Man, Psalm 43 is the continuation of Psalm 42, or it's kind of a spin-off of Psalm 42.
If you remember in Psalm 42, it had this chorus that repeated a few times.
It was in verse 6 of chapter 42, and also in verse 11, where it said,
Why art thou cast down on my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God.
And that ends up being the final verse of Psalm 43 as well.
So, it kind of connects these two Psalms together, or ties them together, as being like a little couplet.
So, in five verses here, it's a very short Psalm, but it kind of follows a pattern of kind of climbing and then descending again.
So, it's sort of like an A, B, C, B, A type pattern.
In verses 1 and 2, it's pretty negative, and then verses 4 and 5 are pretty positive.
So, let's go through this and break it down.
It says in verse number 1, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation.
O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man, 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?
So, again, it's pretty negative here in the beginning.
It starts out, you know, he's up against an ungodly nation.
He's up against a deceitful and an unjust man, and he's even saying, God, you know, why are you casting me off?
Why do you cast me off?
Why aren't you going to bat for me, basically?
So, that's pretty negative.
Then in verse number 3, it says, O send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles.
Then it takes a positive turn in verse 4.
Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy.
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God.
Why art thou cast down, O 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.
So, you can see how optimistic he is at the end of the passage and how positive and uplifting it is.
At the beginning, it was more negative and so forth.
And then verse 3 is basically the turning point, where he says, send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacle.
So, we have in the central verse there, the turning point, the difference between basically being down and,
you know, why isn't God helping me and I'm up against all these enemies versus basically rejoicing,
praising God and being optimistic about what God's going to do.
The difference is the word of God and church, right?
That's what we see in that central verse.
He says, send out thy light and thy truth, obviously referring to the word of God.
God's word is the lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
God's truth, the Bible says in John, sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
So, send out thy light and thy truth.
Let them lead me and then let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles,
which represents the house of God, church, right?
The holy hill, Mount Zion where the temple is, God's tabernacles, God's house in the Old Testament.
So, let's go through this verse by verse.
Starting in verse number 1, he starts out with this phrase, judge me, judge me.
Now, this is probably not something that a lot of people are praying to God in 2020, right?
I mean, is this a typical Christian's prayer like, oh God, would you please judge me?
You know, a lot of people today, they don't want to be judged.
And what does it mean to be judged?
It means to be examined and basically for the flaws to be pointed out
and for areas of improvement to be identified.
Now, there are actually multiple Psalms that read this way.
Go back, if you would, to Psalm 26, just a few pages back in your Bible.
This is a common theme that actually comes up over and over again in the Book of Psalms
where David is basically saying to God, judge me.
It says in verse 1 of chapter 26, judge me, O Lord.
Why?
For I have walked in my integrity.
I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me.
Try my reins and my heart, for thy loving kindness is before mine eyes
and I have walked in thy truth.
I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.
I have hated the congregation of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.
I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.
And as we see here, the confidence to pray this prayer, judge me, has to do with living right.
You know, David is able to say this because he knows that he's right with God.
In verse 3, he said, thy loving kindness is before my eyes.
He's saying, look, I didn't forget about it.
I didn't forget all the good things that you've done and forget to praise you and thank you for those things.
Your loving kindness is before my eyes.
And he says, and I've walked in thy truth.
I've not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.
So he's saying, look, God, you know me.
You know my sitting down, you know my rising up, you know what I do.
Judge me, God.
You know that I'm not out there living a wicked life.
I'm not out there drinking and partying and carousing and doing all these things.
So, Lord, go to bat for me, right?
Help me out because, look, God, you know that I am following you.
So the confidence to say judge me comes from the fact that we're actually keeping God's commandments.
And look, obviously nobody's perfect.
Nobody is sinless.
Even the greatest men in the Bible were still sinners.
Nothing could be clearer than the fact that there's no one on this earth that's totally without sin.
Only Jesus was the man that walked on this earth without sin.
We are sinful.
The Apostle Paul said, I'm carnal.
I end up doing the things that I hate in Romans chapter 7.
John said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
So I'm not talking about being perfect.
I'm not talking about sinless perfection.
But I'm talking about, in general, being able to make these statements that David's making,
saying, look, I've walked in the truth.
Your loving kindness is before me.
I have not sat with vain persons.
Neither will I go in with dissemblies.
You say, what does that mean to sit with vain persons?
Well, just imagine just going to a bar and hanging out because that's exactly what this is describing.
Now, you're going to have to imagine it because all the bars are closed because of coronavirus.
That's actually a good thing, though.
But anyway, the point is, you know, when you think about vain people,
you basically just think about sitting around with people who have nothing important to talk about.
They have no purpose in their life.
They're just lost.
And that's such a great word for unsaved people, lost, right?
Because they don't know where they're going.
They don't know what to do with their life.
Their life doesn't have any real purpose or meaning.
They're just kind of going through life and they're confused.
They're lost.
And, you know, just sitting down and just hanging out with people at the bar and just talking nonsense and blabbering.
You know, David's saying, I didn't do that.
I didn't sit with vain people.
Irreligious people.
People who are lost and just sit and just hang out with them and just talk about nonsense, right?
Which is what people do in bars all the time, you know, when there's not a quarantine going on.
That's basically what, I mean, think about it.
If you could go to the bars of America and people are seated at that bar, talking to the bartender, talking to each other.
