(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, we're here in Psalm chapter 36, and as I mentioned, we'll take a break from the book of Psalms after this sermon. Starting next week, we'll move on. But the name of the sermon in Psalm 36 is The Devices of the Wicked. The Devices of the Wicked. And starting in verse number one, the Bible reads, The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. It's saying there, the transgression of the wicked, or the sins of the wicked, or the bad things these bad people are doing, what it says within my heart is that they don't fear God. Right? When people are committing a lot of sins, what it shows us is they don't fear God. Right? I mean, if somebody were to commit a terrible sin, like murder, then obviously they don't fear God, because if they feared God, they wouldn't commit that sin. Right? And so the transgression of the wicked says within our hearts that there's no fear of God. Look, when I look at this country today, and I see all the wickedness that's taking place, what I would say is, by and large, this country does not fear God. Right? It's probably a true statement for any country in the world today, but when you look at the sin that's taking place, they can claim they fear God. They can claim they love God, but their actions would prove otherwise. Verse two, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes. So it speaks about a bad person who flatters himself, builds himself up, lifts himself up, and he makes himself look good until his iniquity be found to be hateful. So what it's describing is people that will lift themselves up and make themselves look good, oftentimes by tearing down other people, until people can actually notice it. And then they'll stop doing it. Right? People pridefully lift themselves up and make themselves look good, but when they sense that people can tell that they're arrogant, then they'll just basically stop it. Right? They suddenly lift themselves up until people realize what they're doing. Right? Until his iniquity be found to be hateful. Verse three, the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. So what the Bible's saying is when you see people that are prideful and that lift themselves up and that basically make themselves look good, it says the words that come from their mouth are actually iniquity and deceit. Basically, don't trust the things you do hear them say. Look, if you meet someone that is just very prideful and it's very obvious, don't trust the things coming out of their mouth. You say, why? Because they're probably filled full of deceit. You probably cannot trust it. The person that lifts themselves up, don't trust the things that are coming out of their mouth. Why? Because they want to say things in order to make themselves look good. Common sense. If someone's going to lift themselves up and they want to be really well liked and well respected and above everybody, you know what? It shouldn't be shocking. They'd be willing to lie in order to do that. Right? So the Bible describes this sort of person in verse three, and it says, he hath left off to be wise and to do good. Verse four, he deviseth mischief upon his bed. He seteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhorreth not evil. The Bible speaks about this person and it says he deviseth mischief upon his bed. Now, the word mischief in the Bible is always linked with death and sometimes with murder, but it's linked with death. For example, the Bible talks about a woman who, like if mischief follows, referring to having a miscarriage, losing the baby, but mischief is linked with death. You'll see mischief linked with murder, with any kind of death. So the way the Bible uses the word mischief is not like we use the word today. So it's linked to death and destruction, because death and destruction are synonyms that are sometimes used interchangeably. Well, the Bible describes about these bad people that on their bed, they devise destruction. They devise death. They devise causing a lot of problems. Right? Now, when it says upon his bed what it's referring to as somebody who basically, they go to bed at night and before they go to sleep, they're thinking about, how can I cause destruction? Because you know what? It depends on, you know, how your day's been, but oftentimes, you know, you go to sleep, but you don't fall asleep immediately. And you're kind of alone with your thoughts for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and you think about various different things. Right? Now, obviously, a good thing to think about would be asking God for forgiveness for what you've done wrong and just kind of meditating, how can I make changes? But you know, you're alone with your thoughts at night. Well, what the Bible says is with bad people, what they think about is, how can I cause destruction tomorrow? How can I destroy people? Upon their bed, they devise mischief. Now, what does it mean to devise? Devise means to plan or invent by careful thought. And it says a complex procedure, system, or mechanism. So if you devise a plan, it's going to be probably a well-thought-out, complicated plan. Right? They devise mischief. Mischief, by definition, I've got the Mokkelumong definition here, is harm or trouble caused by someone or something. Now, in the Bible, it's more linked to death, but harm is a synonym. It's pretty close. And so it says they devise mischief upon their bed. Now, go to Proverbs 4, Proverbs 4. And then you've got a word that is a different part of speech, but it's linked with it. Instead of devise, you have the word device. And device is basically something that a thing made or adapted for a particular purpose, especially a piece of mechanical or electronic equipment, or a plan, method, or trick with a particular aim. So basically, people will devise devices. The device is something you use to carry something out, right? So Proverbs 4, verse 16, and notice what it says here. And I would say that Proverbs 4, verse 16 is perhaps the most chilling verse in the entire