It's quite a long Psalm, but not only is it a long Psalm,
but there's a lot going on in this Psalm, there's a lot.
And like everything's beautiful, everything's deep,
everything's rich, and I can be here,
I know I can be here,
because I had to edit this sermon down.
I can be here for two hours on this Psalm alone, okay?
So let's start away, and look, I was trying to think,
because it has so much in it,
I wasn't sure what to call this Psalm.
But let me give you an idea
of one of the major themes in this Psalm.
If you look at verse number 19,
it begins by saying what?
Blessed be the Lord, right?
Now look at verse number 26, bless ye God, right?
Now look at the end of verse number 35, blessed be God.
All right, so one thing that I noticed
as I was going through this Psalm time and time again,
I said, okay, you know,
Psalmist wants us to bless the Lord.
He wants, whatever we learn from this Psalm,
that God receives a blessing.
We often talk about God blessing us,
and of course it's a wonderful thing when God blesses us,
but we wanna be here to be able to bless the Lord
in return, so the title of the sermon this morning
is blessed be God, blessed be God.
Now let's start there in verse number one.
Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered,
let them also that hate him flee before him.
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away,
as wax melteth before the fire.
This is the part I wanna focus on.
So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
Let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
And so we see that this is a Psalm of David,
and David is again praying that God will take vengeance
on the enemies, that God would do,
that he would curse those that hate God.
And again, this is something that, you know,
your average Baptist church,
they don't like to preach upon,
and the advantage of going chapter by chapter,
verse by verse through the Bible
is that you can actually understand who the true God is.
Okay, God at some point has enough with his enemies.
God at some point has enough with those that hate him,
and he brings down judgments upon these wicked people.
But what I want you to notice,
let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
Now the reason I wanted to talk about this
is because I've grown up in churches,
and I'm sure so many of you have grown up into churches,
where you get taught that if you reject Jesus Christ
as Savior, that God will send you to hell,
and you'll be away from the presence of God.
They say hell is eternal separation from God.
But I've also, you know,
I've always been the kind of person
that wants to see it in the Bible.
Like, okay, you've told me,
pastor after pastor, it's separation from God.
Can you show me in the Bible
where it's separation from God?
Because when I see these people, look,
in verse number two,
as smoke is driven away,
as wax melteth before the fire,
what is the ultimate destination
of those that reject Christ?
They're gonna be burning the fire.
You know, and the Psalmist is saying,
look, can they just melt like wax in the fire
so that the wicked perish,
what, away from the presence of the Lord?
Separated from the presence of the Lord?
No, they perish at the presence of God,
the very presence of God.
So keep your finger there,
and come with me to 2 Thessalonians, please.
I want to reinforce this to you,
that hell is a place of God's wrath, okay?
Hell is not something that God set on fire
and forgot about.
No, his wrath, his anger is burning
the very fires of hell.
And if his anger and wrath is in hell,
where do you think God is?
In hell.
He's in heaven, he's on earth, he's in hell.
Okay, look, God is omnipresent.
I'm sure you've heard that.
That's one of his qualities.
So God is in all places at all times.
And if his anger is burning in hell,
then you know the very presence of God is there.
And for those that are burning in hell,
they are burning in the presence of God.
All right, not separation from God.
The people that hate God on this earth,
they want separation from God, okay?
They don't want anything to do with God.
I mean, to give, hey, if you say to someone,
hey, for all eternity,
you're gonna be separated from God,
they're gonna be like,
well, that's what I've wanted my whole life anyway.
That's okay, I'm fine with separation from God.
No, no, no, they're gonna be in the very presence of God.
And 2 Thessalonians chapter one,
I want you to notice this, verse number eight.
It says, inflaming fire, taking vengeance
on them that know not God,
and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So what does it mean to obey the gospel?
What do we do?
What's the obedience?
When someone preaches you the gospel,
and they say, look, you need to call upon the name of the Lord,
you say, yes, I'll obey that, I will do that,
I will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
I will call upon him, and you're saved.
That's how you obey the gospel.
But for those that refuse to obey the gospel,
it says, verse number nine,
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction,
look at this, from the presence of the Lord,
and from the glory of his power.
Let's read verse number nine again,
who shall be punished with what?
Everlasting destruction.
Where does that everlasting destruction come from?
From the presence of the Lord.
The Lord's presence is there.
And because his presence is there,
they're going to be suffering everlasting destruction.
Look, and from the glory of his power.
Brethren, you know what burns hellfire?
It's the very presence, it's its glory, it's his power.
And that's how he destroys souls for all eternity,
those that have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, brethren, we're gonna glory in his power,
we're gonna glory in his glory, right?
When we have our new,
and this is why no man has seen the Father,
because if we see the Father, we're gonna perish, okay?
We're gonna perish in the glory of God,
because these bodies are sinful.
One day, God's gonna give us new resurrected bodies
without sin, and we're gonna be in the very presence of God,
in his fullness of his glory,
and we'll be able to contain that power.
But for these people that are in hellfire,
they did not obey the gospel.
They're gonna be in the very presence of God,
burning for all eternity.
Come read to another passage, Revelation chapter 14.
This makes it even clearer.
Revelation 14, verse number nine, please.
Revelation 14, verse number nine.
So when preachers say to you,
hell is eternal separation from God.
Look, I know they mean well.
I don't think these people are like wicked people.
They just don't like the idea of God
causing suffering and torment to somebody
for the rest of their lives.
They don't like that idea.
And so they preach to their church that idea,
but that's just faulty logic of man.
Reverend, if you wanna know God,
you have to open the Bible and learn who God is, all right?
Whether you like it or not, you gotta say,
well, God, this is who you are,
and I'm just going to accept who you are.
Lord, you've got anger, you've got wrath.
Lord, for those that reject your son,
you're going to torment them,
and Lord, I'm gonna be okay with that, all right?
If I don't like that, then Lord, you don't have to change.
I need to change.
My mind, my heart towards you needs to change.
Revelation 14, verse number nine.
It says, and the third angel followed them,
saying with a loud voice,
if any man worship the beast and his image
and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand,
shall, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation.
Look at this.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone,
look at this, in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the lamb.
Who's the lamb?
Jesus Christ.
Remember, they're going to be tormented
in fire and brimstone in the very presence of Jesus.
It's not eternal separation from God, okay?
God is there, and that's what makes hell even hotter, okay?
Because they're dealing with the anger of God.
Verse number 11, and the smoke of their torment
ascended up forever and ever,
and they have no rest day nor night,
who worship the beast and his image
and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
And so God's anger, God's wrath,
is going to continue for all eternity.
What an end to these people.
What's suffering?
And brethren, if this makes you uncomfortable,
if you say, I don't like this very thought,
well, God's given you the words of eternal life,
God's given you the gospel,
it's our job to go and deliver these people
from this anger of God,
bring them into reconciliation with God,
so they, like us, can rejoice in his glory
rather than dread it for all eternity.
