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

Now Psalm 10 verse 1, the Bible reads, Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hideest thou thyself in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride that persecute the poor, Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. Now, David here is praying to God, and that's what most of the Psalms are, pretty much a prayer from man to God. Not man's word, but God's word, because one of the books that's under attack more than any, it seems to be in the book of Psalms. And it's odd, because Psalms is the number one most quoted book in the New Testament. Jesus is constantly quoting it, all the books of the New Testament, Hebrews, constantly quoting the book of Psalms, and constantly saying, Well spayed the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David the prophet. And if any book of the Old Testament is inspired, certainly it's the book of Psalms. I mean, they're all inspired, but the one that's just repeated about again and again and again is the book of Psalms, that this is God's work, that God is speaking here through man. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And so these aren't just David's words or David's feelings. This isn't just David's diary that we're reading. What would be the point of preaching that a whole Wednesday night on a prayer that David prayed out of his own heart? No, this is God's work. And so he says here in verse 1, this is showing basically David's perspective. Why standest thou far off, O Lord? Why hideest thou thyself in times of trouble? Now we know that the Bible says that God is a very present help in time of trouble. God is always there. God's never gone. The Bible says that, you know, if I send up into heaven, behold, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. God is everywhere. The Bible says that the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain God because God is on my present. He lives inside of us. If we're saved, the Bible says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. In each one of us in this whole world, he fills the earth, the heavens. Okay, God is everywhere. But sometimes God doesn't reveal himself to us. So it says, why standest thou far off, O Lord? Why hideest thou thyself in times of trouble? Sometimes when we're in trouble, we don't realize that he's there. That's why we by faith must believe that he's there, okay? And that's why David is calling out to him. David's saying, you know, I can't see you. It doesn't seem like you're there because everything's going against me, the wicked are prospering. I'm being defeated. But he's praying to him because he said, God, I know you're there. And he's praying that God will step in and help him. Look at verse 2. It says, the wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they've imagined, for the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord upholds. So this is yet another psalm where God is basically praying that the wicked will reap what they've sown. He's praying that they'll be taken in the devices that they've imagined, the pit that they dig, that they'll fall into it, as we read a few chapters ago, that they'll be ensnared in their own trap. He says, the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. Now what does that say? The Lord abhorreth. Who? The covetous. Why? Because look where covetousness leads you. Go down a few verses. He says in verse number 4, the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight, as for all his enemies, he puppeted them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. Watch this. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth away secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth away to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. And on and on. You see, it starts with covetousness because the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil. Now people today will criticize the King James Bible. And it's funny because here's what I have to say to those who criticize the King James Bible. And they say, oh, it's these new Bibles. So what did people do for the last 400 years that were preaching and believing and loving this Bible? Are you saying that they all had the wrong Bible and that only we in the 21st century are so blessed that all these bunch of ecumenical liberals have given us finally the right Bible? I mean, it says when you open up the New American Standard Version, it says finally a reliable translation of the Bible. I mean, good night. You expect me to believe that for hundreds and hundreds of years, when this country was somewhat of a righteous nation, by the way, when there was at least some decency and cleanness and gospel being preached, now today in our wicked sin-sick society, you're going to tell me that we finally just got the right Bible because guess what? It was buried under a rock in a monastery. You know, Vaticanus or Sinaiticus or whatever these texts that modern scholarship tells us are so much more old or unreliable and God just allowed to be buried for hundreds of years. No, the Bible says that God will preserve His Word. He said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away. They didn't pass away for 300 years until some doctor, you know, some archaeologist dug Him up somewhere. No, God's Word has been believed and preached through the generations. People have been being saved, His Word's been being preached, churches have been being built, and now today it's under attack. It's being twisted, it's being perverted, it's being corrupted. And these enemies of the real Bible, the King James Bible, they want to bring in their false version that says that Joseph is Jesus' father, you know, that basically makes out the devil to be a son of God, okay, that makes the son of God be cast out of heaven, you know, all this stuff that's twisted. They say, oh, the King James Bible is wrong because the love of money can't be the root of all evil, they say. So that's just got to be wrong. So they change it to, well, it's a root of a lot of different kinds of people. You know, that's what these new Bibles say. Just strip it of all meanings, or it's just this meaningless statement, yeah, it's kind of a root of some stuff, you know, instead of saying, no, the love of money is the root of all evil. You say, how so? Because it starts out, wickedness, violence, starts out with the love of money. It starts out with