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Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. We can go ahead and find our seats. We'll go ahead and get started with song number 23. Song number 23. There is power in the blood. Song number 23. Song number 23. There is power in the blood. Song number 23. There is power in the blood. Song number 23. Everybody sing it out on the first. song number 23. Everybody sing it out on the first. Would you be free from your burden of sin there's power in the blood power in the blood would you are evil a victory win there's wonderful power in the blood there's power power would you be free from your blood there's power There's power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. There's power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the lamb. Would you be free from your passion and pride? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Come for a cleansing to Calvary's side. There's wonderful power in the blood. There's power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. There's power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the lamb. Would you be wider, much wider than snow? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Wood things are lost in his life cleansing flow. There's wonderful power in the blood. There's power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. There's power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the lamb. Everybody on the last. Would you do service for Jesus your King? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. It's Jesus who sings. There's wonderful power in the blood. There's power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the lamb. There's power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the lamb. All right, great job everybody. Let's all pray together. Thank you, Father, for allowing us to gather together today as a congregation to worship you, Lord. We just ask that you bless the service and bless the preaching and bless everything that goes on here tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, for our second song, we're going to go to song number 86. Song number 86, In the Garden. Song number 86. Song number 86, In the Garden. Everybody sing it out on the first. Song number 86. I come to the garden alone. While the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear. The Son of God discloses. And He walks with me and He talks with me. And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there. None other has ever known. All right, everybody, on the second. He speaks and the sound of His voice. The birds touch their singing. And the melody that He gave to me. Within my heart is ringing. And He walks with me and He talks with me. And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there. None other has ever known. All right, try again on the third. Maybe we can get it in sync this time. All right, everybody, on the third. I'd stay in the garden with Him. Though the night around me be falling. But He bids me go through the voice of woe. His voice to me is calling. And He walks with me and He talks with me. And He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there. None other has ever known. All right, great job, everybody. Thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high. Whenever ushers come by, get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have the notice or the reminder for our Bible memory passage, Revelation 1, verse 7. And also on the inside, we have our service times, our soul winning times. Please make sure to turn in your church stats to your soul winning captains and lieutenants. And soul winning went really great for us today. I know the van had a lot of people saved. I think we had like over 15 people saved. And so praise the Lord for the areas that we're going to. Very receptive. Also on the right hand side, it's not Watauga, that's for sure. And pray for our expecting ladies at our prayer list. Also upcoming events, Dallas, Texas, soul winning marathon. That's going to be one you want to go to. Definitely some good soul winning that's to be had out there. And still a great harvest of souls. And the harvest truly is plenteous. Labors are few, as the Bible says. It's very clear. And so we want to go out there and be a useful worker. Also the Bahamas Mission Strip is coming up. Please pray for us that are going to be traveling there. I did mention this already, but again, we do have some new invites. These movie tickets. And it just says on there, free movie pass. Brother Rich helped us get these designed. They look really nice. They didn't cut them as perfectly as they should be. But you know what, they still get the job done. But they still really look nice. I really like the design. And on the back, we got a gospel presentation too. And used these today. Seemed like people really like the cards. They like the idea of watching a free movie and stuff like that. I just tell them it's about the Bible. And about the King James Bible specifically. And of course, if you just scan that with your phone, it should work pretty well. Also, if you end up talking with somebody and you want to give them a church card too, please do. Please take both if you want to. But these are more than sufficient. Just to get them interested in the things of God. And to get the right Bible. Which is really going to be the big deal. So, that's pretty much all that I have as far as cards are to note. Let's do our third song. Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Thanks for the grace, everybody. Bear with me as I break the rust off. Psalm chapter 150. Psalm chapter 150. Everybody sing it out. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the saltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Everything that hath breath. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in three persons. All right, great job, everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1. That's Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1, the Bible reads, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and had made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kings of the earth shall will because of him. Even so. Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. I, John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, and with Alciest write in a book, and send it on the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardius, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one, like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Let us pray. Father, we thank you so much for this church, and we thank you for our pastor and his family. Thank you so much for all the souls that were won to Christ today. I pray, Father, that you will allow the power of the Holy Spirit to rest upon pastor tonight, that he may preach with power and authority and boldness, and lay on his heart the message that you've prepared for him tonight, and help us to be edified, help us to grow, and walk out here better Christians, and I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. The verse here that really kind of stuck out to me is verse three where it says, blessed is he that readeth, and I know that it's really important for this particular section of scripture, but honestly, it's not any more important than any section of scripture, and the Bible makes it clear that there's a blessing to reading the Bible, and of course, I started a series last week on the book of Psalms, reading through the book of Psalms as a church, and I wanted to continue that, and instead of just reading, we're gonna actually read a lot of the Psalms this evening, so instead of reading one beforehand, I think it's nice to kind of point out some other verses in the Bible that emphasize the importance of reading the Bible, the importance of the Psalms, and we kind of looked at some other verses, but go to Psalm chapter nine in your Bible, Psalm chapter nine, and I wanna start there, but this is definitely a little bit different style sermon than my normal preaching, but I'd kinda done this last week, and we started with Psalm one, and we went to about Psalm eight, and again, the reason why, or my kind of understanding is, if I were to preach one chapter of the book of Psalms every week, it would take three years approximately to finish the book of Psalms. Additionally, while we're putting a lot of Psalms to music, we don't have very many of them. We have only a handful, and I think that we're missing out on a lot of good doctrine, and so to me, it makes sense. In the Bible, it talks about exhorting people to read. It makes sense for us to just read large portions of Scripture as parts of our church service, and of course, I'm still gonna be preaching here and there and talking about this, but what I like about this style of Psalms is what you'll notice is that several Psalms have the exact same thought. They kinda