Please take your Bibles and turn with me this evening to the book of Psalms. Direct your attention to Psalm 141, and we'll be considering verse five. Psalm 141, which is a Psalm of David. Focusing our attention on verse five. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness. And let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head. For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. No man is an island, just as no member of the body can survive separated from the rest of the body. The Lord calls men and women and boys and girls into his church and into the communion of saints. And He has designed it such that we would be knit together in the joints and sinew in order that we might be built up to a whole man. And we need all of the members of the body contributing through the ministry of the Spirit, the exercise of their graces, for the edification of all others. And so this is essential. And that life, in terms of the communion of the saints, consists of innumerable components and aspects of our practice and daily experience. But among them is included this matter of reproof, and it is reproof that is highlighted especially in this particular verse. You'll notice that the psalm opens with David describing some measure of distress. He is crying out unto the Lord, and as you continue to read or sing, you discover that that cry, among other things, is over his concern for holiness. amid the wicked who are around him. And so that includes, for example, self-watch, watching oneself. You see that, for example, in verse 3, said, A watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the doors of my lips, incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men. that work iniquity. Let me not eat of their dainties." So there's self-watch, a reference to the mouth, a reference to the heart, a reference to practice and appetites. All of this is expressive of this concern for holiness. But he's also conscious that it's not just self-watch, that there are others who also are helpers in watching us as well. And so he goes on in verse 5 to our text, let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil." Notice there, it's especially the righteous and their ministry to him, the benefit that he derives from them. And so the theme this evening from this verse has to do with receiving reproof. And I'll just note that in the circulation of the bulletin, you will have also received a two-page double column document that I've created that sort of serves as a backdrop to some of this and gives you a lot more detail. It's broader in scope than we're covering this evening, but I would commend that to your further studies. But our focus here under the ordinance of preaching is in verse 5. We're going to note three things. First of all, we'll begin with receiving reproofs. So this idea of receiving reproofs. Let the righteous smite me, he says. And this word smite is used elsewhere to describe the stroke of a hammer on an anvil. And so it is something of a severe stroke when he says, let the righteous smite me. And yet he acknowledges that it is a kindness to him, that he perceives it, despite the sharpness, as a mercy. And then he says, let them rebuke me, the righteous man rebuke me. Here it's the idea, reprove me, reprove, rebuke, reprimand. That's the notion that's here. He says, All of that will be as an excellent oil to me. And so the striking is actually explained in what follows by the reproving. Striking is not literally beating someone in this instance, but it's descriptive, metaphorically, of being reproved. And we recognize, I trust, I think, that a reproof is directed A reproof is always directed, or should always be directed, to a perceived fault or sin in our lives. So reproof doesn't pertain to matters of indifference, whether you wear your watch on your left wrist or on your right wrist, or something else that's non-consequential, that's indifferent morally. No, a reproof is directed to a perceived fault or sin in our lives. In the Lord's economy, it is a correction that is aimed at recovering someone. The goal is rescue. The goal in a righteous man who's exercising godliness in his reproof, the whole goal is to recover someone from waywardness, from miscarriage, from a sinful fault. So there is a kindness in all of the promptings behind the reproof in a righteous man. There is kindness behind it, and no doubt, therefore, it is received, as David says, as a kindness. And so a reproof is never something needless. It's not something that you could, well, kind of take or not take, something needless. It's something that comes when duty requires it. when it is a matter of duty before the Lord. And you see this, for example, in the law in Leviticus chapter 19, where in verse 17 it says, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. So it is hateful to leave him in sin, loving to seek to recover him from sin, allow him to go in a path that will be injurious to him. So love for his soul desires to prevent injury to his soul. And we recognize, should recognize, not every fault and not every sin is to be reproved by another person. So we're not to be looking for everything, but rather win wisdom warrants it, and when love and tenderness accompany it, in keeping with the dictates and the bounds of Scripture." Now, we're not speaking this evening in this text on the side of the reprover. That would require a whole other body of truths to govern what is it that is to inform and shape and control and everything else one who undertakes to reprove someone. So that's something else. Here this evening, we're focused on the receiving end, on how it is that we are to receive such reproofs. And reproofs, even when they sting, are a kindness. Indeed, a kindness above the pleasures of sin. Notice how it comes right after these words, and let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me. He's saying this