Turn back to Psalm 119. I titled this message, A Prayer
for Protection and Enlightenment. At first I had planned on bringing a message surrounding
verse 122, be surety for thy servant, the surety ship of Christ
for his people. That was my original thought
as I was studying this. But as I kept looking at the
whole psalm there, those eight verses, 121 to 128, I went ahead and made an outline
on the whole Psalm. And Lord willing, I'm going to
come back to this, be surety for me. This is a great hope. One of the very foundations of
our hope is that the Lord Jesus Christ is our surety, our guarantor. He stands for us. But let's just
look at this whole Psalm first. Now we know that the Spirit of
Christ spoke in David as well as all the other prophets. Peter
wrote this in 1 Peter 1, 10 and 11, of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently. who prophesied of the grace that
should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the
Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should
follow. But the Spirit of Christ was in them testifying to them,
moving them to write what they wrote. And I hear the voice of
the Lord Jesus Christ in these verses, some of them more clearly
than others. You know, there's some verses
that I can hear the voice of Christ more clearly than I do
others. And I've learned this as time
goes by and I get older, I hear his voice more clearly in the
verses that I don't hear him in now. You know, we learn by
degrees. And I'm learning to leave those
verses alone where I'm not so clear on myself. You know, I
don't know everything, believe it or not. Probably the first
preacher, one, I'm not gonna say I'm the first preacher, that'd
be slamming all the other great preachers. But I'm one of the first preachers
among those others that's gonna say, I don't know. There's things
I don't know. I don't have the answers. A whole
lot of things I don't know. And I tell you, it's refreshing.
It's refreshing to hear someone say, I don't know. It really
is. But here I do hear the voice
of Christ. He says here in verse 121, I
have done judgment and justice. Leave me not to mine oppressors. Can you not hear the voice of
Christ here speaking? He only can lay claim to perfect
obedience. He kept every jot and tittle
of God's law. And sometimes I think we lose
sight of what that means. The obedience of that man, Jesus
Christ, on our behalf, as my substitute, mine, personally
mine. you know i like to think of him
as our substitute to substitute for all of god's elect but i
also like to think of him as mine i am he is and what he is
mine our lord our lord is our lord
he's our savior he's our god he's our redeemer And to think
that he would stand for a wretch like me, that's astounding. That's astounding. I hope we
never get over that. I hope we never do. Adam, listen. Adam, in his innocence,
could not keep one law, not even one. This shows you the value
and the person, the real person of Jesus Christ. He kept all
the law of God, every jot, every tittle. That doesn't mean he
turned the page and said, okay, what do I do here now? He kept
it in his heart. He loved God's law. I love thy
law. I love thy word. And you know,
the evidence, a real evidence and mark of a child of God is
just that. I love thy word. I love it. I live on it, I read it, I digest
it, I look for the Lord in His Word. Christ's perfect obedience
is our righteousness, righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Stand
before God right now, right now, in all our wretchedness that
we have and all the thoughts that go through our mind even
before we get out of this place. We stand before God spotless,
without blemish, without blame. And that's because the Lord is
our righteousness. And just as Adam's disobedience
was our condemnation, even so the obedience of Christ, the
second Adam, is our justification. He's our justification. Now as
concerning David as a king, because what applies to Christ applies
to us in Christ. And David here is speaking as
a king, and he's not saying he's sinless. He's not suffering because
of some sin. He's suffering because of obedience. Our Lord, when He walked on this
earth in the flesh, His suffering came to him out of his obedience
to his father. I have done, I have done judgment
and justice. And David as a king, as God's
king over Israel at that time, he was a man after God's own
heart, he executed judgment and justice as God's king, though
not perfectly, not perfectly, but he could say he did it. He
wouldn't be saying this, he's speaking from the heart. Speaking
from the heart 2nd Samuel 8 15 and David reigned over all Israel
and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people and
We can see that fulfillment in Christ This also has to do with
the way he treated his enemies He didn't he did not unduly harm
them or overjudge them. You remember when he caught Saul
in the cave and he could have killed him right there? What
did he do? He cut his skirt off and took
it up on the hill and he said, I will paraphrase, I will not
touch the Lord's anointed He didn't do it when he had the
opportunity that he could have really put an end is the end
of Saul trying to take his life And he wouldn't do it He executed
judgment and justice Someone said he executed judgment on
the wicked and justice for the good But here listen here He recognizes
his dependence upon the Lord Leave me not to mine oppressors. We ought to always recognize
our dependence upon our Father. Our Lord did. Do you think he
didn't pray, give us Lord our daily bread? Do you think he
didn't pray that? I know our Lord, I'm confident our Lord
prayed for his daily bread. He didn't walk around and just
say, well, I know I'm fine, I'm God's son. He as a man, as a
man. The prayer he taught his disciples,
the disciples prayer, he prayed himself. He prayed himself as
a man, he did. And we should always recognize
our dependence upon our Heavenly Father. Leave me not to mine
oppressors. Lord defend me. Defend me against
those that would take my life, those who would take my witness,
those who would bring me down. Lord, defend me. Defend me. I need you. Christ said, without
me, you can do nothing. You can do nothing. And one of the best things God
can teach us is how weak we really are. TO TEACH US OUR DEPENDENCE
ON HIM AT ALL TIMES, ALL TIMES. AND BE FOR MY GOOD, LOOK IN VERSE
122, AND WE'LL COME BACK TO THIS IN THE LORD WILLING THE NEXT
TIME WE, IF IT'S NEXT WEEK, WEEK AFTER NEXT, WHICHEVER IT IS.
