Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 130, Psalm 130. David, when speaking of his affliction,
said that it is good that I've been afflicted. The Lord afflicts his children
from time to time, causes them in the depths of their affliction
to cry out. And that's the good result of
affliction, that we turn to him. In another place, David said,
before I was afflicted, I had gone astray. But now, but now
I've kept thy word. How do you keep his word? Looking
to Christ. calling out to him. We have in
Psalm 130 the cry of a sinner calling out to God to
help him in his greatest time of need. But as we've seen time
and time again, these Psalms are most encouraging and best
to be understood as they relate to the Lord Jesus Christ. For
truly no one has ever been as deep in the darkness of sin as
was the Lord Jesus when he bore our sins in his body upon Calvary's
tree. No one has ever been as completely
forsaken of God as was the Lord Jesus Christ when God made him
sin and forsook him. And no one has ever cried as
earnestly as the Lord Jesus Christ did from Calvary's cross when
he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So we
find from God's word two great truths of comfort. And that is
that when his children cry out to him, he hears them. And when
they cry out to him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
comforts them in knowing that the Lord understands their afflictions. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 130, beginning at verse one, out of the depths, I have
cried unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears
be attentive to the voice of my supplications. No one has
ever been as deep in the darkness of sin as the Lord Jesus was
as our sin bearer. When God imputed to him and he
owned our sins as his own, and the sky was blackened and the
father forsook him and he drank to its bitter dregs the full
horror and guilt and shame of all the sins of all of his people.
And yet the Lord heard him out of the depths. All the sin and all the shame
and all the sorrow of all of his people from every generation. If the Lord should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? All those secret sins, all the
sins that we don't even know about, the Lord Jesus bore them
all. And by the sacrifice of himself,
he put them all away. He said, behold, I am a worm
and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. When Job cried and said, behold,
I am vile, he's speaking prophetically about the Lord Jesus. Job in
another place said, though the Lord slay me, yet will I trust
him. And the father did slay. It pleased
the father to bruise his son, to put his son to grief, to put
his son to death with the fullness of his wrath. And yet, Christ
trusted him. Christ trusted him. When Daniel cried and said, all
my humbleness has turned into corruption, he's speaking prophetically. Yes, that is every believer's
confession when he's convicted by the Holy Spirit of his sin.
That which I thought was good in me, now I realize is corruption. but it reaches its full meaning
and understanding as it applies to Christ. All my comeliness,
all my glory, all my strength and all my beauty has turned
into corruption. The corruption of our sin was
placed on him and he experienced the full ugliness of all of that. When Paul said, In me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Can we not see even the
Apostle Paul there in the book of Romans speaking prophetically
of the Lord Jesus Christ who bore in his body? Though he had
the full nature of God, he had a body that was made full of
sin. So that he said in me that is
in my flesh. In my flesh, do I like no good
thing? Let me show you that if you'll
turn back with me to Psalm 38. Brethren, I'm I'm prayerful and
hopeful this morning that in our afflictions. We will. We will come to believe. That
the Lord Jesus Christ is not a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our infirmities but was in all ways tempted even
as we are and yet without sin. He said, come unto me all you
that labor and are heavy burdened. Take my yoke upon you. My yoke
is easy, my burden is light. Why is his burden light and his
yoke easy? Because he bore the weight of
sin and put it away once and for all. He said, now come, come
to me, I understand. Lord, remember David in all his
afflictions for me, and give me the grace to remember David
and all his afflictions in this time of affliction for me. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 138. Look with me, if you will, at verse 1. Oh Lord, rebuke
me not in thy wrath. neither chasing me in thy hot
displeasure, for thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand
presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin. Is this not what we just said? Am I in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good? David's speaking prophetically
of what the Lord Jesus experienced on Calvary's cross when he bore
our sins. Look at verse four. For mine
iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden, they are too
heavy for me. This imputed sin was not a, the
Lord didn't just charge him legally. in some secret covenant or document
in heaven where Christ bore the legal guilt of our sin, he actually
became sin. And there's our problem. He's
speaking of his own experience, the sorrow, the shame, and the
guilt. And isn't that really the problem
when we're suffering affliction in our circumstances? Is it not
our sin that really causes the affliction? Is it not our unbelief? Is it not our inability to believe
God and trust Him and look in faith to Christ and find in Him
our comfort and our peace and our hope? Your sin has separated
you from your God. If the Lord uses our physical
circumstances and afflictions to cause us to cry out from the
depths and to look to Him, then we'll find hope in knowing that
that sin has been put away. Look at what the Lord goes on
to say in verse five. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down. I go mourning all the day long
for my loins are filled with loathsome disease and there is
no soundness in my flesh. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Here's our trouble. We wrestle
with this flesh, don't we? This body of death, who shall
deliver me? Isn't that what Paul said in
Romans chapter 7? Who shall deliver me from this
body of death, this rotting, loathsome corpse that's on my
back? And then he gives us the answer,
thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus I'm free.
