When God Seems Far Away #2

What determines my ultimate future? It's not what happens in the midst of this very serious and heavy trial. I am in the hand of Christ and no one can pluck me out of His hand.

And that is why we're confident, even when God seems far away. Maybe there's a call from a doctor saying, it's cancer. Maybe it's a boss telling you, we're letting you go. The tragic loss of a loved one. Your spouse asking for a divorce.

All of those are painful reminders that we are not in control of our own lives and circumstances. Hello and welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright. Today Don brings us the second half of a message called, When God Seems Far Away. And he'll show us that when the worst happens in life, we need only to return to a simple trust in God and the precious promises found only in His Holy Word.

Let's join Don now for part two of a message called, When God Seems Far Away, here on the Truth Pulpit. Look over at 2 Samuel with me for a moment. 2 Samuel chapter 7. One of the truly key chapters in all of the Bible. 2 Samuel chapter 7.

You'll find in verse 16, we won't go through all that we could say about this chapter. Just a representative text from this chapter in verse 16. God is speaking to David and says, Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever.

Your throne shall be established forever. And David goes on and David responds in verse 18. And it says, David the king went in and sat before the Lord and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me this far?

And yet this was insignificant in your eyes, O Lord God. For you have spoken also of the house of your servant concerning the distant future. David realized that these promises and this covenant that God made with him in 2 Samuel 7 was not simply about David, but it was about his descendants and this would extend long into the future. This was to be an enduring covenant. And it's that promise that is the basis of David's appeal as we turn back to Psalm 61. Psalm 61, go back to verse 5 with me. He says, You have heard my vows, O God.

You have given me the inheritance of those who fear your name. He says, God, you have made promises to me. You have made promises to the nation Israel. You've promised us a land and you've promised us a blessing. And you've promised us spiritual prosperity in this land when we are faithful to you. And it is that promise that is the basis of David's appeal. Here's the key.

Here's the key for you and me as we're processing how we apply this to our lives. Notice that he says, God, you have given this to me. He's appealing to God based on things that God has done and things that God has said.

And he says, God, I know that you have heard my vows, you know of my commitment to serve and follow you. Well, what he is saying here is, God, I'm not appealing to my own merit. I'm appealing to what you have done. I'm appealing to what you have given.

You've given us this inheritance. You have given us that in order to bless us and you've given that to me. And so he's not appealing to any sense of self-righteousness as he prays this way. His confidence isn't rooted in anything in himself as though he somehow deserved God's protection. Rather, he is confident. Watch this.

He is confident that God will align David's life and David's circumstances so that they will ultimately be consistent with the promises that he's made in the past. Now, how do you take that and think through that and apply it in your own thinking when and it's it's so easy to fall into self-pity and self-justification, isn't it? God, I don't deserve this. And why me?

And why am I suffering this way? Which embedded and implied in statements like this is, is that I'm good enough that I shouldn't be suffering like that. That's a wrong way for us to think. It's a wrong way for us to, to respond to God. And it's not the basis on which we, we approach him.

Rather, rather. Oh, this is so important. It is so important for you to come back and to premise your appeals to God and your prayers to God based on what he has promised and what he has, what he has said about himself and the mercy that he has shown to you in Christ. And to premise it in that rather than simply saying, God, get me out of this trouble because I don't like it. So that your mind is thinking and your, your words are rehearsing promises of God. For example, turn to Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight, when God seems far away. Well, let your mind go to Romans chapter eight. And, and speak truth to yourself, rehearse scripture to yourself, and rebuke your weak and unbelieving heart with scripture and your heart will respond to the word of God. The apostle Paul said in verse thirty eight of Romans chapter eight, I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So you reason like this, you pray like this, you think like this, what I'm about to say. God, God, you sent Christ to save me and you have in fact saved me. And that means that you have saved me forever. And the love of Christ is eternal, the love of Christ is permanent.

It has to be that way because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The way that you have blessed me in the past, oh God, is the way that you will bless me in the future. And not based on any merit of my own, but based on what you have done for me in Christ, oh God.

There is nothing that could possibly separate me from you. And so God, I pray that in this time of weakness, in this time where you seem far away, I pray that you would gather me up and lead me back into the state of mind where my mind rests in, the eternal security that belongs to the believer in Christ. God, keep me there. Strengthen my heart that I might live and believe in light of what you've actually done for me. That is the way that we respond when God seems distant. You go back to the Word, you go back to the promises, you go back to what God has actually accomplished for you in Christ. And you return to first principles and say, I'm going to re-evaluate everything, I'm going to turn my attention back to these first things that are true about Christians. And let my heart rest in those and trust God and ask God to bring me back into the spiritual reality of these things.

Which is much different than saying, I don't like this, I don't want to be here, I don't deserve this. We don't reason that way as believers. We go straight to the promises of God and reason from them.

And let those shape the way that we think and respond. Well, with those things in mind, go back to Psalm 61 now. Psalm 61. And David, in verse 6, switches to the third person as he continues to pray. Remember that as a king he had a representative capacity for the nation. It wasn't simply about David as an individual, David as an individual man. But as the king, the well-being of the nation was tied up in his own well-being as well.

