I love the Lord because, because, there is a reason, there
is a cause, there is a reason why we love
the Lord. John said in 1 John 4, 19, we love him because he
first loved us. There's a reason why Moses chose
Christ over the treasures of Egypt and why we choose Christ. He said in John 15, 16, you have
not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you
should go forth and bring forth fruit. He's not saying there
that we didn't choose him, he's just saying we didn't choose
him first. There's a reason why we repent. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations
5.21, Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. We see God because He first saw us. John 9.1, as Jesus passed by,
He saw a man which was black. He saw a man that couldn't see.
Is that your testimony? Christ saw somebody that couldn't
see him. And now I see. I'm not that man, I believe. We hear God because he first
heard us. Listen to this, and I'll have
you turn to these, but we've got much to get to here. Psalm
28, verse 6, but listen carefully to this, the order of it. Blessed
be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. He heard my cry. Supplication, that word is in
our text too. We'll look at it in a minute,
Lord willing. Okay, he heard me. Now, the next
verse, verse 7 of Psalm 28. The Lord is my strength and my
shield, my heart trusted in him. He heard me, now I hear Him and
I trust Him. I believe. And I'm helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth
and with my song will I praise Him. Because He heard me and
now I hear Him. We know God because He first
knew us. He told Jeremiah. Before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. We come to God because he first
came where we were. Like the man who went down from
Jerusalem to Jericho in Luke chapter 10, We fell among thieves
and were left half dead. Physically alive but spiritually
dead and unable to make a move toward God. But as it says in
that chapter, he came where we were. When we couldn't come to him, we were that one sheep that was
lost in the wilderness and he came. And now we follow him. Now, where else would we go?
But he first had to come to us. Like with Zacchaeus, he came
to our tree, called us down, and said, I must abide at your
house today. And now we abide with him in
his house. So by God's grace and by experience,
we understand when David says, I love the Lord because Because. Because why? Because he heard
me. But why did he hear you, David? Because he loved me. He doesn't hear everybody. Notice in verse 1, he heard my
supplications. my supplications. These are expressed
needs. When I lifted up my voice to
the Lord, by his grace, I wasn't talking about how much he needed
me. I wasn't speaking of my qualifications,
you know, what I've done, the decisions I've made and things
like that. No, I told him how badly I needed
him. That's what a supplication is. What is it that we need from
God? You name it. You name it. Mercy. Righteousness. Wisdom. Understanding. Life. Peace. Forgiveness. If you take one of those away
from me. Just peace. If I didn't have
any peace right now. No peace. You know what I would
be? a lunatic, an absolute insane raving lunatic. But really one thing is needful
because all of these things and so many more all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places are in one place and that's our Lord Jesus
Christ. Supplications Verse two, because he hath inclined
his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I
live. Let's all resolve that right
now, tonight, together. Let's just cry to him from now
on. Let's just keep crying to him.
Can we do that? Can we do that as a people, as
a congregation? Crying to Him for this church.
Crying to Him for one another. Crying to Him for yourself. Crying
to Him for this wretched world that we live in. Crying to Him
for our country. Crying to Him for our daily bread. Crying to Him for understanding.
You know why I'm going to keep calling on Him? Because I've
done it before and He heard me. You see that? I know I can call
on Him. I know I can count on Him. I
know I can expect for Him to incline His ear unto me, because
He bows down His ear even to such as I. And He's heard my
cry. He's inclined His ear to me.
He's had mercy on me. God Almighty has condescended
to hear the cry of a worm of the dust. What kind of a Richard Worm, and I am one, but
surely that worm is just going to keep calling on him. Surely
we will. That just makes good sense, doesn't
it? If God will hear me, how can I be silent? I worry about a lot of things,
you know. I suspect you're about like me.
I worry about our country. I worry about the safety of people
that I love. I worry about their well-being, health-wise
and prosperity-wise and just living in this world-wise. God has said to us, call upon
me. Seek me while I may be found.
Call upon me while I'm near. He has said to us, cast all your
cares upon me because I care for you. He said, ask and you'll receive.
Seek and you'll find. Knock and I'll open. He won't turn us away. We're
his beloved children. Where do you get your car fixed?