Back to Psalm 68, please, Psalm 68.
And again, if that makes you uncomfortable past,
I don't like to hear that, especially Sunday morning,
I don't want to hear about God's anger
and God's wrath and God's judgment,
and don't want to have this idea,
but look, if you have your heart in the right place,
it's going to, look,
if you just say, God, just teach me who you are.
Let me just read my Bible.
I'm going to accept who you are, Lord.
I'm not going to try to change you in my mind.
I just want to receive you.
You know what's going to happen in your heart
when you hear about God's wrath and God's judgment?
Verse number three is going to happen.
But let the righteous be glad.
I mean, I'm glad, I don't know about you, but I'm glad
to know that God will one day step in and judge the wicked
when God's going to pour his vengeance
over those that persecuted his people,
those that rejected Christ,
those that said, no, Lord, I can do it on my own.
I don't need your salvation.
I don't need Jesus.
I don't need the free gift.
I think my good works are good enough to get to heaven
and all that presents in a filthy rags before God,
I rejoice, you know, that God will judge the wicked.
It says here, let the righteous be glad
and let them rejoice before God, yay.
Let them exceedingly rejoice.
Sing unto God, sing praises to his name,
extol him that writeth upon the mountains by his name Jah
and rejoice before him.
We're also now introduced,
this is the only time in the Bible
that we're introduced to the name Jah
when it comes to God, all right?
Now, this isn't too complicated.
Look, I looked this up.
You know, I just wanted to make sure
that my thoughts around this was correct.
And I'm going to tell you what Jah means
and then I'm going to prove it to you in the Bible, okay?
But Jah is a shortened form of Jehovah, okay?
Jehovah, we know obviously Jehovah is a name
that we know God more as and Jah is a shortened form,
like a nickname if you want to call it that of Jehovah, okay?
Now, you've got your King James Bible in front of you, okay?
Now, most of the times when the King James translators
translated Jah or Jehovah, it's the Lord, okay?
And not just the Lord, but capital L, capital O,
capital R, capital D.
When you read the Lord,
especially in obviously the Old Testament scriptures,
if you went back to the Hebrew, it would be Jehovah, okay?
Or Jah, something like that, okay?
Now, let's have a look at this very quickly.
If you can keep your finger there
and come to Psalm 22, please.
Psalm 22 verse 26.
So we are going to go back to the Hebrew a little bit.
All right, I checked it for myself.
I've got the Hebrew Bible, but I can't read it,
but I checked it, okay?
I checked whatever, this is coming from me, right?
Psalm 22 verse number 26.
It says, the meek shall eat and be satisfied.
They shall praise the Lord that seek him.
Now, when you see the Lord there,
is that a capital L, capital O, R, D for you guys?
It's all capitals, okay?
So you know that if you went back to the Hebrew,
it's going to be Jehovah or Jah, okay?
Now, when you go back, it's...
Now, Lord there is Jehovah, okay?
That's what it is.
Lord is Jehovah.
Now, when it says praise,
do you know what it is in Hebrew?
Hallel.
It's the way we get the idea.
I'm sure we've sung hymns like this.
Hallelujah.
What does hallelujah mean?
Hallelujah means praise.
Yah.
Well, that's where we get the name of God
in Psalm 68.
Hallelujah.
But if you went back to the Hebrew in this passage,
it's Hallel Jehovah.
You want to put it that way, right?
So just so you understand that it's praise the Lord.
Come with me to another passage.
Psalm 102.
Psalm 102, verse number 18.
Psalm 102, verse number 18, please.
Psalm 102, verse number 18.
It says,
This shall be written for the generation to come,
and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.
Now again, does your Bible have capital L,
capital O, capital R, capital D?
The Lord.
So it's either Jehovah or it's Yah in the Hebrew.
So if you went back, it's actually Yah.
So you've got praise,
Hallel,
Yah.
Hallelujah.
Okay, it's Jah.
So what I'm trying to say to you is that if you and I,
if we could read Hebrew,
you know, when we would read the Lord in the New Testament,
sorry, in the English, I'm trying to say,
then if we could read the Hebrew,
we would often find Jah or Jehovah.
And it's the same name.
And the King James translators understood this.
This is why they often translated it simply as the Lord.
Okay, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D.
Now, come with me into another passage.
Revelation 19, Revelation 19.
Now, as I'm saying this,
so Hallelujah means praise the Lord
or praise Jehovah or praise Jah, okay?
Now, the reason I want to say this is because, you know,
one of the commandments that we have
is not to take the Lord's name in vain.
So I want you guys, if you didn't know this,
be careful when you say the words Hallelujah,
because you're invoking the name of God.
Like if something happens great,
let's say my boys, they win a soccer game, for example,
on a Saturday, they're playing soccer, they win the game.
I don't know, just an example.
And you're like, Hallelujah, you won.
You think God really cares about the soccer game?
You think praise God?
You're using the Lord's name in vain, okay?
Now, sometimes on the church chat, we have some salvations.
People write praise the Lord.
You know, we could also write Hallelujah.
It's exactly the same thing, okay?
Obviously, we want to be able to invoke God's name
when it's something that God cares about,
where God is blessing, okay?
Where it's something of eternal value, okay?
So you want to be careful when you use the words Hallelujah,
because if you didn't realize,
you are using the Lord's name,
and if you're not using it properly,
you're using His name in vain, okay?
Now, Hallelujah, yes, that is the Hebrew,
but we don't have the words Hallelujah
in your English Bibles.
There is only one place in your Bible
where we have this equivalence, and it's in Revelation 19.
It's in Revelation 19.
Now, this does apply to what we've been covering so far.
This all makes sense.
So we started Psalm 68 with God's wrath
in the presence of His, in His presence.
Then when we understood that He pulls out His wrath
on the wicked, we're to rejoice over that, okay?
And again, that might make you feel uncomfortable,
but that's what God is teaching us here.
And I want to show you the only place where Hallelujah,
that's Hallelujah because it's Greek.
Greek is Hallelujah for the Hebrew, Hallelujah.
It's the only place you'll find it in your Bibles
with Revelation 19 and verse number one, let's read it.
Revelation 19, verse number one.
And after these things, I heard a great voice
of much people in heaven.
So that's us, that's all believers that are in heaven
after the rapture.
Look, saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory
and honor and power unto the Lord our God.
So Hallelujah, praise the Lord
is what it's saying there, right?
Now, why are they praising the Lord?
Verse number two, for true and righteous
are His judgments, for He have judged the great whore
and which did corrupt the earth with her fornication
and have avenged the blood of His servants at her hand.
So we're seeing Revelation here,
God judges a mystery Babylon for its weakness,
for its persecution against God's people.
God destroys it by the hand of the Antichrist
and God's people are rejoicing.
