If you will, if you have your
Bibles, go back to Psalm 86. You know, it's our prayer that
God may cause us to hear the words of Christ in this psalm,
because as soon as these words are, I know that all the word
of God was inspired by him, that he used men to write these words.
May we be able to see Christ in this. and may His people know
and realize what He went through to die for those whom the Father
had placed in Him for the foundation of the world. We'll go ahead
and read Psalm verse 125 and 86 right here. It says, Bow down
thou ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I am poor and needed. Preserve
my soul, for I am holy, O thou my God, say thy servant that
trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Verse five, for thy Lord art
good, and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all of
them that call upon him. It says here in verse one, bow
thy ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I am poor and needy. You
know, it says here under Psalm 86, the prayer of David. And
as I say, we know that all scriptures given by inspiration of God and
scriptures God breathed I remember one time I was reading in the
New Testament when one of the Lord's disciples said to our
Lord, right after the Lord had got up from praying, he said,
Lord, teach us to pray. Teach us, O Lord, to pray. Teach
us to pray with a sincere heart, with a heart of true love and
a heart of true worship. You know, true prayer is an attitude
of submission. And we submit our lives to our
Lord Jesus Christ, for he is not only our king, but he's also
our prophet and our priest, and he's our God. Philippians 4,
6 says, be careful for nothing. And that word careful can be
translated, don't threat, or don't have any anxiety over anything. We are to put our trust. and
our Lord. The verse goes on to say, but
in everything, this is why prayer is so important, says in everything
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. You know, in Psalm 34, six, the
Lord said, a poor man called upon him and he heard him and
he saved him. You know, we go to our Lord in
prayer. And why do we do that? We do
that to communicate with our Lord. You know, our Lord communicates
through His word. The whole volume of this book
is about our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's Him talking to us. And
when we talk to Him, we go to Him in prayer. But we do it with
a sincere heart. And we know that he hears us,
because God's word says, pray without ceasing. Prayer is something
that I hate to say it, but I do neglect it so often. But it's
only because of his flesh. I love his flesh to get in the
way. But I'm a mercy bagger. I'm a sinner. Psalm 31 just applies
not only to the Lord, the leg, but also to our Christ while
he was on the cross. If you will, let's look at Psalm
31 just for a second. And hold your place here. Psalm
31, verses 1 through 5. It says, in thee, O Lord, do
I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in thy righteousness. Bow down thy ear to me. Deliver
me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for a
house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they
have laid privately for me. For thou art my strength. Unto
thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord,
God of truth. Let's go back to Psalm 86. But He is always with us and
He always shares us. And why do we put all of our
trust in the Lord? Because we know that our Lord
is good. It is His goodness that leads
men to repentance. And all of His attributes are
so beautiful. He is so special in all of His
ways. What caught me on this chapter
here was verse five. For thou, Lord, art good to his
people. He's always good. And he not
only forgives, he's ready to forgive. And he's plenteous in
mercy unto all of them that love him. And then look at verse 15
of this chapter. So beautiful, talking about our
Lord. But thou, O Lord, are a God that
is full of compassion and graciousness and longsuffering and plenteous
in mercy and plenteous in truth. We put our trust in the Lord
because we know that our Lord, that he is good, he is forgiving,
and he is merciful. Verse one says, bow down thy
ear and hear me. Considering who he is and considering
who we are, we have to bow down, need to bow down in the dust
because that's who we are. That's who I am. I'm a sinner.
I am a sinner. And I need the Lord. I mean,
I really need him each and every day of my life. I need him to
be with me. Why? Because I sin every day. It's in me, it's who I am. But,
you know, there are many places, you know, that speak of this
in God's word. In 1 Peter, God's word says,
for the eyes of the Lord, you know, he always hears our prayers.
He says, the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous. And he
hears, and his ears are opened unto their prayers. He is so
good to his people. And he is always so ready to
forgive. And he is so plenteous in mercy.
