[0:00] Please join me in Psalm chapter number 94. It's a beautiful song. You should love when people sing or talk about the name above every name. I'm going to read to you Psalm 94.
[0:11] The title for this chapter would be Vindication Through Divine Retribution. Next Thursday night, Brother Frick will be preaching for us from Psalm 95.
[0:22] I thought about earlier in the week saying, hey, let's switch. Why don't you just go ahead and do Psalm 94, and I'll take Psalm 95. But I, like any part of God's Word, when you spend time in it, you learn to appreciate it.
[0:36] And I certainly did this week. So Vindication Through Divine Retribution. On Sunday night, we ended on a very similar theme when we said, we do not want the king to see us usurping his authority and seeking our own revenge.
[0:51] That's what we ended on on Sunday night, picking up along that same theme from Proverbs 20, 22. Say not, I will recompense evil, but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee. That not recompensing evil, depending on the Lord, not taking matters into our own hand, not seeking revenge, but knowing that he is the avenger, and that he is the creator of the universe, that he is the faithful creator, as it told us there in that proverb, which allows us to trust in him.
[1:17] And so there's a good example up here how in the Bible that it's not just behavior modification. To be able to not seek revenge requires trusting in the Lord, and that's what we are to do.
[1:31] And I gave a definition for bitterness, which was unresolved violation of your justice system, which will bring hurt and anger. That when you have a violation of what you consider to be right and wrong, you can either try to set it straight, or you can say, I'm willing to trust that God is the avenger, that he is the one who will put everything right and do season.
[1:53] And so here in this passage, we continue to see that, why Christians never need to seek revenge. And so it's a prayer of vindication by divine retribution. And so even though we're not to seek revenge, it belongs to the Lord, but with it belonging to the Lord, that we see all through the Bible a prayer of this, that people would pray unto God and say, God, I am trusting that you will punish evil, that you, God, will stop wickedness, that you will make everything right, and that we should pray this prayer as well.
[2:26] And when we end, I'll show you some references in the New Testament. But we need to see that it needs to be properly motivated. So there's several truths. If you're part of the handful that took the handout tonight, I'll read them to you as I get through Psalm chapter 94.
[2:41] Let me read it to you and then pray before we jump into it tonight. So first of all, we're going to see that God's people are to hate sin. Verses 1 through 3. O Lord, to whom vengeance belongeth, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself.
[2:58] Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth. Render a reward to the proud. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long should the wicked triumph? When we were in Proverbs, it said, faithful creator.
[3:10] And I pointed out to you that we should always pay attention to the names that are given of God because focusing on that aspect of Him or those attributes are going to be important for us to trust in Him.
[3:20] And so it wasn't incidental that it said, faithful creator. Now when we're still on a passage on seeking revenge, it's reminding us that He is the judge of the entire earth.
[3:32] And I love that verse number 1, He calls out and says, God, show yourself. What does the world need? They need to see God. They need to see Him. You know, we're about to celebrate God coming to earth at Christmas, but we're still living in dark places.
[3:47] And there's still habitations of cruelty, not just around the world, but maybe in your family where God just needs to be seen and shown. Verse 4, we talk verses 4 through 7, God's people should hate the fact sin has upon people.
[4:02] How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves. They break in pieces thy people. Have you ever seen people that were broken in pieces?
[4:15] O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob reward.
[4:27] They go directly at the vulnerable and the weak people that God's people are supposed to protect. God's people know and love that God sees everything we do.
[4:37] Verses 8 through 11. If you have a handout, you probably wonder why I used such a weird thought there, right? I want to be very clear about the words that I put in your notes and what's not Bible. If it all had the same font, I might be guilty of adding to the Bible.
[4:50] I'm not wanting to do that ever, all right? And so God's people know and love that God sees everything that we do. Verse 8, understand you brutish among the people and you fools, when will you be wise?
[5:02] He that planted the ear shall he not hear? He that formed the eye shall he not see? He that chathens the heathens shall he not correct? He that teaches man knowledge shall not he know? God created your ears.
[5:13] Don't you believe he can hear? God created all these things. Do you really believe that he's not attentive? Do you really believe that the God of the universe doesn't know what's going on in your life? Then God's people are well taken care of.
