Good morning. Alright, we're
going to be in Psalm 3 this morning. Psalm 3. We're going to be looking
at all 8 verses of Psalm 3. This is a psalm which David wrote
and it was occasioned by the rebellion of Absalom. Absalom,
his own son, sought to destroy David and to make himself the
king. And during the rebellion, just
to make you aware of some points that we'll be looking at, during
the rebellion, as David fled, he had been told that Absalom
received two councils, two different councils. And he went to sleep
that night not knowing which council Absalom was going to
heed, which advice he was going to take. And so David laid his
head down in sleep that night, not knowing if he was gonna wake
up the very next morning or if he was gonna be, thrust through
with a spear and killed. And so when David woke up the
next morning, he knew immediately that God had delivered him from
all his enemies. He knew immediately that God
delivered him from his enemies. So, We see in this now, this
psalm here, we see Christ in this psalm and our comfort in
Him. And we see a type of Christ. We're going to see, because this
psalm will be in 2 Samuel as well today, because that's what's
account, giving us the account of what's been going on here.
when David is writing this psalm. And so we see this type of Christ
in here, and we'll see this friend that David has, this friend called
Hushai. And Hushai is a type of Christ. And we'll see that the work that
Hushai does is the very work that the Lord uses in destroying
the works of the flesh. We'll see that. Our title is
A Psalm in the Morning. A Psalm in the Morning. And the first point that we're
going to look at is, is there help for the sinner? Is there
help for the sinner? So the scriptures are very clear
in the description of men, that all men are sinners and all men
are unable to please God and to provide any help in their
own salvation. The sinner, therefore, according
to the Scriptures, according to God's own Word, is completely
dependent on the grace and the mercy of God to save him. Let's hear a few descriptions
given to us in the Scriptures. The first one is from Romans
3, verses 10 and 11. As it's written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. And then Isaiah 64.6, he
says, for we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses,
all our good works are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a
leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And then the prophet Jeremiah,
in 13.23, he asks, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard
his spots? Then may he also do good that
are accustomed to doing evil. And then Paul says in Romans
8.8, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So that's just a small sampling
of what the scripture says about man and his righteousness man
and his works and whether man can save himself or not. And
I hope that you heard that man cannot save himself. This flesh
profits us nothing. It's entirely a work of God's
grace and mercy to save a sinner. And David is no different than
any of us. He too is a sinner, a great sinner,
and now in this Psalm he's been very troubled by his sin and
he's been very troubled by his enemies. So let's look at Psalm
3 and look at the first two verses together. Psalm 3 verses 1 and
2. He says, Lord, how are they increased
that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against
me. Many there be which say of my
soul there is no help for him in God. Now, David at this time,
he had three prominent enemies. Three prominent enemies. First,
he had Absalom. Absalom is his own flesh. And
it's a picture, therefore, of our flesh, our near neighbor
that is a trouble, an enemy of us. Then there's Ahithophel. And Ahithophel is a very wise
counselor. And Ahithophel represents the
strength of the law. Do what I say, Absalom, and you
shall live. You shall have the rule. You
shall do well and be settled in your ways. And Absalom was
to listen. The flesh was to listen to Ahithophel. And then we'll see that there's
another man named Shimei. And Shimei is an enemy of David.
He's the accuser. He's the accuser. He's a descendant
of Saul, and he hates David, and is glad to see David come
into the calamity that he's come into. So, the sin that David
had committed, if you'll recall, was with Bathsheba. And Bathsheba was a married woman,
and David didn't care. He saw her, he saw her beauty,
and he went after her, and he took her, and lay with her, and
she conceived with child. And her husband was away at war,
Uriah, and he was actually being faithful to David and he was
faithful to the men that he served with. And so David, trying to
cover his sin, brings Uriah back from the front lines and tries
to get him to sleep with his wife that his sin might be covered.
