If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 140. Psalm 140. As you're turning, let me give you a request for
prayer that I've had. Cosetta Bond's son, Monday I
think it was she called me, they have found a mass in his kidney
and a fractured vertebrae. They found both. in an MRI. They don't know if they're connected,
if they're related, separate issues. We don't know, but he's
waiting further doctor's appointments and treatments and tests and
so forth. So as the Lord brings him to your mind, just remember
him in prayer. All right, Psalm 140. Deliver me, O Lord, from the
evil man. Preserve me from the violent man. which imagine mischiefs
in their heart. Continually are they gathered
together for war. They have sharpened their tongues
like a serpent. Adder's poison is under their lips. Keep me,
O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the
violent man who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud
have hid a snare for me and cords. They have spread a net by the
wayside. They have set gins for me. I said unto the Lord, thou
art my God. Hear the voice of my supplications,
O Lord. O God, the Lord, the strength
of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked. Further not his
wicked device, lest they exalt themselves. As for the head of
those that compass me about, let mischief of their own lips
cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them.
Let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits that they rise
not up again. Let not the evil speaker be established
in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent man
to overthrow him. I know that the Lord will maintain
the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor. Surely
the righteous should give thanks unto thy name. The upright shall
dwell in thy presence. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. Our Heavenly Father, oh, how
thankful we are that you've brought us here again this evening, that
you've given us one more opportunity to hear the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ preached. You've given us another opportunity
to meet together with our brothers and sisters and to worship thee.
And Father, I pray that you would enable us this evening to do
just that, to worship Thee in spirit and in truth. Make this
an hour of true worship. And Father, in this hour, would
You be pleased, we beg of Thee, to show us Your glory. Reveal
Your redemptive glory to Your people in the person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Let His name be lifted up and
extolled and magnified. And Father, let Your people leave
here tonight feeling refreshed, encouraged, and comforted by
another sight of Christ our Savior. Father, we thank you for so many
blessings, how richly you have blessed this congregation. And
we're thankful, knowing that we haven't deserved it or earned
it, but it's come as a free gift of thy hand. Father, we're thankful.
We pray for the continued wisdom and generosity to use what you've
given us wisely for thy glory and to help the furtherance of
the gospel. And Father, we ask a blessing
for those who tonight are in times of great difficulty. We
pray for Aaron tonight that Father, you continue to touch his body,
heal and strengthen him, comfort him, comfort his heart and his
family's heart, we pray. Pray for Ralph as he continues
to go through these treatments and Cozetta's son, we pray you'd
give us a good report. And others who need you especially,
Father, you know the need of all of your people. We pray you'd
be with them in all these things we ask. And we give thanks in
that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our
Savior. Amen. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou
my best thought, by day or by night. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee, and Thou with me. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. Which is I eat no more man's
empty praise. Thou mine inheritance now and
always, Thou and Thou only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
thou art High King of heaven, my victory won May I reach heaven's
joys, O bright heaven's sun Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O holder of all. Alright, let's open our Bibles
now again to Psalm 140. Titled the message this evening,
Deliverance from the Evil Man. Now as I read this passage to
open the service, I hope you could notice some of these words
being the words of Christ our Savior. As He was on the cross,
suffering from the doings of evil and violent men. And it's
comforting for us to know that our Savior, as he faced those
enemies, defeated every one of them. There at the cross, those
men who planned that event were evil, violent men. They persecuted
the Lord Jesus, scripture says, without a cause. They gathered
together to accomplish their evil imaginations. In their imagination,
they thought they could get rid of the son of God. They get rid
of him and they could keep doing what they've been doing. They
could keep their religion of the law. They could keep their
ceremony and their self-righteous religion. But look at Acts chapter
four. Hold your place there. Look at
Acts chapter four. But when they gathered together, they did not
accomplish their purpose. All they did was accomplish God's
eternal purpose of the redemption of his people through the sacrifice
of his son. Acts chapter four, verse 25. Who by the mouth of thy servant
David has said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain
things? This is what they imagined, but
it was a vain thing, an empty thing, something they could not
accomplish. The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before it be done." They weren't there
to accomplish their purpose. They were there to accomplish
God's purpose. And look back in our text, Psalm 140, verse
8. This was prophesied that this
would happen. Verse 8, grant not, O Lord, the desires of the
wicked. Further not his wicked device,
lest they exalt themselves. And that's exactly what happened.
