Psalm 60. I took the title from verse 4. Thou hast given
a banner to them that fear thee. A flag, you know a banner is
a flag that we fight under. We rally around the flag. And after I get to this part,
but the banner that we have been given is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our banner that we rally
around and that we fight the good fight of faith. But here
in the beginning of this psalm, David has taken the throne. As you see up in the heading,
it's another miktam, it's another golden psalm. And this psalm
was written when Joab, it says, returned in smote of Edom in
the Valley of Salt 12,000. Joab was one of David's, he's
David's main captain at the time. And David has taken the throne,
Saul has died. Saul and his three sons have
been killed in the battle at Gilboa, and there was a great
slaughter there. And what a mess. What a mess. Saul made of things. Just like
Adam. What a mess. Adam made of things. Look at this world and the mess
it's in. All the killing, all the hatred,
all the all the sinful vices that you can even think of, that's
unimaginable, all came from that one act of rebellion, that first
Adam. And here David is, he has taken
the throne, Saul and his three sons are dead, and David now
has got to fight. the Philistines and these surrounding
nations that surround them, because when they had killed Saul, you
can go to 1 Samuel and read the last chapter, they took over
these places. The Philistines took these places over. David's
now taking them back, not trying to. Just like our Lord, our Lord
is not trying to save. David's taking them back. And
that's just what's going on here. Saul's conduct brought the heavy
hand of God on Israel. And now here under the authority
of David, Israel is being brought back together. Unity. There's unity. Just like our
greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ, in him we are one. There's
unity in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were divided in Adam. Sin
divides us. Sin separates us. But in Christ,
we are one. Now, he says here, and there
are so many things to bring out. You know, when I look at these
Psalms, I honestly scratch my head. And I think, now, which
part do I want to deal with? Because the Psalm deals with
Christ. The Psalm deals with us in Christ. It deals with God
the Father. There's so much dealt with in
the Psalms. And you and I, we can read these
Psalms over and over and over, and we can see more and more
and more in them. So one of the first couple things
here I wanted to look at before we get to the main topic, which
is Christ, our banner, is this. He says, David says in verse
1, O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou
hast been displeased, O turn thyself to us again, but thou
hast been displeased. And my thoughts were, as I read
this, we can displease God by our conduct. The Scripture says,
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. God was grieved by their
conduct, by Saul's conduct and what he caused Israel to do and
their conduct. We can displease God. You know,
Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him and
he had this testimony. What was that? He pleased God.
He pleased God. So we can displease God and when
you really sit down and you think about that, you pray. Lord, help me to walk in a manner
that's pleasing in your sight." I mean that. Help me to walk
in a way, help me to talk in a way when I'm in my home, when
I'm out there in public, help me to do so in a way that's honoring
to you. Help me to do that. As children
can displease their parents by their conduct, so can we displease
our Heavenly Father. But here's the good news. God
has one Son that never displeased Him. God has one Son that always
pleased Him. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him. Hear ye Him. Hear what He has to say. Listen
to Him. And every time we open this book,
and every time we read the Word of God, listen to Him. He's speaking. He's speaking. And I tell you, this just made
me have some real comfort here to know and understand that I
have a brother, a representative, a surety that has always pleased
God on my behalf. God was never displeased with
him. And then the second thing I could see here in this verse,
verse number 1, He said, Thou hast cast us off. You know, when
under the hand of the chastening rod of God, we usually misunderstand
it, don't we? We usually misunderstand God's
dealings with us. God has not cast off His people. That's what Paul says in Romans.
Has God cast off His people? He says, No, He hasn't cast off
His people. There is no way that God will
cast off those for whom Jesus Christ died for. That can't happen. It cannot happen. God would sooner
not exist than to cast off His people. But we usually, you know,
we usually misunderstand it, just like we misunderstand our
parents' discipline of us. We think they don't like us.
No. No, if it's proper discipline,
they're doing it because they love us. And this is out of love. God never casts off those whom
He loves. And he says here in verse 2, "...Thou hast made the earth
to tremble. Thou hast broken it. Heal the
breaches thereof, for it shaketh." Here's what we see. Here's what
sin causes. Sin causes division. Thou hast
broken." He said, Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast
broken it. This is division. This is what sin causes. Sin
never unites. Sin always causes division. The Scripture says, Your sins
have separated you from God. And the very reason that the
earth, He speaks of here, to tremble, and you've broken it,
is over sin. It's over sin. Sometimes also here, the chastening
rod is so difficult, it makes everything seem unsettled. Sometimes God disciplined his
children in such a way that it makes everything unsettled. It's
hard, hard, hard to deal with. And David tasted that. The sword
never left his house. You go read what his son did
to his daughter, and then Absalom tried to take him off the throne.