covetousness, that's where it starts. It starts out with wanting everything for yourself, greed. And then pretty soon, when you just want everything for yourself, and you're greedy, and you're covetous, and you just love money, well, next thing, you're going to start to step on other people in order to get where you want to be financially. That's the next step. You're going to start being dishonest on the job. You're going to start ripping people off. You might even start to take things by force. And then it goes from there to not just a love of money, but just a love of power, a love of control. And this is the bane of our entire world. Man wants to control everybody else's life. All throughout history, man has been enslaved to all these different masters. You look at Europe. We think that America, the black slaves in the South, but you go back to Europe and it was really the same thing for a thousand years under the catheter. With feudalism, the feudal serf was living basically the same lifestyle as the black slave in America. It's basically the same thing. He has no rights, he's being beaten, he's working for free, he's making somebody else rich. But that's gone on all throughout history. Why? Because of the wicked love of money. Because of covetousness, God forbid if we as Christians will let this creep into our lives. Let's not even let it start. Let's not even sow the seeds of covetousness. Let's not even start going down that path of the love of money. And it's all around us. People will judge you by the car that you drive or by the house and you've got to keep up with the Joneses and you've got to wear the name brands and you've got to have a nice car. It's called conspicuous consumption. Buying things just so that people can see, not even because you want them, but just so that people see that you have them. Just to impress man. And what's that? Pride. And that's why it says here, it goes back and forth here in verse number 3. It says, For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not at all... So this same person that's very covetous is a very prideful person. He's boastful. He thinks he's so wonderful because he has all this money that's all going to burn up anyway whenever God destroys the world, according to the Bible. And so let's not get in this mode as Christians where we get caught up in the hype of all the commercialism. And especially as we get into the Christmas season, people get really into just buying toys and getting everything, grasping for everything. You know, Christmas shouldn't even be about that anyway. You know, if it's supposedly celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, but it just becomes this thing of, Oh, let me turn in my wish list. You know, whatever happened to giving somebody a gift because you want to, not because they're forking over a list to you. Well, this is what I want. Here's my wish list. I don't like... I'm sorry. You know, maybe it's just my opinion that I am preaching against covetousness and covetousness is a desire of things that you don't have. And to me, making this wish list... Why don't we call it a covet list? Alright, here's my covet list. Here's everything I covet. Instead of just living your life being content with such things as you have, and then hey, somebody loves you and buys you a gift, buying gifts is definitely scriptural. The Bible talks about giving gifts to one another on holidays and special occasions. I'm not against that at all. But it should be that you expect nothing. And then when somebody gives you the gift, you're thankful, you're grateful, you're happy about it. You're not just demanding, you know, here's my list, okay? And you better pick something off this list because, God forbid, you buy me something, it's not what I want. You better leave the tag on. You better include a gift receipt. And that's the world that we're living in. Instead of just, hey, I picked this out for you, wanted to show you some love, you know, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, it just becomes this covet thing where kids sit around and they just dream up, oh, I wish I had this, oh, I wish I had this. Now tell me, how is that not wrong? If the Bible says, thou shalt not covet, how is it not wrong to sit around and say, I wish I had this, I wish I had this, I wish I had this. No, I'm just happy with what I have. That's what we ought to say. Man, I just like what I have. I like my clothes, I like my car, I like my house, I like the food in my refrigerator. I'm not just sitting around, I wish I had this, I wish I had that. You say, well, Pastor Anderson, what is the difference between covetousness and wanting something, you know, legitimate? I mean, there's not always wanting something and buying it. Well, the difference is that covetousness is wanting something that you don't have and you can't. Now, if I see something that I want, then I buy it and I have it, that's fine. But it's when you covet something that you don't have. Do you understand the difference? Wanting something that's within your power to get, that's fine. Because God's given you the means to have that. God has given you the money, you spend it, you buy yourself something. You know, I'm not against buying yourself a tree. But what I'm saying is wanting something that you don't have and then trying to get it from other people. You know, I don't think that's what it's supposed to be about, okay? And so covetousness, that's where it starts when you're a child and you just want everything, you want this, you want that. And then you get older and you want bigger things and you want more, you want more, you want more. And then pretty soon, God becomes the focus of your life. You know, the Bible's going to take a backseat and you're going to start justifying ways to get what you want that are not right. And go back, though, I just wanted to show you that, but go back to verse number 3. It says, Now, does God love everybody or are there people that God hates? Well, it's amazing that people don't see this or understand this, but there are just so many scores and scores of verses in the Bible that talk about people who God hates. And yet people just say, Oh, oh, Christianity, how can you talk about hate? Well, this is the Jesus Christ that I worship. I don't know what Jesus Christ they're talking about, you know, some guy that they made up in the figment of their own imagination. But, I mean, as far as I know, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was at the beginning with God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. And him was life and the life was the light of man. Hey, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father. Hey, I'm here to tell you something. This is Jesus, okay? And when we read this, we have the mind of Christ right here. We know what God's thinking. We know what God's opinions are. We know how God feels about the covetous. We know how he feels about the violent evildoer. He hates them. He does not love them. Now, people say, well, God doesn't hate anybody and if you go back to the Hebrew, you go back to the Greek, and you study this and you figure out that's not really what it means. Folks, where is that going to end? Well, I wonder if believe really means believe. Because people will say, oh, it's an obedient faith. It means do the works. And that's what people take. You go back to the Greek. Evangelist Joe Boyd, he came and tossed that in Bible college. Believe there is obedient faith. It means you've got to obey. You know, you've got to do what's right. So that's heresy, right? Well, what if eternal life's not really eternal? What if it does end? Because there are people who say, if you go back to the Greek and you look at eon to eon, it's just a long time, that's all. It's just a really long time, but it's not going to never end. I mean, where does that end? Is that really the road that you want to go down where you just can't believe a single word in the Bible? You just can't read it and just say, hey, for all have sinned. That's what it means. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt be saved. That's what it means. But today, people just twist it and change it and they just won't face it. Hey, God abhors the covetous. God hates the violent evil doer. Now, I looked up the word abhor, not in the dictionary. Now, I have looked it up in the dictionary in the past and it said it means hate. But I looked it up in the Bible because I figured, you know, let the Bible define itself. And I looked it all 43 times that the word abhor is mentioned. And just do yourself a favor and look it up. You'll see that it means hate. It's pretty clear. It's always coupled with the word hate. It's always the opposite of love. I mean, it's clear. One verse that I saw, if you want to flip over to it, is in Psalm 119, that big, long chapter about the word of God. Since we're in Psalms anyway, we'll look at a couple scriptures in Psalms. Psalm 119 and verse number 163, just to give you a little taste. But I went through all 43. I'm not going to go through all 43 just for sake of time, but I encourage you to do so. And you'll see that every single time, it's pretty obvious what the word abhor means. The first time it's mentioned, it talks about Pharaoh abhorring the children of Israel when he was persecuting them and beating them and making them do all this bondage, and they had to go get their straw in the middle of the night and all that. It's the first time it's used. The second time it's used is when God talked about all the perverts in Leviticus 20, and he lists off all these disgusting sins that you would probably think, like, is there anybody who actually does this? Now, today we don't think that because today we live in America where they all live back. But you read all these filthy things in Leviticus 18 and 20, and you say, good night. Who in the world would actually do it? But God had to tell them back then. He said, wait a minute. The people of the nations are the Hittites? He said, they've done all these things. And he said, therefore, I abhor them because they did this stuff. But look at Psalm 119, 163, just to give you a feel. He said, I hate and a poor lying, but thy law do I love. So you see there the contrast between love and hate. You don't love and hate things at the same time. I know this is complicated. But when you love things, it means you don't hate them. And when you hate things, it means you don't love them. Any questions? All right, pretty simple stuff. But back in Psalm 5, if you go back to Psalm 5, we're in Psalm 10 tonight, but Psalm 5 says this in verse 5. It says, the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing. The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. So there we have it again, abhor and hate, right side by side. They're both talking about the same group of people, these bloody, deceitful workers of iniquity, the same kind of people that are described in Psalm 10. So back to Psalm 10. So wait a minute. Should we bless the coveted? Oh, just bless everybody and you can't go wrong, right? Just to be safe. Just bless them all, love them all. How about 2 Chronicles 19, 2? Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from the Lord thy God. So Jehoshaphat had God's wrath upon him because he loved those that hated the Lord and because he helped the ungodly, okay? Now here he says, wait a minute, the wicked blesseth the covetous. Is that what that says? The wicked blesseth the covetous. So should we bless the covetous? No, that's what the wicked does. That's why the Bible says, they that forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as keep the law, contend with them. Okay, that's what the Bible says. And so should we praise and bless everybody, love everybody, say good things about everybody, be good to everybody. Be good to everybody, because everybody's having a tough time. Is that really what the Bible teaches? I've had so many people say to me, because whenever I was in the news about being so hateful, you know what I mean? And I'm such a loving guy in real life. But anyway, I'm so hateful and all this, and I get all these people saying to me, they say, well, I definitely see your point. I'm seeing all these people, but they say, I'm just going to be on the safe side. I'm just going to love Obama and pray for him and love all these sodomites and perverts and just pray for him, just to be on the safe side. Is that really what the Bible's saying, though? I mean, the Bible's saying, look, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? That's what he said in Psalm 139. Okay, he didn't say, well, God, I'm just going to be saved, so I love everybody who hates you. And I love the bloody, violent evildoer who murders in the dark places of the villages and all these different things. Okay, so don't give me that garbage. Instead of just doing anything, I'll just