The Lord did not further their wicked devices. They did not
exalt themselves. Matter of fact, they were humbled
and destroyed, weren't they? The enemies of Christ laid a
trap for the Lord. They've been trying to, all their
ingenious ways to trap the Lord, to trick him in his words, to
trap him. They tried to lay hands on him
and couldn't do it, and they thought they finally had their
trap. They thought the trap was finally sprung, and instead of
the Lord falling into their trap, they fell into their own trap.
They fell into it themselves. They lost their position, they
lost their country, and they lost their religion. I know Jews
still exist today, but their religion looks nothing like the
ceremony and the religion of the Old Testament Jews, does
it? All of the temple with its religious artifacts, those things
that were, the Lord gave them to be pictures of Christ. All
those things are lost to history. There's no more art. There's
no more candlestick. There's no more table of show bread.
There's no more brazen altar. They're all gone. And God did
it that way so that he could show us he completely destroyed
the old covenant. And he brought in a new covenant,
a covenant of grace that saves his people from all of their
sin. Not through their religious ceremonies, but through this
sacrifice, through the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where
Christ gets all the glory and man gets none of it. And that's
what those evil men desired. They desired the glory in this
thing and the Lord would not let them have it. The sacrifice
of Christ defeated every one of his enemies. They're all defeated.
I imagine it's the only victory in the history of mankind that
was won by the death of the victor. The mighty victor, the mighty
conqueror died. That's how he won the victory
over every one of his enemies. At Calvary, the Lord Jesus did
die, but Satan's head was crushed. The power of sin was put away
and death died. The enemy was defeated. To you
and me, as we live now roughly 2,000 years from that time where
the Savior died, the battle still rages, doesn't it? The battle
still rages. Evil men and women, obviously,
still exist in the world today. And I know they cause us a lot
of trouble, but you remember this about them. They're not
going to fare any better fighting against the Lord than those that
did at the cross. They're not going to fare any
better whatsoever. They're evil men and women. They love sin
and they hate holiness. They love self-righteousness.
They don't got nothing against righteousness, but they want
to earn it. They hate the righteousness of
Christ given to them freely. They hate God and they hate his
people. Now I'll grant you, they say they love Jesus. They say
they love God. They love their idol. They love
the idol that they made up from their imagination, but they hate
the true living God. They hate the God of the Bible
as he's pleased to reveal himself to us. Now, the world's full
of them, aren't they? In the Lord's mercy and grace
to us, we do not suffer persecution from them like many of the saints
have in the past. Now, there are enemies, no doubt
about it. If they're the enemy of Christ,
they're our enemy, aren't they? But those evil men and women
that fill the world, they're not really our biggest problem,
are they? Our biggest problem today is not sin out there in
the world. It's sin that we carried in here
tonight, in the heart, in this old nature that we carry around
with us. The biggest fight we have today with the evil man
is our own sin nature. Our old man, the flesh that we
carry around with us. That old man is an evil, wicked
nature of sin that's in us. And we'll never get away from
him. We'll never get away from his attacks on us until the flesh
dies and the spirit goes to be with the Lord. Then and only
then will we finally be free of him. And if you're a believer,
you know exactly what I'm talking about. You've done battle with
him today. Every child of God here tonight,
every child of God who might happen to listen to this recording,
you've done battle with the flesh today. I thought I'd give you
just one example. Maybe you didn't go through this,
but it's something that happens. Wednesday night, you get home
from work, your dog tired, they just beat you to death down there
at that salt mine, and that old man's whispering to you, you
already know the Lord. You don't need to go to that
service tonight, just rest. Or, maybe worse yet, that old
man's whispering to you, you're telling him, look how good you
are. You're tired, but you can't really go to the service anyway.
