John had some glowing words last
night before I got up here to preach. Tonight he told us what
his expectations are for me to preach. He don't mind putting
a man under pressure. I've enjoyed being here. I joined
David in saying thank you for your hospitality Ladies, the
food has been outstanding and the fellowship has been wonderful. David, that was so good. It was so good I forgot for a
little bit that I was going to preach after you. Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm
56. Psalm 56. Verse 1 begins, Be merciful unto
me, O God, for man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. Mine enemies would daily swallow
me up. For they be many that fight against
me, O thou most high. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee." Now if you look at the heading, you will see
that this was when the Philistines took David in Goth. The king of Goth was Achish.
And you are familiar with this, probably. This was where Achish servants were bragging
on David so much that Scripture says David was sore afraid of
Achish, king of Goth. Here he stands, he's in the city
of Goliath, that great soldier of Goth who he's already defeated.
He's standing there with Goliath's sword on. And then the servants
of the king are bragging on him, on David, instead of bragging
on their own king. David was so afraid of Achish. This was that instance where
he feigned madness and acted like he was a madman. And it
worked. The king of Achish said, get this madman out of my presence. I don't have any use for him.
So it worked. But David's trouble pales in
comparison to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's who is speaking
here. When you read the Psalms, always
read them hearing Christ speak first. You'll be surprised how
many Psalms you can see Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane,
or see Him as He walked the earth, or see Him on the cross. But
these Psalms are Christ speaking. And that's the case with this
one right here. The entire time the Lord Jesus walked this earth,
He was a servant. He had taken the form of a servant.
And so the entire time He walked this earth, He was looking to
the Father. Did He become afraid? Well, He
experienced every infirmity we have. And when he was afraid,
he looked to the Father. He trusted the Father. And the
reason he's the author and finisher of our faith is because he's
the only man that ever walked this earth as the servant of
God, looking to God in perfect faith. But tonight I want to look at
this psalm as it pertains to our fearfulness. I've titled
this, A Message for the Fearful. Do you ever become afraid? I
do. And I know if you're a child
of God, you do too. We're described in Scripture
as sheep. And a sheep doesn't have any
defenses. And we're very defenseless in this world. A man may think
he's somebody and he's really capable of great things. All
it takes is for God just to make one circuit in your mind change
and you won't even know who you are. We're defenseless sheep. There
was a man Charles Spurgeon wrote about and he was, in his younger
days, he was a shepherd of sheep. When he got older, he was one
of the Lord's under-shepherds, ministering to the Lord's sheep.
And this fellow said, I've been a shepherd of sheep out in the
field and I've been an under-shepherd of God's sheep. And he said,
and of the two, God's sheep are a whole lot more sheepish. We're helpless, defenseless creatures. But since our Redeemer has overcome
the world for His particular people, though we may be fearful,
our great Redeemer will keep us trusting in God and He will
save us. He said, these things I've spoken
unto you that in me you might have peace. He's not going to
let us have any peace anywhere else. He said, in the world you
shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. Now there's three enemies that
we're fearful of the most. And I want to look at these three
for my divisions tonight. The first of these three that
believers are fearful of is the devil. In verse 1, David says,
Be merciful unto me, God, for man would swallow me up, he fighting
daily oppresseth me. Now the one he's describing here
is King Saul. King Saul wanted David dead and
he sought David on a daily basis. And he was continually pressing
in upon David, oppressing him, trying to kill him. And he's
a great type of the devil. The devil daily seeks after God's
people. He would daily attack and turn
us from Christ if he could. He's a great foe and he's far
too powerful for you and me. Brethren, don't ever, ever mock
the devil. Don't take it lightly. This is a serious, serious enemy,
the devil. He really does beguile. He tricks. And you know the thing about
being beguiled is you're not going to know you've been beguiled.
