You will open your Bibles with
me today to Psalm 28. Psalm 28. Under thee will I cry, O Lord,
my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the
pit. Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their
deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them
after the work of their hands. Render to them their dessert. Because they regard not the works
of the Lord nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy
them and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord because he
hath heard the voice of my supplications The Lord is my strength and my
shield. My heart trusted in him and I
am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth
and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength
and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people
and bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. In this psalm, I want us to notice
that David, who was the author, he acknowledges that the Lord
Jesus Christ is three things to all who trust in him. If you notice in verse seven,
he said, my heart trusted in him. My heart trusted in him,
in Christ the Lord. Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ. My heart trusted in Him. He doesn't say that He trusted
in a plan or anything like that. He didn't trust in a system of
doctrine. He trusted in Him. My heart trusted
in Him. There's righteousness. There's
salvation. There's redemption. In Him, that
is, in Christ. And He said, My heart trusted
in Him. In the New Testament, the Apostle
Paul said, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With
the heart. My heart trusted in Him. And so each and every one of
us may look at these three things today and know each and every
one of us, that is, who trust in Him with our heart, who know
Him as our Lord and Savior, we may look at these three things
and know that they are also true of us. True of every believer,
every child of God. The first is in verse one, he
says, O Lord, my rock, Oh Lord, my rock. He is the rock which
God laid in Zion as a sure foundation. This is what we read in Isaiah
chapter 28 and verse 16. God speaking, behold, I lay in
Zion for a foundation, a stone. a tridestone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. He that believeth, that is trusteth
in him, shall not make haste. Now the Apostle Paul quotes this
verse in the New Testament in the letter of Romans But he quotes
it from the Septuagint version, the Greek translation of the
Old Testament. And that last phrase is somewhat
different. It is changed, he that believeth
shall not be ashamed. The Lord is my rock. On Christ,
the solid rock, I stand. He that believeth in him, trusteth
in him, shall not be ashamed. When this life is over and you
and I stand before God and all the books are opened, those who
are able to say today in sincerity and truthfulness, the Lord is
my rock, shall not be ashamed. I tell you folks, there's a lot
of things in my life that I'm ashamed of. Some things that
I remember that come to my mind before I was saved and even after
I've been saved. Things that I'm ashamed of. I
would hate to think that I would stand before the universe assembled
all men and women and every thought and every word and every deed
which I'm guilty of would be revealed. But I know today that
built upon Christ, upon the rock, the Lord is my rock, the sure
foundation, that triad stone, that precious cornerstone, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that I shall not be ashamed. Why? Because
He has taken all my sins away. Just like as was pictured by
the scapegoat in the law of Moses. He's carried them, Peter says,
in his own body on the tree. And search, you know, God says,
search may be made for them, but they cannot be found. Isn't
that something wonderful today? It is to me. The Lord, oh Lord,
my rock. in our Lord's message, which
is called the Sermon on the Mount. You know, he ended that message
by giving the example of two men, two men who built houses. One man built his house upon
the sand. And so when the wind came and
the rain came and the water came up, his house was driven away. But the other man built his house
upon the rock, upon Christ. And when the winds come, and
notice the winds come to both men, both who built on the sand
and those who built on the rock, the winds come, the trials, the
tribulations, will your anchor hold in the storm of life? That's the question, isn't it?
Well, it will if you're built upon the rock. But if your profession
of faith is simply built upon the sand, when the tribulation,
the trials, and the difficulties, the water, the floods come up,
then your house will give away. Oh, Lord, my rock. Now notice
the second thing that he mentions, which is true of every believer,
is in verse 7. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my strength. When
we think of this fact, this declaration, we should think of it as we think
of the fact that Christ is our life. Christ is the believer's
life. That's what Paul says. When Christ
shall appear, who is our life? Christ is our life. When we think
of Him as our life, we realize that we live in Him. We live
in Christ. That's what he said in Acts chapter
17, as he was preaching on Mars Hill. That in Him we live and
move, all of us here today. We live in Christ. That is, He
gives us life. We live by Him. We live through
Him. But He is our life. See what I'm saying? We live
in Him. We live by Him. And we live through
Him. Christ is our life. And the same
thing we should think when we We read Christ, the Lord, is
our strength. We're strong in Him. We're strong
by Him. We're strong through Him. The
Lord is our strength. Now the Lord being our strength
includes both our natural strength, that is the strength of our bodies,
the strength for you to come here today Who gave you that
strength? Who enabled you to come? He did,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the strength of our bodies.
