I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
This year's my glory, to God be glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Once I was foolish, and sin ruled my heart,
Causing my footsteps from God to depart.
Jesus has found me, and he my face.
I'm now a sinner, saved by grace.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
This year's my glory, to God be glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Tears unoffending, no merit had I.
First he had saved me, or else I was kind.
Sin had a hard meaning, fearing God's grace.
But now I'm a sinner, saved by grace.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
This year's my glory, to God be glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Some for a sinner, whose heart overflows.
Some for a sinner, saved by grace.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
This year's my glory, to God be glory.
I'm only a sinner, saved by grace.
Good evening.
Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin and you didn't get one already,
just lift your hand up real quick.
We have our Bible memory passage, Psalm 58.
And as I had stated on Wednesday,
if any of you kiddos can quote verse 2,
because Wednesday night we broke a record
and we had ice cream for everybody.
So if you did memorize verse 2,
you can quote it tonight and you can get ice cream.
So that's not this verse.
It's not verse 3.
It's verse 2 from last week.
So all of you guys that worked hard,
I want to still reward you.
And so if you can quote verse 2,
you can still get an ice cream treat
immediately following the service.
On the inside we have our service time,
soul winning times, and church stats.
On the right, our list is of prayer
for the expecting ladies and prayer list.
Also the back is our church reminders
and upcoming events.
Please, if you haven't already,
sign up for our Mighty Men's Conference
so that we can anticipate you coming.
And please schedule to be here for October
for our Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship.
It's going to be a lot of fun
and we're having a lot of special guests coming here.
So we would like for you guys to participate.
That's really all I have for announcements.
Please turn to our special psalm
that we're trying to learn, Psalm 119.
Hopefully you're able to learn a little bit.
Just to give you an FYI,
to read it, the first top part is a repeating chorus
and then the next two sections are the verses
and we do one all the way through
and then repeat to the second one.
And then on the bottom, it's actually,
it's got a repeat there.
It's kind of hard to see because it's a little bit smaller,
but those bottom two verses,
you repeat every single time through both of them
and then we go through it three times.
So hopefully you can kind of pick up
and follow along as Brother Dylan leads us.
Sing it out nice and loud.
All right, everyone.
Psalm 119.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
I have sworn and I will perform it,
that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
I am afflicted, very much cliquing me,
O Lord of mourning, unto thy word.
The wicked have made us near,
only yet I e'er come from thy precepts.
Thy jest and the least have I taken,
as an heritage forever.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
Except I beseech,
the free will of grace,
of my mouth, O Lord,
and teach me thy judgments,
My soul is continually in mine,
and yet do I not forget thy love.
The wicked have made us near,
only yet I e'er come from thy precepts.
Thy jest and the least have I taken,
as an heritage forever.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
For they are the rejoicing of my heart,
heart I have in mine,
my heart to purify,
by statutes all made,
even unto the end.
I hate making thoughts, but
I love you, I love,
loving in thy place.
Just before thee,
yet I e'er come from thy precepts.
Thy jest and the least have I taken,
as an heritage forever.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
Great singing.
At this time, as the offering plays
are being passed around,
please turn in your Bibles
to Psalm chapter number 18,
Psalm 18.
Psalm chapter 18, the Bible reads,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength,
in whom I will trust, my buckler,
and the horn of my salvation
and my high tower.
I will call upon the Lord,
who is worthy to be praised.
So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
The sorrows of death compassed me,
and the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid.
The sorrows of hell compassed me about.
The snares of death prevented me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord
and cried unto my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple,
and my cry came before him,
even into his ears.
Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations also of the hills moved
and were shaken because he was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of his nostrils
and fire out of his mouth devoured.
Coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also and came down,
and darkness was under his feet.
And he rode upon a cherub and did fly.
Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his secret place.
His pavilion round about him were dark waters
and thick clouds of the skies.
At the brightness that was before him,
his thick clouds passed hailstones
and coals of fire.
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the highest gave his voice
hailstones and coals of fire.
Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them,
and he shot out lightnings and discomfited them.
Then the channels of waters were seen,
and the foundations of the world were discovered
at thy rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
He sent from above. He took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy
and from them which hated me,
for they were too strong for me.
They prevented me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my stay.
He brought me forth also into a large place.
He delivered me because he delighted in me.
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands,
hath he recompensed me,
for I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his judgments were before me,
and I did not put away his statutes from me.
I was also upright before him,
and I kept myself from mine iniquity.
Therefore, hath the Lord recompensed me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands,
and his eyesight.
With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful,
with an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright,
with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure,
and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.
For thou wilt save the afflicted people,
but will bring down high looks.
For thou wilt light my candle,
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by thee I have run through a troop,
and by my God have I leaped over a wall.
As for God, his way is perfect,
the word of the Lord is tried,
he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
For who is God save the Lord,
or who is a rock save our God?
It is God that girdeth me with strength
and maketh my way perfect.
He maketh my feet like hind's feet
and setteth me upon my high places.
He teacheth my hands to war
so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms,
thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation,
and thy right hand hath holden me up,
and thy gentleness hath made me great.
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me
that my feet did not slip.
I have pursued mine enemies and overtaken them,
neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
I have wounded them that they were not able to rise,
they are fallen under my feet.
For thou hast girded me with strength under the battle,
thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies
that I might destroy them that hate me.
They cried, but there was none to save them,
even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.
Then that I beat them small as the dust before the wind,
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people,
and thou hast made me the head of the heathen,
a people whom I have not known shall serve me.
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.
The strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
The strangers shall fade away
and be afraid out of their close places.
The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock,
and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
It is God that avengeth me and subdueth the people under me.
He delivereth me from mine enemies,
yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me.
Thou hast delivered me from the violent man.
Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord,
among the heathen, and sing praises unto thy name.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king,
and showeth mercy to his anointed,
to David, and to his seed forevermore.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord,
for Psalm chapter 18, Lord, and for your word,
and we pray, Father God, that you would just fill Pastor Shelley
with your spirit and help him to expound the scripture to us tonight.
Help us to apply the message to our lives, Lord,
and keep us safe, Father, as we all go our separate ways after the service.
We love you, and it is in Jesus' name that I pray. Amen.
Amen.
So I'm picking back up with a series that I've kind of been going through,
and it's where we're reading through the Psalms,
and we're kind of looking at the Psalms from a little bit more of a high-level perspective,
trying to read larger portions of the Psalms,
and not necessarily being confined to a singular chapter.
However, some Psalms found in the Bible are very lengthy.
Many of them are very short, so through this journey,
most of the time we've been going through several different Psalms in a singular sermon,
just kind of getting the essence, getting more of the themes of the Psalms.
But this particular Psalm is pretty lengthy,
and so we're going to mostly just be focused on this Psalm this evening,
and not necessarily have to go to any other Psalms.
But again, I'm still striving for just getting the general themes of this particular chapter,
not necessarily pinpointing every single verse,
but more just kind of isolating and thinking about some of the verses
that really frame the theme of this particular chapter.