They're not exactly solving the mysteries of the universe, okay?
They're not exactly expounding Bible doctrine and theology and, you know, it's just a bunch of just kind of dumb blabber.
And the more alcohol gets involved, it's probably just going to go downhill from there, okay?
So, you know, I haven't sat with vain persons.
I didn't go in with the symbolism.
And then he says in verse 5, I've hated the congregation of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.
I'll wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord.
Now, go to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 is another one where he's asking to be judged in Psalm 139.
And you say, well, this is a really judgmental sermon.
But here's the thing.
The first word of the chapter is judge.
So that's what, you know, that's what we're talking about, right?
It's Psalm 43.
The first word is judge.
So we're talking about judging.
The Bible says in Psalm 139 in verse 1, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.
Thou knowest my down sitting in mine uprising.
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there's not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together.
I mean, God just knows everything about us.
He knows what we're thinking.
He knows what we're going to say.
So then he says in verse number 23, if you jump down there, search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
So this is just another way of saying what?
Judge me, you know, search me, examine me.
And more specifically, see if there be any wicked way in me.
Just to make sure we understand what it means by judge me, right?
Now, obviously we said the confidence to say that, if you go back to Psalm 43, the confidence
to say that comes from knowing that in general you're living a Christian life.
You know, you're following the Lord, you're walking with God with your life.
But here's the thing about that.
Whether you say judge me to God or not, whether you ask him to examine you or not, he's already
doing it anyway, okay?
He already knows what you're up to.
Every word out of your mouth, the hairs of your head are numbered, every thought that
you have according to Psalm 139, he already knows it anyway.
But the wise man is asking God to judge him, not because otherwise God would just not even
test him, not even check, not even prove him, not even search him.
God's already searching everybody.
God already searches the reins and hearts.
God already judges and knows everybody.
The wise man is saying here, judge me, examine me, because what you're going to find is that
I am a Christian, and that I am following you, and that I love you and care about you,
and that I'm walking in the light of God's word, and I want you to judge me, and I want
you to evaluate that, and because you see that, I want you to help me.
I want you to go to bat for me and do something for me.
See, the Bible says in 1 John, whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep
his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
So one of the aspects of prayer that you're going to see over and over again in the Bible
is when we go to God in prayer, we'll often remind God of the promises that he's made
and basically say, God, this is what you promised.
Please do what you've said that you would do.
And this is a theme that we find all throughout the Bible where the promises of God are brought
up to him.
You know, like, for example, Moses, when he's pleading for the children of Israel, he brings
up the promises that God made to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob.
So let me give you an example of how this would work practically.
If I want wisdom, then when I go to God and I ask God to give me wisdom, I'll typically
preface that with, now, God, you've said that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God to give it to all men liberally and it braideth not, and it shall be given him.
Lord, you know, I am one of those people, Lord, you said anyone who asks you, I'm here
asking you, Lord, please do what you've said you would do, Lord, and give me wisdom.
And Lord, I believe I have faith in what you're saying, and so, Lord, please give me wisdom.
Now, this is not an offensive way to talk to God, you know, by throwing his promises
back in his face.
This is what he wants us to do.
And the reason why is because of the fact that, number one, he has every intention of
making good on his promises.
So us bringing them up, you know, when people throw things in our face and bring up, well,
you said this, you know, it's usually because we're not doing what we said that we would
get angry.
You know, if we said one thing and then we do something else and then we get mad when
someone calls us on the carpet about that, that's never going to happen to God because
God is going to stick with what he said.
So it's not like we're going to bring up, well, God, you said that you were going to
do this.
And he's like, well, but, you know, things are different now, you know, I didn't expect
this or something.
It was a different situation.
See, we as human beings, we make mistakes.
So we say things and then we end up having to adjust that later.
God never has to adjust anything that he says.
So there's nothing offensive about bringing up God's Word to him, bringing up his promises
to him.
You're not throwing it in his face.
What you're doing is you're showing God that you took the time to read the Word of God
and figure out what the prerequisite was for getting the help that you need.
And you're saying, look, God, I have done my part and now I'm asking you to do yours.
And you know what he's going to say?
Gladly.
That's all, that's what he wants.
See, God wants to help you even more than you want God to help you.
I mean, God loves you.
He wants to bless you.
He wants to help you.
He wants to answer your prayer.
You have not because you ask God.
And so if you go to God and ask God and you bring up the fact, God, you said that if I
do A, B, and C, you're going to do D for me, well, you know what, God, I've done A. Here's
the evidence.
I've done B. I've done C. Now I'm here to cash in on this promise.
You know, that's a great way to pray.
That's an example of how to pray throughout the Bible.
David does it.
Moses does it.
The apostles do it.
This is the right way to pray.
And so bring God's promises to prayer because it shows that you took the time to figure
out what the promises were.
And number two, it shows that you don't have this attitude that says that God is just basically
like the tooth fairy or Santa Claus and he's just going to kind of just give everybody
stuff whether they're naughty or nice and just kind of, he's just going to kind of just
look the other way and just give you free stuff.
Look, you know what, when you bring the promises to God and say judge me, search me, examine
me, you're basically showing God, you know what, God, I know that if I disobey you and
do all the wrong things that you're not obligated to do anything for me.