Because of that representative capacity he has. And so he prays in the third person from that perspective. And he says in verse 6, making statements of confidence, he says, You will prolong the king's life. His years will be as many generations. He will abide before God forever. You hear the echoes of the Davidic Covenant there, don't you? He will abide before God forever.

Appoint loving kindness and truth that they may preserve him. Now, there are two aspects to David's prayer here. In the immediate situation, he is expressing confidence that God will preserve his own life as the king of Israel. But what you want to see, and what we need to see and draw out of this, is that David is looking further than his own well-being. He's looking further than his own deliverance. He is expressing confidence that God will preserve his line, preserve his dynasty for many generations.

This is no superficial prayer that says, God, get me out of my immediate problem. David has in mind the fact that God had promised a dynasty to come through and come from his loins that would endure forever. Ultimately, then, David's prayer here in verses 6 and 7 are answered in no one less than the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ is the one who will abide before God forever. Christ is the one who is the ultimate David. Christ is the one who will dwell and sit on the throne of David in his millennial kingdom. And so David is expressing confidence not only for the immediate situation but for the long distance future as he prays here. And he's praying that God would preserve that dynasty that would ultimately culminate in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, David says there at the end of verse 7, look at it with me. Appoint loving kindness and truth that they may preserve him. David is certain now. Notice how he has gone from a call, a cry for help to statements of confidence now. He's sure that God will do this because God is a God of loyal love and truth and he's made promises and he will keep them. Now, beloved, that is what frames your entire approach to life as a Christian. This frames everything else. This is the first principle that determines the way that you process everything about life.

You think this way. Christ has come to save me. He accomplished my redemption on the cross.

I now belong to him. The Holy Spirit dwells within me. And the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of future things yet to come.

The guarantee, the down payment that assures us that there is more to come. Therefore, you say, therefore you reason with yourself because these things are true, then therefore I cannot possibly be meeting my end in these present circumstances. No matter how stark, no matter how desperate, no matter how hopeless it appears from a human perspective, that's not the perspective that governs my heart. That is not the perspective that governs the way I interpret what happens to me. You step back from the circumstances. You remember the things revealed to us in God's precious word about your salvation and you say that is what determines my ultimate future. And what determines my ultimate future is not the next doctor's report.

It's not what happens in the midst of this very serious and heavy trial. No, there is something transcendent that is at work in my life and that is what I draw my confidence from. It's not that the circumstances will necessarily change, but that I am in the hand of Christ and no one can pluck me out of his hand. And that is why we're confident even when God seems far away, even when the circumstances are difficult. You see, as Christians we are in a blessed position that would be the envy of non-Christians if they only understood it. We are not at the mercy of our circumstances like they are.

Our happiness, our security, our well-being is not rooted in what happens around us. It's rooted in things that are eternal and unchanging. It's rooted in a God who loves us and has given himself up for us. It's rooted in the certainty of his promises that he will finish what he's begun in us. And so that leaves us in a blessed position of peace that David expresses in verse 8. With renewed faith, David pledges his future obedience in worship. He says in verse 8, So from this position of confidence I will sing praise to your name forever that I may pay my vows day by day. The vows show that David was praying with a conscious commitment to obedience. The praise shows that David's prayers were not rooted in selfishness. He desired deliverance.

Watch this. He desired deliverance so that he could serve God according to God's desires. That David would have the desire of his heart by being able to praise and to serve God with the life that God had given him.

Adversity. The adversity of this time in his life did not kill David. It was not the end of him.

Rather, it brought forth a greater sense of perspective on the love for God, a deeper awareness of his promises, and a renewed commitment to trust him. And do you know what, beloved? Your present adversity by the grace of God is not going to kill you either. It's not going to be the end of you. Nothing is going to be the end of you when you belong to Christ. Nothing is going to separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus your Lord.

Nothing is going to somehow put you in a position where your soul is lost and all that you held precious was somehow slipped through your fingers in the end. That is just not the way that God deals with us. That is not the way that God deals with you. God deals with you in perfect faithfulness. God deals with you in a selfless generosity that was shown at the cross. God deals with you in a perfect faithfulness. And though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, in the language of David elsewhere in Psalm 23, you say to yourself, I fear no evil for you are with me. That is the confidence that we have as those who belong to this great God. Now, with those things said, let me just give you four quick takeaways from Psalm 61 to apply to your own heart and life.

And they'll just kind of be an echo of things that I've already said. But sometimes, you know, the truth of the matter is the longer that I preach, the simpler I want things to be. The simpler I try to be, the more direct and clear I try to be. Because sometimes it's just the simplest things that we need to hear to strengthen us and to help us.

Well, these things are very simple, but perhaps they're the very point at which we often fail. First takeaway, in times of weakness, call on God. Call on him. God, hear my prayer. Hear my cry, O God.

