Book of Psalms - Psa. 14, Vs. 1-7 (05/21/2023)

Park Meadows Church

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I was helping with the food in there and just trying to go as fast as I could so as not to lose track of time.

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Pretty much unsuccessful. Yeah, we were having fun.

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Time was flying. Okay, so it's been a minute since I've done

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Sunday school, but I've been really enjoying Ben's Sunday school lessons.

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And I think what you're going to see, you know, some of what

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Ben was talking about in Sunday school is the reaction of man when

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God says, you hadn't loved me, right? He's, wherewith have we not loved you? That kind of stuff.

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And what we're going to see here is an even more egregious type rebellion that David's going to talk about.

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And so we will be in Psalm chapter 14. We've been going through the

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Psalms. And what's interesting about this Psalm, lots of stuff that's interesting about it.

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But one of the things that I find particularly interesting is that most of the

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Psalms that we've gone through have been almost like a little journey or a transformation process that we see

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David going from a low point to a high point, right? And this particular

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Psalm, it doesn't really get to a high point. There's hope in this

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Psalm, but it remains low. And what's interesting about it is that when you think about the

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Psalms and the songs and things that we sing at church, we often think about the fact that, you know, we often think about like joyous songs, right?

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Like every hymn we sing pretty much is a joyous hymn. It's something that's exciting and something that's, it's like,

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I'll fly away, oh glory, right? That kind of stuff. Like it's going to be, it's going to be fun, right?

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It's the happy side of our walk with Jesus. This is kind of a darker side.

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And it's really interesting that it's that because it is still a Psalm, right?

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And it doesn't have that transformation as much. It's, it's more of like a crying out to the

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Lord about a problem and it just kind of stay in there a little bit. There's hope in it because obviously there's crying out to the

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Lord. So that's, there's always hope when you do that. But if you'll just turn there to Psalm chapter 14 with me, we're going to kind of, in a way, knock out two

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Psalms at once today. And the reason why

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I say that, well here, I'll just show you, okay? So I'm going to read through this real quick, to the chief musician, a

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Psalm of David. Let me just finish up a thought here. This is a song that is to be sung publicly.

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It's for the chief musician. And yet it's kind of a sad song.

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You know, it's, it's more like talking to the Lord about the problems and yet it's to be sung in a public manner.

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So that's kind of interesting because that's not typically what we do when we sing songs in church, for instance, right?

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But watch what, how we're going to knock out two Psalms at once. So Psalm chapter 14, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no

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God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek

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God. They are all gone aside. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good.

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No, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity, no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the

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Lord. There were, there were they in great fear for God is in the generation of the righteous.

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He have shamed the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion.

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When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice in Israel shall be glad.

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See what I mean? There's, there's a little bit of an element of hope there, right? But it's talking a bunch about the problem.

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So that's Psalm chapter 14. Now turn to Psalm chapter 53 for me real quick.

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The moment just to get there. Now let's read Psalm chapter 53.

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If my computer will pull it up here, I'm going to have to start bringing a good old fashioned printed

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Bible with me in case the internet goes slow and it is truly being very slow.

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So if somebody's already there, Psalm 53, the whole, yeah, read the whole thing real fast.

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The full of suddenness heart. There is no God corrupt or they have done good.

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Elder to men to see if there were any that did understand that did seek

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God. Every one of them has gone back. They are all together become filthy. There is none that do it.

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Good. No, not one. Have the workers of iniquity, no knowledge to eat up my people as they eat bread.

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They have not called upon there were they in great fear where no fear was for God had scattered the bones of him that encampment against thee now has put them to shame because God has despised them.

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Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion. When God bring it back, the captivity of his people,

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Jacob shall rejoice in Israel shall be glad. It's almost word for word copy paste to Psalm chapter 14.

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So that's how I say we're going to kind of in a way, knock out two songs at once, but also not really because Lord willing, we actually get to Psalm chapter 53 in this chapter by chapter study.

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We're going to go through it again and we're going to start pointing out some of the differences. There are very few.

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The overarching idea is the same, but I think we can get a lot more out of it. When we come back and do chapter 53, but it's like a pre a preview.

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We're getting a prequel to the child Psalm chapter 53. What's interesting is that's twice that we see essentially the same message in the

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Psalms, but then in Romans had the reference. I can't remember it in Romans.

