Alright, brethren, Psalm 69. I do pray today the Lord would
teach us His way. That is such a good song, isn't
it? Psalm 56, now in the heading, it says that this was written
by David when the Philistines took him in Goth. Now, if you
want to turn there, 1 Samuel 21, I'll show you when this happened. 1 Samuel 21. It says, verse 10, it says, David arose
and fled that day for fear of Saul. He ran from Saul and he
ran out of one danger into another. And he went to Achish, the king
of Gath. That was an enemy too. And it
says, And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David
the king of the land? You know, this is, Goth is where
David slew Goliath years before this. And so the servants of
Achish are recognizing him and recognizing who he is. And they
said, Did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying,
Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid
of Achish the king of Goth. And he changed his behavior before
them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled
on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon
his beard. Then said Achish unto his servants,
Lo, ye see the man is mad, wherefore then have ye brought him to me?
Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this? Notice
the word fellow is added. He said, you brought this to
play the madman in my presence? And he said, shall this come
into my house? They said that of Christ one
time, remember? They referred to him as this. Well, during
this time that that happened, David wrote Psalm 56. Now, in
1 Samuel, we see David's old man of flesh, that old man of
Adam acting out. He's fearful of man and he feigned
madness. But in this Psalm, we hear David's
new holy man, that new man that's of Christ. We hear him looking
to God. In 1 Samuel, David underwent
a change outwardly. While in his heart we hear him
in this psalm cry out to God in faith. Christ on the cross
underwent a change, so to speak, outwardly. The Lord laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He became guilty before God.
But inwardly, this psalm is Christ speaking, looking to the Father
in perfect faith, perfect fidelity. Like David, our Savior was pursued
by enemies everywhere He went, all His days. Everybody He came
in contact with was an enemy. Even His people were enemies
before He called us. And David looked to the Lord,
and our Lord Jesus looked to God His Father. David did it
in sin, but our Lord looked to the Father in perfect faith.
So He's the author and finisher of our faith. I've titled this,
What Time I Am Afraid. It says there in verse 3, Psalm
56, 3, What time I am afraid I will trust in Thee. What time we are afraid, when
we are afraid, believers trust in Christ. We rest in Christ
because in Christ we have already overcome this world. And by Christ
we shall overcome all our enemies in this life. And so whenever
we're afraid, we look to Christ. We look to Christ. Now, as believers,
we're often afraid. I become very afraid and so do
you. It's just the nature of being
a child of God. We become fearful of the devil.
We become fearful of our old man of sin. And we're fearful
of worldly unregenerate men. What do we do when we're fearful?
We trust in the Lord. Now, first of all, what time
I'm afraid of the devil, here's what I'll cry. Verse 1, Be merciful
unto me, O God. You ever been in a place where
that's all you could cry to God? You didn't know what else to
say. Just be merciful unto me, O God. You know that petition right
there, that includes everything we need. Because everything that
we need, God gives us in mercy. So when we ask for mercy, we're
asking to fulfill every need we have. And God will never turn
away that plea. Scripture says, God delighteth
to show mercy. He shows mercy. If we come truly
asking Him for mercy, He's going to show mercy. Why did David
need mercy? Look at verse 1. For man would
swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. He presses me down. Mine enemies
would daily swallow me up. For they be many that fight against
me, O thou Most High. You see there where it says mine
enemies? Margin says mine observers. Those that watch for my sins. Those that seek to entangle me
in my words. Those that impute wicked motives
to my actions when they don't know my heart. The Pharisees did this to Christ
though He knew no sin. They did this to Christ all His
public ministry. They were constantly trying to
find a sin in Him. Observing Him. Wanting to entangle
Him in His words so they could have reason to accuse Him. Believer,
do not be an observer of your brethren. or any other sinner. To do so is to be like the devil. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. We see the devil working in the
Pharisees. How come the Pharisees were always
observing? How come they were always looking
for sin in others? Christ said, you're the children
of your father the devil. and the works of your father
you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and a bow not in the truth. That's why they did it. You can't
observe your brother's sin and abide in the truth. You can't
observe your brother's sin and be not guilty of murder. You
can't do it. It's not difficult to observe
sin in our brethren. That's not difficult. You want
to find sin in me, that won't be hard at all. I want to find
sin in you, that will be no difficulty. But don't do it. Let us observe
our own sin, that's fine. And let us shut our mouths, but
don't observe your brother's sin. Now at this time the devil
was ruling King Saul. So Saul daily was seeking to
swallow up David. He was seeking to kill David
daily. Now don't look to the second
cause. Don't look to Saul. Look to the
first cause. The devil was working in Saul. The devil was working in many.
