ROBINSON CRUSOE’S TEXT
PSALM 50:15
I want to begin today by reading to you some excerpts from Daniel DeFoes book’s Robinson Crusoe.
If some people knew that the book Robinson Crusoe actually contained the gospel they might seek to have it removed from the shelve.
What we see in the book Robinson Crusoe is that he wisely takes that promise of God in that passage an applies in three ways. To his deliverance from sickness, to his deliverance from the island, and to his deliverance from his state of sin. What we see from the story is that God is faithful in delivering Mr. Crusoe from all three of his troubles.
Now I know that Robinson Crusoe is not here this morning, but perhaps there is one here very much like him. A person who is suffering a shipwrecked life, one who is in the mist of illness, one who may remember better days but you find yourself in the mist of trouble. Maybe you are feeling that the only thing that lies ahead of you is misery and trouble and problems. May I say that Mr. Crusoe’s verse can become your verse.
There are perhaps many here who are feeling joy, who are on top of the world, things are going great. A would just remind you that many times today’s joys become tomorrows sorrows. You too would do will to listen and hear Robinson Crusoe’s text.
Please turn with me in your Bible to that text, which is Psalm 50:15, that is page 493 in your pew Bibles this morning. As you turn there I would just say that you may find great comfort in this wonderful passage of scripture. Psa. 50:15; “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” (repeat)
The Lord is telling you to call upon Him in your day of trouble, and He WILL deliver you, for His glory. I pray that the words of this verse will turn your sorrowing into joy. I pray that these word’s would bring you hope, that you would see the blessedness in them.
There are four realities that I would like us to discover this morning. The first is this, God prefers “realism over that which is ritualistic”. We can see this more from the context of our passage then the passage itself. What the Lord is telling the people is that He had little interest in the formalities of worship when a person hearts is not in them.
Listen to verses 8-15 “I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices Or your burnt offerings, Which are continually before Me. I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
What the Word of God is teaching here is that the most important form of offering or sacrifice that we can give to the Lord is our prayers and praise.
Now why is that?
First of all real prayer is better then ritual because there is true meaning in it. We can go through all the ritualistic worship we want, we can light candles, sing songs, go through all the motions but if they are devoid of the heart, as is the case with so many, they mean nothing to the Lord.
But when we look to the Lord in our day of trouble, when we call on Him to deliver us in our anguish, it is in that prayer that there is true meaning. There is meaning in the person who calls out this promise in their day of trouble.
Secondly real prayer is better the ritual because it is more Spiritual. John 4:24 tells us; “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” There surely is something spiritual of one who cries out to God in their need.
You know I could pray for you a beautiful prayer. One with eloquence, and spiritual sounding words, but if the heart is not in it then it become just empty words. We may just as well repeat the alphabet and call it a devotion.
If we join together as one and sing a hymn the best it as ever been sung, yet we do not mean it from the heart, it is nothing more the empty ritual, and would be nothing to God. Yet when you find a person in anguish and he or she cries out to the Lord, “God be merciful to God, God save me!” there is spiritual life in such a prayer. Spiritual worship is what the Lord desires, and is it what He will have, or He will have nothing. “those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” There is no other kind of true worship.
Thirdly real prayer is better then ritual because there is sincerity in it. When we are in a time of happiness and joy and prosperity. When thing are going real well, many times are prayers and our thanksgiving is nothing but hypocrisy.
We all must admit that when we are in times of troubles, when we or our loved ones are ill. When we are in a trouble by which we see no way out, it is at those times that our prayers take on an intensity deeper then when all is well.
I believe that a man who is poor and has no job. When he has searched for work yet found nothing. When he is down to his last dollar and knows not where his families next meal will come from, his prayer will be far more sincere and intense then mine when I am praying that God would sent me a turkey to shoot during hunting season. And when God doe provide and that man is able to see his family eat a meal that man’s prayer of thanksgiving will be much more sincere then mine.
We ought to praise God for our troubles, praise for our trials, praise Him of our sickness, and so forth. Think where we would be in our prayer lives had God never sent any difficulties our way.
