Can a man or a woman or a sinner
have faith in God and be depressed? I know many professing believers
that are. I have been myself. I recently read an article that
claimed that nearly 55 million people in the United States alone,
one out of every six, is on some type of psychiatric drug or antidepressant. So it's quite obvious just from
those statistics alone that depression runs high in this world in which
we live. So again, my question is, can
a man, a woman, a sinner, who professes to know and trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ, be depressed? And it's not a trick question,
and neither is my answer, but my answer is scriptural, do believers
suffer depression? Well, I wanna answer it in two
parts. First, yes, yes. I believe that
believers can suffer depression, but the second part of my answer
is I don't believe that we should. And I say we for a reason. I've
been depressed, but in knowing what I know, and more importantly,
knowing who I know, I shouldn't ever be. Just shouldn't. Some
very prominent men in the scriptures battled with depression. First,
let's define the word depression. Depression is feelings of severe
despondency and dejection. And though the word depression
itself is not used at all in the scriptures, It's often described
in other terms. It's referred to as despair. The word distress can include
depression. In God's Word, depression often
comes because of trouble. We've all experienced trouble.
Trouble can bring extreme anxiety, sorrow, sadness, misery. And it can be caused by physical
or even mental pain or both for that matter. And I've told you
before how thankful I am that the Lord doesn't hide the character
of men and women in the scriptures, especially the prominent servants
whom the Lord professed to know and love. Job comes to mind. Turn with
me to Job chapter 3 if you would. Job had distress, despair, and
despondency. How could you lose all ten of
your children at the same time and not have? How could everything
that you have be taken away from you in just a matter of a short
period of time and you not have some despondency. That's why
Job could say from personal experience that man that is born of woman
is a few days and full of trouble. Trouble. Job sure had his portion
of trouble. Other than Christ Himself, I
can't really think of anyone in all the Word of God, any man
that lived on earth who was more afflicted, tried, and suffered
as Job did. And not only did he lose all
ten of his children and everything he had, he also lost his health.
The Lord struck him with boils from the top of his head to the
sole of his feet. I believe we can learn something
about this issue of despair and trouble and depression from Job. And it is really the attitude
of every believer. Job said, naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
We bless the Lord in all our trouble. He's the one that sent
it. And in most cases with a believer,
well, no, in all cases with a believer, it was for their good. And knowing these things, God's people will bless the Lord
regardless of what happens, or at least they should. Now what
kept Job from cursing God and dying? You know, that's what
his wife told him that he should do. Y'all just curse God and
die. And here in verse 20 of Job chapter 3, I want you to
look closely at what Job said. Job said, it's the Lord that
gives light to them that are in misery, and life unto the
bitter. That word means discontent or
despairing soul. You see, friends, it's the light
and the life that God gives the chosen sinner in the Lord Jesus
Christ that soothes our misery and gives life to our soul. Job
said, I abhor myself. He hated the sin that so easily
beset him, but he kept his eyes on Christ. That's what we have
to do. In His trouble, God revealed
Himself to Job, and He said, I've heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. And friends, it was
His trouble that caused Him to see His need, and it was His
need that caused Him to see Christ. Now King David, here's another
man that had such sorrow, sadness, and affliction. Turn with me
to Psalm 42, if you would. Psalm chapter 42. And in verse 11, David speaking here
to his own soul, said this, an ever true believer has asked
themselves this question, Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Why am I so depressed, sad, distressed,
full of anxiety? What's wrong with me? You ever
ask yourself that question? What's wrong with me? What's
wrong with you? I've asked myself that question many times. How
could one so blessed be so down? David, just as Job, knew what
the remedy was. I hope you know what the remedy
is. I hope I know what the remedy is. He spoke to his own soul
and he said, hope thou in God. I suppose that would be a good
title for this message. Hope thou in God. Are you down? Are you troubled? Feeling anxiety? Hope thou in God. Hope thou in
the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. And in His trouble, David, God revealed Himself to him.
