Psalm 20. This evening, we'll just sort of take a verse or two at
a time and look at this brief psalm tonight. David begins this
psalm this way. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. Now this religious world, and
I say religious world, pretty much everybody's religious in
some way or another. And what I mean by this religious
world are those who don't know the Lord, but are talking about
God and reading their Bible, or saying they are, and going
to church, but don't know God. And that's not a new thing. The
Lord talks about that all through this book. and his condemnation
of outward religion and form only with no heart. But this
religious world has a complete misunderstanding regarding this
thing of God hearing sinners, coming to God and speaking with
him or presenting yourself before God. David talks about the Lord
hearing you. And religion, as I said, they're just flat
deluded about that. Talk about having a quick word
of prayer or having a little talk with Jesus and things like
that. And in general, they make light of and take for granted
this, the idea of getting an audience with God. The scriptures
speak to all of those who worship in outward form only and have
no fear of God. In Jeremiah 14, and you're welcome
to turn there, I'll read it to you. Jeremiah 14 beginning in
verse 10 It says thus saith the Lord unto this people Thus have
they loved to wander They have not refrained their feet. Therefore
the Lord does not accept them And what he's talking about there
is they go their own way. That's how what we do by nature
The Lord looked down upon the children of men to see if there
were any that did not Seek after God and we all have gone astray. We all have gone our own way
There's none that doeth good or seeketh after God But listen
to this now he said he's identified him here. He's characterized
him as those that wander They don't refrain their feet. In
other words, just whatever their little heart desires they go
after it Therefore the Lord does not accept them. He will now
remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. And then said
the Lord unto me, Jeremiah said, don't pray for them. Pray not
for this people for their good. When they fast, I won't hear
their cry either. Don't you pray for them, and
when they fast and pray, I'm not gonna hear them, God said.
Now, religion has no idea about this God, do they? We know that,
they just don't, they don't know this God. God said, don't you
bother praying for me. And when they pray, I'm not going
to hear their cry. All right. Now, they're wanderers. They have no desire that the
word of God, the will of God doesn't refrain their feet at
all from doing their heart's pleasure, but their prayers,
their fasters. And he said here when they offer
burnt offering in oblation. I will not accept it. They're
worshipers of God. They think, they say, they claim, but I will consume them by the
sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. So you see, there
is religion, there is that which is called worship, there is that
which is called, which then appeared to be the worship of God. How did God say worship Him?
By burnt offering and sacrifice. acknowledging before God that
there must be innocent blood. There must be a victim to pay
for sin. There's got to be a sin offering.
And that was the way God had prescribed that he'd be worshipped.
But these fasting and praying and sacrifice offering bunch
of people, they didn't have any fear of God. They just they came
and they did their religious stuff in their synagogues or
whatever they called them then. They said their Hail Marys and
they counted their beads or whatever they did. And they went on living
like hell until the next time to confess, or whatever they
called it then. You see what I'm talking about?
And I'm not picking, it's owl walking, it's bead counting,
it's whatever you want to call it. Rededicating your life, Baptist,
Methodist, Catholic, it doesn't matter. They're all doing the
same thing. Empty, free will, no fear of God, religious observance
without true faith and commitment to the Lord will get you a deaf
ear from God. That's what we're talking about.
He said, you draw nigh unto me with your lips, but your heart
is far from me. Oh, Chris, so what you're saying
is if you live right, God will hear you. Not at all. Not at
all. I want to be careful about this
now. Here is what the scripture teaches about praying to God.
You've got to come to God through a mediator. You don't come to God except
by the mediator. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And you don't come
to God apart from him. Now the empty heartless religion
that we've been talking about and that we read about there
is a symptom of not knowing the mediator and not having any regard
for the mediator. And a life of following Christ. The opposite of that, a life
of dedication and commitment and following of Christ is a
result of knowing Him and understanding how sinners are able to come
to God by His grace and by His revelation and by His life-giving
power. Those who know Him come to God
by Him. And they know they don't come
any other way. We don't come to Him in prayer. We don't come
to this place. We don't come to Him Eternally,
we don't enter his presence in any sense, form, or fashion,
except through Christ. John 14, 6, Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. Now there in that verse, he's
speaking of actually going to be where the Father is. Because
he said to them in that context, I'm going to be with my Father.
Where I'm going, you know in the way, you know, and so we
know that's what he's talking about there But this same principle
holds true for any kind of access to the father at all Certainly
for salvation Hebrews 725 wherefore he is able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him The love of God acceptance
of God blessing of God salvation of God is in Christ and nowhere
else You're going to have to do business with the Son of God
that by nature you despise. Seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for them. You've got to come to God by
Him or you're not coming to God. You just think you are. And then also, John 16, 23, he
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask
the Father in my name, He'll give it to you. You don't even
access him in prayer. You don't even come before the
throne of grace in prayer, except in the name of the mediator,
our intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the last part
of that one verse that he ever lives right now to make intercession
for his people. We don't know what to pray for,
as we all. We don't even know what we need. We don't know good
from bad, do we? They'd be good if this would
happen. How do you know? Really? But he knows. He knows. Some religious people pray unto
Mary or one of the apostles and ask them to intercede for them.
I don't know the exact language, but it's something to the effect
of, hell, Mary, full of grace, pray for us sinners in the hour
of our death, and I don't know what all it is, but asking Mary
to intercede. This is not according to the
Word of God. 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Only the God-man can have his
hand on me. and own God at the same time.
Intercede, be a go-between, be a mediator, be a representative
for me and the ambassador of the Father. And have the best interests of
both at heart. He did everything he had to do so that God would accept me. And that goes both ways now.
God didn't want anything to do with me and I didn't want anything
to do with God, but my mediator fixed it up. He reconciled God to me eternally
by his precious blood and me to God when he came where I was
and gave me life. So in order for the Lord to hear
me, he must hear my mediator. He got to hear my mediator. He
got to hear my high priest. That's what we desire. And could
it be that David understood this? It was so clearly taught in picture
and type. And maybe David is praying here
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. Maybe he's praying concerning
his mediator. I got a pretty good idea he was. The Lord hear
my mediator. In the day of trouble. In the
day of trouble. You see, if the Lord hears him
in the day of trouble, that's my salvation. You know why it's
called the day of trouble? All trouble is a result of sin.
And his day of trouble was a result of my sin. And he interceded
for me in the day of trouble. In the day of trouble, my mediator
prayed, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those that thou
hast given me. that they may be one as we are.
The Lord hear thee in the day of that trouble." He was bearing my sins when he
prayed that. He prayed that in the garden
when he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. In the day of trouble, my Lord
Jesus Christ, my mediator, my intercessor, my high priest,
prayed, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. I'll tell you this, if God the
Father heard him on my behalf, then, then in my little days of what
I call trouble, I guarantee you he'll hear my pitiful cry through
Christ. And will come to my aid. He'll
come where I am and help me. Otherwise, no way now. He's got
to hear your mediator on your behalf. Or he's not going to
hear you. He hears you through him. And notice this now. We know
how God hears sinners. It's because of who intercedes
for them. He's not going to hear you otherwise. But notice again,
I want to stress this when he hears them, in the day of trouble.
This has to do with our sin. The Lord was heard for us with
regard to sin. That's what salvation is. And
that's what this psalm is about, as many of them are. It's about
salvation. We'll see that as we go through
it. The Lord was heard for us, for us, as he interceded for
us. What did he intercede? about
our sins. Our sins. All of our trouble. Talking about the day of trouble
here. What is trouble? All of our trouble has to do
with sin. Every bit of it. You got worries
right now, tonight. I know you, because I know me.
You have things you're worried about out there. If I run out
of things to worry about, I've told you before, I'll make some
up. And I've got things I'm worried about right now. Some of you,
maybe you're so worried about it, it makes it hard to worship.
I've been there. I know what you're going through.
Do you know why you're worried? It's because of your sin. That's why. It's because you're
a sinner. You're afraid, disappointed,
perhaps in pain, going through some severe pain and difficulty. You know
why, don't you? You can't blame it on anybody
else. You're not going through anything near what we deserve.
