And as it may please God to bless
us together this evening for a little while, we'll direct
your attention to the psalm that we read, Psalm 89 and reading
verse 19. Psalm 89 and reading verse 19. Then thou spakest in vision to
thy Holy One and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people." This of course was a psalm and really it speaks
very much of David through the psalm and in one sense this very
verse speaks of David and what he had been blessed with and
how the Lord had favoured him and how the Lord had exalted
him and so as we can recognise that it does speak of David but
this evening I want to direct us to really that one who is
greater than David and I'm sure we know who that is and that
is the Lord Jesus Christ and it is wonderful to think and
to know and to realise that this great truth applies to our Saviour
Himself. I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. Well, God is mighty. God is all-powerful. And this
Mighty One indeed is our great and glorious Saviour. He was
to Israel the Messiah as they look forward to the time when
Messiah would come and of course the time came when the Blessed
Saviour did come and He is indeed the Mighty God, He is the Mighty
Man, the Man Christ Jesus, He is a Mighty Mediator, He is a
Mighty Redeemer. Oh how wonderful it is to think
of it in these terms and then to realise also that is mighty
to save unto the uttermost. Yes, this is the great and glorious
God that we have. And so this evening, may we be
able to meditate and ponder upon these words, I have laid help
upon one that is mighty. What help we find in our God,
no help like it. We may look here and we can look
there, but we have a God who is there to help us in every
time of need, in our natural life and in our spiritual life. We have a great God who never
wearies, a great God who never sleeps. A great God who knows
the end from the beginning. A great God who knows everything
that is occurring in the world at this present time. A great
God that knows everything that is occurring in your heart and
my heart at the present time. He knows everything that is occurring
in our life. nothing is hidden from this mighty
god and so we have this truth before us i've laid help upon
one that is mighty to think of that this great almighty god
help and uh this um this word laid i've laid help can also
be considered as reckoned. I have reckoned help upon one
that is mighty. Well, the Lord provides all that
is needed to help you and me in our journey of life. He is
with us every step of the way. He never leaves us nor forsake
us. if we are amongst those who are
indeed blessed and chosen of God, chosen of God before time
began. We've been watched over ever
since we came into this sinful world, and He has helped us. He's helped us day by day. We
may not always have realized it. Mostly we've not realized
it, but sometimes we have realized it. realize that yes the Lord
has been my helper he is my helper what a mercy that is then to
be able to acknowledge that he has helped us and as we can say
in that lines of the hymn he has helped us hitherto will help
us all our journey through and give us daily cause to raise
new ebenezers to his name he is a mighty God well we're traveling
through this world at this present time and we do indeed need to
feel the help of God the mighty God to realize that he's with
us as we travel on day by day but with perplexities and there
may be many fears because we know not what a day nor an hour
may bring forth. We know not where that virus
may strike. The Lord knows. And yet, you
see, we're told the Lord's laid upon him, the Savior, this help,
this help that we can come to him and pray that we may indeed
may be blessed with faith to trust in him. Because if we have
living faith, faith given by God, this is true. It will be well with us, well
while life endures, and well when called to die. Many people today don't like
to hear about death. They don't like to speak about
death. And yet the reality is, it's
the one thing in our lives which is certain. It's the one thing
in our life that we should never be able to avoid, but to realize
that here we have a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our
helper, who is that one who helps us along day by day, and he will
help us right through our life. If we are those whom He has loved
with everlasting love, help us across Jordan and bring us safely
into the Promised Land, that place of glory. This is the God
that we adore. This is the God that we desire
to worship. This is the God, and I pray,
that all of us may love. We love Him because He first
loved us. And that's an amazing and wonderful
truth, isn't it? To think that God loved such
unworthy sinners of the earth. But He did. What a favour it
is. And He loves us so much, therefore,
that He will help us every moment of our journey as we travel on
through time. Jesus was born into this world
to help his people. You read that wonderful verse
in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, a familiar one I'm sure, for
unto us, and it's a great blessing if the us includes you and me,
it's not just an historical statement, for unto us is born, unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be. And this will
be wonderful, you know, if we can go along with these statements,
these wonderful adjectives describing our Saviour shall be called wonderful. Well, is this Saviour, this One
who has had help laid upon Him, is He wonderful to you and to
me tonight? counsellor. Is he our counsellor? Is he the one that we go to constantly,
casting our care upon him, seeking for direction, seeking for guidance,
seeking for union, seeking for fellowship? We may be blessed
as our great and glorious counsellor. And then we come to these words,
the mighty God. Is he our mighty God today? Has he been our mighty God? Do we trust he will be our mighty
God? No one can stand against the
might of this God. He is all-powerful. He is all-powerful. No one can take his life. He is eternal. He is the almighty
God. and then the everlasting father
and then the prince of peace you see how all these words flow
together what a mercy then tonight if we are able to bow down and
worship this god in such a way that we see him as i as i did
in his day many years ago and i saw the lord high and lifted
up Yes, he was a great God to Isaiah, and may he be to us a
great God today. A God who helped Isaiah through
all his journey, in all the prophecies that he made in the day and age
in which he lived. And of course he didn't live
in an easy day, and neither do we live in an easy day. And yet
what a wonderful thing it is to realize that the Lord helps
us I have laid help upon one that is mighty." And my friends,
the blessing is the Lord never wearies in helping us. Never wearies. Day by day. Indeed, He has an exhaustless
supply. Exhaustless supply. It's wonderful,
is it not? All these years, the earth has
been in existence. The Lord has helped his people,
day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second.
