NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Surrounded By Bloodthirsty Men | Psalm 59
Aired: 2022-12-11
Duration: 01:02:42


=== Singing God's Faithful Text (14:37) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
[00:00:03]  If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show, would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five star review?
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[00:00:17]  Thanks.
[00:00:18]  All right, this morning we are continuing with our series through the Psalter.
[00:00:22]  We started this when we first started gathering on the Lord's Day and worshiping the Triune God.
[00:00:28]  Our very first gathering, Lord's Day gathering, was The first Lord's Day of April.
[00:00:33]  And that's when we began this series through the Psalter, and we are continuing now.
[00:00:37]  Lord willing, we'll continue to the end of the year.
[00:00:40]  We're not preaching every single chapter in the Psalms, but we are going in an order, a chronological order from the first Psalm to the last, but skipping some Psalms as we go along.
[00:00:51]  So the last Psalm that we did, I believe, was, Connor's not here, but it was Psalm 57, correct?
[00:00:57]  And then before that, we did two weeks on Psalm 51.
[00:01:00]  Well, today is Psalm 59.
[00:01:02]  Psalm 59.
[00:01:04]  Now, this chapter is a little bit longer.
[00:01:07]  So, what I've done is I'm taking the verses that I'm going to focus my exegesis on.
[00:01:14]  And so, we're going to be focusing on verse 1, 2, and 3, and also verses 14, 15, 16, and 17.
[00:01:23]  So, that's where the focus of the exegesis will lie with Psalm 59.
[00:01:27]  And therefore, those are the verses that we're going to read this morning.
[00:01:31]  So, would you go ahead and join me, if you're able to do so, in standing for the reading of God's Word?
[00:01:36]  I'll read our text in its entirety.
[00:01:38]  When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, this is the word of the Lord, at which point I would very much appreciate if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.
[00:01:46]  One final time, our text for today is Psalm 59.
[00:01:49]  The word of God says this, deliver me from my enemies, O my God.
[00:01:54]  Protect me from those who rise up against me.
[00:01:57]  Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men.
[00:02:02]  For behold, they lie in wait for my life.
[00:02:05]  Fierce men stir up strife against me.
[00:02:08]  Each evening they come back.
[00:02:10]  Howling like dogs and prowling about the city.
[00:02:14]  They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.
[00:02:18]  But I will sing of your strength.
[00:02:20]  I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.
[00:02:24]  For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
[00:02:29]  O my strength, I will sing praises to you.
[00:02:32]  For you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.
[00:02:38]  This is the word of the Lord.
[00:02:41]  All right, please be seated and we will begin.
[00:02:44]  If you have your notes, I've written the following.
[00:02:47]  The exact context of this particular psalm is this.
[00:02:51]  Now, when it comes to the psalms, each individual psalm in the Psalter, we don't always know the context of its authorship, the context for that particular psalm's writing.
[00:03:01]  But in this particular case, we do.
[00:03:03]  We know this because it's explicitly written at the top of the psalm.
[00:03:07]  I didn't include it in your notes, but if you open up your Bible to Psalm 59, you will see the context in bold right above where the psalm begins.
[00:03:15]  And the context is.
[00:03:16]  To the choir master, according to Do Not Destroy, a mictum of David, when Saul sent his men to watch the house of David in order to kill him.
[00:03:27]  So, this is a psalm that is written by King David.
[00:03:29]  He's the author, the human author.
[00:03:31]  The divine author, of course, is the Holy Spirit of God who inspired the writing.
[00:03:36]  But David is the human author, and he is delivering this particular song, this psalm, to the choir master.
[00:03:43]  So, it's meant to be sung corporately by the people of Israel, the people of God, in praise and worship.
[00:03:50]  To the Lord.
[00:03:50]  So, this is something that David wrote as the author, but it's going to be executed.
[00:03:55]  It's going to be performed, if you will, by the choir master and the company of Israel in worship to the Lord.
[00:04:01]  It's according to do not destroy.
[00:04:03]  Now, that phrase right there, according to do not destroy, means this is the, if you're, for the musicians in the room, this is the time signature and the key, the tempo, right?
[00:04:15]  So, it's according to, it would be the equivalent of according to a waltz.
[00:04:19]  A one, two, three, one, two, or, you know, or according to a four, four.
[00:04:25]  Or according to a boom chuck, right, for the country folk.
[00:04:28]  You know, like the beat is on the one and the three instead of the two and the four.
[00:04:32]  Boom, bop, boom, bop, boom, bop, boom, bop.
[00:04:35]  You know, so that's kind of, you know, it's according to do not destroy.
[00:04:38]  That language means this is the style of music.
[00:04:42]  There was a style of music, we don't know a lot about this, but we're meant to assume by way of implication that there was a particular style of worship music in Israel that was called, it was categorized underneath do not destroy.
[00:04:56]  We don't know what it means, but the choir master does.
[00:04:59]  And so the point is this David has specifications.
[00:05:02]  As the king of Israel and as the human author of this particular song, this psalm, he has specific instructions to the choir master.
[00:05:10]  He doesn't just say, sing this song, these lyrics, with this melody, but he says, even more specifically than that, he says, sing it this way.
[00:05:19]  It's not meant to be sang any way you want.
[00:05:22]  This is a song with specific lyrics, and these lyrics show to us a specific theology.
[00:05:28]  Something that is true of God and true of man, a specific anthropology, the wickedness and depravity of man, that the wicked raises up his fist against the righteous, that he rages against those who fear the Lord.
[00:05:39]  So it says something specific, it's specific lyrics, specific theology, it tells us something about God, it tells us a specific anthropology, something about man, and that's not even particular enough for David.
[00:05:50]  He goes even further and says, and it needs to be sung in this specific manner, in this specific way.
[00:05:57]  It says something about God, and the manner in which we sing this song should be fitting.
[00:06:02]  It should be suitable to what it says about God.
[00:06:05]  Right there, that'll preach a whole message right there about praise and worship, about our worship of God through song.
[00:06:11]  That the way in which we worship God, the melody, the tempo, the dynamics and crescendos and decrescendos, meaning that there is something to be said for musicality.
[00:06:23]  There is something to be said for the tone of our singing to match the theology that is expressly present in the lyrics.
[00:06:33]  Meaning that when we sing of something somber, it shouldn't be cheerfully sung.
[00:06:39]  Like, this world is passing away and the righteous are being slaughtered all day long.
[00:06:44]  That just doesn't, that's not suitable.
[00:06:46]  That's not fitting.
[00:06:47]  And so, David, whatever do not destroy means, we know that it's a particular musicality, a particular style, and we know that whatever it is, it fits the lyrics.
[00:06:57]  It fits the tone, fits the substance, it fits the theology.
[00:07:02]  All right, so this is to the choir master.
[00:07:04]  So written by David, delivered to be executed by the choir master with specific instructions about not just what should be sung, but how it should be sung according to Do Not Destroy.
[00:07:15]  And it says, even furthermore, it is a mictum of David.
[00:07:19]  Again, of David, meaning authored by David.
[00:07:21]  He is the author of this song, this psalm.
[00:07:24]  And it's a mictum.
[00:07:25]  That word mictum means an instructive ode.
[00:07:28]  So it is an instructive song, a song that not only praises God, but it also instructs God's people.
[00:07:38]  Which makes me think that really in our worship, all songs, I believe, all songs that the church sings, especially in our Lord's Day worship, should be a mictum.
[00:07:47]  Why?
[00:07:47]  Because Ephesians and Colossians say that in our singing, we should not only address God.
[00:07:53]  We are singing to God, but there is a horizontal function in addition to the vertical praise of God's people as we gather on the Lord's day.
[00:08:02]  Both Ephesians and Colossians say that we address one another with spiritual songs and hymns and psalms.
[00:08:09]  Now, we're addressing one another in what sense?
[00:08:12]  What kind of address are we giving?
[00:08:14]  Well, it's a charge, it's.
[00:08:17]  It's an encouragement, it's a comfort, it's a consolation.
[00:08:21]  But what makes it charging, invigorating, challenging, what makes it comforting and consoling, what makes it all these things is that there is substance.
[00:08:29]  It is instructive.
[00:08:31]  It is as we sing to the Lord, we are also addressing one another.
[00:08:35]  And what makes it these songs that we worship the Lord with, what makes them effective, efficacious in consoling one another, in comforting one another, in charging and encouraging one another, is that they have something substantive.
[00:08:49]  To say about God and His people, you can't charge someone with goopity goop.
[00:08:57]  You can't console and comfort the downcast with cheap, trite songs.
[00:09:04]  You need substance.
[00:09:06]  You need something real.
[00:09:09]  You need something true.
[00:09:10]  You need something profound.
[00:09:12]  You need something deep.
[00:09:13]  And that's precisely what we are provided with with the Holy Spirit inspired worship book.
[00:09:21]  Called the Psalter.
[00:09:23]  150 inspired, divinely inspired Psalms that teach us something about God, something about humanity, something about the people of God that is deep, it's profound, it is true, it's infallible.
[00:09:37]  And this, I believe, should be the steady diet.
[00:09:40]  I don't hold to the conviction of exclusive psalm singing, but I do believe that it should be a regular portion, a regular item.
[00:09:48]  You know, you have your meats and your carbs.
[00:09:49]  It should be on the plate each Lord's day for the people of God when we worship through singing.
[00:09:54]  That we should have Holy Spirit inspired psalms that we sing.
[00:09:58]  I think that a good hymn is permissible.
[00:10:02]  I even think that a good hymn is beneficial.
[00:10:04]  Let me tell you real quick a little bit of a bunny trail, but this is why I don't hold to exclusive psalm singing.
[00:10:09]  I think it's a great position, just for the record.
[00:10:12]  So I completely honor and respect those who do hold to that position.
[00:10:15]  The reason why I don't hold to that position is this.
[00:10:19]  What is a sermon, what I'm doing right now, what is a sermon if not an exposition?
[00:10:25]  Of a text.
[00:10:26]  So when we come together for the preaching of God's word, we don't merely have the minister of the gospel stand before the people of God and read verbatim chapters of the Bible.
[00:10:37]  He reads, he does come before, he doesn't come before the people of God and say, I have a dream.
[00:10:42]  Don't care.
[00:10:43]  Don't care.
[00:10:44]  I have a vision.
[00:10:45]  I have a strategy.
[00:10:45]  I have an idea.
[00:10:47]  I have a message.
[00:10:47]  No, don't care.
[00:10:48]  The minister of God comes before the people of God and says, I have a text.
[00:10:51]  And if he doesn't have a text, then he needs to sit down.
[00:10:54]  I have a text.
[00:10:55]  So, there is a revelation, infallible verbatim revelation from God's word, a text.
[00:11:01]  But then he proceeds to do what?
[00:11:04]  To unfold the text, to exposit the text, to expound upon the text.
[00:11:09]  It is expositional preaching.
[00:11:11]  So, a good sermon is what?
[00:11:12]  It is always centered around the scripture, it is word centered.
[00:11:18]  But it's not a mere verbatim reciting of the word or reading of the word, but it's an exposition of the word.
[00:11:24]  And so, too, as far as a hymn or a song is a faithful, Deep exposition of a text, I think that it's permissible and even good and beneficial for the people of God to use that in worship.
[00:11:38]  So I'm completely fine with hymns.
[00:11:40]  And the reason why I prefer older hymns to be flanked is not because we couldn't have a modern day hymn and it be a faithful exposition of a text, a word centered hymn, but the reality is we have a lot more older hymns that are that, a faithful exposition of a text, than we do modern.
[00:11:56]  And that's simply because the church in decades and really centuries past had better theology than the church has today.
[00:12:04]  We have bad songs today because we have bad theologians today.
[00:12:08]  That's why.
[00:12:09]  R.C. Sproul, he said, Everyone's a theologian.
[00:12:11]  You're either a bad one or a good one.
[00:12:13]  Right, and sadly, tragically, we have many bad theologians, and because we have many bad theologians, we have many bad worship song writers, and therefore we have many bad worship songs.
[00:12:23]  So, all that being said, you probably didn't care, but that's why I don't hold to exclusive psalm singing.
[00:12:27]  All right, so David is very specific, it's he's the author, it's to the choir master, it needs to be done in this style, not just what's going to be sung, but how it's going to be sung.
[00:12:37]  Do not destroy it's a mictum, meaning it's an instructive song, and then here's the real kicker.
[00:12:45]  This is now providing for us the actual physical and historical context, the frame of mind that David was in, the circumstances surrounding David's life when he wrote this psalm.
[00:12:59]  When he wrote this psalm, what is it?
[00:13:02]  When Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him.
[00:13:09]  So, what is the mood of David?
[00:13:12]  What are the circumstances surrounding him influencing his emotions, his thoughts?
[00:13:18]  What is it that's going on in the life of David when he sits down to write this psalm?
[00:13:23]  It's not like today.
[00:13:24]  It's not like, hey, you know, we have a three bedroom house, but we only use two of them.
[00:13:27]  And the third one is we've designated that as my creative space.
[00:13:30]  And I go there and I actually have a harp in the corner and I play that for a little bit and I get in the right frame of mind, you know, and I have my tea.
[00:13:36]  And I usually take a picture of the tea first and post it on Instagram.
[00:13:39]  And then I begin to, you know, do creative things like write songs.
[00:13:42]  That is not the circumstances surrounding David's writing of this psalm.
[00:13:46]  It's not in his creative space.
[00:13:47]  It's not when everything is at peace and everything is.
[00:13:51]  Is fine.
[00:13:51]  No, this is when David's house is under surveillance by Big Brother.
[00:13:59]  This is when the government has overstepped its bounds and its jurisdiction.
[00:14:04]  When they are policing a police state that is going well beyond the jurisdiction that they have, monitoring David's house, and not just to see what he's up to, but it says even further than that when Saul sent men to watch David's house in order, not just surveillance, but in order to kill him.
[00:14:25]  To put him to death unjustly.
[00:14:29]  David had done nothing wrong, nothing deserving of death.
[00:14:32]  So that's the frame of mind.
[00:14:34]  That's his mentality, his thoughts, his emotions.

