We're going to be in Psalm 51,
but if you will, turn to 2 Samuel 11. While you're turning, there's a lot
of trials that the Lord sends through His people throughout
this world. Pray for those people. My brother John Reeves is in
the hospital right now. He was admitted yesterday. He's
doing fine. I talked to him. His enzyme levels in his blood
is a little high, so there's some damage to his heart, and
it's descending, so that's good. They kept him for observation. Remember him and Kathy as you
can, and that congregation. Remember my family as well. We've
had a trying year, and it proves the waters get a little deeper. 2 Samuel 11, the title of my
message is Concerning Mercy. First hour, I hope we can, the
Lord will be with us and show us something of our conviction
of sin, individually, and our need of mercy. Right out of mercy
and what what the product of that is. And then the second
hour, those that the Lord convicts of sin, he sends trials to and
we say, what are you doing? What's God doing to me? You ever asked that? Like a man
rowing in the boat, like I did, I went where you told me to go.
I'm giving it all I've got. What are you doing to me, Lord?
What has God done, doing to us? I know what he has done. I know
that. I don't know what he's going
to do, other than what he says. How's that gonna play out? I
hope the Lord will be with us both hours. 2 Samuel 11, verse
26. This is what inspired David to
write Psalm 51. 2 Samuel 11, 26, you're right. David had saw her bathing, and
her husband was good friends with David. He desired her, so
he set up Uriah to die. And he saw Bathsheba, and he
set up Uriah to die in battle, and he did. It says in verse
26, And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband
was dead, she mourned for her husband. She loved her husband.
She mourned for him. Our love's not much to speak
of, is it? And when the morning was past,
David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his
wife and bare him a son. But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. 2 Samuel 12 verse 1. And the Lord sent Nathan. That's the first step on the
path of mercy. You're going to find mercy or
you're going to have to send Nathan to me. And the Lord sent
Nathan unto David. And he came unto him and said
unto him, there were two men in one city, one rich and the
other poor. The rich man had exceeding many
flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little
ewe lamb, a little female lamb, a young one, which he had bought
and nourished up, bottle-fed. And it grew up together with
him and with his children. And it did eat his own meat and
drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was to him a
daughter. What kind of stuff is this? Well, I'll touch on it next hour.
We'll look at the ass being provided for, but I can enter into that. For nine years, we had Zoe, didn't
we? Y'all met Zoe, that big yellow
lad. We had to put her down Tuesday. I never had to do that before.
That was hard. A man got on to me one time and
said, what do you feed her? I said, well, whatever's cheapest at
the store. And he said, you can't change her diet up like that.
I said, this morning she had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for
breakfast that the children dropped. And if I ate a steak, she gets
the trim and she sits right next to me. I was over at a friend's
house one time, and I was so used to that dog being next to
me, I just about threw food over her. They'd have thought I'd
stolen food on their ground. I had compassion towards something
that cannot benefit me. Does that sound familiar? If God's had compassion on you,
you'll be more compassionate to things that can't have any
benefit to you. You see that? That's so it. I'm
just an old, dumb dog. I bark when I ought not bark,
and I don't bark when I should bark. and he feeds me and takes
good care for me and provides for me anyway. This fellow saw
himself in this land, didn't he? Verse four. And there came
a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his
own flock. He didn't take of his own flock
and of his own herd to dress it for the wayfaring man that's
come unto him. He had to take care of somebody. He had to provide
for somebody. He said, I ain't take it out of my own stock.
They took it out of the poor man's land. and dressed it for
the man that was come. He went and took out one little
ewe lamb and killed it for this one he was supposed to be providing
for. He didn't provide for it. He had somebody else do it for
him. Boy, and David got mad. Verse five, and David's anger
was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as
the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. Kill him before you kill him. And he shall restore the
lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had
no pity. He didn't put himself in that
man's shoes. He didn't walk a mile in his
shoes. He didn't have any pity on him. He didn't consider him.
He didn't know him. He didn't get to know him. He didn't love
him. He didn't care for him. It's obvious. Kill him. And Nathan said to David, The Lord sent Nathan to tell
him this, right? And now Nathan's going, this is Nathan talking.
