You see in the beginning of this
psalm, up above verse 1, it says this is a prayer of the afflicted
when he's overwhelmed. It's very rare really for anyone
to ever become overwhelmed. Usually, if we're honest, we
walk around like we've got the world by the tail, especially
when we're young. We sinners, we're always in over
our heads. We just don't know it most of
the time. But it's rare that we know it. To be overwhelmed. Most people are allowed to think
most of the time that they have things pretty much under control.
But I just want to ask you flat out
tonight, have you ever been overwhelmed? Just utterly out of your depth? Over your head and unable to
swim. It's difficult for a sinner to
admit that because we like to think, you know, that we are
okay. But when you see that little phrase there
above verse one again, when David was overwhelmed, he poured out
his heart to God. That's when that happens. That's
when that happens. When you've got everything under
control, you know, you just kind of forget about God. When you're like David was here,
and David had some great times of joy in his life, he danced
before the Ark of the Lord. Can you imagine just being so
overjoyed that you can't stay still? Just dancing before the
Ark. But then he had times like this,
too. And he said, my heart, my bones. But you'll never pour your heart
out to God until he brings you to the place where you see how helpless you are. And that's not a bad thing. It may feel like it, but it's
not. And I'll tell you what will overwhelm
a sinner every time is a true sense of our sin. When you realize not only that
you've got more problems than you can deal with, but when you
realize that you are the problem. That's when it's tough. If you just get enough religion
to make you admit that you've done some bad things, then what
that'll cause you to do is try to do better. Try to straighten
it out. When you're overwhelmed, you're
beyond that. You're past that. There's no fixing it. And if
you're just religious and you try to straighten things out,
you try to do better, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I'm
going to rededicate my life for the umpteenth time to the Lord.
you're going to fail again and have to rededicate it all over
again. And you'll just get more and more religious every time
that happens. Paul saw the true nature of God's
law and his own condition as a result. And the only way that
Paul could think of to describe that experience was he said this,
I died. They just slew me. Have you ever
been there? Romans chapter 7, let's read
it. Maybe we can see ourselves in this. I'll tell you what,
if you can, bless God that He didn't let you skip all the way
to hell. Romans 7, 9. Paul said, I was alive without
the law once. And you know what he's talking
about there? He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But he said,
I was without the law. What do you mean? The Pharisees
lived by the law. That was their rule of life.
He had no idea what the law said. He said, I was just fine then. When I was without an understanding
of God's law, I was fine. Just doing great. No problem,
no worries. But when the commandment came,
when God turned on the light, that's just
simply what he got to do. He got to open our eyes so we
can see things the way they are. Sin revived. The sin that was
always there in my heart, it woke up in my mind, in my understanding,
in my estimation, and I died. I just fled that. The me that
could go on thinking that I could please God about what I do, he's
a goner now. The me that was able to think,
you know, I've got this. I've done some bad things, but
my good outweighs my bad. He's a goner now. Goner. This is what it is to be overwhelmed. And the commandment which was
ordained to life. I found to be under death. The
Lord, when he gave his law, he said this do and live. But I don't qualify for that.
It's not life for me, it's death. Because I can't measure, I can't
keep God's law, I can't do it. For sin taking occasion by the
commandment Deceived me and by it slew me Wherefore the law
is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. I Was the
problem not God's law Verse 13 was then that which is good made
death unto me. God forbid. It's my sin That
was made death unto me. The law just turned the light
on so I could see it. I God forbid, but sin, you see
that? The law wasn't death to me, sin
is death to me. Working death in me by that which
is good. It was good for God to kill me.
I thank him for killing me. That sin by the commandment might
become. Oh, here's when you're going
to be overwhelmed, when sin becomes exceeding sinful. My sin. Not original sin, not the doctrine
of sin, my sin. This is when a sinner cries out
to God and pours out his complaint. And the first consideration,
verse one, is will God even hear me? Why? Why would he even hear me? Why would he even turn an ear
in my direction? Why? What is man that thou art
mindful of him? Does it even matter to God that
I perish? Why would it? But my only hope,
I must cry, I must cry. Somehow I've got to get his attention.
