once again, for the last and final time this year. Next Thursday evening, hopefully, we'll look at our New Year's text, Walk Before Me and Be Thou Perfect. But for this evening, I want us to look at verses 13 through 16 of this psalm. And of course, we've seen in the previous verses, it began at verse 1, truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. And of course, we've seen that the psalmist, Asaph, is his name. And of course, he's gotten in trouble because of his, well, the confused thinking of this godly man. He was shaken to his foundations, verse 2, he says, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. Because of, well, first of all, the prosperity of the wicked, verses 3 through 12, he saw them prospering, he saw that they were at ease, they were not troubled in any sense whatsoever. But secondly, his own personal and inward struggles He couldn't understand how God could be gracious towards wicked, ungodly and prosperous people and yet be so uncaring, it seemed to him at least anyway, so uncaring of his own covenant children. The mental anguish in verse 16 of course describes his state of mind when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. The problem the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the saints to him was just an insoluble problem. He just couldn't work it out. But the problem is eventually solved in verse 17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I understood their end. It was there in God's sanctuary that he found relief. But as he considers his dilemma here, his thinking is, you see, that his religion's been in vain. It's just been a waste of time. It's all been utter vanity. It's all been completely meaningless. I've just wasted my time with my religion. His faith is faltering. He's close to the place of abandoning ship, of giving up on God altogether. But he didn't. Because in the midst of his despair, God was there. The everlasting arms of God were underneath, upholding him. Help was at hand. But here in verse 13 we have the plethora of earthly troubles. Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning, he says. They, the ungodly, they are not troubled, he says. They are not in trouble as other men, verse 5, neither are they plagued like other men. But the man who serves God, Both clauses here in verse 13, of course, they define those of verse 1, truly God is good to Israel, that is to God's people, God's church, those who are of a clean heart, those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God, those, well, in New Testament terms, those who have been born again. motive and life are included here in verse 13. Cleansed my heart, the inner life, and washed my hands, the outer life. This is a man, Asaph, who is sincere, sincere in his motives. You see, we're not saved by works. We're clear about that. We're not saved by our own works, but we are saved to do work. Paul, he puts it in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 in this way, he says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. works of the good works that we get involved in as Christians because we've been saved by God's wonderful grace prove they testify to the reality and the sincerity of our faith if there is no good works. then we have to come to the conclusion, James tells us in chapter 2 of his letter, we have to come to the conclusion that the faith that's professed is utterly, is absolutely dead and useless. But the works we are engaged in, they witness to testify to the reality and to the sincerity of our faith. Now one of these works, one of these works, the very basic, the very least of them beloved, must truly be prayer, both private and public. And I would put the public before the private. Corporate prayer, praying together, is of much more importance than even our private praying. and coming together as a body of God's people and freshly, renewingly acknowledging our sins, praying to God that we would feel them more and more until there'd be no more show of them, while seeking God's aid in Jesus Christ, because as he says in John chapter 15 and verse 5, without me ye can do nothing. that we be brought to this place of coming to know and realize and understand that we can advance God's kingdom one iota without Jesus Christ. We are as much as God's people here this evening, we are in need of Jesus as much now as we were when we were first saved. You cannot love your husband or your wife the way you ought to without Jesus. You cannot witness, you cannot pray, I cannot preach without Jesus effectively and acceptably to God. You can do nothing, Jesus says, nothing without me. and seeking together an increase of grace and to be upheld by Him, seeking to be governed by Him in all matters, it's one thing, beloved, to say and to sing wholeheartedly even, Lord Jesus reign in me. But it's another thing, believe me, the accomplishing of it. Asaph, this godly man, this was his business. This was his business daily. He says in verse 13, verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, he says. Daily he cleanses his heart. How does he do it? He does it at the prayer meeting. He does it in his own private prayers. Lord, cleanse my heart. Sprinkle it with blood and cleanse it. And day by day, day by day he comes to the Lord, and he cleanses his heart in prayer. He brings his inner motives and attitudes to God. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 139, he cries out, Search me O God, know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. This was Esau every single day, but now he's come to the conclusion, it was all in vain. I wasted my time, he says. But you see, he's a God-fearing man. He's sincere. He wanted, he sincerely wanted to be blameless before God, and so he comes day by day, he comes in prayer to God Almighty, and he cleanses his heart. How are you, beloved? How are you in the business of prayer? Sincerity of life, he says, and washed my hands in innocency. The hands you see, that's the outward. He cleanses his heart, the inner attitudes and motives, and he reforms the outward. His hands represent his outward actions and his behaviour. The psalmist puts it again in Psalm 24, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in his holy place, he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. It's the same doctrine, it's the same teaching. One man, Pontius Pilate, he washed his hands in vain. But not the godly man, not Asaph. Asaph, he sought to frame his life by the law of God. Our confession of faith says in chapter 19 and verse 6, although true believers be not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be therefore justified, because we are justified by faith. or condemned, yet it is of great use to them, as well as to others, in that as a rule of life informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly, discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives, so as examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ and the perfection of his obedience. Beloved, the Christian, the Christian person who thinks that they are done with the Old Testament, that they are done with the law of God, the biblical law of God, believe me, will be unsanctified Christians. Because that's the very reason, the very purpose that God's law is given to us. It's the terms, it's the means by which God sanctifies us. No, Esau doesn't keep the law of God perfectly any more than you or I can do. But he's reaching unto perfection. He's seeking the secret and inner power of God to reach the place of a God-pleasing obedience. Seeking to uphold wickedness and the foolishness and corruption that he sees around him in the visible church and in society in general. Beloved, God's law, God's biblical law is the only way how you can come to know what is pleasing to God. How else would you know what idolatry was if God had not said in his law, thou shalt have no other gods before me. How would you know that it was wrong to slay a man and to take another person's life unlawfully if God did not say in His law, thou shalt not kill? How would you know that it's wrong in God's sight, in God's eyes to commit adultery? How would you know that such a thing is foolish and wrong in the sight of God if God hadn't said it in His law? Because the measure of our sanctification is not your mother's teaching, nor society's, but God's holy law, his moral code. But you see, this is Esau. This is Esau. I reform my life. I live according to thy law. I not only cleanse my heart, I wash it day by day, I seek your power, I seek your grace, and I wash my hands My behavior is dictated by your law. He speaks of a state of innocency here. The word would rather better be blameless because there's none innocent, not even the youngest child born into the world is innocent before God. Neither was Adam. As said, you know, both Eve and Adam, they knew the will of God. Some people, the earlier theologians, if you read some of their systematic theologies and such like, they speak about Adam and Eve being in a state of innocence. Well, that's wrong. That's the wrong word. They were in a righteous state. They were in a righteous condition. They were blameless before God, but they were not innocent. because Adam and Eve knew the will of God. Innocence suggests that they are uninformed. There was law in the Garden of Eden. There is always law. God's law word is always operative. And it was operative there in the Garden of Eden. God said to them quite clearly, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. So they knew. They knew God's law. and they broke God's law and they brought sin into the world. So they weren't innocent. And neither was Asaph. And neither is anybody else. Even the newest born child, born even this very night, five minutes ago, is not innocent before God. There's no such thing. Born conceived in sin. This refers rather to Asaph's moral character. He was blameless. But here's the trouble. He sought to arrange his heart and his life according to the righteousness of God, but he says it's all been in vain. It's all been for nothing. Because there's nothing but continual trouble. There's nothing but affliction day after day. It seems, only seems, it seems that God does not reward his faithfulness. He faithfully prays each day for the cleansing of his heart. He cleanses his heart. He reforms his outward behavior in life. He walks according to the law of God. But it seems that God does not care. It seems that God does not reward him for his faithfulness. All he sees is the prosperity of the wicked and godly. And they seem to be completely immune to the evils that he faces. And then, to cap it all, there's the plaguing of the Almighty, verse 14. For all the day long I have been plagued, he says, and chastened every morning. He is plagued as they are not, verse 5. He's smitten, he's stricken, he's corrected, he's reproved daily. Privation and distresses is all that he