All right, brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 140. Psalm 140. For our friends who are online,
I will say that the reason we don't have a video tonight is
because our AC is out in the auditorium, and so we're having
a meeting in our dining area, so we only have the audio. This
is, the title of this psalm, Psalm 140, is To the Chief Musician,
A Psalm of David. But as with most of these psalms,
this is the Lord Jesus speaking. The Spirit of God gave David
these words, but it's the word of our Lord Jesus. And when you
come to passages that, towards the end of this psalm, He prays
against the wicked. That's something you and me are
not told to do. We're told to pray for our enemies,
even those that despitefully use us. There is such a thing
as righteous indignation, but we've got to be very careful
about that. we can have sin mixed with it very easily. But we know
that the Lord Jesus knows the hearts of all men and He knows
who are His and who are not His. And while He prays and intercedes
for God's elect who He redeemed, And he's able to pray and intercede
against those that are not his for the good of his people and
the safety of his people. And he can pray that perfectly
in perfect righteousness. You and I have to be careful
about that. You don't know who the Lord's
people are and I don't either. We may be praying against somebody
that is his child and we don't want to do that. But this psalm
here, I want you to see first of all, this is the prayer of
our Savior as He walked this earth and as He was looking to
the Father and trusting the Father in perfection. And He was doing
that for His people. He was doing that for all God's
elect to make us righteous and to make us holy. He did it from
a perfectly holy heart without any sin, And then He went to
that cross and bore the sin of His people and completely put
our sin away. And the entire time, from the
womb to the tomb, our Savior is righteous and holy. And He
is the only righteousness and holiness that we have. You and
me have sin mixed with everything we do. But we see here His perfect
faithfulness praying to the Father and committing his cause into
the hand of the Father. And then the second thing that
we see here, though, is by Him giving us a new spirit, He's
going to keep us committing our cause to Christ, just like He
did to the Father. That's what He's going to do.
I've titled this, Deliver Me, O Lord. Deliver Me, O Lord. He says there in verse 1, Deliver
Me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent
man. He's using even the wicked to
teach his people. You and I face some wicked men
in this world. But he's using even those that
oppose us and afflict us and persecute us. He's using those
men. to teach us to commit all to
Him and trust Him. He's the only one that can save
us and deliver us out of our trouble. Now first of all, what
I want us to do tonight is let's go through this psalm and let's
hear the Lord's description of unregenerate sinners. The Lord's
description. This is not man's description,
this is God's description. Every person died in Adam. We became guilty in Adam and
we were born in sin so we have a nature that's wicked as we
come into the world. So this is the heart of everybody
that hadn't been regenerated, hadn't been born again. And remember
this as we look at this, this is what all God's elect are by
nature. This is what the Lord saved us
from and continues to save us from. And something else to remember
is This was so of religious men who persecuted our Savior. When
we think wicked, we hear the word wicked, we may think of
some people that are obviously wicked. The folks that persecuted
our Lord Jesus and ended up nailing Him to the cross, they didn't
appear wicked. They appeared holy. They were
very religious. They did what they did, calling
on God and saying they were doing what they did for the glory of
God. That's why I tell you, me and you need to be careful about
who we reject because they rejected a man one time and it was the
Prince of Life, God in human flesh. But here's God's description. Verse one, he's called the evil
man, the violent man. Deliver me, O Lord, from the
evil man. Preserve me from the violent
man. And then in verse two, he says
they're continually imagining evil. He says, verse two, which
imagine mischiefs in their heart continually, which imagine mischiefs
in their heart continually are they gathered together for war.
The Pharisees gathered together, like we're doing right here,
but they gathered together for war. And you know, when religious
folks gather, if the spirit of God hasn't regenerated a sinner,
and they gather and they're talking about good works and they're
talking about doing good deeds and this and that, they're really
gathered together for war. Whatsoever's not of the Lord
and whatsoever's not of faith is sin. God won't receive it,
and it's wickedness before God. But the Pharisees gathered together,
and they actually plotted how they were going to try to overthrow
the Lord Jesus Christ, and overthrow the Lord's Church. That's every
unregenerate heart. Listen to this, Genesis 6-5,
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. That's what we are by nature.
