We're in Psalm 34 and we're gonna
begin reading in verse one. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The
humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord
with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord
and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked
unto me and were lighted, and their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him
out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him and delivereth them. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want
to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good
thing. Now I want to draw your attention
to the heading that's in Psalm 34. If you have a Bible that
has a heading above it, it reads this, a Psalm of David, when
he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away
and he departed. This Psalm was written after
the Lord had graciously saved David from peril. He's fleeing
from his life before Saul. And we've heard of this account
before. I've preached a message from
this account before that I'm describing, but it's found in
1 Samuel 21. We're not going to turn there.
But David's fleeing for his life from Saul. Saul has said, I'm
going to kill him. Saul had taken up throwing spears
at David, if I remember correctly. He tried to kill him. He literally
was wanting to kill David because David was the anointed of the
Lord that would be the end of Saul's line, the end of Saul's
lineage being the king. And so Saul wanted to kill David.
There was enmity between David and Saul all the days of Saul.
And so he's fleeing for his life and he goes to a priest, he goes
to the place of worship and he says, I'm hungry, I need bread. And the priest said, we don't
have any common bread here. We don't have that which you
can just go buy as we would go buy at a supermarket. This was
holy bread is what they had, the showbread, the consecrated
bread unto the Lord. It was the bread that was considered
holy for the priest to eat. David said, give it to me. I'm
hungry. The Lord used the example in
the Pharisees. They were accusing the Lord of healing on the Sabbath
day. He said, did not David take of the showbread when he was
in hunger? It was an example unto them that
the Lord provided that for David to eat. And he did so. Well,
after he ate, he didn't have any weapons. He didn't have any
way of defending himself from Saul. And he says, do you have
a sword or a spear? And he says, well, there's one
sword that we have. It's the sword that you, it's
Goliath's sword. It's the sword that chopped the
head off of it, that you used David to chop the head off the
giant. You know what David's response to that was? There is
no sword like that sword. Give it to me. And so David took
the sword and he's fleeing for his life from Saul. Then, He
flees to Gath, which I find interesting because that's where Goliath
came from, Goliath of Gath. Now he has Goliath's sword with
him and he's in Gath where Goliath came from many years ago. I mean,
that seems a little dangerous to me, doesn't it, you? Well,
the king hears, the man that's the king in Gath hears of David
being there and the men were saying, is this not David that
killed his 10,000 and Saul only killed thousands? Is this not
the David that killed Goliath? Is this not the guy? And the
king summoned for him. Well, you can imagine now he's
fleeing from his life from Saul and he gets to this king that's
wanting to see him. And you can imagine David's like,
he said he was scared in his heart. He feared in the very
depths of his bones. He was afraid that this man was
gonna kill him. And so what does he do? Does
he begin to pray and say, Lord, save me? And like we want to
so many times? No, that's not what he did. They
brought him before the king and he acted like a maniac. He acted
like a madman. His spit went down on his beard.
He scratched on the wall. He acted insane in front of this
man. And the king said, this is David.
This is the guy you were telling me that's done all these wonderful
things. Get him out of my house. Get him out of my sight. He's
not welcome here. And David fled away from the
king. Now David's in a cave. David's
fled from Saul. David's fled from the king. And
now he begins to praise the Lord. See, in order for you and I to
praise the Lord. We have to be made to praise
him. In order for you and I to worship,
we have to be caused to worship him. How does he do that? How
does he cause us to worship him? Our text here in Psalm 34 tells
us, our title comes from verse six. This poor man cried and
the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles,
out of all of his troubles. This poor man cried. If David
had never been made poor, he would have never cried out, would
he? If David would have never been made needy, understand that
means he had a need. He was made to have a need, if
you and I. are never made to have a need,
then we'll never have a desire. We'll never have a void. We'll never have a need. We have
to be made to have a need. And the Lord does it how? By
troubling us, by troubling us, by making us poor, by showing
us that we're desolate, that we're dismayed, that we are not
worthy. He puts us in the place where
we must cry out for mercy. And that's exactly what we see
in David. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. He was
driven to his knees, wasn't he? Driven to beg unto the Lord. And when he saw that the Lord
had, what the Lord, he turned around and looked. And how many
times in your life can you understand and agree or relate to what happened
to David? You were in a circumstance, in
a situation. And I know personally, I try to fix things first thing.
