We go back to Psalm 25. We've been in Matthew so long. I have
sure been blessed from that one chapter, Matthew 19. This psalm we've been through
several times together. That's a great psalm, a great
blessing to those who know it. The psalm of David, whom God
called a man after his own heart, and I call him that too, a man
after my own heart. I'm so thankful the Lord raised
up David and put him through all the things that He put him
through, things that I can relate to, all the doubts, all the fears, This is the cry of David's soul,
and it's the cry of mine. It's a simple cry, a simple prayer
with two simple requests. We're not going to get very far
here tonight. I couldn't get very far at all.
I was greatly blessed and moved by just a couple of verses, but
if we've got a few requests, we might continue it on Sunday.
But there's a message in each line, and we're going to take
just a couple of them. Verse 1, Psalm of David, he says,
Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Unto thee, O Jehovah,
the great I Am, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. Oh, how happy, how blessed is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. O God of Jacob,
Jehovah. That's how he is known by his
people, Jehovah, the great I Am, the Eternal One. Oh, Jehovah,
unto Thee do I lift up my soul. I bear my soul up to Thee. I
pour out my soul. I lift up my downcast soul, David
is saying. Unto Thee. He's the only one
that can help soul troubles. Verse 2, Oh, my God, I trust in Thee. Oh, my God. Have you ever thought about how
much feeling and how much depth is in one
little letter and one sound? Oh, you'd be surprised how many Scriptures
say this, O help me, O save me, O wretched man that I am, O my
God. This is the cry of God's children,
the cry of those that know God, that worship God, the cry of
those that fear and trust the Lord, O my God. And it's a deep,
heartfelt cry, and it's why we shudder when we hear people say
that so much today in such a blasphemous way. They even abbreviate it. I know
you've seen it. God's people, this is the depth
of their heart. They cry out to God. David, look
across the page at Psalm 22. These are the words most old
preachers believe that when our Lord was hanging on the cross,
He quoted this whole psalm. Psalm 22. My God, my God. Verse 2. My God, those are the
words of Christ Himself. Oh, my God, such a deep, heartfelt
cry. And this is why when we hear
it used in such a blasphemous way, it brings sadness, fear. It ought to make us fear, especially
for little ones when we hear the young ones say it, who have
been taught to do it by rote. And it also makes us angry. But
may God have mercy on us and our children, our neighbors,
our country, for taking His holy name and name. And may He unite
our hearts to hear His name, to praise His name, to call on
His name. Oh, my God. Oh, that our country,
our nation, would collectively cry from the heart, Oh, my God,
have mercy upon us. God's people do. And we should
not be proud of that, but we should be thankful that we're
not like so many, like most, who don't give it a thought.
People don't give that a thought today, do they? And that is,
to me, one of the surest signs that we're in those very last
days, the reprobate days. Men should be lovers of their
own selves, blasphemers. May God unite our hearts to fear
his name and call on his name from the depths of our heart.
Oh, my God. We trust in thee. You know, God
says, I am thy God to his people. I am thy God. And God's people
say, thou art our God. Oh, my God. And he said, you're
the sheep of my pasture and I am your God. And we love to own
Him as our God, don't we? My God. My Creator in whose hands
my breath is in all my ways. The One who made me. My Sovereign
Lord. My God. My Sovereign Lord who
rules over me. And I'm glad of it. My King. My God. My King before whom I
bow, before whom I submit. The One I worship. The One I
call upon. Oh my God. And he says, oh my
God, I trust in Thee. I trust in Thee. I believe trust
is one of the best words that we can use for faith. I believe
faith is best described by trust. If you believe Him, you trust
Him. If you know Him, you trust Him.
To trust Him means that you have all confidence in Him. You have
confidence in His word and what He says He'll do. You trust Him.
You have confidence in His wisdom that what He does is best. There
is no other way. You have confidence in His power
to do what He says He will do, His ability. You have confidence
in His goodness that He's always going to do good and do right.
You have confidence in His righteousness. You trust in it, we say. You
trust in it. What did Job say? Though He slay
me, I trust Him. I must need slaying. I trust Him. I trust in Thee. I depend upon Thee. I look to
Thee. I love the way you men always
pray that prayer. We look to Thee. We look to Thee. Like a dog looks to its master. I have a little dog, but he looks
to me. Every time I turn around, he's
looking at me. He's gazing at me like he's looking
to me to give him something, to speak to him, to whatever. I'm all he's got. Well, we are
all he's got. And he's constantly looking to
me. He trusts me. He trusts that I'm not going
to hurt him. He trusts that I'm not going to do him wrong. He trusts that I'll feed him,
that I'll take care of him. Oh my God. Can you say that? I know you can. I trust in thee. I depend upon thee. He's not
going to let you down. Everyone else may. Yea, will. Every son of man will let you
down eventually. The best of men. The least of
men. We'll all let each other down.
