We're looking at Psalm 20. It
says, The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the
God of Jacob defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary
and strengthen thee out of Zion. Remember all thy offerings and
accept thy burnt sacrifice, say, Lord. Grant thee according to
thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. We will rejoice
in thy salvation. And in the name of our God we
will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. Now know I that the Lord saveth
his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust
in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name
of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen,
but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord! Let the King hear
us when we call. Now, this is a most glorious psalm
in that it comes to us as, first of all, an exhortation to the
sons of God As Paul would say to the saints, the Lord keep
thee and bless thee and help thee. It is a desire that the
psalmist would speak to the sons of God for sure. The Lord hear
thee in the day of trouble, but the greater truth that is in
this psalm is that this is a prayer unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is a desire of David
to see Christ exalted in the earth. Now, I believe that that
is the sole purpose for why men have been put into the earth,
is to bring glory to the name of the Lord. Now, men like to
think that they're put here for this, that, and the other and
accomplish all these things and they look around them and they
see all these different things that people have done and they
pat one another on the back and they, you know, try to make one
another feel better and relieve one another's troubles and all
of that. And all that's got its place. I'm not, you know, downing
that, but all of that is nothing compared to the real reason that
the Lord put us here in the earth, and that is to magnify the glory
of His name and to manifest the glory of His grace and the magnificence
of His name in the redemption of the people that He gave to
Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world in the
covenant of redemption, to manifest His salvation in them. work of the Spirit in the sons
of God to cause them to praise the name of Him who is worthy
of all praise. Now, I believe this is a true
thing, and I believe I can say this without equivocation, that
when the Spirit of God works in a man to show him who Christ
is, he wants to bring glory to Christ. Now, John said it like
this, he said, No man speaking by the Spirit calleth Jesus accursed. And so it is that those who are
moved by the Spirit of God desire the glory of Christ. That's our
chief desire. And so we see him speak here
concerning the Messiah. You know, when we consider the
Lord, and I've said this often times, I believe it's a true
thing, that it is easier for men to grasp the deity of Jesus
Christ than it is to grasp His humanity. Now, men will, those
who are unbelievers, they will gravitate towards the humanity
of Christ, and they look at Him and they say, oh, well, He was
a great man, you know, He went around doing good and everything,
and He was a great prophet. You hear that? You ever heard
anybody say He was a great prophet? Well, He wasn't a great prophet.
He was THE prophet. There is no other prophet that
has ever come into the world that is worthy of listening to.
He was not a great prophet. He was the prophet. And all of
the other prophets pale in comparison and they are nothing. They fall
on their faces. Even as Daniel who was one of
the greatest prophets in the Old Testament, he said that when
he came face to face with the Lord that he fell upon his face
and his comeliness, all the beauty that he had was turned into him
into corruption. And he fell as a dead man, even
as John saw him that day on the Isle of Patmos. And he said,
I fell at his feet as a dead man. And so, he's not a great prophet. He's the only prophet. He is
the prophet. Hear ye him. And the psalmist
says here, the Lord hear thee in the day of trouble. Now where
was I going with that? I said it's easier for men to
receive the deity of Christ, because we believe that He is
God. Any man that doesn't believe
Jesus Christ is God, doesn't believe Jesus Christ is the Savior.
Because if He isn't God, then He couldn't have saved us, brother. But you see, The manner and means
through which the Lord would demonstrate the glory of His
grace in the redemption of His people was through becoming man
as much as you or I are. Now that is a part, I guarantee
you that is the greatest mystery that has ever been shown to men. How can that be? that the God
who created man would, as the Scriptures say, become man, and
be born as an infant of days, and grow up as a young man, as a child, and
come to adulthood, and go through all the things that men go through.
Tempted in all points, that is, tried in all points, even as
we are, yet without sin. That's just an amazing thing.
I can't really get it. I believe we miss so much of
what's in the Scriptures because we just kind of, well, you know,
we look at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and we
say, oh well, he knew all these things were going to happen so
he was kind of prepared for it and all that. Well, there's an
element of truth in that. But you see, there was also an
element of truth in this that as a man he had Needs just like
every man. The Scripture says that when
he prayed in the garden that the angels came and ministered
to him. Why did they do that? Because
he was man. Because he knew the weakness
of the flesh. He knew the inabilities that
are in men. Thus he could say to his disciples
when they slept, While he went yonder and prayed, he could say
to them, the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You see,
he understood that. He was thirsty. He was hungry. He knew all those
things. Thus he learned obedience by
the things which he suffered. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. Now has any man ever endured the trouble that the
Lord Jesus Christ did? Do you think you've got trouble?