I put my hands to it every time, it seems like. I wish I wasn't
that way. I wish, like Paul said, the things which I would do,
that's not what I do, but the things I would not, that's what
I find myself doing over and over. And that's the life of
the believer, it is. But we put our hands to these
things, and yet the Lord is merciful in causing that circumstance
to drive us to Christ. Isn't that glorious how our Lord
does? The things which trouble us, the things which we see as
bad, the Lord is doing it as goodness and mercy to his people
because of his purpose. It is driving us to him. Now,
What we really cry out is being made a sinner, being made a poor,
wretched, vile sinner, being shown that he is holy and that
he is high. That's when we cry out. That's
truly when we're made poor, not circumstantially. But our circumstances
do cause us to cry out, don't they? The children of Israel had a
serious problem of murmuring and complaining. And we do too.
I mean, we do. Anything that happens, a ripple
in our pond, we act like a tsunami. It's just how we are. It's how
I am. I'm sure that's how some of you are as well. They had
a problem of murmuring and complaining. But did you know if fear comes
upon you? I'm talking sudden fear, fear
for your life, the most afraid that you've ever been. David
was thinking he was going to die and he acts like a maniac.
He acts like a madman. Why did he do that? Because he
was utterly fearful. There's no time to complain whenever
you have that fear that grips your heart, is there? There's
no time to sit there. and evaluate your circumstance
and trying to justify yourself, you're afraid. What does that
fear make you do? Beg for mercy, doesn't it? Beg
and cry out to the Lord. That's what the fear of the Lord
does. Whenever he shows you that you are a sinner and that he
is holy, there's a fear that you will have. It's called repentance. He changes your mind to see him
as he is and see yourself as you are. And when you see that,
he causes you to beg. He causes you to beg. We no longer
justify ourselves, not boasting in our abilities. We're requesting
at that point. We're not commanding God to do
anything. We're begging him to have mercy upon us. Men believe that by the life
that they live, they can obligate God to do something. Men believe
that they can obligate God to do something. You know that that's
not true, don't you? You know that you can't obligate
God to do anything. The Lord's made us to know that,
hasn't he? He showed us that all that he required was in his
precious son. We are not trying to obligate
God based upon our righteousness. Quite the opposite, we're begging
for Christ and his righteousness. Can you identify with David here
when he says, this poor man cried? This poor man cried. Has the
Lord made you poor? It's the only way that he saves
a sinner is making them poor and making them needy. Qualification for salvation is
being made poor and needy. The qualification is being made
a sinner. You must be a sinner in order
to come to Christ. He said the righteous, he come
to not call the righteous, but the sinner to repentance. He
says they that are whole, they don't need a physician. They
that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Are you
sick? Are you sick with sin? Are you sick with self? Are you
poor? Are you needy? Come to Christ because he says
the Lord heard him. The Lord Jehovah, the sovereign
I am heard him. And what did he do when he heard
him? Delivered him from all of his troubles. All of his troubles.