Fourthly real prayer is better then ritual because there is more humility in it. Whenever there is a spirit of pride within us God cannot accept our worship. The very act of worship, the very act of true prayer, must be based on humility.
When a man cries out to God, “Lord help me!, Lord save Me” When a man call upon the Lord in His day of trouble their humility in that call. Because the person has come to the point where they know there is no help anywhere else except in the one who has said “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Fifthly real prayer beats ritual every time because in such prayers there is true faith. When a person prays in their trouble they are looking away from themselves. No longer looking to there own power to get them out of there situation, no longer looking at any earthly, but their faith is placed where it ought to be placed and that is on the God of all things. There is perhaps no more a faith fill prayer then the prayer of the one who is the hour of need.
So what do we say to all this. Those who are poor, in need, in times of trouble. It is not ritualism, or the performance of ceremonies, it not uses spiritually sounding words, but it is the crying our to God in the hour our your trouble, that is the most acceptable sacrifice that your spirit can bring to the throne of God.
The second reality I want us to discover this morning from our Robinson Crusoe text is we have adversity turned to advantage.
Psa 50:15 tells us; “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” You see the Lord cannot deliver one who is not in trouble, thus there is some advantage to being in distress. Our Lord Jesus who we see healing the sick and so forth, could not heal one who is not sick, He cannot give sight to one who is not blind.
So it is to our advantage that we are at time sick, in order that Christ might heal us, and in that God is glorified. So our trouble are opportunities for the grace of God to flow to our lives.
When we are in trouble and we call upon the Lord, and the Lord grants us deliverance, will that not be a rich and sweeter experience had we never knew the trouble.
As Spurgeon states, “here is the art and science of making gains our of our losses, and advantages out of our adversities.”
I stated earlier that perhaps there is one like Robinson Crusoe today, who feels adrift on an island of troubles. Turn your trouble into glory. Look at our passage “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
You have a plead from time. Call upon the Lord your “day of trouble”. Do not waste another moment but call on the Lord in your day of trouble. This is the hour the Lord as bid you to call upon Him. What is your trouble? Whatever it be bring it to the Lord, bring it to Him now. In the mist of your darkness call to the One in whom is all light.
Look at our passage, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” Plead the command the Lord gives you here. Obey the voice of the Lord to call upon Him.
Go to Him with your trouble praying to Him, “Lord here am I”. “I come to you in obedience, obeying your call to call upon your name”.
Let us know that the Lord would never bid us to come if He meant to refuse us.
It is sad the we so often attribute to the Lord conduct that we ourselves would never think of having. If I say to a poor man on the street, “Here is my phone number, call me on Monday and I will see what I can do for you.” Would I treat him with contempt if he indeed did call. I would be bound by my own word to hear his cause, and do what I could to help him.
Do you think that God has given you this passage to mock you? Do think He just says “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you” just to mess with your head? I think not. God will hear your call, God will deliver you, and God will be glorified.”
But remember, as our friend Robinson Crusoe learned, that deliverance take from in different ways.
Further go to God pleading His own character. We ought to pray to God clothed with all humility and reverence, yet we can go to our Father in heaven prayer, “Lord it is you to whom I appeal, for you yourself in all your glory have called me to “call upon” you in my day of trouble.
Do not think that Lord will change His mind, for He does not change. He will not say come, and then ignore, that it not His nature.
Go to the Lord in your trouble praying, “Lord I come because you have called, I come to the one who cannot lie, I come because within your wonderful nature you have called.”
Again I say to you this morning. If you are in that pew, and you are in a time trouble, do not wait, call upon the Lord, and He will deliver you.
The third reality of our text this morning is this, we have in it “grace under bondage”. We should all know that there is nothing freer than grace. We can never earn grace, there is nothing in us that precipitate it. But here we have grace placing itself in bondage to a promise. Listen to our passage again; “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
When a person state “I will” do whatever, he places himself under the command of his own declaration. In other words he is not as free as he was before he stated “I will”. If I tell my daughter Brooke “I will” bring you to school, I am not as free to not bring her to school as a was before I said it. Now I am under bondage to my word, and the truthfulness of my word will depend on what I do.
