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[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church. Knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. What a great encouraging song to start off with.

[0:15] Just thinking about the promise for endless days we will sing your praise. When the world is what it is and we see it on a daily basis, there are some days more than others that I think that that's what gets us through the day, right?

[0:31] That one day we'll be with him forever and we'll sing his praise and we won't be dealing with what we're dealing with down here. So Jeffrey was right. I was speaking as you can see with this.

[0:42] Now it's not because I'm taller. It's because as I reach the plateau of 40, my eyes have gotten worse. Therefore, you always kind of make fun of guys.

[0:54] I don't have the glasses yet in the Bible case, but that's a sign of maturity, right? So maybe that's coming. So do me a favor this morning.

[1:05] Go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Psalm and chapter 12, which is where we're going to be spending our time. A few months back, David had approached several of us and had inquired about or asked that we consider taking a message and sharing on the topic of our choice.

[1:22] And as you likely know, typically here at Bethel, we go through the scripture in an expository manner, that meaning book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. And when a person's asked to speak, they typically are given a passage and a particular set of verses from which to speak.

[1:40] And one might think that when you're given the opportunity to choose what you want to speak on, that it would be much easier, right? I mean, there's thousands of pages here and lots of books and lots of chapters.

[1:52] That's easy, right? It's kind of like going to a restaurant and, you know, you get to pick what you want to eat. But it's not that easy. Sometimes I compare it to if you're a kid and your parents say, hey, do you want chocolate ice cream or do you want vanilla ice cream?

[2:04] I mean, you say yes, right? I mean, do you want to go miniature golfing or do you want to go to the batting cages? I go into the butcher shop. Do I want baby back ribs or do I want a brisket?

[2:15] I mean, tough choices I got to make, right? And that's hard when you're looking at God's word and what do you want to share. And you almost want someone to make a decision for you to remove the options.

[2:27] And I think for me, society right now and what's going on around us has kind of done that. You know, for the last several months I've been going through, we've been going through this very unique situation in the world.

[2:43] And we're in a unique period of time in history in this country and in this community. And I think I find myself asking the question, what in the world is going on here?

[2:55] You know, I know what's going to happen. I see it here, but I still every day ask myself, this place is crazy. You know, just when you think you aren't surprised anymore, something else happens, and you say, Lord, what is going on?

[3:11] You know, many of you might be asking yourself the same question. I've mentioned to people several times that if we were to look at history in the lens of, say, three or four feet, it feels like we are on a warp speed over the last five years.

[3:26] And the sense of degradation, the sense of moving away from the Lord, that, you know, they talk about technology that more has occurred in the last 20 years than in the last 4,000 years.

[3:38] And I feel like in regards to our morality as a society, as a people, we can say that about the last five years, that we have distanced ourselves from God more in this short period of time than we have in all of history.

[3:52] You know, we see, again, a society that's fallen. We see the absence of God in our government, in our schools, in our communities, and we see fear gripping us in a way that I don't think I have ever seen.

[4:08] And the question is, how are we as believers to respond? How are we to live in a world like this? What is it that will help get us through that time?

[4:19] How are we to remain sane when the sense is that all that's going on around us and all of those that are around us are losing their minds? Well, once you've made your way to Psalm chapter 12, I'm going to ask you, keep your finger there, and I want you to flip over one book to Proverbs.

[4:39] And we're going to get, if you flip your way over there, sorry, to Proverbs 29, what I want to give you is a proverb that I think you can understand Psalm chapter 12 in the light of.

[4:55] Okay? Proverbs 29 and verse 18. If you flip over to verse 18, it says this, Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.

[5:09] Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained. Some of your Bibles might say where there's no vision, the people perish, but happy is he who keeps the law. Now this verse, it's commonly misunderstood.

[5:22] This verse, when you think of this verse, what do you think of? You think of someone probably kind of rallying the troops, right? We need a vision, because if we don't have a vision, we're going to die.

[5:34] Right? It's like a church fundraiser. But that's not really what this is. That's not really what this is. It says that this text is what it's talking about is where there is no vision.

[5:46] That is the way that the Old Testament, that is talked about in the way that God gives the word. In a sense, in the New Testament, it was given through the prophet, or it was given through the apostle.

[6:00] And so you didn't have a Bible because someone, you didn't have a Bible because someone thought that they would just share the best way to live. It was prophetic revelation. Some of your versions might even say where there is no revelation, the people will die.

