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Verse number one, Psalm 21. Now the title for the sermon this morning is Kings and Enemies. Kings and enemies. And if you were paying attention to that Psalm, you would have noticed that the first half, or a little bit more than the first half, was about a king, praising God. Of course, that had been King David. I actually believe this is a perfect follow-up for Psalm 20. Because in Psalm 20, if you remember, King David was in the middle of a battle, he was in the middle of a war. He was asking God to help him in that day of trouble. And it seems like when you just continue going to Psalm 21, it's like the Lord delivered him from that trouble. You know, the Lord answered that prayer, and you can see the thanksgiving that he gives following from Psalm 20. But then the next half of the Psalm is about God's enemies. And God does have enemies, all right? So you either, you got two choices. You can either be an enemy to God, all right? Or you can be one of his kings, okay? So that's why the title is Kings and Enemies. Now, first of all, when you look at verse number one, it says, The king shall joy in thy strength. This is why I believe this is a Psalm of David. I believe he's referring to himself, that he's rejoicing in the strength. And this is, O Lord, in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Okay, so he's rejoicing in the salvation of the Lord. As I said, in the previous Psalm, he was asking for salvation. He was asking for deliverance. But he receives it once we get to Psalm 21. Now, even though this is about a king, okay, being delivered in the time of battle, I want to bring to your remembrance the fact that you are kings and priests of the New Testament, okay? The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 2.9, But ye are a chosen generation, and notice the next words, a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood, and holy nation are peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And so because you've been called out of darkness, because you're in the marvelous light of Jesus Christ, he calls you a royal nation. You know, we are the spiritual nation of God, and you're part of the royal family, okay? You've got the King of Kings as your brother in Jesus Christ. You've got the Heavenly Father who will eventually take the kingdom from the Son, who will receive it from the Son, and you are children of God the Father. You are the sons of the King, okay? And so you need to remember that spiritually speaking, you are part of the royal family. Now, listen, in the world, you know, there are magazines all over the news agency and things like that, you know, going online, and people are always talking about the royal family, gossiping about the royal family. Well, you know what? The most important royal family is you guys, if you're saved, if you're part of God's royal family. And thank God. In Revelation chapter 1 verse 6, it says, And have made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. So we've been made kings and priests unto God and his Father, okay? So don't forget that. Don't forget you are part of a kingdom, okay? Yes, we've entered the kingdom of God, but you are part of that royal family. What an honor that God has given us to give us that privilege. And so as we're reading now the Psalm, okay, the first part, I want you to think not just king in battle, okay, Old Testament, but of you, okay? And the things, the blessings of being part of that royal family, the blessings of being these kings of the New Testament, all right? Or queens for you guys. Now, if I keep going, look at verse number, so the first thing that you notice in verse number 1, it says the king shall joy in thy strength. So the first blessing of being part of the royal family is the blessings of joy, the blessings of joy, okay? Now, I want you to think about these things. I am part of the royal family. I am kings and priests in the New Testament. Do these attributes in this Psalm represent my life or do they not, okay? Are you someone that is blessed with joy? Are you rejoicing in this earth, okay, that we live in because of your God, because of his blessings, because of his promises? Are you someone that's filled with joy or are you the opposite? Are you cast down? Are you depressed? And listen, if you're cast down and depressed, listen, there's a time to mourn, all right? There's a time to be worried and concerned about certain things, but your life should be mostly made up of joy, of rejoicing in the Lord, even in times of difficulties, okay? We should learn how to rejoice. And brethren, if you're not living a life of joy, if people look at your life and say, you're really depressing, you're really cast down, you're really negative, you're not really living to the fullness of the royal family that you've been brought into, okay? So verse number one makes it very clear that our blessing of being part of this family is that we can have joy. And of course, what is he rejoicing in here? The salvation of his battle. He had gone to war, he had gone to fight, and God had seen him through. God had given him victory. And that's what the Psalmist is rejoicing about here in verse number one. Let's keep going, verse number two. It says, thou has given him his heart's desire and has not withholden the request of his lips, Selah, okay? So point number two here of being part of the royal family is the blessings of provision, the blessings of provision, okay? So the king has need, he asked the Lord for help in that day of trouble, in that warfare, and God has come through and provided his