And we're gonna be reading from Psalm 11, if you would turn in your Bibles there. By the way, I forgot my Bible and I picked this up out of the lost and found, so if you recognize it, pick it up afterwards. Psalm 11, and we're gonna read the whole Psalm. This is a Psalm that I think helps to connect chapters 16, 17, and 18 of 2 Samuel very well. To the chief musician, a psalm of David, in the Lord I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain, for look, the wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow on the string that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyelids, behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals, fire and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness, His countenance beholds the upright. Amen. Father, we thank You for this, Your Word. We pray that You would help us to not only understand it, but to love Your truth, to adjust our lives to it, and to be sanctified by it. We commit this time to You as we continue to worship and pray for Your anointing. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. I've titled today's sermon, Escaping from Escapism, an Apparent Contradiction, in order to highlight a tension that some people have felt between 2 Samuel chapter 16 where David is the one who initiates a flight from Jerusalem and Psalm 11 where David is resisting the efforts of others to get him to flee. So escaping escapism seems to be contradictory, just like Psalm 11 and 2 Samuel 16 seem to be in contradiction with each other. Now, I hope by the end of the sermon you'll see there's absolutely no contradiction whatsoever. There is a difference between a tactical retreat and escapism. and various types of diversions. We're hopefully in the process we're going to be examining something I've not really examined before and that is what is the balance between being a diligent person in terms of responsibilities and engaging in diversions. There are some people who resist involvement in any games or any entertainment or movies or other kinds of diversion. They say that it is escapism. Now they're using the term escapism kind of loosely because there is a sense in which those things can be a diversion or an escape from the stresses of life. But is that really any different than David when he was feeling overwhelmed running to the Lord through music or Jesus telling His disciples to come aside by themselves for a while in the desert. and to refresh themselves. They were taking a break, but even though it was an escape from something temporarily, I am not defining it as escapism, though some people do. If you take a look in your outlines, you will see three definitions of escapism from the dictionary. The first one I found is avoiding reality through diversions. Second definition, refusal to embrace responsibility through such diversions. In other words, you've got homework that you need to do or you've got other responsibilities, but rather than doing that, you watch TV all day or you play games all day. But the emphasis there is on irresponsibility. Or the third definition, a refusal to recognize danger and naively hoping for the best. That's another kind of escapism. You can see a picture in there of two ostriches their head in the sand. You know, that's not going to help the ostriches at all escape from the lion. It'll actually make matters worse. So the three definitions, avoiding reality through diversions, refusal to embrace responsibility through diversion, or refusal to recognize danger and naively hope for the best. Now with those three definitions in mind, I think you can see that there is a big difference between escapism, which is what Psalm 11 deals with, and escape, which is what 2 Samuel chapter 16 deals with. Tactical retreat is not escapism. Resting your mind and your body for a period of time is not escapism. okay relaxing with music over a cigar is not escapism spending an hour in prayer to retain a composure is not escapism I debated I'm always debating which Psalms do I include because we've skipped over a lot of Psalms and do I skip over all 17 Psalms that were written in this period between 2 Samuel 16 and 2 Samuel 18 but I really thought that this one not only helps us to understand the dynamics of what were going on between these chapters but I think it'll help us to have a balance on some of the debates even in reform circles there's debates on this subject I think there are there is a lot of legalism going on on this issue out there and I think there is a legitimate place for Escape, whether literal or metaphorical, even though the Bible is against all forms of escapism. To those who want to give up on our culture, they throw up their hands, they want to retreat into a ghetto, I would quote the American musician Alan Soporta, who said, the best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. Okay? You don't solve a problem by ignoring it. Ignoring it is escapism, but there is a sense in which you can escape from a problem by solving it. Now, to those who are on the other end of the extreme and who are so driven by performance that they think, they feel guilty about entering into any entertainment or fiction or music or relaxation, they think that's sinful escapism, I would quote C.S. Lewis who said, there can be intemperance in work just as in drink. for when people started criticizing his literature, that's just escapism. He responded, well, would you rather be chained by the driven expectations of other people? And he was trying to press them in their workaholism and their drivenness and duty to realize that there really is a place to escape from those kinds of things. I think there are some people who are so driven by duty that if they had been there in the first century when Jesus told His disciples to come aside by yourselves into the wilderness, spend some time all alone, they would have felt guilty. I mean, you're not doing anything useful in that desert except for to rest, which of course is very useful, right? C.S. Lewis' friend, Tolkien, responded to the same charge that escape is never legitimate by asking, well, what class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with and hostile to the idea of escape? And he gave the obvious answer, jailers. If you're in jail, you're going to want to escape, right? It's a perfectly legitimate desire to escape from that bondage. And so hopefully this sermon will be a helpful interchange on the difference between escape and an ungodly attitude of escapism. Now, first of all, in your outlines, this is point number one, faith is contrary to both escapism and presumption. And the reason for that is because it takes its marching