Nathan's going to give context. Nathan's going to give the explanation
of what just happened. Verse seven, and Nathan said
to David, thou art a man. If you're going to have any hope
standing before a holy God, God's going to have to send a word
to your heart saying, you're the man, you're the woman, you're
the child. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. David's telling, this is you.
I've been the man. I see you are the man. You don't
say it and I say it, you're the man. Let me tell you what God
said. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
I anoint thee king over Israel. I deliver thee out of the hand
of Saul. I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives
into thy bosom. I gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah.
I gave you everything, David, that's what God's telling you.
Read on in the second part of verse eight. And if that had
been too little, if that would have been enough for you, I would
moreover have given unto thee such and such things, whatever
it is. You're mine, I love you. You
come to me and ask me, I'll give you whatever you need. Such and
such things. What's that? Anything. Whatever's needed. Wherefore hast thou despised
the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast
killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, and hast taken his wife
to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children
of Abel." Did David ball up and say, well, now, I didn't kill
him with a sword. Did he justify himself? Did he
make excuses? Well, this is what we did five
years ago, and I didn't make that plan. Somebody else made
that plan. No. He kept his mouth shut before
a holy God. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from
thine house, and it didn't. Because thou hast despised me,
and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus
saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out
of thine own house. I will take thy wives before
thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie
with thy wives in thy sight of the sun. For thou didst it in
secret. This is all these things. You
thought prayer justified the whole thing. All this happened
in the heart. When I talk about all these physical, outward things,
that happened. You did it secretly. This was in the heart. But I
will do this thing before all Israel, before the Son. And David
said unto Nathan, I got caught. No, I have sinned against the
Lord. That's all people you can sin
against. You can do something mean to
me and my family or somebody I love or somebody I know, but
you ain't sinning against me, you're sinning against God. David
didn't rebuke and rebuttal and have all these things in his
mouth to cast at the prophet that was telling him you're the
man. He just shut up and said I've sinned against God. How
could he do that? God worked in him. A new creation's
being worked in him. This is horrible. That's good
news for David. His life's gonna be the sword
ain't gonna depart, his son's gonna cry and kill him. Yeah,
that's right. His house ain't gonna be so, that's right, but
God made a covenant with it. This ain't really health and
wealth religion, is it? They're saying everybody's my buddy,
and my brother, and my sister, and all these Christian folks,
and we just get along great. This is God dealing one-on-one
with a sinner. I've sinned against the Lord,
and Nathan said unto David, you're right, you did. And I don't like
you quitting lunch with me. No. The Lord also hath put away
thy sin. Thou shalt not die. Christ came in this world to
save sinners, David. You forgot that? You're just fighting to
knock your sinners off. Again. Again. The Lord hath also put away thy
sin. Thou shalt not die. How be it?
Ain't gonna be swept under the rug, though, is it? The Lord
may have paid for it, but we still live in this body. How
be it? Because by this deed, thou hast given great occasion
to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. He brought reproach
on the gospel and on this church and this people. A child also
that is born of these shall surely die. What a sad thing. What a sad thing. Turn over to
Psalm 51. Speaking of Psalm 51, an old
writer said that this psalm is the sinner's guide and the believer's
comfort. That covers everybody. God hasn't saved you yet. He's
gonna give you a guide. Not a road map or a plan of action,
but this is how it takes place. And if he has worked in you,
I pray he saves somebody today. If he has worked in you, this
is comfort. Comfort. We'll see five things
here. Five things in this Psalm. First,
a cry for mercy. If there's a heading in your
Bible, mine has a heading to the chief musician, a Psalm of
David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone
in to Bathsheba, mourning, that great psalmist of Israel went
and wrote a poem about it. And this song is sung to the
music of tears. That's the tune that's keyed
in, or pitch, I don't know those things. That's the melody, isn't
it? Psalm 51, verse one. Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."
Mercy. Mercy. So many people want pity. I'm just Nathan. I'm just here
to tell you, but it's in context. So many people want pity. They
want God to feel sorry for their tremendous sorrow and their tremendous
guilt. Oh, I'm so bad. Maybe God will be indebted to
me because he feels sorry for me because I'm such a sinner.
