All right, we're here in Psalm 43.
The name of the sermon is
Ungodly Nations, Ungodly Nations.
And this is a short chapter,
but it's not really going to be a short sermon.
There's plenty of information here.
And point number one is pretty basic.
Ungodly nations have ungodly people.
The Bible says in Psalm 43 verse 1,
Judge me, O God, and plead my cause
against an ungodly nation.
So he's referring to ungodly nations.
And what does he say about an ungodly nation?
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
What he's saying is
when the nation is ungodly,
it's comprised of ungodly people.
Go to Isaiah 1.
Isaiah 1 in your Bible.
Isaiah chapter 1.
Isaiah chapter 1 verse 4.
Isaiah 1 verse 4.
O sinful nation,
so sin for ungodly nation,
O sinful nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers,
children that are corrupters,
they have forsaken the Lord,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel
and gone to anger,
they are gone away backwards.
So once again, we see a nation that is sinful,
a nation that is wicked.
And what do we see?
We see people in that nation
that are sinful and wicked
and filled full of iniquity.
Go to Jonah chapter 3
in your mind of prophets.
Jonah chapter 3.
And of course, this is the famous story of Nineveh.
Jonah chapter 3.
Nineveh, which is the head of the Assyrian empire.
And there's no doubt that in the Bible,
you're looking at ungodly nations,
especially powerful ones,
Assyria was the worst
out of the powerful empires that existed.
They're far worse than Egypt
or any of them, Rome or Greece
or any of them, Babylon.
And they're a very wicked, wicked country.
And in their religion itself,
they thought that basically killing
and torturing their enemies
was just kind of proved their God was a true God
or the best God or whatever.
But we're going to see here in Jonah chapter 3,
the people themselves are filled full of iniquity.
Why?
Because they're part of an ungodly nation.
Jonah 3 verse 5.
So the people of Nineveh believed God
and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth
from the greatest of them, even to the least of them.
For a war came unto the king of Nineveh
and he arose from his throne
and he laid his robe from him
and covered him with sackcloth and sat in ashes.
And he caused it to be proclaimed
and published through Nineveh
by the decree of the king and his noble saying,
let neither man nor beast,
herd nor flock, taste anything.
Let them not feed nor drink water,
but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth
and cry mightily unto God.
Yay, let them turn everyone from his evil way
and from the violence that is in their hands.
Now, I think this king is a pretty good guy.
He hears the message and he immediately just turns
and he believes the message.
And the thing is when you have a system of kings,
it's like you can have a godly king
and then the son is wicked,
but you can also have the reverse
where you can have basically ungodly kings.
And then all of a sudden the king rises up,
who's not a bad guy.
He hears the word of God and he believes it.
And he says, the people are filled full of iniquity
and sin.
And it says in verse nine,
who can tell if God will turn and repent
and turn away from his fierce anger
that we perish not.
And God saw their works
that they turn from their evil way.
And God repented of the evil
that he had said that he would do unto them.
And he did it not.
Now turn to 1st Corinthians 15.
1st Corinthians 15 in your New Testament.
1st Corinthians 15.
And what I'm expressing to you
and what I'm saying is that when a nation itself
is corrupt and wicked,
they will influence everybody in that country.
If a city is wicked and they're repeating wickedness,
it's gonna eventually filter down to everybody.
And the people are gonna be filled full of iniquity.
Right?
1st Corinthians 15 verse 33.
Notice what the Bible says.
Be not deceived,
evil communications corrupt good manners.
Evil communications corrupt good manners.
So people could be pure
and trying to live righteously and okay.
But if the country becomes wicked
and the people leading the country are wicked
and the message you hear on the TVs
and the radio and the social media
and the parades and everything is filled full of wickedness,
it's gonna filter down to everybody.
And what you see around the world is
nations have a lot of power now
and they basically control the people.
And they are basically turning every nation
into being very, very wicked.
But what you're gonna see is very wicked countries,
the people themselves are very wicked also.
Now go back to Psalm,
actually go to Matthew 27.
Matthew 27.
And I'm gonna give you a couple of examples of this.
Because when you think of the most wicked countries,
what you probably should be thinking of
are the most religious countries.
That's what you should think of.
Because if they have the wrong religion,
they're gonna be very wicked.
Right, no question about it.
And I remember I saw a poll online
of the most religious countries in the world.
Now I don't really know how you judge
what the most religious countries in the world are.
Obviously there can be different opinions about that.
But if you look at the most prominently religious countries
based in these polls,
they're very, very wicked countries
and the people are filled full of wickedness.