You know, I realize that if I weren't going to church, if I weren't reading my Bible,
if I weren't praying, if I weren't keeping the commandments, and if I were just out doing
whatever I want and just ignoring your word and just sitting down every day at the bar
with a bunch of vain persons and just drinking and wasting my life, you know what, I realize
you wouldn't be doing anything for me at that point.
You know, you wouldn't have to do anything for me.
You wouldn't, you certainly wouldn't owe me anything.
But Lord, I understand that those that do walk in truth, those that do abstain from
those type of things, you've promised to help.
And so Lord, I'm living up to that requirement or trying to live up to that requirement,
at least I've identified that requirement, and I'm working toward that so that I can
claim these promises, showing that I care more about the promises of God than the pleasures
of sin for a season.
Because that's what you're trading when you do live a sinful life, when you do live the
backslidden life, when you do get away from the things of God, you're basically trading
all the prayers that you could have answered, you're trading all the blessings that you
could be receiving, you're trading it for that pleasure of sin for a season.
And so David here says, judge me, O God, and when you're done judging me, he's saying plead
my cause against an ungodly nation.
What's he mean by that?
He's basically saying, look, I know that if I were ungodly, I couldn't really boldly come
to you and ask you to plead my cause here.
But go ahead and judge me, God, I'm ready for you to judge me because I realize that
I'm going to pass the test.
And then I want you to go to bat for me.
So you say, well, that's that, you know, that's presumptuous.
Well, then I guess David is just being presumptuous in several Psalms.
And since these are given to us for an example, since these are God's word, since this is
the Holy Ghost speaking by David the prophet, I'm not going to stand in judgment of it and
say it's presumptuous.
I don't think it's presumptuous to realize that you're living a basic Christian life
and that you're not out coveting and drinking and fornicating and doing all these things.
You know what I mean?
Now, again, I'm not talking about sinless perfection, but you know what, between sinless
perfection and, you know, going to the bar and getting drunk every night, there's a basic
Christian life where the Bible talks about a lot of people where it says, hey, this guy
was a just man, this guy's a righteous man, this guy walked with God, right?
He was a good man and many people were added to the Lord.
I mean, we could point to lots of statements where God just in general looks at somebody
and says, hey, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
I mean, look, the kings that it says that about, were they perfect?
Sometimes it'll even mention, well, they did this wrong and this wrong, but nevertheless,
his heart was perfect before the Lord all the days of his life.
So look, it's not that God is demanding perfection before he'll do anything or else we're all
doomed to get no prayers answered, but it's just there's kind of a pass fail in a lot
of ways where one king did that which was good in the sight of the Lord and another
king did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.
You know?
And you pretty much know in your life which side of that equation you're on, okay?
And so when you're on the side of the equation where you're in general living for the Lord,
you love God, you're walking with God on a daily basis, you know what?
It's okay to bring that up to God.
This isn't a prideful, arrogant thing of, I thank thee that I'm not as other men.
It's not like that.
It's just basically saying, God, I need your help.
You see me down here, I'm trying, Lord, I'm doing the work here, you know, I'm trying.
Please help me.
You know that I love you, like Peter said to Jesus, you know that I love you, Lord.
And so we should be able to say that to God and ask God to judge us and plead our cause
against an ungodly nation.
To deliver us, verse 1, he said, from the deceitful and unjust man.
Now look, there are going to be people out there that are enemies that want to harm us,
right?
There are deceitful and unjust men out there.
The Bible says that the wicked bend their bow.
They make ready their arrows that they may privately shoot at the upright in heart, right?
So there are people out there that are ready to attack us, harm us, hurt us, and he's praying
to God saying, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
So even when man is the one that is causing us harm, if it's not God that brought something
negative into our life, let's say it's man that has brought something negative, right?
It's a deceitful man or an unjust man that's hurting us.
You know, God is the answer, period.
God's the solution no matter what.
You know, if God brings hard things into our life, then yeah, we pray to God that he'll
give us relief.
You know, that God will remove his hand of chastening from us, you know, if we're going
through something bad as a result of our sin or something like that.
But even when man is the one that's harming us, God is still the answer.
We still go to God for the answer, okay?
And what do I mean by that?
You know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood is what the Bible says.
Now, flesh and blood is sometimes out to get us.
I mean, there are physical human enemies that want to attack us and assault us and harm
us, but you know what?
It's not our job as Christians to physically fight against those who try to harm us because
our battle is a spiritual battle.
The Bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual.
The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness
in high places.
So I'm not going to go through life taking up the sword because those that live by the
sword die by the sword.
It's not our job to go out and physically confront and physically fight against the
enemies.
We need to go to the Lord in prayer and ask God to plead our cause and for God to deliver
us from the deceitful and unjust man.
Now you say, so we just sit back and just pray?
Well, look, yes, we do just sit back and pray rather than avenging ourselves because the
Bible says avenge not yourselves.
Weapons belong unto the Lord.
He will repay.
And it's not just that we only sit back and pray, we also fight.
But the way that we fight is not with physical weapons.
The way that we fight the spiritual battle is by speaking the word of God, right?
Because it's a battle that's fought spiritually, the word of God is the weapon and that's what's
going to pull down the strongholds and that's what's going to defeat the enemy in this world
is going to be speaking the word of God, right?
Standing up for what's right, preaching the Bible, preaching the word of God.