[6:14] And so where there is no prophetic revelation, either by God inspiring the prophet, or by the Old Testament word of God given by the prophet, being taught, it simply means that where people don't have a Bible, where they don't have a standard, where they don't have absolute standard for right or wrong, where they don't have the answers as to from where they came from, as to who they are, as to what sin is, as to how it's dealt with.

[6:46] When you don't have answers, the people are unrestrained. And I think that's what we're seeing in society today. And when that happens, we have problems.

[6:58] If there is not a Bible in culture, people have no sense of right or wrong. You may recall, if you look back in the book of Judges, that becomes just an embarrassing book.

[7:11] And the verse that's oftentimes mentioned two or three times, it says this, every man did what was right. How? In his own eyes.

[7:21] You see, a human being, we can't exist without a standard, without a Bible. Animals can. You see, animals are wired to do a specific thing, and that's what they will do. But humans are different.

[7:35] Humans are different. We have choices. Okay? It's just what, it's, we have choices where a human, or they don't have choices where a human being does.

[7:45] And if it's just what he thinks, as opposed to what somebody else thinks, if you and I are discussing something, then what comes of that? What does it come down to?

[7:57] Says who? Says who? Where there is no word from God, people go mad. And in verse 18, in contrast, but happy is he, happy is he who has a Bible, who has the word, that he has the law and he keeps the law.

[8:17] It's a wonderful thing to have the word of God. And so with that in mind, flip back to Psalm chapter 12, and let's look this morning at what this psalm is about that explains Proverbs 29, 18.

[8:31] Let's open up first in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you that we can come together as a body. Lord, that we can fellowship with one another, that we can praise you, Lord, that we can worship you, that we can remember what you did, Lord.

[8:47] We thank you, Lord, that you have spoken to us through your word, Lord. We thank you that even during these difficult times, we can come to you, that we can seek shelter, Lord, that we can commune with you.

[8:59] Lord, we pray this morning that we, as we look through your word, that we see, Lord, what can be an encouragement to us during these difficult times? Lord, we ask this in your name. Amen. Well, David, the psalmist starts out here in verse 1, and we see the word, it says, help.

[9:20] Help. In Hebrew, the word help means help. It means what it says. It means I'm in a load of trouble down here because have you ever felt like this?

[9:35] For the godly man, it says, ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. Have you ever felt like you're in a world that's gone mad? That you watch the news, that you watch the arts, politics, law, athletics, neighborhoods, behavior, and you say, Lord, the godly man ceases to be.

[9:59] It's like God to Abraham with Sodom. If you can find just 10 righteous men, I will not destroy that city. And he couldn't find even 10 righteous men, and he destroyed the city.

[10:15] And so whenever you look around, you say, God, the inmates are running the asylum. Reminds me, I went to, sometimes I'm not really proud of it, typically.

[10:25] My uncle gives me a real hard time about it. I went to the University of Missouri. I don't see Teddy here, otherwise he could raise his hand. We have some other Mizzou people here.

[10:36] I've got to be honest, a few years ago, Mike Harry there, who ran that university? Was it the president? Was it the board? No, it was the inmates.

[10:48] They gave in to them. It was chaos. Because each man did what was right in his own eyes. 10 righteous men he couldn't find.

[11:01] Sometimes in our day, you look and you say, you know, it's not just that we're sinful. Sin's been around since the world, since Adam and Eve, right? It's that we're crazy. That's what it feels like sometimes.

[11:13] Well, a lack of truth brings you to immorality because your passions will not be restrained. And so you become a sinful society, and then what you try to do is you try to dodge that bullet by explaining your way around it.

[11:30] Or by not having a sense of a standard, you become insane and you become dangerous. And so David just says, like Elijah in his day, Lord, they have killed the prophets.

[11:41] They have torn down the altars. And I am left alone, and they seek my life. He says, God, you know, the godly men, they cease to be.

[11:57] And I feel that way at times when I look around. In verse 2, this is what men are doing. And contrary to godly men, we see they speak falsehood to one another, meaning you can't trust what they say with flattering lips.

[12:16] So when they say nice things, you don't know that, excuse me, you see the bottom of what they're rightly after. You have to be discerning because oftentimes what they're saying isn't what they mean or what their intentions are.

