Alright brethren, let's begin
this morning's service. Our text is Psalm 20. Psalm 20. And this psalm begins in prayer
and it ends in our rejoicing. that this prayer and our rejoicing,
it concerns the church's champion, the church's champion, and that
champion is the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous and our Lord. He's our banner. He's our ensign. That is the one in whom we are
gathered and we look to him And we rejoice in Him because He's
all our salvation. We march under His command and
His rule. In Him we are fighting the good
fight of faith, laying hold on eternal life whereunto we have
been called. I've titled this message, Heard
in the Day of Trouble. Heard in the Day of Trouble. And I want to begin with this
prayer, which is lifted up by the church, this prayer of the
church. And what we understand, what
the Lord has revealed to us is that all our eternal hope, The
hope that we have of eternal life is all fixed in. It's all resting upon our faithful
champion. It all rests upon our Lord, our
Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all our hope. He's all that we have. And he's
all sufficient. He's all sufficient for the brethren. And so this here is the church's
prayer and she's looking to her mighty champions coming. She's
looking to her champion who is promised to come and obtain redemption
and deliverance for her. And it says there in verse one,
the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The Lord hear thee
in the day of trouble." She's praying for her Lord. She's praying
that our God hear our Lord, our Champion, in the day of trouble. Now, we've all experienced days
of trouble. I've seen how even a two-year-old
can have a day of trouble and be really upset about things.
But the day of trouble that stands out the most to a believer is
the day that our mediator, or our sin, and our shame before
the Father on the cross, when he bore our load of sin and shame
before his Father, and he suffered and died for his people under
the wrath and judgment of God, which was our due. It was ours
to bear, but Christ bore it for his people. And there, in that
day of trouble, is all our hope fixed. What was done there in
that day, that's where our hope is fixed, looking to the Lord. You know, it doesn't matter how
successful we are in this life. It doesn't matter what things
we can accumulate and what wealth we can gather for ourselves in
this life if we do not have life after. If we don't have eternal
life, it matters not. Our Lord said, what shall it
profit a man? If he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Our Lord ransomed our souls. He purchased us. He purchased
our life with His own blood. So all our hope rests in Him. If I have life and fellowship
and light with my God, it's because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
all rests in Him. I can't do anything about it
in my own works. There's nothing I can bring that
can earn God's favor. It all rests with the Lord Jesus
Christ. So this day of trouble, it was
a day of decision where the church's eyes were fixed Looking to him,
how is this going to go? Will he succeed in that work
which God sent him to do? Is he going to fulfill that which
I need? Is he going to accomplish my
deliverance? Is my hope sure and fixed and
steadfast in him? Because we know our very lives
depend on his success. If we're to live, it's because
he lives. If there's success for us, if
there's life for us, it's because of his success and accomplishment
before our God. It reminds me of David, and David's
the one who wrote this psalm. It was written to turn the hearts
of the people to pray for their king. It was written for the
people to pray for their king. And prophetically, our king is
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no king but the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when David, before he was
even known by the people, when he was just a young boy, He was
standing there before Goliath, and he said these words which
captures our hope fixed in Christ. He said in 1 Samuel 17 verse
47, and he's speaking to Goliath before he slew him, he said,
and all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with
sword and spear, not by the strength of man. For the battle is the
Lord's, and he will give you into our hands." That's what
our Savior did for us. He accomplished our salvation. That wasn't just for David alone,
but for David and all the children of Israel. That victory was accomplished
and obtained. And so for David, he was Israel's
champion in whom the Lord prevailed over the Philistines that day.
