WEBVTT 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:09.660 Psalm 106, we're going to start in verse 34. 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:15.039 We're going to, Lord willing, wrap it up tonight. 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:18.320 We've been looking at the rest of the stories 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:22.480 in the first part of Psalm 106. Most of them 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.539 are two, three, four verses, just real short 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:28.019 little stories. They're mentioned in Psalm 106. 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.620 We've gone back through Numbers and Deuteronomy 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:33.200 and Exodus or wherever these stories were found. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.500 and kind of looked at them in greater detail. 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:39.619 And so if you missed any of those, you can go 00:00:39.619 --> 00:00:42.219 back and find them online. But tonight we will 00:00:42.219 --> 00:00:46.320 be in Psalm 106, starting in verse 34. The last 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.420 story we looked at was when Moses didn't do what 00:00:49.420 --> 00:00:51.939 God said. He was angry with the people, and God 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:54.000 told him to speak to the rock to bring about 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.619 water, and he struck the rock. And as a result, 00:00:57.679 --> 00:00:59.520 he didn't get to enter into the promised land. 00:01:00.219 --> 00:01:02.420 And that was the last story we looked at. And 00:01:02.420 --> 00:01:05.920 tonight we're going to kind of see just, I guess 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:10.120 we could say, just kind of an overview of, okay, 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:12.900 here's a generalization of what the people of 00:01:12.900 --> 00:01:16.359 Israel did throughout their time as they entered 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:19.379 into Canaan, as they entered into the land that 00:01:19.379 --> 00:01:22.739 God had brought them to, to be their own that 00:01:22.739 --> 00:01:24.319 God was going to give them. And he gave them 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:27.319 some specific instructions to not have any other 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:30.840 gods before him. Not worship any idols. Don't 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.079 get involved with any of the things of these 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:36.200 other nations. God was bringing judgment on the 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:37.980 other nations. He was going to destroy the other 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:40.719 nations through Israel. And all they had to do 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:42.340 was be obedient. They could have went in there 00:01:42.340 --> 00:01:43.760 and they could have overtook all of them and 00:01:43.760 --> 00:01:47.040 destroyed them. But they failed to do that. And 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:49.400 sometimes they destroyed some of them, but not 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:54.000 all of them. And as a result, they ended up giving 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.560 in to the practices of some of these Canaanite 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:59.549 folks. That's what we're going to see in the 00:01:59.549 --> 00:02:02.109 verses we're going to look at tonight. So let's 00:02:02.109 --> 00:02:07.150 pray and we'll get started. God, we thank you 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:09.389 for your word. I pray that you would help us 00:02:09.389 --> 00:02:13.229 to learn from this. God, maybe we find ourselves 00:02:13.229 --> 00:02:16.430 in a similar situation to your people Israel. 