Doing battle, aren't you? Doing battle with that old man,
doing everything he can do. to get you to look to the flesh
and trust the flesh rather than look to Christ and trust Him.
And here's my question. There's that evil man every one
of us carry around with us everywhere we go. How can we be delivered
from Him? Is there a way that the victory
can be won? Well, everybody here tonight
already knows that the one who delivers His people and gives
us salvation through Him is the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
give you five words from our psalm this evening. that describe
that old man. And so we can see how it is that
the Lord delivers us from our evil man. Now, number one, the
old man is an evil man. Verse one, the psalmist says,
deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. That word evil means
evil, like we use the word, you know, bad, wicked, mean, but
also means causes misery. Now that old man causes us misery. He just comes up with all different
ways to cause us misery. In verse 2, the word mischiefs,
translated mischiefs, is the exact same word translated evil
in verse 1. That old man comes up with all
different kinds of mischiefs, all different kinds of ways that
he can just cause misery to us. And that's the only thing that
the old man can do. He can't do anything different
Because he's got an evil nature. The flesh has imaginations that
are only evil continually. Nothing's changed from the time
of Noah to our day. The flesh and imaginations and
thoughts of the flesh are only evil continually. That's because
we've got an evil nature. That's the only thing that evil
nature can produce. And that is the nature we cart
around with us everywhere that we go. Well, how can we be delivered
from him? by submitting to Christ. When
we submit to Christ, we're not going to submit to that old man.
We'll be delivered when we depend upon Christ to deliver us. Look
at verse 6. I said unto the Lord, Thou art
my God. Hear the voice of my supplications,
O Lord. Now this is something I am trying,
trying, trying to learn, to pray like this. This is an outstanding
prayer. Lord, you're my God. Hear me. David doesn't make any
suggestions about how the Lord could defeat the enemy. David
doesn't make any suggestions about what the Lord might do
to solve the problem. He just says, Lord, you're God. You're
my God. And I'm your child. I'm your
servant. Hear me. Lord, you're God who
is in control of all things, this thing included, You can
do whatever it is that you're pleased to do. Now, Lord, you're
my God, and I'm waiting on you. I'm waiting on you to do your
will. That's a good prayer. I wish I could learn to pray
like that all the time, instead of making suggestions. Just,
Lord, you're God. You're God, and control this
whole thing. Look at Matthew chapter six. You know, that is
how the Lord taught us to pray. When the disciples asked him
to teach us to pray, this is how the Lord taught us to pray
when we're battling this evil man. And that's every day. So this is the way we can pray
every day. Matthew chapter six, verse nine.
After this manner, therefore, pray ye. Now, the Lord's not
saying use these exact words every day, but use this manner,
the way that the structure of this prayer, use it every day
because you have this need every day. After this manner, Therefore
pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Deliver us from
the evil one. Deliver us from this evil man,
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. Lord, deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the evil that's
in our nature by your sovereign power, by the sovereign power
of your kingdom. Lord, deliver us from evil, from
my own evil nature, by your sovereign grace, by the kingdom of the
power of your grace. See, submitting to the Lord and
calling on him like that, that's the only way we can be delivered
from this evil man. All right, number two, back in
our text, Psalm 140. The old man is a violent man.
