Jesus entered into this evil world as God the Son. Psalm 22 shows how He took the wages of sin. In Psalm 23, He shepherds us as we go through these days shadowed by death. Let us dwell in His house. Psalm 23; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 11:30-33

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, Mike Plunkett
Sermon 12344
7:00 PM on 7/27/2022

P. Mike Plunkett –

It’s so great to be here tonight. I just thank P. Schaller for his care and his concern for my wife and I and the
growing team in Singapore. We leave next week, and we appreciate your prayers. It’s just a
blessing to be sent out from here. It’s a blessing to be a part of this ministry for so many years.
As somebody once said, it’s going to keep getting “gooder” and “gooder!” Right! We have some
– my family has special guests. My father-in-law is here and his wife, Melissa. It’s great to have
them. Okay.

Let’s turn to Hebrews 4:12, just for a quick note of the end of this verse. The Word of God is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Thank God for the Word of God, right?
Without it, we would be just living and just self-deception. We would be living in the results of
the Fall. Thank God for the Word of God that gives us light on motives and discerns these
things.

I want to just look at it from an application in a little different light. This portion. In Romans 11:30-
33, these verses are talking about the amazing plan and program God has had for the world,
Gentiles, Jews, dealing with groups in a very special way for the purpose of the Gospel. For the
purpose of mercy being revealed. And it is passed finding out. It is something that you couldn’t
predict that God would do it this way. If you look back at how you were saved, maybe that
would be something very difficult for you to predict that God would do it that way. I think
everybody has a very unusual story about how they came to Christ. God’s ways are very unique
in bringing us to him.

If you were to ask from the time you were saved to where you are now, could you have
predicted every move in your life that brought you here? My guess would be probably not. We
couldn’t have seen that coming. It was a very special and personal pathway that brought us
here tonight through his amazing providence and his grace. If you, if Sarah was to be the, just
you could say, the mother of the promise, would she have thought that it would have
happened at age 90? I don’t think so. I think that was very unusual. Do you think Joseph when
he was sold into Egypt by his brothers, do you think that he saw in the future him being
basically the second in power under Pharaoh the prime minister and pretty much managing the
country? If you were ask him when he was being sold into Egypt, would he have guessed this
pathway? Would you have guessed he would be accused wrongfully? Put into a jail and then
end up in the position? I don’t think so. I think it’s quite unknowable. I think it’s quite
unsearchable.

I think that’s the case with us, and I think in the future it will continue in many areas to be
unknowable and unsearchable the different things that God will lead us to do in his providence
and in his plan. I think the problem is we get fixed on the unknowableness of what’s happening
and you could say the unsearchableness. We try to search it, but actually I think God wants to
do something else.

In the earlier part of that verse, we just read in Romans 11, he said in vs. 31, I think God wants to
give us a pathway that is unknowable and unsearchable but in the midst of it, he wants to give
us something different and that is he wants us to discern his motives and his intent in this
amazing plan. I think he wants us to live by faith but in what? In the motive of the Planner. The
heart of the person that is leading us to the place where we need to go, where we will prosper
spiritually, where we will prosper in getting to know Christ and becoming more like him and
becoming more fruitful.

He’s not interested in letting you know four or five steps ahead of you but in the step that I’m
at, he wants to speak to us about his heart. He wants to allow us to grow in discerning the
thoughts and intents of who God is and God’s heart and God’s attitude toward me so I can trust
him. So, I don’t have to know the unsearchable. I don’t have to understand the ways that are
without understanding. I can enjoy and I can receive from a person whose intent is love, whose
intent is grace, is mercy. His intent is for me. He wants to bring me to an expected end. This is
who God is. This is who Christ is. This is the game is to know his heart and know his intent.
It’s Satan’s plan and his intent is for us to be live in failure and live in discouragement. God’s
intent is the opposite. It’s edification, It’s building us up. It’s challenging us in faith. It’s
experiencing who he is. So, thank God that we will when we don’t know some of the things that
are happening, we can discern something. We can discern God’s heart. We can discern his
motives, his intents. We can count on that. We can take it to the bank. We can take it to the
bank every time. We can rest in that. We can relax in that. We can go forward with that. Amen.

P. Schaller –

I was thinking about P. Mike and Avril going over (clap, clap). Thank you for that
love and the support and prayers. I got a little sick on the way back, but I’m fine. Romans 8:11,
right? Yes. So, a message – I’d like you to turn to Psalm 23. We had a wedding in Finland. Beautiful
time with family and the family of the Fins. It was amazing. It really was. We had a conference
in Vaasa, Finland. And then in Kirova. Then we had the wedding. The Spirit moved and the joy
that we had and the words, the life, the encouragement, the edification was awesome.
I was thinking about pastoring people and I was thinking about P. Mike and his family going to
Singapore and just having a small group of people and getting from God a word that is going to
help them. And he just shared that now.

That this ministry, O the depths and the wisdom and knowledge of God. It’s passed our understanding. But it happens. We are all here because of it. We realize when we were in Finland 47 years ago, we went there and a team. We did not leave the old landmarks. There is a great proverb on that. Do not leave the old landmarks. But get it
in your spirit and get it in your heart the doctrine and the truth and Christ minister to you to
edify you and love you. This is what Psalm 23 is. But there is a point here – does this work Avery? Is
that up there? Okay.

