Sunday Morning, September 27, 2020, AM

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Michael Dirrim Pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church OKC "Praise the Lord for His Works" (Part 5) Psalm 111:1-10

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Well, good morning, Sunnyside, both local and remote. It's good to have everyone here and watching at home.
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And it's a beautiful day. We are gonna get some weather this evening, so if you haven't watered, don't worry about watering.
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God's gonna take care of it for you. A few announcements. We are having truth group after service this evening for those of you who know the truth, or want to know the truth, there you go.
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Then we have TAG scheduled for Wednesday evening. Also, be praying for our pastor and his family.
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They're gonna take a little time away starting next Sunday, next week. Well, tomorrow through, yeah, tomorrow through next week.
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So just pray that they'll have a time of refreshment and time together. For those that were here yesterday for the workday, thank you very much, we appreciate your labor.
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And for those of you who missed, we'll schedule another one. You're not getting out that easy.
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We're planning on, in October, an upcoming music night. So if you have something you want to share, or instrumental, or vocal, and you sound good outside the shower, please get with Lisa, and we will get you on the list.
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Also, we are putting together, behind the scenes, our plans for the upcoming
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Christmas choir. So there'll be more information forthcoming with that.
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And I don't believe I have any other announcements. There is, that's it, all right?
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Let's have a word of prayer, and we'll begin our service. Father, we thank you that you are a
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God of mercy and grace. You are just and powerful, all -knowing, almighty.
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May we this day bring appropriate and honoring praise to you. And we will be humbled and reminded of the salvation you brought through your son,
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Jesus Christ. The free gift of eternal life. And for that, we are grateful.
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And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to worship this morning?
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Our passage this morning is found in Psalms, chapter 48, verses one through three.
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Read with me together. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our
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God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth.
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Mount Zion in the north, the city of the great king. Within her citadels,
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God has made Himself known as a fortress. And our first song this morning is
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Great is the Lord. So if you would, turn to page 31, and then also turn to page 228, and we'll sing
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Great is the Lord and rejoice the Lord is King. ♪
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Great is the Lord, He is holy and just ♪ ♪ By His power we trust in love ♪ ♪
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Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true ♪ ♪ By His mercy He proceeds love ♪ ♪
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Great is the Lord, and worthy of glory ♪ ♪ Great is the Lord, and worthy of praise ♪ ♪
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Great is the Lord, now lift up your voice ♪ ♪ Now lift up your voice ♪ ♪
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Great is the Lord, great is the
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Lord, He is holy and just ♪ ♪ By His power we trust in love ♪ ♪
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Great is the Lord, He is faithful and true ♪ ♪ By His mercy He proceeds love ♪ ♪
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Great is the Lord, and worthy of glory ♪ ♪ Great is the
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Lord, and worthy of praise ♪ ♪ Great is the Lord, now lift up your voice ♪ ♪
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Now lift up your voice ♪ ♪ Great is the
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Lord, great is the Lord, and worthy of glory ♪ ♪
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Great are you Lord, and worthy of praise ♪ ♪ Great are you
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Lord, I lift you as the
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Lord is King ♪ ♪ The Lord and King adore, rejoice in thanks and sing ♪ ♪
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The Lord rejoice again
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I say, rejoice ♪ ♪
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The Lord our Savior reigns, the God of truth and love ♪ ♪
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With He had purged our sins, He took His seat above ♪ ♪
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Lift up your heart, lift up your voice, rejoice again
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I say, rejoice ♪ ♪
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His kingdom cannot fail, He rules over death and hell ♪ ♪
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The keys of death and hell are to our
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Jesus, to our Jesus ♪ ♪ Again, lift up your heart, lift up your voice, rejoice again
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I say, rejoice ♪ ♪
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Rejoice in glorious hope, our
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Lord and Judge shall come ♪ ♪ And take
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His servants up to their eternal home ♪ ♪
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Lift up your heart, lift up your voice, rejoice again
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I say, rejoice ♪
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As Brother Dwight's coming, Brother Jerry, would you lead us in prayer? Our scripture reading this morning is from Deuteronomy chapter 20.
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Deuteronomy chapter 20. We usually pray after we read the scriptures.
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I'm going to pray beforehand as a reminder that whenever you open the word, pray first.
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Pray first. Father, I thank you and I praise you for your great love and mercy and how you've so richly blessed us through your son, the
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Lord Jesus, and how we know these things through your word.