have the same theme, the same ideas, and the same concepts, so by preaching them systematically, where you're just doing one every week, it gets kind of difficult to preach different stuff because it's kind of like all running together, and it's a lot of the same concepts, so when you do a lot together, it kind of almost seems more like a cohesive sermon anyways, so that's kind of the reason why we're going through this style of a sermon, so I'll just kind of give you a little heads-up. Psalm nine, we're gonna be reading the whole chapter here. The Bible says, I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most high. When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. For thou has maintained my right and my cause, thou saddest in the throne, judging right. Thou has rebuked the heathen, thou has destroyed the wicked, thou has put out their name forever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end, and thou has destroyed cities. Their memorial is perished with them, but the Lord shall endure forever. He hath prepared his throne for judgment, and he shall judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. Sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion. Declare among the people his doings. When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them. He forgetteth not the cry of the humble. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Consider my trouble, which I suffer of them that hate me. Thou that lifteth me up from the gates of death, that I may shew forth all thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in thy salvation. The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made, and the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten. The expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. Let the heathen be judged in thy sight. Put them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah." Now, this is a very powerful psalm, and really, I kind of think that one verse really sticks out to me when I think about this, but look at verse 16, it says, The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth. And what God is trying to communicate to us in this psalm is the fact that those that are wicked, those that are evil, will receive a very harsh and a very strong judgment against them, and that we will see that happen. It's not like those who are ungodly are just going to get away with all the evil that they do. No destruction is going to come upon them. It says in this psalm, in one place, it talks about how they destroyed cities. In verse 6, O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end. And now as destroyed cities, their memorial is perished with them. And I believe when he's saying their memorial, he's not talking about the city, he's talking about the wicked. He's saying their memorial, the wicked people, their memorial, the remembrance of them is going to perish just like the cities that they destroyed. So they destroyed cities, they laid waste in certain areas, but just like that area was laid waste, they too will lay waste, and they will perish and rot just like the city that they destroyed. And we see that the Lord is going to destroy the wicked. This is what the psalm is constantly reminding us of. And why is that important? Well, it's important to remember that we don't have to fight every battle. It's important to remember that the Lord is the one that's going to avenge us and he's going to execute that judgment and we don't have to worry and we don't have to wonder, is it going to happen? It's just going to happen. It's just guaranteed, it's locked in. Now, of course, the hard part for us is being patient. The hard part for us is waiting for that particular destruction to take place and realizing that for the short duration that we're here on this earth, they may continue to just brag and talk about how great they are and God's not going to punish them and blaspheme God's name, but be sure that they will receive their recompense and be sure that God will strongly judge them and they're going to be destroyed. I love in verse 3, it says, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. Now, there's a lot of applications here. One application that's interesting is think about when Judas and the Romans come to confront the Lord Jesus Christ and they're asking for Jesus of Nazareth and he's like, I am here, I am here. It's like, I'm the guy and they just fall down. They can't even stand in his presence, they just fall down. There's one application, but also just the fact that the judgment seat of Christ or the Judgment Day, the Great White Throne judgment, they're not going to be able to stand. And so you've got a lot of different applications that can be made here, but I just love the fact that the real Jesus, they're not even going to be able to just, they're just immediately just fall and perish at his presence. Also, another application, you have the Battle of Armageddon when Christ is coming and basically just all of his enemies are just perished out of the sword that proceeds out of his mouth. You could have another application when we're raptured and Christ is coming and they're asking for the rocks to fall on them and to hide them from the face of him and sit on them. I mean, you've got a lot of applications here, but one thing is clear. They can't even stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is so holy and so righteous, yet all the Jesuses that these people always dream up are so queer and effeminate. They're never like this kind of a Jesus where they're just like, he's so scary and terrifying and they can't even look at him. I mean, any time a Bible character is confronted with the Lord, they just immediately faceplant. I mean, they lose all strength. They're just on their face. They have to have the angel or God lift them up and be like, no, no, no, stand up, it's okay. Give them strength and everything like that, whereas they always pictured God and Jesus in a blasphemous way, this soft-soaked God or something like that. No, no, no, God is terrifying according to scripture and these people are actually terrified of him. They just don't wanna let you know, but he's gonna destroy them. Another thing that's interesting is verse 17. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. And boy, has America been starting to turn into hell on earth, hasn't it? Why? Because they're forgetting God. And when you have a nation that decides to forget God and to push him out of the culture, push him out of society, that nation will become a hellish place to live. All the nations that hate God have just turned into the worst places to live. You say, what is the worst place to live? Probably North Korea. I don't know for sure, but it doesn't seem like a great one. Why? They pushed God out. China, Communist China, terrible place to live. I mean, if you were gonna really look at the places that are nice to live or still good to live today, it's because Christianity had flourished there in the most recent past or is still to some degree flourishing there. And those are the nice places to visit. Those are the nice places to go. And, you know, sometimes there's a nation where it's not really saved. They don't really have the gospel. But at least they have some respect for God. They have some respect for God. And it's still decent. It's nice to visit or anything like that. But you can tell the further you push God away from a nation, the worse the nation becomes. And the nation will be destroyed. And America is on the same crash course. Here's another way to word this. Unbiblical nations are on a crash course. Unbiblical nations are on a crash course. America is on a crash course right now with all of its feminism, with all the abortion, with women leaders. Women leaders are fake. Women leaders are fake. It's just like women's sports where essentially as soon as a man enters into the arena, he will immediately be dominating and winning, okay? And the same is with women leadership in the sense that the only reason a woman could be in a leadership position is because men put her in that position and allow her to pretend like she's in a leadership position. That is the only reason. Because there is no nation on this earth where women have conquered the nation and are the leaders of the nation. It's never happened. It never will happen. And let me tell you something. Even the women in America that are in leadership positions, they are not actually leading this country. There is some man behind the curtain leading the nation. There is some man behind the curtain telling them what to do, leading them by the nose. Usually they're Jews, okay? But that's a different sermon. Here's the reality, though. If women could lead a nation, it would have happened by now. But why does it never happen? Where is the nation where it's just like, here's our really strong leaders, Mrs. So-and-so. She's the one that... No, it