All right, we're going to go to Psalms and think the sermon is the paths of the destroyer.
The paths of the destroyer. And that comes from Psalm 17, which we'll get to in a little bit.
We're going to finish, we're going to do three chapters here tonight. Notice in Psalms 15,
starting in verse number one, where Bob reads,
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
But it's talking about abiding in thy tabernacle, or dwelling in thy holy hill.
The application we can make is basically when you're abiding in church,
and you're dwelling in the house of God, you're staying faithful to the things of God.
See, salvation is very easy. It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
In order to actually abide in God's house, you have to do more than just believe on Jesus Christ.
See, there's plenty of people that are saved here in Manila that do not go to church.
They don't love the Lord. They're not here tonight.
In fact, there's plenty of people that even, you know, will listen to sermons online,
but they're not abiding in thy tabernacle. We don't see them on Sundays.
They don't come to church. They're not dwelling in thy holy hill.
They're not really here in the house of God. They're kind of there from a distance.
They listen to sermons, but they don't really want to be in the house of God.
Because abiding in God's house, especially a house that's really preaching the truth
and really doing something for God, you will not abide in a church like that
unless you're actually living for God.
You see, a normal Baptist church that didn't really preach hard against sin
and didn't really do much soul winning, that sort of church you could kind of float through
and not feel too guilty. But if you're in a church like this,
you're only going to abide and last if you're actually living righteously.
Because if you start to backslide, the sermons are going to kind of hit a little bit too close to home.
You're going to start to feel guilty, and you'll probably leave a place like this.
And that is why a church like this will be a church where people will often leave
because they don't really want to live for God.
But the people that are in a church like this really do want to live for God.
See, this church is never going to be a mega church.
Now, I believe this church is going to grow through the years.
But I believe it's going to be a slow, steady growth,
because quite honestly, most people don't want to live for God.
And most people might visit this church. They might enjoy the preaching.
But at the end of the day, when they go home,
they don't want to actually apply everything they've heard preached.
And the truth is, most people will not abide in a church like this.
They would abide in a lame church that doesn't do anything.
But in a church like this, you're only going to abide if you actually do something for God,
if you actually want to live for God.
In fact, I mentioned several things in this chapter.
In verse 2, it says, He that walketh uprightly.
Look, if you're someone who's living a wicked life or not really obeying God's rules,
you're just not going to like a church like this,
because it's going to step on your toes one too many times,
and eventually you're just going to say, forget it.
I don't want to be at this church.
Now, when you leave, you're going to make up some excuse.
You're going to say, well, you know, Brother Stuckey's mean,
or so and so, you know, sat in my chair or something like that.
You'll make up an excuse.
You won't say that you're backslidden and you don't want to live for God.
But the reality is, if you don't walk uprightly,
you're going to be mad at a church like this.
And the reality is because you're not walking uprightly.
That's why you'll leave a place like this.
It says, and worketh righteousness.
So you need to be someone who's actually living a godly life.
And the Bible says also, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
Now, that reminds me of the parable of the sower,
because you remember the parable of the sower,
there's four types of people.
And it's only the last one that actually really lives for God.
The first one doesn't get saved.
The next three do get saved.
But it's only the last one that is someone who's bringing forth fruit with patience.
And what it says in the parable of the sower is,
in an honest and good heart.
And that's pretty similar here where it says, speaketh the truth in his heart.
See, what you have to understand is when you hear the preaching of God's word,
you must have an honest heart about it.
You see, if you are guilty, you must just admit it.
Look, if you hear a sermon that, you know, you're about reading the Bible
and you don't read the Bible every day,
you must just have an honest heart and not make excuses
and just say, I need to make a change.
And see, the person who's actually going to abide in thy tabernacle
or abide in the house of God is someone who speaks the truth in his heart.
Because the truth is that, you know, when this Word of God is preached,
every single one of us, including myself, will have sermons that step on their toes.
Now you say, Brother Stuckey, it feels bad when I'm in the church
and I hear a sermon against me.
Think about when you're writing sermons and I'm piercing myself.
I'm looking at verses and saying, oh man, I got to preach this.
I better make sure, you know, oftentimes, you know, I'll tell God to you,
God, please help me out with this because I don't want to be a hypocrite up here.
I don't want to just get up here and vainly say something
and I'm not actually doing it myself.
So it kind of forces me every single week to make sure I'm right with God.
And so quite honestly, look, the Word of God pierces me as well.
It's quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.
But we all have to be honest with the Word of God when we read it.
We see something we're guilty of, we got to admit it.
We start to get worldly in our life, just admit it.
We're not really living for God as much as we used to,
just admit it and get right with God.
It also says in verse number three,
he that back biteth not with his tongue.
Now when it talks about back biting with your tongue,
it's basically talking about someone who would gossip
and it would criticize other people behind their back.
Now turn to James 3, James 3.
Now our sermon title comes from Psalm 17,
but honestly Psalm 15 is an important chapter in the Word of God
because this chapter is really about abiding in God's house forever.
And I hope that's a goal that you have in life.
Look, getting saved is easy.
All you have to do is believe.
But you know, honestly staying faithful to God your entire life,
that's not something that's easy.
Look, I've been saved, you know, 14, 15 years.
I got saved at the age of 18, I guess 15 years.
And you know what?
I started going to church, you know, 14, 15 years ago
and I've stayed faithful to church.
But in the grand scheme of things, let's say I quit church next year
and I die at the age of 80, then I didn't really last that long in church.
That's only a small portion of my life.
Now I don't plan to get out of church,
but it is possible for anybody to quit church.
Anybody can backslide.
In the Bible we see people like David backsliding.
Any one of us could get out of church.
And honestly, you know, most people here,
we haven't been in church that long.
We barely even started the race.
I mean, it's a long race to the end.
You say, well, Brother Stuckey, I've been a soul winner for a couple years.
That's only like, you know, 5% of how long you should be a soul winner.
Because you should be a soul winner until the day you die.
You say, I've been soul winning for a couple years.
Man, you should be soul winning for 40 years.
Every single year by year by year by year until you die.
Every single one of us.
And so none of us have really run the whole race.
I hope we have a goal of lasting to the very end.
And quite honestly, most people do not make it.
Even in the Bible, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.
If one of Paul's right hand men would quit on the things of God,
it could happen to any one of us in this room.
Now, one thing it mentioned was backbiting with your tongue.
And notice what it says in James 3, verse 5.
Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things.
Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body,
and seteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell.
For every kind of beast, and of birds, and of serpents,
and of things in the sea is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.
But the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
And in James chapter 3, it talks about the destruction and dangers of the tongue.
