Bless the message that Brother Stuckey will impart to us through your wisdom and your spirit, Lord.
Praise in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, amen. We're here in Psalms chapter 5 and 6.
And so tonight's sermon is Psalms 5 and 6, The Mercies of the Lord.
The Mercies of the Lord. And that's a common theme here in these verses.
Let's look here starting at verse number 1 in Psalms 5 where the Bible reads,
Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation.
Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my pain, and my God. For unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
So these first three verses, what you see is that David is basically pleading with God to hearken to his voice.
He's asking him to hear his cry, and he's giving him basically a promise saying,
You will hear my voice in the morning. You're going to hear me pray and cry out to you.
Now it's kind of interesting because I prepared this sermon several weeks in advance.
And then I wrote a two-part sermon series on the prayer this Sunday without really realizing that these things are going to line up quite a bit.
So we're going to be talking about prayer a lot tonight, and that's what we're going to be talking about on Sunday.
But sometimes that's the way it works out.
But anyways, what David's promise here is that you will hear my cry in the morning.
Now one thing he mentions in verse number 1 is to consider his meditation.
And what he's saying, consider my meditation, he's basically telling him, consider how I live my life, consider my dedication.
And if we're going to get God to answer our prayers, we must be living a godly life.
And we must be putting in the time and the effort.
And we need to be able to say that to God. Consider my meditation. Consider my walk with the Lord. Consider what I'm doing.
Because honestly, obviously God loves us.
And if we're just disobeying everything he's saying, we can't really expect that he's just going to answer everything we ask him.
So we need to be able to say to God, hey, consider my meditation.
Because I'm trying to live for you. I'm trying to be devoted.
And you know, we ought to be able to say that, you know, God, you will hear my voice in the morning.
See, we should be praying every single morning.
Now when it comes to living for the Lord, obviously we should live for the Lord every single day, and there's different aspects to that.
You know, one aspect is not to live a sinful life.
Another aspect is to pray, to read the Bible.
Another aspect is going soul-winning, going to church.
Now we don't have church every single day.
Soul-winning, I don't think you have to do that every single day.
Okay, I do believe that you should be ready every single day.
But it doesn't necessarily mean you're taking two hours aside from your time every single day.
Prayer is something that you should be doing every day, though.
And reading the Bible.
But I'll tell you why prayer is really important to do first thing in the morning.
Because, you know what, you will go through life and find yourself wasting a lot of time that you could have saved if you'd just spent ten minutes in prayer in the morning.
Right.
And that's the truth.
Because we go through life, and some days we have this attitude, and look, I'm guilty of this as well.
Prayer is a difficult thing.
Now this is something that's a tough part of the Christian life.
But sometimes, you know, we have a day where we're just so busy, and we're like, I just don't have time to pray to you.
Now we might not say that out loud, but that's really what we're thinking.
Because we don't set aside ten minutes.
We say, man, I've got to get this done, and this, and this, and this.
Before you know it, you've got to go off to work.
You haven't spent any time praying to God.
The problem with that is, you're going to start making your life a lot more difficult.
It's not that hard for God to make sure you get stuck in traffic for a little while.
It's not that hard for God to help you get out of traffic for a little while and time everything just right.
And look, we will actually save quite a bit of our time if we will actually spend time in prayer in the mornings.
We're going to be amazed how much time will open up to us.
And see, God expects us to do it early in the morning.
That's the best time to do it.
But if you're going to pray to God and say, God, help me with everything that I'm going to do today,
it makes more sense to do that first thing in the morning than at the end of the day when the day is done.
It makes sense to do it first thing in the morning.
And I do believe we should set aside time to pray and read the Bible first thing in the morning.
But especially in prayer, because if we do that at the very end, we're going to probably find ourselves toiling and wasting a lot of time.
Now I want you to turn to Matthew 6 here tonight.
I added this in my notes here this morning.
Because what's interesting here about David is he's telling God that you're going to hear my voice.
But what you don't notice, you don't notice David going around telling everybody else about how he's going to pray to God in the morning.
You don't see him boasting about the works he's going to do.
He's just praying to God. He's just talking to God and saying, hey, you're going to hear my prayer in the morning.
He's not going around telling everybody how much he prays.
See, when we do things for the Lord, we should not be trying to get credit for men.
We shouldn't go about and say, hey, look at what I've done.
Hey, brother, guess what? Man, I spent two hours being five with them.
We don't need to do that.
We don't need to go around and just boast about all the things that we do.
Why? Because we're trying to get God to approve of our actions, not for man to approve of our actions.
See, when you pray, it's great that you spend time in prayer, but there's a proper way you must pray.
If you do it the wrong way, God's not going to bless it.
Here's what it says in Matthew 6, verse 5.
When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
See, what the Bible says here in Matthew 6, verse 5, notice how it says, when thou prayest.
What Jesus is telling you is, I expect you to pray.
He's not saying, if you pray, say, when thou prayest.
He's expecting them to pray.
But he says, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites that stand in the synagogues and the corners of the streets.
See, there are certain people that make it a point to pray in front of everybody so everybody can see what they're doing.
Now you would think that whether you're a Christian or a Christian, that you know these verses and you wouldn't do exactly what he's condemning people for.
And yet you see people do the same thing all the time.
They do works to be seen of men.
They do a standing in the corners and in the streets, and look, those people, they have their reward.
In fact, they might make it on GMA News.
Amen.
They're such a great person.
Look at this person, how great they are.
They're not getting any reward up in heaven from God, though, for that.
Amen.
See, when you do works, you're not supposed to do them to be seen of men.
And look, people do that in today's world.
And oftentimes those people end up being bad people.
Now I remember that someone told me this one time.
They asked me how many times I had read the Bible.
Now let me just say that I don't think that's a question you should ask anybody.
I don't think it's a proper question.
I don't think it's a right question.
I don't ask anybody that question.
But I remember somebody asked me that question and I didn't think anything of it at the time because they were someone who worked for a church.
And I thought, well, maybe they're just asking me because I worked for a church.
That was back when I was in Sacramento.
But it was no big deal to me except then it turns out they were asking other people at our church, people that had been saved for a year.
They're like, how many times have you read the Bible?
And once they say, oh, I've read it 25 times.
And it's like, well, what are you doing with it?
You're just trying to get credit for men and look like you're something special by talking about how much more you've read the Bible than other people?
And then they also asked how many chapters of the Bible have you memorized?
Like, why are you going around asking people that have been saved that have been saved for six months and they were drunk a year ago.
They're correcting their lives.
You're asking them how much they have in the Bible memories.
You're doing that to be seen in men.
You're doing that to lift yourself up.
You're doing that to boast.
And we expect it from the Catholics.
But the Catholics, they just vainly repeat everything.
They do everything to be seen in men.
We expect it from the Orthodox Church.
The Orthodox Church has this mountain that they go to that you have to be someone special to get there.
And they just pray for eight hours a day.
And they're revered as being these great people.
