All right, brethren, Psalm 12. Let's read it one more time. I don't think we can read the text too many times and get us focused here. Psalm 12.1. It's the Psalm of David. That word, it says, to the chief musician upon Shemineth. That's an instrument, like a harp. This is a Psalm of David.

Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things, who have said with our tongue, will we prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure words. as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted.

I want to focus here particularly on verse five for the oppression of the poor. For the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. And I want to focus on verse seven. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.

Our subject is for the oppressed, for the oppressed. The point of this psalm is quite simply this, the Lord saves the poor and needy from oppression. The Lord shall save and keep the poor and needy from oppression. Oppressed means to be squeezed, to be pressed, to be forced. In scripture, men oppress in various ways, It's often associated with unjust judgment, unjust judgment, in robbing men of money or possessions. Forced labor is another way men are oppressed, like Pharaoh oppressed the children of Israel when they were slaves. And worst of all is false religion, worst of all. Men usually oppress the helpless, widows, orphans, Here it's the poor and the needy.

Spiritually, the poor and the needy and the orphans and the widows are the Lord's people. Spiritually, because they're the most helpless, and that's us by nature. We are the most helpless. Now it's clear from the scripture that God hates oppression. He hates oppression, and he hates the oppressor. He said in Proverbs 3, Proverbs 3.31, he said, envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. Why would you envy the oppressor? Because a lot of times they're very, very wealthy. And he said, but envy not the oppressor, choose none of his ways, for the froward is abomination to the Lord. That's what the oppressor is, he's froward. trespasser, a vile person in God's eyes. But he said, his secret is with the righteous. The mystery of godliness God reveals to his people. God manifests in the flesh. Christ came and he said, you hid these things from the wise and prudent, you revealed and obeyed. God's mystery, his secret, is with the righteous, is with those that he's made righteous.

Now, oppression is the fruit of the fall. It's the fruit of the fall. It's the fruit of sin, oppression. Men have oppressed one another since the fall. Ever since sin entered and we died by sin, men have been oppressive, been oppressive. David saw it in his day, and he's praying for the Lord to help. He says there in verse one, help Lord for the godly man ceaseth. The faithful fail from among the children of men. Godly men are those that the Lord's chosen to save by his free and sovereign grace. The godly are those that have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus, regenerated by the Spirit. The Lord's given a new heart with a reverence for God, a true fear of God. and He's put faith in your heart to trust Christ. He made you know you're a sinner so that you mourn your sin, you hate it, and you long for the day when the Lord will free us from the presence of it.

But knowing what He's done for us, knowing that it's all by God's grace, knowing that it's Christ through His precious blood, the godly man believes only on Christ. And the godly man loves his brethren. The love of God is put in the heart. And you love your brethren. You want to help them. You want to be merciful to them. And even to your enemies. This is so with the Lord's people. They're faithful. They're faithful. They are faithful by the grace of God. To look only to Christ and have no confidence in this flesh. But to look only to Him. to be led of the spirit, to come to hear the gospel and to hear Christ speak to the heart and be led of him and faithful to brethren, faithful to others. They don't want to do harm to the Lord's people, not trying to take advantage, don't have an ulterior motive, not a double heart. This is the heart that the Lord has put in his people.

But just like David, describes it here, the Lord's people have always been a remnant in every generation. Always a remnant. The next verses that we see here give a good description of the oppressor. Now here's a good description of the oppressor. Some are worse outwardly than others, but this is what every unregenerate sinner is, because a non-regenerate man's only sin And this is what is in the heart by nature. Out of the deceitful heart comes a deceitful tongue. He says in verse two, they speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor. He doesn't leave any out. And remember now, this is not just David's opinion. This is the spirit of God. And he says, the oppressor speaks vanity. Everyone, each of them, all of them, with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak." A double heart. They speak flattery with the tongue, but they have a different motive of the heart to take advantage.

The sinful, fallen nature is proud. It's all it is, pride, pride. And you see that here, the Lord's gonna cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Here's how it sounds. Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail. With our tongue, we will prevail. That's pride, isn't it? And our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? That's the heart of natural man. Proud. Proud.

