Leading The Way

Guest (Female): Dr. Michael Youssef begins this episode of Leading The Way audio with a challenging reminder.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Satan can do his worst. Secular media can sharpen their swords. The government officials may unleash an anti-God forces. The schools may discriminate against the morally righteous. The workplace may be intolerant of believers. Some may lose their jobs because of the righteous standing, but none, none, none will have the victory over the elect of God.

Guest (Female): In recent years, battle lines have become more clearly defined as the world continues a passionate mission to eliminate Jesus and His church from life and culture. Enemies may multiply and claim success, but the end of the book declares who holds the final victory.

Today on Leading The Way, Dr. Youssef continues his series called Embracing Your Mission For The Future, guiding you into Psalm 129. These are practical words to help you courageously stand and march toward triumph. Listen with me as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today’s powerful word.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Psalm 129 is the type of Psalm where the song leader, whom they call a cantor, he’s really the music leader, and the cantor would recite one word, and then the people would recite the same word after him, repeat that word. Look with me, please, in verses 1 and 2.

Israel’s youth is the time when they came into their own as a nation in the middle of the slavery of Egypt. For 400 years, they experienced pain and suffering and slavery before God delivered them. That is considered to be the time of Israel's youth. In fact, the prophet Hosea in chapter 11, verse 1, talks about that. He said the Lord speaking through him said, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son."

In fact, that is why Matthew, the writer of the Gospel, sees the fulfillment of that very prophecy in Jesus. When he escaped into Egypt for a period of time, God said, "Out of Egypt I called my son." In other words, Matthew is saying that Israel was the son that was not obedient to God, but Jesus is the son who is obedient in whom this prophecy of Hosea is completely fulfilled: "out of Egypt I called my son."

After years of slavery under Pharaoh, yet they kept on going anyway. When Pharaoh failed to cull their numbers, he began to kill every newborn male, but God protected Moses and he raised him up to be his instrument to deliver them from slavery. But it was not only in, watch these words, it was not only in their youth that they were oppressed, but from the youth, they've been oppressed.

In the youth, but also from that time on they've been oppressed. "From the youth," the Psalmist writes. Most of you know biblical history, and I'm not going to repeat it. From the earliest days to the day of the writing of this Psalm, they were harassed and persecuted by the Philistines, by the Assyrians, by the Moabites, by the Ammonites, by the Edomites, and all the mosquito bites.

In fact, the prophet Amos names the big cities that were designed and had strategies to oppress and destroy Israel. He names the city Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, Moab, to mention just a few. And yet they all were judged for dealing treacherously and wanton destruction. All of the nations were judged.

Later on, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took some of the Jews into exile in Babylon. They were followed by the Greeks and the Romans. And in the Middle Ages, the European powers expelled them from their territories and confined them into ghettos. It's still fresh in our memories, the Nazis who sought to exterminate them.

"Well," may Israel say, "they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory." And that's what I want to talk to you about today. They may oppress me from my youth, they have not gained the victory. This, my beloved, ought to be the testimony of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. "They," that means no one, no one, no one will ever have victory over the remnant of Christ.

Satan can do his worst. Secular media can sharpen their swords. The government officials may unleash anti-God forces. The schools may discriminate against the morally righteous. The workplace may be intolerant of believers. Some may lose their jobs because of the righteous standing, but none, none, none, none will have the victory over the elect of God.

This is a word from the Lord, not just for some of you but for all of you. The second stanza of the Psalm is what the theologians give it a big word called imprecatory, imprecatory prayer. The word imprecatory means prayer. That’s all it means. When you add the letters I-M in front of it, it becomes prayer against, prayer against. That is a prayer asking God to judge all those who hate and oppress God’s people.

Beloved, would you please listen to me? This is very important because I can tell you some of these modern Bible commentators, you see them literally from the pages of their commentaries squirming and wiggling, and you see them playing mental gymnastics. They say, "Oh, but Jesus said in Matthew 5, we are to pray for our enemies and those who persecute us." There is no contradiction here. I’m going to show you.

This passage is not a contradiction to the spirit of what Jesus taught us in Matthew 5. He’s not talking about vindictiveness or taking vengeance or a judgmental attitude. No. There is no contradiction between the Old and the New Testament. Of course, we are to pray for our enemies, and Jesus commands us that. He doesn’t suggest it. He commands us to pray for our enemies.

