with me again to Psalm 25. The
title of the message this evening, Remember and Remember Not. In this Psalm, David makes four
requests that I want us to look at this evening. You will find,
I trust, that the fulfillment of each one of these requests
is the person and work of Christ. This Psalm is written in a form
of poetry. It's called an alphabetical psalm
because each one of the verses begin with the letters of the
Greek alphabet listed in order. So from A to Z, from beginning
to end, Christ is everything the believer wants and everything
the believer needs. Let's look here, beginning in
verse one. Under thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. David's
going to begin in prayer and begins lifting up his soul. You
know, that's the only way that we can pray. Prayer is a heart
matter. It's a soul matter. Prayer is
not using all the right catchphrases and all the religious jargon.
You know, we got to get it all in before we say amen. Prayer
is heart and soul communion with God. It's a child talking to
our heavenly father. You children, when you talk to
your parents, you don't use catchphrases. You don't have certain words
and jargon you got to use with them every time you talk to them.
You just talk to them about what's on your heart. Talk to them about
what happened today. That's what prayer is. It's talking to our
Heavenly Father about what's on our heart, the burden of our
heart, what we're in, whether it's burden, whether it's praise
and thanksgiving, whatever it is, whether it's need. It's heart
and soul communion with God. And David gives us here four
requests of his heart and he's lifting up his soul to God. So
these are four heart and soul requests that comes from David's
heart. His first request, let me not
be ashamed. Verse two. Oh my God, I trust
in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not
mine enemies triumph over me. Now David freely confesses his
faith in God. That's why he's praying in the
first place. Faith is trusting God. If you trust him, you pray. Faith is resting in God, just
resting in Christ to be all I need for my salvation. It's resting
in him, just putting all of the burden, all of the weight of
my soul's salvation upon him without me helping out at all.
It's just resting in Christ. So this is David's request. Lord,
since I trust in you, don't let me be ashamed. That word of shame
is disappointed. Don't let me be disappointed
because I trust in you. Lord, I trust Christ my righteousness. I trust that Christ makes me
righteous without any of my obedience added to it. Lord, don't let
me be disappointed and find out I'm not righteous after all.
Lord, I trust that the sacrifice of Christ is all I need. By His
one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
He has removed all of my sin. Lord, don't let me just be disappointed
and find out I'm still in my sin. Lord, I trust in you. I trust you to defeat my every
enemy because I'm too weak to do it on my own. Now, this applies
to our fleshly enemies, and you know, the Lord's going to take
care of me one way or another sooner or later, he's going to
take care of them. But that's not our biggest problem. Our
biggest enemies are spiritual enemies, wickedness in high places. Wickedness in high places outside
of me and wickedness in me. That's my enemies. David says,
I trust you, Lord. I trust that you will deliver
me from all those enemies, from the enemy of my sin, because
I can't do it. Now, if you look over in verse
15, this is what David knows. He knows the Lord will do just
that. Look at verse 15. Mine eyes are ever toward the
Lord. I'm always looking toward the Lord. For he shall pluck
my feet out of the net." Now, the net there is a trap that
someone has laid for him. What David is saying is, Lord,
when I fall into the trap again, not just if I fall into the trap
once, but when I fall into it again, when I stumble and fall
again and again and again, my eyes are always looking to you.
When I get myself in a mess again, Lord, would you deliver me? Because
I'll perish if you don't. Lord, don't let me disappointed.
I'm looking to you. I'm trusting you to deliver me.
And the Lord is never going to let his people perish. He'd never
let any of them perish. And that's David's confidence.
His confidence is not in himself. If David was confident in himself,
he'd say, well, I won't fall into that trap again. But he
knows better. He will fall into that trap again.
So all of his confidence is in the Lord. Look at verse 19. He
says, consider mine enemies, for they are many, and they hate
me with cruel hatred. Remember I said our biggest enemy
is our own sin. My biggest enemy is my sin, my
lack of faith, my lack of trust. This word consider, it means
to mark. What David's saying is, Lord,
mark all of my enemies. Mark all of my sins, for there
are many. There are too many for me to
count, and put them all. upon the Lord Jesus Christ, my
substitute, or they'll destroy me. This is David's prayer for
the way he'd be delivered that the Lord mark all of his iniquities.
He marked every one of them and put them on Christ as substitute.
