This is a psalm of David and
it says it's a prayer. We said that last week, I believe.
I noticed again as I was looking at the psalm that most of the
psalms, if not really all of them, are prayers that are put
to music. We have those in our hymn book
today, songs that are prayers. Abide with me, fast falls the
even tide. And that's a good song when you
can call out to God in song. Because music is an expression,
true music is an expression of the heart. But here it says it's
a prayer, but it says it's a prayer when he was in the cave. And that does have a bearing
on this whole song. When he was in the cave. If you
study a little of the life of David, you know that when he
was in the cave and you see this psalm, this
prayer that he wrote and sang to God while he was in the cave, it makes this a reminder, a unique
reminder of who our God is and how he deals with us. And it's an example of the kind
of faith that God gives. So let's think about that for
a minute. David had been anointed king by God. Nobody knows for sure how long
before, but based on events that happened in David's life and
in between the time he was anointed king and the time that he actually
took the throne is estimated between five and seven years. So David was anointed. God told
his prophet Samuel to anoint David king, and he did. But men, the people of Israel,
didn't acknowledge David as king and actually crowned him as king until years
later. And a lot happened to David in
that time. And the things that happened to him were humiliating.
They were things that you wouldn't think would happen
to a king, that a king would have to go through. I noticed that Brother Todd, we
usually don't talk about this, but I noticed that Brother
Todd prayed, Lord keep us in the dust. And I thought about
as he was saying that, Most of our problems would go
away, what we think of as problems, if we were in the dust. It's
when we get a little bit proud and we start to think, we start
to expect things, and think we deserve things, that we get offended
and we look at things as trials that there's really not much
to them. But even when we are going through
a real trial, The place to do that is in the
dust before God. Not just any dust, in the dust
at his feet. And David was blessed of God
to be able to stay in the dust. Even though he was anointed king,
you'd think, you know, he'd be thinking, boy, I'm a big shot
now. I expect people to treat me like a king. Nobody treated
him like a king for a long, long time. In fact, he was hunted
and hounded and humiliated, exiled from his own country. Saul was king when David was
annoyed, but God had rejected Saul because, and if you read
chapters 15 and 16 of 1 Samuel, you'll see the story, God said,
because you've rejected my word, I've rejected you as king over
my people. That simple. But Saul held on
to power and David had to flee to avoid being killed by Saul.
Saul was not real happy about David being anointed by God.
The cave referred to at the beginning of our psalm Tonight is the Cave
of Dullam, where David and about 400 men were holed up as they
fled for their lives from Saul and the army of Israel. And this is a picture, and David
in so many ways is, a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
was God's rightful king at birth, and yet had to suffer much humiliation
and persecution before ascending his throne. And this is also every believer.
We're right there with David in this, in his spiritual sins,
because God has made us kings and priests unto our God. And
we're gonna reign with him. But not yet. Not yet. We're not recognized by this
evil world to be anything. And we know ourselves not to
be anything. And yet God has chosen us. David was nobody from
nowhere. He was the last resort. Even
to God's prophet Samuel. And even to his own father. He
was the last one they thought of. And that's, of course, a
picture of God's elect. He has chosen the base, the foolish
and the weak and the despised, the looked over, the passed over.
They kicked that blind man in John chapter nine out of the
church and said, well, you, you're, you know, you're just a fool. You're not answering our questions
the way we want you to. And when they had excommunicated
him, the Lord Jesus Christ found him. That's my testimony. The Lord found me. One day we will reign with him,
but now it's humiliation. We're in the dust, and it's rightfully
so. Let's stay in the dust, and may
God keep us in the dust. Think about the faith that God
gives here. You know, God deals with us. He tries faith, doesn't
he? If he gives you faith, he's gonna
try it. And David's was tried. And by God's grace, David was
humble, submissive. He was a fool. He made some very
insane mistakes. Did some crazy things. But God gave him faith. And think about this faith, God
had anointed David King and there was no reason yet to believe
by any outward appearance that he was ever going to actually
sit on the throne. David could well have thought,
like Job did, Lord why have you abandoned me? You taught me, you saved me,
I thought, but now where are you? David could have thought
that way. Lord, you sent your prophet. He anointed me king, but look
at me now. Everybody hates me. I'm never going to sit on the
throne. He could have despaired. In fact, all that had actually
resulted from David's anointing was a whole lot of trouble for
David. There were no benefits. Not yet. And yet after years of this,
we find David crying to the same God. Instead of thinking the Lord
had abandoned him and the Lord had not kept his promise or his
purpose to put him on the throne, he's still crying to the same
God. And he says in verse five, think about this now. I'm hiding in a cave, but Lord,
you're my refuge. It's nice to have a cave. It's
good to be in and out of the rain, isn't it? But this cave
is not going to protect me from the trouble I'm in. You're my
refuge. David didn't say, thanks for
the refuge. He said, you are my refuge. You are my hope. You are my strength. You are my shelter in the time
of storm. And it was the time of storm for him. And learn this lesson
here too, believer. We've already hinted at it. David
was in trouble because of the Lord. Think of it in an earthly sense
that teaches a spiritual lesson. If God had never anointed David
King, Saul wouldn't even know David existed. David wouldn't
be fearing for his life every morning and every night. David was in trouble because
of the Lord, and so are you if you're his, if you know him.