[5:25] Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest. Blessed, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law, that they mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked.
[5:38] For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. But judgment shall return on the righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
[5:51] Verses 16 through 19, God's people should give thanks unto God in every situation. Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?
[6:03] Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. I would have been dead. That's what we're talking about here. Unless the Lord had been my help, I would just be completely unable to speak.
[6:17] I would just be gone. I would be no more. When I said, My foot slippeth thy mercy, O Lord, help me up. In the multitude of my thoughts within, thy comforts delight my soul.
[6:28] You ought to circle that verse and highlight it and remember it. If you find yourself in this position where you have the multitude of thoughts, and your foot is slipping, you're dealing with anxiety, or you're dealing with inconsistently in life, you feel like everything's constantly, you feel like you're living life in an algorithm, everything's a variable, you can't just get yourself established.
[6:48] You know, you just feel like you're moving, you're seasick in life, because you just feel like you're moving all the time. Thy comforts delight my soul. Verses 20 through 23, God's people can be certain of God's future, final, and just judgment.
[7:02] Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defense, and my God is the rock of my refuge.
[7:18] And he shall bring up them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness. Yea, Lord our God shall cut them off. Heavenly Father, I would ask that you would allow me the opportunity to communicate your word to your people.
[7:34] Lord, you know it's my desire to know what's on the hearts of each person in here, and the struggles that they're going through, the opportunities that are in front of them. Lord, I desire to know my fellow church members, Lord, and I love them.
[7:48] Lord, I know your love for them is greater. I know that your knowledge of what they go through is even greater. And so, Lord, tonight I come just trusting that what you have to say to us, Lord, is all that needs to be said.
[8:00] So I pray, Father, that the Spirit would take your word and make application to each heart for exactly the season that they are in. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
[8:11] Starting back with verse number one, just simply this, God's people are to hate sin. That would be an appropriate time to say amen. God's people are to hate sin.
[8:22] All right? And that we most certainly should hate sin. Whom vengeance belongeth to God, to whom vengeance belongeth to God, show thyself. Why bring vengeance upon the wicked?
[8:34] It's not a personal vendetta. It's not that the person's sin is against me, which is irritating. I would say that more times than not, if I'm irritated or if I'm angry, I'm not mad because you've sinned against God.
[8:48] I'm mad because you've sinned against me. And that's what's happening here, that he is saying, God, you see them and their wickedness is against you, God. And that's what we should be heartbroken over.
[9:00] We shouldn't be bothered that people aren't doing right by us, but the people that aren't doing right by us aren't doing right towards the God of heaven. And we should hate that. Those who love God will hate sin.
[9:13] I told you before, as a little kid, when the country church I would go to, they'd have the kids come before Sunday school to the front. And there's this one song that we'd sing, I hate sin for it is bad. I hate sin, it makes me mad.
[9:24] It is wrong. It is wicked. When it comes around, I'll kick it. And then this next line, I'll never forgive. I hate sin because I love God.
[9:34] That was an important thing to teach little kids, that the hatred for sin was not just in hating its effects upon our lives. We had another line we'd sing, I hate beer because it is bad.
[9:45] It comes around. I would hate whatever. We just met you. And then they would ask kids, what do you hate? You know, and we just, my little sister. All right, let's sing that, you know, and I hate my little sister. She's bad, you know, and they would name the things that they would hate.
[9:58] But it was so good to be reminded that our hate of sin is a love for God. Our holiness is not just away from the things of the world, but it's unto a loving God. And so we are to hate sin.
[10:10] A prayer that sin will stop because God would show himself. I just want God to show up in a moment and to make himself known. We can foster our hate for sin as we look at the misery that it creates.
[10:27] If you're to be honest with yourself, you would say that many times your hatred for sin, it's just not what it should be. That you just tolerate too many things in your life that are sinful, that are harmful to you and to other people.
[10:40] And you just recognize I have just built up this intolerance, a tolerance for sinfulness. And I don't hate it like I once did. My spirit, I'm not as sensitive.
[10:51] My conscience isn't as sensitive to the things that are right and the wrong. And I've just allowed things into my life. Well, let me show you a good way to help you renew your hatred for sin.
