You can go ahead and turn to
Psalm chapter 12 if you would. Our text this morning will be
in Psalm 121, but we'll make a short pit stop on the way to
that text. I want to ask you a few questions,
and I want you to seriously consider them. Who did Christ come in
the world to save? Paul in 1 Timothy 1 verse 15
said that Christ came into the world to save sinners. Are you
a sinner? If you are, that's who Christ
came to save. Why do we go to the doctor? The Lord Jesus said in three
gospel accounts, Matthew 9, Mark chapter 2, and Luke chapter 5. He said, they that are whole
have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Why do
we go to the doctor? We go to the doctor out of need. Who is the gospel for? Simply,
we see from the answers to the first two questions that the
gospel is for sinners who are sick and need help. What does
a saved sinner do when they need help? Well, according to God's
word, they come boldly into the throne of grace to obtain mercy
and find help in time of need. Where do sinners find this help
that they need so desperately? Well, I hope to answer that question
from God's word this morning. I suppose the most important
question that I could ask you is, do you need help? Do you
need help? This week alone, I spoke with
an unbelieving friend who needs help. And I also spoke with a
brother in Christ who also needs help. One didn't know where to find
it, and that's so sad. But the other one did, and that's
such a blessing. I pray that the Lord show us
our need. We are needy people. Now, I want
you to look here at Psalm chapter 12, verse 1. Just the first two
words, help Lord. If you have a marginal Bible,
it probably says in the margin, save Lord. Same thing. Because the kind of help that
we need is salvation. Only salvation will solve all
our other problems. Help Lord. Capital L-O-R-D, which
means Jehovah. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is Christ that gives help.
But let me say this, if you don't have a need, then you won't need
any help. I just told you what our Lord
said. He said those that are whole, those that are well, those
that are doing alright in their own eyes, in their own sight,
have no need of the great physician. But He said those that are sick
do. The problem is most folks today don't know that they're
sick. Sin sick. Can you imagine having
a possessed son or daughter? That Syro-Phoenician woman had
a child that was totally possessed and under the influence of Satan.
Now if her case was anything like the demoniac of Gadara,
how horrible that must have been. And if her situation was anything
like that young man that had the spirit that cast him into
the fire and caused him to foam at the mouth, it must have been
a terrible ordeal. She needed help. She needed help. What was this desperate and broken-hearted
woman's request? It was just a simple one, much
like David's here in Psalm 12. She said, Lord, help me. Help me. Peter's walking on the
water to his master. His faith in the Lord enables
him to do so. But when he takes his eyes off
Christ, and we often do, when he took his eyes off Christ and
he saw the wind boisterous, he became afraid and began to sink. And three words found themselves
to Peter's lips. Do you remember what they were?
Lord, save me. Same two words that David uttered
here. Lord, help, same thing. This
is the simple cry of all God's struggling elect. Those of you
who know and love Christ will say that's so. This short, simple
prayer is effectual, it's effective, only because of who it's to. Lord, capital L-O-R-D, Jehovah,
help me, save me. There are many people, sadly,
who live their lives daily, even to an old age, and never find
out who it is that can help them. I find that so sad. But I speak of much more than
just help with health. I speak of much more than just
help with finances. I'm talking about help with sin. I'm talking about help from escaping
the wrath and the judgment and the justice of God. Lord, help
me. Don't leave me to myself. I'm
talking about fulfilling a desperate need that we're all born with. I'm talking about having our
understanding darkened. I'm talking about being alienated
from the life of God. What trouble? What need? I'm talking about being reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. How do we seek this help that
we so desperately must have and that we so desperately need? Turn with me to Psalm 121, very
short Psalm, just eight verses, I believe. Psalm 121. Where do we find this help that
we so desperately need? Psalm 121, verse one. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. Did you notice that seeking this
help begins with a look? I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills. Now the Hebrew word for hills
is the same as mountain. The natural man looks down, not
up. That's just the way we are by
nature. We look down. We look down to our walk instead
of looking up to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Sorrows,
trouble, and pain causes us to look down. The guilt of sin causes
us to look down. Like the publican in the temple,
we look down, don't we? Just by nature we do. While that
publican would not even so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven.
