Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Psalm number five. Psalm number five.
[00:00:12] We will begin reading in verse number one.
[00:00:16] We'll read the subtitle to start psalm five. The subtitle says to the chief musician upon Nehiloth a psalm of David. Verse one says this. Give ear to my words, O Lord.
[00:00:31] Consider my meditation.
[00:00:33] Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my king and my God. For unto thee will I pray.
[00:00:43] My voice shalt thou hear. In the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
[00:00:53] For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness. Neither shall evil dwell with thee.
[00:01:02] The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
[00:01:08] Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing.
[00:01:12] The Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
[00:01:30] Sorry, brother Phil, I forgot to turn on the thing.
[00:01:33] Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulchre. They flatter with their tongue. Destroy thou them, o God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against thee. But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice. Let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendedsthe them. Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous with favor. Wilt thou compass him as with a shield? Let's pray.
[00:02:24] Our fathers, we come together now to look at your word. We just ask your help and your grace that you would teach us. You would be our teacher. That you would help our eyes to be open to the truth.
[00:02:36] Lord, you know the things that we need. Lord, help me to say the things that you want spoken. And to explain these truths in a way that is that is, of course, biblical. And that is a way. In a way that is helpful to us all.
[00:02:53] Lord, this is your word, Lord, we're glad. We thank you that you've given it to us. Lord, I pray that you would let your word cause your word to be profitable to every hearer here this evening.
[00:03:05] Lord, we pray for those that can't be here, Lord. Especially Miss Pam and brother Sonny. Who are just dealing with problems right now. I don't even know what they are. But, Lord, give them grace and protect brother Sonny, especially.
[00:03:20] And we pray that you would just give your mercy to them in peace, especially.
[00:03:28] And so bless our time in your word, Lord, we commit it to you in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:34] Now, sadly, I won't be able to go into every verse of this psalm because we're going to get. We're going to get kind of bogged down here in just a minute. But starting in verse number one, as we go back through it, it says this. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my king and my God, for unto thee will I pray.
[00:03:57] And then at verse three, it says this. My voice shalt thou hear. In the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. In the matter of finances, there's a principle in the book of proverbs that says that we should honor the Lord with our substance, the firstfruits of all our increase. Right? So we're familiar in the subject of money. Whenever you or I have money, the Lord's. The example the Lord has given to us is that we dedicate a portion of that to him as not so that God won't kill us or make us get hit by a car or flatten our tires or anything like that. But we do it as a matter of thanksgiving to goddess for all that he has given to us. And that usually comes in the form of a tithe, right? That's the example given in Genesis, starting in Genesis and is found in other parts of the scripture as well.
[00:04:59] But from what portion of our income should that come?
[00:05:03] It should come from the first portion of our income. Why is that? Why is that? It's because. Well, it's a matter of faith. Right? It's a matter of faith. By doing that, we're exercising faith because we don't know what our needs will be, so we're giving it in advance of what our needs might be, trusting that God will provide for our needs. This is a scriptural example in the subject of financial things, right? But look at this. On the subject in verse three, on the subject of our time, he says this. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, o Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. So the same principle we see in proverbs, we see here, just on a different subject.
[00:05:51] The principle in this verse is to give God the first part of your day, to seek him before you seek other things, and to set him as a priority in your life.
[00:06:06] This is the principle. The first part. Now, I'll be honest with you that when I first get up in the morning, as long as I can remember, I was the kid, you know, you just got to understand, maybe this is a result of the way I was raised. But we were. I was.
[00:06:25] I was a kid, and our family, my siblings, were the kids that slept in when we didn't have school, we slept in, literally, we would be asleep until 11:00 in the morning.
[00:06:34] And so I developed a very bad habit. I mean, I didn't know any better. I just, hey, I was just going to sleep as long as I could possibly sleep. And eventually your body's like, all right, this is enough.
[00:06:45] But that developed in me a bad habit of not being a morning person, not being someone who's spry in the morning.
[00:06:54] So in the morning is not my best time of the day. It's not my sharpest point. It's not until usually about 10:00 that I really wake up completely.
[00:07:03] But it's not just about the best part of the day is in the most lucid time of the day. It's also a matter of priority.
[00:07:11] It's also a matter of priority that we give the Lord the first part of our day.
