Turn to Psalm 11. What we have here in Psalm 11 is David's response to bad advice. That's what we have. David's response to bad advice
or bad counsel. There is only one who can truly
give us counsel that never fails, that's never bad. Every one of
us can be influenced by Satan, as Peter was. When the Lord looked
at Peter, he said, Get thee behind me, Satan. We all can be influenced
by circumstances, but there's one person who cannot be influenced
by anything, anyone outside of himself, and that's our Lord. That's Him. And His counsel is
holy. It's right. And if we would just
wait on it, that's the problem. If we would just wait on it,
So what we have here is David's response to bad counsel. Now, the occasion, it appears,
in most everyone that I read for this psalm, is that David
lost Saul's favor, and his so-called friends, or counselors, advisors,
but probably mostly his friends, And no doubt they mean well,
but it's like the Lord said one time, He said, you don't know
what spirit you're of, when He said that to His disciples. You
don't know what spirit you're of. And they were telling Him
to run for your life, flee to the mountains, and hide in the
mountains where the enemy cannot find you, and there you'll be
safe. Run, David, run. But faith knows no other hiding
place than the Lord Jesus Christ. In times of trouble, we flee
to Him. If you know Him, then you know to say, Amen. That's
true. He's the one we flee to. It is inconsistent with faith
to trust in the Lord and run and hide out of fear from the
enemy at the same time. That's so inconsistent. Elijah faces down the 400 prophets
of Baal and then runs from Jezebel. Isn't that inconsistent? It is
written in Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, a very present
help in trouble. Therefore shall not we fear,
though the earth be removed, and the mountains go into the
midst of the sea." God is our refuge, and Jesus Christ is our
God, and He's our refuge. He's the one we flee to in time
of trouble. Now David says here in verse
1, and he lets his friends know, and it's good to let your friends
know. when they have missed the mark. And he looks at his friends
and he says, In the Lord put I my trust. In this situation,
in this hour, whatever it was that really was going on, David
said, My trust and my confidence is in the Lord. I'm not going
to run. I'm not going to run. What is
trust? In the Lord, the self-existing
one, and what it means here is, I am that I am. That's who he's
talking about. In the Lord, I am that I am.
In God. In the Lord put I my trust. Now what is trust? Well, trust
is confidence. Trust is confidence in God that
He's able to deliver. Trust is confidence that God
is God and there's none above Him. There's none can stay His
hand or saying to Him, what are you doing? He's able to keep. It is absolute confidence that
God is able to keep me in this situation, whatever the situation
is. He's able to keep. Not only is
He able to keep, He's able to bring me through it. When you
go through the waters, I will be with you. It also means reliance. You rely
upon the faithfulness, the power of God Almighty. You take Him
at His Word. He said, Call upon Me in the
day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.
You have confidence in His Word that He'll do just as He said.
You have confidence that God is God, and you rely upon Him. Trust means it's confidence,
it's reliance, it's faith, it's you believe God. I like what
Paul said. Remember when he was on that
ship and it was about to crash and the men wanted to jump overboard
and Paul told them to stay on the ship with him. He said, God
said that if they stayed on the ship that nobody would be lost.
And he says, sirs, I believe God. It'll be just as he said
it would. I believe God. That's faith.
That's faith. It's to believe God. And then
to trust is confidence, it's reliance, it's faith, it's a
firm conviction. If you have a real firm conviction
that all things are of God, and God's able to take care of you,
you're not going to run. You're not going to run because
they told him to flee to the mountain, to a stronghold other than God.
To flee to something earthly other than God. That's what they
are telling him. Trust is confidence, it's reliance,
it's faith, it's a firm conviction, it's certainty, it's sureness,
it's positive, it's belief. It's trust in the Lord. In the Lord put I my trust, my
confidence, my reliance, my faith, my conviction, my certainty,
my sureness, my positive, I believe God." Now that's what he's saying
when he says, I trust. In the Lord put I my trust. Faith, genuine faith that's of
God is a staying grace. It's not a fleeing grace. Faith
enables a man, a woman, to stay upon God when everything else
fails. When everything else fails and
nothing, there's no hope. And I tell you what, the best
place God can bring you to and me to is to the place where everything
else fails except Him. and we have to absolutely rely
on Him and forget about everything else. That's the best place God
can bring me and you to, where all else fails but Him. Faith, as I said, is to stay
in grace. We stay upon the Lord. All our hope of salvation, whether
for time or eternity, for right now, my circumstances, or when
I die and I stand before God, All hope of salvation rests in
the Lord Jesus Christ, His ability to deliver me, His ability to
keep me. We rest in His person as God. This is our God. Jesus Christ is our God. We rest
in His righteousness. We need no other. We need not to add to it. You know, you and I have to die.