And now with the woman with the issue of blood, I've got to get
to him. I've got to touch him. Because my only hope is if he
hears me. And Lord, don't hide your face
from me. You think about that for a second. Why would he say
that? Because that's exactly what ought to happen. But Lord,
don't do it. Don't do what you ought to do.
Don't turn your face away from me in shame and disgust. In the day when I'm in trouble,
incline your ear to me. That word means bow down. God's
got to condescend to even hear my cry. In the day when I call,
answer me speedily. You see so much teaching in this.
Speedily, it's an urgent need. Urgent. I've heard religion talk
about, why don't you try Jesus? You know what? If that's where
you are, just forget it. Just go home. That's not what
it's about. When you're drowning, you don't
try a life preserver. You latch on to that dadgum thing
like your life depended on it. Because it kind of does. That's what it is. The idea of God hiding his face
from me is raised here because that's what we deserve and we
know it. And we know it in our hearts,
we know it by experience, but we also know it like we know
everything the best. I'm looking at the cross. When
my savior bore my sin in his own body on that tree, what did
God do? He hid his face from his only begotten son. So this is our cry, Lord, don't
hide your face from me. I can't bear it. He could and
he did, but not me, I can't bear it. We deserve that, and we know
it. He cried out, Lord, if it be
possible, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He
cried to God, didn't he? That's what David said, when
I cry to you, don't hide your face from me. When I call, when
I call to you, and the Son of God called to his Father, didn't
he? If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Why hast thou
forsaken me? But the Father's response, was
to hide his face. Like that Levite in Luke chapter
10. You remember the story of the Good Samaritan? The Levite and the priest passed
by on the other side. The priest didn't even look at
the man. He probably just heard, you know, he may have just realized
he was there. He didn't even say he looked
at him. But the Levite, that man's laying there bleeding out
in that ditch. just as good as dead. The Levite
looked. He looked at him, but then he
looked away and passed by on the other side. The law looks
because there's no inherent contempt in the law. The law is unto life. That's what Paul said in Romans
7. The law is unto life. There's no inherent contempt
in the law for you like there is in the priest, religion, they
got no use for you. But once the law sees our condition, got to pass by on the other side,
the law can't help us. The law can reveal our problem,
but it can't help us. God is of purer eyes than to
even behold our wretched evil. Only Christ, the mercy of God,
The good Samaritan can behold us with compassion. And come
where we are. When our Savior was on the cross,
God dealt with him in strict justice. He couldn't look upon
him. Where was mercy that day? Mercy was the one on the cross
that day. There's mercy for me, but there was no mercy for him.
And this is the word in verse 13. Did you notice it as he read?
Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion Mercy that's what we're
crying for. That's what David's cried about And it is urgent hear me speedily
Lord don't hide your face, but incline that ear stretch out
or bow down Your ear for God to even hear me as a condescension But I cried to him. I'm blind Bartimaeus, you see.
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And when you tell
me to shut up, I'm just going to cry louder because I got to
have mercy. And he's the only one that can
give it. I'm that woman with the issue
of blood, though weak, I must press my way through whatever
there is between me and him. I must touch him. Now I want you to notice verses
3 through 10 together, and I'll show you why. There's a reason
for that. I want you to notice all the
problems. I mean dark language here. Lots of problems, lots
of trouble, lots of affliction. But there's a because that I
want us to notice. Look at verse 3. For my days
are consumed like smoke, My bones are burned as an hearth. My heart
is smitten. I'm going to look at that word
in a minute if I don't forget. I want to tell you what that
means. And withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. Religion talks about fasting.
The Lord said, you Pharisees, you make yourselves look like
you've been fasting. So everybody will say, oh look,
they're fasting. Fasting is not some religious
thing you do. Fasting is when you're so messed
up, you don't even think about eating. You need mercy more than
you need food. That's what fasting is. I said it's rare, didn't I? Pretty
rare. By reason of the voice of my
groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. You say, this sounds
like the Lord Jesus Christ saying it. He took my, all of that. This is mine, but he took it.
