Book of Psalms - Psa. 12, Vs. 1-8 (03/19/2023)

Park Meadows Church

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Okay, well, we're going to go ahead and start because while this is a somewhat short chapter, there's a chance that I'll go over time just because I want to read a whole other chapter of the

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Bible when we're done with this one, if we have time. So if you would, just turn your

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Bibles to Psalm 12. As you know, we've been going through all the

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Psalms, and I guess it was last week. Was it last week we did Psalm 11?

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I was here last week. Oh, good. Okay, so this week, we're going to be in Psalm 12, and it starts off with instructions for how the

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Psalms should be played, like so many of these Psalms do. It says, to the chief musician, upon Shemineth, a

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Psalm of David. And if you'll recall from chapter six, we've heard this phrase, upon Shemineth, before.

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Does anybody remember what it means? I'll give you a hint. Chapter six was the first penitentiary

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Psalm, and typically when we see these little instructions to the chief musician, it means having to do with what instrument it should be played upon or in what key or note it should be played on.

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These are like musical instructions. So in Psalm chapter six, it said something slightly different than this, but it did use

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Shemineth. Ben, do you remember? Yes. What is it? Neganoth, upon Shemineth.

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Yes. In chapter six, we read about Neganoth upon Shemineth, right?

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That was the instruction given. This should be played on Neganoth upon Shemineth. And it was to denote a certain set of strings, possibly an eight -stringed harp.

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But the phrase Shemineth was specifically having to do with being played upon the octave, meaning put it in the lower keys.

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It was a penitentiary Psalm, and one of the points we made is that that's something that should really start with the men of the church.

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The men should repent. They should lead the way to repentance. This doesn't say that it's upon Neganoth or on Neganoth upon Shemineth, but it does say

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Shemineth, which may mean play it in the lower keys, all right?

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Obviously that's just speculation because these are terms that are lost to us. We don't really fully understand these terms.

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These are terms that David understood in his time, but they are lost parts of language.

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But it should set the tone. The tone being almost like a harrowing or a sombering type tone, which is appropriate if you look at how it starts.

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It starts with help.

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Help, Lord. When do you call for help? When you're in trouble.

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But when do you actually say, okay, it's time to call out for help?

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Is it when you're immediately in trouble or when there's immediately some kind of adversity?

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Do you typically first run to help or do you do something first and then eventually resort to help?

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It's almost always that crying out for help is the last resort, right?

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That's almost always how we operate. Typically, when we've exhausted all instruments of self -reliance and have fallen short, that's when we, in desperation, call for help for anyone who is willing to listen.

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I think maybe that's because of pride. If you've ever observed children, what do they like to do?

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Let me do it, Mommy. All myself, that's what Maddie used to say when she was little. I do it all myself, all myself.

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And they want to do it on their own. They don't want the help. What's interesting, though, is that parents will let the child try it on their own.

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We all do it, right? Okay, let's see if you can do it because we're curious. Can you do it? Can you do it on your own?

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And it's not until the child has exhausted all their efforts and realized at some point they can't do it that they start crying out for help from Mommy and Daddy.

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And what do we do? We run to their aid, right? We say, okay, let us help you.

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It's almost as if, like, if they are incapable of helping themselves, that is when we run and say, okay, we've got you, right?

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What's interesting, though, is that a little bit later in life, if you're a parent that has helped your child a lot, sometimes your kids will switch.

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When they get a little older, they won't even try. They'll just say, Mommy, can you help me with this? Daddy, can you help me with that?

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They won't even try. They'll just immediately go to, I need help. It's the first sign of adversity.

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And that usually prompts some sort of speech from Mommy and Daddy, right? You need to try on your own first.

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You need to try first, and then we will help. You can't just call out for help immediately.

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I know I've done that plenty of times. Have you ever heard that speech from Mommy and Daddy? Maddy Grace? Oh, yeah.

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Like, you need to try first. We've told you that. And so I think that's fine.

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It's good to try and teach our kids some measure of self -reliance, but we've got to be careful in how we teach that because if you think of the

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Lord as a parent, he wants us to call out to him for help from the first, right?

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Like, let's not wait and then say, okay, God, I can no longer do it on my own.

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Let's ask for God to help us from the very beginning. That's what he wants us to do.

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So I guess it's got to be a little bit of a balance there when we're teaching that to our kids.

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Let's knock out a movie reference. We'll go ahead and do a movie reference here pretty soon. So typically what happens with kids is they will try.

