I'm going to show you how to do it.
Good evening, welcome to Faith Word Baptist Church. Take your seats, we'll get started.
Turn in your song books to song number 89, Does Jesus Care? Song number 89.
Song number 89.
He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief.
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.
Does Jesus care when I try and fail?
Did He take my temptation strong?
If I be grieved by my own belief, Oh, my tears flow all the night long.
Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief.
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.
Does Jesus care when I say goodbye To the dearest on earth to be?
And I send our praise till the weary breaks, It ought to end as He sings.
Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief.
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares.
Amen.
Jesus.
Singing about the
name.
Till it's
softly
slowly
says the
hearts of
praise.
Jesus
singing of
plenty.
Wishing all
our
saves.
Jesus
in a feeling
long
for all
our
pains.
Jesus
in a
fullness
making
powers
that in the
battle
certainly
the
same.
Jesus
name of
victory.
Stretching far
away.
Right
across her
four fields
to the
plains of
day.
Jesus
be our joy
and hope
in this
veil of
seers.
Till we reach
the home
there
in eternal
years.
We're going to do one more song.
Song number 93.
Art thou weary? Art thou languid?
Song number 93.
Song 93.
Art thou weary?
Art thou
languid?
Art thou
sore distressed?
Come to me
strength one and
love me
at rest.
Have
the arts to
lead me to him.
He'll be my
guide.
If his feet
and hands are wound
transmit his
sight.
Is there
die again as
honor gathers
round the
doors?
May God
round his very
shirty
but
unharmed
arms.
If I ask you to
receive me
gladly,
safely,
then God
will lead
away.
Finding,
calling,
keeping,
struggling,
is he sure to
bless?
Saints,
apostles,
prophets,
martyrs,
cancer,
yes.
We'll read the entire chapter.
Follow along silently with brother Hester
as he reads. Psalm 59,
beginning in verse number 1.
Psalm 59, the Bible reads,
Deliver me
from my enemies,
O my God.
From them that rise up against me.
Deliver me
from the workers of iniquity
and save me from bloody men.
For lo,
they lie in wait for my soul.
The mighty are gathered
against me, not for my
transgression, nor for my sin,
O Lord.
They run and prepare themselves
without my fault.
Awake to help me
and behold.
Therefore, O Lord God
of hosts, the God of Israel,
awake to visit all the
heathen. Be not merciful
to any wicked transgressors,
Silah.
They return at evening.
They make a noise like a
dog and go round about
the city. Behold,
they belch out with their
mouth. Swords are in their
lips. For who,
say they, doth hear?
But thou, O Lord,
shall laugh at them.
Thou shalt have all the
heathen in derision.
Because of his strength
will I wait upon thee,
for God is my defense.
The God of my mercy
shall prevent me.
God shall let me see my desire
upon mine enemies.
Slay them not,
lest my people forget.
Scatter them by thy power
and bring them down, O Lord,
our shield.
For the sin of their mouth
and the words of their lips,
let them even
be taken in their pride
and for cursing and lying
which they speak.
Consume them
in wrath.
Consume them that they may not be
and let them know that God
ruleth in Jacob unto
the ends of the earth, Silah.
And at evening,
let them return and
let them make a noise like a dog
and go around about the city.
Let them wander up and down
for meat and grudge
if they be not satisfied.
But I will sing
of thy power, yea, I will
sing aloud of thy mercy
in the morning. For thou has
been my defense and refuge
in the day of my trouble.
Unto thee, O
my strength, will I sing.
For God is my defense
and is the God of my mercy.
Brother Child.
Lord, we thank you
that we gather here today to hear your word.
Lord, I ask that you would fill Pastor Anderson
with your spirit and open our
hearts and soften our
ears and soften our hearts so that we can
hear your word in Jesus' name. Amen.
Man, Psalm 59, beginning
in verse 1, the Bible reads,
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God.
Defend me from them that
rise up against me.
Now, it might seem that I'm a little bit repetitive.
You know, on Wednesday nights, I just keep
preaching about enemies
and being surrounded and attacked
and backstabbed. But it's not me
that's being repetitive. It's the Bible that's
being repetitive. I mean, week after
week, we've been in Psalms.
Hasn't it been over the last
few months, just week after
week after week? This is the subject
in this portion of Psalms.
When you're in the 50s of Psalms
and even a lot of the 40s, this is
what you're dealing with. And I
think one of the things that we can learn from this
is that if we serve the Lord, our
life is going to be filled with battles
and we're going to have enemies. Otherwise,
if God gives us a Psalm book
with 150 Psalms in it,
why do so many of them
say, Deliver me from my enemies?
Wipe these people out.
Destroy these people. Consume them.
Why? Because
it's something that we're going to have to deal with.
It's life,
right? Look what he says.
Deliver me from my enemies, oh my God.
Defend me from them that
rise up against me. Deliver
me from the workers of iniquity
and save me from
bloody men. And again in this passage, we
see that the type of people
that he's praying against are
not just run-of-the-mill sinners
or people that aren't that nice.
I mean, these are the worst kind
of rotten people because
if you study that term, the workers of
iniquity in the Bible, this is
reserved for the worst scum,
the reprobates, the most evil
possible people. And also, you
can see here that these are violent people
because it says in verse number two, Deliver me
from the workers of iniquity and save
me from bloody men.
These are bloody men, meaning
that they are violent. If you would, go back
to Psalm 5. Keep your finger there
in Psalm 59. Go back to the
beginning of the book of Psalms and
look at Psalm chapter 5.
The Bible reads
in verse 4, For thou art not
a God that hath pleasure
in wickedness. Neither
shall evil dwell with thee. Psalm 5,
5. The foolish shall not
stand in thy sight. Watch this.
Thou hatest all
workers of iniquity.
Now look, God doesn't hate
Joe unsaved,
because God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
God only hates people
that have gotten so bad,
they've gone so far, they've become
a reprobate. Okay, this is a
special class of people in the Bible
where God says that he hates
them. God loves
not only the saved, but he also loves
the lost. But he doesn't love
reprobates. There are people
that have crossed a line and become
so vile and so evil,
and even as they did not like to retain God in
their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. And these people are known as
the sons of Belial,
or the workers of iniquity,
or reprobates. And here
he says that God
hateth all workers
of iniquity in verse 5 there. And then
it says, Thou shalt destroy
them that speak leezing.
