Psalm 12. Psalm 12. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. for the faithful fail from among
the children of men. They speak vanity, everyone with
his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart
do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering
lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. who have said,
with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is
Lord over us? For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him. The words of the Lord are pure
words. As silver tried in a furnace
of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. The
wicked walk on every side when the vilest of men are exalted. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. How we thank you for the salvation that's in your son. Lord, we're so grateful that
you are who you are. We're so grateful for all your
glorious attributes. Lord, give us the grace to worship
you through thy son. Enable us to believe on him.
Forgive us of our sins for his sake, and oh, that we might be
found in him. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray, amen. When I read the words of that
psalm, it reminds me of the timelessness of the scripture. That is what
comes to my mind, the timelessness of the scripture. David says,
help or save is the way the word is usually translated. Save. Isn't that always an appropriate
prayer? Save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sins. Save me
from your wrath. Save me from my circumstances. Save me. As a matter of fact,
I would think that that's the prayer that I personally have
prayed more than any other prayer. Lord, save me. But look what he says. Save,
Lord. Help, Lord, save, Lord, for the
godly man ceaseth. For the faithful fail from among
the children of men. Now here's his complaint. It
seems as though there are very few believers, doesn't it? That's what he's saying. He says,
the godly man ceaseth, the faithful fail from off the earth. You
know, Paul, when he was writing to the Philippians, said to them,
and I think this is one of the saddest scriptures, he said,
I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your
state. For all seek their own and not
the things which are Christ Jesus. And that was his testimony. speaking
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He said to the church
at Philippians, I don't have one man, not one, all seek their
own. He said in Timothy, at my first
answer, when he was brought to trial somehow for preaching the
gospel, and he was brought before people, he said, at my first
trial, no man stood with me, not one. And then he said, I
pray to God that it will not be laid to their charge. Elijah said, I am left alone. Now that's how he felt. The Lord
went on to say, I've reserved to myself 7,000 men that have
not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. But insofar as how he
felt, he said, I am left alone and they seek my life. And then
I think of what the Lord said, when the son of man cometh, shall
he find faith on the earth? What a question. Now the Lord
knows who the elect are and who believes and who doesn't, but
yet he says, when I return in my glory, will I even find any
faith on the earth? Now those are the words of the
Lord. And that's something, I don't know how to even comment on that,
but it's something to think about, isn't it? Help, Lord, for the
godly man seetheth, for the faithful fail from among the children
of men. Even Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report?
It seems like nobody has. Who hath believed our report? Now look what David says in verse
two. They speak vanity. Everyone. Nobody's accepted from this.
They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor. I think of another
place where David said, surely all men walk in a vain show. And don't you know that's true
with regard to yourself? Acting, every man walketh in a vain show. They speak vanity, everyone with
his neighbor with flattering lips and with a double tongue
do they speak. Now, everybody's speech is described
as flattery. Saying things that people want
to hear in order to manipulate them, in order to get them to
respond, whatever it is you want to do. That's what flattery is.
It's a wicked thing. Trying to pump somebody up and
grease them up to get them to fall into your trap is what that
means. Flattery. Speaking with a double tone,
he speaks of. Two-faced. Two-faced. Now that's David's
assessment of human nature. That's really... I wish I could say this the right
way. I trust God's people. And I know everybody is just
like this, including me, beginning with me. Everybody speaks with
a double tongue, he said. And he's not leaving out anybody. And here's what he has to say
about this. Verse three, the Lord shall cut off all flattering
lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Now, I'm thankful
for that, aren't you? Lord's gonna cut that off. It's
gonna have an ending. The people that speak proud things,
the proud things men speak about themselves, the religious things
they'll say in order to draw attention to themselves and let
everybody know how godly and how righteous I am. The Lord
is going to cut that off. That is a promise from the scriptures. Verse four, who have said, with
our tongue will we prevail, and our lips are our own. Who is
Lord over us? Now here's what men believe,
we can talk ourselves out of anything. And you know that goes
right up to judgment day. Lord, Lord, have we not preached
in your name? Have we not cast out demons in
your name? Right up to judgment day, men
are gonna be making their boast, speaking proud things that aren't
so. But the Lord will cut it off.
There's gonna be the time coming when these people will not be
able to speak. I love that passage of scripture, the parable of
the wedding feast when the man The king spots out the man without
a wedding garment, without the righteousness of his son. And
he said, why'd you come in without a wedding garment? And for the
first time, I think in the man's life, he was speechless. He didn't
have an answer. Well, that is what is going to
take place. These people have said, with
our tongue will we prevail, with our lips our own. Who is Lord
over us? People think they can talk themselves
out of anything. Well, it'll be found out to be
not true. God is altogether glorious. Verse five, now the Lord speaks. For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy. Now will I arise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him. Now here's the description David
uses of the believer time and time and time again. It's the
description he uses more than any other description, poor and
needy. Oh Lord, make me poor and needy.
