Looking at Psalm 94, O Lord God, to whom vengeance
belongeth, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of
the earth. Render a reward to the proud. Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and
speak hard things, and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy people,
O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger,
and murder the fatherless. Yet they say the Lord shall not
see, and neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Understand
ye brutish among the people and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear shall
he not hear? He that formed the eye shall
he not see? He that chastises the heathen
shall not he correct? He that teaches man knowledge
shall not he know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of man, that they are vanity. Blessed is the man whom thou
chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law, that thou
mayest give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit
be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off
his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance, but judgment
shall return unto righteousness and all the upright in heart
shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against
the evil doers? Or who will stand up for me against
the workers of iniquity? Unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul had almost dwelt in silence. When I said, my foot slippeth,
thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. In the multitude of my thoughts
within me, thy comforts delight my soul. Shall the throne of
iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief
by law? They gather themselves together
against the soul of the righteous and condemn the innocent blood.
But the Lord is my defense, and my God is the rock of my refuge. And he shall bring upon them
their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness. Yea, the Lord our God shall cut
them off, or destroy them, is what that literally means. Now this psalm, as much or more
so than any of the others that we've looked at, is indeed the
prayer of Christ. Now a lot of people's view of
Christ would not be such that they could comfortably say that
Christ would speak such things, for the scripture plainly says
that he came not into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. Of course, as you read
on, you find out that he did not come to condemn the world
because the world was already condemned. The purpose of the
Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world was not to pass condemnation
on the world, but was to deliver his people out of that condemnation
which he had already passed upon the world. And so, when we read
this, as you think about this, The only man that has ever lived
that can pray such a prayer as what is set forth here, that
can call upon God to do what is called upon here to do, is
he who is without sin. I mean, we've often said, Lord,
pour out your wrath on the wicked. I mean, we often think that,
we often want that, we often see it. But our desire for the
Lord to show vengeance is seldom pure. It's usually got some mixture
of our own desire in there, does it not? I mean, you know, we
get somebody makes a mockery of the gospel and we feel hurt,
not simply for the glory of God, but because they would be making
fun of us. And that's not a good thing,
is we don't like for people to make fun of us. But the Lord
Jesus Christ, being without sin and of a pure heart and pure
mind, could indeed call upon God to pour out his wrath upon
the wicked with no sin in his heart, no mixture of error in
this. He begins by saying, O Lord God,
to whom vengeance belongeth. The Lord said that, did he not?
He said, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
Vengeance belonged with him. There's never a place. Now, brethren,
you know, we don't like to think of it like that, but it is not
given unto men to mete out vengeance. The Lord didn't give it. Now,
you know, we leave it into the hands of the Lord, and the Lord
does indeed. Bring vengeance. He'll show vengeance
in his own time, but it won't be mixed with anything that we
had to do with it. It'll be his. He's gonna take
care of it. And the hardest thing for a man
to deal with in his own heart and mind is this matter of wanting
to be loved. to mete out vengeance. I mean,
it's just, you don't want to teach a child that. I mean, you
know, if you get two kids together and one of them takes a toy from
another, what's the one going to do? He's gonna slap him or
he's gonna do something. He's gonna say, you're not gonna
do that. Now the scripture says that all men are without excuse
because we all show the work of the law written in our heart.
And that is the work of the law written in our heart because
the law, one of the principles of the law is an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth, is it not? Everybody believes in that.
You know, there's not a human being born that does not believe
in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, by the grace
of God, he teaches us that that's not the way that we ought to
live our lives, but nonetheless, it is rooted within us to do
those things and to try to exact justice. But this is a pure desire
here. And by the grace of God, he does
give us in a measure, we can identify with this in a measure,
but we have to be careful how far we go with it, because if
we're not careful, we'll go too far. But the Lord Jesus Christ
was not in danger of that. And he said, oh God, to whom
vengeance belongeth, show thyself. That is, manifest your judgment.
And if you want to know where the justice of God has been manifested,
the vengeance of God has been poured out in its most stark
form, you don't need to look at the lake of fire. That is
a place where the vengeance of God is poured out, but that's
not the greatest place. The greatest place that the vengeance
of God has ever been manifested unto men and poured out was with
the spotless Lamb of God hung on Calvary's cross. And He bore
the sin of His people. And if any man doubts that God
will judge sin, then he needs look no further than Calvary
to know for a surety that if God will pour out His wrath upon
His only begotten Son, that one whom He loves with a perfect
love, then that man cannot see and will not see the wrath of
God poured out. Lift up thyself, thou judge of
the earth, render a reward to the proud. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ is here praying for His own judgment. Think about it.
