All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Psalm 120. Psalm 120, 121, Psalm 121. Now, Sunday, we saw that Paul
said to God's saints, if you be dead with Christ, Why as though
living in the world? Why as though your life is in
the world? Are you subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle
not. And he said, that puts on a good
show of will worship, but it does not mortify the flesh. And
he said, but if you be risen with Christ, set your affection
on things above. Not on things of the earth, for
you are dead. and your life is hid with Christ
in God. And when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall you appear with him in glory. That's
how this flesh is mortified, having our hearts turned away
from everything here below to Christ only. Now let's pick up
with that theme here in Psalm 121, and let's just read the
first two verses to get us going here. Verse one, he says, I will
lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord. Three times in the year, God
commanded the children of Israel to go up to Jerusalem. They were
to leave their homes, leave all their possessions, and they were
to go to Jerusalem, to the temple, to the holy city where God commanded
and promised he would meet with them in the holiest of holies
over the mercy seat through his high priest that he chose, through
his lamb that he provided. Picture of God meeting his people
in Christ only. And as they went, they would
sing these Ascension Psalms. They began in Psalm 120, and
they'll go on for a number of Psalms here, but they would sing
these songs as they ascended up to Jerusalem. They began in
the first one and they said, in my distress, I cried unto
the Lord. They're like us, you know, we
go through the week and your old man becomes stronger
and your new man becomes weaker. And it gets time to go to the
Lord's house and you've been surrounded by unregenerate, unbelieving
sinners all week, and you cry to the Lord in your distress.
And then it progresses a little bit, and this psalm, he says,
I'll lift mine eyes unto the hills. I'll lift up my eyes to
the Lord, from whence cometh my help. And what does that do? What does the Lord do when you
look to him? The next psalm begins, I was glad when they said, let's
go to the house of the Lord. The Lord will take care of our
distress. We just look to him. We just look to him. My title
here, our subject, is The Lord My Help. And I've titled it that
because, first person, because as you hear this and as we go
through this together, I want you to say, the Lord my help. The Lord my help. For each of
God's saints, our Lord assures us in this psalm, that he shall
be the help of his people and he shall preserve us all the
way to final glory. He is our help. The Lord alone
is our help. And we're gonna see this in three
ways and then we're gonna see the assuring promise that we
have from the Lord. First of all, our help is all
powerful. Our help is all powerful. He
says here in verse two, my help cometh from the Lord, which made
heaven and earth. Now, if somebody's gonna help
you, they can only help so far as they have power to help you. They can't help you beyond that.
Well, our Lord, who is our help, is all powerful. He created all
things by speaking, by speaking. Who is this one who is our help?
John 1.1 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. The capital
L, capital O, capital R, D, Jehovah, God, is manifest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of the Godhead,
the express image of God. Go with me to Colossians chapter
one. This all-powerful Lord is our Redeemer. Colossians chapter
one and verse 14. It says, in him we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of
the invisible God. Christ is the image of the invisible
Jehovah. He's the firstborn of every creature,
for by him were all things, and this is what that means. What
does it mean he's the firstborn of every creature? Next word,
for by him were all things created. that are in heaven, that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and for him. And he's before all things. And
by him, all things consist. Now get this next part. We see
there he's the creator who created everything. Now look at this
next part. and he's the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Our Redeemer,
that one who came and took flesh, the Son of God, and became a
man like unto his brethren, that very one is the one who created
the heavens and the earth. He created everything that is.
He upholds everything that is. That's why he's the firstborn
of every creature. He's the life even of every living
thing. But even more assuring, brethren,
Christ creates the new creation. There's another creation. It's
what our Lord Jesus, that first creation pictures the new creation.
We're talking about the Lord, my help, who created heaven and
earth. What's that tell me? Well, there's
a new creation, and the Lord Jesus is the one who created
that new creation. That new creation is each member,
you in particular, that make up his body, over whom he is
the head. Christ redeemed each one of his
elect. He redeemed us. He bought us. He purchased us. We're his. And
we have forgiveness of all our sins because of him. Through
the spirit, he came then, and this is how we're made a new
creation. The spirit of God, through the preaching of the
word, Christ was formed within us, and a new holy man was created
that was not there. A new spirit was given us that
was not there. And that new man's created in
his holiness, in his righteousness. He's the holiness of the new
man. And he's the righteousness of the new man before the law.