And Christ is the church's champion in whom our enemies are defeated. Our God has prevailed in his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've prevailed in him. He's
our Savior. So is there not a greater cause
with Christ than David, who came for our deliverance and wrought
for us this mighty, wonderful salvation for us? This is wrought
for us in the day of trouble. And so looking to that day, the
ancient church of whom we all are members of that body, she's
looking to the Lord's coming. And she prays, the Lord hear
thee in the day of trouble. if he hears you all is well all
is well for me my salvation is accomplished the Lord hear thee
in the day of trouble now here in the West our day it goes from
midnight to At the beginning it starts at midnight and then
it goes all the way until the midnight of the next day. That's how our day works. But
that's not how the Jewish day works. The Jewish day begins
at evening, the evening of one day, and it goes all the way
to the evening of the next day. And so our Lord's day of trouble,
it began for him in the garden of Gethsemane. When he was in
the Garden of Gethsemane, that day of trouble began for him,
and it went until that time when he was taken down from the cross
in the evening of the next day. In Matthew 27, we're told that
when the even was come, when evening was come, Matthew 27,
57 and 58, when the even was come, there came a rich man of
Arimathea named Joseph. And he also was Jesus' disciple. And he went into Pilate boldly
and asked for the body of Christ. And when Pilate had confirmed
with the centurion that Christ had been sometime dead, then
he gave the body to Joseph. And so Christ died on that cross. And then in the evening of the
next day, that's when they took the body of Christ down, the
lifeless body, the dead body of Christ, down and gave it to
Joseph. You know, when we think of our
troubles, there's been times of great affliction in the Lord's
people. I've had times where I was greatly
afflicted and chastened because of my sin, because of something
I had done, and I was greatly troubled by that. where the Lord
showed me my sin, showed me just how vile I am in myself, how
filthy I am, how foolish and ignorant and dark and careless
I can be. The Lord shows that to his people. And during that time, I felt
a great sense of condemnation. I saw my sin and how I sinned
against the Lord and I felt as though I were a castaway. I felt
as though God's wrath was upon me and that I had just done so
foolishly despite the spirit of grace. And what hope could
I have in the Lord? And I was afraid and terrified
thinking I was gonna be cut off. and that my heart would grow
hard to my sin and that I would just continue on in that sin
and was fearful. And that fear lasts until the
Lord breaks in upon the heart and comes with a time of rejoicing
and renewing in the Holy Ghost. in turning me away from self
and my foolish thoughts. And so grace, rather faith being
granted to his child who's being chastened for their sin, that
faith being granted, that's when we're turned from despair. And that's when we're turned
from the hopeless scramble in our mind looking to some work,
some way, something that we could do to make this right so that
the fear and the anxiety and the horror that's in our souls
is removed from us. But the Lord turns us from that
because there's nothing we're going to do that's going to remove
that stain of sin and relieve that sense of guilt. If we can
find a relief from guilt and the stain of sin in something
we can do, well that's not grace, that's of the flesh. But the
Lord, he's the one who turns us from self, turns us from scrambling
and worrying and looking to something we can do to heal ourselves and
sets our eyes upon the blood. He turns us to see the blood.
as He sees the blood, the one in whom all our sins are forgiven,
and we see His grace. And so that chastening, that
chastening of sin, and it brings us to see how I'm nothing apart
from Christ. My works cannot save me. My works can't purge me, because
when I was thinking of those things, I found no relief. and
no comfort and no rest in those things. I found no rest until
the Lord by faith showed me the blood of Christ is sufficient
for all my sins. And He has put away my sin. And though my heart didn't get
hard, but He softened it and turned me again to His Son."
Turned me again to look to Him. And that's what the Lord does.
