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Are You Horrified Yet?

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• Psalm 119. And as you know, we're not going to be reading the entire psalm, but look, if you would please, at verse 53. Psalm 119, verse 53. David simply makes this statement: "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." The title of the message is, "Are You Horrified Yet?" We use the expression "I was horrified" so frequently. In fact, we use it so much that that phrase really can mean anything from being embarrassed, humiliated, scared, or upset. Usually when someone uses the phrase "I was horrified," it does not really mean that that individual is genuinely and completely horrified. In fact, most of the old horror movies that we saw when we were children were intended just simply to scare or to terrorize individuals. In fact, I remember as a boy going to see Dracula and laughing. I mean, you know, it really wasn't scary at all. It scared my sister, but didn't scare me, you know. And I wasn't just trying to be macho, I mean, you know.

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• But you compare the horror movies today with what you and I saw as children, and they're not really horror movies today. They're just outright blood and guts and gore and just, you know, absolutely worthless. But you know, the truth of the matter is this: when we use the phrase "I was horrified," if we are genuinely horrified, we're usually horrified at a symptom and not at the cause.

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• Now, when David said in verse 53, "Horror hath taken hold upon me," the word "horror" there literally means a rage, a violent or burning heat. It means absolutely to be horrified. In fact, let me give you two quotes. The first one is from Albert Barnes in his commentary, and he's just discussing the word "horror." And here's what he says: "Horror hath taken hold upon me." In other words, it has seized me, has overpowered me and overwhelmed me.

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• I shudder, I tremble, I'm afraid, I'm filled with distress. Then he gives Luther saying, "I am burnt up." The Hebrew word is from a verb meaning to be hot or to glow. And the idea of the word is that of violent heat and then a glow or burning as of a wind, the simoom of the desert. See, he said Psalm 11:6 where the word is translated as "a horrible tempest," in the margin "burning." The word also occurs in that passage, the one before us, and in Lamentations 5:10 where it is rendered "terrible famine," or in the margin as "terrors" or "storms." Now listen carefully. The state referred to here is that of one who sees a storm of burning wind and sand approaching, who expects every moment to be overcome and buried, whose soul trembles with consternation. So you'd have to be in the desert to really understand this word and the implications of it.

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• Thomas Manton, the old Puritan, goes a little bit further and he describes the word like this. He says, "The word for horror signifies also a tempest or storm. Translations vary. Some read as Junius, 'a storm overtaking one.' Ainsworth, 'of burning horror seized me,' and expounded 'a storm of terror and dismay.' The Septuagint reads 'faintness and dejection of mind possessed me.' Our own translation, 'I'm horribly afraid.' And all translations as well as the original word imply a great trouble of mind and a vehement commotion like a storm."

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• It was a matter of disquiet and trembling to David. So when David says, "Horror hath taken hold upon me" or "horror has seized me," David is expressing then a real, genuine state of horror.

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• Now, let me go back to a statement that I made originally. And that statement is this: very seldom when we are genuinely horrified, we're usually horrified more at a symptom than at the root cause. Allow me to explain. Each of us have heard recently of the young woman in Mississippi who was literally burned alive. Individuals not only doused her with gasoline and lighter fluid, they even squirted it up her nose and down her throat and set her on fire and let her burn alive. Well, now, when we hear of such an incident, we shudder and are horrified and we ask, "How can anyone do that to another individual?" Well, look at our own CIA and the torture report there.

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• Look at what men and women do to each other all over this country and in the entire world. And we sit there with our minds boggling and we say, "How in the world can such take place?" The United Kingdom Independent reported this story recently. I read it this past week, but here it is today and I'm going to read it to you from their report, but in North Korea, some North Korean soldiers who were guarding the prisoners took a prison woman's child, killed it, cooked it, and fed it to their dogs. Here it is. Horrific detail has emerged from a UN report on human rights abuses in North Korea suggesting prison officials in the state cooked a female prisoner's baby and fed it to their dogs. The alleged unspeakable atrocities were published for the first time in February when a 372-page report by an independent UN panel of inquiry into the North Korean regime was released. How could anyone be so cold and callous and calculating as to murder a baby and then cook it and feed it to the dogs?