You expect it from the Buddhist monks that dress up to be seen of men.
They're clearly dressing like that to make a show.
And they clearly want to be seen of men.
But, you know, the Baptists do the same thing.
And they do things to be seen of men.
And it's especially prevalent here in the Philippines.
And it's amazing when you see that the world's actually fooled by this.
Because I would think they'd see that.
And it's very obvious that, oh, look at me.
And I clothed this guy.
I gave him food. Look at how great of a guy I am.
It's like, yeah, well, when you're rich, it's not that hard to do.
Amen.
I mean, when you have a lot of money, is it really that hard to give somebody a little bit of money?
I mean, if you're rich, then that's no big deal.
If you've got this big paycheck, it's no big deal.
But they do that to be seen of men.
Look, they have their reward.
People look at them and say, you're such a great person.
But here's where it's important for us.
Because obviously we would never do something that extreme.
But we could also be guilty of doing things to be seen of men.
And we need to be careful about this.
Now, when it comes to us personally, this is something you've got to ask yourself of why you're doing certain works.
Okay?
For example, when you go soloing, you don't have to go around and tell people how much you've gone soloing.
If you do that, the question is, why are you doing that?
Are you doing that so other people know that you go soloing more than them?
Because if you're doing that, you have your reward.
But you're not going to get a reward from up in heaven one day.
And look, it's kind of a tough balance.
Because as a church, obviously we take pictures of how we go soloing and stuff like that.
I think it could be good for encouragement.
And obviously as a church, we're showing what our church is doing.
But you've got to be careful about why are you taking pictures.
And you've got to be careful about letting every single person know what you're doing.
Because if you're not doing it with the right reason, then you are losing your reward.
See, that's what the Bible is saying.
And here's the thing.
In 2,000 years ago, you have to be a moron to lose your reward.
Like these people standing in the synagogues.
Look at me.
But in today's world, it's not that hard to just get on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whatever.
And you've lost your reward right there.
Wouldn't it be a shame to toil for two hours out there soloing and lose every reward you would have gotten?
Because you just had to let everybody know about it.
You had to let everyone know so you could be seen in it.
Like I said, this is something that's a tough balance.
Because you've got to examine your own heart and ask yourself why you're letting everybody know why you are or why you aren't.
Because I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong, but it comes down to why you're doing it.
It's not only the works we do, but it's also the reasons why we're doing it.
That's what the Bible tells us when it comes to getting rewards.
We're rewarded for the work we do, but if we do it for the wrong reasons, we can lose our reward.
And look, spending an hour in prayer is great.
But if you spend an hour in prayer in the middle of a resolved heart just on your knees, just putting your hands up in heaven.
Look, you're not getting your reward for that.
Now if you do that in your closet and never tell anyone about it, you'll get a reward for that.
But you know, you're not going to get a reward if you're doing it to be seen in men.
And so this is something that we all need to personally check ourselves.
Because naturally, we as people, we like to let people know we're doing something good. Don't we?
I remember when I first got saved, and this is something that, I don't know, maybe it's part of the culture in the U.S.,
but you want people to know things that you're good at.
And you kind of just make it a point to just somehow add it into the conversation like,
oh by the way, I'm really good at that.
And look, when you do that, especially when it comes to spiritual things, you are losing all of your rewards for doing it.
So look, it's great this next month if you take this prayer challenge and every single day you're praying to God.
But look, if you go around and tell other people about how you've been praying every single day, you will lose your reward.
And it's a foolish thing to do.
See, when it comes to personally growing close to God, those are things you do alone.
Those are not things you do in front of lots of people.
Look, in this room, I have no idea how much anybody prays.
I have no idea how much anybody reads the Bible.
Now I can do a degree note on how much you go solely because obviously we meet at set times.
But I don't know personally your walk with God how much you read the Bible or how much you pray.
This is something that's an individual thing.
This is not something to do in the synagogues or the streets to be seen of men like other Baptists would do.
This is something to do in your own personal time.
And you might never get rewarded for that.
And maybe nobody ever knows how much time you spend in prayer.
But look, why do you care how much people know how much time you spend in prayer?
Does that really matter?
All that really matters is are you spending time in prayer and does God approve of what you're doing?
And so what it said in Matthew 6 verse 1,
Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.
Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
And so alms are not referring to tithes but it's referring to going above and beyond.
Because God expects you're 10% but your alms giving is above your 10%.
Now here's the thing, if you give more than 10%, hey that's great.
But if you do it and tell people about it, you literally are getting zero reward from God.
Wouldn't it be a really foolish thing to do?
To spend money and get no reward from God?
And God's like, hey I don't care you already told people.
So He's not even going to bless you for it.
Wouldn't that be terrible?
And see we've got to be very careful why we're doing things.
And that's one reason why this altar call is so foolish.
Because people come to the front to the altar to be seen of men.
That's the reason why they do it.
I was at a church one time and it was like a preaching conference.
It was a famous preaching conference in the U.S.
It was the old past conference.
And this guy got up to preach and this guy was overall, you know I enjoyed his sermons.
You know he preaches pretty good.
He doesn't believe like we do but he's a pretty good preacher independent from the Baptist.
But then he started talking about the altar call.
And then all of a sudden he was talking about how you need to come down every single service.
And this is literally what he's saying.
He said, I don't care what the topic is.
He said, even if the sermon was about homosexuality I would still come down in the altar.
Because there would be something I need to hear.
I would be God.
And I'm trying my best not to laugh during the service.
I'm like, what in the world?
Because it was like, it was a really good sermon.
And then he spent a couple minutes talking about the altar.
And it's like, that was just like the weird sermon I've ever heard.
Just because of that couple minutes part.
And it's like, well that's a little bit too much information.
You didn't have to tell us that.
But look, this altar call, people come down to the front not because they want to.
Not even because they feel led by God.
But because of the fact they want to prove from a pastor's standpoint.
And that's why they come to the front.
And look, you know, if you're doing that, you've got your reward.
You're not getting a reward from heaven for that.
Now, let's go to Luke chapter 18. Luke 18.
And look, here's what we need to understand is this.
That if the whole world speaks well of you, you're not a good person.
You see, if I ever make it on the news, I can promise you I'm not making it on the news for something, you know, where I'm getting told how great of a guy I am.
I'm going to be on the news for some sermon I preached that ticked off a lot of people.
That's the reality of it.
I'm not going to get on the news and everyone says, man, you're the greatest person in the world.
You're such a great guy.
That's never going to happen.
If I get on the news, or if any of you get on the news, it's going to be because they criticize what we believe.
That's the reason why.
I mean, the whole world, and all the Catholics out here, and all the INC, and all the Hangatim Da'an, and everybody just says you're the greatest thing ever, and you're a Baptist.
It's like there's a problem.
Because there's no way those religions would ever be praising me for anything I say.
Now, let's look at Luke chapter 18 in this subject of prayer.
Let's look at verse number 1.
