Turn to Psalm 28. I've decided
to go ahead with this psalm. This is the one we were going
to pick up on before we had to stop meeting. The title of the
message is, The Lord is My Rock. It's good to have a solid foundation,
isn't it? It's good in times like these
to have something that's solid. You know, I know this. I know
that with this virus and things going on, we have a concern about
it, but we're not freaked out about it. You know, we're not
running around wringing our hands, afraid we're going to get it
or something's going to happen. We have a foundation. We have
a foundation. We have a sure foundation, a
solid foundation. And when I was reading this,
I thought of this This thought came to my mind. When times are
tough, trials come along. When sin lies heavy on the heart,
what do you do? What do I do? How do I handle
it? Where do I go? To whom do I cry? I want you to turn over to Isaiah. Isaiah 30, and then I'll read
a few verses in Isaiah 30. In verses 1 and then chapter
31, I'll read a verse there. In Isaiah 30, listen to this,
"'Woe to the rebellious children,' saith the Lord, that take counsel
but not of me, they don't call on me, that cover with a covering,
but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin, that walk
to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth." How many
times in the wilderness did the children of Israel want to turn
back to Egypt? They wanted to turn back every
time it got tough. Every time things got tough,
they said, we should have stayed in Egypt. It was better in Egypt.
No, it's not. It's never better in Egypt. To
strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust
in the shadow of Egypt. Look over in chapter 31. Woe to them that go down to Egypt
for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because
they are many. and in horsemen, because they
are very strong. But they look not unto the Holy
One of Israel, neither seek the Lord." Are you not thankful? Are you not thankful that when
trouble comes, or sin lies heavy on the heart, that you don't
go to Egypt, you don't go to this world, you don't go to some
priest, you go to Christ. you go to that rock that God
has established for the church. Listen, listen. Prayer, calling
upon God, is one of the blessings that God has given to His children.
It is a blood-bought blessing that we have. It's been bought
by the blood of Christ. Our access to the throne of grace
is bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have
a right to be there. Listen to this in 1 Peter 5.7,
"'Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.'"
I would to God that Scripture could really sink into our hearts
how much God cares for us, how much He would... I hate to use the word want with
God, but to hear from us. You know, I love hearing from
my children. I love hearing from my grandchildren. I love hearing
from them. I love it when they call me and talk to me. How much more God? His children.
We call upon Him. We acknowledge our need of Him
when we cast our care upon Him. Listen to this in Hebrews 4.16.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
Come boldly. We don't need to crawl in. We can come in boldly in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's start looking at verse
1 here. This is the Psalm of David. This is the prayer of
David, but it's also a prayer of the greater David, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says here, "'Unto thee
will I cry.'" That's why I started out here, who do you go to in
times of trouble? God. We go to God or go to our
Father. Listen, our Lord Himself prayed
often for help while He was here and walked this earth in the
flesh. He prayed often for help. Now, if He who knew no sin And
He who has all power, He said, all power is given to Me. If
He prayed for help, how much more Me and you, who are just
worms, just worms, how much more help do we need? He continually prayed to His
Father for help, and He's a great example, He's our example in
seeking the Father. We need to seek the Father like
He did, continually, and in faith, and seek Him in hope. That is
expectation that He will hear us. You'll see later in this
psalm, He says, I thank you, you heard me. You hear me. You
know, the Lord said, I know you always hear me. You know God
always hears His children? It doesn't feel like it sometimes,
does it? You know, when the Lord was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
He prayed, Father, He prayed three times, if it be your will,
let this cup pass from me. And he kept praying. And he kept
praying. Prayed it three times. And then
he said, not my will, but thine be done. He never heard from
him. He was praying, and he was praying,
but he knew what he was going to go through. And whatever it
is the Lord puts us through, He's putting us through it. It's
not just happening. What's going on right now is
not just happening. It's not something got out of
control. It's under the sovereign control of God Almighty. And
I tell you this, he'll take out everyone he's purposed to take
out. But prayer is such a blessing. It's such a blessing, such a
privilege. And David says, unto thee will
I cry, O Lord, my rock. You know, in the Old Testament,
rock was always used as a symbol of deity. And it was used as
a symbol of deity because of the stability of it, because
of the strength of it, and because of the immutability of it. Sand
is movable. You know, the scripture speaks
of building a house on the sand and the storms come and it falls,
but that house is built on a rock. When the storms come, it stands.
