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Imprecatory Praying Part 1 of 4

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• Now let me, before I read the scripture today, remind you that if you have not heard the two previous messages on the divine advocate, I would encourage you to listen to them because actually the second part of that, part two, leads right into the next four messages that I'm going to bring. You remember I showed you from 1 John 2 how that Jesus Christ is our advocate, and then how it was understood even in the Old Testament, where David began to pray, "Plead my cause, O Lord," and then "Plead my cause against an ungodly nation," showing and demonstrating that God is indeed interested in justice. Well, today I'm going to begin a brief series which I've just entitled, Imprecatory Praying.

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• So look in Psalm 104 and verse 35. Psalm 104 verse 35, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord." One more time. Let it sink in. "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord." What a prayer request. Can you imagine a modern day, politically correct, multicultural church member raising his hand in a packed church service with a special prayer request, and he asked publicly that the church pray that sinners will be consumed out of the earth and the wicked will be no more. Moreover, he states, "When that happens, my soul then shall praise the Lord and bless His holy name." Can you imagine that scene? The pastor is dumbfounded. The congregation is aghast.

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• And silence pervades the entire auditorium. And everyone is thinking, how can anyone make such a prayer request? And then, probably, some begin to ask, how in the world may we respond to such a prayer request? Well, I'm sure the modernist pastor would respond that that prayer request would be unloving and unkind. The fundamentalist pastor would respond to that prayer request, well, it is one that denies evangelism, and therefore, it has to be wrong.

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• And there are so many Christians who would say that such a request would be condemning men to hell and therefore it cannot possibly be biblical or Christian. And yet we find in Psalm 104 and verse 35 David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the man after God's own heart, is uttering this very special prayer request: "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more," and then he says he's going to bless the Lord and praise His holy name.

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• Now, let me challenge you to do something. If you want to know how touchy this subject of imprecatory praying is, just go home and Google on the internet, "imprecatory prayers." Wow! You're going to find a whole list of several pastors who have prayed publicly for certain leaders to die, and certain practices to be cursed and doomed by God, and you're going to find a plethora of individuals who cry out against these pastors.

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• They are being excoriated and slammed on every hand. In fact, you will find that there is one individual who is the object of imprecatory praying who is now suing the individual who is praying against him. I find it interesting that those who do not believe in God and do not believe in the Bible do not want to take any chances that these prayers might be heard. So they're suing to stop these prayers. Well, is it unchristian or unbiblical to pray the imprecatory prayers that are given to us under divine inspiration? There are some who would say that Old Testament praying, such as these imprecatory prayers, conflicts with New Testament teaching and therefore they should not be prayed. Well, the problem with that view is that it presents an unnatural dichotomy between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It destroys the continuity of the Word of God and will lead some, therefore, to believe that the Old Testament is either untrustworthy or just plain outdated. Moreover, it presumes that there has to be a change of gods from the Old Testament to the New Testament, at the most, or at the least, a change in God who has altered His standard.

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• There was one liberal theologian who now knows better because he's dead, charged and said that the God of the Old Testament is a dirty bully. I can assure you he knows far better than that at this point in time. Do you understand that when anyone begins to deny, to deprecate or disparage any portion of the Word of God, he then sets himself up as judge, and he assumes to himself authority to determine what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. And if one can assume that authority, why not others? And if everyone then begins to assume that authority for themselves, pretty soon you have no Scripture. Because there is something in Scripture practically everywhere that upsets someone and pretty soon the totality of scripture would be denied.

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• So we're talking about imprecatory praying. What exactly is imprecatory praying? An imprecation is an invocation of judgment, calamity, or curse upon one's enemies or the enemies of God. So when you're talking about an imprecation or imprecatory praying, you're talking about praying down a curse or a judgment upon one's enemies or the enemies of God. You're going to find that such curses span the breadth of biblical revelation. In fact, these curses form the basis of covenantal renewal in Deuteronomy chapter 27 through 30. Moreover, you're going to find when you get to the last book of the New Testament, in Revelation chapter 6, it's the saints who run to the altar that are crying, "How long, O Lord God, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood which was shed upon the earth?"