He came into the garden and he beguiled our mother Eve. She
didn't know she'd been tricked. And he did that so that Adam
would willfully, with his eyes wide open, take of the fruit
that God forbid and plunge the whole human race into sin. And
that was crafty on the devil's part, to go to Eve first and
use her to get Adam. He's crafty. He's a subtle foe. The Scripture says the devil
daily goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,
whom he may swallow up. And just like David says here,
he says, my enemies would daily swallow me up for they be many
that fight against me, O thou Most High. The devil has many
fallen angels that he would use to attack you. the Lord's people.
He can take over a loved one of yours and one day they be
loving and faithful and the next day they treat you like a stranger. He's got many, many angels and
men that He can use, the devil, that He can use. You ask Job
if he's powerful. Job can tell you about it. Job
lost everything, including his health. But the devil, though
he's our enemy, he's under the complete control of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He's under the complete control
of Christ Jesus the Lord. The devil can only seek whom
he may devour by divine permission. Do you feel as though the devil
would swallow you up daily? Do you ever feel like that? Like
he would swallow you up? Christ experienced that at His
birth. Revelation 12 verse 4 says the dragon, the devil, stood
before the woman, before Mary the mother of our Lord. He stood
before Mary which was ready to be delivered for to devour her
child as soon as it was born. What do you think made Herod
kill all those babies? The devil, ever since Genesis
3.15, when our Lord declared that the seed of woman is coming,
Christ is coming, and He's going to crush the devil's head. Ever
since then, the devil has tried his best to prevent Christ from
coming into this world. You see it time and time again
in history. Haman and the ones he killed. Pharaoh, you see it with him.
Herod, you see it with him. How was the woman saved in childbearing
throughout all the period of history? Paul said to Timothy, she shall
be saved in childbearing if she continues in faith. All the church,
the woman was saved throughout history looking to Christ, trusting
Christ, And so our Lord experienced that when He was born, and He
even defeated the devil at His birth. Think about it. The word
came to Joseph, what Herod was doing, and they went another
direction. He defeated the devil at His
birth. And our Savior came for a purpose, and this is why the
devil was so afraid. He came to conquer the devil.
Hebrews 2.14 says, For as much then as the children were flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. You and I, we came into
this world under the devil's power. And He kept us in bondage. He kept using our sin to scare
us to death, and then we would do something to try to soothe
our conscience, and He would make you feel good about yourself,
and then in a little while, He would make you see your sin,
and you just kept this never-ending cycle of bondage going. Seeing
your sin, trying to soothe your conscience. Seeing your sin,
trying to do something to soothe your conscience. Always in bondage. Our Lord Jesus Christ came and
He conquered the devil. The devil bruised his heel on
Calvary's cross, but Christ crushed the devil's head and He took
away from the devil the power of death. He took the one weapon
the devil had, He took it away. He took away the sin of his people.
And the devil has no sin with which to accuse God's people
anymore. And so he took away his power.
Are you tempted of the devil on a daily basis? Why do we not
fall prey? We're no match for the devil.
Why don't we fall prey to the devil? It's because our representative
was tempted of the devil 40 days and 40 nights and defeated him. And every single chosen child
of God defeated the devil in him. And He will not let us be
overtaken by the devil. So brethren, what time I am afraid,
what time I am afraid of this enemy, the devil, I will trust
in the Lord. How did Peter say there's just
one way you're going to overcome the devil when he's seeking whom
he may devour? That's through faith in Christ.
Casting all your care on Him, for He careth for you. That's
what David said. What time I'm afraid, I'll trust
in Thee. I'll trust in Thee. Secondly,
David had enemies even closer to him. David had some within
his own camp that had betrayed him to Saul. We have an enemy
A great enemy that's very, very close to us. Closer than any
other enemy. It's this old man of sinful flesh. Every believer has the old man
of sinful flesh and he's one of, if not the greatest enemy
we have. Now, by the grace of God, look
to Ephesians 4, by the grace of God, We do have a new man
within us. It says here in Ephesians 4 verse
21, If so be that ye have heard Christ, and have been taught
by Him as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the
former conversation, the conduct, the old man, which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts. And be renewed in the spirit
of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God..."
