Well, let's turn in our Bibles, please, to Psalm 120, the book of Psalms, the 120th Psalm. We have been preaching together through the book of Psalms and our last study together, we scaled that Mount Everest of Psalm 119. And of course, we certainly didn't expound every verse or even any verse in it. But we did synthesize what was there and make some observations on it that I think will help to elevate our love for the Word of God and our desire and our ability to remember it and to implement it into our lives. Psalm 119 is largely a prayer. There's only a couple of verses, as you recall, that are not directed towards God. And so if you ever are short on material to pray about, your heart is cold and dead and you need a prayer book to give you prayers to pray. There's nothing wrong with that, by the way, provided those prayers are expressed in sincerity and faith. Psalm 119 is a great prayer book. If God grants you all the things that is asked for in this psalm, you're going to be a great Christian. And your problems are going to be solved. Well, follow along then, as I read Psalm 120. Psalm 120, verse 1, In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper. Woe is me that I sojourn in Misek and dwell in the tents of Kedar. My soul has long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war." Now we read in Romans chapter 12 and verse 18 these words, If it be possible As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." And so, our desire is to live peaceably with all of those around us. It's a command of God to us. And it is certainly a desire we have in our own hearts. But sadly, sometimes this is not possible. We want to live peaceably with others. We do all we can to avoid sinning against them. We behave righteously towards them. As much as lies in us, we follow after the things that make for peace. But unfortunately, there are some people who are determined to go to war with us, even though we have done them nothing but good. A clear example of this is David and Saul. David was at peace with Saul, but Saul would not be at peace with David. Saul was determined to destroy David, though David had done Saul nothing but good. David did all that lie within him to be at peace with Saul. But Saul would not be at peace with him. And so sometimes, even though we try to be peacemakers, people for sinful and wicked reasons choose to fight with us. And there is nothing we can do to stop it. And the question that arises, what shall we do in such situations? How shall we deal with people who are determined to go to war against us? Well, I think our psalm today provides us with some advice for handling such a situation. The psalmist had the exact problem that we have been speaking about. The psalmist wanted to live peaceably with his neighbors, but they did not want to live peaceably with him. Notice verse 7. He says, I am for peace. But when I speak, they are for war." And so as much as lay in him, he wanted to be at peace with them. He tried to resolve the conflict. He sought to reconcile and come to an understanding. But his enemies were determined to destroy him. And that was simply all there was to it. They slandered him. And they sought to stir up strife with him at every opportunity. So the question is, how did the psalmist deal with such people in his life? His example in this psalm will provide us with some indication of how we should deal with him as well, if we are unfortunate enough to have such people in our lives And unfortunately, at some point in time, most of us do have these kind of people in our lives. So, the psalmist sets before us three principles for dealing with those who want to be at war with you when you want to be at peace with them. And I want to look at those principles this evening and help us to understand how we can deal with these sociopathic people who are just determined to hate on us no matter what we do to try to be at peace with them. And so the first principle that the psalmist followed in dealing with people who wanted to be at war with him, though he wanted to be at peace with them, The first principle is that the psalmist prayed for God's help. The psalmist prayed for God's help regarding these people. Notice, if you will, verses 1 and 2. He says, In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. So what's happening in verses 1 and 2, with reference to this terrible situation the psalmist finds himself in, is that he is praying to God. Now notice verse 1 in particular. He says, In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. Now here in verse 1, the psalmist reflects back on some past distress that he was in previously. And he says regarding it, in my distress I cried unto the Lord. And whatever the distress was which he experienced in the past, to which he is referring to in verse 1, he did what each of us should do when we are distressed. We should pray to the Lord about it. Distress is not just to be stoically endured. Distress is not to be studiously ignored. It's not merely to be met with a clenched jaw. Rather, distress is to be brought to God. And distress is to be cast upon Him for help and deliverance. We are counseled in Psalm 55, verse 22, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. So whatever distress you have, you take that burden and you cast it on the Lord. That is not an option. That is a requirement that God commands to each of us. He says, you know, if you would like, and it might be a good idea, perhaps you might think about casting your