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Praying Against The Wicked Part 2

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• Turn, if you would, to 2 Kings chapter 19. 2 Kings 19. We're going to read a few verses, but our main text is going to be verse 20. I'm just going to try to get you oriented in this chapter again. So let's begin with verse 1. 2 Kings chapter 19. This is when Sennacherib is going to attack Jerusalem. 2 Kings 19, verse 1. The title of the message is "Praying Against the Wicked, Part 2." I'll explain. "And it came to pass when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos."

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• "And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, Today is a day of trouble, and a rebuke, and blasphemy. For the children are come to birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, had sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard. Wherefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left." So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said unto them, "Thus shalt thou say to your master. Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard, which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me."

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• "Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor, and he shall return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land." Now skip down to verse 20. The Bible said, "Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard." The reason I told you that the title of this message is "Praying Against the Wicked, Part 2" is because some time ago—a year, two years, I don't really remember when—I preached a message from this very text, which I entitled "Praying Against the Wicked." And I'm sure you do not remember the message. But I'm going to give you the five main points that I brought out. The message today, of course, is entirely different from that first message, but just to point out those five points and bring them to your mind. Actually, the message dealt more with when it is time to pray against the wicked.

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• But I entitled it just simply "Praying Against the Wicked." But I pointed out, first of all, it's time to pray against the wicked when the righteous are persecuted. And of course, that is what is happening in 2 Kings chapter 19. Secondly, it's time to pray against the wicked when our enemies are powerful, haughty, and blasphemous. And that's exactly what the Assyrians were. Thirdly, it's time to pray against the wicked when we're incapable of dealing with them ourselves. And of course, Hezekiah and the people were not able to fight against the wicked. And then fourthly, I pointed out, it's time to pray against the wicked when they seek to overthrow the trust and the faith of God's people. And that's exactly what they were doing, because they were telling Hezekiah not to trust in the Lord. And then fifthly, it's time to pray against the wicked before they act. And of course, that's exactly what Hezekiah was doing. So as I was reading through 2 Kings again recently, verse 20 just simply jumped out again to me. Look at it, if you would. "Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of

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• Assyria, I have heard." You know, the truth is we often pray for ourselves. And we often pray for other people. But very seldom do we really genuinely pray against the wicked. And praying against the wicked is a very pertinent reality. You say, how pertinent is it? Well, you have to consider the fact that the pertinence of it is that the wicked are in charge in just about every area of our lives today. They're basically running things. And what happens is this: when the wicked are in charge, then the righteous withdraw.

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• Now, let me point something out. It may surprise you to know that the Bible teaches the way to have the righteous increase is to have the wicked decrease. In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 28 and verse 28, "When wicked men rise, men hide themselves, but when they perish, the righteous increase." Isn't that amazing? When they perish, the righteous increase. So if we want an increase in righteousness, in righteous individuals, God says one of the ways then is for the wicked simply to perish.

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• We have been actually so slothful in our studies and so negligent in our reading and understanding of scriptures that most Christians somehow think that we are absolutely duty-bound to pray for wicked, ungodly, reprobate rulers. And then what they do is they will run to 1 Timothy 2 and say, "Here is my proof text." So I want you to hold 2 Kings 19 and turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 2. Let's look at verses 1 and 2, because the Apostle Paul is indeed in this passage admonishing us to pray. Notice, if you would, 1 Timothy 2 and verse 1, because here is the text that most people quote when they are saying that we should pray for our rulers. Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, verse 1, "I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority." So obviously Paul is saying, yes, we should be praying for kings, we should be praying for all that are in authority.

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• And they say, "There we are, there we have it, we are duty-bound to pray for our rulers." That is true in one sense of the word. But you have to ask yourself, what does the rest of verse 2 say? And why are we being admonished to pray for these civil rulers? Look at it. "For kings and for all that are in authority," why should we pray for them?

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• Here it is: "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." So what the Apostle is saying is this: we pray for them not for their benefit, but for our benefit. We pray for them that they will leave us alone, that we will be unbothered and undisturbed and unmolested, that we, God's people, may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, which is acceptable in the sight of God. Now, we're not demanded to pray for their salvation.