He stood in the room instead of sinners, and here He is praying
that the Lord would pour out His wrath upon sinners. And He
became sin, the Scripture says, for us. And the wrath of God
was poured out upon Him. So here He's praying for His
own destruction. I mean, that's beyond our comprehension. But why is He doing that? For
the glory of His Father. You see, He said, I came not
to do mine own will because as a man, a man in his own will,
wouldn't desire to die. You can't desire to die, and
I know people get in situations where they might desire relief. I mean, people, there's a measure
of that, but I'm talking about in the normal course of things
as you go through life. You're not desiring to die. You're desiring to live. That's
just the natural life that's given unto men. We desire it. The Lord Jesus Christ, He didn't
have a death wish in the sense that He just was going to enjoy
dying like you might like a piece of apple pie. I mean, that wasn't
what His thought towards dying was. Because it was an awful
thing. It was a separation from God,
from the One whom He loved. But yet in order to fulfill His
Father's will, there was one thing that He had to do. And
that was die and become sin for His people. And so here He prays
that the Lord would judge the earth. And the Lord has judged
the earth. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed
He has. Render a reward to the proud. What is the reward of the proud?
It is to be destroyed, it is to be slain. Pride goeth before
destruction. And the Lord became, He took
the sin of all the pride of His children upon Himself and He
bore it. Render reward to the proud. Lord,
how long shall the wicked triumph? Now, I think when I read this
psalm, my mind goes to the time when the Lord came into the temple
and the money changers were there selling their wares and profiting
off of God's people. And the scripture says that he
took a small scourge, he knotted it and he made it. The Lord Jesus
Christ, he didn't go down to a store somewhere and buy the
scourge, but he made it with his own hands. And the scripture
says that he overturned the tables of the money changers and he
said this, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. He was so filled with a desire
that God's glory be seen and manifested that the anger of
Almighty God took hold upon him and he became an instrument in
the hand of the Lord to render vengeance and he drove the money
changers from the temple. And so when you read this, think
on that. Now, you know sometimes some
religious zealots, they'll take it upon themselves to blow up
an abortion clinic or do something like that. There's a measure in which they
mean well, but it's mixed with the wickedness of men to do something
like that. I mean, God never called us to
do stuff like that. I mean, now, you know, to peacefully
protest is one thing, and I got mixed emotions about even that
sort of thing, but nonetheless, he certainly never called us
to violence of any sort, did he? He said, harmless as doves,
wise as serpents. I mean, you know, when we're
reviled, we revile not again. I mean, there's wickedness in
the earth, for sure, but the Lord never called us to be those
who go out and fight against wickedness. If we were, we would
just be spending all our time doing that. I mean, where would
it ever end? So that's not the calling God
has given us, but it is to realize that Jesus Christ is that one
who has taken the vengeance of God in His hands and upon himself,
he has meted out that justice, but he has become the object. of that vengeance, and that is
that thing that we need to be greatly aware of. How long shall
the wicked triumph? How long shall it be, O Lord?
I mean, it seems like that it's always the wicked that are triumphing,
does it not? I mean, that's in our mind. Now,
we know for a fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed over
wickedness, and the days of the wicked are short. But it does
seem like sometimes, you know, I was reading, and of course,
I've been hearing this ever since I was a little kid. Oh, you know,
times is just terrible. I mean, you know, it's just wickedness
is abounding. These has got to be the last
days because everything is just bad. Well, it just keeps getting
worse and worse and worse. Well, in our perspective, that's
true. But brethren, since the days
of Noah, These things have gone on in the earth. I mean, men
are no more wicked today than they were then. They are no less
wicked now than they were then. And wickedness will be in the
earth until the time of the end. But the Lord is the one who will
deal with that. He can take care of it. He's
already taken care of it according to the good pleasure of His will.
They break in pieces. Or how long shall they utter
and speak hard things, and all the workers of iniquity boast
themselves? Yeah, I mean, you know, that's the proud. They seem to triumph,
do they not? And there seems to be little
that anybody can do or say against it. How long shall it be? This is an observation that he
makes. Now the world makes that observation
and they say, well, you know, these things have been happening
from the beginning. Where is the promise of his coming? Well,
only by the grace of God can a man have hope and belief in
the promise of his coming. Now there are times when we may
say, Lord, how long? As the saints say, Lord, how
long? Oh Lord, come, even so come Lord Jesus. But we don't
scoff at it. The world scoffs at it. They
say, eh, ain't nothing to that. I've been hearing that ever since
I was a kid. Nothing to that stuff. And so it is. They speak hard things. They
boast themselves. They make fun of the things of
God. They break in pieces thy people,
O Lord, and afflict thy heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger,
the murderer, and murder the fatherless. Those that are without
help, they murder. Those that have no strength,
They slay the widow and murder the fatherless. Yet they say
the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard
it. Now I don't believe that the
average person that has any sort of a concept
of God doesn't believe that God sees it. That's not, from the
standpoint of they don't, that's not what it's saying here that
they don't say, well, God doesn't see it in the sense that he doesn't
see all the things that take place in the world, but rather
what they're saying is, eh, he's not gonna do anything about it.