He turns us, He gives us repentance from dead works. We may think
of those things and wonder if they'll help us, but he turns
us from them because we find no rest in something we do. We find only rest and peace in
the Lord Jesus Christ. and seeing Christ and knowing
that my God receives me in my Lord, it flows from that warmth
and that fellowship that we have with God in Christ our Savior,
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're strengthened
and comforted of Him and the reason why we have that peace. is all because our Savior went
there in the day of trouble, bearing our sin and shame, and
put it away. That He overcame all our enemies. He endured the suffering and
the wrath that was our due for our sin, and He put it away. Christ has obtained remission
of sins for His people. We see in Hebrews 9.14, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. And so in Christ,
when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Christ Jesus
the righteous. He is our righteousness. And our Lord turns us from dead
works. He gives faith to look to Christ
and believe Him. And it's all because our Lord
accomplished our redemption in the day of trouble. The day of trouble He endured
for us. Now I don't fully understand what my Savior endured for me,
for his people that day. I receive it by faith. I believe
Him. I trust Him. I know that He accomplished
the Church's salvation. All her sins are put away. She
has obtained eternal life in her Lord, every part of it, so
that none of the sheep of Christ can be lost. It's finished. The
work is finished. And the scriptures, they describe
for us what our Savior did for us, what he accomplished, how
that he bore our sins there on the cross. It says in 2 Corinthians
5 21, for God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew no
sin. He's the spotless Lamb of God.
He knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. In Isaiah 53 10, He tells us
that his soul was made an offering for sin. And then in verse 11
of that same chapter that he is the righteous servant who
justified many bearing their iniquities. Christ did that. Christ did that for his people.
So that now in Romans 5 verses 9 and 10 we're told that we are
now justified by the blood of Christ and we're reconciled to
God through his death. Christ's righteousness is now
my righteousness by the imputation of God. God has imputed to us
righteousness because Christ has made us righteous. An imputation is declaring what
you are. Christ has made us righteous
and so God has imputed righteousness to his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord and Savior is the Lamb
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. who even now
liveth in me, so that I live by the faith, the life I live
in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2.20. And Hebrews 9.12
tells us that by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And so you
know what that tells me? That tells me that Christ was
heard in the day of trouble. He was heard in the day of trouble. Brethren, rejoice in your Savior. He was heard in the day of trouble. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He was forsaken of God in the
day of trouble. It says in Matthew 27, 46, he
cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthanai,
which is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And so my Lord bore the shame
and the suffering on that day of trouble for me. He gave His
life in order that I should have life. Your Lord gave His life
to give you life in Him. Our Lord was heard there in the
garden by the Father. It says in Hebrews 5, verses
7 and 8, who in the days of His flesh when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in
that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered." So he was heard there in the
garden. Our Lord tells us that when he prayed, Lord, not my
will, but thy will be done." He was strengthened by an angel. That's Luke 22, 43. He was strengthened
by an angel from heaven who comforted him. And then our Lord's cries
were heard by the Father from the cross. He was heard on the
cross when he cried out to the Father. Hebrews 5, 9-10 says,
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him, called of God and high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. And so our high priest is even
now set on high at the right hand of the throne of God, interceding
for his people before the throne of the Lord. And this is brought
up in the next phrase. Look back in our text there in
Psalm 20, verse one. It says there that the name of
the God of Jacob defend thee. And if you have a King James
Bible there in the margin, it actually means that he has set
thee on a high place. Our Lord is set in a high place
for his people. He's set at the right hand of
the throne of God. As the Lord said unto my Lord,
sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Our Lord is set on high. He's
set on high, and he's interceding for his people. Our God heard
the prayer of the church, which he raised to God for her champion. He heard our prayer. It says
in Psalm 20, verse 2, send thee help from the sanctuary,
and strengthen thee out of Zion. And he was strengthened, as we
mentioned before. Our Lord was crying out to the
Father, crying out to him, and he was heard by the Lord. And an angel strengthened him.