[12:31] It says, and with a double heart, they speak. The reality is men are crooked. They are deceitful. They devour each other.

[12:44] You know, many of us go back to a day, I won't, let me, well, I'll ask you to raise your hand. How many growing up locked the doors on your house? Okay. How many would have left the key in the car if it was in the driveway when you were younger?

[12:58] Okay. How many just, you know, people nowadays, would you leave your key in your car? Absolutely not. Would you leave your door unlocked? No way. Now you've got to sleep with protection by you.

[13:10] Right? You can't do that anymore. You can't leave your keys in your car. You can't let alone leave it in the garage. You can't leave your door unlocked. There was a point in time where we knew that it wasn't right to steal someone's car.

[13:24] We knew it wasn't right to break into somebody's house. We knew it wasn't right to burn down buildings. Something has changed. Something's happened. Well, in verse 3, it tells why verse 2 got produced.

[13:37] Why did this happen? Verse 3, May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things. That phrase, the tongue that speaks great things, it's a term for Antichrist in the book of Daniel.

[13:52] The little horn that spoke great things. It's not a noble person. They're making statements that can only be attributed to God.

[14:02] And when man makes himself God, let me ask you this, what was the sin of Lucifer? I will be like the Most High. And so whenever man has no restraint, whenever man remove God and they make themselves God, in verse 4, who has said, with our tongue, we will prevail.

[14:25] They're confident. No one will stop them. No one sees them. They're predators. I am the master of my own fate.

[14:35] I am the captain of my own soul. With our tongue, we will prevail. Our lips are our own. We're free from God's gaze.

[14:48] And we are free from God's intervention. You know, who is the Lord over us? It says. You know, we have no sense of retribution. We have no sense of guilt.

[14:58] We are completely free. Whenever you're walking out around the neighborhood and you see a pit bull, do you respond a little differently than when you see a Labrador?

[15:11] Or, my wife loves dogs. My wife will lick a dog. She loves the smell of a dog's breath. I've yet to see my wife kiss a pit bull.

[15:25] Okay? Maybe it will happen. I've yet to see it. At Safeco and Liberty Mutual, you fill out an application. If you have a pit bull, the application doesn't go any further.

[15:37] Terminated. No policy. There's a reason. So when you see that pit bull, what are the things that go through your mind? Does he have a leash?

[15:50] Secondarily, who's holding on to that leash? Okay? If that leash is broken, then I can tell you you're potentially in for a world of hurt. And so these pit bulls, these are pit bulls that are unleashed.

[16:02] Do you remember when Abraham went down to Egypt and he said this to Sarah? He said, you tell them that you were my sister because there is no fear of God down here.

[16:13] And if they see that you are a beautiful woman and they see that I am your husband, then they will kill me and they will take you for their own. He says, wife, we're in a jungle. There's no fear of God on this island.

[16:27] Do you feel that sometimes? Here on Sunday, we're on common ground. When we go out there, we're dealing with a totally different animal and we need to be aware of what's around us.

[16:39] Well, in verse 5, evil is going to win, they feel. It says, because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, these are the little guys, the faithful guys that are suffering under them.

[16:56] Often in the Bible, the word groaning, it's spoken of in a homonym, so to speak, for prayer. It's a calling upon God. So these faithful are groaning.

[17:09] They are calling out to God. And in verse 5, I will arise. I will arise. Verse 1, help.

[17:21] Verse 5, I am coming. I am coming. I will arise, says the Lord. I will set him on the safety for which he longs.

[17:34] Are the prayers of the righteous heeded? Are the prayers of the righteous heeded in time? They are. Now I will arise.

[17:47] And I will fix things. I want to show you something that has to do with this. Keep your finger right here and go to flip over to the New Testament, Luke chapter 18, if you will, if you want to. In the Gospel of Luke in chapter 18, it's right before Jesus enters into Jerusalem for the Passion Week where he's going to die.

[18:05] And Luke 18 are some of the last words in his life. Now Luke 17, it talks about the second coming. If you were to flip back into Luke 17 and look at the last paragraph, you would see the second coming of Christ.

[18:18] But now it brings to chapter 18. And the question is, how are the righteous, meaning the minority, how are they supposed to live in a day where the world has lost its mind?

[18:33] In a day where there is no fear of God? And in a day that has become as if, as in the days of Noah, as in the days of Lot.