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Paul actually referenced this as well. So it's in the Bible three times. Pretty cool.

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So let's go through Psalm chapter 14 today and see what we can glean from it.

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And then if we get to Psalm chapter 53 in the future, we'll try to come back and see some of our notes from today.

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Okay. So to the chief musician of Psalm of David, the fool had said in his heart, there is no God. First, like I said, this is for public discord, right?

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Like people are going to, they're going to sing this in a church or in God's people as a congregation will sing this.

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Interesting that they start singing what the fool says. I think it's important for us to remind ourselves what is foolish and what is wise.

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And that's what the Psalm starts off with is the fool. The fool, the word for fool means is

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Nabal, which means a senseless, stupid, wicked, vile person. Some would consider him stubborn, prideful to say such a thing like, you know, there is no

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God. This is a stubborn, prideful person. I prefer cowardice because man is created nearly perfect with everything he needs.

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He lacks only one thing and desires it to the point of disobeying his loving creator and breaking that bond to pursue the vanity that is in his heart.

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He's ever seeking. He's never satisfied. His search continues for that, which he lacks, but can never fulfill.

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Sin is now his life's mission. Now, then you have the blessed

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God who comes down teaching his death shall bring peace to the despairing creature. Chuck Missler points out, it's really interesting in Genesis.

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If you, if you go through the names of the people, starting with Adam, going through the line of Seth, all the way down to Noah, their names actually mean that practically that exact sentence.

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So there's the gospel message right there in the names of the people. It's really cool. With a perfect trifecta of loving sacrifice, this creator gives all that he has to save his prodigal son to save his children.

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Right? But the creature refuses help.

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He rails against it to accept salvation. He'd have to forsake his pursuit of sin.

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This is a non -starter. I'm not giving up what I'm pursuing. I broke fellowship with you in the first so that I could go after that.

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It's pretty bad. So he rejects the good news, but there's a problem.

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Problem is the wages of sin is death. And that's a pretty high price. Wouldn't you agree?

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So how can such a vile creature avoid this debt?

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He will attempt to eliminate the creator, the creditor, right?

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I'm in this debt. I have to eliminate the creditor. If there is no

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God, there's no creditor and man is no debtor. So rather than face the potential for consequences of his sin, man will pretend that there is no judge.

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And that's what he says. There is no God. They are corrupt.

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They have done abominable works. There is none that do with good. Notice how it switches today.

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The fool has said in his heart, right? And then it switches today, which sometimes will refer to a singular person as they once in a while.

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But then we see here that it's talking about more than one person. There is none that do with good, right?

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So this really egregious lie that there is no God when it's propagated, vile corruptions spread throughout the fellow man, right?

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So if I say, there is no God and someone else believes me, what does that mean for them?

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I can do anything I want. So they are corrupt. They have done abominable works.

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There is none that do with good. So this, this lie that God doesn't exist when propagated actually propagates a motivation to do more sin in other people.

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On another note, you don't have to propagate the lie directly.

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Sometimes it can be said without actually saying it. So Satan propagates the lie that there are many guys, right?

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Oh, Winston, it is a terrible lie. We hate this lie. It's terrible.

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So Satan propagates the lie that there are many gods. That sounds like it's opposite of there is no

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God, right? But it's not really opposite because if this were true, there would be many supreme beings.

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And if there is more than one, there really isn't one at all. Can't have more than one supreme being because if there are two, neither one of them are supreme, right?

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It's like the, I've referenced this movie quote before, but in the Incredibles, the bad guy is

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Syndrome, right? And he, his goal is to make everyone super because if everyone is, then nobody is right.

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And the whole point is that we're going to, we're going to make the idea of someone super, not so special.

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And that's what Satan seeks to do with the lie that there are many gods. Well, there are many gods then what's so great about the one true

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God. The whole point of it is to say that there is no God. So when we say, if we, if we say with our lips that we should accept multiple gods, then what we're really saying in our heart, like the fool is that there is no

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God at all. And there are many foolish people in this world who continually work with their hands, the manifestation of the lie that's in their heart.

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They start to sin more and more because there's no judge. There's no creditor.

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So I have no debt. I'm free and clear to do whatever

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I so desire. They have done abominable works.

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I want you to pretend for a moment that you have a t -shirt. Might not have to pretend who in here has a t -shirt.

