Sins of the Spirit: Part 8 (Fretting)

Sins of the Spirit: Fretting

This evening I'd like to turn to Psalm 37. I want to continue looking at sins of the Spirit that we need to be aware of and we need to avoid. We need to lay aside. We need to ask the Lord to deliver us from the sins of the Spirit. In Psalm 37 this evening I'd like to turn over there.

Psalm 37, I'd like to read there in verse 1. Just for the moment, I'd like to just read here in verses 1 and 2. A Psalm of David, Psalm 37, verse 1.

Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb.

We're going to read more of this passage tonight, but I want to just stop there for this moment, and may the Lord bless His Word to our hearts.

Paul gave us the truth and this principle that should govern our activities and govern our spirits as we go forward, that we must remember that whatsoever is not a faith is sin. We certainly see that given he gave that in Romans 14 there in verse 23.

And tonight I wanted to speak about the sin of fretting. Fretting and faith are in contrast to each other. You can't have fretting and fear coexist in your spirit.

I know I have mentioned, you know, I like the word etymology, so I have brought up this word fret before. And it comes from, in the Old English, it was spelled F-R-E-T-A-N. I don't know how they pronounced it then, but fretin, I guess, to devour. It came from the idea in the Old English to devour or feed upon or consume.

Noah Webster defined fret as to eat away, to gnaw, to irritate, to agitate, to vex, to worry, to wear away. And here's a word we don't use now, but querulous. It's got the idea of quarrelsome, quarrelsome, to be quarreling.

This word is actually, the word fret is used in relation to leprosy. If you look with me in Leviticus 13, verse 51. Leviticus 13, there in verse 51, please.

In verse 51, we read this little excerpt from this extensive passage regarding the details of leprosy. And it says here in verse 51,

And he, that is the priest, shall look on the plague, and on the seventh day if the plague be spread in the garment, Either in the warp, or in the woof, or in the skin, or in any work that is made of skin, The plague is a fretting leprosy, it is unclean. He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, In woolen or in linen, or in anything of skin, wherein the plague is, For it is a fretting leprosy, it shall be burnt in the fire.

Look in verse 55. And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed, And behold, if the plague have not changed his color, And the plague be not spread, it is unclean. Thou shalt burn it in the fire, it is fret inward, Whether it be bare within or without.

So we see the word mentioned here and the phrase is, It is fret inward. The idea here is of a depression or even of digging a pit. It could be a hollow or sunken spot. Maybe in a garment that's affected, but it's a place. We can kind of see in that the idea of what was one of the words that was associated with synonymous with fretting is gnawing, right? It is gnawing. It is eating. It is corrosive. It is eating away at something. That's what fretting does.

When you combine that with the word worry, it came from, if you look back at the etymology of worry, it had the idea of to strangle even. Fretting to devour or consume, to gnaw.

I think about what our Lord tells us. This is spiritual warfare. To put away fretting in our spirits is an act of war. It is a spiritual battle.

In fact, in 1 Peter 5, if you look over there with me, 1 Peter 5, in our text tonight, we see we're not to fret because of evildoers, right? It could gnaw away at us that the, as we saw this morning, we mentioned when passing Asaph, instead of being rejoicing, instead of praising the Lord, he was fretting because of the prosperity of the wicked, right?

But here in 1 Peter 5, we are commanded, verse 7, to be casting all your care upon him. We all have cares, don't we? For he careth for you. Every one of us has unique cares and unique griefs and unique sorrows and unique challenges that we face, but we are to be sober as we even mentioned this this morning, that we be vigilant, watchful, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.

Interesting word in light of the context of worry, right? The devil is always on the prowl looking to take advantage of the mind and the spirit, even of believers, and to take advantage of robbing us of that rest that we have in the Lord, of that quiet, stable, calm spirit that we have when we truly are trusting the Lord.