The Lord will abhor
the bloody and deceitful
man. Abhor is another
word for hate. And he says
God will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. Flip over to
Psalm 11, just a couple pages
over to the right, and we'll see that it's consistent
in Psalm 11, verse 5.
It says, The Lord tryeth
the righteous, but the wicked
and him that loveth violence
his soul
hateth. So who does
God's soul hate?
The one who loves violence, the bloody
worker of iniquity,
violent, wicked,
evil, reprobate people.
Go, if you would, to Psalm 59.
So that's who we're talking about in Psalm
59. This isn't just someone who
isn't very nice, or
David doesn't really like them very much, or
they're just kind of a bad guy or a
jerk. I mean, these people are horrible,
super wicked, super
evil. And here's what we need to understand.
There are people in this world that are
just scum. They're just so
evil, and there's nothing you can do to
fix them. Now, our society
in many ways has been brainwashed
by Hollywood that there's good
in everyone.
You know, kind of this little yin yang
mentality that, you know, hey,
there's a little bit of good and the evil
and evil and the good or whatever.
Folks, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does
now, obviously, every good person has a
little bit of evil in them because we're all sinners.
But it is not true that
well, there's good in everyone, and
we can fix everyone, and we can reach
everyone. There are people that can't be reached.
There are people for whom it is too
late. And again, you know, the
media and Hollywood
and fiction will portray
just the worst kind of
reprobate scum, you know, getting right
in the end. You know, this is a silly illustration, but I think
of Darth Vader, you
know. I mean, here's a guy who blows up
an entire planet.
But then it's like, I sense
good in him.
What is that?
It's Hollywood just teaching you
that, hey, everybody's got
good in them, and these evil
horrible people, they can still
be reached, he's still going to take off his
helmet or whatever. But let me tell you
something, no, that's not real
life. There are some people that no matter
what you say to them, no matter what
you do for them, they're not going to get
right. And that's why you have to
learn when to just shake the dust off your feet
and move on. And not
just keep beating your head against the wall,
casting your pearls before swine.
And
here, the people that we're talking about,
these are not
just sinners or
unsaved people, these are
reprobate, horrible
scum. That's why David is praying
so harshly. So we don't want to read Psalm 59,
we don't want to misunderstand it,
and just start praying these kind of prayers,
you know, against everybody who does wrong
by us. And just start
applying this to everybody we don't like.
Or everybody who's unsaved
just start praying. You know, this is reserved
for the worst scum, you got to keep
that in mind, okay?
So he says, in
verse 3, for they lie and wait for my soul,
and you'll see why I say
that, because he prays some very harsh things
against these people in this chapter.
For lo, they lie and wait for my soul,
the mighty are gathered against me,
not for my transgression,
nor for my sin, O Lord.
He's saying, look, I didn't do anything
to deserve this, these people are my enemies
without a cause.
And the Bible tells us
in the book of 1 Peter 2 and 4,
it talks about
how, you know, if we be buffeted
for our faults,
there's really no glory in that. You know, if we
do wrong, and we
reap what we sow, if we commit
a crime and then we get thrown in jail,
there's really no glory in that.
But, if we suffer
for doing good,
this is thank-worthy before
God. This is acceptable with God. You know,
if we actually do what's right and then get
persecuted and punished, then you know
what, there's glory in that. God's going to reward
that. If we get thrown in prison for preaching
the gospel, there's glory in that.
If you get thrown in prison because
you did shoplifting or sold drugs
or something, you know, there's no glory in that.
And so, David
is saying, look God, I'm not
being attacked by these people.
I'm not being lied about
and slandered because I did something
wrong here. It's because
these people are wicked people
that are attacking me. They
hate me without a cause. It's nothing that
I've done to deserve this, Lord. And so
please intervene and
avenge me of my enemies.
It's not for my transgression, nor
for my sin, oh Lord.
They run and prepare
themselves without my
fault. So they're just in
a hurry, they're just trying
so hard to find something they can pin on
me, some way to assault me,
attack me, ruin me, whatever.
Awake to help me and behold.
Thou therefore, oh Lord God
of hosts, the God of Israel,
awake to visit
all the heathen. Be not
merciful to any
wicked transgressors,
Selah. Now that's, those are some
strong words. Do not
be merciful to any wicked transgressors.
He's saying, don't show any mercy, Lord.
Wake up and destroy
these people. Now why is he
telling God to awake?
What does that mean? Is that
disrespectful for him to say that? No, because
this is actually a metaphor
that God uses himself.
God talks about awaking
out of sleep and judging the
heathen and everything. And the reason why
is that a lot of times we see wicked people
getting away with things. And we see
just day after day,
month after month, year after year,
we see the wicked prosper
and it seems like nothing bad's happening
and they just prosper. And
you could almost get the feeling that God's
asleep. Like God,
are you asleep at the wheel?
Wake up and punish.
Now obviously we know that God's
not asleep, but we might
feel that way. But also
stop and think about it. When the apostles were
in their time of need in the sea of
Galilee, Jesus was literally
asleep in the bottom of the
ship. But he woke
up and he fixed everything,
right? And what we need to understand
is that God is like
unto a man that
is asleep. There's
a metaphor that
God uses like that and it talks
about how God, when
he wakes out of his sleep,
is going to wipe these people out. So that's
something that God actually says.
I believe in the book of Isaiah he talks about that.
So that's a concept that he
uses as an illustration as well.
That sometimes it feels like
God is asleep,
but we just need to have the faith to know that
you know what, when he wakes up,
heads will roll.
And that is what's going to happen. So
we need to be patient and understand
that the wicked will not always
be punished immediately. Now
wouldn't you love it if the wicked just got punished
immediately? I mean wouldn't you
just love it, just these scum,
these Hollywood scum and
political scum and they do these
horrible things. Wouldn't you just love to see every
once in a while just a chasm opening in the earth
and they just fall in or something?
