David complains of slander. Enemies saying evil things about
him, which were untrue. And all of
us have, I'm sure, been slandered at one time or another. But you
can imagine, as king of Israel, David, the nonsense that most
likely was a normal part of his life. that he had to deal with. And David here calls upon the
Lord to speak for him because his enemies were speaking against
him. And the occasion of this, of
course, is a beautiful picture of what happens when the Lord,
our advocate in spiritual things, speaks for us. We have enemies
that speak against us like David, only spiritual. Our own deceitful, treacherous,
traitorous heart speaks against us. Maybe you could testify of this. My heart tells me sometimes that
none of it can be true. God could not possibly have ever
had mercy on a wretch like me. It's too good to be true. Our
heart of unbelief whispers doubts into our ears. And we're ready
to hear it because deep down we know that we're not worthy
of the least of the Lord's mercies. But faith would hear from God. The new man wants to hear a verdict
from the God of all grace who delights to show mercy even to
wretches like us. My heart says no. But there's
another heart in me that says, let's find out what God says.
And that's what David's doing here. I hear what my enemies
are saying, Lord, won't you speak for me? Won't you gainsay all
of their lies? I've heard what my own heart
said. It says there's no hope for somebody like me. I don't
measure up. There are no evidences of life
in me. John Newton sang, even when I
pray or hear the word or read the scripture, sin is mixed with
all I do. It is thus with me. I can't pray about you. I'm not
sure I've ever prayed. You think so? Can't worship, can't even think
a decent thought, but what it's corrupted with is selfishness
and pride. That's just the truth. And boy, the old heart throws
that up in our face constantly, doesn't it? But I'm kind of like David, I
want to hear what God says about it. Satan is not silent in this matter
either He's called in Revelation 12 10 the accuser of the brethren
And it says there that he accused them day and night before the
Lord He came accusing Job didn't he? He just he's selfish. He just he only worships you
because of what you do for him And the Lord said all right,
I'll take it all away from him. We'll see what happens. You see
he's a perfect in an upright man. I That's what David's called
for. Lord, speak for me. Speak for
me. My enemies, my adversaries are
speaking against me. They're telling lies about me.
And the only way I even know that they're lies is because
of what God says for me. In 1 Peter 5, he's described
the devil as our adversary, the devil that walks about constantly
looking for an opening. seeking to destroy God's sheep.
Have you considered my servant Job? Of course he has. Betrayest thou the son of man
with a kiss? Of course he did. That's what he does. And he entered
into Judas Iscariot. Satan entered into Judas Iscariot
the night of our Lord's betrayal. And Satan, who was so conspicuous
in the language of the Apostle Peter, when Peter rebuked the
Lord for speaking of his death that the Lord spoke to the apostle
but addressed Satan by name. Do you imagine that that Satan
that entered into Judas and spoke through the very lips of Peter
that he's never had any business with you? Do you think he's ever had anything
to say about you? This great accuser of the brethren Accusing
them day and night God's book says And of course all of the human
enemies of Christ that David speaks of here primarily they
also speak against us They slander us with charges of antinomianism. That's the common thing to say,
you know, we're just lawless We believe in free grace, which
means you can just do whatever you want to do and God will forgive
you Yeah That's kind of how it is The good news is what I want
to do now is honor him. And even though I don't, he forgives
me. He forgives everything I've ever
done and ever will do because it all needs his forgiveness.
The good, the bad, and the ugly all must be washed in his precious
blood. That's exactly what he does.
They say, well, you're just antinomians. They say we're proud, you know,
and we think we're the only ones that are saved. You're the chosen
few, you know, and everybody else is going to hell. Well,
I'll tell you this. If you're not one of God's elect, you're
going to hell. That's exactly right. But they say that it's a lie,
isn't it? That doesn't make a believer proud. They say that even while
we're praying for them. That they would see by God's
grace the truth of God. Believers, what did David cry? Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness. Oh, that everybody, let everything
that hath breath praise Him. Not just a chosen few. Oh, that
everybody. The Apostle Paul cried out to
God for his countrymen. Oh God, have mercy on them. My prayer to God for them is
that they might be saved. And even while we pray for them,
that God would have mercy on their soul, they accuse us of
being proud. Without a cause, David said here,
without a cause, they speak hate. They despise us for speaking
of the sovereign love of God. The sovereign mercy of God. They
hate us. They hate us for saying that the Son of God came and
successfully did what he came to do. What a thing to hate somebody
for. Well you're saying he's a successful
Savior. If he came to save you, he saved
you. They absolutely despise that
and us for saying it. We have adversaries and they
compass us, they surround us, David said. With words of hatred
they fight against us. for no other reason than that
we're Christ's. No other reason. We have adversaries, but we also
have an advocate. And that's the message tonight.
