God Hates and God Favors - Brandon Scalf

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Psalm 5

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Have you ever been attacked verbally? Have you ever been attacked by the words of individuals who hate you?
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Not only that, but have you ever had your life threatened by their words?
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That might not be a common experience for many of you, but you can't count it out, not in today's world.
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But this was the experience that King David was in when he penned Psalm 5.
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In Psalm 5, we don't know the exact situation at hand. It could have been much like in Psalm 4 where Absalom was chasing him down and trying to kill him, but there is nothing in the text that tells us exactly what it is that caused
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David to write Psalm 5. Psalm 5 is a morning psalm, much like Psalm 3.
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If you remember, when we looked at Psalm 3 and 4, well, we said that Psalm 3 was a morning psalm, and Psalm 4 was an evening psalm.
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Psalm 5, in the same way, is a morning psalm, and Psalm 6 is an evening psalm, and what it does is it shows us that we are to begin the day praying and we are to end the day praying, and what we will see as we look at this psalm is that David is going to cry for help, and he's gonna cry for help based on the strong conviction that God is bound to defend the righteous because he is, in fact, a righteous and holy
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God. And yet, despite that fact, despite that presupposition, if you will, when contrasting himself with those who are unrighteous, that is, the wicked, he does not list his righteous acts as the basis for why
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God shows him a loyal love, nor is it the basis for which
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God accepts him, but it's the grace and loving -kindness of God alone.
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As we look at this psalm, we can look at it by dividing it into three sections, the first being an appeal to be heard, the second being an expression of competence, specifically in God, and a prayer of praise.
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And I want you to have that in mind as you stand for the honoring and reading of God's holy, infallible, and all -sufficient word, and I will read
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Psalm 5 in its entirety. Though I'm not confident, we will finish it. This is the word of God.
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Give ear to my words, O Yahweh. Consider my meditation. Give heed to the sound of my cry for help, my
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King and my God. For to you I pray, O Yahweh. In the morning you will hear my voice, and in the morning
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I will order my prayer to you, and eagerly watch.
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For you are not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil does not sojourn with you.
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The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity.
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You destroy those who speak falsehood. Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
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But as for me, in the abundance of your lovingkindness, I will enter your house.
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At your holy temple, I will worship in fear of you. O Yahweh, lead me in your righteousness because of my foes.
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Make your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction itself.
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Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty,
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O God. By their own devices, let them fall. In the abundance of their transgressions, thrust them out.
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For they are rebellious against you. But let all who take refuge in you be glad.
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Let them ever sing for joy, and may you shelter them.
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And those who love your name may exalt in you for it is you who blesses the righteous one, O Yahweh.
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You surround him with favor as with a large shield.
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The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever, amen? Amen, have a seat.
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As we examine this text, there are five things that I want you to see. And the first one is,
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I want you to see David's plea. He begins his psalm saying, give ear to my words,
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O Yahweh. Consider my meditation and give heed to the sound of my cry for help.
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David here is piling up appeals, and it is no secret, because we're reading it, that he is doing so because he has an urgent need.
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He is hard -pressed, he needs God to respond if he is going to be helped.
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And he tells us that he is offering up these appeals in three different ways.
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The first one is he is speaking words. He is praying to God.
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He is communicating him, communicating with him, and communing with him by way of the use of language.
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And this, of course, is how we would normally pray. But he expands it by asking
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God not only to give ear to his words, but to consider his meditation.
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And his cry. Here's the payoff of noticing such a thing.
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God can hear you, whether or not you're speaking to him verbally, or whether you're meditating on his truth and what is happening around you.
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And he is, of course, going to hear you when you cry out, when you have a heartfelt crying.
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And he addresses these appeals to his king and to his God. This is also something that we must pause to consider.
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This appeal to give heed to his words, to consider his meditation, to give heed to the sound of his cry is addressed to his king and his
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God. And the reason for that is because there is no one else he can turn to for help but God himself.
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Whether it's Absalom or whether it's another battle, he faces certain death if God is not protecting him.
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As the enemies taunt him, which we will see in a moment, as they slander him, as they maliciously gossip, he is also in fear, not only of losing his reputation, but of losing his life as well.
