We have a good hope when we come
together for worship that the Lord will fulfill in our hearts
that hymn that we just sang. In Jesus we are free. And that
where the Spirit of God is, there's liberty. There's liberty. And if the Lord makes you free,
you're free indeed. I want to ask you, if you will,
to open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter This is not the message,
but I feel like it's appropriate for us to, in light of what happened
yesterday in the world, I think it's appropriate
for us to hear what the Lord tells us about praying for our
leaders. 1 Timothy 2 verse one, I exhort
therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving
of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are
in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. The reason for us to pray for
kings and for those in authority is not for our personal prosperity,
but it is that we might live our lives in this world in peace
and in godliness and in honesty.
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our savior. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
what great hope we have in knowing that when we come together that
you've promised to meet with us You've promised to send your
spirit and power to open your word and to open our hearts and
to cause us to experience the freedom that you've given us
in the glorious person of Christ and his accomplished work. Lord,
that is our prayer and that is our hope. and we give to you
all the glory. And Lord, we also take great
comfort and great hope in knowing that you reign sovereign over
all the affairs of man, that you raise up kings and those
in authority and you take them down. And Lord, you doing all
things for the good of your people. that we might live quiet and
peaceable lives in all godliness and holiness. Lord, we pray that
you would give to the leaders of this world the wherewithal,
the understanding, and the wisdom to make good decisions that will
give to us that peace. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's open our Bibles together
to 2 Samuel chapter 22. 2 Samuel chapter 22. I've titled this message, A Conquering
Savior. A Conquering Savior. And I want
to remind us this morning that The Psalms are hymns. They are hymns that were sung
in praise and in worship, in thanksgiving, in adoration, in
confession, and in supplication. All the Psalms. They are for our prophet that
we might be able, by God's Spirit, to enter into that spirit of
worship and offer to the Lord the honor
that is due to Him. You say, well, what does that
have to do with 2 Samuel 22? If you compare 2 Samuel 22 to Psalm
18, you will find that they are, verse by verse, the same words. In God's word, the Lord has repeated
himself. And so, David, at the end of
his life, is offering up a song of praise and worship and thanksgiving. And in that song, He declares
his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as his conquering king. And so
as we look at these words this morning, our hope and prayer
is that the Lord will do just that for us. The experts, the Bible scholars
tell us that there are certain Psalms that are messianic, I
think they've identified out of the 150 Psalms, about 17 that
they consider to be messianic. Psalms like Psalm 22, that's
the Psalm that begins with, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And goes on to say, all that
see me, laugh me to scorn. You don't have to be a Bible
scholar or an expert to know that Psalm 22 is speaking
of Christ. All you have to do is just read
it and read the New Testament and it's pretty clear. Another psalm that they would
consider to be messianic would be Psalm 110. And that is the
psalm that begins with the Lord has said unto my Lord sit thou
here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool and
I will make for you to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Anybody can read that Psalm.
You don't have to have a seminary degree to understand that that
Psalm is a messianic. But those experts err in thinking
that there are only 17 Psalms that are messianic. Psalm 18,
which is what we're looking at here, is as clearly messianic
as is Psalm 22 or Psalm 110, or for that matter, all the Psalms,
and for that matter, all the Scriptures. Whenever we go to
God's Word, we're looking for Christ. David tells us in Psalm 119 that
God's Word is exceedingly broad. when the spirit of God is pleased
to open the eyes of our understanding and do for us what he has not
done for those experts, those self-professed intellectual theologians,
he enables us to see in all of scripture the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we go to God's word,
we're always looking there. And David is so, this is the inspired word of
God. He's so clear in this passage. Let me just remind you, go back
with me, if you will, to verse 21. The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands,
he recompensed me. Michael, where are you? That
goes back to that passage you read this morning in the men's
study in 1 John chapter 4. This is our boldness in the day
of judgment, for as he is, so are we in this world. David is
speaking of himself, but only in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And if you read those next several
verses, David is talking about how He is innocent before God. He is without sin before God. He's speaking prophetically of
Christ, but through faith and by union with Christ, he has
the hope of knowing that he can stand in the presence of a holy
God and these same glorious truths are true of him for Christ's
sake. Now, all the Psalms have three
levels that are exceedingly broad. All the Psalms have three ways
of looking at them. The first would be the historical
context. And what David writes, he's writing
about his own experience. The second would be the personal
context for us. And when we read these words,
By God's grace and by his spirit, we're able to enter in to this
experience. But the third level and the only
level that gives the other two any understanding is the prophetic
level. If we don't see these things
as pointing us to Christ, then all we're gonna have is some
historical stories and some, you know, some things that we might think
that we can put into practice in terms of personal precepts.
