Psalms chapter 5. I want to finish
this psalm this afternoon. Very, very interesting psalm.
Let me read it to you again. Psalms chapter 5, verse 1. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Hearken
unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God. For unto you
will I pray. My voice shall you hear in the
morning, O Lord. In the morning will I direct
my prayer unto you, and I will look up. For you are not a god
that has pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with
you. The foolish shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers
of iniquity. You shall destroy them that speak
leasin. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into
your presence in the multitude of thy mercy, and in your fear
will I worship toward your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in your
righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before
my face, for there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward
part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open grave,
the sepulcher. They flatter with their tongue.
Destroy them, O God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude
of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you.
But let all those that put their trust in you rejoice. Let them
shout for joy, forever shout with joy. because thou defendest
them. Let them also that love your
name be joyful in you. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the
righteous with favor, wilt thou confess him as with a shield." David had been praying here in
verses 1 and 3, and been talking of prayer, what it was, how he
himself had prayed. And then he says here in verse
4, that men are either praying or they're living in wickedness. If you read verse 3 and verse
4 together, he says, In the morning will I direct my prayer unto
you, and look up. For thou art not a God that hath
pleasure in wickedness. In other words, he's saying a
man is either praying or a man is committing wickedness. One
man said this about prayer. He said, prayer will keep you
from wickedness or wickedness will keep you from prayer. Sin
will keep you from Christ or Christ will keep you from sin. And that's what David is saying
here. Christ will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from
Christ. He said, Lord, I am calling on
you this morning. I've come into your presence
to pray because You're not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. So those who go after their wickedness,
they're not praying people. They're not those who get along
with the Lord. And then he comes to verse 5
and verse 6. The foolish shall not stand in
your presence. You hate all workers of iniquity. Thou wilt destroy them that speak
lies, O Lord. You will abhor the bloody and
deceitful man. And I've read this so often,
and you have too, but I've never looked at it in the context of
prayer. This is sandwiched right in the
middle of David's prayer to the Lord. He's praying to the Lord
and owning Him as his God and his King, and suddenly he makes
this statement. You hate all workers of iniquity. You abhor the bloody and deceitful
man." Now, David was in humble prayer before the Lord. This
wasn't spoken out of a spirit of self-righteousness, a spirit
of legality, or a spirit of hatefulness. But this was spoken from his
mind as he was praying unto the Lord. This is a mind that was
enlightened. This is a man that was looking
at things from God's perspective. As he was praying, he'd come
to him, how does the Lord regard a wicked person? What's the feelings
of his heart towards the workers of iniquity? And it comes to
David, and he looks at it from God's point, and he says, why,
you hate them. And you abhor the bloody and
deceitful man. Now, that's strong language,
isn't it? And David never put an asterisk there, and down at
the bottom of the page apologized to God that such a statement
had been made. He speaks very plain concerning
God's attitude towards the workers of iniquity. Thou hatest all
workers of iniquity, and you abhor bloody and deceitful man. And what he does here in verses
4 through verse 6, He justifies God's alienation from the wicked. God is alienated from the wicked. And He justifies God's detestation
of them. Why is God alienated from the
wicked? Why does He hate them? Why does
He abhor them? Well, He tells us reasons here
why that is. The first reason is this, it's
because of God's holiness, of His purity. Look what He says
in verse 4, Thou art not a God that has pleasure in wickedness. Why is God alienated from a wicked
person? Because of who God is. He cannot
take pleasure in sin. He cannot look upon it. with
any pleasure at all. His heart cannot be towards it.
He loves righteousness and he hates iniquity. Therefore, David
said, he abhors the workers of iniquity. And secondly, he does
this. He says God has made no provision
for evil to be accepted in his presence. Look what he says again
in verse 4. Neither shall evil dwell with
you. It cannot come into His presence
and stand there. It has no grounds. It has no God-given cause. It
cannot dwell with Him. Evil cannot dwell with thee. God is light, is He not? And no darkness can dwell in
His presence. God is just and no unjustice
can dwell in His presence. He has made no provision for
it. And thirdly, they have no ground
or standing or status with Him. Look what He said in verse 5.
