God Reveals Himself
The story goes that Victor Hugo, a french poet and novelist, wrote in his journal the night before he died saying, “Nothing, not all the armies of the world, can stop an idea whose time has come.”
More than just an idea, the idea has come. The Word has come. God has revealed Himself. The scriptures say that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and by Him, and for Him. And that in Him was life, because He was the life.
“Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.”
When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, the Lord has revealed Himself.
To make known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, because through Him we have redemption through His blood, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.
I am standing here before you today not as someone who has all the answers, not as someone who has it all figured out, not as someone that is better than anybody.
But the thing is I know the one who has all the answers. I know the One who has it all figured out. I know the One who truly is better than anyone and anything.
God has revealed Himself.
Like Psalm 40 the experience of the Christian life is a series of ups and downs. There are mountains and there are valleys. There is suffering and there is praise. There is sin and there is redemption. Life can be messy, it doesn’t fit into neat categories. And in this Psalm we see that. We see a mixture of thanksgiving, lament, praise, and petition.
Even after praising God and thanking him for his deliverance David here goes back and is in distress and is pleading for God to deliver him again.
But in it all we see that God Reveals Himself. The Lord reveals Himself to us. And the Lord reveals Himself through us.
Would you pray with me before we begin?
Father, you are glorious and you are good and we know this because you have revealed yourself to us. Would you, even right now, reveal yourself to us in greater measure O Holy Father. Would you reveal yourself to us through your Word and by your Spirit by pouring your grace on us during this time. Would you use your Word to impact our lives so that we would be reflectors of your glory and goodness, that you would reveal yourself through us in greater measure in our lives that we would bear the fruit of your spirit leading to countless good works in our world, would we reflect your glory, give us eyes to see your glory, help us to live for your glory, because you deserve all glory. Feed us through your Word this morning. Father we ask this in your Son, Jesus, by the grace of your Spirit. In your name we pray. Amen.
One of the ways that God reveals Himself, that we see very clearly here and throughout this Psalm is through deliverance. God delivers us. Deliverance biblically takes on so many different forms but the truth remains the same that God is the One who delivers us.
We see deliverance mentioned explicitly.
First by recounting past deliverance:
Psalm 40:9-10: I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart.
And then we see requests for future deliverance:
Psalm 40:13: Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
Psalm 40:17: You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
But then there’s the mentioning of the concept of deliverance by describing it in other ways and describing God’s disposition in deliverance.
We see the word “salvation” being used in v.10 and 16.
We see the word “mercy” in v.11.
We see the combination of “steadfastness and faithfulness” being used twice in v.10 and 11.
Which alludes to the book of Exodus in ch34v6 where it says:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
And so we see that combination of words used here.
In v.10: I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
In v.11: As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!
God has revealed Himself.
He has revealed himself to us as our deliverer.
And part of this is that this God who delivers us is present and can hear us. How incredible is that, that the God of the universe, the Creator of everyone and everything can hear us.
We don’t see the word deliverance but it is described in vivid terms in the first 2 verses of Psalm 40:1–2: I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
David cries out to God in this moment knowing God can hear him. The Lord is a God who hears. He heard David’s cry and the Lord inclined to him. David waited patiently and relied completely on God, he poured out his tears before the Lord and God heard him.
Without even using the word deliverance David here describes the experience of deliverance. God drew David out of the pit of destruction. He drew him out of the miry bog. We don’t know the exact circumstances of David’s situation here but whatever it was it felt like he was in the mud and the grime, in the depths of a pit, but God lifted him and carried him and placed his feet upon a rock and made his steps secure. God is strong and mighty to deliver.
I don’t know where you shop for groceries. (Nahshon Whole Foods Story)
But He carries us and doesn’t get tired of us. He takes us out of the pit of destruction that we were in, even when we were dead in our sin God has made us alive in Christ, by His grace, through the Spirit and even right now he carries us. He carries us through, the miry clay. He carries us through the quick sand of our lives. He holds us up through the hurricanes in our circumstances that feel like they will destroy everything. He carries us through the storms that we experience. He guides us when the night is dark and we can't even see which way is up. He keeps us when the earthquakes in our lives threaten to crumble even the ground we stand on. He upholds us when the ground from under us gives way and he places us on solid ground. He has set our feet on the rock and has made our steps secure.