We must see Christ in these things. And as we see Him, then the Lord
enables us to understand what David meant and to experience
what we have in the person of our Savior. As we go to these, to God's word
always, that's where we're looking. We're not just trying to dissect
the details of a sign. We're looking to the one to whom
that sign points. And may the Lord give us the
Holy Spirit. We've got to have the Spirit
of God. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. They can only be understood in
light of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the Holy Spirit. So last Sunday, we looked at
verse 34. He maketh my feet hinds feet
and setteth me upon high places. And then in verse 37, which we
didn't get to last Sunday, thou hast enlarged my steps under
me so that my feet did not slip. And you remember in Psalm 72,
David looks down off that mountain into the valley and he sees the
prosperity of the wicked and there's something in his heart
that's jealous of them. And he says of them, he said,
my feet has almost slipped. But then I went into the house
of God, I went into the tabernacle, I went before God Almighty, and
then I knew their end. And the Lord has given me hinds
feet. You remember in 1 Samuel chapter
14, I told that we looked at this story last Sunday where
Jonathan is climbing this mountain on his hands and feet, and he's
going to overtake the Philistines. He's going to completely destroy
the garrison of the Philistines by himself. Jonathan's name translated
means Jehovah hath given. Jehovah hath given. And Jonathan
in that story is a picture of Christ who has that one sharp
rock on the one side, which is glistening white. The scripture
tells us the name of these rocks. And what he's doing in conquering
the enemy, he's doing in obedience to his father. And on the other
side is that other rock that's thorny. And we saw that that
was a picture of our sin and the glorious picture of Christ
who was wounded for our transgressions, wearing that crown of thorns
on his head. And there we have the gift of
God. Every good gift, James tells
us, and every perfect gift comes down from above, comes down from
the Father of lights. And that's who we're going to
see that in the next hour, in John chapter 6, where the Lord
Jesus declares himself as the bread that came down from heaven. For God so loved the world that
he gave. That's Jonathan. But there's
another character in that story. There's another character in
that story. As Jonathan is seen crawling up that mountain on
his hands and knees, we see the Lord Jesus going to Mount Calvary
and falling under the weight of that cross for the glory of
his father, bearing the sins of his people. There's another
character in that story in 1 Samuel chapter 14, and that's Jonathan's
armor bearer. Jonathan and his armor bearer. Now that's us. That's us. And the armor bearer is on his
hands and feet. And you can just imagine these
two men in the dark, crawling up this narrow pass between two
sharp rocks. And first we have Jonathan, and
then we have the other one on his hands and feet right behind
Jonathan. Now, if you were following another
person under those circumstances, what would you be looking at?
What would you be looking at? Your eyes would be looking right
at their feet. And every time they took a step,
you'd be in lockstep conformity, following after the one in front
of you. And there we have the victory. The armor bearer doesn't
get the glory in that picture. He's just carrying the armor.
Jonathan's the one that gets the glory. And that's what David's
saying. David is saying here that he
hath given me Hind's feet and my feet did not slip. Why? Because
he gave me eyes of faith to look to Christ and to rest in him
for all the hope of my salvation. And though I climb this mountain,
I'm climbing it after him. Look when he goes on, look what
he says in verse 35. He teacheth my hands to war so
that a bow of steel is broken by my arms. He teacheth my hands
to war. Here we have our conquering savior. In Revelation chapter six, We
have the four horsemen of the apocalypse. You remember the
white horse, the red horse, the black horse, and the gray horse.
All those horses picture Christ. And the first one, the first
one is the white horse. And the rider on the white horse
is carrying a bow in one hand. And the scripture says that he
has a crown upon his head. and that he came conquering and
to conquer. The Lord Jesus Christ conquered. When he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished, he broke the iron bow of Satan. He put away the sins of his people.
