SF855 - THE WAY OF WICKEDNESS - 10 of 21 THE LYRICS OF LIFE (Psalm 10)
Psalm 10; Key 10:1-2
Introduction
Why do innocent people have to suffer? Why does God not intervene a stop all evil? Why do we have the Colinbines, the Wedgewoods? What is the answer? How can we understand and deal with the overbearing presence of evil in our world. Is there no justice? Where is God?
We must ask the right questions if we are to get the right answers.
The question is not what is wrong with God. The question is what is wrong with man.
Commenting on this psalm, Martin Luther said: “There is not, in my judgment, a psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the feelings and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety; fullness and light as this psalm.”
David sets forth in this Psalm to identify the Way of Wickedness. He does so by elaborating on…
The problem of wickedness
The picture of wickedness
The punishment of wickedness
1A. The Problem of Wickedness
1B. God’s apparent indifference to wickedness (10:1a)
Human philosophy says God does not care about man’s plight.
In terms of human philosophy, he tells us that God is too great and transcendent to be interested or involved in human affairs. Having originally created the world, He has now abandoned the work of His hands and stands concealed behind the machinery of the universe.
Liberal theology says God cannot do anything about man’s plight.
God cares but is helpless to change things. Man must decide to change things, God is nothing more than a celestial spectator.
Divine revelation says God has taken the initiative to redeem lost man.
The Bible teaches that it is man who has departed from God.
God takes the initiative in bringing sinful man back to Him. The problem of wickedness is only resolved when the sinner returns to God in repentance, faith, and obedience.
2B. Man’s defiant continuance in wickedness (10:1b)
The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) 9The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Habakkuk 1:13 (NKJV) 13You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness…
Even trouble will not cause us to look to God.
Illustration: Pharaoh
2A. The Picture of WICKEDNESS (10:2a, 11)
In these stanzas David gives us a graphic picture of “the atheistic self-complacency and pitiless tyranny of the wicked man” (Scroggie). For those who question the doctrine of total depravity, here is sufficient teaching to satisfy any honest doubter.
1B. Our wickedness it rooted in our character. (10:2, 6)
The source of our sin – pride (10:2)
Consistent with the total biblical emphasis, David points out that man’s essential sin is that of pride. It was pride that caused the expulsion of the archangel Lucifer from the glories of heaven. It was pride that drove Adam and Eve from the paradise of Eden. It was pride that dispossessed Nebuchadnezzar of his kingdom and sanity.
The scope of our sin (10:2-6)
Ø The prideful heart is cruel. (10:2)
Ø The prideful heart is boastful. (10:3a)
Ø The prideful heart elevates greed. (10:3b)
Ø The prideful heart renounces the Lord. (10:3c)
Ø The prideful heart has no place for God. (10:4)
God’s sentence on our sin
James 4:6 (NKJV) 6…“God resists the proud…”
2B. Our wickedness is revealed by our conduct. (10:7-11)
What a person is in character will be expressed in his conduct.
The wicked man is poisonous in what he says. (10:7)
The wicked man is treacherous in what he does. (10:8-10)
The wicked man is blasphemous in what he thinks. (10:11)
3A. The Punishment of Wickedness (10:12a, 18b)
1B. God will always hear the prayer of His saints. (10:12-15)
We can be confident that God will hold sinners accountable for their sin. (10:12-13)
Galatians 6:7 (NKJV) 7Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV) 27And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
We can be certain that God will require that justice be satisfied. (10:14-15)
Exodus 34:7 (NKJV) 7 …by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.
2B. God will honor the position of His Son. (10:16-18)
John 5:22 (NKJV) 22For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
Revelation 20:11-15 (NKJV) 11Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Application
It may seem that evil has taken the day. But I have good news God will win in the end.
The question before us is whose side are you on? Are you trusting in Christ alone for your salvation and serving Him. Or are you a half-hearted disciple who wants just enough Jesus to stay out of Hell?
Friend it does not work that way. You are either trusting in Christ singularly and completely or you are on your way to Hell.
THE WAY OF WICKEDNESS
The Lyrics of Life – Part 10 of 21
September 26, 1999 - Psalm 10
1A. The ___________________________ of Wickedness
1B. God’s apparent indifference to wickedness (10:1a)
Human philosophy says God does not _____________ about man’s plight.
Liberal theology says God ____________________ do anything about man’s plight.
Divine revelation says God has taken the initiative to _____________________ lost man.
2B. Man’s defiant continuance in wickedness (10:1b)
The heart of the problem is the problem of the ______________
Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) 9“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Habakkuk 1:13 (NKJV) 13You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness…
Even _____________ will not cause us to look to God.
2A. The _________________ of Wickedness (10:2a, 11)
1B. Our wickedness it rooted in our character. (10:2,6)
The _______________________ of our sin – pride (2)
The ____________________________ of our sin (2-6)
Ø The prideful heart is ____________________. (2)
Ø The prideful heart is boastful. (3a)
Ø The prideful heart elevates ______________. (3b)
Ø The prideful heart renounces the Lord. (3c)
Ø The prideful heart has no place for _________. (4)
God’s sentence on our sin
James 4:6 (NKJV) 6…“God resists the proud…”
2B. Our wickedness is revealed by our _____________. (10:7,11)
The wicked man is poisonous in what he _____________. (10:7)
The wicked man is treacherous in what he _____________. (10:8-10)
The wicked man is blasphemous in what he _____________. (10:11)
3A. The Punishment of Wickedness (10:12a, 18b)
1B. God will always hear the prayer of His saints. (10:12-15)
We can be confident that God will hold sinners accountable for their __________. (10:12-13)
Galatians 6:7 (NKJV) 7Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Hebrews 9:27 (NKJV) 27And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
We can be certain that God will require that _________________ be satisfied. (10:14-15)
Exodus 34:7 (NKJV) 7 …by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
2B. God will honor the ________________ of His Son. (10:16-18)
John 5:22 (NKJV) 22For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son,
Revelation 20:11-15