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Psalm chapter 10. So last week we finished off the book of Luke. Now I'm looking to get in the next major book that I'm looking to preach from is most likely the book of Genesis. I'm still just kind of thinking about that. But it's most likely going to be the book of Genesis, but like we commonly do just between the major books, we're reading three Psalms. We're going through three Psalms and then we'll get into that new book, okay? So we're going to be looking now at Psalm chapter 10 or Psalm 10, I should say. Look at verse number 2. Psalm 10 verse 2. The Bible says the wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. The title of the sermon this morning is the wicked in his pride. The wicked in his pride. You see, Psalm chapter 10 gives us a description or gives us the attributes of wicked people. You see, there's a sad reality in this world that there are people that are just plain wicked, all right? And I remember just as a child not really understanding this. As a child growing up in church, as a child trying to keep the commands of God, you know, not for salvation, but just to be pleasing to the Lord. You know, I took it for granted. I thought everybody, whether you're a church-going person, whether you're Sades, you know, I just thought everybody in the world sought to do good. You know, I thought people were inherently kind of good trying to do the best in the world. You know, even if they did not believe the Bible, I thought people in general believed in the teachings of the Bible, believed in the commands of the Bible. You know, the sad realization for me at some, I don't know, I think as a teenager, when he finally dawned on me, there are wicked people. I mean, there are people that do not care for good. There are wicked people that desire to do what's evil, desire to break the laws of God. And it's just in their heart. That's the way it is for them, you know. And we need to understand this because, you know, I don't want you to be naive the way I was naive when I was a child. You know, thinking everyone's just trying their best. That's not the truth. A lot of people are just inherently wicked for various reasons. And Psalm 10 gives us a breakdown of understanding what wicked people are like, okay. Now, there are two reasons why we want to know about wickedness. There are two reasons. You know, number one, so that we would be aware, you know, so when we go about life that we would, you know, see some of these red flags in people that we would be aware, hey, this person I'm dealing with is wicked, you know, and to protect yourself, protect your family, protect the innocent from being harmed from wicked people. That's one sure way to know why people are wicked. But another reason to understand the description of wicked person is that you can then self-analyze your own life. You know, other areas of your life that, hey, I'm kind of like this wicked person. You know, I'm doing some of the same things this wicked person does. And if that's the case in your life, that's something you need to change about yourself. That's something you need to change as we see the description here about the wicked person. So, let's start off with Psalm 10 verse 1. Psalm 10 verse 1, it says here, Why standest thou afar, O Lord? Why hideest thou thyself in times of trouble? You see, the psalmist begins by thinking and feeling like the presence of God is far away. You know, he sees all this trouble, he sees this tribulation. And he asks, God, where are you, Lord? You seem so far removed, you seem so far away from the reality of things, Lord, you know? And we might feel this sometimes in our lives. You know, quite often when we go through trials and difficulties, you might think, God, why are you allowing this in my life? Where are you, Lord? You seem so far away. But you see, this isn't so much, when we look at this psalm, it's not so much about the psalmist's troubles and difficulties. The reason he's asking this question is because he's seeing the wicked. He's seeing the wicked doing their evil acts and it just seems like they're not getting any justice. It seems like they're not being punished for the wickedness. And he's asking God the question, where are you, Lord? You know, I've had this question asked to me many times, you know, by people in church. But even people, when you go door-to-door sowing, they say, well, if God truly exists, if God truly cared, if God was truly loving, why does he allow these bad things to happen? It's the same kind of question that's been asked here by the psalmist, okay? Why the wicked seemingly prosperous? Why do they seemingly get away with their acts? But of course, you know, just a very popular passage, you don't need to turn there, but just in Hebrews 13, you know, God says that I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's Hebrews 13 verse 5. And the reason I want to bring that to your attention is, you know, when you feel like the Lord is far away, it's not the Lord that's left you. It's not the Lord that's forsaken you. Usually when the Lord's presence is far away, it's because you've stopped walking with the Lord. It's because you've stopped fellowshiping with the Lord. It's because you've stopped confessing your sins to the Lord. You're in darkness and the Lord cannot fellowship with you when you're in darkness. What's required of you is to confess your sins. You know, be humble yourself before the Lord and rekindle that walk with the Lord. Continue walking in the Spirit. So it's not the Lord. When it's far away, it's not the Lord. It's you. It's you that's distanced yourself away from the Lord and you need to come back and ask the Lord to rekindle that fellowship with you, all right? Now, so Psalm 10 gives us this breakdown of being a wicked person. And like I told you before, you can keep your finger there. Turn to Psalm 139. Turn to Psalm 139, please. Like I said, yes, it's good to know what the wicked are like so we can defend ourselves, but we want to make sure that we don't have these wicked attributes in our