Turn to Psalm 143. Psalm 143. Let me read this psalm, and I'll
lead us in prayer, then we'll take a look at it. Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give
ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness answer me,
and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted
my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground. He hath made
me to dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead. Therefore
is my spirit overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. I remember the days of old. I
meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hand unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty lamb. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear
thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto
thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine
enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will, for
thou art my God. Thy Spirit is good. Lead me into
the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name's
sake. For Thy righteousness' sake,
bring my soul out of trouble. That's the title of this lesson. Bring my soul out of trouble. And of Thy mercy, cut off my
enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul. For I am
Thy servant. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank Thee that we are able
to gather here together this morning as Thy family, read Thy
Word, and hear Thy Word preached. Instruct us by Thy Spirit this
morning, Father. Teach us. Enable us to grow in
grace and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But especially
this morning, we ask that you would enable us to worship you
in spirit and in truth. That you would enable us to give
unto thee the glory due unto thy name. Father, thank you for
your many mercies. They are too numerable to reckon
up in order. Thank you for all that you've
given us in Christ. In Christ, we have all we need,
and we thank you for Him. Enable me, Father, to rightly
divide the word of truth. Enable me to preach the gospel.
Send it forth in power to the heart of your children. In Christ's
name we pray, and amen. Hear my prayer. I can identify that more and
more as I grow older. More now than I did 30 years
ago. Hear my prayer. I cannot put a value upon that
statement. What a blessing to be able to
call upon the God of heaven and earth, to be able to enter into
the Holy of Holies, and cast all our cares upon Him. What a blessing! We cannot put
a value upon that. To be able to cast all our cares
upon Him. For He cares for us. And to be
able to do that, knowing that He's able to do something about
it. You know, I can sit down beside of you, and I can cast
some cares upon you. I can tell you my problems. You can't do anything about them.
You're cheaper than a therapist, but you can't do anything about
them. But God can. God can. He can bring my soul
out of every trouble that it can see. Out of everything that
troubles my heart. He can bring me out of it. Hear
my prayer. And in thy faithfulness answer
me. David appeals to God's faithfulness. Faithfulness is an attribute
of God. He's faithful. He's faithful
to His promises. Call upon Me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. That's
a promise. He's faithful to do that. You
call upon Me in the day of trouble, I'll deliver you. He's faithful
to His promises. He's faithful to keep His people.
You know the reason why you're still here? You know the reason
why you still believe? Because He's kept you. He's kept
you believing. Kept by the power of God through
faith. He's the one who keeps us. And He's faithful to keep
His people and He's faithful to defend them and deliver them. Also He says here, "...and answer
Me in thy righteousness." That righteousness that is revealed
in the gospel, that righteousness that enables God to be a just
God and a Savior. But now listen, it's in that
order. He's a just God and a Savior. But He's a just God first. But
He says here, answer me in thy righteousness, that righteousness
that's revealed in the gospel, that righteousness which is of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Answer me in that righteousness.
and enter not into judgment with thy servant." That's not the
righteousness I want to deal with. The righteousness which
is of the law, I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with that.
I want to deal with the righteousness that's through the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't want God to enter
into judgment with me. For in thy sight shall no man
living be justified. You and I could go to court together.
We can go to court together, or I may go to court with someone.
Someone may take me to court. And depending on who has the
best lawyer, I might win. But I want to tell you something. You can't stand in God's court
on your own merits and win. You can't do it. It's not possible. In thy sight shall no man living
be justified. Because Scripture says, there
is not a just man on this earth that doeth good and sins not. Not one. Only in Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, only in Him, through His blood and righteousness,
can you and I enter into the Holy of Holies, stand before
God, and be heard and be accepted. That's the only way. The only way. He says in verse
3, and here's a reason for his petition, "...for the enemy hath
persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground."
Every saint has his or her enemy, just as our Lord had His enemies. They persecuted His soul. They
tried to kill Him on every turn. You know, we have a high priest
that can be touched with the feelings of our affirmative because
he went through what we go through. Oh, now, what does it mean? Hear
my prayer. We have one who knows what we're going through. We
have one. And every saint, as I said, has
his or her enemies, which is common to all God's children. We live in a fallen world. And
doing right in a wrong world always brings trouble. It will
always bring trouble. This world hates God. This world
hates Jesus Christ. Now, I know that the world would
say, you know, this special religious world out there says, well, I
don't hate God. I told a man that one time, years ago. I said,
you hate God. He said, I don't hate God. You want to find out if a man
hates God, if he hates Christ, tell him the truth. That's all
you have to do. Tell him who God is. Tell him
God's on the throne. Tell him God saves whom He will.