He got the victory. He secured, won the salvation
of all of his people. He finished the work. There's
no question about it. And now we follow after him because
not only did he come to conquer, but he came conquering. And he
conquers his people every day. Another verse in Psalm 110, one
of those Psalms they call Messianic, is he makes his people willing
in the day of his power. That's our savior riding upon
his white horse with a crown of thorns on his head and a bow
in his hand coming to conquer and conquering. And he conquers
us when he makes us willing. Being made willing in the David's
power is not just at our conversion, it's our daily life. It's our
daily life. We're so prone to wander, we're
so prone to lose sight of His feet and to look down like David
did in Psalm 72 in the valley and to want to take the path
of least resistance. And again and again and again,
He conquers us. He is a conquering Savior. He
conquered Satan and sin and the grave and death and hell on Calvary's
cross and He conquers us. He conquers us every day, causing
us again and again and again to gladly, willingly, rejoicingly,
truth, Lord, truth, Lord, I'm a dog. Give me some food. The dogs eat
the crumbs that fall from the master's table. He brings us into loving submission,
loving submission. And in the process of him bringing
us into loving submission, we are in a battle, a spiritual
battle. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
six. Look at verse 11. Here's our
walk of faith. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The Lord told those disciples
in the garden when they kept falling asleep, he said, I know,
the Spirit's willing. The flesh is weak. Pray, pray
lest you fall into temptation. Here's our life, our daily life
as believers, is in constant communion and fellowship with
Christ, looking to him. Lord, my flesh is weak. You're
going to have to give me hinds feet. You're going to have to
keep my feet from slipping. You're going to have to enable
me to set my affections on things above where Christ is seated
at thy right hand as a conquering savior. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood. This isn't a physical battle
that we have. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all to stand. We've got to have the armor of
God. I can see Paul writing these words under the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit but in a Roman prison probably looking at a
Roman guard and seeing all the different parts of the armor
that this guard is wearing and making application of that to
our spiritual armor. Stand therefore. Having your
loins girt about with truth. Having on the breastplate of
righteousness. I've got to have Christ. He's
my truth. They that are of the truth, they
hear my voice and they follow me. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. There's no truth outside of Christ.
There's truths. There's true things, but there's
no truth. The truth of God is only found
in Christ. That's what I need. Righteousness,
there's no righteousness. All my righteousness is filthy
rags. I've got to have Christ. Your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. Oh Lord, that's my hinds feet.
That's that rocky crag that I've got to, I'm climbing, looking
to Christ. You're going to have to shod
my feet with the gospel. What is the gospel? It's good
news. That's where we stand. We stand
on the good news. What is the good news? That Christ
was successful in saving his people. That the demands of God's
law have been met. That God's people are justified. and our sins have been put away. Above all, above all, above all
taking the shield of faith, wherewith you should be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the devil. Here we are like David against
Goliath. He was dependent not on the arm
of flesh, but on his God. Go back with me to 2 Samuel 22. He teacheth my hands to war so
that a bow of steel is broken in mine arms. That's Christ. That's the victory that he got.
We have a conquering Savior. Here's what the Lord Jesus said,
the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
works I do. And they bear witness of me that
I am of my Father. The works that the Father gave
me to do. What was the work that he gave him to do? To save his
people of their sins. to establish an everlasting righteousness. That was the work that the Father
gave Christ to do. And he said, these are the works
which I do. Now we engaged in a warfare,
no question about it. We've got this old man, we live
in a world that is contrary to everything that we believe. There's
a valley of unbelievers that we're tempted to look at and
be jealous of. But brethren, we fight this battle
from victory, not for victory. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. Consider it to be so, because
it is. And the only way, the only way that we're going to
come out of this battle alive is to be found in Him, and to
look to Him, and to rest in Him, and to depend upon Him, and to
believe on Him. The battle's not yours, it's
the Lord's. The temptations that our Lord
experienced after 40 days in the wilderness of fasting, when
Satan took Him, first of all, he offered Him He said, turn
these stones into bread. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The
Lord Jesus relied upon the word of God in everything he did. And the only hope that we have
is if when we're tempted to turn stones into bread, The Lord would
point us to the living word. And if he does, it'll be through
the written word. Took him up on the pinnacle of
the temple and tempting him to cast himself down and not that
his food, his foot would not be dashed against the stone and
the Lord Jesus said thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And
we took him up on a high mountain, and he said, all these nations,
God alone shall I worship the Lord, and he alone shall I serve. Well, the Lord Jesus was defeating
Satan with scripture, with the word of God, and there's our
hope. That's the weapon of our warfare,
shield of faith, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. All those other things in Ephesians
chapter six are defensive guards, but the sword was an offensive
weapon. The Lord has told us to take
on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against
the wiles. Oh, what a... What a glorious savior we have.
He hath gotten the victory, and in Him we are more than conquerors. Go back with me to 2 Samuel 22. Verse 36, thou hast also given
me the shield of thy salvation, and thy gentleness hath made
me great. The Lord Jesus, oh, He's a meek
and mild Savior. He never treats His children
harshly. He doesn't beat the sheep. He speaks to us in love
and compassion. And even when we're found, like
Peter, in the depths of sin, the Lord looks upon us in such
a way as to break our hearts and to cause us to come back. And it was the shield of faith
And that shield was given to him. And if we're going to have
the shield of faith, it must be given to us. For by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is a
gift of God. No man can receive anything unless
it be given to him from heaven. Lord, you're going to have to
give me that kind of faith. We are saved by the faith and
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the scripture
says that it is from faith to faith. So he gives us this faith. It's not our faith that saves
us, but we're not saved without faith. The faith is the evidence
of our salvation, not the cause of it. The cause of our salvation
is his faith. The evidence of our salvation
is our faith. and our faith was given to us
by him. Thou hast enlarged my steps under
me so that my feet did not slip. I have pursued mine enemies and
destroyed them and turned not again until I had consumed them. The Lord consumed the enemy. picture, you remember when Joshua
went down in the valley and battled against the Amalekites? The Amalekites,
the Amalekites name, Amalekite, means dwellers of the valley.