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• May I point out the fact, according to Deuteronomy chapter 17, a ruler has absolutely no business being in office unless he is a Christian. Because the Bible demands that we only have our brethren to rule over us. There's a host of other scriptures as well. So obviously, if a man is in office and he is unsaved, he should not be in that office to begin with. And it may surprise you to learn that all of the original charters in this country and all of the original state constitutions demanded Christian rulers, and unless a man would take an oath that he believed in the one true and the living God who's revealed himself in Jesus Christ and both the inspiration of the Old and New Testament, he could not hold office. So an infidel could not hold office, a Jewish man could not hold office. Obviously it was indeed Christians and Christians only. It may surprise you that the first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, had this to say. Listen carefully.

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• "Almost all nations have peace or war at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect and who are not always wise and virtuous. Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." That was the first Supreme Court Justice. So he said we should have Christians for our rulers.

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• Now, before I proceed any further, I want to deal with one objection that I actually dealt with in the introduction of the first message, "Praying Against the Wicked." And you're going to find that objection in Matthew 5, in verse 44. I want you to turn there because I want to make sure that we understand what our Lord is saying. Here's the objection. They'll say, "Oh, but our Lord told us that we should pray for our enemies." Yes, He did. Look in Matthew 5, in verse 44. Our Lord says, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies. Bless them that curse you.

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• Do good to them that hate you. And pray for those which despitefully use you and persecute you." But may I point something out for your consideration. There is a vast difference between our enemies and God's enemies. They usually should be one and the same, that is for true. But our enemies are usually those of our own making. Usually we have enemies because of our pride, our stubbornness, our rebellion, our carelessness, our lack of consideration for other individuals. And we develop enemies. In Matthew 5, in verse 44, our Lord is showing us how we are to respond to our enemies. Now I want you to note carefully in verse 44, our Lord points out that a man may be our enemy in one of three distinct ways. First of all, he may be our enemy in his heart by hatred. He says, "Pray for them, do good unto them that hate you." So a man can be our enemy in his heart; he could hate us. Secondly, he may be our enemy by words, in the sense that he curses us or uses direful imprecations against us.

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• He says in verse 44, "Bless them that curse you." Then thirdly, a man may be our enemy by actions, that he's continually oppressing and persecuting us. He said, "And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." So actually what our Lord does in this verse is this: He tells us three ways in which a man may be our enemy, and then He tells us how we should respond to our enemies who hate us in those three particular ways. So first of all, He tells us that we are to meet unbiblical hatred with a biblical love. Literally He says this: "Love your enemies. Love your enemies."

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• Now I hope you understand that the word "love" does not mean to get emotional and sentimental and teary-eyed toward. That's not what He's talking about at all. According to Romans 13 and verse 10, love is the fulfilling of the law. So if I'm to love my enemy, what am I to do? I'm to do good toward him. I'm to obey God's Word toward him. So that doesn't mean I have to put my arm around him. It doesn't mean I have to hug his neck. It doesn't mean I have to do anything special for him. It just means that I'm to always act biblically toward him in any situation and any circumstance.

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• Secondly, if our enemy uses cursings or evil words, we're to meet those evil words and cursings with blessings. He said in verse 44, "Bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you." What our Lord is teaching us is what Peter said, and what Paul said as well: we are not to render evil for evil. So here it is. If Steve is my enemy and Steve stands up and cusses me out in front of everybody, here's my question.

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• Would that give me the right to stand up and cuss him back? And the answer is no. If he is my enemy and he hates me and he curses me, well, the Scripture tells me I'm to do good toward him. In 1 Peter 3 and verse 9, the Scripture says, "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing, knowing that you are thereunto called, that you should inherit a blessing." So He tells us that we're not to render evil for evil. And I do want you to turn to the book of Romans chapter 12, because Paul gives us the same exact information, except just in a little different vein. Notice in Romans chapter 12, beginning there with verse 17. Romans 12, verse 17. Remember now, the Lord is telling us how that we're to act toward our enemies. Romans 12, verse 17: "Recompense to no man evil for evil." There it is. We don't pay somebody back just because they do us wrong. So He says, "Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men." We have to do right even if our enemies refuse to do what is right.

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• Then He says, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Now I confess that there are some men that you cannot live peaceably with, but He says, as much as in you is, you endeavor to live peaceably with all men.