BUT BE SURETY FOR THY SERVANT FOR GOOD, BE SURETY, STAND FOR ME, STAND IN FRONT
OF ME, TAKE MY PLACE, defend me defend me you know christ
as a man looked to his father to be for him to be good for
him uh against his enemies and as for believers the lord jesus
christ himself is our shirt god has given us a surety and it's
in a person it's not just his well it is his word it's called
the living word The Word, which was with God
and was God, is our surety. The Word of God is our surety,
for sure. But we'll come back to that at
another time. But here in verse 123, mine eyes
fell for thy salvation. Here's the king, David's the
king. He's got thousands of soldiers
behind him. You know, the Lord said in the
Garden of Gethsemane, I could call 12 legions of angels and
put an end to this. But he didn't. He didn't do that. And here he's saying, he's saying
here, mine eyes fell for thy salvation and for the word of
thy righteousness. Our Lord, let me start with him
first. Our Lord did nothing to deliver
himself. When they came to get him in
the garden of Gethsemane, he didn't, he didn't call the 12
legions of angels. When he was standing in Pilate's
judgment hall, Pilate said, don't you know I have power? He said,
you don't have any power at all except to be given me from above.
I'm the one who came from above and I'm the one giving you the
power to do this. The Lord said he came from above.
He'd given him the power to do it. Right there stands Pilate's
creator. He could take his breath just
like that. But instead, that's the only time he opened his mouth.
When Pilate claimed the power that belonged to God, he took
it for himself and the Lord spoke up. No, no, no. You don't have
any power at all. Our Lord didn't do anything to
deliver himself, but he looked to his Father continually to
deliver him at all times. AND IN ALL SITUATIONS. HE'S OUR
EXAMPLE IN THIS. LISTEN TO PROVERBS 20-22, SAY
NOT THOU I WILL RECOMPENSE EVIL, BUT WAIT ON THE LORD, AND HE
SHALL SAVE THEE. WE SEE THAT IN THE GARDEN OF
GETHSEMANE WITH OUR LORD. WE SEE THAT. But here, what we
see here, we see him waiting on the Lord. He says, mine eyes
fell for thy salvation, looking and looking and looking. I get
the, it's just like Mary and Martha. Lazarus, they sent a
helper there, a servant there, to speak to the Lord about Lazarus. And he said, this sickness is
not in the dead. You know, he went back and told them, the
Lord said, this sickness is not in the dead. And Lazarus kept
getting worse. And they kept looking and looking
and looking for him to come. They were weary, weary looking. He said, my eyes, my eyes fail
for thy salvation, looking for your deliverance. But he never
took the situation in his hands to deliver himself. He waited.
That's why he's talking, wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord. AND HIS PEOPLE ARE TO WAIT CONTINUALLY
FOR THE LORD TO DELIVER THEM IN EVERY SITUATION. WE WAIT ON HIM. HENRY SENT ME
THIS ONE TIME WHEN I WROTE HIM, WHEN I FIRST HEARD HIM PREACHING
THE GOSPEL, I WROTE HIM SOME LETTERS, AND THEN I WROTE HIM
SOMETHING ABOUT THE MINISTRY, AND HE WROTE BACK THIS, WAIT
ON THE LORD, IN PSALM 27 14, WAIT ON THE LORD, BE OF GOOD
COURAGE. HE SHALL STRENGTHEN THINE HEART.
