SUNDAY SERMON - Responding To Injustice ｜ Psalm 37
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Length
1 hour and 18 minutes
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
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Toxicity
11
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Hate speech
36
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Summary
Psalms 37:1) Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers; for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb; 2) Believing in the Lord; and he will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day; 3) Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; and 4) fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way; over the man who carries out evil devices; and 5) You have loved us in the beloved in the savior in Christ; and as you by your spirit have opened our eyes, given us spiritual eyes to see your salvific love in Christ, we cannot help but respond with love for you.
Transcript
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Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
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If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
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would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five-star review?
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This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do
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to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible. Thanks.
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Today's text is Psalm chapter 37 verses 1 through 7. Again, that is Psalm chapter 37 verses 1 through 7.
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Would you join me in standing for the reading of God's Word?
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When I finish reading the text, I'll say this is the word of the Lord,
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at which point I would appreciate if you would respond by saying, thanks be to God.
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One final time, our text for today is Psalm chapter 37, verses 1 through 7.
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Be not envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
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dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness delight yourself in the lord and he will give
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you the desires of your heart commit your way to the lord trust in him and he will act he will bring
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forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noon day be still before the lord
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and wait patiently for him fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way over the man who
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carries out evil devices. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. All right, please be seated
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and join me as I pray once more. Father, I pray that you would empower me by your spirit to preach
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your word faithfully today. And Lord, I pray that you would empower not only me to preach
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expositionally, but everyone in this room to be an expositional listener of your preached word
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this morning. Father, I pray that indeed through the preaching of your word that your people would
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arrive at a more accurate, more faithful, more biblical knowledge of who you are, of what you've
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done, and what it is that you require from us as a right response. Father, we pray that this
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knowledge of who you are and what you've done and what you require would not merely be an end in
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itself, but rather it would serve as the necessary means of propelling your people from knowledge
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to love. That as you fill our minds with your truth, that you would fuel our hearts with love
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and adoration. The heart cannot love what the mind does not know. And so today, Lord, we diligently
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feast our minds on the substance of your word so that our hearts might be fueled with right
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passion right love right adoration all lending ultimately towards obedience your word is clear
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we love because you first loved us no man in and of himself chooses to love you and somehow elicits
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your response rather we love because you first loved us first john chapter 4 verse 19 you have
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loved us in the beloved in the savior in your son jesus christ and as you by your spirit have
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opened our eyes given us spiritual eyes see your salvific love in christ we cannot help
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but respond with love for you but then the very next question is what do we do in love for you
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Your son Jesus said, those who love you, obey you.
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The church in so many instances has this completely backwards.
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We teach people that if we could work hard enough to obey God,
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then we might be able to prove to you that we love God.
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And if we love God, we might be able to elicit a response from you
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It's not that we obey to prove that we love you
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and that by loving you, we might receive your love for us.
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for us that we would so clearly see your love through Christ for us in your word even this
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morning that we would be aroused with a holy affection a greater degree of love for you
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and that as we come to love you more we would trust you more and as we trust you we would obey
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you we pray all this ultimately that you might be glorified in all the earth but we also pray this
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for the good of those people that you're saving across the globe, in our city, and perhaps if you
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would be so kind, even in this very room, especially among our children. We pray these
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things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's dive right in. Verse one of our text says this,
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fret not yourself because of evildoers. See, it's permissible to grieve due to the evil that is done
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towards us by the wicked. It's permissible to be grieved. It's permissible to be sad. It's
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permissible to even be depressed to a degree, perhaps for a time, so long as our grieving is
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righteous. It's even permissible to be angry in some instances, assuming that in your anger you
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do not sin. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 26 says, in your anger do not sin. It is possible to be angry
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in a righteous way. Jesus was angry in his earthly ministry. He demonstrated holy anger,
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righteous indignation. And we want to emulate all of Christ, all of Christ for all of life.
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There are too many Christians today that are constantly imploring the people of God to emulate
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Christ in certain aspects of his character, to emulate Christ in his kindness, to emulate Christ
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and his love, to emulate Christ and his generosity. But virtually no Christians today even attempt to
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emulate Christ and his anger. One of the reasons why you and I still sin is because there are
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certain things that God loves that we don't love nearly enough. But it's also because there are
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certain things that God hates that we don't hate nearly enough. Our problem is misordered loves.
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Now, ultimately, that's more of an indirect cause from love.
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The things that we get angry about ultimately stem from what we love when it's being threatened or when it's utterly destroyed.
