Evening, everybody. If you want
to turn over to Psalm chapter 3. Third Psalm. I got to turn to it too, so just
give me a second. If you have a Bible like mine,
under the chapter heading there at the top of the psalm, it oftentimes
gives a synopsis of who wrote the psalm and under what circumstances
he wrote it. And if you have that, that is
inspired. It's just as inspired as every other word inside of
here. That's given for our education. So I'm going to read this psalm.
We're going to read that along with it. It says, A Psalm of
David. when he fled from Absalom his
son. Lord, how are they increased
that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against
me. Many there be which say of my
soul, there is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O Lord, art a shield
for me. my glory, and the lifter up of
mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept. I awaked,
for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousand,
thousands of people that have set themselves against me round
about. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for Thou hast smitten
all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. Thy blessing is upon Thy people. See you. And as we just read,
this psalm was written by King David. And it gives the circumstances
under which he wrote it. It's when he was in the wilderness
and he was fleeing from Absalom. And you can read about that,
2 Samuel 15 through chapter 20. It's a long story. But King David
had a son, a son named Absalom. He thought he could trust his
son. He loved his son. After a while, Absalom decided he wanted
to usurp his father's throne. So he went down by the gates
of the city. And somebody would come up, and they'd come up seeking
judgment. They'd say, I was done wrong. I want the king to render
a judgment here. Get me justice. And Absalom would
say, well, hold on. The king's real busy. He doesn't
have time for this right now. He's busy. And he hasn't appointed
anyone to deal with this. He hasn't designated anyone.
But here's what you need to do. Just bring me your problems. Bring
me the issue, right? I'll make sure you get justice.
And he did this long enough that he actually turned the hearts
of the majority of the people against David. And after a while,
he staged a coup. He ran David and his loyalists
and his valiant men out of the city, and David is trembling
out in the wilderness. And finally, Absalom conspires
further. He takes counsel with some other
men. They decide the only way you can ever be king, Absalom,
you've got to kill him. We've got to kill your father,
David. And Absalom says, yeah, I'll do it. So he goes out. He goes after David. The Lord
intervenes. The Lord delivers David. And Absalom, when he's
being chased by David's loyalists, he gets hung up by his hair in
an oak tree, suspended between heaven and earth. And Joab, David's
right-hand man, he goes up with three darts, and he thrusts it
through. Absalom kills him. And David's restored, and Joab
goes back to him, and David says, what happened to Absalom? And
he tells him, he says, I killed him. He's dead. And David mourns. He says, Absalom, my son. Absalom,
my son. And Joab gets mad at him, and
I understand why. He says, you would have been more happy if
all of us would have died protecting you and your son would have lived.
You're showing dishonor to all those people who are loyal to
you and fought for you. I understand why he's upset. I get that. But
the setting of this psalm is that right there. David is in
the wilderness, and the person he loves, the person he trusts,
he has been betrayed by him. That's what's going on here.
And he's meditating on that. Now look at verse 1, and let's
look at how David opens this psalm. He said, Lord, how are
they increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against
me. And that's true, wasn't it? Absalom
had turned himself and most of everybody else around him against
David. He was in a real straight here. Now look down at verse
7. David says, arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for thou hast
smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken
the teeth of the ungodly. What's David concerned with here?
What's his issue? What does he bring before the Lord? He says,
my enemies, mine enemies. You read through the Psalms and
start to notice this. David continually talks about
his enemies. He is constantly bringing his
enemies before the Lord. And I counted that phrase. David
uses it 41 times in the Psalms. He says, mine enemies. He was
constantly bringing his enemies before the Lord, asking the Lord
to subdue his enemies, asking the Lord to deliver him from
his enemies. And that shouldn't catch us by
surprise. As much as David was a prophet, and a king, and a
shepherd, and a man after God's own heart, he was a soldier.
If you're guaranteed anything as a soldier, you're going to
have many, many enemies. But, and I asked this question,
I thought of this, what kinds of enemies did David face over
the years? There are a couple different
kinds. David had conspicuous enemies. enemies that were very,
very easy to identify. The first one I thought of was
Goliath. Couldn't miss him. Big old giant, large helmet,
large shield, large spear, blaspheming the name of the God of Israel,
telling David, come on down here, I'm going to kill you. David
could identify him very, very easily. He knew him as soon as
he saw him, that's my enemy. He was a conspicuous enemy. David
also had inconspicuous enemies. Ones he couldn't detect. Secret
enemies. Absalom's a good example of that.