He puts you in trouble too, and this will help us if we can remember
this. Whenever we're in trouble of
any kind, whether it be for an hour or for ten years or all
of our lives, as some men certainly seem to have endured. Whenever
we're in any kind of trouble, when you're praying, when you're
praying to the Lord and you acknowledge that he's able to calm the storm,
Lord, we know this, don't we? And we pray this way, Lord, all
you have to do is say, peace be still, and the winds and the
waves will obey you. But think about this, who were
the winds and the waves obeying when they showed up? When they came your way, whose
will were they obeying then? Who brought the storm? The winds
and the waves go away at his voice. They also came at his
voice. And that should comfort us. He
only brings what's good for us. This is not good versus evil.
That's what comforts my heart. It's not some epic struggle of
good versus evil over my soul. There's just not. It's not Satan
sending trouble and God fighting it off. Don't ever think that.
If Satan's involved in it at all, it's just God using him
for your good. Was the ash heap for Job a curse
or a blessing? We know that all things work
together for good. I'm glad that Paul said we know
that. Aren't you? I'm glad he said
it. I'm glad he said we know and
we know that all things. You know why I'm glad he said
we know that? Because sometimes I forget that I know that. I
know that. All things work together for
good to those that love God, to those who are the called according
to his purpose. But are not these earthly troubles
in these Psalms a picture of our sin problem? Doesn't every
problem that we encounter, and we see these in the life of David,
we see them in our own, doesn't every problem picture our one
problem? Of course it does, because every
problem we have springs from that. There were no problems
until there was a sin problem. And is not this cry a picture
of us crying to God for forgiveness for our sins? Of course it is. Oh yes, always. Well how does
that fit in with the idea that David was in trouble because
of God? I don't have a sin problem. It's
not God's fault, is it? But think about this. You know
about it because of God. So in a way, you're in trouble
because of God. And for the same reason that
he brings every trial. It's a father chastening his
child. It's for your good. It's to strengthen faith. The
trial of your faith is precious. If God does not reveal unto us
our true condition before him, we'll never cry for mercy. So
even with regard to our sin problem, we have trouble because of us,
but we're in trouble because of God. Now verse one, David cries unto
the Lord, and who else would we cry to? Seeing what we've
seen already, just in the circumstances of David here and how the Lord
orchestrated all this. David's in trouble because God
anointed him as king. God has orchestrated this whole
thing to this point, so doesn't it kind of make sense to call
on Him? If you want things to go a certain
way, call upon the One who makes things go the way they go. That
kind of just makes sense, doesn't it? He's running the whole show. If we have a request concerning
how things get run, call on the One that's running them. We know who to consult about
that. I need for my enemies not to prosper in their purposes
against me. So who do I go to? Listen to
this. Elihu, God's true spokesman in the book of Job, said this
about God. When you need for your enemies to fail in their
purposes against you, who are you going to cry to? Listen to
the way Elihu in Job 34, 24 describes our God. He shall break in pieces
mighty men without number and set others in their stead. Therefore
he knoweth their works and he overturneth them in the night. When they're asleep and they
don't even know about it, God is thwarting all of their purposes. He overturneth their works in
the night so that they are destroyed. That's who I'm calling on. I need big things to happen. So I'm going to call on him. So let me ask you this, what's
your trouble tonight? What is your trouble? What do
you need? Who's your enemy? Is it you? Who can do something about it? And look at how David words this
in verse 2. Isn't this beautiful? I poured
out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. I poured it out at his feet. Here it is. I'm an open book.
