I invite you this morning to
turn with me to Psalm chapter 72. My message this morning is, He
shall deliver the needy. Psalm chapter 72, let's read
three verses of Scripture here, beginning with verse 12. For he shall deliver the needy
when he climbeth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy,
and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their
soul from deceit and violence. And precious shall their blood
be in His sight." Now, these verses are not just teaching
that the salvation of Christ our King will extend even to
the poor and needy. That's certainly true. It will.
His blood and His righteousness do extend to those physically
poor and physically needy. But rather here, he's telling
us of the condition of all his elect. And what he's talking
about here is a spiritual condition, not a financial one. Brother Mahan used to say this,
we have no right to claim the promises of God if we do not
to some degree fit the description given to those to whom the promise
was given. If I'm not poor and needy, I
have no right to the promises promised here in this psalm.
Because this promise is to the poor and needy. What David is talking about here
is not a physical condition then, but a spiritual condition. He
said in Psalm chapter 40, he said, I, this is David talking,
I am poor and needy. I am poor and needy. Now let
me tell you something. David was anything but poor and
needy. He was the king of Israel. He
slept in the king's house. He had butlers and handmaids
and servants and cooks. He lived in a mansion. He rode
in the royal chariot. He was dressed in royal apparel.
He was anything but poor and needy in the natural sense. And yet here he cries before
God and says, I'm poor and needy. So I know he's not talking about
in this psalm or anywhere else where this term is used about
a natural condition, but a spiritual condition. Spiritually, David
knew he was poor and needy. And the Bible has a lot to say
about the needy and about those who say, we have need of nothing. Christ told that church over
there in Revelations, He said, I know what you say. We're rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And then
He told them what they really was, poor and naked and blind
and miserable. In Matthew chapter 6, our Lord
prefaced His model prayer to what some call the Lord's Prayer. And He prefaced His prayer to
His disciples, telling them not to use vain repetitions like
the heathen who think they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Don't be like them, He said, because your Father knoweth what
things you have need of. You're needy. And your Father
knows it. And He knows what the need is.
He knows what the need is. All of God's people are needy.
Some of them know it. And some of them are yet to discover
it. But they're all needy. Now, I have three questions I
want you to ask yourselves and see what God has to say about
these things in His Word. First of all, who are the poor
and needy? Well, we've already established
by David that he's not addressing those with physical needs, but
of a spiritual condition and the state of those whom God will
save. Now, there's two things you need
to know here. First of all, how these things
describe all men. All men are needy spiritually.
Are they not? Are they not all dead in trespasses
and sins? Did not sin enter by one man,
and death by sin? And so that death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned? All have sinned, Paul said, and
come short of the glory of God." We are all needy spiritually.
All men, all women, all nations, all peoples, all tongues, they
are all needy. They are all needy. There is no such thing as a rich
man in the spiritual sense. All men are bankrupt beggars
and needy sinners. Naaman's a good example of that. Good picture of that. He was
a powerful man, Naaman was. Powerful man. Rich in goods and
servants and station. He held a high office. But the
scripture said he was a leper. He was a leper. Leprosy is living
death. It's a disease that rocks men
and women from the inside out. And leprosy is one of those diseases
in the Bible which is always associated with sin. Isaiah said,
we are all as an unclean thing, which is how he described lepers.
And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Job linked the
natural man to a maggot. feeding on the corruption of
rotten flesh. Natural man has a mind that is
enmity against God, not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed
can be. And therefore, Paul says, to
be carnally minded is death. Death. We are all needy sinners.
Destruction and misery are in our ways. No fear of God before
our eyes. We are all needy sinners. Every
man, every woman, every child. cannot imagine a more needy creature
than a natural man. He has nothing of himself to
redeem himself and no potential to ever produce it. He has nothing
God wants or needs. He's like that little baby over
there in Ezekiel chapter 16, cashed out at her birth. Her
navel wasn't cut. She wasn't washed. She wasn't
salted. She's just thrown out in the sand, unwanted, unwashed,
unclean. That's us. That's us. David said we'd go astray as
soon as we'd be born, speaking lies. All natural men are poor
and needy, but all men are not the subject of our text or the
object of God's salvation. And that's what I want you to
see here in this message that David, he's not talking about
the fact of their poverty. But their sense of it, their
sense of it. I was talking with one of the
young men of the church outside, and he said, you know, this gospel
is a mystery, yet it's plainly told on the Bible. You can go
in this Bible, and you can discover these things. It's right here.
It's in plain language. You can find out about election
right here. It don't have to be revealed. You can learn it
right here, the fact of it. The need of it is something else
again. The need of it. God's elect are
made sensible to their needs. This is what the Holy Ghost does
in the hearts of all those called of God. He convinces them of
sin. When God the Holy Spirit convinces
you of sin, you'll feel your need. You'll see your need. You'll
sense. You'll become sensible to your
need. Until that time, you'll never
seek the Lord. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all going to strike. They together become unprofitable.
You're not going to seek God. God has to convince men of sin. He convinces them of the source
of it, and the power of it, and the effects of it, and the end
of it. The source of sin can be traced back to the garden,
all the way back to Adam. You can trace that sin through
the Scriptures all the way back to Adam. By the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. By our feral head and representative
Adam, we all fell under the judgment and condemnation of God. Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, and Adam all died. You
can trace it back. And he convinces us of the power
of sin. By one man's offense, death reigned. He didn't just enter into the
world to infect the world or intimidate the world, but it
came into the world and death came. It reigned. That's what
Paul said about sin. Sin hath reigned unto death.
It reigns in the heart. It's irresistible to the natural
man. He cannot help but sin because
sin is what he is. Sin hath reigned, he said, unto
death. Paul said he perceived a law
in his members. This was a believer now. And
he said he perceived in his members, in his nature, a law, a law,
a fact. And this law warred against the
law of his mind, and it brought him into captivity to the law
of sin which is in him. Believers are brought to know
the source of sin and the power of sin reigning over a man's
thoughts, motives, and deeds. Sin is mixed with all we do. And then thirdly, the Holy Ghost
enables those called of God to see the effects of sin. What
are the effects of sin? Adultery. These are the works
of the flesh. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murder, drunkenness,
revelings, and so on. It goes on and on. These are the effects of sin.
But it goes deeper than this. It mixes itself with religion
and turns that which is honorable into an abomination before God. There's examples of it in Israel,
which is a figure of the church. All through the Old Testament
it shows you examples of how these men entangled themselves
in heathen idolatry. And then it causes these things,
even these honorable things, to be an abomination to God.
It substitutes self-righteousness in the place of the righteousness
of God. It ascribes works to salvation,
denying the sovereign grace of God. It turns prayer into self-promotion. Huh? Isn't that what that Pharisee
did? He stood way back from that publican. I thank God I'm not like him. I guarantee you he played loud
enough for somebody else to hear him too, didn't he? Praise in the marketplace, Christ
said, to be heard of men. Be heard of men. He turns worship into a glorification
of the flesh. Man's nature prevents him from
doing anything to recommend himself to God. When he says he'll save the souls
of the needy, he's talking not about the fact of their poverty,
but he's talking about their sense of it. Their sense of it. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
3. I quoted part of this a while ago. I want to read it to you. Revelation chapter 3. Look down here at verse 17. Now he's talking about these
lukewarm folks in the assembly. And he said, I'll spew you out
of my mouth. Old Scott Richardson said one
time, he said, that's man. He's like a bucket full of warm
spit. And that's exactly what he's
saying here. Because thou sayest, I am rich. and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
You don't know that. Natural man don't know that.
He said, well, I'm not as bad as what you're saying. That's
what I'm trying to tell you. That's what the Lord is telling
them. And no, it's not. You don't know that. You've got
no sense of that. And this is what brings about
this lukewarmness in professing believers. This is what separates
true believers from empty professors. Pastor Todd Nyberg had a wonderful
article that I put in the bulletin there, which is what prompted
me to go to this psalm and bring this message. Knowledge without
need can only condemn, he said. And that's the truth. That's
the truth. We become needy as we truly believe
the testimony of God and are convinced of sin and become sensible,
sensible to our sins. All right, here's the second
question. What do needy sinners need? What do needy sinners need? Everything. Everything. They need everything. The reason
why men and women despise God's predestination is because they
cannot sense their need of it. They don't perceive their need
of it. If God did not predestinate all things concerning the salvation
of sinners, no sinner would ever be saved. The reason why men
and women hate the doctrine of election is because they personally
see no need of it. It's not until you see yourself
in a doomed and dying world, in a nature contrary to God,
whose every thought is only evil continually, that election appears
in its proper light. The reason men hate God's absolute
sovereignty is because they have no need of it. They have no need
of it. Antichrist religion so deceives
men and women that they oppose all and exalt themselves above
all that call God so that man as God sitteth in the temple
of God showing himself that he is God. I control my own destiny. That's what Paul is saying there
in those words. Second Thessalonians 2, talking about that man of
sin, that antichrist religion, that principle of religious iniquity. When he learns something of the
power and deceit of sin, then he rejoices in God's sovereignty. Because God's sovereignty alone
is able to enter in and take down the strong man of that house
and spoil his good. to one stronger than he. Isn't
that what our Lord said? Takes him down. Then he can spoil
his goods. What does the needy need? He
needs everything. He needs Christ who is all because
he needs all things. A Christ who is not all is not
sufficient for a needy sinner. He don't need a helping hand.
He needs life. He needs the eternal God to make
appointments and arrangements and covenants on his behalf.
He needs God to appoint for him a redeemer and substitute. He
needs God to send another representative to provide for him a righteousness.
He needs someone to arrange providence so that he can hear the truth. He needs God to send him a preacher
and give him a message that he needs to hear. He needs the sovereign
spirit of God to break up that fallow ground and make that seed,
put that seed, plant that seed in his heart where it will grow.
