Well, that music is a real bold approach to persecution. It faces it with faith, with confidence that the victory is ours, despite what appearances may be. And the same is true of the passage we're going to be reading today, Psalm 10. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. His ways are always prospering. Your judgments are far above, out of his sight. As for his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved. I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He sits in the lurking places of the villages. In the secret places, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws him into his net. So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides his face, he will never see. Arise, oh Lord, oh God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. Why did the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief, to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations have perished out of his land. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their hearts. You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more. Amen. Father God, we pray that as we dig into this psalm that Your Holy Spirit would bring illumination and bring a love and appreciation for the spiritual weapons that you have given to us. We are not a helpless flock. We have you on our side and camping round about us and you have given to us spiritual weapons that are strong for the pulling down of imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of you. And I pray that you would teach our spiritual fingers for battle, even as you taught David's physical fingers for battle, that you would be with your people, that you would grace them with your presence. We love you, we bless you, we continue to worship you as we look into your word, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. On February 15, 1947, Glenn Chambers, who was a missionary, boarded a plane for Quito, Ecuador, but he never got there. The plane crashed into a mountain peak, and a very significant ministry came to an end. It was discovered later that when he boarded the plane in Miami, didn't have a piece of paper. He had an envelope, but it ran out of paper. So he tore off a piece of advertisement that had a big word, why, and a lot of white space. So he wrote his note all around the white space. I mean, what a way for his mother to be getting the last news from her son. Staring her in her face was the question, why, why? And that's a question that I think stares many Christians in the face sometimes over and over again. We do not always understand why God allows our suffering. And even when we know, we are convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that God cares for us, we still have this question, why? Why would God allow this? Even though we can be uncertain about the why, we can be certain about the fact that God cares. And let me give you some examples from the last four weeks of this question, why. Sharish and Farzana are two girls in Faisalabad, Pakistan, who were gang raped over a period of 12 hours. by Muslim boys, and subsequently they have repeatedly been receiving mocking and threats by the same boys and by others. And a lawyer who pretended to represent her in court took her money and did nothing for her, so they feel kind of helpless and abandoned. This very month, those two Christian girls may well be asking, why? Why, Lord, do you do nothing on our behalf? Thousands of Christians have had to flee their homes in Indonesia in the last two months with numerous churches being destroyed. Last week, there was another beheading by ISIS, this time of a southern Sudanese Christian. The 100,000 plus Christians who fled Mosul, Iraq in a single day have been treated rather cruelly in different countries. In fact, the ones that fled to Thailand are actually being persecuted by that government right now for being Christians. They seem to have no advocates. Muslim Fulani herdsmen attack Christian communities in the Plateau State of Nigeria in coordinated attacks with some 5,000 Christians fleeing. and we don't know how many dead. Last week, 150 more Sudanese were killed in bombings. And when you suffer as these and many other Christians around the world have suffered, I don't think anybody's going to shake their head at you and think poorly when you ask the question that David asks in verse 1. Why? Why, Lord? Even a spiritual person like David could not understand why God had put him through what God had put him through. He cries out, Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? Sometimes it seems as if God is not present in our lives, and it seems as if He is distant and uncaring. And even though we know by faith that that's not the case, The Psalms are dealing with our feelings as well. And that's what I love about the Psalms. They deal with the whole person. I counted a couple of hundred similar why questions in the Bible and most of those did not receive an answer. David's question, why, does not receive an answer in this psalm. And I think it was written that way on purpose. It shows that even though we may never know the reasons for our sufferings, because those are in God's secret counsels, we can know that God cares. How does this psalm show us that God cares? Well, it first of all shows us that He's okay with our crying out this why question in our anguish. He cares enough to even give us the wording for such why questions when we don't know how to put it into words ourselves. The very fact that God authorizes such whys in the psalms and He intends for us to ask these questions in our prayers and in our singing shows me that God is not distant and uncaring and cannot, that he cannot relate to our anguish. He knows exactly what we are going through. Wasn't that exactly what Christ cried out on the cross? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And as that psalm, Psalm 22, that Jesus is quoting there, as it progresses, we discover that God actually did answer Christ's prayers, and Jesus had said earlier that the Father always answers the prayers of the Lord Jesus, including prayers like Psalm 10. You see, Psalm 10 is an imprecatory psalm. I'm not 100% sure how many imprecatory psalms I've preached on in the past, maybe about three, but I thought it's time for me to introduce you to a new one. And let me explain first of all what an imprecatory psalm is. An imprecation is a curse, and so an imprecatory psalm is calling down God's curses, God's judgments upon the enemies of Christ and of his bride. James Adams in his marvelous book, The War Psalms of the Prince of Peace. I highly recommend you guys get that. The War Psalms of the Prince of Peace demonstrates that every one of the War Psalms in the Psalter is the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pre-incarnate written, but it's the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that Jesus is always heard by the Father So when we're praying the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that the Father always hears those prayers, but James Adams says that Jesus now chooses not to pray these prayers except through the church. Hebrews says He will sing it in the midst of the brethren. Here's the problem. Of the numerous persecuted churches that I have ministered to in other countries, not a single one of them had ever prayed an imprecatory psalm to the Lord. And when I taught them about the importance of such imprecations, they were initially astonished. They had a hard time believing that Christians were allowed to take their enemies to the courtroom of heaven and ask God to judge them. We're supposed to love them, aren't we? And I said, yes. Most of those imprecatory Psalms were written by David against people whom he loved. He was freed up to love them by turning it over to the Lord. But when the church is unwilling to take their enemies to the court of heaven, we cannot expect the court to render judgment against those enemies. They will continue to persecute. Now think of it this way. Imagine that a crime has been committed against you and you have a judge who's a friend of yours in the court, and he keeps encouraging you, come on, take this issue to the court. I'll give you justice, but you refuse to bring it to court. Can that judge render a verdict in your behalf just because he cares for you? No. Absolutely, he cannot. The only way he can render a verdict on your behalf is if you bring the case before the courtroom. And even though our heavenly judge is infinitely more compassionate and caring about us than a human judge would be, he too has ordained that the courtroom will be closed until Christians cry out for action. It is my studied conviction that God delights in answering such prayers on behalf of his people, but a court must follow court protocol. And the first step is for God's people to cry out to God, to no longer be silent, to present their case before him and to ask for his judgment. In Luke 18, Jesus highlights the problem with the modern church. He gave the parable of the woman who pestered and pestered and pestered an unjust judge for judgment, and he finally caved in and he gave her justice. But Jesus said, God the Father is not that way at all. He's not slow. He's not unwilling. He will give justice if and only if we have the faith to bring such prayers. He said, will not God bring about justice for his elect who cry out to him day and night? And will he delay long over them? I tell you that he will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? And I believe it's referring to his coming and judgment in 70 AD, but that being aside, He indicates, however you interpret that, he indicates faith is required. The faith to bring our enemies to court. Currently the evangelical church doesn't seem to have the faith to do so. They think that the imprecatory Psalms are somehow sub-Christian. despite the fact that Jesus prayed them. If you're gonna measure whether something's Christian or not, ask, did Jesus do it? Well, yeah, Jesus took these Psalms upon his lips, and the apostles did, and the book of Revelation is full of these kinds of things. Don't tell me that this is sub-Christian, and yet pastors in this city have told me, oh, you don't ever use those Psalms. They are sub-Christian. That is heresy, actually. The evangelical church is in desperate need of reformation if we cannot even get such a basic concept as the church is commanded to sing all 150 songs. That's so basic. I mean, the New Testament commands us to sing that. If we can't get that right, we are in desperate need of reformation. Jesus is willing to come into agreement with our imprecations, but as James Adams points out, Hebrews says he is not willing to pray them unless the church is praying them. He prays from the midst and he sings from the midst of the brethren. So today's sermon is linking Reformation Day and Persecution Day together. Both call for a renewal of the use of the imprecatory psalms. In any case in this psalm David moves from asking God to listen that's opening up the courtroom, to presenting his complaint before the heavenly courtroom. And that's the second point, that God authorizes you to give kingdom-centered complaints before his court. This is not a justification for petty revenge or selfish requests. This is a call to be so consumed with the zeal of God's kingdom that you cry out for justice and vengeance against those that are seeking to do what? to ravish his bride, his church. And as I read through these verses, I want you to notice the very specific charges that he is placing in court against his enemies. I see 15 charges in these 10 verses. Verse two, the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. I see three charges there. They are arrogant, They persecute the weak and they have premeditated a plot against the poor. And he asks for a biblical Lex Talionis judgment to be rendered. Lex Talionis is a A Latin phrase that basically is equivalent to the Bible's eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It's equivalent punishment. It's just punishment that would be given. It must fit. And so since the enemy was laying a snare for David, he asks the court, let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Verse three continues. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. I see three charges there. They're controlled by their own evil desires. They bless the greedy. They renounce the Lord. Or as the dictionary renders the Hebrew word, they blaspheme the Lord. I mean, to blaspheme the Lord was worthy of the death penalties. That's a pretty serious charge. Verse four, the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. And so that verse gives three more charges. There's pride, refusal to seek God, and excluding God from his thinking. So you can see, even the way that the charges are laid out, it's not, this is against me, me, me. No, it's very God-centered, and it's founded upon the word of God. Verse five, his ways are always prospering. your judgments are far above out of his sight as for all his enemies he sneers at them this verse charges them with prospering through law-breaking lawlessness sneering at his enemies who happen to be david and the righteous people who are with him but to have god's judgment A way out of his sight was an expression that means that they have completely cast God out of their life and out of their reckoning. That's exactly what has happened in America. Verse six, he has said in his heart, I shall not be moved. I shall never be in adversity. This is charging them with a flat out contradiction of God's judgments. David is telling God the judge that these enemies are absolutely convinced that God will not do anything, that they're invincible. Can the court let that challenge rest? No, not if it's presented in court. The court will act against incorrigibility. Verse seven, his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. This is charging them with cursing, deceit, oppression, and speech that spews forth trouble and iniquity. Man, that's a... Those are charges. This whole psalm really could describe the American media and the political system. Its speech is full of cursing, deceit, oppression, trouble, and iniquity. How appropriate. In a biblical courtroom, those were all serious charges. Verse 8, He sits in the lurking places of the villages. In the secret places, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. That contains at least two charges, seeking to ensnare new victims or cause trouble for them and murder of the innocent. Actually, as I'm recounting here, I think I'm over 15. We'll have to count it up afterwards. But this could describe both the fascist plans of the elite as well as the murder of millions of babies in America. Verses 9 through 10 repeat some of the same charges in different words. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws them into his net. So he crouches. He lies low that the helpless may fall by his strength. So that's really a repetition of previous charges that he has made. And then in verse 11, David consumed with grief at how God's own reputation is being besmirched, repeats one more charge that has already been made. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see. In effect, He is accusing the enemy of saying, God's not a God of justice. He never stands up for the poor. He never judges in the earth. He never defends his people. But is that true? Now, this is the way many theologians today think God is not going to ever do any of these things until the second coming. Well, that's an accusation Jesus is giving against the enemy, false accusations. That God is not a God of justice, in history that is, that He never stands up for the poor, He never judges in the earth, He never defends His people. But is that the case? Absolutely no. When God's people are willing to take their enemies to the courtroom of heaven, God answers in remarkable, remarkable ways and perhaps at some point privately I could share some of the absolutely stunning ways that God has answered the prayers against specific individuals in America over the last five years that I am familiar with. In Luke 18, Jesus did not question whether the judge of all the earth will answer the church's prayers for vengeance. He affirms God will do so. In fact, He's going to do so quickly. And the Greek word is take. Take is a word that means soon, very soon. It's on the verge of happening as soon as the request is made. So He's not questioning whether God is willing to answer such prayers What he questions is whether the church of Jesus Christ will have the faith to ask for vengeance and to actually take the time to present accurate and detailed charges against our persecutors. Persecution is heating up in America and I think it's critical that the church not run, not cower when ministers get hit. It could very well be that some of the people at this Freedom 2015 conference who already have targets painted on their backs may get hit. The church should not back off. No, we should be a people of faith that go after Satan and we begin the process of asking for retribution from the only court in the entire universe that always gives perfect justice. We cannot accuse the court of heaven of injustice. Now what are some of the things that need to be brought before the courtroom of heaven? We have organizations, praise the Lord, who are at least outlining some of the evils that are happening in other countries. Quite a number of great organizations and Gary keeps us abreast of some of those things. That's good. That helps us to pronounce imprecations against the enemies in the courtroom of heaven, the enemies of the church in other countries. But I think it's time that somebody started documenting the persecution happening in our own country. In response to liberal news media that claims that the Christian