Now, I understand that this is a physical picture, but it's
also a spiritual picture, isn't it? Everything that happened
with David when he was going through, the sword that was there,
the table of showbread. What is that showing us? What
is that signifying? It's showing us that the holiness of God was
manifest in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He is the bread of life. He is
the holy thing. And the only way that you and
I can live is in Him. The only way we can have our
being is in Him, because in Him is life. David went and said,
give me bread. We don't have common bread. We
have this holy bread. Give it to me. Is that what you
cry out for? Lord, I'm hungry. Give me your
holiness. Give me your righteousness. I'm
poor. I'm needy. Give me Christ, lest I die. That's
what the picture is here. We know what the sword represents
that they had hidden in the back, that the only sword that was
present. What is that sword? The sword
of justice. The sword of justice that was unsheathed and pierced
the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. the sort of justice
that the father used to execute judgment upon his son so that
his people might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the one that was made poor. He was
the one that was made needy. But because he was made sin,
his father could not hear him when he cried to him on the cross. He was made sin. It separated
him, utterly separated him from his father, broke fellowship
completely. So that when you and I cry, when
you and I come before the throne of God and cry out as a poor,
wretched, vile sinner, he hears you and he delivers you from
all your troubles. That's what the picture is here. Most of the time, the Lord leaves
us in a poor state for a duration of time. I was talking to somebody,
I think it was yesterday, and it was The expression was kind
of thrown around when it rains, it pours. Whenever something
seems like when something bad happens, if you want to call
it bad, we know it's the goodness and mercy of the Lord, yet we
call it bad. When something doesn't go our way, it seems like more
things don't go our way and then more things don't go our way.
This breaks down and this breaks down. I threw my back out. I'm
sick. Now this has happened. It just seems like when it rains,
it pours. What's happening during that? Well, Number one, we are
human and things are going to happen. But the believer is the
only one that sits there and says, I deserve this. I deserve
this happened to me. Now, I want to make a statement
to us, that is unbelief. Because if the Lord is doing
anything to you in judgment, then Christ did not satisfy the
judgment of God. Everything that's happening to
the Lord's people is ordered and sure to drive you straight
to Christ. Christ is the mark of the high
calling that Paul was talking about. We run this race with
patience. That's what Paul said, pressing toward Christ. That's
what we do. Every time you find yourself
in a circumstance that you just have to throw your hands up,
I pray the Lord gives us grace to rejoice in that. This would
sound crazy to the world. I'm talking about rejoicing in
tribulation. Well, who does that? Well, that's what the Lord says
to do, rejoice. Rejoice, knowing that the tribulation
of your faith worketh patience. Knowing that the Lord is shutting
you up to Christ, giving you his gospel to lean on and cling
to with every fiber of your being alone. Know that you're being
made poor because he is your riches. The less you see of yourself,
the more you see of him. It's a digression, isn't it?
We're not getting better, we're getting worse. We digress, don't
we? Now, A lot of times our problems
come from us doing something. I found that to be so true in
my life. Every time I get in trouble, normally it's because
I've done something or I didn't do something and I should have
done something. We're so quick to judge others based upon their
actions, but we judge ourself on our intentions. Isn't that
true? We look at everybody around us and we judge them based upon
their actions, the outward show or display or what they do. But
yet we look at ourself and we justify ourself because of our
intentions. This is not what the Lord does. He said that you're an Oakland
sepulcher unto Him. He looks all the way down inside. And
our only hope is that He has made us poor and needy and shut
us up to Christ so that when He looks, He doesn't see me.
He sees the blood of Christ. He doesn't judge me based upon
my intentions. He judges me based upon Christ's
merit. Do we see that? That's what we
need. I don't need Him to... My intentions are utterly sinful. I need a substitute. I need the
Lord Jesus Christ to have put away my sin. What he tells us in Titus 3.7
is that being justified by his grace alone, his grace alone,
that's what we're talking about. We should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. How does he do that? By making
us poor and needy and then making us cry out. The Lord does not
hear everyone when they pray. Did you know that? He does not.
Only those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died for does the
Lord hear. Why? Because he is the intercessor
for his people. He is the one that presents it
to his father as washed in the blood as perfect. Perfect prayers.
See, I've never prayed a perfect prayer and you haven't. But when
the Lord Jesus Christ presents our pleas before the Father,
he presents it as perfect because he is the one that has washed
it in his own blood. We don't know how we should pray,
but the Lord does. He is our intercessor. He's our advocate
with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. We're made poor
and needy and we cry out unto him. This poor man cried and
the Lord heard him. Poor was the qualification. He was acknowledging
what he was, who he was. He was acknowledging his situation,
his status. He was acknowledging his goodness
was nothing, that he was poor and needy. He cried out and the
Lord heard him. Psalm 40, 17 says, I am poor
and needy yet. And see, this is so important.