=== David Under Surveillance (02:36) ===

[00:14:37]  That's the circumstances surrounding the writing of this particular psalm.
[00:14:42]  Now, David's not in the house, I think is what we're meant to assume.
[00:14:46]  I think that's not explicit, but that's implicit.
[00:14:49]  That David is, it's like he knew that the attack was coming and he's somewhere off in the distance.
[00:14:55]  If he was in the house, it seems implied that they would simply break in, capture him, and put him to death.
[00:15:01]  So I think we're meant to assume that David is not in the house.
[00:15:04]  He's somewhere else watching from a distance.
[00:15:06]  And imagine, just imagine yourself hiding in some bushes, you know, a quarter mile away, maybe even 100 yards away, watching from some bushes and seeing armed men surrounding your home and thinking, I can't go there.
[00:15:19]  I can't get any of my belongings.
[00:15:21]  I can't go and get my toothbrush.
[00:15:23]  I can't, you know, I can't.
[00:15:24]  They're staking out my house, they have it surrounded.
[00:15:27]  And if I go back to my house, the place that's supposed to be a place of comfort and safety and security, a person's home, if I go back there, the place of security has become a place of doom, a place of destruction, impending doom, a place of danger, a place of instability, insecurity, a place of death.
[00:15:46]  That's the frame of mind.
[00:15:47]  That is the circumstances, the context for the writing of this Psalm.
[00:15:53]  All right.
[00:15:54]  Now, according to Psalm 59, verse 2, and Psalm 59, verses 14 through 15, Which we have both of that in bold in your notes.
[00:16:02]  King Saul and his men were like a pack of starving wild dogs that surround and trap their prey right before tearing it to shreds.
[00:16:12]  This is what the text says.
[00:16:13]  Verse 2 Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men.
[00:16:18]  Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.
[00:16:24]  They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.
[00:16:30]  David's own home had been surrounded by this bloodthirsty mob.
[00:16:34]  There was no hope of appealing to reason or mercy.
[00:16:37]  Listen to this, church.
[00:16:39]  There was no hope of an appeal.
[00:16:42]  Right?
[00:16:43]  What is the picture that's painted in our text?
[00:16:44]  Verse 2, verse 14, and 15.
[00:16:47]  The picture that David is painting is that these men that are underneath the command and authority of this king, King Saul, they are men driven mad.
[00:16:59]  These are not reasonable men.
[00:17:01]  These are not men that you can appeal to some sense of sympathy or compassion or reason or logic.
[00:17:07]  These are not men that you can present evidence that proves your innocence and that it will be received and accepted.