[11:02] It's by looking at the misery that it creates. Now, not all misery is the result of sin. You know, when the disciples said, is this young man blind because he sinned?
[11:15] And he said, that's not the case. But all misery in this world is ultimately the result of sin from Adam. Anything that you see in this world that's not the way that it should be is a result of sin.
[11:27] And it comes from, and we should hate that. There's a word some of you may know. I don't know how to use, why you would use it very often, but it's a kind of class. It's this, a destroyer of images used in religious worship.
[11:42] A friend of mine that I had in college, he was living in India and he, he's a wild man. All right. You're going to know this here in a moment when I tell you the story. So I might as well tell you.
[11:53] And he was talking about going down the road one day on his bicycle and kicking over the idols that were on the side of the road because he hated them. And the word a kind of class showed up.
[12:04] I'm like, I want to know what that word means. All right. And so he's drop kicking the idols going down the road. And, and what happens when you do that? That's what happened to him. All right.
[12:14] And so he got hurt. And, and, but a kind of class numbers, 33, 52, then he shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their pictures and destroy all their molten images and quite pluck down all their high places.
[12:32] Jeff may remember a few years ago, a young man in Knoxville decided to burn down a storm that sold pornography because he thought that if he could get rid of the storm, then he could help keep his friends from the sin.
[12:46] And as crazy it is, I'm not endorsing a ministry. We will not be taking a trip to India where we drop kick idols going down the road, unless brother Jeff wants to lead that up. All right. Um, but I won't be attending that when I'm with you, nor do I want you burning anything down.
[13:00] But there's another reaction that's on the other side. That's equally as bad where you just have a tolerance for sin that it doesn't bother you, that you don't want to see it put out of business, that you don't want to see it go away.
[13:12] We always have a song where a lot of times we have a song at the end of the service. There was a preacher and he was preaching and he says, I just hate alcohol. I want to throw it into the river. I hate drugs. I want to throw it in the river. I hate all these things.
[13:23] I just get so mad. I just want to get it and I want to throw it into the river. And the song leader came up and said, all right, let's all stand. We're going to sing, shall we gather at the river? All right. And so I'm, I'm glad Stephen pays better attention to the sermons than that.
[13:37] But have you ever just got to a point where you just thought, man, if I could just go into that house, if I could take the object of their sin and just throw it into the river, if I could just drop kick this, it's good to have a hatred for sin.
[13:53] And so they're motivated here. They hate sin because it's against God. It's not just a personal vendetta. It's not bitterness. It's not that it's against me. It's that this person's sinning against God. And I hate that.
[14:04] And we should be a people that pray that God would shine forth in this world. Psalm 80 verse one, give Ero shepherd of Israel that thou lead us, Joseph, like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth, shine forth.
[14:20] In the Psalm, it said that we would pray that he would show thyself. Common language in Psalms ought to be common language in our prayer. And say, God, would you show yourself strong? God, would you show up in this place?
[14:32] God, I hate sin. I'm tired of seeing its effects in this world. And God, I want to see you show yourself in this situation. God's people should hate the effect of sin upon other people.
[14:44] How long, verse four, how long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers iniquity boast themselves. They break in the pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage.
[14:57] They break people in pieces. They slay the widow and the stranger, and they murder the fatherless. Yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
[15:07] Sin breaks people in pieces. It afflicts thine heritage. It goes after families. We talk about ministries and helping families in here. But there's forever one of us, there's dozens of other places that are saying, how do we destroy the family?
[15:24] How do we separate the family? How do we make a living off the breaking up homes? They slay widows and strangers. They murder the fatherless. There is a breaking there.
[15:36] And so we should hate sin knowing it's against God. But we should also hate sin because we've seen what it's done, the people that we love. And that should create a stronger hatred in our heart for the things that are sinful.
[15:50] These names that they were going after, why the widow, the stranger, the fatherless? These are all the opposites of our call to holiness. Leviticus chapter number 19, 10 through 18 is speaking.
[16:02] I told you last Sunday night, what if we take a picture, if we go back from Proverbs, from looking at the turn by turn directions, and we zoom out, what are we seeing? Is that we see that God is making a people for his name.