And you'll find out. You'll find out he hates God. You'll find out he hates Christ
when you tell the truth on Christ. Tell him who Christ is. He's
the sovereign Lord. He quickens whom He will. Now,
you find out real quick, they do hate Christ. And they hate
His people. He said, if they hated Me, they'll
hate you. In this life, we will never be without our enemies.
Our Lord said, in this world you shall have tribulations.
But although they would cast Me down and smite My soul and
cast Me down to the ground, Lord, don't you forsake Me. You know,
everyone else can forsake Me. I can lose everything else. But
if I have Christ, the end result is going to be just fine. It's
going to come out alright. Come out alright. But because
of this, he says in verse 3, because the enemy has persecuted
my soul, he's smitten my life down to the ground, verse 4,
therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me. My heart within me
is desolate. Our Lord knows what that feels
like. Our Lord knows what that is. When He was in the Garden
of Gethsemane, He said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto
death. He knows what it is to be cast
down. But there is nothing more difficult
to deal with than when your spirit, your heart, is cast down. Cast down. When you just can't get yourself
back up. When your heart is gone. I'd rather have a broken leg
than a broken spirit. You can get over a broken leg.
You know, let me tell you what, it takes God to mend a broken
spirit. It takes God to do that. When
you don't have the heart to even go on, you see no way out or
up. You feel left alone. That God
doesn't even hear you. But when that time comes, and
it comes to all His children to some degree, when that time
comes, look at verse 5. Do what it says in verse 5. I
remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works. I cannot see what's ahead of
me. I can't see what's on the outside
of this building. I can't see it. But I can look at the days
of old. I can look how God has dealt
with me in the past. I can look how God has dealt
with His people in the past. And listen, he said, I am the
Lord, I change not. As He is, so will He be. He changes
not. You know, our Lord even did this
in Psalm 22. Let's go over to Psalm 22. In Psalm 22, listen to this. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night's season, and am not
silent. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
remembering the days of old. They trusted in you. They trusted
in you what? You delivered them. You delivered
Him. Think upon the mercies of God
in days gone by. Think upon how many times He
has already delivered you. Oh, I tell you, think upon Him. He has never failed any of His
children. Ever. He has always shown mercy. And when it's time, when it's
time. And listen here. And meditate. We don't do enough of that, do
we? And I'm not talking about some guru sitting on a yoga mat.
But I'm talking about meditating, thinking upon the Word of God. Thinking upon Him as He's revealed
in His Word. Meditate upon God's work. Think
about the children of Israel when they stood in front of that
Red Sea and that army behind them. Now, you know that there's
a how in the world this is going to happen. How are we going to
get out of this one? And then the sea parts. And then God sends
a flood on this earth. He watched everything out, except
there's a little ark floating on top of that flood. Delivered
Noah and his family from the wrath to come. Meditate upon those things. Meditate
upon them. Look what he has done in the
past. My case, I've learned this, I've learned this. My case is
no challenge to the power of God. It's just a matter of the
will of God. That's what it's a matter of.
The will of God. It's no challenge to His power.
But especially meditate upon the work of Christ for us. Meditate
upon that. If God gave His Son to live and
die and rise again for us, shall He not freely with Him give us
all things? If He delivered him up as my
substitute, shall He not deliver me? You know He will. You know He will. Don't think
so much upon your situation. And I'm telling you, that is
just... I know what I just said is extremely hard. If you've
got a toothache, you try not to think about it. You just try
not to think about your 230. If you have a broken leg, you
try not to think about it. But as best you can, think upon
the mighty God of Israel. Think upon who He is, His power,
His ability. Christ said He's able to save
to the uttermost, there in Hebrews. He's able to save to the uttermost. Think upon the mighty God who
is able to make all things abound to His glory and our good. We
think too much upon this earth. We think too much upon things
present. Set your mind, your heart, your affection, the Scripture
teaches us, on things above. It's amazing what happens when
you get your mind off yourself and on Him, on things above. Someone said this, as the hands
gather material to work with, so the heart gathers material
to pray with. Lord, hear my prayer. Hear my
prayer. I am used on the work, He said,
of thy hands. Lift up your eyes to see the
mighty works of God. And if you and I are able to
do this, if God enables us to do this, We will find ourselves doing
this also, verse 6, I stretch forth my hands unto thee. When we begin to think upon God,
His greatness, we find ourselves stretching forth our hands to
Him. We find ourselves calling upon Him. We find ourselves going
to Him. You ever see a child fall down?
