Psalm 38 is our study this evening. I'm calling this message the
Psalm of Remembrance. It says there in the title of
Psalm 38, to bring to remembrance, to bring to remembrance. We have
remembrance and a reminder of who we are, and in the Gospel
we see not only a description of who we are, but also we see
in the Gospel and in His Word a remembrance of who He is. what
He has done for us in Christ Jesus. Oftentimes, being the
frail creatures that we are, oftentimes we forget the things
we should remember and we remember the things that we should forget. Is it that way with you? We forget
sometimes those things that we ought to just lay hold of and
never let go. And you think in your heart when
you hear that, well I'll never forget that. And yet by and by
it slips out as a leaking vessel as it says there in Hebrews chapter
2. And sometimes we remember those
things that we ought to just forget about, just forget about
it, you can't go back and change it, just forget it, just forget
it, forsake it, leave it there where it is in the past, you
can't live back there, you can't live back there, you only have
right now, right now, it says in Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1, remember,
remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the
evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them." What a blessing it is to be blessed
of God, to have a knowledge of the gospel of God as a young
person. as a young person, and then living
your life, all the days of your life, after having come to know
the true and living God, to live a life honoring to God and looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, being a witness for the gospel of Christ.
That would be a great blessing, wouldn't it? Remember now thy
Creator in the days of thy youth. Remember what the Apostle Paul
wrote to Timothy about thou hast from a child hath known the Holy
Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation? Because all Scripture is given
of God. All Scripture is God-inspired. Now this psalm is considered
one of the what they call the penitential psalms. And I mean
by that, it's a psalm of repentance. It's a psalm of brokenheartedness.
You can just hear and see the weeping of David's soul before
God as he thinks upon who he is. Sinner. It's much like Psalm
51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies, Lord. Blot out my sin, my iniquity. Against Thee and Thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight. And if you sent
me to eternal condemnation, if you justified me and gave me
what I deserve, you'd be right. You'd be right. That's a good
place to be, to agree with God against yourself. When God says
guilty, amen, I'm guilty. When God says you're deserving
of nothing but my wrath, amen, you're right. But we don't deserve
the least of his mercies, do we? Mercy is not something that's
earned, something that's deserved. Mercy is something that's freely
given of God. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. We don't try to earn mercy. We
don't try to merit mercy. Mercy is something that freely
flows from God because He is God. It says in Micah 7.15 that
He delights, He delighteth to show God will punish sin because
God is God, but God will show mercy because God is God. He must show mercy. David here is convicted over
his sin and vividly brought to remember his need of Christ. his need of Christ. I think this
is a continual experience in the believer's heart. There's
a continually, you know, Holy Spirit conviction. It's not a
one-time isolated act. It's not a one-time isolated
thing. We're continually being shown by God in the scriptures,
through the preaching of the gospel, what we are before God,
sinners. And that causes us to seek the
proper remedy, the only remedy that God has provided, and that
is forgiveness of sin in Christ Jesus. It says in Nehemiah 9.17,
that thou art a God ready to pardon. It says in Psalm, I believe
it's 86 verse 5, let's turn over there, Psalm 86 verse 5, that's
it, Psalm 86 verse 5, Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive.
He's ready to forgive. based upon his eternal purpose,
based upon that covenant, that surety of the covenant, the sacrifice
of the covenant, thou art ready to forgive, and he's plenteous
in mercy unto all them that call upon him. I'm going to call.
I tell you who will really call upon the Lord, those who are
in need of mercy, those who see themselves to be sinners before
God. Now, I just have two points in
this message. Here's the first one. In verses
1 through 8, there's a remembrance and conviction of sin. Perhaps
no psalm like this one describes our sin nature so vivid before
God Almighty. In conviction and convincing
of sin, there is a reality of who we are and who we need to
deal with our sin. He says there in verse 4, my
iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden. They're too
heavy for me. I can't deal with my sin. Can you? Can you do anything
about your sin? Can you make atonement for your
sin? Can you put away your sin? Absolutely not. But we look to
the Lord Jesus Christ who appeared once in the end of the age to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What a blessing to
be taught of God and it has to be a lesson that comes from God.