[16:13] That we're supposed to live differently, and we're supposed to live distinctly. Well, here's in Leviticus, it's showing a way in which we are to live. And you'd say, who would do these things except for people that were wanting to live in a way that honored a holy God?
[16:26] Verse 10, And thou shalt not glean the vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger. I am the Lord your God. Who would leave?
[16:37] Who would go out there to pick what they have, and not take everything available to them? What are you leaving if you leave grapes on the vine? You're leaving profit. What are you leaving? You're leaving something for yourself.
[16:48] And they said, leave it so that other people could come. Who does that? Except for people that God is making for his name. You shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And you shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God.
[17:03] I am the Lord. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God.
[17:16] I am the Lord. You shall do no unrighteousness and judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person, the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.
[17:29] Thou shalt not go up and down as a tailbearer among the people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor. I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.
[17:42] Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. What was the question asked in the Bible when the first questions, you know, where's your brother and am I my brother's keeper?
[17:57] And we say as God's people, yes, I am my brother's keeper. I do care for other people. I want to help the vulnerable. I want to help the weak. I want to live as God would have me to.
[18:08] When I pray God show forth, I say, God, I want you to show forth, and I want you to use my life to show forth. We had an event here not long ago, and we had many Indian people from our community, and I sincerely told them how grateful I was for what they brought to our community.
[18:24] That they, when I go to the park to play with my kids, not nearly as much as I should, I will often not find any other American-born families there, but I'll find a bunch of Indian dads there with their kids, and I'm encouraged by that.
[18:36] It's true. It helps challenge my son in his math class. He's the only non-Indian in his events, one of his few Americans in math class, and they help the school system in a million different ways.
[18:50] I could be grateful to have them as a neighbor. But far more, far more should God's people be a blessing to the communities that we live in. We care for people. We don't want to defraud people.
[19:02] We want to do good to them. If we had a farm that did that, we want to leave something for other people. We want to be generous people. But more than anything, culturally or morally as a people, to bring to a community as God's people, we should be a vital element for good in our community.
[19:18] James 5, 19 and 20 tells us that we should be people who help pull others back from sin. This is speaking about brothers and sisters in Christ. James 5, 19 and 20, Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
[19:41] Which is to say, it's not common in the Bible that we are referred to as sinning. We are now called saints in Christ. But here in a passage, we're talking about a person that is one of us, who's now erring from the truth, and they're going.
[19:55] And that's that person that's kind of drifting away, that kind of person that's getting into something. And you're like, I'm not supposed to say anything. I just want to mind my own business. You know, they know what they're supposed to do.
[20:06] But the Bible says that's not the case. The Bible says that we're supposed to go after them, and love them, and put their arm around them, like, hey, let's go back the right direction. I can't watch you head down this path.
[20:17] I hate sin because I love God. I hate sin because the effect it's going to have on you. I hate sin because I love God. And because of that, I want to speak to you about sin that may be in your life.
[20:29] Then we get another question in verse four. How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And the workers of iniquity boast themselves. Before I get on to that, I want to continue back on that.
[20:42] We know what a lasting difference we can make by discipling people. This week, I got to be on a Zoom video with Jason Holt.
[20:52] They were raising money for some church planning efforts down in Chile. And I love talking about church planning because one of my first understanding of missions at 18 years of age, it was I was in the Republic of Georgia, and this man didn't have a Bible, and I was sad about that.
[21:13] And then I thought, well, the man doesn't not only have a Bible, but he doesn't have a lot of things that I have. And so I just felt so burdened for him. And the missionary told me, well, actually, the national pastor told me, he said, hey, we're going to do more than just take him a Bible.
[21:26] We're going to do that. But we're starting a church in his area. And so I get excited about what they're doing in Chile because when a community gets a church, they just get so much.
[21:38] It can make such a difference. But you know that when a family gets a God-fearing dad, they get so much. Well, when a family gets a God-fearing mother, they get so much.
[21:49] When a teenager comes from our church and they meet Jesus, and then they started asking us to pray for their mom or to pray for their dad, their family got a whole lot.
[22:01] And so when you disciple people, you can make a real difference in people's lives. You can help take them. Some of you know where you would have been today if somebody wouldn't have discipled you and told you about Jesus.
