[0:00] Go with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 117. Deuteronomy 117. I'll give you a chance to look it up. Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 117.
[0:12] The whole Bible works together. Literally, it's like fingers interlaced when you look at it because you're in Psalms. But this morning in the book of Revelation, we were like in Psalm 5810 in the book of Revelation because we were looking at when God's people rejoice, when righteousness prevails, and God's vengeance comes.
[0:33] And here in Psalm 58, we're back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy because they ought to know the truth. Deuteronomy 117. You shall not respect persons in judgment.
[0:46] Don't have any preferences. Don't like one skin color or one financial status or one marital status or family. You shall hear small as well as the great.
[1:00] And you will not be afraid of what people might say. You shall not be afraid of the face of man. For judgment is God's. You should underline that. Judgment is God's.
[1:10] And the cause that is too hard for you, bring it to me and I will hear it. You could even write down beside verse 17, Romans 13. All government and all judges, God is in charge.
[1:24] And they should realize that they are ministers of righteousness, ministers of God. Go with me to Deuteronomy 27, 19. Deuteronomy 27, 19.
[1:36] This is a wild verse. Cursed be he that perverted the judgment of the stranger. That's a foreigner. Just because he wasn't born here doesn't mean you don't give him equal justice.
[1:50] And the fatherless or orphan. And the widow. By the way, widows were severely mistreated in the old days, in the Bible type days.
[2:01] They were severely mistreated. But not in Israel they weren't to be. God's wanted his people to take care of them. And all the people shall say, amen. Don't twist judgment.
[2:11] That's what he said. Do what's right. I want you to go with me to Deuteronomy 19, 15. This will be the last one before I take you back over to the psalm. I just want you to know that David's going to be like, hey, y'all ought to be doing right.
[2:27] You should know better than this. And they should have known better. God had rules about witnesses. This is one of my favorite passages of the Bible. I think if they put this into play in Washington, D.C., it would really stop all fake news.
[2:43] Just watch what I'm about to read to you, the word of God. One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity or for any sin. And any sin that he sends, you've got to have at least two witnesses.
[2:56] Or at the mouth of three witnesses shall the matter be established. So you can't have a he said, she said. And you've got to have at least two or three witnesses. Verse 16.
[3:06] If a false witness, underline that, rise up against any man, testify against him that which is wrong. Then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priest and the judges, the men of God and the judges, which shall be in those days.
[3:25] And the judges shall make a diligent inquisition. And behold, if the witness be a false witness and hath testified falsely against his brothers. Now hang on, you're not going to like this.
[3:37] Well, you probably will. Then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother. So shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
[3:48] So if a false witness got up and accused the guy and said he ought to get killed because he broke such and such law. They investigated that thoroughly enough that they found out if it was the truth or not.
[4:00] And if it was the truth, of course, the guy got in trouble. If it wasn't the truth, the guy who made the accusation was put to death. And they said that'll stop the lying, false witnesses. That would stop fake news right there.
[4:12] Amen. Verse 20. The last part. So shalt thou put away evil. Verse 20. And those which remain shall hear and fear and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
[4:26] Father God, as we dive into Psalm 58, I pray that you would help us to grow and mature in you. And I pray God that you'd help us as we all make judgments and decisions that we would do what's right and what is pleasing to you.
[4:41] And I pray God that you would teach us even about our country, even about how we vote and what we do, not based on anything political, but strictly on what your word is saying here.
[4:52] And I'll give you praise for all in Jesus name. Amen. David is extremely angry in this Psalm. And he asked God to judge quickly. The judges and the political leaders are using their position for personal gain, not holiness and not national good.
[5:12] The prophets have been preaching against them and how lawless they are and how they don't obey the Bible. Psalm 58.1. David is angry at how corrupt the judges are.
[5:24] Look, if you would, at verse 1. Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? A country. Do we really have good law and good judgment?