[00:07:18] Not. And here's the danger, is that in many other things in our lives, does the Lord deserve the leftovers of our life, or does he deserve the cream of the crop?
[00:07:35] The choice pickings of our life? We're talking about our time. He deserves the choice part of our life, not whatever we have left, if we have anything left over. And in time, we know how this works. When we do not seek God at the beginning, what we find is that gets pushed back, back and back and back and back and back, until all sudden, you're at the end of the day and you're tired, and you only have leftovers. I only have leftovers to give to goddess.
[00:08:03] And that, listen, that is not, that is not consistent with who he is to us, right?
[00:08:09] So he says, look, give the Lord the first part.
[00:08:15] The reality is, every morning, it's not just a new day, as in the calendar, but every morning, it's almost like we go to sleep and it's a reset.
[00:08:25] Does everybody understand what I'm saying? It's like a reset. Even in other parts of the scripture, there's kind of an indication that God's mercies are new every morning. Like a reset. This is one reason why if you're out of sorts with someone, the Lord says, let not your son, the sun, go down upon your wrath. Because the next morning is a reset. You're going to forget about it. And because it wasn't dealt with, it becomes bitterness.
[00:08:49] That's what happens. That's why the Lord says, deal with it now. Because if you bury it the next day, you're going to forget how it was. But it's not gone away. It's just buried a little bit and it'll come back up at the worst time possible. So the Lord says, deal with it.
[00:09:04] Because as the day progresses, when we're tired, when we already have exhausted the best time of the day, we give God the worst of us.
[00:09:16] And we got to remember that we're every morning with that reset. We are. We're sinful people. We, every day we get up, we wake up. That flesh is raring to do its own will, right?
[00:09:32] That's what I think in my own heart and mind when I read this. Direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. In other words, Lord, today I need your help looking to him for this day, because I know what I'm liable to do if the Lord doesn't help me. So it's an acknowledgement of our weakness. But I think the primary thing in verse three is a matter of priority.
[00:09:58] Is the Lord most important to us? We all say yes to that answer, right? Oh, yeah. The Lord is. He is, as in verse two, he is my king and my God. Right? We all say that. But in practice, sometimes it's not always that consistent that he is our priority.
[00:10:19] And this is a principle that's found in other parts of the psalms as well. Let's keep going. Verse number four says this, for thou art not a God. Notice the word for connects it to verse three. Talking about prayer, looking up to God. And the indication, the indication, if you follow along from three to four, what you see is looking up to the Lord in prayer is the thing that will help you avoid the wickedness of verse four. That's why that word for f o r, not f o u r, f o r. That's why they're connected.
[00:10:58] Lord, you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness, so help me. I'm looking to you to keep me.
[00:11:05] And so there's an indication there that our daily walk with the Lord is what will God will use that to protect us from getting out of the way.
[00:11:17] For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness.
[00:11:20] Neither shall evil dwell with thee. Think about this.
[00:11:26] Neither shall evil dwell with thee.
[00:11:30] This is the reason this. It is for this reason that when someone lives in sin, and dies in their sins.
[00:11:46] That person is banished from God's presence and has no access to God.
[00:11:57] See, on earth, you know, we live in our sins, we die in our sins, and then where do we go? We go somewhere because the soul continues to live, but without, as long as we are in our sins, we have no access to God. And this is the basic principle of why do people. Why do people go to hell? Why do people not go to heaven? Well, they don't have any access to God because evil does not. He does not tolerate any evil with him, period.
[00:12:26] That has to be fixed before we have access to the Lord. That's a frightening thing to think about, that the Lord is so holy that evil will not. Does not dwell with him. Let's keep reading verse number five. And this is where we're going to get bogged down a little bit. And I'm going to need you guys to help me some because we're all going to have to look at these verses. I want to show you very, very honestly, because I'm just going to be transparent with you. What we're going to look at in verse number five makes me a little bit uncomfortable.
[00:13:01] It makes me a little. I'm not really. I'm not really completely satisfied with the things I have to say to you. Right. But we have to look at the verses. We have to look at them. We can't avoid them because they're a little unpleasant and don't fit into our theological box as well as we wish they would. Verse number five. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Notice the second part. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
[00:13:31] Now, how many of you have read that and thought to yourself, you don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you have read that before and you thought to yourself, I don't really know if I like that verse too much, because the verse says that the Lord. It does not say that the Lord hates iniquity, although we know he does. It says that he hates the workers of iniquity. And that is people.
