This morning, we're going to
be in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 13. One thing the Lord's people have
in common. Well, we have many things in common. Actually, one
thing in particular that the Lord's people have in common
is their complete dependency on the Lord Jesus Christ. Their
complete dependency on the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord has
revealed who Christ is and revealed your sin, what you are. You'll
become completely dependent upon him for everything. But if you're
not dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, or have no need for a
substitute or a savior, then that means the Lord has not made
Christ unto you all your wisdom, all your righteousness, all your
sanctification, and all your redemption. The good news is,
is that's exactly what he promised his people he would do for them
in time. At his purposed time, at the
appointed time. comes to where they are, and
He reveals their sin, and then reveals the Savior simultaneously. And Christ is made unto us all
of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and all of our
redemption. If you depend on His mercy, and
you depend on His grace, and you depend on His finished work
for all your salvation before God, God did that. God did that. Wasn't something that we decided,
something we chose, it's something that God chose and God decided,
God did that. The only way we'll need him is
if God makes us need him. Let's read our text here in Hebrews
13, just two verses this morning, verse five and six. Let your
conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things
as you have. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the
Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. Titled this message, The Lord
is my Helper. Is the Lord your helper? Is the
Lord your helper? We looked last Sunday at that
verse five. Is the Lord enough for you? But he's dealing with
covetousness there and being content. If you're content, you're
not covetous. And if you're covetous, you're
not content. But if the Lord is your helper, if the Lord has
been made your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
you'll be content with him. You'll be content with him. Either
Christ finished the work and you're content with that, and
he's your helper, or you're doing something for as part of your
salvation. If Christ did not save his people
from their sin, we have no hope, but the good news is he did.
And he reveals that in time to his people, reveals that he is
our helper. I remember my children, They
were little that I'd be working on something around the house.
They'd be like, Daddy, we want to help you. Well, little children are
not much help. They really are a hindrance,
because you've got to baby them and teach them. You're more or
less teaching them at that point. But it's important that we do
that. And that's not the kind of helper that's being talked
about here. Nor is it the kind of helper to where you go and
you see a doctor, and he's gonna help you by giving you medication.
You need a medication because you're sick, so here's your medication,
so take your medication and you'll get better. No, this is a much
deeper help that we need. This is being totally and completely
depraved, completely fallen in Adam. We need help to be restored
back to God, which means Christ has to do all of it. He has to
do all of it. We can't do any part of it, or
we will not be restored back to God. If we add ourself to
it in any way, that's a cancellation of the contract. The contract,
the covenant, was between God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Spirit. And so what does the Lord do?
The Lord reveals, He saved us first, then He calls us, and
when He calls us, He says, I am your helper. I'm the one that
helped you, you didn't help me. You didn't help me. What'd the
Lord tell when he was on the earth? He said, if I was hungry,
I wouldn't tell you. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell
you. We're not the Lord's helper. Men preach as if God needs help.
God doesn't need any help, does he? No, he's seated on his throne
still as God. He hasn't had to get up and start
pacing the floor, never will. Never will. His works were finished
from the foundation of the world. He's God. No, the Lord doesn't
need our help. We need his help. We need his
help. We need to be saved from ourself. You ever seen that before? Not
just saved from your sin, but saved from yourself. You need
to be saved from Satan. You need to be saved from the
world. We can't contend with any of those. I've heard people
talking like they were ready to take on Satan. We can't contend
with him. Only the Lord can. Look to Christ
in that. And by the way, that's not, Boldness
in the Lord, that's just, well, that's arrogance for one, but
it's also pride. It's also pride. We don't take
on, we can't conquer the flesh, and we can't conquer the world,
and we can't conquer Satan, but the Lord Jesus Christ did all
three of those, didn't he? All for his people, all for his
people. God must be my helper or I am
lost. In the book of 1 Samuel 19, the
kids are actually learning this this morning. Book of 1 Samuel
19. We're not gonna turn there. Saul
is irate with David to the point where he's gonna kill him. He
wants to kill David. And he confides in his son, Jonathan.
He says, he's already given Michelle in marriage unto David, which
was his daughter, which is the king Saul's daughter. And he
sends David off to war, but David don't die. He had a plan. I love that men plan things,
but God, you know, you don't plan. He purposes. I love that
about our God. God purposes. And what happened? Well, Saul tells Jonathan, I'm
going to kill David myself. I'm going to kill him. If the
war is not going to kill him, then I'm going to kill him. I'm
going to get rid of this David. Get rid of him. Now that's a type
and picture of the law. You understand that? The law
demands death for any transgressor. The law demands death for any
transgressor. And Jonathan is a representation of our Lord
and Savior. It's also a representation of
the gospel preacher and the Lord's spirit. He goes to David, finds
him, and says, Saul's going to kill you. You need to flee. Don't
come back. And that's the gospel warning.