That's the only way we'd be delivered. In verse 20, he says, oh, keep
my soul and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed. Don't
let me be disappointed. For I put my trust in thee. Let
integrity and uprightness preserve me. For I wait on thee. Redeem
Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. This is what David
knows. Everyone who trusts in Christ
will be kept. But he still prays to be kept. He never presumes upon the Lord's
mercy. God's people are going to be kept by the integrity and
the uprightness of Christ our Savior. It's not a dependent
upon us. It's dependent upon him. We'll
be redeemed from all of our troubles by the uprightness and the integrity
of Christ. Now that's David's prayer for
himself. But if you're looking back in verse three, David's
not just praying for himself. He's not praying selfishly here.
Look at verse three. He says, yea, let none that wait
on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress
without cause. See, this is not only David's
prayer for himself, but it's for everyone who trusts in Christ.
Now, we saw this a second ago. True prayer, it's a matter of
heart and soul. But true prayer is also for others. True prayer is never just praying
for ourselves. True prayer will always include
prayer for others. Mercy, blessing for others. Always. This is the way our Lord taught
us to pray. Lord, give me this day my daily bread. Lord, forgive
us this day our daily prayer. Lord, forgive us our sins. Lead us not into temptation. The heart of true prayer is not
praying for me and mine. At the very core of true prayer
is this. It's concern for the glory of
Christ. It's the glory of Christ. And
the glory of Christ has to do with God doing good for all of
His people. Not just me, but for all of them.
And a believer, if you know Christ, if you have faith in Christ,
if you trust in Him, you have to pray for others. You can't
help it. The Lord's given you a heart of prayer. You have to
pray for others. If you know the joy, the utter
soul joy of trusting Christ, you've got to ask the Lord to
give that faith to somebody else, don't you? If you know the confidence
that comes from just the rest of trusting in Christ. You'll
pray that the Lord will reveal himself to more people. Let them
have this blessing and so that our Savior could have more honor
and glory from saving his people from their sins. So David prays,
don't let anyone that trusts in you be disappointed. But there's
another side of that coin, isn't there? Let everyone who does
not trust in you be disappointed. Let them all be ashamed. Let
those be disappointed who sin against you. That's what that
phrase transgress without cause means. It means sinning against
the Lord. Every one of our sins is a sin
without cause. The Lord is good. Why would we
ever sin against Him? We have no cause to sin against
Him. We have we have no reason to disobey the law of God. The
law of God is holy. It's good. It's good for us.
It's good for others. The Lord never gives anyone a
reason to transgress against him. But he sure gives us a lot
of reasons to trust him, doesn't he? So David said, Lord, I trust
you. Let me not be ashamed. OK, here's
a second request, verse four. Lord, show me your ways. This
is his heart's desire. Lord, show me your ways. Verse
four, show me thy ways, O Lord. Teach me thy paths. Lead me in
thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation.
On thee do I wait all the day. Now look over in Isaiah chapter
55. This is a good request that David
makes here. Show me your ways. Because by
nature, we don't know the Lord's ways. If we're going to know
them, the Lord's going to have to teach them to us. Isaiah 55
verse six. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him
return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And
our God, for he will abundantly pardon. But my thoughts are not
your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. See, now you know why we have
to ask the Lord to teach us His ways. The only way we'll know
Him is if He teaches them to us. We can't figure them out.
The Lord's ways, His thoughts are far too high above us to
be able to figure them out. So if we're going to know the
Lord's ways, He's going to have to teach them to us. But David
asked for more than just, Lord, teach me your ways. He asked
the Lord to put him in your ways. Show me your way, show me what
it is, and then put me in the path. Don't leave me my own way,
which will lead to destruction, but show me your way and then
put me in so I can't get out of it. You know, this is the
exact same request that Moses made in Exodus chapter 33. Lord,
show me now thy way. that I might know thee. That's
what he, I want to know your way. I don't want to be put in
the way that I know you. Now, you know, from the case
of Moses and the case of David, the Lord answered, granted that
request. The Lord made his ways known
unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Israel knew
what the Lord did. They saw his wonders. They saw
his wonders in Egypt. They saw his wonders in the wilderness.
They knew what the Lord did in giving the law. They heard what
the law said. They knew what those words on
stone said. They knew his acts. But Moses
knew the Lord's ways. He knew why the Lord did what
he did. Moses saw how those things pointed to Christ. Now we know
that the Lord showed David, showed Moses his way. But you know what? He does that for all of his people.