You know how heart-rending that had to be? Sometimes, though, sometimes,
because of our sin, God has to deal with us in such a way that
it's just unsettling. I want to read something here
to you. Let me find it. It's out of Haggai.
I marked it because I know you'll have a hard time finding it.
It's in 1167, if you want to follow. If you have the same
book I've got, I know you have the same Bible I've got, you
know what I mean. In chapter one, I've been reading
Haggai. And I thought, there's a message
here, but I need to read it some more. There's something here
that's nagging at me. But here, listen, in chapter
1, verse 5, Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider
your ways, consider your way. Isn't that something we should
always do? We should always consider our ways, we should consider
our steps, we should consider every decision we make. We should
weigh it, and pray about it, and think about it, and seek
the Lord about it, and wait on the Lord for it. Now, therefore,
saith the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Now listen to this.
You have sown much. You've sown much. You've plowed
the garden, and you've sown much, and you bring in little. Bring
in little. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you're not filled
with drink. You clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that
earthwages, earthwages to put it into a hole with bags. He said, do you not understand?
He said to them, do you not understand what's going on? The Lord is
discipling them and they don't even reckon. They're not considering
what's going on. They're being disciplined. God
is keeping the harvest from being much of a harvest, and yet they're
not considering their ways. They're not considering, why
is this happening? What's going on here? They're
just thinking it's bad weather. You know, we just had a drought
this summer. Well, there's a reason for the drought. There's a reason
for everything. There's a spiritual reason for
absolutely everything that goes on in our lives. Everything. And I tell you this, there's
a form of chastening in all the trials that we go through. You
know, you can just pick a day in my life, you can pick a minute
in my life, and the Lord can chasten me. He could chasten
me. And in every trial, I realize
this now that I've gotten older, every trial that God will put
me through or you through, there's a form of discipline in it, chastening
in it. And then he says here in verse
3, Thou hast showed thy people hard things. Hard things. Notice how David traces their
hardship back to its source. God. He didn't say the Philistines
showed them hard things. The Philistine killed a lot of
them. I mean, there's a lot of Israelites killed by the Philistines
in the war. He didn't say the Philistines
did that. When Job lost his 10 children and he lost everything
he had, did he blame Satan? Did he blame anybody? He said,
the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. He's the first cause of all things. And that's what David, David
traces their hardship back to God, back to its source. Nothing happens by chance. All
our afflictions are sin of God, all of them. And we should sit
down and consider our ways when these things come. And when we
recognize this, we are to turn and flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I thought about this before coming down. from my study. Thou hast showed thy people hard
things. One of the hardest things that
God could show us, and here he's talking about trials, many of
them died, like I said, in the war, but to put this in a real
spiritual sense, the hard thing is when God shows
me who I am. I mean, really, not just say,
well, that's what the Bible says. No, you really experience something,
because you and I couldn't experience the full-blown view of what we
really are. We couldn't handle that. But
for God to show us who and what we are, to show us our sins,
these are hard things to see. You know, here's a hard thing.
There's none good, no, not one, even you. Even me. We don't like to think of ourselves
as not good in any way, shape, or form. I mean, surely there's
something good. No, there's nothing good. And
to realize that, to realize that in God's sight, you and I are
like a running sore in God's sight. That's what it says in
Isaiah. That's what it says. That's hard on this flesh. We
don't like to think of those things like that about ourselves. These are hard things. Our enmity
against God, that's hard things. Thou hast shewed thy people hard
things. He says there in verse 3, Thou
hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Really, we are
that sinful. We have drank the wine of just
astonished of how sinful we are. We are so sinful, look what it
took to save us. Look what it took to save me
from my sins. It took God coming into this
world, coming into this world, taking upon Him my flesh like
mine, yet without sin, but God came into this world and suffered
at the hands of His own justice. When you look at Calvary, and
you look at that mutilated flesh hanging there on the cross, what
does that say about me? Does that say I'm a pretty good
fella? No, I tell you what it says,
if he wasn't hanging on that cross for me, that'd be me. That's
what God thinks of me, by nature. That's what God thinks of sin.