[5:37] There are times when judges should stand up and speak up for what is right, but they're not doing that. The words they speak, David says, are they holy and right?
[5:48] Are you judges examples of truth and right or not? They should be blind to the person that stands before them and do the right thing.
[5:58] Even in America, our justice system is a picture of a blind person with a set of scales in her hand. So lady justice would say, I don't see your color.
[6:09] I don't see your national status. I don't see any of that. I just know what the rules are and we'll weigh out the justice. They should do right in every case. But how are they judging?
[6:21] Look at verse 1. Do you judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? That's like a rhetorical question. Do y'all make right decisions? Are you following the oath that you took?
[6:32] Do you realize that you're just men like the people you judge? Do you realize that God is the true judge and God knows what's right? You're just a man. Do what God says do.
[6:44] Do you? So David calls out the judges and he exposes them. Look at Psalm 58 too. He says, yea, in heart you work wickedness.
[6:57] Their problem is a heart problem. Their wickedness is deeply ingrained in them. We'll come back to this at the very last of the message.
[7:08] But you and I ought to realize something. You as a believer need to work on keeping your heart right. Here's what he says. He says, he says, he says, he says to him, in heart you work wickedness.
[7:23] In Luke chapter 6 and verse 45, the Bible says, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil.
[7:36] Of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Now just like that's a New Testament verse. But let me just show you something quickly. Do you know what an evil man is? A man that doesn't fear God.
[7:48] Now you may not understand this. But you say, well he's a good guy. He's a Muslim. Well biblically, he's an evil man. Because the evil men don't believe in God through Jesus Christ.
[8:02] Good men, righteous men out of the good treasure do it because they've put this in their heart. And what's going to come out of them is that. And those judges, those political leaders, the king was to write his own personal copy of the Bible.
[8:18] That would have been a handwritten copy. He couldn't say to his secretary, run in the office and run me a photostatic copy of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. And he was supposed to read in it every day so he'd remember he was just a man.
[8:33] So he'd remember that there's a God in charge of things. And you've got to understand these wicked judges are not weak men. They are wicked men.
[8:43] And what they do is, verse 2, they weigh violence in their hands in the earth. They judge and weigh and they do wrong.
[8:54] They were abusing people. Now I don't know for sure and no one I can read after knows when this psalm was written. It could be that David's talking about Saul's kings.
[9:05] It could be that David and his men are on the run and the judging system has taken all of their land and abused them and mistreated them. Not sure what happened.
[9:16] But we know this. They were abusing, according to the psalm, they're abusing the poor. They're abusing the wicked. And they're abusing the orphan. Basically, they're abusing the helpless. If you didn't have enough money, you couldn't get good help.
[9:31] Psalm 58.2. Psalm 58.3. These judges are wicked by nature. Look at verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb, separated from the womb.
[9:44] And as soon as they get out of the womb, they go astray as soon as they're born, speaking lies. The story is told that they asked Mark Twain when the first time he told a lie was.
[9:56] He said, I'm not sure I can remember. But at eight days, I know I lied. He said, I figured out that if a pen was sticking in me from the diaper, I cried.
[10:06] They would all come and be real nice to me. He said, so I started lying at day eight. He said, I'm not sure if I did before that or not. Obviously, that's a joke. But the truth is that laws, you know, this is the truth about every one of us.
[10:21] You do realize there are none righteous. No, not one. That every one of us are born sinners. That every one of us come out of the womb speaking lies. That every one of us are like these wicked judges.
[10:34] You see, all men are sinners. And that's a hard thing that every one of us have to accept and realize. Sometimes lost people say, I don't want to go to that church because they condemn me.
[10:46] But a true biblical church wouldn't condemn anybody. Because every true Christian says, oh, no. I was a sinner as much as anybody else was a sinner. I got saved and blood washed and changed.
[10:57] And that's all I am. So I don't have any condemning to do around here. We're not standing around going, I'm the holy one. We're standing around going, whoa, thank God for grace. Thank God for mercy. I've not got time to judge on anybody.
