It's the simplicity of the gospel
the Lord's not teaching us more and more complicated things.
He's We're learning the beautiful
simplicity of Christ We're still learning our ABCs really When
it comes to spiritual things It's really six or seven gospel
observations here and Psalm 124 first one is simply
this we're helpless in our sin We would have been overwhelmed
If the God who made heaven and earth didn't help us What are we gonna do We have
no hope We're a bird in the snare we're
an animal in a snare and We were reminded recently in another
passage of scripture about this the nature of a snare is the
more you do the more you struggle The more effort you put forth
to try to get out The tighter The snare becomes and this pictures
our sin problem so well Because the more we do to try to please
God the more we do To try to be religious The more we sin, the more ensnared
we are by our evil nature. The woman with the issue of blood
pictures us so clearly in this. She spent all of her resources and we You know, many, the experience
of many is that when we learn something about God and we don't
know the truth of the gospel yet, but we get religious and
we try everything to be satisfied and nothing,
nothing heals us, nothing works. We do outward things to try to
cure an inward problem and it just doesn't work. But as we talked about, I believe
this morning, before she ever met the Savior, she knew, she
had heard, she had maybe seen what he was able to do as we
do by faith in the scriptures. And she said, if I can just touch
the hem of his garment, I'll be healed. There's no question
about it. She's not, she wasn't saying
I'm gonna give Jesus a shot. You know, religion talks about
that. Isn't it time to try Jesus? No. No, it's not. That's not the Jesus you want
to have anything to do with. You don't try him. If he ever
calls your name, you're going to take heaven by force because
of his grace. Our sin is our nature, and so
the more that we do, the more we sin, the more evil we are,
and the more deluded we become in the idea that we can do something,
we can make up for it. My good outweighs my bad, and
so forth. If the snare just tightens, it
doesn't ever loosen. It doesn't loosen on its own,
and we can't break it. God's law is against us. Satan
and all of hell is against us. The world is against us. Our
own wicked, deceitful hearts are against us. There's one who's for us. The only one we need. The law is said to be against
us because we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others,
in Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, but whose wrath is that? We deserve his wrath, it's God's
wrath. Though we're worthy of his condemnation
and punishment, that passage, the good news of the gospel shines
forth in that when it says, but God is rich in mercy. He's rich
in mercy. So you see that in the psalm,
we're goners. If it had not been God Almighty
If it had just been a church, if it had just been religion,
if it had just been a preacher that coaxed me down an aisle
and repeated some, had me repeat some kind of prayer, if it had
been anything or anybody else, I'm a goner. But because God
Almighty had mercy on my soul and looked upon me with compassion.
Otherwise, I was a goner. And we see here, secondly, that
only the Lord, the Lord alone can save. And let me say this
about the first one already. We should experience this and
be comforted that if it hadn't been for the Lord, we're gone, we have no hope.
There's nothing we can do. Isn't it good to rest? Isn't
it good to understand that? That's when you rest. It's when
you realize that all of your works are filthy rags, and you
cease from your own labors. And the Lord Sabaoth, the Son of God, you rest in Him.
Cease from your own works. And we can experience that every
day if we think about it. We think we have some control
over things, that there's some things that we can do. Not if
God's against you. If the Lord wasn't for you, you'd
be a goner in all of it. You'd be completely overwhelmed.
The water would go over your head. So when it does, when it
seems to, look to Him and own up to it before God. We can say to God, we're helpless. That's the way we come to Him
all the time. We should. We're helpless. Not I need a
helping hand. I need to be saved every day. I need His strength. I need His
peace that passes all understanding. That He is to our hearts. And
we confess before Him, Lord, I'm a failure. I'm a loser, I
can't stand for a minute without you. Not a second. But that's
a comforting thing. That's a comforting thing. I
can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. And then secondly, as I said,
the Lord alone can save if it had not been the Lord. Preacher
can't save you religion can't save you some philosophy Under Jewish law only the kinsmen
Redeemer had right had the right to redeem All that was lost If
he says I'm not interested or if he doesn't have the means
to do it then You're not getting any anything back you're you're
what we lost in the garden fellowship with God and Communion with God
favor with God is never we're never getting it back That leper in Matthew 8 said
Lord If you will you can't you're the kinsman Redeemer you have
the right you have the wherewithal you have the means The only question
is are you willing to do it? Are you willing? Will you have
mercy on me will you take pity on me? me We're shut up to God's Son if
it had not been for the Lord Simon preached in Acts 412 neither
is there salvation in any other? We know some who have gone into
different cults and different so-called churches where Christ
is not preached and There's not salvation in any other. For there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved. We should cry with the disciples,
knowing this truth, to whom shall we go? If it had not been him, then we'd have no hope. There's one and only one who
has the words of eternal life, who speaks life to sinners. Only
the God-man can represent us and satisfy God. Only him. Listen to what Job said in Job
9, 29. If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain? If I'm evil before God, what
am I gonna do about it? If I wash my hands with snow
water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shall thou plunge
me into the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man as I am that
I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither
is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand, upon
us both. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the daisman. He's the mediator that lays his
hand on both. That satisfies God in the matter
of our sin and represents us in the same matter, the same
conflict, the same dilemma. No mere man can lay his hand
on God. Just thinking about it would kill us. If not for his mercy, if not
for the God-man, if not for the Son of God, the mediator between
God and men. And God can't lay his hand on
a sinner without being defiled. He can't compromise his holiness,
but the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, can lay his hand on both. He's the God-man who was and
is in the bosom of the Father, And he's also a great high priest
that's touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He takes up our call, God's calls,
which is holiness and flexible justice. God's justice must be
satisfied, his holiness honored, and takes up our cause at the
same time. We need mercy. Only Christ is precious enough
to be a ransom for my soul. Who else is gonna pay my sin
debt? Only the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, not corruptible
things. All the silver and gold in the world. Only Christ is mighty enough
to defeat all of my enemies. Who else can be the captain of
our salvation? Only Christ can present me faultless
before the presence of God's glory. If it had not been for him, he's all of our salvation. David
said, he's all my salvation and all my desire. And then thirdly, you see in
this text that he's worthy of all of our
praise and all of our gratitude. And again, these are not theories.
These are not doctrines we're talking about tonight. This should be our daily experience
to acknowledge before God our utter helplessness without him,
to acknowledge that only he can save us, but only He can comfort
us, and praise His holy name for it, as the psalmist does
here. Blessed be the Lord, who hath
not given us as a prey to our enemies. Blessed be the name of the Lord. This is not saying your prayers. Nobody should ever say their
prayers. You know what I mean by that? That's not prayer. But from your heart, cry out
to him. Who's able to save to the uttermost,
who's able to, and listen, salvation, Of course the most important
thing is the eternal salvation of our souls, the eternal redemption
of our souls. To be his blood atonement that
is the cause of our future glory with him in heaven. But he's
saving us all the time. If we ask for something, he said,
your heavenly father knows how to give you good things. Whatever
it is For peace from some grief for relief from some burden He's our Heavenly Father in time
too And he loves us More than we even love ourselves So we're not saying our prayers
here, but when you do pray to God, don't forget to praise him. I hear people and I catch myself. What am I gonna do? What have
I been doing for the last 60 years? I've been depending on
him. He's been carrying me the whole
time before I ever knew him, before I even knew his name.
I was in his hand. And I'm gonna complain now, I'm
gonna doubt now that he's gonna take care of me. What a shameful thing. You know,
we're mercy beggars, but we beg before the throne of the God
of all grace. We know that if we ask, we'll
receive. And of course, you know, everybody's
always trying to cash in on something like that. They say the prayer
of Jabez because they think that's some secret formula to getting
what you want. Everybody's like, they want a
genie and a lamp, you know. There's something better than
getting everything you ask for. And it's what God does for you.
Everything you need. And if there's anything that
we want that's not good for us, he'll give us what's good for
us. That's better, isn't it? That's a lot better. The sinner looking back too,
and he said, David always did that in the Psalms. He always
talked about the past too. Our soul is escaped. Look what
he's done for us. If it had not been the Lord who
was on our side. So what we look for, what's in
front of us, we know what matters about it because we see what
God has always done. Who he said he is. I was a goner
and he saved me. And so who am I gonna call on
now? The one who saves sinners like me. The one who hears the
cry of his child that he loves. And you know, it's not in our
nature to acknowledge that. We love to think about, was it
Nebuchadnezzar? Look at this great kingdom that
I've built. So it's not in our nature when
We are delivered when we are, when we do make it through some
difficulty, when we are blessed, to say, look what God did. David won a great victory. I
mean, his sword was covered in blood. And he stood there and
said, look at the victory that God gave us today. That's us. Praise his name, bless his name. This is the Israelites at the
Red Sea when the Lord had saved them. On the one side, they're
crying and murmuring against Moses and complaining, but on
the other side, what did they do? Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord, and Spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. What else
were they gonna say? They stood there and watched
God save them. How about you? What's your song sound like?
The horse and his rider have he thrown into the sea. We just
got in on it. That's how we praise his name
is by acknowledging that if it had not been for the Lord, we
would be destroyed. And when we see that and when
we experience that, we stand on the other side of the Red
Sea and we say, I'm gonna sing unto Him. Just look what He did
for me. Fourthly, the Lord didn't just
get us out of a jam here. That's not what David's singing
this Psalm about. Look at verse two again. if it had not been the Lord who
was on our side. The Lord doesn't just get us
through difficulties when they come up. He gets us through not difficulties
too. He gets us through successes.
You know, those are harder in a spiritual sense to get through
without dishonoring the Savior than difficulties. He got us
through those too. You see, it wasn't just an event.
It wasn't just I cried to the Lord and he's like, oh, okay,
well, I see you're in trouble. I'll do something. He's on our
side. He's always on our side. If the
Lord be for us, who can be against us? There's a big difference. He didn't just break the curse.
