Good morning. I am so thankful. For that glorious truth that
we just sang of, as he is, so are we. Right now in this world,
by virtue of our union with Christ, Jeremiah, Chapter 23, and he
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. And then in Jeremiah,
Chapter 33, it says, and she The church shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness and
we have perfect righteousness in him. I hope the Lord will
encourage us today and speak to our hearts. We're going to
be looking at Psalm 136 again if you'd like to open your Bibles
with me. Psalm 136. Memorial Day weekend, which will
be May 28th, 29th, and 30th, we're going to have a meeting
that weekend here, a mini conference, if you will. I've talked to Donnie
Bell about coming, and he said he was willing and able to come.
So we'll have services on Friday night, Saturday morning, and
Sunday morning. of that weekend, so I hope you
can be a part of that. Let's ask the Lord to speak to
our hearts this morning. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before Thy holy presence thanking You that we have an
advocate, we have a sin-bearer, we have a righteousness in Thy
dear Son. and we plead his blood and his
work of redemption and his name and his person for all our acceptance
before thee. Lord, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for the promise that you've given us that where
Christ is lifted up that you would draw us to thyself. And so Lord, we We look in faith
to you to be faithful to all your promises and to bless us
with your presence. We pray that you would speak
to our hearts. We pray that you would give us hope in Christ. We pray that you would relieve
us of the shame and the guilt and the judgment of all of our
sin. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Psalm 136, verse 23. All of these verses in Psalm
136 begin with the very first phrase in verse one, Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord. And then the rest of the chapter
tells us the reasons for which we have to give thanks. And God's people are thankful
people. They're thankful for his mercy. They're thankful for his work
of redemption. They're thankful that he cares
for us, and they cast all their care upon him. And so the Lord's
given us, in each one of these verses, the reasons why we are
to be thankful. And in verse 23, He says, who
remembereth us in our low estate? That's the reason why we're thankful.
We're thankful because the Lord is merciful towards the poor
and towards the needy. He is merciful towards the sinful. He is merciful towards those
who are unable to help themselves, those who are in low estate. He remembereth them. I've titled
this message, Remember Me. Lord, when I don't remember you,
remember me. Have pity on me. Consider my
low estate. Lord, consider how needy I am. Consider how desperate I am,
how defenseless I am, how sinful I am, and remember me and have
mercy upon me. And for that reason, we are thankful. He has promised to remember his
people. He said a broken and contrite
heart. I will not despise. David said in Psalm 51, if sacrifices
is what you desired, I would bring them. But the sacrifices
of God, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Our God is a God
of mercy. He pities his children as a father
pitieth his children. So my question for you and my
question for myself is, are you a person that needs God's pity? Are you a person that needs God's
pity? We are a pitiful bunch. And it's
by God's mercy and by God's grace that we would see ourselves so
and that we would find ourselves coming before him and crying
out for his mercy. Have mercy upon me. Oh, Lord,
the center. Lord, I can't deliver myself. Remember me. Remember me. What is the example in the scriptures
that comes to mind when you think about that phrase or that prayer,
remember me? Well, it's the thief on the cross,
isn't it? Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. I know, Lord, you're going to
reign sovereign over what seems hopeless right now. And I know
that you are God and that you will establish your kingdom successfully. Lord, would you, would you remember
me? That thief on the cross is referred
to in the scriptures as a murderer, as a murderer. Now the severity
of a crime is determined in great part by the innocence of the
victim upon which that crime is committed. So if an adult
put in the trust of caring for a child, actually kills that
child or abuses that child, the penalty for that person would
be much, much greater than one inmate on death row killing another
inmate on death row, would it not? The severity of a crime
is in large part determined by the innocence of its victim. You and I, the Lord said, they
will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn
after him as one mourneth for his only son. Is there ever a
man, never a child as innocent as the Lord Jesus Christ? He's
holy, he's undefiled, he's without sin, separate from sinners. He
completely innocent, perfect. And yet it was our sins that
put him to death on Calvary's cross. Is there a greater crime
that's ever been committed by any person in this world than