And I'm a mercy bagger. Each and every day of my life,
I have to beg him for mercy. Who are the righteous? The righteous
are those who Christ died for on the cross. It was a particular
people. It was a chosen people. I was
saved by free will, by free will of a God the Father who chose
a people and placed them in Christ. I was saved by the works, but
only by the works of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at
Calvary when he shed his blood for me. I had nothing to offer
him. The only thing I've got to offer
him is to say, Lord, please have mercy upon me, a sinner. Psalm
52.1 says, the goodness of God endureth continuously. All of
God's elect know And that knowledge comes from God-given faith, that
when we pray with the sincerity of heart, that the Lord will
hear the prayers of his people. And Psalms 86, 1 here, it says,
bow down thy ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I am poor and I'm
needed. I'm poor, I'm a sinner, and I
need help. And there's only one place that
a sinner can get help, and that's from our Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, compared to God's greatness, we're not nothin'. You know,
a lot of men's too proud to say that, but I'm not, I'm nothin',
I'm a nobody. Compared to God, I'm a nobody.
But it says here in Isaiah 40, verse 21 or 22, It says, have you not known?
Have you not heard? Had it not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundation of the earth? It is he that set up upon the
circle of the earth, and the inhabitants there are as grasshoppers. You know, I'm a sinner, and I
need help. And I need it each and every
day. I'm poor, and I'm needy. I sin
every day. I don't brag about that. I'm
ashamed of it. I hate myself for that. I don't
want to be that way, but you know what? It's who I am. That's
who I am, and that's where Christ comes in at. I sin every day
of my life, but I know where to go to get help. There's only
one place, and I know where to go. If you've got your Bibles,
turn to Psalm 40. This was read yesterday over
David. It was such a blessing to me. Psalm 40. Look at verse 5. No, verse 6. This is a son. Christ here talking
to the Father. You know, He come into this world.
He was in this world for 33 and a half years. And He was Almighty
God in the flesh, and He'd come into this world to save sinners.
And what he went through, no man on this earth has ever went
and suffered the way that he had to suffer, the God man. He
says in verse six here of Psalm 40, sacrifices and offering thou
didst not desire. My ears hath thou opened. Burnt
offerings and sin offerings hast thou not required. Then said
I, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me.
I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, the law is written
within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, thou knowest. I have
not hid. thy righteousness within my heart.
I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not
concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great
congregation. Withhold not thou thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed
me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me. so that I am not able to look
up. There are more than the hairs
of my head, therefore my heart felleth me. Be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded
together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven
backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate
for a reward of their shame, but say unto me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. Just think about this,
Christ himself, he said, I am poor and needy. The Lord thanketh
upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer,
magnotarian, O my God. And then we say to the Lord,
we say to the Lord, look at verse one. I waited patiently for the
Lord, and he inclined unto me, and he heard me. I'm a worm. I'm a worm, I'm a worm of Jacob.
But he brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the murray clay.
He set my feet upon a rock and he established my goings. That
rock is Christ Jesus and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even
praising to our God. Many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. You know, that's why it's so
important. It's why it's so important for me, and I'm so guilty of
it, but I need to go to my God more in prayer. But how do you
attain Christ by communicating with one another, being with
one another, talking? And when we're praying, we're
talking to him. We're pouring our heart out to him. and he's
talked to us through his word. Blessed is the man that maketh
the Lord his trust, irrespective not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies. But look what the Lord's done
to us. O many, O Lord my God, are thou wonderful works which
thou hast done, and thou thoughts which are to us works. They cannot
be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and
speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. You know,
God the Father chose a people before the foundation of the
world and placed them in Christ, and His people have been in Christ.
from eternity's past to eternity's future, and they always will
be, and he'll always take care of. You know, our Lord is good. He is so ever ready to forgive. He is so plenteous in mercy,
and that's something that I personally want to remember every day, how
merciful the Lord is. He is so good to his people,
and he is so loving, and he is so wonderful. He is precious.
He is the pearl of great price. Let's go back to Psalm 86, if
you would. You know, we face a lot of hardships
in our life. And there have been a lot of
times, if you've been in this world at all, you're gonna face
trials and tribulations, and you're gonna face hardships,
and you're gonna face things that you're not gonna be able
to have control of. But we know who is absolute sovereign in
providence, and that's our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's who
we go to. And there's a lot of scripture
that brings us so much peace. You know, I can be tore all to
pieces and upset, and aggravated and get the word of God down
and get to reading certain scriptures and it blesses our hearts so
much, doesn't it? It's because Christ lives in
the heart of his people. It blesses our hearts so much.
