Would you turn to the third psalm? Psalm 3, and while I read this
psalm, remember these are the words of David and these are
the words of the Lord. Psalm 3. Lord, How are they increased that trouble
me? Many are they that rise up against
me. Many there be would say of my
soul, there's no help for him in God. Selah. That closest anyone can come
to knowing what that means is think about that. meditate upon
that. But, Thou, O Lord, art a shield for
me, my glory and the lifter up of mine head. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice and he heard me. out of his holy hill. Selah. I laid me down and slept. I awaked, for the Lord sustained
me. I will not be afraid of 10,000s
of people that have set themselves against me round about. Arise,
O Lord. Save me, O my God, for Thou hast
smitten all my enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the
teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. Thy blessing is upon Thy people. Selah. Let's pray. Lord, we confess salvation belongs
to you. And we're so thankful. We're
so thankful for thy salvation. We pray that you would meet with
us. We pray that you would speak
to our hearts from your word. We pray that the gospel would
be preached in the power of your spirit. Pray that we might be
found in Christ. Lord, I ask that you would give
each one of us faith in thy dear son. Teach us what it means to
rest in him and to find in him our all in all. Forgive us of
our sins. Lord, for Christ's sake, give
us grace to walk, talk, and think in a way that honors your gospel.
Lord, be with all your people wherever they meet together.
Be with our friends that are sick. We pray for your blessing
upon them. Accept our thanksgiving through
Christ. In his name we pray, amen. Now, notice the title of this
psalm. And remember this, the titles
of these psalms are inspired. This is part of inspiration and
this gives us some idea of the importance of this. The title
is a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. Now put yourself in his place. His son and a son he loved dearly
started a coup. and was trying to have him murdered
to take his place. Now put yourself in that position.
His son is out for his life. He is wanting to murder his father
and take over. That's what inspired, the Holy
Spirit inspired, we know that, but this is the events that inspired
the writing of this psalm. Now can you imagine if your child
did that? David, the man after God's own
heart, like you and me, was a very flawed individual. You can't read his history without
seeing that the scripture points that out. The man after God's
own heart was a very flawed individual and among his flaws, he was not
a good parent. Now you read of his parenting
skills and David was not a good parent. I like what Greg Yelmquist
said to me once, and I have thought that's true. He said, our parents
screwed us up, and we screw our children up. I wouldn't deny
that. There's a lot to that, isn't
there? David would let his kids get
by with anything. He wouldn't correct them. He
would turn his face the other way. All kinds of things went
on under his roof, terrible things. And he did nothing to restrain
them. I know this about parenting.
Our responsibility is to make our children do what's right.
That's our main responsibility. Not to turn our heads, not to
say I don't have the energy to deal with it, not to excuse them
in the way they're conducting themselves, but the main responsibility
of a parent. And I guarantee you, every one
of us, if we have kids, we feel like we've been failures in many
respects as a parent. And David, if you look at the
way Absalom was, look at what David let him get by with up
to that point. And then here we have him creating
this coup to overthrow his father and become king in his stead. Now that is what is going on.
So David says in verse one, Lord, And first of all, let's read
these real briefly as the words of the Lord Jesus himself, because
we're going to see this as the words of Christ. The Lord said,
Lord, how are they increased that trouble me? Many are they
that rise up against me." That was all of his life. He's the man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, and he could say, many there be that rise up against
me. Verse two, many there be would
say of my soul, there's no help for him in God. And that's what
people were making fun of him around the cross. Let's see if
God will come and help him. And how that must have gone through
his soul, because it was true in his experience in the cross.
He didn't have any help. He was all by himself. When he cried out, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and the words of my roaring? He didn't have any help from
his father. And people were making fun of
him about it and how that must have gone through his soul. Look
in verse three. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for
me, my glory and the lifter up of my head. Do you know even
when he had no communication from his father, Even when he
was left to himself, he never quit believing God. Now, let
you and I be left to ourselves. It's hard telling all the stuff
that will come out of us. But not him. He said, though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. Let me repeat, I'm trusting his
faithfulness. I'm not trusting mine. Somebody
had to believe God perfectly. Where do you and I fall in there?
Oh, we're so quick to call into question everything, but not
the Lord. He believed God even when everything
was cut off. He said in verse four, I cried
unto the Lord with my voice, And he heard me out of his holy
hill. Now he did cry, it is finished. And he said, Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit. Lord heard him, didn't he? Lord
heard him. He says in verse five, I laid
me down and slept. I awaked. Now what's that speak
of? The death, the burial, and the
resurrection of Christ. That's what he's speaking of.