orders from all of the scripture, not just from one verse. Okay, here he says in verse one, in the Lord I put my trust. It's a holistic trust in God and everything that he stands for, not just one little verse that's taken out of context. And that phrase there is the underlying theme throughout this psalm. How can you say, flee as a bird to your mountain, when I've put my trust in the Lord? But on the other hand, faith is also contrary to presumption. In 2 Samuel 16 through 18, David avoided both of those extremes. And I think this psalm beautifully lays the groundwork for what we're going to be looking at in the future. He immediately left Jerusalem because he knew if he stayed holed up in that city, he would endanger the lives of everyone in that city. It's extremely unlikely that he would have won the victory from that city because Absalom could have just starved them out. It would have been presumption for him to stay there. And so David sought to find a place to battle that would be far away from the population where there would not be as much collateral damage. He was thinking of the best strategic ways to win. And I think in this he stands as a caution to people nowadays who act like they've got faith when in reality it's presumption. And I think a great illustration of this was the children's crusades of 1212, I think it was 1212 A.D., where there was a guy by the name of Nicholas, very articulate young man who led 30,000 children on a crusade to the Middle East, you know, to liberate the Holy Land. And in going out there, he thought, if we just trust the Lord, that the Lord is going to win the battles. But they did not take any of the precautions that needed to be taken. They had a great goal. Part of their goal was to win the Islamic hordes. And then they said the battles against the jihadists would be won. But These guys hadn't thought through how to get to the Middle East in one piece. Absolutely no logistics. And they hadn't thought through what they were going to do once they got there. So it really was not faith, it was presumption. And a lot of these people were actually captured and sold into slavery. It was really a tragic, tragic story, a lot of these young boys. But one of the things, Nicholas thought that God was going to part the sea for them and they'd just be able to walk over. And when they got there and nothing happened, oh, I'll tell you a thing, it was a mess. But I think that's a great illustration of the difference between presumption and faith. No biblical strategy involved, but genuine faith takes the whole scripture into its scope, including the ends, I mean, the means toward the end, not just the end goal that we have in mind. A true faith will work, practice, plan, strategize, regroup. And as Jesus said in Luke chapter 14, it's going to look at all of the logistics involved of analyzing, should we go to war with this army or are we going to lose? Should we build this tower or do we need to save up more? Because you don't want to build a tower and not finish. And so Jesus said faith takes logistics even into consideration. one time we had a person who came by our house and he wanted a meal to eat and he claimed that God had called him to travel to California and to minister in California. I said, well, that's great. And I asked him if he had any savings, if he had started with any savings on his trip to go there. And he said, no, we're just trusting the Lord to provide as we go along. But we needed some food now. And I asked him, well, while you're here in Omaha, do you have any plans on working to save up money for your next leg of the trip? No, not really. I asked him if he had any, you know, plans on what to do when he's sometimes sleeping outdoors to protect himself from thugs. He had no plans on that. I asked him, do you have any plans on what city you're going to or how you're going to get there? No. And I asked him, well, do you want to have a job to earn up money for your next leg of the trip? I was planning to give him an outrageous salary. uh... if he was willing to work and he said no not really i just uh... want to trust the lord well that is not trust that is erie headed presumption okay it is not in anyway uh... what the bible describes in fact it's quite contrary to the bible faith follows all god's instructions including his instructions on diligence such as if a man will not work neither shall he eat and it takes into consideration God's precautions, many, many passages. Watch out, be on guard, things like that. It looks at logistics, anticipating particular problems, hiding yourself. Okay, so faith avoids presumption. But faith also avoids escapism. Now escapism would look at a problem like what David was faithing in 2 Samuel 16 through 18 and it would say that is so outrageously hopeless we're just going to give up. It might have been tempting for David to just give up and say I'm not going to try to be king anymore because the odds of my success here are almost nil. But instead of that faith What faith does is it anticipates, it does not seek to minimize problems. In fact, let me read you a verse from 1 John 5 verse 4. It says, whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Faith overcomes. It overcomes obstacles. It's looking at the obstacles that are out there. It does seek to minimize risk, but it doesn't seek to do away with all risk. Instead, faith anticipates potential obstacles and it leaves the rest up to God. Now you've probably heard me quote Oliver Cromwell so many times, you're sick of it, but his whole point when he told his troops, trust God and keep your powder dry, is that you've got to walk both sides of the railroad tracks, okay? Trusting God in no way is doing away with our responsibilities in life. Do what you can to avoid defeat and leave the results in God's hands. And so I just wanted to start this by saying that true faith avoids escapism. On the one hand, it avoids presumption on the other. And I think 2 Samuel 16 through 18 just beautifully, beautifully illustrate that in the life of David. And God did something impossible through him. Now the second clause in verse 1 shows that David was being tempted by some people, and the you in the Hebrew is plural, y'all. So he's being tempted by some people to flee from Israel, to flee from his calling, to flee from his responsibilities. He's basically encouraged, go into exile by yourself for the good of the people. Okay, it's better for you to just go because otherwise there's going to be a lot of people dying and David resisted that David said how can you say to my soul flee as a bird to your mountain and notice he says your mountain not our mountain