Revilers and Repenters

Well, let's go to Psalm 53. Psalm fifty-three. Verse 1, then we'll go to Proverbs 18:1 and 2. Psalm 53, verse 1. Psalm fifty-three.

Verse 1. The fool has said in his heart There is no God. They are corrupt and have committed Abominable injustice. There is no one who does good.

Now go to Proverbs chapter 18. The next book over to your right. Proverbs eighteen, verses one and two. He who separates himself seeks his own desire. He quarrels Against all sound Wisdom.

A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own. Manned. Psalm 53, verse 1 has that piercing statement: the fool has said in his heart. There is no God. Actually, that includes, if not Better translation is The fool says from his heart, no God for me.

No God for me. It's a spirit of reviling. And I'll use that a lot in my sermon. A reviler stands against. He erupts against that which contradicts him.

You have no part of it. The fool says, No part of God in me. I'll not deal with him, I'll not deal with his truth. Keep it away from me. Reviler And then we come to Proverbs chapter 1, verse 18, and we continue to have aspects of the reviler pointed out.

Now you could use the word fool, that's the Bible term often, but the really there are two sides to one coin. The word reviler, while it may properly be interpreted as How a fool sometimes reacts or acts. In certain situations. Nevertheless, he's first a reviler in his heart. before he acts out in a reviling fashion.

So I want to talk to you about Revilers and repenters. The only two types of people there are. From the heart. There are only two types of people. Revilers and repenters.

Now, again, amplifying on the reviler here. Proverbs 18, verse 1: He who separates himself seeks his own desire.

Now the idea of separating himself. The point there is that he avoids at all costs The fellowship or the companionship of any who may disagree with him. I've got a way. I'm looking at things. I've got my own plan in place.

I've got my own morality, if you will, and I'm not going to tolerate anybody that's not going to help me continue on with my desires. He separates himself off. He Tolerates no opinion. Or counsel or teaching that contradicts his own thinking.

Now Proverbs 18:1 continues, not only does he separate himself, He seeks his own desire. That's the other side of the same coin again. Seeks his own desire. He's pursuing the fulfillment of his own selfish interest. and selfish lust.

He's busy with that. He wants to hear nothing about any word from anyone that might contradict that path. He has chosen. Then it says in the next section there of chapter 18, verse 1: he quarrels against all.

Sound wisdom. The idea of quarreling there, there's really a lot more to it in the original. He breaks out against, or he rushes against.

Sound wisdom. That's Bible truth. Any true wisdom from God that contradicts him, he doesn't just. Stand against it. It's more, the words are more graphic.

He rushes out against it.

Now, he may not act all that out, but in his heart he's doing that. You heard of the little boy that was sitting in the corner and he didn't want to sit down, he didn't want to obey and And somebody asked him about it. He said, Well, I'm sitting on the outside, but I'm standing on the inside.

Well, that's what this is. A person may not be acting reviling out all the time. He might not be acting out against God's sound doctrine and truth all the time, but in his heart he's resisting it. He's lashing out, if you will. He's rising up against it.

That which is good, that which is righteous. That which is from God and is best for human flourishing for all of us, he stands against it because he stands against sound wisdom, i.e., the word of God.

Now, when you talk about a reviler, in the most technical sense, the word means. abusively and falsely condemning others. Rising up against Rushing against, as the word means, the word quarrels here means, rushing against it with an abusive, spiteful spirit. A condemning spirit. And as we see all the time on the news or on social media, wherever it is, they're often reviling with loud rantings.

It's as if they cannot win the argument intellectually, rationally.

So they'll just be loud and just make noise. Make it so uncomfortable, you'll finally give in to them. Just like a four-year-old child does if he's never been disciplined. No real difference. And so when we think about the atrocity we witnessed this week.

We remind ourselves this is not new. This is not unusual. These revilers have already been there. 1 Corinthians 6, 10. Paul lists some wickednesses.

Some kind of wicked people who will not inherit the kingdom of God. And he puts revilers right in the middle of that. Romans 8:36 reminds us, just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all the day long. We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Sometimes they're revilers who rise up against us with personal violence. Violets. Thank God that's not often. but it does happen to the Christian. Then we go down to Verse 2 of chapter 18, and he says, And a fool does not delight in understanding.