life, okay? Look at Psalm 139, verse 23. Look at the question that gets asked here or the request, I should say, that gets asked here. The Bible says, He searched me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting, okay? So what I really want for you guys today is as we go through this description of a wicked person, you know, we've seen the wickedness of the shooter in New Zealand in Christchurch. That is a wicked person. And I would say that person is a reprobate, okay? But you know what? There are people that are not reprobates that are wicked, okay? But here's the thing. I don't want you to be focusing on other people today. I want you to be thinking about yourselves. I want you to ask the Lord, can you search my heart? You know, can you try my thoughts? You know, and see if there be any wicked way in me because there is, you know, if we're all honest, there are wicked ways in all of us, you know? Even if it's just our wicked imaginations, they're there. And we want to make sure the Lord will lead us away from that wickedness as we see these attributes of a wicked person. Back to Psalm 10, please, verse 2. Psalm 10, verse 2. We merely begin, and this is obviously the title of the message this morning. We see why people are wicked. It starts off with pride. Pride, you know, thinking of themselves higher than they ought to think. Thinking of themselves higher than someone else. The reason you go and shoot a bunch of people, the reason you go and murder a bunch of people is because you think of yourself higher than other people. And you see, this is exactly how it starts in verse number 2. It says, the wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. All right? So here we see that the wicked are full of pride. And I'm just going to read, so the second part of this verse says, let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. You see, the wicked are constantly coming up with ways of how to destroy people, how to take advantage of people. That's one sure way to know a wicked person, that they use and abuse other people for themselves. And this kind of reminds me of Psalm 9. You can look at Psalm 9, if you want, just there in verse 15. It's the same kind of thing that gets brought up. It says, the heathen are sunk down in the pits that they made, in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. You see, a reoccurring theme in the Bible, a reoccurring request in the Bible, is to see the wicked destroyed by their own devices. But the things they've created to take down their fellow man, the things they've done to take down the innocent, you know, the request is, Lord, please bring the same punishment upon themselves. You know, it's kind of like the same teaching as we see in the Old Testament, an eye for an eye. You know, it's making sure that, you know, the punishment, you know, justifies the crime that they've committed, or they're just fooled by their own devices. They destroy themselves, as it were, okay? And so, just a couple of things here that I want you to notice here in verse number 2, Psalm 10 verse 2, is that the wicked are full of pride, okay? Full of pride. And let me say this, we all have pride. All of us have pride in our lives, okay? That's why it's hard for us to say sorry. That's why it's hard for us to forgive other people. You know, that's why it's easy for us to look at other people in the church and say, well, why are they being like that? You know, it's pride that speaks. We all have it. You see, this is the beginning of the wicked person, but not only are they full of pride, in their pride they seek to persecute other people. Here it says, persecute the poor, persecute those that are without, looking for the easy target and taking advantage of them. You know, if you've been taken advantage of in your life by other people, it's because you're dealing with a wicked person. Okay, you're dealing with a wicked person. So we see two things full of pride, persecuting those that are without or those that are easy targets, and then creating devices. You know, coming up with ways to destroy other people. You know, having those wicked imaginations. See, pride is something that is so hidden in our lives, guys. We've got to be careful of it. And God says that he hates pride. You know, Proverbs 8 13 says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. You see, God hates certain things in the Bible. And one thing he surely hates is pride. Okay, because it's pride that's going to lift you above your fellow man. It's going to lift you above the Lord that you worship. It's going to lift you above the God of the Bible. It's going to cause you to make judgment calls outside of the boundaries that God gives us in his word. Be careful of pride. That's the beginning of the wicked man. Let's look at verse number three. What else can we learn about the wicked? Verse number three. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. What's the word abhor? To abhor is to hate. You see, the Lord hates covetousness. You know, this is why, remember, one of the reasons you kick someone out of the church, you know, in 1 Corinthians 5, was for the sin of covetousness. Desiring things that do not belong to you. You know, to look at someone else and the material wealth, material possessions, maybe their wife, maybe their car, maybe whatever it is, you know, coveting the things of others. God says he hates that. Why? Because he wants you to be content with what you have. He wants you to work hard and enjoy the things that he has given you, you know, your portion of life. But you see, the wicked, they boast of their heart's desire. They love covetousness. They love talking about how much money they want to make and all the things, all the, you know, the conquests they want to do. You know, the wicked, the covetous, you know, even married will look at other women and boast about, you know, desiring to have other women in their lives or other things like that. You know, you see that in the workplace and a lot of people, you know, speaking, you know, about women when they're married, when they have their own