In the sermon 'Stealthy Sources of Strife,' Peter Allison discusses Proverbs 26, focusing on how strife can be likened to a fire that requires three elements: oxygen (unflattering events), heat (desire to hear gossip), and fuel (words of tale-bearers). The sermon defines gossip as a betrayal of confidence and emphasizes the damage caused by contentious individuals and flatterers. The speaker explains that contentious people are argumentative and difficult, contributing to an environment of strife. Flattery is described as deceitful and a trap that can lead to ruin for both the flatterer and the flattered. The sermon offers remedies for dealing with these sources of conflict, such as speaking positively about those being gossiped about, refraining from sin when being the object of gossip, and removing contentious individuals from the assembly if necessary. The speaker concludes with a discussion on the importance of prayer and relying on God for justice and peace.

Our scripture reading is Proverbs chapter 26. Beginning at verse 20. Here God's word, Where there is no wood, the fire goes out. Where there is no tail-bearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

The words of a tarot bearer are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the innermost body. Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. He who hates disguises it with his lips and lays up the seat within himself. When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart. Though his hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness will be revealed before the assembly.

Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, and a flattering mouth works a ruin. Jehovah is near and all his commandments are truth. Heavenly Father, Thank you for preserving your word to us. We ask that you would open our ears, our heart and our understanding as we look at this word.

Your word come to us in the power of your Holy Spirit. May it be mixed with faith. And may it accomplish the purpose for which you have sent it forth. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, I assume that most of you have heard of the fire triangle. You know, the fire triangle, it's an important thing to know if you've ever taken any kind of a course in first aid or safety or any kind of certification of that sort, maybe for your work. You've probably heard about the fire triangle. That fire needs three things to exist. It needs to have a fuel, it needs to have oxygen, and it needs to have heat.

All three things are needed for a fire to start. If any one of those are missing, then the fire goes out. So if you need to ever fight a fire, you have those three things to deal with. The heat, the oxygen, and the fuel. And so some ways of extinguishing a fire remove the oxygen.

And fire suffocates and goes out. Some ways of fighting a fire remove the heat, you cool it down, and the fire goes out. You can also remove the fuel and the fire goes out. Some things don't take very much heat to ignite. For some fuels, just a little spark, a little tiny spark is enough heat in the presence of oxygen to cause them to start burning.

Other fuels need a lot more heat, thankfully. And so They are not nearly as easy to get started burning. Most matches today use a fuel that will start burning just from the heat of the friction of the match rubbed against something that's a little bit abrasive. And in some cases, in cases of safety matches, they're striking the match on the abrasive surface to generate some friction also puts it in contact with another part of the material that's needed to burn. And so you get a match burning by friction and the heat from that match burning can be used to start other things, to supply heat to things that need more heat to start burning, and so on, like paper.

And with paper then you can get things that need even more heat to burn like wood. And so the heat from one fire can be used to ignite other fuels that have much higher ignition temperatures, but they burn a lot longer, and they burn a lot hotter, and they're more useful. And so in order to put out a fire, you just need to remove one of those three things. The fuel, The oxygen, or the heat. And this is the picture that Proverbs presents us, gives to us, with respect to strife, with respect to contentions.

We could call it the strife triangle. There's the oxygen. Those are the unflattering events that form the fodder of gossip. They happen continually. Things are always happening.

People are always doing things that they wish they hadn't done. Then there's the heat. That's our desire to hear gossip. And there's no shortage of people who would love to hear the lowdown on someone else or something. But in order to have a strife and contention, you have to have the third thing, which is the fuel.

And this, the Bible says, are the words of whispers or tail bears, or we might call them gossips. See, there's no contention, there's no strife, unless this fuel is provided in the presence of oxygen and heat. And it's the words, the Bible says, it's the words, it's these gossips, these whispers, these tale bearers that provide the fuel that makes strife possible, that ignites strife. You see, where there is no tale bearer, where there is no gossiper, Strife ceases. It goes away.

Yes, the same things are still happening. And yes, there are still people that would love to hear them. But without somebody to tell them, without the fuel for that fire, that fire goes out. Strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals.