And one day, He's gonna raise these bodies entirely new like
His body, perfectly conformed to His image, and we will be
an entirely perfectly, a perfect new creation, and the whole work
from beginning to end will have been the Lord Jesus Christ who
did it, just like He was the one who created the first creation.
He's the one that's gonna get the glory for creating this new
creation. God gave the work to Him to perform. And so Christ Jesus, just like
he's the firstborn of every creature because he created them, he's
the firstborn among every brother and sister in the house of God
because he created us. We're his body. And the purposes
of that is so that he might have all the preeminence. That means
that he might be above all and be praised above all and gloried
in above all. because it pleased the father.
That's why, it pleased the father that all fullness, all fullness
dwell in his son. Brethren, this is an election
year. It's already getting started
up and it's gonna get worse. And when the political rulers
or any other powers that be give you cause for concern, just remember,
The Lord, our helper, created them. He put them there. They
won't do anything but what he wills and purposes for them to
do. The wrath of man will praise
him, and the remainder he'll restrain it. The Lord, our help,
is the head of the church. He made us a new creation, and
so our Lord is using all the powers that be, visible and invisible. There's some invisible powers
we don't even see, but he's using every one of them, visible and
invisible, for the good of his people, the church. You know,
when you read that Romans 8, and he says, all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. The purpose is what he says next.
Who he foreordained, then he also predestinated to be conformed
to the image of his son, why? That he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. And whom he predestinated, them
he also called. Who he called, them he justified.
Whom he justified, them he glorified. What's next? What do we say to
this? If God be for us, nobody can be against you. Nobody can. Nobody can. You see, he bought
us. He's gonna have us. We're his
body. Every member makes up his body.
And his body will be complete when he's called the last one
in then the body will be complete. He's not gonna go without one. One member of that body, he's
gonna have them all. This is who our helper is. He's all powerful. Everything coming to pass is
to fulfill that eternal purpose of conforming his people that
he predestinated to his image. Calling us, showing us he justified
us. Showing us that we were glorified
in him even before eternity. And so he's gonna keep his people.
I love to hear that our risen, all-powerful Savior, who by himself
purged our sins, I love to hear that very one who accomplished
our redemption and whom we have forgiven us of sin, I love to
hear the scripture who tells us that he upholds all things
by the word of his power. This same one who, when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of God.
Redeemer, who is both God and man, so he's all-powerful to
be able to accomplish everything God can accomplish, and do it
even as a man, and as a man, he knows every infirmity we have,
and he can comfort us, and he can help us. That's who the Redeemer
is. He's not this helpless Jesus.
He's God, our Savior. Look at Isaiah 43. I love this. Isaiah 43. Here's who this one
is. He's all powerful now, that's
who our help is. Look here, Isaiah 43, 11. This
is him, listen to what he says. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside
me there is no savior. I have declared and have saved
and have showed when there was no strange God among you. When
did he do all that? You know where the first strange
God began? When Adam sinned and started making fig leaves. That
was when the first strange God, God said, before that happened,
he said, I declared it, I saved them, and I showed it. I did
it all before there was ever a strange God. Before you ever
fall, ever fail, God already saved his people by trusting
us to Christ. And he said, therefore you're my witnesses, saith the
Lord, that I'm God. That's why he called you. And
he said, yay, listen, before the day was, I am he. Before the day was, there's none
that can deliver out of my hand. I will work and who shall let,
who's gonna try to thwart me? That's what he said, nobody can.
So child of God, when you're troubled, we got one help. We really have
one help. Lift your eyes up to the heels,
look to the Lord Jesus Christ, Because he is our help. This
one who created everything around us, who made you a new creation,
he's our help. He's our help. Look to him. Go
to him. Pour out your heart to him. He's
not only has all power to help, he's willing to help, willing
to help his people. All right, secondly, The Lord
our help is all knowing and he's ever present. He's all knowing
and he's ever present. Look here, verse three, he will
not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. Now just think about what that
means. It says he will not suffer thy foot to be moved. If he's
going to do that, he's going to have to be present. Ain't
that right? If he gonna keep you afoot, he's
gonna have to be present with you. And it says, and if he does
not slumber or sleep, when you're awake, you know things, don't
you? He never slumbers or sleeps. He's all-knowing. He's ever-present,
and he's all-knowing. When the saints traveled in the
desert, they took turns. They were thieves and robbers,
you know. When they're on their way up there to Jerusalem, they're
thieves and robbers. And so when they would camp at
night, they would set watchmen to watch over the camp. And while
they're asleep, they don't know what's going on. But they got
a watchman watching, he knows what's going on. But you know,
those watchmen were men, and sometimes they'd fall asleep.
