from your Spiral Gospel Hymns
Hymnbook, number 24, Jehovah Sid Canu, the Lord our righteousness. Let's all stand together, number
24. Jehovah, Sid K. Doo, the Lord, our righteousness. We love to call you by that name,
our Savior Christ Jesus. Jehovah Sidkenu, the God-man,
live for us, bringing eternal righteousness which God imputes
to us. Jehovah Sidkenu, our substitute
who died. Your blood has put away our sin,
and we are justified. Jehovah Sidkenu, your love has
won our praise. Trusting your blood and righteousness,
we're saved by your free grace. Jehovah Sidkenu, we stand in
you alone. Our only fitness before God is
in our Lord, His Son. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in Psalm 56 this morning. If you'd like, turn with me there
in your Bible, Psalm 56. Jehovah said, can you, and she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Our union with
Christ is so real that God sees the righteousness of Christ in
his people. And I'm so thankful for that. Outside of Him, we have no righteousness,
none whatsoever. But in Him, we are Jehovah Sidkenia. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, We rejoice in knowing that we
have an advocate that stands before Thee and represents us
as our perfect righteousness. And Lord, what great hope we
have in knowing that His work of redemption was so complete
and so full and so finished that He gave to us that righteousness
and that we stand complete before Thee in Him. Accepted in the
beloved. Father, we ask that in this hour
that you would. Enable me to speak. We pray that
you would enable your people to hear. We ask Lord that you
would speak. Infinitely more than what's able
to put into words. That you would reveal to us.
Our need for Christ. And enable us to rest our hope
in him. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Psalm 56, I've entitled this,
When You Are Afraid. When you are afraid, all men know what fear is. Much of our fears are rational
fears. Sometimes it's good to be afraid.
We have to escape things that are dangerous or life-threatening. It's a good thing to have some
fear to motivate us. Much of our fears are irrational
and most of them are founded in our fear of man, our fear
of man. And David had that experience. In 1 Samuel chapter 21, The scripture
tells us the setting for this psalm. David, fleeing from Saul,
went to Gath. Now Gath is a Philistine city,
the city from which Goliath was from. And the king of Gath, whose name
was Achish, found out that David was there. David had already killed his
warrior and David was a threat to the Philistines in every way.
And so Achish called David into his presence and was prepared
to kill David in order to protect his city and his kingdom. And
the scripture says in that situation David was afraid and in his fear
he changed his behavior. David changed his behavior and
he acted like a madman. The scripture says he drooled,
that his spittle fell down off his beard, he scratched at the
door, he acted like a madman. He acted like he was completely
out of his mind and Akish looked at him and Akish was unthreatened
by David. And Akish said, what do I have
need of a madman? Get him out of here. He's no
threat to me. He's no threat to me. Now David
in Every way is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and all these
psalms and all of their settings from which they were written
tell us something about who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what
he's done to save sinners. This is a gospel story. The historical
setting is significant only as it relates to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the
king of Israel, the shepherd of Israel. So what is the significance
of David changing his behavior to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
what a great description of what happened when the king of kings,
the sovereign creator of the universe humbled himself and
made of himself no reputation and became a servant. That's what the scripture tells
us in Philippians chapter three, let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. He knew that he was the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, but made of himself, he changed his behavior. Oh, we couldn't have stood. The one time that the Lord unveiled
his deity, at least in part, on the Mount of Transfiguration,
when the veil of his humanity was taken away, at least in part,
and the disciples were unable to see something of his deity,
of his glory, they were forced to hide their faces in the ground,
weren't they? And so the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be
the substitute for sinners, had to change his behavior. And he
had to be unthreatening to his enemies. Now, here we have the
creator and sustainer of life, the one who with a spoken word
could have called 12 legions of angels to destroy all of his
enemies and yet they had no fear of him. Matter of fact, they
spit upon him. They beat him. They mocked him. And they crucified him. Why?
Because they had no fear. Why did they have no fear? Because
he changed. his behavior. That's exactly
what he did. And as a man, what David expresses
to God in Psalm 56 is the spirit that the Lord Jesus Christ had
before his enemies. Before his enemies. And the scripture
says that he expresses his fear to the Father. And in expressing
his fear, God gave him perfect faith. Now, there's two ways
of us to look at these Psalms. We can look at them and say,
well, I want to be like David. And I want to be a man of faith. And the honest child of God knows
that the more they try to have faith, the more unbelief they
see in their own lives. The more they try to trust God,
the more they see their unbelief. The more they try not to fear
men, the more they see of their fear of men. And so we could
say, well, we need to be like David and we need to have no
fear. Or we could say, or we could say, this is a picture
of the only one who could say, no fear. The only one who took
his fears to the Father and trusted God with all of his heart. We
could say that my hope of salvation is not the irrational fears that
I have, and we all have them. We all have them. Everybody's
got them. People try to cover them up. Bullies are really just covering
up their fear of men. Narcissists are covering up their
fear of men. And then the other opposite extreme
is to isolate yourself from men because you have a fear of men.