can't happen. And of course, we live in a society and in a culture that's trying to give us more and more women leaders, but it's fake. It's not real. It's not sincere. It's a crash course. It's a way to just get destroyed. And why is it? Because men that allow women to tell them what to do will be conquered. Men that allow women to tell them what to do will be conquered. And they'll be conquered by other men, not women. And what's silly is feminism thinks that they're gonna somehow triumph over men, but they're just replacing those men with different men. It's like, I don't want a husband. Okay, well then have a boss. Well, I don't want the police. Okay, well then have Muslim mafias. Then have the cartel. But be assured, there are gonna be some men that are gonna tell you what to do. And they're gonna, instead of, well, how dare I marry a man and submit to him and have relations with him, I would rather be my own independent woman. Well, guess what? If you think your husband's mean for wanting to have relations with you, think what the cartel and the Muslim terrorists are gonna do to you. They're not gonna ask permission. They're not gonna be nice about it. But it's silly for women to think that they're not in a submissive role. They are in a submissive role. They will always be in a submissive role. And the only reason feminism exists in our culture is because the communists are trying to overthrow our country and overthrow our government. But let me tell you something. The nations that forget God will be turned into hell. There is no such thing as a communist paradise. There is no such thing as the socialist paradise that they wanna dream up. It is hell on earth. It always has been and it always will be hell on earth. Every communist nation murdered millions of people, destroyed their economy, became subservient to the other nations that were in the world. And America is no different. If America goes even further down the communist hellhole that it's headed down, you know what? We will become subservient to other nations. We will be killing millions of people. And, you know, I don't know what's gonna happen. I don't know if we go down that road, you could argue that's the end times, but maybe the end times are further down the road and maybe America won't even be, you know, used in that particular way. I don't know. But this is what I do know. If we continue down an unbiblical path, we will be destroyed. Period. There is no alternative. Just like Jerusalem, that city, their only alternative to be rescued was to turn back to God. They couldn't hire Egypt. They couldn't bring in the Assyrians. They couldn't bring in anybody to protect them. No, Nebuchadnezzar is gonna walk into your city and he's gonna destroy every man, woman, boy, and child unless you get right with God. And let me tell you something, America is gonna be destroyed unless we repent and get back to God. That is our only, only option. Donald Trump is not our option. Ron DeSantis is not any better. Personally, I think he's worse. Sorry if you're offended. The guy loves Jews, folks, okay? Nikki Haley is definitely not. It should be Nikki Helley, okay? I mean, this chick is not gonna save America. The Democrats are just the party of Satan, so of course they're not going to. They're like the ex-wife of Satan or something. They're even worse. But there is no chance. And let me tell you, even on a micro level, this is true. We're talking about nations for a second. And I'm spending a little more time on Psalm 9 than I am against the other ones, but there's a lot of good verses here. Not only will a country that forgets God be destroyed and turned into hell, so will a church. A church that starts forgetting God. A church that starts getting away from the King James Bible will be turned into hell. Not only that, a business that does the same thing will be turned into hell. A state that does the same thing. A family, a family that decides to push God out of the family will be turned into a hellish situation where the mom and dad are just gonna implode and the children are gonna implode and it's gonna turn into just complete chaos and disaster. You cannot push out God and expect a good result. No, God is going to destroy the wicked. And of course, that's the whole essence of this chapter. God's gonna destroy the wicked. It doesn't matter if we look at it at a large scale, nationwide, statewide, city-wide, business, church, family, or even individual. You push out God and you're gonna be destroyed. That's the promise of this passage. And notice verse 20. Put them in fear, O Lord. You know, when we watch the destruction of these ungodly institutions, nations, and peoples, it should strike fear into our hearts to say, well, let's not get away from God because look what he did to them. Say, when did he do that? I don't know, it's a story called Sodom and Gomorrah. Anybody hear that one? That should strike fear into your heart. You know, oh, well, that was Old Testament. How about New Testament? Pompeii. Ever heard about Pompeii? Have you heard about the Roman Empire? There's a reason why it fell. Why? They're just wicked. They're just evil and they hate the word of God. And of course, any nation that's like that is just gonna be turned into hell on earth. They've never survived. No nation, no civilization that is anti-God has continued to exist. They all get destroyed. They all get replaced. They all get wiped out. And in fact, most of the nation, if you think about this, almost every nation that we read about in the Bible, if not all of them, are gone. We don't read about it. It's like, where's the Philistines? Where's the Canaanites? Where's the Edomites? Where's the Assyrians? And of course, there are people that live in Egypt, but that's not the Egyptians we read about in the Bible. Okay, where are the Egyptians? Where are the Ethiopians? Where are all of these people? They're gone. And of course, there's no new thing under the sun. You look throughout history, all of those prior nations destroyed the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. Whether you want to look at the Mongolians, the Barbarians, Native Americans. I mean, the Native Americans were pretty much the thriving nation on this part of the world for a long time. Where are they now? In a casino, okay? But you know what? Their life's hell because they're drunk and they're just addicted to just gambling and they have no money, they have no reason to live, and if you go visit one of these reservations, you know what you're going to find? Lots of rabid dogs. It is hell on earth. Just all these disgusting, mangy-looking dogs that just will jump on you and attack you and they're just, they're worthless. Worthless animals. I've never been to an Indian reservation and been like, this is kind of nice. You're kind of thinking like, am I still in America? Like, what happened? It's just like a bad version of New Mexico or something. And you know, if you've ever been to New Mexico, it's just like, we're just driving through, okay? No one wants to stay in New Mexico and there's nothing new about it. It's just like, it's barely better than Mexico, maybe. I don't even know. It's like, you want to know what Mexico looks like? Go to one of these poor areas in New Mexico and it's like, you've made it, okay? New Mexico, wow. It's not a wonderful place. When's the last time you heard somebody be like, I can't wait to move to New Mexico? It didn't happen. It doesn't happen in any of these other areas because they push out God. And let me tell you something. We did a soul-wanting marathon in New Mexico, in Albuquerque specifically. One of the most unreceptive places have ever gone soul-wanting. Very ungodly. All kinds of psychics everywhere and just idolatry and just kind of, it's just bizarre. It's a weird place. It has Roswell, which is also another weird, ungodly place. I mean, it's just like, there's a reason why that area sucks. There's a reason why that area is terrible. It's because it doesn't have any Christianity going for it. The areas that are great are areas that had Christianity flourishing. And let me tell you something. You know, this area used to be a Baptist Mecca and there's a reason why it's so wonderful. It's because of the Christian influence that this area has had. And of course, the Christian, why is America amazing? Because of the Christian influence it had. Why was the UK really nice at one point? Because of the Christian influence that it had. But look, areas that don't have a really good Christian influence have always been terrible. India. Look, no one wants to live. Their food is terrible, folks. Okay? Talk about hell on earth. Think about living your whole life where you don't even have a good meal. I mean, that would just be frustrating, where you just have to live in these areas. I mean, we live in a land flowing with milk and honey and briskets and just all kinds of wonderful things. We don't have to live in hell on earth. I mean, you know, in North Korea... Sorry, I'm going on a tangent here, but... You live in North Korea? They're military. They'll just take the women and draft them in the military. Oh, you want equality? There's some equality for you. And they feed them such a minimal diet. They're so skinny and thin and malnourished that the women won't even have normal cycles. In fact, some of the women soldiers complained that they hadn't had a cycle in three years because they were so underfed and they were so skinny. I mean, do you want to go... That's hell. That's hell on earth. Women in our country complain. This is like, you don't even know. Like, what country is it nice for the women and these other foreign countries? It doesn't exist. And is it funny? The women in our country have so many great luxuries and then they're still on antidepressants and really upset too, right? So you can't win with women, all right? There you go. Psalm 10, look at verse one. Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hideest thou thyself in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages and the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in weight secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth in weight to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbled himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He will never see it. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up thine hand. Forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked condemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand. The poor committed themselves unto thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The heathen are perish out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their heart. Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. You know, Psalm 10's a very interesting psalm. You know, the thought that I had of the whole chapter is it's showing the oppression of the wicked, the oppression of the wicked. And specifically, you notice in this psalm how many times the psalmist is bringing up the fact that the evil and the wicked men persecute the poor. Notice they're attacking the poor. They're lying in wait to hurt the poor. And nothing truer could be said of today than that the wicked are trying to destroy the poor. The Democrats and the leftists and the government, they try to attack the poor and hurt and harm the poor. The Jews of this world are predatory lenders on the poor. These payday advance loan institutions. Let me tell you something. You can't even find one in Plano. You can't find one in Southlake. You know, when you're driving up and down Southlake, you know what you're not finding? A bunch of payday loans, a bunch of Planned Parenthood, a bunch of government-run institutions. You know why? Because they're not trying to oppress the rich people because they're not dumb enough to fall for those tricks. You know what? Unfortunately, a lot of the poor people are, and a lot of the poor people just get taken advantage of, and they use this predatory lending. They're just like a lion, as the Bible says, where they crouch down, and they're humbling themselves. They're hiding in the weeds, just ready to pounce on them. Oh, you know, it's great. We'll help you out. You need a payday advance? Come on down. We'll hook you up with a 25% interest rate. We'll hook you up with a 50% fee. We'll take, hey, we'll take all of your money. We'll take all of that tax rebate that you got. They love the tax rebate you get because they take it from you, and they take it from the poor people, and they hate the poor people. Now, interestingly enough, though, if you pay attention to this psalm, verse 17, he says, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble. Now, he's saying you've heard the desire of the humble. What is the desire of the humble? Well, he says very clearly in verse 15, Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man. So what is the righteous desire of the humble person to destroy the wicked physically, and not even in a nice way? You know, there's not really a nice way to break someone's arm. Do you know that? Like, if someone's like, will you please break my arm? That was a really nice way. Thanks for that. No, it's going to be terrible. Why? Because, you know, that's the right attitude. You know, people have this idea of a soft-soap Christianity where you just have to love everyone and like everything, and everything's good, and there's no bad people, whereas that's not what the Bible teaches at all. In fact, if you read any of the psalms, what you're going to constantly notice is how much evil people are afflicting God's people, attacking God's people, hating God's people, and how much the righteous are begging and pleading for God to destroy them. How much the righteous and the humble are actually asking for God to break their arms. And why I think this is important is because I do believe that God wants us to pray for this. And the reason why a lot of times it's not happening is because we're not praying for it. What if every single saved person in our country this night actually prayed for the destruction of the wicked in our government? What if every Christian in our nation started praying against the synagogue of Satan? What if every Christian in our nation started praying against the false prophets in our nation? It would make a big difference. I think the reason why God is not breaking the arms of the wicked today is because no one's asking him to break the arms of the wicked. You have not because you ask not, and you receive not because you ask amiss. How many Christians today are praying for more money as opposed for the oppressor's arm to get broken? It's like hey, you'll get more money by getting that guy to stop harassing you, to stop oppressing you and beating you down with interest and usury and predatory lending and fees and inflation. Look, inflation is destroying our economy and people don't realize it. People have no idea what they're doing. But if you actually understood how inflation is working, they are robbing our entire country blind every single day and insane, insane amounts. I mean, banks are failing right now. And of course, the government's even claimed they might bail them out, but let me tell you something. Joe Biden is not gonna bail anybody out. If they bail out those banks, you know who's bailing them out? You are. You know who's bailing them out? Me. All of us. It's just they're taking more of our money so that we can have more people go to some institution, some institution called a bank, and they can have diversity and inclusion sessions where you have men wearing dresses and skirts talking about how you should use the right pronoun. Because you look at a lot of these banks that failed, that's what they're mainly doing. They showed all their CEOs and all of their high-up personnel are trying to implement these pronoun programs for their banks and wearing all the colors. It's like, I wonder why you failed. Maybe because you weren't paying attention to business and you were paying attention to just wickedness, and then we have to bail them out, but really what they're doing is they just keep sucking out all of the money from the middle class and from the poor and just we're really just kind of like slaves in a sense and you just don't realize it, okay? But I'm telling you what. We need some of God's people to start praying. Why is it that God sent Moses for the cry of his people? Why is it that God sent angels in there to rescue people from Sodom and Gomorrah because of the cry of it? And let me tell you something. God is willing to hear our prayers, but if no one's crying and no one's praying for rescue, why would he rescue you? God wants us to have faith. God wants us to pray for the destruction of the wicked. He wants us to pray that God would judge, and it says here the fatherless and the oppressed. Isn't it? It's just disgusting how much our government takes advantage of these two groups, the fatherless and the oppressed, and specifically, let's be really specific about this. It's mostly black people in America. It's a lot of the black culture has caused a lot of black men to leave their children. There's a lot of children that are raised in a fatherless home, and of course, these young black men and young black women are just being taken advantage of by the system, and they don't have money. They don't have any resources. They don't have a career. They don't have an education. I mean, they're just being lied to and taken advantage of, and be it known, look, the Democrats historically hate black people more than anyone, and they lie to them about it. They're the ones that were the big Ku Klux Klan supporters. They're the ones implementing the birth control methods. They're the ones that were testing all kinds of weird vaccines on black people not that long ago