every need. And brethren, the Bible makes it very clear for us in Philippians 4 19, it says, But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Do you believe that verse? Do you believe that God will supply all your need? Now it doesn't say he's going to supply all your wants, okay? It's not saying that he's going to supply all the lust of your eyes and the lust of your flesh, but your every need in order for you to live a life, not just live any life, but live a life that is pleasing to God, okay, finding work for you to provide for your family, for mothers to be able to get through the day, you know, helping their children, being a help to their husband, okay? You've been able to just, you know, be able to preach the gospel to others. Whatever God has a need for you on this earth, he's going to provide the opportunity for you to accomplish that, okay? He knows your needs and you're part of the royal family, okay? He's going to give you your every need, all right? So he has the ability to take care of your needs. What a blessing. What a blessing to be one of God's kings, be part of that royal family. Look at verse number three. What's the third blessing here? For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness, okay? Thou set us a crown of pure gold on his head. Now, of course, a king, you know, even today, you know, some kings will put a crown on their head, which shows their authority, which shows their power, their honor, you know, their position before men, and the Bible's telling us here that God will set a crown of pure gold upon our head, right? Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. So God is wanting to give us good, all right? The third point here is the blessings of reward, the blessings of reward. Not just that he's going to provide our every need, but he's going to reward us for the good works that we do. Now, he may reward us on this earth, okay? But there are rewards that God has promised us in heaven. There are crowns of gold or crowns of value, you know, of honor that God has promised to give us, should we live in accordance to his ways. You know, some of those crowns that I mentioned, number one is the crown of rejoicing. Now, if you remember what that crown was, it was basically rejoicing in the fact that you're able to get many people saved. And if you get to heaven and you're able to see those people that you were able to get saved in heaven, hey, that's part of that crown that God wants to give you. There's not just a crown of rejoicing, there's a crown of righteousness, there's a crown of life, okay? If you were to go and lose your life on behalf of God, you know, you're to die for Christ, you are given this crown of life. Next one is a crown of glory and the fifth one is the incorruptible crown, okay? There are five crowns you can read about in the New Testament. Now, a pastor can get all five because one of those crowns, I can't remember which one it was, I think it was the crown of righteousness, may have been, I've got to go back and remember that. Otherwise, four of those other crowns are available to everybody else, okay? Four of those other crowns are available to everybody else. God wants to give you rewards, okay? He's promised you a mansion, you know, Jesus Christ is building those mansions right now. Hey, the more work you do for Him, the greater that mansion is going to be. The more prestigious that mansion is going to be, the more beautiful that mansion is going to be, there are great rewards in heaven. And look, I don't fully understand the economics in heaven, I don't understand how it's going to be, but I know when we get there, we're going to wish we did more for the Lord. That's all I know, that's all I know. We get there, we're going to wish we did more, we're going to wish we're able to attain more reward. Now listen, you can do nothing for God, you can be just saved, and just do nothing for God for the rest of your life, you're still going to go to heaven, okay? You're still going to enjoy heaven, you're still going to be able to be amongst other believers, you're going to be able to fellowship with God because it's the righteousness of Christ that got you in there in the first place. Praise God. But listen, if you do nothing for him, it's not communism in heaven, all right? It's not like you take everybody's belongings and they'll get shed equally. That doesn't happen in heaven, okay? Communism is not heaven. You go to a communist country, it's the furthest thing from heaven, okay? It's a disaster, it's a wasteland, okay? No, God will reward you for the good that you do, and that's a great blessing. Some people shy away from that, some people don't like hearing that. I remember when I first heard that doctrine, it was the very first IFB church I went to, I didn't like it. I was thinking, oh man, I'm 22 years old, I've done nothing for God, are you telling me if I die right now, I'm just going to make it to heaven and other people are going to have more? But then you've got to learn how to rejoice when other people also get blessed by God, right? That's part of growing as a Christian, rejoice when God blesses other people. Instead of being envious, instead of looking at others and wish you were like others. Look, today, if you haven't been doing anything for God, just say, look, today, Lord, this week, I want to do something for you. I want to add some rewards for myself in heaven. What a great blessing that he wants to reward you or set a crown of pure gold upon your head. Revelation 22 verse 12 says, You know what it sounds like to me when I read that verse? It sounds like