This new man is created after God. "...which after God is created
in righteousness and true holiness." Paul said in Colossians that
he's renewed on a daily basis, that our new man is renewed after
the image of Him that created him. And we're told in John, John
says this, He said, He that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the
devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God, whosoever is born of God does not commit
sin. For his seed remaineth in him."
The incorruptible seed has created an incorruptible new man. That
Word of God by which the Gospel is preached unto you, the incorruptible
seed has born a new man within us, conceived a new man within
us. And John said, "...and his seed
remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
If you read the Scriptures, I'll give you a challenge. See if
you can find anything in the Scriptures that says that when
we drop this body of death, there's something else that's going to
have to be done to our new man before we can enter into glory.
Nothing. You won't find it. Why? Because
he's fit. This new man is fit to be a partaker
of the inheritance of the saints in life. because it's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. He's made us that holy new man,
that righteous new man. God's people are justified by
Christ's righteousness imputed to us, and we're sanctified by
Christ's holiness imparted in us when Christ Himself is formed
in us. And yet, as one that's born of
God, as one that has this new man that cannot sin, Paul said,
I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I love how Paul qualified that.
He wasn't going to charge God with creating anything that was
not good. And so he said, I know that in
me, now wait a minute, understand I'm talking about my flesh that
came from Adam. I'm not talking about that new
man, I'm talking about that flesh that came from Adam. In my flesh
dwells no good thing. No good thing. This sinful flesh
does nothing but war against the new man. They are at odds
with one another. They are diametrically opposed
to one another and there's a warfare going on. It's like, who was
it, Rebecca, that said there's two people inside of me and they're
warring against each other? There's two people inside of
you, believer, that's warring against each other. But thank
God, Paul said, In Romans 7, He says, that which I would do,
I can't do it because of my flesh. But over there in Galatians,
when He's telling the Galatians that Christ lives in His people,
and He's telling them that you don't have to yoke and whip people
with the law. He said, the flesh lusts against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. So that you can't
do the things, the Spirit won't let you do the things you could.
And there he's saying, you can't be as mean and sinful as you
could be. Because the Spirit won't let
you. The Spirit won't let him. Why did God leave us in this
body of death? You know He could have just taken
us out of this and we'd have been without sin, perfect. Why
did He leave us in this body of death? Why does He allow His people
to commit acts of sin? Leaving us in this sinful flesh,
God prevents us from trusting in ourselves. He constantly keeps us ever aware
that there's not a moment that goes by that we can ever look
to ourselves for righteousness or holiness or preservation or
anything. We can't look to ourselves for
anything. Christ said, without me you can
do nothing. And this sinful flesh keeps us
remembering this. When our Lord has strengthened
us in that inner man and He's renewed us day by day, isn't
it? It's our old man, our flesh that
starts feeling like we can stand on our own. And so the Lord just
takes His hand off and lets your old flesh start reigning over
you and shows you that you can't live a minute without God. I
saw a little fella in the mall one day. You can take me anywhere
on the planet, and I don't mind going there, but I don't like
going to a mall. And I was sitting in a mall,
and I was waiting on my wife, and I watched this little fella
was going along with his child, and that little fella kept running
way up ahead of his father, you know, and his father would try
to get him back there, and he wouldn't stay back. He kept running
up ahead of his father, Finally the father stepped behind a column
and that little boy ran up there a little ways and he turned around
and looked and he couldn't find his father. And he went to crying
and crying and crying and then his dad stepped out behind that
column and that little fellow ran to his daddy and last time
I saw them they was hand in hand walking down through the mall.
That's what he does. He lets you see how badly you
need Him to keep you and hold you. I know a man who's new. He's a new free will preacher.
And he acts like he doesn't have any sin anymore. He acts like
he lives above sin now. Never speaks of sin. Never does
talk about sin. I wouldn't want a preacher that
didn't wrestle against sin every single day. How's he going to
preach the sovereign grace of God? How's he going to teach
the Lord's people how it's God that makes us overcome our sin?
