We can really learn a lot from reading the Bible. Even the parts that may seem less interesting on first reading, or that we're tempted to consider irrelevant, often reward thoughtful observation. That's the case with the genealogies in the last half of Genesis chapter 4 and the entirety of chapter 5. These records reveal the history of Adam's descendants in such a way that we learn much more than who fathered who. These records reveal the development and decay of culture.

Culture is a current buzzword in a large part of the Christian community. You could say that talking about culture is part of our culture. But talking about it doesn't mean that we know what we're talking about. What is culture? Are we supposed to engage the culture or change the culture or create culture? Are we supposed to beware of culture or escape culture or condemn culture? God's people have been dealing with these questions for a long time, whether setting up society in Israel, surviving exile in Babylon, or enduring Roman rule under Caesar and later under the Pope. Some of you noticed that I switched from Israel to the church without warning, does that mean that there are no distinctions? Should we seek to be one nation under God for real, or should we disentangle from all societal interests to focus only on spiritual interests?

There are many books that address these issues, a couple of them are even good. Richard Niebuhr wrote a well-known book, Christ and Culture. Before him Abraham Kuyper applied the Christian confession of "Christ as Lord" to all spheres, private and public. Luther and Calvin were concerned with church and state governments. Augustine wrote about the City of God and the City of Man, what they hold in common and what causes conflict between them. Whether or not culture is a buzzword among hipster Christians, it has been a big deal for Christians who want to be holy here on earth.

In many ways I'm a cultural kindergartener. I can pull the books off the shelf, thumb through the pages, and look at the pictures. I can trace big lines holding jumbo crayons in my fist, so I can't give what anyone would call a high culture appreciation of culture.

But I have taken more advanced Bible classes. And before the Church or Israel, before Presidents or Caesars or Kings or Pharaohs, back when men began to multiply on earth, God reveals a lot about the good and bad of His image-bearers. God's Word tells us about cultural progress and cultural collapse, and even that both can happen together. Advance and retreat, not in the same ways but at the same time.

My concern is not philosophical or missional but exegetical. That is, my concern is with what the Bible says and what that means. In order to get at that meaning we're going to ask some observation questions at a bird's eye, paragraph level today before analyzing the same passage verse by verse next week.

What is the point of Genesis 4:17-26?

More specifically, what is the point of the two paragraphs, verses 17-24 and 25-26? Both paragraphs begin with a man and his wife having a kid, and then both paragraphs unfold kid pictures out of the wallet. The shorter, second paragraph only covers three generations but that's because the same family line will be repeated in full in chapter 5. This prompts another question: Why does Moses include verses 25-26 at all? Why not wait until 5:1 and do the whole thing once?

On one level the point of each paragraph is to provide the early genealogical records of Adam and Eve's descendants. But that cannot be the final answer because the genealogies are selective, both in terms of which persons are listed and how the persons are described.

We know that the list of persons is selective because of Genesis 5:4.

The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. (Genesis 5:4)

The only named children of Adam and Eve are Cain, Abel, and Seth. Genesis 5:4 is explicit that there were more, but we could gather implicitly that the first couple had more kids because Cain had a wife (Genesis 4:17). Where did she come from? She was his sister. Restrictions on consanguineous (meaning "of the same blood") marriage came about later. For what it's worth, she probably married Cain before he killed Abel. What daughter of Eve would willingly hitch herself to a murderer and then leave her family to wander around with a fugitive?

So not every son, let alone every daughter, is recorded in the family tree. There's reason to believe that each generation is represented even though not every person in each generation is listed.

Out of all the siblings, why concentrate on Cain and Seth? We need Seth in order to get to Noah. Noah is the final branch in chapter 5, the last descendant named before Adam died. Because of the flood story in chapters 6-9, we know that humanity survived through Noah and he was in the line of Seth.

Cain and his line are included not just because Cain was the first son of Adam but because he and his descendants represent the spread of sin. That's part of the reason for Genesis 4:3-16. Cain and his offspring embody the offspring of the serpent. Cain and his kind hate and murder. From Cain comes the first polygamist, Lamech (4:19), who disfigured God's gift of marriage rather than adorn God's image through the one man and one woman unity in diversity. From Cain comes the first hoodlum, also Lamech, making a name for himself by threats of violence (4:23-24). Wickedness spread in numbers and degree through Cain's line. His family's behavior accounts for the reason God judged the entire earth with the flood.

The details Moses selected also distinguish cultures as much as they supply chronology. For example, there is an emphasis through extra attention on the seventh generation from Adam through Cain and Seth. It's possible that the seventh emphasizes completeness, the epitome of each ancestry. Seventh from Adam through Cain was Lamech, the man who married two women and who boasted to his wives that God's promise of sevenfold vengeance on anyone who messed with Cain was nothing compared to the vengeance he would enact for himself on anyone who bumped into him. Here is Cain's murdering spirit gone to seed. Lamech's violence is the fruit of a culture that started with wrong worship.

The seventh generation from Adam through Seth was Enoch. What do we know about him? "Enoch walked with God" (5:22). And two verses later, "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" (5:24). Enoch is the fruit of Seth's line. And what was significant about Seth? It wasn't only that Eve saw Seth as a replacement for Abel and associated Seth with the offspring promised in Genesis 3:15. When Seth was old enough to father a son, Seth's family worshipped the LORD.

To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:26)

To "call on the name of the LORD" points to dependence on the Lord, to fellowship with Him, to worship of Him. The reason Moses gives a starter of Seth's line before actually listing his line in chapter 5 is in order to contrast two cultures. The point of these paragraphs is to set side by side a culture built on self-sufficiency and another built on worship.

So far so good. Our first bird's eye fly-over shows the antithesis, the dividing line between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. But a second look shows that it isn't exactly that simple.

Let's start with the heritage that followed Seth. Yes, Enoch was the culmination of communion with God. Enoch's great-grandson was Noah (son of Lamech--a different one, son of Methuselah, son of Enoch). And "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God" (Genesis 6:9), just like his great-grandad. But, when the "LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (6:5) and committed to "blot out men whom I have created" (6:7), was the LORD only referring about Cain's side? Noah had no allies of righteousness which means that not all of Seth's offspring became godly worshippers.

Let's return to Cain's line. Was there nothing admirable in them? Were they all the sinful scum of the earth? Not according to Moses. In fact, it was through Cain and some of his offspring that civilization advanced. We'll address Cain's motivation next week, but he built the first city in the Bible (4:17). Then there was Jabal, "the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock" (4:2). More than shepherds like Abel, these guys started a business moving around and selling or trading their assets. Jabal's brother Jubal "was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe" (4:21). These are the first musicians, who invented their own instruments and melodies. The lyre was a stringed instrument and the pipe was a wind instrument. Their half-brother Tubal-cain "was a forger of all instruments of bronze and iron" (4:23). The word "instruments" is better understood as "tools." But in order to make these tools he developed the first metallurgy, figuring out the science and technology of smelting and forging more complex things from raw materials.

Taking dominion of animals and subduing the earth for sake of music and metallurgy is absolutely image-bearing activity. It is fulfilling the cultural mandate in Genesis 1:28. Yet these cultural advances were produced by the non-worshipping group. Even Lamech expresses his intent to rage and kill in poetic form. This is nothing less than the very first gangster rap. Jubal may have put a bass-string hook underneath it.

Moses doesn't describe these cultural fruits to prove that business and art and science and industry are worthless, much less wicked, simply because wicked men created them. All of these skills and craftsmanship and commerce carry on through Noah and his family, and God calls His people to worship Him with these instruments and tools later in the Old Testament. These advances are rightly associated with the fulfillment of God's commission. If Moses wanted to make a clean and easy division, why not give credit to the first believer to do any of these later?

How should we process this?

First, true advances of culture reflect God's image even if those who develop through inventing or making do not recognize what they're doing or give glory to God for it. Worshippers can and should give thanks to God for the gifts and for the image-bearing. Even in their sin, all men have dignity as created creators.

Second, worshippers who give thanks recognize God's common grace in these advances of culture. The imaginative thinking and resourceful creating and successful child-bearing of the proud are still kindnesses from God that men do not deserve. This is grace, though not saving grace. Along with the sun and rain, unbelievers know a measure of joy because of God's gifts. Those who don't worship God can still make a helpful contribution because God enables them to. This increases their accountability to Him and it should challenge worshippers to up their game.

Third, cultural development occurs when God's image is shown more clearly. Cultural decay occurs when God's image is ignorantly or consciously distorted or denied. That means that unbelievers can and do develop culture in some ways, though they would deny it, and believers may cause culture to decay in some ways, even if unintentionally. It also means that culture can get better and worse in different ways at the same time. Development and decay can coincide, especially if the developments are earthly and the decay is moral. If the developments are moral, rooted in true worship, then earthly decay is less likely and earthly developments are probably not far behind. This is why schools and hospitals and electricity and Bach-like cantatas and Bunyan-like novels came to cultures where the gospel came first. This is why, to take one specific example, Wilberforce was concerned that England learn theology on the way to ending slave trade.

Last, culture, by itself and at its best, cannot save anyone. Culture comes from persons and self-sufficient persons do not invent grace. Grace goes against their culture, and no one is saved without grace. That said, persons saved by faith in Christ through grace will desire to obey, and obedience includes every legitimate part of imitating God. A group of worshippers will want to make and buy and sell and sing and write and govern themselves well for the Lord's sake. They know that only God saves, and they know that saved men create or reform culture. Salvation begins the restoration of the entire man, it transforms him toward the glory of God's image. Christians desire, and are commanded (Ephesians 6:4) to pass those fruits on to following generations. "Son, this is who we are as God's redeemed people. And as God's redeemed people, this is what we do."

God established two offspring and they will live on earth together until Jesus returns. While we wait for Him, we worship Him, work for Him, and give Him credit for all the good gifts He gives including our unbelieving neighbors who make great things but must be discipled to call on the Lord and give Him glory as their Maker and Savior.

Any person who does not love God will not love another person made in God's image consistently. He won't be able to maintain love or explain it. Perhaps that's part of the reason for the order of the first and second commandments (love God, love your neighbor), as well as for the first and second tables of the 10 Commandments. Like a magnet, our heart's position towards God will necessarily either draw us towards others or repel us from others. Inappropriate worship and inappropriate behavior are brothers; they both are born from the same heart.

Killing comes from a heart where sin has not been killed. Or another way to say it is, killing comes from a heart that loves its self-image more than God and His image. Anything, and more typically, anyone, that gets in the way of self-worship must be removed. Those with a religious background, who understand that God Himself is the ultimate obstacle to self-worship, and who also understand that He is untouchable, often lash out against those who represent Him nearby.

Cain's failure to rule over sin (4:7) results in soul destruction for Cain. Cain killed Abel because his deeds were evil and Abel's were righteous (1 John 3:12). Cain was jealous for his own glory, and Abel embodied the One who was keeping Cain from that glory.

And in one generational step, sin moved from taking fruit to taking life.

When he was confronted by Yahweh, Cain said nothing (verses 6-7). Now the gardener becomes a butcher.

Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. (verse 8)

The Hebrew construction, Cain spoke to Abel his brother, almost always introduces direct discourse, meaning that when someone "spoke" to someone else, we usually hear part of the conversation. The original Hebrew text, however, does not include any dialog. The Septuagint inserts the phrase (found in the ESV footnote), "Let us go out to the field." That makes sense because the next scene finds the brothers out in the field.

Whatever he said, Cain gave Abel no reason to suspect anything. He concealed his intentions well enough, but there is no doubt the murder was premeditated. Like a coward, he waited until they were alone, when they were in the field. Deuteronomy 22:25-27 specifies a law for the "open country" where a woman is out of range for rescue even if she cries for help.

And then Cain rose up against his brother. The verb "rose up" does not mean that Cain was sitting or lying down and needed to get up, but rather that his anger boiled over. Cain viciously and violently killed his brother.

Observe how many times in the paragraph that the word "brother" is used. Cain rose up against his brother. Where is Abel your brother? Am I my brother's keeper? Your brother's blood, Your brother's blood. Six uses of "brother" in four verses is not meant to teach us morals about sibling rivalry, but to overwhelm Cain by reminding him that this irreversible wickedness was committed against his own brother, his own family, the one closest to him.

And Cain killed him. The account doesn't report how he killed him or with what he killed him, but it was bloody. For the first time in the Bible human blood is spilled. For the first time in the Bible a man dies. For the first time in the Bible, one man murders another. It was a brutal, cold-blooded murder of his very own brother.

The LORD pursues the rebel, as He did with Adam in Genesis 3.

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" (verse 9)

The next verse, verse 10, proves that God knew Abel's location perfectly well. His question, then, graciously invited Cain to consider his sin, to confess it, and to seek mercy. But his heart was hard.

Cain said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" Unlike his father who tried diversion when God questioned him, Cain tries denial. Adam evaded and made excuses, Cain lies. Of course he knew where his brother was. He probably had buried Abel's body so that no one would find him (though really, no matter how many other siblings were already on the planet, did Cain think mom and dad wouldn't wonder where Abel went?)

Cain not only lied to Yahweh, he also treated the LORD with disrespect. His smart-aleck question is filled with contempt, "Am I my brother's keeper?" It was as if he said to God, "What a ridiculous question. You don't have the right to ask me that question." His question also drips with sarcasm, since Abel was a "keeper of sheep," Cain's question mocks, "Am I the shepherd of the shepherd?"

While it is true that nowhere in the Old Testament are men told to "keep" other men in terms of watching over each other with complete authority, there is certainly the expectation that brothers, of all people, would care for and serve and love one another.

Cain demonstrates absolutely no softness or sorrow over his sin. His heart was so hard that he admitted nothing, he lied about it, and questioned if he was being questioned about the right thing. If the Bible were a man-made book only, wouldn't we have cleaned up the story a bit? Cain's killing and his defiance are unbelievable for just the fourth chapter.

And the LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth." (verses 10-12)

This question no longer aims to elicit a confession from Cain but rather is a rhetorical exclamation aimed to shame Cain. The LORD obviously does not expect Cain to answer because He immediately answers Himself, "The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground." The word blood is actually plural, "bloods," and the verb also agrees with the plural, "bloods are crying," a mode of expression that emphasizes the savage act.

Don't ever forget: God sees. In particular, God sees and cares about injustice. Where can you go from His presence? Where can you hide from His judgment? Cain may have thought he concealed his crime, but the blood cries out, it screams for attention, it cannot be unheard by God.

This is an important doctrine for the righteous to remember: God vindicates righteousness and He doesn't need our help (or even our presence) to do so. He judges justly. We can trust Him to do so, even to the point of death (see also 1 Peter 2:21-23).

"And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand." It was personal: your (very own) brother; your hand. So now Cain's punishment would be personal.

In Genesis 3:18-19 God cursed the serpent and the soil, but not Adam. Here in Genesis 4:11, God curses Cain, the first man to receive such condemnation. Cain's curse affected two things:

Though God created the earth in such a way as to provide a dwelling place for man, as well as provisions to sustain him and for him to enjoy, God took away both benefits for Cain.

Cain was a "worker of the ground" by trade (verse 2), but now God told him, when you work the ground, it shall not longer yield to you its strength. The first part of verse 12 explains what it means that Cain was "cursed from the ground" in verse 11. He would never again enjoy the strength of the ground, the best and choicest fruits. He kept back the best parts from God when making offering and hopefully he enjoyed them; he won't again. He brought a weak sacrifice (a wilted veggie platter), now he gets his just deserts.

Cain would also now be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. Also not good for a farmer, who would certainly not be able to take his crops with him. Cain would no longer have the peace of staying put. He would wander from place to place.

And he would be a fugitive, not just wandering, but running. We learn more about Cain's concern/complaint in verse 14, as Cain feared retribution. God punished Cain to a life of always looking over his shoulder. Never again would he have the peace of fellowship and friendship. He would always and ever be suspicious. Though he was created an image-bearer, capable of relationship, he killed another image-bearer, and God cuts him off from enjoying other relationships.

Even though Cain had a wife and kids and grandkids (see the following paragraph, verses 17-24), and even though he "settled in the land of Nod" (verse 16), his attempts were vain to overcome the restlessness and fearfulness his sin fostered. Both his image-bearing responsibilities and relationships were ruined by his sin.

Cain complains about his punishment. Sure he would. Everything has been about him up to this point, why would it change? The thing that changes is that his backbone went limp. He murdered his brother without pity, talked big when confronted first by God, now he whimpers with self-pity about his sentence.

Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." (verses 13-14)

Cain is not upset about his sin; he is upset about the consequences of his sin. He isn't broken. He's whining about how unfair his penalty is. Of course, he totally misses the fact that it could have been worse. It would have been fair for God to kill him.

Cain makes two complaints concerning the two curses and the consequences of those curses.

Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground. Yes. Sort of. Cain's restatement is overdramatic. He wasn't necessarily driven from the ground. God said, "when you work the ground," meaning that he would continue to work it. Cain was cursed never to enjoy the strength of the ground.

from your face I shall be hidden. God hadn't said that directly but Cain realized that his relationship with God was broken. And, Cain had done nothing to humble himself and seek reconciliation. So, yes, this was true as well. But he was clearly more upset about losing God's blessing on the work than he was about losing the relationship.

I shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth. Yes. That's exactly what God said.

Whoever finds me will kill me. First, Cain knew the principle: life for life. He understood that justice demanded satisfaction, though he didn't think about God demanding justice.

Second, the killer was afraid of being killed; it's open season on him, and he sees every man as a potential avenger. Now he wanted a "keeper." He deceived Abel, his own brother. He knew what he was capable of, certainly others could deceive him and rise up against him. He fears the vengeance of men more than the wrath of God. There is still no mourning for spilling his brother's blood, just selfish concern for his own tail.

Some see in this response a gracious promise, as if God were alleviating Cain's fears and cushioning the curse. There could be a measure of mercy in this, but even more it is a promise that Cain would experience a full measure of the promised punishment.

Then the Lord said to him, "Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. (verse 15)

Sometimes death is easier. It is a sort of release, at least to those who aren't thinking about the next life. But God had purposes for Cain that involved keeping him alive longer. That God would take vengeance...sevenfold means He was committed to it.

God showed mercy to Adam and Eve by taking from Adam and Eve. He took them out of the garden. But God confirmed his judgment to Cain by giving, by keeping him alive. "In some ways it is a fate worse than death. It is to lose all sense of belonging and identification with a community. It is to become rootless and detached" (Hamilton, 232). He will be kept alive, but it will be a miserable life.

Then the LORD put a mark on Cain. It is fun to imagine what this mark was; maybe his own sort of scarlet letter. Maybe it was the first tattoo. One commentator suggested it was a peculiar hairstyle. One rabbi guessed it was a dog which traveled with Cain, reminding Cain of his punishment but scaring away any attackers. And there are other passages in the OT (and NT) that seem to describe a physical marking on a person. This translation sees Cain branded in some unmistakable way.

But there is also another way to translate and understand this phrase, the approach taken by the NASB. "The LORD appointed a sign for Cain," meaning the LORD gave Cain a visible demonstration, a token that gave Cain reason to trust the assurance.

Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (verse 16)

Cain went away from the presence of the LORD, not in the sense of escaping God's omnipresence but in the sense of losing immediate fellowship. He would never again speak with the LORD like this; he would never again know the blessing and joy that Old Testament saints described as dwelling in God's presence.

Cain settled in the land of Nod. God made him a nad, a wanderer. Now he settles in nod, a place of wandering. Trying to put down roots, so to speak, but in a land of instability and aimlessness.

What we do learn about brothers (and sisters) that fight with each other is that the problem is not that they are brothers and sisters, but that they are sinners. The reason you fight with your siblings is sin; don't blame anyone or anything other than sinful hearts.

The one thing I think missing from the story is the response of Adam and Eve. This was the first human death, the death of one of their own kids. I understand there weren't any other parents' kids, but typically parents expect to die before their kids. Not only the fact of Abel's death, but that he was murdered by his brother in cold blood, must have been a bitter burden.

If we don't care about singing well to God, we won't care about speaking well of others who are made in His image; in fact, we'll be itching to slander them. We will take our bad attitude out on whoever is closest to us, whether they deserve it or not. Maybe the food isn't that bad, but since we can't stand the cook we criticize the food. So it is with those who criticize those made in God's image. This ought not be so.

That means that apart from God's grace--which enables us to kill sin--we would all be murderers.

This is why the gospel is exclusively important. It reconciles us to God, creating new hearts, enabling broken relationships to be restored. No break is beyond the gospel because no break is beyond Christ's work on the cross.

