Estranged from the Womb

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away like the untimely birth of a woman that they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living and in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, verily, there is a reward for the righteous.

Verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth. All right, let’s pray together. Our Lord, as we come to you now in the name of the Lord Jesus, you know, Lord, you are the only one who knows the thoughts and burdens of our hearts. Lord, you know all things about us. You know the things we bear that we mention, prayer requests and things. But Lord, you also know the things that are in our heart that we don’t dare mention, things that are also burdens.

Lord, please minister and give grace to those who are bearing burdens, Lord. As we pray, Lord, help us to pray in faith, help us to pray in the Spirit, help us to pray in the will of God. And Lord, show yourself mighty in answering these requests that we make. Help us to be faithful in prayer. As we look in your word now, Lord, please be our teacher, instruct us, not only in the truths of Scripture, but also the right way to apply them in our lives that we might profit from your word.

In Jesus’ name, amen. Now you’ll notice verse number one, actually, if you look at verses one through five, again, we’ve covered this. Psalm 51 covers this to some degree. Psalm 14, which is repeated later in Psalm 53, Psalm 53 as an example, covers, it’s a description of the wicked, a description of mankind. If you remember, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. And it goes on and gives a description of the wicked.

And Psalm 58 kind of does that as well. And so we’re just gonna kinda go through it and look at the various aspects of the wicked, which is really, technically speaking, although the word wicked occurs several times, this is not so much a description of the wicked as it is a description of mankind. And you’ll see what I’m talking about in verse number, or in some of these verses in just a minute.

It says this, do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Notice that word indeed. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? What does that word imply to you when you read the word indeed? It implies irony, right? It implies that there’s surprise that this person being addressed is speaking righteousness. Okay, we’ll get back to that in a second. But what I think David is doing is he’s going on, and you’ll see, do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men, with that same kind of irony?

He says, yea, in heart ye work wickedness, verse three. The wicked are estranged from the womb, they’re poisoned, and all of these things. Now imagine, of course, the Psalms here that David wrote came out of real experiences that he experienced in his life. How many of you have ever had an experience in your life where you met with some type of person, maybe you were wronged, or maybe you met with some particular thing, and it made you think of that class of people?

In other words, no specific person is mentioned in this Psalm. So we don’t know who David’s talking about or what the context is, but have you ever been driving, for instance, and you see somebody that drives a certain way, and you say, you know, just like, you know, these people that drive, and this type of driver, and I just get so tired of having to deal, well, that’s kind of like what David is doing with the wicked.

You know, there’s something real going on in his life. He’s dealing with a wicked person, but it’s making him think of the wicked in general. And so that’s why he’s talking about it here, but notice, so in verse three, you gotta get verse three before you can really get verse one. He’s talking about the wicked, and he says the wicked are estranged from the womb, and he describes them in various ways, but notice back in verse number one, to that same group he says, do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation?

Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men, asking the question? In other words, the people he’s describing are the wicked, and yet they have the appearance of righteousness.

You see that? He’s describing the wicked, and then he’s expressing surprise because the wicked are speaking words of righteousness, and they’re appearing at least in verse one to judge uprightly. So the wicked have this outward facade of righteousness. They spoke righteousness, they judged uprightly, or at least it appeared that they did. And so I would say to you, and I would say to myself is this, beware of wickedness, because wickedness and wicked people very often do not come to us dressed in wicked clothing, just like in verse one.

They didn’t come dressed in wicked clothing, that is, with the facade of wickedness, they came in the facade of righteousness and judgment, but they were not righteous. Wickedness often comes looking righteous. Wickedness often comes looking righteous. Now, I don’t know if you guys have seen this on the news, it’s just like almost every day there’s news of some pastor, some youth pastor, some worship leader that has been arrested, rightly so, for some recent or past sin or immorality or some sort of wickedness done to a child or a teenager or some secret sin.

Are you guys seeing this as well as I am? I know not all of you are like keyed in on the news, but if you watch it, it’s on news four, it’s on social media, it’s constant, constant. You know why? This right here. Is that wickedness often comes dressed in righteousness, so that should cause us to have a bit of a pause. I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed many Christians are naive, and I don’t mean naive in a good way, I mean biblically naive, where there should be caution, there’s not.

