What a debt of love we have.
We're going to read from Psalm 91 for our scripture reading
tonight. Psalm 91. And you'll see that the text
for the message, which is Psalm 121, is really an abbreviated
version of Psalm 91. So hopefully these two passages
will be an encouragement to those who are in need of help. Those
who are in need of help. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is
my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler and from the noise and pestilence.
He shall cover thee with feathers and under his wings shall thou
trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. As we've seen so many times,
these Psalms are messianic. All of them are, as well as the
rest of Scripture for that matter. But by virtue of our union with
Christ, which we heard about Sunday morning from Gabe, these
things are true of us. What's true of Him is true of
us. Look at verse 8. only with thine
eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked because
thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge even the most high
thy habitation there shall no evil befall thee neither shall
any plague come nigh thy dwelling for he shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee and all thy ways they shall bear
thee up in their hands lest thou shalt dash thy foot against a
stone you know this is the the promise that Satan perverted
in the temptations of our Lord. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample
under feet, because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will
I deliver him. I will set him on high, because
he hath known my name. He shall call upon me, and I
will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor
him with long life while I satisfy him and show him my salvation."
What a glorious word of promise to those who are able to find
themselves in Christ. I want us to pray together. I'll be in Cottageville this
weekend and Michael and Robert Horton will be preaching here
for you. How many Sundays before we have
our 18th anniversary? Two more Sundays. The second
Sunday of November we'll have lunch together after service
celebrating 18 years. The Lord's kept us here. And
18 years ago, David Olson and Noah Dunbar were babies. And
they have both asked to be baptized. And so Sunday after I get back,
which will be Sunday after this coming Sunday, we'll will rejoice
in their professions of faith in Christ through baptism. So
let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we are forever
in debt to Thee. We thank Thee for Thy salvation,
for the sacrifice that You made, Thank you for the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, satisfying all the demands of
your holy law, putting away our sin once and for all. We thank thee, Lord, that you've
continued to call out your sheep, and we do pray for David and
for Noah, and we thank you for them, and we ask, Lord, that
you would just continue to minister grace to their heart as they
anticipate professing thee in baptism. We thank you for this
opportunity to be together and we pray Lord that you would open
our hearts to your spirit and to the truth of your word and
enable us to sit at the feet of Christ. We pray for the conference
in Cottageville this weekend and for the men that will be
preaching there and for the For the believers and the lost sheep
that may be there, Lord, we ask that you would minister the gospel
to their hearts and that your church would be encouraged and
that Christ would be lifted up. Pray for Michael and for Robert
and ask that you would continue to impress upon their hearts
the things that you would have them preach here. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. Recipients of God's grace are
always amazed that it would be even them. Even them. My text tonight is going to be
in part at least from Psalm 121 if you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bible, Psalm 121. And I've titled this message,
Help for the Helpless. Now oftentimes we've heard people
say, God helps those who help themselves. Truth is, truth is,
God helps those who have come to the end of themselves. And that is God's help. I wonder if you're helpless. Helpless. That's the only time
we know God's grace is when we're left without strength. Without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Really, our state is
worse than being helpless. Not only are we helpless, but
we are our own worst enemies. We're against ourselves all the
time. Jim and I were talking about
this before the service. He said, we're masochists. And I said,
yes, that's what we are. We are. We're just so contrary
to ourselves all the time. So not only are we without help
if we're left to ourselves, but we're left with the one person
that is our worst enemy. Psalm 121. We have a cry for help. And there's two things I want
us to see from this psalm. The first one is why do we need
help? And the second is what qualifies
the Lord Jesus Christ as our helper? And I think both of those
questions are answered in this text. I quoted last Sunday from
Exodus chapter 18 when Moses was bringing the children of
Israel out of Egypt and met his father-in-law and Jethro said
to him, the thing that thou doest is not good. He took the full
responsibility on his own shoulders, didn't he? And consequently,
It was a mess. And Jethro went on to say, thou
wilt surely wear away both thou and the people that is with thee,
for this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform
it. I wonder how much in your life
and in my life is too heavy for us. What is it that we're not
able to perform? What is it that we need the Lord's