[11:09] Isaiah 53, 6. The Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
[11:21] And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. I would just like to show you real quickly that some of you might be more, and you may be listening and you might not even be in the room, but I just want you to know that some people are like, you know, I'm not that big a sinner.
[11:37] I'm not like other people. I have not committed adultery. I have not stolen. I have not looked at pornography. I've not done the wicked things that people talk about at church. I'm just not like that.
[11:48] I'm a good guy. But do you realize what sin is? Look at the verse right here. Sin is going your own way. And so did you know there's real good sinners and there's real bad sinners?
[12:01] But they're both sinners. There's this one sinner on this side. And over here, buddy, he's like the playboy captain or a prostitution and Epstein and all this bad stuff.
[12:13] And everybody's like, oh, that guy's really wicked. But on this side, there's a philanthropist. And he's giving money to people and taking care of poor people in Africa. He's doing everything.
[12:23] But he doesn't follow the Lord's way. He follows his way. And he thinks he'll get to heaven because of his good stuff. And here's what God says. Oh, I'm the judge here. And I know you're trying to buy your way and you don't get in that way.
[12:35] And I know you're wicked. They're both wicked for all of sin. And everyone, you need to look at the verse. Everyone is turned to his own way. We are sinners twice over. We are sinners by nature.
[12:47] We're born into a sin-cursed world. And we sin like our parents sinned. But we also sin by choice. You can blame no one else. Then David compares these judges next to poisonous snakes.
[13:02] Look at Psalm 58, 4, if you would. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They're like the deaf adder that stops her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
[13:17] These wicked judges dirtied everything they touched. They poisoned it. And they refused to listen to truth and right.
[13:28] They were like a deaf adder. They refused to do right no matter how many times the prophets challenged them. I need you to understand because as you read the Bible, you might think that it works kind of like it's laid out in your Bible.
[13:41] You know, you got the books of the law, and then you got some history books and some poetical books and some prophetic books. And you might think that all this stuff over in the kings and the chronicles is happening and the judges is happening here.
[13:52] But it's all happening like this. It's all happening like this. And that's kind of a little bit hard to understand unless you really read your Bible. But you'll be reading your Bible, and it'll talk about a king, and it'll start talking about a guy that's mentioned over here.
[14:05] And that guy over here was really, they were living together. They were living in the same time period. Do you realize that when all these wicked judges and all these wicked political leaders were doing wrong in Israel, God was sending preacher after preacher to just rip them a new one and tell them what the truth was.
[14:23] He sent Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Hosea and Joel and Amos and Obadiah and Jonah and Micah and Nehemiah and Bebekah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. He sent all those guys and others who didn't write books.
[14:35] He said, do right. But those judges said, we'll not listen to you. And we'll not pay attention. We'll do what we want. David is angry.
[14:47] Look, if you would, at Psalm 58 and 6. And he asked God to judge the corrupt judges. He says, break the teeth of those powerful lions.
[15:00] Cause them to lose their power to hurt other people. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. God, take away their power to do wrong.
[15:15] In verse 7, he says, make them lose all their influence. Like waters that melt and run off the side of a hill when the snow melts back into water. He said, let their weapons fall apart of them in verse 7.
[15:26] Let it be like a bow and it's cut into pieces and it doesn't work. Let them be like a snail that happens to get caught out when the sun comes out. And it just melts. It kills it because it's the slime and it melts on the hot pavement.
[15:39] Let it be like a baby, verse 8, that was born out of time, a premature birth, and died. God, get rid of them.
[15:50] God, get rid of them. God, do it like a person that's setting up food to eat. Psalm 58, 9. Their pots fill the thorns.
[16:00] We don't get that at all. We're like, what in the world is a pot filling the thorns? They're cooking over fire. So they went out and got some thorns and they got them ready to burn them.