Again, rejoicing at God's judgments,
rejoicing at God's wrath,
rejoicing at God's vengeance, Hallelujah, praise the Lord.
So if you're uncomfortable about that now,
rejoicing when God pulls out His wrath,
I promise you by the time you get to Revelation 19
in our bodies, you'll be rejoicing.
In our new bodies, it's all gonna make complete sense.
If it doesn't make sense by now,
it's gonna completely make sense in the future
after you have new resurrected bodies
and you understand the righteousness of God's judgment.
It continues in verse number three.
And again, they said,
Adelujah and her smoke rose up forever and ever.
This is a city on the earth.
It's burning, the smoke is going up
and we're just going, woo Lord,
you've destroyed the wicked city, Adelujah.
Verse number four, and the four and 20 elders
and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God
that sat on the throne saying, Amen.
Adelujah.
And a voice came out of the throne saying, praise our God.
All ye, all ye His servants, all ye His servants
and ye that fear Him both small and great.
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude
and as the voice of many waters
and as the voice of mighty thundering saying,
Adelujah, for the Lord God omnipotence reigneth.
That sounds like great praising in heaven.
I don't know about you.
All the voices, so much so that it sounds like thunderings.
Have you ever heard like just storm and great thunder?
And you know, sometimes my kids are like afraid
when they hear the great sound of thunder, the little ones.
When we're all rejoicing in heaven, praise in God.
Adelujah, praise the Lord.
That's how it's gonna be.
That's how loud it's gonna be.
So I love it when we sing and our voices get,
I wanna make New Life Baptist Church a place of thunderings.
If you can lift up our voices and praise the Lord.
So the only place in your Bibles where you find
hallelujah is the Greek form hallelujah.
But you can understand, the reason I'm going through this
is because I'm sure that as I'm explaining this to you,
you can see the parallels.
Okay, we're praising the Lord after He judges the wicked.
Okay, and we're going to enjoy that.
If you don't think about it right now,
like if you don't, I can't enjoy it.
Look again, you need to change your heart.
You need to change your mind.
You need to say to God, show me who you are.
When I praise you, I wanna make sure
that I'm praising the God of the Bible
and not just some imagination that I've made up in my mind.
Okay, back to Psalm 68, Psalm 68 please, Psalm 68.
Man, 20 minutes in already.
All right, we better get moving.
All right, verse number five.
A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows,
so God cares for the downtrodden,
is God in His holy habitation.
God set off the solitary in families.
Hey, God doesn't like people to be alone.
God set off the solitary in families.
You know, if you're a young single person,
you know, God's plan for you is to get into a family.
Okay, I mean, you're the family that you grow up in.
You know, God's placed you in that family.
One day He wants to start new families.
You know, this is something that God sets.
And if you're a single person,
you may be concerned about who you're gonna marry,
what the future contains.
Say, Lord, I just wanna claim this promise
that you set the solitary in families.
Lord, I'm a bit lonely.
I don't know where I'm gonna meet my spouse.
I don't know where she is.
I don't know where he is,
but Lord, I'm gonna hold onto your promise here.
Just take it to God.
Say, God, not only do I want this,
but Lord, I see this in your word
and I know you're faithful to your word.
Can you please grant that for me and pray about that?
I'm sure the Lord will find you the right person.
God set up the solitary in families.
He bringeth out those which are bound with chains,
but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
Now, what we're leading into here about the bounding chains,
rebellious dwell in dry land,
we're going back in time to the time when, again,
Moses brought the Israelites out of Egypt, okay?
And so being bound with chains is the idea
that they were under servitude by Pharaoh and the Egyptians
and the rebellious dwell in a dry land.
Of course, when God would lead them into the promised land,
they said, no, we're not gonna do it.
So they literally went into the dry land.
They literally went into the wilderness for 40 years.
As we keep going, you'll see that this is what it's about.
Verse number seven, he says,
"'O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people,
"'when thou didst march through the wilderness, see last.'"
See, the dry land is the wilderness
when they came out of Egypt.
But it says here that the Lord went before them.
And of course, when you read the story,
you have the pillar of the cloud in the day
and the pillar of fire at night,
which led the tomb of Israel through the wilderness.
But the rebellious there is just talking
about that generation for 40 years in the wilderness.
Now, brother, brother, Jason, Jason Park,
and I know you've heard a preacher once say,
God does not save the rebel or something like this, right?
God doesn't, you know, God does not save them.
Not that you taught that,
but you've heard a preacher say that and it's wrong.
These people are rebellious to God
and they're in the wilderness.
They're in the wilderness.
Look, if you rebel against the Lord,
and what is rebelling against the Lord?
Sinning against the Lord.
You've all been rebellious.
You've probably all been rebellious this week.
And the idea that God does not save the rebel,
well then no one's saved them.
Yeah, look, if you're rebellious and you walk in your ways,
guess what?
It's gonna be dry.
It's gonna be wilderness.
You're not gonna be able to rejoice
in the presence of God's glory and his blessings in life.
It's gonna be dry for you in the Christian life.
And that's what this represents.
When the Israelites went into the wilderness,
they did not obey God.
They chose not to go to the promised land
where they would have been blessed greatly by God.
Instead, God said, all right,
well, if you don't wanna be walking with me,
if you don't wanna be obedient,
if you don't wanna walk by faith,
then you can be in the wilderness.
And brethren, many times in our Christian life,
you might go through periods
where you're in the wilderness,
then you might be in the promised land,
and I hope you can stay in the promised land.
Sometimes you go back into the wilderness
and this is just the life,
the struggle that we have in our bodies.
But verse number eight, it says,
the earth shook, the heavens also dropped
at the presence of God.
Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God,
the God of Israel.
So again, we know what Sinai represents.
Mount Sinai, where Moses went up,
collected the 10 commandments, okay?
And the nation of Israel
were put under the old covenant, okay?
And when the Lord was on Mount Sinai,
it says there that it moved at the presence of God.
Okay, because again, if you read it,
there was earthquakes, there was thunderings,
there was lightnings, and people were so afraid
to even approach Mount Sinai, okay,
because of God's power.
Verse number nine,
thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain,
whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance
when it was weary.
Now verse number nine makes me believe
that now this plentiful rain isn't in the wilderness,
but this plenteous rain is when they ended up
eventually going into the promised land,
because it says whereby thou didst confirm
thine inheritance.
And we know the inheritance wasn't the wilderness,
the inheritance for the Israelites
were that promised land, the land of Canaan, okay?
And so God sent plentiful rain there.
That's why it flourished.
That's why it was a blessing.
That's why they could grow their crops
and they can tend for their animals
and they can flourish as a people.
Verse number 10, now we've gone into them
going to the promised land.
Now we're talking about the setting up
of the tabernacle on that land,
or as David prophesies,
because the temple was not yet built, again,
it was built in his son Solomon's time.
David is now prophesying and thinking about the time
and the tabernacle, eventually the temple
would be a place where we would be gathered together.
