Psalm 64. It struck me while we were singing. In Psalm 65, it says, a psalm
and song of David. And a thought came to me as we
were singing. I thought, what a blessing. that
they had not been bombarded with all the music that we have today. You know, I say this with all
sincerity. Apart from being able to hear
the gospel on radio and television, Other than that, it's a burden.
It takes your mind. It does. It takes your mind. It takes it away. It draws you
away. And it's so subtle. It's so subtle,
because it plays to a part of me that I like. But David and that day, and they
didn't have to deal with all that we deal with today. We deal with so much. And it's
so subtle. We are just so bombarded with
the world. It's just the world coming at
you. That's what it is, just coming at you. Well, that's what
I was thinking of sitting there when I was singing that song.
I thought, what a blessing to be able to just be mostly surrounded
by music that has to do with the Lord. You know, one day we
will We will sing nothing but that which praises Him. People
don't like that, they don't have to worry about it because they
ain't going to be there anyway. If you don't like it here, you won't
like it there. In fact, if you don't like it here, you won't
be there. Psalm 64. The title of the message is,
Consider His Work. Consider His work, consider His
doing. You know, the Word of God teaches
us that the whole work of salvation is of God. It's a work of God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The whole
work of salvation, the whole work of creation, that new creation,
that new man is created in Christ Jesus unto good works, is all
of God. It's a whole work of God. Now here in this psalm, we will
see that David uses his choice weapon on his enemies. If you had to choose a weapon
right now, you have an enemy. If you have an enemy, someone
is coming after you, what would be your choice weapon? With David, it was prayer. With
our Lord Jesus Christ, his choice weapon was prayer, calling upon
God. This is the same weapon that
our Lord used Throughout his ministry on this earth, when
he walked on this earth, he was constantly praying. He didn't
carry a sword. He told Peter, he said, put up
your sword. Those that live by it, die by it. But I tell you
what he did have. He had the sword of the Spirit. He had the Word of God. And he
called upon God continuously. Continuously. Prayer is a mighty
weapon in the hands of a righteous man. It's powerful. James 5.16, it says, "...Confess
your false one to another, and pray one for another." This is
why I ask you to pray for me. I pray for you. I ask you to
pray for me. He said, Pray for one another
that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. It availeth much with God. You
know true prayer is a work of God? If I truly pray, and I pray,
and I'm heard of God, you know I was motivated and moved by
God to pray that prayer? He moves us to pray what He purposes
to accomplish. He does. He uses us and moves
us to pray for that which He purposes to accomplish. Listen
to Ephesians 6.18, Praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit. Praying always. In 1 Thessalonians
5.17 it says, Pray without ceasing. Our Lord did. You know, He intercedes for us
now without ceasing. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? I want you to look over in Isaiah. There's a couple times we're
gonna look over here tonight. In Isaiah 34, no, I'm sorry,
Isaiah 37. Now, if you have the opportunity,
When you go home tonight or tomorrow, whenever, read Isaiah 36 and
37, and you can get a real picture of this matter of prayer. But look in verse 14. Now, the king Rabshakia, well,
he wasn't a king, he was sent out by the king of Assyria to
come against Hezekiah. And I'll read in a little bit
what he said to Hezekiah. But anyway, I want you to read,
I want us to read Hezekiah's prayer here in verse 14. After
hearing this news, and Hezekiah received the letter from the
hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up unto
the house of the Lord, listen, and he spread it before the Lord.
I love that. He took that letter, that letter
of insult, he took that letter and he spread it out right before
the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed unto the
LORD, saying, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest
between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone. And of all the kingdoms of the
earth, thou hast made heaven and earth. That's a good way
to start prayer. Incline thine ear, O LORD, and
hear. Open thine eyes, O LORD, and
see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent
to reproach the living God. of a truth, Lord, the kings of
Assyria have laid waste all their nations and their countries."
And this is what they said. We'll read it here in a minute.
But he said, who's the Lord God? We have laid waste all these
nations, and your God's going to deliver you out of our hand?
And he's taking the insults of this king before the Lord, and
he's saying, basically what he's saying, Lord, they are insulting
you. They are insulting of a truth, Lord, that kings of Assyria have
laid waste all the nations and their countries, and have cast
their gods into the fire, for they were no gods, but the work
of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they've destroyed them.