be on the safe side. I don't want to be on the safe side. I want to be on the right side. That's where I want to be, the right side. So instead of just being on the safe side because I don't know what I'm talking about and I'm too lazy to read the Bible and I don't even know what it says, so just be on the safe side. I'm just going to love him. Why don't you read the Bible and study it and figure out what you believe, and you won't have to be on the safe side because you'll know that you're doing the right thing because you're doing what God told you to do. It's just the safe side. People say, well, I heard somebody say one time, well, just on the safe, I'm going to get saved just to be on the safe side. I'm not really sure if the Bible's true, but just be on the safe side. You're not saved. You've got to believe with all your heart to be saved. You can't just sit there and say, well, hey, pray this prayer just to be saved. Hey, it's not pray the prayer and thou shalt be saved. It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And if thou believeest with all thine heart, thou mayest, not just this. Well, you know, hey, why not? You know what I mean? Hey, it can't hurt just in case, right? No. And so don't have this just in case attitude, this just to be on the safe side attitude. Study and show thyself approved unto God and know what you're talking about, know what you believe, and then you won't have to play it safe. You know, you can play it right, okay? Safety's of the Lord. So why don't you figure out what the Lord says and then just do it and then you'll be fine. Then you'll be on the safe side. I'm on the safe side. And I read the Bible and I did what it said. It says in verse number four, the wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight, for all his enemies he coveted them. You know, verses made me think of professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. You see, God's word, the Bible says that, you know, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. He says that God's judgments in verse number five are way above the head of the wicked, okay? The guy who basically, you know, he doesn't even want to have God in his thoughts. He said, you know, he will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Now wait a minute. What does that remind you of? Kind of like in Romans 1 when it says how even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. Did you get that? God is not in all his thoughts. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. These are people who just want to push God completely out of their mind, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools it says in Romans 1. Here it says, hey, God's word, God's judgments are way over their head. You know, you don't ever have to take a backseat to some worldly, secular scholar because if he's not a believer in Jesus Christ, he knows nothing. The Bible says if any man think and seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, okay? All the wisdom of this world, you could give me the most wise, quote, unquote, man of this world, Mr. Secular Humanist, Mr. Atheist, Mr. Evolutionist, and I'd like to hear what he has to say, you know, because you know what, it's garbage. It's worse than garbage, and those of us who are saved, we listen to it and it's a joke. The only person who's fooled by it is these bunch of unbelievers because they've got the veil over their eyes just like he does. Well, those of us who are saved can stand back and say, are you serious? Are you kidding? When we listen to these, you know, dockings or whatever, you know, whatever mind that they can pull out, I mean, the guy's a fool. I mean, I listened to him talk. I listened to him talk for a couple minutes. I was thinking he was really going to have something, you know? He had nothing. He had a whole lot of nothing. A bunch of hot air. It's foolishness, my friend. And so, you know, go ahead and go to the world, let them teach you, let them educate you. I'd rather get educated right out of this book right here. And, you know, and by the way, the Word of God goes over their head. Isn't that what we talked about on Sunday where they cannot understand the Bible? The Bible says the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually deserved. And so the unbeliever can't understand the Bible. He goes right over his head. They can't understand our church. They can't understand soul. They can't understand the preaching. And that's why our church is filled with believers right now. I mean, look around. I mean, as far as I know, every single person here is saved. You know, why is that? Because our job is not to just pack out God's house with a bunch of unbelievers. It's supposed to be, and everybody has it in their doctrinal statement, but how many of us still believe that the church is a group of born-again baptized believers? Okay, but yet it's geared, it's become geared as this evangelism, pack it out with unbelievers. It's in their doctrinal statement. Oh, we believe in the local church and there's some born-again baptized believers. Well, okay, that's what we are here. We're saved. Why? Because when you bring your unsaved buddy to church, they're probably not going to like it because they're not going to like the music because the flesh isn't into the hymns. The flesh wants rock and roll and Christian contemporary. They're probably not even going to understand the preaching because they don't even have the Holy Spirit inside of them. They're not saved. Here's an idea. Get your friends saved, then bring them to church. Don't get me wrong. I want your friend to church, but why don't you take the gospel and get them saved first and then they'll get a lot more out of the service. Instead of just bringing them and just hoping that they get saved. If they could hear 20 people talk to them before they leave and try to give them the gospel and get them saved, but why don't you do it? Why don't you bring them saved? Bring in the sheaves. The sheaf is something that you've already harvested, not bringing in the seeds. Bring in the sheaves. Finished products, somebody that you get saved. They're going to understand the Bible. They're going to understand the preaching, but this kind of church just goes over their head. They don't get it. Why don't you sing the hymns? Why don't you knock doors? Why don't you go three times a week? What's wrong with Sunday morning? It's funny. I just