You know, and you'd love to see
God just immediately judge and immediately
punish. What you have to understand is that there are many
reasons why God doesn't do that.
And we want
our enemies wiped out today.
But there's a reason why God doesn't
always do that. Now a few reasons
are that number one,
the reason God doesn't always do that
is because if every time somebody did something
super wicked, the earth
opened up or you know
some kind of a fire broke out or you know
it was just immediately a flood or they got
struck by lightning or something.
You know
then there'd be no faith required
to serve the Lord because it
would just be like well if I push the button the light bulb
comes on. You know every time
somebody does something wrong they get wiped
out then there'd be no faith required.
You know God wants us to live by faith
and he wants us to do what's right because of what the Bible
says. Not because we
saw someone get struck by lightning
right after they committed some sin.
So he doesn't just
show us things that
plainly because then it'd be too obvious
and there'd be no faith required. And without faith
it's impossible to please God. That's what the Bible
tells us.
But secondly, the reason why
God doesn't wipe out wicked people is
because wicked people on this earth
exist ultimately
to fulfill the will
of God. To fulfill the will of God.
Now I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying.
I'm not saying that sin is
ever the will of God. Sin is not the will of God.
God doesn't desire
for any of us to sin
or for us to do wickedness.
God is not the author of
wickedness and evil. You know that's
from man's own corrupt
heart and his corrupt mind
that he does those things.
So I don't want you to misunderstand that.
Here's what I want you to understand though
is that God ultimately
allows wicked people
to do what they're going to do
so that he can fulfill his
greater purpose. Now if you're skeptical
about what I just said I'll prove it to you.
That's why God lets the
devil out of hell
after the millennial reign of Christ
to fulfill his will ultimately.
Now how can you argue with that?
I mean here he's got the devil.
He chains him up and
throws him into hell and locks
him there for a thousand years.
And he can't deceive anyone. He can't hurt anyone.
Now if we were
making the rules, if we were in charge
we're thinking leave him there.
Just leave him there.
But God purposely
opens the jail
lets the devil out of hell
so that he can go out and
deceive everyone. Now God's not a deceiver
but God allows
the devil to come out of hell
and deceive people so that ultimately
his will can be done.
Now why would it be God's will
for the devil to be left out of hell?
Well because the
devil is acting as a trash
collector. God
wants to remove from his kingdom
all things that are wicked and that offend
and so he uses the devil
to corral them.
Now he also does this before the millennium
because if you study the book of Revelation
when the vials are being poured out
and the sea of Euphrates
is dried up and the armies are
coming from the east and everything.
If you remember there are three
unclean spirits like frogs
that come out of the mouth
of the dragon and out of the mouth
of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophets. And these three unclean
spirits the Bible says are the
spirits of devils working
miracles to go
forth and deceive
the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth.
He's trying to gather them together
to battle so God allows
these three unclean
spirits to go throughout the earth
convincing people
to do what? To make war
with Jesus Christ and to come and
be gathered at that great
battle of Armageddon. So
why do all these wicked armies of the
Antichrist come to Armageddon?
They're gathered there by
these three unclean spirits.
Look that is the devil acting
as a trash collector because he gathers
all the trash in one place
and then the Lord shows up and wipes them out.
And then at the end of the
millennium again they're gathered
together in one place. Fire
comes down from God out of heaven and consumes them.
But they are gathered
the Bible says gather ye together first
the tares and bind them
in bundles to burn them but gather the
wheat into my barn.
And so we see that the devil
acts as a trash collector but let me tell you something
wicked people right now act as
trash collectors that's why they exist.
You know I look at some just
horrible preachers in this world
false prophets, wicked false
teachers and you think why does God
even allow these people to exist?
Their job is to deceive
the wicked. That is why they exist.
To gather the trash.
To gather them together.
Now you may not fully understand that
I may not fully understand that but that is the way
the world works.
And God wants us to have a choice
and he wants there to be
preachers in this world that are
preaching the good news of the gospel
of Jesus Christ but he also
allows there to be these other
wicked false prophets. He could just stop
their heart beating if he wanted to
but he allows them to exist
for the same reason that he pulls the devil out of
hell at the end of the millennium. They exist
to tempt
the wicked, collect
the trash, deceive
those that are
wicked people.
That's why the devil
exists. That's why wicked people exist.
I mean God could have just created the
Garden of Eden not to have the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. But he allows that to be
there and he allows the serpent to be
there. He could have prevented the serpent from
entering the garden. But he
wanted the serpent to be there. He allowed the
serpent to be there so that Adam and Eve
could be given a choice. He wants
us to go through life
choosing to serve him,
choosing to love him, having free
will, having choices.
And as we go through life
even when bad people
harm us or attack us,
lie about us,
injure us, steal from us,
rob us, assault us,
ultimately all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose.
See if God were to remove all evil
from this world we would all become
a bunch of spoiled brats
and we would all become rotten people.
Because it's the bad things in our life,
it's the pain and suffering
in our life that in many ways have made
us who we are and in many ways made us a better
person. The Bible says
it's good for me that I've been afflicted
that I might keep thy word.
If we would have grown up good
looking, athletic,
academically successful,
talented, everything we touch turns
to gold, we would be
trash ourselves. I'm telling you,
I know myself, I know my heart,
hopefully you have enough
introspection to know that if
you grew up and everything went your way
you'd be a real jerk and so would I.
I would have been a total jerk.
I'd be so arrogant and full of
myself and prideful if everything went
well for me, but you know what, it's all the bad
things that happened to us, all the setbacks,
the pain, the suffering,
it's all the people that didn't like us and
attacked us and harmed us
that actually made us humble
and made us be able to enjoy
the good times because we've gone through the bad times.
Because if everything was just good,
good, good, we'd be a spoiled brat.
What if you just give a kid everything that they want?
What if you have a kid and you
never make them suffer, they never have to work
hard, they never have to wait for
anything, they never have to do without anything,
they just get what they want, get what they want,
you're going to raise a spoiled kid.