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I thank you and praise you for your word, how you've preserved it for us, how you've given it to us in our own language, how it is so readily available to us.
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May we not take it for granted, may we treasure it, feast upon it, read it, study it, memorize it, meditate upon it, for in doing so, we come to know you in a deeper way.
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So as we read your word this morning, Father, show us more of your son, the Lord Jesus. In his name,
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I pray, amen. Deuteronomy chapter 20. When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the
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Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
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And when you draw near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people and shall say to them, hear,
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O Israel, today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies. Let not your heart faint.
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Do not fear or panic or be in dread of them, for the Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.
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Then the officers shall speak to the people saying, is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it?
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Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
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And is there a man who has planted a vineyard and has not enjoyed its fruit?
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Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man enjoy its fruit.
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And is there any man who has betrothed a wife and has not taken her?
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Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man take her.
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And the officers shall speak further to the people and say, is there any man who is fearful and faint hearted?
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Let him go back to his house, lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own.
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And when the officers have finished speaking to the people, then commanders shall be appointed at the head of the people.
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When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
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And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be forced to labor for you and shall serve you.
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But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it.
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And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword.
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But the women and the little ones, the livestock and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves.
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And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
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Thus you shall do to all the cities that are far from you, which are not cities of the nations here, but in the cities of these peoples that the
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Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction.
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The Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the
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Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the
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Lord your God has commanded that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods.
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And so you sin against the Lord your God. When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them.
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You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human that they should be besieged by you?
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Only the trees that you know are not trees for food you may destroy and cut down, that you may build siege works against the city that makes war with you until it falls.
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May the Lord bless the reading of his word. You may be seated.
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We're gonna continue our song service with two more songs. So if you would turn your hymnals to page 374 and also 358, you wanna have your thumb in there because after we sing,
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O love that will not let me go, we're gonna go right into the chorus of I am thine O Lord. ♪
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O love that will not dissolve in thee ♪ ♪
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In depths that flow, may riches fall my way ♪ ♪
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Restores its borrowed grace, thy sunshine blazes day ♪ ♪
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Love me, O joy that seekest me through pace ♪ ♪
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The rainbow through the wind feel, the promise is not vain ♪ ♪
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That mourn shall tearless be, the promise is not vain ♪ ♪
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And as thy glory dead to tread, life that shall pass me ♪ ♪
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But to the cross where thou hast died, draw me nearer, nearer ♪ ♪
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Nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious blood ♪ ♪
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That has bled inside, I am thine
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O Lord, I have heard thy voice ♪ ♪ And been told thy love to me, but I long to rise in the arms of thee ♪ ♪
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And be closer drawn to thee, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer ♪ ♪
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Blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer ♪ ♪
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Blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding
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Son, consecrate me now to thy
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Son ♪ ♪ Glorified by the power of grace divine, let my soul look up with a steadfast love ♪ ♪
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And I will be lost in thine, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer ♪ ♪
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Blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer ♪
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Oh, be nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed
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Lord, to thy precious clean side.
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Oh, the pure delight of a single -eyed throne
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I stand as friend with friend.
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There are depths of love that I cannot know till I cross the narrow sea.
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There are heights of joy that I may not reach till I rest in peace with thee.
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Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
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Lord, to the cross where thou hast died.
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Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed
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Lord, to thy precious clean side.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, I thank you for the joy of singing these hymns together with brothers and sisters in Christ.
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I thank you for the joy of praying together and hearing your word read.
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Thank you for the clarity of your holy scriptures and the way that you say things in a way that is unambiguous and precise, glorifying to your name for the good of your people.
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I thank you that you and your providence have made it so that we may meet here today.
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You've gathered us together on the first day of the week when we rejoice that Christ is risen and he has ascended to your right hand, and therefore we have all hope.
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Help us here this morning, heavenly Father, to worship and rejoice and praise you in the light of the glory of your son
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Jesus Christ, filled with your Holy Spirit. We pray for these graces in the name of Christ.
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Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 110.
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Psalm 111. I keep saying 110. Maybe the Lord is moving me there. Psalm 111, verses 1 -10.
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We are praising the Lord for his works. Psalm 111 is, in some ways, a simple psalm.
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It is constructed in a way to simply take the elementary -aged
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Hebrew student through the Hebrew alphabet as a memory device to remember each line of the psalm.