You wouldn't expect me to ask that way. Where do you get your
car fixed? If you have a place where you
go get your car fixed, it's because you've been there before and
you got done what needed to be done. They fixed it and they
didn't cheat you. You're just going to go back
to the place where you got what you needed. That's just natural. I cry to the Lord because He
is the source and has proven to be a willing source for all
of my needs. It's that simple, but there's
more to it than just that. There is that now. That's just
simple. That just makes sense, doesn't it? We're going to go
where we get what we need. Back in the old days when I had
wells, you could expect them to be going to that well every
so often because you got to have water. And we're going to go to wherever
we get water, our refrigerator, our sink, or wherever it is.
We're going to go where we get what we need. But there's more
to this than just that. God has made it so that I need
Him. That's what this is now. You
think with me for a second. It's not just that we need stuff
and God has it. We need Him. We've got to have
Him. And He's made that the way that
it is. I find in Him everything I need,
insomuch that whether He grants my requests or not, I still have
what I need. It's not about me just getting
stuff from God. If I have Him, if I can go to
Him and find His ear, find His mercy seat yet open to a wretch
like me, I have what I need. I'm going to illustrate that
from the word of God and I believe it will be a blessing to us.
Whether he grants my request, I make my requests known unto
God. There's not a thing in the world, far from there being anything
wrong with that, we're commanded to. We're graciously commanded
to. But you know whether he grants them or not, I trust him, you
see. And so I have what I need before
I ever come to it. And if I leave without what I
asked for, I still have what I need. Because he's what I need. Now Paul found that he didn't
so much need the thorn in the flesh removed. He wanted that. He wanted that. And again, remember
this wasn't a rosebush thorn now. This is a stake, a wooden
dagger in his side. He said he sent Satan to just
wail on me. And he asked that it be removed.
He wanted that. And there's not a thing wrong
with wanting that. But what Paul needed was Christ. And he learned that in this experience.
What he needed, what that experience taught him, more than he already
knew, was that his need was not that thorn removed. His need
was the God that put it there. And they'll take it away if it's
the right thing to do, if it's the best for you. Or he might leave it. The thorn removed would have
been nice. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Got a stake in my side. Every
time I move, every time I do something, it pulls my guts. God deliver me from that. That'd
be nice, wouldn't it? But God's grace is sufficient. It's not just kind of nice, it's
sufficient. We need to find out what that
word is, because that was God's message to Paul. My grace is
sufficient for you. That's an interesting word now.
I'm not a Greek scholar, but sometimes we can glean precious
truths from the original definitions of these words in the scripture.
Turn over there with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and let's look at
this together. 2nd Corinthians 12 Verse 7 What we're talking about now
is crying to the Lord. That's what David said. I'm gonna
keep crying to him I'm gonna make my supplications known to
him and he's heard me before And I'm just gonna keep crying But what we truly need is him
2 Corinthians 12 verse 7, And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations, God blessed
Paul with a sight of something glorious. He's kind of done that
for us too, hasn't he? But lest I should be exalted
above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh. As
I've said, that word is like a wooden stake. The messenger
of Satan to buffet me. That word means just to pound
on. Lest I should be exalted above
measure. God knows how to bring us down,
doesn't he? I tell you what. We get to, you know, skipping
through life, you know, thinking we got it wired, we got it figured
out now. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. O God! And he said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee. Now the word sufficient means
this. I want us to see this before we read the rest of this passage
because it will tell us what it's saying. It will help us. It means to be possessed of unfailing
strength. My grace will just be in you
unlimited, unfailing strength. It also means, same definition,
you look it up in Strong's, same word, means to be possessed of
unfailing strength and it means to be content and satisfied. My grace is sufficient for my
strength is made perfect in weakness. You're not gonna know anything.
We know something about the strength of the flesh and what we think
that is, and what the Lord is revealing to us as we, the longer
we live, more and more, what it ain't. But we're not gonna
experience the strength of God until we learn this, that His
grace is our strength. My strength is made perfect in
weakness and Paul said this, most gladly therefore will I
rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. The power of Christ. Therefore
I take pleasure in infirmities, not that we enjoy hurting, but we see the benefit of it.
