If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to Psalm, Psalm chapter 12. Psalm chapter 12. Psalm chapter 12. I'm going to read through this eight
verses of this Psalm. The title of the message is simply
the first two words. Help, Lord. Help, Lord. The Psalm of David here, he says,
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail
from among the children of men. They speak vanity every one with
his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart
do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering
lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things, who have said with
our tongue, will we prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is the Lord? Who is Lord
over us? For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety. from
him that puffeth at him." The words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side
when the vilest men are exalted. Help, Lord." David's prayer here
is a prayer for all seasons. It is a prayer for every believer
in Jesus Christ at any time, at any place, in any situation. Two words. Help, Lord. Help, Lord. In this passage,
we know that David is running from Saul after hearing of the
death of the priest of Nod. If you remember, he went to the
priest of Nod and took and got the showbread and ate the showbread
and took the sword of Goliath as he was running. from Saul.
And Saul came in afterward, and that evil man Doag, he killed
those priests, those godly men. And David, hearing this, he says,
help. He asked the Lord for help for
the godly Caesar, and the faithful failed. from among the children
of men. He felt as though he was the
only one left. He felt very small, like Elijah
felt on that mountain. He said, I'm the only one left. Kill me. Take me home. And God said, don't be so hasty.
There are 7,000 that I've reserved. 7,000. But there were millions of people
in Israel. And yet there were only 7,000
that God had reserved for Himself. Andrew and I this afternoon were
looking at a book of disasters. Things that have happened over
a period of centuries. Floods and hurricanes and so
forth. And I asked him, what is the
greatest? What is the greatest? Was it not the flood of Noah
who destroyed, God destroyed the multi-millions of people
that were upon the earth, saving only eight? Is that not astounding? Does that not go against everything
the natural man thinks about religion, about God? Yes. David surely was weeping
concerning these men. David knew of only one person
that could help. He knew of only one that was
able to deliver him, was able to sustain him. And he cries
out, Help, Lord. It is the Lord. And friends,
this is the most simple prayer. It is the most simple. and clearest
prayer for every believer to pray. You don't know what to
pray? Very simply, help. Help, Lord. David was running for his life,
and no doubt he did not have time to sit and pray a lengthy
prayer. You imagine David, he's running
for his life, And this is the prayer. Help, Lord, as He's running. So as you go about your busy
day and it seems as though you have no time, it seems as though
you have no ability to stop and to sit in an hour of prayer,
we can say this. Help, Lord. And we can say it
as many times as we want to, as often as we want to. Help. Lord, if you're a believer in
Christ, let these words be instantly and frequently on your lips. Let them be ever by your side
to use at any moment. Because at any moment, we know that we need help. There's so much in this world
that keeps us so occupied, that keeps us away from prayer. But
these two words have a very powerful effect. They are all-encompassing words. The cry and prayer of the believer,
Help, Lord! We may have full assurance that
our God hears us. When I cry to Him for help, the
Scripture says in Psalm 46, it says, God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help. In trouble. I like that. In trouble. Because usually that's where
I'm at. In trouble. I'm always in trouble. Well good,
God's in there with me. He's there, He's present with
me. And when I call on His name, He hears me. He hears our cries. Jesus said, when you pray, don't
pray in vain repetitions. We don't need lengthy prayers
of vain repetitions to please men. When we pray, we're praying
unto God. We're praying, and if we pray
in, men, when you pray in public prayer, we're not trying to get
the, approval. Don't seek my approval or any
other man's approval in prayer. We are praying to God. Your prayer
should be ordered and it should be true according to the Scriptures. But it should be from the heart. It should be from necessity.
We should pray. Not in vain repetition like the
heathen do, thinking they'll be heard for their much speaking.
But we say, help God. We say, Help, Lord. He said,
Be not therefore likened to them, for your Father knoweth what
things you have need of, for you ask. So when we say, Help,
Lord, He knows what we mean. You don't have to describe it.
Isn't that great? Because sometimes I get so mixed
up in the description of what I need. I'm trying to describe
every detail as to what He is to do. to make sure that he helps
me. That is ridiculous, it's foolish.