And the truth is that we like to gossip as people.
We like to criticize others because it makes us feel better.
And you know, in James 3, there's a whole chapter devoted to this.
And the tongue, it doesn't seem like a big deal.
It's only a little fire that's being kindled, but that spreads into being a big issue.
And quite honestly, this is something that all of us struggle with from time to time.
And you can tell that from these verses, because the tongue can no man tame, the Bible says.
Go back to Psalms chapter 15.
But what the Bible says is that someone who would backbite with their tongue,
someone who has a habit of gossiping or criticizing other people, putting other people down,
that's the sort of person that does not abide in the house of God.
Eventually, that could be a sin that could lead you into leaving the house of God.
The Bible says also, in verse number 3,
Nor doeth evil to his neighbors.
Someone who would harm his neighbor, do evil to them.
Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.
And so what we're seeing here in Psalms 15 is that the truth is to abide in God's house,
to be faithful to the things of God, there are actually requirements to make that happen.
If you are not living the Christian life, you will fade out of a good church.
That is what's going to take place.
Now, none of us feel like we're going to backside out of church.
But look, if you've been in church for any amount of time,
you know, if you've been in church for years before this church,
you see people come, you see people go.
You see people that get in church and man, they are on fire for the things of God.
They're at all the activities.
They're at the evangelism events.
They just seem fired up.
Man, a lot of those young men, they want to be pastors one day,
then a year later, boom, just gone.
It happens all the time.
And it's not just at a church like this.
You see that at any church.
You know, any church that has any semblance of preaching the truth,
people come and people go.
You never expect people to go.
But that is what takes place.
People come and people go.
You say, why?
Because it's very hard to live for God.
It's very easy to backslide.
And it's something that we should all take heed to,
because I don't think any one of us would say,
hey, I want to fade out of church in a couple years and go back to watching movies
and go back to just listening to rock music.
I would hope that's not a goal that any of you have.
I don't think anyone has a goal to fade out of the things of God.
But we must admit it's a possibility, though.
That is why we have to take heed to these things.
It says in verse four, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned,
but he that honoreth them that fear the Lord,
he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not.
And so the Bible is talking about someone who would swear to his own hurt
as someone who lasts in the house of God.
What does it mean to swear to your own hurt?
It basically means that you make some sort of vow or you make a decision
or you say you're going to do something.
I swear I'll be there tomorrow to help you out.
And then like 30 minutes later, you're like, man,
I should not have said that.
I don't want to go.
I'm too busy tomorrow.
But you swear to your own hurt.
So if you say you're going to do something, you do it and change not.
It doesn't matter what you said.
You follow through with it.
Look, if we make a decision to do something,
we say we're going to do something.
You don't quit on it.
You must stick with it.
That's what the Bible says.
And if you have a habit of just saying you're going to do something
and not doing it, the Bible is telling you that's the sort of person
that can fade out of the things of God can fade out of being in church.
And look, we've all said we're going to do things,
and then we don't follow through.
Isn't that true?
There's things that I've said, you know, that, oh, you know,
and then you don't end up wanting to do it.
And, you know, the truth is, though, that when you hear God's word preached,
you realize, hey, you know what?
It's important to God when you say you're going to do something
that you're a faithful person to it.
Turn to Proverbs 20.
Proverbs 20.
Now, what we must realize is that if we say we're going to do something
and then we don't follow through with it,
what happens is we lose all credibility, right?
Where we're basically showing we're not faithful.
And this is something we've all done before.
But, you know, quite honestly, you know, it's something we shouldn't make a habit of.
In Proverbs 20, verse 6, the Bible reads,
most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness,
but a faithful man who can find.
And so the Bible says that most people,
they're going to talk about how great they are and how faithful they are
and how dedicated they are, how great they are at this and that,
because most people are kind of filled with pride.
You know, if you're around the average person in the world,
they always talk about how good they are at something.
You know, they'll tell you that they're good at this or good at that.
And, you know, that's how most people are.
It's something that's kind of in our nature, but a faithful man who can find.
And see, most people would claim that they're faithful,
but quite honestly, it's very hard to find people that are that faithful.
Turn back to Psalms 15.
Now, one thing we certainly need to be faithful to is to the house of God.
We just have to make a decision that, you know what?
I'm going to be in church no matter what takes place.
And look, every single one of us, we have some Sundays we wake up
and we do not want to go to church.
There are Sundays I wake up and I don't want to go to church.
I'm like, man, I really wish I wasn't preaching today.
I really wish I could just kind of sit down and relax.
I don't really feel like being in church today.
I'm tired or whatever.
But, you know, it doesn't matter whether we feel like being in church or not,
because it's just a decision you do.
Look, you don't wake up in the morning and say,
well, you know, I'm going to see if I feel like going to work today.
No, you just have to go to work to pay your bills.
And, you know, if you have a habit of saying,
well, you know, I might go to work today, I might not.
Yeah, you're going to last like two weeks of that job.
You have to just be faithful to it no matter what.
It should be the same thing with the house of God,
because quite honestly, the house of God is more important than your work.
And yet people come to church if they feel like it.
That is a poor reason to decide whether or not you're going to come to church.
You should come to church no matter what, just because that's what you do.
You don't miss church.
And, you know, honestly, it's just something that seems to be a problem with people,
but it really shouldn't be because church is just what you do,
whether you feel like it, whether you don't feel like it.
Look, there are times I do not feel like coming to church,
especially on a day on Wednesday nights if it's really raining really hard and everything.
And I'm like, man, we're not even going to have many people show up anyway.
I'm like, man, I almost wish it rains really hard so I can't even make it to church.
You know, but I still come no matter what.
And it should be the same way with all of us.
You stay faithful to the house of God.
Look at verse number five here in Psalms 15.
It says, he that putteth not out his money to usury,
nor taketh reward against the innocent, he that doeth these things shall never be moved.
And so the Bible often talks about being planted or rooted in the house of God.
And if you're doing these things, doing the things that he tells you to in this chapter
and not doing the things he says not to, you will not be moved.
You will not get out of church.
You'll be rooted and planted in God's tabernacle in his holy hill.
Now, here's what you need to understand if you quit church.
When a person quits church, they will change what they believe.
Now, they won't change what they believe about salvation because, you know,
you're indwelled with the spirit of truth, but you will change your stance on worldliness.
You'll change your stance about the LGBT.
You'll change your stance about, you know,
things that are important and your beliefs and things such as that.
You'll take a softer stance on things.
Look, it's not just that you're skipping church,
but you're going to change, you know, the things that you believe.
I'll be honest with you.
I don't want to change what I believe.
