Is Your Life a Tottering Fence

Sermon begins around 38 minutes. After the report on Orlando FPC.

Psalm 62, just a little time together here before we draw to a close. And so, well, I was going to just read one verse, but let’s read the entirety of the Psalm. Psalm 62.

Truly my soul waiteth upon God; from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain, all of you; as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency; they delight in lies; they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be moved. God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah. Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work.

Amen. And what you have heard, once again, is the infallible Word of God. Receive it and believe it. The people of God said, amen.

Let’s pray.

Lord, help us here in this little time around Thy word. Give us help. We think of what we have heard already tonight. The burden to see the kingdom of God come and the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. Advance Thy work in Orlando Free Presbyterian Church. And we ask that it may become a beacon, and that strangely, strangely, in ways that defy human comprehension, the Lord will draw in, and that there would be a building up of the work. Bless Thy servants. Help them. Give them the power of the Holy Spirit and encouragement throughout this year. May they see the Lord answering and doing, even as they set their seal to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word. May it please Thee to advance the cause. Help us now, and should there be one here without Christ, have mercy, open their eyes, save their souls. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

One of the ways in which the Bible in various places describes natural man is to reveal him in some description that shows his instability, that he is unstable by nature. We’re told that the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, as waters cast up mire and dirt. And when we are full of doubt, James describes us, that that doubt is like the one that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. And even for believers, they also are described when they’re not grounded in good doctrine in the fashion that we find in Ephesians 4, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.

We have verses like this describing the instability of man. In fact, our Lord Jesus concludes His Sermon on the Mount with descriptors that show the natural instability of man. You remember in Matthew 7, at the close of the sermon, everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. The instability of man by nature.

And the text that I draw your attention to tonight, found in verse 3 of this psalm, it says, “Ye shall be slain, all of you, as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.” A tottering fence. I was talking to my stepfather when I was in Northern Ireland, and he went to a funeral. He happened to mention that the text of the preacher at the funeral—it’s not Free Presbyterian Church—happened to mention that he was describing man from this text and revealing that this is the condition of man as a tottering fence, and it just has not left me. He didn’t go into the sermon, didn’t describe what the preacher had to say, but it’s just this thought. The depiction of man is a tottering fence.

So it just has left its impression upon me to leave with you as we give consideration to it in preparation for tonight. It mirrors this human condition, sometimes more closely than we care to admit, and a sobering depiction of every human soul that doesn’t have the grace of God in Christ. And I want to help you see the reality of this, as the Word of God compounds this truth in various ways, that you, without Christ, are like a tottering fence. Your only hope is Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ, you’ll stand on the brink of disaster until finally, you will be destroyed. Your only hope is the gospel to give you stability that will stand in the storm, the final storm of the judgment of God which is to come.

So man is a tottering fence. A few things here. We’ll see first of all the notable frailty, the natural folly, and the necessary foundation. Very simple. The notable frailty. When David writes, “How long will ye imagine mischief against a man?” He’s referring to those who attack or conspire against God’s anointed servant, David himself. They are opposed to him, and they want to destroy him, but he turns, then, the language back on them. “Ye shall be slain, all of you,” he declares, then gives this vivid image. “As a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.” This description of instability is something that’s about to collapse. The language of a tottering fence suggests a structure that’s not only leaning but is actively in motion as it’s being moved and swaying in the wind, on the verge of collapse. It’s just about to happen, and they have no idea that it’s going to occur. So these persecutors of God’s man will discover themselves lacking security, unstable, and being destroyed in the end.