Jesus is saying, look, I've got all these rewards. Can you just do something so I can give it to you? I want to throw it at you even, I just want to give it to you. But I can only give it to you if you do the works that I ask you to do. So Jesus is not holding back. God's not holding back on his rewards. He wants to give them freely. He wants to reward his royal family. Let's look at verse number four now. Verse number four. It says, And so I assume here just a very, the primary meaning of this is he was at war, potentially thinking he'd lose his life. Okay, but the Lord has spared his life and as you know, even the length of his days forever and ever. So his days are going to continue on, right? So he's been thankful that his life has been preserved in that day of battle, of course. But now the application that I want to apply to us in the New Testament is this is the blessing of the fullness of life. Okay, the blessing of the fullness of life. So we don't know exactly how long we're going to live. I hope we live a long life. I hope we're so productive for God that he has no choice but to leave us on this earth a little bit longer to do great works for him. Okay, that's my hope. But listen, even if you don't live a long life, even if you live quite a short life, you can still live a very full life. Okay, you can still live a very full life. Now Jesus Christ, how old was he when he died on the cross? He was only about 33 years old, and his ministry was only about three years long. Okay, but did he live a full life? Did he do great works for God? I mean, he is God. Of course he did. He was able to accomplish great things. And when you read the book of Acts, you'll see certain people die quite early in the ministry, you know, like Stephen. All right, like James. James loses his life pretty early in the book of Acts. Okay, but do you think they wasted their time? No, they were doing great things for God. In fact, Stephen died as a martyr. Okay, he's going to be given that crown of life, you know, in heaven. And so the point I'm trying to say to you brethren, even if we have short lives, or maybe if you're older in life, and you realize you can look back in life and say, well, I haven't done much for him. Hey, the years of life that God has left for you today, it can be full. It can be fullness of joy, fullness of blessings. Jesus says in John 10, 10, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. More abundantly, Jesus Christ says. Listen, I don't know what your impression of an abundant life is. I know what the impression of an abundant life is to an unbeliever. You know, they tend to think, well, you know, make as much as I can, buy as much as I can, go on holidays as much as I can, travel the world as much as I can. And look, even, you know, the most wicked, how many people can I fornicate, you know, as much as I can in my life. That's really the fullness of life for many unbelieving people, okay, for the non-believer, for the non-Christian. But our abundance of life can be one of great blessing, one of great joy, one of great success, one of great productivity, one of great just enjoying your life, all right? Just being thankful for your family, being thankful that you have, you know, live in Australia. I mean, Australia is a beautiful country to live in. You know, honestly, we're really blessed to just be in this nation. I personally would rather live here than in America. I'm just saying it's true. You go down, you've been to, brother, you've been there. You're just driving down the road and you just see homeless people all over the place, okay? You can't be homeless in Australia as much as you try, all right? We lost our church building right now. Hey, there's a park to come to, right? We meet here. You know, Australia has a lot of resources, a lot of great riches. We've been blessed. We can have fullness of life. But let's make sure we thank God for that, right? We thank God that He's given us a great life. You know, I never thought I'd have 11 kids. I never thought that. You know, when I married my wife, I was thinking, well, let's have three kids. God never gave me three kids, never got there. We went one, two, and then four. It's like God was playing. It's like, are you joking with me, guys? You did not give me what I want, but He gave me life more abundant. I'm enjoying the children. I'm enjoying it so much more, okay? So, you know, we can be blessed in many different ways in life, okay? And yet, you know, Christ wants us to have life more abundant, okay? Not just live in a life, but an abundant life. Look at verse number five, Psalm 21 verse five. It says, His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty thou hast laid upon Him. Okay? So what we see here is the blessing of an honorable testimony. The blessing of an honorable testimony, okay? Because it says here that honor and majesty, now you think honor and majesty would go to God, and of course it does, okay? But it says honor and majesty has thou, speaking to God, laid upon Him, upon His King, okay? Upon you. You know what? God wants to give you honor and majesty. God wants you to have a good report. He wants you to live an honorable life. He's going to give you that ability, okay, to have a good reputation amongst your peers. Brethren, you need to be striving for this, okay? I know we live in a wicked world. I know we live in a sin-cursed world. I know we live in a world where people mock the Bible. People have a laugh at God. They don't believe in God. But let me tell you something. If you just live a clean Christian life, you know, you just be a blessing to the people