So that David said there, I have many enemies fighting against
me. Doeg, Shimei, Absalom, Achish, Saul, there was many enemies
at this time trying to kill David. But who was behind it all? The
devil. Satan was behind every bit of
it. Now listen to me carefully. The devil is real. And the devil
is a very real foe. He's very crafty, he's very powerful,
he's a very real enemy of you and I who believe. Very real. He doesn't come to us dressed
in red. He doesn't come with a pitchfork
and horns out of his head. He comes using men and women. We see Saul fighting with David.
There he was. We see the devil right there.
The devil will use a close friend who convinces you to confide
in them. And that He will appeal to your
sinful flesh. He will listen to you and show
you sympathy and side with you and give you advice that appeals
to your flesh. Before long, the devil will have
you separated from your brethren just like a wolf separates a
sheep from the flock. That's where David was. He's
in the wilderness. He's separated from all of them.
Ask Eve if the devil is a real foe. Ask our mother. She's in
a sinless environment and she has no sin. And the devil is
so cunning and he came and tricked her, beguiled her into taking
the fruit. And through that, Adam willingly
sinned and plunged us all into sin and death. Now if he did
that, if the devil did that in a sinless environment with Eve
who had no sin, do you think he'll have a problem beguiling
you and me? Not at all. Ask Job if the devil is a foe
to fear. Job had done nothing wrong. He
was a godly man. But in short order, The devil
took his family, took his wealth, and took his health. And his objective was to wreck
Job's life to get Job to curse God. That was his objective.
I have no doubt that was the devil in his wife that came to
him and said, why don't you just curse God and kill yourself? Job 1, go there with me real
quick. Job 1 verse 9, it says, Then
Satan answered, verse 9, Satan answered the Lord, said, Doth
Job fear God for naught? Hast thou not made a hedge about
him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? Thou hast blessed the work of
his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But
put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, he will
curse thee to thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. Only upon himself
put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the
presence of the Lord. Now did you notice in our text
David called the Lord, O thou Most High? You see the devil
can do nothing unless the Most High gives him permission to
do it. The Most High Christ our Lord
has to give Him permission. And when our Lord gives permission,
it's so that our end ends up being better than our beginning. Job's end is going to end up
being better than when he started. Job is being taught something.
The Lord is using the devil as His instrument to teach him.
So when Job maintained his integrity, now look at Job 2 verse 4, The
Lord called for Satan to come back again, and it says, And
Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that
a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand
now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he'll curse thee to
thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, he's in thine hand, but save his life. The only reason
Job was not overcome, the only reason David was not overcome,
And the only reason you and I are not overcome is because our Lord
Jesus Christ was in that very place Job was in. The Lord God
gave the devil permission to try to make Christ curse God
to His face. And He conquered the devil. That's
the only reason we're not conquered by Him, because Christ conquered
Him for us. When He was born, Herod ordered
all the male Israelite children to be killed. What was that? What was going on with that?
Revelation 12 verse 4 said, The dragon, the devil, stood before
the woman, Mary the mother of our Lord, which was ready to
be delivered for to devour her child. Christ Jesus the Lord. The dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon
as it was born. And yet even at his birth, even
at his birth, our Lord Jesus Christ defeated the devil. And at the same time he fulfilled
Scripture. Whenever Joseph took him down
into Egypt so that Scripture would be fulfilled that he was
called out of Egypt. after his baptism, after he received
the Spirit, after his public ministry began, he was driven
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil 40 days and 40 nights. And anything the devil tempted
him with, you and me would have failed it. He wouldn't have had
to do but one thing and we'd have failed it. But our Lord
just kept saying, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord.
And he conquered him. He did not win that battle. He
was saying what he says here in verse 4. In God will I praise
His Word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do unto me. Look at verse 10. In God will
I praise His Word. In the Lord will I praise His
Word. That's why he kept saying to
the devil, Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. It was the devil's hour from
Gethsemane to the cross. I don't know what was happening,
but I do know this. The devil was doing everything
he could to cause our Redeemer to curse God. That's what he
was doing in Gethsemane when our Lord was sweating blood.
That's what he was doing through the wicked hands that were abusing
our Redeemer. That's what the devil was doing
when he was lifted up on the cross and all hell was unleashed
upon Christ. There was far more fiends of
hell coming against our Redeemer than what you and I see from
what's revealed in the Scripture. You remember that time whenever
the young man opened his eyes and he saw all those good angels? Well, there was, I guarantee
you, a team of wicked angels around our Savior at the cross.
trying to make him curse God. But he didn't. Our Lord, you
read this psalm and you hear the words of our Lord, crying
out, Have mercy upon me, O God, in your word I'll trust. He says
down in verse 9, When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies
turn back. This I know, for God is for me. This is our Redeemer. This is
His faithfulness in the midst of His trouble. He said in verse
11, In God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid of what
man can do unto me. Thy vows are upon me, O God. I will render praise unto Thee,
for Thou hast delivered my soul from death. Wilt Thou not deliver
my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light
of the living? He knew how much God the Father
had delivered him all the days of his life. How many times do
you see somebody come against our Redeemer and they were trying
to kill him, they were picking up stones to stone him, and the
Scripture would say, and he just went out of their midst because
it wasn't his time. And so when he hung on the cross,
he reminded himself of all those times and he said, you've delivered
my soul from death many times, you're going to deliver my feet
so that they don't fail here. And our Lord Jesus Christ took
away the devil's power. The power he had was our sin
to accuse us with before the Father. And our Lord Jesus Christ
suffering on the Calvary bore the justice of God unto death
so that everybody for whom He died was crucified in Him and
we died in Him so that now before the judgment seat of God we have
no sin with which the devil can accuse us. Hebrews 2. Look at Hebrews 2.14. This is
why he came. It says, For as much then as
the children are protectors of flesh and blood, he also like
himself likewise took part of the same, that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. So believer, we're more than
conquerors through Christ that loved us. Oh, the devil, he bruised
our Lord's heel, but our Lord crushed his head. And now, our
Lord Jesus Christ has complete control of the devil. The devil
has to ask whom he may devour. He has to have permission. because
Christ is the Most High. Therefore, what time I'm afraid
of the devil, I'll trust in the Lord. I'll trust in the Lord. Now secondly, back in our text,
David had some enemies within his own camp. He had some enemies
that were right there with him that had gone and betrayed him
to Saul. Brethren, we have a great enemy
in our own camp, our old man of sin. In what time I'm afraid
of my old man of sin, I'll trust in the Lord. Now, by the irresistible
grace of the Holy Spirit of God, through the justifying righteousness
of Christ our Lord, the Spirit of God has created a new man
within you who believe. That new man which after God,
he's created after the image of God, therefore he's created
in righteousness and true holiness. The new man created of God is
righteous and holy after Christ's image that created him. And he's
continually renewed in the image of Him that created him. God's elect are justified by
Christ's righteousness imputed to us through faith, and we're
sanctified by Christ's holiness imparted to us in regeneration. And yet, as a regenerated child
of God, as one who had this holy, sinless new man within Him, Paul
wrote, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, and that part
of me that's of Adam, in my old man of sin dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do. I remember my disappointment
when I first discovered that my brethren who I looked up to
were sinners. Do you remember that? That disappointed me. And then
I discovered after my baptism, I'm still a sinner. Brethren, never be disappointed
when you find out God's saints are still sinners. The Apostle Paul still committed
evil that he hated. Do you ever think that you do
the good that you would do? Do you? I hope not. Paul said, the good that I would,
I do not do. But the evil that I would not
do, that's what I do. See, the fact of the matter is,
what we saw this morning, everything we do, even our best religious
deeds that look like there's no sin involved in them outwardly,
are wicked because they're full of sin. That's why we have to have Christ
to bear the iniquity of our holy thing, so we'll be accepted of
God. You don't ever do any good before God. So how can I look
at my brethren and judge them and condemn them for their sin?
I need to be remembering I don't do any good before God myself. I'll tell you what you'll find
out about God's people though. They're the only merciful people
in this whole world. Truly merciful. Because they
know that in their flesh dwells no good thing. We see our flesh
is nothing but sin. We know we cannot do the things
we would. We know that we continually do
the things we would not. And yet God continues to show
us mercy for the sake of Christ. And you know what that makes
you do? That makes you show your brethren mercy. When you see
them sin, you know this. He's not doing what He wants
to do. He hates what He's doing. and He makes you merciful to
Him. Years ago, there were some brethren
who offended me greatly. Greatly. There were many of them. And I got to the point where
I was determined not to show them mercy. I had it settled
in my mind they were a bunch of reprobates. They offended
me. accused me of some things that
just wasn't true. And I had it in my mind settled, these men
don't know God. I'm not showing them mercy. And it took a year of trials,
one after another, wave upon wave upon wave of trials, until
God brought me down to the dust to see, you're nothing. You are nothing. I was overcome with a far worse
sin than my brethren. I was overcome with a sin God
hates, pride and self-righteousness. I had sat down in Christ's judgment
seat where Christ belongs, I had sat down, just like if you walked
up in a court of law and pushed a judge out of the way and sat
down in his judgment seat, and I began to pass unrighteous judgment
on my brethren, imputing wicked motives to them, and I had no
idea what was in their heart. That, my friends, is trampling
underfoot the blood of Christ by thinking His blood's not enough
to make me show up mercy. That's exactly what that is.
And there's no sin as evil, as wicked as pride. It's the sin for which God cast
Satan out of heaven. So why did God leave us in the
body of this death? Why did He leave us in this sinful
flesh and allows us to commit sins, sinful acts? Why does He
do that? He could stop it in a heartbeat. I mean, it wouldn't take anything
for God to deliver us out of this. Why does He leave us in
it? Well, I know it's for at least
two reasons. By revealing to us our sinful
flesh continually, God prevents us from trusting ourselves. We can't trust ourselves. He
makes you know that. If we finally abstain, this is
how awful we are in our flesh, if we finally abstain from a
certain sin, there's been some certain sinful act that we've
been committing and we're just so sick of it, we hate it, we
don't want to do it, and one day we're able to abstain from
it. If Christ does not keep us, we
will be so proud that we have stopped that sin and we've gone
from one sin into a worse sin. That's our flesh. I know a new free will preacher
and he claims he's not a sinner anymore at all. Would you want a preacher who
didn't know anything about his sinful flesh? Would you? How's he going to preach to you
about God's mercy if he don't know anything about what he is
and that everything he does is sin? How's he going to be able
to preach mercy to you? John Rusk wrote this. He's a
preacher from back about 200 plus years ago and he wrote this.
Listen to this. I want an experimental preacher.
One who, when he has had one meal, is tried how he shall get
the next. One who is tormented with devils
fit to tear him limb to limb. One who feels hell inside himself
and every corruption in his nature stirred up to oppose God's work. One who feels so weak that every
day he gets over, he views it as next to a miracle. That's why God leaves us in our
flesh. I bet you if truth was known, His preachers are some
of the worst sinners there are. Look at David. He's an adulterer. He's a murderer. He had multiple
wives and concubines. And he's God's prophet. A man
after God's own heart. God keeps you from looking to
your flesh and trusting your flesh by showing you how awful
your flesh is. And another reason is by revealing
our sins, God keeps us crying out to Christ alone. If you could
abstain from whatever sins it is that bother you, and I'm not
saying that we don't even have to commit outward sin, we sin
just in our thoughts. I'm just using an example. If
you could quit some outward sin that just plagues you and bothers
you so bad, you wouldn't call out to God for that anymore.
You'd quit calling out to God to save you. He keeps us needing Christ constantly. Paul cried out in Romans 7, O
wretched man that I am! That's what he thought about
himself. The apostle Paul? This man wrote three-fourths
of the New Testament. If you're going to be used that
much by God, then that much you'll be made to see what a wretched
man you are. Because otherwise, you're going
to get puffed up in pride. Isn't that what Paul said? He carried me up to the third
heaven, but lest I be exalted over the abundance of the revelation,
God gave me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to beat
me black and blue. That's what he gave it for. So
I won't be exalted. You see, when you're looking
at your brother's sin and you're accusing your brother's sin,
what you don't realize is God's doing something for him. God's
doing something for him. God's teaching him something.
Get out of the way and don't interfere. God's teaching him
something. The sins of our flesh will never
cause God to say enough and cease showing us mercy. You'll never
do that. God our Father chose us by free
and sovereign grace, not based on any good or evil in us that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. Not
of works, but of Him that calleth. That's why it's all of grace. And so, grace won't let us go. Grace didn't choose us because
of something in us. Grace is not going to let us go because
of something in us. Christ bore our sins away and therefore before
God's judgment seat we don't have any sin. In those days and
at that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah and they
shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve. And
therefore it's unrighteous judgment for me to condemn my brethren
for their sins when God doesn't. Paul said, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, to them
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, for the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the law of sin and death. So for Christ's sake, God continues
to show us mercy. You know what, after Paul said,
O wretched man that I am, He said, who's going to deliver
me from the body of this death? Who's going to deliver me? I
don't mean just when I get to the end and I die. I mean today,
who's going to deliver me? He said, I thank God through
Christ Jesus our Lord. See, by leaving you in this flesh,
God keeps you crying out to Christ Jesus our Lord for deliverance. Please, Lord, have mercy on me. Save me. Deliver me from me. And he said, if we confess our
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John said, my little children,
these things write unto you that you sin not. Nothing I'm saying
here excuses sin. I'm not saying that. When your
brother sins, he's guilty. And the sin is His fault. But
God is bringing something good out of it. I guarantee you that. If any man sins, when you sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,
and He is the propitiation for our sins. And so He keeps you
calling out to Him. What time I'm afraid of my sin
nature? What time I'm afraid of this
old man of sin? I'll trust in the Lord. Now lastly,
David had enemies in the unregenerate worldly sinners around him. And
you and I do too. What time I'm afraid of worldly
unregenerate sinners? I'll trust in the Lord. We're
tempted to befriend this ungodly world on a daily basis. And we fail miserably. God calls
it adultery. He says, ye adulterers and adulteresses,
that's what God says it is when we flirt with the ungodly world
and court their friendship. Why? Why does He call it adultery?
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. You mean just Just wanting to please the world? Do I want to please the enemy
of God? I mean, I know we have to work and we have to please
our boss and we have to please the people we encounter and all
that. But do we not go too far with that? Do we not cross the
line with that? And become proud of that? And
crave that? You see, what you see here is
everything we do is sin before God and Christ is saving us from
it all on a daily basis, an hourly, a minutely basis. He's saving
us from it all. Our Redeemer gave us this good
news. These things I've spoken unto you that in me you might
have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. That's so good that the Lord
makes us to know, don't expect peace from this world. You're
not going to get it. You're going to have trouble
from the world. That's all you're going to have in the world. Why
do we act so surprised when we encounter trouble in this world?
Why? And we do, don't we? We just
act like, I can't believe this is happening to me. Well, that's
what the Lord said was going to happen to us. All that's going
to happen to us. But be of good cheer, He said.
I have overcome the world. That's why we won't be overcome
by the world. He overcame the world. Since
our Redeemer has overcome it, He won't let us be overcome by
it. Everybody we encounter, every worldly unregenerate sinner is
under the direct dominion of Christ the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords. The King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water He turns it with or so
ever He will. He leaves us in this world to
teach us, number one, love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. How do I know if I love the world
or if I love something in the world? Can you let it go today? Could you sell it today or just
give it away today? If you can't, you love it. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. Why not? Because if any man loved
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Our flesh does nothing but love
the world. And number two, He teaches us
that our purpose here brethren, is not for ourselves. It's not
to be living after our lust. Our purpose for being here is
to serve God's people. It's to spread the gospel of
Christ Jesus the Lord because Christ has a people He's redeemed
who He shall call out and He's using us, His church, to preach
the gospel through which He will call them out. That's our only
purpose for being here. That's it, brethren. When our
Lord went to glory, before He went, He came to His apostles
and He didn't tell them anything else but go into the world and
preach the gospel. And that's what we're here for.
So brethren, let's spread this gospel and in the face of every
enemy, in the face of the devil, By Christ our prophet, priest,
and king. What time I fear the devil, I'll
trust in thee. And here's why. He said the gates
of hell shall not prevail against us. The devil has his gates up
trying to keep you from calling out his people. They're not going
to prevail. Christ will penetrate those gates
with the gospel. When it comes to our sinful old
man of flesh, Our Lord Jesus Christ is able to make the walls
of our Jericho heart fall flat down when it pleases Him. And when it comes to those enemies
that daily oppress us, that daily press us down, and would daily
cause us to fall away, just know this, through this gospel, the
Lord shall add to the church daily such as should be saved. Nothing's going to stop Him.
So what time I'm afraid, I'll trust in the Lord. Amen.