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When you get angry in traffic, it's because you love convenience.
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or it could be perhaps that you love your self-image perhaps you're on your way to meet
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with someone and you love and esteem what you deem as a pivotal characteristic of your person
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that you're organized that you're prompt that you're responsible and well put together
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and this is threatening this traffic is threatening your good name your reputation your image
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that Christians are more angry about traffic at 5 p.m.
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is threatening something that we love more than the other.
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of women yeah but we really love our image and convenience perhaps a little bit more that's why
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we're angrier over this than that so anger ultimately stems from love and see the reality
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is that that in order to be completely void of anger which is again what most christians teach
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that you should have no anger to be a void completely void of anger is ultimately a
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reflection of being completely void of love. See, the Lord, he's not absent of anger. What does the
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Bible teach? It doesn't teach that God has no anger, and it doesn't teach that God has rash,
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quick anger. It's that God has slow anger, meaning that God feels appropriate degrees of anger for
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the right things at the right time. It's anger for the right things at the right time in the right
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measure. Those are the three big aspects that you need to consider when you think of, am I right to
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be angry? Remember, that's what God asked Jonah in the book of Jonah. When Jonah says, I'm so angry,
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angry enough to die? And God asked him, are you right to be angry? Which is really a rhetorical
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question in the case of Jonah, because the answer is a resounding no. What was Jonah angry over?
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Well, in one instance, what he's angry over is a plant.
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Now, I think a lot of people perhaps in Oregon could really connect with that.
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man a plant died and god killed it god sent a worm to to kill this plant overnight
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i'm furious all right there's even what was it the the the university i think it was union
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seminary union theological seminary that had a day where they brought plants in and had all the
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students repent to the plants like that's the biggest need right now in america i mean when i
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think of like the sins that are just completely offending God I think of the way we've treated
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plants it's the first one that comes to mind so Jonah's angry about a plant the point is it's not
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righteous it's not valid he's not he's not vindicated in that anger right because the only
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reason he's there is because he's sitting in the wilderness on a hillside overlooking Nineveh
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waiting for the fireworks, waiting for God to destroy the Ninevites. He could have gone back
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home. By this point of the story, he's already done what the Lord set him out to do. He's already
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gone to the city and preached the message that God gave him. It's time to pack it up, but he doesn't
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want to miss the grand finale. Jonah's bitter. He hates the Ninevites. Nineveh was the capital
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city of Assyria. And Assyria was located at the northern region of Israel. Jonah lived in Geth
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Hafer, which was one of the northernmost villages in the northern part of the kingdom of Israel,
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meaning Assyria was right next door. And Assyria was one of the most violent and barbaric nations
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that was already ramping up its pre-invasion attacks on Israel, which means that Jonah very
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likely had experienced the capture or perhaps even the brutal murder of people that he knew
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personally, perhaps friends, perhaps even family members. See, people misunderstand the story of
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Jonah. They think that Jonah chose to flee to Tarshish because he was afraid that the Ninevites
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wouldn't listen to his message, his sermon that God gave him to preach, and that they would turn
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on him and kill him. That's not true. Jonah was deciding to rebel against God and flee,
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not because he was afraid that Nineveh would not listen. He was afraid that Nineveh would listen.
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That's what Jonah, again, chapter four says. He says, is this not why, speaking to the Lord in
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prayer, is this not why I chose to flee to Tarshish? For I knew that the Ninevites were barbaric,
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wouldn't listen to my message of repentance
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Because I was afraid that this prophetic message might fail
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that the preaching of repentance might actually be efficacious
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you will forgive them of their sin and heal their land
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Jonah's angry, but he's angry about the wrong thing.
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for something that he shouldn't be angry about at all.
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it we need to have the appropriate anger at the right time for the right things anger for the
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right things at the right time in the right measure and all of this in terms of anger really
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is just the effect of love if you want to see what you love see what you get angry about
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so it's permissible when evildoers do wrong toward us to be angry at the right time
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for the right things in the right measure and in our anger not to sin
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it's permissible to grieve to be mad and to be sad but there's one thing that our text says
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The one thing that we are incapable of justifying
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There is no biblical theological case to be made ever for worry, for fear.
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When we worry, we're making a statement about God.
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To say it a little bit stronger, when we worry, we're making an accusation toward God.
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There's something in his character that's not to be trusted.
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Think of marriage or think of perhaps a close friendship.
