Evil People Strut When Wickedness is Exalted

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I want to invite you to open up your Bibles, turn with me to the 12th chapter of the Psalms.
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It has been a while since I taught a sermon, or preached a sermon rather, out of the Old Testament.
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On Wednesdays I have been doing a survey of the books of the Old Testament, but on Sunday mornings we have been focused mainly on the New Testament, yet as I consider the current direction of our country, as I consider just this last week having celebrated with some of you the birth of our nation, I am moved with a desire to speak on some of the issues which are facing us, the rampant ungodliness which seems to be rising in our culture and the people adopting unfettered depravity even in the highest levels of leadership.
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I see in many areas in which the warnings and encouragements of the Old Testament seem to speak wisdom to the modern church.
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It just seems like, if you read the Old Testament throughout, that many of the proclamations of the prophets seem to be very, very relevant today, because of all the issues that we are facing now.
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And I want to make it clear, we are not Israel.
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America is not Israel, but yet at the same time we are God's people.
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We are His called ones, and not America specifically, but we as Christians are God's called people, and we live among a people who are not living for God.
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We live among a pagan people, and in that sense there is a similarity between what Christians deal with in modern society to what the Jews who were faithful to God were dealing with during the times of the Old Testament.
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So that is really the similarity in which I want to draw from.
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Not as to say, I never want us to ever confuse my teaching as to say that America represents Israel or anything like that.
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No, no, no.
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The reality is that the church is God's called people, and we live always among people who are opposed to God.
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How do we do that? How do we live in such a situation? And that is why I think the Old Testament speaks so powerfully to our present condition.
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Because again, we live in an age where it is easy to become discouraged by the fact that we see ungodliness all around us, and ungodliness seems to rule the day.
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Yet in the Old Testament we find many places wherein God promises His people His presence even though they are surrounded by the ungodly.
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Even though they are surrounded by paganism.
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Even though they are surrounded by the most heinous of acts.
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God promises His presence with His people.
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So this morning I want to examine one of the Psalms of David.
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In this psalm we see the lament of David for the community of the faithful, which in his estimation had gone away and been replaced by the wicked.
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He cries out to God for help because the people have been dominated by ungodly people who have been placed in positions of authority.
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And it's not clear whether those people who have been placed in authority, whether he's talking about Gentile oppressors or those in the Israelite nation who were ungodly yet put in positions of authority.
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But the beauty is that this psalm relates to both.
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Now, I want to share with you a precursor to the message.
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I'm not preaching out of the ESV this morning.
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Now, normally I do.
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In fact, the ESV is what I'm looking at, but it's not what is printed in my notes.
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So those of you who have a pew Bible, I am going to be reading from a different text than what you have.
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Some of you, this doesn't matter because you bring your own Bible.
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But just to let you know, we are going to be in the New American Standard version this morning, and I will explain why when we begin to exegete the text, because this is one of the few places that I feel like the ESV got it wrong.
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I'm just going to put it that way.
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I do not think that the way that the Hebrew is translated in Psalm 12 is translated as best as it could be.
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So I'll explain that when we get there.
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So let us begin by standing for the reading of the word of God.
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We're going to be reading in Psalm chapter 12, and we're going to read all eight verses because the chapter is not very long.
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Psalm chapter 12.
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This is for the choir director upon an eight stringed lyre, a Psalm of David.
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Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men, they speak falsehood to one another with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.
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May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things, who have said with our tongue we will prevail.
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Our lips are our own.
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Who is Lord over us? Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord, I will set him in the safety for which he longs.
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The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of the earth, refined seven times.
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You, O Lord, will keep them.
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You will preserve him from this generation forever.
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The wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.
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I pray first and foremost that you would keep me from error as we examine it.
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I pray also, Lord, as always, that you would open the hearts of the congregation to hear your word and that we would all be able to apply it this morning.
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In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen.
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There are times in the process of exegesis, and that simply means the process of studying and explaining the word of God, where it is best to go to the end of a passage first.
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Sometimes it's best to go to the end first to see where you're going, to understand where to begin.
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It may seem counterintuitive to start at the end.
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We don't pick up a book and read the end first.
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But sometimes in exegesis, the end can help us see the direction where we are headed, as I said, and I believe that such is the case with the 12th chapter of Psalms.
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So what we're going to do this morning, a little differently, we are going to exegete all eight verses, but we're going to start with verse eight and then we're going to go back to verse one.
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So let's begin with verse eight again.
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This is from the New American Standard Bible.