Now therefore, O Lord, our God, save us from His hand, that all
the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord,
even Thou only. Read the rest of that chapter.
I might have to read it to you in a little bit. But they didn't
even have to fight. They didn't even have to fight
in that war. God sent an angel. And I think he killed 185,000
of them. God sent an angel and killed
185,000, and they didn't have to lift a finger. God killed
them. He said, I sent an angel. Read
that, read that, because it's too long for me to get into.
I'm just giving you tidbits of it. I'm hoping I create an interest
in you to read it. But this is the prayer of Hezekiah.
And what a prayer that is. And the Lord answered that prayer.
You know a man prayed once and the sun stood still? Remember
that in Joshua? Joshua chapter 10 verse 43. The sun that we look at every
day stood still. The laws of nature were suspended
and everything stopped until they won that battle. And then
there was another time a man prayed and the sun stood still. Do you remember when it was?
Turn to Mark chapter 10. Here's the most amazing time
that had ever happened. In Mark chapter 10, in Mark chapter 10, let me get to
the verse. in verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and as
he went out of Jericho with his disciples, And a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, sat by the highway
side begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.
He prayed is what he's doing. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. Now what's verse 49 say? And Jesus stood still. The Son
stood still. The Son of God stood still and
commanded Him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. He calleth
for thee. When I thought of Joshua first,
then I thought, oh, there was a greater time when the Son stood
still. That's when blind Bartimaeus called on the Son of God, and
he stood still, and he listened to him, and he gave him his sight.
Why? Blind Bartimaeus cried unto him.
He prayed unto him. He prayed. And the Lord heard
him. He heard his prayer. Now listen
to David's request here. Hear my voice. You see, prayer
has a voice. Prayer has a voice. This expresses
more than just words. The voice expresses the heart,
doesn't it? Doesn't it not express the heart?
It expresses the urgency of the request. The way we express something
is as important as the words we use to express what we need. You know, when Peter walked on
water and he started to sink, you reckon he said, You could
have heard Him over the wind and the waves." When he cried
out, save me, because he was going under, the Lord heard his
voice. He heard the urgency of it, the
cry of it. Put a voice to it. He said, Lord,
hear my voice. And here's what I'm asking for. I've looked at this two or three
times, and I've been going over this, and I just realized something
before coming down here. He says, "...preserve my life
from fear of the enemy." You know, the Scripture says, "...the
fear of man bringeth a snare." He prays to be saved from the
enemy, to be delivered from them. But this is spiritual right here. This is spiritual. Save me from
anxiety and save me from being afraid of the enemy. Not just save me from the enemy,
don't let that fear overtake me. Don't let it control my life.
Don't let fear and anxiety control me. That's an insult to your
name. That's an insult to faith. You believe God and then be scared
to death. Those two don't seem to go together.
They don't go together. And he's saying here, preserve
my life from fear. Don't let me live in fear. I
know people, I know some who live in fear. They're fear of
the economy. They're fear of a disease. They
fear of COVID. I mean, they fear this and fear
that. They live in fear. We don't live
in fear. Lord, save me from living in
fear. There's only one fear that I
need and you need, and that's a fear of God. If we fear God,
we don't need to fear anything else. That doesn't mean we live
foolishly, you know that. But we don't need to fear anything. There's not one thing on this
earth. There's not a demon, the devil, a human being, nothing. Our Lord said in Isaiah, no weapon
that is formed against you shall prosper. That's a promise. They may be conniving in their
secret counsel, saying, this is what I think we need to do.
As they said here, they lay traps privately, but the Lord knows
where the traps are. He knows where every trap is. Save me, preserve my life from
fear of the enemy. It's God, now listen, it's God
who preserves us till He takes us home. But until then, preserve
me from fear. Don't let it take me over." Listen
to these Scriptures, and we draw our comfort from the Scriptures.
We don't draw from some wise saying from some crack, some
wise crack. We draw from the Scriptures.
In Psalm 3728, For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his
saints. They are preserved forever. preserved forever, but the seed
of the wicked will be cut off." Joshua 24, 17. And this is a
good one. This is one you ought to hang
on the refrigerator. For the Lord our God, He it is that brought
us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house
of bondage. That's where He brought us from,
the house of bondage. God saved everyone here whom
He has saved from the house of bondage. and which did those
great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein
we went, and among all the people through whom we passed." I'm 65 years old, and I can say
that God has preserved me in all the ways that I have gone.