=== Bloodthirsty Men Driven Mad (03:34) ===

[00:17:14]  No, they're wild dogs.
[00:17:17]  They don't care about what's just.
[00:17:19]  They're not here in order to exact justice because I am a wrongdoer and need to be brought to justice.
[00:17:26]  No, that is not their motivation.
[00:17:28]  That is not what's going on.
[00:17:30]  These men are here because they're bloodthirsty.
[00:17:33]  They're bloodthirsty men.
[00:17:34]  And brothers and sisters, there are men like this in the world that we live in.
[00:17:38]  And there are men like this in our own nation.
[00:17:42]  Men who they're not driven by morality.
[00:17:44]  They say they are, they're lying.
[00:17:46]  What guides them is not virtue.
[00:17:48]  What guides them is not morality.
[00:17:50]  And what guides them is certainly not the law of God.
[00:17:52]  What guides them is a bloodthirsty hunger for power and to use that power to domineer over others.
[00:18:00]  That's all that's driving them.
[00:18:01]  There is no reason to appeal to, there's no logic.
[00:18:04]  There's no compassion.
[00:18:06]  The party of empathy is anything but empathetic.
[00:18:09]  It's a lie.
[00:18:10]  These are bloodthirsty men who love violence and they love to oppress.
[00:18:15]  They love to exact tyranny.
[00:18:18]  They love to mistreat.
[00:18:20]  They love to abuse citizens underneath their power.
[00:18:23]  They get a kick out of it.
[00:18:26]  It invigorates them.
[00:18:27]  It's their food.
[00:18:28]  Notice that language that David used.
[00:18:30]  These dogs, they come and what are they looking for?
[00:18:32]  They're bloodthirsty, but they're also hungry.
[00:18:35]  They're starving and they come because one, they enjoy the kill.
[00:18:40]  They enjoy the kill.
[00:18:41]  Have you ever watched?
[00:18:42]  I've watched on YouTube, I'm a sucker.
[00:18:44]  So, all right, on YouTube, all I do, that's my only purpose anytime I get on YouTube, is to simply check the comment section with Right Response Ministries.
[00:18:54]  Because sometimes people are just obscene and you gotta delete a comment from time to time or I wanna respond, blah, blah.
[00:18:59]  Here's the problem that takes about 20 minutes.
[00:19:02]  The problem is I often spend 40 minutes because on YouTube, They'll be, and YouTube knows their algorithm is legit.
[00:19:10]  They know what they're doing.
[00:19:12]  You gotta give them props.
[00:19:13]  They're oppressive too in censoring true information, but you gotta give them props with the strategy.
[00:19:17]  So they know what I'm a sucker for.
[00:19:20]  One thing I'm a sucker for killer whales.
[00:19:22]  And boom, so I'll be going on there to check, you know, just the comment section for right response.
[00:19:28]  But daggone it, there's a video of killer whales.
[00:19:31]  And here's one thing, and I'm a sucker, and I'll click on that.
[00:19:34]  It's like a 12 minute video, and I'm like, oh, I wish it was three minutes, but I guess I'm watching 12 minutes of killer whales because I don't know what else to do.
[00:19:41]  I'm way too curious about what these killer whales are going to do to pass up on this video.
[00:19:46]  So, one thing that killer whales do is they don't just eat, they don't just hunt to eat.
[00:19:52]  But killer whales are one of the only animals, one of the only predators that will play with their food.
[00:19:57]  You know, at the risk of sounding a little bit gruesome, they'll take a seal and they'll throw it around like a bowl while it's still alive and then rip it in half.
[00:20:05]  Now, that is not something that they have to do instinctually in order to get sustenance or nourishment.
[00:20:11]  Just eat the seal.
[00:20:12]  You don't have to, it's not like they're throwing it in the air because that somehow fills their bellies.
[00:20:17]  No, they're bloodthirsty.
[00:20:19]  They're violent.
[00:20:19]  There's a reason why they're called killer whales, and they are the apex predator in the ocean.
[00:20:24]  Great white sharks, if you want a good time, go on YouTube and look up killer whale versus.
[00:20:29]  Great white shark.
[00:20:30]  Spoiler alert the killer whale wins.
[00:20:33]  That is the apex predator of the sea.
[00:20:35]  All right, so killer whales, they're vicious, they're dangerous, but they don't just kill to eat.
[00:20:41]  There's this bloodlust, there's this playing, this torture of their prey.