for our good you need to go away from this place You need to hide and retire. And commentators point out that your mountain is in opposition to the phrase, in the Lord I put my trust. So it's a humanistic mountain. It's not a mountain that God has ordained. And David in effect says, no, I'm not going to be trusting my own mountain. I'm going to be trusting in the Lord. To flee Israel at this point would be to abandon his calling and would show actually a lack of trust in God. And God had not yet released David from his calling, so he could not abandon his post and still claim that he was trusting God. even though later it makes him feel extremely bad that he's fighting against Absalom and you can see that especially and almost well it is to a fault in 2 Samuel chapter 18 very protective of Absalom but when it comes to his calling he fights even though it makes him feel bad because he knows his calling demands it here is John Calvin's comments on this passage He said, to follow their advice would have doomed him to remain forever in a state of exile from his native country. This verse teaches us that however much the world may hate and persecute us, we ought nevertheless to continue steadfast at our post. That however much and however long we may be harassed, we ought always to continue firm and unwavering in the faith of our having the call of God. And that's the key issue. What is God's call upon David's life at this point? And is he going to abandon that calling? Calvin was very tempted to abandon his calling. It was absolutely miserable living in Geneva. Oh, people persecuted him unbelievably there. And he could think of nothing better, and he said so a number of times, than to go to a different city where nobody knew him, where he could be holed up and be a scholar the rest of his life and write. He didn't like his calling in Geneva, but based on this verse, Calvin said, I cannot abandon my calling. I cannot engage in escapism. Now, there were a couple of tactical retreats that he didn't have a choice about, but he never abandoned his calling. And so these men are encouraging David to give up on his calling to be a king and to go into exile as the second best thing. But he refuses. In fact, the very fact that he takes his 600 men with him shows he's planning to fight. It shows that he is unwilling to do anything. He is leaving Jerusalem, but he's not leaving his calling. Once he's consolidated his forces, he's gained some time, what he's going to do is he's going to use all in his power to continue in his calling as a king, no matter how dangerous or uncomfortable that may be. And so again, you can see the difference between tactical retreat and escapism. He refuses to give up on his call. What about you? Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you wanted to permanently abandon your responsibilities? And there are many different forms of escapism. Quitting your job can sometimes be escapism. It's not a tactical retreat, it's escapism. Sometimes divorce can be escapism as well. An attempt to walk away from a problem rather than solving it. Drugs can be a form of escapism. Can't handle the world, so you blot out the world, okay? Whoever these men are, Calvin actually thinks they're enemies. Some people think they were his friends who are saying, oh yeah, I can perfectly understand if you abandon your calling here. And actually, some people think that this psalm belongs in the flight from Saul. But I agree with those commentators. There are some indicators this absolutely has to belong during the time of his flight from Absalom. He's a king. He's a king already. But anyway, whoever these people are, they give David three persuasive reasons as to why it's okay. It's okay for him to give up on his calling. And you will find people, plenty of people, who will encourage you that it's okay to engage in escapism. Quite okay. If you're wanting reasons and excuses for irresponsibility, you'll find plenty of people to agree with you on that. Now I should point out that the quotation marks are not in the original Hebrew and so it's really a matter of interpretation rather than just translation as to where you put these quotation marks. And I agree with the versions that are listed in your outline that put all the rest of verse 1, verse 2, and verse 3 as what these people are saying to David, what David is disagreeing with. So I've erased the end mark quotation after your mountain, and I've put it at the end of verse 3. So, first reason that these guys gave as to why it's okay to engage in escapism is they're getting shot at. And it looks like the wicked have the upper hand. Verse 2 begins, for look, the wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow on the string. Isn't that the primary reason for escapism? We're getting shot at. Okay, maybe the wife and the kids and the dog and everybody else is piling on us and we just want to get out of there and, you know, sleep in the other room. We want to escape from that place. Or maybe you're having such difficulty at work, you just want to quit the work. It's easier to do that than to stick with it. Or maybe you've been on a committee and you're just tired of these people rejecting your ideas and so you want to resign. One of the principal reasons for escapism in life is it's painful. We're getting shot at. We're tired of people criticizing us. No one's willing to get shot at unless they are moved by the kinds of things that move the heart of David, and especially if it looks like the enemy is winning. But God has called us not to leave our post, not to leave our calling, simply because we're getting beat up. A tactical retreat, yeah, that can be okay during some circumstances. We'll maybe get some illustrations of that. But as long as you're not abandoning your responsibilities that God has called you to. The second reason for giving it all up is that opposition seems to be everywhere. We don't even know who our opponents are. You know, we don't know who we can trust. Verse 2 again, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. Now, the Hebrew says literally that they may shoot at us in the dark, okay? It's like you're getting shot, but you can't see who's shooting you. You don't know who it is that is opposing you. David had no idea who all of the enemies were. He found out after the fact that it was Absalom and Ahithophel, but he didn't know that until after he had fled. But it's even, point one really deals with fear. That's one of the big, big reasons why people escape. Point two is confusion. You got fear compounded with confusion. It's very, very easy. And David, it talks about being in secret here. David had no