Let's turn to Psalm 12. So much of the scriptures are
the Lord's words to us. Him speaking to us through His
word and His prophets, His ministers, to many of our brethrens, But many of the Psalms are to
our enemies. Many of the Psalms are to brethren,
to encourage them. And many of the Psalms are to
our Lord. It's His Word to our Lord. That's our Lord speaking to our
Father. Christ calling out. But it's
believers too. That's how it affects us. They either praise
Him or they're begging to Him. But both of them are cries. They
cry out. Well, whenever you're begging,
you'll cry. You'll holler. You'll get loud, won't you? And
if you're truly rejoicing and you're praising the Lord, you'll
call out. You ain't worried if you disturb nobody. I'm not saying
hooting and hollering. We're not carrying on the show.
But on the inside, in our hearts, boy, we cry to the Lord, ain't
nothing else matters. It started raining, it don't make a difference.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you. This one cries out
to here in Psalm 12, verse 1. This is to the chief musician.
And shemineth, that means an eight-stringed instrument. David
wrote this and he said, I had a tune in my head when I wrote
this and I want you to play it on an 8-string guitar. This is
a psalm. The psalms are songs that they
sing. Here's what David was singing.
Psalm 12 verse 1, Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. For the faithful fall from among
the children of men. They speak vanity, every one
with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart
they do speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering
lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things, who have said,
with our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own, whose Lord
over us. For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure
words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The
wicked walk on every side. when the vilest men are exalted. We read this. This is a song.
This is something that David and the church there, they sang
out loud. And they begin with trouble. And there's three distinct
things we can see plainly. Three divisions that's already
laid here for us. David had a problem. Scriptures don't say man's a
few problems of many days, does it? We're a many problems in
a few days. We're loaded up with them. David
had a problem. And David had protection. He
remembered the Lord. He saw the protection of the
Lord. And then David had peace. The Lord gave him peace when
he saw the Lord. And he was brought in remembrance
of Him. But the trial didn't go away. It ended as it started. The wicked still all around me.
But something's changed. Wicked didn't change. Boy, David's
thoughts of himself, of this earth, of the wicked, everything
else changed. The Lord did a work in him. David starts out there,
Help, Lord! I've prayed that the Lord would
have a sinner cry out to Him this morning. Help, Lord! What a prayer. That's my prayer halftime. Do
you know that? That's a confession I'll make to you. I've always
wore my heart on my sleeve, and the Lord kept me still, so I
think I'll be alright. A lot of times I go to pray and
I say, help, Lord. Help. Help can mean a few different
things in different situations, don't it? Can you help me with
that? I'm carrying some groceries.
Can you grab that door handle? Can you hold this bag? Can you scoot
that chair over a little bit? That's just help. That's what
we use in our day as help. That's some assistance. That's
a co-pilot. That's a helping hand. That means
you're doing work and they are too. You're sharing the load. They're assisting. They're adding
to work that's already getting done. The marginal reference
there says, help Lord means save Lord. Save me." Well, wouldn't
David already be saved? If he was, he'll cry out, save
me. He'll cry out until the Lord takes him home. Save me, Lord.
Save me. That word help here, it's just
like someone that's trapped in rushing water. There's a flash
flood, and they're being swept downstream. Help! Save me! They're in a burning building.
Save me! And if you're in a Burnham building and flames are creeping
up and the door handle's too hot to touch and you bust a wind
out and you scream, save me! You don't care if you're waking
up your neighbor. Ain't nobody matters but you. That's got personal
real quick, doesn't it? Help! Save me! That's what David's
crying out. This is a distinct cry, too.
It's not just yelling, help! Without hope. It's not just hollering
something to make it look good for men. Oh, I ask the Lord to
save me. This is distinct. He's yelling
to someone that is able to save. He says, help, Lord. Lord. That's who he's crying to. He's
not just yelling help by itself. Help, Lord. Save me, Lord. Save me. David knew good and
well who he was calling to. You go through these Psalms and
look at the beginning of each word. Lord, help, Lord. My God,
he cries to him, he said in Psalm 121, I will lift up my eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help, from whence cometh my
salvation. My help, my salvation cometh
from the Lord. He knew good and well who he
was talking to. He saved, that's the one that did save him. And
he cries out again, Lord save me. He said God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble, a very present
salvation in trouble. What's making David cry out?
