Go with me to Psalm 116 again. I was searching for tonight's
message. And I came across this Psalm.
And I was blessed by it and knew I wanted to bring a message from
it. But I immediately realized, I don't know if you noticed this
as we read through it, but there are so many glorious things in
here. So many glorious verses and statements
in here that caught my eye and caught my attention. I knew it was too much for one
message. I knew I had to focus on one of them and I couldn't
decide which one. So I believe the Lord has led
me to treat this psalm like a book of the Bible. I want to go through
it like we would a book of the Bible. To finish, I believe we're
gonna have maybe four or five messages from this psalm, a little
series from this psalm, and I pray this will be a blessing. I've
just so enjoyed reading through this and studying this. Let's
read the first five verses again. I love the Lord because he hath
heard my voice, and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed
me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. Gracious, righteous, and merciful. David said, that's why I love
the Lord. That's the reason why I love
my Lord. You know, usually in these Psalms,
David is writing from a place of distress. Usually, you notice
that about the Psalms? Usually he's writing from a place
of distress. And in doing that, he represents
all of God's people because that's where we constantly are. That's
where we constantly are, whether we are in physical distress or
not. Sometimes we're in physical distress. Sometimes we're not. Sometimes
we're just not. Things are fine. But whether
we're in physical distress or not, we are always in spiritual
distress. God's people are always in spiritual
distress. because of our sin. Our sin keeps us down. Our sin keeps us in need. It does. It keeps us in need.
Our sin keeps us looking to Christ. Our sin keeps us looking to Christ. You know that. I was thinking about the subject
of the task of preaching last weekend
while I was at the conference. I was just thinking about it
in my own mind. And it really occurred to me that if a man
is not a sinner, he can't preach. That's a big statement. That's
just so. If a man is not a sinner, He
can't preach. That is one of, and I do mean
one of, I mean, there is the big one and many big ones, but
that is one of the most obvious things that's missing in false
religion. And you know, Christ being number
one. But there are a lot of things.
If you listen to a man, even if he has a little bit of his
doctrine right, and you just can't put your finger on, what's
the deal here? That is the number one thing
that's missing in false religion. There are no sinners. There's no real sin involved
in it. There's a man standing in a pulpit
who does not really believe he's a sinner. Preaching to people
who do not really believe they are sinners. And when you have that, you have
nothing. When you have that, you have
nothing. You are not coming from a place of truth. If a man say
he has no sin, he is a liar and the truth is not in him. You're
not coming from a place of truth. You're not coming from a place
of need. The gospel message is built on
need. You're not coming with a real
message of help for anybody. Before a man can preach, he has
to be a sinner. Well, let's see, is the Lord
going to raise up this man to preach? Well, first, let's find
out if he's a sinner. If he's not a real sinner, no,
he's not really going to preach. No. If he's not a beggar himself,
he has nothing to say to other beggars. And that's just true. That is just so, so true. A man
cannot truly bring a message of comfort if he has not been
comforted by the message himself. The comfort of God's word is
for sinners. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people
by telling them that their sin is pardoned. A man who has never known the
experience of being pardoned for his own sin by the suffering
and bloody death of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, cannot
preach pardon for sin by the suffering and bloody death of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A man cannot preach what he hasn't
experienced. David knew the experience of
what it was to be a sinner. You know, let me say something
that I'm not qualified yet to say. Give me about 20 years and
I'll be maybe qualified to say this. I'm on to something here. There's something to this. David knew the experience of
what it was to be a sinner. I want to keep myself, you know,
I can't keep myself from sin, but I wish I could. I want to.
I want to keep all of you from sin. I want to keep my family
from sin, my children from sin. But it's not a possibility. We're all going to sin. And the depth that the Lord allows
us to go is his business. But we are all sinners and he's
going to let us sin. And it's so painful when he does.
But without that sin, we cannot know salvation. We just can't
know salvation. We can't enter in to the message
of salvation from sin if we've never been a sinner. David knew the experience of
what it was to be a sinner. Verse three, he said, the sorrows
of death compassed me and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow because
of his sin. Oh, how David cried. Think about
everything that happened to him because of his sin. He lost children. David cried constantly, I'm a
sinner. I'm such a sinner before you. I'm such a sinner before you.
Turn over to Psalm 51. We love this Psalm so much we
can practically just quote it, but let's read it. Psalm 51. Look at the heading just under
the title of Psalm 51. It says, to the chief musician,
a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after
he had gone into Bathsheba. You remember what Nathan said
to him? Thou art the man. He told him this story of a rich
man who had a whole flock of sheep, and he had a visitor come
stay with him for the night, and he took his neighbor's one
little ewe lamb and dressed it and fed his visitor with that
man's one little lamb. And David said, who is he? He's
done. And Nathan said, you're the man.
You're the man. You're exposed, God has seen
it all. You've committed adultery, you've
committed murder, you've lied about it, you've tried to cover
it up. It's all exposed. Verse one, David cried, have
mercy upon me, oh God. According to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression. He said, Lord, I am pleading
blood. I'm going straight to blood. I'm pleading grace and mercy
in your blood. That's the kind of sinner I am.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions,
wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin in
your blood. in your own righteous, perfect,
spotless, sinless, covering, atoning, washing blood. Verse three, for I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. I acknowledge the distress I'm
in. I acknowledge the sorrows of
death and the pains of hell that have gotten hold on me. because of my sin. Verse four,
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. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. He's saying, Lord, I beseech
thee, deliver me. Deliver me. I call upon you with
the voice of my supplications. Deliver me. Please deliver me. David said, that's what I cried.