got an email an hour ago or something on my phone. It just blows me away how people who are unsaved, people who are not Christians, they just do not get it. They're writing me, telling me that I'm this big hypocrite. Because they said that I'm against worldliness, but yet my wife on her blog had this map of all the countries she's been to. So they're like, isn't that worldly? They think worldliness is like seeing the world. You're worldly. I mean, come on. And they say you're against modernism, but then you're using a cell phone. It's like, you know what I mean? They don't get it. They don't understand that when we say modernism, we're talking about the modern philosophies that go against God's word. We're talking about changing times and laws and rules and God's word. We're not talking about we need to ride a bicycle and even that's too modern. If it's at 10 speed, no more speeds than that. It's too radical. But that's how people are. They don't get it. They don't get it. Oh, you guys caught me. I'm a big hypocrite. I've traveled the world. I'm worldly. And yet today, I get constantly asked. I've been asked by pastors. What does worldly even mean? You're against worldliness? What's worldliness? And yet that word is not something that I made up. It's actually all throughout the Bible. The Bible uses the word worldliness all the time. It says to abstain from worldly lusts. It talks about love, not the world. But people today, it just goes over their head. They don't get it. You try to explain in the gospel that it's by faith, that it's free, that Jesus paid it all, and they just don't get it. Well, then why would you even do anything right? Why wouldn't you just go out and murder and rape? It's like, don't you get it? We live in freedom. We love God. We want to do what's right. We want to be in church tonight. We want to go soul-willing. We want to read the Bible. We want to get people saved, but they don't get it. They don't get it. They don't understand what it means to serve God because you want to, to do what's right because you love Him, because they don't love Him. So they don't understand. And so it goes over their head. You see what I'm saying? It says, thy judgments, because this is David speaking God. It says, thy judgments are far above out of His sight. As for all His enemies, He thought that them. See, the Bible says salvation is, maybe somebody can help me out with this verse. It's on the tip of my tongue. Salvation is far from the wicked because they seek not that preset. Something like that in Psalm 119. Who knows what I'm talking about? There's one that says, like, salvation is far from the wicked because they're not seeking your word. It's kind of the same thing as in this passage, but I don't know. I'll have to look that one up. It's a great verse, if I can remember exactly what it says. But look down if you look at verse number 6. It says, He has said in His heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. This is his pride. He thinks he's invincible. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of villages, in the secret places that he murdered the innocent. His eyes are privately set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth in wait to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth them into his net. He crouches and humbles himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He'll never see it. Now look at this. What does that mean in verse 10? He crouches and humbles himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones. This is basically talking about laying a trap. Basically he's pretending to be humble. He's coming hand in hand and then basically the bad guys are there to jump you. This is just talking about wicked people, thieves. He says in verse number 11, He said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He'll never see it. Arise, O Lord, O God. Lift up thine hand. Forget not the humble. Wherefore did the wicked contempt God? Now there's another word that means hate. You would know the modern word contempt. Probably everybody, who's heard the word contempt? Everybody's pretty much heard that word probably. You know, to have something in contempt or someone in contempt. Well, we don't use the verb anymore. We just use the noun contempt. But the verb is contempt. We don't use this anymore in America, but it's definitely a word that means hate. It's saying why... Wherefore did the wicked contempt God? He's saying why does the wicked hate God? You got that? He's saying wherefore. Wherefore means why. He says wherefore did the wicked contempt God? He had said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand. The poor committed themselves unto thee. This is David speaking to God. Thou art the Helper of the Fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man. This is way too violent. I mean, look at this. This is David, right here. This is David praying to God. Now today, if I prayed this, people get mad at me. If you prayed this, people get mad at you. And we're on week 10 of Psalms, and literally more than 50% of the Psalms so far contain statements like this. I mean, we're only 10 weeks into this, folks, and we got three years to go, okay? How many times? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But I'm not kidding. But anyway, the point is, I mean, how many times do we have to see it? This is God's Word. And again, he's saying, Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. Basically, he's saying, you know, seek out his wickedness. Pretty much says, make him pay for every single crime, is what he's saying. He says, seek out his wickedness till thou find none. You know, break his arm. He's basically praying up at the top there to go back to verse 2. It says, you know, the wicked in his pride that's persecuted the poor, let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. Now, is that a blessing that he's praying to these people? No. He's praying for them to be defeated. He's praying for them to be destroyed. He says in verse number 16, the Lord is king forever and ever. The heathen are perished out of his land. I think that that's basically a precursor, kind of a foreshadowing of the millennial kingdom one day. And then after the millennial kingdom, the Bible says Jesus will reign forever and ever in the new heaven and new earth. And the heathen will be perished out of the land. Jesus will be king, and he'll reign forever and ever. And that one day, this