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And he appeals to this king and to this God because one, he's God and he can sovereignly orchestrate things in such a way to bring about safety.
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But also, it is a king's job to listen to his people.
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And so appealing to God as king is a way of appealing to God's kingship.
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So David here is completely and utterly trusting that he will in fact be heard.
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And we know this because he continues on. For to you I pray, O Yahweh, in the morning, you will hear my voice.
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This is a confident assertion. He doesn't have to wonder if God is going to hear him.
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He knows God is going to hear him. Just like you ought to know when you cry out to God and when you pray to him that he will in fact hear you.
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And he says here that he's praying specifically in the morning.
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Now, this is a good way to begin your day. As a matter of fact, it's the best way to start your day.
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John Bunyan, a Puritan of old, once said, he who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find him the rest of the day.
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When you put God first at the first part of your day, it sets the tone for everything else that's going to come after.
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Don't be surprised if you are disgruntled, if you are bitter, if you are angry, if you wake up and look at your phone.
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If you wake up and you don't put God first in the morning, don't be surprised when you're falling on your face in a pattern of sin in the afternoon or in the evening.
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Your first thought when you wake up should be God. It should be communing with God.
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This is modeled throughout the entire New Testament. So much so that Jesus would rise up early and he would go and find time to be alone with the
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Father himself. Now, I am not arguing that the most holy of times is before everyone else wakes up.
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But when you wake up, you ought to, as he does here, make it a priority to order your prayers and to come to God with urgency and expectancy, knowing that he will, in fact, hear his people.
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Children, would you look at me? When you start to pray and you wanna talk to God and you have a need that you want met, whatever that might be,
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God has promised in his word, and it is shown here by David's faith, that God will listen.
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That he will hear you. And I know sometimes it can feel strange when you start praying to God because you feel like you're not talking to anyone, but in fact,
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God is God and he is king. And he wants his people to pray to him.
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And he wants to be the first thought on your mind. He wants to commune with you first thing in the morning.
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He goes on in verse three, pleading more. In the morning, I will order my prayer to you and eagerly watch.
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I wanna pause here because I want you to look at a few words with me. And I think the payoff for doing so will become quite evident.
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It says here in the morning that David is going to order his prayer to God. This word order in the
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Hebrew is actually a military term. It means to marshal up in full battle array, to orchestrate things in rank and file order.
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Another way that this word is used is it is used as if you were placing wood on a sacrificial altar, stacking it up and ordering it in such a way.
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This is not a haphazard way of praying. It's not just showing up and being like,
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I'm just gonna let words come out of my mouth. No, no, no, it is, as we have seen, premeditated thoughts.
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It is something that he has considered before he decided to speak with God. You know, oftentimes we think, well, the most holy thing or the most spiritual thing to do is to just let our feelings roll off of our tongue.
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But the reality is if we're going to pray to a holy God and King, then just maybe it's worth thinking about before we bring it to him.
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And maybe we should do it in such a way that it makes the most use of our time.
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Maybe there's some things we don't need to pray about that the scriptures have already revealed to us. Maybe there are some things that we already have the answers to if we would just open our eyes and read the scriptures.
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But other times we need God's help. And so we order our prayers in such a way as to marshal them up and to place them before God.
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And the ones that make it, as it were, are the ones that are shot as if on a bow to the sky, to heaven.
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This word prayer here, this word prayer is also, if you have a footnote in the
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New American Standard or the Legacy Standard Bible, will also say sacrifice. There's a debate as to whether or not it's actually prayer or sacrifice.
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But I think the best interpretation is to say that he's bringing his prayer as if it were a sacrifice.
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The verb used here is not usually used in the Old Testament when speaking of prayer.
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It as well is used for laying wood on the altar in preparation for a sacrifice.
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Now, whether the translation supplies request or sacrifice or case or whatever the case may be, the idea is that he planned to appeal to the
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Lord formally in the morning. It wasn't haphazard.
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It was honoring and purposeful.
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So in the morning, he says, I will order my prayer as if it were a sacrifice to you, and I will eagerly watch.