I laid me down and slept, I awake for the Lord sustained me. Verse
six, he says, I'll not be afraid of 10,000s of people that have
set themselves against me round about. Why was he not afraid?
Well, he had his father's protection. He had the accomplishments of
his resurrection where he laid down and slept. He was not afraid
of anything. You know, anytime a little boy
says, I'm not afraid of anything, well, they expose themselves.
They are very afraid of many things, but not him. He had perfect
communion with his father. Verse seven, arise, O Lord, save
me, O my God. And look at the language here,
for thou has smitten all my enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou has
broken the teeth of the ungodly, This is the end of all the Lord's
enemies. And this is the way He puts it. I mean, God the Father,
if I'm not for the Son, I can be assured of this, God's not
for me. And His hitting in the cheekbone and knocking out the
teeth is, He can do it like nobody else. I mean, He is an enemy
of all those who are enemies of His Son. And that's what it
said. Now, nobody can say this like
the Lord. Verse eight, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. It is, isn't it? Salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Now we can see this as the Lord's
words, first and foremost. But now let's consider them as
David's word as well. Now remember this about the scripture.
We have these histories, we have these events that took place,
and they took place. Literally, every single one of
them. Everything David is saying are things he experienced. But
every scripture is given to teach us of the gospel. And this is
David's experience, but what we learn of the gospel from David's
experience in this passage of scripture. Now he said, Lord,
how are they increased? that troubled me, and remember
the setting. He had most of Israel against
him. Absalom had more people for him
than David had for him. Absalom really bettered up the
people. You can read about it. He said, oh, that they'd come
to me with their problems. David, my dad, doesn't deal with
their problems, but I do. And he developed quite a following,
following him. And David says, how many are
they that Increase that trouble me, many are they that rise up
against me. And troubles, troubles. How many times have you said
this in your heart? Troubles. Troubles with people. Troubles
with an unbelieving world. The troubles of your own personal
sin. That's the big trouble, isn't
it? My sin is my enemy. Oh, the troubles that rise up
and increase, many there be that rise up against me. Verse two,
many there be would say of my soul, there's no help for him
and God. Now, what I thought of when David said this was when
David was leaving Jerusalem, fleeing for his life, away from
Absalom, do you remember the story of a man named Shemai?
Shemai said, you brought all this on yourself. There's no
help for you in God. The way you did the house of
Saul, God's bringing down on your head what you have coming. You're a bloody man. You're a
wicked man. And you're getting exactly what
you deserve. And that's the time when Abishai
said, you want me to go take this fellow's head off? And David
replied, no. The Lord said to Shemai, curse
David. Well, I wish we would remember
that with regard to everything that happens to us. Whatever
somebody says to us, the Lord said to say it. What peace we
would experience instead of getting mad and offended and upset. I
know we do it, we're flesh. But what peace we would experience
if we would remember the Lord said to him to say that. And
it's for my good and for the glory of God. That's David's
attitude. Now, you're always going to have
many people judging you. You're going to have many people
questioning you. You're going to have many people, every action
you take, we're such judges. That's so, so, I wish we weren't
like that in any way. I wish we'd never judge anybody
ever again. I read where Kevin Thacker said, Lord, help me to
watch out for my brethren instead of watching my brethren. I thought,
that's a good statement. That's a good statement. But
there's going to be many would say of my soul, there's no hope
for him in God. We've got a lot of people like
Job's friends. Remember Job's friends? You got
this coming. You've done something we don't
know about. But this is what goes around comes around, Job.
This is happening to you because of what you've done. And David
experienced that. Everybody's experienced that.
So, here we have the definition of grace in verse three, but, but, but God. It was rich in mercy. You were
dead in sins, but God. There's not a better definition
of grace anywhere than right there, but God. But, in spite of my troubles
increasing, in spite of what everybody says about my soul,
but thou, O Lord, art the shield for me, my glory, and the lifter
up of my head. Now look what David says the
Lord is to him. Number one, a shield. What's
a shield for? Shield takes the blows. Remember
when God said to Abraham, I am thy shield, I am thy exceeding
great reward. He took my blows. On Calvary's tree, everything
that I so richly deserve, He took for me. And that is why
there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, because
Christ took it all on Himself. That's why that's the only reason.