Well, he may see it, but isn't that the thing that gives rise
to sin in our heart quite often? It's not that we don't believe
that the Lord sees everything we do, because if you asked us,
we'd say, well, sure He does, but we just don't care. I mean,
that's one thing is that a man just says, well, so what? I mean,
God sees it, but so what? That's the way of the wicked.
They say the Lord shall not see it, neither shall the God of
Jacob regard it. It's just a small thing. I mean,
you know, God, he's got bigger fish to fry than worrying about
our little old sin or this, that, or the other. Isn't that the
way men think? I mean, it's not a big deal. You know, if men
blaspheme the name of Christ, if they use the Lord's name in
vain or they use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as a swear
word or as a word of exclamation, oh, don't get all worried about
that. That's all right. That's just
the way I talk. The Lord hears it. Yes, He does. He shall regard it. Understand
ye brutish among the people and ye fools, when will ye be wise? When will they be? When will
the men of this world be wise? I mean, we supposedly live in
an age when education and knowledge of the things of the world, I
mean, who would have ever thought back in the 1700s or whatever,
that the DNA, or the way they can go in there and take molecules,
or not molecules, but what are they? Anyway, they can take genes
and whatnot out of a person's DNA, and they can do all this
kind of stuff. Who would have ever even thought
of such a thing as that? Nobody could have, and so we're supposedly
in such an enlightened age, but when will then the people of
this world ever be wise? They won't. No man will, apart
from the grace of God to open his eyes to see. When will they
be wise? They can't. The natural man will
not. He that planted the ear, shall
he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? Now, a person might read that
and think that he's talking about planting corn, but that's not
what it means. He planted the ear. When it says
he planted it, it just means he formed it. He placed it. Did
he not place the ear? I mean, he didn't put the ears
on top of a man's head, did he? Because man had to get like that
to be able to hear. No, he didn't do that. He put
them on the side. And that way the sound of truth
comes at him from both sides. I mean, he can't escape it. Do
you realize that? I mean, the Lord made a man where
he cannot escape the truth. Now, he may not hear it. He may
not want to hear it. He doesn't desire to hear it,
but by the grace of God, the Lord opens the ears of some.
But did he not plant the ear? Did he not form it? I mean, how
long do you think it took for an ear to evolve? Huh? I mean, think about that. I mean,
if this Creature, you know, didn't have an ear, and then over time
he got one, and all of a sudden one day he said, well, man, I
can hear. I mean, how foolish is such a
thing as that? I mean, the Lord made the ear
of man. He planted the ear, and if he
made a man to be able to hear, shall not he who made the ear
If we can hear things around us, cannot God hear all of these
things? He that formed the eye shall
he not see? I don't suppose that man has
a more complex organ in his body than the eye, if you pause and
think about it. You know, I was watching a show
a while back about It was about sports. It was like the science
of sports or something like that. And it was going in about how
many calculations that the brain has to make and the eye in order
to judge distance. When a quarterback drops back
and he throws a pass, down the field 60 yards or whatever. And it just dropped right into
the hands of a guy running down the field and all of that's moving. But his eye is that which is
able to see and send the signal back to his brain to calculate
the distance and how hard he needs to throw that thing and
where it needs to go. How can such a thing be? I mean,
how could such a thing just occur? I mean, it doesn't make a difference
how many years you want to talk about it. How could such a thing
happen except that God made it as He did? But why did He give
man eyes so that he might see the glory of God? Because you
see, it's in the vision of a man as he surveys the creation around
him that the Scripture says leaves him without excuse because these
things can be clearly seen by men. He that formed the eye shall
he not see? And he that chastises the heathen
shall he not correct? He that teaches man knowledge
shall not he know? I mean, if a man, the Lord chastens,
that is, he corrects even the heathen. Because if he did not,
the heathen would destroy themselves just like we would destroy ourselves.
If the Lord didn't restrain the wickedness of men, we'd kill
each other in a heartbeat. That's what a mercy that God
shows to all the men in the earth, the wicked and the elect. I mean, it's the mercy of God
that keeps men from being in their unrestrained form of wickedness
that would destroy one another with lies and whatever. I mean, it's bad enough as it
is with the restraints put upon us, but think about what it would
be like if there was no restraint. Shall not he know? I mean, if
he teaches men to know things, shall not the Lord know? The
Lord knoweth the thoughts of a man. Now, like we have said
a couple times here recently, that might bring comfort to some
people. Well, the Lord knows my heart.
You ever heard anybody say that? And they were just like taking
comfort in it. The Lord knows my heart. Well,
brethren, he does know your heart. And that ought to strike fear
in your heart, in your mind, to think that the Lord knows
your heart. He knows your thoughts. He knows
exactly what you're designing to do before you ever do it. He knows. And what does he know? That they're such great, wise
creatures? No, he knows our thoughts are
vanity. What's that mean, empty? I mean, think of Albert Einstein. I mean, he's always held up as
one of the smartest guys that ever lived. Leonardo da Vinci. All of these guys. I mean, as
far as men are concerned, they rise to the top. I mean, they're
just amazing with the things that they knew and understood. What does the Lord look on it
and say? It's nothing. Because He formed the eye and
He formed the ear. And He gave them a brain that
worked and He caused them to see those things that He caused
them to see. And to the Lord these things
are as nothing as far as what men are concerned to be. Blessed
is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out
of thy law. You see, man by nature, he's
in this one place over here where he's in rebellion against God.
But what a glorious thing is it when the Lord is pleased to
awaken a man and teach him out of his law, to teach him the
truth, to write the law. He said, I will write my laws
upon their heart. And they shall, every man, they
shall know the Lord. It won't be that which is taught
by men, that we won't tell every man his neighbor know the Lord,
for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. How
did they get to know him? Because he taught them. That's
the only way a man can come to that place. And blessed is the
man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law.
Now we often think of chastening as being something that is as
a result of sin. There is a measure of that which
is true, but when the scripture speaks of chastening, it's speaking
about instruction. And so chastening is not specifically
that which comes as a result of sin, but it is that which
the Lord uses in our lives to guide and direct us in the way
he would have us to go. And His chastening for our sin
is a result of His overall chastening of our lives. Because He even
uses the sin of our lives to bring us to the place where He
would have us to be. Even as He did David. And He
will even as He did Nebuchadnezzar. You see, the Lord will bring
His people in a way which they knew not. Now Nebuchadnezzar
never ascended to the throne and became a great mighty man
in Babylon with the thought that he would one day fall on his
face and worship the true and living God. He never had that
thought in his mind. But the Lord brought him by a
way which he knew not. And He brought him down to the
dust. He brought him first to the highest pinnacle. as a man,
as the greatest king that has ever lived in the earth and the
opulence of his kingdom was beyond compare. And the Lord set him
in that place. Now the Lord set Pharaoh in the
same sort of a situation. But you see, their outcome and
what the Lord purposed to do in both of those cases was absolutely
different. Because He raised up Pharaoh
in order to destroy him. But He raised up Nebuchadnezzar
in order to bring him down to the dust of repentance before
Almighty God. Now what a glorious thing is
that, dear brethren. What a God we serve. Who chasteneth
those whom He loves. and brings them exactly where
He wants to go. How could you have ever come
to the place where you're at except the Lord brought you there?
And so He brings His people by way they knew not. But He instructs
them and causes them to see what He will that they see. Thou mayest
give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged
for the wicked. Until the pit be digged for the
wicked. Now the Lord's already dug the
pit. But what that means is, see, the pit's already prepared.
It's prepared, the Scripture says, for the devil and his angels.
It's prepared for everyone whose name is not written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. It's already there. But the Lord
says here, until the pit be digged. That just means simply until
they be cast in there. Because it's already prepared. For the Lord will not cast off
His people. What a glorious thought. The
Lord will not cast off his people. Well, what if they do this? Or what if they do that? Look,
you can come up with any what if you want to. I don't care
what the what if is. If a man belongs to the Lord,
He will not be cast off. It doesn't make any difference
what happens. It doesn't make any difference how many people
condemn Him. It doesn't make any difference what goes on in
this world. The Lord will not forsake His
people. He will not cast them off. He
will not forsake His inheritance. They belong to Him. We read in
the second Psalm, the father said to the son, ask of me and
I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. They belong
to him, they're his heritage. They are those that belong to
Him from the beginning, and He will not forsake them. But judgment
shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart
shall follow it. My sheep hear My voice, I know
them, and what? They follow Me. They shall follow
Him. You see, the Lord's people will
follow Him, because they're taught to love Him. Now, we wouldn't
follow Him by nature. Paul said that by nature, we're
the children of wrath, even as others. I mean, we're just as
worthy to be condemned as anybody else is. But by the grace of
God, according to the mercy of God, He has rescued us. Judgment
shall return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart
shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against
the evildoers, or who will stand for me against the workers of
iniquity? Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost
dwelt in silence. Now this, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as our substitute, as that one who stood in the gap for us,
who stood in the place, He said, unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul had dwelt in silence. Even the Lord Jesus Christ, who
walked among men, recognized that His strength came from the
Lord, from His Heavenly Father. Now, you know, we've talked about
this on numerous occasions. It just baffles my mind to consider
the humanity of Christ. Now, it's something that I accept
without reservation or without equivocation, but it's something
I cannot comprehend. How that the ancient of days
became a man and walked among men as a man and underwent the
knowledge of a man. Underwent the limitations of
a man, if you want to say that. And yet at the same time was
totally unlimited, had all power in heaven and earth. What a glorious
thing. Unless the Lord had been my help,
my soul would almost go out in silence. When I said, my foot
slippeth. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? My foot slippeth. Lord, I'm cast out. I'm cast
down. Hell has encompassed me, except the Lord had upheld me.
He said, Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. How do we know that? Because His last words were,
Father, into Thy hand I commend my spirit. Yes, the Lord did
hold him up. He was that one who stood with
him. In the multitude of my thoughts
within me, thy comforts delight my soul. That was the Lord's song night
and day. He was comforted. He wasn't comforted
by men, was he? Because every time he turned
around, his disciples would not believe in him. or they was wanting
to do something that they shouldn't have been doing or whatever.
And the Pharisees and the religious men of the age, they were set
against him and gnashing on him like dogs every time he went
out going about doing good. And he received no comfort from
men. He received no help from men.
We did esteem him smitten, stricken of God. Shall the throne of iniquity
have fellowship with thee, which frame mischief by law? Shall
those who delight in the ways of wickedness and frame mischief
by law? That is, men make laws of their
own, do they not? And in they encapsulate their
own wickedness in that. Does it matter? Can they overturn
the way of God? I mean, you know, several years
ago they made a big deal out of, oh man, they've passed a
law now to take prayer out of school. And people got all upset
about that and whatnot. Look, a man can sooner walk through
a wall than he can keep one of God's children from praying.
Now, they might stop some kind of form praying and, you know,
something extra. And I'm not saying those things
are necessarily bad or good or whatever. I mean, when I was
going to school, they used to have Bible reading and prayer
every day when we first went in there. And I don't think it
ever hurt me any. I don't know if it ever helped
me much, but it definitely is not a bad thing in itself, but
brethren. It doesn't make any difference
what men, the laws that men pass. They don't matter to anything
whatsoever as far as the kingdom of God is concerned. You cannot
pass any law that will keep God's people from praying. You can't
pass a law that'll keep God's people from meeting together.
Now you might pass a law and you might kill them for doing
it, but you can't stop them from doing that. because the Spirit
of God dwells in His people. They gathered themselves together
against the soul of the righteous and condemned the innocent blood,
did they not? But the Lord is my defense, and
my God is the rock of my refuge. And he shall bring upon them
their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness.
Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off. Let no man say when
he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God tempteth no man
with evil. And yet evil couldn't exist in
the world if it were not for God. He said, I form the light
and create darkness. I make peace and I create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. I'll let the theologians sort
all that out. All I know is this, that the
Lord will judge the wicked according to their own wickedness. And there's not a man that will
ever stand before Almighty God and be able to say, well, Lord,
I couldn't help it. Or Lord, I didn't, it wasn't
my fault. No, every man is gonna be judged
in his own wickedness. Only by the grace of God can
a man be brought to the place to see that that's what he is
by nature. that he is a wicked man. And
apart from the mercy of God, he will surely perish, and rightly
so. I mean, you know, it pains me to even think of it, but if
the Lord should tell me to depart from him in the day of judgment,
I can only say, Lord, you're right. Job said the same thing. He said, though he slay me, yet
will I trust in him. His way is right. His way is
good. Whether men like it or they don't,
or they can explain it or they can't, the Lord our God shall
indeed destroy the wicked. There is a pit of destruction
that awaits those who go on in their wickedness. But there is a Savior who stands
and He says, To those who hear, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Oh, that the Lord might visit
us today. He might teach us from His Word.