Now, this particular chapter is very interesting as far as just who we're talking about,
or who this applies to.
And I would say this is a very complicated Psalm
in the sense that not every verse seems to apply to a singular person.
It almost seems as if some verses only apply to the Lord Jesus Christ,
some kind of only apply to David, and yet there's a lot of overlap amongst all of it,
and so we kind of get this beautiful mosaic again of this passage of Psalm 8,
teaching us a lot of different things.
But look at verse number 1.
The Bible says,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my strength, and whom I will trust,
my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower.
Now, of course, the Psalms are meant to be sung,
and this is a very lengthy song.
If we were to ever put this to music, it would probably take, I don't know,
anywhere from 10 minutes or more to even sing the entire Psalm in its complexity.
But think about kind of the essence that it's really trying to drive in.
It's really driving in this first verse, honestly.
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
And it even repeats that, if you notice, in verse number 2.
It says that he's my strength again in verse 2,
and all of these other characteristics that are being described here of the Lord
are really just that essence.
If you want to understand Psalm 18, we've already understood it.
The Lord is my strength.
I mean, that is just the express captured point of this Psalm.
It's what the author really wants to get across.
And I also believe it is the key to success.
The key to success is always understanding that the Lord is your strength.
Specifically, in military conquests, in a situation where you have a grave danger or an enemy,
understanding that the Lord is your strength is what's going to give you the true victory.
Now, when we think about the Psalms, who are we thinking about as the human author?
We're thinking about David.
And, of course, David had great victories in his life.
Military victories.
We have victories even over his own personal enemies.
He had victory as an entire nation, being one of the chief commanders.
He had victory over his enemy Saul.
And, of course, David could very easily have gotten an attitude with how victorious he was.
I mean, David was, you know, the top guy.
I mean, he's the best warrior, best looking.
Everybody wants to be David.
All the women are singing about David.
I mean, David basically kind of, in essence, has it all.
Very good looking and eventually even climbs to the throne.
So you could almost argue has everything.
He has all the money.
He's the most powerful nation.
He is a great singer.
He's a great musician.
I mean, everything that a girl wants, it's like this guy, right?
Top athlete, top earner, best singer, best looking.
I mean, it's like, what do girls go after?
I mean, they like the singers.
They like the athletes.
They like the guys that have money.
I mean, typically, you only have to score in one of these to get a good looking chick.
He's scoring in every category.
I mean, David has just got it all.
But you know what I like about David is he still realizes that it's God that gives him his strength.
It's God that gives him his victory.
It's God that is the one that he relies upon to have the successes that he has in his life.
And I think that, you know, David is a great example of even if you are, humanly speaking,
naturally gifted, talented, very successful, or very capable,
that you should still realize it's the Lord that's giving you your victories and it's not you.
It's not your strength or your might or your willpower or whatever.
It's the Lord. Notice in verse 2, the Lord is my rock.
And I like how it's being described.
It's kind of like he's describing this picture in my mind.
Because if you think about a rock, what is the rock?
The rock often is your foundation.
Almost every foundation that's worth its salt is a rock foundation.
We're sitting on concrete.
And of course, that's a very stable style of foundation.
If we were on sand, it wouldn't be very stable.
And I want to dwell on that point in a minute.
But before I get there, I want to kind of paint this picture.
Notice, then he has a fortress.
You know, you're kind of putting a fort- What do you put a fortress on?
You put a fortress on a rock, don't you?
So you have these layers of security, safety, and strength.
What gives a house strength? It being on a rock. Founded on a rock.
What gives you strength? How about a fortress, right?
That's a lot of strength.
If someone comes to attack you, but you have a fortress,
well, it's really hard to defeat you, right?
So notice the Lord is not only that fortress.
He's that foundation upon which that is built.
Notice he's also my deliverer.
So even though he has a rock and he has a fortress,
notice he still needs a deliverer.
And, of course, my God, which would be your ruler, the one in charge,
my strength, and he's kind of almost internalizing this,
thinking about, it's not that I'm strong, the Lord is my strength,
and whom I'll trust, my buckler. What's a buckler?
A buckler is a type of a shield that you would have.
So he's got the shield, and then notice, and the horn of my salvation.
Now, the horn, you know, I think that it's picturing here,
and you can look this up in other places,
it's more picturing a horn that of like an animal.
And I think that this makes sense, you know, within the context,
but specifically if you think about a unicorn,
and I'm not talking about necessarily a mythical creature,
but the Bible does describe a beast or an animal as a unicorn
and says that it's very strong.
What is its only weapon in a military situation?
It's its horn.
And, of course, that's how it attacks.
It's also kind of its glory and epicenter of the beast,
if you think about it.
But what's going to save a unicorn from danger?
It's the horn.
The horn is what's used to attack.
It's what's used to win.
And it's what technically saves you.
What part of the animal of a unicorn would save it?
It would be the horn of that particular unicorn.
You could think of a rhinoceros or some other beast that's similar.
It's designed that that horn would be the salvation of its animal
because it's dangerous to an enemy.
It can destroy the enemy.
It can crush the enemy.
And so he's saying that the Lord is his horn.
If you cut off the horn of a unicorn, it has no savior.
It has no salvation ability.
So what is the only salvation of the unicorn?
It's its horn.
And so in the same way, the Lord is our horn
in the sense that that's the only savior that we have.
That's what's going to give us that salvation.
That's our weapon.
That's our ability to win in some kind of a battle.
Notice also, he's my high tower.
What's another thing that could deliver you?
It would be a very high tower that you're up in
and you're rescued, you're saved.
It's very difficult to defeat someone that's in a high tower.
And so all of these pictures that we have here,
they're kind of picturing what?
Battle, conquest, but that of strength.
You know, you think about, you're on a rock.
That's strength, right?
You have a fortress.
That's strength.
He literally talks about strength.
He talks about God.
He talks about the horn.
He talks about the fortress.
But notice, all of these attributes are dedicated
to the Lord.
Verse 2, the Lord is, what is the Lord?
He's the rock.
He's the fortress.
He's the liver.
He's the God.
He's the strength.
He is the buckler.
He is the horn of his salvation.
And he's this high tower.
He's everything.
Notice he's saying every way that I could possibly
describe God, he is the one that's going to give me
my strength.
What would someone that's not trusting in God,
what would they trust in?
They would trust in their foundation.
They would trust in their fortress.
They would trust in their physical strength.
They would trust in their shield.
They would trust in their metaphorical horn,
whatever that is.
Maybe it's a gun or a sword or whatever they're
ready to go to combat with.
And they're maybe even trusting in the fact that
they're in some high tower.
So they're trusting in what?
Their physical strength.
David's saying, look, all of those things for me is
just God.
Every single thing that could ever be attributed to
strength or protection or going to give me salvation
is just simply God.
God is what's going to deliver me,
give me salvation, and I'm trusting on him.
Look at verse 3.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be
praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.
So what is David relying upon to get military victory?
Only God.
That makes sense why a young shepherd boy could run
at the most fierce Goliath of all time.