And I'm not either. Now clearly we're taught in John
9 not to assume that bad things happen in direct response to
specific sins. They saw that blind man and the
disciples said, Lord, who did sin that this man or his parents
that he was born blind? Somebody, somebody messed up
and this is payback. And the Lord said, no, no, that's
not why this man is blind. This man is blind that the glory
of God may be revealed in him. And it was wasn't it? The Lord's
safety had mercy on him. And that's how, that's God's
glory. That's how we see the glory of God, is in the saving
of sinners, in His having mercy on sinners by Christ, in His
righteousness and shed blood. But all of our trouble, generally
speaking now, is a result of our sin. Every problem we have,
we know that. Sin entered this world because of us, and we're
not going to blame it on Adam. We got nobody to blame but ourselves
for our problems. There weren't a whole lot of
problems in the garden when our parents walked in perfect fellowship
with God. There wasn't a whole lot of trouble
there. But when sin came, trouble came. Man born of a woman is a few
days and full of it now, full of trouble. We reap in what we
sowed. But even when we sinned there
in the garden, the first promise from God to us was with regard
to our Savior, the woman's seed who crushed the serpent's head. And God the Father sent his Son
into this world, and his Son came and was made bone of our
bone and flesh of our flesh. Just as the high priest of all,
he was chosen from among the people, from eternity, chosen
of God. God's elect. We're elect in him. And God the Father heard his
son, regarded his son, accepted his son, my sinless substitute,
and accepted his offering on behalf of his people. All trouble, just flat out, is
because of sin. And the Lord's trouble, His day
of trouble, was because of my sin. He was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief because He bore my griefs and carried
my sorrows. And in that day, the Lord heard
Him. Not in a single day, you know what I'm talking about,
but all His life, all His life. And then the word defend there
in our text, he prays for this too, that the
Lord will defend. That word though there is exalt.
And that's significant, isn't it? Because we see that the Lord,
God the Father heard his son on behalf of his people and he
exalted him. When he experienced that day
of trouble, We've seen it in our text in Matthew on Sunday
mornings. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That was the day of trouble there.
And the Lord heard him for us. He heard that blood that spoke
for us. He heard our mediator, our intercessor,
and received him, accepted him as our representative and high
priest. And then God exalted him to his
own right hand. And the Lord Jesus was able to
say to that thief, where we saw in Matthew there, today, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. He was able to say that because
the king was coming into his kingdom. Be ye lift up, ye everlasting
gates. And the king of glory's coming
in. And he bringing somebody with him, that old thief. My Redeemer, He was given a name
above every name, accepted and exalted in the day of trouble,
in that very day. And because He was, I will be
exalted to His right hand. From an eternal perspective,
we're already there, Paul said, seated in the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus. We're going to reign with Him.
If we suffer with Him, He said, we'll reign with Him. And then verse two in our text,
send thee help from the sanctuary and strengthen thee out of Zion.
There's only one sanctuary. I know men like to call their
church buildings sanctuaries, but this is not a sanctuary.
This is an auditorium. You can call it, you know, some
other things maybe. I like to just call it the auditorium
because that's what happens here. That's exactly, if you look up
the definition of auditorium, that's what this is. It's a place
where public speaking is done. Now, it's a special auditorium,
no question about that. It's where we meet to worship
God. So it's special to us in that sense, but it's still just
a building. Wherever God's saints meet to worship God, that's a
special place. It's not a sanctuary. Psalm 121. I was going to quote
that whole Psalm. But I don't want to take too
long than that. You remember Psalm 121. I will
lift up my eyes into the hills from whence cometh my help. David
said in our text there, the Lord send thee help out of the sanctuary.
David said, I'm going to lift up my eyes into the hills from
where my help comes from. Where's your help come from?
My help comes from the Lord. All of it. Not going to have
any help unless it comes from Him. But I don't need any other
help. Don't have another helper, don't
need one. Because the Lord's a very present help in times
of trouble. He never leaves us or forsakes us. Our Lord endured trouble. Now think about this, the progression
of our text. In the day of trouble, may you
be heard, David prayed, concerning Christ. Whether David knew that's
what he was praying, the way he was praying or not, I suspect
he did. But whether he knew it or not,
that's what he was praying. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. The Lord not gonna hear me unless
he hears him and me through him. All right, and then exalt. May he exalt you, and he has.
And then what did our Lord do? When he was risen, And exalted
and as he was leaving this world, he said, I'm going to send you
as the father has sent me. I'm going to send you go and
preach. And he said, I'm going to go with you. I'm going to
help you. And that's what David's praying
for here. Help. Help. Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came and
spake unto them, saying all authority, all power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, it's my favorite part, I'm with
you always, as you go and teach, and preach, and minister, and
pray, and work, I'm with you always even under
the end of the world. He's not ever going to leave
us for one second. Religion talk about he's done
all he can do and now it's up to you. He ain't never left it
up to us yet. And I know he won't and I'm thankful
for it, aren't you? He hadn't left it up to us. He's
with us always. We go with his authority and
with his power and with his presence and wouldn't have it any other
way. And then verse three, Remember all thy offerings and
accept thy burnt sacrifice. Now he's still saying the Lord.