Verse one, at the end of verse one, David says, preserve me
from the violent man. Now that word violent means wrong
and false, and it means cruel. That violent man is trying to
destroy us. Our old man, that fleshly nature
is trying to destroy the new man. Verse four, David says,
keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from
the violent man who have purposed to overthrow my goings." That
old man is violent and he has purposed. It is his desire, his
purpose, his plan to destroy that new man. So we pray, Lord,
guard me. Guard me from him. Keep me safe
from him. Keep me safe from following the
ways of that violent man. Because that violent man is not
only cruel, he doesn't just do violence. He's wrong. He's false. Now that old man
is defeated. He's crucified, isn't he? That's
what the scripture said, crucified, nailed to the cross. But you
know, somebody can be crucified. They can be nailed to a cross
and live for days and days. So that old man, he's crucified,
but he's still alive. And he's false. He's telling
us lies. He's constantly whispering lies
in the ears of God's people. So we pray, Lord, Preserve me. Lord, keep me from believing
the lies of this violent man. You know, he promises peace. This old man, this old man is
a violent man. He promises peace, but he gives war. He promises
love, but he gives hate. He promises righteousness, but
what he gives is unrighteousness. The promise of righteousness
that he makes is dependent on you. Well, all that can come
of that is unrighteous. He promises righteousness, but
gives us unrighteousness. He promises salvation, but He
gives damnation. He gives damnation because it's
dependent on you. You to earn it, you to keep it,
you to cleanse yourself. It promises salvation, but gives
damnation. So, Lord, preserve me. Preserve
me from Him because I'm too weak to keep myself. I want to give
you three pleas I found for the Lord to preserve us from this
violent man. Number one, look at Psalm 32. Lord, preserve me because I'm
hiding in Christ. Psalm 32, verse 7. Thou art my hiding place. Thou
shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. How are we going to be preserved?
Because the Lord is our hiding place, because we're hiding in
him. Lord, I'm depending on you. So hide me, keep me. And those
people who are hiding in Christ, you, they will be preserved. They will. Jude calls believers,
he identifies believers as those who are preserved in Jesus Christ. That's how we're preserved, by
hiding in Christ. All right, number two, look over
a few pages, Psalm 40. Preserve me for your mercy and
your love and your truth's sake. Psalm 40, verse 11. Withhold not thou thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. Lord, preserve me because you've
been merciful to me. Lord, preserve me because you
love me. And this will solve the whole
issue here. God's mercy and God's love are
never wasted. God doesn't love somebody and
then condemn them. God doesn't love somebody and
judge them and find them guilty and send them to hell. No, God's
mercy and God's love means something. God's people are saved because
God loves them. And here's the proof that he
loves them. He sent his son to be their propitiation for their
sin. He sent his son to be the sacrifice for their sin. God
saved his people in mercy and God's mercy never wasted. And
preserve me in truth, in mercy, and in truth, or preserve me
because it's just to preserve me. If Christ has already been
punished for my sins, then I'm free from judgment, aren't I?
Have to be. God can't punish me. It's only right that you
preserve me if Christ is my sacrifice. So preserve me in mercy and in
truth. All right, now look at Psalm
121. Preserve me because I'm hiding
in Christ. Preserve me for your love, your
mercy, and your truth. And thirdly, preserve me because
of your promise. Psalm 121, verse 7. The Lord
shall, not might, not could, shall preserve thee from all
evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. Lord, preserve me because you
promised to preserve me. Because you promised to preserve
those who are trusting in you. That's your promise. And you
cannot fail to keep your promise. Lord, preserve me from that violent
man. That's how we'll escape him.