The Scripture says, it's appointed unto men once to die, after this
what? Judgment. Is His righteousness enough to
enable this wretched sinner to stand in God's presence accepted?
Yes, it is. It's enough. It's enough without anything
added to it. We rest in His blood to cleanse
us from all sins. Do you feel clean? No. No, you
probably don't. You know, every day we say, Lord,
forgive me. Lord, have mercy on me. Every
day, Lord, cleanse me. But you know that in Christ and
through the blood of Christ, I have no sin. It's all gone. It's all gone. And then we rest in Him in whom
we are complete. And the Lord put out my trust.
This is what faith does for a man or a woman who believes God.
It enables them to rest in time of trouble, in time of trial. No matter how hard they are,
it enables them to rest. And it gives them confidence. It is written in Hebrews, I am
confident. that He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives
to make intercession for them." I'm confident of this. Are you
confident of that? That He's able to save you to
the uttermost? This is the language of faith.
Faith is confident that He's able to deliver every one of
His children, no matter how hard the trial is, because whatever
the trial is, He sent it. It didn't just happen now. He's
responding to it. God's not responding to things
that happen. He's making things happen. And He's teaching us a lesson.
He's conforming us to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's going
on. He's making a people just like
His Son is what He's doing. Paul said, I am confident that
He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against
that day. There in 2 Timothy 1.12. Paul,
what have you committed unto Him? Everything. Everything. And I'm confident that nothing
present, past, or future can separate us from the love of
God which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord, our Lord. I'm confident
that there's nothing that can separate us from His
love. Satan can't do it. The world can't do it. And here's
the greatest of them. I can't do it. I can't do it. You know, we can separate each
other from love, can't we? We can. We can fall out with
each other. We can get in a sort, you know. But that's never the
way it is with God. Never that way. He's never that
way with His children. Now, He says here, in response
to this, in response to the advice from
his friends, "...why do you say to me, flee like a bird to your
mountain? Why do you suggest such a cowardly
thing?" Why would you suggest such a cowardly thing that I
should flee to the mountains for safety instead of God? Is not God able to deliver? Is
not God able to keep me? You know, we have examples of
it in the Word of God. Israel, out of Egypt, there they
stand at the Red Sea. Now you can imagine, you've got
Pharaoh's army coming at you, you've got the Red Sea on this
other side of you. How are we going to get out of
this? How are we going to get out of
this? and God parts the Red Sea. I believe that. You believe that? I tell you what, I tell you this,
you can't believe the gospel and not believe that, because
it's the Word of God. It's the Word of God. God parted that Red Sea and they
walked over on dry ground. Now those are incidences, examples
that you and I should think about, think upon. Selah. Think upon
him. Don't let him just go by. God
did that. And God is God. He's still the same God. He hasn't
changed. His power hasn't weakened. He's
still the same God. What about Daniel in the lion's
den? What about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They heated that
furnace up, was it seven times? Who they heated the furnace up
seven times for? And they put them in there and
not even the smell of smoke was on them. And that's our God. So David said, Why would you
suggest that I flee and run and hide? In the Lord put I my trust. My safety is of the Lord. You know, we do lock our doors
at night and we lock the windows. But you know, I know that my
safety is of God. My family's safety here is of
God. I know that. Let me ask you this question.
Where are you going to flee when real sickness comes? You remember that woman with
the issue of blood? She spent all her living on all these physicians
and it says she was none the better but rather grew worse.
She spent everything she had and they didn't do a thing for
her. Where are you gonna go when real sickness comes? Where are
you gonna go if poverty comes to the door? Where are you gonna go when death
approaches? There's not a mountain high enough or strong enough to keep these enemies away. There's
not. But God, but God. You know, I like that one. I
like the verse there in Matthew. It said he healed all that needed
healing. You know, we've been going through
the Gospel of Matthew. We're in chapter 20. Has anything stumped Him? Has
there been any disease, has there been any demon that has put Him
in check? None. And the Lord has that written
that you and I can read it on a regular basis, and we can see
that the Lord Jesus Christ, casting out these devils, overcoming
all these diseases, that He's able to handle all our situations,
spiritual and physical, material, whatever
it be. And the Lord put out my trust.
