I was thinking as Brother Rob
was preaching, they got to the end of the message and I was
thinking about that man that the Lord healed that had that
withered hand. You reckon that man ever objected
to Christ doing good on the Sabbath day? When will a man stop choosing
the law and choosing his works over Christ? when Christ heals
him and he has rest in Christ. He'll stop doing that. Well,
I left my phone at home and that's how I adjust my hearing aids. So, if I'm not talking loud enough,
do that. If I'm talking too loud, do that.
I have no idea. Psalm 57, let's begin here in
verse 4. He says, My soul is among lions. This is David being used to write
this. He was in the cave. He was fleeing from Saul. And he said, My soul is among
lions. My subject this morning is when
you are among lions. When you are among lions. And I just want to show you three
things. I'm going to jump right into it. I want to show you the
trial of lions. And then secondly, the cry for
exultation. And then thirdly, the effect
of exultation. First of all, the trial of lions. He says, verse 4, My soul is
among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire. even
the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their
tongue a sharp sword." It's common throughout the scriptures to
find wicked sinners referred to as lions. That's a common
occurrence through the scriptures. Proverbs 28 15 says, as a roaring
lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor
people. Jeremiah 50 verse 17 says, Israel
is a scattered sheep. The lions have driven him away. And that's speaking of the king
of Assyria and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. David certainly
found himself among lions. All his days he found himself
among lions. Saul, king Saul, and his men,
3,000 men that were pursuing David, they were lions to David. Achish, the king of Gath, into
whose hand David ended up fleeing, he was a lion against David. Even David's own son, Absalom,
was a lion to David. All of these wanted David dead. They wanted to kill David. So
David knew what it was like to be among lions. When we're made
to see our sin, That's the first time that we see that we dwell
among lions. We see that everybody's a sinner,
just like we are. And because of that, we dwell
in the midst of lions. Isaiah saw the Lord's glory,
and the result was this. Then said I, woe is me! For I
am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. When God makes you see the King,
makes you see the Lord of hosts, you're going to see that in your
flesh, in your sinful flesh, you're a lion, you're a sinner,
and everybody you dwell among or wicked sinners, all of them. They're lions. Well, now that's
true of David and that's true of me and you, but I'm going
to tell you something. Nobody ever dwelt among lions
like the Lord Jesus Christ. He was sinless dwelling amongst
sinners. Amongst us sinners, our Lord
Jesus was like Daniel in the lion's den. That's where, when
He came here and He came to this earth, our Lord Jesus was in
the lion's den because He dwelt in our midst amongst wicked sinners. The Pharisees and the scribes,
we just saw Brother Rob's message, they were constantly accusing
the Lord. They were constantly trying to
figure out how they could trap Him. How they could tangle him
up in His words and trap him. That's what Pharisees do. Pharisees
watch. They watch. They're not looking
for good. They're looking for something
that's wrong. So they can tangle you up and
accuse you and make themselves look better. And that happened
to Christ all the days He walked this earth. And many times they
would try to take him. They wanted to kill him right
then. Scripture says he would go right out of their midst.
Because his hour wasn't come. He came to that time when he
actually allowed those men that came with Judas, he allowed them
to take him. And they took him to the priest's
hall, to the high priest's hall. And He told them the truth. He
told them the truth. He told them He is the Son of
God. And it made them roar like lions. Then the high priest rent his
clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. What further need
have we of witnesses? Behold now, you have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, he's guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face
and buffeted him. Others smote him with the palms
of their hands saying, prophesy unto us thou Christ, who is it
that smote thee? Lions. In the common hall of Pilate,
he was surrounded by soldiers. And in Matthew 27, 28 it says
they stripped him, they put on him a scarlet robe, and they
plaited a crown of thorns, and they put it on his head, and
they put a reed in his hand. And then they bowed down before
him. You get the picture. Found an old robe somewhere,
put that on him, put a crown of thorns on his head and a reed
in his hand. And they bowed down before him. And they mocked Him, saying,
Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon Him, and they
took the reed, and they smote Him on the head, and after that,
after they had mocked Him, they took the robe off from Him, put
His own raiment on Him, and they led Him away to crucify Him.