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Oh, that's easy. Just go through the alphabet to remember some basic things about the
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Lord, to lead the Hebrew child through the different areas of life, the creation of all things, the providential governing of all things, the stories of Israel, how
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God redeemed for himself a people, the way in which God revealed Himself through His Word, and all of this in the middle of a world that sometimes was hostile.
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These are very basic things. Yet the psalm leads us to praise the
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Lord, to glorify God by examining His works. If we're going to praise the
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Lord, if we're going to worship the Lord, if we're going to have something to say, if we're going to have anything that is true to feel, we ought to see who
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God is and what He has done. And that would be the way to respond to Him.
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Psalm 111 leads us to excite God's worship by examining
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God's works. I invite you to stand with me as I read
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Psalm 111, verses 1 through 10. These are the words of our
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Lord. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright and the assembly.
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Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is
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His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made
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His wonders to be remembered. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. He has given food to those who fear
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Him. He will remember His covenant forever. He has made known to His people the power of His works, and giving them the heritage of the nations.
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The works of His hands are truth and justice. All His precepts are sure.
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They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness.
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He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is
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His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do
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His commandments. His praise endures forever. This is the word of the
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Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Some of us have vehicles that, while operable, are not necessarily hospitable.
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And if you have ever been in the position of needing to give someone a ride, who really does need a ride, somebody who knows you, and they're in a pickle and you've got to help them out, you've got to give them a ride in your vehicle.
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And it runs. So it will get them from point A to point B and get you back to where you need to be.
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But you might, on the way to your vehicle, be saying something along the lines of, well, there's a certain way you have to get in.
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And you might have to say something about the state of the interior and the smell that you can't identify and excuse yourself while you clear some space and so on.
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And you're making apologies all the while. And if the person riding along is gracious, they'll say,
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I'm just thankful that you can get me to where I need to go. And you'll say something like,
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I'm just thankful that it gets me where I need to go. And that's about the extent of that.
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You know, we live in a day where some church folk think the best apologetic for God is to apologize for him.
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Sorry about the state of the thing. It's kind of embarrassing, but, you know, it is the only way.
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I think some folks think that they need to help God out a little. He's behind the times.
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They deflect attention away from God's holiness. And this is usually accomplished not really by directly apologizing for God or any such nonsense, but in two different ways.
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Talking about the word of God and then talking about God's children.
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Very often the apology kind of goes like this. Well, God is not the way that so many have portrayed him.
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They'll say, you know, there's a lot of hatred masquerading as Christianity in the unenlightened church.
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You know, you got to understand, these people have been taught for generations to read the Bible in incorrect ways, which reinforce the stereotype of racist, sexist, anti -gay.
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And then they'll say, which unfortunately sometimes is true. Bless their hearts.
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You see, as long as all the aspects of God which are negatively perceived by our pagan culture, if all of those aspects of God that are just not fitting and welcome with our current temperature, if those can be recast as merely the failures of interpretation, if those can be understood only as, well, it's the blemishes of the church, then all those undesirable aspects of God can be pared away like bad spots on an otherwise good apple.
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Now, this is not to say that indeed all of our interpretation of Scripture is pristine or that there are no character flaws to be found in the church, but this is to say that a great many passages of our clear and true and authoritative
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Bible are intentionally avoided or purposefully misread and that many character qualities which ought to be present in the church are demonized as unchristian.
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And the question is why? And the answer is people are trying to get God off the hook. You see, the problem is the farther you go back on God's social media history, the more stuff you find that's going to get him canceled.
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What do we do with all that? It's kind of a telling thing, is it not, that the modern apologetic today seems to have two basic elements.
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First is a question, and second is an accusation. The first is a question, has God really said?
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And the second half of the apologetic is just accusing the brethren. Isn't it strange that the two main things that the devil does becomes the apologetic of so many people in the name of God?
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That's really strange. I think it's especially the case when it comes to the holy actions of God in history and in his law.
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And I think people think they don't have any other alternative to deflect attention away from God's fire and brimstone, from God's stringent views on sexuality, his lack of shame regarding the death of so many that he made in his own image.
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To deflect attention away from his backward, oppressive morality concerning the family and concerning society.
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And all of this concern, I think, all this unbelief filters down into our own hearts. And so we have to deal with that in our own hearts.
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What do we do with all that stuff? Praise him for all of it.