I mean the Bible describes David as running at him.
When they get into battle, David is not staying back.
He literally runs at the Philistine and he throws
the rock and it hits him in the forehead and he kills
him.
What would have happened if he had missed?
What would have happened if he had hit him just in
the cheek?
What would have happened if he had hit him in the
shoulder?
I mean he had to hit him just dead on perfectly with
enough velocity to knock this guy down because
otherwise he's doomed.
I mean Goliath is death and destruction.
And he wasn't even timid about it.
He's running at him.
But what is he trusting in?
He's trusting in God to deliver him.
He knows that the Lord is going to rescue him.
And of course there's the symbolism there.
What is it that kills Goliath?
It's the rock.
And who's that rock?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it?
And so the Lord Jesus Christ is what gave him the
victory.
That's what causes him to run anyways is the fact
that he's trusting in the Lord.
And we have a lot of these parallels here.
Now before I get too deep, I want to go to another
passage.
Go to Matthew chapter 7 for a moment.
Go to Matthew chapter number 7.
So really the Lord is my rock.
I mean the Lord is my strength.
The Lord is my deliverer.
And the Bible uses this same metaphor often in
Scripture of a rock.
Matthew chapter 7 describes the importance of
building and your foundational materials.
Look at kind of the latter portion of this chapter.
Let's start in verse number 24.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine,
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man
which built his house upon a rock.
So the Bible is giving us carnal instruction but
it's using it as a metaphor for spiritual
understanding.
Of course if you're going to build a house
physically, you also want to build it on a rock.
Why?
Because rocks are stable and they're not going to
shift as much and it's going to be able to afford
your house to have something sturdy to last and to
be built on and to exist for a very long period of
time.
So that's why you do it carnally.
God uses this carnal truth to expound spiritual
truths.
That in your life you want to build your life on a
rock metaphorically and what is that rock?
It's Jesus.
What is that rock?
It's the word of God.
Jesus Christ is the word and the word is Jesus
Christ and the sayings of Jesus are His word and of
course you want to build your life on that
particular rock.
That rock is going to give you strength in your
life.
What's going to give you success in your life?
Basing it on the scripture.
Basing it on Jesus and allowing Jesus Christ to be
your strength.
Allowing Jesus Christ to give you the capability of
winning in every area of life.
You say, hey Pastor Shelley, how are you being
successful in marriage?
Because my marriage is built on the rock.
Hey Pastor Shelley, why are your children going to
be successful?
Because I'm raising them based on the rock.
Hey Pastor Shelley, why is Step Past Baptist Church
so successful?
Because it's built on a rock.
Because it's based on a rock.
Why is your church so strong?
Because it's based on the rock.
Because we have strength through the scriptures.
Well how come, you know, any strength that I have,
any victory I have, if you ask me it's only because
of this.
It's only based on the word of God.
That's what gives you true strength, true success in
life.
Look at verse 25, and the rain descended and the
floods came and the winds blew and beat upon the
house and it fell not for it was found upon a rock.
You know, the news came and the protesters came and
the terrorists showed up and you know what?
Guess what?
The church was still standing.
You say, oh, well, you know, we can knock down your
building.
Yeah, but the building's not the church anyways.
It's the people.
And you know what I notice is the people still love
God just as much as before.
In fact, I would argue that our church and most of
the members here love God even more than they did
prior to these protests.
They took Christianity, they're taking it even more
serious.
They actually love the Bible even more.
And in fact, they hate fags even more.
You know, it's like they have the opposite effect.
They're thinking like, well, maybe we can turn people
away.
You're just making us stronger.
You're just, and you say, why?
Because verses in the Bible that you're kind of
squeamish on, you're getting more belief in.
You're like, wow, that is right.
Wow, the Bible is really true on this particular
subject.
And you're allowing the Bible to be your rock.
Whereas people that have built their churches and
their houses on sand, they're crumbling fast.
The Southern Baptist Convention built their house
on shocking the gateway.
But you know what?
It's not working, is it?
And that's because they're not built on a rock.
When does the Bible say shock the gateway?
It says to rock it to sleep, okay?
Everything goes back to the rock, folks, okay?
You know?
And of course, why is it that they're a sinking ship
and they have all kinds of problems and they can't
even figure out what they're doing?
It's because that portion of their life is not built
on the rock.
And why would you have success, you know, if it's
not built on the rock?
Well, there's kind of only two ways to get successful
in this life.
It's either to go through Satan or to go through the
Bible.
But you know what?
The church is never going to be successful trying to
get the devil to help them.
And if we want to be successful as a church, as a
Christian, as God's child, it's only going to be when
we put all of our effort and energy into following his
commandments and hearkening to the sayings.
Look at verse 26.
And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and
doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man,
which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended and the floods came and the
winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and
great was the fall of it.
Now, I want to stress something to you guys that I
don't think you can, most of you probably don't fully
understand is the fact that most churches, and I don't
know, let me ask this question.
How many people went to church regularly before
coming to Steadfast Baptist Church?
Okay, so, you know, a decent amount, maybe a little
more than half.
That's good.
But, you know, that gives you some perspective.
If those churches that you're going to, okay, moved,
moved 20 to 30 minutes away, how successful do you
think that church would have been in its move?
And then what if they moved again?
Another, like, 30 minutes away.
And then what if they moved, like, 40 minutes away?
I mean, let's be realistic.
How many churches today could literally just, like,
move around and shuffle around?
I mean, most churches that move five minutes could
start losing people.
And, you know, it's crazy because you guys defy
everybody else's logic.
Like, when I talk to people and, you know, especially
business relationships and they're, you know,
especially trying to get alone, they're, like,
thinking, like, are you guys moving?
How far?
You know, it's like, they're like, well, you know,
are you going to lose anybody?
And I'm thinking, like, I don't know, you know.
But it doesn't necessarily matter how far the church
is.
It's more like what we're preaching, what we're
doing, how nice, you know, things like that that are
more important.
But I honestly just don't know.
I don't know how far people are willing to go or what,
you know, what their expectation is.
But I'll be honest with you.
If you ask any other church in here, hey, move 30
minutes away, they would be, like, it's suicide.
It's suicide for the church.
We'll literally just basically ruin ourselves.
People won't come.
Because most people are only willing to drive five,
ten minutes to church.
Maybe 15.
You know, now they hardly will even move.
They'll just watch it online, you know, or they won't
even, they don't even want to go anywhere.
So the idea of moving even further would just
basically destroy many churches today.
But, you know, that's because their church is
built on sand.
And if anything, put any pressure on it.
So think about it this way.
This is why I'm making this point to relate to the
scripture.
What if they had all those protesters and all the
things and they got evicted or they were forced to
move?
It could literally destroy them.
So that's why they will never put that in jeopardy.
They can't afford that.
They can't allow it.
So they don't even want to preach those things.
They don't even want to do those things.
Because when, hey, the storms come or the waves or
whatever, their house will literally fall because
they're just not trusting in the rock.
But I guarantee if that church started putting
their faith in the rock, you know what?