Help! Whatever that means, help! I
don't know what that means. Because I don't even know what
I need. But I know this, I know I need help. And I know you're
the only one who can give it to me. Our Lord is aware of our
needs. I notice this concerning myself,
that I seem to like to congratulate myself. If I actually do something
well, I like to congratulate myself on it. I do. I painted
my shed this last week and I'm telling you, I thought I did
a great job. I mean, I thought I did a great
job. When Cheryl told me I did a great job, that even just boosted
me even higher. And it was just, you know, wonderful. But all the time I was painting
and all the time I was celebrating of what great thing I had accomplished,
I failed to realize That it was God that sustained me through
it all. That I could not lift a brush.
That I could not lift my hand to paint had He not given me
the grace to do so. You see, He helps me even when
I don't know He's helping me. He's helping me all the time.
Our Lord sits on the throne of heaven, and by His authority
and power, He sustains all things. Is that not great to know that
our brother, Scripture says, He is not ashamed to call us
His brother. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad
He's not ashamed of me. I am ashamed of me. But I'll
tell you this, He's not. Scripture says he's not and he
controls all things. Scripture says, declaring the
end from the beginning from ancient times of things that are not
yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all
my pleasure. You see, it was his pleasure
to allow me to paint. And it's his pleasure to allow
you to be here. It's His pleasure to allow me
to preach His gospel. And we could do none of these
things without His help. We could do none of these things
without His help. He upholds all things by the Word of His
power. Let me ask you this. You that
cry to God for help, is there anything too hard for Him? Is there anything that is too
difficult for Him to do? Not a thing. He can do all things. Well, then you ask, is He willing
to help? Friends, to ask such a foolish
question is just like us. It's just like me to ask a foolish
question like that. God, You know You have all power,
but will You help me? If He had given us His Son, how
shall He not with Him freely give us all things? I mean, is
that not common sense? Does that not register that He
has given us the most valuable possession He has ever had is
Himself? And He gave Himself. Will He
not freely help us when we need His help? You bet He will. Now,
he may not help you like you want him to help you, because
how you want him to help you is bad for you. But however he helps you is good
for you. Andrew was feeling bad, and I
had picked him up from school, and we were talking about the Lord's
will. And he said, yeah, well, maybe it was the Lord's will
that, you know, I got sick so that I wouldn't get into a car
accident later. I said, well, maybe it's the
Lord's will that you got sick that you would get into a car accident
in a minute. I said, I don't know. I don't know what His will
is. But whatever it is, it's good. And it's for our health. I don't understand. But I believe
and trust Him. I believe His Word. Help, Lord. The Father has loved us in grace
and chosen us in Christ. The Son in love and grace offered
Himself. The Spirit in grace has called
us and kept us. How will He not help us? You
need help. Two words. Help, Lord. Peter said, Humble
thyself. You know, it takes a lot of humility
to ask for help, doesn't it? Usually, this is why we end up
in so much trouble, is because we wait to humble ourselves before
God to seek His help. We say, okay, I got this one.
You can get the next one. Lord, I need your help in every
situation. In every situation. Peter said,
cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Now then,
This prayer is not only for us as individuals, as each one being
a child and a member of the body of Christ. This is also a prayer
concerning the church. David is praying concerning the
church. This prayer is help for the church
of God, for the believers in general, for God's saints. This prayer of David, he was
seeking help from God Toward his church he says, help Lord,
look at this, the cause, for the godly man ceaseth and the
faithful man fail from among the children of men. As David was caused to flee,
he was aware of the need of godly and faithful men. Godly and faithful
men. You know, Godly and faithful
men are encouragement to me. And I mean God's people. When
they are faithful, and they are godly, and they have a good conversation,
a good report among men, that is a blessing to my soul to hear. That's a blessing to me. It encourages
me. And when you hear good reports
of others in the church, you know, that encourages you. That
strengthens you in the faith. But when David heard of these
men of Nod, these priests of Nod, being killed, he knew that
faithful and godly men were taken. Since I've been here, there have
been two faithful and godly men that have left us to go be with
the Father. I'm glad for them. But it was
sad for us. And you see, we needed the Lord's
help to sustain us through that. Because when the churches grow
older and God takes His saints home, we pray that God would
bring more in. So that the light would keep
going in this place. So that God would keep His Word
here. And so we need to ask the Lord's help in these things.