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• Oh, yes, some are going to say, "Well, what do you expect from North Korea?" Well, by the way, the same article went on to say that these North Korean soldiers were free to have sex with the female prisoners at their leisure, just so the female prisoners did not become pregnant. And by the way, it went on to say that those female prisoners that did become pregnant somehow disappeared.

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• They were murdered and buried somewhere. Does all of this horrify you? Well, hold on tight because this happened this past week. Here's the headline: "Baby Betsy starved to death while parents ate at Golden Corral." Roy Allen Stevens, 48, and his wife, Ruby Angelita Stevens, 23, were arrested and later charged with murder after their baby, Betsy Key Stevens, starved to death while they ate at the Golden Corral. Baby Betsy was only 22 days old at the time of her death. Betsy was born December the 1st in Indiana. She weighed six pounds, one ounce at birth. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Betsy's parents left her buckled in a car seat in the parking lot while they went inside a lakeside Florida Golden Corral restaurant and ate dinner on December the 23rd. When they returned to the car, the mother noticed that Betsy's foot was cold, so she covered her with a blanket. Sometime later when she checked on the baby again, her feet were unusually cold, and the baby was unresponsive, so she decided to call 911 for assistance.

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• When emergency medical personnel from the Polk County Fire Rescue and the Lakeland Fire Department arrived on the scene, Betsy was examined and rushed to the Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that Betsy had been dead for at least three and a half hours prior to the 911 call. She had lost two pounds over the course of her short 22-day life, and only weighed four pounds and one ounce when she died. Dr. Vera Volnick, the associate medical examiner, said baby Betsy died as a result of malnutrition because she'd been starved to death. Are you horrified yet? If not, hold on for one more news flash. Maybe you read this. Oldsmar, Florida.

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• A man has been arrested for murder after deputies say he decapitated his mother at the family Oldsmar home on New Year's Eve, all because of a chore he didn't want to complete. The county sheriff's office has charged 23-year-old Christian Jose Gomez of 1924 Sheffield Court in Oldsmar with first-degree murder. Investigators responded to the home Wednesday at 7:24 p.m. where they found the decapitated body of the victim who deputies say is Gomez's 48-year-old mother. According to the Pinellas County Sheriff, Gomez hit his mother over the head with an axe, then cut off her head in the garage and dragged the body to the garbage outside the home. The sheriff says Gomez had been planning his mother's murder for two days. According to investigators, Gomez was angry over his mother's nagging to put boxes away in the attic.

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• Well, I hope by now you're at least horrified a little bit. Let me tell you why I read each of these incidents. Do you realize that each of these incidents are symptoms? They are not the cause. They're not the problem. David placed his finger on the source of the real problem when he said in verse 53 of Psalm 119, "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." So the root problem in each of these incidents is that these individuals forsook the law of God. If you would just stop and think, it doesn't matter which incident we're talking about. If the individuals involved had obeyed and followed God's law, then none of those things would have happened. None of those things would have happened. We usually get horrified at the symptoms, not at the real problem.

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• Years ago, I never will forget one dear lady who was a dear friend of ours had a husband who was basically a drunkard. I mean, he was a decent man. He didn't stay drunk all of the time, just about once a month or twice a month. He'd pitch a good drunk, but he did support his family. And I remember his wife told me one day, she said, "He's such a good man, if he'd just stop drinking." And I looked at her and I said, "Drinking is not his problem. That's a symptom. The problem is his wicked heart. The problem is he violates God's law." And all the time, we always are horrified at the symptoms and never at the problem. Do you understand that one of the designs of God's law is that God's law was meant to restrain? How does God's law restrain?

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• It restrains by pronouncing negative sanctions or curses or judgments upon individuals who violate that law. So a sanction then can either be positive or negative. You can have a positive sanction for obeying God's law. You can have a negative sanction for disobeying God's law. And the sanction depends upon the crime or the crimes committed. I never will forget. Years ago, I was preaching in the state of Iowa.

