All right, let's dig right in to Psalm 81. If you look down in your Bibles there, verse number one, the Bible reads, sing aloud unto God our strength. Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Of course, a psalm is a song, and it starts off with praise to the Lord. Verse two says, take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon in the time appointed on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel and a law of the God of Jacob. Now, verses two through four. there's a lot of reference to musical instruments. And I like the sermon that Brother Devin just preached recently about learning to play a musical instrument. I think it was a great sermon and I, you know, would to God more people will choose to pick up that skill and learn how to play an instrument. And I can't recall if he made any reference to this or not in the sermon. I honestly don't remember, but, One thing that I would just stress is when it comes to talent and things with musical instruments, The more I've been learning and understanding how people work and how things work, when it comes to talent, I'm not saying it doesn't exist. There's definitely people who are really good at playing instruments and stuff like that, and some people it seems to come a little bit easier for than others. But the people that we deem to be really great musicians, they don't just play that way without having to work at it and having to work tremendously hard at it too. Like the best musicians out there really spend a lot of time invested in that craft, in that practicing of their music. So it's easy for someone who is, not involved in that and doesn't even know necessarily how much time people are spending doing stuff and you just hear him be like oh wow you know it's like like brother josh is just fantastic on the piano and he is he's a very good uh piano player as well as mrs rogers but you don't see the the the the practice that goes on outside of church right you don't get to see how much time has been spent and even just in in their lifetimes up to this point you know of of the the amount of time it just goes into it goes into it so they make it look really easy and people who are really good at something always are able to make it look really easy right it's just kind of like oh wow yeah it looks so great and then you try to do it it's like man you know i don't know how to do this you kind of throw up your hands easy get frustrated with it and you're going to be like well that that's just something for them but Anybody can learn how to do these things. And I am a strong believer in that. And while there may be some more aptitude in general with some people over others in different areas, and maybe musical ability is one of those, anyone is capable of being good at playing an instrument. But it does require work, and it requires effort, and it requires time. I mean, you have to want to do it. So I'm not saying everyone has to want to play an instrument either. But the reason I'm even bringing this up is so that you wouldn't just automatically put these things out of your mind as something that like, well, that's just not for me because I'm just no good at it. I don't have the talent that so-and-so has. but you don't know that. How do you know how much talent you really have? Oh, just because you don't get it immediately? You know what I mean? I tried doing it once and I don't know. No, work at it, give it some time. You might be excellent at playing some instrument, you don't even realize it. So, I would just say this as encouragement. It's not you almost learn how to play musical instruments. If you like it at all, right, if you enjoy music, if you enjoy the sounds of music and things, just give it a go. Give it some try. Whatever type of instrument you like kind of the most and see what it's like and maybe put some effort into it for a while too before you just dismiss it. It's good, if nothing else, to have just more education and wisdom, you know, you learn more about music theory, you understand, you could read the notes, you could know more about what goes into songs and music, and maybe that would lead you down a path of composition. Maybe you're not great at playing, you know, there's so many avenues to go down, and I just, just as a word of encouragement, and, you know, this goes with languages, this goes with other things that people have a tendency to just kind of brush off as going, well, I don't have that talent, I'm not very good at that. But I think the talent might get a little overstated because it really mostly boils down to a lot of effort and a lot of work, and people who are more passionate about those things are going to excel because they enjoy putting in the time doing the things that they like doing. I mean, that makes sense. So, if it's not something you like at all, then yeah, maybe it's not for you. It's not like you have to play an instrument to be godly. But we are seeing here, and my next point, and what I want to point out here, is we see all these instruments. And one of the most silly things I've ever heard as a doctrine that a New Testament Christian church has is, there's some people out there that are against having instruments in their church services. Sorry, it makes me kind of laugh a little bit because the whole point, or at least the best argument that I've heard for this, is an argument based off of omission, meaning, well, we don't see anyone using instruments in the New Testament. Therefore, we shouldn't use them. It's kind of like, do you really have to see that to just make the claim of like, well, we shouldn't do this? That's kind of silly if you ask me, especially when the New Testament tells us that we're supposed to sing the Psalms, that we're supposed to be speaking unto each other in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, right? And then we go to the Psalms, and we also know that