He loved Absalom. It's his son. He thought he could
trust him. But in the shadows, there Absalom was, conspiring
to usurp David's throne. And David had absolutely no idea
that he was an enemy until Absalom staged that coup. But it began
long, long ago. He had an inconspicuous enemy. David had enemies he thought
were his friends. Think of Joel. For four decades,
if not more, Joab served as David's right-hand man, taking on David's
most sensitive tasks. If there was something to be
done, he was going to send Joab to do it. And he could always
count on Joab to get the job done. But the end of David's
life, at the very end there, Joab conspires against David.
He conspires to not have his son Solomon take the throne,
and that throne go to somebody else. And that conspiracy was
so deep, And David was so hurt by that, in his final words to
Solomon, his parting words, he says, you've got to take Joab
out. You've got to get rid of him. He is not your friend. He
is your enemy. Joab, he was an enemy that he
thought was his friend. And David had friends he thought
for a time were enemies. You think of Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan. David took him in. Made him his
son. Had him eat at his table. Restored
him everything he lost in Saul. And then he took Saul's servant,
Ziba, and he says, Ziba, you're going to do everything for him.
Make sure you're going to be his servant as long as he lives.
Everything needs done. You and your family are going
to do that. And you go on in 2 Samuel, and what you find is
while David's hiding out in the wilderness, Ziba comes to him.
And he gives him acids, and he gives him summer fruits, and
he gives him wine. And then David asks, he goes, where's my Phibosheth?
Where's my boy? And he says, well, he's turned
against you. He's decided he's going to retake his father's
throne. And that was a lie. That was not true. But David
thought it was true. David thought Mephibosheth was
his enemy. And when he goes back and talks to Mephibosheth after
he's been restored, he said, where were you? Where were you
when I was hiding out in the wilderness? And he said, I never
left you. He said, I'm just laying. Ziba tricked me. I never left
your side. I never stopped being confederate
with you. I haven't even washed my clothes. I haven't even shaved
my beard since you've been gone. And David doesn't know what to
do. He says, listen, I've already promised Ziba everything that was yours.
Y'all split it. Y'all work it out. And Mephibosheth
says, let him take it all. The fact that the king is back,
that's good enough for me. David had many enemies while
he walked in this world. But the truth of the matter was,
David wasn't really concerned with those earthly enemies. I
want to show you that. Look down at verse 6. David said,
I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people that have
set themselves against me round about." Now, what is David talking
about there? He's saying this, if God be for
us, who can be against us? That's what he's saying. He acutely
knew what every believer knows, everybody who knows God, that
he's the absolute sovereign And if there is anything that befalls
us in this life, if we do have an enemy that has given power
to oppress us or persecute us in any way, it is only because
the Lord has set him for that purpose. He has given him that
power and it's for holy and good purposes, for his glory and in
some way for our good. And David expressed that. You
can read through 2 Samuel 16, but along the way there was a
man named Shimei. And Shimei doesn't like David.
And he starts cursing David. He starts chucking rocks at him.
And so after a while, David's right-hand man at the time, one
of the valiant men, Abishai, he gets tired of it and takes
out his sword and says, David, let me take off his head. Who is he
to curse you? Who is he to throw rocks at you?
I'm going to go over there and I'm going to kill him. And this is what
David said to Abishai. He said, let him alone and let
him curse, for the Lord hath bitten him. That's a man that
believes God. The only reason he's doing this
is because the Lord purposed him to do this. And he's got
wise and holy purposes. Let him curse. Leave him alone.
So if David here is not worried about his earthly enemies, if
they're not a bother to him, he's not afraid of them, then
why does he bring it up so much? Why is he always talking about
all mine enemies? Well, it's for this reason. David
has a different meaning here. David struggled with the same
enemies you and I struggle with. What he's talking about there,
the spiritual meaning, is this. It's his sins. It's his sins
and it's his sinful nature. That is our enemies before God. Now, I talked about this a second
ago. But these same enemies David had to deal with, you and I have
to deal with them as well. Every believer does. He had conspicuous
enemies. Enemies that you could see coming.
They were highly identifiable. I have conspicuous sins. Those
are the ones I know are wrong. It's the things I do, and the
things I say, and the things I think, and those malicious
thoughts that go through my heart and my mind. My conscience burns
when it happens, and I know that's a sin against God. It's wrong.