But Uriah, being a faithful man, says, I'm not going to go and
enjoy myself when my brethren are out there. In the field,
I'm going to stay here at the castle and not go down to my
house and be tempted in that way. And then when David, my
lord, is done with me, I'll go back to the front lines. And
so David's sin couldn't be hidden. So David kills him. not himself
personally, but he writes a letter and sends it by his own hand
up to the general in which David said to him, when you put your
eye up at the front and then pull your troops back and let
him die and any other men with him, just let him die that my
sin might be covered. And so he thought he could do
that. But, go over to 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 12 and verse 10. And once you're there at 2 Samuel,
leave a marker because we'll be back next in chapter 15 and
then looking at 16 and 17 somewhat. So 2 Samuel 12 verse 10, and
what happens is the Lord, because he loves David, and he will show
David mercy, he sends a prophet to speak to David and exposes
sin to David. And in verse 10, having told
David, and David having heard what he did and believing what
he did was wrong, the prophet says, now therefore the sword
shall never depart from thine house. because thou hast despised
me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against
thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before
thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor. David's own flesh,
pictured in Absalom, will defile his works." He's going to defile
the concubines that are David's wives. They're not just whores.
They were dedicated to David. They were his wives. And he shall
lie with thy wives in the sight of the sun. Your own flesh is
going to defile that which is yours. It's going to defile your
works. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before
all Israel and before the sun. And so David hears this, and
he's brought to repentance, and he says, I have sinned against
the Lord. That's all that they record.
I've sinned against the Lord. We often, when the Lord troubles
us, we think that there's many things to do. But David said,
I've sinned. He's right. He's just in all
that he does and says, I'm the sinner. I've done what's wrong. And Nathan said to David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. But that doesn't change everything
that's going to happen to David. Everything that Nathan said would
come to pass will indeed come to pass. And so one thing that
we see in that is sin has a cost. Sin has a cost. Even we who are
saved and redeemed by the blood of Christ. You sow to this flesh,
you shall of this flesh reap corruption. When you murder somebody
or commit adultery, you're going to suffer the consequences that
comes along with doing those things. As Paul wrote to the
Galatians 6, 7, and 8, he said, Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. and he's teaching
us in the new man. He's not speaking to the flesh,
he's speaking to that new man saying, don't go after those
things that the flesh goes after. Don't feed that flesh which just
is lusting to destroy you and to do that which is evil and
wicked. And Paul also said to the Galatians in 5.13, brethren,
ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So when you read
what David did, Don't be emboldened to sin and say, well, David got
away with it, I'll do it too. Because David suffered very grievously
in the flesh for what he did. Saved eternally? Absolutely.
Absolutely. The grace of God was very kind
and merciful to him and delivered him from his sin, but there was
consequences for what he did. So, don't practice that which
is evil and corrupt in the flesh because there are consequences
for those things. Now, soon after David's sin,
That's when Absalom, his son, rebels. That's when it all took
hold and the heart of the people of Israel actually went after
Absalom. and left David, the king that they loved, and it
went after Absalom. And so David's now in a great
deal of danger because it wasn't like when you were king and a
new king was taken over that he said, all right, you're done
now. I'm going to be king. No, he put you to death. So there
was no hope of you ever returning again and coming back to take
your place. He put you to death. So that
was going on. And then David continues to hear
other troubling words. Look over at 2 Samuel 15, and
we're just going to progress from 15 to 16 and 17, so just
keep moving your marker there. It says in 2 Samuel 15, verse
31, And one told David, saying, Ahithophel, Verse 31, one told
David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. Now, Ahithophel had been David's
wise counselor. He was a very wise man, and he
served David well for many years, but he's also defected over to
Absalom's rebellion. And when Ahithophel spoke, it
was as the law. What he said was wise counsel. It was wise. It was wisdom. It was exact. It was just. And
you could depend upon it. If you did what Ahithophel said,
it was very good counsel. And that is, do this, and you
shall live. If Absalom followed Ahithophel's
counsel, Absalom would have lived. He would have been the one to
live. It's a type. I'm not saying that Absalom was
just and righteous. But had he done what Ahithophel
said, we see a picture there that he'd be the one alive and
not David. So in 2 Samuel 16 verse 23, this
is what it says of Ahithophel's council, 1623, and the council
of Ahithophel. skip over a few words, was as
if a man had inquired at the oracle of God. So was all the
counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom. So he gives right counsel. He's
a wise man giving good counsel. And then there was one more enemy,
that is the accuser pictured in Shimei, and he comes out to
meet David as David is fleeing Jerusalem. And it says in 2 Samuel
16, 16 verses seven and eight, And thus said Shimei when he
cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial. He's calling him the son of the
devil. The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the
house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord
hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son.
And behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art
a bloody man. man. So you can imagine David
as he's going out there he's thinking of all the words that
he's heard Nathan say to him. This is all weighing on his mind
very heavily and it's with that heaviness that's when he wrote
Psalm three, verses one and two, or the next day with remembering
that. He said, Lord, how are they increased
that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against
me. Many there be which say of my
soul, there is no help for him and God. And so David sees his
sin, he's recalling everything he did with Bathsheba and murdering
Uriah to cover his sin and because of his sin now he can't dwell
in Jerusalem. He's cast out, he's thrust out
from Jerusalem which is of course a picture of the heavenly Jerusalem
where God dwells with his people. And David's now leaving that
place. He's being cast out because of his sin and his wickedness. And his enemies are Absalom,
his own flesh, waiting to destroy him, just as our own flesh seeks
to destroy us and have the rule over us, right? Your flesh wants
to have the rule over you. The sin in your flesh, the lust
of your flesh wants that rule. And then there's Ahithophel,
who is perfect in his judgment, just as the law is just and perfect. Do what the law says, and you
shall live. Your flesh shall live if you
do what the law says. And then there's Shimei accusing
David of his sin, just as we all have that accuser of the
brethren who accused us before the throne of God night and day,
saying, how can you not destroy them for their wickedness? God
is going to bring down judgment upon you, saying, the soul, there
is no help for him. in God. So David really, at this
point, he's as good as dead. He's a dead man walking. It's
just a matter of time before the armies of Absalom catch up
and slay him and destroy him. But the Lord, we know, is merciful. gracious and he told David through
the Prophet Nathan that the Lord's going to deliver you and so God
is going to be gracious to David and that's good news for for
sinners right for those of us who know I'm the sinner I'm no
different than David I deserve death I've done all kinds of
things to bring condemnation justly upon my own head and I'm
the one who should die and go to hell but God has told us of
his son that he provided salvation and through his son Jesus Christ
and he bore the wrath of God for his people in his own body
as a surety. That which we deserve he took
in his own body. And the good illustration of
that is a shield, right? Now we don't use shields today
but when we fought with bows and arrows and swords and spears
a shield was very useful because you could put that shield between
your body and the weapon coming against you, whether it was an
arrow, or fire, or a sword. Rather than that sword hitting
your body, the shield took that blow. The shield took it and
it endured the blow rather than your own body taking harm and
suffering for it. And that's what we see Christ
do. He's as a shield to his people. He took the blow, the death blow
that should have been ours, Christ took it in his own body. So all
that work of righteousness that was necessary that we do, Christ
did it. He fulfilled righteousness perfectly. He fulfilled all the holiness
that we were to fulfill. He fulfilled it on our behalf.
and the punishment and the wages of sin that were our due, that
we earned in our sin and unrighteousness, Christ did it. Christ bore that
payment of sin for his people. He took it. And that's what David
says in Psalm 3 3, But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me,
my glory and the lifter up of mine head. So we only now, because
of Christ's work, that's the only reason why we can lift our
head up to God and look to Him and have any hope of salvation
and deliverance because of what Christ did for His people. He
stood in the gap. He's the interceder. He's the
one who is the mediator between God and men. And Christ bore
that penalty of our sin so that now, by His Spirit, we know Him,
we know what He's done for us, and we look up to God, thankful,
boasting in Him, glorying in the work that Christ has done. And therefore He hears us when
we cry, as David writes in Psalm 3, 4, I cried unto the Lord with
my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. What is it
that David cried? We can see that here in 2 Samuel
15 verse 31. Back in chapter 15 verse 31. It says, One told David, saying,
Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said,
O Lord, I pray Thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. That's his prayer that he prayed,
turn Ahithophel's counsel to foolishness. That's 2 Samuel
15, 31. All right, so. We see there that the Lord brought
David, well, David's sin brought him here, but the Lord is orchestrating
all this. He's the one causing all these
things to unfold, and he gives David his spirit, which is burning
now at the news that Ahithophel is joined with Absalom, and he
knows how wise Ahithophel is, and Ahithophel's gonna know how
to take care of David and bring him into utter ruin and take
his life, and he's burdened, and so he groans in his spirit,
he cries, Lord, please bring Ahithophel's counsel to foolishness."
