Back here in Psalm 11. Now it
says there in verse 1, this is a psalm of David. And David begins
there with, In the Lord put I my trust. Now that's what we're
going to see as being the theme throughout this psalm. David saying, In the Lord put
I my trust. In the Lord. Now, those that
have been born of the Spirit of God and given faith by God,
we have one Counselor. That Counselor is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the Counselor. He is our
Counselor. And any counsel that is not according
to the word of our Counselor is vain counsel. We heed His
counsel. Those that are born of God and
believe Christ, we have a confidence in Christ. And our confidence
in Christ is this. Thy God reigneth. He's God our
Savior. And He reigns. He reigns over
everything, everybody, every situation at all times. He's
our confidence. And those who trust Him will
triumph. We will be victorious. Because
though we're like lambs right now to the slaughter, though
we're killed all the day long, we're more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. Faith is the victory because
faith lays hold of Him who makes us to triumph. Now those are
the three things we're going to look at in this text. We're
going to look at, number one, vain counsel. And then we're
going to look, number two, at the believer's confidence. And
then thirdly, we're going to look at why the believer's triumph
is certain. And I want you to stay with me
because this third point is where we're going to really see Christ
in all of this, but I've got to go through this with you first
so that you can then see Christ in it. Alright, let's begin here
first of all. I've titled this confidence over
vain counsel. Confidence over vain counsel.
And here's what I want you to get. Heed no other counsel. but the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him till the end and
we'll triumph by Him. Alright, now here's the vain
counsel itself in verse 1. David said, How say ye to my
soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? Now, I began to look
at this, and I thought, well, let me see where this took place.
Let me find out where this happened that this was told to David.
And the more commentaries I read on it, they would say a place,
but then I'd go to that place and look, and it wouldn't be
there. Every place I looked, when Saul was after David, David
fled. David fled a lot. He fled a lot. And he was given this counsel
to flee. That was the counsel he was given.
But David wanted us to make sure of understanding something. He
wanted to make sure that those who were counseling him understand
something. And he's referring to this counsel
they've given him as vain counsel. And here's why. Now, the counsel
came to him as an arrow into his soul. It came to him as grieving
to him. He said, how say you to my soul,
flee ye as a bird to your mountain? How is it you're saying this
to me? Why are you saying this to me? And he gives the reason
for this vain counsel, that he was being given this counsel
from others. He says, for or because you see the craftiness
of the enemy. That's what you're looking at,
verse 2. For lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their
arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright
in heart. Now he's, David here is the upright
in heart. He's saying, and you're saying
to me that I need to flee because these folks are wicked and they're
bending their bow and they're shooting at me and they're doing
all these things. And then he said, you're looking at the fact
that the foundations of law and justice are all out of order
in our land right now. That's why you're telling me
to flee. Look at verse 3. This is what he's saying, this
is why you're telling me to flee. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? So they were saying to David,
David look, that you've got King Saul after you. He's supposed
to be the king. He's turned the foundations of
civil order and justice upside down. He's coming after you.
He's got his men with their bows and their arrows and they're
coming after you and they're fleeing after you. Well, we live in a
day where it's just like that. The foundations are destroyed. They really are. They're shaken
up. I'm talking about the foundations that he was talking about, the
government around him and the way things are going. Our government
says, kill the babies and set the killers free. That's what
we legislate in our day. And that's totally contrary to
God's Word. And just as Saul here was the
king, and he was seeking after a man who's upright in heart,
a man who God had ordained to be the king. Saul was just, he
was wicked, and his whole government was wicked, and the way he was
ruling things were wicked. Well, our enemies are wicked,
and their arrows are described as fiery darts of the wicked. That's how they're described
in Scripture. Our enemies are privily. They do work very privily. The Scripture describes those
who came in privily to spy out our liberty, which we have in
Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. Peter
said, there will be false teachers among you. He said, who privily
shall bring in damnable heresies, denying the full, complete, accomplished
redemption that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. And
brethren, the foundations, the government right now, as we see
it in this world, looks like it's all destroyed. But the fact
is, Christ our King, our Head, He's got the government. The
government's on His shoulders and the foundation stands sure
because of Him. What are all these things to
somebody who trusts the Lord? What are all the enemies around
us? That's what David is saying.