You don't have to do something outwardly to sin. It's what we
are inwardly. Inwardly. And our Lord said it's
out of the sinful heart that the mouth speaks. So verse three
talks about the tongue. They have sharpened their tongues
like a serpent. Adder's poison is under their
lips. This is what Paul quoted in Romans
three. The poison of asps. A snake is
under their tongue. That comes from the wicked heart. That's exactly where it comes
from. Proverbs 16, 27 says, an ungodly man diggeth up evil. He goes looking for dirt on,
like they did on Christ and on his people. That's what a wicked
man does. And in his lips there's a burning
fire. A frauded man soweth strife and
a whisperer. He just repeats what he heard
or what he thinks might be the case. Doesn't have two or three
witnesses to confirm anything. Just whispers what he thinks
is the case. And he does it to separate chief
friends. That's the motive. A whisperer
separateth chief friends. A violent man enticeth his neighbor
and leadeth him into the way that's not good. Move in his
lips, he brings evil to pass. Now that's coming out of the
wicked heart. That's what the heart is by nature. And it comes
through the tongue. Now, they did this to Christ,
they did it to his people, and wicked men today still do it
toward Christ and towards Christ's people. Verse 4. He shows us
the purpose. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands
of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent
man who hath purposed to overthrow my goings. The self-made religious
men really tried. They purposed in their heart
to overthrow God. That's what men did when Christ
walked this earth. Men purposed in their heart to
overthrow His goings and to overthrow His church. And this is what
men still want to do. That's the hatred of the heart
against God. That's the hatred of the heart
against the Lord's people. Psalm 2 said, they said, let
us break their bands asunder. Let's break their cords from
us. Let's overthrow their goings. Talking of God the Father and
His Son. And Scripture says the Lord looks down from heaven.
He laughs. He'll have them in derision.
Did it stop Christ from accomplishing His purpose? Oh no. He used wicked
men to accomplish his purpose. They did only what he purposed
to be done from the beginning. And now he's seated in the holy
hill of Zion. He's seated there as the God-man
mediator with all power over all. So no, they didn't accomplish
the purpose. And then verse five tells us
this all comes from pride. It's pride, thinking a man is
righteous and holy by his works. It always results in this, they
despise others. I'm telling you, will worship,
works religion, is mean religion. It is mean religion. When folks
won't come to a service, they got their name on a roll, they
won't show up, you let somebody fall in sin and you let them
say they're gonna have a meeting and everybody's gonna try to
report what they know about somebody and they're gonna cast them out,
everybody will be there that night. If you didn't notice,
when trouble started here in 2020, we had 350, 400 views for
about two years, and then it just started dying off. I wish
people were that eager to hear the gospel of Christ as they
are to just hear something scandalous. Now here it is. It's pride. Verse
5. The pride have hit a snare for
me and cords. They have spread a net by the
wayside. They've set gyms for me, traps
for me. The scripture says, then went
the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in
his talk. Every so often I'll get an email
from somebody and it's just obvious. No, I wouldn't do this unless
it was just perfectly obvious. But it'll be obvious that they're
not wanting, they're asking a question but they don't want to answer.
They're wanting to get you to say something that they can put
all over the internet and try to slander you. I type one thing,
I type Matthew 22, 15, send, and I send it back to them. And
when they look it up, they read, then went to Pharisees and took
counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. That's all it's
about. One of the most freeing things
you'll ever learn is when you realize you don't have to answer
everybody. You just don't have to answer everybody. Remember,
but this is pride, brethren, and when we look to our works
and we look to our deeds to make us righteous and holy, it always
results in despising others. When the Lord gave that parable
of the publican and the sinner, or the Pharisee and the publican,
it started like this. He spake unto certain which trusted
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Now everything we just read is
the result of a man thinking he's righteous by his deeds and
it always results in despising others, including Christ. Not his Jesus, not the Jesus
of his imagination, but the true Jesus. Now that's always been
the heart and the way of unregenerate men, and they always persecute
the Lord's people. Galatians 4.29 says, As then,
he that was born after the flesh, Ishmael, persecuted Isaac, who
was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Even so it is now. The Apostle Paul had a lot of
people that were thankful that God had sent him to preach the
gospel to them and they spoke honorably to him because honor
was due to him, but he had more people that spoke dishonorably
of him. He said, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and
good report. as deceivers and yet true. And
he said, through the Spirit of God, all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You can just bank
on it. Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. but continue
thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." If you've been
called by God, you didn't learn it from a man. You learned it
from Christ. Paul told the Galatians, who
is it that works miracles among you? It's Christ that works this
miracle of giving life to a dead sinner, and faith to believe
him, and repentance from trusting in ourselves. That's a miracle,
and Christ works that miracle. And how does he do it? Through
the hearing of works, or through the hearing of his faithfulness?