faces. Divinely assaulted. It's the only way you can put it. Lengthy description of the prosperity and the ease of the ungodly. And the short description of the trouble of the godly man mustn't cause us to minimize his troubles. They're grievous. He describes them here as plagues. He's plagued every morning, every day, and all the day long. Destructive evils that inflict in misery upon him. makes us think, doesn't it, about the plagues that God used to destroy Egypt? God does plague people, doesn't he? Troubles of the righteous are chastenings. He's right there. Beatings, if you like, or whippings, call them what you will. I mean, God says in Hebrews chapter 12 and verses 6 through 11 for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth if ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sons for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not but if ye be without chastisement we're off All are partakers, then, are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the fathers' spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after at their own pleasure. But he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness, and no chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. It's not that we're painting the life of the believer as being nothing but misery. That would not be realistic. There are times of much and of great pleasure and great gladness too. But the meaning is that there's always trouble close at hand. Because beloved, wherever the Lord is, believe me, there's always trouble. There's always trouble. And Asaph, he says, there's no let up. There's no relief. through his youth, through the middle ages, old age, one after the other. Sometimes one wave of sorrow comes crashing down upon another, and there are times where the pain is so intense, it's constant. It might be something from the past. A painful consequence that keeps coming back to mind, disturbing the memory. And the only relief the child of God gets from it is when he or she is asleep. But when they awake, it's back again in all its reality. And it all tempers the enjoyment and the pleasure of their believing life. But not so the wicked. They're not troubled. They're not plagued. They don't have these troubles. They couldn't care less. They don't think about heaven, they don't think about hell. These places don't exist to them. But of course, he's being divinely corrected. It's from God. And Asaph, he knows this right well. Just as he knew who prospered the wicked, it's you that's done it. You've put them, you've put them, he says, in a slippery place. Oh, he knows. He knows who's done it. The God-fearing Israelite never doubted the sovereignty of God for a minute. You see, denying God's sovereignty over evils, it never solves the problem of evil. Making excuses for God, beloved, is neither necessary nor wise. But it simply creates a God who is no God at all. A God who is powerless over evil is not the God of the scriptures. God takes and uses, he controls and he channels evil and sin and uses it to bring about his own purposes, even the sins of his own people. But wonderful, wonderful. Thank God for the Psalms, beloved. because the psalmist is so utterly honest. In Psalm 39 verse 9, he cries out, he says, I was dumb. I opened not my mouth because thou didst it. Thou didst it, he says. Sure doing, Lord. It's the Almighty's doing. It's Divinity that's doing it. You don't find the psalmist making excuses for God. He attributes it. He places the cause right where it belongs, at the feet of God, the Sovereign of the Universe. You didn't. But the troubles and the evils that befall Asaph, they're not judgment. They're not condemnation. It's not condemnation because of some specific presumptuous sin that he hasn't repented of. He knows full well that if he deliberately sins against God, that that will require severe judgment from God. If he deliberately sins and walks stubbornly against the Lord and out of the way, then he knows he can expect trouble. But that's not what he's speaking about here. He's plagued all the day long. Daily and all the day long, verse 14, for all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning. The severity of his troubles is heightened and indicated by the duration of them and the repetition of them. The psalmist in verse 13, he says he sanctifies himself inwardly, he corrects himself outwardly, he obeys the law of God as much as is in him to do so, but still the plagues come. In spite of his godliness, the heavy blows continue to fall upon him, And the knowledge is with them all the time, that with the ungodly, with the wicked, there is no trouble, they are completely at ease, everlastingly at ease. And it makes this experience unbearable. It appeared to him, it seemed to him, that God blessed, that God graced, that God prospered his enemies while he plagued, while he beat, while he whipped his covenant righteous friends. And he's at an end of himself. My feet were almost gone. I nearly slipped, he said. This was the powerful temptation. Verses 15 and 16, if I say I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. Reality, the realities of life are too much for many people. That's why many of them, they turn to alcohol. They turn to drugs because it numbs the reality. Some people, they turn to, well, they turn to all kinds of things. Some people live in, some people live in a film world. They live in a celluloid world, you know? They get themselves steeped in