=== Ignorance Is Not Innocence (15:35) ===

[00:20:48]  That's the language that David's using.
[00:20:50]  So it's twofold, all right?
[00:20:51]  So keep this in your mind to simplify it twofold.
[00:20:54]  These men are starving dogs on the one hand who growl if they don't get their fill.
[00:21:00]  So, they're hungry for something.
[00:21:02]  And what is it that they're hungry for?
[00:21:03]  They're hungry for the oppression of the righteous.
[00:21:07]  They're hungry for the abuse of God's people.
[00:21:10]  They're hungry for power, for dominance.
[00:21:14]  That's what they're hungry for.
[00:21:15]  The dominance over the righteous, power, and tyranny is their food source.
[00:21:21]  It's what sustains them, it's what nourishes them.
[00:21:24]  This is the food on which they live.
[00:21:26]  Their diet is tyranny.
[00:21:30]  We live in a nation like that.
[00:21:32]  We have a current administration in our nation like that.
[00:21:36]  Their diet is tyranny, tyranny of the righteous.
[00:21:41]  So, that's on the one hand, starving dogs.
[00:21:43]  It is their food, it's their sustenance, it's their diet.
[00:21:46]  On the other hand, wild dogs, ravaged dogs, bloodthirsty.
[00:21:52]  They not only are doing this because it's their sustenance, but they're doing it because it's their joy.
[00:21:57]  They get a sick, sadistic sense of pleasure out of the persecution of the righteous.
[00:22:03]  They're bloodthirsty.
[00:22:05]  They have bloodlust.
[00:22:06]  They don't just kill to eat.
[00:22:07]  They do eat.
[00:22:08]  They thrive on tyranny as though it were their sustenance.
[00:22:11]  But they don't just kill to eat for nourishment.
[00:22:14]  They also kill for pleasure.
[00:22:17]  There's a bloodlust.
[00:22:18]  They delight in the oppression of the righteous.
[00:22:22]  That's what we've seen so far.
[00:22:23]  Verse 2, 14, and 15.
[00:22:26]  Now, David's own home is surrounded by these bloodthirsty men.
[00:22:29]  It's a mob.
[00:22:31]  It's a mob.
[00:22:32]  It's mob justice.
[00:22:34]  Now, we have that all the time.
[00:22:35]  We have that in social media, we have that with corporate America.
[00:22:38]  We have that with big tech.
[00:22:39]  We have mob justice.
[00:22:41]  We live in the Me Too generation, right?
[00:22:44]  Innocent until proven guilty?
[00:22:45]  Nope.
[00:22:47]  Believe all women.
[00:22:48]  What about when it's Joe Biden?
[00:22:49]  Well, then never mind.
[00:22:51]  Due process.
[00:22:52]  Okay, well, now he's off the hook, and we have a conservative who's in question.
[00:22:56]  Okay, back to believe all women, right?
[00:22:58]  So the point is we have mob justice where evidence can't be presented, arguments cannot be made, reason cannot be appealed to because you're talking about men who are without reason.
[00:23:09]  They're not reasonable men.
[00:23:10]  They're not moral men.
[00:23:11]  This mob justice kind of thing that just cries out, where you just destroy someone's life over the internet, someone you don't even know, and everybody pitches in, and everybody starts to get angry with one another, and this mob justice happens, and it brings somebody down who may be innocent.
[00:23:27]  That's what David has, but not in the digital virtual sphere.
[00:23:30]  David has this happening with flesh and blood, physically, literally.
[00:23:35]  There are men literally, physically surrounding his house, driven by madness, without an ounce of reason.
[00:23:41]  They have pledged their allegiance to King Saul, who is a madman.
[00:23:45]  King Saul has given up on reason a long time ago.
[00:23:48]  The Bible says that the Lord sent into him an evil spirit, and the Lord did it.
[00:23:52]  It's an evil spirit from the Lord.
[00:23:54]  That'll mess with some of your theology, right?
[00:23:56]  That God only blesses.
[00:23:57]  No, the Lord actually sends out evil spirits at times, according to what he did with Saul.
[00:24:03]  So, an evil spirit from the Lord comes into Saul and begins to torment him, and slowly but surely, as Saul hardens his heart and rebels against the commands of God, this evil spirit gains more and more control, more and more power, and the reason of Saul begins to dissipate.
[00:24:20]  The reason, the logic, the sensibleness of Saul begins to utterly disappear.
[00:24:26]  And by this point, Saul is driven mad to the point where he's already tried to pin David to the wall with a spear for no reason.
[00:24:34]  He's been hunting him down using all of his resources to the point where it's actually a detriment to the kingdom, where resources should be expended in other arenas, in other ways.
[00:24:45]  And yet, Saul's saying, We need hundreds of men to hunt down one guy who's done nothing wrong.
[00:24:51]  It's bad stewardship.
[00:24:53]  It makes no sense.
[00:24:54]  There's no rhyme or reason to what Saul is doing.
[00:24:57]  He is a mad king.
[00:25:00]  He's a king of madness.
[00:25:01]  And this king of madness has soldiers in his platoons, in his ranks, that have pledged their allegiance to madness.
[00:25:09]  They know the king is mad, and yet they will not stand up to him.
[00:25:13]  And they have joined him in his bloodlust, they have joined him in his quest for power and to do that which is wicked.
[00:25:23]  That's the scene.
[00:25:25]  These are men with unrestrained evil, driven by sheer rage.
[00:25:31]  They delight in the destruction of the righteous.
[00:25:33]  These are not, brothers and sisters, confused men.
[00:25:37]  Well, they just don't know.
[00:25:40]  Right?
[00:25:41]  Because there's so much fake news and things that are true are suppressed.
[00:25:46]  No, no, they are culpable.
[00:25:49]  There is a moral culpability.
[00:25:51]  They are not innocent by virtue of ignorance.
[00:25:54]  These are not men who are merely doing wrong things because they've been deceived and confused.
[00:25:59]  Now, that doesn't mean that they're not confused, and that doesn't mean they haven't been deceived.
[00:26:03]  But in biblical terms, in biblical terms, we must remember Romans 1, if it says nothing else, it says this.
[00:26:09]  Romans 1 says that ignorance stems from rebellion rather than rebellion stemming from ignorance.
[00:26:17]  There are many, even in the church, followers of Jesus who should know better, and yet they purport this unbiblical, bad theology that says people rebel against God because they're ignorant of the truth of God.
[00:26:31]  So if it was a two step process, it would say, Ignorance comes first, and because people are ignorant of the truth of God, they therefore do rebellious things against God.
[00:26:41]  They rebel because they're ignorant.
[00:26:42]  That's not what Romans 1 teaches.
[00:26:44]  It teaches precisely the opposite.
[00:26:46]  Romans 1 says that God has demonstrated, He has manifested, He has revealed Himself to all men, believers and unbelievers alike, by virtue of what He has made.
[00:26:58]  And it says that even the nature and character of God, not every attribute of God, but namely His divine.
[00:27:04]  His eternal power and divine nature, and it have been clearly perceived.
[00:27:10]  Now, notice that.
[00:27:10]  It doesn't just say that by what God has made through natural revelation, that would be the doctrine.
[00:27:15]  Natural revelation by creation itself, it testifies to God.
[00:27:18]  Romans 1 doesn't merely say that God has clearly revealed himself by what he has made.
[00:27:25]  No, Romans 1 says it's been clearly perceived.
[00:27:28]  Because if Romans 1 merely said it's been clearly revealed, you could still make the argument that God has clearly shown himself by virtue of his creation, but maybe some people didn't catch the message.
[00:27:39]  See, God revealed it, but something can be revealed and you can still miss it.
[00:27:43]  You were looking the other way.
[00:27:44]  So, just because someone reveals something doesn't mean that you perceive it.
[00:27:47]  But Romans 1 says not only has God's character been clearly revealed by what he has made, but that it has been clearly perceived by all men so that all men are without an apologia, an apologetic, an argument, an excuse.
[00:28:03]  Meaning that no man can stand before the throne of God on that final day and claim innocence on the basis of ignorance because no one is truly ignorant.
[00:28:11]  And so it is with men who pledge their allegiance to Saul.
[00:28:16]  These are not merely confused men.
[00:28:18]  Deception is involved, but at the end of the day, deception and confusion and ignorance does not ultimately get the final headline.
[00:28:27]  It's not ultimately something that you can use as an excuse.
[00:28:31]  There is moral culpability, there is a willingness to be deceived.
[00:28:36]  And I say all that to say that in our culture and in our nation and our time, we see the very same principle at work.
