If you would open your Bibles
to the book of Psalms, Psalm 88. Psalms 88. It's good to be
with you all this morning. And what I have this morning
is a very simple message. I've got a simple message that
hopefully everyone in here will be able to understand. And that
everyone in here will be able to, when this service is over,
if the Lord enables us to pay even a bit of attention, we'll
be able to answer two questions. The title of this message is
Stuck in a Pit. Stuck in a pit? And the two questions
I want us to answer. First, how did I get in the pit? And the second question is, how
do I get out of the pit? Just two questions. How did I
get in the pit? And how do I get out of the pit?
The first thing we need to know is what is a pit? The Bible uses
that word a lot. Our Lord uses it throughout the
Old and the New Testament, and it's translated many different
ways. But a pit is basically a hole. It's a ditch. It's a cistern. It's a well.
But more specifically, it's often referred to as an abyss, a deep,
bottomless pit. It sometimes is translated with
words such as corruption or destruction. It has a negative connotation
to it. And in this message, I want us all to understand that this
pit is something that we're using or the Lord uses and I'm using
here as an illustration of our spiritual situation. of us being
in our sin. This pit that we're stuck in
is what we are stuck in our sin. And I'll dive more into that,
but realize that all these things, I'm not just talking about us
being stuck in a hole. There might be a lot of life
lessons and a lot of things we can learn from how did we get
in a hole and how did we get out of a hole. But this is so
much more important than that. So the first question is how
did I get in a pit? Look here in Psalm 88 and look
at verse 3. For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draweth near unto the grave. I am counted with
them that go down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no strength. free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more,
and they are cut off from thy hand. I am counted with them
that go down into the pit." How did I get here? Well, an important
question is, whose pit am I in? Whose pit is this? Well, the
pit is mine. I'm stuck in my pit. It's my
sin that I'm stuck in. It's not someone else's. We can't
say that this is your pit and I'm just stuck in it here too.
It's my pit. It is my problem. Sin is my problem
and it's your problem. Your sin is your problem. My
sin's not your problem and your sin's not my problem. We like
to look at each other's sins and pick each other's sins out
and talk about each other's sins, but it's my sin. That's my problem.
And then we asked, when did I fall into this pit? When did I get
in it? Well, there's two specific answers
to this. The first is, I fell in the pit
in Adam. God created man after his own
image, and he was perfect. But Adam in the garden sinned.
And when he sinned, I sinned. He's my father. I came from him. We all came from him. And when
he sinned, because sin is his nature, that's who we are. We're
born in it. That's a tough thing to hear.
Now, hold on a second. Are you telling me I'm in a pit
because of somebody else, what they did? Well, yes. But guess
what? We're also in a pit because when
we were born, we started sinning. Not only are we in the pit that
Adam made for us, but we're in the pit that we made for ourselves.
Our sin, we're born into it. And you know what? We commit
it on a momentary basis. Every minute by minute, we're
sinning. Not only is it our pit, but we fell into it before the
family. Well, when Adam fell, and we
fell into it ourselves. And guess what, guys? We kind
of like it in our pit. You know, if you don't like something,
what's the first thing you want to do? You want to stop doing
it, right? If I don't like a job, I can
quit my job. If I don't like where I live, I can move. If
I don't like my house, I'll get a different one. There's all
these things. If I don't like my car, I'm getting a different
one. We have all these options to get out of it, but guess what?
