From the Spiral Gospel Hymns
Hymnbook, number 32, In Christ We Are Free. Let's all stand
together. Number 32. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, we helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law in its
infinite justice and wrath demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, One stood in our place, God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. If the Spirit shall make you
free, you'll be free indeed. That's a blessing. I love that hymn. Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. Our hope tonight is that God
will send his Spirit and give us liberty. Liberty to speak,
liberty to hear, liberty to worship, liberty to love. Open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 40, please. Psalm 40. Prepared a message from Psalm
69. I've titled it, A Desperate Cry
for Help. And much of Psalm 70, I'm sorry,
did I say 49? Psalm 70 is also quoted in Psalm
40. Let's read Psalm 40 together.
I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up out also of
a horrible pit out of the miry clay and set my feet on a rock
and established my goings. And he had put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear
and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offerings,
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Then said
I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is written within
my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation, and I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness
and Thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not Thou
tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have come
past me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me."
All that we can see Christ in this psalm. In the volume of
the book is written of me. He's the one who bore our sins
and took them. as his own. Be blessed, O Lord,
to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded
together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven
backwards and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate
for a reward of their shame that say unto me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation,
say continually, the Lord be magnified. But I am poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and
my deliverer. Make no tearing, O my God. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into Thy holy presence, thankful that we have Thy dear
Son, our Savior, as our advocate, our righteousness, our sin-bearer,
and all by satisfaction. Lord, how we pray that you would
be pleased now in this hour to send your spirit. Lord, we know
lest you build the house. They that labor labor in vain. Lord, all that we do here would
be worse than vanity. If you don't meet with us. Bless
us, speak to our hearts. We know, Lord, that our situation
is much more desperate than we know. But, Lord, you know our
needs, and you know that we are poor and needy people. And we
ask now for your mercy and for thy salvation to be declared
and loved and for the Lord to be magnified. For it's in his
name we ask it. Amen. Number 158 from the big hymnal,
number 158. And let's all stand together. ? Come Holy Spirit heavenly dove
? ? With all thy quickening powers ? ? Kindle a flame of sacred
love ? ? In these cold hearts of ours ? Look how we grovel
here below, fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily
they go to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs,
in vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish upon our tongues,
and our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, come shed abroad the Savior's
love, and that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. I can so identify with that hymn. And I was just thinking as we
were singing it how different that hymn is from the popular
music of modern-day religion that exalts man and his praise
and worship of God. Here we are groveling. And how appropriate that hymn
is for this Psalm 70. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 70? This Psalm is for the poor and
the needy. And I was thinking as I was preparing
particularly the first part of this message that I'm going to
be preaching to the choir tonight. And then I thought, you know
what? I'm always preaching to the choir. the choir is the only
one that ever hears the preaching of the gospel if those that needed to hear
it heard they join the choir that's true it is a rare thing for a man
to have a concern for his soul but it is a miracle of grace
for one that has a concern for his soul to be given a remedy
for that concern. Most folks only see their temporal
circumstances as the trouble that they're in. And I pray the
Lord will give us a concern for eternal matters and that we'll
be able to pray this prayer with a an eye towards christ who is
the remedy for our trouble and uh... a burden for our sin which
is the real trouble that we have so many folks uh... assembly preaching the choir
you all the ones that are here all the time because you're poor
and you're needy and uh... it's a it's a grievous thing