What's making him just yell this simple two-word prayer? Help,
Lord! Save, Lord! He tells us right
after. It says in Psalm 12, verse 1,
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail
from among the children of men. I've had some experiences that
can make me enter into this. This is broad, it can fit a number
of trials that a believer goes through. But I thought about
attending a believer's funeral. I've been to many of them. And
you know godly men that's preached faithfully, y'all have heard
of, y'all met several of them. Maybe you haven't, but Scott
Richardson, the Lord took him on. He ceased, he was not. Y'all know Brother Don Faulkner.
Many of y'all met him. He ceased. This body that he
was in, it failed. He's gone. Many of y'all probably
don't know Brother Hap Yates. I may be the only person in this
room that knows Hap Yates. The Lord took him home. He's gone. He ain't here no more. How can
we go on? What will happen? Who's the Lord
going to raise up to preach? To teach? to evangelize, go out
in the world and tell people who God is and who man is, who
Christ is. We cry out, help Lord, save us. David was feeling all alone is
what this is. I imagine he just left a funeral
of a believer, probably one of his friends. And he thought,
boy, they're dropping like flies. I'm all alone. David was a minority. He was a believer. He was a child
of God. That's not common. The world says God loves everybody. Everybody is His child. In a
sense, yes, He owns all. We're all His servants. The wicked
too. But not a child in love. Not a child in Christ. One put
in Him. That's a special thing. Christ died for those. He shed
His blood for them. And that's a minority. That's
a remnant. Believers always are. Children
of God always have been a minority. It's a precious few thing. In
Noah's day, The world was populated. There wasn't 15 people on earth.
This place was packed. God saved 8 people. That was
His people. Abraham was called out of the
Ur of the Chaldees. That's an inhospitable place.
The wicked outnumbered the Lord's people greatly. They were greatly
outnumbered. Joseph, he was tempted by Potiphar.
And he said, shall I sin so against God? They said, you're going
to throw him in prison. He said, I'd rather go to prison
than offend God. And it seems he was the only one in that nation
at the time that knew the Lord. Moses, he led that stiff-necked
people, that nation of Israel through the wilderness, and there's
a few of them. That was God's people. Few of them that Christ
died for was remnant. Daniel, they said, don't you
pray. You ain't gonna pray in public
for 30 days. So Daniel went home. He didn't cause a ruckus. He
didn't come out kicking up his spurs, making himself known and
famous. And look at me going on Fox News and CNN and everything
else. I'm making a stand. He went home
and prayed to God. He could have stood right there
and prayed to him. Help Lord. And they heard him and the wicked
said, we got him now. Put him in the lines then. Now whether
Daniel woke up next morning and cowered to that door or he's
over there scratching that line like it was a kitty cat petting
it, that's up to him. I don't know what the Lord did
with it, but I don't know what I'd do. But the Lord preserved
it. There was one. There was one
there. Those three Hebrew children. That bell goes off. Y'all hear
that horn? You're going to pray to this false God. And I said,
we ain't going to do it. I said, we'll cast you in a fiery
furnace. And I said, go ahead. The Lord will keep us through
or he won't. We ain't doing it. Three. Three. That's all there was.
Three Hebrew children. And three of them didn't bow.
Turn over Romans chapter 11. So many times, whether it's for a stand of the
gospel, or whether it's at our dinner table, whether it's at
Thanksgiving dinner, it don't make a difference. The believer
feels alone. A child of God feels all alone. But that's not the
case. That's not the case. Romans 11
verse 2. Romans 11, verse 2. God hath not cast away His people
which He foreknew, which He loved before. Well, he not, don't you
know that the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession
to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets
and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek
my life. I'm the last one standing, Lord,
and they're trying to kill me. I'm alone. What'd he cry out? What'd Isaiah cry out? Help,
Lord. Save me. There's no Godly around. My brethren are gone. There's
no faithful. Lord, you've took them home.
