I'm back to Psalm 119. Let's start in verse 153. The title
of the message, Consider My Affliction. This is a, in this Psalm, David
He prays that God would consider, look upon, take notice of his
affliction. And the word affliction means
great pain or agony. It's not some light trial. He's talking about something
that's going on with him here that's a real affliction to him. He's asking God to look upon
his affliction. Prayer is such a priceless, blood-bought
privilege. We have a blood-bought right
to go into the presence of God and lay before the throne of
grace all our trouble if we could really if the lord
would just impress upon us that we can actually go into god's
presence god the one who said let there be life the one who
created all things the lord jesus christ who is god in the flesh
god the father god the son god the holy spirit we can actually
truly go into his presence and lay our burdens down who else could do that nobody
nobody but those who believe god could go into his presence
unbelievers are not going to go into his presence it's those
who believe they are allowed into his presence Through the
blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we can go into
the presence of God, go to that throne of grace, and cast all
our care upon Almighty God, our Father. That statement right
there, as I wrote that down, I kept thinking of it over and
over. Our Father. Our father, our real father is
God. All of our fleshly relationships
are going to be dissolved. My father, my earthly father
is gone. That relationship that I have
with him will never be, will never, will never be again. It's
gone. It's dissolved. And my relationship
to my sons one day will be dissolved. But we have the same Father.
We have the same Father. God is our Father. And to have
such a privilege is beyond comprehension. It is beyond my ability to put
it into words, to pray. Oftentimes, some of you have
asked me to pray for yourselves or pray for somebody. That's
serious business. But that's the best thing to
do, pray. It's the best thing you can do. Now he says here,
Psalm 153, Psalm 119. Consider, look upon, take notice
of my affliction, singular, there's a singular situation going on
here. And deliver me, for I do not
forget thy law. Our Lord, our Lord was a man
under heavy afflictions. He knew this. This can apply
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is written in Isaiah 69, nine
in all their affliction. He was afflicted. He was afflicted. Isaiah 53 verse
seven, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, painfully afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.
Our high priest knows what we are going through. He came into
this world and took part with us. He was afflicted in a way
that you and I will not be afflicted. He was afflicted under the wrath
of God. I don't have to endure that. He took that away. He took it away. And our high
priest knows what we're going through. In fact, it says in
Hebrews that he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He's touched with. And the one
situation that comes to my mind is Martha and Mary at the death
of Lazarus. And it says, Jesus wept. He wept. He felt, he felt it.
He felt their pain. Matthew Henry said he felt everything
he took away. He knows our affliction and all
God's children are afflicted. Even God's only begotten son. None of us are without it. They
are afflicted by indwelling sin. Do you know what that's like?
Do you know what that is? to be afflicted by that indwelling
sin, that old sin nature, to the point where you, like Job
said, I abhor myself. I'm sick of myself. I could throw
up on myself. There is a part of me that I
can say this, I hate myself. I hate those sinful thoughts
I have. the sinful impulses i have and you have we hate them don't
we we hate them we are afflicted by the world and afflicted by satan but in
all our afflictions the lord delivers us out of them all because
it says in psalm 34 19 many are the afflictions of the righteous
but the lord delivers him out of them all He always will. He will always deliver His children
out of affliction. That's a promise. That's a promise. Lay hold of that. Put that on
the refrigerator. Whatever affliction you're going
through or you shall go through, because fear not, you will. Put that on the refrigerator.
The Lord delivers them out of them all. And the best way to
handle affliction is to pray and wait. Pray and wait, pray
and wait. You know, it's not so, it's not
so hard to wait when you realize who you're waiting on. The Lord. James 5, 13, is any among you
afflicted? Let him pray. Let him pray. Don't think little
of prayer. The fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. Elijah prayed that it wouldn't
rain, and guess what? It didn't rain. For what was
it, three years? He prayed again, and it rained. It rained. So the best way to handle affliction
is to pray, not complain. And that's, I'm talking to me.
