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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.
Escaping Escapism
Series Life of David
This sermon explores the difference between legitimate escape and irresponsible escapism.
| Sermon ID | 9953161850170 |
| Duration | 1:03:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 11 |
| Language | English |
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