The sermon, titled 'In the Lord I Put My Trust' by James Lundquist, explores the themes of trust and testing in Psalm 11. The speaker emphasizes the importance of trusting in God amidst trials and challenges, drawing parallels between David's decision to stand firm and other biblical figures like Nehemiah, Esther, and Paul, who faced tests of faith. The sermon highlights the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, with the righteous being those who trust in God's sovereignty and are tested to conform to Christ's likeness. The speaker encourages believers to share personal testimonies of God's faithfulness to strengthen communal trust. The sermon underscores the necessity of examining one's trust in God at a deep, personal level and challenges the congregation to pray for testing as a means to grow in faith. It concludes with a call to flee to the cross and trust in Jesus for salvation, emphasizing that true peace and refuge are found in God alone.

Psalm chapter 11. To the chief musician, a Psalm of David. In the Lord I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain, for look the wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the uprightened heart.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates.

Upon the wicked he will rain coals, fire, and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright." Lord God I pray that as we as we sit down to hear your word preached God I pray that you would help us to be ready to hear, to be ready to listen. Lord, I also pray that we would be counted among the righteous.

Lord God, that you would behold us as a righteous people. Lord, thank you that We are righteous only because of the work of Jesus Christ. So God, please help us as we hear your word preached. Please be with James as he brings your word. I pray that he would preach with the full authority of you behind him.

In Jesus' name, Amen. What a pleasure it has been to spend these four weeks in these Psalms. I look so much to starting next week in Philippians, but this has been a joy. This has helped me learn more how to meditate. Psalms can be hard.

It's not like another text. Going through a book where We've got past sermons just to help us, lead us, and give us a progression. Psalms almost stand on their own, and you have poetry. And what's poetry? What's literal?

What's going on? So they can be hard, but they cause us to meditate. I pray that that's what's caused us to happen. We've gone through the Psalms, we've tasted and seen, and we've hungered more for his righteousness in our meditations. In Psalm 1 we said, blessed, oh happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

In Psalm 11, we're going to see blessed, oh happy is the man who trusts in the Lord. In Psalm 5, we were cautioned about our practical atheism. In Psalm 11 we see that the source, the remedy to all of our practical atheism, where we might lean towards is our trust in the Lord. In Psalm 5 last week we saw that the Lord, the God is excellent. His name is excellent in all the earth.

And because of that Psalm, because of what we studied last week, we see in Psalm 11, therefore He is worthy of all of our trust. He is completely trustworthy. Let's pray as we go into Psalm 11. Oh Lord, you are completely trustworthy. You are completely righteous.

We have seen that just through you saving people. How kind and righteous you are. You are worthy of all of our trust. So God we trust you now in this sermon. We trust you now in your words that they are right.

Oh God give us all, myself included, give us all ears to hear the truth of your word. Oh, Holy Spirit, help us. In Jesus' name, Amen. I have the psalm broken up in three sections. You'll see there are one in three, four through six, and then verse seven.

And the title is just simply, In the Lord I put my trust. We do not have to be creative about our sermon titles. Sometimes the text is just plain right there of what it needs to be. The Word of God is the word of God. In the Lord I put my trust.

That is the foundation of this psalm. In the Lord I put my trust. It is the foundation of David's trust. It is the foundation of all believers' trust. In the Lord I put my trust.

Listen to some more words from David for some other Psalms. Psalm 16, preserve me, O God, for in you I put my trust. Psalm 18, 2, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust. In Psalm 40, verse 4, blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust. In the Lord, in his faithfulness, in his righteousness, in his goodness, in his mercy, in his grace, in his justice, in all of his attributes, we trust, we take refuge in the Lord in all that He is.

And David is making a declaration right here. Jason last week counted it as a thesis statement. Think of it like that. David up front is saying, in the Lord I put my trust. And everything that comes after this is based on that.

He's declaring right now, in the Lord I put my trust. He's coming up, he's got a real test coming. He's saying, no matter what, this is the basis for what I do and why I'm going to do it. He's drawing a line in the sand for all of his decisions, all of his actions. This is a form, I've talked about preaching to yourself, this is a form of preaching to yourself, of just declaring this statement, this line in the sand for everything you are going to do is, in the Lord I put my trust, in the Lord I put my trust.

And that's what David is doing here. David has a real test before him. I'm using the words from verse 5, It's a test. David is one of the righteous. The Lord tests the righteous.

I might say trial, I might say crisis, but everything really is test. The Lord is testing the righteous. The Lord is testing David here. David believes in this that it would not be demonstrating a trust in the Lord to flee the situation that he is in. So why this time?

For David, why does it this time? He says it's not demonstrating a trust in God for him to flee because we know at other times he has fled. Think of some of these other times that David has fled. 1 Samuel 18, David flees because Jonathan warns him, There's a banquet, Saul's having a banquet and Jonathan warns him and he's caring for him, saying, hey, I don't know what's going to happen, but you might need to flee, based on where I shoot my arrows. If I shoot it too far, I'm going to tell my servant it's further on, you need to flee.

It ends up being further on when he shoots his arrow and is telling David, you need to flee. You need to flee and David flees. In 1 Samuel 22 and 23, David flees Saul and that's when he pretends to be mad before the king of Gath and he flees to a cave from fleeing Saul. In 1 Samuel 24, it's where David has fled and he's hiding in a cave. And that's the story when Saul comes in and Saul's sleeping, while he's sleeping, David comes up and cuts a corner of his robe off and Saul leaves.

