Kyle Jones | The Lord Is In His Holy Temple

Good morning. It's good to see you guys today.

Give me a chance to find your seats as you do so.

My name is Kyle. I serve as the lead pastor here.

If you're visiting today, thank you.

We're glad that you're here to worship with us today.

If you have your Bible, you can open to Psalm 11, Psalm 11.

If you've been here for the last several weeks, you know that

Psalm 11 is different than First Corinthians.

Right there. There's an old charge, an old

saying, if you will, that says a pastor should preach with a

Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.

And today demands that with this week demands that to be clear,

the goal of the preacher is not to chase headlines.

It's not to chase news stories and to use those merely for, you

know, sermon contents. Instead, a preacher is called by

God to speak prophetically from God's Word regarding the

headlines regarding the issues of the day, bringing the Word to

bear honest people in their times of distress.

And this week our nation has groaned under fresh horrors.

Charlie Kirk, a 31 year old Christian husband and father,

was assassinated for his faith and courage by young man who

Satan and the doctrine of the left had deceived.

The Book of Martyrs continues to be written, does it not?

We've mourned the fatal stabbing of 23 year old Irinazuritska

from Ukraine. A refugee on the Charlotte Light

Rail this week happened a month ago, but it was revealed this

week the details of that she was brutally executed for being

white by a black man with 14 prior arrests for various

offenses including assault and robbery and a justice system

failed. Miss Ruska near Denver on the

same day that Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a 16 year old

opened fire at Evergreen High School, critically wounding 2

classmates before turning the gun on himself.

Just a few weeks ago there was a mass shooting that occurred and

are at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis where a

transgender man, Robert Westman, who identified himself as Robin

Westman, murdered two children and injured 21 others before

taking his own life. If you've seen his journal

entries, they reveal a dark demon, oppressed man and a

fascination with school shooters.

When we're finally forced to see the rotten fruits of the

absolutely wicked and satanic doctrine and influence on the

left that's running rampant in our streets, we're left

wondering what is going on? All right, how can this happen

on American soil? And so today we turn to the

Scriptures, for where else can we go but to the one who holds

the words of eternal life? As Peter told his Lord, Psalm 11

instructs our hearts and minds and times like these.

It feels like David's question in Psalm 11, which we'll see in

a moment. But he says this, or he's

quoting some advisors. If the foundations are

destroyed, what can the righteous do?

It's kind of a taunt. It's also a temptation to

apathy. If the foundations are being

destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Historically, many understand Psalm 11 against the backdrop of

David under mortal threats. You have Saul's murderous

jealousy. You have the priest of Nob

slain. You have Absalom's rebellion and

his desire to kill his father. These are days when human life

felt cheap, wicked men struck without cause, and the fabric of

society was quickly unraveling. But the Psalm opens not with

panic, brothers and sisters. It opens with a pledged refuge

in Yahweh, our Lord, and it ends with the upright beholding His

face. Now that journey that we see in

Psalm 11, from fear to faith, from threat to throne, is going

to guide our hearts and minds today.

That's my hope, That's my prayer.

And so if you would, would you please stand as we read Psalm

Psalms 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11? To the choirmaster of David and

the Lord I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, Flee

like a bird to your mountain? For behold the wicked bend the

bow. They have fitted their arrow to

the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in hearts.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the

righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple.

The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, His eyelids test

the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous,

but his soul hates the wicked. And the one who loves violence,

let him rain coals on the wicked.

Fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of

their cup. For the Lord is righteous.

He loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his

face. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your word and at all times,

but it's especially comforting to come to it in times of trial

and suffering and distress. And our hearts are questioning

when doubts and fears arise. Or it's comforting to see the

promises in your word that you have given us the action the the

heart of God that is laid out for us.

Or it's meant to comfort your people.

This Psalm, Psalm 11, is meant to be sung in the congregation

as a comfort in times of great wickedness.

And so, Lord, we turn our attention to it today, asking

you to comfort us, asking you to stiffen our spines with courage

and faith, would help us to be bold in our belief even as fear

assails. Father, we pray for the courage

of the uprights. We pray for the boldness of the

righteous, that we would be mighty in strength of heart and

in strength of mind. Lord, we ask that you would

minister to us, your people today, that you would give us

guidance in light of all the things that are transpiring

around us as the foundations are being destroyed.

Lord, we turn to you now. In Christ name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. If you're taking notes, the main

point of the text that I want us to see today's is this.

When evil shakes, when evil shakes the foundations, the

righteous answer not with flight, but with faith.

When evil shakes the foundations, the righteous,

righteous answer not with flights, but with faith.

As we walk through Psalm 11, that's kind of a road map for

us. Looks like this.

We're going to 1st see refuge and resolve.

Why in Yahweh I take refuge? Is this the controlling

confession? Secondly, we'll see rejecting

fear and reading the times. Who's speaking?

What are the wicked doing and what destroyed foundations are

there? What do these things mean for

us? 3rd, we'll see the king is on

his throne. We'll declare from the Psalm

God's holy rule, his searching gaze, his testing of the wicked

and the righteous, and his just wrath.

And then finally, fourthly, we'll see the reward of the

upright beholding his face. And So what are our marching

orders now? So first refuge and resolve

verse one a part A there in the Lord I take refuge and Yahweh I

take refuge. Refuge is covenant vocabulary.

It's it's the idea of a strong tower that you run into, but

it's knowing that the strong tower never moves.

He's always faithful, he's always there, he's always ready

to receive. He's always available.

So you run the Yahweh for his protective care.

And you might think running describes escapism, that it that

it means we flee from evil. But it doesn't.

It's covenant language. Running to Yahweh is act of

allegiance. It's not running away from the

problem, it's running to the solution.

It's running to the one who holds the answers for all

things. It's running to the one who

judges rightly, the wicked and the righteous.

David's theology is governing his response at the very opening

of the Psalm. He knows where his heart must

turn. He knows to whom he must give

himself to in Yahweh. I take refuge, all right.

This theology governs his response before his

circumstances can govern his emotions.

He's not letting the circumstances overwhelm the

emotions and the emotions leading to sinful action like

flights or vengeance, right? He's trusting Yahweh.

Maybe you're here today and you say, well, who's Yahweh?

Who's the Lord? And Exodus, God reveals himself

to Moses in a burning Bush, and he says, I am who I am.

It's becomes a covenant name for God, the Yahweh.

This is and what we see here when we think about the Lord.

When God says I am who I am, he's declaring something about

himself that we must understand today.

There's a doctrine for it. It's called aseity ASEITY.

Aseity. Aseity tells us it's a

summarization of a doctrine that of the things that God reveals

about himself, it tells us that God is self existence.

God is not reliant upon something or someone else to

bring him into being. God is not relying upon

something or someone else to fulfill him.

God is self existent. He's self-sufficient.

He's immutable. God exists by and for himself

without needing anyone else for his existence or needing

anything else for his existence. God is uncaused.

You have to think about that for a moment.

That's a bit of a brain breaker. God is UN cost and

self-sufficient, which distinguishes him from all

created beings. God causes everything else.

Let there be lights, Let there be darkness, Let there be lights

in the skies, the sun, the moon, the stars.

Let there be water on the earth. Let there be land and trees and

beast on the land. Let there be man.

Everything caused by the spoken word of God, and yet God was

caused by nothing. He is, He is.

I am who I am, whether humans want to acknowledge it or not.

We are dependent on God. Totally dependent on God.

We don't put breath and our lungs each day all right.

We're totally dependent upon the Lord.

And so it doesn't make it any less accurate if humans will

deny what is true, if humans will seek to suppress the truth

of God's power that we see obviously displayed in creation.

All right, The truth about the essayety of God anchors our

refuge. We're running to the one who is.

We're running to the one who always was and always will be.

We're running to the one who will never leave us, never

forsake us. We're running to the one who has

the answers right, who has the power to move and to make things

happen. We're running to him.

We must understand that refuge does not equal passivity,

brothers and sisters. It does not equal an abdication

of responsibility. We are held responsible by God

for the things that God has declared about himself.

We're held responsible by God for the life that He's given to

us. We're held responsible by God

for the places and the people He's put us in and put us

before. These are gifts from God.

And so we cannot be passive. This means we have a relational

trust. And for Old Testament Israel,

this refuge is devotional vocabulary.

It's a devotion to God that he is our refuge.

It's their identity, right? And for us who are in Christ,

Christ is our identity. We're no longer those things,

those sinful actions, those past behaviors.

We are a new creation in Christ, created by God in Christ for

good works, right? We have a new identity in the

Lord and Yahweh. I take refuge, then, is covenant

language, and it should be the language of our hearts and

minds, the language of our lips in times of distress.

You see, the Lord had acted on behalf of Israel for many, many

years prior to David's coming on the scene.

He chose them because they were nothing.

He chose them because they were small.

He chose them because they didn't look like they could

achieve anything. And so when they do, it must be

Yahweh's work. And He delivered them from the

captivity of Egypt. He brought them into the

Promised Land. He rules their lives.

He rules them through prophets and priests and now kings.

He's been faithful to them. And so they know.

David knows to whom and to where he must run for refuge.

Friends, listen to me. You will take refuge in

something You. You will take refuge in

something you're not. You're not not taking refuge,

right? It it might be an ideology.

You maybe look into the wisdom of the world and finding refuge

in that, whatever it says about you and your desires and your

heart and what you want, but you will take refuge in it.

It'll become your truth. It'll become what you live your

life on. You'll put your faith in it.

You may take refuge in screens, right, social media and movies

and TV, and you may find a refuge in the comfort of the

world through those things. You may find refuge in a tribe

right of people who think and act like you do.

You may find refuge in a bottle. You may find refuge in a

political savior, but only Christ is a true refuge.

Only Christ is true, and all the other refuges that exist are

false. Believe you wanting to let you

down. They're set up as mirages by the

enemy to steal and kill and destroy your life.

And he's doing a really good job at it in our world today.

But he's been doing that same thing since the beginning.

Therefore, I urge you to begin where David begins prayerful

allegiance to independence upon the enthroned Lord.

First Timothy 2 one through 2. Paul writes there.

He says, first of all, then, I urge that supplications and

prayers and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all

people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we

may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in

every way. Ephesians 610 through 12.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, in the strength of His might.

You hear the themes of refuge in these verses.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand

against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over

this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly places. And so as we take refuge in

Yahweh, in the Lord, we can reject fear and read the times,

which is .2 rejecting fear and reading the times.

Look at the second part of verse one through verse 3 here.

How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain?

For behold the wicked bend the bow.

They have fitted their arrows to the string to shoot in the dark

at the upright in hearts. If the foundations are

destroyed, what can the righteous do?

You come to a quote in the scriptures.

One of your first questions, as far as context go, should be who

is speaking. David quotes voices that are

urging him to flee like a bird to your mountain.

Now the line may be fearful. Counsel from well meaning

friends. You can think.

If you're familiar with the story of Job, you can thank the

the council of Job's friends. It may also be a taunt from the

enemies who surround him. Either way, it's the voice of

flight and not faith. Flee to the mountain like a

bird. The text allows us to read it

either way. What?

What's clear is David's refusal to be discipled by fear.

Far too long in America, our Christian faith has been

discipled by fear, Not by Yahweh, not by refuge.

We didn't want to be called sexist.

We don't want to be called racist.

We don't want to be called bigots or worse.

And so we set oddly by while the foundations of our nation were

being destroyed. Worse than that, our evangelical

leaders, the ones who ought to know better, the ones who have

the Word of God in one hand, or should those who are leading our

largest organizations, have been infiltrated with demonic

doctrines like DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, critical

race theory, and the LGBTQ movements.

They've blurred the lines between social justice and sound

doctrine. And I don't mean a biblical

social justice. They've denied the biblical

teaching on gender and gender roles.

They've propagated false doctrines.

They fell prey to worldly ideologies and all of it has

been so obvious that it's an attempt to maintain power and

control. It's an it's an approval of man

rather than the approval of God. For example, many of these

leaders shut down their churches during COVID and yet gathered

marched in Black Lives Matter rallies around the nation.

Little side note here. If you want to know more about

our evangelical foundations and how they're being destroyed,

there's two book recommendations I have for you.

One of them is called 5 lies of our anti Christian age written

by Rosaria Butterfield. 5 lies of our anti Christian age.

The other is shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham.

Shepherds for sale. A great investigative work of

the things that I'm saying today, how these institutions

have been infiltrated, like following the dollars and the

paper trail, showing receipts for these things.

This isn't some scare tactic from your preacher.

This is showing what's truly taking place in our nation and

hoping that it'll wake us up to some extent.

We've reached a place in society where we can no longer say, I

just want to be left alone. I just want to live a quiet

life. I don't want to worry about what

other people are doing. We cannot do that anymore.

We must start studying, We must Start learning.

We must start praying. We must start acting.

Because your enemy, the devil, is prowling around like a lion,

seeking whom he may devour. And the truth is, as we've seen

just this week, it could be your child who gets devoured.

It could be your child who does some heinous act because you

refuse to raise them in the discipline and instruction of

the Lord. It could be your spouse who

falls prey to worldly ideologies because you refuse to be a

gatekeeper brothers in your home.

It could be your neighbor, one who you refuse to share the

gospel with, or one who is wronged by someone else who is

carrying out these evil deeds because you refuse to care for

them. It could be your friend, and it

could even be you. But this is what the wicked do,

and that's where the Psalm goes next.

What the wicked do, it says they bend their bow, they string the

arrow, they shoot in the dark at the upright and heart.

All of this is premeditated. It's secretive, as far as they

know. And it's malice, It's hatred

targeting righteousness and the righteous.

You cannot tell me that Charlie Kirk was killed simply for

having differing views. He was killed because he had

biblical belief, sound doctrine. He had biblical convictions, and

he stood for those things. That's why he was slain this

week. What we see here is preparation.

I used to ask the question and then it dawned on me.

But I asked the question often just kind of internally, like,

how is it that it seems like all of these world governments and

all these different things conspire together?

Like is there really some secret, you know, cabal or

whatever out there that's kind of running all of this?

And maybe there is, I don't know.

But what did dawn on me is they have the same leader.

They they they serve the same deity deities, wrong word.

They serve the same master, Satan.

Satan orchestrates all these things through the hearts of

evil men to destroy the foundations, to bring down the

righteous, to devour what's good and to promote evil.

And so there's preparation behind the scenes.

The wicked prepare their attacks.

Why are they preparing? So it's to shoot in the darkness

at the uprights. This is their aim.

They premeditate their attacks on the people of God.

They're merely following their Lord, who is the Prince of

darkness, the devil. He's a liar and manipulator and

murderer. From the beginning.

They cannot help but hate righteousness because their

hearts desire to do evil. Although they claim to be wise,

they are fools, as Romans one shows us, and they hate the

righteous because the righteous actions expose their wickedness,

just like light on a cockroach. And Paul tells the Ephesians to

have nothing to do with the fruitful deeds of darkness, but

rather to expose them. Now how do we do this?

Do we walk around literally with flashlights, shining it on

people? No.

We do this by living righteously as God would have us do.

We do this by striving to be holy as our Lord is holy.

We do it by bringing every word of Christ, every word of the

scriptures. We do it by living faithfully to

God. We achieve this by separating

ourselves from belief and worldly ideologies.

I need to say something that may be difficult to hear.

As if all this isn't already, the time has come when

professing Christians can no longer align themselves with the

left. You can no longer align yourself

with the left's policies and the left's ideologies.

They go so terribly against the Word of God.

It's a wicked, wicked world over there, and the light of Christ

must expose their works. We can no longer coddle these

beliefs with the sin of empathy and compromise.

David's faithfulness to Yahweh early in his life was certainly

noticed by the wicked, and it made them furious.

It made them furious to the degree that they wanted to kill

him. The man who once delivered

Israel from the face of a giant who stood before the crowds and

says you will not defy the Lord of heaven.

That sound familiar? We saw a man murdered this week

who devoted his life to Christ and was courageous enough to

share it with others. The wicked dwell in darkness.

They prepare and plot against God as though he cannot see

them. But he sits in the heavens, and

he laughs. Psalms 2 tells us because his

purposes cannot be thwarted. They will not stop him.

They cannot stay his hand. There's a quote from church

history and one of you guys here will know who said it.

I'm sorry, but it says that the blood of the martyrs will be

essentially the growth of the church.

You see, God, Satan thought that crucifying Christ would be the

end of the movement. But God raised him from the dead

and sent out 11 men, plus Paul and many others whom they

witnessed to and taught and discipled, and the whole world

was turned upside down. Literally.

These men gave their lives for Christ, many of them suffering

brutal, brutal deaths, beheadings, floggings,

crucifixions. Why?

Because Christ had done something in them.

Christ had changed their life. Christ had made them new

creations. But persecution, just like Paul

when he saw Cruz of persecuting the church.

And what happens to the early church as the persecutions begin

to come? They spread out and they begin

to proclaim the gospel in new regions.

And so now there's new believers.

And even in the stoning of Stephen, Stephen preaches one of

the most beautiful sermons we have in all the Scriptures, and

we read it to this day, and it changes lives to this day

because God's Word is faithful and he cannot be stopped.

He's building his church and nothing will stop it.

The wicked dwell in darkness. They're plotting against God,

but they can't stop him. And so therefore, he is a refuge

for the righteous. David quotes his advisors here.

And you can, you can sense it. It's that kind of weaselly talk

that comes from someone really. It's the sluggard of proverbs

who says there's a line outside, so I'm going to stay inside.

It's the one who refuses to go to battle.

It's the one who refuses to fight the good fight and finish

the race well. And they say to him, David, if

the foundations are destroyed, what can we do?

What can the righteous do? And you can hear the despair,

you can hear the lack of faith, the lack of confidence in God,

the lack of confidence in Yahweh.

There's no covenant relationship here that drives them to action.

Rather, they say if it's been destroyed, what else can we do?

They see it. They even name the moral and

social disorder, the things that are crumbling under injustice

and idolatry. We just think of King Saul's

lawlessness. Our cultural moment now echoes

this, Brothers and sisters. Truly, there is nothing new

under the sun. Though the works of the wicked

are still playing out. They're still seeking their own

desires, and Satan's still devouring.

The Prince of the Kingdom of Darkness is still killing,

stealing, and destroying. So what can the righteous do?

What can we do? Well, for starters, Ecclesiastes

3 does tell us there is a time to hate.

There's a time to love, a time to hate, a time for war, and a

time for peace. God commands the hatred of evil.

Proverbs 813. The fear of the Lord is hatred

of evil, pride and arrogance in the way of evil and perverted

speech. I hate Psalm 9710.

Oh, you who love the Lord hate evil.

He preserves the lives of his Saints.

He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

So there's this question that I was pondering this week with

some brothers. But are we called to love our

enemies and bless those who curse us?

Yes, yes, but you can do that by hating their evil works.

Real enemy love. Real enemy love never blesses

their evil, it seeks their repentance while refusing to

enable their evil works. Romans 12/9 Let love be genuine,

abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

Further on in Romans 12 we're told this, beloved, never avenge

yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written, vengeance is mine.

I will repay, says the Lord. And Paul continues a few verses

later, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with

good. So since the vengeance isn't

ours, it's the Lord's, we must trust Him.

We must trust his timing. For when He repays, we must

continue to carry out the good works that He has given to us,

as we wait on Him to repay evil. Are we clear?

But that doesn't mean that He's left us on our own.

Immediately following those instructions in Romans 12, we

get the instructions in Romans 13, verses one through 4, which

say this. Let every person be subject to

the governing authorities. For there is no authority except

from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

So there's no authority that exists except that which is from

God. And all those who exist in

authority have been instituted by God.

Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has

appointed, and those who resist will incur judgments.

Now listen how? For rulers are not a terror to

good conduct. But too bad would you have No

Fear of the one who is in authority?

Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for

he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword

in vain, for he is the servant of God and avenger who carries

out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Do you see one way in which God might carry out His wrath?

It's through the governing authorities who practice their

government under His rule submitted to Him, upholding what

is good and abhorring what is evil.

You see, God ordains rulers to punish evil and to praise good.

The state bears the sword so that evil might be restrained.

Our founders believed in this truth, so much so that our

country was founded on these principles.

However, when our officials abdicate on their God-given

responsibility, the instruction here is not for the church to

pick up the sword. The sword belongs to the state.

And so we pray, we speak, we call our rulers to perform their

God-given duty. It's true that you can look

around and see that foundations are being destroyed, and in many

cases they've already been destroyed.

But our call as Christians is this first in the home.

Catechize your families. Teach them the Word of God.

Teach sound doctrine. Disavow worldly ideologies.

Know what they are and how to spot them.

Guard your heart and your mind, and guard the hearts and minds

of those who are under your roof.

Do so with diligence and vigilance.

This is how we keep fear narratives from discipling our

homes. Secondly, in the church we must

have categories for laments and imprecation, Imprecation so that

we as God's people may have biblical categories for outrage

and hope, so we don't act oblivious when the evil

surrounds us. We know that it exists and we

know how to respond. As a church, we will speak up.

We will seek the Lord in the midst of great trials and

tribulations, and we must train our people to do this in the

culture right, the public square.

We must resist escapism. Brothers and sisters, no matter

how old you may be, you don't retire from the Lord's work

until the Lord calls you home. And you don't become so grouchy

about the things going on that you refuse to invest yourself in

the lives of the men and women in your church.

You give yourself to the cause by training next generations to

love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul and strength,

and to love their neighbor as themselves.

No matter how young you are, whether you're 8513, the Lord

has called you to know His word. He's called you to obey your

parents. He's called you to follow the

rules, to live according to His statutes, to obey His commands.

And so you work on that. Youth is a training ground for

learning how to love the Lord, for learning how to love your

neighbor. Don't waste your youth.

Don't waste your youth. Now.

Now is the time for boldness and courage.

We must name evil truthfully, we must pray, and we must advocate

for just enforcement of the law without hatred.

Our intentions must be to save or to stop the wicked.

And next in the Psalm, David reveals his hope, the king on

his throne. Look at 4 through 6.

The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.

His eyes see his eyelids test the children of man.

The Lord tests the righteous. But his soul hates the wicked

and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the

wicked. Fire and sulfur and a scorching

wind shall be the portion of their cup just there at the

beginning. Yahweh is in His holy temple.

Yahweh's throne is in heaven. Brothers and sisters, God is

presently actively ruling over all things.

He's not spectating. He's not sitting back watching,

hoping this plays out in some good way.

No, he's at work. His eyes see and his eyelids

test. We see here the idea of testing.

You may think of a metal Smith. It examines the genuineness of a

metal as it's being burned. It endures great testing by

fire. And in the same way God examines

the genuineness of all his people.

The Lord is observing his creatures.

He's testing, it says. Here he's testing both the

wicked and the righteous. Yet the testing yields different

results, right? The true believer bears the

fruit of faith and obedience as he's tested, right?

As his faith is tested, endurance grows, character

grows, strength grows, hope grows.

And while the wicked are tested, they bear the rotten fruit of

rebellion and disobedience. Further sin.

The Lord's testing reveals the contents of 1's heart.

These trials are meant to purify the righteous.

They're meant to expose the wicked.

This is why James One teaches us to consider it an opportunity

for great joy when you suffer trials of various kinds.

Why? Because you get to see what's

true, and you also get to see what's wicked.

These things are revealed sometimes in our own hearts.

How many of you have been tested of the Lord, endured great

suffering and trial, and in it you've come to see the error of

your own belief or the error of your own ways, right?

God will use testing as chastisement for his people that

He loves, like sons, and he'll use testing as chastisement for

the wicked as well. And the character of their heart

will be revealed. Verse 5 shows us that the Lord

hates the one who loves violence.

The phrase love of violence it's broader than mere physical

assault. It denotes A settled affection

for wrongdoing. He loves the evil. 1 The wicked

one loves to do evil. He's got a settled affection for

it. His heart craves it, and so it

culminates in violence, which could be a spiritual violence or

physical violence. It's demonic torment.

God's hatred is wholly opposition to such persons.

A friend of mine pointed this out to me this week.

We were talking and and we got to some of these points and

these are some of the things that he was able to to share

that I thought were helpful. He said, notice that it is

indeed a person that the Lord hates, which calls into question

the popular and unbiblical phrase that God loves the Sinner

but hates the sin. Aren't we told that God is love?

How could God hate them? And why then are we told to love

our enemies if God is shown to be hating them?

Right? These are good questions to ask.

Remember that God is holy and everything that he does, He's

perfect in all that he does. He he perfectly loves

righteousness and he perfectly hates unrighteousness.

We do not possess the same wisdom that God does.

Everyone agree? All right.

Do we know whether or not a current enemy of ours will be

converted into one of God's children by our actions and by

the way that we proclaim the gospel?

Of course we don't. That's why we're called to love

our enemies and to proclaim the gospel.

In other words, we're not permitted to hate our enemies.

But this does not mean that God is not permitted to hate His

enemies. In verse 6, David turns his

prayer really to retribution. Imprecation, coals, fire,

sulfur, scorching wind. These things recall Sodom.

They recall the cup of divine wrath as it rained down on Sodom

and Gomorrah. This is covenant court language.

God assigns the portion fitting to their evil deeds, whether it

be coals or fire or sulfur or scorching wind.

Verses 4 through 6 that reveals some of the important things for

us to notice. Number one is the omniscience,

the omnipresence, the omnipotence of God.

The the eyes of the Lord are in every place.

It says what this means is you cannot deceive God.

Evil doers, the wicked cannot deceive God.

You can't hide yourself from Him, and they cannot hide their

self from them. They may, they may fit the bow

and mount the arrow in the darkness and seek to take a shot

in the darkness, but they're not literally hidden from the side

of God. He sees it all.

The second thing we notice here is there are two judgments that

are distinguished. The Scriptures speak of a final

a final judgment on the wicked and the Bema seat judgment for

believers. Now the wicked will receive the

reward for their evil deeds, eternal damnation.

Believers will not be judged based on salvation as they have

already been forgiven and justified in Christ by God's

grace, but on their stewardship of the good works that God gave

them, on their stewardship of the things that God put before

them to do. They will be judged.

They will it will be tested to see what is the of eternal value

and what is not. The third thing these things

reveal for us are the church and the states.

The church is called by God. It holds the authority of the

Word. We're told that it's a pillar

and buttress for the truth or that it ought to be.

Local churches ought to be a pillar and a buttress of the

truth. We hold the authority of water

baptism, right? We affirm when God has set His

seal on someone through baptism, and we hold the authority of the

table, the Lord's Supper, right. We allow Christians, people who

have confessed Christ as Lord and have given themselves to

him, we allow them to receive the Lord's Supper with us.

But if that's not you, if that doesn't apply, then you're

forbidden to receive the Lord's Supper until you submit yourself

to Christ. The state wields the sword.

It carries out God's judgment on evil doers.

Or it should. It's meant to restrain evil.

It's meant to promote what is good and right and lovely.

And so we pray prayers like Psalm 11 as an act of faith and

trusting vengeance to God, not taking it ourselves.

And so, brothers and sisters, you must understand prayer as

warfare. You must understand prayer as

warfare. Far too often, far too often for

Christians, the only time they pray is Lord bless this food

that we eat. I'm not saying that's a bad

prayer. I'm just saying it's a passive

approach to a supernatural weapon that the Lord has

graciously given you. It's a lack of understanding of

the power of prayer. The world loves to mock our

prayers. You've seen it this week in

times of crisis. People all over TikTok and

Twitter and Facebook mocking thoughts and prayers as they

quote it. But Psalm 11, Psalm 11 teaches

prayer not as passivity, brothers and sisters.

It teaches it as warfare under the throne of the king.

We must also call for public justice.

We must call our civil magistrates to do their duty

impartially and swiftly where they fell.

We appeal to God and persevere in our witness.

We must maintain gospel clarity. There are two cups, wrath and

grace, at the Lord's table. We rejoice that Christ has drank

the cup of wrath for us. He's done so, so that the

upright in Him will never have to drink it.

We've received a cup of grace. The portion of the cup of the

wicked is wrath, but for those who have taken refuge in Christ,

it is grace. I want you to know there's only

two kinds of people in this world.

There are those who are under God's wrath and those who are

under God's mercy. There's no one else.

There's no in between. There's no middle ground.

If you're unsure where you stand today, then I urge you to seek

the mercy of God, to cry out to Him.

Just as Miss Dotson testified today, I prayed every night that

the Lord would save me. I urge you to seek the mercy of

God. Ask Him to reveal your true

affections so that you may repent and find grace before

it's too late. Finally, Davis brings us to the

reward for the uprights. The reward of the upright, verse

7 For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds.

The upright shall behold his face.

The song closes by grounding judgments and hope in God's

righteous character. He loves righteous deeds.

He is righteous and He promises. There's a promise in verse 7.

You cannot miss. You should underline, circle it,

whatever you need to do to remember this.

The upright shall behold his face.

The first line of the Psalm showed us where the believer's

safety lies in Yahweh. I take refuge.

And the last line shows where his heart should now be.

The Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds.

The upright shall behold his face.

In this world. You're going to be surrounded by

darkness on every side but but here in the passage, there's a

light shone from heaven to help guide your heart throughout your

life and everything that you face.

There's a light shining down on you now and it's to give you the

hope of salvation. It's to help you find a refuge

and courage in this life. The apostle John reminds us in

first John 32 Beloved, we are God's children now and what we

will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he

appears, we shall be like Him because we will see Him as He

is. Praise God.

So what do we do when we suffer significant harm?

Do we repay evil with evil? Not at all, not at all.

We we trust the Lord, we entrust ourselves to his care, but we

trust that He will repay evil doers for their evil deeds.

Vengeance belongs to Him alone, and he may carry that out in

this life, but he will certainly repay them in the next life.

And so our prayer was like Paul's in Second Timothy 414

where he says the Lord will repay him according to his

deeds. We pray for the Lord to reward

the evildoer for their lawlessness.

And why can we trust God to do this?

How can we rest in our wounds without needing to wound

another? Another friend, Mr. Meadows,

help me answer these questions. You can do that because of

Christ. When he came the first time, He

came like a lamb to the slaughter.

But when he comes again, he will be the lion of the tribe of

Judah who comes to rule and reign, and the Lord will make

all his enemies his footstool. He rode on a lowly donkey into

Jerusalem, but he will bolt out of heaven in a white on a White

Horse. He was given a crown of thorns

at his crucifixion, but he will receive many diademns in heaven.

He offers words of forgiveness now, but he will bring a sharp 2

edged sword to slay his enemies. He believed many to heaven, and

He will consign many to hell. He suffered mistrials, but He

will execute purpose, perfect justice.

The evil doers are trying to hide in darkness now, but the

eyes of the Lord see it all. And He is on His throne in

heaven, storing up his wrath to be poured out on that great day

where He returns. And when he came the first time,

He stood before Pilots. But when he comes again, Pilot

will stand before him. These truths must stiffen our

spines, brothers and sisters. They must stiffen our spines in

dark days. The people of God have stood in

the place that you're standing right now for thousands of

years, suffering violence, suffering the wounds of the

wicked, the attacks, the murders, the slaying of life.

God will not leave us. He will never forsake us.

The upright shall behold his face.

And so let us not be found weak in dark days.

Let us not give in to the temptation to flee to the

mountain like a bird. Let us not escape from the

Lord's refuge to another refuge that cannot protect or save us.

When evil shakes the foundations, the righteous

answer not with flight, but with faith.

So again you may ask, what does this mean for us?

What do we do? In many ways, you keep giving

yourselves to the same things you've been giving yourself to

build godly homes. Marriage must be honored, it

must be revered. It must be protected.

Disciple your children. Teach them to love the Lord.

Train them in righteousness. Beg the Lord to save their

souls. Read scripture in your home.

Sing together, pray together regularly.

All of this is right in step with Ephesians 64 and

Deuteronomy chapter 6. As a church, we commit to

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Christ. We remain committed to the Lord,

the King of kings, the Lord of Lords.

We remain committed to His word. We live for His approval, not

man's. Come what may.

We give ourselves to prayer, to singing, to the sacraments.

We give ourselves to fellowship. We make the Lord's Day a

priority, a day of worship and discipleship, a day of rest.

We work towards becoming better evangelist men and women who go

out and proclaim the Word of God in the public square.

Those things must be woven into our weekly rhythms in the

culture. We live out our vocations as

public righteousness. Whatever the Lord has called you

to do, you do it unto the glory of the Lord on high.

You become the best employee or the best boss, not for man's

approval, but to glorify your Lord.

Speak often about Christ. Speak often about the hope of

heaven. If you see someone suffering in

your job, suffering hardship or heartache or whatever, go to

them. Pray with them.

Minister to them. Use it as an opportunity to

share the gospel. If your company's taken a

direction that is unethical, speak up.

Trust the Lord to provide for you.

Even if you get the axe, who cares?

There are things worse more than that provision, and God will

provide for you. So speak the truth with courage.

Speak it with gentleness. Speak it with the desire to see

the one you're talking to saved. Christ would be their Lord.

Call your rulers to fidelity in Romans 13.

Love enemies while hating evil churches.

We close. I encourage you to lift your

eyes. The King is on his throne.

So this week I want you to take your stand where David begins.

In the Lord, I take refuge. Open your Bible This week, bow

your head. This week, say it out loud.

In the Lord I take refuge, Right?

Repeat it to yourself. Refuse the counsel of fear.

Do not flee into silence or rage.

Stand, speak, serve even when the wicked shoot in the dark at

the uprights. Wage prayer warfare in your

homes. Lament together what is evil and

in faith. Ask God to save or to stop the

evildoer. Ask God to restrain the

wickedness. Ask God to heal the wounded and

comfort the grieving. Build godly homes that push back

the dark. Honor your marriage vows.

Disciple your children. Practice hospitality.

Be all in with Christ and the Word and prayer.

Be present with Christ's people under Christ's word before

Christ's throne. And then go, go into the public

square lawfully and peaceably. Call rulers to fulfill their

Romans 13 duty to punish evil and protect the innocent.

And where they fail, appeal to the higher court of heaven and

keep doing good. Do not grow weary of doing good.

Brothers and sisters, fix your hope.

The judge of all the earth sees. He tests and He will do right.

The cup of wrath is real, but Christ has drunk it for all

those who trust in Him, and so therefore the upright will

behold His face. Take courage, Saints.

When the foundations shake, our foundation stands.

The King is on His throne, and so let us live and pray and

persevere like we believe it Would.

You pray with me now. Heavenly Father, we thank you

today for Psalm 11 and for your word.

We ask, Lord, that you would help us to be like David and

Psalm 11, to take refuge in You. And when those around us may

cower and fear even professing believers, may you grant us a

courage to speak truth into the darkness, to call down the fires

of heaven on the evildoers, to take comfort in a God who loves

righteousness and detest evil. And God, would you help us to

have this hope that you are righteous, that you love

righteous deeds? And so let us give ourselves to

righteous deeds, help us to walk in the good works that you've

given us. And Father, may we have this

hope that we will one day behold your face.

Father, I ask that you save anyone here who does not know

you as their Lord, that you would bring them to their knees

and conviction that they would see the error of their ways.

They would see the the bad fruit of the desires of their own

hearts. That they would see that they

are in need, great need of a Savior, and that you have

provided him for us in Christ your Son.

She loved the world so much that you gave us Jesus Christ to die

for us, that we may not perish but have eternal life.

That's the Lord. Would you grant them faith in

Jesus as they confess and repent of their sins?

Help them to confess also that Christ is Lord and to believe

that you raised him from the dead.

Give them new life today. Ask these things in the name of

Christ, Amen, and invite you to remain seated.

We're going to do something a little different for a moment.

There's going to be some prompts on the screen for prayer, and

these are to guide you in your prayers there in your seat this

morning. I'm going to give you a moment

for each prompt, and then I'll conclude it with a prayer, and

we'll move to the next one. There's just three, but we'll

pray through these three things as a church family, and then

we'll move into the Lord's Supper here in a moment.

So prompt #1 let's pray for our nation, state, and city that God

would restrain evil and establish justice under His

rule. Would you pray with us?

Lord, we confess that you were on your throne, and so we ask

that you would restrain the evil.

We ask that you would expose violent plots.

We ask that You would move our rulers to punish wickedness and

protect the innocent with impartial justice.

We ask also, Father, that You would save or stop those who

love violence. Lord, would you comfort the

bereaved? Would you heal the wounded?

Would You uphold truth in our courts and in our law

enforcement? Would You send an awakening in

our nation? I think we're seeing a beginning

of that in some sense, and I praise you for it.

Many people who previously wouldn't consider you or your

son are now asking questions, all due to the faithful message

of one man, and we praise you for his witness.

Would you grant integrity in our states?

Would you grant integrity in in our courts and our government?

Would you let peace and righteousness reign in our

nation? Father, we pray that your

Kingdom come and your will be done here.

Amen. Let's pray now for Christchurch,

that our worship be pure and our witness be bold and clear.

Heavenly Father, we ask now that you would make us a House of

prayer. There will be a people committed

to come in boldly before your throne of grace and our time of

need to find mercy and grace. Help us to understand that we

have a high priest in heaven, great High Priest, who is

sympathetic to our weaknesses, tested and tried in every way,

as we are yet without sin, and he stands before the throne of

God for us. Lord, let us come boldly.

And Your Word tells us that even when we know not what to pray,

in Romans 8, we see that the Holy Spirit carries those

groanings before the throne and perfects them for us.

We thank you, Lord, that you are our help in every single way,

but especially in prayer. Lord, would you make us a

people, this local church, steadfast in Word, steadfast in

prayer, steadfast in our observance of the Lord's Supper

and baptism, steadfast in our fellowship, steadfast in our

unity of peace and love. Would you purify our worship?

Unite us in holy love, Father, would you clothe us in spiritual

armor? Give us courageous and gentle

and clear witness to Christ in a confused age?

Would you revive your church across the nation, across the

world? Restore first the love.

Restore the love of Christ. Raise up men and women of

prayer. Raise up men and women who will

be evangelists. Grants us laborers for the

harvest, which is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Let our fellowship shine us salt and light.

Amen. We're going to pray now for our

families that marriages stand firm and children are discipled

in the Lord. Heavenly Father, we now beg of

you to strengthen marriages in covenant faithfulness.

You give us a desire for our spouse, that you would give us a

desire to honor you in our marriages, to build godly

legacies through marriage and childbearing, legacies that last

for generations to come, and to our children and grandchildren

and great grandchildren and beyond.

Father, would you start that work in US?

Would you heal wounds? I know that their marriage is

suffering from various wounds. Would you heal those wounds?

Would you break the grip of sexual sin?

Would renew love and honor in every home?

Help parents, Lord, to disciple their children, help them to

lead and family worship, to read and to pray and to sing the Word

together? God, would you save our children

from their sins? Would you call them to yourself

early in their life? Would you keep them in you,

protect them from the schemes of the devil?

Would you guard them at school? Would you grow them in wisdom

and courage? Help them to carry the torch of

the faith into those places we can't go, which is the future.

Our lives are limited, Lord, and so we know that one day we'll

breathe our last. So help us to be diligent and

vigilant. Help us to be faithful in

discipling our children. Father, I pray that you would

bring back prodigals, boys and girls, men and women who were

raised in homes that love you. And yet they're way worse, many

of which are caught up in the world's ideologies.

The very things we've talked about and condemned today have

got a hold of them. Lord, would you bring them back

to yourself? Would you draw them to you?

Would you grant them a life in Christ?

Would you forgive them of their sins, restore them to the face?

Father, would you defend the fatherless, defend the widows,

make our households little lighthouses of the gospel in our

neighborhoods and city? Lord, we ask all these things in

your name, Amen.