And you can say the same thing. Jude 1.1, Jude, a servant of
Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by
God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. He preserved us in Christ, kept
us in Christ, and he'll keep us all the way home. He says,
preserve my life from fear of the enemy. and preserve me, Lord,
keep me, and hide me." Hide me. You know, when the Scripture
says that the devil goes to and fro seeking whom he may devour. He's looking for a believer.
He's looking for someone, a believer, whom he may devour. Like he did
Job. He thought he would devour Job.
Like he did Adam in the garden. hide me from the secret counsel
of the wicked." I don't know who's plotting against me. Now,
I don't know any person that's plotting against me personally,
but I know of an evil spirit that is. His name is Satan. He plots against this church.
If God would roll the curtain back and let us see, let us see,
how Satan would love to destroy the ministry in this place. You'd
be shocked. You'd be shocked how he'd love
to destroy the ministry in this place. Hide me from the secret counsel
of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity, from
the rebels turned against the government of the king. You know,
that's really what's going on right now. The whole human race
has turned its insurrection. It's turned against the government
of God. The whole human race is against the government of
God. We will not have this man to reign over us. Israel wanted a king. God said
to Samuel, they've rejected me. They said, give us a king like
what? The other nations. We want a
king that we can see, a visible king that couldn't see God. But
they wanted a king that they could see and be like the other
nations. I don't wanna be like the other
nations. I want the Lord to be my king, but that's by his grace.
That's by his grace, if we want that. No, he said, hide me from the
secret counsel of the wicked, from the insurrection of the
workers of iniquity. You know, in Genesis 6-5 it's
written, and God saw that here's a description of the human race,
and you won't get this from television, you won't get this over the radio,
unless God puts a preacher on there that'll tell the truth.
It says here, "...that God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually." And it hasn't changed. Education
hasn't changed us. It's made us a little more devious,
really. We can hide it a little better,
maybe. But we're the same in nature. Man has not changed one
iota at all. His imagination, the imagination
and thoughts of his heart is evil, and it's evil continually. It's like watching the river. Like over here at Cape Fear River,
it's just a constant flow. It's all water. It's the same.
That's what flows out of man. It's all evil. It's the same.
It's the same. Now, David speaks here of the
weapon of his enemies. And I don't know that we really
realize the damage and the power of the tongue. There's nothing that does more
damage than the tongue. It starts wars. The scripture
says it's set on fire of hell. Who wet or sharpened their tongue
like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot
their arrows, even bitter words." Poison. That's why I said poisonous
words. Now, turn over to Isaiah 36,
just to give you an example. It's better to read it than it
is to try to explain it, because the Word of God is so clear on
it. Isaiah 36. Let me get over here. In verse 13, Rabshakeh came against
Hezekiah, sent to destroy him. In verse 13, then Rabshakeh stood
and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language. He wanted
to make sure they understood. And he said, Hear ye the words
of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the king,
Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver
you, neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying,
The Lord will surely deliver us. This city shall not be delivered
into the hand of the king of Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah,
for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by
a present, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine,
and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the
waters of his own cistern. Verse 17, until I come and take
you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and
wine, a land of bread and vineyards, beware, Lest Hezekiah persuade
you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the
nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath
and Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria
out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods
of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that
the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?" Here's what they tried to do.
They tried to destroy their hope in God. They tried to destroy their hope
in salvation that the Lord would deliver them. It hasn't changed. It hasn't changed. Don't let
anyone destroy your hope in Jesus Christ. Never move. What did Paul say? If you be
not moved away from the hope of the Gospel. You say, can that happen? He
wouldn't have written it if it couldn't have happened. That's
why it's written. Remember Demas I spoke of last
week? Demas has forsaken me. He walked
with the apostle Paul. He walked with Paul. He listened
to the apostles preaching. He saw signs and wonders. He
saw miracles. And then having loved this present
world, he left. It's so deceitful. But I want
you to look in verse 21. 21 But they held their peace,
and answered him not a word. For the king's commandment was
saying, Answer him not. How wise was that! How wise! Don't get in an argument. Michael the Archangel wouldn't
even argue with Satan. He said, the Lord rebuked thee.
The Lord rebuked thee. Arguing over the body of
Moses? He wouldn't even do it. He said,
the Lord rebuked you. And here they didn't answer him
a word. They just kept quiet. Kept quiet. I tell you what,
if you get in a mud-slinging contest, you're gonna get the
mud on you first, because you gotta pick it up and throw it.