you come across, you know? They may not realize that you're trying to live godly. They may not realize you're trying to live according to the Bible, but they're going to like your company. They're going to say, hey, there's something about that person. He's good quality. I like that person. Hey, your boss will say, look, I know if I give this person the job, he's going to get it done, right? There's so much value in a good reputation, a good report. I did not understand that in my teenage years, in my early 20s. I didn't really have a great reputation at school, all right? My brother was seven years older than me, and he was like, we went to the same school. My brother, my older brother, was like a straight-A student, okay? I think he was like one of the top, I think he made me the top two with his HSC in year 12, right? Me in high school, I was the total opposite, all right? And I had this reputation to live up to. The teachers thought, oh, no, it's a pulvera, all right? He's going to be like his brother. Not really, okay? I was more interested in playing basketball. I was more interested in just hanging out, you know? I didn't understand. But when I would look at my brother and look at what the teachers would say about him, he had a good reputation in his school, okay? Everyone liked him, and I was able to benefit from that a little bit, okay? I was able to be blessed by that. But then I started to realize in the workplace how important a good reputation was, because when they wanted to promote someone, they'd want to promote the guy with a good reputation. They'd want to promote the guy with a good report. They'd want to promote the guy who does the job and does it well, you know? That's what happened. And listen, I don't believe I'd be a pastor today if I didn't have, in fact, that's one of the qualifications of being a pastor, having a good report. And brethren, listen, don't think the Christian life is how many people can I offend with Bible teaching, Bible doctrine. That's not the Christian life. Now, you will offend people, you know? You will just in your daily life as you go about and you express your beliefs, express your opinions, you are going to offend people. But that's not what you're trying to go out of your way to do, right? What you're trying to do is be a blessing to other people. You know, if you can be a blessing, you can be a good report, then when you have the opportunity to give people the gospel, they're more likely to listen to you. They're more likely to listen to you, okay? I was never able to save anybody in the workplace, give the gospel and get anybody saved, I think. But because of my reputation, many people came asking, why? Why do you have a bunch of kids? Why does your wife homeschool? You know, why doesn't your wife work? And I was able to explain the Bible and give a bit of the gospel, hopefully plant a seed there, you know, here and there a little bit, all right? But that's the opportunities that a good report does. And you know what, it says here, honour and majesty thou hast laid upon him. That good report comes from God. If you're walking with God, if you're close to God, he's going to allow people to have grace in their eyes for you, okay? So these are the advantages, these are the blessings of being part of the royal family. Let's look at verse number, actually, Proverbs 22 verse 1 says, a good name, okay? Now, it says here a good name, it's not talking about the name of Kevin or Nicholas, okay, or Tim, okay? A good name here in this passage is a good reputation, a good report, okay? It says, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and love in favour rather than silver and gold, okay? A good name rather than great riches, love in favour rather than silver and gold. And so you can see that God values a good reputation above all riches, okay? And listen, isn't the royal family full of riches? Aren't they normally very well off people? Well, look, I'd rather be well off the way God wants me to be well off, with a good reputation, with a good report, okay? That is the blessing of being part of the royal family. Verse number 6, it says, for thou hast made him most blessed forever, thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance, okay? So we can see the joy there once again, he's exceeding glad, but then it says this, why are we glad? Why is this king glad? With thy countenance. Now, I don't know if you know what countenance means, it basically means your face, okay? If I'm moping and depressed, you'll say you've got a sad countenance, you can see it on your face, all right? If you're happy, you've got a smile, you'll say you've got a happy countenance, okay? So it's a reflection of your face, it's what your face says to the world, okay? That's your countenance. And so you can see here that the king is exceeding glad with thy countenance, the countenance of God, okay? So what this is talking about is that, you know, he's fellowshipping with God, he's face to face with God, and that gives him great joy. The next blessing of being part of the Rowe family is that you get to fellowship with the creator of all things, you get to fellowship with God. What a crazy thing. Now look, you know, there are people that I just enjoy to fellowship with, maybe people that I've known in my past, maybe some old friends every now and again, I just like to catch up with people and fellowship, I enjoy that, okay? I don't know about you, but I enjoy a bit of fellowship with people from time to time. But better than that, you can fellowship with God, you can sit down and just enjoy God's company, you can open his