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And when they realize I can't do it, there's almost this moment of panic, right?

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Like, oh, no. And that moment of panic is what causes a child to cry out for help.

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I think that's the moment that we're seeing with David here.

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Like when he starts, he starts here, help, help, Lord.

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There's this air of desperation. Now, typically, if you guys have listened to me, you know that I like to do movie references, right?

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And I almost always will use a movie that everybody's seen, something iconic, something from like the 80s, 90s, something that has been around for a long time, because those movie references are easily recalled by most people because everybody's seen the movie.

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Everybody's talked about the movie, right? It's gone around. But today I want to use a movie reference from a movie that has just come out, something that's somewhat new.

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You might not have seen it yet. I only recently saw it. It's not yet hit that iconic, like, this is a classic stage, right?

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Like, it might hit that. It's crushing in the box office right now. And it's a

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Christian movie, The Jesus Revolution. And so Katie and the kids and I went and watched this movie.

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And I'll try not to give away much of anything in case you guys want to go watch it. I liked it.

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It was a very interesting movie to watch. But it's essentially about the

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Jesus people movement that happened in the late 60s, early 70s, or late 70s, early 80s, right?

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Something like that. So it was kind of, maybe it was birthed.

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Its infancy was beginning of the 70s and then went through the 70s. It was kind of a long movement that occurred and kind of culminated with people like Billy Graham backing the movement and stuff.

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So it was a big movement. But it was started by a couple of individuals named

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Chuck Smith. You can read a lot of his commentary on Blue Letter Bible. And also

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Lonnie Frisbee, who was a hippie preacher. Now the hippie preacher is played by the same man who plays

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Jesus in The Chosen. Jonathan Rumi is his name. Most people just refer to him as Jesus.

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In fact, Katie was like, he's played by Jesus, right? This guy's played by Jesus because that's what he's known for.

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But anyway, so he's a hippie. And he is explaining to the

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Chuck Smith character that hippies are essentially just young people who are desperately looking for God in all the wrong places.

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And he has this quote that was just a very powerful quote to me anyway.

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It sounds pretty profound. He says, desperation, there's power in that word. And he's basically trying to convey to this very old -timey preacher that there's an opportunity here that is just huge.

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There are people who are hungry for the truth, and they don't know where to find it. So why don't you show them the truth?

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And because of that desperation, they are more open to the truth.

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So if you think about it, he's kind of right. Like desperation is that point at which we all come to when our sin is revealed to us.

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When we realize for the first time, oh, like I have fallen short.

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And under my own power, there is nothing I can do. I cannot make it to heaven on my own.

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Like I'm disqualified. And I can't nice my way out of hell.

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I can't work my way out of hell. I can't serve away from condemnation.

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Like I'm done for. And just like a kid who has tried everything they can in that moment, we have this moment of panic like, uh -oh, what now?

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And that's when the gospel comes in and when Jesus says, well, it's not on you, it's on me.

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Like I will do it for you. Let the parent take over, right? And there's this moment of desperation just before we have our moment of restoration, right?

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Like where Jesus comes in and restores us to good standing. And so that idea of being desperate, if I were to title this lesson at all, it's something like being desperate for God, right?

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And we need to get to that point. So help. That's how it starts.

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Help. Like, ah, I'm stuck. There's nothing I can do.

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I'm falling. I'm dying. I'm about to die. Help, Lord.

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That's the feeling we get from this verse. And then we see why. Why is

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David feeling like he's got to cry out for help? For the godly man seeth. For the faithful fall from among the children of men.

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Imagine all of your allies completely disappearing. Let's just pretend for a second that you show up to church, you sit in a pew, and you look around, and nobody else is here.

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And you wait, and you check your watch, and you look at your phone to make sure it's really Sunday, and nobody shows up.

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You're the only one. It might be a really strange thing to have happen, right?

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Or maybe in your community, you're a part of a community of believers, and maybe something happens, and they start moving away.

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And now they're no longer around. Or maybe they start dying off due to sickness or disease or old age or whatever.

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Like, you start looking around, and you go, there aren't too many good people left. The godly man seeth.

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He could cease for whatever reason, right? It could be that he just moves away, or he dies.

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Or maybe people just start falling away from the faith. Maybe they just give up on godliness altogether.

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We're starting to see that in our communities, in our churches around the world.