help for? Psalm 121 gives us some indication
as to what those real needs are that we have. And the first one
is seen in verse one, when the psalmist says, I will lift up
my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. Now the first
thing that we, the first and most important thing that we
need the Lord's help for is to be saved from the curse of the
law. Now when he says hills, plural,
I'm thinking of two representative mountains that are mentioned
time and time again in the scriptures. Mount Sinai and Mount Calvary. I looked into the hills. And
in looking to the hill of the law, I saw that I couldn't satisfy
the demands of the law. I was cursed by the law. The
law had no mercy for me. The law had nothing to say to
me but guilty. And then I saw that there was
another hill. There was a time and a place
when the Son of God, hung upon a tree and was cursed by God
having bore the reproach of his people delivering them from the
curse of the law silencing its accusations so that now in Christ
Jesus there's no more there's no condemnation there's no accusation
In the Lord Jesus Christ, because of Mount Calvary, the rumblings
of Mount Sinai have been silenced. The law has been satisfied. The
purpose of the law is only to make sin utterly sinful, is it
not? And that's all it does. If we
ever look to Sinai, all we're going to do is see the wickedness
of our sin. And it doesn't solve the problem. It only aggravates it. The strength
of sin, the scripture says, is the law. And so if we look to
Sinai, all the law does is aggravate our sin and cause us to try to
figure out a way to solve it. And it only makes it worse, doesn't
it? Turn with me in your Bibles to
Galatians Chapter 4, I looked unto the hills, Sinai and Calvary, those two
hills, from whence come with my help? My help comes from the
Lord, who is the maker of heaven and earth. Look what Paul says
in Galatians chapter 4 about these two mountains. He says
in verse 24, speaking of the two sons of Abraham, the child
of promise in Isaac and the child of the flesh in Hagar. And he goes on to say in verse
22, But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but
he who was of the free woman was by promise. Which things
are an allegory? For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar. The law. Seen here in man's attempt to
try to help God out. We can't satisfy the demands
of the law in any way. In any way. We're not under the
law. We're under grace. We don't go
back to the law. We don't see the work of grace
in our hearts as a means of taking us back to Sinai. I don't want
to go back to Sinai. I just want to set my gaze on
Calvary and see what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
there. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth
to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with their children.
So what the Lord's saying there is that the Jerusalem, he's talking
about the physical city of Jerusalem, that religious organization of
Judaism is no different from Sinai. and that there was no
hope, no salvation there. And that all it does is put the
children in bondage. Oh, stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. I'm so thankful that the law's
been satisfied. The law's been silenced. Our
kinsman Redeemer has reckoned with that law. Yes, it was a
time when he was a nearer kinsman unto us, but the Lord met with
him and he satisfied his demands and fulfilled all its requirements.
That's what he did. And he now stands before God
as our righteousness. And us in him? There it is, I
looked unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? And I think most
Bible scholars would tell you that verse one is really a question
more than a statement. He's saying I looked unto the
hills, from whence cometh my help? How am I going to be delivered
from the requirements of Sinai? Look at verse two, my help cometh
from the Lord. which made heaven and earth." How often times we find in the
scriptures the Lord described as the Creator. Beginning in
verse 1 of Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And nothing was made, John tells
us, without the Lord Jesus Christ having made it. and that he holds
all things together by the word of his power. He's the creator
and sustainer of all of life. If he can do that, does he not
have the power to save a sinner? Yes. Yes, he does. Why do we
need his help? Because apart from his help,
we're under the curse of the law. And that law will exact
its punishment. It will be satisfied one way
or the other. It'll be satisfied in the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ, or it will hold us in condemnation
for all eternity, never being able to fulfill its requirements. My help cometh from the Lord. Look at verse three. What reason do I need the Lord
to help me? Number one, because apart from
his help, I'm under the curse of the law. Look at number, look
at verses three through five. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. Why do we need help? Because we are our own worst
enemies. And if He doesn't help us, we
won't be kept. We'll forsake Him. If a believer knows anything
at all about himself, he knows his dependence upon the Lord
has not lessened a bit. It's greater now than it's ever
been, isn't it? Why? Because we see more and
more of our sin now than we ever saw before. We see more and more of how desperately
wicked is the human heart. We see more and more of how little
we really know ourselves. We see more and more of how often
we overestimate our abilities. And when the Lord's pleased,
to cause us to know that even when we slumber, even when we
