Well, if you would turn in your Bibles to Psalm 12, to Psalm 12, the psalm that we've read and have also sung, I want to consider this psalm tonight under seven headings, all of which have been alliterated. But in opening, I want to say that Psalm 12 paints for us a very bleak picture. A picture of a society that is bereft of godly influence, a society where even faithful people fall short, where the people of God have been sucked into thinking and living like the world around them, into behaving just like the ungodly. Psalm 12 does not give us details about a specific incident of wickedness, rather it seems to refer to a general condition of iniquity that prevailed in that state and Psalm 12 is an imprecatory psalm. That means it includes a call to God to bring punishment upon his enemies. And of course the idea of God avenging evil is not a popular idea in our 21st century western culture. The church of today, even the church, shrinks from declaring this aspect of God's character and whilst as believers we must declare the love and the mercy and the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ, we must also uphold his justice too. Exodus chapter 34 verse 7 reminds us that God will by no means clear the guilty. God cannot leave sin unpunished, because that would contradict his nature. Either a person's sin must be punished in Christ, or that person must bear the just wrath of God against their sin for all eternity. And several of the Psalms speak about God recompensing evildoers. Several Psalms call upon him to exercise divine justice. And of course, this is not only a feature of the Old Testament. There are examples in the New Testament of believers calling upon the justice of God to be exercised against evil. In 1 Corinthians 16, the Bible states, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. And in Revelation chapter 19, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, is depicted as one called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make law. So with these things in mind, let's consider Psalm 12 this evening. And one of the first aspects, one of the first things we see depicted in Psalm 12 is a deepening crisis. We see a deepening crisis. This is not a crisis confined to the personal life of the psalmist or even a crisis relating to his own family circle. Rather, it is a deepening crisis facing the whole of his society, not from an enemy outside, but rather from within. Verse one describes the nature of that crisis. It says, the godly man ceaseth, and then the faithful fail from among the children of men. So the problem here is that within the society that the psalmist sees, the godly are disappearing, the faithful are failing. The word cease, of course, means to bring to an end, and here, A godly generation either is dying off or they are no longer exerting a godly influence. The next generation of believers is not continuing to hold a faithful and a godly line. The prevalence of wickedness in the wider society here is shaping, it is influencing even those who claim to be believers. To use an analogy from the New Testament, from the Sermon on the Mount, the salt is losing its savour, it is losing its saltiness and the light is hiding under a bushel. A once faithful, a once uncompromising witness has declined, has been shrunk back from. And the Puritan Bible scholar Matthew Henry says of this passage, he says, it is supposed that David penned this psalm when there was a general decay of honesty and piety, both in court and in country. and Albert Barnes was a Presbyterian commentator in the 19th century. He adds to Henry's comments, when men professing religion become conformed to this world, when they live like other men, when they cease to exert an influence in favor of piety, when they fall into habits of sin, it is time to call on God with special earnestness. So when believers live and act like unbelievers around them, then the salt loses its savour, it loses its saltiness, the godly influence ceases. When salt becomes adulterated by impurities, becomes useless, for practical purposes, it may as well be cast out and trampled on underfoot. And that is exactly the same with a believer who loses their Christian distinctiveness. Then their faithfulness fails. A believer who hides their light under a bushel ceases to exercise a godly influence on the culture around them. And the same is true of believers who worship God in their meeting house, in their service of worship on the Lord's Day, but then they siphon off the instructions of scripture when they go into their workplace Monday through to Friday or go into their community or their neighborhood. And sometimes we can see this pattern being played out in the culture around us where one generation of godly believers is succeeded by another generation that are lukewarm in their adherence to Jesus Christ. There are examples of it given elsewhere in Scripture. The Bible describes the spiritual decline that takes place in the period, in the era, when the judges began to rule Israel. In Judges chapter 2, at verse 7, it says, the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. And in verse 10, it says, and also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel." This spiritual decline In the book of Judges, early in the book of Judges, led to what was effectively a