Who is Lord Over Us?

Turn with me, please, in your Bibles to Psalm 12. Psalm 12, don't panic.

I know that we have addressed Psalm 12 in the past, but we're going to be looking at a different aspect of this

Psalm than we have in the past. Psalm 12. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

They speak falsehood to one another, with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things, who have said, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is

Lord over us? Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, now

I will arise, says the Lord, I will set him the safety for which he longs.

The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth refined seven times.

You, O Lord, will keep them, you will preserve him from this generation forever. The wicked strut about on every side, when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.

Amen. Now, as most of you know, my mind often turns to this psalm, especially verse 8, as I consider the wickedness of the world around us and the fact that we live in a day where people are rejoicing in that wickedness.

They are no longer in any sense shamed by standing openly for wickedness.

And, in fact, have come to the point of calling that which is wicked good and calling those who would practice godliness evil.

And this is the case at the very highest levels of governments all around the world, not just our own.

That has been illustrated just in the past couple of days. And so the wicked strut about on every side, when that which is vile is exalted amongst the sons of men.

I even have an email address. I have my own domain, psalm128.

Well, there is no psalm. There is a 128 psalm, I suppose, but it's actually psalm128, psalm128 .net.

I have a domain there, an email, and so on and so forth, because that is a verse

I've looked at. But that's really not where my focus is this evening. Instead, I could not help but notice, as I was thinking about this evening, a meme that appeared on Facebook.

Now, some of you, like dear brother Fry, wonder what language

I just began to speak. Is he speaking in tongues?

This is a bad thing if he's speaking in tongues. What is a meme? Well, most of us know what a meme is, brother

Fry. Do you know what a meme is? No, he doesn't know what a meme is. A meme, there are a couple others.

M -E -M -E. It's not Mimi. It's a meme. What is a meme?

Well, all the young folks are going, really? Yes, yes. It actually goes back to Richard Dawkins, who

I guess sort of coined the phraseology. But it's come to refer to these, very frequently it's used, for those of us who use

Facebook, of these graphics that are fairly easy to produce, that you put text on.

I get memed all the time. I guess I am very, very memeable. And because I do the dividing line on video now, people can take a screen capture of me in a certain, looking a certain way, and then they'll throw text on it, and I've been memed.

And in debates, it's really easy to get me looking really mean at somebody, and so I get memed all the time.

Well, there was a meme that I saw of this smiling, obviously very liberal young woman, smiling and holding up a sign that says, my body, my choice.

And next to it, they put a little baby saying, it was your choice up until when

I was conceived. After that, I beg to differ, or something along those lines. And I was thinking about the fact that the scriptures tell us that we are all going to be judged for every word that we speak.

And that includes words that we type, or words that we display upon a screen, or however else it might be.

It has to do with our communication. And my mind turned again to Psalm 12.

And you'll notice that the psalmist begins with a cry to Yahweh, to say, help!

Help! Look at the situation in our land. And he says, the godly man ceases to be, the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

And there is a cry for help because when the land becomes filled with those who rejoice in evil, when the land becomes filled with those who are not subject to the law of God, well, that land is going to come under the judgment of God, and that land is going to experience tremendous difficulty and trial and tribulation.

There's not going to be the blessing of God. There's going to be the curses of God. Now, of course, we realize that we live in a land where very few

Christians even recognize that reality, let alone live in light of it. And far fewer of those around us recognize that reality and live in light of it.

And yet, the godly heart does cry out when we see that the godly man ceases to be, the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

This clearly is an indication of God's judgment upon a nation. But notice then that the address changes to talk about the people of the land.

They speak falsehood to one another with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.

Now, what does that mean? They speak falsehood to one another. I don't think that's just that they lie to one another all the time in the sense of trying to get away with something.

You know, in the olden days, they speak falsehood to one another. They were trying to get away with something.

They were trying to get an advantage. They were trying to deceive other people.

I don't think that's what's being said. I think the whole idea is that their very speech is marked, even as they speak with one another, by falsehood.

Not by a love of truth. Not even by a recognition of truth. But falsehood has become the very context in which they speak.

Since there's no godly person around, since the level of the society has sunk so low, and we know there are times when this happened in Israel's history, that they speak falsehood to one another because it just becomes the context of their thought and their life.

They have been deceived. They believe in error. They believe in untruth.

And so it just becomes natural for them to speak that to others. And is that not what we are seeing?

Especially in the younger generation. In those that are coming up, this first fully secularized generation.

They speak falsehood to one another and think that it's natural that everyone believes like this.

And if you think differently, they don't understand, and in fact they react with emotion, with flattering lips, and with a double heart they speak.

A double heart. That's literally what the Hebrew says. It's strange.

It's with a heart and a heart. So what's it referring to?

Well, I think the only way it can be understood is the flattering lips are saying things that are not true.

Most of the time, when you're flattering somebody, you're trying to get something from them, or you're trying to put yourself in a better position, and you're not really speaking the truth.

And when you have a double heart, well, it's the man who has the divided mind, as James talks about.

Or it's the person who is a hypocrite. You know, the idea of hypocrisy is the idea of putting on one face, but there's something else behind it.

Well, here's one heart, but there's something else behind it. There's a division. There's an inconsistency.

There's not purity and sincerity and truth. And so the description of this context that causes the psalmist to cry out to God for help is that honesty and consistency and godliness and truthfulness, it's gone.

It's gone in this society. And so the psalmist says, may Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things.

Now, what does it mean to speak great things? Well, I don't think it's the tongue that's speaking about great things, about God's creation or things like that.

That's not what it's talking about. It's a tongue that thinks that it has the ability just simply by speaking to exalt itself and to speak great things.