That's a big order to ask, because Ahithophel is a wise man. And
David doesn't know how, Lord, how you're going to do it. I
don't know, but please do it. Please deliver me out of this
man's condemnation, which I justly deserve. So, the Lord's going
to do it. And what we'll see is that the
Lord's going to do it using a weak, feeble, seemingly despised man. A weak, feeble, seemingly despised
man. Look at verse 32, 2 Samuel 15,
32. So these words exit David's mouth,
this prayer that God would frustrate or make foolish the counsel of
Ahithophel. And it came to pass, verse 32,
that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshiped
God, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat
ramped and earth upon his head. There is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and yet he came in humility on this earth
as a servant, obeying the Father in all things. And we see that
picture there in Hushai, who came with his coat rent, as it
were, a picture of how Christ humbled himself to do for his
people what they couldn't do for himself. And he had earth
upon his head, again, a picture of our Savior, the Lord himself,
the Lord of glory, taking upon him flesh. weakness of this flesh,
submitting Himself to the weakness that we are, that He might do
for us all that He done for us. And so we see in Him a perfect
Savior, fully God and fully man. And so Christ came to silence
that condemnation of the law. This fly will not leave me alone.
Sorry, brethren. All right, so Christ came to
silence the condemnation of the law that is against us. And we'll
see this pictured in Hushai defeating the council of Ahithophel. All
right, Ahithophel's council was going to be condemn David. I'll
take care of him. He's not going to live under
this. He's going to be a dead man.
And yet this feeble man, Hushai, comes And he's going to be used
by the Lord to defeat the council of Ahithophel. And that would
lead to David's salvation, the conquering of Absalom, his own
flesh, the conquering of Ahithophel, or silencing Ahithophel's condemnation
against him, a picture of the law which speaks against us,
the condemnation that we deserve for our sin. And not last or
least but but shutting the mouth of our accuser, Shimei, shuts
his mouth, takes away all the foolish things that he came accusing
David with so that he was silenced as well. And so when Christ came
to the cross for his people, That's what he was doing. He
was delivering us from our enemies. He was delivering us from the
power of sin in our own flesh. He was silencing the law's condemnation
against us because we can't keep it perfectly, right? Had there
been a commandment that had been given, it would have been given,
but because of the weakness of our flesh, Christ came. Because
there is no commandment that we can keep or follow because
we're weak in the flesh. And then, of course, the devil,
he's silenced because he accuses the brethren And we couldn't
undo his words, but Christ sure can. Christ silenced him. And
that's what we see in Colossians 2, 14 and 15, blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. So, like a type of Christ, Hushai
is going to triumph over David's enemies. And let's see that in
verse 33. 2 Samuel 15, verse 33. So, he sees Hushai and David
says to him, if thou passest on with me, then thou shalt be
a burden unto me. Now, currently speaking, Hushai
is a feeble, very aged man, and What that means, if Hushai went
with David, just chronically speaking, he would slow everybody
down, and certainly the enemy is going to catch up to David
and slay David. He's done for if Hushai goes
with him. And he tells him, you'd be a burden to me. But spiritually,
think about it. Christ is righteous, holy, perfect
in all His ways. If we try to walk with Christ
as our friend, without Him going to Jerusalem, to do that work
for us that we need done for us, it would be a burden that
we could never bear. We would be destroyed. We could
not walk with Him as a friend until he goes to Jerusalem and
does that work of salvation first. So if Christ didn't accomplish
that redemption, his triumphant, glorious work, we would be bearing
the sin, our own sin. We would bear the condemnation.
We would justly have been put to death. And that's what Hushai
is picturing here. Hushai can't go with David. He's
got to go back to Jerusalem and do that work that David needs
done to defeat the council of Ahithophel that's going to be
coming against him. And that's not all. One commentator,
when I was studying this out, he spoke of Hushai this way.