sleep, He doesn't. He doesn't. Don't you love that
passage in, I think it's in Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. Turn with me there. Verse 23 of Matthew chapter 8. And when he was entered into
a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but he was asleep. Now I've been in some rough seas
before. And you don't sleep in rough seas. I mean, you're hanging
on for dear life. And here we've got a small ship
with waves coming over the bow. And these things weren't the
kind of boats we have today that when they get capsized, they're
going to the bottom. And the Lord's asleep. He's asleep. And His disciples came to Him
and awoke Him saying, Lord, save us, we perish. Now this event
is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Mark gives us a little
bit more information than Matthew and Luke. Mark says this, carest
thou not that we perish? That's what they said. Carest
thou not that we perish? And he saith unto them, why are
you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men
marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the
winds and the sea obey him?" What a glorious picture of the
tempest that comes into your life and into my life, oftentimes
brought on us by our own sin. And we think the Lord's asleep? He's not the least bit concerned
about our circumstances in terms of being out of control of them,
is He? No. Aren't you glad that He said,
O ye of little faith? Little faith. I want to have
a little faith. versus having no faith at all. Why is it that we need a helper
to keep us from falling and to present us before the throne
of God? Otherwise we will fall. Look
at verse 6. in our text, the sun shall not
smite thee by day nor the moon by night. Paul said we had fightings
from without and fears from within. That's the picture here. The
sun not smiting us by day is the conflicts that we experience
in our circumstances. And the moon not smiting us by
night is the inner fears that we all experience in this life. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the one who keeps us in these fighting and fears. He's the cloud that shadowed
the children of Israel in the wilderness. He's the pillar of
fire that lighted their way at night. He's the fulfillment of
that promise. The sun shall not smite thee
by day. No circumstances will overcome
thee. And the moon, what do we call a person who's lost their
mind? A lunatic. And where's that come from? Right
there. This is what this is a reference
to. It's losing your mind. And how
close to the edge every one of us are. Whether we know it or
not. Of losing our minds. And here
the Lord promises us that the moon shall not smite thee by
night. Verse 7, why do we need a helper? We need to be saved from the
curse of the law. We need to be kept from falling. We need
to be protected in our fighting and our fears. And verse 7 says,
the Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve
thy soul. Oh, we have a foe. The Lord said, when you pray,
pray like this. Lead us not into temptation,
deliver us from the evil one." Lord, don't let Satan sift me
to where I'm destroyed by him. Lord, keep me. Protect me. He's much stronger than I am.
And he's constant, isn't he? He's relentless. His barrage
of temptations never cease. Peter got it right when he said,
he is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only one that can train that lion. Oh,
we need him to. We've experienced Satan's power
in our lives, haven't we? How often times we fall in prey
to his devices and his fiery darts has pierced our very soul.
Lord give us the shield of faith to quench the darts and the arrows
of Satan. Verse 8, the Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even
for evermore The last reason why we need a helper is because
of our proneness to wander away from the Lord. How many times
have you gone in and then come out of fellowship with the Lord? How many times you've had a sweet
time of prayer, a sweet time of intimacy with Him, only to
have that peace shattered by some circumstance or by some
fear or by some thought or by some temptation. We're just constantly
coming in and out, aren't we? We're constantly coming in and
out. And if He doesn't fulfill this promise for us, we'll go
out and not go back in. We're constantly running away
from home, aren't we? I remember I was I guess six
or seven years old and I decided that I had all I could handle
at home. And I packed my little bag and I was going to launch
off on my own. And my mother was wise enough
to let me go. And I went a block or two down
the street and sat on the curb waiting for her to come get me.
And I had enough sense about me to realize You know, who's going to feed
me? Where am I going to sleep? I was two blocks away from home.
I felt like I was on the other side of the world. My mother
never came and got me. I turned around after some time,
I don't know, seemed like a long time, probably wasn't very long
at all, and went back home sheepishly, dragging my tail. You know what
I'm sure of? I'm sure that she never lost
sight of me. I'm just certain of it. She probably
doesn't remember the incident, but I'll bet you that she was
watching out the window and never let me get out of her sight.
Had I gotten out of her sight, she'd have come after me. We're always going in and out,
aren't we? Never get out of his sight. He never sleeps nor slumbers. And he'll let us go in our rebellion
for a time But the reminder, who's going to love me if I go
off on my own? Who's going to provide for me?
Who's going to save me? Who's going to care for my needs?