In fact, Jesus explained this command in Matthew chapter 5, particularly verse 45. In verse 45, he says do this because of what theologians call common graces. What’s that common graces? Well, the sun shines upon the righteous and the unrighteous. The rain falls for the righteous and the unrighteous. Because of these common graces, therefore we need to pray for our enemies. That’s what our Lord is telling us.

But that does not mean that God will not judge the wicked in due course. He will. Every time we pray and say Your kingdom come, Thy will be done, Your kingdom come, we are saying God judge the evil and the wicked. Every time we say Thy kingdom come, we are praying that God would judge the wicked people.

Listen to me. Jesus is not saying that we should not want justice to take place or that we should not want to see justice of God on His enemies. No. So how should we pray for our enemies? First of all, we need to pray for them to be converted. We need to pray for them to repent. We need to pray for them to turn away from their wickedness and receive Christ as Savior. We pray for them to cease from their evil.

As we are seeing in the ministry of Leading The Way all over the world, people who were terrorists, people who persecuted Christians have become the children of the living God. That’s what we need to pray. But if they do not repent, if they do not turn from their wicked ways, if they do not turn from their enmity to God and His people, then we don’t pray for them to prosper in their wickedness.

That is a screwed-up thinking on the part of so-called progressive Christians. We do not pray for them to succeed in their evil. That’s not what our Lord is telling us. We do not pray for them to be blessed in their wickedness so that they may be more wicked. No.

We pray as the disciples did in the book of Acts chapter 4, verse 29, "Lord, look upon their threat and grant your servants continually to speak your word in boldness and in courage." The reason our Lord told us to pray for our enemies first and foremost that they would be converted. But secondly, he’s telling us not to take matters into our own hands.

We don’t take matters into our own hands, but we go to Him. No wonder he said, "Vengeance is mine," says the Lord. And let me tell you, I’ve lived long enough to know this, that His vengeance is far stronger, far better, far more powerful than you can ever dream. In fact, there are three things here in this imprecatory prayer that I want to share with you.

No, it’s not a three-point sermon, so don’t panic. These are just three things I want to share with you, okay? And if you’re taking notes, write them down. In verse 5, he prays that they will not be honored. In verses 6 and 7, he prays that they would not succeed. And in verse 8, he prays that they will not be blessed. Look at them with me very quickly.

The honor that the enemy seeks in the Old Testament sense is the honor that comes from military victory, especially if Israel is crushed. And the Psalmist is asking for his enemies to be turned back, is for the enemy to experience the shame of defeat. Beloved, we must not, we should not ask for the defeat of the righteous because I know when two Christians have a disagreement or argument, the temptation is to try to take revenge.

No, this is only about the wicked and evil people. Only upon those who inflict wicked actions on God’s people. We should ask for their evil wickedness to be exposed and the righteous be vindicated. Not only that they not be honored, secondly he said, verses 6 and 7, that they would not succeed in their plans.

The Psalmist uses a very quaint but very effective imagery, and you have to understand the Middle East to understand that imagery. Even though we’ve seen in some cities like New York and other cities is what they have roof gardens, that’s not what he’s talking about. He’s praying that the wicked will be like the grass that falls on a rooftop, which of course withers and dies before even it begins to blossom.

You say, "How can the grass grow on a rooftop?" You got to understand these roofs are made of mud. They're mud roofs. So if the seeds would fall on them, some will sprout, but not for very long because the soil is shallow and there is no provision of water, and therefore those will die instantly. They will not grow into big harvest. Any grass on the rooftop would quickly die.

The Psalmist is asking that the wicked might not even have the smallest chance of succeeding. He wants their plans to shrivel up completely and die. So much so that the reaper would not have enough for a handful or put some harvest under his arm. Is it wrong to pray that the efforts of the evil ones would not succeed? Is it wrong to pray that their evil and wicked designs would come to naught?

The answer is absolutely not. It is not wrong. We have sadly become so tolerant and accepting of evil that they have grown emboldened. In the name of compassion, love, and cultural relevance, we are being willingly deceived. You notice I said willingly?

John Stott says preaching man and his merits instead of Christ and His cross and substituting the one for the other so that they might not be persecuted for the cross of Christ has become common happening today. First of all, we pray that they would not be honored. Secondly, we pray that they will not succeed. And thirdly, verse 8, we pray that they will not be blessed or prosper in their evil designs.

This request in verse 8 is connected to the blessing in verse 7. It’s connected to that harvest in verse 7. In Old Testament times, it was a common thing to pray for the harvest and pray for the reapers, those who are working hard to harvest the crop, to bless them as they go. That was a common thing. You see it in the book of Ruth chapter 2 where Boaz was blessing them as they go.