Through the hearing of his faithfulness. That's how he does it. So you
continue in Christ, you continue trusting Christ, looking to Him,
depending upon Him alone. Men did this to Christ, religious
men, they will do it to you and me. You can just mark it down.
But now secondly, I want you to see the heart our Savior creates
in His people. This is the heart He had. That's
what we're going to see first. And this is the heart He puts
in His people. The Spirit of God's Son is in
His people. Now, He's the Redeemer. He's
the only Redeemer. That's why He cried to the Father,
verse 1, Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. He cried that
to the Father. Deliver me. And He spoke of Him
being violent or being evil. He asked God the Father to preserve
Him. Go with me to Hebrews 5. When our Lord walked this earth,
He gives you faith to trust Him. And He's going to keep that faith
sustained in us. But it's not our faith that justified
us. It's not our faith that saves
us. It's Christ's faithfulness. Christ alone. And look here.
He did this in the place of His elect when He walked this earth.
Hebrews 5, 7. who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him." That's
what we see him doing in our text. We hear him offering up
supplication to the Father in our psalm. That's what Christ
is doing. He prayed to him that was able
to save him from death and was heard in that he feared. He reverenced
the Father, though He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the
things which He suffered, and being made perfect." That means
He perfected obedience. He perfected obedience for His
people. In doing so, He perfected, He
consecrated the way as the perfect Savior of His people. And who
does He save? Look here. The author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey Him. called of God a high
priest after the order of Melchizedek. Brethren, Christ perfected obedience
for his people, a particular people, a people the Lord gave
to him. So he came down and walked where we walk as a man. And though
He's God, He trusted the Father. And in everything He did, He
did what we see in our psalms. When those Pharisees came after
Him, He didn't revile back against them. He didn't try to defend
Himself from them. He committed it to the Father.
And when He went to the cross, suffering that hellish party
they were having around the cross, He committed it all to the Father. Now listen, even when He was
in that darkness, and even when the father wouldn't answer him
because he's bearing the curse for us. Even then, he still looked
perfectly to the father and prayed unto the father and cried unto
the father, even then. Now that's the faith that saves
His people. By His faithfulness, He made
His people righteous and holy. He perfected obedience for us.
By one man's obedience shall many be made righteous. And by
what He did, He became the author and finisher of our faith. That
means It's His faith by which we're saved. He's the author
and finisher of faith. He wrote the book on faith. He
is the faithful one, Scripture says, and it's by His faith that
we're saved. He gives us faith, but our faith
is nothing to look to. Our faith looks to Him, and only
by His grace and power do we look to Him. When we suffer darkness,
we're so prone to not look to Him. We're so prone to try to
speak out against the wicked that would say something against
us, and we fail miserably. But He did not, and it's by His
Spirit, it's by His power, it's not by our works. Brethren, He
sent the Spirit of His Son into us and created a new man in us.
that's holy and righteous, but that holiness and righteousness
is Christ. It is Christ. The Holy Spirit
revealed to us that we're holy and we're righteous in Christ,
but He also revealed we're yet sinners in ourselves. And this
is what He makes you to know. Our holiness and righteousness
is Christ. We're still sinners in our flesh
so that This is how he keeps you and me from being critical
and despising others. When you see yourself as the
chief of sinners and really see how thoroughly without strength
you are, you just can't despise and look down your nose at others
because you know it's only by his grace, it's only by his power,
and it's only by his spirit that right now I even continue to
trust him and believe him. were saved by Christ our Savior. He said, this is the word of
the Lord, not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith
the Lord of hosts. It's His Spirit. It's His Spirit. Turn over to John 6. John chapter
6. Now, you remember when this multitude
was gathered together. And they were hungry. Now, I
want you to see this right here. John 6 verse 5. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto
Philip, Now get this. John, I'll give you just a second
to get there. I want you to all see this. Lord Jesus lifted up His eyes
and He saw a great company coming to Him, John 6, 5, and He said
to Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? Now
catch this next word. And this He said to prove Him. For He Himself knew what He would
do. Do you see that? Now brethren,
our Savior permits wicked men to oppose us. He will permit
men to oppose us to prove us. And really, if you don't understand
what that means, it's to prove to us. He proves two things to
us. Number one, he proves we're still
weak sinners that can't save ourselves. Philip looked at that
multitude and said, Lord, two hundred penny worths. Now, we
can't buy bread and fish to feed these people. The bread of life
standing right beside Him, who called Him and saved Him, and
He knows He's God in human flesh. And that was his answer. So the
Lord's going to show us we're a sinner. You're going to say
the wrong thing. You're going to try to defend
yourself. You're going to rail back. And you feel so dirty. You feel ashamed for it. And
the Lord makes you know you're still a sinner. But He also proves
to you He's still your Savior. and He's your refuge. And He
alone is your righteousness and your holiness. And it's His grace
alone, and it's His power alone by which we're going to be delivered.
