Nothing astounding, nothing major,
but it was to me. And I'm so thankful that the
Lord has revealed this to me so I can in turn reveal it to
you or tell you about it. May the Holy Ghost reveal it,
comfort your heart and your soul. But before I read anything in
this psalm, there are instances throughout Holy Writ in which
the saints' petitions to their Father, they're rather short. They're not very long. Some of
the best prayers in this book are real short. They're to the
point, direct, simply, spontaneously, a wonder to read and a wonder
to behold. We have one like this in this
passage. It's probably the shortest prayer
recorded in Scripture. But there's others, and we'll
look at these others. Turn to Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14. I was going
to read out of Psalms 12, that's why I had to turn here, but I
thought, no, I'm going to do it this way. But we will be back in Psalms
12. That's where the text is. Matthew chapter 14 Peter is in
trouble on the sea Matthew chapter 14 in verse 25 And in the fourth watch of the
night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea And when his disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled saying it is a
spirit and they cried out for fear But straightway Jesus spake
unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter answered him, and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, Come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But
when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and he began to
sink, And he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Now, that's three words. The one we're going to look at
isn't even three words. Lord, save me. How powerful. How spontaneous. How presumptuous Peter to get out
and walk on the water. And some things are marvelous
indeed, but with responsibility sometimes comes great accountability.
But the beautiful thing is, sometimes we talk before we think, and
then we're right in the middle of it. The Lord, He's not going
to leave us alone. We may move, we may do great
things, we may make decisions based on what we think is upon
the Scriptures, and we seem to have the green light, direction,
and we go for it. And we're like, man, I'm not,
this may have been a mistake. That's okay. We're sinners. And
he came to call sinners. So when you're in a situation
like that, you just say, Lord, save me. And guess what? Immediately, Jesus stretched
forth his hand. And I think that's beautiful.
He could have said it and Peter would have been back in the boat.
Could he not? Could he not have spoken the
word and Peter would have been back in the boat? But he stretches
forth his hand, takes his hand like a little
child, son or daughter, takes the child, the parent's hand,
and immediately he's back in the boat. What about a publican in Luke
chapter 18? Publicans. It's a nasty word to the Jews
to the Pharisees Luke chapter 18 Verses 9 through 14 specifically verse
13 But and Christ spake the parable uncertain which trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others That's the aim
of false religion, that's it every time they're righteous
and they despise others and Two men went up into the temple to
pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And the Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this fellow here, this publican. I fast twice a week. I give tithes
of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, and this was his prayer. God, be merciful. To me, a sinner. Was he quickened? Was he redeemed?
You tell me, verse 14, I tell you this man went down to his
house justified. Justified, rather than the other. Now I preached that years ago
at a nursing home, remember that nursing home? And I got attacked
by a man in a wheelchair. And every time I tell the story,
everybody laughs, but it broke my heart. It actually, it killed,
it hurt. Because here is this man, feeble. I mean, you just look
at him and you feel sorry for the guy in the wheelchair. Man,
I hadn't seen hate like that in a long time. And man, he said,
well, come over on this side of the table so I can see more
of you. And I tried to tell him. And I could tell he was mad.
I started walking around there. He whipped that wheelchair out.
And he started coming right at me. And I just moved out of the
way. And I grabbed the wheelchair.
I'm like, sit down. He goes, why, I said, you were
telling me. He said, I'm just like that Pharisee. And I said,
well, I'm not telling you. The Scripture tells you. The
other guy went down home justifying. The other guy didn't. I mean,
he blew up. But it broke my heart and I just
thought, we can't see it. We cannot see it unless God gives
grace. Oh, there's an elect thief hanging
by Christ. Luke chapter 23. Luke
chapter 23. Verse 42, and the one malfactor
said unto Jesus, this is his prayer, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. And he said, this day, verily
I say unto thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. Wow. So short. So sweet. Well, there's more. We'll look
at one more, but you do that. Just do a study sometime. Look
at some of the prayers of the saints. Spontaneous, direct,
simple, straightforward, not contrived. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8, verses 1 through
3, specifically verse 2. When Christ was come down from
the mountain, great multitudes followed Him, and behold, there
came a leper and worshiped Him. And this is what He said. Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. There's his prayer. 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 8 words. And Jesus put forth his
hand and touched him and said, I will be thou clean. What power, what beauty, what
sovereignty, what grace to meet the needs of a poor, helpless,
hopeless, dying sinner. Yet perhaps, as I said before
in the introduction, the shortest cry is found here from the lips
of the man after God's own heart. Verse one. Help, Lord. That's it. For the godly man
ceases from the faithful fail and he starts to tell you what's
going on. But there's the cry. Help, Lord. Now that word means save. It
doesn't make any difference what it means in the Greek, Hebrew,
Arabic. We all understand if we've been
tasted that the Lord is gracious, what a cry for help. And I've said it, and preachers
before me have said it, and the ancients have said it, the Lord
never turns away the genuine cry for help. So it doesn't make
a difference what your situation is. It really doesn't. But I
must ask you to beware because Matthew tells us In Matthew
6, But when thou prayest, enter
into thy closet, when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father
which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the
heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking. I have to warn you and I have
to warn myself. Just because a person can be
called on to pray and stand up here and pray with a long oratorical
gift doesn't mean a thing. God looks on the heart. So if
you don't know how to pray, help. Help our children understand
that word. Help, Lord. And there's another
example of much speaking, and I'll refer you to it, and you
don't have to look at it. 1 Kings chapter 18. You remember
Elijah and the 400 prophets? It says that those prophets,
they prayed from morning till evening. Matter of fact, he said,
I don't think your God can hear you. You need to shout louder.
So at the time, they finished doing all this in the time of
the evening sacrifice. They started at the morning sacrifice.
So from morning till evening, 400 of them cutting themselves,
hollering, clapping, having music and having a grand revival service,
nothing happened. And on contrast, you look at
his prayer, direct to the point, fire came down. That's after
they deluged the sacrifice with water and water and buckets of
water. So I have to warn us, me, have somewhat the gift of
gab, as my wife tells me, be careful. It's not the length, it's the heart. Now let's go
back and look at this passage. Help Lord. Do we have doctrinal concerns
this morning? There's some passages of scripture
you just don't understand. I just can't quite see. I've been taught
that the Trinity is not right, or I've been taught that the
substitution is... I don't understand. I don't understand some passages
when he said, he came to save those of the world and the world... Help. Lord. Do we have faithfulness concerns?
That which I would do, I can't. That which I want to do, I struggle. I've got responsibilities here,
I've got responsibilities there. I know I need to be here. Some
things come up. I don't know how to handle it.
I have a fear of man. I don't want to offend anybody.
I don't want to help. Do we have soul concerns and
soul desires? Does it seem like I constantly
struggle with the same things? Okay, now, I'm going to write
them down. I'm going to order my prayer. I'm going to look
in the Scriptures and try to do what David did. I'm going
to reason with God. How can He die for me? This and that. That's
fine. Or, help, Lord. Do we have aches, pains, ups,
downs, sickness, health, highs, lows? Help, Lord, oftentimes
is truly sufficient to meet our great and fearful needs. Did
it here? And again, this is David, a man
after God's own heart, but I go one higher. This is an inspired
word of God. It's here for a reason, for our
learning, use, and edification. Well, let's just look at it.
There's really not a whole lot to look at, so I'm almost done. Help. Help implies known weakness,
doesn't it? It implies known weakness. You can't reach that wallet.
You can't reach that pocketbook. You can't pull out the checkbook.
It isn't going to help. You can't go back to your heritage,
your genealogy, your birth order. It isn't going to help. That's
not going to help give you any comfort. It implies known weakness, known
subordination. Help, Lord. Servitude, need. I guess we're going to sing that
song after the message, but it says, hither by thy help I come. Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither
by thy help I come. We who have both seen and felt
and experienced the full salvation in Christ know we are weak and
helpless on our own. And so we cry, help, help. Any, I remember Tommy Robinson
and I used to talk about this a lot. There is nothing in our
lives, what we're going through, bad decisions, good decisions,
weak decisions, strong decisions. Financial weak decisions, financial
strong decisions. Get ourselves out on a limb.
We're next to the tree. Any situation, marriage, love,
unity, grace, doctrinal, anything, it comes up in our life that
is not dealt with in the scriptures. If you see Christ in the scriptures.