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. On what grounds? On what grounds? Can foolishness,
can wickedness, can iniquity stand in God's presence? I mean,
if you're going to stand in God's presence, He's got to make provisions
for you to stand there. He's got to give you a status
to stand there. He's made no status for wickedness
to stand in His presence. David said if He marks iniquity,
who can stand? Sinners cannot stand in the judgment. nor the unrighteous in the congregation
of the just. He's made no provision for that.
And fourthly, therefore if God, by Jesus Christ, does not redeem
a man from his wickedness, and for Christ's sake does not regenerate
a man and give him life and give him the graces of the Holy Spirit
in his heart, what is left? for that man. If God doesn't
save a man, then what must He do with him? He says in verse
6, doesn't He? Thou shalt destroy them. You know prayer is a very enlightening
thing, isn't it? Here David was seeking the Lord
and praying to his King and to his God. And then suddenly his
mind goes to God's attitude towards the wicked. And he concludes
that they cannot dwell in God's presence, they cannot stand there,
that God abhors them, and he either must save them in Christ
and wash them and make them new, or finally he must destroy the
wicked. That's the conclusion he reaches. And how does God feel towards
those that He finally destroys for their wickedness? Well, He
says the Lord will abhor them. He will detest them. He will
despise the bloody and deceitful man for all eternity. Now, the reason many people oppose
this plain language and are shocked by what it declares is for this
reason. They do not have an adequate
understanding of the inflexible justice and absolute holiness. Ladies, please stop those from
playing there. And the absolute holiness, inflexible
justice and the absolute holiness of God, nor do they understand
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Now, how many people Could you
read this passage too? And it would be a shocking declaration. I bet you there are pastors,
and well, I know this, I know this. There are pastors that
would never read this from their pulpit. That God hates anybody. That God abhors anybody. But
here's the reason, brothers and sisters, that's so. They know
little to nothing of the character of God and little of nothing
of the exceeding sinfulness of man. But I think it's sort of
self-explanatory, don't you? Spurgeon had this to say about
this passage. The Lord hateth all workers of
iniquity. He abhors the bloody and deceitful
man. Spurgeon said it's not a little
dislike. but thorough hatred which God
bears to workers of iniquity. To be hated of God is not an
awful thing. Let us be faithful in warning
the wicked around us, for it is a terrible thing to fall into
the hands of an angry God. The how forcible is the word
of horror. It shows us the powerful and
deep-seated How powerful and deep-seated is the hatred of
the Lord towards the workers of iniquity. And look here in verse six again
very closely. We have three characteristics
of the workers of iniquity. They speak leasing. They speak
falsehood. They speak lies. Number two,
they're murderers. The Lord will abhor the bloody
man and the deceitful. The Lord will abhor the bloody
and deceitful man. Three characteristics of the
wicked. But here's the thing. These are
three chief characteristics of Satan himself. Why does the Lord abhor the workers
of Why does he abhor the bloody and deceitful man? Because he
bears the same resemblance. He has the same characteristics
of Satan himself. Listen to John chapter 8 verse
44. This was the Lord Jesus speaking. He said, You are of your father
the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a
murderer from the beginning. From the beginning of creation,
he was a murderer. And who did he murder? Our first
parents, didn't he? He murdered Adam and he murdered
Eve spiritually. And when Cain rose up and slew
his brother, John said he did that because he was of the wicked
one. He bore the characteristics of
his father, the devil. And here David said the Lord
will abhor those murderers because they bear the same characteristic,
the likeness of their father, the devil. And then the Lord
continues in that verse, and He says this of Satan, not only
was he a murderer, but he abode not in the truth because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is the For he is a liar, and the father
of lies." Who told the first lie? The devil did, didn't he? It came from his mind. And when
men lie today, and all liars shall have their part in the
lake which burns with fire and brimstone, but when men lie,
it's just showing the characteristics of Satan. Another characteristic of Satan
that David mentions here is deception. The Lord will abhor the deceitful
man. And who was it that began this
whole thing of deception? It was Satan. He deceived Eve. He lied to Eve,
he deceived Eve, and she obeyed his voice. Why does the world
not understand the gospel of the grace of Christ Jesus? Satan
has blinded their eyes. Why is the world deceived as
it is? We know that fallen man is natural
in himself and cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God.