I am speaking great things, and I'm going to tell you something. Is November of 2016 really a full year away yet?

Honestly? I mean, I try not to expose myself to too much of it, but you know, there are a lot of men and women running around our nation today.

You know, their tongues seem to think they speak great things.

Great things. Big promises. Lots of flattery. Lots of complimenting people.

You and I both know that the reality behind those words is something completely different than what they're saying.

I'm glad it still bothers me that people lie in public.

I suppose when I get to the point where it's just, yeah, that's just the way it is, that that's not a good thing.

That's not a good thing. It is a good thing for a Christian to say, may the

Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things. I think we should pray,

God, silence the evildoers and the false teachers and the liars in your way, not in our way, but in your way.

And then listen to the description of those that the psalmist then gives, who have said, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is

Lord over us? Have you ever looked at that verse real carefully?

That's what caught my attention. Here's their words.

Here's what they've said. With our tongue, with our speech, we will prevail.

With what we say, we will be victorious. There is a confidence on the part of these ungodly people that they will be able to deceive.

They will be able to accomplish what they want to accomplish through their speech.

And you know, the Bible says a lot about the tongue. The Bible says a lot about how we express ourselves.

And don't think for a moment that that phrase, tongue, doesn't also include what you type, what you...

Does anyone still write anymore? I suppose a few people might. There you go. I still write.

I write during debates. But the ironic thing is I use an electronic pen.

Brother Callahan thinks that's funny. But seriously, it's a special notebook.

And even though I'm writing stuff, it transmits it to my iPad and then it can put it into Evernote and then it can convert it into type text.

All on the fly. And record what's being said while I'm writing it. How do you like that? How do you like that?

I'll show it to you, Brother Callahan. You'll look at it and go, don't know if that's very natural.

Don't know if that's natural. Not sure we should do things like that. I can just sort of see it.

But doesn't matter whether you're typing or writing or texting.

The Bible says a lot about how we communicate because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and the fingers type and the thumbs text.

Doesn't matter the form. It reflects the abundance of the heart.

What fills the heart. And so when ungodly people say, with our tongue we will prevail, they're claiming to have the ability to bring about their own victory by the means of communication.

And what is being said is, it's our tongue.

It's mine. And see what caught me was, have you noticed?

I don't know how any of us could avoid it. What we're seeing in our society is this absolute open explosion of rejoicing in the claim of absolute human autonomy.

I get to determine my own reality, Bruce Jenner says.

And the world says, we've got people that decide that they're black when they're white.

But it's their reality. And this all goes back to this idea we are not created, we are not under God's authority and to see our lips are our own.

It's literally our lips are with us, not with anybody else. They're under our control and then you have that phrase.

Mi adon lanu. Who is

Lord over us? Who is Lord over us? We are

Lord over our tongues. And no one can judge us. With our lips we will prevail.

There is arrogance and there is the claim of human autonomy. And the psalmist says,

Lord, cut them off. Cut them off. Help, oh Lord.

These are not godly men. The faithful, they're disappearing from our nation and instead we have these people who think that they rule over their own reality.

Who is Lord over us? The Christian has no choice but to respond to that question.

Jesus Christ is Lord over you. Oh, that's offensive to me.

How dare you say that to me. But it's true. It's true.

He rose from the dead. He is going to return to judge the living and the dead.

He's the Son of God. There's an empty tomb that proves that someday you will have to deal with Him.

And don't think I'm standing here thinking that I'm somehow better than you. See, the thing is,

I've already fled to Him for mercy. And what I'm saying, you need to do the same thing. Oh, that's offensive to the natural man.

It's offensive to our society. But can we possibly not give the answer that the

Bible gives to that question in verse 4? Do you recognize how often in the conversations you're having with the people of the world that they're saying this very thing?

These very words lie behind exactly how they're thinking and how they're speaking to you.

Who is Lord over us? Brother talks about talking to people at the airport, right?

I'll bet you hear this all the time if you'll just be listening for it. In school? Oh, my.

Have they put it in iron gates over the entrance to ASU yet? Who is Lord over us?

If they haven't, they might as well. Because the entire educational system is now based upon promulgating this idea and cramming it into the minds of every single young person, old person, it doesn't matter who comes.

Who is Lord over us? No one! Our lips are our own.

We can say what we will. We can express any idea we want. The Christian has to say, my friend, your very ability to express yourself through the use of speech is a gift from God and He will hold you accountable for what you say because you are

His creature. He made you. He made you a communicating being.

How insane is it for you to think that this ability to speak just simply developed over time.

I'm telling you, it came from your Creator and He has the ability to speak and He has spoken.

And He has spoken with Clare. I don't think we have any ability as believers to shrink back and to not say to those around us, do you know the

Bible quotes you? That will get you a few seconds. That will get you a few seconds.

The Bible quotes me? Yeah, it does. Let me show you where it says that.

Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? You don't seem to think you have a

Lord over you. You seem to think that you are your own

Lord. Where did you get that idea? Well, I don't believe there's a

God. I believe I'm just the result of an accidental process over time.

You're behaving that way, aren't you? I'm going to tell you something.

There's an empty tomb that tells you you do have a Lord. You do have someone that you are going to stand before and answer to.

Who is Lord over us? You and I, we have to say to the world, by God's grace,

I know who my Lord is. I have given up the rebellion.

I have bowed the knee. Someday, every knee will bow.

Every tongue will confess. But today is a day of salvation.

Someday that confession will not be to salvation. Now is the time to bow that knee.

When we have interaction with the people around us, as we listen to this society which is absolutely intent upon expressing its detestation of God, I hope we hear and we remember and when we hear someone saying,

Who is Lord over us? We will be quick to point out who the true Lord is.