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Praise him for all of it. For every instance, you can really gauge your unbelief by your level of cringe as you examine
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God's deeds and consider his demands. We shouldn't be ashamed.
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We all struggle with unbelief. We do. But we need to praise God, just like the psalmist does here in Psalm 111.
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Praise the Lord. Why? For the things he's done and the things that he demands. Praise him for all of that.
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To excite God's worship, we need to examine God's works.
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Verses 4 through 9, we've been considering the works of the Lord and the ways of his covenant, how God has worked for his people and he has worked for his place.
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We've seen this in verses 5 and 6 and verse 9. But what about his rule? God brings his people into his place to be blessed under his rule.
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Surely we should praise God for the way in which he acts with authority and speaks with authority.
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We should praise him for the way that he rules his people and does it so well. Verses 7 and 8.
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The works of his hands are truth and justice. So the works of his hands are truth and justice.
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Whatever he does is true. And whatever he does is justice. All his precepts are sure.
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Everything he has ever commanded, everything he has ever instructed, all of his laws, a very general term in use here, anything he's ever commanded and instructed, written down as law, they are sure.
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Not going anywhere. Stable. Not flimsy. Not questionable.
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They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness.
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So everything that God does, everything that God does is performed in truth and uprightness.
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Everything he says is truth and justice. And anybody who obeys what
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God has called them to obey are doing truth and they are doing justice.
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Some big claims there. There's no apology here. Just praise.
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Just praise. Nothing God does and nothing he says needs an apology. It doesn't need marketing.
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It doesn't need spin. We praise God for saving his people. We praise him for giving them his place and we need to praise him for all of his deeds and demands manifested in his rule.
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Notice how closely the works of his hands and the words of his mouth are connected.
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They are seamlessly described as truth and justice.
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They are stable. They are forever. Everything that God says and everything that he does is consistent with one another.
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He doesn't say one thing and then act a different way. It's all consistent and it's all true and it's all just.
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So we need to praise him for his works and his rule. All that God does is true and just.
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Now that's just the work of his hands. Now the psalmist who is praising God, he does not believe that God, who is a spirit and does not have a body like man.
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The psalmist is not thinking of God in terms of him actually having hands.
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God is a spirit. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. So what does he mean by his hands? He's thinking about the way in which
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God interacts with his world. He's thinking about the things that God does. It's an expression,
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God getting his hands dirty. When God gets involved, when God takes action, when
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God exhibits his power in the world, it's always true and it's always just.
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And that's what the psalmist is praising the Lord for. There's nothing that God has done, there's nothing that God has done which could be accurately described as underhanded or twisted.
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God has never, ever overreacted. And God has never, ever played it safe.
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His timing, his tactics, his intensity, his aim are always perfect.
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That's what the psalmist is saying. Tell me a story from the scripture about something that God has done.
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I'll say it's true. I'll say it's just. Everything that God has done.
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Think of the stories in the scripture. Something that God has done. Somehow God got involved.
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What do we have to say about that? It's true. It's just. We've got to put that to the test.
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Sometimes people think I don't have much to praise about. Well, what about the flood?
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It was true. It was just. What about Sodom and Gomorrah?
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It was true. It was just. What about the plagues of Egypt? They were all true.
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They were all just. What about the way in which
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God redeemed his people up out of Egypt and slaughtered
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Pharaoh and his army and brought them through the wilderness, met with them at Sinai?
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It's true and it was just. What about the way in which God led his people across the Jordan River and empowered
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Joshua and the army and the following generations to conquer the land and destroy those nations and take control?
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That was true. That was just. What about the way in which God exalted
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Israel as a nation under Solomon so that nobody could do business without having to go through the bank of Solomon?
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That was true. That was just. What about the way
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God dealt with Job or Aaron or Samson or Ruth or Uzzah or Ahab?
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God dealt with them in a true and just way. Every single one of them. So can we praise him for his deeds?
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Can we praise him for his mighty works by which he demonstrates his authority and his rulership over his creation and over his people?
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Will we praise him? Will we praise him for the same works that are in the psalmist's mind right here in Psalm 111?
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What is he thinking about? What is he thinking about when he says the works of his hands are truth and justice?
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What is he thinking about? He's thinking about the things that God has done, the things that were told to this psalmist.
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What are the children thinking when they repeat this line, when they sing this line? What are they thinking of?
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The things that God has revealed, the things that he has done. Do we praise God for those very same things?
