Speak and Do Not Be Silent

Now, let's turn in our Bibles to Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

It's where we'll be reading from, Acts chapter 18. I'll start with verse 1 and read to verse 23.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 18, verse 1. Do listen carefully because this is God's holy and inspired word.

Acts 18:1

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy

with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave

Rome, and he went to see them.

Because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked,

for they were tent makers by trade.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks to.

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word,

testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus.

And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to

them, Your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house

of a man named Titius Eustace, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his

entire household, and many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid,

but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will

attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.

And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.

But when Gallio, who was pro-council of Achaia The Jews made a united attack

on Paul And brought him before the tribunal, saying,

This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law,

But when Paul was about to open his mouth Gallio said to the Jews If it were

a matter of wrongdoing or bishops' crimes, O Jews I would have reason to accept your complaint,

But since it is a matter of question about words and names and your own law

all, see to it yourselves, I refuse to be a judge on these things.

And he drove them from the tribunal, and they all seized Sosthenes,

the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the tribunal.

But Gallio paid no attention to any of this.

After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers

and set sail for Syria and with him Priscilla and Aquila at Sancre.

And he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow, and they came to Ephesus, and he left them there.

But he himself went to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

When they asked him to stay longer for a longer period, he declined.

But on taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills.

And he set sail from Ephesus.

When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church,

and then he went down to Antioch, and after spending some time there,

he departed and went from one place to the next,

through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

This is the word of the Lord.

You can be seated. Let's pray. Lord, as we are about to open your word and look into it.

We pray for your Holy Spirit now to help us see what we need to see and hear

what we need to hear and ultimately be drawn and pushed and loving Jesus Christ.

And we pray in his name. Amen.

I'll be focusing on a lot this morning on verse six.

And as I do, I was struck by the question that I'll ask you, is it ever okay to curse?

To curse. I don't mean curse like grandpa did when he dropped the tool on his

toe or when you smashed your fingers in the door.

It's a different kind of cursing. That's a different sermon.

But curse like Paul did here. Again, not cursing like naughty words,

you know, certain words that we exclaim when we're angry. But here in our passage, Paul curses.

I mean, he actually levels against the Jews there in the city.

And I think prophetically the Jews of the nation, which will receive that in AD 70.

And Paul says this, it's interesting. He goes there and he says,

and when they opposed him and reviled him, and we'll look at those words are pretty strong.

Wrong, he shook out his garments, one part, by the way, acting out one part

of a curse. This itself was a curse act or symbol.

Shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.

In the original, it actually says your own blood on your own head.

I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. So he looks at these

Jewish leaders, these stubborn

representatives, heads of the nation of Israel and said, shakes out his garments,

which we'll look at, and then says, your own blood on your own head.

Not too far distance were the words of the same sorts of Jewish people who said,

let his blood be on our heads with the crucifixion of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paul's cursed here in this text. I want to develop it some. I'll first go through

the context of Corinth and Aquila and Priscilla and what Luke is after there,

but we'll be looking at this.

Prophetic forecasting of Paul here of the curse that's about to come to the nation of Israel.

But it's also a curse, by the way, that's twofold because we see in this story,

the story ends awesome, by the way.

For those of us Americans, if you're like me, you love a happy ending.

Most of the stories we've seen are not too happy. You know, at the end of the

story, it's Paul that gets beat.

At the end of the story, it's Paul that gets stoned. At the end of the story,

he's being lowered down and taken

out, whisked out because he's under threat. At the end of this story.

Those stubborn Jews, those stubborn leaders, they're the ones who get beat.

So it's a little bit of a blip so far on the pattern that we've seen.

All of a sudden, Paul gets beat, Paul gets torn, blah, blah,

blah. Now all of a sudden, after Paul's cursed to these people,

directly to these leaders, it's the leaders themselves who get beat.

We all say, yes, finally. We get a little bit of a relief here from this lamentable

cycle of just constant persecution.

But here we get a forecasting of what's going to come, what's happening here,

particularly with the leaders of the nation of Israel. So we'll get to that,

and that's how we'll sort of focus on and close. But first, the context.