Now the top three on the list that we saw,
number three was India,
number two was Saudi Arabia,
Mecca is in Saudi Arabia,
and number one is Israel.
Now that one really shocked me
because I would not have thought of Israel
as being a very religious country.
But again, it's not about godliness,
it's about being religious.
And so apparently the people are extremely religious
with their ceremonies and festivals and what they do,
even though it's very different
than what they did in the Old Testament,
apparently they're very religious.
And so if you looked at those three countries,
the question is, do you see godliness, right?
Let me give you another example outside of that top three.
The country that is considered
kind of like the capital of Buddhism in the world
is what country?
Thailand.
Is Thailand, right?
Because, you know, obviously Buddhism came,
you know, India and Nepal are kind of the two areas,
but in terms of where it has its roots from
in the big areas like Thailand,
is Thailand the beacon of godliness in the world, right?
I mean, look, if you wanna get a sex change,
where do you go?
You go to Thailand, right?
What an embarrassment
if that's what's known about your country.
Right, I saw a poll before
with the two countries that are leading the world
in basically people having slept with prostitutes
were Thailand and Cambodia, both more than 98% Buddhist.
And the percentages I saw in Thailand,
it said 95% of men have done that before,
been with prostitutes.
Is that godly?
But they're very religious.
You can look at photos in Thailand,
you're gonna see these giant statues of Buddha everywhere.
They're not godly, right?
On the list, the number three on the list that I saw
was India.
India is considered by a lot of people
as the spiritual epicenter of the world, right?
If you see documentaries or read what people say,
they'll say India is kind of like,
there's the spirit, I mean,
people when they're trying to find spirituality,
they go to India and they find it, right?
Really India, the country that in 2018
was voted the most dangerous country in the world for women.
The country that I believe in most statistics
leads the world in female infanticide.
Infanticide, think of the word homicide,
where you kill a, I guess, homo sapien, homicide.
Infanticide, you kill an infant.
Leads the world in infanticide, killing female babies.
Part of that's because of the dowry system in India,
but obviously killing a newborn child is pretty wicked.
Right, it's always up near the top couple
in highest countries of child trafficking.
Does that sound like a godly country?
Now, I don't doubt it's religious.
I don't doubt it's spiritual, but I doubt it's godly.
Because ungodly nations have ungodly people.
And the country itself,
because the religion itself is wicked,
and because the Hindu temples literally have bestiality
on the outside, on the temples themselves,
what's gonna be the result of the people?
They're gonna end up being wicked also.
Number two on the list is Saudi Arabia.
Mecca is in Saudi Arabia.
Now, I have no doubt it is a religious country.
I mean, Muslims themselves are oftentimes very religious,
especially Muslim countries,
and Saudi Arabia is the center of Islam around the world.
That is where people go on their pilgrimage to Mecca.
And yet, if you look up statistics on Saudi Arabia
and compare it to other Muslim countries,
it is far worse in terms of violence
and all kinds of crimes than other countries.
Why is that?
Because it's more religious.
And being more religious,
it actually becomes filled full of more ungodly people.
Or even you look here in the Philippines,
and what area, what city would you say
is the most religious in the Philippines?
San Fernando would probably be a good bet, right?
That's kinda where Magdalena is really big, right?
San Fernando leads the Philippines
in the highest percentage of priests molesting people
than any other place in the Philippines.
Over 33% have a case against them.
I read the book that President Duterte had recommended
about all of the problems with Catholicism
in the Philippines, and San Fernando is the worst,
and yet it's the most religious.
Huh, that's a coincidence, right?
More religious does not equal more godly.
And people have this idea, well, wait a minute.
I mean, if they're religious,
even though I'm not Buddhist, and I'm not Hindu,
and I'm not Muslim, if they're very religious,
they're gonna be nice people, right?
Isn't that what most people think?
It's like, well, I'm not a Pentecost,
so I'm not a Catholic, I'm not a Jehovah's Witness,
but look, their pastors are gonna be very godly people
because they're very religious.
That's what people think.
But is that what the Bible teaches?
It's certainly not what you see in this world.
Number one on the list was Israel.
Is Israel the beacon of godliness in this world?
Absolutely not.
In fact, God promised that if you are righteous
and you obey my commandments, you will get peace.
In fact, that's what Jerusalem means.
King of Salem, which is king of peace,
according to the book of Hebrews.
Well, is there any peace in Israel?
Nope.
Ain't no peace in the Middle East
because they're filled full of wickedness.
And so that is something,
and you look at Tel Aviv,
which some people consider
kind of like the LGBT capital of the world.