And then David comes out and says, Saul, you know, what he's really saying, I could have killed you, but I didn't. But I didn't. In 1 Samuel 16, David again is hiding. He has fled Saul and Saul and his armies fall asleep and David and his men go down there and go right next to Saul and take Saul's spear and take that jug of water and leave. He could have killed Saul then.

And then in 2 Samuel 15 we see the unfortunate events where David flees Absalom. So David has fled, so why does he stand here? Why does he stand here? This is a real test of David. There are real enemies.

Yes, there is some poetry here, but there really are enemies here. We don't know what time period this is of David. The Psalm does not tell us. But there are real enemies here. And David has to decide, do I stay or Do I flee?

And these enemies, it says here, are ready to ambush him. They're in the language of somebody that's hunting, trying to hunt him down. They're shooting at the upright in heart. They're like an assassin, just waiting for darkness to come upon, and they're praying to come on so they can assassinate David. It's really the way it's looking here.

These wicked enemies are really just showing us, living out what we see in 1 Peter 5, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaming lion, seeking whom he may devour. These are people that are trying to devour David. Well, David has fled, and it must have been right there, it seems. But let's look at some examples of some other people that did stay. Some other examples.

Turn to Nehemiah 6 for our first example. Turn to Nehemiah 6. I'm going to be starting in verse 9. But in Nehemiah 6, the walls have already been built. So the enemies of Nehemiah, the enemies of the Jews, have been trying to obstruct all the building of the walls.

They're lying about Nehemiah, about what he's really doing, what kind of a leader he is, how much he's going against people. They're doing everything they can, but now the walls are built. Okay, now how do we get to Nehemiah? How can we get to Nehemiah? Well, start in verse 9.

For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hand with the prayer of Nehemiah. Afterward I came to the house of Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mahatabel, who was a secret informer. He said, Let us meet together in the house of God within the temple, and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. Indeed at night they will come to kill you." And I said, should such a man as I flee and who is there such as I who would go into the temple to save his life?

I will not go in. Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sambalot had hired him. For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way in sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me. My God, remember Tobiah and Sambalot according to these their works and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid." So for Nehemiah it would have been sin for him to flee. It would have been sin for him to flee.

His fleeing would have been out of the fear of man and not the fear of God. God had sent him on this mission. I can see other people around saying, hey, Nehemiah, you're important. You're the king's cup there. We don't want anything bad to come upon you.

We want the king. But the Lord was kind to him and let him say, hey, if I flee, yeah, it's out of fear of man, but if I flee, it's because these guys are really wicked. They're really not looking after me. In Esther, there's a plan in place. Haman has put a plan in place to kill the Jews.

He's gotten a court order from the king saying, that's OK. You can go after the Jews and kill them. So Mordecai is making an appeal to Esther. He's making an appeal through some of Esther's servants. And Esther 4 says this.

Mordecai is saying, for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place. But you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this." Then Esther said to them, reply to Mordecai, go, gather all the Jews who are present in Sushan and fast for me. Neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise, and so I will go to the king, which is against the law.

And if I perish, I perish." Esther could have fled to the comfort of her own chamber. She could have, And it would have been lawful for her to do. She mentions for her to go to the king, it's against the law for me to go to the king without the king having mercy upon me, and I might die. But she says, I'm not going to flee to the comfort of my own chamber, to the comfort of even the law of the land. In this case, I'm going to go ahead and go, because it's better to stand up for the people of God than to even fear the king, is what she did.

We have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3, where they are now cast in the fiery furnace for not worshipping Nebuchadnezzar, worshipping his idol, but it's worshipping his statue, but it's really worshipping Nebuchadnezzar. And they say this to the king when they're about to be thrown in. It says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us from your hand, O king.

But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up." They could have fled to idol worship and been just fine. They could have done that. And here they're not necessarily declaring that they know God is going to save them. They might have known that. I don't know that for sure.

Because they say, but if not, we're still saved from your hand, O King, from eternal death. What you do to us is way worse than anything God can do, who can kill the body and soul. So even if we perish here, we're made alive in God. So, Oh King, we're not going to flee to the comfort of the law you made. We're going to stay.

We're going to stay and we'll take this. Noah kept building and trusting God for 120 years. I think he wasn't tested just to flee and stop somewhere along those 120 years. I think He was tested for all those 120 years when the whole world is against him. The whole world.

Daniel appealed to the king on the diet on behalf of his friends saying, we want to eat different food. And we appeal to you to do that. And then later on he says, I'm going to pray. You say I can't pray, laws have been made to come against me, but I'm going to go ahead and pray even though I know the lions are ahead of me if I do that. He didn't flee to the comfort of the law.

He could have fled, he didn't. He said, this is what I must do. Paul was warned by friends in Acts 20. In Acts 21, Paul is warned by friends to not go up to Jerusalem. These are dear friends, righteous friends.

They say, don't go up to Jerusalem Paul, it's dangerous for you there. And here's what happens, he's staying with Philip, staying with Philip and starting in verse 10 of Acts 21, it says, And so we stayed many days, and as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him, pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem, then Paul answered, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Here's Paul.

He's got a prophet not saying not to go. He's got a prophet though saying, this is what's going to happen to you. The pressure is don't go. The pressure is to flee. Paul knows he should go.