And look, we're going through strange times right now and nobody knows what a day is going
to bring forth or what's going to happen next because all kinds of strange things are happening
right now and it's hard to fully grasp or understand all of them.
It seems like it would be like a full-time job just to try to understand the things that
are happening right now, you know, just trying to understand the financial side, the political
side, and trying to understand all of the different laws that are going on in all different
parts of the country, all different parts of the world, and then trying to understand
the science, understand the math, you know, there's just a lot.
And I think even if you had tons of knowledge and understanding and wisdom and crunched
all that information and figured it all out, you know, this plot can take a twist at any
moment.
Would it really shock you if just everything took a turn tomorrow and just went a different
direction?
We don't know what's going to happen.
Who knows?
It's just, you know, this whole situation is unknown but here's the thing, I don't need
to know everything about the situation and I'm not tossing and turning at night trying
to figure things out and I'll tell you why.
Because no matter what the question is, the answer is the same.
No matter what this is, you know, whatever it is, and people have really different opinions
about this and people get really emotional and heated about their particular view.
Some people are just taking like a really hardcore, you know, anti-government and this
is all a big set up and it's all a hoax and it's a scam and, you know, this is just about
to roll into the tribulation itself.
I mean, some people feel that we're literally at the end of the world.
Just right on the brink.
And I'm not saying that as an exaggeration.
I'm saying like even a lot of Christians that we fellowship with and hang around with and
people, they think this is it.
I mean, this is the end.
This is like the beginning of sorrows and everything like that.
You know, and then there are other people that lean more toward the fact that, hey,
it's a bad sickness, the government's trying to deal with it, obviously there are a lot
of governments that are bungling things here and there, some people are doing a better
job than others, whatever, you know, it's a serious illness, we're social distancing,
trying to get through it.
But here's the bottom line.
No matter what you believe or where you fall on that spectrum of thinking that this is
all a big scam or this is actually a serious illness that's killing people and, you know,
something does need to be done about it or whatever, the bottom line is this.
At the end of the day, there's certain things that are for sure.
And I like to deal in absolutes, you know, things that I can really take to the bank,
not things that might change in the next week.
You know, I don't want to preach sermons where like three weeks later it's like, oh, that
sermon didn't age very well.
You know, three weeks later my sermon's just totally obsolete, you know.
So I, you know, I try to preach sermons that years from now are still going to be true
no matter what happens because of the fact that God's word doesn't change and certain
principles don't change.
So here's the thing, no matter what you believe about what's going on right now, I think one
thing we can all agree upon is that this isn't a blessing, it's not a blessing, not good.
Because, you know, there's obviously a punishment that's happening to us as a nation right now.
Now, who's responsible for it?
Who's, you know, who is it, is it, you know, was this thing invented in a laboratory?
Was some idiot eating his bat medium rare?
You know, what was going on to create that, you know, was this thing a plandemic?
You know, was this thing just a scam that was planned to take away our rights?
Or is this actually, you know, is it the Chinese fault?
Is it their communist regime that allowed this thing?
You know, is Trump mishandling, you know, all the different opinions that get thrown
around and all these different things?
Who's responsible?
Who's behind this?
The answer is we are behind it.
We as God's people in America are the problem.
And I'm not saying us specifically in this room, but I'm saying that if God is punishing
America, it's America's fault.
Because if America was right with God, they wouldn't be punished like this right now.
And you say, well, how do you know that we're not righteous and we're just going through
trials?
Because that's just absurd.
Because we know about the sodomites in the streets marching.
We know about the abortion clinics.
We know the rate of fornication and adultery and drunkenness that have just become the
norm in this country.
We know that our country is becoming more irreligious and atheistic every single day.
Folks, that is the problem.
And so forgive me if I don't delve deeply into trying to figure out what's behind this.
I already know what's behind it.
Your sins as a nation are the problem, period.
No one will ever talk me out of that.
No one will ever convince me.
It's like when I got up and preached that AIDS is a judgment of God on sodomites and
on people who tolerate sodomites.
And you know what people said?
No, Pastor Eder said, because AIDS was invented in a laboratory and that, you know, they sent
me to some conspiracy theory about how HIV is invented in a laboratory.
Folks, so what?
I'm not even, I'm not saying I buy into that wild-eyed theory.
But let's say for a minute that that's true.
So what?
The point is, a disease came and killed a bunch of homos in the 1980s.
And it's still a disease, even to this day, homo men are fifty times more likely to get
AIDS than straight men.
Fifty times more likely.
Okay?
Look, you're going to tell me that's not the judgment of God on that death style?
So where did it come from?
It doesn't matter.
What matters is people are punished for their wickedness, okay?
A wicked nation loses freedom.
A wicked nation loses prosperity.
A wicked nation gets punished.
That's what's happening right now.
So that's one thing that everybody should be able to agree on.
I'm not going to just get all excited about saving, we got to save America.
We got to save America from this punishment.
Folks, the way to save America from this punishment is to stop doing the sins that are bringing
the punishment.
You can't just sit there and say, well, we're going to remain wicked, we're going to keep
on sinning, keep on ignoring God, keep promoting atheism, keep on saying that there is no God
and worshiping the creature more than the Creator, just keep on with our lascivious
lifestyle and that somehow we're going to find some political solution to this, or we're
going to somehow do a protest, or we're going to have some kind of a rally or whatever.