He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying there was in a city a judge which feared not God.
Neither regarded man, and there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of my adversary.
And so in Luke chapter 18, it talks about a judge who's not a very good guy.
He does not fear God, and he doesn't regard man.
Basically, this guy has good money.
He's got a good job.
He's well respected, and he doesn't care about anybody because he's a selfish person.
That's what you're basically seeing here in Luke chapter 18.
This guy certainly doesn't care about some widow in the city who's asking to be avenged of her adversary.
But this widow is coming to him, and in verse number 4 it says, and he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself,
Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenger.
Lest by her continually coming, she weary me.
So what is he saying? He's saying, you know, I don't really care about this widow, but the fact that she keeps bugging me, I'll grant her her request because she's just annoying.
That's what he's basically saying.
He said, you know, I just don't want her to keep knocking on my door.
I just don't want her to keep trying to ask me.
I just, it's not worth it.
Hey, you can have whatever you want.
I don't really care.
Whatever.
It's going to be easier just granting her request, even though I don't care about it.
Verse number 6, and the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge saith.
This is not a good judge.
He's an unjust judge, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them.
And so obviously, when it comes to us, which we are the elect, as the Bible says, not like the Calvinists or the pre-Tribbers would say, we are the elect, we as believers.
When we cry to him day and night, when we pray to him, when we ask for things, yes, he's going to grant our request, if it's done according to his will.
Yes, he's going to grant those requests.
If an unjust judge would grant the request of someone he doesn't care about, of course our Heavenly Father that loves us will grant our request if we're asking for the right things, and also we are living a Godly life.
Okay?
Now, that's why it said in verse 1 of Luke 18 that we ought always to pray and not to faint.
Faint basically means you get tired, you get exhausted, and you just quit.
Obviously, when it comes to prayer, you know what, it does take time sometimes to pray and to get God to answer your request, and we pray, we pray, we pray.
Eventually, he might grant the request, but you know, it might take some effort.
And sometimes what people do is they pray about things for a little while, but then they just give up.
You know, when it comes to getting family saved, a lot of people, they'll give it like one shot and then just say, my dad will never be saved.
My mom will never be saved.
Now, I always thought that was foolish because you know what, my parents were saved.
They believe on Jesus Christ, and when I first started talking to them, you know, their beliefs weren't the same.
Now, did they get saved right like this? No, they didn't.
It took time to explain, to explain, to explain.
In fact, it took four and a half years.
But you know, I didn't give up, and I didn't stop praying for it. Why?
Because I actually cared about that, and I cared about that because I have good parents.
And you know, we had a great praise report recently with Sister Leanne's parents getting saved.
And look, you know, family does get saved.
It takes effort. It takes prayer.
And this is one of those things that, yeah, it might take prayer and fasting.
It might take a lot of work. It might take a lot of effort.
And look, when you do that, you're kind of fearful to approach your family with the gospel.
Because if it goes bad, you could pretty much sever the relationship with them.
But I mean, if you care about them enough, you should put in that effort.
And look, people will talk to people, and they've literally given the gospel to their parents like two times.
And they say, my parents would never get saved.
It's like, you gave me the gospel two times.
Two times and you gave up?
I mean, how much do you care about, or how much do you believe in prayer?
And how much do you believe in God's word having power if you only did it two times and you gave up?
I'm not saying that you need to be best friends with your parents.
Look, if your parents are ungodly people, I'm not saying that you should be hanging out with them everywhere they go.
If your brothers or sisters are ungodly people, I'm not saying you should hang out with them.
I'm not saying you should hang out with them everywhere you go.
But look, God has appointed everybody to hear the gospel from someone.
And it just makes logical sense that if you're a soul winner, when it comes to your immediate family,
that's probably your job to get them saved.
And your job to at least give them a shot to get saved.
And people give up way too easy.
Why? Because they just don't believe in prayer that much.
See, that's why we're going to talk about it on Sunday, two sermons.
Now, verse seven is an interesting verse, though, where he says,
Though he bear long with them.
This is an interesting phrase because when I look that up, bear long,
in the Bible, the other times it appears, it's basically talking about God bearing long with us,
putting up with us when we have sin in our lives.
Basically, he's putting up with the fact that we have sin.
I think probably in verse number seven it has a dual meaning because in the context of this parable,
there's this judge that does not want to grant the request of the widow,
but she asks for it over and over and over again, and then he grants the request.
But I do believe, and we're going to see this later on in the sermon,
that we also see from the context that God will put up with our sin for a while
and still grant our request sometimes because his mercies are new every single morning.
So I think it kind of is referring to both of those things.
One, it does take some time sometimes where you pray and pray and pray,
and God will eventually grant that request.
It's not necessarily going to happen from day one.
But also the fact that he puts up with our sin if we get right with him
and he's still willing to grant our request.
As long as we're doing our best, we're giving him the shot.
The reason why I think it more is referring to our sin is from verse number eight
where it says, I tell you that you will avenge them speedily.
So speedily implies it's happening really quick.
So there's two possibilities there.
When it says speedily, it could mean that when you pray, it's like an immediate answer.
Or it could mean once he does answer your prayer request, it happens really quickly.
It could refer to you.
There's verses in the Bible that honestly I think we could interpret different ways
and give you kind of both perspectives.
And I think it probably has a dual meaning when it says,
bear along with him of sometimes you have to pray a while to get God to answer,
which is definitely true. We see that in the Bible.
But also the fact that God puts up with a lot from us,
and he's still willing to grant our request even though we really don't deserve it at all.
So I think it kind of has a dual meaning. Now turn back to Psalms five.
And what we're going to make you see tonight is the idea of God being merciful to us,
even though we mess up a lot, even though we sin a lot.
So it says in Psalms chapter five,
For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with it.
See, God has no pleasure in us living a wicked and ungodly life.
And in the context of prayer, which is what he's talking about in Psalms five verses one through three,
look, if we want God to answer our request, we better be able to tell God,
hey, look at my meditation, look at my walk with God.
Now, once again, we're not telling other people about our walk with God.
That is something we can say to God.
Say, hey, God, I do read the Bible. I do go soul winning. I do try to live a godly life.
Please will you grant this request?
And this can come to a lot of different avenues.
Sometimes when people are looking to have a child, it's not necessarily you're going to have a child from day one.
My wife and I would pray for two and a half years before God blesses with that prayer request.
And here's the thing about this.
If you're living a godly life, we can look at God and say, look, I'm living a godly life.
God, can you please grant this request?
Now, he might have reasons where he doesn't grant it immediately.
And in the Bible, there's godly people that have to wait a while.
But that is something that God's going to obviously hear that prayer request if you're living a godly life.
But if you're someone who lives a wicked life, then you can't expect God to answer your prayer requests.
If my son grows up and he just lives a rebellious life and doesn't listen to me at all,
but then he asks me to take him out to eat somewhere, I'm not going to do it.
Now, if he's being a good child, though, then maybe I will do it.
