While I was looking at something Spurgeon said, one
word captivated me, so I looked this word up, and it only appears
three times in the Book of Psalms. But these three places is a perfect
outline for the Gospel of God's grace. Let's look at that. Let's look at this. The word
is mindful, mindful. It occurs, like I said, about
three times in this book of Psalms, but it's just very easy to outline. And I read just what Spurgeon
said about this one verse and closed it and looked at the concordances
and then looked at these and I just, here it is right here.
And we're going to begin in Psalms eight, Psalms eight. Let's begin reading in verse
3, or be in verse 4, where that word mindful occurs. When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou
hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? What
is man? that thou art mindful of him.
And the son of man that thou visitest him, for thou hast made
him, of course he's speaking of Christ, a little lower than
the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. And thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under
his feet. Well, what is man? That word man is mortal. What
is a mortal man? What is he that God is mindful
of him? Now that word mindful in the
Hebrew means to mark, to recognize, or to remember. What is man that God marks him? Of course, if he marked any of
us, as scripture says, who could stand? But this means to remember
or to recognize what is man, that's the question, that thou
art mindful of him. I wish people would simply ask
this question daily. I wish we would ask ourselves
this daily and realize we're not much. We're not much, so
the first thought of these three verses is what is man? Well,
you know what man is. He's a lowly, fallen, depraved
creature of the dust. What is man? What is man that
the God of all glory, the God of the whole universe, the God
who spoke and it was, is mindful of him? Man came forth from the
ground, and to the ground he shall return. He was created
in the likeness of God, but has now fallen, sinful, deceived,
being deceived, not only by that old serpent, but we're deceived
from within. The heart is desperately wicked.
Above all things, who can know it? Who can know it? We are lulled
by that stony, hard heart within us. dead, cold, lifeless to God
and God's son and God's word and his truth and his gospel.
this then is man what is man and he has a little bit uh further
description of them in uh david does in psalms 39 verse 5 behold
thou hast made my days as a hand breath and mine ages uh mine
ages as nothing before thee verily every man at his best state is
all together vanity, which means useless, empty, at his best state. What is man? That thou art mindful
of him, that thou remembers him, that thou recognizes him. Now,
it's no wonder if we read further down in this verse and in the
next verses, it's no wonder that God is mindful of his son, because
that's what he's talking about. and the son of man that thou
visitest him, for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels."
So he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is no wonder. We can figure that out. Because
he has the preeminence over all things. He's the firstborn. He's
the Alpha, the Omega. So it's no wonder that man, as
far as the man Christ Jesus, is marked, is recognized, is
remembered, but for God to acknowledge us, sinners here, anybody other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, for God to acknowledge us in our
unregenerate state, this indeed is sovereign, pure grace. But why? You know, ask that question. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? We need to ask that question.
And if we're honest with ourselves in the scriptures, we ask the
second, well, why? Why? Well, the second answer
is in the second point in the gospel, or if you wanna say it
that way, Psalms 111. Turn to Psalms 111. Psalms 111
and verse five. He, that is God, hath given meat unto them that
fear him, he, God, will ever be mindful of his covenant."
There it is right there. There's the answer. Why does
God recognize? Why does God mark? Why does God
remember sinful, volatile, foolish man Well, because God remembers,
is mindful of his covenant. The second gospel truth, God
is ever mindful of us because he firstly is ever mindful of
his covenant. of his own compassions, which
fail not, of his own mercies, which are new every morning,
of his own grace, for by grace you save, and that not of ourselves. He is ever mindful of his covenant,
of the covenant of love. He loves us. We love him because
he first loved us, and he loves us with an everlasting love.
You see, God has a people because he has an established covenant. recognized from before time,
marked in eternity past, remembered because of his dear son and his
eternal love. Basically, God notices us only
because we are represented in this covenant. Represented, represented,
represented, there we go, in Christ. All to the praise of
the glory of his grace. This is God's purpose. It's his
covenant. This is God's decree. This is
his providential dealings with the people with whom he foreknew. Look at Psalms 89. Psalms 89
and verse 3 and 4. Psalms 89 verse 3 and
4. I have made a covenant, he says,
with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant,
thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all
generations. Why? Because he has regard, he's
mindful of his covenant. We can't, you know, and this
is what Paul says throughout all the New Testament. Who makes
us to differ? We have no reason to be proud
of grace. That's despicable. For we did
not choose him, he chose us. Without him we can do nothing.
From him is our fruit found. Everything is outside of us.
And that's because he's mindful of his covenant. What is man?
What are we? Oh, I will agree that the intellectualism
and we have reason, the animals do not. We have souls. And the Lord has graced everything
we have, the Lord has graced us. And these graces should be
used to honor and promote him and worship him. But man is the
only one who does the opposite. Boasts of his supposed free will,
walks in a way that is pleasing to self. No, no, no, turn to Isaiah 42.
He's mindful of us because he's mindful of his everlasting covenant. Isaiah 42 and verse 6. I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness. I will hold thy hand. I will
keep thee. Give thee for a covenant of the
people for a light of the Gentiles He's mindful of us because he's
mindful of his son and he's mindful of his son and the everlasting
covenant Once you see this once you see
this you that he's mindful, recognizes, marks, remembers his covenant,
and not so much us, but we're included in that covenant, then
when you look at, and that thought right there just makes so many
passages of scripture come alive. Like, for example, Deuteronomy
7, you don't have to turn these, I'm just gonna quote three, but
the light of God being mindful of his covenant, and therefore
we're included. These verses, they just come
alive, They mean so much more to me. Deuteronomy 7, 7, the
Lord did not set his love upon you, us, nor choose us, because
we were more the number than any people, for we were the fewest
of all people, but because the Lord loved you and because he
would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers.