You don't have any trouble. I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ
came and His single desire as He walked every day in the earth
was to bring glory to the name of His Father. To do His Father's
will. To seek out those sheep that
the Lord had given Him among the sons of men. And yet, those
whom He had singled out as His apostles, walked with Him day
after day. And He taught them. And He was
exasperated as a man would be. that He told them all these things,
and yet they could not see it. They were constantly missing
the point, missing the mark. Now, you think that men can learn
the truth of God through the power of men? The demonstration
of that is right here in the Word of God, even as Jesus Christ,
the greatest teacher that ever lived, Men don't learn. Men are dull of hearing. They
can't see. They can't understand. They can't
get it. They don't get it apart from the grace of God to show
it to them, even as He showed it. And we sang that song there a
moment ago about the woman at the well. And the Lord came and
He said, Now he must need to go through
Samaria. Why? Because one of his sheep was
in Samaria. It was necessary for him to go
through Samaria. He could have flew over Samaria
if he wanted to, couldn't he? He could have done anything he
wanted to, but he needed to go through Samaria. Why? Because
one of those whom he loved with an everlasting love was at a
wild side. And he came there at the appointed
time. What if she hadn't come that
day? All of those that tell us all about free will and men always
doing this and doing that. Well, what if she decided not
to come that day? No, she was there. The Lord was
there. And they were both there according
to His divine purpose and His appointment. And He'll always
keep His appointment with His people. And he'll meet them at
the place where he would have them to be even as he met Paul
on the road to Damascus. Even as he met the Ethiopian
eunuch in a chariot. But he had troubles for sure
as a man. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He knew about it. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob defend thee." You know,
it's kind of a conundrum of sorts, I guess. On the one hand, we
hate the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in our behalf.
It makes us ashamed to think that He died for us. To think
that our sin is what put Him on that cross. But then at the
same time, we rejoice that He did. Because you see, He didn't
look at it as a thing which He didn't want to do. He looked
at it as a thing which He desired to do. Because it was a thing
that He was sent to do. And it was a thing that all the
powers of hell could not keep Him from doing it. Now often,
you know, people speculate and say, well, what if Judas had
changed his mind? Well, what if he had? Well, then
we'd be in a mess, wouldn't we? But you see, Judas didn't change
his mind, because the Lord directed his steps. He created him to
be what he was. Now, that makes some people a
little bit nervous. They don't like to think about
that, but that's the fact there, brethren. All things in the earth
occur according to the good pleasure of Him who made it out of nothing,
and He said it is good. Now men can find fault with it,
but the Lord doesn't, because He caused all things to occur
according to the good pleasure of His will. And so we see that
David prays here, Lord, May the Lord hear thee in the day of
thy trouble. In the name of the God of Jacob,
defend thee. Do you ever think about the Lord
defending the Lord? Isn't that kind of an amazing
thing, is it not? I mean, His Father defended Him. Send thee help from the sanctuary. Because you know, the Lord Jesus
went into a mountain to pray on quite a few occasions. We
read that in the Scripture. He went apart from His disciples. Why did He do that? Well, He
did it because the Lord would strengthen Him in the sanctuary,
in the secret place of the Most High. See, he that dwelleth in
the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow
of the Almighty. Now, dear brethren, who do you
think that is speaking of? Now, men often take it and say,
oh, well, we need to get into the secret place of the Most
High. Well, let me ask you how you are going to do that. I mean,
how are you going to do that? The Lord Jesus Christ went into
the secret place of the Most High because He had a room there. He had a standing there. He had
a purpose there. He was that one much beloved
of his Father. He was accepted there. And he
came in there. And the Lord strengthened him.
The Lord gave him grace and mercy. Yes, he knew what mercy was.
I mean, he was the giver of mercy, but yet he was a recipient of
mercy, was he not? Just like he is the purveyor
of justice, and yet he felt justice. He learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. May the Lord strengthen thee
out of Zion, out of the kingdom of God. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world to establish His kingdom. Now, a
lot of people think that The kingdom is yet to be. And I kind
of understand some of the thinking behind that, and I've kind of
held that position years ago. But I don't believe that the
kingdom of God is something that is out there. The kingdom of God is that which
the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to establish. And He
has given it to His people. And it is out of Zion that the
Lord received strength. Strengthened thee out of Zion.