Every sinner comes into the world this way. Every sinner does. There's no exceptions. None at all. were that ruined? And David, we see this throughout the scriptures. David wasn't the only one that said it. Micah said it. I want you to see what Micah said in Micah 7.2. Go over there, Micah 7.2. Malachi, Zechariah, Nahum, I'm in the back, Nahum, Micah, going backwards, Micah 7.2. Look here. He said, The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net, that they may do evil with both hands earnestly.

Now listen to this next description. This sounds like political leaders, it sounds like judges, it sounds like people in power in our own nation. Listen to this right here. The prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward, a bribe, and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. They make a little backdoor deal, you know, one greases the palm of the other, and they make their desire known and they wrap it up. The best of them is as a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge.

Every day in the news, we hear of oppression. We hear of unjust dealing every day, every day. And men will say, well, we ought to, you know, we need to pass new laws. You know, that's, that's what Washington's all about is passing laws. And brethren, God gave perfect law. Never been a law given more perfect than what God gave. Holy, just, and good. Law does not stop oppression. Law does, you can't legislate grace. You can't do it. We've been making new laws and new laws and new laws, and just finding ways around them. We have to keep making new ones because we keep breaking them.

Now that's so in a civil sense, but that's so with the word of God, with God's law, any law. We are lawbreakers by nature. Men are oppressive by nature. And this was so of Israel. It was so of the children of Israel.

Listen from Isaiah 5, 7. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. He looked for judgment. He gave his oracles, he gave the law, he gave a perfect government for his people with the law he gave, and he looked for judgment. But behold, oppression, oppression. He looked for righteousness. Behold, a cry, the oppressed crying out.

But they were religious, weren't they? Wasn't Israel religious? Yes, they were religious. the very word given from God on Mount Sinai. They were very religious. But that doesn't make a man saved, being religious, and it doesn't make a man cease being oppressor. In fact, vain religion, false religion, is the very worst oppression there is.

Religious leaders oppress with the law of God, the law that no man's ever kept, the law that they don't keep. Paul said they don't keep the law, and they constrain you to keep it, but they don't keep it. No man's ever kept it. No son of Adam has ever kept it. And they use commandments of men, things that they've added, and when you take the law of God and you tell sinners they can be righteous or holy or contribute to salvation by the works of the law, you've turned the law of God into the commandments of men. because that's not what the book teaches. The book doesn't say we can be righteous or holy by law. So when you tell sinners that, that's a commandments of men, plus they add their own commandments in addition, but it's squeezing sinners, it's oppressing sinners, putting a heavy load on sinners to produce a righteousness they cannot produce, to produce a holiness they cannot produce, only God can. And that's what this oppression is.

And think about the flattery of the tongue in false religion. The flattery of the tongue. They speak of God as being helpless and exalt man. That's flattering to men. Don't tell men that they're totally ruined. Tell them there's a little sparkle of goodness in them. Tell them there's a little something they can do, and that flatters the sinner. That flatters the sinner. They boast that they have prevailed with their tongue. That's what it says here. They boast they've prevailed with their tongue. How would a religious man do that? I said the sinner's prayer. I prayed through. I went to the priest and confessed my sin. I said a dozen Hail Marys. I decided to give Jesus my heart. All of these things, I prevailed with my tongue. And vain religion does it, the tongue out of the heart, the mouth speaks. So it's all coming from a deceitful heart. And it's for a deceitful reason, for monetary gain, or to make a fair show before men, the scripture said, to make a boast to God on what they constrained others to do, and forced other men to do, that will be Part of what religious leaders will say in the day of judgment, didn't we, look, we cast devils out. We kicked out people that didn't act like we said they should act. And we got these people to be good folks. And that's all a vain show, a vain, deceitful show. And it's from a deceived, sinful heart. And they do appear to profit in this world.

When you see in civil, secular realm, you see folks who appear to prosper, making secret deals, and then in false religion appears to prosper. Look down at verse eight. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted. When you exalt a man, folks will come hear that message. They'll give. They'll build big buildings, they'll do a lot of earthly things because that sues the conscience. And the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are exalted, but we won't prosper with God that way. Look back up there at verse three. God shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. That's gonna be the end, but you know, There's at least one reason we see here why the Lord left oppressors in this world and left his people amongst oppressors. We see one reason. What did it bring David to do? Help Lord. He's calling on the Lord, help Lord, save Lord. He's gonna keep his sayings, calling on him to save continually. That's what he's gonna do. We're not going to take up picket signs and we're not going to start trying to change governments and protest and go on starvation protests and all this. What are we going to do? We're going to cry to the Lord. Help Lord. Save Lord. And it doesn't have to be some elaborate prayer. That's what a man prays when you really see that you're helpless. Help Lord. Save Lord.