It stands. That's why he says here, David
says, he's my rock. The Lord is my rock. He's my
stability. He's my strength. He's my foundation. And now, be not silent to me
or deaf. The worst thing that God could
do to you and me is leave us alone. Turn a deaf ear, not hear
us. Henry said one time, he said,
there is a blessing He said, with being deaf, you know, he
was very, very hard of hearing. He said, if you don't want to
hear somebody, just turn them off. He said at one time he was
listening to a preacher, and he didn't like what the guy was
saying. He said, I turned him off. I didn't have to listen
to him. And that's what Dave is saying
here. Don't turn a deaf ear to me. Oh, don't do that. That's the worst thing that could
happen. Not to speak to us through His Word and His Preacher? You
know, I was thinking this past week, how actually this is, well,
I know this is good for us, what's happening is good for us. If
you're a child of God, it's good for you. Nothing happens to us
that's not good for us. Nothing. But I realized that,
you know, there are times when we can have something, an abundance
of something, and take it for granted. You know, we just, you
know, for years and years, Sunday after Sunday, Wednesday after
Wednesday, we just get in the car, come to the service and
go back home. And then all of a sudden the
Lord shuts it down. And he makes us to realize that
the world's not going to realize anything. They're talking about
luck. I heard a man say the other day how he, how he recovered
from it, how lucky he was. But we don't say that. We don't
say that. We know that this is of God,
and we know... I know this. I know this. He's
made me hungry for this again, more than ever. The Lord knows how to... He knows
how to deal with His children. And that's what He's doing. He's
dealing with us. He may be bringing some judgment on the world. I
mean, just a taste of it, because judgment, when judgment really
falls, in a cast into the lake of fire, that's judgment. This
is just a taste of what God can do. This is just a demonstration
of God's sovereignty. This is a small demonstration
of God's power. That's what it is. Now, it says here, Be not silent
to me, Lord. Don't turn a deaf ear to me.
Hear my prayers. Lest, if thou be silent to me,
I become like them that go down into the pit." If God leaves
me and you alone, we'll be just like them to perish. We'll be
just like them. Men and women left to themselves
will perish. It's not in us by nature. It's
not in us by nature to seek after God. It's not in us by nature
to seek forgiveness and seek mercy. It's not in us by nature.
That's of God. Christ said, I was found of them
that sought me not. They weren't looking for me.
I was made known unto them that asked not for me. I wasn't looking
for him. He was looking for me. The shepherd
found the sheep. Then he made himself known to
the sheep. Look over in Psalm 14. In Psalm 14 he says, "...the
fool has said in his heart, There is no God, no God for me, I'll
be my own God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone
aside, they are all together become filthy. There is none
that doeth good, no, not one, and that includes me and you."
It does. That includes us. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. The only difference between Noah
and his other brothers and sisters? The grace of God. That's the
difference. That's the difference. And listen to his request here.
Hear the voice of my supplications. My earnest prayers. That's what
he's saying. My earnest prayers. I want you to notice the word
voice. Our prayer has a voice. Our prayer has a voice. It's
the voice of God's child. It's the voice of God's child.
Every parent, every parent can be standing in a crowd and their
child can be off in a distance and let that child cry and that
parent will recognize that's their child. Hear the voice of my supplication."
Hear the voice of your child. I'm your child. Oh, Father, hear
me. Hear me. Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry unto Thee. This is not just a simple prayer.
I've had somebody say once before, say a little prayer for me. There
is no such thing as a little prayer. Is there ever such a
time that we have a little conversation with God There is no little prayer. Just one word with God is great. To be able to say one word to
Him and be heard is great. Oh, when I cry, when I lift up
my hands toward Thy holy oracles, when I lift up my hands toward
Thy holy of holies, that's what He's talking about. He's talking
about the holy of holies. The holy of holies is where God's
presence was. It's where the mercy seat was.