permissive society in the nation. And we read, I think, four times in the book of Judges, in those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. But of course, the demise of godly influence in a society, it's not unique to Psalm 12, it is not unique to the book of Judges. We do see similar trends in our own nation today. Consider just the example and the issue of the Lord's Day. A generation ago, Sunday was widely reverenced as a day of worship, a day of rest among the vast majority of Christian people and wider into society as a whole. Shopping malls were generally closed. Many children were sent to Sabbath schools, even children whose parents did not attend church services. But today, the Lord's Day, Sunday, is widely used for competitive sports. It's used as a day for shopping in town centers. And fewer and fewer people are attending a place of worship. And so David observes a similar crisis, a similar breakdown, as he pens Psalm 12. And it's one we can relate to here in the United Kingdom today. how you and I live out our Christian lives, Monday through to Saturday, either enhances or diminishes the godly influence on the nation around us. So we see a deepening crisis. But secondly, in Psalm 12, we see a deadly changeover. So Psalm 12 shows us that when godly influence declines, when a faithful stand is not maintained, then a deadly changeover takes place. The disappearance of a godly worldview does not leave an empty space, does not leave an empty void. The gulf is always filled by something else. There are people in our Western society today who claim that citizens should keep their faith out of the public square. We've heard it said of politicians who are believers, they're told, oh, no, no, you can't bring your faith into the public square, no, you must keep it out of the decisions that you make in the political arena or the legal arena or the media. Well, such a statement is nonsense. There is no such thing as a value-free society. If a culture is not influenced, if it's cultural systems are not influenced by one particular worldview, then you can be sure that those cultural systems are being influenced and shaped by another cultural view. Believers are being told to switch off our faith when we enter the public arena. We're being told that our beliefs must be set aside. We are not to let them influence the policy decisions that our politicians or civil servants make. And of course, a naive assumption is made that if the Christian faith does not influence our decisions, then those decisions will be neutral. But in fact, by switching off the faith, people are acting as if they were practical atheists or secular humanists. Atheism is a religion, it's a worldview with a value system just as much as any other worldview, Christianity or any other one. Why should a believer who enters the public square switch off their faith when an atheist who enters the public square is allowed to let their atheism influence and shape the decisions they take. Psalm 12 shows to us that when godly influence on a culture ends, it does not create a neutral ground, rather it ushers in a godless influence. Verse 8 makes clear that when the godly cease and the faithful fear, it says there in verse 8, the wicked walk on every side, the vilest men are exalted. This is no level playing field. Verse 8 shows that the balances are heavily weighted towards wickedness. The wicked are popping up on every side. They're strutting about in every place. They're engulfing the whole of the society. They become the center of decision making. The public square revolves around their values and their beliefs. Their influence is disproportionate, such that the vilest are exalted to the highest of positions. They pull the levers of power. And in his commentary on Psalm 12, Matthew Henry the Puritan says, when wickedness abides, when it goes barefaced under the protection of those in authority, then the times are very bad. When the vilest men are exalted to places of power who, instead of putting laws in execution against vice and injustice and punishing the wicked, instead they patronize and protect the wicked, they give them countenance and support, their reputation by their own example, then the wicked walk on every side. They swarm in all places. They go up and down, seeking to deceive, to debauch, to destroy others. They are neither afraid nor ashamed to discover themselves. They declare their sin as Sodom, and there is none to check or control them. Bad men are base men, the vilest of men. It is bad with a kingdom when such men are preferred. Godly influence brings a restraint to a society. Sin hides underground. But if you remove the saltiness, if you remove the sabre, then sin will parade itself on the street corners. It will strut through the corridors of power. As gospel preaching and godly living become rarer in a nation, then sin also becomes bolder. Society does not remain in limbo. Either it is savored by godly salt and light, or it decays and rottenness takes root. And Psalm 12 shows this deadly changeover taking place. David too saw vileness. being exalted. He saw similar trends at work in his day that we see in our culture. Vileness is exalted when blasphemy, when swearing become the common language of television and the lyrics of popular music. Vileness is exalted when sex and violence