The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the praise of my God and King, the triumph of his grace.
This is Lacerre Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. Rock of ages, glad for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy womb inside which flow be us in the double cure, save from wrath and make me new. Good my tears forever flow, good my zeal no languor know, these who stay could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone, in my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown and behold me on my throne.
Rock of ages, glad for me, let me hide myself in thee. I'm glad that you have joined us for the broadcast today. And if the message is a blessing to you, I hope you will take time to write us and pray that the Lord might guide you as to what you can do to help with the support of the program. If you want us to stay on your local station, we need to hear from you.
We've had to cancel some stations recently and we don't want to have to cancel anymore, but we have to have support to be able to stay on the air. So I hope if you can help us, you will ask that you pray for us, that the need will be supplied. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217.
You can also make a donation at our website at BaptistBibleHour.org and there you can also hear both our Sunday and daily programs and read the Baptist Witness. Lord, let me praise thee in the morning, while the day is new. Let me praise thee at the moon time, I'm leaning to. Let me not forget to praise thee, for since on the cross they nailed thee, thy love has never failed me and it never will. We continue the message today entitled God Is Our Help.
The text is Psalm 33 in the 20th verse. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our seal. In the message, we have first considered that we need to recognize our need for help. And then we'll go on to talk about the importance of regularly asking for help and then to refuse to seek help from the wrong source and to recall the help given and to rejoice in the helper. So first, recognize your need for help.
Secondly, regularly ask for help. Psalm 38 verse 22, make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation. Psalmist is saying, I recognize that the Lord is the one who is my deliverer, He's my salvation and I'm praying obviously you can sense the urgency of this, the sincerity of it, make haste to help me. Lord, this situation is urgent.
I can't make it without thee. I need thee now. This is not a demand which is inappropriate of somebody trying to control God.
It's just an admission. My need is so great. Thou alone art the source of my help and I need it now. And then Psalm 109 verse 26, help me, O Lord, my God, O save me according to thy mercy, that they may know that this is thy hand that thou, Lord, has done it. Save me, deliver me according to thy mercy. Encompassed in that is an acknowledgement, I'm not coming, Lord, asking for anything that I feel I deserve. It may be that one of the reasons you're in trouble is because you have failed to do some things you should have done. Or you have complicated life by trying to untangle some of your difficulties on your own without prayer, without consulting the Lord. So you're having troubles. Help me, O Lord, I pray, not because I deserve it, but according to your mercy.
That's what I need. I need your mercy. The hymn writer expressed it like this, abide with me, fast falls the even tide, the darkness deepens, Lord with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, O abide with me. Is that not an appropriate prayer that we all should pray? And as we've looked at these Old Testament prayers where God's help is being sought, let's think about one of the New Testament.
It's one that I refer to frequently because it just rounds out the whole spectrum of what our needs are and where our help comes from. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 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. Come boldly, come with confidence. You're coming to the throne of grace, not to the bar of justice, but to the throne of grace. You're coming there to obtain mercy.
That's what you need. You're not looking for something that you deserve because you know if you see yourself a right, you deserve nothing. You're coming there to find mercy and grace to help. Now let's go back to the verses preceding this and see how powerfully the setting contributes to putting such wonderful emphasis upon the verse itself. Verse 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. Throughout the book of Hebrews, the writer is encouraging people who are facing difficulties, discouragements, and might be tempted to go back to the Jewish religion from which they have come to hold fast their profession.
You have reason to hold on the way. 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. Let us therefore in view of this, in view of the great high priest that you have, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace. In the Old Testament order, the people were not able to come into the holy place and certainly not into the holy of holies. Only the great high priest could go into the holy of holies where the mercy seat rested upon the top of the ark of the covenant and that only on an annual basis.
He had to be wearing the proper garment. He had to come with the blood that had been poured out from the sacrificial lamb. But now, we have a great high priest who invites us to come boldly all the way into the throne room. Come boldly to the throne of grace.
Those priests could only serve for a limited period of time. But our great high priest, Jesus Christ, lives forever. And what does it say about Him? First it says He is the Son of God.
What a wonderful intercessor to have at the right hand of the majesty on high. The Son of God who intercedes for His people. He is passed into the heavens. So after His resurrection, the disciples stood out on the mountain, saw Him that day when His feet lifted off the ground and ascended through the clouds and out of sight. He went back into heaven.