He said, David, having but scanty provisions and so could not receive
useless persons, as who shy might be, perhaps an old man that could
be of no service to him and unfit for traveling, and so would rather
be in hindrance than to help unto him." And when I thought
of that, I thought of just how awful we are to Christ our Savior
in the flesh and what we think of him. Right? In the flesh we
think, what a useless man. I don't need that. I don't need
Christ. That's us in the flesh. We see
him as a useless person. It takes the glory and the power
and the grace of God to turn our wicked, dark hearts from
seeing Christ as a useless, Person a burden not someone that we
don't want to walk with because it'll just be a trouble and a
burden to us So go thy way, but that's what the prophet even
said Isaiah 53 3 says he is despised and rejected of men a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief And we hid as it were our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not and John in his gospel wrote that he came into his own,
but his own received him and No, we just treated him in the
flesh as a useless person and we rejected him and he was just
a burden to us. But he in mercy and grace went
to Jerusalem, yet even so to redeem his people and to deliver
us from the condemnation of the law. Now, in verse 34, 2 Samuel
15, 34, David instructs Hushai to return to Jerusalem. But he
says, But if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I
will be thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father's servant
hitherto, so will I now be also thy servant. Then mayst thou
for me defeat the council of Ahithophel. Now, don't misunderstand,
Hushai wasn't being obedient to Absalom. He was being obedient
to his Lord, to David here, all right? And it's just as Christ
our Savior, right? Hushai's picturing Christ, our
Savior. And Christ isn't being subservient to the devil or anything
like that. He's being obedient to his Father.
He's doing the will of the Father to obtain eternal salvation,
to fulfill the law of the covenant of grace for us. on our behalf. That's why he went and bore that
sin. That's why he went and bore that
shameful hatred against himself and his own body. And Paul said,
for as by one man's disobedience, we know that's Adam, but here
in this account it's pictured in David, by David's Disobedience,
right? By the sin that he did, many
were made sinners. All David's friends and allies
had to leave Jerusalem with him. They were all cast out and had
to leave and put themselves in danger with David because of
what he did. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. So by the obedience of Christ,
we who have been shown our sin and delivered by God are made
righteous by Christ. And so we see that pictured in
Hushai. By his obedience to David, going back there to Jerusalem,
he delivered David and all his friends with him. All right?
And our Lord tells us that, right? That he went willingly to Jerusalem
to fulfill righteousness, as we read the other week in Mark
10, 33 and 34. I'll read it. When he said, behold,
we go up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they
shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise again. So Hushai goes back to Jerusalem,
but he's accepted. He's received by Absalom, and
Absalom takes him in and trusts him. He believes, okay, all right,
I can see this. The pharaoh came over to me.
I can see how Hushai here could also come over to my side. And it says in 2 Samuel 17, verses
one through four, three, the first half. First, he hit the
fell, gives him counsel, and says, go sleep with his wives.
We're not going to read that, but he tells him to do it. Because
what he was saying is, if you do this, then all of Jerusalem
is going to know you're serious about this, because you just
made yourself a stink in your dad's eye. You just made yourself
a stench by sleeping with his wives. There ain't no reconciliation
now. You're serious about this. So
he does that. And then he says, moreover, in
17.1, moreover, Ahithophel said unto Absalom, let me now choose
out 12,000 men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night,
and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed,
and will make him afraid, and all the people that are with
him shall flee, and I will smite the king only, and I will bring
back all the people unto thee. And that was Ahithophel's counsel.
And that was really what Absalom should have done. Had he followed
the law there, he would have been established. He would have
overcome. Now, Absalom turns to Hushai
in verses seven and eight. And Hushai said unto Absalom,
the counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.