And that's what I am, a sin. That's astonishing. That's astonishing,
what it took to save a wretch like me and you. He's made us
to drink the wine of astonishment. Yes, we are that sinful. We are
that sinful. Now, David says here, he takes
a turn here, and he says in verse 4, Thou hast given a banner to
them that fear Thee, And really, the thought of it here, one of
the key thoughts is this. You've given us a banner to flee
to from the archers. Now, this is the wars going on. Back years ago, when they fought
wars, there would be one man carrying a banner. It'd be one
man with a flag. And they rallied around that
flag. They fought around that flag. And David's saying that
those who fear thee, you've given them a banner to flee to from
the archers. Where is it you and I flee to
in time of trouble? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's our
banner. God said his banner over us is
love. We flee to him because he loves
us. He died for us. He's our surety. He's everything
we need. He's our refuge. He's our high
tower. He's our banner. So David here, let's look at
this. David here turns his thoughts
to what God's given to them that fear him. This is not to everybody.
This is not to everyone. This banner is not to everyone. It's to them that fear God. It's
to them that fear God. If you fear God, God's given
you a banner to flee to, to rally around. God has given us the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ in which to fight under. When our army
went to war, it fight under the banner of the United States,
the flag of the United States of America. We fight under the
banner of the gospel, which is Christ. Christ is the gospel.
He's the gospel. We fight under Him, under His
banner. We are joined to Him. He's our
guide. Wherever He moves, we move. You
know, wherever the banner is, that's where the army is. That's where they are. Someone
said, I was reading, he said, where you would find the most
body parts in the field of battle, where you'd find the most arms
and legs and bodies, that's where the banner was, because that's
where they got around to try to protect it. They tried to
protect that banner, that flag, because that said who they were. And they said, that's where you
find the most body parts is around that banner. You knew where the
banner was during that war because that's where the most body parts
were. And we fight under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And seeing that God has given us the banner of the gospel,
it's evident, now this is evident to me, that God is for us. God is for us. He's given, He
says here. Thou hast given a banner. This
banner is of God. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord, our banner. He is our banner. This banner
is our God. This banner is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn over to Isaiah 11. In Isaiah 11, in verse 10. Isaiah 11, verse 10. And in that
day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people. That's a banner. Shall stand
for an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. That enzyme that the Gentiles
seek is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who gave him? God gave him. God
gave us that banner. He gave us that banner to rally
around. That's what we're doing this
evening, isn't it? We are rallying around the gospel. That's what
we're doing right now. The banner is flying right now. As I speak here of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the banner is flying. It's being held up. It's being lifted up. Now, that's
what you do with a banner in battle, isn't it? You know, if
you're going to rally around the banner, you know, somebody's
got to be holding it up. You've got to be holding it up
for the men to see it. If I be lifted up, I'll draw
all men to me, he said. But it's got to be lifted up.
But I'll tell you something else about that banner being lifted
up. The person who lifts it up, he's got to be one of the bravest
in the crowd, because I'll tell you why. He's the one they want
to kill. They want to shoot that guy holding the flag. They were trying to shoot everybody
else, but they definitely want to shoot that man with the flag.
They want that flag to drop. That's what they want. We rally around the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, and we fight the good fight of faith
around Him. He's our message, He's our banner,
He's everything. He's everything. Now it says this banner is given
to them that fear God, that fear Thee, that fear Thee. If we fear God, then we have
nothing else to fear. Right? We have nothing else to
fear. If God has given us the banner,
if he's given us his son, what do we have to fear? The victory's
already won. I can't lose. The victory's won. The battle's already won. We
know this. The battle's won. When he cried,
it's finished, he got the victory. He got the victory. Our victory
is seated at God's right hand. That's where our victory is.
Seated at God's right hand. And right now, every believer
is seated at God's right hand in Christ. As I said, this banner is to
be displayed. That's what he says there. Thou
hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed
because of the truth. Turn over to Isaiah 13. In Isaiah
13, Verse 2. Lift ye up a banner upon the
high mountain. Put it up there where all the
children of God can see it. And listen, put it up there where
all the enemies of God can see the banner that we fight under.
We fight under the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in a warfare. Now this is a warfare that we
are in until we die. We're not just trying to live
right and die and go to heaven. We are in a warfare, a spiritual
warfare. And there's nothing that Satan
would like more than to destroy this congregation and every other
congregation that preaches the gospel. It's a warfare going
on. You know, when I look at the
world now, when I look at the news, if I watch the news, if
I turn it on, and when I look at the world, I don't look at,
I'm telling you the truth, I don't look at it at all as men against
men, or nation against nation, or China against the United States.