I'm left alone. It says in verse 4, But what
saith the answer of God unto him? When he cried that out,
I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee
to the image of Baal. Even so then, this is what Paul's
telling us, just like it was with Isaac. Even though it was
so was then, even so now, at this present time, In Paul's
day, 2,000 years ago, also there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. Even so now, in 2021, Adonai
Domini, there's an elect remnant according to grace. How can I
know the sun's shining? The Lord hadn't wrapped this
earth up yet. He's sustaining His word and
He's calling out His people. People think God's out of business.
We're in the last days. He tells us that plainly. And
the harvest was plentiful before, but whenever you make a harvest,
you go out and pick corn, well, you might miss a ear or two.
And so you don't cut them all down, you go back and get those,
and you go back and get those, and you don't leave one. You
take them all. No matter how much the wicked
outnumber us, God has a remnant. God has a remnant. Back in our
text here in Psalm 12. David cries out like Elijah here
in verse 1 and says, Help, Lord! For the godly man ceaseth. For
the faithful fell from among the children of men. What's the
Lord's answer to that? What's the Lord's answer to David?
Look down in verse 7. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt
preserve them from this generation forever. You're going to keep
your people. How many are they? I don't know.
There's some. I've got some brothers and sisters
still, and I know for certain, my rest and my confidence is,
the Lord will preserve them forever. All of His people that's alive
in this generation right now, they're saved forever. People
say that's too simple, and you're repeating that. That needs said.
Confidence needs to be given. We're too quick to falter and
too quick to fail and fall down on our own. Give up and feel
lonely and anxious. God will save His people. He
shall save them from their sins. The work's finished and He shall
preserve them. He's going to. Now three quick points. David's
problem. He was surrounded by wicked men.
It seemed that all the saints were just going to glory and
David's going to be all alone. Everyone around him was mouthing
off. He's going to these funerals
and everybody's popping off at the mouth. They can't hush. They
just can't keep from it. They can't stop it. How are most
wicked people known? How do you know a wicked person?
How are they found out? What makes them manifest? Their tongue does. Their tongue makes them manifest.
The words came out of their mouth. That's what got them. Look there
in verse 2. They speak vanity. This ain't the faithful and this
ain't the godly. This is everybody else around. They speak vanity.
Everyone with his neighbor. with flattering lips and with
a double heart do they speak." What's vanity mean? Nothingness. Emptiness. Nothingness. And they're
just, I mean, ripping on the insides to get that mouth open
to get nothing out of it. I told a man that one time, I
said, you talk so much but say so little. He's like, thank you.
And I was like, no, that was a horrible insult. He didn't
get it. He was too busy waiting for me
to stop talking so he could talk more. It was vanity, nothing. And every one of them with this
neighbor, whoever they get hold of, whoever's around them. Now,
what vain things did they talk about? Pickup trucks? Did they talk about going to
the dentist? People get all huffy and puffy about believers getting
around and talking about normal things. We're family. That's
normal. That's okay. That needs said
too. It's alright. You find you a
good dentist, you find you a good hairstylist or something. Good,
talk about those things. That's your family. That's what
family does. They talk about those things. We live together,
don't we? The vanity that David was bothered
by was the flattering lips and the double heart. That's the
vanity. Flattering is not so flattering
in the scriptures. On your own time, you go back
and search those words out. Boy, every time it's spoken of,
it's always negative. Negative. Flattering means enticing. Enticing. Proverbs 7, it's speaking
of that great whore of Babylon. It's speaking of religion. And
it says, they're warning the son that they may keep thee from
a strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. So she called him. It still worked,
didn't it? And she kissed him with an impudent
face, said unto him, I have peace offerings with me. That's what
those flatterings are. You do so good. Boy, you just
read scripture so well. We could use somebody like you.
You're such a hard worker. You can clean so well. Whatever
it is, anything, to puff man up. And then they kiss him, just
like Judas. Give him a kiss. Boy, I've got
peace with me. They're crying, peace, peace,
where there is no peace. And it says in Proverbs 7.21, with
her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering
of her lips she forced him. She forced him. Flattery is a
horrible thing. It's a horrible, horrible device
that man is so prevalent to use. And this isn't speaking of telling
the truth, but flattering words. What's flattering words? It's
praise of the person. Praise of the person or self.
