Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I'm filling in again this week for Sunday school, although I have it on good report that Leldon is actually back from Eastern Washington. I don't know if you noticed it. It's a little brighter in here. Oh, wow. Sam and Henry came and set up scaffolding with Keith yesterday, and Sam and Henry. So anyway, they reported there was a Leldon sighting. He was in the building yesterday. And there he is. I received a report yesterday that you were cited. I was cited. Wow. Yeah, that's right. And his voice is back now. Yeah. All right. Let's turn to 92 this morning. Start off with that. All right. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper, he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe His craft and power are great And armed with cruel hate On earth is not his equal Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing? Were not the right man on our side the man of God's own choosing? Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He! Lord, shall I off His name? From age to age the same. And He must win the battle. And though this world with devils filled Should threaten to undo us We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us The Prince of Darkness Grim We tremble not for Him, His rage we can endure, For lo, His doom is sure, One little word shall fail Him. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abided. The Spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sided. Let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also, the body they may kill. God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. All right. Let's bow in prayer. Our gracious and heavenly Father, this morning we are thankful that you are a mighty bulwark, that you are our rock, our refuge, our redeemer. And Lord, as we enter this time of worship, of study of your word, I pray that we would do so, lifting high your name, that we would do so with joy in our hearts, because you are our mighty God, and we are your people and the sheep of your pasture. So Lord, this morning we are thankful that we can gather, that we can sing, and that you listen to our songs. And as our good and loving Heavenly Father are pleased with us, and you're pleased with us, Lord, not because of our righteousness, but because of the righteousness of your son, Jesus Christ. And so this morning we gather in his name and with praise on our lips. Help us to become more and more like Christ. Help us to reflect your holiness in our lives. And we pray that in Christ's name this morning, amen. All right, does anybody have a request? 277. 277. 277, Christ the Lord is risen today. All right, does everybody have it? Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia. Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia. Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia. Sing ye, heaven and earth reply, Alleluia! Thane the stone, the watch, the seal. Alleluia. Christ has burst the gates of hell. Alleluia. Death in vain forbids his rise. Alleluia. Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia. Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia. where, O death, is now thy sting. Alleluia. Once he died, our souls to save. Alleluia. Where thy victory, O grave, Alleluia! Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia! Following our exalted head, Alleluia. Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia. Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia. Hail the Lord of earth and heaven. Alleluia. Praise to thee by both be given. Alleluia. Thee we great triumphant now. Alleluia. Hail the resurrection thou. Alleluia. All right. OK, well, this morning I want to look at Psalm 101. I want to turn there. Let's just start by reading it so we can familiarize ourselves with it to begin. Psalm 101. Mostly all there. A Psalm of David. I will sing of steadfast love and justice. To you, O Lord, I will make music. I will ponder the way that is blameless. O, when will you come to me? I will sing with integrity of heart within my house. I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me. I will know nothing of evil. Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly, I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure. I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me. He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me. No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house. No one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes. Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord. As I'm sure everyone is aware, the question gets often asked around this time of year, or just maybe last week. It's the time of New Year's resolutions, and people ask, what are your resolutions for New Year's? Young people tend to have all these resolutions, and the older you get, the more realistic you are about the resolutions. As I was looking for something to study this week, I thought it was appropriate for us to look at this psalm, because as you probably saw as we read through this, this is the resolutions of a godly man. And in fact, they're quite striking. You may have noticed that the statement, at least in the English, It's not quite like this in the original, but in the English, most of the statements begin with the phrase, I will, or I will not. And so you have this series of resolutions, of statements, of convictions about the way that he will live. And I think actually the context in the larger book of Psalms is helpful here as we place this. This is in the fourth book of Psalms and it comes right after a section that are known as the Enthronement Psalms. Psalm 93 through 100 are called the Enthronement Psalms because they sing of God as King. They sing as the Lord is King. In fact, three of them begin with the phrase, the Lord reigns, and four of them begin with a call for the people of God to worship. So if you have your Bible open, you can just see this. We'll just look at 97. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. 98, oh, sing to the Lord a new song. 99, the Lord reigns, let the people tremble. 100, make a joyful noise to the Lord. All the earth serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. And so there's this whole collection of psalms that are telling the people of God, look at your great God. Come and worship and wonder. and praise him for all that he's done. And so I don't actually think it's a, it's a, it's a random chance that immediately after that section, we have one of the only, one of only two Psalms written by David in, or explicitly by David in the fourth book of the Psalms, 101, a Psalm of David. And here's the King in response to all of that, we could say, Here's King David thinking about the kingship of God, and he says, I want to live in light of God's sovereign reign. And so it's a call to commit himself and, by extension, commit ourselves to him. God is the king. Well, that's wonderful news. What are you going to do about it? What does that mean for the life of a Christian? Well, as this psalm points out, and as the apostles are never are never shy of telling us in the New Testament, commit yourself to him. Commit your life, commit your heart, commit everything that you are to this great and glorious Lord. And I think actually when you read through psalms like this and you think about them in our context today, it made me realize how anti-commitment so much of Christianity is in our land and in our day because we have this sort of notion that Christianity isn't a religion, it's just a relationship, it's all about how I feel. Don't tell me, this sounds, don't tell me what to do, don't tell me how to think, don't tell me how to feel, and certainly don't tell me that I need to make binding commitments on myself to my Lord. Isn't that all just legalism? And you think about even the way that marriage vows have changed popularly. We went from a series of binding commitments. I'm covenanting myself to this other person. I'm making these commitments for the entirety of my life to, well, as long as we're both in love and we both feel like it. Well, David doesn't do any of that. He says, Now obviously this is a standard that we know in the life of David, and we know in the life of many saints, they fall short of, but here's a standard that is set. It's a call to right living, it's a firm dedication to live and to look to God. And of course, this is not in some sort of a prideful way of the Pharisees. Look at me and look at how great I am. But this is actually as a child of God who's committing himself to live in a way that pleases his heavenly father, reflecting God's holiness for his people. And traditionally in Christian theology, and especially in Protestant theology, we talk of the three uses of the law. The first use of the law is as a mirror to show ourselves that we're sinners before a holy God. And the second use of the law is as restrainers, restraining the evil of society. And the third use of the law is as the children of God, as the people of God, it is, as Psalm 119 says, a light to a way and a lamp to our path. It shows us the path of righteousness. And so this psalm we need to remember is that third use of the law. It is for the people of God, the people who know the grace of God to say, how may I live in a way that's pleasing to him? How may I live in a way that reflects his holiness? And so if we look at a simple outline, this is very simple. The first four verses, deal with personal holiness, verses one through four are personal holiness, and then verses five through eight deal with public righteousness. And there's, of course, a logical order to this. Jesus talks about this. He says, first clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside will be clean. First deal with the private, First, deal with who you are in your heart and in your home, and David actually says that, and in the Psalm, inside my home, how I will live inside my heart, who I will be before God, who I am, and then secondarily, five through eight, the public righteousness, how I am interacting with others, who I am bringing around me, and who I am shunning or staying away from because of their worldliness. And of course, both matter to God, but we start with with who we are before God before we speak of who we are before the world. So just look with me at verse one. I just want to walk through this morning. Verse one, I will sing of steadfast love and justice. To you, O Lord, I will make music. And so you'll notice that the psalm here begins with a priority of worship. He says, I will sing, and he says, I'm not gonna sing to myself, and not primarily even to sing to others, but I will sing to the Lord. And we should note that at the very center of all godly discipline is the commitment to worship. And this is the starting point for what it means for someone to be godly or righteous. Because godliness, of course, the very definition of that word is a reflection of his nature. And so the new King James says here, to you, O Lord, I will sing praises. And so David's focus here is not actually to speak to other people. This whole psalm is a dedication to God, and it begins with his dedication that he will sing to the Lord. We worship God as our supreme good, as our hope, our