the Psalms are the word of God, and we know that all scripture is profitable to us, and it's profitable for instruction, right? It's given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for us to learn things from, and it's not just to learn how they did things in the Old Testament. Like, there's a lot of great truth in the Word of God in the Old Testament. We look at these Psalms, and he's saying here, sing aloud. And it's like, well, should we not sing then? Because that's an Old Testament thing. Oh, but we can find people singing, yeah, they sung a hymn with Jesus at the Last Supper or something. And they weren't carrying instruments around with them. Otherwise, they might have been playing music, too, you know, like, whatever. It's not a reason to not have musical instruments. But we see here, clearly, take a psalm and bring hither the timbrel, which is an instrument, the pleasant harp, which is an instrument, with the psaltery, which is another instrument. And then it says, blow up the trumpet in the new moon. in the time appointed on our solemn feast day. And that says, for this was a statute for Israel. So this was actually a commandment given in the law of God. Now, if you just look for, well, the new moon, you hear about this, it's really interesting. If you've ever tried to look into this before, and I looked into this while I was preparing for the sermon specifically, You hear it in the major prophets more frequently about the new moons and your feasts and God talking about the new moons and bringing that up. But when you actually go back to the law, you won't find the new moon. You'll find the Feast of Tabernacles. You'll find the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You'll find the Feast of the Ingathering. You'll find these other holy days. You'll find other times. But then it's like, well, where is the new moon? the new moon still exists in the scripture and this is why the psalmist isn't wrong saying it was a law of the God of Jacob. Keep your place here in Psalm 81 and turn back if you would to Numbers chapter 10. And here's why it makes sense to blow the trumpet in the new moon and that this was part of the law of God. Numbers 10, verse number 10. The Bible says this, also in the day of your gladness and in your solemn days, And in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, that they may be to you for a memorial before your God. I am the Lord, your God. Now, every day they're having their burnt offerings, their peace offerings, the evening sacrifice, the morning sacrifice. They have all of these things laid out in the law. But then it says here in this verse, though, that in the beginnings of your months, now, If you know anything about the Hebrew calendar, you'll know that it was a lunar calendar. and they didn't operate, like we're used to the Gregorian calendar, we're used to the solar calendar, where our years are based on the sun and the 365 days in a year, but their months were based off of the lunar calendar, which we know the lunar cycle isn't a full 30 or 31 days like we have for each of our months, it's a little bit less than that. So I don't want to get super in depth tonight on all the math behind the days and how they calculated their years because they have to have like we have a leap year and there's a leap year coming up right next year. So 2024 is going to be a leap year and we add one day. Why? Because our days last or our years are 365 and a quarter days roughly right that's that's approximately how much time is spent so every year or every four years you got to tack on a day because if you don't slowly over time right like we're in we're at the end of november now after enough time you know it's cold outside in november now it could get to get down to freezing Well, over enough time it'll be summer, right? And then we're November and it kind of screws things up with the way we're doing our months. So it's easier just to say, well, let's just throw an extra day in there to make sure that we could keep everything still in tune with the seasons. And. Back in ancient times, especially with the Hebrews, they operated on a lunar cycle and according to the season. So they still kept track of year. They weren't getting all out of whack, but they just had to insert more days over the year. And they would do it in terms of months or maybe another cycle or something like that and use literally another month instead of just doing it for a day. Okay, but this is how they would keep track of their time. And when you look into this, it's really fascinating. And it starts to make a little bit more sense. And this is why it's good to have just a little bit more education about these things, right? It helps just a little bit to get a good, clear understanding. So when you come across something like this, you go, well, when you really decide to study and dig into it and go, well, what do you mean blow up the trumpet in the new moon? I've seen that before, but I didn't see that in the law. But it says this was a statute for Israel and a law for the God of Jacob. So how does this make sense? Well, it makes perfect sense when you understand that, oh, the blowing of the trumpets, it happens at the beginnings of the month. And when we see everything is based on these different feasts that have to do with the agriculture, With the harvest, there's a lot of stress and emphasis on these things. It was a much more agrarian culture and relied on these things. Big deal. So they kept their time accordingly. And similarly, or along the same mindset, and turn if you would to Numbers chapter 28, When you're talking about your days with the children of Israel, the days start in the evening. They go evening to evening, which really isn't that much different than what we do here because we use midnight as the time when the calendar switches to the next day. So theirs is essentially roughly