You know what?
I'm not interested.
I'm not interested in trying to stop the judgment of God on our country because the judgment
of God on our country is due.
Now you say, you want God to just judge America?
Look, I want God to spare America because America gets right with God.
But if America is not going to get right with God, you know, how can I sit there and ask
God, oh God, can you just let us keep on doing the wicked things that we're doing without
a punishment?
I mean, that's kind of a weird prayer, isn't it?
Doesn't really make any sense.
You know, it's sort of like when you get sick and you get a fever, right?
And look, just let me give a little disclaimer here.
I am by no means a medical expert at all, so I'm not trying to speak from a perspective
of knowing a lot about the human body or medicine or anything like that because that's not really
my forte.
And we've got a medical doctor in the auditorium tonight to keep me straight here, so I'll
be watching for his reaction here on this part.
But look, when you get sick, you get a fever, and the reason that you get a fever is because
that is your body's natural defense mechanism to help you get through this illness.
Okay, you're getting a fever for a reason.
Now getting a fever is no fun.
Getting a fever, especially if that fever gets really high, you can start throwing up,
you can start getting delirious, and you can start getting shivers and chills and things.
So it can be uncomfortable to have that fever, but that fever is doing a job.
So typically, if I get sick and I start getting a fever, the first thing I don't do is, hey,
let me go run to find something to reduce this fever.
I need to get this fever down, because I'm thinking to myself, well, this fever is happening
for a reason.
It probably needs to do what it's doing.
Now I realize that fevers can get out of control and you've got to bring down the fever.
I get that.
But I'm saying in general, a fever is not a bad thing.
The fever is not the problem.
It's not like, oh no, this fever is so bad.
No, what's bad is the germ that is causing the virus or the bacteria that's making you
ill is the enemy.
The fever is not the enemy.
The fever is your friend, because the fever is your body's defense mechanism.
Am I in the ballpark?
All right.
Good.
So, you know, the fever isn't the problem.
The sickness is the problem.
The fever is actually part of the solution, even though the fever is uncomfortable and
you're like, oh, let me get a drug to get rid of the fever.
But that drug's not getting rid of the sickness.
It's not getting rid of the virus, not getting rid of the bacteria.
It's actually just kind of stopping the thing that's helping you.
Now, obviously, like I said, fevers could go too high or whatever, but, and like I said,
I'm not an expert, but my illustration is to show you that basically when God sends
the punishment, that's not the virus.
When God turns up the heat on America a little bit or turns up the heat in your life and
my life and in Americans' lives, that's not the bacteria.
That's not the sickness.
That's not the illness.
That's part of the cure, friend, and it might make you puke.
It might make you uncomfortable.
It might make you hot or cold or not feeling well, but let me tell you something.
That's part of the solution.
The problem is sin.
The economy's not the problem.
The lockdown's not the problem.
Losing our rights is not the problem.
The problem is our sin in this country.
That is the problem.
The problem is irreligion.
The problem is atheism.
The problem is blasphemy.
The problem is lukewarm Christianity.
That is the problem.
Folks, the judgment of God that we're experiencing right now, no matter what your opinion is,
is the fever that's actually there to try to kill what's harming us.
So what we need to do is we need to let it run its course.
We need to let it do its job, meaning that we need to examine ourselves and get the sin
out of our lives and preach righteousness.
What do you think is going to do the most to fix our country right now?
What do you think is going to do the most?
Is it a political campaign?
Is it replacing elected officials?
Is it exposing the shadow government and exposing, you know, Bill Gates and everything?
And look, I'm not saying I'm against any of those things.
You know, I'm not against, you know, replacing politicians that are bad.
I'm not against exposing the rulers of the darkness of this world.
But let me tell you something.
That's just kind of the leaves on the tree.
If you really want to lay the axe to the root of the tree, you have to actually get
at the problem, which is clearly that our country is not right with God.
That's the problem.
And then because of that, these other things happen.
And so it's really that simple.
So the Bible says in verse 1, judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly
nation.
Now look, when you are the ungodly nation, you can't really say, oh, judge us, God, and
plead our cause against, oh, oh, oh, wait a minute, against us.
Whoops.
We are the ungodly nation.
See how this prayer is not going to work?
Psalm 43 is not going to work today, is it?
No, because you've got to actually be in a position to say, judge me, God, for this
prayer to even make any sense coming off your lips.
Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
Who's going to deliver us from the deceitful and unjust man?
We're not going to be able to deliver ourselves.
It's not going to be a political solution that delivers us.
It's going to be God who delivers us, right?
God is going to deliver us from pestilence.
God is going to deliver us from encroachments on our rights or an abusive government or
tyranny or whatever.
It's going to be God that does those things.
And how do we get God involved?
Well, we've got to start with judge me.
We've got to put ourselves in a position where we can look up a God and say, judge me, God.
Are you ready to be judged right now?
Is our country ready for judgment?
Are the church, look, judgment must begin at the house of God.
Are the houses of God across this country ready to be inspected?
Are they ready for inspection?
They better be because that's the solution.
Us getting right with God.
Look in the book of Judges.
How do they get deliverance?
They always have to get right with God first, always.
They do evil on the side of the Lord.
God delivers them to the Philistines or the Moabites or whoever else.