WAIT, I SAY, ON THE LORD. HAVE YOU GOT A SITUATION? YOU
GOT A SITUATION? WAIT ON THE LORD. WAIT, WAIT,
WAIT. HE WILL BRING YOU OUT. OUR LORD
WAITED. DAVID'S WAITED. DAVID'S SAYING
HERE, I'VE NOT TAKEN THIS SITUATION INTO MY HANDS. I'M LOOKING FOR
THE LORD'S DELIVERANCE. HE'S GOING TO DELIVER ME. I KNOW
HE IS. He's done it so many times before.
And the source, listen, the source of His and our hope while waiting
is just this. For the word of thy righteousness,
thy promises. Where do we get hope and strength
in waiting in a very difficult situation on the Lord? Where
do we get that? Right here in God's word. We take God at His Word. When
we can't see Him, we can't sense His presence, we can't spiritually
see Him with our spiritual eyes, it's like sitting in the dark.
What do we do? We wait on the Lord. We take
Him at His Word and wait for Him to fulfill His promises.
That's what we do. We wait on the Lord. God's Word
is the source and foundation of our hope continually. David doesn't say, I'm the king. I know he's going to help. No,
he says, no, cause I'll show you here in a minute. He just
calls himself a servant. But what does a servant do? Waits
on his master. That's the position of a servant.
Wait on your master. If Christ is your master, you
wait on him. Listen here in Psalm 119.81,
My soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. I take you at your word. I believe
your promises. I hope in thy word. And then
he gives us here in verse 124, a prayer for enlightenment in
these next few verses here in 124 and 125. Deal with thy servant according
unto thy mercy, not justice. He's not asking for God to deal
with him in justice, but mercy, mercy. You know, every child
of God, I believe this, I believe every child of God, and especially
as they mature, are merciful, are merciful. As their father,
which is in heaven, is merciful. To be unmerciful is to be completely
unlike God. is to be unlike our Father. It's
merciful. Deal with thy servant according
unto thy mercy. But notice here he says thy servant. Our Lord is called God's servant
in the scriptures several times. We should never be offended being
called a servant. I'm thy servant. And actually
what he's saying is, I'm thy slave, thy bond slave, willing
bond slave. Isaiah 42 one, behold, my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth, I have
put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
But he said, behold, my servant. Isaiah 52 13, behold, my servant
shall deal prudently, Matthew 12, 18, Behold my servant, whom
I have chosen, my beloved, and whom my soul well pleased. This
is the position we take. Servant. Are you his servant? That's evidence by whom we serve. If we serve ourselves, we're
not his servant. We're not. If we serve one another,
It's evident we're his servants. He came to serve. He said, I
came to serve. I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,
to serve. That's what he came to do. And
this is the position that we take, thy servant. What a glorious
position. James 1.1, James, a servant of
God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 1.1, Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ. This is tall company here. Peter,
2nd Peter 1.1, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.
A servant first before he mentions being an apostle. Jude 1.1, Jude,
the servant of Jesus Christ. Now I ask, and I ask seriously,
whose servant are we? We're somebody's servant. We're
not our own. We never have been. We never
have been. Now because I'm thy servant,
and here's, listen to the humility in this. Because I'm thy servant,
teach me thy statutes. You know, he doesn't say here,
because I'm thy servant, you're my master. Now deliver me out
of this situation. But the first thing he asked
here is to be taught out of God's word. Teach me out of your word. What are you here for tonight?
Why am I here tonight? Why did I study? TO BE TAUGHT
OF GOD. ALL THY CHILDREN SHALL BE TAUGHT
OF GOD. TEACH ME THY STATUTES. THIS IS
WHERE WE OBTAIN, LISTEN, THIS IS WHERE WE OBTAIN TRUE WISDOM
AND TRUE HAPPINESS, IS WHEN GOD TEACHES US OUT OF HIS WORD, WHEN
HE OPENS HIS WORD TO US. AND AGAIN HE REPEATS IN VERSE
125, I AM THY SERVANT, You know, that's... Well, I have a better way to
put it. That's hard to resist. You know, someone comes to you,
they get down on their knees and say, I'm your servant. Teach
me. Teach me. That's the first thing
he says. You know what's the second thing he says? Give me
understanding. I know, and I've heard... Who
is this? There's a man, Jack Van Impey?
