I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Psalms, chapter 42. Now my text is out of Colossians
3. And I'm gonna, while you're turning
there, I'm just gonna share a little something with you that I'm convinced
that the Lord has borne this passage of scripture. Actually
two. Psalm 42 and Colossians 3 verses
1 to 4. But I woke up a couple of mornings
ago. And when I woke up, I was depressed. And I knew it. I was depressed. And I did not,
could not figure out exactly what was wrong, but I knew I
was depressed. And immediately, it caused me
to cry out unto the Lord. Lord,
help me. And from that, I'm convinced
the Lord has laid a message on my heart tonight. And I've entitled
it, A Believer's Comfort for Depression. No believer is exempt from falling
into a state of depression. Even King David, a man after
God's own heart, was found to be so often in his writings. And the sweet fellowship of the
Lord's presence seemed to be absent to him. And he penned,
I can't say for sure this is David, Psalm 42 doesn't say a
psalm on David, but whoever penned this psalm, had some things to
say. And he expressed his depression. He said in verses 1 and 2, Psalm
42 verses 1 and 2, as the heart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for
God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God as a deer, as a heart pursued by an adversary? Pants
for a drink of cool water. The believer pursued by Satan
and his fiery darts by the world and by the old man that's still
within him. He pants after God. And he's
panting. The psalmist says for that time
when he would be able Again, to be in the sanctuary of God's
worship or in the presence of the Lord Himself. That's why
He said, you know, latter part of verse 2, My soul thirsteth
for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat, day
and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? He said, Crying has been my food. Day and night as I fail to find
the Lord's presence, when men that obviously don't know Him,
watching Him go through some times of real trial and depression,
saying unto Him, where's your God? I thought you said He's
all sufficient. Where's your God now? When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with the multitude.
I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy
and praise, with the multitude that kept holy day. These things
I remember. The writer says, even as my sorrow
is mingled with tears, He said, the past enjoyments that I've
had of sweet fellowship with the multitude of God's people,
I remember when I went with them to the house of God and with
the voice of praise. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him, for the help of his countenance. The psalmist
seems to draw some strength as he speaks with himself. He's
talking to himself. Why art thou cast down? Oh my
soul, he's asking what? Shall I be cast down by him who
is ever faithful? I know he is. Will God forsake
me when he's promised to help? No, I know he's not. I know he's
not. Oh my God, my soul is cast down
within me. Therefore will I remember thee
from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill
of Mizar. He's mourning and he's resolved
to not be cast down. admitting that his only comfort
is in the Lord, and he proclaims all that he knows to be so. But
he says, I'm sad. I'm sad. My soul is cast down. That's what he said in verse
6. Let's read that again. Oh my God, my soul is cast down
within me. Therefore will I remember thee. He was in the land of Jordan.
He's in the land of Jordan, and these two places that he mentions,
the place of the Hermonites and from the hill of Mizar. I looked
up, I ran the references. It doesn't say what he went through,
but he remembered those two places as being places where God delivered
him, helped him, sustained him. He said, Lord, I remember, I
remember. He said, but Lord, I'm cast down. Verse 7, deep calleth unto deep
at the noise of thy waterspouts. All thy waves and thy billows
are gone over me. Here he's saying, Lord, I know
you have wisely allowed me to go through this difficulty to
continue, Lord, in that remembrance of that blessed deliverance that
you've given me. And I know that, Lord, these
things that I'm going through, I'm going through to make the
deliverance that you give me to be sweeter. If I've gone through
some tough times and I've hurt, And I've struggled in my heart. I know that you've wisely sent
those things for me. Lord, I needed them. I needed
that to show me of your sustaining grace and for me to truly appreciate. That's why it meant so much to
me what Neil just said. I was sitting there thinking
that very thing. I was like, I need I need what I'm, this
psalmist needed what he was going through. And so here he is, this
tried believer, surely a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
he's saying is that he said, deep calleth unto deep that the
noise of thy water spout. These waves, deep answereth,
calleth unto deep, these waves and waves One just passed over,
and about that time, another one. Here comes another one.