Now, this you see is the reviler, and it's the radical opposite of the repenter. The repenter wants to be shown. He wants understanding of where his thinking might be wrong, his heart motive might be unrighteous, and his behavior might be dishonoring God. He wants to know so he can strive to repent. Turn around and be more pleasing to God.

The reviler says, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to be around it. He does not want to hear it. He does not delight in understanding. Wait.

He's enslaved to his own lust and his own sin, and he has no desire to hear and understand the wisdom of God.

Someone said he's a reviler, is that man who has a closed mind and an open mouth? Again, when we use the word reviler, you use the word fool. A closed mind and an open mouth. He never really desires to gain knowledge.

Now, here's the key. The reason is the fool, the reviler, His conscience convicts him already that he's wrong. And he will tolerate no teaching and no fellowship with anyone. Who will not help him silence his conscience? The fool?

Searches out companionship. With those who will help him overcome the warnings of his own conscience. Did you hear that? The Bible speaks of it as hardening your heart. A brazen callousness.

And a fool, the reviler, wants companionship and fellowship with only those. It will help him continue to indulge in his wicked Sinful behaviors. and attitudes. Verse two. Chapter 18.

The writer continues. Not only is he not interested in Not delighting in any kind of understanding, but he only wants to reveal his own mind. As they set up in verse One, he gushes forth against anyone who would bring sound teaching to him. And so he's prone to gush forth. with many words gushing forth and spouting off on a matter.

Because he's only interested in saying what he believes is right. That's right, the opposite of a repenter. The repenter opens his Bible in his morning devotion time. The repenter opens the Word of God in a small group Bible study session. The repenter opens his Bible before the pastor begins to preach it.

Oh, God, help me find the truth and walk in it better. That's what repentance means. It just means turning around. Changing your mind, I was going this way, and all of a sudden the Word of God convinced me I need to turn around and go a different way on that. And we all must do that the rest of our lives if we're truly converted.

So there's a real difference between the reviler who says, don't even tell me about it. And the repenter. He quarrels, he rushes against. All sound wisdom and then sadly Some rush against those who give sal wisdom. with violence.

and hatred. Their point is, I will have to silence you. I can't stand what you're teaching. It doesn't. line up with my lust and my desires, you must be eliminated.

And I'm telling you something, brothers and sisters, there's hope for about everybody, but when you get to the point, Well you want to silence the opposing argument. You're getting close to that line of hardening. Where there's no return. Where there's no Allowance for repentance.

Sometimes, though, they do rush against us. Again, that's the good translation of the word quarrels against us, rush against us with a violent hatred. Charlie Kirk, again, the founder and president of Turning Point USA. thirty one years old. But a brilliant guy.

You've listened to Charlie very much. He's brilliant. And I was always pleased. I would disagree with some things, but not the major things. And so thankful that He had what up to 2,000 people at this last event on a college campus and had great attendance in most of them.

And it was growing and growing and growing. And all the surveys and research showed that young college-age men were turning to Christ and were turning to biblical values for their lives. I'm not saying they were all converted. But he was a real key in what's become something of a spiritual awakening among young people back to traditional Christian values.

Sound wisdom was what Charlie strove to give to those young people. And in that context, He was assassinated. One who hated Again, the proverb stakes. Hates sound. Wisdom This one brazenly, wickedly rushed against Charlie And he was killed as he was challenging students to hear and consider.

the teachings of Scripture, i.e.

sound wisdom. And again, I believe he's a genuine Christian martyr. I believe if he was just espousing capitalism, he wouldn't have been killed. But when he brought God in the center of it, and the word of God in the center of it, and faith in Christ as the center of his life, that offended them beyond compare.

Well, Pastor, you might say, what are we to think of this? Two quick thoughts. Number one. We are experiencing something of a spiritual awakening among young people in our country, and I applaud that. And you might say, Pastor, it's not sound here and it's not sound there.

It's never that way. Every awakening that's ever occurred is messy. It's messy. False professors, charlatans, manipulators get involved and try to ride the current of it and promote themselves or make a lot of money or whatever it is. But I believe in the midst of it all, many are being generally converted.

And we ought to be thankful for that. And Satan hates it.

So we're in the midst, I think, of what is a genuine spiritual awakening.