[00:28:43]  Are there people who are confused because true information is suppressed?
[00:28:46]  Yes.
[00:28:48]  But there is a willingness, there is a culpability.
[00:28:52]  There is a moral responsibility.
[00:28:55]  No one at the end of the day can merely claim innocence on the basis of ignorance.
[00:29:00]  At the end of the day, in the final analysis, everyone believes precisely what they want to believe, including you and I. That's the idea.
[00:29:09]  This is the reformed idea of presuppositionalism, presuppositional apologetics, that everyone's coming to the table with an agenda, with a leaning, with an allegiance.
[00:29:22]  Christ himself says, A man is either for me or against me.
[00:29:26]  Neutrality, brothers and sisters, is a myth.
[00:29:30]  It is a myth.
[00:29:31]  There is no morally neutral ground.
[00:29:35]  Everyone has an allegiance.
[00:29:37]  It's either to God or to man.
[00:29:40]  It is theonomy, God's law, or autonomy, man's law.
[00:29:45]  Those are the only options.
[00:29:46]  Those are the only choices before you.
[00:29:48]  The only thing that you can decide between.
[00:29:52]  And so, these men, although Saul may be lying to them about David, Although Saul may be making up some case against them that's not true, there may be an element of deception.
[00:30:04]  There may be an element of confusion.
[00:30:07]  There may be an element of true information being suppressed and therefore ignorance.
[00:30:12]  And yet, there is also, at the end of the day, an element of moral culpability because man only ever believes what he wants.
[00:30:21]  That's true for the unbeliever, that's true for the believer as well.
[00:30:26]  This man, Christ Jesus, The God man Christ Jesus is the most polarizing man in all of human history.
[00:30:33]  You will either love him or hate him.
[00:30:35]  You will bless him or curse him.
[00:30:37]  You will follow him or rebel against him.
[00:30:39]  But everyone does something with a person of Jesus Christ.
[00:30:43]  Everyone does something.
[00:30:45]  No one is neutral towards Jesus.
[00:30:47]  And if they say they are, they're lying.
[00:30:49]  And all you have to do is press for a moment.
[00:30:52]  And you'll get them quickly to either be converted and love Jesus or to admit their true hatred towards Jesus.
[00:31:00]  Doug Wilson says it like this this presuppositional idea.
[00:31:03]  He says that, you know, Romans 1, all men are lying and suppressing the truth in deeds of unrighteousness.
[00:31:08]  Right?
[00:31:08]  So, they do perceive it.
[00:31:10]  They know.
[00:31:10]  And then, what they do is, in their rebellion, they begin to suppress the truth.
[00:31:14]  So, again, the pattern in Romans 1 is people are not ignorant.
[00:31:18]  They do know that there is a God in heaven, and he demands our allegiance.
[00:31:22]  And then, people choose to rebel.
[00:31:24]  So, the issue is not intellectual, the issue is first and foremost moral.
[00:31:28]  And they choose to rebel against Christ, and in their rebellion, by deeds done in unrighteousness, they suppress the truth and become ignorant.
[00:31:36]  So, are there ignorant people?
[00:31:37]  Yes.
[00:31:38]  But here's the question Did they start that way?
[00:31:41]  Do they start that way?
[00:31:42]  According to Romans 1, no, they started perceiving.
[00:31:45]  They came out of their mother's womb with natural revelation, natural law, as image bearers of the living God.
[00:31:52]  They came out of the womb knowing there's a God in heaven, the creator of heaven and earth, and he is worthy of worship.
[00:31:58]  He has eternal power and a divine nature.
[00:32:01]  So they come out knowing, not ignorant, but knowing.
[00:32:05]  And then in their rebellion, because the issue is not first and foremost intellectual, but first and foremost moral, in their rebellion, then they begin to lie.
[00:32:13]  And suppress the truth in deeds of unrighteousness.
[00:32:15]  And they are handed over progressively by their sin and hardness of heart to ignorance.
[00:32:20]  So men become ignorant.
[00:32:22]  That's true.
[00:32:23]  Are there a lot of people who are confused and ignorant?
[00:32:25]  Yes.
[00:32:26]  But the question is did they start there or did they get there?
[00:32:30]  The Bible says they got there.
[00:32:32]  And how did they get there?
[00:32:34]  Sin.
[00:32:35]  By rebelling against God in deeds of unrighteousness.
[00:32:38]  The men in David's day who were surrounding his house, who had pledged their allegiance to Saul and against his anointed Holy One, who was King David.
[00:32:47]  These men, although they may have been lied to, although there may have been a degree of deception, confusion, and ignorance, at the end of the day, what first comes, chicken or the egg?
[00:32:56]  Well, what first comes in this instance is the moral issue, not the intellectual issue.
[00:33:00]  What first comes is their rebellion, their willful rebellion, and from that comes ignorance.
[00:33:05]  And that is precisely the same situation that we have not just in the days of David, but we have in all places and all times throughout human history, including our culture and our situations today.
[00:33:17]  Today, we have people who are confused, but they are confused because they want to be.
[00:33:23]  They believe whatever narrative they desire to believe.
[00:33:27]  And they have arrived at this state of confusion and ignorance because, first and foremost, they are rebellious against not Republicans, that's not the main issue, not against, no, first and foremost, they are rebellious against the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:33:44]  And because they hate Jesus, they have suppressed the truth and deeds of unrighteousness.
[00:33:49]  And they have progressively been handed over more and more to an ignorance, but that ignorance stems first from rebellion.
[00:33:57]  They're not capable.
[00:33:59]  These men, they're not merely confused.
[00:34:01]  These are not merely confused men.
[00:34:03]  They are not innocent or merely lacking accurate information.
[00:34:07]  They are not capable of being persuaded by reason if only someone would provide to them the facts in an honest, compelling manner.
[00:34:14]  Right?
[00:34:14]  This isn't someone that, if you just listened to Ben Shapiro, you would be a conservative.
[00:34:18]  No.
[00:34:20]  Because it's not merely about the facts.
[00:34:23]  The problem is not merely an intellectual problem, it's moral.
[00:34:27]  People believe what they want to believe.
[00:34:29]  It was true in the times of David, it is true in our times today.
[00:34:33]  They're not capable of being persuaded by reason if only someone would provide the facts in an honest and charitable manner.
[00:34:40]  This person really would be a Calvinist if only Calvinists weren't so arrogant.
[00:34:44]  If Calvinists could just present the doctrines of grace in a humble manner, this person would be reformed.
[00:34:49]  Probably not.
[00:34:52]  Now, that doesn't mean that as Christians and as Reformed Christians, we shouldn't seek to have a gentle tone.
[00:34:59]  But the point is, we should seek to have a gentle tone out of obedience.
[00:35:03]  Not because of effectiveness.
[00:35:06]  God in His sovereignty and providence may cause it to be effective.
[00:35:09]  But the reason why we want to have a gentle tone, a respectful tone, is because God commands us to.
[00:35:14]  So we want to do that because we want to be obedient.
[00:35:17]  But the idea that if we only did that, we could somehow shape the course of redemptive history and certain people would come into the kingdom of God that otherwise won't?
[00:35:26]  No.
[00:35:26]  See, number one, that undercuts, first and foremost, the sovereign election of God.
[00:35:30]  But secondarily, it also undercuts the severity of the depravity of man.
[00:35:36]  Man's rebellion toward the Lord Jesus Christ is not so insignificant that if only we had compelling, factual, charitable arguments, it would be able to overcome their rebellion.
[00:35:49]  See, the picture that that paints, right?
[00:35:51]  It's not just bad theology, that's a bad anthropology.
[00:35:54]  The picture that that illustration paints is that man has a rebellion towards God, but his rebellion is small.
[00:36:01]  That's not what the scripture teaches.
[00:36:03]  The scripture teaches that his rebellion against God is insurmountable.
[00:36:07]  It cannot be overcome by facts or truth or gentleness or charitableness or winsomeness.
[00:36:14]  If I had a dollar every time somebody in the evangelical church said that I should be more winsome, I wouldn't need a salary.
[00:36:20]  I'd be a very rich man.
[00:36:22]  Sick and tired of the word winsome.