[22:14] And you helped save us. There's so many people in my life today that saved me from so much misery. One, because they shared the gospel with me. I'm thankful for those people. I'm thankful for the people that discipled me.
[22:24] And I'm thankful for the people that when I began wondering and walking away from truth, came to me and had the hard conversations and looked me in the eyes and said, I love you too much to let you walk in to this mess of sin in your life.
[22:38] So the question that we move on to now here is how long will God let the wicked celebrate? They break the people as we've already seen. And they're just, they're so hateful. Sin does. And they speak arrogantly, verse four.
[22:49] How long should they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves. They're boasting about stuff. You know, sometimes people boast in things and it's just kind of comical.
[23:01] It doesn't really hurt anybody. There's this teenage, this girl I went to high school with and she was just so arrogant about her bottled water, all right? She just thought that bottled water was the best.
[23:12] And all of us who had drank water from the tap, you know, we're just the low, we're low lives, okay? And so to help her out, me and my buddy Justin, the same one from the monkey bread story the other day, me and Justin decided that we were going to empty out her bottled water every morning and put tap water in it, all right?
[23:30] And so after a few weeks of her just talking about how much better her bottled water was, we let her know you haven't had bottled water in weeks. You're drinking from the tap. And there's just something that's so annoying about a person who lives in this delusion where they just think what they're doing is right, but it's completely not.
[23:49] That's a very small level, but we're surrounded by people that say, I have no need for God and my life is better. My week is better because I don't waste my time doing what you do on Sunday.
[24:00] My life is better because everything I get belongs to me. My life is better. They're boasting and they're arrogant. Yeah, and the question is, Lord, how long, how long is this going to happen?
[24:12] They were attacking people that God promised He would protect. The arrogance of their speech comes from their naive belief that God does not pay attention to them. The wicked in this world just live as if God's not watching because they don't believe that He is, but there's coming a day where they're going to recognize that they were wrong.
[24:31] And we are grateful that we know ahead of time. We're grateful that our knee bows now because we know every knee will bow someday. And so now we have the option for it to bow. That way with our tongue we confess because someday every tongue will confess.
[24:44] So we're not boastful. We know where this is ending. We know where this is going. Sometimes in the wicked don't know it and they boast in that. God's people know and love that God sees everything that we do.
[24:55] That's been a major theme on Sunday nights in Proverbs that we know and we love it. Verse 8, He sees us and He hears us and then it goes even farther.
[25:21] He knows the thoughts of man. And sometimes the most charitable thing that we can do for a person is to help them see that they live in the presence of God. The warning is that God hears and that God sees and that God punishes.
[25:36] And we need to remind people of those things. Jason Ho, he does, God's really used him to help raise up leaders in Chile. But in raising up leaders, he's had to help buy buildings and churches to help them be sustainable.
[25:51] And one of the ways that Jason can do such a good job at that is he knows that the ministry does not belong to him. He has no problem asking you, Hey, do you want to help build a church for Liberty Baptist Church?
[26:04] Because it isn't his building. It isn't his ministry. It belongs to the Lord. And he's asking you, Do you want to be involved in it? And there's a real confidence that's needed where it's not personal.
[26:15] You know, when you go to people and you share with them God's truth, it is not your personal opinion that sin is harmful. It is not just your personal preference. You're going to be able to say to them, Thus saith the Lord.
[26:28] The actions that you're taking are known by God and they are wrong. And it's very loving. And I know we live in a time where if you were to tell anybody that they were wrong, you would be judged as unloving.
[26:39] But there's going to be times where loving means that people think that you are unloving. That being loving means that you speak truth when people don't want to hear truth. When you remind them you can pretend all that you want that there's not a God in heaven watching, but there is.
[26:55] And I didn't make that up. I'm just living by the rules that are true here. And so God is a very observant God. Exodus 2, 24, and 25. And God heard their groaning.
[27:07] Groaning. Not necessarily loud. He heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel and God had respect unto them.
[27:18] God hears, sees, and even knows the intentions of the heart. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity. Stephanie, who's home tonight with Carson who was sick, she loves court cases.