We see who it is that brought it and why. And that kind of
pleases me. The pain doesn't. Affirmities and reproaches and
necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I strong, unfailing strength. I'm strong. How? His grace. I'm nothing. I'm weak. But I have His grace. a continual source of unfailing
strength in my soul. Now if the Lord had merely taken
that stake out of Paul's side, he wouldn't have had that problem.
There'd just be another one come in the place of that one and
he'd have still had a thousand more. More infirmities, more weaknesses,
do we ever run out of them in this life? But having the grace
of God, instead of just having relief from one problem, Paul
had unfailing strength and contentment in all of his problems. So is it better for God to remove
the thorn or to give the grace? We've got to learn this, don't
we? Now one of these days we're not going to have any problems.
He's going to take away every thorn, every messenger of Satan,
never touch us again. Someday, but we'll even then
we're gonna have something much greater than just an absence
of trouble We'll have him with no limitations
Without the the wretched limitations that my sin imposes upon me.
We'll have him who is himself contentment and strength. I Can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me How does
he do that? He gives grace, sufficient grace,
unfailing strength. In this world, we're going to
have tribulations, but his grace is sufficient. That is, no matter
what happens, we're strong in him and content with him. So whenever something is just
killing you, like this was clearly Paul, it's just killing Or you
think it is anyway, which is just as bad, by the way. To have Christ. Remember this. And maybe you'll pray, Lord take
it away. Fine, good. Paul did. That's fine. Maybe
the Lord will be pleased to do it. That may be best. But remember
this, to have Christ is better than to have that problem gone.
And whether that problem is ever gone or not, you have Him. Rest in Him. There's our strength. There's our contentment. So back to our text now. What
did we learn in 2 Corinthians there? Calling upon Him is not
just asking for things. It is acknowledging that He is
all that you need. And all you need. is Him. One thing is needful. And once we know that, we just
keep coming back to Him. He's our well. He's our bread. He's our comfort and peace, our
rest, our wisdom. Does anybody lack wisdom? Let
him ask of God. Christ is the wisdom of God. One thing is needful. Verse three,
the sorrows of death compassed me, surrounded me, and the pains
of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Boy, this is a good testimony,
isn't it? This could be David's testimony, and mine, and yours,
if you're a believer. I found trouble and sorrow. You
know, people say, you probably heard somebody say this before,
it just seems like trouble just comes looking for me. No, it
don't. No, that's not how it works.
We go looking for it. It don't find us, we find it.
With both hands earnestly, we go looking for it. And you know
we always find it, don't we? We always find it. This is spiritual
language here. Death, hell, trouble, sorrow. You see those words? These are
all mine. By choice, I found him. I went looking for him, and I
found him. By my own searching out, by my
own will, death surrounds me, and hell
has got hold of me, David said. But now I cry unto the Lord.
By his grace, I'm seeking him now, not trouble. By His grace, I'm not running
to hell like Saul of Tarsus. I'm running to the Savior like
Paul the Apostle. By His grace, we seek Him and
we find Him too. You go find what you're seeking. We find Him when? Well, as we
already said, we're going to find Him when He finds us. And
we understand that that's condescending language. He speaks in human
terms when he says, I sought after my sheep, and I found him.
I found him. He knew where we were all along.
When he said, Adam, where are you? He knew where Adam was. So we're going to find him when
he finds us. But also, you know when else? Jeremiah 29, 13, you
shall seek me and find me when you shall search for me with
all your heart when nothing else matters. Naaman, when all of
your supremacy and your exalted pride and your position as leader
of a great country and all of the respect that you have and
the applause of men When none of that matters anymore, when
all that matters to you is not being a leper anymore, that's
when you'll cry to the Lord. That's when. That's when you'll
find Him. When you seek the One who can
make that go away. Verse 4, Then called I upon the
name of the Lord, Oh, well, here's what that sounds like. You see
that? Then I called upon the name of
the Lord. What'd you say, David? I beg you. Not I'm ready. You know, religion talks about
you need to tell God you're ready to, you're ready to serve him.