So He, by His Spirit, brings you to pray this. When the wicked
oppose you, He brings you to do what He did. He brings you
to say, deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. You just cast it
into His hand. Brethren, we can't deliver ourselves
in any way. Now, we know that's so about
eternal things, but it's so about daily things. It's so about daily
things. We can't save ourselves from
the curse of the law. We can't save ourselves from
our sin nature to bring ourselves to believe on Christ. That's
by His Spirit alone. It's by Christ, our righteousness,
who was made a curse for us and made us righteous in Him. It's
by His Spirit, His grace, and His power that we believe. And
brethren, in daily trials, evil men and their tongues, the Spirit
of our Redeemer, it takes His power and His grace to make us
committed to Christ. It takes Him to do it. Look at
Psalm 37.5. But this is what He says to us
right here. He's going to renew you and make
you know this. And I'm telling you brethren, when the Lord puts you in a place
to where you know you can't deliver yourself, That's when you're
going to really, by His Spirit, that's when you're going to commit
it to Him and trust Him. You know, as long as we think
we can save ourselves and deliver ourselves, we will try to save
ourselves and deliver ourselves. It's only when He heads you in
to where you realize, I can't do anything. Oh, I pray that's
what, I pray the Lord make our young people know that. I pray
he make us know that again. Concerning eternal salvation,
you can't save yourself. You cannot save yourself. And
I pray he make us know that right now concerning daily problems,
daily trials. He's delivering us. I mean, He's
carrying us the whole way. There's not two steps as that
old poem. Sometimes there's two steps and
sometimes there's one set of steps. Sometimes He carries me,
sometimes I'm walking by Him. Uh-uh. He's carrying His people
the whole time. Look here, Psalm 37 verse 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall
bring it to pass. He shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light and thy judgment as the noon day. He is that righteousness. He is that light. But anything
that needs to be worked out for you in this earth, He will work
that out. He will. He will keep you and
protect you. Watch this. Rest in the Lord
and wait patiently for Him. There's where we have a big problem.
Don't just commit it to Him and trust Him and say you're resting
in Him. Patiently wait for Him. He's
not going to work in our time. He's going to work in His time.
Fret not thyself because of Him who prospereth in His way because
of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger
and forsake wrath. I'll tell you, I saw a a HOA
president. Have you all seen this video
going around of this guy? They have this where I live. You can't work on your vehicle
in the parking lot. My truck needed working on. I went down
there at one in the morning when everybody was asleep and took
a flashlight and worked on it in the dark so people couldn't
see me working on it because you can't do it in the parking
lot. Well this guy was working on
his vehicle and the president comes up and just gives him a
tongue lashing You can't do that, it's against the rules. And the
guy said, I'll come back later. And he said, if it's still here
by the end of the day, we're having it towed. And then you're
going to have to pay to get it out and all this stuff. That
old fellow, he started to handle that way better than I had to
handle it. I'm just going to tell you, I
would not have handled it as good as that old fellow did.
He just walked off patiently. It takes God's grace for us,
brethren, to make you patiently wait on the Lord. Fret not, he
says, cease from anger, forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any
wise to do evil. Evil doers will be cut off, but
those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth. You
just look to Christ. He's the doer of good. He's the
only one. There's none good but one, that's
God. He did good. And he committed his cause to
the Father, he trusted in the Father, he waited patiently on
the Father. When he suffered that darkness
he was suffering, he waited until he satisfied justice. He was
not in any way unjustly angry. And when he finished that work,
God raised him and he inherited all things. That's what that
psalm said, and that psalm is speaking of him foremost. He
inherited all things. Well brethren, what he did, every
one of his people did in him. You and me are being, He's proving
to us that we're failing. When the trial comes, we're going
to fail. But He's also proving He did
not fail. And He is our only salvation.