[00:13:58] Right? That is people. And this is not a lone occurrence in scripture.
[00:14:04] This is not a lone occurrence in scripture.
[00:14:08] Since we're close, look at proverbs.
[00:14:14] I'm sorry. Look at psalm number ten.
[00:14:17] Psalm number ten. And this is where I ask you guys to help me a little bit. Psalm number ten. And verse number three.
[00:14:31] Psalm ten. Three says this, for the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous. Everyone read the next four words.
[00:14:42] What does the Lord abhor in that verse, the covetous? Does it say he abhors covetousness?
[00:14:50] No.
[00:14:51] It would be easier a little bit if it said that, I admit. Look at psalm eleven, verse five.
[00:15:02] It says this, the Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and hime that loveth violence. Read the words.
[00:15:13] Who or what does his soul hateth? Hate.
[00:15:21] The wicked and him that loveth violence. That's a person.
[00:15:26] You see it.
[00:15:29] Look at proverbs.
[00:15:31] If you would. Just one book over. Chapter six.
[00:15:36] Proverbs, chapter six, verse number 19.
[00:15:46] Speaking of the things that the Lord hates, seven are an abomination unto him. Verse 16. Then verse 19 says, a false witness that speaketh lies. And he that soweth discord among brethren.
[00:16:03] Again, the Lord is not saying he hates the sowing of discord, but he that does that thing.
[00:16:10] Now, as I said, this is a little bit outside of the theological, nice little theological box, because I'll just say it plainly. These verses, these five verses we just read, including in our text in psalm number five, verse number five, he says, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. So listen, what this verse is saying, these verses are clearly saying, and I hope you saw it and you don't just believe what I'm saying. It's important for you to see it.
[00:16:40] This verse and several others clearly say that God hates workers of iniquity.
[00:16:48] Okay, is everybody can give me. I mean, you don't listen. I'm not asking you to take that.
[00:16:54] Take the implications of that. I'm just asking you to say, look, is that what the Bible actually says? Yes, that's what it says. Okay, here's what hate means.
[00:17:07] When we talk about hate, we think of hate is a very strong word. And in the way we use the word hate, we usually are talking about something where if you hate a person, like you really, really want ill to come upon them, like you really wish they would die or they would go to hell or, you know, that's what we think of as hate, but that's actually not the definition. That's the way we use it. But that's actually not the definition. Here's what the word hate means, and this might be a little bit surprising to feel intense or passionate dislike towards, to feel strong animosity towards, to loathe, to detest. This is why we can say I hate my car when it's acting up.
[00:17:54] It's not that you wish your car would wreck, necessarily. It's that you have a passionate dislike and detestation for your car. Right. For whatever reason.
[00:18:06] And of course, we say it to people. And when we refer to people, it's a. It's a very strong word. Listen to these verses here, because here's what I'm trying to make you see, is that in the Bible, the word hate is not always used in the way we commonly use it. I wish that person would die and go to hell. That is not what the Bible always uses it. Listen to these verses, and you'll see what I'm saying.
[00:18:28] Proverbs 1324. He that spareth his rod hateth his son.
[00:18:35] You see that?
[00:18:37] Now, does that person who fails to exercise corporal punishment for their child, does that mean that they wish their child would die?
[00:18:46] No.
[00:18:48] Even though the word hate is used. Okay.
[00:18:52] It's not a reference to the absolute kind of hatred. It's a reference to showing a lack of regard, a lack of, like it says here, an intense dislike toward them because of the effect that this will have on them. Proverbs 14, verse 20. The poor is hated even of his own neighbor.
[00:19:16] Does that mean you have a poor man, and his neighbor looks at him and says, man, that guy's poor. I wish you would just die and go to hell? No, it means he's going to avoid. He doesn't like to be around that guy. He avoids him. He don't want to be around him because he don't want that poor guy to beg him for things.
[00:19:33] Proverbs 19 seven. All the brethren of the poor do hate him.
[00:19:38] Either he's got some really wicked brothers and sisters, or they really don't like to be around him. They have intense dislike for him because he's poor.
[00:19:48] Brother Ari knows what I'm talking about, because where brother Ari. I've said this before, but it seems like everybody comes to brother Ari's shop and they want stuff.