You say, why?
Because what I believe is right.
Now, look, I'm not saying I understand everything in the Bible
or that every verse I have full understanding on.
But, you know, the main things, you know, my standards of right and wrong,
those things are right.
The things that you believe, they're right.
But see, if you leave a church like this, you will change what you believe.
That's what takes place.
Look, I don't want to change what I believe.
Look, I'm glad that I know there's very few people that get what the real agenda of the LGBT is.
I'm glad I know.
And I don't want to change what I believe about that.
I don't care if all the Philippines thinks that I'm crazy or that we're crazy.
Look, I don't want to change what I believe about.
I don't want to change my worldliness standard on television and music.
I don't want to change my stance.
And look, if you quit church, you will change your stance on that.
I promise you that.
You're not going to keep the same standard.
Look, I don't want to change what I believe about the Bible.
I love God's word, every word of it, whether or not it hurts sometimes or not.
I don't want to change what I believe.
But the truth is that if you're not walking the walk,
you will fade out of church and you will change what you believe.
And I don't think any one of us at this moment in our lives wants that to happen.
Now, look at Psalm 16, Psalm 16.
And let's look at verse number one in Psalm 16.
It says, preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust.
O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord.
My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth
and to the excellent in whom is all my delight.
Now, the Bible in verse number three says to the saints.
And a saint is someone who's saved, who's a believer in Jesus Christ.
They're indwelled with the Holy Holy Ghost.
They have the spirit of truth.
They have eternal life.
It's someone who is saved.
Now, it says the saints that are in the earth.
What that's saying is the people that are saved alive in the earth.
Now, the Catholic Church, they will declare people saints after they die.
I suppose in verse three, their interpretation is the saints that are six feet under the ground
that are in the earth because they don't declare someone a saint while they're alive.
So I guess they're saying, hey, you know, the saints like Saint Peter, you know,
his tomb and Saint Paul, his tomb, those people, the saints that are in the earth.
That's not what the Bible is talking about.
It's talking about people that are saved that are living.
Okay.
And in verse number four, the Bible reads,
their sorrows shall be multiplied and hasten after another God.
Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
And the Bible speaking about speaking about another God, a false God.
Now, when it says at the end of verse four, nor take up their names into my lips,
I know some people take this, you know, really strongly to say that
you shouldn't even say the name of a false God.
Now, I don't take that stance like, but I will say this,
even though I'd mentioned the name of Shiva, you know, one of the manifestations of Hinduism,
I'm certainly not going to say anything good about Shiva.
It's certainly the opposite of the God of the Bible.
It's certainly not the same God.
Look, all these religions, their gods are false gods.
They're not true gods.
Those gods, there's nothing good to say about them.
There's nothing good to say about a false religion.
There's nothing good to say about Hinduism.
There's nothing good to say about Buddhism.
There's nothing good to say about Islam or Catholicism or Calvinism or Protestantism
or any false religion or Buddhism, any false religion.
There's nothing good to say about it.
They're all teaching a work salvation.
There's nothing good that's going to come out of my lips for those religions.
They're false religions.
They're not true religions.
And there's nothing good that I'm going to say about them.
Verse number five, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.
Thou maintainest my lot.
And in verse number five, it says the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance.
Now, what is an inheritance?
Let's say, for example, that you have parents and, you know, your parents die.
And let's say they have a million pesos and they pass it on to you.
It's your inheritance.
They have money that's going to go to you once they pass away.
It goes on to their children, you know, usually.
And so that is your inheritance.
Now, when the Bible speaks about an inheritance, a heavenly inheritance, what you have to realize
is that when the Lord is your portion, you can start building up rewards in heaven.
Now, this is not like the Egyptian gods where they would basically, you know, take all their
golden possessions into the grave with them.
That's not what we're talking about, because, you know, your belongings perish with you.
But what it's talking about is like when you win souls to the Lord, when you're serving
God, you're part of a church that's doing something for God and you're really devoted
to it and you're reading the Bible.
You're being a good husband, a good wife, a good mom, a good dad.
You're doing the things that God tells you to do.
You know, you're laying up an inheritance in the afterlife.
Now, what's going to happen is not that you're just, you know, you have some, you know, a
great house and other people have bad houses or whatever.
But basically, the Bible talks about you laying your rewards to the Lord.
But you will have different responsibilities in heaven.
And so, quite honestly, the more you do here on earth, you will be rewarded for that.
Look, obviously, just by believing on Jesus Christ, you go to heaven.
But at the same time, there's going to be a lot of people that go to heaven and they
have no rewards.
They've done nothing.
And their works are going to be tried in the fire and they're all going to burn up because
they are wood, hay, and stubble, as the Bible mentions.
Now, I want you to realize that our life here on earth is pretty short.
You're going to live probably 70, 80 years.
That's what the Bible teaches.
You know, maybe more, maybe less.
It's not really that long of a life.
And so trying to just lay up some rewards here on earth and just go on everything, fancy
vacations, have the fanciest house, you know, have the best of everything.
I'm not saying there's anything sinful about, you know, if you have money, you've been blessed
with that.
What I'm saying is you better not try to lay up an inheritance on earth because that's
going to perish with you.
Verse number six, the lines are fallen onto me in pleasant places.
Yay, I have a goodly heritage.
And so verse number six is a pretty famous verse in the Bible, especially the part where
it talks about having a goodly heritage.
And let me say this, that if you are saved here tonight, which I believe is everybody,
you know what?
Honestly, you should be thankful you have a goodly heritage because very few people in
this world are saved.
We were actually talking about it before the service trying to estimate what percentage
of the world is saved.
I think it's less than 1%.
Now, I could be wrong, but it's not very high.
In my opinion, the United States probably has a higher percentage of saved people than
any country.
And I think the Philippines is probably near the top as well in terms of the highest percentage
of saved people.
Because as bad as the Baptist churches are here in the Philippines, I mean, move to Europe.
I mean, are there good churches in Europe?
Not a whole lot, right?
I mean, you'd have to change countries to find a good church in a lot of places.
I mean, I remember looking on just a basic IFB directory, and when you look at a basic
independent fundamental Baptist directory, that doesn't mean all those churches are good
because a lot of them are repentance of sins.
I mean, some are good, some are bad.
But go to the countries in Europe.
I mean, there's like 60 million plus people that live in countries like Spain and Germany
and the United Kingdom, and you'll find like one church or no churches or two churches.
I mean, because there would be a lot of IFB churches here in the Philippines.
That doesn't mean that they're good, but they at least have the name IFB.
Go to Europe and you're going to find like one church per 50 million people, and there's
like a 50-50 chance that they're preaching the right Gospel.