The adversaries and the advocate. We know what our enemies say,
Lord, but what do you say? What do you say? Did you see
that? We read at the very, toward the
end of the chapter where David said, let them say what they're
gonna say. Lord, you speak. Let them slander, but you bless. Let them curse, but Lord, you
bless. And it'll be fine. It doesn't much matter what they
say, as long as the Lord speaks for us. Do you really much care
what anybody else says about you? Our enemies are not pleased with
us. But we don't seek to please them, Lord. Lord, if you say peace, then
we'll be at peace. Lord, if you say not guilty,
we're justified. If you say clean, then we're
clean everywhere. And if you say go, we'll go.
No matter what they do, no matter what they say, if you go with
us, no matter how they fight against us, You tell us to go
and we'll go and we'll fight by your grace. Give us strength
for the battle. David said in verse four, for
my love they are my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer.
Do you know why your adversaries are your adversaries? Your spiritual
adversaries? You know why they're your enemies?
It's not what you say. They hate what you say. They
certainly don't like what you say, but that's not the bottom
of it. The problem is who you love. They hate who you love. For my love, they're my enemies. Matthew 10. Turn with me to Matthew
10. Verse 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves. And here we are. You can picture
the wolves. They surround and they fight
and they hate. They come to destroy, don't they?
That's the situation David's in. Be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. Don't let your guard down. Don't
be a fool. But don't be like them either.
You see that? Wise as serpents, harmless as
thugs. Apply yourself to the Lord's wisdom now. Let the Lord
be your wisdom. And don't be like them. But beware of men, for they will
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in
their synagogues, And ye shall be brought before governors and
kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye
shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what
ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak,
but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. Brother shall deliver up brother
to death and make no mistake here. Don't don't be Don't be
deceived about this. Nobody's delivering up anybody
to be put to death for the gospel sake right now But the same exact
hatred for Christ and his people still exists in people's hearts.
He just doesn't let him do anything about it right now Not much anyway
Exactly the same Evil doesn't change people don't change and
The Lord doesn't change. And the father of the child,
verse 21, and the children shall rise up against their parents
and cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake, that he that endureth to the end shall
be saved. You'll be hated, why? For my
name's sake. He said in another place, they
hated me before they hated you. So don't be surprised. Don't
be shocked. But David said, but I give myself
to prayer. Let me try to exhort us again.
I'll exhort myself and you concerning prayer. This would be a good time to
pray, wouldn't it? To become a prayer. We're going to have to sooner
or later. I think it's a good time right now. We have not because we ask not.
Is that terribly sad to anybody but me? Terribly sad. Verse five, they have rewarded
me evil for good and hatred for my love. There's a difference
between me and them. You see that? We're not like
them. God's people are not like them.
We don't hate them, not as sinners, not as people. As they oppose our God, of course
we oppose them. And this is important. I want
us to understand this. We've seen this in our New Testament
studies some recently and so I want to be clear about this.
Do we hate people or do we love people? Yeah. We're to love our enemies and
do good to those that despitefully use us and persecute us. But
God's enemies? Not so much. And there's a difference in there. But let's talk about the difference
between the believer and the unbeliever right now. He said,
he said, I love, but they hate. They hate in response to love. Why? Why? Why did David love when everybody
else hated? Because the fruit of the Spirit
is love. That's why there's a difference
because of He that is in us. Greater is He that is in us than
He that is in this world. Greater in every sense. But in addressing this thing
of Love for hate and hate for love. Remember in verses 6 through
20 here, where we read a while ago, we won't look at it again
specifically, but David's prayer for these enemies of his is that
God would put them out of business. And it was pretty harsh language,
wasn't it? Pretty harsh. Let Satan stand at their side.