to see folks that only come when they're in trouble with temporal
problems. Or they come once or twice a
month and tip their hat to God. And I wish they would be able
to hear this message. But it's for us. It's for me. And it's for you. Somebody was telling me recently
about preaching, and I said, well, I preach first to myself. Everything I say to you, I've
said to myself, and I'm saying to myself right now. And the
Lord ends this psalm in the same way He ended Psalm 40. Look at verse 5. But I am poor
and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer. O Lord, make No tearing. It is a testimony to our own
sin that we see so oftentimes our temporal troubles as more
desperate than our spiritual ones. But that's who we are and
maybe that's one of our biggest problems. is that we're not as
keenly aware and concerned about our spiritual needs as we ought
to be. And we so oftentimes find ourselves
crying desperately to the Lord because we're in trouble. We're
in trouble in this world. We've got financial troubles,
we've got health issues uh... sometimes very serious life-threatening
health issues we have family troubles and we and we find ourselves
calling out to god in those time of trouble i don't want to be
insensitive to those kind of troubles i have those troubles
you have those troubles they're real they're painful and uh... and we ought to pour out our
hearts to God in time of need and be comforted with His grace. But there is a more desperate
need that we have. These physical needs will soon
be no more, sooner than we think. sooner than we think young people
all it's a this the God said it God said it and it's true
this life is a paper it's a paper and there's some spiritual needs
that we have that go far beyond the temporal needs of this world
we have a need to be saved saved from the wrath that is to come
say from eternal judgment. That's our greatest need. We have a need for God to put
away our sin, lest they stand in judgment of us. We have a
need for God to satisfy the demands of His holy law, lest it stands
in condemnation of us. These are the real needs we have,
aren't they? The thing about it is, if the Lord is pleased
to give us an eye towards the eternal and give us a concern
for our soul and show us the remedy of those needs, then where
the greater is met, the lesser will be taken care of. We have a need for God to give
us peace. Peace. lest we lean on our own
understanding. We have a need for the Lord to
enable us to flee the temptations of the devil, lest we be taken
captive by him. We have a need for him to work
in us and cause us to will and to do of his good pleasure, lest
we find ourselves doing our own pleasure, doing what's right
in our own eyes and living a life of disobedience. Lord, if you don't fetch me,
if you don't fetch me, I will remain in Lodabar like Mephibosheth. I'll be crippled with no bread
and no life and no help if you don't send your prophet to draw
me to yourself. Lord, if you don't bid me to
come unto thee, if you don't call me by my name, single me
out, call me into your presence. I was writing an article on the
computer today And in the article was the phrase, Christ particular redemption. And Tricia's got set up on our
computer a grammar check. So the grammar check alerts me
on this phrase, Christ particular redemption, and suggests that
I take out the word particular in order to make the sentence
more precise. That's what it said. The computer's
telling me to take out the word particular so that the sentence
will be more precise. And my first thought was, wow,
my computer even hates the gospel. If I take out the word particular,
it's going to make it less precise. It's going to make it ambiguous.
It's going to make it so that anybody can interpret it. Oh,
I need particular redemption. I need the Lord to single me
out. I need eyes to see. Lord, if
you don't give me eyes to see spiritual truth, all I'll see
is the things of this world that these physical eyes are able
to see. And that will do nothing for my soul. Lord, if you don't
give me ears to hear. These are my desperate needs.
Lord, hear my prayer speedily. I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Go back to our psalm. Look at
verse 1. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord.
Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Let
them be turned backwards and be put to confusion that desire
my hurt. Let them be turned back for a
reward of their shame that say, Aha! Aha! Who's your enemy? Sitting in the same seat you're
in, isn't he? It's that old man. It's that fleshly man that we
just sang about. We have a war going on within
us. It's sin. It's this world that
draws us. And the Lord said, be not conformed
to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
in Christ Jesus. And yet we find ourselves so
oftentimes being pressed in to the mold of this world. That's
our enemy. Lord, turn them back on themselves.
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee and
let such as love thy salvation continually say, the Lord be
magnified. Oh Lord, I'm poor and needy.