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Let there be no cringe. No embarrassed, fumbling excuse -making for the
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God of Sodom and Gomorrah fame. Shame and apologies at any point in God's deeds.
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Shame and embarrassment about any of God's deeds in their clear explanation from his word.
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That will lead to shame and apologies at all other points. Those who today apologize, excuse, and deflect from Christ's exclusive, bloody atonement on the cross for the salvation of sinners, they first learn that speech pattern about other works of the
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Lord and other parts of his word. The people today who apologize about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ for salvation, the people who today apologize about a gospel at the center where we have
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Jesus Christ dying a bloody death upon the cross, the people who apologize for that at some point in their past learn to apologize about six -day creation and the plagues of Egypt, the assault upon those poor, helpless, innocent tribes of Canaan.
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They learn to apologize over and over and over again for all these different things that just, oh,
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I just can't stand it that's there. The approach of faith is to praise the
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Lord for his works. They are true. They are just. And they're in agreement with everything he's ever said.
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All that God demands is true and just. Everything that he does is true and just. Everything that he demands is true and just.
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In the context of this psalm, we're following the psalmist's well -organized praise of God, exciting our worship by examining his works.
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And one of his works was the giving of the law. We talked about how Moses had two blank slates of stone.
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He went up to Mount Sinai, and God himself wrote on the stone tablets the
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Ten Commandments and then gave instruction through Moses and through the following prophets about what it meant to obey his law.
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He gave all sorts of clarifying words about his word. And it's all his word.
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I think that this is the place where it's probably even more challenging for God's worshipers today.
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It's more challenging to us to praise him for his law than to praise him for his deeds.
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Is it a challenge to praise God for striking down Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, for offering strange fire?
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Yeah, that could be a challenge. I know it's true. I know it's just. We still praise
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God for his holiness. We see something there that we can praise, obviously. But what about praising
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God for having made strict rules in the first place? The psalmist is praising
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God. All his precepts are sure. All his commandments, all his law, they are all sure.
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They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. Everybody who does them, they're performing them in truth and performing them in justice.
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It's a remarkable statement here, the surety of God's precepts, his law.
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It's one that is verified 176 times over by Psalm 119.
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Just how sure and perfect and true and good and reviving and blessed
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God's instructions are, God's commandments, God's law. We have this word sure.
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Why is it sure? All his precepts are sure. They are certain. The word here for sure is interchangeable with the translation for right hand.
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Why are God's commandments certain forever? They are at his right hand.
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When scripture tells us that the word of God reigns eternally from the right hand of God, and that Christ fulfills all righteousness, that he is the end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe, that not one jot or one tittle of the law will by any means pass away until all is fulfilled, what are we to conclude other than that the whole law is
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Christ's? That he gave it in the first place in his holiness, that he interprets it as his word, that he fulfills it in his righteousness, and that he flawlessly applies it, reigning over us full of grace and truth.
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I think sometimes in our unbelieving cringe, many times Christians finish the atheists' sentences for them.
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You know, God's social media history, the parts that get him canceled in so many venues, are a huge blot and embarrassment and shame upon the faith of so many people who are in church today.
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There's a collective distrust. There's a kind of room -filled sneer at the commands that we come across in the
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Old Testament. You know, the example of the rebellious child, a child who has made himself a nuisance in the community, can't be controlled, it's a total rebellion against his parents, until finally they have to bring him before the community as a last resort for his execution.
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And we're not talking about a five -year -old, we're talking about someone who is fully capable of their own decisions.
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What about the laws, you know, do not mix, don't mix the different types of fabric, don't mix the kinds of seed in your fields, and all of that?
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Oh, that's so ridiculous, backwards. What are the laws about slavery, where God said, okay, here's how you do slavery well, rightly, to my glory.
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Where he gave instructions about how, what happens when you have someone in your midst, oh, Israel, who is one of your fellow
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Israelites, and they end up as one of your slaves because of whatever the circumstances are.
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You've got to release them every seven years, you've got to give the property back to the family every 49 years, your jubilee, and so on.
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And then there's a whole other set of laws about slaves and slavery, about how you enslave people who aren't
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Israelites, and how that's totally different. And here's how you do slavery with people who aren't
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Israelites, and here's how you do it in a righteous way that's glorifying to God. What do you do with all those things in the
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Old Testament, you know? Just a bunch of cringe, one thing after another.
