Intro:
1. The world’s hope is like the little boys definition of hope, who said, “Hope is wishing for something real hard you know you ain’t gonna get!”
2. This world is totally oblivious to where they are really heading, they remind me of a fat, happy, dumb lamb heading for the slaughter house.
3. This Godless World is headed for the Wrath of God in spite of their optimism.
Trans: Psa. 9
I…FIRST, THE PRAISE. 9:1-2
A. Praise needs to be a Volitional response. “I will…I will…”
We will not always feel like praising God, but we can always praise God by an act of our will.
Praise means “to throw, to cast” so we are to throw praise God’s way.
Praise the Lord:
Praise Him when the sun is shining,
When the winds of trouble blow,
When you see no silver lining,
On the clouds that hang so low.
Praise illumines clouds of sorrow,
Turns the gray skies into gold
Giving promise of a morrow
Bright with blessings manifold.
Praise Him when your load is heavy
And the day no comfort brings,
Then your burden God will carry,
Bear you, as on, eagle’s wings.
God delights to have us praise Him,
And believe His holy Word;
And He know them that trust Him,
And they always praise the Lord.
B. Praise needs to be Total.
Whole heart – “without reservation, wholeheartedly.” Deut. 6:5/ Mt. 22:37
Barnes, “Not with divided affection, or with partial gratitude. He meant that all his powers should be employed in this service.”
C. Praise needs to be Vocal.
I will tell of all Your marvelous works – we should be vocal in our praising God (Psa. 26:7; 66:1; 63:3; 145:21).
D. Praise needs to be Emotional.
glad and rejoice – this comes only as we make a choice to rejoice! Feeling get on board sooner or later, they are a great caboose but a poor head engine.
E. Praise needs to be Musical.
Will sing praises – one great blessing is to secure a song book and use it.
“It is striking that in each part the psalmist combines singing and preaching. And it is interesting to remember that great periods of church history have always been marked by both. At the time of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther’s hymns were on the lips of the German people as much as his words were in their hearts. At the time of the Wesleyan Revival in Great Britain, the recovery of the gospel was accompanied by an equally stirring recovery of gospel singing, as the hymns of John and Charles Wesley, Augustus Toplady, William Cowper, John Newton, and others show.
Charles Spurgeon wrote, “So sing on brethren, and preach on, and these shall both be a token that the Lord still dwells in Zion.”
Trans: Praise needs to be volitional, total, vocal, emotional, and musical. But the key is volitional.
Reminds me of one dear aged lady who always sat on the front row and yelled out Praise the Lord! The preacher didn’t like it because it disrupted his sermon.
He took her aside and said, “I’ll give you an electric blanket if you just refrain from shouting “Praise the Lord” during my preaching. She was very poor and sorely need the blanket so she reluctantly agreed.
A few Sundays went by and she kept silent. But then one Sunday the preacher started preaching about God’s slender and glory and majesty…she couldn’t take it any more. She stood up, raised her hands, and shouted out “Blankets or no blankets – Praise the Lord!”
II. FURTHERMORE, THE PROMISE. 9:3-12
A. Promise that He will Judge. 3-8
1. Judgment will be Personal. 3-4
Notice the “my…my…my.” David expected God to take up his case personally.
2. Judgment will also be Eternal. 5-7
Stanley, “God never had a beginning, and He will never have an end. That makes Him the perfect Judge, for He knows all the causes leading up to an event and all the consequences that result from it.
3. Judgment will be Universal. 8
world – big shots little shots and those that ought to be shout as Bill Stafford would say.
Trans: People today view God as a feeble old grandfather. It reminds me of three tough looking hoods that pull into a highway café. They came up to a little guy who was quietly eating his lunch. They messed up his hair, grabbed his food, and laughed as they kicked his chair from under him. The little man said nothing. He just picked himself off the floor, paid for the meal and left.
One of the thugs said, “Boy, he sure wasn’t much of man, was he?” The waitress looking out the window said, “I guess not” and then added, “He’s not much of a truck driver either, he just ran over three motorcycles in the parking lot!”
God seem like that man, the world is scorning and laughing at Him, taking His precious Son’s name in vain – and He seems to be doing nothing. Stay tuned my friend it not over yet!
But seriously Judgment is coming and ultimately we are talking about a place called Hell! (9:17-18). I know your probably thinking “Whatever happened to Hell?” It seems to have dropped from our language, except as a cuss word. We should preach the whole counsel of God which includes the truth about Hell, but not with a heart that acts as if we’re glad that people are going there!
McGee, “The question arises, Is there enough preaching today about judgment? I would say that there is enough preaching of a certain kind of judgment, but there are very few sermons on the subject of hell. Lately I have had the opportunity to hear more sermons than I have heard for years, and I notice two things about them. Most sermons are designed to comfort God's people. In fact, many sermons are geared for those who seem to have some sort of a complex or are just looking for a shoulder to cry on. However, a sermon I heard the other day was on the subject of hell; but the bitterness of the preacher came through. I feel that before a man preaches on hell he ought to search his own heart to make sure that the subject affects him -- that his heart is broken because men are lost. An unbeliever made the following statement about Dwight L. Moody when he was told that Moody preached a sermon on hell: "I don't like to hear sermons on hell, but if there is any man who can preach on that subject, it is Dwight L. Moody." May I say to you, not only should there be sermons on hell, but the right kind of men should preach them. I suppose one of the reasons I don't preach more sermons on hell is because I think I should be deeply moved in my heart when I do talk about this subject.”
B. Promise that He will give Refuge. 9-12
1. The Need for Refuge. 9
“Refuge speaks of a secure height, something inaccessibly high. David was often outdoors, and he used images from physical geography to describe the wonder of God’s protective care (91:1-2).”
2. The Nature of the Refugees. 10
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You – Tozer, “The word “name” means character, plus reputation. We wonder why we don’t have faith; the answer is, faith is confidence in the character of God and if we don’t know what kind of God God is, we can’t have faith.
We read books about George Mueller and others and try to have faith. But we forget that faith is confidence in Gods character. And because we are not aware of what kind of God God is, or what God is like, we cannot have faith. And so we struggle and wait and hope against hope.
But faith doesn’t come, because we do not know the character of God. “They that know what Thou art like will put their trust in Thee.” It’s automatic – it comes when we know what kind of God, God is.”
3. The Natural results. 11-12
He avenges blood – God is the Avenger, not any person (Dt. 32:35).
Trans: Perhaps prophetically he has in mind the Great Tribulation Period when God will supernaturally give refuge to His own (Rev. 12:13-14).
Philips, “The world has seen the dress rehearsal for this coming onslaught already – the knock on the door at dead of night; the dreaded secret police; the swift ride through the darkened streets to the siding where the boxcars wait; the dreadful ordeal of days and nights without food, drink, or sanitation; with men and women and children herded like cattle in the dark; and with little babies flung on top of the struggling heap of humanity like so many sacks of flour; the barbed wire; the gas ovens; and the firing squads.
It has been rehearsed already in preparation for the full stage production of terror. No wonder God Himself intervenes to provide a place of hiding for those who exercise saving faith in His Word and flee.”
III. THIRD, THE PROFANE NATIONS. 13-20
A. They cause Trouble. 13-14
See Jn. 15:18-21
B. They set Traps. 15-16
But remember Gal. 6:7
C. They refuse to Trust. 17
D. They forget the Troubled. 18
But God will eventually help those in need.
E. They seek to Triumph. 19-20
But they will fail and prove to be mere fallen men! Isa. 14:12-16
Trans: Essence of their sin is that they “forgot God” (v. 17).
Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia. “Men had forgotten God.” That’s why, all this, has happened. Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by the upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: “Men have forgotten God: that’s why all this had happened.”
This past election has seen the judgment of God – He is giving this nation what it wants! A Nation that persists in forgetting God, it is just that simple.
Con:
1. The Praise, Promise, and Profane.
2. The godless world is headed for the wrath of God and the sad thing is they are totally oblivious to it.
3. Archimedes, one of the great ancient Greek mathematicians and scientist, was working on a math problem when his city was conquered by the Roman General Marcellus in 212 BC.
This man totally ignored the attack on the city [Syracuse] and just continued working on his math problem. He continued working on that problem as one of the soldiers ran a sword through him!
This nation is busily working on what they consider to be their real problem – the economy, rid itself of all social restraints – hear me!!! The real problem is we have forgotten God.
Johnny A Palmer Jr