But if he's disobeying me, obviously I'm not going to grant his requests.
It works the same way with God.
In verse number five, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight.
Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
And we've talked about this before in our Psalm series that when it comes to the very end,
the ungodly people are going to bow their knee and beg God for forgiveness.
They won't be standing in the sight of God.
Now, there's all kinds of weird things online this week, it seems, right?
But, you know, in the Bible when it says, bowing your knee to confess that Jesus is Lord,
you're confessing that Jesus is Lord.
And now we've got these ruck mites running around with that weird video.
We put it up on our channel because they make themselves look like pool.
That, you know what, in the end times, believers are going to bow their knees and confess they believe in dispensationalism.
What kind of a warped teaching do you have from Philippians 2?
That's not a confusing passage when it says, every knee shall bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
You're going to bow and confess that Gail Ripley was a great woman of God.
You're going to bow and confess Peter Ruck was a great man of God.
I mean, what kind of a belief is that?
And then everybody listens to that and they're screaming, amen?
You say, well, they believe the same gospel we do.
It certainly doesn't sound like it.
It certainly doesn't really sound like they believe the Bible much at all or understand the Bible at all.
Because it's not that confusing to say, to see when every knee shall bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It's referring to Jesus Christ, not for anything else.
It's referring to unbelievers bowing down on their knees.
The context there is unbelievers that mock God and rejected God will be forced to bow down.
They won't stand in his sight. They'll bow down and beg for mercy, and there is none.
Believers will be bowing down and saying, man, I didn't believe in this, I didn't believe that.
Why? Because we do believe in Jesus Christ.
We are saved.
But the unbelievers, they haven't humbled themselves.
They will be forced to humble themselves.
Now, we'll be humble because of the fact we'll be in awe of the great Jesus Christ we serve.
But there's nothing about us as believers bowing down and saying, oh wow, man, I was wrong about the creature rapture.
Forgive me. I was wrong. I thought the word after meant after. I was wrong and meant before.
But that's not what the Bible teaches.
But the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. They will bow down.
Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
Now, what is a worker of iniquity? We'll turn to Matthew 7.
When it comes to workers of iniquity, these are pretty much the ultimate lowlifes in this world.
Because there's a lot of weird, disturbing people out there.
And there's a lot of perverts and pedophiles.
But what's even worse is false prophets.
Because false prophets are far more dangerous.
You see, that sounds strange to me.
False prophets are far more dangerous than a pedophile.
They cause more harm than a pedophile does what?
Because they're leading people to hell.
Now, obviously a pedophile causes a lot of harm.
That's obvious.
When it comes to false prophets, when it comes to Catholic priests, which they fit both.
When it comes to a lot of false prophets, they fit both.
But when it comes to false prophets that are leading people to hell, those people are more dangerous.
And the ones that are the most dangerous are the ones that sound very much like us.
But they do have a different gospel. They're the most dangerous.
Matthew 7, verses 22 through 23.
Many will save me in that day.
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name we cast out devils.
And in thy name done many wonderful works.
Now, these are not people that are atheists in Matthew 7.
These are not people that are Muslims in Matthew 7.
These are not people that are Buddhists.
You say, how do you know that?
Because they said they were prophesying in thy name.
They're going out and spreading their evangelism in the name of Jesus, or so-called.
That's what they're saying.
We're doing it in the name of Jesus.
They say we've cast out devils and done many wonderful works.
So these are people that are religious leaders.
These are people that are shocked they ended up in hell.
Verse 23.
And then why profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that were iniquity.
He says I never knew you because they were never saved.
They never believed on Jesus Christ.
And the evidence is the fact that when they ended up in hell, they were shocked and said, look at all of our works.
Look at all the great works I've done.
That shows that they never really believed on Jesus Christ.
But notice how it said, ye that were iniquity.
See, that's the same thing when it says the workers of iniquity.
These are basically religious leaders, religious false prophets.
And these are the worst people on earth.
Now when it comes to certain religions and certain false prophets, it's obvious that they're prophets.
And they don't deceive anybody.
But I'll tell you what.
I remember after I got saved, it was about a year, a year and a half, it was the second Baptist church I went to.
And I left the church because it wasn't King James only.
And I realized the King James Bible was perfect.
And it was the preserved word of God.
And so that was the big issue to me at the time.
Because obviously I was still growing and learning.
This was probably about 2005.
It was a long time ago.
And I remember the first service I went to, he was preaching about the King James Bible when I walked in.
I didn't realize Sunday school was for adults, not just kids.
And a lot of Baptist churches today have Sunday school for adults as well.
I grew up a Protestant, so I thought Sunday school was just for kids.
So I showed up ten minutes during the Sunday school time before the main service.
And he's preaching about the King James Bible.
And me and my friends were like, man, this is awesome.
Because we just left the church over that issue.
And I thought he was a good man of God at the time.
And he was a very dynamic speaker.
He was very good at getting up and speaking.
He kept your attention. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about.
And we talked to him about what he believed.
And you know what? As far as we knew, he was right on salvation.
We didn't know about repentance of sin at the time.
We didn't know that was a hot button issue.
We knew to ask about eternal security.
We knew to ask about Calvinism.
Now this guy was a five-point Calvinist, but he lied to us.
He told us he did not believe in Calvinism.
Even though it turned out he was a five-point Calvinist, which we did not know at the time.
And you say, well, why would somebody lie about that?
Because the workers of iniquity are the worst people in the world.
They have no problem lying to anybody.
They're the worst people in the world.
A lie is not a big deal to them.
He just lied to us. Why?
Because he knew we were against Calvinism.
And so his goal was obviously get these people to come to our church and then change their mind.
I preached at that church three different services.
As far as I knew, he had the same gospel we did.
Now, like I said, I didn't know about the repentance of sin sermon.
Repentance of sins topic at the time.
But I preached a sermon, and during the sermon I preached against Calvinism for five minutes.
And guess what he did?
Amen!
And he was a Calvinist.
You say, why would he do that?
Because the workers of iniquity are the worst people in the world.
They're more dangerous and worse than the pedophiles.
They're terrible people.
And so he lied about it.
Now, this guy, all of a sudden then, about a year after we went to the church,
he preached a sermon.
And it was from Jude where it talked about lasciviousness.
And he was basically saying that when people preach salvation is believe only,
they're preaching lasciviousness and it's a false gospel.
He talked about our repentance of sins.
Now, when he said that, this was not a topic I was privy to.
It wasn't something I was used to.
So me and my friends are like, that doesn't sound right.
It's not the voice of the shepherd.
I say to people, you hear that, and you're like, that doesn't make sense.
But as far as we knew for a year, this guy believed the same gospel as us.
So we just figured maybe we'd miss her or something.
And we talked to him about the sermon.
And then over the next month we realized, I mean, this guy's just a full blown heretic.
But what was amazing about it was, he seemed like he believed just like us.