That's sinful, isn't it? That's not what he needs. David
didn't cry out for pity. Pity won't do you no good. Though
the Lord pities his own, pity won't help, will it? Many want
justice. I just want what's coming to
me. No, you don't. No, you don't. I pray not. Mercy is what he
said. Have mercy upon me, O God. Mercy
is what's needed. How much mercy is needed? I need
two pounds and seven ounces. No, not a little bit. I don't need that much. I don't
need that much mercy. That's not what he says. Mercy
is needed. How much? According to thy loving
kindness. According unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies. In that magnitude, And as much
as the Almighty God, who delights to show mercy, has loving kindness,
who is love, that's how much I need. However much I think
I need, I need more than that. That's how much I need. Blot
out my transgressions. Put them away. Don't cover them
up. Drown them out. Put them away.
As far as the East is from the West, that's what I need. Mercy. Verse two. Wash me throughly. Thoroughly, not thoroughly. Thoroughly
is just a good job. Thoroughly is all the way through.
Outside, inside, and every which way. Completely, totally. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. And cleanse me from my sin. First is a plea for mercy. Wash
me of my iniquity. Wash me of my sin. There's a
need there, isn't there? Just crying out to God. God,
be merciful to the sinner. Secondly, there's a confession
of iniquity. There's a confession of that
transgression of sins. Verse three says, for I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. I've heard
people say, well, I know I don't trust man because I know what's
in man. I don't trust man because man's like me and I know what's
in me. You get the difference in that? That's the difference
between pointing a finger at somebody else and saying mankind's
sinful and then saying I'm sinful. It's easy to find fault in your
brethren. Hang out with me for 30, 45 seconds. You'll have a
punch list as long as you're on. Think of somebody else. They need to say, well, everybody
does, but me first. That's what he's crying out for.
This is a confession of iniquity. He says, I acknowledge my transgressions,
plural. Is that plural in your Bible?
And my sin, singular, is ever before me. My transgressions,
the outward part, plural. That's the iniquities. That's
all the good things we think we do for God. That's all the
reading the scripture in vain and having these big old long
pre-canned responses that sounds real churchy and all this other
good junk. And, oh, I'm praying for you and doing weird little
hands and text messages and putting these big long things up so everybody
can see you and praying in public. titles and elderships and who's
been ordained and who ain't been ordained and just blah, blah,
blah and such and such. Just keep on listening. All the
good things we think we did and all the bad things we know we
did and all the bad things we don't know we did. All the good
things we don't recognize as bad. And then sin singular. What I am. My instinct, that's
what we understand so well now, don't we? Nature. That's what
we are. And they're my transgressions. My sin. Man needs intercession
for his transgressions. Yeah, that's so. That ain't salvation. Salvation is you calling out
to God for your transgressions and your sin and me calling out
for my transgressions and my sin, just like David did. Remember
we looked at the one this Wednesday night? Is that any different
for you? Ain't no different from David,
is it? It's the same. Those two men, for time's sake,
I won't have you turn. The Lord gave a parable. He said two men went up to the
temple to pray one a Pharisee, the other a Republican. He said
these things because these people trusted in themselves to be righteous. I got this down pat. I figured
it out. I found the right place. I know
this is where I ought to be. This is it because I agree with
it. He said, really? Two men went up to the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men. And he lists a bunch of bad things.
What, he's giving credit to God, isn't he? God looks on the heart. Says I fast twice a week, I give
tithes of all I possess, y'all too. And the publican, that mafioso,
got run a pub, a public house, a bartender, standing afar off, would not
so much lift his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breast, right
where the source of the problem was, saying, God, be merciful
to me, a sinner, me, my transgressions, my sin, be merciful to me, merciful
to me. This isn't a confession to the
heels. This isn't bemoaning to the night sky. This isn't being
in a single vessel out on an open ocean and just talking to
some waves or some dolphins or things. It's a confession to
the offended party. It's the offender talking to
the offendee. Look at verse four, Psalm 51,
four. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. He's speaking to Almighty God.
