Protection from Slander - Psalm 7 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning everyone.

>> Welcome to Boon's Ferry. My name is Mati

Scaring. I've actually got an exciting

announcement this morning in just a

moment. I do want to draw your attention

to the welcome cards. Uh we'd love to

connect more deeply and get to know you.

And if you're wanting to get involved at

Boon's Ferry, the process is relatively

quick. Um, and so the first step is

those welcome cards, just uh getting

information and having a conversation

about which ways you want to get

involved and directing you towards the

right people. We also use them for

prayer requests and we pray every week.

So, you just turn those in either way to

the welcome desk. If you're new or

relatively recent and never done this,

we do have a gift card for you when you

turn those in and just give us whatever

information uh you're comfortable with.

Um, the announcement is about our next

book study. I know a lot of bit of you

have been interested in what book study

uh we uh do. I want to talk a little bit

about our plan for how we walk through

scripture as well. And then I'll

announce the next uh book study. So we

study the Bible midweek and on Sundays

and both of those are really important

to us. We consider them both church

really. And these Bible studies we call

them disciplehip communities. You'll

hear people call them DCs for short

because disciplehip communities is a

mouthful. Um, in these DCs, we meet

weekly in homes and we eat together to

start with, potluck style. Um, if you're

wanting to join one, uh, for the first

time, you don't need to feel like you

need to bring any food. Um, although if

you get in contact with the leaders,

they'll direct you to whoever is

organizing the food, and you could if

you wanted to. Um, but we're really just

copying um, the early church um, and and

what they did together. and they devoted

themselves to prayer, to the apostles

teaching, the breaking of bread, uh

which could mean the Lord's supper and

eating together. And they they had all

things in common, so they cared for each

other's needs. Um, and we don't say that

our way of doing it is

prescriptive, as in the Bible says you

have to do it this way, but we do think

it's um or we do think it's descriptive

of what the church did and think it's a

really good plan. And uh an important

detail in there is that whatever book

study we're going through and let's say

we're I'm preaching on 10 verses. The

Bible studies will be studying those

verses first on Wednesday. Uh if you go

onto our website and go under

disciplehip and uh either click scroll

to the bottom of the page or scroll to

the bottom of the page, you will see

when we're in season, we take a break in

the summer, July and August every

summer. But from um starting back up in

September, uh we're we'll be studying a

book and uh you will get questions

posted on that disciplehip community

page and it's usually six or seven

questions that are uh focused on

application of how to understand and

apply this to your life. Those then get

discussed and facilitated. Uh one of the

DC leaders will just walk through the

questions and it's a Bible study

discussion. I think that's a really

powerful way in my own life and the life

of many people uh that attend these to

study scripture on your own. You're

doing some homework where you're getting

into the word yourself at home um and

asking the Holy Spirit to teach you.

You're doing some discussion and

learning from other Christians and then

you're hearing a sermon on that. Um if

you're thinking, I really would like to

engage in Bible reading and growing more

through scripture, uh which is really

the only way to grow. Faith comes

through hearing. uh both the faith to

believe but also continued growth in

faith comes through engagement with

God's word. If you just commit to one of

these, you're already uh going to be

studying those uh guided studies. Uh

you're going to be discussing them and

then you're going to be hearing a sermon

on them. So, you're committing to a

system rather than just saying, "Yeah,

I'll I'll read tomorrow or I'll do a

little bit more." And then you kind of

push it off uh over years sometimes

even. And so, that's three more times of

relatively deep engagement in God's

word. and we've seen a lot of people

grow and talk about how meaningful this

this plan is. And so we're always doing

book studies. Uh we even do book studies

in the summer, but we choose books that

don't lend themselves as easily to

continuous study. So often times the

psalm is not related to the psalm before

it. Whereas the book studies um like we

do each each chapter builds on the last

uh with the majority of books in

scripture. And so we choose things like

Proverbs or Psalms. and we'll be going

through the Psalms for uh you know 10 10

every summer or eight every summer and

you know uh so it'll be quite a few

summers that we're in the Psalms. But

anyway, we're starting back up and um I

want to look at my uh calendar here real

quick to make sure I don't get the date

wrong. Our first uh disciplehip

community will be on uh September 9th

and that will be a fellowship. Uh

fellowship just means that we don't

actually have content in the study. So

you're just hanging out with each other,

eating food, and maybe praying uh in

these homes of disciplehip communities.

They're listed on the page as well if

you wanted to join one. And you could

just um show up or email uh a leader

saying, "Hey, I'd like to show up." The

answer is always yes. Every group's

always open. They're never closed. When

they get too large, we just make another

one and ask people to pray about joining

the other one and then that group

doubles, so to speak. Um but anyway, so

that fellowship starts on the 9th. So,

if you're thinking, you know, I'd really

like to embed scripture in my life more,

that would be a great way to do it. It's

also a bite-sized version of the church.

People talk about how they enjoy that

Boon Ferry um as a church is smaller,

and I think that's a lot related to

fellowship. You feel like you can

connect and serve. Um, but as Boon Fairy

grows, a way to always have a bite-siz

version of fellowship is these

disciplehip communities. And there's

more than one large church that I've

talked to that really likes our model

and atheist one of them that's

considering finding a way to implement

that because they understand like these

are these are shephering groups groups

where people can really connect in a

deep way. And so um you know there may

come a point someday where we have more

than one service and where there are

more people than you can really get to

know in any deep way but that's not true

of these groups that are usually less

than 25 people. So I think it's a really

powerful thing. September 9th is a

perfect time to come because there's

very little commitment involved. You're

just showing up, hanging out, get to

know people, lots of time for discussion

about anything and just hanging out.

Then September 16th will be the very

first study and we are going to be going

through the book of Acts and I'm very

excited about that. Um, you know, we get

a woo every time, no matter what book I

announce. However, I want to tell you

that we're not just going through these

books willy-nilly. I I think it is

actually a great way to go through the

Bible just to start in Genesis, go

through Revelation, and then start over.

Uh there's many faithful churches that

do it that way. Um however, what the

elders and I do is we begin to pray

about what book the Lord would have us

go through next. And something that you

may never thought about uh about

preaching is that I think about the

spiritual needs of this church with

people and faces in mind and what you

guys are going through. uh when you guys

tell me about things that you're facing

in your life, insecurities, struggles,

sins, um just uh sorrow maybe related to

people being sick in your life or

marital difficulty or difficulty with

your children. These things are taken

into consideration. Uh if for example

the elders were convinced that our

church had a really serious problem with

forgiveness, we might consider, you

know, is it time to go through a book

like Ephesians that talks about be kind

to one another, tender-hearted,

forgiving one another as God in Christ

forgives you. That's Ephesians 4:32. So

Ephesians 4:32

we're we're considering that and um we

believe that the Holy Spirit sometimes

wants to say specific things to specific

churches in his word. And since we know

all of his word is what the Holy Spirit

would say to every church, we're looking

for it's like what is something that you

want us to grow in as individuals and as

a community. And um we believe that's

Acts. We believe the Holy Spirit has led

us to to Acts. And one of the

interesting things announcing this a

little bit early I think is is good

because you can start reading Acts. You

know, some of you reading Psalms and

that's great, too. Uh but you might read

Acts in in advance and pay attention to

one thing in particular. the Holy

Spirit's power in the life of believers

to carry out the mission. What's the

mission? To be and make disciples. And

that starts with evangelism, but it

continues in training these disciples up

uh for life and godliness. To obey

everything that Jesus has commanded as

part of and that's all of God's word. So

that's that's part of being a disciple.