The same Jesus that walked upon this earth and died at Calvary is ascended into heaven. And furthermore it says He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. We're talking to an intercessor, to this great high priest who did himself live here on this earth.
He knows from personal experience what it was like. He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. There may be times that you're struggling and you'd like to share some of your innermost feelings with somebody else but you conclude they wouldn't understand anyway.
Here's one who understands. Jesus Christ knows more about you than you know about yourself. And you can pour out your innermost struggles to Him. And He's sympathetic.
He can be touched with the feeling of your infirmities. And then it says He was tempted at all points yet without sinning. Now sometimes we may struggle a bit with that and say, well, He didn't have the sinful nature that I have. But think about the fact because He was not sinful, being in the presence of sinners and then having Satan tempt Him in the wilderness, He no doubt saw things that you and I do not see.
And there were issues that would have offended Him that wouldn't trouble us. He was tempted at all points yet without sin. And so, look what He gives. You see the High Priest, the Son of God, passed into the heavens, touched with the feeling of our infirmities, able to sympathize with us, tempted without sinning. What does He give? Encouragement to come boldly, confidently. Not confidence in yourself but confident because He has bidden you come, that you can come in His name and expect to receive the help that He has promised. He gives help. No trial is so great but that Jesus Christ gives what the text describes, mercy and grace to help. Now is that just some special occasion?
I think not. If we are truly mindful of our own weakness and our need, that's something that's real every day. You get up in the morning and start a new day, Lord I need help for this day. I need help to use my time properly. I need help to be always in the spirit of prayer. I need help that when some unexpected situation arises that I will be able to handle it in a way that by my example there will be a testimony that will be an encouragement to others. Help. Help. Number three, refuse to seek help from the wrong source.
Oh that's the sad mistake of multitudes today. Even those who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ and will say, Yes, I respect His Word but an emergency comes and need help and where do they go? They will turn to the Lord Himself. Psalm 60 verse 11, Give us help from trouble for vain is the help of man. You know it's true that when the Lord blesses the effort, a man can be a help, a brother or sister in Christ through exhortation, through words of encouragement can be assistance to you. But the ultimate deliverance from whatever trouble we encounter is from the Lord Himself. And particularly if you're leaning on the arm of the flesh, the scripture has already said the arm of the flesh will fail you or you're depending upon man's wisdom.
This passage says vain is the help of man. You turn to popular opinion, what the philosophers of the day are saying, what seems to be a prevailing idea about how to deal with certain problems. Whether it be marital problems or problems of depression or dealing with stress or some of these things that are so commonplace in our day. How are you going to approach it?
Follow somebody's 12 step program or go to the Word of God which has given us the divine inspiration and follow the instruction that God has given us. Isaiah chapter 30 verses 1 to 3 speak to this issue. Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel but not of me. How sad that so many take counsel today. Receiving counsel has become much more popular in this country but the source to which multitudes go is not that which honors God or presents His truth. And just because it carries the name Christian doesn't mean that it's biblically correct. I hear some of the counseling programs that are on the radio periodically and some of the counsel that's given is certainly not biblically sound. The Lord says that it's rebellious children that take counsel which is not my counsel and that cover with a covering but not of my spirit that they may add sin to sin. A lot of times somebody will say, oh I believe in counseling, I believe in biblical counseling and I believe it up to a point till they're confronted with something that they need to change.
And then that's a different story. Leaving biblical counseling for everybody else but not for myself. Don't like to be confronted, don't like to be warned, don't like to be rebuked. Walk to go down into Egypt, Egypt often representing the world in scripture. And have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. And many are confused today because they lean on the wisdom of the world.
They've gone to the world feeling like this is respected, this is highly esteemed, I don't want to be a religious fanatic. I want to hear what these well-educated individuals have to say and God says that leads to confusion. Let's see a New Testament passage.
This is a quote from the Old Testament that the apostle incorporates it as he writes to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 19. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, but the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's God's summary of the wisdom of the world. They are men of great intellectual abilities.
They have studied, they've received the best education as far as men's standards are concerned. But if God is left out, what's the scripture say? The fool said in his heart there is no God. So the man may profess himself to be wise, may have great recognition, but he has nothing to offer.