I come to God open hearted. pouring it all out, laying it
all out before him. Remember in Isaiah chapter 37,
it hadn't been that long ago, we looked at Isaiah 37, Hezekiah
was in about the same boat David was in, in that he was faced
with an overwhelming enemy, and the king of Assyria sent that
letter to Hezekiah, you remember? He sent messengers, and Hezekiah,
I believe it was Sennacherib was the king of Assyria's name,
And he sends this letter that has a kind of saying, in effect,
I'm coming to waste you. I'm going to destroy you. And
nobody can help you. Don't think that they can. And
he said in that letter, you think about that, he said, I know you
think your God's going to save you. But that's what the other
nations thought that I destroyed. They thought their gods were
going to save them. So don't even bother thinking that. I'm
coming for you. And think about this. Now listen,
listen to this. It says, let me just read you part of it.
Isaiah 37, 14. And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers and read it. And sure enough, now this is
a, this is a force that's, it's overwhelming. And Hezekiah went up into the
house of the Lord. He read that letter and he went
up to the house of the Lord and says he spread it before the
Lord. That's what David's doing. I'm laying it out before you,
Lord. Here it is. Here's the deal. And Hezekiah prayed unto the
Lord with that letter laid out at the feet. Now, when we come
in prayer, we come into the throne of grace. It just looks like you maybe
knelt down beside your bed. But you're at the throne of God's
grace. Paul said because of our great high priest, we can come
boldly into the throne of grace. That's where we're at. And he laid that letter at the
foot of the throne. And here's what he prayed, oh
Lord God of hosts, God of Israel, God of me in other words. Thou
that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth. You're the God of Israel especially
now. You're the God of your people in a special way. But you're
the God, you run everybody. And thou hast made heaven and
earth, and climb thine ear, O Lord, and hear. Open thine eyes, O
Lord, and see. Look at this letter I just got.
Can we be on those terms with the God of heaven? We have a
great high priest. Open thine eyes and see, and
hear all the words of Sennacherib which he hath sent to reproach
the living God. He's saying you're just like
the gods of all the other nations that's impotent and didn't show
up for them. But we know better. We know better,
don't we? And of a truth, Lord, the kings
of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their countries
and have cast their gods into the fire. They were no gods anyway. They were the work of men's hands,
wood and stone. Therefore, they have destroyed
them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us. This is not eloquent. It's not complicated. O God, save us. Do what no other
God can do. Do what the works of men's hands
cannot do. Save us. Save us from his hand
that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art
the Lord even thou only. And you know that's exactly what's
going to happen. In all of this earth, God is going to save his
sheep so that every knee shall bow and every tongue on this
planet that ever has touched this planet, that ever has set
foot, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. You know why they're going to
do that? Because he saved us. because of his redemptive glory
put on display before all nations and all worlds. Hezekiah confesses in his prayer
the same thing David does in verse three of our text. He says, I'm outmatched. The
king of Assyria not just whistling Dixie, they sure enough have
destroyed everybody. And thou sure enough destroy
us too, unless you save us. That's pretty clear from his
prayer, isn't it? And that's what David is saying. That's
exactly what David's saying here. When my spirit was overwhelmed
within me. Overwhelmed. In verse six he says, attend
unto my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my
persecutors. for they're stronger than I am. People, now think about this.
People that are laboring and heavy laden, trying to do enough
good to outweigh the bad. That's what people are doing
now. That's what they're doing. They're trying to do enough good
to outweigh their bad that they've done. They're trying to please
God by the works of the law, by the deeds of the flesh, by
the exercising of their will, they're trying to make decisions
for him so that they'll get to heaven when they die. Do you
know why they're doing that? They've yet to be overwhelmed. To be overwhelmed is a wonderful
thing. It's to finally come to the place
where you throw up your hands and you say, if God doesn't save
me, I'm a goner. I can't do enough. I can't do
enough. There's nothing I can do. In fact, my doing is my problem. My doing's not going to help
me because the more I do, even the best I do, just adds to my
debt before God. You talk about overwhelmed now. And it's a matter of blindness.
The reason people aren't overwhelmed is just because they're blind.
They are outmatched. They just don't know it yet.