They want to be Satan's buddy, then let him be the only one
that stands with them. The one who is eternally destined
to fail and be defeated and destroyed. You have to remember who these
people represent here. This is the reprobate. This is
the avowed enemy of God. These are the reprobates who
have taking sides against God. If God had had mercy on one of
these enemies, one of these enemies of David and saved him and changed
him, nobody would have been more delighted about that than David
would have been. He found some friends in unlikely places, didn't
he, Jonathan? The Lord seems to have done something
for him. and David loved him and was his
dear friend. We always have to consider when
dealing with any enemy of God or ourselves, what if God saved
them? That can't be far from our thoughts. What if they're one of God's
sheep and nobody knows it yet but God? Like a Saul of Tarsus. You know, he's an obvious example.
The believers, the disciples didn't want anything to do with
him and rightfully so. He was their great enemy. But
when the Lord spoke for him, none of them would be against
him. So Saul of Tarsus, but think
about this too now. Knowing that that might be true,
Knowing that God might have mercy on one of his enemies, on somebody
who is an avowed enemy of God, and by all accounts, and as far
as anybody can tell, reprobate. Knowing that he might have mercy
on them doesn't make us a bunch of lovey-dovey brotherhood of
man, Jesus loves everybody, idiots. It just doesn't. If God saves the most repulsive
false prophet that ever walked his earth, and I have someone
in mind when I say that, and makes it clear like he did with
regard to Saul of Tarsus, he said, I've chosen him. He's my
servant. Welcome him. Embrace him. Then we will receive
that man as a brother, will we not? But until that happens,
this is my prayer. Lord, shut him now. Let him be
desolate. This language is prophetic of
Judas. In verse 5, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of Judas there.
Did you see the language? This is our Lord speaking really
in prophecy here. Psalm 109 verse 5. They have rewarded me evil for
good and hatred for my love. That's Judas. The Lord taught
him and walked with him and fed him and took care of him and
chose him to be one of the apostles. And he returned evil for love,
hatred for love. Verse 8 speaks of Judas's apostleship
being replaced. You see that? Let his days be few and let another
take his office. Commentators say that that's
referring to Judas, and of course, Judas is exactly representative
of the type of person that's described here, reprobate, a
devil, a demon. The Lord said he was a devil
from the beginning, and this is who we're talking about. This
is who David is pronouncing this condemnation against. This is
the same thing that the Apostle Paul expressed. You say, well,
that's Old Testament, you know. People say, well, God, the God
of the, you know, it's God in the Old Testament, but he was
different then. No, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16,
22, just three chapters after the love chapter, you know, that
religion likes to pervert and make something that it's not.
The Apostle Paul said there, if any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. when the Lord comes. Yes, we are to love our enemies
and do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us. If we're
only good to those that are good to us, he said the Pharisees
are like that. My people are not going to be
like that. They're not like that. But God's enemies now as they
stand in opposition to our God. And as they slander those that
speak for God, slander his people, we count them our enemies as
we read the other day. David, he said, I count them
my enemies. And remember this too, though. When we when we talk about this,
we have to realize that we were once the enemies of God. He was never our enemy, but I
was his. This is sure as I stand here.
God has never hated me, but I hated him. And Paul said
in Romans 5.10, for if, when we were enemies, We were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. Surely we can never look at an
enemy of God the same again, having been one. Just like our God, let's be inclined
toward mercy. when we were his enemies he reconciled
us to himself by the death of his son much more being reconciled we
shall be saved by his life and oh how we desire that especially for those that we
love verse 21 in our text verses 6
through 20 we'll just take those together because that's David
Just railing on them. I mean, it's brutal, isn't it?
It's absolutely brutal. So we do have enemies, and they're
the enemies of God. They're not my enemies, unless
they're God's enemies. That should be clear. If somebody
slanders just me personally, they don't know the half of it.