Not complain, but pray. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. And wait on Him. You know, this
is one of the things that Henry, when I first heard the gospel,
I was writing him letters almost every week. And I'd go out to
the mailbox, I mean, it was like Christmas. I was looking for
the letter, because he never failed to write me back. I still
got those letters. But one of the things he would
say is, Wait on the Lord. Look over in Psalm 27. Look in verse 14. This is one
of them he wrote to me. Wait on the Lord. BE OF GOOD
COURAGE, AND HE SHALL STRENGTHEN THINE HEART. WAIT, I SAY, ON
THE LORD. PRAY AND WAIT. Look over in Psalm
37. A few pages over. In Psalm 37, look in verse 34. WAIT ON THE LORD and keep his
way keep to the gospel and he shall exalt thee to inherit the
land when the wicked are cut off you'll see it but you won't
be cut off and then one more in the Proverbs chapter 20 Proverbs
20 in verse 22 say not thou I will recompense
evil of but he says it but wait on the Lord he shall save thee
I Tell you one of the things that we We are short on his weight
patience. What do you mean? Wait on the
Lord and Solomon says he shall save you out of your affliction
out of your trouble Just pray and wait on him cast your burden
there and wait on him That takes faith to do that,
doesn't it? It takes faith to do that. Impatience is unbelief. Spurgeon said this in reference
to Consider My Affliction. Look into my grief and see whether
I do not need to be delivered. from my sorrowful condition,
judge as to the proper method and time for my rescue. He's
not telling God. He didn't say, deliver me. He
didn't say, I'm afflicted, deliver me. He said, Lord, take notice
of it, consider it, like you and I would say, ponder it and
see if it's worthy of your notice and deliver me as you will. Isn't
that submission? What's submission? Now that's
faith. That's faith. Not telling God
how to do His business, but taking our burden to the Lord and waiting
on Him to do as He will. And deliver me, save me, rescue
me from my affliction, because I'm going to drown in it. You
know, Job made reference to that. It's just going to drown me. Paraphrasing. You know, our Lord depended on
His Heavenly Father to deliver Him. Should we not depend on
Him to deliver us? You know, the warfare we are
in is not carnal, fleshly warfare. It's a spiritual warfare. We can't see the enemy. Not really.
Not really. It's invisible. It's not Emano,
Emano, man against man. If that were so, we'd probably
win the battle. At least some of them. But it's a spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6, 12. We wrestle,
that word wrestle there means fight. We fight not against flesh
and blood. Paul said, I have fought a good
what? Fight. I've kept the faith. I've fought a good fight. Paul
was saying this has been a fight. It's been a fight. Some of you may have been in
a fight before, but a fight is a fight. You're fighting for
your life. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. That's what we are wrestling
against. That's what the church is wrestling against. We're not wrestling against Democrats
and Republicans. We're not wrestling against that.
We're wrestling against principalities and powers in high places. But he says here, after saying
that, he says, for I do not forget. And that word forget means oblivious
to. You know, sometimes we can get
in such a skirmish that we can become oblivious to God's words
and God's promises, can't we? We can forget the promises of
God. We can let them just go by. We get so taken up with something,
a situation. But he says, I do not, in all
this, in all the, in my affliction, in my affliction, in my pain,
in whatever was going on with him, in my pain, I do not forget
thy law, thy word. You know, the world for the most
part is oblivious to the Word of God. They don't know the Word
of God. Their actions are not in line
with God's Word. But not so the believer. The
believer walks in the light of God's Word. You read God's Word. You who believe, you read God's
Word, and you are directed by God's Word, and you walk in the
light of God's Word. But the world doesn't. The world doesn't. It doesn't
even open the book. And if it does, it gets it wrong. They rest the scripture to their
own destruction. Now he makes three spiritual requests in verse
154. The first thing he says is plead.
Plead. One writer says, fight my fight.
What he's saying, fight my fight. This is too big for me. Because
it's a spiritual warfare. When we realize that, we say,
Lord, fight the fight. Fight my fight. Plead my cause. You know, that's how we are to
pray about everything in every situation. We leave it to the
Lord. You know, Johnny was reading over in 1 Peter 2, and I marked
this. Let me see if I can find it. I marked it. Listen to this. This is Peter in writing in 1
Peter 2. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who when He was revived, revived not again. When He suffered,
He threatened not, but committed Himself. And over in the margin
it says, He committed His cause. He committed his cause to him
that judges righteously. And David said, plead my cause.
What he's doing, he's committing his cause to God. Whatever it
is he suffered, and whatever it is we suffer, whatever it
is we go through, we plead our cause. We want God to plead our
cause. We leave it with him. We leave it with his judgment,
because it's a righteous judgment. But plead my cause and deliver
me, quicken me according to thy word. And what he's saying here,
be my advocate, listen, and redeemer. You see in verse 153, when he
says, deliver me, rescue me, save me. Here in this verse,
deliver means redeem. He's speaking to his redeemer,
redeem me. Bring me back. Rescue me. Redeem
me. I'm yours. You purchased me. Recover me is one of the things
that it means. But plead my, be my advocate,
is what he's saying. Be my advocate. Act on my behalf. You know, we need an advocate,
don't we? We need an advocate to stand
before God and men on our behalf. First, to stand before God. We
need one to stand between us and God. Aren't you glad you
know that? I'm glad I know that. I need
an advocate. Between me and God, I need one
to plead for my deliverance. And what does he plead? What
does the advocate plead? But he's a fine man, he made
a mistake. You know, this is his first offense. He pleads his righteousness,
his blood, his perfection. That's what he pleads. The justice
of God calls for my death. Jesus Christ stands there and
says, here it is. It calls for my blood. The Lord Jesus Christ
says, here it is, my substitute. My substitute. He's my advocate. He represents me. He represents
all of God's children. Deliver us from sin. Deliver
us from justice. You know justice is real? You
know what amazes me? This is just to me astounding.