The pressure is flee. I've got a prophet saying this is going to happen. It's backing up what my brethren are saying, but Paul says, no. For the sake of the gospel, I must go, even if I die. And then the last example, go ahead and turn to 1 Samuel 17.

1 Samuel 17. This is the story of David and Goliath. So back to David, bringing it full circle here. You have the story of David and Goliath, but I'm reading the conversation between David and Saul before he goes and meets Goliath, starting in verse 32. Then David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth and he a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, your servant used to keep his father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it and delivered the lamb from its mouth. When it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.

Moreover, David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. Yes, David does flee sometimes, but he also has a history of staying. Even when those around him think he's crazy, like Saul and probably the rest of the army, definitely like the Philistines thought, but his experience in smaller tests, yes, smaller tests for him seemed to be fighting with a lion and a bear, and then Goliath, and now this test before him now and other armies, but it did prepare him for bigger tests. Seeing the Lord's trustworthiness in the past increased his trust in God and his trust for the future tests that he was going to have.

So brother and sister, I ask you, do you want to trust more? Do you want to trust God more like David trusted God more? Like David progressively trusted God more throughout his life. Do you want that? Do you want your trust increased?

Then I say, like David, like scripture, where we have these examples, we need to be examples to one another by telling of these tests that God puts us through. To encourage us. I just read through many examples that God has put in there to increase our trust in Him. I'm so thankful this is the Word of God. God also puts us through tests.

And we can encourage one another by talking about these tests that he puts us through. Church, tell one another of the faithfulness, of the trustworthiness of God with specific examples. Tell about them. This helps us to have eyes to see his faithfulness. Tell how prayers were answered, where faith was strengthened.

We've had sickness in our church. So tell of God's goodness and his trustworthiness in healing your family. God tested us. My wife was up all night caring for the children. But look at this.

Look what God did for us. He strengthened us. I love my wife even more because I saw how much she cared for our children. And now my wife, I see how she's cared for her children. God showed me a doctor that I talked to that helped with this, showed me what medicine would be helpful.

And God tested to see would our faith, would our trust be in Him, or was it going to be in the medicine? Was our trust in Him, or was I more concerned about my rest? Trips. We pray for God to bless our trips. We say, come back and tell the stories of your trips.

You know, we were on our trip. Our car broke down and we didn't know it. But God, This is how he tests us. He was not just that we got home safely, but God used that to test my heart about, oh, did I get angry because the car broke down? Did this happen?

Did that happen? How did God test you and build you and prepare you for future tests? We don't know. We don't know when we go out. We know that in our mind.

We don't know when we go out. We know that in our mind. We don't know when we go out, what's going to happen, and are we going to come home safely. I think of a family that happened at Bethlehem Baptist Church a couple weeks ago. They had This young family, a man, a husband and wife, 29 years old, and three children, they're headed to the mission field to Japan.

It's just a couple weeks ago. Headed to the mission field to go be missionaries in Japan. They leave, They get a great send-off from the church, and they're driving to Nebraska or Oklahoma, something like that, to start their language training, and all that, and on their way they get hit by a truck and the whole family dies. You don't know the test that God is going to have for you. Tell of His greatness.

Stories were told of His greatness. Not just of heartbreak over that. So whether it's sickness, whether it's thing here, whether it's children with your schoolwork, or you're being tested in your schoolwork and how you're going to honor, you're being tested. Tell of God's goodness to you, of the test of how I hate math, but look what God did, and now I know it better. Whatever it might be, He tests us as a church.

Tell of his trustworthiness with good, with specific examples in our church of how prayers were answered. Parents, tell your children of the trustworthiness of God. You must tell them of the trustworthiness of God, that their faith may be strengthened, that they would hear how God cared for you and how your trust was with them. And then later on when you're doing something, they say, Dad and Mom, why do we do it this way? Why are we going here?

Why are we doing it this way? You can look at it and say, remember this story? Remember what happened here? How the Lord cared for us there through that test? How I didn't handle it well?

Or it did go well? Well because of that, this is why we're doing it this way this time. Or why we're continuing this. Our children must hear. Children, please listen to your parents tell these stories and learn from them.

Stand on our shoulders in your trust of God. All this starts with your salvation. When you first start trusting God, it starts with your salvation. You were enemies running from God. I was an enemy running from God against God.

And by grace through faith, Christ saved me. And I was able to put all my trust in Him. Remember that? Remember that? When you first realized, hold on, I'm a sinner that's heading to hell.

But I can be saved from that? I can be saved from God, to God? Remember that? And you put all your trust in Him. He is worthy of all your Trust.

So why not flee? David, Nehemiah, Esther, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Daniel, Paul, Daniel, Noah, Paul, they were more concerned what fleeing would say about the trustworthiness of God. They were more concerned what fleeing would say about the trustworthiness of God. They were more concerned what fleeing would say about the trustworthiness of God than their own comfort in life. They were more concerned that fleeing would preach that God's name is not excellent in all the earth.

They were more concerned about the spreading of the gospel. The gospel would run swiftly than their fear of man. So here's some help for us on whether we flee or whether we stay. Will fleeing or staying to face the test, demonstrate a love for God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Which one?

There are times to flee, there are times to stay. But one filter is, what will it say, what will it demonstrate, How will it demonstrate a love for God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength? And which one will better demonstrate a love for our neighbor? Will fleeing or staying better help the spreading of the gospel? Will fleeing or staying help the Gospel run swiftly?

Those are some big filters. That's where we should start. That's where our conversation should start if we're trying to help one another through a test. That's really where it should be. The world doesn't say flee or stay.

