those offerings that the Lord
ordained and ordered the children of Israel to go about performing
for hundreds of years and all the while they were thinking
in their mind and according to their understanding that these
things were appeasing God. But the scripture says that the
Lord's not pleased with such sacrifices. I mean, those are
not the things that He told them to do them. And in that respect,
He was pleased that they did it because He'll do according
to His pleasure. But the purpose of all of those
offerings was to point to Christ. And you can see it, you know,
you can't, they couldn't see it. But by the grace of God,
we having seen Christ and what He did, we can look back and
see those things. So it is impossible actually
to know and understand the Old Testament if you don't have,
by the grace of God, have been given eyes to see that which
is new. The Pharisees couldn't, didn't
believe that. The Lord said, search the Scriptures.
And of course what the scriptures he was talking about was the
Old Testament and the law and all those things. He said, look
in those things. He said, because in them you
think you've got eternal life. He said, in all of those records
of things and whatnot, he says, you think that what you know
about this is the truth. But he said, you don't know anything.
He said, because they are they which testify of me. It was impossible
that they should see that. It's impossible that any man
can see that, except by the grace of God, the Lord opens a man's
eyes to see Christ. And you know, when a man sees
Christ, he's seen everything there is to see. And he doesn't
need to look any further. You know, that thief on the cross,
he didn't need to look any further than Christ. He said, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom, because that's as far
as he wanted to go. He didn't need anything else.
He didn't say, Lord, you know, help me to know the way. He said,
Lord, I believe you who you said you are. And how did he know
that? You ever thought about that very
much? I mean, how did he know that? How does any man know that
Christ is the Lord? There's only one way. That is
that the Lord has to show it to him. And when the Lord shows
it to him, he'll know that it's true. And all the powers of hell
arrayed against him cannot turn him from that belief. We believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. And therein do all our hopes
rest. And we're thankful and glad.
Now some people, you know, the religious man and people that
seek out religions and people that believe all religions of
the earth are valuable and equally good, they'll never be able to
grasp the concept that Christ is all. and that Christ is the
way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but
by me but God's people are satisfied with that and can't be satisfied
with anything else You know, when religious men, they can
all join hand in hand with various what they call faiths in the
earth and they can pat one another on the back and say, well, you
believe in your God and we believe in ours and you're going your
way and we're going ours and all that. And I'm not interested
in joining hands with any of them. But I'm desiring to fall down
and worship Christ and join hands with any who worship Him. You
know, because He is that One. And so, we come to Psalm 57.
Psalm 57 says, "...to the chief musician, Altusheth, Mitham of
David, when he fled from Saul in the cave." Now I set the stage
for this, and of course in this title is some information, when
he fled from Saul in the cave. Now, you remember when Saul was
after him, David and his men hid in the cave. Saul came in there. Now scholars
are divided over what this man said. Saul went in there and
he covered his feet. Now some people think that that
means he went in there and relieved himself. And some people believe that
it means he went in there and slept. Now personally, I believe
that it means he went in there and slept. And the reason for
that is, as preoccupied as a man might be in the other activity
of relieving himself, I don't think he would be unaware that
somebody was sneaking up behind him and cutting his throat. you
know, the robe of his garment off. That's what David did. And he went up there. Now, he
could have killed Saul. And his men said, man, you've
got him now. Here he is. He's asleep in the
cave here. All you've got to do is go up
here and stab him in the heart. I mean, it's done. Your enemy
is done. He said, I can't destroy that
which God hath anointed. He said, God has anointed Saul
to be the king over Israel. Whether I like it or I don't,
he is the king. And I will not touch that which
God has anointed. And that's what this word al-tashjith
means, do not destroy. And the word miktham, I think
we've talked about that, but it literally means an engraving.