The walking, somebody called them the walking Bible, just
supposed to be scripture after scripture after scripture. That's
nothing if you don't, if you're not taught of God. If God does
not give you an understanding of this word, memorizing it is
not going to do you any good. Teach me thy statue. Take your
word. This is, this is our textbook
right here. Here's the textbook. Teach me
out of your word. You be my teacher. God, you be
my teacher. It's your word. But now give
me understanding of what you're teaching me. Give me understanding. I want to understand the Word
of God. I want to understand, listen, I want to understand
grace. I want to understand it by experience. You see, understanding,
now listen, understanding is the gift of God. You're not going
to automatically understand just because you read the Word of
God and You read what it's saying, and you say, well, I know what
it's saying. You know, it's evident. My sheep hear my voice, and a
stranger they'll not follow. My Father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man's going to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. That's easy. That's easy, you know, just to
believe and hear it. And you say, well, that's what
it says. But to understand, to really understand that the Father
loved you, chose you, gave you to his son. To really understand
that, that's a gift. That's not natural. That's a
gift. Not only teach me, but give me
understanding. Without God giving understanding,
we will misapply the scriptures just like Job's friends misapplied
them, without understanding. then he says here in verse 126
and he says this out of zeal now listen he's saying this out
of zeal for God's for God's glory he's not saying this because
he's like I want it's like sick about what you know you stick
your dog on somebody you don't like that's not what he's talking
about he's not like he's not wanting to see God get even with
him because they have oppressed him our Lord never had that attitude
He never had that attitude. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. But he says here, and he does
this out of a right spirit. For God's glory, it's time for
the Lord to work. And here's why. For they have
made void thy law. They have set aside your law.
He's jealous for God's glory. The scripture says in Ecclesiastes
3, 1, to everything there is a season and a time to every
purpose under heaven. And he's saying, here, Lord,
it's time to work. It's time to rise up. It's time to defend
your glory. Don't you want to see God do
that? I'll tell you right now, in this day, right now, we live
in, I would love, I would love to see God rise up and defend
his glory. Shut these lying preachers up
and shut their doors. I'd love to see that. I'd love
to see him shut down in another gospel that is no gospel at all.
I'd love to see that. I'd love to see God rise up and
just shut him down. And this is, this, you know,
God's children are jealous for his glory. Listen to what John Calvin said.
I was trying to find it here in my notes. It remains for us to learn from
David's example, whenever the earth is fraught and defiled
with wickedness to such a degree that the fear of him has become
almost extinct, to call upon him to show himself to maintain
the maintainer of his own glory. Do we not see that nowadays?
There's no fear of God. It's almost extinct in this country
and in this world. No fear of God. And it's right,
it's right to have a real zeal and be zealous for God's glory
and to ask Him to rise up. To rise up and defend His glory. David's not saying this because
of himself being greed, but out of zeal to God's Word. There's
a time when our Lord prays for vengeance. Our Lord will pray this. There
will be a time when our Lord will intercede, rise up for your
glory. In verse 127, therefore, he shows
here, verse 127, he shows his passion for God's name and glory. Therefore I love thy commandments
above gold, yea above fine gold. I love your word, your law, your
commandments above all the best, the finest gold in all the world. I love your word more than I
do that. You know, our Lord in John 2,
17, it says, His disciples remembered it was written, the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up. The zeal of God's house, the
zeal for His word, the zeal for truth ought to eat us up. Not be so indifferent to it.
We can't be indifferent to God's truth and God's gospel. You stand
for it. That's what he's saying here.
He's saying here, because they do make void your law, I love
it even more. He just lets them know, I love
it even more. Not ashamed. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of it. And concerning the believer,
the more the wicked made void the law, the more it inflames
their love for the word of God. The more the wicked make void
God's law, the more they cast aspersions upon God's
word, the more it inflames our love. It just inflames our love
for God's word. Now, I tell you what, if there's
a real indifference, like, you don't know the word of God.
You don't know God. when we're not inflamed and jealous
over God's Word, God's Gospel, it's because we don't know it.