Well, we have a watchman. The preeminent watchman is the
God-man, our Redeemer, and he never slumbers and he never sleeps.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee
will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. That's important because the
Lord gives us, he speaks to us so we can picture what he's doing. And if he's awake, his eyes are
always open, And His eye is always upon each and every individual
person He redeemed. Before we knew Him, His eye was
upon us. God chose His people and Christ
promised to redeem them. His eye was upon us. You think
back before you knew the Lord, I think of the times I should
have died. Crazy things, you know. Why not? Because his eye was upon me.
I had to be born again. I had to be given faith to see
what Christ did for me. Because Christ did it for me.
And that's the same with you, brethren. Well, now his eye's
open. His eye's upon you. Not just
one of us, on each of us. We can't keep our eye on all
our children at one time. He has his eye upon all his at
one time. Nobody's ever out on the outskirt
that he's not paying any attention to. He's all-knowing God. He's ever-present God. He said,
I will abide with you forever. Listen now, this is why it's
so important that he never slumber. His eyes never close. His eyes
open. Here's why. Psalm 32.8 says, This is the
Lord speaking. He says, I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee
with mine eye. I'll guide thee with mine eye. When you were younger and you
were in the room and you were about to do something that you
shouldn't do, did your mother ever guide you with her eye?
Mine guided me with her eye. I could look at her and know,
I don't need to touch that. The Lord will guide his people
with his eye, and it's far more powerful than any person's eye.
Our Savior is so omniscient and he's so all-knowing that every
individual one of his redeemed is always at the center of his
thoughts, night and day. When you're asleep and you don't
know what's going on, and we're not so mighty as we think we
are when we're awake, when we're asleep, we're just, that's it,
we're just out. He's got his eye on his people. Psalm is said in Psalm 40, 17,
he said, I'm poor and needy. That's me, that's you, isn't
it? I'm poor and needy. How poor? As poor as it gets
in myself. How needy? I need everything. Everything I have, he gave it,
spiritual and temporal. I'm needy, I need him to provide
everything. Yet, the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and
my deliverer. Oh, make no tearing, oh my God.
When you're troubled, I wanna remember this psalm,
don't you? When you're troubled, I'm poor
and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. He's my only rock. He's my only
salvation. There is no other. We don't have
any other. He's my only rock, my only salvation. I shall not be greatly moved. You remember at one point David
said, he said, his foot will not slip. His foot will not slip. We will
have some falls. We will have some falls as long
as we have this sin nature we're going to. But our Lord will not
let us fall away. He will not let his child fall
away in apostasy. And those falls, when we do fall,
that he's even gonna work that for our good to teach us, I need
thee every hour. I need you to keep me every hour. Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Jude said, now unto him that's able to keep you from falling.
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy. Who is this? To the only wise
God, our Savior. Be glory and majesty and dominion
and power right now and forever. So we got some help now. Listen, these are three wonderful
attributes. He's all powerful. He's all knowing. He's ever present. Now here's,
can it get better? It gets better. Here's the third
thing. The Lord is our help in that
he is our righteousness and he is our light. He's our righteousness
and he is our light. Verse five, the Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the moon by night. The Lord is thy keeper. Believer,
you sitting here who actually can hear this by God's grace,
by the Spirit of God, you that can hear this, you that rejoice
that this is so, the Lord's thy keeper. The Lord's thy keeper. We try to keep ourselves, but
the Lord's thy keeper. The Lord's thy keeper. How so? Why is he your keeper? How is
he your keeper? Christ is the shade so that the
sun shall not smite us. And what that is a metaphor for
is this wonderful good news right here. It declares Christ Jesus
is the righteousness. He is the covering of God's elect
so that the curse and condemnation of the law shall never smite
us. It never will. That's a real
good illustration, isn't it? The fiery wrath of God and a
blistering sunburn. That's a good metaphor for that. Now, I want you to think of this,
and I want you to listen. You know the scripture. I won't
have you turn there, but 1 John 4a tells us God is love. And in this was manifested the
love of God. Here's how we see God's love
toward us. because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world that we might live through him. That
word might doesn't mean so that there would be a possibility
we would. It means so that every one Christ came to save shall
live everlastingly. They shall live eternally. No
possibility. It says herein is love now, not
that we love God. We didn't love God. We hated
God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither can he know them, because they're
spiritually discerned. We didn't love God. But he loved
us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. That word propitiation means
he came and by a bloody sacrifice, he accomplished putting away
all the sin of everybody for whom he died. And that means
justice is satisfied. That means justice will never
be poured out on one person for whom Christ died. He accomplished
it. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down at God's right hand. Now that's what love
did. When Peter said, charity shall
cover the multitude of sins, preeminently, That one is God
who is love, Christ who is love, and he covered the multitude
of the sins of his people by his one offering at the cross.