the crime that you and I committed against God? That makes us pretty, that puts
us in a pretty low estate, doesn't it? That thief on the cross who cried,
Lord have, or Lord remember me, when thou enterest into thy kingdom,
he's referred to as a thief, as a thief. What greater robbery
is there than to try to rob from God his glory and salvation? And yet we come into this world
believing that we have a righteousness and we have a work and we have
a will that's sufficient to save us. And until the Lord shows
us otherwise, we will go about robbing him of his glory, trying
to strip him of his righteousness, stealing from God his glory and
taking it to ourselves. You see, this thief on the cross
who cried, Lord, remember me, represents me and he represents
you. That's what we're worthy of because
of our murder, because of our sin, because of our robbing of
God. He's also called an insurrectionist. He's standing up, rebelling against
the authority of the government. The word insanity means to not
be The word sane actually means to be sound. And you remember
when the Lord went to the Gadarenes and he found that man who was
also representative of each one of us, who was possessed with
a legion of demons and he was chained and he was cutting himself
and the Lord delivered him of those demons. And the scripture
says that he clothed him and put him in its right mind, in
a sound mind. He made his thinking right. You see, by nature, you and I
are insane. There's no greater insanity than
to stand in rebellion against God. Spiritually, that's what we are.
Our mind is not sound until the Lord gives us the mind of Christ.
and enables us, like this demoniac, to bow to him. If we are able to see ourselves,
by nature, apart from the grace of God, and apart from the substitution
and the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, as that thief on
the cross, and as that man that was living among the tombs. He was living in a graveyard,
and that's where you and I live. we live in a graveyard, then
we will find ourselves praying with the psalmist, give thanks
unto the Lord who remembereth us in our low estate. Are you in a low estate before
God? Did your sin put you there? Oh,
we're in need of a savior, aren't we? You know, if we're in a low
estate financially, perhaps a banker can help us out. If we're in
a low estate in some other way, perhaps we can find some help
from a man. And if the Lord provides that,
he gets the glory for that. But our low estate is caused
by sin. That's what's caused our low
estate. And the wages of sin is death. And the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I stand before
you this morning as a dying man speaking to dying men. Now, this
is a subject that the world doesn't want to, they don't want to deal
with. They don't want to face it. They don't want to even think
about it. Well, that's not very positive preaching. Preacher,
talk about death. Oh, if the Lord has mercy on
us in our lowest day, we will live every day of our lives conscious
of this world for what it is and longing for that day when
we'll be delivered. And what did the Lord say? 1
Corinthians chapter 15, oh death, oh death, where is thy sting?
Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is the
law. Thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus, we've been
set free. We've got the victory. You see,
sin's been put away. The law's been satisfied. The
Lord Jesus Christ has conquered death and the grave. So we don't live in fear of it.
We live in reality of it. And we're constantly praying,
Lord, help me to remember my days, how short they are, how
brief they are. Lord, I'm a dying man. I'm in
need of you to remember me. I'm just like that thief on the
cross, only had maybe a few hours left to live. What do I have,
a few years? Maybe some of it's shorter than
others. It is a vapor. It really is a
vapor. Life is a vapor. Let me ask you
this. What will be important to you
when you're on your deathbed? God will make that important
to us right now. Because in the end, that's really the only thing
that is important, isn't it? Everything else pales in comparison. Turn back with me in the Psalms
to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. Lord, remember me. Remember me. I'm in such a low
estate. Lord, I'm such a mess. I'm not
capable of having a holy thought. I'm not capable of performing
a righteous deed. I'm completely dependent upon
you to be my righteousness, to be my justification, to satisfy
the demands of God's law. Lord, I'm at my wit's end. I'm
at my wit's end. You have your Bibles open to Psalm
107. Look with me at verse 25. Psalm 107, verse 25. For he commandeth and rise at
the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves thereof. All the
storms of this life, and particularly the storms of the conviction
of sin, is a work of grace in the heart. Those disciples that
were on the boat, Lord careth not that we perish. Oh, why do
you doubt? Who is this man? What manner
of man is this that even the winds and the storms and the
waves and the sea obey his voice? Oh, he's not just any man. He's
the God man. He's the one. Read on here. Look
at verse 26. They mount up to the heaven.