When Peter was looking to the Lord, he was walking on water. But when he took his eyes off and he looked at the waves, when you take your eyes off Christ and you start looking at the oppressors and you start looking at all the injustice in the world and all the things going on, you'll start sinking just like Peter did. But what did Peter cry? Save, Lord. Help, Lord. Just like David. That's why the Lord's left us here in the midst of these oppressors.

But here's the good news now. Knowing all that's true, here's the good news. God shall help, he shall. God alone shall save his people from the oppressor. Verse five, for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. I will, the Lord said.

There's clearly two different people spoken of in this psalm. There's two different groups of people spoken of right here. Verse seven, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation. That's speaking of people. You're gonna preserve them from this generation. That's two different groups of people. That one phrase tells us the Lord is never purposed to save everybody. He's gonna save his people from this generation, this generation of proud, flattering, deceitful oppressors. The them here are those that God saves. It's his elect. It's those he chose by his free and his sovereign grace. This is the world Christ laid down his life for.

Brother Moose Parks sent out I believe it was in his bulletin this week, a really good article on the world. If you can find that, I encourage you to read it.

But this is the world the Lord saves. It's the world that he chose before the foundation of the world. It's the world that Christ loved and laid down his life for. They're going to be regenerated, and they're gonna be preserved. He will preserve them. the scripture says.

Now, we're no different. We are absolutely no different from the oppressors described here as we come into this world, as far as we're concerned. We're just like sinful oppressors, but God chose who he would by grace, and he's gonna save us by grace, and he's gonna preserve us by grace.

They said in Isaiah 1, verse 9, except the Lord, except the Lord, except the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant. We should have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what we say because that's true. You know that's true. Except it was the Lord's grace in choosing a remnant. We deserved everything Sodom and Gomorrah received.

The Lord promises to save his people and preserve his people from this generation. This generation are sinners, everybody else, who do not want to be saved by the Lord of hosts. They do not want to be saved by Christ. They want to be saved by their will and by their works. Or they just out and out have nothing, want nothing to do with God, period, and try to put out of their mind that God even exists.

But listen, when our Lord spoke to the devil in the garden. He said, I'm gonna put enmity between thee and the woman, enmity, enmity between the devil and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. God put enmity between the devil's seed and Christ, this woman's seed, enmity. It shall bruise thy head, thou shalt bruise his heel. You're gonna bruise his heel, but he's gonna bruise your head.

But this enmity, this was something that I was thinking about this week, and this really came strongly to me. Those that hate Christ, every natural man does, scripture says. But now some just out and out hate the Lord and are irreligious and go through life pursuing other things and have no interest at all. But others are religious. But a person, a natural religious man, whose heart is enmity against God, the way that they manifest that enmity is by saying that their will had something to do with their salvation. saying their works contributed to their salvation. That's how they express their enmity for the true Lord.

Now I'm not, they wouldn't say they hate the Lord. They'll say they love the Lord. But it's a different Jesus they're speaking about. But just the fact that they're saying they contribute or their will or something of themselves, that's enmity. That's enmity against the truth of God

But the self, self, is the unregenerate man's God. Self is, himself. And everything that he's doing is for self. It's for his own money, it's for his idol, God, and to preserve his false refuge. It is to save his honor, his dignity. Everything is for self. Self is an unregenerate man's God.

That was us, brethren. That's exactly the nature that we got from Adam, still with us today, is just that way. That's the sin of it. We would worship ourselves if God left us to ourselves. And that's what the rest of the world does unless God saves. The natural man cannot deny himself. He cannot confess he's totally ruined and unable to do anything in salvation. He can't do it. He won't do it, but he can't do it. He can't do it. And he cannot trust Christ alone. We could not believe the Lord. and leave it in his hand. We couldn't do it. Men speak of faith like it's an easy thing. Well, it is easy when the Lord's given you the faith and it's a power of the Lord working it in you. Believing on Christ took all the heavy burden off you. But it's not easy in the sense that we can't do it unless the Spirit of the Lord gives us faith. Right now, as a believer, don't you experience times when you find yourself full of unbelief, and you can't just snap out of that. You can't just stop it. It really is the Lord, and the Lord has to do that.

