Wisdom for Righteous Living - 240108

SPEAKER A Hello. I'mike Browning. Welcome to let God speak. Our discussion today focuses on how to live a righteous life. We will grapple with the role of test and trial in the life of the faithful believer. And finally, we will highlight the blessings we can enjoy as followers of Jesus. Well, folks, on our panel today we have Cassie Sollano. And we have Kate Simpson. Ladies, thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your input, and we'd like to invite everyone to enjoy a prayer with us as we prepare to open the scriptures today. Father in heaven, we just thank you for the amazing messages of the scripture. We pray that your spirit will guide us here in the studio and those at home watching as we talk about the importance of living the christian life faithfully for you. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Now, folks, we talk a lot about God's grace. And in Hebrews, chapter four and verse 16, the writer of Hebrews does indeed talk about grace. And I just want to share the scripture with you. It says, let us therefore come boldly, that is, confidently to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So again, we talk a lot about God's grace. So in a nutshell, Kate, what does grace, God's grace, offer the human family? SPEAKER B Grace provides sort of like two things. So firstly, it's the forgiveness of sin and cleaning us from all of the past mistakes. And then we get to this point in the middle, and then it also provides us a new heart, the opportunity to have a new heart so that we desire holiness and we don't want to sin anymore. So it brings us into harmony with God's will as expressed in his commands, which we'll get into later. So, yeah, I really like the idea that not only saves us from sin, but it helps prevent sinning in the future. SPEAKER A Okay. Thank you for that. Yeah. So God's grace encompasses every aspect of our life and our relationship with God himself, which is really amazing. You mentioned God's commandments, and the Bible does talk a lot about God's commandments. The Bible does. So what is the purpose of God's law, Cassie? Of the commandments? SPEAKER C I think it's important we don't approach it coldly, like it's a matter of just keeping rules. It's a description of how to live our lives in an intimate relationship with God. And I think we need that information to know that we're doing things according to his will. I'd like to read John, chapter 14, verse 15, which says, if you love me, keep my commandments. SPEAKER A Okay, so it's a real statement of our relationship with him, isn't it? Yeah, it is how we relate to the commandments. Thank you for that, Cassie. Look, I'm going to read psalm 119 and verse one. Psalm 119 is a very long psalm and a very important one. And this is what it says. Nearly there. Psalm 119, verse one. And it says this. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Now this is pretty interesting sort of statement. The undefiled in the way. What does it mean to be undefiled in the way there, Kate? SPEAKER B Sort of meaning living a life of faith. So you're not defiled with the world, with sin, with all these things. You're clean. You're set apart from everything. Being free from sin. Love of sin defiles people, defiles believers. We have a love of sin. So it's being free from all of that. And it literally means being perfect or sincere. And sincere kind of infers that your heart is sort of fully set on one thing. You're passionate about it and perfect and everything. And you don't have a divided attention. You're wholly serving God. SPEAKER A And yeah, basically undefiled. Thank you for that. You've explained that very nicely. It's certainly a powerful word to be undefiled. And sin does defile us. Okay, so we're dealing with that. Cassie, what is the benefit, as you see, of having God's will for our lives so clearly spelled out in the ten Commandments? Because he does spell it out very clearly. Doesn't what he wants? SPEAKER C I think irrelevant scriptures in one chronicles, chapter 22, verse twelve says, only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. And I think this explains that the law gives us wisdom and understanding that's eternally useful for us. I think relevant is in Jonah, chapter four, verse eleven. This describes the tragedy of the ancient city of Nineveh, which is that they cannot discern between their right hand and their left. And this describes their confusion towards knowing what's right and wrong. That's just as prevalent in our lives today. So I think having this eternal clarity that remains unchanging is very useful. SPEAKER A So we do know what is right and wrong. That's your point. And it's a very good point. Thank you, Cassie. The tragedy is that we're living in the western culture anyway in a post christian world in our more developing countries. That's not the case. Praise God for that, but because we're moving away from Christianity, particularly here in Australia, for example, then people no longer know what is right and wrong. And this is a big concern indeed. All