And then when they get right with God, God sends a deliverer.
So it's not that they didn't have the right weapons, it's not that they didn't have the
right training.
All right, guys, we just need to learn better fighting skills, get better weapons, better
tactics.
Was that ever the answer in the book of Judges?
Never.
It was always just get right with God.
Get right with God and then all of a sudden the military solution just happens.
Because what happens when they get right with God?
Well, God raises up a judge.
And then that guy's got the military solution.
That guy's got the answer to go sneak in and stab Egon or to go out with the 300 and break
the pitcher and blow the trumpet.
You know, all the different things that God did, but they were all a result of people
getting right with God.
That's how things work with God.
So he says in verse 2, 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?
Now, look, I think judge me and why does thou cast me off kind of go together?
Because he's basically saying, look, judge me and then tell me what the problem is.
Judge me and then tell me why you're casting me off.
Why aren't you pleading my cause?
Why aren't you going to bat for me?
We should want to know that.
We should go to God and say, God, what am I doing wrong?
Reveal it to me.
Show me what I'm doing wrong so I can get it right.
That's what he's saying here.
And isn't that exactly what David said?
I'll read it for you again.
You don't have to turn back there.
But in Psalm 139, the similar passage, Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me.
But then listen to the last part, and lead me in the way everlasting.
So he's saying, look, judge me, tell me why you're casting me off, figure out if there's
any wicked way in me, and then lead me in the right way.
Lead me in the way everlasting.
That's why he says in verse 3, O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me.
Judge me, God.
Figure out what the problem is.
Why are you casting me off?
I want to know why.
I want you to send your word and lead me so that I can do it right.
O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me.
Let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles.
Then will I go unto the altar of God.
To God, my exceeding joy.
So there's a then here, there's a time aspect here of, hey, I ask God to judge me, I ask
him to show me what the problem is, I plead with God to help me.
Then he sends his word, he sends his light, he sends his truth, and leads me.
And where do they lead him?
They lead him to the house of God.
They lead him back to Bethel.
They lead him back to being with God's people and worshiping God in church.
And then he says, they lead me to the holy hill, to the tabernacles, and then, so after
that, after I go through that process, then I'll go unto the altar of God, unto God my
exceeding joy.
Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.
And then when he does that, when he praises God, then it's like, why am I down?
Everything's going to be great.
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.
So you see the confidence there of realizing, hey, you know what, I'm right with God, I
can show my face before God, I can confess my sins to him, I can get it right, I can
present myself before him, and he's going to help me, he's going to lead me, he's going
to help me fix my life.
Once I get it fixed, he leads me to church, I go to church, I praise God, and you know
what, now I'm not worried about it.
Because you know what, God's going to take care of it, I can hope in God, there's no
reason to be disquieted.
You know the Bible says, be careful for nothing, meaning be worried about nothing.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
So you know, when you go to God like this and you pray to the Lord and you turn it over
to him, he said, look, the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
You know, right now, I think a lot of people are stressed out right now, they're antsy,
they're agitated, you know, they're uncomfortable, they're worried, they're nervous, or they're
just, you know, just impatient, they just, you know, I mean, we all, you know, I think
are human and have feelings like that, right?
Where we, you know, we want this to be over, we want things to get back to normal, we want
to know how things are going to turn out, we want to know what the future holds, I mean,
that's just normal for us as human beings.
But you know, the answer to having peace like that is to walk with God, get your life right,
and then pray about everything.
And if we get our life right and we pray to the Lord, you know, he really does give you
peace.
You know, the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace.
And so he really does give you peace.
And so I think it's possible right now to have calm during the storm and to be peaceful
right now.
I think it's possible to be peaceful right now.
I don't think you have to be agitated and upset, you know, I think you just need to
spend some time with the Lord in prayer.
You're quarantined anyway or whatever, you know, you might as well go to the prayer closet
and go to the prayer closet and get on your knees in the prayer closet and you know what,
just pray to God and basically just tell him everything that's on your mind, you know,
ask him to judge you, bring up some of his promises to him, remind him of the promises,
and then ask God to fix things.
And you know what, here's the thing, if you pray about something, and you know that you're
living for God, and you know that you love God, and you pray about something, then you
should just walk away just knowing that it's done, done, okay?
And let me explain to you what I mean by that.
You know, I remember, you know, in business, there are certain people, you give them a
job, and once you give them that job, you just forget about it because it's like, you
know that when you turn it over to that person, you can just consider it done.
Other people, you give it over to them and you have to check on them and, oh, I forgot,
or, oh, I didn't get it done, right?
Sometimes with people, you don't get what you expect, you get what you inspect.
But other people, you just give them a job and it's just like, just consider it done.
Right?
Well, God is one where you give it to God, it's done.
You know what I mean?
He's not going to forget about it, he's not going to drop the ball, he's not going to
get busy or skip it or shirk, he's getting it done, okay?
When you pray to God, you consider it done.
Now look, I didn't, I'm not saying, hey, consider that he's going to give you exactly what you
asked for.
That's not what I mean by that.
I mean, consider that either A, you're going to get what you asked for or B, God knows
that you actually don't need that and that you're better off with something else and
he's going to give you something better.
But either way, it's going to be taken care of according to God's will and it's going
to work for the best for you.
Because look, we don't know how to pray as we ought, the Bible says.