I say the following with all reverence to my Lord, but when our God states “I will” in this text He had bound himself with cords that He cannot break. Because God said “I will” He must now hear and help those who call upon His name. He must now give them grace. Not because they now deserve grace, but because the who cannot lie has stated He will give them grace, when they call on Him in their day of trouble. He has promised this, and He will fulfill that promise.
In regards to this I want us to notice some things. First this text is unconditional in regards to persons. This promise goes out to all. Within the context of the text God is calling to those who have mocked Him with meaningless sacrifices, yet He says to them “Call on me in the day of your trouble and I will deliver you.”
A person may curse God all their lives. They may live in sin and wickedness. They may be lying on their death bed. But when the Spirit of God works in them, and they call upon the Lord in their day of trouble He will hear them, and He will deliver them in one form or another.
Notice also that when the Lord states “I will” it is a promise to use whatever means He will to bring about deliverance.
Sometimes situations that we are in seem impossible even for God. We may look to God say how is it possible for you to keep such a promise. But remember the Lord as said “I will”. We must allow Him to do it His way. If He states “I will” then believe that He will. If need be He will shake the foundation of heaven and earth, but He will keep His word. For He lacks not power, He does not lack honesty. He will be faithful.
When the Lord state “I will deliver you” ask no more questions. Do use suppose Daniel knew how he would be delivered from the lion’s den? Or how Daniel’s friends would be delivered from the fiery furnace? Do you suppose how Joseph knew how he would be delivered from the prison that he was in? And we can go on and one.
When the Almighty says “I will” know He will. Maybe not how He will, but He will.
Also in regard to grace under bondage let me point out that the passage does not say when. God states He will deliver you, but He does not say when. It may be today, tomorrow, next month, next year. We may be in hurry but the Lord is not. The trouble you are in may not have brought all the good to you that the Lord has meant it for. It takes to for the dross to be fired out of the gold. The Lord may just have tarry in the fire until we are purified.
Also in regards to this third reality I want us to notice a little word there, and that word is “you”. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Too many times we read Scripture and apply them to everybody else but ourselves. We think that God was taking to people like Daniel, or Joseph, or the person sitting across from you in the pew. God will deliver “YOU” in your trouble. This passage is for you personally. Our God is a personal God not some far distance deity.
Listen to Rom. 8:15; “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father.”
Also Gal. 4:6 “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!”
The One who is giving you this promise this morning is our “Abba” Father. This name denotes intimacy, it is the name the Jesus uses for the heavenly Father in Mark 14:36. It is the name that we are to call our heavenly Father. Abba Father has said Call Upon Me in your day of trouble, I (Abba Father) will deliver YOU, (Barb, Lisa, Todd, and so on).
This promise is a promise for us personally. Let us not lose sight of that.
The fourth and final reality I want us to is that this verse denotes a sort of partnership with God. Look once more at the verse;
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble (that is our share) ; I will (that is God’s share) deliver you, (there we are again being delivered) and you shall glorify Me (Then back to the Lord, He will receive the glory).
He we have a mini covenant with God. The Lord states here, “Pray to me”, and “I will deliver you”. The Lord states, you will have your deliverance, but I must have the glory. You will have your blessing, but my name will be honored.”
There in is the partnership. We get what we need most, and the Lord gets the glory that is due His name. This verse promises us that when we are delivered, when we are blessed, the Lord gets the glory, He gets the honor.
Let us be sure the we give the glory that is dues His name when He does deliver us.
In closing I want to say this. If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour you stranded on an island of sin. An island that is sinking. And there is but one hope and the hope is in Jesus Christ. You see is calling to you this morning, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Call upon the Lord and He will justify you. Call upon Him and He will save you to the utmost. Call upon the Lord and He will bring you into His family. He will sanctify you. He will deliver you from your greatest enemy, that enemy is your own sin.
Trust in Jesus Christ are Lord and Saviour, answer the call He has placed on your heart. Receive from Him eternal life, and forgiveness of your sins.
When you have trusted in Him, then give Him the glory. Give Him the glory for every part of salvation, for you had no part in it anyway. God alone must have all the honor from first to last.
As we leave this place whatever circumstance you are in this morning, remember this beautiful words given to us be our Abba Father, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
LET US PRAY