It's where the blood of atonement was. It's where those things
resided that represented the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's
what he's saying. When we pray, we look to God
in Christ. When we pray, we pray to God
in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator. When I lift up My hands, My soul
toward Thy holy oracle, when I lift up My soul to Thee in
the name of Christ, hear Me, hear Me." This is praying with understanding. This is not like the Pharisee
who stood and blurted out a lot of words to be seen and heard
of men. This is praying with understanding,
true praying. is with understanding. We understand
who we're praying to. We understand how it is we can
pray to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. We understand that. And we understand how He can
hear us and answer us. Look here at a part of that request. Verse 3, "...draw me not away
with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak
peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their heart."
I know this. I know I have the same nature
as the wicked. I know that. I know I was born
in sin and shaped in iniquity. I know that. But here's my request. Lord, don't include me in that
number that perish. Include me in that number that
are saved by the blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ."
Don't include me in that number. That's not my company. That's
not my company anymore. And he's saying here, if you
don't hear me, if you leave me alone, you can do nothing but
include me in that number. But Lord, be merciful to me.
Don't include me in that number. I want you to notice here how
he identified the wicked. He says here, well, he identifies
them by their conduct. It's deceitful. The workers,
he says here, workers, workers of iniquity. They work it. They
work it. They plan. They plot. They scheme
is what they do. They're workers of iniquity.
And they're deceitful. Deceitful. What they say to their
neighbor is not what they say in their heart. Sin comes from within and that's
where God deals, God deals in the heart. I was watching a program
the other day and they was, you know, the people were doing some
good things. I mean, they were doing, you know, I think some
were making masks and giving, they were doing what we would
call good things. But you know, those things fool
us. I'm sitting there watching this,
and I'm thinking to myself, I couldn't say anything bad about that. I'm glad they do that. I'm glad
of that. But God sees the heart. This
verse jumped out at me because I was thinking about that, and
I was thinking of preaching. I was thinking of actually saying,
but there's none good, no not one, you're no good. And you
know how they're going to turn on you and say, are you serious?
Look what they're doing. And you're saying they're no
good? No, God said that. God said that. That's what God
said. But here's the key. This is the
key. This just jumped out at me when
I read this. Listen, it says, they speak peace
to their neighbors. They speak kind words to their
neighbor. How are you doing today, Joe? I hope you have a good day. But God sees the heart. Mischief is in the heart. God
sees the heart. God judges men by the heart.
Men and women are what they are in their hearts. Not what we
say they are, or what they say they are, it's what they are
in their hearts. And that's what God sees. And
that's why he said, when he looked down from heaven, And he said, among the sons of
men, there is none good. There's none that seeks after
God. There's none that understands. There's none good, no, not one.
And I know, when I stand and preach that, there'll be people
that'll hear that. They'll hear it over the internet.
And they'll say, but I know some good people. And I understand what they're
saying, but I also understand what God's saying. That's two
standards of good. That's a human standard of good,
which means it's just not out and out evil, outwardly. But God's standard of good is
perfection. If it's not perfect, God said
it must be perfect to be accepted. So listen, don't be fooled by
someone's outward morality. Remember that man that came to
the Lord, that rich young ruler, and he said, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? And the Lord gave him some commandment,
because that's the ground he came on. And he said, well, I've
done all this. I've done all this. You haven't
done any of it. The Lord said, go sell all you
have. Covetous. In his heart, he was covetous.
He loved what he had more than the poor neighbor that lived
beside of him. But now look in verse 4. Now that clock is not working,
so I don't know how long I'm going here. But it's been a while
since we've been here. He says here, and he speaks of
here, justice served. Give them according to their
deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them
after the work of their hands. Render to them their dessert.
This does not sound like praying for one's enemy, does it? That's
the first thing I thought of when I read that. I thought the
Lord said, pray for your enemies, pray for them who despitefully
use you. You know, those are things that
when I read them, I weigh them out, I think about them. This scripture says this, and
then he's saying this. We say, listen, the believers
say, Amen to the justice of God as well as to the grace of God.