Solomon said, hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth
all sins. That's what Christ did. Christ
is love and he covered all the sins of his people. Proverbs
17, nine says, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love. But he that repeateth a matter
separateth very friend. Christ Jesus came and covered
our sin with his precious blood. He is love. He is God. He's the
preeminent lover of his people. He took flesh and by his own
life's blood, without the shedding of bloods, no remission of sin,
by his own life's blood, he blotted out all the sins of all his people,
and God says, I remember them. No more. No more. Listen to Psalm 85, two. Thou
hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people. Thou hast covered
all their sin. Do you get the picture here of
this covering so that the sun won't smite you? Isaiah 43, 25, he said, I, even
I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake
and will not remember thy sin. Romans 4, 7 says, blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. What's the blessing? Romans 8,
1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus, to them who are the called, I mean, to
them who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. As he said, as high as the heaven
is above the earth, that's how great his mercy is toward us.
As far as the east is from the west, that's how far he's removed
our transgression from us. You see, anybody Christ died
for and everybody Christ died for, God's not gonna condemn
them. You know why? Christ bore the
condemnation on the cross and it's done, it's finished. What does it mean that the moon
will not smite us at night? The moon won't smite you? I've
never been moonburned, have you? But I'll tell you how the moon
can smite you at night. If it's an early Saturday morning
and you try to go out and shoot a turkey and the moon's not shining
and it's really cloudy, it's mighty hard to walk where you're
going and you don't have a light. That's how the moon will smite
you. if it disappears and you don't have any light. Well, brethren,
Christ is our light. God, who said, let there be light,
has shined in our hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the light in his
people. See, he's the righteousness for his people before the law,
and he's the light in his people so that we have life eternal.
And this is what he said. He said, I'm the light of the
world. That means whoever God's elect are in the four corners
of this world, those Christ died for. And he said, and I'm their
light. And he said, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness.
He shall have the light of life. See, light and life are one.
You can't have life without light. He's the light, not eternal life.
He's the light of life. He said, I've come a light into
the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. If you're sitting here and you've
never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, then where you're sitting
right now, the state you're in right now, you can't take these
promises to you, because you don't believe what I'm saying.
If you're sitting there saying, well, I don't like it that Christ
just died for the elect. I don't like it that he accomplished
their redemption. I tell you what, if he makes
you know that you are the sinner and you don't deserve the least
of God's mercies, that'll be the best news you ever heard
in your life. And then you'll like it. But he's the light of
those that he brings to believe on him and follow him. Believe
on him today. Believe on him now. Don't do
something to be saved. Trust him to save you. But he
said those that believe on him, they won't abide in darkness.
Now listen, due to our sin nature, sometimes we go through some
dark seasons. That's just how there is to it.
We feel like we don't have light. You ever been in a shape where
you felt like I just don't have light? But you know, most of our dark
seasons, brethren, if you notice this, Usually our dark seasons
and the sorrow that comes is from the Lord taking something
away from us that's of the world. That is fleshly or temporal or
you know what I'm saying? It's usually that's what causes
the darkness. And the Lord's doing that for a reason. He's
doing that to teach us, I'm your only light. So that we're being
weaned from these things that we think is life, that we just
can't do without, and He's making us know He's our only life. He's the light. And this is what
He says to you when you're in that dark season. In Isaiah 50,
in verse 10, If you fear the Lord, you believe the Lord, here's
what he says to you. Who is he who is among you that
feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that
walketh in darkness and hath no light? That sounds totally
against what Christ said, didn't it? He said he that believes
on me shall not walk in darkness, he shall have light. But you
know from your own experience, and I know, because we have this
in nature, there are times where we are in darkness. He didn't
mean you won't not go through some dark season. But here's
what he teaches you, and here's what he's teaching us so that
as we go through the dark season, this is what he's teaching us
to do more and more. He says, you're walking in darkness,
you have no light, here's what he says. Let him trust in the
name of the Lord and stay upon his God. In other words, lift
up your eyes to the hills and trust the Lord and just know
this one's all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is ever-present. He's my righteousness. He's my
light. I'm just gonna wait on him. I'll
just wait on him. And you can be sure because he's
your righteousness and because he is your light, you can be
sure you'll get the, he gonna make you see the light again.