It's like, good night, man.
How many people are really saving those?
Move to a Muslim country.
How many people do you think are saved in Iraq or Iran or Saudi Arabia?
Look, the fact that we're even saved here tonight, we should be thankful for.
Because quite honestly, even if you have the worst life here on Earth, you're doing better
than 99% of people.
But the truth is that as a saved person, and quite honestly, I was raised in a good way.
My parents really set me up in a good path in life.
But honestly, I want to prepare a future for my son and our next child and however many
kids we have and really start them off with a goodly heritage in pleasant places.
Because I grew up watching the TV, listening to the music, watching the movies, probably
all of us did.
Wouldn't it be great if you could raise kids, though, that never get the influences of the
world like that?
Obviously, you can't escape the world.
We're not the Amish here.
Obviously, you're going to be in the world.
But I mean, it would be great to raise your kids where they don't know the rock music.
You mentioned the Beatles.
Someone mentioned the Beatles to them, and they're like, who are the Beatles?
They mentioned Led Zeppelin.
They're like, who's Led Zeppelin?
You mentioned something, and they say, I don't even know who that is.
You know, one of my nieces the other day, you know, we were visiting back in the US.
She didn't know who Michael Jordan was.
And I was like, man, that's great.
You don't know who Michael Jordan is.
It's like, wow, you know, you're really, like, distanced from the world.
But it's just like, you know, that would be great, though, that, you know, you raise
kids and they're not so influenced by the world and they don't know all these people.
They haven't watched all these movies.
Look, I don't desire to listen to rock music at all.
But quite honestly, for years after I was saved, even though I wasn't listening to it,
you still hear that song in restaurants.
You'd hear that song on the radio or whatever.
You're in the grocery store.
And my heart really went after that song.
And I was singing every single word in my head without even thinking about it.
It's like you put something in your head.
It's hard to get it out.
It's very easy to put stuff into your head.
It's very hard to get rid of it.
So that's one thing I'd really love kids to understand that, you know, they think it's
harmless to listen to songs that are ungodly.
The problem is you put ungodliness in your head.
It's very hard to remove it out of your head.
I mean, it can take years.
It can take a lifetime.
You might never remove it.
But imagine if you could raise kids that they don't have that problem because they've
never even heard that garbage.
Notice what it says in verse number seven.
I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel.
My reigns also instruct me in the night seasons.
I've set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand.
I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth.
My flesh also shall rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.
Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.
Now, verses nine and ten, if you're familiar with this, this is actually quoted in the
New Testament in Acts chapter two.
Turn to Acts two, Acts two.
And so Acts chapter two.
So basically Psalm 16 kind of prophesies about how the Lord would be in hell after he died,
because when Jesus Christ died on the cross, his body was in the ground and his soul was
in hell, according to the Bible.
Now notice what it says in Acts two, verses 26 and 27.
Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad.
Moreover also, my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.
Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.
Now, I believe it's pretty clear that when Jesus died, his soul went to a literal burning
hell for three days and three nights.
I think it's very clear in the Bible.
And let me just prove that to you here in verse number 27.
What you have to understand is, grammatically, there's two statements listed here.
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.
Two different things that are being talked about.
Now, the way this is written grammatically, they're going to have the same connotation.
Okay?
So what I mean by this is look at the second half of this where it says neither wilt thou
suffer thine holy one to seek corruption.
Now, is corruption a good thing or a bad thing?
It's a bad thing.
When it says thou wilt, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption, he's referring
to the body.
Okay?
So he's basically saying his body won't be corrupted because Jesus Christ was dead for
three days and three nights.
Remember Lazarus was dead for four days and behold he stinketh.
Okay?
Because your body starts to decompose at a certain time.
Jesus though was resurrected before his body saw corruption.
Okay?
Now, seeing corruption would be a bad thing though.
So basically he was physically resurrected or he physically resurrected himself before
his body could see corruption.
Corruption would be a bad thing.
So in the first half of the verse, it has the same sort of connotation.
Negative connotation in terms of corruption saved from seeing corruption.
Okay?
So the first half should have the same thing grammatically.
So when it says because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, is hell a good thing or a
bad thing?
It's a bad thing.
Corruption is a bad thing.
Hell has to be a bad thing.
And that's common sense.
We know hell is a bad thing because what some people will tell you is that there is a good
part to hell.
They say that in the Old Testament there's the non burning part of hell.
Okay?
Now, look, talk to anybody on the street and ask them whether or not hell is a good place.
Everyone's going to say it's a bad place.
Everybody knows that.
Hell was never a good place.
You're never going to find a verse that mentions hell as being a good place or there being
a non burning part to hell.
But what it says here, though, is because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.
And so basically Jesus was physically resurrected and spiritually as well.
So corruption is a bad thing.
Hell is a bad thing.
Being resurrected is a good thing.
And so he was spared from his soul staying in hell and he was spared from his body seeing
corruption.
Grammatically, it's going to have the same connotation.
And so corruption is negative.
Hell has to be negative.
It can't be positive.
That wouldn't make sense grammatically.
And obviously we would know this because hell is a bad thing.
It's a bad place.
There is not a non burning part to hell.
That's ridiculous.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
And hell is always a bad thing.
In the Old Testament, it says hell hath enlarged yourself.
Hell hath enlarged yourself.
Basically, the center of the earth, it's thousands of degrees.
Think of Mount Pinatubo or any volcano.
And we know what the center of the earth is like.
That's what the center of the earth has always been like.
The center of the earth is not a place that you want to go.
And hell has always been located in the center of the earth.
And heaven or paradise has always been located above, not below.
It's not that confusing in the Bible, but I just want you to understand here whether
it is in Psalm 16 or Acts 2, that when you look at this grammatically, corruption is
negative, which means hell must be negative as well.
And being resurrected is a good thing.
It's a good thing.
And you're spared from seeing corruption with the body or your soul staying in hell.
Now go back to Psalm 16.
Psalm 16.
Now you say, why is it that people don't believe that the soul of Jesus went to hell for three
days and three nights?
It's funny because when we preach the gospel to people, doesn't it just make sense if you
explain that to people that Jesus Christ, he died for your sins and the penalty for
our sins is an eternity of hell.
And so if Jesus was paying for your sins, where did he have to go to pay for your sins?
And they're like, oh, wow, he had to go to hell.
Right.
It's pretty simple.
It makes perfect sense.
But I'll tell you this, that I used to believe that Jesus did not go to a literal burning
hell.
You say, why?
Because you hear things preached and you just automatically assume that your pastor's right.
You automatically assume that what you heard is right.