John Rusk was a preacher years and years ago. over 200 years
ago, and let me read you this that he wrote. He said, I want
an experimental preacher. One who, when he has had one
meal, has tried how he shall get the next. One who is tormented
with devils fit to tear him limb to limb. One who feels hell inside
himself and every corruption in his nature stirred up to oppose
God's work. One who feels so weak that every
day he gets over, he views it as next to a miracle. That's
why God leaves us in this body of death. I tell our folks back
home every week when I get done preaching the last message, I
feel like a dish rag just wrung out. Just wrung out. And you start again, and it's
just a warfare. to get through the week, to get
the messages again. But the Lord does that, brethren,
for this reason. How did Paul say we overcome
this flesh? He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. The sins of our flesh will never
make God stop showing mercy to His people. Never. God our Father
chose us by His free and sovereign grace, not based on anything
in us. He said of Jacob and Esau, the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil. That the purpose of God, here's
the purpose of God according to election. Not of works, but of God that
calleth. That's the purpose. It's not
of us, it's of God that called us. So our sins are never going
to make God stop being merciful and gracious to us. The sins
of our flesh will never make God forsake us because our sinless
substitute bore all our sins away. And there are no more sins
before the just judge of heaven and earth, before the judge that
matters, In all the record books, God's people do not have one
sin. Not one. In those days and in
that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found. Why not? For I will pardon them
whom I reserve. Christ put our sin away. And furthermore, not only is
there now no condemnation for us, the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus, this Spirit of God dwelling in us, has made
us free from the law of sin and death. And He's continually,
every day, keeping us by His power, trusting our Lord Jesus. looking to none other but Him,
and having all our confidence that He alone is our salvation. So God uses this enemy to keep
us doing what David did here in verse 1, crying out, Be merciful
unto me, O God. Be merciful unto me, O God. Look at 1 John 1. It's because
of what I just told you about how Christ put our sins away.
It's because of that that we read this right here. 1 John
1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and He's just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Look at chapter 2 and verse 1. My little children, these things
write I unto you that ye sin not. And when you do, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and
He is the propitiation for our sins as well as for His elect
all over the world. So brethren, what time I'm afraid.
What time I see my sinfulness and I see the wretchedness in
this old man, and what time I'm afraid, I'll trust in Thee. I'll trust in Thee. Now lastly,
David also had enemies throughout this cursed world. He had enemies
throughout the world, men. And so do we. So do we. Do you feel what David felt here
sometime? Man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. In 50 years, in all of my adult
life, I don't think I've ever had a single day that some man
did not oppress me. Have you? Look down at verse 4. I'm sorry,
verse 5. Every day they rest my words. Don't you just hate that when
somebody takes your words and takes them out of context? That word rest is when they would
put somebody on the rack and they would stretch them out and
they'd pull their bones out of socket. That's what they do with
my words. That's what they do with your
words. They just rest our words and you can't defend yourself.