And they may not ever know it until they meet God. And then it'll be too late. Did
you know there's a whole lot of too late in the Bible? There's
a whole lot of too late. The word overwhelmed here is
actually a verb. You think he's describing himself
as overwhelmed here? Maybe that's an adjective? No,
it's actually a verb. It means to turn aside or faint
away. In other words, it means, I quit. I give up. I'm done. Have you come there? Before God,
now, have you come to that place? Because of your enemies, because
of your own wretched heart, I quit. It means also to be covered
up or enveloped. No way out. No way out. I'm completely covered up. I'm
in over my head. It's to despair of self. It's
to come to the end of your rope. It's to give up on you. When
you give up on you, it might just be the time of love. It's where that thief on the
cross found himself on that day of days. He asks the Son of God,
Lord remember me. And if salvation is what this
world says it is, if salvation is let's make a deal like religion
teaches, what is that thief going to do? What deal is he going to make
with God? What if the Lord says, I'll save you, but I'm going
to need you to live for me now. I'm gonna need you to walk the
Roman road, you know, and I'm gonna need you to clean up your
act. I'm gonna need you to serve me.
We're saved to serve. What's that thief gonna do? He's out of chips. He got nothing
to bargain with. It's mercy, free, sovereign mercy,
or nothing. And though my hands are not nailed
to a cross, I can do no more for God than that thief could.
I can do no more to help my situation. I need mercy just as badly as
he did. And whether we know it or not,
we are shut up to Christ. I'm so glad to know it. Aren't
you? Isn't it good to be overwhelmed? It's good to be overwhelmed.
It's good to quit and to give up. When I'm weak, that's when I'm
strong because Christ is my strength. Here's what overwhelmed with
regard to our sin before God sounds like. Psalm 25 11. For thy name's sake,
O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. Think about that. For thy name's sake, pardon me. Because of who you are, forgive
my sins. It won't be because of me. He doesn't say, forgive my sin for
it is great. That's not all it says. It says, for thy name's sake,
pardon my iniquity. And that's the only way he can
do it now. He's gonna have to do it just because of who he
is, because there's nothing in me. There's no reason in me. There's nothing I can do. For
Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great.
It is great. The only remedy for sin as great
as mine is the one against whom I have sinned must give me a
divine pardon. an unconditional divine pardon. And he has declared that there
is no such thing as that without the shedding of blood. There's
no remission. The only way he can do that is
if somebody else, capital S somebody else, meets the conditions of
pardon. There are conditions of pardon,
just not for me. People like to get too smart. People think they're smarter
than God. They say, oh, there's no such thing as an unconditional
grace. Well, there better be, or you're
in big trouble. There are no conditions for you.
That's what we need to understand. I heard somebody preach a message.
There's no such thing as unconditional love. He said, I'll love them freely.
I'll love them for no reason. What is that if it's not unconditional
love? There may have been conditions
met for God to love you, but you didn't meet them. For you,
it's unconditional, my friends. For me, it's unconditional love.
It's not complicated. Don't get smarter than God. Just
read the book that says, I love you freely. Freely. And say, wow, God loves me for
no reason. Except who he is. Who he is. The pardoning of my sins is not
Christ dying for me and then me believing. The pardoning of
my sins is Christ dying for me. Period. The pardoning of my sins
is Christ washing them from me with his precious blood. Him
giving me faith to see that has nothing to do with the pardon
itself. That was done way before I ever knew about it. Verse four, I looked on my right
hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared
for my soul. Now think about this, because
David's seeing something here. He's not being ungrateful. He
had, we read there a moment ago, I believe that there were about
400 men. Did we read that yet or are we fixing to? I'm fixing
to read it to you now. There were about 400 men that were
with him in the cave. He prayed this from the cave.
And there were 400 people that had come there that had pledged
allegiance to David. And they believed in him and
they said, we're with you, you know. They were there in the
cave with him. They were loyal to him and no
doubt he was that he was thankful for that No question about that,
but he knew something else, too He knew something else. Let me
read you first Samuel 22 one David therefore therefore departed
thence and the thence boy you should study the life of David
just one one epic trial after another and He escaped to the
cave adult and And when his brethren and all his father's house heard
it they went down the other day, you know, so that's a handful
his family And but that wasn't all verse
2 of 1st samuel 22 and everyone that was in distress And everyone
that was in debt And everyone That was discontented gathered
themselves unto him. And he became a captain over
them. And there were with him about
400 men. And so David was not entirely
alone, but no doubt he speaks relatively. Relatively speaking,
there's nobody, you know, 99% of everybody I know wants to
see me dead. So we'll just call it an even
hundred. We talk that way. And no doubt he was doing that.