They go down again to the depth. Their soul is melted because
of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man and are at their wits end. Can you identify
with that? You say, well, that's not me.
Well, I'm so sorry for you. I'm so, so sorry for you because
that is the state that the Lord puts his children in. He brings
them to their wits end. They've got no place else to
go, nothing else they can do. No way to put away their own
sin, no way to solve their own problems. Look at verse 28. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet. And so he bringeth
them to their desired haven. When the Lord called the calm
the seas and those disciples were in the boat, the next verse
says, and they were on the other side. Oh, the way of the Lord is through
the seas. There is trouble in this world. The Lord has designed it to be
so. He's ordained it to be so. That
we would cry unto him and say, Lord, remember me. Remember me
in my lowest state. Lord, I can't deal with this.
You're going to have to be my helper. You're going to have
to be my salvation. Remember me. Jonah, the scripture
says, went down to the bottom of the mountain and the earth
with her bars was about me when my soul fainted within me. I
remember the Lord. I cried out unto him and he remembered
me. And Jonah went on to say, The
Lord is my salvation. We looked Wednesday night at
Exodus chapter 13. We won't turn there. I'll just
tell you the story when the children of Israel were coming out of
Egypt. The scripture says that the Lord sent them not by the
way of the Philistines, though it was near. In other words,
from Egypt to Israel, to the promised land, was about the
distance, if you look on the map, along the coast of the sea
there. It's the Mediterranean, right? Yes. It's about as far as it
is from here to Jacksonville, Florida. I mean, they could have
got there a week or two. And the next verse says, but
he led them by the way of the wilderness. You see, there is
a shorter route to the promised land than the one that we're
on. But until the Lord has us ready to face that final enemy
called death. You see, had they gone that way,
they would have been, they would have all died. They would have
died along the way. The Philistines would have wiped
them out. No, they needed that experience in the wilderness,
didn't they? And the Lord, during all those trials, provided for
them all the way. All the water that came from
the rock, the manna that came from heaven, everything. The cloud that covered them from
the heat by day and the pillar of fire that led them by night.
The Lord led them by the way. through the wilderness. That's
what we are. This is a dry and thirsty land.
This world can't help us. Not really. There's no answers
that this world has. Let the politicians and the talking
heads talk all they want. They have no answers. They're
groping in the dark. They're blind men leading the
blind. And they're all going to fall
into the ditch. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the light of
the world. I'm the light of the world, and without me you have
no light. And if they speak not according to this book, this
law, this testimony, it is because there is no light in them. We are thankful that the Lord
remembers us. And he sheds the light of the
gospel in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
remembers us. You see, you have to be in a
low estate before you can be remembered. And it's only the Lord that can
put you there. Oh, you're going to hope against hope and you're
going to, you're going to hope against, you're going to hope
in false promises and, and, and, and lies. You're gonna make lies
your refuge. The scripture says in Isaiah
chapter 28, you're going to make a covenant with death. And God
says, I'm going to disannul your covenant. The covenants that
we make, the promises that we make to God will never be sufficient
to save us. There's only one promise. And
that's the promise that the Lord Jesus Christ made to his father
in the covenant of grace when he agreed to be our surety. When he agreed to come into this
world and lay down his life for his sheep, That's the promise
that counts. Oh, Lord, remember me. Remember
me in my lowest state. And the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
that promise and he made his death not an offering to us to
be accepted or rejected by us. He was offering himself to his
father in fulfillment of that promise that he made in the covenant
of grace and eternity past. And the father saw the travail
of his soul, and the father was satisfied. We flee to Christ. Judges chapter 16, Samson at
Hyde. I know Samson's a type of Christ
here. All these are type of Christ.
