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They are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. This time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, put up your hand nice and high. We'll get to you with one. On the inside we have our service time. Sunday mornings at 1030 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. Tonight we'll be in Psalm 66. We've got the soul winning times listed there below, as well as salvations and baptisms. And then the Bible memory passage is just wrapping up over the next couple weeks. Isaiah 40, 21 through 31. Coffee and donuts this Sunday morning before the service, so you can show up early for that at 10 a.m. Shuttle to Tucson is tomorrow at 3.30 sharp. And then we're taking a break from the singing classes, so those are not going to be happening. On the back, there's a field trip announced there for the Wildlife World Zoo Aquarium and Safari Park. You're going to be meeting at the zoo entrance by 9.30 a.m. You've got to be on time. Realize that it's like 45 minutes away. Take into account Murphy's Law. Get there on time. Because if you're late, you're going to be like, Lord, Lord, open to us. And they're just going to be like, I know you're not, whence you are. Depart from me. So once the door is shut, it's over. Because if you show up late, isn't there a threat? Yeah, there we go. See that little asterisk? Late arrivals will not be admitted with our group. All right? That means you're going to be paying your own way. Please RSVP. You've got to RSVP to Suzanne Forte. Where is she here? There she is. All right. Suzanne Forte. Send her an email or do it on Facebook, but make sure that you communicate with her. Then we've got the annual chili cook-off, Saturday, October 31st, from 4.30 to 7.30. And the cutoff to have your chili here, if you want it entered, is 5 o'clock. Weekly events. We've got the preaching class every Tuesday night at 7 for participants only. And then, of course, we have the Spanish night coming up on October the 8th. It's always the second Thursday of every month, if you want to put it on a calendar as a recurring event or something like that. That's when it happens. That's about it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the sole winning from the past few days. Going back to Monday the 28th. Anything from Monday the 28th. Gotcha. Okay. Got it. That's not the same team with three as... Okay. No relation. All right. Yep. Got it. Anything else from Monday? All right. What about Tuesday? All right. One, two. Gotcha. Anything else from Tuesday? All right. And then how about today? Did we have anything in the van? I don't think so. Anything outside the van? Gotcha. Any... Oh, got it. That's in the van. Oh, it was outside the... Okay. All right. Get your story straight. Anything else from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work with sole winning. Let's sing our next song. Come lead us. We're going to do Psalm 67. This should be in your hymnal. It's a little sheet. Please raise your hand if you don't have one. Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be glad. And sing for joy. For thou such a people. Righteously and of earth. The nations of honor. The nations of honor see the heart. Let the people praise thee. Oh, God. Let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be glad. And sing for joy. And shall the earth give her in grace. And God, even her own, God shall bless us. God shall bless us in all the ends. Of the earth shall fear him. Let the people praise thee. Oh, God. Let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be glad. And sing for joy. All right. We're going to do one more song in our hymnal. Song 310. Footprints of Jesus. Song 310. 310. Thee, dear Lord, have we heard Thee calling, come, follow me. And we see footprints falling, lead us to Thee. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. Though they lead o'er the cold, our mountain's seeking his sheep. Or along Barcelona's mountains, helping the beach. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. If they lead through the temple, holy, preaching the word. Or in homes of the poor and lowly, serving the Lord. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. Then at last, when Almighty sees us, our journey done. We will walk where the steps of Jesus stand at his throne. Footprints of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 66. Psalm 66, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning in verse number one. Follow along silently with Brother Hester as he reads Psalm 66, starting in verse number one. Psalm 66, and the Bible reads. Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. Sing forth the honor of his name, make his praise glorious. Say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works. Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee. They shall sing to thy name, Selah. Come and see the works of God. He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on foot. There did we rejoice in him. He ruleth by his power forever. His eyes behold the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves, Selah. O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard, which holdeth our soul in life and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God, has proved us. Thou hast tried us as silver has tried. Thou hast brought us into the net. Thou lates defliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but thou brought us out into a wealthy place. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats, Selah. Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, but verily God hath heard me. He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. Dear Lord, we just thank you for your mercy, Lord, and your salvation, and for your Son Jesus Christ, and we just pray tonight, Lord, that you bless this sermon and fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Psalm 66, the Bible reads in verse 1, Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. Sing forth the honor of his name. Make his praise glorious, saying to God, How terrible art thou in thy works. Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. And again in this psalm, we have this theme of the entire earth, the entire world, worshipping the Lord, not just the nation of Israel. So in the ancient world, people were really geographical and territorial when it came to their religion. You've got the god of the Philistines and the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Moabites. I mean, you literally just go 10 or 20 miles and you're in the territory of a different god because they thought that, you know, there are all these different gods and that each nation kind of has its patron god or whatever. But in reality, God is the god of the entire earth. There's one god and he's constantly making that point in the Old Testament because a lot of people are just thinking, OK, that's the god of Israel. That's the god of the Hebrews. And some people even have that attitude today, although not as much today. But sometimes you'll run into people. They'll say, oh, that's the white man's religion or something. When you're at the Navajo reservation, for example, that's a white white man's religion. So it's that same type of mentality that thinks that each geography has its own religion. And a lot of people think today, hey, there are many different paths that lead to God. And, you know, the Hindus have their religion and the Buddhists have their religion. But it's all kind of pointing at the same god. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible is clear. There's one god, the true god that created heaven and earth. And the Bible says the gods of the nations are idols. They have mouths, but they speak not. They have eyes, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. And so God is constantly making that point in the Old Testament that there is only one true God and that these other gods are false gods. And we learn in the New Testament that people who worship false gods are actually worshipping demons. They're actually worshipping devils. Because the Bible says the things that the Gentiles offer in sacrifice unto God, they offer to devils. And I would not think you should have fellowship with devils. But when you worship an idol, you might think, oh, this idol is nothing. It's just a piece of wood, piece of stone. Who cares if we bow down to it? But you're actually bowing down to the demon that that idol represents, which is why idolatry is so bad. Because it's not just nothing. It's not just fake because there really are evil spirits and devils and that's who false religions are worshipping. So here he talks about making a joyful noise to God in verse 1 from all lands. And then in verse number 4 it says, All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee, they shall sing to thy name. And that's a theme that gets harped on over and over again in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Psalms, about how the whole world is going to worship God someday. And like I said last week, we have a partial fulfillment of that right now. You know, in the Old Testament, when they're saying, look, the whole world is going to worship the Lord. Everybody's going to know who the Lord is. Nobody's going to say to his neighbor or to his brother, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. Everybody's going to know me. Now, we don't have the full literal fulfillment of that right now, but we will in the millennium. When Jesus is raining on this earth in the millennium, you'll have a literal fulfillment where literally everyone will know who the Lord is. And literally, you know, the whole world is going to be under his literal dominion. But even now, there's a partial fulfillment in the sense that in every country in the world, people are worshiping the Lord right now. And virtually every person on this planet has heard of Jesus. They've all heard of him. You know, even if they're not saved, even if they're not a believer, virtually every single person, unless they've just been living under a rock, knows who the Lord Jesus Christ is, at least has a vague idea. So that's an important thing to understand because we don't want to get into this false doctrine that says, well, in the Old Testament, God only cared about Israel. And then the New Testament, he started giving a rip about the rest of the world. God so loved the world from day one. And he's always had an agenda of his word going out to all nations, all peoples, all families of the earth. So it says in verse three, say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works. Now, when was the last time you told God how terrible he is? You know, you need to work on your prayer life if you're not praising God for what a terrible God he is. You say, what in the world? Now, that sounds odd to us because of the fact that we use the word terrible about things that we don't like. You know, we might look at a meal and say, oh, that was a terrible meal. But that's really exaggerating because most of us haven't been faced with any meals lately that truly evoke terror. You know what I mean? I mean, I've had some chilling meals, some horrifying meals, but nothing lately. Terrible, terrible means invoking terror. And so when the Bible says, say unto God, how terrible art thou in thy works, it's basically just acknowledging the fearfulness of God, how much terror he can induce. Over and over again, the Bible tells us to fear God because the Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He is a terrible God. He is one that should invoke literal terror in people. Now, this is a songbook, Psalms, and it's talking about making a joyful noise unto God in verse one. In verse two, it says, sing. And in verse three, it's kind of telling us what to sing. Sing to God and tell him how terrible he is through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. And then look at verse five. Come and see the works of God. He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on foot. There did we rejoice in him. Now, keep your finger here in Psalm 66 and go to Psalm 106. Just a little bit to the right in your Bible. Psalm 106. And here's what I want to say about this terribleness that we need to sing about, is that if we're going to have biblical music and if we really wanted our music to reflect God's plan, our music should contain some negative elements in it. So when we read the Book of Psalms, it's not all sweetness and light. There are some negative things in Psalms. There are some very harsh things, hard things, talking about destroying God's enemies, people going to hell. I mean, there are some rough things in the Book of Psalms. And one of the things I love about the Book of Psalms is just the diversity of subject matter. I mean, the Book of Psalms covers like every subject. And I think what God's trying to show us there is that our hymns that we sing in church should cover a broad spectrum of subjects because His songbook covers this great spectrum and so should our songbook. And a lot of times today when we go to church, we would only sing songs about sweetness and light. Everything's really positive. If you look at what's coming out of the praise and worship, it's going to be a very one-sided, one-dimensional thing. But we don't want to just sing praises to God for His love, although we do want to do that. We want to sing the songs of, you know, Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. You know, we want to praise Him for His excellent greatness and joy, peace, love. But, you know, there are also some songs in our hymnal in a section called Christian Warfare. That's a section in the hymnal. And you have songs like Sound the Battle Cry and The Fight is On, Hold the Fort. And those are appropriate songs. Not only that, but we sing some of the actual songs themselves from the King James, and one of them that we sing is from Psalm 139. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee is the chorus. So you say, well, why, how could you go to church and sing that? Because we need to sing to God and tell Him about His terribleness and talk about the terribleness of God because you know what we don't want to do? We don't want to raise a generation of children and young people that have no fear of God. And they come to church and they learn about God as if He's Santa Claus, and He knows if you've been naughty or nice, but He's pretty much just going to give you a gift anyway. He's pretty much, as long as you give Him some milky cookies, then He'll give you a little something. You're not going to get a lump of coal in your stocking unless you're just the worst person ever. And so we don't want to raise our kids to not have any fear of God. They need to know about the terror of the Lord. And you say, well, that's Old Testament God. Really? Because 2 Corinthians 5 is in the New Testament, and it says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We know the terror of the Lord. That's what it says in 2 Corinthians 5 in the New Testament. Now look at Psalm 106. Let's get a little more context on the terrible things that God did in the Red Sea. Look at verse 7 of Psalm 106. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies, but provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, He saved them for His namesake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up. So He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. Now, when we read that portion of the Psalm, that's the type of thing that we would sing about a lot in the hymnal. You know, God giving us the victory, saving us, protecting us, helping us. Because when God parted the Red Sea, that pictures baptism. You know, the Bible talks about how they were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. You know, because they had a wall of water on each side, and the cloudy pillar above. And so, you know, they were surrounded by water, and it was just a picture of baptism. The blood on the doorpost in Egypt at the Passover, when they killed the lamb and put the blood on the door, that picture being saved. And then crossing the Red Sea, pictured baptism. Okay, and so there's a lot of symbolic things going on back there. So when we think about the Red Sea, we think about God's deliverance, people being saved from the land of Egypt. We think about them as a church in the wilderness, and there are lots of positive things. But, you know, when we think about the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, there's a negative side to that story. There's another darker side to that story, because look at the next verse. It says in verse number 10, So that's another aspect here that's a little bit darker, where the Egyptian army drowns. So we have God's people going across on dry land, and then we have those who hated them being drowned in the depths of the sea. And the Bible talks about the children of Israel seeing their dead bodies washing up on the shore. Now you say, well, I don't know if we should sing about that. Well, I do know that we should sing about that, because of the fact that the Bible is the authority on all matters of faith and practice in the local church. So our songs should be patterned after the songs in the Bible. And so, yes, we should sing about sweetness and light, but it's good to have some songs about some gnarly things as well, about God's terrible works. The word terrible is even found here. Jump down to verse 21. They forgot God their Savior, which had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea. It ought to be terrifying when you realize the judgments that God is capable of, and the judgments that He's done in the past. In fact, and you don't have to turn there for the sake of time, but back in Exodus, right after they crossed the Red Sea, it says in Exodus 15, 1, Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. So the very first thing that comes out in the song of victory after they cross the Red Sea is about people drowning in the Red Sea. It says in verse 6 how they were dashed in pieces. It says, you know, when the waters come flooding in, that's going to smash you, and you're going to hit the rocks and everything else. It talks about how the depths covered them. They sank to the bottom as a stone. The chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea, and on and on. And it says the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots, with his horsemen into the sea. The Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them, and on and on. So the point I want to make here is just that our music should not be only positive, only sweetness and light, but it should include a variety. Like Psalms, it's probably mainly positive, but yet there are some terrible things as well. So go back to Psalm 66. When we think of God's greatness, we need to praise Him for the good things He does, and we need to praise Him for the harmful things that He does as well. And we need to preach the God of the Bible to America because, let's face it, a lot of people in America are already saved. Obviously, it's so important for us to go out and win people to Christ, and we're out there every week knocking doors, showing people how to get saved. But you know what? What about all the people that are already saved? All across America, there are millions and millions and millions of people that are already saved, but a lot of them are just backslidden. They're not doing much. You know, these people need the fear of God put into them because they're not living for God. And then the unsaved people need the fear of God put into them because they need to realize that hell is real and that they need to get saved before it's eternally too late. So don't forget about God's terrible doings. It says in verse four, Come and see the works of God, verse five. We're in Psalm 66 again. He's terrible in His doing toward the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land, and they went through the flood on foot. There did we rejoice in Him. He ruleth by His power forever. His eyes behold the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. It's a warning saying, look, God's watching you. God sees what you're doing, and you bunch of rebellious nations, don't get cocky. Don't get arrogant. Don't boast yourself because God can cloud up and rain on you. It says in verse eight, Now this is a great part of the Psalm here where he talks about the fact that God's people are going to go through some really hard times. But in the end, they're going to be blessed. What's the end in verse 12? Getting brought into a wealthy place. Who doesn't want that, right? Who doesn't want to be brought into a wealthy place? Nobody wants to go to the poor house. Nobody wants to be starving and living in filth. And God in the end here has brought them into a wealthy place. You know, they're in Israel, and it's the land of milk and honey. And they've got King David, and they've got King Solomon. And they've got everything going well for them. God's blessing that kingdom under those godly kings. But what did they have to go through before that time? You know, before that, here are some of the things that they went through. First of all, they had to be tried as silver is tried. And you know how silver is tried is with a lot of heat. So God will often turn up the heat in our lives, put us through pain, and we're going to feel that burn as God is working in our life. To prove us, to purify us, to make us better. And then it says in verse 11, thou broughtest us into the net. Thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Now this is what we do with our children when they disobey. We lay affliction on their loins, right? Because the loins are basically this section right here, right? So basically, you know, you think about getting a spanking, that's basically getting affliction laid on your loins. And we know that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. And so we've all been chastised by God. We're all going to be chastised by God in the future, unless you're not saved. But the Bible says that every single one of us, he scourges every son whom he