And we saw from Psalm 72 last Sunday that that we are in our
flesh, much like water, we always take the path of least resistance,
and this walk of faith is not the path of least resistance.
We're resisted on every step by everything, by the world,
by our flesh, by our sin and our unbelief, by Satan himself.
We have Christ that we're following. and he's already gotten the victory. But we're tempted, aren't we? And the Amalekites were dwellers
of the valley. That's what their name means.
And Joshua went up to battle against them. And you remember
Moses was up on the hill. And as long as Moses' hands were
lifted up, Joshua got the victory. And when Moses' hands got tired,
sorry, I have something in my eye, the Amalekites began to
overcome the Israelites. And so Aaron and Hur came to
where Moses was and lifted up his hands and held them up until
Joshua got the victory over the Amalekites. Some of them escaped
and there was never a time where the children were not plagued
by the Amalekites. There was a remnant of them always
that kept coming up. It is a picture of our flesh. It's always there as long as
we're gonna be in this world. And so the battle won't cease
until until we're finished. Paul said, I've fought a good
fight, I've finished my course, finished my course. What a hopeful
day that is when we finish our course. But here's the picture
of Moses and Aaron and Ur. Aaron's name means light bearer. He is a picture of Christ and
we know that Aaron was the priest but the Lord Jesus came as light
into a dark world. Light has come into the world,
but men love darkness rather than light. Er's name means white,
and white always refers to the righteousness of the holiness
of God. And so we have the Lord Jesus
holding up the arms of the law, Moses, We have the light bearer
and we have the righteousness of Christ satisfying all the demands of
God's law. And Christ, Romans chapter 10, is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
You see, here's the, As long as we're looking to Christ
as the one who has established for us a perfect righteousness
before God, as the one who has satisfied all the demands of
God's law, and we're resting in his glorious person and his
finished work, then we're able to progress in this battle that
we're going to be in all our life with the Amalekites, the
dwellers of the valley, But as soon as we look away from
Christ and we get this idea and we do it every day that there's
something that we can do to earn God's favor or to force the hand
of God or to improve our position before God and we're Like Elijah
who went back to Mount Horeb and the Lord said to Elijah,
Elijah, what are you doing here? How often times the Lord has
to say that, what are you doing here? Why are you looking to
something other than Christ? As long as the hands of Elah
are lifted up, Joshua, Christ, got the victory against the Amalekites.
But as soon as the hand started to come down, the Amalekites
got the victory over Joshua. There's our spiritual battle. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Say, well, if the Lord Jesus
got in the back for victory and the battle's been won, now look
at, go back with me to our text. Verse 39, I have consumed them
and wounded them that they could not arise, yea, they are fallen
under my feet. Thou hast girded me with strength
to battle. Them that rose up against me
hast thou subdued under me. And the honest child of God is
thinking, I want that. But every day, even as I grow
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, Even as I see more
and more of His glory and see more and more of His accomplished
work, the evidence of my unbelief at
the same time becomes more painful to me. And the struggle that
I have in this flesh and in this world becomes more of a conflict
to me. I want you to reach in front
of you and grab your spiral hymnal and open it to number 36, 35,
I'm sorry, number 35. This is a solo hymn and I love
it when I hear it sung solo, but I want you to read the words
with me because this is my experience and I, I'm sure that it's probably somebody
else's experience as well. I ask the Lord that I might grow
in faith and love and every grace. Might more of his salvation know
and seek more earnestly his face. Lord, I do wanna see you. I do
need you. or I want to sit at your feet,
you're the one thing that's needful. Twas he who taught me thus to
pray, and he I trust has answered prayer. But it has been in such
a way as almost led me to despair. drove me to despair. I hoped
that in some favored hour, at once he'd answered my request,
and by his love-constraining power, subdue my sin. and give me rest. Instead of
this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the
angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Yea, more
with his own hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe. Cross the
fair designs I schemed and blasted my gourds and laid me low. Lord,
why is this? I trembling cried. Wilt thou
pursue thy worm to death? Tis in this way. The Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith for these inward trials
that I employ for self and pride to set thee free, to break thy
schemes of earthly joy. And here's the reason for it
all, that thou might find thine all. Amen.