All of us at some degree and at some time or another fear
men. We do. That's the root of all
of our fears. What are people going to think?
What are they going to do? And that was David's fear in
this psalm. But David is speaking for Christ. He's speaking prophetically of
what the Lord Jesus Christ did with his fear. Now, so what are
we going to do with our fears? What are we going to do with
our fears? I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going
to run to the one who had no fear. I could preach to you this morning
and say, don't be afraid. And you might leave here thinking,
well, you know, I've been enthused and I'm ready
to, you know, face the world and before the day's over, you're
going to be smitten with fear again, aren't you? Or I could
say to you, there is a man, there is a man who took his fears to
God. And God met every single one
of his needs. I could say to you, flee to him. Trust him for your fears. Trust him. He's able. He's able to represent you perfectly
before God. He's able to comfort you in your
fears. Paul said, I could say to you,
be strong, be strong. And we might leave here thinking,
well, I'm gonna work harder at being strong and not being afraid.
And yet Paul put it like this. He said, his strength is made
perfect in my weakness. And I will glory in my weaknesses
in order that he gets the glory for being my strength. I started to title this message,
Stop Trying and Start Trusting. We spend a lot of time and energy
trying to change ourselves, don't we? And the only change that
ever comes, by the way, is an excellent article in your bulletin
that Joe Terrell wrote, and I would encourage you to read it. He's
commenting on that passage in Galatians 5.16, where the Lord
tells us, walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the
lust of the flesh. And every single one of us know
what the lust of the flesh is. And we try so hard We try so
hard to curb our appetites and to control our circumstances.
And the Lord's saying, no, walk in the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. What is it to walk in the Spirit?
What is it to walk in the Spirit? I read someone say this week
that being spiritual is serving others and being sacrificial
and he named off several things that a person is supposed to
do in order to be spiritual. And I thought, well, I guess
if a believer got stranded on a desert island somewhere, they
wouldn't be able to be spiritual. I guess the thief on the cross,
he never did anything for anybody. I guess he wasn't able to be
spiritual. No, being spiritual is not what you do. Being spiritual
is trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. That's, being spiritual is a
work of grace in the heart. It's resting all your hope in
Him. It's looking to Him for His strength and for His righteousness. You say, well, I want to be more,
I want to be more sacrificial. Well, He's the only one that
made the sacrifice. Look to His sacrifice. Look to
His sacrifice. And you know what? I'm just,
I'm just convinced. God gives us the grace to walk
by the Spirit and that's what it is to walk by the Spirit,
is to look to Christ, is to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ for
all your fears and all your strengths. It's the only hope that we have
to curb the appetites of the flesh and the fears that grip
us in this life. So David changes his behavior
and in so doing he's He's giving us a picture of what the Lord
Jesus Christ did when He was made flesh and dwelt among us. And here's the God of glory taking
away, taking away the threat of His enemies so that His enemies
would not be afraid. You think the enemies of the
Lord Jesus Christ, if they saw Him like Peter, James, and John
saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration, would dare put a hand on him?
No, no, they wouldn't have. They put a hand on him because
he changed his behavior. He became a man. And here he cries out to the
Lord in verse one of Psalm 56, be merciful unto me, O God. For
man would swallow me up, he fighteth daily. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. I know the man that fights daily
with you is the same as yourself, isn't he? We really are number
one worst enemy and there really is a spiritual battle going on
in the heart and life of the child of God between the flesh
and the spirit. And he's the man that fighteth
us daily. But here's what the Lord said
about that. He said, we fight not against flesh and blood.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly. You don't fight flesh with flesh.
You don't fight fire with fire. You don't fight a lack of commitment
with more commitment. This article that I was just
making reference to, was just a preacher's attempt to try to
get people to be more committed, be more dedicated, be more sacrificial. But it doesn't work. You don't
fight flesh with flesh. You don't fight a lack of commitment
by telling people to be more committed. The weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds and bringing into captivity every
thought. That's what you and I have a
need for, don't we? We need to bring into captivity every thought,
all these fearful thoughts, bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. He's the only one that conquered
all of his enemies. He's the only one that brought
his fears before God and had perfect faith. And so what do
we do with our fears? What do we do with our conflicts?