After Genesis 3 we don't really learn anything new about man. We see man's sin exposed in growing and greater ugliness, but fundamentally all the things we need to know about him are in the first three chapters of the Bible. God created man in His own image; anything great done by any man falls under the umbrella of the glory of his created purpose. Man disregarded God's Word to seek his own benefit and disobeyed God; all rebellion today is an echo of that original rebellion. Man felt guilt over his sin, he tried to hide from God and blamed someone else for his sin. Then God judged man's sin with death. Work on earth is painful, relationships intended for intimacy (such as marriage) are strained, there is ongoing battle with the serpent, and eventually man returns to the dust from which he came. This is how it's been since God drove Adam and Eve out of the Eden.

Chapter 4, which focuses on two of Adam and Eve's sons, is the final act in the section starting in 2:4, the generations of the heavens and earth. The next "book of generations" starts in Genesis 5:1. Cain and Abel are important branches in the family tree physically and, more importantly, spiritually.

We see here not only the multiplication of offspring and new generations, but also the multiplication of sin and its effects across generations. More than the history of humanity, this is the history of hamartia (sin). God promised offspring, but He also promised a clash between two types of offspring. Little did Adam and Eve know how quickly, or how deeply, they would be faced with the consequences of their sin.

It's also interesting that this story of sin starts in the setting of worship. Cain's wrong worship, even of the right God, results in jealous murder of Abel. He didn't love God so he hated his brother. Cain's sinful sacrifices put him in peril, as have all sinful sacrifices since.

God commanded the first couple to be fruitful and multiply, He also promised them offspring (they heard about it when God judged the serpent and also in the fact that Eve would have pain in childbirth), so the man and the woman must have eagerly expected kids. At the same time, though they perhaps had seen animals give birth, they had no experience whatsoever with pregnancy, labor and delivery, or newborns. Here is the first mother and the first baby.

Now the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." And again, she bore his brother Abel. (verses 1-2a)

And the man knew Eve his wife is the typical and delicate way that the Old Testament speaks about marital, sexual relations. It means Adam and his wife were "intimate." "Knowing" is never used of animals mating, yet they are fruitful and multiply. The idea is that sexuality is personal, it is more than the meeting of reproductive organs.

Cain's name is a wordplay with the verb in Eve's comment. He is Cain--cayin that she had gotten--canati, meaning "to get, to acquire." For her, the significance of his name was Got; for him, he became Grabby.

Eve exclaims, I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD. Man is not the word for baby or child but for a mature man. She had high hopes for this man in light of the good news in Genesis 3:15.

The name Abel is the same Hebrew word that dominates Ecclesiastes: hebel which means "fleeting, vanity." Perhaps something happened to discourage Eve after the birth of Cain. Perhaps it was prophetic foreshadowing. All our lives are as a vapor that appear for a little time and then vanish (see James 4:14). When the curtain opens on the next scene (verse 8), Abel, the righteous worshipper, will be killed by his brother.

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. (verse 2b)

Both brothers had jobs and both jobs were respectable and part of fulfilling the cultural mandate. They are obviously older now and, though they both learned their skills from their father, they are defined by their specific work, not merely assigned to it as if it were a boyhood chore.

It is possible, even probable, that Cain already had a wife by this point. Certainly there were other brothers and sisters around, and there's a slight chance Cain even had offspring of his own by this time. The first thing that happens after the LORD curses Cain and sends him away is that Cain's wife gets pregnant. But even before that, Cain complains about his punishment that "whoever finds me will kill me." Who on earth would find him? Who else was on the earth?

Whatever else other siblings were doing, however many others there were, Cain and Abel were employed in honorable reputable work. Abel was a keeper of sheep; he was a shepherd, a pastor. Cain was a worker of the ground, a nice way to translate "a servant" or "tiller of the ground," a gardener or farmer. But both occupations were well-regarded. Neither was inferior to the other.

Before we go on, it would be great to know so many things before verse 3. What was it like for Eve to be pregnant? Did they use diapers? What sort of home did they have?

In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. (verses 3-4a)

In the course of time is a way to say "it came to the end of days," probably the harvest time.

Both brothers brought...an offering. A reasonable question is, why did they bring offerings in the first place? Where did they get the idea? If God instituted or commanded Adam and Eve to make offerings, we don't know about it because Moses doesn't mention it. That would have been convenient and helpful information. We read no instructions about how or when or what or where to sacrifice. Yet in how Moses says what he does say, we get the impression that this was probably not the first time the brothers brought an offering. Apparently there was an established place to bring the offering, along with a customary time.

It's also reasonable to assume that they understood what to offer. The word offering "in human affairs was a gift of homage or allegiance and, as a ritual term, could describe either animal or more often cereal offerings" (Kidner, 80). Each brother brought an offering related to and appropriate for his occupation. Cain's fruit provided food, Abel's sheep provided clothing (since eating meat wasn't officially authorized until after the flood in 9:3).

And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. (verses 4b-5)

The LORD had regard for one but ... He had no regard for the other. How did they know? In what way did they recognize God's approval and disapproval? Even more importantly, why did God accept Abel and not Cain?

Possible answers could be:

Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. The firstborn, the firstlings, were the choicest and best of the flock, the cream of the crop. The fat of anything meant the best part of it (such as the fat of the land, Psalm 147:14). "All fat is the LORD's" (Leviticus 3:16). Abel offered the foremost and finest of his flock by faith.

Cain had not brought the firstfruits. He went through the motions, but God knew his heart. His effort was external, half-hearted, routine. He offered to God his leftovers, his whatevers.

The offering and the offerer cannot be divided; God regarded Abel and He did not regard Cain.

So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. (verse 5b)

Cain responds like a true hypocrite; he went through the motions for himself and, when God did not reward him, let alone receive him, he was very angry. "The original implies an inflamed and burning anger, or fierce resentment" (Bush, 98). He believed God should have accepted his offering.

Why get angry? If you didn't give the best, if God didn't like it, then you still got to keep the best. Anger came because he didn't get what he really wanted: glory for himself. Cain was honoring himself, not God. He was jealous for his own name's sake, not for the name of the LORD. As sin is prone to do, it blinded Cain from seeing that 1) joy comes from worshipping God, not being God, and 2) it was his own fault in the first place. Sinners blame anyone or anything they can.

Cain's anger was not only wrong, it was also foolish. He, and he alone was to blame for the poor offering. Not only that, God could have killed Cain for this wickedness but graciously warns him instead.

The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." (verses 6-7)

The question itself implies that Cain understood the principle. It was his fault, and his fault alone. Also, the question, like those to the man and woman in chapter 3, is not a question God didn't already know the answer to. He asks to elicit a change of heart.

Why are you angry? If Cain would have taken that question seriously, he might have realized not only that he had no reason to be angry, but actually, that God did have the right to be angry with him and his weak-sauce sacrifice.

If you do well, that is, if your heart is right. God doesn't say, "If you offer a blood sacrifice then it will be accepted." The heart is always the issue, and in Cain's case it came out in his meager whatevers-offering. So, if you do not do well, if your heart is not right.

It is ironic that Cain offered a sacrifice of communion when his heart was disengaged. There is nothing in the context that requires or even suggests that this was a sin or guilt offering. On the contrary, "in the course of time" (verse 3) implies a harvest/thanksgiving offering. The rest of the Old Testament clearly holds a place for, in fact commands, such celebration/communion sacrifices.

Will you not be accepted? God is not impulsive or partial. His standard is knowable and fixed. More than that, He always receives those whose hearts are right. The word accepted is translated "lifted countenance" by the NASB, "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?" The connection between the two ideas (accepted and lifted countenance) is that our heads are lifted up by God when we worship Him with the right heart. It is our joy to commune with God.

The opposite is true as well. If we do not do well, the result is worse than sadness, we become slaves. Worse than despair, we are in danger of being destroyed by sin. Wrong worship of the true God, or worship of any other God for that matter, keeps us from being accepted. Heart distance from God puts man in a high-risk condition.

Sin is mentioned by name for the first time in the Bible; hhatat, missing the way, deviating from the standard, failing to meet expectations. Here sin is personified, crouching at the door, ready to pounce and overcome its prey. Sin is not a mild or harmless threat, but a wild and menacing beast. Its desire is for you, it is after your blood (Leopold, 201). It waits, ready to attack.

You must rule over it. Man is required, for his own good and protection, to watch for and tame sin. However, that man has responsibility for this does not mean that he has the ability in and of himself.

The point here is that we will serve God or sin. We will be devoted to Him or devoured by sin. "Be killing sin, or it will be killing you."

As Moses tells the story, Cain is silent. He does not respond in repentance or in thankfulness for the merciful warning. It seems, based on the following paragraph, that God's warning made him more angry, and as he stewed in anger it soon boiled over.

That Yahweh engages Cain at all, rather than annihilate him on the spot, is a mark of God's mercy. That Yahweh encourages and exhorts and warns Cain is an ever greater display of mercy (while also making Cain more accountable). That God already knew Cain's next step, the cold-blooded murder of his brother, tells us that the battle between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent is real and deadly, while still being part of God's bigger plan.

Cain used his image-bearing responsibility for his own gain, not for worship. And that sin soon assaulted a fellow image-bearer, destroying his immediate family relationship.

The New Testament commentary explains that Cain "was of the evil one" (1 John 3:12). And Abel is the first in the long line of godly, faith-driven men in Hebrews 11 (verse 4).

From the beginning, God has had no pleasure in merely external worship. Though our worship today does not involve animal sacrifices, there are visible, external ways we show what is internal. We are in peril if we offer our leftovers or whatevers instead of the first and choicest parts, be that our attention and energy, our eagerness to serve others, our singing, our giving, and so forth.

Sinful sacrifices are:

Even if no one sees, even if the externals look fantastic, God sees. Sin is as menacing and dangerous and real and deadly as it was in Cain's case. It seeks to destroy you. You must, by God's grace, kill it before it kills you.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

We are here to worship God. That's what we're doing corporately worshiping God, not the speaker, not the singer is not, you know, God is the issue that we're here for. And so from Psalm 124, verse eight, our help is in the name of the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Give praise those servants of the Lord who stand in the house of the Lord in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord for the Lord is good. Sing to his name for it is pleasant. Your name O Lord endures forever. You're renowned O Lord throughout all the ages for the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak. They have eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear. Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them." Psalm 135, 1 through 3, and 13 through 18, and that was the English standard version.

Father, we come to you praising you. You are the God who created the universe, created each one of us, created our very being and sustains us, keeps the molecules in our very bodies and the wood of this pulpit and just everything together by the power through your Son. We come here today to come together as a congregation to worship you and give you praise. Help us to honor you in all that we do over this next period and through your spirit enliven us, make us receptive to what we need to hear and just thank you that you are able to do that in our supernatural existence with you through your son Jesus Christ. Amen. Now time comes the time before we start to worship to confess our sin. I think this is one of the most powerful parts of the the liturgy that we've chosen to follow here.

And it's amazing how God's Spirit can bring things to your head even different than what Shawn or like myself may say that maybe you need to confess and get right. I think it's wonderful. It's one of the great paradoxes of the Christian life that the more holy and saint-like you become, in other words, the more mature you are, the more evil you will know you are, which is just an amazing paradox, but it is one of those truths in the Christian faith.

The thing I really wanna confess today for our congregation, and I think for all of us who are shepherds of the congregation, is we are repenting and trying to move away from our dualism. The idea that on Sunday and in church, When I'm reading my Bible, I'm being very worshipful of God. But then when I go off to work on Monday, that part is my business, not really his. And I think over the last four or five years, we have really started to weed that out of our being. But in that same thing, as each thing comes out, you recognize another layer of that as something that you have to correct in your own life, or maybe the life of our church.

This week we had a situation where John Piper wrote that this, when was it, Saturday, was the day where all the churches across America would go and protest the abortion clinics. And Gail sent me the link, I read the link, and then I came out to her and said, well, we should go. And she and Jolie had already started to get people to go down there. And so I said, well, I'll go too. So we showed up yesterday to do that, and there were over 400 people in Everett that came to that. And out of our little congregation, 23 people came. And we stood there for about an hour and a half, two hours, and the guy that organizes that spoke and they had another guy that is suing Planned Parenthood here in Washington and he looks like he has them pretty dead to rights that they have abused their funds and stolen from the government from Medicare.

And it's fascinating to hear the stories of how all these different people from very different denominations, it was quite the unique gathering. We had very charismatic people, just nice people, fundamental type people. And we had at the end, the doxology started to be sung by a guy. It was really great. And then everybody's saying that, and that's how we kind of closed it out. But in a lot of churches I've been in before, it was OK to go to that. But it really would never be announced from the pulpit, because that's kind of the worldly politics, and we're above that. And of course, we as Christians should vote and all of that.

But that's part of what I want to talk about today and part about why we've gotten to the point of abortion. So there's that to forgive us for or forgive yourself if you haven't been involved in that. We have some older saints here that have done that and continue to do it. The James's have been doing that for a long time. And I went back and told her that we actually did something yesterday. She's quite excited because she's been doing it for years, right? So it's really exciting to see that. The other thing is those personal things in your family that cause those hiccups. We do have people that are in trouble that we're still praying for.

We have a person in first stage discipline, and God is really turning the screws on her at the moment, and just that we can be a witness to them, but also to check ourselves to keep our relationships with the people in our families and our spouses and all the rest of it, keep that in right order. So if any of those things come to mind, ask forgiveness for that.

And then take a moment to quietly examine and confess your sins, and you are able and interested are invited to kneel before the Lord and we'll do this for about a minute or so and then I'll get up and I'll close us. Father, the one great sacrifice of your Son even allows us to come to you with our supplications, with our confessions, with anything. And the amazing thing is you know our hearts intimately even before we speak which is a great comfort and a great convictor. So help each one of us as we confess these things to live them out better and to be more like your son. And the glorious thing about that is you promised that also in 1st John 3. So help each one of us to be that way and we thank you now for your forgiveness and the ultimate sacrifice of your son Jesus Christ on our behalf. Amen. You may stand and the passage I've chosen is out of Isaiah on forgiveness.

Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. And he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him apportion with the many. He shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sins of many and makes intercession for the transgressors." Isaiah 53, 11 through 12. We have several passages this morning so instead of playing sword drill, I'm just going to encourage you to go ahead and listen. Feel free to thumb through your Bible if you want, but I'm going to go through them pretty quickly. And I'm also reading from the ESV And when I hit some of the New Testament passages, when you hear me say the word slave, Dave's going to make the point in his sermon that's probably better translated.

Or when I say read the word servant, it's better translated as slave is the better translation. So let's go ahead and get to it. The first passage is Exodus 21, 1 through 2. Now these are the rules that you shall set before them. When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go free for nothing. Exodus 21, 16. Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death. Romans 1, 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

Jude 1-1. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. And then 1st Timothy 1, 8 through 11, and then listen for one of these particular sins in the list we're going to read. Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, and slavers, liars, per jurors, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Let's pray. Slavery is a word that evokes many strong negative emotions given our cultural history. As is typical, men use your word to confuse the issue and have perverted what you have said on this topic. Today, those who advocate normalizing homosexuality distort what the Bible says about slavery so as to advance their sinful lifestyle. And while slavery, as we know it, is revolting to us, we cannot escape the fact that your word describes believers as slaves of Jesus Christ and tells us that we were bought with a price. Indeed, all men are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. There is no one who is truly free.

We pray that you would guide Dave this morning as he teaches us on this important topic so that we might better understand what your word says and what the historical truth is so that we would not be fooled by those who distort the truth. We thank you for the tens of thousands of protesters who showed up at over 300 Planned Parenthoods across America yesterday to pray for an end to the scourge of abortion in our land. May you amplify their voices in the ears of our elected officials and cause them to lose the will to continue funding and supporting this evil in our land. We pray that you would rebuke and bring to repentance those churches which have abandoned the inerrancy of God's word and provide aid, comfort, and cover to those who embrace sin.

We also pray for those churches which hold to what is right but largely sit by and just watch as the culture continues to slide into all manners of wickedness. Forgive your church for being passive when it should be bold, for being obnoxious when it should be winsome, for preferring ease over sacrifice. May your church once again be known for turning the world upside down rather than just another antiquated and obsolete world religion. We pray for the various needs of our own local body. We ask that the Weinberg home would sell quickly and for a great price, guide them in the decisions that are to follow. We pray for Hank Massey.

His health has taken a turn for the worse and he is becoming less responsive. We ask that you might yet grant this man saving grace, strengthen and comfort Craig and Lila as they spend time with Hank and look after his care. We lift up Mary Kay, who has been battling some kind of ongoing viral infection. We thank you that she's beginning to feel a bit better, and we pray for a full and complete recovery soon for her. We pray for our college students as they prepare to head back to school. Help them in their studies, but more importantly, help those attending secular schools to resist the devil's attempts to undermine their faith.

May they prepare well for the responsibilities that await them after graduation. Father, we live in a time that our ancestors could never have imagined. Good is evil, and evil is good. We know we are not the first culture to ever experience this level of decay. Thank you that you are a God who is merciful and quick to forgive. Please bring revival to our homes, our churches, and our nation while there is yet time. We thank you that come what may, we are yours and you will ultimately bring us safely into your presence where there will be no more sorrow but only everlasting joy. And help us now to offer up worship that is pleasing and acceptable in your sight.

We pray all this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Is slavery in the Bible? Or you better believe slavery is in the Bible. read the verses and told you part of the things that I wanted to hammer out of those verses and especially in the New Testament the word doulos is used 117 times and it's the basic word for slave not servant bond servant all the different things that they layer in the English translations of the Bible it's hardcore slave and the problem with that is it makes us uncomfortable. If we think about that, do we want to be slaves? Isn't that bad? Isn't the world trying to get rid of slavery? But as Jim stole a little bit of my thunder, we're either slaves of sin or we are slaves of God and righteousness. It's one of the other and And each time you choose, you're choosing that path.

So as we look into this subject, keep that in the back of your mind, and I'm gonna be skating around a lot. This sermon is on apologetics, it's on the Bible, it's on history, it's on how we got here, and basically by talking about slavery, how we've gotten to the place of homosexual marriage and basically abortion on demand in a country like ours that was founded on Christian principles and some of the reasons why that may be and as we think about these things a lot of the stuff I'm going to give you you're going to go what is he talking about but you just need to look it up read the books that kind of thing a lot of this in our thinking has been driven by us starting our classical school. We started off right away by teaching a course called Omnibus that reads the great books of the Western world and they do it in six years and you do ancient medieval or middle history and then you do modern history and you do it three times and it's an incredibly heavy-duty reading I mean like ancient you read Herodotus. This is a major book, okay?

You read about the Roman Caesars you read all that kind of thing well this year we were into the modern and That started with a lot of discussions on America its founding Rousseau's the social contract Edmund Burst's reflections on the revolution in France the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, a lot of things like that talking about how America enduring the time it was created, how it got to be where it was. And what this brings to mind is the whole discussion of slavery because that was part of the world when America was founded and when we came over here and what you do with it. And there's an interesting book that's been written by Doug Wilson on this subject and I highly recommend it to anybody. This is the book that drove me about a year ago. It's called Black and Tan and the subtitle is Essays and Excursions on Slavery, Culture, War, and Scripture in America. And I'd like to start off with a little story that Doug relates in this book about Jerry Falwell. Dr. Jerry Paulwell was once in a television debate with a liberal Episcopalian bishop. And sad to

say, the liberal bishop mauled Dr. Falwell. They were debating some issue like abortion or sodomy, and Falwell was maintaining the biblical position, and the bishop responded by saying, yes, but the Bible allows for slavery. Now, what was Jerry Falwell to do on national television. Does he say the Bishop is correct? The Bible does allow for slavery and that he has no problem with it? We can see the headlines of the New York Times now. Fallwell fires on Fort Sumner, the start of the Civil War. Or perhaps he could have said that the Bishop was wrong but the good Bishop was right. So he did the only thing he could do in such a a situation which was to him and Haw. He got beaten in the argument because he didn't know his Bible well enough to jump in the middle of it and say, well, of course, but is this the slavery you're talking about? And give the man a Bible lesson.

On another occasion, a Christian man was handing out tracts at a gay and lesbian dance. Those attending the dance did not appear to be pleased with this, and someone apparently called a liberal Methodist pastor to come and deal with him. The minister came down and in the course of the discussion the Christian man said that Leviticus condemns homosexuality as an abomination. The liberal pastor responded by saying yes, but the Old Testament allows for slavery. The Christian responded by saying yes, it certainly did. So what's the point? So the idea is that if you're apologetic stands on what God's word says, and that is called presuppositional apologetics, so you presuppose the Bible is the source of truth and only by faith can you understand it, you can stand there and look the guy right back in the face and say, yeah, of course.

