Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 28 and verse 1. Psalm 28 and verse 1. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me,
I become like them. that go down into the pit. Psalm 28 and verse 1. Both of these Psalms that we
read this evening, Psalm 28 and Psalm 143, they both are Psalms
of David and they both have a similar word to our text. In Psalm 143 we have in verse
7, Hear me speedily, O Lord, my spirit faileth, hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like unto them. that go down into
the pit. And so the psalmist David's desire
is that he be not like those that go down into the pit. And it is to this end that he
offers a prayer unto the Lord. So I want to look this evening
at two main points. Firstly, to notice Four points
that are in the text, four things that are clearly set before us
in it. And then secondly, the ways the
Lord's people can be like the wicked, like those that go down
into the pit. Firstly, we have set before us
that there is a pit, The psalmist says, nest, I become
like them that go down into the pit. It's something that today
even professed churches are denying, the existence of hell, the existence
of the pit. But our Lord taught it, he taught
it very clearly, that there was a banishing into outer darkness
and into the place where the worm dies not. Our Lord speaks
at the end of Matthew 25 and many other places as well, that
he says of those that are not his own, These shall go away
into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. There is a heaven and there is
a hell. There is no purgatory, there's
no third place. For you and I, when time is done,
we must either go to heaven or go to hell. By nature, we shall
go to hell. By nature we shall descend into
that pit, that bottomless pit, how many different ways hell
is actually set before us, where the worm dieth not, into that
eternal fire that always consumes but never kills and never is
extinguished. We can't reconcile, of course,
ideas, one of outer darkness, and the other of a fire that
is constantly burning, and the other of a pit. But whatever
is set forth, it is a terrible place, a terrible place of torment,
a place where God is not, a place where the devils are, a place
where the lost are, a place where there is no hope, There can be
no hope, there will never come any hope, a place that is set
before us in the Word of God as a very real place. How vital it is that we be saved
from that place, that by nature we are destined to go. We know
that every one of us must die, we must die a natural death,
we must die the first death. But after death there is a judgment,
and after judgment there is the second death. And it is a most
solemn thing to have to answer for our own sins, to die still
in Adam's sin and have no answer to the claims of God upon us. If we die as we are born with
no change and not being saved, then we shall go down into this
pit. There is a pit. And there are
those that go down into it. It's not just something that
no one ever will go into. Already there are those. Cain
has descended into it. Saul, King Saul, Ahithophel,
Judas Iscariot, Demas, perhaps. There's two of those in the Word
of God. All of those that reject the Lord, depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels. What a solemn word to hear, depart. And there are those then that
already have descended, the Esau's, Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. It is a place where many, many are
hastening to. And the psalmist is very, very
clear of this in this verse. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me,
I become like them that go down into the pit. There's a statement
here, them that go down into the pit. A solemn thing, one of Satan's
deceptions, to deceive men that there is no pit, there is no,
nothing after the grave, or that all men go to a place called
heaven, that a release from sufferings here will automatically be attained
at death, so many taking their own lives, self-murder. But the
scriptures teach it very clearly, that there is a pit, there is
hell, and there are those that go down into it. And what may
be implied here is that those that go down into it can be identified because the Samas did not want
to be like them. So there is aspects with them
that can be clearly identifiable before death as those that are
heading that way, are going into the pen. So that is the first
thing. There is a hell, a pit, and there
are those that go down into it. The second thing is that God's
saved people can be like them, but not actually be them. Now may that thought be an encouragement,
because many of us who we trust, know the Lord, who know our own
heart, know the wickedness of our own heart. We know our failings
and we know the things that we've done that we shouldn't have done,
things that we haven't done that we should have done. And know
those things that are very like those that go down into the pit. And to know that God's people
can be like them, but not actually be them. Because Satan is the
accuser of the brethren. He tempts, he draws away, and
then he turns around and he accuses and he says, you see what you've
done, you see what you've thought, you see what you've said, you
are not one of God's people. You are lost. If you are doing
those things, if you're saying those things, you're thinking
those things, you can't be saved, you are lost. In our text, it
is very clear that God's people can actually be like those that
are lost, but they are not. We would remember that all of
those that are God's children have been chosen in Christ from
the foundation of the world, that they have been loved with
an everlasting love, and therefore God has drawn them in time to
himself. He at Calvary bore their sins
in his body on the tree and put them away. And because he has
put them away, then he can rightly and justly bring about a time
in this life when they are born again of the Spirit. He passes