That people, most of you, most of you, you try to obey the speed
limit. I had to say most. You try to
obey the speed limit, but you know, the world out there, you
know, they basically try to obey the speed limit, but they have
no fear of God. They have no fear of God's law.
They have more fear. They have more fear of getting
caught speeding than they do of breaking God's law. You're
not going to go to hell for breaking the speed limit. But you will
for breaking God's law. That's why I need an advocate.
I need an advocate who is my redeemer. My advocate is my redeemer. That's what he means delivered.
Play my cause as an advocate and be my redeemer that I need. I need him. I need his righteousness, his
blood, his person. I need him. And God the Father has provided
such a person in His Son, Jesus Christ. He provided that for
us. Court-appointed. Jesus Christ is a court-appointed
advocate, appointed by God the Father. Because you and I couldn't
afford one on that level. Money can't buy that one. Money
can't buy that one. But God the Father appointed
His Son to be our advocate and to stand between ourselves and
God we have a core a heavenly court-appointed advocate and
God did that God did it and deliver me redeem me or perform
the part of the near kinsman that's what he said perform the
part of a near kinsman and how's that by representing me before
God as my substitute my advocate and my Redeemer that's what he
means by deliver me then he says quicken me you know three times
in this portion of scripture he said quicken me nine times
i think in psalm 119 he's used this word quicken me quicken
me according to thy word he never goes outside the word of god
never goes outside three times David asked to be quick. He knew
he needed to be quick, revived. That's the reason I wanted to
sing that song. Revive me, Lord, revive me. You know, I could
pray that every day. That's the first thing I could
pray every morning. Lord, revive me this day. Give me life. He's not talking
here about give me spiritual life. He has spiritual life.
But he's saying, make me lively in your service. lively in prayer,
not like the Pharisees who prayed long prayers to be heard, but
lively in prayer, lively in worship, lively in service, put my heart
into it. Not just to come here because
it's Thursday night or on a Sunday and this is what we do and my
heart's not in it, The Lord said it was fair your
heart you praise me with your lips, but you're what your hearts
far from me far far away Your hearts not in this That's why
he says quicken me he knew he needed quickened to be lively
in reading yeah What that would hit me lively in reading? To
read the Word of God with with some excitement with some excitement
with some great interest in learning from God. To understand what
you're reading, like Philip said to that eunuch, do you understand
what you read? Make me lively in reading, in
prayer, in service. David knew that the only one
who could quicken him was the Lord. You know that? There ain't nothing else gonna
quicken you. Nothing else and no one else
can quicken you. I can't quicken you and you can't
quicken me. You can't give me the interest I need. You can't
make me lively in reading the word. I mean, you're making it
come alive. Can't do it. 1 Corinthians 15, 45, and so
it's written. The first Adam was made a living
soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. That being so, ask him. Ask him
to quicken you. Ask him to make you, You know,
not just give, he gives us life when he saves us, but we need
to maintain that life. Lord, maintain that life. Make
me lively in your service and do so according to your word.
You know, when we take God's word to him in prayer, we can
pray with confidence. He said, do this according to
your word. There is no reviving apart from the Word of God. When
we ask the Lord to quicken us, we don't ask Him to do so apart
from His Word, because that's what He uses to quicken us with.
Paul said to the Thessalonians that the Word of God worketh
in you effectually, effectually. And then he says salvation is
far from the wicked. What a beautiful word, salvation. is to be saved from the curse
of the law from the wrath to come first Thessalonians 1 10
says that he has saved us from the wrath to come it's on its
way it's to be saved and not lost
now unless you've been lost you have no idea what that is you
don't know what it is to be saved you have never been lost God's
got to get us lost doesn't he I mean loss. Loss to the point
where you understand that he doesn't have to save you. He doesn't have to. If he does,
it's mercy. It's grace. He could have left
me alone. But the sad part here is this.