=== Gentleness Without Christ (08:12) ===

[00:36:23]  Just done with that.
[00:36:26]  I want to have a polemic.
[00:36:28]  I want to have a polemic that Jesus had.
[00:36:30]  Was John the Baptist being winsome when he called the Pharisees a brood of vipers?
[00:36:34]  I think so, but it's a different kind of winsomeness.
[00:36:36]  That's the winsomeness I want to display.
[00:36:39]  I like what Phil Johnson said.
[00:36:41]  He said, Yeah, I want to engage culture, but the question is how?
[00:36:44]  He said, I want to engage culture the way that David engaged Goliath.
[00:36:49]  We're here to win.
[00:36:51]  That's all conservatives ever do.
[00:36:53]  Christian, unbelieving, or believing, that's all we ever do we start things and then we start a time clock for, okay, we'll enjoy this for about 10 years until it gets infiltrated and taken over by the left.
[00:37:08]  If conservatives disappeared, the left would have no institutions because they've never started one.
[00:37:14]  All they do is take over the institutions that we start.
[00:37:16]  But that's an indictment to us.
[00:37:18]  Why?
[00:37:20]  Why do they always win?
[00:37:21]  Why do they always infiltrate?
[00:37:23]  Why do they always take over?
[00:37:24]  Because we surrender.
[00:37:26]  Because we always surrender.
[00:37:28]  And we surrender because of cowardice and fear.
[00:37:30]  When the Bible commands us to be strong and courageous.
[00:37:33]  But we also surrender, not just because of cowardice and fear, we also surrender because of the 11th commandment of niceness.
[00:37:41]  And I'll be honest, that's not really a second reason, that's just a thin veil for the first.
[00:37:46]  Be nice.
[00:37:48]  Spoke every coward ever.
[00:37:52]  Every coward ever.
[00:37:53]  Be nice.
[00:37:54]  But what you're really saying is I'm afraid.
[00:37:55]  Please don't cause trouble.
[00:37:57]  It'll be uncomfortable.
[00:37:58]  It'll make a mess for me.
[00:38:00]  And then I'll be forced to choose sides.
[00:38:02]  And I know, I know how squishy and spineless I am.
[00:38:06]  I'll choose their side over you.
[00:38:08]  And I don't want to lose this relationship with you.
[00:38:11]  And I don't want the gospel of Jesus that separates mother from daughter and father.
[00:38:16]  I'm not come to bring peace, but a sword dividing.
[00:38:19]  I don't want Jesus.
[00:38:21]  See, here's at the end of the day, people don't want Jesus because Jesus divides.
[00:38:26]  He did not come to bring peace but a sword.
[00:38:29]  They don't want Jesus because they know He's polarized.
[00:38:31]  So, what they ultimately want to do is they want to strip Jesus of every ounce of power and profundity.
[00:38:37]  They want to emasculate the Son of God.
[00:38:40]  But He is the God man, Christ Jesus.
[00:38:44]  They want to strip Him of His masculinity.
[00:38:46]  They want to, with, give me more nuance.
[00:38:48]  Good Lord, winsome and nuance.
[00:38:50]  If you gave me nuance, A dollar every time that word was used.
[00:38:53]  In addition to winsomeness, I'd have a $67 million jet plane.
[00:38:57]  I'd be getting the same kind of criticism that Benny Hinn gets.
[00:39:00]  I'd be so rich.
[00:39:02]  But what they do is they ultimately nuance their way out of the masculinity of Jesus Christ.
[00:39:09]  John chapter 2, Jesus fashions a whip and clears out the temple.
[00:39:14]  This is what I would say gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.
[00:39:16]  But here's the question How do we define it?
[00:39:19]  Let me submit to you that the church, followers of Jesus, right?
[00:39:24]  The student's not above the teacher, the servant's not above the master.
[00:39:27]  So if we claim to be followers of Jesus, perhaps it's unwise for us to define gentleness in such a way that it's narrower than the Son of God Himself.
[00:39:37]  When you define gentleness in such a way that Jesus doesn't even fit into the boundaries that you've established for what it is to be gentle, then you've made a mistake.
[00:39:45]  You are misdefining gentleness if your definition of gentleness precludes Christ.
[00:39:51]  Jesus, that's another misconception we have.
[00:39:54]  We think that the fruit of the Spirit is like a toolbox, right?
[00:39:57]  I'm going to grab a hammer for this particular task, then I'll put it back in.
[00:40:00]  I'll grab a screwdriver for this particular task, and then I'll put it back in.
[00:40:04]  No, the fruit of the Spirit is collective.
[00:40:07]  The better way to.
[00:40:09]  To describe it, fruit of the Spirit, just for the record, the fruit, we always say apple, banana, and I'm going to use that illustration.
[00:40:14]  But what it really means, fruit just means evidence of the Spirit, manifestation of the Spirit, visible, external, witnessable attributes of the Holy Spirit.
[00:40:23]  And what does it look like?
[00:40:24]  It looks like this love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.
[00:40:29]  Now, this is what we need to understand.
[00:40:31]  Number one, it's a package deal, right?
[00:40:34]  So this means it's a false, it is a misconception to think this person really has love, but they don't have faithfulness.
[00:40:42]  No, here's the deal.
[00:40:45]  Back to our confession.
[00:40:46]  God is the most pure spirit without body, parts, and passions.
[00:40:50]  What does that mean, parts?
[00:40:51]  It means in philosophical terms, God is a simple being.
[00:40:53]  He's the most complex being in the universe.
[00:40:55]  But in philosophical terms, He's a simple being, which means He is indivisible.
[00:41:00]  So for you, you could sever your right arm and still be you.
[00:41:04]  You take away my right arm, I don't lose my identity, my personhood.
[00:41:07]  I'm still Joel Webbin.
[00:41:08]  I'm just Joel Webbin with one arm instead of two.
[00:41:10]  But there is nothing that is in God, any of His perfections, as a Puritan, as you say.
[00:41:14]  They didn't even like the term attributes.
[00:41:16]  They would say the perfections of God.
[00:41:17]  There was no perfection of God that you could subtract or sever from God and Him still be God.
[00:41:23]  Which means God without body, parts, and passions, which means that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, who is God, by the way, the third member of the Trinity, Holy Spirit, who is God, if you have the Spirit, and if you're a Christian, you do, right?
[00:41:38]  1 Corinthians chapter 6, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you have received from God.
[00:41:43]  You're not your own.
[00:41:44]  You're bought with a price.
[00:41:45]  Therefore, honor God with your body.
[00:41:46]  So the Holy Spirit is.
[00:41:47]  If you have the Holy Spirit, guess what?
[00:41:49]  You don't get 30% of the Holy Spirit.
[00:41:53]  You don't get 70% of the Holy Spirit.
[00:41:55]  If you get the Holy Spirit, who is God, you get the whole God because He is a most pure spirit without body parts and passions.
[00:42:03]  He does not have parts.
[00:42:04]  He can't be dissected.
[00:42:05]  Which means this if you have the Holy Spirit, you do have the fruit of the Spirit, the visible manifestations and evidence of one who possesses the Holy Spirit.
[00:42:16]  And if you have the fruit of the Spirit, Then you have all of the fruit of the Spirit.
[00:42:21]  So, the better way to think of it is instead of now using a literal fruit analogy, instead of nine fruits, an apple, a banana, an orange, a watermelon, instead of nine fruits, what you should think of it is one fruit.
[00:42:31]  Let's take an apple with nine characteristics.
[00:42:33]  It's crisp, it's sweet, it's crunchy.
[00:42:37]  That's what the fruit of the Spirit is much more likened to than the former analogy of nine different fruits.
[00:42:43]  No, it's one fruit because it's one Spirit without body, parts, and passions, who is indivisible.
[00:42:49]  So, it's one fruit, namely one God, one Spirit.
[00:42:53]  Who has multiple characteristics?
[00:42:57]  So, if someone has a spirit of God, what are the characteristics of the spirit of God?
[00:43:01]  He's loving.
[00:43:03]  He's joyful.
[00:43:04]  He's gentle.
[00:43:05]  I say all that to say there's only one person in his earthly human life here on earth who embodied the fullness without measure.
[00:43:13]  The Spirit without measure is what the scripture says, and therefore had the fruit, the manifestations, the visible expressions of the Spirit without measure.
[00:43:22]  Jesus Christ.
[00:43:23]  Jesus Christ in his earthly ministry had the Spirit without measure, and therefore had the manifestations, the visible signs of the Spirit without measure.
[00:43:32]  Which means all this theology platform to make this argument, which means there was never a moment in the life of Jesus Christ here on earth where He was not embodying and displaying for us, manifesting gentleness in its fullness.
[00:43:49]  Everything He said, everything He did was a perfect embodiment, a perfect example that we should emulate of love, joy, peace, all of them, including gentleness.
[00:44:01]  Which means in John chapter 2, When Jesus makes a whip and begins to beat people and throw over their tables and tell them to get the hell out of God's house, when that happens, when Jesus does that, he is setting for us an example of what it means to be gentle.
[00:44:16]  That's gentleness.
[00:44:18]  That's what it looks like to be gentle in that context with those people, with that sin.
[00:44:25]  So that doesn't mean we build a whip and that's what we bring to a funeral, right?
[00:44:30]  Jesus didn't bring his whip with him to Lazarus' tomb.
[00:44:33]  People are weeping, Jesus weeps.