[00:19:58] Proverbs 25 seven, withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee and so hate thee.
[00:20:09] So here's what I'm trying to show you.
[00:20:12] That every time the word hate in the Bible is used, it's not necessarily referring to the kind of absolute intense, kind of ultimate, what we might think of as ultimate hatred. Although in scripture that is true, that does exist. And also verses like I just read also exist.
[00:20:32] But what is obvious from psalm five is the Bible does say that God hates the workers of iniquity. Now, I'm not suggesting that God really just, you know, he just kind of. He kind of get on his nerves. No, I'm not saying that at all. No, this is intense hatred. And you'll see what I mean in just a minute.
[00:20:54] So we read the verses, and in verse number five, let me ask you a question. Why does God hate these people?
[00:21:08] Why does God hate these people?
[00:21:12] Because they have the wrong color skin, the wrong nationality?
[00:21:18] What?
[00:21:21] He hates them because they are workers of iniquity. Because of what they do. You see that?
[00:21:28] That's why thou hatest all workers of iniquity. That word all is going to be a little bit troublesome in just a minute. But.
[00:21:35] So the cause of God's hatred is described in this verse. He hates them because they work iniquity. So this is not some arbitrary hatred, but it is a hatred that directly results from their wicked works, which the Lord also hates. So we've looked at different verses because we have to settle in our mind. Listen, it's okay to say that God hates some people.
[00:22:00] That is what the Bible says. Now, that does not. As in our modern day, that does not make us feel quite comfortable, but that is what the scripture says.
[00:22:10] Now, listen, when you come at the Bible, we have to be honest with what it says and not twist it, because it makes us feel a little bit weird or doesn't fit into the box that we prefer. And as I said, it makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable, and it's kind of hard to deal with.
[00:22:29] So even though we acknowledge these verses that I just read about the Lord's hatred for certain people, we also, at the same time, cannot deny that it is a scriptural truth that God also loves every person.
[00:22:48] Right?
[00:22:50] How many of you believe that? God loves every person?
[00:22:54] So God hates all workers of iniquities. Psalm five. Five.
[00:23:01] God loves every person. John 316. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
[00:23:12] It's not possible for God to love the world without loving individuals.
[00:23:18] It's not like God loves the group but doesn't love the individuals. No, he loves the individuals that make up the group that is the world.
[00:23:28] And within that group, that is the world. Are there workers of iniquity?
[00:23:35] Yeah, of course there are. Yes. So here's. And that's romans five eight. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. That's the workers of iniquity, right? Christ died for us. Christ's death is the one great proof of his love, right? That is the one proof of his love. So here you have the Lord saying, I hate all workers of iniquity. And at the same time in the same Bible. And it goes together here. He says he loves all people. How can that be?
[00:24:06] How can that be?
[00:24:09] Before we try to understand it, we have to first acknowledge that these are both scriptural truths.
[00:24:19] Though we cannot fully comprehend this, if we are Bible believing people, we must acknowledge it.
[00:24:28] Is it possible for God to both hate and love a person at the same time?
[00:24:33] Think about that.
[00:24:35] Is it possible for God to both hate someone. Yet not desire their destruction at the same time? The answer to that must be yes, or else we have to twist the Bible in some way.
[00:24:53] And so we think about that. Is it possible for you to love someone and hate someone at the same time? We would likely say, well, no, but the difference is, is that you are a human being. You are not God.
[00:25:07] You think about the Trinity. There are aspects of the Trinity that are hard to understand. Did you know in John chapter three, Jesus said that he was both on earth and in heaven at the same time?
[00:25:23] Like, that doesn't make sense.
[00:25:26] That's not logical. We can't do that. But yet somehow we accept that. We accept the concept of the Trinity. Even though it seems contradictory in a way, this is the same thing.
[00:25:39] So we can't look at ourselves and say, well, I don't understand how someone can hate and love at the same time. Because I can't do it. But God's standards is not our standard. He is nothing. We are made in his image, not he made in our image. So we are not the standard of what is possible and what is not possible. God is not limited to those standards. But this. This truth, in particular, the truth that God hates some people makes us feel uncomfortable.
[00:26:07] How many of you have heard this saying?
[00:26:10] And this is the reason we say this. Because this truth in psalm five five makes us a little uncomfortable. We've come up with nice little sayings to kind of smooth it over. Like God loves the sinner but hates the sin.
