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All right, we are here in Psalm chapter 35 and we'll go through the entire chapter here today and we're getting close to the end of the 23 through 41. Once we finish chapter 41, we'll move on to another book. But the name of the sermon is, Who Do You Magnify? Who Do You Magnify? Starting at verse 1, the Bible reads, Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. And see, you hear the psalmist is relying on God to fight his battles. He's saying there are people that are fighting against me, and he's asking God to step in there and fight his battles. Now of course, consistently through the Bible, we should strive to be at peace with people. We should not be starting fights with people. But people will sometimes bring fights and problems to us, and we should ask God to step in and fight those battles. Verse 4, let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that divides my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Now, chaff has a couple of different definitions. And one of the definitions you can find is something that's worthless, something like trash. And the Bible's saying, let them be as chaff before the wind. And of course, most things that are trash are just gonna blow away with the wind. And they're just gonna go and go somewhere else and be destroyed. I mean, think about sweeping up your house. You got a lot of trash that's really small. If it's right before the wind, it's just gonna blow away, right? The Bible's saying, let that be with the people that are bad people, and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them. Now, what does the Bible mean by dark and slippery? Well, when you think of slippery, what is more slippery than ice, right? Let's say you have a piece of ice and all of a sudden it starts to melt and it's in your hand, it's slipping all over the place. Who here has ever been ice skating before? A couple of people, not many, people are, hey, I love ice skating. And people are like, no, me, it's like ice skating's great, right? But ice skating is hard enough on ice skates, right? It's hard enough even with skates designed to skate on ice, right? Ice skates are designed to skate on ice are actually a lot easier to use than hockey skates. They're designed to work when you're trying to go around the rink. Imagine if you had shoes like this and you're trying to go around the rink. Just normal shoes or dress shoes and you're trying to walk on the ice around the entire rink. You're gonna slip, you're gonna fall, it's gonna be a disaster. You're gonna end up crawling your way around the entire rink, right? Because it's very difficult. Now I grew up in West Virginia in the United States and during the winter time you have a lot of snow. I'm sure right now there's a lot of snow in West Virginia and Pennsylvania where I grew up. And you know what, when you have snow, you oftentimes have ice. And when there's ice on the ground, it is very difficult to walk on ice. It's very dangerous. It's very slippery, as the Bible says. And if you're walking on ice and you have nothing to grab a hold of, you're liable to slip. It's a very dangerous thing. Walking up steps when there's ice on them, it's a very dangerous thing. You're grabbing a hold of the railing and being very careful. Walking into church, it can be a dangerous thing actually with the ice and everything. Well, the Bible's saying for these bad people, let their way be dark and slippery. Now it's hard enough when it's slippery, but what about when it's dark, right? I remember going into evening church service on Sundays in West Virginia when it's in the winter time and it's icy and it's dark and you can't necessarily see everywhere you're going. It's very dangerous. What you normally do is you try to walk through the snow, because if you walk through the part that's icy, you're liable to fall. With the snow, it's not as bad. It's a very dangerous thing. Driving during that temperature when there's ice in the ground, very dangerous thing. And the Bible's saying, you know what, the people that are bad people, let their way be dark and slippery. Let them just kind of be going about their business and then all of a sudden they slip on ice and get destroyed in the dark where they can't see where they're going. And the Bible's saying for these bad people, let their way be dark and slippery. Right? You say, Brother Stuckey, why would the Bible say that? Because there's bad people in this world. And people that are bad people, they're not gonna change. I'm not saying people that are sinners because, right, ma casa la nantayo, we all sin. But what I'm saying is people that are just bad people, they're a bad apple, they're a child of the devil, what can we wish for those people? That their way be dark and slippery? That they get destroyed? Because otherwise they're gonna destroy good people and normal people if they don't get destroyed. Verse number seven. For without cause have they hid from me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. What is it saying here in verse seven? Well, the psalmist is saying, I have done nothing to deserve this. And yet, they put a net out in a pit and they're trying to trap me. Basically, they're trying to put out a trap to destroy me and catch me and mess up my life. And he said, I've done nothing wrong. I've done nothing to deserve this. It's like, for example, you're trying to catch a mouse in your house, right? And you'll put out a trap, you'll change the location, you'll try to change the bait, right? I found peanut butter to be very effective to catch them, but you try to trick them and catch them, right? And the Bible's saying that, you know what? There's people