What's all of this to somebody who trusts the Lord? David says
there in the beginning of the verse, In the Lord put I my trust. Now what is all this to somebody
who trusts the Lord? What is it? The fearful and the
doubting and the unbelieving heart says, well, if everything's
like it is, what can the righteous do? But the believing heart says,
because Christ reigns, what is it that we cannot do? We can
do anything through Him. We don't look at those things.
True faith, it erases the the word impossible out of the vocabulary. Because we know this, with men
it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things
are possible. Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. He's the one who strengthens
me. So first of all, David is saying
now, be sure you understand that if you're telling me to leave
because of these reasons, that's vain counsel to tell me to flee.
But now look, let's see what his confidence was. What's the
believer's confidence? Here's the second thing. The
believer's confidence is God our Savior. We just sang about
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Our
confidence is the triune God of glory revealed to us in Christ
our King, our Mediator, our Substitute, our Redemption, our Salvation.
Now, here's what our confidence is. Our confidence is we have
the constant presence of God. Verse 4, He said, The Lord is
in His holy temple. Now the many that were saying
to David, flee as a bird to your mountain. That's what they were
telling him. And many times David did flee. But what David, as
I began to look at that, and everywhere I looked and saw David
fled, I began to realize what David's saying here is, you see
me fleeing outwardly. You see me going outwardly, but
know what's in my heart. I'm not fleeing from the Lord.
And I'm not away from the Lord ever. I might leave Jerusalem
and be gone from this mountain. But he said, but the Lord is
in his holy temple. He said, wherever I go, understand
it that the Lord is in his holy temple. First of all, the believer
is the Lord's holy temple. So wherever David went, because
he's born of the Spirit of God, and Christ dwells in him, wherever
a persecuted believer goes, and has to go because of persecution,
which is the only reason David went, wherever he goes, the Lord
of glory is in his holy temple. He dwells in his people, and
he's in his people wherever we go. And then secondly, his church
is his holy temple. You see, we don't get the glory
for building anything in which Christ dwells. Not the inner
man. Christ has to create us anew.
And everything God touches is righteous. When He entered in
that temple in the tabernacle in the wilderness, it was holy
because He entered into it. That was the holiness of it.
And He's the holiness of His child. And He fitly frames His
chosen, redeemed, regenerated children together into one body
and makes us His holy temple. And it's not the building that
is his church, it's his people that is his church. And he dwells
in that temple. So David, when he left, where
he went, it wasn't just David by himself. He had quite a few
men going with him to these places. Men who trusted the Lord and
believed the Lord. And he's saying to them, when
we go from Jerusalem, the Lord's still dwelling in his temple.
He's still walking in the midst of his people. He's with us who
are his church. And David would worship him wherever
he was with those men together. They would worship him. just
the same as they would when they were in Jerusalem. And he said,
know that the Lord is in his holy temple. And then lastly,
when every false refuge that men have built, every temporal
mountain that men put their trust in, every work that men have
done in this earth, and every carnal refuge men have, When
the Lord returns and the elements melt with a fervent heat and
all the earthly mountains themselves are dissolved, the Lord is still
going to be in His holy temple. The Holy Temple is where the
Lord is. And that's what he's saying. The name of the Lord,
the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The name of the Lord is
a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it
and is safe. Understand? That's what he's
saying. This is my confidence. First of all, wherever I go,
the presence of the Lord is with me. He's with me. And then here's
the believer's confidence. Our Lord is absolutely sovereign.
And He's reigning. He's running the show. He says
there next in verse 4, the Lord's throne is in heaven. They said,
Carlos said, lo the wicked bend their bow and they're making
ready their arrows upon the string. Faith answers, the Lord's throne
is in heaven. He's on His throne. He's on His
throne. Let the enemy bend his bow. Let
them shoot all the arrows they got in their quiver. The God
I serve is the Lord in heaven. He can turn the enemy themselves
whichever way He wants to go, and He can turn their arrow whichever
way He wants it to go, so that it misses the mark entirely.
Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Psalm 2-1. Look back there with
me. This is spoken of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is manifest so clearly
in Him. That's where we're coming to.
I'm going to show you this here in just a moment. But David saw this. David saw the Lord's day just
like Abraham did. And this was all his hope. Psalm
2-1. Why do the heathen rage? Why
do they? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord? and against
his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord will have them in derision. So he says,
Don't misunderstand now. My trust is in the Lord. Wherever
I go, His presence is with me. The Lord's in His holy temple.
And he said, And when they shoot their arrows at me, Remember
this, the Lord is on His throne in heaven. He's ruling everything.
