The book of Romans, Romans chapter 4, and we want to begin our reading with verse 1, and we'll read through verse 17. And then following the reading in the Romans, the fourth chapter we will turn back in the Old Testament, the hundred and ninth song. The first, Romans chapter 4. Shall we stand together? Shall we show our reverence to God at the reading of His Holy Word? Romans 4 and verse 1. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh is found? For Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to Him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what he's due. But for one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Is this blessing upon the circumcised or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say, faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised, not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believed, without being circumcised, that righteousness might be reckoned to them. And the father of circumcised, those who not only are of a circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised. The promise to Abraham, or to his descendants, that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is nullified. The law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there violation. This reason it is by faith, that it might be in accordance with grace in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants of all the descendants. Not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, the father of many nations have I made you. In the sight of him, whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls into being, that which does not exist. Now, Psalm 109, please, begin reading with verse 6 and read through verse 13. One of the imprecatory Psalms, which we've been looking at for several weeks, Psalm 109 and verse 6. A point of wicked man over him, and let him accuse her, stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty, and let his prayer become sinned. Let his days be hue, let another take his office. Let his children be favelous, and his wife, a widow. Let his children wander about and beg, and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has, and let the strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him, nor any to be gracious to his favelous children. Let his posterity be cut off in a following generation. Let their name be blotted out. And a God blessed to our understanding and to our lives, the reading and the hearing of this solemn portion of God's Word. Please be seated. To point it out that the imprecatory Psalms are indeed Psalms that ought to be used in the prayers of God's people, because they are used by saints of every age, they are used by Christ and His apostles. And indeed we see the imprecatory prayers being used even among those who have been perfected, those souls under the altar, that have been killed the sake of the gospel cry out for God's justice to be done. We pointed out that that is essentially what we do when we pray the imprecatory Psalms. We pray that God's justice might be done. And last week or not last week, the two weeks ago, the last time I was preaching, we pointed out that these imprecatory Psalms have to do with petitions for those who are notoriously and incorrigibly, that is unchangeably wicked, isn't the average person on the street, the average unbeliever, but rather those who are in places of authority, and those who know the truth and yet reject the truth and self-consciously deny the Lord and His sovereign rule. I believe that you understand that there's a great deal of frustration that is building in our own nation. There's a tremendous amount of frustration in the general population. What we have found is the false promises of a messianic state, and what I mean by that is a state that has assumed the place of God in the lives of its citizens. By the way, just ask yourself the question, a totalitarian state you must understand must not be thought of or defined in terms of the amount of barbed wire and machine guns and military personnel, but a totalitarian state must be defined in terms of how much civil government controls the lives of its population. Ask yourself the question, how much is your life controlled and governed by civil government, by law? Brothers and sisters, we live in a totalitarian government. Don't be mistaken about it, and with that, and I'm not saying, and by the way, the reason for that is because if men will not be governed by God and by His word, they will be governed by tyrants. That's why it's come about. But with it, there's a great deal of frustration, and when the false promises of a state that declares itself to be God by governing you and saying, if you will serve me, the state, unquestionably, and totally, then we'll give you all of these things, and they don't deliver. There's no salvation in princes. There's no salvation in horses and chariots. There's no salvation in those kinds of works in what has happened. We've seen promise after promise, after promise being made of well prosperity, freedom from crime, and what is happening. These are those promises are not being delivered upon, and the false promises of a messianic state are being exposed, and the practitioners of that religion of the messianic state are getting restless, and the frustration is building. Do you want to know something? Not only is the general population frustrated, but the Christian population is also unsettled. You know why? Because false doctrine has permeated the Church as well, and with that false doctrine has come the oppression and the loss of freedom and the loss of joy in the Lord, and there is a growing unsettleness in the Christian population, and what I fear, and I do not certainly do not advocate what I fear, but what is going to happen, unless there are some dramatic changes, is that there is going to be anarchy, as civil government breaks down, and as people take into their own hands what ought not to be in their own hands, and what we will have is a terrible situation, but that's because of the pressure of the frustration. And the tendency therefore, in desperate times, to resort to anything that holds the promise of something better, so we have the move for constitutional amendments. We have the hope of presidential and congressional elections. We have the notion of armed