Well guess what,
us grown-ups could get spoiled too
if everything is just always being handed
to us on a silver platter.
We've got to struggle, we've got to fight.
And so God allows
the wicked to exist in this world
so that we have an adversary,
so that we have an opponent,
so that we have a struggle
and a fight so that we can go
through those struggles and fights
and we can pray to the Lord like
David's praying in Psalm 59
and go through these things.
This is part of the experience of life.
God has us here on this earth
yes to evangelize, yes to preach
the gospel, yes to do
good works, but He also has us here
being trained.
We're going through life and we're being conformed
to the image of Christ and
we have to go through trials and tribulations.
Even Jesus
had to go through trials
and tribulations. He had to go out
in the wilderness and be tempted of Satan.
Is that necessary?
You know,
it happened, so it must have been necessary.
That's what Christ
had to do, right?
He had to go out in the wilderness,
no food, no water,
you know, dealing with the devil,
dealing with wild beasts,
and He had to be out there
suffering, going through pain.
We're not even talking about the cross yet.
I mean, we're just talking about His life.
He had to go through hard things in His life.
Why?
It was just part of the human experience
that we all have to go through.
We all have to go through periods in the wilderness.
We all have to deal with enemies
and battles, and look,
if you go through life with no battles
and no enemies, I don't even think you're even
living the Christian life.
Now, maybe you're not having any battles
and enemies now. Don't feel bad.
You know, you just got saved less than a year ago.
Don't feel bad, alright?
There's a little bit of a breather there,
a little bit of a grace period,
a little growing room, but let me tell you something.
You hang in there, you stay with
the work of the Lord,
you're in for a fight.
There are going to be fights, and listen,
the more you do for God, the more enemies,
the more pain, and the more fighting.
Great, sign me up.
It's true, though,
but the rewards are worth it.
You know, there's joy unspeakable.
Keep your finger in Psalm 59.
1 Corinthians chapter 4.
You know, if you expect
the Christian life to be
a picnic, you've been listening
to too much Joel Osteen
auto-playing at the end of a
Pastor Anderson sermon, you know what I mean?
It used to be, back in the old days of YouTube,
when you finish watching one of my sermons,
you'd roll into another sermon from me,
or a sermon from another Fundamental Baptist,
or a sermon from Pastor Emanism.
Now, it just seems like as soon as
my sermon ends, you're either watching
John MacArthur, Joel Osteen, or, you know,
the auto-play just takes you there.
You know, some of you have been let
that auto-play just keep going.
If you think that you're going to go
through life, and it's going to be
all sunshine and roses,
okay, Joel Osteen's not telling you
the whole story.
He's telling you part of the story.
Yeah, there's going to be a lot of sunshine
and rainbows. It's going to be, except the
rainbows are protesters outside your building,
they're going to take you apart.
But anyway, you know, there's going to be
some unicorns and rainbows in your life,
but there's also going to be a lot of pain
and suffering that Joel forgot to tell you about.
For that, you've got to go to the book of Joel,
okay, not Joel Osteen.
But anyway, look at 1 Corinthians,
chapter 4, and look at
what the Bible says in verse 8
of chapter 4.
Now you're full.
Now you're rich.
You've reigned as kings without us.
And God, you did reign.
That we also might reign
with you. He's saying, man, you guys have had it
good. You're living like a king.
And you know, we in the United States, in many ways, we
literally live like kings used to live.
I mean, kings would have loved
the climate control that we enjoy.
Kings would love the foods and drinks
that we take for granted.
Produce flown in from
South America, you know.
We freak out during coronavirus
because the shelves are half
full.
Right? It's like, oh no,
they don't have any bread.
All they have is English muffins, tortillas,
raisin bread, waffles.
It's like, oh no, what are we going to do?
But let me tell you
something, we live in many ways like
kings.
You think your house is too small?
You know what, a lot of people have lived in a lot
smaller places throughout history with less
climate control, less food,
less drink, less
amenities, less convenience.
We live like kings
in many ways in this country.
But he
says in verse 9, for I think that
God has set forth us,
the apostles, last.
You know, the first shall be last, right?
I mean, the apostles are spiritually,
you know, the top
guys walking the earth. I mean, think
about it, if you're living in the first century A.D.,
I mean, who is
of a higher spiritual caliber
than the apostles?
These are the top guys, am I right?
Peter and John,
the apostle Paul, Barnabas.
I mean, these are the front lines
in God's army. I mean, and Paul
says, no, I actually think that God has
set forth us, the apostles, last.
I say, whoa, wait a minute, I thought, you know,
it's first apostles. I mean, these
are Jesus's right hand men. I mean, they
walked and talked with Jesus Christ.
He says, no, no, no, here's why I think that he
said at last, as it were
appointed to death, for we're
made a spectacle unto the world
and to angels and to men.
He says, I'm looking at you guys
over there in Corinth, in your
messed up church at Corinth, and you guys
are living like kings over there.
Meanwhile, you know, I'm
a spectacle
to the whole world, and
I'm, as it were, appointed to death.
He says, we're fools for Christ's
sake, but you're wise in Christ.
We're weak, but you're strong.
You're honorable. We're despised.
Even under this present hour,
we both hunger and thirst
and are naked and buffeted
and have no certain dwelling place.
Now, let me ask you this. How many people
do you think right now
are living a lukewarm
Christian life, they're barely
doing anything for God,
barely go to church,
barely read their Bible,
half in, half out, living a
totally lukewarm
Christian life,
just totally apathetic,
but they live in a really nice house,
have a really
good job,
drive a really nice vehicle,
when
they get home, the neighbors water, hey,
Fred, how you doing?
Neighborhood loves them,
right?
Popular at work.
Do you think that there are people out there that exist
like that?
Of course.
Then you gotta,
is that how the apostles lived, though?
No, so I mean,
look, if you're gonna do a lot for God,
you're not gonna live this
idyllic, perfect
life. You know, you're gonna have problems.
And so the apostles,
they're doing tons of work for God,
they didn't have everything going
for, they didn't have a nice house, they had no
certain dwelling place.