He is my shield. What a glorious thing that he
would be pleased to be my shield. And next he says in verse three,
thou art my glory. The Lord said, the glory which
thou has given me, I have given them. Now, Somebody says, tell
me what all that means. There's no way I can do that,
but I know he said what it said. The glory thou has given me,
the glory he achieved, I have given them. If you're a believer,
he gave his glory to you. That's why you're such a glorious
person. You're in Christ. You have his glory. I wish I could comment on that
the way it ought to be commented on. I don't know how to, but
there we have it. And he says, you're the lifter
up of my head. I am exalted in the beloved,
seated in the heavenlies. Verse four, I cried unto the
Lord with my voice and he heard me. Isn't that astounding? I cry to the Lord with my voice. And he heard me out of his holy
hill, the holy hill of Zion, the church, the Lord united to
the church. He heard me out of his holy hill
of Zion. Verse five. I laid me down and
slept, and I awaked, for the Lord sustained me." Now here's
the point. Here's the point of this verse. I know that when
the Lord is speaking of this, it's speaking of his death, burial,
and resurrection. He laid down and he was raised
from the dead. But with us, when you're asleep, You don't know
about the Lord at that time. You're not thinking of him. All
the weird, wild dreams people have, the weird things that go
on through your mind that show how, where'd that come from? But when you're asleep, you're
not conscious of the Lord, but he's conscious of you. Behold,
he that keepeth Israel shall never slumber or sleep. How often
do you spend not being conscious of the Lord? A lot of time. A lot of time. You might come
to bed that night and think, you know, I haven't even thought
of the Lord today. I haven't even thought of Him. I've been
so busy doing different things, I haven't even thought of Him.
He's always thinking of you. While you're asleep, His mind
is always on you. For the Lord sustained me. Verse 6, I will not be afraid
of ten thousands of people that have set themselves round about
me. You see, if God be for us, who can be against us? What a
question. If God be for us, and he is for
every believer because of what Christ has done for them, he's
all together for you. If God be for us, who can be
against us? What is there to fear? God be for us, who can
be against it? I'll not be afraid of ten thousands
of people that have set themselves against me round about. Now David
says, arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for thou hast smitten
all mine enemies upon the cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. Now, that runs contrary to the
way the natural man thinks of the Lord acting, but remember
this. The Lord said, inasmuch as you've done it to the least
of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. And inasmuch as
you've done it not to the least of these, my brethren, you did
it not to me. This is speaking of the union
of Christ with his people and someone that's against one of
his people. God's against them. That's his
child. They're united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And David
says this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Somebody
says, where's the Holy Spirit now? Well, he's there. He's there. He says, you've smitten mine
enemies on the cheekbone. You've broken the teeth of the
ungodly. And then he makes this statement
that I want to spend the remainder of our time with. Salvation belongeth
unto the Lord." Salvation unto the Lord. Same thing Jonah said
from the belly of the well, salvation is of the Lord, thy blessing
is upon thy people. Salvation. Well, the first thing
that comes to my mind when I think of salvation, when you think
of the word being saved, saved from what? Saved from what? And this is
so simple. First of all, I need to be saved
from God. Not the devil. You know, the
devil's God's devil on God's chain doing God's will under
God's thumb. Now, I don't want to have anything
to do with the devil. I'd say the way the Lord said, the Lord
will meet you. I don't want to deal with him in any way. But
he's not the one I need to be saved from. My sin's against
God. God is absolutely just. I need
to be saved, first of all, from this glorious being God whom
I've sinned against, and I can't do anything to change myself.