In one verse, one of my favorites, and as Pastor Austin says, there's
many, many favorites in there, but one of my favorites is, and
this is something that he has put in us, we know And the only
reason we know this is because He put it in us. We know that
all things will work good to those that love God, to those
that have been called according to His purpose. We know that.
And the reason we know that is because He's put it in us to
know it. In verse one and two right here,
it says, bow down thy ear, O Lord. Hear me, O please hear me, for
I am poor and needy every day of my life. Preserve my soul,
for I am holy. O thou, my God, say thou servant,
but trusteth in thee. You know, preserve my soul. The
Lord is the giver of life, and he is the preserver of life.
And he is the giver of life to all men, but he gives spiritual
life to those that are in Christ. For those that Christ died for. Philippians 1, 6 says, being
confident of this very thing. Listen to this right here now.
Think about it. Being confident of this very
thing that which he hath begun in good work, he that hath begun
in good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ. Who
begin the good work? When it comes to salvation, it
begins with God and it ends with God. Man has nothing to do with
it. You know, next time a religious person comes up to me and he's
boasting, and I've had it happen, he boasts to me about, I've done
this for the Lord, I've done that for the Lord. I hear a man
one time say, I hadn't missed any school in five years. And
he just brag about this and that. And when he gets down, you know
what I'm gonna say to him? I'm gonna say, it's what we're telling. Now let me tell you what God
has done for me, because that's where it's at. I've done nothing
for him, but it's what he's done for us. You know, why will the
Lord preserve the souls that he placed in Christ before the
foundation of the world? Because he's good. Think about
that, he's good. I'm not good, there ain't no
man good. That person come up to him and said, good master,
and he said, why call me good, there's none good but God. And
that's just the way it is, there is, there's none good but God,
because the Lord is good. He's not only good, but he's
goodness itself. The Bible says that there is
none good except God, and that's why he's good, because he is
ready to what? He is ready to forgive. That's
why he's good. Why is he ready to forgive? Because
he's plenteous in mercy. I'll never forget that, he is.
He's good because he's ready to forgive and he's plenteous
in mercy. I thank God for him. Thank God
for that. But he is so plenteous in mercy
and to all of them that do what? Call upon him and put their what? Put their trust in him and him
only. Not our works, not what we say,
not what we do, But in him and in him only. You know, and we
call upon him. In verse one or two there, you
know, he says, he says again there, you know, he says, preserve
my soul for I am holy. You know, in the center margin
of my Bible, it says, he that is favored, you know, and in
Christ, we're holy. I am, I'm holy. I'm righteous. God's people are truly holy in
Christ, but it's in Christ only. It's not outside of Christ. It's
only in His Christ. We have Him. He imputed His righteousness
unto us. His perfect obedience to the
Father is our righteousness. That's where we get our righteousness,
in Christ and in Christ only. But it says, O thou my God, say
thou servant, but trusteth in thee. You know, we as God's chosen
people, we are truly mercy baggers. I say that a lot because I feel
that a lot. There's so many times I have
to say that, oh, God, please have mercy to me. Why did I say
that? Why did I think that? Why did
I do that? Because I'm a sinner. But thank
the Lord I've got someone to go to. Because the Bible plainly
says that Christ Jesus, you know, he came into the world to save
his people from their sins. And he done that. I thank him
for that. But we are mercy beggars, and
our Lord has always And we've got to always remember, the Lord
is always to give her. He's always to give her. And
we're never to, and we're always to take her. Because why? We
have nothing to give. We don't have nothing to give.
So he is always, he is always to give her. No, we have nothing to give him.
If the flesh is full of sin, then that's all we have. But
our Lord is good and ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy,
and to all them that call upon him. You know, in the book of
Micah, speaking of our Lord, he says, who is a God likened to
thee? that pardoned iniquity and passeth
by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage, he retaineth
not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy, he will
turn again, he will have compassion upon us, and he will subdue our
iniquities, And he will cast all our sins into the depths
of the sea. Oh, the goodness of God. Isn't
it good? Isn't he good? Isn't he wonderful?