[00:26:25] Some of you knew I was going to talk about that, right? God loves the sinner but hates the sin. Do you believe that, Sister McClain? I believe it.
[00:26:33] But verse five doesn't say that, does it? Verse five does not say that.
[00:26:40] I believe that God loves the sinner. And I believe God hates the sin. But that is nothing. Simply what verse five says.
[00:26:53] It makes us feel better to say things like that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. But there's an inconsistency.
[00:27:02] This scripture plainly says that God hates people. Not just sin. And here's the thing. Here's what we want to do. God loves the sinner, hates the sin. I'm not attacking that. That's not a bad thing to say. I mean, there's obviously truth in it.
[00:27:17] But here's the problem with it. When we say God loves the sinner but hates the sin, we have somehow been able to divide the sinner from the sin as if they're independent things, but they're not. And this is the danger.
[00:27:33] Sometimes you could lead people to believe that they are hapless victims of this sin that's kind of floating around, and all of a sudden, it attacks them, and they sin as a victim, but God loves them. But God doesn't love what has attacked them. So in essence, they're a victim to sin. And that is not the way the Lord views it. And this is the lesson from verse number five.
[00:28:00] God does not neatly divide the sin from the one committing it. That would be wrong, because sin is not its own entity.
[00:28:11] It is a willful action taken by an individual. And when we sin, when a person sins, that sin is attached to him and cannot be unattached. Because, listen, sin cannot exist without a sinner, a person who does it, you see, it's attached.
[00:28:33] Any attempt to detach it is to make a sinner the victim rather than the perpetrator.
[00:28:41] It'd be like saying, I love skunks, but hate the smell.
[00:28:46] I love snakes, brother Ari, but hate the venom.
[00:28:50] He doesn't have poisonous snakes.
[00:28:53] You can't say that. Skunks stink.
[00:28:57] Snakes have venom. That's the way poisonous snakes have venom.
[00:29:02] You can't neatly divide it and say, well, I like the skunk. I just don't like the smell. No, that's just part of its nature. If, you know, think about this. What if a person murdered someone we loved?
[00:29:13] We would never say, I hate murder.
[00:29:17] No, we would be thinking of the person who did it, because you can't divide it. You can't divide it up. And of course, this is the way they do with guns, right? So much gun violence in this country. So much gun violence. Gun violence. As if gun violence is a thing going around shooting people. No, no, no. There's dudes, mostly dudes holding guns, shooting people, perpetrator. You see, in our. See, this is. Why is it only in our religious speak do we say, God loves the sinner, hates the sin, as if they're separate in every other thing in life? We don't view it like that.
[00:29:58] Take a peek at revelation, chapter 14, now, we might be tempted to say, well, psalm 55, that's the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? Okay, we'll go into the future here. Revelation 14, verse number nine, says this.
[00:30:32] Now, remember, this is future to us. Hasn't happened yet.
[00:30:36] And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast in his image or receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, I would say that's a worker of iniquity, wouldn't you? Right.
[00:30:48] Verse ten. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
[00:30:59] And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. Ouch.
[00:31:11] Now, I grant that these verses do not say anything about hate.
[00:31:16] I grant that.
[00:31:19] But we can at least acknowledge that what we just read in revelation is consistent with psalm 55. Right?
[00:31:28] Could the Lord resign someone to eternal torment in the lake of fire if the word hate did not apply?
[00:31:39] Right.
[00:31:42] If this is not hate, there's no such thing as hate.
[00:31:46] See, here's the thing.
[00:31:49] Not from the Bible, but from nice, cute christian bookstore things and christian memes and things like that. We've developed this idea with God that somehow when God judges, he judges.
[00:32:04] Just follow me now. He judges, like, reluctantly, like he's brokenhearted.
[00:32:15] The Lord. It is true, Ezekiel tells us plainly, he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But this idea that the Lord is just torn, he's obligated to judge.
[00:32:27] No, actually, the Lord. Actually, you look at revelation 14, 911, there's no indication there that God is reluctant to judge. No. He is angry, righteously angry, and he is. That anger has come because of iniquity, and he is pouring it out on purpose.
[00:32:49] This is psalm five five. Now, I admit, like, you probably think right now, that makes me feel a little bit theologically uncomfortable.