That rock can withstand the pressure.
It can withstand the heat.
It can withstand the adversity.
And no matter what happens, they can't stop this train
as long as we're on the rock.
I mean, they could put a bullet in my head today and
tomorrow this church would still go on.
People would still go out soul winning.
People would still come here and somehow God would
just give y'all a better pastor and they would just
keep fighting.
In fact, you'd probably multiply like crazy because
everybody would hear about it and tons of people would
get excited.
You know, they can't stop a train that's built on the
rock, folks.
They can't stop Christians that are actually dedicated
to the rock.
And it doesn't matter.
If they start killing you, you multiply.
If they leave you alone, you multiply.
If they attack you, you multiply.
In fact, we're going to multiply.
And that's what they're really terrified of.
That's what they're really scared of as long as we're
built on the rock of Jesus Christ and we allow Him to
be our strength and allow Him to be the one that we're
built upon and that we're trusting in.
And notice what it says in verse 28,
and it came to pass when Jesus did any of these things,
the people were astonished at His doctrine for He taught
them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
Notice the scribes didn't have any authority.
Why?
Because they're built on sand.
It wasn't really stable.
It wasn't really secure.
But Jesus Christ knows exactly what He's saying and
He's sharp as a rock.
Go back.
You know, I've heard this before and I like this
saying, if you lay on sand, the sand will look like you.
If you lay on a rock, you'll look like the rock.
And of course, this is how it should work in Christianity
that when we go to the Bible, we don't end up turning it
into an NIV.
No, no, no.
It turns us into a King James only believer.
Right?
We come to the Bible and it changes us.
We don't get to this and say, yeah, I don't like this.
Let's change it to an NIV or let's change this into the
Holman Christian Standard Bible.
No, no, no, no, no.
We let the Bible change us.
And we let the Bible tell us what's right and wrong.
We don't come to the Bible and say, like, that can't
be right.
Leviticus 20, 13 can't be right.
No, no, no.
It is right.
And the more you start reading this book, the more
you're going to be like, yeah, that's right.
That makes perfect sense.
And you start liking it and you start wanting it.
Okay?
Now, as we keep reading Psalm, chapter 18, I also
think what's kind of interesting, and again, the
most, I think the biggest context here is kind of
more of a physical deliverance.
But doesn't it kind of give you the idea of the same
thing here of just spiritual salvation?
It's like, hey, I want deliverance.
I want salvation.
How do I get that?
What did verse 3 say?
I will call upon the Lord.
Notice the way you get salvation is by calling upon
the name of the Lord.
The way you get deliverance is by calling upon the
name of the Lord.
Now, I've heard some people say, well, that's just
physical.
And I'm thinking, like, really?
God in the universe said, you know, if you want
physical deliverance, please ask me.
But spiritual never asks me.
That's ludicrous logic.
Of course, it's the same, right?
Just like many of the people in the Bible that wanted
physical salvation, they wanted healing in their
Bible, in their body, they would scream out and say,
Son of David, have mercy on me.
And of course, he saved them or healed them because
of their faith.
And it was a picture of spiritual and physical
salvation.
Why?
Because Jesus likes to use carnal truths for us to
understand the things that are going on in the
spiritual realm.
But, of course, they get this salvation because they
called upon him.
But I also want you to notice this.
He didn't just call upon him.
Where is this guy's faith?
Isn't his faith in the Lord?
I mean, he just explained to you in verses 1 and 2
that all of his strength was in Jesus.
It was in the Lord, right?
The Lord is the Rock, the Lord is the Liver, the
Lord is the Safe.
So when he called upon him, he was doing so in faith.
He was doing so with all of his trust in the Lord,
none in himself.
Which is another great truth of the Gospel message
that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's
not just calling, it's calling with 100% faith in
Jesus.
Because when your faith is in yourself, it doesn't
matter how many times you call, he doesn't answer.
If you want him to help you, you have to actually trust
in him.
He likes to help people, but he likes to help people
that sincerely want his help, not to simply just
help themselves.
And notice he's saved from his enemies.
If you think about it, one of the enemies in the
Bible is death.
In fact, it's considered the last enemy.
And so, just like we got saved from that enemy,
there can also be physical enemies in this world that
we need deliverance from.
Well, how do we get it?
How are we delivered from Joe Biden?
How are we delivered from communism?
How are we delivered from the evils that are in this
world?
There's only one way.
If we trust 100% in Jesus and we call upon him and
we ask him for it.
That is how you get physical salvation.
It's not by us being strong, it's not by me building
a bunker, by me building a fortress, by me building a
high tower, by me getting all of Info Wars 24-7 food
or whatever, the storable 25 year shelf life food
bunker while I have so much renewable energy and gas
and electric.
You don't even know how much ammo I have.
You don't even know how much I've been working out.
I can do 1,000 pushups on my pinky.
I can't.
Okay folks, it was an exaggeration.
But I'm just saying, that's not what's going to get me
through the apocalypse.
You know what's going to get me delivered?
Jesus.
I mean, think about it.
Think about the insanity of being caught up to the Red
Sea and thinking like, what are we going to do?
Well, how much storable food do you have?
He's like, it doesn't matter.
It was an impossible situation and then God delivered them.
You have Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced with a
fiery furnace.
Well, do you have a flame retardant suit that I can
borrow?
No, no, no.
There was no possibility.
And I will argue that honestly, if you were to
understand the complexities of how corrupt our government
is, there is probably no real solution.
Like, from a carnal perspective, there's not really
a feasible or understandable solution.
But you know what I know is that God could somehow fix
it.
Even though I, it's like, I've thought about this a
lot.
I've thought of like, how do you fix America?
And it's like, you literally can't.
Like, it doesn't matter.
It's like, well, fix voting.
They would vote dumb stuff in tomorrow.
You really think if we just let everybody start voting
they're going to vote for good things or vote for
righteousness in this country?
All the people committing adultery and fornication
and drinking and getting high and getting meth.
I mean, if everybody in a Texas could vote, we'd
probably legalize marijuana tomorrow.
We'd probably legalize a lot of weird junk and it would
become insane.
I already know what it would be like because if you've
ever visited Houston versus Dallas, you realize that
the city is kind of a train wreck.
You know why?
Because they don't have any building code like
issuances.
You can basically build anything next to anything.
It could be like hotel, adult bar, church, orchard,
you know, whatever.
It's just like everything's right next to each other.
It's like, what's the nice neighborhood in Houston?
It's like, I don't know because it's like, I mean,
you could literally build anything right next to
anything because they have no zoning restrictions
there.
And it's like, wow, this is weird.
Because when people can just do whatever they want,
it gets weird fast.
And if we just said, hey, America, just vote for and
get whatever you want, it's more McDonald's?
More?
I mean, what do you think that these people are going
to bring in?
There's no solution, humanly speaking.
You say, well, let's get a monarch.
Well, who are we going to pick?
How's that going to work?
I mean, there's literally no way to draw up a plan,
carnally speaking, of how to deliver America from the
doom that it's in.
The only option is God.