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Oh, I just can't, what are we left with? Well, you know, you got to understand, people just, if you understood it rightly, or, you know, this stuff has been abused by the church, and we just apologize for God over and over again.
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Let's take a test. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 20. Leviticus chapter 20, and verses 1 through 16.
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Let's take a test. Let's test our level of cringe, shall we? Remember, the psalmist, okay, he is instructing, praise the
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Lord for all of his precepts. His precepts are sure, they're not shaky. They're not based on bad ideas.
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They are as sure as God's word is always true. Let's take a test.
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Leviticus 20, verses 1 through 16. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
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You shall also say to the sons of Israel, Any man from the sons of Israel, or from the aliens sojourning in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech, What does that mean?
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Sacrificing, they're killing their infants. Gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death.
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The people of the land shall stone him with stones, capital punishment for abortion.
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I will also set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his offspring to Molech, so as to defile my sanctuary and profane my holy name.
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If the people of the land, however, should ever disregard that man, when he gives any of his offspring to Molech, so as to not put him to death, then
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I myself will set my face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people, both him and all those who play the harlot after him, by playing the harlot after Molech.
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As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them,
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I will also set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people. You shall consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the
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Lord your God. You shall keep my statutes and practice them. I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
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If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother.
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His blood guiltiness is upon him. If we're doing a responsive reading with Psalm 111, after I read each precept, we should say,
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Hallelujah. If there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, the one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
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If there is a man who lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them shall be surely put to death.
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Their blood guiltiness is upon them. We move from adultery to incest that fast.
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If there is a man who lies with his daughter -in -law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed incest.
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Their blood guiltiness is upon them. If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of whom who have committed a detestable act, they shall surely be put to death.
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Their blood guiltiness is upon them. If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality.
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Both he and they should be burned with fire, so there should be no immorality in your midst. If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death.
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You shall also kill the animal. If there is a woman who approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal.
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They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guiltiness is upon them. So are we disgusted with sin, or are we disgusted with God's approach to sin?
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When you start off on that list, where are you? Killing infants. And there are all sorts of people, church folk today, who appalled at the idea that there should be never capital punishment for abortion of anybody involved.
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We have to be compassionate. I agree we should be compassionate, but what does
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God think about the killing of little children? And do we have his heart on the matter? Move a little bit farther down, we've got...
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Again, I understand. Nobody can live according to the law of God and stay alive.
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The law of God shows us our need for a savior, but that doesn't mean that we detest the law of God or that we're disgusted with the law of God, for the law of God is good and sure and true.
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It is holy and just. You see, you start off with, okay, what about a person who turns the mediums into spiritists to play the harlot after them?
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Oh, just because they don't believe our way. What about someone who curses his father or his mother?
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Oh, that's just spirit of youth. What about adultery? In all these different ways, there's exceptions made, exceptions made, exceptions made, and we don't think there's any big deal.
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And to the point where we get down to the part about bestiality, which is coming to our nation, to a city near you, and at that point we're like, we're kind of close, maybe.
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Yeah, maybe there should be some capital punishment for that. Maybe. Maybe we just should have them committed to a mental institution.
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Do you see how our heart is always willing to make room for sin, to not deal with it too strictly, but how
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God is always steady and true? Now, let's remember what
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Jesus said. A lawyer comes to him and asks him, what is the greatest commandment?
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How do you sum up the law? And Jesus says, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength.
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It's the great first and great commandment. The second is like it, like unto it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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And then he says, on these two hang all the law and the prophets. In other words, it's like two hinges to the door of all the law and the prophets.
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And those two hinges are love God supremely and love others rightly. But we don't get to make up what that means.
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We don't we don't get to say, well, to love God supremely means whatever I feel like that means. Or to love my neighbor rightly.
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I don't get to just insert into that concept. Whatever I feel would be like that would that would be loving others rightly,
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I think. No, Jesus says these two. These are upon which all of the law and the prophets hang.
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There is content behind what it means to love God supremely. And it's all through the
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Bible, Old and New Testament. And there's content behind loving your neighbor rightly.
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There's all sorts of information in the Bible all through the Old Testament. I just read a whole lot of information in Leviticus chapter 20 about what it sounds like to love your neighbor rightly.
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Justly. A lot of concern about justice these days. Love God supremely and love others rightly summed up.
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Summed up the law and the prophets. They don't eliminate the law and the prophets. Who was it who met with Moses face to face and gave him the instructions about the law?