[18:46] You know, the Apostle Paul said that the coming of Christ will not come until the apostasy comes first. A worldwide rejection of the gospel. Paul said, in the latter days, difficult times will come.

[18:59] He said, the Spirit, it explicitly says that in these last days, men will turn aside after the doctrine of demons and they will follow after sin.

[19:13] It's coming. And so Christ has talked about the second coming and he's about to go and he's, to these last words, and he says to his men in Luke, or in Luke 18, verse 1, he was telling them a parable to show what you're supposed to do in a wicked world.

[19:33] A Psalms 12 world. When you're the groaning remnant, you ought to, what the Bible says, do what? Pray. Pray.

[19:44] At all times, you pray and you don't lose heart. You know, by your thinking that because the Lord hasn't dealt with evil that he won't.

[19:58] And he will. Peter says to regard the patience of the Lord as salvation. You know, I'm always thought, I always think about this, there's a song that I always really enjoyed in college by Chris Rice and it says, Lord, how long will you delay before you make this world right?

[20:19] And ultimately, the reason that God, it's not that God tarries, it's not that he's forgetful, it's not that he's not able, but rather it's because he is saving a people.

[20:32] And I can say for myself, I'm so glad that the Lord didn't come in 1984 or early 1985. And there's probably an arbitrary date that I could put on there for each one of you here that's a believer that if the Lord had not been patient and he had come earlier as many of the saints before you would have liked him to come, you would be spending eternity separated from him.

[20:53] So he does not tarry, he is not forgetful, but rather he has mercy. He waits and he waits to save lost sinners.

[21:05] The Lord is not forgetful, but rather he is patient, not wishing that you would perish, but that you would come to repentance and he is a saving God. And so in chapter 18, verse 1, you keep praying and you don't give up.

[21:20] You pray and you don't lose heart and he says this, he says, once upon a time, you know, there was a certain, in a certain city, he tells this story, there was a judge and a judge was supposed to deal with evil, but this judge wasn't, he doesn't fear God and it says he doesn't respect men, he doesn't do his job.

[21:42] Like many of the time, he was on the take. It says he can't be moved because of righteousness. He can't be moved because he feels sorry for human beings.

[21:54] All he does is he collects a paycheck and he collects bribes. And in verse 3, there's a widow in the city, this little guy, this singular little guy that God has become the God of the widow and the God of the orphan and she is supposed to be taken care of.

[22:11] Yet like in the Pharisees' day, they robbed the widow's house. They devour widow's houses. They take advantage of her. And so that little widow, she kept coming to the judge.

[22:25] In verse 1, pray at all times. She kept coming. She kept coming. Saying, give me legal protection from my opponent.

[22:36] Meaning, I don't want you to step in the middle like the mafia. I simply want you to do your job. You're the judge and I need you to enforce it. Well, in verse 4, for a while, he's unwilling.

[22:52] You know, I don't know. He's on the golf course. You can't get a hold of him. He's not to be bothered. He won't do his job and it looks like evil is going to prevail. Do we ever feel like this?

[23:07] We cry out, nothing happens. Verse 4, he was unwilling, but afterward he said, even though I don't fear God and I don't respect man, because this widow bothers me, because this widow, she is like a fly that I can't shoo away.

[23:25] I don't know about you guys, but at our house this summer, the flies have been awful. And I'll tell you what, nothing worse than a fly that just keeps coming around again and again. Incidentally, this is the same language that's used with Samson Delilah.

[23:41] She kept pressing him and pressing him until he said, she will, what? Wear me out. She will wear me out.

[23:55] Unto death. I could throw other things in there, but I'm, I value my relationship. I want peace at home. Referring to the, referring to the widow here.

[24:08] Verse 4, I don't fear God and I don't respect man, but this widow bothers me and I will give her legal protection. I will do what justice demands. Not because I'm holy.

[24:22] Not because I feel sorry for her. Not because in verse 5 that I can't, but because in verse 5, why? Because I can't get a nap. I can't get a break from this lady. By continually coming, she will wear me down.

[24:36] She will wear me out. Literally, the text says, she will hit him under the eye. That's the Greek. Do you know what that means? I don't, personally. He's obviously tired of her.

[24:50] She's bringing me pain. I've got to get rid of her. Every day he wakes up and she's there. She's outside his house. Verse 5, she will wear me out.