world will be a wonderful place. One day it will. Because one day, Jesus Christ will set up his kingdom on this earth. You know, after the tribulation, after he pours out his wrath and defeats the anti-Christ and destroys all that, he's going to set up his millennial kingdom when the lion is going to lay down with the lamb. When the child will play with the serpent and basically the lion and the ox shall feed together and the little child shall eat them. And there will be no violence in the world. I mean, there aren't going to be any wars. There will be total world peace. And it's amazing how the devil, everything the devil does is a counterfeit of what God does. Just like God's word is being counterfeited today with a false Bible. Now, everybody knows that the best counterfeit is the one that looks the closest, like the real thing. But it's different. I mean, you don't hand somebody a monopoly money and say, you know, can you give me change for a hundred? You know what I mean? Give them something that looks real, okay? And that's what the devil is always saying. He's always been a counterfeiter. He transforms himself, the Bible says, into an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of light. He has a counterfeit religion, counterfeit Bible. Well, he has a counterfeit to this reigning and ruling of Christ, of Jesus Christ being the king that's going to rule and reign on this earth. You see, in the new heaven and the new earth, after the millennium, way forward in the future, in Revelation 21, it says, and they shall see his face, and watch this, and his name shall be in their foreheads. Okay? Talk about the name of God, the name of Jesus Christ. That's where the whole mark of the beast comes from. It's basically the anti-Christ counterfeiting that mark, okay? Basically, the mark in the forehead, that's the devil trying to put a mark in your forehead pretending to be Jesus, okay? That's what you have to understand about this. You see, one day there will be world peace. There will be a perfect world government with Jesus Christ at its head and the saints ruling and reigning. So the devil comes and counterfeits that and he's building his own world government. He's building his own one world empire. He's building his own world peace. You know, we're all going to get along. We're all going to have peace and safety. And when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. It's travel upon a woman child that they shall not escape. And so we see that the devil's a counterfeiter. One day there will be a great kingdom on this earth, but in order for that to happen, the heathen are going to have to perish out of their hands. You can't have peace. The Bible says there's no peace saved by God of the wicked. And so we're never going to have peace until Jesus Christ comes and brings peace. And until then, we don't need a one world government. We don't need to unite with the nations. We don't need a North American union or a European union. We're all going to get along and everything like that. No, we need to have separate nations like God gave us and stick with his system from Genesis 10 and 11. So basically it says in verse number 17, Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their hearts. Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. Again, this is one person trying to dominate and enslave someone else, oppressing someone else. But look, God hears the cries of those that are oppressed. Look if you would at James chapter 5. I'll show you another great scripture on this. God hears the cry of those who oppress the poor. That's what he's talking about, isn't it? He talks about how they oppress the poor. Several times he mentions his eyes are perfectly set against the poor. On and on, it talks about how the wicked and his pride that persecute the poor, all throughout this chapter, you see that in Psalm 10. And they cry out to God, the oppressed, the fatherless, the poor, and God hears their cry and he will step in for them. Look at James 5. This is a great passage. Give me a chance to turn there. But James 5, Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are mothy. Your gold and silver is cankered. As long as you put it all in gold, just buy gold. Get rid of your stock and buy gold. It's all going to burn up, my friend. And God says your gold and silver is cankered. And the rest of them shall be a witness against you and it shall eat your flesh as it is fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Watch this verse 4. It's a great verse. Behold the hirer of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is a view kept back by fraud, crying. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton. Ye have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just and he was not in position. What does that mean, you've nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter? Well, back in those days, you know, when you slaughtered an animal, you know, you'd have a little bit of a celebration. You'd have a little bit of a feast. You know, like the proverbial killing of the fatted calf, okay? And when I was in Hungary, we slaughtered a pig whenever I was there. It was really a great experience. It was really interesting. And that's the right way to do it, by the way. Because, you know, today they're all, whatever, injected with drugs and all this weird, you know, packed into cattle cars and all this stuff. You know, but over there they do it the old fashioned way where they actually just kill the pig and butcher it and eat it and it's actually, you know, a normal pig, okay? Well, it's interesting because before they killed the pig, when I was there and the pig was going to be slaughtered, they said, well, first we're going to sedate it. You know, so I'm thinking, okay, you know, that's how she made it. You know, sedate the pig. You know, he comes out with a sledgehammer and just goes, dunk, and knocked it on the head and it fell over. It fell over. But it didn't do anything after that. You know, that was quick, okay? But listen to this, that was quick. But you know, the more I thought about it, because I guess I was picturing like an injection or something, you know? But these people are old fashioned. I mean, this is in the countryside in Hungary, small town. I mean, this is the way they do it. Well, they've been doing it this way forever. And my father in line told me, he said, you know, we have to start doing that because