Here again, Paul is going to a new city, and as usual, Paul goes to a city that's

the center of something.

We're going to see as we move through these missionary journeys that there are

three major cities that Paul would use to launch out his three major missionary

journeys and travels, Antioch, Ephesus, and Corinth.

Now, there's a real irony here with Corinth, because as we're going to see in

a moment, Corinth is not exactly your ideal city for which to both plant churches

and then launch from there into the planting of other churches.

But Paul received a vision that encouraged him to stay there and preach.

And I'll be with you, he said. Don't be afraid. Speak.

And do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack you.

Again, it's pretty unusual for Paul.

And so he settles into this city. Corinth, how do you describe Corinth?

I mean, Sodom and Gomorrah of the Greek Roman era, San Francisco, if you will,

of all the cities that Paul goes to, and all the cities that you and I would

want to go to, ones you would tell your sons if they have a job or trading,

don't go to Corinth, son.

Don't go there because the city is ripe with corruption and particularly with sexual immorality.

It is sort of the capital of all things debased and debauched with regard to sexual immorality.

The god of the city, the city's proclaimed god was Poseidon because Corinth

was surrounded on both sides by the sea.

But the real god that moved all the commerce and all the activity and most of

the casual things in the Corinth was the goddess Aphrodite.

If you know your Greek gods, Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty.

Venus is what she's called by the Romans, but Aphrodite was a God whose very

worship excited and was intended to excite lust.

That's what it was about, love. And they don't mean like two women.

Yesterday was a wedding. It was beautiful to hear these vows.

It doesn't mean till death do us part. This is just lust.

Out and out, in the open, lust. Aphrodite's shrine was served by a host of priestesses,

could put in their prostitutes, who helped to give Corinth a rank flavor of immorality.

There was actually a phrase in Greek that people knew well, if you had done

something that was discovered that it was debauched and debased and not above

level, they would say, you played the Corinthian.

Literally, there was a Greek phrase that meant to parenthesize something would

be to take it and sexually debase it and debauch it.

The city forms a background, interesting too, and each city has its own flavor.

And in each city, I want you to notice that when you go to a city,

you have certain challenges.

You would expect Paul, for instance, to go to Athens.

And last week we saw him. I love that story. He stands at the Supreme Court

of Athens and he proclaims the gospel. and one of the court members is converted,

and becomes a Christian. It's glorious.

But that's what you would want to do if you're Paul. I want to go to the center

of the theological intellectual world and challenge the philosophers. Yay.

But here, basically you're challenging the center of worship of sexual immorality.

And as we see it, whether it's Corinth or whether it's Philippi or wherever

he goes, the power of God to save whomever he wants to save is evident.

Because I can tell you, you wouldn't expect the salvation and the growth of

churches and the planting of churches in any city that was known for sexual

immorality, but especially Corinth, especially Corinth.

This would be the place will be the hardest, most pernicious forms of immorality

and an unethical behavior. It was known all over the world.

So you see that and keep that in mind as you think about what Paul is doing.

And he goes, he preaches the gospel.

And it's why Paul can say, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Why? Because it's the power of God to salvation to anyone, and even the Corinthians.

Now, you'll notice that Paul did have trouble.

If you read through the letters of 1 and 2 Corinthians, you see exactly what

the troubles were. Most of them were closely related to sexual immorality.

You also can see why in the fourfold Council of Jerusalem statement about pagan

worship, the blood and the idols, food sacrifice, strangle, those were a little odd.

But you can see here now, especially, where you are not supposed to be involved

in sexual immorality in the temples, in the pagan temple services,

because these ones in particular were closely associated with sexual immorality.

So look at his story. First he goes, Paul left Athens, went to Corinth.

He found a Jew named Aquila and his wife, Priscilla. Beautiful young,

beautiful couple that were tent makers. That's also what Paul did.

Usually, I mean, it's so well-known among Christian circles that if a pastor

has to work full-time outside of his calling, he's called a tent maker because of this very situation.

Don't think of pup tents or outdoor world or camping on a small scale.

It's not like Paul had a little side business selling tents to campers. These are houses.