We can't even for a moment stop sinning, because not only is
it who we are, but we like it. We enjoy it. We can't stop. So
we fell in the pit, into our own pit. And what about this
question? How did the pit get there? Well,
turn over to Psalm chapter nine. We don't really have a text this
morning, but the word pit is used so often in the scriptures,
and I wanted to show you a bunch, but I'm gonna stick to the Psalms
for almost all of them. That way we can actually see
a few extra. Psalm chapter nine. How did this pit, how did our
pit get there? Psalm chapter 9, look at verse
15. The heathen, that's us, are sunk
down in the pit that they made. I made this pit for myself. Look
back a page at Psalm 7, verse 14. Behold, he, or us, prevaileth
with iniquity. We work with sin, and have conceived
mischief, and brought forth falsehood. We made a pit, we digged it,
and we are fallen into the ditch that we made. We dug our own
pit. Now, how silly is that? Imagine
going into your backyard with a shovel and just digging a hole,
digging it as deep as you could possibly dig it, and then falling
into your own pit, and then blaming everybody else for that problem. That's what we've done. We dug
our own pit, and we keep digging. This is not a past tense thing
that we dug a pit, we fell in it, and we're stuck in it. No,
we're in our pit right now, and we're just digging. We just keep
digging. We can't stop. We just sin and
sin and sin. So is this pit dangerous? You know, being stuck somewhere
is not always that bad. You know, maybe something happens
when you're on vacation and you can't leave. Well, that's a pretty
good situation to be stuck in. Well, is this pit we're stuck
in dangerous? Turn with me to Psalm 69. Psalm
69. In Psalm 69, look at verse 15. Let not the water flood overflow
me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut
her mouth upon me. This pit that we're in, this
pit will shut its mouth on us. It will swallow us up. Our sin
will be the death of us. Now our sin will be our death
physically. These bodies are going to die. These sinful bodies, this sinful
flesh will die. Everyone dies, and they all die
because of their sin. That's why we die. That's why
this body dies. But spiritually speaking, we
will also die in our sin. It will be the death of us. In
Psalm 89, don't turn, I'll read this to you. It says, what man
is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his
own soul from the hand of the pit, from the hand of the grave? It says, anyone who lives will
see death. And ask the question, is he possibly
able to deliver his soul from the hand of death, from the hand
of the grave? We can't. This pit is more dangerous
than we even know. We value our lives. We value
our flesh. We value our health. But this
pit is going to swallow us up. It will be the death of us. After
all the negativity of this, I hope the Lord makes us to understand
that we're in a pit. The scriptures say it, I'm telling
you, anybody who has been shown their situation understands they're
stuck in a pit. So let's get to the more important
question. How do I get out of the pit? How do I get out of
this situation? How can I get out of my sin?
Can I get myself out? Can I get myself out of a pit? So, think about this. If you
fall into a pit, you fall into a really deep hole, what's the
first thing you're going to do? Well, for me, I'm going to try
to get out. Now, if I'm strong, I'm going to try to climb my
way out. If I'm smart, I'm going to try to think of a way out.
If I'm clever, I'm going to try to trick my way out. Whatever
it is, I'm going to try to figure a way out. And once I figure
that I can't get myself out, that's the only time I'll do
anything different. Well, this is what man does. When man hears
that they're sinners, that they're in trouble, they're stuck in
a pit, we do everything we can to get ourselves out. Unfortunately,
religion today has a very bad habit of telling us that we can
get out of this pit. But we don't need to spend more
time on this. Let me just tell you, you can't get out of the
pit, okay? A pit is a deep, bottomless pit,
okay? If it really is bottomless, not
only can we not get out of the pit, we can't stop falling. Does that make sense? If it doesn't
have a bottom, our sin does not have a bottom to it. We sin so
much and so often that we are constantly falling into this
pit. So not only can we not get out,
we can't even stop ourselves from getting deeper in the pit.
So if I can't get myself out, the next thing I'm going to try
to do is I'm going to try to find somebody who would help
me get out. All right, who in here can help me get out of this
pit? Like the two of us together, let's figure this out, or three
of us, or how many ever it takes, who can help me get out of the
pit? Who can help me get out of this despair of my sin? Well,
I don't know about any of you guys, but I can't help someone
get out of a situation that I can't get myself out of. How many people
are there in religion today standing up before people right now telling
them, if you do this, if you do that, you can get out of this
pit? Well, if you're in the pit, why don't you do that? I mean,
really, would you take any advice from someone who is standing,
when you fell into the pit, if somebody's next to you and you
get in there and you say, what are you doing? I've been here
forever. Are you gonna take their advice on how to get out of the
pit? I know that sounds hilarious, but that's what everybody's doing
today. People are saying, if you do this, you don't do that.
