1. I read a disturbing article the other day.  It was written by a preacher who had traveled a great distance to preach at a certain church.
2. When he was shuttled from his hotel to the church, an assistant pastor of the church rode in the car with him.  This man had recently been accused of dishonesty and financial improprieties, so the visiting preacher asked him about the charges.
3. "Did you really graduate from Harvard University, as you say in your messages?" The assistant pastor responded by saying that he'd taken a class at Harvard once, but no, he hadn't graduated.
4. The man went on to admit saying other things that weren't true, but it didn't seem to bother him. The visiting preacher told him that he thought the man should repent and publicly ask forgiveness for his dishonesty.
5. Five minutes after they arrived at the church, the visiting preacher was escorted to the private office of the senior pastor, where they were to pray before he preached in the service.
6. When he stepped in, the pastor slammed the door and screamed at him. His face turned scarlet; his veins were sticking out; and he poked his finger at his guest.
7. For a moment or two, the visiting preacher thought the pastor was going to punch him.  Then, into the office walked the man he had just confronted on the ride to church.
8. The pastor told him  he had had no right to confront him about his sin. "No way will I let you preach from my pulpit!" he said.
9. The visiting preacher tried to explain, but the pastor wouldn't listen. The pastor was well aware of his assistant's shady reputation but thought it was unimportant.
10. After this ugly scene, they went straight into the preaching service. The pastor took the microphone. His voice suddenly sounded sweet and spiritual.
11. The pastor told the church he felt "the Holy Spirit's leading" to dedicate the service to sharing and healing, so regretfully there wouldn't be any time to hear from the guest speaker.
12. The rest of the article was just as disturbing.  He said, "Historians plagiarize. Politicians invent war records. Coaches embellish resumes. Employees call in sick when they’re playing golf."
13. Why is this?  Psalm 36:1 tells us: "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes."

I. UNGODLY BEHAVIOUR (36:1-4).

1. When there is no fear of God, unrestrained wickedness is the result.
2. "Transgression" (36:1) means they sin with impunity. 
3. The prophet Jeremiah said, "Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush" (Jer. 6:15; 8:12).
4. Jeremiah wrote those words 600 years before Christ, but don't they sound very "up to date"?
5. The ungodly "flatter" themselves (Ps. 36:2).   They don't even blush.  Mayor Bloomberg boasts all the time about what a wonderful mayor he is and how he'd make a great president!
6. Certainly, "The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good" (Ps. 36:3).
7. Spurgeon said, "iniquity and deceit" (36:3) are a "pair of hell dogs (that) generally hunt together, and what one does not catch the other will; if iniquity cannot win by oppression, deceit will gain by chicanery" (Treasury of David).
8. "He deviseth mischief upon his bed" (Ps. 36:4).  As soon as the wicked sinner wakes up in the morning he is scheming and devising some new evil plan.
9. This past Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave his State of the State address in Albany.  In this address, Gov. Cuomo emphasized his support for so-called "same-sex marriage" and also said he intends to expand abortion rights.
10. Based on data recently released by the NYC Department of Health, 41 percent of all pregnancies ended in abortion in 2009.
11. That is more than twice the national average. That is 126,774 live births and 87,273 abortions for the year 2009.
12. According to these statistics, 60 percent of pregnancies for black women ended in abortion.
13. Rabbi Zwiebel said, “We’ve been hearing for many years from pro-choice supporters that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. If that’s the goal, we’ve clearly, abysmally failed, especially here in New York City.”
14. That's because the pro-choice people do not really want abortion to be "safe, legal and rare."  They just want it to remain legal.   Abortion is a billion dollar business and that is why they do not want to see it restricted in any way.
15. Dr. Anthony Levantino, of Troy, N.Y. was an abortionist until he realized it was wrong and had to stop. "I began to feel like a paid assassin ... that's exactly what I was," says Dr. Levantino.
16. "I want the general public to know what the doctors know – that this is a person; this is a baby, not some kind of blob of tissue."
17. “You can make a lot of money doing abortions,” said Dr. Levantino. “In my practice, we were averaging between $250 and $500 per abortion (back in the 1980s), and it was cash. It is the one time as a doctor you can say, ‘Either pay me up front or I’m not going to take care of you…. Either you have the money or you don’t.’”
18. Former abortion clinic owner Carol Everett was asked, “What is the governing force behind the abortion industry?”
    “Money,” Everett answered bluntly. “It’s a very lucrative business.”
19. Norma McCorvey, who was the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade, recalled her experience working in an abortion clinic. “It was just a racket,” she said. “(The doctor) was just doing it for the money. He didn’t care about the women….”
20. Nita Whitten worked as a secretary for a Dallas abortion clinic. “I was trained by a professional marketing director in how to sell abortions over the telephone,” she recounted. “The object was, when the girl called, to hook the sale so she wouldn’t get an abortion somewhere else, or adopt out her baby, or change her mind. We were doing it for the money.”
21. Some abortionists are more profitable than others. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America is the nation’s largest abortion provider. From 1997 to 2005, its clinics performed 1,918,532 surgical abortions.
22. The organization is tremendously successful at marketing abortions. Even as the nation’s annual abortion rate fell, the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood clinics rose more than sixty percent.
23. From 1997 to 2005, Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports reveal that the abortion industry behemoth netted profits in excess of $469 million. During this same time period, the organization collected $2.07 billion from American taxpayers in government grants and contracts.
24. Taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood has nearly doubled since 1998. Though our nation is trillions of dollars in debt, many elected officials fight doggedly to maintain—and even increase—funding for abortion providers. Seventeen states actually allocate tax dollars specifically to help pay for the abortions of impoverished women.  Taxpayers are helping to fill the financial coffers of America’s abortion providers.
25. One pro-life website says, "Never forget: Abortion is a moneymaking industry, a hugely profitable business that aggressively seeks to maintain its margins. Whether its funding comes from unsuspecting taxpayers or confused young women, the destruction of unborn life is a highly lucrative practice."
26. How can this be?  Because there is no fear of God in America today (cf. Romans 3:10-18).
27. I believe there are three sins that will bring down the inevitable wrath of God upon the United States of America.
28. First: the promotion of homosexuality.  Leviticus 20:13 says, "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
29. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and He will surely destroy the USA for the sin of sodomy.  Perhaps you heard about the brutal murder of the Portuguese homosexual on Friday night in a Manhattan hotel.  He was butchered by his homosexual boyfriend.
30. The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.
31. “The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’"
32. A statement on the State Department website noted: “These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.”  Homosexual organizations have been lobbying the government for several years to remove the words from passport applications.  And now they got what they wanted.  God help us!
33. Secondly, the promotion of abortion.   Psalm 106:38 says, "And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.  Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.  Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance" (Ps. 106:38-40).
34. Thirdly, God will judge America for its apostasy.  Millions of Americans never attend church.  And most churches today are not preaching the Gospel. 
35. I spoke to Bro. Dave on the phone yesterday.  He was at his cousin's funeral in West Virginia the other day.  Even though his cousin was a drunken, lost sinner, Dave said the liberal Methodist minister tried to preach him into heaven.
36. America has turned into an ungodly nation because we have ungodly men in the pulpits.
37. Psalm 36:4 says, "He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil."
38. Proverbs 8:13 says, "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil."
39. Psalm 97:10 says, "Ye that love the LORD, hate evil."
40. Spurgeon said, "Those eyes which have no fear of God before them now, shall have the terrors of hell before them for ever" (cf. Psalm 36:12).

