day no. 17,295: revelation vs. speculations

“And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators.” ― G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The imaginations of men are stranger than the visions of God.

"Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural”  ― G.K. Chesterton

When men forsake the Spirit of God, they are left to their own devices even when they retain the sacred scriptures. So, a man attempting to make sense of a vision from God without the help of the Spirit of God will end up with utter nonsense.

The revelations of God are strange, but assuring.

The speculations of men are stranger and disturbing.

day no. 17,294: good stories and bad lies

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” — G. K. Chesterton

A good story gives us insight into the nature of heroism, a bad story gives us insight into the nature of despotism. There are few things more glorious than a good virtue admired well and there are few things more ugly than a bad vice poorly concealed.

2 Corinthians 13:8

For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

Those who seek to laud the truth weave brilliant yarns, while those who try to justify a lie tell lame tales.

Philippians 2:4

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

Good author tell good stories about others, bad authors tell bad stories about themselves. Instead of telling a story, the bad author tells on himself.

day no. 17,293: national poisons and local antidotes

“The national antidote generally grows wild in the woods side by side with the national poison." — G.K. Chesterton, What I Saw in America

God often provides the cure to be in the same proximity as the poison. Where racial vainglory and bigotry are poisoning the well, honor and humility grow nearby. Honoring your father and mother does not require you to dishonor someone else's father or mother. God has made a way for everyone to obey without anyone having to hate their neighbor. You can be proud of your people without disparaging other people. There are ample reasons to be embarrassed by our parents and to be proud of them. If you point out only the embarrassments of other people's parents while pointing out only the achievements of our own, we sin against our neighbor. We must remember our people's faults and the achievements of other people's parents. I say this merely because the temptation is to overlook your culture's faults and fixate on the faults of others. The opportunity for humility is near by the one to honor. Anyone can honor God by honoring their parents while not repeating their sins. 

day no. 17,292: free speech, eh? says who?

"The First Amendment does not grant us the right to free speech. As the Declaration phrases it, we are endowed by our Creator with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That word happiness in an earlier draft was property. The right to free speech is a right that is subsumed under the right of liberty—to travel about as I please, talking about whatever I want to as I go. This is bestowed on us by our Creator, and the government has the obligation to guard and protect that right. If they were the ones who bestowed that right, then it is no longer a right, but rather a privilege. Whatsoever the government giveth, the government taketh away, and blessed be the name of the government." — Douglas Wilson, Not Civil Rights at All

We have the right to free speech. Says who? God. If the answer to that question is anything or anyone other than "God," we do not possess are right, but merely are taking advantage of a privilege, a privilege that can be revoked. If we have free speech because congress says so, then we are only free to speak as long as they continue to say so. But if they exercise their freedom of speech to say that we no longer can say certain things, then our freedom to speak can be taken away. 

Either rights come from God or they don't. If they do not, then our "rights" are whatever the State says they are. They retain the freedom to speak about whatever they want when they want including the right to say that our speech is not being policed o punishable by imprisonment. Hate speech may be a sin depending on what was said and whose standard of hate is being used, but it should never be a crime. It may be a sin to be stupid or spiteful, but it should not be illegal to say something stupid.

day no. 17,291: using the word "rights" wrong

"The problem was not that the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave blacks certain rights, but rather that it gave them the wrong kind. It created the entire apparatus that misconstrues and misapplies the logic of rights. If civil rights for a black man meant that he was going to be protected from threats of bodily harm by Bubba if he tried to vote in rural Mississippi, then rights here means what it ought to mean. And that man should have his rights protected. But if civil rights for a black man meant that he was going to be promoted well past his abilities in order to make up for an injustice perpetrated against someone of the same color 150 years ago, then the word rights has been perverted, and twisted beyond all recognition." — Douglas Wilson, Not Civil Rights at All

Rights come from God. They are not created on the spot or in the moment. They are not generated in response to an injustice. They are not created in order to correct a problem. Rights are not disposable. They cannot be invented when you need them and done away with when they get in the way. They are either from God and for every image bearer or they are from man and for whoever those in charge determine eligible. But rights in the latter sense are not rights at all. They are privileges or prejudices. Rights, strictly speaking, are from God alone or they are not rights. 

The government cannot make new rights the way they make new dollar bills. They cannot produce rights. Our capitols are not rights factories. Neither are they rights incinerators. The state cannot create a right and they cannot destroy them. They can enforce them or they can ignore them. A good state enforces and protects the rights God has already provided. A bad state ignores those rights or even worse seeks to keep people from expressing them.

day no. 17,290: when surrounded by evil, remember, it's a target rich environment

"We’ve been looking for the enemy for some time now. We’ve finally found him. We’re surrounded. That simplifies things.” — Chesty Puller

The one benefit to being surrounded is that you don't have to waste time or resources finding the enemy. They have already done all that work for you. That frees you up to focus on firing away. Especially in the event of being surrounded, the decision of where to shoot it solved. Shoot anywhere and you are aiming at the enemy. Even a bad shot can hit the broad side of a barn and someone with bad aim can hit the enemy if the enemy is everywhere.

