Go with me to Psalm 13 again. Psalm 13. A brother read this
in my study last Wednesday night. And I believe every man who was
in my study was moved by it. I was especially moved by this
psalm, and I knew immediately that I wanted to bring a message
from it. This psalm made me feel sad. As it was being read, there's
only six verses, I immediately felt sad. It made me feel guilty. It really did. It made me ashamed. And then it made me hopeful. And it made me happy. And I walked
out of my office with great comfort and peace. It was truly a blessing
to me. It made me sad because I can
enter into this feeling with David. I can enter in to what
he is saying right here, so much. It made me sad for him. In the moment, I was thinking about
David, all right? This is the man after God's own heart. This
is the man who communed with the Lord, but he was just a man. And he lived his life in turmoil
and trouble. He's just a man, a man of like
passions as the rest of us. And he writes these inspired
words and he's feeling these inspired words. And I really
was sad for him and sad for me. It made me feel guilty because
I know that when I'm in this place right here, it's my fault. It's my fault. That's what I
was thinking, it's my fault. It's not that God has forgotten
me, it's that I've forgotten him. That's what it is. I have forgotten him. And it made me ashamed thinking,
shouldn't I know better by now? Shouldn't I be doing better by
now? I'm the pastor of this church. Verse one, David said, and all
of God's people will take their turn saying, this is true, if
you belong to God, if you're a child of God, if you're one
of his people, you will have your turn. Verse one says, how long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? God is all-knowing. He's all-knowing. It's not that he forgets his
people. They forget him. They get too
busy for him. We, we get too busy for him. I just don't have time for him
right now. Whether we come out and say that or not, that's what
happened. I just, I don't have time for him right now. So easily sidetracked from him,
so easily sidetracked from him and As a chastening for that,
he hides his face from us for a while. He hides his face from us for
a while. That happens to all of us. That happens to all of
God's people. That even happens to me. That even happens to me. Well,
Gabe, how can you forget God and get too busy for God and
get sidetracked from Him when it's your career to read His
Word all week and preach messages about Him? You know, it's amazing what sinful
flesh can do. It's amazing. Most of the time, God speaks
to you and blesses you in spite of me, not because of me. And I'm telling you the truth
right now. I'm telling you the truth of my heart. Most of the
time, God, if he does speak to you and if he does bless you,
it is in spite of me and not because of me. It's just so. Verse one says, how long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord? How long am I gonna have to be
left here in my miserable condition? Miserable condition, forever? Am I gonna be like this forever?
Am I gonna be this cold and this dead forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me? Not seeing Christ. If we have never seen him, we
don't understand what this is talking about. But if you have seen him, if
you've seen him with this heart, not seeing him, not having Him
in the front of our minds, not thinking on Him, not dwelling
on Him, not feeling a communion with Him, and not having heart
communication with Him. That is the most empty, cold,
dead feeling that a child of God can know. It is so dead. It is so empty. not seeing the light of his countenance. That is the darkest place. And you know you're in darkness
when you're there. You know you are in darkness
when you're there. You know that you're in a miserably
sinful state when you're there. When you're in darkness, misery,
and deadness, a lot of times, it's not that you don't care,
but you don't care enough. You can't do anything about it
because you're just still kind of okay to be where you are.
Do you know what I'm talking about? You know that if you could just
see him, it would truly see him, it would pull you out of that
state. But you don't have the power to see him. He's not at our beck and call.
He's just not. He reveals himself when he's
pleased to reveal himself. He reveals himself if he's pleased
to show himself to us again. So all we can do is call on him
and cry out to him and beg. That's all we can do. Verse one says, How long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? David said, how
long shall I take counsel in my soul? That's what gets us
into that position in the first place. That's where the problem
came from in the first place. We forget to get our counsel
from Him. Does anybody else do that besides
me? Do you forget to get your counsel from Him? You know the
first place this flesh wants to turn to? Google. What do you
think I ought to do? We forget to get our counsel
from him. We start taking counsel from our own selves, and the
counsel of our own souls can only lead us into darkness and
sin. If the counsel's coming from
right here, there's only one place we're going. Darkness and
sin. There is a way that seems right
to a man in his own eyes, but the end of that way is destruction
every time. Our Lord pulled us out of destruction,
but all he has to do is leave us to ourselves for just a minute,
and we will try to run right back into it. Verse one says, how long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? My enemy is me. My enemy is my
old man. The old, you know, there's, in
a child of God, there is an old man and there's a new man. That
new man has been created in Christ Jesus. That's the new man that
will live eternally. But that old man is the new man's
enemy, the old man of the flesh. My enemy is my own sin from this
old man. And it constantly feels like
he is being exalted over me. The new man. It constantly feels
like that. There's a constant war going
on inside me. Tell me, you who love the Lord
indeed, is it thus with you? There's a constant struggle that
goes on inside me, and I feel like I'm constantly losing the
battle to me. I can't beat me. It's gonna take
him to do that. I'm constantly being defeated
by me. Verse three says, consider and
hear me, oh Lord, my God. Lord, I claim you as my God,
my God. I don't claim you as my co-pilot,
I don't claim you as my helper, I don't claim you, I claim you
as my God. I acknowledge you to be my God,
not just the God, but my God. I belong to you. I'm your property. You can do with me whatever you
want to do with me. Just like David said in Psalm
51, he said, I acknowledge my transgression. My sin is ever
before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Me. When you judge me, you can
do whatever you want to do with me. You have that right. You're my God. You're my God. Verse three, he said, consider
and hear me, oh Lord, my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. Let me see Christ. Can anybody
enter into the sleep of death? Just let me see Christ. Life
without Christ is darkness. Life without Christ is death.