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• Some of the most powerful imprecations of Scripture, however, are found in the Psalms. Although there is no psalm that contains only imprecations, there are many psalms that contain a large majority of imprecations in the psalm, such as Psalm 7, Psalm 35, Psalm 55, Psalm 58, Psalm 59, Psalm 69, Psalm 109, Psalm 137 and Psalm 139. You will find these imprecations throughout the entire breadth of the Psalms.

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• Now, an imprecation, that is a curse. It is an enunciation and conveys a wish or a prayer and a threat of evil. Imprecatory praying, therefore, is to pray for evil or malediction or misfortune upon someone or upon some activity. It is a malediction. It is an anathema. It is an execration.

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• Now, when someone says, "Well, all that's in the Old Testament, you won't find any of that in the New Testament." That's not true. I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. I will show you a couple of imprecations. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. And notice, if you would please, at verse 22. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 22. Notice what the Apostle Paul writes. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22. He writes, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." Well, you say that's interesting. What does that mean? Well, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha." Well, the word Maranatha refers to the return of the Lord, the Lord's coming. The word Anathema means to be set aside for certain and sure doom and destruction. It means to be cursed. It means to be doomed. It means to be damned. Literally what verse 22 says is this: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be doomed and damned at the coming of the Lord."

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• That's an imprecation. That's a curse. And that's what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 22. If you would turn right over to the book of Galatians chapter 1. And by the way, Anathema is straight from the Greek, so is Maranatha. Notice if you would, Galatians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. Look what the Apostle Paul writes. Just showing you here's a curse, here's an imprecation. Paul writes in Galatians 1 verse 8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." And as we said before, so now I say again, "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." Every time you see the word "accursed" in verse 8 and verse 9, it is the Greek word anathema. He says in verse 8, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema."

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• In verse 9 again, he says, "Let him be anathema, let him be accursed, let him be doomed, let him be damned, let him be marked out and set aside for certain and absolute destruction." Now you have to ask yourself this question. Was Paul uncharitable and unchristian when he prayed that God would doom and damn all of those who did not love him at his coming and that God would doom and damn all those who would pervert the gospel of grace and preach another gospel? The answer is no. Paul is not being uncharitable. Paul is not being unchristian.

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• He is merely reflecting the general teaching of scripture on these subjects. What does the Bible say in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 beginning verse 7? "And you who are troubled rest with us, listen, when our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be destroyed with sudden destruction." What's Paul doing here? He's saying the same thing that Scripture says in other places. It's a curse. It's an anathema. You see, what men forget is this, that the Word of God has sanctions. There are positive sanctions in the Bible and there are negative sanctions as well. All of us like to hear about the positive sanctions. No one has any problems with positive sanctions because positive sanctions translate into blessings. When you hear the word or the phrase, a positive sanction, just understand blessing. When you hear the phrase, a negative sanction, just translate a curse. All you have to do is read Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, you will find there are blessings and curses.

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• All throughout the Bible, God says something similar to this, "I set before you the way of life and the way of death." In other words, here's a positive sanction, here's a negative sanction. I want you to understand there are only two kinds of people in the world. Covenant keepers and covenant breakers. That's all. Covenant keepers receive positive sanctions, that is blessings. Covenant breakers receive negative sanctions, that is curses.

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• Let me just show you. Look in your Bibles very quickly to Psalm 1. The very first Psalm sets the stage of all of these Psalms, demonstrating both positive and negative sanctions. Look in Psalm 1, beginning there with verse 1, David says this, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth

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• he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Now there's positive sanctions. Watch the negative. "The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

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• Now David, the warrior king, was a man of the covenant and he approached civil polity and spiritual worship with a firm understanding of positive and negative sanctions. David extols the virtues of the righteous man who delights in God's law. He proclaims him a covenant keeper. He proclaims blessings upon that individual. The righteous man is like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He brings forth his fruit in due season.

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• Whatever he does shall prosper. But then he shows you the negative sanctions. He says in verse 4 through verse 6, "The ungodly are not so. The ungodly are under the crushing weight of God's divine wrath under the negative sanctions. They're like chaff driven by the wind who cannot stand in the judgment of God and they have no righteousness and they're ultimately going to perish from the earth."

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• Now, this covenantal understanding is paramount if you and I are to comprehend, embrace, and emulate David's imprecatory war prayers. They are war prayers. And these prayers are given to us to recapture a lawless society. There are grounds for using these imprecatory prayers that are given to us in Scripture.

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• Now let me give you another clear illustration. I want you to look in Psalm 112. Psalm 112. Just to show you how you can see the positive sanctions and then the negative sanctions. Only ten verses in this Psalm. Look at it. The first nine verses are positive sanctions. He's describing a covenant keeper, a righteous man. Look at it. Psalm 112. "Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

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• His seed shall be mighty upon earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth forever. Unto the upright there ariseth a light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous. A good man showeth favor and lendeth. He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

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• He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established. He shall not be afraid until he see his desire upon his enemies."

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• Now, we're talking about the righteous man. He is dispersed. He's given to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever. His horn shall be exalted with honor. Oh, here's the negative. "The wicked shall see it and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked shall perish." There's a vast difference between a covenant keeper and a covenant breaker. When you go back to Psalm 104, and it's not my intent to read this entire psalm, but if you will read it when you get home, you're going to find in Psalm 104, David has been praising and glorifying God for His creation, providence, and redemption. And in Psalm 104, David sees the beauty of God's creation. But at the same time as he is rejoicing in God's creation, he sees that there is something that is perverting and destroying and corrupting the beauty and the harmony and glory of that creation. And he understands that which is corrupting and perverting and polluting the glory of that creation is sin. I want you to understand something.

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• Sin is not some abstraction floating around somewhere in the universe. It is sinners who sin. Sin is in man. If there were no sinners, there would not be any sin. You cannot have sin without sinners. So David then realizes that it is sin and sinners that are perverting God's glory and God's kingdom and God's majesty. And therefore, he prays in verse 35, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more.

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• Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord."

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• Now I understand that some, when they hear that prayer request, they're going to exclaim again, "How horrible, how cold, how unloving, how unkind, how uncompassionate, how uncharitable, because such a prayer is condemning sinners to hell." Let me ask you a question. You don't have to answer this out loud, but I do want you to answer it. Is every single individual who has ever lived, is living, or will ever live, is every single individual going to be saved? The answer is no, unless you're a universalist. In fact, Scripture reveals there are going to be many individuals who will be lost. Many have died already unconverted. Some are probably even dying unconverted as I speak. There will be many more who will die unconverted in the future. Our Lord Himself,

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• speaking of those on the left hand, said in Matthew 25 and verse 46, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Our Lord Himself said in Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14, listen carefully, "Enter ye at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." So what does our Lord say?

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• Not everybody is going to be saved. Martin Luther said it like this. Listen carefully. Martin Luther said, "We should pray that our enemies be converted and become our friends. And if not, that is if they're not converted, that their doing and designing should be bound to fail and have no success and that their persons perish rather than the gospel and the kingdom of Christ." So let me ask you a question. Who would you rather see succeed, Christ or the wicked? Who would you rather have perish, Christ or the wicked? Who would you rather have the victory, Christ or the wicked? It was Puritan David Dixon who said it like this, and I love this quote. Listen carefully.

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• He said, "If any of the enemies of God's people belong to God's election, the church's prayer against them giveth way to their conversion, and seeketh no more than that the judgment should follow them only until they acknowledge their sin, turn, and seek God." So David Dixon is saying when you pray these imprecatory prayers against the ungodly, if one of them happens to be an elect, well, it will aid in their conversion and that curse will follow them only until they repent and turn unto God.

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• Now, I can assure you of one thing based upon Scripture. I'm trying to cover this objection that when we pray these imprecatory prayers, that we're condemning people to hell. Alright, now listen. I can assure you of one thing according to Scripture. Here it is. Not one for whom our Lord died will be lost. I want you to look in your Bibles to Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, and then we're going to John 17. I want you to note what the Bible says in Isaiah 53, and then we'll go to John 17 to the high priestly prayer of our Lord. Everyone understands that Isaiah 53 speaks of the suffering Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm not going to read the entire chapter, but I do want you to look at verses 10 and 11. Isaiah 53 verse 10. Here's what the Bible says concerning Christ. Now watch. "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

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• He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul, that is Christ's soul, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, now look, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."

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• Now what does the Bible say? "He shall see his seed. He shall see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." In other words, those for whom our Lord suffered will indeed be saved. Our Lord shall see them. His travail is not in vain. If you will turn to John 17, to the high priestly prayer of our Lord. I want you to note what our Lord is praying. Look in John 17, and let's begin reading there with verse 11. I want you to notice what he said. In fact, if you were to read previous to this, you would find five or six times that there is indeed a people that have been given to Jesus Christ. For instance, notice he said this, verse 6, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, thou gavest them me." Notice he said, in verse 9, "I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine."

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• Now skip down to verse 11. "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I have kept."

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• Now look, "and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled." How many of our Lord's sheep did he lose? None. What's he talking about the son of perdition? Judas was never his sheep. He was associated with Christ, but he never belonged to Christ. Did our Lord ever lose one sheep? The answer is no. Read Luke 15. What does he do? He goes out and he seeks the lost sheep. Tell me how long he seeks it. Till he what? Till he finds it. He never fails. And if you look in verse 24, watch this prayer request. Now remember, the son is praying to his father. In verse 24, he prays this request. "Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world."

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• Now, whoa, wait a minute, back up. "Father, I will also that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am." Do you think that the prayer of Jesus Christ will not be answered? Do you think that somehow, some way, there's a possibility that one of our Lord's sheep will be lost and will not be with him in heaven? Do you think that the Father will not answer and honor the prayer request of the Son? In verse 24, "I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me."

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• Now, if you think that, then I'm going to tell you this, you don't understand the eternal covenant. If you look in your Bibles, to the book of Hebrews chapter 13, and I've preached on this in times past, I'm not going to do it today, but I want you to see there is such a thing as an eternal covenant, and that eternal covenant was between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Now look at it. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20. Hebrews 13, verse 20.

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• "Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." What in the world is the everlasting covenant? Now if it's everlasting, that means it's eternal. It had no beginning, it has no end. The everlasting covenant is the covenant that was entered into between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost before the world ever began. In that covenant, God the Father gave to God the Son a people. God the Son agreed to become their substitute, their surety, and their sacrifice, and God the Holy Spirit agreed to convict and convert each one and bring them to Jesus Christ. Now if God dishonors the prayer of the Son, in John 17 verse 24, He dishonors that eternal covenant which He entered into with the Son before the world ever began.

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• And it's not good English, but it's good theology, that ain't going to happen. He is not going to dishonor the prayer, nor dishonor the covenant.

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• Now, let me show you something else. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. I want you to see this. Ephesians chapter 2. The Bible teaches that we're one with Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 6 tells us that we have died with Christ. When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him because our sins were upon Him. So we have not only been put to death with Christ, we have been buried with Christ. We've also been resurrected in Christ. In other words, folks, if you are in Jesus Christ, everything is absolutely certain and assured. Period. Now I want you to watch. Look in Ephesians chapter 2 and let's begin reading there with verse 5. In fact, let's read verse 4.

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• "But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Now watch verse 6, "...and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ."

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• Now the Scripture tells us that we've died with Christ, we've been buried with Christ, we've been raised with Christ, we've ascended with Christ, we're now seated with Christ. If we are raised up with Christ and seated with Christ with Him in heavenly places, how can one of us be lost without Him being lost? If we are His body, according to Scripture, and He is our head, how could we lose part of His body?

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• It would be an utter impossibility. Now, I'm just trying to show you a simple truth. Imprecatory praying does not doom or damn anyone to hell that is not already doomed and damned to hell. You know what our Lord said in John 3 and verse 36? Listen carefully. John 3 verse 36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." How many are already doomed and damned to hell? Everybody without Christ. Therefore asking God to let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more, is not contrary to the gospel and certainly it is not unbiblical and unchristian.

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• Such a prayer request is simply stating an undeniable truth that is plainly stated in Scripture. Look in your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 13. Matthew 13, by the way our Lord Himself is teaching this. Matthew 13 verse 41. Matthew 13, verse 41. And we're going to come back and read the context in just a moment. Look in Matthew 13, verse 41. "The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity."

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• Well, what is it that offends God? It's sin. Who commits sin? Sinners. God said in Jeremiah 44 in verse 4, "O do not that abominable thing which I hate," talking about sin. What is David praying? "Let the sinners, let the wicked be consumed out of the earth and sinners be no more." What is he saying? He's saying the same thing that our Lord is teaching in Matthew 13 in verse 41. We need to understand, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more," is another way of asking the Father to fully establish the kingdom of Christ. For instance, let's back up to verse 36. Look at it.

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• "Then Jesus sent the multitudes away and went into the house, and the disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field." Remember this parable? There was a man who planted seed, good seed. His servants came in and said, "Did you not plant good seed? What's all those tares out there?" And the householder said, "An enemy hath done this." And then the servant said, "Do you want us to go pull up the tares?" "No," he said, "lest you pull up the wheat when you pull up the tares.

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• Let them both grow together until the harvest." Then he said, "You get the tares and bundle them up and burn them. Then we'll take in the wheat."

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• Now watch, our Lord is interpreting this parable that He gave. So here's what He says, verse 36, "Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man, that is, Himself. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one."

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• Now look, "The enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.

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• There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. Who have ears to hear, let him hear."

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• Now let me ask you a very pointed question, based upon the scripture that I just read. When do the righteous shine forth as the brightness of the sun in the kingdom of their father? When the wicked are destroyed. When things that offend and those that do iniquity are removed. That's what he said. Look at it again. Let's go back to verse 41. "Then the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then, when the wicked are removed, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." So to pray then, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more," is just another way of asking God to fully establish the kingdom of Christ. To pray, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more," is the same as praying in Psalm 7 and verse 9, "Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the just."

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• Each one of these is a prayer request for the fullness of God's kingdom. Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 because I want to try to answer an objection that is bound to assert itself in imprecatory praying. And that question is this, the objection always takes the stance of a question, "How do we reconcile imprecatory praying with the words of our Lord in Matthew 5, 44 and 45?"

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• Boy, this gets thrown in your face so many times. Look in Matthew 5 and verse 44. Our Lord says, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Now, here's my question.

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• Is there a contradiction between the Old Testament law and New Testament grace? The answer is no, a thousand times no. The Apostle Paul is the one who taught, primarily, justification by faith alone. And in Romans 3 and verse 31, when he is establishing the truth of justification by faith, he asks this question, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid," he says, "yea, we establish the law." Real teaching, gospel preaching of justification by faith establishes the law of God. So the point I'm trying to make right now is this, there is no tension between Old Testament law and New Testament grace because they are complementary, they go together, they do not work against each other. So how in the world then do we deal with Matthew 5, especially verse 44?