Spurgeon, I'm going to quote different things from Spurgeon
from here on, some things I've read. But Spurgeon wrote this,
and I thought this was good. Listen, when we view the wicked
simply as such and not as our fellow men, Our indignation against
sin leads us entirely to coincide with the acts of divine justice,
which punish evil, and to wish that justice might use her power
to restrain by her terrors the cruel and unjust." I thought
that was a good way to put it. We do agree with God's justice.
And as I thought upon this, I thought of John 17. Because this is also
our Lord praying, give them their reward. Reward them. The wages
of sin is death. Give them their reward. When
our Lord prayed in John 17, He said this, I pray for them, I
pray not for the world. I'm not praying for the world.
There is a world of unbelievers. There's a world of those who
are under condemnation that are going to perish. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is not praying that the Father will save them and
the Father won't do it. He gets everything He asks for. God said in Isaiah, I believe
it's in Isaiah, it's in the Old Testament, Ask me for the heathen
for thine inheritance and I'll give them to you. Actually, I think that might
be in the Psalms. So our Lord here, He prays. He prays for His own, that they
may be saved, that they may receive, that they may see His glory that
He prays in John 17. They may behold My glory. But
He also prays that the world may receive the justice it deserves.
Now this is not somebody makes me mad. It's not like somebody
made David mad and he says, God, I want you to kill him. All he's
praying for here is that God's justice would be glorified as
much as His grace is glorified in Jesus Christ. When God casts
the great whore into hell in the book of Revelation, the whole
host of heaven says, Amen. And nobody weeping over that. Now you and I don't have that
kind of that mind right now, because
when we die, we go to glory, we have the mind of Christ. And
all this fleshly sin that we have and the darkness that we
have, as Paul said, we know in part, we preach in part, then
we shall know as we are known. And that's when we can say, Amen,
when God cast the wicked in the hell, no matter who the wicked
are. But now we have a hard time with that. But here He says, and here He
gives a reason for the execution of justice, "...because they
regard not the works of the Lord." You see, this is not because
somebody just upset Him. This has to do with the glory
of God. This has to do with the glory
of redemption, of God's glory and redemption. "...because they
regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands.
He shall destroy them and not build them up." David here requests
for justice based on one's attitude toward God. And to be more specific,
it's their attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ, His person
and work, because they regard not the work of the Lord. the work of redemption, the work
of saving a sinner, the work of being able to justify a sinner,
they deny it. They deny it, they don't want
nothing to do with it. And he says here, because of that, the
way they treat you, O Lord, destroy them. Destroy them. You know,
every day God speaks, yet man refuses to recognize God in all
that he sees. Not once have I heard anyone
on TV say that this virus is of God. Not once. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein. It's all His. Nothing goes on here that's not
of God. Nothing. And there's coming a
day in which God will destroy the unbelieving world. But listen, then he turns to
praise in verse 6. Blessed be the Lord, because
he hath heard the voice of my supplications. He went from asking
God to hear him, now here he has confidence that the Lord
has heard him. The Lord has heard me. Prayer
now turns to praise. It's good when we pray, and in
our prayers we praise God. We praise God. that we give unto
Him the glory due unto His name, that we acknowledge His greatness. And he says here, Blessed be
the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord Jesus Christ said this,
Father, I know that You always hear me. Aren't you glad of that? I'm
so glad he always hears because Christ is always interceding
for me and you. And he's always heard. Always. Spurgeon said this, Real praise
is established upon sufficient and constraining reasons. It
is not irrational emotion, but rises like a pure spring from
the deeps of experience. Yeah, this is not just irrational
emotion going on here. This is from real experience.
I know you... David, he can say here, David
can say this. David said, David can say, because he hath heard
the voice of my supplications. He's reaching back. David is
actually reaching back right here to the times that he can
point to, say, God answered my prayer. God answered my prayer.
And I know He's heard me. He heard me then, He'll hear
me now. If I'm His child, He will. Now David gives his confession
of faith. The Lord is my strength and my
shield. My heart trusted in Him and I'm
helped. He's giving gratitude here for
help. I'm helped, therefore my heart greatly rejoices. And with
my song will I praise Him." Can I truly say this? I know this, and this is one
of the things that I'm careful of myself. I know that we can
learn things, and we can learn how to say things, and we can
learn what we're supposed to believe or what we're supposed
to do. We can learn those things, which means I don't necessarily
have to experience them. I don't necessarily have to experience.