As we see this notable frailty, we want to see first of all the consensus of Scripture, the consensus of Scripture, because this verse doesn’t stand on its own. Though Psalm 62 is addressed here to a certain context and describes these people as a tottering fence, it’s not David just inventing this. This kind of language is found in other places in the Word of God. Many assume that they’re strong enough to stand on their own. You know, when we’re giving out the gospel downtown, a little like Reverend Elder has described in his efforts, you quickly discover people feel like, “I don’t need that, I’m fine.” They turn aside, they neglect the free offer of literature. I mean, what you’re doing is presenting to them something entirely free. It’s inoffensive in the sense that we’re not trying to do anything to destroy them, and rather we’re trying to help them. And their response is one to turn away from it because they believe that they’re fine. They’re moral enough. They are nice enough. And they stand in this sense of personal feeling of security, believing they’re okay.

The Scripture makes it clear that our best attempts at righteousness, separated from divine grace, are as Isaiah 64, filthy rags. And that’s a very vivid description, which I’ll not go into tonight. It’s an awful image of the real ugliness of man endeavoring to accumulate a righteousness without Jesus Christ. We are rather like fences in a shallow hole, the posts unable to maintain itself or remain upright when there’s any push against it. And we may have the boards all well varnished or painted and well finished, but a tottering fence is how we truly are depicted.

In Genesis 6:5, you have the text that shows the real depravity of man. “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” How can man have any confidence when that’s what God sees? That every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, not just his actions, of course it leads to actions. He produces wicked works, but the very thoughts of his heart are seen by God, and He sees them as only, underline that, only evil, and then underline continually. Now, that’s not how you would describe yourself. That’s how God’s word describes us. God sees, He sees. The text that so startled that young woman, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” I regularly read through the book of Job, and in preparation for this, I started thinking to myself about Job. Job deals with this frailty of man in so many ways.

Job 4, verses 17 through 19: “Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker? Behold, He put no trust in His servants, and His angels He charged with folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?” It’s comparing man and showing the frailty of man. And God put no trust in the very angels that He made, these holy beings. And man who dwells in a house of clay, his foundation is in the dust. There’s no stability there.

Job 7, verses 5 through 7: “My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is wind. Mine eyes shall no more see good.”

That’s how Job feels.

Job 13:28, and he is a rotten thing consumeth as a garment that is moth-eaten. It’s man. It’s like a garment that is moth-eaten. Job 14, verses 1 and 2: “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down. He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not.” I could go on and on.

Solomon also in Ecclesiastes 9:12: “For man also knoweth not his time. As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snares, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them.” There are various ways in which Scripture describes this instability, that man is not secure. He’s not secure. With all of his best efforts.

This brings us also to see the illusions of security. The illusions of security, not just the consensus of Scripture, but the illusions of security. From the outside, some fences appear solid. We were hearing news from Northern Ireland of a storm passing through, quite a severe storm actually. Not one of those occasions where they get you all worried about what’s going to come and then it turns out to be nothing, but like the so-called snow storm that was to come here. Not like that at all. But it was real, I mean, the winds were hitting over 100 miles an hour at certain points, gusts of wind. And when Melanie inquired how her mom was, the picture that came back was of a fence that had been blown right over. A fence on her property had been blown over. And it stood there. How many years had that fence stood there? But a gust of wind, and down it goes. Looks nice. Saw the picture. Probably was all painted last year. It’s got a good vibrant color. Looks fine. Looks good. It doesn’t look like it’s rotting. You can’t see holes in it or anything like that. But the wind came and over it went. Imagine it’s secure. We think things are fine, like the man in Luke 12 who amasses all this prosperity and he boasts so, “Thou hast much goods laid up for many years.” He thinks he’s secure. He imagines he’s secure and God replies with the chilling words, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” And all the security he had meant nothing when it came to that point that he was taken out into eternity. It couldn’t buy in God’s favor. All the grain of the world could not accumulate a righteousness before God.

Illusions of security. Our frailty is real. We witness it every day. We seem to tune out. Perhaps it’s how frequently we see it or hear of it. But sudden diagnosis, an accident on the highway. These things are just pieces of information that pass across our way. Economic collapse and difficulty. Every day, countless unexpected tragedies show us the insecurity of our lives. A tottering fence. In so many ways, man imagines himself to be secure, and he is as a tottering fence. And we cling, we cling to it, to cling to what we have. We hope for the best, but there is a wind of judgment about to come, and we are not ready if we’re not in Christ.