00:02:16.530 --> 00:02:19.870 Maybe not the same circumstances, but maybe sometimes 00:02:19.870 --> 00:02:23.169 we are disobedient in the things that we do and 00:02:23.169 --> 00:02:25.689 the way that we act. And we know what you tell 00:02:25.689 --> 00:02:28.770 us to do. And we don't do right, dear Lord, and 00:02:28.770 --> 00:02:33.610 it leaves us in some bad situations. And so whatever 00:02:33.610 --> 00:02:36.330 may have gotten us where we are tonight, if we 00:02:36.330 --> 00:02:38.990 are in a bad situation, I pray that we would 00:02:38.990 --> 00:02:42.990 be a people that would wake up and pay attention 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:45.229 to your word and your instruction. It's still 00:02:45.229 --> 00:02:47.150 good for us tonight that we would be a people 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:50.090 that would call out to you. And I ask these things 00:02:50.090 --> 00:02:55.050 in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Psalm 106, verse 00:02:55.050 --> 00:03:00.840 34. They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord 00:03:00.840 --> 00:03:04.599 had commanded them, but mingled with the nations 00:03:04.599 --> 00:03:08.699 and adopted their ways. They served their idols, 00:03:08.860 --> 00:03:13.680 which became a snare to them. All right, so this 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:17.580 is just kind of a situation we see among God's 00:03:17.580 --> 00:03:20.180 people. They go in there and they destroy some 00:03:20.180 --> 00:03:22.719 of the people, but even the people that they 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.240 leave, instead of separating themselves from 00:03:25.240 --> 00:03:28.479 them, They do exactly what God told them not 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:31.280 to do. They begin to take over their practices. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:33.580 They begin to worship their idols. They begin 00:03:33.580 --> 00:03:36.939 to put other gods before God. They begin to marry 00:03:36.939 --> 00:03:40.080 with foreigners. And that's a bad situation. 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:42.659 Even in the New Testament, it talks about being 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:44.659 unequally yoked. And that's not talking about 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:46.520 race. That's not talking about marrying somebody 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:48.620 of a different nationality. That's not what it's 00:03:48.620 --> 00:03:50.699 talking about when it talks about unequally yoked. 00:03:50.699 --> 00:03:53.300 It's talking about... Marrying somebody with 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:55.719 differing beliefs. Marrying somebody that's not 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:58.139 a Christian. That's what he's saying in the New 00:03:58.139 --> 00:04:01.560 Testament when Paul says that. That was God's 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:03.659 main concern here in the Old Testament. I don't 00:04:03.659 --> 00:04:05.719 think that the problem was he didn't want an 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:08.659 Israelite marrying a Canaanite, but he knew that 00:04:08.659 --> 00:04:11.300 if the Israelites were to follow God and they 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:13.819 were his people and the Canaanites followed these 00:04:13.819 --> 00:04:16.899 false gods, then the likelihood of being drawn 00:04:16.899 --> 00:04:19.939 away from your God It's pretty high if you marry 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:21.959 somebody with different beliefs, and that's true 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:26.639 today. That's true. If you're a Christian, or 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:29.720 maybe in most of our cases, have a Christian 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:33.839 child or grandchildren, then it's very important 00:04:33.839 --> 00:04:36.680 that you encourage them to marry a Christian 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:39.620 mate, that you encourage your granddaughters 00:04:39.620 --> 00:04:42.000 to marry a Christian man and your grandsons to 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:44.740 marry a Christian woman. And if you see that 00:04:44.740 --> 00:04:47.230 the... person they appear to be falling in love 00:04:47.230 --> 00:04:50.290 with is not, then that's a hard conversation 00:04:50.290 --> 00:04:53.389 to have to say, hey, listen, grandson, granddaughter, 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:55.910 this is probably not a good situation. You better 00:04:55.910 --> 00:04:58.410 be really careful who you marry. Because you 00:04:58.410 --> 00:05:02.069 always will say, oh, well, I'll never give up 00:05:02.069 --> 00:05:05.509 my faith. I'll never allow them to sway me. But 00:05:05.509 --> 00:05:08.189 oftentimes when you're exposed to somebody with 00:05:08.189 --> 00:05:11.829 differing beliefs, there's a greater chance of 00:05:11.829 --> 00:05:15.639 you being torn from your belief. and switch to 00:05:15.639 --> 00:05:19.040 theirs, or perhaps even worse, a total lack of 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:22.480 belief. Well, God's people, they were with these 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:24.300 foreigners, they were intermarrying with these 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:27.240 