Thirty eight. You ever feel. Bothered by something
you had done in the past or something you're doing now. feel bothered
by it and you really just couldn't rest until you confessed it or
got it off your mind, off your shoulders. I know we all have.
Certainly as children, we've done something that we just could
not rest. Our consciences would not let
us alone until we blurted it out. Like George Washington and
the cherry tree, you know. I remember when I was a boy,
when I was in the first grade, You know, boys are boys and they
like to wrestle. We used to pile up in big piles
on top of one another in the playground. You ever do that?
Just a big heap of boys, you know, wrestling. And I was over
at the other end of the playground and there was a pile of boys
laying there all wrestling around. And one boy, he was the class
weakling. He was just a little skinny fella.
He was skinny up until the time he graduated from high school.
Just a poor little skinny, frail fella. He was kind of standing
back watching, wishing he could be in there, but he was just
too shy and too weak, standing there. And I took off running.
I saw him standing there, his back to me. And I shoved him
and knocked him into that pile. Well, I kind of jumped out of
the way so you wouldn't see who it was. I'm confessing this.
I don't think I've ever confessed. I knocked him in that pile, and
he no sooner got up than a pump knot swelled up on his eye. A
big old black and blue pump knot. And he didn't see who it was.
Nobody did. But I knew. And when he raised up in a teacher
and they took him inside, you know, his eye was all swollen.
The teacher got his eye. Who did this? Nobody. I don't know. He didn't know.
Well, it killed me. I couldn't rest night and day
for the next two or three nights. About a week later, I was riding
my bicycle and flipped over the handlebars and it knocked, I
landed on my head and it knocked me out. And a neighbor took me
home, carried me home, and I finally woke up. And the next day I had
a big old punk knot on the side of my face. And they were taking
school pictures that week, too, of all weeks. Boy, I got vengeance. It was on me. And I had to have
my picture taken sideways because I couldn't take it head on. But
that bothered me so bad. Have you ever had something like
that? You do something and just couldn't get any rest until you
told somebody about it. But a guilty conscience is a
weighty burden, and you feel like you've just got to tell
somebody. You've got to talk to somebody about it. And the
old saying says, misery loves company. And it really does seem
to help to tell somebody, somebody that that knows what you're going
through and that can sympathize. Somebody knows how you feel.
And they may not be able to help you. They may not be able to
have any answers, but it just helps to get it off your chest.
You know what I'm saying? Sure you do. Everybody does.
Let me say this before I go on. You know, the scripture says,
confess your faults one to another. We're all guilty of this. We
confess our sins. It doesn't say that. It doesn't
say confess the evil things you're thinking, the evil things you're
doing. It doesn't say that at all. It says confess your faults. Confess to those your brothers
and sisters. Well, I'm just rotten. So don't
get specific and graphic. There's a difference. There's
a difference. I just thought I'd add that there because all
of us are guilty of that. We confess our sins to one another
when they ought not be brought up. Shouldn't be repeated. Some
of the things we're thinking and do. Confess false. False. There's a difference. Think about
it. But it's good to have somebody to talk to, even if they just
listen to you. Somebody who understands you.
Somebody who understands you. And I've said this before, that
if there is no communication between husband and wife or friends,
if there's no communication, a breakdown, then that breeds
misunderstanding. and bitterness, and it destroys
relationships. You have a breakdown in a confidence. I've been guilty, I confess again,
I've been guilty, so guilty in the past of being very moody, very quiet, I clam up
when things are going wrong, and the one who experiences the
brunt of it is right here. The very one who who I need to
talk to, and she needs to talk to me, and I'm working on it.
I'm getting a little bit better, aren't I? I believe I am. I hope I am.
But it breaks down confidences, and you don't open up to one
another, and you get frustrated, and you harbor feelings and things.
You imagine all sorts of things. It's the same thing as between
friends. We need to open up. We need to talk to one another.
Let me say this. What if God, and I've been guilty
of this too, when she might open up to me and she maybe couldn't
express herself just like she would like to, and I've been
guilty of kind of being a little critical of how she said something
or what she was doing. She was opening up to me, confiding.