These are the homes in which many of the people in the ancient world would live

with large poles and the material made of leather and various things which required

specialized as stitching,

and organizing and ranging so that an entire household, if you will,

you might think of maybe pictures you've seen of the military when they have

a forward operating base in an area and they have these large green tents that are basically,

made into barracks where people live inside and they're big enough to have air

conditionings and kitchens and all kinds of things in them.

This is similar to what Paul would be doing. So he's making tents,

he's building homes as it were, and he migrates together with Aquila and Priscilla

because they're also making tents.

It's interesting, too, and it's worth noting as we read through Acts,

at least I want you to be sensitive to Luke. Luke's the author.

And Luke is sensitive to you.

I hope you know that. He loves people. And all throughout the story of Acts,

yes, Paul's at the center.

Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, all these guys, they're out front.

They're the ones, they're the tip of the spear. But all throughout the story,

Luke is constantly reminding us, we need you. We need people in the church.

And the people of the church are very important to Luke.

Luke as an author is, if you read his gospel, for instance, he's very sensitive

to people, particularly people who would be considered on the margins, on the outside.

Luke in his gospel, for instance, is the only gospel that records the parable

of the Good Samaritan. Only one, not in any of the others.

The parable also of the widow and the unjust judge, only in Luke.

Multiple numbers of stories in Luke are highlighting God loves the needy God

loves the orphan God loves the widow God loves ordinary people

Like we are And you see that throughout Acts As we've seen in this story We

met Barnabas Some of these names We met Barnabas We met Philip We met the Ethiopian eunuch.

He names people. Chapter 13, at the church at Antioch, there were prophets,

Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manan,

a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch.

When he went to Durba and Lystery, he met a man named Timothy,

a young man that we're going to see more and more of.

And of course, the beloved Lydia that I preached on not too long ago,

a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, a worshiper of God.

These lovers of God would become the central backbone of the church of Jesus Christ.

And Luke wants you to know that, especially as you're sitting there,

you think we are the people of God. And Luke is constantly reminding us,

it's not just Paul preaching.

It's not just the preachers and the evangelists and the apostles.

It's the people of God whom God is rescuing, real life people,

real life trophies of the kingdom of God's grace that he saved.

And so we've seen this all through, but I wanted to highlight.

And one scholar says this, and I was reading a commentary.

He says, the interest with which the author obviously takes in Aquila and Priscilla,

shows us that they were so important for the history of the Christian mission

that Luke could not overlook them.

And I would say that would be true for every one of the named people in the

narratives all along the way, which means you are also absolutely central to

the story of redemption and cannot be overlooked.

So Priscilla and Aquila are loved, and you'll notice their story is close to

everyone else's that we've seen, they're pushed there by persecution.

They were in Rome. They were pushed out by Claudius. They ended up going to Corinth.

That would be a downgrade to go from Rome to Corinth in that city of sexual immorality.

And so we see that Paul loves them very much.

In 1 Corinthians 16, 19, it says, the churches of Asia greet you.

Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily. And the Lord...

And it says, with the church that is in their house. So these tent makers were

obviously wealthy enough to have a large house and to have a house church that met them.

Romans 16, he says, greet Aquila and Priscilla, my fellow workers in Christ

Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom I not only give thanks,

but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

So these are two critical people who just happened to be there,

meet Paul, were converted, began to have a church in their house and the church was blessed by them.

But also as Paul's moving and you'll see the turning point comes. So he's a tent maker.

Some people have actually, I've heard people argue that no pastor should work

full time in the church and get paid. He should be a tent maker.

Well, Paul wasn't a tent maker all the time. We see it in this very text.

He was a tent maker when he first would go to a city. This is typically how he acted.

You could see that in the stories. He goes to a place, he puts no burden on

the newborn church there. They don't have to pay him a penny.

But he is, when the time comes, getting money from formerly planted churches

who send money, which is what happened.

They brought a gift from Macedonia to Paul and that's where the trouble started

because you see him shifting from tent making and then it says basically,

now he started full-time ministry and he started causing a lot of trouble.

So Paul at this turning point is saying, by the way, it's mentioned in 2 Corinthians

1 where Paul actually mentions that into the Corinthians, I wasn't a burden to you.

You didn't give a penny to me, but the church in Macedonia supported me in my

work there. And that was typically what he did.

And so then we move to this, now that he's full-time, now that he's kind of unleashed, right?

Paul is unleashed from the tent making part-time stuff.

He's full-time doing this and he's full-time troublemaker as well.

He's going about stirring up things and he stirs up the Jews so much that it

says they came to him, verse six, and when they opposed him, they reviled him.

They were stubborn. I want you to understand the character because when you

see Paul, you know, we've seen him rebuke demons. We've seen him do certain

things. He doesn't just do it out of personal animosity, like, I'm tired of you.

You know, there you go. Bang, I'm going to zap you with some miracle or cast

out a demon or something.

And he doesn't do it here either, just out of personal animus.

This will be one of the characteristics that when we note about,

when we talk about cursed psalms, curse words, curse prayers, never is it personal.

It's not like, you know, we can curse our neighbor for never mowing their yard

the right way or something. It's not like that.

But these people rather, they looked at Paul. They heard his words.

They looked at the scriptures. You need to notice that.

These are people that looked straight into the eyes of Jesus Christ and stubbornly,

and arrogantly said, no.

And they not only opposed him, they blasphemed him. Okay, so these are stubborn.

The fancy word, love to see this, is contumacious. You ever heard that word?

I love that word. It just means extremely stubborn.

They won't change their mind. So they are on Paul, not just Paul,

but the word of God and Christ.

These are out and out stubborn and arrogant and evil opponents of Jesus Christ.

It's as if they look him in the eye and say, no.

Now, Paul does something that's, I thought, I think it's super cool.

I have a robe today. I won't illustrate the shaking off of my robes too much with it. But Paul says.

He shook out his garments, so he does this thing to them. It's pretty cool.

And then he says, your own blood on your own head. I'm innocent.

And then he says, I'm going to the Gentiles.

So all of a sudden, he's like, I'm finished with you guys.

You're fed up. And not just me, but God. God is fed up with you.

Gives them a covenantal warning. I think it's actually a down payment forecasting

warning of what they will receive in 70 AD. This is coming to you stubborn Jews,

to you, especially the leaders.

Not usually common people in the streets, but the stubborn, arrogant leaders,

the same ones who arrested Christ, the same ones who killed Christ,

the same ones who lied about Christ,

the same stubborn Jewish covenantal leaders that cursed Christ will themselves be cursed.

And he uses this. He said, I'm going now to the Gentiles. It's the word there

is ethne, same word used in the Great Commission.

This is a fulfillment to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles.

And Paul, we'll notice, is on a spiritual journey, a mission,

excuse me, as a holy warrior. Next week, we'll talk about the shaving of the head and the vows.

Looks like a Nazarite vow of some time where he's literally on a holy mission here.

And he curses these guys as an Old Testament prophet would curse them.

Your own blood on your own head. 2 Samuel 1, 16. So David said to them,

your blood is on your own head from your own mouth. You have testified against yourself.

I have killed the anointed, right? The Lord's anointed. So these guys,

these are the guys, the leaders of the nation of Israel who arrested Jesus,

who screamed and shouted, let his blood be on my head. It's not something you want to be saying.

Let his blood be on our heads and on our children. What?

You don't want to say that. That's the stubbornness that we're witnessing. So Paul warns them.

And by the way, the head, just to mention a few things, not to go wild with

symbolism, but your own blood on your own head. That's a curse language.

The head, the forehead was a place of the mark that we see it all the time through scriptures.

I always heard it when I was a kid, like, you're going to get the mark of the

beast right here on your forehead, 666.

And you're going to be able to see it. Once when I went to Kings Island and

I scanned my hand, you know, that little infrared, someone, my friend said,

that's how they're going to put the mark of the beast on your forehead.

Just like that, you won't see it. I was like, okay. But this mark,

by the way, the mark of the beast, neither the mark of the beast or the other

marks that we see here are actual marks on the forehead.

It means the thoughts, the thoughts in your head, those things which mark the

very way you think about life.

The forehead from the time of the curse, Remember the curse, Adam and Eve.

When Adam was cursed, it said, by the sweat of your what? Your forehead.

You're cursed. And the sign of the sweat and the difficulty of work is a sign

marked on your very forehead.

That was Mark also given to Cain when he was sent out. Not literal marks,

but a place where your thinking and your thoughts all occur,

the things that drive your life.

Even in the Old Testament, when the priest would take a sacrificial goat and

they would do what? They would take the hands of the priest and symbolically

lay it on their what? Their forehead, their heads.

And the curses that belonged to the priest would be transferred to the head

of the goat and off he would go.

Even the priest himself, when he entered the Holy of Holies,

was never to go with his forehead uncovered.

But rather he would have a gold plate covering him, protecting him.

Otherwise, he would end up like Uzziah who went into the temple unlawfully. And what happened?

Leprosy on his head. Leprosy on his forehead.

So there's something covenantal and powerful about the symbolism of your own

blood on your own head. Cursed. They're going to be cursed.

It's covenantal cursing language directed to the heads of the nation of Israel.

It's directed to these men. They represent them. They're the heads.

And then he performs this cool thing where he shakes off his garments.

There's some commentaries that say he opened up his garments this way and shook them out.

And others that say that he shook the edges of his garments.

I'm not going to do it, but I can pretend I'm doing it. where the folds of his

garments, the edges were particularly important in the robes of the Jewish people.

We see this in Nehemiah 5 when they're taking a vow.

And Nehemiah says, Then I shook out the fold of my garment and said,

So may God shake out each man from his house and from his property who does

not perform this promise.

And so Nehemiah shook out the fold or the edges of his garments.

These edges were also symbolic, covenantal. These were the edges that on every

Jewish robe represented the foundation of righteousness for the nation.

Those were the edges that had the purple tassels that hung down,

representing the righteousness of God as founding those people.

Those were the edge. Remember the edge when Saul fell down and ripped the edge,

the fold of Samuel the prophet's garments, which cursed him,

and when which he lost his kingdom. Those edges were symbolically important.

And so Paul, I think, I'm not going to go with the front shaking thing.

I'm going to go with the edge, the side shaking. I think he took the fold of

his garments and shook them out as if to say, may you be cast out.

Cast out. And the idea of shaking it loose is the idea of you are going,

your house is going to be empty.

Your house is going to be desolate. Your house is going to be hopeless.

That's exactly, by the way, what happened in AD 70 when God emptied out the

city of Jerusalem, burned down

everything, cast down every stone that was standing of the temple itself.

The nation of Israel was literally emptied and cast out by the judgment of God,

May the Lord make your house empty and desolate That's what he was saying What

kind of preaching is this, by the way?

This is uncomfortable, to say the least, in modern America, right?

Preachers that go around cursing people I can remember, you old-timers probably

are with me There used to be a television guy named Pat Robertson.

Oh, lots of you. So Pat Robertson once, I just remember he made a comment about Supreme Court justice.

He said, we need to pray that these guys can retire so that we can replace them

with godly justices. And the next day was on the Today Show,

I think, Katie Kirk, nobody knows her now, but she used to be the big wig.

And Katie Kirk was like, what kind of a preacher does this?

It's as if he's requesting people to assassinate the Supreme Court justices.

Oh, did Jesus do this? Would Jesus have cursed people? Didn't Jesus say to love your enemies?

Oh, you would have, Katie Couric, who's obviously no theologian,

was feeling very, very sad and lamentable about Pat Robertson's supposed assassination

claim against Supreme Court justices.

It wasn't that, by the way, but what do you make of that? And by the way,

people who read that, who read Paul's language or the Psalms,

they look at that and they say, well, that doesn't sound like Jesus, right?

And many people, when they read the imprecatory Psalms, That's the first thing

they say. That's always an evangelical easy out.

What is it? Well, that was the Old Testament.

That was the Old Testament. So, you know, these guys in the Old Testament were

a little on edge, but when Jesus came, he threw all that out,

all the curses and all. By the way, guess where Paul is?

Paul's in the New Testament. Okay. Can we get that clear? So it's not like an Old Testament thing.

Paul's standing here using judgment symbolism, shaking out his robes,

cursing them, saying your own blood on your own head.

It was a formal covenantal indictment that God's preachers and prophets need

to make once in a while to stubborn people, stubborn leaders in particular.

And it ends up being something significant that has been lost to our church

today, where we have lost a sense of the curse Psalms.

That sounds even bad. Let's just call them a more fancy name,

Psalms of imprecation. How about that?

Imprecatory Psalms. That doesn't sound as harsh, but they're really curse Psalms.

And there are psalms that mark throughout the pages of the prophets and of the

psalms And even the songs that the people of God used to sing out loud with praise to the Lord.

And I hope you'll note it's significant that you as God's people need to think

about this instead of the curses that we all rightly deserve.

What you did today and what we do every Sunday is you come in and receive blessed words.

I don't know if you pay attention. Every single Sunday, I raise my hands symbolically.

Symbolism is important. Raising my hands as a minister of the gospel saying,

what, grace and peace to you.

From God, our Father, welcome to our, You receive the beginning of worship,

and at the end, the benediction comes from that Latin, benedictus,

to speak words of kindness, to speak words of blessing, to speak words of grace.

The beginning and the end of our service begins with blessed words,

because the people of God are welcomed into the words of blessing to Jesus Christ.

From beginning to end, you're sent out with the benediction,

with blessings from the Lord. May the Lord bless you and keep you,

make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. and you go out with words of blessing.

If it weren't for Jesus Christ and you're entering into union with him,

you also would be under the curses.

Think about that. And by the way, just as a practical side note,

when I lift my hands as a symbolic gesture, it's important to pay attention.

I don't just speak my own words.

Like the benediction. I've heard some preachers at the benediction say,

all right, y'all, let's go out there and get them.

Let's go out there and get them. Like that's a benediction. I don't think so.

So the greeting and the benediction are God's words to you.

But here, Paul is speaking words of imprecation or cursing.

And there's a whole series of Psalms that we typically ignore that are called imprecatory Psalms.

There's a series, Psalm 5, Psalm 35, 58, 69, 109, and others.

And they say things like this.

Make straight your way before me, for there is no truth in their mouth.

Their inmost self is destruction. Their throat is an open grave.

They flatter with their tongue.

Make them bear their guilt, O God See that? Ooh, that's not very New Testament,

Let them fall by their own counsels because of the abundance of their transgressions.

Cast them out, right? Same thing. Cast them out. Make them desolate,

for they have rebelled against you.

Pour out, this is Psalm 79, pour out your anger on the nations that do not know

you and on the kingdoms that do not call out your name. Pour out your wrath.

Psalm 137, this is a real zinger.

This is terrible sounding. He says, blessed shall he be who takes your little

ones and dashes them against the rocks. Okay, technical foul.

That's too much. It's not possible. This is language that's outlawed.

It's banned from Christian language. And yet there it is.

What do we make of these things? What do we make of these curse psalms,

these imprecations? I would recommend a really good little book by Jay Adams. It's an old one.

And the name of the book is called War Psalms of the Prince of Peace.

War Psalms of the Prince of Peace, lessons from the imprecatory Psalms,

where he not only argues persuasively that they're right, they're good,

they're inspired, they're there for a reason, but they've been brought in by

Christ himself as prayers for the people of God as well,

to give the people of God relief under the oppression that they feel and the

blessing of the judgment of wicked, stubborn people who are against us and against

Christ and against his kingdom. Ouch.

Ouch. And J. Adams actually says that most evangelical preachers are what he

calls evangelical plastic surgeons.

They like to take the Bible and remake the nose. Ooh, that's too harsh.

Give it a little Botox here to make you look beautiful or whatever,

because we can't be thinking that those curses are something used.

Even Tim Keller, former PCA minister, good preacher, said that the psalmist

is right to want judgment on evil, but Jesus takes it away himself.

This forever changes our view of our own desert and the way we seek justice

and the imprecatory psalms.

They're done away with in Jesus. We don't need them. We don't want them because

they're curses and we're under the blessings.

Even the great and lovely and awesome, where did the Jews say,

peace be upon him or something, C.S. Lewis.

C.S. Lewis said that these certain psalms, these imprecatory psalms seem to

be devilish and diabolical. It doesn't quite know what to do with them.

They don't fit in this whole idea of the New Testament coming along because

the New Testament does come along. And Paul himself says this.

He says, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave the wrath of God,

but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written, vengeance is mine,

I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty,

give him something to drink.

For by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not overcome evil

by evil, but overcome evil with good. What do you make of that?

If you look at that carefully, you'll realize that basically Paul is saying

what the Bible has always said. We're never to seek personal revenge. Never.

By the way, if you do get ginned up from this sermon and you do want to start

using the imprecatory Psalms, and I would encourage you, be careful.

They're not personal. They're not to be used for our own personal goals or own personal interests.

Again, the neighbor that doesn't ever do things right, like,

Lord, burn his house. No, it's not. That's not. Okay, that is a technical. foul.

But Christians should never seek personal revenge. But you'll notice what he

does say. Leave it to the wrath of God.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. We can pray for that.

Not our personal enemies, but the enemies of God. In fact, I would encourage

you to understand, you pray it every Sunday.

When you pray the Lord's Prayer, you say, let your kingdom come and your will

be done on earth as it is in heaven. Defeat your enemies, God.

Bring your kingdom. wipe them out, cast them out and make them desolate.

It's exactly what that prayer is pointing to. We don't want the enemies of God

to reign over. We don't want God's people to be tortured and tormented by stubborn,

foolish people like these Jewish leaders were.

And so we should pray them, we should use them.

Not for personal revenge. In fact, in Acts, we've seen the apostles already praying this way.

Acts chapter four, they quote from the Psalm, why did the Gentiles rage and

the people's plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers are gathered together against his anointed one.

And then it goes on to say, for truly in this city, they were gathered together

against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate,

along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and

plan had predestined to take place.

And now, Lord, look upon their threats And grant to your servants to continue

to speak with boldness And there again we see.

Wish it could happen It won't happen now This building will not shake There

will be no earthquakes or lightning or thunder But there you see it And when

they finished praying The whole place where they were meeting shook,

It shook and it was filled with the Holy Spirit They continued to speak with

boldness They were praying these songs Look upon the threats of your people and do justice. Help us.

Don't forget also that part of the reason that these Psalms of imprecation are

prayed is not just for personal vengeance. I hate that guy. I can't stand him.

This senator so-and-so is a real blah-blah.

But no, Lord, help us.

These people are our enemies.

Just a few quick outline things. Number one, these Psalms are never personal.

They are also covenantal. That is, we're not just directing them randomly.

Like there was a show once where I saw where there was this wizard who was just,

I can see that you are a wizard. Yes, because I'm just blasting things randomly.

No, these are directed covenantally to those who stand as covenantal heads.

And as they stand, they stand directly against Jesus Christ. We want them gone.

We want them out, out of the way of the kingdom of God. Now,

that's not a call for assassination, right?

No one here is, I'm not in any way encouraging political violence or assassination.

That's for the record and that's for reality for you.

But covenantally, never personal, covenantal, foundationally,

they are prayers of mercy. Help us, help us.

It was even Wednesday night when we were praying when someone reported that

Massachusetts has now legalized abortion up till the day of birth.

Help us from those fools, rid us of those fools.

And when those happy governors stand up to sign those death warrants for thousands

upon thousands of babies, we should pray, get rid of that person.

Rid us of this fool. Rid us of the threats to all these children.

What about the children? Help them. See?

Never personal, covenantal prayers for mercy.

They're aimed also at the salvation of God's people and His enemies.

They're not just kill them. It's not just kill them, destroy them,

and send them to hell. It's save them.

And by the way, you know what happened in our passage? The leader of the synagogue was saved.

After that threat, the leader of the synagogue came to Christ.

It was the leader of another synagogue that didn't, and it was stubborn.

And they're also directed to the glory of God and the coming of his kingdom.

They're never personal. They're covenantal.

They have a foundation of mercy and help. They're aimed at the salvation of

God's people and his enemies.

And they're directed at the glory of God and the coming of his kingdom.