Learning how to obey, learning how to

become more like Christ, being

transformed. We know that that happens

through God's word. uh but the power of

the spirit for that. If you've ever

thought, you know, I'd like to be more

bold in witnessing to people. I have

friends at my work in my social social

circle that I don't even know if they

know if I'm a Christian and I'm a little

bit timid about even telling them about

that. Well, the function of boldness in

relationship to evangelism comes from

the Holy Spirit. And the early believers

in the church prayed and the room was

shaken. They're filled with boldness. Uh

but in the very next chapter or the very

next verses, it's not just a boldness

that leads to evangelism. It leads to a

unity within the church. It leads to a

generosity where people are selling

their belongings just to make sure that

nobody in the church is going with their

needs unmet. So gener anything good, any

spiritual fruit comes from the power of

the Holy Spirit. If you've been

experienced patterns of sins that you

feel like you can't break out, guess

who's the one that's going to break you

out of those patterns when you surrender

to them? The Holy Spirit. It's the Holy

Spirit. When we say that Jesus lives in

us, he lives in us by his Holy Spirit.

And so, it really is the age of the Holy

Spirit. And that's not to say that's not

the age of Jesus or not the age of the

father. It's just that the Holy Spirit

has has made his dwelling with us. He's

taken a permanent residence in our

hearts. And there is so much power that

we have uh when we surrender to the Holy

Spirit. It's not just oh you can be a

little bit nicer a person. You can

become kind when people are treating you

in evil ways. And that is going to be

one of the topics today in Psalm. So we

are in Psalm uh 7 today and uh you need

the power of the spirit to be able to

obey this word and be transformed by it

as well. So if you're excited with us,

join the disciplehip communities. We

really believe that is a powerful way to

walk through the word and a way to embed

it in your lives. And um Acts is a a

long book and there's so many powerful

things to learn about. So I'm really

looking forward to it myself for my own

personal study. I've always wanted to do

a deep stud dive after I've done it in

seminary, but I want to do it again and

even deeper into Paul's missionary

journeys and to get the timeline fresh

in my mind and to understand the life of

Paul and the apostles in the early

church. There's so much to learn. I

really believe it'll it'll uh create

dramatic changes for uh greater life and

godliness at Boon's Fairy. So, I'm

looking forward to that. Um and uh so

you that that first study will be up

well in advance of the 16th um a week or

two in advance and you'll be able to

start your study and then and then join

us in that. So, Psalm 7, I had kind of a

funny experience just this morning. We

pray before the the service in the

prayer room together and I was

explaining that

I'd been looking up um duels in America.

Um one of the topics we'll be talking

about in Psalm 7 is slander. It seems

that the context is that David was being

slandered and he's praying to God about

that. There's this man named Kush that

seems to be wrongly accusing him of

things and and we'll go through that.

Well, I would say just doing a little

bit of research on duels in America, um

the duels were often related to uh one

man having his honor offended by

somebody slandering him or maybe someone

insulting his wife or lying about a

horse race. That's a that's a literal

one. And um so then I I came into the

prayer room and Ben Jansen's an elder at

our church and I said, "You know, I was

looking up duels um and especially in

relationship to slander because there

were high ranking officials in America

that would have duels over over

slander." And he goes, "Oh, that's

interesting. Yesterday I was looking up

trial by combat, which is something even

different." So I said, you know, Holy

Spirit was moving in similar ways in our

lives yesterday evidently. But so I'll

start with trial by combat. You might be

absolutely shocked to find out that

trial by combat, let me look up the

information that I that I found, um was

not outlawed in England until 1819.

What is trial by combat? Uh well, there

is a um one of the reasons that it was

outlawed in England uh was of because of

public outrage in a case versus Ashton

versus Thornton or Ashford versus

Thornton. Um Ashford never got convicted

of murder, but he was on trial for for

murdering a family member of Thornton.

And I don't even know the first names. I

didn't go that deep into it. However,

Ashford claimed that he had a right to

trial by combat, right? And at first it

was claimed that the evidence against

him for murdering was overwhelming. The

court decided it wasn't overwhelming and

there was a legal loophole. They had not

yet outlawed trial by combat. And so

there was going to potentially be this

trial by combat which means that he

would have acquitted himself of being

according to him falsely accused of

murder by I think it was the Thornton is

the brother of the of the person that

was murdered. So whether he murdered or

not I don't know but he could have

acquitted himself by trial by combat and

according to men you could use choose a

champion too stuff of movies and that's

about 200 years ago that that was legal

in England. Okay it's even crazier if

you think about um duels in America. So

duels in uh America, one of the um one

of the famous ones was was Andrew

Jackson. He shot and killed uh Charles

Dickinson, not Charles Dickens, but

Charles Dickinson. And uh it was uh

related to slander as well. Um another

famous one was Burr versus Hamilton.

Burr was the vice president at the time.

Andrew Jackson was not yet president,

but be became president afterwards. So

Andrew Jackson killed a man over things

related to slander

and then became president. Okay. So my

point is not oh well the and and and it

is difficult to tell just on like

precursory research how legal something

was. So I think in the Andrew Jackson

case I may have my details a little bit

mixed up but I don't actually think so.

Um it was illegal to duel in Tennessee

and so they moved across state state

lines to have the duel uh with Burr

versus Hamilton. And I think it was uh

in New York, but the actual duel is New

Jersey because the uh consequences for

having an illegal duel, also illegal in

New Jersey, were less in New Jersey. So,

they had it there. Um Jackson and Burr

were never um uh tried and uh convicted

of well, they they might have been

tried, but they were never convicted of

murder uh because also of legal

loopholes regarding duels. Um, regarding

this, my my point is not even to weigh

in about are are duels, if they're legal

or trial, if by combat if they're legal,

akin to murder or not. My point is how

serious uh that that society took

slander. With Burr, it basically ended

his political career from what I can

tell because there was such public

outrage over him um uh killing uh

Hamilton. Um, and so at that time there

the the tides of public opinion were

already dramatically changing. Hamilton

was very popular. Um, but if you go back

200 years, trial by combat, that's kind

of the last one before it was uh

illegal, 300 years before that. Um, it

was relatively normative that if you say

certain things uh to a person, they

might challenge you to a duel and you

might get shot. Okay. I saved my I'll

say favorite one, craziest one. Um I

think it's reasonable to claim, good

argument can be made that I think

especially among Christians that Abraham

Lincoln was if not one of our best

presidents, the very best president,

right? He almost partok in a duel. And

you know the terms he set, they would

choose terms like what are the weapons,

right? Broadswords.

Oh, Broadour duel is one of my bucket

lists. That and

getting like a,000lb blue marlin or

something. Black Marlin, blue marlin.

Either one will do. Um, but yeah. So

then I I don't even remember exactly how

they stopped it, but Abraham Lincoln was

the one that said, "I want to do

broadswords." Okay, this is the stuff of

legends. And that one was also um and he

was famous for saying, "You want to take

this outside in political debates like

and everybody knew what that meant."

Okay. So, imagine a society where uh

maybe duels are illegal in your state,

but you might get challenged to it. And

you know that the person that if he

kills you, it was usually men, so I'm

going to say he. Um I don't even know of

a historical example of a duel between

two women. It may exist. I don't know.

I'll just say he, though. So, if if your

adversary slays you, and let's say he

was the one accused of slander, he

really did slander you and he slays you,

he may never face any consequences. Most

of these high-profile duels, no one

faced any consequences. Uh, right. But,

so imagine how you would feel about

slandering somebody, saying something

about somebody that's not true and that

is meant to ruin or destroy or harm

their reputation. Um, I think that is a

a good definition of slander. In fact, a

legal defense for slander in America is

uh if it's true, it's not slander.

Right? It's very difficult to prove that

someone slandered you because first of

all, you have to prove what they're

saying isn't true. Another condition is

you have to prove that what they did

caused certain damages. Uh social

damages, you lost your job, so financial

damages. Social damages are hard to

prove. You know, proving that you lost

your job directly as a result of

reputation destruction is also

difficult. you know, um especially today

where companies are uh most likely not

even going to tell you why you're

getting fired. So, they're not going to

put themselves in any legal liability in

the vast majority of these cases. So, um

these days there's not a whole lot you

can do about s someone slandering your

reputation, even if you know and they

know they were trying to get you fired.

They were trying to destroy your

relationship with your best friend. They

were trying to destroy your relationship

with your children, young or adult. that

these are all things that have happened

in this church. They were shared with me

confidentially. So I will not tell you

the details of them. But I have

experienced at least both both

personally and vicariously the damage of

slander being done to me and being done

to you. Okay? uh people have lost their

jobs, people have lost rep uh

reputations, people have lost

relationships as a result to slander. In

some cases, slander uh of uh committed

by a Christian brother or sister, not

just non-Christians, someone at least

who claims to be a Christian. Right? So,

back to the olden days where duels were

sometimes legal, sometimes legal gray

area, sometimes illegal, still held

without consequence. Highranking profile

officials,

there would have been an atmosphere

where people were more afraid to slander

somebody, right? And now, how is it

often done? It's often done on Facebook,

on X, uh, on social media platforms,

online. We call them keyboard warriors

where you can just anonymously slander

someone. You can create an AI account,

probably hide that it's you behind the

AI account and have a basically a

software system slander someone for you,

right? And I think it's getting harder

to tell whether the person that's

talking is even AI. You know, they used

to be able to tell better. Look at the

hair. Look at the eyebrows. Look at the

fingers. If they put their hands in

front of their face, it looks weird.

Like there's little towels here there.

It's like I that looks like skin looks

wrong too wet somehow. What's but you

don't even know. So, um, and someone

might even create an AI, uh, of you

saying something you've never said, and

many people may believe it, right? So,

it's getting harder and harder to prove

slander. It's getting harder to harder

to catch people in the act, and it's

getting easier and easier to do it. And

one of the reasons is that there is just

less deterrent than there used to be.

So there was a time in America where

duel was normal. It was not illegal.

There's a time in England where travel

by comment was normal. It was not

illegal. And where there wasn't

necessarily public outrage. I think it's

arguable at least that one of the

reasons is people took slander more

seriously.

I my point is today that we part of my

point, this isn't the main point, but

one of the things I'm going to try to

convince you of is that as Christians,

we ought to take slander far more

seriously.

I'm going to walk you through Bible

verse in the in the ESV alone. There's

like 30 to 40. And the only reason I

don't know the exact number is uh of of

mentions of the of the word slander.

Sometimes the word slander, it's the

same concept but rendered in a different

word, right? Malicious speech, uh

gossip, slander, but slander alone 30

times in the ESV. And and the other

translations might not use exactly the

word slander, but a concept very similar

in the word. So it just h it's it's

mentioned over it's dealt with over and

over and over again in scripture.

However, my point will not be we should

bring duels back. Was joking about

wanting to have a broadsword battle. You

know, I just I think I to be honest, I

think my view of duels and and trial by

combat is it's foolish, right? You're

putting your life in danger. Um you

don't know that the Lord is going to

help you prevail and that justice will

actually be served. If Thornton had

gotten into the duel and lost to Ashford

and Ashford really had murdered his

brother, justice would have never been

served. I think a trial by jury is far

better way. However,

I believe that the reason why we

shouldn't slander is because we know

God's character and we fear him. Not

that we fear the legal consequence, that

we fear the Lord. And that is the reason

we ought not to slander. Okay? So before

I even get into the passage, I want you

to know something about the Lord and

about this passage and it's the main

point and it is that when we're right

with the Lord, go up and put up the main

point. When we're right with the Lord,

so we're going to have to define what it

means to be right with the Lord um in in

specifically in the context of Psalm 7.

Uh we can expect him to protect us. So

when we're right with the Lord, we can

expect him to protect us and punish

those who slander us unless they repent.

A good amount of these high-profile

uh slander-based duels were between two

Christians, by the way,

and and the slander would, you know, the

slander charges or the duel would often

be called off if the person issued it a

public apology.

So we ought not to think well these were

uncchristian savages. No they took

Sander very seriously and they should

have and uh many duels got cancelled

because someone actually offered a

public apology. But when no public

apology was offered then lives were at

stake. Lives were at stake. So again,

when we're right with the Lord and if

you want to make a claim to the Lord to

protect you from slander and to bring

consequences to those who are slandering

you because you want justice and you

should want justice. Slander is wrong,

terribly damaging. Um we'll talk about

just how damaging it is. Uh you can't

make that claim according to David if

you're not right with the Lord. You

can't make that claim that you can trust

the Lord and expect him to protect you

and to bring consequences against

someone who's acting like an enemy

through slandering you. Um, but if you

are right with the Lord, we can expect

him to protect us and punish those who

slander us unless they repent. So, let's

get into Psalm 7 and let's let's uh

let's look at what David says. I'm going

to read the entire thing just as an

interesting note. Um Psalm 7 does not

actually start in verse one. It starts

before verse one. This is actually God's

words. These words are in the

manuscripts. Uh Shagayion of David which

he sang to the Lord concerning the words

of Kush of Benjamite.

A lot of these psalms

um including Psalm 6, you can see even

before verse one, it says to the choir

master with strings instruments

according to the sheith a psalm of

David. Well, they're telling you it's a

psalm basically means a praise song or a

song. But some of these are telling us

they were actually set to music and they

were to be used with string incidents

and it's for the the choir director, you

know, um which is interesting, but that

doesn't give you any context

necessarily, right? Just, hey, this is a

song. Hey, choir director, this is for

stringed instruments and this is

according to the sheath. We don't really

know what that means, but that's

probably a style of music or maybe a

style of poetry. I don't know. Uh,

however,

uh, it's a psalm and it's a song and

here's the directions, but it doesn't

tell us why David's saying what he's

saying or what this was related to. We

get a little bit more context here. It

was saying to the Lord concerning the

words of Kush, a Benjamite. So, what

David is talking about here is related

to something Kush said. Okay? He's a

Benjamite.

We don't know who Kush the Benjamite was

in this context. So we don't there isn't

a story in the Bible that's like okay

here's what Kush said and here's what

Kush did, here's what David said and

here's what David did. All we have is

what David said in Psalm 7. But we do

know it's about words. It's about words.

One of your first hints uh you wouldn't

be able to say just from that it's about

slander. You'll have to see that in the

verses with your own eyes. But it's

about words. Something Kush said

has sparked this the reason for David

writing other than the inspiration of

the Holy Spirit. Okay. So that's that's

important. That's already God's word. So

we know for certain that David was

writing this in response to some words

Kush said about him. And it becomes very

clear very quickly the words were not

good words. So verse one, "Oh Lord my

God, in you do I take refuge. Save me

from all my pursuers and deliver me.

Lest like a lion they tear my soul

apart, rending it in pieces with none to

deliver.

We already know we're talking about

words. I believe it will be relatively

easy to convince you we're talking about

slanderous words here. And so even

before I prove that uh verse one and

verse two, we have to have it off in our

mind that what David is asking for

refuge from and saving from is people

that are pursuing him with words,

slanderous words, things that are wrong

about him. I'll show you that in a

moment. And I don't really believe verse

one and verse two are difficult to

understand, especially if you have

experienced the damage words can do.

Have you ever been falsely accused of

something? I don't necessarily mean

legally. Has someone ever said something

that is not true about you and you know

they know it's not true about you?

A lesser version of this is what I call

cheating in arguments. Couples do it all

the time. happens in our marriage too.

Uh you'll hear a lot that you are served

by an imperfect pastor, a sinful pastor.

I'm a sinful man. I need the cross of

Jesus every single day.

If you know my story, you know just how

a prodigal I when Paul says he's the

chief of sinners, I'm like I I know what

that feels like because that's how I

acted too, especially in my college

years. And so it's it's good. I admit

that because well, if a pastor of a

church admits it, I think it'll make it

easier for the people in the church to

admit it. I want a culture where we are

quick to admit that we are both sinful

and because we're sinful in our very

nature, we also sin.

To say anything else makes God out to be

a liar according to the Apostle John in

1 John chapter 1. So, we don't want to

1 John 1 · chapter mention

make God out to be a liar and we don't

want to be liars ourselves. Those are

all barriers to the sin being taken care

of. But if we confess our sin, he's

faithful and just to forgive us our sin

and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness, which is the

alleviation of our sin and your guilt,

which can crush you. So in your

marriage, in your relationships to best

friends, good friends, anyone,

co-workers, when someone's making an

argument and they're winning, you know

what you can do? You can make up a

statistic on the spot that wins the

argument. I used to do that all the

time. I used to just make up statistics

and sometimes people would call me on I

laugh. I was like, "Yeah, I made it up."

Uh, but sometimes you can win an

argument with that. It's lying though.

It's cheating.

Sometimes you know that the person

you're arguing with knows that you're

cheating.

Gaslighting.

I think gaslighting comes from the term

in a play where a husband was slowly

turning the lights down on his wife to

convince her that she was crazy.

And these are gas lights. Okay, that's

that's where the term gaslighting comes

from. Um it's when you're intentionally

uh convincing somebody, not necessarily

that they're crazy, uh but that what

they're saying is wrong and you know uh

that what you're saying is false and

initially they know what you're saying

is false. You could really make an

argument that gaslighting is a form of

slander. Um it's a bit of a reach but

still uh so what happens in the argument

is you don't want to lose the argument

because the consequences of losing the

argument may need to lean lead to

changed behavior. Okay. So one really

common relatable argument in marriages

is about chores. You know um maybe a

wife is angry at her husband because he

won't take the trash out after having

committed to take the trash out. And uh

let's say that you didn't take the trash

out yesterday, but you've generally been

taking the trash out. Your wife's upset

at you and she says, "You haven't been

taking the trash out for weeks and you

didn't take it out yesterday." Right? So

she has evidence against you that you

didn't do it. Uh but you're like, "No,

I've been taking the you're not being

encouraging. I've been doing way better

at it." And so you just say, "I I did do

it yesterday." you know,

um, and you lie. And there's no jury.

There's no mediator. It's just you and

your wife. And you just keep saying, "I

did. I did. I did." Maybe even sort of

you're pretending to yourself that

you're misremembering.

Oh, maybe it was two days ago. I think

it was yesterday. No, I did. I did.

Because you don't want to lose the

argument because losing the argument

means that you have to admit that you're

not pulling your weight within the

household, right?

I wouldn't be surprised if that's

totally relatable to you. There's just

so many different ways that we can be

careless with our words where we think

we can gain an advantage even with

people that we love um by not losing the

argument. But guess who always knows? It

won't always be the government. It won't

be some legal process. It might not even

be the person you're talking to. God

always knows. God always knows. And it

creates core damage. Why do I say core

damage? Just a modern way of saying

tearing people's souls apart.

Lest like a lion they tear my soul

apart, rending it in pieces with none to

deliver.

Slander is so very serious. Let me go

ahead and just prove to you that the

psalm is about slander. Um and and then

I'll come back to those verses because

there's more to them. But verse three,

oh Lord my God, if I've done this, if

I've done what? We don't know. No idea.

Reasonable to assume if I've done what

Kush is saying,

if I've done this, if there's wrong in

my hands, if I've repaid my friend with

evil or plundered my enemies without

cause, uh, now I want to be carefully to

rightly divide the word here.

Specifically, also, if you're using like

the CSB, NSB, or another translation,

uh, the words are something like someone

who was at peace with peace with, which

doesn't necessarily mean friend. the ESV

translating uh committee, the scholarly

committee uh chose the word friend to

represent what the Hebrew word means. Um

it literally meaning word for word means

one at uh peace with me and I even have

a footnote that says that. So it may

have been we do not know this is another

place where it's important not to go

beyond what tiny little sliver of

context we've given. We know it's

concerning words that Kush has spoken.

We now know that it's oh Lord my God if

I have done this that D what's being

presupposed is that he's being accused

of having done something and he's saying

something about well if I did it here's

the result but basically if I didn't do

it here's what I'm asking you for that's

what he's saying and so it may have been

a friend or someone that he was at peace

with it may have been an enemy um since

he is accusing David of something that

David is saying he did not do and we

believe David I mean he's the author of

scripture here script scripture would

have to be wrong for him to say, "I did

not do it." Wouldn't make it into

scripture if that was the case. So, in

other words, he's being falsely accused

by someone that was either a former

friend or someone at least an

acquaintance that he was at peace with

or an enemy. Okay. I say we know at

least that he's becoming an enemy once

he started being slandered. That seems

obvious to me. However, was Kush

somebody who was actually living at

peace with David before he decided to

say that David did something that David

did not do. Um, we don't know. He may

have been an enemy in advance, he may

have been a friend, he may have been a

peaceful acquaintance. But what David is

saying is if I repaid my friend with

evil or plundered my enemy without

cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and

overtake it, let him trample my life to

the ground and lay my glory in the dust.

Salah. Salah means like pause for

reflection or something close to that.

Okay. So that's can we go back to the

main point? I want to show you how these

main points are constructed.

I intend to say in summary exactly what

God is saying through this biblical

author when we are right with the Lord.

Okay, I haven't proven the we can expect

him to protect us yet. I'll show that

too. But verse three through through

five is David clearly saying, "I've got

no case against Kush if I've actually

wronged him." So you judge rightly,

Lord. If I've wronged my friend, and

he's really talking about anybody in

this case, too, not just Kush. If I've

wronged my friend or if I've wronged an

enemy, then let the enemy pursue my soul

and overtake it. Let him win. Let him

get his way.

So

if you think about the way the

inspiration of scripture works, the Holy

Spirit had David write this. So this is

every word, God's word. And David has a

context specifically in mind. You don't

know Kush. You'll never meet Kush. Kush

is not alive anymore. We don't know the

end of Kush. We don't know if he

repented or not. We don't even know what

he said. We don't even know what he said

David did. We know he said something

that David did not do.

that was really damaging at a core level

to David. It was hurting him in his

soul. We're going to go back to that why

slander is so damaging. But I just

wanted to prove that it was indeed that.

So you do not have a case with the Lord.

If you don't have a clear conscience

when telling him about, hey, they're

slandering me. If what they are saying

you did, you actually did. So, let's say

at work um you lied

u you're consistently clocking in an

hour early before you start work and an

hour later uh than you actually finished

and someone blows the whistle on you

says they're getting two paid hours

they're just in the break room for the

first hour they're they're not even

doing anything and they're just reading

their Bible and so you're like oh he's

persecuting me it's like no you're

cheating your employer so how can you

with a right heart ask God to vindicate

you against this false accusation when

you and God both know it wasn't a false

accusation and that you're in the wrong.

I won't belabor that point because I

think it's relatively simple. But that's

why I've said when we're right with the

Lord. Okay? This is a very specific

contextual rightness where someone's

slandering you. You didn't you're you're

innocent in that s sense. So in this

psalm, we're not talking about the kind

of innocence we have before the Lord

when we're covered with Christ's

righteousness. We're talking about this

may have never gone to trial, but it's

sort of in a legal sense. Did before

God, is this person in the wrong for

slandering you? Are you in the wrong?