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• And the pastor asked me to go with him to visit a man who had gone through a very bitter divorce and just invite the man to come to the meeting. And I went with the pastor and the pastor warned me. He said, "All he's going to want to talk about is the divorce because he's very bitter. He's very upset." And sure enough, that's basically how it turned out. And I was trying to invite him to the meeting, letting him know that there was hope in the Lord and hope in His Word. When all of a sudden the man looked at me and he said this, I've never forgotten his exact words. Here's what he said.

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• "I should have killed her. I should have killed her. I should have killed her. I should have done it, like I started to do. Had I killed her, I'd have been in prison and out in seven years."

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• Now why did he even entertain the thought of murdering his wife? Because he knew that a sanction would not be levied against him that was commensurate with murder. The Bible says in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11, listen carefully, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men in them is fully set to do evil."

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• Now I got news for you. If you took murderers and executed them, it would restrain a lot of others from committing murder. And someone's going to argue and say, "Well, one thing for sure, it might not have any restraining influence upon anybody else." It may not, but it surely would restrain the one that you executed. He would never kill anybody else. And do you understand that most murders, a lot of them, are repeat offenders?

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• And God just laid it down. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men in them is fully set to do evil."

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• Now Galatians 3:10 says it like this, "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse of the law: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." So those who violate God's law, those who transgress God's law, those who leave God's law are under God's curse. All you have to do is read Deuteronomy 28 and 29, and you will find both positive and negative sanctions there.

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• But our Lord, of course, I want you to listen. I know you can quote this verse because I've quoted it here so many times, but our Lord sums this thing up very beautifully for us. In Proverbs 8:35-36, He said this, verse 35, "For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD." And that's true. Whoever finds Christ finds life and obtains favor of the Lord. But then He goes on to verse 36 and says this, "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul."

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• "All they that hate me love death." Now, David said it like this: "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." Horror had taken hold upon—here's a strong burning tempest. He said that has taken hold upon me because the wicked forsake thy law. I only have two thoughts today, and I want you to see these. First of all, David was horrified at the wickedness of the sinner. David was horrified at the wickedness of the sinner. "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." I want you to understand that every sin is a transgression of God's law. And the absolute truth is no one can sin without violating God's law.

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• Let me say this another way. If it's not a violation of God's law, it's not a sin. You might not like it, but it's not a sin. Our Lord said in 1 John 3:4, "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." You cannot sin without transgressing God's law. Now you have to understand that sin is a common occurrence. No one is perfect. Everyone sins. David, a man after God's own heart, sinned and transgressed. There are numerous words in Scripture for sin. There's sin, there's iniquity, there's transgression, there's a falling short. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Everyone sins. Now listen carefully, sinning against God's law is bad. It's not good. It's bad. And it should grieve us and upset us and horrify us that we do sin and fall short there. But let me tell you something, sinning against God's law is not the same as forsaking God's law. Although when we do sin, we forsake it in some degree.

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• But David is not talking about just an occasional sin here. David is talking about a turning away from God's law. In fact, the word for "forsake" here in the Hebrew literally means this: it means to desert, to leave, to abandon, to apostatize, to depart from, and to leave behind. So when David said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me because the wicked that forsake thy law," in other words, they totally, absolutely left God's law behind. Yes, they're transgressing it. Yes, they're committing iniquity. Yes, they're sinning. Yes, they're falling short, but the law of God means nothing to them.

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• There's no restraint upon them. They have no fear of God's punishment, of God's judgment upon them. They've literally forsaken that law. They are lawless individuals. The New Testament term is anomos or anomia. That is someone without law or someone that is lawless. If you would hold Psalm 119, but look in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 1, 1 Timothy chapter 1, and let's read verses 9 and 10. First Timothy chapter 1. Notice if you would, beginning there in verse 9, look what the apostle says. And by the way, let's begin with verse 8. First Timothy 1:8. He said, "But we know that the law is good."