This is like a trilogy. Psalm 22, we’ll put here the crucifixion. Psalm 23 is ministry today. This is today.
And then Psalm 24 is the Messiah on the earth. This is Revelation 19-22. The Messiah. Always get geared
to the Messiah. Our whole Bible is about the Messiah. The whole – everything in our Bible
relates to the Messiah. When Christ is raised from the dead and he’s spoke with the disciples,
he showed them all the things from the Old Testament regarding himself and Messiah. It’s a
huge thing.

Now, I share one short thought with you. I used to think, I had this argument, if God is perfect
and wise, why did he make a world that is all so evil? Why did he allow the world to be evil? If
he is holy, if he is wise, if he knows all things, if he can do everything, could he give free will to
man and still control the universe? And of course, we understand that, no, that cannot be done.
As long as there is free will, then people can choose to go against God.

So, I thought about it and then I read in a theology book the other day that the world, it is
conceivable. – this is a good word. It is conceivable that the world would be perfect now. It is
conceivable in the Garden of Eden and then the Fall of Adam. It is conceivable or that the world
would have never had any evil in it. It is a thought. But it’s not achievable. It’s not possible. It
can’t happen that this world as we know it is not a perfect world.

But then the answer came. This is amazing. It is coming. It is coming. It’s coming here. It’s a
perfect world. God is wise. God is perfect. His ways are perfect. It is coming. There will be no
death. There will be no sorrow. There will be no pain. It will be a perfect world that is coming.
Why did he make it this way? Because he had to have love in it. And if you love in the world,
then you have to have freedom not to love. You have to have freedom if you have love. So, God
gave man freedom. Man sinned. The world is – a lot of evil things happen every day in our
world. People use this to blame God. But in fact, God is saying to us it’s coming. It’s coming.
Right now, you live in it in Psalm 23. Right now, this is how we live. The day is coming when Psalm 24
is the Messiah reigns over all the earth and that day is coming.

But he didn’t get there without Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is the crucifixion. Psalm 22 is the pain, the suffering. I
have in the Scofield Bible here, “Psalm 22 is a graphic picture of death by crucifixion. Strength
exhausted. Extreme thirst. Hands and feet pierced. The accompanying circumstances, the
periods of light and darkness, the casting of lots, – all of it literally fulfilled when it is
remembered that crucifixion is a Roman not a Jewish execution.” And then in vs. 22, it changes
to the resurrection fulfilled in “go to my brethren.”

And so, we have Psalm 22 where God is in an evil world saving us. He is showing us his
attributes. We trust his wisdom for what is happening in this world because we just believe that
he is all wise. We believe that his ways are perfect. But though now we see through a glass
darkly. But maybe this little outline helps you understand a little more about what is the plan of

God for us and it is that Psalm 22 is admitting the nature of the world as being evil and the Son
of God is crucified.
And then Psalm 23 is in a word being a pastor or a shepherd. We’ll look at that. Vs. 1. I don’t
think there could be a better name for God than a shepherd, that he cares for his sheep. That
he lives with us. That he’s sensitive to us. That he leads us. That he visits us when we are sick.
He carries us when we are tired. He makes us lie down in green pastures. He waters us. He
takes care of us all our lives. All our lives. Isn’t it amazing.

Vs. 2. Rest. Spiritual rest. Rest. Words. Words of love. Words of comfort. Words that go to your
spirit. I was thinking about how in a pastor’s life that in a church and many of the pastors in the
church operate this way. We have a message in the pulpit, but then we have words when we
are sitting in the café or on the phone. Words of encouragement. Words of insight or wisdom
or discernment.

The Lord is the shepherd and he has made us shepherds. Revelation 1:6 because people need to be
shepherded. How easy to get off track. How easy to get off and just go away. Just get lost. How
easy to lose my motivation or my – I just drift and don’t care. But the shepherd cares and he
leads us and has us, he teaches us and we actually have peace and we actually have love and
we have each other in the work of God. Because there is a kingdom coming, Psalm 24, Revelation 21 and
this will all change. But now, we need God as our shepherd.

Vs. 3. What does that look like when the soul is restored? Guilt is gone. Confusion is gone.
Clarity of thought. A sense of connection. Wisdom. He restores our soul or renews our mind.
“He leads me in the path of righteousness.” That’s very important to God that we would be
righteous for his name sake.

Vs. 4. I don’t think there could be a worse scenario for us because we fear death. We don’t like
death and because death is our last enemy. That day is coming perhaps if we are not raptured.
Why are you with me, God? Because the world became so bad. You had to show us your nature
in a bad world by being a good shepherd. And by being with us and carrying us and comforting
us in this world which is for now this way. So, he must speak to us. He must give counsel to us.
He must encourage us.

We had some hundreds of people in Finland who have been all these years very, very precious
people in so many ways, and I feel it’s because of this. The shepherd, the Lord shepherding his
people. Vs. 4b. Yes. Even if God was firm with us, we rejoice in it. If it hurts a little bit that’s
better than being ignored, not being helped, not being dealt with.

Vs. 5. Have you been at the table, the Lord’s table? Quietly. Have you been at the table he
prepared? I think the devil prepares a table but the table that the Lord prepared that has a
different result, that carries us. Vs. 5-6. Yeah, that’s amazing. Amen. Pray with me, please.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.