[25:00] Verse 1, pray at all times. Verse 3, kept coming. Verse 5, kept coming. Incidentally, do you know who the widow is here in this parable? It's you and me.

[25:13] It's you and me. What's prayer? She kept coming. She kept coming. She kept coming. Come soon, Lord Jesus, our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name.

[25:23] Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. On heaven, as it is on earth. Kept coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Here's what we'll see in verse 6.

[25:34] Read this. This is what's interesting. Hear what the unrighteous judge said. Now will not God bring about righteousness or justice? The same word in verse 6 that we see in verse 7.

[25:46] Justice. He says, hear what the unjust judge said. If an unjust judge will do what is right because of a persistent widow, will not God bring justice?

[26:03] A holy God. Is he going to forget? Will he not bring justice for? See who the widow is here?

[26:14] What's it say? Will he not bring justice for his elect? That cried to him day and night.

[26:27] So what does God tell us to be in the wicked day? You're to be faithful. And you're to keep coming. You're to be like Elijah. They've killed your servants.

[26:39] They've torn down your altars. I alone am left. And they are seeking my life. And you cry out to God to give you grace. If a judge will do this, how much more will God bring justice?

[26:57] We hang tough. We keep praying. And we don't lose heart. In verse 8, I tell you that God will bring justice for them. You know, I know that's true. Do you know why? Just as we've seen on Wednesdays, we see the end of this book, right?

[27:11] We know what's going to happen in Revelation. We're going to win. I've seen him come. And he will bring justice for them. And what's the next word?

[27:23] Slowly? Quickly. It's the same Greek word that we see in Revelation 1.1 where he says, Behold, I come quickly. It doesn't mean that he's coming tomorrow or the next day.

[27:34] He may very well. But it means once I have finished what I am going to do, I'm coming. Fast. Like a thief in the night. He's coming. And so verse 8, he says, Let me ask you a question.

[27:46] And that's what's really interesting about this parable. He just tells this story. He just gives this analogy. And then he's going to finish this parable with a question. However, when the Son of Man comes, now that term, Son of Man, excuse me, it's used in Daniel 7 about the throne of God, the fire coming out of it, devouring all that's in front of it, being attended by myriads and myriads.

[28:13] And then he turns all judgments over to one who comes from glory, the Son of Man. Christ. God has given him, like Adam, to put all things under his feet.

[28:25] And he says, So however, when the Son of Man comes, when? When the Son of Man comes, as opposed to, what, if? No, there's no question.

[28:37] I'm coming. Heaven and earth will pass away. My words will never pass away. History will not go on forever, forever, forever, in the evolutionary mindset.

[28:49] There will be a terminus. There will be, there is an alpha and an omega. There is a, a Garden of Eden. And there's going to be a great white throne. And so when the Son of Man comes, it says, and he asks a question.

[29:05] Will he find faith on the earth? Meaning, I will be faithful, God says. The question is not that, but rather, when I come, what will I find?

[29:19] Will I find you faithful? Or will you drop out, having suffered under tribulation, or persecution, or things don't go your way, or you're lazy, or you're upset, or you stayed home because, someone hurt your feelings, or because, you decided you didn't like the way, that this person was doing this, or this person treated you, and rather than address it in a godly way, you say, Lord, I'm done.

[29:42] And I give up, and I drop out. You know, when persecution arose, on account of the word, it says in Matthew, quickly, you fell away. And so, when I come, what will I find?

[29:57] Meaning, I will be faithful, but when I return, what am I going to find with you? What am I going to find with you? Are you going to be there? Are you going to be standing by your post?

[30:10] In 2 Timothy 2, or 2 Timothy, Paul says this, he says, for I know whom I have believed, that I am convinced, that he is able to guard, that which I have entrusted in him, until that day. And just a couple verses later, he says, Timothy, guard the sacred treasure, that has been entrusted to you.

[30:27] You see, I'll be faithful to you, but when I come, will I find you, in my word, on your knees, faithful, before the world.

[30:41] Well, turn back with me, to Psalm chapter 12. I'm going to try to wrap this up, relatively quickly. I'll thumb through these things, you know, fairly fast. Psalm chapter 12. So that's, what those first five verses are about.

[30:55] In a wicked day, here's a man calling out in prayer, God, would you act? You go from verse 2, they speak, flattering lips. Verse 3, flattering lips, speak great things.