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• "If a man use it lawfully." Now the apostle Paul tells us there is a right use of God's law. There's a wrong use of God's law. God's law was never meant to justify us. It was never meant to save us. And when people try to be saved and go to heaven by their good deeds and by their good works, they're using the law of God wrongfully. They'll never go to heaven by their good deeds or their good works. So, he says, "We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." Now, notice what he says. "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers."

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• "For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." Now, if I had time, I could take you through verses 9 and 10 and show you where each one of these things that the apostle mentions is a violation of the Ten Commandments. But he says in verse 9, "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man." What? Is not the law a rule of life for the righteous man? Well, sure it is. Does not a righteous man obey the law? Well, sure, he does. But the law is not restraining someone who wants to obey. You understand that?

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• It's just like when I went to the university. They had a bunch of rules. I never bothered reading most of those rules because my attitude was this: I'm going to do what's right. And you know, I never got any problem. I never had any trouble. A righteous man's going to do that which is right. The law is made for the ungodly in the sense that God intends for it to restrain them. A righteous man is always going to obey the law.

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• But the wicked aren't, so therefore they have to be restrained. But however, when one casts off and throws off and abandons God's restraints, he has then committed himself not only to a horrific life, but also a way of death.

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• Now, I want to remind you what David said. Now I want you to listen carefully. "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." So are you horrified yet? We may be righteously horrified that our society and nation have cast off and thrown away and discarded the law of God. If you think that we have treacherous and traitorous civil rulers now that readily and willingly violate their oaths of office and sell their souls to the highest bidder, well, hold on to your hats, because things are going to get worse. If you think that we're on the verge of rioting, pillaging, plunder, arson, rape and murder, buckle up your seatbelts. It's going to get worse. If you think that tyranny and martial law and living in a police state is bad now, hold on tight. Because when a nation forsakes and abandons and leaves behind God's law, all hell's going to break loose. That's why David said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law."

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• Does not this make absolute common sense? If the wicked do not fear God and His punishments, do you think they're going to fear man and his punishments? If the wicked will not obey God and His law, what makes you think they're going to obey man's laws? If men are unafraid to openly confess that they're a law unto themselves, what effect would any legislation have upon their lives? What does it matter what laws are passed as long as people are going to ignore them and live the way they choose?

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• And there's no restraining influence. Now, if you're not horrified yet, get ready, because here is a report from the Examiner, and I'm just reading this report, just two paragraphs. The radical black racist and former national chairman of the New Black Panther Party and current co-founder of National President of Black Lawyers for Justice Organization, Malik Shabazz, has reached out to the racist New Black Panthers to begin building an army in 2015 and to start going to the gun ranges, Britt Burke reported on Wednesday. Pam Key found Shabazz's statements on the New Black Panthers Party Black Power Radio in which Shabazz is promoting a race war in 2015 and that it was time to build an army and told the Black Panthers to begin going to the gun range. In his radio broadcast, Shabazz said, "Mr. Malcolm X, he consistently teaches us self-defense. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad continually teaches us self-defense. The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey teaches us self-defense. And we know our leader and our teacher, the Honorable Khalid Abdul-Mohammed, teaches us self-defense."

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• What am I saying? "Right now, it's time to build up that army. Right now, it's time for us to build up those troops," says Shabazz. "It's time to get strong. It's time for lifting weights and working out and going to gun range and all of that." Wow. Let me ask you a question. What can man's law do to restrain such rhetoric and unbiblical actions? If these people have cast away the law of God, what makes you think they're going to listen to the law of man? The fact is there are already multitudes of laws on the books right now that are not only totally ignored by these same people, but by the legislators who passed them. I personally have been attacked by the Southern Poverty Law Center for teaching self-defense and teaching what the Bible says about self-defense. Where's the Southern Poverty Law Center now in attacking this group and expounding and explaining their racist and wicked agenda?