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We have a t -shirt. Okay. But it's a t -shirt that when you saw it at the store looked pretty great.

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When you got home and put it on, made you look like you were 80 pounds overweight, right?

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Just all of a sudden, what's, how do you feel about that t -shirt now? You hate it, right?

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Like, I don't want this teacher, right? I don't like this teacher, but I want you, what would you do with it then?

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If you got it home and you're like, this is terrible. You turn it, you get rid of it, right?

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You wouldn't want it anymore, but what if there was an expectation for you to keep it? Might you keep it and just not do anything with it?

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Maybe, right? Pay it no attention because it's just worthless to you.

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You're not going to keep that shirt, right? Imagine something happened to the shirt.

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You got a rip in it, something spoiled it, it's stained or it's soiled, right?

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Now what are you going to do with it? Get rid of it, right? Even if there was an expectation now, no one in their right mind would expect you to keep the shirt.

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Am I right? So now it's like, get rid of it, right? I want you to imagine for a second, people, how many of them do it good?

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None, right? Nobody makes the cut. Everybody falls short.

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Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and all in short of the glory of God. So not only does

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God look at the entire race of humans to find them all looking the same, there is none that actively do good.

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If any man knoweth to do good and do with it not to him it is sin, right? So there's like this idea of passive sin.

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They do abominable works. That's like an active sinning.

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Then you have this passive sinning where they won't do good. They actively do bad and they won't do good.

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Can you do anything without thinking about it? Is there anything that you can kind of do with that? It's just kind of natural to you.

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That's how we are with sin. Man is that way in his natural state until he's regenerated by God.

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It is so easy for him to do sin. It's passive. Doesn't even have to try. Just automatically does it.

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But not only does he not have to try to sin, he still does try to sin. It is an active sin and a passive sin.

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So God looks at this entire race of humans or t -shirts, if you will. None of them do good.

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They're terrible from the start. Even if there were an expectation for God to keep them, that expectation is certainly from a logical standpoint out the window because they are corrupt.

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The word corrupt literally means ruined, spoiled, decaying.

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When does the human body decay? Once it's dead, right?

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So which would you say is worse? Death? Which is worse, death or decaying? Decaying is a step beyond death.

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Think about that. Like death is the start of decaying. So when it says that they are corrupt, they're already at the point of decaying.

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What do you do with food that is decaying? Throw it out. I mean, how much do you try to save of that food that is decaying?

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None of it. You should see Katie. If there is even the thought that maybe it could be bad, she might not even check.

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She'll just say like, this has been in here long enough. It's got to be bad. I'm the type who will be like, well, let me smell it and see if it's any good.

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Like, is there, is it still good? Like she's not going to take any chances.

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She threw away a package of crackers or it's never been opened, but it'd been in there a long time.

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I'm like, yeah, but it's still sealed. There's a chance. And she's like, it's been too long. Trash. Like when something is beyond dead, when something, if there's even a hint that it could be dead, we, we will all just naturally assume, of course you get rid of it.

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It's useless. It's nothing. It's, it's beyond useless. It's actually going to cause harm if we keep it.

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So let's get rid of it and let's get rid of it fast. That is the state of man prior to be regenerated by God.

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They have done abominable works. It says they are corrupt. They have done abominable works and there is none that do with good.

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And it's so bad that when we kind of just put it in that context and we think about it, if we relate it to food or a terrible t -shirt, right?

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Logically we all go, yeah, that should be thrown out. And we couldn't really fault

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God for it. Could we? Cause it's just useless. It's beyond useless. It's harmful.

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Let's get rid of it. And yet, because we are the t -shirt, because we are the spoiled food, we are the decaying, the ruined, the unregenerate before God, right?

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We are like a worker in a sanitation factory or something. Somebody who's around terrible smells and because they are around them so much, they kind of get where they can't smell anymore.

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So to us, we don't realize just how bad it is. It takes some time and it takes

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God kind of opening our eyes to see just how bad we really were before him.

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And so that is the state of man. Imagine that t -shirt or that spoiled food that you despise causes you to gag.

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It is loathsome to you. Imagine having the capability to go,

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I'm going to not throw it away. I'm going to fix some of it. I'm going to take that one and that one, that one, this one, that one.

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And even though it's despicable and loathsome and disgusting and anyone in their right mind would just throw it out and do nothing with it.

