Turn with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 86. Psalm 86, and let's read the first five
verses again. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear
me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. And if your Bible has a center
margin, you see that that translates one whom thou favorest. O thou my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. That means all the day. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Four, thou, Lord,
art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all
them that call upon thee. You know the story. of when Abraham
sent his servant to find a bride for Isaac, his son. Um, back
in Genesis, Abraham sent his servant to the land where he
was born to find a bride for Isaac. And it's a beautiful story
that that's a beautiful picture of how God, the father sins,
his servants, his messengers, his preachers. To go seek out
and by his spirit through his word, call the bride of Christ
to Christ. That servant providentially,
he was led right to Rebecca and to her family. He came in and
came to a well and called on the Lord and here came Rebecca. And that servant went to her
house and it says after the servant told his errand, told his message,
told what he was told to tell. Rebecca fell in love with Isaac
and she was willing to go back with this servant to Isaac to
marry him. Never physically seeing him,
just seeing Him by faith, just seeing a picture of Him, just
hearing about Him and coming to know something of Him through
this messenger. All that servant did was describe
Isaac to her. That's all he did. He went and
he just described Isaac to her. He just with words, painted a
picture of Isaac to her. And that's what I'd like for
us to do tonight. I'd like for us to, with words, with the word
of God, God's own word, I'd like for us to paint a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'd like for us to just with
our eyes of faith, see Him. That's what I want us to do. I want us to see Him. Now, the
reason I told you all that is because when I read this scripture,
I was searching for our message and reading the Word. When I
read this scripture, a thought entered my mind and it caused
me to think on some other scriptures. It caused me to search some other
scriptures. And this was so enjoyable to
me. And what I saw was a beautiful vision or picture, not vision,
but visual of our Lord. And I just wanna
show it to you. I just wanna show this to you,
all right? Now, this is what grabbed my attention initially.
Verse one, Psalm 86, verse one, David said, Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear
me. When I read that, this is the
visual that popped into my mind and my heart. God has an ear. When I read that, that's just
the thought that came into my mind. God has an ear. The Lord God, Jehovah, you see
right there in verse one, it says, bow down thine ear. Oh,
capital L capital O capital R capital D. The almighty Jehovah has an
ear. If the Holy spirit told David
to say, bow down thine ear. Oh Lord, hear me. Then it means
the high and Holy Jehovah has an ear to bow down and to hear. When that thought entered my
mind, I started thinking of other scriptures, different scriptures
that describe his features to us. Now just listen to these.
Let's see if we can, with our eyes of faith, see Him. Don't turn to any of these. Song
of Solomon 5 and Revelation 1 both describe His hair. He has hair. Psalm 33 verse 18 describes the
eye of the Lord which is continually on his people,
continually. Genesis 6 says, but Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. As he looked on Noah, grace. He has eyes. He has hair, he has eyes. Deuteronomy
8 verse 3 says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Last Sunday morning, we read
in Isaiah 40 where it said, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. He has a mouth. Psalm 18 verse 15 speaks of the
blast of the breath of his nostrils. He has a nose, hair, eyes, nose,
mouth, ears. Isaiah 50 says he hid not his
face from shame and spitting. It says he gave his cheeks to
them that plucked off the hair. He has a face. He has cheeks. He has a beard. Isaiah 50 says he gave his back
to the smiters. He has a back. Isaiah 9 says,
the government shall be upon his shoulder. He has shoulders. Last Sunday night in Isaiah 40
and also in Isaiah 52, we looked at his holy arm and his strong
hands. He has arms and he has hands. Isaiah 40 said, He will gather
the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, which literally
means His midst. It translates His lap. But it means the middle of His
body, the breastplate, we would say the chest. He has a chest. He said, David was a man after
his own heart. He has a heart. Revelation 19 verse 16 says he
has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written. He has legs. Song of Solomon says they look
like pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. And Nahum chapter 1 verse 3 says
that the clouds are the dust of his feet. He has feet, hair,
Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, shoulders, arms, hands, a back,
a chest, a heart, a lap, legs, feet. God is a man. God is a man. Now, can we enter into this?
God is a man. The one that we're going to spend
forever with where we're all here because we have fallen in
love with him. That's the reason we're here.