receiveth. And he says, if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you bastards and not sons. The only way to go through life committing a bunch of sins and not getting chastised is to be unsaved. And you say, well, then why get saved? You know, I want to be able to do whatever. Well, yeah, but then you go to hell for all eternity. That's the downside. It's always a trade-off, my friend. No such thing as a free lunch. So yeah, yeah, unsaved people get away with more than Christians. You know, you might see people getting away with a sinful life and think, well, hey, I could do that too. You're saved. You're not going to get away with it. God will cause you to reap what you've sown. I mean, think about it. There are probably a lot of people who they go out, they get drunk, maybe they drive drunk or whatever, and they get away with it. Or nothing really bad happens. You know what I mean? Let's say they go out, they go to a party, they get drunk, they pass out, but nothing really bad happens. They kind of make it out unscathed. But you know what? When you're a believer, you're the one who's not going to make it out unscathed. You don't get away with stuff. You might see unsaved people getting away with stuff. If you're saved, you're not going to get away with it. So don't pull out some statistic and say, well, odds are I'm going to be okay committing this sin. The statistics are in my favor. No, because those statistics aren't taking into account that you're saved. There's another factor that you're going to have to multiply in to account for the fact that you're saved. So you're much more likely to run into these things. You know, you say, well, you know, this other person, they went out and slept around and they didn't get a disease. Okay, but the saved person? More likely to get a disease. More likely to get the DUI. More likely to get in a horrible drunk driving accident. More likely to get caught and go to jail or go to prison when they commit crimes. You know, you want a ticket to getting caught as a criminal? Just get saved. Because you're much more likely not to get caught being unsaved. You get saved and God chastises you. Okay, and so realize as a saved person that you can't get away with the stuff that the world gets away with. God's going to come down on you harder because he loves you. Just like my neighbor kids, they can get by with a lot. And I'm just going to close the blinds and just ignore. It's none of my business. It's not my problem. Their parents, that's their issue. But if my kids are acting up, you know, have you ever been somewhere and you hear a kid screaming and throwing a fit and you think it's your kid for a second? And you're about ready to deal with it and you're like, oh good, it's someone else's kid. And as soon as you realize it's someone else's kid, you're relieved because you're like, not my problem. Turn up my headphones a little bit or just walk away, whatever. And just because it's not your responsibility. It's not even your place in our society. And so God is going to take more care of his children. And sometimes taking care of you is a good thing. And sometimes taking care of you is laying affliction on your loins and punishing you. He says in verse 12, thou has caused men to ride over our heads. That doesn't sound good that, you know, what does that mean? You cause men to ride over our heads. You know, first of all, this could symbolize other people doing better than us. We see other people succeeding, other people having more prosperity, more success. And here we are at the bottom. We're being afflicted. We're being tried like silver is tried. Men are riding over our heads. We're going through fire and we're going through water. We're going through these things. But in verse 12, thou brought us thus out into a wealthy place. Now, one of the classic examples of this, of course, the book of Job. We have Job who is doing well. He's a smart guy. He's a hard worker. He's got a thriving business. And not only does the Bible tell us that he's the most righteous man on the earth. Because God says to Satan, has thou considered my servant Job that there's none like him in all the earth? The man that feareth God and escheweth evil. He said there's nobody else who fears God and eschews evil the way Job does. Number one most righteous guy in the world. It'd be interesting if we could know who that is right now. Who is the most righteous? God knows. God's up in heaven and he knows who Job is. You say, man, I hope it's me. You're kind of like, are you sure? Are you sure you hope it's you? Because remember the story of Job? So here's the thing. You know, God knew Job is the most righteous man on the earth. But then it also says he's the greatest of all the men of the east. So in his geographical region, he actually was the wealthiest. Because he had all these flocks and herds and greatest in the Bible sometimes is referring to material prosperity. And in that context it is. And so we have number one, he's very righteous. But number two, he's actually prospering financially. But of course, he goes through that period of testing. He goes through trials and tribulations, the likes of which none of us will probably ever go through in our lives. Hopefully we never do. I mean, Job went through it to the point where he lost all of his material wealth. Not only that, but people that respected him in the past lost all respect for him. So he lost the respect that he had from people. Even his friends turned on him. Other people that are just kind of just low members of society, they're making fun of him and laughing. He was like the lowest of the low on the food chain as far as respect. Because if you go deeper into the book of Job, he talks about people mocking him and laughing at him. Who are like the drunks and homeless people. They're kind of one step above him. It reminds me of one time I went on an urban hike. I hiked like 20 miles or something across Phoenix. And I was hiking along. And you know, after a long day out there hiking, you start looking a little rough after a while. Right? And I knew I was starting to look rough when I was walking through downtown Tempe on my way back. And this homeless person accused me of stealing his pita. He's like, hey, did you just pick up that pita? I'm like, what are you talking about? I was eating a Chipotle burrito. He thought my Chipotle burrito was his pita. And I told that to my wife and she said, you know, you basically were one step below a homeless person. You're the guy who steals from homeless people. You're the guy that homeless people are accusing and straightening out. I mean, when a homeless person is straightening you out, you know, which obviously I didn't pick up that pita. Can you imagine how nasty it would be to just pick up some random homeless person's pita? No. Not even a temptation, folks. And I love pitas. But not when they're coming from a homeless person. I want to trust the source. So the point is, that's where Job was at. Job was the one that the homeless guy is accusing him of stealing his pita, basically. So Job, he lost everything. He lost respect. He lost money. His wife told him to curse God and die. He has ten children. His ten children all died. I mean, can you imagine all ten of your kids dying? I mean, you read about stuff like that happening, like where they're all in the same vehicle and the