Book of Psalms - Psa. 18, Vs. 43-50 (10/15/2023)

Let's make sure we can hear. Noah says, no.

Turn up your audio, Noah. If Troy says it's okay, then it's fine.

Everybody else just has problems. Okay. A little echo says

Brian. Well, Brian, that's just coming naturally from my voice, my voice, my voice. Okay.

All right. Sounds like a robot talking, says Noah. Well, Noah, I've had a rough weekend.

All right, well, I'm glad you guys can be on with us. All right, so last week we talked about how

God girded David with strength under the battle and it was God who subdued

David's enemies. They rose up against him. We talked about how he was able to deal a fatal blow to his enemy.

And we discussed how in our own lives, we need to do the same thing with sin. Like when sin starts to rear its ugly head, we're supposed to battle it back and we're supposed to vanquish it.

And kind of, you got a double dose of me last week because I had to do Sunday school and the service.

So there's a lot of overlap there. You're gonna see there's a little bit of overlap here as well, if you watched or listened to last week's main service, you'll see the difference between contrast and conflict in the walk of the

Christian and how we're mostly called to contrast when it comes to conflict in the world,

God often takes care of the conflict, but we are called to create a contrast between God's people and the rest of the world.

What you're gonna see today is the part of the conflict that we take part in.

And you're gonna see that in Psalms chapter 18.

We may even finish up chapter 18 today. That'd be great. We've been in chapter 18 for quite some time.

It's the longest Psalm we've done yet. And don't forget when we're done with 18, we're gonna backtrack and go to 17 cause

I accidentally skipped 17. So we'll go back and do that after this one.

All right, so we're gonna pick up in verse 43. It says, thou has delivered me from the strivings of the people.

God didn't just give David rest from his enemies abroad. Remember those are the enemies that we tend to think of.

When David wrote this Psalm, it says that he wrote it in the time when he was given rest from all his enemies.

That of course included Saul. And we think of the enemies as being those who rose up against David.

And truly that is the case, but there is an enemy that we're going to discuss today that we often don't think of when we think of enemies.

He gave him rest from his enemies within his own kingdom, not just the ones abroad, not just like the

Philistines that he battled against. He gave him rest from Saul, who was a part of the kingdom that David ruled ultimately.

In fact, he was the usurper king and was a friend to David at one point.

This is kind of a really sad situation where Saul who gave

David his political start in life from the human perspective, he ultimately tries to kill

David. But then even beyond that, more treacherous betrayal befalls

David. We have Absalom, his own son, rising up against him. We have

Ahithophel, one of his most trusted advisors who sided with Absalom, along with all the people who supported

Absalom's uprising. He defeated them all. He didn't just have war abroad.

This was like civil war. And civil war actually serves a purpose.

And I want to talk a little bit about that real quick. So a nation divided against itself shall not stand.

We have experienced civil war here in America. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Perfect answer, Pop. Yes, it was a good thing or a bad thing, or more and a bad thing, right?

Good and bad. What was the good that came of the civil war? The abolition of slavery was definitely one great thing that came as a result of the civil war.

And that is the answer I'm actually looking for is eventual unity. So the longer a nation remains divided against itself, the longer it is at risk of falling.

A civil war is designed to end that conflict, to end that contrast within a single unit.

As unfortunate as it is, it did accomplish this. The civil war accomplished resolving a disunity that was in America.

Someone has to win and someone has to lose. And the loser either ceases to exist or they yield their will in submission to the winner.

Once one of these two outcomes is accomplished, guess what you have? Unity. America experienced this from 1861 to 1865.

And while the war was largely about states' rights, the focal point of these rights centered around what

Pop said, slavery, and whether or not it would continue in our nation. So long as there was disunity between the states about this and other important issues, we were weaker as a nation.

The civil war, bad as it was, did result in resolutions to this disunity, and therefore it ultimately strengthened our country.

The civil war strengthened our country. Most people would not think of the civil war as doing that.

It seems like the ultimate weakening of our country because we're literally fighting amongst ourselves.

In the moment, it's certainly that. If we're busy fighting ourselves, we are certainly more prone or vulnerable to attacks from abroad.

So in the moment, there is weakness, but as a result of the conflict that occurred because of the contrast between the two sides, we ultimately had a resolution and we were able to, over time, work towards unity.