You don't question it.
That's the way all of us are to some degree.
Look, we should always, always look at things in the Bible and double check to make sure
for ourselves.
I even remember seeing clear verses that said Jesus went to hell and I was just thinking,
yeah, but you know, this pastor said he didn't, so I must be wrong because I didn't have any
confidence in myself.
Look, if you're saved, you have the spirit of truth inside of you.
You have the word of God inside of you.
And I don't care who you're listening to preach, whether it's me or anybody.
Make sure what they're saying is correct because all of us can be wrong.
All of us can be biased about things.
Make sure that you see what the Bible says.
And if you can tell the Bible says something different, believe what the spirit of truth
tells you.
Because I will say things that are wrong from time to time.
I will make mistakes.
I'm not perfect.
I don't know everything and nobody knows everything.
Verse number 11 in Psalm 16.
Thou wilt show me the path of life in thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Now let's go to Psalm 17.
Psalm 17.
And this is really where we're going to have most of the sermon here.
Psalm 17.
And the Bible reads in Psalm 17 verse one.
Hear the right, O Lord.
Attend unto my cry.
Give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of fain lips.
And when it says the right, it's referring to someone who's doing right.
Someone who's basically living godly or righteously.
And basically, you know what the Psalmist is saying is, God, you know, hear the prayer
of someone who's living a righteous life.
The truth is that if you are living an ungodly life, you cannot expect God to answer your
prayers.
Look, if you commit adultery and then an hour later just pray to God for, you know, that
He'll bless you with your job.
Look, He's not going to answer that prayer.
You have to actually be living godly if you want God's blessing upon your life.
Then it says in the end of this verse that goeth not out of feigned lips.
Feigned lips.
You say, what does it mean by feigned lips?
Well, turn to 2 Samuel 14.
2 Samuel chapter 14.
And we'll see what we'll see a cross reference here and see another verse that talks about
uses the word feign.
And in 2 Samuel chapter 14 and in verse number 2, the Bible reads,
And Joab sent to Tekoa and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee,
feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint thyself with
oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead.
And so when he says feign thyself to be a mourner, basically pretend to be a mourner,
be fake, be a phony.
You're basically being deceptive.
Pretend to be a mourner.
Okay.
And so go back to Psalm 17.
Psalm 17.
And so basically when it talks about feigned lips, give ear unto my prayer because I'm
not going to basically pray with feigned lips.
Basically, you know, when David's saying stuff, he's not fake about it.
He actually means it.
And you say, why would the Bible use this phrase feigned lips?
Look, there are a lot of people in a lot of religions that they have prayers that are
just basically fake.
They're out of feigned lips.
They basically just vainly repeat something.
They don't really mean it.
In fact, I think the religion of this country is guilty of that.
The Roman Catholic Church, think about their prayers.
Just hail Mary, full of grace, hail Mary, full of grace.
Look, those are feigned lips, my friend.
They're just vainly repeating something.
They don't have any passion.
They don't have any meaning behind it.
They're just vainly repeating something.
They don't really mean it at all.
Another good example of this is when people come down to an altar call to get right with
God.
They don't really want to get right with God.
They're not really going to make changes, but they want people to actually see them
get down.
See, they're doing it to be seen of men.
See, the same people that always go down to the altar to get right with God, they never
get right with God.
It's like you're the same person that's cheating on your wife.
You're the same person that never goes soul winning.
You're the same person that skips church.
But every time you come to church, you get down on your knees at the altar.
Why?
Because they want to be seen of men.
It's fake.
They're being phony.
And so quite honestly, people do religious things just fakely.
They don't really mean it.
They're doing it to be seen of men, or they just vainly repeat something.
And that is really what we're seeing in Psalm 17 of feigned lips.
And David's saying, you know what?
When I pray, I actually mean what I'm saying.
I'm not just vainly saying something.
I actually mean it.
Notice what it says in verse number two.
Psalm 17 verse two.
Let my sentence come forth from thy presence.
Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.
Now, when it says let my sentence come forth from thy presence, the pictures trying to
paint you is basically in a courtroom.
See, when you're in a court, the judge will declare a sentence.
Somebody is on trial.
Let's say somebody is on trial for murder and the jury gets together to make a decision
and the judge comes and proclaims the sentence.
And what he says in Psalm 17 verse two, he says, let my sentence come forth from thy
presence.
Basically, the Psalmist is saying, look, I'm not afraid at the verdict.
You say, why wouldn't he be afraid?
Because when you're living righteously, you don't have to fear.
Now, look, we're not perfect.
Everybody sins every single day, but we know if we're living righteously or not.
Look, if you're reading the Bible and you're praying every day, you're going to church,
you're going soul winning every week.
You're not living a worldly life.
You're meditating on the things of God.
You're obviously living a good life.
You're obviously doing pretty good.
You're not perfect, but you're doing pretty good.
And then if you're living a pretty good life, you can say with confidence, hey, let my sentence
come forth from thy presence.
But if you're not living a very Godly life, you don't want that sentence coming.
Look, somebody who is guilty of murder and the evidence is against them, they don't want
to hear that sentence.
But somebody who's never done anything wrong, who hasn't killed anyone, they don't have
to worry because they're innocent.
There's nothing against them.
See, when you're living a Godly life, you can easily say, let my sentence come forth
from thy presence.
And quite honestly, if you're living a Godly life, then you want to know what you're doing,
whether it's right or wrong.
And if there's some area that you're guilty, then you want to make the changes in your
life.
Then it says at the end of this verse, let thine eyes behold the things that are equal,
the things that are equal.
Now turn to Ezekiel 33.
Ezekiel 33.
Now, I know I love to use math examples and sermons, but it really makes sense here because
it uses the word equal here.
Imagine an equal sign.
Imagine two plus five equals seven.
That makes sense, doesn't it?
Two plus five equals seven.
Okay.
Basically, both sides balance.
It's correct.
Okay.
And when it's mentioned in Psalm 17 is let thine eyes behold the things that are equal
or right.
Now, in Ezekiel 33 verse 17, the Bible reads, yet the children of thy people say the way
of the Lord is not equal, but as for them, their way is not equal.
People will look at God's law and say it's not fair.
It's not right.
It's not equal.
But the reality is the world's methods are not equal.
They're the ones that are not right.
Let me give you a perfect example of this.
See, the world will say that it's not fair that men work and provide financially and
the women stay home and raise kids.
They say that's not equal.
Why is it that the men get to work, but the women don't get to work and have a career?
Well, first off, that's pretty insulting to kids.
Isn't insulting to say, oh, it's terrible to have to raise your kids.