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So prayers and pleadings have been directed towards heaven, and David here is expecting an answer.
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That's what it means to eagerly watch. The Puritans used to talk about the night watch.
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They used to talk about watching with the Lord, and that is that you would wait to hear from the
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Lord to answer your prayer. You would plead with him all night, all day, whatever the case may be, and you would wait and expect to hear an answer from God.
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Now, you might be saying, that seems a bit presumptuous. Maybe not all that reformed, right?
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Our God is in the heaven, and he does all that he pleases. Amen, and amen, and amen. And we like to pray and say, well, in his timing.
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Well, yes, and amen. Or I wish that we could pray that something miraculous would happen, maybe a healing for a loved one of ours or for ourselves, or maybe protection for someone on a trip or whatever the case may be, and then we like to preface it as good reformed people, you know, if the
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Lord wills. Let's just pause there, and let me just say it frankly.
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That is not a biblical way to pray, right? We talked about it this morning.
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God loves to give his children good gifts, and of course, God is going to do what he wills regardless if you give him permission to do so or not.
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But we should, as God's children, as God's protected, and as we will get to here in a moment in the psalm,
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God's favored, trust that he will supply us with some sort of answer.
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We're not just pleading when we pray. We're believing that God can and will affect the situation.
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Now, it may not be the way that we want it to be, but God is never silent.
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We wait, we look, we shoot our prayers as if on a bow and arrow toward heaven, and we wait for the answer to rain down from on high.
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Why? Because we believe, and if we didn't believe, why would we pray? Or if we didn't believe, why would we pray?
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Why? And if you believe, then why wouldn't you expect? Thomas Brooks says it like this.
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He is either a fool or a madman. He is either very weak or very wicked that prays and prays, but never looks after his prayers, that shoots many an arrow towards heaven, but never minds where his arrows alight.
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In other words, if you're not waiting for God to give you an answer to your cries, then you're not thinking like a
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Christian. You're not behaving as if you believe.
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Believing people expect things to happen. Here's an example, maybe not a perfect one, but one that will work, no doubt.
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People are strange, and strange people, for no reason at all, will jump out of airplanes.
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They're not on fire. There's nothing going on that would cause them to do such a thing.
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And they are banking on and trusting that that parachute that they have strapped to their back is going to actually repel.
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They put their money where their mouth is. They wouldn't jump out of the plane if there was any idea in their mind that this may not work out.
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What this Psalm is showing us is, why cry to God if you will not believe and expect him to do something about what you have cried to him about?
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Friends, cry out to God and believe that he will answer.
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So we have seen here David's plea to his king and his God, where he is expecting
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God to show up. And he's expecting God to show up because he knows
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God's character. He knows he will thwart the enemy's plans, that he will shut their mouths and judge them because God is holy, because God is righteous.
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So the second thing that I want you to see is David's conviction. David's conviction.
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In verses four through six, it says this. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness.
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Evil does not sojourn with you. The boastful should not stand before your eyes and you hate all workers of iniquity.
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You destroy those who speak falsehood. Yahweh abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.
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Friends, the truth that we need to extract from this stanza here is that every
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Christian must be gripped with a high view of God in his holiness if we are to trust him as we walk through as a pilgrim in this evil world.
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If you are going to live in any way that honors God, or if you are going to be used by God in this world, you have to get
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God right. You have to understand who he is in his holiness.
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Now, that's not to negate the fact that we must know that God is love and that God is all of these other things, but there is one time in Scripture where God's holiness is put on display three times.
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It never says in the Scriptures that God is love, love, love, that God is compassionate, compassionate, compassionate, but it does say in Isaiah 6 that God is holy, holy, holy.
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And when men and women of God come to face, to face with God, as it were, they are confronted with his holiness.
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Moses, for example, in Exodus 3, comes to God in the burning bush, and when he saw
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God, it says that he hid his face for he was afraid to look at God.
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The same is true, referencing again Isaiah 6. Isaiah is caught up into this vision where he sees
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King Jesus on his throne, his King and his God. And upon seeing him, he says, "'Woe is me, for I am ruined, "'for
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I am a man of unclean lips, "'and I live among people of unclean lips, "'for my eyes have seen the King Yahweh of hosts.'"