Let me show you a Bible example, though,
not just in our modern day,
but a Bible example of being religious
does not mean that you're godly.
Matthew 27, verse 22.
Pilate saith unto them,
But what shall I do then with Jesus
which is called Christ?
They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.
And the governor said, Why?
What evil hath he done?
But they cried out the more,
saying, Let him be crucified.
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing
but that rather tumult was made,
he took water and washed his hands
before the multitude,
saying, I am innocent of the blood
of this just person.
See to it.
Then answered all the people and said,
His blood be on us and on our children.
Those are the words of the Jews.
Let his blood be upon us and upon our children.
Go to verse number 62.
Because you might say, Well, Brother Stuckey,
just because they killed the Lord Jesus Christ
doesn't necessarily mean they're wicked.
They just didn't think that he was the Messiah.
That's why they did it.
But actually we're gonna see from the actions themselves,
it was not just a matter of the fact
that they did not believe he was the son of God
and it's a different religion, so they killed him,
but that the people themselves were wicked and evil people.
Matthew 27, verse 62.
Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation
the chief priests and Pharisees came together
under Pilate saying, Sir, we remember.
Now if somebody tells you, I remember,
that's basically implying you forgot, right?
If you say, I remember, it's implying that you forgot.
We remember that that deceiver said,
well, he's yet alive, after three days I'll rise again.
Do you think that they forgot that?
No, there's a reason why they wanted to kill him.
Destroyed this template in three days, I'll raise it up.
They got so mad because they understood
that he was saying, I'm God, and they wanted to kill him.
They knew that he said that,
but they're saying, hey, we remember.
It's like, we forgot about it.
We should have told you that before he killed him, right?
That's kind of like a big thing we kind of forgot.
We forgot to tell you, by the way,
he's going to rise again from the dead too.
Is that okay if we still kill him, right?
Then it says here in verse 64,
and you know what's interesting about that verse?
They called Jesus a deceiver
in the same verse where they're being deceptive.
Isn't that interesting?
They accused him of what they are guilty of.
Now here's the thing, I mean,
we all tell lies,
but there's some lies most people don't tell, right?
And we remember that that deceiver said,
well, he's yet alive.
After three days, I'll rise again.
Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure
until the third day, lest his disciples come by night
and steal him away and say unto the people,
he has risen from the dead.
So the last error shall be worse than the first.
And look, even after Jesus does rise from the dead,
what do they do?
Well, just tell people they stole his body, right?
They're lying about it
because they're not good people.
In fact, turn to Matthew 7.
Let me show you another verse that talks about this.
Matthew 7.
Look, your old churches with false pastors
that had a different gospel, they're not good people.
They're not.
You might think they are because they are spiritual,
they're in church, they preach sermons, but they're not.
Now, yes, there is the extremely rare exception
of a Paul the Apostle.
It is extremely rare.
I personally have not really experienced that in real life,
where someone was just like anti-salvation
by grace through faith, and then they turned around.
But obviously there can be some exceptions out there
where someone's really zealous and they're just deceived,
but they're not a reprobate themselves.
Paul the Apostle, he didn't really deny the truth,
he just didn't know it.
And once it was shared with him, he believed it.
But that is a rare, rare, rare exception, right?
Because when I first got saved,
I got saved as a freshman in college,
so the summer in between my freshman and sophomore year,
I set up a meeting with my minister
from my Methodist church to talk to him
and talk to him about salvation, to see if he was saved.
Because I didn't know everything
about all these different denominations,
I was just trying to check if he was saved,
see what he believed, clearly not saved.
Clearly denied eternal security,
said if you're really saved, you're gonna have works,
you're gonna get baptized, and all of these things.
And here's the thing, at the time,
I didn't think he was a bad guy,
I thought he was a nice guy that was just deceived.
But that's because I was a baby Christian
and I didn't know any better.
The reality is, if somebody is part of a false religion,
they teach a false gospel against what the Bible says,
they are not a good person.
99% of the time, they're just actually a reprobate,
just a bad person.
And when you look at churches that you say,
well, my little pastor preached
repentance of sins for salvation.
Maybe he's just confused.
I doubt it.
Now, there's some people that might have
some terminology that's a little bit off,
but when they're telling stories about how,
well, if you're not willing to quit drinking,
you're not ready to be saved.
I mean, you said you got saved,
but you know what, you haven't been to church,
you didn't get baptized, you're not saved.
I'm sorry, but they're just bad people.
Because people that are very religious,
that have the wrong gospel,
I mean, especially when you're talking about pastors
and leaders of churches and religion,
they are bad people.