they've made that the law, that we have to sedate the pig. You know, that's the law of the land now. I think it might have had something to do with the European Union, he said, that they have to sedate the pig with the hammer. But he said that they used to just, you know, kill it. They used to just slit its throat. And you know, don't let this bother you. Who has eaten meat in the last seven days? All right, then don't get mad at anybody. Oh, I can't believe it's cruel. You know, it's a lot more cruel the way they do it in America anyway. But anyway, so they, you know, he said that this is what they would do. They would, you know, stab the knife in its throat, you know, without any sedative, okay? And it would scream throughout the, you know, and it would be shrieking and screaming and make all these noises. And that's how everybody would know that they were slaughtering the pig. And then people would kind of gather together and, you know, get a little piece of the action or whatever. They could have a little bit of a feast. Now, honey, didn't you say that you participated in this as a kid and that she rode the pig while he had the knife in the back of his neck? I don't know. That's what she told me. So anyway, you talked her after the service. But anyway, the point is, that's what he's saying here. He's saying, you've lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanted. You've nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. He's just saying that's just the way you live all the time. Just eat, drink, and be merry and feasting at other people's expense. Do you see that? He said, behold the hire of the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which of you is kept back by fraud, cry. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered in. Here's the Lord of Saba. He's saying, other people have work and you didn't pay them. You ripped them off. You refused to give them what was coming to them. And he said, hey, God hears their cries when you don't pay them. I've thought about different times when I was in a situation where I got a little bit ripped off or I didn't get paid or I got paid late. So I didn't get paid at all. And I remember I prayed to God. I mentioned this verse. I said, God, I did the work helping to get paid. Think of Jacob in the whole testament. He did the work and Laban changed his wages ten times, ripped them off, stole from them, and constantly Jacob was getting the short end of his sake. But God looked down and saw it and what did God do? Transfer all the cattle of Laban into Jacob's hand by making all the cattle bear speckled and spotted and ring-streaked in the story of Genesis. So look, don't worry about it. Let's say you're on the job and you're not getting a fair shake or you're getting ripped off or whatever. Hey, God will take care of you. You don't have to worry about it. God will make sure, and that's why you should be a slacker on the job. Sometimes people will say, well, I'm not really getting paid right or things aren't really fair for me so I'm going to go ahead and slack off. No, do your work as unto the Lord and then pray to God and God will help you out. God will help you to get paid. And God will take care of you in the end just like he did with Jacob, just like he said to you. But look, what did we learn from this? Psalm 10, James 5, that there are a lot of people in this world who are covetous, greedy, rich people. And then look, rich people are not all bad. But there are some people who are rich because they worked hard. And a lot of the people that you see that have money, nobody's giving away free money. So a lot of them worked hard to get where they're at. And so you don't want to just, you know, oh, man, these rich people, you know, just be against rich people. But wait a minute. There are a lot of rich people in this world, the Bible says, who oppress the poor, who basically get rich off the backs of other people. They try to see how little they can pay somebody, you know, and just walk away with the fat profits. And that's not right. That's wrong. You know, if you have somebody do something for you, if you have somebody do some work for you, you need to pay them for the work that they did and not, you know, just constantly use people for free and not give them any pay. And, you know, we're living in hard times right now, bad economy, you know. And sometimes, you know, people will do something for you, but you don't want to just use people, hire people and not pay them. This can become the mentality at church. It can. Like, you know, somebody's an electrician in church, oh, you know, come do all this electrical work for them. Now, look, it's okay if somebody wants to do it, okay, but to sit there and use somebody and manipulate somebody. Now, if somebody wants to do it, that's one thing. But, you know, if you use someone's services, you should pay them for that. You know, that's what the Bible says. Now, if somebody offers to do it free and doesn't want to be paid, praise the Lord for that. I used to have this policy. Whenever I would do work for people when I was in Sacramento, I would do work for people in the church if I wanted to do it for free, and I would never, I wouldn't accept payment because a couple of times I would work for people, like this one guy said, oh, I pay good. I was like, oh, cool, you know. So this guy at church is like, I pay good, you know. I'm like, hey, it sounds great. So I go to his house, and I'm climbing the attic. I worked at his house for about, you know, probably about five hours of just being in the attic, and it was really hot, it was the summer. I'm running all kinds of wiring for ceiling fans, and this job would have cost several hundred dollars, okay, from anybody, you know, like getting a contractor to do it. You know, so I'm doing all this work, doing all this work, I'm sweating, I was there for like four or five hours. He hands me a $20 bill. Now, here's the thing. If the guy wanted me to do it for him for free, I would have done it for free, and I would have been happy to do it for him. I would have loved to do it for free. I would have, you know, because this was a good guy, you know, he was serving the Lord. And you know, to this day, I'll do stuff for people that are serving God, that love God, and I'll be glad to do it. I want to do it, but come on. That wasn't fair, you know what I mean? To say I'm going to pay, if he would have just given me