They don't give you that choice. They say flee. The world is going to tell you, and you know it. The world tells you to flee any confrontation. Just flee.

If it's not comfortable, flee. Flee to someplace where you're going to be comfortable. You don't have to stay in that marriage, the world says. You deserve better than a husband or wife like that. Flee it.

Just go. You don't have to be treated that way. Children, children, the world is going to tell you, you do not have to listen to your parents. The world is going to tell you, you make your own choices, you make your own life. You don't have to listen to them.

They don't know what you're going through. They don't understand you. That's what the world is going to tell you and they're going to lie to you. Are you going to flee to that? Trust that the Lord has given you the parents that you need.

For all but a few of you here, it would have been, it was, I'm not your father. God said your father is the best father for you. Your mother is the best mother for you. Trust in God. Put your trust in the Lord's sovereignty that He birthed you into the family He wants you in.

It doesn't mean your parents are perfect. We'll give you perfect advice. But trust them. Your first step should be towards trusting them. Our society says run.

Run. Get away from reality it says. It says you need a break from reality to just remove stress. Empty your mind. Go ahead.

Drugs are fine. Alcohol is fine. TV, immorality. They'll flee to immorality. They'll flee to social media.

So just to veg out, just turn off your mind. Go ahead. Go spend a big day on YouTube, Netflix, phones, books, music, technology, food, sports, sleep, novels, immorality, Facebook, social media. Go do all that. Flee all that.

Flee. Just get away from it. You don't have to have any confrontation. Sometimes we flee the circumstance just because we don't know what else to do or we may be bored. I know probably in all of our houses, if our children come to us and say, we're bored, it's not going to go well for our children, we're going to find a hundred things for them to do.

But it's not just our children, it is us too. It is us too at times. We just want to fill up our time because we just don't know what else to do, so I'm just going to fill it up with all these other things. Now these other things aren't necessarily evil in themselves, right? And that's the crutch we'll put to say that it's okay.

Because, hey, it's just not evil in and of itself. But how much are we fleeing to it, to avoid the reality of the test God's given us? If we need help filling up our minds and need to know what to think about, Philippians 4, we'll be there, it'll be a little while before we're there, but Philippians 4, 8 helps us. Whatsoever things are true, Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

You need help on what to think on, what to consider. Think on what is true, honest, pure, just, lovely, good report, virtue, what is praiseworthy. Let these be your filters of the gospel, of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving your neighbor. Let these be your filters of whether I stay or flee instead of a knee-jerk reaction to a lot of other things. Where and why do we run for refuge?

Where is our trust? David's pattern is to flee to God for refuge. He fears God more than man. He's fleeing to God for refuge. I'm sure he had other things that he fled to.

But his experience and his exhortation to us in all the Psalms he wrote is flee to God. Flee to God. David tried fleeing the immorality. He tried fleeing the murder. He tried fleeing to disobeying God with the senses.

And it didn't work. Flee to God for refuge. David in Psalm 56 says, In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

What can man do to me? Well, David's friends, I think these are friends, had a couple answers for him. What can man do to you? He had a couple answers for him. Back in Psalm 11, verse 2, it says, for look, the wicked bend their bow.

They make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart." So their first argument is, look, they're going to shoot at you. They want to shoot at the upright. David, you're a righteous man. You're upright. They want to kill you.

That's the test he's under. They want to kill you. He's also on the test he's going to listen to his friends. Rightly, seek counsel. He's got to discern if my friend's advice is right or not.

He's got a couple tests here he's got to work through. But the target here is the upright in heart. Like Joe Blameless in Upright. Feared God and shunned evil. Like David, a man after God's own heart.

He's upright. That means he's been made righteous. He's been made righteous. The upright are not defined by being morally good, whether you come to church, or whether you honor your parents, how well of an employee you are, how respectful you are. Those are all characteristics of upright people, but those things do not make you upright.

Being baptized does not make you upright. Standing up here and being a member of a church does not make you upright. May they all be characteristics. They all should be characteristics of one that is upright, but those things don't make you upright. The upright do not make themselves that way by doing what is right in their own rise.

The upright in heart are those that have been redeemed and made upright by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. As I said, we are wicked enemies and the grace of Jesus has opened their eyes to the state of their soul before a holy God, and they have received mercy and grace through the work of Jesus Christ. They have repented and believed alone in Jesus for salvation. The upright in heart are those according to Psalm 40 verse 2 that God has brought up out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set their feet upon the rock of salvation. That's Jesus Christ.

Those are the upright. The upright in heart are those that fear God more than man. The upright in heart are those that stay and preach the exclusivity of Christ, that stand for life, stand for godly marriage, stand for the inerrancy of scripture. Those are upright in heart. If you want peace with the world, you want peace with the world and not have these arrows aimed at you, then don't stand for these things.

Don't say you've been redeemed. Don't say you've been redeemed if you really want peace with the world. If you want peace with the world, don't stand for those things as a Christian. You want to be more conformed to Jesus. We want to be.

You've heard several prayers. It's been mentioned from up here in our singing. You've heard that. We always pray that. We want to be more conformed to Jesus.

And don't expect to be treated better than Jesus was by the world or the devil. Don't expect it. Listen, here's what Henry Law says about this. He was a pastor in the late 1800s. He says this, peril may be near.

The wicked hate and plot. Their bow is strong. Their arrow's ready. Their eyes are watchful. If given the opportunity, their venomed shafts will inflict deadly wounds.