Make haste. Oh God, thou art my help and
my deliverer. Make no tarrying. Lord, this
is a desperate cry of a sinner who sees something of his sin
problem. Lord, if you don't give me a
heart to believe the gospel, I'll not believe you. I will
live and die and be separated from you for all eternity as
an unbeliever. That's my desperate need. And
the easily besetting sin that causes all the other problems
in my life is the sin of unbelief. It's the fountainhead of all
my problems. And Lord, if you don't give me
faith to believe, I won't believe you. This is my desperation. Yes, temporal problems are real,
and yes, they're painful, and yes, we have to call out to God
in time of need, whatever it is. But this is the desperation. Those temporal issues are gonna
come to an end soon. This is a problem that we've got to have God to
fix for us if we're gonna have any hope. Any hope of life eternal. Lord, if you don't shed the love
of Christ abroad in my heart, I will be cold and indifferent
toward you, toward your word, toward my sin, toward others. You've got to put the love of
Christ in my heart. This is my desperate need. These
are things I cannot do for myself. Truth is, in all the temporal
issues that we have a need for, we have some responsibility to
provide for that need, don't we? If our need is financial,
we've got the responsibility to work. If our need is relationship,
we have the responsibility to make things right best we can
with folks. if we if we have a physical problem don't know
when I was at home and not go to the doctor and pursue some
medical attention so in all the temporal needs that we do call
on God to help us with that's all it's what he's doing he's
but the spiritual needs he's got to do it all he's got to
do it all that's why I'm so desperate Lord I'm not so desperate if
there's something I can do But if there's nothing I can do,
I'm desperate. Lord, if you don't feed me with
the bread of heaven, I'll go back to Egypt and I'll feast
on leeks and garlics and onions and all those things that come
out of the ground. You've got to rain manna from heaven. You've got to feed me with daily
bread. You've got to reveal to me the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is my desperate need. Lord,
hear me speedily. Come unto me. Answer my desperate
cry. If you don't cause the rivers
of living water to flow in my heart, as you promised that woman
at the well, I'll drink from the broken cisterns
and polluted waters of this world until I'm so sick I'll have no
hope. What was Bartimaeus' more desperate
need? What was his more desperate need?
To have physical sight or to have spiritual sight? Truth is
the Lord gave him spiritual sight before he healed him physically.
Son of David have mercy upon me. Shut up Bartimaeus. No, Son
of David have mercy upon me. How did he know he was the son
of David? He had heard about him and he believed what he heard.
And God gave him spiritual sight before he gave him physical sight.
But his greater need, his greater need was for that spiritual sight. What was Jacob's greater need?
when he was there at the river Jabbok. Remember he divided his
family up and he heard that Esau was coming? What was his greater
need? Was his greater need to be delivered
from the wrath of his brother? Or was his greater need to wrestle
with God all night long and have his name changed from Jacob to
Israel and be delivered from the wrath that is to come? You
see, he was desperate. He was desperate because he thought,
you know, we're fixing to lose everything. Esau's coming, he's
going to kill us all. But he had a need that was greater
than that. The Lord had to reveal that need to him, didn't he? What about that woman with the
issue of blood that had spent everything that she had on physicians
and she was no better off now? She was worse off, worse off.
What a picture of 12 years she had dealt with this issue of
blood. And she had gone from religion to religion to religion
trying to find a doctor that would help her. That's the picture,
isn't it? And she said, oh, if I could
but touch the hem of his garment, I'd be made whole. And she crawled
through the crowd. She touched the hem of his, virtue
went out from him. She felt it in her body. She
knew immediately she'd been healed. She had a greater need than that,
didn't she? She had a need for the Lord Jesus Christ to single
her out, to say, who touched me? And she told him all the truth. And what was her greater need?
For him to say to her, your sins are forgiven thee. That was her
greater need. She felt her physical need, but
her real need was spiritual. Same for us. What about the disciples
on the Sea of Galilee? They just thought they were going
to drown. They thought they were going to die. Did they need to be saved from
the peril of the storm? Or did they need to be saved from the power of their
sin and see the One who had power over the storm. What manner of
man is this that even the winds and the rain and the waves obey
his voice? That's our need. This is our
prayer. Brethren, I just want to encourage
you tonight when you pray, Yes, ask God to meet those physical
needs, but, oh Lord, I get more desperate over my temporal problems
than I do over my spiritual ones. Lord, give me a heart to be concerned
for the things that are really important. That cripple that was at the
gate called beautiful, What a picture, what a picture of me and you
sitting at the gate, the beautiful gate into heaven. And this man
was not able to worship God because he was crippled. He was not able
to go into the temple. He thought that his need was
for the passerbys to give him alms to meet his financial needs. He couldn't work and he thought
that was his biggest need and he was desperate. And he was
shameless in asking men for donations, help me, help me. What Peter
say, silver and gold have we none, but such as we have, we
give unto thee. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
I say unto thee, stand and walk. And he leaped upon his feet.