Now, it could be that there is no solution.
God's just going to nuke it off the face of the planet
because it's Babylon, USA.
But that's one theory.
But what I do know is that if we were going to be
delivered, it will not be by human means.
It will only be by a spiritual miracle.
Now, he can use people to do that.
But I don't know, I'm not going to trust in Donald
Trump to save America.
I'm not going to trust in any of the Republicans.
Definitely not Ted Cruz.
And so we should do the same.
We need to trust in the Lord.
Now, look at verse 4.
The sorrows of death compass me and the floods of
ungodly men made me afraid.
The sorrows of hell compass me about the snares of
death prevented me.
I believe that there's foreshadowing a lot in this
chapter about the Lord Jesus Christ.
And of course, David doesn't have to worry about hell.
So I believe that's a metaphor for David.
The Lord Jesus Christ did literally have to worry
about hell.
And think about this.
The sorrows of death and the sorrows of hell.
When do you think that this was Jesus Christ's point
in time?
The Garden of Gethsemane.
Now, what does it mean to be prevented?
Jesus Christ is arguably not necessarily ready to be
taken and beaten and put to death.
Kind of in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's kind of
getting his will aligned with the Lord's will in
that moment because he's kind of asking for the Lord
to take the cup away from him.
And then he's kind of submitting and he's saying,
not my will but thine be done.
So you could argue that in that moment, he's kind of
being prevented from just doing what the Lord wants.
Why?
Out of the realization and the understanding of that
he's facing the sorrows of death and the sorrows of
hell.
And so he doesn't want to necessarily have to go
through that.
And I appreciate that humanity aspect of the Lord
Jesus Christ because it illustrates that this wasn't
something that Jesus was just like, I'm so excited
to die on the cross.
Like he actually doesn't want to.
Which makes it that much more impactful that he's
willing to go through something he doesn't even
want to do for us.
I mean, how many of you wives out there that have
to do things your husband asks you to do that you
don't want to?
When's the last time he asked you to get crucified?
I mean, of all the tasks that you have to do that
you don't want to do, I think crucifixion outweighs
yours.
I think it beats your burden that you have to bear.
But what is Jesus Christ's attitude?
Not my will but thine be done.
And what the enemy likes to do is the enemy just
simply wants you to stop doing God's will.
It doesn't matter why.
The devil doesn't care why you're not following God's
commandments.
He just doesn't want you to do it.
And he doesn't want you to follow the Lord's will.
So he'll try lots of tactics, right?
He'll try the tactic of the Garden of Eden where
temptation, sin, and doing these things.
But another tactic that the devil likes to employ is
fear.
He wants to scare you away from serving God.
He wants to scare you and intimidate you from doing
the Lord's will, like showing up to church, like
reading your Bible, like going soul winning, like
traveling to a foreign country to preach the
gospel.
What does the devil want to do?
He wants to terrify you and make you so afraid and
think that this is so scary and so dangerous.
And he wants to prevent you from doing the Lord's
will.
In football, they have a term of how they lose a
game at the end.
It's called prevent defense, okay?
And prevent defense is basically they're so
terrified of losing the game that they don't even play
normal defense.
They basically just back off and just let the other
team like catch the ball and run plays.
And they're just staying really far back just to
hope to stop them from scoring a touchdown.
But usually this doesn't work.
It's usually like a bad strategy.
And what is it coming from?
It's coming from a place of fear.
Like, oh, if we play normal defense, then they might
just score a touchdown.
But if we play this really terrible and awful version
of defense, maybe it'll work.
And usually a lot of times it doesn't because they're
already in a bad mindset.
And what does the devil want to do?
He wants to put you in a prevent defense mode where
you're just simply just kind of paralyzed in fear.
You're paralyzed and you're not able to do what the
Lord wants you to do.
And you can kind of see that this person kind of has
this paralyzing fear.
David could arguably have had some paralyzing fear in
his life or moments where it would have been easy to
have been fearful.
When Saul and them are breathing down their neck
and they're trying to hide in the caves and hide in
these areas.
There was many times where David is outnumbered.
All of the children of Israel had paralyzing fear
when Goliath came.
And it took David to essentially overcome that
great issue.
But there's going to be times in our lives where the
devil wants to surround you and whisper in your ear
about death and a metaphorical hell or you know
essentially just evil coming upon you and try to
prevent you from serving God.
What's the response?
Verse 6, in my distress I called upon the Lord and
cried unto my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple and my cry came
before him even into his ears.
Even meaning specifically.
So it's saying that the cry went all the way from this
place in earth to the third heaven into God's temple
all the way into his ears literally.
That's pretty incredible if you think about how far
your voice can travel.
Your voice can travel all the way from here into God's
ear literally.
And he's saying in my distress, he's saying he
wasn't having a good time.
He was having some evil.
And you know all of us can face great evil in our
lives.
We can have distress.
We can have our family members or our friends come
and try to discourage us and attack us and try to
cause us to not want to do the right thing.
To not follow the instructions that are here in
the scripture.
And of course a lot of times that can be difficult.
You know it can be mentally exhausting to have
everybody be against you.
I know there's been times where I've felt alone in
decisions that I'm trying to make or I feel like
people don't necessarily agree with me.
I've felt that anxiety, that stress at times.
But you know we're supposed to just continue to
rely on the Lord and say, you know what?
God's always right.
And you know every time I've been in that situation
just sticking with what the Bible says, it always
worked out.
But it's hard in the moment.
It's hard when you're there and people make major
life decisions.
Where they're going to live.
Who they're going to marry.
How many children they're going to have.
What they're going to do with those children.
Are they going to inject them with poison?
Are they not going to inject them with poison?
How are they going to raise them?
What clothes you're going to wear?
What clothes you're not going to wear?
What material you're going to read?
What material you're not going to read?
What weddings you're going to go to?
What weddings you're not going to go to?
What churches you're going to go to?
What churches you're not going to go to?
What places you work?
What places you won't work?
All these different decisions can sometimes even
feel very scary.
I mean, think about 2020.
COVID epidemic, you know, brand new thing.
And a lot of people were in a lot of stress where
they felt like they could lose their job.
They had family members and friends giving them
grief over this.
I know people in the military were feeling like
they were in a very dark place whether or not they
should take this vaccination.
I know people in long-term careers lost their job
as a result of not even deciding or deciding to
take the COVID vaccine.
I mean, that could have been a really stressful
moment for people.
And yet all the people that decided, you know what,
this is wrong and I don't want to do it, now in
hindsight, they're thinking like I'm so glad.
But in the moment, it could have been really
terrifying.
In the moment, it could have been really stressful.
In the moment, it could have been really scary.
And of course, that's what the devil wants to do.
He just wants to paralyze all of us.
He wants to cripple all of us and prevent us from
serving God.
But you know, when you're surrounded by enemies,
when you're in a dark place, that is the moment to
cry upon the Lord and to trust in Him and He can
deliver us.
Look at verse 7.
Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations also of the hills moved and were
shaken because He was wroth.
There went up a smoke out of His nostrils and fire
out of His mouth devoured.