The Lord hear you. The Lord exalt you. The Lord
help you. The Lord remember all of your
offerings and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah. That word selah
is thought to mean pause and think about that. And that would
be appropriate here because all of God's blessings flow to us
through the mediatorial sacrifice of Christ for us. In other words,
the precious blood with which we are redeemed, with which he
hath bought us, with which he hath washed us, we're saved in
the day of trouble He hears us because of the blood. He saves
us because of the blood. He's going to exalt us because
of the blood. He helps us because of the blood. All of God's blessings
are ours by the blood. By that one offering, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. He sanctified us with that precious
blood. And we know the word sanctified means a couple of things. It
means made holy. That's clear, right? Their robes
were washed and made white in the blood. Holy. But also it
means we're His. Whatever is set apart for God
is said to be sanctified. And that's what we're talking
about here too. We're His because of the blood, because He redeemed
us by that blood. We're His peculiar people because
we're washed in that blood. Eternally now, no question now,
the Lord died on a day and time. And that must happen. But that
blood is eternal blood because it's the eternal son of God.
The lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And I don't understand
that. People struggle with that. How
can it be eternal? I don't know. I can't explain
it to you. I just know that he's eternal. And so everything he
does is eternal. And may we never stop singing
of his blood. That's not going to get old fashioned
around here, is it? Singing of the blood. Preach
of His precious blood. Thank Him every day for His precious
blood. This is one of my favorite verses
in all of the Word of God, Revelation 1-5. And from Jesus Christ, who
is the faithful witness. And what he's saying is coming
from Jesus Christ there is in verse 4, grace and peace. Grace
and peace from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and
the first begotten of the dead. and the prince of the kings of
the earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own blood." Well, that just states it simply, doesn't
it? He washed me from my sins in his precious blood. Why? Because he loved me. You'll find that word, and, when
you talk about the love of God, the love of Christ towards sinners,
he loved us and. He loved me and gave himself
for me. He loved me and washed me from my sin and his precious
blood. And then in verse six he says,
to him be glory. I desire that, don't you? Desire
to glorify the one that washed me, that bought me. With that precious blood. To
him be glory and dominion. forever and ever. His dominion,
we cry, you're worthy because you were slain. His dominion
has something to do with the blood, doesn't it? And then verse four in our text,
and grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy
counsel. Think about that now. And he's
still saying, may the Lord hear you, exalt you, help you, remember
all your sacrifice, and oh, when the Lord, and this is something
else that I can't explain, I don't understand, we're just so limited,
aren't we? But I know this somehow, this
may not be the right way to say it, but when the Lord looks upon
me in this world and I'm sinful and vile and wretched, and I
can't do anything right, I don't know up from down and right from
wrong and black from white, And everything I do is defiled. And
the Lord looks at me, you know what? He remembers the offering,
the sacrifice of my Savior. He doesn't see my sin. He sees
the blind. Well, I see the blind. And then he said, the Lord grant
thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all your counsel.
Here's another way of saying that exact same thing. Your will
be done. Isn't that what he said there?
The Lord grants you every desire of your heart. Scripture says
that if the Lord delights himself in you, and if you delight yourself
in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. Thy will
be done in the day of trouble. My high priest prayed this too.
Father, I will. That those whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory.
And you know what I say to that? His will be done. His will is
to be with me forever. And me with him. That's my will too, by his grace. That's the sure way of having
your will be done. If your will is his will. I guarantee
you it's going to happen. It's going to be done. So my
prayer like David's and as our Lord taught us, he taught us
to pray that way. He said that will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. And then verse five, he said,
we will rejoice. What do we say? This song is
about in that salvation. And that's how sinners are saved
right there. By God hearing and exalting their mediator and helping
us through him. And remembering his sacrifice
when he considers us. And by his will being done. Because
his will is our good. He said, Lord, keep them. Keep
those that you've given me. Keep them from the evil. I will be done. We're going to rejoice in his
salvation. And there's a thousand sermons in every verse of this
song. Listen to that whole verse there. We will rejoice in thy
salvation. And in the name of our God, we
will set up our banners. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. A sinner can rejoice in a salvation
that is of the Lord. That apostrophe S right there.
It's in God's salvation. There's not an apostrophe s in
this language here, but thy salvation, God's apostrophe s, salvation. Man's salvation is not worth rejoicing in. I
can't rejoice in it because it doesn't afford any hope for a
sinner like me. If God's done all he can and
left it up to me, there's no hope for me in that. If God's waiting on me to take
the first step and then he'll meet me the rest of the way,
there's no hope for a dead man in that, a dead sinner. But God's
salvation, God apostrophe S salvation, I can rejoice in his salvation.