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And yet you could constantly sense a palpable distrust
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trust emanating from them, that they were always hesitant in
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the relations towards you, always reserved, always treating
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you and speaking towards you as though you had some kind of
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ill motive, some kind of angle, that you were eventually going
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to betray them. Would you not be offended? Would you not be
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hurt. And so it is when it comes to our worry and how it affects God. But verse one of our
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text goes on and says, fret not yourself because of evildoers, be not envious of wrongdoings.
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So there are actually two prohibitions in this first verse. It may be appropriate to
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be angry. It may be appropriate to grieve. It is never appropriate to fear, and it is never
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appropriate to envy. Now, the question that I think is begged by the first verse of our text
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is this. What is it about those who do evil, those who do wrong, that would tempt us to fear them
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because those who do evil may do evil towards us.
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Being a child of God does not produce immunity from evil.
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or invulnerable, invincible towards the evil of the wicked.
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It may seemingly destroy everything that you love and hold dear.
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We're not bears or lions or warriors or giants.
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the imagery that the scripture uses to refer to the people of God
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People who hate us ultimately because they hate God.
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The only way to escape persecution in this life
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there are some who have come to love jesus but it's because they have twisted the son of god
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they've taken jesus and and made him out to be something that he's actually not but the real
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jesus the biblical jesus is offensive to those who don't know him and likewise as much as we
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are conformed further and further into the image of Christ,
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we too are offensive to those who don't know Christ.
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A pebble constantly rubbing them the wrong way,
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For those who have no desire to submit to the Lordship of Christ,
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even for a moment, not only are we a nuisance, but a threat.
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We're a threat to their rule, their power, their fame.
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what does politics have to do with religion everything the most political statement that
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has ever been made in the history of humanity is this jesus is lord on him has been bestowed
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the name above all other names do you know what the name above all other names is it's not jesus
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jesus comes from yeshua joshua there are other people named jesus now what that text actually
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The message of Christ is a message of salvation.
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But it's also the message of a king who rules and reigns, who conquers.
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And the only safety and joy and peace that can be found is in submission to his rule.
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He's not a threat to anyone who welcomes with joy his kingship.
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For all those who delight in his rule and reign and majesty,
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the message that Christ is king, that Jesus is Lord, is what?
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But for all who desire to be the master of their own destiny,
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the message of the gospel is not good news, but a terror.
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and baptizing them into the name of our triune God
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and teaching them to obey all of King Jesus' commands.
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to a world that is living in a delusion of autonomous rule.
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we are a constant reminder that they have a king and it's not them.
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Why would we be tempted to fret, to fear, to worry?
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Because they're not just evildoers somewhere out there doing this abstract, theoretical evil that doesn't affect anyone.
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They're evildoers in your workplace, in your job, in your family, who want to do evil towards you.
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that we could list and name of those who do evil
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We're being commanded not to fear, not to be envious,
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because they not only do evil, but they do it towards us
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And it works at times, it hurts, it harms, and we're commanded not to envy because those who do wrong, those who do evil, not only can it harm us, but it benefits them.
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We're tempted to envy the evil, the wicked, because their evil acts can harm us and benefit them.
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That's my point. That's the text point. Evil is successful. It is. And we don't need to be so
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naive with such rose colored glasses that we pretend that it's not. It is effective. Evil
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works. It works in both regards. It can hurt you and it can benefit them. It can hurt you,
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And it benefits them, which is why you might envy.
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As I've already said, our worry makes an accusation
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And envy of the wicked likewise makes an accusation
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not only is he being better to them than to me,
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But you're also saying God's a liar because he says that blessing comes by obedience, but he lied.
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Because the reality is what I see, what my eyes witness is that blessing comes by disobedience and rebellion.
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That I'd be better off if I stopped being faithful to Christ.
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That this whole Christian thing has been a joke, a lie.
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It's the evil that constantly get ahead in life.
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See, that's the statement that your envy makes.
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Why are we being commanded not to fear and not to envy?
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Because your fear makes a statement about the character of God, an accusation.
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And your envy makes a statement about the character of God, an accusation.
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But also, not only is it wrong, we're not only commanded not to fear and not to envy,
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because fear and envy are wrong but because they also are bad. What I mean by that is they're
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wrong. It is wrong to fear and envy aka it is right not to fear and not to envy. Well it's not
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only right not to fear and not to envy, it's good not to fear and not to envy because the reality
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is God is not a liar, and that evil does not pay, and that faithfulness and obedience does bring
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blessing, just not always right away. See, verse 2 of our text tells us precisely why.
