Sometimes our Lord just lays
songs on the heart of His children in a very deep and personal way. I'd like to ask if you would
turn in your Bibles to the epistle of Matthew, chapter 26. It seems like every day that
goes by, More and more so since the time
the Lord called me out of darkness. Since the Lord placed His love
in my heart. Brother Mike Loveless and I were
talking about this a little bit ago. And I've shared with you
Gene and Judy's testimony. We're just waiting for the day
the Lord takes us home. Just waiting for the day. And every day that goes by, it seems like my soul is troubled
more and more. My soul is troubled as I go through
my day. All around me I find my flesh
just doesn't cut it. No, it desires to walk not with
my Lord. It desires to not trust Him as
I should. It desires to not turn the cheek. I don't know if you folks struggle
with these things. I don't. I struggle a great deal with
love thy neighbor as thyself. I've used a neighbor when I was
living in Sacramento as an example. Their dogs would just, they would
let their dogs run everywhere. These weren't little dogs. These
were big dogs. They never went to the bathroom
in their yard. They always went to the bathroom in all of our
yards. I would get so angry about that. I know it's funny, but
it's not. It's not. It's not. I was not. I found
it difficult in the flesh to bend to the authority of my Lord. And that's what it is. If God
didn't want those dogs to come over to my yard, they wouldn't
have come. You see, we're talking about a sovereign Lord of everything,
are we not? Isn't that what we're here to
worship today? Isn't that who we're here to talk about? To
put the world behind us for a few minutes? And consider Him. Consider Him who has loved us
from the beginning of all things. He didn't love the world. Don't
confuse me when I say He has loved us. He has loved His people,
His elect, His chosen. His Word is clear. I have a people
who I have loved before the world was. And none of us deserve that love. I struggle with loving my neighbor. My inner rebellion against the
ones God has put and ruled over me. Now that could be a policeman,
a congressman, a boss, the guy behind the counter. Oh, I struggle every day, more
and more. In fact, it even seems that when
I sleep, I wake up in the middle of the
night wondering, why do I have such dreams? Why am I dreaming
in such greediness? I find it most interesting that
these troubles were not in me before the Lord called me. I was quite fine with who John
was. before God showed me who John
is. These things I speak of, they
trouble me. They didn't trouble me before,
or at least not to the forefront of my thoughts. Now they plague
me more and more as every day goes by. When I think of the
sacrifice, the great sacrifice of my Creator, the Creator of
everything that is, When I consider Him and what He has given me,
the preciousness of His love, I am ashamed. I am ashamed of myself before
Him. I find I cannot raise up from that crouched position in
the corner, crying out, Lord, have mercy upon me. I find it
more and more each day I leave this place of worship and the
old man just rears up its ugly head. Sitting in the pews at times
or listening to a message on a recorded message, I find it
difficult even when my Lord says, just sit with me for a little
bit. Sit with me just for a few minutes. It's only a couple of
hours on Sunday, maybe an hour for Sunday, Friday night. Sit
with me. Some of you get that, don't you? Some of you get that. Sitting
with my Lord becomes too heavy for my flesh. Are you with me
in Matthew chapter 26? I want to read a few verses beginning
at verse 36. Then cometh Jesus with them unto
a place called Gethsemane. And he saith unto the disciples,
Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him
Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and
very heavy. Then saith He unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, tarry ye here, and
watch with Me." Tarry ye here and watch with
Me. What a difficult thing for God
to ask of one. Tarry ye here for just a moment.
And he went a little further, verse 39, and fell on his face
and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Verse 40, and he cometh unto
his disciples, and findeth them asleep. Come on now, Peter's one of the
toughest guys I've ever heard of. You know, he's a fisherman. He wasn't somebody working with
needles and putting together tents and stuff. No, he was a
fisherman out working in the salting sea and his fingers had
to be calloused with very strong. He had to be a strong man to
go out into the ocean and pull the boat with the oars. Pull
in those necks full of fish. Peter? He couldn't stay awake
for just a moment? And he finds him asleep. And
he saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. Verse 42, And he went away again
the second time, and prayed, saying, O my father, if this
cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be
done. And he came and found them asleep
again. What? Again? For their eyes were
heavy. Verse 44, And he left them, and
went away again, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.
Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Now I want
you to catch this, folks. Read this with me. You don't
have to read it aloud, just read it with your heart. Sleep, says
our Lord. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. I bring this section of Scripture
before you this morning in hopes to assure you that if you struggle
with sin, and I truly pray you do, If you think everything is just
honky-dory and going along just fine, I'm okay now, I've been
saved, there's nothing else for me to do, I can go about living
my life the way I want to, then you're wrong. We don't get up from being that
beggar over in the corner pounding on our chest saying, Lord have
mercy for me, and stand up where the Pharisee is and say, I'm
sure glad I'm not like that anymore. I hope, I pray that your sin
plagues you. But I also pray this, I pray
that the Lord will give you some assurance today to know this,
that you are not alone. You're not the only one. All
of God's people are saved the same way. You're not alone. This is why
we're not to forsake the assembling of ourselves. We are to come
together to edify one another, to build each other up in the
faith, to say to each other, I struggle with sin too. This is the point that God allows
us to come to, that we might look to Him, that He might turn
us, O Lord, because He says in His Word, turn us, O Lord, and
we shall be turned. We sing the song, I am weak,
but thou art strong. Turn over to Psalms 51, if you
would, please. Psalms 51. I am weak, but thou
art strong. Consider the strength of David,
if you would, the son of Jesse. You all know the story, right?
He went up against the giant of a man, but did you know that
before he did that he killed a bear and a lion with his bare
hands? That little fair young man. And
that's what he was. He wasn't a big strong brother
like his brothers were. He was just a fair young man.
And he went up against that trained killer of a giant. Not only was
he trained in killing, He was strong enough to kill a lot of
people at the same time, and he was bigger than anybody else
around. Goliath. Consider the strength of David,
the son of Jesse. He killed the lion and bear before
that even. Yet in our Lord's great wisdom,
David was allowed to fall in the flesh to a great sin. We're going to bring you this
morning a little bit of hope. If your sin is plaguing you,
this position of sorrow down on our knees crying out for mercy
is also a position to be quite joyful of. You say, what? How can that be
joyful, to be down on your knees crying out for mercy, because
I wasn't I didn't need it. I didn't need
God. John was just fine. And neither
did you at one time of your life. I want to bring you a little bit
of hope if you're plagued with your sin. This position of sorrow
can also be seen as quite a joyful position. You see, God does not
leave his loved ones with their faces in the dirt. When we see
the majestic God as He is, sitting on His throne, holy, so holy
that He can't even look upon the flesh that I stand in, I've
got to get down. I've got to get down where I
belong, but God doesn't leave me there. He doesn't leave any
of His children there. Because to see up, you've got
to be put down first. He doesn't leave His loved ones
with their faces in the dirt. You see, God is pleased to be
merciful. It pleases Him to be gracious
to those for whom His Son, Christ the Lord, shed His blood for. I love to be merciful and gracious
to you, He says, but not because of you. Because of My Son, who died for
you. and shed His perfect blood in
your stead." He shed His blood, and all for
whom God shed His blood for, all for whom the Lord Jesus laid
down His life, they shall cry out for mercy, and get this,
they shall receive it. We are assured, He says, My sheep
hear My voice. We are assured that we will not
be left in the dirt where we belong. We are assured that we'll
be raised up to see the beauty and the wonder of God's grace
in shining His love to His people. And we read that in Ephesians
chapter 2-4. You don't need to turn there, I'll read it for
you. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us. Did you catch that? Because of
His mercy and because it's so rich, for His great love wherewith
He loved us, in sins, have quickened us together
with Christ, by grace are ye saved, and then he says this, and have raised us up, raised
us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. I'm thankful. I'm thankful for that sin that
plagues me. It's not easy to be thankful
for something that you hate so much. It's not easy to say, I'll
take it. Whatever God gives me, I'll take
it. But if He didn't give it to you, then you'd be left to
yourself, wouldn't you? You see, folks? This is what
Paul writes about when he says, I glory in my trials and tribulations. This is what he's talking about.