But Satan works in that mind to blind it. If our gospel be
hid, it is hid to the lost, in whom the God of this world hath
blinded their mind. He deceives the mind. And the
Lord says here he hates the deceitful man because he bears the same
characteristics that Satan has himself. And no wonder then that
the wicked and Satan will suffer the same fate because both will
be cast into a fire that shall never be quenched and both shall
be tormented day and night forever and forever. Now, I'll admit
with you that these are heavy things. These two verses are
very heavy verses. I tell you, they're heavy upon
our conscience, they're heavy upon our understanding, but the
only way these can be explained is just like this. God is eternally
different than we are. God is holy, and God is just. And in that light, sin and those
who commit it deserve to be abhorred and hated of God, and deserve
the fate that they will meet if God does not save them in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scripture is too plain, isn't
it? The Scripture is too plain. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry, God. Now, in the light of this, how
could I get up here this evening, and how could I go around the
country preaching to people, and tell lost people, the workers
of iniquity, God loves you. You've got nothing to worry about. God loves you. Is that not deceiving
people? Is that not a sense in which
this Word has to be set forth in the plainness in which David,
a man of prayer, set it forth to us? Is this not the witness
of the Holy Spirit? And aren't men to be warned of
this? Isn't this awakening? If I am
lost, if I am outside of Jesus Christ, if I have no refuge,
To hear that God hates me, that God is angry with me, that God
loathes me. God is either a man's best friend
or He's his worst enemy. And to be outside the Son of
God and not to be in Him, I tell you, is the most dreadful prospect
that I can think of in all my life. And yet the world lays
down its head every night and sleeps. It gets up and goes its
merry way and gives little thought to this clear proclamation of
God's attitude towards the wicked. And then he goes here quickly
to verse 7. And I love how he goes right back to this. Because
if somebody had just been saying that David's in a hateful attitude
or he's self-righteous, I want you to know here what he says
in verse 7. But ask for me. But ask for me. Now, he does make a distinction
between him and the wicked. But he's not like the Pharisee
who says, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men are. He's
not saying they're this way and you abhor them and I don't blame
you. But look at me. That's not what he's saying here
at all. Remember, he's in humble prayer before his Lord. And look
here how he says it in verse 7, As for me, I will come into
your house in the multitude of your mercy. He's not in a self-righteous
attitude. He's not legalistic about this. He's not looking down his nose
at the wicked. The thing that has made the distinction
between me and them, I have entered into His presence through the
door of mercy. Mercy has saved me. Mercy has
brought hope to my heart. Mercy has brought the fountain
to me and cleansed me through the blood of the Savior. I am
hoping in mercy. Well, he began with mercy sometime
when he was just a young kid. You see him standing somewhere
out there with his sheep, and he's beating on his chest when
he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's where he
began. You say, Bruce, how do you know
that? Because that's where everybody begins that enters God's presence. They begin with a need of mercy. And they begin to hope in mercy.
They say with Paul, I obtained mercy. That's where we begin
our Christian life, isn't it? We just didn't get up one morning
and decide to go to church and be baptized and straighten our
lives up and get our act together. That's not where we began. We
began this way. I obtained mercy. Mercy found me. Mercy saved me. Mercy put my sin away. David
said, I come here into your presence and I'm calling on your name
because of your mercy. So you see, when he says this
about the wicked, it's not out of a self-righteous, legalistic
attitude that he's better than them, that he deserves different
than they deserve. He said, no, God has made the
difference. And it's mercy that did it. But he says something else here
about this mercy. Did you notice this in verse
7? I will come into your house. I'll come into your presence
in the multitude of your mercy. Oh, it's not enough. He said
mercy is not enough. He said, I see something in your
mercy towards me. I see what a distinction you've
made between me and the wicked. You've called me. You've saved
me." And he said, it's a multitude of mercies. It's abundant mercies. Mercies that's higher than the
heavens. Mercies that's behind me to follow
me. That's cleaned up my messes.
Mercy around me to protect me from my enemies. Mercy that's
over my head, so everything that comes from heaven to me is good. Mercy that is in front of me,
so I'll know that this thing is going to end well for me.