His biggest need wasn't physical healing. His biggest need was
to be able to walk so he could enter into that temple and worship
God. That was his need. Mary and Martha were grieving
over the loss of their brother Lazarus. Oh Lord, if you had
been here, he wouldn't have died. He wouldn't have died. And they
were weeping over his death. And they thought their greatest
need was to be reunited with Him. And when the Lord told them
to take away the stone, was their greatest need to see their brother
Lazarus? Or was their greatest need to
have the Lord Jesus Christ say to Mary, I am the resurrection? and the life he that believeth
on me shall never die." What is your greater need? What
is the most desperate need that you have? You know what it is,
don't you? Mine too. Those 10 lepers that came to
the Lord Jesus Christ, they thought their desperate need was to be
cleansed of their leprosy. And for nine of them, that's
all that happened to them. But one, one saw that he had
a need that went beyond his leprosy. He had a need to worship God.
He had a need to come back. and to bow at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ and offer him worship and praise for his soul. What about Jairus? Oh, Lord, come to my house. My
daughter, she's 12 years old. She's dying. She's dying. And
on the way, one of the servants came and said, bother the master
no more. Your daughter's dead. She's gone. It's too late. What
was Jairus' most desperate need? Was it the healing of his daughter? Or was it to have the Lord Jesus
Christ come into his home and bless him with his presence? Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me. I'm poor
and needy." Most of these Psalms were written by David in response
to his desperate attempt to flee the wrath of Saul. Most of these
Psalms that we've been studying, David is being persecuted by
Saul. and he's being pursued by Saul.
He's asking God to help him and save him from the wrath of Saul. Let me ask you a question. Which
Psalm of David do we remember the most clearly? Which Psalm
of David speaks to our hearts most powerfully? Psalm 51, isn't
it? That was David's greater need.
Not to be delivered from the wrath of Saul, but to be delivered
from the wrath of God. to have his sin taken away, wash
me thoroughly. For my sin is ever before me.
That's my problem. That Syrophoenician woman who
had the daughter that was possessed with the devil and asked the
Lord to, she cried to him, Lord help us, help us. It's not meat that I should give
the bread, the children's bread to dogs. What was her need? Truth Lord, and she worshiped
him. What was her greater need? Was it for the deliverance of
her daughter from that demon? Or was it for that dog, that
Gentile dog, to be brought into Israel? Your sins are forgiven thee.
That was her need. Her need was to be made an Israelite. And that's exactly what happened. Jonah, I can't imagine three
days in the belly of a whale. He's got seaweed wrapped around
him. He's crying out to God. I mean,
he's desperate. That'd be a desperate situation
to be in. And God left him in that desperate
situation for three days until finally, His final prayer, salvation
is of the Lord. And Jonah was vomited out on
dry land. What was Jonah's greatest need?
It was to come to that conclusion that salvation was of the Lord.
What about Job? Job lost all of his children,
lost his cattle, his wife turned against him, his friends turned
against him. He was desperate. And most of
the book of Job, he's crying out in desperation for the Lord
to help him and explain to him what's happening. What was his
greatest need? His greatest need was to justify
God rather than himself. His greatest need was to hear
the gospel from Elihu and come to the conclusion that though
I had heard of thee by the hearing of mine ear, now mine eyes have
seen thee and I repent in dust and ashes. That's our desperate need, isn't
it, brethren? We have real needs in this world. And your heavenly
father knows what they are. He knows what they are. Solomon
and all of his glory was not arrayed as the lilies of the
field, the birds, birds of the air. They know how much more
precious are you? The Gentiles seek after those
things. The Gentiles are the ones who
make their temporal needs the pursuit of their life. We live
in this world. We must pursue those temporal
things and take responsibility for them and ask God to help
us with them. And sometimes they can be very
painful. But that what the Lord say, but you seek first the kingdom
of God. and his righteousness, and all
these other things that be added unto you. That's our real need,
isn't it? May God give us the grace to
cry desperately. Look what he says, let all those
that seek thee rejoice. The Lord said, if you seek me,
you're going to find me. If you knock, the door will be
opened unto you. If you ask, it will be given
unto you. And when we ask for those things
that are really our desperate need, the Lord said, when you pray,
James said, when you pray, you pray amiss that you might have
consumed them upon your own lust. That's us, isn't it? We pray
for those. We put on a higher plain, a higher
priority, our physical needs than our spiritual needs. And
the Lord said, you're just asking for that so you can have your
physical comforts. Swept that around. Well, I'll
take care of those things, but seek ye first. Seek the Lord. You know what? When we seek him, And he's pleased
to make himself known to us. There's some rejoicing that takes
place in the heart, even before the temporal needs are met. Rejoicing, all is well. Lord, I can rest. I can rest
in knowing that you've got this. You've got me. You've you've
put away my sins. I've sought you. And you've and
you've spoken truth to my heart. And you've revealed to me that
I have a righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ that exceeds
all the things that this world. I've got a hope. A hope in Christ. Let all those that seek Thee
rejoice and be glad in Thee." Rejoice in the Lord. Sometimes
it's hard to be glad in the midst of our circumstances, but the
Lord doesn't tell us to be glad for those difficult times. Rejoice
in the Lord in those difficult times. Be thankful for them.