"All right, they’re on our left, they’re on our right, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us . . . they can’t get away this time.” — Chesty Puller

The enemy cannot escape your bullets when they positions themselves in every direction. Sure, you're surrounded, but at least its a target rich environment.

"The greater the diameter of light, the greater the circumference of darkness. Expanding this, if you are in a dark place, the more effective your light is, the greater the diameter of your light, the longer the boundary line between light and darkness grows. This means there is no way, in this fallen world, to solve problems without increasing them. Be encouraged therefore. This is not a sign that something has gone desperately, terribly wrong. No, it is sign of something else, much more exhilarating." — Douglas Wilson, The Circumference of Darkness

As the kingdom of Christ advances, the number of contact points with the darkness will increase. Do not lose heart. It only seems like the darkness is growing. But it is retreating to the corners and someday the light will fill the entire room.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven

So, don't stop shining as brightly as you can where you are. Do not be afraid of the dying night. It seems like sunset, but it is twilight. 

"Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning.” — Hilaire Belloc

Do not forget how to tell time. Do not set your watch to world standard time, set it to Christ and the year of our Lord.

"So the brighter that light shines, the more opportunities the darkness has to say and do something about it. So as I said before, be encouraged therefore." — Douglas Wilson, The Circumference of Darkness

An increase in interaction is not a sign of their growing forces, but a sign of their imminent dissolution.

John 1:4-5 (ESV)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The darkness has not, will not, and never will overcome the light and life of God revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord, by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Amen.

day no. 17,289: clearly standing for the truth (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 144: Clearly

February 22, 2026

Clearly Standing for the Truth

THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Colossians 4:3-4, these are the words of God,

“Pray for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ — that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our walk through Q144 of the WLC which asks, “What are the duties required in the ninth commandment?” The answer provided by the Westminster divines includes the duty “to appear and stand for the truth from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully.” The portion of this duty we will be focusing on this morning is, “clearly,” as in clearly standing for the truth.

As we saw in our text, we ought to speak clearly, especially when discussing the things of God. We owe this to others. As we’ve discussed before, this is what the word “ought” means. When you ought to do something for someone, it is because you owe it to them. So, if you are intentionally vague about what you clearly believe, you are not only robbing your neighbor, you are bearing false witness against yourself. But being clear in your communication is, ironically, not easier said than done. Paul, Himself, listed it as a prayer request in our text. He prayed for an open door for the Word and a careful tongue when speaking. He recognized his duty to speak the truth clearly and knew that he needed God’s help to do it.

The duty to be clear is generally understood by most and we testify to that fact in the way that we converse. For example, it is not uncommon, in the course of a conversation, to hear someone say something like, “Now, just to be clear,” or “Let me clarify.” We sometimes even go as far to say, “Not gonna lie.” Why do we feel the need to do that? Are we implying that everything else we said might be a lie? I shouldn’t need to reassure you that what I’m about to say isn’t a lie. But because we recognize our obligation to be clear in our communication, we feel the need to clarify what we mean, especially if we’re worried it might sound a bit mean.

Consider 1 Corinthians 14:7-9, “If lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said?” While the context of these verses is more about language in general than words in particular, the principle still applies. If you know what you would like to say if you had the courage, but instead you say something vague with a bit more wiggle room in it because you lose your nerve, then you are like a broken bugle. You are not making a distinct sound; you are just making noise. But there is a reason for that, right? A distinct bugle sound is a call to what? To battle. It alerts everyone to the urgency of the situation. But if you’d rather not get into a fight right now or if you’re scared of what the outcome would be if you did get into one, you might be tempted to make an indistinct sound in order to avoid an argument. So, you say something, but not what you mean, because you know that if you did, the bugle would blast and a battle would break out. So, you use unclear words as a kind of camouflage to avoid an uncomfortable confrontation. You’re still at war with your neighbor, they just don’t know it. Remember, deceit, subterfuge, misinformation, misdirection, and bald-faced lies are all acts of war. 

That being the case, you should be clear about what team you are on and you should want others to know too. Spiritual androgyny is bearing false witness. We have seen the physical manifestation of this kind of thing all around us with increasing frequency it seems. It is not unusual to see someone at the store or on your screen that makes you wonder, “Is that a boy or a girl? What am I looking at here” Some of our kids have even wondered aloud and made it more awkward for everyone. But remember, they aren’t the ones who need to be shushed. They are not the ones who made it weird. The dude in the dress did.

