This passage, this chapter and
these verses set up what I'm going to say. We particularly
take note in verse 24. By the eyes of the Lord, this
is David speaking, let him, the Lord, deliver me out of all tribulation. And he did, he has. If we would
go back to chapters 22, 23, and 24, we would see the Lord's continual
deliverance of David from his enemies. So much so that this
is what he says, kind of in culmination, verse 24, let the Lord deliver
me out of all tribulation. But, and this shows in verse
24 and in these previous chapters, that David's confidence was in
his Lord, he was in his deliverer, and he was in his sovereign.
But we, apply this to ourselves, like David, begin to expect God
to deliver us regardless. We have a tendency to presume
on his grace. And also we begin to think that our faith will
once again deliver us. But faith cannot do so, only
God in Christ can do so. Faith, let me quote Tim James,
faith is not power. It trusts Him who sits in the
seat of power. To trust our faith is a sure
way to defeat. And you hear this all the time,
when something happens and they talk to somebody on the news
or wherever, oh my faith did this, or my faith, if I hadn't
had faith it would have. And faith is an integral part.
Faith is not to be separated from the grace of God, but faith
over Christ is not, it's going to be sure defeat. Let me show you this. The title
of this morning's message is Contradictions within the child
of God. If you're a child of God here
this morning, this is the struggle you have. This is a struggle
I have. And if you're not a child of the king, I pray that this
would cause you to seek him while he may be found. So as we have
said in verse 24 of chapter 6, 26, we see trust, absolute trust,
faith in our Lord. Yet on the heels of this, in
the same breath perhaps, look at 27 and verse 1. And David said in his heart,
so it's, he means it, I shall now, really? Perish one day. by the hand of Saul. So, today
and this morning, you get up, you feel great, you look at the scriptures, you
ask the Lord for grace before work or whatever, you're feeling
really good, and then you get to work and then something happens,
and then we forget. And how do I know that? Well,
just that phrase right there, But he's completely trusted in
the Lord, and he's running for his life, but the Lord's delivering
him. David said in his heart, I shall
now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better
for me than I should speedily, that I should do something. There
we go. We go about doing something. That's what churches do today.
They don't preach the gospel. They just keep you busy. And
you don't think about what's in it until you get out of there.
Oh, I gotta go to work tomorrow. Look at this. I shall speedily
escape into the land of the Philistines. The enemy, that's what we'll
do, we'll consort with our enemies. And Saul shall despair of me
to seek me anymore in any coast of Israel. So shall I escape
out of his hand. It's a nice hatched up plan.
But if you read the entire chapter, he's acting like a fool. He's
got us in his mind. But what happened? What happened
to this confidence that he had in the Lord? In the earlier chapters,
in the chapter right before that? Well, such is the contradiction.
Woe is us. Such is the contradiction. Yet
on the heels of verse chapter 26 we got 27 and we see from
time to time again David leaning upon the sure and trustworthy
arms of Jehovah God. Then we see how fickle he and
we are as we turn our eyes off Christ and every time we do that
it's a sure fail. Fail. Every time. With one breath
He states, God is and will deliver me. Then on the next breath,
he goes about to try to deliver himself. His heart, in verse
20, chapter 27, was not engaged in trust upon his God. Well,
I say, welcome to the real and true life of every child of God. Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter 7 this is not
a new concept. This is what every believer goes
through from time to time That's why we gather together. That's
why You know the best thing we can do is show forth Christ in
the gospel and get our eyes back on Christ Paul had the same issue
Paul This this was David the man after God's own heart the
apple of his eye This is Paul you know that the Lord used to
write a lot of the New Testament okay verse 18 of Romans 7 he
says for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good
thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that
which is good I find not for the good that I would I do not
but the evil which I would not that I do Now if I do it, that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find in a law that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. That's what we're saying.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see
another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity into the law of sin, which is in my
members, O wretched man that I am. Here's the cure. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? My faith, the fact that I know
some doctrine, the fact that as a child I've memorized all
the books in the Bible in order, which are all good things. but
they are not the Savior. I thank God, verse 25, through
Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with my mind I myself serve the
law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. I thank God through
Jesus Christ. Back to our text. Just have two
points. This is the same God. He does
not change, and this is our weak flesh. Yes, we should fear According
to the scriptures, the wrath of the king. That's what the
scripture says. But David has forgotten that
even kings must get permission to touch but one hair upon his
head. And that's every child of God.