soaps, as they call them, you know, and Hollywood movies, and escape from reality, anything, anything but face reality. Because reality is too much for them. and the reality of the psalmist's situation becomes so very dangerous. A powerful, powerful temptation upon the godly in any day and generation, as did Asaph here, because he nearly stumbles his own self. If I say I will speak thus, behold, I shall offend against the generations of thy children. The temptation, this temptation is able to do what others fail to do. The temptation to pride is one thing. The temptation to set your heart upon riches. Temptations of a variety come to God's people, God's children in every day and generation. The temptation to sexual lust. All of these put together can't accomplish what this one can do. To abandon ship. to give up cleansing his heart and washing his hands, because that's the temptation. Beloved, don't minimize it. This man is an extremely, extremely dangerous place. That's why we ever, always need to guard our hearts. Careful what you say. He was close to abandoning ship. He was close to giving up cleansing his heart and washing his hands. That means he was about to give up the life of holiness. That means he was about to give up any thought of living the life of discipleship. Overcome by this, he would become bitter and despondent. He would be utterly and completely destroyed. His feet, verse two, would be gone. Spiritually, he would be no more. giving up on God. But he confesses, verse 22, later on, when his eyes were opened, he confesses, I was foolish, I was ignorant, I was stupid, I was like a brute beast before you, he says. But is that the reason why the godly live holy lives? That they might obtain riches? According to the prosperity teachers, that's so. But is it? Is not that prosperity teaching something of which we've tasted of this evening? Is that not blatant heresy? And these poor wretches that suffer as a result of it. We don't live godly lives so that we can obtain riches. so that we can prosper in this earthly scene? Is this brief span that we have, this breath of life, this short, short time that we have on planet Earth, is it just prosperity? Is it just the material things of this world? Is that all that's important to the godly man? Perishing earthly goods, are they so, are they that vital? He's unwittingly answered his own problem. He says, all day long, I've been chastened. I've been chastened, he says. God was chastening him. God was correcting him, God was smiting him, God was striking him, but God was correcting and God was working in him his purposes for holiness. And then here in verse 13-15 he refers to the generation of thy children, the godly, the godly. It's because that he's loved of God. That's the proof. Because he's being chastened, because he's being stricken by the Almighty, because he's being corrected, that's the proof that he is a child of God. That's the proof, that's the demonstration that he's not an illegitimate, but he truly belongs to God because he is being smitten and plagued by the Almighty. The ungodly, they don't belong. And that's why they're not troubled. That's why they're not chastened. That's why they're not plagued like other men. That's why they're at ease and comfortable. Even in the face of death they don't care. Because there's no such place as hell in their minds. They're hardened in their sinful, wicked and prosperous course. and they're not just left to it, but they're divinely propelled towards such. God puts them in the slippery place and he pushes them down the chute. There are times, beloved, in our Christian experience of grievous disappointment, shattering loss, devastating evil, and we cry within ourselves. And I emphasize within. We cry within ourselves. I want out, God. I want out. I want to quit. I want to be free of this. Stop the world and let me get off. But it stays in here. It stays in here. You see, when we speak about an argument against common grace towards the wicked, towards the ungodly, this is not just a theological novelty. This is not just an academic question. There is a theological debate about this. Men argue. They argue both sides of it. Yes, there is such a thing as common grace, say some. Others say there's not. But you see, it's not just an academic exercise. It's very, very practical indeed. If you say that God is gracious to the wicked, to the ungodly, to the prosperous wicked, then where does that put the godly? Where does that put Asaph? Where does that put the suffering servant? Where does that put the suffering saint of God? He keeps it inside. He keeps it inside. Listen, if I say, if I say he didn't say, but if I say, if I say, I will speak thus. Behold, I should offend against the generation of my children. He not only stumbles himself, but he'll stumble other believers. If he verbalizes his complaint, he's going to do damage to other believers. He's going to infect others with poison. If I say, he says, amongst the children of thy generation, I will damage the church. If he goes about telling others, who also may be under, unknown to him, may also be under some kind of affliction, may be going through some kind of a trial completely unknown to Asaph, and he goes to them with his complaints against the Almighty, it might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back and destroys his brother or sister. We talked in this morning's sermon about those ungodly wretches in the days of Moses