There’s an assumption that things are good and people are righteous simply because of the look, the facade, beware of the facade, beware of the facade. Not everything that looks righteous is righteous, right? And if we’re gonna be people who live by the Bible, that’s a biblical truth we gotta remember. Not everything that looks righteous is righteous, because the wickedness sometimes comes in the form of righteousness or with the facade of righteousness.

Now this Psalm, notice verse one, it says, do you judge uprightly, oh ye sons of men? So we’ve studied that before, but that’s just another word for mankind. And so we gotta get this right here, especially as you go into verse two and three, who he is speaking to, he’s speaking to all people. He’s not just talking to the people that you might classify as the wicked, but he’s speaking to all people, verse one.

Ye sons of men. The term sons of men indicates that, and this is actually the same way that Paul uses this in the New Testament, these truths in the Psalms, he uses it not to describe a class of wicked, but to describe all men. And so we go to verse two, yay. In heart ye work wickedness, sons of men, in heart ye work wickedness, ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

Now notice the source of the wickedness. The source of the wickedness is the heart, the inner man. Jeremiah 17, nine, you all know this verse very, very, very well, I’m sure. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? That is your heart and that is my heart. That is the heart of the wicked. In heart ye work wickedness. And of course we know the principle that the Lord Jesus told us, that whatever is in the heart is what will come out out of the heart come the issues of life.

And so if the heart is wicked, it will come out in the life in some way, in some form. Go to verse number three, the Bible says this. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Now you look at this, the wicked are estranged from the womb and there’s a couple ways you could look at that. You could look at it to say that the people that we would classify when they’re adults, we would call the wicked like Proverbs describes the wicked, which is a class of people, right?

And we could say, that’s who he’s talking about. He’s talking about the class of people who in their adulthood are people who eventually become the wicked. Those are the ones who come from the womb, as it says in verse three, are estranged from the womb and go astray as soon as they be born. But the problem with that is this. And so you might say, well, you have some people that are born that are just born wicked.

And you have some people that are born and they’re just born righteous. But that is not what the Lord is describing. And we have a couple of indicators. First of all, he mentioned sons of men in verse one. But secondly, this is not, this verse number three is not speaking of just the class of people who become wicked as adults, but this is talking about them as children.

This is speaking of them not when they’re adults, but when they are children. There are no people that are born righteous. There are no people that are born righteous. Every person is born, fitting the category of verse number three, estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. So therefore, this is speaking of all men. So even as a little baby, even as one that has just been born, men and women, babies, and this, I know this sounds, does this not sound kind of grating when you hear it?

These little babies that come out of the womb, they come out of the womb, the Bible says, wicked. Now, what are we talking about? How can you call someone, and you gotta get this, how could God call someone wicked though they’ve not done anything? Though this person has not done anything, this person’s an infant. Look at little Thomas. Now, Thomas, he’s kinda getting up there. He’s kinda getting up there.

But Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, he’s smiling at me. Even though Thomas has not done any sin in the sense of knowingly committed a sin where he’s cognizant of that fact, his parents are giving me funny looks.

His parents count it as a sin, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that God counts it as a sin. Even though that’s the case, yet God calls Thomas wicked. Think about it. How can God call someone wicked who hasn’t done a wicked thing? Like as an act of the will. Because what we’re talking about is wickedness by nature, not by practice. How do we know that? Well, because we’re talking about someone that has just come out of the womb.

So there is no action that has been done. And it’s also talking about when a baby comes out of the womb, that baby is what it is by nature. In other words, that’s its youngest, most innocent, you could say maybe, its elemental form. In other words, if you think about a baby, before I get there, let me read some of these verses. Genesis 8.21, just listen to these, and you can write down the references if you wish.

The Lord smelled a sweet savor, this is speaking of the time of Noah. And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man’s sake, for the imagination of man’s heart, that’s verse two, the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.