For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that
they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as
a bear robbed of her whelps in the field, thy father is a man
of war." Look at verse 14. And Absalom and all the men of
Israel said, the counsel of Hushah the Archite is better than the
counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had appointed to
defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom. So like Absalom, it's a picture
of us. We're fools in this flesh and
we have not obeyed the law. We didn't follow that which is
good and right because we're fallen. We are wicked sinners,
unable to work righteousness for ourselves. And so we see
that pictured in Absalom, they're unable to keep Ahithophel's counsel
perfectly. But Christ, like Hushai, he's
got to break that union between the flesh and the law, thinking
that we can keep the law perfectly, because we can. We know that
now. God has revealed that to us. that we are sinners, unable
to please him with the works of this flesh. And so Christ
came to destroy that union, to destroy the works of the devil,
to destroy the works of this flesh, to destroy that union,
thinking that we can actually do good for ourselves. And once
that union is severed, then David's own flesh in Absalom is destroyed,
right? When Hushai's counsel was followed,
and then Ahithophel, the law, he ceases to be the rule of the
condemnation over David. No more. He's gonna stop talking. That condemnation against David
is over. And then Shimei, the accuser,
will have his mouth shut as well. So when Hushai was heeded, when
his advice was heeded, a hit the fell knew immediately this
is over this thing is done the rebellion is over and when David
goes back if I don't take care of myself David is going to kill
me anyway and so it actually says in 1723 Because Ahithophel, as the law,
has nothing more to say to us. Once Christ did his work, the
law has nothing more to say to us. And it says in 1723, when
Ahithophel saw that the council was not followed, he saddled
his ass and arose and got him home to his house, to his city,
and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died,
and was buried in the sepulcher of his father. So by Hushai's
work, David died to the law of Ahithophel. That condemnation
was over. And it says, Paul wrote in Romans
7, 4, as our brother read earlier, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God, all right? So by the
spirit of Christ, we bring forth fruit and good works, not by
this flesh and the law. That only brought forth fruit
unto death. But now in Christ, he brings forth fruit of us as
our husband, we bring forth that lovely, precious, living fruit
of Christ, our husband and our savior. He bears that good work
in us. So David though, doesn't even
know any of this yet. As far as David knows, he's still
condemned, he's still in darkness, he's unwitting to what's gone
on and what Hushai has worked for him already. And don't you
see another picture there, how even when we were yet sinners,
dead in our trespasses and sins, Christ came and delivered us
from our enemy. He saved us. He did that work
of salvation. And that's what we read in Ephesians
1-4, that it's according as God hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. And Paul would go on in Ephesians
2, 14 through 16, for Christ is our peace, having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one
body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. So Christ
reconciled us to the Father. We who are His, who believe Him
and know Him now, it's because we've been reconciled by Christ
beforehand when we didn't even know what He had done for us
and what He accomplished. Alright, now let's see the next
point where we see Christ delivers. So, Like us, who are ignorant
sinners of God's grace, David went to sleep that night, not
knowing. He didn't know if he was gonna awake the next morning
and be alive or just die in the night, even though he was already
delivered. So even so, we slept in Christ,
right? When Christ was crucified, we
were crucified with him. When he died, we died. And when
Christ was buried, we were buried with him. And when he arose from
the dead, we arose in him." We already had deliverance in life. It says in Romans 6, four through
six, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,
that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him. that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." And
so we see pictured here this very thing in David's words when
he wrote in Psalm 3 verses 5 and 6, he said, I laid me down and
slept. I awaited, for the Lord sustained
me. And that's what Christ did. He
did that work of salvation, and all we did was sleep in him.
We lay down asleep in him, and he did all that beautiful, perfect
work for us. And when he awoke, we awoke in
him. We rose in him. And therefore,
being made alive by the Spirit of Christ, David says, I will
not be afraid of 10,000s of people that have set themselves against
me round about. And so, Commentators, a lot of
commentators, they refer to this hymn as the mourning hymn, the
mourning hymn, because that's how immediately David understood,
I've been delivered. The Lord has heard my prayer
and he's delivered me because he should have been killed that
night. And he knew if Ahithophel had his way, he'd have been dead.
But the fact that he awoke that night, that meant the Lord had
delivered him from his enemies. All right, and let's read the
final verses there in Psalm 3 7. He writes, arise, O Lord, save
me, O my God, for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. And so David's use of those words,
the cheekbone and broken teeth, again, it pictures, first of
all, the law's condemnation against us, that it's silence, it has
nothing more to say to us because of Christ. And then it's also
true of our accuser, Shimei, right? Because Shimei was cursing
David as he left Jerusalem when he was going out. He was cursing
him and heaping all kinds of evil things to say against him.