If you want to get to the heart of why we're here, it's because
we fallen in love with him. And we want to be with him wherever
he is. That's what happens when you
fall in love. You just want to be together. And we're here to
adore him. We're just here to be taken with
him. We're here to worship him. And this man that we're about
to leave this place and travel back to, And we're all willing
to go. Are you willing to go live forever
with this man? Yes, I am. This man who we're gonna live
with forever is a true man. God is a man. His name is Jesus Christ. A body, the body of a man. Was
prepared for him from eternity past. God dwells in the body. God, God does dwells in the body. You know, here, here, this is
what we look like. And it says, God said, let us
make man after our image. A body was prepared for him before
the foundation of the world. And the whole being of God dwells
in the person of a man. God is everywhere. The heavens
can't contain him. Nothing can contain him, but
God dwells in the person of a man. Can't explain that, but he does. That's who God is. And that's who he will be forever. Forever. After the Lord God,
Jehovah came for his people and bore the sin of his people and
suffered the judgment and the penalty for his people and died
for his people and was buried for his people and arose for
his people and ascended for his people. After that was all done.
After the disciples who were standing right there with him
in that last moment, when he ascended, after they watched
him vanish out of their sight, the angels said to those disciples,
this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come in light manner, as you have seen him go into heaven,
shall so come, this same man, Is the God who is coming back
for you, this same man coming back to get you to receive you
to himself. Now, knowing that will help us
enter in to who it is that we're worshiping, who it is that we're
adoring seeing this. spiritual, visual, this with
eyes of faith, seeing Him. It'll help us to enter into who
it is we're praying to. We're literally praying to Him. That means we're talking to Him.
That's what we do when we pray. We're just talking to Him. We're crying out to Him for help.
When we need help, we're crying out to Him, asking Him to help
us. crying out to our God, the man,
Jesus Christ, the Lord. That's who we're crying out to.
That's who David was crying out to. Now I'd like for us to see
that in the verses we just read. Let's read them one more time.
And let's see that right there in these verses. Number one,
verse number one, David said, bow down thine ear, O Lord, capital
L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Jehovah God almighty. He said, I'm crying to you. You're
the one I'm speaking to. I'm speaking to Jehovah. Bow
down thine ear. Oh Lord. Hear me for I am poor
and needy preserve my soul for I am holy. We've already pointed
out that that means one whom thou favorist. One whom you've
chosen to show favor to. In my flesh, I'm not holy. I'm
poor and needy. That's what David just said.
I'm poor, I'm a poor and needy sinner. That's all I am. But
I'm a sinner that you've chosen to show favor to. Verse two, he went on to say,
oh thou, my God. My God, my high and holy God,
save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me,
O Lord." Do you see that capital L, lowercase, O-R-D? Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant
for unto thee, O Lord, capital L, lowercase O-R-D, do I lift
up my soul. Now, who is he crying out to?
Well, he's crying out to Jehovah. He's crying out to God. He's
crying out to his savior. He said, save me. He's crying
out to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the reason why we
see this and emphasize this and love this is because where man
goes wrong is they don't glorify the Lord Jesus Christ for who
he is. They think he is less. They belittle
him. They reverence and they worship
in their minds, God, but Jesus Christ is down here with them,
helping them out a little bit. David said, Oh Lord Jesus Christ,
Jehovah God Almighty, I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. David said, my soul is in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, that's who I'm crying
to. That's who I'm begging to. And he said, this is the reason
why, verse five, he said, For thou Lord, capital L, lowercase
O-R-D, Lord Jesus Christ, for thou Lord are good and ready
to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon
thee. He said, that's why I'm crying.
That's the whole reason why I'm crying. That's why I'm asking
you to bow down your ear to me and to hear me. It's because
you, Lord, Lord, Jesus Christ, you are good. You are ready to forgive and you're plenteous in mercy.
unto all them that call upon thee. Now we had a moment there
to think about and to dwell on his outer characteristics. Okay. We're looking at him and we just
went through all those scriptures and just thought on for a minute,
his outer characteristics, what he looks like. Let's dwell for
a moment on his inner characteristics, what he is, what he is like for
and toward his people. David said for every soul that
calls upon him. And we know that no soul will
call upon him unless the soul is made to call upon him. That's
not a work that any sinful man is able to do. No man can come
except the father, which sent Christ draw the man. David knew
that just like every child of God knows that he knows what
he is. He said in Psalm 27, when you said, seek ye my face, that's
the moment my heart said unto you, thy face, Lord, will I seek.