Be thankful for them. I'm so encouraged to have Believers
tell me, I'm thankful for this trouble. I'm thankful for this
cancer. I'm thankful because this is
the means the Lord has used to cause me to look beyond my temporal
needs and realize that I've got a more desperate need. And in
seeking Him for that need, He's met my needs. He's met my needs. Let such as love thy salvation. Do you love God's salvation?
Do you love not having anything to do with your salvation? Let
such as love thy salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. The Lord be magnified. The Lord
be magnified. In election, I didn't have anything
to do with it. It was all according to His will
and purpose. He sovereignly chose who He would
have mercy on. He gets magnified and glorified. Had He not chosen me... You know,
I was thinking, what is the draw to all the secret societies that
have been in the world since the beginning of mankind? I'll
tell you what it is. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 1. Knowledge puffeth up. If I think that I've come to
understand something that no one else knows, it gives me an
advantage over other people. Whether it be the flat earth
or whether it be Calvinism, whatever it is, I've got some secret knowledge
that nobody else knows and it puffs me up. and those that we tell about
our gospel. When we tell folks that our God
sovereignly elected us before the foundation of the world,
that the Lord Jesus Christ particularly redeemed us through the sacrifice
of himself on Calvary's cross, and that the Holy Spirit irresistibly
calls us into his marvelous light out of darkness, They're prone
to accuse us of that pride, aren't they? Oh, you just puffed up
because you think you've got knowledge of something that no
one else has. And nothing could be farther from the truth. For
verse two says, let him who thinks he knows, knows that he knows
nothing as he ought to know it. And we don't know anything like
we ought to know it, do we? And then the Lord goes on in
chapter one of first Corinthians to say, oh no, God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He's chosen
the weak things of the world, the things that are base, the
things that are not in order to make to not those things which
are mighty proud. There's nothing that feeds the
pride of man in the gospel. We know who it is that maketh
us to differ. And we know that we didn't have
anything to do with it. And that's why we say, the Lord
be magnified. The Lord be magnified. The Lord
be glorified. He did it all. He elected us. He redeemed us. He regenerated
us. He sanctified us. He keeps us.
We didn't have anything to do with it. and read me and proud
we're wondering had a brother tell me recently said I I understand
how God could save anybody else but I don't understand how he
saved me and I thought I said well that's what we all feel
that's what we all feel I understand how God could have mercy on anybody
else but why would he have mercy on me of all people let the Lord Be magnified. The message of the gospel of
God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only message of salvation that doesn't feed the pride of
man. It puts centers. Where they belong. Poor. And needy. crying out desperately
for help. Our merciful heavenly Father,
we ask that you would forgive us for being so earthly minded. Lord, forgive us that we have
set our affections on the things of this earth rather than on
the things of heaven. Give us grace in this hour to
look to Christ, to rest our hope in Him, and to know, Lord, that
He is our greatest, most desperate need. We ask it in His name. Amen. 318? Number 318. Let's stand together. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. I need thee every hour. Enjoy your pain. Come quickly. O'er life is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. O bless me now my Savior, I come
to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to Thank you.