“It is time for thee, Lord,
to work; for they have made void thy laws”
Introduction!
One of the amazing things
about the day in which we live is that we have the most
elaborate time keeping devices any generation ever had,
we wear sophisticated watches, and we have clocks everywhere.
We can lift the phone and
find the correct time from a speaking clock.
We turn on our computer and
the little clock in the corner keeps us right, we keep current
with events all over the world whatever time it is in those
countries through television.
Some of us have the dinner
on before we left home this morning and we can’t even
wait for the Lord’s table lest we would lose it.
If the preacher goes a little
over the time we have to get up and walk out because we
must attend that other meeting.
We are a generation absolutely
ruled by time!
And yet dear folks, there
never has been a generation as in the dark about one little
question! What time is it?
I have an old book, it was
placed in my hands by my mother and father when I was just
sixteen. They told me then it was God’s timepiece,
God’s light and it would keep me on time and keep me
in light. Friends this old timepiece has been ticking for
centuries.
Sometimes it may seem slow,
but it never has once been late. It is a clock set by almighty
God, heaven and earth may pass away, but it will not.
And bless God it runs on
standard time, and woe to those who would try to set it
back or push it forward!
You will find if you look
into this timepiece you will have the experience the electrician
has when he rewires an old house where the power has not
been switched off, you will get a shock, for this book has
its own alarm call and may God have mercy on the man or
woman who sleeps through its warning or presses the snooze
button.
One thing is certain, it’s
later than we think and God knows, if we don’t, “it
is high time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made
void thy laws”
Dr.Vance Havner says, “civilisation
today reminds me of an ape with a blowtorch playing in a
room full of dynamite. It looks like the monkeys are about
to operate the zoo, and the inmates are taking over the
asylum!”
1. The Daring of the Psalmist
Prayer! v 126.
”It is time for thee,
Lord, to work.”
Now beloved the only person
who can pray like that is someone living close enough to
God to understand his mind and will.
Such a person can appeal
to God on the basis of an intimate knowledge of his will!
Daniel could do that. He
had so thoroughly mastered the Word of God as given to Jeremiah,
he had so marked the passing of the years, he was so conversant
with the signs of the times that he could pray, “It
is time, O Lord, for thee to work”
We need a few daring people
who know God as Daniel did to begin to pray!
There’s not much daring
about our Christianity today, my own included!
I mean we have few men and
woman like Lindbergh these days.
When he was just a youngster
he climbed into an old crate of a air-plane with no radio,
no anything and took off for Paris, he had to have a lot
of something that most of us do not have!
But after it was over, and
of course he had the world at his feet, he was an idol everywhere.
Everybody was so excited about this great act of daring.
But Lindbergh soon grew tired
of all the adulation and fame.
Then tragedy struck and his
little boy was kidnapped and murdered, he moved to England
to live and began to get friendly with some supporters of
the Nazis.
Franklin D. Roosevelt called
him a traitor, but later president Eisenhower promoted him,
and he served in World War 2 in an advisory capacity!
He then became interested
in conservation and later discovered he had a terminal illness,
and in his characteristic fashion, he planned his own funeral.
They buried him in a fatigue
outfit in a very plain grave in Hawaii, where he lived.
On his tombstone are the
words “Though I mount up with the wings of the morning.”
But Lindbergh said this,”
I have lived to see the science I worshipped and the aircraft
I loved destroying the civilisation I expected them to serve”
That tells us something of
the disillusionment of that remarkable man.
And that is where we are
today dear folks, our great advancement and progress is
the very thing that is going to be the death of us.
And at such a time we need
some of God’s dear people to be beseeching the throne
of grace calling upon God and crying for His intervention,
” It is high time for thee to work Lord”
2. The Discerning of the
Psalmist’s Prayer! v 126b.
”For they have made
void thy laws”
The psalmist sees this as
a time God must act because men had made void the laws of
God.
Moral apathy and spiritual
apostasy are such that God’s Word has been set aside
by the wicked, and when his control over human affairs appears
to be totally undercut by sin.
Does that sound familiar?
Could it be if the psalmist were here today he would be
praying the same prayer?
We are rapidly arriving at
that state of affairs in this world today where, without
doubt, the Lord will work and dear folks He will work in
rapture, He will work in retribution, or he will work in
revival!
And while I am waiting for
the rapture, or retribution (judgement) beginning on the
house of God I am praying for revival.
Now let me define what revival
is!
An evangelistic campaign
or special meeting is not revival.
In a successful evangelistic
campaign or crusade, there will be many who make decisions
for Jesus Christ, but the community at large remains untouched,
and the churches continue as they were before the outreach
began.
In revival God moves in the
district. Suddenly the whole community becomes God conscious.