=== Strength Against Puny Storms (10:48) ===

[00:44:36]  But when people are desecrating the house of God, Jesus gets mad.
[00:44:39]  And it's not like he had gentleness, pulled that out of his toolkit in this instance, and then put gentleness away and pulled out courage in this other instance.
[00:44:47]  That is bad theology.
[00:44:48]  So I just want to, Christian myth busters, I want to go ahead and bust that myth right now, once and for all, for all of us to understand.
[00:44:55]  So, all that being said, John Piper says this if no shepherd kings were ever surrounded by bloodthirsty mobs, if no missionaries were ever beheaded, If no pastors were ever hated and driven from their churches, if no nations ever tottered on the brink of oppression, if no daughters were ever drowned at sea, then the songbook of the Bible and the hymnody of the church would be very thin, and the singing of the church would not be capable of reaching to the bottom of the hearts of men.
[00:45:24]  Charles Spurgeon, same kind of concept, same principle.
[00:45:27]  He says, The music of the sanctuary is in no small degree indebted to the trials of the saints.
[00:45:34]  So I say all that to say, David's house is surrounded by men driven mad, not just deceived, but willingly handing themselves over to madness.
[00:45:45]  Bloodthirsty men who thrive on oppressing the righteous, they thrive on exacting tyranny.
[00:45:54]  And these kinds of instances, these moments in the life of the Christian, this is the source of inspiration that writes for us the types of psalms, the types of hymns.
[00:46:07]  That ultimately plumbed to the furthest depths of the human soul, that actually reached down into tragedy, that reached down into depression, that reached down into despair.
[00:46:18]  And so, God, in His providence, God, in His sovereignty, He allows the righteous to be afflicted so that we might search the full depths of the human soul and know that at the bottom of the ninth, at the bottom of the barrel, when everything seems to be lost, that God, our God, is our strength, and as David says in the end of this psalm, our mighty fortress.
[00:46:39]  Our mighty fortress.
[00:46:41]  In Psalm 59, verse 16 through 17, David sings praises to the God of might and mercy.
[00:46:47]  This is the final point I want to make.
[00:46:49]  He says this But I will sing of your strength.
[00:46:52]  I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning, for you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.
[00:46:59]  O my strength.
[00:47:00]  Notice, this is not exact, not verbatim, but this is a repetition of what he's already said.
[00:47:06]  So he's already said, You've been a fortress, but I will sing of your strength.
[00:47:10]  Now he says, Oh, my strength.
[00:47:12]  He's saying, Strength is your name.
[00:47:14]  Notice, it's capitalized there.
[00:47:16]  So instead of, Oh, my God, he says, Oh, my strength, meaning my God whose name is strength.
[00:47:21]  So he says, Oh, my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, oh God, are my fortress.
[00:47:25]  The God who shows me, here he goes, he repeats again, steadfast love.
[00:47:30]  David says the same thing twice.
[00:47:32]  He praises God for his strength, that is God's might.
[00:47:35]  His power.
[00:47:36]  And he praises God for his steadfast love, that is God's mercy.
[00:47:42]  The might and mercy of God have come together in order to form a fortress for David.
[00:47:49]  I believe verses 16 and 17, if there's nothing else that they say, it's this.
[00:47:55]  David says, God, be to me a fortress.
[00:47:59]  Be to me a strong tower.
[00:48:01]  Be to me a rock where I can hide myself from my enemies.
[00:48:04]  Be to me a shelter.
[00:48:06]  And if you will, visualize for a moment a shelter that's an A-frame, if you will.
[00:48:12]  There are two sides of the roof.
[00:48:15]  And David is as though he's saying this: You are a strong shelter to me.
[00:48:19]  You guard me.
[00:48:20]  You keep me safe.
[00:48:22]  And these two sides of the roof, this A-frame shelter that you have developed, that you are being for me, the two sides of the roof, if they had a name, it would be might on the one hand and mercy on the other.
[00:48:33]  It is the might and the mercy of God that provides for us, that becomes for us a shelter.
[00:48:40]  A fortress, a hiding place in times of trouble.
[00:48:45]  Why, is the final question why, particularly, is the might of God and the mercy of God required to protect the people of God?
[00:48:54]  I'll tell you why.
[00:48:56]  God, in His might, He must, in order to protect us, in order to be able to protect us from bloodthirsty.
[00:49:03]  Remember, the enemy is not described as puny, they're described as bloodthirsty dogs surrounding the house of David.
[00:49:11]  They're armed to the teeth.
[00:49:13]  He doesn't stand a chance.
[00:49:14]  David is on the run, one, because he honors the office of the king that God had anointed Saul, and he doesn't want to defy that.
[00:49:21]  But two, David's on the run because he does not possess the resources, the ability to mount up an opposition that would stand a chance.
[00:49:30]  So David's on the run because his enemies are stronger than him.
[00:49:33]  Therefore, in order for God to be our shelter, because our enemies are bloodthirsty men, and because our enemies often fill places of power and influence, Because this is the case, because the enemies of God are the ones who right now have power over virtually every institution in our culture, in our nation.
[00:49:53]  Because that is true, because they have might, the only way we can be spared, the only way that God can be to us a fortress, a refuge, is if God has even greater might.
[00:50:03]  So, on the one hand, for God to be our fortress, for Him to be our refuge, He must have might.
[00:50:09]  Because our enemies are not puny, our enemies are strong.
[00:50:13]  They're strong, and they have no reservations about doing right.
[00:50:16]  Hainous and wicked things towards the righteous.
[00:50:19]  But our God is stronger.
[00:50:21]  And in comparison to us, our enemy is strong.
[00:50:24]  But in comparison with God, they're puny.
[00:50:27]  He holds them in derision.
[00:50:28]  He sits in the heavens and mocks.
[00:50:30]  He laughs.
[00:50:32]  God laughs.
[00:50:32]  So they're weak compared to him.
[00:50:34]  But we need to be humble and remember, they're strong compared to us.
[00:50:37]  It doesn't look good right now.
[00:50:39]  It didn't look good for David, and it doesn't look great for us.
[00:50:42]  I'd say we're in a better situation than David was, but it still doesn't look great for us.
[00:50:46]  Our enemies are not puny.
[00:50:48]  Our enemies have authority.
[00:50:49]  They have authority.
[00:50:50]  Influence, they have power.
[00:50:52]  Right?
[00:50:53]  But I mean, having big tech basically be a government faction is a lot of power.
[00:50:59]  You can do a lot of stuff if you own YouTube and Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.
[00:51:04]  That's the situation we're in right now.
[00:51:05]  That's big.
[00:51:06]  And then you throw in there Hollywood and every single movie your children are going to be watching, and then the entire school system, and then you add to that the White House and everything else.
[00:51:14]  Then, yeah, that's not a great situation.
[00:51:18]  I think David's situation was worse, but we're not far from it.
[00:51:20]  It feels like bloodthirsty men have surrounded our house.
[00:51:24]  That's what it looks like.
[00:51:25]  Wild dogs.
[00:51:25]  They're not puny.
[00:51:26]  We need to be humbled, church.
[00:51:28]  Little flock.
[00:51:29]  That's what John writes to the church and says, Little flock.
[00:51:32]  Jesus is like sheep sent out among wolves.
[00:51:35]  So we need to have a moment of humility.
[00:51:38]  And remember, in comparison to us, they're not puny.
[00:51:43]  In comparison to God, they are.
[00:51:44]  So God, on the one hand, in order to be our salvation, our deliverance, our fortress, he must have might.
[00:51:51]  Here's the final piece He also must be merciful.
[00:51:55]  The might of God is completely, well, I was going to say it's completely irrelevant if not for his mercy.
[00:52:02]  But that's not true.
[00:52:03]  It's not irrelevant.
[00:52:04]  The might of God is our terror.
[00:52:06]  And our doom, if he's not merciful.
[00:52:10]  If this God who is omnipotent, all powerful, is not also omnibenevolent, all loving, then he's our doom.
[00:52:18]  And see, this is one of the most beautiful things.
[00:52:21]  All right, so Sigmund Freud, one of the arguments that he made towards atheism, against theism, against the existence of a God, is he said God was just the creation of the imagination of primitive men.
[00:52:33]  So, primitive men, there were certain things that they could not explain with science, right?
[00:52:38]  They couldn't explain these things.
[00:52:39]  So, like a storm, for instance.
[00:52:42]  So, Sigmund Freud, his whole argument was this there are certain threats that a man can reason with.
[00:52:48]  So, if somebody stops you in a back alley and they're trying to rob you, you may at least have the opportunity.
[00:52:54]  They're holding you at gunpoint, give me your wallet.
[00:52:56]  You may have the opportunity to say, hey, you can take my wallet, but please don't hurt me.
[00:53:00]  What are you doing?
[00:53:01]  You're appealing.
[00:53:02]  Or, you know, there's even training.
[00:53:05]  If you're ever in this kind of situation, say your name because it helps.
[00:53:08]  The victimizer to have to be forced to recognize your identity, your humanity.
[00:53:13]  It humanizes you, right?
[00:53:15]  It makes it more difficult for them to inflict harm upon you.
[00:53:18]  Meaning this there are certain threats in life that there is some sense of either compassion or some sense of reason that we can appeal to.
[00:53:26]  But there are other threats in life, like a hurricane.
[00:53:30]  You can't reason with a hurricane.
[00:53:32]  And so Sigmund Freud, his argument, whether it be a hurricane or a plague, he argued that primitive people with lots of death, Without modern medicine, with plagues, with storms, with all these kinds of things, with lots of dangers, lots of threats, and many of these threats not being personified, many of them being inanimate, like a storm or like a disease.
[00:53:53]  There was no reason to appeal to, no personhood, no compassion that they could play against.
[00:54:01]  And so, what they needed was they needed someone who had power over the storm.
[00:54:06]  And so they created God.
[00:54:09]  And so that was his argument.
[00:54:10]  Sigmund Freud, an atheist, saying, Men manufactured God out of their own imagination to help them deal with the terrors of life that could not be appealed to.
[00:54:21]  And this is why he's wrong.
[00:54:23]  He's wrong because the disciples, this is just one example, there's dozens in Scripture, but the disciples, when Jesus is sleeping under the boat and a great storm arises on the Sea of Galilee, it says that the disciples were very afraid.
[00:54:42]  And they go and they wake Jesus and they say, Master, Master, do you not care?
[00:54:45]  Teacher, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
[00:54:48]  And Jesus awakes and it says, He rebukes the wind and the waves.
[00:54:51]  He tells them to be still and to be silent.
[00:54:55]  And they cease.
[00:54:56]  And then it says, the disciples' response is this Who is this who has authority to command even the wind and waves?
[00:55:03]  And then they were exceedingly afraid.
[00:55:07]  See, the reason why Sigmund Freud is wrong when it comes to the Christian God is because the disciples look at the storm, that threat, that impending doom, and they're afraid.
[00:55:17]  But then they look at Jesus, who has authority over the storm, and they become even more afraid, exceedingly afraid.