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Godliness has a way of bleeding over into the greater community. And if it doesn't bleed over into the greater community, then it begins to seemingly disappear to us.

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An example of this is, I've heard David talk about when revival really happens, right?

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Like, if Billy Sunday came through and preached, bars would shut down. It doesn't necessarily mean that everybody in the community got saved, but there were enough saved people that it started to truly affect the community, and the community as a whole began to be more godly.

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So this is kind of a look at what happens when the opposite of revival occurs, right?

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When apostasy occurs. The godly man seeth. David is perceiving a serious drop in godliness, and that makes him feel alone and needing help.

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There's almost a moment of panic there. It's desperation. Then it says, Spurgeon says that when godliness ceases, faithfulness follows.

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Why is that? Any ideas? When godliness ceases, faithfulness follows.

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In other words, it's almost like there's two different aspects here. They seem like the same, don't they?

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Yes, sir. Yes. David said you're faithful to God first, so if you're not faithful to Him, you're not faithful to anybody.

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That kind of gets at the heart of what I'm about to share next. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, it almost denotes that faith—you could almost say that faith is the confidence of the believer.

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In other words, it is the thing— and let me make sure

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I'm saying this right. Let me put it this way.

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Paul in the Corinthians said, So your confidence or your faith— and there are two different things.

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Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that faith equals confidence. But when we have faith and when we walk in faith, it will result in a more confident walk.

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It should be rooted in the power of God. That's what it should be rooted in. Not in the power of man, not in what man's devices can do for you, not in what man can accomplish for you, not in what man's praise can do for you.

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In other words, if your faith is rooted in the praise of other men, there's not a lot of power in that faith.

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Godliness is the practice of conforming to the image of God. And it requires the power of God to do it.

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That's essentially what Paul is telling us here. So if faith, in a sense, is the confidence of a believer, and that believer is not conforming with the image or power of God, then his confidence lacks power, and it will ultimately fail.

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So, when the godly man ceaseth, that means the man is no longer conforming to the image of God, so there is zero power there, and his faith will fail.

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Y 'all following so far? Okay. And a supporting scripture for this is, faith without works is dead.

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Conforming to the image of God is what our works are supposed to look like. We're supposed to subject, like when, is it

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Romans? Tells us, be ye not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, right?

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Or when it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.

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That is talking about what we're supposed to do as people. We know this because our bodies are our vehicles for doing.

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They're not our vehicles for being. A lot of people think, well, if you have a human body, that makes you a human being.

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But the scripture tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ, which tells me

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I can be without my body and I'm still human, right? So it's my vehicle for doing.

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It's how I operate in the world around me. And so it tells me that I'm supposed to present this body as a living sacrifice.

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That is how I conform to the image of God. And so in doing that, in conforming to the image of God, I am tapping into the power of God and my faith will be strong.

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I'll have confidence in my walk. Very practical example. When you sin, how confident do you feel as a believer?

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Not so great, right? But when you've overcome some sin, when you've said no to some temptations, you become more bold in your faith.

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Now, David continues in verse 2. He says,

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They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak.

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Now, he wrote this over 2 ,000 years ago. But it is exactly what he would say again if he were to walk into the modern churches of today's society.

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So like, if David were to walk into any big church today and he were to hear what is being preached, he might would say those exact words.

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They speak with vanity. Everyone with his neighbor, not just the pastor, but the people in the congregation as well.

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With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. What you see happening in the church is politics.

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There's a political struggle for power to gain some kind of spiritual office in the eyes of men, like to become a deacon or an elder or a pastor or a committee leader.

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You see people struggling to become the next thing.

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Like, I want power. And so the way they hope to gain power is by speaking vanity.

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When you hear a pastor who only preaches a motivational speech designed to, quote, empower somebody, you know that they speak vanity with their neighbor.

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Because that's not what pastors are called to do. They're called to help people conform to the image of God.

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Period. They're supposed to present this is what the image of God looks like. Here's what you have to do to conform to it.

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And if all they're doing is trying to make you feel good about the state you're currently in, then they are not pastoring.

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They are motivational speaking. And there's a lot of that in the church.

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There's a lot of that in politics. It's actually the same thing if you think about it. And it's not just the preachers.

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Nowadays, a good friend is not the one that holds your feet to the fires of excellence.

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He's not the one that keeps you on the straight and narrow or sharpens you like iron sharpening iron. No, no, this is what we hear nowadays.

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That's not what I need from you right now. I just need to be heard. I need to be empowered.