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It says the wicked strut about on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
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Now, if you are looking at the ESV, if you're looking at the ESV, it says that in verse eight, on every side, the wicked prowl.
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If you're looking at this, you'll see it says on every side, the wicked prowl.
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This is the issue that I have with the ESV text.
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When we think about the word prowl, in fact, I want to tell you, if you think about a prowler, OK, I think they just put that picture in your mind.
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You think about someone prowling around.
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What do you think about? Well, you think about someone who's lurking.
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You think about someone who's hiding.
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If you if you called the police and said there's a prowler outside my house, you're talking about someone who's lurking or slinking about who's who's hiding.
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Right, that's what we get.
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Yes, I'm sorry.
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I mispronounced the word.
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I someone who is slinking about right, but that's the opposite of what is trying to be expressed here.
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The entire point of verse eight is that when vileness is exalted, the wicked don't have to hide.
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The wicked don't have to prowl anymore.
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That's why I like the N.A.S., because it says they strut and we are in the N.I.V.
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says strut and you know what it means to strut.
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You ain't hide nothing when you're strutting.
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We strut with our shoulders held high.
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We strut with our chin up in the air.
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We are proud of ourselves when we strut.
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And that's why I think that this is a better word here.
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And I think it makes sense of the whole passage when we look at it in this sense, because what the passage is saying is that when vileness is exalted, the evil people strut around.
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They have no cause to hide their wickedness.
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They have no need to conceal their behavior.
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They get to walk around, be seen by everyone, and they are unashamed.
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This is why the New English translation, one of my favorite other translations, says this.
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The wicked seem to be everywhere when people promote evil.
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It's more of a modern translation, but the wicked seem to be everywhere when evil is promoted.
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And isn't that true? So the focus in verse eight is that vileness has been exalted, and this is the cause which has led to wickedness being able to strut about.
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When vileness is exalted, the wicked strut.
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When evil is promoted, those who practice evil are also promoted.
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That's the point.
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And beloved, we know that that's true.
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In fact, we would need Scripture to tell us that because we know that by experience.
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It's good when Scripture agrees with our experience, but we know it by sheer experience.
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Every one of us has watched as over the years, sinful behavior, which we would have never even considered discussing, has now become lauded and heralded as being virtuous behavior.
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Sin is no longer in hiding.
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Sin is no longer shameful.
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Sinful people strut about in shameful debauchery, demanding not for acceptance, but they demand to be glorified, to be exalted.
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This is right behavior.
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This is good behavior.
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This is exalting behavior.
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When just a generation ago, it was unspeakable to be discussed.
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I'm only 33 years old, but I have seen in 33 years the massive amount of shift that we have taken culturally.
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And those of you who are in your 40s, 50s, 60s, even some of you I know are in your 70s.
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I don't want to go any higher.
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Maybe you are, maybe you are.
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You have to admit that in the last 20, 30 years, there's been a major cultural shift.
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I mean, it's been your whole life, but it just seems like somebody hit the button.
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Somebody pulled the plug and the drain has just, it's just gone out.
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We have, we've seen the world fall into the same situation as was witnessed by the prophet Jeremiah.
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Prophet Jeremiah in chapter six and verse 15 of his book, he asked this question.
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He says, were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed.
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They did not know how to blush.
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Do you understand what he means when he says they did not know how to blush? We blush when we feel guilty.
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We blush when we feel ashamed of ourselves.
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We blush with embarrassment when we're caught engaging in something that's wrong and something that's sinful.
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You know what it means to blush.
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But beloved in Jeremiah's day, they had lost the ability to blush.
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They forgot what it was like to feel shame.
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They forgot what it was like to feel the guilt of their own wickedness.
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And beloved, we live in such a day today.
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We live in a nation where in our leaders sin brazenly and do not blush.
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We live amidst the people who promote ungodliness and they do not blush.
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We live among a sea of false pastors and teachers who dilute and prostitute the gospel for financial gain and personal exaltation.
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And they do not blush.
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And as such, in many ways, our nation, which we've just celebrated its birthday and we've celebrated not where it is, but where it came from.
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That's important to remember.
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Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July? It's not where it is now, but from whence it came.
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That's what we celebrate because we know there was a greatness at one time.
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There was a virtue at one time.
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But it seems as if our nation has lost its conscience.
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It seems as if it has forgotten how to blush.
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Evil doesn't hide anymore.
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It struts around with great hubris.
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We have entire parades in major cities which are intended to glorify the sin of homosexuality.