Give heed to my prayer. And especially, oh, beloved, remember this Psalm in particular. Remember Psalm 61. The means of support that you have always relied on are suddenly taken away from you. A new job, entering into college, moving away into a new city, an extended illness where your strength is gone, the death of a spouse, the death of a child, the sickness of a child that you can't fix. In all of those things, beloved, come back to Psalm 61, and in the midst of what seems to be a crisis, and the circumstances are spinning out of control, go back to Psalm 61 and call on God, and say, God, I am calling to you.

It's like I'm at the ends of the earth. It seems so far away, and I am alone, and my heart is fainting here. My heart is weak here, O God. God, in light of that, in light of what you've done in Psalm 61, in light of what you've done in Christ, God, please come and take my hand and lead me closer to yourself. All of my human friends, all of my human loved ones may be gone, but God, you're not. You're still here, and therefore I rest my hope in you. And beloved, even in those times of isolation, you can turn to God in confidence that he will respond to you with his love, wisdom, and power, and that he won't abandon you in perpetuity to the present isolation that you're feeling.

This is a wonderful truth to lay hold of. Secondly, as you call on God, remember his promises. Remember his promises. In weakness, say, okay, I'm feeling weak here.

What am I going to do? I'm going to call on God is what I'm going to do. And as you call on God, you say, I'm going to remember his promises.

I'm going to remember what he said to me. David prayed with confidence as he remembered the promises of God to him, as he remembered the past times that God had delivered him. Well, then you do the same thing as you're praying in the midst of your weakness. You say, no, I remember Philippians 1.6. God said that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Well, you know what that means then?

I know that I belong to Christ. That means that he's going to perfect me over the long term, even though today is a bad day, even though this period of life is very difficult, God is at work perfecting me and accomplishing the fullness of the reason for which he saved me. And therefore, I'm not alone. Therefore, this isn't the end of me.

And so you remember promises like that. And beloved, in those times of weakness, your dependence and your vulnerability is real. But you do not need to panic. In fact, you should not panic. You should not let yourself panic because your God reigns. Your God has offered his son on the cross to save your soul. Your God has promised to bring you safe into heaven in the end.

There is no need for panic here. And one of the ways that you manifest spiritual growth, spiritual maturity, one of the surest ways that you can be an effective witness for Christ is to be calm in a crisis that would make others collapse. Thirdly, as you call on God, renew your commitment to faithfulness. That's what David did. David said in verse 8, I'll pay my vows day by day. He not only was asking for help, he committed himself to obedience. And so you're mindful of so many things. You say, I am weak, therefore I'm going to call on my God.

And I'm not going to call on him in ignorance. I'm going to inform my prayers by the promises that he's given to me. And as I think about the goodness of God in my life, what I'm going to do is I'm going to let this time of isolation strengthen my commitment to be faithful to my God. Rather than letting it become a source of disobedience or distrust, not me, you say to yourself, I'm going to become all the more committed to faithfulness in this time of isolation.

And beloved, a willing and trusting heart like that is positioned for God's future blessing. And finally, if you're not a Christian, Psalm 61 applies to you too. In the simplest of ways, see, I keep coming back to these simple things.

I just come back to the simplest of things. If you're not a Christian, you need to become one. But you can't do it in your own strength. And what Psalm 61 teaches you is this. It teaches you to pray, God, I know I am not saved. I know I am still a sinner separated from You. God, I just pray that You would take me and lead me to Christ. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, lead me to Him. God, as I open Your Word, I pray that You would lead me to the Scriptures that would awaken my dead heart and open and illumine my darkened mind so that I could understand and come to Christ.

God, do that for me. Seek the rock that is higher than You are. Don't be content to live in your sin.

Don't be content to live in the obvious depravity of your own heart. Let Psalm 61 awaken you to the sense that says, God, I need out of here, and I can't do it on my own. I'm lost. I can't find my way, O God. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I am.

O God, lead me to the rock who is Jesus Christ. And as you do that, God will be faithful to you. God will answer that prayer.

Why? Because that's the kind of God that He is. Well, Don, as we conclude today's time in the Scriptures, there may be someone listening who, because of their circumstances, is desperate to hear from God, but just can't seem to hear his voice. Well, Bill, I think that people go astray when they're looking to hear some kind of voice in their heart or in their head from God apart from Scripture. That's not the kind of voice of God that we are to listen to, because that is just the imaginations of our own heart.

I know that may be surprising for some of our friends as they listen to us, but my friend, let me just put it to you this way. If you want to know what God has to say for you and your circumstances, open the Bible and read it. In the Scriptures, you always have the voice of God when you are reading what He has said in His holy Word. And so don't rely on your feelings or listen for some kind of inner voice as if God would speak to you in that way. God speaks in His Word. God's Word is true, and God's Word is sufficient for you. Scripture says that it is enough to make every Christian adequate, equipped for every good work. And so just as you've done today by studying God's Word with us here on today's broadcast, stay in the Word. It will lead you to Christ where all comfort and all sufficiency is found. Thanks, Don. And friends, that's all the time we have for today. We'll see you next time here on the Truth Pulpit, teaching God's people God's Word.