And there are any number of things that the devil can use, and we've got to be sober, we've got to be vigilant. And it says here, whom the adversary, the roaring lion, the devil, you to resist steadfast in the faith. We're to take the shield of faith, right? Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that, ye have suffered a while. You've been confronted by this adversary for a while. You've been attacked by him. You've been, even the workers of iniquity have caused adversity for you. Make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him, glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The devil launches all kinds of offensives against God's people. The warfare, we've got to put on the helmet of salvation, the helmet of the hope of salvation. We've got to put on that helmet that our minds may be guarded. When we begin to contemplate, when we begin to become distracted by, when fiery darts may become lodged in our thinking that it will affect our spirits, we can see things and the sight of something may cause our minds to go down some rabbit trail where we end up getting worked up over something because we saw it. We can hear things that get us worked up or fearful. We can experience in our bodies pains and things that frankly the body does affect the spirit. It can affect the spirit. There are many different ways that living in this vessel of clay, we can be affected.

I think of the words of the hymn, I am his and he is mine, and there's a little phrase in that hymn that says something to the effect of nothing can disturb my rest. Well, things can disturb my rest, but as long as we have our eyes on him, there's nothing that can come between us, right? As long as we've got our eyes on him, but the moment that we allow the devil, the enemy of our souls to begin to put any number of different kinds of thoughts into our mind, it will begin to affect and agitate and nibble or chomp away at our peace, if we can say it that way, in him, and it will affect our spirit.

We certainly know the wicked do not know the peace. They have not known the way of peace. They have not known the peace that the Lord gives, but we know that peace that passes all understanding as we walk with our Savior. The wicked are like the troubled sea. They're in bondage through the fear of death, and what does the devil do? It keeps them stirred up with fear so that then he can more easily manipulate them through lust because lust promises that it's going to give them liberty if they can just fulfill that lust, but then they find out that it's empty and then you have to find something stronger to lust after and to get and then, you know, say, oh, I've got it now. I'll be satisfied now, and it's never satisfied. The eyes can never be satisfied. The human desire can never be satisfied with anything less than the Lord, and there's always going to be unrest. It's just up and down. It's vacillating. There's no real peace, but the Christian, the Lord is his peace. The Lord, trusting in the Lord, that's his resting place, and so why should we, as we already began to read tonight in Psalm 37, what did it say there? It said in verse 1, fret not. Don't become agitated. Don't become bothered in your spirit because of evildoers. Don't let it consume you and to eat away at you. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as a green herb. Their prosperity is as short as your testing. Their prosperity is as short as your light affliction, but their judgment will be as long as your eternal rest. Their judgment, we need to pray for their salvation, but certainly don't end the… Don't fret because of evildoers. Don't fret because of Bill Gates. Don't fret because of George Soros. Don't fret because of anybody in the political realm. Don't fret because of false Christianity. Don't fret about it. There may be a time we need to speak out against it, but don't fret over it. Don't become fearful. Don't become distracted from God's purpose. Don't let your mind, by God's grace, be filled with worrying thoughts because it is when that happens that the word becomes choked and strangled. It becomes choked in us, and it's not fruitful like it should be in our lives.

We're to take, as we said a moment ago, the shield of faith. We're to resist the enemy of our soul, steadfast in the faith, but we're to take the shield of faith. That's the word of God, wherewith we'll be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked.

Proverbs 23 verse 17 says, Let not thine heart end these sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long, all the day long. There's never a time when we have the right to envy or fret. We don't have a biblical permission to do that because it's not good for us. It's not good for the cause of Christ when we're worried, when we're fretting, when we're allowing it to eat away at us. That's a sin. It's a sin. We must remember that the wicked, even though they may prosper, will be cut down like the grass.

In verse 3, we're commanded to trust in the Lord. We're back in our text, Psalm 37, where we're commanded to trust in the Lord and do good. If your spirit is right, you'll be trusting in the Lord. You won't be fretting, and then you will do what's right if your spirit's right, right? If your spirit is as it should be, then your actions will be as they should be. Do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He leadeth me into green pastures. He restoreth my soul.

