Good morning. It's good to see you guys today.
Give me a chance to find your seats as you do so.
My name is Kyle. I serve as the lead pastor here.
If you're visiting today, thank you.
We're glad that you're here to worship with us today.
If you have your Bible, you can open to Psalm 11, Psalm 11.
If you've been here for the last several weeks, you know that
Psalm 11 is different than First Corinthians.
Right there. There's an old charge, an old
saying, if you will, that says a pastor should preach with a
Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
And today demands that with this week demands that to be clear,
the goal of the preacher is not to chase headlines.
It's not to chase news stories and to use those merely for, you
know, sermon contents. Instead, a preacher is called by
God to speak prophetically from God's Word regarding the
headlines regarding the issues of the day, bringing the Word to
bear honest people in their times of distress.
And this week our nation has groaned under fresh horrors.
Charlie Kirk, a 31 year old Christian husband and father,
was assassinated for his faith and courage by young man who
Satan and the doctrine of the left had deceived.
The Book of Martyrs continues to be written, does it not?
We've mourned the fatal stabbing of 23 year old Irinazuritska
from Ukraine. A refugee on the Charlotte Light
Rail this week happened a month ago, but it was revealed this
week the details of that she was brutally executed for being
white by a black man with 14 prior arrests for various
offenses including assault and robbery and a justice system
failed. Miss Ruska near Denver on the
same day that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a 16 year old
opened fire at Evergreen High School, critically wounding 2
classmates before turning the gun on himself.
Just a few weeks ago there was a mass shooting that occurred and
are at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis where a
transgender man, Robert Westman, who identified himself as Robin
Westman, murdered two children and injured 21 others before
taking his own life. If you've seen his journal
entries, they reveal a dark demon, oppressed man and a
fascination with school shooters.
When we're finally forced to see the rotten fruits of the
absolutely wicked and satanic doctrine and influence on the
left that's running rampant in our streets, we're left
wondering what is going on? All right, how can this happen
on American soil? And so today we turn to the
Scriptures, for where else can we go but to the one who holds
the words of eternal life? As Peter told his Lord, Psalm 11
instructs our hearts and minds and times like these.
It feels like David's question in Psalm 11, which we'll see in
a moment. But he says this, or he's
quoting some advisors. If the foundations are
destroyed, what can the righteous do?
It's kind of a taunt. It's also a temptation to
apathy. If the foundations are being
destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Historically, many understand Psalm 11 against the backdrop of
David under mortal threats. You have Saul's murderous
jealousy. You have the priest of Nob
slain. You have Absalom's rebellion and
his desire to kill his father. These are days when human life
felt cheap, wicked men struck without cause, and the fabric of
society was quickly unraveling. But the Psalm opens not with
panic, brothers and sisters. It opens with a pledged refuge
in Yahweh, our Lord, and it ends with the upright beholding His
face. Now that journey that we see in
Psalm 11, from fear to faith, from threat to throne, is going
to guide our hearts and minds today.
That's my hope, That's my prayer.
And so if you would, would you please stand as we read Psalm
Chapter 11? To the choirmaster of David and
the Lord I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, Flee
like a bird to your mountain? For behold the wicked bend the
bow. They have fitted their arrow to
the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in hearts.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the
righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, His eyelids test
the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked. And the one who loves violence,
let him rain coals on the wicked.
Fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of
their cup. For the Lord is righteous.
He loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his
face. This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your word and at all times,
but it's especially comforting to come to it in times of trial
and suffering and distress. And our hearts are questioning
when doubts and fears arise. Or it's comforting to see the
promises in your word that you have given us the action the the
heart of God that is laid out for us.
Or it's meant to comfort your people.
This Psalm, Psalm 11, is meant to be sung in the congregation
as a comfort in times of great wickedness.
And so, Lord, we turn our attention to it today, asking
you to comfort us, asking you to stiffen our spines with courage
and faith, would help us to be bold in our belief even as fear
assails. Father, we pray for the courage
of the uprights. We pray for the boldness of the
righteous, that we would be mighty in strength of heart and
in strength of mind. Lord, we ask that you would
minister to us, your people today, that you would give us
guidance in light of all the things that are transpiring
around us as the foundations are being destroyed.
Lord, we turn to you now. In Christ name we pray.
Amen. Amen.
You may be seated. If you're taking notes, the main
point of the text that I want us to see today's is this.
When evil shakes, when evil shakes the foundations, the
righteous answer not with flight, but with faith.
When evil shakes the foundations, the righteous,
righteous answer not with flights, but with faith.
As we walk through Psalm 11, that's kind of a road map for
us. Looks like this.
We're going to 1st see refuge and resolve.
Why in Yahweh I take refuge? Is this the controlling
confession? Secondly, we'll see rejecting
fear and reading the times. Who's speaking?
What are the wicked doing and what destroyed foundations are
there? What do these things mean for
us? 3rd, we'll see the king is on
his throne. We'll declare from the Psalm
God's holy rule, his searching gaze, his testing of the wicked
and the righteous, and his just wrath.