It's far from the wicked. THEY SHALL NOT BE SAVED FROM
THE CURSE OF THE LAW OR THE WRATH TO COME. AND I KNOW THIS, WHEN
SALVATION IS FAR OFF, DAMNATION IS NEAR. WHEN ONE IS FAR OFF, THE OTHER
IS NEAR. FOR SOME TONIGHT, THROUGHOUT THIS WORLD, THEY'RE
GOING TO DRAW THEIR LAST BREATH. ONLY GOD KNOWS. There's going
to be some that's going to draw their last breath. Some are going
to go be with the Lord. Some are going to be cut off. Far off from salvation. Never
to be saved. That to me is a frightening thought. Frightening thought. is far off
from the wicked, and the reason that salvation is far from the
wicked is this, here's this, it's not because God won't reveal
Himself, it's not because they don't have the same Bible we
have, THEY SEEK NOT THY STATUTES. They have no interest in the
gospel. They have no interest in the
word of God. They have no interest. And that
word statue means law, decree, covenant. They have no interest
in that. No interest. Those who seek not the will of
God in the word of God are far away from God. They're not going to be saved.
If they die that way, they're not going to be saved. They take no pleasure in the
Word of God. That being so, they take no pleasure
in knowing God. What we take pleasure in, we
seek after, don't we? That's what we seek after. Now,
David, in considering this, recognizes God's great and tender mercies
to him. You know, when you look at the
wicked, You know that at one time, every one of us were children
of wrath by nature, even as others. Ephesians chapter two. We had
the same that we born with the same Esau and Jacob were born
with the same nature from the same parents, same nature. The difference, the grace and
love of God. He maketh us to differ, Paul
said in Corinthians. great are thy tender mercies
oh lord quicken me according to thy judgments here again he
says quicken me but but notice how david describes god's mercies great and tender That word tender
is benevolent, kind, tenderhearted. It has that in it, tenderhearted.
You know when that leopard came to the Lord and he said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. You know what the Lord
did? He touched him. He said, I will
be thou clean. Nobody else would touch him.
Nobody else would touch that leopard. but our Lord touched
him. And you know the kindness and
the tenderness that our Lord showed him at that hour. He just reached out and touched
him. He said, I will, be thou clean. Tender mercies, tender mercies. When we consider how great our
sins are and what a great sacrifice it took to put them away, we
see how great and tender God's mercies are to us and continue
to be to us. You know you are here this evening
by the mercy of God. You're here this evening by the
mercy of God. Not a person in this room deserves
to be here. sitting under God's Word, reading
with the Bible open in your lap, me standing here preaching from
it, not one of us deserve to be here. But by the mercy of
God, here we are. Here we are. It's heart-rending when you see
people leave, you know, they leave and they have nothing more
to do with the gospel. They leave the gospel from sitting
under it, go out into the world. You know, that always worries
me and concerns me with the young people. You know, I see them
go out, you know, they go to get an education and you need
an education. Solomon said, he said, wisdom excels Folly, as
much as light, excels darkness. It's better to be wise than stupid,
to put it in simple language. It's better to be educated. But
if that education takes you away from the gospel, that's a curse. That's a curse. It's not a blessing. I don't
care if you make seven figures. It's a curse. The rich man would
inhale, lift up his eyes and inhale. I have no doubt he'd
give every penny just to have a drink of water. Just to have
a drink of water right now. What we take pleasure in, we
seek after. And David, considering this,
he said, God's great and mercy, his mercies are great and tender.
And he says this, quicken me according to thy judgments. Quick,
you know, quickening is the work of God. I can't quicken you. I can't quicken myself. I can't
quicken myself. I know, I know this. God's given
me his word, his spirit. and prayer. Call upon him, cast
your care upon him. He's given me everything that
I need to be quickened day after day, day by day. Call upon him. Now he says here, and I'm going
to wind this down in verse 57, 157. Many are my persecutors
and my enemies, yet do I not decline from my testimonies.
Well, this fits our Lord, doesn't it? Oh my, how many persecutors
he had, but he never backed down from keeping the word of God.
You would think that the God-man, Jesus Christ, would have many
friends. All that healing that he did,
raising the dead, giving sight to the blind. Not in this world. Not in this
world. Our Lord had many enemies as
He walked in His flesh. He still has the same enemies,
and so do we. Only He keeps them in check.
He keeps them in check so that we can live here. Yet, He says, do I not decline,
or lose interest, or turn away from? That's what He's saying.