And so we cry from the depths and it causes us to look to Christ
and find our liberty and our freedom and our hope and our
salvation, our forgiveness, our peace, our comfort in Him. Look at verse 11 in this same
psalm. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof. from my sore and my kinsmen stand
afar off. They also that seek after my
life lay snares for me and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous
things and imagine deceitful things all the day long. Look
at verse 27, I'm ready to halt for my sorrow is continually
before me. For I will declare mine iniquity
and I will be sorry for my sin. Here's the truth, brethren. Just
as we saw in the previous hour, that prayer that David prayed
about our secret sins being in his countenance, being in the
light of his countenance. If the hope of salvation is determined
by us being able to identify and confess every one of our
sin, we have no hope of being saved. The vast majority of our
sins, we're not even aware of them. We're not even aware of them.
But the Lord Jesus was. When he cried out from the depths,
he wasn't just bearing the shame and the guilt of those things
that you and I experience on the surface. When he said, I'm
sorry, the heaviness of my sorrow has gone over me, he's talking
about bearing in his body not just the things that we're aware
of, but all the sins of all of his people of every generation.
No one knew the depth and darkness of sin and sorrow like the Lord
Jesus Christ knew. So when you're tempted and tried,
go to him. Go to him. He's our strength. He's the hope
of our salvation. And he's so much more willing
to forgive than we are to be forgiven. Isn't that awful? It's awful. And it's glorious. So that when the same Holy Spirit
that sends affliction, whether it be by circumstances or by
sin, He sends affliction, He's the same one that causes us to
cry out from the depths and to find in our affliction the hope
of our salvation. completely bound in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He successfully put it away.
Listen to Psalm 41 verse 13. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thy worm Jacob, for
ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Oh, what a helper we have. What
a comfort, we come boldly before the throne of grace to find help
in time of need. Now what the Lord calls us to
do, come, come. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14
says, for by one offering, by one offering, the offering that
he made of himself, He perfected forever them that are sanctified. Perfect in Christ. There's my
hope. There's my hope. And whatever
the Lord has seen fit to afflict me with, he's also provided a
safe haven so that I can flee to him in my affliction and find
his help in my time of need. Second point is that no one has
ever been completely forsaken of God, as was the Lord Jesus
Christ. You and I sometimes find ourselves
in dark places and think that God has forsaken us. He said,
I will never leave you nor forsake you. But he forsook Christ. He forsook the Lord Jesus Christ
so that you and I would never be forsaken. That's what the
Lord, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? Those three
hours from, from noon to the ninth hour where the scar, the
whole earth was blackened. I don't know how to explain that,
but it was blackened. And at the very moment of the
evening sacrifice, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Bible calls
at the ninth hour, the Lord Jesus Christ cries out with a loud
voice. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And then with a loud voice, he
says, it is finished. Father into my hands, I commend
my spirit. He's crying from the depths.
What happened the ninth hour? That was the evening sacrifice.