It's easy to identify. That's a conspicuous enemy. But
I also have inconspicuous enemies. Secret sins. That's everything
else. When I'm sitting at my desk, and I'm doing my work,
and I breathe in, and I breathe out, it's sin against God because
it comes from me. Every thought, it's sin against
God because it comes from me. Every action, paper clipping
two pieces of paper together, it's sin against God because
it comes from me. And I have no knowledge of it. Inconspicuous
sins. David had enemies. He thought
we're friends. Those are what the scriptures
will refer to as iniquity. Those are the things we think
we do that are good. And prior to a man's conversion, he thinks
he can take those things he thinks he does and he can bring them
before God. He said, this is the reason you
should save me. Look at what I did. I attend church. I read my Bible. I give
money to the poor. I do all these things. God must
be pleased with those things. Those are all reasons you should
have mercy on me. It's just iniquity. It's just
sin. They were enemies that we at
one point thought were friends. They're no friends at all. They're
just transgressions that have to be paid for. And finally, he had friends he
thought were enemies. Now, I'm in no way insinuating
that our sins are our friends. Our sin is against God and it
is evil and it is wicked. But hear me out. Here's what
I mean by this. In every believer, there is two men. There are two
natures. There's the old nature. That
sinful, wicked, evil nature that ensures that we will do nothing
from the time of our birth to the time we die but sin. That's
it. And he's going to be with us
to the day we die. The Lord saves a man, he gives
him that new man, that new birth, that new nature, that holy man
who can do nothing but good before God. And what's interesting is
The only way a man will know that he is a sinner before God,
that he is a wretch, that he is a fallen man, is if he has
that new man, that holy man. It takes a holy man to recognize
that evil man. And that evil man, that old nature,
it serves a purpose. And I don't know if you've thought
about this before, but I've thought about it a lot. How much better
it would be for me if when the Lord saved me, he would have
just done away with that old nature. Just put it away, not
make me drag it around in this life. Just have the new man and
not have to deal with that old man that's constantly sinning,
that's constantly at war with God. He never gets any different
whatsoever. Wouldn't it be better for me
if that old man went away? No, it wouldn't. And we know
that because that's not what the Lord does. He makes us drag
that old man around with us, but he serves a purpose. The
elder, the old man, shall serve the younger, the new man. He's
purposeful. He does this. He ensures that
we have absolutely nowhere to look but Christ alone. That's
it. And in that sense, he is our
friend. He does us good. I don't like
him. I'm tired of dragging him around.
Tired of him. But he's purposeful. He gives
us absolutely nowhere to look but Christ alone. Now I want
to give you a couple other scriptures where David talks about his enemies.
In Psalm 38, 19, he describes his enemies this way. He said,
but mine enemies are lively, and they are strong. And they
that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. Well, that describes my sin real
well. Lively, and strong, and multiplied. Many. That's how
you could describe me in my sin. And Paul said this in Romans
7, 21. He says, I find in a law that
when I would do good, Evil is present with me, 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 to the law of sin which is in my members."
What is that law of sin that every believer is convinced of?
It's that law that says this, that if I do it, it's sin. That
law that says, if I do it, it is unacceptable to God, everything. That's what that law means. In Psalm 6 verse 7, David identifies
the consequences of our sin. He says, mine eye is consumed
because of grief or trouble. It waxeth old or is powerless
because of all mine enemies. Now he talks about grief and
trouble. I'm going to be honest here,
and I think you'll be honest with yourself as well. My sin does
not cause me the grief, and I am not troubled over it the way
I should be. We're used to sin. It's what we do. It's what we
experience every single day. It's like drinking water or breathing
air to us. It just doesn't trouble us or grieve us the way it ought
to. But it does cause us a whole
lot of trouble. It causes trouble in our families, it causes trouble
in our jobs, but most all, and most importantly, it causes us
trouble with God. This is the trouble we're in
right here. Look at verse 4 of your text. He says, I cried unto
the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Now that is the Lord's character,
that is who he is, and that is his standard. He is holy. absolutely, immutably holy, perfect
and righteous and unchangeable. And that's a standard. That's
what he demands from every man, perfect and utter holiness. And
that nature and that standard ensures this. When he sees sin
on a man, all he can do is punish that man that sin is found on.
He can't sweep it under the carpet. He can't skirt it and just forgive
and be merciful. It is not possible. When he sees
sin on a man, he must punish that man. And this is how we're
born. We're born sinners. We're born
at war with God. We're born into trouble. Second
consequence of our sin, he says this, we wax old. Weakness. Weakness. Because of that sinful, fallen,
evil nature, it ensures this. We have no power with God. We
have no power to keep his law, no power to work our way back
from the mess we've made, no power to redeem ourselves, nothing.
