We're going to have another one
from this for next week, and Moose Parks will be with us on
the 16th. He's coming to the States for
a few days, and so he'll be with us on the 16th. But I want to
talk about David's great deliverance. David's great deliverance. You
remember the superscription over this psalm where he said he was
a David, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. Now, here's
the king of Israel. Man after God's own heart, but
he calls himself a servant. That's one thing that Paul and
all the apostles, they gloried in being servants of the Lord.
They were apostles, but yet they'd seen a bond slave of the Lord
Jesus Christ. David would rather be known as
the servant of the Lord, as the king. And it says he is the one
who spake these words unto the Lord when the Lord saved him,
delivered him. from the hand of all of his enemies.
And he loved the Lord. And let me give you four things
here. In the keynote of this whole
psalm is this. He says in verse 1, I love thee.
I will love thee. That strong love, that forcible
love, that deepest of love. And then in verse 2, in the middle
of the verse, it said, whom I will trust. Not only will I love him,
but I will trust the Lord. I will trust the Lord. I'll love
Him and I'll trust Him." And then he said in verse three,
I will call upon the Lord. If you love Him, you'll trust
Him, and then you'll call on Him. And then look what he says
there in verse three, So shall I be saved from mine enemies? Love, love the Lord Jesus, love
God. I love Thee. Because I love you, I'll trust
you. And I'll love you because you first loved me. And I'll
call on you. You call on people you trust.
I trust him. And because of that, I'll be
saved. Love, trust, prayer, and it gives
you assurance. Now, you know, saints go to great
heights. David had great, great heights.
God took him to great heights. He rejoiced greatly in the Lord.
But where you go to great heights, you also have to go down to great,
great depths. Ever how high you go, you end
up going back that far low. And it takes somebody, it takes
someone, a great, great deliverer to save and to lift a soul up
who is in the very depths, is in deep distress. One who's in
great depth. Only God can pick him up. Only
God can deliver. And what this psalm does, it
records the experience of a soul passing from death to life. And it's also, when we look at
it, really, it's also prophetic. It's prophetic of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of His sufferings, of His coming, His sufferings, His
death, and His resurrection. And if we can't find the Lord
Jesus, and you know, like, for instance, there in verse 20,
the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. You reckon
God rewarded David according to his righteousness or according
to Christ's righteousness? If I wait for God to reward me
by some righteous act I've done, I'll not get a reward. But if
I have the righteousness of Christ, that is my reward. That is what
God's given me. To have Him is all, to have everything
that you need. But first of all, let's look
at David's need, why he needed to be delivered. And only God
could do it. He said down in verse 4, his
need was great. Oh, he had a great need. He was
compassed about. He says, the sorrows of death
compassed me. They surrounded me. The sorrows
of death. And in all the sorrows of death,
death was all around him. And the sorrows that accompanied
death was all around him. And I'll tell you something about
people that don't know Christ. Spiritual death's all around
them. They're surrounded by spiritual death, and they're surrounded
by eternal death. And then there's this great sorrow
of losing all worldly blessings. To think about you leave this
world, and you leave everything behind. Everything that's important
now will not have any meaning at all. Everything that's so
valuable now will have no worth in those days. Money will be
as toilet paper. The things that you rejoice in
will be things that you'll weep over. And that's what he's talking
about, the sorrow of losing all worldly blessings. And there's
a fellow that went through that in Acts chapter 16. You remember
when the Holy Ghost shook that prison and Paul and Silas came
out? And the Philippian jailer, he was so afraid death was going
to kill him. They knew they were going to
kill him anyway. And the sorrow of death was so great on him
that he was going to kill himself. And Paul rushed in there and
says, Oh, don't do yourself any harm. Don't do that. We ain't going nowhere. We're
going to stay right here. And you know why we're going
to stay here? Because I'm going to tell you
how you can be saved from this death that you're about to be
in. And then he cried out and said, Sirs, what must we do to
be saved? I tell you, the sorrows of death,
look what else come past him with that, oh what a great need
he has. And then the sorrows of men, again in verse 4, the
sorrows of death and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. Sorrows of men, ungodly men made
me afraid. When a soul is under conviction,
and conviction of sin is something this world knows nothing about
anymore. You know when you're convicted of your sins, when
the Holy Ghost comes and convinces you of your sin, convinces you
that you're lost, convinces you that you have no hope. And these
ungodly people that you run around with, you get afraid of them.
You get afraid of being around them and the way they act. And
the enemy, the Satan himself, he'll come around, and your flesh
will, and keep you surrounded. They don't want to let you go.