But he also understood that a lot of these people were there because
they were fleeing debts and legal troubles of their own. They had
to get out of town anyway. They figured this might be a
good, you know, let's catch this boat, you know. And so there
was a selfishness to the allegiance of many of them, no doubt. But
what a picture David is in that, of Christ. Who is it that takes
refuge with Christ, that swears allegiance to him? Those who
are in debt. Those who are in trouble with
the law. Everyone that was in distress, discontented. What a definition of believers. Distressed, discontented debtors. But the spiritual lesson here
is clear. Nobody can help us. Nobody even
wants to. Really. But even those that do
can't do anything to help me. They can't help me. You're my
refuge, Lord. Even if we wanted to help one
another, what's a drowning man gonna do for a drowning man?
Let's paddle together until we get tired and drown? Okay, well,
nice to have some company, I guess. We're still going to drown, though,
unless somebody saves us. The only thing that a believer
can do for an unbeliever is just tell them who can save them. We know who can help you. I can't
help you, but I know who can help you. I know who can. Religion talks about sharing
Christ with someone. That's about as asinine as it
gets. Let's share Christ. You can't share Christ. I can
share my sandwich with you if you're nice to me. I may not. Depends on what kind of sandwich
it is. But I can't share Christ with
you. All I can do is tell you about
Him. But the truth of that is that He may use that, but if
you're going to hear about Him, He's going to have to tell you
about Him. He may just use my voice to do that. I don't know.
He may not. But you're going to have to hear
from Him about Him. That's what our Lord commissioned
us to do, though, was to tell. Go and preach. Go and declare. Go and herald. What Lord? The
things I've told you. What else is there? Now look
at this beautiful thought. When I realized that this world
was not my friend and was never going to be. And when God even, He showed
me. Now think about that. I don't
want to offend you because I love y'all. And I believe you love
me. I believe most of you love me. But you know this about yourself
and you know this about me. If God takes his hand off of
us for 10 seconds, we would murder one another for a drink of water
under the right circumstances. It's by the grace of God now.
He has shed abroad his love in our hearts. And he has knit our
hearts together. And I don't believe he'll ever
go back on that. And I'm real happy. I'm real
happy about that. But you understand what we're
made of now. No man cared. But when I realized
that, even if you would, now by the grace of God, do something
for me, I realized there's nothing anybody can do for me. And most,
this world doesn't want to do anything for me. You know what I did? Verse 5, I cried unto thee, O
Lord. Nobody else cares. Nobody else cares about me. I cried to the only one that
cares. What are you going to do? I cried unto thee. I said, you're
my refuge. When refuge failed me. That's
in verse 4 too. Refuge failed me. Refuge failed
me. What did I say then? What did
I do? I said, Lord, you're my refuge now. The things I thought, the people
and things that I thought I could depend on and trust in and have
some confidence in, even my own self, I've had to abandon. I've seemed to be useless. And so I cried unto you. You
are my refuge. You are my portion. In other words, you're my help.
You're what I need. And also, you're everything I
want. You're my refuge and my portion. That's what you call being shut
up to Christ. And that's a sweet place. That's a sweet place. I thank
God for you. How many times did Paul say,
I thank the Lord for you. I thank God upon every remembrance
of you. You're my crown, you're my joy.
I love you, you're my children, my little children. But we all look into the same
place. We all have the same refuge.
One Lord, one faith, one birth. One hope of our calling. And that's why our hearts are
knit together. In Him, because of Him. Think of it this way now. My
only refuge in trouble is the one that I'm in trouble with. In Acts, this is what Simon Peter
said to the people now in Acts 4.8. I was going to have you
turn there. Listen to it though carefully.
Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, You rulers of
the people and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of
the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made
whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand
here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at nought of you builders. This is the one the prophets
spoke of. This is God's Christ. This is
the stone that you set it not, which has become the head of
the corner. And neither is there salvation in any other. For there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must
be saved. Do you see what he's saying?
Your problem is you killed the Prince of Life. And the only
solution to your problem is the Prince of Life. You're going to have to beg for
life from the one that you put to death. You must have mercy from the
one to whom you showed no mercy. In other words, you are the problem,
and he's the answer. The only answer. You're shut
up to him, aren't you? Verse six, attend unto my cry,
for I'm brought very, very low. I'm brought very low. Deliver
me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. This is
a very simple and straightforward assessment of our situation.
It's a good idea to assess your situation on a regular basis.
And you know what it is before God? Again, let's revisit it. We're outmatched. Our enemies
are greater than us. We are overwhelmed. My sin abounds. What I need and must have is
super abounding grace. from the throne of all grace
and the one who sits there, the giver of all grace. I'm in trouble
with God and I need for God to help me and to hear me. And again, if you're still trying
to please God by what you do, then you've not been overwhelmed
yet. And I pray that God would overwhelm
you, would show you that you're overwhelmed. David said, I've been brought
very low. I've been brought very low. How low have you been brought?
Well, I know that I've done some bad things. Well, Chris, I've
done some bad things in my life. That's not low enough. That's
not very low. Well, truth be known, I've done
a lot more bad things than I've done good things. That's not
low enough. Well, I do read my Bible now
and I know the scripture says that in my flesh, in me that
is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's true, the scripture
does say that and we need to understand that, we need to know
that. But the scripture also says that our problem is even
deeper than that. Listen to what Job said in Job
40 in verse 3. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. No lengthy and eloquent dissertation
is necessary. Very simple. My problem is what
I am. I am vile. Here's what the word means. I
am despicable, contemptible, dishonorable, and cursed. That's pretty low. Now we're
getting there. We're getting there. David said, I'm very low. And
we know that he was, because we know also that he said, Lord,
my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. I'm so wretched and vile, Lord,
that if you put me in hell, you'd be doing the right thing. That's
what David said. So that might be clear when thou
judgest me. I'm a despicable and cursed thing,
Job said, and I'm going to shut up now. You know, it's a pretty good
indication that we know what we are when we're to the place
where we finally shut up before God. I'm going to shut up now. No
more excuses. You know, we read about Saul
and how that Saul was rejected by God as king over Israel, and
God said to him, because you rejected my word, I rejected
you. And what God said to Saul was,
they were to go into this city and kill these people and kill
all the animals and destroy all the gods, destroy every living
thing, lay the complete thing to waste, and move on. Not complicated,
but you know what happened? God's prophet heard the noise
of some sheep bleeding, making some noise. He said, what is
that? Didn't God tell you to kill everything that moves in
this place? And Saul, you know what he did?
He said, oh, I was going to do that, but the people, the people
just kept on me. They told me we need to save
these sheep so we can sacrifice them to the Lord. Oh, boy. There it is now, excuses. Adam, where are you? Have you eaten? The woman that
you gave me, she taught me in time. No more excuses. No more boasting. No, but Lord, look at the good
things we do. Look at the good things we've done. Look at our
wonderful work. Shut up. No more decisions. You've decided
enough. I've decided enough. No more sinner's prayer, no more
religious recitations, no more, the more that comes from me,
the deeper I am in. And so, Job realized that, and
he said, I'm done, I'm gonna shut up now. Now that's pretty low. And from there we cry. That's
the one sound that a vowel person can make. That's not, and even that, are
we saved because we cry? Because of the efficacy of our
cry or the Quality of our cry? No. The reason the Lord hears our
cry is because of where He is. He said to Moses, I've heard
the cry of my people, and I've come down here to save them.
But we can cry. We don't cry, Lord, here's what
I've done. We don't cry, Lord, here's what
I'm going to do. We cry, help. Help. Help. Help me. Lord, help me. That's what the
woman of Canaan said, Lord help me, help me. Verse seven, bring my soul out
of prison. The Pharisees, you know David,
that just pours out of David. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
I'll set you free. If I set you free, you'll be
sure enough free. You know what they said? We've never been in
bondage. And yet David just so freely,
Lord, I'm in prison. Can you break me out? Would you
break me out? Would you deliver me? I'll praise
your name. That I may praise your name.
The righteous shall compass me about, for thou shalt deal bountifully
with me. Oh. I got way too much notes and
too little time, but let me just sum this up real quick. The righteous shall compass me
about, for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Now David most likely
is referring to the fact that the Lord is going to eventually
put him on the throne. He anointed him king. And David
knew before, I believe Paul ever said it, that if the Lord has
begun a good work, he'll finish it. The Lord finishes what he
begins. And David knew that. He knew
he was going to sit on the throne one day. And he said, when you
do that, Lord, when you put me where you said you would, I'm
going to be surrounded by the righteous. They're going to pledge their
allegiance to me and everything's going to be wonderful. You know,
that's probably what he's talking about. But think about it this
way, this is the Lord Jesus Christ
too, because when God deals bountifully with Christ, which he has done,
exalts him as a man, he was exalted before he ever came down here
now, but as a man, he is crowned, exalted, and when he sits on
his throne, when a man sits on the throne of heaven, and everybody
is going to acknowledge him as king, Every knee shall bow, and
every tongue shall confess. In other words, when God deals
bountifully with him in that sense, when he anoints and crowns
his son, the one who was born king now, and was king when he
hung on the cross, when he didn't look much like a king, God had
it written above his head, this is my king. He's always been
king, but when he sits on his throne, he's gonna be surrounded
by the righteous. We are covered, enveloped, and hedged about now.