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And often within these parades, the most heinous of acts are glorified for all the passerbys to see.
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We have a president who has the audacity to speak at the gathering of the leaders of Planned Parenthood, a group dedicated to abortions on demand and responsible for the death of countless babies in the womb and ending his speech with the words, and I quote, God bless you, end quote.
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Beloved, God does not bless a group which murders infants in the womb.
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We live in a land where it is not a surprise or a scandal to hear that a politician has lied to us.
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We're surprised when we hear the truth.
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We live in a land where in laws are being passed, which do not even get read by the ones who are making the laws before they're passed.
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We live in a land where in the highest court in the nation has decided that marriage has no real definition and that the traditional understanding of marriage between a man and a woman is not worth protecting.
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We live in a nation where a photographer who chooses not to participate in a gay wedding can be sued for his lack of participation, even though he is a private individual with a private business.
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The reality is that we live in a land where evil is exalted and the wicked strut.
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And goodness is suppressed and called evil, and that's the danger, because in Isaiah chapter five and verse 20, it is very clear that Isaiah pronounces a woe upon those who call good evil and evil good.
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Hear it again.
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I read it to you as our opening text this morning, but earlier in the service, it says this woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
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And someone might say, well, that doesn't sound like a big deal.
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It just says woe.
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Beloved, you have to understand what the word woe means.
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Woe is a statement of judgment upon a people.
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Woe is a powerful judgment, so powerful that it was used by Christ when he was talking about the cities of Khorasan and Bethsaida, who rejected him.
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He said, woe to you, Khorasan, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which were occurred in you, they would have repented long ago.
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The word woe is nothing to trifle with.
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Woe is judgment of God be upon you.
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And that same woe.
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Could be placed on our land today, we have stopped calling goodness good and we have stopped calling evil evil, and instead we flipped the two.
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Now, debauchery, sinfulness.
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Sinfulness, wretchedness is exalted and righteousness is shunned.
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The wicked strut.
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And vileness is exalted.
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This is the situation we know very well, and that is what David was dealing with in his day when he penned this psalm.
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So knowing that we now understand the context.
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So now when we study the actual text, we'll understand where David is.
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David was in a situation somewhat likened to our own.
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Where the evil in the nation was being exalted, the evil people in the nation are being promoted, they are strutting about and David wants to know.
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Have all the righteous vanished? Doesn't that sound familiar? Doesn't that sound, do you ever do that, you ever get on your wherever you get your news from, you turn it on at six o'clock now, that's when you get it any time of day, you turn the news on and you ask the question, where is the goodness? Where is the righteousness? That's where David was.
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So let's go back up to verse one, now that we understand verse eight, we understand where he's going, where he's at in this situation, in his heart.
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Now we understand verse one where he says in verse one, help, Lord.
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Interesting, that's that's how the psalm starts.
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Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
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They speak falsehood to one another with flattering lips and a double heart.
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They speak, you see, the shout of David for help.
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Is one that we ought always to remember, if there is ever to be help in the midst of sin and wickedness, it must come from God.
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Often we try to do all kinds of things when we are faced with wickedness.
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To try to bring about change, we protest and we preach, but do we pray? Do we shout out to God for help? Do we say, God, help us, God, help our land.
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God, change the hearts of our leaders.
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God, help us.
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Help, Lord.
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Sometimes the simplest forms of prayer are the most profound.
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This is a prayer of David.
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It's a short prayer, but it's a prayer.
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You know, Jesus talked about those long winded prayers and how unvaluable they really are.
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Some people think that they will be heard because of their many words, Jesus said.
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Some people think that their prayers mean more because they have all this theological language which they flower through their prayers.
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But the reality is who prayed the quickest and most successful prayer in the Bible? Well, Peter, he was on the water with Jesus, he began to sink, and what did he say? Lord, save me.
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It was the quickest and most successful prayer in the Bible.
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And this is the same type of prayer David's praying.
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Help, Lord.
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It just seems like everybody's gone.
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It seems like the righteous are gone and they've been replaced by liars and hypocrites.
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Hear it again.
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Hear the text.
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He says, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
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They speak falsehood to one another, they're lying, and with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.
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The flattering lips and double heart is the picture of the hypocrite.
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It's the picture of the person who says one thing and does something else.
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The double heart is what we might call the two-faced individual.
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The politician who stands before you and says, I'm here to help you, and then goes into the room and stabs us.
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That's the picture.
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And he says, this is what we have.
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We've lost the righteous and they've been replaced by these liars and hypocrites.