But if they slander my gospel, That's another matter. But look
at verse 21, but do thou for me, O God, after pronouncing
woe upon these enemies of God, but do thou for me, O God, the
Lord, for thy namesake, because thy mercy is good, save me. You remember what we read about
the enemies, why they hate us, why God's enemies hate his people? For my namesake, he said. Now
David's saying, Lord, for your namesake, save me. Save me. I understand the gospel. There's the gospel in this psalm
right here. Those that are enemies. Because of love and hate, because
of who we love, because of the hatred that's naturally in their
hearts, those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ so much. that they
hate even those who love him. Let them be cut off and destroyed
and forgotten, but Lord, I need you to do two things for me. Speak for me and do for me. You
see that here? Speak for me in the beginning
of the chapter, and right here, Lord, do thou for me. Do thou
for me. And this is the only difference
between us and them. This is the difference between
an enemy of God and a friend of God, right here. God speaks for us and does for us. There is an us in them only because
there are some for whom Christ is advocate and substitute. He speaks for me as my advocate
And you can see here that this could easily be seen as a courtroom
situation where he says at the end, the Lord's standing at my
right hand. He's my advocate. There are those who are accusing
me, speaking against me, but he speaks for me. He stands by
the right hand of those that are his. So he speaks as our advocate
and he does everything he does. He does as my substitute. Everything
he did as a man as the man as the God man the son of man. He
did as my substitute in other words. He did for me Every time
you see those words for me Spoken concerning the Lord doing something
for me think of that word substitution in my place as my representative
for me For my benefit but also in my place. As my representative
before God, just as Adam represented us in the garden, he was our
federal head. The Lord Jesus Christ represents
his elect before God the Father. And he did always those things
that pleased him. What did he do? I said everything he did,
he did for me. Well, what did he do? Whatever
pleased the Father. And he did it for me. He did
it for me. He was doing that before there
wasn't me. He didn't need to do that for
him. He did that for me. He gave himself for me. You see what David said, do the
Lord for me. All that he did, he did for me. Look at Hebrews chapter nine. Verse 23, Hebrews 9, 23. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, talking about the old covenant ceremonies, the sacrifices,
the high priest, in the Old Testament, these things. The pattern of
the things in the heavens, not the actual business done between
God and the sinner and the mediator. But the patterns of those things
were purified with patterns. But the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God. There's our two words right there.
What do they mean? Substitution. You don't want
to appear in the presence of God. You want a substitute to
go there for you. And now that he has, then we
can. We come boldly to the throne of grace because we have a high
priest who appeared for us in the presence of God for us. Lord,
do for me. Everything he did, he did for
me. When he gave himself, he gave himself for me. When he
appeared before God with that sacrifice, with something to
offer, he did it for me, Paul said. Nor yet that he should
offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy
place every year with the blood of others. For then must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in
the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin. What did he do for me? Why did
he go there for me? To put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He did that on Calvary, but he
appeared in the presence of the Father. Having made that sacrifice,
he appeared for us. And as it is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin. unto salvation. Men have studied Christ the Mediator and written
great volumes of books on it. But our Lord with one simple
picture taught us more than all those
books combined could ever teach us. He broke a piece of bread and
said, this is my body that I broke for you, for you. And he took the cup of wine and
said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for
you. There's substitution right there.
There's our high priest right there. There's atonement right
there in a simple, beautiful picture. And so you see how the
King David in this song, He cries out unto the Lord for these two
things that are necessary if any sinner is ever going to be
saved. Lord, speak for me. Advocate for me. Represent me
before the justice of God. Do for me what I cannot do for
myself. Represent me. Not only in what
you say, but in what you do. All that you do. He must be our
everything. He's got to do for us, doesn't
He? He's our wisdom. The Lord's just,
we just read where He said, be wise. How are you going to do
that? The Lord's my wisdom. He's going to have to do that
for me. He's going to have to think for me. Isn't He? We have
the mind of Christ. My righteousness, He's going
to have to perform all of the law of God, not just in outward
deed, but with all of His heart. He's going to have to be such
in one that would say truthfully and sincerely, my very need,
my sustenance, my joy is to do the will of Him that sent me.
For me, that's my righteousness. It's got to be my sanctification. I said a while ago, Lord, if
you say not guilty, we're justified. And he does say that. Why? Christ. Because of what Christ did for
me. Who he is for me. My redemption. My sin offering. The price of my freedom. My access
to God, as we read a while ago. He made a new and living way.
through his high priesthood and his sacrifice. My mediator, my
high priest. And look at verse 22 of our text.
David said, for I am poor and needy. I need you to do for me because
I'm bankrupt and helpless. It's not a cooperative effort,
is it? Nobody that's ever been saved by God would ever give
a testimony like that. That, well, the Lord met me halfway.