right is paranoid and they're just making these things up, there is no persecution happening at the church. Ted Cruz has publicly stated that persecution is indeed heating up all across America. Liberty Institute founder Kelly Shackelford said it is dramatic. I have been doing these types of cases for almost 25 years now I have never seen the levels of attacks like these and how quickly they are proliferating There are children being prohibited from writing Merry Christmas to the soldiers. Senior citizens being banned from praying over their meals in the senior center. The VA banning the mention of God in military funerals. Numerous attempts to have veterans memorials torn down if they have any religious symbols such as a cross and I could go on and on. And that's the end of the quote from Shackleford. But one of the many cases that both Cruz and Shackelford mentioned recently was the Navy chaplain, Wes Motor. The Christian Broadcasting Network said that he, quote, for months faced getting booted out of the Navy and losing his pension. He was charged with giving biblical answers while counseling sailors about premarital sex and homosexuality at his naval station in Charleston, South Carolina. Shackleford's Liberty Institute defended Motor saying, if chaplains can't answer biblical questions with biblical answers, we don't have chaplains. It really is astonishing that stuff like this can happen in America, but it is happening. It is happening. In past decades, the persecution was much more subtle, but in the last few months, there has been an aggressive frontal attack upon the Church of Jesus Christ by organizations all across this land. It's almost like there's a floodgate that's opened up, and people see permission to now go after Christians. Here's a brief listing that you can document for yourself, and I'm reading these from public records. A federal judge threatened incarceration, quote unquote, incarceration, to a high school valedictorian unless she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech. Federal judge said he was going to incarcerate her unless she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech. City officials prohibited senior citizens from praying over their meals, listening to religious messages, or singing gospel songs at a senior's activity center. A public school official physically lifted an elementary school student from his seat and reprimanded him in front of his classmates for what? For praying over his lunch. before he ate his lunch. Following U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs policies, a federal government official sought to censor a pastor's prayer, eliminating references to Jesus during a Memorial Day ceremony honoring veterans at a national cemetery. Public school officials prohibited students from handing out gifts because they contained religious messages. A public school official prevented a student from handing out flyers, inviting her classmates to an event at her church. A public university's law school banned a Christian organization because it required its officers to adhere to a statement of faith that the university disagreed with. Get this one. The U.S. Department of Justice argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government can tell churches and synagogues which pastors and rabbis it can hire and fire. Just astonishing, the state of Texas sought to approve and regulate what religious seminaries can teach. Through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the federal government is forcing religious organizations to provide insurance for birth control and abortion-inducing drugs in direct violation of their religious beliefs. Of course, you're familiar with that one. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans' funerals. overriding the wishes of the deceased's families. A federal judge held that prayers before a state house of representatives could be to Allah, but not to Jesus. I mean, you can see that this is a direct confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ who, praise God, happens to be the Lord of the universe. They're messing with somebody they shouldn't be messing with. Anyway, you could go on and on. There is just an endless number of things that I could read to you from the last year of persecution that has heated up. Some years ago I spent quite a number of days developing a detailed record of charges that need to be brought against the chief offenders in America. And I detailed the names of organizations, the names of all of their officers, the specific attacks that they had perpetrated against Christianity, the specific biblical laws that have been broken, and the specific punishments or restitution that God's law demanded. Now this was a private document nobody's going to find on my computer that we as a group of pastors were using to ask to advance God's kingdom. The pastors group unfortunately has been disbanded but there's another one coming together and I would love to have my dated research updated. If we're going to follow biblical court protocol, we cannot present hearsay before the awesome court of heaven. Everything needs to be documented, needs to be carefully presented. And if there's anyone here who wants to volunteer to update my document, I would value that. I'll warn you, it takes a lot of time because I want the websites, I want the specific information that we can present before the Lord, but it's so important, I think we really do need to do it. But in any case, presenting specific documentation before God's court is a critical step in this response to persecution. But the last point I wanna make from this psalm is that we must enter this endeavor with faith. God calls us to trust that the heavenly court will do right by us if we will do our part in presenting our case. Fear and faith are always incompatible. Fear demands to be fulfilled just like faith demands to be fulfilled. And it's so important that we not approach this with fear. You know, I present these things, the instant response of some people's hearts is, boy, we need to back off. Phil, you need to stop preaching this kind of stuff. Maybe you're going to get persecuted. No, we've got to have a faith that is aggressive, that advances and takes on the gates of hell. I wouldn't even go to the Freedom Conference in 2015 if I was driven by self-protection or fear. I'm going because I think this is critical. It's a critical hour that we are living in. I'm so thankful that Kevin Swanson has organized this. But anyway, the last point that we're making here, is God calls you to trust the heavenly court to do right. Let's begin at verse 12. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. You can ask God to act when you have acted. You can ask the court to judge when you have presented your case before the court. There is an order in the verses of this psalm. In verse 12, David points to the judge and turns things over to him. And in verse 13, David points his fingers at the accused and states that the accused is clearly an enemy of the court. Verse 13, why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. I mean, this is clear defiance against God the judge. And David, in effect, says, these wicked defy you to your face, O God. They are consummatious against your authority, and as such, they are in need of judgment. It astonishes me the boldness with which some people post things, like on our video YouTubes. I have to keep taking these posts off. Vile, vile statements about Jesus. It's just amazing to me the patience that Jesus has But I think it's time that we present the case to heaven and say, Lord Jesus, this is the time now to be going against your enemies. I want you to notice the total confidence that David has that the court is not only able to be just, but is totally committed to justice. Verses 14 and following, but you have seen for you observe trouble and grief. to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations have perished out of his land. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare his heart. You will cause your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed. that the man of the earth may oppress no more." What a statement of faith! David is not waiting until the second coming for justice, as most Christians are waiting. They think they're not going to get any justice on earth. He's not waiting for the second coming. He cites God's historical judgments as a reason why he's coming to this court. This is a great court because God is historically judged. And he states that God will continue to render justice in history. And if the church of Jesus Christ today would have the same faith that our God is a God who brings judgments in history, I believe the situation in America could turn around. Very, very quickly could turn around. This morning I want to give three opportunities for you to get involved. I'm asking for one or more volunteers to help me update my imprecatory court document. Second, I'm asking for men who are willing to face the backlash from Satan by joining with the elders and the deacons in a number of detailed court hearings. This is going to take time. Gary and I have been wanting to do this for some time. And we were talking this past week and we said, let's bring it up, let's bring it up. This is where the leadership, the men of the congregation, all who are 20 years old and above, will aggressively start going after Satan and start going after Satan's agents who are out to obliterate the church of Jesus Christ. Thirdly, I'm asking everyone to pray for protection of the officers and of other pastors around the states who are willing to start a prayer movement on behalf of the persecuted church, not just in America, but the persecuted church in other countries as well. Actually, pray for the protection of all of the pastors who are going to the Freedom 2015 conference. As I mentioned before, just being there, speaking there, is painting a target on their backs. Pray for courage. Pray for words fitly spoken. Pray for reformation in the church of Jesus Christ and reformation in the country as a whole. And I think the church desperately needs reformation specifically on this issue of imprecatory psalms. This is really radical stuff and you're not going to find very many people willing to engage in this unless the Spirit of God is at work in their hearts. We can't do it by stirring them up. We can only do it if we present the truth and the Spirit quickens that truth to their hearts. But this was the stuff that turned the world upside down in the first eight centuries of the church. It's just unbelievable as nation after nation came Under the feet of King Jesus in those first eight centuries, they had a nation, a world-conquering faith. This is the kind of stuff that turned the world upside down during the Reformation. And since today is both Reformation Sunday and Persecution Sunday, I thought I would challenge our church with one of the critical spiritual weapons of the Reformation and one of the tools that the persecuted church must once again use. Let's be a catalyst for such a movement. And may God receive the honor and the glory. Amen. Father God, we thank you for your word and the permission that we have of coming before your courtroom. and help us to be a people that perfect our skills at presenting such cases before your throne. We know that you are a God of justice. We know that you have historically brought many judgments in history, and you can do so once again. And we pray, Father, that you would give to the church the faith to be able to lay hold of these things that seem so foreign to the evangelical church. You are the giver of faith. And I pray that you would give a great measure of faith to the Church of Jesus Christ in these coming months so that we can take on the very gates of hell. And we pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.