God reveals himself to us by being the great deliverer. But brothers and sisters, it doesn’t mean that you don’t feel the storm when you are in the storm. It doesn’t mean that we won’t get cut up or bruised. It doesn’t mean that we won’t get hit. That some jabs or left hooks won't get through. It doesn’t mean that we won’t take some shots from the enemy of our souls or that we won’t feel the fallenness of this world. It doesn’t mean that we will never get hurt or that we won’t suffer.
But it does mean that in all our suffering, even when it’s hardest in the middle of our trials, we have the solid ground of his steadfastness and faithfulness. We have the solid foundation of His Word. The Solid Rock that is Christ under our feet. The unbreakable reality of Jesus’ work on the cross and of who Christ is. Let us wait patiently for the Lord, knowing that our steps are secure in the Spirit. The One who comforts us and guides us. Who leads us and empowers us. The One by whom we are secure not because of who we are but because of Who God is!
God reveals Himself.
The Lord reveals Himself to us in deliverance.
But also in His revealed will and how we’ve fallen short.
We see this in v. 6-8 and then v.12. In, v.6 when it comes to God not delighting in sacrifices, one commentator notes that the psalmist here knows that animal sacrifices and offerings were mandated by God. But if they were not offered in genuine repentance and faith, God did not want them.
In 1 Samuel 15 The prophet confronted King Saul for trying to use sacrifices as a self-justifying means to clearly disobey what God had commanded him to do.
Samuel rebuked Saul saying:
Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel 15:22).
All sin is deceitful, but sometimes sin can be its most deceitful when it has a religious exterior or when it is coming from an assumed inward spiritual motivation.
And one of the ways this happens is when we pick and choose parts of the Bible to follow and obey but disregard other parts.
HB Charles talks about how people treat the Bible like a buffet at a restaurant: “At a buffet you go through it, survey and see what you like, you pick a few things here and a few things there and then you disregard the rest. But that the scriptures are more like eating food at momma’s house. What momma cooks, you eat.”
Listen, You will either submit to God and His Word or you will end up trying to be god over His Word.
In Luke 11 Jesus goes hard after the religious leaders saying:
23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. He said you should have done these “without neglecting the others.”
25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
26You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
The Lord wants God-glorifying obedience not self-justifying obedience.
The Lord wants God-glorifying obedience no matter the cost not self-justifying obedience that self-selects when to obey based on our convenience.
In v.11 through the end of the Psalm we see a turn from a past deliverance to a new dilemma and need. In v12-15 David asks for Deliverance from a combination of evils outside of him, David’s own iniquity, and then David’s enemies.
We’re going to focus in on in v.12 where David confesses His sin by stating “my iniquities have overtaken me.”
It is important to remember that at the heart of sin is the idea that we can be our own god and that we know what will truly give us joy.
Having grandparents that were born into slavery, Gardner Taylor grew up in the Jim Crow south. He was a pastor for over 40 years in Brooklyn, New York becoming, by God’s grace, one of the most powerful preachers of the gospel in the last century.
Speaking about mankind’s condition he said:
“The central lure in the Eden account of our human beginning was the temptation to exceed our humanity and to "be as gods." Amidst the luscious fruit and the endless springtime, a slimy presence strikes at the most vulnerable element in the human makeup, "ye shall be as gods." All of history since supplies tragic evidence that this continues to lie at the heart of the human problem. We mortals are created a little lower than God, a lofty status, but in our attitudes and actions we tend to forget the "little lower" [part] and seek the glory which cannot be forcibly seized [which is] the status and prerogatives of God.”
Born in Ireland, C.S. Lewis was a professor at England’s Oxford University. As a former atheist, he used logic and philosophy to become one of the clearest defenders of the Christian faith, by God’s grace, in the last century.
He remarked that, “…human history… [is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
You will either submit to God and His Word or you will end up trying to be god over His Word.
You will either find your delight and joy in God’s will and way or you will find your delight and joy in your will and way.
The Psalmist, though admitting his iniquities in v.12, we know from v.8 that he delights in the will of God and that he has stored God’s law within His heart. And because of that he willingly confesses his iniquities before the Lord because of God's steadfast love and faithfulness. David delights in God’s will and he doesn’t delight in hurting others like “those” in v.14
Obedience should come from the heart and yet obedience cannot be confined only to the heart.
Be transformed by the way of the cross, in obedience and loving sacrifice, surrendered to God’s law and being generous in doing good to others.