God's people would be gathered together.
Verse number 10, thy congregation have dwelt therein.
Thou, O God, has prepared of thy goodness for the poor.
The Lord gave the word, great was the company
of those that published it, okay?
So the tabernacle eventually and the temple
would be a place where God's word would be preached.
It says great was the company of those that published it.
But again, I want you to notice the Lord gave the word
and brethren here at New Life Baptist Church,
we don't wanna hear the word of man,
we wanna hear the word of God.
And once we have God's word now,
we wanna be able to publish that, right?
My job right now as a preacher is to publish,
is to proclaim God's word to you.
And when you go house to house, door to door,
once again, you're publishing the word of God.
We don't go and give the gospel by our smarts
or intelligence or fancy words,
we wanna show people the gospel,
we wanna show them the scriptures, okay?
And all we're being used is to be the publisher, all right?
Great, I love that, great was the company of those
that published it.
And I'll just quickly read to you from Mark 13, 10,
Jesus Christ says, and the gospel must first be published
among all nations, and we're gonna get to that in a moment,
amongst all nations, okay?
Because these are the words of Jesus,
you can look it up yourself, Mark 13, okay, 10,
in your own time.
But Jesus has always been interested
in making sure the gospel goes to all people, always, okay?
And he said, well, that's the New Testament,
past the Mark 13, well, we're gonna see,
again, Psalm 68 here, where God is interested
in making sure people get saved of all nations, okay?
Again, this faulty idea that you hear in churches,
God just came for the Jews,
Jesus just came for the Jews,
or in the Old Testament, God only cared for the Israelites
and the Gentiles were,
we just got in lucky later on in the New Testament.
No, no, no, even in the Old Testament,
the Gentiles were free to believe on Jesus Christ, okay?
And this Psalm 68 is gonna show that to you
as we keep going, all right?
Verse number 12.
Look, I'm gonna read verses 12, 13, 14 to you quickly.
And the reason I'm gonna read this to you is,
just last week, I had a brother in the Lord say to me,
Pastor, can you explain these verses?
It's kind of cryptic, hard to understand.
And let me just say something,
because you guys are a smart church,
and blessed are Baptist Church and there is a smart church.
When someone says to me, Pastor,
this sounds really cryptic, I can't understand it,
I'm probably the same as you, right?
Like, you know, and I was like,
you know, when I saw that, I go,
oh, I don't know what that means, really.
And then I realized, oh, but I gotta preach Psalm 68
next week, I better work out quickly what this is about.
I'm gonna give you my best effort, okay?
In light of what we see here.
But very quickly, Psalm 68 and verses number 12, 13 and 14.
Kings of armies did flee apace,
and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
Though ye have lying among the pots,
yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver
and the feathers with yellow gold,
when the almighty scatter of kings in it,
it was white as snow in salmon, salmon.
And I'll show what you guys take out of that passage.
But let me think about this quite quickly.
So we started the Psalm with, you know,
people that hate the Lord and the Lord, you know,
caused them to melt in the fire,
these kinds of things like that, right?
Once again, when we see these kings of armies did flee,
again, it's that same theme that this Psalm starts with,
that the wicked flee, you know, they try to flee.
It says in verse number one,
let God arise, let his enemies be scattered.
Let them also that hate him flee before him.
And so keeping in that idea, that thought in this Psalm,
when the kings of armies did flee,
this seems to be the enemies of Israel,
the enemies of the Lord, right?
They've been defeated by God's hand, they fled.
And then it says,
and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
So, you know, when one army goes to another,
defeats another army, defeats a nation,
they take the spoil with them.
They take the, you know, the,
not necessarily just the gold and silver,
but just the possessions that people have, okay?
That's called the spoil.
And so it's saying here that as the men go out to war
against the kings and these other armies,
that their wives at home,
they're going to receive the spoil, right?
You know, husband says,
look honey, I defeated this village.
I'm bringing home all these things that I found.
And she then looks through it and divides it and go,
wow, this is good for us.
We can use this, we can't use that.
Maybe we can sell this, right?
She is at home.
And even she participates in the victory
that God gave to his people.
Now, verse number 13.
Let's not separate from what we just read there.
Though ye have lion among the pots.
So the spoil has pots and things like that, okay?
It's not, you know, it's whatever the people had.
So though ye have lion.
So now God is using the illustration of the spoil, okay?
Again, some of those things can be good for you.
Some of those things might not be needed.
Some of those things might be very valuable.
Some of those things might be less valuable, okay?
Now he's talking about us as being that spoil
because he's talking about ye, right?
Though ye have lion among the pots.
Now think of pots simply as clay vessels, okay?
It says, yet shall ye be as wings of a dove
covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold.
So what I take out of this is that we on this earth,
we are lion, we are amongst the pots.
We are all clay vessels.
We've all been created by, you know, our bodies are,
you know, God created Adam from the earth.
Our bodies are made up of this natural earth.
And you know, when we are amongst the world
or we amongst other people, we don't stand out.
We just look like normal human beings, right?
Just going about our lives.
And though we're just lion amongst the pots,
there's come in a time where we shall be as wings of a dove
covered with silver.
So we're not just some clay pots.
We're actually very valuable in the eyes of God.
Silver and gold, right?
And one day like a dove will take off and fly.
It's going to be seen, it's going to be manifested
as that bird flies away from all the pots
that kind of, you know, is hidden amongst.
And so of course, I believe this speaks of, you know,
one day, not just a rapture, but you know, we will be,
we are God's people already,
though we seem like anybody else on the earth,
for the day is coming when we're truly gonna shine,
you know, as bright lights and the glory of God.
And everybody will know that these are the people of God.
These are the people that God has given victory.
And then it says in verse number 14,
when the almighty scarif kings in it,
so these kings again are of the wicked nations,
it was white as snow in salmon, okay?
So even when we're persecuted,
God's people have been persecuted by kings and enemies,
believers remain undefiled, okay?
We remain white as snow.
You know, even if we're under bondage,
even if we're under attack,
you know, even if enemies take our lives,
what's wonderful about being saved is again,
we are in the righteousness of Christ.
We are white in Christ.
They can't defile us.
This world can defile the flesh,
but this flesh is not going to heaven, okay?
God's gonna give us a new resurrected body.
We're not made up of the old flesh, but a new body.
And brethren, we are spiritually speaking before God
as white as snow.
And there's nobody on this earth that can defile us.
Anyway, that's my understanding of those passages.
If you have some other thoughts,
please share them with me, okay?
Let's keep going, verse number 15.
The hill of God is as a hill of Bashan,
and high hill as a hill of Bashan.
Now, I looked this up.
Bashan apparently is quite a tall mount, okay, on the land.
And now this hill of God that's been spoken about here,
it's not Bashan.
It says the hill of God is as the hill of Bashan.
So it's not Bashan.
Does that make sense?
