Series: Psalms
Title: Help Lord!
Text: Psalm 12: 1-
Date: September 27, 2012
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Psalm 12: 1: «To the chief Musician upon
Sheminith, A Psalm of David.» Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the
faithful fail from among the children of men. 2
They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering
lips and with a double heart do they speak. 3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and
the tongue that speaketh proud things: 4
Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our
own: who is lord over us? 5 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. 6 The words of the LORD are
pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou
shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. 8 The wicked walk on every side, when the
vilest men are exalted.
Psalm 12: 1: Help LORD; for the godly man
ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
David
was betrayed repeatedly by men. At
Keilah: David fought against the Philistines and delivered the inhabitants of
that city. Then the LORD told him that
the very men of Keilah, who he had just delivered, would deliver David into the
hands of Saul. In the wilderness of
Ziph: David hid himself from Saul. Then
the Ziphites went up to Saul and asked Saul to come down, saying of David, “Our
part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.” At Nob: Ahimelech gave David food and a
sword. Doeg was there. Doeg went
straight to Saul and told him. BUT HE
WAS NOT SO FORSAKEN OF MEN AS WAS OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST—HE TREAD THE WINE
PRESS ALONE AND THERE WAS NONE TO HELP.
True godly men, faithful men strengthen us with their advice
and cheer us by their example. They delight
us with their fellowship and teach us patience by their endurance and they excite
us with their zeal for the Lord’s work. But
godly, faithful men are only men. Hebrews
11 says of every faithful one before us—“these
all DIED in faith.”
We mourn the death of faithful men with bitter-sweet
tears for our loss and their gain. But
even in this, God sees to it that the hearts of his children stay fixed on God
rather than men. God turns our eye to his throne of grace. He teaches us never-failing comfort is in
Christ our Redeemer..
In the
midst of betraying men the question in Psalm 11 was this: Psalm 11: 3: If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do? Here is what the righteous can do, we can draw near our High Priest and
ask--Help, LORD.
I. NOTICE THREE OR FOUR THINGS ABOUT THIS
PRAYER
First,
it is short. We live in a busy
time. But we have time to ask, “Help,
Lord.”
Secondly,
it is to the point.
Illustration: When our child stammers around instead of coming out
with it.
When we
are trying to impress men we pray a lot of doctrine. The Lord knows his doctrine—we really do not
have to tell him his doctrine. But when we really need help then we get to
the point: Help, LORD.
Thirdly,
it is importunate and full of faith. With
two words—“Help, LORD”—David expresses his own utter weakness and he expresses his
faith that the Lord is able to help him.
Application: The Lord Jesus Christ walked where we walk. He has felt what we feel, been surrounded by
the wicked on every side. As the
faithful servant of God for his people, he asked the Father for help. And received help. He knows how to helps us. Christ is now passed into the heavens. He is our High Priest. Go directly to him with our short, to the
point, importunate and faithful prayer.
He is ready to give us grace to help.
Hebrews 4: 14: Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. 15: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. 16: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF UNFAITHFUL MEN--Psalm
12: 2: They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering
lips and with a double heart do they speak.
This is the case with all men unless God create in us a
new heart. Each and every natural man is a treacherous and truthless cheat!
Jeremiah 9:2: Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging
place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for
they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 3: And they bend their
tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon
the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the
LORD. 4: Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother:
for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with
slanders. 5: And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak
the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to
commit iniquity. 6: Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit
they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. 8: Their tongue is as an arrow shot
out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his
mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.
Romans 16:18: For they that are such serve not our Lord
Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive
the hearts of the simple.
Godly,
faithful men speak the truth, plainly.
1 Thessalonians 2:5: 1: For yourselves, brethren, know
our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain: 2 But even after that we had suffered before,
and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at Philippi, we were bold in our God
to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. 3 For our exhortation was not of deceit,
nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: 4 But
as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak;
not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. 5 For neither at any time used we flattering
words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: 6 Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you,
nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles
of Christ.
Let me
speak plainly to you. Sinners are dead,
not damaged. All men by nature are
God-haters, not god-lovers. And none can
give a man life and make a man willing but God.
Men do not get saved by walking an aisle, by walking the Roman’s Road, by
repeating what some flattering false prophet tells you to repeat, by mom and
dad baptizing you or because they may be believers.
Has
anyone told you that before? Where the
grace of God is absent insincerity prevails. The natural heart is a double
heart. Teaching commandments of men
which make sinners think they are keeping the commandments of God is deceitful.
By doing so men make the law of God of none effect rather than declaring all
men guilty, rather than shutting every mouth.
They make men think they can keep the commandment of God. Also, by doing
so they put themselves in the place of God—as the enforcer of their
commandments.
Matthew
15: 6…Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your
tradition. 7: Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8: This
people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from me. 9: But in vain they do worship me, teaching for
doctrines the commandments of men. 10: And he called the multitude, and said
unto them, Hear, and understand: 11 Not
that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man.
Self is at the bottom of it all flattering lips—me, my
and mine. Unregenerate sinners only seek
to protect their own life: whether that life consist of money, preeminence or
some ungodly false refuge. The natural
man cannot deny himself and rest in Christ alone
Truth
is: sinners are born of God, without the help of the sinner or of men. Christ the Truth said,
John 6: 63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life.
John 1: 10: He was in the world, and the world was made
by him, and the world knew him not. 11: He came unto his own, and his own
received him not. 12: But as many as received him, to them gave HE power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13: Which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT
OF GOD.