Thus, Jesus walked amid incessant snares. At every turn some ambush was concealed. What crafty questions spread in tangling nets. So too it is each day with us. The enemy is ever near.

Let us look up. Let our daily cry be heard in the Lord, I put my trust." So that answers question number one. All right, so they have a second argument in their questions. It's like a rhetorical questions as David's talking to them here. All right, So the second argument for David's advisors is in verse 3.

Verse 3, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Hey David, the foundations are being destroyed. Or they have been destroyed some translations. So what are we to do? All right, I understand we're targets, but David, there's nothing here to stand for.

What are we to do? And we know the foundations of society do crumble. We see that. There are parts of society that crumble faster than others, that keep crumbling, and can easily feel like there's nothing we can do. We just flee, and fleeing just looks like quitting, being quiet, just throwing up our hands and saying, what am I going to do?

There's nothing I can do. Some of the examples that we have among us, presidential election, what I can do? I have no real choice, they're both evil people. What am I going to do? I can't vote for either of those.

Well, I'm going to talk about things that we can do, but we could be praying for them, that's for sure. We could be praying that God would raise up more leaders amongst us, godly leaders. There are plenty we can do. We have our local laws and things, financial markets, right? Up and down through our lifetime.

We've seen, at least me, I've seen three crashes up and down. Salary's good, salary's bad, laid off here, better job there. What can I do? I'm just at the whims of my employer, at the whims of the financial markets. Evil Wall Street this, evil banks that.

What can I do? All right, the truth is crumbling. Nobody wants to hear truth. Listen to, go evangelizing, you'll hear. Nobody wants to hear what's truth.

In fact, they'll just say, oh, Whatever you think is truth to you, that's fine. As long as you believe it and you're fine, I just hold a different truth. And so, what am I going to do with that? So we just stop evangelizing. Terrorism.

Just throw up our hands. What can I do? Where can I go? I'm not even safe in the United States anymore. What am I going to do?

Short of just hunkering down. What am I going to do? Law and order is crumbling around us. Nobody respects law and order. We see that.

Respect for authority. You see that crumbling? Who has respect for authority? Government, work, schools, churches, what can I do? Well, think, if God looked at you that way, did God look at you that way?

He's just an enemy, wicked, hates me, wants nothing to do with me. Did God throw up His hands with you? No, He said, I'm going to save many of those people, make them trophies of my grace. If the church gives up on these things and flees, goes quiet, expect the world to do the same. Expect that to happen.

So what can the righteous do? What can we do? Listen to what Spurgeon says. Love this. If all earthly things fail and the very state and the very government he means here fall to pieces, what can we do?

We can suffer joyfully. We are going to see that in Philippians. We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, Pray earnestly, believe confidently, and triumph finally. What can the righteous do? There's a lot the righteous can do.

There's a lot we can do. And we don't just throw our hands up. And we encourage one another to build each other up by helping each other see how God is fully trustworthy. By telling about answered prayer, telling about how tests went. Sometimes we stay, we stay when it looks like we should flee in our hands, just what can we do?

Think of Elijah in 1 Kings 18, like I'm it. I'm it, There's nobody else around here standing for God. And there's 450 prophets over there of Baal. And it's not just 450 prophets. The king and queen, Ahab and Jezebel, they're all behind it.

So I've got the government behind it. Everybody's behind it. Everybody thinks I'm crazy. It's just me versus 450 prophets of Baal. What am I going to do?

Well, what's he going to do? He's going to stand for the Lord God. He's going to fear God more than them. He may die. He doesn't.

He's trusting the Lord. But whether he knew he was going to live or not, he still said, I'm not running from this. For the name of the Lord our God, I am going to stay. I'm going to stay and tell these prophets who God is and God made himself mighty. We don't know it's always going to work out that way.

So when the foundations are crumbling, we have to be firm in our foundation of our trust in God. Our foundation is in Christ. When the society is crumbling, I'm not fatalistic, we can talk eschatology later, I'm not fatalistic at all. But when you see that and your heart may fear, you may be willing to give up, your foundation is in Christ. Jesus is the firm foundation, the solid rock, the chief cornerstone, strong tower.

He's not described that way just to be described that way. It's to give us hope, to help us in times of testing. Jesus' love and mercy endures forever. Jesus' finished work is our foundation. His precious blood and body taking the wrath we deserve.

His death and resurrection conquering the last enemy, that's death. Jesus' never ending intercession at the right hand of God for us. That's going on right now as you sit there as I stand here. That's going on, never ending. Jesus is coming again.

Jesus is the foundation of our trust. In the Lord I put my trust. Verses 4-6. Verses 4-6. The Lord is in His holy temple.

The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked. The one who loves violence, his soul hates. Upon the wicked he will rain coals, fire, and brimstone, and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup." Verses 4-6 we see that The Lord tests.

The Lord tests. David is looking to the Lord who reigns from his throne in heaven. The holy God on his holy throne in his holy temple. He is a sovereign, exalted, holy, righteous God, ruling from his throne with all authority, the judge and the protector of his people. And He's reigning over all of your tests.

He's reigning over your test of sickness, your test of different challenges, your test of disabilities, your test of family relationships, your test in your job, your test with government, your test with society, your test in your good and your bad days. He is raining in your test for your whole entire life. God is raining and is thrown in heaven and Jesus is interceding for us at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Proverbs 15.3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and the good. In verse 4 we see here the Lord is testing, he's examining everyone.