Well, that's pretty insulting to my son.
If I were to say, you know what?
You know, it's not fair.
My wife stays home and raises our son and raises our kids.
She should get to work also.
Well, who's going to raise our son then?
That seems like that's a pretty important job.
But here's the reason why the world's method doesn't make sense.
Men and women are not the same.
Now, men are not better than women.
Women are not better than men, but they have different roles.
And see, what the world will say is this.
Hey, it's not fair if men are the ones working, women are staying home.
But see, the world's methods are not equal
because a woman has a natural desire to stay home and raise her kids.
It's got to be taught out of her.
See, the world will make women want to just, you know,
go to the workforce and make as much money as possible.
It puts their heart's desire in the wrong way.
But honestly, what will really make them happy is to actually have kids and raise those kids.
That's the way it works.
Look, my wife was a professional for a long time.
You know, she worked as a nurse and as a teacher,
but she could not be happier just raising our son
because that's the natural desire God has put in the heart of women.
And see, when the world tries to take that away from women,
their ways are not equal.
It's not fair to women.
It's not fair to women to force them to work.
No, what's actually fair is that, you know, men and women, they get married,
men provide financially, the women raise their kids and raise the kids.
And so here's what I'm saying.
The world will say that our ways are not equal.
They'll say it's not fair, but the world's methods are not equal.
Look, the world will say it's not fair that, you know,
the sodomites get judged, you know, according to the Bible.
But, you know, their ways are not equal
because what do the sodomites do to young children?
See, the world will say our methods are not equal.
We, you know, we need to give equal rights to everybody.
Well, when they're infringing upon other people's rights,
little children, little children that grow up in the Catholic church
and their rights are being infringed by pedophile priests.
Look, the world's methods are not equal.
They don't know what they're talking about.
But God's ways are equal.
Turn back to Psalm 17, Psalm 17.
See, what happens when the world tries to balance,
the world doesn't understand that two plus five equals seven.
They don't get it.
They think that they're different.
They don't get it.
Two plus five equals seven.
They think, well, two plus five equals like 19 or something.
I don't know.
They think that it's not equal.
In reality, no, two plus five equals seven.
They don't understand God's laws.
And it's funny because the world used to understand God's laws to a good degree.
The examples I gave go back 100 years ago.
And every wife stayed home and raised their kids.
That's what took place 100 years ago.
Go back 100 years ago and, you know, you'd say homosexual.
People would be like, what's a homosexual?
Say why?
Because they didn't really exist most places.
See, the world is becoming weirder and weirder as time goes by.
And they will criticize God's laws and say, that's not fair.
That's not right.
That's not equal.
In reality, the world's methods, they are not equal.
Psalm 17, verse three.
Thou hast proved mine heart.
Thou hast visited me in the night.
Thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing.
I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
And what the Psalmist says is thou shalt find nothing.
Basically, you can search me for iniquity and sins.
You're going to find nothing.
Now, he's not saying he's perfect.
Okay, obviously, we all know we're sinners.
If you say that you have no sin, you deceive yourself.
The truth is not in you.
I understand that.
He's not saying he's perfect.
But basically, you know what?
If you haven't committed any wicked crime, you can say God can search me and he's not
going to find anything.
Look, you know, when you're living righteously, you can say you're not really going to find
anything.
There's nothing really majorly you're guilty of.
It doesn't mean you're perfect.
It doesn't mean that you can't improve.
But it basically means that you're, for the most part, innocent.
You're not perfect.
You sin every day.
I understand that.
But look, there's a big difference between living godly and living unrighteously.
We have all had times in our life after being saved where we're not living that godly.
And we do not want God to search us at those times because he will find a lot of problems
with us.
You know, if we can find, like, five problems with ourselves, then he can find, like, 25
problems.
If we can notice a few things, yeah, I'm a little bit guilty of this, then God probably
sees a lot more than that.
But, you know, if you're living a righteous life and if you're reading the Bible for an
hour every morning and praying for 20 minutes and then just going to work, working hard,
meditating upon the things of God, going soul winning during the week, coming to church,
trying not to live a worldly life, having a good attitude.
Look, you can say that you're living pretty well.
It doesn't mean that you can't improve.
Obviously, we all can.
But if God were to search you, he would say, Hey, you know what?
You're doing pretty good.
Okay, now look at Psalm 17 verse four, and this is where we get the title for the sermon.
It says concerning the works of men by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the
paths of the destroyer.
The paths of the destroyer.
Now notice it says paths, which is plural.
Okay, verse five, hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not.
And so you see that there's the paths of the destroyer and basically the paths of
God.
Two different paths.
Okay.
And so basically the devil has a lot of different paths that you can go on, and God has a lot
of different paths that you can go on.
When you think about the paths of the destroyer, what you have to understand is the destruction
does not come when you first start in that path.
Let me give you an example.
What I'm talking about.
I know examples of kids that were homeschooled, and they're basically taken from being homeschooled
and put into the public school later.
Now I went the other way.
I was in public school in elementary school, and I was taken out in homeschool, which I
believe homeschooling is the best way to go.
But I know of examples of people that were homeschooled, and then they were put into
the public school.
Now, the first day you're in public school, you're not going to have your life destroyed.
The second day, you're not going to have your life destroyed.
But let's check in a year later, two years later, I know of examples of people that were
put in the public school, and then women end up pregnant out of wedlock when they're
teenagers.
And these are people that come from IFB backgrounds.
And from day one being in the public school, their life wasn't destroyed.
But see, at the end of this path is the destroyer.
See, there are paths that the devil wants to get you on.
And when you first start, it seems kind of innocent.
It doesn't seem that bad in the public schools.
It doesn't seem like my life's going to be destroyed that much.
Doesn't seem like that big of a deal to start listening to movies or watch movies again
or start listening to music.
But what you have to understand is the devil setting you on a path, and the end of that
path is destruction.
See, what you have to understand is there's paths of God and there's paths of the devil.
One mistake we make is we kind of look at our lives and feel like doing pretty good
for God.
But you have to look on what path are you headed as well.
You start hanging out with ungodly people.
You're not going to be destroyed from day one.
You're not going to be drinking day one.
You're not going to be destroying your life day one.
But what about six months down the road?
What about a year down the road?
See, when you first start on a path, it doesn't destroy your life immediately.
What happens, though, is down the road, it can destroy your life.
And we must make sure that whatever path we go on, it's a path of the Lord, because there's
two types of paths, paths of the devil and paths of God.
Now, sometimes in life we have difficult decisions and we're not really sure what path to go
on.