We had to learn as a people to put aside long -held prejudices and move forward in life together.

This learning period is not yet over, obviously. I think we can see that in society.

Some would like to continue in racial division while others seek to overcome it. Many feel as though that's something that is officially in our past and it is counterproductive and wrong just to even continue bringing it up.

Many people have grown up in diverse communities where racism isn't really a thing anymore.

They grow up thinking, well, no, they're just people like me. I remember being surprised about the concept of racism.

My dad grew up in Taiwan and was very much just get along with everybody type of person.

He's gone all over the world and visited and lived in a lot of places and is used to living among people who are very different than he is.

And so it was just a natural thing for him. And so when he was raising his kids, it just kind of became a natural thing for us.

We didn't look at people differently because they had different color skin. So it was kind of a weird concept to learn.

And that's truly what it is. Racism is a learned thing. It's something that society builds into people so you go, well, does that mean there's systemic racism?

Well, the system is Satan's system, all right?

And it's not inherently present in all of America's systems.

In fact, many of America's systems have worked very hard to rid us of this atrocity.

So there is a system of sin and destruction and that is

Satan's system. And it works very hard to put it back in to America's system.

This system is spread through people. And so people hating other people is really where the problem resides.

The fact that we were able to get to a point as a country through a very terrible conflict to a point in which now we can look at this and at least have a common law, like, no, we don't allow slavery.

But even beyond that, now we can live together. We actually have the ability to live together in peace.

That happens all over America. There are many places where we don't work to continue that peace.

And there are many people who work to be counterproductive to that peace.

So no, it's not perfect yet, but the fact that it exists, that peace between races exist in our country is a very significant thing.

It's radical. But how did we get there? We started with contrasting opinions.

We should have slavery. No, we shouldn't. These people are less than us. No, they're not.

That contrast eventually resulted in conflict and there was a clear winner and also a clear loser.

And we moved forward over time, becoming more unified as a nation along the way.

So what we need to realize individually as Christians is that that conflict was a good thing.

It worked together for the good of a nation who loved God. And I say loved as in past tense, because I don't think

I can in good conscience say that this nation loves God anymore as a whole.

But there are certainly many of us who do still. So why do

I bring all this up? Why bring up the idea of the Civil War and this conflict and contrast and all that?

The reason why I bring it up is because that same concept that happened in a single unit called

America, a country, that same concept happens within us.

There is a contrast that is already present in the life of a believer. This is not where we are called to create a contrast.

We as a believer are called to create a contrast between us as a person and the world as a unit.

So you've got the world unit and then you have us individually as people. Scripture says a double -minded man is unstable in all his ways.

It's very much like a nation divided against itself cannot stand, would you agree?

Pretty much the same concept. So as a Christian, you have an internal contrast going on between your ears.

This contrast is the disagreement between the spirit and the flesh.

You cannot allow this disagreement to continue. You will need to go to war with the flesh and bring it under subjection.

See, this is a conflict. It may not be a physical conflict. I'm not saying you should go and lash yourself or self -mutilate your body or do something destructive to harm your flesh, but you should spiritually go into conflict with your flesh so that you can ultimately have unity in body, mind, and spirit.

In order to have this, you will need to exert an incredible amount of energy and practice a very high level of self -discipline.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, this is verse 27, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means, when

I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Now, the word that Paul uses here for I keep under is an interesting word.

I'm gonna try to say it. It's hupapiazo, hupapiazo, isn't that kind of a cool word?

Sounds happy. It's not a very happy word. It's a compound of two other words.

It essentially means to hit under the eye, to buffet or disable an antagonist as a pugilist.

Or figuratively, to tease or annoy into compliance or to subdue.

So this is conflict, to hit under the eye. This is like fighting. Paul says,

I fight my body. So there's a time in which there's conflict.

This isn't just a contrast. The contrast is already present between the flesh and the spirit that God gave

Paul. He enters into a time of conflict in which he subjects his body to the will of the spirit.

He literally went to war with the flesh. So that is our job.

Our job here is not contrast. The contrast is already present. Our job here is conflict.

All right, so that's a lot to get out of verse 42, but just to remind you the purpose of this verse, it says, thou has delivered me from the strivings of the people.

What people? The people who are outside of his nation. The people who are inside his nation.

Remember, he had civil war within his nation, but he also had internal strivings.

