Psalms 121, this is the direction
He gave me, and we'll look at one particular verse, but we'll
just read the whole thing. It's just beautiful. But now
before I look at this Psalms 121, 120 comes right before it.
And the last verse of Psalms 120, this is us in the world, This is the believer in the world.
I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. The other side,
I'll say it that way, however you want to phrase it, the goats,
whatever, they don't need proofs. They don't need proof. They just
have their opinions. They don't need to do research.
They can just spot out anything. And the media, this is a perfect
example, there's no journalism anymore. They just can talk.
and fill up air. In the multitude of words, the
Scripture says, "...their one is not sin." And that's exactly
what's going on here. The more we listen to that, the
more we're going to get entrapped in it. So shut the stuff off. Shut it down. Because when we're
for peace, and the peace of Christ, the peace of grace, when we speak,
they are for war. It doesn't matter what we say.
It doesn't matter if we've proved the Scriptures. The Scriptures,
it's like, well, nobody does that anymore. They don't follow
this Word. But in the midst of this, David,
he says, I'm for peace, but they're for war. Then you look at Psalm
121. I will lift up my eyes unto the
hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer your foot
to be moved. He that keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is our, thy, your, the
elect keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy
right hand. The sun shall not spite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from
all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your
going out and your coming in from this time forth and even
forevermore." Just reading that, It gave me comfort. Like Bruce
said, he's reading in Psalm 73. I was talking to someone this
week. Everything that you and I experience can be found, the
remedy, the helps, can be found in the Scripture. Can be found
in the Scripture. We, if we are the Lord's people,
will go to the Scriptures consistently and often. to find grace, to
help in time of need. But just looking at this, he
says, Whence cometh my help? In verse 1, the help of the God
of creation. My help, verse 2, comes from
the Lord. Verse 3, He will not suffer our
foot to be moved. He keeps. That word keep and
keepeth and keeper is used several times. Verse 5, The Lord is thy
keeper. Verse 6, No hurt. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, the moon by night. No hurt. No smiting. Verse 7,
He shall preserve us. He shall preserve our going in
or our coming out. That's basically like Romans
8.28. All things, all things work together
for good. Our coming in, that could be
our life. Our life is coming into 2021. It's leaving 2020. Coming or
going. We wake up, we come, we wake
up, we go to sleep. Coming and going. It's everything
that's included in our life. He's going to preserve. The whole
package is here. The whole of life that God will
keep His people and take care of His people. The complete A
to Z of our pilgrimage. The what, the who, the why. Do we have to fear? Who do we
have to fear? Why do we fear like we do? It's like Henry said
in that bulletin, you know, I put it in months ago. We have too many comforts in
the Word of God to be such a fearful people. We have too many promises
in the Word of God to be as anxious as we are. Anxious as what we
are. And I was reading, catching up
on John Newton's, Devotionals that I got behind like five days.
I read them all yesterday and every one of those he's always
self self depreciating He just says he just said, you know,
I don't know why I'm giving advice to this lady who he's writing.
He says because I can't He says my my spark is so dim I'm the
broken reed. I'm the bruised reed. I'm the
smoking flax And that's just that's just the church here.
That's that's Sovereign Grace Church in Jackson up one minute,
down another. That's the preacher. I feel like
glorious victories in Christ and then I look at myself just
totally unworthy of anything, any of the grace of God. But may we be strong in the Lord's
faith and specifically ask Him to put flight to our worries,
our anxieties, our uncertainties, our apprehensions, our nervousness. And we do this by looking in
the Word. And let's look specifically at
verse 4 for our use and edification this morning. Verse 4. This word he doesn't use in any
of the 8 verses. Behold. It's like he's saying,
stop. Okay? Stop. I may I have your
attention listen up because this truth which is about to proceed
from the mouth of David through inspiration of God no air this
truth is most helpful it's most comforting to in any of our situations
and in every circumstance tomorrow if we the Lord gives us grace
to wake up for tomorrow Because we don't need to be looking too
far ahead because sufficient is the evil. That's what he says,
evil, that's what tomorrow is going to bring. But we know who's
over the evil. We know who kills, who makes
alive, except we know these things. It's our sovereign who's on the
throne. We just need to act like it.
We need to believe it. We need to read the scripture
more. When you take this other stuff and just set it aside.