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I'm going to love it. I'm going to fix it. I'm going to bring it back.

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I'm going to heal it. I'm going to make it work. I'm going to cause it to be profitable, to be something that people admire.

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Whoa, that takes something that none of us have. You think about it?

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No, it's only God could go, let's do that. And then we despise him for that.

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Don't we? You should have chosen all of it. You should have saved all of it.

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Really? No, no, no, no. I have,

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I have a story I was going to share and I kind of skipped over it. Um, I'll make it fast.

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I have a friend, had a friend back in high school that, uh, we didn't hang out a whole lot.

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He's from a different town. He came because he knew our youth pastor, our youth pastor had come from their, their town.

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He came to our town and was doing youth ministry work. And he'd come and visit every once in a while.

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His name was Aaron and he was blind, almost completely blind. He could kind of see stuff right here and that was it.

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Um, but he, he and I went to the

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Hastings. Y 'all remember that store, Hastings, where you could go and get movies and CDs and stuff like that.

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So man, I missed that story. It was one of the coolest stories ever. And we picked up a whole bunch of worship

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CDs and the car I was driving at the time didn't have a CD player, but I had one of those cassette things that you could put the

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CD Walkman, you could put the CD in there and then put the cassette into the cassette player and then play it through the stereo.

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Man, we got in that car and we were jamming to some wow. Worship. Remember those jamming to some wow.

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Worship. And he starts, he opens up one of his CDs and he's holding it up like this. Cause he can kind of read if he got it this close, a lot like brother

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Otis, right? Like he had to get it real close. So we're driving along and he's got his window down and he takes the trash and threw it out the window.

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I couldn't believe it. He did it again. I slammed on the brakes.

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I was like, dude, what are you doing? So what do you mean? What am

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I doing? I'm reading my CD. I'm like, you threw trash out the window. He's like, yeah,

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David's trash. I'm like, I know you messing with Texas son. He's like,

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Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm like, get out of the car and go pick it up.

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I made the blind guy get out of the car and look for his trash. I got out and helped him.

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I did. But man, I couldn't believe it. It was just appalling to me how little he cared about just throwing it out.

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And there are people like that. Have you ever seen people who just, they might drop something and, and you'd see that they dropped it, right?

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Trash or something on the ground. They just keep on going or they make a mess. They knock something over in the store breaks or something like that.

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They just kind of right. I've been working on this with Sam because like a couple of days ago, he, we were at a

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Chinese buffet and he dropped a piece of catfish or something on the ground. We tried to act like it didn't happen.

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I'm like, Sam, I'm going to make a blind guy get out of the car and get his trash.

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I'm gonna make my kid pick up his catfish off the floor. He bet like, come on, pick it up. And then

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I explained to him, like, that's, you know, it's bad to just leave it there. Right.

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I know it's a little embarrassing, but pick it up. That's just how natural it is for us to just do what's not right from childhood.

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Right. So we are utterly worthless. We are utterly useless.

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We can't even try to do good because it's so natural for us to do bad. And that's just how bad we are.

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And yet God goes, I'm going to give you worth. I'm going to make you, I'm going to fix it.

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I'm going to make you actually care about stuff for once about doing good. You're going to be terrible at it, but you're going to try, you know, uh, the

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Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see this verse two, to see if there were any that did understand and seek

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God. This is interesting language. If you ask me, because it seems to show the

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Lord looking for someone who understands and seeks God, it seems it's the way it's written.

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It's as if God's searching. Right. But doesn't he already know he's all knowing, right?

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The reason why it's worded this way is because it shows us just how intimately he knows.

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Uh, he's he's Spurgeon puts it that he's sitting from his vaunted place in heaven and yet inspecting very intimately this man.

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So he has a great viewpoint. Like he can see it all, but he can also zoom in and see every little thing.

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And so the way it's written is to show us that there is nothing that has gotten past God.

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It had, it hasn't, you haven't pulled the wool over his eyes. It hasn't like slipped by him.

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Sometimes we feel that way because we may not experience immediate consequences of sin. I know I've done that, right?

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Like you even, Oh, thank you God for not, not punishing me. But when you finally get right, we got, thank you for not punishing me.