=== Christ Wins Through Us (06:21) ===

[00:55:24]  So the Christian God is not the author of sugar and spice and everything nice.
[00:55:28]  He's not.
[00:55:29]  The Jewish version of Mr. Rogers.
[00:55:31]  He is the thrice holy God who commands in his right hand power over stars and galaxies and the cosmos.
[00:55:39]  He is the God of might.
[00:55:42]  And the only reason, the only reason the existence of a God like this is a comfort to sinners like you and me is because the God of might is also the God of mercy.
[00:55:54]  He keeps steadfast love.
[00:55:56]  Notice David, he doesn't use the word mercy, but it means mercy.
[00:55:59]  He uses the word steadfast love.
[00:56:01]  I think that's one of the best definitions of mercy.
[00:56:03]  Because steadfast love means what?
[00:56:05]  A love that continues.
[00:56:07]  What's the implication?
[00:56:09]  A love that continues when your faithfulness doesn't.
[00:56:13]  When your obedience doesn't continue, his steadfast love does.
[00:56:18]  When your obedience, when your faithfulness, when your righteousness, when your allegiance to him does not remain steadfast, it does not continue, you falter, you fail, his love remains steadfast.
[00:56:31]  He does not deny us, for he will not deny himself.
[00:56:35]  Even when we're faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.
[00:56:39]  It is the steadfast love of God, meaning what?
[00:56:41]  It's the love of God that continues even when the obedience of man fails.
[00:56:46]  I'll say it again.
[00:56:47]  The steadfast love of God, the covenantal, we might say, love of God, is a love of God that continues even when the obedience and faithfulness of men fail.
[00:56:57]  What better word to describe that than mercy?
[00:57:00]  So it is the power of God and the steadfast continuing love of God, even in the midst of human weakness.
[00:57:07]  Aka the mercy of God, the might and mercy of God, like two sides of the roof of a shelter that become for David a fortress, and that fortress is a mighty fortress, and it is available for all those who hope in Christ today.
[00:57:21]  Put your hope in Jesus.
[00:57:22]  Will we overcome?
[00:57:24]  Yes.
[00:57:24]  Will we overcome in the next 10 years?
[00:57:26]  I don't know.
[00:57:27]  That's not promised.
[00:57:28]  But the church will overcome.
[00:57:30]  I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
[00:57:35]  Remember, church, that language, the gates of hell, the gates are a defensive weapon.
[00:57:40]  The church is not on the ropes.
[00:57:41]  Getting pummeled by hell.
[00:57:44]  But hell and all of its offense ultimately will not prevail because the church, the church, Jesus will hold it up and it ultimately will not fall.
[00:57:51]  No, it's reversed.
[00:57:52]  The gates of hell describe that hell is on the defense.
[00:57:56]  And Jesus says, I will build, not just survive, not just sustain my church.
[00:58:01]  No, I will build it.
[00:58:02]  It will advance, it will grow.
[00:58:04]  So the church is growing, it's expanding, it's on the offense.
[00:58:07]  Jesus says, My church is on the offense.
[00:58:09]  My church is wailing on hell.
[00:58:12]  Hell is in the corner.
[00:58:14]  Hell is on the ropes, and hell won't be able.
[00:58:17]  Its defense, its gates, will not be able ultimately in the final day to withstand the battering ram of the church that's being hoisted by Christ Himself, who is the head of the church.
[00:58:29]  So we win.
[00:58:31]  And it's not just we win.
[00:58:32]  A lot of Christians think that we win because we lose, but then Christ comes in in the bottom of the ninth and as a pinch hitter.
[00:58:39]  So it's like the team is just going to get slaughtered, but then Christ comes in at the very end and hits a grand slam and we end up winning.
[00:58:45]  No.
[00:58:46]  No, Christ wins.
[00:58:47]  It's His glory.
[00:58:48]  But the question is how?
[00:58:49]  Christ wins.
[00:58:51]  The pre mill thinks Christ wins despite the church, to the benefit of the church.
[00:58:56]  The post mill thinks Christ wins through his church.
[00:59:00]  That's our belief.
[00:59:01]  So it's still Christ, it's still his glory.
[00:59:03]  But is Christ going to win despite the church sucking?
[00:59:07]  Or is Christ going to win through the church?
[00:59:10]  Is Christ's weapon that he wields to overcome the enemies of darkness the battering ram of the church itself?
[00:59:16]  I believe that's the language of Scripture.
[00:59:18]  So we will win, and not just Christ winning for us, but Christ winning through us.
[00:59:23]  And there is a difference.
[00:59:25]  And we will win.
[00:59:26]  The question is, when will we win?
[00:59:29]  We're not promised that America will win.
[00:59:31]  America could fall and the church still thrive.
[00:59:35]  So America may not win.
[00:59:36]  And if we win, even the church winning, the church may not win in the next 10 years.
[00:59:41]  Just like Gideon's army, it was whittled down first and then a great victory.
[00:59:47]  So even the church may seemingly shrink with God's providential pruning.
[00:59:52]  America is not promised to win.
[00:59:54]  And the church is promised to win, but we don't know when we're going to win.
[00:59:57]  And it may look like subtraction first before addition.
[01:00:01]  But we do win.
[01:00:03]  We do win.
[01:00:04]  And for all those who hope in Christ, even with bloodthirsty dogs that surround us that hate Christ, hate his rule, hate his kingship, hate his glory, even in a situation like that, God is our fortress.
[01:00:17]  Little flock, have no fear.
[01:00:19]  How many times does the Bible say again and again, don't be afraid, don't be afraid.
[01:00:23]  Have no fear.
[01:00:24]  He is our fortress and he is sufficient for the task.
[01:00:28]  Because he is mighty and merciful.
[01:00:31]  Let's pray.
[01:00:32]  Father God, thank you for your word.
[01:00:33]  Thank you for Jesus Christ, your son.
[01:00:35]  Thank you that you are our fortress, our strong tower, our defense, our shelter, our protection.
[01:00:42]  Thank you for your power and your might.
[01:00:44]  But Lord, we thank you.
[01:00:46]  We shudder at your might.
[01:00:49]  And we remember and take heart because of your mercy.
[01:00:53]  It's almost like a small child seeing his dad for the first time lifting some heavy object and feeling a sense of fear.
[01:01:00]  I never knew my dad who's so gentle and tender towards me.
[01:01:03]  I never realized he was so strong.
[01:01:06]  But I'm shuddering in one sense, but at the same time, I'm not afraid because the one that I'm witnessing right now, such a feat of strength, is also my daddy.
[01:01:17]  So the one who is so strong, all of that strength is being channeled for me because the one who is strong is the one who is for me.
[01:01:25]  If God is for us, who can be against us?
[01:01:28]  Lord, help us to trust in you.
[01:01:30]  And to be strong and courageous, not boasting in the flesh, but boasting in our mighty and merciful God.
[01:01:37]  We pray this in Jesus' name.
[01:01:39]  Amen.
[01:01:41]  Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.
[01:01:42]  Thanks for sticking around.
[01:01:44]  I've got an important announcement to make.

=== Boasting in Our Mighty God (00:56) ===

[01:01:45]  That's the Theonomy and Postmillennialism Conference 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
[01:01:54]  Theonomy and Postmillennialism.
[01:01:56]  We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up.
[01:01:58]  That's Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot.
[01:02:01]  Dr. Gary DeMar, non doctor, Pastor Joel Webbin, but we also have a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity.
[01:02:09]  Perhaps you've heard of him.
[01:02:10]  If not, you should start listening to his podcast.
[01:02:12]  It's fantastic.
[01:02:14]  Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team.
[01:02:16]  We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write in questions and get them answered.
[01:02:23]  We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas style barbecue meal on Friday that's a part of your registration fee.
[01:02:30]  All that is covered.
[01:02:31]  So you need to get there.
[01:02:32]  This is how you do it.
[01:02:33]  Go and register right now at rightresponseconference.com.
[01:02:38]  Again, that's rightresponseconference.com.
[01:02:41]  God bless.