And then finally, fourthly, we'll see the reward of the
upright beholding his face. And So what are our marching
orders now? So first refuge and resolve
verse one a part A there in the Lord I take refuge and Yahweh I
take refuge. Refuge is covenant vocabulary.
It's it's the idea of a strong tower that you run into, but
it's knowing that the strong tower never moves.
He's always faithful, he's always there, he's always ready
to receive. He's always available.
So you run the Yahweh for his protective care.
And you might think running describes escapism, that it that
it means we flee from evil. But it doesn't.
It's covenant language. Running to Yahweh is act of
allegiance. It's not running away from the
problem, it's running to the solution.
It's running to the one who holds the answers for all
things. It's running to the one who
judges rightly, the wicked and the righteous.
David's theology is governing his response at the very opening
of the Psalm. He knows where his heart must
turn. He knows to whom he must give
himself to in Yahweh. I take refuge, all right.
This theology governs his response before his
circumstances can govern his emotions.
He's not letting the circumstances overwhelm the
emotions and the emotions leading to sinful action like
flights or vengeance, right? He's trusting Yahweh.
Maybe you're here today and you say, well, who's Yahweh?
Who's the Lord? And Exodus, God reveals himself
to Moses in a burning Bush, and he says, I am who I am.
It's becomes a covenant name for God, the Yahweh.
This is and what we see here when we think about the Lord.
When God says I am who I am, he's declaring something about
himself that we must understand today.
There's a doctrine for it. It's called aseity ASEITY.
Aseity. Aseity tells us it's a
summarization of a doctrine that of the things that God reveals
about himself, it tells us that God is self existence.
God is not reliant upon something or someone else to
bring him into being. God is not relying upon
something or someone else to fulfill him.
God is self existent. He's self-sufficient.
He's immutable. God exists by and for himself
without needing anyone else for his existence or needing
anything else for his existence. God is uncaused.
You have to think about that for a moment.
That's a bit of a brain breaker. God is UN cost and
self-sufficient, which distinguishes him from all
created beings. God causes everything else.
Let there be lights, Let there be darkness, Let there be lights
in the skies, the sun, the moon, the stars.
Let there be water on the earth. Let there be land and trees and
beast on the land. Let there be man.
Everything caused by the spoken word of God, and yet God was
caused by nothing. He is, He is.
I am who I am, whether humans want to acknowledge it or not.
We are dependent on God. Totally dependent on God.
We don't put breath and our lungs each day all right.
We're totally dependent upon the Lord.
And so it doesn't make it any less accurate if humans will
deny what is true, if humans will seek to suppress the truth
of God's power that we see obviously displayed in creation.
All right, The truth about the essayety of God anchors our
refuge. We're running to the one who is.
We're running to the one who always was and always will be.
We're running to the one who will never leave us, never
forsake us. We're running to the one who has
the answers right, who has the power to move and to make things
happen. We're running to him.
We must understand that refuge does not equal passivity,
brothers and sisters. It does not equal an abdication
of responsibility. We are held responsible by God
for the things that God has declared about himself.
We're held responsible by God for the life that He's given to
us. We're held responsible by God
for the places and the people He's put us in and put us
before. These are gifts from God.
And so we cannot be passive. This means we have a relational
trust. And for Old Testament Israel,
this refuge is devotional vocabulary.
It's a devotion to God that he is our refuge.
It's their identity, right? And for us who are in Christ,
Christ is our identity. We're no longer those things,
those sinful actions, those past behaviors.
We are a new creation in Christ, created by God in Christ for
good works, right? We have a new identity in the
Lord and Yahweh. I take refuge, then, is covenant
language, and it should be the language of our hearts and
minds, the language of our lips in times of distress.
You see, the Lord had acted on behalf of Israel for many, many
years prior to David's coming on the scene.
He chose them because they were nothing.
He chose them because they were small.
He chose them because they didn't look like they could
achieve anything. And so when they do, it must be
Yahweh's work. And He delivered them from the
captivity of Egypt. He brought them into the
Promised Land. He rules their lives.
He rules them through prophets and priests and now kings.
He's been faithful to them. And so they know.
David knows to whom and to where he must run for refuge.
Friends, listen to me. You will take refuge in
something You. You will take refuge in
something you're not. You're not not taking refuge,
right? It it might be an ideology.
You maybe look into the wisdom of the world and finding refuge
in that, whatever it says about you and your desires and your
heart and what you want, but you will take refuge in it.
It'll become your truth. It'll become what you live your
life on. You'll put your faith in it.
You may take refuge in screens, right, social media and movies
and TV, and you may find a refuge in the comfort of the
world through those things. You may find refuge in a tribe
right of people who think and act like you do.
You may find refuge in a bottle. You may find refuge in a
political savior, but only Christ is a true refuge.
Only Christ is true, and all the other refuges that exist are
false. Believe you wanting to let you
down. They're set up as mirages by the
enemy to steal and kill and destroy your life.
And he's doing a really good job at it in our world today.
But he's been doing that same thing since the beginning.
Therefore, I urge you to begin where David begins prayerful
allegiance to independence upon the enthroned Lord.
First Timothy 2 one through 2. Paul writes there.