He needs a new birth. Paul said, according to God's
mercy, he saved us not by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but by the washing of regeneration and renewing. of the Holy Ghost. What does the needy need? He
needs light out of darkness. He needs life from death, pardon
for his sins, righteousness for his justification. What does
he need? He needs preserving. He needs
resurrected. He needs one to go and to prepare
a place for him and then come again and receive him unto himself. What does he need? He needs continual
intercession. Oh, thank God we have one who
intercedes for us. Always. He ever liveth to make
intercession for us. What does a needy sinner need? He needs angels to minister to
him. He needs comforted, encouraged,
and corrected. What does he need? He needs kindness.
He needs long-suffering. He needs patience. He needs a
hearing ear and an understanding heart. What does he need? He
needs everything. He needs everything because he
has nothing. Alright, here's the third question.
Where can a man go to find all that he needs? Where are you
going to go? You going to go to the Pope?
You going to go to Mary? You going to go to the church?
You going to go to the preacher? You going to come to the front?
Where are you going to go Where is this man going to go who has
nothing to find everything? Where can you go? Where are you
going to go? There is just one place. Just
one place. Christ. Paul said, Be it known unto you,
men and brethren, that through this man, through this man, the
Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin. Acts 13, 38. None other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Acts
4, verse 12. To Him give all the prophets
witness that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall
receive remission of sins. Acts 10, 43. In Him are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2, verse 3. In Him
needy sinners go that their hearts might be comforted and find all
the riches of full assurance of understanding." Where are
you going to find it? In Christ. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believes. All that believe do
enter into His rest. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is only
one place to go. Go to Christ. Our Lord told that woman at the
well, he said, give me to drink. And she said, well, us Gentiles,
we don't have much to do with you Jews, and you Jews don't
have much to do with us Gentiles. So why are you asking? He said,
if you knew the gift of God, and who it was that asked you
to give, who it was that said, give me to drink, he said, you'd
ask to me, and I'd give you living water. My friend, Christ is God come
into the flesh. And to come to Him is to draw
from the infinite God. Do you need all things? Come
to Christ. Come to Christ. In the book of John, he told
those Pharisees, he said, except you believe that I am. You know
who that is? You remember Moses before he
went down to Pharaoh, he said, Pharaoh was a pretty powerful
feller. He said, when I go down there
and Israel trembles at his feet, who am I going to tell them sent
me? He said, you tell them I am sent you. And our Lord turned to those
Pharisees and He said, except you believe that I am, I am,
you are going to die in your sins. He's the great I am. He said, I am the good shepherd.
I am the bread sent down from heaven. I am the resurrection
and the life. I am the way, the truth and the
life. I am the light of the world.
I am. Old Joseph Hart wrote, he said,
let not conscience make you linger, nor fitness fondly dream. All
the fitness he requireth is to feel your need. That's what David's
talking about here. He's going to save every needy
soul. You know how you can tell a man
who needs something? He's first in line. That's right. He's first in line. He needs. He needs. Come you weary, heavy laden,
bruised and mangled by the fall, If your tarry tell you better,
you will never come at all. There's only one place where
a needy sinner can go and find all that he needs, Christ the
Lord. There was a wealthy man who lived
back in the 60's. Him and his son bought and collected
fine art. They loved fine art. This was
a very wealthy man. And their house was just filled
with some of the finest paintings that money could buy. They went
to these auctions and they bought them and to the galleries and
bought them and they bought these paintings and he hung them all
over that big mansion there where they lived. And then the Vietnam
conflict came along and the man's son went off to war. And he was
valiant in his service to his country. And he gave his life
to rescue another soldier. But he died. He died. Several
months later, one day, the old man whose son had died in the
war heard a knock on the door. And he went over there and opened
the door. And this young man was standing there in uniform.
And he introduced himself. He said, I'm the soldier. that
your son saved." And as he sat there talking with
the father of his Savior, he told him that he often spoke
of it. Him and his son spent a lot of
time together. And they shared their love of
art. And this young man that the boy
saved was somewhat of an artist himself. And he said, I know
this isn't much, but he handed him this package. And he said,
I know your board wants you to have this. And it was a painting
that this soldier had done of this man's son. And as the old
man looked at it, he just stood in awe of how that young boy
captured his son. It was so perfect in detail.
It was almost like a snapshot. He looked at that thing and he
went over and he found the most prominent place in that house
and he hung that painting up. Years went by and the old man
died. And his estate went up for auction. And the very first piece that
went up for auction was that painting of his son. And the
auctioneer looked around and he said, somebody start the bidding. Nobody said anything. He said,
somebody start. Will you start? Who will give
me a thousand? Not a sound. What about five hundred? No,
not one sound. Finally, there was the old gardener,
the gardener for the old man who tended his place and took
care of his lawn and his flowers and everything. And he said,
I don't have much. But he said, I'll give you what
I got. He said, I'll give you $10. And he said, who'll give
me $15? Who'll give me $20? Not one bid
could be found in the place. Finally, he said, sold. $10 to
this man right here. And he could hear the voices
out there. Let's get on with it. Let's get on. Let's get these
other pieces up here. Let's get the rest of this estate
up here. This is what we come for. The walks near laid down
his gavel. And he said there was only one
stipulation concerning this man's estate. Whoever bought the son gets it
all. He gets it all. Do you understand
what I'm telling you? Needy sinners need all. And he that hath the Son has
it all. He has it all.