[0:00] Our scripture today comes from Psalm 16. This is a miktam of David.
[0:13] Psalm 16. Hear the word of God. Psalm 16.
[0:49] Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup.
[1:04] You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel.
[1:16] In the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken.
[1:28] Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption.
[1:43] You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
[1:55] This is the word of God. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's really difficult. It's really difficult to conclude anything positive regarding the finality of death.
[2:11] death finality of death no one can escape death no one wants to talk about death and in fact insurance agents not to harp on any insurance agents selling life insurance but their livelihood banks on your fear of death and planning for that to come it's just a difficult topic we've had the music industry to help us a little bit through the matter frank sinatra got straight to the point in his 1955 release i'm gonna live until i die he says straight to the point blue oyster cults encouraged us with their 1976 hit don't fear the reaper but just later on in 1977 oddly enough grandma got run over by a reindeer in that year and then it's odd because later that year billy joel was determined to help the matter with grandma's death by saying only the good die young queen makes death sound cool in their 80s hits another one bites the dust death is certainly certainly cool until 1986 when the group cutting crew made death all about love and i just died in your arms you're welcome for keeping that in your head the rest of the day which is odd because i was born in 87 and that came out in 86 i wonder if that had anything to do but we won't go there but the music industry seems to have attempted to help the matter but the finality of death is pretty serious it's hard to grapple with but what a terrific melody that we might find for a christian in galatians 2 verse 20 says i have been crucified with christ it is no longer i who live but christ who lives in me and the life i now live in the flesh i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me maybe all this time as decades of music have failed to define is that there certainly is no life apart from god there is no life apart from god the music industry has been dead all along apart from god with that we turn to a prophetic psalm where we meet david in his prayer closet and david is reflecting upon his present relationship with god and he trusts that that relationship will bring him hope in the present and the future today's sermon title is the only hope in death and what i want us to see in psalm 16 is the main thing the main point is that there is no life apart from god and there is no salvation apart from faith in jesus christ amen and we're going to break this up into two sections and we will allow scripture to prove that point to us today and i want to welcome any visitors with us today you're more than welcome to grab a pew bible chair bible whatever you want to call them take it with you but open it up to psalm 16 with all of us this morning keep your finger on the text where we where we're
[6:15] going through and i trust that it will be the most encouraging thing that you could ever do in your entire life right now so let's turn to the word um before we do let's pray in the words of martin macronius he says oh heavenly father whose law is perfect converting the soul assure testimony giving wisdom to the unlearned and enlightening the eyes we humbly implore you through your boundless goodness to enlighten our blind intellect by your holy spirit so that we may truly understand and profess your law and live according to it since it has pleased you most merciful father to reveal the mysteries of your will only to the little ones and since you looked in look to him alone who is of a humble and contrite spirit who has reverenced who has reverenced for your word grant us a humble spirit keep us from all fleshly wisdom which is enmity against you bring to the right way those who stray from your truth this morning so that we all may unanimously serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life and we ask this from you most merciful father in the name of our lord and savior jesus christ amen amen let's turn to psalm 16 i have two sections from the passage as this psalmist has broken up the first section is hope secured in the present life and we see this unfold for us from verse 1 to verse 8 and what powerful words that were read by reverend david roberts this morning duffy the powerful words are these from a desperate soul the psalmist's words that he's faced with the fact of life's frailty and fallenness look at verse 1 look at this desperate soul preserve me oh god for in you i take refuge verse 2 i say to the lord you are my lord and i have no good apart from you david's reference to the lord god here is striking where we see god the lord my lord it seems that his writing in hebrew had a little bit more depth of what he's saying and he had something a little bit more meaningful in mind that our english translation just can't comprehend it's or communicates in asking to be preserved in verse 1 he calls out to the lord god l meaning strong and mighty preserve me strong and mighty god he says of which it is the strength and might that preserves him and protects him and speaking to the lord he's saying yahweh here not l but yahweh which was revealed to moses through the burning bush in the exodus and then he goes to another word in declaring my lord he says adonai