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And then, of course, in Revelation chapter one, the apostle John comes face to face with the
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Alpha and the Omega in his vision that he was caught up in, and it says that when
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John saw him, he fell at his feet as if a dead man. God is holy, and he cannot, and he should not, if he is to be a holy
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God, look at, approve of, or wink at sin in any sort of way.
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If we look here at verse four, it tells us that God forsakes all wickedness.
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For you are not a God, it says, who delights in wickedness.
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Evil does not sojourn with you. That means that God cannot have an unwelcome guest.
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He cannot dwell with, approve of, or ultimately allow any sort of wickedness in or around him or his house, which is where David is headed.
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David is headed, in this psalm, toward the temple. He is headed toward a place of worship so that he may worship this one true and holy
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God. And he understands that God is a God who forsakes wickedness, and that he rejects the arrogant.
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Look with me again at verse five. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes.
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Friends, there is coming a day where we will stand before the God of this universe, of every universe, and we will give an account for the deeds which we have done in our body.
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And it says here that the boastful, the arrogant, those who think highly of themselves will not be able to escape the notice of God.
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No sin would go undetected by God's searching eyes. Why? Because he's holy.
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Because he forsakes wickedness, and he rejects the arrogant, and he will do so on the day of judgment.
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And the reason for that is because, as the next verse tells us, or the second half of that verse, rather, he hates evildoers.
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Now, I know that that is a wild thing maybe to hear. I know the first time that I heard it in a church service, which it doesn't happen very often because nobody likes to use scriptural words and definitions.
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They like to skirt around the issues. But it says very plainly at the end of verse five here that God hates all workers of iniquity.
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Now, I know it's popular to say that God loves the sinner but hates the sin.
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But I don't think I need to remind you. As Ephesians chapter two tells us, sin is not an impersonal, ethereal thing off to the side.
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It is something that we commit. It's something that we do. It's something that we love. And so sin cannot be separated from the person.
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He who sins is he who God hates. God cannot, right, have an unwelcome guest of wickedness.
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He cannot stand before arrogant people because he hates all people who do evil deeds.
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Not only that, but he destroys liars and those who are deceitful. That is the next thing that he says.
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You destroy those who speak falsehood. God does not like a person who makes things up, who exaggerates, and who ultimately lies to get their way to manipulate.
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Now, everything that I just said, very unpopular. It's not gonna go on any coffee mugs.
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No T -shirts at Mardels are gonna put this on their T -shirts. But it is the truth nonetheless, and it's the truth that David is resting in when he is appealing to God for prayer.
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So it must be something that we have to learn to appreciate and to love. Why, because we need to love what
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God loves and we need to hate what God hates. So it is imperative that in getting
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God right, we get our orientation towards the thing that God hates right. And God hates those who hate him.
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He rejects those who reject him. And this holy
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God must judge sinners as an expression of his holiness.
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He abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. Now, why is that good news?
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It's good news because God protects the righteous from the unrighteous.
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But the question that we must ask at this juncture is who can be righteous and how?
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I happen to remember a verse that I mentioned this morning, Romans three, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
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Ephesians two, we are all dead in our transgressions and sins. Friends, apart from God's divine intervention, we are all standing in the path of the wrath of God.
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We are all the wicked trying to soldier. We are all the boastful and arrogant trying to stand before God.
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We are those whom he hates because we work iniquity. We are those who destroy with our falsehood.
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And thus we must be destroyed. So David is appealing to this God who is this holy.
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It is his conviction that God is so holy that he will crush these enemies.
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And so David appeals to God yet again. So the third thing that I want you to see is
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David's resolution, David's resolution. We have seen
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David's plea as he has cried out for help, as he has ordered his prayer in the morning. We have seen
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David's conviction about who God is and how he is holy and he will do away with the evildoer because he hates them.
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And here we see that David is highly favored by God.
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And that, friends, is how he can stand and sojourn with this king and this
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God. Look with me at verses seven and eight. He says, but as for me,
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God, you're holy and you're righteous and you hate all of those who do unrighteous things.
