Thank you both. Turn with me if you would back
to Psalm 56. Psalm 56, I pray, I sincerely
pray this might be a comfort to anybody who needs comfort. The middle of verse eight says, put thou my tears into thy bottle." Put thou my tears into thy bottle. David said, Lord, all of these
tears that I'm crying, would you catch them and keep
them in your bottle? Tears are something that everybody
experiences. Everybody. It does not matter
if you're male or female. Doesn't matter if you're old
or young. Tears are something that every single person experiences. They are the result of sadness
and pain. David had many tears. Do you know how much crying David
did? Has that ever occurred to you?
David cried and cried and cried He said in Psalm 6, he said,
I am weary with my groaning. He was a man who spent his life
groaning. Inside, there was something in
him that just ate at him. And he said, I'm weary from it. I'm weary with my groaning. He said, all the night, I make
my bed to swim. I water my couch with my tears. And the truth of the matter is,
so do we. Sometimes they physically come out and sometimes they don't.
But we spend a lot of time in sorrow and in pain, don't we? We spend a lot, much of our life
is spent in sorrow and in pain. There's good reason for it. A
very good explanation for it. The beginning of verse 8 says, Thou tellest my wanderings. It's because of my wanderings. It's because of the things that
I do. And he said, you know what they are. Thou tellest my wanderings. You've revealed my sin to me. You've revealed to me Not only
that I'm a sinner, but you've revealed to me that you see it
all. Thou tellest my wanderings. Look with me over at Psalm 139. Psalm 139 verse 1 says, O Lord,
thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and my uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Once a man or a woman gets a
hold of his or her sin, Once that realization comes to a person,
that's a scary thought right there. That's a scary thought. He said, you know, my thoughts
are far off. You know, all my thoughts, every
single thought I have. He said in verse three, thou
compasses my path and my lying down and are acquainted with
all my ways. You know, everything I do. every single thing I do. His grace is amazing when we
enter into the fact that He knows every thought we think, He knows
everything we do, and He's still gracious to us. Verse 4 says,
There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O LORD, thou knowest
it all together. You know everything I say. Everything. whether it comes
out of the mouth or whether it just stays in the heart. You
know, everything I say, look with me at Psalm 69 Psalm 69
verse five. It says, O God, thou knowest
my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. You know all
my foolishness and every sin I commit, it's right laid out
in front of you. You know everything I do. That
brings sorrow. That brings pain. It brings tears. And we have to say with David,
Lord, my sin is ever before me. That's all we can say. My sin
is ever before me. My sin is ever before you. We
know that we see that we acknowledge that and we're sorry. That's
all we can say. We're sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Our tears are tears
of sorrow. David constantly said in the
Psalms, he said, Lord, I'm crying because I feel so far from you. I feel so far from you. I would love to draw near, but
I feel like I can't. I just feel so far. In Psalm 42, he said, my tears
have been my meat day and night. I'm so, so torn up. I can't even
eat. My tears have been my meat day
and night while they continually say unto me, and you tell me
if this is not so. He said, I have tears running
down my cheeks. They've been my meat day and
night while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? That's what our tears say to
us. Where is thy God? And David is
saying, Lord, would you take each one of those tears? Every single tear that's saying,
where is thy God? Would you comfort me with those? Would you catch each one of those
and put them in your bottle? Would you consider them? Would
you have pity on them? Would you remember them? And
then he says back in the text, if you go back to Psalm 56, he
says, I know you will. I know you will. Because the
end of verse eight says, are they not in that book? I know you'll remember them.
I know you'll think on them. I know you'll look on them. Are
they not in that book? Have you not written? every single
one of them down in your book. Look with me at Malachi chapter
3. Last book in the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 3. Verse 16, Then they that feared the LORD
spake often one to another, and the LORD hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before Him for them that feared the LORD and that thought
upon His name. David said, This is my comfort.
Every single tear has been recorded in your book. Every single tear. A book of remembrance was written. The Lord hearkened, the Lord
heard, and he wrote every single thing about his children down
in his book. And David said, that's my comfort.