That strongman arm will have you surrounded. And the world,
and all the world stands for in its reasonings, they're against
the purpose of the heart. And that's why David says, the
sorrows of men, death and men both compass me about. So how
am I going to get out of this? Then look what he says there
in verse 5. Sorrow upon sorrow. He said, the sorrows of hell
compassed me. Sorrows of hell itself. You know,
a soul can experience, a soul can experience this in his soul.
He can feel like he's got hell in his soul if he's, God leads
him to himself. And this world's turned loose
on him. And flesh has turned loose on him. And the enemies
of this world has turned loose on him. And then, beloved, he's
afraid of this world and this awful place. And you know who
was the man of sorrows? He still had sorrow upon sorrow
upon sorrow. But you know who was the man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Death compassed him about. Ungodly men compassed him about. Men, ungodly men, gathered around
him. And all beloved, and he said,
Father, forgive them, they know what, and the sorrows of hell,
and hell itself come past him about. And only God, and only
Christ can deliver us and save us from these sorrows. Whatever
sorrows we have, when we feel dead, it's coming around us.
Sorrows of men and the things that come around with men that
bring them around us, and the sorrows of hell, the sorrows
of the grave. Only God can save us. from these
sorrows. Only God can do it. But now look
what he confesses. He confesses, Oh, I was in this
condition. I had a great need. But look
what he said in verse 6. So when this and these conditions
going on and these things are happening, in my distress, I
called upon the Lord and cried unto God. And guess what happened?
He heard my voice. We're going to hear from his
temple. Oh, in distress I call upon the
Lord. When a soul is in real trouble,
like David was. David said, in my distress. In
my distress. I don't know how to describe
what distress is, but if you've ever had it, you know what it
is. Where you're just in such a condition that you have no
answer. You're just, you're so distressed that you can't function,
you can't think, you can't act. You just, You're distressed. I mean, you're just beside yourself.
And when a soul is in real trouble like David, in distress, and
what he began to do, he said, I called upon the Lord. And this
prayer is urgent. I called. I called on the Lord. When all this was going on, where
was I going to go? What am I going to do? I'll tell
you what I'll do, I'll get a bunch of people together and we'll
bombard heaven itself. We'll get a bunch of people and
I'll get a prayer chain started. No, he said, I called on the
Lord. And there was no hypocrisy in
this. I mean, boy, it's coming from
a heart urgently. You see, he has no hope of saving
himself. Oh, the men and women can find
that out. No hope of saving himself. He goes outside himself, looks
for help outside himself. And only Almighty God can meet
this need of saving us from the sorrows of death, the sorrows
of men encompassing us about, and the sorrows of hell itself.
And he said, Oh, Lord, I confess, I have one place to go. One place
to go. And thank God we have that place
to go. I am so thankful we have that place
to go. Mary and I was talking last night, what would people
do? What do people do that don't have God to go to, Christ to
trust, and a hope in this world? What do they do? And oh, look at his deliverance.
So he cried unto the Lord. He confessed, you know, God,
I called on you. In my distress, I called on you.
I cried. I cried out. I cried out. I mean, I want you to hear me.
I cried out. I've been in meetings, and it's
been a long, long time that I remember. And Tim James and Moose Parks
both said this. They were in a meeting when they
both got converted over in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And the preacher
was preaching, and old Moose haunted him. I said, Oh Lord,
I'm lost! Everybody looked at him, the
preacher said, leave him alone, just keep listening to me. That's
what happens to you. You'll cry out. You'll make your
confession and David cried out. And then look at the deliverance
in answer to his crying unto the Lord in his distress. Look
what it says down in verse nine. He bowed the heavens also and
came down. When he cried out to God, what
did God do? What did Christ do? He came down.
He came down. He came down to do what? Because
he heard one of his children start crying. He heard one of
his children calling. And for him to come down, he
had to bow the heavens. He had to bring the heavens down.
He had to bow the heavens and come through the heavens. This
is Christ coming. This is what this is about. Christ
came down. And all folks understand how
high holy he was and how, what humiliation it was for him to
come down into this world. This is Christ coming. This Christ
coming of his sufferings. And the heaven's witness coming.
