day no. 17,460: optimillenialism vs. pessimillenialism

"For wise men, one of the rewards of work is to see the work actually accomplished, to see the mission completed. The telos of lawn mowing, one of the great ones, is the satisfaction of seeing the lawn actually mowed. A man’s duty is a man’s duty, regardless, but if the duty is pointless, or seems pointless with regard to the teleology of it, then it might not be long before a man could start to feel like Sisyphus, rolling the rock up the hill again." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

The Great Commission is not a run out the clock kind of offense. It is not the case that the lead is now so insurmountable as a result of Christ's victory that we have nothing to do but take a knee. Rest assured, the victory is secured and the lead is insurmountable, but our plays are still loaded with meaning. The defense is still coming after you and looking not only to stop your forward progress, but to take you out of the game altogether if possible. In addition, they are looking to get the ball back and score points.

In this regard, we could learn from the demons. They know the fight is fixed and yet they are fighting with all of their might. They know their time is short, but they are willing to play the long game for as long as God gives them. They know that their labors are futile and yet they are working hard. We know that our labors aren't in vain and yet we act like they optional. We do not get after what we know will work while our enemies are vigilant in what they know to be vain.

1 Corinthians 9:10

Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

The Great Commission is not a suicide mission and the world is not God's Vietnam. We win down here because God wins everywhere. And He has given us a taste of the glory in the meantime. We get to enjoy the meal He is commanding us to prepare. We reap from the fields i which He has called us to sow as we wait for the final harvest.

"If you aim at losing, you are very likely to achieve your goal." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Those who live their lives with a "it's all going to burn in the end" mentality do not devote themselves to building projects that outlast them. Why would you give your life to build part of a cathedral you will never worship in and will likely be destroyed by God before it is finished? Those who aim at losing hit their target. But God has not called us to lose, He has called us to conquer. True, in Christ we are more than conquerors, but we are not less.

"An eschatology that teaches 'we lose down here' is an eschatology that may have had something to do with why we are, you know, losing down here? We are right on schedule, apparently." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

If you preach and teach with a pessimistic approach, you cannot be shocked when you get disappointing results. Of course we are losing down here, you weren't trying to win. But we cannot blame our failures on God. The "we lose down here" crowd often takes comfort in what they believe to be God's promise of our defeat. They assuage their cowardice by calling for the curtains. There is a faithful way to say, "Come soon, Lord Jesus!" and a fearful way to say, "Come soon, Lord Jesus!"

We cannot blame God for our failure. We cannot blame the state of the world on His actions in order to take the blame away from our lack of activity.

"We should do what we were told to do, and let God sort out the doctrine." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

If God said, "Go, disciple the nations," who are we to disagree. And who are we to say, "Why disciple nations that are just going to burn anyways?" We cannot use God's sovereignty as an excuse to disobey a direct order from Him. Even if the premise was true and the world was damned to darkness despite our efforts, the command to disciple the nations would still exist. In that scenario, the faithful response would still be to baptize the world because that is what God said to do. And if that is the case for faithful dispensationals, how much more so should it be for faithful postmillennials? We have the same command to disciple the nations, but we believe that it is going to work.

"If you will allow me to zoom out, let me borrow a couple of terms from the late Gary North, and those terms are optimillenialist and pessimillenialist. These terms do not refer to the time after the Second Coming because all Christians are optimistic in that final sense. I am talking about historical optimism and historical pessimism. Out of the three positions—post mill, amill and premill—the postmills are required to be optimillenialists. It is part of the package. But amills and premills are allowed to be." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Whatever your eschatology, you should be optimistic about the plan of God. Whatever the book of Revelation means, its author ended on an optimistic note, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Rev 22:20)

"I am convinced that America is in the condition we are in today because we have bought into grim eschatologies that discourage, pacify, and enervate the faithful. We really need to be done with that." — Douglas Wilson, How Post-Mill Figures into It

Pessimism lacks faith. It advertises itself as faithful to the dire predictions of God, but it fails to put any stock in the hopeful promises of God. Much of what we call the doom and gloom of the New Testament can be explained by a partial preterist, postmillennial framework. Things were dire for those whose hope still resided in whole or in part in Jerusalem. Jesus had promises its destruction was near. So near, in fact, that the generation to whom he spoke its demise would still be alive to see the fall of temple. And its fall was terrible, as bad as predicted. The promises of God are powerful. When they promise destruction, they destroy in terrible ways, but when they promise advancement, they do so in awesome ways as well.

day no. 17,459: unstoppable surrender and unflappable faith

“Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” — C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Obedience for obedience's sake is the most dangerous weapon we can lob at our enemies. The man who will not be disloyal to his God is a man they cannot control. He does not have any handles they can pull or any buttons they can push. He has surrendered all of those to Christ. And just like Jesus, he conquers.

1 John 5:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

That is an unstoppable surrender. That is a faith that is unflappable.

day no. 17,445: resurrection does not do fractions

"A corpse is not partly resurrected, and dead faith is not most of the way there.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

Being resurrected is like being pregnant: you either are or you aren't, but there is no such thing as kind of resurrected just like there is no such thing as kind of pregnant. Dead faith is not faith and dead works do not work. 

We are not drowning and in need of a lifeguard, we are dead at the bottom of the pool and in need of a miracle. Resurrection does not do fractions. Faith is not incremental. You can have more faith than someone else, but you cannot have less.  That is to say, everyone who has faith has a completed faith even though some of more of it and no one has an incomplete faith. Dead faith is just another way of saying, "no faith."

day no. 17,434: an undervalued overpowering

“I believe that this righteousness of faith is what the sons of Abraham were promised they would be able to use to overpower the world and all of its customs, manners, and ways.” — Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

The Word of God overcame the void. The fullness of God conquered the emptiness. The wisdom of God outmaneuvered the knowledge of evil. The light of God blinded the darkness.  

1 John 5:4

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The sons of Abraham will cover the world as the sand covers the beach and light up the world the way the stars punctuate the sky. The world as we know it is passing away, the world as God wants it is coming to pass.

day no. 17,358: the game of risk

“God requires us to risk things. This risk includes all that we hold dear, and to shrink back from it is to incur the displeasure of God. The wicked and lazy servant was the one who would not risk what had been entrusted to him. To play it safe is to play it dangerous.” — Douglas Wilson, No Such Thing as Bad Words

When it come to faith, safe is dangerous and dangerous is safe. The one who tries to save his life loses it and the one who risks his life for Christ's sake finds it. God is a safe bet, but He is still a bet. You have to push all in on Him. He has promised us what will happen if we do, i.e. we will find life, but we have to believe in His promises. The promises do not remove the risk, but they do reward it. You cannot have the reward before you take the risk, but if you take the risk, you will get the reward. If that doesn't sound like much of a risk to you, ask yourself why you are tempted to hold on to things. Why can't you die to that? Why won't you let that go? Is it because you're worried that the risk isn't worth it? Is it because you don't believe the promises of God? And now you begin to see why faith requires risk. True, it is a calculated risk, but it is nevertheless a risk. 

So, the only question that remains then is this: will you take the risk? Will you believe God's promises and push all in? If not, why not? Do you distrust the promises of God or do you believe that what you have now is better than what God promises to give you?

day no. 17,352: defending their innocency (exhortation outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

WLC 144: Defending Their Innocency

April 26, 2026

Defending the Innocent

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are continuing our study of the ten commandments in the WLC and we are still in Q144 which asks, “What are the duties required in the ninth commandment?” The ninth commandment, as you recall, is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The answer provided by the Westminster divines is this, “The duties required in the ninth commandment are, the preserving and promoting of truth between man and man, and the good name of our neighbour, as well as our own; appearing and standing for the truth; and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly, and fully, speaking the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice, and in all other things whatsoever; a charitable esteem of our neighbours; loving, desiring, and rejoicing in their good name; sorrowing for, and covering of their infirmities; freely acknowledging of their gifts and graces, defending their innocency; a ready receiving of a good report, and unwillingness to admit of an evil report, concerning them; discouraging tale-bearers, flatterers, and slanderers; love and care of our own good name, and defending it when need requireth;  keeping of lawful promises; and studying and practicing of whatsoever things are true, honest, lovely, and of good report.”

The phrase we will be focusing on this morning is, “defending their innocency.”

The text cited by the WLC in support of this duty is 1 Samuel 22:14, but in order to understand how this verse applies to the duty to defend our neighbor’s innocence, we will need to understand the context in which it takes place. So, here’s some background. Even though Saul was the king of Israel, he was jealous of David. Saul’s son Jonathan discovered that his father was plotting to kill David. Since David was Jonathan’s best friend, he warned him of his father’s plans. As a result, David fled. He stopped to catch his breath in a town just outside Jerusalem called Nob where a man named Ahimelech was serving as the priest.

Because David had left in such a hurry, he did not have any food or even a weapon with him. So, he asked Ahimelech for some assistance. Ahimelech was happy to help. David was a famous warrior and the news of Saul’s change of temper towards him had not yet reached Nob. So, he gave David some bread and then he gave him the only weapon he had on hand: Goliath’s sword which was being kept on display as a trophy. This was the same sword that David had used to cut off Goliath’s head. A man named Doeg the Edomite was also there that day, however, and saw it all take place. Later, when Saul got word that David had gotten away, he was frustrated and began throwing accusations around. He wanted to know who was helping David. Doeg took this opportunity to report what he had seen and that is where our text picks up.

1 Samuel 22:11-18 “Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, ‘Hear now, son of Ahitub.’ And he answered, ‘Here I am, my lord.’ And Saul said to him, ‘Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?’ Then Ahimelech answered the king, ‘And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.’ And the king said, ‘You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.’ And the king said to the guard who stood about him, ‘Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.’ But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, ‘You, turn and strike the priests.’ And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod.”

In these few verses, we see several examples of people failing and fulfilling their duty to defend their neighbor’s innocency. Let’s begin with the failures. The first example is King Saul. This whole episode is a result of him falsely accusing David in the first place. Instead of defending David’s innocence, he accused him of treason.

Saul was insecure and, just like any of us when we feel insecure or afraid, he was tempted to look for ways to blame others for the way he felt. Because we don’t like the way we feel and because we don’t like taking responsibility for our feelings, it must be someone else’s fault. As Spurgeon once noted, "We accuse others to excuse ourselves.” It is often easier to make up things about our neighbor than it is to face the reality about ourselves. And so, we slander our neighbor’s innocence in order to defend our own guilt. But take heed and take note: the sins of others, whether real or imagined, can never cleanse us of our own.

Another example is Doeg the Edomite. He knew that Ahimelech was not trying to help David usurp Saul’s throne. He knew he was innocent. But he also knew that Saul was looking for someone to blame and he hoped that there would be a finder’s fee. Saul slandered David to try to keep from losing his kingdom, Doeg slandered Ahimelech to try to gain a position in Saul’s kingdom. So, we see that our guilt can lead us to lash out at the innocent, either because we are scared of losing something or because we are greedy to get something else.

Now, let’s move on to a few examples of people fulfilling their duty to defend the innocent. Consider Saul’s servants. When Saul ordered them to slaughter Ahimelech and the priests, they refused. They presumed a standard of “innocent until proven guilty” and defended it by refusing to obey a tyrannical order.

A second example is that of Ahimelech himself. At any given point in his interrogation, he could have changed his story to try to save his own skin, but he didn’t. He could have defended his innocence by casting doubt on David’s, but he refused to bear false witness, even if it meant being falsely accused. He stood by David and his decision to help him. Ahimelech was an innocent man who paid the price of a guilty man in order to defend the innocence of another.

CALL TO CONFESSION

Well, since we are so often more concerned with getting our guilty selves out of trouble than we are with keeping our innocent neighbors out of it, we are reminded of our need to regularly confess our sins, whether they be related to this duty or to 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

Gracious Father, if You were to mark iniquities, who could stand? But with You is forgiveness, that You may be feared. Called by You to the throne of grace, and confident in our great High Priest, we bow before You and confess that we have sinned against You and been unfaithful to Your holy covenant. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately sick, so that we often do what we hate, and neglect what we love. Out of our mouths we both praise You and curse our fellow men. You promised mercy to our fathers through the seed of the woman. Turn our hearts again, Father, to consider Jesus, who crushed the serpent’s head, and saved His people from their sins. Forgive, cleanse, and restore us for His sake. Amen.

DECLARATION OF PARDON

Saints, arise and hear the Good News!

The assurance of pardon today comes from Romans 4:4-8

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’” 

The story of Ahimelech points us to Jesus: he was falsely accused and killed for defending his friend, just like Jesus. He was an innocent man who was treated like a guilty man, just like Jesus. But as good of a man as Ahimelech was, Jesus is better. A man will scarcely die for an innocent person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— as Ahimelech did for David, but God shows His love for us in that while we were still guilty, Christ died for us.

Saints, hear the Good News: in the name of 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. 17,348: everything, something, nothing, and anything

“When a man stops believing in God, he doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything.” — G.K. Chesterton

Nihilism is a lie. No one believes in nothing. Belief is inescapable. It is not a matter of if you will believe something, but of what you will believe in. If you, in a fit of crestfallen madness, turn your belief away from everything, you do not turn to the nothing. You cannot find nothing anywhere. What you turn to is your belief in nothing. You can believe in your belief, but you can also believe in your disbelief. You may believe your disbelief to be the most reasonable belief to have, but you cannot have no belief. You will believe in something and if it is not everything in Christ, it can be as absurd as putting your everything into nothing, which when you come to think of it, is really quite something.

There is a fine line between inconsolable and gullible. Those who refuse to be comforted by Christ will go as far as to seek comfort in discomfort. Those who stop looking to the one thing begin looking to anything. Those who refuse to go the one way begin considering any way. Those who reject the one life are in danger of seeking life even in death.

Proverbs 8:36

All they that hate me love death.

day no. 17,344: Christianity can be proven false

"George Washington crossed the Delaware at Trenton, John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln at Ford Theater, and Jesus rose from the dead outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago. The question is whether that third item is true in the same way that the first two are . . . as an objective historical fact, seen by reliable witnesses who wrote it down, and then believed by sensible people." ― Douglas Wilson, Not the Trope, and Not the Houseplant

The Christian faith is objectively true. It is not a philosophical or religious approach to life that can be adopted regardless of its historical reality. If Jesus Christ did not live a perfect life, die a sacrificial death, rise triumphantly from the grave three days later, and ascend to Heaven forty days after that, the Christian faith is of no value.

1 Corinthians 15:14-19

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Christianity is not merely another option in the marketplace of ideas. It is the only one that banks its entire existence on an objective, historical reality. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, Christianity is false. Christianity is the only religion that can be proven wrong. It depends on something tangible. Sure, some turn Christianity into a philosophy which does not depend on a literal anything. They say that Christ rose spiritually and that He reigns spiritually and that everything that embodies Christianity is body-less, ethereal, spiritual, and philosophical. But that is not the Christianity of the Bible. It does not offer spiritual truths or life hacks, it presents facts that demand a response. If Christ really died, you are really obligated to respond to it in a particular way. If He did not really rise, it does not really matter what you do with it.

Christianity could be proven false if Jesus Christ's body could be found here on earth. All the good things that Christianity has produced in light of that lie could still be, and certainly would be, justified by those who see it as a philosophy or as a spiritual option on the buffet of world religions. The Christianity of the Bible, however, would be done in by it all being based on a lie. No other religion can be proven false because none of them depend on anything objective actual happening. They make historical claims, of course, but the philosophy does not depend on those claims being true. If Mohammed or Buddha turned out to be fictional characters, Islam and Buddhism could continue to exist without interruption. Moses could be metaphorical and Talmudic Judaism could go on. Mormonism does not depend on Joseph Smith having actually met an angel in the woods. They will insist that he did, but even if he didn't, Mormonism could go on. But if Jesus Christ did not physically rise from the dead, Biblical Christianity would be entirely done for... and we would all still be in our sins and about to face the Father without a peace treaty.

day no. 17,340: in season and out of season

“Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate. Don’t put your mental feet on the mantelpiece and say — “What a marvellous state of mind to be in!” Act immediately, do something, if only because you would rather not do it.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

When we feel spiritual we don't want to do things, we want to enjoy feeling spiritual, but when we don't feel spiritual, we don't want to do things because we feel like it would be disingenuous. 

As a result, we rarely do the things God requires.

When we feel like we are on the mountaintop with Jesus, we want to enjoy being there, not going back down into the demon-possessed valley to do things. 

When we feel like we are in the demon-possessed valley, we don't want to do things because we don't feel like it.

2 Timothy 4:2

Be instant in season, out of season.

What this all amounts to is that we are going to have to obey God when we don't feel like it. We must be instant in season and out of season. We must obey when we're feeling it and when we're not. When we feel like obeying God, we need to take that energy and apply it to the next thing God has for us to do. When we don't feel like obeying God, we need to power through and obey Him anyways.

Our feelings cannot be the basis for our obedience or we will never obey.

day no. 17,330: the correct view of life and death

“Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret.” ― Robert E. Lee

Correct views come from somewhere. They are not built in, they are brought in. God is our Creator and Sustainer. He is perfect. His Law is holy, perfect, and good. It teaches us what life should be like and how to navigate things as they are.

John 1:9-10

The true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

We do not know the correct views of life by nature. We cannot conceive them by speculation. They can only be received by revelation. God has revealed Himself to us and so we must walk in His light. If we do, we will live and die well. We won't die wishing we had done differently. 

Psalm 119:105

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Those who walk in the light in this life will never walk in darkness. They will not lay down in the dark. They will walk from this life into eternity with the lamp of Christ to guide them.

Revelation 22:5

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Hear the Word, Believe the Word, Do the Word. The man who does this will hear, "Well done!"

day no. 17,310: a man with God is always in the majority (sermon outline)

Christ Church Leavenworth

Psalm 9

March 15, 2026

…

OT READING: 2 Kings 6:8-19

NT READING: 1 John 4:1-6

A Man with God is Always in the Majority

Our text this morning is Psalm 9, these are the words of God: To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah

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. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear Your Word this morning and let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight through Jesus Christ, in whose Name we pray, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

Our study of the first decade of psalms has brought us to track #9. And here David does something a little different. There are two ways to approach a subject. The typical way is to build your case by slowly working your way up to a conclusion. People can disagree with where you end up, but they at least can see how you go there. The risk you run in this approach, however, is fatigue. Your audience might give up on you before you get to where you’re wanting to take them. Think of all those “tl;dr” posts you’ve had shared with you. As Spurgeon once said, “If a man cannot say what he has to say in 45 minutes, when will he say it?” 

This is where the other approach can be helpful. In this approach, the conclusion is stated right up front before circling back to show your work. The benefit of this approach is that everyone knows exactly where you’re headed before you get going. The risk you run with this approach, however, is that you lose some people right out of the gate. If they disagree too strongly with your opening statement, they might skip the rest of your lecture. 

In today’s text, David employs this second, less conventional method: he begins with the application. He wants everyone to know, up front, where this is headed. Too many get bogged down in the details and never get around to applying what they know. Not David. He does not want to delay his resolve, so he leads with it and then he encourages us to do the same by making his case. One of the additional points made by presenting it in this manner, is that doing God’s Word must not be put off or made to be optional. It is essential and time sensitive. In other words, we must obey today. Right now. We must know Who we are dealing with, for sure, but then we must surely go on to deal with Him.

It is one thing to know that God is merciful and another thing to ask God for mercy. It is one thing to believe that He can forgive sin and another thing to kneel before Him and ask Him to forgive yours. It is one thing to know that He is in control and another thing to hand over control of your life to Him. Do not miss the forest for the trees. Which is more important? Knowing the standard or keeping it? But keeping it is so much harder… and that is why David asks God for more grace. More grace? Don’t be greedy; be content with the grace you got, right? Wrong! We need to be greedy for grace. It is not a lack of faith to ask for more grace. It is, however, if you stop asking for it. We never outgrow our need for grace. We cannot mature beyond our need for more. So, with that said, let’s turn to our text:

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

:1-2 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” Four times in two verses David declares, “I will.” He will give thanks to God, he will remember His grace, he will be glad, and he will worship God. He is committed to these things and he is saying it out loud for all to hear. “I will do these things.” He is inviting accountability. When you stand before others and say that you are going to do something, you are asking them to follow up with you if you don’t. If you say, “I do” in front of all your friends and family, you are inviting them to hunt you down and demand an explanation if you suddenly start saying, “I don’t,” or “I’m not so sure anymore.” And that is because “I will” is a promise.