resistance, such as outgoing out in Montana at this point in time, and it seems to hold out some promise. And let us remember that God's remedy for people who are under His hand of judgment does not lie in any of those things, and I'm not saying that you ought not to be involved in the political process, I'm not saying that there aren't things that can and should be done, but those are not the first line of defense. Second Chronicles chapter 7 and verse 14 says, that if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will heal their land. You see the first line of resistance is for us to examine ourselves, to humble ourselves and pray. Now let me ask you, do you pray for these situations? And do you particularly pray these imprecatory prayers which God hears and deals with the wicked who take us in the way that we should not go? If you don't, then don't look to any of the other things. We ought to pray that God will remove wickedness from our land. Now let's look at this. I spent some time setting it up. You look last time at the implications for the individual himself. Today I want to look at verses 9 through 13 because we not only pray for God's judgment upon the incorrigibly wicked, but we also pray for God's judgment upon the descendants of the incorrigibly wicked. And some people get very squeamish about this. But I want you to see what the word of God has to say. Not only do we pray for God's judgment to be visited upon those who are notoriously and unchangeably wicked, notice in verse 9, and let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about in big and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him, nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off and following generation let their name be blotted out. Now that's strong language. That's frightening. But it is the word of God that this indeed is what will happen to the incorrigibly wicked. Now as we look at it, I want to put it in its context. And so therefore we want to say first of all remember the covenant relationship between parents and their children. You must always understand that no individual acts in an isolated fashion. That God deals with us as individuals, but he also deals with us as families, as churches, as communities, and as nations. It is always the case. God deals with people as groups, as well as with individuals. Certainly God does deal with us as individuals, but he also deals with people as groups. God deals with families, business associations. Let me tell you something for those of you who are employees. If your employers are foolish and make stupid decisions, guess who's going to be affected by it? You are. We understand that. And the same thing occurs in other things. God also deals with communities and nations, as a matter of fact, in a few weeks. When you pay your taxes if you haven't already, what you are going to be paying for is the foolishness of representatives in a distant place. And you are also going to be paying for the theft of your friends and neighbors throughout the United States. Because God deals with us as communities and nations, as well. So he deals with people as groups, as well as with individuals. And with that in mind, then we can, again, see, and I know that I say this again and again, but it's so important for understanding what happens and how things work in God's created order. That in that covenant relationship, God's covenant mercy extends to believers and their children. To those who are obedient, we can see it in so many different places. That God's covenant mercies come to believers and their children. God says, I will be a God to you and to your children after you. In Exodus, chapter 26, dealing with the matter of idolatry and the way that we worship. God says, for I, the Lord thy God, I'm a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy into thousands of them that love me and keep my commandment. Now you see the covenant? So God's covenant mercy extends to believers and their children, but God's covenant just as extends to rebellious and their children. But if you're a believer and you're faithful to the covenant, you have the hope of God's blessings coming to you and to your family. But if you're an unbeliever and you're a rebel to God, you must understand that God's justice and his curse comes upon your children because you don't stand as an island. We have this relationship between parents and their children, between those in authority and those who are under authority. You must always understand that. Secondly, understand the biblical principles which govern God's dealings with families. Someone will come along and say, well, that's just not fair. That's not right. But you must understand that what we see in the Scripture is that while God judges our God deals with families in their covenant relationship, there are also other principles which are assumed in that covenant. First of all, is that God's judgment is just. And what we mean by that is when the solmest writes these things about the children and the incorrigibly wicked, he is not doing so solely because of the sins of the Father, but rather he is doing so and pointing out to us that in all likelihood, the children are going to be exactly like the Father. Now, let me show you these things. God's judgment is just. First of all, we know it's just because God does not punish children for the parents sin. Now that we point out, that is not to say that others are not affected by a parent sin, but God's judgment does not ultimately rest upon an individual because of another sin. There may be consequence. Jeremiah chapter 31 is what I want to point out. This is a principle that you must understand in reading this 109th song. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 29. That's really going to be interesting. Just see, isn't it? Where is it? Oh, why did I do that again? I've done this several times. The passage of which I am thinking here, oh well, that would be helpful. If I got out of Ezekiel and went to Jeremiah, maybe it will be Jeremiah 31. Is that having to do with, yes, what do you know? With regard to the new covenant, it says, in those days, they will not say again that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. Now you see what was happening here was the folks in Jeremiah's day were being judged. God's judgment was coming upon them because there are apostasy from the truth. Babylon was coming up against them. They were going into captivity and the people were sitting around rumbling and say, look at this. Our fathers sinned and were the ones who bear the punishment. And Jeremiah is saying, no, you've got it all wrong. It is true that with menaces sin and his wickedness that God purposed to send the people into captivity. But it was not just menaces sin that those succeeding generations have also violated the covenant to God sent them into captivity because of their wickedness. The recall that was after menace that Josiah came along and there was that great reform, that great reformation that took place. And God said because of Josiah's reform and the people that took them, he says, okay, I'm going to put off my judgment upon you because of your faithfulness. So God brings his judgment not simply because of the fathers, but also because of our own sin. And in Ezekiel 18, we won't turn there because we don't have the time this morning. In Ezekiel 18, well, we will look just a little bit at it because I think I want to give you this. I don't trust myself to give you the entire context because we see the same thing cropping up again in chapter 18 of Ezekiel. And the word of the Lord, verse 1, came to me saying, what do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel? The fathers eat the sour, great, the children's teeth are set on edge. As I live, declares the Lord, God, you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the fathers, as well as the soul of the son is mine, the soul whose sins will die. And then it goes on and says, the person's sinning and repents, God's judgment will be turned away, but if a person who's living in some measure of obedience turns away and begins to sin, God's judgment will be upon him. And the point is that God judges people for their individual sins. He renders justice to each one according to his deeds, for we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of that which we have done in the body. That's the principle. God's judgment is just. So when you read these passages here in Psalm 109, don't be saying, oh, those little kids that are just so innocent, they're getting zapped. No, that's not what's taking place here because children ordinarily imitate their parents. What you are in all likelihood, your children will become. Now it is not absolute. We know that. Manasseh had a son, not Manasseh. Ahaz had a son named Hezekiah. Ahaz was a wicked king. Hezekiah was a righteous king. But then we also had righteous kings who had wicked sons. So we do see that God's grace does intervene. But children ordinarily imitate their parents. And so what happens, we pray this prayer, and I know that we are getting for a field, but not really. I want you to understand the context in which we see it. If you live for God's glory, your children will likely live for God's glory. But if you live for yourself, your children will likely live for themselves. That's the point. And so when we come down to understand this, you must understand that covenantal ancestry is more important than your genealogical ancestry. And that is the focus I believe of the 109th Psalm versus 9 and following. That's why we read from Romans chapter 4 this morning. And we could have read from Romans chapter 2 and could have read from any number of places where the apostles, and you could go to the prophets as well, who insist that it is not your genealogy, it is not your physical ancestors that are important, but rather your relationship to God by faith. And that's why the apostle Paul writes and says, listen, it is not just the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who are blessed, but it is the ones who have the faith of Abraham who are blessed. And you can be physical descendants, and you can be in the visible church, and you can have all of the trappings and the ceremonies and everything else, and yet not be in the faith and your cursed. That's the point. I could ask you the question, I've said this before, but it's always been a fascinating and blessed thing for me. I could ask you here who are professing Christians, how many of you have believing grandparents, grandparents are great grandparents. Every place that I had asked that and have gotten a response, usually better than 80% of the people raised their hands. You want to know why that is? Because of God's covenant. Because God is faithful to His covenant. I'll be a God to you and to your children after you. That's why we see that. Likewise, you could probably go to places notorious wickedness and ask that question, how many of you have believing parents, grandparents are great grandparents, and you would find a much smaller percentage. Why is that? Because of God's covenant. You see, physical parentage is not definitive in the Christian faith. One may have unbelieving parents and yet be a believer. One may have believing parents and still be an unbeliever, but rather what is definitive is spiritual parentage. Those who have the faith of Abraham are the children of Abraham. All of this to say that these petitions against the families of the wicked must be interpreted covenantally as well as literally. It is not just the physical descendants of these wicked notoriously and unchangeably wicked people that we pray this prayer, but is their spiritual descendants for whom we pray this prayer. Those who imitate those notoriously and incorrigibly wicked for whom we pray this prayer. All right? Are you with me here on this? By the way, I want to point something out to you here and you need to be aware of it because what is happening is we are hearing on every hand. And I know it is a very difficult thing to comprehend. We are hearing on every hand that we should not make necessary changes in the way that we deal with people because children will suffer. Let me tell you something. If I decide that I no longer want to work, if I decide that I want to live a profligate lifestyle and leave my family, guess what? My children are going to suffer. And if you do the same thing, your children are going to suffer. And the way to resolve the conflict is not to assume the place of a father, of a mother, or something else, but the thing to do is make certain the bad pressure that comes from