He revealed Himself to Job, and He revealed Himself to David. praying to the God who does all
things well and for the good of His people and the good of
His soul, He said, hope thou in God. That word health there in verse
11, look at that verse with me again. Why are thou cast down
on 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." That word, health,
means deliverance. Praise God who is my deliverance. He's my only deliverer, Christ
is. David said the remedy of my depression is to praise God
who is my medicine. That's what the word means. It
means medicine. This is the medicine that God's
people ingest. Praying to God who does all things
well and for their own good is the remedy to my soul being cast
down. That word countenance is talking
about soul's acceptance, our soul's favor and reconciliation
to God. You see, if I've been accepted
of God in Christ, if Christ has put my sin away, then why should
our souls be cast down? They shouldn't be. So, what is
the remedy? Again, hope thou in God. The psalmist Asaph, knew something
about depression, knew something about anguish and distress and
anxiety. Turn over a few pages to Psalm
77. This psalm was written by Asaph. And while you're turning, let
me say that Asaph was a man chosen of God to serve in the tabernacle
according to Numbers chapter 18. And David himself assigned
Asaph to give thanks to the Lord and to minister before the Ark
of the Covenant in 1 Chronicles 6. And Asaph's name means one
who gathers together, one who reconciles ungodly sinners to
a holy God. There's no higher calling than
that. And surely a man so highly favored and used of God wouldn't
be depressed or discouraged. But in verse two of Psalm 77,
Asaph wrote this. He said, in the day of my trouble,
I sought the Lord, and my sore ran in the night and seized not,
and my soul refused to be comforted. When Asaph said my sore ran in
the night, What's he talking about there? Well, in my marginal
Bible, the word sore means hand, and the word ran means flowed
or stretched out. So what Asaph is saying here
is I have stretched out my hand in the night in fervent prayer
to God. I've asked God for help. I've
asked God for help and it's ceased not. And he says this, he said,
but my soul refused to be comforted. And it wasn't God's lack of willingness
to help, it was his soul's lack of willingness to be helped.
Has your soul ever refused to be comforted? No matter what
you did, no matter what you read, no matter what you prayed, no
matter what you asked God, your soul just refused to be comforted. What an obvious sign of our depravity
that is. Men and women by nature love
to throw pity parties for themselves. Asaph is speaking of a real hopelessness
here. He's speaking, talking about
a real helplessness. Asaph is referring to real despair
and depression. And he says in verse four, I'm
so troubled that I cannot speak. Words just can't describe this
inward distress. Have you ever been so discouraged,
depressed, or full of anxiety that you couldn't speak? You
just, words just, weren't adequate. Mere words would not allow us
to describe the depression, the hopelessness, and the helplessness
that we felt. And then I have you notice here
in this Psalm that Asaph asked six questions. In verse seven,
he asked this, will the Lord cast off his people forever?
Will the Lord be favorable no more? In verse eight, he continues. He said, is his mercy, is God's
mercy clean, gone, done forever? Does his promise fail forevermore? In verse nine, he asks, has God
forgotten to be gracious? Hath God in anger shut up his
tender mercies? These are six faithless statements. And if we haven't asked these
questions ourselves, we've certainly thought them. When trouble comes,
we often feel that the Lord's forsaken us. The heavens are
like grass. We can't get through. And it's
like even when God shows us mercy, we refuse to
be comforted. And there are two things that
bring about within us. First, we're completely self-absorbed
by nature, consumed with self, and secondly, we can't get ourselves
out of it. So what do we do? We hope in
God. We look to Christ. We beg for
mercy. Notice in verse 10 that Asaph
says, this is my infirmity. And this is my infirmity and
this is your infirmity. This is the infirmity of all
of us by nature. So what do we do when we can
do nothing? We remember God. Verse 10, we
can remember the right hand of God's power. He who made the
heavens and the earth is our heavenly father and he's out
to do us good. Verse 11, we can remember the
works of the Lord and his wonders of old. Verse 12, we can remember
and meditate on all God's work and we can talk about His amazing
doings. Verse 13, we can consider who
God is and His greatness as God. Verse 14, we can trust Him to
be the God who does wonders, the one who declares His strength
and sovereignty among His people. And verse 15, we can remember
and reflect. on his redemption, hope thou
in God. Remember God, remember who he
is, remember what he's done for sinners. Now I want you to turn
with me to another passage, 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse five. Paul, the apostle, knew something
about trouble. And Paul gives us the remedy
of our misery, despairing, and depression, 2 Corinthians 4,
verse 5. Paul says, for we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake, for Christ's sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And we have this treasure, this
is a treasure, and we have it in these earthen vessels, these
bodies of ours, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Oh, I tell you, if you look within,
you'll never find any comfort. You'll never find any deliverance.