In Christ, God has cleansed our hearts. Though we are still far from perfect and though we might not be where we want to be, by God’s grace we can look back and know that we are not where we once were. Be diligent in pursuing righteousness knowing that the good work that He started in us, He will complete. Through his blood we are righteous before the Lord. And all of this is by grace through faith, it is not of works lest any man should boast.
We don’t save ourselves. God saves us. As a young poet named Tupac once said, “maybe in time you’ll understand only God can save us.”
We are not saved because we are good, but we are saved to do good. Why? Because God is good and we are called to reflect Him as revealed through His will in the Word.
God has revealed Himself.
There is a distinct reality and yet an overlapping truth of how God reveals Himself. The Lord not only reveals Himself to us but He reveals Himself through us to others in observable ways.
Obedience, as we just talked about, is an observable fruit of trusting God in our lives, but so is praise. So is sharing our faith with others. So is a heart that wants to share with others what God has done in their lives.
We see that in v.3 through 5
Psalm 40:3–5
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
We see it in v.9-10.
Psalm 40:9–10
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
Listen, David does not restrain his lips from telling of his deliverance, why? Because as he tells us in v.11 God will not restrain His mercy from David.
David is compelled to share the glad news of the Lord's past deliverance and to use it as trust in the Lord’s future deliverance. We share our stories so that other can see and put their trust in God no matter what they’re going through.
We enjoy and express His everlasting goodness in praising Him, in thanking Him, in singing to Him, in proclaiming Him, in delighting in Him and loving Him, in continuing to seek him, in asking for continued deliverance. And all of this is in response to His grace.
And in all these things God is revealing Himself to you and through you.
Sometimes we overthink evangelism. A friend of mine Pastor Brian says we just got to brag on Jesus.
Think about it, all people love bragging about stuff. We brag about our favorite movies or new show were watching. We brag about places we’ve eaten. We brag about the podcasts we’ve been listening to. We brag on our favorite sports teams.
Let us boast about Jesus. Let us boast in the cross. Let us boast in our weaknesses that God may get the glory.
The Lord has revealed Himself.
The author of the book of Hebrews actually references Psalm 40 writing that Jesus said verses 6-8 about himself in Hebrews ch.10v5-7.
The author of Hebrews shows that the old covenant sacrifices were a shadow of the coming true sacrifice of Jesus. We know that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins and that it is impossible for the blood of goats and bulls to take away sins in any complete way. And that’s why in the old covenant they had to do it year after year, sacrifices had to continue to be offered up. It was a bloody reminder that God had provided a way for people to live on in the midst of sin. But the blood of animals was not sufficient. There needed to be blood that was worthy to take away the sin of humanity. And Jesus from before the foundations of the world was willing to be that sacrifice.
The Son was on a mission to rescue all those who the Father had given him.
“Nothing, not all the armies of the world, can stop an idea whose time has come.”
And so when the fullness of time had come, in that present moment God did the unthinkable, He entered His own creation, in the person of the Son. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world (John 1:9). And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
He was conceived in the womb of a virgin to fulfill the prophet Isaiah and was not affected by the corruption of a sinful nature. And our savior lived a sinless life and fulfilled all righteousness according to the law. He delighted in doing God’s will in a way that no person had before. God’s law was within His heart because the law was actually a reflection of His person even from eternity past. It was the goodness and sweetness of the law of God embodied in the perfect Son of God. And Jesus walked perfectly before His Father in Heaven. He sought to please His Father just as the Father was so pleased in the Son. He only did what he saw His Father doing.
Though Jesus faced temptation like us so that he can sympathize with us, He never sinned. Not only did he live righteously in thought, in motive, and in deed but he also died a death that he didn’t deserve but that every person before him and every person after him deserved. And it wasn’t just the physical suffering that he went through. Any one of us could be called to go through physical suffering like Jesus. But there is something that he went through on the cross that none of His followers will ever go through. And that is the perfect justice that we deserved because of our sins. The wrath that God has for sin and injustice. Jesus willingly took on the flood of judgement that we inherited and have had our hand in. It was the scorching heat of God’s condemnation over our wickedness.
On that cross Jesus became a curse for us.
Jesus became a curse on that tree.
And by God’s glorious design, at the cross, what man meant for evil, God meant for good. What the devil meant for disaster, God meant for deliverance.
The cross, that terrible instrument of justice, has now become that beautiful place of redemption.
For Jesus it was the tree of condemnation but for us it becomes the tree of salvation.
But before we even knew of the glory of the cross, Jesus died. The very author of life died.