And then verse three, remember all thy offerings and accept
thy burnt sacrifice, Selah. Our God receives us in Christ
because he received the offering and the sacrifice of his son. Then verse 4, that he grant thee
according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. And so the Lord's people all
delivered and set free by their champion, by their Savior, who
released them from the bondage and corruption of sin, and we
are even now made the people of God. Alright, look at verse
5 with me now. Psalm 20 verse 5, we will rejoice
in thy salvation. In our Lord, it's not a labor
for us to serve Him, because we're not under the yoke and
the bondage of the law. The law is heavy. The law is
dealing with the flesh, by the flesh. We're trying to do that
right to work of righteousness for ourselves under the law. But in Christ, it's all of grace. and he's given us his spirit,
whereby we walk being led of him and comforted and taught
of him so that he has secured all our peace. And in the name
of our God, will we set up our banners. What is our banner? Our banner is love. Our banner
is Christ who loved us. We walk under his rule and his
command. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions,
because all the petitions of Christ is good for the people
of God. It's all for our good, and for
our comfort, and for our salvation. All right, verse six. Now know
I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. And so the
church was looking to her Savior who was coming. How much more
do we see and understand now in beholding what our Lord has
accomplished for us? When I was thinking of that,
I actually concluded that it's still all of faith. It's all
of grace, whether you were looking to His coming and the promise
of the Lord, and now we, looking back, still behold Him and believe
Him by faith. It's a work of faith in His grace
for us that we believe the Lord. but it's the blessing of the
Lord that makes us to know our salvation. Like it says there
at the beginning of verse six, now know I. He makes his children to know
their salvation. He makes us to know what he's
accomplished for us. He came and opened the prison
gate and said, go forth. And he's the one who brought
us out of darkness and said, show yourselves. so that we came
into his light and we saw what we are and cried out to him for
mercy and grace and it's all the work of his grace in us that
does that. So he's teaching us more and
more through his gospel so that we're not, we're no longer blind
and ignorant. We don't look at the things of
God with the spirit of this world and of this flesh. We look at
the things of God with the spirit of God. And He's given us an
understanding and a knowledge of what He's accomplished for
us, so that all our praise and all our glory goes unto the Father,
giving thanks for the Son, who accomplished all this in me,
for me, by His grace and mercy, apart from any works in me. He teaches us this, it says in
2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 and 6, it says, the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, has shined
unto us. And that verse was talking about
those who are blinded by the God of this world. That's not
us, brethren. We're no longer blinded by the
God of this world. Our hearts, by the Spirit of
God, have been turned to the Lord. and the veil is removed,
and the light of our God through Jesus Christ shines into our
hearts, giving us a knowledge of the salvation, the great and
wonderful salvation that is wrought for us by our God and His Son,
Jesus Christ, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness.
hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's our light,
brethren, and He's the reason why we know God and have fellowship
with Him. He's delivered us and given us
strong assurances in the promise of Christ. We believe Him. 7 Some trust in chariots, and
some in horses, but we will remember the name of our God. Jesus Christ is the name that
we have been given. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. And then Christ
tells us in John 14, verses 13 and 14, whatsoever ye shall ask
in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my
name, our Lord says, I will do it. And when we ask anything
in his name, it means that we're asking according to the will
of our God. And then we see in verses 8 and
9 that our Savior has defeated all our enemies, sin, death,
which we could not conquer or overcome, and the devil, the
evil one. We're told there in verse 8 and
9, they are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and
stand upright. Save Lord, let the King hear
us when we call. And so brethren, know this, we
are heard because our Savior was heard in the day of trouble. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts. that he comfort you and make
you to rejoice in Christ our salvation. Amen. All right, let's close in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy. We thank
you that in your wisdom, you sent your son to accomplish the
salvation of your people, which we could not do for ourselves. Lord, we thank you for your grace,
your peace, and your mercy which flows to us abundantly and freely
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, help us indeed to pray
for one another and to be a thankful people and rejoice in the salvation
you've given to us in our Savior, in our Lord. It's in his name
we pray and give thanks and look to you. Father, we pray also
for our brethren, for the needs and the cares and any trials
which they are suffering. Lord, help your people. Hear
our prayer, Lord. We know that you do because you
heard the prayer and the cries of our Savior in the day of trouble. Thank you, Lord. It's in his
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right. Good, so we'll come back at 11
o'clock, right at the hour, 11 o'clock.