But if your hope is in the power of God, and you remember who
He is, and you rejoice in who He is, what a treasure that is. We have a treasure that those
in the world don't. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
is our treasure. God has shined the light of the
glorious gospel in our hearts and we see the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. And the power, that's the power
that keeps us. The power that saves us and keeps
us. It's God's power and not our own. We don't have any power.
I don't know of anyone that chooses to be depressed or downcast. We don't have any power to control
anything. But again, Paul, along with Job
and along with David, knew the remedy of their trouble. In verse
eight, Paul said, we are troubled, we're afflicted, we suffer tribulation
on every side, yet not distressed, not depressed. Knowing Christ,
having Christ, trusting Christ, our anguish, our agony, our pain,
distress is dispersed. Yes, we are perplexed. We are
puzzled with ourselves. We are baffled at our own inconsistencies,
but we're not in despair. We're not without help. We have
our doubts in ourselves, but we don't have any doubt in our
Savior. We sure shouldn't. Verse nine, we're persecuted,
but we're not forsaken. We're cast down, but we're not
destroyed. How is it that we're not destroyed?
Paul goes on to say in verse 14, knowing that he, God, which
raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Christ and
present us faultless with you. For all things are for your sake.
And that, all things there, includes our trouble. Our trouble is for
our sake. David said, it's good for me
that I've been afflicted. How is that? Paul says that the
abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound
to the glory of God. Friends, the grace of God is
never more obvious to the child of God than when God delivers
them out of their trouble. I confess to you that some of
the closest fellowship I've had with God himself has been in
my trouble. When I knew that only God could
deliver me, oh, it caused me to cry out in need, and the Lord
was faithful. And it was a comfort to know
Verse 16, Paul said, we faint not though the outward man, though
the outward man, excuse me, we faint not though the outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. So what
did Job do? What did David do? What did Asaph
do? And we do what Paul did. We remember
God. We remember who died for us.
We remember who put our sin away. We remember Christ who gave us
His perfect righteousness. Verse 17, for our light affliction. That's what our trouble is. It's
light affliction. Oh, it doesn't feel light, does
it? He says, it's but for a moment,
and it worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory. May we always remember, dear
friends, that whatever we go through in this life is but light
affliction, especially in comparison to what Christ suffered in our
room and state. Light affliction. Oh, woe is
me, woe is me. Look to the cross. See what it
took to put your sin away. That's real affliction. That's
real sorrow. That's real anguish. And this affliction is but for
a moment compared to eternity. Oh, it seems like sometimes it's
like, is this ever going to pass? It's just but for a moment compared
to what awaits us, that eternal weight of glory that awaits us.
Far more exceeding weight of glory, Paul said. And then Paul
says in verse 18, while we look not at the things which are seen,
that's a big part of our problem. look at the things around us
and it just seems helpless and hopeless. But we look not at
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are what? Temporal, but for a moment. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. That's why the true believer
will never forsake the assembling of themselves together. They
meet, as I've said in the first hour, to exhort and comfort and
encourage one another. They meet to praise the God who
loved them without a cause. God loves us freely. That's what
freely means. It means without a cause. There
was nothing within us that would cause God to be merciful and
gracious to us and save us by His grace. God's people come
together to worship Christ who laid down His life for them.