responsibility remains intact because that is exactly what God does in this soul. He says not only is the individual who is incorrigibly and notoriously wicked going to suffer, but his family is going to suffer as well. Now let's look at these conditions. Pray that God will remove from the earth every spiritual descendant of the wicked. That is what we ought to be praying. I want to tell you something. If you pray this, you are going to be praying two things. One of two things. God will remove the spiritual descendants of the wicked in two ways. He will either convert them or he will destroy them. Those whom he converts no longer are like their father the devil. Those children of the wicked who come to faith in Christ and repent of their sins and the sins of their ancestors and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ and turn from their wicked ways will no longer be under the curse of the covenant. And I say that to you. Do you come from an unbelieving home and yet have put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? You are not under the curse of God. You are under His blessing. Your parents have no spiritual descendants because you have been removed from the family of your father the devil and have been brought into the family of God. So your unbelieving parents no longer have any spiritual descendants. So what do we do when we pray for the spiritual descendants of the incredibly wicked? You do several things. Several petitions that are here. First of all, pray for the confusion of wicked families. Notice verse 9, let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. These things you see in other places, for instance in Exodus chapter 22, verses 20 through 24, Jeremiah 18 and verse 21, where those who self-consciously rebel against the law of God and the Lord himself, indeed they are going to have these things come upon them. It is not anything. I want to bring it back and put it in its context of your frustrate about what is happening in the land because of wickedness in high places. Then you pray that God removes wickedness in high places. And you pray that their successors will be removed. That's what you do. But I want to point out to you that this is already taking place in many lives. There is confusion. Because among the lives of rebellious and some of us, once we were in rebellion, have even experienced some of these things. But look about you and you see the effects of divorce, immorality, and abortion. And you want to know what's happening among the notoriously wicked? They're losing their descendants. It is not the children of the righteous that are being slaughtered upon the altar of convenience in our land. It is the children of those who refuse to acknowledge God and is just hell upon them. They're killing their future and there's confusion in the land. So we ought to pray for the confusion of the wicked, let his children be fatherless and his wife would have. We are being told by many that, hey, families don't need fathers anymore. Yeah, we'll go and talk to a struggling Christian wife who's lost her husband. Talk to them and see if there's not confusion in that family. Go down to the projects back here and over here. And talk to the folks who live in the projects and ask yourself a question if there's not confusion because of the loss of father and a covenant here. And so with those who are unfortunately, that's in the people that have fallen but we need to pray for that kind of confusion for those who lead people in that kind of way. We need to pray for this integration of substitute wicked families and I'm going to be very blunt in saying this but I believe that we need to pray that God would indeed destroy government schools and government welfare, the substitute families of our land. You don't believe me? Go and see the government schools of our land, their fed breakfast and lunch they provide counseling, they take your children, the abortion clinic or make appointments for them, they make every decision that you ought to be making. They are substitute families and they are wicked substitute families because there's no fear of God before their eyes. Now I'm not talking about individuals, I'm talking about teachers, I'm talking about government schools as a system. They want to train your children in wickedness and will stop that nothing to do so and you ought to pray for this integration. If you love God and if you love this nation and if you want to see wickedness removed from the land then you pray for the disintegration of government schools. That's different than public schools, you pray that it's integration of government schools and the confounding of the way it's happening and you pray for the confounding of all of those multiplicity of government programs that assume the role of thoughtings for providing for children, you pray for disintegration will be the best thing that will ever happen to the children of our nation. Because then where will those well will get there, where will those who are substitute turn when there's no longer taxpayer funding? I'll turn to those who are willing to be charitable, who will give them not only for their physical needs but will provide for their spiritual well being as well. Pray for the confusion of wicked families by the removing of wicked heads of family. Pray for the de-capitalization of wicked families. Notice, verse 10, let his children wander about and beg and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes, let the creditor seize all that he has and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. But there be none to extend loving kindness to him nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. Pray for their de-capitalization, the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous so the proverbs teaches us. And we ought to pray that those who are oppressors will be de-capitalized. They will no longer have the resource to oppress God's people. They will no longer have the resources to attract people to their particular belief system, their party. Satan always lies about what his world is like. So we need to pray that men might see what it is really like. The Soviet Union was a great testimony to the type of system that Satan would love to impose. Lots of promises, long on promises but short on performance. If you want to