Psalm 13 says, How long wilt thou forget
me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have
prevailed against Him, and those that trouble me rejoice when
I am moved. But I have trusted in Thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in Thy
salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because
He hath dealt bountifully with me." You know, when I've been reading in the book
of Jeremiah and in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and I would encourage
you to read through that book, through Lamentations especially. And I was struck really with
how much, like Psalm 13, the book of Lamentations is. And Lamentations is a book that could
never be written today because such considerations as Jeremiah
sets forth would be considered to be too negative. You know,
that wouldn't be in keeping with everything is great and, you
know, just think positive and everything will turn out all
right. Just sing a happy song and stand up and dance around
you know, do all the things that are appealing to the flesh, it
never would do much good. But Jeremiah was a man who the
Lord sent for a purpose, even as He sent the Lord Jesus Christ
for a purpose. He sent Jeremiah to preach to
the nation of Israel, and He told him, they are not going
to listen to you. That seems like a futile effort,
doesn't it? I mean, because we like to know that if we're going
to do something, it's going to turn out good. You know, we want
it to be a certain way. I mean, if we're going to put
in the effort, we want something to come of it. Well, something
did come of it, but it wasn't what men would look at as something
to come of, because exactly everything that Jeremiah told the nation
of Israel was going to happen, and they didn't believe it. And
they hated him for it, and they said, get out of here, we don't
even listen to you. And they cast him out from their
presence. They hated him. Yet he kept telling
them the truth, and everything that he said came to pass, because
the Lord sent him to bear witness of the truth. People think that somebody that
preaches an unpopular message, they enjoy doing that. They just
like to make people feel bad. Well, Jeremiah didn't like making
people feel bad. He didn't want people to feel
bad. But he had to preach what the
Lord gave him, and in the midst of it all, he was not appreciated
at all, but he wept for the people. The very people whom he was sent
to tell, God is going to destroy you, he wept because they were
destroyed. He wept because of the shame
and reproach that was brought on the Lord's house as a result
of the sin of the people, which God will judge. Judgment must
first begin at the house of the Lord. The Lord will always deal
with those who were called by His name. Now indeed, not all
of those who were of Israel were of Israel, but the Lord had a
remnant in the midst of that nation of Israel, even as He
has a remnant in the earth. And He sent them into Babylon
to destroy the nation in general, but that He might redeem, that
He might show forth His people as a shining light, because He
had a people in the midst of all those people. And it was
to them that in reality, Jeremiah was sent to declare the truth
of God. And that at some point in time,
they heard those words, and they believed those words, and they
took them to heart, even as the Lord told Elijah, that he had 7,000 men
that had not bowed the knee to Baal. And there are the Lord's
people in the earth. Where they are, I don't know,
because they are not always apparent, because they are not always listening
at the time that you are there. But one thing is certain, and
that is that the Word of God is ever accomplishing exactly
what He sends it to do. It will not return unto Him void.
And it may be a word that lays dormant in a man's heart for
fifty years, until such time as the Lord sees
fit to cause it to spring up. It may bring immediate fruit.
See, we live in an age of immediacy, don't we? I mean, when we preach,
we want... See, these guys, you know, they
want to preach and they want all these people to come forward,
and buddy, we've got them all saved. I mean, there ain't nobody
left to be saved. We've got them all. That's what
old Finney said. You know, he was one of the first
big-time evangelists. And a lot of people really revere
Finney. But I'm telling you, Phinney went spreading a message
that wasn't true, number one. And he got a bunch of folks in,
didn't he? I mean, you read the history
of that time. when Finney was doing his thing. He actually made the statement
that they had... He called up the upstate New
York and all that area up in there. He said, that's the burned
over area. He said, we've converted everybody. There ain't anybody left. They're all in. Out of that area
arose the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian Science Movement,
And Mormonism all came out of that very place that Charles
Finney said is burned over. Everybody's come to the Lord.
Dear brothers, men can't do a thing. If the Lord doesn't see fit to
change the hearts of men, you can get everybody saved today
and there will be something else tomorrow. Because if it's not
in the hand of the Lord, it's not going to accomplish anything.