Everywhere he looked, it was mercies. And there were so many
of them, he said, the multitude of your mercies. How do we get
into his presence? How does he receive us? Why is
He to us? Mercy. Mercy is mercy. Depths of mercy can there be. Don't we sing it? Mercy is still
reserved for me. And, oh dear soul, if you ever
find yourself in need of mercy and you obtain it, you'll never
get over it. You'll never get over it. Mercy
will be your song the rest of your days. And you'll be saying,
I'm looking for the mercy. of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd
love to tell you about that old preacher, I think he may have
been William Jay, who was dying, and a dear man came to him and
he said, Brother Jay, you're going to receive your reward.
And Brother Jay opened his eyes and looked up at him and said,
Dear Brother, I'm going to receive mercy. Is that your hope? The Lord delights
in those who hope in His mercy. That's our hope. David said,
that's what I'm doing here. I'm here because of your mercies.
Your mercies. And he said, in your fear will
I worship. In your fear. He wasn't bragging. He wasn't bragging that, Lord,
you looked upon me in a different way and you saw that I was different
than the wicked. Oh, he said, I'm here because
you're mercy in your fear. I'm reverence in you. Oh, that
you've looked in my direction. It makes me tremble with full
of joy that you've had mercy upon me. And then in verse eight, look
what he says. He recognizes something here. You and I said often, Lord,
Don't leave us to ourselves. Don't we pray that a lot? I've
heard Brother Glenn pray that so many times. Lord, please don't
leave me. Leave me to myself. Well, that's
what David recognized. Leave me, O Lord, in Your righteousness
because of my enemies. There's enemies. There's enemies
within me, somebody said. Enemies inside him. The enemy
is all around us. And they try to deceive us. And
we're so poor, and let me say it, my wife's going to get on
to me for saying this, but we're so poor and stupid. Are we not
stupid? Here was this king praying to
the Lord. And how many years had he been
walking with the Lord? And he still has to pray, Lord,
lead me? Don't you feel the same way about
yourself? Aren't you afraid of yourself
and the darkness of your poor understanding? I'm like John
Bunyan. I'm always leaning towards self-righteousness. I'm always leaning to what I
can do to commend myself to God. Always doing that. And I've horned
myself because of it. And I have to pray, Lord, lead
me back. Once again, to let me see the
righteousness of Jesus Christ given to my poor soul. To cover
the shame of my nakedness. To justify me. A righteousness
that you require and a righteousness that Jesus Christ has provided. Lead me. Lead me to know and
believe as Paul the Apostle said. That I seek not my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is righteousness of God
by faith in Jesus Christ. That's the righteousness we need.
That's the righteousness we must have. And that's what's been
provided. But seemingly, if God don't always bring us back there,
we start looking at ourselves, don't we? To provide something. Oh, that I might be found in
Him. not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Jesus Christ. Lead me, Lord, lead me. Don't
let me get away from this righteousness. Lead me in the paths of righteousness. I think he meant that too, don't
you? What would happen to us, brothers
and sisters, in our daily life if the Lord don't lead us in
the paths of righteousness. You talk about a mess. We'd be
in a legal mess. We'd be in a moral mess. We'd be in an ethical mess. We'd
bring shame on ourselves and our family, the Lord, the church. Lord, lead me in a way that's
honest. Lead me in a way that's upright
and sincere every day of my life. Lead me in the paths of righteousness. What a precious promise Isaiah
42, 16 is. This is what the Lord says to
David and all of those who feel like he felt. I will bring the
blind by way that they knew not. I'll lead you. Lord, I'm blind. I can't put one step in front
of another. I will bring the blind by way. I will lead them
in paths they have not known. I'll make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. What a promise. What a promise. And how many times have you experienced
in your life, boy, you was ready to step off the path, and he's led you back. And you
didn't even know it at the time. Bill, you're a businessman. You
can imagine the snares. You've probably been there. The
snares that's laid. Straight. Straight, he says in
verse 7. In verse 8, make thy way straight. The word there means comfortable,
pleasant, delightful. Delight yourself in the Lord,
and He'll give you the desires of your heart. Rejoice in the
Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Make your ways delightful. I don't want to go around with
an old mule face, do you? But you found, isn't it your
delight to serve the Lord, to worship. Isn't it delightful? I've never
known so much joy and peace of soul in all my life. It's straight. It's comfortable. It's prosperous.
