Psalm 121. This is a very, very beautiful, beautiful
psalm and the truth taught in the entire Word of
God that's seen in this psalm is very beautiful. Psalm 121, I will lift up mine
eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth and even forevermore. Very comforting, very beautiful. We need help. David said, I'm
looking for help. I'm looking to the place where
my help comes from. No use looking to this earth
for that. So where is that? Where is he
looking? And what is this help that he needs? What do we need
help with? When I say Typically in the everyday usage of that
language, when I say I need some help, what I'm usually saying
is, I'm going to do it, but I need some help with it. I'm going
to do most of it myself. But it'd be nice, I could do
it quicker if you'd help me, or I could do it maybe safer
if you'd help me. I might even mean that I can't
do it without your help. But what I probably don't mean,
if I say help me with something, is that I'm not going to do anything.
So we need to understand something here. This is not I need a leg
up from God. This is not I need a helping
hand. This is not I need some cooperation from God. This word
help in our text is from a root word which means surround, protect,
and defend. And I want us to think about
that for a second. And more importantly than just
the definition of the word is that we understand when the scripture
speaks of us and God and what we need from him. What it's talking about is very
simple. We need for him to save us. We
don't need, as I said, a chance from him or a leg up, a little
help. We don't need him to meet us halfway. We need him to save
us. We need him to surround us. to protect us and to defend us. God surrounds us with a hedge.
It's talked about in the scripture in more than one place. When
Satan spoke of that hedge in the book of Job, as you'll likely
remember, he said this in Job 1.10, Hast thou not made an hedge
about him? When God bragged on Job, described Job as an upright
man that fears me and hates what I hate, And Satan, what he's
implying here when he says you've made a hedge around him, he said
just let me get to him. Right now I can't get to him
because you've got a hedge around me, but you let me have him for
a little while. And the Lord did. And we know
how that ends. When the Lord saves, he saves.
And the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church, his
people, his sheep. But this hedge, he said, how
haven't you made a hedge about him and about his house and about
all that he hath on every side? I can't touch him. I can't touch
what he has. I can't come near him. And his
substance is increased in the land. Satan and all of his demons
and all of the power of hell could not touch Job because God
was his help. That's comforting. God protects us. He surrounds
us and he protects us. Now, you might say, well, that's
the same thing, but wait a minute. Even if we're surrounded, we
still need protection in addition to that from ourselves. He not
only surrounds us and keeps anybody, anything out that can harm us,
he protects us even from ourselves. The way the Bible describes this
is in Psalm 91.9. Listen to it with me as I read
it to you. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge,
the psalmist said, you've made him your refuge. You've made
the most high your habitation too. And there shall no evil
befall you, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear
thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a
stone. Now he says here in this text,
no plague is coming near your dwelling. A thousand will fall
at your right hand, ten thousand at your left, or vice versa.
But it's not coming anywhere near you, the scripture says.
Because God protects us. But also, He protects you from
dashing your foot against a stone. If you stub your toe on a rock,
or Worse than that, my foot has crashed into stuff and I've gone
flying. If that happens, whose fault is that? You can't blame the rock, it's
just sitting there. If you dash your foot against
a stone, God won't even let you hurt yourself. That's what this
is teaching. He keeps the plague out, He keeps
Satan and all of his demons out. He surrounds us, but He also
protects us even from harming ourselves. And the spiritual
application, of course, of all this is that God will not allow
us to suffer any consequences for our sins. It's all a result
of sin. Every bad thing that happens
to you is because of your sin. It's not going to happen to you.
It's not going to happen. Because Christ bore our sins
and all of their consequences. These little things, we may suffer
a little bit in this world. That's not consequence for your
sin. That's just God chastising his babies. He's just spanking
his babies and teaching them. Only a bastard doesn't get that. Only an illegitimate child doesn't
receive that. That's what the scripture says.