by them, he bids them live, he makes a change in their heart
and change in their life and changes their walk. and He makes
Himself known to them, so that they know themselves as sinners,
and they are brought to know in His time and way that He is
their Saviour and their Redeemer, their Trust. It is God Himself
that works out salvation. He has provided His only begotten
Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He has made Him to be
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might have the righteousness
of God in him. It is his righteousness that
is made over to a believer, to the Church of God. This is the
name wherewith he and with she, wherewith she, the Church of
God, shall be called the Lord our righteousness. And we would
remember that the mark of God's people is not a shallow mark. is not a surface mark. It goes deep, it goes eternal,
it goes right back before the world was. It goes back to the
counsels of God. And when the Lord calls a sinner,
when he first opens his ear, when he makes him alive, then
there is underneath that actual event so much that can never be just
wiped away. It cannot be erased. The sins
that Christ bore on Calvary for his people, their names cannot
be erased out of the Lamb's Book of Life. It cannot be that those
that are chosen in Christ should be lost. No. The Lord's love
to his people is eternal, and it is why he has drawn them. And so we must remember that,
must remember that the salvation of God's people is not superficial. There's a deep foundation, a
lasting, eternal foundation. And that which is wrought in
time is but evidences and tokens of it. And in time, it is never
perfect because we are sinners, we make We remain sinners. And so may this very thought
be a comforting thought to those of us who know the Lord and yet
feel very much at times that we are like the wicked or like
those that go down into the pit. Note that the word says here,
lest thou, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that
go down into the pit. It doesn't say, I become them. I become one of them. No, it is, I become like them. There's a very difference from
being like someone and being someone. So that is our second point,
to clearly set this forth. You think of it in a practical
way as well, not just concerning ourselves, but when we look at
others, we might see a brother, a sister in faith, and they do
things, they say things, and we think, how could they do that?
and be a child of God, because what they've done is like the
wicked. But it may well be that they
truly are a child of God. And yes, what they have done
is like those that go down into the pit. You know, those that
saw David committing adultery, Joab saw him. He knew what he
did. And then murder. Might have thought,
surely David is lost. He's not one of God's people. He's like the wicked. But in
due time, God sent Nathan to him and brought him to acknowledge
his sin, brought him to repentance and godly sorrow, and chastened
him, corrected him. The sword did not depart from
his house because of it. But God did not take away his
part out of the Lamb's Book of Life. We have in Hebrews 12 that
when God's children forsake His ways, He will chasten them, He
will correct them, but He will not cast them away. So there will be times when others
looking on and the very people themselves will see in their
lives and see in the lives of God's people those things that
are like those that go down into the pit, but in due time, God
will direct the chasing hand, correct them, and bring them
back from the pit and save their soul. It is a living God that
we serve, a God that loves, chastens, corrects, and brings back His
children when they err. We know that the Lord does that. God's saved people can be like
those that go down into the pit, but not actually them, not actually
lost. The third point is this, that
David's spirit was such he did not even want to be like them. He didn't make excuses and say,
well, that is my infirmity. And I am secure. I am one of
God's children. He has died for me. He has suffered
for me. It doesn't matter if I just appear
in some aspects like those that go down into the pit. How clear
the word is, let us not sin that grace might abound. Or let us never say, let us do
evil, that good may come. And if any has known the chastening
of the Lord, they will never say, well, let us just go on
our own way. In the Lord's time, he will correct
us, he will bring us back. If we know what the chastening
of the Lord is, then we will never walk in that path. If you were to ask Jacob, Jacob,
You deceived your father once, would you encourage that? No,
he'd say, Laban deceived me 10 times, and my sons deceived me
in the matter of Joseph. No, don't walk through that path
of deceit and lying. If you had asked David, is it
worth just having a bit of indulging of the flesh Then hiding murder. No, he'd say, this is the babe
that was born of Bathsheba that died and the sword never departed
from my house. All the trouble I had with Absalom
and with Amnon and all the things that happened. No, no, no, don't
ever walk in that path and that way. The way of transgressors is hard. So David's spirit though, was
such he did not even want to be like those that go down into
the pen. And may we have that same spirit. That same spirit. Not going to shelter or hide
in anything at all, but where we see anything in us, in our
lives, in our thoughts, in the things that we do, that is like
them that go down into the pit, a mark of the lost, a mark of
those who are not the Lords, that we say, I don't want to
be like them. Not ashamed to be different. Not ashamed to be called out
and to go out without the camp, bearing his reproach. Not ashamed
to hear the word come out from among them and be separate. Touch not the unclean thing and
I will receive you and you shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. What, what is our spirit? And I speak to myself. Firstly,
