Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Psalm 61. I'd like us to look at this Psalm. Psalm 61. Here's a question. Does everyone in this world find
themselves, at one point or another, in a time of need? Now, we as
believers have been shown our needy state, haven't we? And
we know that we are in constant need. Constant need. All the
time. And praise be to God. God doesn't
leave us alone. He doesn't say, well, I don't
think you're in much of a need right now. Even when we're in
the smallest need, He's there with us, providing for us and
taking care of us, whether we see it or not. That's the other
thing. There's times the Lord's working
in our lives and we don't even see it till after the fact. Or
there's some times we probably won't see it, but it'll be revealed
to us eventually. My, oh, my. Do we as believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ find ourselves in a time of need? Well, yes. Constantly, we find
ourselves in a time of need. We are in constant need of grace
and mercy from our great God, aren't we? Why are we in constant
need? Because we're constantly sinners.
I was talking to Joe Terrell yesterday, and he said, Wayne,
if you really knew my thoughts and the people really knew my
thoughts that I preached to you, they wouldn't want to be around
me. That's true of every believer, isn't it? fully understand the wickedness
and the sinfulness of our sin, but think of this, God knows,
God knows the sinfulness of our sin, and then think of this,
and yet He still loves us. Oh my! God knows the sinfulness
of our sin, and yet He still loves His people with an eternal
love. That's remarkable! That's just
astounding, isn't it? Because he's loved his people
for eternity. There's never been a time when he hasn't loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were children of
wrath even as others in appearance, but we saw from that scripture
in 5 Thessalonians 5 that God has not appointed us to wrath. When's that been from? From eternity. Amen. We've never been appointed
to wrath, but yet our sins had to be paid for, didn't they?
Every single sin had to be paid for. And you know what? The Lord
Jesus Christ, I found this this week, and this just knocked my
socks off. We know that we're forgiven of
all our sins, don't we? We know that we're forgiven of
all our sins, past, present, and future, right? We know that.
But little do we think often that God has made a provision
for all our sins. They've already been provided
for. Why? In who? In and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Bought and paid for we are by
his precious, precious blood. Purchased, fully redeemed. Now
that'll put a step in a believer's walk, won't it? Not because of
anything with us, because we know we're so unworthy, but because
of all what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. So where do
we find comfort in our times of need? Well, as believers,
we only have one place to go, don't we? And we can find comfort
in friends and family, right? But even that's fleeting, isn't
it? Because sometimes our friends let us down, sometimes our family
let us down, right? It's like the old preacher said,
don't look to me all the time, because I'm going to let you
down. It's true. But there's one who will never let us down,
who will ever hear us, who ever watches over us. I'm going to
put a message together, hopefully for next week, about how the
Lord's thoughts are towards us continually. Continually, beloved. They're fixed on us. as believers. See, we don't grasp that, do
we? Because we're finite beings. We think, how can the Lord have
thoughts for all his elect of all the ages, even the ones on
earth and the ones in heaven? Because he's God. And his thoughts
towards us are not evil. They're good. Because we're in
Christ. I just gave you a part of the
outline for the message. But that's OK. That's all right.
Because it's comforting, isn't it? It's comforting. It's comforting
to know that. So we're so needy. And yet the
Lord is ever watchful over us. Ever watchful over us. It's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. We need comfort as believers. And we only find comfort, true
comfort, in Christ. Comfort in the things of this
world is fleeting, aren't they? If you take comfort out of the
things of the world and think that, well, that'll bring me
eternal comfort. No, it won't. Everything in this world is just
going to disappear. But there's only one who's eternal. There's
only one in whom we find eternal comfort. And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our comfort is in the eternal
one, the son of God, who has redeemed us with his precious,
precious blood and has saved us according to his mercy and
his grace. So when we need comfort as believers,
we turn to Christ. We turn to Christ. We turn to
our great God and we cry out to him in prayer. And we'll see
this brought forth in this wonderful song of David. The first point
I'd like us to consider is that we see prayer springing from
faith in God. Now, God-given faith will pray
to our great God, whether it's just this, God, be merciful to
me, a sinner. It doesn't have to be some long,
drawn-out prayer. God have mercy on me. Or when
we're driving or when we're on our own, oh Lord, forgive me.
And we know our sins are already forgiven, but we still cry out
to him. Another thing Joe Terrell brought up in our conversation
yesterday that I found fascinating, he was talking about us confessing
our sins. And he said the word confess
in the Greek actually means I agree. Scott Richardson used to say
that we lay down our arms of battle against the Lord, and
we take sides with God against ourselves. So when we confess
our sins, we're saying, God, I'm a sinner. We're agreeing
with God. Hence, the Republicans said,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He's acknowledging his sinnership.
And he's just saying, just God, be merciful to me. That's what
we do, too, as believers, isn't it? Oh, Lord, just have mercy
on me. Have mercy on me. And he's ever
forgiving and loving God. It's wonderful. Let's look at
this Psalm 61, and we'll see. We know that faith is given to
us. It's a gift of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast, which Ephesians chapter
2, verse 8 and 9 bring forth. Look at this in Psalm 61. David
cries out with God-given faith. He says, hear my cry, O God,
attend unto my prayer. Hear my cry and attend unto my
prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Look at that. Lead me
to the rock that is higher than I. So several commentators have
brought forth that this prayer is a prayer when Absalom was
rebelling against David. So you could imagine how David
would feel when his own son has turned against him, and when
his trusted advisors have turned against him. We can just imagine
how he would feel. My, he'd be overwhelmed, wouldn't
he? He'd be absolutely overwhelmed. And David, we know, he went through
several trials, several trials and several Temptations, and
David was the one who saw his neighbor's wife and took her,
and then had him sent to the front lines. And yet he is still
a man after God's own heart. He's one who God has his eyes
fixed upon. Now, David paid for that sin,
didn't he? His child died. His house was in ruin. So there's
consequences to his actions. But never forget. God doesn't
punish the believer. God chastens the believer in
love. Even when David was being chastened
by the Lord, it was in love. It was an absolute love. And
take note of the verse, one of the personal words. David prays
to our great God. He prays to our great God. He
cries out to him. He's crying out here to Elohim,
who is the mighty one. That's who he's crying out to,
Elohim. And he's crying out to him during
a time of trouble. He's crying out to him in a time
of need. But notice how he says, my God. Is Elohim your God? Is he the
one that you turn to in time of need? Because he's the only
one who can help us. No one else can help us but Christ
and Christ alone. And he says, hear my prayer.
My prayer, hear my cry, oh God, and attend unto my prayer. This
is personal, my need. And that's what we do when we
cry out to our Lord, don't we? Attend unto my prayer. From the
end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Have you ever been really
overwhelmed by a situation? Have you ever had a point where
you feel like you're drowning? because everything's going around
and happening all around you, and your thoughts are consumed
with things that are going on in your life, and you're just
overwhelmed. That's how David feels. He's
overwhelmed by the situation. His own son has turned against
him. His trusted counselors have turned against him. Remember,
David's a man of war. He's a soldier's soldier, just
like Joshua. And he's here, he's overwhelmed
with the circumstances. We all have points where we feel
overwhelmed by situations, don't we? There's a lot of people that
feel overwhelmed with the coronavirus. There's a lot of people that
feel overwhelmed with the political situation. There's a lot of people
that feel overwhelmed about just things going on in the world.
If we're in that situation, that's when we need to cry out to our
God. Because remember, Elohim is the strong and the mighty
one, and he's ever there for us. He's right there waiting
for us to cry out to him. He's not waiting just for us
to cry. He's already there. But here we see David by faith.
And who's he crying out to? Oh, he's crying out to the rock
that's higher than I. You know, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's Christ. He's that rock. Remember the
Scriptures declare? He's the one. Is he not the rock
of our salvation? Is he not the cornerstone of
our faith? He's the cheap cornerstone. He's
the one we look to in time of need. He's the one we cry out
to. And again, these are personal
words. Now, we may find ourselves in a situation, and I've found
myself in this situation before, where our friends just aren't
around for us. People who we thought were friends,
they've just maybe deserted us in the situation. Or even family
members turn against you because of what you believe, maybe, or
ostracize you because of what you believe. I've been in that
situation. It's not a very pleasant situation.
But God gives you strength to get through it. I can testify
that God gives grace. It would have destroyed me if
I ever went for Christ. And you get to a point where
you're so overwhelmed. You don't understand the situation. You don't understand why the
person's attacking you, especially if it's a family member. And
you're overwhelmed. But if you ever find yourself
in that situation, if you ever find yourself in a situation
where a friend has forsaken you, or a family member has forsaken
you, look to Christ. You know, I realized a long time
ago that I'm not the first one that had this happen to me. Because
the Lord says, I come. He comes with a sword, doesn't
he? And here divide families and friends. And it's simply
because of what the Lord's done for us. And we don't understand
that, do we? We sit there and go, why? It's
the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. Christ has saved
me from all my sins. And they don't understand that,
though. They would rather talk about things of the world, right?
And we can talk about things that are going on. We can fully
do that. But when the Lord opens the door, we're going to testify
of Christ, aren't we? We don't have to put our foot
in the door and keep it open. I'm not talking about that. That was
me in religion. Not talking about that, but when
the Lord opens the door, we tell people the great things that
our God has done for us. Somebody one time told me, it's
all God with you, Wayne. God this and God that. Thank
you. That's a badge of honor. Because
it is. Can you put that on my tombstone?
It was all God with him. It's true. My only answer to
the situation in the world, the situation and things we see going
on, is that the government of this world is upon his shoulders.
He's in full charge. And the hardest thing for me
to do, and is it so for you, the hardest thing for me to do
is just rest in Christ when that's all going on. But you know, we're
being taught that, aren't we? This world is a teaching ground
for us. We're in the school of Christ,
beloved. We're being conformed to the image of the Son. And
it's amazing. And we're being stones made ready,
aren't we? And when it's our time, we're
going to be placed in that heavenly temple forever. Forever. So take heed. Rejoice if you're
persecuted for your faith. Rejoice. It's hard, but rejoice. Because great is your reward
in heaven. Who's our reward in heaven? I'm not talking about
a bunch of crowns, either. Who's your reward in heaven?
Christ. Amen, brother. Christ is our
reward in heaven. He told Abraham that. He said,
I'm your exceeding reward. I am. He's the one who's redeemed
us. He's the one who's purchased
us with his own precious, precious blood. And sometimes the enemies
of God, like what was happening here with David, think of that.
His own son is an enemy of God. And sometimes the enemy of God
comes like a flood against his people. And they can be overwhelmed. And there can seem to be no way
to escape. But always remember that our
great God has told us that He will never, never leave us nor
forsake us. Brother Gary preached an excellent
message on that last week. He will never leave us. He will
never forsake us. Never. So this is why David's
cry is to his God and to our God. Because he knows Elohim
is the mighty one. He's seen things in his life.
David, like us, could look back before he was saved, and even
after he was saved. Now that's something I look at,
is look back to before you were saved, and you can see the hand
of God in your life, protecting you, taking care of you, even
though we were shaking our fist at him. Why would he do that? Because his everlasting love
is upon us. It does not change. And we can't
grasp that, can we? We can't. But think of how much
you love your wife, or how much you love your husband, or how
much you love your kids. And again, that love is but just
a little wee speck compared to how much Christ loves his people.
And we love our wives, and we love our husbands, and we love
our kids, don't we? And we love our family. But it's
not even close to how much God loves us. That's comforting,
isn't it? That's comforting. And so David
cries out to the only one who can give him comfort, the only
one who could help him. There was really no one else
who could help. Now, family and friends may try to comfort us
in our times of need, but the only one who can give us true
comfort is Christ. He's the only one. He's the only
one who can give us peace. And all we see here, David, his
sorrow, his pain is revealed right before us. And he says
this, O God, attend unto my prayer. Note that. O God, attend unto
my prayer. I ask you, who but God could
attend the prayers of all the elect on this earth at once?
Because it's not just you and I crying out to God when we do. It's all the elect that are currently
on this earth, crying out to God, sometimes at the same time.
Now, if we got four different people coming to us and telling
us at the same time, we're going to be overwhelmed, aren't we? But he has all the elect currently
on this earth crying out to him. And he attends onto every single
one of our prayers. That's incredible. That's who
our God is. That's the God of the Bible.
And David here says, attend unto my prayer. Listen, Lord, Lord,
please listen to my prayer. The word attend, attend unto
in the Hebrew is one word, and it means to listen. Listen to
my prayer, O Lord, please. It means to listen carefully.
It doesn't mean just to listen, but it means to listen carefully.
When you listen to someone, you've got your eyes fixed upon them,
and you are listening to them. That's what it means. So have
confidence when you approach the throne of grace. because
God is carefully listening to your cry. That's incredible. The basic significance of the
term is to note the activity of paying close attention to
someone, usually another person's words. Isn't that incredible? David says, Lord, please pay
close attention to my words. And we know that what Lord does,
don't we? And he's the only one who could attend to David's prayers.
Often the term functioned as an appeal to God, to hear and
respond to an urgent prayer, which we see here in verse one
of our text, David urgently crying out to God. Again, who could
attend all these cries of God's people? We know no man who could
attend to all the cries of God's people, or no woman who could
attend to all the cries of God's people, but the scriptures bring
forth, turn, if you would, to Numbers chapter 11. The scriptures
bring forth that Moses groaned under the burden of all the people.
Remember, people were coming to Moses and they were telling
him all their grievances. He groaned under the weight of
that. And this is not by any means telling not to bear one
another's burdens. You can write me and tell me
of something that's burdening you and I'll pray for you. And
it won't go nowhere else. I think that we, as believers,
should pray for one another, especially the pastor. I love
you guys, and I want to pray for you, because I know you pray
for me, and that's important. And look at this though, Moses,
because he had everybody at once. Remember I said that four or
five people come to you at once? You'd just be overwhelmed? Look
at this in Numbers 11, 11. And Moses said unto the Lord,
wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have
I not found favor in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of
all of this people upon me? My, oh my. And Paul, Paul had
a burden for the churches as well. In 2 Corinthians 11, 28,
he said, besides these things that are without, that which
cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Now think
of this too. We give our burdens to the Lord,
right? When we cry out to Him. Think, we don't know the number
of the elect on the earth currently, but it's a lot of folks. It's
a remnant, but it's a lot of folks still. And think of this,
10,000, 20,000, 30,000, a million, two million, we don't know. Crying out to God, laying their
burdens upon Him, all at once, and he attends to every single
one. He attends to every single one of them. He's not overwhelmed. He's not overwhelmed. What mind
but the eternal mind of God could attend to all those prayers?
No one but the eternal one could attend to all those prayers.
What love but infinite, unchanging love of God God does not grow
weary of hearing the cries of his people. In fact, he wants
us to cry out to him. He wants us to lay our burdens
before him. He already knows what they are,
right? Not one of them catch him by surprise, do they? But
we're to cry out to our great God, aren't we? And we do. We do. We pray for one another. We pray for our lost family members
and friends or co-workers. We pray for one another, we pray
for the church, we pray for other gospel preachers who are proclaiming
the gospel. We have a lot to pray for, don't
we? And then we're needy ourselves. God attends to every one of your
cries. God listens carefully to every one of your cries. Have
you ever had a friend who would attend to everything you told
them? I don't think anybody's ever had a friend like that,
have we? But Jesus Christ is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. He's not like anyone else. He's
the infinite, unchanging one, beloved. And he attends unto
our prayer. Look at this in Psalm 61 too.
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. When my heart
is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Look
at that. So we've been overwhelmed in
our lives, but we always go to the rock that is higher than
I. Think of this. Who's above all our troubles?
Who's above anything that goes on in this world? God. Where's Christ right now? He's
seated at the right hand of the Father. He's right there. He's above all these situations
going on. Nothing can reach Him. No one
can take Him from His throne. And He's ever watchful from that
throne over us. And He's ever attending our prayers.
He hears every cry. He even hears the things that
you don't cry out about that grow in your spirit. He knows
all about us. Even the very hairs of our head
are numbered. That's how intimately the Lord knows His people. We do have a friend who will
listen to every single thing we say. We do have a friend who
will listen to every single one of our cries. We do have a friend
who we can take every burden, even burdens that we cannot talk
to any other human about. We do have one who we can take
them to. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who shed
his precious, precious blood for us. So if you find yourself
overwhelmed by situations in your life, I have many times,
I'll admit it, I've had many times where I felt overwhelmed.
It's not a sign of weakness, no. It's just, I know my need.
I know my need. Sometimes people look at being
needy as weakness. Well, I'm not ashamed to say
I'm weak. I'm not ashamed to say I'm needy.
I'm not ashamed to say that in my weakness, He is strong. I'm
not ashamed to say when I'm overwhelmed, I just cry out to my King. Because
I can't take care of the situation, can you? See, usually when we're
overwhelmed, we're brought to the end of our rope, aren't we? We're brought to the point where
we're like, Lord, I do not know what to do. And there's the one
who's been standing with you, beside you through the whole
thing, attending to every single cry and every tear you drop,
every heartache you feel, anguish of the heart, anguish of the
mind. He's right there. He's ever with you. One guy we
were reading this week, he says he just takes your hand and he
guides you. There's a scripture that says
that the Lord took a blind man by the hand and led him out of
the city, and then gave him sight. Got him away from all that stuff,
all the noise of the city, and healed him. But it says he took
him by the hand, and he led him out. Isn't that wonderful? My! You know, I know in our culture
that man holding hands is not looked upon, but in Eastern culture,
it happens. And I'll never forget when my
son was little, he put his hand in mine. My daughter puts her
hand in my hand. She still holds my hand to this
day. It's incredible. But to think that the Lord, when
I'm overwhelmed, when I'm going through all those things, He's
ever with me and He's got His hand upon me. Oh my. Number one,
I can't stray that way, can I? He sure keeps us close by, doesn't
He? And He does. So if you find yourself in an
overwhelming situation or trial, it may seem huge before us. Let
me tell you, God's going to make it a mohel. He's going to make
it a plane, as a matter of fact. He's going to trim it down to
nothing. Let's turn to Psalm 42. Psalm 42. Let's look at this
psalm here. As the heart penneth after the
water brooks, so penneth my soul after thee, O God, Elohim. A
mighty one. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? Look at that. This is a cry of
David, a cry of a believer saying, my soul thirsts after you. Before
the Lord saved you, did your soul thirst after him? It didn't,
did it? It didn't, but now it does. After
you're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, our souls thirst
after Christ. Remember, he's the water of life.
He's the Lord, our righteousness. Oh my, my tears have been my
meat day and night, where they continually say unto me, where
is thy God? Now look at that. We know that
David's enemies, He said, where is your God? In Psalm 115, I
believe it is. And he said, my God's in the
heavens. He's ruling and reigning. You know, I know of a preacher,
he's not preaching still, but I know of a preacher that there
was an accident. He was working on heavy equipment
machinery. And he had his son there with
him that day, and his son was killed. And one of those men
that worked with him said, where's your God now? What an awful thing
to say to someone who's just lost their son. And he said to
that man, my God's in the heavens. And he's reeling and reigning
right now. And I imagine he said that. And I know that preacher
personally. I heard that story from him. I can imagine the pain
and anguish that he was feeling. And then that enemy of God heaped
that upon him. But see, God gave him comfort,
didn't he? God gave him fortitude to say those words. My God's
in the heavens. And I imagine he said that through
tears flowing down his face. And he said, he's still raining.
Same thing happened to Henry when his son was killed in Vietnam.
Somebody came up to him and said, where's your God now? He said
the same thing. My God's in the heavens. He's
still there. And look at this, David says
here, where is thy God? His tears say that. When I remember
those things, I pour out my soul in me. Now look at this. He's
remembering things that God's done for him. When I remember
these things, I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the
multitude. I went with them to the house
of God in the voice of joy and praise with the multitude that
kept holy day. So he goes to the temple. We
come here, right? Do you get comforted when you
come here? We come here, and we get comfort, don't we? Amidst
all the things that are going on. I look forward to Sundays
to be able to meet with y'all. And to be able to go through
the Word of God. Because it brings comfort. And then look what David
says here in verse 5. Now David, obviously is in a
state of depression. We've seen, and people say, well
how can David, David's a man of God's own heart, you're saying
he was depressed? Yeah. Yeah, he's just like you
and I. Yeah. I had one time someone
told me, they said, well, I don't ever suffer through depression.
I said, well, you're going to find a time when you will. And
you may have already went through it and not even know you went
through it. Because depression, like anxiety, has 1,000 different
phases. But it's all the same. You ever
been downcast in spirit? You ever been downcast about
things going on, or things in your life, or things in other
people's lives? Downcast. Without hope. Praise God, though, there's hope
for the hopeless, aren't there? There is. Look what David says
here in verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Now he's reflecting inwards,
isn't he? And he says, why am I cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieting
me? Look at this. Hope thou in God. There's hope for the hopeless,
beloved. Christ shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
And then in verse 11 he says again, why art thou cast down,
O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God,
for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance.
Now how could David say that? How could he turn so quickly?
Because he gets his eyes off himself and the situation that
he's going through. And he gets his eyes on Christ. And he knows the joy that he
feels when he's with God's people. hearing the word of God preached
and proclaimed, building him up in Christ. Because remember,
David had the same faith we have, right? He looked to Christ. He looked to Christ. You can
sum up gospel preaching in two statements. Two statements. Christ
is sufficient. Christ is sufficient to cover
all our sins. Christ is absolutely sufficient
in all things for us. That's statement number one.
Because what does Paul write? He writes, Christ is all. He's
everything to me, right? If you take Christ away from
me and from you who believe, we don't have anything, do we?
But what do we have in Christ? Everything. Amen, sister. Everything. So there's point number one.
Christ is sufficient for all things in our lives. Pardon for
our sin. Justification before God. Redemption. We're purchased by His precious
blood. And then the next thing is, Christ
is supreme over everything. The supremacy of Christ. In Him
dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him, what
does Paul write? In ye are what? Complete in Him. There's the all-sufficiency.
And then the supremacy is, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt
bodily in Christ. He's God incarnate in the flesh.
All preaching can be boiled down to those two points. Because
we need a substitute, don't we? You've heard me say, in the heart
of the gospel is substitution and satisfaction, right? Well,
who's sufficient? Who's sufficient to pay for all
our sins? Christ. He's sufficient for all. All
our needs. All. Even things that seem so
insignificant to us. He's sufficient for all those
things. And He's ever with you. And He will never, ever, ever
leave you. And He's supreme. Anything we
see going on in this world, He's over it all. He's high above
it. He's high and lifted up, beloved. And nothing can touch Him. No
one can take him from his throne. He's all supreme. He is king
of kings and lord of lords. And the angels in heaven bow
down before him, and they worship him, and they cry out, holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who is, and was, and is to come. That is our Savior. all the times that God appeared
to his people in the Old Testament, that was the Word of God. And who is the Word of God? The
Lord Jesus Christ. When Moses received the law,
and the Lord said, I'll let my goodness pass by thee, that was
Christ. That was the Word of God. We could never fulfill one jot
or two of the law. And the very one who gave the
law to Moses becomes a man. God incarnated in the flesh.
And he says, I didn't come to abolish the law. It's still there,
isn't it? It's holy. But he says, I came
to fulfill it. For who? For his people. Because
the scripture says he came to save his people from their sins. Are you a sinner? You need Christ. You may not think you're a sinner.
You may not think you're in need, but you're in desperate need
of Christ. And all we as the people of God, the only one who's
made us to differ is God himself. He's the only one who's made
us to differ, and the only reason That we are saved sinners is
because of the grace and mercy of God. And we, as sinners still
in this body, continue to see our desperate need for Christ.
I ask you who are believers, do you need Christ more now than
you needed Him five years ago, or four years ago, or a year
ago? Do you need Him more now? Yeah, because we see our sinfulness
more, don't we? And see, again, what Brother
Joe said, we're just confessing to God that we're in agreement
with Him, that we're sinners. And think again, what I mentioned
earlier. Despite all that sinfulness of ours, it does not change how
God feels about His people. Why? If someone does us wrong,
we're like, you know, right? Have we broken His laws? Who
have we sinned against, really? Even if we sin against another
person, who have we really sinned against? Remember, Joseph said,
I've sinned against God. He said to Potiphar's wife, you're
going to make me, you want me to sin against my God and Potiphar. But first, he said, my God. That's
who we sin against. My. And yet, he sees us in Christ. And his love for us never changes. Now what does that do? Does that
make us want to go out and sin more? Don't make me want to go
out and sin more, does it? It endears Christ to us even
more! My, God loves me despite my sinfulness
because he bought me and he paid for my eternal soul. Let that
just be in your thoughts this week. That God's love towards
you is absolutely eternal. It'll never change. And think
of this too. This is what I was reflecting
on this week, is before the Lord saved me and how wicked I was.
I'm still wicked as a sinner, but then just outrightly just
not even acknowledging, you know, who the God of the Bible is,
because I didn't know him. And yet, even then, his love
was upon me. And there I was breaking his
laws and sinning against him. And we as sinners still break
his laws, don't we? But praise God, that law is holy
and wonderful, but we're not under that law anymore. Christ
has paid the penalty for his people. Now, we don't just disregard
it, do we? It's from God. But praise God,
we're not under it. Christ is what? I'm going to
close with this. Christ is what? He is the end
of the law for righteousness. He's the end of the law for his
people. He didn't come to abolish law, but he came to fulfill it.
And he fulfilled it for every single one of his elect. I'm
going to use one more thought. I want us to think upon this.
I want us to think upon this. Christ's thoughts are to us.
He's ever mindful of us. His thoughts are fixed upon us. We'll look into that more next
week. Lord willing.