Androgyny and transgenderism are only possible in a society that tolerates bearing false witness. But we, not content merely to tolerate it, have actually taken it a step further, and celebrated it. We have invited it into our public libraries and thrown parades for it in our streets. The Scriptures clearly teach that men should dress and act in a way that clearly communicates that fact and that women should do likewise. (see 1 Cor 11:1-16). No one should have to guess. No one should have to wonder what you are. So, if your name is Pat, make sure we know if it’s short for Patrick or Patricia without having to ask.

Now, bring that idea back into the spiritual realm. No one should have to wonder if you are a Christian or not. No one should have to attend your funeral wondering what you believed. Your friends and family should not be forced to guess if you are in Heaven. They shouldn’t be reduced to hoping for some secret conversion that only the Lord saw. You owe your loved ones clear evidence of your common faith. Children, you owe your parents assurance. They should not have to lose sleep worrying about the sincerity of your belief. You should go to great lengths to make your calling and election sure. (2 Peter 1:10). Both for your own sake and for the sake of those who love you. If you are married, you owe your spouse clear evidence of an ongoing faith in the Lord. They should not have to bank on what you used to do. They should not have to wonder where you’re at right now.

  

Lastly, know that clarity is kindness. Saying what you mean and meaning what you say is a simple way to love your neighbor. Sometimes, however, it’s easier to settle for being nice. Kindness is a command, niceness is not. Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind to one another.” Understand the difference. Nice is vague, but it feels good. Kindness is clear, but it hurts sometimes. Kindness forgives sins, but not without naming them first. Nice says there’s nothing to forgive, which sounds nice, but it’s not true. 

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we often choose nice over kind and vague admissions over clear confessions, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be these or others. So, if you are able, please kneel with me and confess your sins, first privately and then corporately using the prayer found in your bulletin.

CORPORATE CONFESSION

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Cleanse me, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Arise and hear the Good News! 

The assurance of pardon today comes from Philippians 3:8-10 “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know Him and the power of his resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in his death.

Our Father in Heaven has not been vague or unclear: there is only one way, one truth, and one life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. He is the one and only Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He is our King and He is kind. You have confessed your sins and placed them on Him, and so the Father has placed His righteousness on you. Therefore, it is my privilege to declare to you that by the grace of God and through your faith in Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven… THANKS BE TO GOD!

Now let us ascend to the presence of God in all worship and praise.

day no. 17,288: the head does not protect the helmet

"The apostle Paul teaches us that if we present our requests to God with thanksgiving, then the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. Notice that His peace protects us. Whenever we become sinfully anxious, we are somehow assuming that our hearts and minds are supposed to protect the peace of God. We think of the peace of God as this little guttering candle, and we have to guard it against all the drafts as we shield it with the firm resolve of our hearts and minds. But this is precisely backwards. It is not just a mistake, it is a drastic one. It like trying to protect your helmet with your head." — Douglas Wilson, Remarks at the Pentagon Prayer Meeting

The peace of God protects us. It is not a fragile thing precariously perched on the pedestal of our feelings. It is a hardy thing firmly fixed on the foundation of God's promises. The helmet protects the head. The head cannot protect the helmet. If it could, it would not need a helmet. 

"What was David’s breastplate? What was his helmet? 'I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts' (1 Sam. 17:45). He stood firm in the name of Jehovah. He conquered the giant Goliath in the name of someone else. If you bear the name of Jesus Christ, there is no armor greater than that. Not only so, but all the devil’s R&D teams have not come up with armor-piercing anything." 

— Douglas Wilson, Remarks at the Pentagon Prayer Meeting

The armor of God protects us. The devil does not have anything that can punch through it. If you are suited up, you are set. Hell can fire away, but you will walk away.

day no. 17,287: sit still and know

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” —  Blaise Pascal

Because men will not be left alone to their thoughts, they force other men to listen. 

Because men cannot talk back to the voice in the head, they find others who will hear them.

Revelation 8:1

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

In Heaven there are those who can sit quietly and contentedly knowing their God and being known by Him. They can do this in Heaven because they made a habit of doing it on earth. They were able to sit still and know that the Lord is God.