But look now, here's the characteristics of those God saves. Here's the characteristics. Verse five, for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy. These are words that you can just easily read over But listen, they go together because this is what each of the Lord's people are, the poor and the needy. You can be poor and still provide for yourself and your family. But if you're poor and needy, this is somebody who's poor and they cannot provide. They cannot do anything to provide for themselves or for anybody else. This is the poor and the needy. That's who God saves. He has to make us know that about ourselves, but that's who he saves.

And a good illustration of this is the children of Israel in bondage in Egypt. In fact, that's the very first place this word oppression is mentioned in the scripture. The Lord said, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is coming to me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. That's a good illustration of what This oppression that we're in by nature, this is the oppressional. Just like Pharaoh had them in chains, and they could not escape. That's the same way we were under the power of the prince of air. The devil had us bound, and we could not get free from those chains. Pharaoh had his taskmasters, and they made their life bitter with hard bondage. We had our sin nature, we had this world, men of this world, and there was false religion that were the taskmasters, keeping us bound, keeping us bound. And the children of Israel could in no way break free from that. And we see once the Lord brought them out, and those that were brought out in body only, not in spirit, once they got outside, and as soon as trouble came, they pined away that they we stayed still back in Egypt. That's the nature. We couldn't free ourselves, and even if we could have broken free a little bit, we'd be right back because we're poor and needy, poor and needy.

I would pray, and I pray this continually, that the Lord would create a new heart and one of his lost sheep, some of his lost sheep, all his lost sheep, I just want us, that the Lord would open the heart to know what Jonah said. Salvation is of the Lord. That statement is so simple, so clear, but that statement is profound. Salvation entirely is of the Lord. The Lord said, without me you can do nothing. Nothing. It's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. Now if you're the poor and needy, if that's you, so poor, so bankrupt, and so needy that you have no way to free yourself, no way to believe, no way to even trust the Lord. Then here's the good news. Verse five, for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

Now will I arise. At the appointed hour, the Son of God arose from his thrown in glory, and He came and took flesh like unto His brethren. When the appointed time came, He went to that cross, bearing the sin of His people, and arose upon that cross, and was made a curse for us on that cross. And when He finished that work, He arose from the grave, and then He arose to the right hand of the Father.

And He sent the gospel to us, And He arose in our heart. He made us see Him exalted in our hearts. We saw Him magnified in our hearts. And He made you bow down and trust Him because you saw He put away all the sin of His people. He made us everlastingly righteous in Him. He broke the devil's crust, his head, and took his power from being able to rule and dominate us. And He took the domination of your sin nature off of you. He gave you a new heart so that By Him reigning in the heart, Him being exalted in your heart, He will keep you from falling away in unbelief and apostasy. And He'll never, ever let us be separated from Him. He will not let you be separated from Him, ever. He'll preserve us from this generation forever.

Our Savior knows, He knows, He regards, He heard the sighing of the needy. and he arose to come to their aid. We don't have to protest, we don't have to act like the world does when you see injustice in this world, because this right here we know. He sees you, he regards you, he knows his people, he knows where his people are, he knows what his people need, and he's the only one who can meet that need, and he shall.

Listen to this now, this is Ecclesiastes 5.8. You know, you start seeing these things happen in the world, And we start, the devil has a million ways to try to get you turned from Christ only. And he can use injustice and wrongs you see in the world and get you wanting to do something about it. You know, we gotta do this or that and change, start getting into politics and all these things. Listen to what the Lord said, Ecclesiastes 5.8. If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter. For he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they. They're not the ones in the ultimate authority, he is, and he knows, he knows. And if our Savior permits men to do bodily harm to us, they still will never be permitted to separate us from him. Not at all.

You remember when Stephen was being stoned, and just before he died, the Lord opened his eyes. Remember what he saw? It says, he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said, behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. When he was in trouble, the Lord knew it, and the Lord arose and said, now I will set Stephen in safety from him that puffeth at him. And that's what the Lord did. And that's what he'll do for you, believer.