wife, these men boast of their heart's desire. But look at this, and they bless the covetous. You know, God hates covetousness. We need to shut that down in our lives. But the wicked, they want to hear covetous people. They want to bless covetous people and say, yes, you know, your desires are good, your desires are right. You know, I'm reminded of the prosperity gospel that's common amongst the charismatics. You know, the prosperity gospel, the idea that God wants everyone to be wealthy, the idea that God wants everyone to be healthy without any sickness. And if you're suffering with some type of sickness, if you're suffering from some type of health problem, that's because you're lacking a faith in God. You know, it's not what God wants. You've done this to yourself kind of thing. You know, they're always desiring to have more. They're desiring the richest, the richest and they're being blessed for it. They're being blessed behind the pulpit. You know, desire these things and God will give you those desires of your heart. That's the prosperity gospel. Hey, that's the gospel of the wicked, it says here. It's the gospel of the prideful. It's the gospel of the covetous. And I'm reminded also of, I don't know if anyone's ever gotten into Amway. But I remember, you know, when I started, when I got out of high school, I met some friends of mine and they invited me to their house and they said, hey, look, we've got a business opportunity for you. Come get involved. I didn't know what it was. I came, they had a speaker come to their house, you know, and it was Amway. You know, it's kind of getting into the Amway. It's kind of like this pyramid scheme, this Ponzi scheme, where the more people you bring into this organisation, the more money you can make, okay. And it's all about obviously, you know, selling certain things and, you know, I'm not really that familiar with Amway. All I realised is this is not what I want to be involved with. And the reason I realised I don't want to be involved in this is because the speaker, you know, he was talking about how good the organisation is, talking about how much money he's made, but he ended up saying this. He took out a picture of a Lamborghini or something, I think it was, something like that, right. And he says, look, you know, if this is what you desire, if this is your heart's desire to one day own this Lamborghini, you know, then what you need to do is when you wake up in the morning, just five minutes each day, just say to yourself, I want that Lamborghini. Oh, that's what I want. That's my goal in life. That's my desire. Just a few minutes each day of your life, you know, and the forces of nature somehow through the Amway programme is going to one day deliver that Lamborghini to your driveway. You know, that's covetousness, you know. That's praying to yourself. It's not praying to God, you know, that they overlook God who provides all our needs, you know, our Heavenly Father who gives us our every, you know, precious gift from above, you know, every beautiful gift from above, they bypass God and you pray to yourself. You pray to the Lamborghini. You pray to the image, you know, and, you know, there are people like this and, you know, I wouldn't have said to you at the time this person was wicked, but when I look at the description here in Psalm 10, that man was wicked. That's an attribute of a wicked person constantly talking about the desire of being rich and their material wealth. Let's keep reading. What else can we learn about the wicked? Verse number four. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Hey, that's like the Sunshine Coast unfortunately. You go knock on the door. You want to talk about spiritual matters. Hey, how you can be sure that, you know, if you were to die one day, that you'll be in heaven 100% sure. She'll be right, mate. She'll be right. You know, I don't think about these things. You say, well, are they wicked? According to the Bible, they are wicked. These are wicked thoughts. When you do not seek after God, the wicked do not seek after God. They don't want to have God in their thoughts. All right. I mean, look, it's a natural inclination for anybody to think about God. To think, what's beyond this life? You know, who created me? What's my purpose? Where am I going to go after I die? These are questions that every human being asks. But it requires a wicked heart to say, you know what, I don't care. I don't want to know God. I don't want to know those answers. I'm just going to live it up. It'll be right. I'll deal with it if it comes later on in my life. If I face God one day after I die, I'll deal with it there. Hey, by then it's too late. By then it's too late. You see, the wicked do not want to think about the Lord. But you see, you know, I'll get you to keep your finger there. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, please. Turn to Hebrews 11. I'm going to read to you from Deuteronomy 4 verse 29 while you're turning there. Deuteronomy 4 verse 29, the Bible says, But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him. If thou seek Him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Does the Lord want to be found? Absolutely. But you know what, He requires that every human being would seek Him with all their heart and with all their soul. You know, I truly believe that anybody, that's what the Bible says. You know, that's what the Bible says, right? That anybody seeking to know the Lord, seeking to know salvation, that God will find, will show them that the Lord will send them a missionary. The Lord will send them a gospel preacher. The Lord will find them in a good church where they're hearing the sound gospel presentation. They'll be led. So that's what the Lord promises. But what's required for us to seek Him, all right? And I'm sure if I could ask your testimony today, I'm sure many of you say, you know, I came to know the Lord because I started to seek. I started to want to know the answers. I started to ask God, please show me. Tell me the way, and the Lord provided an opportunity for me to hear the gospel. But