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Oh, there may still be some kind of punishment down the road. You just don't know it yet. Right. Um, it's, it's interesting that, um, man doesn't seek

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God. The reason why that's interesting to me is that we've proven biologically that man has a need to believe in something bigger than himself.

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They've proven that with biology. In fact, the atheist having a real problem with it in that there's something in our biology that causes us to need something bigger than us.

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And yet we deny it. We deny it left and right. And they're not really sure how to deal with that other than, well, man must just need to self -actualize man just must need to, to become more of a

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God himself. You know, that's how you fulfill the need. You've got to attain a higher level of enlightenment.

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So God looking out and surveying every little bit of creation, looking at the hearts of man, do any of them seek him?

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Do any of them understand? And here's what he finds in verse three, they are all gone aside.

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They are all together become filthy. There is none that do with good.

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No, not one. See how it says it again. Like just in case you wondered if God said there was none that do with good.

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No, not one. He just kind of blanket state stated it. It wasn't a blanket statement. It wasn't speaking in hyperbole.

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He doesn't do that. He says, no, there's not a single person that does good. Not one zilch, not zero.

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And in case you wondered, was that just kind of like a guess? Cause we'll do that sometimes we'll speak in absolutes as if we know, right?

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God doesn't have to do that. But in case you wondered if he was, he then is inspecting everything from the perfect vantage point.

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He sees it all. And he's like, no, not a single person does good. They have gone aside, which means they've departed from the way, the way of what way of God they are together become filthy, which shows a unity man is unified in his sin.

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And in his, in, in his, um, depravity and his moral corruption.

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And he is passively simple and actively simple.

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He's absolutely utterly broken. Verse four.

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Have all the workers of iniquity, no knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the

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Lord. Here we see a new level of corruption. A man is persecuting other men.

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He's taking his own filthy desires and his own passive passivity to righteousness.

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He's like not going to do good and actively do bad, but then I'm going to take it and take advantage of others with it.

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Uh, the persecution of others, specifically of those who

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God has regenerated, who eat up my people, his people.

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So when you're in this unregenerated state, if you don't know the

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Lord, not only are you passively evil, you're actively evil, but you take it a step further and you, you seek out those who have been regenerated to take advantage of them.

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We can see that very clearly in the world today, right? Like there is, there is a minority group that has been the minority group since the beginning of time.

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And they are actively oppressed have been since the beginning of time as God's people try to push that in race relations, right?

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Like we are a new race. We are a minority group into the outside world.

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We, we look like something that they despise, which I'll get to more here in a minute. Um, it says that they eat up my people as they eat bread.

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What does that mean? Do you think it's something you do every day as often as you eat bread?

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Kind of like when Jesus said, as often as you do this, remember me, right? Except it's as often as you do this persecute me, right?

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Like that's really what this is like. They're going to go in as often as they can persecute the

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Lord. Uh, and they call not upon the Lord.

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Why does it, why does it put that in there? What do you guys think? Yeah. No, one's going to call upon the

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Lord, especially when they're propagating the lie that he doesn't exist. I go and call on him. I certainly, if I'm going to say he doesn't exist,

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I certainly can't call on him because calling on him also then means

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I've got to give up that lie. Right. And the whole point is I broke fellowship with God through sin.

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Man did this. They broke fellowship with God to pursue sin. And we man as a race is so terrified of being wrong that he has to pursue it to its utter end.

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I'm not going to be wrong. If I pursue it harder, it's going to fulfill. It's going to, it's going to be worth it.

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And there is none that seeketh God. There is none that is righteous, right? We're not seeking him.

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We're seeking that, that thing that we think is going to fulfill, that we chase our whole lives if we don't know the

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Lord. And even after we know the Lord, we can fall to temptation once in a while and go fell victim to the lie of sin again, that it's going to fulfill.

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That's going to make me feel better. It's going to make me, it's going to, it's going to do something for me. That's the lie of sin.

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Yeah. Makes me think of Adam. He didn't seek the Lord. He hid from the

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Lord. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Adam did. Adam hid from the Lord. Well, in a sense, that's kind of what we're doing, right?

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Um, why, why specifically persecute

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God's people? Why go after them? What do you guys think?

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Okay. Don't like seeing you do opposite of what

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I'm doing. Don't like to see you succeed, right? So there could be an element of, of envy if they are in contact with, with successful Christians.