kindness, this excellent oil, is esteemed above all of the pleasures of sin. Think about that, right? The experiences that can be had with sin that bring pleasure. The attractiveness, the satisfaction, however temporary, that a person may have in that gluttony, drunkenness, whatever it is. And David is saying, well, the fool will consider those things attractive, and the fool will look upon a rebuke as something to be avoided at all costs. David's saying it's actually the reverse. He's saying, away with the sinful pleasures, give me what would appear to hurt, but what nevertheless is a sweetness to me, is a kindness to me, is like an excellent oil to me. Well, recognizing that means, by consequence, that scorning a godly reproof hurls us toward self-destruction, to scorn a godly reproof. The Bible talks about this, doesn't it? Those who scorn reproofs. That hurls us toward self-destruction. When a righteous man, righteous person, reproves us, It is because of a due sense of love and a due desire to help, and with it also a due sense of danger and of evil. And there is prompted from all of that an attempt to recover. And so it's accompanied with wisdom, and it's accompanied with humility, and it's accompanied with winsomeness. When a righteous man reproves us, we should consider both the reprover and the reproof itself. When it's a righteous man, we should consider both the reprover and the reproof. In other words, we think to ourselves, this is a godly person. This is a person to be esteemed. This is a person I respect. This is a person who walks with the Lord. This is a person who loves souls and loves others more than themselves. That brings with it weight that then enables us helps us in receiving the reproof. But we're also to receive, we're also to consider the reproof itself. And I highlight that because by way of contrast, if an unrighteous person reproves us, then what? If an unrighteous person reproves us, we don't consider the reprover, but we still consider the reproof. So there's no weight in their character or person, carriage, whatever. But their reproof can still be considered, rightly considered, as to whether it has merit in it in one degree or another. And so there's weight in who's saying it, and there's weight in what is said. And you recognize this is, for example, putting weight in who is saying it. Well, we heard on the Lord's Day from Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17, we're to obey and submit to those, you know, who have the rule over us. And then the Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3 and in Titus 2, for example, and elsewhere, about the elder's responsibility to reprove. that indeed this is part of what God calls them to when it's warranted with wisdom and in a godly spirit, it's part of their responsibilities. And so if we're being reproved in that context, well then it should come with divine weight because it's coming accompanied with divine ordinance from the Lord. Likewise, children, the Lord has given to you parents and he says, honor your father and your mother. When your parents come to reprove you, it should be taken with significant weight because of their position as superior and your position as inferior and in terms of their unique relationship to you as your parents. And parents, you're to remember that the Lord has given you both reproof and the rod, right? The use of the rod without the accompanying reproof is far less edifying and fruitful. And there's many times when there's reproof without the use of the rod. This is important for us. And so that's an example, parents reproving their children. But then, of course, you have all these examples throughout the New Testament of members reproving one another. You get it in Romans 15 and 1 Thessalonians 5 and Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 12 and elsewhere. and that we're to exhort one another daily while it's cold today. last through the deceitfulness of our own hearts. Our hearts are hardened, and so on. And so, there is a relationship there in terms of equals to one another. And yet, mutual love as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, watching one another's backs. And then there's, of course, reproofs that can come from general people, people that we don't have maybe an immediate connection with. And this can even come from a righteous person out of common love. You know, if a person were to blaspheme and a stranger were to check them, that's a mercy. Even though it's someone who doesn't know them well, right, that's still a mercy. There's a mercy in that. And so there's weight in who. There's also weight in what. What is being said? The matter, the content, the reproof itself. And this can become very seemingly complicated because the reproof can be true in matter of fact. It's accurate. It's spot on. Or it can be false. It's a false accusation or a reproof. Misinformation. wrongly imputed motives, or many other things. But there can also be a mix of all of that. You can have a person who says the right thing in the right way. You can have a person who says the right thing in a wrong way. You can have a person who says a false thing in a right way. but it's false. You can have a person say a false thing, obviously in a wrong way. And so all of that sort of mixes in circumstances in which we find ourselves. And we have to sort the content of what's being said. So when Eliab, David's brother, rebukes him, what are you doing here? This is at the time of Goliath. You shouldn't be here. You should be back herding the sheep. You're just here because you're full of pride, and you want to be nosy, and so on and so forth. Well, none of that was true. He's rebuking his younger brother, and it's false, both his manner and the content. David answers accordingly or you think of Peter who rebukes our Lord Wrong both in content and in his reasoning and motivation and so on and So