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Psalm 35, this is another one of the psalms where David is under extreme attack and he's in a lot of danger. He's crying out to God for help and really a lot of the psalms are David praying to God and usually asking for help, asking for some kind of deliverance. And here he's got these very evil enemies that want him dead, they want to destroy him, they want to destroy his family, they want to destroy everything that he has. And he's basically just crying out to God that God will step in and defeat his enemies for him. That's what this is about. Now, of course, many people will discount psalms like this and try to say that they don't apply anymore. The New Testament is different now. And there are so many people today who make void the Word of God through their tradition, or they make void the Word of God through their teaching. The Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. God, it was profitable. Well, that was written to them. No, the Bible is applicable today, the whole Bible, from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21. Now, we're not under the law in certain areas. Many of those things have been lifted. And the Bible explains that very clearly in the book of Hebrews, the book of Romans, and elsewhere, what changes have been made as we've entered the New Testament. They're very specific. But to throw out the Old Testament is wrong. And so we need to be applying these chapters to our lives. And even the laws that have been changed in the New Testament of necessity still have a lot of teaching that we can get from it and a lot of principles that we can learn from it, so we should not discount any of it. Now, the key to understanding this, let's go to Matthew chapter 5. You see, Psalm 35 is one of what's known as the imprecatory psalms. And basically it's a psalm where David is cursing his enemies, he's praying destruction upon them. And so many will go to Matthew 5 and say, well, wait a minute, that was then, this is now, this is the New Testament, those types of prayers don't apply anymore. Let's look at what Matthew 5 has to say. It says in verse number 17, and this is the important verse before we even get into chapter 5, it says, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And right away he says, I don't want you to get the wrong idea here that I'm negating something that's taught in the Old Testament. I'm not trying to tear down anything that was taught in the Old Testament. I'm just coming to basically add to it, to fulfill it, to make it come to pass. He says in verse 18, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, they shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Then he's going to go through and give us about six examples of things that he's going to fulfill, things that he's going to basically augment and add to. Let's look at them. It says in verse number 21, he have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. What does the Bible say, thou shalt not kill? Where is that found? Let me help you out. Exodus 20. Exodus 20 is one place. Deuteronomy 5 is another. And so that's found in the Bible, right? He says, but I say unto you, verse 22, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Rekha, shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Now let me ask you something. Is he saying that now it's okay to kill, but just don't do this other thing? No. Did he change anything about the Old Testament law? No. It was thou shalt not kill before. It's still thou shalt not kill. But then he just adds on to that, basically being angry with somebody for no reason, or basically picking a fight with somebody, saying offensive things to them just to get a rise, just to pick a fight with someone. He added to it. Did he make it more lenient or more strict? He's getting more strict because he's saying not just killing is wrong, but also picking a fight with somebody for no reason, and just being angry without a cause is also wrong. So he's making it more strict. Look at verse 27. You've heard that it was said by them of old times, here's the second example, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. The Old Testament command, thou shalt not commit adultery, still stands. He's just making that stronger by saying don't even look at a woman to lust after her. But that's a teaching that's already found in the Old Testament. Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, it says in the book of Proverbs. And other places teach against lust and coveting your neighbor's wife and all these different things. So it's really nothing new. It's just basically a clearer, stronger teaching of the same thing that was taught in the Old Testament. Let's go to verse 31. Here is the third example that he gives. It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, commiteth adultery. Now wait a minute. Did he change the Old Testament law? No, because in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 22 and 24 is where divorce was instituted in the Law of Moses. And in both of those chapters, the same thing is taught that the only permissible divorce is because of fornication, not because of adultery. Don't get that wrong. Because of fornication. If a man goes into his wife, he marries a wife, he thinks that she's a virgin, that's what's told to him. He gets married, finds her not to be a virgin, finds her not to be pure, finds some uncleanness in her or disease in her, then it says he has the right to put her away. But it says if that turns out not to be true, he cannot put her away. He cannot divorce her for any other reason. In Deuteronomy 22 and 24, it's clear there was only one reason why they were allowed to divorce their wife. And in Matthew chapter 1, you see Joseph, the husband of Mary, you know, of whom was born Jesus, Joseph finds out that Mary's pregnant. So he assumes that she basically has slept around. You know, they have been pure, they've been together, and they've been engaged to be married, and then now they actually are married, but they have not consummated the marriage. She's found to be with child. Well, all of a sudden, he's going to divorce her. He's going to basically end that marriage. And the Bible says he, being a just man, was minded to put her away purely. He had the right to do that, according to Deuteronomy 22 and 24, because of the fact that he had that revelation. But hold on a second. Nowhere does the Bible condone people who've already been married getting a divorce. Never. There's no other reason. And he says, if you divorce your wife, in verse 32, saving for the cause of fornication, and keep in mind, fornication is something you do before you're married. Adultery is when you're married. This is talking about something that happened before they were married, and it's not talking about years after they've been married. I mean, this is when he finds out right then and there he has the right to divorce his wife, if that revelation is made like it was with Joseph. He finds that out. But it says that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery. Jesus is teaching the same thing here. They teach it in Matthew 19, Luke 16, and elsewhere, that a person who divorces their wife, divorces their husband, and gets remarried is committing adultery. That's what the Bible says. Now, that's not a popular teaching, and it flies in the face of our society, and our society doesn't believe that, and churches don't preach that, and independent Baptists don't believe that. They believe that divorce is okay in certain circumstances, you get remarried. That's why more than half of people are getting divorced today. Because as soon as you take away God's restriction on divorce, you just open the floodgates and you have 75% of marriages ending in divorce, because you took away that teaching of God's Word in that second. Therefore, all kinds of children are in a broken home because of the result of divorce. Whereas in the old days, divorce was unheard of. It was even illegal in many places. I'm not saying that it should be illegal, I'm just saying that it should be unheard of among Christians, because it shouldn't be something that we do. And by the way, people try to justify divorce, but when I got married, I swore an oath, a vow, that said, In sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, and forsaking all others keep me only unto her so long as we both shall live, I said, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. I mean, there are some bad times that can happen in a marriage, but I do not believe it's ever right to break that promise. By the way, marriage pictures salvation. It's a picture of salvation. You've heard that one day all the believers will make up the bride of Christ. It's a picture there, it's a symbolism. And the Bible says, husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church. It's a symbolism that Jesus Christ says to us when we get saved, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. I'm glad that I can't lose my salvation no matter what I do wrong. No matter what sin I commit, God's not going to take away my salvation from me. That's what marriage is supposed to represent. That, you know, my wife does wrong, I do wrong. You know, there's forgiveness. We basically are in that bond until one of us dies. And so, did God change in verse 31 what he taught in the Old Testament? No. He's just reiterating it, emphasizing it, making it more clear what was already taught in Deuteronomy. So the first three examples have all been the same. Let's look at the next example. Look at verse number 33. It says again, you've heard that it had been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay, for whatsoever is more than these cometh people. Now, the Old Testament teaching was, don't break a vow to God. If thou bowest a vow to God, defer not to pay it. It says in Ecclesiastes, it says all throughout the Bible. But you'll notice that throughout the Old Testament, a lot of people just make a lot of just really flippant oaths. Have you noticed that? Just everything's, oh, as the Lord liveth, right? Have you noticed people saying that throughout the Old Testament? They'll just be blowing off their mouth, and sometimes they'll even lie. Like you remember Gehazi, Elisha's servant, and Elisha says Gehazi, you know, wither comest thou? He's like, where did you come from? And he said, you know, I didn't go anywhere. You know, as the Lord liveth. You know, people are just throwing around these oaths. But the teaching that you should not make an oath, and that it's better not to make an oath than to break that oath, that's what it says in the book of Ecclesiastes. It says it's better not to make an oath at all than to make an oath and then break it. And he's saying don't swear, you know, and you'll hear people say, I swear to God. First of all, it's almost like they're just taking God's name in vain. Kind of like people saying, oh my God. They're just kind of throwing around the name of God. Swear to God, oh my God. Instead of having reverence for the name of God, they just use it as an expletive. But the Old Testament teaching that you should not break a vow to God still stands today. That hasn't changed. God doesn't allow you to now lie and break your oath. He's just adding to that. He's just augmenting that by saying, hey, don't even swear all these swearing by your head, swearing by Jerusalem, swearing by God, swearing by heaven. He said, why don't you just say, yes, I'm going to do it. Yes, this is the truth. Yes, instead of saying, you know, yes or no, instead of saying all these oaths like, yes, you know, as the Lord liveth and all these different things. He said, you know, you shouldn't be just throwing those kind of statements around. So is he negating anything that's taught in the Old Testament? Is he contradicting anything that was taught in the Old Testament? No. And then we get to verse 38. He says, ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you that ye resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on my right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Now, the context in the Old Testament of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was basically the justice system. You know, he explained the laws. He said that if someone commits murder, you know, whosoever shedeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed from the image of God, maybe man. The Bible talks about, you know, somebody who assaults someone and harms somebody. And he says basically, you know, if you put out somebody's eye, your eye is going to be put out, you know. If you steal from someone, you're going to pay back fivefold. You know, this was the justice system, the criminal justice system, that was instituted in the Old Testament for the punishment of evildoers, those who harm others. And that's what government was set up for in the Old Testament. Look at Romans 13. Keep your finger in Matthew 5 and look at Romans 13. Keep your finger in Matthew 5 and let's go to Romans chapter 13. Romans... And this is all just introduction as we get into Psalm 35, because I'm going to tie all this in as we get into Psalm 35. But Romans 13 says this in verse 1, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise it the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore you must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For this cause pay you tribute also, for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing. Now according to Romans chapter 13 here, God has instituted human government. Even though the person who fills certain positions can be very evil and wicked, God has instituted that we as human beings have human government for the punishment of evildoers, according to Romans 13. Not to be a terror to good works, but to punish the evildoer, punish those that harm others. The revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. That's what the Bible says. That he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. And it says he beareth not the sword in vain. Now what do you do with a sword? Do you give somebody a spanking with a sword? What do you do with a sword? What is the only use for a sword? To kill somebody. It's basically a weapon. It's a mortal weapon. It's a deadly weapon. So does it sound like God has changed his stance on the death penalty of Romans 13? No, he's saying there's a job for human government to do. It's not to run every area of your life. It's not to put a camera in your house and watch you sleep at night. But they do have a job. And that's why I would not call myself an anarchist. I wouldn't say I'm for anarchy. Now I've said before that if we were to institute God's government, from the Old Testament, on the United States, people would call it anarchy. Because it would be like basically one one-thousandth or one ten-thousandth the size of our current government. And people would think it was anarchy because we're just so used to just having all this government, all these rules, all these regulations. But I'm not an anarchist because an anarchist, basically the word anarchy means no government. You think monarchy is the rule of one. Anarchy is basically no one in authority, no rule. And I know a lot of people have other definitions of the word anarchy and so forth. But I don't like that word because it sounds like you just don't want any government. And I do think that there is a place for government, and it's the only job that God ever gave government throughout the whole Old Testament or New Testament, is for the punishment of evildoers, not sinners. We all sin every day. But evildoers, those who harm others and bring hurt to other people. And that's why God's laws were instituted to protect us and so that we would not just have to revenge ourselves, basically, that government would be there to execute judgment upon the evildoer. So God has not changed his position on capital punishment. God has not changed his position on the death penalty that he instituted in Genesis chapter 9 when he said, When he said, All throughout the Old Testament we see the death penalty. We see the death penalty in Romans 13, that it's ordained by God, that those who murder and rape and kill need to be put to death. They need to be revenged. And God set up human government for that purpose. So God has not changed. Go back to Matthew chapter 5. God has not changed his position on the criminal justice system. The law of the Lord is perfect. God's laws in the Old Testament are perfect. They don't need to be changed. They could run a society very well. A free society could operate using those laws. But that's not the society we live in. That's not the society that Jesus lived in because he was living under Roman rule and he was living under a more oppressive government and so forth. But look what it says here. Verse 38. This is talking about not avenging yourself. This is somebody who walks up to you and slaps you in the face. You don't have to avenge it. You don't have to sue them. You don't have to worry about it. It's just basically you just let it go. Somebody calls you a bad name. Somebody slaps you in the face. Somebody wants to take something from you. Just give it to them. Don't worry about it. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians where it talks about Christians suing other Christians in the church. It said, brother, go unto law against brother and that before the unbelievers. It said, just suffer yourself to be defrauded. Same teaching is right here. In Romans chapter 12, he says this, verse 19. Okay. So here we see that God's telling us, don't take it into your own hands. Just let God revenge you. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Don't avenge yourself. You don't have to settle to score yourself. And then right the next verse, he gets into Romans 13 and starts explaining how there's human government there to take vengeance. To take revenge. So it's not wrong to turn somebody over to the law to be punished. Because God says don't avenge yourself. Let things go. He's talking about minor things. He's saying, look, just let it go. Somebody smites you. Somebody takes your jacket. Let it go. Big deal. But then for the bigger things, he said, human government is there to step in. And that's what Romans 13 is all about. So back to Matthew chapter 5, God's not changing what he taught in the Old Testament. He's just explaining to people, look, just because it's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth doesn't mean that you need to take that into your own hands and settle every score on this earth. Rather, just leave it in God's hands. You don't have to settle every score. If somebody smites you on the face, let it go. See, me as a pastor, I'm not supposed to be a striker. The Bible says that the pastor is not supposed to be a striker. And that's why, since I've been the pastor, I've never struck anyone. I've never socked somebody in the face or anything since I've been the pastor. Let's say somebody hit me in the face. You know, and it was just an insult to me. You know, I would just stand down because that's what God's telling me to do, right? But let's say somebody's trying to kill me or kidnap me or attack my family or something. You know, that's where self-defense kicks in. But see, you interpret the Bible with itself. He says not a striker, but then over here, he says not a brawler. Then you kind of get the idea of what he's saying. Not going out, picking fights, or somebody insults me or spits in my face and I just sock them in the face. That's what he's saying when he means no strike. He's not saying not to defend yourself. But, you know, I've never had to defend myself so far. But if I have to, then I will, obviously. But that's what he's teaching here. So far we've had five examples. Thou shalt not kill. Nope, we're still not allowed to kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. The one about divorce, nothing changed. The one about oaths and swearing to God, nothing changed. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, nothing changed. He's just clarifying it. He's just teaching it more. Look at verse 43. Ye have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Now let me ask you something. Does it say that anywhere in the Old Testament? No. The answer is no. That is not found anywhere in the Old Testament. You can look high and low. The Bible never says anywhere, not even anything similar to Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. Now it says, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But nowhere does it say, Thou shalt hate thine enemy. But see, he doesn't say here that the Bible says that. He just says, you've heard that it had been said. Somebody said that. You've heard that somewhere. You've heard that thought. You've heard that preached. But it's false. That's what he's saying. Does everybody get that? He's saying, you've heard that, but I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Be therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. So here God tells us to love our enemies, right? Somebody talks bad about us, persecutes us, hates us. We're to love them and bless them and pray for them. Now hold on a second. People will try to use this passage and say, see, it's wrong to ever hate anyone. Now is that what that says? Does that say it's wrong to ever hate anybody? Now if it were wrong to ever hate anybody, then that would contradict a lot of other verses in the Bible. A lot. Including a lot of the book of Psalms. A ton of verses in the Bible, and probably 30 different Psalms would just be negated and let me tell you something, the Bible doesn't contradict itself. He didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets and David is a prophet and the book of Psalms is the prophets. Look if you would at Acts 1. You see, whenever you see something in the Bible that looks like a contradiction to you, it's not the Bible that's wrong, it's you that's wrong. And so many times in my life, I've thought I've seen a contradiction and then did a little more reading, studying and understood that wait a minute, I was reading it wrong. I was understanding it wrong. Look at Acts 1 and look at verse 16. It says, Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. So who did the speaking? The Holy Ghost. And whose mouth did he use to speak? David. So it was the Holy Ghost speaking. It was God speaking through David's mouth. I can show you about 15 verses that say the same thing, either talking about David's mouth, Isaiah's mouth, Jeremiah's mouth. God spake through men of God. Holy men of God spake as they are removed by the Holy Ghost. So when we're reading the book of Psalms, because if you just go down to verse 20, he says, For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take. Now is that a blessing or a curse right there that you just read? He's not blessing him. He's not asking for good things to happen to him. He's praying bad things to happen to him. Let his habitation be desolate. That's bad. It says, Let his bishopric let another take. That's bad. Okay, and if you go read that chapter, Psalm 69, where that comes from, there are a lot of other, or Psalm 109, a lot of other really negative things that it says in the exact same passage. A whole list of curses, like 20 verses long. Now go back to Psalm 35. So what have we established so far? Number one, the book of Psalms is God's word. It was spoken by God using the mouth of David. A lot of people will just say, Oh, that's just David talking in the book of Psalms. But then you'll show them something literally from the New Testament, and they'll say, That's just Paul talking. I mean, that's what the Catholics have been saying for years. You try to give them the Gospel, and you'll show them Romans, and they'll say, Oh, that's just Paul talking. Let me show you what Jesus said. Hey, I'll show you what Jesus said all day long, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. But they'll try to say, Well, Paul said this, but that's just Paul. And then really, in Psalms, it's just David. Oh, that's just David. And then what? You get to the first and second Peter. That's just Peter talking. And the book of Matthew, that's really just Matthew's interpretation, right? Pretty soon you're left with no Bible at all. And that just proves what these people really believe, that the Bible's not God's word, that the Bible's written by man, that the Bible's filled with mistakes. And you know what? If you believe that, fine. But I don't believe that. I believe that all Scripture's given by inspiration of God. I believe that holy men of God's faith is there removed by the Holy Ghost. I believe that every word of God is pure. He's a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add that out unto his words that Steve reproved thee and now we've found a liar. So don't just get to a verse you don't understand and try to make it void. Try to negate it. That's what people will do. They get to a verse they don't understand, Oh, that's just David. Just Paul, it's Matthew. Boy, that Matthew, I tell you what. Or they get to a verse they don't understand and say, Oh, that's just talking to the Jews. That's not for us. That's just Timothy. Or they get to a verse that they don't understand and don't like, they'll find some way to explain it away, to where basically by the time they chew it up and spit it out, it doesn't mean anything anymore. Or they go to the Greek or the Hebrew to show you why it doesn't really mean what it says. But wait a minute. Now, I don't know about you, I just believe Psalm 35 is God's word. And I'm going to show you how it actually jives with Matthew 5 and Romans 12 and 13. Look if you would, because he's praying this curse, but go down a little bit and start reading in verse number 11. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. Now it sounds like David had done good to these people, doesn't it? Because it says they rewarded them evil for good. But keep reading. I'm sorry, what verse am I in? 13. 13. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. Now doesn't it sound like he had prayed for people? Because putting on a sackcloth was something that you would put that on and you would pray to God. It was something basically, it was like fasting, wearing sackcloth was something that they would do when they prayed. As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting and my prayer returned into my own bosom. So was he praying for these people? Yeah. Did he love them? Yeah, when they were sick, he was praying for them. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourneth for his mother. 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 cease not. Lord, with hypocritical mockers and feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth. 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 many 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. And he goes on and on. Do you see the idea here? It's not that David just somebody rose against him, somebody was an enemy to him, and he just started praying curses down from God on them. No. He tried to do the right thing, didn't he? He did the right thing. I mean, he prayed. He blessed them. He tried to do what God told them. He tried to overcome evil with good. Right? But let's start reading in verse number one. Because you see, it comes a point, and keep your finger there, just flip over to Ecclesiastes 3. Keep your finger in Psalm 35. Over in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, it says in verse 1, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and a time to sow, a time to keep silence and a time to speak. Look at this. A time to love and a time to hate. So it's not hate that's the problem. The Bible says there is a time to love. There's a time to fight and there's a time to be at peace. There's a time to build something and there's a time to destroy something. God has ordained different times for different actions for different situations. But people want to just put God in a little box and just say, God's just all love all the time. You know, we just get him out every once in a while and we just love. And it's all about love. But the Bible's not all about love. You know, the Bible says God is love, but it also says holy is the Lord. The Bible says also that God's a God of wrath and vengeance and anger, that God hates the evil-doer, that God hates those who love violence. Psalm 5-5, Psalm 11-5, it says he hates the wicked and deceitful and bloodthirsty man. I mean, God's the God of heaven, but he's the God of hell. And there are millions and millions of people burning in hell right now, suffering the fate of being under God's wrath for eternity. So if God were just all love and all forgiveness, no one would ever go to hell. But his justice and his wrath demands that sin be punished in hell for eternity. So you have to get the full view here of God. You have to get the full view of Psalm 35. It's not just David praying destruction on his enemies in Psalm 35. First, he tried to win them over. He tried to do the right thing. He tried to bless them. He tried to be good to them. But it got to the point where his life is literally in danger. I mean, they're literally lying away to destroy them. You got to understand, he's talking about physical enemies that are trying to kill them, that are trying to murder them, that are trying to murder the people that he loves. At this point, he's not just saying, oh, God, you know, God bless them. I mean, if somebody comes and bursts into your house tonight with a gun to kill you, you know, here, let me give you something cold to drink. You see what I'm saying? But people, they get an imbalanced teaching because they don't know the Bible because they go to a church that preaches about 1% of the Bible. And so that's the 1% that they dwell on, just the positive only part. They don't get the whole picture where the Bible flat out says in Deuteronomy that if somebody breaks into your house in the middle of the night, you have the right to kill them and that you're totally innocent if you do so. If somebody breaks into your house at night, kill them. If somebody breaks into my house tonight, I'm going to kill them. And I'll ask questions later. And you say, well, call the police. I'll call the police to come pick up the body. But I'm going to kill them because it's more important to me to keep my family safe. And so you have to understand here what God teaches. Yes, I should love my enemies. And one of the big reasons why you should love your enemies is because a lot of times your enemy today will be your friend tomorrow. It's true. I mean, so many times I've had enemies. I mean, I've had people who hated my guts, literally. I mean, they just did not like me. They did everything they could to talk bad about me, to attack me, to criticize me. And those people later became good friends. And a lot of times you can do what the Bible said and overcome evil with good. You can be good to those that hate you and despise you, and eventually they'll become your friend. You can win them over. Maybe you can win them to Christ. Or even if they don't get saved, they can just understand that you're not as bad of a person as they thought, or they can get over whatever it is that's making them so mad. I mean, I can give you example after example. One example, I worked at a job in the fire alarm business, and there was a guy, and this guy just treated everybody like dirt in this company. He was one of these people. You probably work with people like this. He's just grumpy every day. He's in a bad mood every day, just blowing off his mouth. He couldn't get along with anybody. They would always send this guy to go work by himself, you know, because he was one that didn't really work well with others, because he was extremely good at what he did, very good. Well, I'd go to work with this guy, and sometimes whenever I'd get paired up with this guy, like, okay, you know, you two guys go work on that job, you'd be kind of like, oh, man, you know, just because he wasn't a fun guy to be around. He was really good at the job, you know, if you made any mistake, you're an idiot and everything, you know, one of those kind of guys, and he's just in a bad mood in general all the time, just complaining about everything. Well, one time, there was a situation where I had not done anything wrong. It wasn't my fault at all, you know, and the guy just laid into me one time in front of another technician at the company. I mean, he just started just cursing me up one side and down the other, just ripping on me, and you know what, I just took it, and then I basically said something nice to him a little bit later on in the day. I was just nice to him, and you know what? After that, he was never rude to me again. I was like the only person he was nice to after that. Another guy in the same company, similar thing. This other guy was already a nice guy in the first place, but what happened, a different story. Another guy, same company. He was a nice guy in the first place, but he got in trouble with the boss for a mistake that he made, okay, so he's real upset and on edge, and he basically took it out on me, cursed me out, chewed me, told me off, and you know, I just took it. I was nice to him. I didn't, my pride, you know, I got to set the record straight here. I'm not going to let people talk to me like that. You know, I just went ahead and just took it, humbled myself, and from then