We had the lesson, I believe it was last Sunday maybe, Brother
Streeter was teaching about Caleb, and when Caleb Went into the
promised land, he was 80 or 85 years old. And he told Moses,
I'm just as strong now as I was the day I came into the land
to search out the land. Who gave him that strength? Most
men at 80, 85 years old don't have a whole lot of strength
left. But God gives us strength, physical strength, yes, absolutely. We acknowledge that he's the
one who is our strength, but spiritual strength, absolutely. The Lord is our strength. The Apostle Paul, he prayed for
believers in the letter of Ephesians, and one of his requests was to
be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man.
And Paul also confessed, I can do all things through Christ,
which strengtheneth me. You know, in the second letter
of Corinthians in chapter 12, when Paul talks about the fact
that he was caught up into the third heaven. And when he came
back, he had a thorn in his flesh. And then he told, he tells us
that God revealed unto him that it was through his weakness that
God is glorified. And so Paul said, when I am weak,
then I am strong. In other words, in serving the
Lord, all of us as his children, we all are serving the Lord in
some way, in some capacity. But where does the strength come
from? In ourselves, we are perfect weakness. In ourselves, in our
own spiritual Strength and stamina we have done. The Lord, David
said, the Lord is my strength. When I am weak, then I am made
strong. And then the third, and this
is what I want to speak to us about primarily this morning.
Also in verse seven, the Lord is my shield. The Lord is my shield. Several
questions I want to ask and try to answer. First, what is a shield? What is a shield? Well, in the
context, since David is the author, a shield we know was a piece
of a soldier's armor, a defensive piece. David who fought as a
soldier many times before he became king and after he became
king. He knew something about a soldier
and a soldier's equipment. You know, when he went to fight
Goliath, most people are familiar with that, maybe more than any
of the other military battles that David was engaged in. But
when David fought Goliath, he fought him not as a soldier necessarily,
but as a shepherd. You remember he had been keeping
his father's sheep and his father sent him to where the battle
was arrayed to see his brothers. He was not in the army at all. And so he goes out to fight Goliath. He didn't have a shield, neither
did he have a sword. But I noticed this. that Goliath,
the giant who had the armies of Israel defeated just by his
presence, did you know he had an armor bearer? But his armor
bearer was no defense against the sling that David had as God
directed that stone. The Lord is my shield. What is a shield? Well, it is
a piece of defensive armor. David was very familiar with
a shield. And a shield was very important
to a soldier. You can just picture in your
mind going out into battle and having your sword. and people
coming against you, soldiers coming against you. How important
was that shield to protect you and to keep you? Without a shield,
a soldier would be easy prey for any man to strike and to
eliminate. David says, the Lord is my shield. He knew something about a shield. He knew the importance of a shield. Well, here's the second question,
to whom, to whom is the Lord Jesus Christ a shield? Well, I've already said, we've
already seen that he is a shield to all who trust in him, all
who trust in him with their heart. But I want you to turn back to
Genesis chapter 15, just a moment. You remember God commanded Abram
to leave his country and to go out into a land that he would
show him. And that land, of course, was
the land of Canaan. And he was alone, so to speak,
in this land, although he became a great person in the fact that
he had many servants in his house. But in Genesis 15 and verse 1,
we read, After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram
in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I thy shield. I am thy shield. Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield. With the Lord as his shield,
Abram had no cause to fear. No cause at all to fear. Because he is a shield like no
other. Let me mention just a few things
to us. Other shields might wear out
after many battles, after many times being struck with a sword
or a spear or something like that. Other shields might wear
out. But it's the Lord as His shield. We know from the Word of God
that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's a shield,
in other words, that will never wear out. Fear not, Abram. I'm thy shield. I'm thy shield
today. I'll be thy shield tomorrow.
And as long as you need a shield, I am thy shield. And other shields
could only serve to protect a person from one direction. In other
words, if I had my shield, if I was a soldier and I had my
shield in this direction, it could protect me against a soldier
coming at me from this direction. But what about one behind me?