All those who have heard and learned of the Father, they come
unto Christ. I can't convince you that you're
a sinner. I can read scripture after scripture
after scripture and tell you and explain unto you and declare
unto you that we are sinners, but I can never convince you
of that. It takes God to convict the heart. It takes God to break
the heart. It takes the power of Almighty
God to reveal unto you who you are, what you are before God
Almighty. What a blessing it is then to
be taught of God. who we are in our sinful, fallen
nature. How we got that way. And Adam
all died. The reason being, unless God
teaches us that we are sinners, we'll never seek mercy where
it's found until we're totally convinced that we are sinners. And I'm not talking about sinners
by something we do. I'm talking about sinners that
we are. What we do is just the fruit,
the outflowing of what we are. We are sinners by birth, born
in sin, shaped in iniquity. We're sinners by nature. We have
that inherent, total depravity or that totally depraved nature
that loves darkness, not light. So we are sinners. By birth,
by nature, by choice, we love darkness not light, and by practice,
by practice. Wouldn't you just for one day,
for a moment, an hour, to live without a foolish thought? The
thought of foolishness is sin. Wouldn't you just for a moment
like to live without sin? For I have a constant reminder
in my heart of what I am before God. Sinners. Sinner. But I tell you, the old songwriter
said the sinner is a sacred thing. It's a sacred thing. God, the
Holy Spirit, has revealed to him what he is. The sinner is
a sacred thing. If you've ever been convicted,
if you've never been convicted of your sin, you've never been
saved. If you've never been lost, you've
never been saved. If you've never been stripped,
you've never been clothed. If you've never been convicted,
as he says down here in verse 3, there is no soundness in my
flesh, If we say we have no sin, remember what John said? If we
say we have no sin, singular isn't it? If we say we have no
sin, nature. We deceive ourselves and the
truth's not in us. If we say we've not sinned, we
make God a liar. We are sinners, aren't we? If
you've never been convicted of sin, you will never see the true
need of an almighty Savior. You see, if you start out wrong,
you'll end up wrong. That's right. If you're wrong
on the garden, if you're wrong on what happened in the garden,
if you're wrong on the fall, you'll be wrong on it all. That's
right. If you're wrong in the garden,
if you're wrong on ruin, you'll never see the truth and the reality
of redemption in Christ Jesus. That's right. If you don't understand
something of sin, you'll never see your need of an almighty,
sovereign, powerful Savior who is able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
intercession for us. There's no soundness in our flesh,
is there? There's no goodness in our flesh.
This word here is used again, I believe it's in Isaiah 1. Turn
there, let's see. No soundness. You remember the
words here of the prophet Isaiah? Verse 6, from the sole of the
foot even to the head there's no soundness in it. No soundness
in the flesh. But wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores that have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment, desolate before God. If you've never been stripped
before God, laid in the dust as a filthy sinner, you'll never
seek Christ who is our blessed, perfect righteousness. As it
says here in verse 5, my wounds stink and are corrupt. because of my
foolishness, I'm troubled, I'm bowed down greatly, I go mourning
all the day long. If you've never been broken in
spirit, as he said in verse 8, I'm feeble and sore broken. I've
roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart, the raging of my
heart. If you've never been broken in spirit, you'll never seek
the Great Physician who has the remedy for the problem of our
sin. He is the Great Physician. He's
never He has the perfect prescription. He has never lost a patient. And every patient that has come
to this great physician, he is healed. For it says over here,
in Luke chapter 4, don't turn, let me just get it for you here
quickly. In Luke chapter 4, remember the Lord went to the synagogue
that day and they delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he read from Isaiah 61 and
said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because He has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to heal,
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty them who are
bruised. He is the perfect physician,
the great Savior, the great God our Savior, who has the perfect
remedy for our sin. It's His blood atonement that
puts away our sin. Until we're convinced that we
are sinners before God, until we're convinced that we have
sinned against God, that there is no soundness, no completeness,
no wholesomeness in ourselves, that we're deserving of His just
wrath and condemnation, we'll never call upon the Lord for
pardon for sin. Who alone has the power to forgive
it? and to put it away through His blood atonement. We have
in Christ Jesus a Redeemer who truly redeems. We have in the
Lord Jesus Christ a Savior who truly saves. We have in the Lord