I do not lose, you know, sometimes you can be in so much affliction
and some trouble and people in your face and you know, just
that you can decline. You can decline. But our Lord never declined at
all. How precious is that? But David
is saying here, in all my persecutions and afflictions, I have not declined
from thy testimonies. I have not lost interest or turned
away from them. He never deviated from the truth
because of persecution. I beheld, observed the transgressors
and was grieved. That word grieve means detest.
I detest. I observed, I beheld, I watched
the transgressors. and was grieved because they
kept not thy word." It grieved David, as it grieved our Lord, to watch those who were supposed
to be the Lord's people, and yet they kept not the Lord's
word. Remember when Moses went up on
the Mount? I mean, they haven't been out
of Egypt in no time. He goes up on the mount, he's up there
for 40 days and nights, and comes back down, and what are they
doing? They're worshiping a calf. And Aaron made it. It grieves a child of God when
he sees those who claim to believe the word of God not keep the
word of God. It's a real disgust with those
who trample on God's word. But you know what? That's good
evidence. That's a good sign that you've
been revived, that you have life, if it disgusts you, if it does. Lukewarm and indifference is
a serious problem, serious problem. And then the second thing here
to consider is this. Consider how. And this word is
the quality or the extent of my love, the quality of it. The
love that a believer has for the Word of God comes from the
love of God being shared abroad in the heart. That's where it
comes from. It's not natural. It's not natural. Consider how I love they don't
love he said they don't love the wicked are far off They don't
seek after your statue, but Lord consider how I love Thy precepts
and our Lord did oh, he loved every word every jot and tip
Quicken me O Lord according to thy loving kindness the wicked
don't love your precepts, but I do I Love your word. I Love your precepts. I love
the teaching of your word. I the instructions of it. They give me light to walk by.
They give me understanding. I love your word. Quicken me to love them more.
Your precepts more. Does the teaching of God's word
bother you? And some people hate it. No,
you love it, don't you? You do love it. Well, whatever
you read in God's Word, you love it. It's right. It's right. There are many who would love
to throw this book away because it's, you know, they got the
shout nots and the shouts. They just like to, you know,
no God for me. The fool said in his heart, there's
no God or no God for me. Where do we really get, where
do we really get our moral standard. Where do we get it from? The
Word of God. The Word of God. It s not legislated in Washington,
D.C. We get it from the Word of God
is where we get it. Now listen here, 160 and I close. Thy Word is true from the beginning. from the beginning, thy word
is true, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth
forever. And the Amplified reads like
this, The sum of your word is truth, the full meaning of all
your precepts, and every one of your righteous ordinances
endures forever. You know here, thy righteous
judgments can mean VERDICTS, A judgment is a verdict, isn't
it? If a judge sends down a judgment,
that's a verdict. Well, first of all, he speaks
here of the infallible character of the Word of God. This book
is infallible. It's infallible. There's no amendments
to it. We have laws and men make laws
and are always going back and making amendments to it. God's
Word needs no amendment. God's word is true from the beginning. From the beginning, the first
word God spoke, truth. And every word after that, truth. Truth. His verdicts endure forever. First of all, they're right.
They're right. You know, there have been some
people that have been put in prison 20, 30 years, and they
find out they were innocent. They were innocent. They didn't
do the crime. You know, DNA has set them free
years later. I mean, you hear these cases
where they spent so many years in prison, and then find out
that the verdict that was given was wrong. Well, ain't nobody
in hell that ought not be there. Nobody. GOD'S VERDICTS ENDURE FOREVER!
THOSE IN HEAVEN WILL NEVER BE CAST INTO HELL! AND THOSE IN
HELL WILL NEVER BE BROUGHT TO HEAVEN! GOD'S VERDICTS ARE RIGHTEOUS! HIS JUDGMENTS ARE RIGHTEOUS!
AND LISTEN! WHAT IS RIGHT IS RIGHT! AND WHAT
IS WRONG IS WRONG! AND WE HAVE THAT IN GOD'S WORD!
just read that's all we need to read god's word and what he
says is wrong thou shalt not example a man shall not lie with
a man as he lies with a woman and here we are 2024 well and now we figure it's wrong you
know there's nothing wrong with that yes there is god said it's
wrong from the beginning One thing I've learned, go back to
what Barnard I think called it, the law of first mention. What
God says the first time about it being wrong, it's wrong all
the way. And what he says about it being
right, it's right all the way. And it's not going to change.
It's not going to change. So when I want to know the difference
or whatever is right and wrong, I go to the word of God. I pay no attention to what the
government says, or what anybody else says, or what any other
evangelist says, because there are some churches now that have
just dropped the bar. God's word doesn't change. It
doesn't change. All right.