you guys are in Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse six. The Bible says, but without faith it is impossible to please Him. For He that cometh to God must believe that He is, so believe what? That there He is God, that there is a God, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. You see, if you desire to seek the Lord, you want to know eternal life, He will reward you with that desire, okay? The Lord wants every man to come to repentance, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but it requires us to seek Him. So how wicked then would someone get to the point when they say in Psalm 10 that they don't want to seek the Lord? What are they saying? I don't want to be rewarded. I don't want to be rewarded by God. I don't want to be thinking about God. I don't want to know salvation. I don't want to know eternal life. Hey, that's a wicked heart. That's a wicked man. So contrary to the way God desires us to know His salvation, to know His salvation full and free. We have a lot of wicked people here on the Sunshine Coast. They do not want to retain God in their knowledge whatsoever, okay? They don't want to think about God. Let's keep reading verse number 5, Psalm 10 verse 5. Psalm 10 verse 5. And let me just say, that's why it's so important for us to be door-to-door soul winners. Because we are going to be knocking on people that do not want to think about God. Look, if we don't see them saved at the door, at least what we want to leave them with is a seed of God, all right? To think about there is eternal life. To leave them with a Bible verse, John 3.16 or whatever verse you want to leave them. Something for them, for that seed to germinate and for them to rethink about God, that they would seek Him once again. Let's look at verse number 5. Talk about the wicked. So the path at them again is the pride. You know, a wicked person, you know, lifts himself up with pride against his enemies. You know, as Christians, God tells us to love our enemies. But the wicked, they lift themselves up with pride. They do the opposite against their enemies. They're known necessarily for the enemies that they have. But I want you to notice at the beginning of verse 5 that the wicked, his ways are always grievous. You see, he's known. What does grievous mean? It's grief. It comes from the word grief, okay? He's known for causing grief and pain in others. This is his way of life. You know, it's not, I mean, I'm sure we've all caused some type of grief or pain to people. I'm sure we've all been insensitive at certain points in our life or whatever, okay? But the wicked is known. This is, it says there, his ways are always grievous. It's always the case. You know, no matter what he does, he always leaves a path of destruction. He always leaves people hurting, people downcast, people grieving. And notice that it says, thy judgments are far above out of his sight. This man doesn't even know the judgments of God. He doesn't know right and wrong. You know, the judgments of God are so far removed from him. And this is a realization that I had to come to as a child. You know, I'm thinking, people generally want to do good. I'm thinking here, people generally know it's wrong to lie. It's wrong to steal. It's wrong to murder. It's wrong to commit adultery. You know, no. The wicked, it says here, thy judgments, the judgments of God are far above out of his sight. You know, he doesn't even know them. It's like he doesn't understand the judgments of God. He doesn't know what's right and wrong. You know, be careful of people you come across. You know, they don't like this. They're there to destroy you. Okay, they don't even have good morals. They don't even have good ethics. The judgments of God are far above out of their sight. You know, and like we said, he puffeth up at his enemies. Now, what I'm reminded of here is that word grievous. His ways are always grievous. And I'm just going to read to you from Acts 20 29. Paul says, for I know this, that after my departing, and pay attention now, shall grievous, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. You see, we need to be aware. You know, we've said this warning a few times, but we see that Paul here is taking this very seriously. He says when he departs, grievous wolves. What do we learn in Psalm 10? These grievous people, what are they? They're wicked. Okay, they want to destroy a people. That's why they come into churches. You know, these wolves in sheep clothing, they come into churches to destroy the people of God, to cause division, to cause problems, to break the peace. Look, they're not interested in God. They don't want to think about God. They're here for one purpose. They're here for themselves. And we saw they're here to draw away disciples after them. Be careful guys about the church. I mean, I'd love to think, I mean, I think that everybody here is legit. Honestly, I think everyone here is a legitimate believer. You know, everyone here desires to know more about the Lord. Everyone here is saved. That's my heart. That's really what I want. But I can't ignore the warnings that we have in the scriptures. Okay, we can't ignore the warnings that there are wicked people that will come into our church to hurt us, to destroy us. Okay, and if you're that wicked person, please just remove yourself now before we have to do it. Okay, if you're that wicked person here in this church, remove yourself before we have to remove you. Alright, let's go back to Psalm 10. Psalm 10 verse 6. Psalm 10 verse 6. And while you're, I'll get you to turn to Psalm 62 as well. Keep your finger there in Psalm 10. Keep your finger in Psalm 10, but turn to Psalm 62 just so you can compare this. But back to Psalm 10 verse 6. It's said here. So Psalm 10 verse 6. Look, what does it say? What do the wicked say in the heart? He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved for I shall never be in adversity. Okay, I shall not be moved. Now, this is so amazing because look at Psalm 62 verse 1. The Bible says, Truly my soul waiteth upon God. From Him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. Hey, these are words of a believer. We would say, hey, we will stand firm on the Word of God. We're going to stand firm on Jesus Christ. We will not be greatly moved because we have the God of our salvation as our rock, right? These are words of a believer. Look at verse number 5 in Psalm 62. Verse number 5. The same thing gets repeated once again. My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. Words of a believer verse 7. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. You see, we can stand firm because we have a God who is our rock. Okay, we have God on our side. We will not be moved. You know, we will not be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. You know, we will be able to stand firm on what the Word of God says regardless of how we feel about it. Sometimes it's hard for us to accept. That's fine. It's hard, but we can believe what it says. We can stand firm on what the Word of God says. But notice the wicked say the same thing. The wicked say about themselves in Psalm 10 verse 6, I shall not be moved. But they don't have the God that we have. It's amazing. You know, they have the same assurance that we have. Okay, you know, we stand strong on the Lord. They stand strong on their pride and arrogance. You know, their God is themselves. You know, they feel they can stand on their own two feet and stand against those that they oppress. But it's an interesting thing that I find is that they have the same sort of a... What's the word I'm looking at? They have the same convictions if you were as a believer that's strong in their faith. The wicked are strong in their wickedness. They're strong in their evil ways. You know, they're so full of pride. They think themselves so high and mighty that they will not be moved from their wicked ways. So I just wanted to compare that to you. You can see it's such an interesting thing how you either can have strength in yourself and that's the wicked way or you can have your strength in the Lord and that obviously is the blessed way. That's the way the Lord wants it to be that we would set the Lord as our rock. Let's keep reading verse number 7. Psalm 10 verse 7. His mouth, talking about the wicked once again. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud under his tongue is mischief and vanity. You see the wicked man cannot control his tongue. It says it's full of cursing, deceit, fraud the filthy communication that comes out of his mouth especially when they're under pressure. I mean, there are people that I've worked with and they're dropping the F bomb. You know, they're saying every four letter word you know, that is, you know, that is wicked. It's like every sentence that they say it just comes out of their mouth. You say, oh, that's just the way they are. No, they're wicked. Okay, they're wicked. The Bible says here his mouth is full of cursing, deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. All right. So look, and look, maybe you, maybe you've lived a life where, you know, your mouth was filthy. You know, it's like second nature to you now to just, you know, your mind maybe even not even your mouth. Maybe your mind is just constantly, you know, cussing, swearing, you know, thinking wicked things. You need to bring that under subjection. That's the way of the wicked. Okay, you need to make sure you control your mouth that you speak honest and true things. You speak pure things and not be like this wicked. Now, let me just tie in what's happened in New Zealand in Christ just very quickly. So if you guys been following the news, you know, you guys have heard of the shooter that went to a mosque and shot up, you know, many, I think it's 49 deaths, confirmed deaths so far. Now, this shooter, also prior to doing this, he had like a manifesto, like a documentation. I think it was like 70 pages long, you know, detailing, you know, what drove him to do this, why he's doing it, what his beliefs are, all these kinds of things. Now, one thing that I've noticed in the media is that they're taking this documentation of this man and they're reading through it and they're trying to come up with reasons. Hey, this is why he did it. You know, this is why. But look, let me just, I'll just tell you now, if you're tempted to download that document and read it and understand what drove him to do it, let me warn you, just as your pastor, don't do it. Don't waste your time with the thoughts of a reprobate. Don't waste your time with the thoughts of the wicked. Listen, you're not going to find any truths in that document. Why? Because Psalm 10 tells me that his mouth is full of curse and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. Do you think he's telling us the truth? Do you think he's telling us what drove him to do such a wicked act? Do you think that document's going to, wow, now I understand what caused this person to do it. It's not going to tell us. He's full of deceit. He's full of fraud. You're not going to find answers in his documentation. I'll tell you where you're going to find answers as to what drove him to do that. Here in Psalm 10. Psalm 10 is going to tell you the answers of what drove him to do it. Pride. Okay. It was pride. It's the wickedness of his heart. You know, not desiring to think of God, not seeking after God. We see Psalm 10 tells us what drives these wicked people. It's not their own writings. Don't waste your time on that nonsense. Okay. It's full of deceit. It's full of vanity. It's not going to give you an accurate representation of what drove them to do these things. But you see this all over the media. They love to do it, right. They love to look, read it and give their opinions as to what drove them to do, you know, such a wicked act. Okay. Now, obviously, look, I'm not pro-Muslim and it's a false religion. Okay. But at the same time, it's wicked to go and just murder up 49 people, you know. And look, that's not the only massacre that happened in New Zealand. I'm sure dozens of babies were murdered in abortion clinics as well. Okay. There is murder happening in New Zealand every