that went about creating dissension amongst God's people, prattling against Moses and his leadership, prattling against the doctrine, this is wrong, don't agree with that, don't agree with the other. And God consumed them with fire. Why? Because they were poisoning the whole church. They were poisoning weaker believers. They were bringing them down. They were destroying them. And believe me, God does not take that lightly. He could have fatally, if he had spoken, if he had spoken everything that was in his mind. I always speak my mind, you see. Well, that's all well and good, so long as what's in your mind is good. Sometimes it's better just to shut up. Because Asaph, if he had spoken, he could have fatally stumbled another believer. And that would have been betrayal, that would have been treason. There might have been a weaker believer. Weak because he or she is ignorant. maybe untaught, maybe not had the same opportunities as Asaph had for ministry. There could be many, many, many reasons for weakness amongst another believer. Paul speaking in terms of idolatry and meat offered to idols, he says, and through thy knowledge, shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, wouldn't a weak conscience ye sin against Christ? Whereof, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend. Paul says, I will never, rather than cause my brother stumble. I would rather never never eat meat again as long as I lived. The God-fearing man or woman never lets their doubts run to the verbal, never publishes them abroad, never runs from one to the other in the congregation. God hasn't done this and God hasn't done the other. Doesn't mean that we're not to seek help from some godly person or godly minister. But the best place, the best place to find help, to seek help, is where Asaph found it, prayerfully, on his knees, taking them into the sanctuary of the Lord amongst the generation of thy children, there, there, and the congregation there in the presence of God in the sanctuary, asking God to make the situation clear. He ponders the matter in his heart, and then he goes to God. He doesn't speak it out. He doesn't verbalize it. He doesn't cause others to stumble. Oh, beloved, the supreme depths of God's providence. Verse 16, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. Oh, the inscrutable, the impenetrable depth, the nature and providence of God. Paul, he says, oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. The word painful means troublesome, grievous, travail. How troublesome. How troublesome are your ways. to the human, the human, the frail human being, that is. But even if good men, even if godly men fall and stumble over the events of God's providence, events that no mortal can explain, without the revelation of God beloved, we would be confounded. But God has given us His revelation. God has revealed His being and character. He has revealed His mind to us in the entirety of Scriptures, in the Old and New Testaments, that we might learn of Him and learn what He is like. So that we might not be shipwrecked, so that we might not be confounded. So that men like Asaph and we too, that we can rise higher and seek illumination from God. Open up thy word to me, show me wonderful things that I've not yet known. From heaven. Verse 16 is an unfinished sentence, and it naturally leads into verse 17, which we'll come to next week, or sorry, the week after. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. Where he got help. the help that he needed there in the sanctuary of God. But oh beloved, the things of this world, the prosperity of the ungodly and the wicked, oh don't be taken up with these things. Don't be sidetracked. Don't be diverted away from the Lord, even though your way may be hard, even though it may be lonely, or even though there may be many plagues and much affliction. I stood in Hanley City Centre this week on Thursday I think it was. Sometimes I just stand there for a while and I just watch the people, you know, going about their business. And I see them buying and selling like there's no tomorrow. You wouldn't think the shops are going to be open the next day. And I look at their faces I see them, they're so greedy and so avaricious and so full and yet so utterly and completely empty. Beloved, there is no life there, no life at all. Doubtless, listen, utterly and absolutely doubtless, truly, truly, God is good. Verily, verily, I say unto you, God is good to Israel. God is good to his children. God is good to those who are of a pure heart, those who wash themselves daily, those who cleanse their hearts daily, and those who cleanse their hands, who reform their lives according to the revelation of God. Truly God is good to Israel and He cares infinitely for His people. His concern is so great for them. So great for them. He will not allow any harm to come to them. And His greatest concern for them is for their holiness. And God puts that way, way above happiness. Because without holiness, beloved, None of us, none of us shall see the Lord. But it's in His presence, in His sanctuary. It's in the presence of God. That's the place, beloved, don't forsake the presence. Don't forsake the sanctuary of God because it's there in the presence of God that the clouds of unbelief and doubt will disappear, will vanish. where God will reveal himself and his true love, and that which truly matters for the child of God. Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Amen.