Now would you like to talk about slavery or do you want to talk about what it says about homosexuality or whatever other thing you're in? The idea is that most people don't even know this, and so they want to skirt around those hard topics in the Bible. Well, Paul, he never condemns slavery in the New Testament and all the rest of it. Well, you just read the verse. And the verse there in 1 Timothy, the enslavers, is a Greek word that literally means men-stealers. If you have a King James, that's the way it translates it. I love that. men's dealers. And the idea is we have to understand what slavery is. There were two types of slavery in the ancient world. There was indentured servitude, okay, was a labor system whereby young people paid for their passage to the new world by working for an employer for a certain number of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in British colonies, in North America, and elsewhere.

And as you see by the reading back in Exodus, that is exactly what the Hebrews had. You indentured yourself to a household and in the year of Jubilee you were set free. And the interesting thing is a lot of slaves did not want to leave. And they, if you read further in the Bible, if they wanted to stay in that household, they would go over to the doorpost, put the lobe of their ear on the doorpost, and pound and all through it showing that they wanted to stay in that house and be part of it forever, basically. Which is, I think, interesting that we come to the Lord thinking we chose Him and as we go along we realize He chose us and then all of a sudden we're in and we want to get our earlobe up to the doorpost and be with Him forever, be His slave forever.

John MacArthur wrote a book back, I think it was published first in like 2010, but we were still down at Grace Community when MacArthur, Sean came down for this, so it must have been a Shepherds Conference in the early 2000s. And he bent over in Russia, and he was staying in a dormitory thing as they were taking him across the 11 time zones, and he was preaching at each of the seminaries there. And he mentioned that he'd started to think about the translation of doulos and how it's bondservant and all these things and what a trick it is really on the people of God. And so he wrote a book summing it all up saying slave the hidden truth about your identity in Christ and then he goes on for a couple hundred pages beating this drum.

But he we heard the first sermon that he gave and I turned to Sean because I'm one of these guys, it's always, I get upset. And I'm going to give myself away a little bit here. If you're reading in the Greek, it's like if I'm writing in English and I choose a certain word and a person's reading it and they want to translate what I said in French, I don't think they should really change my word that I wrote. I think they should translate it close to what I'm saying and then consistently use that word. What happens in a lot of English translations is they'll take a Greek word and take its base meaning and then start modifying it according to the context or if it sounds too harsh.

And evil is one of those words. If you look up the base word for evil, raw, in the Old Testament, and start looking up all the places it's used, you'll find it's very interesting how raw can turn into calamity and all kinds of different things. But the base root of the word is evil. The same thing with slavery. And MacArthur wanted to pound this point home. Because obviously, by the thing, if Paul is a slave of Christ, Jude is a slave of Christ, and you can go through all the New Testament books. It goes over and over like that. And Christ talks about it as he talks about his followers. You're either going to follow me, or you're going to follow Satan.

A great theologian, Bob Dylan, wrote a song in 1979. You've got to serve somebody. And that was on the slow train coming album. But you're going to have to serve somebody, yes indeed. You're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. And that's upfront and close and personal, and that's the thing. And the amazing thing to me is how this has applied as we have built our church on the principles of reform and still reforming. And as you do that, and you become reformed, and you still become more reformed, and you still reform your life, and then you realize, oh, I'm really doing good this week.

And then the next week you realize, uh-oh, another layer of the onion's got to come off. I've got to reform even better in this direction. So it's a continuous process. And it gets back to that thing that I said, that one of the paradoxes of the Christian life, the more holy you become, the more wicked you know you are, which is crazy, but that's the way it is. And it works that way till we get to heaven. And when we get to heaven and face God face to face, we're gonna be so blown away that that holy, holy, holy thing in Revelation doesn't seem to be that big a deal to me. I think we could be happy doing that for eternity because the very God that created all of this and creates us, we will see a whole spectrum of Him that we never saw before, and by faith we see that now.

So the idea is, why should we be ashamed that the Bible says this? I mean, if it truly is condoning indentured servitude, well, then it doesn't sound bad to me. I mentioned it in our life to life group. Some of us work for companies, and you might be under contract to that company. You signed a contract that you're to show up for four years or even Ron, he goes to a job and he signs a contract, I'm going to come for two weeks at your house and you're going to pay me this much and I'm going to do this stuff and then once it's done, we're done. And that's what the Bible talks about, okay? Forms of that. What would be so wrong if somebody wanted to come to America, got a sponsoring family to sponsor them, came and worked for them, got the green card, that whole thing, then became the citizen.

That's the way immigration properly works. We give people a green card to come and be part of us. They work that off. They can work out a situation to pay for their passage or their family's passage, all those kind of things. It's still done today, even though people get all uptight. The Bible preaches slavery. What they're trying to hang on the Bible is that the Bible approves what is called chattel slavery. Chattel slavery is an enslaved person who is owned forever and whose children and children's children are automatically unsaved. Chattel slaves are individually treated as complete property to be bought and sold.

Chattel slavery was supported and made legal by European governments and monarchs and has been practiced in the world ever since the world began. You read the old books, Herodotus and all those things, armies would capture people and immediately they were men stealers stealing them, their whole families taking their wives, maybe killing the husband, bringing them into their family by force, none of their will. The Bible clearly rejects that. That's the issue in men stealers and the rest of it. So then Jesus comes along into this wicked world, Rome with the first century running the world with all its slaves, all its chattel slaves, and these people start coming to Christ.

And Paul's preaching to their masters who have been indoctrinated with this kind of thinking, this is my property. And all of a sudden, this guy comes to Christ. And in certain places, that man brings the gospel to the master. The master then realizes, oh my goodness, who's the master here? What's happening? And realizing God is the master. And that's why slaves have to submit to their masters and all of that. But what's the proper Christian thinking? And that's where the book of Philemon and Paul's advice that he paid the debt. And when he returned the slave, the slave was to be freed. And that appears to be the way it goes in that writing.

But the idea is as the gospel influence comes to the world, there's no way that Christians can do this. So then you ask, well, what happened here in America? What happened in Europe? They had all these slaves. The British were actually capturing a lot of these people. And remember, the other thing that's always fascinating to me is that it's a huge big thing that we white people enslaved these African people. Do you know who captured the African people in Africa? Other Africans. They men steeled those people to take them to the coast to sell to the Arab slavers or the British slavers or the French slavers who came down to buy those people that property, to buy that shadow slave from that African captor.

A lot of them were Arab slave traders also. And then bring them to America to sell to other people. So they were just trading property. And the incredible thing to me is how we get blamed for it when the African nations themselves were enslaving those same people that did that. Now, I'm not saying there were good people that wanted slaves and all the rest of that. Because if you're a good Christian, you look at that and say, I can't do that. So during this time, though, the gospel influence is permeating the culture here in America and in Europe. And another point that I've talked about before when talking about Kuyper and Kuyperian Calvinism and the way that the gospel is starting in the east, starts in Israel, Christ comes to that tiny little nation to be that example, dies for our sins, and then as Christianity spreads, it spreads from the east to the west.

So it then goes up into Europe and then from Europe, the colonies to America. And now it's moving to China and all the rest of those things. It moves from the east westward around the world. As the gospel gets lived out in a good Bible believing, what I would like to say Calvinistic look at things, the society has to change. Those people, you cannot come and worship God and not be changed. So as you're changed, you can't sit still for that slavery. So what do you do? Do you then revolt or do you reform? And what does the Bible teach? Uh oh, we got slavery, let's go get a gun and start shooting those guys. No. What is the most powerful weapon we have, the Gospel, to reform that mind actually changes the thing?

Killing an abortion doctor will stop that abortion doctor from doing an abortion, but there's another one that will just step in and do it. But when you start changing those people's hearts, God working inside of them, they then become a huge megaphone for what not to do. And the interesting thing is that America was founded by, quote, the American Revolution. Well, as you look into this and you open up different history books, all of a sudden, and even Wikipedia does this, it's called the War for American Independence. That's different than the American Revolution. And this was really pointed out this year as we read through these books in their order.

I mean, Rousseau is talking about the social contract in the 1740s. Burke is talking about the French Revolution in the 1790s. And the American War for Independence had occurred in between that. Edmund Burke was an Irish parliamentarian in England who was in favor of what the colonists were saying. He tried to argue in favor of the colonists because all they were saying is they were citizens of England and that they wanted Representation that they were promised by the government they got over here and all of a sudden they reneged on the deal that they gave So they weren't in revolt They were begging to for the people that actually made the deal with them to do the deal Stick up with your deal. So they were trying to reform that thinking and it reached a point where the whole thing blew up.

At that point, we created America. And when we created America, there was a strong Christian influence. Everybody knows that. It's so obvious when you see it. Even people like Franklin that weren't Christian or Jefferson or Deos, they still recognized a supreme authority and they recognize that that supreme authority had relationship. Even if they weren't Trinitarian Christians, they realized that God wanted a relationship with us. To worship God is one thing, but to worship the Trinitarian God is a whole other thing. And that's why when you study ancient history in the documents of the early church, that's why the Trinity is such a big deal.

God forever was with himself worshiping himself. And then God says, let's make a whole creation that will do what? Reflect my glory back on me. That's our job to be those reflectors of God. And we are acting in Trinitarian fellowship when we reflect that on each other, reflect it on our society, and live it out. When you live that kind of thing out, you start changing things. Your household will change, your neighborhood will change, your neighbor will zorowski, why are you doing that?

What are you being nice to me for? I'm just some clown. And you all of a sudden you have these open doors to reflect what God is doing in his tridentarian existence. So at the first of our country it was founded that way. There were more abolitionist organizations in the south before the Civil War than there were in the north. The Southerners knew they had to get rid of slavery. The actual Confederate Constitution in Article 9 outlaws foreign slave trade. They knew they had to stop it, that generation. So the Confederate Constitution outlawed slavery before the American Constitution ever did. Fascinating when you start getting into these things. And as you research these things, and I invite you guys to burrow down into some of these discussions, it's fascinating. Now, am I saying that the South was right on some things? Was the South wrong for slavery? Absolutely. So you have to balance this out and be smart about it, but there's a whole problem here that just gets blanketed over.

Well, the Bible approves slavery, so therefore you Christians are a bunch of idiots, so He can't listen to you. Not true at all. So as the problem started to magnify, they started the nation. They knew they had to deal with slavery, but they knew they couldn't get the states to agree and come to an agreement. So they put it on the back shelf because they needed them to unite to stand against the abuse from Britain. So after that, it still kept bubbling along. But an interesting thing happened in America in 1805. The two major seminaries and schools of higher learning in America that had been developed were Princeton and Harvard.

And Princeton and Harvard were Calvinistic seminaries, basically. These are the seminaries that produced Jonathan Edwards and people like that. And remember, in those days when Edwards showed up to go to seminary, he already knew his Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He didn't have to take language classes. He showed up knowing that being able to read the documents in their original language. This is something that maybe a couple generations from now, our students will be able to do. We're already starting to indoctrinate him in Latin at a young age and that kind of thing. But we're working in that direction so that you don't have to read a translation of Rousseau.

You can actually read it in the French or whatever. So anyway, as this comes along in 1805, Harvard appoints a Unitarian theologian to be head of its Divinity School. So basically, it took its Trinitarian, Calvinistic, Christian seminary and turned it on its head and turned it over to a Unitarian pastor.

At that point, Harvard becomes humanistic in its thought. And it starts to go sideways. And the thinking of those generations after 1805, they keep cranking them out, starts to put Trinitarian Christianity on a back burner. Now, I'm not saying that everybody in America, as soon as some clown gets appointed over a seminary at Harvard in 1805, that all of North America goes, you know, sideways. It doesn't work that way. But that seed has been planted where the best and the brightest are going, listening to that trash. At that point, they'd given up from the leadership of believing in a Trinitarian Christian God. So out of that, the Northeast then starts to become industrialized.

The whole industrial movement that was going through Europe came to us. The South was considered one of the richest places in the world. matches Mississippi and New Orleans were one of the richest cities in the world from the cotton trade and everything. And who were they selling that cotton to? To Britain, to be woven into cloth and all the rest of it. All that trade was going on. So everybody's kind of hudged-mudged in this thing. But the industrial north wanted to dominate and hold the thing together. During this time, in Europe, Rousseau's writing the Social Contract, which is making an argument for revolution instead of reformation.

You can read certain parts of that and see that he was saying, no, we need to reform our government, other parts of it. He's definitely calling Gittin' the streets and break the thing down. So that whole debate was going on for like a hundred year period before we became a nation. We wanted to do it through reform, but we needed a war of independence. And in Europe, France goes the full tilt revolutionary thing. Totally unbiblical. What they do, Burke and other people in Europe watch the French Revolution and go, whoa, this is really bad. You do not want to do this. And it goes on, this whole book is one paragraph after another of the dangers that happen from that.

During this time, America is sitting across the Atlantic and all kinds of things are being brought to our people and from 1851 to 1861, Karl Marx is one of the lead writers in the New York Herald Tribune. If you look it up, you can read the articles. There's a thick book of all the articles that he wrote. The founder of the Russian Revolution and communism and that whole thinking of turning everything upside down is infecting the thought of those people up there. During this time, all kinds of people in the South are trying to quit their slavery, trying to figure out how do we stop this, because the problem is you have generations and how do I train the generation.

There were all kinds of school teaching slaves to read and stuff. You know, you see all these things on roots that nobody was being taught or anything. It's just not true when you start studying it. The other interesting thing is just type in black slave owners before the Civil War. It's amazing how many of them there were and how many people they owned. Black people owning black people in the South and in the North. So as you look at this thing, it's a more convoluted thing for our country. But here comes the next problem.

To cure it, the politicians and the leading among them, Abraham Lincoln, say we need a civil war in order to hold the union together because of this issue of slavery bubbling around. Did we need a civil war? I don't think we did. The South, like I said, had all these abolition groups in the South. They knew they had to give it up. And even when they'd been pushed to create the Confederate States of America in their Constitution, they forbid enslaving other people, foreign slave trade, forbid it, and forbid their people to be doing it. We didn't do that. The North didn't do that. So anyway, we have this problem. And this is where the real revolution in America came, our civil war. Europe got rid of its slavery by reformation. Now, I am sure some people died in certain little squabbles or whatever across Europe to eliminate slavery. But it was nowhere near the over 600,000 that died in our Civil War over this issue.

Was that necessary to do away with slavery? No. And we're going to sing Amazing Grace, John Newton's Hymn. And that was a anti-slavery abolitionist kind of song. But the thing is, as you study it, you realize all these people realize they had a problem and good Christian people were trying to get themselves out of it. And if they would have gone the reformed route, we would end up with not 600,000 dead. But out of that thinking became crushing states' rights and the individuals in their states to decide what they wanted to do for themselves. So then federal thinking trumps state thinking. And at that point, you're setting the stage for the federal government to dictate to you and our state and your community what you need to do.

That wasn't why America was founded. It was a confederation of states together that came together to make the union, but the union was being held together because they wanted to be there, not because they were forced to be there. The whole thing, if you read all the documents and the way they signed it and the debates, the federalist papers, the anti-federalist papers, always in there was the option to opt out. But we now have been sold a bill of goods for the last 100 years. No, it's America, and nobody can opt out. And those people like the Texans that are ready to have Texas succeed and stuff are, that's just crazy.

You can't do that. Well, it really is fascinating, isn't it, that the people are the ones running that kind of thinking, and that the people of Texas created jobs, the best economy, all the rest of it. because they don't want to be part of that nonsense that's being dictated all the way down. And when you start thinking about this, who is better to run your own community but yourselves? And who are we better to influence our community by salt and light and reform to do that? And that's why I was really convicted that I needed to go down on Saturday to the abortion protest and just be there, be part of that. And the reason is, we don't need to be silent anymore.

There's no reason we shouldn't be out there trying to be salt and light in our community. And if we are, you don't know what God is going to do with that. You don't know who you're talking to or what person is going to come by or who's going to get convicted by some testimony. And we had 23 souls out of our tiny congregation going there that is affecting something. And I'm going to speak for the elders now. I think that we ought to be part of this. And I think that the guy that started it, Josh has a coin pickup that he goes to in an apartment building near there. He sees a little table there every day there, there, at the parking lot doing this.

And we've got women that want to do something and want to go down there. And I think men should be down there too. To do shifts and help those people to be able to hand out the pamphlets or just be there for counsel, or just to remind those people as they drive by those signs. I mean, they had posters yesterday that were really graphic, coins with little tiny baby body parts put on them, you know, simplifying that they're selling these body parts. It's amazing. I mean, it caused me to look up STEM Express, the one that's where they're doing these videos of. You just go on their website and then it says products, and you click the thing and down comes the menu, and livers.

And you click on livers, and there's all these fetal livers for sale there. And they range in price from $24,000 to $1,200 for a baby liver, depending on what kind of cells it has in it. And there's the price list right there on the internet. I mean, I could have punched the thing and sent him a MasterCard, and they would have sent me it. That's crazy. And yet Planned Parenthood says, oh, no, we're not selling baby parts. And they get around with it, but a bunch of lawyers create things, oh no, we're just getting money for transportation or handling fees or something like that. So they're not really selling the parts.

It just so happens that in the box they're shipping, they got this baby part. That's just, you know, how much of this insanity are we going to live with? It's just nuts. And so anyway, that kind of thinking is convicting me and I hope it's convicting all of you. That's just plain wrong. Now, I'm not saying go get your .45. I brought this up in our life-to-life group a couple weeks ago. I said, okay, they're committing murder in there. You got a gun. Let's go down there and shoot the guy before he murders that baby. Ho, ho, may it never be. All right? That's happened. People have blown up abortion clinics and all of that.

But the thing is, no, what do we have? We have the most powerful tool in the world.

The thing, that's why those Christians under ISIS can give their testimony and their heads are being cut off because they are the power of the gospel of God that will change those things. Now we do everything within our legal right to try to stop it. I think that's totally no problem. But the idea to become a revolutionary and not a reformer, no. When you start to become a revolutionary and do things outside what the Bible prescribes, now you're in big trouble. Now, some of you would say, but we started this church on a revolution. We revolted from the mother church to create our church. Did we? We operated within the rules of that church, appealing to the leadership to engage in the conversation. We don't talk about that. Just trust us. We don't talk about that. Just trust us. If we ever, ever tell you that in this congregation, get out, go away. We are responsible in a certain way for your souls, Hebrews 13, and we need to have explanations for what we're doing. And anybody can ask us. Kids can ask us, you can ask us, anybody can ask us. What we are doing here,

we are a corporate body. All parts of the body, the little finger, the eye, the leg, the mouth, all of it, that's us. And if we're not operating together and thinking that through, we are straight from the pit, okay? So we want to be that kind of open body. When you're When you're in a church that doesn't operate that way, what do you do? You have no recourse. There is no discussion. I mean, and all the rules are clearly laid out. You know, in 1 Timothy 5, if you have an accusation against an elder, bring two or three witnesses and that accusation should be said and argued out in front of the body if need be. Now, obviously, most of the time those things should be cured. And it's the same thing with If you've got a brother that sins against you, you go to him and you say, hey, you know, you're screwing around with me. What's a problem?

Oh, I didn't even realize that. I'm sorry. You know, okay. Now it's been cured. But if it doesn't get cured, you bring another witness and correspondingly tell the story and see that it's right. And the guy still says, ah, I'm not doing anything with you. Okay. At that point, then the pressure of the body brings that to bear on that person to repent. That's just part of body life, and that's a glorious part of it. And the thing is, it doesn't need to get to that if you're repenting and constantly following our liturgy and that kind of thing. So as a shepherd, I want to see us follow our Worldview Wheel illustration.

You'll notice on our kids' corner today, we have our Worldview Wheel, diagrammed out there for the kids. And the whole idea is there is kind of a diagram of how you should look at your life. We operate on the axle of grace. God's grace is the axle which the wheel turns on. The lordship of Christ is kind of the tire or the whole encircling thing of that. But inside of that there's narrative, catechesis, symbol, liturgy, lifestyle. That's the way we live our life. We're rolling on the lordship of Christ by the axle of grace with all these ingredients in there. Catechesis is sometimes just pure teaching of the word.

To understand what this phrase means, that phrase means putting together your theology. Our liturgy. I defy anybody that's come here for a long time that you are not a changed person from watching our liturgy week after week. changes me more than anything else we do, just that we practice the worship of God every week. And we culminate it when we get down to our communion time, when we commune together to praise God and enjoy in a banquet, mini banquet, of what he has done for us. And we're looking forward to the great marriage supper of land that will happen, you know, at the end of time. So that's the kind of thing we want to inculcate into you. The other thing to always remember too, and keep this in mind because some of us have Unitarian thinking being truthtubers.