word, you can hear from the spirit, you can pray to God, you can ask him things, you can talk to God just like any other friend. You know, God can be your friend in this spiritual life. You know, you can enjoy his fellowship, enjoy his company. The Bible says in Numbers 6 24, Then it says this, And so it says the Lord make his face shine upon you, and then it says the Lord lift his countenance upon you, okay? This is talking about the fellowship, right? The fact that the priests here, the Levitical priests could fellowship with God, they could tell others of the nation of Israel, hey, you can fellowship with God, you can have the face of God shine upon you, hey, you know what, being part of the royal family, we can spend time with the King of Kings. What a great blessing, we can talk to him, we can spend time with him. Brethren, please take those opportunities of fellowship. You know, people call it, what do they call it? I forget the phrase, quiet time. I've heard that often used in the Bible. Sorry, not in the Bible, but in churches. I don't know if you've ever heard and gone to church and say, hey, it's important to have your quiet time. You know what that means? Hey, get alone with God, just find something else, don't be distracted with everything that's going on, don't be distracted with a lot of noise, just find a quiet place, open your Bible, get a hold of God, and let me tell you, if you're not doing this as part of your life, you're missing out on the great fellowship you can have with God. And I personally think the most valuable time to fellowship with God, have your quiet time, is the first thing in the morning. I think, you know, just start your day with God. And you know what? God's friendship, God's fellowship, will give you the ability to just get through your day with gladness, as it said there, right? That has made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. All right, look at verse number seven. Verse number seven, it says, for the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High, he shall not be moved. He shall not be moved. The next blessing of being part of the royal family is a life of stability, that you will not be moved, right? Through his mercy, a life of stability. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Okay, so we are commanded as people of God to be steadfast, unmovable, and as we saw there in the psalm, that being with the Lord, being part of this royal family, that he will not allow us to be moved, okay? Okay, so this is a great blessing. If you're close to God, you're fellowshiping with God, you're going to him in prayer, okay? You're living the Christian life, you're going to have stability in your life, okay? You're not going to be someone that's wavering. You're not going to be, what do they call it? Bipolar, right? Hot one minute, cold in the next, happy one second, upset the next. You know, God will give you stability in a lot of aspects of your life, even just in your mental states. Just being calm, just being cool, calm and collected, unmovable, right? There's a lot of things in this world that wants to get us unsettled in life, right? To get us nervous and upset, right? You know, having certain phobias about certain things, but hey, being close to God, being part of that royal family, he promised us to give us the ability to be unmovable, okay? Steadfast, sure. Now look at verse number eight, verse number eight, because now it changes tune here, okay? Psalm 21 verse eight, now we're going to the enemies of God, right? Now we see not the blessings of being part of the royal family, now we see the curse of being an enemy to God. And in verse number eight it says, thine hand shall find out all thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. So we have a definition of an enemy here, okay? It's someone who hates God, okay? And the Bible says here, thy hand shall find out all thine enemies. Listen, people that hate God, they're not going to get away with it. God knows them, okay? God knows each one of them, and it says here, thy right hand, hey, when it's all about the right hand of God, that's talking about his power, that's talking about his authority. Hey, one day God's going to come down with his authority and smash his enemies of his, okay, for hating him, right? So number one, the point of the enemy here is that the curse, you have the curse of God's arm against you. You're not going to flourish in life. You're not going to be happy in life. You're not going to be successful in life. Now you may be successful in life as an enemy of God, to the world standard, but you're not going to find real joy like being part of the royal family, okay? You've got God's hands against him. God knows all his enemies. In Exodus 15 verse 6, it says, thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. That's talking about the right hand there, right? Then it says this, thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy, and in the greatness of thine excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee. Thou sendest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. Now here's the reality of most churches. Most churches, if they're going to preach through Psalm 21, they're going to stop at verse number seven. Oh, what a blessing to be part of the family of God. Oh man, I don't want to read verse eight there, right? That God wants to destroy his enemies with his right hand. That God knows his enemy. That there are people that hate God. Now listen, one thing you need to understand about this topic is that before you're saved, we were all enemies of God. The Bible makes that