworthy but if we've confessed our sins if we are right with others in the church we have a clear conscience before God then we can participate but we do so recognizing that this is a very special occasion because that represents the body of Jesus Christ and I think that that's what the Apostle Paul was referring to. Thank you Pastor.

She goes on with a second question. Verse 29 says for anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. What does it mean to eat and drink judgment on yourself? Well you know I think that when it says that he who eats or drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats or drinks judgment eating or drinking without recognizing I think in the original means discerning the Lord's body and that could mean either the body called the church but more likely in context it's talking about the body of the Lord. To not discern it means that you don't understand the purpose of this feast.

You're not grasping the significance of what it is that you are doing. We are after all honoring the elements the bread and the wine that represent the body and the blood of Jesus. We honor these elements because they represent something very special namely the body and the blood of our Lord and to not discern that is to bring judgment to yourself.

And what could that judgment do? The amazing thing is that Paul there in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 said that because of this some among you are sickly and others sleep. What he means is some among you have actually died because of your disobedience and your lack of respect for our Lord.

You know in today's society we become so casual we become so irreverent we look around and we say well no one has been struck dead by the way in which they are acting so we simply go our own way. Well what God is saying is that's dangerous. You could have physical effects that would be brought on by God because you participated in an unworthy way not understanding what you're doing for all the wrong reasons and this I think is a tremendous admonition for all of us to be sure that our hearts are cleansed we're in fellowship with other people and we know what we are doing when we receive the bread and the cup. Some sobering thoughts about the Lord's Supper from Dr. Erwin Lutzer and thank you Kathy for that question. If you'd like to hear one of your questions answered go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer or call us at 1-888-218-9337.

That's 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Waiting patiently for the Lord may be counterintuitive but it's a key requirement for us to find that firm place to stand we so desperately need. Next time on Running to Win, Erwin Lutzer wraps up our study in Psalm 40. Plan to join us. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.