Don't go to the law. Flee to Christ. And where did
he tell him to flee to? To the mountains. Why? Because
that's where the cleft for the rock is found, isn't it? It's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Flee to him. See, if David never
had Jonathan as his helper, He would have died. He would have
died. I had to take the interceding
of the Son, of the Son. That's a picture, isn't it? The
Lord Jesus Christ must intercede on our behalf because you and
I have no hope of being saved from ourself. We don't even realize
the danger that we're in, just being born in sin and shaping
into iniquity. The danger is death. The danger is hell. The danger
is eternal separation. And until the gospel comes, until
the Lord decides to be, to show us he's our helper, we'll die
in that state. We would die in that state. But
thanks be to God for our Jonathan. made a covenant with David that
day. Did you know that? It was a blood covenant. That's
where, uh, you remember in second Samuel chapter nine, whenever
David says, is there any left of the house of Saul that I may
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? That's where it started
right there as a blood covenant. He said, all right, you take
care of my kin. I'll take care of your kin. One of us dies.
You take care of mine. Uh, I'll take care of yours. And that was an agreement they
made. And that's just a picture of the covenant of grace, isn't
it? The Lord, where was Mephibosheth whenever that happened? He wasn't even born yet, was
he? What do they say, a twinkle in his daddy's eye? You ever
heard that before? Wasn't even a twinkle in his daddy's eye,
but yet he was the benefactor of the covenant of grace because
of his helper. David was his helper in that
picture. Need a helper. The Lord Jesus Christ and the
covenant of grace, whenever they made that covenant, when God
made that covenant with God, his people are the benefactor.
They were never born yet, not doing any good or any evil, but
that the purpose of election might stand. And the Lord chose
some unto salvation. And in time he reveals, I've
put away your sin. I have saved you. I will surely
show thee kindness. for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. He's your helper. He's your helper. Like David, we need to be saved. We need a helper. We need someone
that saved us. Not a little nudge. I've heard
men say that if you take the first step, the Lord will take
the rest, but a corpse can't walk. And if you nudge a corpse,
it's not gonna do any good for the dead body, it's not. And I'm not insensitive to that,
but seriously though, that's what men preach, they act like
that's how it is. That's not how it is. If we're
dead like the scripture says we're dead, and we are by nature,
I've gotta be made alive before I can do anything else. I've
got to be spiritually made alive before I can do anything. He must quicken us by his spirit,
be given saving faith to believe that he's God so that we can
flee to Christ. Until he does that, we can't
even flee to Christ. We can't even flee. This is the only way we can say
boldly. You know what that word boldly
means? We've talked about this before. With complete confidence,
no doubt whatsoever. No doubt whatsoever, complete
faith. This is the only way we can say boldly is if God makes
us take sides with God over ourself. That's what every single believer
must do. You take side with God, you say, no, you're right, I'm
wrong. You are true, I am false. You are holy, I am sinful, utterly
sinful. I can do nothing right, you can
do nothing wrong. This is taking God taking his
side against yourself, and only by the new nature can a man do
that. Only by being made alive by his spirit can a man or a
woman do that. There's no other way we can.
There's no other way we can. If he does not do that, we're
still looking to self in some way. I love the thought that
the Lord makes us surrender to him. Makes us surrender to him. You could say that we're prisoners
of love. That would be a way to put it. Prisoners of love. But I like that prison, don't
you? I love, if that needs to be my title, I love that. If
it's his love that I'm a prisoner to, I'm okay with that. Somebody
said, well, you guys, the way that you preach down there, you
act like everybody is a bunch of puppets. I said, no, not everybody.
Not everybody, the Lord leads a lot to themselves. I said,
but the Lord's people, he directs them, he leads them, he makes
them, he causes them. And if he doesn't, we wouldn't be saved.
We see it that way, don't we? He's gotta be our helper. Got
to be, or we won't have any help. Who else would help us in our
time of need? Who else could help us with this
sin that we have, the sin that we are? Who else could help us
in our state of complete impotency but him? Who else? Did Bartimaeus
cry out for Peter? Did Bartimaeus cry out for John
or James? Did Bartimaeus cry out for any
of the other disciples? No. He cried out for Jesus. Thou Son of David, have mercy
upon me. Help me, Lord. You're the only one that can.