He's never left them, and he's never forsaken them. Well, the Psalms are very glorious
and beautiful. They tell us so many wonderful
truths. You know, Psalm 121, which I'm
sure is familiar to many of us, and we read these words. My help
cometh from the Lord. Nowhere else. We are tempted
often to look around for some help, but often that can be vain
help. What a good thing it is when
we realise, my help cometh from the Lord, and especially when
the Holy Spirit leads us to observe who it is that helps us. It is that One who suffered for
us, that One who died for us. And there we see the wonderful
beauty of His amazing love toward us. So that we can understand
in some small measure the cost of our salvation and to recognize
the wonderful help that we have received from the Blessed Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Help to believe. Help to trust. You know, these
things perhaps are very simple and very familiar. But you and
I do need the help of God to believe. You and I do need the
help of God to have faith. We need the help of God to trust
Him. You see, the problem is that
we have an unbelieving heart. The trouble is we look to ourselves
too often. The trouble is we trust in ourselves
too often. Instead of looking unto the Saviour,
that One who has done so much for our salvation, in dying upon
that cross, Indeed, He kept the law for us. As we look into our
lives, we must observe failure. We can never say we have been
successful people. We can never claim any merit.
We must always bow down before God in shame and confess that
we have been a failure. And yet, the Lord hasn't cast
us away. He hasn't cast us off. He knows
how weak our nature is, and he helps us then. We may feel very
insignificant. It's a good thing to feel very
insignificant, because we are very insignificant. It's a sad
thing when we feel we're somebody important, because in reality
we're not important. We're just a mere human being. But let me just say this, we
are important to God. And we are so important to God
that he's continually helping us. Day by day, day by day, he's
helping us from the morning to the night, through the night
perhaps, perhaps on those restless hours, perhaps he helps us in
those times, enables us to pour out our heart unto him. It's
a help from God, not something you and I can produce ourselves. No, true prayer is the gift of
God. What a mercy it is when the Lord
comes and blesses us with that, so that we are able to come and
to pour out our heart unto our God. We can tell Him everything,
because He knows everything. We don't have to hide anything
from Him. We don't have to put on a special
kind of speech or anything like that. No, he can come just as
we are. He knows all about us and he
helps us. He helps us and he helps us in
this way. Doesn't leave us perhaps to ourselves. Doesn't leave us perhaps to our
own prayers. Doesn't leave us to be like the
Pharisee, proud of what he was able to say and do. but to come
humbly as the publican did. What is it? It's the help of
our God. I've laid help upon one that
is mighty. And when you ponder that, to
just remember how great this God is, in control of the whole
universe with so many billions of people on the earth today,
So many billions of people have passed through time since the
world was created and yet our God knows every detail about
every single person. He knows every hair that's fallen
from their heads. I often think that is a wonderful
illustration of the power and greatness of God. It's impossible
for our minds to actually calculate or come near to any right appreciation
of such a great God. But yet this is the God, so powerful,
spoke the world into being. That God is in charge today,
in every area, in far off places, in the jungle, in the Arctic,
in the Sahara, in deserts, wherever it may be, God is there. And
you see, wherever the virus goes, God has ordained it should be
so. Everything is in his control. And yet we have this great word,
I have laid help upon one that is mighty. Well, Isaiah, as I've
already mentioned, was a prophet of the Lord. In the 41st chapter,
in verse 13, we read, for I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy
right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee."
No one else. It's very humbling, surely, isn't
it? To think of that, this great, almighty God, taking, as it were,
by our right hand, leading us on and saying, Fear not, I will
help thee. whatever is before us none of
us know but how confirming how encouraging it is to know such
a word as this I will help thee therefore we must follow fear
not surely cannot fear if the Lord is with us the Lord is helping
us the Lord is directing us What a comfort this should be to the
Church of God as we travel on day by day. Day by day. I will help thee. You may look
back and say, well, the Lord helped me today. Well, the Lord
helped me yesterday. But how about tomorrow? The promise
is here. I will help thee. Why? I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. See, this great God never runs
out. I say it reverently, of energy.