Like David had conflicts of his own that he had to overcome. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a second.

Verse 43, and thou hast made me the head of the heathen. A people whom

I have not known shall serve me. We know that throughout the

Psalms, David is often a picture of Jesus. And right here is a great example.

Who serves God? Everybody. Everybody serves

God. He is Lord over all. He is ruler of every nation. Not just Christian ones.

Those who deny his existence can't deny him the service that he made them for. They just can't.

Most of the time, they can't even properly deny he exists if you think about it. Have you ever heard someone say,

I am an atheist? Well, what are we reminded of from Brother Myron when it comes to saying something like that?

The name I am is God's name. So if you say, I am an atheist, you are first talking about God before you're talking about yourself.

So they literally invoke the name of the very God that they deny the existence of.

So he does exist. And they exist to deny him.

That's their role. He created them for it. They will do exactly as they were created for.

And by the way, it's not just the so -called atheists that will deny Christ. Matthew 7, verse 21 says, not everyone that saith unto me,

Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven.

This is Jesus talking, of course. Many will say to me in that day,

Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils.

And in thy name have done many wonderful works. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. So these are the ones who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof.

In other words, they deny a relationship with Jesus. Who are these people?

These are the people who never receive the faith of Christ and therefore never actually go to war with the flesh.

So they go to church, they do churchy things, they have religion, they may even talk about God.

They might even teach Sunday schools and Bible studies and even preach at times.

They might do many wonderful works that make them out to seem like good

Christians, but they never actually go to war with the flesh. And because they don't go to war with the flesh, what they actually have is faith without works.

You go, but what about all that other stuff that they do? Well, the works that they do outside of the war with the flesh are very often just the idea of praying in the synagogues.

Doing things for the approval of man and not for the approval of Christ. And so you do all these things and it seems like good works.

You go, well, I believe in Jesus and I do all these great things, but I also have the secret life of sin.

That is a nation divided against itself. That is a man who is double -minded and unstable in all his ways.

We all go through seasons like that, but if it's just seasons like that and we actually go to war with the flesh, that's the best indication of us being saved.

That's the best indication. Like if you wonder, am I saved? Well, if you have a desire for righteousness, if you have a desire to please the

Lord, the non -elect don't have that desire. If you have a desire to look good for others and to preach a good sermon and gain the praise of others, then that's not necessarily an indication that you're saved.

We're called to first love God and then love others, right? Now, this verse, verse 43, and thou hast made me the head of the heathen, a people whom

I have not known shall serve me. If you read this verse and think of the fact that Jesus is

Lord over all, David here is a perfect picture of Jesus. He's Lord over all. Everyone is gonna serve

God. Everyone is serving God. And at the end of ages, like you're at the end of time, when

Jesus comes and reestablishes his throne on earth, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord. And so David here, when he says,

I am ruler even over the heathen, it's a great picture of that. But there is another reading of this same verse.

You can look at it that way as if, okay, it's actually talking about people who will never know

God, people who are heathens in this scenario, or you can look at it in another way.

And Spurgeon, when he preached about this chapter, he looked at it from this other perspective.

And that is, think about it from the perspective of the

Jews and the Gentiles. This paints a much more beautiful picture. Keep in mind that the

Gentiles were considered heathen. And while they were not originally known as the people of God, as were the

Jews, because of the sovereign plan of God that the natural branches would be broken off to allow the graphing in of the wild, this of course was talking about the

Gentiles. We heard Ben teach about this recently in Sunday school.

The passage in Psalm 18 here could easily be referencing these two groups.

And upon closer inspection, likely is the intent of the writer. But if you're not careful as you read through these, it can get very confusing.

So go with me on this particular perspective. And then we're going to switch back.

What you're gonna see is that Psalm 18 is referencing those who will believe in Christ and those who won't.

It's actually not either or, it's kind of both and. So go with me on this perspective just a little bit.

As if when David says, thou hast made me the head of the heathen, a people whom

I have not known shall serve me. I want you to just imagine that those are like the Gentiles coming in and being able to serve the

Lord, being saved by the Lord, okay? Because you're gonna see some interesting things happen in the next verses.

Verse 44, as soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me. The strangers shall submit themselves unto me.

Now, does that sound like someone who will never love Jesus? Or does that sound like someone who loves Jesus? Sounds like someone who loves

Jesus, right? This sounds like elect type people. And so if we take that perspective, verse 44 makes sense.