I won't brag on you, so I look good for bragging on you. Then
you can brag on me for my bragging. Then we can brag on each other's
bragging. That's what it turns into. You boil it down. A friend
of mine calls me sometimes and he said, I don't want to puff
you up, you know better. He said, but God gave you that message
for me. And he preaches and he knows. He knows it will keep
me humble. And he knows who gave it. It
wasn't my mastery. It wasn't my understanding and
my massive intellect. I'm not a mental giant to assemble
these things to hit the hearts of God's people. I know that.
He knows that. He just told the truth. Go to
a believer's funeral sometimes. You've been to several of them.
They don't want to say about how great they were. Oh boy,
they was faithful. They never missed church. They
always did all these great things. For a believer's funeral, it
ain't. If it's preached in truth, But what great things God did
in them. How God gave them a heart to serve the Lord. How God made
that person walk with Him. How God made them serve His people. Oh, they're charitable. They
gave everything they had. God gave them that heart. They
brag on the Lord. That's what they do. They praise
the Lord for what He did. His workmanship. Not what that
person did. I told you my experience has
been concerning this psalm at a believer's funeral. But whenever
someone dies a lot of times, especially God's prophets that
He uses great, then people come out of the woodwork. Let one
of His mouthpieces go home to glory and watch them. Oh, I've
known them for 50 years. Love, love, love, love, love.
Oh, they've entered into peace now. They kiss with that kiss
of Judas. The whole life they lived on
this earth, they cussed them until the week before they died,
and then they died. Oh, how great they were. How great they were.
But the whole time that that child of God was alive, they
wouldn't attend church with them. They wouldn't sit underneath
their preaching. If they was one of the brethren, they wouldn't
sit in a pew next to them. They didn't bear anything with them. They didn't suffer along with
anything with them. They didn't cry with them. And
they didn't rejoice with them. It wouldn't have anything to
do with it. They have a double heart. This isn't speaking of
an old heart and a new heart. We don't even remember that.
This ain't the two natures in us. They're double-minded. They
have a double heart. This is a monster. I chose my
words carefully. Somebody that has a heart for
evil, and they say flattering words. Boy, I just love that.
Normally their voice goes up two or three octaves when they
do it. That's a monster. That's what that is. They got
a double heart. They're saying one thing and
mean another. They have a desirous outcome that's opposite of what's
coming out of their mouth. David 7, Psalm 86, here's what
the believer says, Unite my heart to fear thy name. Lord, don't
leave me double hearted. Lord, don't leave me to myself,
is what he said. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Don't let me say one thing and
have an ulterior motive of another. Believers have that united heart.
Do you know that? God gives it. He says in Acts
4, And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart
and one soul. A double heart nowadays says
things like this. It says a lot worse, but I'll give you a public
example. We're respecting the reproductive rights of women.
That's what they say. But they mean we want to kill
babies. Because you can't have any self-restraint.
That's what that boils down to. Under the ruse of that. Love
is love. Who are you to say somebody can't
marry somebody else? But they mean they want to worship
themselves. and they want to feast on their
own lust. Romans 1 says, they've worshipped and served the creature
more than the creator. For this cause, God gave them
over to vile afflictions. He's turned them loose. What
God says is sodomy, man causing alternative lifestyle. And it's
evil, and it's a sure sign he's took his hand off a nation. Our tongues show what's really
in our hearts. Natural man calls good things bad, and he calls
bad things good. Turn over to Matthew chapter
12. Matthew 12 verse 34. It says,
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you,
boy, that sure got a hold of me. I'm going to read this real
slow because I needed to hear it. But I say unto you, that
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account
thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified, but by thy words thou shalt be condemned." What's that
mean? People memorize scripture and they ain't got a clue what
it means. How can somebody say good? What's good? Hello, good
master. The Lord looked at that man and
said, there ain't none good but God. He said, you calling me
God? I am. What's the words that ought
to come out of our mouth? What the Lord's done. Not what
I've done. Oh, I was so good and I tithed
and I did this and I did that. No, they never missed church
service and always gave. What'd the Lord do? What'd the
Lord do? That's a good thing. You want
to brag, you want to say something good, you want to be justified
by your mouth, you better be professing what Christ did, who
He is and what He come to accomplish. Man ain't nothing but sin. We
come into this world born of Adam, we're wicked, we're evil,
and every thought of imagination in the heart of man is only evil
continually. There's none good. Comma. None. Comma. Not one. What about grandma?