refuge, our savior. And so we love what God loves, and just as importantly, we hate what God hates. So if someone claims to have godly character, but he doesn't worship God, I'm a very godly man. Oh, are you a worshiper? Well, do you go to church? Be Easter, maybe Christmas Eve. I think we can say with absolute certainty that person's nothing but a fraud. Oh, you have godliness, but you don't worship that God? You have holiness, but you don't come into his presence? No, actually David says, my first resolution is to sing and to worship and to come into the presence of the Lord. And look at the twin attributes he highlights here in verse one. I will sing of, he says, steadfast love and of justice. And these are used over and over again in the Psalms to describe God's actions over his creation, his actions towards his people, his sovereign rule over all things. In fact, the word steadfast love or, or loving kindness, we saw this last week in Psalm 130 verse seven, singing there of God's loving kindness, God's covenantal faithfulness, or I think the King James says his mercy, God's mercy towards his people. And just, just, just again, look here in this section of Psalms that precedes this Psalm 98 verse three, He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. That's what David is singing of. And then Psalm 100 verse five, for the Lord is good. His steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations. I will sing to you, Lord, of your steadfast love, of your covenant faithfulness. And then, of course, he says, I will also sing of your justice. Look at Psalm 99, verse 4. The king, speaking of God, the king in his might loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice. and righteousness in Jacob. And then look at the conclusion to that in the very next verse, 99 verse 5, exalt the Lord our God, worship at his footstool, holy is he. This is the God who has steadfast love, he has a covenant faithfulness that that is beyond all of our sinfulness, beyond all of Israel's sinfulness, as we read in the Old Testament, as we saw in Psalm 130 last week. But it is also the God who is just. And what is the conclusion then for the people of God? It is to come and worship him, to sing of his holiness, sing of his greatness. And that's exactly what David says here. I will sing of your steadfast love and your justice. And as we sing to him and as we look to him and we long to know more about God and to know him better, we're conformed more and more into the image of his son. It's an amazing thing. I want to pursue godliness in my life and pursue God. Commit yourself to worship, public, private, Commit yourself to knowing this God and to worshiping him. And that's where all of this starts for David. I'll sing to the Lord. To the Lord, I will make music. And so verse one, the priority of worship. Then verse two, he says, I will give a priority in my affections. Verse two, I will ponder the way that is blameless. Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk with integrity of heart within my house. And so here is David, he first says, I will sing to the Lord, and then I will ponder, I will think carefully, I will look to the way that is wise or the way that is blameless, depending on the translation. Well, this is just the outworking of verse one, true worship of God, should lead to right practice before God. As we look to God in faith, as we study his word, it should lead to a reordering of our affections, and thus all of our commitments should look differently. And so we have to say then that As David puts it here, while there are times, of course, of worship, we don't just say, well, all of life is worship, so therefore, I don't set aside times of worship. No, we set aside times of worship in our day, in our week. There are times where we explicitly set aside to worship the Lord. But as we see here in verse two, all of our time is sanctified for him. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 4. I'm going to look at a cross-reference from the New Testament here. Philippians 4, 8, and 9. It's a very well-known text. Would somebody like to read this? Yeah. Things you have learned, and received, and heard, and seen, and be. Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Amen. All right, thank you. So here's the Apostle Paul, and he says, I want you to set your minds, your hearts, your will on the things of God. Here's the things you need to think about. Here's the things you need to put your attention to. And so all of our thoughts are set apart for him. In fact, I think you could say that Philippians 4, 8 is really just an expansion of the psalmist's statement, I will ponder the way that is blameless. What is the way that is blameless? It is whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, et cetera. It is the right things, the things that are pleasing in conformity with the word of God. And so all of our thoughts are to be set apart for him, the new King James, I will behave wisely in a perfect way. So in God's way and by God's word, I will live my life. Psalm 119 verse nine, it says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to his word. And so it's actually here, a commitment to ponder that way, to think about these things, to behave first in my heart and then in my outward being in a way that is wise, to order all of our affections and our intentions and our life towards that end. The beginning of Psalm 119, verses one and two, blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. Now notice the second line of verse two. He says, oh, when will you come to me? And so it's important for us to note here, even as