there's there's complexity to it. We recognize that but the complexity doesn't isn't of such a nature that we cannot easily draw clarity out of it. If a person comes and rebukes us for something false, for example, someone could say that something that is biblically a matter of duty, a person could rebuke us. for engaging in that duty. Well, that would be wrong. That would be wrong for them to rebuke us for doing what is actually a lawful, holy duty before the Lord, an explicit conformity to the law of God. So when something is false, whatever the case is, There are a number of things that we're able to do, so we recognize the content of what we're being rebuked for is actually not true. In those instances, we can ask ourselves, what greater sins do we have than what they've charged us with? Okay, well, in this particular instance, it may not be perfectly right, but you know what? There are bigger sins. that needed rebuke, and the fact that I'm being rebuked is giving me opportunity to reflect on those. We profit from it. If it's false, we have to be very careful to acknowledge that the fact that it's false is not of ourselves, that it's only by the grace of God and only through the intervention of the ministry of the Spirit that that's the case. And if we're not guilty, it still serves as a warning lest we become guilty of it. It's a good reminder. The thing that I've just been wrongly rebuked for, nevertheless, perhaps a good reminder if they're rebuking us for, in an instance where they're rebuking us for something we didn't actually do, but if we had, it would have been wrong. Well, then it's a good reminder to us to be careful to avoid that wrong, that sin. If a person is rebuking us, and it's not in malice, that's a whole other category, we should peaceably undertake a resolution. So it's appropriate at times for someone who's righteous and they're well-meaning and they're loving and trying to be of help to us, then we're quite capable of peaceably explaining what it is that they have misunderstood, whatever is inaccurate, in order to clarify that and to bring it to resolution, which they would welcome and be grateful for. But if what we're being reproved for is true, then we should be thankful to the Lord for the deliverance. You know, we often think in terms of a reproof being extremely difficult to receive. And it is, but the reason it is, is because of our pride, and because of our self-centeredness, and because of our lack of the fear of God, and because of our unbelief, and because of a whole host of other things. That's why it's difficult. When a godly person is reproving us in a godly way, They're actually giving to us answer to prayer. They're the one whom we've sought the Lord. We want to grow. We want to walk in His ways. We want to please Him. We want to see sin mortified and so on. And then the Lord sends along help. You would think we should welcome that hope as sent from the Lord, as an answer to prayer, as a token of good, or as David says, as a kindness and an excellent oil. We welcome light that is being shed into our life. Obstinacy is a rejection of light. obstinacy and resistance is in fact a retreat into darkness. We need to be thankful to the Lord for help, for deliverance. If a person's rebuke is true, but their manner is wrong, attitude, spirit, carriage, whatever, well, they're culpable for that, and they have to answer to the Lord for that. That's not excusable before the Lord in terms of their own sin. But you, who are receiving the rebuke, can still receive great profit, right? You can still get the sweet raspberry, which has been plucked from amid all of those prickly thorns. You still get it. You're able to extract it from the packaging in which it's come. Because at the end of the day, they're right and it's true. And that's what I need and that's what I want by the grace of God. This is a help to me. So there's this business of receiving reproves. But then secondly, reasons. Reasons to receive them. David says, which shall not break my head." They're actually reproofs or a cure to our weaknesses. As I said a moment ago, they're an answer to our prayers. They are granting us what we want most. For the believer, granting us what we want most. You've been there, you've sat under a sermon and the Lord is coming to you and he's confronting you and addressing you, or you're reading in your Bible, in your own closet, and you're reading along and the Lord brings the sting of the rod through his word. And how many times, believer, have you found it to be absolutely loaded with healing? That there is more salve than there is wound in it. That true, our conscience is pricked, and there's pain in that. And there's a sense of humiliation that comes as a result of it, and there's some pain in that. But in the end, you bless God for it. that he has exposed something, that he has brought something to light, that he has enabled you to take steps forward in his own grace. Even the law of nature teaches us the wholesomeness of a righteous rebuke. because the law of nature teaches us of the necessity, the obligation, the duty we have to rescue those who are in peril. I mean, if you see someone, you know, who's in a car that's on fire and you have the ability to pull them from the car, you're duty bound to do so. And everyone has a sense of that, to do what can be done to rescue someone from peril. And there's something here. There's something worse than being in a car on fire. It's for your soul to be on fire. It's for your life to be on fire, ignited through our own loss and sins. But it's not just the law of nature. The law of Scripture gives this to us, as we've seen. The Lord calls calls us into a body and circumstances where there's exhortation, where there's consolation, where there's comfort, where there's words of encouragement, where there's joy and cheer that is brought to our hearts, and exhortations