Jesus Christ this One who cannot fail, who will call all of His
sheep, who will lose. How many of those sheep will
He lose? None for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died can be lost,
for He saved them with an everlasting salvation." So, Lord, I'm a sinner, broken. My iniquities are gone over my
head. Now here's a second point to this message. Lord, in your
just wrath, remember mercy. Remember mercy. Or as the publican
cried in the temple that day, Lord, have mercy upon me, the
sinner. I'm the sinner. Oh, the blessedness
of the gospel of Christ, the Lord our God and Savior declares,
and this is good news, He said their sin and their iniquity
will I remember no more. They do not exist. The blood atonement of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not something that is weak and anemic. The
blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is powerful and prevailing. It carries weight with God. God
had bought us with His own blood. God said their sin and their
iniquity I remember No more. They don't exist. The Lord Jesus
Christ so thoroughly and completely and eternally obtained for us
eternal redemption and put away our sin, they no longer exist. As far as the east, it's from
the west. He's separated us from our sin. That is good news. That is good
news. And that's David's desire here.
Look at Psalm 38 verse 9. Lord, all my desire All my desire
is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee, my heart
panteth. Who's he panting after? Turn
over here to Psalm 42 verse 1. Psalm 42 verse 1, my desire is
before thee, my groaning is not hid from thee, my heart panteth,
my strength faileth. Psalm 42 verse 1, as a heart
That's a deer. Like the thirsty deer that paneth
after the water brooks, so paneth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? By nature, we don't thirst after
God. Man drinks iniquity like the water, but by His grace we
pant after the living and true God. Our desire is after Him. After Him. He has said, so we
may boldly say, the Lord is our helper. Now, verses 9 and 10,
the Lord is all our desire. Surely, He knows the desire of
our heart. The Lord knows our heart. He
knows our frame. He knows that we're but dust.
He knows the desire of the believer's heart. Now, our fallen and sinful
flesh desires and groans and craves for recognition among
men, but the heart of the believer craves and groans and desires
nothing but God in Christ. He alone is the desire of our
heart. We read these scriptures. The
Lord Jesus Christ to the believer, He's altogether lovely. To you who believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, He is precious to you who believe. As the Apostle Paul
said, Oh, that I might win Christ and be found in Him. Be found
in Him. You see, He's all the believers
desire. He's all my hope and all my desire.
Certainly the Lord does know our heart, doesn't He? Turn over
here to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. O Lord, Thou hast searched me,
verse 1, and known me. Thou knowest my down sittings
and my uprising. Thou understand my thought afar
off. Thou compass my path and my lying
down, and you're acquainted with all my ways. Everything's in
naked and open. with him to whom we have to do,
it says in Hebrews 4, for there is not a word in my tongue, but
lo, O LORD, thou knowest it all together. You know, to the believer
it's great comfort that the Lord knows our heart. Now to the hypocrite,
the one who's playing the game with God, he tries to hide. He can't. You can't. But to the
believer, aren't you perfectly comfortable before God that he
knows your true desire to win Christ and be found in him? Peter
said that to the Lord when the Lord asked him that day. The
risen Lord came to those men as they were fishing and said,
Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord. Well, feed my sheep. Peter, do you really love me?
And again he answered, yes, Lord. Well, feed my sheep, feed my
lambs. And then he said the third time,
Lord, Peter, do you love me? Lord, you knowest all things. You know, you know that I love
you. I like what old John Newton said. We do love the Lord, not like
we ought to. Not like we should. Not like
we will one day. One day we'll love Him with an
unsinning heart, with a perfect heart. But we can say, by the
grace of God, we do love Him because He first loved us. We
do love Him. Lord, You know all things. The
heart, desire of the believer and that of every gospel preacher
is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the furtherance of
the gospel is to His glory that we're seeking all things. Turn back to Psalm 34. The heart and desire of every
believer Is that the glory of Christ? In Psalm 34, verse 1,
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall be in
my mouth continually. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and
let us exalt his name together. Isn't that why we're here this
evening? to worship Him, to magnify the
Lord. I know it's a dark night, a rainy
night, a cold night, but here you are. Why did you come out
this evening? To be seen of men? Absolutely
not. We came here to worship the Lord. We came here to hear a word from
Him. Oh, that God would speak a word to our heart. He knows
the desire of our heart. He knows the reason we're here.
Now, here's the second thing on this second point. Verse 15,
Yes, I'm a sinner, but the Lord knows the desire of my heart,
for He has caused us to set our affection on things above. Look
at verse 15. For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope. In Thee, O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. In Thee, O Lord, do I hope. Now we read in scriptures that
we have a good hope, a good hope, not based upon any flimsy foundation,
we have a good hope through grace. Christ has given us an everlasting
consolation and a good hope, a good hope we have is Christ,
by His grace, for Christ in you is the hope of glory. We entertain
no hope of pardon, no hope of righteousness, no hope of forgiveness,
but through Christ and Christ alone, for neither is there salvation
in any other, is there? No other name under heaven, given
among men, whereby we must be saved. Every believer has the
same hope. Every believer has the same hope.
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. This was David's hope. It says
this repeatedly. Let me show you a few Psalms
here. Right across the page here, Psalm 39, verse 7, And now, Lord,
what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. My hope is
in the true and living God. In Psalm 71, turn over there. Psalm 71, verse 5, For thou art my hope, O Lord
God, thou art my trust from my youth. The Lord is my hope. Turn over here to Psalm 130. Psalm 130, verses 5 and 7. Yes, I'm a sinner, but my only
hope of pardon is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, His blood,
His righteousness avails for me. Psalm 130 verse 3 says, If
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? I can't
stand in myself. But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the
Lord more than they that watch for the morning, more than they
that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with the Lord With him is
plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. Here's another one, Psalm 146,
verse 5. Happy. 146, verse 5. Look at this. Happy is he that
hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord
his God. He's a God of Jacob. Do you ever
know how many times in the scripture it says he's a God of Jacob?
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. He's a God of Jacob. One more Psalm, Psalm 147 verse
11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy, in his mercy. For in thee, Lord, do I hope.
Do I hope. We read Jeremiah's confession
earlier from Lamentations chapter 3. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail.
They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord
God Almighty. Christ is every believer's hope. He's the anchor of our soul.
Christ in you, indeed, is a hope of glory. We entertain no hope
of salvation but through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Being justified, yes, we have
all sin that comes short of the glory of God, but being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, we have a good hope. Now, one other thought
here, verses 19 and verse 20 and 21 in Psalm 38, David, God's
anointed, God's king, he calls him a man after his own heart.
David was persecuted for believing God and seeking mercy in Christ
Jesus. He says in verse 18, for I will
declare mine iniquity, I'll be sorry for my sin, but my enemies,
they're lively, they're strong, and they that hate me wrongfully
are multiplied. They also that render evil for
good are my adversaries, because I follow the thing that is good. Who is he following? Who is David's
goodness? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. Because I follow that which
is good. And we know there is none good
but Christ. Every believer who takes a stand
for the gospel, a public stand for the gospel of God's true
and sovereign saving grace in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
for it. Let me show you that in Scripture.
Find 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. All those
who will live godly 2nd Timothy chapter 3, he says
in verse 10, Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of
life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, love, patience, persecution,
affliction which came unto me in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra,
what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord
delivered me, yea, verse 12, all that will live godly, in
Christ Jesus. And he's not talking here particularly
about being a moral person. All that will take a stand for
the gospel, that will live godly in Christ Jesus, taking a public
stand for the gospel, an uncompromising stand for the gospel of God's
grace, that's what he's talking about there. In Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecutions at the hands of the enemies of the
gospel. Our Lord said, if they've hated
me, they will hate you. They will hate you. Now here's
our consolation in the midst of persecutions. Although forsaken
of friends and family, as it says in verse 11 of Psalm 38,
my lovers and my friends stand aloof, my kinsmen stand afar
off. The Lord will take us up. friendless and forsaken of men,
the scripture declares unto us, the Lord will never forsake us. He will never leave us. He said in Matthew 28, he's parting
words to his disciples. He said, go and preach the gospel
knowing I have all power in heaven and earth. Go and preach the
gospel and remember this, lo I'm with you always. even unto the end of the world."
Oftentimes we have a tendency to lean upon our feelings rather
than His Word. Oftentimes, David, as you read
the Psalms, oftentimes he felt like he was forsaken of God.
And oftentimes we lean to our feelings rather than resting
in his promise. He said, now which is greater,
our feelings or his word, his promise? He said, I'll never
leave you, I'll never forsake you. So we that may boldly say,
the Lord is our helper, I will not fear what man shall do unto
me. Let me see if we can find that
in scripture. It's in the book of Hebrews. It's in the book
of Hebrews. I don't know that I have this
written down. It's Hebrews 13, I believe it is. Hebrews 13. Here it is, verse 5, let your
conversation, Hebrews 13, 5, let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. Now
what are the such things that you have? Now you think about it. Be content
with such things as you have. Well, in Christ Jesus we have
all things. He is blessed with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus. We want for
nothing! "...and be content with such
things as you have. For he has said, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. He has said, so that we may boldly
say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. God has said he'll never, never
forsake us. So why are you leaning on your
feelings? I like what Luther said about feelings. You remember? Feelings come and feelings go.
They do, don't they? And feelings are deceiving. My
want is the word of God, nothing else is worth believing. Though
all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token,
I know one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken.
So I'll trust God's unchanging word till soul and body sever. The words of man, they'll pass
away. God's word abides forever. He said heaven and earth will
pass away but my word will never pass away. Our consolation in
the midst of trials is our kinsman redeemer will never forsake us. Anything and everything that
drives us to God is a blessing from the loving hand of our fathers. Trials of every sort work out
for our eternal good. Anything that weans us from trusting
the arm of the flesh is a blessing from the hand of our sovereign
Lord. Let me show you a scripture we
were looking at this morning. Over here in the Song of Solomon,
you find Isaiah, and then keep going toward the book of Genesis,
and you run in here, run into the Song of Solomon, chapter
8. Song of Solomon, chapter 8, look at verse 6. It talks about faith and love.
Verse 6, set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy
arm, for love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are the coals
of fire which have the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench
love. Trials, heartache sent from the
hand of our loving Father are for our good. Many trials, many
heartaches cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
If a man would give all of his substance of his house for love,
it would be utterly despised, contemned, contemned of God. You see, trials that are sent
our way come from the hand of our loving Father. The chastisement
that God sends our way is for our good. For our good, for all
things work together for good to them who love God, who are
the called according to God's purpose. He is the Lord of our
salvation. He is the Lord of our deliverance.
Back to Psalm 38, verse 21. He said, Forsake me not. He won't. We have His word on that. Forsake
me not, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me. Oh Lord,
my Savior. Oh Lord, my salvation. I like what the Apostle Paul
writes when he writes to Timothy and Titus. He uses this phrase
often time, God our Savior. God our Savior. I like the confession
of Thomas before the risen Lord. when he said, Thomas, behold
my hands, my side, it is I myself, he said, my Lord, my God, my
Lord and my God. One old writer said this, and
I'll let you go, a sense of sin shall melt into joy of salvation,
grief shall lead on to gratitude and gratitude to joy full of
glory, unspeakable. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. For the wage of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Make haste to help me, O Lord
my Savior." Lord my Savior. It reminds me of what Simeon
said in the temple when he picked up just the babe God incarnate. The ancient of days and infant
of a day old. Figure that one out. He picked
up that eight day old baby and that's God incarnate. God in
human flesh. And he said, Lord let me die.
I've seen your savior. I've seen thy salvation. And
truly it is, those who have seen Christ Jesus as their all and
in all anticipate, anticipate with eagerness to see Him face
to face and love Him and worship Him like we really ought to right
now. And one day we will.