He says, first of all, then, I urge that supplications and
prayers and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all
people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we
may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in
every way. Ephesians 610 through 12.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, in the strength of His might.
You hear the themes of refuge in these verses.
Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over
this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in
the heavenly places. And so as we take refuge in
Yahweh, in the Lord, we can reject fear and read the times,
which is .2 rejecting fear and reading the times.
Look at the second part of verse one through verse 3 here.
How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain?
For behold the wicked bend the bow.
They have fitted their arrows to the string to shoot in the dark
at the upright in hearts. If the foundations are
destroyed, what can the righteous do?
You come to a quote in the scriptures.
One of your first questions, as far as context go, should be who
is speaking. David quotes voices that are
urging him to flee like a bird to your mountain.
Now the line may be fearful. Counsel from well meaning
friends. You can think.
If you're familiar with the story of Job, you can thank the
the council of Job's friends. It may also be a taunt from the
enemies who surround him. Either way, it's the voice of
flight and not faith. Flee to the mountain like a
bird. The text allows us to read it
either way. What?
What's clear is David's refusal to be discipled by fear.
Far too long in America, our Christian faith has been
discipled by fear, Not by Yahweh, not by refuge.
We didn't want to be called sexist.
We don't want to be called racist.
We don't want to be called bigots or worse.
And so we set oddly by while the foundations of our nation were
being destroyed. Worse than that, our evangelical
leaders, the ones who ought to know better, the ones who have
the Word of God in one hand, or should those who are leading our
largest organizations, have been infiltrated with demonic
doctrines like DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, critical
race theory, and the LGBTQ movements.
They've blurred the lines between social justice and sound
doctrine. And I don't mean a biblical
social justice. They've denied the biblical
teaching on gender and gender roles.
They've propagated false doctrines.
They fell prey to worldly ideologies and all of it has
been so obvious that it's an attempt to maintain power and
control. It's an it's an approval of man
rather than the approval of God. For example, many of these
leaders shut down their churches during COVID and yet gathered
marched in Black Lives Matter rallies around the nation.
Little side note here. If you want to know more about
our evangelical foundations and how they're being destroyed,
there's two book recommendations I have for you.
One of them is called 5 lies of our anti Christian age written
by Rosaria Butterfield. 5 lies of our anti Christian age.
The other is shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham.
Shepherds for sale. A great investigative work of
the things that I'm saying today, how these institutions
have been infiltrated, like following the dollars and the
paper trail, showing receipts for these things.
This isn't some scare tactic from your preacher.
This is showing what's truly taking place in our nation and
hoping that it'll wake us up to some extent.
We've reached a place in society where we can no longer say, I
just want to be left alone. I just want to live a quiet
life. I don't want to worry about what
other people are doing. We cannot do that anymore.
We must start studying, We must Start learning.
We must start praying. We must start acting.
Because your enemy, the devil, is prowling around like a lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And the truth is, as we've seen
just this week, it could be your child who gets devoured.
It could be your child who does some heinous act because you
refuse to raise them in the discipline and instruction of
the Lord. It could be your spouse who
falls prey to worldly ideologies because you refuse to be a
gatekeeper brothers in your home.
It could be your neighbor, one who you refuse to share the
gospel with, or one who is wronged by someone else who is
carrying out these evil deeds because you refuse to care for
them. It could be your friend, and it
could even be you. But this is what the wicked do,
and that's where the Psalm goes next.
What the wicked do, it says they bend their bow, they string the
arrow, they shoot in the dark at the upright and heart.
All of this is premeditated. It's secretive, as far as they
know. And it's malice, It's hatred
targeting righteousness and the righteous.
You cannot tell me that Charlie Kirk was killed simply for
having differing views. He was killed because he had
biblical belief, sound doctrine. He had biblical convictions, and
he stood for those things. That's why he was slain this
week. What we see here is preparation.
I used to ask the question and then it dawned on me.
But I asked the question often just kind of internally, like,
how is it that it seems like all of these world governments and
all these different things conspire together?
Like is there really some secret, you know, cabal or
whatever out there that's kind of running all of this?
And maybe there is, I don't know.
But what did dawn on me is they have the same leader.
They they they serve the same deity deities, wrong word.
They serve the same master, Satan.
Satan orchestrates all these things through the hearts of
evil men to destroy the foundations, to bring down the
righteous, to devour what's good and to promote evil.
And so there's preparation behind the scenes.
The wicked prepare their attacks.
Why are they preparing? So it's to shoot in the darkness
at the uprights. This is their aim.
They premeditate their attacks on the people of God.
They're merely following their Lord, who is the Prince of
darkness, the devil. He's a liar and manipulator and
murderer. From the beginning.
They cannot help but hate righteousness because their
hearts desire to do evil. Although they claim to be wise,
they are fools, as Romans one shows us, and they hate the
righteous because the righteous actions expose their wickedness,
just like light on a cockroach. And Paul tells the Ephesians to
have nothing to do with the fruitful deeds of darkness, but
rather to expose them. Now how do we do this?
Do we walk around literally with flashlights, shining it on
people? No.
We do this by living righteously as God would have us do.