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• All I'm trying to say is this. David was absolutely horrified at what he saw when the wicked were forsaking God's law. He saw the end. He saw the consequences. He saw the result. David understood that when men as a society and as a nation forsake God's law, the only possible outcome can be anarchy, chaos and confusion and ultimately the only law that would reign would be the law of the jungle. Because that is going to be the only thing that would replace God's law. You just do what you have to do to survive—the law of the jungle. I hope you're beginning to get a little horrified.

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• Not at the symptoms, but at the problem. The problem is, we've forsaken God's law. And we should be horrified at what is happening in the lives of individuals, in our churches, in our state, and in our nation, in our society. David said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." So David was horrified at the wickedness of the sinner. Here's the second thing. David was horrified at the wrath of the sovereign. He said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law." Now, David knew the wicked and David also knew the Lord. He knew the results and the consequences of forsaking God and His law. He understood the righteous anger and wrath of God. He understood that God will not allow His honor and His word and His law to be despised without showing forth a righteous vengeance.

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• I want you to look in Psalm 119 and let's begin reading there with verse 118. Psalm 119, verse 118. Look what David says about those who forsake God's law. Psalm 119:118. "Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood. Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies. My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments." Now a righteous man is going to be afraid of the judgments of God. But notice what he said concerning the wicked in verse 118. "Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: for their deceit is falsehood." And then he says in verse 119, "Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross." So God then treads down the wicked and He puts away the wicked like garbage or like dross. Dross is that which is useless and worthless. So he's saying that God treads them down. God puts them away. I want to read you just two statements.

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• on this passage. The first one is by John Calvin. He says this, "God overthrows all the despisers of his law and casts them down from that loftiness which they assume to themselves. The phrase is directed against the foolish or rather frantic confidence with which the wicked are inflated when they recklessly deride the judgments of God and, what is more, scruple not to magnify themselves against him as if they were not subject to his power." So Calvin is saying those individuals who magnify themselves against God, who do not think that they're subject to the power and justice of God, will understand when God tramples them down and casts them out. John Gill said it like this.

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• "That wander away from the Lord's commandments, that deviate from his precepts, go astray constantly and willfully, of people that err in their hearts and with all their hearts. These the Lord treads down as mire in the streets, as grapes in a winepress, which shows the abhorrence of them, his indignation at them, and how easily they are subdued under him." Wow.

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• Now I want you to look in Psalm 119 and verse 126, and then I want you to turn to several passages with me. I want you to look what David said. I love this verse. David said in Psalm 119:126, "It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law." They've done their thing. And now Lord, You do Your thing. It's time for You to work. Do you realize God's work is going to be

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• treading down and casting out the wicked. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm—not to Psalm, but Isaiah 63, Isaiah 63. And let's begin reading there with verse 1, Isaiah 63:1. I want you to watch. We're talking about treading down. Isaiah 63:1. "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." So we're talking about our Lord. "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?"

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• "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart."

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• "And the year of my redeemed is come." If you'll skip down to verse 6, he says, "And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth." What's God going to do to those that forsake His law? He's going to tread them down. He's going to cast them out. You have to remember that God is immutable. He does not change. Has God punished such wickedness in times past?

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• And the answer is yes. Well, He's going to punish such wickedness in the present and in the future. If you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Amos—hold Isaiah, we're going to come back to Isaiah—but turn to Amos, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Notice if you would, to Amos chapter 2 in verse 9, if you want a little example, if you want a testimony. In Amos 2:9, God said this concerning the Amorite: "Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars."

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• "And he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath." God says, "You want to know what I can do? Look at the Amorites. I took care of them." If you'll turn back in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 10, I want you to note when God sent the Assyrians against Israel, because Israel forsook the law of God. I want you to notice what He said in Isaiah chapter 10. Isaiah chapter 10. Notice, if you would please, verse 5. God says, "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation." God said, "It's My anger, it's My staff." Verse 6: "I will send him against an hypocritical nation," that was Israel, "and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets."