I've never dwelt among lions like that. How about you? That is dwelling among lions. And then on the cross, when he
hung there on the cross, in Psalm 22, 13, the Lord said, they gaped
upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. He said, save me from the lion's
mouth. Matthew 27, 39, they passed by
and they reviled him. They wagged their heads. They
said, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three
days, save Thyself. If Thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. And likewise also the chief priests
mocked Him along with the scribes and the elders and they said,
He saved others. Himself He cannot save. If He
be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross
and we'll believe Him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver
him now if he'll have him. For he said, I am the Son of
God. And the thieves that were hanging there with him cast the
same in his teeth. We hear that cruel mocking. We hear them roaring like lions.
And we see here why the Master says in verse 4, I lie even among
them that are set on fire. He says there at the end, their
tongue is a sharp sword. Look at James 3. This is what
our Lord says about you and me by nature. James chapter 3. Look
at verse 5. Let's read verse 4. Behold also the ships, which
though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet
are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the
governor listeth. Even so, the tongue is a little
member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a
little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire. A world of
iniquity, so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth
the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and
it set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and
of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed,
and hath been tamed of man. But the tongue can no man tame. It's an unruly evil full of deadly
poison. Can you imagine what this world
would be like if none of us had tongues? But God puts His child among
lions for a reason. He does this for a reason. He
does it to make His child cry for exultation. to cry for exaltation. What do you mean? Why did God
the Father set His Son among lions? Why does God the Father
set you and I who believe among lions? He does it so that He
brings us to cry unto God for God to be exalted. Believer, there's times, look
here at verse 5, he says, Be thou exalted, O God, above the
heavens. Let thy glory be above all the
earth. Now there are times when you
and I don't know what to pray. You just get in a situation sometimes
and you don't know what you need. You don't know. But I can tell
you this, if that's your petition, for God to exalt Himself, to
exalt His glory above the heavens, you're going to get what you
ask for. Because that's what God's going to do. That's why
He brings us into a trial, is He brings us to cry this out
to Him. And we cry, we cry for God to
be exalted, we pray for His glory to be exalted above the heavens,
and we do that when we begin to cry out to the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. the Lord Jesus Christ. When you
get so helpless and find yourself so helpless that all you can
do is pray to the Lord of the lions and ask Him to defend you
and ask Him to do what He would do in exalting Himself in His
glory. When you pray to God the Savior,
That's when you're exalting Him. You're exalting Him. You're exalting
Him. Whenever our Lord walked this
earth, and He went to the cross, our Lord Jesus hung there on
that cross, bearing the sin of His people, bearing the wrath
of God, and with all these people, all these lions around Him, gnashing
upon Him and roaring upon Him, our Lord Jesus prayed this prayer
to the Father. Be Thou exalted. Let Thy glory be exalted above
the heavens. In doing so, He did it in perfect
faith. Perfect faith. He highly exalted
God. By His obedience, even unto the
death of the cross, that was highly exalting God, for Him
to pray, Lord, Thou be exalted. And so God, what He's going to
do when we're in these trials and we're surrounded by lions
and everybody's talking and it's just injuring you more and more
and more and more, what God's going to do, He's going to settle
your heart on Christ. That's what He does. He settles
your heart on Christ. To make you see what Christ accomplished
for His people on the cross. To make you see what Christ accomplished
for you, if you're His. And He'll settle you. He'll make
you where you can't hear the tongues. He'll make you to where
you can behold Christ through faith and you behold what He
accomplished for you. Look here in verse 6. They've
prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They've
digged a pit before me into the midst whereof they are fallen
themselves. Now that's a Selah. That means
that statement is very, very important. You should stop and
look at that statement and think about it very much. They prepared
a net for my steps, Christ said. My soul is bowed down. They've
digged a pit before me. And they've fallen into the very
pit they dug. You see, the cross, that cruel
means of death, the cross, That cross was a pit dug by Christ's
enemies. The devil and his seed thought
that if we crucify Christ, the devil and his seed, the serpent
and his seed, the devil and his people, they thought if we could
crucify Christ, We can destroy Him and we can destroy His kingdom
and we won't have to deal with Him anymore. But by the death of the cross,
Christ put away the sin of His people and He established His
kingdom in righteousness. That's what He accomplished on
the cross. He put away the sin of His people and established
His kingdom in righteousness. And so while the devil and his
people thought that they were winning the victory by crucifying
Christ, they were actually falling into their own pit. Go to Isaiah chapter 8. We see
this in another place. Isaiah 8 and verse 12. This is what God says to His
child when you are in the midst of the lions. The Lord says in
verse 12, say ye not a confederacy to all them to whom this people
shall say a confederacy. Don't you join leagues with the
same ones those people are joining leagues with. Watch now, neither
fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. See Him set apart. See Him holy. See Him sovereign and powerful.
See Him above all. And let Him be your fear. And let Him be your dread. And
He shall be for a sanctuary to you. He'll be a safe refuge for
you. But for a stone of stumbling
and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. Look
at this next word. For a jinn and for a snare. He's going to be a pit. He's
going to be a trap. And He's going to snare the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken. They fell into their pit that
they dug. I preached a message on that
passage in Isaiah one time and I titled it, The Bait, the Trap,
and the Broken Yoke. Christ was the bait. He was the
bait. And Christ on the cross was the
trap. By crucifying Christ, His enemies
fell into the very pit they dug. And by doing so, Christ broke
the yoke off His people and redeemed us from the curse of the law.
God foreshadowed this a few times in history. Remember Haman? Haman was hanged on the gallows
that he built to hang Mordecai on. He fell into his own pit. Go read that in Esther. That's
a great story. God drowned Pharaoh in the sea,
the very sea that Pharaoh thought was trapping the children of
Israel. God brought him right there after him and then drowned
Pharaoh in that very sea. Fell in his own pit. And that's
what happened on the cross. How is God going to make Christ
wisdom to you and me? Does this sound like wisdom to
you? That God sends forth Christ,
His Son, who this world hates and the devil despises and uses
Him as the bait, uses Him as the pit, and the cross as the
pit, and so there they are digging their own pit, and by doing so
they fail themselves. Do you see wisdom in that? When
are we going to see that Christ is the wisdom of God? Look over
at Psalm 9. I'll show you. When Christ has
made wisdom unto us, this right here is exactly what God does.
Psalm 19. I mean, Psalm 9, Psalm 9, verse
15. The heathen are sunk down in
the pit that they made. In the net which they hid is
their own foot taken. Now watch this. The Lord is known
by the judgment which He executeth. The wicked is snared in the work
of His own hand. What do you see when you look
at the cross? I see the Lord's wisdom. I see Christ's wisdom. Why? Because I see the judgment
God performed on the cross. And you see nothing but wisdom
in that. On the cross, God's judging everybody. He judged
His people so that He put away our sin. And He judged the prince
of this world. And all His serpent seed. He judged everybody at the cross.
Those that would eventually be brought to believe on Him and
those who would reject Him. To the one, He saved them and
broke the yoke off of them. To the others, they fell in the
pit they dug. Go to Daniel chapter 6. When
Christ dwelt among us, there's no doubt that He was like Daniel. That's the picture of Daniel
when he was thrown into that pit. Daniel 6. But look what God did
for Daniel. Daniel 6 verse 22. And read this and hear Christ
speaking. He says, My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut
the lion's mouths, that they have not hurt me. For as much
as before him innocency was found in me. Look at verse 23. Then was the king exceeding glad
for him, and so Daniel, look there at the second part, so
Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was
found upon him, because he believed in his God. And the king commanded,
and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they
cast them into the den of lions. Them, their children, and their
wives, and the lions had the mastery of them, and break all
their bones in pieces wherever they came at the bottom of the
den. As soon as they hit the bottom
of the den, the lions destroyed them. God our Father exalted
His name. He exalted His glory above the
heavens. He brings you to cry out for
Him to be exalted. And He makes you to behold Christ
Jesus the Lord on the cross and what He accomplished for His
people in putting away our sins and destroying all our enemies.
And He makes you to see that He brought Christ out of the
lion's den. He brought Him up out of the
lion's den and set Him at His own right hand. And when God
the Father did that, He exalted Himself and He exalted His glory
above the heavens. And why did He do it? Because
Christ believed His God. He's God. But when He walked
this earth as a servant, He was offering the faith of His people
and finishing the faith for His people. And He believed God perfectly. And God was well pleased with
Him and well pleased for His righteousness sake. And He exalted
Him. Out of the lion's den. and at
the same time destroyed all our enemies. Destroyed all our enemies. What's going to make a sinner
believe on Christ? What's going to convert a believer? We get in the trial and we start
looking and fearing other things and second causes. What's going
to convert a believer from that and make us sanctify the Lord
of hosts and fear Him? When He's brought you to that
point in that trial where you can't do anything but cry out
for God to be exalted. And you might not cry those words
I'm saying to you. You may just be crying, Lord,
have mercy on me. But what you're crying for is
God, you be exalted. And when He's brought you to
that place, that's when He exalts Christ in your heart. And when
He exalts Christ in your heart, You stop fearing all the second
causes and you start fearing Him. He makes you to sanctify
the Lord. He makes you to see the Lord
high and lifted up. He makes you to see the Lord
has everything that's going on in His sovereign control. And
you don't have to worry about a thing. He's already bought
you with His blood. He's already redeemed you from
all iniquity. He's already called you into
Him. And as Brother Rob said, you're complete in Him. And now
He's ruling everything and He's not going to let you be hurt.
That's what He makes you see. And if you're not a believer,
that's when you'll start believing on Him. And if you are a believer
who needs to be turned from second causes, that's when you'll see
Him high and lifted up. And then we stop glorying in
ourselves. You know, when we're in our sin,
that's all we did was glorying in our will and our works. But
now believer, when you're in the middle of the trial, and
you start trying to figure out ways you're going to get out
of it, ways you're going to protect yourself in it, you're glorying
in your will and your works. How are we going to be brought
to stop glorying in our will and our works? He's going to bring you to glory
in the Lord alone. When He exalts Christ in your
heart, that's when you'll glory in the Lord alone. Then you say,
verse 9, I will praise Thee, O Lord, among the people. I'll sing unto Thee among the
nations. Isaiah 2.11 says this, The lofty
looks. It's talking about when Christ
comes. And when Christ comes into the heart, the lofty looks
of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall
be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
He said in Isaiah 12-4, In that day shall you praise the Lord,
and call upon His name, and declare His doings among the people,
and make mention that His name is exalted. When He exalts Christ
in your heart, He makes you see the wisdom of the cross, that's
when you quit glorying in yourself and you start glorying in Him.
You want His works to be talked about, not your own. You want
His name to be exalted, not your own. And what does He bring us
to give God all the glory for? When He brings you to that place,
what are you glorying in? Why are you glorying only in
the Lord? What is it to glory in? Verse 10, For thy mercy is
great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds. Mercy
means mercy. Truth means truth and justice,
righteousness. God made His mercy and His truth
meet in harmony on the cross. It was there that God upheld
truth, slaying every sinner that He purposed to save. And in the
same act, He had mercy on His people. He made truth and mercy
meet in harmony. He didn't have mercy at the expense
of truth, and He didn't pour out truth at the expense of mercy.
He poured them both out and made them unite. Why did He do that? Because by mercy and truth, iniquity
is purged. It's the only way God could save
His people. Making mercy and truth meet together,
the iniquity of His people was purged. And by the fear of the
Lord, men depart from evil. And that's the fear of the Lord.
When you see God make mercy and truth meet in harmony, when you
see Him make mercy and justice meet together, When you see Him
save and make alive by the same act, you'll start fearing the
Lord. He'll be wisdom to you and you'll
fear Him. You quit being this little smart
aleck sitting in a pew, butting everything that the preacher
says and butting the Word of God and questioning God and acting
like you don't even believe God's Word. No, the lofty looks of
man will be brought down in that day. The Lord alone will be exalted. Here's what he shows you. Go
to Isaiah 54. This is the good news right here.
This is the good news. Isaiah 54 verse 7. After mercy
and truth are met together, after righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in Christ, in Isaiah 53, then we come to
Isaiah 54. Here's what God makes you to
know in your heart. Verse 7. He says, for a small
moment I have forsaken you. There's truth. There's truth. He forsook me when he forsook
Christ on the cross. Because Christ was bearing my
sin and it was the just thing for God to do. He forsook me
on the cross. But with great mercies will I
gather thee. He made truth and mercy meet
because Christ upheld the truth. Now God's just to show me mercy. Look at this, in a little wrath
I hid my face from thee for a moment. He did that in truth when he
poured out his wrath on Christ. But with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah to me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should
no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. That's what God makes
you know. This thing is done. It's everlasting. I'll never again pour out wrath
upon you. Just mercy. Just everlasting
kindness. Now go to Isaiah 44, and I want
to end with this. When God's done this whole work,
here's the purpose of the trial. Here's the purpose. We have a
sin nature so we forget. We forget God. We forget who
He is. We forget what He's done for
us. We forget what He's promised He's going to do for us. So God
comes and puts you in a trial and He shuts you up to Him. Makes
you see Him high and lifted up. Exalts Christ in your heart.
And when He's done all this for you, showed you He's your salvation,
He speaks this. He does it through a message
just like this. through somebody preaching the
gospel just like this. He'll speak into your heart and
this is what he'll say right here. Isaiah 44, 21. Remember these. Remember these. Remember these things I'm showing
you. Remember these things you've heard today. Oh Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about you that believe on him. He's saying I made you. You're mine. I have blotted out
as a thick cloud thy transgressions. I did it, God said, and as a
cloud thy sins, return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. And
then we start to sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it. Shout,
ye lower parts of the earth, break forth into singing, ye
mountains, O forests, and every tree therein, for the Lord hath
redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. And then the
Lord speaks, Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, He that formed
thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things,
that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreads abroad the
earth by myself, that frustrates the tokens of liars. I make diviners
mad. I turn wise men backward. I make
their knowledge foolish. I am the one that confirmeth
the word of my servant, and performeth the counsel of my messengers.
What ye hear my preacher preach, I am the one that worketh those
works. Thus saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited. And
to the cities of Judah, You shall be built, and I will raise up
the decayed places thereof. He says to the deep, Be dry,
and I will dry up thy rivers. He says to Cyrus, that is to
Christ, He's my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,
even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple
thy foundation shall be laid. He comes to remind you, brethren,
none of these second causes are harming you. He's controlling
them all. And He's doing it, building His
kingdom. He's not going to let you go. He's building His kingdom
with you. And then what does He bring you
to do? Psalm 57. He brings you to the end purpose
of the trial. This is the end purpose of the
trial. Oh, I don't know why God's brought
this trial on me. Well, here it is. If you're His,
here it is. He's to bring you to this point
to cry this out right here. Verse 11. Be thou exalted, O
God, above the heavens, and let Thy glory be above all the earth. That's the purpose. Amen. All right. Brother Rob and Brother
Jeff, will y'all pass out the elements?