All right, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 12. I was nearly finished with my
notes for the message this evening, which I've entitled Preservation.
I was nearly finished with these notes on Tuesday afternoon when
I got a call from Brother Gene Patterson telling me that our
brother Dale Simpson was in ICU and that the doctors had told
the family he would not recover from this illness. And I thought, well, I ought
to have a word of comfort for everyone tomorrow night. And I'm thankful that the Lord
had already given me this word of comfort, this message on preservation. David begins this Psalm, Psalm
12, with a heartfelt plea. He says, help, Lord. You know,
help, Lord, is a good prayer. It's a short prayer, but it says
so much. Help, Lord, shows that we know
God's sovereign, or else we wouldn't ask him to help. There's no point
in asking God to help us if he's not sovereign. Help, Lord, shows
our helplessness. I wouldn't ask for help if I
was able to help myself. Help, Lord, shows faith in God. We know that God is able, that's
why I'm calling on him. We say with the leper, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. You know, this prayer
does not give a doctrinal list of everything we believe, but
boy, it sure says a lot, doesn't it? Help, Lord. And this prayer,
help, Lord, is a comfort to God's suffering saints. When the Lord
brings trial and trouble and heartache our way and the burden
is so great that we don't have any idea what we should ask for. Because we just don't know what
any solution to this problem could be. We don't see any way
out of it. And you know when we feel that way, that's just
fine. We don't have to have all the answers in order to pray.
Matter of fact, we can really only truly pray when we don't
have any answers and we just cry Help, Lord. Wasn't that Peter's
prayer on the stormy sea? Lord, save me. Help. And you
know, this world that we live in is a scary place if you just
look at the world. And the reason for that is sin
is in this world. So we don't know what kind of
sickness or heartbreak is right around the corner. Our life could
change on a dime. Sin and death fill this world. Well, what's going to preserve
the believer from all that? And then this world is just filled
with enemies who would destroy us. What's going to preserve
the believer from all those enemies? And of all the enemies that I
have out there, I worry could be coming up upon me. I tell
you, there's one I need to worry about more than any of them.
It's me. I am my own worst enemy. Are
you that way? I know you are. We're our own
worst enemy. I tell you how I'm my own worst
enemy. If God gives me what my sin deserves, I'll be damned. I'm my own worst enemy. And no
matter where I go or what I'm doing in this world, I'm with
me. My sin is with me. My own worst
enemy is always with me. There's no escaping it. Well,
what will preserve me from my own sin and my own sin nature?
Well, I have two basic points to the message. What will preserve
me? Number one, the Lord himself.
And number two, the word of God. Look here, verse one, Psalm 12.
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases, for the faithful fail
from among the children of men. David says, help, Lord, because
the godly man ceases. He says, help, because there's
so few faithful men and women left in the world. Maybe they
cease because God calls them home. That's what's happened
to the Simpson family, to this congregation at Hurricane Road
Grace Church. The faithful man, there's a faithful
man who ceased from this congregation, Dale Simpson, because the Lord
called him home. And we want to cry, help Lord,
when this happens. The godly man ceases, the faithful
man has been taken away from us. Who's going to take their
place, huh? This is going to leave a hole
in this congregation. So we cry, help Lord, don't we?
But let's be sure not to do it without any hope and in total
despair. Let's be sure we don't do it
like our brother Elijah, saying, well, they're all gone. I'm the
only one left. I may as well just give up and close up shop.
I'm the only one left. No, the Lord says, I've still
preserved unto myself 700 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
The Lord has a people. The Lord's church is not gonna
just fall by the wayside. Not as long as he's got a people,
it's not. You know, in the past, we have known many men and women,
giants in the faith, and the Lord has called them home. And
then we've seen young men and young women step up to take their
place, haven't we? Well, that's going to happen
again. I've been so thankful for that. And I tell you young
people, you know, you don't have to wait until some of these older
believers are gone till you step up and prove yourself faithful
to do what needs to be done. You can start doing that right
now. There's no time like the present. Start doing it now.
But I'll tell you what the real tragedy is that makes us weep
and cry, help Lord, is when someone who has been faithful just quits
and they turn away from Christ. They turn away from the gospel.
They turn away from God's people. You know, it's not a tragedy
when the Lord calls one of his children home, is it? No, it's
sad for us. It's sad for our loss, but no,
it's not a tragedy. Because we have a good hope.
We joy for that brother or sister that the Lord's called home.