And then here's the believer's confidence. It's the omniscience
of God, the all-knowing of our God. Look back there at Psalm
11, verse 4. Those looking at the enemy, they
were saying, but their works are in secret. They're doing
this privily. They're sneaking in darkness
and doing these things to you, David. That's why you should
flee. They're doing these things in
darkness. Verse 4, faith says this, His eyes behold. His eye didst try the children
of men. David said, I'm not trusting in what my eyes can see, I'm
trusting in what God's eyes see. He sees what I don't see. He
sees the wickedness that I don't even comprehend. I wonder how
many times in the course of a day, I wonder how many times Evil
is just right on us that we don't even see, that we don't even
know anything about. But He does. God, our Savior,
sees. He knows. Our sovereign, all-knowing
King, He's not ignorant of what's going on. And He's ruling everything
that is going on. He knows the hearts of everybody
on this stage. And He's ruling everything on
this stage. Everything on it. Jeremiah 23,
24 says, Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall
not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord? Psalm 66, 7. Look over there
with me. Psalm 66, 7. He ruleth by his power forever. His eyes behold the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt
themselves. This is what David's saying.
He's saying, his presence is with me. He's saying he's ruling
everything in heaven. And he's saying, and he knows,
he beholds all this wickedness. All this wickedness. Here's the
next thing about this confidence is, we have the heart of our
Savior in all things. Look at verse 5. Notice these
words. The Lord trieth the righteous,
But the wicked and him that loveth violence, this is talking about
the Lord, his soul hateth. That's a heart matter. That's
a feeling matter right there. His heart hates the wicked. Don't
you, in your heart of hearts, the believer hates what God hates. I hate every evil way. I hate
it when I see it in my own flesh. I hate it when I see it in the
world. I hate it when I'm surrounded with it. I hate every evil way. I don't hate it like I wish I
hated it. I wish I hated it. But God hates it with a perfect
hatred. It says here, him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Him, he says. Not just the violence. Him that loveth violence, he
says, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall reign
snares and fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest. This
shall be the portion of their cup. Now look at this next part.
For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. You see, he loveth
righteousness. Has an enemy come upon you? You have experience. You have
an enemy come upon you. Well, when an enemy comes upon
us, whatever it is, it's not by accident. It's not by accident. It's on purpose. According to
the Lord's purpose. His purpose. The Lord trieth
the righteous, David said. So David said, not only do I
have the presence of him, not only do I have him with me all
the time in his sovereign hand ruling and have him with me constantly,
he said, I also have his heart in this matter. He's trying me,
David said. You say, well, how's that showing
the heart of God? Because doesn't a father who
loves his child, doesn't he correct his child? Doesn't he chasten
his child? Doesn't he try his child? David understood something
that we don't always understand, or at least we're slow learning
it anyway. Let me give it to you as simple as I can think
of. You take a father. He's got his young child, his
young son. He teaches that boy, he says, you trust me. If you
get in any kind of danger, any kind of trouble, you look to
me. You trust me. Look to me. So he goes out in
the woods with him. He takes him out, takes him down
a pathway. Walks with him down a pathway.
Knows down here, down this pathway, there's a creek down here. and
it's all covered over with a, the creek's all covered over,
the bridge is all covered over, and the only way we're going
to be able to cross that creek is if that boy gets me to carry
him across that creek. So he carries him down there
to that creek now, and he brings him right to that place where
the little boy can't cross the creek, and he's just looking
at it, and he's thinking, how am I going to get across this
creek? And the Father's carried him there to see now, Has he
learned what I've been teaching him? I've taught him to look
to me when you get in any danger, look to me, trust me, depend
upon me to carry you when you need help. So it takes him to
that place to show him. And that's what God the Father
is teaching us. Christ our Redeemer is teaching
us in every trial, in every pathway that leads to something that
is just, you just find yourself cast down and surrounded by the
enemy. He's saying, trust me. And He's taking you down that
path now. He's taking you right there to
that path to show you now, have you learned what I've been teaching
you? Are you going to turn to me now? And he's not going to
let us not turn to him. He's in control of everything
that's going on. And Saul didn't come upon David for no reason.