But the psalmist says, it's the noise of thy waterspouts. Lord,
you send these things. You work all things after the
counsel of your own will. All thy waves and thy billows
are gone over me. Lord, you have sent these things
as blessings to me, whom the Lord loveth. He chasteneth. He's hurting, he's going through
some tough times, and he's telling the Lord, Lord, I know you sent
him, sent him for my good. Yet the Lord, verse eight, will
command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night
his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my
life. I'm in sorrow, he's saying, But
whether I'm in the daytime of His prosperity, when all seems
to be well, or I'm in the night when I don't know, and I can't
see or perceive His will or His purpose, when I'm in the sorrow
of calamity, the Lord will give His song of praise in my heart,
and I won't being kept by the grace and power of God, failed
to call upon him. And that'd be the only way, he
said. That's the only way I won't quit. Lord, I know you send these
things, but I know you're keeping me. Verse 9 and 10, I will say
unto God, my rock. Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones,
mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me, where
is thy God? Oh, how often we're made by the
grace of God to see our own frailties and doubts. The psalmist experiences
what a appears to be the forgetfulness of the Lord as he feels the reproaches
of his enemies while they're like daggers in his back. And
he said, they're always taunting me saying, now where's your God
now? Where is your God now? But I know this, you don't forget. The Lord said in Isaiah 49, 15,
can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet
will I not forget thee. There are times when the Lord
allows us to think that he has forgotten. He doesn't forget.
Everything we go through, these struggles, these trials, trials
that bring us Really, to times of depression, somebody say,
well, I don't believe a believer can really be depressed. Oh,
really? Well, contrary, they can. They can. He says in verse 11,
why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God. For I shall
yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God."
Here's the tested saint as he reiterates his faith in the Lord. He chides himself for his lack
of trust in the God of all grace. And he declares, I shall praise
Him who is the strength of my soul and my salvation forever. Now, though a believer, we just
read, feels the effects of the frailty of his heart and he admits
himself to be often in a state of weariness, heaviness, depression,
he knows that the God of his strength is always with him. The Lord has promised I'm not
going to leave you. And though there's times that
we can't perceive, we're like Shulamite. The Lord was knocking
and gave a flimsy excuse, you know, shut down for the evening. And the Scripture says that she
realized when the Lord put His hand by the hold of the door
and awakened her spiritually, she said, I sleep. My heart's
awake. And she couldn't find him. And
buddy, she panicked. When the Lord allows us, and
He allows us to go through these things to bring us to a realization
of ourself and our need of Him. And that's what the psalmist
was going through. He was going through a tough time. And we
know, every believer knows I know He's not going to leave me to
myself. So the psalmist asked himself,
can I not trust Him now? Can I not find all my hope in
Him and my heart to be settled? And I realized that I'm not going
anywhere or doing anything. apart from His will because He's
gonna keep me, I know that. Well, in light of what we know
is so, in the book of Psalm 42, in that chapter, for in light
of what we know there, in the light of that blessed confidence
that we have in our Lord, I want us now to turn to Colossians
3. Colossians chapter 3. And I read this precious passage
of Scripture here yesterday or the day before or something.
and sat down and wrote out this message on here, right here,
is the comfort, a believer's comfort for depression. We need some help. Oh, how we
need some help. And here is where our help is
going to be found. What other counsel are we going
to find that we can trust in besides the word of God? I can
tell you all day long, I understand, I've been there, but let me tell
you something. I don't have the ability to make that effectual
to you. I need for the Lord to make this
effectual to me. I want to, I'm going to go over
the first four verses is all I'm going to go over. And I just
want us to look for just a few minutes at where the comfort
is found. Where the comfort's found. I
was talking to my daughter. about a week, week and a half
ago, something like that. And she was expressing to me,
she said, Dad, I just wake up at night and I just think. I said, baby, let me tell you
something that has been a real comfort to me. I said, when you
wake up, I said, think of some scriptures that you can recite
and recite those in your heart. And I said, while you're reciting
the scriptures, I said, you're not sitting there thinking about
something else. I want this to be real to me.
I need this. And I know you do too. Verse
1, Colossians 3. Now listen to this. Here's the
comfort for a believer in the midst of depression. If ye then
be risen with Christ, If you then be risen with Christ. Now,
first of all, let me tell you who Paul the Apostle is talking
to. He's talking to believers. A
person that's not a believer, I don't have any comfort for
you. Because the only comfort that I have is in the Word of
God. And unless the Spirit of God
gives a man, a woman, a heart for God's Word, I don't have
anything. It's not that I wouldn't want
to give you something. I just don't have anything. Here's the
comfort. If you then be risen with Christ,
if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, Colossians 2 verse
12, look at this. Right there, same page, should
be. Colossians 2, 12. Buried with him in baptism, wherein
also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead, buried with him in
baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith
of the operation of God. Now, what did he just say? He
said, if by faith we believe, if you be risen with Christ,
if you're a believer, If by faith we believe that He who died as
our Redeemer, who actually bore our guilt, it became what we
are, our subject, He was actually made what we are. If we believe
by faith that He who died as our Redeemer, I believe He died
for me, If I believe that He truly died for me and that He
died with me on His heart, and I've said before, how many times
have I said that? Those two stones, six names of this tribe, six
names here, 12 tribes on His heart of that high priest when
He went in there. When the Lord Jesus Christ, He said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. I know my sheep. That's what he said in Mark.