But here's what I believe, and we can tell this from these chapters, is that when you're
living godly and God can look down on you and not find anything wrong and you're praying
to God for his will, I believe God will help put you on the right path that he wants you.
If you're not living godly, though, good luck.
Hopefully you'll choose right.
And so the Bible speaks about the paths of the destroyer.
And so there's many things in life that wind up destroying your life.
And many people make a lot of wrong decisions.
Our life is really, you know, Pastor Mendez often says our life is really just a series
of decisions we make.
And you can look at a decision as basically like a path.
And you know, there's many different methods the devil has to try to destroy our lives.
The public school is one method that basically you put your kids in the public school, there's
a good chance their life's going to be destroyed for many different reasons.
Look, you have to understand in the public school system, teachers have access to kids.
Principals have access to kids.
Now you have to understand that when it comes to someone who would be a pedophile, they
are going to enter some sort of field where they have access to kids.
That's why it happens a lot of times in the Catholic Church, because they have access
to kids where people trust the Catholic.
I don't know why you would trust a Catholic priest at this point.
But people trust their kids in churches, and they don't watch them.
People trust their kids in school.
People trust their kids in daycare.
That is probably the place where something bad is going to happen.
And look, there's many things that can go wrong when you put your kids in public schools.
That's just one example.
But there's many paths of the destroyer, and we must make sure we're heading down
the right path.
Verse number six in Psalm 17.
I have called upon thee for thou wilt hear me, O God.
Incline thy ear onto me and hear my speech.
Let me give you another example of a path of a destroyer.
Let's say, for example, you know, the husband is working hard, providing financially.
The wife's staying home to raise kids.
If your kids are going to public school, there's a good chance the wife is going back
to the workforce.
Now, you have to understand from day one, it won't seem like that big of a deal.
Well, you know, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.
We're making more money.
Our lives are okay.
Yeah, but what about when you're both working 50 hours a week?
You never have time for your kids now.
Never have time for each other.
Why do you think adultery happens so much?
Adultery mainly happens because men are around women in the workforce, and women are around
men.
People spend more time with other people.
Men spend more time with women they're not married to than women they are married to.
That's what takes place in the world today.
That's not the way it was meant to be.
That's not the way it used to be.
That's the way it is today, though.
People will spend eight or nine hours with someone they're not married to, and then when
it comes to your life at home, you have a lot of stresses of life.
You have bills to pay.
There's decisions raising your kids.
You're stressed.
You're frustrated.
Why do you think adultery happens?
Because you're around people you're not married to all the time.
That's not the way that God designed things.
Verse number six.
I've called upon thee for thou would hear me, O God.
Incline thine ear onto me and hear my speech.
Show thy marvelous loving kindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand, them which
put their trust in thee from those that rise up against him.
Verse number eight.
Keep me as the apple of the eye.
Hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
Now, in verse eight, there's this phrase, apple of the eye.
Now, in America, this is a very popular phrase.
Is this a phrase in the Philippines or no?
Apple of thine eye.
And so what you'll see in the Bible is there's a lot of expressions that actually come from
the Bible.
Think about the phrase, the writings on the wall.
Well, that comes from the Book of Daniel.
There's actually many things that come from the Bible, because quite honestly, the Bible
used to be a book that everybody read.
Everyone had access to a Bible.
They read the Bible, even families that weren't really Christian.
They would still look at the Bible as being a great source of morals and things such as
that.
And people read the Bible and people had a knowledge.
If you went back 100 years ago, people knew who Noah was.
They knew who David was.
When we preach at the schools, I'll ask people, do you know who King Saul is?
Like, nobody knows.
There might be one kid in the class who knows.
I'm trying to use an example about suicide.
Nobody knows who King Saul is.
I was like, what about King David?
And, you know, a few people will know.
And so it's just amazing in today's world that people know very, very little about the
Bible, and they used to know.
And that's why we see so many expressions that come from the Bible.
Then it says, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
Obviously, this is using symbolic language here, but, you know, obviously, God is not
a literal bird, but think of a bird and think of birds how they have big wings.
And basically, God is protecting you underneath those wings.
Verse nine, from the wicked that oppress me from my deadly enemies who compass me about.
And notice how it says deadly enemies.
Now, the Bible is not just being symbolic here when it says deadly enemies.
Why would David have people that wanted to kill him deadly enemies that compass him about?
Because there are reprobates that walk this world.
There are psychopaths that walk this world, and they hate the things of God.
They hate the God of the Bible.
Look, there are wicked people here that would want nothing more than to just kill righteous
people because they hate God.
And, you know, we're made and we are living for God.
We proclaim to believe the Bible, and they would want to destroy us.
You know, you can look back at the Dark Ages with the Roman Catholic Church, and how many
tens of millions of people did they kill?
Nobody really knows because they killed everyone who tried to keep records about it.
Nobody really knows, but they killed 50 million plus people.
Say why?
Because there are wicked people that wanted to kill people that are righteous people and
living for God.
Verse number 10, they are enclosed in their own fat.
With their mouth, they speak proudly.
And so when it says they speak proudly, this is something that is very evident in reprobates.
They're very much filled with pride.
The Bible mentions that in Romans Chapter 1, and you can think of some of the false prophets
in our country, and the Bible speaks about having, like, a proud look.
There are certain false prophets in our country that you could see a picture of them.
You don't need to know what they believe or what their religion is.
You can just think, man, that is someone who's filled full of pride.
Some of the false prophets in this country, you can just look at a picture.
I mean, I'm picturing ones that I won't name for forsaking my own safety.
But some of those people, man, they have such a proud look.
And you can just see that is a bad person.
And it says in verse number 11, they have now compassed us in our steps.
They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth.
Look, there are bad people that want nothing else than to destroy people that are living
godly.
They don't like soul winners.
They don't like people of God.
You know, reprobates that would basically hate the people of God.
Verse number 12, like as a lion that is greedy of his prey.
And as it were, a young lion lurking in secret places.
Now, this is a pretty interesting verse, because notice what it says like as a lion that is
greedy of his prey.
What it's saying is a lion is very greedy for the animal it's killing.
It kills an animal or it runs away some other animals so it can eat an animal.
Basically, it's very greedy.
A lion does not want to share with other animals, does it?
A lion kills a hyena.
That lion wants to eat that hyena.
That lion does not want other people to get other animals to get that hyena.
That lion wants that hyena.
What the Bible is saying here about false prophets or reprobates or bad people, they
are very greedy of their prey.
Now we are their prey.
As saved people that love God, we are their prey.
They literally hate us.
And quite honestly, you can look at every false religion.
When they have the power politically, they will kill true believers.
It's not just the Jews.
