Well, good evening. Open your
Bibles with me, if you would, to the book of Psalms. Psalm
137. I hated to move on from Psalm 136. I had such a good time with that
last week, I thought, well, I won't wear you preaching from it again.
But your dad would have told me to preach from it again. But
this is a rich blessing, too. The Lord will show us Christ
in it. Psalm 137. By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down. Yea, we wept. When we remembered
Zion, we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us a
song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's
song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let not my right hand forget her cunning. Or let my right
hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I prefer not
Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, the children
of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, raise it, raise it
even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who are
to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewarded thee as thou
has served us. Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Thank God for His
Word. Let's bow together. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
and merciful Heavenly Father, oh, how we thank You for Your
mercy and Your grace to Your people in our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank You for Your Son,
for giving the unspeakable gift of Your Son to save sinful men
and women such as we are. How we thank you for his precious
blood that cleanses us from all sin. How we thank you for his
obedience that makes us perfectly righteous in thy sight. Father,
how we thank you. And how we thank you for this
gospel, the gospel that declares your darling son, that you've
given this gospel to men to preach to men for your glory and for
the good of your people. Father, how we thank you for
such good news. to declare to sinners, that saves the lost,
that cheers the heart of the brokenhearted, that strengthens
the heart of the faint, that edifies and comforts and feeds
your sheep and strengthens us along the way. Father, how we
thank you. How we thank you for your invincible power, the power
of your spirit that reveals Christ to the hearts of your people,
calls us to your son, keeps us by his power. Father, we're so
thankful. How can we ever render unto thee
the thanks that's due your matchless name for how abundantly you've
blessed us? Father, we thank you. And it is our earnest plea
that this evening, that one more time you bless us with the preaching
of the gospel. Father, would you be pleased,
we beg of you, that you'd be pleased to reveal your glory,
the right arm of the power of your glory, in saving, calling,
keeping your people. Reveal to us the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Let his glory ring forth from
this place. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people who are meeting together tonight.
Father, bless your word. Cause your gospel to run well
to your glory for the good of your people. We know that we've
always so desperately needed your word, your gospel preached
to us, but in this dark, dark day, Father, cause your gospel
to run well. Reveal to us the glory of your
son. And Father, we have so much to be thankful for, but we dare
not sin against thee in forgetting to pray for your people who are
in times of great sorrow, difficulty, trial. These things have not
come by accident, but according to your divine purpose and will. Father, we pray you give grace
for the hour. Comfort the hearts of your people. Deliver them
as soon as it could be thy will. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name, which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There will never be a sweeter
story Story of the Savior's love divine Love that brought him
from the realms of glory Just to save a sinful soul like mine
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful Wonderful,
oh isn't the love of Jesus Something wonderful, wonderful it is to
me Boundless as the universe around me Reaching to the farthest
soul away, Saving, keeping love, it was that found me. That is why my heart can truly
say, Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful? Wonderful, oh, isn't the love
of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Love beyond our human comprehending. Love of God and Christ, how can
it be? This will be my theme and never-ending,
Great redeeming love of Calvary. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, Wonderful, wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, Let's open our Bibles now again
to Psalm 137. I've got a title that may interest
many of you at this particular time and all of us at some point
in the future. What to do when you're crying. When I'm crying, what should
I do? Well, that's what this psalm is talking about. The psalmist,
we don't know who wrote this psalm, obviously it's talking
about the captivity of the children of Israel in Babylon. Verse 1
says, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea, we wept
when we remembered Zion. Now Israel had been carried away
to captivity in Babylon. And to show you how horrible
that this was, not only were they taken from Jerusalem, they're
taken from the temple, they're taken from their land. They were
taken captive by people who are modern-day ISIS. That's the people,
the violent, wretched people who had taken them captive. Israel
was in a horrible, crushing captivity, and it's no wonder they wept
in it. No wonder. Now, mostly, this
psalm is a picture of weeping under the burden of false religion.