[31:08] Verse 4, with our tongue, our lips are our own. Verse 6, now somebody else, gets to speak. You see who speaks here?

[31:21] The words of the Lord, are pure words. How are we supposed to live, in a verse 1 to 5 world? In a sinful world, in a world that is, cascading downward, with the renunciation of God, of Bible, of Christ, of Christianity, and every man is doing, what is right, in his or her own eyes, and you get to choose, your own gender, and there's no absolute truth, and in a world where babies are valued, less than animals, where killings are praised, and on and on.

[31:55] How shall we live, when the world is crazy? Well, in verse 6, the words of the Lord, in contrast to men, they are as pure, as silver, tried, in a furnace.

[32:07] Here are words, that are inerrant, that I can trust in. Oh, Father, Jesus said, I do not ask that you take them out of this world, but that you keep them from the evil one.

[32:24] And he said this, sanctify them, in the truth. Thy word, is truth. Thy word is truth.

[32:34] How do we keep ourselves, in this world? The truth. Thy word, his word, is truth. This anchor of the soul, steadfast and sure.

[32:45] This lamp, shining, in a dark place. And so, how do you live in a wicked day? Verse 6, you go, to the word. You know, how often in the Old Testament, did the Israelites have to gather manna?

[33:01] Every day, right? And when did they gather manna? In the morning. By noon, it's got worms. And so, you can't live by yesterday's faithfulness. Every day, we need to come, and we need to spend time with him.

[33:15] And I think we find ourselves, myself included, lacking at times. I find myself, watching the news, or watching some article, or I'm going mad about something. And so, we need to bring ourselves back, and spend time with the Lord.

[33:29] And it's kind of like, when you're traveling, and you're going to multiple time zones, and you know, back when you might, you have a, in the old days, when you had an analog watch, right? Not an Apple watch, or something digital.

[33:40] You had to reset your watch, right? You go from time zone to time zone. So, you know, who, if I just ask the question here, who knows what 321-2222 is? What is it? Time and temp, right?

[33:52] Anybody use time and temperature anymore? I love time and temperature. If I want to see if my works, my phone's working at work, I call time and temperature, and then, you know, the person says, the time is 306, right? So, you calibrate your watch to the time.

[34:08] You reconcile your watch back to the standard, and that's what we have to do every day. You reconcile yourself back to the standard. You know what's great about the Bible?

[34:20] It's not just says who, everything, right? It's not just says who. It's not your opinion, my opinion. It's the standard in the Bible. Do I know wherever they came from?

[34:32] Do I know why everything is here? Do I know where evil came from, where redemption is, what God requires? Can I look and see what God is doing in history? Can I look and see what my duty is now?

[34:43] Can I see what is in the future? Can I look until they shall reign forever? We've got it. There's no moral area that God will not speak to, and there's no essential life that God will not speak to.

[34:59] There's no essential thought on God, on man, on sin, on redemption, or moral duty that he does not take into account here. Philosopher Plato said this, he said that, as you go through life, you must find the best opinions of man, and you must hold to them as a ship, unless you have the certain word of God.

[35:23] And that was the philosopher's dream. If only we could have something, if only we could find something that said, if there was something out there that said, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among men, and behold his glory.

[35:44] What if that was for, what if that was available to us? Wouldn't that be great? That would be the ultimate of religion and philosophy. And here it is, laid before us, the word of God.

[35:56] Do we read our Bibles? I heard a quote that I thought was great. It said, sin will separate us from our Bible, or our Bible will separate us from sin.

[36:08] One of the two. We don't live on a plateau. We're either ascending, or we're backsliding. You're either pressing on, or you're sliding back. Go to the word.

[36:21] Be in fellowship with him daily. David said, how can a man, a young man, keep his way pure? By keeping it according to that word. Jesus said the scripture can't be broken.

[36:34] You know, if I was the devil, what I would do, is I would try to convince men, to not to subject themselves, to the word of God, but rather to bring the Bible before, the bar of human reasoning.

[36:49] Bring the transcendent, and to the imminent, to criticize it, to cancel it, because they didn't understand it, and now walk without light. And when you do that, as we hear when Paul Goldschmidt walks up to the plate in the Cardinals game, you're a dead man walking.

[37:06] Okay, verse seven. Promise, we're almost wrapped up. You, oh Lord, incidentally, there's real insight here, incidentally, in verse six. As silver tried in the furnace, the furnace, what it is, is that's reality.