Jonah said salvation's of the Lord. I can rejoice in that.
God's salvation goes like this. Isaiah 4, 45, 22, look unto me
and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, For
I'm God. The reason you can look to Him
and be saved is because He said, I'm God and there is none else.
There's nobody else that can save you. But if you look to
me, I'll save you. God's salvation goes like this. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven.
That's what I'm doing here. Not to do my own will, but the
will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing. That's what His salvation sounds
like. It's sure. He's made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things. And sure, it ain't waiting on
you for anything. You're going to experience it when He gets
ready. It's not contingent upon you. It's not like the old. This
covenant is ordered by God in all things and sure. I should lose nothing but should
raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of
him that sent me that everyone would see at the sun. Blessed
are your eyes for they see. And believeth on him. May have
everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. I'll raise him up. God's salvation goes like this.
First John 5 11. This is the record. That God has given to us. Given to us eternal life. gave it to us. This life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. By God's grace may it be true
all of my days. I'm going to rejoice in his salvation The banners he talks about the
banners there you see that In the name of our God we will
set up our banners, you know what those banners say They say this we get our marching
orders from the Son of God That's what our banners say. We are enlisted in his service.
He is our captain, our champion, our king, and our God. And by
him and him alone, we do and shall prevail. We've set up our banners in his
name, not mine, but in his. And here again in the last part
of this verse is our desire, the Lord fulfill all of his desires. And may his desires be our desires. Verse six, now I know, David
said, that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. We've said all along now that
he's talking about our Lord Jesus, and that's pretty clear here,
isn't it? You know that word anointed there? You know what
that word is? Messiah. And it has been used in the Old
Testaments, no question, when referring to God's anointed kings,
David and Solomon. But also in reference to the
king, of kings and no question here that that's what this is.
In Psalm 2, it says the kings of the earth set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. Same word, same person, and it
can only be Christ. Saying, let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us. Now the fulfillment
of that psalm is referred to in Acts 4.26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. It says anointed in the Old Testament,
it says Christ in the New. You know what the word Christ
means in the New Testament? Anointed. Against his Christ. That's what this verse is about
now. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel were gathered together Right there in Acts 426, it's
saying that when God said in Psalm 2, 2, that they're all
raised up, they're all going to take counsel and set themselves
against the Lord, against his anointed. Herod was one of those. Pontius Pilate was one of them.
The Gentiles and the people of Israel. That kind of covers pretty
much everybody. were gathered together for to
do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to
be done." And if you read the rest of Psalm 2 there, you see
that in there too. Because the Lord said, in spite
of the fact that they're all going to raise themselves up
against my anointing, I've set my King on my holy hip. And he
gives us some good advice there. He says, kiss the son lest he
be angry. and you be consumed when his
wrath is kindled but a little. Kiss the son. God has anointed
and exalted his king now. We just talked about him being
exalted and here, I know that the Lord saveth his anointed. He saves us in the anointed,
in the beloved. We're accepted in him. God saved
delivered, accepted, received, blessed, exalted His Son and
everybody in Him. We are saved in Him. The word
saveth there means to deliver, but also this, give victory to. The Lord will give victory to
His anointed. That's what it says. Now we are accepted because he
is accepted, because he has won the victory, because he's won
the victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave, and Satan,
all of our enemies. And what did Paul say? He gives
us the victory. He won it and he gives it to
us. We're accepted because he's accepted. We're righteous because
he's righteous. It's his right hand that has
saved us. And he will hear him. As our representative, God will hear him. Did you see
that there? Now I know that the Lord saveth
his anointed, he will hear him from his holy heaven. He prayed,
the Lord hear thee, in verse one, and he says here, I know
he will. The Lord Jesus Christ said, when he prayed unto the
father, he said, I know that thou hearest me always. I know
that too. I know he hears his son. And
so I know this, if his son is praying for me, I'm in good shape. I'm in good shape. If my mediator, my intercessor
is the son of God, I'm in good shape. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. And you know
what he told us to do? This is my beloved son, hear
him. Father hears him and you better hear him too. And then look at verse seven.
This is a instructive. So clear. Some trust in chariots
and we know why back then they didn't have tanks and machine
guns. The state of the art there was chariots. If you had chariots
and you were against just people on foot, you were in good shape.