six hours earlier than that. So it's a little bit earlier. It's when the sun goes down. Evening time would start the next day. And then it goes all the way next day. And the reason why they chose that is because the Bible says in Genesis 1, in the evening and the morning were the first day, in the evening and morning were the second day, in the evening and the morning. So you're getting this concept of starting with the evening, going through to the next. That's the way that they did the time. Now, are we just wicked heathens that are terrible because we're not using the lunar calendar? No. Doesn't matter, right? It literally doesn't matter, but it does help. When we're looking at this stuff to have that understanding, OK, that's how they did things, great. It also helps a little bit when you're doing some of the figuring on prophecies and just sort of understanding a little bit, and that might help you when you find some nice little gems of truth in scripture when you're looking at the time frames of things yet to come, especially. All right, you're in Numbers 28, look at verse number 11. The Bible says, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord, two young bullocks and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot, and three-tenth deals of flour for meat offering, mingled with oil, for one bullock, and two tenth deals of flour for meat offering, mingled with oil for one ram, and a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for meat offering unto one lamb, for a burnt offering of a sweet savor, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord, and their drink offering shall be half an hen of wine unto a bullock, and a third part of an hen unto a ram, and a fourth part of an hen unto a lamb. This is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year. and one kid of the goats for a sin offering unto the Lord shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering. So in Numbers 10, we saw that the blowing of the trumpets was included in the offering at the first of the month. And this just goes into a little bit more detail about these special offerings that are taking place at the beginning of their months. And it's good just to understand that we're going to learn more over time going through the various sacrifices that the children of Israel will make. And even at the beginning of their month was a special time where they had specific sacrifices to be made. So let's go back to Psalm 81. And also, to make the point then, this is going back to the law of God. David introduced a lot of instruments, right? King David seemed to be a man that loved music. He played music, he played well, you remember he was brought in for Saul when Saul was plagued by that evil spirit from the Lord and he would play and then the evil spirit would depart and he was cunning by playing music and he also introduced the priests and the Levites and having other servants of the Lord playing instruments in their service to the Lord. We kind of see him bringing a lot of that in, but he didn't bring in all musical instruments. It's not like there wasn't any music being played prior to that because they had these trumpets going all the way back to the Law of Moses and having a part in the aspect of the service to the Lord. You don't want to have a false understanding of like, oh, all these instruments just started with David. No, they didn't all just start with David. God had already had music involved and these trumpets involved in his service going all the way back to the Law of Moses, at least. So there's no reason, again, to say Well, I mean, you don't see all of it. Yeah, you don't have to see a lot of it, doesn't mean it's not there. New Testament, hey, let's praise the Lord with instruments and sing praises unto his name and make a beautiful sound unto the Lord. Yes, with our voice, but also with other instruments as well. It gives honor and glory unto the Lord. Look down there in verse number five of Psalm 81, the Bible says, this he ordained in Joseph for a testimony. when he went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots. Thou callest in trouble, and I delivered thee. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. I proved thee at the waters of Meribah, Sila. So now in the Psalm here, we start off with the praising to the Lord and using the instruments. And then. covering the good things that God had done for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt and being, you know, removing the burden and delivering their hands and freeing them from their slavery, essentially. And they called on the Lord and I answered and I was there to save you. And it says, I answered thee in the secret place of thunder And if you're wondering what that might be, you could remember when Moses went up to receive the commandments from the Lord, there was a cloud and there was thunderings. And when all the people came onto the Mount, they could hear the thunderings. And Moses was allowed up there. Everyone wasn't allowed up there, but he was able to go into there. And at the presence of the Lord, there was that place of thunder where he was there communing with the Lord and giving them what they needed, giving them their direction, giving them their commandments, giving them the instruction to Moses. And then he says, I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. So it's taking some events here that happened. and kind of condensing them into a few verses and including this in the song here as we continue on, we're gonna see kind of getting more to the point of the psalm. This is giving a little bit of a backstory of how good God was to them. And if you would just turn to Numbers chapter 20, we're gonna revisit here when it talks about I prove thee at the waters of Meribah. With that phrase, it kind of starts a shift in the psalm a little bit. And it's getting us to the direction that the psalm is taking. So it starts off with praising the Lord, singing unto him, using instruments. God's been really good to Israel. God's been good to his people. But, right, and then we're gonna see, but they didn't listen to me, but this and this happened. And it starts here with proving the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah. Let's look at Numbers chapter 20, and we start reading in verse number one. This is that incident at the waters of Meribah. Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month. And the people abode in Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people chode with Moses and spake, saying, would God that we had died when our brethren died before the Lord? And why have ye brought up the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates, neither is there any water to drink. So notice all the complaining. And they haven't even been freed from Egypt that long. and they just keep complaining. And this is even after people died because of their complaining, now they're just complaining even further. Verse six, And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. They fell upon their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes. And it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. They don't have any water to drink, and God knows this. And God's already promised to supply their needs. God's gonna feed them, and God's gonna give them the water that they need to survive. He's gonna sustain the children of Israel, because He's the one who's led them out. He's gonna care for them, and He knows that this is a need. Now, they're complaining about a whole host of other things. He's not giving them all of that stuff, but he is gonna give them the water, and he's proving them here, and he's proving the children of Israel, they need to have the faith, they need to trust the Lord, and that even in these impossible seeming situations, God will take care of them. It was an impossible situation being enslaved in Egypt, but God delivered them. It was an impossible situation fleeing from Pharaoh and his army, and they're, trapped by nature, by a big sea. But God delivered them through the sea. And God brought the sea back down upon those that were chasing them. And God defended them. And God protected them. And then they go into the wilderness. And they need water. And God brings them the water. And they need food. And God rains manna down from heaven. And they need these things. And God is taking care of their needs over and over and over again. And he's proving himself. And he's proving them. and he's proving himself to them through his miracles. But what did he command Moses here? And this is important. Because what happens here is literally the reason why Moses and Aaron do not end up going into the Promised Land. It is a result of this event right here at the waters of Meribah, where Moses was no longer allowed to actually complete the mission of leading the children of Israel into the Promised Land, which is why Joshua took over and then crossed over and of course then they fight against Jericho and Ai and then continue on going into and inheriting the land. And Moses only gets to get a glimpse of it and God shows it to him, miraculously shows him all the land before he dies, but he never crosses his foot over into the promised land because of this event. And when you want to understand why, well we have to look at the details of what God specifically said Because what God specifically says to do matters. And would to God we can all as Christians look to what God says and not try to spin it our own way or well God just said this so I'm just gonna go ahead and do, God said X I'm gonna do Y, but it's close enough. No. No. If you're going to learn anything about the Lord, about the Creator, about God Almighty, you know, read the Bible and see when people just decide to do things their own way. After God has already specifically said that it ought to be done. Now look, if God didn't specifically spell something out, great. God loves receiving praise and the thoughts of your heart that are good towards him. But when God tells you to do something a certain way, you do it that way. And God told Moses to do what in verse eight? Take the rod, gather the assembly together. Pretty simple instruction so far. And Aaron, thy brother, And what do you say? And speak unto the rock before their eyes. So they're going to this rock and they're supposed to talk to the rock. And it shall give forth his water. You say, hey rock, we're thirsty, give us water, right? And the rock's gonna listen and obey. And look, the people are gonna see that. And it's amazing, right? It's a miracle. and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock, so thou shalt give the congregation their beastly drink. Look at verse nine, and Moses took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him, takes the rod, that was number one, and Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation, okay, he's doing good, Aaron's with him, they get the congregation together before the rock. So far he's doing everything exactly like the Lord said. And he said unto them, hear now, ye rebels, Must we fetch you water out of this rock? Hold on a second, Moses. First of all, you're supposed to be showing how God is providing for them, not you and Aaron. Must we fetch you water out of this rock? Like you've got this special way of now being able to get water out of this rock, Moses? about the lord is gonna provide for you from water out of this rock and moses lifted up his hand look at this and with his ride he smote the rock twice now where did god ever tell me hit the rock you tell me so what's the big deal pastor persons will cut and say to do that in what matters is because We don't always understand why God wants to do things a certain way, but God has a reason for why he wants it done a certain