He's speaking to the offendee. The offender is called out to
the offendee, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest
and be clear and holy and pure when thou judgest. He's just
to condemn. If I stand alone before the Holy
God and he sends me to hell for an attorney, that is right. That's
right. I need mercy. Won't deserve it. That's kind of the definition
of mercy, isn't it? He's just to condemn. He's holy.
We're not. Without confession, there will
be no mercy. Without confession of what we
are, who we are, individually, not because somebody else did
it for us, not because mom and daddy go to the right church.
If there's not personal confession, crying out, this is what I am.
We're telling the truth finally. There's no remission of sin.
There's no blood applied, is there? We're the sinner, He's
the Savior. In Luke 23, it said those malefactors,
they were hanging, they railed on Him. That one said, Thou be
the Christ, save Thyself. And the other rebuked Him, said,
Dost not Thou fear God? Seeing we're in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly. For me to hang on a cross is
right. For me to bear the wrath of the Almighty God that I offended
is right, because I can't be in His presence. Said, but this man, we received
the due reward of our deeds, but this man doesn't know a thing
of me. He's the Holy One. And he said, Lord, remember me
when you come into their kingdom. And he says, verily I say unto thee
today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. Remember that prodigal
son? He came to his father and he
said, I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight. What an apology.
And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. I've sinned against God, and
you happen to be witness to it. First, the seeking of mercy.
Second, the reason mercy is needed. Third, here's the root cause
of all this sin, all this iniquity, all this transgression. Here's
where it really comes from. This is important, too. Wildly
important. Pay attention. Verse 5, behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. This happened way back. At conception, I was shapen in
iniquity, and sin did my mother conceive me. That's the stock
I came from. They come from good stock. No,
they don't. Nobody does. We come from Adam, don't we?
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. You look on
the heart, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me no wisdom. That's where the work's gonna
have to do. This ain't from the outside in, it's from the inside
out. corrupt and ruin. It's not just
an outward problem alone. The source is all this inward
problem. If the outside was just washed, we can just clean up
outside and sound real good and go to the right places and do
the right things. That ain't gonna help us. We got a heart
problem. We have a issue of blood. It's one thing to say the waters
ain't no good. We have to confess that the well's bad. It's Reuben. What do you do if the well's
bad? You pack up and leave, don't you? You depart from yourself
and cleave to the cross. Well, hope you got. Go to the
waters of life. It's hereditary, an issue of
blood coursing through our veins, and we need washed through them.
Through them. Our nature, born of Adam, is
to blame anyone but ourselves. In psychology, they finally come
up with this in the 1950s. Who knew, right? An external
locus of control is what they call it. I failed the test because
the test was hard. I was late to that appointment
because of traffic. You put all the blame on something else.
Is that new? Did they just figure that out?
Sigmund Freud or something? That happened with our mommy
and daddy. Adam, what's wrong with you? Why'd you eat that?
He said, it's that woman you gave me's fault. Which fault does
that mean? It's your fault. You gave her to me. Eve, it's
the serpent's fault. Does that echo through our generation
still? Has that sword departed from our house? I hear people,
they say, I get fired from every job I've got because my boss
ain't no good. Maybe you're a rotten employee. You ever think about
that? I failed every test because it
was too hard. Maybe you didn't study enough. I've been late, this week I have. I told somebody, everybody says,
oh, I'm always running late. I am not. I'm punctual and the
last week and a half I have been late to absolutely, if I've showed
up at all, I've been late to absolutely everything I was scheduled
to be at on time. What do I want to say? I want
to blame anything but me. Now let me tell you, I know this
don't mean nothing. I'm always on time. I wasn't right then
when I was saying it. I put that dog down, I was crying.
I thought I deserved to be put down. And that lady looked at
me and I said, I'm not an animal lover and I don't think she'd
believe me. What about this mercy business? We understand about putting dogs
down, don't we? We understand about not showing up on time,
don't we? We understand about being a lazy employee or finding
some excuse not to work, not even in bureaucracy or whatever.
That's just worldly things. What about this mercy business?
Anything different? Paul said in Romans 9, Therefore hath he
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will harden? Wilt
thou say unto me, Why did he yet fight, for who resisteth
his will? Well, if he didn't draw me, that's his business.