Sean kind of, you know, invented that phrase. But the idea, I come here with my little tube and I'm gonna stuff this more truth in here. Now I got all this truth and I'm going to go out there armed with my truth so I can punch somebody in the face. No, no, no, no. Trinitarianly, I have this truth, but this truth is convicting me to, in love, embrace that person and try to engage them and be kind and all the rest of it. I mean, it was amazing yesterday how most all the people there holding these horrible signs, doing all this, some people coming by, you know, giving lip. But most of the people smiled and said, good morning, how you doing, that kind of thing. Smiling, engaging them. You don't need to be screaming at them, you're going to hell or whatever. Anybody who's got half a brain looks at that picture and goes, eww, I don't like that picture, but you guys are jerks, you're taking away freedom, you know, and that kind of thing.

So just to keep all those things in mind and run a balanced life. Another thing that I've spoken on before is Kuyper's Lectures to Princeton in 1901. And Glenn Wainwright has read the book and we have it on our website so you can get the MP3, plug it in your car and listen to it. Those are amazing lectures and it really sums up in a big bunch of time how we should respond in our business, in our art, in our family, in our politics. And this is written by a guy that was a theologian, prime minister of the Netherlands, great writer, lecturer, all kinds of things. I mean, the guy was nuts. He started newspapers, all kinds of things like that, and had incredible influence in the Netherlands.

Kuiper's theology was part of, now I just spaced her name, the concentration camp lady, Corey Tamboon. Those theology books of Kuiper were in her family. And if you guys haven't read the story of Corrie Timboom, she was in the prison camps and the Nazi guards became Christians because of her testimony and her sisters and all of that. And it said that Hitler, when he invaded the Netherlands, said find anybody that's a follower of Kuiper and kill them. Those instructions were given to the SS because they did not want anybody to survive that because he knew what a danger it was, somebody that believed those things and could practice them underground.

So that kind of thinking is what we wanna cultivate and have happen. So I've filled up the time and I didn't even get through my little pages and notes, much less the 18 that got smoked. So here's the thing. There's also an apologetics message here. Don't be ashamed of the Word of God. If somebody asks you a stumping question and you think they got you in a box and you're gonna have to desert the Word of God, just say, you know what, that's a good question, but let's set up a time where I can get back to you. I don't know the answer to that. And don't try to run a bluff. If you don't know it, don't jump in the fray.

But that should convict us to know it better. And I want you to remember that we are, or at least we espouse, that we are presuppositional apologists, okay? Not evidentialists. Now, somebody doesn't know that. And evidentialists, you guys have probably heard of Josh McDowell's book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, popular back in the 70s and 80s and stuff. And those books are written that you just keep stacking the evidence in front of that non-believer, and pretty soon the stack's going to get so heavy that it's just going to shift his thinking and he's going to go, oh yeah. Now, even the evidentialists will say he doesn't understand that till what?

Till God through his spirit opens that person's eyes to that truth. Presuppositionally, we see that the truth is the Bible and we presuppose that faith needs to happen before any of these truths can be understood. Now, does that mean I don't speak it to that person? Well, that depends because there's a classic verse that's used by the apologist, 1 Peter 3.15, and it says, have a reason for the hope that is within you to what? To everyone who asks. Not to everyone. You don't just start grabbing people off the street and say, hey buddy, let me tell you about all this. You guys can look at what are you nuts? But when somebody comes up to you and says, why are you different?

What are you doing this for? Now they're asking, now you have an open door and God is probably prompting that person's heart or tickling his curiosity or whatever. So that's the idea of where it is. That's why we're not down at the local laundromat grabbing everybody and giving them the gospel. Now if you have the gift of evangelism and you have a relationship with somebody, have at it. The guy that brought me to the Lord used to go into supermarkets and hang around the checkout lines and watch if people looked at all the rags that have, you know, this one's getting the sixth divorce and Elvis is alive on Mars and that stuff.

And they'd pick the thing up and start reading it and Daryl would go up to him and say, that's really interesting. What do you find interesting about that? Oh yeah, I think Elvis might be on Mars. Really? Have you ever thought about the God that created Mars? And he would get the conversation into a gospel presentation. But if they didn't respond and move in that direction, he'd just say, no, it's interesting you read that magazine. You'd look for somebody else where you'd have a live wire. So in effect, he's still looking for that person that asks. So anyway, that will help your evangelism to remember that. Now does that mean if you live next door to somebody and they never ask and you have a 10-year relationship with them that you don't bring up, that you go to church, and what runs?

No, obviously. I mean, we have a neighbor like that, and it's interesting. He's given us opportunity for those discussions at certain points. The other thing, not be ashamed of the Bible. The Bible has pristine facts. No other book on the planet does. Okay? That's it. Every other history book has error in it. But the Bible, if we believe what we say, that it's inerrant, that it has pristine facts. And what's the one event in history that defines history? Christ's resurrection, victory over death, and victory over our sin and our path, and our only path to heaven. So on that, that was a whole bunch of stuff I know, and disconnected, and whatever.

I just want to encourage you that I want, as one of the shepherds of you guys, for you to really think outside the box and to be involved. We want to change our community. We've been saying that. We started a school. And I saw we can change this community. There's a lot of people that are up to here. And like Doug has said, it's one of the great blessings that the pagans have brought to us. the internet and all this stuff. And because of that, the truth can't be tapped down. We don't depend on a newspaper to publish a story so we can cut it out and send it to our friends here and there. Immediately across the world, everybody can watch the video.

Everybody can see what a guy says in his speech. You know, don't necessarily believe the newscaster. Go on a guy's website and watch his whole speech. It's always interesting, you know, what they pluck out and stuff. I mean, I saw Ben Carson just this morning as I was putting this together, he was down in Arizona. He went along the border, and they accused him because he said, we could use drone planes here because I don't notice any border guards, any border police, going up and down this road along this fence, and anybody could climb it. So we could use drones to patrol this and photograph it and report back. Of course, the left-wing press immediately came out with the headline, Ben Carson recommends drone attacks on people trying to get across the border.

You know, just going to nuke these guys that are trying to climb over the fence. And they had him on his program and the guy, you know, confronts him with this. And he looks at him in that calm way, and I believe it's because of his Christian, you know, testimony. He just looked at him and he said, are you nuts? Are you? You know, he just shot this guy down totally and said, well, of course I'm not talking about that. Didn't you listen to what I said? And then he just explained it. So there's all kinds of opportunity. And I think God wants to bless us. And we have a lot of sin to repent from. But once you repent, turn and change and move on.

All of us have a lot of history. There's a lot of history right in this room, just on the abortion thing. We have people that have had abortions and all the rest of it. Not a problem. Repent, move on, be a light unto the world. So with that, I'm going to close because it's just about right. I've actually ran it to the right time, and I've actually gotten people to stand up and sit down at the right time, so we're really doing good on that. So let me pray, and then we will stand and sing, and we'll have the offering. That's our next thing. And we don't pass the offering plate for those of you that are visiting. We have that bucket in the back and then Andy or somebody will bring it up and put it here.

We do that as a corporate thing and we want you to have free will giving not to have this plate that you'll go, oh, should I put something in? Somebody's going to see me, da da da da da, or that bag where you put your hand in. I always wondered in that bag because I got saved and went to a brethren church and they had the bag and I always asked Darrell, I said, how do we know that guy's not performing some kind of sleight of hand and putting 20 in and taking 50 out? I've seen magic shows. But anyway, okay. So we don't go for that. We like right up front here. And so anyway, that's going to happen. So let me pray and then we'll stand and sing and have our offering.

Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for the way that I felt you gave me the ability to speak my heart. And I ask, as I often do, that through your spirit cause people to forget stupid stuff I said, but to remember the good stuff and to ingrain it and even sharpen me and hone each other as we move ahead in these exciting times. We thank you for the saints that have done this a long time. We thank you for the new ones. We had little kids, our kindergarteners in our school there yesterday, and they could be part of this. We want each generation to see that, and we want to be those examples. So we thank you for those things, and of course, thank you most of all for your word.

And it's in your son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. So now we'll sing and have the offering brought up. Now comes the best part, celebrating communion together. This one always, it's amazing to me how the supernatural experience of all of us coming here and accepting the elements and then partaking in them, I start to become somewhat Lutheran in my thinking because something beyond just symbolism is going on here. And I don't want to say that it's obviously transubstantiation, but I will say there is some consubstantiation. In other words, together with the elements, we are becoming united and we are becoming closer to God in some supernatural way.

And I'm not saying that's Christ's blood and his body and all of that. And we're not going to carve a niche out of the wood if you spill some grape juice on the thing. In one of these days, we're going to repent from our using of grape juice, but that's another discussion. But the idea that we're coming together to celebrate what God did for us, not to be ashamed and to sit there and think, I'm so unworthy I can't come forward, I can't touch this because it's too holy and that sort of thing. God has forgiven our sin if you are one of his. And if you are one of his, we come to celebrate what he's done for us. Remember, in the first part of our liturgy, we've confessed our sins.

So we're pretty good. We're at least only an hour and a half worth of sinning by the time we get to here. So the idea is the celebration, not to be ashamed and to come and strengthen yourself. Because by this food, we are becoming stronger and more united in the body of Christ. And that universal body, that's the other thing too. We are not the only place in town that is doing this. There are other believers here and across the world everywhere. Some say there's more people that are believers in China and house churches than there are maybe in all the western world. And that's pretty exciting if that's going on.

That's incredible that God is doing a work wherever He wants. And we just need to be those faithful people that are living that out. And as we do this, I want you to really feel that and understand it. As you do that, most of the times the songs we sing, I can't keep a dry eye, I know Chuck has trouble. And that's part of the problem. These guys say, looking back at you guys when you sing, the enjoyment you get out of that is just, that's all part of this. And that's really cool. So as we do this, let's remember that. This is an open communion. We are not a closed communion, which means that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and that he died for your sins, you are welcome to come up here and participate.

And the way we do it is we stand and then we come through the center aisle and circulate back and then we take it together. So let's start that off. So here's the charge for today. And the charge is just be a Christian in every way. Go out and in a reformed manner change our world, change our neighborhood, change it for the better. Give us the hope that we need to display and the joy that we need to demonstrate to the next generations that are coming after us. It's a wonderful thing to live and see with my children and my grandchildren and to see the influence you can have on those generations. So help each one of us understand that and be that to the next generation.

So return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servant's slaves. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us and for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your slaves and your glorious power to your children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Amen and be warm and be filled. Thank you.

Man is an amazing creature. His opposable thumbs grasp hammers and build homes. His mind imagines homes and plots them on digital blueprints inside of computers he invented to herd ones and zeros into formation. He talks about his plans and communicates with others, with words he found from letters, so that they understand. In all of these things and more he shows that he is full of capabilities.

Man is creative because he was created to reflect a Creator. Man makes because he was made in the image of the Maker. The Maker made mini-makers. Take a look at a man at work and you get a glimpse of His God. There are limitations to our imitations, of course, because God did not make us to be God. God did make us to mirror His glory, and that includes creative glory.

We've talked about image-bearing glory in both our responsibilities and our relationships. Those two capacities come together when we consider another attribute of God: loving sacrifice for others. Nothing reveals the glory of God as when the Father gave His Son and the Son gave Himself in order to save undeserving men. So the gospel demonstrates the heart of God. It also draws the pattern for God's children to follow. Loving sacrifice for others is the Christian way of life.

I suspect that this doesn't sound new. I hope it doesn't. We give glory to God as creatures when we praise His giving-ness. We give glory to God as imitators when we give. The message bears repeating because we will never leave the cross behind, because God keeps giving, and also because disciples must continue to learn and practice giving. The way of the world, the way of the old self, is to take. This is not how we learned Christ.

Ephesians 5:1-2 tees up the ball as we prepare to take the field for another school year. At our leaders' retreat last week we examined four key words, four bases, that are worth touching again. As we desire to be better image-bearers, as we long for fruitfulness in our days of ministry, we see the imperatives of imitation. In order to be like God we must give up.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1–2, ESV)

Before considering the imperatives we should remember the indicatives. As you've no doubt heard before, many of Paul's letters follow this flow: truth and then commands, indicatives then imperatives. The first eleven chapters of Romans teach doctrine and chapter twelve begins the application. The same happens in Ephesians, walls of behavior stand on theological bedrocks. Great blessings in the first three chapters are followed by a "therefore" hinge at chapter four. Because of truth, "walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." The first two verses at the beginning of Ephesians chapter five continue the application.

The commands to be imitators and walk in love depend on the idea of gift. What should we imitate in God? His giving. How should we walk? Like Christ who gave.

Like fires warm, fountains overflow, babies cry, bunnies hop, anchors sink, lightening flashes, flowers bloom, and cream rises, God gives. That's what He does.

As image-bearers we should start by acknowledging and receiving and thanking God for His gifts. In the immediate context we see gifts in knowledge of God instead of ignorance (4:18), sensitive hearts instead of hardness (4:19), renewed minds (4:23), new selves (24), and being brought to share in the life of God instead of being alienated from Him (4:18). His gifts include His own Spirit (4:30; also 1:13-14) as well as forgiveness (4:32). He has adopted us as children (5:1). Every spiritual blessing is ours as gifts (1:3).

So we give thanks to God for the gifts (for all the good ones--James 1:17, in all things--1 Thessalonians 5:18). Thankfulness is an appropriate response to the Giver and it also is the necessary response to filthy living. The opposite of sexual immorality and impurity and covetousness and foolish talk and crude joking is more than purity, it is thanksgiving (verses 3-4). Our lives are gift. What we have and don't have is gift. Deliverance is gift. Troubles, tests, and trials are gift (James 1:3-4). God gives non-stop. It is gift to see His gifts. There's no need to run to second without touching the gift-base first. We will give up when we get all that's been given.

Why does God give? What aim did Christ have in giving Himself up? There are two ends to the mission: communication of His love for us and His own pleasure.

The first goal of giving is to communicate love. God loves us, we are His beloved children. Christ loved us and give himself up for us. The mission was to exhibit divine affection and build a beautiful body. Love in Ephesians 4:12-16 builds up the church, and love from a husband leads to a beautiful bride in Ephesians 5:25-27.

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25–27)

Giving up is for the saints, for the brothers, for the Body, for the Bride. Giving is for (to be used by others) not at (to be seen by others). Don't be a sacrificial stink bomb, giving up in such a way that everyone wants to give it back. Your gift made their eyes water, but not with happy tears, because the smoke is burning their eyes.

The second and ultimate goal of giving is God's own pleasure. Nouns give substance to Christ's action: a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Paul alludes to Psalm 40:6 where "sacrifice and offering" are paired to summarize what is presented to God. God receives, He is satisfied by, He is pleased with the death of His Son for others. Why? Because giving pleases Him. It is fragrant, an alluring aroma like barbecue smoke combing the air. The fragrance is used to describe burnt offerings (Leviticus 1:9), grain offerings (Leviticus 2:2), and peace offerings (Leviticus 3:5), all cooked over fire. The Father delights in His Son's giving because He seems Himself.

Like ovens that freeze, bees that meow, lights that darken, swords that tickle, and doctors that kill, it is out of character for God not to give. So with image-bearers. Taking, then, is rebellion; a counterfeit image. That's why covetousness is called idolatry (verse 5).

We will give up when we love others and when we desire to please God.

What does God give? What did Christ give up? There are two parts to the cost, considered from both the Father and the Son.

The cost was personal. The Father gave up His Son and the Son gave up His own life. The personal cost was also precious. Who or what thing does the Father value more than His Son? He gave up what was most important to Him. Jesus left the glory He had with His Father, took on the limits of incarnation, and then laid down His body on behalf of others. No cost was higher.

Like dictionaries without words, pens without ink, pretzels without crunch, boxers without hands, and men without chests, so is giving without cost.

How does God give? In a way that we can known and in a way that we must follow. Here we are reminded that God made us as imitating creatures. Man is derivative. He takes his cues from the outside; he mirrors. A faithful mirror images God the Giver. Paul commands: be imitators, "be mimics" and our attention fixes on the standard. "Be like Him." 4:32 commanded, "Be kind (like God in Christ)," now, "Be giving (like God in Christ)." Besides, we are His children; like Father, like sons. There is to be a family resemblance.

How do we do that? Verse two is a second command that completes the first, it does not provide an additional act as if we could choose to do one or the other. To mimic is to walk. Our walk refers to our living, our choices, our habits. Faithful walking is in love. And to love is to give. So, our habit (walk) of affectionate (love) sacrifice (give up) is our godliness. To be godly is to be giving ourselves. Such is pleasing to God.

Imitation by walking in loving giving is like God, it is like Christ, it is for God, it is pleasing to God. It isn't monkey see, monkey do, without thought and mere mechanical motion. We see and love. We mimic with meaningful motive.

God in Christ is our model and, as we follow the model, we become a model for others. Sons learn to behave by watching their fathers. Younger Christians learn to obey by watching more mature Christians. Sheep learn to sacrifice by watching the shepherds.

Christians are always to be known by giving up. In this context giving up doesn't mean stopping it means sacrificing. That sort of giving up is our godliness. Our giving is a reflection of God and others should be able to get an idea of the nature of our God by observing our nature. We are characters who know what kind of choices to make even if we do not know the exact line to say or the precise place on stage to stand.

Christ gave Himself up to transform us into givers. He did not give because of what He could get from us but what He could do for us. Likewise, we work and give because we are transformed not because the one we're giving to is already transformed. Glorious giving transforms and transforming giving glorifies the original.

How about you? Do you have resources such as knowledge? Who are you knowing things for? Do you have time? Who are you giving your minutes to? Do you have creativity or imagination? Whose minds are you serving? Do you have liberty to give up? Do you have convenience and comfort to give up? Do you have preferences to give up? Are you in a position of authority? What do you have authority for? Look at God and what He does with His authority.

Too many times we are consumers and tied down by expectations of receiving. Instead we ought to plan how we can contribute.

Our corporate life will be a pleasing smell to God as we obey the imperatives of imitation. Imitate the Father, beloved. Live in loving surrender for the building and beautifying of the Body.

Camels store water, but we don't hoard our sacrifices for a "better" time. Give and you will be like the widow of Zarephath whose flour was not spent, neither did the jar of oil run out.

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

The call to worship is going to be from Psalm 18 verses 25 through 30. And as we prepare for God to call us to worship, we do remember that our help is in the name of the Lord. With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless, man, you show yourself blameless. With the purified, you show yourself pure. and with the crooked, you make yourself seem tortuous. For you save a humble people, but the haughty eyes you bring down. For it is you who light my lamp, the Lord my God lightens my darkness. For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God, His way is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. And we love you, Lord. Our strength. You are our rock and our fortress, our deliverer, our shield, and our stronghold. We have gathered together this morning to call on You who is worthy to be praised. You whose way is perfect, Your Word that proves true. You equip us and encourage us and support us. You make our feet like the feet of a deer. Set us securely on the heights. And so we ask that as we offer this service of worship to you, that you would exalt yourself and your salvation among us. That you would hear our cries of dependence on you, as well as our cries of delight in you, As we offer this worship by the spirit and in your son's name.

Amen. Anyone who has been around little children for any length of time, and I have been for the last week, has probably seen examples of what it means to be inconsolable. The hunger-driven wailing, even though mom is just minutes away from putting a feast on the table, the car seat tantrum on the road to Disneyland, the loud complaining because a sibling has that toy even though the playroom is full of other toys to delight in. To be inconsolable means not able to be comforted. As the people of God, we spend a lot of time not being comforted. Most of us have hopefully matured beyond temper tantrums and foot stomping whining, but all we've done, really, is learn to express our comfortlessness in more socially acceptable ways.

We grumble and say we are just being honest. We redefine our pessimism and say we're being realists. Give us a pony and we can always find a stinking pile of digested hay. Life can bring some really hard things. no denying that. But are the hard things outside the scope of God's sovereignty?

Ought not we follow Jesus' example, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross and despised the shame? As we're going to see in today's sermon, God is not passively sitting by indifferent to our struggles. It's quite the opposite. He's setting the stage for the great day when he finishes gathering up his church into his eternal presence and condemns the wicked to eternal punishment. This is not pie-in-the-sky theology. This is the absolute truth that should bring comfort to our soul and thankfulness to our hearts even if there be tears in our eyes. If it doesn't, then something is really amiss in our understanding of what God has in store for us. If you've allowed trial and tribulation to triumph over trust and thankfulness, thus making your heart inconsolable, or if there's any other sins weighing on your soul this morning, let's take some time now to privately confess those to God. As is our custom, you are invited to kneel if you're able and wish to do so as we spend a moment in silent prayer. Let's

take that moment now. Father, we are a nation where loud claims of entitlement strangle out calls for thankfulness. Our misguided passions breed discontentment.