But we're not even going to be able to hurt ourselves. He will
not suffer. us to suffer any consequence
for our sins. Satan only has access to us because
of our own sin. You realize that. Because we
listen to him, our own willingness to listen to him and defy God
in the garden and ever since. Not just in the garden, ever
since we've been doing that. That's why Satan has something
in us. And we're only dumb enough to
stumble and fall because of our own sin. So that's what we're
talking about, you see, is the consequences of our sins. You're
not going to allow it. You're not going to suffer any
consequence for your sins. We're protected by God even from
our own self-destructive nature. And this is talking about from
the lesser to the greater. If he won't even allow you to
stub your toe, do you imagine he's going to let you destroy
yourself? You think he's going to let you
fall away from the gospel if he's not even going to let you
stub your toe? You see how he argues from the lesser to the
greater? That's the least thing you might, you know, just think
of a kid hitting your toe on something. He's not even going to let that
happen, much less all of the other horrible things you would
fall into without him. But you're not without him. Every hair on your head is numbered. And he defends us. He defends
us. He defends us. What do we need
to be defended against? Well, Satan and our own selves,
as we've already talked about. But our real problem is that
God has a problem with us. So when I see this word defend
in the definition of help, I think about this. If we didn't have
a problem by nature with God, we sure wouldn't have to worry
about Satan or ourselves. He, our Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ, defends us in the very courtroom of God's justice and His judgment. We are in that
courtroom, charged and condemned and guilty, rightly condemned,
because of our sin again. But our great defender is Christ,
our Advocate. And he's more than just our advocate.
Let's read it together. Turn with me, if you would, to
this passage in 1 John 2. 1 John 2.1. I want you to see a
couple of words here. We're talking about help. What
does it mean? Surround, protect, and defend. He defends us in the courtroom
of God's justice. He defends us from the very consequences
of our sin and our legal problem with God. God's gonna have to
put us in hell unless somebody defends us, somebody advocates
for us. There's a mediator between us
and God. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, and that's the man, Christ Jesus. Listen
to what, listen to 1 John 2, my little children, these things
write I unto you that you sin not. He said, I'm writing to
you for a couple of reasons here. First of all, honor the Lord,
don't dishonor him. Don't despise him, don't disobey
him, but when you do, if any man sin, and we do, every
moment, all the time, it's mixed with all that we do, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who doesn't sin. You see the context, it's important
that I read it that way because the context it's When you sin,
you need somebody that doesn't sin to stick up for you. Jesus
Christ the righteous, the sinless one. And, verse two, and he is the
propitiation for our sins. You see that? You're not just
our advocate. Advocate, propitiation. The one who pleads my cause is
the one who paid my debt to the law and justice of God. You see
that? Christ is all. Salvation is of
the Lord. Christ is all in the saving of
a sinner. He pleads my case and he pleads
it on the basis of his own precious shed blood for me. The only sacrifice,
the only offering that God will accept for sin but the one offering
that God is completely satisfied with, with regard to my sin.
This is why we don't suffer any. He's not gonna suffer you to
dash your foot against a stone. As we'll read in a minute, your
foot can't be moved. You can't be harmed. You are surrounded. You are protected. You are defended
because of your advocate and your sin offering. Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. So when we're talking about help
from the Lord, what we're saying is that we are helpless except
he be our help. He does all of this for us and
we do, all we do is just do what he said to the Israelites at
the Red Sea. Just stand there and watch me
save you. That's what he said. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Just leave your sword where you
even have any. If you have any, just stand there.
This is what David's saying in our text. God, I'm, God's the
helper. I'm just looking. I'm just gonna
lift, all I'm gonna do is lift up my eyes. I can't even do that
without his grace. Look and live. It's gonna take
a lot more than a look to save you, but looking is all you're
gonna do. He's going to save you. And he does all the saving. So
God, God said to them, stand still and watch me save you.
In order to see God save you, where are you going to look?
If you want to see God save you, where are you going to look?
David said, I look to the hills. We're called upon in the word
of God over and over to look to the hills. The word hills
in our text is usually translated mountains. 59 times it's hills,
261 times it's mountains. To see God save us, we've got
to look to the mountains. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews chapter 12. There are
a couple of mountains in consideration in this passage in Hebrews 12,
and one of them that we're to come to, that we're able to come
to by God's grace. Hebrews 12, 18. Hebrews 12, 18. For ye are not come unto the
mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor
unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of
a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them any more." This is Mount Sinai. That's where
God gave his law. They didn't want it. They couldn't
even draw near to it. Listen to Verse 20, for they
could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as
a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust
through with a dart. And that doesn't just mean he's
not saying animals would come up there and touch it and die.