Coals were kindled by it.
He bowed the heavens also and came down and
darkness was under His feet.
And He rode upon a cherub and did fly.
Yet He did fly upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness His secret place.
His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and
thick clouds of the skies.
At the brightness that was before Him,
His thick clouds passed hailstones and coals of
fire.
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the highest gave His voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
Yet He sent out His arrows and scattered them,
and He shot out lightnings and discomforted them.
Then the channels of waters were seen and the
foundations of the world were discovered at Thy
rebuke.
O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Thy nostrils,
He sent from above, He took me,
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy and from them
which hated me, for they were too strong for me.
They prevented me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my stay.
It's a very interesting section of Scripture and
you know to be honest with you,
I don't know and I couldn't think of a singular
instance where all of that seems to be at play and
just my personal interpretation is that this
is kind of a view of just Israel as a whole and all
of the things that the Lord has kind of done for
them.
Now one of the primary interpretations or
applications of this is of course the Lord Jesus
Christ being risen from the dead and we see a lot
of things happening at His resurrection.
Literally they're shaking,
people coming up from the grave as well and we see
a lot of supernatural things that are happening
and so I think a lot of those are being
illustrated here.
From David's perspective,
there's times when the Lord literally intervened in
military battles.
For Israel specifically,
many times the Lord intervened in special
miracles like this and we see the power of God's
Word that even just the breath of His nostrils is
able to just cause the entire earth to shake
violently and have all these crazy events like
fire and hail and earthquakes and trembling and
we see that the Lord truly cares too.
That it upsets Him when His people are distressed.
It upsets Him when His people are in trouble and
of course this particular individual is saying,
I can't even win.
They were too strong for me.
They prevented me in the sense that I can't do it.
I was going to stop but you know what?
God somehow allowed me to just be steadfast anyways.
I can't do it.
It doesn't even make sense but you know what?
The Lord is keeping me unmovable and keeping me
steadfast and keeping me on the right path.
He's my stay.
Verse 19,
He brought me forth also in a large place.
He delivered me because He delighted in me.
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness.
According to the cleanness of my hands hath He
recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not
wickedly departed from my God.
For all His judgments were before me and I did not
put away statutes from me.
I was also upright before Him and I kept myself from
mine iniquity.
Therefore, hath the Lord recompensed me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanness
of my hands and His hindsight.
With the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful.
With an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright.
With the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure.
And with the froward, thou wilt show thyself froward.
For thou wilt save the afflicted people but will
bring down high looks.
We've been talking about the importance of trusting
in the Lord and Him delivering us from difficult
situations, the various enemies that we may face
in our lives.
And we see that God really cares.
But as we kind of continue to unwrap this particular
passage, we see another aspect here that the author
is describing how they have their form of
righteousness and that they want God to deliver them
according to their own righteousness.
Now of course the Lord Jesus Christ is delivered
from hell because He was perfectly righteous.
It was not possible that He should be holding of it
is what the Bible teaches.
But of course this is an application of David in
verse 23 when it says, I've kept myself from mine
iniquity.
You know what?
Jesus doesn't have any iniquity to be kept from.
But of course David does and David albeit in latter
portions of his life committed some very wicked
sins.
But I believe that the context of this chapter is
more of the prior parts of David's life, the earlier
parts of David's life and David was living a very
clean life at that time, was a very righteous man
serving the Lord humbly and he wants the Lord to
recompense him because he has been righteous.
Showing that there's a benefit to being righteous.
What's that benefit?
Well notice in verse 25, with the merciful thou
wilt show thyself merciful.
You know when you're not merciful to others, why
would God be merciful to you?
Notice He's also upright.
Meaning what?
He's not cheating people.
He's not lying to people.
He's not ripping people off.
Here's one, He's dependable.
I mean if you want God to deliver you, don't you
want God to be dependable and relied upon when you're
in need?
But when you're not helping other people when
they're in need, why would God help you when you're
in need?
You know when you're righteous, God's going to
treat you in a similar manner.
Verse 26, with the purer thou wilt show thyself
pure.
You know this should motivate you to take every
moment of your life serious.
Every time you interact with someone's child,
anytime you go to a store, anytime you're out, every
time you're on the job, every single situation you
have, just always doing right.
And you say why?
Because then God will treat you that way.
God literally is taking notice of and caring about
every interaction, every moment that you have.
And you know what?
I would love to be delivered in horrible
situations, but what happens when you're the
froward, unmerciful, non-pure person?
How likely is it that God is going to deliver that
particular individual?
And of course God, He saves the humble and
righteous and He knocks down the proud and the
wicked.
You as a Christian, you get too prideful, God will
just knock you down.
You start getting wicked, God will knock you down.
Hey, you stay humble and righteous, God can lift
you up out of the dark, out of the depths, out of
the difficult situations.
And we see this consistently in the Bible and
sometimes it's not immediate.
I mean think about Jacob and Laban.
Jacob has to work for Laban for a long period of
his life.
He's doing right.
He's getting ripped off by his employer for the
longest time, but then eventually he ends up
getting all the money, all the goods.
God pays him, you know, way more than he could ever
wish for.
And in fact, from Jacob's perspective, there was no
carnal way to understand how he was ever going to
get paid.
Like if you were Jacob, you would just be like, I'm
going to get ripped off forever.
Like I'm getting taken advantage of by Laban and
there's no escape.
I'm just going to be totally ruined.
But then God gave him a vision.
God gave him the plan of how he was going to
actually bless him and financially give him
everything.
And he ended up doing that.
So many other great stories.
Joseph.
Joseph is literally in the dungeon.
You think Joseph is thinking like, I'm about to
literally be the ruler of everything and in charge
of everything out here in the dungeon, in the prison.
And he had, but here's the thing, had he ever done
anything wrong?
No, Joseph was always good, always right, always
kept himself through great adversity.
And then God put him in that great spot.
And I'm telling you, you know, as our church, as a
group to the same, if our church is always loving
and kind and merciful and pure and doing that, which
is right, you know what?
God can deliver us out of great adversity.
We don't want to be a church that's froward and
impure and unmerciful or prideful or arrogant.
We want to be humble and lowly and righteous with
the Lord.
And he can bless us greatly.
And we'll only have victory by God's strength, not
by our own.
We're never going to have victory on our own
strength.
It's a vain exercise to think that you will have
any victory in this life through your means.
Well, I can outsmart the enemy.
No, you can't.
Well, I can out muscle him.
No, you can't.
I can out earn him.
No, you can't.
Trust in the Lord.
That's your only option.
Verse 28, the Bible says,
For thou wilt light my candle.
The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
For by thee I have run through a troop.
And by my God have I leaped over a wall.
You can be like Superman.
I'm just kidding.
Verse 30, As for God, his way is perfect.
The word of the Lord is his tried.
He is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
For who is God save the Lord?
Or who is a rock save our God?
It is God that girdeth me with strength,
and maketh my way perfect.
He maketh my feet like hind's feet,
and setteth me upon my high places.