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• Well, let me give you a couple of answers. The very first thing is this, you have to understand that the whole of Matthew chapter 5 is to be understood as an establishment of God's law. If you look in verses 17 through 19 of Matthew chapter 5, look what our Lord says. Very plainly, very clearly, you cannot misunderstand this. You may not like it, but you cannot misunderstand. Our Lord says, Matthew 5 verse 17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." So our Lord says very poignantly, don't you even begin to think, don't even let it enter your mind that I've come to destroy the law.

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• I've not come to set them aside. I've not come to nullify or abrogate. No, no. I've come to put in a full force that's continuous. So the very first thing you've got to remember is Matthew 5 is an establishment of God's law. The second thing you have to remember about Matthew 5 is this. In Matthew 5 verses 20 through 46 is a correcting of the misinterpretation and misapplication of God's law by the Pharisees. In fact, in verses 20 through verse 46 over and over you will read this.

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• Our Lord says, "You have heard it said by them of old times, but I say unto you." What is he doing? He's saying, here's what your pharisaical teachers have taught you that's been wrong. I'm correcting that. I'm teaching you right now what is correct. For instance, go back to verse 43. You'll see it right before we read verse 44. In verse 43, our Lord says, "You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy, but I say unto you." Now why did our Lord say, "You've heard it said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy"?

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• Because the Pharisees perverted the law of God. The Pharisees taught that it was alright to hate your enemy, and here's how they misapplied the law of God. They said if your enemy hated you, you could hate him back. If your enemy cursed you, you could curse him back. If your enemy stole from you, you could steal back from him. Our Lord says that's not what the law teaches. Our Lord says, "But I say unto you, here's what the law teaches, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven."

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• Now, I hope you're asking, doesn't that conflict with the imprecatory prayers? No. Just remember the quote that Martin Luther gave you? Remember the quote that David Dixon gave you? Now, what does it conflict with that? When our Lord says that we're to love our enemies, you have to ask yourself, how do you love your enemy? Is God demanding some type of sentimental, emotional, gushy, humanistic feeling? The answer is no.

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• How do we do good to them that hate us? We know how to pray for them. But how do we love them and do good to them that hate us? The answer is given to us in the scripture. Romans 13 verse 10 tells us this. "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Whoa, wait a minute. Did you hear that? Love is the fulfilling of the law. What is love? It's not a feeling. It's not sentiment. It's not gushy humanism. It's not fawning serpenness. Love is obedience. Love is the fulfilling of the law. It's not feeling. It's not sentiment. It's not gushing. It's obedience. What does the Bible say in 1 John 5 verse 3?

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• Let me just quote it. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous." How do I love my enemy? How do I love him? Does that mean that I'm gushy, I'm sentimental, I say, "Oh, you're so..." No, no, no. How do I love my enemy? I love him by acting biblically toward him. I do not react to his wickedness. I respond biblically.

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• I do not render evil for evil. I do not render hatred for hatred. I do not render strife for strife. Rather, I obey God's law and I do that which is right regardless of what he does and how much he does that which is wrong. Let me show you. Look in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. Here's the wonderful illustration of what it means to love your enemy. And by the way, this is taken from the Old Testament, so here is law and grace complimenting each other. Notice if you would in Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Notice if you would please verse 17. Look what the Bible says. "Recompense no man evil for evil.

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• Provide things honest in the sight of all men." Now, it's very simple. Recompense no man evil for evil.

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• Now, if Henry jumps up and cusses me out, and you're my witnesses, everyone has heard him. Here's my question. Does that give me the right to cuss him back? Does it? No. Just because Henry does wrong doesn't mean I have to do wrong. I can do what's right. So God says recompense, that is, pay back no man evil for evil, provide things honest in sight of all men.

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• Now look, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Now, note, if you would, carefully what that says. "If it be possible." God understands there are some folks you can't live peaceably with. Okay? But as much as you can, He says, live peaceably with all men. Okay? Now watch. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." Now look at the application.