he's saying, I will worship God and I will set my mind on the things that are blameless and pure, it's very clear that none of this is done absent from the grace of God. Actually, it's all explicitly because of and completely dependent on his grace in our lives. I mean, I was thinking about this last night. How many sermons have we heard here in this church where there's a call in the passage that we're looking at for us to orient our minds, our actions, our affections, whatever it is, and then the end of the sermon comes with the statement, God grant us the grace for it. God grant us the grace, why? Because there is a call for God's people to pursue holiness, and that call is never absent the grace of God. It is always because of God's grace. It is always completely dependent upon God's grace in our life. And so we have to remember when we look at this that justification is completely the work of God, but so is sanctification as well. Holiness is God's work in us. We're completely unable apart from him. And so we should never mistake the call for holiness, the call to be committed to him as independence on our part. This isn't something that we do independent from God. This is something that we do completely dependent on his grace. God, I need your grace in my life. Again, Philippians, the beginning of Philippians. Philippians 1.6, he says this, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And then Philippians 1.9, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Know that your love may abound more and more, that your knowledge, that your discernment may grow, that you will become mature Christians. And what is Paul's confidence? It is the one who began the good work in you, the Lord. Well, God will bring it to completion. God doesn't abandon any of his projects halfway along. And so when we think of what it is to live a life committed to God, it is to walk fully dependent upon God's grace in our lives. Fully looking to him for everything that we do. And with a confidence that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. And so we can say with the psalmist, in that confidence that this is God's will for your life, your sanctification, and that God gives us the grace for it, the end of verse two, I will walk with integrity of heart within my house. That's a statement and a commitment not to the expedient way or the lazy, the pragmatic way, or even to do what might be popular, but it's a commitment to God's way. I will walk with integrity of heart within my house, in my innermost being, my thoughts and my desires, in the ordering of all of my affairs, there to be marked with integrity. And you'll notice he says here, in my house. So he's specifically saying in private as well as in public. The places that no one else sees, the places that are small as well as big, all of the orderings of my life, I will set my life in such a way that all of my time is marked by righteousness and virtue. And my heart will be defined by integrity. So we just see this progression here. Verse one, I will worship the Lord. Verse two, I will ponder the blameless way. And then the end of verse two, I will walk with integrity in my heart. So it's still internal, but it is applying it to all of our life. It begins with worship. And then the meditation on the truth of God's word, and then the commitment to applying that to my heart, and in my house, and in all of my dealings. And then verse three gives the other side of the application, because I will, I will, I will, and then verse three, I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. We read in Philippians 4, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, think on these things, set your mind on them, set them before you and ponder them. Well, the opposite point, of course, is whatever is, we could just make the opposite list. Whatever is worldly, whatever is wicked, whatever is false, that will not be my intake. I will not set those things before my eyes. It is actually really amazing to me how much worthless, sinful material gets consumed by believers in the name of entertainment, in the name of it's my own time, or I'm just researching something, or I'm just whatever it is. As we see here, the things that are vile, the things that are contrary to godliness should never be part of our diet as believers, any more than we should intentionally or regularly eat spoiled food. Well, I know that's not just past the date, it's actually rotten a little bit, but I'm going to consume it because this is my me time and this is how I relax. And if you had a friend that did that, you would say, that's insane. And yet how often are there believers who say, well, I know that this is spoiled. I know that this is unhealthy. I know that this is worldly, but I kind of like it. And there's a strong commitment here. I will not set those things before my eyes. An intentional focus to guard our eyes and our intake and the things that come into us from worldliness. And then the second half of verse 3, he says, he takes it from the general principle of the worthless things to, I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. And so he goes from a general principle to a particular focus. The work of those who fall away, that is apostates. That is people who were formerly part of the church, or claim Christianity, but have wandered from the faith. And maybe they've wandered for moral reasons. I think we all know people like that. And maybe they still call themselves Christians, but they're living in sin. Or people who have wandered away in false doctrine and have wandered into cults or into anti-Christian beliefs. And so, of course, when the psalmist says here, their work, it's not limited to simply immoral deeds. Oftentimes the work of the apostate, of those who have fallen away, is false teachings. And he says, I hate the things that they produce. I want to make sure none of that clings to me, which is an interesting statement when you think about it when it comes to false teaching. Turn with me to First Timothy. I want to look at a couple different passages in First Timothy because Because, and you may just wanna keep your finger here, we're gonna look at it a little bit later in 2 Timothy as well. The pastoral epistles, this issue of false teaching and of apostasy is addressed in great detail. 