what is my spirit? Is it the same spirit as David
that we do not want to be like those that go down into the pit? Put, want to put as far a difference
and far, so we cannot be mistaken for them at all. You know, when
Jehu was called to execute vengeance on the house of Ahab, And particularly
the Baal worshippers, he did it in a very cunning way. He said that he was going to
worship Baal much. And he proclaimed a great feast
for Baal and commanded all the Baal worshippers to gather in
the house of Baal and to give them all vestments. And what
his plan was, was to go in and destroy and kill them all. But
before he did so, he said to his men, go ye in and search
and find out whether there be any of the Lord's people there. So how could they be there? But
what if there were some that thought and feared for their
lives? Here is Jehu. He is serving Baal. He is going to gather in safety
all of Baal's worshippers, and then he's going to kill all the
Lord's people. So we'll hide in amongst the
Baal worshippers. What a fatal mistake that would
have been. And it's as if Jehu anticipated
that, and that he'd separate them and draw them away. What a sad thing it should be. There'd be a likeness that they
should go in, but they couldn't be hid because Jehu's servants,
they would know who they were. and recognize who they were. You think of the case when Ahab
went into battle, God had said through his prophet that he were
to be slain in battle, but Ahab, he didn't believe it, but I believe
he did partly believe it because he said to Jehoshaphat, you go
in your robes, but I will disguise myself. I'll make out I'm not
like the king at all. God's arrow found him out and
he was slain, and Jehoshaphat was miraculously preserved. Something that Jehoshaphat said
to Ahab, when Ahab said, would he go down with him to battle?
He said, my people are as thy people, my horses as thy horses. Well, it's true, they were still
all of the 12 tribes of Israel, but Ahab was not one of God's
children. He was an idol worshipper, a
very wicked king, and yet Jehoshaphat was a godly king. You know, he
should not have even thought to be the same as him, and it
nearly cost him his life to do so. To maybe never be ashamed
and really want that there be a real distinctive difference
between us and the ungodly, between us and those that are lost. Well, the fourth point that comes
from this text is that because this was David's spirit, that
he did not want to be like them that went down into the pit,
he makes his prayer to God. He doesn't say, well, I'm going
to make every effort and make sure I don't become like them. I'm going to do it in my own
power, in my own strength, and in my own ability. No, he doesn't
do that. He comes before the Lord in prayer. And the first thing he does is
makes a profession of what God is to him. And in doing so, he
immediately shows that he is not like those that go down into
the pit. He says in the beginning of this
verse, unto thee will I cry, O Lord. But he adds, my rock,
my rock. He is crying, he is praying unto
the Lord and he's able to testify that he is his rock. A rock is
one that doesn't move, it is a foundation. the rock Christ
Jesus, the smitten rock that was in the wilderness, the cleft
of the rock that Moses was put into. It is said their rock is
not like unto our rock, the rock of ages, the rock Christ Jesus. Upon this rock I will build my
church. The gates of hell will not prevail
against it. And this is David's profession. what the Lord is to him, and
then he cries unto the Lord. Then may we do the same as well.
If we feel so much to be like the wicked in many respects and
many ways, don't think that we can manage it and deal with it
ourselves and wash and cleanse ourselves and change ourselves. may be very clear to us that
we want to be changed, we don't want to be like the wicked, but
that in putting that resolve into practice, that we turn it
into prayer. We ask the Lord, who has power
to change our hearts, to take away the love of sin, and that
we mortify through the Spirit the deeds of the body. He who
first begun with us, take our case back to Him. He who's the
keeper of his people, take it to him. He who chastens and corrects
his children, bring it to him. That is what David did. He comes,
he cries, he prays to God. But also, not only did he pray,
but it was a very specific prayer. It was one thing, one likeness. that he didn't want to be like
them that go down into the pit. And we'll look at other likenesses
in our second main point, but the point here in our text was
that the Lord would not be silent to him. Be not silent to me lest
if thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the
pit. Now there's two points or two
ways of this silence. If we don't hear someone, there's
two possibilities. One is that that person is not
speaking. They're not speaking to us. They
are silent. So we won't hear them because
they're not making any utterance at all. The other possibility
is that they are speaking, but we cannot hear them. We might
be deaf or our hearing aid batteries have gone down. For some reason,
we cannot hear. Maybe there's some other noise,
something that's blotting it out, and we cannot hear. Maybe
we're at such a distance, the other end of the house, our wife,
our husband is calling us or saying something and we don't
hear it because of the distance that is between. So when the
psalmist, when David says this, be not silent to me, in effect
he's saying, speak to me, but not only speak to me, but open
my ear so I hear. And of course we remember John
10, the Lord giving a very clear mark of His people and a mark
of those that were not. He says, My sheep, they hear
My voice, and they follow Me. He says of the scribes and the
Pharisees, Ye are not of My sheep, therefore ye hear not My word. The Lord was speaking, all right.