He's looking, he's keeping watch on the evil and the good. He's testing, examining everyone, and he only finds two people. We only ever find two types of people in scripture. He finds people you're either righteous or you're wicked. And he treats them completely different.

Completely different. He asked to. So let's talk about this first person. The first person in verse 5 says that The Lord tests the righteous. The first person is the righteous.

The righteous are the same as the upright in verses 2 and 7. They have been made righteous by the righteousness of Jesus. And He tests them. He tests them. He's proving you.

He's trying you like a refining metal. As we see other places, like a refining metal to get rid of the impurities, get rid of the sin, and conform you to Jesus. Conform you to Jesus, making you holy. He is testing the righteous. Remember when we were in 1 Peter 1, 6-7.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trial, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. God is testing us. But He is testing our love, our joy, our peace, our patience, our kindness, our goodness, our faithfulness, our gentleness, our self-control. He is testing our love for Him, our love for neighbor. Why?

Not to see, not to see if we are worthy of him, but to conform us to Christ. We have been made worthy by Christ. We are Christ. We have his favor because of the work of Christ. He's not testing us like an examination like you might have at school to see if you're worthy enough to move on.

Hey, is James good enough to be in heaven? Has he attained enough in love to come to heaven now? No, that's not it. It's to conform us more to Christ. It is showing His love for us.

It's not making us gain anything more. We have all we have. He's made us sons and daughters of the King. What more could you possibly want? He can't exalt you any higher than that.

He's testing because He cares for you. And He's wanting to be more like Jesus because he loves Jesus. We want more and better fruit. We want more and better fruit. And that only comes through testing.

Back to David and Goliath. How was he prepared to trust God in that very, very imposing giant? Well, he goes back and he tells Saul, this is how I took care of my sheep. A lion came and I struck them and then they tried to come to me and I killed them. I was just a little shepherd boy in my youth.

And I was able to do that. And I trusted God there to care. God is going to care for me here. Because this is even worse. This is a person that defies the armies of the Lord.

Hates God. And I will not let his name be blasphemed. Someone needs to stand up to this giant. I will. But because he's been tested, he's been through testing, he says on that one I'm going to stand and I'm going to fight.

His experience in smaller tests prepared him for that. It's the same with us. It's the same with us. You'll trust in the sovereign God with the difficulty level of the test. The test may be very difficult, or it may not be so difficult.

But trust him that the difficulty level of the test he gives you is right. Trust in that. Trust at the length of the time of the test. Some are long tests, some are shorter tests. Trust in his sovereignty of the test.

And, for me, I am not at all trying to minimize the difficulties of tests. This is not a sermon by saying that just flippantly says, well, just trust in the Lord. Just trust in the Lord. That's not what I'm saying at all. We are all of us in the midst of trial.

We are always in the midst of trial to being tested. Our hearts are always being tested. There's always something there, small or great. It is. Look at your life.

Be honest with your life. There is a test somewhere and probably many of them. If we were to lay out all of our tests before each other, let's just lay them all out there. Let's start making lists. Some will be shorter, some will be longer.

Some we might look at and the world might say, well, that's not that bad. I don't see that that's big tough. I don't see that that's a big deal. But that's not how we should act. This is the test that the sovereign God brought a brother or sister.

This is the test that God brought you. And since God said this is how I want to test them, then this is the right test. Small or big in my eyes, it is the right test that we should all take very seriously in helping our brethren, helping ourselves, helping our spouses, helping our children. These are serious. It's not just, oh it's not a big deal.

Just get over it. It's really not that. It's really not that. These are tests for the righteous, for the righteous, for our brethren to conform us to Jesus. There are personal tests with our family members, work, health.

There's church tests. And what are we going to believe in our doctrine, our membership, the council, tithing, participation, Reconciliation with each other. The church universal test on the authority of Scripture, on marriage, the sanctity of life, all life, all ages. They're a test. Here's the implication.

If we flee these tests, And if we minimize these tests in others and say they're not big deal, then we are really fleeing the love of God. And we don't really want God to love our neighbor or our brethren. If we flee the test of God, we really do not want to be conformed to Jesus. And if we say they are not any big deal to our brothers and sisters, we don't want them to be conformed to Jesus either. These tests are given to us by God.

And every single one of them, small or big in our eyes, short period or long period, is made to conform us to Christ, to glorify God in His grace and His mercy. Instead of fleeing the test, How about praying for more tests? You thought about that? Pray for more tests. Here's where I get that from.

Psalm 139. When I say Psalm 139, probably most of us automatically go to the abortion clinic. And it's right to use that there. You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb.

But please don't stop there. Please don't stop there. Psalm 139, go to verses 23 and 24. Listen to this. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me, test me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. David prays for testing. He wants to be on the path of righteousness forever, on the straight path. He wants to trust the Lord's way. He wants rid of any weakness, so he prays for testing.

Pray for testing. So that's the first person God sees, the righteous. The righteous are tested by God. The second person God sees in His examining are the wicked. Are the wicked?

Please pay attention to here. Important. All that was important too. But please don't tune out because you think you're not one of the wicked. Listen to this.

The wicked do not get the chastening and the love and the testing of God. They get hatred and wrath of God. Verse 5 and 6, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Soul hates. He uses language here that compares the treatment of the wicked to the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah.