That's how we'll be delivered from him. All right, thirdly,
back in our text, Psalm 140. The old man is a man of war. Verse 2 says, which imagine mischiefs
in their heart. Continually are they gathered
together for war. Now, every believer needs to
be constantly reminded of this. You can never let up your guard. Never. You can never relax for
a moment in this warfare. You can never relax because the
old man never will. Your enemy never will. He is
continually gathered together for war. Continually. He is constantly
trying to bring you back into captivity to the law. He just
wants to just give you one little law that you think you can keep
and that makes you better than somebody else. If he can accomplish
that, he's made you a debtor to the whole law. He's constantly
bringing you back into captivity to the law. Don't allow it. Look
to Christ only. He's constantly trying to get
you to take some credit for your righteousness before God. I'm
trying to get you to take some credit. Now, this is the honest truth. The people in this room are just
the absolute most trustworthy, best people in this whole area. I mean, there's not a single
question in my mind about that. Somebody saw me out in the parking
lot one day, years ago coming in, I hit the button on my key
chain, you know, to lock the car. And they said, you lock
your car here at church? I said, yeah, everybody I trust is in
there. I'll give you all the keys. But now listen, don't let
that old man tell you that makes you better, that that's your
righteousness before God. No, your righteousness is Christ,
Christ alone in it. That old man is constantly doing
everything he can do to get you to look away from Christ. To
look at yourself or look anywhere else. Just get any little trinket,
any little fad, any little something going on to get you thinking
about something other than Christ. He constantly does. He never
lets up. And I'll tell you why he continually
does it without a break. Because he's fueled by hate.
He's fueled by hate for the new man. The old man hates righteousness. that's ours through faith in
Christ, not by our works. He hates it. The old man hates
not getting some glory to the flesh. He hates giving all the
glory to Christ. The old man hates God and he
hates God's Christ. His carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. The law of God, the gospel of God, the way of God isn't
subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. You
can't change his mind. He's continually going to war
against God's people. And he'll never quit, never.
And that makes him one tough enemy. There was a series on,
much to Janet's chagrin. I've seen it before. It's on
TV, so I had to watch it again. About World War II, the soldiers
fighting in the Pacific. And those Allied soldiers had
a time in the Pacific. They had such a time. They had
a time fighting those Japanese soldiers because that Japanese
soldier wouldn't quit fighting. no matter what. I mean, you're
going to make him quit fighting, you've got to kill him. He'll
never surrender. He just won't do it. Even when
the cause was lost and that Japanese soldier could surrender and go
home free, he'd die instead. If he could kill one more American
soldier, he'd die instead rather than go home free to his wife.
That makes one tough enemy, doesn't it? Continually going to war,
continually taking the battle to you. That's how this old man
fights the spiritual warfare. He never lets up. Never. Well, then how can we be delivered
from this relentless man of war? By fighting with the armor that
Christ, the captain of our salvation, provides for his people. That's
how. There, verse 7, David says, Oh God, the Lord, the strength
of my salvation, thou has covered my head in the day of battle. Christ covers His people in this
day of battle when the old man constantly, relentlessly bringing
the warfare to us. Look at Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. This is
the armor that God gives His people in this warfare against
the evil man of our nature, of our flesh. Ephesians 6 verse
10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that
you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done
all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of
righteousness. Bind about yourself, Christ,
the truth, true righteousness. This is how God saves sinners.
This is how God makes sinners righteous. It's through Christ's
obedience, not ours. Verse 15, And your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Have your feet, have
your walk directed by the gospel of peace. I'll tell you what
to protect a person from war. Seeking peace, going the way
of peace, peace made by the blood of the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 16, above all, taking the
shield of faith, wherewith you should be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. You know, that wicked man, that
man of war, He tries to get at you with these fiery darts, these
accusations that'll make you feel guilty. That'll make you
feel guilty and think, I got to do something to make up for
them. Well, when that happens, take faith in Christ. Faith in
Christ is the shield that protects us from every accusation of that
wicked man. Oh, the accusations are true.
I mean, we can't be accused of a sin and say, we didn't do it.
