Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 70. Psalm 70. That sounds familiar. Our brother Jonathan read this
Sunday morning. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and confounded
that seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, aha, aha. Let all those that seek Thee
rejoice and be glad in Thee. And let such as love thy salvation
say continually, let God be magnified. But I am poor and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou
art my help and my deliverer. O Lord, make no tearing. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank you for this opportunity
to gather here once again. Lord, we pray that you would
be pleased to bless us with your presence. Lord, that you'd be
pleased to speak through thy word. Lord, that you'd comfort
our hearts. Lord, that you would establish
our faith and settle us on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, that
you would cause us to look to thee and thee alone and rest. Lord, rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, for those of our number
who in a time of trouble and difficulty, Lord, we pray you
would comfort, strengthen, help your people. Lord, bless and
protect and keep. And Lord, cause us again in all
things to look to Thee and rest in Thee and Thee alone, knowing
that Thou doest all things well. Lord, for our young ones, we
pray for them. Lord, that Your hand would be
upon them. Lord, that You would hedge them
about, that You would protect them and keep them. Lord, above
all things, that you would reveal unto them the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, that in your mercy you'd be pleased to save their souls. Now again, we thank you for this
opportunity to gather together. Lord, bless us, be with us as
we've gathered here. Set aside the thoughts and cares
of this world, those things that so easily beset us. Let us see
Christ. For it's in his name we pray
and give thee thanks. Amen. Again, let's look at Psalm 70
here this evening. Beginning with verse one. David cries here in verse one,
and he says, Make haste, O God, to deliver me, to help me. Oh, Lord, make haste. Make haste. I need deliverance. I need help. That's what David's saying here.
And I pray that we'd be enabled to enter in with him. Make haste. This is an urgent
request. If a man's dying and he needs help, he needs it
right now. No delay. A cry for help's urgent,
isn't it? Life depends on it. And that's what David says here.
He says, make haste, O Lord, to deliver me. Make haste to help me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Hold your place there, but turn
to the book of Matthew. Jonathan, after you read this,
I hope My hope was to preach this whole, you know, there's
only five verses here, right? Like, I thought, I'd love to
just preach this whole chapter, but the thing that's just caught
my eye about this passage is this request, this cry, help
me. Why is it, why is it so hard
to ask for help? I don't know if it's our pride,
I don't know if it's we just don't, maybe it's this, we just
don't realize that we need help. But that's David's cry here,
help me. And if you look at Matthew chapter
15, Matthew chapter 15, Look at beginning with verse
21. Now here we read in this verse, in verse 21, that the
Lord Jesus Christ had departed into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And it says, Behold, a woman of Canaan, a cursed Gentile
woman, She came out of the same coast and she cried unto our
Lord. And she said this, she said,
have mercy on me, O Lord. Thou son of David, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. And our Lord, it says He answered
her, not a word. Despite that cry, he answered
her, not a word. And apparently, she continued.
She wasn't discouraged by that. Obviously, she continued to cry
because the disciples said, basically, would you send her away? Would
you just send her away? For she cried after us. His disciples just send her on
her way. Look at verse 24. He answered, and he said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I came for my elect. I came for
my sheep. You know, a lot of people hear
that and it upsets them. It makes them furious. I imagine there's a few in here
at some point heard that and we probably thought, That's not
fair. Can the Lord really do that? It didn't upset her. No, she heard that. And you know,
Scripture says this, my sheep hear my voice. And he says this, and I know
them. He knows every last one of his sheep. And he said, Follow
me." What did this woman do? Did she go away in a rage? Did
she depart? Look at verse 25. When she heard
that, she came and worshiped Him. And look what she says. Lord,
help me. Isn't that what David said back
there in Psalm 70? Isn't that exactly what? Help
me. That's not everybody's reply,
is it? You know, our Lord, in Luke chapter
4, He was preaching. And He said this, He said, I
tell you the truth. There were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elijah the prophet, but unto none of them was Elijah
sent save unto Sarepta, city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow. Many widows, yet he's pleased
to save one. She's His. He went on. He went on to say, He said there
were many lepers in Israel. Many lepers. In the days of Elisha
the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, save one. God was pleased to show, isn't
that a miracle that He was pleased to show mercy to just one, that
He'd show mercy any. We have such high thoughts of
ourselves, don't we? He was pleased to save one. I
tell you what, the people didn't bow down and worship him when
he said that, did they? No. And listen, these were people
in the synagogue, right? These were what we would consider
good church-going people. And they said when they heard
these things, they were They were filled with wrath. And they
rose up and they, listen, not only did they thrust him out
of the synagogue, they thrust him out of the city and they
led him to the brow of a hill on which that city sat. And they
would have cast him down headfirst. They were just going to pick