and killing them, injecting them with all kinds of diseases. In fact, Bill Gates and all these other people, where do they use, what's their Petri dish for vaccines? It's Africa. I mean, they go to Africa, and they just basically test out all of their experimental drugs on these people out there, and they just, they hurt and harm and oppress them, and for lack of knowledge, they're destroyed. And if you actually love black people, you would go and preach them the gospel. You'd get them a King James Bible. You'd show them how to be a godly Christian, how to work hard and provide for yourself, and you'd visit the fatherless. Look, if you go in these poor ghetto black areas, you'll find a lot of children there that have no dad, and they need some man in their life to show them how to be a real man, and a real man actually provides for his house because the man that doesn't provide for his own is worse than an infidel, according to the Bible. And you know, we need some real men to show the youth and the fatherless and the widows and the poor and the afflicted, you know, what Christianity's really about and that these people should be destroyed, not voted into office. Look at Psalm 11, verse 1. In the Lord put on my trust, how say you to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain, for lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men, the Lord tried the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and horrible tempests. This shall be the portion of their cup, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright. I don't feel like we've been moving on from our theme. Haven't you noticed a pattern here? God really hates the wicked and the wicked really hate the righteous, but God is going to end up destroying them. Notice in verse 6, he's going to rain on them. Snares, fire, brimstone and a horrible tempest. This even happens literally. Sodom and Gomorrah is a literal fulfillment of this. You can read about other civilizations and areas where volcanoes are erupting and there's literal fire and brimstone being poured out on people's heads and destroying them physically for their wickedness. Not only that, just times of warfare where raining missiles and fire and destruction is just coming and just destroying the wicked, killing the wicked, and that is what they have to look forward to. It's a remnant. It's a little bit of a taste of what their entire existence is going to be later in hell where it's just going to be permanent fire and brimstone. You know, the good thing about this life is once your nerve endings get burned off, there's no pain in that area. But apparently in hell, there's no such thing. There's no adrenaline. There's no... I mean, you don't even get a sip of water. You don't even get a drink of water. But apparently you know what water is. You know, it would be so much better to go to hell and having never known what water is than to have known how refreshing water is and how good it tastes. I mean, when your throat is dry and it's been hurting and you get cold ice water, when you get the ice from that ice machine, oh, man, you know what I'm talking about. It's delicious. And having enjoyed just the simplicity of water and enjoyed it, but then when you're in hell, just all the memories of water isn't that going to be the worst? I mean, that guy is screaming in torments, and he's like, can I just even have a drop? Just one, just like one little tiny drop. None. Zero water. That's all they have to look forward to for all of eternity. And you know, if you loved anybody, you would try everything you do to get them to not go to hell. I mean, how can you say you love people when you know that's where they're going? I mean, you believed on Christ because you didn't want to go there, but you know other people are going to go there and you won't even give them the gospel. It just shows you have hatred in your heart towards that individual. Of course, we understand that we need to trust the Lord for his judgment. We keep seeing this pattern. The wicked hate the righteous. The righteous trust the Lord. The Lord eventually delivers them. Look at Psalm 12, verse one. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity to everyone with his neighbor with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who hath said, With our tongue will we prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. Now, Psalm 12 is a really interesting psalm of the Bible, and we haven't changed themes at all. Same theme. We've been keep reading the same theme where we see, essentially, the wicked wanting to destroy the poor. In verse 5, he says, For the oppression of the poor, notice this, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise. Think about this. God not only hears your prayers, God hears your sighs. And, you know, the Bible even talks in other portions of the Scripture. I believe it's Ezekiel. He's talking about those who sigh and cry and how he wants to mark them for safety because he doesn't want them to be destroyed. And, you know, it's just like any time you see, like, Bruce Jenner, you're just like, ugh. God heard that, you know. Every time you see a disgusting sodomite flag, you're just like, ugh. God's just like, he hears that sigh. But, you know, it's scary when you live in a society and there's no sighs anymore. People aren't even upset about it. They're just like, oh, it's normal. It's fine. Leave them alone. No, it should be like, ugh. God hears that. You know, when you drive into Dallas and you see this disgusting area called Darklawn. Who knows what I'm talking about? Darklawn. Okay, I'm sorry for you that raised your hand. Dude, this place is just a sodom in Gomorrah. I mean, the whole area is just, it's like painted rainbows. Every store is just rainbow flags everywhere. It's just like, ugh. And sometimes I go to areas that are not there but it's like on the way. I just even hate being near it. I just hate that I'm just like, it's over there. I know it. It's disgusting. It's just, it's horrible. I didn't even realize where I was going. One time I actually turned down the street and I was just like, where am I? I'm like, never come here. I was afraid that my car was gonna burst into flames or something. I was just thinking like, this place is so, you know, I'm gonna spray my car down and not get AIDS or something. But you know what? We in our culture need to not get to a point where we tolerate filth. We still sigh at filth. We still sigh at the oppression. Ugh. You know, the wickedness that happens. Don't get desensitized to evil. Don't let evil just become normal. No, continue to sigh and continue to cry and continue to stay mad and have a righteous anger against these things. I don't care how wicked the world gets. We shouldn't tolerate any filth, any smut. The Lord is holy and righteous. And the sad thing is, is he's saying, look, the godly guys have been ceasing. It's hard to even find anybody that's godly anymore. Does this sound like the majority? No. And this is really not any different in any generation. It's hard to find godly people. And even the faithful, they just constantly, there's a lot of people, they'll come to church and they'll be kind of zealous for a little bit of time, but then they're just gone. And you know, you look at our church at every church. It's not my church. It's not this church. It's every church. You'll look at the roster of people in a church and it's just a revolving door. There's people constantly coming and going. And of course, there's nothing wrong with going to a different church. There's nothing wrong with changing where you live or anything like that. But a lot of these people just stop going to church at all. And you know, it's sad. It's sad that there's people that know to do right and don't do it. You know, the Bible says, him that knoweth to do good and doeth not, to him it is sin. And you know what? We all need to get plugged in and be faithful to the Lord and it's way easier to say that than to do it. But of course, notice, help. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful failth among the children of men. You know, the last thing we need is less people to be committed to Christianity. We need more people committed to Christianity. We need more people that say, I'm going to be a soul winner for the day that I die. And let me tell you something. There's a lot of things that can change your life that are out of your control. But you know what? Being a soul winner is something that you can always be in control of. You can just always be a soul winner till the day you die. Even if you get thrown in prison, you can still be a soul winner in prison. The worst punishment would be like solitary confinement. And I've thought about it. I'm like, that would be the worst just because I would probably go insane because I mean, I just, being around other humans is what makes you normal. You know, being alone is what makes you crazy. And you know, even if you're in prison but there's a lot of people around, hey, at least you can get them saved, have some fellowship or whatever with Bubba or whoever it is. But be like, I hate pedophiles too, okay? And you know, it seems like these days they're not even putting real criminals in prison anyways. It might be pretty safe. It's like a bunch of January 6th protesters and you know, like people like Trump. It's like, I'm in prison. It's like Trump and patriots and constitutionalists and other Baptists. It's like the game of Monopoly where at the end of the game, it's safer in jail, you know, than it is to play on the board. And it's like maybe as we keep regressing in America, it's like you keep putting all the pedophiles and murderers and rapists in our government. So it's like the most dangerous place is the Senate. The safest place is the prison. You know, who knows? I'm not asking you to go to prison. Please don't send me to prison, all right? But you have to realize that our country is not any different than any other time in history. Godly men are a rarity. You know, I think a lot of men think like it's hard to find a godly woman. Just as hard to find a godly man in many cases, in many ways. And of course, a lot of men will proclaim they're a great guy. Everyone will proclaim, I deserve, you know, the most godly woman ever. She should just already marry me. And it's like, but are you a really good guy? Are you really the faithful guy that deserves that? Why would God bless you that? Because the Bible tells us that a prudent wife is from the Lord. But let me ask you this question. Is the reason why you can't get a prudent wife, is it God's fault or is it your fault? You know, I don't know. That's for you to decide, but a lot of times it's probably your fault. The Bible does say here that these people have flattering lips. They're speaking against the Lord. And then it kind of makes this shift in verse six where it says the words of the Lord are pure words. And I've thought about this passage a lot. In fact, I named a church after it, okay? So I definitely love this passage of scripture. And, you know, I believe that this passage is talking about, in verse seven, the words of the Lord, okay? When it says that the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver trying to avert his birth, pure advice of times, thou shalt keep them, I believe that's in reference to the words. So I've never really changed my mind on that. There's been times where I've tried to really understand this passage. But here's something that I've kind of recently decided I believe about this passage, is I think that the words are only one application of this and that, in fact, it's also talking about the poor. So what you'll notice in modern Bibles is they take away this kind of dual reference possibility by just talking about the poor only. And here's the thing, I do believe that it's gotta be talking about the poor for sure, but I also believe it's talking about the words. And why it makes sense to use this analogy is because just like the Bible promises that heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away is the same in this application, in the sense that the words of God are gonna always be preserved. So what God often does is God will use another analogy or another example to prove what he's gonna do about something else. He'll talk about just as sure as the sun's gonna rise, I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z. Or heaven and earth are not gonna pass away until every jot and tittle is fulfilled in the law. So he's not necessarily in that context using a forever analogy, but he's using an analogy that lasts a really long time. So he's talking about something that's gonna take a really long time. What's something that's gonna be preserved and be preserved for every generation? The words of God. So he's saying just in the same way that I'm gonna preserve the words of God for every generation, I'm gonna preserve the poor for every single generation, I'm gonna constantly preserve the humble from the wicked. And we see this as a consistent theme in the scripture, don't we? We see Joseph being delivered out of prison. We see Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego being rescued and being delivered. We see Esther and the people of the Jews, not the fake religious ones of the day, but those that were actually of God in times past rescued and delivered from wicked Haman and delivered from the evil. And we just see this constant theme. Jeremiah delivered from the wicked in his day. And he was, you know, think about this. We often talk about end times Babylon and the end time situations. Jeremiah was spared. Jeremiah was delivered. If you read Matthew 24, and I attach Matthew 24 not just to 70 AD, I'm not a preterist, to also end times bibliology. And let me tell you something. It talks about people enduring under the end and being saved. So some people are going to be preserved even in the most dark, evil, frustrating time of all of human history. The Bible says that that specific time of great tribulation is the worst that ever will happen. And even in the future, we have a battle of Gog and Magog where the whole world is gathered together against Christians and there's kind of like this horrible thing. That's still not even as bad. It's saying the absolute worst tribulation in all of human history is that period of time, yet there are people saved and delivered out of it. Yet there are people that make it through that. So if people make it through that, why would I think right now I couldn't be delivered from the evil of today? Of course I can. And God is going to preserve, He's going to preserve the humble that trust in Him in every generation and every situation. What happens, though, is people get afraid and they pull Urijah, where they're not Jeremiah. They're not going to stick around and keep preaching the Bible against all opposition. They're going to go run off to Egypt. But you know what? When you run off to Egypt, you get dragged back out and killed. Not preserved. And of course, why is the Psalmist, the Psalmist is really trying to just drill it in your mind, have the faith that God's going to deliver you through it. You know, it's hard to think, like, how is God going to deliver me when I'm being thrown into a fiery furnace? Humanly speaking, it makes zero sense. There would be no, you're like, I don't know how this is going to work. You know, oh, you're going to go into a lion's den. Well, maybe they're not hungry. Oh, they haven't eaten in days. Well, maybe they're not going to be angry. No, we've been messing with them. It's like, you're just like, there's no way. How many times have God's people been in a no-win situation? The children of Israel are rolled up against the sea, and the Egyptian army's marching down. They don't even have weapons. And not only this, think about, like, it wouldn't just be you. It's you with, look at all the children in this room. You really think an Egyptian army with chariots and swords and spears and bows coming and marching against your toddlers and babies and your women? Oh, why didn't they just let the women fight? They're not going to beat us. We've got women here. No, no. They looked at it, and they were like, we're doomed. We're dead. We should have never even left. Those ones that were the unfaithful, the unbelieving. But then what happened? God opened the Red Sea and let them walk through on dry land. God even brought out a fiery pillar just to delay the Egyptians long enough so that they could be delivered and rescued. Why would I think that today it's going to be any different? The only reason I would is because I have no faith. Because the Bible that I read keeps telling me to have faith in the Lord, trust in the Lord. He's going to preserve. He's going to deliver. Instead of just constantly worrying about how I'm going to be delivered, I should worry about what's going to get me delivered, and that's God. It's not storable food. It's not having some basement option. It's not having some storage room. In fact, I don't think we're going to get there in time, but you start reading this, it says, some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the Lord. I'm not going to trust. Well, look, Pastor Shelley, I am not going to be hurt by our economy because I have Bitcoin. So stupid. Most of the states, they're trying to pass legislation to make all of these alternative cryptocurrencies illegal. Oops. Just like you watch these banks collapse in five seconds, you'll watch your little cryptocurrency collapse like this as soon as they outlaw it, just like in the state of California. I think they passed some legislation. It's like in 2030 or 2035. Don't quote me, but you look it up. Somewhere in that timeline, they're going to outlaw the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles. Well, here's