Oh, yeah, we did it. But faith in Christ protects
us, shields us from those fiery accusations because the shield
of faith in Christ says the accusation is true. But that that fiery
darts already been put out. It's already been paid for by
the blood of Christ. I'm not looking to make up for
it. I'm not looking to pay for it. Christ, my savior did. Faith
like that will quench those fiery darts. In verse 17, take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. Take the helmet of salvation, which protects your heart or
your head from the error of this violent man. Being taught the
scriptures, going verse by verse through the scriptures, there's
nothing better for us. It protects our head from the
error of false religion and the only weapon that we need. is
the Word of God. Just take the Word of God. Read
it. Believe it. Cling to it. That's
the only weapon that we need. That'll tear down the Word of
God, will tear down all this spiritual wickedness in high
places. And it'll tear it down in our
hearts, too. The Word of God. We don't need anything else.
And we'll be delivered from that man of war. All right, now back
to Psalm 140. Here's the fourth thing. The
old man has a poisoned tongue. In verse three, they have sharpened
their tongues like a serpent. Adder's poison is under their
lips. I look at Romans chapter three,
we'll get a commentary on this. The old man is a liar and the
lies that he peddles are deadly poison to the soul. Psalm three,
verse 10, here is the description of our old man. As it is written,
there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher
and with their tongues they've used to seat. The poison of asps
is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way
of peace have they not known. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. Now that is a dead sinner. That
is what this flesh, the old man, always is. And he'll never be
anything better than that. Never. Everything the old man
thinks is sin. Everything he does is sin. Everything
the old man says is a lie. And it's not just like it's a
little white lie that really didn't hurt anybody. It's poisonous. It'll kill you just like a venomous
viper. When he opens his mouth, there's
nothing there but venom. Verse 13 says their throat is
an open sepulcher. When they open their mouth, you
know what you get? You either get the stench of death from
opening up that grave, or you get this venom, this venom that'll
poison your soul. That man of the flesh is very
religious. He sounds very religious. He
sounds very impressive to the natural man, but his religion
is a lie. His religion is deadly poison. It's never the healing balm of
Gilead. It's never Christ. It's always
self. Oh, he may give Christ some credit,
but he's going to make something you do in there. And that makes
it poison. that have sent people to hell. They have the poison of asps
under their lips. Every time they preach, oh, it's
a religious sounding message now. You know why it's the poison
of asps? It's the very same message the
serpent preached to Eve. The very same message. Ye shall
not surely die. Oh, you're not that bad. You're
good enough. You know, you can do good enough.
Yes, you've got to believe Christ now, but you can add to that.
You've got to add to it. Christ alone is not enough. You
can add to Him. Now you've got the power, they
say, to choose for yourself. You've got to make a decision.
You don't need God to choose you. You've got to make a decision.
You can do that, they say. Now they say, surely you don't
believe Christ just died for a few people, just for His elect.
No, that wouldn't be right, they say. That wouldn't be loving,
they say. Sounds real religious, doesn't it? They say, oh no,
Christ died for everybody. God loves everybody. So Christ
died for everybody. Because don't you think everybody
deserves a chance, they say. That sounds real good, real appealing
to the flesh, doesn't it? But that poison sends men and
women to hell because they're believing their own works rather
than trusting Christ. I try not to Show too much anger
about that. How much anger you reckon we'd
feel if somebody down there at the school poisoned all the milk
cartons they gave to the kids at lunch? Oh, we'd be furious. Oh, we'd be up in arms demanding
justice. These people are sending, these
false preachers, this old man with a poisoned tongue is sending
people to hell. believe in their lies. Poison
of asps. And that old man is constantly
whispering in our ears. Sometimes he's shouting in our
ears, isn't he? He's shouting, we can't hear anything else.
Well, how do we not fall under the spell of the snake charmer
and be poisoned to death? I can tell you how. Don't listen
to him. Listen to Christ. Verse 11. Let not an evil speaker be established
in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent man
to overthrow them. Here's our hope. The Lord is
not going to let Satan's lie be established in the earth.
He's not going to let it be established in the hearts of his people.