Absolutely no power. This is how Romans 8.3 goes.
It says, for what the law could not do in it that was weak through
the flesh. There's nothing wrong with God's
holy law. The problem's with us. We can't keep it. That's
it. Now, what I've just described
to you is every man born a woman. Sinful, evil, incapable of doing
that which is good, incapable of doing anything before God
that he would be pleased with. But not all men know that. In
fact, the Lord has to give you spiritual eyes. He has to do
something for a man for him to see that in himself. I would
ask this question, this man, this man that has nothing before
God, he's a sinner and nothing more. He can't come up with the
goods. Whatever God could demand of him, if he has to come up
with it, he can't bring it to the table. What would the world
say about that man? What would the world and the
religion say about that man? Look at verse 2. Many there be which say of my
soul, there is no help for him in God. Now, according to man's
religion, salvation by works, a sinner, a man who can't come
up with the goods, he is nothing but a wretch before God, he'd
say, there's no help for you with God. Because with their
God, their false idols, he demands something of you. There's something
you have to do to make his work effectual for you. But that is
not the God of the Bible. That is not the God of this book. So I ask this question, is there
hope for a man like this? For somebody who can't come up
with the goods, somebody who is nothing but a sinner before
God, is there any hope for them? I will give you one of my favorite
scriptures, 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying. You can hang your hat on this.
It is to be believed all day long. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners. single-handedly, all by himself,
of whom I am chief. And for every chief of sinners,
that's the case. There is much hope. Look down at verse three.
David says, but, don't miss that word, it's such a beautiful word,
but thou, Lord, art a shield for me, my glory and the lifter
up of mine head. for every sinner in need of mercy.
Here's the first word we need to key on, but. That is the very
definition of grace. In spite of, in spite of all
that being the case, in spite of you being a wretched sinner,
in spite of you being able to do absolutely nothing to please
God, there's grace for those people but God. free unmerited
favor, free unmerited kindness from God for one group of people,
one particular people, sinners who can't come up with the goods.
He starts with that word, but. Grace, there's grace for those
people, much hope. And he says this, he says, thou
art a shield for me. What does a shield do? Can you
think about it? A shield takes all the blows. And for every sinner in need
of mercy, everybody who can't come up with the goods, guess
what? He took your blows. He became your sin. He became
your curse. He died under the wrath of God
and he was raised again just for you. Second Corinthians 521,
for he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. What a trade. What a trade. He took the sin.
He bore it in his body. He suffered and died under the
wrath. And what do we get in return for that trade? The very
righteousness of God. A complete, full righteousness
that can stand before the Holy God, we having done absolutely
nothing deserve it. Just freely given and earned
through our union with Him. Now look over at verse 7 real
quick. I thought this was interesting. David says, Arise, O Lord, save
me, O my God, for Thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. Here David petitions the Lord,
and this is how he appeals to Him. He says, Save me. Why? Why
should I save you? What's the appeal here? Christ
has smitten all mine enemies on the cheekbone. He's broken
all the teeth of the ungodly. What is the appeal? Lord, save
me. Why? Because Christ is my surety.
because he took the blows, because he suffered in my stead, because
he put away all the sin. And now the door of forgiveness
is wide open. Lord, save me for Christ's sake, because of what
he did for me. What an appeal. You smitten all my enemies on
the cheekbone. They're all gone. They're all defeated enemies.
There's absolutely no reason for you to be angry, because
all the sin has been removed. He says this. He says, you're
my glory. I thought that was an interesting
statement. I know this about it. Galatians 6.14, Paul says,
but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Every sinner in need of mercy,
the Lord reveals Christ to you. You'll find glory only in one
place. You'll glory only in one thing. What is glory? Respect,
honor, pride. What you take pride in, what
is it? In Him, in Christ. Why? Because he deserves it.
He earned all the glory because he did all the work. I've said
this several times to you, but I'm going to say it again. If
any glory was due me in my salvation, if any glory was due you in your
salvation, that would mean there was something you would need
to do to earn it. And that would mean there was something you
needed to do to be saved. And you and I couldn't do it.