And this is not just here, but it's throughout Scripture, including the New Testament. Turn to Matthew 11. I want you to see this in Matthew 11 verse 20. Sorry, verse 20. Then Jesus, then he, then Jesus began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works have been done because they did not repent.

What's going to happen, what God is going to say here after here, what Jesus is saying is all because they did not repent. It's not just on the cities because individuals did not repent. Woe to you, Corazin, woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it'll be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.

For if the mighty works which were done in you have been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in that day of judgment than for you." Sodom in Gomorrah was horrible. But what Jesus is saying here, the judgment on the wicked that he hates will be worse. Hell is worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. As horrible as that was, Hell will be worse.

It's for eternity. It is the complete wrath of God. Not just fire and brimstone. It is the complete wrath of God. We must understand God's whole nature is set against sin because he has a purer eyes than can behold evil and cannot look on wickedness.

Psalm 7 says, and God is angry with the wicked every day. He does not turn back. He will sharpen his sword. He bends his bow and makes it ready. You have a choice.

Do you want the bow and arrows of God against you or the bows and arrows of man? You choose. Which one do you want against you? It is because of what God is that the righteous and the wicked cannot and must not be treated the same or be in eternity before God together. It cannot happen.

His love for Jesus demands, demands He loves the righteous and hates the wicked. If you don't repent and believe in Jesus alone for salvation, God uses this imagery from Sodom and Gomorrah to describe your future. At the end of this section, he talks about the cup that the wicked will have. He says, This shall be the portion of their cup. Psalm 75 says, For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red.

It is fully mixed, and he pours it out. Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down. Wrath is in the cup of the wicked for them to drink, for them to drink down to the dregs. That cup is what we all deserve and the wicked will drink it. For the righteous, for the upright, those redeemed by Jesus Christ, He drank that cup for us.

We're going to have a Lord's Supper here soon. He drank that cup for us, down to the dregs, for the righteous. You will not drink the tiniest, teeniest drop imaginable of wrath. Not a bit, because Christ drank it all. But for the wicked, You will drink the cup.

You will drink the cup. But you say, I'm not that bad to deserve that cup of wrath, Solomon Gamorra, to be hated by God. I'm not that bad. But look at your mourning. Children, look at your mourning.

Did any of you complain? Did any of you complain because of what you got for breakfast? Oh, I didn't get my favorite thing for breakfast. Or I didn't get to use my favorite spoon even. Or my sister took my favorite hair clamp.

Or my brother wearing my belt. Or parents just are sinned towards our children, or each other this morning, just that alone, by complaining, a little complaint. That is worth the wrath of God. You say you're not that bad. God is completely other, completely holy.

No sin can stand before Him. He's of pure eyes. I'm telling you, I'm telling you that you must repent and believe and take refuge in a good King, kind Father. He is worthy of all your trust and more. I'm telling you this terror of truth so that you would flee from this world, from yourself to the cross.

You might think I'm telling this very harshly. I am minimizing it. If anything, I cannot say, I cannot tell, I cannot give an example strong enough of how hard the wrath of God, how horrible the wrath of God is for eternity. I can't. Sodom and Gomorrah is about the best we can get.

You do not know what tomorrow is going to bring today. Today, about 8, 800 people die in the United States every day. Every day. And they have a classification for accidents. That's about 350 of them.

With a sovereign God, there are no accidents. For Each one of those 8, 800 people, God numbered their days. And he said, today is the day they die. There will be righteous and there will be wicked in there. Some will reign with Christ forever.

Some are beginning their first day of drinking the unending cup of wrath. I have to spend time reading J.C. Ryle on this. He says, are you thinking you will pay attention to these things tomorrow? Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

I will worry about serious things tomorrow, said an unsaved person to one who warned him, I'm warning you, to one who warned him of coming danger, but his tomorrow never came. Tomorrow is the devil's day, but today is God's. Satan does not care how spiritual your intentions are or how holy your resolutions. If only they are determined to be done tomorrow. Oh, give no place to the devil in this matter.

All men don't live to be elderly fathers, like Isaac and Jacob. Many children die before their fathers. David had to mourn the death of his two finest sons. Job lost all of his 10 children in one day. Your lot may be like one of theirs.

And when death comes, it'll be vain to talk of tomorrow. Listen. You have heard the Gospel. You've heard it. Repent and believe today.

Your life is a hand breath. It's a vapor and that vapor may be gone today. Verse 7. Verse 7. For the Lord is righteous.

He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright. The Lord is righteous. This is why the Lord hates the wicked. His righteousness demands the hatred of the wicked.

Do you have problems with that language? It rubs us wrong. Did you have problems this morning when we sang in the first verse, the Lord is righteous, the wicked he will smite. Does that bother anybody? Is that hard to sing for anybody?

It would seem like it should, but God's righteousness demands this. That's how he treats the wicked. And the only reason why we are not, the righteous are not, those that have been saved are not treated like the wicked, is because Jesus, the righteous one, has clothed us in his righteousness. Have cleansed us from all of our sins, cast them as far as the east is from the west. He cloths us in his righteousness, and we stand righteous before God because of Jesus Christ.

He loves righteousness. He loves righteous deeds in us because His grace causes this. His grace causes all the righteous deeds you might have. So because of Jesus, God loves us. But just because we have disease, or disabilities, or eventually die, doesn't mean we can't trust God.

Doesn't mean He's not trustworthy and caring for us. He is sanctifying us. He is conforming us to Jesus. He is testing us to build our trust in Him. At the end of the Psalm, he says here, his countenance beholds the upright.