But not the Lord. Those that trust in Him will
never be desolate and never be guilty. That's got to be one
of my favorite verses. All they that put their trust
in Him, none that trust in Him shall ever be desolate, guilty,
cast out, forsaken, ever. You pray that prayer. Oh my God,
I trust in Him. You look to Him like a little
dog looks to its master. You reckon He's going to let
you down. You know what? And then he makes two requests,
and these are my requests for myself and for you, and I know
they are yours. Verse 2, Oh my God, I trust in
thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph
over me. Now let's just dwell right there
a little bit, okay? Two simple requests. This message is not going to
take long. They say the best messages are those that kind
of leave you hanging. Not hanging, but leave you wanting
for more. Let me not be ashamed. And don't
let my enemies try upon me. Do we need to go any further
than that? Turn with me to Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43. Let me not be Now this is a man who knows God,
or as Paul wrote, or rather is known of Him. You know, as soon
as someone says, let God do this, as soon as someone says,
let Jesus, you know immediately they don't know God, don't you?
But the cry of someone who knows God is, let not me. Let not my enemies. Don't let
this happen. Don't let me do this. Don't let
them do this. Let me. Let them. Don't let.
Don't let. It's God that does the letting,
not we. Those who pray or call upon God,
do they say you must let do something? talking about a God who cannot
say that this is a God who is God. No one lets God do anything. The God of the Bible, the true
God, He's the one that does the letting. Look at Isaiah 43. Oh,
I love this. Verse 1, But now thus saith the
Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. They shall not overflow
thee. When you walk through the fire,
you shall not be burned. The flames shall not kindle upon
thee, for I am the Lord thy God. God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee, since thou wast precious in my sight."
Verse 5, "'Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed
from the east, and gather thee from the west. I will say to
the north, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons
from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. For everyone
that is called by my name, I have created him for my glory. I have
formed him, yea, I have made him." Down in verse 10, ìYe are
my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen,
that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am
he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
beside me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved,
and I have showed when there was no strange God among you.
Therefore, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it?" Oh, my God. The one who does
the letting. Oh my God, let me not be ashamed. It is the God who doeth all things
according to His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can say His hand or say unto Him, What
doest thou? That's why He says it four times. Let me not. Let not them. Let none that trust in Thee be
ashamed. Let them be ashamed that transgress
without a cause. Now let me say who he's talking
about. The God who came to this earth, the Lord Jesus Christ,
manifest in the flesh, dwell among us. His name is Emmanuel,
the mighty God, the everlasting Father. That's our God. He hath
saved us. And when we call on God and speak
of God, we're speaking of the triune God. The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit are equally God, three persons in one, and
all have equal power and do as they will with whom they will
because they will. And so he makes two requests.
Go back to our text here. He makes two requests. Oh my
God, I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let me not be ashamed. You know,
he sums this whole thing up in verse 20. He starts out this
way and he ends this way. He says, I lift up my soul unto
Thee, O my God, I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. Verse
20, O keep my soul and deliver me, let me not Be ashamed, for
I put my trust in thee." You see that? That's the summary
of this whole psalm of salvation. The hearts cry of every believer
and their greatest need. Let me not be ashamed. Now, I
want you to turn to a couple of Scriptures, okay? Ezra. The
book of Ezra. I'll give you time to find it.
Ezra. The book of Ezra. Go back just
not too far. Chapter 9. While you're turning
there, let me quote you a few other Scriptures. In another
psalm, David says this. Psalm 31. He says, In thee, O
Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Psalm 119, he says it over and
over and over again. He says in Psalm 119, verse 6, When I have respect unto all
thy commandments, then shall I not be ashamed. He says in
verse 80 of Psalm 119, Let my heart be sound in thy statutes,
that I be not ashamed. Psalm 119, 116, Uphold me according
to thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of my hope. praying on behalf of the people,
like David did. And he says this in verse 5 and
6 of Ezra 9. At the evening sacrifice, I rose
up from my heaviness, having rent my garment and my mantle.
I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the Lord, my
God, my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift up my face
to thee, my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head,
and our trespass has gone up into the heaven." David says the same thing. I am ashamed. If we are not ashamed
of ourselves, we ought to be ashamed. Are you not ashamed of your thoughts
that you have all the time? Are you not ashamed of the words
that come out of your mouth at times? Are you not ashamed of
your deeds? Are you not ashamed of your attitude? Are you not? I am ashamed. My sin gives me
shame. And I glory sometimes in my shame,
don't we? Are we not? And yet, the glorious
truth is this, none that call upon the Lord, none that trust
in Him, none that cry like David did, Oh my God, I trust in Thee,
let me not be ashamed. Let me not be found in my sin
and my shame. As Paul said, and Paul confessed
his sins, not sins, He said, oh, wretched man that I am. He
said, I'm less than the least. I'm not fit to be called disciple.