Now, how can I be sure the Lord's gonna do this? He's given us his word. He's given you his word. And his word is sure. Look at verse six. The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. That's pure. That's pure. The word of God was purified in perfection for his elect when Christ bore the furnace of God's wrath on the cross and satisfied justice. That's why he said this is the New Testament in my blood. And so every covenant promise God makes to us is yes and amen in Christ, all to God's glory. It's pure. All the promises are pure.

God doesn't flatter us with the tongue. He tells you, you are the sinner. And he declares Christ is your only salvation. He doesn't flatter. He never uses deceit. This word's free from draws. It has no impurity in it. Every word of God is pure. He's a shield under them that put their trust in him. That's the scripture He gives us sure promises to preserve us promising. He will preserve us From from this wicked oppressive generation and he'll do it forever. That's his promise

Confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good work in you shall Perform it until the day of Jesus Christ Paul said, he delivered us from so great a death, and he does deliver, and we trust he will yet deliver. This is his word. Who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I wanna give you one scripture, Psalm 37. How sure is this word? Psalm 37. Let's read, we'll read verse eight.

The transgressors shall be destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him.

Brethren, have you noticed we've been going verse by verse for 18 years. We've been going verse by verse through the books of the Bible. And this is the message that we see over and over and over. We're the sinner, poor and needy. God is the savior and he shall save his people from their sin. That's the message of this book.

What does that make you wanna do? Number one, it makes me wanna cast all my care into the Lord's hand. I trust him. Number two, it gives me comfort to know that he sees and he knows, he regards, and we cry, help Lord, save Lord, and he's gonna save. And number three, this makes me not want to be oppressive to anybody. I don't want to oppress anybody. I don't want to force, try to force or press or put a squeeze on anybody to force them into doing anything.

What I do want is I want you to see the Lord, I want you to know the Lord, I want you to believe on the Lord. This is what grace does. Knowing what great salvation He's shown us and how He's delivered us, we don't have to oppress anybody. You don't have to oppress anybody. The Lord's going to bring his people to where the gospel is. He's going to quicken their hearts in the time he's appointed. And he's going to continue to keep you and preserve you after that.

You don't have to oppress anybody. He's going to provide everything we need so the gospel can keep going forth. And he's going to make us willingly lay down our life for one another, for the gospel's sake, because that's what he did for you in a way we'll never do. And he's shown you that your brethren are the nearest thing you have to Christ on this earth. He's in each one of them. Brethren, we're the nearest thing we have to our Savior. And what a gift. Behind our Lord Jesus Christ being the unspeakable gift, brethren, are one of the greatest gifts God's given us. And this is what we know. So we don't have to oppress one another. We don't have to try to rob or be unjust with anybody. And the just thing, judge righteous judgment, the just thing always is to declare the truth of how Christ has saved his people

And it's to pray to Him, and it's to be merciful and to be forgiving. That's the just thing to do, especially to those He saved, because He satisfied justice for us. So we don't have to oppress that. And this is what the gospel makes you want to do. It's what He makes His people willing to do. Because you see what great salvation He's accomplished for you, and still saving you on a daily basis.

and I'll never stop till you're with him forever. That's our Lord, that's our gospel. Let's go to him, brethren.

Our great God and our Father, what a blessing of your free grace that you have made us to know your salvation, that you would reveal to us, Christ Lord, What amazing grace you have shown to sinners like us. And Lord, you just keep on showing us more of Him. You keep on reminding us over and over in your Word of these sure promises, this sure Word made sure by our Savior. Lord, thank you. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for calling us and keeping us.

And Lord, we pray for our children. every one of our children for our brethren that are sick and troubled and even, Lord, we pray for our neighbors, we pray for those that live around this building right here. Lord, to be this close to where your gospel is being preached and never come to hear it. Oh, Lord, would you be pleased to draw your people? We have your promise and we know your word, but Lord, You said to ask you, and we're asking you help, Lord. Save, Lord. Save us and save our children and save any of your lost sheep, Lord. Bring them to hear your word. Save them by your grace.

Lord, we thank you. You get all the glory. You deserve it all. Lord, we can't express how grateful we are But Lord, we thank you. Thank you so much for saving your people. Thank you for a word like this, Lord, to keep us knowing and remembering. Hear us for his sake. Save us for Christ's sake. In his precious name we ask it, Lord. Amen.

All right, Brother Adam.