I mean, how many times do we go to the Lord in prayer and we don't know what to say?
We don't know what to pray for.
We don't even know where to, sometimes I just go to God and I just, sometimes I just bring
up a certain situation and I'm just like that, you know, just do something.
Because I don't even know what to, you know, it's just some complicated situation.
I don't even know what to pray.
I mean, what do you pray right now?
What do you pray?
God and this virus, oh God and the quarantine, oh, you know, you don't really know what to
pray exactly because we don't really know why things are happening necessarily according
to God's master plan, what's happening right now.
But here's the thing, even if we pray wrong, God is still getting the right message.
Okay, so, so this is the moral of the story.
It's better to pray wrong than not to pray at all.
You're better off praying the wrong things than not praying.
Because if you pray the wrong things, the Holy Spirit is like this translator.
Because the Bible says that we know not how to pray as we ought, but then the Holy Spirit
knows the mind of the Spirit.
He knows the will of God.
The Holy Spirit knows what's going on.
So what happens is we send our prayer to the Father, it gets intercepted by the Holy Spirit,
okay.
And the Holy Spirit basically refashions it according to the will of God and then passes
it along to the Father basically.
So basically he makes intercession for us.
So you know, he makes an interception for us, you know.
We send our prayer to God.
He intercepts it, changes it up a little, sends it to God.
And sometimes it can be unrecognizable from what we prayed.
And then you're wondering like, why didn't God answer my prayer?
God answered your prayer.
You just didn't pray what you think you prayed.
You know, because you sent some prayer about, oh God, give me this new fancy car or whatever,
you know.
And then God basically, you know, the Holy Spirit gets in there and says, just give him
some reliable transportation, you know.
Give him something, you know, give him a sensible vehicle.
So you know, and then you end up with what you didn't want.
Or the Holy Spirit could even get in there and say, hey, give him a piece of junk.
Because it's going to teach him character.
It's going to make him much happier in the long run.
You know, you don't know what God's doing.
But the point is, we don't know how to pray.
But pray anyway.
Don't worry about like, I don't know what to pray.
So then you're just like, just pray something.
And God's going to get the message.
God knows our heart.
He knows his will.
But listen to me.
If you live according to God's word, you get on your knees, you pray to God about something,
you should, if you have faith, you know what you should be able to do?
In Jesus' name, amen.
You should just be like, well, that's taken care of.
And then you should have peace.
Now I realize we're human, so we're not always going to be perfect about this, but that's
the way prayer is supposed to work.
It's supposed to work.
I'm going through something bad, uncertain times, I need help.
I get on my knees and I pray, God, look, just let your will be done, Lord.
You know, this is what I'd like to see happen, Lord.
Please do this.
But Lord, you know what, if you've got something better, then do something better, you know.
But Lord, this is what I'd like to see happen.
Would you please step in and do this and take care of this, just let your will be done.
And you know, we pray with that attitude and we pray with that heart and we bring up the
promises of God and remind him.
We say, Lord, look, I didn't walk in the council of the ungodly here, Lord.
You know, I'm following your word on this.
You know, you don't see me going to the bar and getting drunk every night, right?
I'm going to church.
I'm reading my Bible.
I love you, Lord.
Please don't let me be doomed here, you know.
Help me out.
Fix this, Lord.
Let your will be done.
You know, you pray like that and you know, if you actually believe what the Bible says
about prayer, then at that point, you should be able to get up and say, you know what,
there's nothing to worry about because you know what, the ball is in God's court now.
And now you know what I'm going to do?
I'm just going to live my life.
And just, so you know, what am I doing right now?
You know, I'm just living my life and just trying to serve God the best that I can.
And I'm just going to keep serving God, living my life, trying to do the right things.
And you know what?
I'm going to leave the big things to God.
You know, the big events, because I don't really fully understand what God's doing right
now.
And I don't think anyone can fully understand what God's doing right now.
But I'll tell you what, we ought to be emphasizing that it's God that's doing it.
I think it's very silly to just take God out of the equation and to just spend hours
and hours talking about all the human reasons why this is happening and all the human machinations
that are going on without stopping to say, you know what, this is an act of God.
Whatever it is, it's bad.
God's not pleased.
We've got to get right with God.
We need to beg God for mercy right now.
Folks, that's going to fix things more than anything else, it's just begging God.
I mean, what if every Christian in America, and I'm talking about people that are truly
saved, what if every born again child of God just had a personal revival in their lives
and just got on their knees and just prayed to God and just thanked Him and praised Him
for what He's done and confessed their sins to Him, asked God to judge them and show them
problems in their life and just, you know, took steps to walk with Him and be a better
Christian and, you know, they spent this time now, you know, cracking open their dusty Bible
and starting to read it again, having a regular prayer time that they didn't have in the past,
starting to talk to people about the Lord and giving the Gospel to friends and loved
ones.
I mean, look, you don't think God would send a wave of blessings across this country?
Folks, what else could fix things besides God's people getting right with Him?
But, you know, it seems like people just want to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk
about just basically this surface issue of what's actually happening, when in reality
we need to go deeper and understand why is this happening.
So me, you know, and you say, well, you're a pastor, so, you know, of course everything
is going to, you know, come back to spiritual things for you.