Life without Christ is no life at all. It's no life at all. Verse three, consider and hear
me, O Lord, my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death, lest mine enemies say I have prevailed
against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. This is, even in this state where
I am, this is what I have to hold on to. Even though I am
where I am, even though I'm still here, even though I'm crying,
even though I'm at the bottom of the pit, this is what I have
to hold on to. In spite of all this, I still
have hope in your mercy. I have hope in your mercy. I don't ever appreciate mercy
more than when I'm in a place where I know that's the only
thing I have. It's all I have. I constantly, you know, our Lord
loves us in Christ. He is pleased with us in Christ.
You know, he is our friend in Christ. I don't even like me. Why would he like me? I don't
blame him. But he chose to have mercy. He
chose to show mercy. He chose to redeem. David said,
because you've made it clear that my salvation is not dependent
on me. Because salvation is in your
work and not in my works. Because salvation is in your
righteousness and not in my righteousness. Because salvation is in your
faithfulness and not my faithfulness. Because the blood of your cross
bought me. You paid for me. You secured
me. You redeemed me back to God. Because you saved me and I didn't
save myself. I'm rejoicing. That's what I
have to rejoice in. In spite of what I am, in spite
of where I am, in myself, in my flesh, I'm rejoicing in you.
I'm rejoicing in your salvation. That's what God's people have
to hope in at all times, no matter what condition they're in in
the flesh. they can rejoice in his salvation,
they can rejoice in his mercy. See if you can find Ezra chapter
nine, page 662, it's before the Psalms, before Job, page 662
in my Bible. Ezra 9 verse 1. Now when these things were done,
the priest came to me saying, the people of Israel and the
priest and the Levites have not separated themselves from the
people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of
the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites,
the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and
for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves
with the people of those lands. Yea, the hand of the princes
and rulers hath been chief in this trespass. Ezra said, when
I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle and plucked
off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astonished. Then were assembled unto me every
one that trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because
of the transgression of those that had been carried away. And
I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening
sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness and having rent my
garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out
my hands unto the Lord my God and said, oh my God, I am ashamed
and blushed to lift up my face to thee, my God. For our iniquities are increased
over our head And our trespass is grown up to the heavens. Since the days of our fathers
have we been in a great trespass unto this day. And for our iniquities
have we, our kings, and our priests been delivered into the hand
of the kings of the lands. To the sword, to captivity, and
to a spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day. And now for a little space, grace
hath been showed from the Lord our God to leave us a remnant
to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place that our God
may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage. For we were bondmen, yet our
God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended mercy
unto us in the sight of the kings of Persia to give us a reviving,
to set up the house of our God, and to repair the desolations
thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. He said, in spite of what we
are, in spite of what we've done, your mercy and your salvation
has lightened our eyes. Your faithfulness to us has not
left us here where we deserve to stay. You have sent a reviving. You have given us a rejoicing. And aren't we so grateful when
the Lord does that? Aren't we so thankful when he
turns the light on again, when he turns the heart on again? You've given us a reviving in
the midst of our bondage, in spite of our bondage. Lord, if we can just see your
mercy and see your salvation, we will rejoice. Knowing that
in spite of us, you have dealt bountifully with us. In spite
of us, you've dealt so bountifully with us. That's how David ended
Psalm 13. And that's going to be our end. The way that he ended Psalm 13,
that's going to be the end for every child of God. Go back to
Psalm 13. No matter what dark, lonely,
sad, guilty, ashamed place that we get ourselves into, our Lord
will bring us back. If we belong to Him, He will
bring us back to rejoicing in Him. He'll bring us back to rejoicing
in His mercy. He'll bring us back to rejoicing
in His salvation every time. Psalm 13, verse 5. He said, but I have trusted in
thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. I know it will. I will sing unto
the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. That's an
amazing realization. It's an amazing remembrance in
spite of me. And I do mean in spite of me. Think of me what you want to.
You can think of me better than I am if you want to. I'm not,
I'm not better. In spite of me, in spite of,
you know, God's people say, in spite of where I find myself
to be in this moment, the Lord has dealt bountifully with me.
Just the fact that he's causing me to cry out to him for mercy,
he could leave me in a place where I had no awareness and
no heart to even cry out for mercy. No desire to be brought
back to him. He's dealt bountifully with me
and in that I rejoice. I will sing unto him and rejoice. I love this article right here
that Brother Bruce Crabtree wrote. He wrote this from This particular
verse of scripture, this is 1 Timothy 2.5, it says, for there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ
Jesus. One God, one mediator between
God and sinful men, the man, Christ Jesus. All right, this
is what he said. I must approach unto God by Christ Jesus because I'm unholy. God must approach unto me by
Christ Jesus because he is holy. In Christ Jesus, I, a poor sinner,
and God, a holy and heavenly Father, we have an honest and sincere
communion one with another. His holiness is not violated
and my sin is not imputed, but all is washed away. Oh, sweet
fellowship. Oh, holy union. Oh, easy walk. Oh, joyous friendship. Oh, happy day. Oh, happy me. That's the place that every child
of God will be brought to in the end. Our Lord will not leave
his people there. Verse six says, I will sing unto
the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. Oh, happy
me. Maybe.