He said, the wicked bend their bow. I know that. You know, it's
probably his friend saying, the wicked, you know, they're shooting
at you, David. They're ready to take your life. The wicked bend their bow. They
make ready their arrow upon the string. But you know, they can't
let it fly until God until God lets him let it fly. And then
it can only hit the mark that God has for it, you know that?
You know, over in 1 Kings, here's what's interesting, over in 1
Kings, there's a war going on, and there's a young man, it says
in 1 Kings 22-34, he takes and he says he shoots his bow at
a venture. He shoots his bow at a venture. And you know he
hits the king in the weakest joint of the armor? And he goes
off and dies. He just shot at that Avenger.
In a war, he just goes like that and shoots it. And it finds the
weakest chink in the armor, and he hits the king. Who do you think directed that arrow?
God did. God did. They bend their bow. Their bow, you know, one of the
things I thought of here, they bend their bow. And they make
ready their arrow, and I think here a lot of it has to do with,
especially with the wicked, they bend the bow of their tongue,
and they try to destroy your reputation. I was looking at
this up here, I just saw this when I was standing up here,
but let me see if I can find it again now, I don't know if
I can find it again now. Look at Psalm 64. Let me read
this. "'Hear my voice, O God, in my
prayer. Preserve my life from fear of
the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel
of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity, who
wet their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot
their arrows, even bitter words.'" Oh, I tell you, don't just think
of a weapon. Weapon. Probably I should say it this
way, the most destructive weapon. That's the best way to say it.
The most destructive weapon is the tongue. It's the most destructive
weapon on earth. The scripture says it's set on
fire of hell. They bend their bows. But here's
what's going on. David's friends are pointing
out the danger of staying and not fleeing. And I have no doubt
they meant well. They meant well. You know, if
they're your friends, they mean well, but meaning well doesn't
mean they're right. That doesn't mean that the person
is right. Peter meant well when he said,
Lord, you shall not die. No, you can't die. He meant well,
but that was wicked. He didn't realize it. He didn't
realize at all what he was saying. And I think they meant well,
but their advice was deadly. We'll see this here in just a
little bit. But their advice was deadly to the foundation
of faith, the foundation of salvation, the foundation of true religion. Their advice was deadly. If the leader flees, what are
the followers to do? If I stand up here and preach
to you the grace of God, and God's able to keep us, and then
I run, and I flee, In times of trouble, I fall apart. I like
what Spurgeon said, and this is one of my favorite sayings
that Spurgeon said. I mean, he said a lot of them,
and I like a lot of them, but here's one of them he said that
just sticks with me. The limping of the leader is
the lameness of the people. That's one of the greatest sayings.
The limping of the leader is the lameness of the people. If
the shepherd runs, what are the sheep to do? We have a shepherd who will not
run. We have a shepherd that you and
I need to run to at all times. The real wicked is anyone that
does not trust the Lord. The friends of David were the
ones giving him this advice. And what they didn't realize
is they were proven to be the real enemies of faith by that
advice. Run, David, flee. David, you
trust the Lord, but if I were you, I would run to the mountains.
I'd just go to the mountains and trust Him. Yeah, right. Don't think that those who would
destroy your life always live in another neighborhood. As I
quoted Peter, because I've got Peter down here in my notes.
He said, Lord, you can't die. But that was an enemy. That statement
right there. Listen, I want you to get this. Peter was not an enemy. Okay? Peter was not an enemy. Satan
used him. He's the enemy. But sometimes
we get used. Sometimes we get used. Sometimes
our friends get used in advising us. The bow, he says here, is bent
with the arrow of unbelief, ready to shoot at the upright in heart. They privately or in the dark
are poised to shoot, ready to take you down. Just wait till
you stumble. All they need is an opportunity.
They're cowards. It says they hide in the dark.
The reason why they do their work in the dark is because they're
children of darkness. That's why they are children
of darkness, and they do their work in the dark, not in the
light. They hate the light. The Lord
said they will not come to the light lest their deeds should
be reproved. You come to the light, you want
to come to the light, and you come to the light confessing
your sins. But the wicked, they don't want
nothing to do with the light. They don't like that exposure. But when the wicked bend their
bow, we trust in the Lord who reigns over all. This is why
we can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear
no evil, because God is with us. And this whole life is nothing
but a shadow of death. To the wicked, it's death. It's death, and then one day
they're going to have to deal with a second death. But to the
believer, it's a shadow. That's all this is, a shadow.
It's a shadow of death. Our Lord is always with us. Now
He says here in verse 3, And this is in reference to this
whole thing that's going on here. And I believe David is saying
to them, you're telling me to flee, to run to the mountains.
You don't realize how destructive this is to the very foundation
of true religion, because there is a true religion. All others
are false. But there is one true religion.
It's of God, it's of grace, it's of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is so destructive. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? And thank God for that word,
IF. It's a hypothetical. That's what it is. It's a hypothetical.
It cannot happen. It cannot happen. But what he's
saying to them is, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do? Listen, if the foundations of government, it seems like we're seeing that
right now, but if the foundations of government, of law and order
be destroyed by the perversion of men, if morality The very
foundation of morality is destroyed. What can the righteous do? They
can pray. They can pray. Listen, the fervent
prayer of a righteous man avails much. They can go before the throne
of grace to find help in time of need. The greatest thing that you and
I can do, I'm telling you the truth, for this country, is to
go before the throne of grace and pray. That's the greatest thing we
can do. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. The heart of the
king is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water, he
turns it whithersoever he will. You remember when Nebuchadnezzar
walked out there on that porch and snapped his suspenders and
he said, look what I have done. And God put him out the pasture
for seven years until he learned that the most high ruleth in
heaven and among the kingdom of men. We can pray. I think, I have
no doubt that we way underestimate what we have and being able to
go before the throne of God's grace and pray. Pray. Just go through the scriptures.
And you can see that God used men, men and women, He used them
to pray and mighty things were done. Mighty things were done. We can go before the throne of
grace and pray for help in time of need. We know that all flesh
has been put into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know
He's able to subdue all enemies. We know that. He is able to restore
order and right, which is the strength of any nation. Never underestimate the prayer
of a righteous man or a righteous woman. But there's something
else here greater than this. The foundation of true religion
is at stake. The very foundation of salvation
is at stake. The very glory of Jesus Christ
is at stake. Because it says here, if the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Well, the
first thing we need to understand is the foundation of the foundations. We have what we call the doctrines
of grace. We have what we call the five points of Calvinism.
But the very foundation of everything that exists is Jesus Christ. For these things to fail, He
has to fail. Look over in 1 Corinthians 3. In verse 11 it says, "...for
other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. He is the foundation. Over in
Isaiah 28, it speaks of the stone, the tried stone. God said, I've
laid Him. It's a sure foundation. Jesus
Christ is the foundation. Salvation in Christ alone. Forgiveness
of sins through the blood of Christ alone. Cleansing from
sins through the blood of Christ alone. Faith, salvation in Christ
through faith alone. If that be destroyed, I wrote
an article in the bulletin on this. If that be destroyed, what
can the righteous do? I wrote in there, they can do
nothing because there wouldn't be any righteous. There wouldn't
be any. Apart from Christ, there is no
righteousness. There wouldn't even be any righteous
people on this earth. So what David is saying here,
he's saying that the very foundation, which is Jesus Christ, faith
in Christ, hope in Christ, if that's destroyed, then we don't
have anything. We have nothing. I tell you to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And then whenever something
comes on the news or something like that, everybody goes running
scared. You're all about to fall apart. We just destroyed salvation by
grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone. Because it's evident
we don't know Him. It's evident we don't know him. I'm not saying that there's not
times we don't have a weakness in faith. But when God tries
faith, he's going to prove it to be of God in Christ. It's going to be of God and it's
going to be in Christ. We preach that Christ is God,
that He has all power over all flesh, that all things are of
God, that all our afflictions are appointed by Him, that He's
able to deliver us out of all of temptation, then to flee when
trouble comes. And that's nothing short of destroying
the foundation of faith and true religion. Get this, our actions must match
our message. Our actions and our message have
got to go together. They've got to go together. It says in 1 John 5, 4, that
this is a victory, I'm going to paraphrase it, this is a victory
that overcomes the world, even our faith. We know it's the object of faith,
the Lord Jesus Christ, but we look to Him, we trust Him, and
that's the victory. That's it. And then he says here in verse
4, this is just a testimony of his
faith. The Lord, the One in whom I put
my trust, is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. It's not over there in Jerusalem.