So don't even get into it. Don't argue with rebels. Don't
even argue with rebels. I had to learn that more or less
the hard way in places that I've worked, and people I did business
with, they started wanting to have an argument, and I learned As I grew up spiritually, I learned
that if I'm not going to listen, I don't have anything to say.
If you're not going to listen. This is not, I believe this,
you believe that, let's talk about it. No. I'm not going to argue with that.
Just like them, he said, don't answer them a word. "...who wet their tongue like
a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter
arrows, that they may shoot in secret at the perfect, Well,
we know this, the perfect here is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the perfect man. Suddenly
do they shoot at Him and fear not. They had no fear in crucifying
the Son of God. They had zero fear in crucifying
Him. No fear. And they have no fear of shooting
at me and you at all. They fear no retribution from
God. They don't think he sees. They don't think he sees. Look
at verse 5. They encourage themselves in
an evil manner. They commune of laying snares
privately. They say, Who shall see them?
God shall see them. Our God shall see them. He hears
every thought. He hears every word. But here's
what they do, they justify their conduct, they're cowards, they
do what they do in secret, they slip around and do it, and they
think that God does not see the heart. You know all of David's enemies,
where do you think they are now? They're in hell. They are in hell. David is in
glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. They search out iniquities. They
accomplish a diligent search. Both the inward thought of every
one of them and the heart is deep. Oh, only God can search
the depths of the heart. You say, yeah, well, I know my
heart. Do you? You can't dive that deep. The heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked. Who can know it? There's only
one who can know it. There's only one who really,
really, really knows my heart more than I can even know it,
and that's God. And every child of God here is
glad that it's so. Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know I love you. Now, you know what I am, and
I know I have a good idea of what I am. I don't know it like
God knows it, but I know what I am. But also know this, Lord,
you know I love you. You know my heart. Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. You know
I believe. They search out iniquities. This
is interesting. They search out iniquities. They
look for something to pin on the righteous. Just catch a word. I said a word, I spilled a bunch
of, I was in a machine shop, I'm
telling on myself here. But anyway, I had some coolant. I was going to put it in the
machine, and I had it on a tray, and I spilled it. I just spilled
it all over the floor, and I said an off-color word. I'll just
leave it at that. I just said it out to myself.
I just said it. And the guy who hired me was
standing there. He said, oh, I didn't think you said stuff
like that. I said, well, I get two of those a year, and I've
already used them up. I said, that was my last one. I said, that was my last one.
And he laughed, but he was quick to point that out. I didn't think
he said anything like that. Well, I get two of them a year,
and that was my last one. But anybody else there could
say it. Anybody else there could say any word they want. And nobody
says a word, but you let me say it. And I knew that. I knew that. I knew that I was constantly
under scrutiny. And you are too. If you confess
that the Lord has saved you, you're under their scrutiny."
He said, yeah, I thought you were a Christian. That's what
he says here. They search out iniquities. Is
this not what politicians do to their opponents? Smear campaign.
I mean, they'll dig up the dirt from way back, you know, like
a guy couldn't change or something. They'll go back to their childhood
or something. They'll go back to their college
days and bring something up to a guy 70 years old. They search out iniquities. But
they do this especially against the righteous. What did they call our Lord?
Did they not call Him a wine-bibber? Did they not call Him a gluttonous
man? Do you think He was a wine-bibber? Was He a gluttonous man? No,
He was not. But He did sit down and eat with
publicans and sinners. He did do that. And they hated
Him for it. And they said, this man, He's
a wine-bibber. He's a gluttonous man. He's a
blasphemer. How can he be a blasphemer when
he's God? David said, this is the enemy. These are my enemies. These are
our enemies. These are the Lord's enemies.