Now, turn to Matthew 7.
Let me show you what it says here in Matthew 7, verse 22.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
so these are people that are not Buddhist,
not Hindu, not Muslim, but some sort of Christian, right?
Because they're saying to Jesus, Lord, Lord.
Right now, I guess Hindus call everybody Lord,
everyone's a God, so maybe that's Hindus too,
I don't know.
But this is basically some type of Christian, right?
Have we not prophesied in thy name?
We've preached in your name.
We preached in the name of Jesus, some sort of Christian.
And in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works.
Now, when you first read that,
they sound like nice people.
You're preaching about Jesus,
you're doing wonderful works,
but here's the thing,
everybody thinks they're so wonderful.
Everybody thinks they're so great, right?
Notice what Jesus says to them.
These are people that are trusting
in their works to save them.
And then when I profess onto them,
I never knew you, you were never saved.
But notice this, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
There's this phrase in the Bible, workers of iniquity.
What does that mean?
People that live to commit sin.
That's what it means.
Twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
They're giving over to all these things.
They're fearful of wickedness and murder and envy,
debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters,
all of those things from Romans one.
That's what the Bible says about them.
And here's people that are not just
your average everyday person.
Because I would apply this to just the average person
that thinks they're saved, but they're not.
But really the real application is those people
that are like religious leaders.
Like we were casting out devils.
I mean, I've preached thousands of sermons for you.
How could I not be saved?
You know what's interesting about this
is hypothetically, if I ended up in hell,
I would not say, but I've been soul winning
for 25 years, I've preached thousands of sermons.
You know what I would say?
But I believe, I believe.
I mean, how could I not get ahead?
I believe.
My plea would not be, look at my wonderful works.
Look at all the devils I've cast out.
Well, I preached in your name.
I mean, I preached that sermon
that got like a hundred thousand views on YouTube.
That's not what my plea would be.
I would say, but I believe.
This is a group of people, very religious
and yet they're not very good people.
The Bible says they work iniquity.
They're filled full of sin.
Go in your Bible to Psalm 43.
Psalm 43.
Point one, ungodly nations have ungodly people.
Point two, ungodly nations persecute good people.
Ungodly nations are filled full of ungodly people
and ungodly nations, they persecute good people.
It says in Psalm 43 verse two,
for thou art the God of my strength,
why dost thou cast me off?
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
And he speaks about ungodly nations in the verse before.
Now he talks about the enemy coming after him
and oppressing him.
And this is what you're gonna see.
Look, the nations that we listed
that I said are the three most religious in the world,
India, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Look, if you were a Bible-believing Christian
going soul winning and zealously living for God
in those countries, you would be persecuted.
I don't personally think
that in any of those three countries,
you could start a bonafide church
and just preach from the rooftops,
put your sermons online, go soul winning
and just, hey, you're able to be fine.
Because here in the Philippines, we don't have much problem.
We put our sermons online.
I preach what the Bible says.
We go soul winning.
We don't really get persecuted much, right?
In the US, there seems to be
a little bit more persecution,
maybe because some of the pastors
are a little bit more high profile,
but they're able to freely serve God
with minimal persecution.
Now that is kind of changing in the US,
so we'll see in the future.
But for the most part, they're able to be okay.
But if you did this in India or Saudi Arabia or Israel,
you'd be killed.
You say, well, Brother Stuckey, that's your opinion.
Well, look, I really don't know
about the history of Saudi Arabia and Israel as much,
but I will say there was that medical missionary
from Australia 20 years ago,
and they burned him and his little son
alive inside of their car,
and there was like 40 Hindus around,
and they watched the car.
They set it on fire
and just watched him burn to death, right?
Now what type of person would do something like that?
Well, ungodly people are going to persecute good people.
So here's what it says in Psalm,
actually Revelation 17, you're turning there,
Revelation 17,
Revelation 17 verse one.
And there came one of the seven angels,
Revelation chapter 17 verse one.
And there came one of the seven angels
which had the seven vials and talked with him,
and he was saying unto me,
come hither, I will show unto thee
the judgment of the great whore
that sitteth upon many waters,
with whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication,
and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away into the spirit in the wilderness,
and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast
full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and 10 horns,
and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color,
and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls,
having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication.
And upon her forehead was a name written,
Mystery Babylon, the Great,
the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood
of the saints and with the blood
of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
And here the Bible refers to,
in Revelation 17 verse five,
it says the Mother of Harlots, okay?
Now I believe that the correct application
in Revelation 17 is we're looking at Rome,
because later on it said, and the seventh is,
and so the one that is the present tense
is referencing Rome.