It's not on this earth. It's in heaven. You know what
that means? No matter where you look at, where you're at on this
earth, no matter where you're at on this earth, you look into
heaven, you're looking into God's throne. There's not one inch
of this earth that's not under the dominion and the authority
of God Almighty. The Lord's throne is in heaven,
His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. We don't
have to concern ourselves with the foundations of heaven. They are established in truth
and righteousness. The Lord is in His holy temple. Wherever the Lord is, I assure
you, it is holy. It's holy. Is He in you? That's because He's made you
holy. You and I are made the righteousness
of God in Christ. No sin will ever enter that place
of holiness. The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven
where there's no decay, no enemies, no question as to who's going
to sit on it. No question. You know, I think
the greatest thing going on right now in our country is who's going
to sit on the throne in this country. They're trying to shoot
each other so they can sit on it. That's what's going on. But there's no question who sits
on the throne of heaven. Doesn't that give you comfort? High above this sinful earth,
high above the tumult and the sin and the hatred, God's throne
sits over all of it. It sits over all of it. You know, I've heard this before
concerning military. Whoever rules the sky wins the
war. Well, guess who rules the sky? The clouds are the dust to his
feet. I'll never forget the first plane ride I took years ago. There was a man at 13th Street,
Richard Pennington. He had a company jet, and he
asked me if I wanted to take a plane ride. I'd never been
on a plane. I was in my 20s. And so we flew to St. Louis on a business trip. I went
with him. And when we got up there, the
clouds were just beautiful. And that's the scripture that
came to my mind. The clouds are the dust of his feet. Everybody else would be looking,
you know, well, not everybody else, but the unbelievers are
looking and say, well, what a cloudy day. But the believer says, wow,
that's the dust of his feet. How big must he be? How great
must he be? Why in the world you and I worry?
Well, it's just so sinful, isn't it? Let me find out where I'm
at here. If you'll notice here, it says,
it is His throne, and being His, we know that it that it is a throne of justice. If
it's his throne, it's a throne of justice. There's no plea bargaining
there. There's no backroom deals going
on there. It's a throne of absolute justice. And then it is the place
where everyone gets what they deserve. You know, the wicked, I don't
know why, they can't complain if God sends them to hell. They're
just getting what they deserve. You deserve it. He gives it to
you. And then it's a throne of government. The whole creation
is governed from that throne. All of creation. But it's also
a throne of grace, a place where sinners like you and me can boldly
come and find grace to help in time of need. It's a real throne. It's a real throne. His eyes behold, it says, His
eyelids try the children of men. What David is saying here is
that God is a God of knowledge. Do you know what's going on right
now outside these walls? He does. He does. He's perfect in knowledge. He
knows, God knows, and He sees the heart. No thought, it says
in the Scripture, can be withheld from Him. You know, our Lord
said in one place, it's written in one place, He would not commit
Himself to man, for He knew what was in man. He knew what was
in man. God is omniscient. None can hide
Himself from God. God doesn't look upon the outward,
He looks upon the inward, and none can hide that. None can
hide that from God. He sees the heart. The scripture
says, by Him actions are weighed. He knows why we do what we do.
We tell each other why we do what we do, but it's not 100%
truth. Not always. Not always. I don't know that we could tell
100% truth unless we just read the Scriptures and make no comment.
That's probably the 100% truth. We collar things. But Scripture
says, by him actions are weighed. He sees through the pretense
and he sees the real person. I used to play little games Growing
up, we'd cover our eyes, and you'd open them up and say, I
see you. I see you. The Lord trieth the righteous.