We desire and expect and do not have so a murder. Killing babies in the womb is just one example. We covet and cannot obtain what we want and so we fight and quarrel with each other. To the shame of your church these things are too often true of us, your children. Restore unto us a faith that leans holy on your promise of a glory that is yet to be revealed. Discipline us until we release our death grip on the things of this earth so that we might be ready to receive the good gifts you have in store for us. Quicken our spiritual sense so that we might stop complaining about the hunger in our belly and perceive the royal feast that is being prepared for us. Forgive us for our grumbling at our circumstances, which is tantamount to slandering you. Restore to us the joy of our salvation and fill our lips with thankfulness and praise so that we may adorn the gospel and not detract from it in any way. We praise these things in the name of Jesus, our great Comforter and Deliverer. Amen. A lot of people are waiting for their

condition in life to improve. Christians are waiting too, but our waiting is different. For the unbeliever, waiting is based on just wishful thinking that ultimately will disappoint. For us, our waiting is based on the fact that Jesus gave himself for us and redeemed us and is now preparing a place for us to be with him. Paul reminds us of these truths in Titus 2 verses 11 through 14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce on godliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

That's seen like redeemed people. Today's scripture reading is Psalm 68 verses 1 through 6. Psalm 68 verses 1 through 6. God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him, as smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God. But the righteous shall be glad. They shall exalt before God. They shall be jubilant with joy. Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Lift up a song to Him who rides through the deserts. His name is the Lord. Exalt before Him. Father of the fatherless and protectors of widows is God in his holy habitation.

God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in needy people. We come to you to pray for those that lead us in our government, in the elections to to come and all the political stuff that's going on. Help us to be wise. Help us to seek out people that will honor you and people that will do the right thing. Help those in our government that are believers in you be courageous and make their stand in all the places that they are. Help those that don't know you, bring them to their knees and bring them to you.

We also pray for the leaders in our church. We pray for the elders, the deacons, the husbands, the fathers, as they lead the church, their families, their businesses, all the things that they're involved in. Help us to understand the Kuyperian principle of not one thumbs with is not under your control. We pray for the fathers and the wives and the mothers and the daughters and the sons and the future generations we have here.

all part of our family, our worshiping family, help them to be those people. We also think of the personal things going on. We think of Paula, who is Carmen's cousin. We pray for her as she is on her deathbed and she knows you, but I would ask that you would give her comfort as you bring her to you. We pray for the barns. They've had kind of a tough week. The baby is being delayed. Give them comfort that you know the right time for that to happen and all the crazy stuff that's been going on in our house give them in their house give them the ability to handle those things. We know that all those things that are under your control so give them that. We pray for the people that are working through financial situations and job considerations and all the things that that go on in our world. Give them godly wisdom as they consider those things this week. We think of our outreach with our classical school, the Children's Law Center who finds those places for those babies, and the Good Shepherd's Home in India. All of them doing

your work across the world. Help each one of them be part of your plan and be in your will. We ought to pray for our local churches, but I want to pray this morning especially for our church. It's been reported back to us that our life to life groups, at least two of them, the engaging conversation is the issue of the unborn and how it's been brought to our forefront with all the videos and the politics and all of it. I would ask that you would really convict us and put us put some real feet to our faith in this issue and how people are trying to find out ways to help these things happen and to be involved in our community and be a witness for you for those that are defenseless.

We also pray for the Mountain View Assembly and Damascus Road that they would be pricked by this also and that of course the most famous or the most the most important thing we can do is preach your gospel. But after that, we do need to put shoes to our faith. We thank you for all these things. And of course, we thank you most of all for your son, Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.

Would you pray with me as we prepare to read the word together? Our holy God, you are perfect light. And the light in which you dwell is inapproachable.

And yet you have shared of that light with us. You have cast a pure ray of it into this world in the form of your word. It is a lamp unto our feet and a guide into our path and through it we come to know you as unsearchable as you are. We also thank you even as we sang in this last song that there was a time for those of us that know you where as the hymn has said your eye diffused a quickening ray. We woke, went forth, and have followed you. And I pray this morning that as we look at the light of your Word, and as we enjoy the light of knowing you in Christ, we would be encouraged to live the life that you have called us to live in this world before you in a way that would honor you, in a way that would honor you not just in our actions, but in the heart that reflects a knowledge of who you are and of how all things end and of the good news that we carry. And so we ask this in the name of Christ, Amen. Well it is quite a privilege to have been asked to be here this morning. As Sean mentioned

it really was a joy those many years ago to have gotten to spend some time I'm interning with the pink ox. I don't know if you still go by that. Lost too much weight. I did at least tell him that I've followed in his leadership enough to have painted my office in Spokane orange. So there was an influence there.

And even this morning, it is a privilege just to follow after my father, who is my hero, as he has given us a number of the liturgical elements morning so thank you for letting me come this morning and I'm excited about the Psalm we're gonna get to dig in today because it's an adventurous one and I love stories I love reading I've been a fan of fiction longer than Sean I'm proud to say though I think he's gonna pass me up here pretty quick but we are gonna look at Psalm 68 this morning and I've called it an ancient song of dust and sky as we dive in we're gonna be looking at at a Psalm that I think epitomizes one of the most powerful forms of literary genre there is. There's so many different ways to communicate through words. You've got the tragedy like King Lear that just wrestles with loss and heartache and disappointment. You've got comedies, although I'm not sure if Dante's Inferno really qualifies, but sometimes he pretends that's a divine comedy. But you have all these different genres, and the one we're going to look

out this morning is an epic, an epic. And if you listen, particularly since I get to work with youth, listen to youth, you'll get the impression that we live in some pretty epic times. That word has come back into vogue recently. And if you look at the news headlines even around you'll notice that epic seems to be popping up everywhere in headlines and even on supermarket boxes just reading a couple days ago. The GOP debate was epic. John Stewart's final episode of The Daily Show was epic. I found a number of Facebook rants going around that are considered epic, and even found a Facebook community dedicated to epic serials.

This is true.

I noticed also, unfortunately, Kim Kardashian suffered the most epic selfie fail of all time this very week that happened. So epic is in and I fear we can add it along with inconceivable to the list of words of which it might be rightly say you keep using that word I don't think it means what you think it means. So what is an epic? Do we have any TES students here that have been studying literary genre that can give us a definition or is that mean to put you on the spot that way. Fair enough. An epic, an epic is a long poem or book, and it can also expand to other forms, but typically a long poem derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the history of a nation. And when we look at Psalm 68 this morning, we're going to discover epic is in fact not selfies and cereal, but something much, much bigger. It has to be a large pile of heroism and character and villainy and evil and struggle and have enough time and space to let all of that happen and to sort through it and to revel in it. And we are going to look at an

incredible epic this morning. There's so many that we do encounter in the pages of literature. You've got the terror of the monster Grendel and Beowulf and you've got the world linking magic and the Chronicles of Narnia and you've got the massive sweep of Middle Earth and Tolkien's writings, but none of those epics that we enjoy today can claim to be more than an echo of the great epic which is the epic of creation that God is still continuing to tell and it's an epic that we're a part of and an epic that deserves our highest language, our highest songs, our highest poetry and the psalmist who in this case is David this morning is going to take up the epic tale of God and his interaction with creation as his subject in Psalm 68.

And I'm just excited to have a chance to dive in. I've been told that we need to be done. It is either 11 15 or 115. So if I miss the one, I'll just stop at the other. So but as you guys buckle your seat belts for our epic ride, one note, just a couple quick things as we dive into the song. First, just a quick note about where the song fits into the Psalter, I'm sure a lot of this will be review for you guys as Shawn has been doing a number of Psalms this summer as well, but this Psalm it fits into the second book of the Psalter. If you might recall the book of Psalm is a whole is divided into five chunks. So this Psalm fits into the second of those five books and and this second book is everything in your Bibles from Psalm 42 to 72 and most of the Psalms in this section are of the lament variety.

Most of them are kind of sad as David and other Psalmists, the sons of Kor and a few others, work through the painful aspects of oppression, sin, discouragement, and pour out those thoughts before the Lord and try to work through them in a biblical way. But there are two chunks of praise psalms that sort of punctuate these 18 lament psalms that they have. There's a couple lament psalms, and there's a little group of three praise psalms, and there's a bunch of more lament psalms, and there's a little group of four praise psalms towards the end. And Psalm 68 is the last of those praise psalms. And it kind of sums up, if you will, sort of the message that's been being developed in all of these praise Psalms and even answers a lot of the questions in the heartache that's been brought up in the lament Psalms as well.

So that's the first thing I just wanted to kind of touch on real quick. And then secondly, I wanted to mention, as we go through, you're going to notice a lot of names for God. In fact, Psalm 68 uses more individual names for God than any other single Psalm. And there's so much you could pull out of this and we're simply not going to have time. So this would be a great thing to go back and dig through more in depth. But I just wanted to note a couple of those as we go through. Every time you see the word God in most of your modern translations, that's translating Elohim, the name for God, which speaks to him as the creator, as the sovereign one, and is also the God who relates covenantally with his creation.

You'll also see many places of the word Lord in all caps.

Whenever you see that in your translation, you're going to be seeing the word YAH or Yahweh, which addresses God's eternality. It speaks to his unending existence. It's the I Am That I Am kind of name of God. Some of the Jewish theologians they call it God's plain name because almost every name of God refers to things he does, how he interacts with us, but the name Yahweh refers to who God is to his basic essence. Whenever you see the word Lord without caps, that's the word Adonai, master, Lord, and owner. You also see the word Almighty show up which is Shaddai, the bountifulness of God is spoken of there, his provision. And then lastly you'll see a couple times, it'll be hard to spot in your English translations, but there's a couple times where he also uses the word El which is just kind of a simple name for God that was common throughout the ancient Near East and it became almost a derogatory term as time went on because El sort of got emasculated and kicked out of town by his younger son Baal in the pagan

in the pagan mythology. So a lot of the surrounding nations of Israel kind of said, well yeah, Baal kicked your god out a while ago, and the psalmist David here will occasionally use that name for El to say, well, El's back in town. So he's coming back in style. So there's a lot of that stuff going on. I just mentioned those so that perhaps if you have opportunity later you can go back and and look when he uses those different names because that's really rich as well, and I'd love to go through that this morning, but I'm already going to probably get in trouble for going too long, so I won't do that this morning.

We're going to get a bunch of titles for God that are cool too, but we will have those in the message. Thirdly, I just wanted to also highlight one other thing real quick. You'll notice in this psalm we've got a bunch of those seilas showing up here and there, and I'm sure Sean has gone through this already.

Seilas tend to be some form of like musical interlude or a pause or some way of sort of taking a quick break from the psalm, Usually to pause after a point has been made or introduce a theme and And you'll notice when we go through my outline seems to be really weird because I keep stopping like one verse too early or one verse Too late when it comes to where those say laws are at and that's because in this psalm David is going to use those say laws a little differently He's going to use them sort of as a way of building suspense and so when he gets to a new idea He wants to communicate. He's going to give us one verse and then pause so something really cool is going to happen Wait for it. Wait for it. There you go! So that's kind of how he uses the psalms, or the seilas in this psalm. So if you're trying to figure out why my outline is so weird with all those seilas in there, that's why. Okay, so I think hopefully I haven't turned an epic song into a boring lecture already, but we are ready to dive

in. And so if you kids are taking notes, if you got your notesheets this morning, we're gonna get to our first big point this morning, and that is the The Approaching Desert Rider, the Approaching Desert Rider from verses 1 to 6. And the Approaching Desert Rider, I think, is a great title because we're going to see David refer to God in ways that maybe we don't often think of him in the normal names that we use for God. But they're vivid, they're colorful expressions of how he interacts with us. And names are a big deal. One of the scenes I really liked the most out of the recent Hobbit movie that they left in from the books was this little exchange between the dragon Smaug and Bilbo as they're talking about names. One of the dragons is like, what is your name? And Bilbo was like, ah, I am barrel writer. And coming up with all these cool names that describe who he is.

And that is something that we've sort of lost in our culture is this title giving or name giving way of communicating a person's essence and who they are with these colorful descriptive titles, Native American people still have some of that. But we've largely lost it in Western culture. And so we're going to see David in his Semitic culture giving God some of these colorful titles. And the first one we're going to run into in verses 1 through 6 is that God is the desert rider. And we'll talk about that when we get to it. But I want to get all the way through the first three words first. And that is simply this, let God arise is how David begins this Psalm.

Let God arise in this plea for God to get up and do something. It's a call that we see multiple places throughout the Psalms. You can find the same phrase in Psalm 3, Psalm 10, 68 here, Psalm 74, Psalm 82. It's a theme that we see very often on the heart of David. God, get up and go. Do something. But it's not a theme that's new or unique to David. It's a theme he's actually pulling from somewhere a lot further back in Israel's history, we have to go all the way back to the Exodus to see where this theme of calling God to arise really began to become a normal part of Israel's culture. And that is in Numbers chapter 10, 35 to 36, if you want to just write that down, in what is known as the Ark song. We read in that passage, Then it came about when the Ark set out that Moses said, Rise up, O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you. Now Now read verse 1 from Psalm 68.

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee before him. David's quoting an epic song already from Israel's past, the Ark song that was said every time the Ark of the Covenant would get up and be moved and the people of Israel would take off through the wilderness. And so when David begins his song this way, he's calling on that rich heritage of story in history from Israel's past and saying, just like God used to physically rise in the form of the cloud and the flame and lead his people through the wilderness, let him do that again. Let him once again arise and take action for the sake of his people.

And what is it that God is going to do? What is it that this arisen, mobile God is going to do for his people? And the first thing is, terrify the wicked who are about to be destroyed. As we just read there in verses one to two, I'll let those who hate God flee before him. Verse two, as smoke is driven away, so drive them away as wax melts before the fire. So let the wicked perish before God.

God or David calls upon God to use his justice and direct it towards the wicked in a way that will annihilate them like smoke or like wax. And smoke and wax can be annoying or intimidating if used properly. My dad was experimenting with this last night. He cooked some of the most amazing burgers on the grill, but the burgers fought back a little bit by filling his face with smoke as he was trying to flip those things, and it stings. How many people have had a chance to get your head over good campfire so far this summer? A few of you. Yeah. Smoke can become noxious, and it can be overwhelming. It can be suffocating.

It burns your eyes. You can't see anything else and it can seem like all there is left in the world is smoke, endless smoke. But what happens when the first puff of a breeze comes by? It's gone. For all its intimidation and stingingness and nastiness, it has no substance to hold up against even the slightest challenge of a wind or a breeze. And David says, all the smoke of your enemies, Lord, they might be billowing up all around and maybe they're stinging our eyes and filling our nostrils, but you can just puff them away. Just blow them away, and they'll be gone. Can't find them. Same with wax. You could walk, take a little kid, put him at night into Madame Tussauds, you know, wax museum with all these monsters and scary things.

He's got to freak out, so lifelike, so intimidating, so scary. Give him a hair dryer. Right? Not so scary now, are you, Mr. Bad Guy? Same with God. Our enemies can seem towering and menacing and scary and dangerous, but before the heat of God's wrath, they melt and are gone. And this is what David calls God to do on behalf of his people. Scatter them, blow them away, melt them so that they are gone. The Christian may suffer at the hands of the wicked, but we should not fear them. For we should know that there is no lasting nature to wickedness. Evil and wickedness itself, along with all those who are evil and wicked, will one day be dissipated, be melted, and be removed.

But perhaps this morning you're thinking, that sounds great, but I'm hurting now. Right? Life is hard now. What is God going to do for me today as I deal with my cancer and I deal with the loss of my loved one and I deal with losing my job and I deal with all of the many heartaches that life often brings with it? How is knowing that God is going to crush my enemies in the future going to ease my hurting today? And that's where David is going to go next. And we're going to see this great desert rider come in to to thrill us as the righteous because he's going to bring comfort With him and as we launch into this I just want to note We're going to see here what social justice ought to look like We're going to see what the what the meeting of the needs of humanity was meant to look like and that's a big topic today Justices on everybody's minds. Maybe you guys even saw in the news last night as Bernie Sanders came to town to speak in Seattle, and he couldn't speak at his first engagement because the social justice group came and shouted him down.

They had to counsel the whole event. And so last night when he got to his stadium, it was packed out with 12,000 people that came to hear him speak. And all of the speakers, including Bernie, adopted a bunch of social justice themes in light of the previous morning's demonstration.

Our culture is looking for what they're calling justice, for comfort, for help. So what is God's approach to solving and what in many cases are real problems in the world today? And we're going to find the answer to that in verses 3 through 6. Read with me if you will starting in verse 3, but let the righteous be glad. Let them exalt before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness. Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Lift up a song. And in most English translations will say, for him who rides through the deserts, in Hebrew you can reach, just shorten that down to the desert rider, and I like that better. So we're going to go with that for this morning. Lift up a song for the desert rider, whose name is the Lord, and exalt before him. A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows is God in his holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely, he leads out the prisoners and the prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

In contrast to the wicked who are God's enemies, David describes how we as the righteous, who are friends of God, ought to respond to God. The wicked should be really, really worried, right? They're going to die. So that's an appropriate response for the wicked. But that shouldn't be our response. The righteous shouldn't be really, really worried. The righteous shouldn't be really, really whiny. The righteous should be really, really rejoicing. And he uses three different Hebrew words here to express that. Be glad, exalt, rejoice. And they all center on the same idea. Happy, really loud. Notice it's not just exalt with an A, but it's exalt with a U.

Especially those of us that come from the Bible Church background, we're really good at exalting God. You are this, you are this, you are this. Let's see. About halfway through my systematic theology. Oh yeah, there was this category and this category and this category. And we're really good at listing off all the things that are true about God, and that is important. But sometimes we forget to be excited about those things. And David's not here speaking so much of what we're saying about God is how we're saying it. Oh, goody, goody, goody God is what we're saying here. And one great way to do that is through singing.

And that's one of the things that I love about this church is it's known for its singing. You guys exalt in your song and that's fantastic. Keep that, treasure that, foster that, not just exalt him with the words that are on the screen, but let those words become the motivation for genuine exalting in those themes as well. But what do you do when you run into those times when happy singing seems furthest away? And that's where we've got this beautiful picture that David gives us beginning there in verse four when he calls us to lift up a song to him who rides to the deserts, to the desert rider. And this phrase lift up is a neat word.

It's almost always used in the Old Testament for the lifting up, not of like a little baby cub like Lion King, but lifting up, like scraping together a road bed, scraping up a road bed and making it level. So you got this kind of hilly, up and down wilderness area, and you scrape together enough soil and things and flatten it out to make a road bed. And David says, lift up, raise up sort of a road bed from your place in the desert out to the horizon, because the desert rider is coming, and he should have a proper road for him to come to you on. And that road should be a song of exaltation. So he doesn't say, pretend like you're not in the desert.

Stop acting like it hurts. But he's saying, rejoice because you hurting person in the desert, there is a rescuer coming to you, and you ought to pave a path for him by singing a really happy song, which expresses the fact that you believe he's on the way, that you trust his goodness will be sufficient for your hurt. And that is how we are to respond when life is tough. We saw a great picture of this just yesterday in the news. I don't know if you saw the story coming out of New Mexico. French couple came for a tour. When they go to New Mexico, they go for this big desert hike. They both died of dehydration in the desert.

Sheriff finds the couple and finds a camera on one of them. On a whim, pulls out the camera. He's searching through the camera pictures, finds a picture, one picture on this phone, or excuse me, on this camera of a nine-year-old boy. And he puts it together in his head. I wonder if this nine-year-old boy was theirs. And so he takes off through the desert and finds this nine-year-old boy alive out in the middle of the desert. That nine-year-old boy, how to have been freaking out, he did not know the sheriff was on his way. We're in a different position. You may have lost a lot. You may realize I'm dying of spiritual dehydration, physical dehydration.

I'm hurting. My life seems to be imploding around me. But David tells us the sheriff is on his way. Right? So what is a better use of our time to sit in the desert going whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, or to say, over here, sheriff, come get me. I love you, sheriff. That's the response that we should be having. And it is so tempting in the desert to adopt that whiny tone.

But when we do it, it betrays that we do not fully understand God's disposition towards those who suffer. And I know some of you might be thinking, that is so easy for you to say, and you're right, I haven't been where you have been. But God has, and He's coming for you, and He is sufficient for you. And David gives us a whole bunch of categories of those that God is coming to the aid of. He mentions for those who lack a father, God himself says, I'll do that. I'll be your father. For those of you who lack a husband, who have lost a spouse, especially for those who like in this culture when you would lose a wife or lose her husband, she would often become vulnerable legally, economically, in many different ways. God says, I will be the judge and the defender. How about this? Even for those in the Bible uses here the word lonely, which is not used very often in Scripture, but even for the lonely and this was a word that was often applied to those who were kind of on the edges of society who had been kind of pushed off to the fringes. We

might call them the marginalized, the disenfranchisor use that kind of verbiage today, but for those who feel like they've been sort of shut out of the life of a community that they're in, for the achingly lonely God says I'll give you a home and even for those who have lost all things and find themselves imprisoned, God says, I will bring you prosperity. I will bring you prosperity. This is God's plan to meet the needs of people. Notice it's not a government program, it's not a social program, it's not a nonprofit that God's gonna set up to accomplish this. It is God himself who wishes to meet the needs of people. To To be a friend of God does not mean you will avoid terrible loss because we lived in a cursed world, and that's going to happen.