Delight thyself, verse 4 says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Take great pleasure in his word. Abide in him always. Feed on his word, right? We said this morning, those that be planted, planted in the house of the Lord, they'll be bringing forth fruit. They'll be fat and flourishing, right? We've got to dwell in God's presence and delight even to be with his people. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.

Well, commit thy way, it says in verse 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. Commit. I gave the illustration this morning. You know, what's the worst thing that can happen to us? Commit it to the Lord. What's the most fearful thing that you can think of that could happen to you? Just roll it onto the Lord and leave your heavy burden at the cross. Leave your heavy burden with him. Tell it to Jesus as we sing of the hymn. There's nothing else we can do with it. Our strength, I think, wasn't it tonight, we sang our strength has failed. When our strength will fail, the day is half done. We reach the end of our hoarded resources. Sometimes you get tired in body. That can affect your spirit too. You get worn out. You get beat. You get worn down to a frazzle. Sometimes it can affect your words to those that you love the most. You just get tired. Well, we all do. We're in a vessel of clay, and we run out of patience at times. That's why we need the Lord to supply us and need to ever look to him.

Commit thy way to the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. He will guide you in the way you should go. We never, even if we're tired, if we're poor, if we're afflicted, if we're sick, if we are under attack, we still don't ever have reason to worry is what we're being told here. It's a sin. Don't worry in your spirit. Don't fret. We never have… The Bible says take no thought for a number of things. Take no thought for what you're going to wear. Take no thought for what you're going to say. Take no thought. Don't worry about what's going to happen on the morrow. Just trust in the Lord. Commit your way to him. Don't worry about when you begin to see fearful sights happening in the earth. Don't worry about those things. What are you going to do about it? What is worry going to accomplish about it? No, trust in the Lord.

Remember, once again, the devil always wants to unsettle us. He can really… You know the devil, when he gets us stirred up, anxious, he can accomplish. He can do damage in our midst. He can do damage in our lives, in our families. He can do damage to the body. We need to be sober. We need to be vigilant. We need to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long. We need to be resting in the Lord. I am saying we need to be, and I know I'm number one in that. I need to trust in the Lord at all times and do good and rest in him.

Verse 6, he says, And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. He's going to prosper you. He's going to bless you. He's going to exalt you, not because of pride, but because of trust and humility, not trusting your own way, knowing you're weak, knowing he's strong, trusting in him, and he'll bless you.

Look in Proverbs 16, verse 3. Proverbs 16, verse 3. He says, Commit thy way, or thy works. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. There's things we can't control, and then there's things we can control. You can't control somebody else's works, but you can commit your works to the Lord. Lord, we need to pray over everything. We need to entrust everything to the Lord and do it for his glory. And as we acknowledge him in all our ways, as we commit our works unto him, he will establish our thoughts. Established and settled, those are words that are really opposite of the agitation and the upsetness and the corrosive nature of fretting, aren't they?

Have you ever noticed that you can't really, even just in the natural, if you're all worked up and you're in a tizzy, you can't accomplish anything, really. You're just making a lot of noise and running around in circles, no? Sometimes we say cooler heads or calmer heads will prevail in a situation. We need, of all people, we need to be calm, collected, trusting in the Lord.

Rest in the Lord. Here it says in our text again, verse 7, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger. Cease from your own wisdom. Cease from your own knee-jerk responses and reactions to things. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. The wrath of man does not accomplish God's righteous purposes. Cease from it. Just stop. Sometimes we have to throw the shovel out, right? Stop digging the hole, so to speak. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