And so Jeremiah was sent with a word, and he was a broken-hearted
man. He was often called the weeping
prophet. And well, he should be. If you
read the book of Lamentations, I mean, it's one cry after another. I mean, he's just crying out
to the Lord for help. He said, you know, help, Lord,
for the godly man seetheth. I mean, this is terrible. The enemies of God, they're rejoicing. And his heart was breaking in
the midst of it. Do you know one of the things
he says in there? He said it's of the Lord's mercies that we're
not concerned. His mercies are new every morning.
They fail not. lest we would be swept up and
cut off forever. And so the psalmist says, and
we believe this is the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken
by David here in this psalm before the Lord spoke it in the pledge. Now, we know that he was under
the leadership of the Spirit of God. He said, How long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord? Forever. Now we often, and I might have
probably said this before, but we often think of the Lord when
He went up to the mountain to pray, that He was going up there
and He just had a sweet time of fellowship with His Father
and everything was great. We don't have any real reason
to think that because the Scripture says he was a man of sorrows.
Now if Jeremiah was a weeping prophet and a man acquainted
with grief because of the sin of his people, why do we think
anything less that was true of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because
He bore our sorrows. Jeremiah, he was influenced by
the sorrow, but he could not bear them. He could not have
them put upon him in the same way in which Christ did, as he
became sin for us. Jeremiah had sins of his own
that caused him sorrow. Christ had none, except those
that he willingly undertook for our sake. Many nights I believe that he
went up into the mountain to pray. He prayed this prayer,
Oh Lord, how long without forgiving me? Lord, you know, has any man
ever undertook any thought of desolation from the Lord that
the Lord Jesus Christ hasn't already known about? That he
hasn't experienced? That he did not learn as a man
How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord?" You see, every man who
is given a love for the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Father,
any man who desires to walk in the way of God has times whenever he believes
or he feels in his heart, it is not that he necessarily believes
this in the overall analysis of his life, but he believes
it at those moments in time. Lord, are you listening to me?
Have you forgot me? I mean, I'm in a mess here. This
trouble is weighing me down, Lord. I need some help. That's
what he's saying there. How long will thou forget me,
O Lord? This seems like a tremendous
burden that I'm having here. How long will you forget me forever?
You know, when a person is in trouble, if you could see them
from the beginning, you wouldn't worry so much about something,
would you? I mean, if you find out that you've got some deadly
illness, and you knew that Two weeks from now, they were going
to have some sort of medicine they could give you and it was
going to cure it. There wouldn't be any problem, would it? You
wouldn't even worry about having the disease. But see, you don't
know that. You don't know what it is. It
seems like it is forever. It is that which is just unknown
to you. And that's the nature of what
he's saying here. How long will thou forget me
forever? I mean, is there any end to this? What is the end
of it? I don't know what the end of it is. And so that adds
to the anguish. How long will thou hide thy face
from me? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, no
doubt, when He was hanging on the cross, the Lord did hide His face from
Him, did He not? I mean, He said, My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?" Because he was in that moment forsaken
of God himself. It was necessary to be so that
he might bear the burdens of his people because otherwise
we should indeed bear those burdens. But he bore them for us. How
long wilt thou hide thy face from me forever? Will I never
see you again? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? How long is this going to endure? Is the same old problem going
to creep, come to me again and again? Wouldn't it be nice if you could
just If you're having a problem, some besetting sin or whatever,
and you could just, like some of these preachers tell us, you
just go to the Lord, you just take care of that and then you
just move on. You know, what I've noticed in my own life is
it's the same old things over and over again. It's not something
new. I don't have to worry about something new coming along, because
the same old things that's bothered me ever since I can remember
is still the same things. It's still the same heartaches.
It's still the same sin that I see within myself. It's nothing
new. I have sorrow in my heart daily,
not over something new. It's not like, well, I got over
all those things and now I've got a new one come along. Well,
we may have some new ones that come along, but we still have
the old ones. It is just a continual thing.
It's the way of the flesh. How long shall my enemy be exalted
over me." Now it does seem, and this was
one of the things that Jeremiah lamented, was the fact that the
enemies of God appeared to triumph. Now, it's ingrained in a man
not to want his enemies to triumph. I mean, does anybody There's
enemies. I mean, if somebody is an enemy
of something, I mean, if you've got just on a simple level, say
the other team that you're playing against, they become your enemies
in that respect. I mean, do you want them to win? No, it's just in a man to want
to win, he wants to triumph. But he says, how long? Shall
mine enemies triumph? How long shall mine enemy be
exalted over me? That's a sad thing, is it not?
The agony of defeat? That's a terrible thing. And
most especially to the man that delights in the way of the Lord
and he sees the things of God trampled in the street. I mean,
when we see the testimony of Jesus Christ
disrespected, when we hear the name of God used in a foul way, in a light-hearted
way, I mean, somebody doesn't even have to curse to use the
name of the Lord in vain when they just use it in some kind
of off-handed way. And I would never want to discourage
somebody from praising God, but some people just use the term,
praise God, without even any thought to God. They're not even
thinking about God. They're just glad something happened
the way they wanted it to. And so they say, praise God.
Well, when they hit their finger with a hammer, they don't say
that. Yet the Lord, we ought to praise
Him as much when we hit our finger with a hammer as when we get
a check for fifty dollars, shouldn't we? I mean, doesn't it come from
the same source? I mean, the Lord is the Lord
of all things. He is to be praised and we should
praise Him. And I never discourage anybody
from praising God, but praise God, don't just say it. Don't
just use the term in that way. To me, it's much of what he says
here. How long shall mine enemy be
exalted over me? I'm tired of hearing this religious
stuff. And I know she means well. I
have this one particular lady. She comes in the store all the
time. Or not all the time, but when she comes in, I almost want
to go in the back room and not be there. Because she's always
wanting to tell me what a wonderful Christian I am and all this kind
of stuff. I ain't interested in hearing
that. Now to me, that's an enemy. I don't want somebody to come
and tell me, I'd rather you come tell me you're a sorry, no count,
good for nothing thing. I'd rather you do that because
I know that's the truth. I don't want to hear this business,
you know, about all that. I'm not interested in being patted
on the back. That's not what the children
of God desire. We desire for Christ to be magnified. Don't let our enemies be exalted
over us. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes,
lest I sleep the sleep of death." Again, a genuine cry to the Lord Our eyes might be open to see
the truth of God, because if they're not, we're going to sleep
the sleep of death. Don't let us be right up here. Here we are reading the Bible,
and we've got it before us, but we know for a certainty that
if the Lord doesn't give us eyes to see this, it's just more words
on a page. I mean, the Bible is no different
than the Sears and Roebuck catalog insofar as being paper and ink,
is it? And I was willing to say this,
that the Bible won't do you a bit more good than the Sears and
Roebuck catalog if the Lord doesn't give you eyes to see it. Now
I want people to read the Bible. I tell people they need to read
the Bible. But dear brethren, we need the
light of God upon us. Light in my eyes, help me to
see. Illumine my thoughts. Give me
an eye to understand it. Apply it to my heart. lest I
sleep the sleep of death." Now, religious men are happy. They live life happy, and most
of them die happy. I'm not interested. I'd like
to be happy. I'd rather be happy than sad.
I really would. But I don't want to be so happy
that I sleep the sleep of death, as a lot of people are. Because
they think that being happy is the goal. Being happy is not
the goal. Being happy is often a detriment
to the goal. But may we see. The Lord would
help us see whether we are happy or we are sad. May we see. Now
Jeremiah, he was sad most of his life. But he did not sleep
in sleep of death, did he? Because the Lord taught him the
things that He taught him. And that was the life is in that
which God is pleased to give. Don't let me sleep the sleep
of death lest my enemies say I have prevailed against Him.
Oh Lord, don't let me be overwhelmed by my enemies so they believe
they've triumphed. Now the Lord Jesus Christ There was a measure in which
his enemies triumphed over him, didn't he? I mean, it was a short-lived
triumph, and it wasn't a triumph in the greatest sense of the
word, but it was at least they thought they had triumphed. That was part of the anguish
that he had. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me here? I am, I mean, this thing that
these evil men would bring upon me is being brought upon me. Even for a moment we don't want
the enemies of God to triumph. Lest my enemies say I have prevailed
against Him. I have prevailed against Him.
And those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved or when I am
removed is how we would probably better understand that. When
I am removed from the scene, when I am moved, that is when
I am no longer able to stand against them, that they feel
that they have triumphed. But you know the resolve of the
man whose trust is in the Lord, it doesn't revolve around what
is happening in his life. We read this in Job. You know, for all the things
about Job, and Job, he was just a typical one of God's children
who needed to learn some things, but the Lord taught him some
things along the way, but he wasn't where he needed to be
and the Lord brought him there. But he said a lot of things in
his life that were great, even before he came to really see
who the Lord was. And he said, though He slay me,
Yet will I trust in Him. Even if He kills me, it doesn't
make any difference to me what He does. I'm going to trust the
Lord. Peter said it when the Lord said,
Would you go away? Peter said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the Word of eternal
life. I mean, if the Lord sees fit to just cast us all into
hell, what would we say? Lord, praise Your name. Now,
I don't know if I'd say that or not. I hope I would. Because
He's worthy of praise regardless of what He does to us or what
circumstances arise in our life. I have trusted in Thy mercy.
My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. We don't have anything
else we can do. Can a man who's been given trust
in the Lord do anything else? I mean, can a man that has been
cast on the mercy of God, can he do anything else but trust
the Lord? I don't see how he could. Trust the Lord in every moment
and everything that you see or whatever. But I'm talking about
in the course of his life, in the way in which God has brought
him, can he ever come to a place where he says, I don't trust
the Lord at all? No. Well, he can't. I mean, what
can he do? I mean, the Lord has put him there. That's part of
what the Spirit of God does in the man. It causes him to trust.
He can't do anything else. Though He slay me, but I have
trusted in Thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in Thy
salvation." Because it is the salvation of the Lord that we
rejoice in. Now, if somebody else could come
along and tell you, you know, you've got a lot of troubles
and I'm going to take you out of all these troubles. And that's
what these preachers today, by and large, are doing. They've
got quick, temporary relief. They're like what was one of
the Buffern or Anderson or somebody back years ago used to advertise
their pain relief medicine. It was quick, temporary relief.
And that's exactly what most preaching that I hear today is. It's quick, temporary relief.
Come on and we're going to solve your problems. You come on down
here and give us some money and we'll help you out. You'll get
blessings and all this and we'll help you to be happy and we'll
teach you how to pray and we'll do all these things for you and
you'll just be involved in one of our programs and we'll just
turn you out the other side and you'll be like just some strong,
vibrant Christian. If somebody could come along
and give you all of that, But they could not help you to know the truth of God and
to trust in His salvation. Would you take them up on it?
Would you want it? If a man could heal you of all
your diseases, but keep you from Christ, would you want to be
healed? But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. That's the only one I want. I
don't want this salvation that somebody can give me. I don't
want this salvation that I can get by my own effort. I want His salvation, the only
one I'm interested in, the only one I hope you're interested
in. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully
with me." I believe the testimony of every one of God's children
is exactly that. We will praise the Lord because
he has dealt bountifully with me. Job, though he lost everything, he
said we will praise the Lord. Shall we receive good from the
Lord and not evil? Which one of us can say that
the Lord is not every day of our life? I don't care what has happened
to us in our lives. It doesn't make any difference.
When we stand here and we think on Him and all that He has done
for us, can we not praise Him? Are we not made to praise Him? Are we not impelled to praise
Him? We must praise Him. He has put
the praises of God in our heart because He has dealt bountifully
with us. And if He removes us from their hearts tomorrow, may
the testimony of our lips be praise be unto His name. He is
worthy of all praise, most assuredly, as He has brought us to the place
to know and understand that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners.
No greater blessing can ever come on a man in this world than
to be taught by the Spirit of God that Jesus Christ is the
Savior of sinners. I'm not talking about the One
who might save sinners. I'm talking about the One who
does save sinners. I'm talking about the One who
poured out His life's blood to save sinners and that all for
whom His blood is shed are saved sinners. What a glorious thought
that He is that One. And surely, He has dealt bountifully
with us.