What he said, if so much as a beast, in other words, if you touch
it, you're a goner. You can't even approach the place
where God gives his law. Much less live up to that law. It shall be stoned and thrust
through with a dart, and so terrible was the sight that Moses said,
I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God. All through Old Testament
and New, Mount Zion is pictured, the church. That's where God's
people live with him. That's where he meets with his
people and dwells with them, the kingdom of God. And to an
innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel the
blood." Now we're looking at another mountain. The blood was shed on Mount Calvary.
And because it was, we don't come to Mount Sinai. We don't
even think about it. We don't even consider. We wouldn't
go to Mount Sinai if we could. And we can't if we wanted to. But we come to Mount Zion, we
come where God lives. We come into the presence and
kingdom, church of God, because of what happened on Mount Calvary.
The blood was shed that we read about a while ago. Our advocate
is also our propitiation, our sin offering, our spotless lamb. So we don't come to the mountains,
we come to only one, but we look at the mountains. David said,
I lift up my eyes to the mountains. And when we look to the mountains,
what do we see there? Well, that's where our help comes.
We see God saving us. That's what David said we see.
We see God saving us. When we look to Mount Sinai,
where God's law was given, we see what we need to be saved
from. Our inability to measure up to God's perfect, holy law. We tremble. There's no comfort
at Mount Sinai for the sinner. Because by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. And if we meet God
on those terms, on the terms of his legal, righteous claims
upon us, we're gone. That's what he's saying, so much
as even an animal, much less you, touches that mountain. There's only one thing for you,
death. Eternal, spiritual death in every sense of the word, death.
No help at Sinai, but we are helped in looking to Sinai because
the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It helps
us to see that all we can do before God's law is tremble.
We don't even want to talk to God on those terms. We don't
even want to hear from God on those terms. So we're not helped
in the sense that we find any help in the law, but we're helped
to look at it. Because you're not going to see
Mt. Calvary until you see Mt. Sinai. And vice versa. You're not ever
going to understand anything about Mt. Sinai until you come
to Calvary or see Calvary. When we look to Calvary, we see
Him saving us from that law. When we look to Sinai, we see
what He saved us from. When we look to Calvary, we see
Him actually, actually saving us from it. Saving us from our
sins. Suffering the consequences of
our breaking of that law. At Calvary, we see God's salvation
and that His salvation is a person, not a cross. Not a cross, a person. And we dwell on Mount Zion in
the church, in the kingdom of God, in his presence, with him,
with God, because Christ has washed us, redeemed us, saved
us with his precious blood. So where do we look for our protection? Defense for our surrounding our
that age Then we must have Go to the mountains And in verse
2 he said my help cometh from the Lord Don't misunderstand me now when
I say that it doesn't say it comes from Jesus It's from the Lord Jehovah Savior. My help comes from the throne. The throne. I see that help when
I look at the mountains. They were called upon throughout
all of scripture to look through it too. But it comes from the
throne. It comes from the Lord. It comes
from the King himself. My help coming from the Lord.
And that whole phrase, my help cometh from the Lord, six words,
is two words in the original Hebrew. You know what they are?
Help and Jehovah. It doesn't just come from him,
it is him. And we see that all through the rest of this chapter.
We'll see that over and over. Help and Jehovah. And the rest
of the verse tells us that the one who saves us is the one who
is the first cause of everything. He made heaven and earth and
all that in them is. He made them. He owns them. He
runs them. He is the first cause of everything. The one who is our help knows
the end from the beginning because He is the end and the beginning.
He said, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He created all things and he
did it, he said, for his own pleasure. And he does what he
will with his own. That's who helped me. How about
you? He saves whom he pleases. He
hardens and destroys whom he pleases. He raised up Pharaoh
in order to show everybody that. That's what he said. He said,
the reason I raised Pharaoh up was to show you that I save whom I please and
I damn whom I please. Have you seen it? He showed it to you. But he also raised up Pharaoh
to show how that he saves his people. How does he save them? In all of the Exodus story, how
were they saved? What was the final deliverance?
They were saved by the blood of the Lamb, the Passover lamb.