Now, I use the word awakening because awakening has a lot of connotations.

Some of them aren't as good as the others, but. Awakening. An interest. A revival of interest. in the Scriptures and the things of the Lord in traditional morality.

Secondly, not only are we in the midst of that, we need to remind ourselves that cycles of violent hatred are to be expected. We had two baptisms this morning. And brothers and sisters, in a very real way, in a wicked world. By the way, we live in a wicked world. When you get in those baptismal waters, You put a bullseye on your chest.

You're one of those that The Fools. and the revilers.

Well hate.

Now, we don't have to be hateful, we don't have to be antagonistic. But we need to be true and real about who we love and what we stand for and what we believe. But these cycles are to be expected. Again, Romans 8:36, for your sake, we are being put to death all the day long. We're considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

In the first through third centuries, you have Nero, Domitian, Diocletian, other Caesars of Rome who viciously, violently persecuted professing Christians. In the seventh through fifteenth centuries, you had wave after wave of Islamic conquest. It slaughtered Christians. In the 16th and 17th centuries, you had the Catholic system rise up against the Protestant Reformation and viciously persecuted them. And then grossly, unfortunately, early Baptists in that time began to be persecuted by Catholics and the Protestants.

So we'll reason why, though I revere and appreciate the great reformers who are mostly Presbyterian and most of them were state church guys, I have my greatest veneration for the early Baptists. He said we're not connecting with any of that. More recently, up to today, you have China and Japan. Have records of viciously persecuting Christians, the communist regimes, North Korea, Russia, and others. The German fascist.

Great persecution against Christians. And it's interesting that just going back to Nazi Germany, you had about half of the churches that aligned with Hitler and half that would not.

So you had a host. A professing Christendom saying, We're with you. literally lining up with the revilers.

So it's messy. Takes discernment. When you come to the end times, what's the Antichrist going to do? I'm considering preaching a series on the Antichrist. What's he going to do?

He's going to act like he's a Christian and a great Christian leader. He's bringing healing to the whole world, and most professing Christians will go along with him. The true remnant will not. But many professors will.

So, this kind of persecution, even as I speak today, Islamists in the Middle East and in Africa and in India viciously persecute Christians. And then right here in own country. one long ago in the IRS. was clearly persecuting Christian organizations. You go over to Europe and to London, and I understand today you can't even pray out loud on some streets.

Probably anywhere because it might offend someone who who loves their sin. That's persecution. Why in the world you and I in this country have been given something of a respite, at least from government persecution? Donald Trump has turned the wave the other way.

Now, he's not the vessel I would have chosen. I don't agree with a lot of things about him. But most of his convictions and his policies seem to flow with what you and I are about. God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick. He's done that throughout the ages.

But, brothers and sisters, persecution has always been on the schedule. We've been spared a lot of that in America. We might not be a whole lot longer. I don't know. I'm thankful for this awakening.

Maybe God has given us a chance to get real in the church again. get more faithful with our work and our business of honoring him and serving him in this world. But here's an encouraging word. I had to fly through this rather quickly. Obviously, we've got the Lord's table we're going to share it in a moment.

But the psalmist said in Psalm 37, verses 1 through 20, Do not fret because of evildoers. That's good right there, isn't it? Be not envious toward wrongdoers, for they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord. Do good.

That's a great word for us. Dwell in the land. Cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourselves in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord.

Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger, forsake wrath.

Do not fret, it only leads to evildoing, for evildoers will be cut off. But those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land, yet a little while. and the wicked man will be no more. Did you hear that? God's doing something.

Give it a little bit longer. The weak will be no more. And you look carefully for his place, and he'll not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes at him with his teeth, and the Lord laughs at him.

Satan thought he accomplished something in this assassination this past week. The Charlie's in heaven. And the church is reinvigorated in some ways. The Lord laughs. For he sees his day, that's the wicked day's coming.

The wicked have drawn the sword, and they have bent their bow to cast down the afflicted and the needy, to slay those who are upright in conduct. Their sword will enter their own heart, and their bows will be broken. Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord sustains the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their inheritance will be forever.

They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, in the days of famine, they will have abundance. But the wicked will perish. And the enemies of the Lord will be like the glory of the pastures. They vanish. And like smoke, they fade away.