that would try to destroy believers and they'd try to put a trap in your way. Now, this is probably not gonna be a literal physical trap to physically destroy you, but they'll basically get you to say something that you'll regret, they'll basically try to turn people against you. They're gonna lay a trap for you and try to get you to fall in that trap to take advantage of you. There are people like this in this world. The Bible says this, let destruction come upon him at unawares and let his net that he hath hid catch himself. And at that very destruction, let him fall. And the Psalmist is saying, hey, these people that are putting a net to trap me, help them kind of get trapped themselves. Right, let's say for example, I put a special trap here where this looks normal and you step on it and you crash to the ground or whatever. Basically, let that person kind of forgot that they laid a trap and just accidentally, whoop, they get caught themselves, right? Now go to Esther chapter seven. Esther seven. Esther chapter seven. Esther chapter seven. You say, Brother Stuckey, it's hard to believe that people like this exist, and yet they do exist. There are people that are bad people that will cause destruction. You say, Brother Stuckey, wouldn't it be very obvious that they're trying to destroy you or whatever? No, because they're secretly laying a net to trap you. It's not done obviously. Look, if someone's a bad person, they're not going to be like, I'm a bad person by the way. They're going to do it secretly. It's just logical, it's common sense. Somebody doesn't tell you beforehand, I mean, look, somebody's going into the bank planning to rob it and they're at the front. They don't tell the security guard, by the way, I'm going to rob the bank, right? They do it secretly. They do it quietly. They hide their weapon. It's common sense. And people that are bad people, they're going to do the same thing. Quietly, secretly, they're not going to be obvious. And so you're not going to necessarily have evidence right here, two plus three equals five. No, it's going to be very quietly and secretly, but don't be naive. It does exist. There are people like this. It says in Esther 7 verse 10, so they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified. So notice this, Haman, if you know the story of Esther, he hates Mordecai. And he hates Mordecai because Mordecai will not bow down and worship him. Everybody else is willing to bow down and worship Haman. Mordecai's unwilling to do that because obviously Mordecai's a believer. When somebody bowed before Peter, Peter said, stand up, I myself also am a man. Bowing down before a man and worshiping them is a wicked thing to do. Now, of course, here in the Philippines, Catholicism is a primary religion and people think it's normal to bow before a pope. It's not normal. And look, if the pope was actually a godly person, he'd say, stand up, I myself also am a man like Peter did in the Bible. Right, you don't bow before a man, you don't bow before a statue, it's wrong. And Mordecai refuses to do this. Now, people would probably look at Mordecai when he lived back then. Mordecai, why are you always causing so much division? Why can't you just be more peaceful, just do what everybody else is doing? Well, the principle in the Bible is that purity comes before peace. You don't sacrifice purity and righteousness in order to have peace. We should have peace if it is possible, but you don't destroy your principles for the sake of having peace. And I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself because in the coming weeks, the false philosophy of world peace will be one of the sermons. But throughout the Bible, purity comes before peace. Righteousness comes before peace. And so Mordecai refuses to bow down. And of course, if he had just bowed down, there would be no problems. Haman wouldn't try to kill him, but Mordecai won't do it. But what's great about this story is Haman plans a destruction to Mordecai. And Haman gets hanged on the gallows that he prepared for Mordecai, right? He ends up getting hanged. He ends up getting killed. The same method he was trying to use to Mordecai. Now turn to Psalm 35. And of course, this used to be a more common method of execution, like a hanging, right? What is it, pug b, big t, is that the word for hanging? Used to be a more common method of execution in the past. And, but Haman basically does this for Mordecai. Basically, it's a way of sort of shaming him before everybody. Everybody's gonna see that dead body. And he's like, I'm gonna make him look like a fool. And then Mordecai ends up getting, or Haman gets caught himself by the gallows that he had prepared. Now let me just say this, that I've experienced this sort of thing in my life of people that try to lay a trap for you and a net for you and try to get you in trouble and everything. And you know what? The example I have is within church. Not within this church or our church, but we've experienced it in Manila where people try to turn people against us to the leadership. And basically tried to manipulate and lie and turn people against us. I don't have any good feelings about those people. I'm glad they're kicked out, and I have nothing nice to say about them, right? Because what you did is you tried to lay a trap to make me look bad and lie about me, and then all of a sudden everybody at our church in Manila, if you asked them, they'd say, yeah, we're glad those people are gone. They caused all these problems, and they were trying to turn people against us and try to split that church. And look, when you're part of a good church, the last thing we want at this church is someone to split our church. I mean, when everything goes bad in our lives and everything's difficult, you know what, our church, I mean, this is very important to all of us. We come here, we fellowship together, this is our church family, we care about one another. I'd be very angry if somebody tried to come here and try to split our church. Try to cause problems and turn people against other people. I mean, church is our lives. Serving God, coming to church, worshiping together. And it's just like, this is what our life is about, coming together, meeting together with God's people. Because honestly, our physical and earthly families, sometimes they might turn against us cuz they believe different things. But our church family, we're united together as one, it's a very important thing. And see, Haman planned to destroy Mordecai, he gets caught himself. Psalm 35, verse 9, Psalm 35, verse 9. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee? Which delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him. Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him. And it talks about people that are not strong enough to defend themselves. And I don't believe it's talking about strength necessarily as in like your muscle, but it's more referring to your power and ability to protect yourself and things like that. And you know what, the truth is that none of us on an individual level are strong enough to defend ourselves against a government or things such as that. I mean, we're poor, we're needy, we need God. In 2022, we need God, right? I mean, none of us are powerful enough, none of us are King Nebuchadnezzar. Right, you look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And look, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were respected people until they refused to bow down to the idol. Daniel was a very high and powerful person, but he wasn't King Nebuchadnezzar. He wasn't Darius, he wasn't the top dog. And we as people, we're not at the level of them, right? We're nothing in the grand scheme of things. None of us have a position where we're high up in politics or authority. We are poor and needy in 2022, you know what we need? We need the Lord to protect us, right? We need to have a prayer meeting, right? And pray that God's gonna protect us and help us because there's people that would wanna destroy us. It's like we're not doing anything, we're just trying to go about our lives, but that's just the world we live in. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. So the Bible in verse 11 tells us there could be false witnesses, people that are liars, right? They are liars, and they lie about you, and they say things. I saw so and so do this, right? With my own two eyes, I saw Miguel rob 7-Eleven. And then there's several witnesses. We saw it, it's like, all right, guilty. It's like, what? I haven't even done anything, right? I was at home, right? I didn't rob 7-Eleven, right? But false witnesses, they'll bring to lie. And look, there are always gonna be people willing to lie. Whether it be for money, whether it be because they're afraid for their own safety or whatever. People will be willing to be false witnesses, to rise up. And how do you defend yourself against false witnesses? I mean, if five people came and said, I saw Brother Stuckey do this. It's my word against five, who are people gonna believe, the five, right? I mean, it's just common sense. And there will be people that will be false witnesses sometimes. And what it says, which is interesting, they laid to my charge things that I knew not. So the psalmist is saying, I wasn't even aware that people were lying about me. I wasn't even aware that people were saying anything about me. It's like making a net where nobody sees it. And this is the danger with gossip. Because when people gossip about you, you're not aware of it, right? Now, I don't know about people at our church gossiping about me, but that's the nature of gossip. If anyone is, I have no idea. And of course, when it comes to gossip, half the time it's not even true. But people tend to believe gossip, right? Like if somebody came to me and said, Brother Stuckey, you know what? I heard this. My natural reaction as a human being is, they're probably telling the truth. That's your natural reaction when you hear something, right? We tend to believe things when we hear them, especially if there's multiple people that are false witnesses or being dishonest or misleading. And the psalmist is saying, I wasn't even aware that people were saying this. Now, go to Jude chapter one, Jude one, Jude one, Jude one. And what we're referencing is people that are bad people. The Bible gives us various character traits about bad people. Obviously, the Bible says their conscience and mind is defiled. They have no conscience. It's been seared with a hot iron. But it also says about people like this in Jude one verse 19, these be they who separate themselves, sensual having not the spirit. So what it says in Jude one verse 19 is people that are like this, they separate themselves. You say, what does that mean, Brother Stuckey? Look, if somebody was a bad person and they're trying to be a false witness or lie about someone or lay a net and cause destruction, they're not just gonna openly say amongst everybody in church, by the way, so and so did this, they're gonna separate themselves and just individually tell people that is how they spread it. They individually talk to one person or a group of people and then the other people aren't even aware of it. That's the way it works, right? That is their method because they don't wanna get caught. They don't wanna just be open and say, look, if someone was a bad person at our church and they came here, they're not just gonna openly