I need to be saved from God. The second person I need to be
saved from is myself. I think of what the Lord said
in Hosea to Israel, O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. I need desperately for God to
save me from myself. Lord, save me from myself. Don't
leave me to myself. The worst thing that could happen
to me is for the Lord to withdraw his hand from me and leave me
to myself. Oh, I need safe from myself. And here's the summary of it
all. The reason I need safe from God And the reason I need to
be saved for myself is because of my sins. Matthew 1.21, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. Now I need to save from God,
I need to save from myself, I need to save from my sins. Now the first time salvation
is mentioned in scripture, is in Genesis chapter 49 verse 18,
when Jacob, oh God's the God of Jacob, I love Jacob. Jacob
said, I have longed for thy salvation. Salvation's the Lord's. It belongs
to him. Now this is speaking of his absolute
sovereignty. You know what that means? If
it's his, it's his to give you, and it's his to withhold, if
he's pleased to do it. He said, can I not do what I
will with my own? Well, salvation's his. It's his,
it belongs to him. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. And that's the first statement
the Bible about salvation, it's his salvation. It's for his glory and he gives it to whomsoever
he will. Now the second statement I'd
like to make about salvation is what the writer to the Hebrews
called an eternal salvation. It's his And like him, it's eternal. You know what that means? It
means it never had a beginning. There was never a time when salvation
began. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. Isn't that awesome? Salvation
is eternal. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. Hebrews 4.3 says, all the
works, all the works were finished from the foundation of the world. Oh, the eternal nature of God's
salvation. And then in Jude chapter three,
or Jude verse three, God's salvation is called the common salvation.
And I love this, the common salvation. Now, here's the way I would like
to illustrate this. I'm the preacher, you're not. Oh, do I have more of salvation
than the commoners? Well, that's offensive, isn't
it? That's offensive. Every one of God's people are
saved the exact precise same way. It's the common salvation. That which is given to all as
opposed to that which is peculiar to the few. The common salvation. We all have salvation in common.
We've all been saved the same way. One is not more saved. One
is not less saved than another. All are eternally united to Christ. All have been chosen of God. before time began. All had been redeemed by the
blood of Christ, justified by the righteousness of Christ,
called by the irresistible, invincible grace of God, regenerated, given
a new nature, partakers of the divine nature, preserved by Christ
Jesus, glorified, already glorified according to Romans 8, 29 and
30, already glorified. God's people have the same salvation. Well, brethren, brethren, there's
no hierarchy in the kingdom of heaven. All of God's people have
the common salvation, and I love this. Philippians 2.13, work
out your own salvation. I remember the first time I heard
a man preach this, I was in college, and it was the first I'm ashamed
I was there. I lived by this group called
the Maranatha Group, and they were Pentecostal, charismatic,
and they were telling me I had something missing in my life,
and I was only 18 years old. I thought, well, maybe I do.
I remember I went to the service, and it was the first time I heard
people speaking in tongues and rolling in the ground. I remember
I was thinking, what I ended up doing, I got out of there.
I thought, man, there's going to be a lightning bolt come down and
strike me for being in here. I was scared to death. But at
any rate, I remember the preacher saying, I don't know what Paul
means most of the time, but I know this, work out your own salvation.
Salvation is at least partly my works. And I thought, Well, obviously he had no understanding
of the gospel when he said that, but work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling, for it's God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do his good pleasure. But here's the point.
Salvation is your own salvation. It's your own. If God gave it
to you, it's yours. The gospel we read in Ephesians
1.12 is the gospel of your salvation. It's yours. You know, his righteousness,
it's yours. It's your personal righteousness. I am my beloved's and he is mine. Your own salvation. And then
in Hebrews chapter two, verse three, we read, how shall we
escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Oh, the greatness
of God's salvation. I mean, we'd spend the rest of
our lives considering the greatness of God, the greatness of His
Son, the greatness of His salvation, the greatness of our sin, the
greatness of our salvation from sin, the greatness of being saved
by Him. I mean, obviously, there's a
lot that could be said about that, but I love the way God's
salvation is called great. Great, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great a salvation? And then in Isaiah 45, verse
17, we read, Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. Now, everlasting, I've already
gone over it, but notice it says, Israel shall be saved in the
Lord. with an everlasting salvation.
This is why this salvation is so secure. It's in the Lord. It doesn't have anything to do
with you doing anything. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. It's in the Lord. That means
everything God requires of you, He looks to His Son for. That's
great, isn't it? And then I want you to turn here,
Revelation chapter seven. This is the last thing. The song of heaven. Verse nine, after this I beheld
and this is the song of heaven. He's been given a view into heaven.
And after this I beheld in low a great multitude, which no man
could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues,
stood before the Lord and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of
the saints, and palms in their hands. And they cried with a
loud voice saying, salvation, to our God which sitteth upon
the throne and the Lamb. That is the cry of heaven. That's
how glorious this message is. That's what is being said in
heaven even now. Salvation and all that it is
to our God. Salvation. belongeth unto the
Lord. His blessing, consequently, his
blessing, all of God's blessing is on his people. Amen.