You know, confidence is confiding in someone. And when you come
to somebody and confide in them, you want them to be sympathetic.
and pitiful or full of pity and understanding and not mock you
and make fun of you. I've been guilty of that. And
what if God treated us like the fools that we are when we came
to him with some of the things and said some of the things to
him? We never say anything right to
God. What if he treated us like the
fools that we are? What if he treated us like we
treat one another? As husbands and wives know what I'm talking
about, don't you? It's sad. It's a sad commentary
on our nature, our depraved nature. But this is the whole point in
my whole message this evening here. We've got somebody to go
to. We've got somebody to go to and
somebody to listen and somebody who won't make fun of us. That
can't be said of anybody, hardly anybody. That can't be said of
somebody who will listen and somebody who understands. And
not only that, somebody who can take care of the problems, too. It helps to have somebody listen. Only if, just if they'll listen,
they'll not be able to answer us. But we can go to somebody
who has all the answers. He has all the answers. The scripture
said he's a friend who sticketh closer than a brother. You know,
brothers and sisters. relationship, close family relationships. Today they stick by one another
through thick and thin, no matter what happens. Scripture says
we have a friend who sticks closer than a brother, that he'll never
forsake. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. And we can go to him. Scripture calls him a great high
priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Not mad, not angry, not Look,
looking down on us with ridicule, not a breaker of confidence.
I was touched, feeling our infirmities. Aren't you glad? I need somebody
like that. I can't be trusted, and you can't
either. But he can. He can. Somebody we can confess
our faults and our sins. And I tell you what, we'd better
be confessing our sins to him. You know what I was trying to
say about faults and sins? Do you understand the difference, what
I was saying there? Sometimes when we confess sins
to one another, we've got an ulterior motive in doing it. You come up to somebody and say,
I've been feeling real bad thoughts about you. Here's what I thought.
And what you're doing is you're getting it in there one more
time. You know what I mean? It's a little jab under the pretense
of being sorry. That's just our nature. That's
just our depraved nature, sweetie. Don't confess sins. Confess faults. Confess this. Please forgive
me. I'm no good bum. I'm not worthy
to be your friend. I'm just worthless. But don't
confess particular sins. But we can confess our particular
sins, every one of them, to this friend who sticks closer than
a brother, to this kind Heavenly Father that we as little children
can go to and open up and pour out our hearts about everything.
I mean the deepest, darkest, secret of your wicked and perverse
heart. You better be telling him about
it. You better. There's nothing hidden from him
anyway, is there? Again, hide it. Open it up to him. Open it
up. And like I said, sometimes answers are a long time in coming,
if ever. Sometimes you don't ever get
an answer to a problem you go to God with. But it helps to
just unburden yourself. Just unburden yourself. You know
what I'm saying? Everybody's been there. Maybe you're there
now. I hope so. And this is what David seems
to do in this entire psalm. Terry and I were talking about
it. Throughout this entire psalm, David really never gives us too
much hope. The whole psalm, from beginning
to end, he's just kind of, I'm in trouble. I've got problems.
Whoa, whoa is me, and so forth. And he never seems to to break
out into the light, into sure hope. And we get in this situation
sometimes. Let's go through this briefly
together. Now, I've got a confession, another
confession to make. I got halfway through this psalm.
I was reading it last week, and it blessed me. I was in a particular
state that I read this psalm, and it helped me so much. And
then one of the ladies came to me, and she was talking to me
about how How bad, how wicked she was feeling, just couldn't
get out of the rut she was in. And I told her to read this,
and she read it and seemed really blessed by it. Well, I preached
this back in January. I already got halfway through
it this time when I started preparing it. And I thought, hey, this
sounds familiar. Well, here you go again, nine
months, ten months later. But the first time I remember,
I needed this song. The title of it was I'm in Trouble.