Our hope is in God. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. Peter knew something about this
despair. He denied the Lord three times. And the scriptures say
that he remembered the word of Christ, which said unto him,
before the cock crows, you'll deny me three times. And the
scripture says he went out and wept bitterly. Can you imagine
how he felt? He had become angry with the
Lord when the Lord, well, maybe not angry is the word, but he
became impatient with the Lord when the Lord told him this is
what he would do. Peter said, though all men be offended because
of thee, I'll never be offended, not me, Lord. He said, they can
kill me with you, but I will not deny you, and yet that's
exactly what he did. Do you suppose Peter was depressed
after that? Do you suppose he was distressed?
Do you suppose that he was in despair? And then when the Lord
arose from the dead, He told those ladies who came to the
sepulcher, He said, you go your way and you tell the disciples
and Peter. That He goes before you into
Galilee and there you shall see Him. as He said unto you, oh,
if we could just believe what God has told us. Lord, I believe, but help Thou
my unbelief. Oh, we'd never be depressed,
we'd never be distressed or without rest if we could just believe
as we are. Tell His disciples and Peter.
Peter don't believe he's a disciple anymore, but he is. And you be sure to tell him that
I'm going to see him again Not long after these things, Peter
said, I go fishing. I'm going back to what I used
to do. I'm not cut out for this preaching business. I'm not worthy to be called an
apostle. I can relate to that. I think every preacher can, every
true preacher can. And the Lord met him there and
asked him three times, the same amount of times that Peter denied
Christ. And he said, Peter, lovest thou
me more than these? Do you love me more than the
other disciples? Well, before you denied me, you
said that you did. You said all these may deny you,
but not me, not ever. Do you love me more than fishing?
I don't know what the Lord was talking about when He said, do
you love me more than thee? Peter said, Lord, thou knowest
that I love thee. And the Lord said, feed my lambs. If you love me, preach the gospel. Feed my sheep. Three times for
every denial, the Lord asked Peter if he loved Him. And Peter
learned a valuable lesson here, and so should we. He knew that
the Lord knew all things. I suppose one of the most important
things that I've learned since the Lord revealed the Gospel
to me is this. The problems that men and women
have, whether professing believers or unbelieving infidels, an interest
in God and His redeemer for sinners is birthed out of need. Need of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those that are well have no need of a physician. No need of the great physician.
But Jesus Christ is the one thing needful. God will supply all
your need. Singular. Christ, according to
His riches. Where are God's riches found?
In, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hope thou in Christ. Trouble is going to come. For
some, it's already come. For some, it's just around the
corner. I remember Bruce Cavanaugh telling
me one time he poured a sidewalk for me and he said, I said, teasing
with him, I said, is there any guarantee on this? He said, yeah.
He said, it's guaranteed to crack. Well, trouble is gonna come,
I can guarantee it. It's gonna come. And if you're
a child of God, it comes, as David said, that we might learn
that it's good for us to be afflicted. How? He said that we might learn God's
statutes. That we might learn God's appointments.
That we might learn that God sent the trouble. That we might
see our need. that we might desire the only
one that can help us. Oh, hope thou in God. And the
only way to overcome trouble and affliction and distress,
depression, misery, anguish, despair, whatever you call it,
is to look to Christ. We can be assured that if we
seek His help, We'll find it. No one has ever sought the Lord. I can't find it anywhere in the
Scripture. I still make that challenge for someone to find
it for me. Where one came to Christ seeking
His help that did not receive it. And if you come seeking His help,
then He's already determined that you'll find it. I'm reminded again of that passage
in Nehemiah 9, verse 17. It says, But thou art a God ready
to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not. Our
Lord said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Never. That's
a long time. He'll never leave us or forsake
us. And this is why God will not leave us in our trouble,
misery, depression and anguish and despair. He is a God ready
to pardon. Have you ever thought about that?