He said, my righteousness is a filthy rag. He said, what was
gained to me was lost. He said, oh, that I might win
Christ and be found in Him. Glory in Him. I'll tell you why
the Lord will not put His people to shame. I'll tell you why. You know why? Sure you do. It's
because he put Christ to shame. Because Christ was put to shame. Christ's Son on the cross in
shame. And I love that verse in Hebrews
12 that says, "...who for the joy that was set before Him pleased
the Lord to make you His people." He pleased the Lord to do this
for His people. to lay down his life for his
people. It says, for the joy that was
set before him, he despised the shame. That is, he thought nothing
of it. He thought nothing of hanging
there in shame. He had nothing to be ashamed
of. But he hung there in shame and was put to shame, and God
laid upon him the iniquity of us all, And therefore, those
who look to him shall never be put to shame. And David is saying this too.
David, I believe, is saying this, let me not be ashamed of thee. As I quoted to you from Psalm
119, let me never be ashamed of my hope. You know, the worse our reprobate
society gets, And it's getting worse and worse. The more ridicule
and the more scoffing and the more shame will those who believe
the truth experience. The longer this thing
goes and the worse our society gets, the more ridicule and the
more shame will those experience who believe the truth like we
do. This is so old-fashioned, this is so ridiculous, ridicule,
ridiculous to most people. What we believe, this old-fashioned
bloody religion. You don't hear blood in modern
religion at all. You don't even hear the word
blood in so-called fundamental religion. You sure don't hear
any talk about sin and God will punish sin and how we ought to
be ashamed and guilty, guilty before a holy God, the God who,
who was it? They said, where is the God of
Elijah? The God that will punish sin, the God who answered by
fire. Remember that? Where is He? And the more worse
this thing gets, the more ridicule and scoffing and shame, like
Noah. Don't you know they scoffed and
mocked Noah, unlike any man before him? Building a ship on dry land
where it never rained, and they scoffed and mocked him. Was he
ashamed? Do you think Noah experienced
any shame? Maybe. Do we? This is what David said, let
me not be ashamed. How could I be ashamed? Possibly
be ashamed of thee. We sang that hymn, didn't we?
Ashamed of the Lord Jesus? Sooner, far, let evening blush
to own a star. Ashamed of the Lord Jesus, that
dear friend, on whom my hopes of heaven depend? No, when I
blush, let this be my shame, that I no more revere His name.
Ashamed of the Lord Jesus? Yes, I may, when I have no guilt
to wash away, no tears to wipe, no good to crave, no fears to
quell, no soul to save. Nor is my boasting vain till
then I boast a Savior's flame. O may this my glory be that Christ
is not ashamed of me." This whole world, most of this whole world
is ashamed of and calls this a shame. And someday they'll
all be put to shame. But not those that believe him,
not those that trust him. Oh my God, let me not be ashamed. And then he asks for this, and
I'm going to quit with this. He asks for this request. Let
me not be ashamed. Let me not. If you don't restrain
me. You see, letting means restraining. Let me not. Let not. Let it not
happen. Let me not be ashamed. Constrain
me by your love. And let not mine enemies triumph
over me. Let not mine enemies triumph
over me. We have two arch enemies, three really, with our two worst
enemies, Satan. Do you remember the woman, the
widow? Avenge me of my adversary. That's
what she kept crying unto the unjust judge. And this is what
we cry. Every believer cries to our God. Oh, my God, to our Lord and our
Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, my Lord, avenge me of my
adversary, my arch enemy, who, like the scripture says, walketh
about seeking whom he may devour. whom I feel like all the time
he is devouring. He who, the Lord said, desires
to sift you like wheat, whom I feel all the time that he's
doing just that. And we're no match whatsoever. None of us are any match whatsoever. And if we're not assaulted to
the point of despair nearly, it's God that keeps him from
us. Because he desires to sift like wheat, and he took Peter,
And he did set him. He desires to use us. And he
took Simon Peter as an example to us. And he used him and abused
him for his evil purposes. And his evil purposes are to
kill and divide and separate and accuse and so forth. To stop
the gospel. And he'll use me and use us to
do it. Oh my God, let not my enemy triumph
over me. My arch enemy. When Peter, Peter
is the one that wrote this because he knew something about this.