say everything just in front of everybody. What they're gonna do is separate themselves. And so here's the thing, if somebody's always trying to talk to you privately and give you gossip and they don't wanna tell other people, that ought to be a red flag in your mind. It doesn't mean they are a bad person, but it certainly means that what they're doing is a wicked thing. Now, what's the reaction that you should have if somebody comes to you with cheese meats? Well, here's your reaction. If somebody comes to you with cheese meats and says, I saw Miggs rob a 7-Eleven, right, or I heard Miggs rob the 7-Eleven, I'm not starting any rumors, okay? As far as I know, this isn't true, right? Somebody told me, but no, I'm just kidding. But if somebody comes to you, it's like, well, let's just go and talk to Miggs about this instead of just talking behind his back. Or somebody says something about Brother Francis, like, well, let's just go and talk to him about it then. Instead of this gossip that's not out in the open, because everybody has this idea, well, I don't wanna do it before their face, but you're willing to do it behind their back? And then they're not aware of it? That's worse, cuz at least they'd be aware of it if you set it in front of their face. But what happens is the cheese meat spreads and people aren't aware of it, right? The Bible says this is a wicked thing, and separating yourselves to spread gossip is a very evil thing to do. Go to Psalm 35, Psalm 35, Psalm 35. Now this does not mean that everybody who does this is an evil person, but you're involved in an evil thing if you're spreading gossip behind people's backs and saying things about them. Now there would be some people, and see, here's the thing about this. Let's say there's a bad person. This is kind of an idea of how they operate. What they do is they start a fire, symbolically speaking. They start the match, and they walk away. And then, of course, 30 minutes later, there's a huge fire, right? For example, if you see a fire that's just out of control, it started from something small. And usually, we don't know what started it. Could have been a match, somebody smoked a cigarette, could have been whatever, right, that started that, nobody has any idea. Well, what they will do is oftentimes start a fire and just kind of step back from it and watch people argue. Nobody will ever suspect them because they weren't involved in the situation, because nobody saw it, right? They just started it, and then they just kind of walked away, right? That is what they do, but this is why it makes it so difficult. You say, well, how do you defend yourself against this sort of stuff? Well, we all need to be living godly lives. And if you're living a godly life, you're not going to want to be involved in gossip, right? Notice what it says in Psalm 35 verse 12. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. And what the psalmist is saying is, I did them good, I didn't do anything evil to them, and instead, they gave me back evil in return. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. So what he's saying is, when those people were sick that were bad people and I wasn't aware of it, when they were sick, I was wearing sackcloth in mourning. I was praying for them, I was crying for them, I was worried about them. When they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting. He's saying, you know what, I went on a fast. Somebody was sick and they were worried for their health. I went on a fast to pray for them and care about them. And my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself wisely as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. Bowing down would be like bowing down before God and praying to God. He's saying, you know what, I prayed for them and cared for them. I looked at them as being my friend or at least my spiritual brother that I really liked and cared about. But in my adversity, they rejoiced. So he says, when they were doing bad, I prayed for them. When I went through trouble, they're like celebrating, right? They're excited that things are happening to me and I'm having problems. And gathered themselves together, so all these people gather themselves together against someone who's going through difficult times. Gay the abjects gathered themselves together against me and I knew it not. They did tear me and cease not. And he says once again, I knew it not. I was not aware of them gathering together against me. So when he's saying gather together, he's not saying a bunch of people in person gathered around him. He's saying they gathered together as in when he's doing bad, people are just spreading gossip and criticizing and making up all these allegations and stuff like that. That is how they're gathering together against him and I knew it not. It's like I'm going through a difficult time. I had no idea that people were criticizing me and railing against me and making all these false accusations. And let me just say this, when you spread gossip, it is a very wicked thing to do because if you spread things that are false, that's what's called railing, right? And look, that is a sin in 1 Corinthians 5 that could end up getting you kicked out of church. But what I'm saying is if you're always involved in gossip, I promise you, a lot of what you're spreading is going to be false information, whether you realize it or not. And what's frustrating about gossip is you see people that are involved in gossip, and then all of a sudden the information comes out and they weren't quite accurate in what they said. And then they'll kind of try to back away and say, well, I'm sorry, I got that part wrong. It's like, well, that's a big thing to get wrong, right? I mean, if