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We see in exact terms why we should not fear those who do evil, even though they may do evil
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towards us, and it may be successful, and not to envy those who do evil, even though we might be
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tempted to join them in their evil because it seems to benefit them. Why? Because at the end
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of the day, evil works, but only for a moment. It's temporary. Verse 2 says, for they will soon
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fade like the grass and wither like the herb. See, the reason why we should not foster fear and envy
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towards the wicked is because their success in this life is temporary. Psalm chapter 37 verse
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2, for they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. In other words, the
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wicked prosper and flourish for a while, but their happiness is short-lived. Another reason we should
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not fear or envy the wicked is because fear and envy distract us from receiving the Lord's
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discipline. Now, this is not explicit in our text, but it is clearly a biblical principle
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throughout the whole of the scripture, and I believe it's implicitly in our text. The first
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reason we shouldn't fear the wicked, we shouldn't envy the wicked, is because although evil works,
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it only works temporarily. But not only that, that's not the only reason we shouldn't fear envy.
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We also shouldn't fear envy because worry and jealousy distract from what the Lord may be trying to teach us in the moment.
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Job chapter 12 verse 6 says this, the tents of the destroyer prosper.
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The destroyer, the wrongdoer, the evildoer, his tent is overflowing with material blessing and goods.
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And those who provoke God, not only the people of God,
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Not only are they prosperous, they're secure, stable, and safe.
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Whom God brings, notice this, into their power.
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That last phrase is what I want you to focus on.
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The destroyer and the provoker, the evildoer, the wrongdoer, bringing it back to our text,
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So at a higher plane, at a 30,000 foot view, in terms of the providence of God,
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in terms of his sovereignty over all things, including evil,
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those who do evil prosper gain power because evil works also those who gain power prestige
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wealth by doing evil it's not just that evil at a lower plane at a horizontal level that evil
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actually works that it proves to be successful in gaining power prestige and wealth but also
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they find themselves often in high positions by doing evil because God and his sovereignty places
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them. He places them there. Why? Why? Why would God exalt the wrongdoer? Doesn't the scripture say
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that God exalts the humble? Yeah, in the proper time. Before season, God promotes
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god exalts the wicked and when i say for a season just to be clear as a disclaimer here
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because i don't want you to have a false hope i don't want you to have a false hope of relief
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and vindication in this life when i say that evil works temporarily that temporary moment
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But that doesn't mean that things will get better next week.
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with an eternal perspective, which we should have.
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and captivated by this life and not the life to come,
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it doesn't seem temporary at all but when we have an eternal mindset we recognize it that even the
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most powerful malicious dictators throughout human history their terror their reign of tyranny and
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terror was just a moment now it worked and there are people who've killed millions
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But it ultimately, in the big scheme of things, not to minimize any suffering or pain, but in terms of time, it was a vapor.
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Every single human being is made in the image of God,
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but if we're obsessed with this life if we make good things idols
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what does jesus say if anyone loses his life for my sake he will find him but if anybody is
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is clawing to keep their life if any man tries to keep his life he makes an idol out of this world
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this life himself, he'll lose it. When we make an idol of this life, we're constantly worrying.
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But if we count our life as little, that's what the apostle Paul said, I counted my life as
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nothing significant, as little, something expendable to be poured out. Even now I'm
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being poured out as a drink offering, he writes to Timothy. My life is expendable. It's insignificant.
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It is only here. It only exists to be poured out as a drink offering that it might bring glory to God.
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A person who lives like that, who thinks like that, who believes like that has no fear and no envy.
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So we do not fear the wicked. We do not envy the wicked because it's temporary.
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And we must have an eternal mindset to combat that fear and envy.
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But we also don't want to fear or envy the wicked because we might miss out on what the Lord is teaching us, his discipline.
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Because the evil find themselves in high positions not only because evil at a horizontal level, in a practical sense, is successful in accumulating power and prestige and wealth.
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but also in a sovereign vertical perspective God sovereignly appoints kings and rulers
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and officials. God sovereignly brings the evil into positions of power for a reason
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so that he might be further justified on that final day when he judges the wicked
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and also so that he might use those who do evil
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if evil never worked, if it never paid off,
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if those who were unbelievers, who were rebels,
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it is those very things that develop character.
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Lamentations chapter one, verses five says this,
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For the multitude of her transgressions, her children have gone away, captives before the foe.
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When injustice is done toward you, here's a couple biblical thoughts you should have.
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who have committed this act of injustice against me?
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and once more ask him to set eternity into your mind.