[10:15] david recalls the personal nature of god his authority over his life that david is a servant of a master adonai and he relates his authority and his servant servitude to god's goodness these are the words of a dead man these are the words of a dead man a man who has realized the degenerative and depraved nature of humanity that our ticker in our chest has an expiration date to it and god knows when he's turning to the almighty god who has no beginning who has no end he is infinite in existence and he's pure goodness there's not a spot or blemish in his nature he's certainly good and it's as if this dead man's entire life became reoriented by his relationship with god of who's he who he's alive in this dead man finds his life in and it reorients everything around him in verse 3 for the saints of the land the good people around we'll just simply say they're the excellent ones the saints in whom is my delight his delight is in the goodness around and then in verse 4 a certain contrast the sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply their drink offerings of blood i will not pour out or make take their names on my lips he makes a contrast here relating to the good and evil influences that surround and impact his life in other words his understanding of god's might in his life of god's being as it's revealed through the exodus and his authority completely changed his life reoriented everything around his life those who he delights in and those he withdraws from in verse 3 delighting in the saints and dividing from the sinners and you see the makeup of life of his life has changed what's that called it's called being set apart david based on his relationship with god has set him naturally apart and you see a god that is set apart by nature has the power to naturally set our lives apart for our good and his glory if we belong to him and what's this look like you might say well does he go to church and they baptize church member and everything well what's this look like he gives a couple examples from verse 5 through 8 of ways that god sets his people apart in verse 5 apart in verse 5 we see provision and security but they have no worry they don't have to be anxious in this life tell that to somebody who has anxiety and struggles with that provision and security in verse 5 contentment in your life in verse 6 and counsel in verse 7 and 8 all of which the world seeks after each and every one of those things but seek for seek them out apart from god the world is seeking out what god can give them and now plugging this into history we can imagine that david has quite a history degree in knowing israel's past cyclical rejection and then repentance and then worshiping god but
[14:22] then serving the bales serving the ashtaroth the false gods and repenting again and then cycle after cycle rejection repentance rejection repentance this is israel's history and now being aware of that we can conclude that david is quite self-aware of his frailty of his deadness we'll call it of his propensity to turn to the world and reject god he knows his propensity but this might be the very key that i'm trying to drive home today is that seeing the darkness of sin is the prerequisite of seeing the light of god to see your sin the darkness of your sin is the only prerequisites of seeing the light of god how do you know you're sick there's not one person who is sick that can identify that they're sick without being healthy you know what sickness is when things are a little bit off and you start to get the runny nose how do you know because you didn't always have a runny nose you know health you have an objective point and focus that you can compare your current condition to to see darkness is the prerequisite of seeing the light of god it solves the problem of evil after all there is no problem of evil praise god we see a problem of evil because that means that we know what good is we know what god's good nature is you may have thought that this was merely just another easter service maybe you accepted an invite from your family or saw one of our social media ads but have you ever considered that god got you here to speak to you today and reveal to you that there is no life apart from god wants you to hear that today i mean look at the world the confusion the chaos the disorder in the world it begs this question to our souls even christians is there hope in the world it is with great honor that i present that hope to you hope that cannot be received by those who believe that they are alive if you are here apart from christ you are not alive no matter what you may think no matter what you've done you are not alive and might you see the darkness of your sin so that you can see the light of god today that there is no life apart from god it is available to those who are dead who need to come alive and you see there is no goodness apart from god there's no goodness apart from god we are all dead if you question me and that you can fact check by babysitting any kids under the age of 10 nobody taught kids i'm being serious nobody taught kids how to do bad they do it it's like horrifically real i'm not going to put my kids on the chopping block i think too many pastors do that and i don't want to do that to my kids but i love my kids praise god when they are brought into awareness of what
[18:24] it means to be good and bad amen for that season of parenthood but anything before that it's a hot mess there is no goodness apart from god we're all born into sin we're sinners from birth kids attest to it and our labor for provisions their sense of safety and our opinions about our goodness that we may think that we have are crushed all of our preconceived notions about any of our goodness are crushed under the mighty weight of god's glory this is a reminder not only for non-christians today but also for christians remember where you came from right that roots us in his grace a great reminder you see our hope is secure in the present but not for just anyone it's for those who turn from dead hope hope in worldly things idols and seek the living god the giver of life and we can understand then the conjunction that follows in verse 9 as we get into section 2 you see hope secured in the future life we understand this conjunction we see a therefore just as every cliche saying what's the therefore therefore well we know what it's there for because we just talked about it there's no life apart from god therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices my flesh also dwells secure forever verse 10 for you will not abandon my soul to shale or let your holy one see corruption verse 11 you make known to me the path of life in your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore this dead man has been brought alive brought alive david the dead man we'll name him today david the dead man