This is the day of atonement. This is the Passover. It's when
the priest was making that sacrifice, symbolic of what the Lord Jesus
would accomplished. And the veil was rent. The blood
was put on the mercy seat. God said, here, I'll meet with
you. No one has ever been as completely
forsaken of God as was the Lord Jesus. When the Lord withdraws
the awareness of his presence, we feel forsaken, but he's never
forsaken us, never. He does that in order to get
us to cry out. Those are the afflictions. Those
are the afflictions. Before I was afflicted, I'd gone
astray. Lord, I was presumptuous. And David said, Lord, forgive
me my presumptuous sins. And we are presumptuous. We presume
that we're going to just have the ability to draw our next
breath. We never think about that. We just think, well, it's
there. I'm not even going to worry about
it. I'm not saying we should worry about it, but we ought
to give God the glory for it. We presume that tomorrow the
sun's going to come up, and we presume that this is going to
happen, and we present to the Lord. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says,
who be in the brightness of his glory and the express image of
his person and upholdeth all things by the work of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the
right hand of God. He seated. all the blessings
of God. That's what we, when we're afflicted
and when we're crying out and when we're in trouble, whether
it be our circumstances or our sin, we need God's blessing. And the scripture says that all
the blessings of God are in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Lord
come down, I need you. I need you. He is the blessing. The Lord Jesus Christ knew what
it was to be forsaken of God and man, suspended between heaven
and earth all by himself in the blackness that only he could
fully understand and experience. And David, when he cried in Psalm
77, he said, will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable
no more? Is His mercy clean, gone forever? Does His promise fail forevermore?
You ever feel that way? That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus was experiencing on Calvary's cross. Has He forsaken me forever? And I will turn toward His holy
hill and trust Him. That's what the Lord did. Even
though there was no evidence, there was no evidence, given
to him other than the word of God, the promise of God. And
that's the only evidence that you and I have. Psalm 27 verse nine says, when
my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Not natural for a father or mother
to forsake their children, but it happens. David said, when
that happens, the Lord will never forsake me. He'll take me up. Jonah said in Jonah chapter two,
they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy. Our God delights in showing mercy.
But if we forsake the truth of who Christ is and what he's done
and the gospel of his free and sovereign grace and give our
attention to some other means or method or message of salvation,
then we have forsaken our own mercy. I quoted from this post passage
a moment ago. Let's turn to it, Hebrews chapter
five. Hebrews chapter five. I want you to see this again. This is so glorious. This is
what crying from the depths is all about. You think, well, Lord,
I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. My sin is ever
before me. My circumstances are outside
of my control. I'm in trouble. The Lord says,
I'm no trouble. I'm no trouble. Verse seven of Hebrews chapter
five, and in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong cryings and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that
he feared. The Lord Jesus Christ feared
God. He feared being left alone. He feared not being delivered. Though he were a son, yet he
learned, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered
and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them, unto all them that obey him, believe on him,
follow after him, look to him. Yes, obey him. Look over in chapter four, beginning
at verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, let us hold fast our confession. What is our confession? Our confession
is Christ is all and he's in all. Our confession is it is
finished. Our confession is that God is
satisfied with the sacrifice that Christ made of himself and
that I am sanctified only by the offering that he made. For we have not, here's our comfort
brethren, we have not a high priest who is unable to be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
as we are, yet without sin and all his temptations were. We
sin in our temptations, don't we? The fullness of all the temptations
and trials and troubles were placed upon him and he cried
out from the depths. Look at verse 16. Let us therefore
come boldly before the throne of grace to find his help in
our time of need. The well need not a physician.