[27:32] All right? Carrie should talk to her sometimes. She doesn't love reality TV. She just loves reality. All right? She does. I mean, I sometimes just assume that somebody's paying her to do all the work. I mean, I've seen paper.
[27:43] I've seen her take notes, all right, on watching court cases. But what's so frustrating is, one, you know, whatever media is giving you is not the whole story.
[27:53] But you would also know that if you were in a court case that you're not getting all the information either. is that no single person gets to know everything that's happening except for God.
[28:05] He knows all, he knows all, and he sees all. And knowing that should create a hatred in our heart. Knowing that ought to let us live knowing that he is very present.
[28:16] It should change our lives. I've said this before, and it's probably worth repeating. One of the great dangers of pornography or other sins that seem to be secret and private is that you're telling yourself and you're programming yourself that you can hit a switch, you can click a button, and now you live in a world with privacy that nobody else knows about.
[28:37] That you can be in incognito mode or you can be somehow in a private mode and that nobody knows what you're doing. Well, see, there's a problem. You can't step in and say, now I'm living in the presence of God, and I want him to know where I'm at because I'm praying to him, I'm singing to him, God, I want you to be present, but now I want to be able to live outside of your presence.
[28:56] I don't want you to know. I want to be hidden. That type of life is going to destroy you spiritually. You need to recognize on the good days when you're singing unto the Lord, he is watching, he is there.
[29:07] And when you're running from him, he is there as well. We live with a very observant God. He knows and he sees. God's people have been well taken care of.
[29:18] Blessed is the man whom they'll chasten us. The psalmist has acknowledged that sometimes the righteous fall prey to the wicked in this world, but that does not mean that God has forgotten us. We're blessed in our affliction.
[29:30] The people of God may have to endure oppression and danger for some time, but in all that they will come to know more about God through his revelation. What is the high prize in life? It's to know him.
[29:41] So the affliction that you're going through, where you're misunderstood, and the wicked seems to be thinking they're getting by with everything, and nobody's seeing things properly. Well, God sees, and in the middle of your affliction, you get to do what you wanted to do anyway, which is to know him more.
[29:58] And that's all you've ever wanted with your lives as a believer. You just want to know him more. And so it's nice when you get to go to a Bible institute and sit in an air-conditioned room or a heated room, whichever it is.
[30:10] Always air-conditioned in this room, right? Some of you think. But you get to do that. It's a very peaceful environment. Know more about God. But also you might sit in a waiting room at a hospital outside waiting for somebody else for news.
[30:22] Or maybe you've got a phone call, and it's not the way in which you want, but even in that affliction, we're blessed because we have the opportunity to know him more, which is all that we ever wanted.
[30:33] God's people should give thanks unto God in every situation. Verse 17, The Lord has been my help. My foot was slipping. My mercy, O Lord, He helped me. And the multitudes of thoughts, we give thanks.
[30:46] We can put all of our trust in the Lord because He helped, held, and He comforted us. I cannot even begin to fathom the amount of times that God had protected me, and I was not even aware of it.
[30:59] Situations He removed me from, people He moved in and out of my life. I could give you testimonies of God's protection in my life, but I wouldn't even be giving you a fraction of it. He has looked after me, and He's looked after you as well.
[31:12] Psalm 3, 1, The Lord, how they increase, thou trouble me. Many are they that rise up against me. You feel like people have risen up against you, but God has risen up, and He will help you.
[31:23] Verse 17 says, If He hadn't helped me, then I would be silent. I would dwell in silence, but He has helped me. We had a lack of stability in our lives.
[31:33] Our feet are slipping. High anxiety through the multitude of thoughts, but God came and He helped us. And because of His mercy, which is a faithful love towards us, God has intervened in our distress, and our spirit was lifted from a crippling anxiety to delightful comfort.
[31:50] In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul. Have you ever had those moments where God brought to you just great delight?
[32:02] For time's sake, I won't tell you all of it, but I bring you some of my favorite stories. The teenagers can tell you about it. It's where I'm walking at a camp with the piggy pots, and I go out there. There's five-gallon buckets of slop.
[32:14] My dad had just passed away. I slipped and I fell, and I'm sitting there. A bunch of teenage girls laughing at me. A bunch of deaf kids with whistles standing over here because there's a deaf camp blowing whistles at me.