We do this by striving to be holy as our Lord is holy.
We do it by bringing every word of Christ, every word of the
scriptures. We do it by living faithfully to
God. We achieve this by separating
ourselves from belief and worldly ideologies.
I need to say something that may be difficult to hear.
As if all this isn't already, the time has come when
professing Christians can no longer align themselves with the
left. You can no longer align yourself
with the left's policies and the left's ideologies.
They go so terribly against the Word of God.
It's a wicked, wicked world over there, and the light of Christ
must expose their works. We can no longer coddle these
beliefs with the sin of empathy and compromise.
David's faithfulness to Yahweh early in his life was certainly
noticed by the wicked, and it made them furious.
It made them furious to the degree that they wanted to kill
him. The man who once delivered
Israel from the face of a giant who stood before the crowds and
says you will not defy the Lord of heaven.
That sound familiar? We saw a man murdered this week
who devoted his life to Christ and was courageous enough to
share it with others. The wicked dwell in darkness.
They prepare and plot against God as though he cannot see
them. But he sits in the heavens, and
he laughs. Psalms 2 tells us because his
purposes cannot be thwarted. They will not stop him.
They cannot stay his hand. There's a quote from church
history and one of you guys here will know who said it.
I'm sorry, but it says that the blood of the martyrs will be
essentially the growth of the church.
You see, God, Satan thought that crucifying Christ would be the
end of the movement. But God raised him from the dead
and sent out 11 men, plus Paul and many others whom they
witnessed to and taught and discipled, and the whole world
was turned upside down. Literally.
These men gave their lives for Christ, many of them suffering
brutal, brutal deaths, beheadings, floggings,
crucifixions. Why?
Because Christ had done something in them.
Christ had changed their life. Christ had made them new
creations. But persecution, just like Paul
when he saw Cruz of persecuting the church.
And what happens to the early church as the persecutions begin
to come? They spread out and they begin
to proclaim the gospel in new regions.
And so now there's new believers.
And even in the stoning of Stephen, Stephen preaches one of
the most beautiful sermons we have in all the Scriptures, and
we read it to this day, and it changes lives to this day
because God's Word is faithful and he cannot be stopped.
He's building his church and nothing will stop it.
The wicked dwell in darkness. They're plotting against God,
but they can't stop him. And so therefore, he is a refuge
for the righteous. David quotes his advisors here.
And you can, you can sense it. It's that kind of weaselly talk
that comes from someone really. It's the sluggard of proverbs
who says there's a line outside, so I'm going to stay inside.
It's the one who refuses to go to battle.
It's the one who refuses to fight the good fight and finish
the race well. And they say to him, David, if
the foundations are destroyed, what can we do?
What can the righteous do? And you can hear the despair,
you can hear the lack of faith, the lack of confidence in God,
the lack of confidence in Yahweh.
There's no covenant relationship here that drives them to action.
Rather, they say if it's been destroyed, what else can we do?
They see it. They even name the moral and
social disorder, the things that are crumbling under injustice
and idolatry. We just think of King Saul's
lawlessness. Our cultural moment now echoes
this, Brothers and sisters. Truly, there is nothing new
under the sun. Though the works of the wicked
are still playing out. They're still seeking their own
desires, and Satan's still devouring.
The Prince of the Kingdom of Darkness is still killing,
stealing, and destroying. So what can the righteous do?
What can we do? Well, for starters, Ecclesiastes
3 does tell us there is a time to hate.
There's a time to love, a time to hate, a time for war, and a
time for peace. God commands the hatred of evil.
Proverbs 813. The fear of the Lord is hatred
of evil, pride and arrogance in the way of evil and perverted
speech. I hate Psalm 9710.
Oh, you who love the Lord hate evil.
He preserves the lives of his Saints.
He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
So there's this question that I was pondering this week with
some brothers. But are we called to love our
enemies and bless those who curse us?
Yes, yes, but you can do that by hating their evil works.
Real enemy love. Real enemy love never blesses
their evil, it seeks their repentance while refusing to
enable their evil works. Romans 12/9 Let love be genuine,
abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
Further on in Romans 12 we're told this, beloved, never avenge
yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.
For it is written, vengeance is mine.
I will repay, says the Lord. And Paul continues a few verses
later, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with
good. So since the vengeance isn't
ours, it's the Lord's, we must trust Him.
We must trust his timing. For when He repays, we must
continue to carry out the good works that He has given to us,
as we wait on Him to repay evil. Are we clear?
But that doesn't mean that He's left us on our own.
Immediately following those instructions in Romans 12, we
get the instructions in Romans 13, verses one through 4, which
say this. Let every person be subject to
the governing authorities. For there is no authority except
from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
So there's no authority that exists except that which is from
God. And all those who exist in
authority have been instituted by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has
appointed, and those who resist will incur judgments.
Now listen how? For rulers are not a terror to
good conduct. But too bad would you have No
Fear of the one who is in authority?
Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for
he is God's servant for your good.
But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword
in vain, for he is the servant of God and avenger who carries
out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
Do you see one way in which God might carry out His wrath?