burden on the Lord. No, He says, you cast your burdens on the Lord, because the Lord knows they're too big for us to bear alone. And if we try to bear them alone, they will bear us down. into bitterness and despair and disillusionment. In Psalm 50, in verse 15, God says, Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. And so these and many other passages exhort us to do what the psalmist did in verse 1, and that is, in our distress, we should cry unto the Lord. And what did the psalmist experience when he cried to the Lord in his distress? Well, he says in verse 1, And he heard me. The Lord heard him. And apparently, whatever his distress was, in due time, The Lord removed that distress and acted to resolve it and to relieve him of it. The Lord took his burden away, and the Lord delivered him, and he is now, in verse 1, bearing testimony to the Lord and giving glory and thanks to the Lord for God's past deliverance. It is this past deliverance that he speaks of in verse one that gives him hope and provides the foundation for his present petition, which he expresses in verse two regarding the present problem he's facing. He says, you know, in the past I called on the Lord and He heard me and delivered me. I'm in trouble now, so I'm going to call on the Lord now with reference to this trouble and distress too. So verse two. He says, deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Now here in verse 2, he now addresses his present distress and describes what it is, and it is this. Wicked enemies are slandering him. That is, they are telling lies about him. that are designed to do injury to his reputation, to do destruction to his work, and to undermine the validity of his teaching. Now, Being lied about in such a way as to destroy your reputation, your work, and your teaching is not something that is an unusual occurrence in the lives of the godly. Being slandered is standard fair in the lives of the godly. Why is this? Because Satan is a liar and Satan is a slanderer. In fact, that is the meaning of the word devil. The Greek word diabolos literally means to falsely accuse or to slander. To tell a negative lie about someone that is designed for their destruction. Therefore, since Satan is a liar and a slanderer, We would expect that those who serve him would be liars and slanderers as well, and that lies and false accusations would be one of the primary tools which they would employ against the godly. So here you are. You're a Christian. You're surrounded by probably 95 percent of the people around you are not Christian. Their father is the devil. He's a liar. So guess what they're going to be doing? Lying. It's going to characterize their lives. They lie about each other. But they really lie about believers. They really slander believers. In Psalm 31 and verse 13, David says, I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life." One of God's great indictments against the wicked is recorded in Psalm 50 and verse 20, where God says to the wicked, Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother. Thou slanderest thine own mother's son. And the sad thing is that it is not just the wicked and the ungodly who slander us. Sometimes those who call themselves our brethren slander us too. Paul the Apostle was constantly slandered as he sought to do the work of God by those who willfully misrepresented his teaching. Now, you're here in Psalm 120. I would like for you, please, to turn to Romans 3. The book of Romans, the third chapter. And I want to read together with you verses 1-8. Now, I will not expound it. It's already been done in the series on Romans. But I want to point out to you how Paul was dealt with as a man of God, as a minister of God and as a teacher of the word of God. Now, notice Romans three and verse one. Paul is teaching on the universal need of all people to be saved, whether Jew or Gentile. He says, in light of that, that both Jew and Gentile are under the wrath of God, he says, what advantage then has the Jew or what profit is there in circumcision? Well, much in every way, chiefly because that under them were committed the oracles of God. They had the scriptures. For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? That is, the faith which was once delivered to the saints, the Scriptures. God forbid, yea, let God be true. The Bible's true. But every man, what? A liar. As it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what should we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid. For then how shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto His glory, why am I also judged as a sinner?" Now, here's our verse. And not rather, notice, as we be slanderously reported and some affirm that we say, let us do evil that good may come. whose damnation is just." Now, without going into the details of the passage, it's clear that what Paul was teaching, which was biblical truth, was taken by his enemies and twisted and reported as Paul teaching something that he never dreamed of teaching. They said, Paul taught, let us do evil! so that good may come." Now, any Christian who taught, let's do evil so that good may come, and the more we sin, the more the grace of God is magnified, so let's sin all we can, is teaching something that is heresy. He's teaching something that's utterly contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel. The doctrine of the Gospel is, mortify your sin, turn away from your sin, repent of your sin, stop sinning. But they reported that Paul was teaching the opposite of that. They slanderously reported that Paul taught, the more you sin, the better. And so here's a servant of God preaching the pure, true doctrine of God. And yet there are people reporting that he's teaching its opposite. They are evilly misrepresenting what he teaches. And so it is with every servant of God. People who are unsaved, and especially, listen to me carefully, especially unsaved professing Christians, hate the example and hate the teaching of the godly, because they are convicted by the example and the teaching of the godly, and rather than humble themselves and repent, they viciously lash out with their tongues against the upright. And that is the reason why Paul had these slanderous reports about what he was teaching spread all over the country. Is because there were those who claimed to be Christians, but who really were who wanted to live in sin and were under conviction by Paul's godly teaching. And so what they tried to do is discredit Paul and his ministry and his reputation so no one would listen to him by lying about what he taught. I mean, some of the stuff that's filtered back to me about what I supposedly believe and teach is astounding to me. And yet it's happened many, many times where people have reported me teaching things that never even entered my head, much less came out my mouth. Why? Because they simply want to attack a godly church and a godly minister. And so when you hear people saying things about your pastor that sound squirrely, mark it down that what's happening is what Paul experienced. That there is a slanderous report being spread. And therefore, it needs to be checked out with the one who's supposedly teaching it to find out if in fact, It is the truth. Someone would have to have about a ten second conversation with Paul to find out that he never taught, let us do evil, that good may come. But instead of checking with Paul, they just pass it on as though it's true. And thus, there are people who will not even darken the door of this church because of what they've heard about others about what we teach that isn't even remotely true. Now, that this would occur, Jesus taught us to expect. When he said in Matthew 5.11, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." And so what Jesus is saying in the Beatitudes is, look it, every servant of God has been slandered, and every servant of God will be slandered. People will say all manner of evil against you falsely. It goes with the territory. Those outside of the Kingdom of God will always attack those within it. And those attacks are especially vicious from those who claim to be in the Kingdom, but who in fact are not. There's an interesting passage in 1 Peter 3. And in verses 16 and 17, where Peter says, 1 Peter 3, verse 16, he says, Be having a good conscience, in order that, whereas they speak evil of you, As of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing." And so, not only did Jesus teach us, that men shall revile us and speak all manner of evil against us falsely. Peter also said that there are people who are going to speak evil of you. They call you evildoers while you are living out a good manner of life. And they call you evildoers exactly because you are living out a good manner of life because it is that good manner of life that brings them under conviction that they're not living such a life. And rather than repent and follow your example, they revile and attempt to destroy your reputation so they can keep on living as they are without conviction of a superior example. And so Satan is a liar. His people are liars. And therefore, it should come as no surprise when you are lied about. It should come as no surprise when your pastor is lied about. And it should come as no surprise when your fellow Christians are lied about. And while it is no surprise when it happens, It is nevertheless very painful and very difficult to bear, and it greatly harms and hinders our work and our reputation. It is not without reason that Satan's lies are called fiery darts. And the reason why they're called fiery darts is because these slanders hurt, and they hurt a lot as they land. in our lives and burn holes in our reputations. Turn with me, please, to Psalm 35. This is a psalm we looked at a long time ago. But I want to remind you of what Paul striked at. What David said about the slanders that were lodged against him. Psalm 35, verses 11-20. David says, verse 11, false witnesses did rise up. They laid to my charge things that I knew not. Things I never heard of. Things I never did. They laid it to my charge and said I said those things or did those things. Verse 12, they rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one that mourns for his mother. But in my adversity, they rejoiced. and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against Me and I knew it not. They did tear Me and cease not. With hypocritical mockers and feasts, they gnashed on Me with their teeth. How long, O Lord, wilt Thou look on? Rescue My soul from their destruction, My darling from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much people. Let not them that are My enemies wrongfully rejoice over Me, neither let them wink with the eye that hate Me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land." And so, verse 20, is simply Psalm 120 summarized in a sentence. Well, what should we do in such a situation? What should we do when we are maliciously slandered by other people? And things are laid to our charge that we never even thought of doing, much less ever did. When things are laid to our charge that we never thought of saying, much less ever said. What should we do in such a situation? Well, we should do what the psalmist did in Psalm 35 and we should do what the psalmist did in Psalm 120 and in verse 2. And that is, we should ask God for help and for deliverance from the slandering tongue. Notice Psalm 120, verse 2. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. God is well able to shut their mouths, expose their lies, and cause them to fall into the pit that they have dug for another. And so, what is the proper response to slander? The answer is the proper response to slander is prayer to God, and to ask God to deal with it. That's what the psalmist did in Psalm 120, verses 1-2. That's the first principle he employed in dealing with those who wanted to be at war with him, though he wasn't at war with them. And that is, pray for God's help. Pray for God's deliverance. Well, that brings us then to our second major point. Having seen that the psalmist prayed for God's help in dealing with these warmongers in his life. Secondly, the psalmist waited upon God's vengeance. The psalmist waited upon God's vengeance. Now, this is in verses 3 and 4. He says, what shall be given unto thee? That is, those he was referring to in verse 2. The lying lips, the deceitful tongue. What shall be given to thee? Or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Here's what shall be done. Verse 4. Number 1, sharp arrows of the mighty. Number 2, coals of Juniper. Now here in verse 3, the psalmist asks a rhetorical question of these slanderers. And the rhetorical question he asks of these slanderers is simply this. Slanderers, do you have any comprehension of what awaits those who engage in the malicious work of slander? What shall be given to thee? Have you thought of that, slanderers? Have you thought about what God is going to do to you for your slander? Those who do the work of Satan, by conveying the lies of Satan, will bear the judgment of Satan. Notice verse 4. Here is the vengeance of God that will fall upon the slanderer. The first thing that's mentioned here is sharp arrows of the mighty. Here is being said that the deadly arrows of the mighty warrior will find their target in the bodies of the slanderers. We know from reading Old Testament battle narratives that God guides every arrow and well knows how to direct them to the target He wishes to exercise vengeance upon. You remember there was a man who drew a bow at a venture, and the arrow just happened to find a gap in Ahab's armor, and struck him and killed him, though he was disguised as an ordinary soldier. God and His providence will kill the slanderers in due time. They cannot escape His deadly arrows of destruction. as they have shot out their arrows of slander at the souls of the righteous, so God will shoot His arrows of judgment at them. They will reap what they have sown. They have cast the fiery darts of Satan at the righteous. God will cast His mighty arrows of judgment at them. And they shall not escape. Secondly, there will be coals of juniper. Now, this is a reference to the hot burning coals of the juniper bush, which glow with an intense burning heat. Junipers, in the Holy Land, when burnt in the fire, put out an intense amount of heat and their coals are the hottest of all coals. And these juniper bush coals represent the fires of hell. It says in Revelation 21 and verse 8 that all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone." And that's what the psalmist is saying here. What should be given to the slanders? They will burn in the lake of fire and brimstone because all liars shall have their part in that lake. God cannot lie. God forbids lying in the ninth commandment when He says, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. And God hates the lying tongue. Proverbs 6.16 says, These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to Him, and two of them are, number one, a lying tongue, verse 17, and a false witness that speaks lies, verse 19. of Proverbs 6. So when God is making a list of seven things He hates, two of the seven are slanderers, liars, those who misrepresent the truth about others. The fall of mankind was precipitated by a lie. And every sin is based on a lie and grows out of a lie. Hebrews 3.13 speaks about the deceitfulness of sin. Deceit is lying. And so sin lies to us. Temptation lies to us. It offers us pleasure while actually bringing us perdition. Honesty, truthfulness, Accuracy, charity are to be the hallmark of all of our communication about other people. And we must never represent what they said or never misrepresent what they did, even if we're called to testify about some wrongdoing that they committed. Don't over exaggerate the wrong that other people have done. Seek to mitigate it by considering mitigating circumstances. In all cases, be scrupulous about accurately representing what other people said or did so that you never slander them, even if you have to speak of something negative. which they did out of some necessity and requirement to speak regarding it. But most of the time, we don't have to talk about the wrong that other people have done. And so we need to conceal the matter unless it's required to speak of it. And so we must never represent what others said or did. The arrows of God's vengeance and the hellfires of his judgment away all liars and let us be careful not to be among them ourselves. And if we are lied about. Let us not return slander for slander. or attempt to get our own vengeance. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, and I will repay, says the Lord. And so we must find our comfort and our peace in the fact that God will vindicate us from the slanders lodged against us, and God will bring justice to bear upon those who have slandered us. We can just simply let them go into the hands of God's vengeance. The truth will come out in the end and the liars will be exposed and the righteous will be vindicated. And in that is our peace. And we just have to wait for that day in simple, quiet trust that in due time, God will vindicate his own. And that brings us into our third principle, for dealing with those who want to be at war with us when we want to be at peace with them? Not only did the psalmist pray for God's help in verses 1 and 2, not only did the psalmist wait upon God's vengeance in verses 3 and 4, but thirdly, the psalmist practiced God's peacemaking in verses 5-7. The psalmist practiced God's peacemaking in verses five to seven. Now, though the psalmist sought to deal with his slanderers through a godly use of biblical methods of prayer and waiting on God, it did not mean that the pain that he experienced at being slandered just magically disappeared. We hear the psalmist's cry of anguish in verse 5. He's prayed. He says, God, You deal with these people. He's resting in God's vengeance, His arrows and His coals of juniper which will be applied in due time. But he still really, really hurts. And we hear that cry of pain coming out of his lips. in verse 5. He says, Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. Now, Mesech and Kedar are real geographical places. They are real geographical places that are widely separated from each other by a great distance. They are, in fact, Gentile regions and Gentile cities, places where barbaric, pagan, godless people live. Now, the psalmist is not literally claiming to dwell in these places. He could not, because they are remote from each other, and he certainly could not be in two different places at the same time. Rather, these names represent a category and a type of people. The category and type of people who live in these places a category and type of people that are warlike, that are pagan, that are cruel, and that are hateful. It is people who bear this warlike, pagan, cruel, and hateful demeanor which are the kind of people that the psalmist dwells among. whatever their nationality may actually be, and wherever he geographically actually is located. We could say, it's like, woe is me, I dwell among IS-IS. The jihadist group that's currently slaughtering people. in Syria and Iraq. It's a category of people. Those kind of people don't just exist there, unfortunately. They exist in lots of places. They're warlike. They're cruel. They're heartless. They're hateful. And they're just perfectly happy to go to war with you even though you don't have any beef with them. That's what the psalmist was experiencing. To dwell among those with evil character, who live in a spirit of malice and envy, who are hateful and who love fighting and conflict. To dwell among such a people and to try to get along with such a people is a terrible trial. They are sociopathic people. People who are not happy if they are not stirring the pot and creating conflict with those around them. It is a miserable experience to try to get along in such an environment and with such people who have no intention of ever living peaceably with you. That's the last thing they want. And what makes it even more difficult is that you can't get away from such people because of the circumstances you find yourself in. Notice verse 6. The psalmist said, not only woe is me that I sojourn among people of the character of Mesech and Kedar, but he says in verse 6, my soul has long dwelt with him that hated peace. In other words, he's been around and in the midst of these kind of people, these lying slanderers, who are vicious and cruel and hateful and malicious. He's been living among these people for a long time. And apparently, he can't get away from them. He's stuck there. He says, my soul has long dwelt with those who hate peace. And sometimes you have to just live for a very long time with some very nasty people. Maybe you're trapped in a marriage with a sociopath and you just can't get out of it. Maybe a job keeps you around some very unpleasant people and you can't quit because you've got to put bread on the table for the family. Maybe a military obligation forces you to dwell among such people and you can't desert. You've got to stay there at your post. Maybe a calling to a ministry keeps you in the presence of these kind of people and you can't walk away from them because there are believers who need you. But whatever the case, The psalmist had dwelt among these people for a long time, and it appeared that he could not get away from them. And it was a matter of great personal woe to him that he had to dwell with people for years and years and years on end who were of the character of those who dwelt in Misek and Kedar. Well, What did he do in such an environment where he was forced to deal with unpleasant people for an extended period of time with no hope of escape? Verse 7 tells us, I am for peace. But when I speak, they are for war. In verse 7, we see what he did when he was in an environment where he was forced to dwell with unpleasant people for an extended period of time. And what