Cause me to never rise above being poor and needy. When you're poor, you know what
that means? That means you don't have anything to bring to the
table. You have nothing. You have nothing that could recommend
you to God. You're poor. You don't have anything. But not only are you poor, you
have great needs. Oh, how I need his grace because
I don't have anything. Now, I was thinking about this
in light of the gospel of grace being poor and needy. I need the word of God because
I don't have anything else. I can't trust anything else.
I need the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God because
I'm poor and I'm needy. That's why. I mean, this is not
just a, this is a need. I need this book to be God's
Word. If it's not, what do I have?
I can't trust anything about myself, can't trust anything
about anybody else. I need God to be God. I need God to be absolutely
sovereign. I need him to be in control over
everything because if he isn't, what a wild, weird place this
is. I don't have any hope if that's
not the case, that God is absolutely sovereign. God is God. I need that because I'm poor
and needy. Listen to this. I need to understand
this about myself, that I personally am totally depraved and sinful. Because only when I believe that
about myself will I look outside of myself for salvation. Only
then will I look to Christ only. I need God to elect me. You know, I hate it when people,
they talk about the doctrine of grace. Well, it's just doctrine.
It's doctrine. It gets to be dry, dead doctrine. It isn't
dry and dead if you need God. It isn't dry and dead if you
need Christ. You need God to elect you. You don't have any
hope of being saved. You know you'll never choose
him. You need, I need Christ's atonement to be complete. I need him to do everything to
where I don't owe anything. This is what I need because I'm
poor and needy. I don't have anything to bring to the table.
I have great needs. I need his atonement to be successful. That's why I despise hearing
when men talk about the death of Jesus Christ as if there's
some he died for that are in hell. If that's the case, I don't
have any hope. My only hope is that when he
died and said, it is finished, my salvation was accomplished.
This isn't just something to argue over. This is my hope.
I need this. I need God's grace to be irresistible
and invincible toward me because if it's not, I'll resist it.
I won't be saved. That's poor and needy. I need God to preserve me because
if he doesn't, I won't persevere. Poor and needy. Boy, it's a blessed place to
be. Poor and having great needs. David, the man whom the scripture
says the fear of David fell on every nation. The Lord put him
in such a position to where he was the most powerful man on
the earth. I mean, other nations feared David. They didn't wanna
mess with David. What a military might he was. Yet when he describes
himself, He says, I'm poor and I'm needy. Now here's who the
Lord speaks for. For the oppression of the poor,
for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. And I can't help but think of
the resurrection when he says that. That's the answer to every
problem a poor and needy person has, the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now will I arise, I will set
him in safety. That one who's poor and needy,
Christ says, I will set him in safety from him that puffeth
at him. I think that's interesting language.
You know, anything is just puffing. All that people say against you
or think against you, it's just nothing. It's just hot air and
it can't really hurt you because the Lord is in control of everything. Now look what he says in verse
six. He'd been talking about the words
of men, how they speak, verse two, vanity, flattery, a double
tongue do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering
lips. He was talking about the words of men. But now he talks
about the words of God. Look what he says in verse six.
The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace
of fire, purified seven times. Now this is a reference to this
book we call the Bible. Pure words. Words without error. Words without any mal-intent. No booby trapping these words.
These are the words of God. These are the pure words of God
that he preserves. Notice how it says in verse seven,
thou shalt keep them, the words, the words. Thou shalt keep them,
thou shalt preserve them. from this generation forever.
Now he's talking about words at this time, his words. Now
the Bible is the word of God. All scripture is what cleansed
for itself. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. The prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, if God can create the universe
from nothing, and really that's all we have, isn't it? God created
the universe from nothing. Anything else is irrational,
it's illogical, it's foolish. Everybody's born into this world
with this understanding. They might reject it after a
while through hardness of heart and so on, but everybody's born
in this world knowing God created this place and he made it from
nothing and he is all powerful and he's eternal. Everyone is
born with that knowledge. I don't care where they are and
Europe, in China, in Africa, in Australia, it doesn't matter
where. Everybody that's born into this
world is born knowing that intuitively. God created the universe. Now, if God could create the
universe from nothing, he has no problem inspiring men to write
a book that he directed every word and there's no error in
it and he has no trouble preserving it throughout history. Now, these
are God's words. They are pure words. Now, if we don't have this, we
got my opinion, we got your opinion. We're in trouble, but thank God
for the pure words of Scripture. Now, this is very interesting.