And chapter 18 will go to what I would believe
is the United States of America,
because I believe that will be the country in power
during the end.
But what you're seeing here, and think about this,
Rome was very powerful,
and they were very religious, right?
I mean, if you know the story about Martin Luther,
Martin Luther was a hardcore Catholic,
and he was the most zealous pretty much,
and there'd be nights where basically
he slept outside in the snow,
because it was kind of like this Magdrame thing
where he thought by harming his body,
he would get forgiveness.
And then it would say the other monks
would bring him back in,
and he's like at the point of death,
and he didn't know if God would forgive him.
He didn't know if he was forgiven.
And then what happened is he was so excited to visit Rome,
because that's kind of like his version of Mecca.
That's like his area where basically
it's the center of his religion,
the Roman Catholic Church.
And he went to Rome, and you know what Martin Luther said?
He's like, I've never seen
a more wicked place in my life.
He said, there's gambling, there's prostitution,
the priests are stealing money from people,
and all of this stuff is allowed.
And he said it was basically
the most wicked place in the planet.
Once again, very religious, very wicked.
And what it says here, the martyrs of Jesus,
because the mother of harlots,
the Roman Catholic Church, very religious,
and they persecuted God's people throughout time.
Nowadays, the Catholic Church
is a very watered down version
of what there was hundreds of years ago.
It's changed.
It's like a completely different religion, right?
But what I would say is,
if you look at any very religious country
and very ungodly people, they'll persecute good people.
You know, you think of churches
that are fire-breathing churches in the US,
and they get persecuted by a bunch of sodomites,
bunch of ungodly people.
Why?
Because ungodly people in these ungodly nations
persecute good people.
Turn in your Bible to Psalm 43.
Psalm 43.
So look, if you lived in a very ungodly nation,
and primarily you think of very religious countries,
usually, they tend to be the most ungodly nations.
The people themselves are not going to be godly.
I mean, if you lived in those countries,
you'd see people that are lying, cheating,
stealing, ripping people off.
You'd see violent crimes.
You'd see all of those things.
And the ones I named, you can look at statistics.
They are up there on those things.
Not just on violent crimes, though.
I promise you, those people are fearful
of lying and stealing.
You say, why?
Because everything is going to filter down.
If the country itself has false religion and wickedness,
it passes down to everybody.
Look, everything in our modern day,
you just hear on the news, you see on Facebook.
And look, if you go to the government institutions,
the government school systems,
and you're listening to what they say,
I mean, just recently in the US,
they had like this, for this LGBT month,
they had like this big LGBT parade thing
at the White House in America.
And they really geared it towards the trans,
those that actually had a gender change,
like a sexual change.
And like literally a bunch of the transsexuals
just ripped off their clothes on the White House lawn
just a couple of weeks ago.
Now, of course, they kind of pushed that story
out of the news
because they don't want Joe Biden to look bad.
But it's like, literally,
I mean, what an embarrassment to a country
right in front of the White House,
you've got these transsexuals ripping off their clothes.
But the thing is, when those are the things you see
in the newspaper all the time,
and you see men wearing dresses all the time,
you start to think, well, it's normal.
It starts to just affect you
when you hear it all the time.
It's what the Bible talks about,
you need to be renewed.
You need to be renewed, you say, why?
Because the world is gonna brainwash you.
You see their movies, you listen to their music,
you're in their government institutions,
you walk down the street,
you see how people talk and act,
it starts to affect you.
And then you need to be brainwashed
by the Word of God to realize what normal is.
Because what's common is not normal.
We're in Psalm 43, so point number one,
ungodly nations have ungodly people.
Point two, ungodly nations, they persecute good people.
Point three, ungodly nations
make it hard to find a good church.
If you live in ungodly nations,
you'll find it very, very difficult
to actually find a good church.
Psalm 43, verse three.
Oh, send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me, let them bring me onto thy holy hill
and to thy tabernacles.
Now remember, last week I talked about
the result of being out of church.
The book of Psalms, it doesn't really kind of clarify
every single chapter, like what's the situation?
But realize, they're not randomly ordered.
Do you understand this?
It's not like, oh, we got 150 Psalms,
let's just put them in a basket
and randomly pull them out.
I mean, Psalm 43 is after Psalm 42 for a reason.
It's gonna be right around the same timeframe.
So last week we talked about
the result of being out of church,
and then here he's saying,
hey, bring me onto thy holy hill
and to thy tabernacles.
That I wanna be around God's people
and hear the Word of God.
Go to Matthew chapter five.
Matthew five.