foreigners, and lo and behold, did they convert 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.600 them to God? Well, it doesn't sound like it in 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:32.660 most of the teachings, but it does sound like 00:05:32.660 --> 00:05:34.560 that the foreigners converted the Israelites 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.160 to worshiping these false gods. And so they found 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.389 themselves in a lot of trouble. because of that. 00:05:42.509 --> 00:05:46.550 All right, let's continue on in verse 37. They 00:05:46.550 --> 00:05:49.230 sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. 00:05:49.589 --> 00:05:52.110 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their 00:05:52.110 --> 00:05:54.750 sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:58.430 idols of Canaan. So the land became polluted 00:05:58.430 --> 00:06:01.709 with blood. They defiled themselves by their 00:06:01.709 --> 00:06:05.629 actions and prostituted themselves by their deeds. 00:06:06.269 --> 00:06:10.509 Now, this is a pretty serious allegation right 00:06:10.509 --> 00:06:14.629 here. This is not just, oh, the Canaanites, the 00:06:14.629 --> 00:06:16.709 people over there that are here when we got there, 00:06:16.850 --> 00:06:19.790 they worship one God and we worship another God. 00:06:19.889 --> 00:06:22.209 It wasn't just as simple as we're just going 00:06:22.209 --> 00:06:24.790 to go to a different church next Sunday. It was 00:06:24.790 --> 00:06:27.949 when they started worshiping these false gods 00:06:27.949 --> 00:06:31.930 and these idols, the ways of these false gods 00:06:31.930 --> 00:06:35.170 were totally different. Like, hey, if you had 00:06:35.170 --> 00:06:37.209 a kid, why don't you just go sacrifice it to 00:06:37.209 --> 00:06:40.040 the God? Why don't you burn it up? So this was 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:42.660 a pretty serious deal. This wasn't like, hey, 00:06:42.740 --> 00:06:44.620 he's a Baptist and she's a Methodist. We'll just 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:46.759 go to his church one Sunday and mine next Sunday. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:50.379 This was, hey, when you stop following God, you're 00:06:50.379 --> 00:06:52.500 going to start doing some really evil and detestable 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:55.920 things. Killing your own kids as a sacrifice. 00:06:56.540 --> 00:06:58.759 So this is pretty serious what was going on. 00:06:59.329 --> 00:07:02.870 It's not like the Israelites just said, I don't 00:07:02.870 --> 00:07:04.430 feel like going to church this Sunday. I ain't 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:06.750 going to make it. And God says, aw, aw, shucks. 00:07:06.850 --> 00:07:08.589 Well, you're not going to get some of my blessings. 00:07:08.769 --> 00:07:11.569 Like the things that they were doing were serious 00:07:11.569 --> 00:07:14.350 things. Like when they were rejecting God and 00:07:14.350 --> 00:07:17.910 putting other gods before him and started worshiping 00:07:17.910 --> 00:07:21.269 these idols, what does it say here? It says that 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:24.670 they sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. 00:07:25.069 --> 00:07:29.360 These weren't gods. These were demons. This was 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:32.699 a bad way that the people of Israel were in. 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:35.980 And so you kind of can understand, maybe, that 00:07:35.980 --> 00:07:38.139 when God gets angry with his people in the Old 00:07:38.139 --> 00:07:40.680 Testament, that it's not like he was just angry 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.939 for no reason. When God punishes his people in 00:07:43.939 --> 00:07:46.699 the Old Testament, it's not like he was just 00:07:46.699 --> 00:07:49.220 doing it for fun. Like, there were some serious 00:07:49.220 --> 00:07:52.360 things that went on. Now, if they would have 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:55.740 followed God's commands, when he said, have no 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:58.480 other God before me, If they would have just 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:00.199 started right there, they'd have been in pretty 00:08:00.199 --> 00:08:03.639 good shape. But they didn't start there, and 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:06.439 they did have other gods before them. And pretty 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:09.040 soon, they started sacrificing their own children. 