It's through the governing authorities who practice their
government under His rule submitted to Him, upholding what
is good and abhorring what is evil.
You see, God ordains rulers to punish evil and to praise good.
The state bears the sword so that evil might be restrained.
Our founders believed in this truth, so much so that our
country was founded on these principles.
However, when our officials abdicate on their God-given
responsibility, the instruction here is not for the church to
pick up the sword. The sword belongs to the state.
And so we pray, we speak, we call our rulers to perform their
God-given duty. It's true that you can look
around and see that foundations are being destroyed, and in many
cases they've already been destroyed.
But our call as Christians is this first in the home.
Catechize your families. Teach them the Word of God.
Teach sound doctrine. Disavow worldly ideologies.
Know what they are and how to spot them.
Guard your heart and your mind, and guard the hearts and minds
of those who are under your roof.
Do so with diligence and vigilance.
This is how we keep fear narratives from discipling our
homes. Secondly, in the church we must
have categories for laments and imprecation, Imprecation so that
we as God's people may have biblical categories for outrage
and hope, so we don't act oblivious when the evil
surrounds us. We know that it exists and we
know how to respond. As a church, we will speak up.
We will seek the Lord in the midst of great trials and
tribulations, and we must train our people to do this in the
culture right, the public square.
We must resist escapism. Brothers and sisters, no matter
how old you may be, you don't retire from the Lord's work
until the Lord calls you home. And you don't become so grouchy
about the things going on that you refuse to invest yourself in
the lives of the men and women in your church.
You give yourself to the cause by training next generations to
love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul and strength,
and to love their neighbor as themselves.
No matter how young you are, whether you're 8513, the Lord
has called you to know His word. He's called you to obey your
parents. He's called you to follow the
rules, to live according to His statutes, to obey His commands.
And so you work on that. Youth is a training ground for
learning how to love the Lord, for learning how to love your
neighbor. Don't waste your youth.
Now.
Now is the time for boldness and courage.
We must name evil truthfully, we must pray, and we must advocate
for just enforcement of the law without hatred.
Our intentions must be to save or to stop the wicked.
And next in the Psalm, David reveals his hope, the king on
his throne. Look at 4 through 6.
The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes see his eyelids test the children of man.
The Lord tests the righteous. But his soul hates the wicked
and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the
wicked. Fire and sulfur and a scorching
wind shall be the portion of their cup just there at the
beginning. Yahweh is in His holy temple.
Yahweh's throne is in heaven. Brothers and sisters, God is
presently actively ruling over all things.
He's not spectating. He's not sitting back watching,
hoping this plays out in some good way.
No, he's at work. His eyes see and his eyelids
test. We see here the idea of testing.
You may think of a metal Smith. It examines the genuineness of a
metal as it's being burned. It endures great testing by
fire. And in the same way God examines
the genuineness of all his people.
The Lord is observing his creatures.
He's testing, it says. Here he's testing both the
wicked and the righteous. Yet the testing yields different
results, right? The true believer bears the
fruit of faith and obedience as he's tested, right?
As his faith is tested, endurance grows, character
grows, strength grows, hope grows.
And while the wicked are tested, they bear the rotten fruit of
rebellion and disobedience. Further sin.
The Lord's testing reveals the contents of 1's heart.
These trials are meant to purify the righteous.
They're meant to expose the wicked.
This is why James One teaches us to consider it an opportunity
for great joy when you suffer trials of various kinds.
Why? Because you get to see what's
true, and you also get to see what's wicked.
These things are revealed sometimes in our own hearts.
How many of you have been tested of the Lord, endured great
suffering and trial, and in it you've come to see the error of
your own belief or the error of your own ways, right?
God will use testing as chastisement for his people that
He loves, like sons, and he'll use testing as chastisement for
the wicked as well. And the character of their heart
will be revealed. Verse 5 shows us that the Lord
hates the one who loves violence.
The phrase love of violence it's broader than mere physical
assault. It denotes A settled affection
for wrongdoing. He loves the evil. 1 The wicked
one loves to do evil. He's got a settled affection for
it. His heart craves it, and so it
culminates in violence, which could be a spiritual violence or
physical violence. It's demonic torment.
God's hatred is wholly opposition to such persons.
A friend of mine pointed this out to me this week.
We were talking and and we got to some of these points and
these are some of the things that he was able to to share
that I thought were helpful. He said, notice that it is
indeed a person that the Lord hates, which calls into question
the popular and unbiblical phrase that God loves the Sinner
but hates the sin. Aren't we told that God is love?
How could God hate them? And why then are we told to love
our enemies if God is shown to be hating them?
Right? These are good questions to ask.
Remember that God is holy and everything that he does, He's
perfect in all that he does. He he perfectly loves
righteousness and he perfectly hates unrighteousness.
We do not possess the same wisdom that God does.
Everyone agree? All right.
Do we know whether or not a current enemy of ours will be
converted into one of God's children by our actions and by
the way that we proclaim the gospel?
Of course we don't. That's why we're called to love
our enemies and to proclaim the gospel.
In other words, we're not permitted to hate our enemies.