However, it's gonna get really tricky once we get to verse 45. So this is why

I believe that this is kind of a reference to both, and you'll see why. Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe, doing exactly what the

Lord commands, doing it happily. Remember that song? The kiddos love it.

They sing it in Sunday school all the time. If verse 44 is talking about a true submission or yielding of the spirit to the

Lord, as soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith without works is dead. So if they hear of me, and then they obey me, that sounds like faith with works, would you agree?

Sounds like faith with works. So the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.

That sounds like a yielding of a will and of spirit. That sounds like someone who gets saved. If this is talking about true submission or yielding of the spirit to the

Lord, then what does that mean for these people who were called strangers?

They're no longer strangers. That's really important to understand. Because if you don't understand that, all these verses get really tricky.

Because if you go, all right, I'm going to just say that the perspective of Psalm 18 and the perspective that David's talking about is that he rules over heathen people who will never love

God. If you take that perspective, then verse 44 makes no sense. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.

The strangers shall submit themselves unto me. That doesn't make sense for people who will never love or honor

God. Well, so that's an interesting thought, but fear of the

Lord is the beginning of knowledge. So the people who would deny

Christ, an atheist, for example, would you say they fear God? Not yet, right?

Not yet, but they will. So you could definitely take the perspective of, okay, this maybe just means that they are, they are going to be forced to submit and obey later.

But in reality, at the end of time, they have no more chances to obey. They're destroyed.

And so that's why verse 44, I think, has to be talking about people who would belong to God.

Because they will submit, they will obey, and they will come into right relationship with him.

And when they do, they're no longer strangers. And that is so important because if you recognize that they are no longer strangers, then verse 45 makes sense.

Because verse 45 is talking about strangers, right? The strangers shall fade away and be afraid out of their close places.

See, all of God's enemies are going to fade away, just like David's faded away before him and before he wrote this psalm.

Our enemies will fade as well. These enemies include the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Satan is already judged. He will be thrown into the lake of fire. The world will be bound.

The world, so switching enemies. Satan, we didn't even spend any time on him. He's judged, he's going to the lake of fire, we know that.

Same for the world, right? The world will be bound in bundles to burn them and they're going to end up where Satan will be.

Their voices will be silenced and their enabling of sin will be destroyed. Remember, Satan's job is to bring up the temptations that the sinful flesh has, the desires it has.

Satan's job is just to bring up opportunities to appeal to the flesh. The world's job in the spiritual conflict against you is to make sin accessible and acceptable so that it feels like there's no consequence and it's very easy to do, so why not do it?

It's like right there, right? So this is how the world, the flesh, and the devil all work together.

The flesh has sinful temptations, sinful desires. Satan appeals to those desires by creating opportunities and the world makes it acceptable and accessible to sin.

Satan will be bound in hell. The world will be thrown into the lake of fire right with him, but the flesh, what's going to happen to the flesh?

What's going to happen to our flesh? Is our flesh going to die?

I mean, obviously it will if we die before the Lord comes back, but then what happens to us?

We'll be changed, right? Like the flesh that we currently have, yeah, it's going to pass away or be changed in the air, but when it's changed or when we just receive this new body, it's going to be a different form of physicality.

Maybe flesh, but certainly not sinful flesh, right? So it's going to be different. So the outcome for that enemy is very different than the outcome for the world and the devil.

So perhaps this is why we're supposed to subject our flesh.

We're supposed to make it see kind of a preview of what is to come for it. Like, check this out, flesh, you're supposed to act like this.

You don't want to yet, but someday you will. Think about what that means.

Like we're going through a process like that spiritually aren't we?

Like God is trying, it's a terrible way to say that God is trying. God is willing that we will go through some stuff so that we'll understand what it's like to obey him through good times and bad and what it's going to be like on the other side of heaven, right?

So like we're getting previews of what life is going to be like whenever we are connected to the spirit.

We're holding on to Jesus's hand and we're walking with him. We're getting a preview of what it's going to be like in heaven.

And so what we're supposed to do with our flesh is to give it a preview as well.

We're supposed to be like, flesh, I know you want to do this terrible thing. I'm not going to let you.

And we go to war with the flesh. We bring it into submission. We hit it under the eye, like Paul says he does with his.