If we were left to ourselves, if we didn't have that struggle
with sin that we have in our life, then we wouldn't be one
of his. And we would go through that
doormark death and receive what we justly deserve. You see how it can be joyous
to see the sin that is in your flesh? Because that's when you
see the glory of Christ in being your Savior. In Psalms 51.1, we read these words. It begins
with, to the chief musician, David, the psalmist, of writing
a hymn. a praise, a song. He's writing it about when Nathan
the prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And
most of you know this story. This one who was after God's
own heart, this one who had been blessed of God over and over
and over again. I don't know how to say this
any differently, but I'm thankful God puts this in the Scriptures
that I can see that you can't be perfect in the flesh, even
those who are blessed of God. This could be me. David knew who he was blessed
by, and yet he turned his back on God and had an affair with
Meshivah. God or pregnant. And then to
hide everything as though he thought he could, he went and
had her husband sent to the front lines to be killed so he could
marry Bathsheba and call her his. It says next, have mercy upon
me, O God. After declaring where the hymn
was written, we hear David's words. Have mercy upon me, O
God. Now, does that sound like the
Pharisee standing there in the temple, or does that sound like
that man over against the corner counting on his chest? Does that
sound like this man who stands before you today? Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy Oh, folks, if it's a love and
a mercy according to His way, it's perfect. It's just like
the blood that was shed on that cross. It's perfect. It wasn't shed so that something
could happen. It was shed so that something
would be done. All of the children of God, all
of those for whose names were written in the book of life before
the world began, every single one shall be saved. That's the blood of Christ on
the cross. It did the job. There's no ifs,
and there's no buts, and there's no ands. It is done. Have mercy on me, O Lord, according
to Thy lovingkindness, not according to something that I have done.
Did you notice that? It wasn't according to something
David had done. What is lovingkindness of God? What is the lovingkindness
of God? This is it right here. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. That's the lovingkindness of
God. David goes on after that, and
he says, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Cover me in thy righteousness. Lord, take what is mine and wash
it in the blood of your Son. Verse 2, wash me thoroughly it
says. He says right, wash me thoroughly, not just part Lord,
I need to be washed from head to foot. Isn't that what Peter
said when he says, Lord you're not going to wash my feet? What
did Christ do? He got down on his hands and
knees, the creator of everything, got down on his hands and knees
and washed the feet. Peter says, no, no, no, no, you're
not going to wash mine. He says, well, if I don't wash
you, then you have nothing to do with me. Not just my feet,
but from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Not just John, the first time
he heard the gospel preached, but John, all the way until the
day the Lord takes me out of this world. Wash me, and wash me, and wash
me, and wash me. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions. I know what I am before you,
Lord. I know I deserve your wrath. And thank God that you've shown
my substitute, the one who took your wrath upon himself for my
transgression. Verse 3, for I acknowledge my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Did you notice
that it said sin? Did you see that? Why didn't
he say sins? Why did David not say all my
sins, Lord? As children of God, we know,
and if you're a child of God, you know this. It's not what
you do. It's what you are. It's what I am. That's what sin,
that's why it's only one singular, all of David is sin. That's why we have no confidence
in our flesh. As Paul wrote, I have no confidence
in this flesh because I know that in this flesh there is no
good thing. I know that in my heart dwelleth
the perfect, righteous, that wars with the spirit, wars
with the heart, there is no good thing. I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin as ever before me. Folks, confessing what we are
before God is essential. Not with the lips, but with the
heart. In 1 John 1 verse 9, we read
these words, If we confess our sins, He is faithful to adjust
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Back in our Psalms, Psalm 51,
verse 4, it says these words, "...Against thee," writes David,
"...against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest." Now I want to quote from Robert Hawker.
Robert Hawker is one of those writers that I just love the
way he writes. He's very poetic in everything
he writes, and I'm not. So allow me to quote from him
if you would. He says, this is a striking expression. David
looks upon the sin as directly leveled against God. Now he had
injured Uriah, he had injured Bathsheba, injured in short,
everyone that had heard the story. How many people looked up to
David? He was the king. How many people looked upon the
king and said, I can't do what that guy tells
me to do anymore. He injured so many more than what we just
read about in Scripture. In the example that he had set,
but the great sin was against God. You see, he had been, had
be not lost reverence for God. I must have left a word out of
there, I apologize for that. He could not have injured men.
David dwells, therefore, upon this fact that he sinned against
God. He says, against Thee, Thee only. He says it as though he's repeating
the words with a painful recollection. Lord, I have sinned against Thee.
Just Thee, Thee alone. Here was the sad, sad business. You see, reader, it is among
the truest marks of genuine sorrow when we detect our sin against
the sovereignty of God at every step. Continuing on now in verse 5
of Psalms 51, Behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. In other words, he's saying,
I consent that that is all I am. This body of flesh has nothing
to stand before a thrice holy God. He goes on in verse 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know
wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the May rejoice. David didn't have
any broken bones before the Lord showed his sin to him, did he?