I am poor and needy. Now, if the Psalm stopped writing
right there, that's true, isn't it? I am poor and needy. But
if that's the end of it, we have no hope. Just being made poor
and needy doesn't mean that we see Christ. It's simultaneous
when the Lord gives repentance and faith. So we are made poor
and needy, then we're shut up to Christ who is our righteousness,
who is our riches, who is our need. That's the need that we
have. That's what we've been made for.
But if he says I am poor and needy and he just stops right
there, we don't have any hope, do we? But I'm thankful. for
this apostrophe Y-E-T, and I'm thankful for the buts of the
Bible, but God who is rich in mercy. When the Lord says, I
am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh on me. Yet the Lord
thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer.
Make no tarrying, oh my God. See, we have no pride left in
us when we come unto the Lord. We have no righteousness left
in us when we come unto the Lord. We come because we're poor and
needy. We see that our poorness, Our poorness is our unrighteousness. We see that we are the unclean
thing. And we see that that is exactly
what the Lord Jesus Christ became to put our sin away. And he did. He successfully redeemed. Only lepers need to be cleansed.
Only those that are lame need to be made to walk. Only those
that are blind need sight. Only those that are sick need
a physician. If you are blind, it's because the Lord's made
you blind. What did he tell the Pharisees? He said, you say that you see,
therefore your sin remaineth. But if you would have said you
were blind, see what he's saying is, is the only ones that the
Lord saves are those that are blind. Those that literally say,
I can't see, because everyone else will say, I see just fine,
thank you. I can hear just fine, I can walk just fine, but understand,
it's Him that makes us blind and then gives us sight. Isn't
that glorious? He lets us see for a brief moment that you're
blind and He says, see, seek ye my face. And what do we do? We look at him. We see him through
the eyes of faith. He says, run. We say, Lord, we're
lame. He says, walk. And we stand up. We walk to him.
Isn't that what happens over and over? It seems as the Lord
lets us see that we're just blind mercy beggars and causes us to
see him and gives us the riches of Christ over and over and over. Now, I understand that it's forever
settled in heaven and we're already glorified according to Romans
chapter eight. We're still going through the motions of this life,
aren't we? And we see that we see the sin that we are. Now,
the glorious part of the gospel is that he don't see that sin.
It's been put away. But boy, when I look at myself
in the mirror, I see my ugly. I remember the things that I
do that. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
this body of death? And yet when he sees his people, he sees the
blood of the lamb. He sees them as worthy. He sees
them as perfect. He sees them as precious. Every
word that you've ever spoken in Christ Jesus is perfect. That's how he views his people.
That's my only hope is that the Lord would not leave me in this
poor, destitute, desolate situation that I was born into, that he
would choose to have mercy upon me and that he would choose not
to leave you in the situation you were born in, being impotent,
being dead and trespassing and sin. But he would choose to have
mercy. Aren't you glad he delights in
mercy? He delights in mercy. Jonah was thinking. That's our problem most of the
time, we think. That was Naaman's problem, wasn't
it? The leper. He thought, I thought
you'd come out and do all kinds of majestic, wonderful things
and I would be cleansed of my leprosy. Naaman was a leper.
We know the account. And He said, I thought you would
do this, and I thought you would do that. That's the problem,
Naaman. You thought. Jonah thought, I'm
going to flee from the face of God. I'm not going to go down
there and preach to Nineveh. I don't want to do that. You
ever get the, I don't want to? Boy, I know all about that. But
it seems to me, that just as Jonah was fleeing from the Lord,
just as Naaman thought, we know the end of Naaman, he told him
to dip in Jordan seven times, which represents death. Seven's
the number of perfection. So what he's saying is, go down
there and confess Christ, is what he's saying. Then you'll
be here of your leprosy. That's our picture, is that we must confess Christ.