Now, it's kind of hard to see in our modern day,
because pretty much every country is getting very wicked.
I mean, if you're trying to compare
what's the most wicked country,
it's like a tough competition.
Right, I mean, the ones I named that are very religious
are obviously very wicked.
You look at other very religious countries,
I mentioned Thailand, you could look at Haiti.
Very wicked country, very evil country.
It's not just the false religion,
but the practices of the people.
It's a very violent area,
especially if you are of white color,
it can be a very dangerous place to be
because of the history of slavery.
And so basically in Haiti,
they basically made a pact with their false gods saying,
hey, if you get us out of slavery,
we will worship voodoo.
And of course that's what the country became.
And they absolutely do not like white people in general.
It's a very dangerous place.
I think it'd be really receptive for the gospel,
but it would be very, very dangerous place to go
in my opinion, from my research on that.
But it's hard to find a good church
in these very religious areas.
And it's sort of counterintuitive
because you would think,
wait a minute, if it's a very religious country,
if India is the epicenter of spirituality,
surely you'd be able to find
a good version of Christianity, right?
No, you wouldn't.
You will not find good churches
in very wicked countries like this.
Matthew 5 verse 14,
hear the light of the world.
A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel,
but on a candlestick and giveth light
unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.
The Bible says we're supposed to shine out
our good works and show the light, right?
And so a good church should really be the light
in a dark and corrupt world.
But the reality is when you look at very wicked countries
people just are not generally that zealous
for the things of God or they're afraid.
But you're not gonna have a bonafide church
in a Muslim country,
which are very religious countries
because of the persecution of an ungodly nation
and the ungodly people.
Go to Revelation chapter 1.
Revelation 1.
And in a symbolic sense also,
if it's extremely dark in a country,
symbolically speaking,
that means there's very, very, very little light.
Now, if there was a church
that was really shining a light,
it'd be very easy to see that's the church.
But if it's an extremely dark country, spiritually speaking,
that's an expression we use, a dark country,
it's kinda like there's no light to be seen.
And wicked countries are very dark spiritually
and there really is no light to be seen
in those countries, there's no good churches.
Revelation 1 verse 19.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches
and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest
are the seven churches.
And the Bible speaks about a candlestick
when it comes to churches.
So once again, you're supposed to shine out that light,
but you just don't really see it
in ungodly countries, right?
And as I said, I don't know if in today's world
you could really look at a country
and say that it's godly.
I don't think that's the case, right?
I don't think there's any country you look at and say,
there's very good few churches,
which kinda proves my point.
It is a very ungodly time and it's not really a time
where you can really find good churches.
Look, there are a lot of Baptists here in the Philippines
but are there a lot of good churches?
No.
I don't think that would've been the case 50 years ago.
To be honest, I think 50 years ago,
if you went to Baptist churches,
you'd probably find a lot of decent churches,
a lot of churches that are right on salvation
and yet it becomes more wicked in a country
and there's fewer good churches.
That's just the way it works.
It works hand in hand.
Go to your Bible back to Psalm 43.
Psalm 43.
And the other thing that you see,
generally speaking, is that when a country is really dark,
instead of being that shining light in the darkness,
countries tend to be very similar to the darkness
to try to attract those people.
It's like, well, the light might be too bright for them.
They're not ready for this.
Right, it's like you wake up in the morning,
you're sleeping.
I know with my kids, they're always kinda like this
in the morning, like Zeph really hates the light.
And so he wakes up in the morning
or when you wake up in the morning,
goes from dark, you turn on the light,
it's like, oh man, I can't take it.
And sometimes people are like that
when they first come to a church like this.
They're like, whoa, I never expected that.
Right, I mean, it's interesting to me
because a lot of people, they love our church.
And then after a little while,
they're already like, man, it's too much.
Right, you know, we had tons of visitors in Manila.
They love our church, they're excited.
And it's like, well, we'll see here in a couple months
if it really lasts because it's like they like it,
but it's like, wow, man,
can you be a little bit more dark?
Not so much light.
Can you not shine quite that brightly?
I'm not ready for it, right?
I just woke up, right?
And anyways, point number one,
ungodly nations have ungodly people.
Point two, ungodly nations persecute good people.
Point three, ungodly nations
make it hard to find a good church.
Point number four, let's talk about the joy of church,
the joy of church.
It says here in verse four,
then will I go into the order of God,
unto God my exceeding joy.
God, my exceeding joy.
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee,
oh God, my God.
And part of being joyful is singing praises to God.
You know this is true.
When you're right with God
and excited about the things of God,
you sing out the praises with power, right?