are the features of films and entertainment. Vileness is exalted when pornography is sold in magazines and newspapers and the corner shops. when it's the features of television and the internet. Vileness is exalted when homosexuality and transgenderism are promoted to children in schools under the guise of relationships education. Vileness is being exalted when politicians push through easy divorce laws that allow people to walk out of marriages for little or any reason. Vileness is being exalted when the laws of the nation legalize the killing of infants in the womb for virtually any reason and when more than 223,000 babies are aborted in a nation every year. Vileness is being exalted when school inspectors berate Christian teachers for teaching children that marriage is a lifelong union of one man and one woman. Only one generation ago, even the ungodly, even the unbelievers would have frowned upon behavior that is now celebrated at the highest levels of our society. A deadly changeover is taking place. But then thirdly, in Psalm 12, we see a debauching of conversation. I have alliterated the points and I've had to stretch this one slightly, but we see a debauching of conversation. When godly influence in a society diminish, When wicked values and behaviour appear in every place, then language and conversation is debauched. It's redefined to promote the new norm. It's often said that history is written by the victors and vocabulary It can be manipulated to take on a meaning that fits the aims and objectives of those advancing particular schemes. Terminology can be twisted to convey a particular narrative. Language becomes a propaganda tool and we see the rise, we've seen it in modern times, of what is called spin-doctoring. And here in Psalm 12 we see examples of that. In verse 2 it says that the people speak vanity, everyone with his neighbour, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. It's not only that people are lying to one another, the idea being conveyed here is more comprehensive deception, a deception that is being played out across the whole of the society. Vanity, insincerity become the norm for communication. Language is debauched, it's corrupted to help spread this wickedness. Idle chatter and gossip, these things entertain and we see examples of that on television chat shows and radio talk shows and magazines. Today, soap opera storylines and reality TV shows captivate viewers and flattery involves more than just insincere talk. It goes further and reaches at the motives as well. It involves saying things that will appeal to a hearer in order to further an objective. Verse 2 says that the people speak with a double heart, literally. That is with a heart and a heart, which suggests insincerity and hypocrisy. Conversation is debauched to the extent that people will say one thing, but they will use it as a cover for something completely different. And of course, that behavior is not unique to Psalm 12. We see examples of that in the moral debates our society is facing today. We see language being debauched. We see the social narrative being rewritten to make actions and behaviours that are wrong appear to be right and reasonable. Take the example of public conversation today and public debate about the sanctity of human life. Do people describe the killing of a baby as abortion? Instead they use the phrase termination of pregnancy. You listen to the BBC, they rarely talk about abortion but they talk about terminations of pregnancy. The word baby is seldom used, instead they talk about a fetus. They dehumanize the child with the terminology they use to make abortion sound less horrific. who have been campaigning for recent changes to law say that they are campaigning for reproductive rights, as if those who want to protect women and their babies from abortion are rights deniers. But given that the Abortion Act has legalised the killing of babies in the womb, why does the media, why does the BBC not just honestly say that? The killing of babies has become acceptable because the terminology used has sanitized public conversation. How many young girls in our nation have been deceived into aborting their babies because the language used has glossed over the gravity of what is involved. Similarly, we see debauching of language, debauching of public conversation in the contemporary debates around gender. For centuries, the words sex and gender meant the same thing. But the aims of the transgender movement today have been advanced by distorting language. Activists have coined the phrase gender assigned at birth to give the impression that a person's gender is determined totally randomly. The phrase gender identity furthers the false notion that a person can belong to a gender that is totally at odds with their biological sex. Routinely the media talks about gender reassignment or sex change surgery or treatment and these phrases are widely used in public discourse but they are totally deceptive. No amount of surgery, no amount of hormone injections can turn a man into a woman. or a woman into a man. Those things may make a man look more female or a woman look more masculine. They can alter appearance, but they do not change a person's sex. Yet under the Gender Recognition Act of 2004, a man in the UK who is in his 50s, a man who has fathered