God has already condemned the wisdom of the world. Refuse to seek help from the wrong source. Number four, recall the help that is given. When God gives you help, you need to recognize it, you need to think about it, you need to recall it from time to time. Psalm 27 verse 9, hide not thy face far from me, put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help, leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. The psalmist has taken consolation in the fact that God has been his help in the past.
And Lord, that being the case, I pray that you'll not forsake me now. As you look back over the years, some of you are very young, but even in your young life, you can look back and see times that you've had troubles, you've had difficulties, you had discouragements, and you sought the Lord and he helped you. And those of us that have been around for a long time can think back over many years and think about all kinds of difficulties we've encountered and just stand amazed at how the Lord has helped us. How good God is to have been our help. But sometimes when we get discouraged, sometimes we're traveling through the dark places, we momentarily forget about it. We need to recall the help God has given. Psalm 121 verse 2 says, My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. Since that's the source of our help, that's where it comes from, that's where we have received the help so often that we have needed. Be specific as you thank God for it, as you recall to go back over and not just say, Lord, thank you for all your past blessings, name some of them.
It will give you a different outlook. It's pleasing to God to be recalling them and thanking him for them. Turn to the book of Lamentations, looking in chapter 3, these well-known words of the prophet Jeremiah, when he's looking back and recalling the mercies of God, verse 22 of Lamentations 3, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion fails not. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. I should not say amen to that, that they are new every morning. It's not just on some rare occasion that you enjoy the mercy of God.
It's not just when you're facing your greatest trial, they're new every morning, every morning. I attended the 60th anniversary of my high school graduation on Friday night. I was asked to deliver the invocation and our class had 200 and some in it and 68 of them have already died.
Now that sounded shocking to me. It says, considering your age, that's not that unusual that many have passed on. But it was a little shocking to me to think that 68 of the people I went to high school with have died. But as I prayed before that meal Friday night, I included in the prayer, thanksgiving to God for his providential watching over us to have preserved our lives and blessed us to be together on that occasion. Just the fact that we live from day to day is by God's divine providence.
Life is fragile, can be snuffed out so quickly in so many ways. Are we recognizing the source of our help? And finally, number five, rejoice in the helper. Delight in the Lord that provides the help that we need and that he regularly gives us. Psalm 116 verse 1, I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Certainly you love the Lord because he's good and gracious and merciful.
You love him because he is the sovereign ruler and he is the savior of your soul. But the psalmist doesn't hesitate to say, I love him because he has heard my voice. When I've brought before him my supplications, he has heard me because he has inclined his ear unto me. Therefore, will I call upon him as long as I live.
I'm going to continue to call. Look at verse 4, then called I upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Verse 13, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Verse 17, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.
So there's repeated acknowledgement. First that I love the Lord because he has heard me and since he's heard me I'm going to keep calling on him. So he's saying again and again, I will call upon the Lord. The apostle said in Philippians chapter 4 verse 19, my God shall supply all your needs. If you believe that, you have much encouragement to rejoice in the one who supplies the needs and the one who is your helper. To be continually thanking him for his blessing.
Finally Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5, for he saith, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is what? My helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. You need help. I need help. We need help individually. We need help in our families.
We need help in our church. The good news is God is our helper. Recognize that you need help. Regularly ask for help. Refuse to seek help from the wrong source. Recall the help that is given and rejoice in the helper. In some of these verses we read, the writer referred to God as the savior. If you are one who has seen yourself as a sinner, a violator of God's law under his judgment, you know you need help.
You can't rectify the situation by your own effort. And where do you find that help? Only one source, Jesus Christ, who is the savior of sinners. He's our help now. He's our help in the hour of death.
He's our help forever. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. Surely we all have a sense of our weakness, our great need, our need of help. And what a comfort to know that God is describing himself as our help. He is our help in every time of need, in every detail of life.
If we are ever lifted up feeling that we are self-sufficient, we are ready for a downfall. But if we walk humbly before our God, depending upon him as our help, he has promised to be with us and give us the strength that we need. I hope that you will write us and until next week at the same time may the Lord richly bless you all. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, be thou my guide while life shall last and our eternal home.