This guy believed in repentance of sins to be saved,
like all these Baptist heretics that are out there.
But he sounded like he believed exactly like us.
And then we heard his interpretation of some of the verses, like of James 2.
And it's like, it sounds like I'm talking about Catholic.
And then he talked about how being a follower of the Lord,
you must be a disciple to be saved.
And it's like, no, that's not being saved.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is being saved.
And it's like, we thought he believed the same thing as us.
And then out of his own mouth, all of a sudden his beliefs start coming out.
And it's like, this guy's just a full blown heretic.
And see, that's what you see with these people.
And these Baptist churches here in the Philippines,
where their pastors seem very close to us,
and don't even preach sermons, and it sounds like they believe the same gospel.
But when you really break it down, they're trusting in their repentance of sins,
those are the worst people on earth.
Amen.
And they have no problem with lions.
I know from my own experience, they are the workers of iniquity.
You could look this up throughout the entire Bible.
These are really, really bad people.
Now turn back to Psalms 5.
You say, how is it that someone that could be such a bad person
could think that they have all these wonderful works?
Because they honestly do believe that they have all these wonderful works.
Well, here's what you have to understand.
When you look in the Bible, the people that hated Jesus, the Pharisees and Jews,
they were really evil people.
But they thought they were really good people, didn't they?
But not only that, the closer you are to a light,
you can start seeing all the problems that you have.
Like if we were to shine the light really bright here,
because we just cleaned this place yesterday and it looks pretty nice.
But if you were to shine the light really bright in areas,
you'd start to see the dust, you'd start to see the problems, wouldn't you?
See, the closer you get to the light, you can start seeing the problems.
Now, for us as believers and people that are striving to live for the Lord,
if I'm honest, I can see a lot of problems with myself that I need to fix.
The closer you get to the light, the more problems you see.
When you're really far away from the light, you won't really notice anything.
And see, these Repentive Sins Preachers are terrible human beings.
They are so far from the light, they don't notice any problems in themselves.
But see, the closer you get to the light, the more it's going to reveal.
The Bible talks about everything being manifest by the light.
It talks about that in the book of Ephesians.
And see, the closer you get to God, the more problems you're going to realize in your life.
See, you know, ten years ago, there was a lot of things that I did back then
that now I would look at and say, they're wrong, I shouldn't do that.
But I didn't think anything of them anymore.
And see, the closer you get to God, the more you're going to need to change.
We're never going to reach a point where there's nothing we need to change in our lives.
We're always going to be at stake where we need to be growing.
Now, going back to Psalms 5, in verse number 6,
right after we talk about the workers of iniquity, notice what it says,
Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.
The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
Notice how being deceitful is right in there with being bloody.
Speaking leasing is referring to lying.
Now, when it talks about someone who's a deceitful person,
it mentions right there being a bloody person.
Now, there's a lot of people that are these massive liars that maybe they've never killed anyone.
But if they're these massive pathological liars that just feel no remorse for ever telling a liar or doing anything wrong,
being a bloody person is right around the door.
And see, these repentance of sins preachers, they might not have killed anyone.
These people that are fully willing to lie and to deceive people,
just for either filthy lucrece or for the fact that whatever they want to grow this powerful church,
they're just willing to lie to people when they ask them direct questions.
When you ask them a direct question, do you think a person has to repent of their sins to be saved?
And they try to trick you.
They just won't be honest about it.
They just won't tell you what they believe.
Look, I've been on vacation and gone to IFB churches and called the churches in that area
to try to find out what they believe about salvation,
and the repentance of sins preachers won't even tell you what they believe.
They're very confusing about it.
Why? Because they're bad people.
That's the truth.
They're not good people.
They act like they're good people.
They're not good people.
Now, it mentions the bloody and deceitful man.
Now, think of somebody who was on trial for committing murder.
Now, if somebody's on trial for committing murder,
if somebody was willing to commit murder, that's pretty bad, isn't it?
I mean, it is possible for a saved person to commit murder,
but committing murders are really wicked sin.
I would hope that no one's even come close to even thinking about something like that.
That's a lot worse than telling a lie.
Now, let me ask you a question.
If there was someone who had committed murder who was on the stand in court,
do you really think that you could trust or believe anything that they say?
I mean, if they're willing to commit murder,
I mean, could we really trust any word that comes out of their mouth?
No, of course it's all going to be lies.
Look, if there's a murder trial and someone's on trial for murder
and it's believed they're guilty,
you can pretty much forget about anything they say
because it's all going to be lies.
Because if somebody's willing to kill someone,
they're certainly willing to lie about it.
But I mentioned speaking leasing with the bloody person as well.
Now look at verse number seven.
But as for me, so we're seeing the difference between someone who loves the Lord
and someone who's a worker of iniquity.
But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy
and thy fear will I worship for thy holy temple.
And so what David's saying is I will come in the multitude of thy mercy
because one thing we need to understand is that
if we're going to get God to answer our prayer requests,
we must realize that He's merciful for us from the mistakes we make.
Look, you know, it's of God's mercies that we're not destroyed.
We break God's rules all the time.
We go to a church where we know exactly what the Bible teaches.
I know what the Bible teaches.
And yet we choose to break the things that we hear preached all the time.
And I'm guilty of it as well all the time.
You preach sermons and it's very clear what the Bible says.
And even knowing what the Bible says,
we still choose to just break it sometimes.
And that's the sad reality, but we as Christians, we still have the flesh.
You get saved, your flesh does not change.
You still have the same flesh, even if you know what's right to do,
it doesn't mean you won't do it.
We need to worship with having fear toward thy holy temple.
Now turn to Lamentations 3.
Now the truth is that these Baptist creatures that preach repentance of sins,
they can tell us all day how much they love us
and how they love everybody.
They love us, they don't hate us.
The reality is those are very deceitful people.
And the reality is those people hate us.
And the reality is those people would be glad if I got into a car accident and died.
They'd be glad if you got into a car accident and died.
They don't care about you.
They're ponies.
They're false prophets.
They're bad people.
And you can look that up in the Bible.
The workers of iniquity are really bad people.
Look, it says bloody and deceitful men.
You say really that a repentance of sins preacher could be someone who,
yeah, he could.
Why?
He's a reprobate.
He's an evil person.
And he probably became a reprobate a decade ago
and you only get worse and worse if you're a reprobate.
It's not like you reach a point where you're so bad that all of a sudden you just become a better.
No, you just get worse and more to pray over and over and over again
until the end of your life when you're done.
Lamentations 3 verses 22 and 23.
This is such a great promise from God because, you know, the great thing about the way that God designed the world
is the fact that, you know, going to sleep at night and waking up, it just feels like a brand new day.
And it is a brand new day.
But it just feels like a new start because if you have a day where you screw up
and you're backsliding and you're just out of God's will,
you know, it's really hard in that day to just reverse it and live for the Lord in that day.
Isn't that true?
When you have a day where you're not living for God,
it's almost impossible to reverse it and live for God the rest of the day
and actually be productive that day.