That is, in the midst of Zion. The Lord was strengthened by
the fellowship that He had with His disciples. Now, He taught
them. But dear brethren, just like
a man receives comfort from one another as brethren in the Lord. So did the Lord receive that
from those whom He accompanied with. He was blessed according
to the purpose of God. Remember all thy offerings and
accept thy burnt sacrifice. Now, the writer of Hebrews tells
us that The blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin. Never did. Now the dispensationalist
tells us that there was a time when the blood of bulls and goats
took away sin. I'm here to tell you the blood
of bulls and goats never took away sin. The blood of a bull
or a goat can't take away sin. The only thing that the blood
of a bull or a goat in the Old Testament could do was point
to the One who would come in the appointed time and He would
take away sin, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by His
own blood. Remember all thy offerings and
accept thy burnt sacrifice, say the Lord. That is our hope, is
it not, that the Lord will receive The offerings of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Dear brethren, if the offering
of Christ on Calvary's cross is not sufficient for our salvation,
then we are of all men most miserable. That's our whole hope, is it
not? Now, some people's hope is that
they're going to be faithful and they're going to do the law
and they're going to do this and they're going to keep the
Sabbath and they're going to do all these things that are
going to make the Lord happy with them. And the Lord is going
to look over humanity and say, well, you didn't do perfect,
but you did pretty good. You did a whole lot more than
John did over there. And so I'm going to let you come
on in. There's a multitude of people who believe that kind
of stuff. Now, it's far more widespread among those who call
themselves Christians than you would like to think. They believe
they will be heard for their much praying. They believe they'll
be received because of their faithfulness. And they're doing
this and they're doing that. I'm telling you, it's dumb! And
that's what Paul said. He said all of these things was
nothing. He said it's nothing. but to be found in Christ. You
see, in the one offering, there's only one offering I'm interested
in. And that's the offering that
Jesus Christ made, once and for all. It's not something that
continues on, but it's already done. It's finished. It's done. He completed the work. And except
thy burnt sacrifice, You know, a burnt sacrifice, that thing,
once it's burnt, that's it. I mean, you ever tried to reburn
something that was burnt? I mean, you can't. I mean, if
it's burnt up, it's burnt up, is it not? You can't reburn it.
Selah. Grant thee according to thine
own heart, and fulfill all thy counsel. Isn't that what we desire? You
know, the Lord told us to pray. He said, when you pray, pray
and ask that the Father's will would be done in the earth as
it is in heaven. Now, some people think, well,
if you don't do that, well, His will might not be done. Well,
let me tell you, that wasn't what He was saying. See, we don't
pray in order to get the Lord to do His will, because the Lord
is going to do His will whether you pray or you don't. But we
pray so that we might be reconciled unto His will. Lord, whatever
Your will is, is that which I rejoice in. I praise Your name. Whatever it turns out to be.
You know, if I'm sick and dying with some disease and You see
fit to take me on out, praise God. Or if You see fit to heal
me, Lord, I'll give You praise for that too. Whatever it is
that You will. People a lot of times want you
to pray for them for a certain thing. They want you to pray
this, you know, pray that the Lord will heal me. Dear brethren,
I don't want anybody to be sick. If I could help it, if there
was something I could do about it. But the Lord brings sickness
on people just as much as He does health. It's according to
His purpose. Ask Job about that. You know,
that's just the way that it is. That's the purpose of God. I
rejoice in it. You know, as a man, we can't
necessarily be happy with some of the stuff that happens to
us. I mean, if something happens and cripples you, you're not
going to be happy that you got crippled. But by the grace of God, you
can give God praise and glory because it was according to His
will and His purpose. And thus our desire, may the
Lord grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all
of thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy salvation. And in the name of our God, we
will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. We will rejoice in thy salvation. Whose salvation? His. See, a lot of people say, that's
my salvation. Well, I understand what they
mean. But brethren, too much emphasis is placed on my salvation. It's His salvation. And He gives
it according to His purpose. I mean, Jonah understood that,
did he not? When he was down in the belly
of the fish, and he said, salvation is of the Lord. There's no other way it comes,
dear brethren. It doesn't come through the effort
of humanity. It doesn't come through the faith
of humanity. It doesn't come through the actions of humanity.
It comes from the will of God according to His purpose. What
a glorious thing! And we will rejoice in thy salvation. That's the only one I want to
rejoice in. I don't want anything else but that. I think I've shared
this. In fact, I know I have. A fellow
asked an old preacher, a fellow by the name of B.B. Caldwell,
that they were doing all these things and they wanted to know
if he wanted to get the gifts of the Spirit. You know, they
were talking about tongues and all these miraculous things and
what not, and that was a big deal at the time. And they asked
him if he wanted that. He said, well, let me ask you
something. He said, well, let's get me to where Jesus is. They
said, oh no, no, this is just to help you along the way. He
said, I don't want to go anywhere else, as far as I want to go. I just want to know the Lord. Many times they get caught up
in all the things they think they're going to get and they're
going to do and all of that stuff. But it's His salvation and we
will rejoice in that. It's the only one we want. And in the name of our God, we
will set up our banners. We're going to put up a flag
and we're going to fly it high. We're not going to be ashamed
to tell men that Jesus Christ rules and reigns in the earth.