Help for the godly men, but also help when those who seem godly
leave. I'll tell you, that's a discouragement
to the church as well. The Scripture says that some
men have a form of godliness. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2
Timothy chapter 3. Some men have a form. of godliness. Paul warning this young pastor,
he said, Know also that in the last days perilous times shall
come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, and proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy. Without natural affection, truce
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. That would seem like a scoundrel,
wouldn't it? I mean, you think that you could
pick that person out of a crowd, you know. But notice what he
says, having a form of godliness. but denying the power thereof
from such turn away. They have a form. They appear
godly. In Colossians, he says, why then,
if you be dead with Christ, why are you subject to things like
touch not, taste not, handle not? He said, these things have
a show. in will worship, in humility. They have a show in neglecting
of the body, but not to any honor or satisfying of the flesh. These
things won't profit that person anything. You can act godly all
you want to, but if you are not godly, if you are not in Christ,
if you have not the righteousness of Christ, then friends, that
godliness is vanity. It's empty. These men, they have lovers of
themselves, lovers of self-righteousness. They desire the praise of men
rather than to bear the reproach of
Christ. These men, they love to seek
out preeminence. Mark those people out who want
to seek preeminence in the church. You find somebody, who's looking
to get ahead and move ahead and stay ahead and try to get positions
in the church. That person, you turn away from
him as soon as you can. Because he's just trying to act
godly. And their godliness is of no
value. These type of godly men, they will cease and fall away.
And you know what? Most of the time, we don't know.
We don't see it. I'll tell you, there are some
times that you look out and you see people in a church and you
say, well, man, that guy ain't going to last long. And sure enough, man, he's still
there. He's still coming. He's still going to church. And
the guy you thought was the greatest is gone. Isn't that so? I found that to be my experience.
I had this friend, and man, I mean, we were close. We loved the Scriptures
together. This is the bond that we had,
and our friendship was the Gospel. I just thought so much of him.
His zeal was so great. He loved to witness, and he was
so bold. And I was so timid. I didn't
have what he had. I envied what he had. But friends,
I had something greater than he had because he had not godliness. He went away. He went away. And I'll tell you, it broke my
heart. Recall in your mind how many
people have sat next to you and gone away. Recall your family. Recall your
friends who have made professions of faith. And where are they?
Where do they go? It causes us great sadness to
see them go away. He says, for the faithful shall
fail from among the children of men. We have seen many who
have begun well and be faithful in the things of God. Seem to
love the gospel and desire good works, but soon they fall away
and are unfaithful. Do we not need help from God
to keep us from doing the same thing? I need help. We should pray, Lord, help us
to not cease from believing. on Christ. Is that not a great
prayer that we should pray every moment of every day? Is not faith
a grace? Is it not given? Why are you
here and they're gone? Why do you have faith now and
they don't? It is because of the sustaining,
helping grace of God that we have faith. And if we are going
to keep this faith, it is going to be by the sustaining, graceful
helping hand of our Lord. Lord, help. Help me to believe. I love that man that said, I
believe, Lord, help my unbelief. Same sentence. Without a breath, I believe,
help thou my unbelief. We realize that we cannot give
ourselves faith and we cannot keep ourselves in the faith.
Is that not sobering? It should be very sobering to
every one of us. And it should be very humbling
to us. We should be in humility concerning
this grace. Because it is a special gift. It is not something we deserve
above someone else. We're here because of grace,
not because of anything we've done, better than those that
have got left. So we ask the Lord to help us
and keep us in the faith. Second, we ask the Lord to help
us to be godly and faithful, to love and serve Him and His
people. In our own strength, we will
never be faithful. You know how I know a person's
not going to come to church when they... You know how I know that? When they say, oh, I'll be there. Well, if you're going to be there,
why do you have to assure me you're going to be there? Obviously,
there's doubt in your mind already that you're going to come. So, when someone says, man, I'll
be there, I'll see you there. I will. It's going to be great.
Well, I'll see you... That guy's gone. He's not coming. So if we try in our own strength,
we're going to be unfaithful. We determine to do something
without the help of our God, we are not going to be successful. We are going to fail. We cannot
pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. We cannot do these things. We
must have His help. We must have Him do it for us
if we are to be faithful. And we should cry out for help
to be faithful. to love Him, to serve Him, to
be constantly in His service. We all become weary, troubled,
anxious, and afraid. And if you're not any one of
those, I have question whether you know the Lord at all. Because
God's people, this is all we feel all the time. We're just
like sheep, dumb animals. We're always afraid. Always unbelieving. And what shall we do when our
love waxes cold? Didn't our Lord tell us that
that would happen? He said, the love of many shall wax cold. That reminds me of the pastor
who had went to that businessman in his church who had gotten
very busy, his business was doing well and he was neglecting the
service. And so, the pastor comes and
sits down next to him with the fire going and he pulls out tongs
and he takes a coal that's red hot from the fire and he pulls
it and sets it out aside by itself. And as they sit and watch, the
glowing coal turns dark and cold. That's what happens when God's
people forsake the assembling of ourselves together. They become
cold and indifferent to the things of God. They become negligent
in the service of the Lord. They wax cold. And that man said,
I understand. I understand, Pastor. And he
was faithful. He was faithful to come and join
himself. to warm his heart with God's
people. You warm my heart when I see
you. I'll tell you what, I mean, I can feel cold and indifferent
at times, but when I'm with you, I'm not. My heart is warm. I would love to be with you.