And it makes logical sense too with the examples God gives us
because God and my kids getting close to him has climbing a mountain.
Just like Moses in the book of Exodus climbed a mountain to get close to God.
Now when it comes to climbing a mountain, look, you know, it's going to take a lot of effort to get going.
It's going to be steep, it's going to be hard, it's going to be difficult.
And at the beginning of each day, you're basically at a stopped position.
But you're facing uphill.
Now look, it's very easy to roll backwards and when you roll, you can roll a long ways backwards.
To go forward though, it takes a while to get your momentum going
and it's going to take longer to get up that mountain.
Whereas when you're sliding backwards, it's very easy to slide backwards.
Now if you're sliding backwards down a hill, is it easy to stop yourself and get going forward?
No, it's not.
I remember when I was a kid, I climbed a steep hill and I got right towards the top
and I grabbed that root that was in the ground and it just pulled out of the ground.
And I just went tumbling down, you know, I just had, you know, blood, you know,
just all these scratches and everything, tumbled down a long ways.
And look, you know, it's pretty hard to stop yourself.
When you're tumbling downhill.
And it's the same thing when it comes to spirituality.
But the thing is, when you go to bed at night and you wake up, you're in a stopped position.
You're not going forward, you're not going backwards.
And that's why starting your day off with God is very important.
Because you need to get your momentum going forward.
Look, you know, here in the Philippines, it's pretty flat.
But I'll tell you what, where I grew up in West Virginia, it's known as the Mountain State.
Okay?
They don't have massive mountains, but everything's a mountain.
There's nothing flat.
And so during the wintertime when it's snowing, which you guys might not know what that is.
You know, it's the white thing that falls from the sky.
But when it's snowing and there's ice on the ground, look, you'll have these cars going, you know, side by side.
And there will be this one car that the tires get stuck.
And they're just in the middle of the road and there's this big traffic jam.
I remember one time we were getting out of church and I was on the other side of the road
and there was this one car that got stuck.
I pulled my car, you know, you put it on your emergency brake so it doesn't slide down the hill.
I got out, brother Richard Simons was there as well.
On the other side he wasn't in my car, but he got out.
We helped sir to push that car because of the fact when it's facing uphill, you got to get the momentum going.
And so it takes a lot of guys to push and push and push.
You're pushing, it's not moving, it's not moving.
Then all of a sudden it starts to slowly move and then all of a sudden, boom, it just goes.
They hit the acceleration.
They're gone.
That's the way it works in our Christian life.
It does take quite a bit of an effort when you first start.
That's why early in the morning is the best thing.
And if you don't start your day off with God, you're going to have a bad attitude the whole day.
That's just the way it works.
We need to start our day off with God, reading the Bible, and spending our time in prayer.
Now go back to Psalms 5.
Go back to Psalms 5.
So that's a great promise for us that, you know, these passions feel not there and new every morning
because of the fact there are often times I go to bed at night
and there's nothing better than going to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
Where you basically go to bed at night and you know, not that we're perfect in a day because nobody is,
but that we've tried to live for God.
We've done pretty well spiritually.
We've read the Bible, you know, maybe gone to church, gone soul winning or whatever.
We've spent time in prayer.
There's nothing better than going to bed at night with a clear conscience.
You know, you have those other days where you don't go to bed with a clear conscience and you feel guilty.
The great promise of God is His mercies are new every morning.
His passions feel not. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.
Now in Psalms 5 verse 8 Bob reads,
Leave me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies.
Make Thy way straight before my face.
Now, remember this chapter is talking about prayer quite a bit
and it's interesting when he says make Thy way straight before my face.
What he's basically saying is, just guide me how you want to guide me.
Just show me what you want me to do.
See, oftentimes when we pray, we should ask God for things,
but there's certain directions we want to go in life
and we're basically asking God your grand request of what we want to do.
That's not necessarily what God wants you to do, though.
See, the best prayer request would be basically, God, just show me what you want me to do.
You know, like for example, you have a decision in life. You have a couple job opportunities.
You know, God, just make that way straight before my face.
Just show me which one you want me to take.
Just put it in God's hands to make it very clear, to make it very easy.
David just wants to know, hey, I just want to know what is the direction you want me to go and I'll go.
That's what we should do.
And look, you know, in our lives, there's going to be certain things that we don't want to pray about
because there's certain things we don't want to change.
There's people that are addicted to video games
and they would never pray and ask God.
What they should do is basically pray to God and say,
God, take away my desire to waste my time playing video games.
That's what they should do.
I know independent functional Baptists that don't come to church, don't go solely because they just love video games.
What they should do is pray to God and say, hey, God, just change my heart.
Change my desires.
Make that way straight before my face.
That's what they should do.
That's probably not what they're going to do.
That's what we should do in our lives.
If there's certain things that we don't want to do, say, God, just take away my desire
and then just guide me how you want to guide me.
That's the way David is. That's his attitude.
In verse 9, it says,
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth.
Their inward part is very wickedness.
Their throat is an open sepulcher.
They flatter with their tongue.
No faithfulness in their mouth.
We're speaking of dishonest people.
They basically make empty claims.
They say, I'm going to do something. They don't do it.
They say this and they don't really mean it.
They're just liars. They're unfaithful people.
That's what it's talking about in verse 9.
It says,
They flatter with their tongue.
That's one thing it mentions.
When it talks about these people that flatter with their tongue
and have no faithfulness in their mouth,
these are people whose throat is an open sepulcher.
It's like an open grave.
Their inward part is very wickedness.
See, the person that flatters on the outside,
on the inside is a really wicked person.
See, that's one of the big things when you're looking for someone who's a false prophet
or a reprobate or someone who would cause problems in church.
Look, if somebody always is flattering to you,
that's a massive red flag.
Watch out for that person.
There's people I know that are big flatterers.
You know, people so-called within this movement.
And it's like, you know what, I have my opinion of them
because I've heard them being a huge flatterer.
And it's like, you know, I do have my opinion of them.
And, you know, those are the people you need to watch out for.
That's the truth.
And when somebody comes in and, look, if I preach a sermon
and let's say you think it's a good sermon,
you're welcome to tell me, hey, Brother Stuckey,
you know, I didn't think about that in 1 Corinthians 5.
You know, I learned something tonight. Thank you very much.
But don't come up to me and say, hey, that is the greatest sermon I've ever heard.
Man, that sermon just knocked all of Pastor Mena's sermons out of the bar.
That was such an awesome sermon.
Look, that's called being a flatterer.
That's called being a phony.
That's called being fake.
And, look, even if there's something you want to give somebody a compliment,
you don't go over the top because you're going to be doing them a disservice.
But when it comes to people that are flatterers,
these are people you need to watch out for.
And we will have them in church.
They've been at every church I've been at before.
People that are the flatterers that make it a point to tell you how great you are.
And they do that to everybody.