We're just sad for us. So this is not a tragedy when
the Lord calls one of his children home. But it is a tragedy when
someone turns away from the gospel. It's so sad because there's not
another hope. There's not another sacrifice.
And this is my question. What will preserve me? What will
keep me from falling away into ungodliness and unfaithfulness,
huh? God Himself. See, this is the answer. This
is the preservative, God Himself. Jude 1.24 says, now unto Him. It's Him, now unto Him that is
able to keep you from falling, to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Who is it that's
able to keep us from falling? Him. It's Christ Himself. He will preserve His people.
He's the only one who can. And you know, we worry about
those falling away. Well, I'll tell you who the real
ungodly and unfaithful people are. It's not the wicked who
live in open sin and immorality. No, the real danger is the ungodly
and false religion. They're not faithful to the Lord.
Look at verse two. David says, they speak vanity
everyone with his neighbor. With flattering lips and with
a double heart do they speak. You know, the free will message
that men preach is vanity. That word vanity means empty
of truth and useless. That's the free will message.
It's empty of truth and it's useless. And it also brings ruin
upon people. You know, it's vain. It's empty
of truth to tell people that they can decide to accept or
to reject Jesus. It's empty of truth. It's vain
to tell people you can decide to let Jesus into your heart
and let him be Lord of your life. That message is empty of truth. And if you believe it, it's going
to bring ruin to your soul. Now you can and you should beg
God for mercy, but you can't decide to let God do anything,
much less decide to let Him save you. It's vain and it's empty
to tell people that they can keep themselves saved by keeping
the law and being moral. That message is empty of truth.
We can't keep the law. We can't be moral by what we
do. And that message is also empty of life. It's empty of
truth and it's empty of life. Making someone depend on how
well they can keep the law, it'll bring them to eternal death every
time. And people preach that message,
that free will message, that message of you can decide to
be saved, you can decide to get saved, you can decide just by
your morality, you know, to live a good moral Christian life and
keep yourself holy. People preach that message. All
they're doing is flattering each other by lying to each other. There's no truth whatsoever in
what they say. And there's no sincerity in what
they say either. David says they speak with a
double heart. They're saying one thing and
meaning another. They're saying one thing and
knowing that they're sinful inside, that there's nothing inside of
them but dead men's bones. The gospel, the so-called gospel
they preach is yea and nay, yea and nay. It's both yes and no.
Yes, Christ died for everyone, but no, everyone won't be saved.
Yes, there is a gospel to preach, but no, there's no good news
in it, because maybe you'll be saved, maybe you won't. Their
preaching is, yes, there is a savior, but no, there's no sure hope,
because it all depends on you some way. That's yes and no preaching. Look here at verse four, what
they say. Who have said, with our tongue will we prevail, our
lips are our own, who is Lord over us? Here's what they're
saying, we are gonna prevail with God and men by what we say,
by what we decide to do. Who's Lord over us that can tell
us what to say? You just do what we say and you'll
prevail with God. And when they say that, here's
what they mean. They mean God's going to give you lots of money.
He's going to give you lots of friends. God's going to keep your children
off drugs. And normally, do what we say means give us a bunch
of money and be faithful to constantly, you know, be pledging money to
us and giving us money. If you do that, then God will
bless you, you know, and he'll give you lots of money and lots
of friends and keep your children off drugs. When you listen to
them, do you notice this? They talk a whole lot about physical
blessings. But there's no mention of spiritual
blessing in this because the forgiveness of sin, being made
righteous, being made holy, being given eternal life, those things
are not very valuable to them because all they're thinking
about is blessings in this life. See, they make themselves to
be the one who's in control of situation. They say, who is Lord? Now, there's a good question.
Who is Lord? They say you've got to make a
decision in order to be saved. They're making you Lord of salvation.
And that message is void of truth and it's a soul damning lie. Now you know as well as I do,
that message has filled this world in one form or another.
What will preserve me from that false religion that oppresses
these poor people? What will preserve me? The Lord
himself. Look here at verse three. The
Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh
proud things. The Lord's gonna cut them off.