Psalm 46:10

Be still, and know that I am God

All the problems in the world are caused by people who cannot be still knowing Who is in control. So, they fuss and fidget and mess with things not realizing that they are messing them up. They cannot sit still, because real thoughts may creep in and convict. They cannot be busy with good works, so they are busybodies going about talking about others who are working.

day no. 17,286: these boots were made for walkin'

“If we have put on the whole armor of God, our feet are shod with the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:14). What do feet shod with peace do? They crush accusations, that’s what they do. They crush devils; they walk on snakes.” ― Douglas Wilson, All the Condemnation

The God of peace crushes rebellion. Peaceful feet are not those dangling in a slow-moving stream of clear water. No, peaceful feet are covered in the blood of serpents. These boots were made for walkin', and that's just what they'll do. And one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

Romans 16:20 

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Wage peace.

day no. 17,285: leviathan and the land of the free

“The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.” ― Robert E. Lee

The United States of America were a group of states bound together by covenant. They created a federal government to facilitate their arrangement. They conceded particular powers to this federal government in order to form a union. 

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” — The Tenth Amendment to United States Constitution 

The War of Northern Aggression was fought over that arrangement. Along with the victor of the North was created a new government. After that, it was no longer a group of independent governments, or states, willfully joined by a shared federal government. It was now one federal government.

“Basil Gildersleeve pointed out, the Civil War was fought over a point of grammar. Shall we say ‘the United States is’ or ‘the United States are’? That is a point worth revisiting.” — Douglas Wilson

As General Lee pointed out, the dissolution of the "the United States are" led to an aggressive disposition towards other nations and a despotic disposition towards its own citizens. In short, the only hope for America was the South. Since the North won, America, as we knew it, is no more. Leviathan consumed the land of the free.

day no. 17,284: the outside of the cup isn't irrelevant

"True worship is what occurs when we come to worship God, with all the externals established in true obedience, and all the internals lined up to match. Clean the inside of the cup, the Lord said, but He did not say that the outside was irrelevant. He said that then the outside would be clean also." — Douglas Wilson, No Jesus, No Way (Amos 5:1-17)

Because we tend to put more emphasis on what others can see than on what only God can see, we focus more on the outside of the cup than on the inside. We can get people off our backs if we keep the outside of our cups clean. And so, this is why Jesus placed an emphasis on the inside of the cup.

Matthew 23:25-26

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

The Pharisees were notorious for being overly scrupulous when it came to the outside of their cups and under interested when it came to the inside. So, man-pleasers should take note: it isn't merely what you look like, but what you are that counts. 

That said, Jesus did not dismiss the outside of the cup. Too many in their zeal to apply this passage make it say more than it does. Jesus did not make the outside of the cup irrelevant. The inside and the outside of the cup are not pitted against each other. They should both be cleaned. You should live your life in such a way that men who see you praise your God and God who sees your inner man delights in why you are doing what you are doing.

day no. 17,283: the goodness of God does not grow mold

“The square on the hypotenuse has not gone moldy by continuing to equal the sum of the squares on the other two sides.” — C.S. Lewis

The rule of rust and decay does not apply to inexorable truths. They do not get stale. They do not turn green when left in the back of the fridge. They are fresh every morning, just like God's mercies. They are lively and spry and ready for the day. The goodness of God does not grow mold.

"Think what a totally different morality would mean. Think of a country where people were admired for running away in battle, or where a man felt proud of double-crossing all the people who had been kindest to him. You might just as well try to imagine a country where two and two made five." — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Imagine a world where eternal truths were subject to entropy. In other words, imagine if there were no eternal truths. John Lennon once dared us to dream as much.

"Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us, only sky"

— "Imagine"

People who are bad at math find it easy to imagine a world where two and two can be whatever you want it to be. People who are bad in general find it easy to imagine a world where right and wrong are whatever you want them to be. But that is not the world we live in. You can reject reality, but you cannot make it go away.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." — Philip K. Dick

Eternal truth isn't going anywhere. It would be there whether we were ever born or not. Its existence is indifferent to ours. We can leave the Law of God in the basement, but it doesn't decay down there. It doesn't rust or mold or atrophy. It does no harm to the truth if and when we abandon it, but it does harm us.

“Every high civilization decays by forgetting obvious things.” — G.K. Chesterton

We decay when we forget the eternal things. They do not fade, we do. We rust and mold and go bad at the back of the fridge when we abandon the unending freshness of God's infinite truths. We are corrupted when we trust in our own conceits.

Isaiah 5:20-21

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; 

that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; 

that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, 

and prudent in their own sight!

Woes are pronounced upon those too easily impressed by their own imaginations. Those who flip the scripts by flipping off their Father in Heaven are not budding with fresh insights. They are falling for the oldest trick in the book.

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy." — George Orwell, 1984

The devil's first gambit was trying to convince Eve that the world was not as God said it was. You could eat forbidden food without being eaten alive. You can deny the law of God without being denied access to the life of God. These were the lies he told and this was the philosophy Eve was deceived into believing.

"For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?” — George Orwell, 1984

These are the kind of subtle questions serpents not only entertain, but are foolish enough to adopt. Honest questions can be answered, but questions that do not allow for certain answers, or questions that have the answer already embedded in the question, are not helpful when it comes to contemplating the never ending wisdom of God.