But when David comes back to Jerusalem, now Shimei is begging
for his life. He's begging for his life. And
actually David didn't kill Shimei then. If you remember, if you're
familiar with that, David didn't kill him, but actually Solomon
came. Solomon, when Solomon became
king and David was dead, that's when Shimei died. And you see
a picture of that because when Christ went to the cross, Our
accuser was defeated. He was silenced. He was shut
up. He couldn't say anything now. He's no longer at the throne
of God. He can't accuse the brethren because Christ has silenced them.
He's worked righteousness for us and we are now without fault
before the throne of God. And so in that sense, the accuser,
just like Shimei, is silenced. And he's on house arrest, right?
Isn't that what it says now in the scriptures? That he's bound
with a chain, that there's only so much he can do. He doesn't
have that free reign anymore, just like Shimei at one time
had some free reign, but now he's on house arrest. And he
was told by Solomon, you go past this point and I'll kill you. And what happened? When a servant,
when one of his slaves tried to leave Shimei, Shimei went
after him at a certain point. He went after him, to retrieve
his former slave. And this is not a picture of
what the scriptures speak of that at the end times, that accuser
might be let out for a little season. He's gonna try and go
after those escaped of him that have been delivered out of his
hand, those former slaves, but he'll be destroyed. When Christ
comes again, this is pictured in Solomon, he'll be destroyed
and taken care of and we'll have nothing more, because we're not
the slaves no more. the servants of righteousness. We're servants
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so, brethren, we
rejoice because as the Apostle John said, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So look around,
brethren. Where are your enemies? Your
flesh is defeated in Christ. The law has nothing more to say
to you. And your accuser, that enemy of our souls, has nothing
more to say to us either. And David says there, verse 8,
salvation. Belongeth unto the Lord. Thy
blessing is upon thy people. Amen, that is true because all
our spiritual blessings are shown to us in Christ Jesus our Lord
and Savior who delivered us From all our enemies pray the Lord
bless that word to your hearts. Let's pray and then we'll We'll
pass out. We're gonna take the Lord's Supper
today, so let's pray our gracious Lord. We thank you father for
our your mercy and your kindness in doing this work of salvation,
Lord, even as we saw pictured here this morning. Lord, take
that which is true and right and what your Son has done and
lay it to our hearts, Lord. Help us to see it's not our works
that you're looking to, but the work of your Son, Jesus Christ,
who is obedient to you in all things. And work this work of
salvation for us, even when as yet we were ignorant of it. We're
thankful, Lord, for your grace and your mercy. We pray that
you teach us and encourage us and settle us in the Lord Jesus
Christ, ever looking to him, only and forever. We pray this
in Christ's name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. All right. We're going to take the Lord's
Supper together, and we'll have Scott and Levi, if you guys could
come up. And Levi, if you wouldn't mind
praying. And then I'm going to be reading
from Matthew. Once they hand out everything,
I'll read from Matthew 26. Lord, thank you for bringing us here today,
Lord. Thank you for giving us the need
to be here, Lord. We pray that You would bless
us with this message, Lord, that it doesn't fall upon us and be
let go, Lord, but You would feed Your Word, Lord, in us and direct
us to Your Son. Amen. We'll just be looking at
two verses. I'll read them. And then we'll
take both the bread and the wine together, and I'll just sit down.
And then after about a minute, brother, if you just come up
and close us in a hymn. So I'm reading from Matthew 26,
verses 26 and 27. We read that, as they were eating,
Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it
to the disciples, and said, take, eat. This is my body. And notice
he said, to the disciples. So it's for those who believe
Christ and rest in Him. It doesn't mean that we've conquered
all our sin and put everything away. Not that we're promoting
our sin. But we trust Christ. We believe
Him that He has conquered us and delivered us from all our
foes. And so we follow Him. We're disciples
of Him. We come and we hear the Word
and we're glad and we rejoice in Christ. So to His disciples,
He says, take this bread and eat it. It's My body which is
broken for you. And then, verse 27, He took the
cup and He gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink ye all
of it. Verse 28, for this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many. All his people whom he loved
and were in him eternally for the remission of sins.