He's our only salvation. He's going to preserve us. Go
back to our Psalm, Psalm 140. He's going to keep you asking
Him to preserve you. Verse 1, preserve me from the
violent man. Verse 4, keep me, O Lord, from
the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent
man who purposed to overthrow my goings. He's going to use,
everything that's happening in our life, He's using it. The
opposition of wicked men, He's using it to renew us and keeping
us knowing that He alone is our God and our Savior, our strength
in the day of battle. Look at verse 6. Verse 6, I said
unto the Lord, Thou art my God. That's what He's making you to
know. He's your God. Hear the voice of my supplications,
O Lord. O God, the Lord, the strength
of my salvation. There it is. We don't have strength
in us. He's our strength. Thou hast covered my head in
the day of battle. That's what He's making us to
know through affliction. He's our God. He's our strength.
He's our salvation. He's the one that's covering
our head. You know, the head is where you become discouraged. You start having all these thoughts
and when wicked men come up against you and you get very discouraged,
this is what He makes you do. Ephesians 6, 17 says, take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word
of God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 8. He keeps us putting on the breastplate
of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. A helmet. The hope of glory. He said, put
on for a helmet the hope of salvation. The hope of glory is Christ.
Look with me to Hebrews 6. The hope of glory is Christ.
And it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Well, the way He's
going to protect our head, is He keeps turning me and you away
from me and you. He keeps turning us from us to
Him above. Look here, Hebrews 6 verse 19. I said to you, He's the hope
of glory. He said, put on for a helmet
the hope of salvation. That's Him. That's Christ. He's
that helmet, that hope of salvation. Well, where's that hope? Verse
19, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil where
the forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. If He didn't protect our head,
You'd have these random thoughts going everywhere. You'd just
totally lose all your hope and faith in looking to Christ. But
Christ in you, the hope of glory, turns you to your hope at God's
right hand. Just what we saw in Colossians
3. Set your affection on things above. He turns you to Him and
renews you to know, I'm your God. I'm your strength. I'm your
Savior. I'm your hope. I'm your all.
And I'm going to say, rather than He justify His people on
the cross, He will save us. He's not going to lose one. And
so lastly, come to this now, down in verse 8. He's going to
comfort us by declaring His intercession on our behalf. Now, when we read
this, hear Christ's intercession for His people. Hear Him interceding
for us. Verse 8. Grant not, O Lord, so
here's Christ, He's interceding with God our Father, the Lord
Jehovah. Grant not, O Lord, the desires
of the wicked. Further not His wicked device,
lest they exalt themselves, Selah. Now, in this next verse, you're
going to hear Christ speak in first person. Now he did speak
in first person when he walked this earth. When he walked this
earth, verse 9, he said, As for the head of those that come past
me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. And
he prayed that to the father concerning them that were not
his, those that were his enemies. And he prayed it in first person
like that. They come past me about. But listen, here's the
good news. Even while he's at God's right hand right now, for
you that are his, He prays to the Father the same
way. Though you're the one compassed
about by wicked men. He says, for those that compass
me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. He
still intercedes that way. They're compassing me. How do
you know that? Because Matthew 25, 40, the king
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch
as you've done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you
have done it to me. When somebody is surrounding
you who He died for, who He has regenerated, who He has delivered
and is delivering and shall deliver, when somebody comes past you,
brethren, they're doing that to the Lord.
They're doing that to Him. And so when He intercedes, He's
interceding with the Father like it's Him that they're doing it
to. In first person, they're compassing me Lord, don't let
them compass me about. That's how one we are with Christ,
with Christ in you and you in Christ, that's how one His people
are with Him. That's security brethren. Now
listen to this, you're going to fail. And sometimes we fail
and we speak when we should only really be praying to Christ to
save us. We should be praying to Him like
He committed it to the Father. And we fail and we speak back
against somebody or we speak about somebody. We should not
do that. And that's why, brethren, He's
going to remind you and renew you, keep you knowing. Even if
it's somebody that's never professed to believe Christ, They might
be Christ, and you don't know it. But if they have professed
to be Christ, I don't care how bad they've messed up, and how
much you may be on the fence about whether they know the Lord
or not. For one, that ain't your business. That's the Lord's business. But two, don't speak against
them because Christ said, when you do it to them, you're doing
it to me. If they are His, You don't want to do it, but here's
the thing. You're going to fail at that
and I am too, but the Lord real quick is going to renew you in
your heart to remind you of that. I bought my people. I made my
people righteous. Who are you to lay charge against
mine elect who I justified? And he's going to make you remember
that and when he does that, He'll silence our lip, He'll renew
that heart inwardly, and from that new heart comes a prayer
of Him, Lord, keep them, help them, preserve them, help them
stand. And then when you go talk to them, you'll say, Lord, you'll
speak to them about what the Lord has done, and remind them,
and be an encouragement, and then go to Him again and pray,
Lord, will you bless that word, and then wait on Him. I'm telling
you brethren, this is not of us. You and me, this goes against
everything our sin nature is. Our sin nature is to take the
bull by the horns and try to fix it and we fix it about as
well as a bull in a china shop. He works this in his people. And what I'm telling you is,
I'm not giving you works to do to make you holy or righteous.