David's going to be the king over Israel. He's going to be
the king in that land. And so for the time being, the
Lord has Saul there reigning in that position as king, and
he's persecuting David the whole time. And you know what the Lord's
doing? He's taking David to king school. He's putting him through king
school. He's teaching him how to be a king. And he's teaching
him, no matter where I elevate you to, David, no matter what
position I give you, David, no matter what title you have, David,
no matter what authority you have, David, no matter what power
you have, David, You're always, always dependent entirely upon
the Lord. And that's what he's teaching
David in all this. And David said, I got the love of my father
here. He's trying me. He's teaching
me this. That's what he's doing. He's
teaching me this. It's hard for us to get that, isn't it, when
we come to that creek? When the Father leads us down
that path and He leads us to that little place in the creek
where we can't cross unless we turn to Him, we want to look
to every other way and every other thing and listen to a lot
of vain counsel. Vain counsel that's telling us,
you know, what you ought to do is go do this. And they're saying,
flee from your mountain. flee from Him. They're saying
to us, you know, and it may sound like real good counsel to us,
but the Lord's bringing us to it to tell you to stop and look
to Him and trust Him and lay it on Him. He's the one that's
holding the reins. He's the one that's carrying
us. He's doing it. And He's not making the wicked
do something they don't want to do. He was using Saul and
a host of wicked men to do this, the Lord was. He wasn't making
them do something they didn't want to do. He just let them
do what they wanted to do. It was in their heart to do it.
They wanted to kill David. That was what was in their heart.
Verse 5, And he'll recompense the wicked, the Lord will. The
wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked
he'll rain snares, and fire, and brimstone, and a horrible
tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup. Psalm 76. I want
to look at this scripture one more time, and make sure you
get this. This is what I'm saying to you.
This is what David is saying. Surely, verse 10, Psalm 76, 10. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. You see wrath in this world?
You see wickedness in this world? It's praising God. You say, I
don't understand how some of the wickedness that's going on
in this world could be praising God. Would you have ever thought
the wicked hands that were nailing the nails in the Prince of Life's
hands on the cross was glorifying God? If me and you looked at
it, we would have said, God's not going to get any glory out
of this. If we didn't know what we know
now, we wouldn't have. All the wickedness in this world, the
wrath of man shall praise thee. What about the remainder of it?
the remainder of rash that thou restrain. Whatever don't praise
him, don't come to pass. It's just plain and simple. So
if you see wickedness, that gives my soul great comfort. If I see
wickedness, especially to me personally, I know this, God
loves me. He's trying me because he loves
me. He's correcting me, he's teaching me. Now son, I've taught
you, trust me and don't look anywhere else. That's what he
teaches me. He's doing this because he loves me. And I know this,
He's going to recompense the vengeance upon wicked hands.
I just know it. That's what David knew. So, whenever
the wicked go to great lengths to persecute and distress us,
it's not to weaken us, it's to strengthen us. It's to strengthen
us in the Lord. And he made that lesson known
in David's heart. He always makes it known in his
child's heart. He does. He makes it on his child's heart.
He's not going to stop until he's got that lesson in our heart. And then we forget it. He brings
it to us again, teaches it to us all over again. He just keeps
teaching us the same basic lesson all over and over again. You
know what the basic lesson is? Trust God. Trust God. Don't look anywhere else. Put
all your confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't look anywhere
else. That's the lesson of the whole
book. That's the lesson of every trial. That's the lesson of all
wickedness and all evil and everything. How many times do you feel like
that? How many times do you come to a place? I have tried purposely
not to listen to the politicians. during this time of the year
during this season. Because I get to the point where I just really
throw up my hands and think what what can we do? There's nothing
we can do. The foundations are just broken
up. But when I go to this word, and
I hear about God and what God said, then I just think the foundations
are standing sugar. All this is serving his purpose.
Exactly. Exactly. Alright, now let's go
to this last point here. I want you to see this. This
is why our triumph is certain. Verse 7. For the righteous Lord
loveth righteousness. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance, His face doth
behold the upright. His face beholds the upright. Now who's the upright? Truly
who's the upright? The upright's Christ. He's the
upright one. He's the upright one. God's own
son, our mediator. He's the righteous one. And the
Lord beholds Christ constantly. And he beholds his elect in Christ
constantly. Look over at Mark chapter 8.