idea up until it was announced to him that Absalom was taking over the kingdom, that it was Absalom who had been doing all of this undermining and Ahithophel. They had been secretly undermining, sabotaging his efforts, and yet pretending to his face to be very loyal to him. And so it was very, very confusing. David saying, I love my son. I trusted my son. I had no idea that he was behind this. And some of you have experienced that as well. And it can lead easily to bailing out if we're not prepared. Okay. The third reason. that these guys give as to why it's quite okay for David to give it all up at this point is that law and order seem to be destroyed. Verse 3, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? One translation has it, if law and order is destroyed, What can the righteous do? Now the implication is if you don't have the power of the state to back you up, you're powerless, you're hopeless. It's really a false presupposition and unfortunately some people take this attitude that hopelessness is biblical. Because of this quote here, because they don't see, this is what the enemy is saying and David's rejecting these ideas. They say, oh, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? I'm not even going to try. No, that's the exact opposite of what the psalm is trying to tell you to do. Some people fear that without the media on our side, we're doomed. Without judges on our side, we can't win the battle against the GLBTQ cause and other humanistic causes. But is that true? Are we really powerless? Even if the foundations have been completely destroyed, it does not change the fact that Jesus Christ has been given all authority and power in heaven and on earth. It has not changed the fact that Acts 1.8 says that the Holy Spirit has given that power to the church to enable us to take the Great Commission. It has not changed the fact that He has promised, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Okay? To give up simply because the foundations of our society have been destroyed is to walk by sight and not by faith. When Christ gave the Great Commission, the foundations of every society, including Israel, had been destroyed. That's utterly irrelevant to the man of faith. We are operating in terms of the realm of the things unseen. And I think, really, it is a lack of faith that has caused the radical Two Kingdom group to pull away from culture. It is lack of faith that is causing dispensationalists, many dispensationalists, to back away and say, there's nothing we can do. Why polish brass on a sinking ship? This world is going down and there's nothing we can do about it. It's lack of faith that has caused so many churches to stop preaching the whole counsel of God. I am convinced at the root of all escapism is a lack of faith. I really think that's at the root. In the Lord, I put my trust. How can you say flee? David is saying faith is incompatible with escapism and in verses four through seven, what David's faith lays hold of are eight invisible things that radically changed his faith, enabled him to accomplish the impossible. And because faith is key, let me define that from Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. not seen. With his physical eyes David could not see one of these eight things we're going to be looking at in verses 4 through 7. And it could have led him to give up. If we can't see it then it doesn't exist, right? And the answer is wrong. Faith never deals with the seen. Faith deals with things not seen. And that's so important for us to grasp. Let me read Hebrews 11 verse 1 again but this time from a different version. Now, faith is the title deed of things hoped for, the court evidence of things not seen. And in court, you haven't been at the scene of the crime. You're basing your entire verdict in court upon evidence of things not seen. Same with title deed. Just imagine a businessman in New York who wants to establish a mall, a shopping mall here in Omaha, He may never have visited Omaha at all, but he gets reports and he gets financial statements and other things that convince him that this would be a good investment. Now, he does not dare put any of his $15 million that he's planning to invest into that property until he gets a title deed, because everything could fall through. But once he gets the paperwork for that title deed in his hand, even without ever visiting Omaha, he can send money, he can hire contractors, he can build that whole mall and get it started. Why? Because that title deed is an assurance this belongs to him. Okay, so that's the kind of illustration that lies behind Hebrews 11 verse 1. Faith lays hold of unseen eternal realities and brings them into manifestation in space-time history into the world. Faith does not create anything. Only God can create something. This is one of the big problems I have with the Word of Faith movement. Not all of them do this, but a lot of them just think our faith can create something. No, our faith can't create anything. It's got to lay hold of what God has promised, what is a reality in heaven. Hebrews 11.1 says that faith is the title deed of things hoped for. They court evidence of things not seen. They are real things, but those real things are in the eternal realm and faith is absolutely convinced because God has spoken about those in His Word. They exist. They're real. And it banks on that, and because it banks on that, it brings those invisible things into visible space-time history, brings them into existence right now. That is the essence of what faith is all about. And we're going to be seeing that David's faith acted upon eight things which could not be seen. The first thing that David grounded his faith on was that God is presently ruling and in complete control. verse four says the lord is in his holy temple and i just want to stop there because this is not the normal word for temple uh... this is everywhere else translated as palace the lord is in his holy palace now his temple was his palace right so it's okay to translate it as as temple but literally it's it's a it pointing to his kingship so says the lord is in his holy palace the lord's throne is in heaven that whole phrase there clause is referring to the fact God rules. Now his soul might be telling him that everything is out of control, that God is not on his throne, but he resists that by faith. And he says, no, I'm not going to believe that. I'm going to believe the word of a God who cannot lie. God is in his palace, not Satan. God is on his throne, not Satan. And he resists this impulse to escapism through faith that God rules. And I tell you, this could be so helpful when you are frustrated