He, he, he, I, you know, I took the first step and then he, you
know, I just laid there in my sin, in my blood, and he said,
live. I am poor and needy and my heart
is wounded within me. I'm destitute. I need you. I need you. Have you ever said
that to God? I need you. I'm not going to
try you. Isn't it time to try Jesus? No, it's not. It is absolutely
not. It never is. I don't need a little
help. I need you. I need Him. And I have a heart problem. My
heart is wounded within me. And you know something? I want
you to know that before I even looked it up, I knew that wounded was probably
not the best word for that. Right there. You know how I knew
that? Because I'm just like David.
I'm a sinner. I know what this is. Do you? You know what this is? He said,
Lord, save me. I'm poor and needy. Save me.
You know what that is? I knew before I even looked at that
there was very, very little doubt in my mind what I would find.
You know what I found when I looked up that word wounded? It means
profane and defiled. I knew before I even looked because
I've lived this. By God's grace, I've lived it. Profane and defiled, that's what
my heart is, not wounded. You know how I knew it, don't
you? Do you know that about yourself? Verse 26, now here's prayer.
If I could never... Here's prayer. When I talk about, I don't know
if I've ever prayed or not, you know, people study prayer and
read books on how to pray. How many books would you have
to read to be able to say, help me oh Lord my God, oh save me
according to your mercy? How hard would it be to come
up with that one? It doesn't take any book learning
to come up with that one. You know what it takes? Light. That's what it takes. If God ever shines the light
on what you are, You're gonna pray and it's gonna
sound a lot like that right there and me too Save me and don't
save me lord because i'm worth it Religion oh gosh Don't save me because i'm worth
it save me according to your mercy If you save me because I'm worth
it, I'm gonna be lost. And I'm not worth it. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Don't need to read a book to
find out how to pray. Just call. Just call. When you need Him. When you need
Him. Not when you want something.
When you need Him. Call. And when you want something. If you've ever needed Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. The more the Lord teaches us,
the simpler it is. It doesn't get more complex the
more we learn. It gets simpler, doesn't it?
We realize what we need to learn is just the ABCs. Lord, just
teach me the ABCs. You understand your need. Your
heart is defiled and corrupt. And that means hell for you.
That means hell is what that means. And there's nothing you
can do about it. You're poor and you're destitute
and helpless. And you know who he is? He's the one whose very name
is, I'm gonna save you. That's who he is. Make the call. Call on him. Call on his name. And He'll save
you. That's what He came down here
to do. And David said, I want everybody to know what happened
and who did it. I want you to know what my part
in it was. You know what my part in it was? I was poor and needy.
There's my part. And I want you to know what He
did. He saved me. with his right hand. He just reached down and
saved me because he wanted to. God Almighty saved the nastiest
worm in the whole pile and he didn't wait on me to do anything. He saved me in every way that
a man can be saved. He gave himself in order to get
it done and it's done. David said, I want everybody
to know that. But thy hand, Lord you did it.
You did it. God's people don't stand up and
give their testimony and say, well I made a decision for Jesus
when I was 12 years old. Because all of them like David
want everybody to know that God did it. And I'm going to greatly praise
the Lord with my mouth. Anybody in on that? I know our
praises of Him aren't worthy to be uttered, but you know what? If God has saved you, we're just
going to have to praise Him, aren't we? As vile as it is and
corrupt and weak and full of foolishness as it is, we're just
going to have to praise Him. I will praise Him among the multitude. Verse 31, For He shall stand Now, this is both cause and effect.
Now, think about this. Why are you going to praise him?
Because he stands by me. Because the Son of God would
condescend so much as to have anything to do with a wretched,
foul worm like me. Somebody like that's gonna have
to be praised. So I praise him because he stands
with me, my advocate and my substitute. And you know why I will praise
him? Because he stands by me in a
different sense too. That's why I praise him. Not just to brag on him, but
he causes me to. If he doesn't stand by me, I
won't praise him. You see the difference? If he lets me go, I'll be one
of these enemies that curse his name. Before I leave this building,
I'll curse his name, except he shall stand at my right hand to save me from those that condemn
my soul, including my own heart, including myself. He saved me
from all my enemies. And David, you know how many
times in the Psalms did he say, I'm going to praise Him. I'm
going to sing of His mercies forever. Starting right now, I'm going
to sing of His mercies. And I'm not ever going to stop.
You see what he meant by that? He's worthy. He's so worthy. Let's pray together.