Covenant. That means that means so much
more to me. And then two more passages quickly, Isaiah 41. And like I say, you don't have
to turn here, but Isaiah 41 and verses eight and nine. But thou
Israel, art my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed
of Abraham, my friend, thou whom I have taken from the ends of
the earth and called thee from the chief men thereof. and said
unto thee, thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and have
not cast thee away. We deserve to be cast away, because
we don't deserve the least of his mercies. What is man? The
best of man? Nothing. But he is mindful of
his everlasting covenant. And then the last one in Isaiah
is Isaiah 48. And verse 9, I'll read that to you as well. Isaiah
48 and verse 9. For my namesake
will I defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for
thee that I cut thee not off. Because of his covenant, because
of his son, because he's mindful. He marks His covenant. He marks. He remembers. He recognizes. And lastly, in Psalms, this,
like I said, outlined itself. Psalms 115. It's the last place
that this word mindful is used. Psalms 115. And verse 12. We kind of made a circle
here. Psalm 115, verse 12. The Lord hath been mindful of
us. There we are. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel.
He will bless the house of Aaron. Why? Because He's mindful of
His covenant. He's mindful of His Son. Which
includes His attributes, which includes His unattainable perfections,
which we cannot, but based in the covenant, there's stipulations,
if I can word it that way, legally, the document, there's stipulations
that these must be met. These must be satisfied, must
be fulfilled. And what did Christ say? I fulfilled
your law. I fulfilled everything, jot and
tittle, to the maximum, to the zenith, to the utmost. Only Him. because our Redeemer
and His accomplishments in regards to this amazing and wonderful
covenant for His people, He truly and really and infinitely remembers
or recognizes sinners like us. He's mindful. He's mindful. I just love that word, mindful.
He is. He's very mindful. This will
feed your soul and my soul into eternity that he is mindful of
us out of psalms psalms 115 the lord hath been mindful of us
the god of all over all in all and through all is interested
in recognizes remembers such worms of the dust you and i a
people that were and still sometimes are so unthankful and so ungrateful
and so cold towards him. This is how we are. This is how
we are. Why doesn't he annihilate us?
We of all people who say we understand the grace of God, when we walk
in that door and think of wicked thought, in the house, this house,
his house, I'm being somewhat facetious, but we of all people
who know Our God, He's revealed Himself to us and we still, we
still get cold, one to another. The lack of love is astonishing
from me and from you. A flock that gets caught up in
too many affairs of this world, too many things that glitter.
We still like that, we're still like that grandson. We see something
and we go after it, just all the time. It's just, it doesn't
take much. Why? Because his attention span. That's us. That's us. But he
says in this verse, verse 12, the Lord hath been mindful of
us. Now, usually we'll start here
or preachers will start there and not say anything about the
covenant. Oh, you're a good person and you can do that. You know,
maybe it's a good Father's Day message, a good Mother's Day
message. We're not interested in that. What is man that God
is mindful? What is man? Nothing. We've seen
that. He's nothing. Anywhere you go in the scriptures,
if you have a right understanding, if you've been given a right
understanding, you know that it is not in man. We don't praise
him as we ought to. We don't worship him as we ought
to. We don't pray unto him as we ought to. Yet he always will
bring his sheep back to the fold. and we'll serve Him and we'll
adore Him and we worship Him. We worship Him. Look at verse
15 of this Psalm. It says it all. You are blessed
of the Lord. Incidentally, He made heaven
and earth. You are blessed of the Lord. Now we don't need to
put this on a bumper sticker. We don't need to put this on
a license plate to know by the authority of his word without
error that we're blessed. Why are we blessed? Because he's
ever mindful of his son and his covenant. May we continue to come to him. If we haven't come to him, may
we come to him. Because there's blessings in
no other. You are blessed of the Lord. There isn't any blessings outside
of the Lord, outside of Christ, outside of his covenant. Beseech
him. If you're snake bit, look to
the remedy, the brazen serpent. To whom shall we go? He said
to Peter. He said, you know, Peter said, you know, to whom
shall we go? He has the words of eternal life. You don't come
down the aisle or to this preacher or to shake my hand. No, there's
certain things that you do when you trust Christ. And the thing
is, is we need to get out of the way. I don't need to give
you an A, B, C, D to what to do. When the Lord shows you that
you're nothing, what is man? I'm nothing. Man, woman, boy,
girl is what we're talking about. Human, immortal. Immortal person. You're nothing. You look for a remedy. To whom
shall we go? He has everlasting and eternal
life. And then, what will we do? It's all right here. Look at
verse 18. This is what we'll do. This is
what the believer simply does in one verse, simply. We will
bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. That's what we do. What does
the believer do? Oh, he does all this good work.
Yes, yes, yes. Well, what does he do? Cut through
it all. In times of sorrow, in times
of refreshment, in times of daylight, in times of darkness, in times
of storms, in times of tribulations, we'll bless the Lord. because
he's mindful. The God of all is mindful of
his people because of his son and because of his covenant. That is amazing grace. Nathan,
would you close us please?