And men trusted in that. Boy, we've got them beat. We
got more chariots than they do. Some trust in horses. The cavalry
is much preferred to foot soldiers. But we're not going to trust
in horses or chariots, David said. We're going to trust in
the Lord. Because we've seen him make small work of chariots
and horses. over and over again. And think
of this in a spiritual sense. Have you witnessed that? The weapons that this world forms
against him and against us, they're not going to prosper. The spiritual
weapons, they got us outnumbered. That's when God does his mightiest
work. It's when his people are outnumbered. How many times did the Lord give
his people victory in the face of overwhelming opposition? I
think of so many examples of that. Second Kings 6.15, when
Elijah's servant was risen early and gone forth, it says, Behold,
and host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots,
and his servant said unto him, Alas, my master, how shall we
do? What in the world are we going
to do? And Elijah answered and said,
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. I bet you that servant did a
double take, don't you imagine? Wait a minute. I don't see anybody
for us. But Elijah said, Lord, open his eyes. Open his eyes. It looks like we're outnumbered
today, but we're not, are we? The Lord sent one angel. I'm
not going to turn here. 2nd Kings 19 verses 32 through
36 a Great army amassed themselves
against the Lord's people And they didn't look good But you
know what the Lord did while his people were sleeping. He
sent an angel down and destroyed every enemy and They woke up
in the morning. There was a bunch of corpses
laying on the ground We don't trust in chariots. Those
that do, we've seen what happens to them. We don't trust in horses. We don't trust in ourselves.
We're going to remember the name of the Lord, our God. If God
will give us good sense, may he do so. And then verse eight,
they are brought down and fallen. But we are risen and stand upright.
And that's why, because they trusted in horses and chariots
and we trusted in the Lord. That's why they're fallen and
we're risen. Those that oppose the Lord Jesus
Christ, doesn't matter how mighty, how wise they think they are,
how strong, they're not going to prosper. The spiritual lesson here, those
that trust in the inventions of man in a spiritual sense,
or the preparation of the wisdom, or the might of man, the will
of man, the works of man, will be brought down in defeat. Those
who trusted themselves, they said, look at our wonderful works.
The Lord said, depart from me. Your own works, your own will,
your own way will avail nothing with God, but rejection and wrath. But we who remember his name
and trust in him it says we'll be raised and we'll stand And then I like verse nine, you
know You know what i'm gonna say about
this don't you david said save lord you remember a prayer like
that Save comma lord Capital L. Capital O. Capital R. Capital
D. Save. Let the king hear us when we
call. Save us. Peter's sinking beneath the waves.
You knew I was going there, didn't you? And like him, in his desperation. Our prayer doesn't need to be
long and repetitious. The Lord said of those that make
vain repetition, they think they're going to be heard because they
talk so much. God's not going to hear that. I'll tell you, I'll tell you
the right prayer, the way to pray to God. You got to pray
to the right one, first of all, the Lord, not Jesus, not sweet
little Jesus. The Lord Not to the one that's on that
Hanging on that cross with a crown of thorns on his head. It's in
front of that church. That's a statue. That's an idol
We pray to the Lord Only the Lord can say Daniel,
can your God save you from the lion's den? If he's the Lord,
he can. If he's the sovereign, he can.
If he's the one that David was talking about when he said he's
in the heavens, he does as he pleases. He can save. There's
none else. And here's what we pray for.
Not a chance to be saved. I don't need that. Do you? A chance. Lord, give me a chance. No, Lord, save. You have. Do you realize the power of not
adding anything to that word? Lord, save. That's the cry of one that has
spent all they have and just gotten worse. That's the cry of the leper covered
in filth and corruption with no cure. Lord, don't give me an opportunity
to be saved. Save me. Save me. I don't need a God. that does
his best and then leaves it up to me. I need him to save me. How about you? The Lord save. And we see in
this song how he does. Because we have an advocate,
a high priest, and the Lord hears him on our behalf. And the Lord
has exalted him. And the Lord sent him and helped
him. and helped us through Him. And He's exalted Him and He's
granted Him His will. He earned the right to do what
He will. And He taught us to pray, Thou
will be done. And we pray that without reservation.
You know why? Because He doeth all things well. He'll do what's right by my children.
He'll do what's right. And so I pray for His mercy upon
them. And I know He's able to save.
He's the Lord. He came down here and did what
He did, He said, so that we would know that He has power on this
earth to forgive sin. And so I pray to Him for myself
and for those that I love. Save, Lord. Save. And may He do so by His grace.
If He will, He can. Let's pray together.