The well need not a physician. I came for the sick. He said
the poor and the needy, the afflicted, the troubled, the downcast, No one has ever cried as earnestly
as the Lord Jesus did. Don't think that the earnestness
of your cry is somehow going to earn you favor with God. Do
we cry with earnest? Yes. Are we sincere? Yes. But our most sincere prayer has
enough sin in it to send us to hell. Do you believe that? The most sincere prayer you ever
prayed has enough sin in it to send you to hell. So though we
cry from the depths and though we're not being hypocrites and
we come before God and say, Lord, save me, we're not looking to
the sincerity or the sorrow of our own hearts for the hope of
our salvation, for the heart is wicked and deceitful. Desperately
wicked, the scripture says, who can know it? We can't know our
own hearts. But here's the Lord Jesus. He cried out from the
depths. And every cry he made went straight
to the ears of his father. And when we cry, we cry based
on his merit and his righteousness and in his name. And so he says, out of the depths I've cried. There are men that have cried
and they knew nothing of God's grace. Crying out of sorrow and thinking
that somehow the sincerity of the cry, you remember Esau? When
Esau sold his birthright? Let's turn to that passage. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
27. Genesis chapter 27. What was the problem with Esau's
cry? Hebrews speaks of the cry of Esau. It says that there are
many profane men like Esau who cry, but found no comfort. They found no forgiveness. What
was the problem with Esau's cry? He thought, well, if I just cry
a little harder, if I shed a few more tears, if I'm more broken,
then my father will see the sincerity of my heart and he will reward
me for that. And therein lies the problem. He wasn't looking for grace.
He wasn't looking to Christ. He wasn't looking... Look at
Genesis chapter 27 at verse 34. And when Esau heard the words
of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter
cry and said unto his father, bless me, even so also my father,
bless me. Do we cry? Yes. Out of the depths
do we cry? Yes. Do we plead the Lord's blessing
and his mercy? Yes. And we always do it in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that it was his cry and
his sorrow and his sincerity and his burden that won us favor
with God. Not ours. Not ours. We conclude our prayers with,
in Jesus' name we pray. We're not just coming up with
some nice ending to the prayer. We're saying, Lord, everything
we just offered up to you in prayers got to come before you
in the name of and on the merit of and for the sake of thy dear
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, because even my prayers are fraught with
my sin. We don't hope for the sincerity
of our cry to move the hand of God. That's not our hope. Our
hope is in Christ. He's the one that cried, for
out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear
my voice. Let thine ears be attentive unto
the voice of my supplications. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. What was the difference between Judas Iscariot and Peter on the
night that our Lord was arrested? I made this point in the previous
hour. The only difference between any of us is the restraining
grace of God. The only difference between you
and me and the worst criminal in prison, or the worst person,
is the restraining grace of God, and he gets all the glory for
that. We can't say, well, it's just not in my character, I'm
not that kind of person, or I'm a better person than that. No,
God has restrained me. And whatever influences there
has been in my life to keep me from that, that's all to his
glory. Now, what was the difference
between Judas and Peter? Peter denied the Lord with cursing. Lord, they may all forsake you,
but not me. I'm not gonna do it. And the
Lord lets a little bit of Peter's chain out so that he can look
over the precipice and see the darkness of his own sin. And
the Lord told Peter, he said, before the cock crows, you're
gonna deny me three times. Peter, Be of good comfort. I prayed
for you. And when you are converted, teach
your brethren. And you read first and second
Peter and it's just his experience that night is all through his
writings, aren't they? And he was so reminded of his
own frailty and of his own faults and Lord gave him that experience. The only difference between Judas
and Peter is that the Lord restrained Peter, prayed for Peter, interceded
for Peter. And that's the only difference
that's going to be between me and between us and anybody else.
Christ is going to have to intercede on our behalf. David said in Psalm 3 verse 4,
I cried unto the Lord with my voice and he heard me out of
his holy hill. So we're not, we're not crying,
thinking, you know, Lord, if I just, if I just show a little
bit more sincerity, maybe I can win your favor. No, we're crying
out of his holy hill. That's where he hears us. Our Lord knew the sorrow of sin like you and I
have never known. He knew the forsaking of God
like you and I have never known. And he knew the earnestness of
crying like you and I have never known. Turn with me to the book of Jeremiah
chapter 38. We looked at Lamentations chapter 2, Wednesday
night. I would encourage you to read
that because Jeremiah wrote Lamentations. He's the weeping prophet. And
like all the Old Testament prophets, he's speaking prophetically of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's lamenting over the sins
of Israel and interceding on behalf of the children of Israel.