Usually, when we react, almost always, if we react to something, it's not the right response. We must have, even I think about first responders, how do they respond to a situation? You know, the police, paramedics, firefighters, they train just in a natural sense to be sure that when a crisis situation, a difficult situation, where they have to respond under pressure well, they have to train so that they don't do what they would naturally do. I mean, our natural impulsive responses to things will be the wrong way to do it. No, you have to train the proper way to do it, so when the pressure comes on, then you just do what you're supposed to do and are calm under pressure. Isn't it a beautiful thing when you see those who have trained and have committed their lives to that? They do. I know, even when I had to make 911 calls, you know your heart starts beating real fast. Sometimes when we get under pressure in spiritual struggles and we're put on the hot spot, we're put in the difficult hot water, so to speak, we have got to act in faith. Whateversoever is not done to the glory of God and is done emotionally or knee-jerk, is done in wrathful response, is not going to be pleasing to the Lord. We've got to ask the Lord to help us to cease from anger, forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

Well, everybody else is doing it. Well, you're not everybody else. You're going to answer to the Lord for what you have done, how you have responded. We'll be tested. I'll be tested. Probably before the day is done on these things that I'm speaking about tonight, and certainly tomorrow and the next day. Fret not. Remember, when we're tempted to fret over things, that's the devil knocking at our door. That's the devil shooting his arrows. And God's allowing our faith to be tested, isn't he? He's allowing it to happen to see, do you trust me? Are you going to rest in me? Are you going to be lured out by this temptation that's knocking at the door? It's going to eat away at you. You must slam the door shut on that and say, no, I'm going to rest in the Lord about this thing. I am not going to let that thought take over my thinking and my spirit.

For evildoers shall be cut off, verse 9 says, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. They seem to be rising to power and rising in prominence, but they're only being ripened for judgment unless they turn. He says, but the meek shall inherit the earth. This is speaking of the lowly, the teachable, the humble, and they shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

One day, it will be unbounded peace. There will be nothing in the new heaven and earth to disturb our rest. There will be absolutely nothing that will come to our thoughts that will accost us in any way that will cause us to even think about wanting to fret because the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the, you know, even now the seas. There is going to be perfect peace, but the Bible even promises us, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee, right? That's a little slice of glory, foretaste of glory.

So let's be careful where we allow our minds to roam, and be careful what we allow to affect our spirits. Our spirit must not be controlled by fretting, but resting instead and trusting in the Lord. We're not to take thought for the things we have no control over, but we are to give careful attention that we commit our works to the Lord, commit our way to the Lord, compare our thinking to the Lord and say, Lord, you know, let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. I want to make sure that vertical, you know, whenever we get off course, it's always because something was broken in that vertical fellowship. It's always something came in and disturbed and broken up, and it's not because we didn't have anything to do with it. We did have something to do with it. We got our eyes off the Lord somehow or the other, and may we keep our eyes on the Lord. May we not fret ourselves in any wise to do evil, to disobey the Lord in our thinking. May we, may we, may I call, when I recognize any fret in my spirit, may I just be frank and call sin what it is. It's a sin in my spirit, and it needs to, I need to put it away from me that I may be filled with the peace of the Lord and that flowing out of that peace, I can be a blessing, can be used, can say words that will be, will be honoring and pleasing to the Lord and can be a channel of blessing.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we do not have to succumb to, we do not have to be defeated by the desire of the adversary of our souls to, he wants to devour us. He wants to, he's walking about, looking for the opportune moment where he might pounce upon us, and we are commanded in light of that to be sober, to be vigilant, knowing, knowing that he is busy about his work, but we also know that our Lord is on the throne and we have been given the great opportunity that we may cast all our care upon thee knowing that you care for us. We may roll our burden upon the Lord. We may trust in the Lord and know that you'll bring it to pass. We may live in the fear of the Lord all the day long. We do not have to, we do not have to have disturbed rest, so help us to, help us to make that the priority of our hearts and lives this week. May we recognize the first approach of pride or wrong desire, the temptation to get our minds on that which you have told us not to worry about and instead to let your word dwell in us richly and always receive the engrafted word with meekness. We pray these things now. We ask them in Jesus' name, amen.