No. He was perfectly happy with going
right along with what was going on. Verse 9, he says, Hide thy face
from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me,
O Lord, create in me, a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Now
I want you to turn over to the 89th Psalm. We won't be much
longer. You see, a troubled soul is also
our joy. If it were not for our troubles,
we would not see our deliverance from them. Folks, we would not
see the mercy of God if we first do not see our need of it. Yes,
I am sin, but my Lord has a word of hope for me, and that word
is this, nevertheless. That's the title of my message
today, and I hope you get this in your heart. Nevertheless,
though that sin plagues you throughout the day of your life, though
that sin bothers you, or whatever you want to call it, our Lord says these words, nevertheless. Look with me if you would in
the 89th Psalm, beginning at verse 20. Our Lord says these
words, I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have
I anointed him. This is how come David is a man
after God's own heart. The holy oil of God has been
anointed on David and all of his people. Verse 21, with whom
my hand shall be established, mine arm shall be strengthened
in him. The enemy shall not exact upon
him, nor the sun of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat
down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him, and in my
name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and in the right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto
me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation." When you've come to the point,
when God has brought you to the point of realizing there's nothing
you can do, I'm so bankrupt I can't even look up. We cry unto Him, Thou art my
Father, my God, the rock of my salvation. Verse 27, also I will
make Him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth.
My mercy will I keep for Him forevermore, and my covenant
shall stand fast with Him. You know what that covenant is?
That covenant is the old covenant made before the world was ever
began. God the Father gave God the Son of people. a sinful people,
but Christ made the covenant that I will save that people. He didn't say, I might. He said, I will. And he did. My mercy, verse 28, will I keep
for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His
seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the
days of heaven, if his children forsake my law and walk not in
my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes." I take a moment
again to quote Robert Hawker. He says this, he said, it is
all along considered engagements of Jehovah. That the seed of
Christ will manifest frequent rebellions. I knew, saith Jehovah
speaking of Israel, that thou wouldest deal very treacherously
and was called a transgressor from the womb. You can read that
in Isaiah 48a. And therefore in the covenant,
writes Robert Hawker, God hath made provision for corrections
henceforth chastisements, afflictions, sicknesses, troubles, and the
like. Thou wast a God, saith the psalmist,
that forgavest them that thou tookst vengeance in their inventions. That's in Psalms 99.8. And then
Robert Harker says these words, he says, and the reason this
is obvious, the purchase of salvation cost no less a price than the
blood of his own son. So inestimable a blessing, and
so dearly bought, it is not to be trifled with. And then in
verse 33, we read these words. Nevertheless, I hope God uses
these words to bless your soul today. I pray that He's plaguing
your soul with the sins of your flesh, that He might bless you
with this word, nevertheless. Though trials and tribulations
will be brought into our lives to bring us to Him, nevertheless,
my loving kindness will I not utterly take from Him. Does that bless you? Does that bless the poor sinner? Knowing that I continue to walk
in this Word and the sin of this flesh, that my Lord, nevertheless,
though I will wander from His statutes, nevertheless, though
I will not follow His commandments, nevertheless, though I will transgress
against my Lord, His rod will be with me. His loving kindness will still
be there. He says in the last part of that
verse, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. His faithfulness. Great is His
faithfulness. Not ours. That blesses me a great
deal because I'm about as unfaithful as anybody can be. to my Lord. I've already shared with you
what happens when we walk out the door of this building. Sometimes,
sitting right here in the building, thoughts will come to my mind.
Because I'm sinning. Oh, precious Jesus. Oh, gracious
God and Father in Christ. How wonderful are your words
to this poor sinner. Our Lord tells us in Malachi
3.6, He says, For I am the Lord, I change not. That's good words to me. That
tells me that He's never going to leave me. He's never going
to forsake me. Despite me. I change not, therefore
ye sons of Jacob. are not consumed. Every trouble,
every trial brings me closer to my Savior. He leads me on
this winding path, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death. My comfort is His rod, the rod of power, the one who
sits at the right hand of God Almighty, the hand of all power,
is his rod, his staff, and he shall not fail. Close with me
if you would in reading Psalms 89, 34-37. He says, My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once
I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His
seed shall endure forever in His throne as the sun before
me. It shall be established forever
as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. Yeah, I know our sin puts us
over in the corner pounding our chest. wouldn't see the mercy that we
have in our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus.