Bear with me if you would back
to Psalm 20. Psalm 20. This Psalm is such a happy and
glorious Psalm. When I read this, I feel like
every emotion is covered in this Psalm. Every emotion that there
is. Comfort, peace, encouragement,
victory. This is a Psalm of thanksgiving. If you look at on my page, the
heading at the top of the page says Thanksgiving for victory. Thanksgiving for victory. This
is a Psalm of Thanksgiving. It's a Psalm of assurance. But this is also a cry for mercy,
and it's a promise for mercy. It's just a glorious Psalm. I
needed this Psalm. This one was for me, and I hope
it's for you too. I hope we can just enjoy this
together. Listen to this word of comfort.
Verse 1 says, The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. The Lord will hear you in the
day of trouble. Do we believe that to be so?
Do we really believe that to be so? Has God convinced us yet
that that's so? That He will hear us in the day
of trouble? Have you ever cried out to Him
in doubt? Thinking, I hope He hears me.
I hope He hears my prayer. He will convince His people that
that's so. The Lord will hear you in the
day of trouble. Trouble is all around us. We're confronted with some amount
of trouble at all times. At all times. But we all have
moments when real trouble comes to us. Life altering. Life altering. Fear creating. Ability stripping. All ability just gets stripped
away from us. Moments when all we can do is
cry out to God as our only hope and help of deliverance. We get
to that place where we have one place to turn. All of God's people have moments
of true trouble, and when your turn comes, when your turn comes,
and you find yourself in that hopeless position before God,
remember this promise from Him. Verse 1 says, The Lord hear thee
in the day of trouble. He will hear you. He'll hear
you. Are we aware of the fact that
most of the time, I won't say all of the time, But most of the time, our prayer
to God is lip service. Until we find ourselves in deep
trouble, or we find that He has just brought us out of deep trouble. Except for those moments, generally
it's just lip service. Are we really aware of that?
It's generally just lip service. In trouble, prayer drops from
the head to the soul. When deep trouble comes. Deep
trouble. And I cannot say that I desire
deep trouble. I don't. I don't. But. Even though I don't desire
deep trouble, I do thank God for the deep prayer in those
moments. I thank God for deep prayer. There are moments when that's
all I want from Him. It's just, Lord, let me just
enter into true, sincere, deep prayer. And when those moments
come, no matter what brings them, we thank God for them. I thank
God for the fact that He has caused me, He's put a heart in
me to deeply cry to Him in those moments. And He hasn't left me
to myself to just run who knows where. after who knows what,
to turn to any other place. I am sincerely grateful and I'm
so happy to know that the Lord in those moments causes me to
cry unto Him. And according to His Word, He
will hear me when I cry. He said, The Lord hear thee in
the day of trouble. I say this all the time and sometimes
I really get a hold of it, but just think about this. Why will
he hear us? Why will he hear us? Let's really think about this
for just a second. When there are thousands upon
thousands and 10 thousands times 10 thousands that he will not
hear. Isaiah 1 verse 15 says that our
Lord said to masses, masses, everyone who was not included
in a very small remnant. That's what He said in Isaiah
1 verse 15. Everyone who was not included
in a very small remnant. To masses of people, our Lord
said, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. I believe with all of my heart,
I am absolutely convinced that there are masses of people in
masses of congregations all over this world who are praying to
God and He is not hearing them. He is not hearing them. I believe an unimaginable number
of words are being spoken in prayers and they're not making
it past the ceilings of the rooms they're in. And it's not because God can't
hear them. It's because He won't. He will not hear them. Now let me ask a question. Why
would God not hear a prayer to Him? Why would God shut out a cry
to Him? Here's the reason why. It's because
men and women are coming to Him in their own sin. They're coming to Him in themselves. in their own sin, and God cannot
accept it, and God will not accept it. He cannot and He will not. There is only one way to come
to God the Father, and it's through Jesus Christ the Son. We must
approach God through the day of Christ's trouble. We must approach God through
the day of Christ's trouble. That's the only way. When Christ
took our sin upon Himself, He took trouble upon Himself. And He approached God in that
sin as we would have had to approach God in that sin. We were going
to have to approach God in our sin. Had Christ not done something
for us, that's the only way we could have come to God. And He
took that sin from us and laid it on Himself and He approached
God in the sin that we would have had to approach God in.
And then God dealt with Him in that sin as God would have had
to deal with us. God would have had to forsaken
us. He had to. He would have had
to forsaken us. He would have had to shut out
our cry. That's what He would have had to do. And here's the
reason why. It's because He's holy. God is
holy. That's why men and women cannot
approach God in their sin. I wish men and women knew that.