And I was in trouble, troubled at the time. And I don't remember
getting much response out of it the first time. Well, maybe
the first time was for me. And maybe now this time is for
you. I don't know. I just couldn't turn around and
start something else. It was too much of a blessing
to me. Now, let's look at this briefly. And I'll hurry. I'll
get you, I promise you. I hope, I promise you, to get
you out of here soon. Now he says here, in the first
though, he says, a psalm of remembrance, a psalm of David to bring to
remember. To bring us to remember the pit from which we've been
dug, to remember Christ, our only hope to get us out of the
pit of corruption, to remember past mercies, past deliverances. Don't forget past mercies. Don't
forget that once you've been in that pit before, he got you
out again. You'll get back in and you're going to have to remember
who got you out the first time. So it's a song of remembrance
to bring to remember. And he says, Oh, Lord, don't
rebuke me in your wrath. If anybody has a right to rebuke
us and be mad at us, God does that. Henry, if anybody has a
right to be angry, God does that. He doesn't. He doesn't. Think about that. The Lord would
be right. If anybody had a right to cut, cast us off forever and
be done with us, the Lord would. But he won't. He would, but he
won't. The Lord, he says, don't rebuke
me in your wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Don't chasten me in your anger.
He doesn't. Thank God he doesn't treat us
like we treat our children sometimes, out of anger and hastily. What
did you do that for? And get out? No. God is calm
and has a purpose in his chastening. Verse 2, If thine arrows they
stick fast in me. That's the arrows of conscience.
They stick fast. Your conscience ever prick you?
Pricking of the conscience? Prick your heart? Your arrows,
that's God's conscience. They stick fast in me. And your
hand, that's God's providence. Presseth spore on me. He brings
things to pass that press on you. To bring you to a certain
end. Like a mold. What's he doing? He's molding us, conforming us
to the image of Christ, and God's providence and things around
us mold us and press upon us to bring us to a certain end,
to make us like Christ. He said, your hand presses me
sore, and it hurts. Trials, they're molds. Trials
are molds of the hand of God. Verse 3, there's an opening.
And after this, when God's Word comes to you, what do you see? Verse 3, no soundness in my flesh,
no soundness because of your anger. God opens up our hearts
to see all the corruption within us. When we see it in His Word,
we wouldn't have seen it otherwise. If we didn't see it in His Word,
we wouldn't see what wicked sinners we are. And there's no spoundness
in my flesh because of God's holiness and His holy wrath.
Neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. No rest in my bones. My sinful
self rears its ugly head stronger than ever." Does yours seem to
get stronger all the time? Don't seem to find any rest?
You know, Paul said the strength of sin is the law. When God's
Word comes to us and tells us, do not, what do we say? That's what we want to do then.
That's the depravity of our nature. And Paul said this, I wouldn't
have known lust if you hadn't said, Don't look on a woman or
whatever. Wouldn't have bothered me. Are you bothered by things
now that didn't bother you before, earlier on, or even when you
had no desires for God? Things that didn't bother you
then, but they do now. Well, that's because of God's
Word that comes and reveals your corruption and won't give you
any rest in yourself. Rest in yourself only points
you to Christ, who is our rest. Verse 4, my iniquities are gone
over my head. Do you ever feel like wave after
wave of lust and greed and materialism and covetousness just takes you
down? It's taking you down daily. Wave after wave comes hitting
you in the face. I don't know what your particular
problem is. We've got all these problems. Lust, greed, covetousness,
envy, hatred, guile, malice, all these things hit wave after
wave and we're constantly Taking us down. Down and dirty. My iniquities are over my head.
Over my head. And they're a heavy burden. Are
they too heavy for you? You can't bear them. I talked
to a young man yesterday. He said, do you ever think about
suicide? A young teenager. I said, yeah, everybody does.
Because you're sinful. And everybody, everybody in here,
I'm sure, is just, for a brief moment, for a fleeting moment,
you've contemplated heaven. Why? Because this sin is a too
heavy burden for you. You get sick of yourself, don't
you? It's a weighty burden and you get tired of yourself. Not
only tired of the world and all its problems, but tired of yourself. Tired of living with yourself.