You know, they're hungry, they're thirsty,
they're struggling.
Now look, I'm not saying that we need to live like
the apostles, I'm not saying that we need to go
sell everything and become
nomads or something like that. That's not what I'm
saying. I'm just saying, quit expecting your life
to be perfect. It's not going to be.
You're gonna go through pain,
you're gonna go through suffering, you're gonna go through
trials, you're gonna have problems. And here's the
thing, if you really want to be on the front lines
for God and do great things for God, then don't
think it strange concerning the fiery
trial, which is to try you, as though
some strange thing happened to you.
Now look, if you
want to be a do-nothing nobody,
then you might be able to
just cruise through life with
very little persecution for being
a Christian. But all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
And if you want to be like the apostle Paul
and Peter and John, look, remember what
John and James and their
mom asked Jesus? They said,
hey, when you come in your kingdom, we want
to sit one at your left hand
and one at your right hand.
What do you think?
Now that was, you know, when they
asked that, the rest of the disciples got mad.
It's like, well, who are you guys?
You know, there's twelve of us
and here's two guys, hey,
we want to sit at the right hand on the left.
We're gonna be the top guys in the kingdom.
What do you think?
And here's what Jesus asked them.
He said, first of all, you don't know what you're asking.
He said, are you willing to drink
of the cup that I drink of?
And are you willing to be baptized
with the baptism wherewith
I'm baptized? He said, do you want to be
immersed in what I'm
going to be immersed in? Do you want to drink
the cup that I drink? Are you
able to drink the cup
that I drink? And they said, we're able.
And he said, well, you
know what? You're going to.
You will indeed drink of
that cup. You will indeed go through
that baptism by fire.
But let me tell you, but he said, you know,
but to give you this place seated at my right hand,
that's not mine to give,
but the Father will give
it to those for whom it's prepared.
And tell
these oneness idiots to put that in their pipe
and smoke it.
Jesus is like, well, I can't, I can't, I can't
give that. Only the Father can.
Just kidding, I am the Father.
I got you taken care of.
It's nonsense.
This oneness doctrine turns
the Bible into nonsense.
He said, that's not mine to give.
The Father will give that to who
he has prepared that for.
So what we understand is
that, oh, God, give me great
rewards. Help me to do great things.
Lord, I want to be your right hand man, Jesus.
He said, okay, are you willing to
suffer? Are you willing to go through pain? Now,
they said, we're willing. And they
ended up doing what? Being greatly used by
God, suffering greatly,
and, you know, of course, we know
James was martyred for Christ. John,
of course, lived to an old age,
but he was in exile on the isle
of Patmos. He went through
persecutions, trials, tribulations.
And so we understand
that the more we do for God,
we got to be careful not to bite
off more than we can chew and not be
righteous over much, lest we be destroyed
because, let me tell you something, you
got to count the cost of serving Jesus.
There's a price to pay.
And I'm not trying to discourage
you from serving Christ because
it's worth it, but I want you to have a
realistic expectation and
not have a Joel Osteen mentality
of, oh, serving Christ means
living my best life now. Look,
God does bless us, and I've
got to experience a lot of great things.
I've got to enjoy a lot of great blessings over
the years, but I've also gone through a lot of
misery and pain and sorrow.
Okay, it's a mixed bag.
You got to take the good with the evil,
but at the end of the day, what else is
there to live for that's even worth it?
It's all about Christ.
To live is Christ.
To die is gain.
And look, we should know our own
limitations, and God's not going to
tempt us above what we're able.
And so, look, I'm not trying to
discourage you, but God said, if you're
going to be my disciple, count the cost.
And remember that
Jesus had somebody come up to him and
say, Lord, I'll follow,
Master, I will follow thee whithersoever
you goest.
And he said, the foxes have holes and the
birds of the air have nests, but the Son
of Man hath not where to lay his head.
Is that what you're signing up for?
And so you have to understand
what you're getting into.
Jesus told people there's a cost
to being my disciple.
You have to be willing to forsake everything.
You have to be willing to let go of things.
So I say all that
to say that there's going to be
struggle in your life if you're serving God.
And so that's why we have all these psalms
about the enemies and deliver me
and I'm in trouble, help me God,
save me.
So look where we are there,
no certain dwelling place, verse 11 of
chapter 4 of 1 Corinthians, verse 12,
and labor, working with our own hands,
being reviled we bless,
being persecuted we suffer it,
being defamed we entreat.
We are made as the filth
of the world
and are the off scouring of all things
under this thing. You know I've got a recommendation
for Joel Osteen's next book title.
Imagine this,
Joel's smiling face on the cover,
the filth of the world.
What do you think? Can you picture it?
Barnes and Noble, smiling
Joel Osteen,
the filth of the world.
My message this morning is entitled
The Filth of the World. That's you.
You too can be
the filth of the world.
This is my Bible, I am what it says.
I want to be the filth of the world
don't you?
Folks, he's not going to preach that.
But that's what the Bible said.
He said we're like the filth of the world.
People look at us
with disdain and disgust.
And let me tell you something,
I've had people look at me with disdain and disgust
because of just
saying things directly out of the Bible.
He said we
are the
off scouring of all things.
That's the follow up book.
This is a two book series.
The first book is called The Filth of the World.
The second book is called The Off Scouring of
All Things.
And to this day,
I write not these things to shame
you. He's saying look I'm not trying to
shame you like, hey look I'm suffering
for Christ, I'm in jail, and you're
living like a king.
He said I'm not trying to shame you, as my
beloved sons I warn you.
What's he saying? You're next.
You're next.
Yeah, I'm going through all the suffering, you're living
like a king, your turn's coming
if you're going to serve Christ, you're going to go
through hard things. And look, the only reason
I'm saying this is just so that you go through life
with a realistic expectation.
Because it's a lot easier to deal
with things when you know they're coming and you're not blindsided
by them. And that's the problem
with Bible teachers like Joel Osteen
is that they're not preparing people for
what's actually coming.
And that's the problem with this pre-trib rapture
teaching. It's just telling
everybody, hey don't worry we're going to be out of
here. You know, I'm not
looking for the undertaker, I'm looking for
the upper taker. Well you know
what, I'm looking for both.