If you'll just stand up, fly right, do all these things. That's
just ridiculous. It's one sinner telling another
sinner how not to sin, and it's ridiculous. And even if we could,
we already are sinners. A person who steals something
is a thief. If you stop stealing things,
you're still a thief. You can't ever change that. Once
you've stolen something, you are a thief. We've sinned. We're always going to be sinners.
There's no changing that. So if I can't get myself out,
nobody can help me get out. Is there another man that can
get me out? Well, I'm saying this rhetorically,
and we don't need to spend time on it. If you can't get yourself
out, you can't get me out. There's no hope. In the flesh,
there's no hope. There's just nothing. There's
no man, woman, anybody who can help us get out. So this is tough. We're stuck somewhere, a place
that is dangerous, the most dangerous situation we could possibly be
in, and there's nobody, we can't help ourselves, we can't help
each other, and nobody, there's nobody else, there's no other
man, woman, anybody that can get us out. Well, what do we
do? Well, there is one who is able. We just heard Mike sing a song.
There is one. There is one, there's only one
who can save us. Turn with me to Psalm chapter
40. Psalm 40. Let me read you something out
of Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within
me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction. From the pit, that's the same
word. The Lord redeemeth thy life from the pit, who crowneth
thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Look at verse
one of Psalm 40. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock
and established my goings." This says right here that there is
one who can get us out of the pit. There is a way. If the Lord has shown us that
we're stuck in a deadly pit, the moment you hear there's someone
who is able to get you out of the pit, what do you do? If I'm
in the pit, if you're stuck in a pit, all right, and you realize
you can't get yourself out, what are you gonna do? I imagine this,
if I'm walking in the woods somewhere by myself and I fall in a hole,
and I realize I can't get out, there is something I'm going
to do. I'm going to do it because I want to live. I'm going to
cry out. I'm going to scream at the top
of my lungs. And this is not some, you know,
I've got little children and you can tell the difference in
the cry. You can tell the difference when
someone is crying for something that's not important. You can
hear that little bit of a, there's either like a little whining
to it or a helplessness to it or something that's kind of like,
you know, Dad, you know, Dad, like a anger maybe, something
like that. And there's a difference in the cry you hear when someone
needs you. When you hear that cry, you know
you're needed. And that's the cry we must have.
We don't cry to our Lord and say things like, Lord, you know,
I'd kind of like your help, you know, maybe if you want to, I
mean, no, a cry out to our Lord is just like, turn with me to
Psalm 31. I want you to see this. What
do you do when you realize you're in a pit and you can't get out? I'll read another one to you
first. Psalm 143 says this. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My
spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. I don't want to
be stuck in the pit. Hear my words. Now listen to
this. I love this. Psalm 31 verse 16 says, Make
thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake.
Let me not be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.
Let the wicked be ashamed. Let them be silent in the grave. This song says right here, Lord,
don't let me be ashamed to cry out to you. Now it seems like
we shouldn't have to say that. If I'm stuck in a pit and I can't
get out, literally stuck in a hole, I'm gonna scream and I don't
care what anyone else says about me. All I care about is getting
out of the hole. I don't care how I scream, I
don't care if my voice sounds funny, I don't care what words
I use. I'll give anything if you'll just get me out of the
pit. That's how we need to cry unto our Lord. I'm ashamed that
oftentimes I'm ashamed at the things I don't say or don't do
in front of, in the public. A topic comes up and I just kind
of meander around it. I don't wanna stand up in front
of other people and be like, I'm helpless, I'm hopeless, and
if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't save me, I'm gonna die. But that's
what we, we gotta cry out. We desperately have to cry out
to him. We need him. Let us not be ashamed. And as
I read in that other verse, We ask the Lord, please, hear us
speedily. Thankfully, the Lord does things
in his will and his time that's perfect for us. But I'm not ashamed
to say, Lord, I'd like it to be real quick. Can you give me
assurance in the moment right away? Because if you don't, I'm
gonna do the same thing I always do. I'm gonna doubt my own belief. I'm gonna struggle with it. Hear
me speedily, Lord. Don't hide your face from me.