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” — George Orwell, 1984

The truth shall set you free. Two and two make four. Always have. Always will. There is freedom in believing that and even more in being able to say that out loud for some are so willfully ignorant as to pass legislation to make it a crime to point out what is obvious to everyone.

"Fires will be kindled to testify that two and two make four. Swords will be drawn to prove that leaves are green in summer." — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Reality is the final battleground. What is a man? What is a woman? What is right? What is wrong? And by what standard? These are the things over which wars are fought. This is the natural outcome of the enmity God Himself inserted into our story back in Genesis 3:15 by pitting the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman. You can try to deny the antithesis, but that just makes you a son of a serpent. Denying reality is a strategy only employed by the devils. 

"You may, if you like, free a tiger from his bars; but do not free him from his stripes. Do not free a camel from the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel. Do not go about as a demagogue, encouraging triangles to break out of the prison of their three sides. If a triangle breaks out of its three sides, its life comes to a lamentable end." — G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Those who seek to redefine reality break the things they wish to free. They break these boys and girls by setting them free from their God-given sexes. They break these babies by setting them free from their less-than-ideal futures by slaughtering them in the womb. They break the bank by setting it free from any kind of standard to back it. They break the backs of the oppressed by setting them free from the responsibility and dignity of standing up straight.

All of this to say, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God will stand forever. The true bread from Heaven never molds and living water never gets stale.

day no. 17,282: hear my cry, my God and King (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Psalm 5

February 15, 2026

…

OT READING: Esther 4:10-5:3

NT READING: Hebrews 4:14-16

Hear My Cry, My God and King

READING OF THE TEXT

Our text this morning is Psalm 5, these are the words of God:

To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever.

PRAYER

Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit. Help us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray for as we ought. But You intercede on our behalf with groanings too deep for words. Search our hearts and intercede for us according to Your will. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Good morning! We are continuing our study of the first decade of Psalms today by turning our attention to the fifth Psalm. One thing we all must learn how to do is to talk to ourselves. Especially when we are tempted to listen to ourselves. The psalms provide us with many great examples of what this looks like. Many of the psalms can serve as spiritual how-to videos. As many of us who frequent YouTube for projects know, It is sometimes helpful to watch someone else do it before you try it yourself. Reading the psalms is like watching someone else do soul work. So, take notes because you are going to have to try this at home. Listening to yourself comes naturally, but talking to yourself takes work. So, are you able to reason with yourself? When you feel something strongly, are you able to cast your vote against it? Or are you ruled by a tiny, internal tyrant with a bad case of the feels?

Talking to yourself is essential if you are going to live the Christian life. Consider Galatians 5:17, “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” So, at any given moment, you can have two opposing voices in your head and you need to be able to reason with them to figure out which one is telling the truth and which one is lying to you. Each of them is trying to prevent you from doing the other. So, like Solomon, you’re going to have to be clever. The Spirit wants to spare you, but sin wants to cut you in half.

So, we must learn how to talk to ourselves. Despite decades of Disney’s best efforts to convince us otherwise, we must NOT follow our hearts. Our stories do not end with everyone finally seeing that we were right all along and apologizing to us for not believing us sooner. That is how God’s story ends, not ours. Don’t take the bait; and if you’re tempted to, tell yourself to pound sand. 

With all that being said, let’s walk through Psalm 5 beginning with verse 1.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When we pray, we make ourselves vulnerable. There are billions of people asking God for things at any given moment. What if He doesn’t hear me? And so, David asks God to lend him His ear. :1 “Give ear to my words, O Lord;” In other words, bend your ear to my request. Like a little child in a large family, David looks up and hopes that his Father will notice him and hear him and take a knee in order to better hear his request. He knows that his voice cannot carry all the way up to His Father’s ears, but he also knows that His Father can bend His ear down to hear his requests. Just because we cannot reach Him does not mean that He cannot reach us. And so, David does the spiritual equivalent of tugging on his Father’s pant leg in order to gain His attention. He needs the kind of help only his dad can give.

:1 continues, “Consider my groaning.” There are some aches and pains that are too deep for words. There are thoughts that are too heavy to lift up to God. So, David asks God to dig deep to listen to his groans. He asks the Lord to consider the things that cannot be put into words. Those groans only ever surface in the form of tears. When they cannot find a way out of our mouths, they find a way through our eyes. They overflow because we are too small to contain them. They are too big for us.

:2 “Give attention to the sound of my cry,” Many of us, if we feel a cry coming on, try to prevent it. We don’t want an audience. We might cry when we’re alone, but we try to avoid it in public if possible. But when we get to a place where we let ourselves go, we also don’t want to feel alone. And so, David begs God to hear the sound of his weeping. He is out of words. His prayers have been reduced to sounds. But weeping is a language of its own, and praise be to God, He speaks weeping. He does not need an interpreter. He understands.