I know you have. They have children, they fall down. And they reach
up to you to pick them up, to help them. I stretch forth my hands to thee.
Lord, lift me up. Lift me up. I've fallen. And
we'll fall many times. We will fall many times. This is what happens when we
think upon God in times of trouble. It makes us to reach up to Him. Trouble makes us thirst after
God. My soul, He said, thirsteth after
Thee. John, you said it to me coming
over here. You said, I wish I could hear the gospel and the power
like I heard it when I first heard it. I said, well, what happens? Life
and sin come along. Trouble makes us thirst after
God, makes us reach forth to Him. God knows how to make us
tired of this life, doesn't He? He knows how to wean us. He knows
how to wean us. I saw on TV a nature show, I
saw a nature show years ago, some time ago. A monkey. And this monkey, a chimpanzee,
she was trying to wean her little monkey, whatever you want to
call him. She was trying to wean that little monkey away, you
know. He was throwing sticks and rocks and he was kicking
the dirt and he was throwing dust at her. And they said, what's
going on is that she's weaning him and he doesn't want to be
weaned. And he was kicking and throwing. I said, boy, that's
me. That's me. I wasn't born from
a monkey, but I act like one a lot of times. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. God has to make us hunger and
thirst after that. And if you do, you shall be filled. That's a promise. Now hear me
speedily, O Lord, my spirit failing. I'm going down. That's what David
said, I'm going down. Sometimes our case is more urgent
than others, but God knows when to act. He knows when to reach
down. He knows when to take hold. He
has a hold anyway. He never lets go. That's what
we don't realize. He's never let go. He has a hold
of us. He knows when to act. He's controlling
the situation. I could discipline, you know,
when my boys were growing up, I could discipline them, but
I couldn't control the outcome of the discipline. I couldn't
do that. I mean, I could discipline them, they can go out the door
and do whatever. God controls the outcome. He deals out the discipline,
and He controls the outcome of it also. He controls the whole
situation. All of it. He also knows how to make us
feel and know our dependence upon Him. You know, the wind
and the waves are still His. He has His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm, and He still does. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like them that go down into the pit. Don't treat me like
the lost who will never see your face. Lord, let me see your face. Oh, let me see your face. You
know what it is to see the face of God? It's to see Christ in
the Gospel. It's to see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Don't hide that face from me. Don't hide that. Call me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning. Here we are gathered here this
morning. We are all gathered here this
morning. And I pray He will enable us to do this. Enable us this
morning. to hear your loving kindness
once again. Also, enable us to enable the young people here
to hear the gospel early in life. I heard the gospel from my pastor,
Henry, when I was about 23 years of age. I heard the gospel early
in life. What a blessing. What a blessing. Calls me to hear Thy lovingkindness
in the morning. Calls me to hear the good news
early, before the evil days come nigh, before you start looking
like this. Those evil days come nigh. For in Thee do I trust. I look to thee to teach me. Reveal
to me the gospel. You want to know the gospel?
Ask God to reveal it to you. It comes by revelation. You know,
we can teach, like I am this morning, we can teach the Bible
class. You know, young kids can be in a Bible class and be taught,
but I'm telling you this, you won't learn the gospel until
God reveals it. Now, you can learn some facts,
but you don't learn it until it's burned in here, until God's
revealed it to your heart. And then you learn that the gospel
is a person and not facts. It's not made up of facts, it's
made up of a person, Jesus Christ. Oh, in Thee do I put my trust.