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And then Moses came out his face all aglow. Who was that? It was Jesus Christ.
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No one can see God and live. How did Moses meet with God face to face? The only begotten
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God in the bosom of the Father. He is the one who explains him. He is the one who reveals God. So let's consider this very carefully.
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To the degree that the law of God, even including Leviticus 20. And there's a lot more to the law of God.
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But to the degree that the laws of God were not followed, disaster struck. And then to the degree that this perfect societal structure was followed.
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Do you think God gave Israel, you know, the cheap version?
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You know, made in China version of society? The knockoff with flaws embedded in it?
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No, I don't think so. I think he gave them the absolute best. I think he told them exactly how to live.
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And that it was good for them to live that way. To organize their society that way.
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And the more they obeyed him, the more they were blessed. And the more they disobeyed him, the more they were cursed. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4 says,
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The rock, his work, is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice.
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Righteous and upright is he. When we think about God's law and it being praised.
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What are we to think as Christians? What Christ commanded about sexual perversion and incorrigible rebellion.
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And crop separation and quarantining the sick rather than the healthy. Has in the view of Christ and under the rule of Christ.
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A right application and authority over our lives. Christ is the end of the law for all who believe.
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For our salvation. This doesn't mean that the law of God is useless now.
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We can throw it away. It means that Christ is our savior and our sovereign.
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And if you think that he is ruling over us in a way. That is ashamed of the law that he gave in his word.
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Then we're mistaken. He's ruling over us in a way that is consistent. With the law that he gave in his scriptures.
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We do not live according to the law. To be trying to measure up to the measurements of a law.
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Our righteousness is in Christ alone. But how is it that Christ wants us to live? What does it mean to love our neighbors?
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There's going to be some right ways to apply. The law of God to help us know what it looks like to love our neighbor.
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And we can apply that trusting completely. In Christ. The works of the
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Lord also are to be considered in the wisdom of his commandments.
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Verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments.
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His praise endures forever. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments.
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His praise endures forever. I mean,
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I think it's tempting for us to believe that wisdom entails the happy synthesis of God's ancient words.
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And man's modern sensibilities. However, the fear of the
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Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And notice in connection to that. Notice how the parallels work.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding. Wisdom and understanding have all those who do his commandments.
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What are we being told about fearing the Lord? That obeying him is synonymous with fearing
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God. You know, many call me Lord, Lord, but do not do what
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I say, Jesus says. Right? That's the fearing God with the mouth, but there's nothing to it.
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Fearing the Lord is in parallel with doing his commandments. Fearing the
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Lord. What is it like to fear the
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Lord? We have the passage out of the first John. Perfect love casts out fear, casts out torment.
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Fearing the Lord is not being deathly afraid of, I don't know what he's going to do next. Like, oh,
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I'm so scared. If I don't make him happy enough this week, then he's going to come take me out.
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No, that's not, that's torment. It's a pagan way of thinking about God.
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What is fearing God, though? What is fearing God? Fearing God, at the very, very least, if a child honors his parents or a wife honors her husband, they will respond in unclear situations and say,
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I think I'll have to check with my parents first. I'm going to check with my husband first.
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Why? Oh, you're afraid of your parents, aren't you? I love them.
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I honor them. Right? Same thing with a wife.
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No, I'm not afraid of my husband. I love him. I honor him. I want to check with him first on this. At the very least, on a human level, this is something that has to do with the fear of the
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Lord. If you live your life just going along and like, oh, yeah,
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I believe in God. I'm a believer. I'm a believer. I worship God. I praise him. I thank him for my food every day.
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But do you fear the Lord? Do you check with him first? Do you check with him first about your day, about your decisions, about the direction of your life?
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Are you checking with him first? At the very, very least, the beginning of the wisdom is the fear of the
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Lord. The beginning of the fear of the Lord is being concerned about what he might have to say about any given situation.
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And the word of God is sufficient for all of our faith and practice, whatever may come up in our lives.
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Fearing the Lord, at least, at the very least, looks like checking with him first. But it really does mean seeking the will of our
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Heavenly Father. Seeking the will of Christ our Sovereign. Seeking the will of the
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Holy Spirit who indwells us. Fearing the
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Lord. Obeying the Lord. Obeying the Lord. A good understanding of all those who do his commandments.