I wish they knew that. There's only one way to approach
God. Men are going to God at every
moment of the day, every hour of every day. They're just going
to God. And they don't know they cannot
approach God in their sin. He must shut them out. He must
deal with them justly according to their trouble because He's
holy. He's so holy. But when God the Father laid
all of the sin of His people on His own precious Son, He transferred
all of their eternal trouble to Him. And because the Father did not
hear Christ in the day of His trouble for His people, because the Father didn't hear
Christ, He will now gladly, mercifully, justly hear us because He didn't
hear Christ. He will now gladly hear us. Turn
the page to Psalm 22. Or maybe it's not a page to you,
I don't know. But Psalm 22. This is that very
moment when God the Father dealt with God the Son, when He dealt
with Christ in the trouble that He delivered us from. This would
have been our cry. This will be the cry of every
soul who goes to meet God outside of Christ. But this is His dealings with
Christ Himself on behalf of His people. And these are Christ's
words from the cross. Verse 1, He said, My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why art Thou so far from helping
Me? You think about that. Think about
His cry to the Father. Why have You forsaken Me? Do
we realize how many masses of people are going to say that?
In that day, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
he said, I'm roaring unto you. Verse two, oh my God, I cry in
the daytime, but thou hearest not, you will not hear me. If man doesn't believe that God
won't hear man in his sin, just look at how he treated his own
son. He said, you will not hear me.
And in the night season, I'm not silent. I just keep crying
and crying. Verse three, he said, but thou
art holy. This is the reason why. O thou
that inhabitest the praises of Israel, it's because you're holy. Verse 6, this is Christ speaking,
He said, I am a worm. Why would He say that? Because
that's what I am in my trouble. I'm a worm. He was hanging there
in my eternal, sinfully wretched trouble. Verse 11, He cried,
Be not far from Me, For trouble is near, for there is none to
help. We have one to turn to. He did
not. There is none to help me. Many
bulls have compassed me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me
round. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water. And all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. I may tell all my bones, they
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me,
O Lord, O my strength. Haste thee to help me. Deliver
my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save
me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns
of the unicorns. I will declare Thy name unto
My brethren. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise Thee. Verse 23, He said, Ye that fear
the Lord, praise Him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify
Him and fear Him. All ye the seed of Israel. Why? Why? Look back at Psalm 20. It's
because the Lord will now hear you in the day of trouble. Because
He didn't hear me, Christ says, He will now hear you. Good news. Good news. In Christ, through
Christ, by way of Christ, because of Christ. We just prayed to
Him a moment ago and we closed that prayer for Christ's sake.
We're coming to you in Jesus' name because of Him. If any have trouble
of any kind, you can run to the Lord, and you can cry out to
Him, and He will hear you, and He'll defend you, and He'll help
you, and He'll strengthen you. Verse 1 says, The Lord hear thee
in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. What is the name of the God of
Jacob? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. Precious name. Oh, how sweet.
There's no other name than that name that is above every name.
Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Jacob, our
maker, defender, redeemer friend. He said, if you cry out to him,
he'll defend you. He defended you at the cross,
He'll defend you everywhere else. If He defended you that day,
He'll defend you every other day until the day that there
are no more days. Verse 1 says, The LORD hear thee
in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary. He will hear you, He will defend
you, and He'll send you help from the sanctuary. When we come
into this sanctuary, we receive help from gathering around the
Word of God and hearing the Gospel preached. But that help is actually
coming directly from the sanctuary of God Himself. And here's what
I encourage every soul to do. Don't come into this sanctuary
for help. Cry out to that sanctuary for
help. We come into this sanctuary.
We gather together. But let every soul in here cry
out to the sanctuary. Lord, help me from the sanctuary.
Let every soul here receive help from Him, from the sanctuary.
That's where it comes from. Hold your place right here in
Psalm 20 and go to Daniel 9. I just can't tell you how much
I love this portion of scripture. Daniel 9. This is Daniel begging God to
deliver Israel from its captivity because of its sin. Daniel is
just begging God to deliver his people. Daniel 9 verse 3. He said, and I set my face unto
the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting
and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my
God and made my confession and said, Oh Lord, the great and
dreadful God, keeping the covenant in mercy to them that love Him
and to them that keep His commandments, we have sinned and have committed
iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing
from thy precepts and from thy judgments." He said, we have
sinned, we have sinned. He goes on down through these
verses and he just keeps saying, Lord, we have sinned. He's crying,
he's begging, he's pleading. Look at verse 16. O LORD, according to all thy
righteousness I beseech thee, let thine anger and thine fury
be turned away from thy city Jerusalem. Please, please. Verse 19, He said, O LORD, hear! O LORD, forgive! O LORD, hearken
and do! Defer not for thine own sake
O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Now verse 20 says, And whilst
I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the
sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before
the Lord my God, for the holy mountain of my God, yea, while
I was speaking in prayer, Even the man, Gabriel, whom I had
seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly,
and my margin says with weariness, being caused to fly as hard as
he possibly could, so hard he was tired when he got there.
And I don't even understand that. I don't even know how that's
a possibility, but that's what it says. being caused to fly
swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me and talked
with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill
and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications,
the commandment came forth. That means the moment Daniel
said, Oh Lord, the great and dreadful God, God said, go deliver
the message. I can't imagine. At first I was
thinking his wings must have been so tired, but I can't find
that angels have wings in the scripture. I don't think there's
one instance of an angel having wings. They all look like a man.
Cherubims have wings. as hard as he could, weariness
of flight, I'm here to deliver a message.
He said, the moment you cried, oh God, God said, help him. Help him. Being caused to fly swiftly,
Daniel said, he came and touched me and he said, verse 23, In the middle of it, I am come
to show thee, for thou art greatly beloved. You are so loved. Therefore, understand the matter
and consider the vision. Look back at Psalm 20. That's
just precious, isn't it? Verse 1 says, The Lord will hear
you in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob,
defend thee, send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen
thee out of Zion. He said, help will come directly
from God to you. In verse 3, he said, God will
remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. What do we offer God? What do
we have to offer Him but Christ? The blood and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our burnt offering. He'll
remember all thy offerings and He'll accept thy burnt sacrifice. He's our burnt sacrifice. God
said, well, I'll accept that. Christ is all I have to offer
you. God said, I'll accept that. And He said, I'll remember that.
I'll remember that Christ was given and offered up on your
behalf. In verse four, he said, the Lord
will grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all
thy counsel. He said, the will and desire
of your heart, the Lord will give it to you. What is the will
and desire of our heart? What is the will and desire of
the heart of God's people? Here's the answer. His glory. His praise, His honor, His worship,
His exaltation, and our salvation in Him. We want to be blessed in Him.
We want to be edified. We want to be built up on Him.
We want to be fed by Him. We want to be comforted by Him.
We want to grow in Him. We want to know more of Him till
the day we're with Him, finally conformed to His image. That's
what we desire. We want to be just like Him.
Well, verse four, He said, the Lord will grant thee according
to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. Now what do
we have to say to that in return? Verse 5, we will rejoice in thy
salvation. You know that's what we're doing
here. We're rejoicing in His salvation. Rejoicing in the salvation
that He has provided. Rejoicing in the salvation that
He has already finished, accomplished for us. We're just rejoicing
in His salvation. And in the name of our God, we
will set up our banners. Set up our banners means what
we will look at. We will rejoice in thy salvation,
which is Christ. And we'll look to him. We'll
just look at him. The end of verse five says, the
Lord fulfill all that petitions. Christ will fulfill, will fulfill
it all. He'll do it all. Verse 6 says, Now know I that
the Lord saveth His anointed. He delivered Christ from the
grave. He'll deliver all who are in
Christ from the grave. He will save. He'll save His
anointed. It goes on to say, He will hear
Him from His holy heaven. I love the thought of that. With the saving strength of His
right hand. That's Christ. Verse 7 says, Some trust in chariots
and some in horses. And but for the grace of God,
so would we. Some trust in chariots and some
in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright
again by the grace of God. But for the grace of God, what
makes us to differ? It's not a what, it's a who.
Who maketh us to differ? Him. Him. We are risen and stand
upright in Him. Because of Him. And the final
cry for mercy, which is something God's people will never stop
doing until they're standing in the very sinless presence
of God Himself. We will cry for mercy until the
day we leave this earth. The final cry for mercy is verse
9. He said, Save, Lord. Don't we say that right now?
We said it at the beginning of the message. Don't we say it
right now? Save, Lord, please. Save, Lord, let the King hear
us when we call. Please let the King hear us when
we call. That's the cry for mercy. Save
us, Lord. That was Peter's cry when he
was going down. Lord, save me. Save, Lord, please
let the King hear us when we call. Please, that's our cry
for mercy. Please hear us when we call.
Here's the answer to that cry. Here's the promise of assurance. He cries, start the psalm over. Go back to verse one. The Lord
will hear you in the day of trouble. Lord, please hear us. Please
save us, please help us. The Lord will hear you in a day
of trouble. In Christ you'll be heard every
time. How comforting. Thank God. All right, let's all stand together.