We don't know it. Therefore, he says again in verse
128, he just, he's, therefore, now see the word, therefore,
it has to do with what went before. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts
concerning all things to be right. They made a void, but Lord, I
don't. I don't. Everything you said,
everything you have said in your word, your prophecies are right. They're true. Your judgments
are right. True. Whatever God's Word says about
God, you read it there in Hebrews 12, our God is a consuming fire. That's right. God is consuming
fire outside of Christ. You don't want to meet him. Someone
said to Rolf Barnard once, I believe it was, they said, your God's
a monster. He said, you better get ready
to meet a monster. You get ready to meet a monster.
God's a consuming fire. God is a God of grace and mercy
and love in Jesus Christ. But those who hate his son, he
hates them. That's the truth. I don't want
to be found on that side. I don't want to be found on that
side. That's what's not being told
today. It's all this lovey, lovey, lovey, lovey, lovey. And they're
not telling the, they're not preaching the whole character
of God. And what they are preaching, they're lying about, they don't
even know. They're wrong on that. God's love is a holy love. It's
a holy love. God's love is a particular love.
You know, I have a particular love for one person. Well, two,
three, four, all of you. I have a different love for my
wife than I do, you know, the rest of you. You've got to think that one
through before you start talking. Therefore, I esteem. You see,
he says, I love. And now he says, I esteem. Because
you see, we esteem what we love, don't we? If you esteem God's
word above gold. Here's a real test. Here's a
real test. The gospel is preached here.
You're offered a better job somewhere else to make more money, and
it'll take you away from the gospel. You just esteem gold
better than God's word, better than the gospel of God's grace. You esteem that. But to take
God's gospel and to stay with it, it doesn't matter if you
have to be poor. You have to be poor. I'd rather be, and I say this
with carefulness because God will hold you to your word. Be
careful what you say. God holds you to your word. I'd
rather be a ditch digger and have the gospel than live in
a palace and have all the gold in the world and not know God
at all. Because the day you and I die, we're penniless. We're
penniless. And the only thing we have is
what we have in Jesus Christ. That's it. I'm glad, I believe
the Lord's taught me that, I believe He has. And I'm thankful for
it. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts
concerning all things to be right, whatever it is, whatever I read,
whatever I read in the Word of God, it's right. It's right. Let me read you what John Keel
said. I like to read these old writers to you. There's some
that I really read a lot of, only a few. But I read him. But John Gill says this, he,
that is speaking here of David, he had an impartial regard to
all the commandments of God and valued one as well as another,
and walked according to all of them, making no difference, either
in his affection or practice, between one and another, as being
more or less necessary, just and right. He had an equal respect
to the lighter and weightier matters of the law, and like
Zacharias and Elizabeth, walked in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord blameless, looking upon them all with respect to
everything commanded or forbidden by them to be just and equitable."
That's outstanding. That's what he's saying. And
listen here, now I'm gonna close. And I hate Brother, if we're gonna talk
about what we love, we're gonna also talk about what we hate. Every false way. I wrote out
from that, every false gospel. I hate it. I hate it and I don't
wanna be associated with those who love it. Those who love a
false gospel, I do not and will not be associated with it in
any way, shape or form. Unless I have to, I'm not going
to do it. We cannot love truth and error at the same time. That's
not possible. You know what that's like? It's
like trying to serve two masters. Which the Lord said, you cannot
serve two masters. You will either what? Hate the
one and love the other. You won't just be a little more
indifferent or I don't like that as much. You'll hate the one
and you'll love the other. One or the other. Whatever we
love, we hate the opposite of it. We do. We hate the opposite
of it. I hate every false gospel. I
don't care who's preaching it. I hate every false gospel. Paul
said he'll come preaching another gospel. I'm not going to listen
to it. I'm not going to do it. Listen, you think that's strong?
You think that's strong? Let me give you strong, let me
give you strong from the word of God. Galatians 1.8, but though
we apostles, we apostles, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto
you, let him be accursed, or to put it in plain language,
let him go to hell. That's what he's saying. That's
how powerful this is. Don't bid him Godspeed. Don't
tell him to have a good day. Now, you know, if I meet somebody
on the street, and we're just, but now when it comes to the
gospel, and we come at an impasse, I'm not gonna bid him have a
good day. I'm not gonna say, God bless you, God, no. Paul said, let that person go
to hell. I'm not making that up. That's not my opinion. Well, I agree with it. It's the
truth. It's taking away God's glory.
It's taking away His glory. And there have been times over
the years I've been faced with it. I've been faced with separating
company from the false gospel and those who hold to it. A prayer for protection and enlightenment
is what we have.