It's as.
It is a high and lifted place, all right?
Then it says, verse number 16.
Why leap ye, ye, ye high hills?
This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in.
So this hill of God is where God wants to dwell in, right?
Yea, the Lord will dwell in it forever.
Okay, so as soon as, you know, the Bible says forever,
now you're like, oh, okay,
this can't just be something on the earth, okay?
This is something that's going to last for eternity.
What is this hill that's as Bashan, high and lifted up,
but it's not really what we think it is, right?
Let's keep going there.
Let's, verse number 17.
It says, the chariots of God are 20,000,
even thousands of angels.
The Lord is among them as in Sinai in the holy place.
In the holy place.
So is this hill of God Mount Sinai?
No, because it says again, as in Sinai.
So it's not Sinai.
I'm making sense of how to explain this properly.
That's not Bashan.
We know Bashan is a high place, but it's like that.
It's a high place.
It's not Mount Sinai, but it is like Mount Sinai
in the fact that God's presence was on Mount Sinai, okay?
And he did give instruction to his people from that mount,
okay, but also on this mount,
you can see that not only is God there,
but his angels, chariots of God, his armies of heaven,
even thousands of angels are on this mount as well.
What mount is he talking about?
All right, well, this is why you need the New Testament.
So keep your finger there and come with me to Hebrews 12.
Hebrews 12.
So it's not Mount Bashan, it's not Mount Sinai,
this mount that God is speaking about.
Hebrews 12, chapter 22, please.
Hebrews 12, verse number 22.
This is a hill or a mount that God dwells in forever.
Hebrews 12, 22.
Hebrews 12, 22, which we'll read slowly.
It says, speaking to believers,
but ye are come unto Mount Zion.
Now stop there for a moment.
You go, Mount Zion, ah, not Mount Bashan, not Mount Sinai.
Mount Zion is the one that God's speaking about,
but of course on the earth, there is a Mount Zion,
but it's a mount that God's gonna dwell in forever.
So is it really this earth?
Because when God pours out his wrath,
then it's all gonna be leveled,
and when God creates a new heaven, a new earth,
could that be the same mount that God is speaking about?
No, because this Mount Zion is not Mount Zion on the earth.
As it continues, it says,
and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, not earthly Jerusalem,
and notice what else is on this mount, Mount Zion,
and to an innumerable company of angels.
I believe Paul is writing the book of Hebrews.
He says, look, I can't even count.
It's innumerable, it's too many.
Well, we get an idea in the Psalm
that it's thousands, even thousands,
but not exactly how many thousands, just thousands.
It doesn't say 10,000, 20,000, 100,000, just thousands.
Okay, so what we see here, going back in,
that's what I love about the Bible.
Don't you love about the Bible?
You're like, well, what mount is,
because he doesn't tell us in Psalm 68
what mount he's talking about.
Well, I know it's not Mount Baishon,
I know it's not Mount Sinai.
What mount are you talking about, God?
But that's why it's so beautiful.
We are so blessed to live in the time that we are,
where we have the whole Bible, Old Testament, New Testament,
66 books in our language, published in our hands,
and we can just flick it and see and compare,
say, well, Lord, what mount do you sit upon?
What mount is for eternity?
What mount are the angels and his chariots
and his armies upon?
You know, it's, well, it's Mount Sinai,
but not earthly Mount Sinai, heavenly Mount Sinai, okay?
Okay, back to Psalm 68, Psalm 68.
I hope you're seeing just how deep this Psalm is.
I'm doing my best.
I feel like I'm just surface level covering this thing.
We've got to move on, okay?
And I strongly recommend, you know,
when I preach chapter by chapter, verse by verse,
I hope, you know, hope you do this,
that through the week you go back home and read it again
and see what further things you find in it.
You know, what else?
I can't cover everything, obviously, right?
Especially a long Psalm like this,
I can't cover everything.
I hope you spend your own time going home,
reading it again, you know,
maybe with extra light that I've given you,
where you can go and see what further things
I can learn from God's word.
All right, verse number 18, Psalm 68, verse number 18.
This is also quite a meaty part of the Psalm.
Verse number 18 says,
"'Thou hast ascended on high,
"'thou hast led captivity captive,
"'thou hast received gifts for men,
"'yea, for the rebellious also.'"
Now, remember we talked about the rebellious before that,
the rebellious were mentioned.
The rebellious went into the wilderness.
So can the rebellious be saved?
Again, have you heard your pastor say,
"'God does not save the rebel.'"
Well, as we keep reading this, it says,
let's read it again,
"'Thou hast thou, God.'"
Now, think about this.
Think about what we're reading here.
"'Thou hast ascended on high,
"'thou hast led captivity captive,
"'thou, God, hast received gifts.'"
So God's received gifts for men.
So God is receiving a gift,
and that gifts are for men.
Who is God receiving the gifts from?
Again, we start seeing the triune nature of God,
God in three persons here, okay?
And I'll show you soon what this is talking about.
"'Yea, for the rebellious also.'"
Ooh, the rebellious gifts.
Gifts, also.
What else does it say there?
"'That the Lord God might dwell among them.'"
Yes, the rebellious also.
"'That God might dwell among them.'"
And brethren, before you were saved,
you were completely rebellious against the Lord.
You know what God gave you?
Gift, here's the free gift,
so he can dwell among us.
I don't know why pastors teach.
Look, should you be less rebellious?
Should you try not to rebel?
Of course, of course.
But is that how we get saved?
No, God gives us the gift for the rebellious also,
so he can dwell among us.
Okay, now keep your finger there.
What is this about?
Again, the New Testament is beautiful.
Come with me to, where do I want you to turn to?
Ephesians, please, Ephesians chapter four.
Ephesians chapter four, verse number eight.
Now, Psalm 68, this portion of scripture
that we just read gets repeated to us in Ephesians four.
Okay, so Paul borrows from David,
telling us a New Testament truth.
In Ephesians four, eight, it says,
Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on high,
and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
So when we read Ephesians four, eight,
we know that's talking about Christ.
If you read the context, that's Christ.
So when you think back to the Psalm,
where it said about the gifts, it said,
Thou, Jesus, has received gifts for men.
Who's given Jesus the gifts to give to men?
The Father.
The Father gave his Son the gifts,
the gifts are then given to men by Jesus Christ.
Okay, the Bible's beautiful.
It's, I don't have to make it make sense.
It makes sense on its own.
Just requires a bit of reading, meditation, focus, right?
It's all there.
It's always perfect, isn't it?
It's always compatible,
no matter what passages you're reading from, right?
And again, what we're reading about here,
of course, is Christ came to die for us.
He is our salvation.
And again, where is Paul getting his teaching from?
From David, in Psalm 68.
So David operated under the old covenant.
How do you think David got saved?
The same way.
Jesus saved him.
It was by grace, through faith alone.
It's not turned from your rebellion to be saved.