He teacheth my hands to war,
so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.
Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation,
and thy right hand hath holden me up,
and thy gentleness hath made me great.
Thou hast enlarged my steps under me,
that my feet did not slip.
I have pursued mine enemies and overtaken them.
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
I have wounded them that were not able to rise.
They are fallen under my feet.
For thou hast girded me with strength under the battle.
Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.
Notice again, he's got great victory.
Why?
Because God gave him the victory.
God was the one that strengthened him.
Notice it said in verse 32,
it is God that girdeth me with strength.
And I like some of these little phrases that it has here,
but in verse 33 it says,
and setteth me upon my high places.
The author here is set in a really lofty position.
He's king of the greatest nation on the planet.
It's not like he was put in a low place.
This is the highest place.
But who put him there?
God did.
And you know what?
I believe even today,
those who truly wanted to be in high positions of power
in the world or America,
the only way to truly get there from a godly perspective
is allow God to put you there.
You can get there by selling your soul to the devil
or allowing God to put you there if he wants you there.
But you know what?
If you want to rise to a position of power,
you need to let God put you there and not go by your own means.
Not allow pride or arrogance or your own strength to get you there,
but allow God.
Just be humble and just be righteous and let God put you there.
Verse 36 is incredible to me.
I think about this all the time,
but it says,
Thou has enlarged my steps under me that my feet did not slip.
Because I think about you.
You're climbing stairs.
It's so easy to just make a mistake
and just trip and fall like Joe Biden.
He's really good at this, okay?
And what the Bible is describing is it's like
even if you're Biden and you're going to miss the step,
God just, he takes that little step up there and he grows it.
It just like, it magically just grows
and your foot just lands on the step no matter what.
It's like you make a mistake, you're going to trip,
but God just grows the steps.
He just enlarges the steps.
He just makes it sure.
It's just like, hey, I messed up.
Oh, God caught me anyways.
It's kind of like you're holding your kid
and y'all are walking real fast.
Sometimes they miss a step, right?
But because you got their right hand,
they just keep going, don't they?
They just keep locking.
Now, of course, you want to be careful
not to pull a nurse's maid elbow or whatever.
You know, you don't want to rip their elbow out
of their socket or something.
But, of course, at the same time,
if you've got your little child with you,
you can make sure that they don't fall no matter what.
They can literally just jump and you're just holding them.
You know, you grab both arms and they just,
they can try to fall and they just can't
because Dad's got them, right?
And the same's with God in the sense that,
you know, when you're on the right path,
headed in the right direction, even when you screw up,
you're imperfect, you can't do it on your own,
He just gets you there anyways.
It's like that 10-foot goal, you can't dunk on it,
but you know, if Dad lifts you up,
then you can dunk on it.
And it's like, you know, I'd have to work really hard
to be able to get to dunk.
I probably never will be able to in my life,
but you know what?
If God picked me up, I could dunk.
And this is how we should look at our lives.
Like, I don't know that I can necessarily have victory
on my own, but you know what?
If I just trust in God, He can make up the gap for me,
He can make up the difference,
and even though I may not be perfect,
even though I'm not necessarily capable on my own,
I can have victory through the Lord,
if I trust in Him.
And, of course, I'm on the right path
and I'm following His commandments.
He's what gives me the victory.
Verse 40.
Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies,
that I might destroy them that hate me.
They cried, but there was none to save them,
even unto the Lord, but He answered them not.
Now, think about this.
In this passage, we had a long explanation
of a cry in distress being heard by God into his ears,
and then he was very upset, he's very moved,
he's quick to act.
All kinds of crazy things are happening
so that he can rescue his anointed,
he can rescue his chosen,
he can rescue those whom he loves.
But notice, these cries, he doesn't even answer.
Why?
I mean, they're both in stress, they're both crying.
And I've thought about this because I'm like,
well, what if you got backslidden,
but you just then cried and asked the Lord to save you?
A lot of times in the Bible,
you kind of have stories where that happens.
But what happened at the beginning of this chapter?
The person that called upon the Lord,
he did it in something.
He did it in faith, didn't he?
He did it trusting in the Lord in his heart.
You know what?
These people, they're not believing in God.
They're not having faith in the Lord.
They're just sad that bad things are happening to them,
and they're just asking for the bad things
not to happen to them.
But you know what?
God doesn't hear that prayer.
God doesn't care.
You're just sorry you got caught, Bill Clinton.
You're just sorry that bad things are happening to you.
And God is not going to just listen to the prayers
of people that don't believe in him,
that don't have faith in him,
don't want to trust in him,
because of course none of us are perfect.
If I only got rescued or delivered or graced from God
when I deserved it, I'd be in hell probably.
I would be dead.
I don't deserve heaven.
I deserve hell, right?
So of course we all need grace,
and none of us is perfect,
and whenever I make mistakes,
I can still pray to God and he intercedes for me.
But you know what hasn't changed?
I have faith in him,
whereas the unbeliever who has no faith in him
is not trusting him whatsoever.
You know what?
His prayers are just ignored.
His prayers aren't even...
God doesn't even care that they're crying.
You know, when it started raining
after Noah had built the ark,
God didn't care.
God wasn't going to...
I mean, there was a lot of people in distress,
I guarantee you.
It was starting to get pretty scary
when the fountains of the deep started breaking open,
but you know what?
He didn't hear those cries,
but he hears the cries of those who have faith in him.
He hears the cries of those that are put in the lion's den.
He hears the cries of those that are put in the dung pit.
He hears the cries of those that are in prison.
He hears the cries of the children of Israel in Egypt,
in bondage, in slavery.
Why?
Because they have their faith and their trust
and their strength in the Lord.
They know they can't overcome.
They know that they need the Lord to deliver them.
Verse 42,
Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind.
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people,
and thou hast made me the head of the heathen.
A people whom I have not known shall serve me.
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.
The strangers shall submit themselves unto me.
The strangers shall fade away
and be afraid out of their close places.
You know, we have a picture here,
and of course, this is the Lord Jesus Christ and David,
but the Lord Jesus Christ is going to literally rule
and reign on this earth,
and all the heathen are going to be subject unto him.
But David is in the same position
that after conquering the Philistines and Saul dying,
David's coming to the throne,
and David is literally kind of a one-world leader, in a sense,
where all the nations are afraid of him,
and they have to submit unto him.
Many of them are giving him goods and possessions
and kind of under his leadership and his authority.
That's what even affords Solomon
to have such a long period of peace
where everybody's just subject unto Solomon,
giving gifts unto Solomon, blessing him.
And of course, he was put in that position
because he trusted in the Lord,
and the Lord elevated to him to a point
where people that have never even heard of him fear him.
He was a lowly little shepherd boy.
I mean, how do you go from a lowly little shepherd boy
to foreign nations or terrified of your name?
Because he trusted in God.
Because his faith was in the Scripture.
He meditated in the Scripture.
He trusted in the rock.
The Lord was his rock, and they were afraid of him.
Look at verse 46.
The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock,
and let the God of my salvation be exalted.