Every child of God, we have a hedge. And if the Lord gives them permission,
they'll go through that hedge and mess with us. Or our own mind, our own flesh
will be aggravating But do you remember the three in the fiery
furnace? They would not bow to another
God. They would not bow to another
gospel, which is equivalent to that. If they burned up, so be
it. They wouldn't bow. That's faith. They're trusting in the Lord
God. And they got thrown in there. And their clothes didn't even
smell. And then the king said, we threw three in there, but
I see four. That's the protection we have.
When we go out these doors, there's nothing special in this place,
but wherever we go, he says, I will never leave you or forsake
you. It doesn't mean it's easy skating. It doesn't mean that
at all. But it means, in through all
these things, we have protection. We have protection. In a fit
of fear and unbelief, David declares, in my heart, in his heart, he said in his heart, but it's
printed, it's printed for us, printed, all scriptures given
by inspiration of God, it's profitable. I don't know if he said this,
but we have it right here. Under inspiration of God, I shall
now perish one day by the hand of Saul. What happened? That
which he would, he didn't. That which he did, he wouldn't.
All these different things. And if you go back into 1 Samuel
16, you see his anointing by Samuel. He anointed David to
be king. Was his promise null and void?
Was Saul's arm stronger than Jehovah? Was Saul's reach longer
than Jehovah's protection? Was Saul's hatred more viable
than Jehovah's everlasting love and grace? Behold David here
in verse chapter 26 and in chapter 27 Behold David, and we observe
ourselves, and may we be ashamed. Because I mean, I don't know what it was. Yesterday,
I was doing really good. All of a sudden, I just got anxiety,
or I don't know what it would be called. I couldn't keep my
mind focused. Why? And then you try to analyze
it, the flesh, and you just, no, wait a second. I'm just going
to bow to the sovereign grace and know I am going to be here. I'm going to be your pastor for as long as he allows. He controls everything. Like
Bruce said this morning, there's stuff all going. Go ahead, keep
reading about it and watching it and listening and get aggravated
and get anxious. Your eyes are off Christ, just
like mine. This is the contradiction that
we have. This is our flesh, and flesh will never get any better
until it's six feet under, and then we'll meet Him in the air.
Are we not called to be kings and priests unto our God, Revelations
1-6? Kings and priests? Do we doubt
the holy promises and his call into question? Our sovereign
Lord, overall, isn't he over the winds? Remember Peter? Oh,
bid me to walk on the water. So he's overall creation and
the plants, Jonah, that gourd, and the Lord took it and took
it back down. What about people? Oh, he's not sovereign over people.
I'd give him sovereignty over the weather and little creatures,
little ants and stuff, the conies, the rocks, I'd give him that.
He's sovereign over all people. Genesis to Revelations, Esther.
Look at what happened to Mordecai. Look at what happened to Esther.
Ruth, Boaz, all these things. Oh, you know, scientists, these
are coincidences. No, if you're a believer, You
have faith that as he is purpose, so shall it be. He is sovereign
over all. We ponder in our heart, we won't
make it into the heavenly Canaan perhaps, or we shall never see
the kingdom prepared for us. Well, okay, that's what we think,
and we act like it. Make sure we got everything here
and everything there and all the bills paid and this and that,
and one thing leads to the other. Well, how do you deal with, I'm
trying to find it here, Luke chapter 12. We're a little flock,
I know that. Luke chapter 12, verse 32. Fear
not, little flock. This is Christ speaking. Fear
not, little flock. This is a little flock. I pray
to the Lord it would be a little bigger. Lord, save, bring sinners
in. But look at what he says. Fear
not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure.
Now, is he going to fulfill his good pleasure? Absolutely. We pray daily, thy will be done.
It's not a question, it's a statement, a fact. It is your father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. So why do we act otherwise? Well,
because we ache and we have pains and we have things that we hadn't. You're young, you got the world
by the tail, so they say. And then as you get older, stuff
starts beating you up, this and that, life happens, discouragement
happens, He's still on the throne. That's the believer's hope. That's
the believer's hope. We call into question His love,
His mercy and grace, which is calling into question His covenant,
His purpose, and His caring providence. And I've said this so many times,
can anything frustrate or thwart His infinite power or grace or
intention to save and to heal. David, don't say, I shall now
perish one day. But this is written for our,
because we're just like him. I'm just like him. So maybe this
is just a message for me, and you all are here. So I got a
captive audience. So what are the cures? What are
the cures? We talked about it back there.
We talked about it, Bruce. The cure is always the same.