It's just received the gift of God to be saved.
It's always been the same.
I mean, can you say that for yourselves?
I'm not trying to fool, can you say that for yourself?
Paul is taking it from David.
David's already telling us it's free.
Salvation is free.
Living with God is free.
It requires no works.
It doesn't even require for me to turn from your rebellion,
because you can't do that.
We are sinners, brethren.
I'm sorry, look, should we try?
We should try, we should live godly,
and we should live in the spirit and all those things.
I'm not trying to say, go ahead and sin
and do whatever you want,
but truly, that's not how you get saved.
It's a gift.
And I just get, you know, when I read the Bible
and I see these things, I go,
why do preachers say all the time?
Oh, it's by works in the Old Testament.
Not all the time.
Well, it's by works in the Old Testament.
It's gonna be by works in the tribulation.
What Bible are you, you're not reading the Bible.
That's a problem.
You're not reading the Bible.
You're just doing some Bible college course.
You're reading dispensational truth by Larkin,
I think it is.
You're reading the Schofield notes
rather than reading the scriptures themselves.
You're following after John Nelson Darby,
the father of dispensationalism,
and you're getting so messed up and so confused
just because you don't pick up the Bible by itself
and read it and compare scripture with scripture,
compare spiritual with spiritual.
The Bible's consistent.
I don't have to force it.
It is on its own.
You can read it for yourself.
You're still in Ephesians four, aren't you?
Verse number nine.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also
descended first into the lower parts of the earth.
He that descended is the same also that ascended
up far above all heavens that he might fill all things.
So we know that speaking of Christ.
So when we read Psalm 68, you know it's about Christ.
Okay, you're back to Christ.
Now, come with me to Judges chapter five.
Go on, now it's Judges.
Yeah, Judges chapter five, please.
There's another thing that I wanna talk about here.
Judges chapter five.
Now, both Ephesians and Psalm 68 both mentioned,
well, let me read it again.
Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive.
Thou hast led captivity captive.
Both captured in Psalm 68 and Ephesians chapter four.
Okay?
So I believe God wants us to understand what this means.
If he's going to use this terminology multiple times.
Okay, what does it mean to lead captivity captive?
Well, that's why we're turning to Judges.
Okay, Judges is where we first see this term
in Judges chapter five.
Now, let me quickly bring you up to speed
because I don't have time to go through this whole story.
Okay, this is the story of Deborah and Barak.
All right, they were, you know, in terms of the judges
before the kings, they went to the promised land
and many times God's people would rebel against the Lord.
God will bring them chastisement in the form of an enemy.
Okay, and at this particular time,
the enemy was Jabin, king of Canaan.
Okay, the Jews were living peacefully.
The Israelites, I should say,
were living peaceably on the land.
Okay, but again, the children, the younger generation,
they turn against the Lord and God allows Jabin,
king of Canaan to come and bring them under bondage
once again.
All right, now, very quickly,
Barak, through the prophecy and help
and really the pushing along and the kicking of Deborah,
they finally defeated Jabin, they defeated the Canaanites.
Okay, they had a victory.
Now, after they had the victory,
Deborah starts to rejoice.
She starts to rejoice and to sing.
And we're catching some of the song that she sings here
in Judges five, verse number 12.
Judges five, 12.
Awake, awake, Deborah.
So these are her words.
This is her song.
Awake, awake, utter a song.
Arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive,
thou son of Abinowim.
Then he made him that remaineth have dominion
over the nobles among the people.
The Lord made me have dominion over the mighty.
Okay, so what is captivity captive?
It says there again, lead thy captivity captive.
So say Jabin, Jabin, the king of the Canaanites,
they took the Israelites into captivity.
Okay, so Barak's captivity is Jabin.
Does that make sense?
They've been taken into captivity.
Okay, so Jabin, the Canaanites is captivity
and they are captive to that captivity.
Now when it says here,
because when you read verse number,
man, I'm losing my place here.
When you read verse number 13,
once they defeat Jabin, it says,
then he made him that remaineth have dominion
over the nobles among the people.
The Lord made me have dominion over the mighty.
So Deborah and Barak, they end up turning the tables
and now they have power and authority over the Canaanites.
The Canaanites had authority and power over them.
They turned captivity captive, they led captivity captive,
meaning the captivity now became the captives, okay?
And they turned the tables, okay?
Does that make sense?
All right, so if Jesus led captivity captive,
what that teaches us is that we were once captive.
We were under bondage, okay?
We were restricted, we couldn't keep the law.
You know, we're under the captivity of sin if you want.
Then God turns the tables
and he's given us power over our sin.
He gives us power, okay?
He's given us victory.
The moment you receive Christ, you've been delivered.
You're no longer the captive,
but that which was captivity, your sinful condition,
the flesh, you now have the power
and dominion over that flesh through the new man, okay?
You're never gonna reform this flesh.
This flesh doesn't get fixed,
but it can be put under subjection of the new man,
the spirit that God gives you.
Now you've turned the tables, right?
Because before you were saved,
the flesh gave you all the commands.
Now God gives you the new man.
Turn the tables, you have the power.
This is what makes you walk righteously.
When you say, Lord, I'm not gonna walk in the flesh,
I'm gonna walk in the spirit.
Lord, I'm not gonna do the desires of the flesh,
I'm gonna do the desires of the new man.
And that brings captivity.
That's what Christ has done for us.
He's delivered us from the power of sin.
He's delivered us from the power of the flesh.
He's delivered us even from the bondage of the law,
trying to keep the law in order to be saved.
All right, you can see how this is so deep.
But anyway, back to Psalm 68, please, Psalm 68.
And while you're turning back to Psalm 68,
I'll quickly read to you from Romans 8, 2.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
have made us free from the law of sin and death.
Brethren, before you were saved, death had power over you.
Now that you're saved, you will never die.
You have everlasting life.
You will live for all eternity.
Okay, so everything, it's all been,
the tables have been turned.
That's what leading Christ,
leading us into captivity captive means, okay?
Back to Psalm 68, verse number 19.
Psalm 68, verse number 19.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loateth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation, Selah.
I had enough in my notes, but I just read that again.
Man, isn't that wonderful?
Who daily loateth us with benefits.
Like, oh man, it's too much to carry.
Every day, the blessings are just so many.
Whoa, that's awesome.
I like that.
Anyway, verse number 20.
He that is our God is the God of salvation.
And unto God, the Lord belong the issues from death.
But God shall wound the head of his enemies
and the hairy scalp of such and one
that goeth on steel in his trespasses, okay?
So yeah, the Lord will wound the head of his enemies.
Those that refuse his salvation,
we saw that God is our God of salvation, right?
Those that refuse his salvation, they're gonna be bruised.
And you know, this immediately reminded me of the devil.
Okay, reminded, because I'll just quickly read to you.
In Genesis 3.14, when God is cursing the devil
or the serpent, okay?