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But then the next question that you should ask is this.
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is the evildoer, committing acts of injustice against me,
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in this conflict, the evildoer, the person who is the actual offender, the person who is actually
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in the wrong. But the one that they are offending, the one that they're seeking to harm, the one that
00:44:45.380
they're committing injustice against is not innocent. I'm not innocent. Now, Job and even
00:44:54.040
David, they say in the scripture at times, I'm blameless. And it's a true statement.
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It's not sin. It's not deceptive. It's not filled with guile when they say these things.
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Job said it before the Lord. I'm blameless. Search me. I'm blameless.
00:45:10.800
What David and Job meant in those instances, it is appropriate at times, if it's true,
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for Christians to use this kind of language referring to themselves.
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Blameless. Innocent. What that meant was, I am innocent in this regard.
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In this situation, I'm the one who is being offended.
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I'm the one who injustice is being committed against.
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I did not provoke it. I have not retaliated. I am blameless in this situation. It is not a claim
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of overall sinlessness. Job never claimed to be without sin, period. Job was not making a
00:45:44.740
theological claim of not having a sin nature, if that makes sense. He's simply saying that in this
00:45:52.100
instance, I'm innocent. I'm innocent. I'm not the one at
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fault. You know one expression that I hate? It takes two to
00:46:03.800
tango. No, it doesn't. The crucifixion of Christ proves
00:46:10.200
that it doesn't. That was quite the conflict. Bunch of people
00:46:15.740
didn't like him. But it takes two to tango. You know, I mean,
00:46:20.140
they had a bad attitude and they bear, you know,
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You can have a conflict and actually not have sin
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Sometimes there's a conflict because one person
00:46:50.140
it may take two to tango in a sense of like two bodies but they don't both have to be alive
00:46:57.640
you can pick up a corpse off the floor and start to do the tango but that doesn't mean that both
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parties are responsible there's two people dancing but one of them is alive doing the
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dancing and the other one is limp they haven't committed any wrong they haven't engaged they're
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not responsible. They're not contributing to the conflict. It is possible to say, even before the
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Lord, with truthfulness and an upright heart, I'm blameless. Not entirely blameless, not a sinless
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person. Christ alone is the sinless one, but to say, I am blameless in this situation, in this
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conflict between these two parties them and me and that may be true but in that moment don't allow
00:47:45.060
your innocence and anger and frustration or fear and envy to blind you from what the lord might be
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teaching you the lord is the one who exalts and brings low and he does this not only in the case
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of the humble and the righteous, but in the case of all men, there is no one in any position that
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the Lord has not sovereignly appointed. And if the evil find prominence in this life and use that
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power and prestige to harm you, and even if you may be in this particular instance, blameless
00:48:20.860
before the Lord, the Lord may still be using this party, this person as his rod to discipline you
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that the Lord is attempting to uproot from your heart?
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Rather than harboring fear and envy towards the wicked,
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the righteous are commanded to trust in the Lord and do good.
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So we've been told in verse one what not to do.
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That's the explicit reason, and the implicit reason that I've provided is because we might distract ourselves from something the Lord is teaching us.
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Now, verse 3 and 5, no longer the prohibition, but the commandment of what we should do.
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Trust the Lord and do good, which is really just one and the same.
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see trusting the lord is the root and the fruit of a heart that trusts the lord
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is a life that does good it's just like salvation we're not saved by works
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we're saved by faith alone but as the reformers taught we're saved by faith alone but true saving
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faith is never alone so we're saved by faith alone but if it's real faith it will always
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manifest itself result in be evidenced by good works a heart that truly trusts the lord
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will be demonstrated by a life that does good rather than harboring fear and envy toward the
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wicked the righteous are commanded to trust the lord and do good those who truly trust in the
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lord will do good as the fruit of their faith in god another command that we see now verse five
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that was verse 3 but now in verse 5 another command for the righteous is this commit your
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way to the lord and he will act see it's true that the righteous will wait upon the lord we talked
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about waiting upon the lord in psalm 25 that connor preached beautifully a few weeks ago we talked
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about waiting on the lord last lord's day was psalm 33 and once more we see the principle
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the significance the importance of waiting upon the lord but but this is the beauty of verse five
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commit your way to the lord wait on the lord that's that's what's here and we'll see it explicitly
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in verse seven where it says be still before the lord and wait patiently for him but in verse five
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we're getting kind of a we're getting a glimpse of what we'll see clearly in verse seven committing
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your way to the lord and trusting in him is to wait on the lord and to be patient patient for
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him, and what does God promise to do in return, in response? If you commit your way to the Lord
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and trust in him, which is synonymous with being still before the Lord, beginning of verse 7,
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and waiting patiently for him, what happens? End of verse 5, he will act.