You can teach me, you can take a child in a Bible class. You
can teach them Calvinism. You can teach them Calvinism.
You can teach them the five points of Calvinism. But not until they
experience the grace of God, not until they experience a new
birth, do they really experience salvation. And that's why I said,
when I said this, can I truly say this? I asked myself this
question first before I ask you. The Lord is my strength. I'm
not going down to Egypt. I'm not turning to the world
for answers or for help. The Lord is my strength. I trust
Him with all my heart and I'm helped. John, can you truly say
that? Yes, I believe I can. I believe
I can. It's the Lord who gives us strength
in the inner man. He's our shield. He's our protection.
As we travel through this sinful life, the Lord is our protection, and
we acknowledge it at all times. The older I get, the more I realize
how weak I am, how frail I am. The older I get, that's one of
the good things about aging as a believer. Now, unbelievers,
it's just a complaint. But for the believer, as you
age, you realize how frail you really are and who really is
your strength. The Lord's your strength. He's
my strength. In every area, in every area. Now he turns and listen, he's
been praying for himself, he's been asking for help, he's been
asking the Lord to hear him in his distress, whatever this distress
was going on at this time, and he's asked for the Lord to help
him. And now he turns and he's going
to pray for the church, the Lord's people. He says in verse 7, the
Lord is my strength. In verse 8, the Lord is their
strength. He's my strength and He's your
strength. We have the same God, the same
Father. We have the same Father. True prayer is not always about
ourselves. We pray for one another even
as our Lord prayed for us there in John 17. And we never boast
on this flesh. You nor I are strong at all.
We're not strong. A little germ brings it down.
A little germ brings the whole world down. We're not strong. Spurgeon said this, and He is
the saving strength of His anointed. Here behold King David as the
type of our Lord Jesus, our covenant Head, our anointed Prince, through
whom all blessings come to us. He has achieved full salvation
for us, and we desire saving strength from Him, and as we
share in the unction which is so largely shed upon Him, we
expect to partake of that salvation." What the Lord prayed for Himself
applies to us. And notice what it says here,
and I'll close. In verse 9, save thy people. This is like the
Lord, when He taught His disciples to pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy
will be done, praying for the welfare of God's kingdom, the
prosperity of it, His spiritual kingdom. And He prays here, and
this is the Lord praying for us. Take this as the Lord Jesus
prayed for us here in 2020. Save Thy people. and bless thine inheritance,
feed them also, and lift them up forever." Now, looking at
this in the light of the Lord Jesus praying this prayer for
us, you reckon God the Father is going to answer that prayer? Well, now you read it with different
eyes. Save thy people. Bless thine
inheritance. God's gonna bless you. You know
why? His Son asked Him to. Feed them also. Here you are
this morning. You're being fed by the Word
of God. And lift them up forever. Save thy people now in times
of trouble and save them for eternity. Bless thine inheritance,
bless them with growth in faith, hope, and love." You know, the
material blessings of this life should be last on the list. That
really should be low on the totem pole. The real blessing is to
be blessed with faith, hope, and love. To be blessed with
a growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God will bless us in those things, everything else will
fall in place. And we will be content with those
things that He gives us if we are blessed with growth in grace
and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to feed them
also. And that word, feed, it means
shepherd them. Shepherd them. There's no greater
shepherd than the good shepherd. The Lord Jesus Christ. Shepherd,
feed them the bread of life. And lift them up forever. Carry
them along the way till you lift them up to glory. You know the
Lord's carrying us. You know that? We're not just
walking side by side. He's carrying us home. He's got us on His shoulder.
The government's on His shoulder. And the sheep are on His shoulder.
Let me close with this. Another quote from Spurgeon.
And this is good. I pray the Lord would answer
this one. Elevate their minds and thoughts.
Spiritualize their affections. Make them heavenly, Christ-like,
and full of God. full of God. Doug Close in prayer.