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• Now watch verse 19: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." So vengeance belongs to God. Let me point this out very clearly. God is absolutely just. So if David is my enemy and David does something to me that is horrendous and wicked and vile, and I say, "I will get you back," and I do get him back, now I have just usurped God's authority. Vengeance belongs to God, not to me. How could I expect God now to deal with David since I have dealt with David? God is just.

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• He's not going to punish him twice for the same sin. You follow me? So if I want God to avenge me, then I have to be obedient. God can clean this plow a whole lot better than I can and do a finer job of it at the same time. So God says, don't try to avenge yourself. Now watch. Here's to make sure that you're not trying to avenge yourself. He says in verse 20, "Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him." You don't have to buy him a steak, but you do have to give him something to eat if he is hungry. If he is thirsty, give him to drink.

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• Now watch, "For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." So He says, do not let evil overtake you; you overcome evil by being obedient and doing that which is right and holy and godly. Then thirdly, the repeated injurious acts of an enemy, we are to meet with continual prayer. For He says in verse 44 of Matthew 5, "And pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." So why should you pray for them if they are persecuting you?

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• Well, if they are continually and constantly persecuting and harassing you, it is either, number one, a manifestation of the fact that they either need to be saved or they need to be judged. And that would be up to God. So you just pray for God's will to be done.

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• Now, so our Lord tells us, as far as our enemies are concerned, we can love them, we can bless them, and we can pray for them. But it's a whole different ballgame when you come to God's enemies. Psalm 94 and verse 16. Here are the questions that God asked. Listen carefully. "Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand for me against the workers of iniquity?" God said, "I want someone to rise up. I want someone to stand for me." So God's enemies must be confronted and dealt with and prayed against. And now there are numerous prayers in the Bible, and I will show you several of them. There are numerous prayers in the Bible that have been prayed by godly men against the wicked.

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• They are recorded for our benefit and our blessing. These prayers are referred to as imprecatory prayers. You may remember several years back, three or four, I brought four messages on imprecatory praying. And then my third book, "The Biblical Truth About God's Righteous Vengeance," also deals with imprecatory prayers. But imprecatory prayers are just as valid, just as applicable, just as biblical, and just as scriptural today as they were in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Now let me just tell you that praying against the wicked is indeed a godly act. And we are sinful and rebellious when we fail to pray against the wicked.

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• Our Lord made this exceedingly clear in Matthew 12 and verse 30. You remember what He said: "He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not scattereth abroad." So obviously, not praying against our Lord's enemies signifies that we may be actually for those enemies. So let me begin with the simple and go to the more complex today. Here it is. Here is my first point. It is right and proper to pray against God's enemies. It is right and proper to pray against God's enemies.

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• That is exactly what Hezekiah was doing in 2 Kings chapter 19. That is why in verse 20 God said to Isaiah, "You tell Hezekiah, that which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, I have heard." Now Hezekiah was a great king and he was also a godly man. We must remember that the enemies of God are also equally the enemies of God's people. While it is true that Sennacherib was fighting against God, the manifestation of his fighting against God was his fighting against God's people. There is no enemy of God that can climb up to heaven, face God, and just slap His jaws. He can't do that. It's impossible. So if he's going to fight against God, the only thing that he can do is basically fight against His children or His creation in some way. Now, Sennacherib was fighting against God, but his manifestation of that fight was against God's people.

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• If we fail to pray against the wicked, it is evidence that we are not for Jesus Christ. So let me ask you some questions. Which kingdom would you prefer to prosper? The kingdom of man or the kingdom of Christ? Which kingdom would you prefer to be victorious? The kingdom of evil or the kingdom of Jesus Christ? Did our Lord not teach us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? Do you realize that when you pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done," you are actually praying against all the other kingdoms? You don't want the kingdom of humanism. You don't want the kingdom of evil. You don't want the kingdom of man. You want the kingdom of God. So failure to pray against the wicked in essence is either to condone them, excuse them, or support them. Now what I want to do is this very quickly. I want to show you some of these prayers in the Bible and show you how specific they really were. And show you how puny our prayers are today.

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• I want you to turn first of all to Psalm 58. Psalm 58. These prayers that I'm going to show you right now happen to be the prayers of David. There are other prayers in the Bible. But you remember that David was a man after God's own heart. So David is a holy, righteous man. But I want you to notice what he is praying. Look in Psalm 58 and let's begin reading there with verse 3.