I look nowhere else but to Thee. The disciple says, Lord, thou
hast the words of eternal life. Where shall we go? There is no
place to go. Calls me to know the way wherein
I should walk. Do you know wherein the way you
should walk? Do you know the way you should walk? Well, you'd
be the first. Not naturally. Naturally, we
don't know. We don't know. We don't know. The way wherein we should walk
is after Christ. When He called Andrew, Peter,
and John and His disciples, He said to them what? Follow Me. Follow Me. Walk after Me. Because Me to know. Don't leave
Me to Myself. Teach Me. Guide Me. Lead Me in
the way. and calls me, that is, help me
do it, make me do it. I tell you this, I say this,
Lord, make me do it. Make me walk in the way. Help
me to do it, enable me to do it, and make me do it. Don't
leave me to myself. Don't. Make the way plain and
cause me to walk in it. Never to leave it again. Never
to leave it. Never to depart from it. Lord,
I lift up my soul to Thee. Here's what I see. When I read
this, I thought, Lord, here, keep it. If I keep it, I lose
it. If you keep it, I gain it. You keep my soul. I lift it to
Thee. You take care of it. I'll mess
it up. I've already messed it up. Already
messed it up. I commit the well-being of my
soul unto Thee for time and eternity. Not just for eternity. Christ
is not something for eternity. It's for now and forever. I look to Him to take care of
me now. Give me, Lord, my daily bread. And I look for Him to
take care of me when it's over. When it's all over. Calls me to walk in the way. Lord, keep my soul and deliver
me from my enemies. Don't leave me to them. I plead
with these to hide me. Oh, I love that. That statement
and over in Psalm 56, I've learned these are some things that I've
learned as I've gotten older, a little older, and they're more
precious to me. You know, I've learned that we
learn the truth and then we experience the truth. We experience what
we learn. In Psalm 56, verse 3, what time
I am afraid, I will trust in thee. What time I'm afraid. And I flee unto thee to hide
me. To hide me. I have no other refuge. There is no other refuge. There
is none. No matter what trouble I may be dealing with, I flee
to thee to hide me. Hide me under the blood. Hide me in the righteousness
of your Son. Hide me in thee till the storm
passes by. Hide me. Hide me. And teach me
to do thy will, for thou art my God. Teach me. You know, no one learns like
the person who wants to be taught. God has to make us teachable.
He makes us teachable. And no one teaches like God.
That's what Job said. Job said, no one teaches like
God. And listen. He only teaches lessons
that we need to learn. There haven't been a lot of things
I've learned over the years I can forget. It wouldn't mean anything. It won't amount to a hill of
beans if I forget them. But every lesson God teaches me, I never
need to forget it. He never teaches but what needs
to be taught. And what a pleasure it is to
teach someone who wants to learn And what a pleasure it is to
be taught of God. All thy children shall be taught of God. And then
he tells you in verse 10, thy spirit is good. God is good. Scripture teaches us God is good. I don't care how bad my situation
is, God is good. It doesn't change the nature
of God. Our situation never changes the nature of God. And no matter
what it is, God is good. That's His nature. And He can
only do good. He can only do good. Thy spirit is good. God is good. Therefore, He is the only one
who can lead me into the land of uprightness. Everything else
leads to sin and death. Everything else. Oh, I have learned this. The
whole world lies in wickedness. I don't care what part of the
world it is. It lies in wickedness. Only in
Christ is there righteousness, peace, and safety. Only in Him. Quicken me, O Lord, for Thy name's
sake, for Thy righteousness' sake. Bring my soul out of trouble. Oh, so trouble. What trouble? Quicken me. Quicken the graces within. Quicken
me in duty. Quicken me in devotion. Don't
let me get so dull in spiritual matters. That's easy for us to
do, isn't it? Get our attention off. There's
just so much to take our attention. Quicken me in the study. And
do it, now listen, do it for thy name's sake. Lord, protect your name. I'll mess it up. Don't let me
bring reproach on your name. Protect it. For your name's sake,
bring my soul out of trouble. Keep me. Teach me. Guide me. And do this for your
name's sake. Do it for your name's sake. And of thy mercy, and I'm going
to close here. And of thy mercy, cut off my enemies, and destroy
all them that afflict my soul, for I am thy servant, but cut
off of thy mercy." You know, God sending the wicked to hell, sending
the unbelievers to hell, sending this world to hell, is an act
of mercy to His children. If a mad dog came in this room
and I shot him, And I shot it. Would you all be upset? Would
you be upset? You wouldn't be upset. You know
that the whole host of heaven is going to shout hallelujah
when God sends this world to hell? It's an act of mercy. In Thy mercy, cut off my enemies. That's who God is. Cut off my enemies which are
those that hate Thee. Everyone that hates God is my
enemy. Anyone that hates the gospel is my enemy. It's an enemy
of God. And those that afflict my soul
and keep me from worship, cut it off. Cut it off. Cut off all those, or all things
that keeps me from you. Can you pray that? Because I
tell you, that could be tough. That could be tough. You might
cut some things off you wouldn't even think of. When God sends this world to
hell, it'll be God showing mercy to
His children. Alright.