But He says, Behold, so listen to what I'm about to say. Not
because I'm saying it, Drew Dietz, but because I'm just reading
out of the Word of God. Behold, He. He. Who is this He? It's God our
Father. Or as we saw several weeks ago,
God our Shepherd, nay, our Good Shepherd. Behold, He. He keepeth Israel. That is, He keeps His people.
God keeps them. And this is He, this is Christ.
He is our mediator, our intercessor, our go-between, between God and
us. He is our very satisfaction and
our sin offering. For this just God must be both
satisfied and appeased on our behalf. Because we are sinning
and falling short of the glory of God. This He is God the Holy
Spirit, the blessed enabler. He's our enlightener, our revelation
of who God is, who Christ is, and what Christ became. And also
He reveals how vile and sinful we are before God. Oh, I thought
this was just a one-time thing. No. We constantly need to hear
of who God is, who Christ is, and how sinful we are. Because
we carry this old nature with us. There's two natures in the
believer. We carry this old nature with us and he will never get
any better, never be reformed, always hates God, always hates
the gospel, and he needs to be mortified. Therefore, We know
we must be cleansed and pardoned and redeemed. Yes, He and He
alone is all this to us. Yet in our text, this is very
specific, it's very specific as it is truthful. He, very specifically,
what does He do? Keeps Israel. keeps Israel. Again, this is the children's
food. This is children's bread. This
is God's children. Are we one of His child? Are
we one of His children? Do we know Him? Do we trust Him
as He is our Father, as Christ is our mediator, as the Holy
Spirit has quickened us to newness of life? Do we know Him in this
capacity? If so, then this is so comforting, so blessed. If
not, May we ask, beseech Him to give us mercy and grace that
we would know what He is speaking of in this passage. Behold, listen,
pay attention, God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit is
He that keeps Israel. This stated truth, which is unquestionable,
for God is not man that the scripture says that he should lie. This
is not questionable. This truth can be further seen
in biblical examples. And I love to use the Bible to
explain the Bible. I think it's the best way. Turn
to 1 Kings chapter 17. He keeps His people. He keeps His people. 1 Kings chapter 17. There is this prophet, his name
is Elijah, the Tishbite, verse 1 of 1 Kings 17, who was of the
inhabitants of Gilead and unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel
liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years, but according to my word and the word of the Lord came
unto him saying, this is God speaking to Elijah, get thee
hence and turn thee eastward, hide thyself by the brook Cherith
that is before Jordan and it shall be that thou shalt drink
of the brook that I have commanded the ravens to feed thee also.
So Elijah went and did according to the word of the Lord because
there was a famine. So the famine starts, God's keeping
his people. So in verse 7, it came to pass
after a while that the brook dried up because there had been
no rain in the land. So now we've got another crisis.
Now we've got another situation. We've got another cause for anxiety
and worry and apprehensions. Is God going to take care of
me? He's taken care of me so far, but now it's dried up. Now my savings are gone. Now
my house is in question. This, this, that. We bring every
thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Because the mind can
just bane imaginations and just swirl and sink us into a pit. But He says in our text, He keepeth
Israel. God. God the Father. The Sovereign
Father. The Potentate. The Holy Potentate. The Lord
Jesus Christ. And God, the Holy Spirit. So here's this crisis. So we
got another crisis. So the Lord takes them to Zarephath,
which belongeth, verse 9, to Zion. And behold, there's a widow
woman. I'm going to bring you there,
and she's going to sustain you. So he goes, and in verse 10,
the woman was gathering them sticks. And he called her, and
he says, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that
I may drink. And she did it. She did it. And then He asked her for a cake. Verse 12, And she said unto Him,
As the Lord God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of
meal in a barrel, and a little oil in the crews. And behold,
I gather two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and
my son, that we may eat it and then die. Because the way things
are looking, all I've got enough food is for one cake I'm bringing
these sticks to get the fire, one cake, one little oil, and
then I'm taking it from myself, I have no husband, and my child. And what do you think the prophet
says? Elijah said unto her, fear not,
there's the first thing, don't be worried about tomorrow. Oh,
if we could learn this. Go and do as thou hast said,
but make me a little cake first. Bring it to me, and after for
thee and thy son." She just told him, I only got enough food for
one portion. And this stingy, this selfish,
this self-absorbed, self-centered prophet says, give it to me first. No, he's not self-centered. He
knows the mind and will of God because God's already told him
He's going to take care of him. This famine is not going to last
forever, etc., etc. He's trying her faith. She's
anxious. She's worried. She's got a son.
I'm sure all these things are concerned. And she did what he said, and
the more she kept digging and putting her hand in the bowl,
the more miraculously, more flour, more oil, more oil, more flour.
Oh, but this is Old Testament. This doesn't apply to us. You
do err not knowing the Scripture, if you say that. Well, my situation,
you do err not knowing the God who keepeth thee. diseases, but sickness, but cancer,
but COVID, but the Democrats, but all these things, we do err
not knowing the scripture. Our text says, listen, God is
he that keeps Israel. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. And I know, and I'm not preaching
against, I'm preaching to myself. And I've looked at this, and
this has walked all over my toes from my unfaithfulness, my fearing,
all these different things. And I got encouraged when I read
this. And then I thought of examples. Luke chapter 21, and verses 1-4.
This is Christ. He's sitting by the treasury.
In verse 2, He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said of a truth, the same who keeps Israel, keeps
you, I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more
than they all. For all these have their abundance,
of their abundance have cast in into the offerings of God.
But she of her punery hath cast in all the living that she had."
She cast in everything she had. Why? Because she walked by faith and
not by fear. She knew God would take care of her the rest of
the day. And if she lived tomorrow, the next day. If she lived a
week, the next week. Because she knew that it is God,
He Himself, that keeps Israel. Now you can turn here if you
want, but we've just been here recently in 2 Kings chapter 6,
the prophet Elijah, he had a servant, And they were in the town and
the wicked king had surrounded the whole town and was wanting
to specifically come after the prophet. He was going to kill
him with that intention. And the servant went out in the
morning and saw all these horses and these men and he was afraid.
There's that word again, he was afraid. He walked back in and
he told the prophet, and the prophet was relaxed, the prophet
was walking by faith, and he said specifically, Lord, open
his eyes. And that's what I pray for me,
that's what I pray for you. In this situation, today, tomorrow,
this country, this world, etc., etc., he said open his eyes that he
may see. And he opened his eyes and the
humans were surrounded by a much larger army of chariots of fire. And that's what we need to see.
We say it over and over again. God is on the throne. God is
sovereign. But are we acting as if that's the case? Now this one, I have never seen
it this way. Melinda and I were talking about
it, and I read a little bit about it, and I called some pastors,
and they said, well, they had never seen it either. But this
is the truth. And you can turn there if you
want. It's about John the Baptist. Matthew chapter 11, verse 2,
and Matthew 14, verse 3. John the Baptist is in jail. And Christ knows he's in jail,
because John the Baptist sends his disciples and says, talk
to him. So he knew. And I think he was
in Galilee. So John the Baptist is in jail. I believe it's Jerusalem. I'm not sure. But anyway, Christ
left. Christ left him. Left him. Now, when Paul was in prison,
he was delighted to have companionship. The brethren would come and he
would preach to them through the cell, and they would listen
to him, but there was encouragement. He left John the Baptist in prison. Self-centered? Can't be. He's our Lord. He didn't care
about John? Can't be. How do you think John
felt? I just would like somebody to
talk to. I would like somebody to encourage
me. John the Baptist knew that he
was being kept by God. And he knew that he was for a
moment in time. He was to prepare the way before
the Lord. He was worthy to unloosen his
shoelaces. He baptized Christ, so they knew
one another. But Christ, because God's purpose,
whatever that is, John knew it. John submitted to it. He lost
his head. Well, how did God keep John the
Baptist? He brought him home. He brought
him home. And one of the things I read
about John Newton, he was writing to some older woman, he says,
if the Lord takes you, Your troubles will be over. Literally, your
troubles will be over. You don't have to worry about
who's on the throne, who's at the White House. You won't have
to worry about any of that stuff because you're taken home. And
I believe John the Baptist knew this. He understood. God keeps
his people. And when our work is done, he'll
take us home. May we fear not. May we only
believe. in the passage that tears me
up every time I read it, because I cannot do it, I'm unworthy.
Matthew 6, the first one in verse 25 through 32. Matthew 6, verse
25. Christ says, I say unto you,
take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you
shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on. Is
not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do
they reap, neither gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father
feeds them. Are you not much better than
they? Which of you by taking thought
can add one cubic to a statue? And why take you thought for
clothes? Consider the lilies of the field,
they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto
you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field,
which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he
not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith." There's the
problem. O ye of little faith. That's speaking to me. That's
speaking to you. O ye who fear too much. Therefore take no thought what
you'll eat, what you will drink, or wherewithal you'll be clothed.
For these things the Gentiles seek. Your Heavenly Father knows
that you have need of all these things. And He says basically
the same thing in Matthew chapter 10. We won't turn there. Lastly,
as a matter of the subject, God keeps His people, Psalms 37.
Psalms 37. And I'm not trying to pick on
anybody or be bullish or be browbeating, but these are things that I'm
seeing. I'm seeing that we have a lack
of faith and we have too much fear for a people who have so
many promises, so many assurances in the Word of God. And I am
perhaps the chief, the chief worrier, the chief one who's
anxious and worrisome, apprehension. Psalms chapter 37 and verse 25. David says, I have been young,
and now I am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous
forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He keeps his adopted children. The simplest way to put it. Behold, listen, pay attention. He, God, God the Father, God
the Son, God the Spirit, He keeps Israel. He keeps Israel. Lastly, He never slumbers nor
sleeps. That's basically God's watching
over His people 24-7, all the time. I ask you, how could John Bunyan,
while in jail, write Pilgrim's Progress? While in prison? How
could he sleep? Because God never slumbers or
sleeps. It's like this story. Alexander the Great, he stated
that if Promenio, which was his general over his armies, if his
general was near him, he could sleep. even out on the battlefield,
and not fear attack or defeat if His general was with Him.
That's the way the believer should be. If God is with us, and He
is, if you are His children, and if not, I can say the fatherless
find mercy in Him. He'll show you that you're fatherless
and then He'll show you your need for adoption. And then you'll
cry out. I've never heard of any story,
I don't read a bunch on this type of thing, but any truly
adopted child that was discouraged that he had been adopted. Old Israel, or Jacob, and you
could turn here, we won't, Genesis 28 verse 11, he fell asleep on
a bunch of rocks, a bunch of stones. Why? Because Jehovah
neither slumbers nor sleeps, and He will comfort His dear
children. Psalms 127. This is perhaps new territory for
us in this country. We don't know a lot of stuff.
It's very disturbing. But He still keeps His people.
Psalms 127, verse 2. It is vain, useless, for you
and me to rise up early, to sit up late, and to eat the bread
of sorrows. That's what dwelling on everything
is going to bring you. I guarantee you. I know me. That's what brings
me. If I can't sleep at night, it's because I'm angry. Something's
bothering me. Something's bothering me. And then you, by the grace of
God, bring every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ.
And there's that pillow, whether it's a rock, a stone, or stones
like Jacob. It is vain for you to rise up
early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows, for so
He..." Who's this He? It's the same He we're talking
about in our psalm. "...giveth His beloved sleep." Rest. Rest in Him. Long may be
our noted deliverance, but God is on His throne. He is in charge.
He's in control. He's absolutely supreme and sovereign. Do not doubt it. Do not fear
what may come. In the end, don't we say all
things work together for good? In the end, all things are working
together for good. Two, four, on behalf of His chosen
and lowly children. His lowly children. He will take
care of His people. Let me close with another story
about Alexander the Great. In 1332 B.C., he conquered the
city of Sidon. S-I-D-O-N. And after he conquered
that, he was to place a king over that city so he could go
and conquer more cities. He offered it to two young men
who were friends of a general. They declined it because according
to the law of the Sidons, the person that was to be king had
to have royal blood or have royal lineage. However, they knew of
one person. His name was Abdalmanis. Abdalmanis. And this Abdalmanis
had been in such a state of poverty that he had to support himself
by weeding in a kitchen garden, a hired garden. And that's where they found him.
These two men found this person in a hired garden he was
pulling weeds. Dirty, you know how it is under
everything. So they said clean yourself up,
he cleaned himself up and then there at that spot they presented
him with the incense of royalty approved by Alexander the Great.
So he went from a lowly vessel to kingly robes. Isn't that us? From off the dunghill, says Samuel,
said amongst princes, isn't that true of us? Why? Because God keeps His people and He never slumbers or sleeps. Where we are concerned, We're
kept by the power of God and He will not sleep until we
are with Him in glory. And I don't even know if He sleeps
then. I just know that one day we will be with Him forever.
Even so, Lord Jesus, may He come quickly. Bruce, would you close
us?