This is him. I never felt any of this like
he did. Never. I'm like a pelican of
the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert.
I watch him as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. My enemies
reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against me
are sworn against me, for I have eaten ashes Like bread and mingled
my drink with weeping, because. Here it is now. I have all kinds of issues. Lots
of problems. Lots of enemies. I myself am
the enemy. Satan is my enemy. The world
is my enemy. My bones are burned, he said.
My heart is smitten. That word means to beat to death.
Has your heart ever felt like that just beat up? under there
That's what our Lord suffered in the garden didn't my soul
is exceeding sorrowful even under there But it all boils down to one
thing my real problem is with God first in because of your
indignation all of this is because of We have a problem with God. All of my problems spring from
my problem with God. And I want you to hear me on
that now. This is the cause. David understood this. All of
that is because of my problem with God. All of my
other problems are a result of one problem, and your one problem
is with God, and it's because of your sin. God's indignation and wrath against
you is because of your sin. And as long as you have a problem
with God, you're going to have all kinds of problems. But once your problem with God
goes away, I can tell you this from experience
now. Once your problem with God goes
away, all of your other problems go away. They go away. Now, my sin is still a grief
to me. You say, oh, Craig, you've got
problems. Well, my sin is a grief to me, but it's no more. It no
more has dominion over me. I'm free from the law of sin
and death. Romans 8 too, for the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. Satan, It's still somebody that
we have to be vigilant of and beware of. The scripture warns
us of him, but he's vanquished. Death is an enemy that I have
to do business with. The death of those that I love,
my own death that's creeping up on me every day that I feel
in my very body. Death is an enemy, a real enemy
now, but where's your sting, death? First Corinthians 1555,
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. No more problem with God, no
more problem with anything or anybody. So don't ever think of your life
as all of these problems that you have to deal with. You have
but one problem, and you can't deal with it, but you don't have
to. Because the one who has dealt
with it says, you come to me. You come to me and you can rest.
You can stand there and watch me save you. That's how that
works. Come to me. Rest from every enemy, every
problem, every worry, every fear. Now believers still worry and
we still have some fear, but not that much. Not like those who don't know
the Lord. We have some sorrow, but we don't
sorrow as others which have no home. And here's the real blessing
now. We still have some worries, we still have some fears, but
we have no reason to worry or be afraid. None. All of my reasons for distress
and fear Just memories now, just memories. Verse 11, my days are like a
shadow that declineth, and I am withered like grass, but thou,
O Lord, shalt endure forever. And thy remembrance unto all.
Generations. Oh, may this be our testimony.
May we walk through this life knowing this. I am nothing. You
see verse 11. I'm nothing. I'm a shadow. I'm
withered like grass, but my God is not like me. Isn't that your
hope? My savior's not like me. I'm
weak, but he's strong. I'm feeble. He's mighty. Without Him, I can do nothing
because I am nothing. Without Him, I can do nothing,
but that's okay because I'm not without Him. I'm never without
Him. I can do all things through Christ,
which strengthens me. I am withered grass, but He is
the mighty God. The Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. You need peace? Verse 13, Thou shalt arise and
have mercy upon Zion. For the time to favor her, yea
the set time, is right now. It's come. Four beautiful, beautiful
Lessons in this verse we learn in this verse that mercy is God's
prerogative He has it you see that that you will have mercy
I Will have mercy Isn't that wonderful I know that
makes people mad It would make me mad if I didn't know him.
I understand that I But that don't make me mad right now as
I stand before you tonight. That don't make me mad. That
mercy is God's prerogative. What a wonderful thing. He's
plenteous in mercy. He delights to show mercy. God who is rich in mercy. We learn in this very verse here
also, secondly, that mercy is limited. God's gonna have mercy
on his elect. You see that there? We'll have
mercy on Zion, the city of God, the people of God, the elect. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will, and whom he will have mercy upon is his people,
his sheep, whom he's chosen from the beginning. Bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. He picked you out
to have mercy on you. That'll make some of your problems
go away right there, won't it? They're already gone. You just
need to realize it. And I do too, don't you? They're
gone. I have no problems. I just wish I knew that. I wish
you knew it too. We learn thirdly in this verse
that there is a set time for mercy. There's a time of mercy. God has mercy on whom he will.