on, that guy was like my best friend in the company. He was my best ally. He would always cover for me. He would always try to help me, and I made an ally. You know, so you don't want to just get in a war with your next-door neighbor. You know, you have to live next to that person, first of all. You know, I'll show them. Yeah, well, you're going to, you know, you're going to have this feud that's just going to go back and forth, and it's never going to end, and so you should just try to let things go, do right by people, and you know, if somebody's lying about you at work, and people will lie about you at work, won't they? Almost everybody's probably had somebody lie about you at work to cover their own behind. They're going to lie about you and throw you under the bus. It happens all the time at every job. You have to decide, you know what, am I going to retaliate, or am I going to just do the right thing, turn the other cheek, and bless them that curse me, pray for them that are spiteful against me, and so forth. You can make an ally. Now, look, whenever I was at the, you know, the Border Patrol checkpoint and got beaten, and I'm, you know, handcuffed up, blood gushing down my face, and they're laughing at me and making fun of me, literally. I mean, razzing me, and I, you know, I'm not going to go through the story, because I've said before all the things that they said to razz me, to razz me. When it was fresh in my mind, I gave all the exact quotes of how they were taunting me, mocking me, asking me if I had STDs, because they had my blood all over their hands and blood dripping from their hands. They're like, oh, man, you don't have AIDS, do you? You know, and they're laughing at me, razzing me. But you know what? As sure as I'm standing here right now, I memorized all their names, part of it so that I could turn them in, you know, for what they've done to me, obviously, over to the revenger of wrath. But you know what? I got in the car, in the squad car, in the back of the car, jammed all up in there, not allowed to go to the bathroom, handcuffed, bloody, in pain, and you know what? I prayed for all of them that they would be saved, literally, and I promise you. And I said it the day after it happened. I mean, I prayed for them to be saved. I said, God, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I said, these guys, you know, I said, they're brainwashed, or they've been taught something wrong here or something. But I said, God, even though they've done this to me, I don't want them to go to hell. I prayed that some preacher in Yuma, Arizona, would knock on their door, give them the gospel, that somebody would come to their house and get them and their family saved, or at least give them a chance to be saved. And I prayed for them. Why? Because just because somebody attacked me, just because somebody did wrong by me doesn't mean that I'm just going to hate them and just, you know, want them to die and go to hell because they wronged me, okay? Because to be honest with you, I don't necessarily think that all those guys are just evil, twisted, sick, bloodthirsty people that God hates. I don't believe that. I think some of them are just doing their job, following orders, you know? Yes, I'll turn on the gas chamber, Adolf, you know, whatever. They're just going with the flow. They're going to do whatever they're told because they're stupid. But that doesn't mean that they're evil or wicked. Do you understand what I'm saying? That they're just reprobate monsters. I don't necessarily think that they are. Maybe none of them are. Maybe they're all pretty decent guys. But you know what? They're doing the wrong thing. Obviously, they're totally messed up, and what they did to me was very wrong. But you know what? I still prayed them and blessed them, and I've totally forgiven them in my heart. I'm not holding some kind of a grudge or anger. Yeah, I want to make them pay. You know, hey, I want to get paid because I have to recover all the money that I lost, you know? But I'm not just out on a vendetta to hurt them. I really don't... I hope that they live long and happy lives, and I can say that from the bottom of my heart. But is that how I feel about Charles Manson? Is that how I feel about Adolf Hitler? Is that how I feel about Jeffrey Dahmer? Is that how I feel about people who are mass murderers or rapists or child molesters or pedophiles? No. Because those people, according to the Bible, are reprobate. God does hate them. God does wish destruction upon them. And basically, when David came to the point where he realized that these people are bloodthirsty, they're not just in a feud with him, they're not just trying to lie about him and persecute him. No, they're trying to murder him. They're trying to abuse him. They're trying to rape and kill and all these different things. And he just says, you know what, God, just kill these suckers. So let's read the chapter as we go. And you say, well, I don't agree with your interpretation. Well, you know what, that's fine. Come up with your own interpretation. Just make sure it doesn't contradict the Bible. You know what I mean? Just make sure you don't say, well, I believe this part in Matthew 5, but this part in Psalms, I have a real problem with that. Wait a minute, it's all from God. And so if your interpretation is filled with contradictions or you're chopping out huge sections of the Bible, then you're wrong. So if you have a better interpretation than me, then great. As long as you're not going to tell me that God loves everybody when I got, I think, what did I make a list of, like 19 verses of who God specifically says I hate these people, like 20 times? If you're going to tell me, well, God just loves everybody, you just don't know what you're talking about. You're just ignorant of the Bible because I've got 20 verses about Him hating people. And they say, oh, hate doesn't really mean hate. It just means He likes them a little less. Okay, that's why He said, I like you a little less, so I'm going to break the teeth out of your head and send you to hell. That's bad. I hate to be liked a little less by somebody like that. That almost sounds like hate. Oh, wait a minute, that is what it said, hate. But people just think, like, hate is a cuss word. Woo, woo! How many times have people said, just don't say hate? They're like, I agree with you, I agree with everything you're saying. They're like, and I hate them too, but just don't say hate. Just find a different word. But you know, the Bible says hate, I'm going to say hate. So I'm going to speak in the words that the Holy Ghost speak it. But let's look at verse number one. Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me. Fight against them that fight against me. I mean, He's in a desperate situation here. He needs help. He needs God to step in and fight these people. He says, take hold of sheep. He needs God to step in and fight these people. He says, take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for my help. Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. I mean, it's pretty bad, right? I want God to fight these people. I want the angel of the Lord to chase them. I want them to be confused. I want them to be confounded. I want their way to be dark and slippery. Verse six, let the angel of the Lord persecute them. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon him at unawares. He's praying for these people to be destroyed. And let his net that he had hid catch himself into that very destruction, let him fall, and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord. It shall rejoice in his salvation. So he's saying, hey, make this guy fall, let him be destroyed, let him slip, let him fail, and then I'll be joyful about it. And then I'll praise God for it, that God stepped in here. So you've got to get a balance here, and so many people are imbalanced today in their Christianity. They're imbalanced in their reading of the Bible. You've got to get the whole picture and balance it. You've got to balance heaven with hell, okay? You've got to balance God's Word. It says in verse number, what verse are we in? Ten. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him? Yea, the poor and the needy, from him that spoileth him. False witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good. We already read this part about all the good things that he tried to do, you know, humbling his soul with fasting, praying for them, helping them, and so forth. Let's jump down to verse number 20. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, Aha, aha, or I had seen it. 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 Lord, or my God of my Lord. Judge me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, 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 my 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. 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 of thy praise all the day long. Let's just look at a couple other verses real quick. Go to Psalm 139, just in case you don't believe me. Psalm 139. You know, I don't want you to believe me. Just believe the Bible. That's all I ask. Psalm 139. Look at Psalm 139, verse number 19. Psalm 139, verse 19, the Bible says this, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Flip back to Psalm 109. Psalm 109. Psalm 109. Because this is going to back up the exact same thing in Psalm 109 as we saw in Psalm 35. And remember that Psalm 109 was quoted in Acts chapter 1 as being God's word. You know, not that I should have to tell you that the book of Psalms is God's word. But in case I do, look at verse number 2. For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. Watch this. For my love, they are my adversaries. So look, he did love his enemies like in Romans 12 and Romans 13 he was supposed to. He says, but I gave myself unto prayer and they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. He's saying, look, I tried it out at first, loving my enemies, but then basically now they're to the point where they just want me dead and they're going to kill me and so forth. He says, set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few and let another take his office. Somebody says, you know, you should pray for all of our leaders, you know, if you prayed for Barack Obama today. You know what? I actually haven't. I have not prayed yet today for Barack Obama. So let's bow our heads and let's pray right now, okay? And this one, we're going to pray this exact prayer. I'm not kidding around. Let's pray right now. Dear God, let his days be few and let another take his office. In Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, so nobody can accuse me of not praying for these people. I just prayed for Barack Obama to die and then, you know, that's what it says. So let his days be few and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds in vain. Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the stranger spoil his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off and in the generation following let their names be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. And we could go on and on. I mean, there's more. It's the whole rest of the chapter, okay? And this is one out of thirty Psalms that are called the imprecatory Psalms. Cursing Psalms, basically, is what they're known as. It's a man. And we're not going to belabor the point and go through it all, but let me just put it this way. There are going to be times when people do you wrong. You know, they slap you in the face. They make fun of you. They lie about you on the job. They steal from you. They take your jacket. They steal your lunch money. You know, if you're a kid at school, they take your lunch. Who as a kid had people steal your lunch and steal? Nobody stole your lunch? Good night, man. I had my lunch stolen so many times. My mom used to work at JC Penney, and her lunch kept getting stolen from the break room. And it said, you know, Susan on it. And so me and my mom used to do this thing. Every time she would go to work, we would give her this really tough sounding name and put it on her lunch. So we said, watch, it's never going to get stolen again. The first day we wrote, butch. You know, nobody stole it. The next day, Jamal. Nobody stole it. It was like a joke to come up with like the toughest, like baddest sounding names. And we put it on the lunch. It was always like a man's name, like a really tough name. And nobody stole our lunch ever again. When it was Susan, it was just like, you know, people just take it. You know, people are going to do wrong to you. You can't just, you don't just pray down fire from God on them, you know, and just pray that they'll die and hate them. You should love your enemies. Try to reach out to them. Try to bless them. Try to get them saved and so forth. Remember when, that's what John and, remember James and John said, hey, let's just pray down fire on these people in Samaria because they won't receive us. And he said, look, you know, you don't understand. They said, let's do it like Elijah. But the difference was the people were coming to kill Elijah when he prayed down fire and consumed them. Now he wasn't wrong because if he was wrong, I don't think God would have sent the fire and consumed him because God did kill him. So I don't think that was the wrong prayer when Elijah prayed for those people to be killed with fire from