The Lord is so good. He teaches all of his people
his way. Verse eight. Good and upright
is the Lord. Therefore, will he teach sinners
in the way? The Lord is so good. He will
teach all every sin. Are you a sinner? Do you not
know the way? Do you need the way? The Lord
is so good. He teaches all his people his
way. Now the Lord's way, Lord's way
is not a direction, not north or south or east or west. The
Lord's way is not even a set of doctrines or rules and regulations. The Lord's way is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
I am the way. Christ is the way of salvation. He's the way of truth. He's the
way of forgiveness. Christ is the way of righteousness.
Christ is the way of eternal life. Christ is the way of peace.
The way of the Lord is mercy and truth. It's covenant, eternal
mercy and truth in Christ. Look at verse 10. All the paths
of the Lord are mercy and truth and to such as keep his covenant,
his covenant of grace and his testimony. The only way we can
have all these blessings is by being in Christ who is the way. He teaches all of his people
Christ the way. Now, Christ is the way. The Lord's going to teach his
people the way, his way. Now that tells me there's got
to be another way. If the Lord's going to teach his people his
way, there's got to be another way. And let me add this as a
word of caution to all of us. Brethren, don't follow the way
of the world. Don't do it. Don't think that
you're a child of God. Your sin is forgiven. You have
freedom in Christ and abuse that freedom to use things to excess,
to live in a way that's just not becoming a believer. Don't
learn how to conduct yourself by watching the way the world
conducts itself and thinks that must be how we're supposed to
act. We have to be in this world, don't we? Can't escape it. We
have to be in this world. Believer, you're not of this
world. Now, don't act like it. Don't follow the way of selfishness. That's the way of this world.
The way of this world is self. It's selfishness. It's self-fulfillment. It's self-grandeur. It's self. Don't follow the way of selfishness.
Follow the way of selflessness. Those are the only people that
can pray for somebody else from the heart, isn't that right?
Don't follow the way of greed. This world is so full of greed. Want, want, want, want, want.
It's never enough. When's enough enough? Don't follow
the way of covetousness where your heart could never be satisfied,
where you always want more and you're just trying to hoard up
more and more and more for yourself. But follow the way of generosity.
Follow the way of giving. Don't follow the way of cruelty.
This world is so full of cruelty. Don't follow that way. Don't
think that's the way to get ahead. You got to go to work and cut
somebody else up the back and tear somebody else down so you
can get ahead. Don't follow that way. Follow the way of kindness
and gentleness. The way of the Lord is meekness
and humility. That's the way to follow. Look
at verse nine. The meek will he guide in judgment and the
meek will he teach his way. That's the way of the Lord, it's
meekness, it's humility. Those are the people who are
in Christ. If we've been taught Christ, we know a little bit
about meekness and humility. We're not as meek and humble
as we should be or we want to be, but if we've seen the Lord,
now we know something about meekness, something about humility. And
the only way we can not follow the way of this world is by being
in Christ the way. That's why David says, Lord,
teach me your way, show me your way, then put me in it. We need
the Lord to give us a new nature that's teachable, that is humble,
that is meek. So we will be, so we will stay
in the way. If Lord's given us a new nature,
we ought to conduct ourselves like children of our heavenly
father. Look at verse 12. Here's the man that's in the
way. What man is he that feared the Lord? Him shall he teach
in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease
and his seed shall inherit the earth. Everyone who's in the
way of the Lord is going to dwell at ease because Christ has finished
the work. So there's nothing left to do.
He's going to teach his people so they know the secret, his
secret, the secret covenant of his grace in Christ. He's going
to reveal that covenant to his people so that they're at ease. They have peace. Christ has made
peace for them through the blood of his cross. They have peace. They're justified. They have
no sin. There's nothing left for them
to worry about. They're at ease. Now that's the
Lord's way. But here's another word of caution.
Be patient. Be patient with yourself and
be patient with others. This process of learning the
Lord's way takes a lifetime, takes a lifetime. That's why
David said, on thee do I wait all the day. I keep waiting on
you, keep looking to you as long as it takes, because I have no
other hope. All right, here's David's third request. Now we
get to the two words here that became the title of the message,
remember and remember not. His third request is remember
your covenant mercies, verse six. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercy and thy loving kindnesses, for they have been ever of old. Now I don't care where you go
or who you meet. Everyone who believes in God's mercy believes
in covenant mercy. They all believe in mercy that
God promised before time. David did. This phrase ever of
old should be translated from eternity. David believed in eternal
covenant mercies. God's mercies have been from
eternity. Now they have to be. They have
to be promised, just because God would, from eternity. Because I can promise you this,
we couldn't have earned them once we got here. They have to
be eternal mercies. Mercies that God promised in
Christ. Those are the mercies that a
sinner can trust in. The Lord promised mercy. He promised
mercy to His people before He ever created anything. Before
He created anything, God promised mercy. Who did He make that promise
to? The Father made that promise
of mercy to His Son for His people. Sinful men and women hang on
to God's promise of mercy for all we're worth. There's not
a person in this room that knows Christ that wonders, why in the
middle of this prayer did David make this request for covenant
mercy? We all understand why. Every time we sin, this is our
hope. That the Lord doesn't destroy
me because he remembers covenant mercy. Covenant mercy he promised
long before I ever sinned. That's our hope. And that was
David's hope. I don't know if he was young
or he was old, however old he was when he wrote this psalm.