The Spirit of God grips men and women in such a way that
even work is set aside as people give themselves up to waiting
on God. For example!
The Great awakening on the
Isle of Lewis!
The parish minister of the
church at Barvas on the Island wrote.
”The spirit of the Lord
was resting wonderfully on the different townships of the
region. His presence was in the homes of the people, on
meadow and moor-land, and even on the public roads.”
Dear folks, this presence
of God is the supreme characteristic of a God sent revival.
That minister continues.
”Of the hundreds who
found Jesus Christ as Saviour during this time on Lewis
and other Islands, a full seventy five per cent were saved
before they came near a meeting or heard a sermon preached
by myself or any other minister.”
The power of God, the Spirit
of God, was moving in operation, and the fear of God gripped
the souls of men, that beloved is God sent revival! That’s
our prayer for the days ahead!
This world, dear folks, would
make void the very laws of God.
They would, not only sin
against the law of God but sin away the law of God, not
withdraw themselves from it but would drive it out of the
world altogether.
They would make void and
repeal the holy acts of God, that their own wicked acts
might not be questioned.
But what about we who profess
his name?
Not Only The Daring Of This Prayer!
Not Only The Discerning Of This Prayer!
3. The Duty Of The Psalmist’s
Prayer!
You see at such a time in
the nation God calls on his prophets, and preachers and
people to cry to him with such a prayer..
”It is time for thee,
Lord, to work, for they have made void thy laws”
If we love the word of God,
the laws of God, then it’s our duty to call out unto
a Holy God to move into this situation and address the iniquities
and inequities of the age.
And that dear people is our
challenge today!
Do we love His Word with
such a passion that we will not be silenced in our call
to God, “It’s high time Lord for you to work”
This from Dr. John MacArthur.
In Psalm 19 v 10-13 the
psalmist reminds us!
A. Scripture is the Source
of Greatest Possession! v 10a.
“More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much
fine gold”
B. Scripture is the Source
of Greatest Pleasure! v 10b.
“Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb”
C. Scripture is the Source
of Greatest Protection v 11a.
“Moreover, by them is thy servant warned”
D. Scripture is the Source
of Greatest Profit! v 11b.
“And in keeping of them there is great reward”
E. Scripture is the Source
of Greatest Purification! v 12-13.
”Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from
secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be
upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression”
Now here’s the point
of all that, when I come to that point in my life where
I am upright before a Holy God, Then! Then! Then!
Psalm 51 v 13. “Then
will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto thee”
You say, Pastor that’s
a tall order! Yes it is! Yes it is!
But listen there is no more
blessed experience in this wide world like teaching sinners
the ways of God and seeing them converted unto the Lord.
And for that experience to
be real for us, we must first feel the blessing of the forgiveness
of sins.
Friends it’s not reconciliation
we need in this country it’s repentance and where better
to start than in God’s house amongst God’s people.
I get the feeling David knows
what he was talking about!
Although David was one of
the greatest saints of Scripture and one of the greatest
sages of Scripture and one of the greatest Sovereigns of
Scripture he was also one of the greatest sinners of Scripture.
But says he in Psalm 51 v
12-13. “Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation, and
uphold me with a willing spirit, then! Then! Then! Will
I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee.”
A. There is a pleasure we
feel when sin is cleansed!
Sin is so radical an offence
against God that the Holy Spirit uses fifteen different
Hebrew words to describe it in the Old Testament.
Sin is a defiance, a rebellion,
a revolt against God; it’s like the child saying a
defiant no to the command of his parents.
Sin is a defect, it means
to miss the mark or to fall short, it indicates something
missing in one’s life, a defect brings all sorts of
shortcomings.
Sin is a distortion, it denotes
perverseness, bent or crooked, instead of being straight
we become twisted and crooked.
Sin is a deception; it introduces
guilt, insincerity, cunning and duplicity into the life
of a believer.
And oh, the wonderful pleasure
forgiveness brings! There is a pleasure in cleansing!
B. There is a penalty we
face when sin is concealed!
Before David made a complete
breast of his sin and openly confessed it, he tried to hide
it; but sin is very hard to conceal.
David had always been a healthy
man for he had lived an active, busy, outdoors life. But
no more, for sin and conscience had sapped his physical
strength, Psalm 32 tells us “his bones waxed old”
One of the prices of concealing
sin is that sooner or later it will take its toll physically.
David had always been a happy
man, he was known as the sweet singer of Israel, but no
more! Horror at his sin and the fierce fires of conscience
drove him to sobs and groans, again Psalm 32 “Roaring
all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon
me.”
David had also always been
a hearty man, the kind of person that attracted others to
him, but no more.