heaven. But see, James and John weren't being killed. They were just somebody, you know, done them wrong. And they were taken a little too far, okay. And that's the message tonight, you know. People are going to do you wrong. You basically try to reach out to them, try to love them, right, try to pray for them, try to bless them. But then there are times when people might do something extremely wrong. Like I'm talking about something really bad. Like somebody's molested. Somebody's raped. Somebody's murdered. Somebody, you know, I mean, I'm talking about something horrible that God says should be punished with death, you know. Some horrible, wicked crime is committed. Often times you're not going to get justice in this world. And, you know, the temptation is going to be there to take it into your own hands, right. You know, I mean, think about it. You're going to be tempted with someone you love that would be raped or molested or killed, you know. You'd want to just take it into your own hands. You wouldn't be satisfied with what our justice system is doing perhaps. But God says not to take it into your own hands. Vengeance belongeth unto me. That's where you could pray one of these prayers like in the book of Psalms and pray that God would kill that person. That God would bring justice and bring judgment upon that person. But you know what? That would give you relief when you put it in God's hands and say, you know what, God? Just take care of it, God. You know, and really when you're praying something bad to happen to someone who's one of these wicked, disgusting, vile human beings that would rape and kill and murder and all these different things. You know, it's not taking things into your own hands. It's the opposite of taking things into your own hands. It's putting it in God's hands. You know, people accused me, remember? They accused me like, you're trying to kill the president because I prayed for him to die. But hold on a second. That's the opposite of taking it into my own hands. That's just praying that God will step in and bring about justice. You know, and you say, oh, that's so horrible. What about his two little girls? What about all the hundreds of thousands of little girls in Iraq and Afghanistan? What about all the little girls being aborted today? What about the thousands of little girls being murdered in their mother's womb today? But that doesn't matter. Nobody will shed a tear tonight about people, civilians being killed in Iraq. Nobody will even shed a tear about that. But oh, oh, oh, how did you wish something bad to happen to the president? Well, look, if he's going to keep sending our troops over there to kill innocent people like he's doing, if he's going to still keep funding and pushing forward the military-industrial complex takeover of the world, murdering and massacring innocent people, just look at the numbers. I don't care what website you go to. Go to one that's pro-war. Go to one that's against the war. Go to any media outlet. Just look at the numbers of civilians killed in Iraq. Civilians. I'm not talking about soldiers. Civilians. It's hundreds of thousands by anybody's numbers. I mean, we're talking women, children. We're talking just innocent people, pregnant ladies. I mean, it's all there, folks, and you can stick your head in the sand about it, but the people who are running our country are evil. They worship Satan. They literally go worship Satan outside of San Francisco every year and do all kinds of homo stuff and weird stuff. Everybody knows about it. You know, it's in the news, but it's just like, ha ha. Yeah, these guys are blowing off a little scene. You know, go worship Molech and Satan for a while and, you know, have their little toga party, like a bunch of fags. You know, it's just like, oh, don't worry about it. It's no big deal, but you know what, my friend? I'm not going to take it into my own hands. I'm not, you know, building bombs and everything like that. You know what? I'm just leaving it in God's hands. Our battle is a spiritual battle. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers. Will I defend myself? Of course. You know, if somebody breaks into my house, they're going to die. I have a sign outside my house that says that in my alley, you know? But what I'm saying is, you know, I'm going to preach God's word. I'm going to go out and win people to Christ. My goal is not to destroy men's lives, but to save men's lives. And the only reason that I want President Obama to die and, you know, I could give you a long list of other people in our government that would like to die is because of the fact that they are occasioning the death of millions. You know what I mean? And you can sit there and say, oh, that's terrible that you'd wish that these people would die. Wouldn't it be great to stop the killing of all the thousands and millions of people that they've killed? I mean, over one million dead Iraqis between Bush and Obama administration, and they're the commander in chief. That's where the responsibility lies. The buck stops there. And Bush and Obama, under their administrations, over one million dead Iraqis, the vast majority of civilians. You know? For what? Somebody's making a lot of money out of it. You know, the love of money is the root of all evil. But I'm not trying to give a big political treatise tonight. I just want you to understand that, you know, there's no contradiction in the Bible. The book of Psalms is as appropriate today as today's newspaper. You know? So I hope you'll read it and love it and put it into practice in your life. And not just be just on a hair trigger to revenge and hate and everything. You know what? Try to get along with people as much as is possible in you, the Bible says. Try to live in peace with all men. And that's all I want is just peace. To live a peaceful life and just raise my family and do right and be left alone. Right? I mean, that's all we want. Just to live quite a peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. But some people don't want to let us do that, unfortunately. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we love you and thank you for your word, dear God. And we thank you for loving us and saving us and calling us for the holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to your own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Thank you so much for salvation. And thank you for a church of people who love you and love to win souls and preach the gospel. Please just help us to do right this week, dear God. And help us to read the Bible daily. And to be filled with the Spirit and bring us back safely on Sunday morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.