See that? So this is not a one time occurrence when the Lord connects a baby with evil, okay? Psalm 51 verse five, David in the midst of his sin, he cries, behold, I was shaping in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And this goes into the womb, not outside the womb, but in the womb, David says. Proverbs 22 verse 15, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. It’s tied up there, right? It’s a part of his nature. So when we talk about, in verse three, we’re talking about the wicked or estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they be born. We’re not talking about their wicked because of their practice, because of their actions, we’re talking about their nature, which is also a perfectly fine way to use the word wicked.

And that wicked nature that is embedded in the human nature, that little baby, is a wickedness factory that in time will manufacture all the wicked practices that he or she does throughout his life. It’s a factory. It’s a large scale, industrial size wickedness factory.

And so the Lord is not saying babies are wicked because they’ve done anything wrong, that is with knowledge, He’s saying this is their nature. This is their nature. Now, you gotta remember this if you’re a parent.

You gotta remember this. This goes directly into parenting. If you’re raising children, you have to remember that you’re raising a little wicked sinner. Who is it? Vodoo Balcom, he calls him a viper in a diaper. That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard to describe it. Viper in a diaper. And it’s actually relevant to this Psalm in just a minute. In other words, as part of a biblical worldview, we understand man’s nature, and man’s nature is what it is from the womb.

And so when we deal with our kids as an example, we should understand these tendencies. Because the opposite worldview, it thinks man is good. And then because it thinks man is good, it acts upon that assumption and the results are disastrous. And the best example of this, the best ready example of this is communism. What communism does is communism as a government system invests in a few individuals an enormous amount of power.

And every single time it’s done, it corrupts those people. And they begin to oppress their fellow man. Why? It’s because of the wicked nature of man. Not only that, but the communism as an economic system depends upon the premise that if you give men stuff for free, they’ll work hard. They’ll have a work ethic if they don’t have to worry about the money. And actually the very reverse is true.

But what is that? It’s built upon a misunderstanding of the wicked nature of man. You know what the wicked nature of man dictates? And those of us who know the Bible know beforehand, we know what the result will be. Those who founded our country with our constitution and its checks and balances and restrictions on the power of government understood that if you give man this power, this is going to be the result.

Where does that come from? It comes from a biblical worldview of understanding the nature of man. Now take that and you put it in your home. What happens in your home with your children is you leave, you assume that your kids, I got good kids, they’re not gonna get into trouble, right? I mean, they wouldn’t do that.

You know what that is? That is dangerous. And every one of you in here as a child got in trouble because your parents at some point or another thought you wouldn’t do that thing. And you did. You snuck around and did it. And I did too.

So are you gonna parent like you have a viper in the diaper or are you gonna parent like you have a little, a saint in a, I don’t know, saint in a shroud, I don’t know.

Saint in a sack, yeah. We have to remember that as we deal with people, as we deal with our children. Now think about, notice in verse three it says, “’They’re estranged from the womb. “’They go astray as soon as they be born speaking lies.’” So again, we’re talking about nature. We’re not talking about action. We’re talking about nature. We’re talking about the wicked nature of a child, of a human being, not just of a child, of a human being.

Think about that baby that comes out of a womb. Think about little Thomas. Think about little Thomas. Thomas has no peer pressure. The only influences in Thomas’s life are his parents, to speak of, are his parents, and those are good influences, I assume. He has no burdens, or, you know, as far as temptation is concerned. He has no peer group. No one has instructed him in the ways of evil, at all.

None of that. In other words, in Thomas’s life, there does not exist any external force that would act upon him to cause him to do evil, or tempt him, or lead him to do evil. And yet, that’s what we’re looking at in verse three, right? They come out of the womb. What does that child that come out of the womb have? There is no external force, at all.

No instruction, no peer, nothing, at all, to act upon that child to produce the wickedness that that child will do as a little child. There’s nothing there. And yet, if you leave that child alone without any external force, that child will practice wickedness. Will it not? Why? Because of its source. And this is what God’s trying to tell us. The source is the wicked nature that every one of us has.