He had his He had his arms tied to those two pillars of that
great house in which all the Philistines were, making sport
of him, the scripture says, and they had gouged out his eyes.
And he prayed, he said, Lord, remember me. He had already lost
his strength for his hair had been cut off. What a picture
of the Lord Jesus we see on Calvary's cross, destroying death and hell
and the grave and Satan and pulling down the stronghold against the
enemy. And though he had had his glory
stripped from him, in his dying breath he said, it is finished.
And Samson pulled down those two pillars and all the enemies
of God were destroyed. And in that final prayer, Samson
said, oh Lord, remember me, remember me. When Hannah went into the temple
to pray, she said, Lord, look upon my
affliction and remember me. You remember Eli thought she'd
been drinking. And she said, oh no. She said, I'm like that man staggering
that was drunk. Says, because of the affliction
of my soul, he said, I'm not intoxicated with anything. And Eli, by God's grace, gave
her a promise. And the next year she came back
and Samuel, Samuel was the answer to her affliction. Remember me. Job, after he had lost everything,
he cried, he said, keep me. secret until thy wrath be passed. Appoint to me a set time and
remember me. Lord, remember I've lost everything.
Lost my family, lost my children, lost my health, lost everything.
Lord, remember me. Keep me in a secret place. Hide
me. Hide me in Christ. Oh, let us be thankful unto the
Lord who remembers us in our low estate. It's a good thing to be in a
low estate. It's a good thing to have no place else to go.
Because that's the time. when the Lord shows forth His
grace and His glory and His strength. David said in Psalm 106 verse
1, remember me, O Lord, with the favor that Thou bearest unto
Thy children. Oh, visit me with Thy salvation. Lord, You are merciful toward
Your children. If I'm one of Your children,
Lord, have mercy upon me. Remember me and visit me with
Thy salvation. Lord, comfort me in Christ. Wrap
your arms around me and remind me that all is well and that
you are in control. And all that you do is for your
glory and for my good and that you've put away my sin. There's
no fear of God's wrath or judgment when God remembers you. And God
remembers you, he speaks peace to your heart. It's not a peace
that a man can speak to you. It's not a peace that you can
convince yourself of. But when God speaks peace to
the heart, oh, the peace of God passeth understanding. It's greater
than any understanding of anything else. Jeremiah, weeping prophet. spoke the truth to the people
of Israel, but they didn't believe him. And the Lord said, Babylon's
gonna be sent into your land, or you're gonna be sent into
Babylon, a land which you know is not. And Jeremiah said, oh
Lord, remember me and visit me. This land in which you and I
live is not just a dry and thirsty, spiritually dead land with no
answer. Amos put it like this, there's
a famine in the land. There is a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread and water, but a famine of hearing the word
of God, hearing the word of God, hearing the gospel, hearing about
Christ, hearing who he is and what he's done. That's the famine
that exists. And oh, it's so much worse. than
any plague or any famine that as ever affected this world. The famine of spiritual deadness
is the greatest famine of all. Any other famine only threatens
our physical life. That famine threatens our soul. Lord, remember me. I'm in a low estate and I live
in a low place. Remember me. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
49. Isaiah 49. Say, well, I feel like God has
forsaken me. Let me ask you a question. Do
you entrust your feelings Or are you gonna trust what God
has said? You see, faith is just believing
God. Faith is believing God, not trusting in your feelings.
Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My only
warrant is the word of God. None else is worth believing. Look at Isaiah chapter 49, verse
14. But Zion said, the Lord hath
forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget
her sucking child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Mothers, would you be able to
do that? No. Yea, they may forget. Yet, while
I not forget thee behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of
my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. Thy children shall make haste,
thy destroyers and they that made the waste shall go forth
of thee. That's God's word. Look over, look over in Psalm
9, Psalm 9. Here's the prayer, brethren.