And we come back with our head bowed, don't we? Dragging our
toes, dragging our tail, and pleading the Lord once again
to have mercy on our souls. I'm so thankful we have a need
for a helper. And if the Lord shows us that
need, then we'll find Him to be qualified in every way to
be just exactly the help that we need. Now let's go back to
the beginning, and I want to ask the second question. What
qualifies the Lord to be our helper? And the first one is
found in verse 2. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. You know evolution is so wicked
because it just denies the Lord's power in creation? And that's
what men want to do. They just want to deny. They
want to not have to be under His authority. The heavens declare
His handiwork. All of creation just screams
of His glory, doesn't it? I had a man ask me Sunday night
if, you know, he likes astronomy. And he wanted to know if it was
okay, you know, to get out his telescope and look out into the
heavens. And I said, sure, sure. And the more you see, the more
impressed you're going to be with the glory and the power
of our God. If he's able to create and sustain
life in this universe as we know it, is he not able to meet your
needs and my needs on every level? He's qualified, isn't he? He's
qualified. Imminently qualified to take
care of every need. Second, What is it that qualifies
the Lord? Look at verses 3 and 4. He will
not suffer thy foot to be moved, and he that keepeth thee will
not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. His covenant mercies qualify
him. He's promised not to lose one
of his sheep. He said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them I must bring. I will bring them. He's
able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before
the presence of God with exceeding joy. And just like those disciples
in that boat being tossed about by that tempest, He was able
to calm the seas, wasn't He? What manner of man is this? that
even the wind and the seas obey His voice. His covenant mercy
makes Him qualified. I love what Mary said in Luke
chapter 1 when she met with Elizabeth and she said, He hath regarded
the low estate of this handmaid. And then she goes on to say that
He has helped Israel by remembering His mercy. Lord, remember your
covenant promise. It's what makes Him qualified
to help us. He's established a covenant of
grace before the world began. He has set His eternal love on
His elect. He has slain the Lamb even before
the foundation of the world. And the covenant mercies of God
are what gives us hope that He'll help us. He'll help us in our
salvation. He'll help us in every area of
our lives. Because He's covenant Himself. He's promised. He can't
lie. He has to fulfill that. I tell
you what, turn with me to Luke chapter 1. I want you to see
more of this verse than I can quote. Luke chapter 1. Look at verse 51. Mary's rejoicing in prayer and
she says in verse 51, He has showed strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in
the imagination of their hearts. Oh, God gives grace to the humble.
He resists the proud. He helps the helpless. He helps
those who can't help themselves. He hath put down the mighty with
their seats, and exalted them of low degree. Look back up in
verse 48. For He hath regarded the low
estate of His handmaid. A little humble Mary. She's about to give birth to
the Son of God. conceived by the Spirit of God,
and she's just amazed at His grace and His mercy toward us,
toward her. It's what we were singing earlier
when we said, even me? Even me? Lord, you would have
mercy towards me? He hath filled the hungry with
good things, and the rich He hath sent away empty. That's what the problem with
the church at Laodicea was, wasn't it? We're rich and increased
with goods and in need of nothing. And the Lord said, don't you
know that you're poor and you're miserable and naked and blind?
There's no help for those that are rich and increased with goods
and in need of nothing. The result, the helper is only
for those who are helpless. And He does it according to His
mercy. Look at verse 54. He hath hopened His servant Israel
in remembrance of His mercy. He remembers the covenant that
He made. That's what we cry. Lord, remember
Your promises. Remember Your covenant grace.
We don't appeal to His help based on our good intentions. We don't
appeal to His help based on our good works. Lord, if You'll help
me, I'll never do that again. I'll do this or... No! No! Lord, according to Your mercy
that You established in the covenant of grace before the world began,
for Your namesake, that's what Moses prayed. Lord, don't kill
these people. Your name's at stake. The whole
world will think you weren't able. We appeal to the Lord based
on His covenant promises. And that makes Him eminently
qualified to be our helper. He remembered Israel and He helped
His servant in remembrance of His mercy. How do we know about
this mercy? Well, look at verse 55. As He spake to our Father,
to Abraham and to his seed forever." It's the precious promises of
God that we have in His Word. That's what Peter said. He said,
we've got a more sure word of prophecy. We've got the very
promises of God. Faith is just believing God,
isn't it? We have a Helper to sustain us
in our low degree. I'll tell you what else makes
him qualified as our helper and that is his experience. Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Look at verse 13, and again I will put my trust
in him and again behold I and the children which God hath given
me. Now that's a prophecy concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord saying I'm going to trust
the Father. And he did, didn't he? He trusted
him in perfect faith. To the last breath of his life,
he trusted the Father. And he says here, I am the children
which thou hast given me. In other words, they are in me,
and the faith that I have is their faith. God considers our faith to be
as perfect as the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ? Look at verse
14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power over death, that is the devil. Did the Lord Jesus
Christ destroy the works of the devil? Did he destroy? Yeah.