But it would be wrong to bless evildoers. To bless evildoers would be a betrayal of righteousness and an offense to God. It would be like a nation or somebody in a nation who will cooperate with the enemy. We call them traitors, right? In the book of Revelation chapter 12, verse 4, we see a picture of the dragon standing before the woman who’s about to give birth so that he may devour the child as soon as he’s born.

And we know the woman is Israel, and the Messiah, the son, Jesus the Christ, was born, came out of Israel. And this is a prophetic picture, my friends. The child is being saved by being snatched by God and being placed on the throne, and that is where Jesus is now. He’s on the throne. We know that this is a fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, where Satan is constantly striking at the heel of Jesus, constantly, constantly, constantly.

But praise God, Christ crushed his head. From that moment Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, Satan goaded King Herod not only to go and kill him, but kill all the babies in that town. And then all the way to the most unjust, the most criminal act of kangaroo court that sentenced the only perfect sinless Son of God to die on the cross. All the way through, Satan was out to destroy the Son of God.

But praise God, on the third day, Jesus rose with every ounce of his omnipotence out of the grave. This is the fulfillment of verse 3 of Psalm 129. "Plowmen plowed my back and made the furrows long." They scourged the back of our Savior like a farmer plows his field.

Isaiah the prophet in 53:5 anticipated this suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said he is pierced for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him. Now beloved, listen to me. Victory that the Psalmist is speaking about will never, never, never, never go to Satan and his followers. Victory belongs to Jesus and his followers.

Revelation 11:15 says the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And I can’t wait to see that. It’s going to happen maybe sooner than we think. Amen. Because Jesus lives, we live also. Because Jesus has been victorious, we shall be victorious too. Because Jesus defeated Satan and evil, we will defeat Satan and evil.

Jesus said in John chapter 16, verse 33, "In this world you’ll have troubles." But listen, don’t miss that most important part. But, can you say but with me? Take heart, I have overcome the world. The Psalmist affirms they did not gain victory over me. They did not gain victory over me.

Let me tell you this as I conclude. I am sure that some of you might be asking, why is this pattern of oppression of Israel and then victory? Why is this pattern? Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered greatly and then received victory in the resurrection. Why do Christians suffer and persecution and then are given victory? Why?

The answer is found in the scripture. So that we know that our power is not from ourselves but from God. You see, that is why the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:7 all the way to 11 could say with confidence, "We have this treasure." What treasure is he talking about? The gospel of Jesus Christ. "We have this treasure in jars of clay."

Why clay? Why are they not in iron? Why are they not in a safe? Why in jars of clay? To show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. He said we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake so that his life may be revealed in our mortal bodies. There’s a very forceful Christian battle cry. It’s in Latin, and it’s placed in the Sinai where supposedly the burning bush had taken place. It says, "Yet not consumed. Yet not consumed." Would you say that with me? Yet not consumed.

Guest (Female): You may be hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, or struck down, but your victory is assured in Jesus. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading The Way. And we certainly hope that today’s message has stirred some faith questions. If so, a Leading The Way pastor or a counselor would love to speak with you, and you can start that confidential conversation by going to LTW.org/Jesus.

You know God uniquely positioned Dr. Youssef in Leading The Way, especially in recent years, to have gospel influence in many of the hardest to reach places in the entire world. Let me just share a quick summary of a note that was delivered to our office. This quickly boosted the resolve of the team, and I think it’s going to encourage you too to just know how God is moving even in the darkness.

It reads: A man shared how he had been part of many illegal activities like trafficking, gun smuggling, and more. While serving out his prison time, he came to know Jesus through Leading The Way. He shared the joy of saving for and purchasing a television for his prison cell so that he could watch more Leading The Way content and invite others to join him to also experience the transforming power of the gospel. He asked for prayer that he would allow God to completely change and grow him and others spiritually during his time behind walls.

Friends, please pray for those all around the world who are in prisons, in living rooms, in their cars, leaning into Leading The Way for spiritual growth and guidance. In addition to praying, we hope that you’ll consider standing with Dr. Youssef and Leading The Way through your prayers and your generosity. Become a part of the open door campaign while the doors are still open for the gospel to be spread across the world.

The number to call to stand financially with Dr. Youssef today is 866-626-4356. And of course, secure online giving is always an option at LTW.org. This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.