Mark chapter 8. David is a picture here of Christ
in so many ways. David faced all these trials. He faced so many trials that
you and I face, that we face. When we read the Psalms, we like
the Psalms so much because in David, who was used to pen most
of them, we see another man suffering a lot of what we suffer. But
those Psalms, all these Psalms are Messianic Psalms, all these
Psalms are about Christ, every one of them. And Christ suffered
not just some of the things we suffered, He suffered everything
that you and I will ever encounter, infinitely more so. David, just
like you and I, he often stumbled in his trials. Some of those
times when he was fleeing, he wasn't fleeing in faith, he was
fleeing in unbelief. And the unbelief was mixed with
him even when he was believing the Lord. But our Lord never
did stumble. He never did stumble. Scripture
says, he shall not fail. And he never has failed in anything
he's done. David was hunted by wicked men.
Saul is a picture of Satan, and all his men are a picture of
the seed of Satan. They were hunting David. Christ
was hunted by wicked men, just like David was. And David was
given advice to flee. by folks who weren't giving Him
this advice in faith. They were giving Him this vain
counsel to flee. Christ was given that same kind
of advice, but He didn't heed it, because He's the upright
one. He's the faithful one. Look at Mark 8.31. 8.31. And He began to teach them that
the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the
elders and of the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and
after three days rise again.' And he spake that saying openly.
And Peter took him and began to rebuke him." You know what Peter is saying
to him? Don't do that. Flee to your mountain.
flee. Don't, don't, don't, don't go
and be killed of these men. What did the Lord say to him?
But when he turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked
Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savorest
not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
You remember when he said that to Satan when he was being tempted
in the wilderness? The Lord said, Get thee behind
me, Satan, for it's written. And he said, Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. You know what
our Lord was doing every step He took through this earth? for
those saints in the past and for those saints present. You
know what he was doing for them as he walked this earth? He was
walking this earth as the righteous, upright son of man. There's only
been one. He's that one. He was walking
this earth in perfect faithfulness, in perfect love, as the representative
man, establishing perfect righteousness for his people. Our faith is
faulty. Our service is faulty. Our worship
is faulty. It's completely faulty. Everything
about it. But even our worship and our
faith and our service of God is perfect in Christ because
as a man, this one who is the God-man, but as the man serving
the Father. He worshipped God perfectly,
uprightly. He served God uprightly. He did it faithfully. Even when
his own dearest disciples said, flee to your mountain. Don't
go and be killed of these men. He said, Not so. Do you see that
in David? Do you see the picture we see
of David there? David said, no, no. God's on his throne. And Christ is showing us the
perfect fidelity between God and a perfect man. Now don't
misunderstand me. Christ is God. He is God. He
is the God-man as the representative of his people. The reason God
receives us is because there's the perfect man. There he is.
Worshipping God. Believing God. Believing everything
the Father told him. Trusting Him. All the promises
of God. And worshipping God faithfully
in perfect obedience. I said to you not long ago, when
we were baptizing some of the brethren here, I said to you,
you know, Christ went into the waters of baptism That symbol
that pictured what he did on the cross, he actually went into
the waters of baptism and did that perfectly. I need somebody
to have been baptized in just water baptism perfectly for me.
Because when I was baptized in water baptism and confessing
him, I didn't do that perfectly. He did that perfectly. He's the
prophet. I'm standing here sinning enough
when I'm preaching to you to send me to hell a thousand times.
I need somebody to preach for me perfectly. He preached perfectly. He's the perfect prophet. And
if He don't teach us in our heart, we won't get anything from it.
The point I'm making to you is we need somebody to believe perfectly,
worship perfectly, serve perfectly. He's that one in everything He
did. Let's see another place where
He did this same sort of thing, the upright one. Luke 13. Luke
13. Look at verse 31. The same day
there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out,
and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee. What did they say
to David? Flee to your mountain. Why? Because they've got their bows
ready, they've got their arrows ready. They're fixing to kill
you. They're fixing to kill you. Verse 32. in perfect fidelity. He said unto them, Go ye and
tell that fox, behold I cast out devils and I do cures today
and tomorrow and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless,
I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following, for it
cannot be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem." You know
what he's telling him? He's saying, that great Sanhedrin
sitting in Jerusalem, they're the ones who have tried all of
my righteous prophets I've sent. and judged them to be false prophets
and killed them. All the prophets I've sent to
them that they've killed. They're the ones that do it.
And they have a law that they won't do it outside of Jerusalem.
They do it inside Jerusalem. They're going to be tried and
judged inside Jerusalem. And he's saying, I'm not alarmed
at Herod's threats. He's saying, I have two more
days of work to do here. and work to do on the third day,
and he says, and I'm going to come here to Jerusalem where
I'm going to die. And he says, but my life is safe
until I arrive at Jerusalem. And he's saying, you go tell
him therefore that I don't fear him. I'll work here as long as
it's proper, and then I'll go to Jerusalem to die when I finish
my work. Go tell him that. How could he
do that? How could he do that? Again,
he's God. Serving God. Trusting the Father.
