All right, brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 70. I pray the Lord to bless this. I think it'll be a blessing to
you, comfort to you. We read here in the heading,
it says to the chief musician, a Psalm of David to bring to
remembrance. David wrote this to bring to
remembrance Our Lord Jesus, His Savior was our Savior. Our Savior
was His Savior. And he's writing this, not so
much to remember what he wrote here and what he prayed here,
but that the Lord answered what he wrote here. The Lord did for
him what he asked for here. That's what the remembrance is. That's what we're remembering
today. What he suffered for his people, The Lord intercedes for
His people, His sure salvation from all our enemies. This is
what we're remembering today at our Lord's table. Now David
suffered this, and believers suffer similar things. David
was in a dire need for help when he wrote this. It says there,
verse 1, make haste, O God, to deliver me, and make haste to
help me, O Lord. He needed help, he needed it,
he needed it quickly. He was very, very helpless and
very needy and he needed help right quick. And the devil had
used some sinful men to seek David's soul. They desired David's
hurt. And they were spreading rumors
and they were backbiting David and shamefully mocking him and
he says in verse two, Let them be ashamed and confounded that
seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, aha, aha. It's the same
as if you were saying, Lord, save me from my enemies, from
your enemies, from those that are the Lord's enemies. And we
know that because he offsets it here next with a request not
only for himself but for his brethren, for true believers. He said in verse four, let all
those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. And let
such as love thy salvation say continually, let God be magnified. And again, David asks help for
himself. He says, but I am poor and needy,
Make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer. O Lord, make no tearing. Now,
brethren, when we suffer something similar here, first thing we
should remember is that Christ suffered the same thing, worse
than we've suffered it. He suffered the same thing to
save his people from our sins. When we read here these words,
we're reading the words of our Redeemer. He says, verse one,
make haste, O God, to deliver me, make haste to help me, O
Lord. In order to glorify the Father,
to glorify the Father, to give all the glory to the Father and
save his people, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God,
who's God himself, he humbled himself. He condescended to the
point of utter dependence upon God his Father. This is why people
have problems reading the Psalms and attributing it to Christ
speaking, because we don't lower ourselves this low. And to think
that the Son of God did this, men just, they can't get it. That's what it means in Philippians
2 when it says, he made himself of no reputation. He took upon
him the form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of
men. He humbled himself. He came down. Only humble faith
pleases God. Now, to say humble faith is redundant,
because that's the only kind of faith there is. But only humble
faith pleases God the Father. When the scripture says without
faith, it's impossible to please Him, You can't please the Father
unless you're looking to Him and trusting Him to do all the
saving. That's what faith is, to trust
Him. That's what satisfies Him, that's
what pleases Him, to trust Him. He that comes to God must believe
that He is and that He's the rewarder, He's the Savior, He's
the one that's gonna save those that diligently seek Him. That's
what faith believes, that God is and that He will do the saving. Now, our Lord told us, He said,
except you become as little children, become as a little child. And
that's what we see here. Our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly,
in perfection, He humbled Himself and became the Son of God as
a man who perfectly believed his father,
perfectly trusted his father, perfectly gave it all into the
father's hands as a little child. We see perfect faith here, and
you think about that. He says, make haste, O God, to
deliver me. Now see the perfect faith here.
This is what our deliverance is. This is how we were delivered.
The deliverer. The one doing the delivering,
in order to deliver his people, put himself in a place to where,
in perfect faith, he asked God the Father, deliver me. That's
how he delivered his people. The deliverer said, make haste,
O God, to deliver me. Do you get what I'm trying to
convey? That faith that saved his people faith that established
righteousness, faith that is the true sanctification, the
holiness Christ is from His holy heart. That faith is a perfect
fidelity to God, a perfect dependence upon the Father. That's the only
way we could be delivered. He's representing His people.
He's the head of His people. There's the faith by which we're
saved. The deliverer saying, make haste,
O God, to deliver me. Sinners unable to deliver ourselves,
totally unable to deliver ourselves were delivered by the deliverer
coming, putting himself under the dominion of the Father and
asking the Father, deliver me. If we were left in our sin, we
wouldn't do this. Left in our sin, we won't depend
on anybody else for anything. We're too proud for that. and
called out of our sin into God's light, we're still too proud
to do this. We still won't do this. Our faith is so small that
while we claim to be helpless and we claim to be asking God
for deliverance, really we're trying to save ourselves all
along. The asking God to save us is the small little mustard
seed of faith that he's given us, but while we're trying to
do something to get out of it, that's total unbelief of our
flesh, not really trusting him to do it. There's only been a
couple of times, I mean maybe two times I could think of in
my life I've been helpless to where I had to just trust God
to do it. But even then, if I could figure out a way out of it, I
would take it. I'm just being honest. We don't believe God
perfectly. We're saved by the faith of one,
that's Christ. Don't ever look to your faith
and think your faith is why God's receiving you. It's not. It's
the faith of Christ. He's the faithful one. We're
justified by the faith of Christ. That's why we trust in Christ.
That's why we believe in Christ. We see his faith here when the
helper of the helpless cried, make haste to help me, O Lord. You know, people have this saying,
God helps those who help themselves. No, God only helps those who
cannot help themselves. They're the only ones he helps.
You got to be helpless. And our Lord Jesus Christ on
Calvary's cross put himself in a place where he was helpless. The Son of God, the Creator,
the One who holds everything in His hand, who has all power,
came and put Himself in utter helplessness before the Father
so that He had to depend on the Father. Help me, Lord. Christ's perfect faith is the
faith of our faith. His perfect faith is the faith
of our faith. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the faith by which we're
saved. When we speak of sanctification, we speak of Christ being holiness,
and I know as I go through Galatians, I'm gonna try to point this out.
I know I'm always accused, I've had this accusation from self-righteous
folk, oh, well, he confounds righteousness and holiness. Christ
earning and perfecting righteousness for us was done in perfect holiness. You can't have one without the
other. And it was, that's what I'm pointing out to you here.
There was a perfect holiness, a total separation from any other
kind of, like any sinner, in a perfect devotion and consecration
to the Father from the heart, trusting the Father. That's the
faith by which we're saved. And that's why he's our holiness
too. Now secondly, we see his faith as he bore one of the devil's
greatest temptations. This was a great temptation.
Verse two, he said, let them be ashamed and confounded that
seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, aha, aha. Now, the devil
was who was seeking after Christ's soul. This is who was desiring
his hurt, was the devil. Now, so remember that, believer,
we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. It's not just a man
we're wrestling against, it's the devil. Paul said, we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers, and against rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all to stand. He goes through
and gives you these very pieces of armor, but to sum it up, Christ
is the armor of God. He's the rock, we're just saying
it. Flee to Christ, that's how you're gonna withstand the devil,
the only way. And he has to give you the strength
to flee to him. He has to draw you to him to
make you flee to him when you're in this trouble. Now this temptation,
this temptation here was from the devil using sinful men to
encompass the Lord Jesus when he's on the cross and they're
mocking him. They're saying ah-ha, ah-ha to
him on the cross. Now this was temptation like
when he tempted him in the wilderness. Remember, as soon as the Lord
was baptized and entered his public ministry, right away he
went to the wilderness and was tempted by the devil. Go there
with me to Matthew 4 and I want you to see this so we get a handle
on why I say this was temptation. Go to Matthew 4. A young believer will confess
Christ, and when you weren't confessing Christ, you weren't
publicly committing to Christ, the devil will leave you alone.
But when you commit to him, that's when he's going to use men to
attack you. That's when he's going to use
men to start trying to turn you from Christ, right then. When
you've committed to Christ and publicly confessed that you're
consecrated to him, now he's going to have a war with you.
Watch this, he did this to our Savior. Now watch this, Matthew
4 verse 1. Then was Jesus led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And
when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was after hungry. And when the tempter came to
him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, now what does that
appeal to when somebody says something to you like that? If
you really be who you say you are, that appeals to our pride,
that appeals to our sinful flesh, and that's what the devil's always
gonna try to appeal to. Now, our Savior had no sinful
flesh, but watch how he answered. He said, if you be the Son of
God, command these stones be made bread. Now, our Lord's hungry. He's hungry. And the devil just
questioned him as to if he was really who he said he was. That
hurts, and that's an ah-ha, ah-ha when somebody questions, are
you really who you say you are? And we want to defend that, don't
we? Listen to what Christ said. But he answered and said, it's
written, he used scripture, it's written, man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. Then the devil takes him up to the holy city and sets
him on a pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him, if you be
the son of God, cast thyself down, for it's written, he'll
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
the stone. The devil can quote some scripture
to you too. Don't think just because a man
comes to you and starts quoting scripture to you and trying to
refute the gospel you've heard that you're dealing with a child
of God. The devil can use scripture too.
He knows scripture too. But look, listen to what the
Lord said. He said it's written. It's written
again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. See how he's fleeing
to the Father? In each case here, he's going
to the Father. Watch. He says, again, the devil
takes him up into an exceeding high mountain, shows him all
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said
unto him, all these things will I give thee if you'll fall down
and worship me. You and I have been gone already. It had been over for us. He showed
him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof. The love
of money is the root of all evil. The devil has won more souls
by giving you a promotion in this world than anything else.
would have been a goner. But look what the Lord does.
Then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan. For it's written
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.
You can't serve God and mammon. And this is perfect faith. He
meant this when he said, I'm worshiping and serving God only.
I don't care about any of this stuff. Then the devil left him,
and behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Now, we can only endure
the devil's tempting by doing what Christ did right there.
See how he flew to the Father? He flew to the Word? That's how
he defeated the devil. Flee to Christ. He's the only
one that can strengthen you and protect you. The only one. It's
his faithfulness that's going to sustain us, our faith. His faithfulness. to flee to
him. Now, the devil tempted Christ
using sinful men to speak shame against him while he suffered
on the cross. Go to Mark 15, he says in our
text, go to Mark 15, he says in our text, they say, aha, aha,
this was a prophecy, this is what they did to Christ as he
was on the cross suffering for his people. Mark 15, In verse 29, this is when he was numbered with
the transgressors. Now you get this, he's bearing
the sin of his people. At this point, God's made him
sin for his people. God has numbered him with the
transgressors, imputed sin to him, and he's bearing the curse
of God. He's on the cross. Now listen to this, and they
that passed by railed on him. Now this is me and you by night.
This is what's in you in that little secret whisper that you
whisper about somebody when you, you just kind of kidding. You
say bless their heart first before you say it. This is what we're
doing. This is how wicked it is right
here, right here. They railed on him and they wagged
their heads and they said, ah, thou that destroys the temple
and builds it in three days, save thyself and come down from
the cross. Aha, aha, they said. Likewise,
also the chief priest, mocking, said among themselves with the
scribes, he saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ, the
King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and
believe. And they that were crucified
with him reviled him too. What they said was true. He is
the one that destroyed the temple. He said, he said destroy this
body. Three days, I'll raise it up
again. He's talking about himself. And he said, no man takes my
life from me. I lay it down on myself. I'm
the one laying it down. And three days later, when he
finished work, he took it up again. And what they said was
true. In order for him to save others,
he could not save himself. He had to suffer what he was
suffering. He couldn't come off that cross unless he suffered
what he was suffering there. He was bearing your sin, believer. He was bearing the stripes you
deserve, the forsaking of God you deserve, and from these men
right here who the devil was in, he was bearing the hell you
deserve, the mocking of hell that you and I deserve, he was
bearing. and He was satisfying justice
for us. And those that were crucified with Him reviled on Him too.
They were saying the same thing to Him too. But you know why
that one thief quit saying it? Why did that one elect thief
stop reviling on Him? The Spirit of Christ entered
him and stopped him. And you know
what he started doing? He stopped condemning Christ
and he started condemning himself. But do you see there how the
devil tempts? He's going to appeal to your
pride. He's going to appeal to your
flesh. He's going to say things to you that's going to throw
your words back on you. And he's going to try to tempt
you that way. And try to remember, we wrestle
against the devils who we're really dealing with. And we're
no match for him. Don't think, oh, I'm going to defeat the devil.
No, you're not. No, we're not. Christ is our only refuge. It's shameful to backbite. Sinful
pride predicts, predicts what's gonna happen and in hopes the
prediction comes to pass so pride can say, aha, aha, I was right.
Let me show you that. Psalm 35, 21. This is exactly
what they did of Christ. Psalm 35 and verse 21. Yeah, they opened their mouth
wide against me and said, uh-huh, uh-huh, our eye has seen it. That's just, doesn't that sound
familiar? Uh-huh, I knew that's what was
gonna happen. We've seen, oh yeah. This thou
has seen, oh Lord, keep not silence. Oh Lord, be not far from me.
Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause,
my God and my Lord. Judge me, O Lord my God, according
to thy righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let
them not say in their hearts, ah, so would we have it. Let
them not say, we have swallowed him up. Do you see where Christ
goes every time? He goes to the Father. He goes
to the Father, he flees to the Father. This is the faith by
which we are saved. This is the faith by which righteousness
was established. This is the faith by which our
sins were put away. If the devil had just got him
one time to revile back, our salvation would have been done.
It would have been over. We would have never been saved.
He was trying to get him just to say one thing against him. And the Lord went to the father
and asked the father to save. That's our Savior's response
to the devil's tempting. He looked to the Father alone.
He said, I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and from spitting, because the Lord God will help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded. I'll not be confounded. I will
not be ashamed, he said. I've set my face like a flint.
I know I will not be ashamed, he said. He's near that justifies
me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come
near to me. Trusting the Father, he glorified
the Father. He glorified the Father to the
highest. Trusting the Father, he authored and finished our
faith. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He put away our
sins. He secured our salvation by what he did. He went to the
Father. Now I want to show you this last thing. So you remember
now, when you suffer this, remember Christ suffered it. And remember
how He was justified and saved from it. He didn't revile back.
He cast Himself on the Father. And that's the faith of our faith.
That's how we're saved. So lastly, not only are we saved
from our sin by our Savior, Not only are we saved from our sin,
we're saved from our enemies and kept in faith by our Savior. He's still praying this today,
right now, at God's right hand. Look here. He intercedes against
the enemies of his people because they're his enemies. Verse two,
let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul. Now
listen, if there's an enemy seeking after your soul, if the devil's
seeking after your soul and there's some man he's using to seek after
your soul, Christ intercedes and says, deliver him that's
seeking after my soul. Because we're that one with Christ.
What somebody does to you, they're doing to him. And he says, him
that seeks my soul, let them be turned backward and put to
confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back for a
reward of their shame that say, aha, aha. But here's what he's
praying to the Father for you and I who believe. This is what
his prayer is, verse four. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. And let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. The only way we seek him is because
he gives us a new heart and a willingness to seek him. And the only reason
we keep seeking him It's because he's constantly interceding saying,
let them that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. It's by
him interceding that keeps us seeking him and rejoicing and
being glad in him. And we only love his salvation
because he put his love in our hearts. And we only keep loving
him because he keeps renewing that love through his intercession
saying, let such as love thy salvation say continue to let
God be magnified. Now brethren, when trouble comes
like this, and you flee to Christ, you just say to yourself, let
God be magnified. There's a good answer. When the
devil sends his minions wanting to accuse you and say, aha, aha,
here's a good answer. Let God be magnified. That's
all you gotta say. You don't have to speak. Just
say, let God be magnified. And leave it at that. Go to him
and trust him to deliver you. This is his intercession for
us, brethren. All is of our sovereign Christ,
both in our enemies and in his people. Everything's of Christ.
By passing by the devil's seed, by passing them by, verse two
says, they seek after my soul, they desire my hurt. He just
leaves them alone, that's their desire. To seek after Christ's
hurt, to seek after the hurt of his people. But using the
enemies to do that, Christ makes you and me, verse four, to seek
him and to love his salvation. By Christ leaving the devil's
seed to themselves, verse three, they say, aha, aha! But even
in the midst of that, even in the midst of mockery, Christ
is working in his people, verse four, so that you say continually,
let God be magnified. It's his intercession that's
working both of these. And for those who are his enemies,
Christ prays, verse two, let them be ashamed and confounded.
But look what he prays for. his people, let them rejoice
and be glad in thee. Now get this, here's where I'm
getting at. Shame and confoundment, shame
and just being confused about anything spiritual, they are
from Christ by his intercession as a reward, as a payment to
the sinner for his enmity and his unbelief against him. and likewise rejoicing and gladness
in his people are of Christ as a reward of nothing you did,
but simply by his free grace and his sovereign right to give
it. But he prayed for both these. He prays for both these. Now
let me show you, Christ will never let you who believe him
be ashamed and he'll never let you be confounded. He won't ever
let these enemies succeed if you're hit. He won't let it happen.
But He'll confound anybody who tries to hurt His people. He'll
leave them ashamed. Let me show you. Psalm 35, 26.
Look what He said. After he prayed that there, he
said, let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together
that rejoice at mine hurt. Let them be clothed with shame
and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. But watch this, but
let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous
cause. Yea, let them say continually,
let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity
of his servant, and my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness
and of thy praise all the day long. You think God the Father
is going to give Christ that petition? Yes, he is. Listen
to Isaiah 66, if you want to see another chapter. Isaiah 66
and verse 5. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
that tremble at his word. Your brethren that hated you,
that cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified,
but He'll appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. You
see, shame and confusion are in God's hand, and so is rejoicing
and gladness. They're in His hand. There's
a bunch more scriptures I had to give this to you, but let
me just give you this. David wrote this at a time when
Absalom was after him. His son Absalom was after him.
And this was David's prayer during that time. Now, Absalom's counselor
Ahithophel, he came in and he gave counsel to David and he
said, he said, I mean to Absalom, he gave counsel to Absalom, he
said, I'll go out with a small band of soldiers and we'll take
David, we'll just take him alone. And once we've taken him, he
said, then all David's men will follow you, Absalom, and all
Israel will rejoice and what have you. And Absalom liked that
at first. But something moved Absalom to
ask another counselor. And so in comes Hushai. And Hushai
came in and he said, now Absalom, you know your father. He said,
he's a mighty warrior. He's hiding in some pit somewhere.
And he said, if you go out there, let Hithothel go out there with
a small band of soldiers, he's gonna kill them. And when he
does, the word's gonna spread through Israel and say, Absalom's
been slaughtered. And all Israel's gonna follow
David. The devil appealed to Absalom's pride with that. He
appealed to his pride. Absalom said, I can't let that
happen. So Hushai said, what you do,
David, is you go out, you lead the camp, and you take all your
army with you, and you go out there and kill everyone of them.
Kill your daddy, kill them all. Kill everyone of them. and then
all Israel will follow you, and you'll get all the glory. And
Absalom loved that council. He thought that was wonderful.
And listen to this, 2 Samuel 17, 14 said, Absalom and all
the men of Israel said, the council of Hushai, the Archites, better
than the council of Ahithophel. Now why did he give that council? for the Lord had appointed to
defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might
bring evil upon Absalom. That's why he did it. God made
him do it. because he was just determined
to kill Absalom. So Absalom did what he did, and
the Lord sent beforehand, the Lord sent word to David, so David
knew they were coming, so he spared David, and he killed Absalom. The Lord did. And that's why
David wrote this psalm, is to remember how the Lord answered
his prayer. The Lord saved him from his enemies.
He ashamed them and confounded them, and he saved David. He saved David. When the devil
tempts you, when he uses the enemy to mock and to backbite,
remember, you're not wrestling against flesh and blood. Your
battle's not with a man. It's just not. It's wickedness. It's the devil.
And remember, Christ our King is the King of the devil. He's
in charge, not the devil. Not the devil. Christ suffered
the same shameful mocking. And he shall not let you be confounded
or ashamed for trusting him. He won't allow it. Go to him.
Flee to him and trust him. He's our faith and he's our righteousness. And he may allow you to suffer
for a long while. He may allow you to suffer for
a while. He may allow you to be thrown in prison like Joseph
was and suffer a long time. But this is so of His people.
You may suffer the rest of your life. He's gonna make good on His promise.
And He's gonna give all the promises to His people. And He's gonna
save us. And you're never gonna be confounded
or ashamed for trusting Christ. Never. If I'm left confounded
and ashamed, I'm gonna say this. I was confounded and ashamed
trusting Him. That'll never happen. He won't
let it happen. As Job said, though He slay me,
yet I'll trust Him. Trust Him. That's the only way
to defeat the devil. This is what he says, verse 5, Go to him like David
did, saying, I'm poor and I'm needy. I'm poor and I'm needy. Make haste to me, O God. Thou
art my help. You alone. You're my delivery.
You alone, O Lord. Make no tearing. Help me." And
this is what he said in Joel 2.26. You shall eat in plenty
and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that
hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be
ashamed. You shall know that I am in the
midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else,
and my people shall never be ashamed. That's because of Christ's
intercession. I pray he'd make us trust him.
All right, let's observe the Lord's table now. You pass them out. Jeff, you
and Rob. Lord, thank you for giving us
your word today, your message that we get to hear so freely
and easily week after week. Keep us, Lord, from the temptations
of the devil. Keep us looking to you and not
looking to ourselves.