When you're excited, you sing about power.
When you're joyful, you want to praise God.
You're excited to sing the things of God.
And he talks about going into God's house
and he says, hey, I'm joyful and I'm praising God.
Go to Psalm 122, Psalm 122.
And there are some similar themes to last chapter
because remember last chapter,
it's like the result of being out of church.
And here he's talking about church
because these chapters are kind of connected.
And I used this verse last week
and it says here in Psalm 122, verse one,
I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord.
And so the opportunity to go into God's house,
it's not, oh man, I have to go to God's house.
I don't want to go to church today.
I don't want to hear the preaching.
I don't want to sing the hymns.
I don't want to pray.
I don't want to hear the sermon.
There's something wrong with your heart
because going to church, I'd say, I'm God.
I'm excited.
I'm joyful.
I want to praise God.
I want to be around God's people.
And that's what the Psalmist is saying.
You should have the attitude.
Hey, I'm excited.
I'm glad to be in God's house.
And here's the truth.
When you're right with God, you know you're excited.
When you're not right with God, you're not excited.
Now, the reality is all of us are at both of these stages
at different points.
I mean, there's some Saturdays and Tuesdays
where maybe you're not that excited.
Right, muralistically?
I can't, I mean, even the one who preaches,
honestly, there's sometimes I'm like, man,
I'm just not feeling it today.
Now, I'll be honest with you.
You might say, man, it's tough when I'm not feeling
like being in church to be at church,
but imagine preaching if you're not that excited.
That's where it gets tough, right?
But here's what I would say,
that when I am right with God,
I am excited to be at church.
When I'm not right with God or not as zealous,
I'm less excited.
That's just the way it works.
I mean, it's just like when you're excited,
you want to sing praises,
you want to be around God's people,
you want the preaching, you want the fellowship,
you want to go soul winning,
you're excited to do it.
Look, when you're going out soul winning
and you're excited and right with God,
you are excited to talk to people.
It's not like, oh no, I got to talk to someone.
But when you're not as right with God,
it's harder to preach the gospel to people.
You know, you might do it out of just character
and duty, which we should.
You know, you got to read the Bible out of duty
even if you don't feel like it.
You got to go to church out of duty
even if you don't feel like it.
You got to go soul winning out of duty
even if you don't feel like it.
But here's what I'm saying.
When you are right with God,
you don't have to force yourself.
You want to be at church.
You want to read God's word.
You want to go soul winning.
I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord.
Right?
Turn your Bible to Psalm 73, Psalm chapter 73.
Psalm 73.
The Bible says in Psalm 73,
and this is a pretty famous chapter.
And I believe it was written by Asaph,
but in this chapter,
he gets envious at the wicked people of this world.
And he develops this attitude in Psalm 73
where it's kind of like,
man, what's the purpose of serving God?
It's like, you know what?
You know, they're doing whatever they want
and they're getting away with it.
So what's the purpose?
And he writes this chapter
and kind of like the first half or two thirds,
he gives you his feelings when he's not right with God.
And then afterwards he explains
how big of an idiot he was to feel that way.
So it's a very interesting chapter.
And all of us have been here before in Psalm 73.
This sort of attitude,
we start to envy the wicked people out there
and you feel like what's the purpose?
And then you can look back and say,
man, how foolish was I?
But Psalm 73 verse one,
truly God is good to Israel,
even as such as are of a clean heart.
But as for me, my feet were almost gone.
My steps had well-nigh slipped.
So now all of a sudden in verse two,
he goes to the past tense, right?
My steps had, past tense, well-nigh slipped.
He goes to the past tense
because he's going to express to you how he felt.
So basically in verse one
it's kind of like present tense,
he's saying this, truly God is good to Israel,
even as such as are of a clean heart.
And then what he's going to do now
is over the next like 20 verses,
he's going to explain how he felt in the past
when he wasn't right with God.
And then he's going to go back to the future,
starting in verse 22.
So in verse 22, this is what he says.
So foolish was I, and ignorant.
I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, I am continually with thee.
Thou has told me by my right hand.
Thou shall guide me with thy counsel,
and afterward receive me to glory.
Who am I in heaven but thee?
And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
And he's getting back to the excitement of serving God.
He's like, the only thing I desire is to serve God.
Right, there's nothing on earth that I desire
like a desire serving God.
Verse 26, my flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish.
Thou has destroyed all them that go whoring from thee.
But it is good for me to draw near to God.
I have put my trust in the Lord God
that I may declare all my works.
And in this chapter, he talks about how he's foolish,
but he mentions in the chapter,
I didn't write this verse down,
that he feels this way
until he went into the house of the Lord.
