2. Beset by Lions! Psalm 57:4-5

Text: “My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.”

Psalm 57:4.

Good morning, distraught and weary Christian!  Having sought to be faithful to your calling in Christ, you have gone forth robed in His righteousness, and spread the Gospel news of Salvation in Christ Jesus alone, and through His full Atonement Sacrifice at Calvary’s Cross.  You have been buffeted by an unbelieving world, let down often by your own weak and puny flesh; and roared at mercilessly by that old lion, the Devil himself.  Praise God for your faithfulness – when the Master returns, will He find such faithfulness on planet earth?

“And shall God not avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?  I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.  Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on earth?”  (Luke 18:7-8)

Having endured such an unholy onslaught, you have sought Heavenly advice as to how you might fight all Spiritual foes in the service of your Captain, Jesus Christ – and found in the pages of your Bible, how to put on the whole armour of God.  You have therefore, armed yourself well with God’s recommended armour.  You have done well, my friend.

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore (a conclusion to the advice!) take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, STAND.”  (Ephesians 6:11-13)

It amazes me personally, when I see so many professing to be true Christians, seeking to put on the whole armour of God – yet failing, miserably, to actually take a STAND!

The Devil has his ‘lions’ out there every day labouring to devour the souls of the ignorant and the beguiled.  False doctrine is one of Satan’s mightiest ‘lions’; social-gospel practitioners are ‘lions’ that seeks to make unbelievers comfortable on their way to a Christ-rejecter’s Hell; churchianty, a most religious, legalist, ‘lion’, dupes souls to believe that regular attendance at a ‘church-building’ will be enough to get the unsaved into Heaven!

Roman Catholicism is NOT Christianity!  You cannot be truly Christian, yet teach ‘another gospel’, a different way to go to Heaven than what God’s Holy Word teaches.

Ecumenism, is NOT obedient Christianity!  Merely the thin end of the religious wedge that accepts fully, or partially, what God’s Word rejects, and leads unlearned souls back in under the darkness of Rome in disobedience to 2^nd Corinthians, chapter 6, which teaches clearly the doctrine of Spiritual Separation. 

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness (having the righteousness of Christ imputed by grace through faith in Christ’s Sacrifice.) with unrighteousness?  And what communion hath light with darkness? … Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord.”  (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) Thus, we take our STAND.

“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto ANOTHER GOSPEL (teaching other ways of Salvation): which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”  (Galatians 1:6-9)

“Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby ye must be saved.”  (Acts 1:12)

“Jesus saith unto him (Thomas), I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but my Me.”  (John 14:6)

Mass-sacrificing priests; Popes; ‘very very very right reverends’; ritualistic meetings, no matter how ‘religiously’ they are attended; ‘vain repetition’ prayers, novenas, nor walking up mountains on broken glass on one’s knees – cannot save a sinner’s soul.  Only Christ can!

Faith, God-given, in the onetime Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross, is the only means of Eternal Salvation for sinful mankind.  ‘Nothing but the Blood of Jesus!’

Verse 4. “My soul is among lions.  Eleven Popes had that name (Leo), whereof all, excepting for two or three, were roaring lions in their bulls, and ravening lions in seeking after their prey.”  (John Boys 1560-1643)

Verse 4. “And I lie even among them that are set on fire. Like the bush in Horeb, the believer is often in the midst of flames, but never consumed.  It is a mighty triumph of faith when we can lie down even among firebrands and find rest, because God is our defence.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 257)

So often today, in this year of 2022, when so many are turning away from Bible truth and steadfast Bible doctrine, I have sound Christians who love the Lord Jesus, all coming to my home with the same complaint: ‘I can find no Scripturally sound place of local worship!’

 They, like myself, are soul-sick of trying to attend ‘places of worship’, where, due to our knowledge of KJV Bible beliefs, we can no longer sit and listen to what is being preached and taught from pulpits – without going home filled with a critical spirit and a righteous anger at the preached error, or lack of Scriptural depth, of what we have just heard.  

So many genuine, Bible-believing, Spiritually regenerate Christians, find ourselves battling with the ‘lions’ of easy-believism; doctrinal ignorance and error; and an insipid spirit of luke-warm churchianity.  Surely, we are in the ‘end times’, the times of the Laodicean church?

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the Creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot (i.e., one or the other).  So then because thou art luke-warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of My mouth...be zealous therefore (a conclusion), and repent.”  (Revelation 3:14-22)

“The horrors of the lion’s den, the burning of a fiery furnace, and the cruel onset of war, are the striking images by which David here describes the peril and wretchedness of his present condition.”  (John Morison, 1929) 

Thought:  No matter what ‘lion’ you and I face today, beloved Christian – in Christ, we have the victory over it!  “...In all these things we are more than conquerors though Him that loved us.” (Romans 8.37) Glory to the risen Christ Jesus!