way. And for us, at our vantage point with the Word of God and being able to have so much luxury of having information and having so many other books of the Bible delivered unto us, it's not that hard to see the representation of the rock and the living water and being able to speak unto the rock to provide that living water for you, right? Like this is a great illustration of Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation, and the Holy Spirit, and that living water is going forth abundantly, the waters of life being able to bring you and keep you and sustain you coming out of Jesus, right? And all you gotta do is call on the rock to provide you that life. It's a great example, it's a great illustration, but what did Moses do? He added his own work to it. He added his own work. But it wasn't that much work, I mean, really, really, it doesn't matter. He added his own work to it. And that's not what God told him to do. So that has significant consequences for Moses. God was trying to show him something, and all Moses had to do was just do it the way that God said. And everything's great. But instead, he added his own spin to it. He added his own thing. And he gets himself in trouble. So water came out. And the water then did come out. He smote the rock. God still provided for him with the water. And the congregation drank. And the beast also. He physically provided for him. But now the symbolism's kind of screwed up here. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel. See, who was supposed to get the glory and honor? I mean, God was, not do we have to fetch out this water for you out of the rock. No, sanctify the Lord, not yourselves, not how great leaders you are and, oh, you need water? Well, we'll get this water for you. No, God's providing it for you. sanctify the Lord. Because ye believe me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel strove with the Lord, and he was sanctified in them. So this is that event, and this is the proving grounds at the waters of Meribah, and God doing all these great things for him, as the Psalm says, let's go back to Psalm 81. And this is the beginning of a turning point. They're still listening to the Lord, but it just gets a little skewed. Doesn't it? And this is how things go historically. Human beings, human nature doesn't change until we get new bodies. We have this sinful flesh. And everything has a life cycle. And even God-fearing churches and believers and movements and groups and generations of people who serve the Lord all seem to go through these cycles. And it starts off with people being really zealous and listening to Lord and wanting to follow and obey the Lord. And then after a little bit of time, you might get a little too comfortable and you start feeling like you can start doing things maybe a little bit different and tweaking things your own way. And then after enough time and more comfort and the blessings come and God's blessing for being faithful to him and everything, then people just start to forget about the Lord altogether. and not really wanting to have anything to do with his word. Things have shifted so far from just, hey, listen to my word and follow what I have to say, and I'll guide you and I'll lead you, to we're gonna do what we wanna do. And how many Christian churches that I'm sure at one point they have a name that they lived, and did great works for the Lord and making a difference in ministering to people with the word of God, have just completely turned to where now you barely hear the word of God preached. No one is using the word of God and converting souls to Christ, but they have all kinds of activities going on. Maybe they're feeding the homeless. Maybe they're doing all kinds of other stuff. right, and doing plenty of good works in general, but have just completely kind of stopped their ears and looking to, hey, what is the Bible just saying to do? And we learn the lesson from God, it's better to obey than to give sacrifice. God is not as impressed with all the sacrifices that you can bring forward as much as he really just wants you to say, what did the Lord tell me to do? That's what I'm going to do. So living by the word of God every day is much more pleasing to God then whatever great thing and money and whatever else you could spend and give to something that, you know, that's not really what he's looking for. And it doesn't mean that God's not pleased with a free will offering, of course he is, you know, there's a time and a place for that, but What he wants more than anything is just listen to him, just respect him and his word and receive it and treat it with the respect it deserves and the importance of saying, hey, I'm gonna listen to what the Lord said and I'm really gonna pay attention and study and do what he said, literally. That's what he wants from us and that has a much higher priority than anything else. So in Psalm 81, Verse number eight, the Bible says, hear all my people and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me. So note, this is coming right after the statement about the waters of Meribah. You've gotta listen, if you're gonna listen to me. There shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God. And this is a big deal for the Lord. It's the first two commandments of the 10 commandments, right? They're kind of the symbol of the old covenant. Verse 10, I am the Lord thy God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Which is, again, understating, don't go after other gods. Don't go worshiping anyone else. I'm the one that brought you out. I am the Lord, your God. You stay faithful to me. And the rest of that verse, verse 10, open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. And how good of a God is our God? I will take care of you, just listen to me. And it's so simple and it's so basic and it's almost mind boggling. We got this awesome infinite book