Yeah, but here's the thing, before I was a pastor, I was a Christian and everything still
came back to spiritual things for me, even when I was just in the pew, because whether
you're a pastor or a layman, everything in life comes back to the Lord.
That's why we're here.
All things were created for His pleasure.
Everything exists for Him.
We exist for Him.
So, of course, it's like I'm always just like, you know, get right with God is the answer.
Now what was the question?
Because it doesn't even matter what the question was.
The answer, something bad's happening?
Get right with God.
And you say, well, I'm Job and I'm already perfect.
I'm already doing it right.
Well, you know what?
Just get a little more humble and get right with God anyway, because even Job, who was
the most upright and perfect man on the earth, he was not without flaw.
He was not sinless.
And what do we see?
We see at the end of the book, he actually gets right with God a little bit.
Even though he was already right with God, he gets even more right with God.
And he's just like, well, now, you know, I mean, I believe in you, but now, you know,
man, I, you know, he was already humble, but then he got really humble, okay?
You know, we can see how no matter what is happening, we should seek to get right with
God.
Plead with God.
He's the answer.
And you know what?
Have peace.
Because let me tell you something.
Stress is bad for you.
And look, I, you know, when this thing first started happening, you know, I was battling
with the stress of it a little bit.
Because when this thing first started happening several weeks ago, you know, I was having
trouble sleeping and just kind of just having trouble relaxing.
Like I would sit down to read my Bible, and it was like I couldn't concentrate.
Because it's just, you know, I'm just thinking about so many things, right?
You lay down to go to sleep at night, and you're just thinking about things, thinking
about things, thinking about things.
And then it's like, you sit down to read your Bible, can't focus, you know, sit down to
write a sermon, can't focus, right?
That's how it is when you're stressed out.
It's like you can't focus.
It makes you unproductive, and, you know, you can't pray, you can't read your Bible,
you can't study, you can't do your job.
But you know what?
I just realized about myself a long time ago that sometimes I have to just turn off these
things and just ignore, you know, sometimes what's going on out in the world.
Turn the phone to airplane mode, and just kind of turn off all the noise, turn off all
the distractions.
And you know what?
Here's the thing.
Like, you don't have to check every single day how many people died of coronavirus today,
you know?
And yes, it was 2,480 some people who died yesterday in America alone.
But here's the thing.
You know, I just checked out that number right before I came to church tonight that it was
about almost 2,500 people in the US that died of coronavirus yesterday.
But you know what?
I hadn't checked the number in a few days.
So I was doing pretty good on that because I hadn't looked at any of the numbers in days.
I hadn't looked at any of the news in days.
And you know what?
Those are happy days.
Because you'll notice that if you don't fixate on what's going on right now, you can actually
just go outside and everything seems pretty normal.
You know what I mean?
And just kind of enjoy your food and drink and enjoy the weather, right?
I mean, it's a beautiful day today.
So you can sit and worry and stress, but you know what?
Why would you worry and fret when you cannot even make one hair on your head white or black?
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?
So how is you thinking and stressing and worrying about this going to change anything?
It's not.
So you say, but you know, I don't want to just do nothing.
Here's what you do.
You pray.
You pray and you speak the word of God and you preach the gospel to the lost and you
meditate on God's word and you be an influence to your Christian friends and loved ones.
You be an influence toward godliness.
And I'm not saying by being a holier than thou, but you know what?
You nudge them toward godliness.
You nudge them toward righteousness.
And then you have a personal revival in your own life where you get right with it.
That's where it has to start.
And then you get on your knees and you pray and you know what?
You've done more than anyone if you've done those things.
So I want you to have peace at this time, you know, and I'm telling you, the way to
have peace, the way to not be disquieted within you as it says in verse five here, you've
got to make your request known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
So prayer is going to give you peace if you pray in faith.
That's the answer.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for all the wonderful blessings you've given us, Lord.
We have it so good in life.
Even in the worst of times, Lord, we have so many blessings of running water and comfortable
beds to sleep in and nutritious food to eat, Lord.
And thank you so much for giving us the entire Bible in our language, Lord.
We just have the entire Bible, the King James Version in English, just right at our fingertips.
We can read it and learn everything that pertains to faith and godliness, Lord.
We have friends, we have loved ones, we have church family.
Lord, help us to just realize how blessed we are.
And then, Lord, help us to just fall on our knees and beg you for mercy because of the
fact that we've been so blessed and in many ways haven't appreciated it, haven't done
the right things, Lord.
Just help us to get right with you as a nation because I know that's where the healing is
really going to begin, Lord, is when we get right.
And Lord, I just pray that this whole ordeal would not be in vain.
I just pray that this fever that we're experiencing right now would not be in vain and that we'd
have just as much of the disease when it's over and just as much of the virus and just
as much bacteria, Lord.
I pray that this ordeal that we're going through would actually bring us to our knees as a
nation.
I pray that it would have an impact on me personally and that it would have an impact
on our church and everyone who's physically gathered here and everyone who's watching
online.
Lord, I pray that this ordeal that we're going through would actually do something for us
spiritually.
And I pray that when we do talk about the carnal aspects of this, when we do talk about,
you know, what's going on with our government and we talk about the science or talk about
the issues, I pray that we would always include you in the conversation and always remember
to give you the glory and always acknowledge you.
Help us acknowledge you in all of our ways so that you can direct our paths.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.