He never runs out of ability to help, because he is the mighty
God. Well, that should be a wonderful
encouragement to us, surely. And you know, when the Apostle
wrote to the Hebrews, that beautiful epistle, he came in the last
chapter, the 13th chapter, and he says this, this is good you
know this is encouraging he says this in verse six so that we
may boldly say often we may be timid sometimes sadly we're timid
but here we have a glorious statement to be able to say acknowledging
what God has done how God has encouraged so that we may boldly
say the Lord is my helper You say, he is my helper and that
is very broad in its statement. And he's our helper, your helper
and my helper to lead us to Calvary. You see, we must always be concerned
about being found at Calvary. We must always be concerned and
not being far away from Calvary. And therefore, We need the Lord
to help us, to draw us to Himself, to draw us to Calvary, to be
able to view the suffering Saviour, because a view of a suffering
Saviour breaks hard hearts. A view of the precious shed blood
of the Saviour breaks hard hearts. The Lord is my helper. He helps
us then. He helps us. And he helps us
in this way. He draws us to himself. Irresistibly. Irresistibly drawn. Left to ourselves, we will never
be drawn. Bless God for his grace. Bless
God for his love. So that we are drawn. irresistibly. And those who know
it, those who've had it, will understand the blessing of it.
The irresistible, wonderful drawing, irresistible drawing of the Savior
to himself. And so therefore we can say yes
with the Apostle Paul. And the Apostle Paul knew this,
didn't he? He knew the glory and the blessing
of fellowship and union with his Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why he was able to
write as it were these words that we may boldly say, humble
confidence in his God, the Lord is my helper and I will not fear
what man shall do unto me. The fear of man bringeth a snare. In many ways, sometimes in our
spiritual life, the fear of man bringeth a snare. And it's a
sad thing, really, when that is so. But bless God, the Lord
lifts us above it. And we can boldly say, the Lord
is my helper. I will not fear. what man should
do unto me. Yes, poor, sinful, weak and foolish
man. If God be on our side, who can
be against us? Now then, let me just come back
really to our position that we may sometimes feel ourselves
to be in, just like Hosea tells us. in his prophecy he says 13th
chapter 9th verse oh israel thou hast destroyed thyself you might
say that's me i've destroyed myself well you're looking at
yourself you see and if we always look
at ourselves all we shall see is failure it goes on but in
me is thine help. Look to Christ, look out of yourself,
the one who helps. I've laid help from one that
is mighty. He is our help. We failed, we
perhaps destroyed ourselves because we've been dependent and looking
to ourselves and we've been planning out our little path. we've decided
this is what I'm going to do and this is what I need and this
is what I want God to do for me and this is what I want God
to speak to me and it doesn't come to pass and therefore what's
happened we seem to have destroyed ourselves but don't forget this
great truth but in me is thy help don't look to yourself look
to the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ never weary speaking those
beautiful words in Isaiah 45 look unto me look unto me and
be saved for I am God and there is none else no there's only
one true one true great and living God and what a mercy it is therefore
if you and I are directed to him and nowhere else but to this
great and glorious Saviour. So here we have these words,
I have laid help upon one that is mighty. And he goes on and
says, I have exalted one chosen out of thy people. Well, my friends,
if the Lord has touched your heart, if the Lord has directed
you to a crucified Saviour, he will be exalted. The Saviour
will be exalted. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people, this great and blessed Saviour, this wonderful
God, this one who has not dealt with us as our sins deserve,
this one who is then the mighty God, this one then who is the
Mediator, and this one then who is our great and glorious Redeemer. The doctrine of redemption is
very precious and very real. And it's very real and very precious
to real sinners. Those who are just phantom sinners,
those who just pretend to be sinners, those who just acknowledge
they're a sinner with just no real feeling, but those who recognize
they are a deep-dyed sinner before a holy God will rejoice. in the
grace and blessed work of the Redeemer, this One who has laid
help upon one that is mighty. Yes, what a blessing it is then
to have such a God, to have such a wonderful Redeemer. And so
tonight, may we rejoice in Christ our Saviour. and have no confidence
in our flesh and realize this word here speaks about him then
our speakers envision to thy holy one surely the blessed savior
is indeed the holy one that one who is high and lifted up, that
one who is all-glorious. And what a mercy when you and
I see this great God as the Holy God. Yes, He's not one anybody
like ourselves. He's high and lifted up. He's
holy. He's righteous. He's worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be exalted. And when the Holy Spirit touches
our heart and shows to us, yes, He's helped us. He's helped us
to believe. He's helped us to trust in Him. He's helped us to come to Him
in every time of need. Then surely there is joy in our
heart and how we bow down and praise and worship the Holy One,
the Holy Child Christ Jesus. Oh then, may we tonight thank
God that God indeed has laid upon him, we mentioned already,
has laid help upon him, not only helped him, but treasured up
help in him for us, laid it as a charge upon him to help fallen
man up again. Yes, the Lord picks us up, the
Lord brings us to himself, the Lord draws us to himself. indeed to help the chosen remnant
to heaven. That's the end of the journey,
heaven at last, and all God's people arrive safely home because
they are chosen of God ere time began. The Lord will not lose
any for whom he died upon that cross at Calvary and shed his
most precious blood. And don't forget then these words
in me, is thy help, O confidence in our God, that you and I may
trust in the Lord at all times. Ye people, pour out your heart
before me." Well, may God bless his word and help us to look
to him for help in every time of need. Amen.