00:08:09.899 --> 00:08:11.800 Now, you've got to be in pretty bad shape to 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:14.540 start sacrificing your own children. Like anybody 00:08:14.540 --> 00:08:17.060 in here ever sacrificed their child before? Please 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:19.800 don't raise your hand if you did. Hope you didn't. 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:24.029 What would it take for you to do that? There's 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:26.569 nothing I can tell you tonight that would convince 00:08:26.569 --> 00:08:29.389 you to do that, I hope. So you've got to be in 00:08:29.389 --> 00:08:32.710 a pretty bad shape to start living in that kind 00:08:32.710 --> 00:08:37.149 of evil. And that's why God says it's pretty 00:08:37.149 --> 00:08:40.669 important that you follow my words because eventually 00:08:40.669 --> 00:08:43.690 if you turn from God and you stop following his 00:08:43.690 --> 00:08:47.370 commands, that's where you get to. That's a scary 00:08:47.370 --> 00:08:49.389 thing to think about. Here's a scary thing to 00:08:49.389 --> 00:08:52.330 think about. People back in those days ain't 00:08:52.330 --> 00:08:55.470 no different from people today. People today 00:08:55.470 --> 00:08:58.330 are just as evil. It's not like humanity is just, 00:08:58.450 --> 00:09:02.669 oh, we have gotten so elevated that we don't 00:09:02.669 --> 00:09:05.950 do these types of things anymore. Nope. People 00:09:05.950 --> 00:09:09.330 today are just as evil as they have ever been. 00:09:10.470 --> 00:09:13.769 Now, some would say that abortion today is similar 00:09:13.769 --> 00:09:15.830 to this. Now, maybe it is in some way. I don't 00:09:15.830 --> 00:09:18.610 know that there's a direct correlation, but there 00:09:18.610 --> 00:09:21.120 are a lot of people that don't. pause for a moment 00:09:21.120 --> 00:09:24.039 in aborting a baby, and that's a pretty serious 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:27.100 situation too. Maybe they're not knowingly kneeling 00:09:27.100 --> 00:09:29.940 down before an altar and saying, here you go, 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:32.919 all false god and demon, here's my child. They 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:35.220 may not be doing that, but nonetheless, the result 00:09:35.220 --> 00:09:39.679 of so freely taking an innocent life, well, you're 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.919 in a bad place when you start doing that, and 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:47.019 we see that as a culture, as a society. Continuing 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:53.460 on that same note in verse 40, it says, Okay, 00:10:00.039 --> 00:10:03.759 the Lord was angry here. He was angry. He didn't 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:05.759 just turn a blind eye. He didn't just say, well, 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:08.139 they're just doing some things. I wish they wouldn't 00:10:08.139 --> 00:10:09.960 do that, but there's nothing I can do about it. 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:12.990 It's kind of what we would say, right? When somebody 00:10:12.990 --> 00:10:14.909 in our family, when our children do something, 00:10:15.090 --> 00:10:17.210 we say, well, I wish they wouldn't do that, but 00:10:17.210 --> 00:10:18.889 there's nothing I can do about it. But God was 00:10:18.889 --> 00:10:21.669 really angry about what had taken place here 00:10:21.669 --> 00:10:24.230 because he loved them. He didn't want them to 00:10:24.230 --> 00:10:26.710 do that. He didn't want them to fall into those 00:10:26.710 --> 00:10:29.809 types of evils. Lord knows he didn't want them 00:10:29.809 --> 00:10:32.649 to be sacrificing a child. Like that was totally 00:10:32.649 --> 00:10:35.389 against everything that God wanted his people 00:10:35.389 --> 00:10:38.529 to do. And yet these people were so twisted. 00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:42.539 that these are the types of things that had infiltrated 00:10:42.539 --> 00:10:47.519 their society. Now, this is not just true of 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:50.820 Israel. I believe this is true of humanity throughout 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:54.980 the existence of humanity. That if a people will 00:10:54.980 --> 00:11:00.480 seek God, follow His commands, live according 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.039 to His commands, try to live in obedience to 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:06.799 Him, they will experience blessing. There will 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:09.259 be love. There will be peace. Not ever total 00:11:09.259 --> 00:11:11.399 peace and love. There will always be a few in 