You gonna blame God for that? Are you not calling out for mercy?
But nay, O man, who art thou to reply us against God? Shall
the thing for him say to him that formed it, Why hast thou
made me thus? That falls right in line with
what's he doing to me. We'll look at next hour. Hath
not the potter power of the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? And that cry for mercy. I commit
sin because I am sin. I need washed throughly in my
inward parts. We can convince others with outward
walk and outward talk, but not God. He ain't gonna pull the
wool over his eyes. He looks on the heart. So he said back
in 2 Samuel, he said, you did this in secret. I'll look for
all Israel. That's what I need purged. Also,
I don't know what I don't know. I learned that phrase years ago,
and boy, it just resonates with me. I don't know what I don't
know. If I don't know something, I don't know that I don't know
it, right? I'm not aware. How could I be? And I'm thankful the Lord deals
with me in wise measure. When he shows me my sin, he shows
me my need. It's in wise measure. If He showed
me totally what I was, I'd implode. We'd just collapse, wouldn't
we? He said in Psalm 90, verse 8,
Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins,
in the light of Thy countenance. He knows all. When we see that
outward and inward pollution, we cry for mercy all the more.
Remember, whenever the Lord was washing those disciples, it looked
like a while back in John 13, washing their feet, And came
to Peter, and Peter said, don't you touch my feet. Why are you
washing my feet? And he said, you don't know what I'm doing,
but you're going to know. He said, you'll never wash my feet. He said, if I don't
wash you, I'll have no part with me. And Peter said, Lord, not
just my feet, you wash my hands and my head. Throughly, you wash
all of me. And he said, he that's washed
needs not to save to wash his feet. But he's ever went clean.
He said, you're clean, Peter. You just need to wash your feet.
You just need the dust of today knocked off. Your mind, your
claim. First, we see the seeking of
mercy. Second, the reason that mercy is needed. Third, the root
cause of all that sin and iniquity and transgression. This ain't
something that happened last week. Longstanding problem. Fourth,
here's the cure for sin. The source of mercy. Verse 7,
Psalm 51, verse 7. Purge me with this. and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than the snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. I won't hear
anything else. I like the opposite of joy and
I like sadness and I like depression. That's my nature. And if I'm
gonna hear joy and I'm gonna hear gladness, you won't have
to make me hear it. Sometimes when the Lord speaks, he speaks
very loudly. There's been some times I thought,
you know what, we could do this. We could do that, and I mean,
in an international news, something else happened. Well, I guess
what we're gonna do. The Lord spoke loudly, didn't
he? Make me to hear gladness and joy, that the bones which
thou hast broken may rejoice. All this pain, all this sorrow,
I mean, it feels like down to the marrow. I've just been split
wide open. If I see you, I'll rejoice. If I hear that mercy,
it's going, oh, thank you. All that pain I went through,
all those trials I went through, I'm more thankful for everything.
We learn that as we get over. We will thank you. He sits down
with us and he says, come now, let us reason together. Say it
to the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as the snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they're going to be like wool. You reason with the Lord? Of
course not. He just speaks the language we can. He's compassionate. Language we can understand. And
he's compassionate. Just tender. Purge me with hyssop. What's
this mean? How can the Lord be just and
justified? He has to purge us with hyssop. You young people,
I know you old folks have heard this a hundred times, but you
young people, there's a thing called the rule of first mention.
And for the most part, it's so. The first time a word's used
in the scriptures or a phrase or something, that's what it
means throughout, okay? Hyssop, purge me with hyssop.