The heaven's witness is death. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, you know, when a man starts crying out to God, God's
going to come. You remember Bartimaeus, he said,
there's a commotion going on. What's going on? Jesus and Nazareth
passing by. Immediately he started crying
out. Shut up! No, no, no, no, no. I'm not fixing
to shut up. I'm blind, and I'm a beggar,
and there's a fella that this man walking by, this Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of David, can do something for me. And he cried
out the Lord. That Syrophoenician woman brought
her daughter, and she went and cried unto the Lord. And I tell
you, when you cry unto the Lord, you've got His attention. When
you ain't got no hypocrisy in it, when you've got urgency in
it, when you've got need in it, when you've got a desire in it,
God will hear, and He comes down. And Christ came down because
we were in such distress, because we were in such need, because
the sorrows of death, the sorrows of hell, the sorrows of men had
us compassed about, and Christ came down to save us from our
sin. Look up here in verse 7, talking
about the earth witnessing the heavens bowing. It said in verse
7, Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the hills
moved and were shaken, because Israel's smoke went up out of
his moustache. That's in Mount Sinai. David's
not talking about things that he saw with himself, but he's
talking about how God acted at certain times. When that mountain was on fire,
smoke coming out of his nostrils. That means that God brings the
fire down, that God brings the clouds down, that God brings
the lightning down, that God brings the hailstones down. And
then when it's talked, the earth shook. You remember when our
Lord Jesus Christ cried out, it is finished, and gave up the
ghost at that. Heaven's got dark, and the earth
quaked, the earth shook. David knows how God acts whenever
things are happening to His people, what He goes through to save
them. And then He came down. That David said, Oh my, how He
came down. Bless His name. He came down.
Come among us, Lord. Come down to me. Come down to
these people. Come down, Lord. And then look
what else it says in verse 16. He sent from above, and if He
sent, He got to send from above. He took me. He took me and drew
me out of many waters, or great waters. He took me. He came down
and He took me. And He says He drew me out of
many waters. If a soul is going to get out
of these many waters, these great waters, these deep waters, the
waters of sin, the waters of sorrow, the waters of self, He
must draw us out of them. And what He's saying here is
that He has to take hold of us. He has to take hold of us and
bring us out. A man's will cannot get him out
of this condition. A man's own effort can't get
him out of this condition. A man's best efforts can't get
him. It says here that He took me. He laid hold on me. He took me. And when He says
that He took me, He took me out of them great waters. And when He takes hold of you,
when He reaches and gets hold of you, He brings with it a perfect
salvation. He ain't going to get you out
of it and then throw you back in. You know, He'll reach and
get you real, real close, get you into some shallow water and
say, now, okay, you can make it the rest of the way on your
own. No, no, he gets a hold of it. He brings it all the way
out. And then look what else it says
here. He came down. He took me. And then he delivered
me there in verse 17. He delivered me from my strong
enemy and from them which hated me, for they were too strong
for me. Now, this is talking about David and also talking
about Christ. He delivered me from my strong
enemy. You know what the strongest enemy we have? The strongest
enemy that we have is sin. I mean, that's the strongest
enemy we have. And that's one thing that you
cannot break. You know, they had this show on last night,
and I watched a little of it. It's Snake Salvation, they call
it, on Discovery Channel. These people up in Kentucky.
Handling all these snakes, and this guy got bit. An old man
got bit twice. Two days later, he's back in
the service. But he had on sackcloth on him. His wife got down the
sackcloth and ashes, put ashes all over him. Son got in a big
old box full of ashes, you know. And they said, boy, we prayed
him through. Said, but God heard our prayers. That's antichrist. That's as
sinful as anybody can be. That's how strong sin is. Sin
is so strong that it deceives us. Paul said sin is deceitful. Don't be deceived. Don't be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. Whenever you think that
you have no sin in yourself, and yet you don't understand
that Christ is the only one that can break that power of sin.
Christ is the only one that can break it. The old hymn writer
had it right. Save me. Christ be my double
cure, safe from sin, power and sin's penalty. And oh God, only
Christ can break that power of sin. Sin makes us trust ourselves. Sin makes us feel good about
ourselves. Sin makes us feel like we're as good as anybody
else. Sin makes us think that we don't need God, we don't need
Christ. Sin makes us think that we're better than somebody else.
That's how deceitful it is. And the only person who can save
us from that, and anybody who knows anything about sin, anybody
who knows anything about it, sin is what we are, sins are
what we do. And the only person that can
break that power of sin, He said, He delivered me. Oh, let me show you. Keep this
and look in Romans 6 with me just a moment. Keep Psalm 18.
I just thought of this. Let's look at this just a moment. Oh, I love this right here now.
Listen. He said in Romans 6, 14, you
know, our strong, my strong enemy, our sins are our strongest enemy. Sin. Sin will make you think you ain't
got anything. That's how deceitful it is. Sin will make you think
that you're alright. But look what it says here in
verse 14, Romans 6. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. Sin won't reign over you. Sin won't have power over
you. Sin won't be your sovereign. Why? Because you're not under
the law. When the law says thou shalt not, you just got to do
it. Quickest way in the world to
get somebody to do something. I tell you, and I've heard so
many, you know, you lock a door and say, don't go in behind that.
