A Little Sermon on Psalm 12:1 and the Godly Faithful Disappear

Psalm 12:1 NASB

Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

The people of God in Christ need spiritual help because fallen man is faithless and godless.  The nature of a reprobate is faithlessness and godlessness.  That is, a reprobate does not have saving faith.  It is simply because he is unable to believe through his dead yet alive will.  His will is civilly alive but not redemptively alive.  The only way to be godly is through the Spirit of Christ.  Reprobates without the internal dwelling of the Spirit of God cannot be authentically godly.  The godly man ceases because God is judging fallen sinners for the cosmic sin of fallen humanity.  Adam fell and everyone in humanity fell with him in complete and radical sin.  

The Lord helps His people: namely, He only helps the sons and daughters of Adam.  This means He provides His people with redemption through the eternal Son.  The Lord also helps His people with the spiritual military protection of God's Spirit.  This also does not mean He does not help elect angels in the sense of giving them a partaking of their power and wisdom of Jesus Christ.  he helps them in this sense, but not in a redemptive sense.  The saints possess a greater unified righteousness than all angels combined.  The nature of angelic righteousness is also different than Adam before the Fall.  It is different in that angels have a peculiar kind of innocence and righteousness, but nothing in all angelic affairs could equal the unified imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ through a heaven-born faith of God to His chosen people.

God gives the reprobates a civil benevolence, but not redemptive grace.  Sometimes Satan intervenes in the lives of fallen sinners to grant them things, but sometimes he is unable due to his limited yet great power.  Satan is not free, but he is restrained.  He is on a cosmic leash where Luther and other Pastors will speak of Satan as the "Lord's devil."  It does not mean God is for the devil, but that He is working out His purpose for the ultimate justice upon and against Satan in the foredetermined sentence to hell where the meaning behind it all is meant for the glory of Jesus Christ alone because the Father's design is meant to exalt and honor the Son.

Let's learn about faithfulness:

Children of God... will you not bear witness, that, through all your trials and troubles, the faithfulness of your Savior's love has been the “very joy of your hearts?” You have had many crosses and losses – has He ever deserted you? You have been in severe afflictions, and have seen the flowers of many a “sweet hope” wither and decay – did your Friend desert you then? Others may have proved faithless – all other help may have failed you – friendship’s help, promised help, expected help – all, all may have been but as the foam upon the billow, as the footsteps in the sand – but, has Christ ever failed you? Could you, in the darkest and the saddest hour of your grief, say to Him? “Lord, You have promised what You did not perform.” Will you not bear witness concerning the past? – “Not one good thing has failed, of all that the Lord has promised – all has come to pass.”  (John MacDuff, The Throne of Grace, Alexander Strahan Publishers, 1865).

Again we read on faithful godliness:

I know of nothing which I would choose to have as the subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death, still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour. It is only such who in the ministry shall be saved.  (C.H. Spurgeon).

Here we read on faithfulness again:

The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.  (Oswald Chambers, Test of Faithfulness, December 18).

Again we read:

We are to reflect Christ in all that we say and do. And the Christ of Scripture is the humble, suffering servant who, in spite of great opposition, false accusations, and public ridicule, remained faithful to the heavenly calling.  (David W. Hegg, Appointed to Preach, Christian Focus Publications, 1999, p. 70).

On godliness we learn:

Urgently we do need a revival of personal godliness.  This is, indeed; the secret if church prosperity.  When individuals fall from their steadfastness, the church is tossed to and fro; when personal faith is steadfast, the church abides true to her Lord.  (C.H. Spurgeon Only a Prayer Meeting, Christian Focus Publications, 2000, p. 11).

Again we read:

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.  We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.  (D.A. Carson, Reflections, Christianity Today, 7-31-00).

I end with my little sermon with AW Pink wrote on Faithfulness in 1939,

Loyalty to God has always been a costly matter—but individual faithfulness has never involved more personal sacrifice than it does in this day of abounding disloyalty, hypocrisy and compromise. Faithful preaching will render the minister unpopular, and will 'empty' churches—not 'fill' them. It will close doors against him, and if he is without a charge he will find his services are not wanted. It cost Joseph something to be faithful! It did Daniel; it did Paul; and it does every minister of Christ in this degenerate and adulterous age. How necessary it is then for the minister to strengthen his heart by laying hold of those promises which are specially given to faithfulness. Here is one of them: "the Lord preserves the faithful" (Psalm 31:23)—from those rocks upon which so many self-seekers make shipwreck.