The Lord is not going to let his people believe Satan's lie. He's not going to let us trust
in our own goodness, in our own works. If you would be delivered
from this lying man with poisonous lips, hear the Lord, listen to
the Lord. How many times did the Lord say
He'd be preaching, He'd give a parable, and He'd say, now
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Well, God's people
hear. They always hear. And you know
why they hear? Because God gives them ears that hear. They hear
Christ, they hear Him speak, and they believe Him. They hear
His Word, and they believe Him. The best defense for this lie,
this poisonous lie, is the truth. The best defense for a lie is
always the truth. I know that doesn't always work
here in our world, in our judicial system. Where I used to work,
I would go to court with. We had an attorney. I'd go to
court with him for people that owed us money and stuff, you
know. And it would just infuriate me. This ought to be so cut and
dry. Why are we even going to court? We're going in here. We've
got to do all this stuff. And it's just, it's, it's so
cut and dry. Look, this is just, here's all
the evidence. This is the truth. And he'd say,
the truth has got nothing to do with what goes on in a court
of law. Well, that's a shame. I mean, that's just a shame.
But that's not how God works. That's not how this thing of
spiritual salvation works. If you know Christ, the truth,
you're free. You're free indeed. The truth
shall set you free. He'll set you free from the law. He'll set you free from the condemnation
of the law. He'll set you free from having
to be obedient to the law. He'll set you free from death.
He'll set you free from the fear of death. He'll set you free
from condemnation. He'll set you free from loving
and believing a lie. If you would be protected from
this lying, wicked man with poisonous lips, believe Christ. Listen to Christ. And whenever
that old man whispers something in your ear, just don't listen. Don't remind yourself. If he's
saying it, if the flesh is saying it, it's wrong. If the flesh
is loving it and saying it, he's lying to you. The old man is
lying to you, telling you Now you better get to work. You better
get to work. He reminds you, whispers in your ear, reminds
you about the law. Telling you you've broken it. Telling you
you haven't done good enough. Now you better straighten up
and fly right. You better start doing better. And you know what
that does? It fills you with anxiety and
fear. Isn't that the driving emotions
of false religion? Anxiety and fear. You better
live right. You don't want God to get you
into judgment, do you? Anxiety. I don't know if I've
done enough, I better do more. Don't know if I've given enough,
better give more. It's the driving emotion of false religion, anxiety
and fear. And you remember this. I hope
you're listening to me. You remember this. Anxiety and
fear are liars. They're liars. Grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Now you listen to him. You believe
him. Trust him and you'll be delivered.
Rest in him. and you'll be delivered from
this evil man. All right, here's the fifth thing. The old man
is a proud man. Verse five. The proud have hit
a snare for me and cords. They spread a net by the wayside.
They have set gins for me. Now the old man, like I said,
he's very religious and he's proud. He's proud of his religion.
He's proud of his works. He's proud of his abilities.
He's proud of his righteousness. He's proud of his morality. He's
proud that he's better than his neighbor. He's proud of himself.
And he's not ashamed at all. Even knowing God's word says,
God hates pride. He's proud of himself. And he
makes these religious things that the flesh loves, he makes
them look so attractive to the flesh. But that's what a trap
has to be, doesn't it? Earl was talking about fly fishing
the other day, about tying these flies and he had some I don't
know if it was a killer or a thumper or something you called it, you
know. That thing is made to trick that fish. You don't just throw
a bare hook out there. They're not going to trick the
fish. You've got to make it look attractive
to them if you're going to trap them. You don't catch animals
in traps by making them look ugly. You put some bait in there
that makes it look like something the animal wants. That's how
you trap them. Well, that's what the old man's
doing. He's setting these traps everywhere. By the wayside, in
the road, he's got tripwires, he's got snares on the side.