of wisdom from the Lord our God that has been preserved through the ages. And there's so much great truth in here. And there's nuance. There's depth. There's so much. It's amazing. It's fantastic. But at the same time, when you just really get the high level, it's also just so simplistic. It is so easy. And over and over and over again, we see these concepts of like, look, here. Here are some do's and don'ts. I want you to follow me. I want you to listen to me. Just obey me. Receive my word. Receive my word. Follow it. Do it. Just do what I'm telling you to do. That's it. Just do it. And you know what? I'll bless you. And I'll cause your crops to grow. And I'll build a hedge about you. And your enemies are going to run from you. Just obey me and listen to me. That's it. That's it. Obey my word. Follow my commands. I will keep you safe. I will bless you. I will do many great things for you. But if you choose to turn your back on me, and you choose to just be disobedient, and stubborn, and stiff-necked, and you don't want to hear, now we've got a problem. And now you're going to have all kinds of bad things happening to you, right? I mean, this is the simplicity. in the scripture, and it's stated over and over and over and over again, it's stated in the law, it's stated in the prophets, it's even stated in the New Testament. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. I mean, it's these simple truths. Why do we make it so complicated? Why is it so hard? It shouldn't be. Well, we got this flesh, that's what makes it hard. That is the problem, is our flesh. But it's not complicated, we know this. We know this. We have to stay faithful. But let's keep reading here in Psalm 81. So it's still showing, like look, if you'll listen to me, don't go after these other gods. I'm your Lord, I saved you, I brought you out. Open your mouth wide, I'll fill it. I will provide for you in abundance. Just look to me. Verse 11, but my people would not hearken to my voice. They wouldn't listen to me. Wouldn't listen. And Israel would not to me. So as a result, verse 12, so I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels. And what a foolish thing. You wanna walk after your own counsels? Well, I think I know better. I'm gonna give you advice. How about we go to God for the advice? How about we get the counsel from the Lord who knows everything and made everything and knows you better than you. I'm gonna get my advice from God. I'm not gonna worry about just coming up with my own advice for people. It's a foolish thing. And turn if you would to Acts chapter seven. God is so willing to give and provide. God's heart and His love is there, and His long-suffering and mercy is there too, and He really wants what's best for His people, absolutely. He wants people to open up their mouth so He can fill it. He wants that, just people looking to Him and relying on Him and asking, hey, just ask, you'll receive, right? then we change things. And in Acts 7, this great portion of scripture, we have Stephen, the martyr Stephen, who's preaching this great sermon against the Jews there and kind of gives us this big history of things that happen. It does a good job of summarizing kind of what Psalm 81 has summarized for us already. Look at verse number 37. In Acts chapter 7, the Bible reads, This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us. to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt. So he's saying, remember in the secret place of the thunders in Mount Sinai, he received the word of the Lord, the lively oracles to give unto the people. God is giving him good things, but what did the people do? They wouldn't obey. They thrust them, and in their hearts, they turned back to Egypt, saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we what not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. And this is literally what God was saying in Psalm 81, not to do. There shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange God. but so quickly they go back to doing that. Verse 42, then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven. As it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of 40 years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God, Rampham. figures which he made to worship them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." When people push things too far with God, even his own people, he says, you know what? I'm just gonna give them up unto their own heart's lust. I'm gonna give them up, and they're gonna be taken captive. I'm gonna give them up, and they're gonna, you know, these things are gonna happen. And obviously, you know, there's some similarity, but God deals with nations a little bit different than he deals with people, right? If a nation's gonna be saved, you gotta have good works, but if your soul's gonna be saved as an individual, you just need to put your trust in the Lord. You need to put your trust in Jesus Christ, right? But still, if you're a born-again believer, and you just have a stiff neck and a hard heart to obeying the Lord and doing the things He's gonna have for you to do, you're also gonna be facing the consequences. And God's gonna make you reap what you sow. And thankfully, right, you don't ever lose your salvation that wasn't ever on the table. Once He's saved you, you're saved forever. It's never based on how good you are, but at the same time, you could find yourself in a position where God's just done with you. I'm done with them. And we see the heart of the Lord, and I'll read this for you in Psalm 81. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 23. Psalm 81, verse 13. So verse 12, I'll reread for you. So the Lord is lamenting here in Psalm 81. Why didn't you just listen to me? You could have just listened to me. Why didn't you just do it? Why did you have to go after your own lust? Because now you're forcing the Lord to do these things, right? We bring the destruction upon ourselves, like just listen to God. It's all you gotta do. And we just have this tendency to wanna blame everyone else. Take the responsibility for yourself. When you turn away from God and start going after your own heart's lust and that's, you know, look, you did it, you brought it on yourself. God didn't want that for you. God is trying to instruct you. God's trying to teach you through his word. Oh, that you would have hearkened unto me. And this is the same lament that Jesus Christ had for Jerusalem. Look at verse number 37 in Matthew 23. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. It's like how often I wanted to just bring you into the fold. I just wanted to care for you. I just wanted to love on you a little bit. I wanted to bless you. I wanted to be there for you. I really wanted you to be with me. but you would have nothing to do with it. I sent you the prophets, I'm trying to reach you, I'm trying to teach you, and what'd they do? They killed him. No, we won't have this man to rule over us. Okay, now your house is left unto you desolate, it's empty, you have nothing. Let's go back to Psalm 81. God is good. God doesn't want to have to bring this judgment on people. They bring it on themselves. Verse 14, I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. He's like, I should have just been able to defend them and protect them. And when their enemies came, I would have loved to, I should have just been able to just send them away. because that's what God wanted to do. And that's what he should have been able to do, but no, the people screwed it up because they wouldn't listen. They wouldn't hearken to the word of the Lord. Verse 15, the haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him, but their time should have endured forever. So what's that saying? The haters of the Lord, they should have submitted themselves unto him, but they didn't. Right? That's not what happened. And God's people should have endured forever. Because he promised them that. Remember the old covenant, hey, you listen to me, you obey my laws, I'm going to bless you and all of your enemies, God's going to chase away. That's what he promised them. So he's like, they should have been submitted unto you. They should have been defeated. I would have loved to do that. But you didn't listen. Verse 16, he should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee. The blessing should have come. The defense should have come. All of the good things should have happened, but they didn't. Because they gave themselves over unto their own counsels, unto the lusts of their flesh, and Therefore God had to give them up and turn if you would to to Romans chapter 1 We're almost done. I Know many of you understand this doctrine well, but if I still think this fits in here because Psalm 81 15 mentions the haters of the Lord and At the end of the day. This is kind of what ends up happening when God's people just choose willfully to have nothing to do with the Word of God. And honestly, that's it, because when you look back in history, especially at these times that are being referenced of God's people not hearkening, there's still in many cases offering up the sacrifices, going through the traditions, and observing the feasts, and doing these other things in the law. But one, their heart isn't there. And two, they're still just not really listening to the Lord. It's like they're going through the motions on these things, and they're not hearkening to what He really has to say. They're omitting the weightier matters of judgment, just like He said to the Pharisees, right? that Jesus was rebuking in Matthew 23, you know, you tithe mint and rue and anise and cumin, like the smallest of herbs and spices, and you get like these, this little bit of spice, and you're tithing on it, you're giving 10% of that. Which, yeah, I mean, you're supposed to do that on everything that you receive, everything that you're increased with, but he's like, you get so focused on these things and it's so small, but you completely forgot about the way more important things. Right? The love of God and God's judgment and, you know, like all these other things are so much weightier than that. And that's what they care about. And this is, you know, they end up in the situation they're in, and God turns their back on them, just like the haters of the Lord. The Bible says, in Romans chapter one, we'll start reading in just a minute there, you know, when people listen to the Lord, obey his commandments, God blesses and protects and brings judgment and justice to the land. It's what he promised to do. But when the people turn, excuse me, from listening to the Lord, and end up ignoring God's pleas, when he sends his prophets, sends his people, God gets angry, and he allows for the haters of God to rise. He allows it to happen. You could be like, well, these people are so vile, how could you, there's no way God's gonna stand for this. Yeah, when God's people, just refuse to listen to what he has to say and won't be taking any stands and don't actually give heed to what God is saying, then yeah, you know what? God does just allow for the really vile people that just absolutely hate God to just rise in the land and to gain prominence and to end up being a plague and a curse to God's own people. And this is what we're seeing today. This wouldn't happen if God's people didn't stop listening to the Lord. if in this land that God has blessed with many people serving the Lord, could have remained more true and faithful to the word of God and cared about the word of God and wanted to hear the word of God, instead of shunning it and shutting it down and watering it down and not really wanting to offend anyone and not wanting to really hear what the Bible has to say, but just kind of do out of the cares of their heart, they're already been blessed with