Every time you read about Babylon in Scripture, Babylon always
represents man's false religion. So now what do we do when the
Lord brings us to the point that we're weeping in our false religion? There's no forgiveness of sin
in this false religion. No matter what you do, you haven't
done enough. You've got to do more. There's
no forgiveness of sin there. There's no peace for your heart
there. You're always wondering. In this works religion, you're
always wondering, have I done enough? And your conscience is
telling you, no, you haven't. There's no rest. You can't quit. There's
no comfort for your heart there. Because the basis of false religion
is my works. And there can't be any rest for
my soul. There can't be any confidence
and assurance of salvation when salvation depends upon my works. Now that's the very definition
of bondage. Just constantly requiring more and more and more work of
you. So what do we do when we weep because our soul is so troubled
in our lost condition? We weep because of the bondage
to the law, the bondage to false religion that just keeps putting
heavier and heavier and heavier burdens upon us. What do we do
when we weep over that? And also, many of you have been
delivered from that, but also what do we do when we have loved
ones? We see you're in that same bondage. God set us free. But we've got loved ones still
in that bondage. And we weep for them. We weep
for them. What do you do when you weep
like that? The primary meaning of this psalm, I just say that
at the outset when we go through the rest of it. The primary meaning
of this psalm talks about bondage to false religion. That's what
Babylon represents. But the instruction we read here
is also good anytime. Anytime a child of God weeps
in the midst of trouble and trial that you feel like is crushing
you. There's instruction here for us what to do when I'm crying. And I see four words of instruction
here in our text, telling the believer, what do we do when
we weep? Number one is this. This is so
important. When you're weeping, don't play
at religion. Don't play at religion. Verse
two, we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof,
for there They that carried us away captive required of us a
song." Can you imagine taking these people captive and just
being so mean to them and torturing them? In the end, requiring of
them a song. And they that wasted us. That's
what this bondage was. They wasted us. They just laid
these heaps and heaps and heaps upon us. They required of us
mirth. Saying, sing us one of the songs
of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Now here in captivity, Israelites,
they sat by the waters and they wept. Now I read about this,
although this is very interesting. There are several large, I think
there's two main large rivers in Babylon, carried lots of water.
But most of their waterways, what they called rivers, do you
know they were man-made canals? They weren't natural rivers at
all. They were a series of man-made canals that carried water all
throughout that area. And you just look at it humanly
speaking, it's an engineering marvel of the time. But now,
that's a pretty good picture of false religion. Look with
me at John chapter 4. They have plenty of what they
call water, but you know their waters are all man-made. John
chapter 4, this is where our Savior is talking to the woman
at the well. The water that they have, what
they call water, it's man-made. John 4 verse 13. Jesus answered and said unto
her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. The Lord says he's speaking of
that water, you know, drawn from the well, but I think we can
safely Correlate that to false religion. If you drink that water
of false religion, you're going to stay thirsty. You're going
to need to drink again and again and again. But our Lord says
if you drink of the water of life, the water that I give,
not man-made water, the water that I give you, divinely give
you, you'll never thirst again. And you won't thirst again. You
know, when we thirst, it's because of a lack of something in us,
a lack of water in us. That's where our body's way of
telling us we need more water. We lack something in us. But
our Lord said, if you drink of the water that I give you, this
divine water, you'll never thirst spiritually again. Because everything
that's required to save your soul, God's put in you. So when
you're weeping, don't play at man's religion, trying to make
you feel better. That's what people do when they
get in trouble. It's just a human nature. I've
seen it countless times. Somebody gets in trouble, You
hadn't seen them in a long time. They get in trouble, they're
through those doors every single week. Sunday, Wednesday, vote.
They're in trouble. They're in trouble. And they're
seeking religion to make them feel better. Now, when you're
weeping, I don't want to make this a commercial for Hurricane
Road, but let me tell you, when you're weeping, this is a mighty
good place to be. Because by God's grace, the gospel is preached
here. What I'm talking about is when you're weeping, don't
go playing with man's religion. Just trying to make yourself
feel better. Because that's what false religion does. It tries
to make your flesh feel better by playing to your emotions,
by making your emotions feel better. They try to make you
feel better, and here's the deadly part of it, without Christ. Without
Christ. And when you're weeping, you
seek Christ. I don't care what reason it is.
Oh, if you're in bondage to false religion, if you're in bondage
to sin, if you're in bondage to the law, you seek Christ. the water of life. You come to
Christ. As you are, you come to Him begging Him for mercy.
But if you're in any of the many various trials God's children
go through in this life, and you're weeping, I'll tell you
what to do. You seek Christ. You seek Him. Seek Him with all
you've got. Seek the water of life. And if you find Him, you
won't be thirsty. Because He'll be everything that
you need. But when you're in this bondage,
Don't seek man-made water. That's the point I'm trying to
make. Seek Christ. Don't play at religion to try
to make yourself feel better. Seek Christ. Because that's what
false religion does. They'll try to make you feel
better. But they don't give you anything to quench your thirst.
They don't give you anything to what you need. They have plenty
of what they call water. But none of it will cleanse your
soul. It won't quench your thirst and it won't cleanse your soul.
See, their so-called water, what they have to cleanse you, Man-made
water. Here's their water. Here's their
solution to how to clean up your soul. Just quit sinning. Sin
less. Act right. Act better than other
people. Man-made water. And it won't get you clean. That
won't cleanse your soul from sin. And it will leave you weeping. You come weeping, you leave weeping.
But if you're weeping over your sin, you seek Christ. He can cleanse your soul. The
water that flows from Him is the water we read about, that
river we read about in Revelation 22, proceeding out from the throne
of God. That water is clear as crystal. It'll cleanse you. It'll sanctify
you. Christ will cleanse your soul. And if your soul is cleansed
by God's grace, if He's cleansed your soul, your biggest problem
is solved. Now, that's not to say you won't
still weep, because you'll weep. I'm talking now to believers.
What do you do when you weep? You're still going to weep. But
that'll give you reason for joy in the midst of your tears. Your
biggest problem's been solved. God's cleansed your soul. And
when Israel was in bondage in Babylon, the psalmist says they
just hung up their harps on the willow tree. They just retired
them. They weren't going to play them. They weren't going to sing
these songs because they could find no joy in their captivity. Nothing wrong with singing, but
what those songs represented was joy. They could find no joy
in their captivity. And in that false religion, one
mark of false religion is, buddy, they got music. I mean, they
got tons of it. They got bands with guitars and
drums and every instrument known to man. I mean, they got every
kind of singing. Every single member of the congregation
comes up and stands behind the preacher, you know, in the choir.
I don't know who's left sitting out there, but I mean, they got,
man, they got music. I mean, whatever suits your fancy,
they got it. The hallmark of that ministry,
if it's false prophet, false gospel, is music every time. I reckon I shouldn't say this,
but I channel surf around at night. And invariably, there's
a channel on our cable that's got Jimmy Swagger on it. And
I just stop. I mean, I just can't help it.
It's like a car wreck. You've got a rubber neck when
you go by it. I stop and watch. Now, the man can sing. Far as
I can tell, he sings about twice as long as he preaches. Music,
just to get people's emotions fired up. make you feel more
religious, play into your emotions. But listen, that's emotion without
Christ. It's emotion without Christ.
When Israel was in captivity there in Babylon, they refused
to sing the songs of worship without God's appointed means
of worship, without the sacrifices, without the priesthood, without
the temple. Because singing those songs of Zion without Christ
was lifeless and joyless. And these strangers, these captors,
they wanted to sing these songs. And they said, I can't sing God's
songs in this land of strangers. The strangers can't understand
the language anyway. They speak whatever the Babylonians
speak. The Jews spoke Hebrew. They can't understand the language
anyway. Just like the lost, they cannot understand the language
of grace unless God gives them ears to hear it. Can't do it.
The Babylonians said, play us a song. You'll notice they didn't
say prophesy to us, did they? They didn't say open up the scrolls
and read the scriptures to us. They said play us a song. And that is the problem when
the focus of the service becomes songs that just appeals to the
emotions. And the focus of any worship
service absolutely must be the preaching of Christ, the preaching
of the word. God never promised to save His
people through the singing of songs. God promised to save His
people through the preaching of Christ, through the preaching
of the Word. Now, that being said, let me
make this aside. You know, singing is a very important
part of public worship. I hate that we're not doing it.
I miss it so much. I know you do too. And I'm hoping
real soon we'll be able to do it again. But, you know, during
this time, I mean, we still had singing. Isaac or Brady or whoever
comes up here and sings. Everybody's singing back there.
You're singing along with them under your mask. I mean, we're
still we still have singing, but we haven't had what we're
used to. But listen, the worship of God
hasn't suffered one iota, not one iota, because by God's grace,
we still have the most important thing. We have the preaching
of Christ. But I said all that about saying
the focus here is not on how much you're saying or what you're
saying. That's not the focus. The point I wanted to make is
when you're weeping, don't seek this emotionalism to make yourself
feel better. Don't seek religion to entertain
you to make yourself feel better. We don't need entertainment.
We need preaching. I mean good, solid, doctrinal,
bare bones, bold preaching of Christ. That's what we need.
Anything else seeking this emotionalism, seeking to entertain yourself,
is just seeking junk food. Here's another confession I make
while I'm channel surfing around. Jan and I are sitting watching
our shows at night. 99 nights out of 100, you know what I do?
It's time for a snack. And I get a snack. And I never,
I mean never, occasionally I eat snack peas. Something healthy.
Usually it's something that's not healthy. Junk food. And you know why I'm eating it?
I'm not hungry. Janet fed me a good dinner. The
sole purpose of it is to entertain myself while I'm watching TV.
That's the sole purpose of it. Don't do that religiously. Don't
do that spiritually. Don't seek this junk food just
to entertain yourself, to make yourself feel better. Seek Christ. Don't play at man's religion,
but seek Christ. Look to Christ. Trust Christ
to be everything you need. And you'll still be weeping,
but you'll have joy. You'll have joy even when you're
weeping if you can find Him. Alright, number two. When you're
weeping, remember. Remember the gospel that you've
heard preached. Verse 5 says, If I forget thee,
O Jerusalem, let not my right hand forget her cunning. If I
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of
my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Now, when
you're weeping, remember the gospel, the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace, the gospel, the good news, the glad tidings,
of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul called it, my gospel,
my gospel. Well, you remember the gospel
of your salvation. You remember the gospel that
God used to save you, the gospel that God used to reveal Christ
to you and in you. Remember the gospel, what the
gospel declares, how that in eternity, Almighty God chose
to save you. by name, individually, on purpose. Knowing what you'd be, God still
chose a Savior. Now remember that, and remember
this, if God chose you, He'll never cast you out. Never. Remember
the Gospel that declares how Christ died as a substitute for
His people. He shed His blood, He brought
that blood before the Father as atonement for the sin of His
people. And His blood cleanses us from
all sin. Now you remember that. If Christ
died for you, God will never bring you into judgment and He'll
never cast you out. You don't have reason to. The
blood of Christ cleanses you from all sin. Remember the gospel
that declares how God the Holy Spirit gives life and faith to
the people of God. Now you remember that. If God
the Holy Spirit has given you life, you'll never die the second
time. If God the Holy Spirit has given
you faith in Christ, you'll never be cast away. That faith won't
quit. And Scripture time and time and time and time again
tells us to remember. And I looked up so many of these,
there's too many to put in my notes, there's too many for us
to turn to. So I typed them out here. You listen to them. You can jot
them down if you want and look at them later. But Scripture
tells us over and over and over, remember, remember. Exodus 13
verse 3. Moses said unto the people, remember
this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. Here's what you remember. For by the strength of the hand
of the Lord has brought you out of this place. Now you remember
him. You remember the Lord's delivered you. And if the Lord's
delivered you, you're delivered. You're not going back into bondage.
Exodus 20 verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Now you remember that. You remember
that Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our rest. You remember
that and quit your fretting, quit your worrying, quit your
working and rest. Rest in Him. Rest in His righteousness. Rest in His goodness. Rest in
His love. Rest in His providence for you.
You rest in Christ. Remember that. Deuteronomy 15
verse 15. And thou shalt remember that
thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt. and the Lord thy God
redeemed thee." Now remember where you came from. Remember.
Remember how you were born in sin. And you remember how Christ
has redeemed you. If Christ has redeemed you, you're
free. Isn't that right? If the Son
will make you free, you're free indeed. You're free. Don't go
back. Don't go looking to put yourself
back in bondage. Don't be looking for the junk
food of religion to entertain you. Look to Christ who redeemed
you, who gave himself to redeem you. Psalm 63, verse 6. When I remember thee upon my
bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. Oftentimes when you're crying,
you're awake all night and all all the night watches. Well,
David says, when I remember thee upon my bed, I meditate on thee
in the night watches. Therefore, in the shadow of thy
wings, will I rejoice. Now, when you're up all night
weeping, you remember. Remember the Lord. Remember His
character. Remember He hasn't failed you. Remember He hasn't forgotten
you. Remember He hasn't abandoned you. Remember His character.
And you'll be able to rejoice even in your tears because you're
hiding in Him. Now, if you're hiding in Him,
you're safe, aren't you? Psalm 103 verse 14. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth
that we're dust. Now, you remember this. The Lord
knows you're dust. He remembers. And He will not
give us more than we can bear, because He knows we're dust.
Now, let me give you a word on that. You hear people say it
all the time. Oh, the Lord's not going to give
you more than you can bear. Well, that's true. But it's more
than you think you can bear. It's more than you think you
can bear. It's more than you want to bear. But this I promise you. The Lord remembers you're dust.
He'll give you grace. Grace sufficient to endure what
He sends to you. He will, that's His promise.
Psalm 136, verse 23. Who remembered us in our lowest
state for His mercy forever. Now you remember. Our God did
not forget us when we were lost. When we were far from Him in
our lowest state, He sent His Son to redeem us, didn't He?
Well, He's not going to forget us now in this lowest state either. Now, He's the one that brought
us low. He knows. He's not going to forget. Psalm
143, verse 5. David says, I remember the days
of old. I meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of
thy hands. Now, when you're weeping, you
remember this. God's eternal. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. Whatever it was God was doing
way back there in history, God hasn't changed. He's still doing
the same thing today. He's still saving and delivering
and preserving and calling out His people. You remember, God
hasn't changed. You can count on Him. Isaiah
44 verse 21. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. Now that's the promise of God.
When you're weeping and you can't see the light at the end of the
tunnel, you can't see any way out, the trial's unrelenting,
you remember the promise of God Almighty, thou shalt not be forgotten
of me. Now that's the promise of God.
You hang on to that in your tears and it'll help. It will. So here's
what the psalmist is saying, verse 5. If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." Here's what
he's saying. If I don't remember the gospel,
don't let my right hand do any work. Even something I think
is real cunning and real skilled, if I forget the gospel, don't
let my right hand do any work. Because if I forget the gospel,
I'm going to do the wrong work. It's going to be wrong every
time because it's not being directed by the gospel. It's not being
directed by the Word of God. And that's what God uses to direct
His children. So if I've forgotten the gospel,
don't let my right hand do any work. It'll be wrong. If I don't
remember that Christ is my righteousness and Christ is my sanctification,
don't let me do any work. I tell you all the time, whatever
it is that God's given to you, whatever way God's given you
to serve Him, do it. I mean, do it with all your might.
Just whatever opportunity the Lord's given you, you serve Him.
But if I forget that Christ is my righteousness, that Christ
is my sanctification, don't let my right hand do any work because
I'll be doing it in the wrong motive. See, if I forget Christ
is my righteousness, I'll work, but I'll do it in the wrong motive,
trying to earn my own righteousness rather than resting in Christ
to be my righteousness and serving God out of a thankful and grateful
heart as an obedient child, not as a mercenary. And there's a
whole great big difference between being an obedient child and being
a mercenary. Great big difference. I like
war shows and war documentaries. And I read about this group of
soldiers that came up and they saw the opposing army there.
And they weren't afraid at all. At all. You know why? The opposing
forces was a bunch of mercenaries. They didn't have the heart. They
were just fighting to be paid. If you don't pay, they're going
to quit fighting. They knew they didn't have the heart for it.
There's a big difference between being a mercenary, serving as
a mercenary, and serving as a child of God, out of love. If I forget
that, don't let me work. Verse 6, he says, if I do not
remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy, if Christ is not
my chief joy, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. This
is what he's saying. If I don't remember the gospel,
if I don't remember Christ my Savior, let my tongue stick to
the roof of my mouth. Just shut my mouth. Just don't
let me speak. Just don't let me speak. Because if I forget
Christ, I'm going to say the wrong thing. I'll say the wrong
thing. If I forget the gospel, this
is what I'm going to say. If I forget Christ, I'm going
to say things that will make people look to themselves Look
to their troubles or try to ignore them and whip them up in some
emotional frenzy instead of making them look to Christ. If I forget
that, just shut my mouth. Just shut my mouth. I want to think about this before
I say it because I didn't have it in my notes. There's a few things I enjoy
as much as I enjoy studying God's Word. and preparing to preach
to you. I look forward to it every week.
I look forward to the worship service. This is my plea. If I forget
Christ and don't preach Him to you, God, shut my mouth. God,
shut my mouth. If I forget that the Gospel is
the chief thing, that Christ is the chief thing, there are
lots of things that I think Think about politics. Think about the
world. Think about what people ought to do, what not to do.
And in my humble opinion, every one of them is right. I think
that, don't I? But it don't matter a hill of
beans to you. God shut my mouth if those things become my message. I wish God would make this so
real to our hearts The most important thing to any son of Adam is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Eric, God help us to preach Him.
God help us. God help us to point men and
women to Christ. Oh! Now remember. Remember. Many of you have been
under the sound of the Gospel how long? How long? Luke, your
entire life. You don't ever... you can't remember
anything else. Now you've been taught the Gospel.
Now you remember. But let me tell you something.
In order to remember the gospel, you've got to be here when it's
taught so that you have something to remember. Does that make sense? You know, if you're in school
and you're taking a test, well, you're going to fail it if you
weren't in class hearing the material so you have something
to remember to put down on the test. Does that make sense? And
this is especially true when you're young. At least that was
my experience. I'll just tell you about my experience
Jan and I are first married. I mean, the hours that I worked
trying to support us, trying to build a career, and the hours. I mean, the hours I worked. That
first summer we were married, I almost never saw her. The hours
that I worked. Working, I mean, literally 80,
90 hours a week. I mean, it was just incredible.
And then that was done. Life got a little bit back to
normal. The kids were born. The kids were little. And it
was just often hard to get to the worship service, especially
on a Wednesday night like tonight. But I was always just, I mean,
I was afraid to miss a service. Not because I was afraid God
was going to punish me if I missed a service. I was afraid I was
going to miss something. I mean, I was really afraid I'm
going to miss something. It seemed to me like every single
service The Lord gave Henry a life-changing message. It meant just for me
and Janet. I mean, I'm sure it helped other
people too, but it was such a special, special time of learning and
growth. I'm so thankful for it. And it
helped us so much at that time with our young family and starting
out and building our lives. It was so helpful to us. But
you know what? Now, all these years later, those
things keep coming back to me. They come back to you? They do,
don't they? And they help me now. I'm so
thankful God put me somewhere I could hear. And He lets me
remember it now. See what I'm saying? You have
to be where you can be taught so you can remember it later
on. And then through your tears, if you're like me, sometimes
it's hard to remember, ask the Lord to bring it back to your
mind. Ask Him to help you. All right, here's the third thing.
When you're weeping, ask the Lord to remember you. Now, you
remember the gospel that you've heard, but ask the Lord to remember
you. Verse 7. Remember, O Lord, the
children of Eden in the day of Jerusalem, who said, raise it,
raise it even to the foundation thereof. Now, Israel was in captivity
and they said, Lord, Remember us. Remember these people who
have taken us captive. Deal with them in justice. Lord,
remember us. Remember us in His bondage and
deliver us. Isn't that what the thief on the cross said? Lord,
when you come into your kingdom. What a glorious moment when the
Lord Jesus Christ entered back in His kingdom. And that thief
says that moment when all the glory is yours. completely triumphant. Would you remember me? And the
Lord told him, I will. Today, shalt thou be with me
in paradise. And the Lord is going to bring
every one of his children to the place. Every single one of
us asks the same thing. Lord, would you remember me?
Lord, would you forgive my sin? I read about your mercy. I read
how you're rich in mercy. I read how your mercy is eternal.
But Lord, I need personal mercy. Lord, would you remember me?
Would you be merciful to me? Would you forgive me? Would you
deliver me? I've told you this often, and
I plan on telling you many more times in the future. When you're
in trouble, when you're weeping, and you plead with God, you'd
be mighty wise to plead God's word, to plead the promise of
God. Some years ago, Jan and I were
on a cruise. We were on a cruise on our 25th
wedding anniversary. One evening, we're going back
to our birth, whatever they call it, I don't know. And this little
guy, he was three, four years old, was with his mother, holding
her hand, walking down the hallway there. And she said, come on.
What a vacation. You go on a cruise with a three
or four year old. You're going to be tired. This
woman, she looked tired. She wore out. And little boy
said, can we go to Nana's room? She said, no, we're going back
to our room. And he just started crying. And he said, but you
promised. If I ate my dinner, we could
go back to Nana's room. And I thought, uh-huh. What you
going to do now? And her shoulder slumped. She
turned around and off they went to Nana's room because she promised. Our Heavenly Father has made
some promises to His children. Plead His promise. Plead Him
back. Quote His word back to Him. God has promised mercy to
every guilty sinner. Well, plead with Him. Lord, I'm
guilty. There's none more guilty than me. Lord, would You have
mercy on me? You promised. Would You have
mercy on me? God's promised His people grace sufficient for every
trial. Then when you're weeping and
you're being crushed, pray, Lord, you promised you'd give me grace
sufficient. Would you help me? Would you
give me grace and enable me to endure? And we're going to pray,
Lord, take away the pain, take away the sorrow, take away the
hurt. We're going to pray that, aren't we? And I don't know if
the Lord will be pleased to deliver us from that or not. But this
is what I do know. He promised to give us grace
sufficient. Then Lord, give me grace to endure. Ask the Lord
for mercy and plead His covenant mercy, His promised mercy. How many times in Scripture did
the Lord tell Israel, now here I've delivered you. Right after
He delivers them, blesses them, He said, now I've blessed you,
but here in the future for too long, you're going to turn to
idolatry. You're going to leave me. You're
going to depart. You think right now you'll never depart from me.
I've delivered you. You're so happy. You're so thankful.
You'd think you'd never leave me, but you will. You'll turn
back to your idols. And when you do, you're going
to suffer. You're going to be carried off into captivity, getting what
you deserve. Yet the Lord promised not to
destroy Israel. And this is what he said. I'm
not going to destroy you. I'm going to, even though you're
going to be carried away captive, in my time, I'm going to come
and deliver you again. You know why? Because I'm going
to remember my covenant to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. So
many times the Lord told Israel that in their history. Well,
then when we're crying, a mighty good prayer for spiritual Israel
would be, Lord, remember your covenant. Remember your covenant
of grace. Deliver me for your mercy's sake. Not for my goodness sake, but
because you promised mercy. Don't give me what I deserve.
Give me mercy because that's what you promised to give me.
Lord, remember you promised your mercy. is eternal. Lord, I'm
begging You for mercy. Because right now, I need eternal,
unchanging, unending mercy. Because that's what You promised.
And that's what the writers of Scripture wrote about frequently. They are under inspiration of
the Holy Ghost. This is what they wrote. Let
me read you a few verses. Psalm 25, verse 6. Remember,
O Lord, Thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses, for they've
been ever of old. Lord, remember me for your mercy's
sake." Because you promised mercy. Isaiah 43, verse 25. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgression for my own sake and will not remember
thy sin. That when you're weeping, cry
to the Lord, Lord, blot out my sin. Blot out my sin, if you
can get the glory for doing it. Blot out my sin by putting my
sin under the blood of Christ. Deliver me. Jeremiah 31 verse
34, thus saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more. Lord, forgive my sin. Lord, I'm weeping under the burden
of my sin. Lord, forgive my sin, because
you promised you'd do it through the blood of Christ. Plead God's
Word. Plead His promise and ask Him
to remember you. All right, here's the fourth
thing. When you're weeping, remember
the end of false religion and remember the end of every enemy
of Christ. They're causing a lot of trouble
right now, but you mark this down. They're not going to be
there for long. They're finally going to be destroyed. But God's
people won't. Verse 8, O daughter of Babylon,
you are to be destroyed. Happy shall he be that rewarded
thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Now that's more cruel and more
graphic than I really even want to think about. But you can understand
a slave praying that his cruel master would finally be destroyed. Israel prayed for that. And you
know historically this happened, I read about this, when Babylon
was falling after this happened, I don't know how many years later,
but when Babylon was falling, people would kill their own children
to spare their children from suffering being taken captive.
I think it's interesting they killed their children rather
than have their children suffer what they made many other nations
suffer for years. They just bashed their babies
against a stone and kill them rather than let them be taken
captive. That's all I want to think about that. I just can't
even think about that. But this is the lesson to us. God will
avenge his people. He will deliver his people. You can be sure of that. And
what these verses are really speaking of in a picture is the
horrible, horrible final judgment of God when Christ returns and
he will damn everyone who does not believe on him because they
would rather believe a lie. They'd rather believe this false
religion. And in that day, false religion will be destroyed from
God's creation forever. Everybody in heaven and hell
is going to know. God's the only object of worship.
Everybody's going to know. And those who trusted in that
false religion are going to be eternally damned. And again,
that's far too awful for me to think about. I just, I try not
to think about it. I try not to think about hell.
I mean, I know it's a real place, but I try not to think about
it. And this I'm confident of. Right now, you and I should not
be praying that the Lord damn our enemies. We ought not be
praying that. Because how did the Lord teach
us to pray? He taught us to be kind to our enemies, didn't He?
He taught us to forgive our enemies. He taught us to pray for our
enemies. So right now, in our flesh, now we know the Lord is
going to damn His enemies. We know He's going to avenge
His name, His character, and His people. We know that. But
right now, if we prayed that the Lord would damn our enemies,
our prayer would be filled with sin and self-interest. Now come
on, isn't that right? You know that's right. And we
should not find joy in the eternal damnation of our enemies right
now. If we do, it's because of the
flesh, but we shouldn't find joy in that right now. But when
the Lord returns, His people will be able to rejoice in complete
holiness when the Lord damns His enemies. In that day, but
not right now. So right now, a better prayer
would be this. That the Lord would destroy false
religion in the hearts of people. That He would destroy false religion
in the hearts of people and set them free. And enable them to
hear the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. And give
them faith in Christ. Now that's a good prayer. Because
God's going to do that for somebody. He's going to do that for all
of His people. He's going to destroy the power of false religion in
their hearts by revealing Christ to them. And you know, that was
all of us. At one time or another now, it's
all of us. We're born in this world having false religion bound
up in our heart and we're in bondage to it. You can be in
bondage to that false religion even sitting under the sound
of the gospel and not trusting Christ. That's how powerful the
flesh is, how dead the flesh is, How powerful this bondage
to false religion is. This flesh, the only religion
it knows and loves is works religion. Let me work my way to God. And
the one and only reason there's some of us here this evening
who believe and we're not in bondage to that false works religion.
You know why? The Lord delivered us. The Lord
came to your bondage and he redeemed you. He destroyed the power of
that false religion in your heart. And you know how he did it? He
revealed Christ to you. And you were delivered. You turned
from it. The power of it was broken, wasn't it? So the best
thing any of us can do for our enemies right now is pray. Oh Lord, be merciful. Be merciful
to them like you were to me. If He'll do that, our problem
will be solved. Our problem with them will be solved. See, that's
a good way to pray. And I know it's contrary to the
flesh, but anything that's contrary to the flesh is right. It's contrary
to the flesh, and that's the way we ought to pray. So when
we weep, number one, don't play at religion. Don't play at this
emotionalism and play at these things to make yourself feel
better. Seek Christ. Number two, when you weep, remember
the gospel. Remember God's past mercies.
He's the same today as He ever was. Number three, when you weep,
ask the Lord. Remember your covenant promises.
Don't deliver me because I've been such a good boy, a good
girl. Deliver me because you promised you would. And number
four, when you weep, remember the end of false religion. Now
don't get caught up in it. Don't get caught up in trying
to entertain the flesh on its way to hell because remember
the end of it. Seek Christ. Seek Christ. These are the means
that God uses to give His people help. I hope that'll be a blessing
to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word. We thank you for this help that you've given us when
we weep, because we do. We weep and cry as long as we're
in this flesh, in this pilgrimage home, it will be a trail of tears.
Father, how we thank you for your help. How we thank you for
your mercy, your grace that redeemed us. How we thank you for your
mercy and your grace that helps and sustains us along the way.
Oh, how we thank you for your mercy and your grace that will
one day present your people faultless before your throne. And Father,
until then, we pray you'd keep us. Keep us by the power of your
spirit. Keep us under the sound of your
gospel. Keep directing us and protecting
us with your mighty hand. And don't leave us to ourselves,
we pray. Father, I pray you take this message and give much glory
to your name. Cause us to look away from the
flesh and the things of this life and look to Christ. Enable us to see him in his glory.
For it's in his precious, matchless name we pray and give thanks.
Amen. All right, you're dismissed.