Those are just five quick little notes or points as you use them. And I hope we will.

I hope we do. We have a midterm election coming up. We need to pray God's mercy

that we don't have more fools like this governor in Massachusetts who wants to kill babies.

Lord, spare us of these people, rid us of these people, rid us of every leader

in Congress or Senate or wherever they are that wants to transgender surgically

hurt children and do so, parents, without your permission.

They want to take your children. Lord, help us from those people,

right? Save us. Get rid of them.

Cast them out and make their house desolate.

That's a legitimate prayer. We are under siege from enemies who are stubborn

and arrogant and who hate God and hate you.

Ask for mercy in this way. And it's great because you see the whole household

of Crispus was saved under this kind of preaching.

You say, well, that's gonna, you know, we need your best life now.

We don't need that cursed stuff.

That's not gonna, people won't like that. God's people like that.

God's people respond to that. And God's people say like, yikes.

I may myself also be under cursing and judgment were it not for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's exactly what happened to Crispus and his whole household.

And many others in the synagogue.

And Paul was actually encouraged by a direct vision from God where he said,

you know, don't stop speaking because they were threatened and they were taken

to the council, to the tribunal. Don't stop speaking.

Don't remain silent. I am with you.

I am with you. And Jesus gave that central, wonderful covenantal promise that

through all of these difficulties, through all of the trials,

through all of the challenges and warfare, I am your God. I am with you.

And do not be afraid. He said, do not be afraid.

These curse Psalms are foreign to us. And again, at least, please,

at least you notice that Paul is a New Testament author.

This is about 50, 51 AD.

So it's not Old Testament stuff. Christ has been raised from the dead and he's

seated on the throne. It's not just Old Testament. This is New Testament language.

And it's something I think we need to recover properly, not with anger,

like kill everyone, but.

But with mercy in mind, mercy for those who are innocent, like the children,

like the babies in our land that are being killed.

Someone should stop it. Someone should help. We need help. So we pray these psalms.

We pray them also with this final note in mind, I think, is that we need to

think about this as we're praying these things, because if it weren't for the

mercy of God to us, we would be there also.

And also keep in mind this. I mean, Paul's just basically forecasting the destruction

of the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel with it.

And if you think to yourself a moment, you think if God was not going to withhold

judgment against his blessed city, Israel, with the temple and the prophets and the law and.

All of the kings in the kingdom with all of that, if God didn't spare Jerusalem,

what makes you think he'll spare you?

If you are also not humble to him and hear him, Do not be deceived,

Paul said. God is not mocked.

Whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

For if you sow to the flesh, you'll reap flesh and corruption.

But if you sow to the spirit, you'll reap spirit, you'll reap everlasting life.

Do not grow weary in doing well. So listen today, beloved.

Revive these Psalms in your prayers, in your mind, in our activity, in our thinking.

Revive them not with personal intent, not with anger, but with grace and mercy

for the salvation of the enemies of God and the movement of the kingdom of God.

And don't be hard-hearted yourself.

Don't take on these prayers as if it's some sort of weapon that you get to wield

because whatever a man sows, that will heal. Don't be hard-hearted.

Listen to the prophets who speak in Psalm 95.

It says, for today, he says, excuse me, today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your heart.

Do not harden your heart as your forefathers did at Meribah as on the day of,

Massa in the wilderness. When your fathers put me to the test and put me to

the proof, though they had seen me work. We also, as we prepare to come to this

Lord's Supper, we need to be thankful.

Truly, the Lord's Supper is a thanksgiving. It's a Eucharist meal.

Thank God that the curses that rightly belong to us have been deflected and

absorbed through our Savior, Jesus Christ, through his body and his blood, and give praise to God.

And if you're stubborn this morning, if you're stubborn this morning,

repent and turn to Jesus Christ.

Repent of the curses that you deserve and come to the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven, we do give your name glory. And we do pray,

Lord, in a special way this morning, thinking of the great work Paul was doing,

and the great need we have in our day,

of your grace and mercy and protection from so many enemies.

Lord, we pray that your kingdom would come and that your will would be done

here on earth, here in Wilmington, as it is in heaven.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.