Because I'm telling you something,
we are
going to go through the tribulation if it
happens in our lifetime.
We're not leaving until
after the tribulation when the sun and moon are darkened
at the opening of the sixth seal in
Revelation chapter 6. And so
you know,
they're not preparing people. They're telling people
oh no don't worry about it, you're going to be gone
you don't have to worry about it.
And then people like Joel Osteen are
telling them, oh you know, it's going to be great
God's going to bless you and
you're going to make all kinds of money and
it's going to be, I mean just look at me. But see
that's because he's not serving Christ. That's why he has
all that money. Any pastor
who's just filthy rich and
living in luxury is clearly not
serving Christ because of the fact that he'd be
going through persecution. He'd be going
through these things if he
were doing what's right.
So let's go back to
Psalm 59 with that in mind.
While you're turning back to Psalm 59
I just want to read one other verse for you
from 2 Corinthians
chapter number 11 while
you're turning back to Psalm 59.
But there's a similar
concept in 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 if I can find my place here.
And I can't find my place so we will skip
that verse, alright?
You're going to have to just go home and read the whole book
of 2 Corinthians
because it might not even be in chapter
11 what I'm looking for. So that's your homework.
Okay, read it before next week.
So Psalm 59
he says
in verse number 5
Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts,
the God of Israel, awake
to visit all the heathen.
Be not merciful to any
wicked transgressors, Selah.
So again, Selah is some kind of a
musical punctuation
maybe a pause. No one knows
for sure what it means. That's why it's just left
as Selah and not translated
into English. But it's
usually like a gear change in the
Psalm. And it says in verse 6
They return at evening.
They make a noise like a dog
and go round about
the city. Behold, they belch
out with their mouth. Swords are
in their lips. For who
say they doth hear? But thou, O Lord,
shall laugh at them. Now
when we're studying the book of
Psalms we're looking for parallels.
You know, I've often talked about parallelism
where in the book of Psalms things
will be stated twice, restated
a little bit differently. And there's a really
nice parallel in this Psalm
between verses 6 and 7
and verses 14 and 15.
So in verses 6 and 7
we're given this picture of the
wicked, evil,
reprobate, horrible people that are attacking
David. That they're basically
like dogs
and they're going round about the city.
So you know, he's in the city.
The city is his defense.
It's his fortress, the walls.
He's inside and the enemy's outside
and they're going around the city making
a noise like a dog. So you picture
dogs circling you.
Who's ever had angry dogs
circle you? That's what dogs do, right?
They walk in a circle around you
like,"Grrrrrrrrrrrrr".
And they do that
in a circle. So that's the picture
that the Bible's painting here of
David's enemies circling him
and making a noise. And it
says that their
Their mouth, swords are in their lips.
So, you know, it's an aggressive sound
that's coming from these dogs.
You know, you can think of growling,
threatening noises from a circling dog.
But of course, God's gonna step in.
God's gonna judge them.
God's gonna punish.
God's gonna protect David.
So look how the story ends up.
Look at verse 14, where we come back around
to this dog theme.
So in verse six, it said, they return at evening.
In verse 14, it says, and at evening, let them return.
Let them return, right?
So at first, he's talking about it as a bad thing.
Like, you know, man, they're going around the city.
They're belching out these violent noises
and growling and circling and whatever.
But then he talks about, hey,
God's gonna laugh at these people.
God's gonna punish them.
God's gonna consume them.
And he says, you know what?
In verse 14, at evening, let them return
and let them make a noise like a dog
and go round about the city.
Let them wander up and down for meat
and grudge if they'd be not satisfied.
That picture is painted of what we know as the rez dogs.
So who's been out on the rez a lot
and put up your hands if you've dealt with the rez dogs.
Almost everybody, because we've all gone
on the Indian reservation soul-winning trips.
You have all these dogs on the reservation
that don't necessarily really belong to anybody.
They're kind of just these mangy, just dirty.
A lot of them are skinny.
Like they're not getting a lot to eat
and they just kind of roam around
and usually they're pretty friendly.
They're not scary.
Now there are some scary dogs on the rez.
They're called pit bulls.
Some people have pit bulls and violent dogs like that,
but that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about these rez dogs
that just kind of roam the rez
and they're kind of just these mangy, dirty, hungry dogs.
And they usually come to you very meekly,
looking for a treat, looking for some love and affection.
So they're pretty nice.
I kid you not, I've been soul-winning on the rez
and just had this phenomenon happen.
And my kids would attest to this,
where a rez dog will start following you
and it'll just stay with you.
And then another one.
And I've literally become just like a Pied Piper
of rez dogs, where by the end of it,
I had like seven or eight little dogs following me.
And you can't shake them.
You can't get rid of them.
The only way to get rid of them
is when you finally get in the car and drive away.
And even then you're like trying to drive away
without running over them
because they're all over the car and stuff.
But I've literally, kids,
you remember when we've had like the little trail,
we were calling them, what were we calling them?
What do we call them?
The disciples?
Is that what we call them?
Wasn't there like a Judas?
I'll have to get that story from them.
We were calling them our disciples
because we had all these dogs.
So we're going slowly.
And then this was the problem though.
You walk up to a door with all your disciples
and then they have a dog that doesn't get along.
And then sometimes you can just initiate a big dog fight.
But my number one favorite dog occurrence on the rez
was one time we were standing in front of Bashas on the rez.
I probably told this story a few times,
but it bears repeating.
I stood in front of Bashas
and this was the funniest thing I've ever seen.
We're standing there waiting
for some people using the bathroom in Bashas.
And we're just standing outside
and all of a sudden three dogs walk up.
Three rez dogs walk up, the automatic doors open,
they walk into the grocery store,
the automatic doors close.
And we just looked at each other like, what just happened?
What just happened?
Like three dogs just walked up and activated the door,
walked in there and it's just like, no problem.
It's just another day on the rez, hashtag rez life.
But anyway, so you think of these dogs
that you feel bad for them.
They're not like a scary thing.