And it says there, all their thoughts are against me for evil. Brethren, we don't have any friends
in this world. You know why? Because the natural
man, the carnal mind is enmity against God. And you who are
God's child are the closest thing they have on this earth to God. And they hate Him and they hate
you. James said, Know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore
will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. But our Redeemer knows what that's
like better than we do too. You think about God come down
in human flesh, every single person our Redeemer came in contact
with, naturally speaking, hated Him. Until He quickened men in
their heart, everybody He came in contact with was an enemy
who hated Him. Enemies in our minds, by wicked
words. We come across enemies, but we
come across some nice people now and again. Our Lord faced nothing but enemies
in this world. Wicked men, wicked men accused
Him falsely. Wicked men betrayed Him. Wicked
men whipped Him. Wicked men crushed a crown of
thorns down on his head and put a robe on him and a fake scepter
in his hand and bowed the knee and mocked him. Wicked men put
spikes through his body and hung him up on a cross and sat then
and just sat down to watch him die. But you know what? Everything
those wicked hands were doing, They were doing whatsoever God's
hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. Brethren,
when we're tempted by men of this world, when you and I think
that men of this world are our enemies and they're going to
swallow us up, we have this everlasting comfort right here. Our Savior,
that same One who died on the cross for us, is the King of
kings and Lord of lords. That same One that's seated at
God's right hand, the King's heart is in His hand. And as
the rivers of water, He turns it whithersoever He will. Men
can't do anything without my Savior's divine hand
being upon them. Nothing. That's why David, when
Saul was chasing David, David had several opportunities to
kill Saul. And he said, I'm not going to
kill him. That's God's messenger to me. God was using Saul to
chase David on many occasions. David said, I'm not going to
slay him. If somebody fights against me and somebody exposes
my sin and somebody rails on me, how do I need to look at
that? God's just correcting me. He's
just using this person that don't even know God and don't even
have my good at heart. But yet God's using them to turn
me and correct me. Whatever God's doing with my
enemy, He's doing it for my good. Whatever He's doing. And there's
two reasons God has left us in this world. Two reasons. Here's the first one. 1 John
chapter 2 is to teach us this right here. 1 John 2 is to teach us, love not the
world. 1 John 2 verse 5, love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. That means we can't love this
world and love God. Because when the love of the
Father is in you, you can't love the world. For all that is in
the world, this is all of it. This is everything. The lust
of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's not of the Father, but it
is of the world. And this world passeth away,
and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of
God, he that casts all his care on the Lord Jesus Christ, he
that looks nowhere but to Christ, he that trusts no one but Christ,
he that doeth the will of God, abideth forever. That's the first
reason he's left us, is to teach us that. And here's the second
reason. Our Redeemer has a people in
this world that He has purchased with His own blood. And He has
some sheep here that are lost right now. And they must hear
the gospel preached. And they shall hear the gospel
preached. And our Redeemer shall call them
to faith in Christ. He shall do this. And He's going
to use Nobody's like you and me to do it. He's going to use
us to do it. Brethren, He didn't leave us
here to live for this world. He didn't leave us here to just
build up our name and build up our stakes and save all we can. He didn't do that. He left us
here to spend and be spent for Him. He left us here that He
might provide us with everything we need and be used of God to
send the gospel far and wide. I know religion uses this in
a vain way, but I'm going to use it right here because I know
it's true. You try to out-gift God, you can't. You can't. Just try it sometime. You can't do it. He always makes all grace abound
toward you that you always have all sufficiency to do all things. I mean, it don't get more all
inclusive than that. And it's for His sheep. It's because we're on the trail
of His sheep. We're sending this gospel to
call out His sheep. Aren't you glad that He used
some saints that came along before you and made them willing to
give everything that they could give and to live their life in
such a way that they supported the gospel and sent it forth
and He crossed your path with that gospel? Aren't you thankful
for that? And then He calls us now and
He says, now, you do the same thing. Do this for my people. And God's people want to, don't
we? We want to. We don't have anything to worry
about. We know our Redeemer owns everything. The cattle on a thousand hills
are His. He owns everything. A sparrow can't fall to the ground
without His consent. He knows the very hairs of your
head. He knows everything and owns everything. Whatever we
need, He's going to give it to us. And we're going to be successful. You know what a successful ministry
is? The world will tell you if you're just busting at the seams
with people. No, that's not a successful ministry.
Successful ministry is to declare Christ and Him crucified. It
don't matter if God saves none or He saves a million. If you
preach Christ and Him crucified, if this pulpit is a sounding
board for Christ and Him crucified in spirit and in truth according
to this word, it's been a successful ministry. It's up to God to use
it how He's going to use it. And we're going to succeed. We
cannot fail. When it comes to the devil, and
you're afraid of the devil, remember this, Christ said, the gates
of hell shall not prevail against my church. When it comes to men's
sinful flesh and your sinful flesh, just remember this, the
captain of our warfare can make the walls of that Jericho heart
fall flat when he's pleased. And when it comes to every worldly
enemy daily fighting against us, remember this, our Lord addeth
to the church daily such as should be saved. We don't have any enemies
to worry about because our Lord is greater than all. I pray he
comforts you with those words.