They heard the word outwardly, but they didn't hear it inwardly. They didn't obey it. They didn't
follow the Word. Many, many hear the Word of God. They hear it read. They hear
it preached. But their ear is not open. This
is why at the end of every letter in the Revelation, Revelation
2 and 3, it is said, He that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches. And so David's crying that in
this very specific thing, that the end result was the Lord would
speak and he would hear. Mine ear hast thou opened. And he sees this as one great
mark of those that go down into the pit, they never hear the
Lord. The Lord's voice never enters
into their heart. Maybe spoken, but their ears
are shut. They are deaf to every warning
given. And David does not want to be
like that. I have no doubt he was troubled
that he was like that. And maybe with us this evening,
you think the Lord is silent to me. I go from one service
to another. I read the word of God. And it seems the Lord never speaks
to me. My heart is hard. It's not softened. I don't know His voice. I thought
I once did. I thought I once able to discern
it and hear. Even in the rod. Hear ye the
rod and whoever pointed it. Don't even seem to hear that. Deaf to every warning given.
The pricks of conscience even. Now, if David here was not troubled
with the silent God, with not hearing the Lord, he
wouldn't be praying like this, would he? You might think you're
the only one that has that trouble and has that trial. Well, here
is David, and he hasn't. We think of the Psalms, 42, 43.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him, the help of his countenance. Lord's people do
get low, like Job. O that I knew where I might find
him, that I might come even unto his very seat. Yes, here is a man after God's
own heart, and he specifically identifies this
one thing that is like those that go down into the pit, and
his cry is unto the Lord, be not silent to me. May that prayer be ours, may
we have specific and pointed prayers, And those prayers be
with this aim that we do not become like them that go down
into the pit. Well, I want to look then secondly
at ways the Lord's people can be like the wicked. Other ways,
not just this point, but in others as well. And so we begin with
our second reading, and in verse 7. Hear me speedily, again David
is praying. Hear me speedily, O Lord, my
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. The Lord's face. David does not want that to be
hidden. He wants to see the Lord. That's
the thing, when we see the Lord in the Word, we have no pictures,
we don't want visions, as it were, in that way. But we want
to see the light of His countenance. We want to see His smile upon
the Word, smile upon our providence, smile in our soul. We want to
see his goings in the sanctuary. We want to see his countenance
in the brethren. We want to see his work in the
earth. Let thy work appear, O God. We want to see, not the back,
but the face, the Lord turning unto us. Because again, this
is a mark with the wicked, and they couldn't be They couldn't
care less whether they saw the Lord or not. The disciples, then
were they disciples, glad when they saw the Lord, when they
saw His face. But those that are not the Lord's,
He is a stranger to them, as a root out of dry ground, having
no form nor comeliness that we should desire Him. But for the
people of God, do desire to see Him. And this is another likeness,
as it were, to those that go down into the pit. Have we ever
seen the Lord in the Word? Have we ever seen His face toward
us, His pleasure towards the church, to His people? Do we
even see it in this verse in our text here? See the Lord shining
in it, speaking to us in it, as a help, as a comfort, as a
guidance to us. But what other ways are they? We have some that are following
on from the word of our text. In verse 3, a picture of the
workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but
mischief is in their hearts another likeness of those that go down
into the pit. And then we have in verse 5 another
likeness that they do not regard the works of God, of the Lord,
nor the operation of his hands. Do we? Do we regard his works? Do we regard the operation of
his hands? Do we notice it? Are we able
to say this is the Lord's doing? It is marvellous in our eyes. All the thing proceedeth from
the Lord. Are we able to clearly see like
Bethuel and Laban did when Isaac or Abraham's servant went to
get a wife for Isaac? To actually clearly see the work
of the Lord. His work is in all the earth.
But the wicked don't see it, they don't regard it, they ascribe
it to chance or to evolution or something else like that.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants. We don't want to be
like the wicked that do not see the Lord's hand. May we see it
in everything, see it in creation, see it in providence, see it
in his words, see it in all things. But then we have other aspects. A lack of faith. All men do not
have faith. The Lord grasped his disciples
at one time. Where is your faith? A gentle
reproof upon them. Those that have little faith,
as it were. And many of the Lord's dear people,
they're tried over their lack of faith. and sometimes can think,
well, we just look just like the wicked. You feel so faithless
and so lacking of trust. Surely we're just like the wicked. Well, may our prayer be in this
regard. Lord, let me not be faithless. Let me not be like the wicked
in this. but make me to be of those that
have faith in God. Trust in Him at all time ye people. Pour out your heart before Him. That is something that the wicked
do not do. What of the effect of the fear
of man? We think of dear Peter, that
when he denied his Lord and Master, One of the things that he did,
he began to curse and swear because they said that his language betrayed
him. There is a language of kindness,
the language of the people of God, and there's the language
of this world in all its swearing, cursing, godlessness. May we be delivered from that
never ashamed. of the language of the people
of God. I wonder how many times amongst
our own people, when we make plans, we might say according
to the word, if the Lord will, but when we're speaking to the
world or to those that know not the Lord, do we ever say the
same? Or is it one language amongst
the Lord's people? But when we're not, then it is
not the Lord's will anymore. We can just be like the wicked.