at work or frustrated with anything. You're frustrated maybe with your spouse and you want to leave. And we need to think through things like this. Who changes hearts? I can't change anybody's heart. You can't change anybody's heart. You can't change your tough-headed neighbor, even if that tough-headed neighbor happens to be your spouse. We need to get used to realizing God alone can change hearts. He is alone the one who can change politics, who can change the situation that we feel absolutely chained in and that we want to escape from. Only God can do that. And many of our frustrations come because we're really convinced God's not doing things right. God's messing things up and so I've got to take control and we're trying to rule and our shoulders cannot bear that kind of providence. We've got to relax in the realization God rules. God rules. Now let's flip this around a little bit and And look at the opposite side. When God calls you to take a Sabbath rest or take a vacation or play a game with your kids, can you do it? Or do you feel like the whole world is going to fall apart if you waste this time and don't keep yourself so busy on all of the things that are really important, okay? If you think that you cannot take that time aside, that God's really calling you to do, then you're denying God's rule. You're acting as if everything depends upon you. Some people can't rest. They just have a real struggle with that. They're too driven. And I have tendencies to this myself. I have tendencies to be a workaholic. And I have to constantly check myself and remind myself, Phil, you're not God. You're not in control of these types of things. And besides that, you are not indispensable. If you died today, life would continue to go on. I am not indispensable. I have to keep reminding myself of that when I am being driven by my work. When I first became convinced of the Sabbath, and I actually started taking a Sabbath rest, I had to trust God with my workload. I'm thinking, there's so much that's got to be done. And it was a trust issue. Am I willing to trust that God is a ruler? He's on the throne over my schedule, over my work, and over my relaxation. And so I said, OK, I'm going to take this off. But my tendency was to want to take the reins of control back over in my life. And I still struggle with that to this day, especially in my prayer life. Now, my mind tells me prayer is the most important thing that I can do. But something inside of me keeps saying that if I escape to God in prayer, I'm engaging in escapism. I'm being derelict in my duty. I've got to get busy in something important. which is a total, total lion. And I have to keep reminding myself, God is the one who reigns over my rest, over my work, over my prayer time, and if I do not let Him call the shots in my life, I'm going to end up being a very poor king in my dominion. So if you err on the side of escapism, and you tend to waste unbelievable amounts of time on games, and other things, then preach verse four to yourself and say, you know, God is the Lord over my time, a hundred percent of my time, my relaxation time as well as my work time. And if you err on the other side being driven so much that you don't have time to relax or play a game or pray or take a Sabbath rest, preach the same phrase to yourself and say, you know what? The Lord has called me to rest and He's the Lord over my time. I've got to trust Him that this is the best way to do things. When I was in college, I felt so guilty sleeping eight hours a day. What a waste of time sitting there like a slob on my bed for eight hours. I could be getting things done. So I kept pushing my time down. So I was sleeping four hours a day for, it was about two years, and I won't tell you the whole nine yards of how the Lord convinced me I was trying to play God and being an idiot, but when I finally came to the realization that I really needed to sleep because God commands me. It is not good for a man to stay up late, to rise up early, for so he gives his beloved sleep. And I said, okay, Lord, I submit to you. I'm going to get my sleep. And I started getting eight hours of sleep. Lo and behold, I actually got more done in my schedule than when I was taking more hours for work because I was rested. I was refreshed. My mind was working far, far better. But once I trusted God and I lived by faith, he began to prosper what I was doing. So that's, that's really the point that I'm trying to get across there. Now he next reminds himself that God knows all about what is going on. His eyelids behold, his eyelids test the sons of men." Rather than panicking, David went to the source of all wisdom, to God, to find out what in the world he should be doing. And we have access to exactly the same wisdom that he got. If you want to flip over with me to James chapter 1, Ray told me I need to really be slower about the scriptures that I go to, so I'll be a little bit slower here. James 1, this is a wonderful, wonderful promise from God. James 1 and verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally. I think you're one of those alls. You might be skeptical that God's going to give you the wisdom that's needed, but he no, he says he gives to all liberally without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He's a double minded man. Unstable in all his ways without faith. You're not going to get it. You just will not get it. David needed that wisdom, and that wisdom in heaven is one of those things not seen that Hebrews 11 verse 1 talks about, that faith grabs hold of, okay? Lord, I need your wisdom for the troubled times that are coming up ahead. You've promised anyone who asks you, you will give wisdom, and I thank you that you will give it. Thank you, Lord, I now move forward. In the confidence, you'll give me the wisdom to navigate these troubled waters. And he gives miraculous wisdom. And I remember the time in my life when I transitioned between never getting an answer to prayers for wisdom to asking in faith and believing God would actually do it. And God consistently giving wisdom to me. And it is a wisdom that can help us discern the difference between tactical escape and escapism. Some of you wonder, you know, would I be escaping if I left the job? Well, not necessarily. Thomas Coke was a minister in the Anglican Church in England and he felt the call of God upon his life to be a missionary in Nova Scotia and he took a boat voyage there. It was only supposed to take one month, but it ended up being three months of incredible storms, mountainous waves. They broke their mast, incredibly crippled ship. In fact, it was seeming like God's providence was doing everything