II. GOD'S MERCY AND FAITHFULNESS (36:5-10).

1. The Bible is a great book of contrasts -- the wickedness of sinners and the goodness of God; the wisdom of God's people and the foolishness of the ungodly; the terrors of hell and the glories of heaven; darkness versus light; the selfishness of man and the lovingkindness of God, etc.
2. Regarding Psalm 36:5, Spurgeon said, "From the baseness of the wicked the psalmist turns his contemplation to the glory of God. Contrasts are impressive."
3. After reading Psalm 36:1-4 we are nauseated by the stench of sin.  We are repulsed by the haughtiness of proud sinners.  We stumble in the dark and hurry to the bright light of Psalm 36:5-10, where we read these beautiful words:

• Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens;
• Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds
• Thy righteousness is like the great mountains;
• Thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD
• Thou preservest man and beast.
• How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God
• Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
• They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house
• And thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
• For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
• O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee;
• and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

4. We have here a brief summary of the character of God. The first attributes mentioned are God's mercy and faithfulness, which extend to the heavens (36:5).
5. God's mercy and faithfulness are as vast and measureless as the heavens above.
6. God's righteousness (36:6) refers to His justice. "Thy judgments are a great deep" (36:6). God is just and righteous in the manner in which He administers His rewards and punishments.
7. "Thy judgments are a great deep" (36:6). Spurgeon said, "Far and wide, terrible and irresistible like the ocean are the providential dispensations of God: at one time they appear as peaceful as the unrippled sea of glass; at another tossed with tempest and whirlwind, but evermore most glorious and full of mystery. Who shall discover the springs of the sea? He who shall do this may hope to comprehend the providence of the Eternal."
8. We are safe and secure when we put our trust in the Lord under the shadow of His wings (36:7). God is our refuge.
9. This speaks of God's protection and rest, and love and warmth.
10. God's people are content with the fatness of His house (36:8).  David began Psalm 23 by saying, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want."
11. And he concludes it with, "and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever."
12. The pleasures of this world are fleeting and cannot bring true satisfaction.  But the LORD'S river of pleasure is always full and always flowing (36:8).
13. "For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light" (36:9).  This is expanded upon in a marvelous way in the New Testament (cf. John 1:4, 5; 4:14).
14. Revelation 21:23 says, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

III. THE JUDGMENT OF THE UNGODLY (36:11, 12).

1. The term "workers of iniquity" (36:12; 37:1) is found many times in the Bible.
2. Job 34:22 says, "There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves."
3. Psalm 5:5 says, "The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity."
4. Our Lord said that many people profess to be Christians, but on judgment day they will be exposed as workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:21-23).
5. Jonathan Edwards said, "Some sinners flatter themselves that they are already converted. They sit down and rest in a false hope, persuading themselves that all their sins are pardoned; that God loves them; that they shall go to heaven when they die; and that they need trouble themselves no more."

CONCLUSION:

1. Proverbs 16:6 says, "By the fear of the LORD men depart from evil."
2. God must punish sin because God is holy.
3. If you have any unconfessed sin in your life, now is the time to get right with God.
4. The problem today is people (even some people in our church) have no fear of God.  They are like proud Pharaoh, who said to Moses, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?" (Ex. 5:2).
5. God had to humble Pharaoh, and God had to judge Pharaoh, and God had to break Pharaoh, and finally God had to drown Pharaoh.
6. Don't be like Pharaoh!