You know, isn't it good to go to bed and think about him? Think
about what he's done for us, what he's doing for us, what
he's going to do for us. You know, I can't do nothing,
but he can do it all. I'm the one that's got to sin.
But I thank God. I thank God for everything that
he has done. He said, bow down. He said, bow
down, thou year, oh Lord. Oh, bow down, thou year, and
hear me. What a privilege it is to go to the Lord in prayer.
You know, that's something that I take for granted. You know,
we got a great high priest, and we know who he is. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. It says, where was that at? Over
in Hebrews 4, I believe. Chapter 4, verse 14. You see,
and then we have a great high priest passed into the heavens.
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hope for our profession. Here's
the good part. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
And all points have been tempted like as we are. Yet, he had no
sin in him at all. Therefore, because of him, we
can go to the throne of grace, both through the priest of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And I thank him for that. You
know what causes a believer to cry for mercy every day? It's
what I said, it's sin. It's who we are. And this flesh
is full of it. And only God can forgive sin.
And that is by the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 55, 17 said, the Bible says, evening and morning and
at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. daily. You know, I so often forget what
a privilege it is to be able to call upon my Lord for help.
And we look to Christ, and we keep looking to Christ. Lamentations
3.25 says, For the Lord is good, and to them that wait for Him
does the soul seek of Him. And we seek Him every day. Why
do we seek Him every day? We need him every day. We need
him every day of our lives. And speaking of God's leg, Psalm
36, when it says, oh, get thanks unto the Lord, for he is good,
for his mercy endureth how long? Forever. His mercy endureth forever. It says here in Psalm 86, 4,
rejoice for so are thy servants, for unto thee, Lord, Do I lift
up my soul? This is a direct plea to our
Lord to fill our inner being with joy and peace. You know,
as God's elect, we need to seek the Lord every day to guide our
steps and to give us the strength that we need to be overcomers. You know, when it comes to trials
and temptations, there's one preacher who wrote this. He said,
the Lord, God's speaking through his prophet Hosea, Plainly declare,
it is time to seek the Lord. It is imperative that God's people
always seek the Lord, for they must seek what? His love. I want His love, don't you all?
I want the love of God in my heart. I want to love Him. I
want to love Him more than I love Him. I want to love Him more
than anything in this world. His flesh gets in the way of
our times. I seek His mercy. I seek His
love, His grace. And they must seek his will and
his purpose. And then, as I said before, we
must seek his forgiveness every day of our lives. For that is
what many baggers do. And that's what baggers do. It says here in Psalms 86, we'll
read verse 1 through 4 if you don't care. It says, Psalm 86,
bow down thy ear, O Lord, and hear me. For I am poor and I
am needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. Hold thou my God to save thy
servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant.
For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. You know, bow down
thy ear, O Lord, and hear me. We need to do that each and every
day of our lives. You know, when time gets hard
for God's elect, regardless of what it is that we go through
in this life, as I said before, reading His word, we're going
to Him in prayer. And one thing that blesses my
heart is meditation. You know, you don't have to have
a Bible in your hand. You think about the verses that
mean something to you, you know, and you just meditate upon His
goodness. Meditate upon the many blessings that he gives us, you
know. For the Lord is good, as I said. And he is good and he's
so merciful. And I thank him for that. You
know, James 4, 8, think about this. You know, it says, draw
nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. You know, and God
relates us as his wife. And he is a father. We're the bride. And that is
in relation to our relationship on this earth. The closer that
a man and a wife is together, the more time they spend with
each other, the more time they communicate with each other,
the more they talk to each other, the closer they're going to be,
and the more they're going to love each other, and the more
they're going to trust each other. And it works the same way with
our Lord Jesus Christ. Because all of his people, we
want to grow closer. There's not a soul in here, I
guarantee you, there's not a soul in here that is satisfied with
how close they are to the Lord. Because I know I'm not. And I'd
love to be a lot closer. And there's no reason why I can't
be. He's there all the time, 24 hours a day. I'm closer to
the Lord every day. May we see His goodness and to
enter into what it means to really think about this. And we say
this so often, and it gets to where it just crosses our ears.
Our sins have been forgiven by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that will never, ever change. As Romans 8 chapter 8 says, anything
that can take that away from us. I thank the Lord for him. I hope that's been a blessing
to some.