But David said here, I will lift up mine eyes, not my works. I lift up mine eyes, my hope
is in Christ. I lift up my eyes unto the hills,
to the throne of God. Did you notice that the word
here is hills, plural? I'll lift up mine eyes unto the
hills from whence cometh my help. In the scriptures, we look to
some different hills, some different mountains, whence comes our help. First, we look to Mount Sinai. You may ask, how can there be
any help coming from Mount Sinai? That's where the law of God was
given. The law of God condemns me. The law of God reveals God's
holiness. The law of God reveals our sinfulness. How can I find help there? The
law of God reveals God's strict justice. The law of God reveals
our inability to keep it. So how does the law of God help
us? Well, if not for the law of God,
we would have never known sin. But by the law, I would have
not known lust, Paul said, except the law had said, thou shalt
not covet. The law was our schoolmaster
to teach us, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by
faith, that we might see that we cannot keep the law. And that
the law was given to show us our inability of keeping it and
bringing us to Christ. But after that faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. Our hope, our help begins at
the hill, the mountain called Mount Sinai. And it's there that
we discover that our sin must be dealt with. It cannot be excused. Holy justice requires that sin
be punished, that sin's debt be paid. And it's at the next
hill that we discover that God will provide himself a sacrifice
for sin. And I speak of Mount Moriah. You remember Mount Moriah? That's
the mountain that Abraham traveled up with his son Isaac. God had
told Abraham to take thy son, thine only son, the son whom
thou lovest. and offer him on that mountain,
which I will tell thee of. And Isaac said, father, as they
traveled up that mountain, you know the story well. He said,
father, behold the fire, I see the wood, but where is the lamb
for burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, and
I love this because it's the gospel. He said, my son God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of
them together, just the same as the father and his son went
together up another mountain. And I speak of Mount Calvary. Just as God provided on Mount
Moriah a sacrifice for himself, and that sacrifice being himself,
it was only a picture of the true sacrifice made on Mount
Calvary where the Son of God actually did voluntarily lay
down His life for His people. Jesus Christ is the substitute
and the sacrifice for His people's sin. Now remember Mount Sinai
tells us that sin's got to be dealt with. God's too holy to
excuse sin. The soul that sinneth, it must
surely die. Sin's got to be punished in order
for God to remain just. And it'll either be punished
in and on you, are in and on a sacrifice, a worthy sacrifice,
a worthy substitute. Friends, Jesus Christ is that
one sacrifice for sin. You and I never grow tired of
hearing that. Why? Because that's our only hope
of being reconciled to God. For He, Christ our Lord, put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That one sacrifice for
sin forever. That's a long time. He cried,
it's finished. And I cried, Lord, help me. Lord, save me. And now because
of his sacrifice on Calvary's mountain, he can help me. He died the just for the unjust
in order to bring us to God. I must be reconciled to God.
And only he can do so. Lift up your eyes into the hills.
Look to Mount Sinai and see your need of a Savior. Look to Mount
Moriah and see that the Lord will provide. Look to Mount Calvary
and see that the Lord did provide. You can trust the Savior. He's
God. And that's why I ask you to look
to another one of these glorious hills, glorious mountains. Look
to Mount Carmel and see that there's only one God. Elijah told the people, if God
be God, follow him. If Baal be God, follow him. How
long will you halt between two opinions? He said, the God that
answereth by fire, let him be God. Now the God of Elijah answered
by fire. The God of Elijah is a consuming
fire. And he consumed the sacrifice. You see, Elijah's God is the
real God. Our God is the real God. He's
the only true God. The God that answers by fire,
let Him be God. God has accepted Christ our sacrifice
for the remission of sin. What He offered on Calvary's
mountain, God's wrath, judgment, and justice was poured out on
Him until God said, that's enough. And Christ said, it's finished.
God's judgment against sin was extinguished and it was terminated. And now we can stand with Moses
on Mount Pisgah. It's the hill, the mountain on
which we can stand and see the land of promise. Would you turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 4 with me for a second. Keep your place
in Psalm 121. Let's look at this. Deuteronomy
chapter 34. Mount Pisgah. Look at verse one
of Deuteronomy chapter 34. And Moses went up from the plains
of Moab and to the mountain of Nebo to the top of Pisgah. That is over against Jericho.
And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead and to Dan and
all of Naphtali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh. and
all the land of Judah, and to the utmost sea, and the south,
and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees
unto Zor. And the Lord said unto him, this
is the land which I swear unto Abraham, and Isaac, and unto
Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. I have caused
thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shall not go over thither.
So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land
of Moab according to the word of the Lord. Now we've looked
at this in times past. We looked at it in our study
of Joshua. But the law, which is represented
by Moses, cannot take you to the land of promise. But Joshua,
Jehovah can and must. I was thinking about what Paul
wrote in Romans chapter eight. He said, for what the law, Moses,
could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh. God sending
his own son, Joshua, Jehovah, in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. And we sing that hymn,
Sweet Hour Prayer, and we sing till from Mount Pisgah's lofty
height, I view my home and take my flight. And from Mount Pisgah's
lofty height, I see another hill in the distance. And I speak
of Mount Zion. John in the book of Revelation
chapter 14 verse 1 said, and I looked, And lo, a Lamb stood
on the Mount Zion." Mount Zion, this is the city of David. It's
said that the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides
of the north. It's the city of the Great King,
capital K. That's not speaking of David,
that's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the city of the
Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And back in Psalm 121, again
we read in verse one, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills
from which cometh my help. Well, there's six of them right
there that we look to to find our help. Look at verse two,
my help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
The psalmist here reminds us that the Lord, Jehovah, can help
because he's able to help. He's the God which made heaven
and earth. That should be our first clue.