Now if you're just going for a book for rules, you may, you
may not. But if you go to the book, seeking
grace and help in a time of need, He is going to answer. It may not be in the way we want
to, but He's gonna answer. The second thing, Lord. Help, Lord, implies we know who
to run to. The psalmist says, Mr. Spurgeon,
it is a well-considered prayer. He knows what he is seeking and
where to seek it. This amazingly short and sweet
prayer is for all occasions and for all his children, whether
you're a newborn or whether you're aged, in grace. Help the Lord. This will suit us while we are
living or while we are dying, daily, monthly, in times of happiness
or in times of sorrow. One man said in scripture, here
I am Lord, do with me as you see fit. Here I am. And this
short and glorious gem, which shines more and more as we need
such strength, It's certain, it's sure, and unmovable in its
answer. Help, Lord. Now we're going to be going to
a bunch of different scriptures. If you want to, turn with me. But
these are answers to this short, sweet prayer. Just like all the
other ones were. The Leper, Peter, Psalm 46. Psalm 46. I think I got them
in order. Psalm 46. Psalm 46 and verse 5. God, this is towards His church. God in the midst of her. He is
in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her. And that right early. It doesn't
say He may help her. He shall help her. and that right
early. For the church as a group or
a whole, whether it's in Jackson, Missouri or New South Wales,
Australia, wherever God's church is, He is in the midst of her. He'll not be moved. She shall
not be moved. God shall help her. So, we as
a group and individually, whether Concerned about the group or
individually, help Lord. Could be help me, Lord. Could be help Drew, Lord. Could
be help Bruce, Lord. It could be help us raise our
children, help redeem them, Lord. Save, save Lord. Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41. Verse 10, fear thou not, sounds
like what Bruce read, for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for
I am by God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee,
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Looks like to me help was needed
and help has been applied. Isaiah 41 verse 13, For I the Lord thy God will hold
thy right hand and say, fear not, I will help thee. This is for us who can't, either
the way is not real clear, he's got us by the hand, he's directing
us, or this is just a companion. This is like my big brother.
This is like my daddy. This is how I hold my hand. It
sounds like to me, help was needed and help applied. Psalms 41,
or Isaiah 41 again, and verse 14, the very next verse. Fear
not, thou worm, Jacob, reminding us that we need help. And ye men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel. I will help thee. Help needed,
help applied. Isaiah 44, and I could, I mean,
there's, if you want to do a bunch of these passages, there's a
bunch of them. Just get out your concordance and start looking
at them, and I'll shut it down here a little bit. Isaiah 44,
and verse 2, O Jacob, yet now hear, O Jacob, verse 1, My servant
and Israel whom I have chosen, thus saith the Lord, that made
thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, My servant,
and thou Jesteron, whom I have chosen. Help needed, help applied. Isaiah 50, verse 9. Verse 8, He is near that justifies
me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is
my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold,
the Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? They all shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat
them up. We got sovereign backing here. Sounds like to me, help needed,
help applied. Now look at this last one. This
is, it's just Hosea chapter 13. This just does it to me. Hosea chapter 13 and verse 9. Listen to this verse. O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself. Isn't that us? If He leaves us
alone, we are going to swift and sure destruction. But in me is thy help." Sounds like help needed because
we'll destroy ourselves if left alone. Help applied through Christ
Jesus our Lord, our Sovereign, our King, our Kinsman Redeemer,
our Brother, our Friend. You see how help, Lord, sovereign,
majestic. None can stay his hand or say
to him, what are you doing? And we know that's true and we
rest in that. But as I'm reading these passages, did you notice
what unbelievers would say, you're a mean God. If you had a God
like that, he's a monster. Sovereign, king to lover, friend. and brother. You've got to see
that. Help! Help! Lord, from sovereign,
king, kinsman, redeemer, brother and friend. Oh, this is a true
cry from the heart. Spontaneous. Direct. Because we can have access. We
got bold access. We don't have to go through a
funny guy with a silly hat. We don't have to go through anybody.
We go directly to the throne of grace because blood bought
redemption. So, sometimes I wonder how I'm
to pray. How to pray for you all. How
to pray for me. How to pray for a situation that's
coming down our future. Help. A true cry from the heart, may
he give it to us and may it be applied and it shall be applied
and answered through grace. Indeed. Bruce, would you close
us?