That's all my comfort. Charles Spurgeon said, How condescending
is the Lord? Amazing that he would that he
would take the time to record a tear. My child cried. How condescending is the Lord? How exact his knowledge of us? You know, we think, well, does
he know that I'm in this position? Maybe he doesn't know. Maybe
I need to let him know. He knows. I don't think he knows. He knows. Spurgeon said, how generous his
estimations and how tender his regard. He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust. He remembers that. He has put
our tears in his bottle and he has written them down in his
book. Now as I was searching for scriptures
that talked about tears, I was making these references and looking
at them on the subject of tears, I ran across the story of that
man whose son was possessed with the devil and he brought his
son to the disciples and the disciples could not cast the
devil out of him. So the man brought his son to
the Lord. And the Lord said to him, if
you can believe, and he was telling him, faith is not of yourselves.
That's the gift of God. So he said, if you can believe
all things are possible to him that believeth. And it says straight
way. The father of the child cried
out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. He was desperate over his son,
taking him everywhere he could take him, took him to God's disciples.
And they couldn't cast him out and he took him to the Lord.
And the Lord looked at him and he said, if you can believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. And that man
broke down in tears and he cried, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Help thou mine unbelief. Now
this is what I pray will be a comfort to us tonight. This right here,
I pray this will strengthen our faith. I pray this will ease
our tears. I want us to enter into two things.
The first one is in Psalm 126. Psalm 126 verse 5 says, They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and
weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. For every soul that,
as verse 1 says right here in Psalm 126, has had his captivity
turned. The Lord turned again the captivity
of His people. And for every soul that has had
his captivity turned, every soul that, as verse 3 says, the Lord
hath done great things for. Every soul that bears the precious
seed of the Word of the Lord Himself, every one of them that
sows in tears shall reap in joy. Shall is one of my favorite words
in the Scripture. I have a whole bunch of favorite
words in the Scripture. Shall is at the top of my list.
Not might. He said shall. shall. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning." It's coming. It is coming. Now, I've read this to you before.
This is Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. And it's not from
the text we're in. It's from a different chapter,
Psalm 42, verse 9. And he's coming from the question
in that verse, why go I mourning? Weeping, crying. Why go I mourning? He said, canst thou answer this
believer? Canst thou find any reason why
thou art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy
anticipations? Who told thee that night would
never end in day? Who told thee that the sea of
circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left
but long leagues of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told thee
that the winner of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost,
from snow and ice and hail to deeper snow and yet more heavy
tempest of despair. Knowest thou not that day follows
night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed
to winter? Hope thou then, hope thou ever,
for God fails thee not. Dost thou not know that thy God
loves thee in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness
hidden, are as real as in day, and God's love is as true to
thee now as it was in thy brightest moments. No father chastens always. Thy Lord hates the rod as much
as thou dost, He only cares to use it for that reason which
should make thee willing to receive it, namely that it works thy
lasting good. Thou shalt yet climb Jacob's
ladder with the angels, and behold him who sits at the top of it,
thy covenant God. Thou shalt yet amidst the splendors
of eternity forget the trials of time, or only remember them
to bless the God who led thee through them and wrought thy
lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through
the furnace. Make the wilderness to blossom
like the rose, Cause the desert to ring with thine exalting joys,
for these light afflictions will soon be over. And then, forever
with the Lord, thy bliss shall never wane. Faint not, nor fear,
his arms are near. He changeth not, and thou art
dear. Only believe, and thou shalt
see that Christ is all in all to thee. in every single account
in the scripture. We could start at Genesis and
go through every account in the scripture. And we see how man
meant it for evil, but God meant it for good every single time. Every single time. The apostle
Paul and the apostle Jude They both said, He is the all wise
God. He is the all wise God. He has ordered everything that
concerns you and me both. to be carried out in the most
perfect way that it could possibly be carried out. Before the foundation
of the world, He ordered every single thing concerning us and
He ordered it to be carried out in the most perfect way it could
possibly be carried out. I heard this, you've heard this,
I'm going to repeat it, it's so good. If you knew the end
result, If you knew the end result of what God has you going through
right now, you would not change one circumstance in the situation. You wouldn't change one. I mean,
not one. If you knew, if you only knew. Paul said, every single thing
that happens is for the furtherance of the gospel. And what that