[16:12] And God says that as soon as they set their pot on the campfire and get ready to cook it, let the wind come and blow it away so they don't get to eat. Just get rid of these judges, God. Get rid of these judges.
[16:24] God wants those judges, or David wants those judges gone. And he's asked God. And then David knows, God promises him, I will right the wrongs.
[16:36] I want you to realize that. You can never, ever believe that wickedness and sin win. They will not win.
[16:48] God wins. He is still the king of the universe. He said in Genesis 1-1, I created this world. It belongs to him and he will hold men to account.
[17:02] Fact is, parentheses, it maybe doesn't have time for right here. You know why they don't like the creation? Because if you happen to be a product of evolution, there's no judge. But there is a judge.
[17:15] And he did make you. Go to Psalm 58 with me if you would, verse 10. Psalm 58, verse 10. God knows that God's people will be glad to see God right the wrongs. The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance.
[17:31] God's people are going to be happy when God gets rid of all this corruption that's all around us. In the book of Revelation, in my Sunday school class this morning, when Babylon falls, God's people rejoice.
[17:48] When the wicked, sinful stuff falls, God's people get excited. He told you not to take vengeance. He said, I'll take vengeance.
[17:59] And I'll tell you when to clap. He's got a little sign that says you can clap now like I got an amen sign. He's got a clapping sign. Psalm 58, 10. Last part says that the righteous shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
[18:17] That's harsh. But, you know, they say that this is poetry, and they say that's kind of what it was like after a battle. If your soldiers won, they would then walk through the battlefield collecting all the weapons and all the money and all the things that the people had, and their feet would get bloody.
[18:37] God's people win. Well, that's not true. God wins. And we get to follow him. God wins.
[18:49] And David says, oh, we're going to be happy when it happens. We're going to be happy when sin is knocked down, when all that pornography, filth, and all of that corruption, and the way money and the love of money, the root of olive, all that's gone.
[19:05] We're going to be so happy. And here's why verse 11. So that man shall say, verily, there is a reward for the righteous.
[19:16] The world tells you how dumb you are. You came to church this morning. You opened an old book. It's nearly 2,000 years old and parts of it much older than that.
[19:30] Outdated, antiquated, cultural norm, whatever they want to say it is. They mock you because you believe that there's a God. And they mock you because you believe that Jesus can save you.
[19:43] And they mock you because you give your money. And they mock us because we love one woman. Say amen. They mock us because we love one woman. And we keep a family together.
[19:54] They mock us. They want to bring in whole societies to destroy the family. They're doing all that junk. And so sometimes we feel like we're losing. Sometimes we feel like we're back against the wall with our hands up and Satan's winning.
[20:07] And here's what the Bible is saying here. No, there is a reward for us. We will win. Verse 11, verily or truly, he is a God that judges the earth.
[20:24] Wickedness will not win. God will. Right will. So wait on God to do right and avenge us.
[20:38] I'd just like to say to you quickly, if I could, I have no reason to preach against our judges. That's not even the kind of preaching I do.
[20:49] But I'll just tell you that if you look at this passage of Scripture, you might get the idea, if you looked at the passages before, that people ought to judge what's right and do what's right. And God gave plenty of instruction.
[21:01] And you ought not follow the world's current. You ought to decide that we make decisions correctly. Can I get an amen right there? Now let me give you the personal application and I'll be done.
[21:13] Be careful to make decisions correctly. You can't be swallowed up in this world and what it does. You don't make a decision based on the color of skin or the economic position or the nation they come from.
[21:29] We don't make decisions that way. Do you know how we make decisions? We make decisions by finding God's truth. I read this morning about an old black preacher, E.V. Hill, and they threatened him.
[21:42] The Black Panthers threatened him for preaching the white Jesus. And he said, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, I think where he came from, most of them are brown. Then he went to Africa and there wasn't Europe yet.