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• "Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink. Now watch carefully. For in doing so, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." Then God says, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." What does it mean then to act biblically toward my enemy? What does it mean to love my enemy? What does it mean to do good to my enemy? Well, God does not require us to fawn over him or gush over him. God does not ask us to spend lavish amounts of money on him. God does not ask us to invite him into our house and pretend like everything's hunky-dory. No. God doesn't say that at all. But God does say, if he comes to you and he's hungry, give him something to eat.

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• You don't have to buy him a steak. You can give him peas. I don't know how to give him peas. That's good food. You'd feed him something. God doesn't require you to buy him a cappuccino. He said give him water if he's thirsty. You follow what I'm saying? All God is saying is this. You are not to have a vengeful, hateful attitude toward your enemy. You're not to be overcome with evil. In other words, you're not to let his evil attitude and his evil acts affect you so that you're evil back toward him and have an evil mentality. No. You're required to do what's right and what's biblical.

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• How do I love him? I love him by acting biblically toward him. That doesn't mean I'm gushy all about him. That doesn't mean I want to see him prosper in every area. No. But if he comes to me and he's in need, I'll feed him. I'll give him water. Because I'm not like him. And I don't want to be like him. So when our Lord tells us in Matthew 5, "Love your enemies," He's not saying, buddy up to them and put your arm around them and walk down the street like, man, you're good friends. No, He's not saying that at all. He's just saying, you do what's right regardless of what they do to you.

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• You respond in a biblical manner. And in doing so, He said, you're going to heap coals of fire upon their heads. Coals of fire? That's pretty rough, isn't it? I know I told you this, but it's still one of my favorite stories, I'll tell you again, about the woman who came to the pastor for counseling. She was complaining about her husband, complaining about her husband.

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• Finally, the pastor just kind of folded his arms, smiled, and said, "Well, have you ever tried pouring hot coals upon his head, you know, returning good for evil?" She said, "No, but I've tried hot water, and that don't work either." So that's not what the Lord means using hot water, okay? But it does mean that you're to be biblical.

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• Now, so there is no contradiction between "love your enemies" and "pray for them." In fact, we are praying for them.

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• There's no contradiction. So let's ask the question then, why in the world are we given all of these divinely inspired imprecatory prayers in the Bible? We are told very pointedly in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good works." And obviously those verses refer to the imprecatory prayers as well. Why did God then give us these imprecatory prayers that are divinely revealed in His Word? One answer is that we may use them to establish true and biblical justice.

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• There are so many injustices in our day and age. Men are so depraved and so wicked. And as long as they're depraved and wicked, there's always going to be gross miscarriages of justice. Always going to be. How then may we correct them? How do we rectify them? The truth of the matter is we are weak and powerless and helpless in and of ourselves. I've often thought about those old westerns and kind of longed to live back in those days.

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• Because you see, if Phil was put in jail wrongly back then, shoot, we'd just get on our horses and get some ropes, pull the bars down, put him on a horse and ride to another state and that'd be it. You can't do that today. You say, "I got a fast car." It's not as fast as a radio. You might can outrun a cop's car, but you can't outrun that radio.

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• How do you correct all of these injustices? We cannot overturn court decisions on our own. We cannot overturn legal precedents. We can't overturn executive orders. We may be helpless and impotent in and of ourselves, but thank God there is a judge of all the earth. And when Abraham was appealing to God in Genesis 18 and verse 25, he asked this question, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" And I can assure you, dear friend, God is going to do what is right, what is righteous, and what is justice. In other words, what these imprecatory prayers are teaching us and are going to teach us is this, that we, God's people, have a right to bring a covenantal lawsuit against the wicked and we have a right before God to bring this lawsuit and ask Him to overthrow the gross injustices and rectify the perversions of justice and bring forth true justice. You've got to remember the Bible tells us in Psalm 89 in verse 14 that justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne.