The difficulty, however, is that in the moment, you really do feel like you will, but later on there comes a point where you really don’t. The question at that moment is whether your previous “I will” will determine what comes next or whether your current “I want” will. How much sway do yesterday’s “I will’s” have on today?  A good reputation is the reward for those who convert their “I will’s” into “I did’s.” Anyone can say that they’re going to do something, but only those with integrity actually do it. Consider Proverbs 20:6-7, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” More men sign up for the test than pass it. Steadfastness is easier to promise than it is to deliver. A faithful man does not just do the easy work of making the promise, he does the hard work of keeping it. He takes responsibility for his words and looks not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of those who are depending on him to keep his word.

Chesterton said it this way, “The man who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place. The danger of it is that himself should not keep the appointment.” Nothing is easier to make than a promise and few things are harder to keep. Consider Ecclesiastes 5:5 “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.” A vow sounds good in anyone’s mouth. But it is better not to cut a covenant than it is to be cut up for breaking one. So, why not avoid them altogether? Promises are like keys, they unlock doors. We take vows in marriage and gain access to a spouse. We sign contracts and gain more business. We take an oath of office and gain its responsibilities. Liars want the perks of a promise without the work of keeping it. As a Christian, you must resist this temptation. Making vows may make others think better of you at first, but breaking them will make them think less of you in the end.

Psalm 15:4 reminds us that the one who walks with God, “swears to his own hurt and does not change.” So, does your “I will” have the power to hold you in place when your “I feel” is trying to pull you away? In order to be a faithful man, you have to be able to obey even when you don’t feel like it. Listen to this insight from Oswald Chambers, "If we only did what we felt inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.” Anyone can obey when they feel like it. But what about when you don’t? Can you make yourself do things when you don’t feel like because you said that you would? We must “be ready in season and out of season.” (2 Tim 4:2) – that is, when we feel like it… and when we don’t.

And that is why David brings up the idea of a whole-hearted effort. You cannot follow God with half of your heart. It is not a duplex. It cannot serve two masters. It will either love the one and hate the other, or it will hate the one and love the other. Your heart doesn’t do fractions. Hear this admonition from Jeremiah 48:10 “Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD with slackness.” Note that the curse is on the slackness. You would think that doing the work of the Lord would be blessed, but not necessarily so. A lame effort in the right direction is still a sin. Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord.” God commands us to do things with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our might. He has to tell us to do this because we were going to try to do them with as little of our heart, soul, and might as we could get away with. As C.S. Lewis once observed, “We are half-hearted creatures.”

:3-4 “When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.” Our enemies do not run away because they’re scared of us, they run away because they see our Father looming behind us. Consider James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” When you resist the devil, he doesn’t flee because you stood your ground, he flees because we called for our Dad. Calling upon the Father is how you resist the devil. Submitting to Him is how you conquer the world, the flesh, and the devil. When you call upon the Lord, the demons do not stick around for Him to show up. Sin cannot stand in the presence of God. It struts around and talks a big game, but the second you call upon Christ, it falls on its face before it cowers away.

Listen to the word of the Lord from Leviticus 26 “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword…But if you will not listen to me, I will send faintness into your hearts. The sound of a driven leaf shall put you to flight, and you shall flee as one flees from the sword, and you shall fall when none pursues. You shall stumble over one another, and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.”

Our enemies are not scared of us, but they are scared of what’s behind us. If we get arrogant and imagine ourselves as vigilante enforcers of the good, the true, and the beautiful, we will be beaten back by the bad, the false, and the ugly. We are not Batman. We are just kids in Batman costumes. The reason our enemies flee before us is because when we put on Christ, they see the signal in the air and they know who’s coming to help. As John Knox once observed, “A man with God is always in the majority.” The only reason any one of us can take out twenty of them is because of the One who has our back.

In our OT reading, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, was scared. He looked up and saw an army, and then he looked around and saw only Elisha. But when he saw Elisha, he could see that he was not scared. Elisha looked back at him and said, “‘Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Whoever has God on their side has their enemy surrounded. The number of boots on the ground does not always win wars, but God always does.

Our NT reading from 1 John 4 reinforces this point: “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” When the world surrounds you, look to Christ within. The One who lives within you holds the entire world in His hands. Even if He is all you have, you still have superior firepower. One of His Words outguns all the chatter in the world. As Luther once noted, “Though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.” The armor of God is bulletproof, but the gates of Hell cannot even stop a rock tossed by a kid. Just ask David.

:5-6 “You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished.” God is greater than the evil in this world. He will rebuke the nations and make the wicked perish. He will blot out their names forever and ever. Their greatness will fare no better than the legacy of Ozymandias. Who’s Ozymandias you might ask? Exactly. That’s the point. And if you do know who Ozymandias is, my point still stands, for what is Ozymandies famous for? Being forgotten. 

Note that our text says that God is going to root them out of their cities. Evil can find some pretty dark corners to hide, but God is going to dig them out. He isn’t going to overlook anything. Heaven will not have a little corner of Hell in it. The gates of Hell will not hold out against the advance of the Kingdom of Christ and all Hell will be tossed out. The darkness will be flooded with light and the world will be flooded with the knowledge of the holiness of God. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Fear not, little flock, it is God’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom and a time is coming when we will all be so caught up in the glory and goodness of God that we won’t even remember the wicked anymore. To that party we will wear our battle scars like medals of honor. The pains of the past won’t be able to reach us there and our old hurts will be healed and hard to remember. Sin does not win. “Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.” Once God is done using the wicked to bless us, He will dispose of them forever.

At this point someone might feel tempted to feel sorry for the wicked. Admittedly, that hypothetical someone probably isn’t here, but they do exist and they are out there. So, just in case they are listening, keep this in mind. This rough treatment of the wicked is not the result of God going too far or losing His temper. He is not like you. He doesn’t sometimes explode with rage and then have to walk it back later with an apology. His justice is measured and precise. It is administered with proportion. He is not overdoing it or getting carried away. He has not been patient all these years only to lose His patience in the end. Again, He is not like you. He doesn’t hold it down until it erupts. He is under control the entire time. So, if you want to feel bad for the wicked, do it now, while you still can, because you won’t later. The justice of God will be accompanied by the cheers of the righteous and the increase of His kingdom will have no end.

:7-8 “But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.” Where is Jesus right now? He is not in a grave rotting away somewhere. He is sitting at the right hand of the Father… on a throne. That is where He is. And what is He doing there? Destroying all His enemies. Many of them He is destroying by making them His friends and the rest He is destroying by exposing them for the frauds that they are. They looked powerful, but they were weaklings. They appeared to be fixed and certain, but they were flashes in the pan. And the worst of it is, they should have known better. 

Hear the Word of the Lord from Acts 17:30-31 “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, (who’s call to repent? ALL people, EVERY where) because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” All people. Everywhere. We live in a world where a man has risen from the dead. Everyone who denies this fact is at war with reality and that is a battle they will certainly lose. These verses from the book of Acts reinforce what Psalm 9 says: Jesus is the Judge. And who is He going to judge? The whole world. And how is He going to judge it? With righteousness. Our text then doubles back and repeats this fact for all those people in the back. Who is He going to judge? The peoples. And how is He going to judge them? With uprightness. Make no mistake about it, judgment day will contain no mistakes. No one will be misjudged. No one will be misjudged. None of the guilty will go free and none of the forgiven will be condemned. That is the end of the world. The rule of Christ established and enforced everywhere without exception: all people, everywhere.

:9-12 “The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.” The Lord is the immovable object and the unstoppable force. No one can move Him and He can move anyone He wants. All who trust in Him will be saved. All who don’t will be destroyed. Hear this Word of God from 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 “Then comes the end, when he (that is Jesus) delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” So, for the time being, Christ sits enthroned ruling and reigning and winning. He will not stand again until the only enemy left to defeat is death. And then death itself will die at the hands of Jesus.

:13-14 “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation.” Note the juxtaposition: the gates of death and the gates of Zion. These two gates are opposed to each other. There are those who hate God and love sin and there are those who love God and hate sin. Hear the Word of the Lord from Proverbs 8:36

“All who hate me love death.” And then consider this Word from Psalm 97:10,” O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” The gates of Hell are defended by those who defend their sins. But the gates of Zion are defended by those who are defended by God. Hear the Words of Jesus Christ Himself from Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That is why David put his confidence in Christ. And that is why you should too. 

Back to our text, :15-16 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah Stop and dwell on that: God has caught the crafty in their own craftiness. He has outmaneuvered the cunning. He has seen through all their secret cabals. If it had not been for Him, we would have gotten got, but because of Him, we have not. Their trip wires haven’t worked and when they went to double check their traps, they blew up in their faces. If God is for us, who can be against us? Their hidden nets are not hidden from Him. He is the one playing 4D chess, not them. Thanks be to God. God sees what they plot in secret and puts a plot twist in their narrative. The very things in which they trust will turn out to be the things that trip them up. Consider this from Isaiah 36:6 “Behold, you are trusting in a broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it.” It is bad enough that the wicked put their hope in a broken reed, but then they go and lean on it with all their might. If they had not leaned on it, it would not have stabbed them. It did not hurt them until they leaned on it. In other words, trusting in evil will get you killed. So, hear this truth: wickedness cannot pierce your soul if you do not put your trust in it. But all those who do will be impaled by it band the worst part of it will be realizing that they did it to themselves. 

:17-18 “The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God. For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.” Note the contrast. The wicked, as we observed previously, are going to perish forever. They are going to be forgotten. But not the needy and poor in spirit. Recall the words of Jesus who said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:3) The poor in spirit will not perish forever, even if they do for the moment. The martyrs did not lose their lives, they gained them. 

And remember, the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom is not like a rocket launch. It is not a straight line up with no interruption. No, the kingdom is more like a mountain climb. Sometimes you are sliding down steep cliffs and sometimes you are ascending long slopes, but you are always going up the mountain. The summit is always before you and each step brings you closer to it and further from where you began. Christendom is always going, always growing, always destroying its enemies, and always prevailing over and against the gates of Hell. The hope of the saints will not perish. The goodness of God does not grow mold. The Gospel will not go stale and God will not disappoint. Nations may forget God and suffer for it, but God will not forget them and He will redeem out of them those who have put their hope in Him.

:19-20 “Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah” Men will not somehow prevail against God. The wicked will not grow so strong and so secure that even God Himself cannot overcome them. Mankind will not make such a mess of things that even He cannot clean it up. We cannot put ourselves beyond the reach of grace. David prayed that God might put the fear of Him into the nations. He prayed that the nations would be reminded of their mortality and be humbled. The only hope for us as individuals or for our nation, is remembering that we will die. As long as individuals or nations believe that they are special in themselves, they are at odds with God and in danger of losing everything they hold dear. But any man or nation that thanks God for what they have and humbly seeks to serve Him with it, will retain their distinct flavor and offer it as a living sacrifice to their God and King. All the best things of all the nations will be refined by fire and retained in the kingdom of God. Hear this Word from Haggai 2:7 “‘I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Some nations may force God to hold them upside down by their ankles to shake them until all their pockets are empty, but rest assured, all the good stuff will be kept for the saints and will dwell with us forever in the house of God.

In the end, all men, including us, need to be reminded that they are but men. It is easy to imagine that you are omniscient if you have the internet, or omnipotent if you have a weapon, or omnipresent if you have a camera at every intersection or a drone in the air, but even then, you are still just a man. And as Psalm 82:6-7 reminds us, “You are sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die.” And so, the nations need to know that they are but men. That is an extraordinarily simple, yet a profoundly supernatural prayer. People coming to their senses and returning to common sense seems easy enough… until you look around. Common sense is not as common as it used to be and it cannot simply be assumed as a given. In order for men to admit that they have been wrong, they need the grace of God to see that being wrong is even an option. The pride of man boasts in its armor, but the weapons of Heaven have soul-piercing bullets. The prayer of David is that God would do whatever it takes to bring all people everywhere to repentance. Let us be an answer to that prayer by reminding the world that they are but men, and living like we are men of God.

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

Amen.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we confess that we are but men. Without You, we would be so tangled up in our own sins that we would not be able to walk with You. But because of Your great mercy in sending Your Son to save us, we are set free from the cords that bound us. Give us grace today to walk in the works You have prepared beforehand for us to do and by so doing, may the world see our good works and give glory to You, Our Father who art in heaven. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and we offer up the words of the prayer He taught us to pray singing...