[21:53] He said, so I'm not sure how he got to be white. He said, I'm just preaching Jesus until you get on your knees and forget your color and think about Jesus. You're not going to get right. Make decisions correctly.
[22:05] God will judge and set all things right. You know, we don't have to fight our own battles. We don't have to fight our own battles. That doesn't mean that you don't have the right to defend yourself.
[22:16] But here's what you got to realize. God will judge sin. And I want you to go with me to Psalm 58 too, and I'm going to take you through some verses. In heart, you work wickedness.
[22:33] Talking to those judges. But I'd like to just talk to you very quickly as born-again believers. If you're not careful about your heart, you'll fall into as big a trap as everybody in this chapter did in all these wicked judges.
[22:50] You see, they were doing wrong in their heart. It wasn't that their judgments were wrong, and it wasn't what they said was wrong. It was what was in their heart that was wrong. And the Bible's really clear.
[23:03] The Bible's really clear. In Matthew chapter 15, verse 19, out of the heart proceed. You see, when sin and wickedness comes out, it's from the heart.
[23:14] I grew up hearing, and when my first church people come to me all the time, they say, he's drunk, but he's got a good heart. And I'd be like, well, that means he ain't got a good heart. I mean, you're drunk, and if you had a good heart, you wouldn't be a drunk.
[23:29] Say, man, a saved heart. Come on. Be mad if you want. You say, I know he committed adultery, but he's got a good heart. No, he doesn't. Come on.
[23:40] Out of the heart proceed your evil thoughts. Out of the heart proceed your murders. Out of the heart proceed your adulteries. Out of the heart proceed your fornications. Out of the heart proceed your thefts, and your false witnesses, and your blasphemies, and making fun of the things of God.
[23:55] Out of the heart. That's what the Bible says. So a born-again believer ought to definitely be going, I must take care of my heart. I must take care of my heart.
[24:06] I need to do some heart work every day. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23. And I know you know all these verses as well as I do, but the Bible says keep thy heart with all diligence.
[24:18] For out of it are the issues of life. So you know what I need to do is I need to let God work in my heart. And the first work that's done in your heart is getting born again.
[24:30] You need God to wash you and cleanse you and make a new person out of you. You can't have victory over sin until you're saved. Get saved.
[24:41] And then after that, fill yourself up with Scripture. I wish you'd open your Bible to James 1.21. I know it'll be on the screen, but I wish you'd open your Bible there.
[24:52] As a born-again believer, you ought to work every day of your life to take out the wrong and plant the good. And that is a Bible truth taught throughout the entire Scriptures.
[25:05] In Ephesians chapter 4, he said, Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him work with his hands. In Colossians chapter 3, he said, If you've been risen with Christ, set your affections on things above.
[25:18] And then he goes through and says, Put to death, mortify these things, put off these things, and put on these things. And if you get saved, you will positionally be a lot of things in heaven.
[25:31] You will be accepted and beloved. You're the chosen of God. And every sweet word that the Bible says about us. But your position in heaven by being saved doesn't always correlate to your practical, personal walk.
[25:45] And every believer ought to say, I know I'm saved. I know I'm going to heaven. I know my name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I know that I'm accepted in the beloved. I know I'm seated in the heavenlies.
[25:56] But I want to live like who I am. That ought to be the believer's goal. These judges, their problem was they had a wicked heart. You know what a wicked heart is?
[26:07] It's the heart of a fool. It's the heart of a guy who doesn't believe in God. So if I were working with you and we were in South America and I was working with you, I'd say we're going to work on James 1.21.
[26:19] That's like my principal go-to verse. Because it explains how you get victory. Every person who's having a battle with sin, James 1.21 is your battle cry.
[26:31] Look at it. It says in James 1.21, Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. Now look at this.
[26:43] Just circle lay apart. And that literally means that you're going to look at it and say, all right, I have this porn issue. I have this adultery issue. I have this pride issue.