The Lord is a powerful help. The Lord is a constant help.
The Lord is an eternal help. Heaven and earth are at the disposal
of the one who made them. The maker of heaven and earth
is mighty to help. My help cometh from the Lord. Lord, help. Lord, save. When you see folks who don't
have Christ, I try to imagine what it must be like to live
in a world without Christ and to not have the help of a sovereign
creator. And when I say help, I mean much
more than just assistance. God's people have a God who sovereignly
works all things together for the good of them that love Him.
Those who are called according to His purpose. And just as I
said in the beginning, help with temporary things is just that,
it's temporary help. We need eternal help. I need eternal life. I need for
my sin to be put away forever. I need for Christ to pay my sin
debt so that it's paid and God remembers it no more. Remember,
sin must be dealt with. And I'm sin sick. Do you see
that you're sin sick? Sin, like leprosy, permeates
my mind and my body and my soul. I need the great physician. I
need the great physician. I see that I'm sick. And I see
that I have a great need. And I know that I must have his
help. But not everybody does. It's
something that's given by divine revelation. And I've looked to
Mount Sinai and I've seen that God will punish sin. And I've
looked to Mount Moriah and I've seen that God provides for us
that which we cannot provide for ourselves. And I've looked
at Mount Calvary and I've seen that the Lord Jesus is my substitute
and my sacrifice for sin. So I have great confidence that
the Lord will help me. That the Lord will save me. And
I can shout with confidence, with certainty and with assurance
that my help cometh from the Lord. He's able to help. He's willing to help. He has
power over all flesh. I know you know this, most of
you do, but we don't serve the weak, pathetic, and puny God
that this religious world makes God out to be. We don't. Look
at the first part of verse three. He will not suffer my foot to
be moved. You know, if the foot slips,
the whole body falls. I've experienced that a time
or two. I've looked up and there was my foot and the fall was
hard. The paths of this life are slippery. There are many
missteps, many stumblings and falling in this life. But what
a comfort to know that God will not allow the believer's foot
to slip. When Teresa and I went to St.
Croix earlier this year to visit with Sandy and Moose. They graciously
put us up in a condo right on the beach. We looked out one
day. We didn't do much while we were
there. My back was in a situation I couldn't do much, but we loved
to sit out there and drink coffee and just watch the ocean. And
we looked out there one day and there was a Coast Guard boat
anchored just a little ways offshore right in front of where we were
staying. Later that night, that ship was
still in the same place and it had its lights on and it was
there all night and the next day still there. That ship was
anchored. And in the course of time, as
the wind blew, that ship might have pointed north for a while
and then west for a while and then if the wind changed, it
was pointing south and east. But the ship itself stayed in
the same place. Why? Because it was anchored. Friends, the winds of life change
our direction often. Sometimes we're pointed in one
direction and then another. But our foot will not slip if
we belong to Christ. We change, we grow older, we
mature along the way. Paul said, when I became a man,
I put away childish things. I think that I've learned to
do some of that by His grace. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord. But our anchor, which is Christ,
will not allow us to be moved. He will not suffer our foot to
be moved. Now look at the rest of verse
3. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Our Lord's attention
is never diverted from us. He's the keeper of the sheep. He never closes his eyes, he
never slumbers nor sleeps. He keeps us when we sleep, but
he never sleeps. Now if a soldier is on guard,
if he falls asleep, it could be detrimental to the rest of
his company. And if the captain of a ship
slumbers and sleeps at the helm or at the wheel, all on board
could pay with their lives. Mr. Spurgeon once told a story
about an experienced captain of a large passenger ship. In
the years that he lived, it was still a very common way to travel
across water by ship. And the story was about this
captain who had, as I said, many years of experience and expertise. And one particular trip, don't
remember the reason, he took his wife and his two sons with
him. And one of his sons was around 16, the other around 14.
And in the middle of the night, the mother woke up the two boys
in a panic. And she said, there's a raging
storm on the sea. Wake up. Wake up. We must be
prepared. We must make ourselves ready.