And they're right for just blowing the

whistle. Okay. So the Holy Spirit's

intent here behind this is to cretail

the idea that you can just go ask God

for vindication when people are not

actually wrong about what they're saying

about you. Okay, does that make sense?

All right, back to test uh lest a they

like a lion tear my soul apart. If you

have ever been slandered,

the damage that that does to the core of

your heart uh is so deep. And it's not

just because of the potential

consequences. I've lost friends over

people slandering me, Christians

slandering me, people I believe who are

actually saved. Okay, so that's happened

more than once. I've been called a

heretic. I've been called a cult leader.

I've been called on equal ground with

the leader of the Rush Nishi at

Wilders's Canyon. You know that is, you

know? Yeah. Like, yeah, I do sometimes

give out Gatorade at my house. It's not

poisoned.

By the way, just a little aside, um,

cults are real. Hybrid, you know, pseudo

uh, hybrid Christian religions are real.

They're not Christians. They don't have

a saving gospel. And, uh, I won't won't

get into that that deeply. Um, but one

way that you can begin to see that

someone is false spiritually, so maybe

akin to something like a cult leader, is

if you notice that they're wanting glory

for themselves. Okay? So, if if it's

because ultimately the goal of a cult

leader is being worshiped himself or

herself. Okay? So if it's a cult of

personality uh um and and you can see

look this person that you you need more

than that because you could convince

yourself just cuz this person's hurt you

that they're just all about themselves.

And every pastor struggles to not take

glory for himself. The most humble man

who ever lived at the time Moses

couldn't go to the promised land because

he kind of took glory for himself,

didn't he? Um you make me get this water

of the rock when obviously it was only

God that did that. So that's a

paraphrase, but pretty close to what he

did. So, so it's uh yeah, like it's

possible. Um but to just haul off and

immediately call someone a cult leader,

you ought not to do it. It could be

slander. You have to be careful. Uh so I

do not want your worship and I'm not

worthy of it. Just ask my wife. Ask my

kids if you need proof of that.

I don't want to be worshiped. I want us

to worship Jesus with greater

transformation in our hearts. I want our

lives to glorify Jesus. Sin dwells in

me, however, and that sin has to be

conquered for me not to take any glory

for myself. However, I've been slandered

and and I've lost relationships and I've

also lost relationships with the people

who slandered me who still painful

because some of them have been very

close friends. Maybe Kush was a good

friend of David. We just don't know

about it. So, it's very painful. very

painful because where are these

relationships anchored? Uh they're not

just anchored in our like minds

scientifically speaking, biologically

speaking, they're anchored in your

heart, in your deepest places of

emotional affection, right? Where do you

love your kids from? In the deepest

places of your heart, where do you love

your best friend? Where do you love your

wife from? Where do you love each other

from? All the way down or it's not real.

And so when someone slanders you, that's

how deep it goes. So let's go to some

verses about how God feels about

slander.

My point will not be that God wants

duels back but man are his words about

slander intense. Let's go to Psalm um

101 verse 5.

Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly I

will destroy.

Whoever has a hotty look and an arrogant

heart I will not endure. Who's speaking?

God's speaking

in a double way because it's God's word.

So, we already know it's God's word.

What David is saying is also what God's

saying in Psalm. But here, he's

literally the one in quotation, so to

speak. Whoever slanders his neighbor

secretly, I will destroy. It doesn't

mean, hey, if you do it publicly, it's

fine. Saying you're just not going to

get away with it.

Again, the caveat is unless there's

repentance. So unrepentant slander

according to God deserves death. It

deserves death.

So going back because I I think often

times especially in marriage counseling

husbands will get blamed and wives will

not get called out and the goal is to

help both of the people deal with the

sin in their relationship. And so it's

not to be like fair between men and

women per se although partiality is sin.

Uh that's not my goal here either. But

let's go back to the wife that's

accusing her husband of never taking out

the trash,

right? Uh we're to encourage one

another. And you know in your heart as

wives and as husbands as well that when

your husband or wife tells you, "Hey,

you're doing a good job." That is

something the Holy Spirit will support

and bring encouragement to the heart of

the person you're speaking to. And you

know what will come out of that? More

fruit. So, you say, "Hey, I've been I've

been noticing that you've been taking

out the trash." Um, you know what the

husband might think? Hey, and he might

even say it out loud. He might say,

"Well, I forgot to take it out

yesterday, honey, and I'm sorry. I know

that really bothers you." And you say,

"Yes, it does bother me, but I've

noticed just how much you've been doing

it." So, you want him to take the trash

out more, encourage him, you strengthen

him, you build him up. And you might

think, well, what kind how weak do you

have to be? Uh I believe any change of a

pattern requires the Holy Spirit's

power. Patterns are ingrained.

Selfishness is ingrained. For a husband

to not do a simple request is

selfishness, right? For wife to be like,

"Well, I'm not selfish in any way, so

how dare he be so weak." Well, think

about the ways that he's asking you to

change and how hard they've been for you

and vice versa. So, we need humility in

relationship with one another. But

here's the thing. Why? Not just speaking

to wives here, but in marriage is it so

much easier to slander? And why do you

sometimes feel like, well, he doesn't he

doesn't deserve to be encouraged?

You might be shocked by this, but nobody

ever deserves to be encouraged. Okay?

So, what you're really saying is when

you say, "He doesn't deserve to be

encouraged implicitly is I do deserve to

be encouraged. He doesn't." Saying you

deserve to be couraged is works

righteousness.

So, pretty deep stuff. And to say you

never do it, I don't know if we need to

upgrade it to slander charges, but it's

not true in this hypothetical. It's not

true even. Okay, you never do it. So,

let's look at what God says, not just

about slander, but also about careless

words. Can we agree it's careless to say

to your partner, "You never do it."

especially when actually they've been

doing better. Okay, let's go to Matthew

Matthew 12:36

12:36 and it's it'll be on the screen.

This is Jesus speaking. Many Bibles red

letter. I tell you on the day of

judgment, people will give account for

every careless word they speak.

Every careless word they speak.

Tearing down your spouse, tearing down

your children. that that's oh and by the

way your spouse

you know if if you say you never they

know you don't mean probably literally

never they know you're angry they know

that you're hyperbolizing and that

probably later in a calm moment you'll

realize yeah that was wrong to say that

your children don't necessarily

so that goes it's like you know uh it's

like the source code speaking in in

computer terms like you you're like

implanting a virus on their hearts and

they don't have the tools to just get it

out. Oh, mommy was just upset. She

doesn't really mean that is not often.

That would be a very intelligent,

emotionally intelligent uh young child.

Um and so, yeah, you you weren't going

to say something mean-spirited like

that, but then you got really angry and

so now it's a self-control issue. every

careless word you speak,

it can words can cause core damage, God

takes God takes them very seriously.

Look, I'm not advocating for

snowflakeism where every little offense

has to be some kind of microaggression

and oh, you're you're doing violence to

me. But there is a real truth that even

though you can't see the damage done

necessarily on the outside cuz stiff

upper lip uh there can be damage that

happens on the inside where it really

matters. God will hold us to account for

every careless word we speak always

unless we repent. Uh just in terms of

biblical theology, what happens when we

do repent? Who does God hold accountable

for your careless words? Jesus who never

slandered and never reviled and never

spoke a careless word even though he was

being crucified and slandered as he was

being crucified. Okay? You can't you

can't torture sin out of Jesus. You can

almost always do it to human beings.

It's not as though we have an excuse

though because no matter what happens to

us, we've been told that we'll be given

a way out from the temptation. So,

you've always been given the power by

the Holy Spirit not to sin. Be very

careful here. I'm not saying that you

can ever not be a sinner. You just never

have an excuse for when you do because

you've been given all the tools for life

and godliness through those great and

precious promises. Apostle Peter told us

that.

So, you never have an excuse for

speaking careless words. However,

this is sometimes how I feel and it's

wrong to feel this way. It's the sinner

in me and it's the sinner in you that

feels that way. Oh, well, it's not that

big of a deal. Okay.

If you lived in the early 1800s or 1700s

and you said something like this to

somebody who takes their honor and their

reputation very seriously, you might get

shot for it. So, whole groups of people

took it way more seriously than we do.

And wonder why if they're Christians,

maybe did they read like, "Whoever

slanders his neighbor secretly I will

destroy.

It seems to me, I don't want to like um

look at the past with rosecolored

glasses, but it seems to me that in

general, Christians had a greater fear

of God in those days. Fear of God's

almost unpopular to talk about today.

And so, it's a matter of fear of God to

not speak careless words. We we all do

it. I don't think you should say you

never speak careless words. And here's

here's the solution. confess it and it's

it's a sin ultimately most importantly

vertically say God I'm sorry for

speaking that careless word and then go

if you have the opportunity to apologize

and most often times you do but

sometimes you said careless words to

people and they'll never talk to you

again or they're they're not even around

anymore or live in a different state and

and it's been years it might be weird to

call them up and hey sorry I said that

careless thing there's they may just say

oh like let the Holy Spirit lead you in

conviction of how to go and address this

with the person but you should offer

them an apology And here's the thing. If

they're a Christian, and only if they're

a Christian, and the Holy Spirit resides

in them, the Holy Spirit can mend the

damage you did with your careless words

when they forgive you. Forgiveness

heals. So, covers over a multitude of

sins. Love does. So, so let's not take

careless words um and and downgrade

them. Just like, it's not that big of a

deal. I was angry. It's totally

understandable. and and husbands and

wives don't let each other off the hook

unless you're truly intending to cover

over it. Okay? It's to the glory of man

to cover over an offense. What does that

mean? It means that someone might sin

against you and you're just going to let

it go. You're not going to address it.

You don't need to have a big

reconciliation process. You're going to

let it go. How do you know if you should

let it go or not? Basically, if you can.

That's that's probably my best way of

thinking about it, honestly. If you can

if you find it just stuck in your heart,

you're so hurt and and yet you forgive

them, but you feel at that moment like

there still needs to be some kind of

restoration. Stop pretending like you're

able to cover over it. It's it's

stuffing it and it'll blow up later and

it creates a bitter spirit there. Uh

that can even happen if you've forgiven

them. When things aren't right in the

relationship, you can tell there's

looks, there's chippiness, the tone of

the voice changes, you know. Uh, so, so

you got to go work it out. I preached

a pretty fiery sermon. I didn't mean to

be fired. I realized I was screaming.

Very emotional about it. Very passionate

about this. I I don't know if there's

probably anything I'm more passionate

than forgiveness. And it starts with my

own. It's the most precious thing I

have. It's the joy of my salvation. And

And I realized I'm like, I'm I'm sorry.

I'm not yelling at you guys. It's a

father-son camping trip. Other men were

in tears, too. So, I think they took it

the right way, not like condemning

yelling, but just a lot of passion. I

had men coming up to me and one of them

said, um, I realized that I I've been

too passive in my leadership and I I've

I've let my wife off the hook too many

times because I'm afraid of the fallout

of working the thing out. And so, I've

just kind of covered over. I need to not

anymore. I need to do better forgiving

her and I need to lead her to forgive me

as well and all the different vice versa

scenarios there. Okay. So, letting

people off the hook when what they did

really needs to be worked out like you

need to have a conversation about it.

Think about it this way. Do you want

them to experience the alleviation of

the guilt of what they did even for a

careless word if it was painful degree

where you need to bring it up? Right?

Like there's times like when when things

are just so stressful, kids are acting

up, you're hungry, angry, lonely, tired,

uh you're on a road trip and it's just

been a lot and you say some things.

Yeah, I'm I'm not necessarily going to

bring it up. There's other things that

really were intended to harm and to hurt

and you need to work them out. Um

you are your brother's keeper. And

that's a biblical term and a spiritual

idea. Um where you need to care about

the person's spiritual well-being. And

if what they need to do to be right with

God is to apologize, then you need to

show them that. And I like to say and go

in low, power down, and to say, "That

really hurt me. Will you please uh say

you're sorry for that? I forgive you,

but will you please say you're sorry for

that?" So I don't be passive on that.

You want to help each other uh reach

that cleansing from all unrighteousness.

Cleansing from all unrighteousness. Why

do we need to be cleansed even from

speaking careless words or gossip or

slander? Let's go to um Mark 7 20-23

should be up on the screen. And he said

what comes out of a person is what

defiles him.

Also Jesus speaking. For from within,

out of the heart of man, come evil

thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,

murder, adultery,

coveting, wickedness, deceit,

sensuality, envy,

slander.

I'm not weighting that word heavier than

the other words. I'm just highlighting

it like slander, pride, foolishness. All

these evil things come from within and

they defile a person.

maybe a more modern word uh or modern

way spiritual corruption. It corrupts

you on the inside to do these things and

that corruption needs to be taken away.

This is true for Christians as well.

When you slander someone, when you

falsely accuse them about something,

even if you're saying, well, it's a

small thing like he never takes out the

trash. Uh again, I think slander is

overblown in that case, but you're

speaking at least careless words, right?

So that has a defiling impact. The worse

the words, the more evil intent behind

them, the greater the defiling impact.

Uh that word defile is used when people

fail to obtain the grace of God. Hebrews

12. And a bitter root springs up. And

what does it do? It seems to be

spiritually communicable. It defiles

many. And the spiritual root goes down.

And the so so have you ever noticed

someone that you can just tell has a

bunch of bitterness and then uh you

haven't really done anything wrong

relationship but something you've said

reminds them of who wronged them and

they start looking at you like you're

just like the other others. This

defilement behind the eyes. You can see

it. You can discern it. You there's a

coldness there. The anger's gotten kind

of icy, but man, it's hard and it's just

there. um when bitterness sits in it's

you know I um

I was uh working like for so the

football players were were um contracted

with jobs during the summer where they

would get paid high amounts of money a

real gray area in the dun NCAA that that

so we'd work for like really rich people

um in the west hills and oftentimes was

pulling out English ivy and these root

balls I had. So, so, um, I'm in no way

trying to to to brag about my strength,

but just to illustrate how how hard

these English ivy and wear pickaxes and

all this different stuff, trying to

levering it out. And finally, I just got

upset and I I talked to a friend of

mine, uh, Chris Berg and Derek Duff, and

I I still know them. I'm especially

still close with Chris Berg. Uh, Chris

could deadlift

um, over 600 lb. I could deadlift over

600 lb and Derek Duff could uh deadlift

over 500 lb. Okay. Um we all got on a

part of the route and big root sometimes

like that thick of branch. I don't know

if you've ever seen English ivy get that

thick but it does. Uh and we're trying

to rip it out of the ground and all of

us together could not rip it out of the

ground. Stands to reason that it's over

a,000 pounds well over 1,000 pounds of

us trying to rip it out and can't rip it

out. Spiritually, it is impossible for

you to become undefiled, for you to

become unbitter apart from the Holy

Spirit. He can lift that dead root,

though. And it happens through

confession and cleansing from all

unrighteousness. And it if you confess,

it's conditional. You do have to

confess. God is faithful and just. Why?

Why is it just for God to forgive you

for slandering someone or just for God

to forgive someone for slandering you?

If they don't repent, it would not be

just. But even if they repent, so okay,

all they'd have to do is say, "I'm

sorry. Please forgive me." And then it's

just fine. Your reputation could still

be destroyed, which they can't repair.

So, I've not just lost relationships

with individuals who slandered me, but

it had this collateral damage, bitter

rude kind of stuff. And then uh that

person may come say they're sorry. My

relationships to these people are still

broken.

You know, if if you were the one that

slandered and you can do something, say,

"I was wrong. You should go back to them

and tell them that I said I was wrong

and repair the relationship." That's

that's all really good stuff. It's

almost like a New Testament version of

restitution or something. But my point

is that God can alleviate the defilement

in your heart from any sin and all you

have to do is confess. So, back to the

idea of being our brother's keeper and

loving one another and speaking the

truth to one another in love. Um, do you

if you see that coldness behind your

wife or husband's eyes or best friend or

children or something like that and you

know you can do something by telling

them about God's word in a humble way

coming in low, you don't think you're

responsible for that? Of course, we're

responsible for that. We are responsible

for speaking the truth and love to one

another. Let's continue with these these

verses though. Um, so back to Psalm 7.

So David is is definitely saying, "If

I've done these things, let it return on

my own head. I've got no case. Let them

win." Right? So we've got no case if

they didn't actually do it. But if you

do, and that's what's just assumed

rightly here because David goes on says,

"Arise, O Lord, in verse six, arise, O

Lord, in your anger. Lift yourself up

against the fury of my enemies. Awake

for me. You have appointed a judgment.

Let the assembly of the peoples be

gathered about you. Over it return on

high. Uh what he's saying is make a

public judgment.

He's asking for vindication against

either a friend turned enemy or an enemy

remaining an enemy who is accusing him

of having done something that he did not

do.

and he truly believes that he has right

standing in relationship to the Lord. I

can prove that to you. Let's continue.

Verse 8. The Lord judges the peoples.

Judge me, oh Lord, according to my

righteousness and according to the

integrity of that is within me. He's

saying I've I've got righteous a

righteous cause here and I've got

integrity. I think there could be a

misunderstanding and I want to be really

careful about this when when he says

according to my righteousness. Okay. Um,

does any human being have any

righteousness that originates from

within themselves? The answer biblically

is definitely no. And anything else is a

false gospel? Okay. So, is David saying,

"Judge me according to my righteousness

with uh which originates from within

myself?" No, he's not saying that. In

fact, I I thought, you know, I know

David knows that righteousness is only

by faith. I know he knows that because

you can't have righteousness of any kind

of any definition that is meaningful

before the Lord except by faith. And

David did. He was a man after God's own

heart. And oh boy, did he sin. He had

some episodes that are,

you know,

adultery and and and and conspiracy to

murder.

So what does it mean that he's a man

after God's own heart? Read Psalm 51

when he's convicted. how deeply he

repents. Okay? So, righteousness is not

gained or maintained by works ever. You

don't have the power to do so. So, can I

prove biblically? And we can. And this

ought to be a cool thing especially for

you. You know, I say Bible nerds. I say

that affectionately. I consider myself a

Bible nerd. Love the details of

scripture. In this case, for application

sake, loving the details of scripture,

not for application sake, will puff you

up in pride. Be careful with that. Um,

however, let's go to um I think it's

Romans 4 4-8.

I have another passage before that, but

let's go to Romans 4-8. Does David know

that righteousness comes by faith alone

and apart from works? Answer, yes,

according to Paul. So, verse 4, Romans

4. Uh, now to the one who works, his

wages are not counted as a gift but as

his due. In other words, if you worked

for your righteousness, then God owes

you to declare your righteousness. Uh

that's not how the works, though. And to

the one who does not work but believes

in him who justifies ungodly, his faith

is counted as righteousness. Okay? Just

as David also speaks of the blessing of

the one to whom God counts righteousness

apart from works.

Blessed are those whose laws deeds are

forgiven and whose sins are covered. Uh

and then one more verse. Blessed is the

man against whom the Lord will not count

his sin. So according to God, according

to Paul, according to God's word, David

knew that righteousness only comes from

the Lord. That's the origin of it. Okay.

Now, here's one I want to be careful and

make sure that you really understand me.

I don't really believe in context that

he's talking about when he says my

righteousness um a uh the the idea of

the doctrine of justication by faith

alone in Christ alone. He's talking

about in this case a very specific

limited idea that he did not do what

he's being accused of having done. He's

not morally wrong in this case.

Judge me according to my moral rightness

in this context according to the

integrity in me. I'm not lying. He is

okay. Do you get get that? That would be

better placed in. So what what

justification is being justified before

God where before you did not have right

standing because you're a sinner and God

has to condemn sinners. You repented and

placed your faith in Jesus Christ and in

his cross alone for your forgiveness and

believe that God raised him from the

dead. That faith justifies you. Meaning

now you are right with the Lord. Okay?

So, in order to have a claim to God

helping you, you need to first have

right standing with the Lord in the

legal sense because he's a just God and

he's not just going to leave sin

unpunished. He's either going to punish

Jesus for it or condemn you. So, you are

then trading righteousness really. So,

you give your sin uh by faith. It's

imputed to Christ on the cross and he

trades his righteousness for you. It

doesn't mean he loses his righteousness,

but it said he he became sin who knew no

sin. So, uh there is a transfer there of

what's happening. And therefore, God is

just, not just faithful, but just to

forgive us forgive us our sins. The

penalty has been paid by someone who has

the weight and the glory, the power, and

the value and the worth to pay for it.

So God is right to forgive those who

repent and place their faith in Jesus

Christ. With sanctification, the power

to be changed still comes from the Lord.

But we hear verses like, "Work out your

salvation." Philippians, work out your

salvation with fear and trembling. And

right after, it's still the Lord that's

pleased to do the work in you. So I like

to use the metaphor of the active

ingredient. Neosporin has an active

ingredient. I don't know the name of the

active ingredient. I think it's an

antibacterial, but it has a vehicle

called petroleum jelly. The human is the

petroleum jelly. The spirit is the

active ingredient. Okay, that's true for

sanctification as well. But there is

effort involved in your sanctification.

Effort towards holiness, effort towards

moral uprightness. You can choose in a

day because the Holy Spirit has given

you the power to do uh to to um to

resist temptation to not look at those

images online to not say the thing your

sinful nature wants to say. Your flesh

just wants to get its pound of flesh. By

the way, going back to that pound of

flesh, we talked about why is it so hard

to encourage versus just say you never

take out the trash. You're hurt

that your significant other, your

friend, your per is not taking care of

that. They're being selfish towards you

and you want to hurt back. It's that

simple. You know that they've actually

been doing better, but now you hurt

again because this one time you didn't

take it out or whatever it was. It's

just an example. I'm coming back to to

illustrate a point, set a precedent. Uh

and and and your flesh wants to get

even. You want to repay evil with evil.

That's what the flesh wants to do. And

you have to resist that. Um so my point

here though about verse 8 is that what

what David is not saying, hey, if my

enemy is right, condemn me eternally.

Take away my justification. That's not

what he's saying. He's saying, "I have

just caused before you. Judge me

according. Look at my heart. Look all

the way in. Evaluate me. Do you see that

I intended to do the thing he said he

did? Did I even do it? Am I not right?"

So, please judge justly. Do it publicly.

Vindicate me. Some of your translations

will not say judge. They'll say

vindicate. Right? That's that's what

judge in this case means. Okay? That's

an important thing to say. This is

oftenimes the case when when David says

according to my my righteousness, he's

not actually saying he has a

righteousness of his own. Sometimes when

he says my righteousness, it's implied

that is that it is his because the Lord

gave it to him. I think in this case

it's still a righteousness where the

active ingredient was the Holy Spirit.

I'm sure David was tempted to do all

take all kinds of shortcuts. We know

that sometimes he did as a leader. He

did an evil thing to Uriah to cover up

his his adultery with Bashibba. But in

this case, he didn't. Okay. So, it we we

can move on from that. But I I I want to

make sure you understand. I like it

sometimes when you guys give me

feedback. Doesn't have to be an amen.

Those are rare, at least in our church.

But like, if you understand what I'm

saying, then you can say to the Lord

with the right cause. Let's go back to

the main point. Lord, I'm right with you

in this. I have a clear conscience. I

did not do this thing. Please render a

judgment. Vindicate me. Clear this up.

Verse 10, my shield is with God who

saves me or who saves the upright in

heart. Where where did I get that? We

can expect him to protect us. Uh if we

are right with the Lord, we can expect

him to prot protect us. Verses like this

in the psalm. My shield is with God who

saves the upright in heart. David

expects God to shield him from this. God

is a righteous judge and a God who feels

indignation every day. Let's just start

with the idea of him being a righteous

judge. We've talked about that quite a

bit. The reason why David expects God to

protect him is that he expects God to

act according to his unchangeable nature

which is a righteous judge. Okay,

remember the uh when we went through

Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedo are

being threatened um of a certainty of

being put in the furnace, heated up

multiple times, being burnt to death for

not worshiping an idol. Um they say that

God will save us. Okay, you can look up

the word God will save us. But even if

he doesn't,

we're going to continue worshiping him.

So in that situation, they have the

confident expectation that God is not

going to let them die, but they have So

what I like to say is um confidence in

his power, submission to his will. Don't

let those be split apart. If God wants

you to be a martyr, submit to his will,

no matter how painful it is. And oo, I

don't know if there's a more painful way

to die than being burnt up. And this is

the model of the faithful saints in the

Old and New Testament. But I wanted to

highlight they said will. Okay? And

they're not claiming they know that with

certainty because they say but right

after. Either way, they're still going

to worship God though. So they're not

like, "Well, God will then he doesn't."

And they're so disappointed that their

worship of him is harmed. That happens

so often because the enemy is trying to

wedge uh God's nature as fully

sovereign. That means he's in control of

everything, which you know deep down in

your heart. He's not God if he's not in

control and that he's also good. And if

the enemy can put a wedge there, and I

say this all the time because it's a

calling card for the enemy, he'll try to

get you to God think God is not good or

that he's not that powerful because

something happened in your life and he's

like, well, if he's good, he wouldn't

have done that. Maybe he is good, but he

doesn't have the power to change it,

right? Or stop it from happening. He

does. He knows what he's doing. It can

be unbelievably painful to understand

why God allows certain things to happen.

But the reality is the authors of

scripture model and teach a confidence

in God's protection. And so we should

have that confidence too. And yet I am

here telling you that I am only more

confident in God's power to protect me

from slander after having been slandered

effectively. Does that make any sense?

It does to me because God has been so

faithful. Sometimes I get to experience

someone coming back to me and actually

repenting. Sometimes I get collateral

damage returns where people are like, I

was wrong uh to believe this person

about you. Sometimes and sometimes the

reconciliation is so deep and then the

relationship is better than it was

before the slander ever happened. Verse

12, if a man does not repent, God will

wet his sword. He has bent and readied

his bow. I actually want to go back

before that. I just wanted to highlight

the repentance part of it. David uh in

this case is not saying that his enemies

should be condemned eternally. He's

saying if they don't repent then they

should get the consequence justly due to

them for doing this terrible thing that

they've done with slandering. But I want

to go back to this idea that and a god

who feels indignation every day. Simpler

definition of indignation big word

bigger word anger. He feels anger every

day. I want to galvanize you.

Galvanization is a way of protecting

metal against corrosion. So in this

case, we're not talking about metal.

We're talking about your spirit. Uh it

is very popular and yet false these days

to say God is not angry with you and

that God is not an angry God. And that

is there. It depends on the intent of

the preacher. Okay? But sometimes you

also hear God's not just angry all the

time. This says he's angry all the time.

And God who feels indignation every day.

There's never a day that God doesn't

feel anger. Okay? and you're like,

"Whoa, if that's brand new to you, whoa,

uh, is whoa." And and test everything I

say by the scripture. So, let's do that

right now together. Doesn't it also say

that God is slow to anger? I heard a

preacher rightly say it's like cold

honey. A very slow flow. Cold honey

takes a long time to flow out of the

bottle. Okay. So, how can God both be

angry every day and also slow to anger?

Well, because God's anger is provoked

relationally by individuals. Okay.

I don't know this and I am not trying to

scare you but God may be pleased with a

person and the person sitting right next

to you God may currently be angry at

that person. Okay. When we say that God

is slow to anger it means that he

doesn't get easily pro to provoked to

anger by our sin. There are some sins

like uh uh in the Bible the the three

big ones uh one would be like grinding

the face of the poor oppressing the poor

especially the orphan the widow. You

will provoke God's wrath in short time

doing that. Right? He's a father and a

warrior in protection of of those kinds

of people in those kinds of vulnerable

uh status groups. Um if you uh practice

child sacrifice, abortion enrages God. I

I don't know how long God will continue

to be patient with America for it. and I

don't want to have my children grow up

in an in an America that God is pouring

his wrath out on. Okay. So, there are

things that provoke God to anger. Uh and

and when you do them fragrantly and

unrepentantly. Um and the other one is

sexual perversion, especially like

unrepentant sexual perversion. But let's

say that you lusted off someone, does

God automatically angry at you? Right?

No. That's not how it works. So, he's

slow to anger, but doesn't mean he

doesn't get angry. It doesn't mean his

patient doesn't run out.

It says a God who feels indignation

every day. What's the context? He feels

indignation every day of people who are

slandering people. He felt indignation

towards Kush.

He hates slander. It divides friends. He

hates that kind of division.

So yeah, let don't don't like listen to

what the don't give an unfavorable ear

towards preachers. That's that's not

fair. Uh it's not right. But listen

carefully to what they're saying. If

what they're really saying is basically

never angry, they're contradicting God's

word and they know because it says it

more than once and they're they're

responsible to know. Okay? So God, but

also just in the context of the sermon,

our slander, other people slander, it

makes God angry. He may not get angry

immediately, but over time when you

continue to do it in an unrepentant way,

it makes him angry. Just how angry?

What's he going to do? Let's listen. If

a man does not repent, God will wet his

sword. He has bent and readied his bow.

He has prepared for him his deadly

weapons. By the way, I've not personally

experienced this cuz I'm only just

getting into archery. Um, but I have I'm

looking up broadheads for elk hunting. A

friend of mine has taken me to elk

hunting. It's pretty gruesome stuff. I'm

not saying especially if you're kind of

faint about that kind of stuff that you

should look it up. Not saying that. But

you got to figure out what kind of

broadhead you're using. Especially as an

ethical hunter, you want to not cause

the animal suffering. And so you we want

the most painless death possible. I

don't know a hunter that doesn't want

that. So

when you even just see depictions of

what a broadhead actually does inside of

an animal, it is so violent. It is so

violent. And so David as as a soldier

himself and people back then who uh were

more accustomed to archery especially

within warfare would have known just how

violent of an image it is. And yes

they're saying um he has prepared for

him his deadly weapons making his arrows

fiery shafts arrows set on fire. Behold

the wicked man conceives evil and is

pregnant with mischief and gives birth

to lies. He makes a pit digging it out

and falls into the hole that he has

made. That would not be true if God's

not sovereign.

Like the universe isn't controlling

karma. That's not how that works. It

doesn't even make any logical sense that

an adamant matter is causing outcomes

that somehow are related to sentient

beings. It's nonsense, right? But you do

reap what you sow because God is just.

He makes a pit digging it out and falls

into the hole that he has made. His

mischief returns upon his own head and

on his own skull his violence descends.

I just want to say one more thing in

terms of us trusting this main point.

Um, and then conclude with verse 17. Um,

it's been in some situations over a