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David shouts, Help, because he feels alone.
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He's like Elijah.
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You remember the story of Elijah? What did Elijah say to God? He says, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.
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The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with a sword.
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I am the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me.
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Remember when Elijah said that? I'm the only one left.
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Well, that's the heart of David.
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It seems like everybody's gone.
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It seems like all these righteous ones who stood together have vanished.
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The reality is in both cases that they were wrong.
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Elijah was wrong.
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God had to explain to Elijah, no, I've kept 7,000 people for myself who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
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I've kept a remnant for myself.
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And the same is true for David.
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And the same is true for us.
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We must never think that we're alone in this battle.
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God has his people and they are at work in this world.
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And we can see them and we can open our eyes to them and our ministry to them.
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We can see it happening.
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The problem is we get so clouded in our vision.
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It's seeing the evil.
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We get so stuck in seeing the evil that we don't see the ministry of Christ, which is happening in the world.
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So David is clouded in his vision.
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Help, Lord, they have vanished and they've been replaced by these evil people.
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So then in verse three, David prays against the evil people.
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He says, May the Lord cut off all flattering lips.
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Well, there's a pretty picture.
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He said, May cut off their lips.
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The tongue that speaks great things, who have said with our tongue we will prevail.
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Our lips are our own.
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Who is Lord over us? David is calling to help or calling to God for help.
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And he's saying, cut off their lying lips.
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You ever wonder? Or let me say this.
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Let me rephrase that.
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We don't often imagine praying judgment against our enemies.
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Why? Because Jesus said very clearly, love your enemies, pray for them.
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You know, we were given this commandment in the New Testament to love even those who persecute us.
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And we are supposed to.
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So it's interesting when you when you read in the Old Testament and you come to the psalm of David and David's praying judgment against the wicked ones.
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He's praying judgment against the enemies of God.
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Something that we need to understand is here is the point.
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David is not praying for his own vindication.
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David is not praying for his own self-exaltation.
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David is not saying, crush your enemies, Lord, under my feet.
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What he's saying to God is he's saying that these who are wicked, these whose lips are lying, these whose heart is doubled, these who are hypocrites and liars, Lord, stop them.
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Do whatever is necessary, but please, Lord, stop them.
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Cut off their lips if that's what it takes.
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David doesn't want self-exaltation.
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He wants God's name to be exalted.
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And he wants those who would defame the name of God to be silenced forever.
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There's a powerful indictment in this text, and you'll miss it if you just read through very quickly.
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David says something about these people, these wicked people that he's describing.
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He says about them that they have said our lips are our own.
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Who is Lord over us? Do you know that's the problem? That is the main problem of the wicked man.
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That they have forgotten that God is sovereign.
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They have become their own rulers.
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They say, these are my lips and I'll use them to do what I want.
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They say, who is Lord over us? Who is Lord over me? And what do you hear when you listen to men like the late Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins or other men who spurn the Word of God and who laugh at Christians and who laugh at believers? What do they say? I have no God.
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There is no God.
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It's my mouth.
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It's my body.
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It's my choice.
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Oh, we've heard that.
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That's the heart of modern secularism.
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The modern secularist does not believe that God is in control.
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They do not believe he has the right to tell them what to do in any way, shape or form.
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They do not bow to God in any way.
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And instead, the modern secularist sets himself up as God in his own realm.
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I am sovereign.
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So David is crying out, God, intervene.
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And then in verse five, God gives a promise.
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And this is important because it's in the midst of all this that we hear something that should bring encouragement, because so far it's been all sort of discouraging.
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But in verse five, we get the words of encouragement from David.
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It says, because of the devastation of the afflicted.
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And beloved, remember this always.
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As a believer, there is no promise that we will not suffer affliction.
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In fact, the opposite is true.
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Jesus said we will pick up a cross and we will follow after him and we will suffer.
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So when he talks about the afflicted here, he's talking about his people.
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He says, because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise, says the Lord.
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Every time I read that this week, preparing for the message, I thought about Stephen.
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You remember when Stephen was being stoned to death in the book of Acts? And it says he saw up into heaven.
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And what did he see? He saw the Father and he saw one standing next.
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He saw Christ standing.
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Why was he standing? He was standing for Stephen.
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As I think about the Lord arises, says the Lord, I will set him in the safety for which he longs.
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The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.
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You, O Lord, will keep them.
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You will preserve him from this generation forever.
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That last part, you will preserve him.
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Who is the him? Him is the one that David thinks doesn't exist.