He makes it submit to the will of the spirit. And I think the whole reason why we're supposed to do that is because the flesh is going to experience a different outcome than the world and the devil.

The flesh is part of who we are, by the way. We tend to want to not think of it that way.

Scripture says that old things pass away, behold, all things become new. Well, we are still a being that is made in the image of God who is a triune being.

There's like three, it's terrible to say three parts, but you know what I mean by that, right? Like there's three identities to the

Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We have three identities as well, mind, body, and spirit, right?

And so that body is a part of who we are. It's how we identify each other in person.

We go, oh, that's Katie. I recognize that person right there, right?

I recognize the way she looks. And so that's a part of who she is, and that's going to be changed a little bit, but it's still part of who we are.

So it's not like she's just gonna be completely different looking when we get to heaven. I don't think.

I'll be able to look at her and go, there she is. That's Katie, right? So the flesh will be changed.

Next, we're gonna see David close this psalm with praise and glorifying

God. And he begins to do so with a lively psalm that we've all sung in church before.

Verse 46. ♪ The Lord liveth and blessed be the rock ♪ ♪

And let the God of my salvation be exalted, right? ♪

Paul said, it is no longer I, but Christ who lives within me. It is because of the life of Christ that springs up as a power everlasting that we even have the ability to obey.

The Lord liveth. Without Christ, we wouldn't have the wherewithal to war against the flesh.

But not only does he give us the power to do so through his life, he gives us sure footing in the fight.

Blessed be my rock. He is our rock. And ultimately, when we find ourselves warring and thinking ourselves weary, it is

Jesus who comes in and strengthens us again. He is the God of our salvation. Verse 47.

It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the people under me. It is

God who fights in us and through us and ultimately for us in the spiritual battle against the flesh.

Though we are called to the conflict in the inner man, in the inner war, we are not alone in pursuing this victory.

We are held up and carried through the fight by our stronger ally, our hero, Jesus Christ.

Verse 48. He delivereth me from mine enemies. Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me.

Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. I love what happens in the text here.

David switches from the third person to the first person. Did you see it? He delivereth me from mine enemies.

Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me. See the switch?

I really like when that happens because I see it in other

Psalms, like in Psalm 23, when he's talking about, "'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul and leadeth me down the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

All third person. But then when he gets into the valley, "'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for thou art with me." The whole point of the valley is to get your eyes on Jesus, right?

And that's what happens with David in Psalm 23. What's cool about this is he's not in the valley.

Now that he's gone through the valley and been trained to get his eyes on Jesus in the valley, now he's getting his eyes on Jesus in the good times, on the mountaintop.

And it's like he's talking with us and right mid -sentence while he's saying, he did this for me and he did that for me.

It's like it just overcomes him and all of a sudden he has to just switch to talking with God again.

It's another great picture of Jesus, by the way. If you watch Jesus and you read his words while he walked this earth, he often would stop in the middle of talking with other people or teaching other people, and he would just start talking to the

Father. He'd be right in the middle of conversation and then he'd just start, it'd say, and then

Jesus looked up and said, thank you, Father, for revealing this son to me or something like that. It was really cool that Jesus would just mid -sentence, he'd be conveying things, teaching things, he'd be transferring knowledge to people in front of him and at the same time, downloading knowledge from the

Father. Like, that's what is happening with David right here. So it makes him another perfect picture of Jesus.

He's transferring knowledge in the form of a testimony and it's so overwhelmingly awesome for him that he just has to start downloading, or really in this case, uploading praise to the

Lord. He says, thou hast delivered me from the violent man.

Obviously, David could be talking about any number of his enemies. Many people tried to kill him.

But if you think of the evil that was done by David as well, fornicating, murdering one of his own soldiers to cover up his sin,

David has been delivered from that violent man as well. He's been delivered from himself.

He had to go to war in the flesh, right? To go to war with the flesh. So similarly,

God will deliver us from our violent man. That fleshly man that wars against the

Spirit, the man that we are supposed to side against with the Spirit in the conflict for righteousness, that violent person who never submits, never yields, never waves the white flag, always starts to try to rear his ugly head.

We are supposed to stay in constant conflict with that old man and beat him into submission.

And eventually the Lord will deliver us from that violent man as well. And we can experience deliverance from that man while we live.