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• Yes, God's given us examples and that's exactly what has happened. Do you understand now why David was horrified—not only the wickedness of the sinner, but the wrath of the sovereign? He knew what was coming. Do you understand that practically all of the prophets foresaw and foretold the same thing? For instance, if you'll go in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah chapter 2, Jeremiah chapter 2. And I want you to note, actually, here are these two truths tied together. Jeremiah 2 at verses 12 and 13. Jeremiah 2 beginning at verse 12. Look what he said. Jeremiah 2:12. "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid."

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• "Be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." So he said, "You better be horribly afraid." Why? "You've forsaken My law. You've forsaken the living water and you've hewn you out a cistern, a broken cistern that can hold no water. You're in for trouble because you're going to perish."

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• Look in Jeremiah chapter 5, verses 30 and 31. Jeremiah 5:30-31. Notice, if you would. "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Well, I've got news for you folks. The charade that has been going on will come to an end.

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• And the hypocrites will perish. And as the Scripture says, "The nations that forget God shall be turned into hell." Yeah. Because David was horrified at the wrath of the sovereign. He knew that God would not long endure an insolent, wicked, God-hating, Christ-denying people. I want you to turn to the book of Hosea, right after the book of Daniel. Daniel, Hosea. Look in Hosea chapter 6. Hosea chapter 6. Look at verses 10 and 11.

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• Now you remember God had sent Israel into captivity into Assyria. Judah was going to go into captivity into Babylon. Look what he says. Verse 10. Hosea 6:10. "I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled." Yeah. God will take care of that. Assyria. "Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people." Judah, you think you're getting away? 722 BC, Israel went into captivity. 586 BC, God destroyed Judah, sent them into captivity. "I have set a harvest for thee." God sets a harvest for all those who forsake His law.

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• David said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me." Why? Because of the wickedness of the sinner and the wrath of the sovereign. He said, "I know how this is going to turn out."

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• Now let me make some applications. The first one is this. Notice that David did not say, "Horror has taken hold upon me because of the cruel designs of the wicked against me." It is true that no one is safe when the wicked forsake God's law. But David was not concerned with his safety. What David was concerned about was the contempt and the insolence that the people harbored toward the one true and the living God. So David then was more concerned for God's honor and glory than for his own safety. I'm sure that each one of us wants to be safe. I do. But the question is, are we more concerned for our safety than we are for the honor and glory of God? Here's the second application.

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• A Christian does not need to watch TV and horror movies to be horrified. He simply needs to observe our society and our nation as it destroys itself and sinks into oblivion because we have forsaken the law of God. If you want to be horrified, look at our economy. If you want to be horrified, look at our Congress. Look at our government. If you want to be horrified, look at our judicial system. If you want to be horrified, look at the people in this land who have no idea who God is or what God demands of them or what God's law demands. You know what God said to Israel in Hosea 13:9? Listen, here's what He said: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help."

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• Do you realize we're destroying ourselves and we're turning away from the only One who is able to help us? If you're not horrified yet, get ready, because you soon will be as you see more and more of the wickedness of the sinner and the wrath of the sovereign. The third application is this. We must learn to side with David and with the Lord. If you'll read Psalm 119, and I encourage you to do it, because that's a psalm of the Word. And all through that psalm, David says, "I will obey Thee."

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• "I'll walk in Thy statutes. I'll walk in Your judgments. Teach me, lead me, guide me, incline me, establish me in Thy Word." If you genuinely side with David, and if you genuinely side with the Lord, then you're not only going to obey, you're going to be continually and constantly bringing your life into conformity to the Word of God. And I want to remind you of something. Our Lord said through Peter in 1 Peter 4:18, "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" As Job said, if he made it by the skin of his teeth, if God brings us through the mess that we're in by the skin of our teeth, where do you think the sinner and the ungodly are going to appear? What's going to happen to them?

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• It's time we say with Joshua, "Choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." It's time to be horrified at the problem and not at the symptoms. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow before Thee. We ask You to help us, to build us up in the most holy faith, and to give us a genuine horror

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• for those that forsake Thy law and for the wrath that we know will inevitably fall. As David said, "Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man." We trust Thee. We love Thee. We lean upon Thee. Give us Thy grace and Thy mercy, in Thy name we pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T15:15:17Z