Romans 2: 28 For
he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he
is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not
of men, but of God.
Matthew 16: 13: When Jesus came into the coasts of
Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the
Son of man am? 14: And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist:
some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15: He saith unto
them, But whom say ye that I am? 16: And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17: And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
When the sinner is born of God and given eyes
to see by God, we are made to see that salvation is of God, not of man. God elected whom he would, because a dead,
god-hating sinner will not choose God.
Romans 9: 15 For
he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that sheweth mercy.
Christ
laid down his life for the elect—not every man—I lay down my life for the sheep—Christ succeeded in justifying
each one for whom he died. WE PREACH PARTICULAR REDEMPTION BECAUSE GOD SAVES
THROUGH THE GOSPEL WHICH DECALRES THE SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT OF REDEMPTION
BY CHRIST—and not through that message which declares Christ a failure without
the sinners help.
Heb 9:12 Neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
ANY
MESSAGE THAT MAKES CHRIST’S BLOOD TO BE EFFECTUAL BY THE WORK OF THE SINNER IS
JUST MORE FREE-WILL, WORKS RELIGION. IT
FLATTERS THE SINNER INTO THINKING THAT BY SOMETHING THE SINNER DOES, HE MAKES
CHRIST A SUCCESS. WE NEED CHRIST’S
SALVATION, HE DOES NOT NEED OUR HELP! It
is preaching circumcision and men will not hate you if you put the choosing in
man’s hands.
Flattering lips may say,
“We are all sinners.” But they won’t
tell you “the natural man receiveth not
the things of God, nor can he.” That
natural man is Eph. 4:18 “alienated from the life of God…because of
the blindness of the heart.”
Flattering lips may say, John 3: 16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. [But flattering lips
don’t give you the rest of Christ’s word to Nicodemus]…19: And this is the
condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be
reproved.
Flattering lips may say, “jesus will save you if you put your trust in
him.” But to shut sinners up to
Christ we must declare what the Lord himself said: “Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him.
The audience is so
flattered when a liar leaves the choice up to man. The liar is puffed up in his pride saying,
“With my lips I’ve prevailed.”
Why did the Lord say, “without me ye can do nothing.”
If
MAN has any ability to change his natural condition then: spiritual life would
be by man; wisdom, Repentance, and Faith would be by man; it would be man who
put himself in Christ by his choice; it would be man who makes Christ’s blood
effectual and man would keep himself by his own power. BUT then the Lord Jesus
Christ ceases to be the way, the truth, and the life, he ceases to be the Author
and the Finisher of Faith! And a puny
sinner puts himself in the place of god.
Sinners have got to be brought down to the
dust—to utter inability, to utter desperation, to look to God to save.
Christ
is God’s own Son. God chose Christ to do the saving, not
sinners to save themselves. It pleased
God that his Son receive all the preeminence, not sinners. In Christ dwells all
fullness, not in sinners. Salvation is by Christ’s obedience,
because we are only disobedience, unless his obedience be imputed to us. Justification
is by Christ’s works, not the sinners. Sanctification is the work of the triune
God and God receives all the glory for it, not those who are sanctified. Faith
and repentance are God’s gifts to us, not something we muster up in ourselves.
Illustration: Art said, “Thank you for telling us the truth.” I said, “You’ve been lied to long enough.”
III. WHY ARE YOU SO SERIOUS AND SO DOGMATIC
ABOUT THIS TO US?--Psalm 12: 3: The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and
the tongue that speaketh proud things: 4: Who have said, With our tongue will
we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?
You and
I will meet God very soon. I don’t want you to stand before God and
expect God to receive you in your pride.
Matthew 7: 22 Many
will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and
in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
1Samuel 2:3 Talk
no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the
LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
·
Self-will—denying that it’s God who
reigneth! That God alone is Sovereign—
·
Self-love—ignorant that God hates
pride—“through the pride of his
countenance, MAN will not seek after
God.”
·
Self-righteousness—denying—that no man can
please God, that there is none righteous, denying that “The Lord’s arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it
sustained him.”
·
Self-sufficiency—denying that “in him we live, and move, and have our
being…denying Christ who said, without
me ye can do nothing.”
Psalm 12: 8: The
wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Illustration: Passing bigger and better churches all the way here.
IV. THE LORD ANSWERS THE PRAYER OF THE NEEDY—Psalm
12: 5 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. 6
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times.
Christ
hears us because Christ the Word came to where we are. He was oppressed by wicked men. He
tread the wine-press alone—his godly and faithful men fled. Flattering tongues
betrayed him on every side. But he remained faithful even when he was
tried as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
The
Word, who spoke the words of God, who fulfilled the words of God, committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously—he cried, Help, Lord. When he had purged our sins and obtained
eternal redemption for us, when eternal justice was satisfied for all his elect,
when he had cried out, IT IS FINISHED, God the Father answered, “now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will
set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.”
Because
his children are one with him, when vain, flattering tongues walk on every side,
when he hears our cry for help, according to his faithful word…
Psalm 12: 7: Thou shalt keep them, O LORD,
thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
1 Samuel 2:9: He will keep the feet of his saints, and
the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
Our
great Redeemer shall keep everyone of his poor and needy saints from this
wicked generation of men in which we live and none shall be corrupted or intimidated
by them. Sinner, flee to him. Believer, cry to him. Our SAVIOR IS THE MIGHTY
GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH—AND HE SHALL LOSE NONE WHO TRUST IN HIM!
Amen!