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• He is identifying the wicked. And he says this: "The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Now watch. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They're like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely." In other words, they're not going to listen to you. They're not going to listen to God. They're not going to listen to anybody.

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• So now David begins to pray against them. Look what he says in verse 6. "Break their teeth, O God." That's not all. "Break their teeth in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord." Now, what is a young lion? He's a powerful enemy. He's a powerful adversary. If you break out the teeth of the young lion, what's going to happen to him? He's going to shrivel up and die because he can't eat. That's all there is to it. But notice he said, "Break their teeth in their mouth."

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• Have you ever stopped to think about some of these illustrations? I remember reading years ago about a man who was teaching self-defense. And he was saying that a lot of times fights, of course, begin in bars and beside the road. And he was using the illustration of how some men in the fight, they would take in their hands a beer bottle and hit somebody over the head. And he said it does nothing because the beer bottle, the glass is so thin, it'll just break instantaneously. And he said the only real damage that might possibly happen is if the label is still on there with some glue and a little bit of that glass shard stick to the glue on the label. It might rake him and might cause him to bleed just a little bit. And he says you never want to hit somebody over the head with a bottle. He said the head is harder than the bottle. And I never will forget what he said. He said, "If you really want to

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• hurt him, hit him in the mouth with the bottle." Can you imagine being hit in the teeth with the bottle? This is what David says to the wicked. Break out their teeth in their... hit them in the mouth. That's what he's praying. Look, if you would, at verse 7. "Let them melt away as waters which run continually. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces."

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• Don't let anything be left. "As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away, like the untimely birth of a woman," a stillborn child, "that they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living in his wrath." He said He's going to deal with them.

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• Now watch, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the righteous. Verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth." Isn't that amazing? David is praying against the wicked and he is praying that the Lord will kill them and take their lives and that He does so in a very gruesome way.

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• Look in your Bible, Psalm 68. And I hope that I might get to preach on this text before long because this is actually a war hymn. And I'll explain that if I get to preach on it. But look at verse 1. "Let God arise. Let His enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate Him flee before Him."

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• Now watch, "As smoke is driven away, so drive them away." Just like the wind drives away smoke, God says, "Let them go away as wax melted before the fire, so that the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice before God. Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." Some of you remember—now Pat, well maybe Francis, when we were young—you remember that little wax Coca-Cola bottle? They had it, had a little bit of Coke or something in it, and you put it in your mouth, you got the juice, and then you chewed the wax. But if you ever took one of those and set

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• it next to a heater, guess what? It was gone. So this is what he's saying: let them melt as wax melted before the fire.

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• Now, let me show you another one. Look in Psalm 139. Psalm 139. And let's begin reading there with verse 19. David is very specific, and in this passage he's extremely bold. Notice, if you would, Psalm 139, verse 19. He said, "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, you bloody men." Because he knows God's going to kill them. Watch. "For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain." Now look what he says. "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies." So David is saying, "God, your enemies are my enemies. I hate them with perfect hatred." Now I want you to watch. He now prays in verse 23, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

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• Can you imagine that? Here's a man that has just gotten out of his mouth, "Thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies." And now he says, "O God, search me." So obviously, it's not unholy, it's not ungodly to despise God's enemies and to hate those that hate God. Because David says, "I want to be right with you. Search me, O God." Now.

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• Let me point something out. Something for your consideration. We're talking about praying against the wicked. May I remind you that there have been times in the Bible when God's prophets prayed against God's professing people who had sinned and refused to repent. Do you remember Elijah? In fact, it is mentioned in Romans chapter 11, verses 2 and 3, "Know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets and digged down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life." What did the Bible say? Do you remember how Elijah made intercession against Israel? Israel sinned against God. And he is praying to God against Israel. Do you remember in Jeremiah chapter 14, God told Jeremiah, "Pray not for this people for their good." He told Jeremiah, "I'm not going to hear you if you try to pray for them for their good." And He said, "When they pray to me, I'm not going to hear them either. If you want to pray to me, you pray that I'll destroy them, for that's exactly what I'm going to do."

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• So He says, "Pray not for their good." So Jeremiah, you may pray, and you may pray freely that I'll destroy them, I'll judge them, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Now, here's the thing. If it is proper and right for a man of God to pray against God's professing people when they so blatantly, heinously sin against God and refuse to repent, what could possibly be wrong with praying against the wicked who've never loved God to begin with and hate Him with all of their hearts? Obviously, it's right to pray against the wicked.

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• It is holy, it is godly. Moreover, it is proper and right to enlist others to pray against the wicked. If you will go back in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 19, because King Hezekiah now is enlisting the aid of the prophet Isaiah to pray for the remnant that is left. Look, if you would, 2 Kings 19, verse 4. He says, "It may be the Lord thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, had sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard. Wherefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left." Now if Isaiah

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• is praying for Judah and Jerusalem, or if he's praying for Israel, who's he praying against? He's praying against the Assyrians. If somebody's persecuting Pat and I'm praying for Pat, what does that mean? I'm praying against those who are persecuting him. And so he's enlisting the aid of Isaiah to pray. So it's proper and right to pray against the wicked. It's proper and right to enlist the aid of others to pray against the wicked as well.

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• Here's the second thing today that we're going to see out of 2 Kings 19. When we pray against God's enemies, we must expect to be laughed at, mocked, and ridiculed, and taunted, especially by the wicked. Look, if you would, at 2 Kings 19, beginning there in verse 8. The Bible says, "So Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish."

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• Now watch, "And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he has come out to fight against thee, he sent messengers unto Hezekiah, saying..." Now let me just stop right there. You remember God said that He is going to cause Sennacherib to hear a rumor, and he's going to return to his own land. So here's the rumor: that Tirhakah now is coming with a great army to fight against him. Well, look what happens. He's not going to give up on Judah and Jerusalem that easily. He's trying to get a victory without ever having to fight.

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• And so he sends Rabshakeh back. Watch verse 10, "Thus shall you say to Hezekiah the king of Judah, saying, Let not thy God in whom thou trustest deceive thee, saying, Jerusalem shall not be delivered in the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by destroying them utterly, and shalt thou be delivered?" Oh, wow. That doesn't do you any good to fight, Hezekiah. Doesn't do you any good to pray. You can't possibly win. The enemies always suggest that our prayers are useless, our faith is worthless, and our God is helpless.

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• They want us to believe in the success of the wicked, the progress of the New World Order, and the progressive enslavement of all mankind. We can't fight it. That's not true. We can fight, because we can pray. What they want us to believe is that our God will not hear us or help us. That's what Sennacherib said to Hezekiah: doesn't do you any good to pray. God's not going to hear you. God's not going to help you.

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• Look at all the other lands that we've conquered. Let me show you. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. Turn over a few pages, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and then Ezra, and then Nehemiah. Look at Nehemiah chapter 4. Nehemiah chapter 4. You remember that Nehemiah is building the wall. And of course the enemies hate the fact that the walls are being rebuilt and Jerusalem is being restored. I want you to pay attention to the mocking, then I want you to pay attention to Nehemiah's prayer. So Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 1, "But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was wroth, and he took great indignation, and mocked the Jews. And he spake before his brethren, the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice?

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• Will they make an end in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?" So notice how he's mocking them. He said, "These feeble people, they think they're going to build this wall. They're not going to sacrifice. They're not going to make it. They can't revive anything out of the rubble." Watch verse 3.

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• "Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him and said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall." Now you talk about some ridicule. I don't know if you've ever noticed how lightly a fox treads. Why, he said, if they build something, a fox can walk on it and tear it down. It'll be so worthless. Ah. Look in verse 4. So now, Nehemiah prays against the wicked.

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• "Hear, O our God, for we are despised. And turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity. And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee, for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders." What is he saying? "Lord, let them go into captivity. Let them be defeated. Do not cover their iniquity. Do not cover their sin."

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• What is he asking? "Judge them, O God. Judge them." So here they are mocking, and here he is praying for their destruction. If you would turn over in your Bible to Psalm 75. Psalm 75. I want you to note, if you would, beginning there with verse 4, how arrogant unbelievers really are. And here's the counsel that God gives them. Psalm 75, verse 4. "I said unto the fools, Do not foolishly, and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn." That is, you don't lift up yourself in pride and arrogance and haughtiness. Verse 5, "Lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck," hard-headed. Here's why.