Yeah. Do we see it in our experience?
No. Is it true? in the covenant promise of grace?
Yes, yes. And delivered them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,
subject to the bondage of the law, in fear of the judgment
of God? For verily He took not on Him
the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.
Wherefore, in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His
brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in all
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people." He has, through His death on Calvary's cross,
He has reconciled us to God. We're reconciled, made perfect
before Him. So that he that sanctifieth and
they that are sanctified are all as one, for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them his brethren. Look at the next verse. For in that he himself hath suffered,
being tempted, he is able. You see that old English word,
sucker? It's the word help. From whence cometh my help? My
help cometh from the Lord. He is able to help them that
are tempted. By experience, he's qualified. He's suffered all the trials
and troubles and more than that, more than we could ever imagine.
Infinitely so. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
12. Look at verse 2. looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. Not only did He elect us in the
covenant of grace, not only did He redeem us by His precious
blood, not only does He keep us by the preserving power of
the Holy Spirit, but He's already finished it. He's already finished
it. We're in the heavenlies, in Christ,
right now. It's already done. It's our eternal
justification. This is our hope. And this is
what qualifies Him. He's seated at the right hand
of God. And all those for whom He lived
and died are in Him right now. In the same way that you and
I were in the loins of Adam, so it is that we are in the seed
of Christ. That imputation of Adam's sin
toward us because we were there. We were there with Adam. We were
right there in his seed, in his DNA. We were there. And so it
is. We're there with Christ. He's
the last Adam. the author and the finisher of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
weary and faint in your minds." Look to Christ. Believe that
you are in him before God right now, in spite of your circumstances. For you've not yet resisted unto
blood striving against sin. Might get worse. Matter of fact,
my experience has been that it is getting worse. And I'm getting
worse. But the hope of my salvation
is seated in the heavenlies. And He is the author and the
finisher of my faith. Now that doesn't just mean that
He's going to keep me and finish my journey of faith here in this
world, but He has finished my faith before God right now. And that qualifies Him to be
my Helper. I'll show you something else
that qualifies Him to be our Helper. Turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 4. Look at verse 14, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What
is our profession? Christ is our profession. I'm persuaded. that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. He's
my profession. Christ is not the center of all
things. He's not the most important thing
of all things. He is all things. He's everything
in salvation. Paul said he's all and in all. Look at verse 15. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, even like as we are, yet without
sin, yet without sin. And when the scripture says he
was tempted, it doesn't mean that he struggled against the temptations
like you and I do. We sin in our temptations. He didn't. He was confronted,
he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, born of a woman,
born under the law, suffered the onslaught of Satan's attacks,
and never sinned even in his temptations. but went to the
cross and bore in his body all the sins of his people. And God
made him, who up till then had no sin, to be sin for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him." What a glorious
high priest. Here we have a priest now. The
veil's been rent. His body's been broken. He's
entered into the holies of holies. We have an advocate with the
Father. He's qualified. He's qualified that there's no
experience that you and I have ever had that He didn't have.
There's no sin that we've ever committed that He didn't feel.
He felt the guilt of it. He felt the shame of it more
than you and I ever have. We justify our sin as guilty
as we feel about things. We don't have half an idea, do
we? Somebody said to me, well, you
just don't know what I've done. Neither do you. It's a whole
lot worse than you think it is. He experienced the full ugliness
and shame and degradation of all our sin and he's qualified
to be our helper. Let us therefore come boldly
before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to what? To what? To help! In our time of need Are you needy? Do you need a
helper? There's reasons why we need a
helper and there is one who is eminently qualified, infinitely
qualified, eternally qualified, delights in helping his children. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father we look unto the hills. And we ask the question, from
whence cometh our help? And we rejoice in being able
to say, our help cometh from the Lord, who is the maker of
heaven and earth, the one who never sleeps nor slumbers, the
one who knows all our going out and coming in, and the one who
keeps us from falling. and presents us faultless before
the throne of grace. Lord, we can't help ourselves.
Every time we try to help ourselves, we just make things worse. Lord,
would you, would you pity us? Would you have mercy upon us
for thy namesake? We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 318 in the hardback teminal.