You're just looking at them like you're pathetic.
And this is the image that God paints.
These evil enemies that are,
they're painted in verses six and seven,
they're more like an angry pit bull,
circling the, argh, argh, argh.
After God's done with them,
they're just kind of like, argh, argh.
They're just a mangy rez dog
by the time we get to verses 14 and 15.
Because now they're wandering up and down for meat
and grudge if they be not satisfied.
So they're still circling,
but now they're circling like,
would you please give me some food?
Instead of like, argh, I'm gonna tear you apart.
Hey, he's saying the enemies of the Lord
are gonna get what's coming to them.
He says in verse eight,
but thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them.
Thou shall have all the heathen and derision.
Because of his strength will I wait upon thee,
for God is my defense.
And look, when God's your defense,
that's better than any alarm system.
That's better than any security cameras.
That's better than any vicious dog that you have.
That's the ultimate defense.
The God of my mercy shall prevent me.
God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.
Slay them not.
He's saying, you know what, God?
Don't even kill these people.
Scatter them by thy power and bring them down, O Lord.
He's saying, God, don't kill them, humiliate them.
Humiliate them.
I don't want my people to forget.
I want people to see what happens.
I don't want them to, if they just die,
then people will forget about it.
I want them to continually be reminded
every time they see their mangy, flea-bitten,
pathetic carcass to remember what happens
to those who hate the Lord.
You think of these disease-filled sodomites,
rock stars, weirdos who just pine away.
You know, when they die when they're like 27 or 29,
then they're just a hero forever.
Isn't that the rock stars that everybody loves the most,
the ones who died when they were like 23, 27, 29?
You know, because then it's like, oh, they die.
But you know what?
The ones who live are the ones where we get to see
the end of that lifestyle.
The ones who die young, that's why they glorify
the ones who die young, because they die before
the consequences of sin have fully caught up with them.
The ones who live to be 40, 50, 60, 70,
you start seeing how ugly that life can end.
And so that's kind of what David's getting at here.
He's saying like, don't just kill these people.
Destroy them, bring them down, humble them,
turn them into a mangy res dog so that people
can look at them and be warned and say,
hey, this is where hating the Lord gets you.
Bring them down, O Lord our shield,
for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
let them even be taken in their pride
and for cursing and lying which they speak.
Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be
and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob
unto the ends of the earth, Selah.
And notice that the dog metaphor comes after the word Selah
in verses six and seven, and then it comes after
the word Selah in verses 14 and 15.
So there's a structure to this.
Remember, this is music, it's the book of Psalms.
So it's like a song, this is like the chorus.
You know, the first chorus, the dogs are one way,
the second chorus, the dogs are the other way
and there's the Selah and everything like that.
We don't know exactly how it was sung,
but you can kind of get the picture of the pattern here
as you read this.
And so we see that God is going to avenge us.
We don't know when it's gonna be.
Sometimes it takes a long time,
sometimes it's a delayed reaction,
but God's justice is certain.
And when it comes, it's swift.
But we just don't always know what his timeline
is gonna be like.
It's not always gonna happen the way we want it to happen
because sometimes God has a reason
for keeping rotten people around, you know,
to fulfill his will ultimately.
And at the end of the day,
it's not our will and our plans that matter,
it's God has an ultimate plan that's more important.
And so sometimes we have to take one for the team
and realize that God's got a bigger plan going on
than just our life.
So it says in verse 16, we already talked about 14 and 15.
In 16 it says, but I will sing of thy power,
yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning,
for thou has been my defense and refuge
in the day of my trouble.
And to thee, oh my strength, will I sing,
for God is my defense and the God of my mercy.
So God, it starts out in verse one,
he says, God defend me.
And then at the end in verse 17,
he says, God is my defense, okay.
So what's the Psalm about?
It's about being surrounded by enemies,
circling vicious enemies.
The Bible says in this chapter that they are lying
at the end of verse 12, they're cursing him,
they're lying, they're violent, they're evil.
And he prays for God to consume these people
and in the end, he knows God's gonna defend him.
God's gonna be on his side.
And you know, if God before us, who can be against us?
It's what the Bible says.
But think about that word in verse 13,
consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be.
What does that mean that they may not be?
To be means to exist.
In the Bible, being often has to do with being alive.
You know, when they thought that Joseph was dead,
they said Joseph is not,
meaning he doesn't exist on this earth.
He's saying consume them that they may not be,
that they don't even exist, consume them in thy wrath.
Now look, let me ask you this.
Is it ever right for me to get on my knees
in the year 2020 and pray about a certain person
or a certain group of people?
Consume them, consume them in thy wrath
that they may not be.
Break their teeth, oh God, in their mouth.
Let them be as a snail which melteth.
Is it ever right or appropriate for me to pray that
about anyone or any group of people?
And of course, the answer is yes
because this is what the Bible says.
Now, is that always appropriate?
Of course not.
There are a multitude of situations
where that would not be appropriate.
There are many times and groups of people
where that would not be appropriate whatsoever,
but there are other times and places and situations
where these type of prayers are appropriate.
That's not the topic of the sermon tonight,
but we never wanna take a portion of scripture
and just discard it like,
oh, well, you know, that was back then.
Folks, what has changed?
Are we still fighting a spiritual battle or not?
Are there still reprobates in this world or not?
Are there still workers of iniquity
and evil God-hating devils that cannot be fixed?
Do they exist or not?
They do, and this is relevant.
And God even tells us in the New Testament
to sing these Psalms, and we've put many of them to music,
many others before us and many after us
will put them to music and sing them.
Even in the English language, we sing these.
And many of them make for great singing, great songs.
And so don't ever let anybody tell you,
oh yeah, forget that, that was back then.
Jesus taught us something different.
Yeah, Jesus did taught us something different,
but you know what he taught us?
Things that are compatible with this.
He didn't come and say, all right, everybody,
we're starting over, trash the Old Testament,
trash Psalms, let me give you a new song book.
In fact, I can't find a single song that Christ taught.
You know, I'm looking at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
I don't see him teaching any songs.