And He does according to His will an army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And there is none that can stay
His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? Not one. Nobody can
question His doing. But all must fall before His
face and say, O Lord, You are our salvation. And we will fly
that banner. We'll put it up forever. Once
they open the Song of Solomon, it talks about an army, terrible
as an army with banners. And I understand that what that
has reference to is that back in those days, one of the things
that a marching army would do is they would have these flags
and banners flying up as they marched toward them. Of course,
that gave the vision that this was some grand procession coming
and struck fear into the hearts of those that they came to. And dear brethren, the gospel
of Jesus Christ is sent into the earth. And in great measure
it does strike fear into the hearts of the enemies of the
people of God, but it causes the saints of God to rejoice. What a glorious matter! What
a wonderful thing! That Jesus Christ would bleed
and die for sinners! unworthy of the least of His
mercies, and yet, according to the good pleasure of His will,
He would save them." That's a glorious thing. Now, I know why that the
Lord... Well, I got ahead of myself there.
It says, "...the Lord fulfill all thy petitions." Because He
is that One who will do His purpose. Now know I that the Lord saveth
his anointed." Now it's going to kind of shift gears here because he is moving away from
that consideration of Christ as the
Savior and he is pointing out that He
is that One who will be delivered. Now, in order to be delivered,
somebody has to be put into a place that needs to be delivered. You
know, if everything is going along all right, I mean, if somebody
came along and said to the United States, we all need to be delivered,
well, what do we need to be delivered from? I mean, there are no oppressors
that have overtaken us. But if you went into one of these
countries that are under oppression and you tell them, we're going
to deliver you, they would be glad to hear it. And so the Lord
would deliver that one whom he appointed unto the darkness that he might have to enter into that dark place that he might be delivered out
of it. But you see, nobody knew and nobody knows and nobody can
know the depths of the darkness and the troubles that came upon
the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden and then ultimately on
the Cross when He said, My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken
me? There has never been a man who
has ever been in the depths of anguish to the extent that the
Lord Jesus Christ was on Calvary's cross. Because the one thing
that he wanted to do more than anything else was to please his
Father. And yet the one thing that He
desired, He was cut off from. Now, I just can't quite get it. I can't quite grasp it. But I
just fall in wonder before it that He who would do the Father's
will was cut off from the Father's will. So that those that have
despised the Father's will might be justified, redeemed, saved. What a glorious thing! Now know
I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Now he is
forsaken of God, and it appeared to all the enemies that the story
was done. This thing is over. The disciples
said, man, we thought He was going to deliver us. I'm going
fishing. I mean, we've spent three years
of our life here going through all this stuff and we thought
He was going to be the one that was going to deliver us. And
how fickle are men. How quickly turned aside they
are. But oh, the Lord, the same One
that forsook Christ as the sinner's substitute, same One. Same One that forsook Him because
of His justice. His justice demanded the soul's
satisfaction for sin. Same One. Three days delivered him from the tomb. And he came forth. Now if you
want me to explain how all that was, I can't. All I can do is
just fall in wonder and amazement at it and rejoice. I don't know
a thing in the world about it except I believe that it happened.
I believe it occurred. I don't know the mechanism and,
you know, as science would try to figure out how this happened
and that, I've got no idea and I don't care. But I believe that
on the third day, life that was absent from Him who is the life, came back to a man who was dead. Remember, he was a man. He was
dead. One day you're going to die,
and they're going to put your body in a tomb in the ground.
And just as surely as your body was laying in that tomb, so was
his. But oh, at that time, known only
to the Lord, A time marked out before the world was ever created,
life came back into Him. And He came forth from that grave
because the Lord saith, He is anointed. Who is the anointed
of God? The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God. He is the anointed of the Lord.
He is that One who set apart to be the Savior of sinners.