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• "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge. He putteth down one, and setteth up another."

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• Now watch, "For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red. It is full of mixture, and he poureth out the same. But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. But I will declare forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted." So God says, "I'm gonna bring them down. You can mock all you want. You can be proud and arrogant all you want, but you'll be brought down. He will give you the cup and you will drink it, and you will be cut off." Now.

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• Let me show you one other thought. I want you to turn back to Psalm 55. Psalm 55. Psalm 55. Here's an interesting truth. We expect the enemies of God to mock us and to ridicule us, to taunt us. That's nothing. I mean, it just comes to pass. So just roll with it. That which hurts and hurts deeply is not when the enemies of God mock us, but when a professing brother or believer joins with the enemy, or turns his back upon us. That's what hurts. Look what David said. Psalm 55, beginning there with verse 12. Psalm 55, verse 12. "For it was not an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me, then would I have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company." David said, "What tore me down was not an enemy reproaching me. I could have understood that. I could have borne that. Nor was it him that hated me that did magnify himself.

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• I could have hidden myself. But what got me was this: it was you, a man that was mine acquaintance and my guide, and we took sweet counsel together and walked in the house of God in company." Unhappily, most believers have no concept of the great sin and wickedness in betraying their brethren, and mocking their brethren. There's a book that I recommend that you read. It's a little T90 paperback about this thick.

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• The title of it is "Fair Sunshine," written by Jock Purvis. "Fair Sunshine" is about the lives of those Scottish Covenanters. We are so far removed from reality. Once you read "Fair Sunshine," you will find how brethren protected brethren and even protected their pastor. Because these conventicles or field gatherings were illegal according to the king. And the Christians who really wanted to serve the Lord had to meet out in the woods.

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• And oftentimes the king's troops came upon them. Many of them died. But they always sought the pastor because they were going to cut off the head. And they figured if they could kill the preacher, then of course that would be the end of those field meetings. And when they captured some of these people, they immediately wanted to know, "Who's the pastor?" And men would step forward. One man would step forward and say, "I'm the pastor." Boom. Blow his head off. And he knew that he would die just the time he stepped forward. But he was not the pastor. He just gave his life to protect the preacher and to keep the meetings going. Today, most Christians would not only betray a pastor, they'd betray each other for 50 cents. Or just to get an advantage with the government. Or just to make sure that they're not persecuted, or they're not prosecuted.

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• Obviously, we need to understand that it's very serious, according to the Word of God, to join with those who mock and ridicule the people of God, especially when those people are taking a stand against the wicked. Here's my third thought today. When we pray against God's enemies, we must not be deterred or discouraged because of either temporary or what we would call major victories of the enemy.

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• Let me show you what I'm talking about. Go back in your Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 19. And let's begin reading there with verse 11. Watch what Rabshakeh says to King Hezekiah. "Behold, thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, by destroying them utterly. And shalt thou be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?" In other words, here he says, "Look at all that we have done.

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• Exactly all the people that we have conquered. Ha! You think you are going to be any different? We are going to conquer you just like we have conquered all of these other people."

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• Now, obviously, clearly you and I should mourn over any successes that the enemies of God have. We do not want them to prosper against our God. The Bible says in Proverbs 29, in verse 2, listen carefully, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." So it should be a time of mourning when the wicked are bearing rule. We must also consider this in light of the temporary victories or even what you and I would call major victories, that God oftentimes sets up His enemies and what they view as a great victory is nothing less than their own destruction.

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• You remember the two messages I just preached on the hard truth where God set up Pharaoh and made him think that he's going to win and then God literally destroyed him? Wow! Let me show you how the enemy thinks. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 10. Psalm 10. I want you to see the arrogance, the pride, the haughtiness, the disrespect, and even the blasphemy. Notice Psalm 10.

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• And let's begin reading there with verse 1. Psalm 10, verse 1. "Why standest thou far off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?"

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• Now watch, he begins to talk about the wicked. "The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices which they have imagined." That's an imprecatory prayer, so let the wicked be taken in the very devices that they are imagining against the poor, is what he's saying. Verse 3. "For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord hateth. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all of his thoughts."

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• "His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above, out of his sight."