And here, Jeremiah in chapter 38. Israel, or Jerusalem, is besieged
by the Chaldeans, or the Babylonians, and the people are dying, and
they're resorting to capitalism, and Jeremiah tells them, surrender! Surrender! And they've got just
enough strength to think, well, we're not going to surrender,
we're going to fight. And Jeremiah keeps telling them, surrender
and you'll live. Fight and you're going to die. You hear that message? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah's name means the one whom the Lord has appointed and
the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking through Jeremiah. Surrender and
you'll live. Fight and you're going to die. And then in verse, chapter 38
at verse six, then took they that, but they didn't want to
listen to that message. So they went and told the King and the
King said, do with him whatever you want, shut him up, shut him
up. And they took Jeremiah and cast
him into the dungeon of Malachi and the son of Hamilech. that was in the court of the
prison, and they let down Jeremiah with cords in the dungeon. There
was no water but mire, so Jeremiah sunk in the mire." What a picture. We don't want to hear that. Surrender? We're not going to have that
God reign over us. We'll fight. And so they took Jeremiah by
cords. took him to the dungeon and put
him down in the dung of the dungeon, sunk into the mire. Here's the
Lord Jesus. He knows, brethren. He knows. Whatever affliction he has sent
to you, out of the depths, cry unto him. know that he's the
only one that was able to cry out of the depths in such a way
as to move the heart of God. Turn me to the book of Jonah. Here's another prophet that represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah, chapter two, you remember
what happened? Jonah went down to Joppa Now,
running from God, isn't he? There's you and me. He went down
into the seashore, and then he went down into the belly of the
ship, and then they finally went down into the ocean, and he went
down into the belly of the whale. Now, that's the downward spiral
of sin. That's it. It's just, it never
goes up. Sin always goes down. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord,
his God, out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of
mine afflictions. Oh, what a blessed thing it is
to be afflicted by God. That's a blessing. Oh, we don't
ask for affliction. We don't look for affliction.
The Lord knows when we need it. And if he uses our afflictions
to cause us to cry out to him, oh, that's from the Lord. That's from the Lord. I cried
by reason of my afflictions unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out
of the belly of hell, cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For
thou hast cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and
the floods come past me about. All my billows and thy waves
passed over me. Then I said, I'm cast out of
thy sight. I've been forsaken of God, yet
I will look again toward thy holy temple. There's where we
go. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
tabernacle. He's the temple of God. Everything
in that Old Testament temple pointed in one way or another
to the person and work of Christ. The waters can pass me about
even to the soul. The depths closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped around
my head. Can we not see a picture of the
Lord Jesus here? In the depths of sin, crown of
thorns pressed about his head, calling out to his father, I
went down into the bottom of the mountains. The Lord said,
if you have faith, even as a mustard seed, you can say into this mountain,
be cast into the sea. And that's where the Lord went.
Those sins that had been cast into the sea, the Lord went down
to the bottom of the mountains. Oh, he knows sin like you and
I don't know sin. The earth with her bars was about
me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption. Oh,
Lord, my God, as Jonah spent three days and three nights in
the belly of the whale, so shall the Lord Jesus in the earth. And that's it. This is picture.
Christ was cast into the sea, and he told those sailors on
the ship. They were all about to die. These
were experienced, salty sailors, and they were afraid. The storm
was awful. Cast me into the sea. And when
they cast him into the sea, the ocean became like a lake. Their
substitution. The Lord Jesus was cast into
the bottom of the mountains, into the depths of the sea, with
the weeds wrapped around his head, crying out to his father. And he said, you have saved me
out of corruption. When my soul fainted within me,
verse seven, I remembered the Lord, my prayer came in and unto
thee, into thy holy temple. They that forsake They that observe
lying vanities forsake their own mercy. If you observe the
hope of your salvation anywhere outside of Christ, you are forsaking
your own mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have
vowed. That's the Lord Jesus speaking.