to press onward and upward and to strengthen our hearts and hands, and there's warnings. And there's reproofs, and they're all indispensable as part of the package that the Lord's given to us in His great love. How often throughout the annals of history has a righteous rebuke been a means of preventing serious peril? You read about them in biographies and in church history. How often has a righteous rebuke been the thing the Lord used to actually result in the conversion of a soul? We read about those as well. How often has a righteous rebuke been used to rescue a backslider or delivered a person from acute temptations? There are examples in our own life of these things. And so we need to mortify a hasty, reactive spirit. A hasty, reactive spirit. What often happens is, you know, a person can come and they can, you know, the poor person who's bringing the reproof. In the case of a godly person, a righteous person, right, they're sweating buckets. This is the last thing on the planet that they want to do. It's like with a parent so often. The last thing they want to do is to discipline a child. It takes so much work and emotional energy and it's exhausting and all that goes with it. They would rather let it lie, you know, in laziness. but in fidelity to the Lord, they pursue it, they seek it. So it is in a person giving a proof to be excruciatingly difficult for them, all the vulnerabilities of risking alienation, damaging relationship, some sort of, you know, the emotional difficulties that come with it and so on. And yet, we are often in a position where we will spot any, even the most minuscule imperfection in either the matter or the manner in which the reproof comes to us, and then make it a cause for rancor and dispute and all sorts of other things. Shame heaped upon shame for such a disposition rather than a quiet and meek spirit, and a gentle frame, and a willingness to be given help and direction, to see our blind spots. If someone else doesn't tell us, by definition, we don't see our blind spots. Those are the things we don't see. That's why we call them blind spots. Well, if we can't see them and don't see them, how will we ever see them unless someone else sees them and tells us? We're dependent on others, those whom we love and trust and are close to us and who have skill in these things. We need to be aware of pride and of self-conceit, of holding others in contempt. The problem is someone reproves us and we think, well, no one's wiser than I am. They're not wiser than me. Listen to yourself speak. No one's better than me. Seriously. I mean, we may not be able to choke those words out, but certainly they have gone through the mind. And yet it's that pride that Proverbs warns us against, right? Pride. Cast out the proud man, contention ceases. Contention brews. Contention is inflamed. Contention is carried on by the proud. Get rid of the proud, and there is no contention. So it is here. Fire feeds fire. And so if a person comes and they're haughty in their manner, in which they bring reproof, which is not acceptable, but their pride ignites your pride, just as fire fuels fire. But if the Lord gives grace, To walk with humility, that pride can be put out with the water of humility, at least in our own souls. Not ignited, not provoked. We need to be aware of prejudice and suspicion, dislike for people. Not everyone clicks with us as well as everyone other people do. And there may be barriers there that we need to be aware of in our own hearts and minds. We need to keep our souls sensible, sensible of our own frailties, sensible of our own weaknesses, sensible of our own sins, sensible of our neediness, our need for all of the Lord's visitations, all of the tools that the Lord has furnished us with, all of the ways in which he comes to deal with us, to help us, to drive us closer to himself, all of the ways in which he preserves our souls. We need to be sensible of our neediness for all of them. Not just, I'll take the sweet consolations. You can't live on ice cream as much as some of us would love to. We need more to our spiritual diet than all of that. A humble soul is a hearing soul. A soul who will hear, weigh before the Lord what is said, what needs to be said to us. Thirdly then, building on this, reaping the benefit, David says that it shall be a kindness, it shall be an excellent oil. It shall not break my head. We need to see the reproof of the righteous as given in a way of duty. If we recognize that another person is actually doing their duty, what the Lord requires of them, that helps remove some of the offense. A person is actually doing what God has required of them in terms of their duty. There's something in my life that warrants a reproof and is of significant moment that it needs to be addressed. We can't fault someone for doing their duty if indeed they're doing it as under the Lord. The Lord requires at times, and the Lord therefore sins at times these reproofs. And for the righteous to neglect it would be for the righteous to hate us. You're accustomed to this, for example, in the preaching of the Word. In our circles, no one would expect for the pulpit to never confront sin, right? You wouldn't be here if it were a congregation where the pulpit never confronts sin. You're conscious that this is part of how the Lord works with us. Yes, he gives us promises and encouragements and comforts us and strengthens us in all sorts of ways. He also checks us. He also reproves us. In the ministry of the word, he confronts us. He puts his finger on sins. So we're accustomed to that. We recognize it as the Lord loving us in those circumstances. Well, so it is when the righteous reprove us. They're actually loving us more than they love themselves in their willingness to do what is difficult for them, as well as difficult for us. If it's their duty to reprove us, then it's our duty to hear it, receive it, and profit