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and that's such a wonderful peace giving promise because the whole point again the theme reading
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all these verses within the context that we began with the theme is our response to the wicked
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what do we do in the midst of the wicked when they benefit by their evil and when they harm
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us by doing evil towards us. What is our posture? What is our attitude? What is our response? What
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actions should we emulate? Wait. Another way of saying that is this, don't act.
00:52:39.160
When evil is done towards you, doesn't everything in you want to do something back?
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Somebody accuses you, maligns you, slanders you privately with a group of people or perhaps
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publicly? Don't you want to give a public response? Don't you want to record a podcast and just
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completely decimate the one who hurt you? But our text says, wait. But here's the beauty. See,
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everything in you wants to act, but you're commanded to wait. But in being commanded to wait,
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It means that the Lord will act on your behalf.
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so then what should we be doing as we wait we looked at this last week we looked at a few
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different ways i believe four different ways to wait upon the lord how we should wait upon the
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lord we should wait courageously i said we should wait humbly but another way that we should wait
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upon the lord is obediently and we saw that last week but i want to remind you of it again because
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that's what's clearest in verse 5 of our text. Commit your way to the Lord. When the Bible says
00:54:19.640
your way, when it uses that kind of language, that terminology, it's speaking of the overall
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manner of a person's life. All their affairs, their family, their business, their actions,
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their dealings. Commit your way to the Lord, which means what? Align your manner of life,
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Meaning, strive diligently by grace to be obedient.
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When the wicked do evil towards you, do not act.
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But as you wait, this is not a waiting that is defined by apathy.
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See, even though we're not acting, the Lord will act.
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Well, what kind of action are we supposed to not commit?
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I think that what's implicitly in the text, what's being said is don't act.
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Well, the act that we're supposed to not do so that God might do it is the act of retaliation.
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But the text does not mean that we're not supposed to act at all.
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in our waiting? How do we wait? Actively. Actively in what regard? Obedience.
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Wait obedience. Actively seeking to commit your life, your way to the Lord.
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Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 through 10 says this, do not be deceived, God is not mocked.
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Again, this has to do with God's vengeance. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. It has to do
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with God being the one who vindicates the righteous.
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and he won't allow injustice to be done towards you
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And it is truly wrong, not just by your own standard, but by God's standard, God's reputation, God's justice, God's holiness is on the line.
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For the one who sows to his flesh, from the flesh will reap corruption.
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But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.
00:57:57.840
So this is the same thing that we're seeing in verse 5.
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The beginning of verse 5, first half of the verse, commit your way to the Lord.
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And so what we're seeing in the beginning, first half of this text in Galatians chapter 6 is,
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For in due season, in the same way that those who do evil,
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eventually that evil will be repaid by the Lord.
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Likewise, for the righteous, don't grow weary in doing good.
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As we have opportunity, let us do good to people.
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because we're finite beings with finite resources.
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And therefore, we should prioritize the household of faith.
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Our love for brothers and sisters in Christ comes first.
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However, so long as we're taking care of the household of God, the household of faith,
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brothers and sisters in Christ, our local church is where we should start.
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So long as we're doing that, what is another people group that we might have opportunity to do good to
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as we wait for God to vindicate his own name and us?
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To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head.
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let them be the very next person that we select
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A second commandment for the righteous is found
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verse four of our text, delight yourself in the Lord. We got to deal with this verse because it's
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very popular and very misinterpreted. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the
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desires of your heart. See, those who make God their delight, right? We skipped to the second
01:01:28.720
half. He'll give you the desires of your heart. No, but the first half is delight yourself in the
01:01:34.120
Lord. You know why the Lord doesn't always give people the desires of their heart? Because he is
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not the desire of their heart the first half of the verse is delight yourself in the lord in other
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words it can be said like this make god your desire and you'll get god desire god and he'll
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give you himself that's what the verse is saying delight in the lord above all else seek first the
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kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you again
01:02:06.000
It's that prioritization, the ordering of loves.
01:02:14.680
If we delight ourselves first and foremost in God,
01:02:18.360
not just what God gives, but the giver himself,
01:02:28.400
then we cannot help but receive the desires of our heart
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Hebrews says that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
01:02:42.060
There is no man, woman, or child who has ever truly and diligently sought for the Lord and has come up dry.
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Those who seek for him by grace and with diligence will find him.
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Ask, it will be given. Knock, and the door will be opened.
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Did you know those aren't scriptures to unbelievers?
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So unbelievers are being commanded, knock,
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So they seek him first, and then Jesus responds
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The Puritans called him the hound of heaven.
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And he relentlessly seeks the souls of those who he has chosen.
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But once you've been born again, well, now it's different.
01:04:00.160
for the one who's been born again for the regenerate for the christian now we are commanded
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in and not for our justification not for our justification but in our life of sanctification
01:04:12.200
to earnestly pursue the lord to diligently seek him to knock relentlessly like the persistent widow
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who goes to the unrighteous judge 10 times and bangs on his door while he's in his nightgown in
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his bed and says give me justice and he says he responds by saying though i neither fear god nor
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men, he admits, I'm a wicked judge. I'm going to give this woman what she wants so she'll leave me
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alone. And how much more for those who persistently and diligently seek God and his kingdom and his
01:04:41.920
righteousness, will it not be granted to us? But those who seek are those who have first been
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sought. That's the only seeker there is. The only true seeker is God himself. And the only human
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seekers are those who have first been sought and bought by Christ. See, when we begin to long
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for what God longs for, then the desires of our heart will be met. When we begin to think as God
01:05:11.980
thinks, then the desires of our heart will be met. Insofar as we're further and further conformed
01:05:17.500
into the image of Christ, sanctified by his grace,
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And verse four is always stripped from its context,
01:06:14.600
But if we place it in its context, as we have this morning, the whole context is about the Christian and his temptation and the commandments of God in the midst of being wronged.
01:06:40.940
What he's desiring is that his enemies who have done him wrong would be punished.
01:06:54.720
See, if we were to skip ahead in this same chapter, verse 34, it says, wait for the Lord.
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Everything that we've been talking about so far, it picks back up in verse 34.
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A lot of verses in between we don't have time to get to.
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But what we've looked at, verses one through seven, that same theme is picked back up in verse 34, waiting on the Lord, keep his way, right?
01:07:14.540
That's commit your way unto the Lord, wait obediently.
01:07:26.920
He'll also position you in the land to look on while he cuts off the wicked.
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what's the reward for waiting on the lord and waiting obediently committing your way to him
01:07:40.120
trusting that he will act rather than taking vengeance into your own hands the benefit the
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promise is twofold one he'll exonerate the righteous two the righteous will get to watch
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him destroy the wicked you get to watch and it's a wonderful thing the death penalty is a biblical
01:08:01.100
thing. And you know who gets to watch when it's carried out? The victim's family.
01:08:09.840
They get to watch. It's biblical, it's righteous, and it pleases the Lord. That if you have a family
01:08:16.880
member who's brutally murdered, that you sit there and you watch that perpetrator lose his life.
01:08:24.420
That's Genesis chapter 9, the Noahic covenant. If any man takes the blood of another man,
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This isn't because God makes light of human life,
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The only just consequence for taking human life
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that family, they get to watch your life be taken from you.
01:08:58.720
they get the satisfaction of witnessing justice.
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When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those
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who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness that they had borne.
01:09:27.480
Those who had borne witness, they were missionaries, they were evangelists,
01:09:30.520
but they had been slain by the world, by the enemies of God,
01:09:34.060
for bearing witness about God, for preaching the gospel.
01:09:37.280
And they now in heaven, now in heaven, surrounding the throne of God,
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Oh, sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood?
01:09:56.620
The biggest cry of our heart, the biggest desire, back to verse 4,
01:10:00.300
the biggest thing we should desire when people do evil towards us
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ultimately it is an offense and an assault on God.
01:10:12.680
So the greatest desire of your heart should be first and foremost,
01:10:15.760
his kingdom, his righteousness, his glory, his reputation.
01:10:20.160
That God would justify, that God would, I'm sorry, vindicate himself.
01:10:30.520
in the larger picture is ultimately their assault on God.
01:10:45.560
If it was not righteous, then this text would be a lie.
01:10:50.000
Revelation 6, these aren't just people on earth.
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people who are evangelists preaching the gospel,
01:11:00.680
Meaning they're in heaven before the throne of God.