I mean, yeah, I see Moses teaching a song to the people.
I see the song of Deborah.
I see David being the sweet Psalmist in Israel.
I don't see Jesus having any kind of a songwriting career.
In fact, there's virtually no poetry
in the New Testament whatsoever.
A lot of poetry in the Old Testament,
virtually none in the New Testament.
You know why?
Because it's already there in the Old Testament
and God didn't come to destroy the law of the prophets.
Jesus didn't come to destroy the law of the prophets,
he came to fulfill.
And so Psalms are still relevant.
And you know what?
When I read these Psalms, I find great relevance in them
because I've been stabbed in the back
and surrounded by angry enemies
and had people foaming at the mouth
and hating me and cursing me, lying about me, slandering.
And I'm sure you've gone through similar things.
And if you haven't, you probably will in the future.
And so these Psalms are relevant.
They give comfort and you say,
well, I just think is, I just can't believe
that anybody would pray something like that.
What kind of a person would pray a prayer like that?
Well, here's the, it beats being violent.
I mean, look, I've prayed, I confess,
I've prayed some prayers like that.
You didn't know that, did you?
Hey, I've prayed some prayers like that,
but you know what, you know what I've not done?
Never killed anybody, never assaulted or maimed anybody.
But you know what?
There are a lot of people out there in this world
that would say, oh, how could you pray a prayer like that?
And then they murder their baby.
And then they're gonna stand in judgment of me
because of what I prayed or stand judgment of David
because of what he prayed.
Folks, prayer beats violence.
You know what?
I plan on going to the grave without ever killing anyone.
I hope that I never have to hurt anyone
or break anybody's bones or kill anyone.
You know, I hope to go to the grave
not harming anyone physically.
I mean, I'm sure you want the same thing, right?
Nobody wants to go out and get in a fight
and hurt people or kill people.
I mean, if you do, there's something wrong with you.
If that's what you wanted, if you're just like,
man, I just want these looters to come to my house
so I can just start picking them up.
I mean, that's not the right attitude.
I mean, yeah, be ready with the guns loaded and everything,
but I'm saying you shouldn't just be like,
yeah, I hope it happens.
That's immature.
That's like a little kid who's watched
too many action movies or something.
He thinks he's Chuck Norris or something, right?
Invasion USA or whatever.
Look, I'm telling you that we should strive
to go through our lives in peace.
Hey, I don't want to ever punch anyone in the face
or kill anyone or do anything like that.
Look, because I'm a man of peace.
And look, I've been a pastor for 15 years
and haven't assaulted anybody yet.
You'd think I had, you know,
the way that people talk about me,
but guess what, I didn't.
But you know what, here's the thing.
We live in a violent world.
We live in a world where people are punching people
in the face and stabbing people, shooting people.
Right, am I right?
Is that going, is that happening out there?
And you know what I'll bet these people are not doing?
The people who are out today and tomorrow
and the next day in Chicago and Detroit
and on the rez or wherever, you know,
stabbing, shooting, beating.
You know what I bet they're not doing?
I bet they're not getting on their knees and saying,
oh Lord, please consume my enemies, Lord.
Break their teeth.
They're not.
They're not praying that prayer.
You know what they're doing?
They're taking things into their own hands.
But you know what the Bible says?
Vengeance belongeth to me.
Sayeth the Lord, I will repay.
So here's the thing.
Sometimes the workers of iniquity, the sons of Belial,
they're gonna get you mad.
They're gonna get you enraged.
And you know what you do?
You don't reach for the baseball bat.
You don't reach for the chainsaw.
You don't reach for the gun.
You don't reach for the pitchfork.
You reach for the handle of your prayer closet
and you get on your knees and say, God, avenge me.
And then you say in Jesus' name, amen,
and you get up and you know what?
You could be totally nonviolent.
It's funny how when I prayed for Barack Obama to die,
people thought like, this is a threat
to the president of the Secret Service.
It's like, I'm flattered that you have that much faith
in my prayer life, that I have that kind of power
that I can just pray and people just fall over dead.
But here's the thing.
But praying that is the opposite of violence
because it shows that I'm saying, you know what?
I'm leaving it in God's hands.
I'm going to pray for something to happen to that idiot
and leave it in God's hands.
I don't have to do it myself.
I don't have to be violent to anyone.
A lot of people are like, we'll try to provoke you to be violent.
And hey, we've got to go attack these people.
No, I'm nonviolent.
I am nonviolent peaceful, but I do get on my knees sometimes
and pray for God to wipe out these horrible, wicked, evil,
God-hating reprobates.
Amen?
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for Psalm 59, Lord.
What a great book.
Psalms is so deep, and it's just even the same theme, Lord.
Even reading 10 songs that are all on the same theme,
they all have these little nuggets of truth
and these unique little things in them, Lord,
that make them special.
And so, Lord, thank you for giving us
this rich treasury of Psalms, Lord.
And, Lord, when we get consumed with anger or wrath, Lord,
help us to turn to the Psalms for comfort.
And, Lord, when we're dealing with people that are reprobates
or evil workers of iniquity, Lord,
help us to take comfort in the Psalms
and pray that you deal with these people
rather than ever thinking of taking these things
into our own hands, Lord.
Help us to leave it in your hands.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Amen.
Let's start our next song, song number 95.
The Lord is my shepherd.
Song number 95.
Song 95.
The Lord is my shepherd.
What shall I go?
Cleaning green pastures, refolded I rest.
Heedeth my soul where the still waters fall.
Restored me when wondering redeems when oppressed.
Through gravity and shadow, from death though I stray,
since thou art my guardian, illegal I fear.
But God shall defend me, my sad thing I say.
No harm can be caused, I comfort her here.
In the midst of affliction, my table is spread.
With glassings unmeasured, my cup not hit the earth
with perfume and oil.
My mind is my hand.
Oh, what shall I ask of?
I call it his glory.
Oh, what shall I ask of?
I call it his court.
Let goodness and mercy, my bountiful God,
still follow my steps till I meet thee above.
I seek by the beverage my forefathers draw.
To the land of their sojourn, my kingdom of love.