God is capable of hearing us and He has the capacity to understand us. Some people can hear us, but they don’t get it. Others think they get it, but don’t care enough to hear any more of it. But God is competent and He is compassionate. 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” He has the ability to hear our concerns, He cares about them, and He has the ability to do something about them. If He did not care about us, it would not matter that He was all powerful. Sure, He could move that mountain, by why would He? What are you to Him? If He could hear us, but He could not do anything about it, it would not matter that He cared. He would be just another friend weeping with us wishing He could do something about it. So, we pray to Him because He can hear us, because He wants to hear from us, because He can do something about it, and because He wants to help us. As an aside, this is the way everyone actually prays. No one prays like God can’t hear or doesn’t care. No one prays like an Arminian. We don’t pray, “Lord, I know that we both want me to be more like Christ, but I also know that neither of us can do anything about it. Amen.” No, we pray like God can change hearts, minds, and behaviors. Everyone prays like a Calvinist. 

And that is why in :2 David addresses his prayer to, “my King and my God.” Christ is King and He is kind. (repeat) That is why we pray in His Name. Note the singular, first-person possessive pronoun “my.” David does not just acknowledge that the Lord is the King or the God, he says that God is his King and his God. The demons know that Christ is the King, and yet He is not their king. They know that Christ is the Lord, and yet He is not their God. They do not submit to Him and they do not worship Him. So, do not make the mistake of counting yourself blessed because you have something in common with demons. As the prophet Elijah once said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” (1 K 18:21) Own your faith. When you say, “Christ is King,” follow it up with a life that says, “Christ is MY King.” Do not pray to Him like you’re on the phone with customer service. God is not a hard-to-reach CEO of a company and you are not just another customer. He is our God and we are His people. So, call upon Him.

:3 “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;” Do not let prayer be the last thing you do. Too many wait to pray until right before bed. It is literally the last thing they want to do, so they do it last. They put it off as long as they can and then they throw a few words at the ceiling before falling to sleep. Instead of being the first thing we do, prayer is often one of the last things we do. We will worry about something, text a friend about it, post it online, ask a group chat for advice, watch a YouTube tutorial, read a book, or listen to a podcast, but we will not pray about it. We treat going to God like a Hail Mary at the end of a game. It’s not the play we wanted to run, and it hardly ever works, but it’s worth a shot because it’s the only play we have left. Let us, in this regard, be more like David who was determined to bring his praises and his prayers to God first thing in the morning.

:3 goes on to say “in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” Because of Christ, we no longer have to sacrifice the blood of animals, but through Christ, we must give the praise of gratitude. Consider Hebrews 13:15 “Through Christ let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Our prayers are part of that sacrifice. Because it is a sacrifice, it will cost you something. It also must be carefully picked out and prepared. God has never been a fan of lame sacrifices. That said, it is not all cost, there is a benefit. But sometimes those take a while to show up. And that is why David watches. The sacrifice of prayer is similar. It ought to include an element of expectation. It is not a question of if God will hear us, but of what He will say or do after He does. David is committed both to the work of preparing the sacrifice and to the waiting for the reply, which is its own kind of work. 

As we already mentioned, some do not take the time to pray, but others do not take the time to watch after they have. For that reason, some prayers are answered without anyone ever noticing. They took the time to ask, but they didn’t take the time to listen. If you ask the question, wait for the answer. If you respect someone enough to ask them, respect them enough to wait for their response before you walk away. Some of us are so busy, we ask others for a bit of their time and then walk away once we get as much of their answer as we wanted. If we are going to take the time to ask, we must budget for the time it takes to listen.

In :4 we begin to see some of the particular reasons for this prayer of David. Up until now we have been talking about prayer in general, but most sincere prayers, including Psalm 5, are not usually general and vague, but specific. In most cases, there is a particular situation or need that prompted the prayer. So, :4 “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.” Like many of us, David was tired of all the evil he was seeing, and he knows that God agrees. He is not at cross purposes with his Lord. He is praying with the grain, not against it. He is not just praying against his private, personal enemies, he is praying against the enemies of God’s. His confidence comes from knowing that those who oppose him also oppose God. And that is why the psalter has some heaters in it. We sing a few of those here and they always go hard. So, if you’re asking God to settle your private beefs, maybe back off a bit; but if you’re calling on Him to defend His cause and His people against His enemies, then go hard. But still, be careful. There is a fine line between boldness and boasting.