[00:32:59] And I wouldn't go around telling people, God, you know, God hates you. You know, God hates you.
[00:33:07] God hates you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
[00:33:13] But it does say something about the Lord, doesn't, not whether the Lord's hatred or whether his love, because they both apparently exist simultaneously. They're both holy. And whenever God does judge, he judges righteously. In fact, one author said this, what we read in revelation, it is actually the ultimate expression of God's hatred, poured out not on a sin, which is not a thing, but on a person who sinned.
[00:33:47] He's sending them to the lake of fire. I mean, that is the ultimate expression of hatred.
[00:33:54] But it's holy now. Go back to psalm five, if you would.
[00:34:05] I have to show you this.
[00:34:11] Hold your place there. Go to Matthew, chapter. I'm sorry, John, chapter three.
[00:34:22] This was, you know, because I struggled. As I was preparing, I was struggling. How do I explain this? I don't even fully understand it myself. How am I going to explain it to God's people to help them understand this? Because there's two scriptural truths that are apparently, both seem to be contradictory, but they're simultaneously spoken.
[00:34:41] Look at John three, verse number 14.
[00:34:45] And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. That's talking about the cross, right?
[00:34:56] Why was the serpent lifted up on the pole in numbers, chapter 21. Why? Do you know why the snakes were there? Why were the serpents there?
[00:35:10] Israel had sinned.
[00:35:14] And in response to Israel's murmuring against God, what did he do?
[00:35:21] He sent the fiery serpents into the camp to bite the people and kill them.
[00:35:28] I'm thinking psalm five. Five. He wasn't just disappointed. Listen, we have to get a right picture of God from the scripture. No, the Lord wasn't just disappointed.
[00:35:40] That's not what's being described here. The Lord judged them. People died for their sin.
[00:35:49] That's an expression of God's holy hatred on those people. You see, now, that might not make us feel comfortable, exactly, but that's what the scripture says. But here's the. Think about this, though.
[00:36:03] So the Lord is judging them, which is an expression of his hatred toward the workers of iniquity, which is what they're doing, right? So he sends the serpents. People actually died, but in the same story, he told Moses to put the serpent on the pole, and he said, look and live. Right? The same story. Now go back, look at John, chapter three.
[00:36:32] You have in verse 14. Even so, must the son of man be lifted up. So the son of man being lifted up is the greatest expression of love, right? Jesus dying for sinners. That's what that is. That's what that serpent on the pole. Pictures. And so if you look at the Old Testament story in numbers, chapter 21, you see God judging, that is, pouring out hatred upon the workers of iniquity, while at the same time showing an expression of love in the same story. How is that possible?
[00:37:06] He's judging, but also providing salvation at the same time. He's hating and loving simultaneously. In numbers 21, the same God doing both. That's what you see in John, chapter three.
[00:37:26] Now go back to psalm five, I want to say, make a brief comment about the Calvinists. Take some Calvinists teach that God actually does hate those who are not the elect.
[00:37:55] In the doctrine of reprobation, that means that refers to those who he did not choose to save, that God loves the elect and hates those who are not elect.
[00:38:13] And they'll use proof texts like Romans 913, which says, as it is written, jacob have I loved, but esau have I hated. You see, he chose Jacob. He chose to save Jacob. Jacob was the elect, so he loved him. He did not choose Esau. Esau was not the elect, so he hated him. So in essence, it is believed that God only loves the elect. He hates everyone else.
[00:38:41] The problem with that, though, is that in psalm five, if you go down to verse number nine, verse nine is a description of sinful man used by Paul.
[00:38:55] In this psalm, it's used to refer to David's enemies. But in Romans chapter three, Paul uses this thing about the their throat is an open sepulchral to refer to mankind in general.
[00:39:09] It is not just the enemies of David. And let me ask you a question further.
[00:39:15] Have you at some point in your life been a worker of iniquity?
[00:39:21] Yeah, I have.
[00:39:24] I'm not now because I've been washed, sanctified, justified, right. By Christ in his blood. Right. I'm not now. He's changed me. But I was.
[00:39:34] So that means I, at some point in my life, was the object of God's hatred, because it says, thou hatest all.
[00:39:44] And this just blows up our theological boxes. I know, but.