1 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 3. If someone would like to read that. But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as a branding matter, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from those which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. All right, thank you. So here he actually gives in verse three, he gives an application of what he's talking about, some of the practices that are being taught. And the language is startling in its severity. Doctrines of demons. Here's what these apostates are teaching. They're teaching doctrines of demons. And then if you look down at verse seven, this is his, His point to Timothy and for Timothy to teach the church, 4-7, have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths, rather train yourself for godliness. That's what our psalm says as well. And then look over at 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6. Verses three through five. And again, would somebody like to read? If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the doctrine conforming to Godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Thank you. So again, he gives an application to, here is the work of the apostates, the work of those who fall away. a different list than he'd given before, where it was more on doctrines. Here's the outworking of it. Unhealthy craving of controversy, quarrels, dissension, slanders, evil suspicions. And then he says, verse 11, but as for you, oh man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Well, this is exactly what our psalmist is saying. You cannot, as a Christian, say, well, I know that stuff's not that good, but I don't think it's that dangerous. All right, tells Timothy, have nothing to do with that. You need to flee from those things. You need to stay away from them. Or as a psalmist says here, I hate those things, and it will not cling to me. I don't want any of that. You ever been in a place that is just, in a physical sense, disgusting? You have to go there for some reason, and for work over the years, I've had to be in places, or crawl under houses, or into attics, or whatever it is, into places, and you think, I've made the statement, I think I just want to burn all of my clothes now. I just want everything from this experience to be gone and ashes and whatever. I think that's the sort of picture that we have here. I don't want any of that to cling to me. And when we wander around among apostasy, if we're not careful, some of it will cling to us. So he says, I won't set those things before my eyes. I don't want those to attach themselves to me. Because false teachers produce every sort of disorder, and ultimately it's the way that leads to death. And so, as Paul says to Timothy, pursue the true things, pursue godliness. And then verse four, he gives us clarity on this, Even more so, a perverse heart shall be far from me. I will know nothing of evil. So those who play around with worthless things and who refuse to disassociate with false teachers or with false teachings and they willingly consume worldly fare will inevitably result in a perverse heart. There's a direct line of thought from verse three to verse four. Why is it that I need to stay so far away from those? Because the perverse heart shall be far from me. Again, Paul to Timothy, this time 2 Timothy chapter two. 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 16. but avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene." And then he actually names a couple of names here of people who were doing that, who have swerved from the truth. And then in verse 18, he says, they are upsetting the faith of some. You think about Paul's image there, it will spread like gangrene, like this destructive rot, that if it's not cut off, and we don't hear about this very much anymore, but if you read historical works, particularly military accounts of the past, gangrene was one of the most terrifying things. And they would say to this young sailor or this young soldier, your entire leg, your foot has gangrene. We have to cut your entire leg off to save your life. It's that severe. It will spread, it will rot, and the whole of you will be consumed, and it will lead to your death. That's how serious we should take false teaching, apostasy, people with perverse hearts. So he makes a commitment here in verse four, I will know nothing of evil. There's actually a call to be committed to innocence. The pursuit of God and the pursuit of the truth means a shunning of worldly influences. As Jesus says to his disciples, as he's preparing to send them out, Matthew 10, 16, behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Sometimes as believers, we don't need to know all the facts about all the things. Sometimes there's some things that we should stay clear of. Because God actually calls us to be innocent in our hearts. I won't set those things before my eyes. I don't want those things to cling to me. I want a perverse heart to be very far from me. I wanna know nothing. of evil. That's the heart of the man or the woman that's pursuing God. And that's where it starts, is in our hearts, and before God, and in our house, and in the way we handle the influences in our life. But then secondly, verses five through eight, he deals then with public righteousness. Look at verse five, he says, whoever slanders his neighbor secretly, I will destroy. Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart, I will not endure. And I think actually that the sins that are highlighted here in this verse are often viewed, at least by our culture, as slight. They're actually more annoyances. Oh, that person's kind of gossipy, slandery. Oh, that person over there is very arrogant. And those are often thought of things that are annoying more than sinful. But here, as David is moving from the private and the personal to specifically his public interactions with other people, he speaks of these things. And these are the first things he highlights. And so they should make us realize that these aren't little things. Slander, which is giving false malicious reports, is actually a breaking of the ninth commandment to do not bear false witnesses. And it is actually incredibly destructive. A slanderer is destructive to everyone around them. haughty eyes and arrogant heart is the exact opposite of the believer's attitude. It is the exact opposite of someone who's been changed by the gospel. It is someone who's puffed up, who's enlarged in their heart, who thinks more highly of themselves than they ought. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter six. Fairly well-known passage, Proverbs 6, 16 through 19. Somebody want to read this? There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Thank you. Well, all of these, of course, have application to our passage this morning, but notice that the first two things that he lists here, six things the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him, haughty eyes, and a lying tongue. That's the exact same thing we saw in our text. And what does he say here? I will not endure these things. Both stem from the same root. They stem from the idea of, seeking to tear others down so that they can build themselves up, looking only to their own interests. And it comes from the mistaken notion that I must pull you down so that I can rise up. And so it's the attitude that fights and it claws and it tears down everyone around them. And it's just incredibly destructive. It erodes every relationship. The slanderer looks specifically to, they have a good relationship with each other, let me get in the middle of that. Let me seek to cause anger and frustration between good relationships. The person with haughty eyes always thinks of themselves as better than they are. Thinks they should be first in everything. Never looks to the good of other people. How serious are those things? Well, if you want to destroy this fellowship, add haughty eyes, add arrogant hearts, add slandering lips. No, as we see here in verse five, I can't ignore it, I can't tolerate it. In fact, look what he says, whoever slanders his neighbor secretly, I will destroy. That's strong language, but this is a, incredibly destructive sin. And so much of the commitment in this psalm to godliness is about pursuing truth. And so the person who is going around slandering is seeking to undermine truth. Look down at verse seven. No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house. No one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes. And so again, he highlights practicing deception. It's interesting that the particular sin that is highlighted in this psalm that he wants to have nothing to do with and will not tolerate around him and the people that advise him and in his home is the one who utters lies, the person who deals in dishonesty. They shall not dwell in my house. They shall not continue before my eyes. And obviously, when we think about that, this requires sometimes hard choices. Here's someone saying, I will not tolerate this within my house. Well, sometimes that requires hard choices. I will not tolerate this before me. And of course, this is David who Who is the king? How serious is deception to God? And then how serious should deception be for God's people? You just think about the opening of the book of Psalms, Psalm 1.1. Can anybody quote that? Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. I want to have nothing to do with the mockers and the scoffers and the wicked. I want to meditate on the true things, the right things. I want to meditate on the word of God. And so you'll see that verse six is actually just the opposite of verse seven. Verse seven, no one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house. Verse six, I will look with favor on the faithful in the land that they may dwell with me. He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me. So the faithful, they will dwell with me. The blameless, they shall minister to me. Who do you surround yourself? Who are the people you choose to associate with? Who are the people that you, in your life, look with favor? And then, of course, the question is, does it look more like verse six or verse seven? We might ask this question, what is on your bookshelf? And, of course, there's all the modern equivalents of that. What's on your phone, on your TV, and what are you listening to, what are you watching, all this sort of things. Who are the people, both living and dead, that are influencing you? What kind of influences do we have in our lives? This is a