clear. Before we were saved, we were all enemies of God. But there's a big difference between someone who's an enemy, an unsaved person, who's passively going against God. Because every time we sin, every time we trespass, we break God's laws. We're trespassing the law of God, right? God has certain laws, certain standards he wants us to live by. And we sin, especially as an unsaved person. We're just basically, you know, if you have a fence and you've got a barrier, you say, no trespassing. And every time you break, you know, so you've got some guy coming in, jumping over the fence, trespassing the property, you're going to get frustrated. You're going to go, look at this idiot, right? And in that sense, you know, we were all enemies before we were saved. But when we look at the enemies here, okay, the way this enemy is defined in Psalm 21, it's not just someone that sins, okay? It's not just someone that's a passive enemy. It's someone that openly hates God, okay? So we need to be able to differentiate that between a passive enemy, who is an unsaved person, which we all were at some point in time, okay? And the enemy that is actually trying to hurt God, actually trying to hurt his church, actually trying to hurt Christianity. Those people that hate God, and the Bible tells us, we can hate them in return, okay? We have that authority, okay? Now, look at verse number nine, verse number nine. Look at these enemies of God that hate God. In verse number nine, it says, There shall make them, that's the enemies, as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. That's the end of these enemies. This is the end of people that hate God. God's going to destroy them with fire, okay? With his wrath, okay? So the next curse on an enemy of God is God's fiery wrath. Not only will God's right hand be against you, not only will you not succeed in this life, but you're going to end up in hell. You're going to end up in the lake of fire, okay? The Bible says in Zephaniah 1.14, The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. So what we're reading there in Zephaniah is the day of the Lord to come, the future events, okay? The day of the Lord, if you remember, is the day of God's wrath, okay? So I'm not talking about hell right now. I'm just talking about hell on earth, basically. You know, the days of God's wrath upon this earth in the end times. And then in verse number 18, it says this, Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath, but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land. Okay? So even when it comes to the wrath of God, okay, in those end times, the Bible refers to it as the fire of his jealousy, okay? These people that are so wicked, these people that should have been worshiping God, that should have humbled themselves, should have repented from their wickedness, okay? And turned to the God of the Bible, God says, Look, I'm full of jealousy. I'm going to destroy you with fire, okay? And we know that in the day of God's wrath, there is a lot of fire. There's a lot of trees and grass being burnt up, things like that. There's extreme heat, you know, scorching the people of the earth. And so we know that there is a coming time in the future that God will pour out his fire on this earth. But also when it comes to everlasting fire, when it comes to hell or the lake of fire, in 2 Thessalonians, if you guys can turn to Matthew 25 for me. Turn to Matthew 25. Stay in Psalms, stay in Psalm 21, but also go to Matthew 25. Go to Matthew 25 for me. I'm going to read to you from 2 Thessalonians 1, 7. It says, And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. So this is at the end of God pouring out his wrath. He's going to come back with his mighty angels. In verse number 8, it says this, In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So how is God going to punish the wicked here? In flaming fire. That's what we read there in Psalm 21. But then it says in verse number 9, So they're going to be punished with everlasting destruction. What is that everlasting destruction? What we just read, the flaming fire. And where does that everlasting destruction come from? It is from the presence of the Lord. Now how often are you going to hear this in a church? Even in the independent Baptist church? Yes, they'll preach on hell. But how many will actually say those fires that are burning is a wrath of God and God is bringing fiery judgment upon these people? They think it's this place that's far away of fire and nobody's kind of, God's not even there. Because they say, you know, hell is eternal separation from God. God's not even there. And that's the worst part of hell they'll say. That they can never fellowship with God once again. No, God is right there. That is the worst part of hell. That them in their sinful state are facing a holy God and just standing in His holiness is bringing fire upon them. It's coming out of God. It's coming out of Jesus Christ. I mean that's the God that we worship. This is the difference between being a king or being an enemy. Make sure you're one of the royal family. Make sure you end up as His royal family. In Revelation 14 verse 9, you're in Matthew 25. I'll turn there soon. But in Revelation 14 verse 9, it says, And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of in his indignation. And it says this, And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Of course the Lamb is Jesus Christ. And then verse 11, And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Listen, in hell there's no rest day or night. And as Brother Callum preached about hell, they should drive us to want to win