And if we do, it's because he's caused us to do so. We see Jonah
thinking he's going to flee from God. He's not going to preach.
He's not going to do what the Lord said he thought. And he
gets down on a ship. He goes down to Joppa, down to
Tarshish, down on a ship, then down on the side of the ship.
So every step away from the Lord is down. We see that, don't we?
He gets in this ship and he thinks, okay, I'm good now. I'm going
to take a nap. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to rest. There is no
rest other than in Christ, aren't there? You know, that's true.
That's the only rest we have is in the Lord Jesus Christ in
this life. When I see his face, then I rest. Other than that,
we're full of turmoil on every side. We're beside ourself. It seems like we're warring with
ourself and we are, the old man and the new man, but it seems
the world and everything else around us. But when we sit at his feet
and we worship, there is rest in that, isn't there? Jonah thought
he was going to rest and the Lord brought a storm, a prepared
storm. And the men cast lots. I like the way that that's worded
because the way that they're saying is, is they looked at
each other and said, well, I know you and you know me. What about
this guy? We don't know him. It's got to
be his fault. It has to be his fault. Isn't that what happened?
That's what they mean by cast lots. Everybody, well, you wouldn't
do that. You're the deacon over at the
First Baptist Church on the corner. It has to be the other guy. That's
what's happening here. That's what's happening with
Jonah. But we don't know Jonah. He must be a sinner. He must
be the one that's bad. So that's why the Lord's doing
this to us. Isn't that what men do? Men justify
their self based upon their intentions. They look at each other and they
weigh their goodness out. I don't do this and I don't do
that. So that means I'm better than he is in God's eyes. And
it's not true. We're all. were all sinners by nature and
cannot please God. They cast the lot and it fell
on Jonah. Jonah confessed to him, yeah, it's my fault. He
said, cast me overboard. Well, just like all men in religion,
they tried to row against the storm, which is the wrath of
God. That's what men are doing is they're trying to get their
own righteousness. So when the wrath of God comes,
they'll be justified before him. That's what that represents,
that's works. Jonah said, the only thing that's gonna please
God is for you to throw me overboard. See, that's a picture of our
substitute dying, going into the watery grave for his people.
And the Lord had a prepared fish there, didn't he? A whale. And
it swallowed up Jonah. The storm abated. That's the
wrath of God has been pleased for the Lord's people. But what
happened to Jonah after that? For three days and three nights,
he's in the belly of this fish. Now, did Jonah sit in the belly
of this fish and say, okay, Everything's okay. I'm still good. No, see
the Lord had made him poor and needy at that point. The Lord
had made him poor and needy at that point, and he made him confess
that he was not right, that Jonah was the man. Jonah was wrong.
Jonah was poor and needy. Lord, save me lest I die. Lord, I'm blind. Lord, I'm lame. You're going to have to do all
the work in salvation because I can't control anything. I can't
will away a cold. Lord, you're gonna have to will
salvation and accomplish it or I'll be dead in trespasses and
in sin. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He put away
the sin of his people. And what happened with Jonah?
He said, out of the belly of hell did I cry. Salvation, salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation is by his hand alone. And this poor man cried and the
Lord heard him. The Lord heard him. Why? Because
your confession as a poor man or a poor woman is the exact
confession of the Lord. What is his confession? What
is his confession? That you are the sinner and that
he is the savior. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. He's not pleased with me. Nothing
I can produce, nothing I can do. He's not pleased with you.
Nothing you can do or produce. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. So what is our confession? Truth,
Lord. Lord, I'm pleased with him too.
If I'm not found in him, I have no hope. Lord, cause me to be
found in him. Don't leave me in this well.