you're involved in information and you spread false information and it comes back and you're a little bit off on what you said, that's a big issue. And that's what's called railing, which can eventually get you kicked out of church. I mean, it's a big thing to spread false information and ask yourself this question. Do you want people to spread information about you? I mean, you hear something about someone and then you just go and spread it. You hear some cheese mes, I heard so and so did this. And you can't verify it, you don't know for sure it's true. Number one, is there a purpose to spread it to begin with, even if it is true? You have to ask yourself that question. But then when you spread that information and then it turns out it's false, that's a major, major issue because that's what's known as railing. Now, it's not a common thing that people get kicked out of churches for, but it is something that happens. And if it comes down to the same person always spreading false information, which leads to wars and fightings and problems and church splits and things like that, it becomes a major issue. Now, I can say this, that we've never had somebody specifically kicked out of church for the issue of railing. But there was somebody I talked to in Manila about this issue of railing, and I said, hey, you know what, you've been involved in a lot of false information you've been spreading. Now, they ended up getting kicked out of church for something else, a while down the road. But it's just like, it's a major issue to rail, spreading false information, because it causes a lot of problems and fights at church. Now, at the end of the day, is there, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love. So let's say it is true, when you find out something about someone, does everybody need to know that? It's like, I saw so and so smoking a cigarette. Why are you telling me? Right? It's like, why are you telling me about that? Do I need to know that? I saw so and so listening to rock music. Okay, why are you telling me? Right, I don't need to know that. Nobody needs to know that. I mean, if you catch somebody at a church, I mean, unless it's a major sin that we need to go to the police, or something major for them to be kicked out of church. If you catch somebody at our church doing something worldly or sinful, you don't need to tell other people at church about it. You know, it's like, I notice that so and so, it's like you don't need to spread that information. You're gossiping about them, there's no purpose of doing it. Where are we? Psalm 35, Psalm 35, verse 15. But in mine adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me, and ceased not. Verse 16. With hypocritical mockers and feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. So hypocritical mockers, and these people are basically hypocrites, and then they're mocking people. And they're using that opportunity to basically, when someone's down on their luck, to basically gnash on them with their teeth. So this expression, gnashing upon them with their teeth, some people get confused, like in Acts 7 it talks about how they gnashed upon Stephen, and I've heard a priest before like they were like, gnashing upon them. It's not referring to zombies or vampires or something weird like that. When it says gnashed upon them with their teeth, they're basically mocking and criticizing. They're not even aware of it. It's not something they're even, this person's even aware of, the psalmist. But it's not saying they gnashed on him like, like biting, like a zombie movie or something like that. And verse 17, Lord, how long wilt thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling, from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. And the psalmist says, you know what, I'm gonna give thanks to God in the great congregation. You know, amongst the people of the Lord. I'll give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me. Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Go to Esther chapter three, Esther three, Esther three. And what it says is they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land, and who is someone who's quiet in the land? Someone who's just trying to go about their business and not doing anything. They're just kind of going to church, going to work, trying to go about their lives, they're just kind of quiet in the land, not causing any problems. And yet there's people that devise deceitful matters against them. And look, this is something that takes place in 2022, when you try to be peaceful and quiet in the land, right? I mean, hopefully that's all of our goals, right? We just wanna go to work, come to church, be able to freely serve God and go about our lives, be quiet in the land, not trying to cause any problems. And yet sometimes when you do that, you can actually have battles come to you. Esther chapter three, verse two, Esther three, verse two. And all the king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed in reverence Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. Then the king's servants which were in the king's gate said unto Mordecai, why transgress this thou the king's commandment? So here in Esther chapter three, we see that Mordecai's just trying to go about his business, he's not trying to cause any problems. But the commandment is everybody must bow down before Haman. Everybody else does it because they don't wanna get in trouble, right? And then all of a sudden Mordecai doesn't do it, and what ends up taking place is other people end up criticizing Mordecai. And basically the attitude of the average person is, if I had to bow down before Mordecai, or before Haman, I'm gonna make sure that everybody else has to