It's a good thing if we're not ashamed to own in every company
that it is the will of the Lord that will be done. Not man's,
not our own. The love of the world. You know
those that go down into the pit, they love the world. The charge
with the people of God is love not the world, neither the things
that are in it. Those things they pass away. Let not this world, says the
hymn writer, our rest appear. So may that likeness be not with
us. But may we be like in Hebrews
11, strangers and pilgrims in the earth that say plainly that
they seek a country. They're the language of the dying
thief. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
Not like the other thief, if thou be the Christ, save thyself
and us and come down from the cross. Then we have in Romans
8, to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. The Lord deliver us from that
likeness, the lust of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the carnal
mind, which is enmity with God. When we indulge that, when that
is persuasion, of it is over us, then we are like, not the
Lord's people, but like the wicked. Every one of God's children,
they're plagued with those things. They struggle against the corruptions
of their own heart. But that is the mark of the people
of God. Like David here, his prayer in
this respect would be, Deliver me from my carnal heart and carnal
mind, lest I become like them that go down into the pen. I
don't want to be like them. Save me from it. Deliver me from
every wrong thought and affection and every wrong desire. The Apostle
Paul says, I keep under my body, lest when I have preached to
others, I myself become cast away. How many have fallen in that
way? Samson, David, many. If ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live. And may this prayer then
be ours in that respect. Another likeness is prayerlessness. And as we said, in the very way
that David puts into practice his concern that he be not like
them that go down into the pen. It brings him to prayer. But
you know, when Jonah was in the ship and the Lord had sent out
the wind and the storm, the mariners were afraid. And they had to
call to Jonah and said, what meanest thou, sleeper? Rise. and call upon thy God. What the
very wicked or those that knew not the Lord reproving one that
did, even one of the Lord's servants because he was not praying in
time of need. How many times we can be like
the wicked, we do not pray, we do not ask. They never ask, they
never go to the Lord, they don't know Him. But sometimes we can
be just like them because we don't pray either and we don't
cast. our burdens upon the Lord. The
wicked, we read in Psalm 10, through the pride of his heart,
will not seek unto God. Do we seek unto God? Do we have
that likeness of the people of God, or the likeness of those
that go down into the pit that don't seek Him? Ask, and it shall be given you. and ye shall find knock and it
shall be opened unto you. There are many likenesses to
the wicked that from time to time the people of God may have
and as these things come before us may our spirit be the same
as David's and it not be enough to us to shelter beneath election
or past blessings and think, well, we're all right, we're
Lord's people. May it rise up within us. I don't want to be like the wicked.
I don't want even to be recognized as them or to be mistaken for
them or to have even any semblance and especially on particular
things. And when we see this likeness,
it may be As we come into the Lord's house, as a chapter is
read, as we read at home, and the Word is like a mirror, and
like in James, we look into the perfect mirror of the Lord's
Word and we see our reflection there, and it's not the reflection
of a godly person, it's a reflection of those that go down into the
pit. And we say, I don't want that
reflection, I don't like that. And our prayer be unto the Lord. that He would redress that which
we have seen, that which we recognize as not being amongst the godly
but like those that go down into the pit and we cry unto the Lord
to do it for us. Oh, how often we can try to take
the matter in our own hand and the more we try and deal with
it, the deeper we get and the more unlike God's people we get. Because it's not drawing us to
the Lord. It's not seeking that power and
strength from him. It's seeking something in ourselves,
as if we'd say, Lord, I want to put myself right first and
then I'll come before thee for thy approval and thy seal that
I do now look like thy people. No, we never look like the people
of God by our own works or our own efforts. It is the work of
God. how we have in Ephesians 5, the
Lord working with his bride and making her to be that suitable,
cleansed, washed bride ready for the bridegroom. And may we
be made ready in that way and in view of that, have the same
spirit as David in our text here. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord
my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me,
I become like them that go down into the pit. Amen.