Not one. None. What good do we have to
say then? Christ is holy and perfect. God
is just and a justifier. He's going to save His people.
Those wretched, vile, worthless sinners. He didn't come to seek
and save Pharisees, did He? He didn't come for the religious
folks. He said so. He said, I came to save sinners.
And He did. The iniquity of us all, of all
of us sinners, all of His children, was laid on Him. That's what
Isaiah was saying, wasn't it? For our transgressions. That
means because. Why did Christ go to that cross?
Why was He wounded by the Father? For the wrath and the shame and
those men scoffing at Him and spitting on Him and making that
mockery sign that told the truth. Because of me. Because of what I am. Sin, the
noun, not a verb. Christ saved His people. That's
a good thing. That's speaking good. I'm evil. I can tell you
what He did. I'm telling man's inability and
man's power is nothing in the Lord's mind. Speaking good of
His people. Speaking good of His preachers.
Not having a negative thing to say. The devil can say that.
We'll walk in backwards and cover that sin up. Well, you know,
I think they misspoke the other day. Hush! Barrett! Turn over
here. I got the wrong text. You just
act like you're reading along with me. You can listen. Shut
your eyes. You'll be all right. Suffer long. That's a good thing,
isn't it? We often feel so alone. There's
a big disaster I started thinking of. Pearl Harbor. I wasn't alive
then. 9-11, I was. Natural disasters. Seems like
they're increasing left and right, isn't it? Or you're at the funeral
of a believer. People singing his praises who
cussed him the week before. or you're at a family reunion,
you're at Thanksgiving dinner, or you're at a dinner for two.
You feel alone. After those tornadoes in Kentucky
yesterday, I saw this psalm as a believer in a natural disaster.
You feel alone. I watched that news, and buddy,
my heart broke. I thought these people might
be primed to cry out, help, Lord. And I thought, I want to go preach
to them. And I thought, I don't need to.
David Evanston's right there. He's just north of them. People are
broadcasting themselves as much as they can. Buddy, they do it
as hard as they can go. Talking. And they're getting
on a platform that they can hit one button and send it to five
different things so you can see what they ate for lunch. Don't
care what they ate for lunch. They got to show themselves,
don't they? And I looked on the news hoping somebody might say,
They needed help from God. They needed the Lord to save
them. And they said, well, we're praying for you. We're praying
for you. Or they shortened that just to prayers. We're too lazy
to even say something erroneous like I'm praying for. Who are
you praying to? What are you praying? Lord's will be done. Lord, you
sustain this trial until it accomplishes what you want. Show your people
how gracious you are. Let them see Christ one more
time. People saying, God didn't do
this. Or they're saying, how could a loving God do such a
thing? That's wicked. That's wicked
thought. They want others. When people
say that, they want others to see how religious they are. That's
their goal. That's their goal. Those floods
in Tennessee a couple months back, volcanoes going off, fires
running all over this side of the country, tsunamis. That tornado
in Kentucky touched down and went 227 miles. Pour a swath. through that nation. What a blessing.
Oh, that's good. That's good. That's the best
thing that could have happened to that part of the country. Someone said,
how could good come from such devastation, from such trial?
That's because the Lord may be using His providence to make
one of His children cry out, God save me. Help, Lord. Help. He said, I've given nations
for you. The Lord wouldn't do something
like that. He said so. He said, I've given nations.
Me and you went to war. And I was convinced solely that
God sent me to the other side of the world to teach me about
the depravity of man. Not that it's a fundamental principle
of doctrine, of a checklist some theologian come up with. He sent
me to the other side of the world to show me that I'm depraved.
And then I heard of one of my brethren. Brother Don told me,
he said, the Lord made a whole war just so He could teach him
something, just so the Lord could save him. And I said, well, you
used it for two of us, didn't you? I better use it for some
more. He said, I've given nations for you. That's what he's done.
We're in the last days. The Lord may make one of his
children cry to the one that can save to the uttermost. And
they may use a heavy trial to do it, and he may use a sharp
tongue at a funeral to do it. And back in our text there, Psalm
12. I'll try to hurry. These wicked,
these double hearted people, they're giving lip service while
they're looking to devour. And they stood on their rights
to do so. Look here in verse four. Who have said with our
tongue, we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is
Lord over us? What's that mean? I have the
right to say whatever I want. I've got my first amendment right.