[37:19] And when you've got something that isn't the real thing, what happens is, the fire will ruin it. It will consume it. So God's word has been tried in the furnace, and it will work.

[37:30] His word will not fail you. It's been tried in the furnace. Seven times hotter. Trust it. So verse seven. You, oh Lord, will keep them. What is that word, them, here?

[37:41] It's a plural pronoun. It's the words. You trust the word, and God will make sure that you're on the right path, and it will not give out beneath you. You trust it. God will keep them.

[37:54] Walk in my word, and in verse seven, you will preserve him, meaning the faithful man, from this generation forever. How encouraging is that to know that if you walk in the word of the Lord, if you are a child, he will preserve you from this generation.

[38:10] Everything that's going on around us, all of the sinfulness, all of the things that we know are contrary to God, all of the things that discourage us daily, that we know that he will preserve him from this generation forever.

[38:25] You might, you will make it through life if you're faithful to your Bible. If you're faithful to what the Lord says, if you commune with him, if you put it into practice, and in verse eight, here's the alternative.

[38:37] Without a Bible, the wicked strut about on every side. They have no sense of the fear of God. And finally, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.

[38:49] Do we see that today? I think musicians want to come up. People honor vileness. You know, vileness means worthless and shameful.

[39:02] And ask yourself this, who is it in our country that we honor? Who is honored today? Is it the moral? Is it the upright? Godly people who are in the news?

[39:14] No. We don't see that. Generally speaking, we see immoral people who make the headlines. It's what sells books and papers today.

[39:26] It's not the good and wholesome things. It's not the things of the Lord. It's the vile things. Listen to the words in our songs that we hear. Watch the movies.

[39:37] Watch the media. And my urging to us today is that we not fall into that category. Let us not buy into these lies of this world that will fade away, but rather let us be the light to a blind and dying world.

[39:55] We see it all the time. Now, how many people do you know that we're walking with the Lord and they're caught up in all of this stuff that's going on in society and they think that they are more loving than you and that they're more understanding than you and that they just know the right way and you're being bigoted?

[40:13] No, we have the word of the Lord and that is our compass and we should stand by that. You, truth in this world is hard to find. You're not going to find it in a newspaper.

[40:24] You're not going to find it on TV. You're not going to find it in corporate America. You're not going to find it in schools. You're going to find it in the media? No. No. I can assure you of that.

[40:36] Sadly, you often won't find it from a pulpit from the churches today. Where you will find truth is in the word of God and may we cling to it during our time of trouble. May we be refreshed by it in our times of discouragement.

[40:49] May we find peace in it. May we be surrounded by it. You know, we live in troubled times, but we can rest knowing the truths of his word. We have a father that loves us, that sent his only son to die for us, to pay the penalty that we could not pay, to redeem us, to reconcile us back to him.

[41:10] We know that for an infinite time, he is patient. He is patient because he's merciful so that others may be gathered to him. And as bad as it is in a fallen world, we can have confidence because of his word that he is seated on the throne, that he is in control, and there is a day coming.

[41:39] There's a day coming where he will return and he will gather to himself that which is rightfully his, his church. But until that time, we are called to praise him, we are called to worship him, we are called to bring honor and glorify him.

[41:53] So we stand in these troubling times in the truth of his word. Where do we go? I'll fail my kids. I'll fail my wife. The one that will never fail them, though, is the Lord and his word.

[42:08] Sanctify them by the truth. Thy word is truth. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning again for the opportunity to come together. Lord, we are so blessed to have your word.

[42:20] Lord, we are blessed that you would look upon us, Lord, a sinful, hurt people. Yet you loved us so much that you would send your son to die for us. And Lord, we are called to praise you, to worship you, Lord.

[42:32] We live in a difficult time, yet, Lord, none of these things are surprises to you. Lord, you knew from the beginning to the end, you're in control. While it may not go the way that we want to go, Lord, you ultimately are in control.

[42:45] You're omnipotent. You're omniscient, Lord. Lord, you are a great and mighty God. And I would pray, Lord, that we would seek you, that we would spend time with you, Lord, that we would strengthen our relationship, Lord, so that we can navigate these troubled waters, Lord, until the time that you either take us home or until you return to gather your church.

[43:05]  Lord, we thank you for these things in your name. Amen.