He's saying, I'm trusting my Father. Nobody's going to touch
me. I'm going to go lay down my life
of myself when it's time. Nobody's touching me. That's where David got this faith
he had. That's where the man David got
that faith. From Christ who gave it to him. That's the one whom
David trusted. Let's see it again in Matthew
27. Matthew chapter 27. Now, you and I may have thought,
well, I could have withstood that a little more uprightly
when Peter said flee. If it was one of my brethren
that was telling me some counsel that was vain, I could probably
deal with him. and not sin against God. Or you
might say, and you know if it was like the enemies, Herod and
the Pharisees and them trying to entangle me, something like
that, I think I might be able to see that and deal uprightly
as the Lord did there too and not fall away into sin. Could
we be upright? I'm saying to you, we're not
upright. He's the upright one. Could we do it here? Matthew
27, 39. He's hanging on the cross. He's hanging on the cross. And
they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads and saying,
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. You know what they're saying
to Him? Flee as a bird to your mountain. Verse 41, likewise
also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders
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. Some of those enemies that said
that to David, what they said, they were saying it mockingly.
Flee to your mountain, flee to your mountain. That's what they're
saying here. Flee to your mountain, flee to
your mountain. Verse 43, He trusted in God,
let Him deliver him now if He'll have him, for He said, I'm the
Son of God. You know what they're mocking
Him doing? They're saying, flee to your mountain. Flee to your
mountain. Mocking Him. And yet Christ Jesus, the upright
one, when He was reviled, there in unimaginable pain, and about,
God's about to turn the lights out. God's about to pour wrath
out on him. So far, up to that point, he's
just been, this is just what man's hands inflict on him. God's
fixin' to turn his back on him. God's fixin' to turn the lights
out. And yet this faithful one, this upright one, didn't revile
back. You know what he did? He fled
to his mountain. That faithful one trusted the
Father. He trusted the Father like nobody's ever trusted the
Father. He loved the Father. He loved His own. This is the
righteousness whereby God's righteousness is manifest in the faith of Christ. The love of Christ. That love
that justified His people freely. That love and faithfulness that
declared God just and the justifier by bearing the sin of His people
and putting away our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. In Christ,
that darkness covered the earth. And Christ said with a loud voice,
it is finished. He said He was going to perfect
His work, didn't He? He said, go tell Herod, I'm coming here
and I'm going to be perfect. I'm going to perfect my work.
In the days of His flesh, He offered up strong prayers with
crying and supplication to Him because in that He feared. He
trusted the Father. And it says, and he became the
author of eternal salvation, being made perfect, having completed
the work, having finished the work, having perfected faith.
He's the author and finisher of faith. That's what he is.
And having perfected that which is faithful before God. Then
he said this. This was his last word of faith.
He said, it says in Luke 23, 46, when Jesus, Luke 23, 46, When Jesus had cried, this is
after he said it's finished. Luke 23, 46. When Jesus had cried with a loud
voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost. He trusted his father. Now that's
the faith and the love whereby God's elect children are justified
and made righteous. And when he gives us faith, when
he did that, you know what happened? That veil rent in the temple
from top to bottom. It declared perfection of holiness,
perfection of righteousness, perfection of the complete atonement
accomplished for every elect child of God, perfection by the
holy faith and the holy love of Jesus Christ our righteousness. That's what it declared. And
when He writes this law in our hearts, when He comes and gives
us a new heart, you know what happens? The veil rents in two. The veil comes off of that blind,
sin-dead heart, and he makes us to behold Jesus Christ is
everything God has been saying in this book from the beginning
to the end. Jesus Christ is everything the
Law and the Prophets have been saying. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of all the righteousness of the law. Jesus Christ is the end. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the author and the finisher. And
when He makes us to behold that, the believer says, in the Lord
do I put my trust. And everything God does, look
at Acts 2.23. Acts 2.23. Where did David have
this faith that he had? You know why David was suffering?