so much wealth and everything's fine, don't be so negative, That attitude, that mindset, you're just not wanting to hear what God has to say. And you're saying, just listen to my word. Don't get off into these lusts of your heart and the lusts of the flesh. But that's what God's people have done. So he's saying, OK, well, you know what? I should have. I should have been submitting these haters of God before you. Should have been doing it. God wanted to do that. And now we're in a position where we see today, because that's not happening. They're not being submitted under the authority of righteous Christians as they absolutely ought to be. Look at Romans 1 verse 26. The Bible says, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. Now isn't this a little ironic? When God's people don't want to hear God's word, he uses the people that didn't even want to retain God in their knowledge at all as a judgment on his own people that just don't want to hear his word. He's taking now the people that just completely rejected God altogether and hate God to bring the judgment on God's people who just got a little offended and don't want to hear the word of the Lord. Does that make sense? I mean, I can see the irony there. Look at verse number 29. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whispers, backbiters, haters of God. And this is where we get that phrase, because it doesn't happen that often in scripture. You're seeing people just being referenced as haters of God. It's in there enough, but it's not just all over the place. and just going through all these characteristics of these people that are haters of God, the spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them. This is a wicked people being described. This is an extremely wicked, reprobate people being described here. And these are the people where God's saying, look, the haters of the Lord, they should have submitted themselves unto him. But you didn't want to listen. But my people didn't hearken. My people didn't listen to me. So now these people that flat out rejected me are going to be not submitted to God's own people. And, you know, in a righteous society, they absolutely are. Absolutely. They're in the closet. They don't want to be known when you've got a righteous society because people know how wicked this is and they'll have nothing to do with it. And it's shamed and condemned and not tolerated in society. But when you get weak on the word of God and people don't really wanna hear the word of God, let's just not get into the Bible that much. You lose wisdom, you lose discernment, you bring judgment upon yourselves, because God just wants you to obey. He just wants you to listen. It's so simple. Let's learn to uncomplicate our lives with the simplicity in the word of God. Day in, day out. Wake up in the morning, decide to live your life going, you know what? I'm gonna hear from God today and every day. I am gonna hear from the Lord. I am gonna read his word and I'm gonna open up my heart and my mind to receive what God has for me. Not just some tradition of reading, I'm going to want to hear from God every day and do everything I can to walk in the way that I'm hearing from the Lord. And even if the entire world around us goes to hell in a handbasket, we can be right with the Lord. And God knows how to save His people out of trouble. and God will have respect unto you for, you know, being faithful in what you do, the same way that God had respect unto other people of God throughout history and was able to just be there for them in the midst of a crooked, perverse nation, what have you, you know, we need to be those lights shining unto the world. And at the end of the day, too, let's not just throw up our hands in despair going, well, I mean, is God just gonna burn up? Yeah, he is, but you know, we don't know when that's gonna happen. And what's really funny, I was just literally thinking about this this week, quite a while back, I think I had this conversation with Pastor Anderson in like, maybe 2008 or something-ish, of we're just talking about, man, things are getting so crazy, right? We're looking at the events going on around us and just going, you can start, you see how things can come together and how the Antichrist could set up his system and, you know, the mark of the beast and there's this technology and you're just kind of like, like your mind's racing going like, man, I could see how all this stuff can happen and how it could all go down like really, really soon. Like, like everything seems to be there and there's so much turmoil in the world and stuff. It's like, and that was already 15 years ago. I never thought that we were going to get to where we're at now. And it still feels like, man, we're like right around the corner, right? I mean, doesn't it? It's kind of like, I mean, when is the Antichrist going to be revealed? Because things are crazy. But the truth is, we don't know. We don't know. We don't know until the things literally are happening that we've already been warned about. We can't, we don't give up any hope. I mean, we still have children. There's still more generations to come until who knows when, we don't know exactly. So we need to do what we can and fight just as hard as ever, knowing, yeah, the time is short overall, but hey, that's, I mean, you never know. You can get a King Josiah, That gives you another generation, right? Before, God just comes and, okay, now they're going into captivity, now I'm gonna pour out my wrath, now all these really bad things are gonna happen. He extended that judgment for Josiah's generation. Amen, right? So we don't know what God has in store, and we know ultimately what's gonna happen, but we don't know all the timing of it. Have a good attitude. Look to the Lord to guide your path. Don't overcomplicate things, right? Seek the Lord and His wisdom and you won't be steered wrong.