children, can be issued with a birth certificate stating that he was born female. This is happening in our own nation. It's a very present example of double-speak, of language being debauched in official government documents. Policies promoting transgenderism have brought about situations in the UK and in other Western nations where men have accessed ladies' toilets, ladies' changing rooms and ladies' domestic refuge shelters and there are very real and genuine safety concerns. The social narrative, the social conversation has been debauched in an attempt to silence and discredit those who disagree. Verse 5 talks about the wicked puffing at or snorting or grunting. of the ungodly. The idea is that the words of the godly are dismissed, they're blown away without serious consideration. The wicked have no time for those words, they blow them out of the way, shove them out of the way and we see a similar approach today. Terms like homophobia or transphobia have been invented in order to silence even the mildest of disagreement with that agenda. To disagree with those things is now routinely called hateful and unloving. In his commentary on Psalm 12, Matthew Henry speaks of the times described in these verses and he says of them, the prudent will keep silent because a man may then be made an offender for one word. In fact, Matthew Henry cross-references this verse with Amos chapter 5 and verse 13, which states, therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time. There are times when the godly stop speaking out the truth, when they self-censor because they fear reproach. And of course we see examples of that today. We see hate speech laws being proposed by governments which present a serious threat to the freedom of believers to declare biblical truth. If it were to become a civil offense to say publicly that the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ are unique, and that the claims of Islam are wrong, then that interferes with freedom to preach the gospel. If it were to become a legal offense to say that homosexual behavior was sinful, then that greatly restricts the ability of believers to present the one who can forgive that sin. If people self-censor, then the unique claims of the Lord Jesus Christ are no longer pronounced in our society. As Christians, we must be careful what we say, but there are times when silence is sinful. Because of our fallen natures, people always prefer an easy life, and as believers, we're no different. It's not particularly attractive to voice objection. It's easier just to go along with a social narrative that is wrong than risk being criticized or mocked. And as a godless society debauches conversation, as social narratives are twisted to make sin sound acceptable, equally language is used to silence those who disagree. But calling sin by more palatable terminology, by writing off all criticism of that sin, these things will not change the verdict of Almighty God. On the day of judgment, sin will be called out for what it is. The Bible is very clear in Ezekiel 18 and verse 20, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. One sin is enough to condemn a person to God's righteous judgment. And the reality is that all of us, me and you, we have all sinned multiple times. We fail daily and we need cleansing and salvation in Christ. So when godly influence ceases, when vileness is exalted, then public discourse and conversation in a society is debauched in order to promote more sin. But fourthly, In Psalm 12 we see a daring confidence. So far we have noted a chain of events that starts with a deepening crisis in which godly influence diminishes. We've considered the deadly changeover when wickedness springs up on every side and vileness is placed in position of influence. We have observed How conversation is debauched and language twisted in order to promote wrong. But now let us look at the daring confidence of those who oppose the word of God. The common characteristic of those who appear everywhere in this psalm is that their trust is in man. Verse three refers to their pride, and they state in verse four, our lips are our own. In other words, from their perspective, man is the final adjudicator. Verse four further reveals the atheistic outlook of the wicked in their statement, who is Lord over us? In this worldview that the wicked adopt, Man is seen as the ultimate authority. He is seen as the final decider of right and wrong. Men view themselves as masters of their own destiny and have no recognition that they may be accountable to a higher power. The demise of godly influence, the exalting of wickedness, The debauching of language, these are all features of a society where daring confidence, the daring confidence of atheism prevails in people's thinking. It's a worldview that runs totally contrary to a biblical perspective on life. Scripture teaches in 1 Corinthians 6 that we are not our own, we are bought with a price and therefore we must glorify God in our conduct and behavior. Despite its apparent promises, this atheist worldview does not bring in a paradise, it does not bring in a utopian. In fact, the fruit it produces is very ugly. Verse 5 reveals, that the poor are oppressed and that the needy are sighing or groaning. Those who contend for truth, they're puffed up, they're blown away, so to speak. God has created every human being Our breath is in his hand and yet fallen man acts as if God does not exist and if he has no authority to judge them. And yet the Bible reminds us that it's in him we live and move and have our being. He has the indisputable title of Lord over us. But just before you and I criticize on believers around us. We need, as Christians, to shine the searchlight upon ourselves. Yes, we may acknowledge God in our meetinghouses and in our services of worship and when we are with other believers. Yes, we may acknowledge him and give lip service to him. But do we live as practical atheists in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, in our workplaces? Are there times when, yes, we acknowledge Christ with our lips, but our conduct is more conformed to an atheist view? When we know that the Bible is teaching something that clashes with what is popular, then there is a temptation on all of us to compromise. As believers, we're obligated to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of our life. We don't just glorify him in our church activities on the Lord's table, to glorify him in our businesses, our communities, our homes, our neighborhoods. Here in Psalm 12, the wicked are claiming that there's no Lord over them, and this helps to justify their wrongdoings. But despite their claims, God is the final judge of all men. Everyone must give an account of themselves to him. And this confidence, however daring it is, is a misplaced confidence, and it will fail men and women in the end, even if it emboldens them to more sin in this life. It will do them no standing in the day of judgment. So we've seen the daring confidence, we've seen the deepening crisis, we've seen the deadly changeover, we've seen the debauching of conversation. But fifthly, in Psalm 12, we see a desperate cry. The dire circumstances so far in Psalm 12 would probably drive most of us to our wit's end. And the psalmist is no different. In face of this situation, he makes a desperate cry in verse 1, help, Lord. The word help could also be translated save, save Lord. This is an earnest plea from someone at the end of their resources. The psalmist is seeking relief. He's seeking divine intervention. Current events are beyond what he can cope with. And it's worth remembering that the psalmist was a warrior king. He fought on many a battlefield. As a shepherd boy, he grappled with wild bears. As a youth, he slew the giant Goliath. David was no shrinking fighter. But here, the situation reaches beyond his ability to cope. The prevailing godlessness left him feeling overwhelmed. The decaying culture drove him to call upon God. David's plea was not for help personally, but for divine intervention to restrain the wickedness around him and to restore true godliness. Scripture gives other examples of believers facing situations where the culture around them and its ungodliness has impacted them. In 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 8 it names Lot as a righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing, vex his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Believers ought not to be indifferent to the godlessness around them. We ought to exercise a godly sorrow, as David elsewhere prays in Psalm 119, rivers of water run down mine eyes because they keep not thy law. We must exercise a godly sorrow over our personal sins We must also exercise a godly sorrow over our nation's sins, and that godly sorrow ought to drive us to pray. 1 Timothy 2 commands the Church to pray for the nation and for its civil rulers. Psalm 12 reminds us that when an anti-Christian culture presses in, the believer must seek God. Our prayer should be help. Lord. So we see the desperate cry. But sixthly, we see in Psalm 12 divine control. As well as turning to God with his desperate cry, the psalmist finds reassurance despite the dire circumstances. Verse Psalm 12 reveals that though things appear to be spiraling out of control, they are still subject to the sovereign will of God and his control. Verse three is clear. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips. God will deal with the wicked and will punish them in due time. They may be beyond the control of other men, but they are not beyond the justice of God. Falsehood may hold sway for a period, may hold sway for a generation, but the day will surely come when God will cut off all flattering lips. The day will come when God will silence the spin and confound it and expose it. Psalm 12 reassures us of the divine control that protects the believer. God shelters his people from the malicious plans of their persecutors. In verse 5, God says, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at them. In verse 7, the psalmist has promised, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, and thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. You don't need me to tell you this evening, but the Christian life is often more of a battleground than a playground. As believers, we're not exempted from trials. We are impacted by what happens in the culture around us. We see that in this present pestilence and pandemic. Believers across Western nations are not exempt from the trials that come in this world. And some people naively think that if we live faithfully as Christians, then everybody will like us. But scripture reminds us of the opposite. 