[32:26] I'm covered in slop. It starts raining. I'm like, this is the worst. This is the worst. But then God's delight came into my heart. And He says, I'm here.
[32:36] I am with you. And I recognize His presence in my life. And all that was going on, I felt incredible delight and affliction. And He will do that with crippling anxiety and with the unsustainability in our lives where we just feel everything's changing all the time.
[32:53] Our thoughts of His presence can be delightful. God's people can be certain of God's future final and just judgment. Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by law.
[33:06] Good and evil will not coexist. God will not allow that. The line will be drawn. It will be clear. He is my defense. He is the rock of my refuge. Strong metaphors. And so we have some clear statements about God.
[33:17] He is the God who avenges. He is the judge of the earth. He does not reject His people. He is their help. His mercy comforts His people. He is their rock and defense. He knows what the wicked and doing or planning.
[33:28] He will destroy them from their wickedness. And what does it mean for us that judgment is certain? It ought to mean at least three things here. Accountability, gratitude, and humility.
[33:41] Accountability, because everything that we see and everything that we think and everything that we say, everything that we do, we're accountable to God. He sees all and He knows all. We ought to be grateful because we understand that if it were not for God's grace, we would be numbered among the wicked.
[33:57] I told some people the other day in the foyer, when somebody cuts me off in traffic, I never get mad at them because I'm like, that could have been me. Like, honestly, I'm sure you're a better driver than me. I'm not mad. All right? They pull up to me like, I'm so sorry.
[34:07] I'm like, don't worry about it. Like, I shouldn't be out here. No, I'm not that bad of a driver. Don't worry. But I just, for some reason, I don't get mad typically at other drivers because I recognize I could have been me that cut him off next time.
[34:22] If it wasn't for the grace of God, the people that are bringing affliction, the people that are hurting you, the people that have brought sin into the story, that have brought all the misery, if it wasn't for the grace of God, that would be you. You would be the one that is hurting the family.
[34:33] You would be the one that's doing whatever it is, God's grace, which just brings a humility of his grace and mercy. And this isn't just an Old Testament truth. God has not stopped hearing and seeing and punishing.
[34:44] Psalm 94, 11, Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity. That verse is cited in 1 Corinthians 3, 20, and again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain.
[34:56] God has not and will never cast off his people. Psalm 94, 14, For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. Romans 11, 1, I say then, Hath God cast away his people?
[35:09] God forbid. For I am also an Israelite, the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Has God cast off his people? God forbid. No, he hasn't. God knows all, and we can trust him.
[35:20] And you can trust him, whatever situation is going on in your life, you don't have to make it right. You can trust him. And recognizing that he knows all, and he sees our thoughts, it holds us accountable.
[35:31] Yes. But it also makes us very grateful, and it will make us humbled people, so we can trust him with all the messiness of our lives.
[35:42] I'm going to pray here in a second. The piano will play, and then we'll sing a song, we'll sing a verse, pick up our kids from Iwana. But this is where I'm so grateful, that the Holy Spirit isn't only the one communicating his word, as I would preach, but the Holy Spirit is also in your life and heart receiving this.
[35:59] Because I don't even know all the applications that will be made upon your life. Maybe it's an area of accountability, maybe it has to do with gratitude, or maybe some of you in here just have something that you need to let go of, because you realize now that God is very much aware of it, and that God has not given up or cast you off.
[36:17] He hasn't left you to yourself to make things right, that you can trust him. It might be that some of you are carrying a burden and a responsibility that you're not designed to carry, and you can trust him, that he will set things right in his timing, because he knows all, and he is loving, and he has not cast you off.
[36:39] Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in here, Lord, trusting that this is your word for us tonight, Lord, as we walk through the Psalms.
[36:49] Lord, I pray that application is made, Lord, may it be that some of us in here just need to have a greater hatred for sin, as we pause and reflect upon how it's hurt so many people, and that we would have the courage and love to go after people, and disciple them, and to teach them the truth.
[37:08] he said that you will make this his shock, and he will start to see the truth.
[37:28] Now, you can use the truth to know heaven and will show you than them and eat it on the Conse oyster them baseball because of the あ muitosの研究 the деле did not kill it.