What do we do with the inconsistencies that we have in our lives between
the spirit and the flesh? Do we pull ourselves up by our
bootstraps? Do we bolster our commitments
and say, well, we're going to do better and talk about being
courageous and not fearful? Or do we say, look to Christ. Look to Christ. Flee to Him. Rest the hope of your salvation
on his faith, on his faithfulness, on his fearlessness, on his accomplishments,
on his obedience. That's what it is to walk by
the spirit. That's what it is to walk by the spirit. walking
by the spirit because it is the spirit of God the Lord Jesus
said himself he said it's expedient for you that I go away if I go
not away the comforter will not come but when he comes when he
comes he's gonna lead you into all truth and he's going to teach
you of me so that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit he he's the
one who who leads us to Christ he's the one who takes us to
Christ so the long and short answer of what do I do with my
fears What do I do with this old man that fights me every
day? We flee to Christ. Look to Christ. Rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe that God is satisfied
with him. And be satisfied with the one
that God's satisfied with. Because the truth is, if you're
an honest person, you're never gonna find anything in you that
you're gonna be satisfied with. You're never going to do it.
You're never going to be satisfied with yourself, not if you're
an honest person. Now, you can convince yourself
that you're better than you are and most folks do that, but a
child of God is never going to find anything in themselves no
matter how hard they try to not fear men and to conquer this
old flesh. You're never going to be satisfied,
but oh, when you're able by the Spirit of God to rest in Christ,
then you can be satisfied. You say, well, that's too easy.
That takes away the warfare. Try it. Try it. It's the hardest thing
that you'll ever do. As a matter of fact, it's impossible. Let me say that again. What I'm
talking about for us to... what I'm talking about us doing
right now is absolutely impossible. Now you can go through counseling
and you can go through a seven-step program, you can figure out how
to overcome a bad habit. People do it all the time. You
can change your life, you can turn over a new leaf, you can
be a better person. But walking by the Spirit? You
can't do it. It's just completely impossible.
You're completely dependent upon the Lord for that. I'm not talking
about something that's easy. I'm talking about something that's
impossible. You'll find everything else that
men tell you to do easier to do. Everything. Be merciful unto me, O God, for
man would swallow me up, I'm afraid of this old man in my
own flesh, and I'm afraid of other men. Let's be honest. That fear of man is the root
of all our fears, all of our irrational fears. It's the fear
of man. Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up, for they be many that fight against me, O thou most
high. What am I going to do? What am
I going to do? And the Lord Jesus Christ, faced
by his enemies, after having changed his behavior, took away
their, his threat towards them, and now they've turned on him
in full force. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. Now I could say, when you're
afraid, trust in God. But here's what I'm saying. When
you're afraid, trust the one who dealt with his fears perfectly. Trust him. And truth is, in that,
you're probably still going to have some fears. You know, is that child who's
afraid of their circumstances who buries his head in the nap
of his father's neck safe? Yeah. Is he still afraid? Yeah. What time I am afraid? I'll flee
to Christ. He's the only one that dealt
with his fears properly. In God I will praise His Word. In God I will put my trust. I
will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Now that's David
speaking for Christ. And we can say, I'm not going
to fear men. I'm not afraid of men. Come on now. The more you say I'm not going
to be afraid, the more of your fears you see. The more you say
I'm not, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, the more
of that you see, don't you? Don't you? But there is one, there is one
who believed everything that God said perfectly all the time. And he's the one who's able to
say in God, I will praise his word. In the Lord, I will put
my trust. I will not be afraid what flesh
can do unto me. Every day, they rest my words.
All their thoughts are against me for evil." Now, the inconsistent messages
that come into our minds and hearts that are contrary to what
we know, God says, are a conflict for us every day, aren't they?
We entertain thoughts and ideas and we hear things that are inconsistent
with what God has said. There's always an enemy trying
to rest the word of God. And Peter said they rest the
scriptures to their own destruction. And I've told you where that
word rest comes from before in case you weren't here or forgot. The word rest here is a word
picture of putting a man on a rack. It was a torture thing where
they would tie your arms and your ankles and your wrist and
stretch you until your bones started coming out of joint.
What was the purpose of that torture? To get that man to say
something that he wouldn't otherwise say unless he was being tortured. Get him to make a confession.
And that's what the Lord says that these men do with the word
of God. They rest the scriptures. They
put the scriptures on a rack and they pull it out of joint
in order to get it to say something that it doesn't say. And that's
what the Lord's saying here. They rest my words. They twist
them. They make them to mean something
that they don't mean. And that's what the religious
do when they take you back to the law. And they say, well,
you know, the Bible says you're supposed to do this and supposed
to do that. And you need to be better at that. And if you just
work a little bit harder and be a little bit more committed,
you can, you can improve your life. The admonitions of scripture
are to cause us to see, Lord, you told me not to be afraid,
but I'm afraid. What am I going to do? You're going to flee to the one
who had perfect faith. That's what you're going to do.
You're going to find your strength in him. That's what Paul meant when he
said, when I am weak, then I'm strong. Then I'm strong. I will glory in my infirmities
that he might get all the glory. That's a message that you're
not going to hear in the world. No, the message of religion and
the message of the world is, you know, you can get some glory for this.