But it does mean that God will direct His special and particular care to you in the middle of your loss. And there's an application for us as the church for those of us who are not at that place, who are not currently undergoing that kind of suffering as well. ought to join with God in this great adventure, in this great comfort-giving.

Spurgeon wrote about this passage, how zealously ought his church to cherish those who are here marked out as Jehovah's a special charge. Does he not hear in effect say, feed my lambs? Blessed duty, it shall be our privilege to make this one of our life's dearest objects. And again, I don't want to come in and drop this as an accusation at TEC, but actually rather commend you. You have a reputation for caring. Through your efforts through 127, for example, and in your work in adoption, your love of adoption, that it reflects the heart of God. I know you support a missionary who gives his full time to helping with adoptions in the area. You've supported orphanages overseas. This is a church that cares and has committed itself in practical, real-world ways to taking care of these people.

And praise God, that is a fantastic reputation to have. Excell still more. This is something that is near and dear to the heart of God. We don't want to separate care from the gospel, but it is also ludicrous to separate the gospel from care. And so we want to represent the heart of God for those who are hurting, especially for those who are within the body of Christ, by always having an eye to provide love and protection for those who are hurt, disenfranchised, marginalized, or otherwise suffering in this life. But I want you to notice there is one group of people that get left in the desert. God sweeps through the fatherless, taken care of.

The widow, taken care of. The lonely, taken care of. The prisoner, taken care of. But when he leaves, there are still some sad souls dying in the desert. Notice who they are. It's the rebellious. Only the rebellious dwell there. It is, in fact, unjust for God to bless and to rescue those who choose to live in rebellion against him. And so for those who want nothing to do with God, God is content to grant their desire leave them as they are. And there's a warning there for us. Have you chosen God?

Are you living for God? If not, why would you expect him to come across the desert to you? There's this weird attitude I encounter in our culture, especially sometimes talking among the young in college campuses and things where You'll talk to somebody, I hate God, I'm shaking my fist at God, I want nothing to do with him. But then when you ask, why, what is it that would prevent you from believing in God? Well, he's never done this for me, and he's never done this for me, and he's never done this for me, and he's never done that for me. Well, I thought you hated him. Thought you want nothing to do with him. Oh, if you desire the Desert Rider to come to your aid and to your rescue, you need to love the Desert writer. You need to be his. You need to have given your life to him. And for each and every single person who has, God will prove himself sufficient. He will prove himself kind in meeting our needs and giving us grace through the desert. We're gonna kind of take a step away from this introduction now. David's gonna

transition from this picture of the desert writer comforting those who are in the desert. He's now going to sort of cut away to an epic tale that is going to demonstrate just how God's salvation and his help plays out. And he's going to put it in terms of a great battle scene. So if you're a note taker and you like to doodle, this is where you can start drawing swords and stuff. So that'll be fun. Our second big point this morning, if you're taking notes, is the epic victory of the in verses 7 through 31. And if this were a movie, David would have kind of filmed it like this. You would start filming sort of a scene of peace and prosperity. Everybody's celebrating.

And then you get these flashbacks of a crazy battle taking place and a crushing victory and a big victory and royal processional coming back from the battlefield. So it's going to kind of jump around a little bit like that as David lays out this cool picture of what God is doing. And so in verse 7 he begins by introducing this new section and he says, oh God when you went forth before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah, pause. What happens next? What happens next? And by doing this he's drawing forth again all of the Israelites history and knowledge of the Exodus and that incredible story of God's deliverance.

He's kind of loading that all up in RAM. Like remember when God did that coolest thing ever? Yeah, I'm gonna tell you more about that. And so he pauses there and you can almost imagine how this would have been done in song and this great introduction verse comes out and then there's this fanfare and trumpets and stuff. Everybody's like, oh I can't write this next part's my favorite. I want to sing this next part as they get ready for this to come into place. But David puts a salah here draws his people in reminds them of God's faithfulness and then he gives us this next section beginning in verse 8 where he describes the powerful provision of God if you like a bunch of titles you might want to call God the reign giver here I think that might be also one of your word fine things if you're if you got the cool note sheet this morning but in verse 8 it says the earth quaked the heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God Sinai itself quaked at the presence of God the God of Israel You shed abroad a plentiful rain, O God. You confirmed your inheritance when it was parched.

Your creatures settled in it. You provided in your goodness for the poor, O God." And so David introduces this theme of the wilderness and then he starts talking about the earthquake and the heavens dropping rain and he does something really cool. If you see an inception like a dream within a dream kind of an idea, he does like a song within a song thing here.

He quotes Deborah and Berwick's song about the Exodus. He's like, remember the Exodus? And then he quotes a song about a song about an event. And so he sort of nests this whole thing in here. It's really cool. Deborah and Berwick, if you recall back from Judges, they had, by the grace of God, won an incredible victory for the people of God, which included nailing the villain's head to the floor. It's a fantastic story, but this great victory prompted a song of praise to God for his deliverance, and that song references a lot about God's protection and provision of his people during the Exodus again. And so the Exodus kind of became that central story that the people of God would go back to every time they needed an image and a picture of deliverance. And so David quotes this here, just as a kind of a side note, that's a good thing to do, to have a habit of going back and touching base with powerful stories of God's deliverance.

Exodus is a great one. We also now have the gospel itself. It's great to relate our life back constantly to the story, the great epic of Jesus Christ and his deliverance for us. But I do want to point out one thing that's kind of cool here, the way he describes God's reign of blessing that he brought on his people. And again, for the land of Israel, reign was a big deal. If he didn't get rain, everything died. So the picture of rain was a powerful one of provision and blessing and health. But it doesn't just come silently, right? And the soft pitter-patter of rain began to fall. God's blessing has come, right? That's not what David says.

The earth began to shake. Earthquakes. God says, my blessing is coming and I'm going to put on a show as it arrives. I'm going to shake the land itself. And sometimes it's like, well, Lord, it's your still small voice. That's all I need right now. Well, it's a tiny blessings, Lord. That's all I'm looking for. When was the last time you prayed and then you went under the doorway? Right? Uh, you said, I have the kind of God who blesses with earthquakes.

And, and the people around you knew I'm anticipating God's peace and I'm anticipating God's help to come like a downpour in the middle of an earthquake. So come with me, because if you stand right next to me, we'll be safe as we watch God bring his incredible, powerful provision. So we call God the rain giver. This is quite the downpour that we're talking about. Really cool. He's you could also call him, if you will, the spoils bringer, because we've got this picture of God providing his provision, but we're going to see. He provides provision, not just as kind of a Santa Claus out of his bag of toys he's made in the North Pole, but he's going to provide provision as a king who has taken all things from all peoples and now dispenses them according to his good pleasure.

Look at verses 11 through 14 at the plundering victory of our God. Verse 11, the Lord gives the command, the women who proclaim the good tidings are a great host. Kings of armies flee, they flee. And she who remains at home will divide the spoil. When you lie down among the sheet-fold, you are like the wings of a dove covered with silver and its pinnions with glistening gold. When the Almighty scattered the kings there, it was snowing and zelmon." These next verses might be a little confusing because they describe a scene we don't see very often today. What you're seeing here is a picture of the ladies who didn't go to war hearing news that the battle has been won.

That phrase, the Lord gives the command, the Lord gives the word, this phrase is often used in the Old Testament to describe word coming of a battle that had concluded. And the news was going to come, either of victory or of defeat. God's fighting, guess which news that's going to be, right? It's the news of victory is coming back. And so you have the women sitting around and they hear, he won. Yes! Right? And they're beginning to spread that news, which is one thing that women sitting around do particularly well. This is what you get to do when you're a guest preacher and you leave. Right? This is not a bad thing.

Ladies talk a lot about how God wins. Men learn from the ladies to talk a lot about how God wins. And so they're discussing. The king won. The kings of the armies, the other armies, they ran away, they fled. They ran into the mountains of Vashon, as we'll see here in a minute, and they were destroyed there. And God's bringing back the spoils of war. What do you think I'm going to get? What do you think you're going to get? What are you going to do with your new this? What are you going to do with your new that? And that's what they're talking about. That's what they're excited about. This phrase here, when you lie down among the sheepfolds, you are like the wings of a dove covered with evil.

You'll notice you got some uppercase, lowercase things going on. When you lie down among the sheepfolds, that speaks about the people. Lying down among the sheepfolds is typically taken to be an expression of they're at rest, they're at peace. When you do this, you are like, capital U, God is like, a dove covered with silver. And I brought a picture to help make the point. When we think of a dove, we tend to think of a white turtle dove. But this is a Middle Eastern turtle dove. And notice its wings look a lot like they're covered with silver and with gold.

These were the doves that were usually released at the end of a battle to let people know that the battle was over and to announce the victor. And so God rises up like a great turtle dove of victory with gold and silver wings announcing, I won, and we now hear the news and rejoice. Our God is good. But I want to ask another question here. Why is this good God returning to us? Why is he coming back to us. Why not to somebody else? And that's where David is going to go next when he talks about the personal choice of God and how God personally has decided that people like us are going to be His people. People like us are going to be the recipients of His spoil. It's His spoil. Why doesn't He keep it? Why share it with weird people? Look at verses 15 through 18. A mountain of God is the mountain of Bishan, a mountain of many peaks, is the mountain of Bishan. Why do you look with Envio mountains with many peaks, at the mountain which God has desired for his abode? Surely the Lord will dwell there forever. The chariots of

God are myriads, thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as at Sinai and holiness. You have ascended on high, you have led captive, your captives, you have received gifts among men, even among the rebellious also, that the Lord God made dwell there. God owns everything and David points out that this includes the land northeast of Israel which was a land called Beshan, Salomon we just saw that mountain where God chased all the enemies in a snowstorm. That's also part of this region and it was a region that had a certain meaning for the people of Israel. It was a lush region, it was a strong region. David spoke of their strong bulls in Psalm 22. Isaiah mentioned their mighty oak trees in Isaiah 2 13 Jeremiah spoke of the plentiful grazing hills that covered the area in Jeremiah 50 and in one of the more pointed passages Amos even insulted the slightly overweight and rebellious ladies of Israel by calling them the cows of Bishon which wasn't very nice but it pointed to a land that

unlike most of Israel could support a large group of large livestock which most of the kind of stubbly wilderness he typed, land of Israel was unable to do. This was a place that was very fertile and very wealthy. And it was also a place, unlike Israel, marked by real mountains. Real mountains. So some of you have traveled around a little bit and you've seen the pathetic little things that some people call mountains in other places of the country or the world. Coming from Washington, we know what a mountain is. A mountain looks like this, right? This is Mount Hermon. This is in Bashan. Okay? This is Mount Zion. That tiny hill at the bottom of your screen.

That's Mount Zion. So if you were a god, which mountain would you pick to place your glory? Would you pick option A or option B? Right? would go with Mount Hermon every time. That's a God mountain. And this was also a mountain shrouded in mythology. This was where the Rephaim and the Anakim came from. This was that race of giants in the nation of Israel and the county where they came into land. So they were famous for having these giant warriors that fought for them. They also had these powerful gods that were associated with the mountain. Their capital cities Ashteroth And Edrei, Astaroth named after the pagan goddess Astaroth, who was the fertility goddess famous for a worship style that included a lot of sexual immorality.

Astaroth and Edrei both also being the cities where the god Molech was claimed to live. He was famous for being the god that there was all this infant sacrifice to. So what an incredible, mysterious, powerful place this was. Beshan then, if you look, okay, what is Beshan all about?

It's about economic prosperity, military supremacy, sexual perversion, and infant sacrifice. And few nations have nailed that combination quite as excessively as our own. And so we had better watch out. Is America God's chosen people? Is America God's chosen place?

God's not impressed by our mountains or our military and he certainly is not impressed by our sexual perversion and the slaughter of our infants. So what is God impressed by? Himself, himself and he's good and he's kind and he occasionally lets unimpressive people join the party. And so God said, I like Mount Zion just because I'm me and I get to do that. How cool is that? God has also said the same thing about us, those of us who are in Christ. He says, my temple is gonna be Mount Chris, right? How cool is that? I don't have to pretend like I am Bishan, look like Bishan, act like Bishan, or be jealous of Bishan because its mountains are genuinely a lot more impressive. I just need to be grateful that this incredible desert rider wants to park his chariot here. And I hope that that gratitude is in all of us. I really got to pick up the pace here so I apologize. We'll try to cook on out here but there's a few things that we would be remiss to miss out on because the next theme that David takes up here is

the salvation of God and if you skip the salvation of God in your sermon then you lose your pastor card and so that's really important. But follow along as David now kind of transitions from looking at the generosity, the justice, the provision of God and now focuses in very particularly on his salvation beginning in verse 19 there. God should be blessed. Blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation, next Selah. So what we know is that everything that's about to come is going to be all about why God should be blessed because he is the God of our salvation. And he goes on to give us this great little description of God. God is to us a God of deliverances and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. So if you like cool titles you might want to call God the burden bearer and my perhaps favorite from this morning's passage, the death dodger. The death dodger. This is cool. Notice God daily bears our burdens. We know already that the desert rider is coming and all of us

will one day be rescued out of the desert. There will be no desert dwelling places in that final resting place of God's people with him forever. But to God belong not just a salvation and a deliverance, future tense, but to Him belong a whole bag full of deliverances, a whole varied slew of salvations that are for each and every single day. And so God, one of those things that only He can do because He's God, He can be coming on our road of exaltation out on the horizon and at the same time be here giving to us deliverance, comfort, and salvation to sustain us in the desert every single day. And that is really good.

That is really good. He's not just the one who has the ultimate escape from death which he accomplished by crushing that nasty serpent with his son, but he He also is the one who has all the escapes from death. And that's just such a great picture. Are you feeling like you're dying? Have you prayed to the death dodger and said, Lord, give me the deliverance I need today to exalt you today where I'm at? He will do that. He helps his people daily. He also defends his people utterly. at verse 21, truly God will shatter the head of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who goes on and his guilty deeds. I call this one the hairy head crusher.

This is strong language and it's comforting language. Do we desire to see the wicked perish? It's kind of a trick question. Like God there should be a part of our heart that says we hate seeing anyone perish because we know we deserved to perish as much as any other man or woman alive. And we would desire that all would come to repentance. On the flip side, it is not wrong and is a fact appropriate that our hearts should desire to see the day when wickedness finally stops. Right? We don't want to see Cecil Richards destroyed, but we're getting a little sick and tired of our babies getting murdered, amen. And so David says there will come a day when those who have to the end refused to bow to the gracious mercy of God, there will come a day when they will be ended and wickedness will cease. And it will be utter and it will be entire and never again will trouble and wickedness trouble the people of God. And that is good news, that is hope. Hang on to that. It's coming and it's gonna be public.

Look at verses 22 to 25. The Lord said, I will bring them back from Bishan, who's them. The people he chased up there, remember the king's flea? God's like, not so fast. He rides back out, grabs all of his enemies, and drags them back to his mountain. Why? So he can publicly slaughter them in front of us. This is This is, you know, if you don't want your kids play with sticks, you might want to do that. I will bring them back from the depths of the sea, that your foot may shatter them in blood. The tongue of your dogs may have its portion from your enemies. They have seen your procession, O God, the procession of my God, my King into the sanctuary.

The singers went on, the musicians after them, in the midst of the matins bringing tambourines. God will publicly vindicate the righteous. Everybody who ends their life in rebellion will one day acknowledge that God is God, and that His people are on the right side of history. That will happen. We will be there when evil ceases, and it will be messy, and it will be bloody, but it will be right. Everybody's sandals in this passage have some blood on them to remind them that God wins every time entirely. And you know what? None of that blood will be from God's people, because He saves, and He saves entirely as well.

And that divide between those who are with God and those who are against God will be drawn in a way that will forever be a testimony to the justice and righteousness of God. And notice, we're not like knocking our knees and puking and disgusted by all of this. This is what we do before we sing again, before the musicians strike up the fanfare. There's something I don't think we can understand about that today, but it's going to come a time when we will be able to say, praise God, He won. And the war is over forever. Let's go celebrate. This ought to both encourage us to pray, like at the end of Revelation, come Lord Jesus, come, but also to put urgency in our evangelism. This is the end of all those who do not know Christ, and the time is limited for them to change sides.

Verses 26 through 27 give us the picture of God finally then drawing all of his own to himself in the eyes of David. He's speaking particularly the people of God and the nation of Israel. Verse 26, bless God in the congregations, even the Lord, you who are of the fountain of Israel. There is Benjamin the youngest ruling them, the princes of Judah in their throng, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali." So you might be thinking, that's cute. Good for you, Zebulun and Naphtali. What's up with that? Well, if you took it to the land of Israel and the way the tribal portions were allotted, if you look down there at the south, you'll notice Benjamin is the little tiny yellow one there near the top, which is small. It has the honor of hosting Jerusalem, but it's the tiniest.

And Judah, right below it, is the largest and the southernmost tribe. If we zoom back out, we'll notice that Zebulun and Naftali are two of the northernmost tribes. And so these speak of from the least to the greatest, from the most honored to the least honored, from the north to the south, God doesn't forget anybody, right? He doesn't say, well pastors get to come in right away, but you know you got plumbers, they've got to wait a few years. No, all of God's people come to to be with God forever, all together. He doesn't miss anybody. Yeah, but you don't understand, I'm a really struggling Christian. It's been a real battle for me.

Well, have you prayed to ask for God's deliverances for you today? But that doesn't challenge whether or not you're going to be there with God to celebrate when he wins. Because it's not based on how Bishan-like you are, but on the fact that God wants you, and he will make you there. And so God is the great nation-gatherer, all of his people. Those that choose to rebel against God, he's okay taking their money. Verses 28 to 31, he's the tribute taker. "'Your God has commanded your strength. Show yourself strong, O God, who have acted on our behalf because of your temple at Jerusalem. Kings will bring gifts to you.

Rebuke the beasts in the reeds, the herd of bulls with the calves of the peoples, trampling underfoot. The pieces of silver he has scattered the peoples who delight in war. will come out of Egypt, Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God. God brings tribute in from all these nations. You've got that picture of the beast of the reeds, that's Egypt, the bull, everybody has a different idea on who the bull is. Ethiopia or the word Kush there just basically means anything south of Egypt going down through Africa. But from the ends of the earth all those people that still have refused to bow to God here, they are tribute bringers. That's That's all they get to do.

They're all defeated. Their kings have been destroyed, crushed. Their blood has been scattered. And the remains of those nations are now vassal states of the king. And they all come quickly to bring their tribute to God while His mercy might be found. Though we are weak in and of ourselves, Mount Zion is not going to defend against the hordes of Mordor. Right? But God can. And so he keeps his city safe and he raises it to a place of prominence that rules over all the earth. It's pretty epic. It's pretty epic. So how do we respond? And that's what David takes up in these last couple verses. We had the approaching desert rider at the beginning, our third main point this morning, and it's the shortest one, is the awesome sky rider.

The awesome sky rider.

32 sing to God Oh kingdoms of the earth sing praises to the Lord Selah what do you do now you sing who sings everybody sings why cuz that was epic and that's the response that we ought to have to him who rides upon the highest heavens which are from ancient times or as one commentator translated and it's my favorite the primeval cloud writer that's a great one notice this sky writer, what it has said about him. He is the ancient one. He is from ancient times. He's not new at this. He has been coasting through the cosmos ever since he made it. And our God that approaches in the desert, He's not just a philanthropist, which is a common thing today. Well, yeah, we should be, you know, out there helping the poor because, you know, Jesus was a meek man who liked to help people and that should be what we do too. Yes, Jesus was a meek man but he was also king of the universe and he's coming back in his myriads of chariots to reign over all things and next time it's not through the desert it's through the clouds because he's got a really cool chariot that can do that.

And we should not just look out but we should look up when we seek to worship our God. So sing a little bit this way for the guy next to you and sing a little bit that way so the cloud writer can hear. He's also authoritative. The second half of 33, behold he speaks with his voice, a mighty voice. There's a lot of people yelling right now. Bernie Sanders discovered that last night. People yell about what they think is important. Eventually there will be one voice that yells so loud every other voice on earth will have to shut up until they say one sentence Jesus Christ is Lord he's awesome verse 34 ascribe strength to God what does that mean give him strength no that means admit his strength you're really strong not you know you should you should lift these God this will put you know they'll book you up a little bit ascribe acknowledge the strength of God why because his majesty is over Israel and and his strength is in the skies. Oh God, you are awesome from your sanctuary.