I look at it as the warfare, a spiritual warfare that's going
on. And I ask myself, what is God doing? What's God doing? This is His world. It's His world. It doesn't belong
to us. It's His. It's His. He said, lift this banner upon
a high mountain for everybody to see it. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. That's right, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And
those who are not ashamed of the gospel will lift that banner
up. They will lift up Christ. I don't care if you lift him
up at work, you lift him up out in wherever you are, you will
lift up Christ. Because you're not ashamed of
your banner. You're not ashamed of the banner you fight under.
Those who are ashamed of this country, I wish they'd find one
to live in that they'd like and leave this one. If you don't
like fighting under this banner, go find you one that you do like.
And that's the same thing about spiritual warfare. We fight under
the banner of Christ. We are not ashamed of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're not ashamed of Him. We're not ashamed of His gospel.
And Paul told Timothy, don't be ashamed of me. Don't be ashamed of the gospel
and don't be ashamed of me, the Lord's servant. We hold it up to a high mountain.
Our Lord said this, go into all the world and preach the gospel,
carry the banner. Just like Walter carrying the
banner in Mexico, and Lance carrying it in New Guinea. Wherever we
go, wherever we go, wherever God leads us, carry the banner. Carry it. Let it be known. Let it be known who you are.
And here's another reason why, he says, because of truth. Because
of truth. This is the truth. What I'm telling
you is the truth. There's no other way to get the
truth except the Word of God. Apart from the Word of God, there's
no truth. This is truth. And truth is to be proclaimed.
The message we have to proclaim is truth. God said over in Revelation
3.14, 19.11, 21.5, and 22.6, write these things for this is
true and faithful and true saying, true and faithful saying. Write
it down. He's telling John, write it down. What I've told you,
this is true and faithful. It's going to happen. You can
stake your life on it. I was saying to Vicki the other
day, I was watching something and it was showing, you know,
it was just animated, but it was showing the world. It was
a remake of that song in the year 2525. You older people have
heard that, I know. Well, there's a remake on that.
Anyway, it's an updated version. But anyway, it goes out to like
2095 or whatever. But it shows the earth disintegrating.
And I was saying to Vic, I said, can you imagine that's really
going to happen, that one day this earth is not going to be
here? I mean, it's really going to
disintegrate? So that's hard to comprehend. But it's so. It's
so. Just because I can't comprehend
something doesn't mean it's not so, because I tell you, it wouldn't
hardly be anything so if it depended on me comprehending it. It is
so, though. God has given us His Word, and
we have the victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to
proclaim it. And he says here in verse 5,
that thy beloved may be delivered. God delivers us in the truth.
Now, if God delivered this beloved in the truth, He can deliver
another beloved in the truth. There's more beloveds out there. He says there in verse 5, "...that
thy beloved may be delivered, save with thy right hand, and
hear me." And that word is victory, get
the victory. He's asking God, get the victory.
There's nothing that David wanted more than to see God get the
victory over his enemies. Not because David could step
back and say, see I told you. But that God would be glorified.
God would be glorified. Now look here in verses 6 through
8. God has spoken in His holiness. And one translation said, God
has spoken in His promises. The Scripture says all the promises
of God in Christ are yea and amen. God has spoken in His holiness,
in His promises. But God's promises are holy promises,
aren't they? You see, God is holy. The actual
meaning of that means other than. God is other than we are. We
are sinful. God is light. We are what? Darkness. But God is holy. He can do no
wrong. And what He has said, He will
do. He's spoken in His holiness. He's given a promise to save
us. Christ said, come to me, all
ye that labor heavily, laden, I'll give you rest. That's a
promise. God has spoken that. And He's spoken that in His holiness. And because God is holy, and
because He has spoken to us in His promises, we can rejoice.
That's what David said. I will rejoice. Don't you like the confidence
of that? Don't you like the confidence? David is really setting forth
faith here. I will rejoice. I will rejoice. God has spoken in His promises,
and I'll rejoice. Don't you expect to do that?
Do you not expect, at the end of this life, to rejoice because
of the promises that God has given you and me in Jesus Christ? I expect to rejoice. I do. Listen, I will divide Shechem
and meet out the valley of Sukkoth. Remember, these are two places
that Jacob lighted in. and when he was on his journey,
these two places. But here's something interesting.
Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. It's not the
Philistines. They don't belong to them. There's not a nation on this
earth that belongs to themselves. They belong to God. Gilead's mine. Don't get beside
yourself and think, you know, this has been taken over and
we've lost it. No. It's all God's. He hasn't lost
anything. Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is
mine. See, all these that he's speaking of here are Israelites.