souls. They should drive us to give people the gospel. We want to bring them into the royal family. Hey, there are so many blessings, being one of his kings and priests, being part of the royal priesthood. And we're trying to pull people away from that curse. You're in Matthew 25, look at verse number 41. Matthew 25 verse number 41, Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And so we see here that everlasting fire was actually made, not for man, it was made for the devil. It was made for the fallen angels that rebelled against God. That was the purpose, okay? It was never intended for man. And yet man did sin against God. And it's easy to blame Adam and Eve, but you've sinned against God. We've all sinned against God. We can't just point to our forefathers and say, well, it wasn't for you. No, you've sinned. You know, if you were in the Garden of Eden, you would have sinned. You would have fallen, okay? And so this is the punishment, brethren, of trespassing against God. This is the curse of God's fiery wrath. Back to Psalm 21 verse number 10. Psalm 21 and verse number 10. And this is probably the saddest part of this psalm, because as a father of a bunch of kids, you know, I would hate to think that my wickedness, my hate for God would have an effect on my children. And yet the Bible is very clear that it does. Look at verse number 10. It says, their fruit, that's the fruit of the enemies, the fruit of those that hate God, their fruit shall thou destroy from the earth and their seed from among the children of men. Okay? So we know that Jesus Christ loves little children. He says, forbid them not, you know? Allow them, suffer the little children to come unto him. We know that Christ and especially little children are at a ripe age to actually believe the Bible with a childlike faith. That's all you need to do to be saved is believe the gospel with a childlike faith, okay? But these children that are born under the enemies of God, okay, through the enemies of God, haters of God, okay, by natural consequence of their parents' decision can destroy their lives. Okay, can mess up their lives, can seek the things of this world rather than the things of God because of bad parenting, because of bad teaching, okay? So that's just a sad reality. And this is why it's, you know, and I know those that go door to door when you're just like me, when you knock on a door, when you see a child, you get excited, say, man, this is an opportunity for this child to get saved. And the thing that you're dreading is the parents turning up and putting a stop to it. How many times has that happened though? How many times has parents come and said, hey, why are you speaking to my child? Then look, I kind of understand it if it's a little child, but it's happened to teenagers. It's happened to people in their 18, 20 years old, parents come, right, and put a stop to it. So look, you know, they're actually the cause of their, if their children don't believe the gospel, okay, they would have had that opportunity with you at the door. They're gonna be the cause of their children's destruction. Okay, that's the consequences of living a wicked life, of being a hater of God, of being an enemy of God. It's a sad reality, but that's why we need to get out there and win these children to the Lord, okay? Verse number 11, verse number 11, for they, that's the wicked, the evil, the enemies of God, for they intended evil against thee. And by the way, that again, that's the difference between an enemy who's just a regular unsaved person, all right, who probably even wants to do, like, you know, a lot of just unsaved people, just normal people who try to live a good life as best as they can, you know, because most people sort of have this idea that one day at judgment day I'm gonna stand before God and hopefully He judges my good works over my bad works and He lets me in. Like, that's generally what people think, right? It's not like they hate God, generally speaking, right? You know, people even are trying to please God by their righteousness, okay? We're not talking about those people. These people says, for they intended evil against thee. There are haters of God that actually seek to do evil against God's kingdom, okay? So this is a different kettle of fish. You need to understand that, okay? This is here. They imagined a mischievous device which they are not able to perform, okay? So they imagine a mischievous device. Hey, they come up with ideas. How can we hurt Christians? How can we destroy the Bible? How can we despise God? How can we bring laws into the nation that are against the word of God, okay? They come up with mischievous ideas, but the next curse here of the enemies of God is the curse of failed plans. The curse of failed plans, right? They imagine a mischievous device, but then it says which they are not able to perform, all right? So God, many times we put a stop to the wickedness. You know, we see, yes, we see our society getting more wicked all the time, but listen, the Bible is clear that God many times put a stop to it. They get to a limit and God says, no, it's not going to happen, okay? Or they fall in their own devices and they're the victim of their own wicked plans, okay? And so listen, if God did not have a barrier of protection, this world would be Sodom and Gomorrah like right now. I mean, just the wicked cities that you read about in the Bible, okay, how bad things can get in the Bible would just be the entire world right now if God was not stopping the wickedness to some extent, okay? And so there's the curse of failed plans for the enemies of God. Now