Now, the preaching of Christ himself preserves people, and
tells them he will judge the wicked. See, that's why Paul
told Timothy, God's preacher cannot be double-tongued. Look
at that in 2 Corinthians chapter one. God's preacher cannot be
double-tongued. Our gospel is not saying one
thing and meaning another. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 18. But as God is true, our word
towards you was not yea and nay, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who is preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the
promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen, unto the glory
of God by us. See, the gospel that preserves
God's elect is the preaching of Christ himself. The preaching
of Christ. Not things about Christ, but
Christ. And that preaching is not yes
and no. No, the preaching of Christ is
yes. Everything is yes, sure and certain in Christ. Yes, Christ
is the savior of sinners. If you're a sinner, you need
forgiveness, you need cleansing, you need salvation. You come
to Him, you shall be saved. Yes, Christ saves sinners. His blood cleanses them from
all sin. They don't have to clean up their
act a bit. His blood cleanses them from all sin. Yes, Christ
saves sinners. Yes, our preaching is yes. Salvation
is in Christ and it can never be lost because it all depends
on Him. It's sure and certain because
it depends upon Him. Well, who's going to preserve
us in this gospel? God himself. Look at verse 21. Now he was
established with us with you in Christ and hath anointed us
is God is God. The one who establishes us and
strengthens us and keeps us faithful, keeps us from leaving this gospel
is God himself. That's the preservative. Now
the wicked ask, who is Lord over us? Well, the answer to that
simple, it's the Lord. The Lord God, he's Lord over
us. And that truth, the kingship of Christ, that our savior is
king, that preserves God's people. Our Lord's in control. So he
is the one who protects us from following false religion by making
his sheep follow him. See, it all depends upon him.
False prophets are not going to deceive the elect. They would
if they could, but they can't. Because it's the Lord who preserves
His sheep. The Lord even protects and preserves
His sheep from themselves. And the sheep need that, don't
they? If you're a sheep, you know that. You need to be protected
and preserved from yourself. If the Lord didn't use His rod
and His staff to keep us in the way, you know we'd just fall
off in the ditch. Well, how thankful are we that
the Lord preserves and protects his people from ourselves? We're
thankful, aren't we? It's the Lord himself who preserves
and protects his people. Verse five. For the oppression
of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now while I rise,
saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth
at him. You know, when you're really
oppressed, all you can do is sigh. That word oppressed means
ravaged and left with nothing. When you feel ravaged and you
feel like you're left with nothing, the situation is just so bad.
All we can do is sigh. We're not offering any suggestions
how to make the situation better because we don't have any idea
how this situation where I'm left ravaged and left with nothing. We don't have any idea how it
can be made any better. And we just sigh. Help, Lord. At that time, the Lord promises
to arise and help his people. The sighs and the groans of the
poor move God Almighty to a rise off of his throne. And when he
does, everything changes. I thought of this illustration.
I was 16, 17 years old. My dad and myself and my best
friend, John, We were going to stay up late and watch a movie.
It started at 12 o'clock or something. We're going to stay up and watch
this movie. And my little brother, he'd have been seven, eight,
somewhere in there, he decided he was going to stay up with
the big guys and watch this movie. He decided he could just stay
up past his bedtime and watch this movie. But I don't remember
the movie based upon the time that it was on, time of day it
was on. I would assume that it was not appropriate for a little
fellow of that age. And my dad told him that you
go on to bed. And this kid decides to stand
there and just say, he told our father this. He said, no, I think
it's time that I get to stay up and watch a movie like this.
My dad was sitting in his easy chair with his, the foot rest
up, you know, with his feet up. He didn't say a word. He grabbed
a hold of that foot rest and he flipped that thing up and
that chair came up and he started to stand up. And I'm telling
you, the air in the room changed. And my little brother says, I
think I'll go to bed. That'd be good. He just, oh,
he looked at him. So he walked all the way down
that hall, went into his bedroom. And then he put that footrest
back up and started, turned back toward the TV. And then the air in the room
changed again. You see, everything changes when unquestioned authority
stands up. That's what happens when God's
poor saints are sighing, crying to the Lord. Those sighs cause
the sovereign of the universe to arise off of his throne. And when he does, when unquestioned
sovereign authority over the whole creation arises, everything
changes, doesn't it? This world oppresses the poor
in spirit. They take advantage of them.
False religion oppresses people. False religion oppresses the
poor in spirit by putting them under the burden of the law instead
of telling them about freedom in Christ. False religion oppresses
the poor by attacking those who believe Christ. And this is real
and serious oppression. But I'm telling you, everything
will change when the Lord arises for His people. When the Lord
rises up, His people will dwell in safety because they're protected
by the Lord Himself. He's going to put them in a sure
spot, a safe spot. Put them in the rock, Christ
Jesus, so that they shall not be moved. You see that? That's
the first point. God's people are preserved by
God Himself. And when you're in it so deep,
all you can do is sigh. All you can do is just sigh,
help Lord. God hears his people, the size
of his people, calls the Lord of glory to rise up off his throne
to come to preserve and protect and help and comfort his people.