[26:53] I have this anger issue. Or whatever issue it is. I have this desire of greed for money. I have all of this going on in my life. And as a born-again believer, he says take off that stuff. Lay it apart.
[27:04] Put it aside. You're not going to pray and say, God help me have victory. God's going to say, I told you how to have victory. Hmm? He said, I told you how to have victory.
[27:17] Lay apart. I told you how to have victory. Mortify. I told you how to have victory. Put off. I told you how to have victory. Quit doing that.
[27:28] Say amen. So that's hard work. Lay apart all filthiness. Well, filthiness ought to about get anything we're doing in this room. Let's lay it apart.
[27:40] Let's get rid of it. And superfluity of naughtiness. Like, hey, anything y'all can come up with, anything just, I mean, abundance of nasty junk you can come up with. And here's how you change.
[27:54] Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul. Meekness.
[28:06] Just quit running your mouth. And quit making your excuses. And quit coming up with why it won't work and why the sin is stronger than you and why you can't help it and why it rolls over you like waves of the ocean.
[28:22] Stop all that junk and get a little bit meek and humble before God and say, I'll just take what the word of God says. He said, receive with meekness. He didn't say receive with argument.
[28:35] He didn't say receive with resistance. He didn't say receive with power and pride. He said receive with meekness. I talk to people and they'll say, but I can't help it.
[28:46] I don't know what the Bible says. I don't know what the Bible says. My daddy was a drunkard. Before he got saved, my daddy never had much patience.
[28:58] I was a pastor since I was 19. So I don't know, 50, 40 something years. And I'd say, dad, that guy's dealing with alcohol.
[29:09] And he said, well, he needs to get saved. I said, well, daddy, he says he's saved. He said, well, I don't think so. He said, when I got saved, God gave me victory in one day.
[29:21] I was at the funeral home with my mother just a little over a week ago. The old man was there. He was 82 or 84 years old. And he said, I was 42. I got saved that day.
[29:31] I just quit drinking. Glory to God. I said, well, you sound like my daddy. Receive with meekness. So when you come to the Bible, you come to the Bible and you say, I'm going to hush and I'm going to listen.
[29:46] I'm going to put my hand on my mouth. I'm not going to talk. And I'm going to let you put the word of God in. And then he uses this word in that verse, engrafted. I want you to outline that word engrafted.
[29:57] Actually, that's quite a painful process, engrafting. Because basically what you're going to do is you've got to cut this arm off and you're going to get another arm.
[30:08] You're going to sew it on here. You're going to graft it in. You're going to put it into me. And so if you really want victory and you want to work on your heart, you need to step over to what the word of God says and say, I got problem A.
[30:23] And then maybe you want to come to some Christians and people that study their Bible or use your own Bible and figure it out. But there's verses that work on problem A. Did you hear that?
[30:36] There are verses that work on problem A. And they're just like written in the Bible, as clear and plain as the nose on your face. Well, it ain't that plain on some of you. You got a mask on. But on the rest of you, it's pretty plain.
[30:49] He says, hey, he says, hey, he said, engrafted words. So when you got a problem, can I just show you one real quick? Go with me to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.
[31:00] They evidently had some thieves that got saved. Ephesians 4 or 5. Hang on here. Let me make sure I know where I am. I'm in 3. That's why I started reading right.
[31:11] Let's see. Ephesians 4, starting in 17, you're putting on a new man. Go down to about verse 28. Here's your good one. They had some thieves. Ephesians 4, 28.
[31:22] They had some thieves. You know what they were to do? This is the verse. If you were a thief, you're going to find this verse. By the way, if you're lazy and won't work, you're going to find this verse.
[31:32] Or Proverbs 6, 6 through 8. But you're going to find a verse. You let it become your, I don't know what the word is, lemma. You let it become your standard.
[31:43] You let it become your thought process. You let it become your filter, how you make decisions. So this guy right here, in verse 28, he said, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor with his hands.