Don't leave me in this pit. Don't leave me in the mire. Lord,
you're going to have to save me. I'm dead. You're going to
have to make me alive. You're going to have to do all
the work and you get all the glory. And this poor man cried
and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. Reminded of Abraham, we're talking
about men that try to take matters into their own hands is what
I've been discussing with us with Naaman and then again with
Jonah. I'm reminded of Abraham. The scripture says Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now, men in
religion will say things like, well, all you need to do is trust
God like Abraham did. Well, that's true. but we can't
trust unless we've been given faith. See, and it's not the
faith, it's not our faith, it's the faith of Christ given to
us. So we use the term our faith,
but where does it come from? Who gets the glory for it? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ's faith, isn't it? Abraham believed God
because God said, believe. Do we see that? You know that's
true in your own life as I do. That's the only way I'm gonna
believe him. I mean, Mac, we're talking the other day and we
were saying, you know, some of this don't make sense. If you
think about it, if you try to work it out in your boat, when
you vocalize it to each other, we just believe it. We don't
understand it, do we? I don't understand the things of salvation. It's too wonderful to understand,
but we believe it, don't we? We find ourselves just believing
it. That's just how it is. It's everything to us. And that's
what Abraham's confession was. It's the same thing. Abraham
finds himself in Egypt in Genesis chapter 12. Now, I would remind
us that the Lord has already appeared unto Abraham. That's
who appeared unto Abraham was the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who Melchizedek, King of Salem, without father, without mother,
without beginning of days. That's the incarnate Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what that is. And so we
see that the Lord had already appeared to him and had a conversation
with him. And yet he finds himself in Egypt and he says in his heart,
Sarah, I need you to tell them that you're my sister because
you're beautiful. And I'm afraid that they'll kill
me and they'll take you." Abraham wasn't afraid for Sarah, was
he? Abraham was afraid for old number one. But yet Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. How can that
be? Substitution, glorious substitution. The king finds out, the Lord
gives the Pharaoh a dream, and he finds out that Sarah is indeed
Abraham's wife and says, you tried to trick me and take her
away. You've about caused me to sin.
I was going to take her as my wife. And so they leave and you
think, okay, well, Abraham learned his lesson. That's good. No.
No, actually chapter 17, he does the exact same thing again. And
this is after God changes his name. It was Abram before he
changed his name to Abram. He said, I will make you a nation.
I'm going to lose the Lord's people. That's what he's talking
about. He said, and through your seed is going to come the Messiah.
He tells him that. And yet we have another situation
where they're before a king and he says, well, this is my sister,
Sarah. And the king says, really? Well, I'm gonna take her as my
wife. And so he about does, and the Lord again appears. And he
said, you tricked me, you deceived me. He said, well, technically
she is my stepsister because my father, we just had different
mothers. And it's true, they used to marry
in that way back then. He justified himself, didn't
he, before that king. So what is the picture here?
If you're left to yourself for a brief moment, you will not
look to Christ. You will not. In your flesh and in my flesh,
we cannot look to Christ if left to ourselves. It's impossible
to use our senses to do anything that pleases God. And looking
to Christ is the requirement for salvation. Only those that
he calls us to look can look and see him. So what happened
with Abraham? Well, you know, later on, a few
chapters later on, he goes up to offer up Isaac. He believed
God. He went from being in that circumstance and the Lord delivered
him to going and saying, okay, I'll offer up my son unto the
Lord. Abraham believed God. Do you find yourself wondering,
is this salvation my salvation? Now we believe it, but what I'm
asking us is, I don't see fruit when I examine myself. I don't
see righteousness when I examine myself. But the comfort to the
believer is, is the only ones that produce fruit are the ones
that cannot see the fruit that they produce. Think about that.
The only ones that produce fruit are the ones that cannot see
themselves producing fruit. What is your confession? Is your
confession that you have a righteousness, that you have done something
that would please God? Or is your confession Christ is all?
See, that's fruit. Christ is all. You find yourself
just believing this, don't you? You can't explain it. You don't
understand it, but yet we believe it. We believe it with all the
faith that the Lord has given us to believe it, don't we? We
believe God. Abraham believed God and it was counted into righteousness.