And it is the Lord that helps this. It is the Lord that sustains
this. And we should ask for His help to sustain us in this. Thirdly,
we should ask the Lord to help and keep us from discouragement
because of unbelief. It is evident to most of God's
saints that we are few compared to the freewill works religion
of our generation. That is not something that's
a... If you don't see that, then I
just told you so you know. I know that it seems that we
are few in this age. As we can see from Scripture,
this has been the experience throughout history. But let us
be encouraged of this and ask God to help us to see this, that
all works religion does not increase in godliness. That no works religion produces
any godly man. Matter of fact, it produces the
other, an ungodly man. Jesus said of the Pharisees that
they are twofold. He said, when you make a proselyte,
you make him twofold more a child of hell. They make self-righteous men,
but God says this of the false Listen, he said, I will not bless
them at all. Jeremiah chapter 23. He won't
bless them at all. Why? Their message is a lie. Their pastors are ministers of
Satan and their followers are dead trusting in their own works.
Look at what he says in verse 2. He says, they speak vanity
everyone to his neighbor. With flattering lip and with
double heart do they speak. Verse 4. who have said with our
tongue, will we prevail? Our lips are our own, who is
Lord over us. In other words, does that not
sound exactly like the doctrine of free will works religion?
Our lips, if we say it, if we declare it to be so, then it's
so. If we just tell God, then He
has to. And then they flatter each other
with, oh, congratulations for making your decision. Oh, I'm
so happy you've done that. That's such a wonderful thing.
You ever heard at the funerals, it makes me sick when they say,
heaven now is a better place since so and so is there. They love to flatter. They love to flatter with their
lips, but God says this, verse 3, the Lord shall cut off all
flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. I know that the flourishment
of these false religion assemblies are discouraging. to see. It's discouraging to see so many
millions of people led into such depravity and lies. Some man this morning asked me,
I was telling him about the natural man in sin, and he said, you
mean the Pope? I said, especially the Pope. That man is a minister of Satan,
a minister of lies. He was quite surprised to hear
that, but that's so. So how much more help do we need
from God when these among the church leave? Now, I can understand
us being discouraged about there, but I'll tell you, I'm more discouraged
at times when I see people come and stay for a while and go.
That breaks my heart, and I need help. in God's grace. We should cry, help, Lord. Help, Lord. We should cry, help, and we should
trust that He will deliver us and encourage us. He will strengthen
us. And let us hold fast that form
of sound doctrine. Let us hold fast the truth that
our God is not only able to help us, But He is also willing to
help us. And ask the Lord to help us to
rejoice in His salvation. Our only hope of assurance is
God's Word. Look at verse 6. I'm sorry, verse
5. For the oppression of the poor
and for the sighing of the needy, now will I rise, saith the Lord.
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The
words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever." Are you a poor and bankrupt,
needy sinner? Do you need help? Then hear God's pure Word. I'll help you. I'll help you. I won't just help you. I'll do
it for you. He says, I will set you in a
place of safety. Has He not put us in a place
of safety? Who could touch us? Who could
touch us without His permission, without His hand? No one. Do you actually know that the
demons know who you are? They know your name? They don't care too much about
anybody else's name, but they know yours. And they can't touch you. without
the permission of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And His Word is pure so that
it can be trusted. Let me ask you this. Has God
ever failed? Has there one Word fallen that
God has promised to do? There has not been one in Scripture
and not one in my experience as a believer in Christ. His
Word is faithful and true. I say, as the Scripture says,
let God be true in every man and liar. Include myself. Include myself. If I distrust
His Word, He will keep them He will preserve them from this
generation. Help, Lord. Do you need help? Do you need to be sustained? Two words are like the angel's
sword that turns every which way. And He helps even when we don't
know. He's helping. Let us be careful to thank Him
for it and praise Him. I stand will be dismissed in
prayer.