also. I shouldn't have to be the only one who has to do this, and then they try to force Mordecai to do it because they had to do it. And what you have to realize is this, there's a lot of people that bow down before Haman. There's gonna be a crowd of people. Haman wouldn't have even noticed if Mordecai didn't bow down before. He's not even gonna notice, cuz he's just kinda going down and everybody, whenever Haman's walking, everyone's just kinda bowing down and everything, Haman's not even gonna notice this. And the only reason why he even notices this is because people basically that are bowing down make it a point to make it a big issue. And what it said in verse three, they're asking Mordecai why transgresses thou the king's commandment? And look, transgression is when you basically break God's law. But they're basically saying, Mordecai, why are you sinning? Why won't you just obey what the king said and bow down before Haman, right? This is something where it would actually clearly be a sin to bow down before Haman, because Haman is not God. Verse four, now it came to pass when they spake daily onto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman. So here's the thing, Mordecai's not bowing down before Haman, and it doesn't really affect him. Nothing's happening. However, other people that are bowing down before Haman, they see this over and over again. Mordecai refuses to go with the flow and do what everyone else is doing, and then they turn Mordecai into Haman. It's like, hey, Haman, this guy Mordecai isn't bowing down before you. Now, why would somebody do something like that? Well, because they want to get credit from Haman, who's very powerful. You tell Haman, who's basically high up, maybe you get a raise, maybe you get some money, maybe you get a bonus. So basically, they end up telling Haman about it. And notice this, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for he had told them and he was a Jew. Verse 5, and when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not. So ask yourself this question, did Haman notice that Mordecai was not bowing? Not until people actually told Haman, right? People turned him in. And this is generally the way it would be if you go about your life. People aren't gonna notice. If this sort of law came in where you had to bow down before somebody, people would not notice if you didn't bow down, right? I mean, the person probably wouldn't notice it. You'd be able to get away with it. And yet, some people saw that he didn't bow down. And even though he would have never gotten caught, they ended up turning him in, right? And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And so Haman ends up being very angry because Mordecai won't bow down. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had showed him the people of Mordecai. Wherefore, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. Now go back to Psalm 35. Psalm 35, Psalm 35. So the whole situation with Haman and Mordecai, it starts because people that are just everyday people like Mordecai, they notice that Mordecai doesn't bow down. Or maybe they notice that Mordecai was very religious, right? In today's world, if you read the Bible at your job, you're gonna stand out, right? I'm sure the same thing was true back then too. I mean, if you read the Bible during that time period, you probably stood out. And so all of a sudden, people knew that Mordecai, and they probably figured Mordecai's this religious guy. He's not gonna go along with what everyone says. And you know what? People like that, like Mordecai that are serving God, they're gonna have people that are envious and mad at them, right? I mean, he's the one who goes against the grain, and doesn't follow the general rules. Well, the same thing is true to us today. If you don't go along with the program of what everyone says, people can get mad at you because you're not doing like them, right? The Bible's timeless. I mean, it applies to all time periods, all generations. Psalm 35, let's go back here, Psalm 35, verse 21. Psalm 35, verse 21. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. So what you're seeing is this, they lay a trap for the psalmist. They try to get him in trouble. They try to catch him in his words and things like that. And here's the thing, they are looking at the psalmist to find a problem, right? They're waiting for the psalmist to do something. Our eye hath seen it, right? Well, let me just be honest that if somebody looks at you 24-7 at everything you do, they're actually gonna find you make mistakes because we're not sinless. And not only that, they're gonna catch you doing things where you can get in trouble, and this is what they're doing. They're trying to lay a trap and put them in a bad situation where there's basically no way out of it, right? Where there's nothing you can do, you're gonna get caught. You're either gonna have to sin against your conscience, or you're gonna get caught doing something where you can get in trouble. And they are waiting for the psalmist to mess up or do something where they can say, all right, I have seen it. We're witnesses, this person committed this sin, or they did this, they went against this rule. And look, if you're serving God, you're going to have people that are trying to get you to mess up. And they're waiting for you to mess up. It's just reality. They wanna see you mess up. They wanna see you do something where they can get you in trouble. As a saved person, you need to live above reproach and be blameless. Now, none of us are sinless, we understand that. And obviously, at all times of the day, we should be seeking to serve God and do right. You especially need to be careful when you're around