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But as for me, I'm righteous. Oh, that's not what he says. That's not what he says at all.
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And he doesn't say that because he knows he's not, at least in one sense of the word. He says, but as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness,
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I will enter your house. At your holy temple,
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I will worship in fear of you. Oh Yahweh, lead me in your righteousness because of my foes and make your way straight before me.
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So David is resolute in doing a few different things. Namely, escaping the wrath of this
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God, but also, and more pointedly in the text, he's gonna go to the temple and he's gonna worship
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God, according to verse seven.
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In verse eight, he's asking God to make his path straight because he wants to walk in a way that's not like those whom
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God hates. He's being the opposite of proud. But notice what the linchpin is in all of this.
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He can do that, he can enter God's house, according to verse seven. He can go worship at the holy temple in the fear of Yahweh.
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And he can ask God to make his path straight, why? Because of the abundance of God's loving kindness.
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I find it fascinating, heart -wrenching, if you will, that David does not record his righteous acts in contrast to their wicked deeds.
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He simply declares that he has been accepted by God's love, a love which is open to those who trust in him.
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One commentator says that this great mercy is God's unconditional, covenant love by which he receives sinners who repent and believe.
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Has anyone ever read Psalm 32 in light of what you read here? Psalm 32 begins by saying, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
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Whose sin is covered. Who covers sin? Evil people who lie and manipulate.
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So is this text in Psalm 32 saying that God has done something evil?
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You should be asking yourself these hard questions. Well, of course, the answer is no.
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Because in the cross of Jesus Christ, God pours forth his wrath on the son.
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And he covers our sin and David's sin and accepts him not by looking the other way, but by making him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
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2 Corinthians 5, 21. So how can
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David be the one whom God favors? Answer, Jesus.
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Jesus. Jesus. That is the loving kindness that has been extended to David.
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Now, children, for those of you who know your Bible, you know what? Did David come before Jesus or did
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Jesus come before David? David came before Jesus.
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So how is that possible? Well, it's possible because God preached the gospel in Genesis chapter three to the devil in the presence of Adam and Eve where he promised to crush him.
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And though the serpent would deal him a mighty blow, he would not ultimately lose, but that he would crush the serpent's head.
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And we know he did that by doing it on the cross. Saving his people from him.
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Saving his people from sin. Saving his people ultimately from death and extending to them everlasting life.
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And in the book of Hebrews, it says that God could look over the sins that were committed in times before Christ had come because he knew in the fullness of time he would bring forth the son to absorb the wrath of God on behalf of those who would trust in him.
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And so it's God's loving kindness that enables him to be resolute in going to the house of God.
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Did you know the reason that you can walk through these doors and experience the worship that you experience when you sit under the preached word and sing songs to him is because God is kind to you.
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He allows you into his presence. This is why every single morning, and maybe we should do it every single evening, we're reminded that we are sinners and we cannot approach a holy
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God. And we confess our sin. And then a pardon is put forth and we are assured that God, no, he has, if we have trusted in Christ, promise to show us loving kindness and to allow us to worship him.
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Now, if you don't have a theology that allows you to worship
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God, you have a deficient theology that is godless and man -centered. God lets us adore him.
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And he is letting us do that through the cross of Christ, through his loving.
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The next thing that I want you to see is David's condemnation. David is going to condemn those he doesn't want to be like, and his condemnation is just.
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Look with me at verse nine. He says, there is nothing reliable in their mouth.
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Speaking of his enemies, their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave.
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They flatter with their tongue. He's beginning to describe these enemies and what they are doing to him.
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And he's looking for God to step in to vindicate him, but first he's agreeing with them that they are horrible.
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And he's listing out for them why they are horrible. As you look at this psalm, it's almost like God, or David is talking to God, he's talking to God, and then he looks at the people.
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And then he's talking to God, and he's looking at the people, and then he's talking to God again. Because he lives in a sin marred world, and he's experiencing sin enacted upon him.
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It says here that their mouths were wicked, and that they use their words for ill.
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There's nothing reliable in their mouth. Nothing they say is actually true. And the reason that they are saying these things is because their inward part is destruction itself.