But I do know this was David's hope. Covenant mercy. David's
hope all the way to his deathbed. What did he say on his deathbed?
O my house, be not so with God. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and it shall. This is his confession. This is all my salvation. And
it's all I desire. is God's covenant mercy in Christ. Whenever you're praying, it's
always a good time to pray for God's mercy. Every prayer has
got to include a prayer for mercy, doesn't it? Has to, because we
always need mercy. Look at verse 16. David says,
turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and
afflicted. The troubles of my heart are
enlarged Oh, bring me out of my distresses. How we need mercy
constantly. Lord, turn your face to me in
mercy and love. My sin has caused me to be desolate
and afflicted. My troubles are all my own fault.
So I need mercy. Lord, I'm in distress. I'm in
distress of trial. I'm in distress of heart. I'm
in distress of body. I'm in distress. This world's constant stress.
I'm just constant stress, constantly in the distress. Lord, would
you turn to me in mercy? I need your mercy. And you know,
this is a good request. It's always a good request to
ask for mercy from the Lord. Have we seen already? What's
the Lord's way? His way is mercy. What does the
Lord promise from eternity? Mercy. In prayer, let me give
you a hint here about prayer. If you would plead with the Lord,
if you plead with the Lord in prayer, plead the character of
the Lord. If you would plead with the Lord
in prayer, plead what he's already promised. Lord, I need mercy. Would you be merciful to me?
It's your character to be merciful. Lord, you promised mercy. Would
you be merciful to me? See, that pleading for mercy
puts us on good ground, doesn't it? Because that's the character
of the Lord and that's the promise of the Lord. Remember your covenant
mercies. And here's David's fourth request.
Remember your covenant mercies, but don't remember my sins. Verse
seven. Remember not the sins of my youth
or my transgressions. According to thy mercy, remember
thou me. For thy goodness sake, O Lord,
Don't remember the sin of my youth. I can't forget it. It keeps coming back to me. I
guess that's just human nature. You know, the sins of our youth,
they keep coming back to us and haunting us. David says, Lord,
I can't forget those sins. I can't forget that foolishness.
But would you? Would you forget my sin and my
transgression and instead remember me in your goodness? Lord, instead
of remembering all my sin, would you remember me in mercy? Not justice, but mercy. This is going to tell us something
about asking for mercy and needing the Lord to remember us in mercy,
not in our sin. King David, the sweet psalmist
of Israel, the man after God's own heart, has the exact same
plea. as a thief on the cross who read
those in the service. Don't remember me. Don't remember
my sin. Remember me in your mercy. No
matter who we are, no matter where we come from, no matter
what our background is, we all have the exact same need. It's
mercy from God. I think of an old dear friend
of mine when I read David's statement here, remember not the sins of
my youth. My dear friend was always troubled. Just constantly. Bless his heart. I felt so sorry for him. He was
constantly troubled by the sins of his youth. All those things
he did when he was young. They troubled him so greatly
that he just made him so ashamed of himself. I didn't know what
to say. But I wish now I could go back. I wish now I could go back and
remind him that God said he's forgotten the sins of God's forgotten
them. Now, we remember our sin. You
know, we say we remember our sin. I doubt we remember them
like we should. But we can say with David, my
sin's ever before me. We don't get too far, you know,
before we were reminded of our sin nature we carry around with
us. But this is our comfort. God does not remember the sins
of His people. He said, I won't remember them.
I'll remember them no more. The sin of our youth, the sin
of our middle age, and the sin of our old age. The Lord doesn't
remember either. And it's not because the Lord's
forgetful. It's not because he's got Alzheimer's. He just conveniently
forgets things. The Lord doesn't remember the
sin of his people. Mike, there's nothing to remember. Verse 11. For thy namesake, O Lord, pardon
my iniquity, for it is grave. Now I love here how David pleads
for forgiveness. He pleads for forgiveness based
upon the glory of God and the character of God. He says, Lord,
forgive my sin for your namesake. So you'll get glory to your name.