But this does not mean that God is not permitted to hate His
enemies. In verse 6, David turns his
prayer really to retribution. Imprecation, coals, fire,
sulfur, scorching wind. These things recall Sodom.
They recall the cup of divine wrath as it rained down on Sodom
and Gomorrah. This is covenant court language.
God assigns the portion fitting to their evil deeds, whether it
be coals or fire or sulfur or scorching wind.
Verses 4 through 6 that reveals some of the important things for
us to notice. Number one is the omniscience,
the omnipresence, the omnipotence of God.
The the eyes of the Lord are in every place.
It says what this means is you cannot deceive God.
Evil doers, the wicked cannot deceive God.
You can't hide yourself from Him, and they cannot hide their
self from them. They may, they may fit the bow
and mount the arrow in the darkness and seek to take a shot
in the darkness, but they're not literally hidden from the side
of God. He sees it all.
The second thing we notice here is there are two judgments that
are distinguished. The Scriptures speak of a final
a final judgment on the wicked and the Bema seat judgment for
believers. Now the wicked will receive the
reward for their evil deeds, eternal damnation.
Believers will not be judged based on salvation as they have
already been forgiven and justified in Christ by God's
grace, but on their stewardship of the good works that God gave
them, on their stewardship of the things that God put before
them to do. They will be judged.
They will it will be tested to see what is the of eternal value
and what is not. The third thing these things
reveal for us are the church and the states.
The church is called by God. It holds the authority of the
Word. We're told that it's a pillar
and buttress for the truth or that it ought to be.
Local churches ought to be a pillar and a buttress of the
truth. We hold the authority of water
baptism, right? We affirm when God has set His
seal on someone through baptism, and we hold the authority of the
table, the Lord's Supper, right. We allow Christians, people who
have confessed Christ as Lord and have given themselves to
him, we allow them to receive the Lord's Supper with us.
But if that's not you, if that doesn't apply, then you're
forbidden to receive the Lord's Supper until you submit yourself
to Christ. The state wields the sword.
It carries out God's judgment on evil doers.
Or it should. It's meant to restrain evil.
It's meant to promote what is good and right and lovely.
And so we pray prayers like Psalm 11 as an act of faith and
trusting vengeance to God, not taking it ourselves.
And so, brothers and sisters, you must understand prayer as
warfare. You must understand prayer as
warfare. Far too often, far too often for
Christians, the only time they pray is Lord bless this food
that we eat. I'm not saying that's a bad
prayer. I'm just saying it's a passive
approach to a supernatural weapon that the Lord has
graciously given you. It's a lack of understanding of
the power of prayer. The world loves to mock our
prayers. You've seen it this week in
times of crisis. People all over TikTok and
Twitter and Facebook mocking thoughts and prayers as they
quote it. But Psalm 11, Psalm 11 teaches
prayer not as passivity, brothers and sisters.
It teaches it as warfare under the throne of the king.
We must also call for public justice.
We must call our civil magistrates to do their duty
impartially and swiftly where they fell.
We appeal to God and persevere in our witness.
We must maintain gospel clarity. There are two cups, wrath and
grace, at the Lord's table. We rejoice that Christ has drank
the cup of wrath for us. He's done so, so that the
upright in Him will never have to drink it.
We've received a cup of grace. The portion of the cup of the
wicked is wrath, but for those who have taken refuge in Christ,
it is grace. I want you to know there's only
two kinds of people in this world.
There are those who are under God's wrath and those who are
under God's mercy. There's no one else.
There's no in between. There's no middle ground.
If you're unsure where you stand today, then I urge you to seek
the mercy of God, to cry out to Him.
Just as Miss Dotson testified today, I prayed every night that
the Lord would save me. I urge you to seek the mercy of
God. Ask Him to reveal your true
affections so that you may repent and find grace before
it's too late. Finally, Davis brings us to the
reward for the uprights. The reward of the upright, verse
7 For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds.
The upright shall behold his face.
The song closes by grounding judgments and hope in God's
righteous character. He loves righteous deeds.
He is righteous and He promises. There's a promise in verse 7.
You cannot miss. You should underline, circle it,
whatever you need to do to remember this.
The upright shall behold his face.
The first line of the Psalm showed us where the believer's
safety lies in Yahweh. I take refuge.
And the last line shows where his heart should now be.
The Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds.
The upright shall behold his face.
In this world. You're going to be surrounded by
darkness on every side but but here in the passage, there's a
light shone from heaven to help guide your heart throughout your
life and everything that you face.
There's a light shining down on you now and it's to give you the
hope of salvation. It's to help you find a refuge
and courage in this life. The apostle John reminds us in
first John 32 Beloved, we are God's children now and what we
will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he
appears, we shall be like Him because we will see Him as He
is. Praise God.
So what do we do when we suffer significant harm?
Do we repay evil with evil? Not at all, not at all.
We we trust the Lord, we entrust ourselves to his care, but we
trust that He will repay evil doers for their evil deeds.
Vengeance belongs to Him alone, and he may carry that out in
this life, but he will certainly repay them in the next life.