But thanks be to God, he gets all the glory in salvation. He
deserves every bit of it. We want him to get every bit
of it. We love it that way. We wouldn't have it any other
way. Because that means he did all the work, and there's absolutely
nothing left for me to do. And then he says this. He says
he's the lifter up of my head. And I have no doubt this is speaking
of faith. When the head is lifted up, what happens? The gaze is
changed. The direction of the eyes are
pointed. And this is what happens. Every
sinner in need of mercy, when the Lord reveals Christ to him,
this is what he does. He lifts up the head. Faith is the gift
of God. It can't be mustered. It can't
be earned. God must give this. He lifts up the head, and all
you can see is Christ. And what you see is your full
salvation in the face and in the cross of this man, Jesus
Christ. Now, what does faith look like? Look at verse 5. Says, I laid
me down and slept. I awaked, for the Lord sustained
me. Now, preeminently, remember that
all the Psalms are Messianic. All of them are the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And preeminently, right there,
those are the words of Christ. He says, I laid me down and slept.
What's he talking about? He's talking about his death.
He said, I laid me down and slept. I gave up my life. I suffered
under the wrath of God, and I let death take me. And I went into
that tomb, and three days later, I awaked. I opened my eyes. My father raised me from the
dead. God sustained me. Why did he
raise him from the dead? He did this. This was his word
to his son. He had promised him, if you go
and you live for these people and you die for these people
and you put away all their sins and you make them acceptable
before me, I'll raise you from the dead. This was his promise.
He did exactly what his father told him to do. So his father
held up his end of the bargain. He raised him from the dead. Pre-eminently, that's Christ.
This is also faith. He says here, he says, I laid
me down and I slept. What is faith? It is resting
in Christ. Ceasing from your labors, ceasing
from your works, and simply resting and trusting what he has done. We read this back in the study,
it was Hebrews 4, and this is verse 9, it says, there remaineth
therefore a rest, a rest to the people of God, ceasing from all
labors, ceasing from any labors of trying to please God, trying
to come to Him on the grounds of my own obedience, ceasing
from all that, and simply resting in what Christ has done. I thought
of this, a couple different ways we can view this. Number one,
I rest in His promises. And this is my favorite promise
that He makes to every sinner in need of mercy. It's my favorite
one. It is finished. That's my favorite promise. I
rest in that promise. That means there's nothing left
for me to do. The work is done. I love this
promise. Come to me, all ye who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's a promise. You come to me, you come to me
just as you are, just a sinner in need of mercy, and you come,
and I'll give you rest. You'll cease from your labors.
I rest in that promise. Rest in this blood. I love the
story of Passover. It must be one of my favorite
stories because it's the simplicity of the gospel in one story. The
Lord says, I'm passing through Egypt, and I'm going to kill
every firstborn of every house except, but, Grace, if he's in
the house with the blood over the door, I'll pass by. There
was one thing God was looking for that night, just one. It
was the blood. That was it. And that's my hope. I rest in that, that he shed
his blood for me and he made me acceptable to God. And that's
it. You think about those people in those houses that night. There
were some people with strong faith. There were some people
with weak faith. There were people who had led relatively moral
lives. There were people who had led very, very immoral lives.
The only thing that mattered is if you were in the house with
the blood over the door. That was it. I rest in His righteousness. I'm not trying to keep the law.
I've kept it. I've kept it in the person of
Jesus Christ. I rest in His faith. Here's what I mean by that. When
the Lord saves a man, He gives him faith. Faith is personal.
It comes in measure, but it is personal. Everybody the Lord
saves, he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks to Christ
alone. My faith is highly imperfect. I still have that old man. He
is still full of unbelief. Somebody had to believe God perfectly,
though. And Christ did. I'm trusting in His faith. He
believed God perfectly. He honored His Father in all
things. I rest, cease from all my labors, and just trust Him.
That's it. Now look down at verse 4. Faith
always does something. It says, I cried unto the Lord
with my voice. And he heard me out of his holy
hill." Well, there's faith. When the Lord saves a man, there's
a cry. There's crying unto God. This
thing of rest, it's an act of rest. It involves some things.
Every time the Lord saves a man, there's a crying out to God.
Now, what does that look like? Turn over to Matthew chapter
15. I'm sure everybody in this room
is probably very familiar with this story. It's one of my favorites. Matthew chapter 15, look at verse
21. It says, then Jesus went thence
and deported him to the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold,
a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto
him. saying, have mercy on me, O Lord. Now, son of David, my daughter
is grievously vexed with the devil. Now, I'd point out a few
things right there. Number one, she knew exactly
who she was speaking to. Have mercy on me, O Lord. She was coming to the Lord. She
knew exactly who he was. What does it mean for him to
be Lord? It means he's sovereign. It means he's all-powerful. It
means he's all-knowing. It means he cannot fail. There
is nothing outside his grasp. There is nothing that is too
hard for the Lord. If he purposes it, he wills it,
it's done. And that's the end of it. She
was coming to one that had full ability and she knew it. She
knew that he was able to do this thing. Full ability was found
in this man, the Lord. That's who she was coming to.
And also this, what was her desire? Have mercy on me, O Lord. Now, the concept of mercy is
very simple. It's to not be given what you rightfully deserve.
Everybody who comes to Christ, they're going to come the same
way. They're going to come to the Lord, the sovereign, the omnipotent
one, the one who can get the job done. And they're going to
come for this exact same thing. Withhold from me what I rightfully
deserve. And with this concept of mercy,
you need to understand this. It comes with this. It's not
owed to me. If it's to be withheld, right, holy, and just, he is
either way, because mercy is not owed. Now look at verse 23. But he answered not a word, and
his disciples came and besought him, saying, send her away, for
she crieth after us. Those fools had no idea she wasn't
crying after them. She was crying after the Lord.
But he answered and said, I am not sent, but under the lost
sheep of the house of Israel." What does he confront her with?
He confronts her with his absolute sovereignty and salvation. He
says, I haven't come for everybody. I've come for the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. I've come for those that my father
told me to come here and save. I've come for particular people.
How do you feel about that? How does that hold up with you?
How does she respond to this? Does she get mad? Look at verse
25. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. She'd get mad and say, that's
not fair. You're God. You should do your job. You should
save me. That's what you're here for, right? Oh, absolutely not. He confronts her with his absolute
sovereignty and salvation. What was her response? Worship.
She fell down on his feet, and she worshipped him. And we have
to get a hold of that. He is worthy of worship. whether
he does anything for you or me or not. He's God. He's holy. He's sovereign. He's right. He's
just. Whatever he does, it's right.
And he's worthy of worship. Before this thing of salvation
is going to come out, this issue of worship is going to get settled.
She worshiped. And I would also notice this,
that this thing of the sovereignty of our Lord and salvation didn't
dissuade her a bit. Didn't make her apathetic. Didn't
hold her off. In fact, it emboldened her. Lord,
help me. That's what it did. Now look
at verse 26. But he answered and said, it
is not me to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. Here's
another rebuke. He says, you're a dog. Just a
sinful dog, nothing else. It's not right to give the children's
bread to dogs. How does she respond to that? Verse 27. And she said,
truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. This is her statement. Call me a dog. Sinful, wretched,
useless dog. You're absolutely right. Truth,
Lord. No doubt. But I'm your dog. You can kick
me. You can beat me. You can put
me out if you want. But I'm still your dog. And I'm still going
to be right here. I'm not going anywhere. And I'd
be so grateful if even the smallest crumbs of mercy would fall from
your table to me. Look how he answers her, verse
28. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as
thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Now here's the conclusion of
the story. Everybody who comes this way,
everybody who comes to that sovereign Christ begging for mercy, to
not be given what you rightfully deserve, Agreeing, I'm a dog,
I'm a nobody, I don't deserve any of this. He always says the
exact same thing. He is a God that delights in
mercy, be it as thou wilt. There's never been any sinner
who's ever come to Christ for mercy that he's turned away.
Not one. Not a one. Now the matter is concluded in
verse 8 of our text. You can turn back there. David concludes everything. He
wraps up everything he said up to this point. He said, salvation
belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Now here's the conclusion of
the matter. Lord has a people and they are a blessed people.
If you want to know whether you're one of those people or not, it's
a very simple question. Are you a sinner? If you're somebody
who can't come up with the goods, Somebody who's nothing but a
worthless dog before God. If there's anything you have
to do to save yourself, you won't be able to do it. That's exactly
who the Lord's people are. Loved by God before the foundations
of the earth were ever built. Chosen by Him in salvation. The
one who Christ came to this world and lived for and died for. In
time, the Holy Spirit calls them. And here's what you do. You look
to Christ. You rest in Him. And salvation belongs to Him. And I'm so thankful for that.
It belongs to Him in every aspect. My salvation, salvation of every
sinner in need of mercy, it all belongs to Him. He's the reason
for it. He's responsible for it. All
of God's salvation is found in this man, Jesus Christ. And with
Him, there is no failure. I'm going to leave you there.