:5 “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.” All of those who strut around are in danger of being knocked down. Our boasting is an abomination. So, what should we do? Listen to Galatians 6:14, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Paul does not want to be guilty of boasting. So, what does he do? He boasts in the cross of Christ. Boasting is inescapable. You cannot avoid the sin of being conceited by not boasting at all, you can only avoid it by boasting about Christ. You will boast about something. If you are not making much of God, you will make much of yourself. And that is just embarrassing. The kings of old may have kept fools in their courts, but the King of Heaven does not. He does not find foolishness entertaining.

:6 “You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” The Lord is at war with lies. The Word became flesh in order to destroy the works of the devil. And most of those are built on deceit. Lying is the native language of Hell. Listen to the words of Jesus from John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Everyone takes after their dad and telling lies is the ultimate 23 & Me. If you are a liar, there is no need to take a paternity test. It is obvious who your daddy is. You even have the same accent. And the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful men. That word, “abhor” is a strong word. It is like the word “hate” only hotter. This sheds some light on what David said earlier in :4 when he said, “God does not delight in wickedness.” That was a deliberate understatement like saying, “God was not a little peeved.” That is just another way of saying, “he was VERY peeved.” So, not only does God have no positive feelings towards wickedness, He has very strong, very negative feelings against it. He abhors it. 

But that leaves us in a rather precarious position, does it not? God hates evildoers. Ok, but how much evil do you have to do to be an evildoer? How much evil would any evildoer do if an evildoer did much doing? So, children, what do you call someone who murders someone? A murderer. Even if it’s just the once. What do you call someone who steals something? A thief. Even if it was just something small. So, what do you call someone who has done something evil? An evildoer. Even if it was just the once and even if it wasn’t super evil. So, have you ever done something evil? Remember, God hates liars. Uh oh! If that is the case, we are in trouble, right? So, what do we do? Listen to 1 John 1:8-10, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confess your sins and believe that He forgives sinners. That is the only solution. As Jesus Himself taught us in Luke 6:35, “God is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” So, be grateful for that and be forgiven.

:7 “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you.” How does David, a sinner, expect to enter the presence of God? Not by might nor by merit, but by the abundance of God’s steadfast love. Note the word “abundance.” God has more love than you have sin. But also note that David expects God to have to use all of it in order to cover his tab. Love can cover a multitude of sins, but the more sins there are, the bigger that love needs to be. And that is why an abundance of steadfast love is needed if anyone is going to survive the presence of God. David knew that he had a lot of sin, but he believed that God had more than enough love to cover it. And that is why he is planning to bow down before the throne of God. Keep in mind that David is the King. He is not in the habit of bowing down to anyone. People bow to him. But not in God’s throne room. So, if David, the King, must bow before God, how much more must we? Put another way, if the people bowed before David, how much more do they need to bow before the king’s King? 

That brings us to our OT reading from Esther 4-5. If Esther trembled as she entered the throneroom of Ahasuerus, how much more should we tremble at the thought of entering the throneroom of God? Esther took her life into her hands when she entered that throneroom. It required faith. She had reason to believe that the King would spare her life because she was his wife, but it was not a guarantee. He did not have to say, “Yes.” Esther knew that if she had to ask, the answer could be, “No!” So, Esther leaned into her relational bank with her husband, the King, and hoped that it would be enough to spare her life. And it did. So, what is our hope? That is where our NT reading from Hebrews 4 comes in, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” If Esther had reason to hope, we have more. If the favor of Ahasuerus was enough for her to risk her life, the favor of Christ should be more than enough for us to risk ours. We are commanded to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence in Christ. That is not arrogance, that is faith. That is boasting in Him, not in ourselves. If you believe that Jesus is who He says He is and has done what He says He did, then you MUST draw near to God expecting to receive mercy and grace. To shy away from Him at that point is not a sign of humility, it is a sign of rebellion. Come to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. You have been summoned. To refuse to show up is to be in contempt of court.

:8 “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.” The straight and narrow is simple, but it is not often easy. It is simple in that there is only one of them and it doesn’t zig zag around. But walking on that path makes you an easy target for your enemies because they always know exactly where to find you. There are times when it seems like jumping off the road to hide in the bushes may be the best move. But leaving the road is leaving your advantage. A train does not get anywhere faster by leaving the rails. There are no shortcuts. If a train leaves the rails, it abandons its only advantage. The rails of God are fixed and narrow, but they are the only way to get to the final station. The junkyards are full of trains that thought they had found a better way, but that doesn’t stop the world from assuring you that it will end differently if you try it.