In fact, let me just quickly find that verse in Psalm 73.
I didn't write it in my notes.
But in Psalm 73, he says,
verse 16, when I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me.
Then he says, until I went into the sanctuary of God,
then understood I their end.
And he's saying, I was depressed,
I was miserable until I went into God's house.
And after I went to God's house,
I understood the end of these wicked people.
So what he's saying is this,
basically I went to God's house,
and I heard preaching about how these people
are going to burn for all eternity.
And then I was like, man,
how stupid was I to envy these people, right?
Now here's the thing,
what he says is he went to God's house,
and as a result of going to God's house,
he understood the end of this wickedness
in these people.
He had to have heard preaching against that.
Here's the thing, if you go to church,
and it's just love, love, love,
joy, joy, joy, peace, peace, peace,
that wouldn't have helped him.
He was envious because it seems like
people get away with sin,
and he needed to hear preaching about that.
But that's not what you get in most churches in 2023.
See, people that actually want to serve God,
if they went into these churches in 2023,
they would get nothing out of it.
In fact, we'd be vexed in our conscience
because you know this just doesn't feel right.
Right?
Go in your Bible to Psalm 43, we'll close up.
Psalm 43.
Anyway, this is kind of the attitude
that people develop in 2023
because quite honestly,
people have less religious zeal
than they used to have, right?
You know, there was a day in this world
where a lot of people did read the Bible
on a daily basis.
That's not 2023.
There's a lot of times in the past
where it's kind of like going to church
on a weekly basis was just what you did.
Everybody did it.
You know, in the United States,
when you look at the big pro sports that are out there,
there was a time
where there were never any games on Sundays.
It's like a big thing when Major League Baseball
finally started having games on Sunday
because they never had games on Sunday
because hey, no, people need to be in church.
There's a time when restaurants weren't open on Sunday
because like people were in church.
That's not the day that we live in in 2023 though.
There's a lack of zeal for the things of God.
And what I would say is this,
well, would you rather live in a Muslim country
where you can never go to church?
I mean, if you hate church so much,
it's like, would you rather live in North Korea
where you can't find a good church?
Where they're going to kill you
if you say anything about Christianity
or in a Muslim country, right?
And so what I would say is, you know what?
We need to get back to this excitement about God's house.
But here's the thing,
you don't have to force yourself to be excited
because if you're right with God,
you are excited to be at church.
When you're reading the Bible on a daily basis
and praying to God
and you have a personal walk with God,
you are glad to be in God's house.
That's the way it works.
I was glad when they said it
and they let us go into the house of the Lord.
Verse five.
Why art thou cast down on my soul
and why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope in God for I shall yet praise him
who is the health of my countenance and my God.
And you let the health of my countenance,
you know what?
When you're right with God,
it's actually good for you.
It's healthy for you.
Puts you in a good mood.
It's gonna give you good health, right?
So there's a lot of benefits
outside of just your own personal happiness
of serving God
because they say things like this,
like laughter is like the greatest remedy
for a problem, right?
It's like a medicine, they will say.
And there's truth behind that.
In fact, there's Bible verses
that would say similar things to that.
We're basically being in a good mood and being happy.
It's actually healthy.
It's good for you.
And so, look, there's many benefits of serving God
and look, none of us would wanna live
in these ungodly nations.
Now, of course, we're living in a day
where just about every country is becoming ungodly.
Every country is getting worse.
And you know what?
You're not really fine.
Now, what I do appreciate is that in our modern day,
see, here's what you see.
The average Baptist church in this world
is like just dying out and getting lame.
They're not clear on salvation anymore.
It didn't used to be that way
because 50 years ago in the US,
you could find a good Baptist church
within 30 minutes of you.
Obviously, there are still different flavors,
but ones that were clear on salvation
and used the King James Bible.
It's not really what you see in the US anymore.
Now, you can find a church
within two hours of you now,
but not 30 minutes anymore.
I lived in an area where there were decent churches
in West Virginia,
but not everybody's actually in that situation.
And what you're seeing
is that the average Baptist church
is actually getting pretty bad.
What you are seeing is some really good churches
that are trying to spring up and say,
hey, we gotta fill this void.
And we wanna be that light shining in darkness
and when to God we get a lot more churches
started like this, right?
But I am thankful to live in a country
where we're able to freely serve God,
freely go soul winning,
freely read the Bible with very minimal persecution.
Let's close the word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today, God,
and ask you to help us to apply these things
to our lives and help us understand these things
from the book of Psalms, God.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.