So there is one who is able. When will he take me out of the
pit? Our brother read Isaiah 53, and
that story, there is one Abel. He is Abel. Now, why is he Abel? Well, he's Abel because he became
a man. Now, I already said that no man
can help us, but this is the God man. The Lord Jesus Christ
took his children out of the pit before time began. He chose
a people before time began. He elected a people to save them. As well as, He saved us when
He became a man. And He did what we couldn't.
He didn't sin. He lived perfectly. He was tempted
as we are. Though He did not fail, He never
sinned. And then He died, bearing our
sins on the tree. He was made sin. Our sin was
pressed upon Him. He's the one who died for our
sins. And in turn, we got His righteousness, we got His perfection,
His holiness. He saved us from the pit. We're
not renewed with corruptible things. Turn with me to 1 Peter. We're just gonna turn to a couple places
here, but 1 Peter 1. There is one able to save us.
He's the one, the only one. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 18. as ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers." This says right here
you were not redeemed or you were not saved with corruptible
things, nothing that's been contaminated with sin. It says you weren't
saved with silver and gold. You couldn't buy your way out
of it. You weren't saved from vain conversation. There was
nothing you could say, nothing you could do to get yourself
out. You weren't saved by tradition from your fathers. You weren't
saved by any ordinances or being baptized or any of those things.
Verse 19 says, you were saved, you were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ. As of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times to you. He
redeemed us before the foundation of the world, yet it was not
made known to us until these last times. We just didn't know
it. So I've told you there is one
able to redeem you, to save you from the pit. What if I fall
back into the pit? I mean, you know, the first thing
that would happen to me if I got out of the hole is I'd look and
try to find where the hole was so I didn't fall back in it.
So the Lord Jesus Christ saved us. He got us out of the hole.
And he did it by reaching down and grabbing us by the scruff
of the neck and pulling us out of the hole. He did it. He took
us out. And once He does that, He doesn't
let go of us. We're so worried about falling
back in, but we just don't realize that He's got us. He never lets
go of us. Let me read this verse in Psalm
30 to you. I will extol Thee, O Lord, for
Thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoice over
me. O Lord my God, I cried unto Thee,
and Thou hast healed me. O Lord, Thou hast brought up
my soul from the pit. He has brought up my soul from
the grave. Thou hast kept me alive, that
I should not go down to the pit. The only reason we don't go back
to the pit is because He won't let us. He not only took us out
of the pit, which is amazing, but we can't fall back into the
pit. Despite our constant sinning and our unbelief and our lack
of faith, we can't fall back in because He's got us. He holds
us. And listen, turn with me to John
chapter four. We're gonna close in John chapter
four. Let me first read you a couple
verses from Job. Job is a great example of being
in such dire straits. But in Job it says these verses,
this is all from one passage, it says, He keepeth back his
soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword.
Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver me from going
down to the pit. I have found a ransom. I have
found one who will save me. He will deliver his soul from
going into the pit. He will save our souls. And his
life shall see the light. and to bring back his soul from
the pit to be enlightened with the light of the living. We get
his life from our death. His death, him dying on the cross,
gave us life, eternal life. Okay, in John chapter four, let's
close with one of the illustrations or one of the stories our Lord
uses himself speaking of a pit. And in this story, this pit is
a well. A well is just a pit that has
water at the bottom of it. And look at this story that we
all know in John 4 verse 6. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the
well, and it was about the sixth hour. The Lord was wearied, and
he went to this well. Verse seven, and there cometh
a woman of Samaria to draw water, and Jesus saith unto her, give
me to drink. For his disciples were gone away
unto the city to buy meat. The Lord went to the place where
this woman was gonna go. We often think that somehow we
approach him, but the only way anything ever happens is he goes
to where he draws us. He brings us to him. The Lord
does all this. But she said to him, when he
asked her, will you give me to drink? In verse nine, then saith
the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou being a Jew
askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews
have no dealings with the Samaritans. This woman immediately recognizes
and says, why are you even talking to me? I'm not worthy of your
conversation. You shouldn't even give me a
moment of time. Jesus answered and said, verse 10, unto her,
if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence
then hast thou that living water? He says unto her, if you knew
who I was, you would ask me for living water. And her response
is just like ours. You don't have anything to get
any water. You can't get anything out of
the pit. How are you going to do that? She thinks she's the
one who has the way to live. She thinks she's the one who
can get him water. Not vice versa. Look at verse
12. She says, how are you going to
get living water? Verse 12, art thou greater than
our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof
himself and his children and his cattle? This woman looks
at the Lord and says to him, do you think you're greater than
the one who dug this hole? We ask the Lord, we think to
ourselves, do you think, I mean, I dug this hole. Like, who are
you? I'm the one who did it. This
woman thinks that this hole, it has kept her and her family
alive. This hole has water at the bottom.
But what it's doing is it's keeping this flesh temporarily alive.
The Lord is telling her, I've got something that can keep your
soul alive, that can save you. She says, are you greater than
Jacob, the one who dug the hole? Don't we think that we are greater
than everyone else? She is bragging on the pit. She's
bragging on her own sin, the whole. Jesus answered in verse
13 and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again. Anyone who goes back to the pit
is gonna need the pit again. If we're dependent on our sin,
our sin is gonna be the end of us. But, verse 14, 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. We need, because the Lord lived
perfectly. He took the fury of our sin. He took the punishment that was
due us. and he gave us what we needed. Look at verse 15. Once he says this to her, if
you drink my water, if you drink from my well, then you will have
everlasting life. And she said unto him, sir, give
me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to dwell.
When the Lord shows us that he has what we need, when he offers
us, that's the wrong term, when he gives us everlasting life,
When He gives us everlasting life, we realize, she said here,
give me this water that I don't have to come back to this well.
When the Lord gives us everlasting life, it's the only thing that
can happen that can make us not go back to our pit. He gives
us what we need. He makes us to realize that we
can't satisfy. We must go to him instead. The
Lord said to her in verse 16, Jesus saith unto her, go call
thy husband and come hither. And he shows this woman through
the next few verses what we already know. When he approaches us,
we have to know that we're a sinner. And we're in the same boat. Anything
that's said to us is going to call us out of who we are. We're
going to show our truth. We're gonna show that we have
this sin that's just, that's all we are. And then in verse
25, she says, after all this, she goes, the woman saith unto
him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. When
he is come, he will tell us all things. And the Lord said unto
her, I that speak unto thee am he. He will make Himself known
to us. He is the one who will bring
everlasting life. He will tell us all things. So in summary, two questions. How did I get in the pit? I got
in the pit because I'm a sinner. I'm stuck in the pit. I've been
there ever since I was born. I'm stuck in a pit, and I can't
get out of the pit. This pit is ultimately dangerous
for us and will cause us death. How do I get out of my sin? I
can't do it myself. But there is one who is able.
How do we get out of the pit? We cry to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if it be his will, if he
chose us, he will save us. That's our only hope. We're completely
dependent on him. And the last thing I want to
say is this. Who gets the glory? Who gets the glory for saving
us from our own despair and our destruction? He gets it. He gets
all the glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior. He's the only one who can save
us. And Lord willing, He would just make us to cry out constantly. Every time that we just cry out,
that's all we would do. We'd be better off if we didn't
do anything else. And we think to ourselves, well,
what do I do? I gotta make money, I gotta take care of my family,
all these things. If we just cried out to Him constantly,
He's the one who's taking care of him anyway. Just cry to him
and ask him, Lord, please save me from my sin. All right.