to keep him away from Nova Scotia. The captain The records, you know, he keeps his daily log. The records indicate that the captain actually thought that Coke was a modern-day Jonah and was considering throwing him off the ship to see if it would save the ship. He threw all of his papers and his stuff off to see if that would work. But Coke finally decided, maybe I should pray to the Lord for wisdom on what he wants me to do. And he said, Lord, is it Know you've called me to missions. I've assumed I'm supposed to go to Nova Scotia Is that where you want me to go and instantly the Lord gave him a piece? He was to go to Antigua which is actually where he got blown off course. They they hobbled into Can a ship hobble? I'm not sure they they kind of hobbled into a port in Antigua and There was some amazing providences that happened in Antigua immediately getting him connected now his escape from Nova Scotia. It may have seemed like escapism but it wasn't. He was still following God's call upon his life perfectly and God had orchestrated things in Antigua so that the moment he got there his ministry was incredibly blessed. By the time he died 17,000 people came to Christ. So I'm saying You go to the God of wisdom who can guide you deeper and deeper into your calling, and it'll help you to distinguish, am I really engaged in escapism, or is this a tactical retreat into a different area? Okay, another question that we can ask ourselves is whether our actions are consistent with clear-cut antithesis, or whether we're muddying the waters with compromise. And too many rationalizations don't come from Scripture. A verse. Verse 5 says the Lord tests the righteous and David was being tested. He was being disciplined. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked, the one who loves violence, his soul hates. God's relationship, His relations to the righteous and the wicked are totally, totally different. So there is an antithesis between believers and unbelievers, truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness. And I think it's useful for us to ask ourselves, are my actions consistent with this theology? Absalom's actions were not. Absalom pretended to be loyal to the Lord, but his actions were really no different whatsoever from a pagan politician's. David's actions were different from Abishai's because David was recognizing that God distinguishes in His providences between believers and between unbelievers. The same events that both believers and unbelievers are experiencing are a testing for David, loving discipline, and they show hatred in the life of those who are the wicked, who are the non-elect. And so there's an antithesis in Providence. Well, it was a knowledge that there was an antithesis in providence that helped David to realize, okay, what is God doing in my life? He's disciplining me. And in the Psalms that he wrote during this period, at least three or four of them, he is confessing his sins and saying, Lord, I submit to your providence. So you see the same thing. He humbles himself in 2 Samuel chapter 16. Now, if you are convinced that God's providence treats believers and unbelievers in exactly the same way. You're going to be tempted to be frustrated. You're going to be tempted to escapism. But even though on that day of flight, both believers and unbelievers were living through the same events, the righteous were being lovingly tested by these events and the wicked were being hated. Okay, the same verse indicates that God hates the evil that is happening far more than we do. Says, the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Now, I love that doctrine of God's hatred. It's a marvelous document because it gives me encouragement that God is not apathetic about the evil in our nation. He is motivated. When we're seeking to bring our nation back to God and we get spit on and we get opposed and we don't seem to be making any headway, we might be tempted to think, you know, God doesn't care. He's apathetic. He's distantly removed from the horrors of the evils of our nation. And if we were convinced of that, we'd want to throw up our hands and say, what's the point of even trying? That would be escapism. But of course, God is not that way. David is saying God doesn't like the situation in our nation any more than we do. In fact, He hates it far more than we are capable of hating it. But, and this is always the big bot on each one of these points, but He tests us to see if we will walk by faith. It's all about faith. He tests us. David did walk by faith when he wrote some of the imprecatory Psalms during this period of time. He was resisting the urge to give up, that would be escapism, and he was laying claim to God's hatred of evil men in this situation. That was a thing not seen that faith was laying hold of. And by the way, because it drove him closer to the heart of God, it made him be apathetic. It made him hate the things that God hates and to love the things that God loves. And so, When we are convinced at this point, we will be driven by His agendas, not by pragmatism. David was not an escapist because he believed God hates some things and He loves other things. It stirred up his faith. Okay, verse 6 says that God will judge. Upon the wicked he will rain coals, fire, and brimstone, and a burning wind. This shall be the portion of their cup." Now commentators point out this is not talking about the final judgment at the end of history. This is talking about God bringing judgments in history, okay? And when the church is willing to act in faith, God does that. Every one of these requires faith or God will say, hey, if you don't have faith that I'll bring judgments in history, I won't bring judgments in history. He is tying the two together. If you don't believe that God judges in history, you might be tempted to think that things are hopeless. For sure you're not going to ask Him to bring judgments in history. You're not going to pray the imprecatory Psalms if you don't think it's God's will for those things to ever happen in history. But when the church rises up with faith to ask for His judgments using His imprecatory Psalms, awesome things begin to happen. And we've seen this in pockets in history, but there's never been a consistent time where the church has been willing in faith to say, yes, I'm laying claim to those things not seen God's judgments in history, that those judgments begin to blow forth and the church begins to advance. So the question is, are we willing to exercise faith in God's judgments or will we be an escapist? And when you pray those imprecatory songs, you are calling down the snares of the reins of coal fiery coals