But thank God for verse 7, But God, but God. What great comfort these
two words bring to the believer. But God. In Genesis 50.20, Joseph speaking
to his brothers, But as for you, you thought evil against me,
but God meant it for good to bring to pass, as it is this
day, to save much people alive. But God, it says in Ephesians
2 verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved us, but God brings great comfort to us, but God brings
terror to the unbeliever. It does. It brings terror to
the unbeliever. He's their doom. But God is their doom. He's their
doom. Because all things begin and
end with God Almighty. They do. He sees their ways and
He knows their hearts. And He said in Proverbs 15, 26,
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. He
knows their thoughts. I don't know your thoughts. You
don't know my thoughts. I mean, you're sitting there
looking at me, I can't tell what you're thinking. But God does. He knows every thought you and
I have. And He knows every thought of the wicked. He said, and their
thoughts are an abomination. And every thought they have will
be brought up in judgment. But the words of the pure are
pleasant words. He says, but God shall shoot
at them with an arrow. And I'm telling you this, His
arrow never misses the mark. It never misses the mark. Arrows
of truth. He shoots arrows of truth right
at them. This is who you are. They present themselves as one
thing, but God says, no, this is who you are. He shoots his
arrows at them, arrows of truth. And listen, it says, he shall
shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded.
They won't even see it coming. They won't even see it coming.
They'll be plotting and planning, and next thing you know, God
shuts the door on them. He brings their evil devices
to an end. This is God's world. All of them
belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't save all, but He owns
them all. In verse 8, "...so they shall
make their own tongue to fall upon themselves. All that see
them shall flee away." You know, when I read that, I thought,
and this is so, this is so. A man best be careful what he
says, for he may be pronouncing his own judgment. Haman over
in Esther, remember that story? He's just like, oh, I've got
more to tell you. He gets a noose. I mean, he makes
the whole deal. He's got it ready. And guess
who gets hanged on it? He says, they shall make their
own tongue to fall upon them, upon themselves. Be careful,
you can pronounce your own judgment. But listen, this ends on a good
note. This ends on a very good note.
The righteous shall be glad when they consider His doing. And
all men, it says in verse 9, and all men, and I believe it
means there are all sorts of men, all sorts of men, shall
fear and shall declare the work of God All sorts of men. God saves sinners all over this
world. God saves all sorts of sinners. All sorts of them. The self-righteous down to the
gutter. And they shall declare the work
of God, for they shall wisely consider of His doing. That's
what I'm doing right now. I'm declaring the work of God. All sorts of men shall be glad
when they hear the gospel. When they hear the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, when they hear that the whole of salvation
is of the Lord, they shall wisely consider of His doing." It's
the Lord's doing. My righteousness, your righteousness,
is the Lord's doing. It's His doing. Forgiveness is
His doing. Justification, it's His doing.
We declare that. It's His doing. It's not mine.
Everything I do is undoing. I'm always undoing. But the Lord,
it's His doing. Salvation is His doing from Alpha
to Omega. Isaiah 3.10 says, "...say ye
to the righteous, that it should be well with him, for they shall
eat the fruit of their doings." Because their doings are what?
His doings. He has wrought all our works
in us. He's done that. If I do anything,
anything that's good, it's the Lord at work in me doing it.
The Spirit of God's at work in me doing it. The righteous shall be glad in
the Lord, and shall trust in Him, and all the upright in heart
shall glory." The mark of the righteous he gives here is this. Number one, they're glad. They're
not a morbid people. They are not a stiff, cold, morbid
people. They're glad. They are a glad
people, not a sad bunch of people. They're glad. Yes, we do mourn
over sin, but we rejoice in the Lord. We are a paradox, really. We are a paradox. On one hand,
we do mourn. On the other hand, we rejoice.
And we are glad. And we trust Him. We trust His
providence. Are you worried about tomorrow?
Am I worried about tomorrow? If so, what's my problem? I trust
Him. We trust Him for His providence. He makes all things work together
for our good, whether He gives me a good job or takes it away.
I mean, I've had both. I've had good jobs and I've had
them taken away. The Lord took it away. He did
it. We trust Him. We trust Him when
we can't see Him. We trust Him for righteousness.
We trust Him for salvation. We trust Him for acceptance.
We trust Him for forgiveness. We trust Him. And have no confidence,
as Paul said in Philippians 3, and have no confidence in the
flesh. Listen, apart from Christ, I
am a nobody, and so are you. So we ought to get along real
well. We ought to get along real well. You know when you can't
get along real well, it's because somebody thinks there's somebody. And
they think everybody else is nobody. They trust in Him, and they trust
in Him at all times. And all the upright in heart
shall glory. They shall see His glory, and
they shall share in His glory. And we do glory in Him. That's
what we are doing tonight. We are glorying in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He has saved our soul. He has
made us whole. And we're going to go be with Him
in a little while. In a little while. Alright.