That's also why he raised up Pharaoh. The whole message of Exodus is that God has made a difference
between his people and the Pharaohs of this world, which we were
by nature. He saves them by his precious blood and he dumps Pharaoh
in hell where he belongs, as it pleases him. He's the only one that can help
you. that might offend you. The only one that can help you
is the offensive one. The offense of the cross is the
only good news there is. When you look to the hills and
see God's salvation in and by the blood of the Lamb, you'll
see the fullness and uttermostness of that salvation. He is able
to save to the uttermost those that come to God by Him. And
that's what we see in the rest of this song. The uttermostness
of that salvation. This salvation, and this is the
importance of it now. If salvation is a plan, that's
one thing. If salvation is a choice, that's
another thing. If salvation is a decision, that's
another thing altogether now, but if salvation is the person
of God's holy, almighty, perfect, omniscient, omnipotent Son, then salvation is perfect, complete,
full, and eternal. And that's what David said here
now. Look at it again. Thy help cometh
from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer
thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. He is thy shade on thy right
hand. The Lord is your help. He is your salvation. He is the
one who preserves you. He is the one that shades you.
He is the one that hedges you. He is these things. And as I said earlier now, if
you have no problem with God, then you have no problem with
anybody or anything else. And in Christ, you have no problem
with God. And therefore you have no problem. Period. We are reconciled to God by the
death of his son. And so our enemies can't, we
have no problem with anybody. They have a problem with us.
They can't touch us. We can't even hurt ourselves.
How long would it take you to completely crater and collapse
and fold in on yourself and fall headlong into hell if he lets
you go. We don't need Satan to do that, do we? You're not going to let it happen.
You're not going to let it happen. And I love that line, he will
not suffer it. He will not. He will not allow
it. There's my comfort. My comfort is not in, boy, me,
you know, living the Christian life and I'm, you know, I'm just
enduring and one day at a time, you know, my comfort and my hope
and my rest is that He will not let me be harmed. He will not
let me suffer one single consequence of all of my sins. Reconcile to God by the death
of his son. Romans 5, 6. Listen to this. Let me read it to you. Romans
5, 6. For when we were yet without
strength, you're not even going to be able to look to where your
help's coming from until he does something for you without strength. But Christ died for the ungodly. In other words, when I was without
strength, Christ died for me. What's that saying? When I couldn't
do anything, He did everything. He did everything God requires
to save me. He died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. It isn't marvelous that He would
do that for me. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet enmity sinners, wretched, repulsive
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. It's not that he made salvation
available. If you were justified, I should
have had you turn here, but listen to it. If you are justified by
His blood, not only are you saved, but you shall be saved. You've
been saved. You're being saved. You will
be saved from wrath through Him because of that precious blood. It didn't give you a chance.
He saved you with it. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, we were
reconciled. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. It's done. If when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God, by the death of his son he accomplished reconciliation,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And the rest of this psalm is
what it looks like to be saved by his life. Your foot cannot be moved. But what if I fall away, Chris?
Well, if you trust yourself, you're going to fall away. It's
not in question. You're going to. But if Christ
is all of your salvation, you cannot fall. You cannot ever
be lost. You cannot even be moved. This
is why we have the warnings in Scripture that we do about enduring
unto the end and endeavoring to keep the unity, and to walk
worthy, and running the race, and not falling away, and not
following the examples of unbelief that we see in the scripture,
all these exhortations and warnings. We have those in the Word of
God, not because those who trust in Christ can ever fall, but
we have them to keep us looking to Christ. If He's your salvation, you can't
fall. And notice now, again, the only
reason your foot won't be moved is because he won't allow it. Let me read you a verse of scripture
with regard to that. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to
have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for
you, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. You see the correlation to our
tax? He's not going to allow that. The slightest thing, the slightest
trial, the slightest wind of false doctrine would move us
if he would but allow it. But he shall not allow it. The
Apostle Peter now would be sifted as wheat. His faith would fail
if not for Christ's intercession. May He teach us this. He's saving
you while you sit there if He ever saved you. He's saving you
right now. He don't sleep. The one that saves you, the one
that has saved you and is saving you, He don't sleep. Now, why
does it mention that at all? Because you'd not think that
would go without saying everybody knows God doesn't sleep. He's
not like us. Why is that important? Because
you do. You do sleep. You sleep when
you're awake. The Lord says to us, watch and
pray. And what do we do? Well, turn with me to Mark chapter
14. We know the answer, don't we? Let's look at it in action.
Mark 14 and see the grace of our Savior. Mark 14, 37. Mark 14, 37. And above this now, above this
verse, in the previous verses, in the context, the Lord is beginning
to bear the weight of our sin. His soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. There's only one thing that brings
that on, and that's my sin. My sin. Not his. He didn't have
any. My sin. He's bearing my sin. And his
soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, and he's sweating
great drops of blood. And he comes, in verse 37, and
findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou?