What is charcoal to burning coals? Charcoal is the fuel. It's the fuel for, you have a fire? Charcoal is a fuel to that fire. And wood to a fire.

Wood is the fuel for a fire. So is a contentious man to kindle strife. So a tale bearer and a contentious man. This is the fuel that creates fires, the fires of strife and contention. So what is gossip?

It's important to define this because it's very easy to engage in it and not even be aware that we are doing it and maybe only much later be convicted that we should have said things that we shouldn't have said. And it's also the case that under the guise of not wanting to gossip, things that should be said aren't said and sins can be hidden that should be dealt with. So what is gossip? It's important to correctly characterize what it is and what it isn't. Because it's not simply saying something bad about someone.

The Bible does that. Paul does that in his letters in places. He talks about people, names them, that have done bad things. And he writes it in a letter, and it becomes the Word of God for all of us to read for all of time. So just saying something bad about someone is not necessarily gossip, although it could be.

So first of all, I would say that gossip betrays a confidence. It betrays a confidence, something that should be kept private, something that we know that shouldn't be talked about. That we don't have the consent of the person who gave that information to us. Or maybe we gained the information without their consent somehow came to us. Proverbs 11, 13 says, A tale-bearer, a whisperer, a gossip reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.

So a gossip, first of all, it betrays secrets. It's a betrayal of confidence. Proverbs 20, 19 says something very similar. He who goes about as a tale bearer reveals secrets. Therefore, do not associate with one who flatters with his lips.

We're going to see this connection here in our text even. This passage connects tale bearers, gossips, and those who flatter, those who betray with their lips. So one, it betrays a confidence. It shares something that isn't ours to share. And secondly, though, it's spoken.

It's something that's spoken from a sinful motive. And that is a motive that it's spoken where it's not necessary or helpful toward a solution. It's not part of the solution. It's not helpful, it's not necessary toward the solution of the problem being spoken about. It might be that it's not anything that concerns us.

It's not anything that we're part of the solution to. We saw last week about the fool that gets involved in a matter that's not his. The Bible says it's like grabbing a dog by the ears, meddling in a quarrel that's not our own. Maybe if we're not part of the solution or the person that we're talking to is not part of the solution, then there is no proper motive for that communication. If it's not kind, there's a way to speak kindly, even where we have to communicate something that's negative, there's a way to speak kindly.

There's a way to speak graciously. And so if we are not speaking in a manner that is kind, we are not speaking in what is helpful or what is necessary for the solution, then that is a sinful motive. If it is not spoken out of a sincere desire to help, to help the person that we're talking about. But if it's spoken out of a desire to see somebody else's reputation tarnished a bit, just brought down a little bit. That's an improper motive that makes what we're saying gossip.

It's something that is very enticing or titillating, Something that people would want to hear, something that we might say is juicy information. That's often the subject of gossip. And it's usually negative information. But it doesn't have to be negative. It could potentially be something positive.

If we are sharing a confidence, portraying a confidence, or our motive in saying it is to bring somebody down. You know, maybe you're in a group of people and they're talking about all the problems with a certain class of people. And Maybe it's an otherwise honorable class of people. And you throw in a bit of information about somebody that belongs to that class. That maybe in another context might be taken in a positive way.

But you see in that situation, in that context, in that conversation, the motive was to tarnish a reputation. That's characteristic of gossip. Gossip can be communicated in a number of ways. It can be information planted in people's minds by the power of suggestion, by an indirect reference, by an offhand comment, by a joke even. A joke, you're not really serious, but you were a little bit.

Or by an innuendo. These can all be ways to plant what amounts to gossip. And so once planted, this idea begins to grow in people that hurt it. And as it reaches maturity, it can set one person against another person. And because the idea grew in that person's, that second person's mind, that second person may not even realize where the planted seed in their mind came from.

And so that's why tail bearing is said to separate even the best of friends. You know, what's the effect? The effect of it is that there is contention. It seems to be coming from everywhere. This arrow is shooting at that person, that person is shooting at this other person, And nobody really actually knows where the source of all this contention is.