vehicle crashes and they all die in one day. And so it's incredible. I mean, even losing one child is a tragedy. Can you imagine losing all ten? Think about how much work it is. Can you imagine that, honey? What would it be like to produce ten children? Probably can't even imagine that. And then to have them all die. How horrible. But here's the thing. Not only that, I mean, that's all bad enough, right? But then Satan says, that's not enough. Satan tells God, you need to touch his body. He's still healthy. He still feels good. Touch his body and he'll curse you to your face. And so then God says, okay, you know, you have my permission to touch his body. Don't kill him, though. So then the devil afflicts Job with boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his head. These are like pus-filled sores. So it's not enough to lose all the money, respect, friends, family, but to be covered in boils. And this is a boil that isn't just something that looks bad. It's something that itched so bad that he took a potsherd, basically a piece of broken pottery, like think about the word shard, shard of a pot, potsherd, and he took that potsherd and he used that to scrape himself. Just to get some, you know, somebody needs to tell him, you're not supposed to scratch that stuff. But, you know, he's sitting there scraping it with a potsherd, burning inflammation. So, I mean, he's basically going through torture of physical pain. In addition to everything emotional, spiritual, he's going through physical pain and suffering, the likes of which hopefully no one in this room will ever have to experience. And I think God used such an extreme example with Job just so that no matter what happens to us, we can always say, hey, Job had it worse. So that's why it had to be so extreme. Otherwise, you'd be like, well, yeah, Job, he didn't go through what I went through. Kind of hard to say that until you have 10 children die, covered in boils, head to foot. Everybody is blaming you. I mean, down the list, lose all your money, whatever. So we see that God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. So you look at all these verses in the Bible that talk about how God's going to bless you, and you're going to prosper, and that's true, amen. But then you look at all these other verses about how, yeah, God's going to chastise you. He's going to lay afflictions on your loins. He's going to cause men to ride over your head. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, the Bible says. So you look at that, and you could be like, well, which one is it? You know, am I going to be just chastened every morning like Asaph said in Psalm 73? Am I going to be like the Apostle Paul, constantly getting beaten, thrown in jail, all these different things? Or what about all these verses about prosperity? Now, there's a group of preachers out there that just only talk about the prosperity stuff. It's called the prosperity gospel. Sometimes it's called the health and wealth gospel. And you see these TV preachers with all the jewelry and the fancy clothes flying in a private jet, and they're saying, well, the reason I have all this stuff is because God's blessed me. I mean, this is just me living for God. If you'd have enough faith, but you've got to sow a seed. You've got to send me $1,000, and then God's going to give you $10,000. You send me $10,000, God's going to give you $100,000. You know, and you can't out-give God. You know, you just keep going, keep on going. It's like the ultimate casino. But here's the thing about that. They are only giving you half of the picture. Every lie typically has a little bit of truth mixed in if it's going to be an effective lie. I mean, a lie that has zero truth to it is not going to be very effective, is it? Obviously, these lying prosperity preachers, they have all kinds of verses to back up what they're saying because God does talk about causing the righteous to prosper and succeed. But here's the true story. The true story is that you go through afflictions, persecutions, trials, and tribulations, and in the end, you're okay. In the end, you're blessed. In the end, you come out great. And you get a mix of these things. If you look at the Apostle Paul, he said, I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. He'd done both. And that's how our life is going to be. Our life is going to be a mix of blessings from God, trials and tribulations sent from God, but in the end, we are going to end up blessed in the end. If you look at the people in the Bible, they end up blessed. Now, of course, there are people who get martyred for Christ, but see, here's the thing. That's a privilege anyway. That's a blessing. That's not something horrible. The rare martyr. The average person, though, is going to just live their natural life and die and not be killed for the cause of Christ. Most people are not going to be killed for the cause of Christ, even in the end times. Some of you will be cast into prison. Some will be killed for the cause of Christ. Many will be killed for the cause of Christ, but many more won't. So your latter end, if it's not God's will for you to be martyred, and if that's God's will for my life, then you know what? That's God's will. And it's a privilege and a blessing, and it is what it is. But if you live your natural life, if you serve God, if you live for God, you are going to end up in a good place. And I'm not saying you're going to end up wealthy. I'm saying you're going to end up in a good place. I'm not saying necessarily you're going to be filthy rich or something, but you're going to end up and say, you know what? I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I lived the way I did. I'm glad I followed the Lord. I look back at my life, and it's been a success. Right? As opposed to just, what a disaster. I lost everything, and I just end life a miserable failure. You're not going to if you serve God. You're not going to end life a miserable failure. God blessed the latter end of Job. And so God, yeah, he's going to cause men to ride. And maybe you're in that phase right now where men are riding over your heads. Maybe you're in a phase right now where you're going through the fire and the flood and God's laying affliction in your loins. But remember, weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. And if you hang in there long enough, God will bring you into a wealthy place. But a lot of people, when they're going through the trials and tribulations, they bail out. They quit on God. They never make it out the other side. If they would just keep going, they'll see that light at the end of the tunnel. You've got to go through it. You've got to press forward. You know, if you think about it, if you're on a trip, you're going to make different stops along the way, right? You're going to make a pit stop and you might stop to use the restroom, stop to get food, stop and stretch your legs, stop and smell the roses. But here's the thing. If you're in the most unpleasant part of the trip, is that where you want to stop and take a break? I mean, think about it. If I'm driving through the city and I come upon just the worst neighborhood in the city, dangerous part of the city, worst ghetto, all right, here's a good place to get out and stretch our legs and take a walk, kids. Here, let's stop for food here. It's all crummy ghetto messed up food. You