What did he vow? He vowed himself. He's the ransom
price. He's the payment. I'll pay to
you father that which I have vowed. Myself. God was doing business
with God on Calvary's cross and the Lord Jesus Christ was offering
himself up unto His Father for the sins of His people. For salvation is of the Lord. Every bit of it. Every bit of
it. From before time began in the
covenant of grace when God, according to His own will and purpose,
chose a people, sovereignly elected them, it was of the Lord. When the
Lord Jesus entered into that covenant relationship with his
father and became the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world, salvation was of the Lord. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
made born of a woman born under the law to redeem them that were
cursed by the law, a body thou hast made for me. And then he
bore in his body all the sins of all of his people. and sacrificed
himself on Calvary's cross to satisfy divine justice, salvations
of the Lord. We didn't have anything to do
with that. And when God, the Holy Spirit
comes and takes the message of Christ and burns it into your
heart and gives you faith to believe God, to fear God, to
rest all your hope in Christ and to cry out from the depths
unto him, That's of the Lord. That's of the Lord. And you live
your rest of your life in this world, fearing God, that every
time your sin rears its ugly head, you have this thought,
maybe I'm not a believer. Maybe God would forsake me. Maybe
he would leave me to myself. And again, you run in faith to
Christ. And out of the depths, you cried
to him again and again and again and again and again, knowing
that if he ever leaves you to yourself, there's no end to what
you would do. Salvation is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish
and it vomited out Jonah onto dry ground. And the Lord spoke to the grave
and said, let him loose, I'm satisfied. And the stone was rolled away
and Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, proving, proving that
God was satisfied with what he had done for the salvation of
his people. In my distress I called upon
the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his
holy temple. My cry came before him even unto
his ears. Peter was sinking in the sea
of his own sin and he cried, Lord save me. And immediately
the Lord reached out his hand and saved him. When that Syrophoenician woman
came to the Lord, pleading with the Lord to help her, for she
had a daughter that was possessed with a demon. And the Lord said,
it's not right for me to give the children's bread to dogs.
And she said, truth Lord, but the dogs eat the crumbs that
fall from the master's table. And the scripture says, and she
cried, Lord save me. Bartimaeus, they tried to shut
him up, didn't they? Bartimaeus, you're just embarrassing
yourself and everybody else. Just shut up. And he cried all
the louder, son of David, have mercy upon me. Out of the depths
I have cried unto Lord and he heard me. You see, it's who we cry unto,
isn't it? You were in need of open-heart
surgery like our brother Donnie is. You wouldn't cry out to a plumber
to help you out. You'd find the best thoracic
surgeon you could find and cry to him, is there any way you
can help me? You see, but that's what men do. They cry to the
wrong person. They go to the wrong place. He's qualified surgeon. You want
to find the best surgeon you can find when you have to have
open heart surgery, don't you? Yeah. Our Lord is qualified. He takes out the heart of stone.
He puts in the heart of flesh. He puts it into our hearts to
cry. Hmm. A cry from the depths. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let mine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. You know what the root of that
word supplication is, it's the word supply. And so I close with
asking you this, what do you need God to supply you with? Just some temporary relief from
a temporary problem? Or do you need the righteousness
of Christ? Do you need the peace of God
that passes understanding to keep your heart and mind in Christ
Jesus? Cry unto Him out of the depths. Our Heavenly Father. Our cries are so frail and so
often fraught with our sin and with our own insincerities. And yet you are persistent to
move our hearts to call unto you. And you've given us so much
evidence in your word. So many testimonies. We're surrounded
about with a great cloud of witnesses. Lord, give us the grace to come
unto Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. For
the hope that was set before him endured the cross, the shame
of our sin. No one ever cried like him. No
one ever was forsaken like he was. No one ever felt the darkness
of sin like he felt. Lord, enable us to look in faith
to him as we cry unto thee. For we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Remain seated. We'll do this one day.