And what did the Lord say to Bartimaeus? We say things sarcastically
sometimes to make the point cement better, the Lord didn't look
at him and say, okay, I'll do for you something, but you have
to do for me something. The Lord didn't say that. Okay,
I'll help you, but you have to help me first. Didn't say that. Did not say that. He said, what
would you have me do? He said, my sight. And what'd the Lord
tell him? Be thou made whole. Where's the,
who's the benefactor? Bartimaeus. What did the Lord
get out of that? Well, he got the glory for it. There's no
doubt about that, but Bartimaeus, You understand what I'm saying?
The Lord didn't ask Bartimaeus for anything, did he? Didn't
negotiate. God's not negotiating. He doesn't
need help. We need help. We need help. We need a helper, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We need the blood, the need for
salvation, righteousness. That's what we need. Without
that, we have no hope. You ever heard the expression,
can't help someone that won't help themselves? That does not
apply to this situation. Because we can't help ourself.
People say all the time, I can relate to that too, because I
know people, they won't help themselves. They can do better,
they choose not to. Can't help somebody that won't help themselves.
That's not the case when it comes to salvation. We can't help ourself
and need to be helped. And that's what the Lord did.
He helped those that can't help their self. He healed those who
couldn't heal themselves. He saved the unsavable. That's
what he did. That's why he's our helper. Couldn't help ourself out of
our fallen state. It's impossible for us to do
something physical that changes something spiritual. Only the
Lord Jesus Christ can do that. And he did that on the cross
of Calvary. What did he do? He changed our sin into righteousness. Changed the sin of the Lord's
people into righteousness. That's what he did. He changed
our judgment into justification. That's what he did on the cross.
He changed our, well, he changed our everything, didn't he? He
made us new creatures in Christ, gave us a new nature, took our
old sinful nature. We still bear it in his corpse.
He gave us a new nature, one that believes God, one that looks
to God. He took our unbelief and gave us faith. Gave us faith. Do we still wrestle with unbelief?
Absolutely. That's why we need a helper.
That's why we need him as our helper. Lord, help me, help my
unbelief. Is that not what the man said? Anything you say, Lord,
will come true. And he said, do you believe?
You believe I can do this. He said, Lord, I believe. Help
my unbelief. I need a helper. Help my unbelief. When we see our impotency, when
God shows us our impotency, our complete inability, our complete
depravity, we'll realize We cannot do anything to change or alter
our position. We can't improve our circumstances
by doing something. We can't, not on ourself, can't.
I know people, they have five-year plans. Have you ever heard that
before? Got a five-year plan, I'm gonna do this for the next
five years, and that's gonna get me to this point. When it
comes to spiritual things, you can plan all you want to. You
can do all you want to. I can do all I want to, plan
all I want to, but when it comes to spiritual things, God has
to be the doer of that. Has to be the complete doer of
that. Me planning's not gonna change anything. God doesn't
need my help. He's God. He's the one that does
the working. He's the one that does the purposing.
He's the one that gets all the glory for it. And he is my helper. He's my helper. God's not waiting for you and
I to do something first. He must be the omega. That means he's the very beginning,
the start of it. The very start of it. Before
anything was, he was. That's what he said, wasn't it?
Before anything was, I am. I am. You mean before anything,
that's what he said? Before anything. Well, I don't
understand that. Well, faith doesn't give an understanding. Faith believes. Yeah, truth,
Lord, you were before everything. I believe that. because you said
it, and that settles it. Whether I believe it or not actually
doesn't settle it. I heard somebody say, God said it, I believed
it, and that settles it. No, God said it, and that settles
it. And then he allows me to believe if he's my helper, if
he is enabling me to. God's not waiting on us to do
something, he's the omega, he's the alpha, the very beginning,
and he's the omega, the very end. I think I said that backwards,
but you understand what I'm saying. He's the alpha, he's the first
cause of all things, and he's the omega, the very end, he's
the last cause of all things. He must entirely, totally, completely,
100% help us, or we'll never be helped. We'll never be helped. You ever been troubled before?
You know who needs help? The people that are in trouble.
There's a lot of places that have issues in their countries
right now, and even in America, there's a lot of situations that
are sad, troubling. But have you ever been in trouble? There's nothing more troubling
than to see the blackness of your own sin, to see the darkness
of your own person, to see the ugly of your creature that you
are. If you've seen that before, you'll
see that you're in trouble. Lord, I'm in trouble. I can't
do anything about this. I can't fix this. Every time
I try, everything I touch, I corrupt. That's trouble, isn't it? But then the Lord shows us Christ,
who in him is no darkness at all. who in him is no wrong at
all. He's not like us. We know that
to be true, but we need to hear that, because he's not like us.