I know my sheep. I know my sheep. If I believe
that he truly knows me, knows me, loves me, came into
this world for me, all of his people, and that when he died,
that I was in him, and that being found in Him, that when He was
buried, I was mysteriously, wonderfully mysteriously, in Him, in that
grave. Now again, this is believer talk. No unbeliever is going to understand
this. But if I truly believe that I
died with Him, I was buried with Him, and that when He arose, when he arose, that my sin was
gone. The debt of, now the presence
of it, I understand that, yes, it's still here, but I'm talking
about the debt of it, the penalty of it. If I truly believe that
when he came out of that grave, that my sins were cast as far
as the east is from the west, and there's therefore now no
condemnation, To them which be in Christ Jesus, if I can believe
by faith that when he came out, I came out, I came out justified
by his precious blood, if you then be risen with Christ, that's
what he's saying, seek or desire those things which
are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Seek those that desire those
things. You want some comfort for some
depression? If you are a believer, risen
with Christ, seek those things that are above. Things like Abraham
sought. Scripture says Abraham sought
a city which hath foundations, who builder and maker is God.
Seek to be in the Lord's very presence, and seek with desire
the very experience of pardon. The Lord's told us in His Word,
and by faith we believe it. But I seek the very experience
of it. To be able to experience and
to behold Him face to face. I know He's coming. He said he's
coming. And to be able to have that true
realization of righteousness. He says that I'm robed in his
righteousness. And to be able to just experience
what that really is. Right now, we see through a glass
darkly. But you want some comfort for
some depression? Seek those things. They're above,
above. Verse two, set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth. Set your mind,
set your heart on things that are there, not here. And desire
to have your affection where your true treasure is, above. And not on the things that are
perishing and fleeting and soon to pass away. Everything here
is not going to be here. It's just not going to be here. And there's really no real comfort. There's no comfort. If I don't
have any money and somebody gives me $100, Then I've got something,
but you know what I'm going to want after I get a hundred? I
want another hundred. It ain't enough. It won't satisfy,
it won't comfort me. Because it doesn't have any ability
to comfort me. But Him, I do know that we're in a world,
we're really in this world, and we really do have some needs
in this world. To know that the Lord has promised,
he said, I'll supply all your needs, spiritual, physical, according
to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I know this, the Lord
alone can keep me from the unhealthy and distressing affections for
the things of this world. If you're risen with Christ,
Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. He's finished the work. He said
it. He said it's finished. If I think
to myself, okay, he said it's finished. And while I'm sitting
here in a state of depression, which I know I find myself in,
and it's not his fault, it's my fault. Lord, help me. I'm cast down. Set your sights,
set your desires on things above. For you're dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. Now, you want some comfort? He
said, you're dead. How's that? I know I'm alive. I'm sitting here right now. Yeah,
but if you'd be risen with Christ, you're dead to sin. You're dead
to sin. What does that mean? To its power. To have dominion over us. We're dead to it. We're dead
to its penalty and its guilt. Romans 8, 33, 34 says this. Romans chapter 8, verse 33 and 34. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Satan? What? The world? Who can lay anything
to the charge of it? I'm dead to sin. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, who is even at
the right hand of God, who also make an intercession for us.
In the midst of depression, cast down, remember this, Christ is
reigning, sitting, finish the work on the right hand of the
throne of God, the majesty on high. And he's praying for me,
praying for you, praying, you know him, he's praying for his
ever liveth to make intercession. I'll tell somebody, I was talking
to somebody today that was telling me, he said, listen, I'm praying
for you. And that, I mean, the person
I was talking to, I've got a lot of confidence in him. And I thanked
him, I thanked him. But listen, that the Lord's praying
for me, his prayer that's always effectual, he prays always according
to the will of the Father, praying for me. You're dead, dead to
sin, dead to its power, dead to the law, and its soul-damning
power as being our requirement for justification before God.