So the notable frailty, also the natural folly, the natural folly, and I see this in a couple of ways, the natural folly of man when you see him described here by the Holy Spirit as a tottering fence. First of all, the lies we believe, the lies we believe is an act of spiritual folly to suppose that we can erect our own pillars of security while rejecting the very one who upholds the universe and says, “You need me.” Think of the confusion of that. The maker of heaven and earth declares to the world, “You need me.” Yet we still turn aside and imagine we can prepare our own way of security and salvation. And so people live their lives. And sometimes things come along and they sense that they are leaning, that the fence isn’t standing maybe the way it once did. They become aware of its fragility to some degree anyway. And yet still, still they mock the need of Jesus Christ. They can be in a place where they are made to be aware of their fragility and yet still reject the real jeopardy they stand in. They say, “I’m a decent person. I’ll be okay. There are people worse than me.” And they find security in that. There are people worse than me. Go to where they incarcerate criminals. And there are people there who can say, “There are people worse than me.”

The lies we believe. Scripture consistently proclaims the precarious position of man. A shallow glance at the world will show us the truth of Scripture: there is none righteous, no, not one. And yet we accumulate to ourselves what the Bible refers to as a refuge of lies. We believe those lies. Divorce it from what God has revealed, and even what sense would show. The lies we believe, and also the knowledge we reject. This natural folly is not only seen in the lies we believe, but the knowledge we reject. As a fence can be tested with a push, so can our standing be tested by God’s law. The law of God comes and pushes against our self-righteousness. It pushes against your life. You stand there feeling yourself to be fine, and God’s law with the subtlest of pushes shows that you’re not so secure. And so you go down through the commandments. We read through them every Lord’s Day in this place in the morning time. And we give consideration to it because it’s important to reveal to our conscience that without Christ we are as a tottering fence.

“Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill.” Our Lord Jesus, again in the Sermon on the Mount, clarifies the depth of what these laws mean. Hatred in the heart is akin to murder. Lust in the heart equates to adultery. And so you find that the standards of God are not the standards of man. And by your own standard, you are perfectly fine. You’re a strong, stable fence. And God’s law comes, the means by which you will be judged, and pushes and shows that you’re tottering. You have no security. James states, James 2:10, “Whosoever keepeth the whole law yet offends in one point is guilty of all.”

So we compare ourselves to one another, make ourselves feel better. One fence looks at the other fence and says, “Well, he’s not so secure, I’m better off than he is.” But the wind is going to come, the storm of judgment is going to come and take all those fences and carry them away. The question is not, have I done some good deeds? It is, am I prepared to stand before a God who is infinitely holy and demands absolute perfection? Are you prepared to stand before God who demands absolute perfection? If you have any wit, you will run to the refuge in Jesus Christ. Run as fast as the legs of your soul, so to speak, can take you into Jesus Christ. Continuing in unbelief, neglecting the only support that we have leads to collapse and destruction. You will eventually fall. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. That day will reveal, as Scripture says, the secrets of men. The secrets of men. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof on the day of judgment. Every idle word. But maybe it’s not a big deal. No, it is a big deal. The wages of sin is death. That’s the payment coming to you. Not trying to scare you. Scripture’s not trying to just shock you. Scripture’s just telling you the truth. When the Scripture’s read, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” it’s not a scare tactic. It’s just, this is the truth. When God’s Word says the wages of sin is death, it’s not a scare tactic, it’s just the truth. We are by nature the children of wrath, Ephesians 2 says. It’s not severe language, it’s just reality.