God is ready to pardon. Ready means fully prepared to
pardon. Ready means eager and inclined
to pardon. Ready means immediately willing
to pardon. Who is this that's ready to pardon?
God. The only one who can. He's ready. He's prepared. He's equipped.
He's inclined. He's agreeable to pardoning sinners
in Christ. Pardon for sinners is never deserved. It's always graciously given.
It can't be earned. It's free. It can't be merited, there's
none that doeth good. Pardon is an amazing thing when
you realize that God cannot simply excuse or overlook our sin. We saw that in our study of Psalm
this morning. The soul that sins, what shall
it do? It shall die. I want you to listen to me closely
in closing. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 17,
15, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Now God will not
justify the wicked. He can't and remain just. He
can't and remain God. Like that judge I told you about
in the first hour. I'll tell it again quickly. A
serial killer goes before the Lord. or goes before a judge
and he tells the judge, he says, you know, I'm sincerely sorry.
I wish I hadn't done that. I regret that I did it. And if
that judge said, well, I believe you, you're free to go. That wouldn't be justice, would
it? But we have a God who is ready
to pardon. He cannot Spare then the sinner and be
just, but he cannot condemn the just either. That's where the
just one, Jesus Christ, comes in. That's why salvation is of
the Lord. Salvation is in a person. Salvation
is not what we do, but what God's done for us. Christ the just
one died as the just one for the unjust. That's you and I. That's the kind of folks Christ
died for, sinners. It's a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Jesus Christ is a just God, but
He didn't stop there. He said, and a Savior. Jesus
Christ died as the just One for the unjust ones, who are all
who believe in Him, so that He might bring them to God. Now I've often heard it said
that if you can take the first step to save yourself, then you
can walk all the way into heaven. But it's taking that first step.
A dead man has a problem with the first step. If he can take
the first step, then he can go on all the way. But it's that
first step that's the issue. It's a problem. It's the same
with us. We've got to be brought to God.
We've got to be brought to God, and Christ is the only one that
can bring us. and you're going to be brought to God justly,
God would cease to be God if you weren't. And such is our
union with Christ that when God sees the Lord Jesus Christ, He
sees all who put their trust in Him. Hope thou in God. Being one with Christ, God cannot
justly condemn me, because He's made me just by satisfying justice
and justifying me. And this is how God is ready
to pardon, and this is why God is fully prepared to pardon,
and this is why God is immediately willing to pardon, because Christ
justly put our sin away. Does that depress you? Does that
discourage you? Does that give you anxiety? No. That gives us hope in God. Hope thou in God. Because Christ justly gave us
His perfect righteousness, we have no reason to be depressed.
We have any reason to be distressed, to be in anguish, to have anxiety,
to be despondent, or even to be sad. We don't. The sin within us is the only
reason. But if we can just remember what
God has done for us in Christ, that light affliction would be
only for a moment. And we would see that it works
for us a far more exceeding weight of glory, eternal weight of glory, as we look not at the things
that we see, You know, when I look around me today, I see so much
sadness and depression and anxiety and heartache. But when I look
to the things which are not seen, when I get my eyes off the things
that are temporal, and I get my eyes on the unseen eternal
things, those things we see when we walk by faith and not by sight,
the eternal things that bring glory to God. If God is pleased,
now listen, if God is pleased to enable us to get our eyes
off the things that plague us in this life, they'll fade away
in the light of the eternal glory that awaits us in Christ. God's
promised us that, and He is faithful that promised. And He's God who's
ready to pardon. Why? Verse 17, because he's so
gracious and merciful, he's slow to anger, he's of great kindness. What do we have to be depressed
about? Hope, thou, in God.