[31:58] Let him labor with his hands that he might have, let's see, I'm quoting and not reading, the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that has need. You know what he was saying? Used to, you stole because you thought you had need.
[32:11] Now you don't steal. You get a job and find out who has need and give them something. It's like totally the opposite. It's laying apart the stealing, accepting what the word of God says and putting it in practice.
[32:23] Right here in verse 29, he says, there's some communication you've been doing that wasn't right. Let's get some good communication. The scriptures are lay off, lay apart, mortify, and put in place.
[32:36] Nobody in this room has an excuse for continuing to live in sin. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
[32:47] God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? You have no excuse. You're working wickedness from your heart like some evil judges in Psalm 58.
[33:03] Receive with meekness and grafted word. And I want you to underline this part here, which is able to save your souls. Now they're saved, but they're not living after salvation. So they're messed up Christians, messed up believers that are still doing junk that doesn't belong in their life.
[33:22] This isn't so they'll go to heaven. It's not saying here, if you don't lay apart sin and memorize Bible, you don't go to heaven. It's saying, you know what, you're a messed up person. Your life's a mess because you love Jesus and keeps beating you and you can have victory if you want it.
[33:37] You can have victory. You can't stop there. Verse 22, and I'm through, I'll quit. Be doers of the word.
[33:50] Don't you listen to the word. If you do that, you deceive yourself. That's what scares me so much about Vision Baptist Church. Terrifies me about us.
[34:01] Y'all are great hearers. Are we doers? If we're doers, we say, I'm tired of this anger problem I have.
[34:14] I'm going to lay it apart. I'm going to see with meekness and grafted word. I'm tired of this pride problem. I'm tired of money ruling my life. I'm going to lay it apart.
[34:26] Those judges in Psalm 58 were just living out what was in their heart. I have a question for you. How many of you maybe you're not saved or maybe you are saved, but you are not putting the word in your heart?
[34:46] It could be that we talk so much about the Bible here that you almost think of it as incidental.
[34:58] You don't realize how power it has. When Jesus was tempted, he didn't answer, I am God.
[35:09] Shut your mouth. When Jesus was tempted, he said, the word of God says. They tempted him again. He goes, word of God says. Word of God says.
[35:21] And when the devil comes to you and says, let's go look at porn, you need to go, word of God says. You know what the devil does? When you resist him, he flees like the coward he is. Teeth are already knocked out.
[35:32] Father in heaven, I love you. I ask you to work this morning. I ask you to show your power. I ask you to move amongst us. God, we've let sin beat us.
[35:47] We don't want that to continue to happen. We want to live in victory. We want to say, God forbid. How can I, that I'm dead to sin, live any longer therein?
[36:00] God, give us victory. God help us do right. And I'll praise you. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, I really challenge you to say, I'm going to get on my knees and make a profession that says I will lay apart all wickedness and superfluity of naughtiness and I will humbly receive the word of God, the engrafted word, which will change my life.
[36:27] I'm asking you to find a place and say, I'm no longer playing with this. I mean business and it's real to me. I'm asking you to do that. I know it takes meekness.
[36:38] I know it takes humility. I know it takes humbling yourself. Why don't we do that today? Let's guard our hearts for him. And you might be here this morning.
[36:50] You've never been born again. And if you died, you don't know you'd go to heaven. But he loves you and he died for you. And you can be saved. You can have forgiveness of your sin. I want to share that with you today.
[37:01] You can be saved. We'll have somebody take the Bible and show you how to go to heaven. You can put your trust in Christ. There'll be anybody today that says, I'm not sure I'm saved. Would you do that? Father God, work today.
[37:13] Magnify yourself and I will give you praise and honor and glory for all that you do. With every head bowed and every eye closed, you keep praying. And whenever you finish, you can stand with Stephen.
[37:25] But let's make a decision that we will go out and not be like these corrupt judges, but change our heart by engrafting the word of God. Thank you.
[37:35] Thank you.