As soon as we hold onto the hand of Jesus and we get into the mind of Christ and we walk in the

Spirit, we are in those times delivered from that violent man. But it comes in seasons right now.

It will be eternal when the Lord changes our flesh as well. One of the best ways to get the advantage in the spiritual war against the flesh is to do what the next verse says even before it feels like you have a victory.

Verse 49, therefore will I give thanks unto the Lord, or give thanks unto thee,

O Lord, among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name. Do this before the victory, and it may very well lead to the victory.

Notice that it says he gives thanks among the heathen. He doesn't give thanks secretly and quietly so as not to stir up conflict.

He boldly thanks his God in front of those who would deny him. And now

I've gotta put in a Spurgeon quote because this is just an awesome one. Spurgeon says, this is clear evidence that David's Lord is here.

But David is here too, and is to be viewed as an example of a holy soul making its boast in God even in the presence of ungodly men who are the despisers of God that we should, he says, who are the despisers of God that we should stop our mouths for them?

Like, who are they that we would just be silent for their sake? Shame on us when we do that, right?

We will sing to our God whether they like it or no. This is Spurgeon still. We will sing to our

God whether they like it or no, and force upon them the knowledge of his goodness. Too much politeness to traitors may be treason to our king.

That's a pretty powerful statement there. Now, the last verse of Psalm 18.

Great deliverance giveth he to his king, and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David and to his seed forevermore.

David was delivered. He received mercy that is everlasting.

We have been delivered. We don't always walk in that deliverance. We don't always join in the conflict against the flesh.

Sometimes we just allow ourselves to be taken prisoner by the flesh. I say taken prisoner.

It may be a little bit strong to say that because we are all, we are eternally set free by our

Lord, but we act as if we are a prisoner. We act as if we are subject to the flesh when really we've already been given the victory.

We've already been given deliverance. Let us walk more in that deliverance. Let us go boldly before the people around us and thank the

Lord and praise him for the deliverance he's given to us. And let us actually join in the conflict and submit our bodies, keep our bodies under us.

That is the thing that causes us to look holy. It's the thing that causes us to create the contrast around us.

So if we're going to create a contrast between us and the world, we have to join in the conflict that is within us, between us, our spirit, and the flesh.

And so we have to recognize that we do have mercy and we have deliverance and we have it forever.

But if we don't look like we have it, if we just are closet Christians doing what the rest of the world does, looking like the rest of the world.

One of the most powerful things brother Bill ever taught was that testimony he gave when he said he realized that his students didn't know that he was a

Christian. When a student actually came to him and said, I didn't know that about you and he'd been with him for years, said it broke his heart.

He realized he was not being open or bold enough about his faith.

And we should learn from that, right? Like he wanted us to learn from that. And I think if he's able to hear us now, he would hear this and go, yes, that.

Be more bold. Fight the fight against the flesh. Be more open about who you are in Christ.

Tell people how good God is. Force the knowledge of God's goodness upon the world around you.

And that might create a conflict between us and the world. That's when we depend on the Lord to come in and fight that battle.

But we should war against the flesh because that's what creates the conflict.

I mean, creates the contrast between us and the world. And so anyway, that's

Psalm 18. We finally got through it. We're done. We'll go back and do Psalm 17 next.

And I don't know that we'll ever finish going through all the Psalms because there's a lot of them. And if it takes us weeks, months to get through this one, it's not the longest

Psalm, guys. So anyway, does anybody have anything you want to add, any comments or questions or anything like that?

All right, well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your word.

We thank you that it is truth. We thank you that you are enabling us empowering us to go to war with the flesh.

Help us to do a better job of that. Colossians says that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray and turn from their wicked ways that right there is the conflict that we're supposed to join in.

If we will do that, then you will hear us from heaven and you will come and heal our lands.

That's you coming in and overcoming and fighting the battle, the conflict between us and the world.

But we've got a first war with the flesh, the inner man. We've got to be more holy.

Please help me to do a better job of that. Please help all my friends and family to do a better job of that. Help our church to be very good at that because when we do, that's gonna cause other people to look at us and go, wait a minute, that's different.

I wanna know more about that. So Father, we thank you for this incredible Psalm from David.

We thank you for the example that he sets for us. We thank you above all for your son who

David is a picture of. Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for us and for giving us this power, this spirit of power and of love and of sound mind.

We love you and it's in your name we ask these things. Amen. All right, guys.