from it. Two duties that are brought together. Because if reproofs are not improved, then our sins are aggravated. If we receive a reproof and we're not responding in a sanctified way to benefit from it, then we're actually adding another evil. You have the evil for which you are being reproved, and now you have an additional evil of refusing to improve the reproof itself. Compound it. Our guilt is increased. Our conscience can be seared. Our hearts can be hardened under such things. No, we have to be brought into conformity with the word of truth. What saith the Lord? At the end of the day, what saith the Lord? That's the standard, that's the test, that's the goal, the desire. not what I am or what I want, but what the Lord says. And whenever the Lord brings through whatever vehicle he brings it, his word of truth to our hearts, his standard, his directory, then the Lord is bringing us gold. And in that sense, if you can see it this way, if you're looking, looking, looking, you're on the lookout humbly for the Lord's light, and the Lord's truth, and the Lord's word, and you're listening to sermons, reading your Bible, reading good books, so on and so forth, you're on the hunt to be able to see as God sees, to think as God thinks. Then when the Lord brings a righteous reprover, in order to hand deliver to you some of that light and truth, there's a sense in which you can remove the reprover altogether in your mind. They can be, as it were, the vehicle, the mechanism, can in a sense be taken out of your mind and realize you're dealing directly with the Lord himself. It's the Lord you're dealing with. It's the Lord's word. It's the Lord's truth. that's being brought home to your own bosom. That can be a great aid to the Lord's people, because few of the Lord's people are unwilling to deal with the Lord himself. We'll deal with the Lord. So if the Lord wants my attention, the Lord wants to instruct me, the Lord has a word for me, the Lord needs to humble me, the Lord needs to confront something in me, we want to hear from Him. Think of it in terms of dealing directly with the Lord Himself. Keeping your soul constantly sensitive to the reproofs of God in His word. If, under preaching, in your Bible reading, your soul is constantly sensitive to the reproofs of God coming to you through His Word, then your soul will be in a readiness to receive reproofs from the righteous when necessary, whether that's your elders or your parents' children or your brothers and sisters in the congregation whom you trust and love and know and respect. You're made tender. You're made watchful. You're made moldable. through your attentiveness to the scriptures themselves. You're accustomed to the Lord bringing his word of reproof to you. And so when it comes through a righteous man, whatever form, you take it just like you take it. off the pages of Holy Scripture in your reading. And so the believer is the beneficiary. This is the whole point that we're taught to sing in this psalm. The believer is the beneficiary. The believer is the one who goes away with something. You could say, in a sense, that if the righteous man has done his duty against all of his inclinations and against all of the desires of his flesh, he goes away with a sense of having done his duty. But the one who receives the reproof of the righteous carries away the payload. They're the ones who actually are the great beneficiary. They're the ones who are receiving the kindness. They're the ones who are carrying away the invaluable, expensive, excellent oil. They're the ones whose lives are directly and significantly improved through the help that has been given to them. And that's how we're to see it. We're to be thankful that the Lord puts righteous people in our lives, godly people in our lives, humble people in our lives, loving people in our lives, who want to help us in all of the ways that we want it most. To serve the Lord, walk with the Lord, please the Lord, and so on. It comes, obviously, the text is speaking of a righteous man who rebukes us. We have the immature who think that they're, you know, God's appointed messengers or have little to no experience and yet think they're, you know, accomplished professional theologians and whatever else. It takes a great deal of patience at times and bearing with, you know, such. But even there, you know, the Lord gives us opportunity to glean and to benefit from things that they just might happen to get right every once in a while. And sometimes our critics see us better than ourselves, and even though there's little that is to be commended in how they criticize, it's not to say that we can't take away what nuggets the Lord brings to light through them. But the whole business of The reproving in, how is it that a mature and godly and seasoned and exercised person actually carries out reproofs, will be a matter that we would have to take up on another occasion and from another text. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness. Let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head. For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. Let's stand for prayer. O Lord, our God in heaven, how thankful we are for the depths of infinite love that does not leave us to ourselves, but pursues us through the Word of God, who keeps us on that narrow path that leads to life. We're thankful, O Lord, for the sting of the rod, the word of reproof, and all of the ways in which we have been delivered from our own folly and self-destructive ways. We're thankful, O Lord, that a word in season has been sent to us from time to time as an aid. We pray, O God, grant that we would be growing in our maturity and ability to receive such reproofs and to improve them and benefit from them to the everlasting good of our invaluable souls. O Lord, help us, strengthen us, all for the glory of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.