Amen. You are awesome from your sanctuary. You're awesome from pretty much any vantage point. Don't forget that. Don't let people embarrass you about you. Oh, you're one of those Christians. Yeah, you really do believe everything the Bible says. Yes, it's awesome. Would you like to read some of it? Don't ever be embarrassed by our awesome sky writer. And he's available. Ever heard somebody use the phrase, power to the people? Power to the people. If you've been around college campuses, you've probably heard it. Power to the people. Down with the man. Power to the people. Did you know that power to the people is a biblical concept?

And it's in this verse. But it does not work at all like our world thinks it works. Our world thinks power comes to the people by rebelling against the structures. by rebelling against the man, by casting off the weight of authority, and by autonomously stepping into this brave new world. That's ridiculous. That's how you destroy a civilization. That's what's happened every single time people have tried that. Incidentally, that's also how you destroy a family. That's how you destroy a church. That's how you destroy a school. That's how you destroy a community. Communities disintegrate under autonomous self-rule, because it's not power to the people.

It's chaos. Look at the end of verse 35. Oh God, you're awesome from your sanctuary. The God of Israel himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God. You want to have a life that's empowered? Follow God. He gives power to his people, his power.

And the quicker we finally acknowledge that we have none and stop trying to pretend, the quicker we are able to live a life in the desert, looking forward to the glory, singing the song of exaltation, that hopefully others in the wilderness who today are rebellious will hear and be captivated by and by the grace of God will eventually add their voices to. We're going to have an opportunity now to bring our offering to the Lord. And as we worship the desert rider and the sky writer in this way, it's not tribute. And so let us come as we have purpose joyfully in our hearts to do so. I really like the liturgical way that we celebrate communion. Everyone comes forward to one common table to share in the meal before us. I'm not saying that this is the only way to do it. Many churches use deacons to hand out the elements, but I like our way better for several reasons.

First, it communicates in a visual way the unity that we share in Christ. You really have to think twice about standing up and getting in line, because doing so says to those around you that you are in fellowship with them and you have a clear conscience towards them. Second, I believe it brings comfort from a greater sense of not being alone. are all in this together. When we stay in our seats and pass the plate, it's easier for those who are feeling alone and isolated to remain so. Sure, you can feel that way even if you come forward, but there's something about moving forward together with all the other less than perfect brothers and sisters that can bring comfort if we choose to let it. It reminds us that we are not alone as we sometimes think we are.

And third, I like the procession aspect of the way we do communion. It gives us a picture of what it would be like when we as all the church gather in that heavenly sanctuary. In just a moment, we're going to sing, Behold Our God, as we come forward. Picture in your mind countless saints all marching in procession to the throne room of God, all belting out these lyrics. Behold our God, seated on his throne, come let us adore him. Behold our king, nothing can compare. Come let us adore him. That is what David was describing in our sermon passage today when he wrote, Your procession is seen, O God, the procession of my God, my king, into the sanctuary.

God in the great congregation the Lord oh you who are of Israel's fountain. That's the kind of worship that moves us from the desert to the sky from inconsolable to full of joy from weariness to hopeful anticipation. Go ahead and stand. As we get ready to come forward may I encourage you to place yourself in that scene that David described and as you sing behold our God, try to imagine what it will be like to behold God in all His glory. And if that's not enough to light your jets, remind yourself that He has made you personally, individually, to be one of His children and is eagerly awaiting the day that you will be set free from this body of death and join Him forever. Our communion table is open to any who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. If If you're a visitor, feel free to join us in communion as long as you profess Jesus as Lord and Savior.

When those who dwell on the lofty mountains of Bashan look down on you with disdain, take courage in the fact that he who rides through the deserts and the heavens will one day silence his enemies and lead us into his courts with praise where we will behold him seated on his throne forever and ever." 1st Peter 1, 13 through 16, puts it this way, therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded sets your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who has called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it's written, you shall be holy, for I am holy." You are dismissed.

When those who dwell on the lofty mountains of Bashan look down on you with disdain, take courage in the fact that he who rides through the deserts and the heavens will one day silence his enemies and lead us into his courts with praise where we will behold him seated on his throne forever and ever." 1st Peter 1, 13 through 16, puts it this way, therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded sets your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who has called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it's written, you shall be holy, for I am holy."

Last Lord's Day we began to look at 2 Timothy 2:22-26. The point of the paragraph is how the Lord's servant should fight the good fight against sin and the ancient serpent.

Like that of Paul and Timothy, we live in a day of lies and self-love. Many sins seem to multiply around us and a couple sins are receiving national media attention. As Christians, we must be able to spot the lies; the big ones should be easy. For example, one of our Washington State Senators, Patty Murray, recently said that attempts to defund Planned Parenthood and roll the clock back on women's health will not happen on her watch. But the phrase "women's health" is a lie. How can she call it "health" while watching little women be dismembered? Is selling the parts of those little women a forward roll? This is only one example but, sadly, Senator Murray is not a cultural edge case.

The easier responses are to 1) do nothing or 2) fight however we want. We either offer no response or an inappropriate response. But both of these are unacceptable. 2 Timothy 2:22-26 describes the necessary alternative.

We already considered that we should Cultivate the Right Character (verse 22) and we should Pick the Right Battles (verse 23). God usually uses high quality and discerning instruments. There are two more parts to correcting others correctly.

After focusing on our character and as we're careful not to engage in foolish battles, there will come a time to fight for the truth. Here's how.

And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. (verses 24-25a)

There is an unmistakable attitude and approach expected here. But who are we talking about? Who needs to have this attitude? The Lord's servant. This is a title used for leaders and teachers in the church; the qualification "able to teach" is required of elders in 1 Timothy 3. But even though it is addressed primarily to pastors, it applies to everyone who ever speaks for truth. Aimed at the shepherds, it trickles down onto the sheep.

Even though 2 Timothy is written to a church leader, and the Lord's servant is a title for a church leader, it applies to everyone. If it didn't apply to everyone, you can bet that as a shepherd, I would have a mob of "attack sheep" travel around with me. As soon as I got into one of these skirmishes I would take my hands off and let them go to town.

And note our position, we are a servant (δοῦλον), a slave. How much bickering would cease if we remembered that we are slaves of Someone else?! We're not great. We have been bought and sent by Jesus. We represent Him. It is easy to forget that we are not speaking for ourselves. His message is important, but the slave is not. We take ourselves too seriously.

And there is some specific instruction for the Lord's servant. He must not be quarrelsome. We can't be fighty. It is wrong to always be poking other people in the eye. It does not represent our Lord appropriately. Have nothing to do with foolish controversies and let's not be known as those who always give the opposing view, especially not in a heated way.

Instead, we are to be kind to everyone, friend and enemy alike. We're to be kind those who agree with us and those who disagree; believers, immature believers, and unbelievers. Be kind, even to Arminians! And if we really wonder what it means to be kind, all we need to do is just think about the last time someone was unkind to us and act like that.

And--as I said especially for leaders/elders/pastors--for all who speak, be able to teach. We should know our stuff. We shouldn't act like we don't know the truth. Don't throw theology out the window. We learn Scripture, prepare our answers, and work to instruct and persuade. That's why earlier in this chapter Paul admonished Timothy, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). It's why Peter exhorted his readers, "in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15-16).

Then patiently enduring evil. Get ready for the attack. When we stand for something people are going to strike. The taller we stand and the louder we speak the more likely we'll be treated poorly, to our face, in letters/emails, and behind our backs. We will face trouble and heartache when we speak truth, no matter how kind we are. It happened to Paul. He said in chapter one that he suffered for preaching and teaching the gospel (verses 8, 11-12), even to the point of being bound with chains as a criminal (2:9). In 3:12 he said "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." And that's how they treated Jesus. Will we--His slaves--receive better treatment? Don't be surprised but prepare and patiently endure. Don't get irritated, don't be resentful, and don't give up.

Then, and notice how long it's taken to get here and how many other things come before, correcting opponents in gentleness. The battle is real. The opponents are real. Real correction is necessary. There is a time for setting people straight. The word "correcting" is like training children, providing instruction so that they'll make appropriate decisions. Paul said "preach the word; ... reprove, rebuke, and exhort" (4:2).

There is also a certain way to set people straight. Look back at verse 24 and the first part of 25. The emphasis is kind, patient, gentle. These three things must mark our defense of the truth or we are doing disservice to our Master. We must follow our Lord the right way. All three of these things are the opposite of pride. Proud people are not kind because they think they're better and look down on others. Proud people aren't patient because they thing they should get what they want when they want it. And proud people aren't gentle because they want everyone to know how strong they are and won't risk seeming weak. If we look back, how many of our fights are due to pride?

But Paul is clear. Are we kind in conversation? Are we patient when someone disagrees? Do we treat our enemies and opponents with gentleness? God (typically) uses kind, patient, gentle, accurate instruments.

The most ironic thing is for Christians (especially Calvinistic Christians) to get fired up and fight like we make the difference.

God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (verses 25b-26)

We may be the instrument God uses, but persuasion and changed minds and repentance and maturity are God-products. He alone can produce those things. And when we talk and preach and serve, God may perhaps grant them repentance. He may not. We've got to obey and be ready instruments either way. But the hope is that He will overcome their resistance even as we're speaking to them.

John Calvin put it this way,

Since the conversion of a man is in the hand of God, who knows whether they who to-day appear to be unteachable shall be suddenly changed by the power of God, into other men? Thus, whoever shall consider that repentance is the gift and work of God, will cherish more earnest hope, and, encouraged by this confidence, will bestow more toil and exertion for the instruction of rebels. We should view it thus, that our duty is, to be employed in sowing and watering, and while we do this, we must look for the increase from God (1 Corinthians 3:6). Our labors and exertions are thus no advantage in themselves; and yet, through the grace of God, they are not fruitless.

Trusting the right Person--God, and in particular the Holy Spirit--is actually much more hopeful than trusting ourselves.

Notice the order. Most of the time we think that if we can convince someone of the truth they will repent. If we can show them enough proof or if we can use airtight arguments they'll be forced to change their minds and then they'll repent, then they'll come to God. But Paul flips that argument on its head and says it is the other way around. The primary problem people have is not with information, either not enough information or incorrect information. The problem is a sinful, proud heart that is blind to truth. Only after God grants repentance, then they can see the truth for the first time. Spiritual, doctrinal issues start in the heart, not in the head.

Besides, the situation is way worse than we think anyway. They may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. We're not dealing with neutral, morally innocent opponents. We're dealing with slaves of satan. It is a spiritual war and his skills are superior. Do we really think we can outsmart the devil? Is the devil overwhelmed by our clever outline? Will we beat him at his game by getting mad? The fight is out of our league. (God typically) uses trusting, dependent instruments, and of course, that's why He gets the glory.

By the way, this is why we pray. J.I. Packer wrote in Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God:

You pray for the conversion of others. In what terms, now, do you intercede for them? Do you limit yourself to asking that God will bring them to a point where they can save themselves, independently of Him? I do not think you do. I think that what you do is pray in categorical terms that God will, quite simply and decisively, save them: that He will open the eyes of their understanding, soften their hard hearts, renew their natures, and move their wills to receive the Savior. (15)

What is true is that all Christians believe in divine sovereignty, but some are not aware that they do, and mistakenly imagine and insist they they reject it....The irony of the situation, however, is that when we ask how the two sides pray, it becomes apparent that those who profess to deny God's sovereignty really believe in it just as strongly as those who affirm it. (16-17)

Will this approach, becoming instruments such as Paul describes, really work? Yes, according to God. It is how to address the worst possible people (see the immediate following paragraph, 2 Timothy 3:1-5).

All of this is a worst case scenario. Sometimes we're just talking with a brother in Christ, a good friend who disagrees. But don't we suppose that if we're required to be kind, patient, and gentle with those who are still captives of our chief enemy, that we should be kind, patient, and gentle with those on our own team who serve the same Lord?

What we believe is important. We should know and speak accurate theology. And our methodology, how we speak must be accurate, not arrogant as well. Our Lord has give us His truth, that truth includes instruction on the right attitude and approach in communicating that truth. We undermine Him when we're arrogant. We cripple our credibility when we're proud.

We ought not trust ourselves. We ought to humble ourselves, follow Jesus' example, and let God work through us. He alone has the power to grant repentance, and He has chosen the means and instruments to bring about repentance as much as He has chosen whom He will grant repentance. He calls us to be instruments that are:

The antithesis between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is as strong as ever. Believing image bearers cannot look for common ground with unbelievers with as much hope as they could a short while ago. As the familiar math word problem put it, two cultures departed the train station in Chicago, and the one steaming to the left is moving a thousand miles an hour. It also jumped the rails and headed over the cliff. Only the offspring of the serpent would think that getting more of its own kind on the death train is winning. Making death legal, or moral sounding or using medical jargon does not make it something other than death.

We live in such a culture/nation/time of lies and self-love. Christians should not be surprised. But what should we be? We should be despising the vile persons and honoring the righteous ones as we saw in Psalm 15:4. The same characteristics that God requires of those who would dwell with Him are characteristics lived out among men. The light shines when we speak truth, in our own hearts, to our neighbors, and about one another (15:2-3). The light shines where we sacrifice our lives, when we die to bring life to others: neighbors, wives, children, even enemies. Little acts of true love may seem like a pebble tossed into the ocean of unrighteousness, but enough pebbles thrown in the same direction might lay a bridge for us to walk across.

We are not the first, let alone the only, generation to live among liars and self-servers. We are also not left on our own to figure out a plan. Jesus came into the world at a time when the religious people were horrible, and the ruling pagan Romans couldn't wait to award inventors of evil. Paul preached the gospel to that sort of people, and he trained Timothy how to pastor in it.

Since it's the summer and since I've already taken a break from Genesis, I want to look at some instructions that Paul wrote to Timothy in his second letter. The first target of his counsel was meant for Timothy, but Paul himself extended it to every "Lord's servant" (2 Timothy 2:24), a title for all ministers and preachers. It also has application for every Christian.

I grew up in a theologically weak church. I didn't know it at the time of course, because that was all I knew. My pastor preached 20 minute messages, most of the time referencing at least a few verses. Our youth ministry was more of a social hangout where good behavior for Jesus was encouraged but there wasn't much depth beyond that.

I remember the first time I ever read a book about theology. It was the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. By chance my mom had the book The Sovereignty of God by A. W. Pink on her shelf. Luckily I took it down and read it. I devoured that book. Since then I've loved theology, reading it, hearing it preached, talking about it, even arguing about it. I've also been in places where--as far as I'm concerned--I've received the best teaching from those concerned to interpret Scripture accurately. Since that summer over 20 years ago my life has never been the same. Some of the reason is because I've increased in my knowledge of God, Scripture, truth, and theology in ways I never could have imagined. Some of the reason is because, at least at times, I've been a real jerk.

You can smell the aroma of a doctrinally arrogant person as soon as they walk in the room. It oozes out everywhere. It comes out when you're evangelizing. You start to think the world deserves God's wrath (and it does) but you forget that the only reason you aren't still in that position is because God was gracious to you, and not because you deserved His grace. It also comes out when we interact with other professing believers in the community. We assume the role of heresy hunters and we're ready to contend for the faith even when the issue has nothing to do with faith. It even rears its ugly head in how we treat others in our own local body. Those who don't know all the right cross references or who use the wrong translation or who wear something different, we jump all over. We fight and bicker with each other. We say it's because we're passionate for the truth, but we're apparently not passionate for people.

That said, things are actually bad. Do we not live with 2 Timothy 3:1-5 stickers on our collective cultural bumpers? How did Paul tell Timothy to handle it? Already Paul told Timothy not to be fearful (2 Timothy 1:6-7), not to be ashamed (1:8-14), to expect to be alone (1:15-18). He knew that Timothy needed strength (2:1-7), that there was much to endure on behalf of the elect (2:8-13), and that word-fussers and irreverent babblers lead people into ungodliness (2:14-17). "Indeed, all who desire to to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (3:12-13). What are we supposed to do?

I thought it would be profitable to study 2 Timothy 2:22-26, a passage that requires us to correct error and battle opponents in a way that is consistent with the doctrines we defend. This paragraph teaches us how to fight for the truth without being mean, rude, and obnoxious. It demonstrates how to hold the right beliefs with the right attitude. I've summarized Paul's commands under four ways to correct opponents with gentleness. So here is how to correct others in a culture of lies and self-love so that we might fight the good fight (Paul's own language in 2 Timothy 4:7).

We start by considering our own hearts. God uses instruments, and while He can use even a donkey, He calls those who would be well used instruments to a life of public quality.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (verse 22)

In order to be the right person with the right character, we must flee youthful passions. Timothy was probably around 40 years old, so youthful has bearing for many of us. Based on the context, youthful passions ("youthful lusts," NAS) probably doesn't have as much to do with sensual lusts, boy/girl relationships or romantic interests as much as it deals with the tendency of young people to get fired up and fight. We're short-tempered and self-assertive. There is something about youth that makes us think we know better and in a moment we're locked and loaded for battle. (Like the sign in my Junior High English teacher's room: "Hire a teenager while they still know everything.") Those with more experience and maturity are less likely to rush ahead, though old heads can still be hot heads. We've got to flee, to be aware of this tendency and run away from our youthful eagerness to stir things up.

Then we must cultivate virtues. We are to pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. These are the personal things we must run after and give our whole attention in the hunt. These are the qualities that must mark us before we are ready to battle for truth in an appropriate manner. Before being known as truth warriors we should be known by our righteousness, our holy obedience to God's standards. We shouldn't fight for something in Scripture, let's say something such as Calvinism, if we're willingly not obeying another part of Scripture. We should be known by our faith, as those who trust and rely on God more than ourselves. We should be known by our love, after all, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." And then we should be known as people of peace. Christ has made peace between us and the Father, now we are to be ruled by the peace of Christ and peacemakers in a hostile world.

Do others know us as unrighteous, unloving, mean-spirited fighters? It is unconvincing to listen to a proud person. All you can hear is their arrogance, not their arguments. It's like trying to listen to someone who's constantly poking you in the eye. But when we cultivate this Christian life in the soil of Christian truth, God may be pleased to win our audience and start persuading them before we even say a word.

Character is less like a weapon and more like a platform. Would you rather make your karate kick from the middle of the floor, or from a post sticking up in the ocean, or while you're treading water in the ocean? A man without character may think he's fighting but it looks more like flailing.

Opponents may be right about where we're wrong, not about the content of our arguments but about the inconsistency of our conduct with our arguments. Be like a teflon pan. It doesn't mean people won't crack eggs on you, but it will mean the yolk won't stick.

How sad it is that we are eager to identify errors in others before we examine our own sins and shortcomings. We've got to start with ourselves. And we shouldn't do this alone; it should be along with those who call on the Lord form a pure heart. Those who call on the Lord are those who worship God; those who align themselves with the Lord. We should be cultivating these virtues in a community of people who will help knock off our rough edges. All our great theology--apart from a local body--is dangerous. Lone Ranger doctrine defenders are often the most arrogant because they are isolated from others who can help them develop character before fighting. Be the right person, cultivate your own character first. God (typically) uses high quality instruments.

Discernment is a very important part of orthodoxy because sometimes we just need to keep our mouths shut.

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. (verse 23)

Verse 23 provides an imperative with a reason. The command is have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies ("speculations" NAS). Some battles are silly. They don't matter. They are foolish (μωρὰς) and ignorant (ἀπαιδεύτους). These conflicts have nothing to do with Christ or helping someone become more like Christ. These debates don't deal with Scripture, salvation, or sanctification, or in our day things like the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage. Certain kinds of controversies come when uneducated and immature people try to prove their point no matter who gets in their way. They've got to be proven right. They're proud. Paul says, have nothing to do with those quarrels. Stay away. Don't even get close.

The reason is because you know that they breed quarrels. They are soil from which strife grows. Like irreverent babble they lead people into more and more corrosive ungodliness like gangrene (2 Timothy 2:16-17).

Religious battles may look different in our day, but they are no less fierce. If you are complaining about high fructose corn syrup with the same vigor that you're campaigning against Planned Parenthood, your scale is out of balance. Defunding GMO companies is not the same as defunding murder companies. Obesity, as defined by our medical professionals, is not the same level of problem as homosexuality, as defended by our judicial officials. Taking to social media to protest that your Comcast Internet is down (again) or that your flight was delayed because of airline dereliction may be the modern way to do business. There is a story, though, about a boy always whining who didn't have any help when the actual wolf came. Make choices, but fight the right battles, on Facebook, Instagram, in the office, etc.