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• Now watch, "As for all of his enemies, he puffeth at them, even God. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages. In the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor."

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• "He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth in wait to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He'll never see it. Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up thine hand, forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast not seen it. For thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand. The poor committeth himself unto thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and evil man. Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The Lord is king forever and ever.

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• The heathen are perished out of his land." Notice, "Break his arm." Do you realize when you have your arm broken, your power is gone? And that's what David is praying. And God says here, the wicked, they think, they puff at God, they think He's nothing. That God doesn't see, God won't judge them, God won't bring them into judgment, He'll never ever hold them accountable. Hmm. So here's what I'm going to tell you. Yes, the wicked is going to have some temporary victories. In fact, they may have some major victories. There's no problem there.

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• But one of my favorite sayings came from one of the wickedest men in the Bible, King Ahab. Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, in 1 Kings chapter 20, said to Ahab and said, "Behold, your wives and your children and your silver and gold are mine." And Ahab said, "I am thy servant, you can have everything." So Ben-Hadad pushes the envelope and he says, "About this time tomorrow, my princes are going to come by and they're going to search your house and every other great house in Jerusalem or in Israel, in Samaria." And he said, "They're going to take whatever they want to take." Ahab said, "No, you're not going to do that." And here's what Ben-Hadad said, listen to this. Ben-Hadad threatened him again, and Ben-Hadad said to him, "The gods do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for the handfuls of all the people that follow me." In other words, "I've got more people than dust is in Samaria.

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• I'll wipe you out, boy." And here's what old Ahab said. He said to his messengers, "Tell him, let not him that putteth on his harness boast himself as he that taketh off his harness." In other words, "Don't be boasting when you're putting on your battle attire, because you ain't fought yet, boy. Don't be boasting until you've taken it off, until you've won the battle. You haven't won yet."

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• And I've got news for you. The wicked have not won, and they cannot win, and they will not win. And they may have a little victory here and there, and they may win a skirmish here and there, and they may win a battle here and there, but those skirmishes and those battles are not the war. And God says, "Don't be boasting yourself when you're putting on your battle garment.

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• as he who taketh it off." No. The wicked may boast of their accomplishments, but they are going to lose. Here is my last point very quickly. As we pray against God's enemies, we have to understand that any reproach or attack upon God's people is an attack upon God Himself. I want you to go back to 2 Kings chapter 19. And I want you to look at verse 6. 2 Kings 19, verse 6. "And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall you say to your master," that is, he is sending them back to Hezekiah, "Thus saith the Lord, Be not afraid of the

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• words which thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me." What?

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• Now wait a minute, you read the context, 2 Kings chapter 19. And they're threatening Hezekiah and the people of God. In fact, they're not necessarily attacking God because they themselves say that God sent them against Samaria. But God interprets their reproach and their attack upon His people as a reproach and attack upon Himself.

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• Now listen to me carefully. There existed even in the Old Testament a covenantal relationship between God and His people. Okay? We have a covenantal relationship anyhow. May I remind you that the word "testament" means "covenant." So there's the Old Covenant, there's the New Covenant. And when we get to the New Covenant, we find that there is even a closer relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people. How is that? Well, let's see.

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• If I remember correctly, He's the bridegroom and we're the bride. He's the head and we're the body. He's the foundation and we're the building. He's the shepherd and we're the sheep. He's the Lord and we're the servants. I cannot attack Effie without attacking Pat. I cannot hit David in the stomach without affecting his head. Any attack or reproach upon God's people is an approach, reproach, and attack upon God Himself.

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• Let me show you something. I want you very quickly to turn in your Bibles, Deuteronomy 32. Then we are going to look at several other verses very quickly. Deuteronomy 32. Look, if you would please, at verse 10. Deuteronomy 32, verse 10. Then we are going to Psalm 17. So if you want to go ahead and find Psalm 17, that's fine. Look in Deuteronomy 32, if you would please, and verse 10. God is speaking of His people and He says, in fact let's read verse 9. Deuteronomy 32, verse 9 and 10. Watch carefully. "For the Lord's portion is his people.

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• Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land and the waste howling wilderness. He led him about. He instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his eye." You know what the apple of your eye is? It's your pupil. You will protect that eye. You can do it without even thinking about it. I've been walking in the woods and a limb come and my hand either comes up instantly to keep that limb out of my eye or my eyelid closes so quickly that if the limb hits me it just hits the eyelid. It does not hit the pupil of my eye. God says He kept them as the pupil of His eye.