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:14.480 the bunch. It's going to be troublemakers. But 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:17.740 as a whole in general, when a people will seek 00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:20.879 God, you will be able to see that through that 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:23.240 people group, through that country, through that 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:27.399 civilization. It will be evident. And the moment 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:31.500 a people stop seeking God, that will become evident 00:11:31.500 --> 00:11:34.980 because there will be more fussing and fighting 00:11:34.980 --> 00:11:38.139 and feuding. There will be more murdering and 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:41.460 rioting. There will be more conflict. There will 00:11:41.460 --> 00:11:45.879 be more wars. There will be more hatred. There 00:11:45.879 --> 00:11:49.200 will be parents that may not be sacrificing their 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:52.460 kid on an altar, but parents whose little boy 00:11:52.460 --> 00:11:54.179 comes up to them and says, I want to be a little 00:11:54.179 --> 00:11:56.899 girl, and the parent applauds that. That's evil. 00:11:58.419 --> 00:12:00.740 That's not good. That's not healthy. That's not 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:03.000 love to say, oh, I love my kid. I'm going to 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.950 support whatever they do. That's not love. That's 00:12:06.950 --> 00:12:11.649 mental illness. That's evil. And how did we get 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:14.549 to that point? Like, some of you say, well, when 00:12:14.549 --> 00:12:18.110 I was born, when I was a teenager, when I was 00:12:18.110 --> 00:12:20.730 a young adult, we didn't do that thing. Well, 00:12:20.769 --> 00:12:23.830 what changed to all of a sudden that people's 00:12:23.830 --> 00:12:25.929 kids think they're animals and the parents put 00:12:25.929 --> 00:12:27.809 litter boxes in the house because their child 00:12:27.809 --> 00:12:30.110 thinks they're a cat? Like, this is the world 00:12:30.110 --> 00:12:34.220 we live in. This is not... It's... It's almost 00:12:34.220 --> 00:12:37.039 funny, but it's not funny at all because this 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:42.899 is reality in 2026 in the United States of America. 00:12:43.779 --> 00:12:47.320 And how in the world did we get here? I can tell 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:50.139 you how we got here. We got here because we stopped 00:12:50.139 --> 00:12:53.639 seeking God. We got here the same way that the 00:12:53.639 --> 00:12:56.399 Israelites got to where they got, where they 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:58.720 were offering their kids as sacrifices in the 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:02.899 fire. That's the result of abandoning God. You 00:13:02.899 --> 00:13:05.320 can't just say, I don't want God, and you take 00:13:05.320 --> 00:13:07.799 God out of everything, and you just think somehow 00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:10.480 the world's going to continue on and be good. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:13.700 It doesn't work that way. Because there is no 00:13:13.700 --> 00:13:16.519 good but God. And when you remove God, you've 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:18.539 removed all that's good, and when you've removed 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:22.019 all that's good, all that remains is evil, and 00:13:22.019 --> 00:13:24.220 before long, you're sacrificing your own children. 00:13:26.860 --> 00:13:28.840 And that's what the people were doing in Israel. 00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:31.529 And that's what we see in a lot of places in 00:13:31.529 --> 00:13:34.669 our world today. We see so many people in our 00:13:34.669 --> 00:13:36.769 world, so many countries in our world, so many 00:13:36.769 --> 00:13:39.370 people groups in our world, and they have completely 00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:43.870 taken God out of everything. And the more they 00:13:43.870 --> 00:13:46.110 take God out of things, the more that they see 00:13:46.110 --> 00:13:48.169 things get worse, and the worse they see things 00:13:48.169 --> 00:13:50.370 get, the more they say, we've got to take even 00:13:50.370 --> 00:13:55.330 more God out. And the more God is removed, the 00:13:55.330 --> 00:13:58.370 worse it gets. And this is the cycle. There's 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:01.370 nothing new under the sun. It's not a surprise 00:14:01.370 --> 00:14:04.269 to us, shouldn't be, if we read Scripture. This 00:14:04.269 --> 00:14:07.409 is what humanity does. When we put other gods 00:14:07.409 --> 00:14:10.309 before God, when we stop seeking Him and living 00:14:10.309 --> 00:14:15.389 for Him, the result is bad things are going to 00:14:15.389 --> 00:14:18.009 happen. And I believe that that was true for 00:14:18.009 --> 00:14:20.769 Israel. And I believe that's true for any people 00:14:20.769 --> 00:14:23.289 in our world today. I do not think God has changed. 