You know, you're ready to live for him. No. A true cry of a sinner is
this, I beg you. I'm begging you, save my son.
Save me. When is then? When I ran out
of money and was only worse. When all that mattered was I
was a leper. A mighty man. You remember what
I said about Naaman? He was a mighty man, but he was a leper. When you're just a leper, that's
when you're going to call upon the name of the Lord. When you have to have him, that's when you'll beg. Begging
is the most abhorrent thing to human nature that there is. I'd
rather be dead than a beggar, how about you? Straight up. Straight up. Than to be homeless
and be depending on the mercy of humanity? Really? Give me death any day. And I'll
tell you this, I'll tell you what's even more repugnant to
a sinner is being a spiritual beggar. Confessing before God,
I'm bankrupt, I've spent everything I have and I'm worse than I was
from the start. I have no hope. I'm wretched
and vile. I deserve hell, and I can't help
myself. There's nothing I can do. And
I'm begging you, God. I'm begging you to save me. And when he said, when I was
surrounded by death and hell had gotten hold of me, That's
when, that's when then is, right there. When you see yourself
sinking down to hell, and rightly so, when you can take sides with
God against yourself, then you're going to beg. Until then, you
know, you're going to be making deals with God. You're not going
to beg until you got nothing to bargain with. Everybody else makes trades.
beggars beg. And the thing is, I was born
surrounded by death, encompassed by death, and in the grip of
hell by nature. I was born that way. But then
one day I knew it. Then I cried. One day the Lord I called upon
the name of the Lord. He turned the light off. And notice the language. Have
you ever heard this language before? Then called I upon the
name of the Lord. Paul said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord. What did you say when you called?
Lord, save me. Whosoever shall call will be
saved. That's our gospel message. I was thinking today how blind
and, you know, I know it's an ugly word, but the scripture
calls us stupid and we just are, aren't we? We're just flat stupid. You know, religion talks, they
go around talking about, you know, they want, they're always
learning, the Lord said, ever learning and never able to come
to a knowledge of just the plain truth. The Lord said to him,
you search the scriptures, you memorize the scriptures, and
everything in this book points to me and you won't come to me. People talk about false preachers
and say, boy, he's a very intelligent man. No, he's not. He's an idiot.
And so are we. God's got to show us the most
fundamental, simple, basic truth. And if he don't, we'll be just
as stupid. by nature were blithering idiots. But one day God showed me what
a blithering idiot I am and I cried to him. I called upon the name
of the Lord and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Surely it must be one of the
most infuriating tortures of hell to know that life was there for the asking and you trusted yourself and
would not just simply cry to God, Lord, save me. That's got to be torture in hell.
Don't you imagine? There he was in front of me. Paul said it's not some far away
thing. The word is in your mouth. But you know it says whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But it also
says you're not going to call on him until you believe him.
And you're not going to believe him until you've heard of him.
And you're not going to hear of him until somebody preaches
him. And nobody's going to preach
him until God sends him. Romans 10, 13 through 17. In
other words, it's going to take a lot of grace for you to be
saved. A lot of grace, but bless God, verse 5 of our text. He's
gracious. You see that? Gracious is the
Lord. Gracious is the Lord. And remember
now, let me remind you of something. I just quoted Romans chapter
10, where he said, Whosoever shall call, be saved. But you can't call on him whom you've
not heard, whom you've not believed. And you can't believe on him
of whom you've not heard. You can't hear without a preacher.
Can't preach. Nobody can preach Him unless
God sends Him. If God doesn't send somebody,
we'll all be talking about our will and our way. But God sends
a preacher. And don't forget the context,
the reason I said that again, don't forget the context of Romans
chapter 10. Chapter 11 says that even when God does send a preacher,
and even if He does preach the gospel, and even if people, sinners,
do hear it, Nobody's going to believe it except the remnant
that God reserves according to the choosing of His grace. That's
who will believe. Oh, and how that takes us to
verse 5. Gracious. Notice our cry to the
Lord, the last part of it in verse 4. Let's look at this before
we get to verse 5. Notice our cry. Not, Lord, I've decided, you
know, I have decided to follow Jesus. It has nothing to do with
the decision on your part. It goes more like this. God,
I beg you to save me. I beg you to save me. That's our cry. Lord, if you
will, you can make me whole. All the fitness he requireth
is you feel your need of him. And this he gives you. This he gives you. Tis the Spirit's
rising being. Without the light, the revelation
of the Holy Spirit, you don't have any idea that you need Christ.