has hope secured in the future based on the hope revealed in the past to the nation of israel but also the present of provisions and everything that god does through his relationship with david and guess what is also true with us however how does david get to this point from pleading with god preserve me oh god almost in sorrow how does he get from sorrow to gladness how does he remain in that hope the only answer can be by faith the only answer is to get to that point of salvation and gladness and fullness of joy is by faith hebrews 11 1 talks about faith being the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen but how can david have faith in his flesh dwelling securely that his body's going to decay he's going to die someday his ticker has an expiration he feels the weight of frailness of life how does he have faith in that that he's going to be secure that his soul will not be abandoned to shale or a reference to hell well it simply means that david's faith was not weak it was strong in the god of life this is strength that we see in job
[22:24] a suffering man job 19 25 job says after losing basically everything in his life i know that my redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh i will see god i myself will see him with my own eyes i and not another the fact of the matter is this david's body did decay job's body did decay and all the others whose faith declared them righteous in the old testament decayed they're gone but the body of jesus did not decay the body of jesus did not see corruption and what we need to see here is that while we certainly know that david and job wrote without knowing the prophetic implications of jesus christ to come it is without a doubt that the nature of god revealed in this psalm and even in job is consummated it materialized in the life the death the burial and the resurrection of jesus christ every aspect of their faith that they placed their faith in in the god of life was placing their hope that they will not lay in the grave and decompose because god will make it so he will raise them with him they had faith in the resurrected jesus christ peter references psalm 16 in his sermon at pentecost making this very point it says in acts 2 verse 29 brothers he says i may say to you with confidence about the patriarch david that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day verse 30 being therefore a prophet and knowing that god had sworn with an oath to him that he would be that he would set one of his descendants on his throne he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of jesus christ that he was not abandoned to hades in reference to hell nor did his flesh see corruption maybe paul's use of psalm 16 is maybe even clearer in acts 13 verse 36 for david he says after he had served the purpose of god in his own generation fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption but he whom god raised up did not see corruption you see david was unknowingly putting his faith in the resurrection everything every object of his faith was consummated in the life the death the burial and the resurrection of jesus christ what the church the christian church refers to as the gospel the object of his faith was not in his dead self he didn't look at in the mirror and look at how wonderful and lovely he is he looked at in the mirror and looked just like we ought to and see the dead self to see our deadness he didn't place the object of his faith in the benefits of his relationship with god in all the security it wasn't anything that surrounded his life whether it's the saints or the sin or his situation the object of his faith was solely fixated upon
[26:25] the lord god el yahweh and adonai the object of his faith was not his dead self wasn't the benefits of his relationship with god it wasn't anything that surrounded his life it was god alone you see the resurrection proved that jesus christ was god the resurrection proved it one who has no beginning and has no end not even death could end it and at jesus christ's birth god literally clothed himself in humanity and in his death humanity the ones he came to save stripped him in his death of his humanity and on his resurrection it proves that he was certainly god clothed in humanity because three days later after being buried what was found in empty tomb amen worship team you can get ready i want to ask you a question today it's simply this will you have faith in jesus christ today maybe for the first time well jesus christ distinguishes that the salvation found in him is like no other belief system out there you can't get that from a law you can't get that from muhammad can't get it from buddha any of them imposters of salvation jesus distinguishes salvation from any other belief system he says in john 14 9 whoever has seen me has seen the father and he made it pretty much clear john 14 6 he is the way he's the truth he's the life there's no other way to the father except through him he made it clear for us will you have faith in jesus christ today will you decide today to follow him i invite you to simply submit your life to him today how by your faith in that truth he said what he was gonna do he did what he said he was gonna do and guess what he said a lot about what's to come for you today his everlasting life with jesus christ available to you submit your life today and allow this church body steel valley church those around you today help help us come alongside of you today help us to come alongside of you today on this new journey because i don't know maybe this is a spoiler alert this world is really difficult this world makes it very difficult to be a christian and it's only going to get harder not as hard as it always has been according to church martyrs in the first century but it is certainly difficult you see there is no life apart from god there's no salvation apart from faith in jesus christ the fallen world can sing whatever they want tune whatever they want make them feel better about death and even make death sound cool but for the church as the song as the hymn sings his glories now we sing who died and rose on high who died eternal life to bring and lives that death may die crown him with many crowns start
[30:26] and happy to be