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Uh, but their idea of success would be a little bit different than our idea of success, perhaps, right? Remember all men, unless they are regenerated by God, are evil, vile in ruined with their singular pursuit of sin.

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They deny God exists in hoping in hopes of denying their debt. But what if they're wrong?

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That inkling of a feeling that nagging possibility, the chance that God does exist, that God is real, that God is watching from his vaulted perspective, holding them accountable to their actions.

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What a terrible and frightening thought. See, it's no wonder there is such hatred for God's people.

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Jesus said, if you have seen me, then you have seen the father. Paul said, it is no longer

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I, but Christ who lives within me. So God is in the generation of his people, the generation of the righteous, their very existence reeks to the unregenerate.

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It reeks to them. They can't stand it because God's people put on this new man that is made in the likeness of God.

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And they talk about God and they claim to serve and know God personally as if he really is there.

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And I'm trying to get to the point where I don't think he is. That's absolutely dreadful.

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If you think about it, if you want there to be no God so that you can continue in your pursuit of sin. And there's someone standing there acting different than the world, looking like this guy named

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Christ who claimed to be God and saying that God lives in him.

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Well, we got a problem because if that's real, I've got a debt.

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I've got to send debt. That's why they hate it. Spurgeon points out that Haman was joyful and glad of heart until he saw

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Mordecai at the gate. Think about that. That's what's happening. Things are great.

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My life is awesome. I get to do whatever I want. I can go where I want, be who I want, act out what

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I want. There are no consequences. Mordecai, remember

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Mordecai was not having a great time. You know, he was worried. He was pretty bad state.

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He's got high level people who, who hate him and are oppressing him.

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That's not enough for payment. Just the fact that Mordecai still exists. The fact that he's there, that's a problem.

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He's standing over there and it just ruined my day. Why? Because Mordecai is a remembrance of the

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Lord who's in charge. Verse six, you have shamed the council of the poor because the

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Lord is his refuge. And so the scorner mocks the righteous for the very thing that causes the scorner to fear you.

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You believe in God. Where is your God? Who's going to deliver you?

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Or as David wrote in Psalm chapter three, there is no help for him in God. Remember that?

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Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel against the

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Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bands asunder. All of that. And I think that's

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Psalm chapter two, all of that was to get rid of the idea that God is there.

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We got to get rid of this because this is the thing that makes us uncomfortable.

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Yeah. I can't pursue sin as they call it.

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I can't pursue this comfortably when there's someone telling me

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I'm going to go to hell. I can't pursue it comfortably when there's someone telling me that what I'm trying to do is actually ultimately going to kill me.

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I want to hear that. I don't want to know that. Why are you so hateful?

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Why are you being such a bigot? Why are you discriminating against me?

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Why can't you just love me? Doesn't your Bible say you're supposed to love? They don't understand, do they?

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They don't understand what love is. So that's what they do.

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They shame the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge. That is the reason they shame him.

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I'm going to end pretty fast today. We're almost done. Last verse, verse seven, oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion.

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When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.

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There's the hope in this chapter for the, for the regenerated people of God, for God's people.

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That that's the part where if we will hold on to verse seven here and just recognize that all the promises of the

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Lord are true and that he does do what he says he's going to do, and he says he's going to come back.

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If we hold on to that, we will endure the scorning of the wicked. We'll endure the oppression and the suppression of the truth.

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And we see here that the prayer of the righteous in response to this wicked oppression, the return of our

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Lord Jesus to vanquish his foes, like the king rescuing Esther and her uncle

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Mordecai. Guys, we have, we're living in an interesting time when the spirit of the antichrist is rising, right?

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Does that mean that the antichrist is here and that he's already on this earth and he's walking this earth and he's going to go and sacrifice a swine on the altar?

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We're going to see it with our own two eyes here on earth during our lifetime. We don't know. The spirit of antichrist has risen its ugly head multiple times throughout history.

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And right now we're seeing it in a big way here in America. Right now, the spirit of antichrist is overtaking and beginning to outwardly oppress

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God's people in a nation that was founded as a Christian nation, in a nation that was founded on godly principles, in a nation that was founded because God established it in God's own backyard, so to speak.

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You think maybe he's going to get the fire ant poison out and clean up the backyard?

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He's certainly going to do that. That's what we hold on to. That's the hope we have.

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We know that God can, he can look at us in our unregenerated state, looking just disgusting, useless, of no value.