Don't unlock that door and don't go in that room. And there won't be nothing in
that room. You don't have to have nothing in there. Just lock it and tell
your kids, don't go in that room. And say, I'm laying the key right
out here. Don't you go in that room. You won't be going from
the house ten minutes and they'll get that key and they'll unlock
that door and go in that room. You know why? Because you told
them not to. That's what the law does to us. It tells us not
to, and what it tells us not to do, it doesn't give us the
power to do it. It just condemns us for doing it. It makes us
struggle that more. But you're not under law, but you're under
grace. What then, because we're not under grace? Not under the
law, but under grace. Are we going to sin because we're
not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Know this. Know this surely,
that to whom you yield yourself, service to obey. You yourself.
If you obey something, you are in service to whom you obey.
If you obey sin, you're going to bring death. If you obey Christ
and Him, it's obedience unto righteousness. But this is what
I wanted to hear, what you see. But God did think that you were
the service of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free
from sin, he becomes a service of righteousness. He didn't say
free from sins, sin. What we are, like that power.
And not only is sin a strong enemy, but Satan is a strong
and a subtle enemy. And our Lord came to save us
from him. He delivered me from my strong enemy. Saved me from
it. And then look what else happened
now. Down in verse 19. Not only did he come down. Not
only did he take me and draw me out of the waters. Not only
did he deliver me from my strong enemy, which hated me. Too strong for me. He brought
me. forth also into a large place."
See, He took us out, delivered us, and then He brings us and
sets us forth in a large place. Now, large place means that something
that's just wealth and riches in a prosperous place, a great
place. And He brought me forth also
into a large place. And oh, beloved, He brings you
forth. See, He takes you, He delivers you, He came down, He
did it all. And I tell you, He brought me
forth. And I tell you, when the Son sets you free, you're free
indeed. He brings you from the power of darkness and puts you
into the kingdom of His Son, brings you from darkness unto
light. And then He says to a large place, He brought me. And I tell
you what, can you be in a larger place than in Christ? Can you be in a larger place
than being in Christ? The Scripture says Christ is
our life. And you know it's such a large place that He brought
us forth to, that it stretches all the way into eternity. That's
how large it is. To be in God? How immense is
God? The Scripture tells us we're
in Him. How glorious and how powerful
and how magnificent is Christ? Scripture says we're in Him. The Holy Spirit that dwells,
He's in us. And let me tell you something,
we're going to go to a place that's large enough, when this
world's over and done with and when our time's done, we're going
to go to a place so large that it holds a multitude that no
man can number. He said, in my father's house
are many mansions. And I'll tell you why it's such
a large place, and I'll tell you what they looked out there
and they said, ten thousand times, thousands, thousands upon thousands,
a multitude that no man could number. So we're going to a place
where nobody can number them, but everybody there will be the
same. Everybody there will know one another, and everybody there
will especially know their Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
a large place. And then look what he says in
verse 19. He said, He brought me forth
into a large place. He delivered me because He delighted
in me. Now, you know, the scripture
says that God joys over us and sings over us. He delivers those
in whom He delights. Well, who does He delight in?
He delighted in His Son, and He delights in those who are
in His Son. The objects of His love, the objects of His grace,
He delights in them. He joys in them. He sings over
them. He protects them, calls them
the apple of His eye. That's why Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, and the
life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, loved me, and gave Himself for me. Delighted
in me. And God delights in mercy. And then look what he said in
verse 20. And of course, I'll deal with this next week about
Christ. But He rewarded me. What did He reward us with? He rewards us with the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that comes to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him.
What does He reward us with? What He promised us. He promised
us salvation. He promised His Son. He promised
eternal life. He promised justification, promised
forgiveness, pardon, righteousness, oh, everything that we need.
He rewarded us with that. He rewarded us with Christ, with
salvation. And every day that goes by, I
just preached on this a week or two ago, He daily loads us
with His benefits. Every day, His benefits. Look
at Psalm 34 and 8, and I'm through. Psalm 34 and 8. You know He rewards you. And
you know I'm going to tell you something. We're at Christ's
reward, too. He said, I'll reward thee. I'll
give you the heathen for your reward. Well, here we are. This is what
we are Christ's reward. God says, you ask of me the heathen,
and I'll give them to you. And our Lord Jesus Christ come
here and took the heathen, took us as his reward for his suffering,
for his death. Look what he said in Psalm 34
and verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. Taste Him. Taste and see. that the Lord is good. Taste
His grace. Taste His Word, sweeter than
honeycomb. Taste His mercy. And blessed, blessed is the man
that trusts in Him. Huh? Oh, my. What a great deliverance. We've had a great, what a great
salvation. Great salvation.