I mean, they're everywhere. He uses religious traps to snare
us. And those traps are anything
that get us caught up doing good works, looking at ourselves to
check how we're doing instead of resting in Christ alone. That's
the traps he uses. It's a trap. Well, how can we
escape? The trap of this evil, proud
man is by trusting Christ alone. Look at verse 8. Grant not, O
Lord, the desires of the wicked. Further not his wicked device,
lest they exalt themselves. As for the head of those that
compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
Let the burning coals fall upon them. Let them be cast into the
fire, into the deep pits, that they rise not up again. Now,
this is what's going to happen to this proud man. He's going
to fall into the very trap he made for somebody else. That's
the trap he's going to fall into. It's the blind leading the blind.
And when the first man, the blind, the guy that's blind, he falls
in the ditch where everybody following him is going to go.
They're going in the ditch too. If you're following them, you'll
go into the ditch with them. Look at Psalm 9. Psalm 9. Verse 15. The heathen are sunk
down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid is
their own foot taken. That's how they're trapped, in
their own net. Verse 16. The Lord is known by
the judgment which he executed. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands. That's how the Lord reveals their
foolishness. He lets them work out this righteousness,
this trap that they've set, and they're caught in it. They're
caught in it themselves, and he damns them in justice. Look
at Psalm 69. Their whole religion is a trap. That's a curse, not a blessing.
That's damnation, not salvation. Psalm 69 verse 22. Let their table become a snare
before them and that which should have been for their welfare,
let it become a trap. Now, isn't that exactly what
happened to the Jews? When the Lord here talks about
their table, you know, the Psalm, this is what they say is what
the Lord said from the cross. The table he's talking about
there is all the four. all the ceremony of the Old Testament
religion. Now that should have been for
their welfare, shouldn't it? It was given to them to give them
a picture of Christ, to make them look to Christ. But he says,
now let it become a snare. Let it become a trap to them.
Let them get caught up in all those things and all the works
of that and look away from Christ. That's what he prays about them.
Well, now that's frightening, isn't it? I mean, that scares
me to death. I don't want to be just so caught
up in in the motions of religion, that I miss Christ. I don't want
that. I want to know Him. I want to
believe Him. Well, how can we be delivered?
Well, look at Psalm 91. It's by Christ alone, that's
how. Psalm 91, verse 3. Surely He shall deliver
thee from the snare, the trap of the fowler, and from the noisome
pestilence, the Lord shall deliver thee." Now, one more scripture,
Romans chapter 7. In conclusion, you know, the
believer is going to go through just continual battles with this
old man, but our peace, our hope, our comfort is that the Lord
will keep and He will deliver His people. And believing that
truth, resting in Christ, that's what keeps God's people from
getting battle fatigue and just quitting. The only way the flesh,
this old evil man, can be defeated is through faith in Christ. Romans
7 verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin, For that which I do, I allow
not. I don't want to do what I do.
For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that's what
I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the
law that is good. Now then, it's no more I that
do it, but sin, this evil man, the sin nature that dwelleth
in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. For the will is present with
me, but how to perform that which is good? I find not. For the
good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find
then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. But I see another law of my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? As we go through this civil war
that's going on inside us with the flesh and the spirit, we
come to that point all the time, don't we? Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Verse
25, here's the answer. I thank God. Here's how we're
going to be delivered. through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. And
thank God one day, we're going to lay down that flesh. We'll
be done with the law of sin, and the spirit, the new man,
will go be with the Lord. And then we're going to shout,
I've been delivered. I've been delivered. Well, we've
been delivered. But on that day, we're going to be plumb delivered,
aren't we? I hope the Lord bless that to you. Let's bow together.
Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this
comforting help and instruction in this awful, bloody civil war
that goes on inside every believer. We thank you for this blessed
instruction to look to Christ. We thank you for this blessed
hope to rest in Christ our Savior. Father, I pray you bless your
word. Bless your word to your glory. Bless your word to the
hearts of your people. Cause your word to take root
in our heart, that it might help us as we continue on in this
pilgrimage home, that it might help us to be reminded to continually
look to trust in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his blessed name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.