day. It's happening in Australia. Okay. Every day, 250 babies aborted every single day in our nation. Okay. But it just doesn't get reported. You say, why does it happen? Because we have wicked people. We have wicked people in the medical world. We have wicked doctors. We have wicked people telling women, hey, kill your baby. Kill your baby in your womb. Hey, these massacres are happening every day of our lives. We shouldn't be surprised. Okay. But, you know, we should be praying. We should be praying that people will be impacted by these events and seek after God. You know, they seek after God, He'll find them. That's what we saw here, right? But the wicked choose not to seek after the Lord. Let's keep reading, verse number 8. Verse number 8, Psalm 10, verse 8. Talking about the wicked once again. He's sitteth in the lurking places of the villages in the sick. Look, is he working out? Is this person working an honest job? Is he busy being productive? No. The wicked sitteth in the lurking places of the villages. He's just, he's a busybody. He's watching everyone. He's looking for the weak, looking for someone he can exploit. It says here, in the secret places, though he murder the innocent, his eyes are privily set against the poor. You see, he's looking, just like, you know, if you've seen documentaries of like lions and tigers and how they hunt, you know, they're just watching a pack of animals and then they'll look for the weakest one. They'll look for the one that got away from the pack and they'll go and hunt that person, that, you know, that animal. Hey, that's how the wicked are, in exactly the same way. Exactly in the same way. Let me encourage you to be in church. Come to church. We're like a pack, right? You know, and when we're all together, when we have peace, when we're together of one mind, the wicked will think twice before coming in here and attacking our church. But you know what? If our church is full of division, if our church does not have love for the brethren, that's an easy opportunity for the wicked person, the grievous wolf, to come in and cause further problems within our church. Be careful about how we treat our church. You know, there's a blessing to be in the house of the Lord. You know, we can stand united and look after one another against the wicked. Verse number nine. He lied, I mean, the Bible tells us exactly, I mean, I use that analogy as a lie but you know, Bible just tells us, yeah, it's like a lie. Verse number nine. And of course, what does the lie kind of remind you of? Reminds me of the devil, right? He says, you know, you know, how's it quite again? You know, the devil is a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. You know, it's the same kind of idea. It's like he's carrying out the will of the devil, this wicked person. Verse number nine. He life in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He life in wait to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor and he draweth him into his nets. So once again, I won't expand so much on that but once again, just seeking to destroy people. There was one thing that I forgot to mention just back in verse number eight, just about the murder there in verse number eight. It says, in the secret places, doth he murder the innocent. Okay, in secret places. Now, just once again, just thinking about what happened in New Zealand in Christchurch. Was that done in secret? Oh, you know, it was done in public, right? I mean, the guy live streamed his shooting on Facebook. You know, he wanted the world to see. He wasn't hiding. He wasn't trying to do it in secret places. You see, there are wicked people, okay, and you may have, you may yourself may have been a wicked person, you know, in your life before coming to know Christ as your savior but then you've got the reprobates, you know, and the wicked person, you know, if they commit murder, they'd rather hide it. They'd rather do it in secret. They want to get away with it but these reprobates, these serial killers, these people that are just too far gone, they often leave clues. They often want to be found out. They want to be recognized for the destruction they make. I mean, they're beyond the wicked. They're, you know, that's why they're known as reprobates, you know, and if you want to know more about that, you know, you can spend your time reading, reading Romans chapter one that gives us a greater understanding of what the reprobate mind is like, you know, someone that has been given over to reprobate mind by the Lord. You can see how wicked they are. It's beyond even what we read here in Psalm 10, you know, and that, you know, I have, you know, no doubt to say that shooter in New Zealand was a reprobate. He doesn't even do it in secret. He does it openly, you know, murdering a whole bunch of people, no remorse, you know, and just happy, you know, to have done such a wicked act. Verse number 10, he croucheth. This is really interesting. And humbleth himself, that we know the wicked is prideful. But look at this, he croucheth like a lion does before hunting and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones. You see the wicked person will actually put on a front and a pee humble, you know, that they want to mislead you and think, hey, I'm harmless. I'm humble. But what, and then when you least expect it, that's when they come out and attack, okay, and take you, take advantage of you. Verse number 11, he have said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideeth his face. He will never see it. You see the wicked believes who get away with anything. Okay, he thinks God has forgotten his wicked ways, that God has forgotten the evil that is done, that even God has hit his face and doesn't see the wicked acts that this person makes. But of course, as believers, we should always be aware that God is watching us. You know, even the sins you do in secret, you know, maybe you get away with it from it with everyone else, but you haven't gotten away with it with the Lord. Okay, and I think believers generally know this. You know, even when we do commit our sins, our