He gonna make you know he hadn't left you because he made you
righteous, that's why. Listen, Psalm 56, 13, thou hast
delivered my soul from death. Wilt not thou deliver my feet
from falling that I may walk before God in the light of the
living? Yes, he will. He's delivered
our soul from death, he will deliver our feet from falling.
And we're gonna walk with him in the light of the living. Now
lastly, because he is our helper, because he's all powerful, because
he's ever present, because he's all knowing, because he's our
righteousness, because he is our light, we have this promise
to assure our hearts all the time. Verse seven, the Lord shall
preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Now get that. You might have
some fleshly suffering and I might have some. That's not doing us
any harm. But he's gonna, he's gonna preserve
you from all evil. He's gonna preserve your soul.
That's what matters. Now look, verse eight, the Lord
shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time
forth, even forevermore. I tell you, there's one reason
that every one of you who's truly been born again and truly been
given faith in the Lord Jesus, there's only one reason why you're
gonna persevere to the end. Because the Lord will preserve
you. That's why. We can't make our boasts that,
well, look how strong my faith is. he will preserve his people. That's why we will continue to
the end. We'll persevere, we won't go
back because he will preserve his people. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him
shall be desolate. That's his word. Job 5, 19 says
he'll deliver you in six troubles, in seven there shall no evil
touch you. It says, lo this we have searched
it, So it is, hear it, and know thou it for thy good. Thy going out, thy coming in,
from this time even forevermore. What's that mean? That means
he's gonna preserve you in all your ways, at all your times,
all the way to final glory. Every second of every day. The
Lord preserve thy soul. That means my times are in thy
hands. everything at all times. There's nothing bad happening
to us. There's nothing bad happening to one of God's children. We
perceive it that way sometimes, we feel like it's that way sometimes,
but there's nothing bad happening to us. Paul said, These slight
afflictions are working for us. And they're working for us a
far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. You know what that
means? That means in the suffering,
as bad as it may be, the good will outweigh the bad. Because
the Lord's gonna show you him. Now you think about Joseph, he
went through a lot. Prisoned, sold into slavery,
went to prison. He went through a lot. What'd
he say at the end of it? God meant every bit of it for
my good. Every bit of it. That's what
he's doing for his people. Next time you have some trouble,
brethren, remember this psalm right here, especially those
first two verses. I lift up my eyes to the hills,
from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord.
What's this Psalm teaching us to do? Commit thy way unto the
Lord, trust also in him, he shall bring it to pass. He'll bring
forth thy righteousness as the light, not judgment as the noonday.
Just trust him. The hymn writer, she got it just
so simply, didn't she? She said, turn your eyes upon
Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of this world shall grow strangely dim in the
light of his glory and grace. I pray the Lord bless you. Let's
go to him. Our heavenly Father, how we do thank you for your
word and for giving us word of assurance that we can lay hold
of in times of need, and we thank you, Lord, You've given us eyes
to see and ears to hear and hearts to believe all that you've spoken. Lord, we are so prone to have
so much unbelief. And we ask you, Lord, to remember
we are dust and to receive us for Christ's sake and make good
on all these promises for us. Keep us lifting our eyes above,
away from this world, away from the things of this sinful flesh,
and keep us looking to Christ. Lord, when we're looking to you,
everything is well with our soul. And we're thankful, Lord, that
even when we're in our unbelief not looking to you, it's still
well with our soul. Lord, keep your people, we ask
you, comfort them. We thank you so much for our
Redeemer. Thank you for righteousness. Thank you for holiness. Thank
you for acceptance in your beloved and our beloved. Lord, thank
you for brethren and thank you for keeping this congregation
assembled, united. We pray, Lord, you'd be pleased
to provide them a pastor in your time. Give us grace and patience to
wait on you in all things, Lord. How we thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. What a God we serve. Thank you,
Clay, for that reminder. We need to be reminded frequently.
We're weak in the flesh. Lord willing, Carol Poole will
be with us this coming Lord's Day. Carol was actually scheduled
to be with us, I think it was back in December when we had
The one big snowstorm that we had this winter, and God prevented
that from happening, but Lord willing, he will be with us this
coming Sunday, so be in prayer for him. I think it's been quite
a while since Carol's been here, hasn't it, Shelby? I think it's...