him up and throw him. They were so angry. when they
heard these things, they were going to throw him over that
cliff headfirst. Do you still have Matthew 15? This Canaanite woman, she's heard
the same message, hasn't she? She worships him. And listen
to what she says, Lord, help me. Help me. Our Lord goes on in
verse 26. He said, it's not meat to take
the children's bread and give it to dogs. Is that too hard
of a statement? That's what our Lord said, wasn't
it? What's she say? Truth. Truth, Lord. I'm a dog. I'm a dog. I'm not worthy, yet the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And he
said, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And we read that his daughter
or her daughter was made whole that very hour. This woman, She
was in need, wasn't she? That's clear, isn't it? She was
in a desperate condition. She was in a situation that she
could not do anything about it. And she stands before the only
one who can, and she cries out, Lord, help me. And her daughter's made whole,
that very hour. She found help, didn't she? She
found help. Over in Luke chapter 9, 11, I
won't have you turn here, but it says this of our Lord. It
says that He healed all of them that were in need of healing. Not everybody's in need, are
they? Not everybody's in need. Well, let's look at another scripture
here. Turn to Acts 16. Acts 16 verse
9. A vision appeared to Paul in
the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed him, saying, Come over unto Macedonia. And what's the request? Help
us. Help us. And after, verse 10,
after he had seen the vision immediately, we endeavored to
go to Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for
to preach the gospel to them." I looked this up, the distance
between those cities, their course was changed by about 150 miles. You know, that's a, I mean, to us in our time, that's
not a whole lot, you know, that's maybe a couple of hours. For them, that was significant,
wasn't it? I mean, the Lord took them to another
destination. Someplace they hadn't, I'm guessing
they hadn't even planned on going there. I'm just thinking about this
and reading it, How often does that happen to
us? Like, you know, we think we're going to go one place and
maybe we end up some other place. When that happens to me, I usually
fuss about it. You know, it's like that's not
what I'd planned. That's not what I was going to do. But the
Lord in his providence took them somewhere else. I'll tell you
who didn't fuss about it. Lydia. and that Philippian jailer. Because as a result of that,
they're gonna hear his gospel. They're gonna hear God's gospel. Lydia, her home city was Thyatira,
which, listen, it was over, if I look at those maps correctly,
it was over 200 miles away from her hometown. and she was there,
it would appear on business. She was a seller of purple. The
Lord in his providence brought her to that place. And at the
exact same time, brought one of his chosen ministers to preach
the gospel to her. You know, she probably thought
she was just there on business. Little did she know, Little did
she know she was gonna hear the gospel. In verse nine, a cry, a cry for
help. Help us. Look at verse 14. Certain woman named Lydia Siller
Purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, Heard us. Now, if you look there, you'll
see that word us is in italics. That's been added. She heard. If you hear something, you're
not gonna hear me. I hope you don't just hear me.
We need to hear the Lord speak through His word. She heard whose
heart the Lord opened, and she attended to the things which
were spoken of by Paul. That word attended, it means
she paid attention. But it also means this, she applied
herself to it. She entered into what was being
said. I think about that publican.
Remember what that publican cried when he said, God, be merciful
to me, sinner. Can we apply ourself to that?
Can we enter into that? I'm a sinner. I need mercy. I need help. She attended to
the words spoken of by Paul, and she was baptized. She heard
the gospel, and she had a desire to confess Christ, to be identified
with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. to be identified
with His people. This is who I believe. This is what I believe. Identified with Christ in believers
baptized. Confessing Him. And then the
Lord, He put Paul and Silas in prison. I think that's an awful
thing to happen to Paul and Silas. Why did he do it? So that Philippian
jailer could hear gospel. He needed help, didn't he? This
man was, listen, he was prepared to take his own life. It was revealed unto him, it
was clear to him that he needed help. And he said this, he said
this, he said, sirs, what must I do? to be saved. He knew he was in bad shape,
didn't he? What must I do to be saved? Verse 32, they spake
unto him the word of the Lord. You know, I wish all men that
are parading around as preachers and youth pastors and all these
titles that men give themselves, I wish they would just do this,
huh? Speak the word of the Lord. His word. His word. What must, he asked that same
question, what must I do to be saved? I need, what's he saying
there? I need help. What must I do to be saved? And
listen to the reply, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, Him and Him alone. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of Him. God chose a
people in Christ. He did that from before the foundation
of the world. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
for that people. He came in the world to save
sinners. He died on the cross to save His people. He died as
our send-off. He died as our substitute. And the Spirit of God comes and
gives life where it never was before, gives faith, a new heart,
faith to believe, a heart to receive the Word of God, to desire
to hear the Word of God. That's hell. Isn't it? And that's
help that I must have. That's help that every sinner
must have. A cry for help. What do we read
there? A cry for help and God sends
forth His Word. Sends forth a man to preach His
gospel. He opens the eyes of the blind.