You can be strong. You can be better. The truth
is that the way up is down. And until God knocks you off
your high horse and puts your face in the dirt, and causes
you to say with the Saul of Tarsus, Lord, what would you have me
to do? They gather themselves together,
they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my
soul. That's what they did. Oh, they
were marking the steps of the Lord Jesus Christ, looking for
an opportunity. And when they did arrest him
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, I was in the temple.
It was the Lord's time for him to be... Come on, isn't that
what the Lord said to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane?
Come on, they're here, they're here now. It's time for my rest,
it's time for my departure. The Lord Jesus Christ was in
control of every event surrounding his death. But here as a man,
as a man, he's crying out to his father, expressing his fear
of men. Lord, this is what they're going
to do to me. Shall they escape by iniquity
and thine anger? Cast down the people, O God. Is there righteousness? That's
what iniquity is. Iniquity is man's righteousness,
the things that they're trusting in for the hope of their salvation,
the improvements that they've made in their lives, that's what
they're looking to. Is there iniquity gonna be a
way for them to escape? No, no, it's not. Thou tellest my wanderings, Put
thou my tears into thy bottle, are they not in thy book? You see, the tears that you and
I shed are not sufficient. The tears of repentance, the
sincerity of our broken heart has to be washed in the blood
of Christ to be acceptable in the sight of God. His tears are
the only ones that are acceptable. His sorrow Don't think, well,
if I can just be sorry enough, then God will forgive me. No.
No, it doesn't work like that. God's looking to the sorrow that
the Lord Jesus Christ experienced. And when God said, I saw the
travail of his soul, then I was satisfied. God sees the travail
of your soul and my soul, he's not satisfied. So flee to Christ. What do I do with my fears? What
do I do with my wanderings? What do I do with all these troubles
and this conflict that I have with men, me being the first
man? What do I do? Flee to this man
whom God bottled up his tears, those tears that he cried in
the Garden of Gethsemane. Scripture says, symbolically
here that God bottled them up and put them in a book. When I cry unto thee, verse 9,
when I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies turn back. This I know, for God is for me. Every time you and I say, well,
God's for me, and as soon as we say that, the little The little
glimmer of doubt begins to come, doesn't it? Well, is God really
for me? But here's what every child of
God knows without any doubt whatsoever. Without any question, he knows
that God was for Christ. You may doubt whether he's for
you, but you don't have any doubt that he was for Christ, do you?
So what are you going to do? What are you going to do? flee
to the one to whom you know God was for. That's just that simple. Flee
to the one to whom you know God was for and stop trying and start
trusting. And it's impossible because the
flesh is just going to keep trying, isn't it? We're just going to
keep trying. This I know, for God is for me.
In God will I praise His word. In the Lord will I praise His
word. In God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid what man
can do unto me." And as soon as you and I say that and pretend
to have the faith to believe it, the fear of man rears its ugly
head, doesn't it? But you know there is a man who
dealt with his fears, dealt with his fears by fleeing
to God, had perfect faith in the Father. And when he said,
I'll not fear what man will do to me. Thy vows are upon me. Now you
know what a vow is. A vow is a covenant promise. And you and I can say, well,
I'm trusting the covenant promises of God for the hope of my salvation.
Well, you know what? Rather than trusting the covenant
promises of God for the hope of your salvation, trust the
one to whom the covenant was made. Trust him. Because just like the other things
we've talked about, when you talk about the covenant vows
of God being for you, as soon as you say that, you wonder,
well, were they really for me? But you know, you know beyond
any shadow of a doubt if you're a child of God that those vows
were for Christ. So rather than trying to bolster
up some faith in the covenant, flee to the one to whom you know.
That's why we say that it's not faith that saves, it's the object
of our faith that saves. Flee to the one to whom you know
those vows were made and those vows were kept. Flee to him. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death. We can say I'm not afraid to
die." And as soon as those words come out of our mouths, we think,
oh no, there are some bands in my death. I wonder, I know the
severity of the circumstances when death comes. But I know this, beyond any shadow
of a doubt, that God would not allow His Holy One to see corruption
and that God the Father raised His Son from the dead and that
He conquered death and the grave And I can flee to him. I can
rest my hope in him rather than trying to convince myself that
I'm not afraid of death. Let me flee to the one who wasn't
afraid and the one who did conquer death. For thou hast delivered
my soul from death. Will not thou deliver my feet
from falling? The one who conquered your soul
from death. will order your steps and enable
you to walk by the spirit that you fulfill not the lust of the
flesh. That I may walk before God in
the light of the living. The Lord Jesus Christ is walking
before God. Oh, he's seated. He's making
intercession for his people. He changed his behavior so that
we would have one in whom we're not threatened,
to whom we can flee in our time of fear. May God give us the
grace to do that impossible thing. All right, let's take a break. Okay.