So David knew that God is the one who starts the call and God
is the one who finishes the call. And the apostle Paul told us
that when God does this, He uses the means of declaring His Word
to accomplish it. That's how He does this. He uses
the means of preaching Christ, describing Christ to accomplish
this call. Romans 10 verse 13 says, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Sent by God. So the Lord God
is the one who starts and finishes this work for and in His people
of this calling. And who he does this for, it's
going to be evidenced in this way. They will call upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. They will, they will call upon
the name of the Lord. They will cry out. The Lord will
put them in a position. Some people know they need to,
and some people do it. And the Lord God will put them
in a position where they do it. They do it, they will cry out
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll see Him to be their only
hope. He will strip them of everything in them. He will reveal to them
all that they are and they will cry out for help. They will cry
out to Him. And David said, to all them who
do, to all them who call, he said in verse five, thou Lord
art good and ready to forgive and plenteous
in mercy." Good means gracious. It means giving. This man, our
God, who has hair and eyes and a nose and mouth and ears and
shoulders, and this man, this holy God man, is so giving. He is so giving. This is what
his character is. If you want to know what it's
going to be like to be in his presence and be with him and
interact with him, this is what the nature of our God is. Giving. He's giving. That's what he does. It's who he is and it's what
he does. He gives. For God so loved, he gave. He gave Himself. He gave His
head to the thorns. He gave His back to the spiders.
He gave His cheeks to the hands that ripped off His beard. He
gave His hands and His feet to the nails. He gave His side to
the spear. He gave His blood to His people. Every drop of that went to His
people so that He could forgive them and show mercy to them.
Thanks be unto God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our God. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. David said in verse five, Lord,
thou art good and ready to forgive. Our forgiveness came through
the gift of his blood. In Psalm 130, David said, in
my flesh, I'm just a wretched man. That's what he said. Out
of the depths, I'm crying unto you. I'm a wretched man who will
never be able to stand before you. If you mark iniquities,
who could stand? He said, but thank God there
is forgiveness with thee. And we say, thank God to that
because there may or may not be forgiveness with me. There is with him. You want to
know what he's like? We really want to know what the
character of this man is. He is a forgiver. We'll find forgiveness with him.
Forgiveness through the blood of the cross from that very place. While he was hanging there, he
cried, father, forgive them. He's a forgiver. He is a giver
and He is a forgiver. Ephesians 1 verse 7 says, In
the Lord Jesus Christ we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Because
He is so giving, He gave His blood And through that blood,
we have total forgiveness from our sin. And that forgiveness
is his mercy, that mercy that he's so plenteous in everlasting
mercy toward us. Verse five, David said, I'm crying
to you, my Lord, my God, because I'm a poor and needy center.
And he said, I'm begging you to preserve my soul and to save
me and to be merciful to me. And I'm putting all my trust
in you and I'm crying to you and I'm lifting up my soul to
you because, verse five, thou Lord art good and ready to forgive,
ready to pardon, quick to pardon. Right early, he kept saying.
And he said, you are plenteous in mercy. This is why I'm crying. So plenteous in mercy. Micah
7 verse 18 says, he delights to show mercy. He delights to
show mercy. David right here said, that's
who you are. And that's why I'm coming to
you. That's why I'm coming to you.
Seeing His outer characteristics and His inner characteristics
makes me want to go running to Him. It really does. It makes
me want to go running to Him, makes me want to be with Him,
and it makes me want to tell everybody I can, come see a man. Come see a man. Is not this the
Christ? Come see this man. Exodus 34
verse six says, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. That's who
he is. For that reason, we cry, Lord,
bow down thine ear and hear us. We're poor and needy and we're
crying to you. This is what he said, whoever
cries, Whoever calls, whoever asks, will receive. Whoever cries out, God be merciful
to me, I'm a sinner, will receive. Will receive mercy, that's who
he is.