He is that One. with the saving strength of his
right hand. Where is the Lord Jesus Christ
seated? At the right hand of the Father. Now do we think that
the Father is sitting up there and the Son is sitting over here
on the little throne that is down below that? No. It is not
like that. He said to Philip, when Philip
said, Show us the Father, he said, Philip, have I been so
long time and you have not known me. He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father." Now don't ask me to explain that because I
can't. But oh, what a wondrous thing
it is to rejoice in the humanity of Christ as well as His deity. Because He is that One who is
seated on the throne of God. He is that One who is at the
right hand of power in the kingdom of God. And then He kind of shifts gears
again. And He said in relation to that,
in view of all of that, when we preach the gospel, I mean, do we just preach the
gospel with no end in sight? Well, no, we have an end. Our
first end in preaching the gospel is to glorify the name of Christ.
We want to magnify Him. But we also desire that the sons
of God hear the message of God and be stirred within their soul
to trust Him. See, that's the thing that we
do. Now that is not primarily why we preach the gospel, but
that is one of the effects of preaching the gospel. Because
you see, when the sheep of the Lord hear His voice, what do
they do? They follow Him. When they hear
of that which He has done, they rejoice. And so it is that we
have been sent into the world to preach the glad tidings of
the gospel of peace unto men. And some trust in chariots. Some
in horses. Some in the Republicans. Some
in the Democrats. A few, anyway. Some, I mean,
I guess it is. But, you know, some trust in
all sorts of things. Some trust in their money, their
health. You know, I used to trust in
my health because I was... Going right along. Now that I've
gotten older and time is starting to take its toll on me, I don't
trust my health very much. I say, you know, I'm fading on
out. I mean, I used to not even think
about, you know, those things, really. I mean, it never even
crossed my mind. I think about it now. Because
I know that the arm of the flesh will fail. I mean, everything
that man touches is going to come to dust. Sure it is. Some trust in chariots. Some
in horses. But we, who's it talking to? The people of God. See, some
trust in chariots. Some trust in horses. Some do.
There's people up there in Washington right now that they're trusting
in The CIA and the FBI and Robert Mueller and all these things,
they are trusting in all this. They are trusting in the Army.
Oh, we have got the biggest Army. Man, we have got all these nuclear
weapons and everything. Well, what happens if they pull
the trigger on one of them and it does not go off? I mean, you
know, you have read all these stories about these people that
were going to kill themselves and they put a gun up their head
and pulled the trigger and the gun would not shoot. Got it out,
reloaded it, put the thing up ahead and wouldn't shoot. Dear
brethren, these things don't work unless God is pleased to
cause them to work. How foolish it is to trust in
such things. It doesn't make any difference.
I mean, remember Gideon? Remember the Lord sent him out
to fight? I mean, he had, I think, what
was it, 30,000 men? How many men did Gideon have
to start with? I don't remember. But the Lord
said, and the other army was way bigger than that anyway,
but he figured, well, at least if I got thirty or forty thousand,
I'll at least have a chance. And the Lord said, you've got
too many. He said, what? He said, yeah,
go on and send part of them back if they don't want to go. So
they quibbled them down and they were left, I don't know, ten
thousand. I forget the numbers. You'll have to go check it out.
But anyway, Gideon said, man, I don't know if we're going to
be able to do this or not. And the Lord said, you've got too
many. He said, what? So he said, go down and let them
drink from the brunt. And when they got down to 300,
the Lord said, that's just right. That's just right. Because you
see, he would teach Gideon that some trusted and some trust in
horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
The Lord's hand is not shortened, say, by many or by few. He can
do according to His will, and He will deliver His people. They
are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. You see, the chariots of Egypt
were many. And the sons of Israel, the people
of Israel, they looked and they saw the chariots coming and they
said, Oh man, we're in trouble now. Look, we got through the
thing and here comes the Egyptians. Right hot on our tail, we've
had it. And Moses said, I want you to look at all those Egyptians
coming right there because the same ones that you see coming
there are going to be no more. Because in an instant the Lord
destroyed them. And so it is with the people
of God. They are brought down and fallen, but we were risen
and stand upright. Save, Lord! Let the King hear
us when we call. Oh, that's our prayer, is it
not? That the Lord would hear us. Now here's the glorious thing. He promised to hear everyone
that called. He won't turn one away that calls
on His name. Not a one. There's not going
to be a man that's going to stand before the Lord one day and say,
Lord, I did everything. I called upon Your name. I wanted
to exalt and honor the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but You
just wouldn't let me. I wasn't one of the chosen. It's
not going to happen. Why? Because the only people
that are going to call on the name of the Lord are those whom
the Lord is pleased to call by His grace. And they're going
to call on Him. And they're going to desire the
salvation of God. And they're going to seek Him.
And they're going to find Him. So when we tell Him, Save, Lord,
oh, there's no man who calls upon the name of the Lord who
shall not be saved. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. It's going to happen. What a
glorious thing. May the King hear us when we
call.