right, now, Kate, still talking about the Ten Commandments, what do they tell us about God himself? SPEAKER B Should tell us a lot, really. But as I was thinking about this idea, I was thinking that when you read a book or something, you're reading somebody's mind, somebody's thoughts, and you're getting to know what they like through what they've written. So when we read the Ten Commandments, we're literally reading what God, his thoughts and plans are, and he's written it out so clearly for us. SPEAKER A That's nice. Yeah. SPEAKER B And they tell us his will, they state his clear plan, and it also gives us an insight into the meaning of Genesis one, verse 27, where in essence, God says he created man in his own image, and man was created in the image of God, that this is the plan that he was. The Ten Commandments are the plan that was his will for everything, and this is the image that he was creating them in to live this kind of way. SPEAKER A Okay. It's a human reflection then, of God's, of God, the mind of God, and. SPEAKER B The will of God as planned from the beginning. It hasn't changed since. It's still the same. SPEAKER A That's good to know that, isn't it? It doesn't change. SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A Man's ideas may human's ideas, but not God's. So talking about living the faithful life, is it always going to be easy, Cassie, to live the faithful life? We're challenged to do it. Is it going to be an easy thing to do? SPEAKER C Yeah. Well, it's not going to be totally easy. But while we have the joy of God's presence, we can know this life, even though it is challenging, and we'll run into all sorts of problems. It's terminal, I think. Psalm 90, verse ten, illustrates this, says the days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they are 80 years. And now people can get up to 100 or even past that. But it does have a finish. But it's short, but it's still not easy. But according to, in the same psalm, verse one, it says, lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations, and he will continue to be the dwelling place for us as our shelter and our refuge and our hope. SPEAKER A Okay, so even though we live a faithful life to God, our life still ends. But of course, there's good news. We haven't got to that yet. Hold on, folks, we're coming to that. I'm going to read psalm 90 still in psalm 90 and verse twelve where the psalmist writes this. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. So there is a predicament that we've been talking about in human life. What is the solution according to what we just read in psalm 90, verse twelve? SPEAKER B The solution? Yes, the solution. God is saying, simply teach us to number our days. Count your days as Cassie was saying. Know that you don't have all that many of them. Value the ones that you do have. And during those days, apply your heart unto wisdom or gain know. Walk in wisdom. Follow God faithfully and obediently and this would be wisdom. So value each of your days, but be wise by following God. SPEAKER A Okay, thank you for that. So ageing and death make the most of the life that you've got. In other words, whether it's short or long. Is that our greatest predicament? Is that what the psalmist is saying here, Cassie, that ageing and death is the greatest predicament that we face in humanity's experience? SPEAKER C No, I don't think it's really in itself a root problem. While it's terrible, we have to look to the thing that causes death, which is sin. It's Romans, chapter six, verse 23. It says, the wages of sin is death. SPEAKER A Okay, so it's made it pretty clear, hasn't it? So sin is the problem. That's the predicament. Okay, thank you for that. So, Kate, remind us of the solution to the problem of sin then. SPEAKER B Well, if we keep reading in Romans chapter six, verse 23, the second part says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that makes me want to jump over to first John. Sorry, not first John. John, chapter one, verse 29. It says, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. So the solution here is. Yes, there'sin. But behold the lamb of God. We see sin all around us everywhere. But keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Turn to Jesus and just behold him. SPEAKER A Don't worry. Isn't he? SPEAKER C He is. SPEAKER A Jesus is our hope. Thank you for that, both. Ladies. Look, I'm going to read psalm back in psalm 81. And I'm going to read verse seven just for a moment. Psalms 81 and verse seven. And this is what it says. You called in trouble and I delivered you psalms 81, verse seven. Have I got the right reference there? Psalms 81, verse seven. Oh yes, I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Now I want you to just focus on the last part of that verse. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. It says God tested Israel here. But does God test his people? This is the question, Cassie. SPEAKER C Yeah, I think he does. It's shown throughout the Bible. There's evidence of him doing that. And in psalm 105, verses 17 and 19, it describes the experience of Joseph who obviously faced many trials, says he sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave and that alone is quite confronting, says until the time that his word, this being the Lord's word, came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. So that describes what you were saying, that he does definitely test his people. But it's something that while severe, it changed Joseph's character, that he was this essentially he was quite spoiled being the favourite child. The test made out of him just a man of faith. SPEAKER A Yeah, which is interesting. And it only took a very short space of time heading to Egypt on a camel's back and suddenly he grows from a boy into a man. It's pretty remarkable, isn't it? So good to know that there's a good purpose in a test and a trial. Kate, remind us of the results of this reigning refining process for Joseph. SPEAKER B Well, also in psalm 105 we'll read verse 20 and 21, says the king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance. Joseph is being talked about here. And God blessed Joseph abundantly, made him a ruler of everything. He went from the lowest he could possibly go to almost the highest he could possibly go in that situation. And that's something that comes out to me is Joseph kept his eyes on Jesus. His faith was grounded in God. And you see that throughout all the experiences of his life as trials and tests, he always kept God as his number one and God would glorify his name through him. SPEAKER A Yeah, it was remarkable really. You know how Jesus on one occasion told his disciples that with men this particular thing is impossible, but with God all things are possible. And I think when it comes to God in our lives we should expect the unexpected. God is well capable of doing whatever it takes to get us where he needs us to be and that's very encouraging indeed. All right, thanks for that. We need to move on. Let's talk about Cassie for a moment. Why does God test his people? Why does he test us? SPEAKER C Yeah, well, I think it's easy for people to take a very narrow minded sort of, oh, why is this happening to me? And it seems like there's no good to come out of it. But if we keep God as we've been discussing as our main focus, it will allow us to see our own faithfulness or unfaithfulness. Even so, we can grow in spiritual strength in their trust and then trust in God's faithfulness into seeing through trials. SPEAKER A Okay, so trials properly born can really achieve quite a lot in our lives. SPEAKER C They can. SPEAKER A That's fantastic. What about rejecting what the test was? If you like the trial that comes? Because as you pointed out, Cassie, we always know pretty much, why me? Why is this happening to me? So what if we said no to God? I don't want any part of this kind of testing. Would there be any negative fallout, do you think? Cassie, I'm sorry. SPEAKER B Yes, there will be. If we fail to listen to and accept God's testing, we could become resentful. Our hearts can be hardened if you fight against it. And to continue in disobedience would definitely harden our hearts to God's voice. We might not hear it as clearly. Sin can appear less sinful. An important thing to note is like correction can hurt our pride. That is definitely what can happen. But we can choose to be hurt or we can choose to be moulded by it and see God's greater purpose in that. SPEAKER A Okay. It's an act of faith to choose to let it mould our lives. Yeah, you're right about that. SPEAKER B And I might just quickly read hebrews twelve, verse eleven. It says, now, no chastening for the present. Seems to be joyous but grievous nevertheless. Afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So God has clearly stated what he's trying to do. He's trying to refine us. It's not going to be comfortable. But if we just keep our eyes on God again, hold on through the trial, he will come through and glorify his name. SPEAKER A Okay, good. Thanks for that. That's very clear, isn't it? Don't reject it. Cassie, here's a question for you. Talking about. Okay, so trials and tests come and temptations come. Are temptations still appealing? We've been talking about being a faithful follower of Christ, faithful believer. Are temptations still appealing? SPEAKER C Yes, they can be deceptive. And then we might not notice that it's drawing us away from our walk. They can ensnare us slowly without us noticing. If we read very beginning of the psalms. Chapter one, verse one of psalm one says, blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. I think this continues sort of the metaphor of walking. It's very easy to just. I'll take a stand off to the side or I'll sit down and take a break. But we need to keep our eyes focused on our righteous walk. SPEAKER A Yeah, absolutely. And there's kind of an increasing more and more comfortable with the temptation and the sin here in verse one. Now walking, then standing, then sitting down comfortably in the seat of the scornful. I'm thinking just watch that. It's so easy to get lulled into sleep. All right. Psalms 141 has got something we need to read. Psalm 141. And we're going to look first of all at verse one. So if you could just turn with me to psalm 141 and I'm going to read there. Verse verse four. Actually verse four. And verse nine. Psalm 141, verse four. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing. This is a prayer to practise wicked works with men who work iniquity. Do not let me eat of their delicacies. And over in verse nine he says keep me from the snares they have laid for me and from the traps of the workers of iniquity. So what does this tell us Kate? SPEAKER B As you said, it's like a prayer of David. He's praying for God and he's praying for protection from temptation from within his own heart and from temptations without as well. And yeah. What I get from these verses and what Cassie was saying as well in psalm one, verse one is stay as far away from sin and temptation as possible. He's praying like protect me. David says keep me. Protect me from all this temptation. Don't stop, don't sit, don't look at it. Just, yeah, avoid everything. Keep walking. Put your trust in Jesus and he's just praying for this protection. SPEAKER A That's great. Thank you. For know sin is definitely an invader comes to invade our lives. So if we to resist these temptations, Cassie, where does the real battle take place? SPEAKER C I think it's within our own hearts. We look at this prayer. I'll read some other verses. Set a guard o lord over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. And then five let the righteous strike me. It shall be a kindness and let him rebuke me. Think we need to accept the rebuke knowing that God has a plan for us and is beside us, and we can pray ourselves for comfort. We don't have to feel like we're doing it all alone. Often his intention is to draw us to him in prayer. SPEAKER A Yes. I mean, it's not comfortable being rebuked or someone, even if they're very gentle about it, and touch you on the shoulder and say, well, look, I think you ought to think about. It's not necessarily comfortable, but it's obviously very, very wise to do that and to take any encouragement to walk a pathway better in the spirit it's given. And I like that. Let the righteous strike me. It says, it shall be a kindness. So even if people come and are not so tactful as they may, they ought to be. Take it as a kindness, but it's meant to help. SPEAKER B And just quickly, I was thinking, if we're praying for victory, what do we expect? It's not going to be comfortable. It's going to go against what our flesh wants to do. SPEAKER A No, that's true. See, the reality is it takes a lot for God to get through to us. We get all very set in our ways. You haven't got to be old for that. But it does help getting old, but you get set in your ways, all of us. And it's hard to say, well, I think you can do this better by doing it some other way. So we're talking about that today. All right, now, look, let's go back to psalm one, verse one. We looked at this a little while back. Psalm one, verse one. And I want to talk there about the main message of psalm one and verse one. I'll read it again. Blessed is the man or the woman. Understood. Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinner, nor sits in the seat. Sorry of the scornful. Kate, what's the main message that you pick up here? SPEAKER B Yeah, stay away from temptation. I think it's also warning us against associations, knowing that we're easily influenced as humans. And I really like how this goes. A natural progression. Walking, standing, and then we're sitting. I don't know. I know for myself how easily I'm influenced. You're kind of walking past something looks interesting. You might sort of stop for a while, and then all of a sudden you find yourself sitting there and involved in it. But it's a warning, like, don't start going down that track. Stay away from it. Keep walking, keep going. SPEAKER A Okay. It's the counsel of the ungodly is mentioned here. The path of the sinner is mentioned here, the seat of the scornful. So it's true. Those whom we associate with are going to have an influence on us, especially if our loved ones. And our loved ones need loving, of course, naturally enough. But we need to be very careful about the influence they can have on us. Nothing should come between us and our heavenly Father. It doesn't mean we should be a hermit. Of course, that's not the point that's being made here. Like, keep away from people, go and live in a monastery. No, it's not saying that. You might be away from some temptations in a monastery, but not all. So it's important that we live in the world, touch the world's lives for good, not the other way around, letting them influence us. Okay, so, Cassie, give us some help here. What is the answer in dealing with bad influences? SPEAKER C I think it's great. We do have an answer. I'd like to just jump to psalm three and I'll read three to five. It says, but you, o Lord, are a shield for me, my glory in the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice and he heard me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept. I