And he's already worked out the moment that he's going to turn
the light on, the moment that you're going to stop on your
road to hell and turn back and return unto God. That's when
you're going to turn, when he turns you. Turn us, Lord, and
we'll be turned. He knows exactly when it's going
to happen. I still, it's already happened
to me and I still don't know when it happened to you, but
he does. It's the time of love. I passed by, I saw you in your
blood. I said unto you, live. Mercy is not offered, it's ordained. And we learn in this verse, that
the time for mercy is right now. It's right now. The time has
come. From God's perspective, we don't know when the time of
mercy is. For the thief, it was while he was drawing his very
last breaths in this world. For Timothy, for young Timothy,
it seems like he was saved at a very young age. Paul said,
from a child, you've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able
to make thee wise unto salvation. We don't know from God's perspective
when mercy come, when that moment is, but from your perspective,
you know when it is? It's right now. It's always right
now. 2 Corinthians 6, 2. For he saith,
I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have
I secured thee. I want you to turn over there
and look at 2 Corinthians 6, 2, please. I want to show you
something about this. I think I'm going to have time
to spare tonight, so I want to see this. 2 Corinthians 6, 2. 2nd Corinthians 6 2 for he says
I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation have
I secured thee now that's the verse that he's quoting from
the Old Testament right there that verse doesn't say the rest
of this 2nd Corinthians 2 if you look up Isaiah 49 80 doesn't
say anything about now it doesn't say anything about the time it
just says I have heard thee in a time accepted in the day of
salvation have I secured thee this is Paul talking now so what's
happened here Paul is quoting a verse a Lot like ours a text
that talks about a day of mercy a time of salvation And you know
what Paul said he says here. Here's how you're to understand
that That time is right now you see that The whole now is that day What a lesson The time of salvation. God's promised it. There's a
day of mercy. There's an accepted time. And from your perspective, there's
no tomorrow. This is urgent. It's urgent,
isn't it? And just a final note on verses.
I want to look at verses. Let's read most of the rest of
this song. Verse 14, for thy servants take
pleasure in her stones and favor the dust, even the dust of God's
city. It's special dust, isn't it?
The ground that we walk on is holy ground and he's in our presence
now. There's nothing special about this ground, but he said
where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am. Now it's
holy ground because he's here. Verse 15 so the heathen shall
fear the name of the Lord. That's me the heathen I Wasn't
scared of him before I am when he comes I'm overwhelmed now
because of my sin and all the kings of the earth thy glory
Fear thy glory when the Lord shall build up Zion he shall
appear and in his glory. That's what he's doing right
now. He's building up Zion. He's adding
daily to his church, such as should be saved. And he's building
a city. It's not made out of bricks and
mortar. It's made out of people. It's a people. He's building
up Zion daily, every day. I was trying to, I was asking
my family on the way over here, because my memory is so horrible,
who the last person was that I baptized. I believe it was
Amber. And I thought, well, I guess she wasn't the last one, because
we're still here. He's building the city, and when
he's done with it, you know, we're never finished with anything.
You realize that, don't you? Dean Christie building the house,
is it done? It's not quite done, is it? It's
not ever going to be. I'm telling you right now. Mine's
not either. There's always something. There's
always something. But even we, when we finish building
what we're building, we move on to the next thing. You know
what God's next thing is for us? We're going to see him face
to face. This is going to be over. He's going to make everything
new, my friends. I can't wait, can you? John said,
even now, Lord, come now. Come quickly. But he's building
up his eye on it, and when he's done, He's using this earth to
do that and that's all this earth is for. That's all this earth
is for. He can make a new one when Zion
is built. He will regard the prayer. This
is how he built it. He will regard the prayer of
the destitute. Destitute. Overwhelmed. and destitute. That's the title of the message
tonight because that's us now and that's when God comes where
we are. When you're laying in that ditch
bleeding out, you're half dead. And you're fixing to be all dead.