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I need to be told that I am capable and strong and I am worthy to be loved. That's what people say.

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And you hear people telling their friends that. You need to just come and make me feel better.

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And that's your only job as a friend. If you mess up, a good friend is there to justify your actions and tell you that you deserve more.

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You are justified in your wrongdoing. You are just fine identifying however you wish to identify.

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Just be your true authentic self. That's a good friend nowadays.

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That's what friendship looks like in 2023. It looks like the enabling power of vanity.

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Now, flattery is the tool which is used to ensnare us in vanity.

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Like Satan telling Eve, you will not surely die. You will be as gods knowing good and evil.

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Motivational preacher says, you are powerful. You are mighty. You have authority.

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They are building up the creature rather than the creator. They are appealing to the pride of people.

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They're preaching vanity. Why do they do it? Why would they preach vanity?

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Any ideas? Huh? Well, yeah,

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I mean, people definitely want that. But what is the motivation behind someone who just appeals to making you feel better, making you feel like you're fine just the way you are?

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So the idea of Ben shares is that then you get to stay in a position of power. What is a position of power?

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It is a position of authority over others. And if you have authority over others, they are subjected to you.

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So I want you to consider for a moment that the creature was made subject to vanity. If the creature is made subject to vanity and preachers are only preaching vanity, they are doing so to enslave people, to subject them to have a position of power over them.

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When political leaders make you feel as though you're justified just the way you are, you don't need to be held to a higher standard.

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You make up the standard. Vote for me. They are preaching vanity for the purpose of gaining power because the creature is made subject to vanity.

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If the creature is made subject to vanity, I'll use vanity to subject him. You see?

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I don't want you to get me wrong, though. Like, motivating others, there is a time for that. It's not wrong to uplift or edify the hearer.

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But we have to remind the hearer what the source of his goodness is.

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We have to remind the hearer what the source of his power and his authority is. We have to remind him that it's

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God who gives him power to become the sons of God. It is God, and by the way, that's

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John 1, it is God who gives him the power to get wealth. That's Deuteronomy 8.

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God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind.

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Right? That's 2 Timothy. Why? Why do we have to balance it that way?

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Because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Like, the power, the source of it comes from God.

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It's not that you are powerful. It's that when you are connected to the one who is powerful, there is power within you.

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Right? It's not that you have authority. It's that all authority has been given over to him, so when you're connected to him and conform to his image, there is authority within you.

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Let me make sure I don't lose my place in my notes here. We should constantly remind

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Christians that they are loved. But that love is only best understood through the lens of humility, not through vanity.

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It's not that you are worthy to be loved. It's that he is worthy to love whom he well pleases, and he chose you to love.

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And through his works, you are made worthy to be the recipient of that love.

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But that's because of what he did, not because of who you are or the fact that you did anything great or that you feel something great or that you're nice or that you serve well or that you sacrifice or anything, or even that you feel justified in your own mind.

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It has nothing to do with any of that. It's all the work of God, lest any man should boast. Right? But, guys, people are desperate.

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In a world of divorce and betrayal and separation, they're desperate to feel loved.

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In a world of economic uncertainty, natural disasters, rising crime, political scandals, wars, they're desperate to feel empowered.

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In an age of cancel culture, microaggressions, whatever that is, critical race theory, people are desperate to feel worthy or important.

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So the vanity speakers are preying on the desperate. It has to stop.

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Flattery must cease, and that's what David talks about next in verse 3. Verse 3,

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The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things, who have said with our tongue,

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We will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is

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Lord over us? It's a graphic picture of destruction. But the very ones who seek to subject others through their flattery are doing so to vaunt themselves into the good graces of man.

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I made you feel good, and you made me your preacher, your mentor, your master, your congressman, your president.

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But what does the world do with people who look deformed? I think it's interesting that it uses such a graphic picture because we with our

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Christian minds, where we go, all right, we're conservative, but we don't want to think of the worst case scenario.

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We want to just think of things not being so bad, right? And we go, the Lord shall cut them off.

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We immediately go to what is a real part of this, which is the Lord will stop it. And that's how we think of it.

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But it literally says he will cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things like that.

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That's a little graphic. When you start to picture, what does that actually look like? So you think if man is using flattery lips and a tongue that speaks vanity to gain a position of authority over men and to get into the good graces of mankind, what happens when all of a sudden they look like a person without lips or a tongue.