And so our prayer was like Paul's in Second Timothy 414
where he says the Lord will repay him according to his
deeds. We pray for the Lord to reward
the evildoer for their lawlessness.
And why can we trust God to do this?
How can we rest in our wounds without needing to wound
another? Another friend, Mr. Meadows,
help me answer these questions. You can do that because of
Christ. When he came the first time, He
came like a lamb to the slaughter.
But when he comes again, he will be the lion of the tribe of
Judah who comes to rule and reign, and the Lord will make
all his enemies his footstool. He rode on a lowly donkey into
Jerusalem, but he will bolt out of heaven in a white on a White
Horse. He was given a crown of thorns
at his crucifixion, but he will receive many diademns in heaven.
He offers words of forgiveness now, but he will bring a sharp 2
edged sword to slay his enemies. He believed many to heaven, and
He will consign many to hell. He suffered mistrials, but He
will execute purpose, perfect justice.
The evil doers are trying to hide in darkness now, but the
eyes of the Lord see it all. And He is on His throne in
heaven, storing up his wrath to be poured out on that great day
where He returns. And when he came the first time,
He stood before Pilots. But when he comes again, Pilot
will stand before him. These truths must stiffen our
spines, brothers and sisters. They must stiffen our spines in
dark days. The people of God have stood in
the place that you're standing right now for thousands of
years, suffering violence, suffering the wounds of the
wicked, the attacks, the murders, the slaying of life.
God will not leave us. He will never forsake us.
The upright shall behold his face.
And so let us not be found weak in dark days.
Let us not give in to the temptation to flee to the
mountain like a bird. Let us not escape from the
Lord's refuge to another refuge that cannot protect or save us.
When evil shakes the foundations, the righteous
answer not with flight, but with faith.
So again you may ask, what does this mean for us?
What do we do? In many ways, you keep giving
yourselves to the same things you've been giving yourself to
build godly homes. Marriage must be honored, it
must be revered. It must be protected.
Disciple your children. Teach them to love the Lord.
Train them in righteousness. Beg the Lord to save their
souls. Read scripture in your home.
Sing together, pray together regularly.
All of this is right in step with Ephesians 64 and
Deuteronomy chapter 6. As a church, we commit to
Christ. We remain committed to the Lord,
the King of kings, the Lord of Lords.
We remain committed to His word. We live for His approval, not
man's. Come what may.
We give ourselves to prayer, to singing, to the sacraments.
We give ourselves to fellowship. We make the Lord's Day a
priority, a day of worship and discipleship, a day of rest.
We work towards becoming better evangelist men and women who go
out and proclaim the Word of God in the public square.
Those things must be woven into our weekly rhythms in the
culture. We live out our vocations as
public righteousness. Whatever the Lord has called you
to do, you do it unto the glory of the Lord on high.
You become the best employee or the best boss, not for man's
approval, but to glorify your Lord.
Speak often about Christ. Speak often about the hope of
heaven. If you see someone suffering in
your job, suffering hardship or heartache or whatever, go to
them. Pray with them.
Minister to them. Use it as an opportunity to
share the gospel. If your company's taken a
direction that is unethical, speak up.
Trust the Lord to provide for you.
Even if you get the axe, who cares?
There are things worse more than that provision, and God will
provide for you. So speak the truth with courage.
Speak it with gentleness. Speak it with the desire to see
the one you're talking to saved. Christ would be their Lord.
Call your rulers to fidelity in Romans 13.
Love enemies while hating evil churches.
We close. I encourage you to lift your
eyes. The King is on his throne.
So this week I want you to take your stand where David begins.
In the Lord, I take refuge. Open your Bible This week, bow
your head. This week, say it out loud.
In the Lord I take refuge, Right?
Repeat it to yourself. Refuse the counsel of fear.
Do not flee into silence or rage.
Stand, speak, serve even when the wicked shoot in the dark at
the uprights. Wage prayer warfare in your
homes. Lament together what is evil and
in faith. Ask God to save or to stop the
evildoer. Ask God to restrain the
wickedness. Ask God to heal the wounded and
comfort the grieving. Build godly homes that push back
the dark. Honor your marriage vows.
Disciple your children. Practice hospitality.
Be all in with Christ and the Word and prayer.
Be present with Christ's people under Christ's word before
Christ's throne. And then go, go into the public
square lawfully and peaceably. Call rulers to fulfill their
Romans 13 duty to punish evil and protect the innocent.
And where they fail, appeal to the higher court of heaven and
keep doing good. Do not grow weary of doing good.
Brothers and sisters, fix your hope.
The judge of all the earth sees. He tests and He will do right.
The cup of wrath is real, but Christ has drunk it for all
those who trust in Him, and so therefore the upright will
behold His face. Take courage, Saints.
When the foundations shake, our foundation stands.
The King is on His throne, and so let us live and pray and
persevere like we believe it Would.
You pray with me now. Heavenly Father, we thank you
today for Psalm 11 and for your word.