That's the reason I say, I can't imagine living another 30, 35
years, 35 years, 3, 4, and 10. I can't imagine living another
35 years with me. How about you? Too heavy for
me. Verse 5, my wounds stink and
are corrupt because of my foolishness. I stink and I'm a fool. That's
what David's saying here. I stink and I'm a fool. And surely
everybody out there smells me. and sees me. Surely everybody
thinks I'm a fool, which I am. And they smell me. My depravity. I'm troubled. Verse 6. I'm troubled. Now this word trouble there,
you have in your margin there, it says an old Hebrew word that
is obsolete. It means ride. Ride. When you writhe in pain, that's
the closest word we can come to it. When you writhe in pain,
it twists you and turns you. Well, what he's saying here is,
I'm troubled. That is, I'm a troublesome being. Not just in trouble or have a
problem, but I'm full of perversity. I'm trouble. I'm the trouble. That's what he's saying. I'm
full of trouble. I'm the trouble. I am my whole
trouble, my whole problem. I'm always wrong. I'm always
twisted and distorted. Are you a twisted and distorted
person? Well, I am. I may look pretty
good to you, and you may look pretty good to me, but I know
you. But you ain't no better than me. No worse, but you ain't
no better, and I know me. We're all the same. We're fellows
in the same ship, aren't we? A ship of worthless corruption
is what it is. We better be in the ship of Christ
Jesus. But I'm a twisted and perverted person. How about you? Trouble, trouble,
I'm bowed down greatly, bowed down. You know, you'd like to
be courageous, wouldn't you? You'd like to be bold for the
Lord, for God. You'd like to be zealous for
the truth. What's the trouble? Why can't you be? Your own depravity,
right? Your own depravity keeps you
down most of the time. You feel like such a hypocrite,
don't you? You know what I'm saying? You
feel like such a worthless, no good, and how are you going to
tell somebody else? about the Lord when you yourself sometimes
don't even know if you know Him. You know what I'm saying? Sure
you do. Bow down. So full of sin and hypocrisy
keeps you low all the time. Another word for it would be
low down. I'm a low down, no good, stinking fool. That's what
David's saying here. You ought to cry while you laugh.
This is us then. That's what David's saying here.
I'm a stinking, low down, no good, shipless, worthless, yellow-bellied,
Snake in the grass. No good. I go a-mournin' all
the day long. I ought to rejoice evermore. I ought to be full of joy. But
I mourn. Oh, woe is me. Pitiable. That's me. I go a-mournin'
all the day long. Verse seven. I got—because my
loins are filled with a loathsome disease. I got a disease. That's
my whole problem, isn't it, Terry? And it's malignant. It's growing. AIDS. It's growing. Got my immune
system just broken down. All my immunity to everything.
My immunity to lust and greed and all these things that come
about. I don't have no immunity to it,
it seems like. Got this loathsome disease in
my bones. Loathsome. It's malignant. There's
no soundness in my place. It has infiltrated every part
of my being. My mind, my heart, my affections,
my walk, my talk, right? Yes. Yes. I hope you see this,
or see an end to why you see this. Verse 8, I'm feeble, I'm
sore, broken, weak and broken, and I've roared by reason of
the disquietness of my heart. If you ever remember laying in
bed as a child crying, You remember that? Laying in bed, crying,
just wouldn't be comforted, bawling your eyes out, and nobody hear
you. You remember that? I remember
that so distinctly. I remember that thinking nobody cares. Just
laying in bed, just crying and crying. I remember going out
in the dog lot. We had a big St. Bernard. He
weighed 200 pounds. And we had a house for him. He was a house,
a dog house. And I could get in there with
him and lay down. And I'd get in there, and he was the only
friend I had. I'd just be bawling my eyes out on his head. You
know, well, you don't want to care. You ever done that? Sure you have. And they do it
now. You ever do it? I've done it. I've done it now. Sure have. Oh, I've roared by
reason of the disquietness of my heart. You got any disquietness?
Verse 9. Lord! All my desire It's before thee. Here's your comfort. All my desire is before thee.
The Lord knows your heart. He knows what you're going through.