Couldst not thou watch one hour? Watch ye, and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation. The Spirit truly is ready. We're
born again of his spirit now, and we want to honor him. We want to watch with him. We
want to be careful. We know that we're susceptible.
We know the flesh is weak. But the flesh is weak. And you knowing it doesn't help
that much. I'm glad I know it, but it's
still weak. And again he went away and prayed
and spake the same words and when he returned he found them
asleep again. Are we asleep tonight? God help us. God help us. We're
asleep, aren't we? Just as sure as I'm standing
here. As sure as you're sitting there, we're asleep. But you
know what? We're gonna be okay anyway. It's gonna be alright. He found them asleep again, for
their eyes were heavy, aren't they? Aren't they? You know why their eyes, the
flesh is weak. There's a lot, this is not just physical now,
this is spiritual too. Our eyes are heavy. It's hard
for us to keep our eyes on Him, isn't it? It's hard for us. It's impossible. We can't do
it. But he don't sleep. He don't sleep. And that's my hope. That's all my hope. And they didn't know what to
say. What are you going to say to that? They wish not what they're answering.
What are you going to say? He caught you sleeping again.
What do you say when you pray to God? Do you find yourself
always having to say to God, I'm sorry? I'm sorry. Me too. When you come at the third time and
say it to them, Isn't that beautiful? Go ahead
and get some sleep. Take your rest. It is enough. You know how much we contributed
to enough? Not only did we do nothing, we
couldn't even watch him doing it all. We don't even have the
strength to look to Him doing it all. Nothing. And yet it's enough. Because
He's enough. If He's all you have, He's enough. What do you mean enough? What
do you mean? Well, the hour has come and behold, the Son of Man
is betrayed into the hands of sinners. He that keepeth thee never slumbers or sleeps. Isn't
that good? Isn't that precious? What a comfort. And let me just make one final
comment tonight on the rest of this chapter. I want to read
it. Now think about this as I do. The day that God first brought
you to Sinai. Has God ever saved you? He showed
you Sinai now. You've trembled before Him. You've
seen You've seen him and seen yourself
in light of his holiness and his justice and his judgment,
his righteous claims upon you, his holy law. And when he first brought you
there and showed you just how deeply wretched you are, showed you how much trouble you
were in, How hopeless and how helpless. Not even able to approach the
only one that could help you. Christ was all to you then, wasn't
he? He's all to you then. He was
all of your salvation and all of your hope and all of your
desire then. Because what are you gonna do? Meaning, brethren, what shall
we do? We've crucified the Prince of Life. That's a rhetorical question
because the answer is nothing. And everybody knows it that ever
asked it. What is He to you now? Who is
Christ to you now? Is He still all? More than ever. More than ever. Even now, He
keeps you. He does not suffer any harm to
come to you. He preserves you. He said, I
prayed for you. You'd be a goner. Your faith Faith is a precious gift because
of who the object of faith is, but the strength of your faith
is not your hope. He shades you with his hand,
lets you be burned, he saves you yet every day, every step,
every decision, every trial, every moment, whether a moment
of great consequence or small. Every moment. Christ is all to
us right now. Since the first time we ever
saw him, he's everything. And may we always know that and
honor him as such. Listen to the language of it. The Lord is thy keeper. He is
your keeper. He's your helper. He's your savior. The Lord, the sovereign. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Over and over it's the Lord doing
something, being something for you. It was that way on day one
and it's that way now. That's what we're seeing here.
Since we first looked by his grace and lived by faith, we
looked and we saw that he is salvation and we are experiencing
that as you sit there right now tonight. He is all of my salvation. I don't perish because he won't
allow it. I don't stomp, I don't dash my
foot against the stone because he won't let me. I don't stray
because he keeps me. I don't get too hot because he
shades me. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore. He'd better. He'd better, I tell
you that. You won't even make it to your
car tonight unless he keeps you. And you know I'm right. You know
that's the truth. Spurgeon said one time that if
the Lord Jesus Christ brought me to within a step, to within
a single step of glory and left me there, I would not make it. But my Lord, my Savior, my Keeper,
my Redeemer will never leave nor lose one of His own. Thank God for him tonight and
thank him every moment, every moment. May he graciously cause
us to acknowledge him continually as our help, our protection,
our defender, our keeper, our savior, the Lord, our savior.