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• If you look in Psalm 17 and verse 8, David made this prayer request. He said to God, "Keep me as the apple of thine eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy wings. Keep me as the apple of thine eye."

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• Now turn to the book of Zechariah, right before the book of Malachi, next to the last book in the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter 2, and look, if you would please, at verse 8, because God says this again. Zechariah chapter 2 and verse 8, here it is: "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you, for he that touches you touches the apple of his eye." You can't touch God's people without touching God. Now twice in the Old Testament, once in 1 Chronicles 16 and then in Psalm 105, God said, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." I want to read to you from Psalm 105 beginning with verse 13. Listen carefully.

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• "When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, He suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, He reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." He is talking about His people. They were going from nation to nation, from kingdom to kingdom. And He said, "Don't you hurt my people? Don't you touch them?" Hmm.

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• Let me make just a couple of applications. The first one is this. We need to learn to pray against the wicked. David prayed against the wicked. Nehemiah prayed against the wicked. Multitudes of people prayed against the wicked. The Apostle Paul prayed against the wicked. He told the people, "Remember Hymenaeus and Philetus. Remember Alexander the coppersmith and the evil he did unto me. The Lord reward him." In other words, "The Lord pay him back." That's an imprecatory prayer. We need to learn to pray. The psalmist said, "Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the just." Have you ever been in praying, "Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end"? Wouldn't it be wonderful to see God just put the brakes on the wicked and let them stop? That's how we need to pray. "Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the just." Here's another thought. I never had one, but some people had an older brother. And so here's some bully picking on this little kid and the little kid says, "Just wait till my big brother gets to you." Well, isn't

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• it wonderful to know that we as God's people have an elder brother and a heavenly Father who are both willing to defend us and will vindicate us. So we need to learn to cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ and cry out to our Heavenly Father to defend us and vindicate us. He said of Jerusalem five times, "I will defend Jerusalem." I'll defend it. He will defend His people and fight for His people.

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• Now, if you've never prayed against the wicked, now would be the time to begin to pray against them and learn to pray against them consistently and constantly. Stop and think. God could handle the wicked in one of three ways. First of all, He could convert them, and then they would no longer be our enemies. They'd be our friends. Secondly, He could remove them from office. Just like David says, "Break their arm, O Lord." Well, break their power. Man can't do anything without power. Or He could remove them by taking their life. However God deals with His enemies is totally up to Him.

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• It's not up to us. We can pray against them and say, "Lord, they're Your enemies. You deal with them in Your time and in Your way." Our responsibility is to pray against them. How He deals with them is up to Him. And then lastly, He has taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done." And when we pray for His kingdom, we're praying against all the other kingdoms.

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• I want to show you one last passage. I want you to turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. I smile every time I read this passage because I've actually heard people say this. I've heard them say, "Well, Brother Weaver, I don't want to get involved in praying against the wicked and all this kind of stuff. I'm just going to pray for the Lord Jesus Christ to come back." Well, have at it. Go ahead. But I want to show you what you're praying for. Look in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, beginning there with verse 7. Paul writes, "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, watch, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and be admired in all them that believe.

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• Because our testimony among you is believed in that day." You cannot even pray for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ without praying for the destruction of His enemies, because that's what He's going to do when He comes back. And when you pray, "Thy kingdom come," you're praying, "Lord, set up Your kingdom in its full manifestation and destroy all the others." So the question has to be asked: are you for Christ? Christ said, "If you are not for me, you are against me." And I would much rather see the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ prevail and prosper than I have the New World Order, and the Bilderbergers, and the CFR, and George Soros, and all the Clintons, and Bushes combined. Do you follow me? So we need to pray against the wicked. "Lord, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the just." Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to Thee.

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• We thank You for Your Word. We thank You for Your truth. We thank You for the greatness and the power and majesty of Thy divine person. We confess and acknowledge that Thou art God alone. The kingdom is Thine. And we pray, Father, for Thy kingdom to come. And Lord, we do pray against the wicked. And as Thou hast taught us to pray, "Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish thou the just." And we ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T03:06:54Z