He says, and the Lord God said unto the serpent,
because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle
and above every beast of the field,
upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
Then he makes this amazing prophecy
about Eve and her descendant.
Verse number 15, and I will put enmity,
that's the enemies, the idea of enemies again,
between thee, the serpent, the devil, and the woman, Eve,
and between thy seed, the devil and his children,
his ministers, and her seed,
because we're all born of Eve, okay?
But we know that in Galatians 3,
that the seed that's spoken about is Jesus Christ.
And then it says, it shall bruise thy hedge,
so Jesus is gonna bruise the head of the devil
or the serpent, and thou shall bruise his heel.
So yes, the serpent, the devil did bruise Christ,
as it were, he was put on the cross, he died for our sins.
But in that process, Christ is also
bruised the head of the devil, okay?
And so again, when we get back to Psalm 68,
just gives us that idea, that thought once again,
how God will not just bruise the head of the devil,
but also he's gonna wound the head of his enemies.
Verse number 22, Psalm 68, 22.
The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan,
I will bring my people again from the depths of the sea.
This is really interesting.
Let's read it again, just that second part.
I will bring my people, so God's people,
saved people, right, from the depths of the sea.
What?
What is that about?
And look, I'll just say, I'll tell you ahead of time,
this is all about the resurrection.
But specifically, God just is naming those
that have perished in the sea.
Because people lose their lives in the sea,
and their bodies are never found.
It sinks, maybe it gets eaten by all the animal,
marine life, whatever it is, right?
The body's just there in the sea,
never to be found, never to be buried.
And God has given us this problem
that one day he's gonna bring his people
from the depths of the sea.
And of course, this is the resurrection to come.
And then look at this.
Look, okay, think of the resurrection, right?
You're talking about post-trib pre-wrath.
These verses match perfectly
with the idea of a post-trib pre-wrath.
Because we have the resurrection in poetic form here,
coming out of the sea.
But then it says that thy foot, that's God's foot,
may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies,
and the tongue of thy dogs in the same.
What in the world?
The resurrection, now dipping your foot in blood.
Like, what is going on here?
I'm being cryptic again.
What is God speaking about here?
Well, I need you to go back to Revelation, please.
Revelation 14, very quickly.
Revelation 14.
If I go over an hour a little bit, please forgive me.
Revelation 14, please.
Revelation 14, 13.
I'm going to try to speed up.
Revelation 14, 13.
Okay, we're looking at Revelation 14.
Again, in your own time, read earlier, before verses 13.
And you know this is the tribulation.
God persecuting, I mean, the Antichrist
persecuting God's people, all right?
Then once they're persecuted,
once they're going through this great tribulation,
in Revelation 14, 13, it says,
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
write, blessed are the dead,
which die in the Lord from henceforth.
Yea, save the spirit that they may rest from their labors
and their works to follow them.
So they've been persecuted.
But they've also been doing works.
They've also been preaching the gospel.
We know that the gospel of the kingdom
is going to go through the whole world during this time.
But now they're going to be given rest.
How is God going to give them rest from this persecution?
Verse number 14.
And I looked and behold a white cloud,
that's interesting,
and upon the cloud once sat like unto the Son of Man.
Who's that?
It's Jesus coming on the cloud.
Isn't that the rapture?
Isn't that the resurrection?
Having on his head a golden crown,
and in his hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out of the temple,
crying of a loud voice to him,
that sat on the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap.
For the time is come for thee to reap,
for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
And he that sat on the cloud,
thrust in his sickle on the earth,
and the earth was reaped.
Reverend, for those that you know enough,
that's the resurrection.
Christ is reaping his people.
Christ is coming on the clouds.
We're going to meet up with him in the clouds.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord, the Bible says.
Okay, we're given that rest.
What we saw in Psalm 68 is that even God's people
that have been drowned in sea,
they're going to also be coming out.
God's people are going to come out of the sea as well.
But then when we got to Psalm 68,
all of a sudden God's dipping his blood in,
beating blood and like, what?
Well, let's keep going there.
In Psalm 14, verse number 18.
So, sorry, verse number 17.
So once the earth is reaped,
once God takes his people,
verse number 17.
And another angel came out of the temple,
which is in heaven.
He also having a sharp sickle.
So there's going to be another reaping.
There's going to be another harvest to reap.
Okay, after the rapture.
What is this harvest?
Verse number 18.
And another angel came out from the altar,
which had power over fire,
and cried with a loud cry to him
that had the sharp sickle saying,
thrust in thy sharp sickle,
and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth,
for her grapes are fully ripe.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth,
and gather the vine of the earth,
and cast, look at this,
into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
So everybody that remains now,
they're going to face what?
The wrath of God.
Post tribulation, rapture, wrath.
Now God is pouring out his wrath.
You see that there in Revelation 14.
Same process, okay?
Verse number 20.
And the winepress was trodden.
You know, like when you step out grapes
to make grape juice, right?
The winepress was trodden without the city and blood.
So the wine's just figurative
of people suffering during this time.
Blood came out of the winepress,
even unto the horses bridles
by the space of 1,600 furlongs.
So this is going to be a bloody time
when God pours out his wrath.
But I want you to notice once again,
resurrection, then God pours out his wrath, okay?
What do we see in Psalm 48, 68?
Quite cryptically, the same thing.
God delivering his people.
Yes, from the sea even, okay?
Even if you don't have a physical grave,
you're going to be experiencing the rapture.
You're going to be experiencing the resurrection.
Then God will have his feet in the blood of the wicked, okay?
Okay, back to Psalm 68, verse number 24.
They have seen thy goings, O God,
even the goings of my God, my King in the sanctuary.
The singers went before,
the players on instruments followed after.
Look, we've been singing,
now we need players of instruments.
Brother Oliver, that's for you.
That's a verse for you, okay?
And any of the young people,
if you guys know how to play instruments,
we need musicians in the church, all right?
So we've got those singing, we've got that laid out,
but we need players of instruments.
Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.
Hey, even the girls are invited to play instruments, okay?
And then it says in verse number 26,
bless ye God in the congregations,
even the Lord from the fountain of Israel.
So here we are in the congregation this morning,
we ought to be praising the Lord, right?
Church ought to be about the Lord.
Then in verse number 27, all right.
Now this is important because,
now we're going back to David's time
and he is looking at the tabernacle
and prophesying of the temple.
We know that that was obviously in Israel.
Then he's kind of looking at the congregation
coming together to praise God.
He says in verse number 27,
there is little Benjamin with their ruler,
so there are Benjamites there, praising the Lord.
The princes of Judah and their counsel,
so there are people from Judah praising the Lord.
The princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali, okay?
So you've got all these different tribes,
like different tribes there,
praising the Lord in the congregation.
And then verse number 28,
thy God have commanded thy strength.