His countenance beholds the upright. Other translations, this is a perfectly acceptable translation, say the upright behold his countenance. God's countenance beholds the upright, and the upright behold his countenance. Either way it is true and it is precious. Psalm 17 as for me I will see your face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness.

And the Lord I put my trust and I will die. When I awake, when I awake, it will be in your likeness. The conforming is done. We'll be finished. And you will completely see that your Lord is completely trustworthy.

Matthew Henry says, He, like a tender father, looks upon them with pleasure. And they like dutiful children are pleased and abundantly satisfied with His smiles. They walk in the light of the Lord. It is so true that the Father delights in you because he delights in his son. He looks on you with pleasure.

He sees what the grace has done to you. He sees what the work of Christ has done to you. And he takes delight and he has pleasure in you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace. I have one application. It's got a couple of points to it, but it is one application, I'll call it. It's a question. Do you really trust in the Lord?

Do you really trust in the Lord? Be honest in your self-examination. Be honest. Get input, get observation from others. Where is your trust in all areas?

You're looking at it. Am I trusting in my abilities? Am I trusting in my bank account? Am I trusting my family, and my church, and my job, and my marriage, and my parenting children? Am I trusting in that I'm just smarter than my brothers and sisters and take tests better?

Am I trusting that I'm stronger than somebody else or I'm able to earn more money than my brother or sister, or that I think, you know, it seems like my parents trust me more because I'm more this way. What are you trusting in? What are you trusting in? At the macro level, the high level, especially for Christians, we would all say we trust in the Lord. We're saved.

You're saved. And so at the top level, you're saying, yes, I trust in the Lord. I couldn't be saved if I didn't. So at the macro level, we would all say, yeah, we trust in the Lord. But what I'm talking about is the micro level.

I'm talking about getting down into every single corner of your heart in your examination. Turn over every corner of that heart. All your motivations. Why do you do everything you do? Why do you flee or why do you stay?

And especially when I flee, why am I fleeing to that? Am I fleeing to that because my hope is in that? Or am I fleeing because that will help me conform to Christ? And this is good. This is good.

Hey, even in stain, it is good to rest. There are times of rest. God restores your soul. He leads you beside still waters. He brings you to good pastures.

But even those are tests, aren't they? Those are tests to say, am I going to let the Lord restore my soul? Or do I need to have my soul restored through? You fill in the blank. Lots of things that you may lean toward to restore your soul that have nothing to do with being conformed to Christ.

I'm not whipping TV and movies and all that. It's easy to do. But still examine. Examine at the micro level. We all have areas of practical atheism.

Do you really want those rooted out? Those have to be rooted out in order to trust the Lord more. Pray for the testing, the searching of your heart for the sinful ways, so you can repent and be conformed to Jesus. Have more faith, trusting God, growing affection for Jesus. Do you really trust in the Lord?

Then you will pray for testing. You will pray for testing. Do you really trust in the Lord? Then make this declaration as David did before you start this examination. Say, here it is.

Here's the basis for my examination. In the Lord I put my trust. Now, let's go look at this. And as you're looking, okay, in the Lord I put my trust, let's go look at my marriage. All right, I've examined it.

In the Lord I put my trust, let's go look at my parenting. In the Lord I put my trust, look at my job. In the Lord I put my trust, now let's go look at my church. In the Lord I put my trust, and then examine. Make that declaration, In the Lord I put my trust.

Now let's go look at my church. In the Lord I put my trust and then examine. Make that declaration. In the Lord I put my trust. You have saved me.

I was wicked. You hated me. And I'm only loved by you now because of the work of Christ. You have pleasure in me because of Christ. I can completely trust you.

You've given me everything I need. The last point here, and that you really Trust in the Lord. Listen, please everybody, listen. In your self-examination, you might find, and there are people here that I pray do find, that you have never been saved. You might find that, that you never ever really put your trust in the Lord for salvation even.

And you've been fleeing to something else, someone else, and that has been failing you. You keep fleeing to something else or someone else. I will fail you. I will. If you haven't thought I failed you already, then you probably haven't been watching close enough.

I will fail you. Your parents will fail you. Your friends will fail you. Your coworkers will fail you. Society will fail you.

Books will fail you. Video games will fail you. TV will fail you. It will all fail you if that's where your hope is. And you won't ultimately have any peace.

Flee to the cross. Flee to the cross. You may have stood up here and become a member. You may have been baptized. Humble yourself and flee to the cross if your self-examination comes up and says, I have never ever truly trusted the Lord.

I'm not talking about you've truly trusted Him. You've never trust Him for salvation is what I'm talking about. I'm not trying to convince a bunch of redeemed people that you're not saved because you still haven't rooted out all your practical atheism, or you just don't trust in everything, welcome to the world of conforming to Christ. Welcome to the world of sanctification. Now I'm talking about those that when you examine yourself you say, you know what, I never have fully trusted the Lord for salvation.

Flee to Jesus. He will never leave you nor forsake you. You can cast all your care on Him as your firm foundation. He will care for you. And the Lord, I put my trust.

Let's pray. O God, in the Lord I put my trust. In the Lord as a church we put our trust. You will never leave us nor forsake us. You have given us everything.

You gave us your Son. You filled us with the Holy Spirit. You test us and that shows your care for us. Thank you Lord. I pray that you have saved people and that you will continue to.

I thank you God for your word. Amen.