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• God's going to do what's right. Do you realize that one of the reasons that God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was to establish justice. Listen to this. Jeremiah 23 verse 5, God says, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." Where's our Lord going to execute justice and judgment in the earth? It was prophesied of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, in Isaiah 42 and verse 3, "...a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench, until he bring forth judgment unto truth." And that very prophecy is applied to Jesus Christ in Matthew 12 and verse 20. And the Bible says there, "...a bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench, until he send forth judgment unto victory." And the word judgment in both passages refers to justice. In other words, the imprecatory prayers teach us that we have the right, the duty, and the obligation to bring a covenantal lawsuit against the wicked and ask God to intervene on our behalf.

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• We have a biblical mandate to cry for justice. In fact, one more verse. In Isaiah 59 and verse 4, listen carefully. Here's what God charges Israel with. He says, "...None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity." What did God say? None pleadeth for truth, and none calleth for justice. Imprecatory prayers are a call for justice and truth.

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• Now let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this. It is time that all of God's people learn to pray the imprecatory prayers given to us in Scripture. It's time we learn to cry out to God for justice and call upon Him for victory in time and in history. May I remind you of something? This is God's world and we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. This world does not belong to the wicked. It does not belong to the one-worlders. It does not belong to the Council on Foreign Relations. It does not belong to the trilateralists. It does not belong to the Council of Thirteen. It does not belong to the Club of Rome. It belongs to God! And it's time we learn that we're not going to give up, and we're not going to give out, and we're not going to give over. We're going to learn to pray like David. "Rise, O God, and make bare thine arm."

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• And you've got to understand this, dear friend, when we are injured, and when we are harmed, and when we're treated unjustly, God is not only concerned, He is involved. You cannot attack a child without involving the parent. And if He's our Father, and we're His children, He's involved. The second application is this. If we wish to be blessed by God, and if we wish to be able to prosecute a covenantal lawsuit, we must be obedient, holy, and godly ourselves. You see, there is a doctrine not only taught in our legal system, but also in the Word of God. It's called the doctrine of clean hands. Which simply means this. Clean hands refers to the fact that we're innocent of the charges that we're pressing against others. Under the clean hands doctrine, a person who has acted wrongly, either morally or legally, that is, one who has unclean hands will not be helped by a court.

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• If that is true in the lower courts of this land, how much truer is it in the divine court of heaven? If we want to prosecute a divine lawsuit against the wicked, we have to have clean hands. We cannot be guilty of what they're guilty of. I can give you a good clear illustration of this. You remember how Ahab coveted Naboth's land? You remember what Jezebel did? She said, "Is Ahab king?

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• I'll take care of it." And she wrote a note to the elders of Naboth's village and said, "Proclaim a fast, set Naboth on high among the people, hire men of Belial, and charge him with treason, that he's blasphemed God and cursed the king." If you blaspheme God, you deserve to die. If you curse the king, you deserve to have your property confiscated. And that's what happened. What did Jezebel do? She had unclean hands. She was guilty of the very crimes that she wanted Naboth charged with. Yes, Naboth and his sons died, that is true. And Ahab got that land temporarily, until the dogs licked the blood of Ahab and ate the body of Jezebel.

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• I'm just simply saying, folks, if we want God to act on our behalf, if we want to pray these imprecatory prayers and see the hand of God against the wicked, then we need to live holy and godly lives. We need to be biblical so that we can truly and truthfully pray that the sinners be consumed out of the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.

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• Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee this day. We're thankful for Your love. We're thankful for Your grace. We're thankful that Thou art a God that's interested in justice. And Father, we give ourselves to Thee and pray, Lord, that You would indeed arise and make bare Thine arm, that men may know that Thou alone art the sovereign God of heaven and earth. Rectify, Lord, the injustices and the wrongs and the misdeeds, and give us, Lord, Thy truth and Thy righteousness and Thy justice. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T23:48:33Z