He said, resist the devil in the faith. Whom resist in the
faith? There's only one way to resist
the devil, and that is crying unto the Lord Jesus Christ is
stronger than he. That's what Michael the Archangel
did. The Lord rebuked the Satan. Resist
the devil. Resist in the faith. The Lord
rebuketh it. Cry out, Oh my God, let him not
triumph over me. Let him not use me. Let him not
abuse me. The other day I had some very
bad thoughts and feelings running through my mind about a brother. They rose up in my mind. Now,
our Lord said this when He turned to Peter and He rebuked the devil. He said, Get thee behind me,
Satan, for thou savest not the things that be of God, but the
things that be of man. Now, the things that be of God
are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, peace, unity. That's the things that
be of God. Anything other than that is the
work of Satan. The work of Satan is division,
strife, anger, wrath. And I was having these thoughts
crop up in my mind toward a brother whom I was supposed to love.
And I said, get behind me, Satan. Those are not the things of God.
And those things rise up, no for a fact. That's your adversary. And you're no match for them.
These things will get a hold of you and you'll be in the gall of bitterness
and the bond of iniquity. Whom rebuke into faith. Resist into faith. Get thee behind
me, Satan. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Help me. Resist the devil. The things
that be of God, love, joy, peace, joy. Oh my God, let not my enemy
triumph over me. Overcome me with these things.
Be not overcome with anger or wrath or envy, but overcome with
love. Let not my enemy triumph over
me. And you know who the next worst enemy is? And it's hard
to tell them apart. We are our own worst enemy, next
to Satan himself. And that's the one Satan uses.
Our old carnal self. Our old self-loving self. Our own proud self. Our own selfish self. And Satan will use us. Use us to destroy us. and others
around us. Oh, my God, let not my enemy
triumph over me. Let not myself rise up. Let that new man have the victory. Oh, my God, mortify my flesh. Mortify my members. Mortify this
old man. Put off this old man and put
on me and in me this new man created in Christ Jesus. Let not my enemy triumph over
me. Oh my God. And there's another
in that. And they go together. It's the
world and the things of the world. The world and the things of this
world. What song is it that says, is
this world a friend to grace? Does this world help you on it?
I think it's Top Lady wrote it. No, it's not. Things of this
world and the people of this world. The Lord said, He said,
Love not the world, but the things of the world. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and
the pride of life is not of God. Those are the things of Satan
and of this world. The things of this world threaten
to overcome us. There's not a human being on
earth that's not subject to these things. People of this world. People of this world that bring
us down. These things, the people of this
world and the things of this world are not our friend. The
Lord said he that is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
Friend of the world. We can be a friend to it. And we ought to. We're not a
friend of it. Our Lord said he'll hate you
if you tell the truth. But the things of this world and the
people of this world really are not helping us. Only God's people
and God Himself help us. So let's read these in closing.
Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O Jehovah, I lift
up my downcast soul, my helpless soul, hangs my helpless soul
on thee. Other refuge have I none. O my
God! Next time you hear somebody say
that, be thankful from the depth of your heart that you say it
and mean it from your heart. Oh, my God. And be thankful that
you're not saying it in blasphemy. Oh, my God, I trust in Thee.
Don't trust in anyone else. Don't put your trust in anyone
else, that is. All your hope, all your confidence,
all your soul, put it all in Him. Trust in Him. He'll never
let you down. Let me not be ashamed. Let me
be ashamed of myself, but let me, if I trust in Thee, never
be put to shame, guilty, desolate, left out, cast out. And let not
mine enemies triumph over me. Satan, self, the world, things
of the world, let them not triumph over me. Lord, have Thine own way in me. Have
Your way in me. And that's what the rest of this
psalm goes on to say, and I knew we wouldn't have time to deal
with it, so we didn't. Alright, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You so much for
Your Word. It is our hope, our help, the
trust in Thee. Lord, remember Thy Word unto
Your people through the rest of this week. The Word upon which
Thou hast caused us to hope. put our trust in Your blessed
promises and Your blessed Son. O Lord, let this Word be a spring,
a wellspring springing up within us. Let this be the cry of our
heart and the joy and rejoicing of our heart that we trust in
Thee and will never be put to shame. Lord, we are ashamed,
as Ezra of old said, we are ashamed, we are blushed, ashamed to lift
up our heads. Thou hast said, lift up your
head. Lift up your head, O gates. The everlasting King of glory
shall come in and his people with him into heaven. No more
shame, no more sin, no more guilt, no more sorrow. O Lord, let us
not be ashamed, but let us rather glory in this blessed gospel. Let us not be ashamed of the
gospel, nor of thy people or the one who preaches it. Let
us glory in thee. So much more as we see the day
approaching. Give us courage, Lord. Give us
compassion. Give us kindness. Give us a word
in season to our perishing neighbors. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen. There's one. That's one request.