The first of hyssop is just a bunch of like, kind of like wheat or
something like that, you bind it together. of flour or whatever,
grain. The first time that's mentioned
is in Exodus 12, when the Lord gave the Passover. And he said,
I'm going to go through Egypt, and I'm going to kill the firstborn
of everything, unless you go into your home, and he gives
a whole thing out to do. You take the lamb, and you don't
salt water, you roast it, and you eat all of it, and gird up
your loins when you do it. Don't be lazy about it. Get up.
and get ready to run, and then you're gonna go in your home
and you're gonna take hyssop, and you're gonna put that blood
from that lamb on the doorpost and on the mantel, on the top
and on both sides, and whenever I pass over, I'm gonna see that
blood of that lamb, and then you're gonna live, and your firstborn's
gonna live. If I don't see the blood, everything's
gonna die. You think that story was a far from David? He knew
exactly what that meant. Biologically, too, they had to
hit the blood more. It's a coagulation of vitamin
K. You'll learn about all that in
science class. It's miraculous. Now, any way you cut it, the
diamond's beautiful from any facet. And they said, I need
purge with hyssop. I need blood put on me. That's how this is going to happen.
That's secure for all this. I need the blood. I need Christ
and Him crucified. I need the life of another, the
death of another, the satisfaction of the law of another, the risen
from the grave of another. I have to have Him. Purge me
with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I'll be whiter than
the snow. So take a bunch of hyssop, and
you dip it in the blood in the basin, and you strike it on the
lint on the two side posts with that blood, and nobody leave
until the morning, until the sun comes up. for the Lord will
pass through and smite the Egyptians. And when he seeth the blood on
the lint on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door
and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite
you." That ain't real complicated, is it? Physically, take the blood
and put it on the door. I need the blood because that's
what pictures it. Christ has to be my all. He has to be my
covering. He has to be through me, through me, not just on the
outside. That's got to soak into the Bible. I need a whole new
creation. We'll sing it next hour, but there's a fountain.
Where does blood come from? There's a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath
that flood. The flood, I always got that
hung up on that. The flood of blood. What's that? I need mercy according to your
loving kindness and your abundance of mercy. I need a flood. They
lose all their guilty stains. That dying thief rejoiced. to
see that fountain in his day, and there may I, I always had
a problem with this, not confusion, though vile as he, though viler
than he, there may I, worse than that thief hanging on a cross,
wash all my sins away. Ain't that the oneness? Ain't
nothing changed, is it? What about the covering that
Adam and Eve had to have? The Lord slew a lamb, put a cover
on him. That's gonna make my broken bones
in any trial and any chastening that the Lord sends. any chiding
he gives, very sweet, very rejoicing. Ere since by faith I saw the
stream, the flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my thing.
You bought me with your blood and shall be till I die. First, the seeking of mercy.
Second, the reason mercy is needed, the root cause of sin, iniquity,
transgression, the cure for sin, that's the source of mercy. Fifthly,
the result of the power of God's mercy. Verse 9. Hide thy face
from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You
can read all those things the opposite, and that's true too,
isn't it? My spirit ain't right within
me. I need a new one. Heart's the problem. You've got to give
me a clean heart. Blot out all mine iniquities and hide your
face from my sins. If you don't blot out all my
iniquities, you're going to hide your face. When you see my sins,
you're going to hide your face from me. It's one or the other, isn't
it? Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me. And then the begging, the pleading,
the begging to pray, Inquiring of the Lord what he's promised
he'd do, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy
Holy Spirit from me. He said, Lo, I'm with you always.
We ask him to stay with us always. He said it. I'm going to ask
him to do what he said he's going to do. How about you? Why? I
need mercy. Oh, your bones start rejoicing
and you get happy. And then what happens? He shows
us a little bit more of our sin than what we are and we get down.
And we cry out for mercy and he's faithful, show mercy. And
we get down. Tell it's over. That's right. That's what the Lord's purpose
and the judge of the earth does right. That's pretty good. Mercy. Mercy, Lord. We need it according to your
loving kindness, according to your abundance, throughly, all
through us, Lord. We need this because of what
we are. You've showed that to us. You've revealed what we've
done in secret, Lord. You've showed us in part, but
we understand what we are. The only thing that can satisfy
this Lord, with His Spirit. Thirdly,
and don't leave us. These things that you've revealed
to your people and you've done and we know are true. Christ
has finished the work. Lord, we still petition. We still
ask that you're with us always. Thank you for this hour, Lord.
Forgive us for our wondering and our unbelief and the sin
that's just coursing through us. Thank you for this gospel. Thank
you for our Savior, our Redeemer, our King. It's because of Him
we ask. Amen.