You know, it's not a coincidence
that what God David started was the rock,
and what he alludes to and gives reference to
is that the rock is his God,
and that is whom he's trusting in.
It is God that avengeth me and subduit the people under me.
He delivereth me from mine enemies.
Yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me.
Thou has delivered me from the violent man.
Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord,
among the heathen, and sing praise unto thy name.
Great deliverance giveth he to his king,
and showeth mercy to his anointed,
to David, and to his seed forevermore.
Of course, David, this applied to directly.
Of course, this is foreshadowing and picturing
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
but notice it's also to the seed forevermore,
and of course, that's a reverence to Jesus,
but it's also a reverence to us in the sense
that we are also the seed of Jesus Christ,
and we are in the same seed and the same lineage,
and the Lord Jesus Christ also wants to deliver us
from our enemies on a regular basis,
but God put him in charge because God was a strength.
God does not want to elevate someone
that is going to then take credit for it himself,
that's going to point to his own strength.
As soon as Nebuchadnezzar does such a thing,
he just immediately debases and reprobates him
just right there on the spot.
I mean, the guy is such a reprobate.
He's like eating grass like a cow.
You know, he's like become an animal literally.
I mean, he almost physically turns into an animal.
I mean, it's kind of a crazy story
how he becomes like a beast physically, mentally,
spiritually, everything.
I mean, that's what reprobation is,
becoming a literal beast, and why?
Because he took pride, and of course,
if God can put Nebuchadnezzar in charge,
he could put Joe Biden in charge, right?
He could put anybody in charge, right?
He could decide to put Donald Trump back in charge
if he wants to.
He could put anybody in charge.
But, you know, he's going to put the person in charge
that's going to accomplish his will.
And sometimes he uses ungodly he then to just do his will.
You know, he's going to put godly people
in the positions of high places when they're trusting in him.
I'm not Donald Trump.
I'm saved, right?
So if I ever want to be in a position
that God is going to use me greatly,
I can't go the route that Donald Trump can go,
where I'm just a useful idiot for the Lord.
And you're not Donald Trump.
You're saved.
And if you want to be greatly used by God,
put in a really lofty position
where God can use you to do some great work for him.
The only way is to make him your strength,
to say, you know what, my life is dedicated to the rock
and praising him and putting him first
and realizing that I can't accomplish anything on my own.
I need to just trust in him and give him all the honor and glory.
He would love to put that person in charge
because he knows when they're in charge,
they're going to stay that way.
David's still going to be singing about God.
And hey, when David comes back into Jerusalem,
I mean, he's leaping and dancing for joy for the Lord.
I mean, this guy realizes it's God that got him there.
It's God that rescued him.
It's God that delivered him.
It's God that gave him the victory.
I mean, he killed Goliath, but it wasn't by his might.
God gave him the victory.
Hey, he overcame Saul, but God gave him the victory.
He overcame the Philistines.
God gave him the victory.
And I love all the enemies that David has to fight
and has to overcome to show us,
hey, we have our Goliaths.
We have our LGBT terrorist groups out there that need to be slain.
And we have our Philistine, you know, Jews and news media in Hollywood.
And then we have our Sauls.
You know, the fake brethren that are sold out
and basically just compromised so far.
I mean, they're only saved, basically.
But yet they're fighting for the enemy.
They're trying to destroy us and hurt and attack.
You know, you have all these enemies and saboteurs out there,
but the only thing that will give us victory over them is God.
He's just saying, you know what?
God has gotten us to this point.
And I personally believe God has delivered us from a lot of victories.
We've already had so many victories.
And think about this important point, verse 48.
Now it's delivered me from the violent man.
There's a lot of violent people out there that want to hurt you and me.
And God has already given us great victories.
Why? Because we've continued to allow him to be our strength.
But let us not stop.
Let us not forget.
But let us praise God.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord for the deliverances he's already given us,
for the victories he's already given us,
for the strength that he's already given us,
and not think, oh yeah, we got here because we're better Christians than other churches.
Wrong.
Well, we're smarter. Wrong.
Well, we have more money. Wrong.
No. The only reason we have victory is because God gave us victory.
And we need to give him the honor and give him the glory
and not lift ourselves up and think that we're wonderful.
Because it's only God that gets the glory.
It's only God that gives us our strength.
It's only God that's given us what we have.
Let us not get prideful or arrogant with any of the successes or the victories that we have.
Let us give him all the honor and the glory and the praise.
And let us not lift up ourselves.
Steadfast Baptist Church is not about our strength. It's about his strength.
You know why we're great? Because the King James Bible is great.
You know why we have great soul-winning victories? Because the gospel is so strong.
Because this book is so strong. Because his promises are so strong.
Because his word is so powerful. That is what gives us...
You know, why do people show up to hear me talk for so long?
It's because I'm giving you a lot of his words.
My advice isn't that great. His advice is wonderful.
Now look, obviously brisket is good, okay? Don't put beans in chili, all right?
But you know, nothing compares to God's word.
I don't have anything interesting to say, but this is interesting.
I don't have any real physical strength, but you know what? I have a lot of strength through God.
And I think that we have to make sure that we maintain this attitude consistently.
Because if we do, God could really elevate us.
And it's not for our honor or glory. It's for his honor and glory.
And I think that, you know, we're in an interesting time in America.
And if America is going to be delivered, it's going to be because people decided to trust in God.
And put their faith in him and allow him to show him so strong.
What could happen if God's people would just rally behind the Lord
and say, hey, I can slay this Goliath.
And you're like, how? I can't do it.
The Rock. The Rock can slay Goliath.
Hey, I can't slay the Philistines by myself, but God can slay the Philistines.
And just say, you know what? Here my Lord, send me, but let us have the right attitude.
Because if our attitude is like, look how great we are and how wonderful, God won't use us.
He uses the lowly and the humble and the righteous
and those that are willing to say every moment of my life is important.
And I'm just going to try to stay right with God every moment
so that he could use me to have great victory in the future.
Let's close in prayer.
Heavenly Father, for all the victories that you've given our church
and the members of this church, thank you for all the children that we've been blessed with,
our spouses, our marriages, our relationships.
Thank you for all the salvations that we've had.
Thank you for all the missions trips that we've already had.
Thank you for the victories of all the church services we've had
and the changed lives and all the baptisms and all the victories you've given us.
We realize it's through your strength.
Thank you for giving us so much wisdom through the Bible.
Thank you for helping us to have perfect vision through the lens of Scripture.
And I pray that we wouldn't become arrogant or prideful or look to our own strength,
but rather we'd constantly be looking to you as our strength,
as our rock, as our deliverer, as our salvation.
And we would give you all the honor and glory and praise.
And if we have future victories by your will,
that we would continue to point to the rock,
to the one that's giving us the victory, our God.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, for our final song this evening,
we'll go to song number 47,
Let the Sun Shine Again in My Heart.
Song number 47, Let the Sun Shine Again in My Heart.
Song 47, Let the Sun Shine Again in My Heart.
Thank you all for coming. God bless.
You are dismissed.