know, you're probably going to want to stop and stretch in a nicer area. Here's the point. You know, this is what the parable is saying. You know, when you're going through hell, keep going, right? When you're going through the worst part, you know, get through it, keep going. That's not the time to slow down and stop. That's the time to press forward, push forward, push through, keep going, get through it, get it over with and keep pushing through. Don't stop there because you know what? You could end up permanently getting stuck there. You know, let's say you're going through a hard time spiritually and you're just like, that's it, I'm quitting on God. Well then, next thing you know, you never get out of that trial because God's not guaranteed to fix your situation when you're not even living for Him. When you're not even in His will, He's not guaranteed to bless your latter end like He blessed Job. If you want to claim that promise of having the latter end of your life be blessed and coming out of the trial like Job, look at the end of it. You know what Job had? Job had 10 more children, twice as much wealth. I mean, he came out even better in the end, but he had to go through a hellish period. Well, even though our lives are not as extreme as Job's life, we're going to go through dark places and that's not the time to quit and get to, that's it, God's not blessing me anyway and I don't know why I even try, so I'm just going to throw in the towel. If you throw in the towel, you might just be stuck there. I mean, think about it, if I'm on a cross-country trip and I've heard about this, like I heard about a pastor one time, he was driving and his car broke down and so he just decided that's where I'm going to start the church. He was going to go start a church somewhere, but because his car broke down, he's like, all right, this is it, this is where we ended up, let's just start the church here, you know, that's it. So here's the thing, you know, if I'm traveling across the country, the last time I want to quit on God is when I'm in a crummy town. You know, spiritually, when you're in a bad place, push through, keep going, and then when times are good, thank God for his goodness and just keep on going. Do not quit on God just because you're going through a hard time and look, a lot of people think like, well, God must not be pleased with me because I'm going through a bad time. Was that the case with Job? You say, well, how do I know if God's pleased with me? How do I know? Here's how you know, are you doing the right stuff? If you're doing the right stuff, if you're following the Bible, God's pleased with you. If you're not, then he's not pleased with you. It's really quite simple. Now, we would all love to know exactly how well we're doing on a scale of one to ten. You know, I would like to ask God, probably if I could ask God one thing, it would be, how am I doing? That would be probably my number one question. Give me a rank on a scale of one to ten. But here's the thing, God doesn't want us to know that because what if God said, you're a 9.5, then I'd be like, well, I can chill out a little bit. Or if he says, you're a three, then it's just like, pfft. You know, you could just get discouraged or whatever. It's probably better that we don't know and that we just kind of run a little scared all the time. Right, just fear the Lord, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling and just keep kind of running scared and doing the best we can. We don't need to know. So you measure God's pleasure with you based on your obedience to him, not based on your circumstances. Bad circumstances do not mean God's unhappy with you. Good circumstances don't mean he's blessing you. Some people are doing sinful things and things are going good and they're like, well, this must be okay. You know, it's just sometimes there's a delayed reaction where God's judgment takes a little while to catch up with you. It's sort of like my wife sometimes tells me, hey, if you're home and the kids are doing stuff and you don't spank them or come down on them, they think it's okay, even though you're in your own world. Because I'm just like a zen master of just like tuning out 11 kids. You know, because I have to, you know, if I need to study or read or work or whatever, I can just tune it all out. I can just become oblivious to all of it. So then, but then my wife will sometimes say, well, yeah, but then they think that if they're doing something and you're there and you're not saying anything, you approve of everything that's going on or that they're doing because you were there. They don't understand that I was there, but I wasn't there. I was in a happy place. You know, I went to a happy place. I was somewhere far, far away, okay? And so that's the mentality that children could have. Well, and sometimes she'll be like, I told you not to do this. Why are you doing this? Well, dad saw me do it. It's like no dad did not see you do it. Dad was just in the same building with you when you did it. It doesn't mean dad perceived you doing it or knew what the rule was or whatever. So the point is that's how a lot of people's mentality is. Well, God saw me do it and nothing happened. Well, you know what? God is just not always just going to just the second you sin. Can you imagine if just the second you sin? Like what if you just told a lie and you just got like a sharp pain in your abdomen like oh. And look, I've gotten sharp pains in my abdomen before and I'm just like where did that come from? But it was never like while I was in the act of sinning. But can you imagine if you're just in the act, you just start lying and all of a sudden it's just like a knife in your side. Oh, my kidney. Oh, you know. Can you imagine? Here's the thing. The world would be a very different place. Or what if every time you did something good you just experienced feelings of euphoria? It was like taking drugs or something. Folks, that's not the way life works. It's not like I just it's like oh, I put money in the offering plate. Oh, there's a check in the mail. $1,000. Or well, I'm just going to steal this little thing and then I get home, my whole house is broken in two. All the windows are bashed out. It's like what goes around comes around fast. If it happened that fast, there'd be no faith required. God wants us to have faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. And so things don't happen that fast. So never look at your circumstances to figure out whether God's happy with you or not. Look at what the Bible says and what you're doing and figure out if God's happy. That's it. So back to the passage here. At the end of verse 12, thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. I will go into thy house with burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken. This is funny. When I was in trouble. You know, when you're in trouble, you make all these promises. God, if you get me out of this, I'm going to go to church every Sunday. You know, who's ever said something like that to God? You know, probably almost everybody has said something like, God, if you can just get me out of this one thing, I will do this. Well, he's saying, you know, if you say stuff like that, you better do it. If you say, oh, I'm going to go to church, you better be in church then, or God's going to punish you. You know, you have to do what you say you will do. And so he says, I will go into thy house. I'm going to pay the vows that my lips have uttered, my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats, Selah, come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. Extolled just means praised, is just another word for that. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. That's a pretty scary verse right there, isn't it? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily, God hath heard me. He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me. Now, what I want to say about this thing of God not hearing you when you regard iniquity in your heart, you know the Bible says that if someone turns away their ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Even his prayer shall be abomination. You say, well, you know, it's always, prayer is always good. Yeah, but if you're someone who ignores what the word of God says, your prayer is an abomination. That's what the Bible says. He says, if you turn away your ear from hearing the law, I go, I don't want to hear what the Bible says. I don't care what the Bible says. Oh, God, please, oh, God, do, you know. That's an abomination. You know what an abomination means? Something that you hate. That's what it means. So, like, if I said, you know, mustard, I hate mustard. I'm not a picky eater, but that's one thing I don't like. That's, like, almost the only thing I don't like. It's my most hated thing. I know a lot of people are offended right now, but you know what? You come to church on Wednesday night at a fundamental Baptist church. You used to expect to get offended a little bit. But I hate mustard. That's the only thing I don't like. Mustard is an abomination unto me. That's what abomination means. An abomination is something that I just hate. So an abomination to God is something that disgusts God, doesn't like it, he hates it, he doesn't want it. That's what an abomination is. You know, the Bible says a righteous person is an abomination to the wicked. And a wicked person is an abomination to a just man. You know, people who are really righteous and really wicked hate each other. Does that surprise you? I mean, think about it, look at the most wicked people. Are they just like, well, Christians are okay, you know? No, the super wicked people, man, they hate Christians. And we as Christians, when we see just these horrific, we see pedophiles and rapists and serial killers, obviously we hate that. And we hate them because they're an abomination unto us. Okay, well, the Bible says that if we turn away our ear from hearing the law, our prayer is an abomination. You know what it's like? It's like if we went to the presence of God and God was talking to us, he'd say, no, no, no, shut up. I'm talking. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine going into God's presence and telling him to shut up? I'm talking, you need to listen to me. Who would do that? But here's the thing, that's basically what people are doing when they refuse to read the Bible, refuse to listen to what scripture says, but they want to pray to God and tell him everything that they think and what they feel and what they want. They're not going to listen to him. I mean, can you imagine someone who never will listen to anything that you say, but they just want to talk to you and talk and talk? They won't hear anything that you say. They refuse to listen. Is that friendship going to work? It's not going to last very long, is it? Well, this is the God of the universe. You better shut up and listen to what he has to say. And obviously, I'm not telling you not to pray. We're all for prayer, but first listen to what God has to say and acknowledge what God has to say, listen to what he has to say, respect what he has to say, and then pray accordingly. But don't be a person that doesn't want to hear from God's law. And here's the thing, you know, if you turn away your ear from hearing the law, obviously this could be just not even wanting to listen to the Word of God, but it could also be just turning away from hearing it because the word hear in the Bible isn't always just like, oh, I heard that. It's also like hearken. If you will hear, it typically means like you're actually receiving it. You know, if I said I hear you, that could just mean, well, I heard what you said, I reject it, I'm not interested in it, but I heard it physically. That's not what hear means in the Bible. You know, hear means like, okay, I listen to it and I internalize it, I hearken unto it, I pay attention to it. That's what it means to hear. He that hath an ear, let him hear. And so if we turn away our ear from hearing the law, meaning God's telling us to do A, God tells us to do B, God tells us to do C, God tells us to do D, and we just don't do any of it, is God gonna hear our prayers? Well, what does the Bible say? It says in verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, right? So if I just, God's command is there, and I know God's command, but in my heart, I'm just like, no, I'm going with iniquity, and I'm just refusing to listen to God's commands, refusing to obey him. I'm not saying, look, we're all gonna sin. Everybody's a sinner, nobody's perfect. But I'm saying, you know, somebody who just doesn't listen to what God's saying and regards, you know, what exactly does that mean? Regard iniquity in my heart. Whatever it is, we better not be doing it, because God's not gonna hear us, okay? So we don't want sin, I guess you could say, to take up residence in our heart, where it's just a part of our life, it's just who we are. You know, we wanna, when we sin, we wanna confess that to God, and say, God, I'm sorry, and kinda clear the air with God, and clear the account with him, and take care of that. Obviously, we're saved no matter what, but we wanna keep that line of communication open. I mean, think about, what if my children broke my rules and they don't make it right? Couldn't that sever some lines of communication and create some distance between me and my children? Absolutely. So we don't wanna have that distance between us and God, we wanna make things right with God so we can stay in communication. And look, this is not an isolated scripture. I gave you the other one from Proverbs about the prayer being abomination if we turn away our ear from hearing the law. But we could also go to the New Testament, where it says, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight. You know what the implication there is? If I don't keep his commandments, and if I don't do what's pleasing in his sight, I'm not gonna receive whatever I ask. Am I right? So if I ask God for stuff, and I'm doing things that are pleasing in his sight, and I'm keeping his commandments, I'm gonna get what I ask for. But if I'm going to God and saying, oh God, please give me this, please give me that, oh God, help me to get a new house, oh God, help me to get a new car, oh God, help me to get this job, and here I am living in fornication, drunkenness, I'm smoking drugs, I'm doing all, you know, it's like I'm a thief, I'm a liar, and then I'm asking God to do that, it's like, wait a minute, you think God's gonna do anything for me if that's my situation? No way. That's what this is teaching. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me, New Testament version is, if I don't keep God's commandments and don't do the things that are pleasing in his sight, whatsoever I ask, I'm not gonna necessarily receive from him. So the path to God's blessing is through the door of obedience, and the key to getting your prayers answered is number one, to pray, because you can't get a prayer answered that you didn't utter, and number two is you keep God's commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight, and then God is gonna give you what you want. What if your child walks up to you and they're obedient, they did all their schoolwork, they did chores, they're respectful, aren't you very likely to give them what they asked for? But what if your kid is slacking on their schoolwork, not doing chores, getting into trouble, breaking stuff, and then they come to you and ask you for an ice cream cone, you're gonna be like, forget the ice cream cone, here's a bowl of plain oatmeal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because you didn't work, you did all the wrong things. So here's the thing, do you want God to give you that ice cream cone? You better get your work done. You better serve him. You better love the Lord and keep his commandments. So getting our prayers answered is related to how we live our lives, okay? If we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us. But verily God hath heard me, verse 19, he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Why? Because he's saying, I don't regard iniquity in my heart. See, when we do sin, it should grieve us. What does it mean to regard something? I mean, to regard something is to have some kind of esteem for something, right? Like the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 8, they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, sayeth the Lord. He's saying, I didn't respect them, I didn't accept them. So if I regard iniquity in my heart, it's like I have iniquity in my heart and I don't even think it's bad. I'm giving it a place of prominence. I'm giving it respect. You know, I'm in denial about whether it's even wrong and I'm just going to keep doing it and I don't even feel bad about it. You know, that's not where you want to be. You want to feel bad. You know, we're all going to sin, but you should at least feel bad about it when you sin. And repent of that and clean up your life and try to fix that. Not just regard it in your heart like you just got a nice place in your heart for it to just kind of permanently live there in a place of prominence. So God has heard me. Verse 20, blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer. Again, the implication being He can turn away your prayer if you're regarding iniquity in your heart from a few verses up. Blessed be God which hath not turned away my prayer nor His mercy from me. So to wrap up this whole chapter, we have this chapter about all nations, all lands, praising God, glorifying and honoring His name, not just for the good things that He does, but also for the terrible things that He does because those are just as worthy of being praised. Everything God does is right. I mean, in Revelation, when God's just killing people and turning water into blood and just tearing this earth up, it keeps giving us like a chorus of choirs in heaven saying, like, good job. You know, they're all saying, like, great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are thy ways, O King of Saints. Who shall not fear thee and glorify thy name? And just talking about how you've done well you gave them blood to drink. Well, good, because they deserve it. That's how Revelation reads. Thou has given them blood to drink for they are worthy. Modern vernacular would be you gave them blood to drink. Good. They deserve it like grumpy cat, right? Oh, you gave them blood to drink. Good. Good. Why? Because the lesson of Revelation is that everything God does is being praised. I mean, up in heaven, the angels and the four beasts and the 24 elders, God kills somebody. They're just like, Amen. God wipes out a city. Amen. You know, God blesses people and brings life and brings blessing. It's like, Amen. Everything God does is good. Everything he does is right. There's the good side, the blessing side, and then there's the terrible side that a lot of people don't want to talk about or think about. When it comes to our relationship with God, you know, he can do a lot of great things for us. But there's a good side and a bad side. He brings us through hard times to make us a better person, then he brings us into a wealthy place in the end. Our latter end is blessed. When it comes to prayer, we can pray to God and get a lot of good things and God answers us with more than we could even ask or think. You know, God blesses us beyond our imagination when we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing inside. But then the flip side is where we regard iniquity in our heart and it's like a brick wall there. You know, God's not even hearing us. Our prayers are hitting the ceiling because of the fact that we regard iniquity in our heart. So this psalm really gives a good balance view of God. You know, the positive side and the negative side, we need to understand both. We need to love the Lord, rejoice in him, and go through life happy and peaceful and joyful. Then we also need to have a healthy fear of God and serve the Lord with trembling. Fear the Lord and his goodness, the Bible says. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great chapter, Lord. Help us to live a life that would please you. Help us to keep your commandments, do things that are pleasing in your sight, Lord, that our prayers might be answered and that we could find grace to help in time of need. Lord, help the whole world to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us to preach it to a lost and dying world. And Lord, not only help us to preach the gospel to the world, help us also to preach of your terrible acts to the entire world and to the saved so that they could live for you and to the unsaved so that they could escape hell before it's eternally too late. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's do one more song. We're going to do song 405, the banner of the cross. Song 405. 405. There's a royal banner given gorgeous length to the soldiers of the King. As the name signs where we lift it up today, the college ransomed ones we see. Marching on, marching on, for Christ found everything for lost. Can't you drown in peace? Toil and sink beneath the banner of the cross. Where the folk may rage and gather as the flood, let the standard be displayed. And we need this gold as the soldiers of the Lord, for the truth be not dismayed. Marching on, marching on, for Christ found everything but lost. Can't you drown in peace? Toil and sink beneath the banner of the cross. Over land and sea, wherever men may dwell, make the glorious tidings known. Of the crimson banner, now the story's held, while the Lord shall claim His own. Marching on, marching on, for Christ found everything but lost. Can't you drown in peace? Toil and sink beneath the banner of the cross. Where the glory dawns is drawn, bearing in its hasty day by day. And before our King, the folks shall disappear, and the cross the world shall sway. Marching on, marching on, for Christ found everything but lost. Can't you drown in peace? Toil and sink beneath the banner of the cross. Copyright © 2020, New Thinking Allowed Foundation