Now think about this. There's another way of looking
at this. The reason God deals bountifully with us is why? Because
this word compassed means surrounded, enveloped by the righteous. If the righteous is the righteous
one, And we are encompassed about by Him. No wonder God deals bountifully
with us. And I believe the scriptures
bear that out. We are covered, enveloped, hedged about by Christ,
our righteous representative and substitute. We are so encompassed
by Him that God looks at us and only sees Him. When He looks at our record,
He doesn't see what we do or what we've done or what we're
going to do. He sees what Christ did as our substitute and representative. This is why God deals bountifully
with us. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. It don't get any more
bountiful than that. And don't miss those words, in
Christ. Because we are in Christ, we are dealt bountifully with. We are baptized into him. We
put him on Also put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ now listen
Galatians 3 26 for you are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus you are the children of God Not because of what nation
you were born of in this world not because you're a Jew or a
Gentile or anything else but by faith in Christ Jesus you
were born of the Spirit of God and by faith. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, now that's God that did that. God is the
one that baptized us into Christ, 1 Corinthians 1.30. Of Him, of
God are you in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So as many of
you, this is a description of us, the children of God. If you're
children of God by faith, you've been baptized into Christ. God
put you in His Son and made Him unto us everything we need. And
if you are baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ. You should
look at this later. I wish we had time. Galatians
3.26, look at it. If you have been baptized into Christ, He
immersed you in His Son. Of God are you in Christ? You
have put on Christ. You have surrounded yourself
with Him. First, He did it. Everything
we do, we do because He did something. We love Him because He first
loved. We put him on because he first
put us in. You see that? But we are immersed
into Christ and we put him on. That's willingly, by faith. This
is God working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
And he said in the next verse, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
Now that you've put on Christ, there's no bond nor free. There's
no male or female. You're all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you be Christ's, What is your cause in this world? My cause is to promote women.
You're not a woman if you're in here. Not in that sense. Not in that way. You're not to
distinguish yourself that way. That's not to be your cause.
You see what I'm saying? That's not what you're about.
You are Christ's. You are Christ's. Every other
distinction is insignificant. It doesn't mean anything. There's no Jew or Greek. There's
no Jewish Christians and Greek Christians. There's just Christ
apostrophe S. You see that? Well, you know,
I'm a Christian Jew and so my cause is a Jewish one. No. We are Christ's. The one that called us and To
be His soldiers, that's the one. We don't entangle ourselves in
any other cause or distinction. We are Christ, and if you be
Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according. You're
the ones that God made a covenant with a long time ago. He made a covenant with Himself
in eternity, and He made it with you in time. And David said,
God hath made with me an everlasting covenant. It's an everlasting
covenant, but he made it with me, a finite creature, a creature
of time. And think about what Paul said
there in Galatians 3, 26. Once God puts you in his son
and you put him on, you're no longer anything but his, you're
just his. What else matters? To belong to him is preeminent. All that's important about you
is him. You know, we make fun of people
and joke about it. I'm Vicky's husband. You know,
that's what, I'm Vicky's husband. In a spiritual sense, I'm his.
That's who I am, I'm his. Because you were his I Think
about this. He said if you're the children
of God by faith now listen to this Romans 8 16 the spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God
and if children then heirs Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ
if so be that we suffer with him that way we may be also Glorified
together now. What was David talking about
in our verse? He's gonna deal bountifully with us because we're
in Christ. God deals bountifully with us.
We are joint heirs with his son. He will glorify us together with
his son. How much of that did David see
when he wrote what he wrote? I don't know, but he sees now,
doesn't he? He sees now. Do we? Has God dealt bountifully
with you in the righteous? That's why we come and praise
Him. That's why we worship Him. Because He first loved us. Let's
pray.