I was speaking to the Reverend Elder and he was mentioning that account of the young woman and the interaction, and I said to him, “You know, how important it is to illustrate to people if you went to your doctor and he saw that there was a real problem there, he could discern a lump or some other signs of what may be something very serious, but decided this person doesn’t need bad news. I’m going to be sensitive to them. Things are tough. It’s January. Nobody really wants to receive bad news in January or whatever other reason. Maybe he knows that maybe you’ve had a hard year. You don’t want to say.” If he did any of that, he’ll be guilty of malpractice. Whatever is the past, however difficult, he is obligated to tell the truth. Now based on his expertise and his assessment, there’s something there that must be addressed, needs to be looked at, and it’s loving to tell you. The preacher is no different. The Christian is no different. The Christian is obligated to tell the truth. Paul acknowledged, “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” We go after them to warn them because these things are of such significance.

Oh, how we love illusions of strength. We reject the true knowledge that is given to us. We’d rather stand as a tottering fence than surrender ourselves to the rock of ages where alone we are secure. It’s foolishness.

This brings us finally to the necessary foundation. There’s notable frailty and the natural folly, but the necessary foundation. What are you going to do? You see it here. This psalm is filled with the foundation that was there for David. “Truly my soul waiteth upon God, not upon himself. From him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation.” You see, verse 5, “My soul, wait thou only upon God.” Verse 6, “He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved.” The others are tottering fences. I’m not going to be moved. Why? Because you’re strong in yourself, David? No, because I’m strong in the Lord. It’s the strength of His salvation. It’s the provision that He has made for sinners. And I turn to Him as a sinner, believing in Him.

Power belongeth unto God, verse 11. So, your deliverance is really simple. If you wish to rectify your tottering position before the living God, it’s simple. Go to Christ. He only is the rock. He only is our salvation. He only is our defense. By Him alone can we say, “I shall not be moved.” So you choose. You choose yourself, or some other refuge, or you choose Jesus Christ. As we looked at last Lord’s Day, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Him.

And so the posts of your self-righteousness that you try to strengthen that fence with, the footings that you’ve established yourself by your own religious activity, will never do. You need an entirely new structure. And Jesus Christ is the foundation. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 3. So without Christ you totter. We’re all the same. Every one of us. Every person here without Jesus Christ was tottering. And at some point we realized it, which is why then we fled by faith to Christ. We saw in Him divine provision. We considered the merit of His perfect life. We comprehended the value of a shed blood. We see God making sacrifice for sinners through His Son and we say, “That’s the answer for me.”

The necessary foundation. We see the sufficiency of Christ’s perfect work. He’s all we need. His work is sufficient. Now, if you’re going to tell me tonight, “My work is perfect,” then I’m probably going to circumvent you. You’re delusional and not the kind of person I want to be around. Because if you really believe that about yourself, “My life is perfect,” then there’s a screw loose and all sorts of other ways we could describe the madness of your mind. You’re not. You don’t even stay consistent to your own expectations. You fall short of your own standard, never mind God’s.

Friend, with all of my heart, I appeal to you, go to Jesus Christ where there is that perfect standard met. He is sufficient. All you need, and it’s glorious because it’s Him and Him only. It’s not confusing it by saying you need this, and then you need that, and then the other, and then there’s this and the other, and so on and so forth. It’s all Jesus, all the time, for all of life, for your eternity.

And this gives us then a standing, the standing of a Christian. If he comes and embraces the sufficiency of Christ, there’s a standing for them. No longer the enemy of God. No longer trying to push back against the force of His wrath. Trying by our best ability to stand against that which will destroy us. No, we’ve made ourselves the friends of God. Our status changes. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. Instead of pushing against me, now He supports me. Now He is with me. Now He is for me. I am secure. I have Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus says, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. Hear my sayings. What’s your sayings, Jesus? What must we do? Come, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to me. If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. His invitation repeatedly is, come, come, come thou into the ark. The flood of the torrent of the judgment of God is coming. Get into the ark. Come thou into the ark. Or as the word that was spoken to Lot when all the judgment of God was about to come upon the cities of the plain, flee to the mountain. Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain. Get out of here. Go to the place of safety. Go to the mountain. Go to Mount Calvary. Go there and you will see God doing what’s necessary. Don’t argue and say, I think I still have time. Maybe you don’t. There is going to be a last sermon for us all. We don’t know when it’s going to be. We see it sometimes in this very congregation. People who are there one week. It’s not like months, maybe years of declining health. They sit there. They’re in their place in church one week, seemingly fine. And next Lord’s Day, they’re gone.

