As I was studying this week,
it seems as though every passage of scripture that I read caused me to come to the conclusion
that the truth of scripture is not hard, it's really It's just not a hard message
at all. It's a message of sovereign love and grace and mercy. Our gospel is not a hard message,
but it's an impossible message for man to believe unless God
permits it so. Because like you prayed, it puts
man in the dust, in the dung hill, in the miry clay. And it
lifts God up to where He is in man's hearts. And one thing that I've learned
is that when you trust the Lord, your life doesn't become a bed
of roses. There are many preachers have
you think that once you're saved and they say go on and receive
the power of the Holy Spirit and then you're more than a conqueror
and that you're destined for success, wealth, and health. But that's not what the Bible
teaches. Most of the blessings of Scripture
are spiritual blessings. God tells us not to serve God
and mammon, why would He bless us with mammon? Why would He
bless us with earthly things other than to sustain us and
give us what we need? And life is full of trials and
tribulations. And there will be correction
and chastening to those whom God loves. He chastens those
He loves, just like a parent corrects and chastens their child
when they go astray. He has our best interest at heart
in all that He does for His people. And God will not only save us
by His sovereign grace, but He will keep us by His sovereign
grace. What comfort that is to know.
Not only has He saved us, but He'll keep us. One man asked
Brother Mahan one time, and you've heard me say this, they said,
Brother Mahan, do you believe once saved, always saved? He
said, well, it depends on who saved you. If it's a weak little
puny God that I hear most people talk about, Someone who's trying
to, if you'll let him. Someone who wants to, if you
will it so. Not too worried about that God,
are you? But the God of heaven and earth,
the God of the Bible, dependent upon no one, does all things
according to His will and purpose. No man or no one can say unto
Him, what are you doing here? He's God Almighty. Salvation is in Christ, and Christ
is complete and full salvation. Christ said in John 6, All that
the Father giveth me, what shall come to me? Every single one. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. If Christ won't cast me out,
who can cast me out? Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. We come to Christ,
dear friends, because Christ came to us in love and in mercy
and in grace. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. And with those things in mind,
I want you to turn with me to the book of Psalm 86. Psalm 86. This prayer of David was written
when he was being pursued and afflicted by then-bee, King Saul. And though many of the verses
found in this psalm speak directly to his petition for grace and
that particular trial of providence that he encountered, it's also
a beautiful, beautiful picture of salvation by grace and mercy
from a sovereign God. So look at verse 1 with me, Psalm
86. It says, "...a prayer of David,
And David starts this prayer by saying, bow down thine ear,
O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Oh, the great stoop
that God Almighty made to save His people from their sin. The
same David that in Psalm 115 said, Our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever he hath
pleased. He now, knowing where his God
is, says, Bow down thy ear, O Lord. Hear me. Oh, he's high and lifted
up, and we're in the valley upon a dumb hill. He's in the heavens
that He made and He calls the stars by name. And we're in a
horrible pit out of the miry clay. I can show you that in
Scripture. Psalm 8 says, 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? and the Son of Man that thou
visiteth Him." Psalm 136 verse 9 says, "...the moon and the
stars God rules by night, for His mercy endureth forever."
Psalm 147, "...He telleth the number of the stars, He calleth
them all by their names." There's stars that we can't even see.
They're so far out and such a great distance. We haven't even discovered
many of the solar systems that exist, but God's named all of
them by name. Psalm 148 says, Praise ye Him,
the Lord, sun and moon. Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him. He was their maker. And He is our Maker. But then
David explains to us why he begs the mercy of God in this beautiful
prayer in Psalm 86. He says in Psalm 40, he said,
He brought me up. Where were you and I? We were
down beneath. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit. Oh, the pit of sin and despair. Out of the miry clay, he says,
and set my feet upon a rock. I wonder who that rock is. You know who it is, and I know
who it is, and he said, and he established my goings. Aren't you glad God's in control?