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God's not just putting a stop to what they're doing. He's putting a stop to the position of good graces that they have with man.

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That's what David says is going to happen. They think they will prevail with their tongues.

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That's further proof by the way, because it says here they have said with our tongue, we will prevail.

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Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? If they think they will prevail with their tongues, why would they say

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I'm going to prevail with my tongue? If not that they want to have power over something else. That's what the whole word for prevail really means.

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So they are literally saying my tongue is going to put me in the position of power. I want, and God's going to cut it off.

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They will. They think they'll rise to Lordship over others, which is why they say, who is

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Lord over us? And I love how the next verse comes on the heels of that.

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Cause here's what they're saying. Who is Lord over us? And it's as if Jesus says, that's my cue because the very next verse says for the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy.

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Now will I rise sayeth the Lord, right? It's almost like,

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Oh, did you just ask the question? Let me answer it for you. And he rises. That's kind of a powerful picture.

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If you think about it, David worrying about like, there's not enough godly people around.

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And the people that I see are trying to take authority over everyone else with their words.

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And they literally say, who's Lord over us? And then boom, God rises.

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Wouldn't want to be those people. God comes to the rescue.

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Now, I want us to recognize that it's not just because they said that, that God rises.

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He tells us why he rises. It's for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy.

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He says, for that reason, now will I rise? He just happens to hear his cue as well, right?

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Like you're asking the question. That's cool. Here's why I'm actually rising.

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I'm rising for them. And against you, it's not just to be against you. Spurgeon notes that even just the oppression of God's people, whether they be silent or not, that is a cry out to the

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Lord. It's kind of like going back to the kid analogy. When, when a child falls in the other room, this happens all the time.

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We got babies everywhere right now in the family. And so inevitably every single day, somebody is going to fall.

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Somebody's going to get hurt. Somebody's, and they're not even necessarily really hurt, but the fall was scary. So then I feel like I'm hurt.

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So I'm going to cry. Right. Drives Ben nuts. You should see Ben when this happens. So like one of his kids falls in the back.

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This is like a broken record happens all the time. Right? Benjamin. So every single day, see, so it's usually, it's usually

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Fern, poor Fern. So Fern falls in the back. She's fine, but it was scary.

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And you hear, and there's this moment of pause. Like everybody stops conversation.

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We go, huh? And then we're waiting to hear, is there a cry? And sure enough, two seconds, three seconds go by.

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The longer the, you know, the pause, you moms know it. The longer the pause, the louder the screams going to be right.

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All of a sudden Ben takes off to go get the baby.

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Right. Almost immediately. And, and that's what the Lord does. Like we get his attention.

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Even before the cry, even before we've called for help, just the trouble itself against his kids makes him take pause and listen.

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But then there's something about when the sighing of the needy occurs, right?

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There's something about when we start crying out that that makes God move. And so while it seems like he's long suffering with whoever's oppressing us, the moment we cry out, he doesn't waste time.

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He goes right to work. Now in our, from our perspective, it's like, I'm crying, God, where are you?

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You know, we may have reached already that moment of desperation. Help Lord help.

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And God's already been working in the situation to save us. I mean, think about this.

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When Fern falls over, she's not okay until she feels like she's in daddy's arms. Even though daddy is already moving toys and getting things like he's getting to her, he's saving her.

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It's once she's in daddy's arms that she goes, oh, I'm okay. And the crying ceases, right?

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It almost like you can just turn it off immediately. And that's how we are with God.

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Moses is up against the red sea. He wasn't crying out to Lord, but the moment that he was up against the red sea with the enemy at his back,

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God went to work. Hagar was crying in the wilderness. God heard her, right?

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He will come to the rescue. And he says, I will set him in safety from him that puff it at him.

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I love that this verse, verse five is God talking, right?

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David is saying, here's, here, here's what God's going to do. Right? And then we see

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God actually doing it. And God kind of takes over the conversation. I will rise, say at the

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Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puff it at him. This, this puff at him is kind of what we're seeing in our political realm right now.

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Those who use flattery to gain office are now in office.

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We see that. I mean, just look at, look at politics in America right now.

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There's tons of vanity speaking, tons of flattery. They begin to Lord over us, the ones they tricked, and then they puff at us.

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So if you put, if you put me here, you can't boot me out. That's essentially what they say.

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Um, let's see.

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I have, I had something else I wanted to say about that. I might have that later.

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I don't know. We'll see. Oh, here it is.