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Their throat is an open grave. They wound people. They kill people with their words, so to speak.
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And they flatter. God hates a flatterer. Smooth words, that's the
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Hebrew here. They speak with smooth words. They've got a silver tongue. They're always believable.
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And he's saying they are horrible. And these are horrible. Their mouths are horrible, and they're wicked.
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And the reason for that is why? Because their hearts were filled with destruction.
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Their inward part, it says in verse nine, is destruction itself. Now this shouldn't be a foreign concept to any of us.
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Out of the heart, the mouth speaks, Jesus says in the Gospels. Or in Matthew 15, 18 and 19, more precisely.
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But the things that proceed out of the mouth, Jesus says, come from the heart. And those defile the man.
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For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false witness, and slanders.
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Wickedness out there is a problem with wickedness in here. Nobody is out sinning accidentally.
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Nobody is running their mouth because they accidentally said too much. Nobody is out there lying about people, slandering them on accident.
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It comes from a wicked heart. A wicked heart that hates
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God and hates God's people. And God's people are often attacked.
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By godless people with their words. And after they're attacked with their words, history has shown they will attack with weapons.
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Whether that be their fists or coliseums. Whether that be with their words, or tied up and burnt alive.
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Friends, there are people around the world dying for Christ right now that started with words.
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Who knows what tomorrow might bring? Even here in America. Well, that won't happen here.
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We're a sophisticated, progressing society. That's what the reformers thought.
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All of that persecution stuff happened a long time ago. And many of them were burned.
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But this is what people do. Back to the point about the words. Matthew 5, 10 through 12, during Jesus' famous Sermon on the
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Mount, he speaks a blessing over those who've been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. For theirs, he says, is the kingdom of heaven.
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Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely, and say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
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Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great. For in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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In other words, this is not an uncommon experience. Paul says, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
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This is the way of the world. This is the way of the flesh. God -haters will hate
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God's children. So David's crying out.
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He's crying out and saying, what these people say leaves death and ruin in its wake.
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And friends, let me tell you something. If you live for Christ and you do it openly, as you should, this will happen.
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And the question becomes, how will you deal with it? Will you take it to the Lord or compromise? In God's providence, today is
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June 2nd. A few years ago on June 1st, I simply quoted a verse from Leviticus that talked about homosexuality being a sin.
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I was mocked on the internet by thousands and thousands of people.
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I was lied about. People in my own hometown, people who used to call me their best friend, were making up lies that they knew were not true in an attempt to discredit me because I stood where the
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Bible stands. And I don't tell you that story to say, look at me.
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I don't know that I handled that the best. I really was like, this is the most horrible thing ever. Like they published me in a newspaper in my own hometown that was like, this is the bigot pastors that our hometown essentially produces.
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I didn't like it one bit. I can handle preaching the gospel and people hating me for it.
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But when people slander me and make things up about me, at least in that moment, I thought about, well, maybe
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I'll just take these things down. Maybe I won't preach like that. Like, that's the temptation.
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The temptation is to change, maybe not necessarily what you believe, but what you publicly believe so that these type of slanderers will not harm you.
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But the truth of this song is that God stands with the righteous.
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He stands with those whom he has extended loving kindness to. And you may not get a reward this side of heaven.
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You may keep getting lied about. You may keep getting slandered. But what does Jesus say in Matthew five? Your reward is great in heaven.
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And so you might get bruises and you might get scars this side of heaven, but you say, praise him, praise him, because he stands with those whom he loves, whom he has covered in the blood of Jesus.
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Christ, he then moves on.
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He's done talking about them. And he asks them to do what he has promised to do in his word, which is to hold them accountable for their godless actions.
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He says, hold them guilty, O God. By their own devices, let them fall.
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And their abundance of their transgressions, thrust them out for they are rebellious against you.
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David's on fire. And he's on fire like you should be on fire when you look outside at the world and you see it burning because of godless ideologies and people who hate
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God and who are promoting evil in the world, wickedness in the world, which
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God absolutely and utterly hates. He wanted God to make right the wrongs that he had suffered in his pursuit of him.