We ask, Lord, that you would help us to be like David and
Psalm 11, to take refuge in You. And when those around us may
cower and fear even professing believers, may you grant us a
courage to speak truth into the darkness, to call down the fires
of heaven on the evildoers, to take comfort in a God who loves
righteousness and detest evil. And God, would you help us to
have this hope that you are righteous, that you love
righteous deeds? And so let us give ourselves to
righteous deeds, help us to walk in the good works that you've
given us. And Father, may we have this
hope that we will one day behold your face.
Father, I ask that you save anyone here who does not know
you as their Lord, that you would bring them to their knees
and conviction that they would see the error of their ways.
They would see the the bad fruit of the desires of their own
hearts. That they would see that they
are in need, great need of a Savior, and that you have
provided him for us in Christ your Son.
She loved the world so much that you gave us Jesus Christ to die
for us, that we may not perish but have eternal life.
That's the Lord. Would you grant them faith in
Jesus as they confess and repent of their sins?
Help them to confess also that Christ is Lord and to believe
that you raised him from the dead.
Give them new life today. Ask these things in the name of
Christ, Amen, and invite you to remain seated.
We're going to do something a little different for a moment.
There's going to be some prompts on the screen for prayer, and
these are to guide you in your prayers there in your seat this
morning. I'm going to give you a moment
for each prompt, and then I'll conclude it with a prayer, and
we'll move to the next one. There's just three, but we'll
pray through these three things as a church family, and then
we'll move into the Lord's Supper here in a moment.
So prompt #1 let's pray for our nation, state, and city that God
would restrain evil and establish justice under His
rule. Would you pray with us?
Lord, we confess that you were on your throne, and so we ask
that you would restrain the evil.
We ask that you would expose violent plots.
We ask that You would move our rulers to punish wickedness and
protect the innocent with impartial justice.
We ask also, Father, that You would save or stop those who
love violence. Lord, would you comfort the
bereaved? Would you heal the wounded?
Would You uphold truth in our courts and in our law
enforcement? Would You send an awakening in
our nation? I think we're seeing a beginning
of that in some sense, and I praise you for it.
Many people who previously wouldn't consider you or your
son are now asking questions, all due to the faithful message
of one man, and we praise you for his witness.
Would you grant integrity in our states?
Would you grant integrity in in our courts and our government?
Would you let peace and righteousness reign in our
nation? Father, we pray that your
Kingdom come and your will be done here.
Amen. Let's pray now for Christchurch,
that our worship be pure and our witness be bold and clear.
Heavenly Father, we ask now that you would make us a House of
prayer. There will be a people committed
to come in boldly before your throne of grace and our time of
need to find mercy and grace. Help us to understand that we
have a high priest in heaven, great High Priest, who is
sympathetic to our weaknesses, tested and tried in every way,
as we are yet without sin, and he stands before the throne of
God for us. Lord, let us come boldly.
And Your Word tells us that even when we know not what to pray,
in Romans 8, we see that the Holy Spirit carries those
groanings before the throne and perfects them for us.
We thank you, Lord, that you are our help in every single way,
but especially in prayer. Lord, would you make us a
people, this local church, steadfast in Word, steadfast in
prayer, steadfast in our observance of the Lord's Supper
and baptism, steadfast in our fellowship, steadfast in our
unity of peace and love. Would you purify our worship?
Unite us in holy love, Father, would you clothe us in spiritual
armor? Give us courageous and gentle
and clear witness to Christ in a confused age?
Would you revive your church across the nation, across the
world? Restore first the love.
Restore the love of Christ. Raise up men and women of
prayer. Raise up men and women who will
be evangelists. Grants us laborers for the
harvest, which is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Let our fellowship shine us salt and light.
Amen. We're going to pray now for our
families that marriages stand firm and children are discipled
in the Lord. Heavenly Father, we now beg of
you to strengthen marriages in covenant faithfulness.
You give us a desire for our spouse, that you would give us a
desire to honor you in our marriages, to build godly
legacies through marriage and childbearing, legacies that last
for generations to come, and to our children and grandchildren
and great grandchildren and beyond.
Father, would you start that work in US?
Would you heal wounds? I know that their marriage is
suffering from various wounds. Would you heal those wounds?
Would you break the grip of sexual sin?
Would renew love and honor in every home?
Help parents, Lord, to disciple their children, help them to
lead and family worship, to read and to pray and to sing the Word
together? God, would you save our children
from their sins? Would you call them to yourself
early in their life? Would you keep them in you,
protect them from the schemes of the devil?
Would you guard them at school? Would you grow them in wisdom
and courage? Help them to carry the torch of
the faith into those places we can't go, which is the future.
Our lives are limited, Lord, and so we know that one day we'll
breathe our last. So help us to be diligent and
vigilant. Help us to be faithful in
discipling our children. Father, I pray that you would
bring back prodigals, boys and girls, men and women who were
raised in homes that love you. And yet they're way worse, many
of which are caught up in the world's ideologies.
The very things we've talked about and condemned today have
got a hold of them. Lord, would you bring them back
to yourself? Would you draw them to you?
Would you grant them a life in Christ?
Would you forgive them of their sins, restore them to the face?
Father, would you defend the fatherless, defend the widows,
make our households little lighthouses of the gospel in our
neighborhoods and city? Lord, we ask all these things in
your name, Amen.