The wicked nature that every one of us has. A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Why? Because he doesn’t need. Children, listen, children don’t have to have TV or internet to corrupt themselves. Children don’t have to have bad friends to corrupt themselves. Children don’t have to have a bad example. They don’t have to have somebody teach them how to smoke pot or drink liquor or look at porn.

They don’t have to have anybody. They will figure it out. Hello, is that not what Genesis chapter six says? The imagination of man’s heart. Listen, it says in Genesis 8.21, I just read it. For the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. You know what imagination is, right? What’s an imagination? That means you come up with stuff. This is how the Lord describes every single human being.

But, all right, so we have all that settled. Let’s move to the next thing. Even if you keep all the bad influences from yourselves and from your kids, and we should keep bad influences from our kids. Even if you do that, kids will still invent evil. Because it is within them. Even if, listen, even if you lock yourself up behind all the apps and rules and regulations and you can’t go to this site or do this thing, you live in a monastery.

There’s nobody there, there’s no internet, there’s no phone, there’s no temptation. You will still corrupt yourself. And what does that tell us? Where does that lead us? It leads us to this truth. It is foolish to think that rules are some kind of silver bullet, either for ourselves or for our kids. Do rules have function? Yes, here’s how I’ve described it to my children. Rules are guardrails.

But if your car is hitting the guardrail, you have already left the road. The rules are to keep you from going off the cliff, but don’t think, well, as long as I’m not going off the cliff, I’m okay, no, you’re running into the guardrail, which is not supposed to happen. But here’s the thing. The rules that we might put in place for our children or for ourselves, we often assume that those things are the things that if we just have all of the rules just right, if we just have the Covenant Eyes app on the phone, we have an accountability partner, and everybody has access to our internet, if we don’t have the streaming service that has the bad things on the TV, which I don’t even know if that exists, but we don’t have that.

If we cut off all of those from our kids, and listen, our kids, as an example, our kids have restrictions on their devices and all of that. We do that, we do that. But it is foolish to think that that’s a silver bullet and that we do that and our job is done. That is not wise. And why is it not wise? Because God’s trying to tell us that the wickedness is within the child, not just on the outside.

But is that not what everybody, everybody blames somebody else? Everybody blames somebody else. But the problem is us, the problem is us. Now here’s the benefit of that. Now flip it, flip it around. Here’s the benefit to this. When the Lord saved us, He didn’t take away that nature. Right, we’re just, we are still vipers and diapers. We just don’t wear the diapers anymore. We’re just plain vipers.

We’re vipers in regular clothes with driver’s licenses. He didn’t change that nature, but what He did do, because He wants a righteous people, in the New Covenant, He promised to put His law in our heart and He gave us a new nature. And those two natures exist together. One in the spirit, the old one in the flesh, the new man and the old man. That’s how the New Testament describes it.

And it is for that reason that God expects the Christian to live uprightly and righteously, because He can, she can, she or he does not have to bow to the whims of that wicked nature like those without God have to.

We can live in victory. God has given us that ability. But we have to remember that that wickedness is there. And if we do not, if we do not feed and encourage and walk according to the spiritual part of us by the Holy Spirit, we will invent evil. We will do all the same things that the wicked do. We will do it.

Now, go to verse number four. We’re still talking about the wicked here. Remember, that’s not a class, that’s everybody, every human being now. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. Now, this says poison, but normally, in modern English, we say venom. If you’re talking about snakes, we say venom. Poison would be something on a plant. But we understand exactly what it’s talking about. It’s not wrong, it’s just an older way of describing it.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the death adder that stopped the serpent and it stopped with their ear. Now, let me ask you a question. You think about a serpent. In scripture, a serpent’s venom, a serpent’s poison is found in a number of places in scripture. Now, I’ll read a few places, and I want you to just put them in the back of your mind.

I want to ask you a question. Psalm 140, verse three. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Adders’ poison is under their lips, say la. Romans three, verse 13 says this. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues, they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. I’ll tell you something. I’m gonna just go on a rabbit trail here.

You know what I’m about sick of? I’m a person who listens to podcasts and things. That’s what I do, I listen to podcasts. And I am about sick and tired of hearing people profess to be Christians while using foul language. That is not godly, that is wicked. That is a description of the wicked. Hello, the scripture says it.