I'm telling you this is what we're being taught. To trust
Christ to save us and to save our brethren all the time and
only Him. Only Him. You want to talk to
somebody about your brethren that's fallen, go to Him and
ask Him to help. That's it. Don't speak to somebody
else about them. I've seen people who the Lord
says, don't you lay an accusation against somebody but before two
or three witnesses. And somebody being so holy will
talk about somebody and they don't have a clue if it's true
or not. They don't have two or three witnesses. And it just
makes you see the irony of somebody who's acting so holy and righteous
by their works and condemning somebody for not being holy and
righteous by their works are doing just what they're condemning.
And that's what Romans 2, when we start judging somebody else,
we're doing exactly what we're condemning. Next time you get
ready to be critical of somebody, you stop and think about that
verse, and you just think about what it is you're about to condemn.
And if you're the Lord, the Lord will help you see, you're guilty
of the exact same thing, exactly. The only place we're righteous
and holy is in Christ. Go to him. Go to him. All right,
lastly. Here's his intercession to the
Father for his people, against those that oppose one of his
people. He says, verse 10, let burning coals fall upon them,
let them be cast into fire, let deep pits, into deep pits, that
they rise not up again. Let not an evil speaker be established
in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent man
to overthrow him. But here's what he's going to
do for his people, brethren. Verse 12, I know that the Lord
will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the
poor. That's us. We're the afflicted
and we're the poor. How poor? You don't have a thing
to contribute. It's all Christ. And so we're
afflicted continually. I'm out of time. You remember,
go to 2 Timothy 1. I want to close with this. 2
Timothy 1. You remember what Paul told Timothy? Here's what he told him right
here. And you know how Paul suffered. People accused him of everything
under the sun. And he ended up in jail. Look
at 2 Timothy 1 verse 7. He's encouraging this young believer,
and he writes to Timothy, and he says, 2 Timothy 1, 7, God
hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of
love, of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, or by the power of God. who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel, whereunto I'm appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and
a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause. I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Hold
fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard, and heard
of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Look at
chapter 3, verse 10. He said persecutions. He said,
verse 10, Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions
and afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at
Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord
delivered me. And brethren, when he's done
that, the last verse of our Psalm is this. Here's what he's going,
he's praying this to the Father. This is what he shall bring all
his people to do, right here. He says, surely the righteous
shall give thanks unto thy name. That's what he tells the Father.
He's praying this for his people, and he says to the Father, surely
the righteous, made righteous in Christ, surely they shall
give thanks unto thy name, and the upright shall dwell in thy
presence. After every trial you go through,
He makes you to see what He's done for you, and you see, you
give thanks to God's name for what He's worked, what He's done.
And He's going to keep doing this, and He's not going to lose
you. Christ promised the Father, you shall dwell in His presence. You shall. So let's thank Him,
brethren. Father, we thank You for trusting
salvation into the hands of Your Son. We're thankful that He was
so faithful to You on our behalf. We're thankful that You raised
Him to intercede for us. And Lord, we're thankful for
the trouble. We're thankful for the times
when You afflict us. We don't like it. It's troubling
to this flesh, but Lord, you've always brought us through it.
Promise you will, and you always bring us to see you more, to
know you better, and to trust ourselves less. And Lord, that's
a good thing. That is a good thing. How can
we be anything but thankful for that? Lord, we have your word
that we shall dwell in your presence forever. And we trust you to
bring us into the presence of our dear Savior. We can't do
it, and we trust you will. We trust you'll fulfill every
promise. That means, Lord, you deliver us through every one
of these troubles. Lord, help us continually today Make us
continually see You are our only strength and our only salvation.
And Lord, we pray this for our young people that don't know
You, all our friends and neighbors that don't know You, people in
this community that don't know You. Lord, would You please be
gracious to call out Your lost sheep. We trust You will in Your
time. Lord, we thank You. Thank You
for salvation in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Alright,
Brother Adam.