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It's like, well, yeah, but there are things that are in the Old Testament, in the law, that,
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I mean, how do you actually obey that? I mean, there's sacrifices that have stopped. There's customs that don't happen anymore.
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There's all sorts of things that, how do I obey that? Well, listen. Follow Christ.
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Follow Jesus. You know, everything that Jesus does and every single way that he leads us, do you realize that's consistent with all of Scripture?
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And that he has fulfilled, he has fulfilled all the law? And so that when you follow
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Christ and you keep your eyes on him, then trusting in him and understanding how he fulfills the law and how it's interpreted in light of who he is, we can obey the law.
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We can obey the law as given through Christ. This is important because whoever looks at the
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Old Testament law, and if we have a problem with that, we want to erase
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God's social media history because we don't like getting canceled.
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We're going to have to do the same thing with the New Testament, too. We're going to have to do the same thing with the New Testament, too.
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Because if you pay attention to the New Testament, there's all sorts of things there as well that, according to today's standards, is just full of embarrassing shame.
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But those who fear the Lord, rather than men, those who fear the Lord will do his commandments. And finally, the last word of Psalm 111 is much like the first word in that it says his praise endures forever.
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His praise endures forever. So the Psalm begins with praise, hallelujah, praise the
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Lord, and it ends with praise, his praise endures forever. But you see how this declaration, his praise endures forever, is connected to the fear of the
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Lord, connected to reverencing God.
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It comes at the end of all of the things that we have to think about. How he's made everything, how he governs everything, how he's provided everything for his people and his place under his rule.
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And having thought about all of that, we recognize that praising the Lord, fearing the
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Lord, we can praise him because his praise endures forever. His praise endures forever.
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And I want us to think about how this connects to fearing the Lord. Whatever you fear, you worship.
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Whatever you fear, that's what you make your life about. And then you inherently, you then have to say the praises and exalt in some fashion the thing that you fear.
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For example, if you fear COVID, if you fear
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COVID, if your whole life's about how awful COVID is, you will say the praises of COVID day in and day out.
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COVID does this, COVID did that, COVID came from this. And look at all the things that COVID did. Your mouth will be full of the praises of COVID because you fear it.
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What about racism? Is this the thing that you're greatly afraid of? Are you afraid of racism and injustice?
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Look at all the ways in which racism and injustice do this and do that has affected all of this.
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It's everywhere and it affects everything and it's awful and your praises of racism and injustice never cease.
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What if you fear Trump? You're afraid of President Trump. His hair is so orange, it's so bad.
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You're afraid of him and all the things he might do and all the things he has done. How awful he is, how powerful he is.
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Don't you understand he's the most dangerous thing that has ever happened to our country? And your praises of the president will never cease if you fear him.
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What about China? Same thing. What you fear, you praise with your words.
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Look at all the power this thing has, whatever it is that you are afraid of. And you praise it over and over again.
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But you know, the praises of COVID and racism and Trump and China with all of their power, whatever those might or might not be, all of the praises of those things will end.
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They will all end. They are temporary. They don't go on and on.
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They have no lasting impact. Breathe in, breathe out, they're gone.
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But the praise of the Lord endures forever. He's got us forever. From everlasting to everlasting, he is
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God. He is powerful and he is just and he is true. And everything that he does and everything that he says is sure and is right.
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And let us fear him. Let us fear him that our mouths will be always filled with his praises.
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Let us praise the Lord and let our hallelujah be truly to the Lord over and over again.
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And let go these other gods of the times. They don't deserve our praise.
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Father, I thank you so much for the time you've given us in your word. Father, we thank you that you call us to be a people who will praise you.
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And that your praise endures forever. Lord, we thank you that even though we don't understand, we don't understand at all, and sometimes we can be very confused, we do know that everything that you have done and everything that you have commanded is true and good and right.
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Father, we're just little children. We're just little children. But help us to honor you as your children.
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I don't understand everything my father does. I don't understand everything my father says. But I know who my father is, that he is true and that he is just.
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And I give him praise. Father, give us the faith we need. Deliver us from our unbelief.
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Help us to follow Christ and to follow him with joy. And that in the fear of the
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Lord, you will lead us in wisdom. And that you will be delighted in our praise of you.
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We pray these things for Christ's sake. Amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?
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Our song this morning is found on page 20. All people that on earth do dwell.
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And we'll sing all five verses. All peoples, join us now in this song.
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In the grace of the