The words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace
of earth. Purified seven times now the
pictures silver being Purified where it's where it's burned
and heated and the dross comes out and and what you're left
with is pure silver But I read this I can't remember where I
read it, but I really like this He says whoever wrote this said
notice The words of the Lord are as silver Silver now in the
Bible When silver and gold are mentioned, silver is mentioned
first every time. Silver and gold. Now we think
of gold as being more valuable. It is more valuable, but yet
in the scriptures, when the words of God are spoken, they're not
spoken as gold words tried in the fire, but as silver words
tried in the fire. Now, why is that? What was the atonement money
made out of? Silver. Silver. It represents atonement. What held the tabernacle together? Silver. The sockets of silver
that the posts were placed on, everything in the tabernacle
was held together by silver needles. And the point of silver is if
we're going to talk about the Bible, we cannot even think about
the Bible apart from what it teaches, the atonement of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that being everything. Everything. I wish I could emphasize that
enough. The atonement of Jesus Christ
is everything. I mean, I think of that scripture
in Revelation 13, 8, Christ is called the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world and everything God intends to do has something
to do with the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ for his glory.
It's glorious to think about. the glory of the achievements
of the atonement of Christ, how it glorifies God and honors God
and gives a believer a pure hope in Christ. The words of the Lord
are pure words as silver tried, I mean, fired up in a furnace
and all the dross, seven times seven being perfection. Perfection,
we have a perfect word. Isn't that wonderful? We have
a perfect word, the word of God. Every word in this book is inspired
by God and said as he would have it said. You know, if I don't
have that, I quit. Pointless. Pointless, no hope,
but thank God we have this. I love the scripture saith to
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up. Why the
Bible hadn't even been written yet, but yet the scripture saith
to Pharaoh. The scripture preached before
the gospel to Abraham. Well, scripture hadn't been written
for a long time. Abraham was way before the written
scripture, but I love the reverence the Bible has for the scripture.
When the scripture speaks, it is God speaking. You look at
the reverence the Lord Jesus Christ had for the scriptures
when the devil tempted him. I've said this before. If I had
the power of the Lord and the devil started trying to tempt
me, I'd torture him. There are all kinds of different
things I'd do to take care of that. But how did the Lord respond? It is written. That's the Lord's response. it
is written. And how you and I respond to
God himself is seen in how we respond to his word. Sanctify them through that truth,
thy word is truth. Now these words All have something
to do with the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why silver is first mentioned. And it's always mentioned before
gold. The silver words. This book is a book concerning
redemption. This book is a book concerning
blood atonement. This book is a book concerning
the achievements of Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. The cross
being the whole counsel of God. The words of the Lord are pure
words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Speaking of the perfection of
scripture. Verse seven, thou shalt keep
them, O Lord. Thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever. You know, how many times have
you thought in your mind, how can we be sure that we have the
words of Christ? How can we be sure that men have
not crept in and changed words and given their thoughts? Because
the Lord preserves the word. No other reason. Because the
Lord preserves the word. This is a supernatural book. And the Lord preserves his word
forever. And then you go back to verse
eight. It's kind of like you're going back down, the wicked walk
on every side when the vilest of men are exalted, but we still
have the word of God. Even though things appear so
bad, the wicked walk on every side when the vilest of men are
exalted. Now I'd like to close by looking
at a passage of scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter one. 2 Corinthians 1. Verse 18. But as God is true, our word,
our preaching, our message, our doctrine, our gospel, But as God is true, our word
toward you was not yea and nay. It was not yes and no. Now that would describe just
about all the preaching that I hear. Salvation by grace? Yes, salvation's all by grace. But no, if you don't do your
part, you won't be saved. Is the blood of Christ all that's
needed for a payment for salvation? Well, absolutely. You don't need
to add anything to the blood of Christ, but it's also true
that you might burn in hell if you don't do your part and the
blood of Christ didn't do you any good. You see that yes and no
to the same thing. I don't respect that, do you?
Yay and nay, that's dishonest. That's not, it's just not right.
It's so contrary to scripture. And yet that would describe most
people's language. You can take it one way or the
other. It's ambiguous and it's not clear, but that's not the
way the word of God is. It's not yay and nay. Verse 19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay. It was not yes and no to the
same thing, but in him was yea. Yes, for. All the promises of God in him
are yay. Is salvation by grace? Yay. Not yay and nay. Yay. Is the blood of Christ enough
to make me clean before God? Yes. Yes. All the promises of God in him
are yes and Amen. You know, when you say amen to
something, whether you say it audibly or in your heart, you
know what you're saying? That's the truth. That's the
truth. I know that so. And I like it
that way. I'm going to agree. Yes. Amen. That's the truth. Aren't you
thankful for these pure words of God purified seven times the
glorious silver of the atonement.