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Let me just give you an example. You tell me if this sounds like our, our current political environment, you are fine the way you are.

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And in fact, you deserve more. Others look down on you for who you are.

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And they don't deserve as much as they have. Give me the power to take from others and I will give to you.

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Does that kind of sound like what's happening in politics today? See, there's the flattery, the appeal to vanity, and it's a trap that leads to bondage.

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Because later I will take from you and you can't do anything about it because you gave me the power to take from others.

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That's the trap. And that's the thing is that this is designed, man's words are designed to ensnare us.

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He'll use flattery. He'll use vanity. He makes, we are made subject to vanity, right?

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And so he'll use vanity to subject us. And notice verse six.

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This is where David begins to contrast the words of man with the words of God. The words of the

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Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.

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Now I want to read something that Spurgeon wrote here regarding this idea of silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times.

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In the original, here's what he says, in the original there is an allusion to the most severely purifying process known to the ancients through which silver was passed through the greatest possible purity

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I'm sorry, through which silver was passed when the greatest possible purity was desired. The dross was all consumed.

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The only and only the bright and precious metal remained so clear and free from all alloy or error or faithful faithful unfaithfulness.

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I'm having a hard time reading my notes. I'm going to make them bigger. I've got 40 year old eyes now so I have to zoom in.

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So clear and free from all alloy of error or unfaithfulness is the book of the words of the

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Lord. The Bible has passed through the furnace of persecution, literary criticism, philosophical doubt, and scientific discovery and has lost nothing but those human interpretations which clung to it as an alloy to precious ore.

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The experience of saints has tried it in every conceivable manner but not a single doctrine or promise has been consumed in the most excessive heat.

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So God's words can be depended on. Remember how this started.

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The godly man ceaseth. So Spurgeon follows up these notes here with a very practical application for increasing godliness.

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He says what God's words are the words of his children should be.

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If we should be godlike in conversation we must watch our language and maintain the strictest purity of integrity and holiness in all our communications.

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So I love how he brings that back to if we want to be godly if we want to conform to godliness and rectify the problem that this psalm starts with the godly man ceaseth we have to begin to use our words the way

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God uses his words. Brother Myron talks about how in Hebrews 11 the worlds were framed by the word of God.

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But it says by faith we know that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things that are seen are not made of the things which do appear.

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So God uses his words to frame or bring focus to what's important.

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We can begin to use our words to frame and put the focus on what's important but what

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Spurgeon says is our words should be God's words. They should be like God's. So if we're gonna have our words be like God's words we gotta get into God's word more often so that we understand what those words are supposed to be how they're supposed to be used.

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Verse 7 Thou shalt keep them O Lord Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.

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How does God keep us from the wicked ones who seek to bind us? How does he keep us?

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What is the antidote to the ensnaring traps of vanity and flattery of man's words?

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God's word. It's God's word. That's why his word also says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free because God's word is truth and if you know it you will be made free from the ensnares and traps of man.

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So this is cool, right? Like this psalm started off with David help

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Lord right? Almost this air of desperation and it begins to talk about the problem which is man has been made subject to vanity and there are men in this world who figured that out and have used vanity to subject man.

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They're using vanity and flattery to create a trap for man. We see this in our political environment like crazy and we've given so much power to those who spoke vanity and flattery to us that now that power is being used against us and we have to realize that like just as David says that's going to be cut off by our

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Lord and so we have this progression from something bad to something great which is cool all the way through verse 7 but look how the whole psalm ends it ends with verse 8 it doesn't end with good news it says the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted what does that mean?

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If you are seeing godliness cease are we seeing that right now? The wicked are walking on every side when the vilest of men have been exalted so look at our political environment look at our politicians look at the scandals like we have exalted vile men and as a result godliness is ceasing in our country and guess what?

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it's hopeless guess what? we can't fix it we have lost we like to think oh our vote can maybe turn the tide but that was kind of proven wrong to us in the last election your vote is not going to save you what does this mean we need to do?

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we need to get desperate we need to realize we are done for the godly man ceases and the faithful fall from the children of men like there is nothing else to be done by us so unless we get desperate for god and begin to call out to him we're just going to be persecuted until we die the only logical way to get out of this for a

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Christian is to ask god to fix it for us now that doesn't mean you just become apathetic and do nothing yourself right?

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you do your part god will do his part but until we call out to him what can we expect and by the way what is our part?