And he was laid in the tomb… his body was laying there. Lifeless. Cold.
I don’t know when, Satan, the father of lies and the deceiver of humanity, realized he was defeated.
Maybe it was when Jesus cried out on the cross “It is Finished.”
Maybe it was when it says that Jesus yielded His spirit, and maybe then, Satan realized there was something different about this death.
Or maybe it was when a lifeless body began to breath, when the cold corpse turned warm with life. Maybe it was when Jesus’ spirit returned to His body.
No matter when it was the reality remains that the grave couldn’t hold Jesus. Death couldn’t keep Him. Satan had been defeated. Evil had been conquered. And the resurrection of Jesus was the seal from God the Father in the power of the Spirit declaring an emphatic confirmation of what the Son had accomplished. Validating the perfection of His person. Vindicating the sufficiency of His work. That the prophecy from John the Baptist was true when he proclaimed “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
God by His Spirit has been applying the work of Jesus’ redemption ever since and is creating a new people, from every time period, from every tribe, tongue, nation, from every ethnicity, and every culture and His redemption is reversing the curse of sin and judgment.
The Lord doesn’t delight in disobedient sacrifice and yet he delights when we present our bodies as a living sacrifice as it says in Romans 12.
The Lord doesn’t delight in disobedient sacrifice. But let us as it says in Hebrews 13 continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God and let us continue to do good and to share what we have, for such sacrifices, the scriptures say, are pleasing to God.
God’s wisdom in Jesus might appear like foolishness to those who think they’re wise and His strength in the cross might look like weakness to those who think they’re strong but the cross is the place that we die to ourselves and live in Jesus. Jesus and His cross are the very wisdom and power of God.
God reveals Himself to us, so that He can reveal Himself through us.
Whether through honor or through dishonor, whether through slander or through praise. Even if we are treated as impostors, in Jesus we are true; even if we are treated as unknown, in Christ we are well known; even if we are treated as dead, in Jesus, we live.
Even when we are weak He is strong.
Even as we are being emptied, we are constantly being filled. Even when we are broken, God makes us whole. Though our bodies are wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
Though we might be in the crevice of the valley we reside on the mountain top. Though the night is dark, we walk in the brightness of the day.
Though we battle our sinful nature, we are righteous in Christ.
Though we engage in spiritual warfare, the enemy has been defeated.
Though we might lose some battles, the war has been won.
We live as sorrowful, yet we’re always rejoicing; we might be poor and yet we make many rich; we might not have anything, and yet we possess everything.
Church, “nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.” and so let us wait patiently for the Lord.” I don’t know what your going through but the Lord does. He will not restrain His mercy from us, his steadfast love and faithfulness will sustain us and preserve us. Even when circumstances overwhelm us, even when the storm clouds overtake us, even when the waters come up to our neck, even when our enemies surround us and the fire rages, even when we are weary from crying out, even when our tears run dry and our eyes grow dim, even when our sins are more than the hairs on our heads and even when our hearts and bodies fail, He will not restrain His mercy on us.
May all who seek the Lord, rejoice and be glad in Him.
May those who love God’s Salvation continually say “Great is the Lord.”
Brothers and Sisters, though the night seems long, May we say along with David in the closing verse of Psalm 40.
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!
Let us pray.
Father God we come before you in the precious and glorious name of Jesus by the power and grace of your Spirit. Oh God you are so good and gracious in all your ways, you are holy and righteous in all of your works, you are the strength of our praise and the source of our joy. You are our help and great deliverer. The foundation of your throne is righteousness and justice, your presence is eternal, your strength never ceases, your goodness has no end, and you have shown the immeasurable riches of your love in your Son Jesus, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. We thank you, and praise you, for you deserve all honor and glory. In the grace of your Spirit, and by your Son’s name we pray. Amen.
The Table
The table is the place where we’re reminded that God has revealed Himself to us as our great deliverer. His deliverance is ultimately from sin and death by the blood of Christ. If you have repented of your sins and put your faith in Jesus and are trusting in Him alone for your salvation, we invite you to eat and drink with us.
If you want to know more about what repentance and faith in Jesus means and looks like or if you have any questions about Jesus and who he is I would love to talk with you after the service.
Church, Jesus ate the bread of despair and death so that we can eat the bread of life.
Jesus drank the cup of God’s justice and so we can drink the cup of God’s peace.
His body and blood are the true bread and drink. Let us serve you.