Every time you preach here on a Sunday afternoon,
you know, young men that are here that preach,
a couple of you guys that preach here on Sunday afternoon,
watch out for the person who, after you get done with the sermon,
tells you about how, man, that was such a great sermon.
Wow, you explained that so much better than Brother Stuckey would have explained it.
I'll tell you, that's the person you have to watch out for.
That's the person who's such a nice person on the outside,
they might be a pretty miserable person on the inside.
The Bible talks about the person who flatters on the outside with their tongue.
On the inside, they're a wicked person.
Those are the people we need to watch out for.
That will happen at our church like it happens at every church.
The people that go over the top giving praise and complimenting,
those are people you need to watch out for.
Those are bad people.
Now, here's the thing about preaching about reprobates inside of a church.
Nobody ever believes it takes place until they actually see it.
Now, if you've been around church for a while, you're going to have seen it.
But, you know, honestly, even these last couple of years,
people have turned out to be reprobates that shocked me,
people that I thought I knew, people I worked solely with dozens of times,
and I thought they were great people, and I was completely shocked.
But, you know, honestly, then when you go back, in hindsight,
you can start to see things that maybe you should have seen.
And we, as people, we naturally just don't want to think people are bad people.
You know, we've had bad people in this church that got booted out of here.
And it's like, you know, you give them a lot of the benefit of the doubt,
and it's pretty obvious they are what they are.
You want to give them a chance, though.
You want to give people a chance to say, man, I hope they're not a bad person,
but then there's just undeniable evidence.
But in terms of our church, though, watch out for the people that are the big flowers.
You know, if there's somebody at church that you have a question about,
now, there's a problem if you question everybody in church, okay?
There's a problem there.
But if you have someone that you had certain signs that you think someone's a bad person,
the best thing you can do is to tell me privately.
Don't go around telling other people at church, because that's what happens.
That's what causes a church work, okay?
But come to me privately, come to my wife privately, and tell us the reasons why.
Now, if it's the first thing I've heard about that person,
it's very unlikely I'd say I've got to kick this person out,
because I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, okay?
People handle things differently, but I want to think people are good people.
Now, if the evidence you say is really strong against them, then it might be different.
But if it's just something that you saw a sign of them doing something wrong,
then you should tell me.
And even if they don't get kicked out now,
that could be part of the puzzle that gets them kicked out eventually if they are a bad person.
That could be one of the strikes that they might have against them.
But I can't just go off the testimony of one person,
because the truth is, at a church, everybody's going to have something they don't like.
That's the way it works.
And so just because you don't like someone, that doesn't mean they're a bad person.
It might just mean your personalities conflict, or maybe we're all sinners,
so that's the reason why we're struggling with growing as Christians.
But, you know, it is something you should let me be aware about.
You should let my wife be aware about that, and especially the person that flatters.
That's the first thing I look for in people that I think might be bad people.
If they're flattering, if they're just giving this ridiculous praise,
it's a massive, massive red flag.
Look, these Baptist pastors in the Philippines that ate my guts,
there's a good chance that if I met them in person, they'd be like,
Brother Stuckey, it's so great to meet you.
I'm so thankful for the great ministry you guys are doing there in Pasadena.
Man, it's great. We pray for you every week.
And then, secretly, they're preaching against me at funerals.
That could be the way it works.
For secretly, they're just sending their church members to our church to try to cause problems.
That could be the reality of the matter.
Now, let's look at verse number 10.
Destroy thou them, O God, let them fall by their own counsels.
Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee.
And see, David's saying here, destroy these people.
But it's not because they're his enemies, it's because these people are God's enemies.
We're talking about false prophets, workers of iniquity, the low-lifes of this world,
the worst people in this world.
And that's what he's talking about.
And then it says in verse number 11,
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice.
Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them.
Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee,
for thou, Lord, will bless the righteous with favor,
while thou compest him as with a shield.
So, once again, we ought to be joyful when we're serving God
and understanding and knowing that God will protect us.
He does love us, and his mercies are new every morning.
Now, let's turn to Psalm 6.
Let's turn to Psalm 6.
This is a shorter chapter here.
Psalm 6.
Psalm 6, verse number 1, it says,
O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger,
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Now, here what he's saying is,
don't chasten me when you're really mad.
Don't rebuke me when you're really mad.
He's not telling the Lord not to rebuke him.
He's not telling the Lord not to chasten him.
He says, don't do it in thine anger.
Don't do it in thy hot displeasure.
Basically, he's asking God to give him a chance.
It'd be like, for example, you know,
if I were to discipline my son.
If my son does something wrong,
look, if your parents and your son disobeys you
or your daughter disobeys you,
when you're angry, you spank them harder than when you're not angry.
That's the way it works.
When you're really upset,
you might be a little bit more harsh than you should have been, okay?
And so, obviously, when you spank kids,
you need to do it right when they've committed the crime,
whatever they've done.
But at the same time, there's a proper way,
and we should do it with the right attitude.
But what he's telling the Lord is not to rebuke him in thine anger.
It says in verse number 2,
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed.
My soul is also sore vexed,
but thou, O Lord, how long?
And so the psalmist is basically asking for mercy,
you see, in this chapter as well.
And look, when it comes to us in our lives,
when we commit sins in our lives,
things that we know are wrong
and things that we know are bad sins,
it really almost hurts you on the inside.
I mean, it just hits you hard.
I mean, how could I have done something like that?
I mean, it makes it even harder to just function,
and I think that's what he's speaking to here
when he says his bones are vexed.
His soul is sore vexed.
Basically, he wants God's mercy,
and he realizes, man, it was really wrong what I did.
I haven't been obeying God at all.
I haven't been reading his Bible.
I haven't been praying, or I committed some sin.
And because of that, he feels vexed on the inside.
It hits him on the inside.
And we're going to be talking about it next month
because we're going to be having a five-part sermon series
on biblical health.
And one thing we're going to talk about
is living a godly life.
And in terms of living a godly life,
it's actually the best thing you can do
for your physical health.
And we'll see that from the Bible.
But living an ungodly life,
it's going to even hurt you on the inside.
Your bones are going to be vexed.
Your soul is also sore vexed.
Verse number four,
Return, O Lord, deliver my soul.
Oh, save me for Thy mercy's sake,
for in death there is no remembrance of Thee.
In the grave, who shall give Thee thanks?
So what he's saying here in Psalm 6, verse 5,
he's basically saying,
If I die, then I can't think about you and remember you.
And if I die, I can't give you thanks.
Okay?
Now we ought to look at our own selves and say this,
that if we were to die tomorrow,
would it really change anything
in terms of how much God gets praised
and how much thanks He gets
and how much He hears people praying to Him?
See, if you're someone who prays to God a lot
and praises God a lot,
hey, if you die, you can say,
Hey, God, if I die, you're not going to hear praise from me.
You're not going to hear me giving Him thanks like I like to do.
But if you're someone who never prays
and never praises God whatsoever,
it's like, God, if I die, then not much is going to change.
And so that's what he's saying in Psalm 6, verse 5,
and this is one reason why he's pleading for mercy from God
and pleading for God to protect him,
where he's saying,
If I die, if I'm in the grave,
who is going to give the thanks?
We ought to be able to tell God,
you know, if I were to die,
then that means who's going to read your Word of God?
If I'm going to die,
then who's going to be going soloing out here?
If I die, it's going to harm Christianity
in terms of the fact I'm going soloing,
I'm reading the Bible, I'm living for you.
And we ought to be living a godly enough life
that we can say that.
Verse number 6,
I am weary with my groaning.
All the night make I my bed to swim.
I water my couch with my tears.
This is a verse in the Bible
where you can just see the Word of God
is the Word of God,
just the way it's written,
how poetic it is,
where he says,
All the night make I my bed to swim.
Great poetic language here in the Bible.
Now, one thing we can learn about this,
and you'll see this consistently through the Bible,
is that when people cry,
they tend to cry during the night.
That's what you see.
They don't tend to cry during the day.
You say, Why?
Because they don't want people to see them cry.
People don't like them.
People see them cry.
When you're at night and nobody sees you,
you can cry and nobody knows about you.
When it's during the day,
what are you going to do?
You're going to cover your eyes.
You're going to go to the bathroom.
You're going to do whatever.
You're going to say,
I just sliced an onion.
That's why I have tears in my eyes.
You don't want people to know that you're crying.
That's the way it works,
whether you're a godly person or non-godly.
Generally, we don't like people to see us cry.
That's the way it works.
He's doing it at night.
All the night, I make my bed to swim.
Also, at night is when you get to basically sit there
and think about what's going on in your life.
You're there.
You're on your pillow at night.
If you've worked a hard day,
maybe you fall asleep immediately.
Oftentimes, you'll sit there for 10, 15 minutes.
You're just thinking about the day and what's going on.
You know what?
If your life is really bad
and you're going through a lot of trials,
you're probably going to make your bed swim.
You're probably going to cry whether or not you're a girl
or whether or not you're a god.
Whether or not you're a guy that's got all these muscles,
look, you can still cry.
There are still things that are going to get to you
and make you cry.
In the Bible, Jesus went.
Jesus was a tough guy.
He wasn't like these Catholics having these pains.
He was a tough guy.
In the Bible, even godly people can cry.
There's nothing wrong with that,
but generally, crying happens at night.
Mine eyes consume because of grief.
It waxes old because of all my enemies.
It says it waxes old.
I think it's literally saying that when you cry,
it will actually age your eyes.
I do believe that's what it's saying.
Honestly, science will say the same thing,
but this verse is where I would get that from.
I looked that up just out of curiosity.
But you can actually age your eye if you're crying.
Look, when it comes to people that cry a lot,
I'll tell you who cries a lot,
wicked, ungodly people.
You say, I've never seen them crying.
Yeah, because of the fact you didn't see them at night.
But in the Bible, you see ungodly people
crying at night because their lives are miserable.
It will actually age you by crying.
It says in verse number 8.
Now, obviously, David here is crying
because when he says enemies,
he's got enemies that you have to actually fear.
It's a really scary situation.
David was always on the run.
He's running from King Saul,
and he had a lot of enemies in his life.
And, yea, all the will of Godly shall suffer persecution.
Verse 8, depart from me, all you workers of iniquity,
for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.
It basically says,
Depart, you wicked, ungodly, religious false prophets.
God's heard my weeping.
And so when you think about the worst people in this world,
think about Elijah standing up against the false prophets of Baal.
You say, but they're religious leaders.
They're not so bad.
No, they're the worst people that were there.
They're the worst of the worst.
And, see, that's why the repentance preachers
are the worst human beings,
because they pretend to be like us.
They're so close, and yet they're preaching another gospel.
The John MacArthur's of this world,
they're evil people, yet they're not good people.
The Billy Graham's an evil person.
But these people, these Calvinists,
they're evil people,
and they're deceiving people by the millions.
Verse number 9,
The Lord hath heard my supplication,
the Lord will receive my prayer.
And, you know, the Bible talks about that
when you're living Godly,
we know that we have the petitions we desire for them.
We know he's going to hear our prayer.
We know he's going to receive it.
If we're living a Godly life,
and we're taking the time to pray,
and we know we're doing it according to his will,
then, yeah, he's going to receive our prayer.
We don't have to doubt about that.
Verse number 10,
Let all my enemies be ashamed and sore backs.
Let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
And so, what we see in Psalms 5 and Psalms 6
is not really that much different than
Psalms 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The fact that, you know what,
there's a lot of false prophets,
reprobates that are out there.
And, you know, it's really interesting
when people look at the book of Psalms,
and a lot of people would say that's their favorite book.
And people that don't read the Bible,
and it's very obvious they don't read the Bible
because of the fact there's no way
they'd say Psalms is their favorite book.
I guess they say that because it's a long book,
so it sounds like they're Godly,
or because it's a song book.
It's like, oh, I love the book of Psalms.
We love the part where it talks about
the workers of iniquity, like in every chapter,
and the false prophets in like every single chapter.
It's obvious they haven't read the Bible much.
Why is it that we need to hear preaching like that so often?
Because of the fact we, as soul winners,
our biggest enemies, are going to be the reprobates.
Those are the people that we're gonna fight with
till the day we die.
Those are the people that hate that things move.
See, the average person we talk to out there
is not an ungodly, wicked person.
The average, unsafe person we talk to,
hey, we can try to preach the gospel and get them saved.
But look, if you talk to a group of five people,
and one of them's a reprobate,
that person will try to destroy the conversation every time
because they hate what you're doing.
These are the people we're gonna battle our whole lives.
So look, we do need to hear this preaching
and these chapters on Psalms
because it encourages us to know
that we're not the only ones who have fought this battle.
We're not the only ones who have had wicked,
false prophets that want to destroy our lives.
No, everyone who's ever lived and been a soul learner
and been godly, they have suffered persecution.
It doesn't matter what time period it's been in,
whether it is in the past or whether it's in the future,
it doesn't matter where it's located either.
As Paul said at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
So whether it's in the Philippines,
whether it's in the United States,
if you live godly, you will suffer persecution.
Look, God's on our side.
We don't have to fear if we're living a godly life.
Let's close the door of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here
this evening and just getting to read your word
and see the encouraging chapters in Psalms 5 and 6.
God, help us to apply these things to our lives.
Help us to spend time in prayer each and every day
and understand the mercies that we get from you, God.
You're very merciful and long-suffering, God.
And help us as we will be trying this prayer challenge
starting in April, God.
Help us to apply this to our lives.
And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now turn to Psalm number 441, I believe it is.
441.
Close up and then we'll do our prayer time here this evening.
Psalm number 441.
Great is Thy faithfulness.
Psalm number 441.
Starting on the first.
Great is Thy faithfulness,
O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.