Bible, where it's hard to believe. It says, for they sleep not, except they have done mischief. And their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. The Bible speaks about people that cannot fall asleep at night unless they've caused harm, unless they've caused a destruction. Now, these are the sorts of verses in the Bible that you wouldn't even be able to believe unless the Bible said it, right? That they literally, they cannot sleep unless they cause harm. It's funny because it's the opposite for us that are trying to serve God, or even just a normal person. If we have a guilty conscience, it's hard to sleep at night. You're like, God, please forgive me. I messed up. Please help me make changes. And then you have trouble sleeping at night because of the guilty conscience. For them, it's the opposite. They can't sleep unless they've caused harm. So what do they do? Well, they just sit at night, and they're just thinking, how can I cause destruction? And if they're unsuccessful with causing destruction, then basically they're not going to be able to sleep. That's what the Bible says. If you take the Bible literally, that is what the Bible says. Now, you think of people that are, let's say, serial killers. Serial killers are perhaps the most evil people you could possibly think of in terms of the harm they inflict. And most serial killers, they kill like seven people in their life if they're very successful. I don't know what word to use besides successful. I don't want to say successful like it's a good thing, but if they can kill a lot of people, they make it up to less than double digits usually. It's very rare for a serial killer to reach a lot of people. But I don't think it's just random they happen to just kill someone. I literally think at night they plan out destruction of harming people. And they really come up with plans of how to do it. And so it is true that serial killers, it's known that sometimes it's an impulse kill or whatever, but they basically are planning out how to cause destruction so they don't get caught. And the reason why is they want to be able to cause a lot of destruction so they don't want to get caught and thrown in jail or whatever. They literally can't sleep unless they can come up with a plan, unless they cause destruction. That's what the Bible says. Now turn to Proverbs 6, Proverbs chapter 6, Proverbs 6. There's some things in the Bible that you're just not really going to believe unless you just read the Bible and believe it. I mean, it's hard to comprehend that there are people like this, but this is what the Bible teaches. And look, it's not just the world looks at people that are serial killers, like these terrible psychopaths, but you know, most people that are psychopaths are not serial killers. They don't kill a lot of people. And yet people like this can exist in church where they basically only care about themselves and they try to destroy other people because they only care about themselves. Proverbs chapter 6, verse 6. Now in Proverbs 6, I don't believe this is only referring to reprobates, but I want to make it very clear here by cross-referencing that this portion in Proverbs 6 can certainly be oftentimes associated with someone who is a reprobate. Proverbs 6, verse 6, go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide overseer or ruler provideeth her meat in the summer, and gathered her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth, and thy want as an armed man. So these verses are very famous and it talks about basically the person that's lazy, right? The person that's just not willing to work, not doing anything, not arising out of their sleep, so they don't have any food to eat, right? It's like the old story of the grasshopper and the ant. The ants are working hard, the grasshopper's goofing off and everything, then it comes in the wintertime and the grasshopper's like, I don't have any food, right? Whenever people say stories like this, it tells you they have kids, right? They know these stories, grasshopper and the ants, but it comes actually from Proverbs chapter 6. That's where they're getting it from. And so it says in verse 11, their poverty will come as one that travelth. Basically someone is just traveling around, bouncing around everywhere, and they want as an armed man. An armed man is referring to basically taking up arms, taking up weapons, and basically say they're going to be like a robber that's robbing people at gunpoint or at knife point with a weapon, right? That's pretty extreme to steal and threaten somebody's life in the process. Now here's the thing, it is possible for a person who's not a reprobate to do something evil like this, right? But if somebody is robbing people at knife point and at gunpoint, of course there's a higher percentage of chance that they are a bad person because these are some pretty evil things they're doing. The Bible says the lazy person can come to the point where they're doing something like that. Verse 12, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teaches with his fingers. This is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth discord. So look, it's not that someone who's lazy is always going to be a reprobate or Proverbs 6 can only be applied to it, but it's not a coincidence that it moves on to the wicked person that devises mischief because what the Bible's trying to show you is somebody like this who is not willing to work and then steals from other people and robs them, they're more likely to be the person who's devising mischief upon their bed. They're more likely to be someone who doesn't have a conscience. Is it possible for say people to just be lazy and not work and then be dishonest for their gain taken from other people? Yes, that is possible. However, I don't believe these verses are randomly put in the Bible, right? We don't believe that this book just randomly has verses. There's just these one-liners, like the grass is always greener on the other side, now let's just move on to something completely unrelated. It