And he said, I meant it in the depths of my soul. And guess
what? He heard me. He inclined his ear to me and
he delivered my soul. That's what he did for me. Look
at Psalm 34. Psalm 34 verse 1, I will bless
the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord. And he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him,
all my fears did. Every fear I had, they looked
unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of
all his troubles. David is saying, do you realize
what this means? Do we realize what this means?
This means gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is
merciful. He's merciful, so merciful. Oh, how merciful. Go back to
Psalm 116. Verse one says, I love the Lord
because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because
he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed
me and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. Gracious is the Lord. That word
gracious means full of pity. One who is willing to show favor. One who is willing to stoop down
in kindness. That's a good thing. That's a
good thing. A sinner who has experienced
the lowness of his sin and the great condescending kindness
and favor of God will say with conviction and can say honestly
from the heart, gracious is the Lord. Gracious is the Lord. He's so gracious. He's so gracious. We have such a gracious God.
Don't you love gracious people? We use that word down here, you
know, for, I don't, I guess maybe when somebody is a really good
host, you know, we have a woman is a really good at hosting.
You say, she's so gracious, you know, well, that's, he's our
host. He prepares the meal. He's provided
all he has welcomed in. He's so gracious. Gracious is our Lord and righteous. That means just, lawful and correct. Perfect in all His ways. Perfect
in all His dealings with us. So perfect. So gracious. So perfect. Yea, our God is merciful. He is so full of mercy. For all of eternity we're going
to be Thankful for mercy. So thankful for mercy. We're
going to be so thankful that the Lord, our God is a merciful
God. That particular word, you know,
you look up these words and sometimes the same word will mean different
things in different places. This particular word mercy means
love. It means compassion. It means
affection. The Lord our God is love. The Lord our God is compassion.
The Lord our God is affection. How did our gracious, righteous
Lord show his love and affection for us? How did he show his love
and compassion and affection for us? How did he do it? Here's
how he did it. He left glory and he came down here to this
earth and he entered into our sin. He entered into our sin with
us. He entered into our sin for us. He took the guilt and the blame
and the shame from us and made all of our sin his own. All of our sin his own. Do you
ever look back on your sin and say, Oh, I wish I hadn't done
that. You ever do that? Oh, I wish
I hadn't done that. In Christ, you didn't. I can't fully get a hold of that,
but I believe it. In Christ, you didn't. And the
reason is because He made it to be His own. He made it to
be His own. He took that sin for His own.
He stood in our place. So much so, God the Father looked
at Him and said, Thou art the man. You're the man. From the cross of Calvary, in
my place, in your place, our Lord Jesus Christ cried, verse
three, the sorrows of death compassed me. These are the words of our
Lord. The sorrows of death compassed
me and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Don't leave
my soul in hell. Don't leave my soul here in hell. And our Lord Jesus Christ says
in the glorious word of his gospel, he didn't. He didn't. By my sacrifice, he didn't. In my blood, he didn't. Verse
five, he says, gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our
God is merciful. For Christ's sake, he's merciful. Do you know what that will make
a sinner say if a sinner ever really gets a hold of that? You
know what he'll say? I love the Lord. By God's grace,
I love the Lord. The Apostle Paul said, If any
man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed when the Lord
returns. I believe it was Brother Todd
who said, How in this world could you not? How could you not? How could I not? Well, I'm such
a sinner. If there's a way, there's a will. That thanks be to God in Christ.
There's a new creature, a new creature, a new creation that
sins not. He is altogether lovely. And
sinners will see that to be so. Verse one says, I love the Lord
because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because
he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon
him as long as I live." Forever and ever. That's why I love him. John Newton
said, "'Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no?" Am
I His or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? For me personally, that's probably
the sin I hate the most. Dullness, lifelessness to Christ
and to His Spirit and to His Word, to His worship. If I love,
why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard His name. Could my heart so hard remain?
Prayer, a task and burden prove. Every trifle out there give me
pain. If I knew a Savior's love, When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I deem myself a child? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You who love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? Yet I mourn my stubborn will,
find my sin a grief and thrall. Should I grieve at what I feel
if I did not love at all? This can only come from the heart
of a sinner. Could I joy his saints to meet? Choose the ways I once abhorred? Find at times the promise sweet
if I did not love the Lord? Lord, you decide this doubtful
case. Thou who art the people's son,
since upon thy work of grace, if indeed it be begun, let me
love thee more and more. If I love it all, I pray. If
I have not loved before, help me to begin today. Help me to
begin right now. Peter knew something about that.
The Lord asked him three times, do you love me, Peter? Do you
love me? And as the center that he was
with his head hung low in shame, he said, I do, Lord. I do. I know I don't show it as I ought
to. But I do. The Apostle John referred
to himself as the one whom the Lord loved. We love him only
because he first loved us, but because he first loved us, we
love him. We love him. In the new man that
Christ has created in us, we can say with absolute conviction. The old man has a hard time dogmatically
reading verse one, but in Christ, the new creature, that new man
created in him can say with absolute conviction, I love the Lord. Because he hath heard my voice
and my supplications, because he hath inclined his ear unto
me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows
of death compassed me and the pains of hell got hold upon me.
I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. Amen. Gracious, righteous, and
merciful. Amen.