You and I touch something, we defile it because we touched
it, because we're sinful. He touches something and he makes
it holy. He's the opposite, completely the opposite. Have you ever seen that in yourself?
That means you need help. If you've seen that everything
you touch you can corrupt, or you do corrupt, you need help.
Help that only can be supplied by the high King of glory. Help
that only can be supplied by the Lord Jesus Christ. Help that
can only be given by the King of kings and Lord of lords. He's
the only one that can be our helper. If we are to be saved, If we
are to be saved, the Lord must choose to be robed in sinful
flesh and for sin, condemn sin in the flesh. If we are to be
born again, that means the Lord's gonna have to die. He's gonna
have to die. If we are to be justified, He's
gonna have to shed His blood. If we're going to be robed in His righteousness,
He's gonna have to live a perfect life. You know, that's exactly
what he did. That's exactly what he did. To make the wretched, vilest
sinner clean, it's gonna take God to please God. It's going
to take God to please God, and that is exactly what he did for
his people. It's exactly what he did. We talk about us being dead dog
sinners. I'm not sure how I came up with
that, but the Lord, I'm sure I'm not the first one that said
it, but that's what we are. We're dogs, we're dead, and we're sinners. We're all of the above, aren't
we? I think we got that from Ephibosheth one time we were
talking about. But if we're going to not be dead dog sinners in
the Lord's eyes, that means he's got to make us alive. He's got
to make us sheep. and he's got to make us holy.
And that's what Christ did on the cross for his people. That's
why he's our helper. We can't change the dead part of us, born
dead, shaping into iniquity. We can't change the dog. Actually,
I've been studying the message. I don't know where I'll get a
text from. I've been a couple places. I can't decide. I don't
know when I'll be able to preach it, but are you a dog? And it's
talking about the characteristics of dogs. You can, A dog's a dog, okay? So what does that mean by that?
Well, it's going to keep being a dog. You tell the dog not to bark,
what's the dog going to do? It's going to bark anyways. You're
going to keep trying to tell it to quit. What else does a dog do?
Well, a dog wants food, wants the master's food. A dog returns
to its own vomit. It does, doesn't it? That's our
sin. That's what that is. We've returned back to our own
sin over and over again, don't we? We don't even, we don't even
mean to, we're dogs. We're just dogs. Dogs do all
kinds of things that I would describe that are us. But if I'm gonna be a sheep,
the Lord's gonna have to change that. Give me a new nature. One
that looks to him and believes on him. One that doesn't glory
in being a dog, but one that glories in being found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's got to be my helper. He's
got to be my helper. And if the mountain of sin that
I am is to be put away, the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna have to
be my helper. He's gonna have to be the one to do it. He's
gonna have to be the one to bear my sin in his own body upon the
tree. And the father's going to have
to pierce his heart with the sword of justice until he's satisfied. He's gonna have to pour out his
eternal wrath upon his son that I should be receiving and you
should be receiving, because it's our sin. And that's exactly
what Christ did for his people. And every single person that
he died for on Calvary has been justified freely by his grace. The Lord is our helper. If we knew how bad we are, it
would probably kill us. I mean, it would trouble us for
sure, Scripture says the Lord had to become a curse on the
cross. A curse is anyone that hangs
upon a tree. Why is that? Because that's what we are. We're
a curse. The words used in the scripture to define us is the
word worm, which translates maggot. There's a bunch of different
translations as to what we are. Men think too highly of themselves,
which brings me to a point. If somebody ever has ill will
towards you, or they don't like you, or they're mean towards
you, think nothing of it because you're a lot worse than they
think you are. If we could do that, we would probably be at
a lot more peace than we are. And that's something all of us
can work on because somebody insults you and you immediately wanna
be defensive. But if I really think that I'm the chief sinner,
if I really think I'm a dead dog sinner and somebody calls
me something, why don't I just say truth? I'm a lot worse than
that. I'm a lot worse than you think I am. Matter of fact, my
sin cost the Lord His only begotten son. He had to execute his own
son that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. That's why he's
our helper. We were in a state we could not
help ourselves. And we're still in a state where we can't help
ourselves, aren't we? We're still in a state where we can't. This
flesh, we still contend with this flesh. Oh, I'm really living
a good life now. I've got everything straightened
out. Everything I used to do, I don't do that anymore. I fixed
it, I cleaned it all up. Still a sinner. Still a sinner
by breathing, that's it. But what does the Lord see? What
does the Lord see? It ain't what the eye can see,
it's what the Lord sees. He sees the blood of Christ.