think that point about the Lord being a shield for us sort of illustrates we don't need to sort of run away from life and become a hermit, that the Lord is always there to help us be a shield from things. SPEAKER A Okay, that's wonderful, isn't it? That God, that we are never alone. When I first became a Christian, committed Christian, at the age of 21, I was on my own hitchhiking around Tasmania to visit all my friends and tell them the good news. And I was standing there and I was alone in the middle of the country, and there was nobody else around. But I didn't feel alone. And just what you were saying knew that God was with us. We are never alone as a believer. So that's wonderful to know. All right, I'd like to read psalm, verse two of psalms one which says this his. This is talking about the faithful person. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. So what are some of the blessings here that are outlined for us? Kate? Being faithful to God, we will have. SPEAKER B Delight in the law of the Lord, which is quite different. You know, the worldly heart doesn't delight in God's ways, but when we walk in God's ways and his heart comes into us, we have delight in that, and we will meditate in his Lord, day and night. This kind of reminds me of when we were talking about grace before. Grace provides us a way to have this new heart. And, yeah, we want to do the right thing. So there's blessings, we have delight, we have joy. So delight is joy. We have peace with God. And doing God's will will always result in happiness. SPEAKER A Okay. Isn't that good? So it's true, isn't it? There's a great peace. And joy comes from being in union with God, knowing that you're not antagonistic towards him and his will, which is really good. Look, we're going to just throw an extra thought in here in psalm 119 and verse 165 related to that thought. Kate. Psalm 119. And I'm going to read verse 165. That's that long psalm again. Psalm 119, 165. And this is what it says, great peace have those who love your law. Nothing causes them to stumble. The old king James, as we said earlier, says, nothing will. Nothing, sorry. Nothing will offend them. SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER A Thank you for that great peace of those who love you. Nothing causes them to stumble. How does that help us to understand delighting yourself in the Lord that we read about in psalm one. How do you see that? Helping us there to understand delighting in the lord? SPEAKER B Yeah. It gives us this peace. So when we delight in the law, we have this peace. We won't be offended by anything. How often do we take offence in our daily life? More than we want to think we do. But when we have this law, we have peace. We have peace, joys. Yeah. Nothing can offend us. Nothing can sort of come into our. SPEAKER A Inner circle in a way, nothing antagonistic between us and God is a great thing. All right, moving along. Back in psalms, chapter one. Still in psalms, verse three. Psalms one, verse three says this. Where are we? Here we are. He shall be like a tree. This is the faithful person. Like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf shall not wither, whatever he or she does shall prosper. There's a promise. What do you think of that illustration of the tree there? SPEAKER B Yeah. SPEAKER C Well, a tree that's beside water always flourishes. So I think this is representative of God's promise to prosper. Faithful people in their lives. SPEAKER A Okay, thank you for that. There's a lot of beautiful promises we've been reading today. Do you think we ever see the fullness of these promises in the present life, Kate, do you think? SPEAKER B Yeah, I think we can get glimpses of them. God does show us there is beautiful things in life. But I think we'll have to wait until we see the final fulfilment of those things. A psalm 27, verse 13, says, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So we will see some here. There will also be exceedingly, abundantly above all that we think and see. SPEAKER A I notice in psalms 37 six times it talks about us having an inheritance. God setting aside an inheritance for his people. That's pretty remarkable, isn't it? So it wouldn't matter if your bank account wasn't worth a cracker, folks, because God has a plan for you and me that goes far beyond anything this world could offer. Well, we have to finish there. Thank you, ladies, for your contribution today. It is true that life isn't easy for believers, or unbelievers for that matter. But for the faithful, the trials of life have a noble purpose. There is immense encouragement in looking for God's message in all of the events in our lives. Every trial contributes to the grand purpose of conforming our lives to the will of God. Well, we're glad you all joined us today on let God speak. All our past programmes plus teachers notes are available on our website, 3abnaustralia.org.au. You can send us an email if you would like, and we'd invite you to join us again next time. God bless you. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from.