God gave Abraham faith. Abraham believed God. Salvation, salvation is always
before the calling. The scripture says, He hath saved
us. When did He save us? It was in eternity before the
foundation of the world. He was the Lamb slain, wasn't
He? See, salvation's of the Lord. It was a sure thing when the
Lord, when the Father and His Son entered into the covenant
of grace, when the Lord gave Christ, when the Father gave
Christ the Lamb's book of life and He was worthy to open the
seven seals, because He's perfect. He successfully redeemed them
in eternity. And yet in time, he became a
man and successfully redeemed them in time. It came to pass
in time. What does that mean? Well, that
means if the Lord sees you in Christ right now, he has always
seen you. Now, I don't understand that,
but he's immutable. He changes not. If he loves you
right now, he's always loved you. and he only loves his people. He only died for his people.
He redeemed them back to God. If you're in Christ right now,
you've always been in him and you always will be. What does
that mean? That means every time you cry out, every time you cry
out, the Lord will hear you. The Lord will hear you over and
over. You can't exhaust crying out
to the Lord. His storehouse of mercy cannot be exhausted. His
storehouse of grace cannot be depleted in a single, I don't
even know the smallest unit of measurement. I can't come up
with the smallest units of measurement right now, but whatever it may
be, it's not diminished by even that. Not even an atom, not even
a molecule. It's not even diminished a little
bit. His grace is sufficient in the salvation of his people. This happened throughout David's
life over and over again, finding himself in a cave, finding himself
in a bad situation, a different circumstance. Sometimes he did
it to himself. I mean, think about the sin of
Bathsheba, what he did. Committed murder, committed adultery. What
did Nathan tell him? David, you're the man, but fear
not. The Lord hath put away your sin."
See, that's salvation. That's the gospel. If the Lord
didn't put away David's sin, David would have died. The Lord
would have demanded justice and judgment for David right then.
Now, the sword never left his house, which is evident of consequences.
Consequences according to the flesh. We're not antinomians.
There's consequences according to the flesh. The good news of
the gospel is that he put away David's sin, even though David
was the one that completely messed it up. David was the one that
was guilty of everything he was accused of. Are you guilty of
everything you're accused of? It's true, isn't it? You're the
man, or you're the woman. The Lord's made you see that.
I'm the man. I'm the poor man. The Lord don't hear me. I have
no hope. And the only way he'll hear me
is in Christ. And that's what he does over and over again for
his people. Scripture tells us he was poured
out like water. David uses prophetic speaking
throughout the Psalm. You know this to be true from
Psalm 22. It says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Is that not what the Lord Jesus Christ said on the cross? We
know that David used prophetic language in this, and he tells
us that Christ was poured out like water, poured out like water. All of his bones were out of
joint. He was smitten of God. His soul was made an offering
for sin. Why? So that you and I could be, when
we cry out as poor mercy beggars, he fills us with his righteousness. He fills us. We were bought by
his blood. There is now therefore no condemnation. to them which are in Christ Jesus.
So those who cry out, those who say, I'm poor, the Lord hears
them because there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
We are now bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. First John
chapter three tells us that we are now the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him for we shall see him as he is. What does that
mean? You see yourself as poor. He just sees the blood of the
lamb. He sees perfect righteousness for his people. He saves his people out of their
troubles over and over, saves them from themselves. This poor
man cried when the Lord heard him. How did he hear him? Because the Lord put away his
sin. That's how, that's our only hope, isn't it? Is that the Lord
had put away our sin. And when we cry, he hears us.
because of our intercessor. And our hope is that he saves
us from our trouble. Our troubles are circumstantial,
but our troubles is our sin, isn't it? We need to be safe
from our sin, safe from ourself. That's what he does for his people.
That's what he's done. He said it is finished. Father,
bless your word according to your promise. Cause us to cry
out as poor, needy sinners in Christ's name.