Aren't you glad that He directs the steps of His chosen? Aren't you glad that all things
work together for good to them that love the Lord, who are the
called according to His purpose? Oh, there's comfort there, dear
sinner. Oh, what a condescending act
of mercy and grace our Lord and glory made when He became flesh. and dwelt among us." And yet
his condensation goes further, because he died on the cross
as a common criminal for all the sin of all the elect throughout
all time. Oh, those that God gave Christ
for the foundation of the world, they will come. They will come. And this is the constant prayer
of every saved sinner, because we're in constant need of His
mercy and His grace. David says, Lord, bow down Thy
ear. Now this is not a demand from
the sinner. You know what this is? This is
called mercy begging. That's what mercy beggars do.
They beg for mercy. Hear me, he says. Hear me. If God don't hear me, I'm doomed. If God doesn't intervene, then
I'm hopeless. If God doesn't give me a heart
that desires to bow to Him, my heart and myself are forever
doomed and condemned. Oh Lord, hear me. Hear me. Hear my prayer, oh Lord. Incline
thine ear unto my voice. Mercy I need, and for mercy I
beg. That's what he's saying here. I deserve death. We take sides
with God against ourself. We see God's holy law perfectly
and righteous, and we stack ourselves up against it, and we go, I can't
keep one of these, much less all of them. And the law itself
demands and says, if you're guilty of one, you're guilty of all
of it. Hopeless and helpless we are. Mercy I need, and for mercy I
beg. I deserve death. We agree with
God, yes God, I'm wretched, I'm worthless, I'm no account to
anybody for anything, and I deserve death and condemnation, but I
must have Christ. Give me Christ. Cause me to trust
Him. Cause me to love Him. And you know what? And you've
heard me say this several times now, never, ever can I find in Scripture any lost
soul who prayed this prayer out of desperation of their own need
that Christ did not hear them. Not one. You search the scriptures. If you find one, I want to see
it. I can't find it. David says, O Lord, bow down
Thy ear and hear me and look at his next words. I am poor
and needy. Now think about that for a moment.
Here's the king of Israel. He could have had anything he
wanted. He's got men that follow Him,
men that wait on Him, those that is bidding. And He says, I'm
poor and needy. How is any rich man poor and
needy? It just doesn't make much sense,
naturally speaking. If money is not an issue and
you've got so much, how could you be poor and need anything? I remember one time speaking
to a man that I hadn't seen for several years, and we were catching
up kind of on one another's lives, and we got around to the issue
of health. He said, how's your health? And
I said, well, it's, I could lose a few pounds and start eating
right and exercise and everything like I'm supposed to, but for
the most part, I'm supposed all right. And he said, you don't
have any heart problems? And I told him, I said, oh yeah,
I forgot to mention, I got a bad heart problem. He said, well,
what's wrong with it? I said, it's deceitful above
all things, and it's desperately wicked. Of course, our conversation
soon ended, but we got serious heart trouble. All of us. Serious heart trouble. You see,
according to scriptures, every man and woman ever born is spiritually
bankrupt before God. God's holy. We're desperately
wicked. We are truly, truly poor and
needy. Our hearts within us are terribly
wounded. That's why Jeremiah said in chapter
17 verse 9, the heart's deceitful above all things. You find the worst terrorist
in the world, the one who would give his life to kill one that
he hates and his problems with his heart. The heart's deceitful,
desperately wicked above all things. Who can know it? Only God can. And it draws a
striking comparison against Christ who is perfectly righteous and
holy and completely and thoroughly perfect. in standing before God
Almighty. What a contrast between Him and
the sinner. We are all as an unclean thing,
and our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we do all fade
away as a leaf. Oh, our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away. And God requires holiness, and
we're nothing but sin. God requires perfect righteousness. That's not a hard term. You know
what that means? Perfectly right. And we are completely wrong. You remember over in Luke chapter
7, our Lord came into the house of Simon the Pharisee. And you remember the story, he
didn't wash his feet and the poor woman came in and washed
his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. But anyway,
that's another story. But he told Simon the Pharisee
a story. He said, there were two men and
they both owed their master. One owed him 50 pence and the
other owed him 500. Now that's a pretty big difference
when you think about it. If a guy owes me $50, I'm probably
not going to say anything about it and just hope he pays me.
But if he owes me $500, I'm going to be a little more concerned
about it. But anyway, the Lord told Simon
that when both had nothing to pay, the guy that had borrowed $500
had nothing of what was given. The guy who had been given 50
had nothing. Neither one had nothing to pay. And scripture says, he frankly,
freely forgave them both. Friends, we have nothing to pay.
That's our state before God. We owe a great debt. A great
debt. And we have nothing to pay. Absolutely
nothing. Poor and bankrupt before a thrice
holy God. Oh, may God show us how needy,
how desperate and dying we are outside of our suitable substitute,
the Lord Jesus. Only if God gives grace will
we see it. But if you do see it, if you've
seen something of your infinite need, I've got good news for
you. Goodness. Isaiah says, when the
poor and needy, that's who we're talking about, aren't we? Won't
you agree with me that that speaks of you? When the poor and needy
seek water and there is none, and their tongue felleth for
thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will
not forsake them. I will open up rivers in high
places. And He did. and fountains in
the midst of the valleys. And I'll make the wilderness
a pool of water." Man, you ever seen a wilderness?
A pool of water and a dry land springs of water. I'll plant
in the wilderness the cedar and the chita tree and the myrtle
and the oil tree, and I'll set in the desert the fir tree and
the pine and the box tree together that they may see and know and
consider and understand." Oh, do you see, do you know, do you
consider and understand together, and here's the words, that the
hand of the Lord hath done this. and the Holy One of Israel hath
created it." Everything we need, God provides in Christ. In the
salvation of His elect, God gets all the glory. You know why?
Because God did all the saving. I did the sinning, He did the
saving. He gets all the glory. Something must be restored before
it can be preserved. Look at verse 2. David says,
Preserve my soul. Preserve my soul. Now the word
preserve as a verb means to keep safe from injury, from harm or
destruction, to protect. It means to keep alive, intact,
or free from decay. It means to keep or save from
decomposing. Now you know that scripture teaches
we're all dead and trespasses in sin. The wages of sin is death
and we are nothing but sin. For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Paul is clear in Romans 3 when he says, for all sin and
what comes short. That would be a good nickname
for me, comes short. Well, there comes old Come Short.
What did he come short of? Come short of the glory of God. Come short of the glory of God. Wherefore is by one man's sin
entered into the world our father Adam, and death by sin? So death
passed upon a few people? No, passed upon all men. For all have sinned. This book is very clear about
what you and I have done. It's very clear about what you
and I are. And it's very, very clear about
who does the saving. God does. God does. And you hath He quickened, made
alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin. So we see from Scripture
in order to be preserved by our merciful God, He had to make
us alive and well. He had to restore us before He
could preserve us. That makes sense, doesn't it?
My mom and dad used to do a lot of canning. They called it preserving. I don't know if that's a term
used here, but they called it, we're going to do some preserving.
And they'd get a can, or they would can, or I don't know why
they called it a can because they always did it in a jar.
It seemed like they would have been jarring it. But they would
jar these tomatoes and green beans and squash and all kinds
of stuff. And I can remember them using
those glass jars with those sealed tops. And after the tops were
closed and you had it on tight, you'd be sitting there and you'd
go into the next one and you'd hear a pop. You know, I'm like,
what's that? And my mom would always say,
well there's another one that's sealed up. It's sealed up. And I've also heard from other
people who have done a lot of preserving or canning say, if
that which is put in the jar and preserved is pure, good,
and not ruined, once that thing is sealed, that food is good
for a long, long time. Long time. It's been preserved. But if you seal up that jar and
the contents within it are not pure, if they're somehow soured
or ruined before they go in the jar, the preservation, the preserving
will do no good. It'll always be ruined. It'll
always be soiled. It'll always be impure. And it's
really no different with us. We must be restored to purity. We must be restored to the right
standing with God. We must be as holy as God and
perfectly righteous as Christ our Lord. God made Christ to
be sin for us. He who knew no sin that we might
be what? Made the righteousness of God. It had to be made, it wasn't
earned, it wasn't merited. We were made righteous through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Perfectly holy before a perfectly
holy God is what we become when we're found in Christ. God puts us in Christ and the
Holy Spirit, you know what it does? It seals us. It seals us. And when the Holy Spirit seals
us in Christ, we are preserved not just for a long, long time,
but forever. Forever. "...in whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed..." After you
believed, you can't preserve something ruined. But after you
believe, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now look at verse 2 again. Preserve
my soul, for I am holy. Now let me tell you something
here. To be holy is to be in Christ. All those who are holy are holy
only in the Lord Jesus Christ, and sealed in Him, made like
Him, preserved like Him. That's why David says, For I
am holy. This is why David calls himself
holy. He says, For I am holy, O thou
my God. Notice those next words in verse
2, Save thy servant that trusteth in thee. Peter wrote in 1 Peter,
because it's written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Leviticus 11 says,
For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt
to be your God. Ye shall therefore be holy, for
I am holy. I've read those scriptures so
many times and never really gave them much thought. Be ye holy
for I am holy. It says, therefore ye shall therefore
be holy. Now that's a little different.
Let me read that to you again. For I am the Lord that bringeth
you up out of the land of Egypt. Now I know this is speaking to
to physical, natural Israel, but it can be applied to us as
spiritual Israel. First of all, let me say that
the Lord is who brought us up out of our Egypt, out of our
bondage, out of our pit of despair. And you know why? It says plainly
here, to be your God. Man, that's good. Ye shall therefore be holy."
Do you see where I'm going? I'm not holy in anything I've
done. God made me holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. God is He
that brings you up out of your Egyptian bondage of sin and sin. And for what reason did He bring
you up? To be your God. And ye shall therefore be holy,
for I am holy." In order for Him to be our God, He had to
make us holy. For God can have nothing to do
with sin. He's too holy. God makes us holy
in the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, verse 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Now, don't misinterpret this
verse. David's not insinuating that anything he does merits
God's mercy. Now, there's some people that
would twist that around to say that. See? He cried unto the
Lord daily, so the Lord was merciful to him. No. You got it backwards. You got it backwards. What he's
saying is, is I cry unto thee daily because I need mercy daily. I cry unto the Lord daily. Be
merciful to me. Why? Because I'm in desperate
need of mercy constantly. We need mercy every second, every
minute, hour, day, and years of our life. And may God cause
us to cry unto Him daily. Verse 4, Rejoice, the soul of
thy servant, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Now I think
I've learned a little something about rejoicing. Rejoicing is
not always happy, loud, cheerful. It's not always accompanied with
tears of joy and ecstatic emotional feelings. That's what we think
of when we think of rejoice. Celebration. People happy, jumping
around, being loud. But let me ask you something.
When we lose a loved one, we're deeply saddened and grieved,
aren't we? But if that loved one knew Christ,
if they knew the Lord, then we rejoice in knowing that they've
went on to be with Him. Now, I'm trying to make a point
here. Trials and struggles and tribulations are going to come
our way. You can write it down. And they
often do not bring laughter and happiness, do they? But in spite
of the trials, we rejoice in knowing that our God doeth all
things well. We rejoice that all things God
does are for our good, even our trials, even our tribulations,
even our struggles in this life. So in times of trial and heartache
and pain, David says, rejoice. Rejoice. We rejoice that our
God is God and we lift up our soul unto Him. That's what he
says in verse 4. Now in the next few verses, David
gives us the reasons for these things that we've just heard.
We've heard that sinners must beg for mercy. Sinners are poor and needy. Sinners
are made holy by God alone. Safe sinners cry unto Him daily. Sinners rejoice in the Lord always. That's what one of the epistles
says, rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. And sinners lift up their souls
unto Him. Now I'm going to tell you why.
Verse 5, For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive and
plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon me." Now, there's
three things here described in verse 5 concerning our great
and marvelous God. The first is God is good. I've
heard that all my life, but I hadn't experienced it just the past
few years. God is good. When the rich young
ruler, I believe it was, one person in Mark 10 came unto the
Lord, and they called him Good Master, and he said, Why callest
thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that is God. There is only one who could redeem
us from the curse of the law. The law calls for perfection.
Only God is good. Only God can pay the debt we
owe. Doesn't it make sense? If we're to be perfectly right,
perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, and there's none that doeth good,
there's none good but one, it ought to just make good sense
to us that He's our only redemption, our only salvation. There's only
one who can redeem. And that man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was God. What he said to that man was,
I'm the only good one. I'm the only one that's ever
done good, thought good, said good, never sinned. Oh, God is good. The second thing
he says in verse 5 is, God is ready to forgive. I love that
song Eric sings. Come now and let us reason. Let's reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. God's ready to forgive, my friends. And to reiterate that, David
says, and God is plenteous in mercy. Plenteous. We studied Isaiah 62 recently. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land be any more termed desolate.
But thou shalt be called Hephzibah, which means my delight is in
her. And thy Lamb, Beulah, for the
Lord delighteth in thee." I can't get over that. How could God
Almighty delight in such a wretched man as myself? In Christ. In Christ. I put all my trust
in Him. I've said, Lord, I rest my soul
upon the suitable sacrifice, the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. He's done for me what I couldn't
do. I can't do one thing right. He's done it all perfectly. He
worked out my righteousness. He took my sin upon Him and He
gave me His wonderful coat of righteousness. Lord, I plead
to you this day for the saving of my soul. Christ is all I have. Christ is all I need. Christ is all I want. God's plenteous in mercy. Now
everything that I've said, and I'm almost done, has led up to
this. To whom has God been good? To whom has God been good? To whom
has God been ready to forgive? I'm convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt that by the mercy and grace of God when I came
to Him, He was ready to forgive. He didn't have to sit there and
think, well, I don't know. Let me think about this. Oh,
he's ready. He's ready to forgive. To whom is God plenteous in mercy? Well, read verse 5 with me one
more time, and I'll wrap this up. For thou, Lord, art good,
and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy. To whom? Unto them,
all them. Unto all them, every single one
of them that call upon Thee. To whom has God made all these
things? Unto all them that call upon
Him. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love, and power." Well, you may be saying, I can
see the Lord being gracious to one. I can see the Lord being
gracious to another. But why? Why would He be gracious
to me? And I tell you that that's the
way all God's select feel. All God's people say, why would
He save me? It doesn't have anything to do
with you. It has everything to do with Him.
It has everything to do with His Son. And He gave you the
faith to believe in Christ. It's all of Him. What about whosoever? That's
what I'm trying to tell you. For whosoever comes, they are
God's elect. For whosoever believeth, they
are God's sheep. For whosoever drinketh of this
water, Christ, they shall never thirst again. For whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord, They shall be saved. For whosoever
feareth God... Now listen, this is what I'm
leaving you with. For whosoever feareth God, to
you is this word of salvation sent. Do you hear Him? Can you hear Him calling? He's
not softly and tenderly calling, begging sinners to come home,
wringing his hands, walking back to and fro, will somebody just
believe? Will somebody just believe? No,
that's not what this teaches. He says, repent or perish. Come to Christ or die in your
sin. This is serious, serious business. Your life depends on it. Why do you tear Him? Come to
Him. You can come to Him and not move
a muscle. You can cry out unto Him without saying a word.