We all know some people who like to argue for fun. They'll debate no matter what the topic. I know. I was one of those. I was voted most argumentative of my class in high school. And though I participated in some decent debates, a lot of my arguing was foolish and ignorant. We must make sure we choose the right hills to die on. God (typically) uses wise instruments.

Just as God revealed what we must believe, He revealed how we must communicate what we believe. Our understanding of truth should be accurate, our proclamation of that truth cannot be arrogant.

We should know our stuff (think 2 Timothy 2:15, 3:16-17). We must care about the truth and the people. We must be willing to have and identify opponents. We must sit out of stupid shouting matches and stand on a platform of honor with others. We'll see two more ways next Lord's day.

I saw a tweet this morning, "If you're afraid to offend people, don't be a preacher. If you love to offend people, don't be a preacher." This goes for all disciples of Christ.

Nothing is more foolish then disregard for God, whether that disregard is mild or militant. Nothing is more wise than worship of God. You and I are made to worship, and we'd be fools to think we don't need to. We'd also be fools to think that we can worship any way we want. God deserves assiduous worship and God defines acceptable worship. Psalm 14 makes the previous point and Psalm 15 makes the latter.

In Psalm 14 we learned lyrics to help us process the spiritual corruption around us that comes when men won't worship. In Psalm 15 we learn lyrics to help us pursue the spiritual qualities needed in us for worship. Psalm 14 portrayed a fool in his folly. Psalm 15 portrays the worshiper in his walk. Psalm 14 reminded the singers that the Lord will judge the evildoers. Psalm 15 reminds the singers that the evildoers are not welcome to dwell with the Lord.

We saw this already in the Psalter, Psalm 5.

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

It isn't evil in abstract, evil as gnarly looking thunder cloud floating on the horizon, that doesn't belong with God, though it is true that in Him is no darkness at all. The point in Psalm 5 and the point in Psalm 15 is that God only permits certain persons into His presence. Evil is personal, so is holiness. Gender doesn't matter, nor age or language or education or occupation. But it absolutely matters what kind of character they have/they are. Psalm 15 is a song about the life of worship, a description of the acceptable pre- (and post) worship path.

The song works like a catechism with a question and answer format. Set to melody, the would be worshippers learn what should be asked as well as the right reply. Psalm 15 also finishes with an important result. This is a QAR catechesis for those who would be unshakeable.

Being unshakeable is a valuable asset in the midst of so many fools. Godless men mock, trap, crush, shame, trouble, shoot at, plunder, and position themselves to master "the generation of the righteous." Even their mercies are cruel (see Proverbs 12:10). Who can stand against the wicked? Those whom God calls "my people" (14:4). Psalm 15 asks and answers and assures His people.

The first line of the song swings two hammers in order to drive home one nail.

O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent?

No more important question could be asked.

The question addresses the qualifications for worship. The word tent typically meant the Tabernacle (translated as such in the KJV), calling it your tent leaves no doubt. It referred to the place of God's revealed presence, the place for worship where God met with and blessed His people. Your holy hill refers to Jerusalem, the same place as "Zion" in 14:7, the city on a hill and the last historical location of the tent (before the building of the permanent Temple).

The men of Israel were required to attend at least three annual feasts in Jerusalem. These two "who?" questions, perhaps sung by the pilgrims to the priests as they approached the Tabernacle, deal with the main concern: who, or better, what kind of man shall sojourn or shall dwell in the presence of God? Who may abide with God?

This is a question that fools don't bother with. They don't concern themselves with God or care if He has standards.

The majority of the song answers the question. Through a series of positives and negatives, the life of the worshipper is put on display (just as the life of the evildoer was displayed in the previous song). Here are the requisite virtues and prohibited vices.

The first three positives describe the man in his personal integrity.

He who walks blamelessly and does what is right

Walk is a well-known wisdom word that describes a man's habits and pattern of conduct, his mode of operation. A man is blessed who avoids certain influences (Psalm 1) and here he walks blamelessly. He isn't sinless, but he deals with sin the right way. He also does what is right and speaks truth in his heart. He is a righteous-doer not an evildoer (14:4). He says in his heart, "There is a God and I'm not him" (unlike the fool in 14:1). He pursues truth, goodness, and blamelessness. His righteousness is from the inside out, and on the outside it is obvious for sake of his reputation.

The next three negatives describe the inverse of the man in his relational loyalty.

who does not slander with his tongue

How he relates to the persons near him, his neighbor and his friend, determines if he is qualified to relate to the person of God and be near Him. The life of worship affects his mouth. He does not slander with his tongue, nor do his ears take up a reproach. He doesn't say, "Hey, did you hear about...." or "Hey, tell me what you heard about...." In other words, don't tell lies or listen to lies and then let them stand on your shoulders to get over the fence into the next yard. Don't take accusations up, put them down. This verbal biting and devouring is a way of doing evil to his neighbor. From the same mouth come blessing to God and cursing of those made in God's image? That's not good with God.

The next two contrasting phrases describe the man in his cultural associations, who he identifies with as "my people."

in whose eyes a vile person is despised,

There is another possibility for translating the first part of verse 4. It could be, "who despises himself as vile in his own eyes." This would take the but as a contrast between honor; he does not honor himself but he does honor others. However none of the major translations understand it this way. We should be humble, yes, but verse 4 is not about spelunking into the seventh circle of introspective guilt.

This is about correct categorization and connection. The life of a worshipper sees evildoers and the vile person is despised. The vile man is the reprobate, the one committed to murder in the name of choice and thievery in the name of helping the poor. A vile man fixes himself toward evil, he doesn't just fall into it. They are to be despised, given no approval, let alone admiration. God is love and God hates the wicked (Psalm 5:5, 6). Those who worship God reflect Him.

The worshipper is not a (cynical or self-righteous) recluse. He honors those who fear the LORD. He honors God's people, the people he is a part of. Do they worship the Lord? Then they are on the same side. He doesn't distance himself from them or talk down at them. The New Testament illustration of a body would work here. Don't despise another member of your body. That doesn't even make sense. Nor is it consistent with the life of worship.

The final phrase in verse 4 may belong with the first two phrases.

who swears to his own hurt and does not change; (Psalm 15:4)

Commitments made are commitments to be kept, no matter what. Vows are better to avoid than break. You do what you said you were going to do. You keep your word. A worshipper of God will be faithful and dependable like God, who also sacrificed to his own hurt.

Perhaps this relates to the first part of verse 4. If the culture began calling evil good and good evil, and you had promised to help someone who was now being attacked and condemned, what would you do? If the believing bakers were thrown into prison, the fellow worshippers would honor them by taking them food (or promoting their story and/or helping them to pay legal fees), even to their own hurt. Hebrews 10 illustrates this.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. (Hebrews 10:32–35)

Worshippers don't quit honoring the righteous when the righteous get picked on. That's when we ought to honor them more, and then if we get lumped in and take our lumps, that will make the suffering more sweet.

The final part of verse 4 may also relate to verse 5. If you offer a loan to a neighbor in order to help him, you would rather let him take advantage of you than for you to take advantage of him.

The beginning of verse 5 describes the man in his financial affairs.

who does not put out his money at interest

Two unrighteous approaches are identified: usury and bribery. The law prohibited charging interest on loans to fellow citizens (Exodus 22:25). The reason for giving a loan was likely because a family was in trouble, maybe about to sell themselves into slavery. Interest added to the same problem: now they owned more money that they didn't have. It takes advantage of those who should be cared for, a way of shaming the plans of the poor (Psalm 14:6).

Taking money as a way to make legal decisions is also prohibited in the life of worship and was against the law (Exodus 23:8). Justice is not a commodity to be auctioned to the highest bidder. Even if you were paid to do the right thing it is still inappropriate, let alone if taking cash against the innocent. Economic and judicial integrity mark the life of worship.

A few more things about these characteristics. First, the list represents rather than exhausts the life of an accepted worshipper. It covers a lot of principles without providing an exact response for every case. Though there are 11 items in Psalm 15, they do not match the 10 Commandments, and Israel knew that those were pretty important. David provided a lyrical catechism for young (and old) to show the bearing of the life of worship.

Second, the list of characteristics reveals the life of a worshipper accepted by God, but not how he came to be accepted by God. The song speaks about those who walk and dwell with God, those who are being changed as they worship God, and not that those works save those persons.

We are all sinners. David sinned. The sacrificial liturgy enacted in the Tabernacle in Jerusalem to which these worshippers were going was for sinners. Everyone is called to worship, even if they do not meet these characteristics, and they must start with humble repentance and seeking forgiveness for falling short. The list is Psalm 15 is not prohibitive as much as it is directive. Examining your life before you come isn't to keep you from coming but to remind you why you need to come. It also reminds you what sort of course should be pursued when you go.

Third, these are earthly characteristics. Worship does not take us to another place, it changes how we live in this place.

God is glorified in holy worship, in the congregation and in the community. But the song ends with a personal encouragement.

He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalm 15:5)

The ESV says, never be moved. The NAS translates it, "will never be shaken," the NET "will never be upended." Being pushed to the brink and falling has come up a number of times already in the Psalter. The arrogant claim this for themselves, "I shall not be moved" (Psalm 10:6). The righteous don't want their enemies to taunt them, "let my foes rejoice because I am shaken" (13:5). When we are conscious of the LORD's presence we rejoice "because he is at my right hand I shall not be shaken" (16:8).

We are in a battle. There is hostility between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. We have two concerns: whom does God accept? How will that affect me in the world? If we answer the first question correctly and pursue righteousness by grace, if we desire to please Him, then we will not please those who hate Him. Security comes from God when we dwell with Him in worship.

Who you are in your heart when no one is watching, how you give and receive information about others, your perspective on who are truly courageous in culture, and the values you embrace in business are part of a life of worship.

These only work by faith, and faith is what the fool doesn't have. Faith frees you to give help, frees you to defend and let God take care of the results. You won't live this way without faith in Him. You need worship of Him to stimulate it.

Does your character prepare you for worship or does worship prepare your character? Yes. If you would be unshaken, learn this short catechism.

If the life of worship requires certain characteristics then now is the time when you begin preparing for next Lord's Day. But actually, because we become what we worship, you have been being prepared for worship by worship, and your behavior this week will show it. Which comes first, the character worship requires or the character worship produces? Neither. God comes first who is at work in us to establish our hearts blameless in holiness.

[M]ay the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. (1 Thessalonians 3:12–13, ESV)

We like to look. Not that we all look good, but we all are good at looking. Contrary to what your mother told you about how impolite it is to look, it is wise to open your eyes and see who's doing what around you. Solomon wanted men to look at ants (Pro 6:6), to look out the window at the man following the strange woman to his harm (Pro 7:6), to look at the helplessness of wise-in-his-own-eyes guy (Pro 26:12) or the man hasty in his words (Pro 29:20), and to look at the man skillful in his work (Pro 22:29). The simple can become wise, the lazy can be motivated to work, if the right sort of looking takes place.

We like to look and we also like to talk. At times this is inappropriate. We shouldn't talk about other people in order to make ourselves look good. But we will talk. We will see a lot of what others do and we will make judgments about it. Not only is this not wrong, we will do it. We must do it. Though we must learn how to do it well. We need lessons.

One of the best places to learn such lessons is lyrics, especially inspired ones, gifted to us in the Psalms. Paul wrote in Ephesians and Colossians that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-19) and when the word of Christ dwells in us (Colossians 3:16) that we will speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That means we should know the lyrics, meditate on them day and night (Psalm 1). Then, when we are looking around to categorize what's happening in our world, we'll be ready with a strategic psalm.

Psalm 14 is just the type of training song for the playlist of our poser-modern, poser-Christian times. Here is a song that describes the nature of man using the same vocabulary about corruption used by Moses in Genesis chapter 6. Here is a song that describes Yahweh looking down on corrupt men as He did in Genesis chapters 11 and 18. Adam sinned, so then mankind has made a mess ever since.

I've got a couple reasons for thumbing back to Psalms instead of moving into Genesis 4 right away. I believe Psalms are weapons for our spiritual warfare that too many Christians have keep wrapped up at the back of our Old Covenant closets. That's why I've done some messages about and in Psalms the last couple years. I just happened to stop last fall with Psalm 13. Psalm 14 is a great prelude to the upcoming chapters in Genesis. It also is the sort of Psalm we need in our day.

What happens when men live like there is no God? What do they do? Is it better for humanity and government and justice? How will we recognize the God-rejectors? Do they announce it or live it? And if there are any faithful worshippers left, what should they do? They should sing psalms and hymns about spiritual corruption. They'll be wise to sing (the right sort of songs) about fools.

Psalm 14 laments the corruption but offers wisdom for the righteous. Though no specific historical details are given, this psalm was written by David and at some point given to Israel's choir director to be arranged for corporate worship. It may have been written during Saul's reign as king but, whether or not, the spiritual condition of the surrounding culture is not good.

Three notes make up the chord of this song: Foolish Corruption (1-3), Futile Warfare (4-6), and Future Rejoicing (7).

From the inside out and all across the earth men do not perceive or pursue God.

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

This statement may be in the top 10 most well-known in the Bible, or at least in the Old Testament. We saw the content of this thinking already in Psalm 10:4, here David characterizes a man who thinks it as a fool. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God."

Let's identify two types of atheists: the practical atheist and the atheist proper. Not that it is proper or correct to be an atheist, but the atheist proper really tries to believe that he believes that there is no God. The practical atheist believes that he believes that there is a God, he just doesn't care. The atheist proper puts his faith in a godless existence, or at least he refuses to call the objects of his adoration a "god." The atheist proper tries to argue the evidence for God's existence out of his mind and the more militant treat believers in God as the fools.

Practical atheists are much more easy to get along with. They don't have a theological agenda. They may say that there is a God, maybe even the God of the Bible. Why not? But they don't see fit to acknowledge Him as a subject or object.

Which sort of God-denier is this song about? It could be either. He says, There is no God but he says it in his heart, he says it "to himself," not necessarily out loud. Then he might lost the conservative vote. In David's case, there is nothing particularly foreign about the fools. These are domestic fools, Jewish fools, religious fools who probably made the minimum number of sacrifices to placate the priests.

But they are fools nonetheless. The Hebrew word is nabal. They do not have low IQs, they do not wear dunce caps. Based on verse 4 they may be the governors and judges and movie producers and newspaper editors who determine what is "right" and "equal" and "liberty." But in reality they are the fools. Their conduct shows it and the next three phrases in the second half of verse one reveal the rot.

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,

Corrupt like rust through the floor boards that makes the road visible. They do abominable deeds, their works are vile. None...does good.

Maybe that is a poetic overstatement, dramatic license for the music. Verses 2 and 3 bring forward the expert witness, who also happens to be the Judge.

The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,

They have all turned aside;

The phrasing in verse 2 is exactly like that in Genesis 11:5 before the judgment at Babel as well as in Genesis 18:21 before the fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. Yahweh looks down. He stoops over, so to speak, and makes a formal investigation (which usually leads to judgment). Though He knows, the song reminds us that He's looking. He pays attention, and better than we could. Yahweh looks for any who understand, the ones who seek after God.

The word corrupt in verse 3 is like sour milk in your mustache. It stinks so bad that it stings. The whole carton is tainted.

The catholic depravity is demonstrated with all turned and together they are corrupt, none who does good, not even one. From David's limited perspective, the LORD's exhaustive perspective is worse than pessimistic. He confirms the comprehensive corruption.

In our day it might sound like this from Supreme Court Justice Kennedy in his opinion on the mandatory legalization of homosexual "marriage."

[R]ights come not from ancient sources alone. They rise, too, from a better informed understanding of how constitutional imperatives define a liberty that remains urgent in our own era.

We don't need God, we don't need "ancient sources" like the Bible. We've got humans. We've got us! "I think therefore I don't need God." But once we give up God we've given up any possibility of standards and dignity and no wonder He calls us fools.

The unrighteous are not neutral. Unrighteous men do not want to be left alone to do their unrighteousness in private, or even to do unrighteous things to other unrighteous men. This is war. The seed of the serpent isn't satisfied with being tolerated. Once God is gone from their hearts, lust for God's throne consumes them. It causes them to fight in a battle they cannot win against people who only have God as their protection.

Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers

The question begs for some reality checking, like a dog running full speed at something twenty feet away on his fifteen foot chain. It is aimed at they, the they who are evildoers, the evildoers who do not call upon the LORD. In other words, the fools. The song let them have their atheistic claim for three verses, as if David said, "You believe that you don't believe in God, but don't you believe that belief is dumb?"

Have they no knowledge or, "Don't they know better?" "How could they be so foolish?" They don't depend on the LORD--like He demands--and they destroy the LORD's people--who He defends. "Their evil deeds are characterized as casual acts of self-focused consumption that nevertheless have ultimate consequences for those consumed" (Gerald Wilson). What in the world are they doing? Do they really think that they can get away with this?

No, they don't.

There they are in great terror,

The word There is similar to "behold." Look at them there.

Like the preacher who wrote, "Weak point, yell here!" the fools boast most when victory is least likely. They may have the majority, they have the media, they may have the legislative and executive and judicial branches, they may have the rhetorical high ground and clever, trending hashtags and still their hearts are melting in fear.

They are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. They may not look as if they are living their nightmare. They probably won't admit the darkness of their dread. It doesn't change that they are on the wrong side of history. However consolidated their rebellion may be, God is with, He supports and stands with the righteous (see Psalm 1:5-6).

You would shame the plans of the poor, for example, like Margaret Sanger attempting to destroy a group of people by making them think that the killing services are benefiting them. Believers who desire to be faithful to the law of God but get caught praying or who get caught not bowing before the idol of homosexuality and so are thrown into the hate furnace heated seven times the normal. The foolish try to make others look foolish. The fearful attempt to use fear and shame. But for the righteous the LORD is his refuge.

The final verse turns the tune all the way into a major chord with a prayer and an expectation.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

Zion is the place that represented God’s presence, the poetic title used especially through the psalms and prophets about His peculiar revelation of Himself as a good for His people. With His presence comes all blessing. David sings about a certain future, not a conditional one ("if"), when the LORD restores the fortunes of his people. When He gives rain and fruit and grandchildren and peace, then there will be reason to rejoice and be glad. Jacob and Israel are names that represent the chosen nation, God’s people, and yet we share a similar hope, hence why Spirit-filled and Word-filled Christians can sing the same song.

Looking around David saw rottenness and ruin. Looking ahead by faith David saw restoration and rejoicing, and that enabled current rejoicing.

Atheism of any kind is dangerous. We can thank God that so much of the time He restrains man from acting out the full foolishness of their principles. The song already demonstrates the discord of their lives: corrupt, abominable, perverse, terrible and in terror. But it could get worse.

Like a roofing company employer who says to himself, "There is no gravity," the consequences are disastrous.

This message is so important that Psalm 53 is almost an exact repeat. It would be like having two versions of "Amazing Grace" in a hymnal with only one line in one verse is different.

The apostle Paul quoted Psalm 14:1-3 in Romans 3:10-12. It starts his final round about man’s sinfulness. He aims to shut “every mouth” so that “the whole world may be held accountable to God” (3:19). That’s why he said “all have sinned and all short of the glory of God” (3:23). Which side are we on? Well we were fools even if we’re not now by God’s grace.

I appreciate Paul’s logic leading us to conviction. But the original setting of the truths about spiritual corruption are meant as lyrics leading us to confidence. Anyone can see foolishness and talk about it. It is not hard to make a case for the foolishness of those around us. But observations and arguments—as they are—justify our complaints. Anyone can see and complain.

A song like Psalm 14 teaches us to put observations to use toward boldness and hopefulness and courage. When they say that we are foolish, we really can say, “Nuh uh, you are.” And we’re not just fighting foolishness with foolishness, we’d be fighting foolishness with faith. We’d be fighting foolishness with worship. We’d be fighting with psalms.

We can appreciate much in the contemporary Christian, gospel-centered music, but rarely does it address the foolishness of unbelief enough in order to remind us that we’re seeing the corruption correctly, and that corruption—-as bad as it is—-is a fool’s spit-wad against the mountain of God’s refuge.

Two seeds, two songs, both calling each other "fool". It isn't whether or not you will sing songs about others being fools, it's what is your standard for deciding who is a fool. Man is good or God is good. One looks foolish, one is foolish.

We will talk about fools, but will we sing about them? Talking (or listening to others talk) about fools typically leads to complaints. Singing about fools can lead to clarity and confidence in God. It is my job as a pastor to feed you with theology and to help you learn the best songs for your fear of the Lord.

There are two kinds of evildoers: those who do evil and those who are said to do evil. Beloved, you must do good so that it is said to be evil by the self-proclaimed evil police. But keep your conduct right in God's eyes so that men will glorify Him when He makes His standard clear for all to see.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11–12, ESV)