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Right? And he can say, I can love them. No one else would.

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No one else will. So if I don't, there's no hope. So I do.

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I will love them. I will save them. I will fix this. And so knowing that he's done that for us, shouldn't we have some patience with the ones he's going to throw out, knowing that there are some who will never enjoy that.

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We should move with fear for their sake, knowing like we can't really tell the difference between God's people and not

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God's people until after they're on virgin, after they are regenerated.

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Right? So after they're regenerated, we can know them by their works. We can know them by their loved one for another, but until that, they don't look like that, but it doesn't mean they're not

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God's people, right? They could be God's people and we've got to go after them and say,

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Hey, let's take some ground for the Lord. Let's see how many people we can tell about this good news.

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Some of them will despise it. Some of them will rail against it. And in fact, some of God's people might start off that way.

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Like Saul, it's hard for him to kick against the pricks, right? So we just keep sharing.

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We keep showing ourselves to be the light. We keep trying to look like God. And we meekly instruct those who oppose themselves that God per adventure may give unto them repentance.

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And then we let God take care of the rest because it's going to get worse before it gets better.

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And since it's going to get worse before it gets better, we've got to just count it all joy for now, right?

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Count it all joy and um, read through Psalm chapter 14, recognize that we used to look like that, this terrible thing, and then hold onto the hope that if they don't change,

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God's going to come and kick some booty and save us. But let's hope and pray that they do change.

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So they can go back with us. That's all I have for today. Anybody want to add anything?

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Yes, sir. Why do I as a

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Calvinist think we should witness because I still believe, well, first I don't call really call myself a

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Calvinist, but everything Calvin believed, I believe. So the world would call me a Calvinist, I guess, but I believe that we should witness because I don't know which is which, and I am held accountable for the choices

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I make. And if I don't share God's word, if I don't share the good news,

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I'm held accountable for that. God's very clear on that. And sure, he knows who they are.

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I don't. So what does that mean? He'll direct me to the ones he wants me to share that with for two reasons.

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One, so that he can give them to them repentance and bring them to heaven or two, so that he can condemn them by his word.

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So both of those happen when I share God's word. One, I find

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God's people and get to bring them back with me. And there's going to be treasures in heaven and joyous occasion for that.

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And two, I got to fight the battle and help vanquish the foe if they are not one of God's people.

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So there's two reasons to it. It's not just to get people saved. It's also like when

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Noah built the ark, it was to the saving of his family and the condemning of the world.

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Right? When that door shut, it did two things. It saved God's people and it condemned the others.

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So I think witnessing has two purposes. Yes, sir. So you said he was going to do it.

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He does. He commands me to do it. Demands me go and share his word.

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It's interesting how God does that because you think of it like this, nobody, nobody in here had the capability to do anything for God until he regenerated us.

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So he's the, he's the Colonel that started it all. But once he started it, then like Jesus said, I do the work of my father.

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Then he's like, now you're going to do the work of the father too. So like we get to be a part of that family business as you call it.

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I love that. Um, we get to go and, and do what God tells us to do, which we previously had no capability of doing.

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So there's joy in that too. Anything else?

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All right. Well, let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the good news.

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We thank you that when we were at our most unlovable state, we were beyond death, but decaying that you saw fit to fix it, to redeem what everyone else would consider unredeemable.

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No one else could have done that. No one else had it within them to do that. Not only did you have it within you to do it, then you did it.

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Even though we looked loathsome to you in that state, we wouldn't have tried.

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Father, forgive us for any, any of us who may have ever been mad at you for not saving everyone.

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We like to put that responsibility on man. We like to say, well, we didn't choose you. So it's our fault.

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And there, there's an element of that that's true in that we're held responsible, but father, unless you give us the light, unless you open our eyes, there's no way that we can do it anyway.

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So when you do that, the fact that you do it with one or two or three people is amazing to do it with millions is unfathomable.

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And we thank you for saving the remnant. We can't wait to see who all you've saved when we get to heaven, but father, help us to be patient with the world, not tolerant, patient, help us to point out good and evil and to be salt brings flavor and light, which chases out the darkness.

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Help us to be better at that and help us to realize that it's a big responsibility that we have, or we thank you that you are coming back and that we can look forward to it.

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And that when the world oppresses us, um, we are blessed for that.