[00:39:52] So there are Calvinists that say that God hates people who are workers of iniquities, referring to people who are not the elect. But remember, in John 316, he loves the world. Well, that's the world of the elect. Give me a break, okay? Give me a break. If you know what I'm saying, then you know what I'm saying. If not, you don't. It's not important.
[00:40:16] The world refers to every person.
[00:40:21] They'll say this. Sometimes God has a general love for all people, including the non elect, but he only savingly loves the elect.
[00:40:33] Savingly loves the. He loves everybody, but he really hates them. He only savingly loves the elect. You just look at John chapter three. God loves all people. He loves the world. And that love, for those of you that are theologians, that world, that he loves all people in John chapter three are the people for whom he died. In John chapter three, it is all the same context. The expression of his love for all men shows that he loves all men savingly.
[00:41:05] Okay, now back in psalm number five. We're almost finished.
[00:41:12] Psalm five.
[00:41:14] I'm going to skip a little bit further down. Verse six also says, the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. Verse seven. But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy. And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. Lead me, o Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before me, before my face.
[00:41:36] In verse four, it says, neither shall evil dwell with the Lord.
[00:41:40] The Lord does not tolerate evil with him.
[00:41:44] But do we allow evil to dwell with us?
[00:41:50] Do we tolerate evil in us and get comfortable with a certain amount of evil in our lives that we let remain unmolested?
[00:42:04] The Lord doesn't.
[00:42:06] Neither shall evil dwell with thee.
[00:42:11] Spurgeon said this. I thought this was a good quote. Christ will not live in the parlor of our hearts if we entertain the devil in the cellar of our thoughts. In other words, if sin is in the house, the Lord ain't there.
[00:42:30] That's what he says.
[00:42:32] Make thy way straight before me. That is God's way. God's way is evil shall not dwell with me. That's God's way.
[00:42:44] It is one thing if evil is present in our lives without our knowledge, and all of us have that to some degree or another.
[00:42:54] But this is talking about knowingly allowing evil to remain in our lives and dwelling with it. Verse nine.
[00:43:04] For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is very wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher. They flatter with their tongue. As I said. This is quoted by Paul in Romans, chapter three to describe all men.
[00:43:19] You know, I've used this illustration of the. Of the open sepulcher, the throat being an open sepulcher with people when I've witnessed to them. Because it's really a very interesting picture. Think about it with me real quick and we'll be finished.
[00:43:32] A sepulcher, a grave, a tomb is often decorated, right? It's often decorated. In fact, in. In Matthew, chapter 23, the Lord talks about how they whited sepulchers. They would paint them white and they would decorate them so people could see them. And so you have this picture of a man who is on the outside, nice and clean and well dressed and perfect and decorated. He looks the part. He's religious, but it's a grave. He opens his mouth, and inside of him is what? Inside of him is dead. It's death. He is a living man who is dead inwardly and as a result of that, death is corruption. And you think about a grave. If there's one thing a grave is not supposed to be, is open.
[00:44:23] And yet this is an open sepulcher. And when a sepulcher is open, the stench comes out of the man. This is the picture we get here. The Lord is describing mankind here.
[00:44:38] Dead on the inside, looks good on the outside. Inwardly, his heart, his soul full of corruption.
[00:44:47] Right?
[00:44:49] But you know what?
[00:44:51] If you're a child of God, that's not you. Do you know why?
[00:44:59] Because you've been raised from the dead.
[00:45:04] There is no corpse in that tomb.
[00:45:07] When you trusted in Jesus and you hath quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, you walked out of that tomb. That tomb is vacant.
[00:45:16] It's not dead. And it certainly should not be corrupt. Amen. Amen. This is walking in newness of life. So this is a description of mankind without the Lord. But for believer, who once was those things, but has now been raised from the dead to walk in newness of life. Romans, chapter six. There is no death. There's life and life. There's no stench. It's fragrant. In the sight of the Lord, you see newness of life.
[00:45:46] The sepulcher is vacated.
[00:45:49] It is now empty.
[00:45:59] I would encourage you to use that. Use that illustration, especially the Lord Jesus used it to refer to the Pharisees who were religious people.
[00:46:08] Use it because it can be very helpful.
[00:46:11] So we did not get to very many verses in this psalm because we got bogged down. And verse number five. But I hope that we are able to see some interesting facts about the Lord and how he views sin and those that commit it, and what a serious matter it is to him. Let's pray.