you say, well, what about the Antichrist? One day his plans are going to come into effect, right? He's going to succeed in taking over the entire world. Yeah, but Brethren, listen, you know, after the first three and a half years of that seven year period, when the Antichrist actually has full power over the earth, when he rises from the dead, all right, and all the kings give their power unto the beast, you know that the next three and a half years is a disaster. He's going to have some success for 70 days or less, all right? But after that, I mean, that kingdom of the Antichrist is just going to be the wrath of God. Like time and time again, the seven trumpets, the seven vials, I mean, you may think he's reached success for a little period of time, bringing in the mark of the beast, having power, but his whole kingdom for the next few years is just going to be destruction, you know? He's not going to succeed, really, okay? Yes, he's going to have some measure of success, but really God's going to put a stop to it, okay? And by the time Jesus Christ comes back with us, riding on those white horses, I mean, the kingdom of the Antichrist will be utterly, utterly destroyed. And so look, not even the Antichrist, really, he's going to imagine some crazy things, but he's not even going to be able to accomplish all his plans. Verse number 12. It says, Therefore, shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. Okay, the next curse, or the final curse in this psalm, is the curse of failure, the curse of failure, okay? So these people are rising up against God. It says here that God is making ready his arrows. Say, God, why aren't you putting a stop to it? Why aren't you bringing down these enemies, God? Say, I'm just getting my arrows ready. Don't worry. All right, I'm getting them ready for the fight. I'm getting them ready for the war. Says he's making his arrows ready upon the street against the face of them. At some point, they're going to come face to face with God, and God's just going to be pointing these arrows right at their face. And it says here at the beginning, Therefore, shalt thou make them turn their back. They're going to retreat, okay? They think they have power. They think they have courage to go up against God. You know, what's that atheist that keeps preaching against God? Richard Dawkins. Richard Dawkins. He claims that he doesn't believe God, believe in God, but we all know he's a hater of God. He knows God exists. He just hates God, right? And he thinks with his boldness, with his intellect, he's able to come up against God. You know, I'm sure he thinks on the day of judgment, he's going to be able to face down God and stare him down. No, God's going to have arrows pointed right at his head, and that guy's going to retreat like a little child, okay? So there's the curse of failure. You know, the fact that they're trying to accomplish certain things, God's just going to put a stop to it. They're going to retreat in the fear of facing God, and they will face God. Either on this earth, you know, God will put a stop to them, and they're going to realize it's the hand of God against them, or just on judgment day, okay? And their retreat's going to be short-lived. They're going to be just cast into hellfire, okay? So that's the curse of failure. Now look at verse number 13. And it says these words. And it says these words. So we saw the first half about being a king, being part of the royal family, the blessings that we have. We see in the second half, which is the enemies of God, and the curses that fall upon his enemies. But then it ends in verse number 13. It says, Now let's not detach this verse from the rest of the psalm, okay? It says, Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength. What is the strength of God that we see in this psalm? Number one, the fact that he can look after, he can provide, he can give his royal family great rewards, great riches, great joy, great abundance of life. Hey, if you're experiencing that life, that's the hand of God. That's the power of God in your life, you know? We ought to exalt God. God gets exalted when his children are doing well, okay? When they're living a great testimony, great Christian life, but also God is exalted when his enemies are torn down, when his enemies are destroyed, right? In his own strength, okay? But then it says this, So will we sing and praise thy power. Most of our hymns are about praising God for his blessings. There aren't many songs that we're singing about God destroying his enemies. So we're going to find some of those songs and sing them as well. Because it says that, right? So will we sing and praise thy power. What power? The power to bless his royal family, but also the power to destroy his enemies. That's the context of that psalm, okay? And this is why we need to learn how to sing some psalms. I mean, you know, brother Sam is trying to work on some psalms, I think, some songs there. One day we ought to sing some other psalms. But yeah, you know, there's nothing wrong with singing about God destroying his enemies. There's nothing wrong in exalting God about that great truth. That might seem unusual to us. Because as I said, most churches hate the idea of God wanting to destroy his enemies. Oh, that was the Old Testament. Jesus is different now. Oh, that was just King David. King David wasn't right with God when he wrote that psalm. No, no. Holy Ghost moved David to write these words. These are the words God wanted documented so we can glorify, we can exalt God in his power, both to exalt and also to destroy the wicked. All right, let's pray.