I'll tell you what, I'm going to say this and you'll probably
think I'm some sort of one of those, whatever they call those fellows
that say, send me some money and you'll get a lot of money.
But you know what? I wouldn't have had I wouldn't
have had anything. I'd have probably been down in
a homeless shelter or something if the Lord hadn't saved me and
had my wife and kids with me. I tell you, it's profitable in
this life, is it not? It's comfortable in the present
life to serve the Lord and be led. And it's certainly comfortable
to the soul and to the conscience. And he
says in verse 9, There's no faithfulness in their mouth, and now he goes
back to the wicked. He goes right back to the wicked. There's no faithfulness in their
mouth. And brothers and sisters, I don't mean this in a bad way. I wouldn't have anybody to mistrust
your neighbors, your lost neighbors, or your lost friends. All of
us have lost friends, and we love them. I don't say this to
have you to mistrust them. But be careful. Be careful. We are lost friends. Be careful getting in business
with them. Be careful having them as your close companions. Because I'll tell you why. A
lost man is led, he's influenced by a deceitful heart and by Satan
himself. Be careful. Don't take them.
to be your Buddhism buddies and companions. That's what David
said here. There's no faithfulness in their
mouth. Their inward part is weakness. They flatter with your tongue.
They'll flatter you with their tongue and then turn right around
and say, crucify Him, crucify Him. And notice what he says
in verse 10. Destroy thou them, O God, And
notice why. Let them fall by their own counsels. Their damnation is just, isn't
it? Notice how he says this in verse 10. It's their own counsel. Let them fall by their own counsel. Cast them out in the multitude
of their transgressions. Why would he cast them out? Is
it anything in God? It's in them. It's their transgression. And he says, for they have rebelled
against thee. I'm sure that David would have
prayed for these men that the Lord would save them. But I tell you this much. If
he had any desire in his heart for the Lord to save these men,
it wasn't in their sins, but it was from their sins. I want
the Lord to save my children. I want the Lord to save your
children. We have neighbors and friends. We plead with the Lord
to save them. But none of us is pleading with
the Lord to save them in their sins. And I tell you, I'm like that
dear woman that pleaded against her son. If my children stand
before God in the judgment day, I would not lift a finger for
God to deliver. If they're in their sins, I'll
plead against them. Lord, destroy them. Why, Bruce, why? Because of the
multitude of their transgression. Do not let the rebel in heaven. That is not the place for him. Here is the place for him to
bow and break off from his sins and seek the Lord. Here is the
place for him to pile up his weapons at the feet of the dear
Savior and find mercy and forgiveness and life. And I am telling you,
They be said when they go on in their rebellion and they multiply
their transgression, Lord, this is my prayer. Destroy them. It's hard to see that now, isn't
it? Here was a man in the Spirit. Here was a man at the throne
of grace. Here was a man who had been enlightened. He saw
things from God's perspective. And boy, that's the way he spoke
and the way he wrote. If man will be damned, then he'll
be justly damned. And I think probably one of the
most awful, awful things to endure in hell will
be that you're responsible for being
there. And I guess that's why those
who sit under the gospel and perish under the gospel will
beat themselves up for all eternity. To be told about the Savior and
not flee to Him. To be told that God saves rebels
from their rebellion and not give yourself up to Him. What's
the alternative? And the church will pray for
this. God destroy them. God destroy them. Oh, but He
comes back now and He closes with this, but let all of those
that put their trust in you rejoice. Rejoice. Is your trust in God? Is your trust in the Savior?
Are you relying wholly upon Him? Then, dear soul, rejoice. Rejoice
in the Lord. Let them ever shout for joy. He goes further, doesn't He?
Not just saying rejoice, but they're so full of joy, their
cup runs over. They can't contain. And they
shout. They shout for joy. Because you defend them. You
defend them from the gates of hell. You defend them from the
world, from the ungodly. And you defend them from their
own flesh. Let them that love your name
Be joyful. This has to do with something
that's going on every day. A joyful heart. You get up in
the morning, you've got a joyful heart. You've looked to your
King and your God, and you just go all day with a joyful heart. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the
righteous, with favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield."
God bless these words.