Well, here's the second point. God's people are preserved by
the word of God. Look here at verse six. 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. Now, you know, we make much of
the word of God around here. On a Wednesday night before our
service, one of the men reads a passage, normally a whole chapter
in the study before we come out here to our worship service.
Then once we get here, Sundays and Wednesdays both, we read
two passages of scripture as part of every service. We begin
the service by reading God's word. And normally we preach
verse by verse through the different books of the Bible so that we're
taught the word of God and not the theology of men. We make
much of the word of God with our children. Our children memorize
memory verses every week. And during Bible school, they
memorize memory verses. Some of them memorize a whole
chapter. We make much of the word of God. Why do we do that? because salvation is only found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only savior. He's the
only hope. And Christ is only revealed in his word. We put
so much emphasis upon the written word of God because there's no
salvation without Christ and he can only be known from his
word. And that makes this word valuable
and precious. The writer David here talks about
these or pure words of silver tried in the furnace. The word
of God is more precious to us than a whole stack of silver
bars. Brother Clay Curtis says, you
can go to the service on Sunday morning, then afterwards you
can go out to eat. You can just lay your Bible right
there in the front seat of your car and go into the restaurant
and eat. When you come back, your Bible will be sitting right
there in the front seat in plain view. He said, but you better
not do that with your iPad. It'll be gone. Why is that? Because the natural man does
not understand how valuable, how precious the Word of God
is. The written Word of God is what
preserves and protects God's people. It'll never lead you
wrong. David says God's Word is like
silver being put through the refiner's fire seven times. Seven is the number of perfection.
All that means is this. This silver has been refined
perfectly. All of the dross has been removed
so that it is 100% pure silver. And here's what David's saying.
God's word is no alloy. It's not a mixture of anything.
It's pure Christ. It's not a mixture of grace and
works. It's not a mixture of what Christ will do and the creature
can do. No, it's pure Christ. God's word is pure salvation,
pure forgiveness, pure righteousness, pure life, pure holiness in Christ. Every word of this book is written
to reveal Christ the Savior. And there's nothing more valuable
to the sinner than that. When God gives us faith in Christ,
he puts his word in our heart. Let me show you that Romans chapter
10. Romans the 10th chapter, verse
six. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above,
or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ
again from the dead. What Paul is saying here is that
true faith doesn't wonder, what do we have to do to make Christ
work effectual? Faith just believes that all
I need to be saved is Christ. He already did everything that's
necessary to save me. I just look to Him. I just rest
in Him. I just believe Him. Verse eight, but what sayeth
it? What does faith say? Well, the
word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That
is the word of faith, which we preach. God's put His word into
the hearts of His people. So we believe and so that we
keep on believing. That's how the Lord preserves
and protects His people. It's through the word, through
the written word of God. And whatever God's put in the
heart, the mouth will confess. Look here at verse nine. That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. The mouth will confess what God's
put in the heart. The Lord preserves his people
in every situation from all dangers, from all enemies by his word.
He protects his people from false prophets, those men who speak
vanity by putting, you know, preaching all these vain, empty
things that are empty of truth, empty of life. The Lord preserves
his people from them by putting his word into the hearts of his
people. We're not preserved from following after these false prophets
by our Calvinistic doctrine. We're preserved from following
false prophets by the word of God. We're preserved from following
false prophets by comparing their message to the Word of God. That's
how we know they're false prophets. That's how we know their message
is an error. We compare their message with the Word of God.
The remedy for the false words of men is the true Word of God. See, that makes this Word precious.
It makes it valuable to our souls because it's the great preservative.