doesn't work that way. Just like we have conversations and you transition to something else, or if you write a book, when you read books, even outside of the Bible, if somebody's a good author, they transition to something. They don't just talk about something completely unrelated, you transition to something. That's just the way it works, okay? Well, it's the same thing with the way the Bible's written. It talks about the lazy person, then the person devising mischief, talking about the person who's reprobate. What a shock, they sow discord. They cause problems. And the Bible speaks about the person sowing discord as being the person who's marked and shamed and kicked out of a church, right? Verse 15, therefore shall his calamity come suddenly, suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. He six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, and a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. Talks about sowing discord again in verse 19 like it did in verse 14. Now is it possible for a saved person to have a proud look? Yes. However, a person who walks around with a proud look is more likely to be someone who's a reprobate than someone who doesn't. You often think of politicians, right, where there's just a proud look upon them. You just see a picture and you look at them, you say, that person has a proud look, right? Or how about someone who has a lying tongue? Is it possible for a saved person to tell lies? Of course. No. But if someone is always lying, it could be that they're of their father the devil who was a liar from the beginning and abode not in the truth. Is it possible for a saved person to shed innocent blood to murder someone? It is possible for a saved person to murder someone, however, if it turns out that you've murdered someone, you know what, in the back of my mind I might be thinking, it's possible this person's a reprobate. Say why? It's a very grievous sin, right? It is possible you're a saved person that did a wicked sin, but at the same time if you shed innocent blood, I would say, well, there's a chance they're a reprobate. That's a pretty bad sin. If you kill someone and you don't even feel guilty about it, it's like, what in the world's wrong with you? Right? What I'm saying is the Bible's not written just accidentally or coincidentally, obviously these things are linked together. It talks about devising mischief and it links it with someone who's a lazy person. Now people that are reprobates are lazy people, that's what the Bible says, they're lazy people and they basically will steal from other people that are doing the work. Now what they'll often do is pretend to be hard workers when they're not and they just put on a show because they're flattering themselves, they make themselves look good, but it's all an act, it's all fake. Go to Esther chapter 8, Esther 8, I'll give you an example of someone, Esther chapter 8, Esther 8, let's look at the story of Haman and Mordecai and Haman is a great example of a reprobate in the Bible. This is the guy who ends up becoming second in the Persian empire, second most powerful man in the world and you see him rise to power and if you read closely Haman in the early chapters doesn't really show him doing anything, it shows him talking a big game. So there's no indication he's actually a hard worker but he basically talks his way to the top, he makes himself look good and then if you know the story basically he wants Mordecai to be put to death and then he eventually gets put to death. But it says in Esther 8 verse 1, on that day did the king of Haswarus give the house of Haman, the Jew's enemy, unto Esther the queen and Mordecai came before the king for Esther had told her what he was unto her and the king took off his ring which he had taken from Haman and gave it unto Mordecai and Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman and Esther spake yet again before the king and fell down at his feet and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite. Notice this, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. Haman was a man who had trouble sleeping at night unless he had caused mischief. He was a man who devised mischief upon his bed. Right? We're cross-referencing here his device that he had devised, right? So he would come up with plans and look, he was thinking in his head, how can I destroy Mordecai? He got counsel on how to destroy Mordecai and he sat upon his bed at night just thinking about how can I destroy this man? I cannot sleep until I've destroyed him, I can't be happy until he bows down and worships me. A great example of someone is a reprobate. Now here's the thing, Mordecai doesn't even know this is happening behind the scenes. Now he knows that he's sentenced to be put to death but I'm just saying things like this happen behind the scenes and you don't even know it's taking place. You say why? Because nobody knows what your thoughts are in your head at night upon your bed. And Haman is planning the destruction of Mordecai and see what we need to realize as God's people is we need God in our side in life because if somebody's devising destruction against you, it's hard to fight against it if you don't know it's taking place. I mean how can you defend yourself if you don't even realize you're being attacked? I mean just think about this, let's say somebody had a knife, right? Let's say I had a knife. I don't have a knife, okay? Let's say I have a knife and I'm going to attack Migs. How can he defend himself if he doesn't know I have a knife? He's not even going to try to defend himself. If he knows I have a knife, then he's going to try to defend himself, right? Well here's the thing, if somebody's devising destruction to you and it's taking place in their head, you don't even know it's taking place. You don't even know they have that weapon and what it shows us is we need God on our side in life because otherwise we're going to be in trouble, right? Go back to Psalm 36, Psalm 36, Psalm 36, verse 5. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth under the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. Now it says thy judgments are a great deep and it makes me think of how the Bible says the deep things of God, the secret things of the Lord. You see, sometimes there's laws in the Bible and on a surface level, maybe we don't understand why God has a law and yet his judgments are as a great deep, meaning that even though we don't see why it's important, if we actually put in God's laws, they would actually work. Thy judgments are a great deep and there's things in them you don't even realize how important God's rules and laws are, but if they were instilled, it would benefit us in a lot of different ways, right? If we tried to follow what God said, we would have no idea why things are helping us. We wouldn't think about it, but they actually are very helpful. Just basic example would be, for example, God has all these laws against certain sins, all these rules, and if you commit a certain sin, you don't really feel like you're harming yourself that much, but actually you're harming your family, those around you. You harm your health because the Bible does teach that sin causes destruction to your own personal health. I mean, it's amazing how God's rules, how important they actually are. His judgments are a great deep. And then it says in verse 7, how excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God, therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Now when it comes to putting our trust in the Lord, there is putting your trust in the Lord for salvation, right? You know, we say, mani wala or magti wala long caheso Christo, right? Putting your trust in him. So when we're saying believe, we're not just saying that just, you know, that he exists. What we're saying is our trust is in him for our salvation, right? You know, if I were to say, I think I'm going to heaven because I'm a nice person, then my trust is in myself. And you know, most people in this country that would say they believe in Jesus, they would say, I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. I'm going to heaven because I obey God's rules, right? But see, the Bible says that we got to put our trust in the Lord for our salvation. That's one area of trust. But the other area of trust is not just for ourselves. Actually go to Ephesians 1 real quickly. Ephesians 1. Let me just prove this to you. It's a short chapter, so we have time to prove this. Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. And look, if you're here today and you're saved, that means that one time in your life you put your full trust in Jesus Christ. The reason why you did that is because you realized you deserved hell and you had no hope without relying on what Jesus did. You couldn't rely on yourself for your salvation, right? Ephesians 1 verse 13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So we see that trust and belief are being used interchangeably, right? And so for example, if I believe that this chair is going to hold me, then basically me sitting here is me putting my trust in showing that I believe that, right? If I really trust it, I could say I believe this chair is going to hold me, well, Brother Stuckey, go sit in the chair. No, no, I don't want to. It's like, do I really believe it's going to hold me then? Because if I really believe I'm trusting, it's going to hold me up, right? I mean, you can see how these are used interchangeably. Well, the same thing for Jesus. If we really believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, then basically what that means is we're not trusting in our good works to save us. We're not trusting in our baptism, but we're just trusting that what He did alone was enough. People say all the time, I believe in Jesus and I'm going to heaven because I'm a nice person. Well, you're not putting all your trust in Jesus. You have some of your trust in yourself. It's not 99% plus 1%, it must be 100%. When it comes to our salvation, we get saved by putting our full trust in Jesus. Wouldn't it be foolish though for someone to be saved, to have put their trust in Jesus for their salvation, and yet we live our lives and think that I can just go on what I want and what I think, and it doesn't matter what God says. Wouldn't that be foolish? I mean, if we read a book and trust in Him for our salvation, doesn't it make sense we should just trust Him to guide our life and trust that what He says is correct and what He proclaimed is right? Go back to Psalm 36, Psalm 36. And yet the truth is that most Christians, most people that are actually saved, they're not really trusting God to guide their lives. What I mean is a topic might come up and instead of just thinking about, well, what does the Bible say, they just think about what seems right to them. Your first thought should always be, does the Bible talk about this? Is there an answer from the Word of God? And most subjects, you're going to find an answer from the Word of God, and if you don't find an answer, it probably means you just haven't come across the verse or the passage or you haven't thought about it, right? Because the answers are in the Word of God, right? Psalm 36, verse 8, they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. And so the person who puts their trust in God are going to drink of the rivers of thy pleasures, the pleasures of God. And here's what's amazing, when you're serving God, your pleasures and what you want actually line up with what God wants. When you're doing right, you want to do right. And that's what God wants you to do. Verse 9, for with thee is the fountain of life, in thy light shall we see light. Now go back to John, go to John 4, John 4, John 4. And we'll just look at John 4, then we'll come back to Psalm 36. As I said, it's a bit of a shorter chapter, so once we get through these verses, we'll be done here in a little bit. John 4, John 4 is a very famous chapter for a soul winning application because Jesus is preaching the gospel to this woman. It says in John 4, verse 10, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water. So the Bible says here in verse 10, that if a person knows what the gift is, and what is the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life, right? And who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink. So what Jesus is saying is, if you knew what the gift is and you understood who I was, and so look, when a person understands what salvation is and who it is, who died and paid for that salvation, the result is they're going to ask for that living water. And when someone does not want to ask for it when we're going soul winning, it's an indication there's something they're not quite getting and they're not quite sure about. Because many people we talk to just aren't sure, right? They hear what we say, but they're just not sure if they believe, right? I mean, I gave the gospel to several people yesterday, but one person got saved. Praise the Lord for the one person who gets saved, but then others heard the word of God and they just didn't believe it or they weren't sure, right? The woman saith unto him, sure, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? Now it's interesting it talks about a well because it talks about the well being deep, and there's a bit of a crossover with Psalm 36 because trusting in God, one thing is trusting for salvation, another is trusting for our life, and it talks about the judgments of God being deep. Here's a link to a passage on salvation that talks about the well being deep, and I think oftentimes there's a dual meaning in the Bible and a lot of things that can be tied together. And then it says in verse 13, Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. And what we just saw in Psalm 36 was the fountain of life. In thy light shall we see light, for with thee is the fountain of life is what it says in Psalm 36, right? Go back to Psalm 36, Psalm 36. This is why our last song today is there is a fountain, isn't that right? That's actually a coincidence, but I just thought of that. But it talks about the fountain of life here in Psalm 36, and in thy light shall we see light. Verse 10, oh continue thy loving kindness onto them that know thee and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. I'm not sure in this verse whether this is a dual application or maybe one is above the other, but when it says, you know, let not the hand of the wicked remove me, obviously it's referring to a wicked person that it uses the hand symbolically to their actions and what they do, right? And the Bible is saying, hey, protect me from that person. When it says, let not the foot of pride come against me, I'm not sure if that's referring simply to the person who's prideful that's coming against you. Or, I mean, it could be referring to your own foot because our own pride can destroy us as well. Now, probably the immediate context is a person coming after you, but you could certainly apply that to your own individual self that if you have pride swell up in you, then that's going to cause destruction on yourself. And so whether that's what it's referring to, whether it's a dual application, I would say, yeah, of course we want God to protect us from the foot of pride coming against us, but we need to make sure that we're careful that our own foot of pride doesn't come against us as well and destroy us. Verse 12, there are the workers of iniquity fallen, they are cast down and shall not be able to rise. And the Bible says about the workers of iniquity, this is referring to people that are bad people. You think of Matthew 7 where it talks about, you know, those that work iniquity and it says they're cast down and should not be able to rise because they're not going to get a glorified body. They're not going to end up getting, you know, a resurrection on the life. They're going to have a resurrection on the damnation, right? They're going to get their, their new body is going to be with them in the lake of fire forever. And see, sometimes in this life, these bad people, they seem like they're successful or they come against us, they criticize us or whatever. We feel like they're winning the battle. You think of evil people that have money and influence and everything, but when they get cast down, when they get destroyed, because eventually everyone's going to die and you could have a miserable life on earth. But even if it's a miserable life, if you're saved, you spend forever in heaven. Them on the other hand, they get cast down. They're not able to rise again. They're not going to get a glorified body. They're going to spend forever in the lake of fire. So what we can take away from this chapter is there are people like this, bad people. They're not going to make it obvious they're bad people and they're actually going to plan destruction upon people that are just trying to be peaceful people, not doing anything wrong. Bottom line is we need God on our side and to get God on your side, what it means is obey what he says, read the Bible every day, pray, and you know what? God's going to be on your side. And I would say that, you know, I write my sermons in advance, but I mean, certainly the world we look at today, this can certainly apply, right? Of just people that are, you know, basically, you know, people that are powerful and many laws that are being established and things like that. You know what? We need God on our side. We need to pray to God and ask God to give us protection and help through difficult situations. 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 ask you to help us protect us from people like this that would just plan mischief and cause destruction and want to cause harm in our lives, God. Ask you to bless us as a church to continue to serve you and get people saved and bring people to church, but I also ask you to bless just each individual person and family at this church to be able to freely serve you and do right and work hard and provide for their families, God, even in the difficult times we live in. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.