You're already spiritually dead. And when you're physically dead,
that's it. You're all dead then. Dead forever. Dead in every sense
of the word. You don't even know what dead
is yet. But you're going to. But call upon the Lord now while
he's near. Old Blind Bartimaeus, he knew
when the accepted time was, didn't he? The Lord is passing by right
now. He may never pass by again. 1 Thessalonians 4, 16, for the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Can you
hear that? I can't either, but I try. I want to hear. I know this. Nobody ever shouted like him.
He's coming down for us with a shout. There's something beautiful
about that now. There's something glorious about
that. He's going to come for us with
a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump
of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first And then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we. I like that word, don't you?
Ever. Be with. We're going to be with
him. That's what's next. He's building it by listening
for the cries of the desolate. I know you know this is human
language referring to the Lord in human terms. God's spirit. We don't have to worship him
in spirit and truth. But this is a beautiful picture
now. He has not destroyed this world yet because he's not willing
that one desolate sinner should perish. Not one. He hears their
cry before they ever utter it. He hears the cry Of the destitute
that won't even be crying until perhaps later this year. Maybe
maybe next month maybe tomorrow And when that cry goes forth
he will answer it you see that word he'll answer it He's the
first cause of everything He causes you to cry and then he
answers it And then when that new creation verse 18 This shall
be written for the generation to come and
the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. Wait a
minute, don't you mean they're the people which were created?
Well, God already created, not talking about that creation,
talking about the new creation, which shall be created. He's
still creating sinners anew. And when he is finished with
that, we all want to praise him. But wait, we're praising him
now, yeah, but we're gonna praise him a lot better then. And more
importantly, that's all we're gonna do. We're gonna just praise
him. You see, we praise him every
once in a while now, and then there's a whole lot in between that.
Then, we're just gonna praise him! And we don't have any idea how
wonderful and glorious that's gonna be. just to praise the
Lord forever, just to behold his face and to be able to praise
him as he's worthy to be praised. A new creation will be completed.
All the people will be gathered together for one purpose. Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to be praising him constantly, but we're going to be doing something
at the same time. When the people are gathered
together in the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. His servants,
it says in Revelation, shall serve Him. There'll be nothing
that enters in there that defileth or tells a lie. No sin. His servants are going to serve
Him. We're going to do what Adam didn't do and what nobody since
has ever really done. The only reason the Scripture
talks about us as being servants of the Lord is because we're
in Christ. We're unprofitable in ourselves, we're nothing.
But we're gonna serve him then. And he, we can hear, and he's
just reiterating in verse 23 through the end there, he's just
reiterating what he's already said. He weakened my strength
in the way. Saul of Tarsus could have said that, couldn't he?
Boy, he was a mighty man. But the Lord brought him down
into the dust. He shortened my days. Paul said, I died. I said, oh my God. Oh my God. You know, I know people
say that just talking about the stupidest things. But what a,
what a phrase. When you come to the place where
from your heart, when the Lord, sure enough, comes where you
are, and arrest you on your way to hell, you're gonna cry, oh
my God, my God. Thomas said, my Lord and my God. Take me not away in the midst
of my days, thy years are throughout all generations. So old has thou
laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work
of thy hands. And they're going to perish when he's done with
them. He's going to fold it up and throw it away. But thou shalt
endure. All of them shall wax old like
a garment as a vesture. Shalt thou change them and they
shall be changed. But thou art the same forever.
And thy years shall have no end. And the children of thy servants
shall continue. Us and all of your seed. Their seed shall be established
before thee. This earth is cursed. And God's
gonna do away with it. And we're cursed. But by His
grace, we're gonna endure with Him. Because of what we saw in verse
13. Mercy. Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy. on me, right now, speedily. Help me. I'm overwhelmed. I'm
out of my depth. I'm past needing a chance. I'm past turning things around,
turning over a new leaf. I got no leaf to turn over. I'm
a goner. I need your mercy, and I need
it right now. Lord, have mercy on us and on
our children, is our prayer. Let's pray together.