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it's very simple to conform to the image of god we've got to increase godliness in our own lives and call out to him in the form of prayer because the prayers of a righteous man availeth much right?

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so there's power in that word desperate

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I want to read I've got just a couple of minutes left so I want to try and read through a whole chapter which

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I don't know how I got to this I was googling something and this chapter came up and I just started reading and I was like wow this is a really good chapter on the heels of Psalm 12 but we're going to go to Isaiah chapter 55 this is one of those major prophets

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I know Ben Jamin has been doing a whole bunch of study on the minor prophets but if there's anything

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I've learned from business school it's that minor prophets lead to major prophets and so I might be stealing some of his thunder here we'll see

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Isaiah 55 Ho everyone that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfieth not hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness incline your ear and come unto me what would you incline your ear to his word real quick this entire chapter is a call by God to us to appeal to his mercy incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure mercies of David behold

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I have given him for a witness to the people interesting he's talking about David who by the way wrote this psalm

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I have given him a witness for a witness to the people a leader and a commander to the people behold thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that thou or that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the

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Lord thy God and for the Holy One of Israel for he hath glorified thee this by the way is a prophetic statement given to those who were coming out of Babylon to the believers coming out of Babylon what verse am

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I on verse 6 seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near that's kind of a freaky verse to me if you ask me because it's like seek him while he may be found that inclined or that that implies that there may be a time when he may not be found so let's seek him early and often let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the

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Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon if the right if the godly man ceaseth

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I think maybe we need an abundant pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the

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Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which

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I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it for ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be to the

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Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

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Guys, we're in a time in which we have exalted the vile man.

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He has gotten to office through vanity and flattery and we have now been entrapped by Satan's minions.

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When they say who is our Lord? They're gonna get their answer. They're of their father, Satan. But just like David started this whole psalm help

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Lord. I feel like Christians have not yet gotten to that point in America. We've gotten to the point where we're still trying all myself.

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I do it all myself. I'll fix it. You know? And we've got to get to the point where we say it's hopeless without God.

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So help. And then we should begin to conform ourselves to God's word and God's likeness,

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His image. So that when our prayers are heard by Him, He's going, you know,

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I'm pretty proud of this one. They're trying. How much more do you want to just shower blessings on your kids when they're doing what you asked them to do?

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Right? When you find out that they messed up but they fixed it, they're trying to get better.

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You know? They're trying to get better and even though they're suffering the penalty of whatever they messed up, you just want that to end for them.

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That's how God is with us. So we've got to get desperate for Him. And like the hippie preacher said, there's power in desperation.

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Now if you go and read about that movement, it's a very interesting movement. And ironically, the hippie preacher has a pretty sad end.

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Pretty sad end. But what's cool is that God God used that to bring a lot of people to Him.

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He used the desperation of a generation to bring people to salvation. I'm starting to sound like Dr.

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Seuss. I think we see desperation again but it's manifesting in a different form.

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We're not seeing hippies. We're seeing millennials that are they're just desperate to feel important and feel empowered and feel loved and they don't know how to find it.

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And we're not doing a good job of showing it to them. So we gotta get better at that. Anyway, so that's

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Psalm chapter 12. I'm out of time so why don't we have prayer. And we'll dismiss.

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Heavenly Father, thank You so much for helping when we call out to You.

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Thank You that when we get to a point of desperation that's pretty much where You want us. You don't want us to wait and try to fix all the problems ourselves.

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You want us to tap into Your power and Your likeness and to call on the name of the

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Lord. You want us to hide Your words in our heart and literally just get

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Your help from the start. Help us to do better at that. Help us to conform to Your image better.

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Help us to look more like You. And Father, we just ask that You do something big with that.

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Fix us first. Let us stop worrying about the nation and get right with You. And then just cry out to help from You because maybe then the fir tree will grow.

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The myrtle tree will grow. We won't have the thorns and the thistles. We'll have abundance. We'll have goodness.

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And just like the apostles thought we were at the end of times and they thought that there was a great falling away and apostasy, we see the same thing.

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And maybe we are in the end of times and You're just about to come back and change us in the air.

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And we'd be great with that. But if it's not that time, Father, help us to prepare as if it's not. Help us to prepare ourselves as if we're going to be here for the rest of our lives and our kids will be here for the rest of theirs.

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And the only hope there is for a nation like ours is that we begin to turn ourselves towards You and then ask

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You to turn the nation towards You as well. Lord, we love You. It's in Your name we ask these things. Amen.