So this is an engraving of David. This is something that he wrote
out. He said, this is set in stone, do not destroy. And of
course, at the same time that it is David's desire not to destroy
that which God had anointed, it was also his desire, oh Lord,
do not destroy me. Because, you know, the Lord,
He said, as ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even
so to them. And He said, you know, if you
want mercy shown to you, show mercy to others. Don't expect
that you're going to receive mercy if you're not merciful
unto others. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall receive mercy. And so, That's kind of setting
the stage for when he fled from Saul in the cave and he says,
Be merciful unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me, for my soul
trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings
will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. I will cry unto God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send
from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would
swallow me up, say Lot. God shall send forth his mercy
and his truth. My soul is among lions and I
lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of
men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp
sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. They have prepared a net for
my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have
digged a pit before me. Into the midst whereof they are
fallen themselves. Selah. My heart is fixed, O God,
my heart is fixed, I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my
glory, awake, psaltery and harp, I myself will awake early. I
will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto
Thee among the nations. For Thy mercy is great unto the
heavens and Thy truth unto the clouds. Be Thou exalted, O God,
above the heavens. Let Thy glory be above all the
earth. Now as we say each time that
we begin one of these Psalms, keep in mind that David's the
author, but Christ is the speaker. And Christ indeed, as a man walking
among men, sought the mercy of God, did he not? Not for his
own sake. He didn't need mercy. When he
did everything right, he was a perfect man, but he sought
mercy for our sake because he was tempted in all points like
as we are. He was in the same condition
that we are in so far as being in a moral realm and taking upon
himself our weakness. I don't guess we'll ever be able
to fully comprehend that, but nonetheless, it does us well
to think about it from time to time and to give thought to the
understanding that he did indeed bear our sins. He took upon himself
the likeness of sinful flesh and he walked among men. And
he has experienced everything that a man can experience insofar
as the trouble that's associated with sin. So he says, be merciful
unto me, O God. Now I can't help but think as
David is in this situation and remember he says that this is
an engraving of David, do not destroy. And in a measure David
can see that Saul is at his mercy. He could kill Saul just like
that and Saul couldn't have done anything about it. But David
understood in that that he was in the same shape before Almighty
God. He was at the mercy of God. There
wasn't a thing in the world he could do about it. Now a lot
of people, they get a little worried about that when you get
talking about the fact that a man is at the mercy of God. He can't
do one thing to help himself. Now I know it's a prevalent thought
today. that you can pick yourself up
by the bootstraps and you can just do anything you want to
and you can just cause God to bless you and you can back him
into a corner and you can do anything, but brethren, all that's
just a bunch of lies. The Lord said, I'll show mercy
to whom I will show mercy and whom I will, I'll harden. That's kind of a scary thought,
isn't it? I mean, it causes me to tremble. When I think that
my destiny, my hopes, all in His hands and not mine, according
to the mercy of God. And so David, he understands
that. Here he is, he has the power
insofar as men are concerned of life and death over Saul. And yet he understands mercy
and the need for mercy. You know how often it is that
we want mercy, but then we look upon men, perhaps, that we think,
well, they're not deserving of mercy. We're not going to. You know, they're just sorry
no counts. We got no time for them. You ever think like that? The Lord shows mercy. to undeserving
people, because you see, that's what mercy is. Mercy is that
which is shown to the undeserving. You can't show mercy to somebody
that deserves it. You know what I mean? You can't
show them mercy. You can pay them something, but
you can't show them mercy. Mercy is that which is given
without any prior Desert. Be merciful unto me, O God. Be
merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. I've got no
other place to turn. You alone. Yea, in the shadow
of thy wings will I make my refuge. I'm gonna be found there. Hide
me in the cliff of the rock. Let me be found, Lord, sheltered
in thy presence. In the shadow of thy wings will
I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. What calamities is he talking
about? He's talking about the present. David's talking about
the present trouble that he's in. The Lord Jesus Christ, as
that one who prayed for his people, understood that the calamities
must yet come upon him. But yet the Lord was his trust
in the midst of those things. I will cry unto God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. Oh, what a glorious
scripture that is. Now, you hear a lot today, and
when I say these things, I'm not criticizing. I'm just pointing
these things out. I don't want to be critical.
I find a critical spirit within me, but that's not my purpose.
To point out that there, Most preaching that's done today is
all about trying to get folks to perform something for God.
You need to be doing. There's a guy that's on the radio
station for three hours on Sunday morning over at one of the stations
in Lake City. And that's his whole thing. You
need to be doing something for God. You know, if you're going
to get eternal life and enjoy it, you better be doing something
for God. Well, David understood there wasn't a thing in the world
he could do for God. Now, that comes as news to a
lot of people. They think, well, we can serve
God. Well, there's a measure in which that is a true statement.