I'm dead to that. Unbelievers not. Romans 10.4, for Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The law is not my rule of life
and salvation before God. I can't do that. Christ filled
it and fulfilled it, answered it. And we're dead to the rudiments
of this world. This is what Colossians 2.20
says. Wherefore, if ye be dead with
Christ from the rudiments or the elements of the world, What
do you mean? What do you mean the rudiments?
What do you mean? Well, to the world's lust, to
its selfish ways, to its religion, we're dead to the world and its
way of thinking. A believer doesn't think like
an unbeliever. They don't think like that. An unbeliever thinks it's all
about me and all for me and I'm going to go around one time,
I'm going to get all the gusto I can. A believer is dead to
that. If you'd be dead with Christ
from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world
are you subject to ordinances like rules and regulations and
touch not and taste not and handle not? We're dead. Colossians 3,
3, ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. We're dead to sin, dead to the
law, dead to the rumors of the world, but being regenerated
by the grace of God, we're alive, and we're alive walking in the
newness of life, spiritual life. Life that is born of the Spirit,
born from above, a life of faith and communion and peace and enjoyment
with Christ. And it's life that's said to
be hid with Christ in God. What does that mean? Well, it
means that this life of secrecy to the world, What do I mean
by that? I mean the carnal man, the natural
man doesn't know anything about it. You can't explain spiritual
life to somebody that's dead any more than I can explain anything
to a corpse. What are you going to explain
to someone that's in a coffin? What are you going to say? What
are you going to say to them? What are they going to understand? They're not going
to say anything. But it's a life that's hid with God I mean, hidden
with Christ in God. It's concealed in a place of
absolute security. Laid up, hidden with Christ in
God, and therefore it's a life that's safe. It's safe. Now if I could just remember
this. If I'm risen with Christ, if
I'm alive in Christ, my life is hid with Christ in God. Now how's it going to get away? The Lord, preaching in John chapter
10, this is what he said, John 10. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
I know them, they follow me. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. I and my father are one. Now,
if you want some security, is to know that we're dead to the
law, to sin, to the rudiments of this world, and our life is
hid with Christ in God. Where's it going? Who's going
to take it away? How are you going to lose it? The Lord said, I give them eternal
life. In verse 4, when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him. in glory. When he comes back and appears to us, we're going
to appear with him in glory. That's what Paul says. When the Lord comes back the
second time, the trump of God is going to sound. The dead in
Christ are going to rise first. When he comes back, then all
that has been veiled to our sight and our understanding is gonna
be made open and clear. We're gonna know then truly the
blessing of being a partaker of the divine nature, being alive. 2 Peter 1, 3 and 4 says, according
as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain
that means all things that are necessary and suited, unto life
and godliness through the knowledge, through the full and personal
knowledge and understanding of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these, by these promises, You might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption, the rottenness
that is in the world through lust or through greed. Again,
we do see through a glass that's veiled, it's clouded, it's just
like my windshield looks most of the time. I just can't see
as clearly as I want to see. And I admit the reality of the
trials that the Lord has providentially sent and trials, tribulations
that are truly grievous for the moment. That's what the Apostle
Paul said. These are grievous. They're tough.
And we find ourselves downcast just like the psalmist did. I'm
sad. I'm hurting. I know that I believe
God and I'm still hurting. If you be risen with Christ,
you seek those things that are above. Our hearts are made tender to
remember these blessed truths. And that's the only way we remember.
The Lord said, I'm gonna send another comforter and he's gonna
bring back to your memory the things that I've said. I'm so
glad that God would bring these things back to our memory and
teach us these things that he said. And when he appears, and
we appear with him in glory, we're going to know as we're
known. Now, again, I'm just telling
you, I don't understand all this. But I know it's so. First John,
last scripture. First John three, one to three. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Now that's, I read that and I think, what a title. What a title. What's your title? A son of God. Therefore the world
knoweth us not because it knew him not. Now are we the sons
of God. Boy, that ought to. Lord, help it to be so. Lift
my spirit. Lord, now are we the sons of
God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. And we all admit that. It doesn't
appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him. I can't even get to first base
to explain that. We shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure. We're heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ. And I don't have anything to
be depressed about. And when I find myself to be
so, and I'm not so foolish as to say that it doesn't happen
because it does, and it will, cast yourself. Lord, help me. Help me to cast myself upon you. Help me, Lord. Help bring back
to my memory these things. Lord, I need you. I need you. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's take our song.