What about one over here on this side? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ
is a shield, and David tells us this in Psalm 5 and verse
2. He is a shield that compasses
us about. Not only in front, but behind,
and on the sides, and underneath, and on the top. The Lord. Fear not, April. You have no
reason to fear with me as a shield. Fear not, I am thy shield, unlike
any other shield, never wearing out, always the same, encompassing
you round about so that nothing from any direction can harm you. And then other shields might
be penetrated. From what I have read, these
shields that David was familiar with were most likely skins. Skins of animals which had been
dried and then they had been stretched and formed and they
were layered. And so a seven-layered shield
was a very thick shield, a very good shield, but even that shield
after so much striking by sword could be penetrated. But the
Lord Jesus Christ is a shield, all-powerful, not just very powerful,
all-powerful. And no weapon which is formed
against thee shall prosper. Not with him as a shield. And other shields were made of
dead materials. As I've already said, these skins,
animal skins, they were made with dead materials. And even
if they were made with metal or wood or something like that,
they were not living. They were not made of living
material. But the Lord, our shield, the shield of every believer,
He's a living shield. He's a living shield. never wear
out, encompass us about from every direction, cannot be defeated
or penetrated, and will never end. You say, well, preacher,
you still have your Bible open here to Genesis chapter 15. You say, preacher, you've made
your point about Abram having no reason to fear, but what about
me? What about me? That promise,
that declaration was made to him as an individual. But notice,
if you will, over just a page or two in Genesis 17, in verse
7, we read, And I will establish
My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee. Thy
seed after thee. In the New Testament, the Apostle
Paul in Galatians chapter three and verse seven said this, to
believers, know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
there it is, trusting in him with the heart, they which are
of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. the spiritual seed
of Abraham. In other words, that covenant,
that promise that was given to him is given to each and every
one of us who believe in him, who are his spiritual seed. All right, the third question
I want to ask is this. Why do we read in the New Testament
of the shield of faith? You're familiar with the New
Testament in Ephesians chapter 6. Why do we read of the shield
of faith if the Lord Jesus Christ, if he is our shield? Well, in
Ephesians chapter 6, many believe, we know Paul was in prison when
he wrote the letter of Ephesians. Many people believe he was chained.
Many historians tell us that he was chained to a soldier.
And as he was chained to a Roman soldier, he looked at him and
then he spiritualized everything that he saw about that Roman
soldier. The first thing was the belt,
the girdle, gird up. What did that represent to Paul?
The truth. The truth. And every one of us,
as God's children, as soldiers in His army, we are to gird up
ourselves with the truth that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then the next thing was the
breastplate. The breastplate, of course, protected
the heart, the most vital organ that we have in our bodies, I
imagine. The breastplate of what? Of righteousness. Whose righteousness? The righteousness
of Christ, the righteousness of God, that righteousness that
He worked out by His perfect obedience to the law of God,
to God Himself. And that righteousness is imputed,
is charged to the account of every one of us who believe in
Christ and that by His righteousness we are declared just before God. Oh, of all means, put on the
breastplate of righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, not any work that I have done, not any righteousness which
I can call my own, for all my righteousnesses are as filthy
rags before God. But it is His righteousness,
it's His righteousness that justifies. It's his righteousness that saves. And his righteousness is imputed
to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. The next thing, put on
the sandals. Now the sandals represent the
gospel again, the gospel of peace. And as you think about that,
as we walk, as we walk the gospel of peace. Have your feet shot
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Recognize that we do
have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And in our approach
unto God, we always come in the name and in the person of Jesus
Christ our Lord. We will not dare I trust none
of us here today. I can speak for myself for sure.
And I know I speak for many of you here, but I would not dare
try to approach unto God apart from his son, Jesus Christ. Would
you? Not at all. Not at all. Whatsoever
you shall ask the Father in my name, that will he do. That's
what he said. And then, of course, there was
a helmet. The Roman soldier would put on the helmet to cover his
head, the salvation for the head. And then there was one weapon
of offense, and that was the sword of the Spirit. And the
sword of the Spirit is, of course, the Word of God. But then the
apostle Paul said, and the shield of faith. Well, if Christ is
our shield, then what is this shield of faith? Are there two
shields? No, there are not two shields.