But insofar as what you can bring to God, you can't bring anything
to Him. Why? Because He's the one that
gives everything to you. What are you going to bring to
Him? I mean, it would be like a man who's a millionaire's son
and his daddy gives him a million dollars and he says, Daddy, I'm
going to take you out to supper. And everything that he has came
from his daddy to start with. So how's he gonna really take
him to supper? I mean, how's he really gonna
do anything for him at all? He can't really, can he? Because
everything he has came from him. And brethren, that's the way
that we are. The Lord alone is the one that
performeth all things. I'm glad Christ is our performer. He performeth all things. Paul
understood that. He says, I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Well, I can't believe. Christ believes by the grace of God you can cast
yourself at the feet of Christ. His faith is sufficient. I mean,
you don't trust your faith? Well, we don't have anything
left, but we've got our faith. Well, brother, your faith will
fail you. Peter found that out, didn't he? Lord, I'll stand with
you. I don't care what anybody does,
Lord, I'll be right there with you. All these other guys here,
you can't trust them at all, but you can trust me, I'll be
there. What did Peter find out? He found out that when the chips
were down, he denied the Lord. And such as every man, by nature,
will deny the Lord if the Lord doesn't keep him from falling.
So it's not our fate, old horn. May you perform for us. I'm thankful
that he works in us both willing to do of his good pleasure. And
he which hath begun a good work in you will what? Perform it. Till the day of Jesus Christ.
He is our performer, dear brethren. If he doesn't keep us from falling,
we'll fall. I mean, there's nothing more
common than people that set out to follow Christ that fall by
the wayside. You can read about them in the
Scriptures here. You can see them every day. And
you'll be numbered among them, apart from one thing, that Christ
is your performer. Oh, what a glorious place to
be. I will cry unto God most high, unto God. Most high, very
high. It's like God most holy. That
God most high is the same type of a situation. Can't get any
higher than that. I will call unto him. He performeth
all things for me. He shall send from heaven and
save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.
That is, David understood that. Saul was seeking to swallow him
up. And he knew he would, except for one thing, that God would
preserve him. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that
his enemies were out to swallow him up, to destroy him, but he
said he understood this, God shall send forth his mercy and
his truth. Now, he knew that he would be
delivered. Now, you know, people think about
deliverance and they think about it in terms of not having trouble
in this life. And you get enough of these cats
getting together and, you know, gathering up money from people
that are foolish enough to send it to them and they're saying,
you know, you get this and the Lord's just going to bless you
if you'll bless me and all of this stuff. And it's going to
come to you according to what you do. But David understood
and the Lord Jesus understood that the Lord is the one that
sends forth his mercy and his truth according to the good pleasure
of his will. My soul is among lions and I
lie among them that are set on fire. Even the sons of men whose
teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. Men that are set on fire. What
did James say about the tongue? He said it was set on the fire
of hell. You know, with this mouth we speak forth blessing,
and we speak forth cursing. The tongue is an unruly member,
and the tongue is used for hurt, and it's also used by the grace
of God for good, according to the good pleasure of God. But
he cries out, O Lord, I'm among those who are set against me.
And you know, Saul's advisors, what were they saying? Man, we
need to quit nipping this in the bud. You need to get out
there and kill David right now because if you don't, he's gonna
get all his power and he's gonna come up. And they said, David,
he hates you. David didn't hate Saul. He wanted
to be Saul's servant. He wanted to bless Saul. And
so, you know, how foolish. I mean, you know, when a man's
heart is set on evil, I mean, and Saul, he was wishy-washy,
because he had not the spirit of God within him. And so one
day, he's saying to David, after David didn't kill him, he said,
well, you're more righteous than I. But he didn't really believe
it, because he still wanted to kill David. And he set out to
do it. And of course, he's, every time,
you know, that there's, of political leaders and leaders of countries,
they've always got people over here in this ear and people over
here in this ear. And they're telling them all
these things they need to do and what not and the other. My
soul's among lions, I lie among them that are set on fire. Be
thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above
all the earth. Now that's up there. See, the
highest realm that a man can conceive of is the heavens. I mean, we can look through a
telescope and we can just look as far as we can look. And that's
as far as we can look, isn't it? But David says here, be thou
exalted, O God, above the heavens. See, the heavens can't contain
him. I mean, what you can see can't contain God. Now people
write books and they define God and they say how He is and they've
got it all figured out and they say this is what He can do and
this is what He can't do. Well, I don't know what He can
do and what He can't do. I know He's higher than the heavens.
He's higher than the thoughts of men. He dwells in the light
to which no man can approach, Paul said. He only hath immortality. Our God, David said, our God's
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Job said, man, I thought I knew
something about you, Lord. But he said, now I'm kind of
beginning to understand that you're far greater than what
I considered. Be thou exalted, O God, above
the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. They have prepared a net for
my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have
digged a pit before me into the midst whereof they are fallen
themselves. What a self-fulfilling prophecy.
That is. And David mentions this several
times in the Psalms about this very concept, about the wicked
setting forth a trap that they fall into. Of course, the bun
of the best, perhaps the poster child, if you want to call it
that, of this sort of thing would be Haman. You know, as he set
the trap for old Mordecai, and he had this all figured out,
buddy, just like they got this impeachment deal, they got it
all figured out. And they might do it, and it
might, you know, I don't know anything about all that, but
I can see, this is coming to be so true, that they have dug
a ditch. And if they're not careful, they're
gonna fall right into it themselves. And it'd probably be a good thing
if they all just fell in there. And then somebody took a bulldozer
and just covered them up. I mean, it'd probably be the
best thing that could happen. But anyway, they've prepared
a net for my steps, laid a trap. And isn't that true of the Lord? I mean, didn't they, weren't
they constantly setting a net? We got him now. We'll back him
up in here. Yep, we got you now. What, do
you believe that you should pay tribute? He said, well, you got a coin?
Let me see that coin. What's that coin say? Whose picture's
on it? Said, well, it's Caesar's. He said, well, render therefore
to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things
that are God's. And the net that they had stretched
for him, they got caught up in theirself with the Lord. He's able to catch the wicked
in their own way. We see it in the case of Judas.
He got this money and, buddy, he thought this money was going
to do him some good. But it became bitter in his mouth
according to the design of God. And he was destroyed, destroyed
his self. And the money, which he thought
would have been to his benefit, was used to buy a field to bury
paupers in. They are fallen themselves. My
heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give
praise. Because really, God's people
can't do anything else but praise Him. I mean, they're stuck on
it. You ever get a song in your mind
and a phrase of it or something and you go to sleep and you think
of that thing and you can't get it out of your mind? Well, dear
brethren, by the grace of God, our heart is fixed upon the Lord. It's a refrain that's in our
mind. We think on Him. Because it is
that which is pleasant to us. I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory! Awake, psalter
and harp! I myself will awake early. I
will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto
Thee among the nations. Now, praising God is a thing
that can only be caused in a man by
the Spirit of God. It's impossible that a man could
praise the Lord apart from it. Now, men can go through motions. Now, I'm not saying they can't
do something that they call praising Him. See, I mean, you can get
you a book here, and it can say, Praise to God, and you can read
it, and you can read every word that's on the page, but it doesn't
mean And you can get into a situation where people are singing, and
they are saying, we are praising God, and you can join in with
them. But that does not mean that you are praising God. Because
unless the Spirit of God works in a man to praise God, he is
just singing words. He could be singing a country
song or something. He could sing anything he wants
to. But it's not praise to God, but, Lord, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise.
Why? Because You have wrought these things in my heart. I will
praise the Lord among the people. I will sing unto Thee among the
nations. Awake up, my glory, awake, sultry
heart. Oh, let us praise God with all
that's within us. Let everything, David says in
one of the other Psalms, let everything that hath breath Praise
the Lord. Isn't that our desire? I mean,
don't we want everything to praise God? He's worthy of all praise. Oh, let all men praise Him. I
will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto
Thee among the nations, for Thy mercy is great unto the heavens
and Thy truth unto the clouds. as high as we can see. Be thou
exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. His name is above every name
that is named. When the angel came to Joseph,
and told him thou shalt call his name Yeshua thou shalt call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins what
a glorious what a glorious name that is see we understand When
we speak forth that name, it's not just a name. Now, some people
think of it like it's a rabbit's foot. I've heard people that
they just thought that, well, if you just say Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, and you say it enough, you know something
will happen. Well, you can say that till you're
blue in the face. But oh, if God writes that name
in your heart, It will be a precious thing to
you. And His glory is that which you will delight in. May His
name be praised in all the earth.