I hear people that are, I’m talking about extremely religious people, orthodox Jews, extremely religious Catholics, evangelical types, that use absolutely disgusting and foul language. I’m telling you, what they are pronouncing is their own wickedness.

James three, verse eight says this. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly, what? Poison. No, the tongue can’t be tamed. We’ll see that in just a minute.

Now think about those few verses that I’ve read described poison, described snakes. And what is that being related to in scripture? The poison of a serpent is being related to what?

The words. You see it? In our verses, and then our verse, it relates poison of a snake, venom of a snake, to words. Now let me ask you a question. A snake has venom, and it keeps that venom in the venom sac, right? Does it do any damage to that snake? No, so when you talk about venom, you’re talking about something that the snake injects when it strikes.

It strikes something else. It strikes a person, it strikes its prey, and injects the venom when it strikes. So we’re talking about wicked words that harm others. Not me, but harm others. That’s what he’s talking about. He’s talking about the wicked, one of the characteristics of the wicked is not just they use bad words. I mean, that’s one thing. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

I mean, that’s cursing and bitterness. That’s one thing. But when we talk about venom, we’re not just talking about saying the F word. We talk about venom, we’re talking about the poisonous and ungodly words, even without the four-letter versions, that we say to and about other people. Even though there are no curse words among them, they hurt, they harm, they are deadly to other people. That’s why those words are related to snake venom.

They cause harm to another when the snake strikes them. That’s a characteristic of the wicked. Listen, if it’s a characteristic of the wicked, it ought not be in our mouth. It doesn’t have to be in our mouth.

We can speak kindly and uprightly and godly. We can. By the power of God, and by the power of the Spirit of God and His grace, we can. We can and we should.

Notice what verse number four says again. They are like the deaf adder. Talking about the wicked now, we’re still talking about the snake, the analogy of the snake. They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. You think about a charm, what does a snake charmer do? A snake charmer attempts to control the snake’s behavior, right, using charm.

Charming techniques to control the snake’s behavior. And one of those things, obviously, is to not let the snake strike, right? That’s the idea behind it. What this is referring to is the reproof. Reproof. In other words, you’re taking a wicked person, now we’re still talking about a wicked person. We’re talking about a human being, right? Just a natural human being. You take this person and he’s speaking evil, he’s doing evil, it’s in his heart, and you try to go and correct him.

That’s like charming the snake. But he doesn’t hear you because he’s a snake who’s deaf, a deaf adder. One upon whom charming does no good. You’re not gonna fix his life and his behavior. You can’t control him. Like James says, untamed tongue. Here it says, listen to this, notice it says, charming never so wisely. Proverbs 25 verse 12 says this, as an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.

Does it matter the way you reprove someone, the way that you correct someone, the way that you go about it? Yes. Yes. You don’t wanna lay a stumbling block before someone by giving someone a reproof or a correction in a way that makes it the most difficult for them to listen to you because your life is inconsistent or because your tone is bad or some other reason like that.

That’s just a stumbling block, even if you’re right. You definitely don’t wanna do that if you can help it. But these people, they accept no reproof. They will not be corrected. They are deaf to it.

Again, a characteristic of the wicked, which should not be, which should not be a characteristic of a believer. Now let me say something. Just wise advice. I don’t know that you can find a verse in scripture that says it, but this is just wise advice. A godly person who has a heart for God and wants to be righteous, wants to live in the will of God and live uprightly is the person who seeks out reproof.

It is the polar opposite to the wicked, who no matter how you put it or sweet you are, they will not be charmed. It’s the opposite. Did you know, now think about that, you know, a wise reprover, you know, a charmer, I say charmer, that’s not the right word. A snake charmer who is never so wise. That’s what we’re talking about, right, in the verse. Are you talking about someone who knows how to reproof in such a way that they’re sweet and their tone is right and all of those things and the wicked will not, under any circumstances, receive it?