So don’t run to the lies that you can’t be certain if you have more time. You can’t be certain that you’ll have another opportunity. So, it’s really simple. You must admit, first you admit, I’m a tottering fence. There’s the admission. If you can’t get to there, you’re never going to seek the strength that is found in Jesus Christ alone. I am a tottering fence. That’s me, preacher. God’s Word describes me, that’s my life, that is me, a tottering fence. I have no hope in the day of judgment.

And so you come to this place of honesty, judgment day honesty. You need it now before the judgment day itself. You need the honesty now, not later. God resists the proud, gives grace to the humble. So don’t be proud and say, I’ll be fine. No, you’ll not be fine. Humble yourself. Humble yourself. You’re a tottering fence. Don’t insist on waiting. Don’t insist on denying. Make the admission, I am a tottering fence. Not only the admission, but the abandoning. He turned then to him like David. He abandoned himself on God. Truly my soul waiteth upon God. That’s where you come at the close of the service. You say, my soul waited upon God. It’s not looking to my past. It’s not trying to assess my good works. It’s not trying to reconfigure my life in some way that might appease God. It comes and it says no. My soul waits on God. From Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. And you appropriate them by doing that. You admit, you abandon, and you appropriate. You lay hold on Christ. You see the language. God is a refuge for us. God is a refuge for us, verse eight. So trust in him at all times. You appropriate, you take it. He’s mine, he’s there for me. He will save you. He will hear your cry. We were preaching it yesterday. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever, anyone. Cry out, he will save you. God is pointing the finger at you. His word points the finger at you. Don’t imagine maybe he’s talking to someone over there. No, he is talking to you. Whosoever. When he says, when God says whosoever, he points his finger at you.

So come to Him. See, see the glory of Calvary, the wonder of the empty tomb, the sufficiency of what Christ has accomplished. So, all that remains is to ask the question, will you turn to Christ? Will you believe on Christ? Or will you remain a tottering fence? Say, say what David says. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. That’s it, isn’t it? Look at it. You Christians also, get your arms around that. Stop looking for help here, there, and everywhere, and you neglect the Lord. Christians, too, at times, you neglect the Lord. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved.

Will you do it? Will you do it tonight? Will you turn to him now? Stop delaying, stop saying, I have more time. No, now is the time. You’re a tottering fence. The wind is going to come at a time you will not appoint. You need to be ready. Oh my God, make sure that you are ready. May He work in your heart and make you ready.

Let’s bow together in prayer. So make the assessment. Make this moment here, the quiet moment where you can rightly assess all that you have heard and give consideration to where you stand. Make the assessment. Am I still standing in a position of instability? I’m not right with God. If I die, I don’t know where I will be. Are you in Christ? Are you living for Him? Are you living the Christian life? Are you giving evidence daily of having new life, being born again? Do you know that? Is there evidence that you are born again? If there is not, you’re a tottering fence. And the life you have is only your own. Christ comes tonight and offers you His. He will give you His life and He takes upon Himself the death that you deserve.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Come. If I can help you, please let me know. Lord, bless Thy word. Have mercy. Have mercy. Should there be any here, Thou knowest. Thou knowest, Lord. If there be tottering fences here, who have yet to flee to Jesus Christ, we plead that they might see the Lamb, rest in Christ, turn to look and live, to hear Thy welcome voice that calls them to Thee. Oh, may they come. May they come, Lord. We plead with Thee that they may come. Come tonight. Come now. And not delay. Hear prayer, bless our fellowship, give to Thy church all the spiritual equipment we need to live to Thy glory this week. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of the people of God and evermore. Amen.