Encouraging words. Another encouraging word, Isaiah 32, picturing the coming of the Messiah. And in that day, listen to these words. Let me explain it. No longer will the fool be called noble.

Well, that's shouting ground right there. They rise up Was self-profitable. Promoted elitism to tell all of us how noble they are, the virtue signaling of this crowd. We are the wise ones. We're going to help the culture.

We're going to save mankind. Follow our new progressive ideas. I follow any progressive idea if it's biblical. But that's not what they're doing. They're claiming a nobility about their purpose and task, but they're not truly noble.

Then the next phrase, or the rogue be spoken of as generous. The word rogue means the fraud. These are frauds! They claim to be virtuous helpers of culture. Delivers of the oppressed.

I saw just a blip of a comedian, and he might be a bad guy. I don't know. I just saw one little blip. He was a black man, and he said, I just found out today that I'm oppressed. He said, and a white woman told me.

He said, Nobody knows how Black men are oppressed except white women. This whole movement of we're going to save the world, we got the answers. We know what's going on, and we're self-appointed. And God says, you know what they are? They're frauds.

Frogs And he says No longer will the fool be called noble, or the frauds, the rogue, be spoken of as generous. In other words, they rise up to say, Aren't we generous to give you our wisdom? And our insight. When one of these latest radical theories came out, I did a little research and it seemed to have come from one college professor in one college. And I guess when she wrote her little statement on this radical new approach culture ought to have, I guess everybody in the hallway just bowed as she walked by with it.

Here comes sacred scripture.

Some professor in some college somewhere has written something.

Now we all got to bow down before it because they're such elitists.

So generous to give us all of these things. That's the spirit of the text. No longer will the fool be called noble when Jesus returns. No longer would the fraud be spoken of as generous. For a fool speaks nonsense.

There's coming a day when Jesus returns and all the nonsense will be silenced. And his heart inclines toward wickedness.

Now, see, that's the core problem. Are you listening to me? Their hearts are wicked. That's the core problem. They'll always say, but we're studied, we're learned, we've researched, we're intellectuals.

That's why we view things this way, because you Christians are so crude and so naive and so unlearned Their problem is not an intellectual problem. Their problem is a sin problem. They love wickedness. Mark it down. Every time somebody departs from biblical truth, it's because they don't want to give up sin.

See, that's the reviler. He'll rush against. Proverbs 18:1. He rushes against these teachings. He's got to stand against them, sometimes even with violent hatred.

He's not going to give up his sin. Parsing. They speak nonsense. Isaiah thirty-two again. And his heart inclines toward wickedness, to practice ungodliness, and to speak error against the Lord.

Is that not what they're doing? Your Christian doctrine, your values, you're the problem in culture, they would tell us. You're the problem with our land. Your people and your thinking and that philosophy has ruined civilizations, they would say. Wouldn't write the opposite is true.

Then the last phrase, Psalm 32, verse 6, to keep the hungry person unsatisfied and to withhold drink from the thirsty. It's a metaphor, for people are hungry and thirsty for the truth, and these people give them nothing but nonsense. Nothing but gravel. Trumps Not true spiritual nourishment. And God says there's a day coming when all that's going to be removed.

These atheistic frauds will no longer be allowed to exalt themselves as the saviors of mankind. Here Small group lesson this morning, Philippians 1, 27 and 28. Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your revilers. your opponents. Same people.

Which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God. Jude ten and eleven. But these men revile. the things which they do not understand. And the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.

Here's the point. He said, What they're doing is they're acting they're acting just like animals act. You know what an animal does? You know, I like to hunt, I like the outdoors. You know what a buck deer worries about?

Three things. Eight. Breed safety. And you know, if you get in the way of a buck deer, especially on that second one. Watch the videos.

They'll literally try to kill each other. They're after their desires like a beast. And we we we don't hold do you hold a grudge against the buck deer? I don't. Are you hurt and offended by the way they would kill each other just so they could breathe the dose?

Being kind of graphic and crude, but the text brings us out. No, because that's what a beast does. Men are supposed to be above the level of beast. But Jude said there's still those like unreasoning animals just function like animals following their instincts, i.e., just following whatever comes across their fallen, depraved hearts to be involved in. And then he says middle verse 11 I guess.