the thing. It doesn't matter if you want to buy one. It's just gone. And in fact, if that's even true, here's what you have to understand. You say, well, I won't buy one. I'll just buy the gas one. Well, guess what? All the companies are going to make only electric vehicles anyways. They won't give you another option. In fact, they'll probably do it five years in advance because they're afraid of not having their production ready in time, so they're just going to do it anyways. Well, you know what? They're afraid if they take my guns away that I won't be able to survive. We better have guns. Now, look, here's the thing. I'm as big a Second Amendment advocate as you'll ever find. I mean, I don't disagree with the Second Amendment. I believe we should even fight for the Second Amendment. But at the same time, you know what's not giving me physical safety? It's my guns. Now, do I own guns? Yes. Will I use guns? Yes. Do I have lots of guns and lots of ammo? Yes. Do I have lots of options? Yes. Do I carry a gun on me at almost all times? Yes. The horse is prepared against the day of battle. But let me tell you something. Safety is of the Lord. Safety is of the Lord. And you know what? Just like David had his little slingshot in five stones, yeah, I've got more than that, but I've got my little slingshot. But you know why I'm going to hit you right in the forehead? It's because God's on my side. And yeah, I practice shooting. But I'm just saying, like, I'm not trusting in my ability. Like, I don't think that I'm just the greatest marksman in the room. I don't go and train all day every night. I don't dry fire every second. I don't have, like, a bulletproof vest and, like, night vision goggles or anything like that on at all times. You know, I just know that, hey, if God wants me to be alive, I'll be alive. And if God wants me dead, I'll die as soon as he wants me to die. But at the end of the day, I'm going to trust in him. And, of course, when we fight against God's word, when we have man doing evil, notice the state of affairs. Verse 8, the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. You know, when the word of God is exalted in a society, you have godly men rise. When you push out the word of God, the vilest men are exalted. And, you know, that's all this transgender nonsense. The vilest men are constantly being exalted in our society. And, of course, they're being, you know, praised as being a woman. How's that even a compliment? It's just disgusting. And they're ugly as sin? You know, even if they could make a dude look attractive, which I don't believe they can, but I'm just saying even if they could, it's still not praiseworthy. It's, you know, even if they could figure out a way to actually make a dude look like a chick, which they haven't yet, nor do I think they ever will successfully do, but even if they get to that point, which I'm telling you, it might get to that point. It could maybe get to a point where the horrors of our world are indistinguishable from the horrors that are actually women today. But you know what? I'm not worried about it because I don't like horrors. Either way. But you know what? The industry is getting weird, and people are getting weird, and Hollywood's always been weird, and let me tell you something. Wouldn't you just feel even more disgusted and say, what if you are a man and you start having lustful thoughts after a woman and it turns out it's actually a dude? You'd want to burn your eyes. This is why you just stay away from that stuff. You know what I mean? Because you don't even want to know what's going on, and you wouldn't be the first guy that got tricked by one of these things. And let me tell you something. It's gross. It's disgusting. It's filthy. Obviously, the secretary of health isn't tricking anyone, okay? That thing is as ugly as sin. But I'm telling you, it's getting weird out there. Our world is disgusting, and they're praising these people. It's because of a lack of the Bible being preached and being thundered forth, but you know what? Even though they say, who's Lord of all, who's going to tell us what to do, God's going to still destroy all of them anyways. It can't exist permanently, folks. Our country is getting so bizarre so fast that it's just going to be a rapid crash course if we don't fix it. I mean, you can't start thinking that men are women and women are men and have a society exist very long in that particular state. It's literally a house of cards that's ready to fall at any moment. And so, you know, who knows what's going to happen, but I really don't see it existing in the state that it's in for very long. America, you know, we get worried about things lasting forever, but here's the thing. Who had to wear a mask out in public today? No one. But wasn't there a moment in time where you're kind of worried like COVID's going to be forever? You kind of thought like, oh, man, is this going to happen forever? But didn't it change pretty quick in the hindsight and kind of the relatively short period of time? And, you know, the same thing can happen in our society where we're going through this really tough phase right now of the world, but as we resist, if we pray to God, you know, it could get better again or it could rapidly decline and then, you know, welcome to Mexico. No, I'm just kidding. But, you know, at the end of the day, we have to realize that God is the only hope that we have in all of these situations. And notice at the verse one, help Lord. He has no other alternative. We need to have no other option in our bank account, in our personal life, in our home, in our safety closet, in our safe room, our safe word. Everything that's safe is just God. Help Lord. And this, you know, when I read Psalm 12, I'm not thinking like this seems like a better situation than we're in. This sounds like the same or worse. And yet, he's trusting in the Lord. And, of course, the words of the Lord are what give us the confidence to have trust in him. They're what give us the faith. They're what protects us from the evil and from the wicked. There's a lot of other great Psalms here. Let's read one more. And for the sake of time, I'm not going to get as far as I wanted, but Psalm 13 says, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever. How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against them, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. And, you know, I think I really like this Psalm, because we've been looking at this consistent theme. And this is probably a good place to stop anyway, since Psalm 14 is a little different. But what is the theme that we've been seeing? The wicked want to destroy the righteous, and he's wanting to destroy anybody that he can. He's a predator, and he likes to prey on the weak, the poor, the humble, the fatherless, the widows. We see the same theme. The Pharisees, who do they prey on? The widows. They prey on the ignorant. They love to hurt and harm people that can't defend themselves. Why do you think it is that governments want to take guns away? Because you're a lot less likely to be able to defend yourself. And when you're not able to defend yourself, you're taken advantage of. That's why it's so important for God's people to be armed with the sword of the Spirit, so we're not taken advantage of by wolves and false prophets and false teachers. But what's interesting about Psalm 13 is it brings another dimension to this particular argument, and it's talking about the concept of time. Think about what he's saying in verse 1. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? You have to understand this about Psalms. Sometimes it's just really showing you the human element and specifically the flawed human element. Did God forget him? No. Is it even right for him to really think that God has forgotten him? No. But it's showing how in our own personal lives and just kind of how we respond to God, sometimes you could get that thought, couldn't you? Maybe you're going through a really hard time. Maybe you want something from God. Maybe you've been looking for something for a long time. And it almost seems like, if God were going to answer my prayer, wouldn't he have done it already? You know, wouldn't I have... You know, if you want to get married and it's taking a while, maybe you think like maybe God forgot about me and doesn't even want me to have a spouse. Or maybe you're having a hard time having children or as many children as you want and you feel like maybe God's forgotten about me. Maybe you're struggling financially and it's like, man, it just seems like God's forgotten about me. Maybe you've been in a bad place in your life and you feel like God has forgotten about you. And maybe it's not even right now. Maybe there was a time like that in the past. Maybe right now it's great. Maybe in the past you had a bad... You know, I guarantee there's a lot of people out there that are living in an area where they wish they had a good church and it's like they feel like they've been there for a really long time and they're thinking like, is God forgotten about me? Why can't I have a good church option? But, you know, if you've been in a situation where you're like that and then now you're not, remind yourself, oh, wow, God did answer that prayer. Oh, God didn't forget about me. God didn't decide not to hear my prayer. God didn't just abandon me. He had better timing than me or he wanted to give me more character or I wasn't ready for that or I was prideful or, you know, maybe you had some kind of an issue or the timing. We never know why God is delayed in the particular decisions that he makes but we can kind of relate to this guy. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Notice this forever. Think about what he's saying. He's like, God, are you going to forget me forever? But isn't that kind of a bad accusation against God? Is God going to really forget his people forever? No, but what it's trying to show is it's trying to show how the thoughts of doubt creep into our minds. The lies of the devil, the impatience of man, the fact that sometimes we just start to have, you know, the improper idea. How long will thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart? He's like, God, do you not care that I'm sad every single day? God, do you not care that I'm afflicted every single day? But here's the reality. He is there with you. He does care. I mean, think about the hymns that we sing. Does Jesus care? But what is the hymn trying to remind us of? I know he cares. I know he cares. I know he's touched with my grief. You know, we have great promises in the Bible where he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It's not that he's afar off. It's not that he's forgotten. It's not that his face is turned away. It's not any of these things. But these are the thoughts that can creep into our hearts and our minds. You know, and why is it? It's because the enemy just keeps terrorizing and winning battles and having victory, and they just brag about it. Just like in the story of Judges 19, where they first, the Benjamites, just destroyed Judah. I mean, it wasn't even close. It was just a total annihilation. And these people are left-handed, and they're winning. Just think about the embarrassment of someone that's left-handed beating you at anything. You know, and it's just like, these guys, I mean, these Benjamites, and then they win the next day. And you can just sit here and just think, like, how long? Think about the children of Israel are in Egypt 400 years. That's a really long time. You can see how someone would be like, is it forever? But wait, did God ever forget them? No. You can say this, hey, God, when are you coming back? Right? I mean, isn't there a lot of people thinking, like, when is Jesus coming back? It's been a while, like about 2,000 years. That's a while in our minds, in our experience. But, you know, to God, it's like two days. A thousand years is like a day. So two days isn't that long to Him, right? Time's, like, inconsequential to God. But we can have these thoughts, we can have these feelings. The enemy's exalted over us. And, you know, it's funny to me, because I just feel like as a church, sometimes I get these feelings. Maybe you don't. But I'm just like, sometimes it just feels like, how long is the enemy just going to keep prevailing over us? Who's had that thought? Okay, I'm not the only one. All right, thank you for that hand. I see that hand, all right. But don't you, you kind of sit there like, did God forget about us? Are they going to win forever? But let me tell you something, they're not going to win forever. And even if they win in this life, they're not going to win in the next life. But let me tell you something, I don't even believe they're going to win in this life. They're going to be defeated. We are going to triumph. We are always victorious in Christ. And look, we keep winning. I mean, how many people do we have saved today? Probably a couple dozen people saved today. We're winning, folks. We're saved. We have the joy of the Lord. We have spouses that love us. We have children that love us. We have the joy of the Lord. We get to go out and just have so much fun and enjoyment. I mean, we are winning. It's just your perspective, isn't it? And this guy has gotten a little bit better. And this guy has gotten a little bit down in the dumps. And we don't want to get so discouraged that we think God's not going to actually still rescue us and deliver us. No, we need to continue to trust in the Lord. And continue to wait for his deliverance. And that's a constant theme you have in the Bible. Wait on the Lord. Just wait on him. Because every Bible story he always came through. He always comes through for his people. He's always going to deliver. He's always going to rescue. It's not like, well, that was in the Bible times. There's no such thing. We're in the Bible. You know the book of Revelation doesn't even happen yet? So you're in between somewhere in the Bible. We're still living in the Bible times. We are the Bible. We're part of him. He lives and moves inside of us is what the Bible says. We have our breath and our movement and our being through God. God literally lives inside of you. If you're saved, you are a habitation of God. Why would you think that God has forgotten you? Why would you think that God has forsaken you when he said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee? I mean, the Bible could not be clear. We have God working with us daily. And we're going out and seeking saving that which was lost. Why would you think that we're not winning right now? I mean, why would God want to just take us out of the way and not deliver us when we're getting people saved? No, he's working through us right now. He's delivering more people. And you know, Jesus Christ had to go through a lot of suffering before his ultimate end, but it was for the next person to get saved and the next person. Paul had to go through it for the next person to get saved. And you know what? Whatever sufferings we have to go through are not worthy to be compared to the glory that's going to come. And we need to not get discouraged by any of the evil that happens in our lives. God's going to judge. When you read the Psalms, it's got to encourage you. It's just over and over. Hey, you don't think God's going to deliver? He always delivers. Always delivers. He always destroys the wicked. Let's go to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us these great Psalms of encouragement. I pray that one day we would be able to put even all of these to music and we could sing them. But even just reading them is such a blessing unto us. I pray that you would help strengthen our hearts. You would encourage our faith that we would decide to trust in your promises and your deliverance, that we would not have thoughts of discouragement, of fear. We wouldn't have blasphemous thoughts against you. We wouldn't think thoughts of you forgetting us or leaving us or abandoning us. But we'd realize how much of a faithful creator you are, how much you love us, how much you desire good for us. I pray that we'd have the right mindset and that we'd always walk by faith and not by sight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 136. Song number 136. Master, the tempest is raging. Song number 136. Everybody sing it out on the first. Master, the tempest is raging. The billows are tossing high. The sky is o'er shattered with blackness. No shelter or help is nigh. Give me the light of my soul. No shelter or help is nigh. Caris thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep when each moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep? The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still. Peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Master, with anguish of spirit, I bow in my grief today. The depths of my sad heart are troubled. Awaken and save, I pray. The torrents of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my swinging soul. And I perish, I perish, dear master. Oh, hasten and take control. The winds and the waves shall obey thy will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still. Peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. Master, the terror is over. The elements sweetly rest. Her sun in the calm lake is mirrored. And heaven's within my breast. Linger, O blessed Redeemer, leave me alone no more. And with joy I shall make the blessed harbor and rest on the blissful shore. The winds and the waves shall obey my will. Peace be still. Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea or demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace be still. Peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey thy will. Peace, peace be still. All right, great job everybody. You are all dismissed.