My lips are my own. My tongue will prevail is what
that means. I can talk my way out of it no
matter what happens. And I've got the right to do
so. I got accused not too long ago about being against the Constitution. I lived the rest of my life because
I went and fought for that Constitution. I got the right to say something
about it. But I tell you, it's a dangerous thing. Man thinks
he's got rights. We think we're something special.
It can go away that fast. And the wicked stand on their
right to have their voices heard. to have something to say. They're
not shut up to sin, they're just yapping at nonsense. When I was
15 years old, I ran away from home, and the Lord gave me frostbite
for the first time. And a week later, when I finally
come home, I went to church. I had brought disgrace on the
Lord. That's what I'd done. And I'd done it in the sight
of my father, and of my pastor, and of those brethren I sat in
church with. You think I walked in that church Sunday morning?
Hey, how y'all doing? Hey, what'd you do this week? Oh, I know how to do that. I'm
an expert in this. I can do this. I can say that. I know that.
I'll sit down. I'll shut up. Why? I was shut up to sin. God
showed me what I was. I saw what I did. It was revealed
to me. And I quit talking. I shut up to it. Every idle word,
Christ said. The Lord showed me that that
day. In Psalm 12, verse 3, it says, the Lord shall cut off
all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Do
we need to draw our sword like Peter and cut out them proud
tongues and them flattering lips? I'll break you from sucking eggs.
As I say it, I have my girl. We'll stop that real quick. The
Lord shall cut them off. Vengeance is His. He'll handle
it. What about the believer? What's
in store for us? David cried out to the right
person for the right reason. He cried, help Lord to the right
person for the right reason. And here's his protection. Look
in verse 5. For the oppression of the poor,
for them, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,
saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him. That's not poor in money, that's
poor in spirit. That's not needy in tangible
things, that's needy in mercy. That's who he's speaking of.
The sighing of the needy. Have you ever been without words,
and your heart's just aching, and your spirit's just so poor
that whenever you go to the Lord, you just go, and you sigh. That's all you
can get out groaning. That's one of the five definitions
of repentance, isn't it? Sighing. Well, that's repenting. That's turning from me to turning
to Him. Just sigh out to Him. That's the exact opposite of
flattering lips and a proud tongue. That's a broken and contrite
heart. That's a meek and humble spirit. For those that are crying,
help, save me, Lord, whether they're on the king's death row
or they're at the dinner table, whatever that trial is, the Lord
will arise. What does that mean? For those
that are poor, hopeless, without strength, sighing, needy, All they can do is cry out two
words, save me Lord, help me Lord. He will stand for his people. He will arise. He will stand
for them. He'll stand as their surety. He'll stand as their
protector. He'll stand as their keeper,
as their buckler. That means alligator skin, a
covering. Their atonement. He'll stand for their righteousness
is what it is. He'll stand as their Lord and their God. When
the Lord arises, He cuts off the lips and cuts out the tongues
of our accusers, our persecutors. Who can lay the charge of anything
to God's elect? It's God that justifies. Isn't that right?
All the bad things people say about me? I'm the Lord. I'm His. I'm in His hand. He's
my strength. He stood for me. That makes it
a lot less, doesn't it? Why would the Lord allow the
wicked to pick on and disturb His elect so much? Why wouldn't
He just make them the way he wants them. And none of this
ever happened in the first place. Paul wrote to us in Romans 9
and said, What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make
his power known, endureth with much longsufferings the vessel
of wrath fitted to destruction? He let it go a long time. All
these, it's cursed against David, all those that carry on against
you. Why does he let this go? And that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
afford prepared unto glory. All this is taking place so He
can reveal His mercy to His children, so He can reveal His faithfulness
to His children, His love to His children. Reveal Christ in
them. Show His Son to them. That's
why He's doing it. How are we going to know this?