Lord, remember me in my lowest state. That prayer's never been offered
up in faith. Looking to the shed blood and
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ for all of your hope in
that prayer being prayed. You see, God doesn't pray, doesn't
answer that prayer because we offer it in desperation or insincerity. He's not weighing the feelings that we have to
determine whether to answer that, though our feelings are sorrowful. What does He weigh? Well, look
at Psalm 9 at verse 12. When he maketh inquisition for
blood, he remembereth them. He forgetth not the cry of the
humble. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. Consider my trouble, which I
suffer of them that hate me, that thou lifteth me up from
the gates of death. We make inquisition by blood,
by blood. When Lord told Aaron through
Moses, you put that blood in the mercy seat and there I will
meet with you. There I will meet with you. Lord,
I am in trouble, but my claim on you is not determined by the
sincerity of my prayer or the depth of my sorrow is determined
by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all my hope
of you hearing my prayer. That's why the Lord said, you
ask anything in my name, in my name, your heavenly father will
hear you. We make inquisition by blood. Oh, what a low estate we're in.
We talked about that thief on the cross, talked about that
demoniac. What about Gomer? Take to yourself a harlot, the
Lord told Hosea. Hosea in that whole story is
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and Gomer is a picture of you
and me. And she played the harlot, as
you and I do, looking for love and pleasure
and prosperity somewhere other than our husband. And she thought she was getting
somewhere. She'd go out in the morning and
there'd be gifts on her doorstep, thinking that her lovers had
left them and only Hosea had left them. Hosea had left them. But she finally played the harlot
until she wasted her life and ended up on the slave block.
A ruined woman. Hosea still loved her. And he
went and bought her to himself. He remembered her in her low
estate. And he let her get into that
place where she had no place else. I've got no other lovers.
Nobody else wants me. Nobody else will provide for
me. Only hope I have. You remember, we are. were Gomer. You and I are Gomer. You remember
the story of Ruth and Naomi coming back from Boaz, I mean from Moab,
and Boaz, their kinsmen redeemer. Naomi, when she came back, her
name meant pleasant. She said, don't call me Naomi
anymore. Call me Mara. which translated
means bitter. For the Lord has dealt with me
bitterly. I've lost my husband. I've lost
both my sons. I've got no one to provide for
me. And me and my daughter-in-law Ruth are reduced to begging and
gleaning the fields. And Boaz saw them, saw Ruth. Boaz loved her. He remembered
her. But he met with the elders in
the city gate, and he said, there is a kinsman nearer unto you
than me, and I've got to deal with him. And he went before the elders
of the city, and he met with that kinsman. He said, if you're
going to redeem Ruth and Naomi, or if you're gonna redeem Naomi,
the wife of Elimelech, then redeem her. And he said, I'll redeem
her. And Boaz said, in the day in which you redeem Naomi, you
also have to redeem the Moabitess, Ruth. And the kinsman-redeemer
said, I cannot redeem the Moabitess, Ruth, otherwise she will mar
my inheritance. I can't take a Moabitess into
my family. And Boaz said, well, I'll redeem
them then. Who is that kinsman-redeemer that was nearer to Ruth than
Boaz? This is the law. And when the
Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, he satisfied the demands
of the law by being obedient, yea, even unto death. He satisfied the demands of God's
law. The law can't redeem you, can't
redeem me. We would mar the inheritance
of the perfect law of God if the law tried to redeem us. It
would have to lower its standards. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Oh,
we're like Naomi and Ruth, aren't we? We're like Ruth, we're that
Moabitess. We're in need of being redeemed. Psalm 4, hear me when I call,
O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me. and hear
my prayer. Psalm 103 verse 13, like a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,
for he knoweth our frame, and he remembereth that we are but
dust. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
bless your word to our hearts. Increase our faith. Enable us
to look to Christ. For it's in his name we ask it.