He knows. He hears you. It ain't that St. Bernard. That's your only friend. It's somebody else. And He hears
you. He said, nobody's hearing me. I remember that. I was crying. I was getting louder and louder.
Of course, my parents were doing like I do now. Not paying any
attention. Let her cry herself to sleep,
you know. Somebody hears you. He hears
you. He hears you. He knows everything
about you. And therefore, as a little child,
just like a little child, you can go to your loving Heavenly
Father, Ellen, with every problem, every single problem. I don't
care how small it is. You can go to Him with every
single problem, everything. The Scripture says, in everything.
prayer thanksgiving but your request be made known everything
and we studied just last week or Sunday we studied in John
sixteen twenty three and twenty four had a Christ said if you
ask the father anything yes father in my name you give to you we
studied how that that is to ask in the spirit and attitude and
the will of Christ and he guarantees us that we'll have that Now,
what we were saying, what he was saying there is you can be
guaranteed to receive anything you go to God with in the will
and the mind of Christ, in the name of Christ, right? That's
what we're saying. But he doesn't say you can't go to him, talk
to him about anything. He just says, I'm not guaranteeing
I'll give you an answer or your request. See, there's a difference. You can go to God with anything.
He's a loving... If you know how to give good
gifts, you then being evil know how to give good gifts and will
listen to your children and all their complaints and all their
foolishness put up with them. If you then being evil know how
to give good gifts and do good things and listen well and patiently
and pitifully to your children, how much more shall this kind,
loving, gracious, merciful, all-wise all-compassionate, long-suffering
Heavenly Father of yours, listen to you, and put up with you,
and hear you out." Yeah, He will. Yeah, He will. He doesn't promise
you when you receive what you're asking for, but He'll hear you.
He'll hear you. And we can tell Him anything.
We can ask Him anything. We can ask Him anything. Yeah, we can. We can tell Him
anything, in everything, in everything, prayer and supplication. We've
got to. We've got to. Where else are
we going to go, Deborah? Who are you going to talk to?
Nobody else can help you, can they? And you're going to the
wrong place, the wrong source, if you go to your husband, your
wife, or whoever, preacher. There's only one person to help
you. So we need to go here. We've got to come naked and open
before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. We have to do. I think we're getting real problems
when we try to hide things, when we don't open up. But great grace,
great grace says he hears, he knows, he forgives. To forgive. And a child of God, a child of
God needs to tell God all the thoughts of their heart. All
of them. All your wickedness. I don't
care how vile it is. Go tell him about it. Ask him
to get rid of it. Right? We harbor these things.
We've got to get rid of it. You've got to get it off your
chest. This is what I've been talking about. It's what David said. You've
got to get it off your chest. Who are you going to get it off to? Who are
you going to go to? Him. He knows your thoughts anyway. Tell him. Tell him. He's a great high priest, and
he's the only one we confess to, right? He's faithful. The
scripture says Christ is faithful and just to forgive us. If we
confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. So confess. With the mouth, confession is
made. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. We need to
get it off, get it out, to Him. To Him. Lord, all my desires
before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. My groaning,
God hears us. He hears us, and if we go to
Him, He just might answer us. He might answer us. Well, verse
10, look at it. My heart panteth. My heart panned. Do you ever want something you
don't know what you want? Sure you do. You've got desires you don't
know what for. He says, my strength fails me. No ability to do what you would.
Like Paul said in Romans 7, the things I would, I don't do. The
things I would not, that's what I do. No strength. Can't do the
least thing that you want to do, right? Henry just can't do
it. No ability. You want to do something, but
you can't. As for the light of mine eyes, it's also gone from
me. You ever get so bent out of shape
that you lose all rationale and reason? Sure, we all do. We all get in such sinful, low-down
states that we lose all reasoning, all the Word of God is blank,
that we lose all hope, all assurance. Do you? Sure you do. Everybody
does. All light, void of understanding,
especially God's Word. You forget all about God. I mean,
the simplest of the basic promises, you forget them. Forget all about
it. Oh, he's left me. He said, I'll never leave you.