It's the word of God that also preserves us from this present
evil world. David says, from this generation
forever. The word of God is pure. David
describes then God's word as pure words. That word pure means
clean and holy, but it also means purifying. God's word preserves
his people from this wicked generation by purifying them, cleansing
them in his word. Let me show you that in Psalm
119. Psalm 119, verse nine. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according
to thy word. It's the word of God that cleanses
us and purifies us and protects us from following the wicked
way, the wicked ideas, the wicked philosophy of this generation. Well, how? How does God's word
preserve me and cleanse me from this generation? Well, the word
of God preserves us from the message of this generation. It's
the word of God that does that. We already saw how believing
God's word preserves us from false prophets by revealing their
message to be a lie. Well, if we follow God's word,
we'll always be led to Christ and we'll never be led to follow
false religion into uncleanness. And when I say uncleanness, this
is what I mean. Trying to make ourselves clean by what we do
instead of trusting Christ alone. It's the word of God that preserves
us from the way of this generation. The way of this generation is
sexual impurity, both before marriage and after marriage,
sexual impurity. The word of God preserves us,
cleanses us from that, from that way by teaching us Christ. The
marriage union is a picture of the union between Christ and
His bride. Well, no believer wants to defile
that picture by sexual sins because the Word, God's written Word,
reveals to us Christ our Bridegroom. The end of the way of this world
is to accept and encourage any behavior, no matter how vile
it is. But if you say right is right and wrong is wrong based
upon the Word of God, based upon unchangeable truth, they call
you a small-minded bigot. Isn't that true? And the example
that's just rampant in our day is homosexuality. But the word
of God preserves his people, cleanses his people from that
way, by teaching us Christ. Homosexuality is wrong. We know
that from God's word. It's wrong because it violates
the picture of life that comes from the union between Christ
and his bride, between the bridegroom and his chosen bride. Now, I
don't mean in any way that we should be mean to homosexuals,
but we cannot condone their behavior either. That union can never
produce life like the union between a man and a woman does, which
is the picture of the union between Christ and the bridegroom and
his chosen bride. Then here's another example.
The way of this generation is pride, isn't it? It's me, me,
me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and more me. There's no humility,
there's no selflessness in this generation whatsoever. And the
word of God preserves us from that way, cleanses us from that
way by teaching us Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
glory of heaven itself. He is the light of heaven itself.
John said in his revelation, when he saw the new Jerusalem,
he said there wasn't any sun there, because it didn't need
one, because Christ the Lamb is the light of it. He's the
light, he's the glory of heaven. And you and I cannot understand,
really, how high and how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, really is. Yet, the Lord Jesus is the most
humble man to ever live. How do we see that? And how He
humbled Himself to save His people from their sins. He humbled Himself
to become what we are. He humbled Himself to clothe
His glory in human flesh and to appear in the weakness of
human flesh. Who had power over everything,
who could do miracles and create matter and just do anything and
he would for other people but never for himself because we
can't do those things for ourselves. He humbled himself, he limited
himself, he humbled himself to be made sin and go to the cursed
tree to put away the sin of his people. He did that for us, for
his people. Can't we clothe ourselves in
some humility so we're going to be easier to get along with?
both here and out in the workplace. Can't we humble ourselves just
a little bit so that we can be more useful to God's church?
Huh? When Paul exhorted the church
at Philippi to humility, how did he do it? By preaching Christ. And didn't he tell them, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus? See, we're
cleansed from the way of this world by the word of God. Let
me give you one more illustration. The way. of this generation is
dishonesty. Dishonesty and business dealings
and any dealings you got with anybody, we determine a man's
a good businessman by if he's willing to be dishonest in order
to put more money in the bank. We say, oh, well, that's good
business. He's a good businessman. But the word of God preserves
us, cleanses us from that way by teaching us Christ. Look at
1 Peter chapter 2. First Peter chapter two. You
know, the apostle Paul said, provide things honest in the
sight of all men. Well, that cleanses us from dishonesty. Now just, this is what the word
of God says, provide things honest in the sight of all men. Look
what Peter says here. First Peter two, verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you,
as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war
against the soul, having your conversation honest among the
Gentiles. that whereas they speak against
you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. See, that's how
God's word, God's word preserves and cleanses us from the unclean
way of the world. The preservative is the word
of God. It's God himself, and it's his
written word. Really, it's the same thing,
isn't it? Because you cannot separate Christ, the incarnate
word, from Christ, the written word. All right, one more verse
here, back in our text, Psalm 12, verse eight. The wicked walk
on every side when the vilest men are exalted. Now this world
has everything turned upside down. The wicked and the vile
are exalted instead of being thrown into jail. And in this
upside down world, we can cry, help Lord. He will put everything
right side up when he returns. When he rises off his throne
and returns to this earth to gather his people to himself,
sin with all of its consequences is gonna be gone. There's gonna
be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more death,
and no more saying goodbye. Everything's gonna be turned
back right side up. And in that day, Christ is gonna
be all that is. All we will care about is being
with Christ. All of our focus, all of our
attention is gonna be upon Him. So there'll be perfect joy and
perfect peace in Him. Isn't that a gracious and glorious
response to the cry, the sigh of His people? Help Lord. I hope that'll be a blessing
to you.