nothing, I would have been happier, because that's a slap. That's kind of like with us in salvation, you know. God sends his son, you know, bleeds and dies on the cross, buried and risen again, and then we, you know, well, I'm going to heaven because I go to church. We're trying to purchase the gift of God with like a $5 bill. And it's purchased with the blood of Christ. Okay. And that's the way sometimes people can be at church, though. They can start to use, they can start to abuse, instead of, you know, being kind. And look, if you need somebody's help, we ought to help each other and vary each other's burdens. I'm not against that at all. I hope you're getting the point of what I'm saying. We ought to help each other and vary each other's burdens, but there's a difference between that and just setting out to use, setting out to rip off, you know, setting out to get something for free, you know, setting out to just use and be, no, we do each other favors, you know, that's what friends are for, that's what church members are for, brothers and sisters in Christ, that's great, as long as that's what it is. As long as it's not this thing of, yeah, I can get all this work for real cheap, you know what I mean? And it's, you know, give this guy 20 bucks, you know, and he's going to work like an animal. It's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like Brett and I were out in, what town was that? Somewhere in L.A., right? We're out in L.A. and this car, you know, hits my car in the parking lot. It wasn't anything major, but she kind of scraped my car because this lady could not drive. She was, whoa, she was like Arabic, right? She was speaking Arabic and she could not drive. After she hits my car, she asks Brett, can you park the car because I can't even park it. So he parks it for her, okay? And then she sees that we have her. So I'm trying to get some money out of her, you know, so she just damaged my car. I'm like, well, you know, give me some money. Just damaged my car. And she's like, oh, she's like, I got this electrical work, because she saw that we had all these tools and everything. She's like, oh, do this electrical work at my house. And, you know, I got this light fixture, you know, it's going to take like five, ten minutes, you know, but I can't do it. It's going to take like five, ten minutes, put up this light fixture. And I'm like, well, how much are you going to get me to do it? She's like, just come by, just give me a call. And we're like, how much? Ha ha ha, call me. I'm like, what? You want to tell the truth, Brett? So we were done with work for the day, so we're like, hey, let's go make some extra money. So she said she'd give us like 50 bucks or something, you know, because it was just going to take just a little small thing, electrical work, you know, something to take a little. We get there, and I joked with Brett on the way over there, I was like, watch, we get there, it's going to be like a chandelier. It's not going to be a light fixture. We get there, and it was this huge chandelier with how many pieces? Two hundred? I mean, like, literally just all these little crystal balls, and I mean, it had some assembly required. We get there, and we're like, oh, good. I said, oh, you got to take this one down, move this one down. It was the biggest rip-off. We worked for so long on that thing. We just got like 25 bucks each. Great, you know. But, you know, that kind of thing, you know, that was a fun story. But anyway, the bottom line is, back to Psalm 10. We'll wrap this up right now. Basically, I mean, what kind of a random thing is that, where somebody runs into your car, and then they're trying to hire you to do electrical work? You know, this is a really weird thing. But, you know, and of course, she's acting like she's really poor, and we're supposed to feel sorry for her. Okay? Because she's driving this beat-up car. As soon as we get to her house, what kind of car was in the driveway? A Lexus. You know what I mean? But she's driving this beat-up car, acting all poor and everything, and then we get there, it's like a mansion, a Lexus, a chandelier, and we're doing this electrical work for 50 bucks. You know what I'm saying? That's, you know, that's not right. But God will avenge us, Brett. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Anyway, and then I get all done, and I'm like, all right, you know, can you pay us, you know, because she's just like, here, eat a banana, you know, this and that. And we're like, just give us bananas, and we're like, look, you gotta go. And then she's like, I don't have any money. And then she's like, oh, just kidding. I was like, girl, that's what I thought was going to happen. So anyway, what's the point of this whole chapter? Sometimes, let me just sum it up for you. Verse 1, sometimes you feel like, where's God? Because you see the poor being oppressed, being abused, being ripped off. You see the rich guy who's stealing, you know, you look at the people who are running our country, who are, you know, multi-millionaires, and off the backs of other people, and they're from these rich families, they didn't earn it, and so forth. And you just wonder, God, where are you in all this? You know, we see the wicked prospering, and we see the poor and the Christian persecuted and suffering on us. Hey, look, God is going to balance out the scale. That's kind of the whole message of the book of Psalms. But we need to pray to God when we have problems, not try to take things into our own hands and take our own kind of vengeance. The Bible says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will pray. Pray to God that God will avenge you, you know, that God will bless you, that God will take care of you. Work hard on your job. If you're getting ripped off, you know what, God will deal with it. God will make sure that you get paid, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man do, with the same shall he receive in the Lord, whether he be bond or free, the Bible says. And so God will take care of you, and, you know, don't worry about it. Just work hard, do what's right, serve God, don't love the wicked and the abomination, you know. Love those that love God, love the poor, preach the Gospel, do what's right, and God's going to take care of it. God's the king up in heaven. He'll hear your prayer, he'll hear your cries, and he'll balance the scale. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.