00:14:23.429 --> 00:14:26.529 I think He blesses those who will seek Him, and 00:14:26.529 --> 00:14:28.649 I believe that He brings punishment and wrath 00:14:28.649 --> 00:14:32.049 on those who will reject Him. And I think we 00:14:32.049 --> 00:14:37.090 see evidences of that in our world today. Verse 00:14:37.090 --> 00:14:40.289 41, He handed them over to the nations. Those 00:14:40.289 --> 00:14:43.590 who hated them ruled them. Their enemies oppressed 00:14:43.590 --> 00:14:46.730 them, and they were subdued under their power. 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:50.070 He rescued them many times, but they continued 00:14:50.070 --> 00:14:56.669 to rebel deliberately and were beaten down by 00:14:56.669 --> 00:15:00.809 their sin. Now, when they followed God, they 00:15:00.809 --> 00:15:03.870 didn't really have any trouble. You may remember 00:15:03.870 --> 00:15:06.669 when they first crossed over the Jordan to go 00:15:06.669 --> 00:15:10.289 into Canaan. And they went to Jericho. We just 00:15:10.289 --> 00:15:12.110 talked about this in Sunday School going through 00:15:12.110 --> 00:15:14.889 the book of Joshua. Jericho, pretty big fortified 00:15:14.889 --> 00:15:18.190 walls. Israel probably didn't have no business 00:15:18.190 --> 00:15:21.590 overtaking them. But what happened? By God's 00:15:21.590 --> 00:15:24.590 power, they overtook them. And by God's power, 00:15:24.769 --> 00:15:27.169 they would have overtaken every person in that 00:15:27.169 --> 00:15:31.250 land with no trouble. When the spies got sent 00:15:31.250 --> 00:15:34.070 to see what was going on in the land, and the 00:15:34.070 --> 00:15:36.110 spies come back and tell them, said, hold up, 00:15:36.110 --> 00:15:37.750 there's some big folks over there. We can't go 00:15:37.750 --> 00:15:39.639 over there and do that. And Joshua and Caleb 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:41.080 said, well, look, we go over there and do it. 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:42.519 It's fine. The Lord brought us here. We'll go 00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:44.639 do it. He'll give them over to us. No problem. 00:15:44.779 --> 00:15:46.240 And they said, well, you ain't going over there. 00:15:47.299 --> 00:15:49.740 And they could have overtook everybody in the 00:15:49.740 --> 00:15:52.460 land had they have trusted in God, but they didn't. 00:15:52.600 --> 00:15:56.080 And this scripture reminds us that their enemies 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:58.980 overtook them. Was it because their enemies were 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:01.360 stronger than them? Nope. Was it because their 00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:03.860 enemies were stronger than God? Nope. It was 00:16:03.860 --> 00:16:05.620 because God said, okay, you don't want to trust 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:08.240 me. I'm going to back up. Well, when God backs 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:11.559 up, you're in big trouble. And God's people find 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:15.879 themselves in big trouble. It says he rescued 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:19.539 them many times in verse 43, but they continue 00:16:19.539 --> 00:16:22.559 to rebel deliberately. Now, you read through 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:24.840 the Old Testament. You see a lot of times. I'd 00:16:24.840 --> 00:16:27.019 be curious to know what the count is. I've never 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:30.059 really thought about that. How many times that 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:32.700 God handed them over and how many times that 00:16:32.700 --> 00:16:36.090 he rescued them. But there was a pattern. They 00:16:36.090 --> 00:16:39.450 continued to rebel deliberately. And listen to 00:16:39.450 --> 00:16:43.990 that last line in verse 43. And were beaten down 00:16:43.990 --> 00:16:48.409 by their sin. Think about that for a second. 00:16:48.490 --> 00:16:51.830 They were beaten down by their sin. That's what 00:16:51.830 --> 00:16:55.450 sin will do to us. Now we all have sin. Maybe 00:16:55.450 --> 00:16:58.629 not the same sin like we're talking about here. 