He was made a curse for us. Galatians 3.13. He's fully invested. That's what
his love is. It's commitment to us. He didn't just avert God's wrath
from us. He drank it. That's the difference between
God helping us and God being for us. He kept the law for me,
as me. as my representative. He died
under the wrath of God as me, in my place. He rose from the
dead for me, for my justification. He stands before God as my representative. To have him standing in the presence
of God for me is to be able to say what we read this morning.
He's raised us up together with him to sit in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. So what a wonderful thing, and
that's another thing that we experience every day. God is
for me. Look what he's done for me. He
gave himself for me. He doesn't just help me out. He is my help. In every sorrow,
in every, in all fear, in all my troubles, Fifthly, you see the sovereignty
of God in this, don't you? Verse six, blessed be the Lord
who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. If he had wanted
to, he could have. We're his to give. They're his to give. And instead
of giving us over to our enemies, he brought our enemies to our
feet. That was his prerogative. Gives me it over or not It's suggested here That the
way that that's worded suggests that we deserve that's what we
deserved If he would have given this over to our enemies that
would have been That would have been good and
right because we deserved it He didn't do that. That's what
mercy is and Not giving us what we deserve You can read in Romans chapter
1 how that God gives men over to a reprobate mind This is the
language of our psalm reveals that he has power To do you see
why God what David is blessing the name of God Blessed be his
name. We deserved it. He could have
done it, but he didn't do it because he loved us and He would have been right to do
it, but he didn't give us up. Those whom the Lord has redeemed
with his precious blood. He's not going to lose any of
them now. And that's us. That's our comfort. We would do that. We'd tie our enemies, wouldn't
we? If somebody hated us, if somebody
nailed us to a cross and we were still able to do something, you
think we'd have mercy? Thank God he's not like us. You know, God's indictment against
us is that Thought that I was all together such as one one
as yourself aren't you glad he's not He can't let us go he's got to
have us And then verse six or number
six verse seven We're completely and utterly saved Our sin, our condemnation, our
predicament before God, our condition before God is pictured as a snare. And again, you don't struggle
out of a snare, you just get more snared. But here's how you
get out of a snare. The Lord Jesus Christ broke it. And we're escaped. How did he break the snare? You know, this is a picture.
This is an illustration. But the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
just reach for the snare and break it and let us out of it.
He entered into that snare. He took the snare upon himself. He willingly placed himself in
the snare and broke it from inside of it. He didn't reach down and
break it. He came down and was caught in
it willingly. He willingly stepped into it.
And then he destroyed it. And you know the word, what you
call it when a bird is caught in a snare or a little rabbit
or something, and then you come along and break that snare and
that bird flies away or that little rabbit runs into the woods.
There's a word for that. It's called free. And if the sun shall make you
free, you shall be free indeed. Not
only released from the snare, but there's no more snare. It's
broken. He didn't just get us out of
it. He destroyed it. And a broken snare can never
trap you again. You know, you can see a broken
snare. Snares are usually hidden. They're covered up with leaves
or something. So when you step, you don't know
you're stepping into it. But a broken snare is, you can
step on it. You can pick it up and play with
it. Whatever you do, what we should
do is forget it. By God's grace, forget it in
the sense of toying with it. But one thing's for sure, we
can't ever be snared by it again. You know, he doesn't teach us
to stay out of snares. He doesn't just say, you know,
you need to look, you need to watch for snares. Although we're
warned in the scriptures. But we know how snares become
not a problem for us anymore. It ain't our wisdom. It's not our ability to spot
them. If he didn't break it, we'd end
up right back in it, wouldn't we? We'd end up right back in it. But bless God, he broke it. Colossians 1.12. giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son in whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness
of sins. Sin has no more dominion over
us Hebrews 2.14, for as much then
as the children are for takers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. We're caught in that snare all
of our lifetime until Christ breaks the snare and sets us
free. Romans 6 9 knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more Death hath no more dominion
over him For in that he died he died unto sin once But in
that he liveth he liveth unto God and likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin But alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord If it hadn't been for him So
we think about that every day if it hadn't been for him But since it was him We're free And when he gave us
grace to bless his name for it to remember how that Like this this evening we're
gonna remember that Now that he broke the power of sin by
the power of his blood and set us free. And so. Stand fast in that freedom, Paul
said. Stand fast in the liberty with
war with Christ and set us free and don't be entangled again
in the yoke of bondage. That's you. That's what you do. We get in snares, and we struggle,
and we fight, and we just get more entangled. But Christ has
set us free, and looking to Him, then our hearts are free from
that. As believers, we can still get entangled in that yoke of
bondage, not to the point where we can be lost if we're His.
We're never getting out of His hand. Aren't you glad about that?
We would if we could. But we can get ensnared again,
thinking about it, you know, being guilty and thinking if
we can just do this, if we can just, you know, we're always
wanting to trust this flesh somehow, to give some credence to the, to our flesh and what we might
be able to accomplish. There's great freedom in understanding,
but if not for him, if not for him tonight, I'd be a goner. But when I feel like I might
just be a goner, and I've been through that a few times in my
life, I remember this too. May God
give me grace to remember this too, if it had not been for him,
but since it is him, Blessed be the Lord who has not
given us up. Our soul has escaped as a bird
out of the snare. The snare's broken.