My notes don't separate the two verse references. But anyway, by these things they are destroyed. There's a self-destructive mechanism in those who give themselves over to following lust instead of following Christ. Woe to them, for they've gone the way of Cain. They certainly have.

You see, there are only two types of people in the world. There are those who rise up and rush against God's truth.

Sound wisdom is what our text calls it. There are those who are humble and repentant and say, and need the truth. I want more of the truth. They're the repenters. All the revilers.

and repenters. It hears the amazing, amazing thing. The amazing, amazing truth. That God welcomes. Wicked.

Brayson. Sinful. Revilers. If they'll repent. Because every one of you Was at one time a reviler.

Even as a child, you might not have been robbed in banks. Mistreating true Christians or anything like that, but in your heart, the moment you heard the gospel and did not Humble yourself in repentance and receive Christ. That moment that you did not do that, you reviled against it. He rushed up against it. He said, Nope, not for me.

That'll be for later. Maybe after college, and I have some fun, whatever the lie is, young person. You're a reviler, you're a reviler if you push away Christ. I was reminded, I think, the persons in our congregation that when I was in grade school. No, high school.

I stood up in a class. And refuted that the Bible was the Word of God. You know why? Because I was a reviler. That Bible didn't match my lifestyle.

And I stood up against it. God is in the business. Turning revilers into precious children. He's just that kind of God. That's grace.

Taking us like we are and changing us. And Jesus said Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Any man will open the door. I will come into him and dine with him and he with me. What a figure.

What a figure the Lord uses there. I'll come in and dine with you because dining in that day was really special. And I challenge you, ladies, to keep working at making dinner time special. There's something about mealtime and It speaks of intimacy, it speaks of acceptance, it speaks of oneness. He said, I'll come in and dine with you.

We're going to be, Jesus said, we're just going to be relaxed and comfortable together. that means. And enjoy. A meal together. And one day.

We're going to start a meal with him that never ends. In one very real sense, the marriage supper of the Lamb never ends. We commune with Him in that informal acceptance, love, and security forever and ever and ever. He says Um Letting you revilers. Repent.

And I'll dine with you. You become one of mine. Behold, I stand at the door not. Revelation 3.20. Anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and will dine with him and he with me.

First he knocks on the door of our heads. Armand. You have to have the truth in your mind to be saved. You have to know something of the truth in your mind. Salvation doesn't come through osmosis.

Just being in the vicinity of spiritual things, it comes through you hearing with some degree of understanding. It doesn't have to be great, but you have to understand something of the gospel. And then he speaks to the door of our hearts. And with the heart we believe. Our mind informs the heart and our heart says, Yes, he's right.

I am a sinner. I am a reviler. And I need his forgiveness. And a new start with him. And we know it's God who draws us to Himself.

But he doesn't drag us. Beneath divine sovereignty, there's always human responsibility. Scripture balances that out well for us. I will come into him and he will dine with me. And that's why we have the Lord's table.

The Lord said, I want you to remember. That you and I have an intimate personal acceptance and fellowship together. A listen. When we take the Lord's Supper together. We take it.

in unison among ourselves in him. And in communion. with him. You see, the Lord's Supper is not the Lord's Supper if me and Miss Pam just take it. That could be in a real, rare, special circumstance, but the body needs to be, the church family's got to be there.

Because the supper emphasizes our union in him. And all of our communion. With him. It's both personal and corporate. Real quick, this old song came to my mind and.

We'll close with this and take the Lord's table. Jesus has spread a table where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people. Come and dine. With his manna he doth feed And supplies our every need Oh, tis sweet to sup with with Jesus all the time.

Come and dine, the master calleth. Come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table any time. He who fed the multitude turned the water into wine to the hungry calleth now, come and dine. The disciples came to land, thus obeying Christ's command, for the master called unto them: Come and dine.

There they found their heart's desire, Bread and fish upon the fire. Thus he satisfies the hungry every time, spiritual emphasis there.

Soon the Lamb will take his bride. to ever be by his side. All the hosts of heaven will assembled be. Oh, 'twill be the glorious sight All the saints in spotless white And with Jesus they will feast eternally. We'll feast a little now, but...

A lot more later. Come and dine, the master calleth. Come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine.

To the hungry calleth now, come and dine. You know what? I think I will. I think I will. Yeah.