Now we see him listless,
unhappy, and wretched. “My moisture is turned to the
drought of summer” his vitality was snapped, he was
utterly spent.
You see it’s always
that way when we hide our sin, because remember it’s
never hidden from God and if we don’t deal with our
sin then God will, and there’s always a high price
tag on concealed sin.
The pardon we find when
sin is confessed! Psalm 32 v 5.
”I acknowledge my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin.”
One of the curious things
in recent history is the pardoning of President Richard
Nixon by President Gerald Ford.
It began on June 17 1972
with a seemingly minor crime, a burglary that went wrong.
Two years later it blossomed into a national scandal. People
in the highest offices in the land were found to be involved
and their names were forever tarnished.
Close associates of the president
went to jail. The press, like hounds after a fleeing fox,
bayed and barked at the heels of the president
At length the house judiciary
committee approved three articles of impeachment and pressure
for the President’s resignation mounted. What had begun
with a scrap of tape on a basement lock ended with an all
time first, the resignation of a President of the United
States.
But once again clamour was
raised, this time for Mr Nixon’s arraignment before
the courts.
Gerald Ford faced the dismal
prospect of the whole set of dirty political linen being
once more washed in public, before the courts
In the face of the world
for months and years to come. He did an astonishing thing:
he pardoned Richard Nixon.
Before the President could
be arraigned, tried, and condemned, he was pardoned!
Then the public outcry turned
against President Ford, and with some justification. After
all you cannot pardon a man who says that he is not guilty,
and Mr Nixon to the last, refused to acknowledge guilt.
David said, I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord.”
David found pardon through confession.
D. The path we follow when
sin is conquered! Psalm 32 v 6-7.
It is one thing to get out of the condemned cell; it is
something else to live a godly life. Unless sin in the life
is conquered, a pardon is just a licence to go on sinning.
And David tells us four things that mark out the way to
victory over sin!
Again we turn to Psalm 32.
1. The power of prayer!
“For this shall everyone that is godly pray”
The first thing to do when tempted is pray! For sin is too
big a thing to handle alone.
When the titanic struck that
massive iceberg things were suddenly different in the wireless
shack. When the Californian broke in at 11.00 p.m. with
the sixth ice warning, the Titanic’s Wireless Operator
had simply told her to shut up and hadn’t bothered
sending the warning to the bridge!
When the frantic SOS signals
were sounding over the radio waves, it was too late! Don’t
wait until it’s too late!
Don’t wait until your
lad, lass, strikes rock bottom; send up your SOS right now!
Realise the power of prayer, now!
2. The power of position!
“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee
in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods
of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou
art my hiding place”
David found a hiding place
from the dreadful storm near to the heart of God!
Listen! Listen! That was
the best that could be said in the Old Testament: a man
could draw near to God. In the New Testament our life is
hid with Christ in God.
Here is a valuable deed,
you put that deed in a safety box and then you put that
safety deposit box in the vault at the bank.
Here is a redeemed human
life, something very valuable to God, purchased at great
cost. God puts that life in Christ; then he folds Christ
in himself. That is the power of position.
Rock of ages cleft for me,
let me hid myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power.
3. The power of peace!
“Thou shalt preserve me from trouble”
The believer is not exempt
from troubles. Satan will often use them to worry and weaken
us, but God wants to use them to strengthen us. David had
his fair share of trouble, and he had more to come. His
whole family was yet to dissolve in ruins and adultery and
murder would break out again and again among his own sons.
Yet David would be preserved.
What a wonderful peace!
And folks, come what may
our God will not change!
Peace, perfect peace, in
this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers
peace within.
The power of praise!
”Thou shalt compass
me about with songs of deliverance”
David saw himself completely
circled with song!
This was the man who, moments
before had been talking about his “roaring”, his
irrepressible anguish!
Praise is a wonderful thing.
It disarms the enemy! What can the enemy do to a person
who turns every experience into an opportunity for praise?
Look at Paul and Silas in
prison with their backs torn to shreds by a roman scourge
and their hands and feet bound fast with chains of iron.
The whole prison rings out
with harmony as these two sing God’s praise and their
song leads to what? The salvation of that jailer!
The daring of this prayer!
The discerning of this prayer!
The duty of this prayer!
Will we dare cry this prayer;
“it’s time for thee Lord to work!”
For if we do, He might well
say, all right, I will work through you!
”It’s high time
for thee, Lord, to work for they have made void thy laws”
If a church wants a better
pastor, it can get one by praying for the one it has.
If a church wants better
people, it can get them by praying for the people they have.
If a church wants better
leaders, they can have them by praying for the leaders they
have.
If the church want a better
youth group, they can have a better youth group by praying
for the group they have.