of verse 6 for the advancement of his kingdom. Okay, verse 7 gives the sixth reason. For the Lord is righteous. Do we interpret the providences of God as being absolutely righteous? It would have been tempting for David to think that God was unfair, that He was working all things together for evil, that unrighteousness was triumphing, that god's providences were capricious and i actually have seen christians get extremely angry at god for very similar providences to what david was experiencing everything is not fair In effect, they were denying the fact that God is righteous and His providences are perfectly righteous. Now, I don't in any way want to deny the evil that was involved in Absalom's sin or in Ahithophel's sin. It was indeed sinful. We saw last week that as to the sin, yes, Satan was behind it. But as to the affliction, God was overruling even those sins to bring good into the life of David. his beloved son so David was willing to fight against those evil men but he was not willing to fight against providence it was an absolute belief that God is righteous in his providences and in everything that he does that made him realize okay if that's if that's true what God is doing in this providence is good for me I need to understand what is God righteously doing in me it made him realize that he needed to humble himself under God's hand of discipline and to repent of the sins that he repents of in the Psalms. It also enabled him to not be apathetic about the evil in Absalom, but to fight against it. Thinking that providence is arbitrary, irrational, unrighteous, that's what makes us give up. Seventh thing that the faith of David focused upon is that God loves righteousness. Verse 7, for the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness. It's not just that God hates iniquity, that He judges wickedness, He loves righteousness. And when we rise up in faith as a church, He loves to establish righteousness. He is more motivated that the church become righteous and holy than we are. In fact, he's more motivated that the church become righteous and that they become comfortable. Nowhere in the Bible are you going to find, at least to my knowledge, God saying, oh I love the comfort of the church. But you do find that he says he loves righteousness and he loves righteousness in his people. So we need to ask ourselves, is my desire to relax for the next two hours a reflection of God's righteousness? Is it obedience to the balance that the scripture has given in my... you know, that God would be pleased with, or is it something I'm operating against conscience and against the Word of God? God's providence will never bless escapism or workaholism, but it will on occasion bless escape. tactical retreats, diversion. And Scripture talks a great deal about that. The only way I was able to successfully get over my workaholism was to convince myself, first of all, that God commands both work and rest and that God delighted in my righteousness in giving my family a vacation or playing a game or taking the Sabbath or spending some time in prayer. I didn't need to feel guilty about enjoying a beer or watching a movie or something like that, okay? And once I was convinced that God delights in occasional escape from work, it helped me to be joyful in those diversions. If that diversion is scriptural, then it's a part of the righteousness that God loves, okay? And I have a strong sense that God's smile of approval is on my work, His smile of approval is on my once a week game night that we have with our family. It's on my Sabbath observance. And I tell you, it is so liberating to know that God loves what you are doing, including playing games. Now some of you, most of you probably don't have any guilt over that like I did. But gaming, wow, I just felt guilty. I don't anymore. I think God loves what I'm doing. The last thing that David's faith focused upon was that God was looking out for him. And I love this phrase. Verse 7 ends, His countenance beholds the upright. Now the word picture that you should be seeing there is God looking on with a smile on his face. And it's more than that, but he's looking out for your best interests. He cares about your tiredness. And I want you to think about the way that Christ treated the tiredness of His disciples in Mark 6, verse 31, when He said, Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat." In other words, he was looking out for his disciples. He sees that they're tired. And this, too, helps us avoid the extremes of being too driven or being escapist. I developed a very distorted view or picture of God during my first year of Bible school, and I went way overboard on fasting and denying myself any pleasures. I actually would feel guilty eating a piece of fruit instead of giving it away. And I would feel guilty about going to a movie. I just didn't do it. I couldn't do it. I thought that the will of God, if I had two choices before me, The will of God was automatically the most miserable choice. I mean, it's just God, you know, it's almost an attitude. God doesn't want us to have fun. That's not holy. And that is so unscriptural. What does the scripture say? And John Piper is great on his books on this. God delights in delighting his people. He really does. He really does. Let me shift gears. Let me apply this in a different area. When I have counseled people, one of my theme verses is 1 Corinthians 10. verses 12 through 13 that basically promises that God in His providence never puts us into a box where we are forced to sin. Never puts us in a box. Let me read that. 1 Corinthians 10 12 through 13. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. So he's saying you do need to be on guard. But the next verse says no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but with the temptation will also make the way of escape." There's that word escape. "...that you may be able to bear it." That verse is saying that God makes the way of escape so that you do not have to engage in escapism. That's exactly what it's saying. God makes a way of escape so that you can bear up under the trials so you don't have to give into escapism via irresponsibility. Our Reader's Digest gave a story of Pastor Jeff Streit before he was a pastor, he worked as a rural Oklahoma meter reader and they were not allowed to do averages or guesstimates, they always had to read the actual meter. But there was one property none of the meter readers were willing to read and it became quite the point of discussion, quite a problem. There was a new guy that was coming on and Jeff Streit said his first task was that route And he had to go to that property. What was wrong with