It's not just the Catholic Church.
It's our false religion.
When they have power, they hate the people of God.
They're very greedy of their prey.
Look, you know, people that are reprobates, they literally want to be the one to destroy
us.
They are very greedy of their prey.
They want to be the one to destroy us.
Look, you have to understand reprobates are not on the same team.
They hate each other.
Look, Jeffrey Dahmer was the most famous serial killer in American history and he became famous
because you know what he did?
He lured other homosexuals into his house because he was a homosexual and he murdered
them.
That's a reprobate killing reprobate.
Why?
They don't care about each other and they're very greedy and they want to be the one to
cause harm.
Literally reprobates.
They want to cause more harm than any other reprobates.
You say that's hard to believe.
It's hard to believe because your mind and conscious is not to file.
Their mind and conscious is to file.
They don't think like we do, and that's why we must just take by faith what the Bible
says, because, you know, it's just hard to imagine why would anyone want to kill people
for fun?
But that is in the mind of wicked psychopaths.
And, you know, the Bible speaks about different types of reprobates.
That's a whole other sermon series we'll do in December of this year.
But, you know, it's interesting how it says like as a lion that is greedy of his prey,
they literally want to be the one to destroy someone.
As a lion doesn't want to share its prey, reprobates, they want to be the one to get
to destroy people.
And it says, and as it were, a young lion lurking in secret places.
And so as a lion typically will hide to destroy another animal, you have to understand reprobates.
They don't just walk up to you and say, Hey, by the way, I'm a reprobate.
I want to destroy your life.
They don't do that.
Now we think of like the psychopaths that would murder people.
But quite honestly, you know, most reprobates aren't going to end up murdering someone.
They're full of murder, the Bible says.
But that doesn't mean that they're going to end up killing you, though.
But what I do want you to understand is this.
Many psychopaths are greedy of filthy lucre.
See, many of the false prophets here in the Philippines that always preach about money,
what's inside their heart?
See, the Bible speaks about the covetous psychopath in Jude chapter one when it talks about Balaam,
the wages of unrighteousness.
He was a wicked person, and it was because of money.
He was a covetous psychopath.
You have to understand there's going to be people that are going to come to you and they're
going to try to take your money from you.
Now, they're not going to do it and just do it really in a terrible way.
They're going to do it in a very subtle way.
They're going to lurk in secret places like a lion would.
And then the Bible also speaks about not just Balaam.
It also speaks about Korah.
And Korah is a psychopath who basically wants power, hates authority and wants power.
We will have situations in the future where someone will come into this church and there'll
be someone who act nice and secretly and subtly, they will try to take power for themselves
because they are a Korah.
Now, we've seen people that I don't know whether they're Balaams or not, but certainly people
that could be Balaams to come into this church.
We will have Korahs in this church as well.
Now, our church is not going to be the sort of church where someone who is a violent psychopath
like Cain is going to want to come because they're not going to have any access to kids
here.
They will go to the Catholic Church.
They won't go to our church because we are a family integrated church, but we're not
going to be able to fully prevent the Balaams and the Korahs from coming here.
And you have to understand that there are people that are reprobates, bad people whose
mind and consciousness is defiled, and they don't feel guilty about destroying your life.
All they care about is themselves and whatever lust it is, whether it's money, whether it's
power, whether it's for being violent, you must understand there are people like that.
And it doesn't make sense to us because we don't have a conscious and mindless defile.
But in Psalm 17, if you really just look at verse 12 and pay attention to what's being
said, I mean, it's mind boggling.
They're greedy of their prey.
Like they want to be the ones to destroy you, and they lurk in secret places.
They do this very subtly, and they are just like their father because the Bible says your
adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
They act just like their father, who was a murderer from the beginning and abode not
in the truth because there is no truth in him.
Look at Psalm 17 verse 13.
Psalm 17 verse 13.
And it says, Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down, deliver my soul from the wicked,
which is thy sword from men which are thy hand.
O Lord, from men of the world which have their portion in this life and whose belly thou
fills with thy hid treasure.
They are full of children and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
Now I want you to notice in verse 14 where it says, from men of the world which have
their portion in this life.
You have to understand that you have your option of whether or not you want your portion
in this life or in the afterlife.
Do you want your inheritance in this life or the afterlife?
And see, men of the world, people that are worldly, they get their portion in this life.
People that fulfill the desires of the flesh, they want to fulfill their desires, whether
it's watching movies, listening to music, or whether or not it's the psychopaths, whatever
it is, men of this world, people of this world, and they get their portion in this life.
That's what worldly people do.
We as God's people, though, you know what?
Honestly, we should seek to get our portion in the afterlife.
Look, you can choose to try to fulfill the desires of the flesh in this life, and what's
going to take place is you will be miserable.
You say, how do you know that?
Look at Solomon.
Look at Solomon who had everything, and what did he do?
He tried to gratify the flesh.
Was Solomon happy?
When you read the book of Ecclesiastes, you see someone who's very miserable.
Now, I'm not really sure in the book of Ecclesiastes if this is just him having a moment of clarity
while he's still very backslid, and that's kind of what I think, or whether or not he's
really just after his whole life is destroyed, he finally fixes things.
I'm not sure he ever fixes things, because quite honestly, when you go down the path
of the destroyer, it's kind of hard to get back on the right path.
You might have moments of clarity, but quite honestly, you're probably always going to
be down that path.
But you have to understand that you can have your choice to have your portion in this life,
like men of the world, like most people do, or you can choose to just dedicate your life
to God, serve God, and maybe you don't have the nicest house in this life.
Maybe you don't have the most money in this life.
Maybe you don't get to just do what everyone else does in this life, but quite honestly,
you're going to develop an inheritance up in heaven, and you're going to live a life
that actually matters, and quite honestly, you will be happier.
Because serving God is the secret to happiness for us that are saved.
Notice what it says in verse number 15.
We'll close up.
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.
I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.
And what David says is, you know what?
I'm going to be satisfied when I become more like you.
That is what he's basically saying.
When I live a righteous life, when I will be satisfied, I'll wake up when I am similar
to you.
That's what's going to actually make me satisfied.
And quite honestly, what's going to really make us happy in this life is when we try
to serve God.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today, and I ask you to just
help us apply this sermon to our lives, God.
There's a lot of great information in these chapters that we looked at, God.
Help us to avoid the paths of the destroyer.
Be ready for the psychopaths that are out there, God.
Help us not to live our life here on earth for the portion in this world, but help us
lay up an inheritance, God.
Help us just to be dedicated and not move from the house of God.
Many people fade out of church, God.
Help no one in this room to ever fade out of church.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.