other people that are not of like faith and are against your beliefs, because they're waiting for you to mess up, right? If you're the religious person at your office, the people at your office, there are gonna be people that are waiting for you to mess up. They're waiting for you to screw up. They're waiting to be able to criticize you. It's like, I caught you listening to this music, right? And it's like they're trying to catch you and get you in trouble, okay? Verse 22, This thou hast seen, O Lord. Keep not silence, O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord, my God, according to my righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. What the psalmist says is, God, judge me and plead my cause according to my righteousness. Basically saying, you know what, I've tried to obey you, God. I've tried to do what's right. And I'm asking you to judge and help me in this situation because I'm innocent. I haven't done anything where basically I should be getting in trouble. And look, if you're serving God, you could say, hey God, judge me. And assuming that you declare me innocent, step in and help me in this situation. Now here's the thing, though. If you're living a sinful life, could you really ask God to judge you? Right, we sing that song in our hymnal where it's like, search me, O God, and know my heart today. Well, if you're saying, search me, O God, you're asking God to judge you and look at your life. And of course, that's a question for all of us. Could you say that here today? God, search me, right? Judge me. Look at my life. Am I innocent, right? Verse 25, let them not say in their hearts, so would we have it. Let them not say we have swallowed them up. Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yet, yea, let them say continually, let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and thy praise all the day long. Now, go with me quickly to John 3, and we'll close up. And what it said in verse 26 was, the people that magnify themselves against me. And what it said, though, in verse 27 is, let the Lord be magnified. So a saved person should be saying, let the Lord be magnified. Whereas with the unsaved world and the bad people, they're gonna basically be trying to magnify themselves. So when you're saying, let the Lord be magnified, what you're basically saying is, let God be lifted up. Let God be brought high, right? The way we live our lives, we should humble ourselves and lift the Lord up. Don't think too highly of yourself. John 3, let me give you an example of the opposite. John 3 verse 33, he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. Now what it says here in John 3 verse 33 of receiving his testimony, it's talking about receiving the testimony of the Lord. And the Bible says when we receive the testimony of the Lord, we've set to our seal God is true, meaning we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of truth, okay? We've set to our seal that God is true. Verse 34, for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on. So when it comes to our salvation, we get saved by believing on the Son. That's how we get saved. We receive the testimony of the Lord. And when we're preaching the gospel, what we're doing or should be doing is lifting up the Lord. That Jesus Christ died and paid for all of our sins. That we are sinners that don't deserve to go to heaven. We're trying to magnify the Lord, right? And yet you have repentance preachers who basically do the exact opposite. So that's the question here today, who do you magnify? Because repentance preachers would stand up and say, I've repented of all my sins. I've given my life to God. I don't have a desire to do wrong. I read my Bible every day. Well, you're lifting yourself up. You're not magnifying the Lord. Now when it comes to soul winning, look, we have literally nothing to do with a person gets saved other than the fact that we give them the gospel, right? Your personal testimony, it means nothing to a person getting saved. They get saved by believing on Jesus Christ, right? Your personal testimony means nothing. You say, wow, brother Stuckey, I used to drink and I quit drinking. Hey, that's great, but what does that have to do with the gospel? Number one, it has nothing to do with your salvation. And number two, it certainly has nothing to do with somebody else's salvation. You quitting drinking, even if repentance of sins was true for salvation, how does that help somebody else? That's just what you did, right? But you saying, hey, I used to do this and now I don't anymore. What you're doing is magnifying yourself. That's what the repentance of sins gospel does. It lifts up the individual person and they magnify themselves. I used to do this and then I gave my life to God and now I'm serving God and doing right. Number one, I don't believe that's true. And number two, that's not salvation. Salvation is magnifying the Lord, right? Now look, us that are in this room, as far as I know, the people that are in this room, we're saved, we believe on Jesus Christ. We're trusting in him for our salvation. Here's the thing, you didn't get saved by magnifying yourself. You got saved by magnifying the Lord. As you go about your life, your job is not to magnify or lift up yourself. Magnify the Lord. And if you're magnifying the Lord in your life, then you can accurately say, God, judge me, plead my cause, and fight for me. Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word in this topic. And I ask you to help all of us to spin our lives, not magnifying ourselves, but magnifying you. And we ask you to help us against people that would fight against us and harm us, God. We just pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.