People are pointing at each other upset with what so and so did and what so and so said, but no one recognizes often the source of the strife. It's the tail bearer. It's the tail bearer. And so you take that tail bearer away, you take that fuel out of the fire, and the Bible says all That contention just goes away. That kind of contention in a body is often a sign of demonic influence, people being moved, people having given a foothold to Satan.

Saintin. That kind of confusion is one of the characteristics of spiritual warfare. So that's what I call a stealthy source of conflict. A stealthy source of conflict and strife. Because it's always, sometimes it's not readily apparent where the strife is coming from.

It seems to be coming from this event or that event or this event, and they just keep happening. And you begin to realize the source of this contention going on isn't between all these little events. It's this hidden source. It's this hidden gossip, tail-bearing, whispering that is going on. And one person is all it takes.

One person. When there is oxygen and heat, When there is things happening and people willing to listen, it only takes one person to light a fire and to start contention. Now there's another kind of stealthy source of strife, and that is a contentious person, a contentious man. As charcoal is to burning coals and wood to a fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife. What is a contentious man?

Well, contentious is somebody who one is argumentative, somebody who gives a lot of pushback to everything, to whoever is directing them. Or from another perspective, a contentious man is someone who is critical of others, who aren't doing things exactly the way they think they should be done. Proverbs 18 says, a fool's lips enter into contention. He's argumentative. Secondly, a contentious person is difficult to be around.

People just tend to shut down or change the subject of their conversation when a contentious person arrives in the scene. Proverbs 21 says it is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. It is better to do it because they are hard to deal with. Contentious people are hard to live with. They're difficult to be around.

It's not enjoyable. It's not pleasant. You'd rather, the Bible says, live in the wilderness. Live under a state of deprivation, of hardship then with a contentious woman. A contentious person has no sense of proper timing even when they are speaking something that is true and maybe even necessary.

They don't have a sense of proper timing. When talking to someone who holds a differing opinion, a contentious person will immediately try to persuade that person that they are wrong, Rather than demonstrating a respect for another point of view and a willingness to learn from that point of view, a willingness to understand that point of view more completely and to find an appropriate and proper time to respond and maybe try to have a discussion about what might be wrong. See, a fool utters all his mind, Proverbs says, But a wise person holds them back. A fool utters all his mind right on the spot. There's no sense of proper timing.

A wise person knows the proper time. A fool has, Proverbs 18 says, a fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart. Not willing to listen and understand, only wanting to tell us what they know. That's a contentious person. Contentious people are often proud.

When other Christians may differ with them on a minor point of doctrine, a contentious person would not want to have any fellowship with that person. Proverbs 28 says, he who is of a proud heart stirs up strife. But he who trusts in the Lord will be prospered. A contentious person is someone who might become sinfully angry when discussing political issues for example with someone who holds a different viewpoint, someone who holds a radically different viewpoint. Very quick to become angry, frustrated because their view of things is not accepted.

Proverbs 15, 18 says a wrathful man stirs up strife but he was slow to anger allays contentious, allays strife. Contentious man can also be a tale bearer. When in conflict, a contentious person will find it very difficult to let someone else, let the other person have the last word. Contentious person is someone who always has to have the last one to say something. Those are some of the, what I'll call general characteristics of a contentious person.

And the effect is the same as the tail bearer. The effect of that is strife and contentions begin to abound. Now there's a third source, a stealthy source of strife, and that is in the last number of verses here that speak about the betrayer we had the tail bearer of the gossip we have the contentious person and we have the betrayer Fervent lips with a wicked heart. Somebody who hates but disguises it with their lips. They lay up the seat within themselves.

When they speak kindly you can't believe them for there are seven abominations in his heart. His hatred is covered by deceit. This is flattery that is being described here. Somebody who has hate in their heart, seven abominations, a number of other sins, but they speak kindly. They seem to speak kindly.

But what you see and hear is not what they are actually thinking. See flattery is deceitful. Their actual thoughts, Their wicked thoughts, or their evil thoughts, or their other than kind thoughts are covered with the dross of silver. The dross of flattery. It may appear to look like silver at first glance, but it's not.

It's dross. This flattery is a veneer that hides malice and a wicked heart. It looks kind on the surface. It looks like silver on the surface, but it's not. It's as the verse 23, it's an earthenware covered with silver dross.

Secondly, not only is flattery deceitful, but flattery is a trap, it's a snare. Somebody that's flattering is often doing it because they want something from us. They use flattery to ingratiate themselves to you, to win your confidence. But ultimately the flatterer is looking to get something from you. And so that makes it a trap.

It's not what it seems. They want a favor, they want some help, they want service. Or they simply want to destroy you. Christian prudence will guard against believing flattery. Christian prudence.

Christian prudence that doesn't think more highly of ourself than we ought. We hear somebody telling us things that we know aren't true because we know we're not what they're saying. We know we're listening to flattery and sometimes it's tempting to believe it. But we do so to our own hurt because it's a snare. Credulity that believes flattery can arise from pride.

We want to believe what we're hearing. It can arise from being naive, naivete. From being harmless as a dove but without the wisdom of the serpent, without the craftiness of the serpent. Leads us to believe flattery. Nehemiah is a good example of somebody who had Christian prudence that protected him.

In Nehemiah 6, The enemies that initially had tried to stop the building of the wall, Sanballet, Tobiah, Gesham, the Arab and the rest of their enemies, heard that Nehemiah had built the wall and that there were no more breaks left in it. Sanballet and Gesham sent to Nehemiah saying, come let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. They wanted to be friends now, they wanted to get together and have a time of talking and fellowshiping or celebrating. But Nehemiah recognized this was flattery. They weren't inviting him to have some time with friends together, he figured they were going to do him some kind of harm.

And so he sent messengers to them saying, I'm doing a great work, I can't come down, why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you." And then the response he got back is, reveals their heart in the matter. They weren't his friends, they weren't trying to be friendly, but they were trying to trap him. Gedaliah, the governor that was left in Israel after the captivity, didn't have that prudence. He was warned about a certain Ishmael. Certain Ishmael.

Johanan warned him, he said, don't you know that the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael to murder you, but Gedaliah didn't listen to him. So It came to pass that this person, Ishmael, came with ten men to Gedaliah and they ate bread together in Misp, Jeremiah records in the forty-first chapter. They came with flattery, they came pretending to be friends and wanted to eat bread, but Gedaliah didn't have the Christian discernment that Nehemiah did. When they were done eating, Ishmael rose up and killed him. Flattery is a trap.

Flattery is destructive. It sets a trap for both the flatterer and the one being flattered. Proverbs 29 says, A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. And our text tells us that a flatterer hates those whom they flatter. They hate you.

Though his hatred is covered by deceit, a lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, and a flattering mouth works ruin. So flattery is destructive. It sets a trap though for both the flatterer and the one being flattered because whoever digs a pit will fall into it. And he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. And so these traps, these pits, these stones that people are seeking to roll down, the Bible says they are going to roll back on them.

So they are really setting a trap for themselves. So What is the remedy for dealing with these stealthy sources of strife? Well if we're hearing gossip coming, we can respond with something that's good about that person. You know That can be a very gentle way of bringing an admonition to whoever is gossiping or checking to see if it is gossip. We can praise something they have done.

And if that doesn't stop the conversation, the next level of elevation is to simply ask. Ask why this information is being shared if it's not obvious. And that can often be sufficient to communicate that you're not willing to receive this. And even a more direct form of rebuke is to tell them that you know if they're talking this way about somebody that's not there, then you know that they are talking about you that way when you're not there. You can also pray for the person being spoken about, and you can pray for your own response.

Now what if you're the object of the gossip? Well the first thing to remember is to refrain from sin. It's easy to fall into self-pity or to quickly become angry when people are spreading unkind things about us or speaking about us things that may not be true or quite right. It's easy to become angry, it's easy to perpetuate the gossip and to begin talking about what they are doing to you. And in a sense you then become a perpetrator of the gossip.

You now have somebody's, You now have first hand knowledge of someone's sin you've been sinned against and it may hurt And your heart may be easily turned against that person that has spoken wickedly against you and in that moment If you we then become easy pray for Satan And our flesh may easily respond doing the same thing back. So first we need to refrain from sin ourselves. We need to pray that God would guard our heart and give us the peace of God that passes all understanding. David said in Psalm 119, that the proud be ashamed for they dwelt perversely with me without a cause, but I will meditate in your precepts, " David said. And thirdly, we can speak the Bible truth to ourselves.

We can preach to ourselves. We can remind ourselves about what the Bible says. The Bible says that we are sinners, that we are worthy of death. And so how can we get too upset when people simply agree with what the Bible is saying, in saying that we are sinners. David was an example of this when Shimei was cursing him as he left.

David said, let him alone, maybe God told him to do it. We can remember, second truth we can remember is that a curse without a cause will not alight. We looked at that verse last week or the week before. A curse without a cause does not alight. It's of no effect.

God did not bring the curses that Shimei was pronouncing against David. God didn't bring them unto David. In fact, they came back on Shimei himself. It was Shimei that was executed. You remember that story.

And so that's an example of what this text says. He who digs a pit will fall into it. He who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. Fourthly, we can overcome evil with good. Overcome evil with good.

We can simply turn it over to the Lord and that free and turn vengeance over to the Lord and that frees us up to overcome evil with good to do to be kind to the one who is unkindly treating us. And fifthly, we can remember Christ. He suffered in every way that we ever will. People told rumors about Him. People gossiped about Him.

People slandered him. They lied about him. They said that he did what he did by the power of Satan. They falsely accused him. He was condemned to death by false accusations.

We can also confront if we know the cause and situation, but very often we may not know who's saying what about us. Now also we need to remember that as the text tells us the only way to stop the strife and the contention when there is no repentance is to remove the fuel for the fire, is to remove the contentious person or the tail bearer. They are necessary for strife. If we remove them, the strife ceases. So that's why the Bible says that these people need to be removed from the assembly if they do not repent.

Reject a divisive man, Paul told Titus. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition. Give them an admonition the first time. Give them an admonition a second time. But otherwise, if that doesn't stop this gossiping and tail-bearing, the division, then they need to be removed, rejected.

It means to be put out of the assembly, Knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned. Now we can also pray that deception and deceit would be exposed. We can pray that those who sow discord and strife would be stopped and their works destroyed. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. He who rolls a stone will have it rolled back on him.

Let's look at David a minute. In Psalm 55, he describes a situation that is identical to what this passage is talking about. He talks about the difficulty that he is under. I am restless in my complaint and moan noisily because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked, for they bring down trouble on me and in wrath they hate me. My heart is severely pained, The terrors of death have fallen on me.

Fearfulness and trembling have come over me. Horror has overwhelmed me." So I said, oh that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. I would hasten my escape. In verses 12, David says, gives us a little more information, he says, it's not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it.

Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me. Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion, and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together. We walked to the house of God in the throng." It's this one that is put forth his hands against David.

And here is what David prays, "'Destroy O Lord and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around on its walls. Iniquity and trouble are in the midst of it. Destruction is in its midst. Depression and deceit do not depart from its streets.

This is an organization that has been overrun, consumed with tail bearing, with contention, contentious people. He says, let death seize them, let them go down alive to hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them He has He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him. He has broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.

This is exactly what Proverbs is describing. Fervent lips with a wicked heart. Hate in the heart covered over by outwardly kind words. We have to be very careful when we look at what David did and we have to recognize a couple of things about this prayer. First of all, these prayers, these what we call imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Psalms and in other parts of the scriptures as well.

But in the Psalms, this is the voice of Christ, our great high priest, our prophet and our king praying to his father that his enemies would be destroyed. These Psalms, David is a type of Christ and he is speaking prophetically here and in speaking prophetically he is speaking the words of Christ. It is Christ that is the one who is praying in the Psalms. You think, well, how can Christ pray Psalm 51 that I was conceived in sin and born in iniquity? How can he pray a prayer like that?

And the answer is in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 21, it says that Christ who knew no sin became sin for us. Christ is our sin bearer. He has taken upon Himself the guilt of our sin. And so in these prayers in the Psalms that are dealing with our sin, it is Christ as our sin bearer that is praying those Psalms. He's praying them as our Redeemer.

In these Psalms when he is praying for the defeat of his enemy, it is Christ our King that is appealing to the throne of heaven, to God his Father, that his enemies would be defeated." So you ask, well, how is this kind of prayer here consistent with the prayer that Jesus gave on the cross, where he said, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do." Well, we have to recognize that both of these are true about our Savior Jesus Christ. Both are true. He is our mediator. He suffered the wrath of God in our place for our sin. And in that position, as the one suffering for our sin, he prayed as the mediator, as the Savior, that these people would be forgiven.

That is why He said He came to earth. He didn't come to in judgment, but He came to save. In John 3, 16, He said he didn't come to condemn, but he came to bring life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And so Christ is coming as the Savior, coming as in human flesh to bear our sin, to live under the law as we did.

In that office he prayed, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Remember God is also the King, The reigning king. And as a king, it's his office, it's his place to take vengeance. And so Paul said to the Thessalonians, verse 2 Thessalonians 1, 6, It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed." That is also the office of Christ the King.

Paul says in Romans that God is a God of vengeance Therefore Vengeance is mine. I will repay God says and so it is certainly right then for us to appeal to pray these prayers, not at all for our own personal enemies, not for the people who have wronged us. These cannot become our prayers for personal vengeance. Rather, we are to vengeance as Gods. But it is right to ask the Lord to do as He has said He would do.

Remember the saints in Revelation that have been martyred cry out, how long O Lord until our death is avenged? And so how do we pray an imprecatory prayer? Well we first of all have to pray it in Christ because it's Christ who is the author of these prayers. It's Christ's office to bring vengeance not ours And so we must have to pray in Christ. That means, to pray in Christ means that we surrender all of our rights that have been trampled on, that have been wronged, that have been abused.

We surrender our rights and we prepare to suffer and to die if necessary for Christ. We leave all vengeance to Him. He will repay. So we pray in Christ. And secondly our prayer must be founded upon God's word.

We are praying for what God has said He would do. We are praying for how God has taught us to pray. We are to pray that His Kingdom would come. And for His Kingdom to come, Satan's kingdom has to be destroyed. And that's what he's come, that's what he's doing.

He came to destroy death and Satan. And sainthood. We also need to remember that in praying these prayers, Our goal is conversion. Our goal is conversion. God's judgments are often a means of conversion.

Remember the man who was cast out of the Corinthian Church was handed over to Satan for his preservation. So he would be handed over to the torturers so that he would be taught. And he was received back into the Church. And so judgment can often be a means of conversion, but every enemy will be conquered either in God's if not in God's grace, if not in salvation, in which case all of their sins are put upon Christ, then they are conquered in His wrath. So brothers and sisters, we need to conform our prayers to God's direction for prayer.

We can't be more holy than God or more forgiving than God. Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. He who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him God is a God of vengeance and When we are not praying for our own personal revenge But we've given that over to God and allowed and given over all of our rights To the Lord and are prepared to suffer and die for him Then it is very right and we ought to be those who pray the prayers of the scriptures, that God's enemies would be defeated and destroyed before Him. That those who are digging a pit may fall into it. And those who are rolling a stone may have it roll back upon them.

God is pleased to act through the prayers of His people. God has ordained the prayers of His people as the means through which He acts. So God ordains both the prayers and that which the prayers accomplish. Let us pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word.

We do tremble at its warnings and threatenings. We do tremble to contemplate your wrath, for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. A God who is justly angry at our sin. So Father, we come to you in Christ, and we pray Lord that all of our prayers might be in you for things that are agreeable to your will. We pray that our prayers might be full, that they might be with fervency, that they might be in accordance with how you have taught us to pray for the things that you have taught us to pray for.

The advancement of your kingdom and for your glory. Even that glory of you triumphing over your enemies, of you defeating them in your grace and in your mercy or in your wrath. For every enemy, every enemy will be defeated that you have declared as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So Father we pray to those ends. In Jesus name, Amen.