The one thing needful is foolishness to you. He's a stumbling block
or foolishness. Ah, but to them which are called,
to those whom he did foreknow, and did predestinate, and called,
and justified, and glorified, to them that one thing needful. Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. He's God's power to save a sinner
and still be God. And he's the wisdom of God. When
this world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching his son to save them that believe. His word is
able to make us wise unto salvation. So we cry, Lord, I beg in you. And when you come to this place
where you cry for salvation, if you ever say that from your
heart, Sincerely, as David does here, and so many have, then
you'll be saying something else too pretty soon. You know what
else you're gonna say? Gracious is the Lord. Because when you
cry for mercy, you're fixing to have it. Everyone who cries to the Lord,
I'm begging you, Lord, save me, finds this to be true. Gracious
is the Lord. Lord, if you will, I will. Is
that what you heard? I will. Our God is so merciful. Blessed
Lord, how merciful thou was to me. I like to sing that. Have
you tasted that the Lord is gracious? We're talking about gracious
is the Lord. You know, in 1 Peter 2, let's
turn over there and read that. You know, To taste something is to experience
it. You can know all about something,
food, water, whatever it is, a drink, but it's not going to help you
unless you drink it. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 1. Wherefore I think of this all
all of this is the context of this Have you tasted that the
Lord is gracious? Can you say with David honestly?
From experience from you from your soul Gracious is the Lord
You see David's testimony here. He said I cried unto the Lord
and he heard me And I'm just going to keep crying to him I begged him to save me because
I was surrounded by death. I had brought it down upon myself.
The terrors of hell had grabbed hold of me. And it was because
I went looking for it. And I found it. And so I begged God to save me.
And now I want to tell you this. Gracious is the Lord. I've experienced
His grace. All right, wherefore, laying
aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and
all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word, that you may grow thereby, if so be that you've
tasted. If you ever tasted, you desire. You see that? You desire. That's what David said. I got
a little taste of what it is for God to actually hear my cry
and do something for me. And I'm just keep, I'm going
to keep coming. I've tasted. And so that desire, I desire
the milk of the word because I've tasted by his word, by the
gospel, by his message, by his truth, that he is gracious to
whom coming. Like David, I'm just going to
keep, as long as I live. And the only reason it's going
to stop then is because I will have arrived at Him, with Him. I won't have to come to Him anymore
then because I'll be with Him forever. To whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable
to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the Scripture, Behold, I lay inside a chief cornerstone, elect,
precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. Unto you that
have tasted, ye are going to keep coming. keep coming to the
water. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed." Don't surprise God, but you are also
appointed to something else. You are a chosen generation.
a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained
mercy. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. His grace is righteous. He doesn't
bestow grace at the expense of his righteousness. He justifies
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, Paul said in Romans, that he might be just and the justifier,
that he might be righteous and gracious. The reason God can be gracious
and righteous, and he will be, he will be righteous and he will
be gracious, but it's all wrapped up in Christ. He's gracious in Christ through
the redemption and through faith in his blood. Everyone who cries to the Lord
I'm begging you to save me finds that he's gracious And God's
grace now the reason I read one of them one of the reason I read
first Peter chapter 2 verses 1 through 10 God's grace is not
just a doctrine to you. I bless God for the doctrine
of grace But have you tasted that he's gracious And this is why God comes to
us first. This is why that even while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is why he hears us first.
And then said, blessed are your ears for they hear. This is why
he loves us first, not because of anything in us or that we've
done or will ever do. because of who he is. Gracious
is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. He's
the God of all grace who is plenteous in mercy. Thank God for his grace. It's sufficient, isn't it? Never
failing strength within his people in our very peace and contentment,
the grace of God. Let's pray.