The Lord is the one shield of every believer. But the soldier's
shield, it was handled by his hand. And faith, the shield of
faith, we talk about the hand many times as representing faith,
how we receive Christ, believe in Christ, empty hand. In my hand no price I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. The empty hand, what a picture
of faith, right? Brings nothing. adds nothing,
merits nothing, simply receives. And it is with faith, a hand
of faith, that we hold the shield, which is Christ. We hold Him
and use Him. And that brings me to the fourth
question, the last question. From what does the Lord shield
His people? The Lord is my shield. From what
does he shield me? From what does he shield his
people? There's several things. But the
first thing he shields us from, the curses of God's broken law. The law of God, when you read
sometimes there in Leviticus, one of those chapters where God
goes down the line and he pronounces a curse upon everything, every
point of disobedience, And then I believe that chapter ends,
cursed be all who do not fulfill all things which are written
in the law of God for to do them. You know, a lot of people can
memorize the law. They can. That's not the issue. It's not knowing the law. It's
not committing to memory the law. It's obeying the law. And every disobedience there
was a curse pronounced. And the Lord Jesus Christ, as
our shield, He shields us from the curses of that broken law,
that law which we have broken. And how does He do that? He did
it as our shield. He received in His own body the
curses that we deserve. Just as a shield protects, so
he in his own body. Just as a shield receives the
blows from an opposing soldier, so the Lord Jesus Christ, he
received in his own body the curses that you and I merit by
breaking God's holy law. And then, second, he shields
the believer from accusations of his own conscience. Does your conscience ever accuse
you? I'm sure it does. I'm sure it
does, if it's not seared. Does it ever accuse you of what
you've done, what you shouldn't have done? He's a shield, even
though we have disobeyed and we've done something we should
not have done. The Lord is our shield and he
shields us with his precious atoning blood. John said if we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then third, he shields the
believer from Satan. and his fiery darts. In fact,
that's what the apostle says there in Ephesians chapter 6.
You know, there are almost as many of these fiery darts that
are thrown or hurled at a believer as there are demons, doubt, fear,
blasphemies, many things Satan hurls at us. You know what I'm
talking about. Even in a service, when you're
here to worship God, thoughts come toward you. Or when you're in prayer, trying
to seek the Lord in His face, and thoughts come. Not thoughts
that you would ever want. Where do they come from? Those
are those fiery darts that Satan is hurling at God's people. And the Lord is a shield. from
these fiery darts of Satan. Now I want to close this morning
with this thought. I hope I can convey to you what
I want to. When I began thinking about this
message, I thought I want to present it like this, as a shield
given and a shield taken. He is given to us as our shield. We could never merit Him to be
our shield. We could never deserve Him to
be our shield. We could never earn or pay a
price for Him to be our shield, our Savior. He's given to us. Salvation is completely a gift
of God. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He's a shield giver, but also he's a shield taken. And it is
as believers that we are told, we who have been given Christ
as our Savior, as our shield, and yet we are told, we are exhorted,
take above all, Paul said, above all, think about, above all these
things I've named, the girdle, the breastplate,
the helmet, the sandals, the sword of the Spirit above all,"
he said, above everything, taking the shield of faith, the shield
taken. We must take Him, you and I,
as His children. We must take Him hour by hour
and day by day as our shield. That is, we must continually
look to Him to shield us from temptations to sin, to shield
us from unworthy thoughts. What a privilege it is today
to know that along with the psalmist, you and I, we may say, the Lord
is my rock. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my shield. And I thought about these words
in the song of Moses. For their rock is not as our
rock. That's what Moses taught the
Israelites to sing. Their rock, their God, is not
as our rock. And we might say the same thing
about the Lord. Not only as our rock, but as
our strength, their strength, those who do not know Him. Their
strength is not as our strength. And their shield is not as our
shield. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to all of us here today and enable us to go out rejoicing
if we know Christ as our Lord and Savior, that He is our shield
and we must take Him We must take Him, look to Him, trust
in Him day by day. Let's sing this hymn number 269,
Under His Wings, Under His Wings.