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:01.379 But there is some sin in our life that is tough 00:17:01.379 --> 00:17:03.220 for us to overcome, and it's different for you 00:17:03.220 --> 00:17:04.920 than it is for me. Everybody's is different. 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:08.220 But it's a bad feeling, and maybe some of you 00:17:08.220 --> 00:17:09.980 have been there. I suspect you are. When there 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:12.660 is sin in your life, and it has got the better 00:17:12.660 --> 00:17:14.619 of you, and you've just continued to give in 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:19.779 to it, and it will beat you down. And it's hard. 00:17:20.339 --> 00:17:23.160 It's hard to overcome that. We want to give up. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:26.779 We want to just keep giving in to it. But man, 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:29.160 it just leaves us feeling so rotten and so angry 00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:32.900 and so bitter. So how do we overcome that? Well, 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.480 we overcome that by the power of the Lord. That's 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:39.140 the only way that we overcome that sin that, 00:17:39.160 --> 00:17:42.180 as Hebrews would say, so easily ensnares us, 00:17:42.220 --> 00:17:46.619 that sin that would beat us down. Now maybe we 00:17:46.619 --> 00:17:49.319 read this passage tonight, or maybe there's somebody 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:52.259 online that's listening to this, and maybe if 00:17:52.259 --> 00:17:54.799 we're honest, We can relate to this passage more 00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:56.680 than we want to. Maybe we can look at our own 00:17:56.680 --> 00:17:58.880 life and say, golly, there's some evils in my 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:02.720 life. Maybe I've abandoned God. Maybe I've put 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:05.900 other gods and other things before Him. Maybe 00:18:05.900 --> 00:18:08.799 I'm committing some evils that are pretty bad. 00:18:09.619 --> 00:18:14.319 Maybe I've rebelled repeatedly. Maybe I feel 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:17.019 the burden of my own sin right now and it has 00:18:17.019 --> 00:18:19.759 beaten me down and I don't know what I'm going 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:22.890 to do. Well, I can tell you what you can do, 00:18:22.930 --> 00:18:25.930 and you can do the same thing that God's people 00:18:25.930 --> 00:18:29.950 Israel did. In the next verse, in verse 44, it 00:18:29.950 --> 00:18:33.730 says, When he heard their cry, he took note of 00:18:33.730 --> 00:18:36.609 their distress, remembered his covenant with 00:18:36.609 --> 00:18:39.250 them, and relented according to the riches of 00:18:39.250 --> 00:18:43.769 his faithful love. He calls them to be pitied 00:18:43.769 --> 00:18:49.630 before all their captors. All right? So if you 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:52.109 find yourself in this shape, Maybe you have before, 00:18:52.369 --> 00:18:55.029 maybe you are now, or maybe you will in the future. 00:18:56.289 --> 00:19:00.609 Where you have turned away from God, there's 00:19:00.609 --> 00:19:02.809 evil in your life, there's sin in your life, 00:19:02.890 --> 00:19:05.890 and you've gotten to a point where you realize 00:19:05.890 --> 00:19:08.710 you are in a bad way. What are you going to do? 00:19:09.829 --> 00:19:14.289 Well, God's people cried out to the Lord. And 00:19:14.289 --> 00:19:18.349 the good news is, when we seek God, we'll find 00:19:18.349 --> 00:19:22.329 Him. When we reject God, all we'll find is evil 00:19:22.329 --> 00:19:24.849 and pain and suffering. And that's a bad place 00:19:24.849 --> 00:19:28.509 to be. But when we seek God, we will find Him. 00:19:29.029 --> 00:19:32.089 And when God's people cried out to Him in all 00:19:32.089 --> 00:19:34.990 the stuff that they had done, in all that they 00:19:34.990 --> 00:19:39.569 were guilty of, when they cried out to God, it 00:19:39.569 --> 00:19:43.529 says He took note of their distress. Well, that's 00:19:43.529 --> 00:19:46.829 good news. It's not good to live in evil. If 00:19:46.829 --> 00:19:48.269 we're living in evil, then we need to repent. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:51.019 We don't want to stay there. We don't want to 00:19:51.019 --> 00:19:53.099 stay beaten down by sin and say, I can't get 00:19:53.099 --> 00:19:56.299 over this. I'm too far gone. My sin has got the 00:19:56.299 --> 00:19:58.900 best of me. I've got no power over it. You don't 00:19:58.900 --> 00:20:02.240 have to stay there. You can cry out to the Lord 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:05.059 and you can say, Lord, help me. Through Jesus 00:20:05.059 --> 00:20:09.039 Christ, you can be delivered. We can be overcomers 00:20:09.039 --> 00:20:12.400 through Jesus Christ. We can be victorious over 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.440 that sin that ensnares us through Jesus Christ 00:20:15.440 --> 00:20:19.000 if we would seek Him and call out to Him. And 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:23.680 cry out to him. As God's people did. Verse 47. 00:20:24.339 --> 00:20:27.200 Save us Yahweh our God. And gather us from the 00:20:27.200 --> 00:20:29.519 nations. So that we may give thanks to your holy 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:33.619 name. And rejoice in your praise. May Yahweh 00:20:33.619 --> 00:20:36.059 the God of Israel be praised. From everlasting 00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:40.240 to everlasting. That all the people say. Amen. 00:20:41.240 --> 00:20:45.279 Hallelujah. That's a pretty good prayer. Those 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:48.059 last couple of verses there. Save us and gather 00:20:48.059 --> 00:20:50.599 us from the nations. And we may give thanks to 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.440 your holy name. Well, maybe that needs to be 00:20:53.440 --> 00:20:58.160 the prayer that some of us pray today. God, I've 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:01.079 turned from you and I'm in a mess. I've been 00:21:01.079 --> 00:21:04.140 doing things that are so evil, I'm afraid to 00:21:04.140 --> 00:21:07.859 speak them out loud they are so evil. But God, 00:21:07.900 --> 00:21:10.099 I cry out to you now because I'm in a bad shape 00:21:10.099 --> 00:21:13.339 and everything's falling in on me and my sin's 00:21:13.339 --> 00:21:17.039 just crushing me. Lord, I cry out to you. Would 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:19.700 you save me? Would you help me? And the good 00:21:19.700 --> 00:21:22.140 news is, is that through Jesus Christ tonight, 00:21:22.460 --> 00:21:26.119 he will help you. Because Jesus died on the cross 00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:28.579 so that your sins could be forgiven. If you would 00:21:28.579 --> 00:21:32.200 just repent, God will take note of your distress, 00:21:32.359 --> 00:21:36.059 just as he did the people of Israel. Let's pray. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:40.400 God, we thank you for these good words. And maybe 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:43.680 we can learn something from Psalm 106, dear Lord. 00:21:43.799 --> 00:21:47.609 We say a lot. of examples of failure throughout 00:21:47.609 --> 00:21:53.869 this whole psalm. And dear Lord, our life can 00:21:53.869 --> 00:21:56.049 only add to those examples, dear Lord. We've 00:21:56.049 --> 00:21:59.390 got plenty of failures of our own. But I pray, 00:21:59.450 --> 00:22:01.849 God, that even as we look at all this unfaithfulness 00:22:01.849 --> 00:22:04.970 and all the evil that we've seen in this psalm, 00:22:04.970 --> 00:22:09.049 that we would not forget the main theme, and 00:22:09.049 --> 00:22:13.869 that is, dear Lord, that continually we see in 00:22:13.869 --> 00:22:18.599 this psalm people who intercede, people who atone 00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:22.119 for. We see deliverance for your people, dear 00:22:22.119 --> 00:22:25.500 Lord. And we thank you for all those folks in 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:27.880 the Old Testament that you sent to be good leaders, 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:30.839 to intercede for your people and to make atonement 00:22:30.839 --> 00:22:33.240 for your people. But God, I pray that we do not 00:22:33.240 --> 00:22:36.779 fail to recognize that all these examples we 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:39.740 see in Psalm 106 are pointing us to Jesus Christ. 00:22:40.509 --> 00:22:43.150 That He is the one who is interceding for us 00:22:43.150 --> 00:22:45.849 on our behalf. That He is the one who has made 00:22:45.849 --> 00:22:49.230 atonement for us through His sacrifice. And God, 00:22:49.289 --> 00:22:51.970 it's because of that that today that we can cry 00:22:51.970 --> 00:22:54.509 out to You that we can have confidence to know 00:22:54.509 --> 00:22:56.710 that You will hear us in our distress. So God, 00:22:56.769 --> 00:22:59.730 I pray for the one whose sin has beaten them 00:22:59.730 --> 00:23:02.829 down tonight. I pray, God, that through Jesus 00:23:02.829 --> 00:23:05.809 Christ they would find strength and peace and 00:23:05.809 --> 00:23:08.049 forgiveness. And I ask these things in Jesus' 00:23:08.230 --> 00:23:09.650 name. Amen.