:9 For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.” If you are going to walk with God you are going to have to be flatter proof. This will require you to have an honest estimation of your own abilities and a humble acceptance of your own limitations. If you take yourself too seriously, you will be vulnerable to flattery. When you overestimate yourself, you welcome overstatements about yourself. The enemy will not serve you the cold, hard truth. He baits his hook with soft, sweet nothings. Spurgeon said it this way, "Satan never brushes the feathers of his birds the wrong way; he generally deals with us according to our tastes and likings. He flavours his bait to his fish." So, what kind of bait does Satan use to lure you? Where are you vulnerable? Are you feeling underappreciated? Are you harboring unforgiveness? Are you hungry? angry? lonely? bored? or tired? If so, you might be giving the devil a handle. He can see it there in the vending machine window of your soul:  A3 = wounded pride; B2 = father hunger; C5 = bitterness, D1 = rivalry. If he puts his two cents worth of flattery in the slot and pushes your buttons, he has you. So, don’t give the devil a button. But this will require you to listen to others because you have buttons on the back of our head that we can all see.

Consider Proverbs 27:5-6, “Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend and many are the kisses of an enemy.” I’ve said it before and I will say it again, “it is better to feel stupid for being corrected than it is to feel good about being stupid.” A good friend will have to correct you at some point. Because you are friends, you likely won’t disagree on much, but because you are both sinners, at some point one of you will be wrong and a good friend will see that and say something. Love confronts and sin flatters and you get what you tolerate. If you put up with sin, you will get more of it. If you put up with flattery, you will get more lies. But we do not want to see more sin, we want to see less of it and we do not want more lies, we want the truth. And we do not merely long to see this someday in Heaven, we long to see it now on earth, just as Jesus taught us to pray.

:10 “Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.” There are few things more satisfying than a great comeuppance. Especially when the bad guy does it to himself. In the story of Esther, Haman was hung on the very gallows he built to kill her uncle. That is poetic justice. The fate of the N.I.C.E. in C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength provides another great example. Without giving the game away, listen to this, “Their own strength has betrayed them. They have gone to the gods who would not have come to them. They have pulled down Deep Heaven on their own heads. Therefore, they will die.” In the best stories, the great boasts of evil are not only defeated, they are revealed to be its fatal flaw. And that is exactly why the Cross of Jesus Christ is the comeuppance of all comeuppances. Calvary exposed the devil. Evil thought it would be a flex to murder the Maker of life one Friday afternoon. But Sunday morning put all the power of evil to open shame and exposed it for the weakness that it was. Hear the words of Colossians 2:13-15 “God made us alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.” Understand then, that on the Cross, God defeated evil in broad daylight. He disarmed the devil and then pointed and laughed at him in front of the whole class.

This is how Jesus foretold that moment in Luke 11:21-22, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.” Satan and sin were strong, but Jesus was stronger. On the Cross, Satan bit Jesus’ heel, but only as it smashed his face. Jesus attacked Satan, overcame him, and took away his armor. Evil was forced to face its own futility – sin doesn’t work. And now everyone who saw it knew. And that is why Jesus sent the disciples out to spread the good news. The Great Commission is our opportunity to join Him in dividing the spoils. Matthew Henry said it this way, “Note, that the devil, though he is an enemy to all the saints, is still a conquered enemy. The Captain of our salvation has defeated and disarmed him; we have nothing to do but to pursue the victory.” That is our job and it is our joy.

:11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.” The sting of death has been snuffed out by the Son of God. Let those who take refuge in Him sing for joy. The psalms are full of great theology and when read for personal devotion, they are second to none, but make no mistake about it, they were meant to be sung. That is why we are so psalm-centered here at CCL. Singing God’s Word is good for our souls. Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” We form bonds with those we sing with. When you go to a concert, you feel a certain connection with those in attendance. You are all there for the same thing. And then when that band you came to see plays that song came to hear, you rejoice at the opportunity to sing it with them and with everyone else in attendance. Something similar happens here every week on the Lord’s Day. We do not have smoke machines or pyrotechnics like a rock concert (thanks be to God), but we do have a crowd of people gathered to sing the songs we love with the people we love. The psalms are the songs of God. He wrote the lyrics. So, when we sing them, we are singing with Him. And we all come together as we come together to sing.

:12 “For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.” The songs of the Lord are a shield for His people. That is why Jehoshaphat sent the choir out before the army. The psalms fit together like a shield wall. We have been entrusted with a great heritage and we should preserve it by singing them. But make no mistake, it is the psalms that protect us, not the other way around. They are not in danger of being forgotten, we are in danger when we forget them. So, do not go out to battle without your armor. Sing the psalms and suit up; and see the salvation of the Lord.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank You for your Word. Store it up as a shield wall in our souls that we might snuff out the flaming darts of the evil one. Thank You for disarming him and for giving us the fun of enjoying the spoils. Help us now to spread the leaven through the rest of the lump and let us witness Your victory in our lives, in our church, in our land, and to the ends of the world. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer You taught us to pray singing.