Lord, I know you could get some glory. You could save some good,
some morals and self-righteous people. But you'd get more glory. in saving a rotten sinner like
me. That's what he said. You get more glory to your name
by saving somebody like me. You know, if you go down to the
bank tomorrow, one of your friends has a $1,000 bank loan and you
paid it off, you'd be a good friend, wouldn't you? But you'd
get national recognition if you go down to the bank and you find
a stranger, somebody you don't even know, and they're getting
ready to go bankrupt, they get a million dollar bank loan and
you paid it in full. Wow, what a generous, kind person. You'd make the NBC nightly news
and the, what's that they put at the end there? The good news
section, you know, inspiring America or something. That's
what you'd be. That's what David says the Lord does for his people
when he saves you. Lord, you get so much glory from
saving me because my sin did. You get so much glory. Let me
give you another key in prayer. Plead with the Lord. Beg Him,
not for your sake, but for His namesake. Lord, save me so you'll
get all the glory. In Psalm 115, David repeats the
same. This is not just words. This
is what's on his heart because he writes the same thing in Psalm
115 verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Lord, save me in such a way that
you'll get all the glory. And you know, God will save everyone
that he can save, that he gets all the glory. He'll save everyone
that he can get all the glory. Then this is a good prayer. Lord,
my sin is so great. I don't have anything to contribute.
but I'll be saved if you do all the same." See, David's pleading
for the glory of God. Then he pleads, Lord, forget
my sin because of your character, because you forgive sin. Now
he says something here that's completely contrary to human
nature. Lord, pardon my sin because it's
great. If you went before an earthly
judge, you'd never say that, ever. You'd say, Well, just pardon
me and let me go, because it's not that big a deal compared
to other people. It's not that big a deal compared
to other cases you've heard today. Just pardon me, because I didn't
really mean to do that. And I promise you, Judge, I'll
never stand in your court again accused of this. I'll never do
it again. That's the way we plead for a
human judge. We can't make that plea before God. Davis says,
pardon my sin, because it's great. Oh, my sin is great. Now, I can
amen David there and say, my sin is great. But I can promise
you this, it's far greater than we can even imagine. Oh, how
great our sin is. And we can't say, I didn't mean
to do it. No, we mean to do it. Every single time, we mean to
sin. And we can't say we won't do
it again, because we will. We can't do anything but sin.
So the only plea we can have is this. Lord, forgive my sin. because it's great. You're a
great Savior and a great God. That can be our only plea. The
only way sin can be forgiven is found in the character of
God and who He is. It takes a great God to pay a
great sin debt. It takes a great Savior whose
blood is great, so great, so powerful, it can blot out the
large, deep stain of our sin. It takes a great God to be able
to forget the mountain of our sin. He's got to forget it because
in such a way, He makes it to not exist anymore. In order for
God to forgive sin, pardon sin, it's going to take the dead,
God's own son. It's going to take God doing
something so great, He sacrifices His only son to do it. Now that's great. We have a great
God. The Lord does not remember the
sins of His people. There's nothing left to remember.
The blood of Christ has blotted it out. He is a great Savior. And in Him, we can plead for
mercy and always receive it. For His name's sake, because
of what He's done. Right back to where we started
when we opened the service. From A to Z, Christ is all we
need. Christ is all we want. If he's
all you've got, let's battle it. Our Father, we echo the sentiments
of our brother David. Lord, remember your covenant
mercy. Remember your mercy. that you
promised to your people, how we thank you for covenant mercy,
mercy that's dependent upon our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord,
remember not our sins, but remember us in mercy, not in justice,
but in mercy. How we thank you for our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's because of his righteousness,
his obedience, his sacrifice that cleanses from all sin, that
you can not remember the sin of your people. and remember
us in mercy. Accept us in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, how we pray that you'd bless your word as it's been
preached. Father, cause your word to bring
much glory to your name. Cause it to take root in our
hearts that we might meditate upon these things and feed on
these things and be encouraged. What a great God and Savior that
we have. We promise mercy, salvation,
forgiveness of sins to such vile sinners as we are. Father, we
thank you. Bring glory to your name. Cause
that to comfort the hearts of your people. For it is in the
precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray.