All right, Psalm 54. Where's Rob at? Scott, come here. Having technical difficulty.
You know how to make that brighter? I turned it down last night,
and I can't get it to turn back up. I mean, I could if I was
on my keyboard, but I don't know how to do it without it. Beautiful. All right. It's always good to
ask somebody that knows what they're doing. Psalm 54, in the
heading there, we're told that this is a mascal psalm. That means it sets forth truth
that is of utmost importance. We saw that in the last Psalm.
It's penned by David. It's by the inspiration of God,
the Holy Spirit. Now here's the occasion. It says,
this was when the Ziphams came and said to Saul, does not David
hide himself with us? Now these Ziphams lived in the
tribe of Judah. They were men of Judah. These
were David's kinsmen. They were his kinsmen according
to the flesh. They were supposed to be his
brethren. But on two occasions, they came
and told Saul, King Saul, they came and told him David was hiding
out in the woods close to where they were. Two different occasions. The first time, Saul sent them
back and said, you make certain he's there. And by the time they
went back, David had moved on somewhere else. But then he came
back. David came back to that hill
close to where they lived and they went back to Saul and they
told him again. They said he's there. And Saul
went after him with 3,000 men. So this is David's song whenever
Saul was searching him out trying to kill him. He's on the run,
he's being, he's being, men have risen up against him, they're
oppressing him, they're trying to kill him. Now David here is
a type of Christ. The Ziphams here who betrayed
David are a picture of Judas. They betrayed David in hopes
that Saul would give them glory or give them a reward. And he
did. He blessed them. And Judas traded
Christ and betrayed him for money. Money meant more to him than
Christ did and his brethren. And then Saul had 3,000 men in
his army pursuing David. Saul is a type of the devil and
the devil has thousands of men who were pursuing Christ to the
cross. And then we see David here utterly
dependent upon God to save him. And you take Christ who when
he took the form of a servant He was utterly dependent upon
God the Father to save him. He's God. He could of any moment
summon legions of angels. Hundreds and hundreds of angels
to help him. But he's serving God. And he's
believing God and trusting God. So he's going to wait on God
in faith. And the reason that David and
our Lord did this because they had God set before their face.
They had God set before their face. What I want to get across
tonight, the reason a believer depends upon God and follows
Christ's steps in our lives and in our dealing
with one another, the reason we follow Christ as He commands
us and obey God's Word and depend upon God is because we have God
set before our face. If God's not set before our face,
we won't depend on God, we'll take matters into our own hands,
we won't help our brethren, we won't walk according to God's
Word, we'll do just the opposite. We need God before our face continually. Continually. I've titled this
Setting God Before Us. Now first of all, those who have
God set before them depend entirely upon God. It says here in verse
1, Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. Hear my prayer, O God, give ear
to the words of my mouth. As God's servant, as his righteous,
faithful servant, our Lord Jesus did not attempt to save himself. He never attempted to save Himself.
He didn't try to take matters into His own hand and save Himself. He didn't. This was His prayer. He prayed to the Father to save
Him by His name. And so did David. David prayed
this. Save me, O Lord, by Thy name. What does that mean? Save me
by Thy name. It's by God's name that God is
engaged to help His people. It's by His name that He certainly
will help His people. His name is who He is. His name
is His glory. And this is why God will always
help His people. Turn over to Exodus 33, and let
me show you this in verse 18. You remember whenever this is
Moses praying here, he said to God, verse 18, he said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. Verse 19, and God said, I'll
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee. and will be gracious to whom
I'll be gracious, and I'll show mercy on whom I'll be merciful.
Now look at Exodus 34 and verse 5. The Lord put Moses in the
rock, in the cleft of the rock, because you're going to see God's
name in Christ. That's where you're going to
see His name. And Christ is that rock. Now here's God's name.
The Lord descended in the cloud, verse 5, Exodus 34, 5, and He
stood with him there and He proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the
Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, where are
you going to behold the Lord? Where are you going to see the
Lord? Jehovah, God. You're going to see Him in Christ's
face. In the name of that one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's where you're going to
behold Him. In the rock. The Lord God, where are you going
to behold the covenant God? The Lord God, the covenant God,
God who will never break His promise. He'll never break His
promise to His people. His word is sure. His word never
fails. Our word fails. His never fails. The Lord God. Where are you going
to behold Him? In Christ the Rock. He says there, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth. Where are you going to see God
be merciful to you? Where are you going to see Him
just giving you mercy and mercy and mercy withholding from you
a despicable, wretched sinner? Where are you going to behold
Him just continually holding from you what you deserve? Where
are you going to behold Him giving you grace upon grace, giving
you what you don't deserve, what you've demerited? Where are we
going to behold Him being along suffering to us? Suffering along with us. when
we're rebelling and when we're walking around haughty and puffed
up and in our self-righteousness and looking down on everybody
else, but we don't have any sin. When are we going to see Him
long-suffering to such a self-righteous Pharisee? Where am I going to
behold Him being abundant in His goodness and His truth? I'm
going to behold it when Christ is before my face, the Lord Jesus
Christ. keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and at the same time,
He will by no means clear the guilty. How am I going to see
God forgive all my sin? In His great mercy forgive all
my sin. Sins of fault, sins of word,
sins of deed, sins I don't even know about. When am I going to
behold Him giving me mercy and at the same time killing me like
I deserve? I'm going to behold it in Christ
crucified on the cross and with Him before my face. David's praying for salvation
by God's name. And so we pray by the name of
Christ Jesus the Lord. Why do we ask God for everything
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Why do
we ask everything in His name? Because neither is there salvation
in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. You
know what prayer is? It's asking God to save me. I
don't care what you're asking for. If you're asking God for
it, you're asking God to save you. And the only place we're going
to find that is in the name of Christ Jesus. Not only did David
not try to save himself, David didn't try to justify himself,
neither did our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, judge me by thy strength. Now David was a sinner, just
like you and just like me. David was guilty of much. We've
seen David sin throughout the Scriptures. But Saul charged
him with something that simply was not true. And his enemies
were strong. David's enemies were strong.
So David, rather than taking matters into his own hands, He
put His cause in the hands of the Lord. He trusted it to Him
and said, Lord, You judge me by Your strength. You judge my
cause by Your strength. His enemies were strong, but
He trusted His Redeemer who's stronger. He said, You judge
me. You'll judge righteously. You
judge me. Our Lord Jesus Christ, even when
He bore the sin of His people, and when He was bearing the righteous
judgment of God being poured out upon Him, and He hung there
on the cross, and men are railing on Him, and they're spitting
in His face, and they beat Him, they've done everything they
can, and there He hangs, forsaken. Scripture says, He committed
it to Him that judgeth righteously. What did he do? 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 spitting. Why? For
the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore have I set my face like a flint. I know that I shall
not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? You
mean Christ had to be justified? Yes, sir. Sure did. He wouldn't
have said it if He didn't. Who is He that's going to justify
me? He said, God will. Who's going to justify you? Who's
going to uphold you when the accuser of the brethren accuses
you? God will. If you're His, God will. Christ
will. Who is He that will condemn me?
Brethren, when we are utterly helpless, You're utterly helpless. You can't defend yourself without
just making it worse. Let us cast our care on God to
save us by His name, Christ Jesus. And when the accuser of the brethren
arises, let us put our cause into Christ's hands to judge
righteously for us. This is the name God's engaged
to save us by. Christ bore all the shame of
our sin, He drank the cup of the wrath of God for His people. The cup of the wrath of God. He drank it to the dregs and
drank it dry. He made justice and mercy meet
in harmony by suffering the blows of divine justice for us. I don't
even have a clue what that is. The blows of divine justice. And so it's just and it's right
for God to save us, to judge our cause for us. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? The Pharisee will. The self-righteous
will. The proud will. Those overtaken
in sin will. Those lifted up in pride will.
But it don't matter. If I'm His, it don't matter.
And if you have Him before your face, it does not matter. Why? It's God that justifieth. That's
why. Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who right
now, while I'm being accused, is sitting at God's right hand
interceding for me. I feel sorry for the accuser,
don't you? Secondly, we're told to lay something
to heart. We're told to selah something
here. That means lay this to your heart. God help us lay it to our heart.
This is what we will do if we do not have God before us. Right here, verse 3. Strangers
are risen up against me. And oppressors seek after my
soul. Why do they do this? They have
not set God before them. With David, these men that had
risen up against him, they were not strangers according to the
flesh. They were men of Judah. They
were men of Israel like he was. They were His kinsmen after the
flesh. They weren't strangers to Him.
Not in that sense. And those that crucified Christ,
they were His own kinsmen according to the flesh. He came unto His
own. His own received Him not. And then these men that came
up against David, they were not supposed to be strangers to Him
according to the Spirit. They claimed to worship God.
They claimed to believe Christ, or at least they brought the
lamb that pictured Him. Those that crucified Christ did
so crying out to God. They did so crying out to God.
They did so in the name of God. They did it so they could get
rid of this one on the cross and go back to worshiping their
God. Brethren, should we expect any
different than what our Master suffered? Should we? Think not,
I've come to send peace on earth, he said. I came not to send peace,
but a sword. I've come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of
his own household. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to
his own town, came to his own family, he preached, and they
despised him. They knew him too well. They
said, this is Joseph's son. We know him. We've seen him sweating
over here at the carpenter's shop. He hit his hand with a
hammer and he didn't cuss like we did, but we've seen him over
there sweating like we do. Why are we supposed to listen
to Him preach the gospel? We can't follow Him out of the
pulpit. Why would we dare follow Him in the pulpit? Christ said, a prophet's not
without honor. That's true. God's prophet's
not going to be without honor. Saved in His own country, and
in his own house. But what caused Saul and the
Ziphams to do this to David? What caused them, the religious
and irreligious, to crucify Christ? What causes a brother to rise
up against a brother as if he were a stranger? What causes
a brother to rise up against a brother in Christ, two brothers
in Christ, to rise up against each other and They go at it
against each other. What causes that? They have not
set God before them. We behold Christ before us bearing
our sins. We behold Him bearing our vile,
obnoxious, putrid sins. All the good we've ever done.
That's what it is. All our religious works, That's
what it is. The very best we've ever mustered
up, that's what it is. Not to mention all the stuff
we hide from one another and act like we're something. When we behold Him before us
crying out in our room instead, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? When we behold Him before us
for whose sake God proclaims to us, I forgive thee and I remember
your sins no more. When we behold Him who knows
our sitting and our uprising, who knows all our thoughts, who
knows our sins, and who yet says, I see no fault in you. I'll tell you what happens. That
breaks that stony, proud heart. That's what it does. And it creates
a broken and a contrite heart. It's beholding Christ crucified
in my room instead that makes me hate my sin. I don't know if you hate your
sin or not. But if you're Christ, and you behold Him before your
face, you do. And I know that. Because I despise it. But let me tell you something.
It's not the sin you know about that I despise the most. It's sin you don't have a clue
about. That goes for people in my own household. It don't have
a thing to do with the sin that you know about. Oh, I hate that
sin too. But it's way worse than that. But you see, I can't make you
turn from your sin. I can't make you hate your sin
and turn from it. And you can't make me hate mine
and turn from it. You've got to behold Christ bearing
that sin on the cross. It's beholding Christ crucified
for the multitude of my transgressions. Beholding all my worst vile sins
and there He's bearing my transgressions. It's beholding Him bearing the
load of my transgressions. It's going to make me love my
brethren for whom Christ died and overlooked the multitude
of their transgressions. It's beholding God, forgive me
for Christ's sake that makes me forgive my brethren who've
offended me far, far, far less than I've offended God. Can you
say that? Can you say, I've offended God
far worse than this brother sitting next to me or this sister sitting
next to me. I've offended God far worse than this one for whom
Christ died. How dare I be offended at this
one when God's not offended at me anymore for Christ's sake.
How dare I not forgive this one when God has forgiven me for
Christ's sake. If I'm tempted to rise up against
a brother or sister because they've offended me, I have to remember
this. Now listen to what I just said. When I'm tempted to rise up against
a brother or a sister who's offended me, what do I have to remember? I have to remember who it is
I am really wrestling against. Go to Ephesians 6 one more time.
We saw this on Sunday. If a brother is sinning and I
see them sinning and they're offending me and they're rising
up against me because they offend me by their sin or if I'm in
my state where I see their sin and I'm And I'm offending them
because of how I'm just doing nothing but pointing out their
sin. Either way, whatever place you're in, remember who it is
you're wrestling against. Look here, verse 10. Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. You know what he just said? Keep
the Lord before your face continually. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the craftiness,
the subtlety, the trickery of the devil. Of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. The devil's objective is to have
every child of God not set Christ before us. That's his objective. He don't want you to think that
you wrestle not against flesh and blood. He wants you to think
it's just another sinner you're dealing with. The preacher, that
brother, that sister that's rising up against you is flesh and blood. That's not who's wrestling against
me. No. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We wrestle against the wiles
of the devil. If it's a brother in Christ, if it's a sister in
Christ that's accusing you and rising up against you, you're
not wrestling against that brother or that sister in Christ. You're
wrestling against the devil. That's just how it is. Preacher,
you're just letting your offending brother or sister off the hook.
No. I'm putting the blame where it
belongs. I'm telling us that if I'm going to forgive and if
I'm going to love and if I'm going to be long-suffering, and
not give up on a brother, I'm going to have to realize who
I'm really doing battle with. It's the devil. Oh, that's like
science fiction. You think we're going to be tricked
by the devil? If you don't think you can be,
you already are. If you think you haven't been,
you already are. Because that's exactly what He
wants you to think. The devil's goal is to turn us from God's
Word. He doesn't want a believer to
deal with his brethren according to the Scriptures. He doesn't
want you to see what God says you're to do concerning any issue.
So what do we need to do? Verse 14. We need to always have
our loins girt about with truth. What does that mean? Always have
God before your face. The devil will make you feel
like you're just to condemn somebody that Christ said is justified
by His blood. Just because you're a little
bit offended. And I don't care how offended
you are. It ain't nowhere near how you've offended God. I can
promise you that. I promise you that. But the devil
wants you to think you've been offended and you've been offended
enough. What are we going to have to do? We're going to have
to, verse 14, have on the breastplate of righteousness. We have to
have Christ our righteousness on our heart, before our face,
hearing God say to me, Be ye kind one to another. Kind. Be ye tender hearted. Tender hearted. Forgiving one
another. even as God, holy God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. David doesn't want you to hear
that. He doesn't want you to remember that. Listen to how David had righteousness
on his heart. Listen to how he had this breastplate
on his heart. Saul and his men, they came after
David and they fell asleep because Scripture says God put a big
sleep upon them. And David and his men snuck into
the camp. And they sneak into the camp,
and David sneaks right up on Saul. The man who's trying to
kill him. The man who, if he has just a
glimmer of a chance, is going to stick his spear right through
David's heart. And David knows it. And one of
David's men is standing there, and I don't really doubt this,
probably speaking by the devil. And he said, there he is, David,
let me kill him. He said, I'll smite him once,
he won't get up twice. I'll smite him once, I won't
have to do it twice. And listen to what David said. This is the
breastplate of righteousness on his heart, where he held Christ
his righteousness. He beheld what a sinner he was,
even against this one who was his dire enemy. Listen to what he said. David
said to Abishah, destroy him not. For who can stretch forth
his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? That's the breastplate of righteousness.
You know what he did? He trusted Saul to God. How did he do that? He had Christ
before his face. That's how. But the devil is
going to put walking shoes on our feet. He's going to put good,
comfortable walking shoes on your feet, and He's going to
make you forsake your brother in discord, because you've been
treated less than you should have been treated. You know what
we need? Ephesians 6.15, we must have
our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We must
have God before us declaring how Christ made peace with God
for us even when we were His enemies. And now that we have peace with
God, now that we're friends with God, He'll never leave us and
He'll never forsake us. That's the only way I'm going
to have peace when I'm offended by a brother. And that's the
only way I'm going to have peace with that brother. The devil is going to put shoes
on you to take off, hit the road. My way or the highway. The gospel
of peace puts shoes on you to where you say, I want peace.
I want reconciliation. Because that's what my God has
given to me. I don't deserve it. I don't deserve
it. Oh sinner, you don't deserve
it. But I want peace with you because that's what my God has
given to me and I don't deserve it. The devil is going to shoot fiery
darts and he's going to set you on fire with fleshly lusts of
strife so that all you see is flesh and blood fighting against
you. You got one brother over here and he hears a word from
another brother and he, oh, it burns him up inside. Fiery dart. And usually with the same judgment
that you judge, you're going to get it right back. And so
this brother lashes back at that brother. Fiery dart hits him. And he's just... Next thing you
know, they don't come together and one says something. Fiery
dart into this one. This one says something back.
Fiery dart to this one. They just get worked up and worked
up and worked up and worked up. And the devil's sitting back
with his arrow just laughing. Good show right here. I got two
believers. It don't matter who gets punched,
it's a believer getting punched. It don't matter who gets cussed
down, it's a believer getting cussed down. It's one of Christ's
own. I love it, the devil says. So
what do we have to have? Verse 16. Above all, we must
continually take the shield of faith, having Christ before us,
wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked. It's just hard. It's just hard
to be offended when you see yourself hanging on that cross in Christ. When you see Christ getting what
you deserve, it's hard to be offended. When do we do that? Why do we get offended? Why do
we rail and rail back and rail back and back and forth? Why
do we do that? The devil is going to turn you from having God before
your face and Christ before your face. He's going to use a job.
He's going to use a busy schedule. He's going to use kids. He's
going to use material possessions. He's going to use whatever he
has at his disposal. He's going to use the Word of
God. He's going to take the Word of God and make you think you're
better than your brother is. and He's trying to turn you from
just having your focus on Christ. That's it. The devil's going
to fill our heads with thoughts against the offending one. You
ever done that? You ever been offended, hurt
somebody and you walked off and whoo! They could see inside your
head, it probably looked like an amusement park. Thinking all
kinds of thoughts about them. What I should have said. Or what
I did say. Boy, I put them in their place. We don't have any weapon to protect
us from acting exactly opposite to what God's Word tells us we
should do. How are we going to stop this?
How are we going to protect our head and have a weapon to protect
our heart from doing what God says we're to do? Take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit And I think he's talking about both
of these, which is the Word of God. The helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. I have to hear
God say in His Word that for Christ's sake, He will never
leave me nor forsake me if I would never leave nor forsake my brother
for whom Christ died. I must hear how Christ bore my
burden if I bear the burden of my sinning, offensive brother
or sister in Christ. You realize when it talks about
bearing the burdens, you want to know what that is? Look at
Christ on the cross. He was bearing your burden, believer. He was bearing your sin and your
offenses and your iniquities and your transgressions against
God. That's what it means. I'm not to bear with my brother
when they're sweet and congenial. You don't have to bear their
burden then. You're bearing their burden when they're acting awful
to you and treating you horribly and rallying on you. That's when
you bear their burden. That's when they're sick. That's
when they need somebody to help them. And that's when we usually, the
devil usually turns us from Christ and we say, I've had enough with
that one. Aren't you glad Christ never
did that to you? I must hear God say in His Word
that for Christ's sake He everlastingly loved me to Christ. If what I
do in that situation is I try to love my brother to Christ. You know, when we need each other
most is when we usually turn our back on each other. I'm glad Christ sticks closer
than a brother. He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. That ought to make me never leave
or forsake somebody that offends me, no matter how bad they offend
me. We can't put on this armor except
Christ put it on us. And so verse 18, we have to pray
always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching there
unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
That's what David's doing in our psalm. We can't stand against
the vows of the devil. We have to have Christ's power
resting upon us, the power of His might and His strength keeping
us looking to Him alone. That's what we have to have. Saul got to where David was with
all his men. And he's ready to attack David. And David's been praying, Lord,
you save me. Saul's got 3,000 men with him. 3,000 men. You think about whoever
it is that you got a beef with, whoever's offended you, And it's
probably just one person that you could think of right now.
Well, David had 3,000 of them. Loaded, weaponed out, ready to
just take him out. And they got there, and it says
in 1 Samuel 23, 27, it says, There came a messenger unto Saul,
saying, Haste thee, come, the Philistines have invaded your
land. wherefore Saul returned from
pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines, and
therefore they called that place Silah-Hamah-Lakoth, the Rock
of Divisions. Who's the rock that's going to
divide me from the devil and his seed and protect me from
that enemy and from my flesh and from everything that would
turn me from Christ and keep me looking on Christ and trusting
Christ and dealing in love with no brethren? Who's that rock
of division? It's Christ. That's who it is. And so when
David beheld this, who do you think sent that invading Philistine
army into Saul's land? God did. Who do you think sent
that messenger crying out to Saul? Come, come, the Philistines
are here. God did. And why do you think
he did it? He did it for David, his servant.
That's why. He heard his prayer. That's why
he did it. This one who didn't take matters
into his own hands, this one who prayed to God, really prayed
to God. I can't pray to God and ask Him
to save me while I'm trying to save myself and fix my brother
with my hands. I can't do that. You can't do
both of them because they're opposites. But when you behold God come
and do the work and divide us from that devil and make our
hearts alive again with God's grace, when you behold this,
then all is well with our soul. All is well with our soul. We
have harmony, we have peace, we have love. These two brethren
that were at each other, they'll be stronger than they ever were
before. Why? Because they love Christ
more than they love each other. That's why. They behold Him now
more than they did before. That's why. We behold that He's all our salvation. That's why. Listen to David,
beheld God, turned Saul back. Look at verse 4. Psalm 54. He
said, behold, this whole tone of this psalm changes. Behold,
God is my helper. The Lord is with them that uphold
my soul. David had some men with him too,
helping him. He's saying, God, he's saying
Christ is my helper and He's the helper of my brethren who
are here upholding my life. But as for my enemies, verse
5, He shall reward evil to my enemies and cut them off in thy
truth. And so He makes me worship and
He makes me praise Him from a true heart having Him before my face. And now from a real true heart
I'm no longer asleep. I'm no longer being tricked by
the devil. I'm no longer just seeing flesh and blood anymore.
I behold God by faith before my face in the person of Christ
Jesus my Lord. I behold Him now by faith. And what happens then? Verse
6, I will freely, just because I want to, I'll freely sacrifice,
I'll freely worship Thee. That's what He's saying. I'll
praise thy name, O Lord, for it is good. It's good. For he hath delivered me out
of all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine
enemies. I pray God will bless that. I
pray he'll keep God before our faith. That's the only hope we
got. Amen.