These are all Israel. These are Israel. He hasn't lost
Israel. He's not going to lose one member
of the church, of his body. He's not going to lose any of
them. Judah's my lawgiver. Christ. Moab, this was the enemy of Israel. Edom and the Philistines, these
were the enemies of Israel. He said, Moab is my washpot. Moab is my washpot. They're servants.
You know what happened? If you read 2 Samuel, chapter
5 and then in chapter 8, David takes them over. David goes in and takes over
Moab, and you know what he makes out of them? Servants. They become
servants to Israel. He's my washpot. Moab's my washpot
over Edom. Over Edom will I cast out my
shoe. Philistia, triumph thou because of me? It actually over,
you know, it's a, triumph thou over me by, and it says over
my margin, it's saying it as an irony. You triumph by, no,
you triumph over me? I don't think so. I don't think
so. Who will bring me into the strong
city? Who's going to bring me to heaven? From this place of
sin and corruption, from this body of sin and corruption, who's
going to take me into the presence of God? Jesus Christ, His Son, and He's
going to take me there, He's going to take all those whom
He saves, He's going to take us there, and He's going to present
us without spot or blemish, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight. Who
shall bring me into the strong city? Not my army. David's the
king now. He has the army behind him. He
has more than just 600 men now. He's got his army behind him,
but he says, they're not gonna be the ones to bring me into
the strong city. It's God who's gonna do it. David finally, I
don't wanna say finally, but David realized that his army
was nothing more than a sword in God's hand. God uses whom
he will. If God uses me, I'm just an instrument
in God's hand. But God is the one, can the ax
brag on cutting down a tree? No, the ax was just in my hand. That's all we are, we're instruments
in the hands of God. And I thank God he uses us as
instruments of righteousness, of instruments to preach the
gospel. Who will bring me into the strong
center? Who will lead me into Edom? My Lord. My Lord. Wilt not thou, O God? That's
what he says. Wilt not thou, O God, which hast cast us off,
and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? Well,
first of all, he did, or all of you'd be dead. And if he didn't
go out, all of you, the whole Israel would be gone. There wouldn't
be one left. But God has a remnant. God has
a remnant. And God has a remnant in every
generation, in every age. But, sometimes He allows us to
go through some hard things because we need to. We get a little too
full of ourselves. A little too often. What will
give us help from trouble? For vain is the help of man.
Salvation's of the Lord. I'll tell you something. Eternal salvation's of the Lord.
And whatever situation you're in right now, salvation's of
the Lord. And if you get stuck in the mud,
salvation's of the Lord. If you get stuck in a hardship,
salvation's of the Lord. In every situation, salvation
is of the Lord. Now, He may use men, but don't
get caught up with men. You know, sometimes we get caught
up with the package and we forget who gave us the package. Give us help from trouble for
vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly. That word valiantly is courageous,
bold, bold. Through God we shall do valiantly. We'll do great things. We ought
to expect great things of a great God, shouldn't we? When was it
that Sansom was strong? That's when the Spirit of God
came upon him, and then he did valiant things. It's through God we shall do
valiantly. Paul said that I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. You know, I realize this, and
I know you as believers realize it, but too often we forget it. Too often we forget it. But I
know that in myself, I don't have the strength to even get
out of bed. I really don't. If God didn't give me the physical
strength to get up and get out of bed, I wouldn't be able to
do it. There's some who can't. There's
some who can't even step upon a curb. I know that. But I also know this. I know
that in Jesus Christ, through Christ, I can do all things.
I can do all things. I don't think there's a thing
in this world, there's a thing under the sun I cannot do if
it's the Lord's will for me to do it. You know, when you read the story
of Sansom, how many did he kill with the jawbone of an ass? Was
it 10,000 or 1,000? 10,000, something like that.
It's in the thousands. It says he killed that many with
the jawbone of an ass. I couldn't kill that many with
a machine gun. And he did it with the jawbone of an ass. Can
you imagine that? You say, that's unbelievable.
Well, that's why faith is a gift of God. Because what we believe
is unbelievable. It's beyond things we've experienced. All things are possible to him
that believeth. All things. Victory over sin, over Satan,
over death, is in Christ our banner. We have a banner to rally
around, to fight under, to go forth under. We have a banner
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The victory is ours in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our enemies are great, but our
God is greater. Our God is greater. All right.