But I’m saying to you, if you have a heart for God, if I have a heart for God and we love God and we want to live for God and we don’t want to be in sin and we want to live uprightly, not only would we seek out those who might correct us, right, that’s kind of what accountability is, but furthermore, even if a reproof comes in a package that is not wise or kind or sweet, it comes in a, it’s done by a charmer that is not very good at his job, we still receive it.

Why? Because we want to do righteousness. We don’t want to be wrong. We’re not looking for an excuse to continue an evil, even if the reproof comes from someone or comes in some way that’s grating and irritating and bothersome to us.

You know what the difference in that is? It’s not the external though, it’s me. It’s me, the difference is me. In the case of the wicked man, the problem is him, the nature, and really the nature is the reason why every one of us must have the Lord Jesus Christ. Without him, we will, listen, we will throw ourselves into the mire and we will go under. We will destroy ourselves in sin.

We will live a life that will set us up and make us right for God’s judgment. Now, speaking of which, verse six, break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Notice, I’m gonna point out a few phrases, we’re almost finished, I’m just gonna point out a few phrases. Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord. Let them melt away as waters which run continually.

When he bended his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be cut as cut in pieces as a snail which melteth. Let every one of them pass away. Like the untimely birth of a woman that they may not see the sun, before your pots can fill the thorns, he shall take them away as with the whirlwind, both living and in his wrath. Notice all the times, break out the great teeth, melt away, cut in pieces, melteth, pass away, take them away.

This is God’s judgment of the wicked. These same wicked people, verses one through five, now we’re getting into what God’s gonna do about it. And in every case, the running theme in verses six through nine is this, God is going to deal with them and take them out of this world. That’s the key.

God established civil government. We call it the law. One of the purposes of the law is to take the wicked out of society, right? Right, is everybody with me? That’s one of the purposes, is to take them out from among people so they don’t infect and harm other people. That’s the function of government, to punish evildoers. Did you know the church, now I know that’s not God, but the civil authority is the servant of God, Romans tells us.

God uses them to do that, so that when the sword takes their life from the earth, that is God’s sword taking their life from the earth. That’s right. Even in the church though, it’s 1 Corinthians 5 verse 11, but now I have written unto you not to keep company. If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or a covetous or an idolater or a railler or a drunkard or an extortioner, with such a one know not to eat.

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are with them, but them that are without, that is outside of the church, God judgeth. Therefore put away from yourselves that wicked, that’s this person. Even in the church, God says, you need to get them out of here. Now lastly, go to Matthew 24. Kind of go back to our study in Matthew a little bit, to conclude.

Look at verse 37. God is going to take the wicked out of this world. He uses various means to do it. I mentioned a couple, but one day he’s in the ultimate sense, he is going to do it himself and he’s gonna take the wicked from his world. And this is why it’s so important. You know, the people who throw themselves at wickedness, who live according to that wicked nature and just give themselves over to it, it is not going to go unpunished.

Matthew 24 verse 37 says this, this is at the coming of Christ now. Verse 37 says, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, for as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came and took them all away.

Same words. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now Noah is the example, Noah in the flood. What did God do? He took the wicked from the earth. Here, that’s the analogy for the second coming of Christ. What’s Christ gonna do? He’s gonna come and take the wicked from the earth.

Then two shall be in the field and one shall be taken in the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken in the other left. Now because of this language, it’s always assumed that this is referring to the rapture. What’s interesting, it’s not, it’s referring to God taking the wicked away in the context. Now, what’s interesting is the rapture of the church is not found in Matthew 24 at all.

In fact, there’s no rapture, if there’s any rapture found in Matthew at all, it’s the rapture of the wicked. There’s a gathering mentioned, but no rapture. No 1 Thessalonians 4 rapture.

But what you do see, is that God’s gonna deal with the wicked. He’s gonna take them out of this world. He’s gonna not only physically take them out of this world, but then he’s gonna judge them as well, which is exactly what the last verse in Psalm 58 says, that God’s gonna judge. So that’s why our attitude toward those who are wicked, not only should that wickedness not attach to us, but the attitude toward the wicked ought to be pity and a desire for them to be saved.

For only in Christ is there any hope. Let’s pray together.