that property? Well, there was a vicious guard dog there with extremely long chain. It had rule over the whole backyard and over the whole driveway. And so it would chase people down anytime they tried to get into the backyard to take a reading. Well, this guy, he went through his whole route. He brought back the reading, no problem. Supervisor brought him in the next day and said, how did you get past the guard dog? He said, oh, boss, that was easy. I just parked on his chain. Dog couldn't move anywhere, okay? So, there was a situation, rather than focusing on the problem and giving up, he focused on the escape from the problem and avoided escapism. Can you see that? There is a difference. As that American musician said, the best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. And that's why I've summed things up in point C by saying, thus this psalm says that total faith in God's word is the cure for escapism and the remedy for society's ills. Faith in God God's cure is God's cure for escapism. Not faith in Christianity, not faith in an individual, faith in any given...it's faith in God Himself. Now this is not part of the text, but I think I've got a couple of minutes. I do want to end with the assurance that God has not called us to fight in some kind of a spiritual Vietnam or a spiritual Korea where They had no intention of winning, they were just holding the line. That was one of the most demoralizing aspects of both of those wars is that there was no goal to win. In fact, a lot of the soldiers were not even allowed to fire until they were fired upon at certain intervals. The president for sure did not agree. in Korea with General Douglas MacArthur's statement that there is no substitute for victory. And let me tell you something, it is very difficult to fight for a long period of time under such circumstances. It's impossible to win the war under such an attitude. And this is one of the reasons why I say eschatology, which is just God's promises about the future, okay? Eschatology is so important in our spiritual battles. It gives us the knowledge of the unseen victories that we can lay claim to. Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight. Let me ask you, what is a good fight? One you win, right? I've never been in a fight I considered good that I've lost, right? A good fight is a fight you win. And the Bible calls us to win the battle rather than simply holding some imaginary line like they did in Vietnam or Korea. And there are too many people who are holding the line on sin rather than conquering sin. They don't think that they have the authority and they don't think that they have the power to fly over the spiritual border and bomb the spiritual China. Okay, we're speaking figuratively here. And go after the root source of the problem. In fact, there are teachers out there, Christian teachers, who say to their congregations exactly the same thing that the President said to General Douglas MacArthur that you don't have authority to win. You can't win against sin. It's impossible to win against sin. Well, that's an incredibly demoralizing statement and it's simply not true. They have no faith that the war against sin can be won. The fact of the matter is when it comes to sin, God calls us to be overcomers. You know, in the book of 1 John, read through it, usually it says fathers... He blesses the fathers because they have overcome. Okay, the wicked one. But there's one place where it talks about little children have overcome. It's possible, even for little children, to be taught how to overcome individual sins that they're struggling with. Now, will we always have vestiges of sin in our being? Yes, we will until glory, but systematically we're overcoming one after another. We're advancing. We're not holding some imaginary line. Now, there are times for tactical retreat. For example, the Bible does not tell us stand your ground when you are being tempted with youthful lusts, sexual lusts. No. He tells you flee youthful lusts. He even told Timothy, he was probably in his 40s, flee youthful lusts just like Joseph did. Joseph was not engaging in escapism when he fled from Potiphar's wife, any more than David was engaging in escapism when he fled from Jerusalem. Both of them knew if they stayed there, they would lose the battle. They would lose. Okay? So it was escaping a problem by solving a problem. And for some of you, this may mean getting covenant eyes on your computer. or throwing out your TV, or giving up diversions that have been over and over leading you to sin. Now for others, it may be something different. I'm not making a rule for everybody, but what I'm saying is if it takes a tactical retreat to win the battle against sin, do it. Now on the other hand, if Satan tempts you to go to the other extreme and say, just give up, it's hopeless, say with David, no, absolutely not. In the Lord I have put my trust. How can you call me to escapism? May that be the response of each one here. Amen. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We love You that You have given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. That You have promised the Holy Spirit and all of His power to overcome. That You have given us faith And as 1 John says, this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Help us to live by faith, Lord, and not by sight. Help us to gain victory after victory. And even during those times when we have fallen, we have been bombed, we have been shot at, and we have failed in our responses, help us to get right back up again. And even though we've lost a battle, to be determined to win the war. Encourage these people, Father, with their sometimes tactical retreats to never go all the way into escapism, but to fight the good fight, to follow through on the commitments they have made to you. and to never give up the calling you have placed upon their lives. Strengthen them with the power of the Holy Spirit and enable them to tap into those things unseen in the heavenlies and to bring them into space, time, historical reality in this world. Father, we thank you for your promise in Ephesians 1 that you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We can't see those things, but by faith we believe them. and whether they're financial or whether they're relational, whatever the things might be that seem so impossible to us. Help us, Father, by faith to lay claim to those things not seen and to keep pressing and pressing and pressing forward into the upward calling that you've given to us in Christ Jesus. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen. Let's go ahead and stand and hopefully sing Psalm 11 with new eyes.