And he says, perfectly righteous. Me? This dead dog sinner can
be made perfectly righteous, already have been if the blood's
been applied. If the blood's been applied, you're already
perfectly righteous in the Lord's eyes right now. Right now. If we're to have eternal life,
Lord's gonna have to be our helper. The King of glory's gonna have
to lay down his life freely for the sheep, and he did. He did
to redeem his chosen people. If we're gonna be saved from
our sin, the Lord's gonna have to take all of our ugly and give us all
of his beauty. And that's exactly what he did.
Took all of our ugly. God don't see the ugly, he sees
the beauty. What's the beauty? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
beautiful one, isn't he? He's the beautiful one. When
everything was finally accomplished, when salvation was complete,
nothing else for you and I to do, the Lord said, it is finished. That's why he's our helper. He
didn't just help us along a little bit. He didn't give us partial
things that we could still do. He got all the glory, all the
victory. He accomplished all of salvation
for his people. And when it was all done, he
said, it is finished. It is finished. And now we can
boldly say, looking to that, we can boldly say, the Lord is
my helper. The Lord is my helper. God's
the doer of it. Everything required, I say this
often, but I love this. Everything required for your
salvation, for the salvation of the Lord's people, it's found
in one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. God provided a lamb,
just as Abraham said. Isaac said, Father, here's the
fire, here's the wood, where's the sacrifice? He said, God will
provide himself. a sacrifice, and he did, didn't
he? On the cross of Calvary. Because you and I cannot help
ourself. What would have helped Isaac
on that day if the Lord had not intervened? Nothing. Justice must be satisfied. And
that's you and I on the altar, and the Lord says, harm him not. And there's a ram caught in the
thicket, isn't there? And Abraham was able to take that ram And
that ram died in the stead of Isaac. And that's our Lord Jesus
Christ dying in our stead. But because the Lord gave us,
because the Lord did that, he gave us eternal life, everything
required, he provided in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
let's read our text one more time. We'll come to a close shortly. Let your conversation be without
covetousness. Be content with such things as
you have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I
will not fear what man shall do unto me. Is the Lord your helper? Can
you boldly say the Lord is my helper? Not if you're looking
at yourself. Not if I'm looking at myself, I can't. Every time
I look at myself, there is no comfort for the heart. There's
no comfort for salvation, but when I see the lamb, I'm comforted. I'm comforted. Is the Lord your
helper? Can you say that boldly? That's absolute 100% confidence.
The Lord is my helper. Well, if he's not, we're in trouble.
If he's not, but are you completely dependent upon his blood, his
righteousness? Are you completely dependent
upon him justifying you, or are you looking to justify yourself?
Are you completely dependent upon his work or your own work?
This is the two parallels. This is the law and grace. That's
what this is. If you're looking to Christ to
satisfy the Father in every single aspect of salvation, and he did,
and he did for his people, then you can boldly say, the Lord
is my helper. The Lord is my helper. Either you're still doing Living
a certain way, working a certain way, or you look into the life
Christ lived, the work that he worked, what he accomplished. Either we have complete confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ, or we have confidence in self, which
means not complete confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
what does Paul say? I have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. He's
all my confidence. He's all my confidence. Only
when we see how powerless we are will we need his power. Only
when we see how dead we really are will we need his life. Only
when we see our righteousness as his filthy rags will we see
we need his righteousness. Only when we see how depraved,
how depraved we are, how sinful we are, will we need him and
his blood to cover us. He said, if I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Only when we're made to lose
all confidence in the flesh will we need his perfect doing. Only
those who can't save themselves are made to not be, you have
to see that you can't save yourself. I have to see that, I have to
see that. Until I see that I can't save myself, I won't need the
Lord Jesus Christ to save me. I won't need a helper. But if
I see I completely and absolutely cannot do anything to save myself,
I need a helper. What did Peter say when he was
sinking? Did he say, Lord, lend me a hand? Can you throw me a
line? I know, that's silly talk, isn't
it? Lord, save me. Help, I'm gonna die. That's the
cry of the believer. It's not, believers, Lord's people
don't want any glory in this. No, we see that he gets all the
glory and we love that. We rejoice in that. We rejoice
in that. Only when we're made to lose
our confidence and our flesh will we need his perfect offering.
Thank God we've been able to say, can you say boldly, the
Lord is my helper? Thank God he's given his people
the only right, the only ability to say boldly, the Lord is my
helper. helper. He bought that right
by his own blood. Let's pray. Father, we delight
that you chose to help your people, chose to save, chose to redeem.
Bless this to our understanding, offer your glory in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's take a break.