You see, His eyes behold. And you know what the meaning
of this is. It's like this. You ever see somebody really
squinting and really looking at something, and they really
just, you know, they're just like... That's what that means. that
He is just focused right down on the sons of men, what they're
doing. He's not just watching them like
a bunch of ants running around. He is focused on what they're
doing. But now here in verse 5, He says,
"...the Lord trieth the righteous." You see, "...his eyes behold,
his eyelids try the children of men, but the Lord trieth the
righteous." We are not without trials. He tries us in order,
one thing I think, to separate us from the world. He teaches us to come apart by
these trials. It gives the believer comfort
to know that his afflictions are of the Lord. God tries us
to prove our faith and love to Him. And trials remove the dross
from the gold. Listen to Deuteronomy 8.16. It
says this, "...who fed thee," that is, God
fed thee, "...in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers
knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove
thee." to do thee good at thy latter end, but to prove thee.
Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. You know a trial will run the
goats off, but it'll bring the sheep home. I read this before
coming down here by William. Cowper or Cooper, however you
want to pronounce it, but listen. It's concerning this verse. It
says, "'Tis my happiness below, not to live without the cross,
but the Savior's power to know, sanctifying every loss. Trials
make the promise sweet, trials give new life to prayer. Trials
bring me to His feet, lay me low and keep me there. Did I
meet no trials here, no chastisement by the way? Might I not, with
reasoned fear, I should prove a castaway? Bastards may escape
the rod, sunk in earthly vain delight, but the true-born child
of God must not, would not, if he might. The Lord trieth the righteous. But the wicked, the unbeliever, and him that
loves violence, his soul hateth." Yes, God does hate. He says,
one place, I hate them with a perfect hatred. And I said this earlier,
big difference between being tried by God and being hated. Lord, try me. Don't hate me. God hates the wicked. But it's
not like men hate. God's hatred is not out of passion,
but it's out of justice. It's out of justice. You know
why? Because it says the righteous Lord loves righteousness. He
loves righteousness. And if He loves righteousness,
then He must hate sin. And sin is not a green odor floating
in the air. Sin is me and you. Unless He
removes that sin, He's got to remove us. The wicked are so contrary to
the nature of God that He hates them. Someone said this, They have
made themselves the object of His hatred by that which they
love. They love sin. God loves righteousness. They
love violence and sin, not God. I always hear that God loves
Jacob and He hated Esau. Well, He did. That's written.
But Esau hated God too. Esau didn't love God. Don't ever
think that someone loves God and God hates them. Don't ever
think that. Don't ever think that someone
wants to be saved but God doesn't want to save them. It doesn't
work that way. If God hates the wicked, the
wicked hate God. Esau hated God. If anyone desires to be saved,
it's because God has already saved them. He's already done
a work of graces. They wouldn't desire it. He hates sin and the workers
of it. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire, In brimstone. This is what's coming. Judgment's
coming. That's why I said judgment's coming. A horrible tempest. Oh, I wish I could warn the wicked. Not of a place, but of a person
they're about to meet. God is a consuming fire. This
is where preaching has got to get back to. God is a consuming
fire. Quit talking about the place
so much as the person who's going to put you there. God. And when He rains snares
and fire and brimstone upon the wicked, it will be without mercy. That there be no mistake, the
wicked are going to taste of judgment. Someone said this, and I liked
it. Don't mistake God's love as a weakness in justice. That's
a good statement. Don't mistake it as a weakness
in justice. And then last of all, I'll close.
For the righteous Lord loves righteousness. You know, I've
learned this. We love what we are. If a man
is a drunk, he loves his alcohol. If he's a drug addict, he loves
his drugs. If he's righteous, he loves righteousness. The righteous
Lord, and this is why He loves righteousness, because of who
He is. He's righteous. Here is the reason
God hates the wicked. He loves righteousness. You cannot
love two opposites. God loves that which expresses
His own image. And the wicked do not express
His image, instead they mar his image. And that's why He hates
them. The only reason God can love
sinners like you and me is because of Jesus Christ. He loved us
in Christ with an everlasting love. He has made us just like
His Son. We are as holy as He is. God
has removed our sins from us. He's given us a new nature. A
sinless nature. A nature that cannot sin. It's
of God. It's born of God. And that old nature someday is
going to be buried out there in the graveyard. And it ain't
coming back. We are God's sons by election,
by regeneration, by faith, and God sees His image in us in Christ. His countenance doth behold the
upright. It always has. It always has. Long before the foundation of
the world, He beheld us. God's favor, His approval is
upon the upright. He makes everything work for
their good. David says, why would you tell
me to flee to the mountains? In the Lord I put my trust. In the Lord I trust.