How can we know that the Lord will rise for His people? How
can we be sure that He will set us in safety? His Word says so. He's promised. He said, I'll
never leave you, I'll never forsake you. Go through and thank all
the promises of the Lord. Things He's promised. He cannot
change. He cannot change. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? It says in verse
6, the words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in
a furnace of earth purified seven times. They're purified to perfection. Seven times. You ain't gonna
find no fault in them. You ain't gonna find no fault
in it. If you find fault in it, there's fault in you and you
just can't see it. There's a contradiction. There's a contradiction in you.
There's not a contradiction in God's Word. The Lord just ain't
gave you the light to see it yet. His Word's perfect, purified
seven times. The Lord will turn His people
through that trial that He sends back to His promises and His
Word and His faithfulness. And He's gonna prove that to
us. How many times, you that believed a long time, how many
times have you tried the Lord? How many times have you tried
His Word? Has He ever failed you? Has His Word ever come up
short? It ain't, has it? His promises
are true. In Christ they're yes and amen.
Every one of them. They're true. The Lord said,
try me. Prove me. You go ahead and try
it. I have. And His Word's pure. And He's never failed. Never
has. Every day I prove Him true and
this old man a liar. It's so easy to say, oh, let
God be true and every man. You point with five fingers,
you know. Let every man be a liar. Lord, I'm so frail and I fall
so quickly. You're true. Keep me. And then
you cry out, help, Lord. Save, Lord. Do it one more time,
don't we? Elijah went to that widow and
her son that was about to starve to death. And this is the immediate
word God gave his prophet, and it's the immediately proven in
his child. And he said, you make me a cake
first, and that barrel of meal won't run out. That cruise of
oil will not fail. He said, but you feed me first.
And that woman believed God's word, because she believed God's
prophet that He sent to her. And it says in 1 Kings 17, And
she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she
and he and her house did eat many days, and the barrel of
meal wasted not. Neither did the crucible fail
according to the word of the Lord, which He spake by Elijah. That's our protection. His Word. His Word. He's faithful and He's
true. What's David's peace? Look here in verse 7. Psalm 12,
7. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forevermore. What's them? The margin says
every one of them. The Lord's preserved His Word.
He's preserved every one of His promises. He's preserved His
name. He's preserved His glory. And
He's preserved His elect in every generation. They tried to burn
the Word of God out, didn't they? They tried to erase it, and it
didn't work. They didn't do it. Don't worry
about people trying to erase God's Word. It's written in His
people's hearts. It's His Word and it cannot fail,
and He's the one that preserves it. They tried to snuff out His
prophets and people over and over again, and they're still
here. How? The wicked are not fighting against
men and women. They're fighting against Almighty God, and they
can't prevail. They can't win. Verse 8, this
trial could have been a wide variety of things. It could apply
to many believers, and it could apply at different times and
through different trials. But grace came. The Lord came
to David and gave him comfort in his heart, to know that his
word is true, to know that he's the preserver. He's the buckler. He's the nail on the shore place.
And David rested. David had peace. He had protection. He had assurance, didn't he?
Grace came, but the trial didn't go away immediately. Look at
verse 8. The wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are
exalted. The wicked are still there. They're
still using their tongues to speak perversions. They're still
defying God. that David remembered, thou shalt
keep and preserve them, O Lord. You're going to keep your people.
When the trials come and the wicked rise up, remember the
promises of the Lord. Remember His Word. And when the
trial does not go away, but grace has come and brought you in remembrance,
praise Him. Praise God for His mercies. Praise
God for His faithfulness, His long-suffering with us. Turn
over Hebrews 12 and I'll let you go. Hebrews chapter 12, verse
1. Hebrews 12.1, Wherefore, seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, who for the joy For the joy that was set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God." Whatever the situation is, when
you're just encompassed about and you're alone, it's a lonely
time. Christ is sitting on His throne. He ran the race set before Him
with joy. And boy, what a race that was.
It's a race we can't enter into. He run to that cross, to that
appointed hour for his people. And when we're brought back in
remembrance of that, like David started singing about this trouble
he had. And then he saw Christ and him crucified. He saw the
Lord's perseverance, his preserving hand. And at the end of it, he
said, them wicked are still all around me. Those vile people
you wouldn't give two pennies for, they're still exalted. That
ain't changed, but boy, something's changed in me. My heart's renewed,
strengthened again. His grace is sufficient today.
I pray it's good for you.