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David's already proclaimed they're gone, they've vanished.
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And God's point is, no, they haven't.
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And I'm going to preserve that one.
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I'm going to preserve that group.
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I'm going to preserve that remnant from this generation.
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This generation refers to the evil ones.
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This generation refers to the liars and hypocrites.
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God is going to preserve him from them forever.
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That is the promise of God.
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It's a simple but profound promise.
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Though the wicked seem to prevail, though the evil men seem to have their day, God has promised safety for his people.
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Not that we will not be afflicted.
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Oh, we will.
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But that God will rise to our aid.
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He stands as a bulwark against the evil one.
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He preserves his own forever and ever.
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They may have victory in this world.
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They may have victory in this life.
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But God has provided a victory which they cannot overcome.
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Which is why in Romans 8 and 38 it says, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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You see, beloved, that is the point of the text.
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While the wicked strut, God's people are not lost.
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That even though the wicked strut, while it may seem that the godly have vanished, they have not.
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God is securing his people.
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And he is securing the eternity of his people.
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And that is a beautiful promise.
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Because, beloved, the most dangerous thing that we could do as believers in a world which seems to be baptized in paganism, the most dangerous thing that we could do is to lose heart.
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The most dangerous thing that we could do is give up.
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We can't give up.
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We can't give in.
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We cannot compromise the truth.
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We must understand that no matter what level of minority we become, no matter what small percentage the followers of Christ may become, that we will always be in the majority because we are in Christ.
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In him we live and move and have our being.
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And it doesn't matter what the world thinks.
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It doesn't matter what the world is doing.
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The only thing that matters is, thus saith the Lord.
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If we are doing what Christ has commanded of us, then the world will have its way in this world.
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But in the life to come, we will have Christ.
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And for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
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We must never forget the reality of life and that's why I think verse 8 is where it is.
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Verse 8 comes in after God has made his promise that he will protect his people.
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That he will protect them from this generation.
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And then verse 8 comes in as a reminder of the reality of life.
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That the wicked do strut on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
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That may seem like a strange place for David to stop.
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But remember what he's doing.
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He's proclaimed God's protection of his people.
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But then he reminds us that the wicked are out strutting their wickedness.
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And that's the point.
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Even when they're strutting their wickedness, God is still in control.
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Even when they're exalting their vileness, God is not mocked.
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He is still with his people.
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Elijah said, I am all alone.
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And God said, no, you're not.
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So what is our response? What should we do in response to Psalm 12? Well, for one, I think we should learn to pray like David.
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Simple, direct, but yet meaningful prayers.
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Learn to pray the simple prayer, help us Lord.
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Help our nation, help our leaders.
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Help us to repent and follow after you.
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Pray for national repentance.
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God, we pray for repentance from the top down.
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Help Lord, help.
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I think we should also realize that the wicked will always glorify in their depravity because they love their sin and not be surprised by it.
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It never surprises me, but people come up to me all the time.
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Did you hear about what this person did? This wicked person did this wicked thing? And I said, that's what wicked people do.
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They do wicked things.
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I'm not surprised.
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What surprises me is when someone who claims the name of Christ and claims the name of brother behaves in a wicked manner.
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That's surprising.
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But when a sinner sins, hey, that's...
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They're only living according to their nature.
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I'm not surprised.
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What surprises me is how much God restrains people.
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And finally, we should remember that we who are Christ's are protected.
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This does not mean we will never face persecution, for we will.
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But what we know is that no matter what we face, God will remain on his throne and he has prepared a bountiful blessing for those who stand strong and stand for him.
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With that, let us pray.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to again have heard your Word.
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We pray, O Lord, that we would draw close to you during this time, that we would understand your promise to your people that you will never leave us nor forsake us, and that it is through this promise that we are able to face the trials that we have in this world, the persecutions, and what may soon become even more difficulties facing the church and your people, and yet to be able to face those strong, knowing that no matter what occurs in this life, that you have secured our eternity through your Son, Jesus Christ.
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Lord, we do pray, if there are any among us who have never heard the gospel of Christ, that they would understand, Lord, having heard this message, that we are sinners, that we need salvation, and that salvation is provided only through Christ.
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For, Lord, we know that people try to look for salvation in many things, in many religions, in many attitudes, in many actions, but salvation comes only in knowing your Son is Lord and Savior.
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And it is in his name we pray and for his sake.
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Amen.
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Beloved, let's stand.
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We will have our final song.
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If you have a need for prayer, feel free to come forward as we sing.