2 Timothy 3 tells us, yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. God calls us as his people, as believers, to go through trials as part of the refining process. Trials can include living in a hostile culture. God called Noah and his family to go through the great flood. He called Daniel to go through the lion's den. He called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to go through the fiery furnace. But in each of these situations, God preserved his people. And this is the divine control, this is the preserving power that is described here in Psalm 12. We are promised God's keeping in our trials. Not promised that he will keep us from trials, but rather he will keep us in our trials. Matthew Henry says in relation to this in Psalm 12, in the worst of times, God has his remnant. And in every age, he will reserve to himself a holy seed and preserve that to his heavenly kingdom. In singing this psalm and in praying over it, we must bewail the general corruption of manners, but we must thank God that things are not worse than they are, and pray and hope that they will be better in God's due time. So we see divine control. But seventhly and finally, we see in Psalm 12 dependable certainty. Psalm 12 shows us that God has given his word. And in contrast to the words of man, the message of man, the society's spin doctrine, in contrast to the flattery, to the vanity and the falsehood, verse 6 tells us, the words of the Lord are pure words. Whereas the message of the society, whereas the public discourse here is full of impurity, it's full of draws, the word of God has been tested, has been tried, it has been proven. Verse six says that it has been purified seven times, just as a silver tried in a furnace. C. H. Spurgeon says of verse six, What a contrast between the vain words of man and the pure words of Jehovah. Man's words are yea and nay, but the Lord's promises are yea and amen. Although man's word is unreliable, the word of God is sure. In a society where vanity, where falsehood, where spin-doctoring is promoted, the godly must turn to the Word of God as their yardstick. It must be our final authority. Instead of interpreting Scripture through the lens of the popular views at any given time, we must interpret the popular views in society through the lens of the Word of God. where the godly are ceasing, where the faithful are failing. Psalm 12 shows us that as believers call upon God, as they return to his word, as they apply its teaching, that is where they find refuge. Christians ought to depend upon the promises of scripture rather than on the message of society. And obviously this involves believing the word of God even when others cast doubt upon it. It means remaining true to his word, no matter what critics may say. It means living out that word in the middle of a culture that rejects it and opposes it. It is inconsistent to say that the words of the Lord are pure and flawless, unless our lives show that we really do believe them and hold to them. Well, in conclusion this evening, we see in Psalm 12 a deepening crisis. We see godly influence coming to an end. We see salt and light losing its savour and being hidden under a bushel. We witness a deadly changeover where wickedness springs up in every side, where vile things are exalted and pull the levers of power. We watch the debauching of conversation, of language, and of public discourse to promote things that are wicked and to de-Christianize the society. And we see the daring confidence of people who declare themselves to be Lord. And these are the circumstances that the psalmist is living under, he is witnessing, he is watching here in Psalm 12. But the psalm also shows us the desperate cry, the prayer of David calling upon God to help and to save. It shows us divine control. Situations are not beyond the sovereignty of God, despite the actions of men. And we see the dependable certainty of the word of God. in contrast to the empty and hollow messages of the age. Psalm 12 is relevant for our day in 2020 here in the West. We too live in an age where godly influence on our culture is diminishing. We live in an age where a strident secular worldview is taking over the public square, where language is twisted to promote wickedness, and where people live their lives as if they were atheists and have no thought of accountability to God for their actions. But Psalm 12 shows us as believers how we should respond. Firstly, we must depend upon God. Don't look to ourselves. for help in that situation, but we look to the Lord. Our trust should be in him, not in man, not even in godly faithful men. For even the best of believers can fail, but we must call out to God in prayer. We must depend upon his word and upon him, and we must declare and must live out his word and his gospel. The word of God can be trusted, even when circumstances, even when our feelings suggest differently. So when faced with situations like the present, we must pray for our nation all the more. We must turn to the word of God and seek to be godly, salt and light, whatever the cost may be. God has promised to preserve his people, to safeguard his people, even through the fiercest storms and despite the great hostility of man. Well, may God bless his word to every one of our hearts.