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So one of the things that you have to understand before moving on is yes, this prayer is calling
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God to judge these evil people, but it is not merely a personal vendetta.
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He's not saying, look what they did to me, get them. He's saying, look what they did to you, get them.
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Do you honor God that much? The wicked here are
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David's enemies precisely because they were first God's enemies.
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Notice that's why it says here, hold them guilty, oh God, by their own devices, let them fall in the abundance of their congressions, thrust them out for they were rebellious against who?
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You, not me. This is why
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David in Psalm 51, after committing the great sin he did with Bathsheba, he says, against you only,
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God, have I sinned. Every sin against another image bearer of Christ is really a sin against God.
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The driving issue here then is David's love and honor for God and their opposition to him, not himself, but God.
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Everything else, we should just let go. Everything else, we should just let fall to the earth.
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Why? Because it doesn't matter. Because we will have our vindication on the last day. God will stand with the righteous.
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But when God is dishonored, that's an entirely different story. We know we deserve what everybody else is gonna get.
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So let them talk. Charles Spurgeon once said, don't let it destroy you when people say evil things against you, for you are far worse than they can imagine.
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And what he was getting at is the truth of Ephesians chapter two and the rest of the Bible, which is that we don't deserve anything that these men aren't expecting on judgment day.
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We just get loving kindness instead. Some people's accusations might be half -truths, but they're never half -truths against God.
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So his condemnation is just. The last thing that I want you to see in closing is
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David's praise. He is looking away from these evil men, and now he is looking toward God again.
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And he says this. But let all who take refuge in you be glad.
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Let them ever sing for joy. And may you shelter them, that those who love your name may exalt in you.
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For it is you who blesses the righteous one, O Yahweh, and you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
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So David has moved from crying out to God. He's pled with him to hear his prayer.
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And he has understood that he needs to wait and hear from God. And he's expecting to do so.
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And he's expecting to do so because he knows that God stands with the righteous and hates the unrighteous.
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And there are plenty of unrighteous people around, but he knows that God is holy.
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And he knows that they will eventually pay. But those who have taken their refuge in him by faith, who have hid themselves, as it were, in his wings, much like Ruth did
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Boaz. Those are the ones who ought to be glad, even in the day of persecution.
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Let them, even in that moment, sing for joy because God shelters them, he says.
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The heart that loves God in his holiness will hate man's sin and they will rejoice at God's unmeritored favor directed at them.
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The righteous, in other words, may pray with confidence for deliverance from deceitful and malicious attacks, at least on the last day, because their
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God hates wickedness. And so they could sing for joy because God has blessed them by extending to them his loving kindness.
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And he surrounds them, his more military language, as with a large shield.
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He protects them and he protects them with his divine favor, his loving kindness.
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Friends, the truth of this song is that the divine favor upon those whom he has called righteous because of the righteous son,
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Jesus, who covered their sin by becoming sin on their behalf is ancient, it's effectual, it's constant, it's extensive, it's irreversible, it's surpassing, it's eternal, and it is, in fact, infinite.
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There is never a day on this earth where you have to fear wicked men anymore.
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Because if you are in Christ, he is your shield, and he has answered your prayer in Jesus Christ, and he will continue to be for you forever because that's his job, as your king and as your
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God and as your savior. But for those of you who do not know
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Christ, God stands opposed to you. He hates you, he will destroy you because of the falsehood that you speak, and he will not let you stand before him on judgment day with a smile on your face.
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And when he condemns you to hell, he will do so righteously and rightly, and all those who trust in him will gather around and praise him for ridding eternity of you.
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But today, today, today, you can walk towards this cross, you can walk towards this favor, you can walk toward this shield, and you do that by repenting of your sin, by recognizing what it says about you prior to your conversion in Christ, and throw yourself at him in faith, believing that God is the rewarder of those who seek him and that he will, in fact, save you.
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Well, aren't you a Calvinist? Of course I am. But he who
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God woos and wins to himself will be saved. And so if you come now and you come in faith, all of these blessings are yours.
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He will stand with you on the day of righteous. Fear not, Christian, no matter what happens in this world, because you have a
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God and King who will stand with you, will vindicate you, and will forever walk with you.