secret sins, we know that well, God knows this and he's watching us and you know, that should cause you to prevent you from trying, you know, from committing these sins. But the wicked think that God will never, you know, punish them. They think they'll get away with it, that God has hidden their face from their acts. Now, verse 12, we see a change here now in verse 12, because now we see the Psalmist praying that God will punish the wicked. You see, and it is right for us, and a lot of Christians don't understand this, but it is right for us to pray for the destruction of the wicked. You know, a lot of people think, no, no, no, that's not right. That was for a certain time period. Look, God has given us his scriptures for a reason, you know, and I know, generally speaking, a lot of preachers do not like to preach on the hard things, okay? And what we're going to be reading here is hard things to understand, but let's look at verse number 12. What does the Psalmist say? Remember, this is a godly man, okay? This is a man seeking for the Lord to make justice, to bring down his judgment. He says in verse 12, Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up thine hand, forget not the humble. Wherefore, doth the wicked condemn God? That content me to despise God. He says, look, the wicked despises God. He has said in his heart, thou will not require it. See, the wicked are saying, look, you're not going to punish me. You're not going to require of me the wickedness that I've done. And the Psalmist raises up and seeks the Lord. He calls upon the Lord. He says, Lord, please lift up your hand. You know, please bring judgment upon these people. Verse 14, thou hast seen it. The Psalmist says, look, God, the wicked thinks you have not seen that he's wickedness, but you have seen it, Lord, because you see all things. You know all things. He says here, for thou beholdest mischief and spite and required it with thy hand. You know, you will judge this person. You will bring judgment with your hand. The poor commiteth himself unto thee. Thou art a helper of the fatherless. So you see, the Psalmist knows that the wicked acts will not go unnoticed. And he knows that God will require it of this man, of the wicked, that judgment will fall upon the wicked man. Look what he says in verse 15. He says, break thou the arm of the wicked. Have you ever seen a broken arm? I mean, it's not a pretty sight. It makes you cringe when you see someone with a broken arm or, you know, a broken leg. And the Psalmist is asking, God, can you break this guy's arms? I mean, when's the last time you prayed that? All right, but we see, hey, the Bible gives us examples of how we can pray against the wicked. Okay. And look, because we know the Lord will recompense, you know, the evil, that he's a just God, that he will bring judgment. I mean, the whole reason hell exists, the lake of fire, is because we know he's a just God. We know that he cannot let sin go unpunished. Either you accept the punishment of sin that was put on Jesus Christ, or you decide to be punished for your own sins in the lake of fire. Verse number 18, or sorry, 17. No, I'm skipping too many. Verse 16, the Lord is king forever and ever. The heathen are perished out of his land. And I like to think this reference is about Christ's millennial reign. I'm not, I wouldn't be that dogmatic on it, but I think it is. Speaking about the Lord being king forever and ever, and that the heathen will be perished out of his land, because we know when Christ comes back in that millennial time, that he's going to rule with a rod of iron. Hey look, the wicked today get away, you know, with a slap on the wrist. What's that Cardinal, the Roman Catholic Cardinal, George, is it Pell or Bell? Pell. George Pell. You know, homosexual, pedophile, predator. What does he get? Five years? Five years, and he might get out in three years, whatever it is. I mean, do you think that's just punishment for the wicked? Absolutely not, okay. So we see today the wicked seemingly getting away with things, but when Christ comes and rules in his millennial reign, it's going to be perfect judgment, okay, because it's going to be Christ that has the government under his authority, you know. It's going to be a great thing. I think this, this Psalmist is appealing for that time, looking forward to that time, and you might not realize, but when you're there, you're going to rejoice in the judgment of God. You're going to rejoice that wickedness does not, you know, seemingly get away, you know, as it seemingly seems today, okay. Verse number 17. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble. So what do the humble desire? God's judgment, okay. That's what humble desire. What do the wicked desire? They have covetousness. You know, they desire their, their wealthy gains, and their, their conquests, but what do the, what do the humble desire? That the wicked will be destroyed, right? Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble, that will prepare their heart, that will cause thine ear to hear. You see, the reason we ought to be praying against these wicked people, is because our God will hear. You know, the Lord will incline his ear to hear. Verse 18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. You see, we should desire that the wicked will be destroyed. You know, it's a godly, scriptural desire, okay. Now, I'm going to throw a spanner in the works right now, because right now you're thinking, yeah, these wicked need to be destroyed, okay. And they do. It's right to pray for their destruction. But as I was reading through this psalm, something came to my remembrance. So, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 3 please. Romans chapter 3. And let me say, I'm not talking about the reprobate right now, okay. I'm not talking about the reprobates. Just wicked people in general. Romans chapter 3 verse 9. Romans chapter 3 verse 9. Notice this. What then? Are we better than they? No in no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. Look at this. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. What does that remind you of? That there's none here that we seek after God. Doesn't that remind you of Psalm 10? Isn't this an attribute of the wicked, right? They're not seeking after God. This is why it's so important for us to go and preach the gospel, okay, to cause them to ask questions, to cause them to seek after God. Verse 12. Look at this. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Look at this. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Once again, doesn't that remind you of Psalm 10? Verse 7 which said, his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. I just want you to see the parallels here in Romans chapter 3. Verse number 15. Romans 3, 15. Their feet are swift to shed blood. What did we see in Psalm 10, 8? In the secret places doth he murder the innocent. Okay. Verse 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they not known. Look at this. There is no fear of God before their eyes. What did we see? The wicked. They think God's turning a blind eye to them, right? They don't have a fear of God. Psalm 10, 13 said, wherefore doth the wicked condemn God? He hath said in his heart, thou would not require it. The same kind of thought here. They do not fear God. But we see this playing out here now in Romans chapter 3. And look at verse 19. Now, we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, look at this, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. Now, what I want to show you here, guys, is once again, not talking about the reprobates, okay? But talking about just generally speaking, the wicked people, wicked people that we need to be aware of, okay? And also to analyze ourselves, do we have some of these wicked things in us? But I want you to notice, the solution for these people is that they would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. That they would place their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, well, didn't you just say it's biblical to pray for their destruction? Yes, both things are biblical. You see, when you go and you knock a door, you know, we go and knock the doors in this area, you probably have knocked on many doors of extremely wicked people. You probably have. It doesn't matter though. You're there to preach the gospel, right? And if that person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you rejoice, don't you? You rejoice to know that there's another soul going to heaven. You rejoice to know that the sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ, you know, has been imputed. The righteous Lord of Christ imputed upon this person. You know, you rejoice in the Lord, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. But at the same time, that's good. That's what we ought to do. That's our mission. But at the same time, we can't forget what we've read here in Psalm 10, that it's right to ask the Lord to destroy the wicked, to break their arms, to bring judgment upon them. Both things are right. And you say, how are these things right? I can't compute this in my mind. Well, remember, what did I preach on Wednesday, guys? What's the fruit of the Spirit that I preached on? Long suffering. Long suffering. Say, why doesn't God destroy the wicked now? Because we have a long suffering God. That's why. You know, and there's a blessing to know that our God is long suffering. Because even some of these wicked people have the chance to believe on Christ. They have a chance to say, you know what? I can't stand on my own. You know, I'm a sinner. When they understand the laws of God and then they recognize that they sinned against God. That's when their mouths need to be shut and go, man, there's nothing I can do. You know, except to place all my faith on the Lord Jesus Christ. But what else did we learn about the long suffering of God? These people that do not believe on Christ, the long suffering of God allows them to continue building up the wrath of God in their life. For every wickedness they do, the wrath of God is building up time and time again. God gives the long suffering so these people can build up their lives full of wickedness. So when God brings the hammer of judgment upon them, they are utterly destroyed in the lake of fire. You know, and the punishment they receive will be just. Will be just. You know, the torment that will go up forever and ever in the lake of fire as they scream in torment will be justified, okay? And it's because of the long suffering of God that He's allowed them to do these acts, you know, so they could be punished. You know, the judgment would come upon them. The long suffering of God is such an interesting thing. You know, it's both a blessing and a curse to some extent. It's a blessing to those that believe on Christ that has given us this time to understand and to believe and that's our desire but also gives them time to build up the wrath of God in their lives if they choose not to believe on Christ and to be utterly destroyed. So you see, a lot of churches focus on the love of God and that's a good thing to focus on but we can't also forget the wrath of God, okay, and how He feels about wickedness, how God feels about pride. He hates it. He hates covetousness, all right? So please be aware. Don't be ignorant like I was as a child thinking that everyone's trying to do good. No, there are wicked people in this world, you know, there are people that do not know the commands of God. They do not want to even think of God in any sense of the word, okay? And of course, you know, another time we can talk about reprobates but I'm just talking about just a general evil person, your general wicked person, you know, they're out there and I want you to read this Psalm and go, hey, are some of these attributes of the wicked person, are they in my life as well? And if they are, you need to overcome these things and you have overcome them through the cross of Christ but you need to overcome them in your daily walk as well, okay? Through the power of God that comes upon you, the Holy Spirit can work in your life and help you to overcome these wicked attributes. Let's pray.