Oh, he's left me. That's because the light is gone
and you're in darkness. Well, he says, verse 11, my lovers
and my friends, they stand aloof from my soul and my kinsmen.
My kinsmen are far off. Nobody knows what I'm going through. You ever get in such situations
sometimes even your husband or wife doesn't know what's going
on. They say, well, honey, what's wrong? Uh-huh. You ever get that
one? Sure you did. And somebody knows
all about it. Knows all about it. My lovers
and my friends, they stand to lose from my, from my, So are
my stroke and my kinsmen, they stand afar." Now, this could
relate to Christ. The whole tenor of the psalm,
though, there's so many verses here that cannot relate to Christ.
And he says, I'll declare my iniquity, I'll be sorry for my
sin, and so forth. I'm ready to halt. These things
can't apply to Christ. But this can, right here. When
Christ was left by everybody. Nobody stood with him. He was
left. Even God turned his back. on
Christ for our sake. Verse 12, they also that speak
after my life lay snares for me. You know, they plotted and
planned to kill Christ and laid snares to try to catch Him up
and so forth. But this talks to us too. Sin. The sin that's within it lays
snares for us, doesn't it? Your lust, your corruptions lay
snares. There's a snare around the corner,
John, tomorrow morning. It's waiting on you. And it's
coming out of your own bosom. Waiting on you. And you'll step
right in it. That's yourself, that's sin, that's Satan, that's
your enemies, chiefly your own self, your own worst enemy. They
snare for you, they seek your hurt, they speak mischievous
things, mischievous things. Verse 12, you imagine deceits
all day long. Do you ever, well, do you ever
not? Can't seem to think one decent
thought. You ever get like that? Man,
I tell you. If it's not hitting home, it
doesn't work. Do you ever get in such a predicament
that you go to bed thinking the worst and evil thought, and you
wake up thinking, and you think, I am full of iniquity. And no
matter what you do, you can't get rid of it. It plagues you
everywhere you go, right? That's sin, the sin within you. Verse 13, but I, listen to this,
as a deaf man, I heard not. This is Christ going before,
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. When Christ, I was a
dumb man that opened not his mouth. That's when Christ went
before Pilate, before his accusers as being made sin for us. He
was guilty. He was made guilty for us. And
he couldn't open his mouth. Just like us. If we went before
God's strict, holy justice, we couldn't open our mouth. Why?
We're guilty. So Christ did that for us. But this is us too. Here, verse 13, as a deaf man
I heard not your conscience. How often do we listen to our
consciences? How often do we listen to the Word of God? Stan,
the Word of God comes to us in our hearts, in our minds, our
word comes. Do we listen? We snuff it out,
don't we? The deaf man, the haired knob, plug up our ears. Why?
We like sin. We really do in this world. Yeah,
we do. Yeah, we do. Name me a sin that's
not willing. Willing sin. Goodness gracious. As a deaf man, we don't hear
our conscience, we don't hear the word of God. I was a dumb
man that opened not his mouth, thus verse, I was as a man that
heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproof. Listen to this.
You ever been caught red-handed at something? You ever been caught red-handed
and had nothing to say for yourself afterwards? Sure you have, everybody has.
Everybody has. I remember, oh my, oh. You won't walk out of here. Being caught up with so many,
I was a rascal. Still am, but I was even more
so when I was a kid. I bet you were too, Rick. It
comes with the Kentucky nature. No good. No good. Get caught
red-handed and when they catch you, what did you do? Got nothing to say. You know,
sometimes if you're not caught red-handed, you can weasel out
of it. I did that to Johnny. You know, I wasn't real. Excuse
after excuse. But if you're caught red-handed,
nothing to say to yourself, right? We're caught red-handed right
here with the blood of God's Son on our hands. Red-handed,
that's where that saying comes from. We've killed God's Son. What do you got to say to yourself,
Terry? Nothing. Do it for yourself. Then where
are you going to go? What are you going to do? Only one place to go, and this
is what David said. He said, I had nothing to say for myself.
Verse 15. Lord! Indeed, Lord, do I hope
that I will hear, Lord. You'll hear. You're my only hope.