see the humanistic paradise, then you go to the Soviet Union and it satellites. And there you will see the promise of a utopian paradise. And you see that was a great failure and we need to pray that that would be the case in every place. And you pray that they will not have the resources even to care for themselves in order to they may cast themselves upon the mercy of God. I was talking with the pastor Cassage in Uganda and we talked about this with the Anderson's. When the Anderson's were in Nigeria was a wonderful thing. The reason was because in Nigeria you had a system of government health care and you also had Christian hospitals and physicians. The choice was very clear. If you wanted to live, you would go to the Christian hospitals, receive the best of medical care and have the gospel preach to you. Or you could go to the government hospitals and not get very good care and all likelihood die of infection and have socialism preach to you. Now where do you want to go? You have the option in Nigeria of going to the government schools which were miserable in regard to their discipline and what was learned and that nobody was really equipped for anything. Or you could go to the Christian schools that actually equipped you to do something in life and gave you some understanding of things and preached the gospel to you. Now where do you want to go? And I was talking with Pastor Cassage and he was talking about all the things they're doing in Uganda. I said, man, that's great. Because we can't do that. This is why not. He says because we have a system where we are certainly inclined to be charitable to folks who are in need. But you see, when we minister to people in need, we expect them to be under the preaching of the gospel. We expect to not only give them what they need for today but to equip them for tomorrow. So we don't have to continue golding it out. We want to change their lives. We want to have an influence on them to provide some self-discipline and given that choice of coming to us and being responsible or going down to the local agency and just getting a free check with no strings attached. We can't compete. Pastor Cassage, you couldn't believe it. You know that there are efforts right now to cut back on every effort to provide legitimate charity. Well, you see, that's why we need to pray. The those who are in places of authority will be decapitalized. The those who are dependent upon that will not depend upon the wicked and all their lives and all their false promises. So it will come to understand that hope is not in man but in the Lord and will seek from his face rather than from the kingdom of this world. And the children of unbelievers are converted. They bring their wealth into the courts of King Jesus to be used for his glory and his righteousness and that's what he and I have done. So for the subjugation of wicked families, let there be none to extend loving kindness to him nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. We pray the families of the wicked would find none to subsidize them in their wickedness. Don't you long for the time that men would learn to fear the Lord? Well, there's no salvation apart from him. All that men would find the all offers of help from this world are only offers to make them comfortable in their damn nation. Don't you long for that to be exposed when people begin to call upon the name of the Lord? Don't you long for that? I read a quote from CS Lewis long time ago and was able to find it. But I think this fits of all the tyrannies, CS Lewis said, of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely expressed for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent ideological busy bodies. Amen. Those who are obviously and self consciously wicked are better than those who do wickedness in the name of your good. Pray for the subjugation of wicked families and pray for the time when there will be no memory of wicked families. I know that seems distant. I know that it seems an impossibility, but Jeremiah writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit talking about the growth and the culmination of the new covenant says, and in that day no man will say to another, let us go to the house of the Lord, but they will already be going. You want to know what will happen in that day at the culmination of that great day when the gospel is so pervasive and all of the earth evangelism is going to be hard to do because you aren't going to find many people who don't confess Jesus Christ as Lord and living for His Lord. Don't you long for that day? Then you pray the families of the wicked will either be converted or removed from places of influence and removed from the face of the earth. God's rampant, it might be the first. They be converted. That the wicked no longer have any spiritual progeny to follow them in their wickedness and unbelief. And brothers and sisters, that is something that you can pray for with fervency and with a full heart. The question is, are you just going to continue being frustrated? Are you going to apply yourself to the remedy which God has given to you? To seek the face of an Almighty God who hears and answers prayer. That's great. Almighty God, we have spoken strong words this morning, but we believe that we have spoken the word of truth. But I ask, Lord, that you would work in the hearts of this congregation, all those who are here in this hearing or who listen to this tape. If they may search the scriptures to see whether these things be so. And in anything in which we have spoken amiss, O Lord, we beg you to correct. But if we have spoken truly, may we humble ourselves before you. Seek your face, turn from our wicked ways, and grant that you would heal us as individuals, our families, our congregations, and our land. For we ask it in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Let's conclude our worship this morning by turning in our soldiers once again to Psalm 35A, Psalm 35A, plead Lord against contending foes and fight with them who fight with me, take hold of buckler and of shield rise up and my defender be. Let us seek God's face this morning and sing from our hearts Psalm 35A. Let's stand together. Now unto Him was able to keep you from falling into consensual faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forevermore. Amen.