And the younger son said, mother, is father still at the helm of
the ship? And she said, yes, of course. And the boy responded
this way, he said, Mom, if it's all the same to you and Father
is at the wheel of the ship, I think I'll just go back to
sleep. The captain of our salvation never slumbers nor sleeps. What a comfort that is. The psalmist
repeats that very thing in verse four. Behold, he that keepeth
Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Now look at verse
five, the Lord is thy keeper and the Lord is thy shade upon
thy right hand. Here we have two additional titles
of the Lord, keeper and shade. You know, I was thinking about
this, the titles of the Lord always represent his promises
to us. For example, as our shepherd,
we possess all the promises that the great shepherd promises the
sheep in John chapter 10. Let me just remind you of a few. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Well, that just makes the title
shepherd precious to me. He gave his life for me. I am
come that they might have life abundantly, said the shepherd.
I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep. You know, a lot of
folks talk about knowing God, but the issue is does God know
you? Depart from me, you doers of iniquity. I never knew you. The good shepherd says, I know
my sheep, and my sheep know me. We know him because he first
knows us, as we love him because he first loves us. I lay down
my life for the sheep. Oh, doesn't that make the title
of shepherd precious to you? I have other sheep which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. All those years I was
out in that pasture, I didn't know I was one of the Lord's
sheep, but I was. And he said, him I must also
bring. There shall be one fold and one
shepherd. You believe, the shepherd said,
because you are my sheep. Why, that's why we believe, because
we belong to him. And others don't believe because
they're not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Who? God's sheep. All the blessings
and promises found in that title of shepherd. My sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life.
They shall never perish. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. My Father is greater than all,
and I and my Father are one." Oh, do you see all the wonderful
promises the sheep have because Christ is the Shepherd? And then
you start thinking about other titles like Father. He chastens
those whom He loves. As a child of the Father, you're
an heir to all that He has. And if children, then heirs,
heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. And
here we have that little title, Keeper. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and Him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. That means Christ is going to
keep us. With Christ as our Keeper, we're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. Christ is the shade of our right
hand. You know, in eastern countries,
the sun is so intense and the desert is so hot and dry, that
shade is a treasured commodity. I used to have a friend that
used to tease me and tell me that he was going to make some
extra money by selling me a shade. Shade is a precious commodity
when you're in the sun. But Christ is our shade. He's
our comforter. He's the shade, the shadow upon
thy right hand. He's at the right hand of His
people to teach them, to lead them, to hold them up safely,
to counsel and direct, to comfort and protect. What a God we serve. And there are two things that
I absolutely love to think about. How God saves me by His grace,
and how God keeps me by His grace. Oh, if He saves me and I could
lose my salvation, what comfort then would even salvation be?
But He not only saves me, He keeps me. God reveals to his
lek that they are sheep prone to wonder. And that's why this
little Psalm is about Christ who is a present help in times
of trouble. And you can't read this Psalm
and not consider how many times the words keep, keeper, and preserve
are mentioned. Verse three, he that keepeth
thee. Verse four, he that keepeth Israel. Verse five, the Lord
is thy keeper. Now look at verse seven. The
Lord shall preserve thee. Same word. The Lord shall keep
thee from all evil. Not just some evil, not just
most evil, but from all evil. We are kept. All includes everything
and it excludes nothing. Evil within and evil without. Evil, great or small. Evil, present
and future. Evil, temporary and eternal.
God preserves us, keeps us from all evil. And look at this. The Lord shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall keep thy soul.
This body in which we dwell in is only a temporary dwelling.
I think most of us have figured that out. All believers will
one day receive a new glorified body, and the most important
preservation that our Lord can do for us is the preservation
of our soul. The soul is the real you. The
soul is the real me. In the soul, the Lord preserves
and keeps me forever. And in verse eight confirms that
very thing. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in. Have you ever thought about that?
I think it was Brother Mahan I heard saying a message one
time. He said, we go out of childhood into adolescence. And we go out
of adolescence into adulthood. The Lord preserves us. We go
out of middle age into our senior years, and it happens very quickly. And it was the Lord that preserved
our going out and our coming in. We go out of our parents'
home and into our own lives. It wasn't that long ago. It seemed like just yesterday
that I left my mom and dad's home and began my own life. We
go out of our home into employment, whether the office or whether
the coal mine, whether the farm or the factory, the Lord preserves
us. The Lord keeps His people. We
go out of employment into retirement, and we go out of the strength
of our frail bodies, and the Lord will preserve our souls. What a comforting thought. From
our coming in and our going out, from this time forth and even
forevermore is what the passage says. My encouragement to you
this morning is this. Believe on and in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Trust yourself to Him. Can you
do that? Not apart from His grace. I need
help with that too.