Who's the cure? Who's the cure? Cures for these
horrible thoughts, and we all have them. I'm just gonna list
a few things. Remember the blood. His own precious
blood, which sought us out and covered all our sins. 1 John
1, 7. Remember the blood, not your
blood, not your neighbor's blood, not the blood of Christ, which
cleanses us from all sins. Remember the Savior that ratified
and sealed us to God, satisfied every single thing against us
and thereby reconciling us to himself, Colossians chapter two,
verse 14. That's what he did. That's what
he did. So David could boldly say, let
him deliver me out of all tribulation. And oh, he had his eyes on Christ. This is an instance. And in verse
27, he had his eyes off Christ. And he started getting busy.
That's usually what we do. That's what religion without
Christ does. It doesn't make a difference
what the denomination is called. They'll get you doing something
so you feel good about yourself. No, Christ is the only remedy
for all that ails us. Thirdly, remember the spirit
of God that quickened and anointed us with his holy oil, remembering
that this savior, the sovereign savior and the sovereign spirit
will lead us to heaven's gate fully, completely and successfully.
John chapter five, verse 21, Ephesians 4.30. The burden, I used to get, we'd
get these people religious and they would start telling me,
questioning the doctrine of grace and saying this and that. And,
well, how do you know? I said, well, the burden of proof
is on you. I don't have, I don't have to prove anything. And so
they're like, well, what do you mean? I said, well, you're saying
this is not true. Show me in the Bible where God
died for everybody. Show me where he loves her. Show
me in the Bible. So the burden of proof is on
you. It's not on me. I know whom I have believed.
We know whom we have believed and persuaded that he is able
to keep that which we've committed, faith, unto him against that
day. That's the believer. That's walking by faith. It's
only when we walk by the flesh, you know, maybe I need to help
him just a little bit. Maybe I need to tell this person.
You tell a person the truth and leave it be. Leave it be. Remember who it was who chose
us, who died for us, and awakened us from our dead stupor. Ephesians
1, verses 1 through 7. Remember that. Who it was. Jeremiah 15. Remember, he has
not given us what we truly deserve. That's always a humbler. I've
never heard any Armenian or anybody arguing about doctrine, they
think they deserve something. And we do deserve, in Christ,
mercy, but left to ourselves, we do not, that's Jeremiah 15,
I don't deserve the least of his mercies. That's how bad we
are. They don't want to admit that.
Jeremiah 31, remember the Father loved us with an everlasting
love and drew us unto himself. Remember these things. the blood,
the covenant, his grace, the father, the son, the spirit.
Remember these things. Oh, we have little faith. Every
time our old vile flesh rises up to condemn us and accuse us,
remember him who is greater than our sins. Psalms 103. Psalms
103 and verse Verse 12, as far as the East is from the
West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Just remember that one verse. One verse memorized is powerful. It may be the very verse you
need. That's why we ought to inundate
ourselves with scriptural knowledge. Remember him. And when we have
the Lord's Supper, do this in remembrance of your faith. Do this in remembrance of your
sins. Do this in remembrance of the
doctrine. No, do this in remembrance of
me. Who's the first, the last, the
Alpha, the Omega. everything. Oh, how we are just
as David was here. We're strong one minute and to
get our eyes off Christ the next. Remember, because of Him, Christ,
Romans 5, where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Oh,
sin, you know, we kind of remember the negative, but remember, where
sin abounds, that's us, grace does much more bound. And we
don't sin that grace would abound. We sin more we want to. But remember,
where sin did abound, grace did much more bound. Grace through
Christ is our hope. So I close with this. And I ask
you to remember this. Who shall prevail? Now this whole
chapter 27, it's just It's like a lost years of his life, you
know, whatever we say, well, I've lost these years by, yes,
but that's the believer. So this whole chapter, you read
that sometime and you're just like, David, but the Lord still
kept him. Who prevailed? Was it Achish, King of Gath,
the Philistines? That doesn't mean that we're
going to go through easy stuff. It may be hard. Hard lessons
learned. Look not at our own strength
or our own might or our own abilities. Because it's, you know, not him
that's wise and has wisdom and smart. Don't let him trust in
his own power. But that he knows me. That's what the scripture
says. Look to the Lamb of God. Look upon the Lamb of God. Seek the Lamb of God. Trust our
souls to the Lord God Almighty. Isaiah, in closing, 26. Isaiah
26. This is what I tell my, I preach
to myself, I tell you, any and all of you, Plead our cause,
Lord, for we cannot plead for ourselves. Let us do what Isaiah
26 in verse four says. Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. You want strength for
tomorrow? You want strength for this afternoon? Broken record. Trust in him. Not in self. not himself. Lord be glorified in the preaching
of his word. Bruce, would you close us please?