01:11:24.100
these individuals cry out for God to avenge not only his character, but them. Avenge our blood
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on those who dwell on the earth. Then they were each given a white robe. Not only, they weren't
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chastised. They weren't corrected. God didn't say, hey, hey, you forgot the 11th commandment,
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thou shalt be nice. No, they're not chastised by a commandment that doesn't actually even exist
01:11:48.160
in scripture. No, they're actually rewarded. They cry out for vengeance. God responds by giving them
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a white robe and told them to wait just a little bit longer until the full number of their fellow
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servants is collected and their brothers should be complete who were killed as they themselves
01:12:10.880
had been. The Lord is slow to anger. And the primary reason why, the primary reason why the
01:12:18.660
Lord is slow to anger is not his toleration of the wicked, but it is his love and mercy for the
01:12:25.980
righteous. The only reason the Lord tarries in bringing judgment upon the wicked is because
01:12:31.100
there are more righteous who he has saved and made righteous by his grace that he wants to bring in
01:12:57.280
The only reason why God is seemingly taking longer
01:13:01.500
is not because God tolerates those who wrong you
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No, it's because God, not because he's tolerating the wicked,
01:13:10.280
but because God is patient toward the righteous.
01:13:14.420
If it were not for the fact that there were still souls to be saved,
01:13:18.900
that God, before the foundations of the world had been laid,
01:13:21.680
had chosen and ordained in the councils of eternity
01:13:24.220
to save by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone,
01:13:29.000
if there were not still people that God was intent on saving,
01:13:32.900
then the wicked would be punished right here, right now.
01:13:36.760
That's what it means, that you're the salt of the earth.
01:13:41.160
It's good for taking a meal that otherwise would be bland and distasteful.
01:13:52.780
You throw it in the trash or you get some Tonys.
01:13:57.280
Those are your only options, at least in my house, at least with my taste.
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If a meal's not that great, I don't want to eat it unless I can doctor it up.
01:14:06.760
you're light you're salt light you're preaching the word it's it's it's emulating it's going out
01:14:15.000
you're salt part of being salt is not just your effect in evangelism on unbelievers and bringing
01:14:20.820
them to salvation no part of being salt is you are being used by God to help him tolerate the
01:14:27.380
wicked this world is like a nasty meal in the sight of God Genesis chapter 6 the days of Noah
01:14:35.520
He looked and every intention of every heart was constantly evil continually.
01:14:50.780
But one of the things that is holding God back from utterly destroying all the wicked right now as we live and breathe is that this nasty meal is sprinkled with salt.
01:15:02.940
it's like what Abraham prayed with Sodom if there were just 10 righteous would you spare the city
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God says yes unfortunately in that case Lot should have had more kids if he had only had eight
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could have saved Sodom that's a joke but kind of serious so the point is this God held back
01:15:27.240
his wrath because or God is holding back his wrath towards the wicked he won't do it indefinitely
01:15:32.880
not eternally but for now he is tolerating the wicked on behalf of the righteous that's one of
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the things that you're doing as a christian you're doing a great service to the unbeliever
01:15:43.800
you're offending me you're bothering me with your preaching of the gospel the way you live
01:15:48.940
your life you're being judgmental hey listen friend no no no right now i'm actively being
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used by god to keep him from utterly destroying you the bible's clear god hates sinners the bible
01:16:01.400
says it. He hates sinners, but his love for his people is greater than his hatred of the wicked.
01:16:08.320
And for the sake of the righteous, he holds back his judgment.
01:16:13.800
But one day he will judge and he will be right when he does. It will be first and foremost to
01:16:19.000
vindicate his name, but it will also be to avenge you. And those who are righteous will get to look
01:16:25.220
on, not with envy, not with malice, but with a holy anger. And that anger will be satisfied,
01:16:35.900
not just by God being good to you, but by God punishing those who have done evil.
01:16:41.180
In the meantime, we wait upon the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your words. We pray
01:16:47.360
that you would bless it to your people. I pray, Lord, that by your grace and by your spirit that
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i preached your word faithfully today if there was any error i pray lord that it would be soon
01:16:58.020
forgotten in the minds of your people but everything that was true that it would remain
01:17:02.640
i pray this in jesus name amen oh hi i didn't see you there thanks for sticking around i've
01:17:10.060
got an important announcement to make that's the theonomy and post-millennialism conference
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We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up.
01:17:32.280
and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity.
01:17:36.360
If not, you should start listening to his podcast.
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Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team.
01:17:42.760
We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write
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in questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas-style
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barbecue meal on Friday that's a part of your registration fee. All that is covered. So you
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need to get there. This is how you do it. Go and register right now at rightresponseconference.com.
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Again, that's rightresponseconference.com. God bless.