Thy strength, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
All right, so we see here that one way
that God can strengthen us is being in His congregation,
praising Him, worshiping Him, hearing of His mighty acts,
and that strengthens us, all right?
Now, you say, well, past the sea,
maybe these people are right.
Oh, the temple, tabernacle, all that,
Old Testament stuff, that's just for the Israelites.
There's Benjamites, you know, it's all these tribes,
all right, Judah, Zebulun, Naphtali.
Okay, well, let's keep going, verse number 29.
Now He's prophesying of the temple,
because the temple's not built in His time.
Because of thy temple at Jerusalem
shall kings bring presents unto thee.
Kings, plural, not just the king of Israel, but kings.
Where are these kings coming from?
Well, let's read verse number 31,
we'll come back to verse number 30.
It says, princes shall come out of Egypt.
Was the temple for the Egyptians?
That's what David says.
Remember, it was David's desire for the temple to be built,
because these kings, it's not just us,
it's not just our tribes.
He says, I want the Egyptians to come and praise God.
Princes shall come out of Egypt.
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
I want the Ethiopians to come, David says.
Brethren, it's salvation.
Has God always cared for all people, all nations?
Always, always, brethren, always.
And if Australia existed in that time,
He would have said, look, let the Australians come.
I want the king of Australia to come.
I wish He would come before the Lord.
Man, our nation would be so much better
if our kings and politicians loved the Lord
and feared the Lord.
So much different, our world would be.
And then let's read verse number 32 quickly.
Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth.
Not just Israel, of the earth.
Oh, sing praises unto the Lord, Selah.
Okay, look, we skipped to verse number 30.
Let's go back to verse number 30.
So David's excited with all these people
coming to praise God, not just all our tribes,
but even the nations around us.
Even Egyptians, even our former enemies.
I want them to be right with God.
That's David's heart, right?
But look at verse number 30.
We're still talking in the context
of praising God in the temple.
Rebuke the company of spearmen.
Spearmen are soldiers, right?
They're fighting with spears.
The multitude of the bulls with the calves of the people,
till everyone submit himself with pieces of silver,
scattered about the people that delight in war.
So as David wants people to come and worship God,
he says to God at the same time,
Lord, it just can't be absolutely everybody though.
He says, those that come that delight in war,
Lord, can you scatter them?
Lord, we don't want them here, right?
The company of spearmen, people that come to battle.
Lord, we don't want these people in the congregation.
All right?
And I'm not sure what he means
by the bulls and the calves there,
but he goes till everyone submit himself
with pieces of silver.
He says, Lord, the only people that I want
coming to the congregation
are those that are willing to give something of themselves.
Right?
They're not coming to make war.
They're not, look, silver represents
what we can bring to the table.
How we can come to serve God.
It might be financial, praise God, right?
It might be other ways that you can serve God
by helping the preaching, by leading the song leading,
by reading the scriptures, by doing some cleaning,
by preparing some meal.
He goes, Lord, I want the right people
to be in your congregation.
And for those that create conflicts,
those that create arguments,
they're constantly arguing with this brother
and getting into this person's mess and that person's mess.
Can you scatter them?
We don't want them in the congregation.
I mean, look, at the same time,
he says, look, all people, just every nation,
but just, Lord, not the combative people,
not the people that make war.
I've been in church enough to just,
I don't want to fight with my brethren.
I don't want just unnecessary church splits for no,
just some minor issue.
And it boils down to, I want peace in our church.
I know we're not always going to get along,
but brethren, if you have a conflict with someone,
sort it out quickly, or God might scatter you.
God might answer David's prayer
and scatter you from the church.
Please be mindful.
We want to make sure that, hey,
everybody is welcome to a new life at this church.
But if you're coming to cause problems,
if you're coming to create war,
your visions, you're not welcome.
Okay, and I'll be praying that God scatters you
if you're coming to cause damage to this church.
Look, I'm going over time.
Let's turn there anyway.
Mark 11, Mark 11, 15, Mark 11, 15, Mark 11, 15.
So we see David's heart, okay?
The temple, tabernacle, God's house is for all people,
all nations, just not the troublemakers, all right?
And then Mark 11, 15, this is the story
when people are buying and selling the temple,
Christ gets angered, makes a whip,
and drives the money changers, those that sell.
By the way, nothing needs to be sold in this house,
in God's house, okay?
Sometimes someone wonder like,
why does the church pay for this and pay for that?
Because I don't want to sell anything.
I don't want Jesus to be angry at us
and come with a whip and drive us out of here
because we're trying to sell and make a profit.
I'm not trying to sell and make a profit, okay?
But Mark 11, 15, and they come to Jerusalem
and Jesus went into the temple
and began to cast out them that sold
and bought in the temple,
and overthrew the tables of the money changers
and the seats of them that sold doves,
and would not suffer that any man
should carry any vessel through the temple.
And he taught saying unto them, look at this,
these are the words of Christ,
is it not written, my house shall be called, look at this,
of all nations, the house of prayer,
but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Oh, how many people say to you,
Jesus just came for the Jews?
Jesus says, look, the temple is for all nations.
It's a place that all nations can come and pray,
to pray to God.
Is Jesus' heart compatible with Moses' heart here?
Absolutely.
And so when your preacher says,
oh, that was just for the Jews,
look, their heart is not compatible with the heart of Jesus.
I'll tell you now,
it's not compatible with the heart of David.
Okay, but instead, instead of making it for everybody,
every nation, okay,
they made it into a place of profit,
a place to buy and sell, a place of thieves.
But again, I just want to reinforce that
even Jesus confirms what David is saying.
We know this already.
Men will be moved by the Holy Ghost.
These are the words of God.
And again, it's all consistent.
Okay, back to Psalm 68.
Let's end the last few verses quickly.
Psalm 68, verse number 32.
Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth,
we saw that already.
Oh, sing praise unto Lord Selah.
To him that writeth upon the heavens of heavens,
which were of old, lo, he doth send out his voice,
and that a mighty voice.
Ascribe his strength unto God.
His excellency is over Israel,
and his strength is in the clouds.
Oh God, thou art terrible.
I've preached on this recently.
We serve a terrible God, a God that deserves our fear.
Okay, we ought to fear the Lord.
Oh God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places.
The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power
unto his people, blessed be God.
Brethren, God wants to give you strength and power
to his people.
You know, I know I've got the strength of God
because I don't, this is not what I saw myself doing
for my life, behind the pulpit preaching God's word.
I'm like, I can't do that, Lord.
That's not me.
You know, the only reason I can do this is not my strength,
it's God's strength.
His power, his ability, he gives me the ability.
And for those of you that serve God,
it's not your own strength.
God is the one that's gonna equip you
with the power to do these things.
And brethren, when God equips you
and gives you his spiritual gifts, okay,
what are we to do in return?
Blessed be God.
Let's use everything God has given us
to bless him in return.
The title of the sermon once again was blessed be God,
blessed be God.
Okay, let's pray.