means is the salvation of a soul. Everything, all of God's people
are being ordered and moved and paths are crossing and things
are happening. And every step, the steps of
a good man are ordered for what? God's glory and the salvation
of his people. Every step is for the glory of
God to the child of God. Every single step. And if we
could see the end result, if God would reveal to us the end
result, we would not change one circumstance about the situation. Every situation has many circumstances. This one's not so bad. That one's
terrible. If we could see the end result, we wouldn't change
any of them. None of them. We'd see how perfect
it is. Every circumstance is full of
pain. Every circumstance Trying circumstance
is full of sorrow and they do produce many tears. They do. They produce many, many tears,
but God's children who sow in tears shall reap in joy. We have God's promise on it and
he cannot lie. He cannot lie. All right. Now
here's the second thing. Seeing this always eases a believer's
tears. This is the second thing I want
us to enter into. This always, always eases a believer's tears. Go with me to Hebrews chapter
five. Now David, like every other believer,
David knew what he was. He knew he was a sinner. He knew
he was a sinner. David, just like every other
believer, he knew that his sin was the cause of his tears. He knew that. He knew that it's
me, it's my sin that is the cause of my tears. And he knew that
his tears represented his one great need. Forgiveness from
his sin. I need mercy. Isn't that why
he was crying? Unto thee have I cried. Isn't
that why? I need mercy. I need mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee. This was his cry. This was his
cry. He said, Lord, this is my only
hope. This is our only hope. He said, would you put my tears
in your bottle? This is my only hope. Would you put my tears in your
bottle? Everything that my tears represent,
all of the sorrow, all the pain, all the grief over my sin. Would
you put my tears in your bottle? Would you write my tears in your
book? This is my request, Lord. This
is my cry. This is my plea. Would you please
write all of my tears, all the reasons for my tears in your
book? Would you take everything that
I have done Everything that I've done that has caused tears and
grief and sorrow. Would you take that upon yourself? My tears on your record. Would
you trade places? That's what he's asking. Lord,
would you trade places with me? Would you take upon yourself
what I deserve? And would you give me what you
deserve? I love in Revelation 20, it talks
about everything that everybody did was written down. It was
all recorded, the entire world. And it finally says, they stand
before the great judge of heaven and earth, and it finally says,
and the books were open. And there's David's cry, his
cry unto God, and the books were open. And David said, guess what?
My tears were written in his book. He did indeed put my tears in
His bottle. And He filled it all the way
to the brim. He filled it all the way up. Hebrews 5 verse 7
says, Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. Those right there are our tears
in His bottle. He made our tears His own. And it says, Who in the days
of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save
Him from death, and was heard in that He feared, though He
were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered.
And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. So what does that mean? What
does that mean? If he took our tears and put
them in his bottle, if he took our tears and wrote them in his
book, and then he offered them up through the things which he
suffered for us, what does that mean? Turn with me to Revelation
21. Revelation 21 verse 1 says, And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with them And they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God, and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." Now
here's the summary of the message. Here's the summary of the message.
Every person in this room is going to have their turn going
through a great trial. We may not be in one at the moment,
but we have either come out of one or we are heading into one. We get these little lulls. But
they come, and they come, and they come. And every person in
this room, every single person is going to have their turn.
And we take turns. And the Lord, He's so good in
that because we come out of one and then we help the next brother
or sister who's in. And then they help the next brother
or sister who's in. Every one of us is going to have
our turn going through a great trial. God promises that, in
the world you shall have tribulation. So where every one of us is going
to go through a great trial, and I know it's hard, so go ahead
and cry. That's the point. It's hard. Go ahead and cry. But just remember that every
single tear you shed is being put into His bottle. Every single
tear you shed is being written down in His book. And He is going
to see to it that every single tear you shed will reap joy. Every one of them. Just believe
Him on that. Just believe Him on that. When you are in the
middle of a trial, hope in that promise. Hope in that promise. You just trust in the Word of
that promise and that will get you through the trial. That's
all we have. That's all we have in the middle
of a trial is the promise of God Almighty. You just keep hoping
in that promise. He said if you can believe, if we can, He caused
it to be so. If we can, it's the proof that
every single tear is in His bottle. And that'll get us through the
trial. It'll ease our tears and it'll get us through. Lord, we
believe. Help thou our unbelief. Help
us. All right, Brother Dwight, you come and lead us in a closing
psalm.