challenging thing. Does it look like verse six or does it look like verse seven? And remember, this is King David who is surrounded by advisors, surrounded by all these people as he's running a country. What kind of character are those people? And when we read in the historical account of David did not actually apply this throughout his life. And the worst problems that David had were because he refused to apply this in his own family and in his own house. In fact, we can think of just another example, not with David, but with his grandson, Rehoboam, who, when he took the kingdom after Solomon died, He took, it says, counsel with fools, that's kings, and Chronicles says with worthless men, and he lost half his kingdom. And again and again in the Old Testament, the counsel comes and the historical application is given, don't take counsel with worthless fellows. Don't listen to fools, don't surround yourself with mockers, scoffers, the sinful, the wicked. You need to flee from such people. Now commit yourself to be counseled by the faithful, by those who walk blamelessly, by those who love the truth, by those, to use the New Testament definition, who should you be counseled by? Those who are above reproach. That's your brothers and sisters, fearing God. Exactly. Yeah. And it doesn't really matter what the arena is. I mean, we can say, well, that's within the church. But again, here's David as the king when we think of the realm of government. Who should you surround yourself with? Who should be counseling you if you're the governor, if you're running a city or a state or a country? Worthless fellows or the upright, the godly, the ones who walk blamelessly? in business, in church, in family, in government. It doesn't matter where we are, we need to seek godly counsel. And then finally, verse eight. Morning by morning, I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord. Now, I think we can be kind of uncomfortable with this language here. He's gonna destroy, he's gonna cut off, but of course, that's exactly what a king is supposed to do to the wicked, isn't it? That's actually the job of a king. Romans 13, that New Testament passage, Romans 13, three and four, for rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? then do what is good and you will receive his approval. So it's exactly actually what Paul is saying in Romans 13 is actually the same application David is making here in Psalm 101. I will look with favor on the righteous, the upright, those who are pure. And then verse eight, I will destroy the wicked. Actually, a proper and a right and a true government should be a terror to wicked people. And then we can say for ourselves here in the church this morning, that this is true in its proper application for every one of us in every sphere. So magistrates and the government are to be a terror for the wicked. But what about elders in the church? Can they not say the same thing? No, we won't tolerate wickedness here. What did we say earlier about slanderers, about those who have haughty eyes and an arrogant heart? That's destructive here. And because I love these people and I love this place, we cannot tolerate that. What about in a family, parents in a home, or in a group of friends? The love of the good means exactly what David says. cutting off all the evildoers. And so it has to have its proper application. You know, we as believers within the church, they don't bear the sword the way the government does. But the fundamental point here in the Psalm, and especially in verse eight, is that everyone, for everyone, it remains the same. Do not tolerate wickedness. Pursuit of godliness means we should not and cannot tolerate wickedness. Pursuit of the truth means that those who twist the truth must be put far away, must not be brought in and become counselors, must not be allowed to slander and to tear apart a group of believers. Again, from the Enthronement Psalm, Psalm 9710, he says this, oh, you who love the Lord hate evil. Let's summarize this psalm, doesn't it? If we love the Lord, if we are pursuing godliness, it means we love what God loves. And so those people who are pursuing and walking on the way that is blameless, we elevate, and those people who are seeking to turn aside, who have wandered off into, as Paul says, doctrines of demons, who are slanderers, who hate the truth, we must not tolerate them. We should love what God loves, and we should hate what God hates, and we should pursue holiness because we love the Lord. All right, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that you have given us your word and that we have a light to our feet and a lamp for our path. And Lord, we ask this morning that you would give us the grace for this, that you would help us to not lean on our own understanding, but in all our ways acknowledge you. Lord, we know that we are insufficient. And we, like David, will fail many times. But Lord, I pray that you would increase our faith and that you would help us to commit ourselves to the path of righteousness, that we would commit ourselves to loving the things of you and staying far away from wickedness, that we would in our hearts be as innocent as doves. And so, Lord, we know that you who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So we do this morning pray that we become more and more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, all to your glory and all for your namesake. That the name of the Lord would be shed abroad in this place and in this land and across the world, Lord, that more people would come to faith. So we pray this morning and we thank you for your grace. Amen.