he did is he tried his best to keep on being a peacemaker. He was for peace. Literally, in the original language, it says, I am peace. They are war. Peace is who he was. He tried his best to be a peacemaker. He was for peace with his neighbors. He did all he could to make peace and to keep peace. Sadly, this made no impression on the neighbors. No matter how peaceably he conducted himself, they just wanted war. But he did not let them push him into war. he did not let them mold his peaceable character into a war-like character like theirs. Rather, he just kept on being a peacemaker and following after the things that made for peace, no matter what kind of a reaction he got back. And this is where we leave him as this psalm closes. Still being for peace, Even after dwelling for a long time with people who hated peace and did everything they could to disturb the peace, he never retaliated against their warlike attitude with a warlike attitude himself. They brought war. He responded with an effort, his best effort, to make peace and to be peaceable. Though everyone around him was a war maker, he kept on trying to be a peacemaker. And he never let those around him push him into their mold. Instead, he just kept reflecting God's character. Because who is Jesus? The Prince of Peace. Jesus came to bring peace, and we should strive to be people of peace as much as lies in us. It says in Matthew 5 and verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. And a slanderer is the opposite of a peacemaker. He is a war maker. Now the good news, people, the good news is this. Someday, the psalmist, and someday we, will dwell in peace among people who love peace, in a heaven of peace, where the slanderers who always fought against us will be burning in the juniper coals of hell, and we shall live in the peaceable land and with the peaceable people of heaven. Though he had dwelt long with those who hated peace, he will not dwell forever with them. Someday he will be delivered from them. I dare say he already has been delivered from them. And God has given him freedom from the slanderers and the warmongers, and he is now in heaven. where there is nothing but peace and peaceable people who love Him and whom He loves, and among whom there is zero conflict and there is nothing but total goodwill. God will give us freedom from the slanderers and the warmongers, and that is part of the blessed hope that we are looking forward to when Christ comes and delivers us from this world. So how do we deal with the war-like, implacable, lying, slandering people in our lives that we have to dwell with and can't get away from? What do we do? We pray for God's help. We wait on God's vengeance. And we just keep on practicing God's peacemaking. knowing that there is coming a day of deliverance when we will be in the place of peace with the Prince of Peace in the Kingdom of Peace forever and ever. And all the liars are sequestered and quarantined away from us forever in the juniper coals of hell. So Jesus said, blessed are you when men revile you, and when they speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward. Where? In heaven. That's where we look for peace, is in heaven. And until then, we try to be peaceable. As much as lies in us, we try to live peaceably with all men. But sometimes it doesn't lie within us. We've done all we can do, but it takes two to make peace. And if they don't want it, we're not going to have it. And so we just have to endure. Maintain humility. Maintain Christlikeness and know that we're just going to flat get abused in the process until the sharp arrows fly and the coals of juniper come and then is our deliverance. It won't be long Just a few decades before all of us will be delivered into the perfect peace that passes all understanding, that will fill our hearts and minds, not just spiritually, but environmentally, in the glories of heaven. There was never any conflict in this world until sin came into it. And there will never be deliverance from conflict in this world until sin is kicked out. But for this cause was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. And what he's going to destroy is his slanders and all of those slanders that his people have lodged through the centuries against God's people. So let us be careful not to be among the slanderers and let us be careful not to react improperly towards the slanderers. We're just going to pray. We're going to wait on God's vengeance, and we're going to be peaceable people ourselves. Therein lies our blessedness. Blessed are the peacemakers. Shall we pray together? Father, thank you that Christ came to bring peace on earth and goodwill towards men. And Father, it shall be brought. It has been brought in part through the Gospel. It shall be brought completely at the revelation of Jesus in the Second Coming. Until then, Father, we recognize that we have to fight the good fight of faith, but not with carnal weapons like the wicked use, but with godly weapons of prayer and waiting on God's justice acting like peacemakers. Help us, Lord, to walk in that path as contrary as it is to the flesh. And when we're stung and when we're hurt by the awful things people say about us, help us just to put our head down, quiet our spirits, be slow to speak, and be humble in our reactions. Father, that won't happen. unless You help us. And so we're asking You to help us, that we won't respond in the flesh, but we'll respond in the Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.