He saves us from ruin. Who'd he do that for? To a chosen
people, a people he chose to himself. Help us. Help us. And when Paul heard
that, he says, we went assuredly gathering that the Lord had called
us to preach his gospel. And Lydia and that jailer heard
God's word, baptized, confessed, confessed Him. Any doubt, they
were in need. Isn't that clear? They were in
need. And the Lord was pleased to save
them. Turn with me to one more scripture. Turn to Mark chapter 9. Mark 9. Look at verse 22. Here we read of the cry of a
father. His son had an evil spirit. this father with, I would imagine,
little faith. He brings his son to Christ,
hoping, just hoping to obtain a cure for him. He's in need. No one else can help him. Christ's disciples had even tried
to heal this boy unsuccessfully. So I don't doubt that this poor
man came with great doubts and great fear. But listen to what
he says. He says, if thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. And our Lord spoke and He said,
If thou canst believe, all things are possible. All things are
possible to him that believeth. And that father cried out in
weakness, I'm just certain in trembling, doubting himself, and he said,
I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. And you know the rest of that
story. He healed. He healed that little
boy. And how true is that? We read
that again in scripture. He healed all that were in need
of healing. We read in another place, the
whole, they don't need a physician. Not everyone needs him. At least
they don't see it. Not everyone needs him. They're
just confident and comfortable where they are. But his people
do. Every one of his people need
help. And you know what they do? Every
one of these examples, they cry out for help. Isn't that just
a simple cry? Help me. Help me. I can't remember the hymn. It
says, let not conscience make you linger, nor fitness fondly
dream. All the fitness He requires is
to fill your need of Him. I need, I need Him. Do you need
Him? Do we need Him? Again, everything we read, every
account, they cried for help and they received it. Isn't that
glorious? Well, back to our text here,
Psalm 70. Make haste, O God, to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and confounded
that seek after my soul. Let them be turned backward and
put to confusion that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, ah-ha, ah-ha. Listen here
to verse four. Let those that seek thee rejoice
and be glad, and let such as love thy salvation say continually,
let God be magnified. Who gets the glory in the salvation
of a sinner? God does. He did all the work. Let God be magnified. It's His salvation. It's not
man's decision. It's not man's way. It's not
man's draw a line and just write anything in there you want. Salvation
is His salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. and
it's for His glory. That's what David says, let God
be magnified. Verse 5, but I am poor and needy. Who cries for help? The man that's poor and needy. You think about David. David
was king. It's hard to imagine David needed
anything, right? But what's he say? I am poor
and needy. I tell you, if David could say
he was poor and needy, we shouldn't have any problem saying that,
should we? I am poor and needy. Nothing, nothing in my hands
I bring. I'm needy. Let me ask you this. Who is the Lord pleased to heal? All who are in need of healing. Make haste unto me, O God. Look at verse 1 just one more
time. O God, make haste... That's a
request, isn't it? That's a cry. Make haste to deliver
me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Something's happened between
verse 1 and verse 5 because look what he says in verse 5. O God,
Thou art... my help, and thou art my deliverer. Oh Lord, make no dairy. He goes from a cry for help to
a, he's giving God glory there and he's magnifying the Lord
there because he's saying, thou art my help, thou art my deliverer. Has He been pleased to reveal
that to you? That He is your help. He is your deliverer. And if not, I'd ask you this,
have you cried? Have you cried for help? In James chapter 4, God's word
says this, You have not for this reason. And it's not because
you haven't worked hard enough for it. You have not because
you ask not. Why is it so hard? Why is it
so hard to ask? David asked for help and deliverance
He must have received it because he said, thou art my help and
thou art my deliverer. Make no tearing. It was revealed to him, wasn't
it? Not just as one who can help
or who can deliver, but that he is my help. He is my deliverer. Can I stress
that? Can we stress that enough? Are you poor and needy? Do you
need help? Turn with me to one more Scripture,
and we'll close. Turn to Hebrews 4. Look at verse
16. Hebrews 4 verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. let us, believers, all who would
rest in Him." And you know, he doesn't just say, come. That'd
be enough. He says, come boldly, without
fear of being turned away. There's many reasons to turn
us away. Don't be afraid of being turned away because of our sin. Come boldly without fear of condemnation. Am I worthy of condemnation?
Absolutely. Yet he says, come boldly. Where? To the throne of grace. Not a throne of judgment, but
throne of grace. Christ obeyed the law. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
the sins of his people. It's not a throne of judgment,
it's a throne of grace. It's in him. And he says, come
boldly. Come boldly to the throne of
grace that we might find mercy and grace to help. When? of need. Oh, I pray that we all might
be able to say his name. He is my help, and he is my deliverer. All right, Brother Sean.