Lord. Red-handed. Aaron Dumas. You know Aaron Dumas, the missionary
to... Boy, I promised you I got to hear it. Aaron Dumas, missionary
to Jamaica. He said one time he was driving
in the States. and the speed and the policeman caught him
and he was speed I mean doing fifteen twenty mile an hour speed
limit. Like some people do and they caught him pulled him over
and he said he caught had nothing to say no excuse my speedometer
wasn't broke my car got a strange plate no excuse he knew and he
said when the officer came walking up to the window he I remember
him saying this and that and that And actually, he said the
officer was walking up to the window and all Aaron was saying,
mercy, mercy, mercy. That's what he said. That's what
he was saying to the officer. Mercy. I think the guy let him
go. He never heard such a thing. He's either a crazy man or he
deserves mercy. Mercy. And that's the only thing
we can believe, folks. Red handed. Mercy. Lord have
mercy. It's a shame we say that and
take his name in vain like that. Oh, laws of mercy. Oh, goodness
gracious. Lord, have mercy. That's the
only way to ever say that. Lord, have mercy. Have mercy. Oh, Lord, I in Thee do I hope.
You'll hear me. You'll hear me. This seems to
be the only bright spot in this whole song. Take notice of it.
It's the only bright spot in here. Lord, you'll hear me. You'll
hear. Then he goes on. He goes back.
He says, I said, hear me, lest otherwise, if you don't, and
if God doesn't hear us, we go down, won't we? We go down to
the pit. We're just like the rest of them. If you don't hear
me, otherwise, they'll rejoice over me. I'll be a reproach to
Christ, a reproach to the church. I'll fall. It'll be the biggest
fall. Preacher, deacon, it'll be the worst fall of the whole
town, especially the little Franklin, Rocky Mountain, Franklin County.
Everybody knows when you, well, Everybody knows everything about
everybody, don't you? And if you fall, it'll be front-page
news. Lord, help me. Lord, hear me. Lord, keep me. Lord, preserve
me. Lord, hear me. You're my only
hope, lest otherwise they rejoice over me. And boy, they will,
won't they? They'll rejoice over you, won't they? When my foot
slips, they'll magnify themselves against me. Told you! Verse 17, I'm ready to quit,
Lord. Are you, mister, ready to halt?
I'm ready to quit. Ready for halting. Ready for
halting. Lord, help me. I'm ready to quit.
And my sorrow is continually before me. Verse 18. But I've
got to declare my problem. My iniquity. I'll declare it. Sometimes you get a firm resolve.
I'll declare my iniquity. You ever do this? I'll declare
my iniquity. And I'll be sorry for my sins.
Look at it where it says, I'll be sorry. And you turn right around and do
the same thing. Right? Sure you did. Yeah, we did. Doesn't
seem to help. Lord, I'm sorry. Well, the scriptures
do say this. Godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation. That repentance that needs not
to be repented of. Godly sorrow, I must say this,
Godly sorrow is It's true sorrows when it's sorrow towards God
against thee and thee only have I sinned. And then they say godly
sorrow and godly repentance is true repentance when you know
what you are and you hate yourself. Not just for getting caught.
I remember, oh, dad, dad, don't hit me, don't hit me. And I was
sorry for getting caught. But there comes a time when you've
got to be sorry for what you are, what you've done. This is
godly sorrow. Sorry for who you are and for
who you've done it against. and sorry for what you are, self-righteous,
no good, and looking to Christ, looking to Christ and Him alone,
appealing to Him. But you say this, don't you?
You always say this, I'll be sorry, I'm going to be sorry,
I'm going to repent. But it doesn't seem to help.
Look at verse 19, but my enemies are strong, they're lively, they're
lively. It doesn't seem to help, they're
strong. These lusts and these passions and these evil desires
and these thoughts are strong, too strong for me. I get real
sorry. Henry, you get real sorry sometimes,
don't you? You say, oh, the Lord's going to take care of this now.
God, I'm so sorry. Maybe a day or so later, you're
right back where you were. Because they're strong. They
that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. Multiplied. Instead of getting
better, you get worse. Sin on top of sin. Verse 20,
they also that render evil for good are mine adversaries. You're just trying to do what's
right. You really are. You want to follow
God. You want to be righteous. You
want to live a Christian life and so forth, which you've got
nothing but trouble and adversity for. Right? Well, look, finally, verse 21,
he says, Forsake me not, O Lord. Oh, my God. That's the way he
started out. He said, If anybody had a right to you, you do. He's
appealing, no one can help him in such a sorry state. Forsake
me not, O Lord, O my God, be not far from me. Make haste,
hurry, hurry. You ever get where you want him
to do something in a hurry? I'm always like that. Hurry,
Lord, I'm gone. Oh, goodness, get under some
temptation or whatever, and you say, Lord, you'd better hurry.
My foot slipped. I'm well now gone, going down. Right? Oh, we're always getting
that stuff. Help me. Why? Because he's the
only one, he's your only salvation. Oh, Lord, my salvation. And he quits. See what I'm talking
about this song? He quits. Wait a minute, David.
Don't stop now. Say, why art thou cast down within
me, O my soul? I want yet hope in the Lord.
Say that, David. No, he doesn't. He stops. End
of the song. Well, you know what? This helps
me. This helps me. It helps me to
know that even a man after God's own heart can get in such a sharp
predicament as that. Does that help you, Henry? I
mean, God said, this is my boy. This is my king. This is the
one. I love this man. Didn't Abraham David Abraham
was a man. He talked face to face, but he
was a low down worthless. No good. And they get in these
particular. It's just like that. This is
the reason I started this thing out by saying it helps to unburden
yourself and misery loves company. I'm so glad David wrote this
John. I'm so glad if he did not think I'm the only one. Am I
the only one who feels like this ever? No. David did. David did. But take comfort,
believer. Here's what I want to say. I
want to wrap this thing up. All your desires for God, all your
desires for Christ, all your desires for salvation, for forgiveness,
for repentance, all your feelings of sorrow, all your feelings
of conviction are from God himself. If you were not a child of God,
you would not feel these things. The devil wouldn't bother you.
He wants you to be self-righteous, right? He wouldn't bother you
with these things. These are from God Almighty to
make you low and cast down within yourself. No rest in your bones,
like he said. No peace in yourself. Why? If
you get so low, Sherry, if you get so low, There's only one
way you can look at it. If you get so in such a state
of helplessness and hopelessness, there's only one place you can
turn in there. If you lose all sight of any goodness in yourself
or any help, there's only one you can turn to. The Lord, your
salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. And look to him. And he says
this, he says this, and I'll answer for David. First twenty
one says he says that don't forsake me or don't forsake me when he
said I'll never leave me. David didn't have these words.
He didn't have it. Yeah I did. Yeah I did. I'm sorry.
But he didn't have them from Christ himself. We did. David had the. I'm not sure if
he had. I don't know if he had a copy
of the Bible or not. I don't know. But we do. We've got the finished volume.
We've got the finished volume. And we've got the answer to this.
Forsake me not, O Lord. He says, I'll never leave you,
nor forsake you. Oh, my God, be not far from me. He said,
oh, I'm a very present help in time of trouble. He says, make
haste to help me, O Lord. He says, surely my salvation
comes quickly. Oh, Lord, my salvation. Say unto
my soul, I am thy salvation. And Christ says, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Call his name Jesus,
Savior. That's why it came. This is a
faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. And we do well to
listen to it. Take heed to it. That this wife
of Christ came for the low down, no good, worthless, giftless.
Are you any goodness in you? Income for you. Nothing but worthlessness,
wickedness, perversion, trouble, twisted, perverted. You're one
of his. You're the one he's looking for.
You're the one. I don't know who that's for.
I think it's for all of us, really. But if you're not in that state
right now, you'll get there. You'll be there eventually, and
you may need this. You may need it. He's a very present help in time
of trouble. We get so full of it. In this
world, you shall have tribulation, trouble. Man is born of woman.
Full of trouble. Born to adversity. Stay with
us.