You know why he was going through what he was going through? He
was suffering the attack of wicked Saul so that God might make him
king over Israel, so that Christ that David might make him king
over Israel. And that's why Christ suffered
like he suffered. Just like David was suffering
to be made king of a temporal kingdom, Christ was suffering
to be made the king of his spiritual kingdom. And now look what he
says here in Acts 2.23. And I'm reading this to you because
these are the words of David. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it." Now that's Peter talking, but Peter says,
he's king now, he's on his throne. That's why David was suffering
what he was suffering, Ravi. The Lord was bringing him through
king's school. He's fixed to be a king and know
how to rule in righteousness. Christ suffered everything he
suffered. Because he was being, as a man, he knows everything
about us now so that he can teach us as the God-man king. The man who knows everything
about us, who knows how we suffer and what we're tempted with and
what we face by wicked men and everything. So he's ruling now
as the righteous king of heaven and earth. A man who's God, God
who's man, there in our nature, together with the divine nature
is in the throne of God ruling for us, brethren. That ought
to mean more to us, even more to us than just knowing that
it's God reigning because it's God who knows us and walk where
we walk in our flesh that's there reigning for us. That's even
better. Now look what David said, for
David, verse 25, for David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the
Lord always before my face. You see, that's what David's
telling us in Psalm 11. He's saying, now don't give me
vain counsel. Don't be doing it because you're
afraid of these wicked men. I'm looking at the Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ who I'm looking at. I foresaw the Lord always
before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should
not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue
was glad. Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope, because Thou
would not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine
Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full with
the joy of Thy countenance." But wait a minute now. Peter
says here, he says, David said that, and David saw him, and
David knew him doing that. And he said, but David was also
speaking about Christ whom you just crucified. And everything
that can be said of David doing that, Christ did all of that
when he walked forth. He saw the Father on his right
hand and on his left, ever before him, ever with him. He would
not suffer his soul to see corruption in hell, but delivered him and
brought him out of there and set him down as his king. Alright, now let's go back to
Psalm 11. Psalm 11. So in our text, brethren, in
the face of all his enemies, David looked to Christ and he
said this in verse 1, and the Lord put on my trust. And he
said, the government's on his shoulder. He said, it's not possible
that the foundations are going to be destroyed. It just looks
like that right now by the carnal eye. It's not possible. And then
he said, verse 4, the mountain I'm fleeing to is this mountain
right here. the Lord in His holy temple, the Lord's throne in
heaven, the one whose eyes behold, there's where I'm fleeing to.
And he said, this is all my hope and all my salvation, verse 7.
Verse 7, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance
doth behold him upright. You see, David knew this. Do you know this? Do we know
this? Nothing. Because the righteous Lord loves
righteousness. Nothing. I don't care how wicked
and how ungodly and how unrighteous it is or how righteous it may
appear to be. Nothing is going to be able to
separate one of God's select children from the love of God
in Christ. Nothing. Because the righteous Lord loves
righteousness. And because His Son established
perfect righteousness for His people, and is the righteousness
of His people, and is executing righteousness in the earth for
His people, there is not the possibility that the righteous
Lord who loves righteousness is going to let anything unrighteous
happen to me or you. Right? You can just mark that
down. That's so. That's so. So let's go home with
this. However great our enemies, Whoever
it is that counsels us to put far from us this trust, resist
it. Resist every whisper of retreat
and cleave to the Lord our righteousness by faith. Look at Revelation
3. Revelation 3. And I want you to remember this
now. The Lord promised David he's
going to put him on a throne in Israel. And he did that. He
put him there. He put him there. He overcame
all these enemies. You know how he overcame them?
He believed the Lord. He overcame them by faith. He
trusted the Lord. And the Lord did it. The Lord did what he
said. And now David is with him. Now the Lord's promised me and
you brethren, keep trusting Him, keep believing Him. He that continues
to the end is what the Lord promises. Verse 21, to Him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame
and have sat down with my Father in His throne. See that? Next time we get a little sideways
and we think, look at the kings of this earth, the rulers of
this earth, and we think, man, the foundations are all messed
up, you keep trusting the Lord. Keep believing the Lord. Just
like he put David on his throne. He said, I'm gonna bring you
and sit you in my throne with me. Just like my father gave
me his throne, I sit with him in his throne. You know what
that's called? How could Christ sit in the Father's throne and
Christ make me to sit in his throne with the Father How are
we all gonna be sitting in that throne? The picture there is,
there ain't but one gonna be sitting in that throne, that's
him. But the picture there is this, we're one brethren, one. He's made us kings and priests
unto God, in our king and our high priest, Christ Jesus. Amen.