I am persuaded to think that many people despise God in their hearts, even if they wouldn't admit it. Because, for one thing, they don't know God as we who love God know Him. They don't really appreciate God's praiseworthiness. and particularly God's revelation of Himself as the wonderful Savior of sinners, the generous, kind, long-suffering, bountiful, forgiving, and forgiving, and forgiving, powerful lover of people that they might not perish, but have everlasting life by his gift. If people could truly know and believe God is this way that he really is, it would go a long way, I think, toward reconciling them in their own mind to him. The Bible says very plainly, 1 John 4, 8, God is love. How could anybody hate love? How could anybody hate God then? And I think it's because they doubt his love. They're skeptics of the grace and mercy of God. I found some beautiful words I want to share with you, which allegedly were composed by a rabbi and found on a prison wall about a thousand years ago. And the wall was about to be painted over when somebody thought these words were worth copying down. And before they whitewashed them, they got the words down and they have endured through a millennia. And they found their way into the hymn about the love of God, but they weren't original with the hymn writer of the 19th century, I think. Could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made? Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. It's true. It's true because God's love is as God himself, infinite, infinite. A testimony to God's love that's even greater than that worthy poem. It's recorded in John's Gospel, chapter 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins, the Bible says. Well, the Psalm I want to consider together in the sermon today is Psalm 143. Psalm 143. There's ancient evidence, and I mean going back to the days even before Christ, to suggest that David wrote Psalm 143 when his son Absalom pursued him. This is the title in the Greek Old Testament, the ancient Greek Old Testament given to the Psalm. It says it was a Psalm of David when his son Absalom pursued him. Now, if you know the story of David, then you understand that David was not completely innocent by this time in his life. He had grossly sinned and God providentially brought about Absalom's rebellion and betrayal as a bitter fruit of David's personal sin in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba. That story is rehearsed to us in 2 Samuel and when Nathan the prophet came to rebuke David for adultery and murder, He said, now therefore, this is Nathan to David, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me, the Lord says. You have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. And this is what the Lord says. I will raise up evil against you or trouble against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. And he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son. Now, this was a prophecy when it was first uttered, but we now know Absalom was the fulfillment. David's own son defiled David's wives publicly. And the Lord says, for you did this sin secretly, but I will do this thing in front of all Israel and the son. And David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin or forgiven you. You will not die. Well, David didn't, wasn't put to death for his sin as he deserved. But there were these terrible consequences in his family life, which are directly connected by the prophet to David's own sin as a punishment. Now, once you have sinned like that, how do you worship God anymore? How are you not terrified to come into the temple and offer your prayers to the Lord, knowing you have offended Him? Well, you wouldn't accept that you know that God is love. Psalm 143 is one of the seven in the Psalter identified as penitential Psalms. That is Psalms that express contrition for sin and confess those sins. There are seven of them. Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and finally this one, 143. And so when David is worshiping the Lord in prayer, he comes with a profound humility. And he comes with a heartwarming expectation that even though he has sinned, the Lord will still hear his prayer and bless him as he asks. The psalmist here is not a proud do-gooder looking for his reward. Instead, he is a humble sinner seeking grace and mercy from God. He doesn't want strict justice because he knows if God gave him strict justice, it would be hell for him. He doesn't want that. So he comes properly, bowing low in his spirit before God and simply prays that the Lord would save him from his troubles. For the sake of his own glory, consistent with his loving kindness and faithfulness and power. Jesus once told us a story about a a very religious man, a member of the clergy, you could say, and a notorious social sinner known as the tax collector. We still hate tax collectors today, don't we, in general? No offense to you, Brother Tom used to work for the IRS. He's retired now, so your sins are forgiven here. But the Pharisee Prayed thus with himself, Jesus said, Luke 18, God, I thank you I'm not like other men. I'm so devoted to you. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. I know I'm a wonderful person. By your grace, I thank you that I'm so good and great, spiritually and morally as I am. But the tax collector was ashamed of himself, knowing himself to be a sinner, a depraved person that had done many bad things. And he was so ashamed of himself, he wouldn't even look up to heaven. But he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am. And Jesus said the first man was counted righteous by God. I'm sorry, the second man was counted righteous by God, but the first one wasn't. That is to say, God forgave the tax collector his sins, but held the sins against the Pharisee. The tax collector was saved and the Pharisee was still damned for his sins. Listen, Jesus gives us the moral of the story in Luke 18 when He said this, I tell you, this man, that is the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself shall be a base. And he who humbles himself shall be exalted. So this is, this is a spiritual axiom. And it's so beautifully stated as in terms of opposites, the people who justify themselves remain in their guilt before God, but the people who condemn themselves, God exalts them with the status of his righteous sons and daughters. This is the way the Lord works. And so this is illustrated in the Psalm 143. We see that knowing the Lord as the Savior of sinners inspires prayers for his mercy. That I would suggest is the doctrine of the Psalm simply stated, knowing the Lord as the Savior of sinners inspires our prayers for his mercy to us who are sinners. And you have two main parts in the psalm of 12 verses. The first half is a prayerful lament before God, and the second half is particular requests the psalmist makes of God. So before we work through these two parts of the psalm, let's hear the words of the psalm without comment, shall we? Psalm 143. a Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. for the enemy has persecuted my soul. He has smitten my life down to the ground. He has made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. I remember The days of old I meditate on all thy works, I muse on the work of thy hands, I stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land. 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. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift my soul unto thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy Spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake. For thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble, and of thy mercy, cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul. For I am thy servant. Amen. What a great psalm. Well, dividing the psalm into equal halves of six verses each, the psalmist in effect in the first half is saying, I need God, but more directly, I need God who is the savior of sinners. I need the savior of sinners. That's what he's saying. I need the one who hears sinners such as I am, and the one who cares about sufferers such as I am." It's a general admission to the Lord of need on the part of the psalmist. And then in the second part of the psalm, he gets particular, and I would say it is aptly described as him saying, I petition the Savior of sinners. And then there's, let's see, six petitions I've picked out, one for each verse, six specific petitions, which I'll share later in the sermon. So first of all, I need the savior of sinners. And secondly, I petition the savior of sinners. Now, to put it in the broadest possible terms about the attitude or the perspective of the psalmist, I would say this, and this is so important for you to get and think about. The psalmist knows his own emptiness and the Lord's fullness. He knows his own emptiness and the Lord's fullness. And this realization is the soil in which true prayer grows. a deep seated awareness and belief that I am the needy one and the Lord is all I need. Well, logically, if you're in need and the Lord is the answer to your need, then you pray. And this is what all believers do. John the Baptist said about Jesus of his fullness, all we have received, John 1 16, that is all believers have received of His fullness. We, the empty ones, have received. So you see Jehovah identified in verse 1, hear my prayer, O Jehovah, or Lord. And this, of course, reminds the Christian that Jesus is the fullest personal revelation of Jehovah to man. So listen to the psalmist's admission in prayer that he needs the Savior of sinners. He needs the Savior of sinners because this Savior, the Lord Jehovah, and we now know is Jesus Christ, hears the prayers of sinners. The supplicant here begs the supplier. The servant, as he calls himself in verse two, petitions the covenant Lord identified in verse one. That special name for God means, among other things, the God of Israel who keeps his covenant with his people. And the relationship then the one praying has to the covenant keeping Lord is the servant of the Lord. This is why he can pray because the God who revealed himself specially to Israel is God who crafts covenants for his people to relate to him. And he keeps the promises he makes in his covenant. Willem van Gemeren in his commentary on the psalm says the ground for answered prayer is the Lord's commitment to his people. And that commitment takes the form of a covenant, which we especially know as the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. David is not praying to the Lord to hear him because David deserves to be heard. Quite the contrary. In verse 2, he says, he pleads, don't enter into judgment with me, your servant. And the reason I'm begging you not to enter into judgment with me, that is to scrutinize me and give me what I actually deserve, is because I know that in your holy sight, no man living is justified. That is to say, even the best human being in this life is guilty of sin. and which would be exposed and announced as evil by God in his courtroom. If God were to enter into judgment with such a person, this is the very language of that is here in verse two, that's uttered in Romans three 20. It says there by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge sin. David isn't denying that the saints are justified by grace through faith in Christ. What he is saying is nobody is justified in himself. And so implicitly David is begging from the Lord a favorable answer that will be merciful to him. that is, who will not punish him as he deserves and actually graciously give him the blessings he doesn't deserve. And he's clear that he is grounding his appeal, not in any personal merit, but in the goodness of the Lord because of the way he praises the Lord. Look at verse 1. Give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness. Your faithfulness, answer me, and in your righteousness. He's counting on the Lord's faithfulness and righteousness as the basis for a favorable answer to his prayers. And of course, the Bible goes on to explain to us in great detail how the holy, holy, holy God can bless unholy, unholy, unholy sinners. without compromising either His faithfulness or His justice. Right? Do you know how? Jesus Christ is the key that unlocks that lock. Faithfulness and justice both kiss at the cross, which is the vindication of God's mercy. Here's what I mean to say. Because Christ died in the place of sinners, and because Christ lived a righteous life for sinners, God forgives sinners and was justified to forgive sinners because both His love and His righteousness are satisfied in Christ, His life, and His atoning sacrifice. There's a text in 1 John that says, It's chapter one, verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just or righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Some people have a very bad notion about God's forgiveness as if he just sort of goes, eh, you know what? I know my law says that sinners deserve to die, but Forget about that. I just feel good today. I'm going to ignore my law and just forgive you for nothing. That's a horrible, horrible, disgraceful thing to say about God. The Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we confess them as Christians because Christ is the propitiation for our sins. He does not compromise his holy, inviolable justice to pardon us. He provides the Savior, Jesus, who satisfies the law, both in its righteous demands and in its demand for the punishment of sinners to the praise of God's honor. There's a sense in which Christ died for God. Did you know that? Christ died to vindicate the mercy of God shown in the Old Testament period toward the guilty sinners he forgave. And David had this sense, evidently, that the Lord is willing not to enter into judgment with his sinful servant, but instead to give him mercy and to act toward him faithfully and righteously in keeping with his covenant promise of love. Well, in verses 1 and 2 then, the psalmist implicitly expresses his faith that the Lord hears sinners such as I am. then he cares about sufferers such as I am is the topic of verses three to six. This is properly a lament before God. That is a moaning about how bad off I am, how miserable I am. And this is a common feature of the Psalms in the Old Testament, laments. This one mentions an enemy, verse 3. Persecution. Injury. He has smitten my life to the ground. Darkness. He's made me to dwell in darkness. Deadness, like those who have been long dead. uh, feeling overwhelmed. Verse four, my own spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart is desolate. He says that means utterly wretched and unhappy. Well, that's a very vivid description of somebody in a bad, bad way, but it was in this state. The psalmist testifies versus five and six. that he remembered, meditated, and mused. In substance, all those verbs mean really the same thing. I called to mind and considered the implications of something. Well, what is that something? It is the old days when God acted to save his people in dramatic ways. I remembered and thought about when God's people were like me. They were in conditions lamentable, and yet the Lord came to them in their deplorable condition and saved them, acted to deliver them. Psalmist is saying, in effect, I remember when the Lord was like showers of blessing to his chosen people. And then being a needy sinner in my own generation, I stretch forth my hands unto thee. That's the posture of prayer. And my soul thirsts after you as for thirsty land. This is beautiful. A beautiful simile where the psalmist is comparing himself to have you ever seen a picture of the surface of the earth in a drought, a long drought with the cracks and the dry ground that's just aching for the next rain shower. He's saying, that's the way I am. I stretch out my hands to you. I'm praying like parched ground, Lord, and you are the showers of blessing that I need. This is even more beautiful than what I can say to describe the psalmist's acknowledgement of his own emptiness and the Lord's fullness. And this is the perspective we must have in our prayers. We pray to the Lord Jesus Christ as the fountain of every blessing. So there is so much rich, edifying literature in the Christian tradition that gets this and expresses these thoughts with people who were probably more spiritual than we are and more intelligent than we are. One of those examples I found in the prayers and meditations of St. Anselm from the Middle Ages. Listen to this description of the Lord Jesus Christ. from St. Anne's Helm, so-called. Oh, how good and sweet thou art, Lord Jesus, to the soul that seeks thee. Jesus, redeemer of the captives, savior of the lost, hope of the exiles, strength of those who labor, repose of the anxious spirit, Dear solace and sweet refreshment of the tearful soul that runs toiling after thee. Crown of them that conquer, sole reward and only joy of citizens above. Full fountain overflowing with all graces. Glorious offspring of great God, thyself great God. Brethren, the more we know Jesus to be this Savior of sinners like us, the more we are inspired, without any pretense, to come to Him contritely and yet expectantly, to pour out our hearts before Him and to know that He hears us and He will bless us and answer to our prayers. We talk about unbelievers who are skeptical of God's love, but even true believers, all of us, have barely touched the hem of the garment of appreciating that God is love. And the more we meditate on Him and His loving, redemptive works in history, the more we are filled with hope that He is the same God today as He ever was, and that He is all we need. And thus we pray to the Lord who is the shower, the shower for our parched souls. Well, having expressed his need for the Savior of sinners, the one who doesn't enter into judgment with his guilty servants, the one who is the antidote to every human need, the psalmist proceeds to petition the Savior of sinners. And this is where he gets particular, starting with verse 7. You see, this man of faith, as we know he is, had huge real life problems. And each one of these six verses rehearses another one of his problems. I'm reminded of his approach here. He has these problems, but there's no record that he tried to do anything about them himself. Instead he gave himself to prayer and he prays for the Lord to deliver him out of these problems And it's sort of like quicksand Which with which I have no personal direct experience, but I'm given to understand that sometimes people fall into a an area that is Where the ground gives way under them. It's it looks like it's solid ground you walk in it you fall in and you start to sink and the, at least in popular conception, quicksand is that which you will survive longer if you don't move. If you struggle, you sink quicker. The best thing you can do in quicksand is just to call out for help. Somebody on the outside can throw you a rope or something and pull you out. And that's the way the psalmist is in the psalm. He's not trying to save himself out of these troubles. Instead, he's just calling on the Lord, Lord, help me, pull me out of this pit. And in this, he shows us that all his hope is in being drawn out of misery by the savior of sinners. So he entrusts his case by prayer into the Lord's hands completely. And what are those six petitions then that he offers in these six verses? Well, first of all, He prays for urgent favor in his despair. Hear me speedily, O Lord. That's plain enough, but an alternate rendering says, answer me soon. He's saying, O Lord, my spirit fails. That is, I'm on the edge of the pit of despair here. And then he says, hide not your face from me, which of course is a figurative expression. God doesn't have a face. But if he did, it would be like saying, don't ignore me. This God hiding his face is an idiom for indifference. We're saying, Lord, in a hurry, Answer my prayer because I'm about to lose all hope and I need you to pay attention to me and answer me. You know, the hiding one's face idiom is easy to understand. Have you ever been in a public place and there's either somebody soliciting a donation for a charity or a homeless person that you know they want your money. And when you go by them, if you're not inclined to help, you might turn your face away. Just pretend like they're not even there. And this is in substance what the psalmist is praying with respect to God. God, hey, I'm here. Don't turn away your face. Pay attention to me. Deliver me. Don't ignore me. Don't let me be like a beggar that no one hears, or at least they pretend not to hear. Because if you do, if you do ignore me, I will be like those who go down into the pit, and that's ultimate misery. Second prayer request, after urgent prayer in my despair, second prayer request in verse 8 is, wisdom in my ignorance. He begins this prayer request saying, cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning for thee do I trust. I think hearing his loving kindness is tantamount to having daily answers to prayer. Don't let that any day go more than a few minutes, Lord, before I sense your favor to me in answer to my prayers. And then the specific prayer request is in the second part of verse eight, cause me to know the way in which I should walk for I lift my soul to thee. The way in which I should walk, of course, is also a figure for a habitual manner of life that is right. It conforms in heart and conduct to God's law of right and wrong. It's the narrow way of the righteous keeping God's commandments and living in accord with God's revealed will wisely applied to my own personal circumstances. Now, brethren, listen, this is important. I've known people get hung up on this. God indeed gives us all a conscience with some knowledge of right and wrong. Doesn't he? We have a built-in umpire of morality, you could call it. But that's not enough. Your conscience is not adequate to know God's will. That's why the psalmist says, cause me to know the way in which I should walk. Because he doesn't just naturally know this by his conscience. He needs to be taught by God to discern between moral right and moral wrong. And as we will see, the Bible and the Holy Spirit are indispensable to that knowledge of the righteous way. The Bible and the Holy Spirit are indispensable to the best knowledge of that righteous way. Your conscience is prone to err. You can think you're doing right when you're doing wrong, and think you're doing wrong when there's nothing wrong with it at all. So the psalmist gives us the example of a humble saint who prays for divine gift of knowledge about right and wrong here in verse eight. So he prays for urgent favor in his despair or seven for wisdom in his ignorance, verse eight. Thirdly, for protection from his enemies, in verse nine, deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me. Now this protection from enemies is needed throughout the experience of life in this world for God's people, because the enemies are still there day after day after day. It's inevitable. If you're a Christian, you will face every day of life in this world, enemies to your salvation. One way to think about the enemies is the world, the flesh and the devil. They're opposed to you living for God every day. And we need the Lord's protection from them. And, and, you know, the world takes tangible form in unbelievers. who are hostile to our Christian faith and really to us being loyal disciples of Jesus. And they can really trip you up as a Christian morally by either seduction or intimidation. And when you face extreme circumstances of malice or deception from people in the world, you're vulnerable to strong temptations to sin. And one of the temptations is to be hostile to others who are hostile to you. But innocence, you see, entails a certain kind of vulnerability. When we live in a world full of unbelievers that hate our Jesus and his church, we can be tempted to lash out against them. But knowing that the Lord says that we are called to return good for evil, we become particularly vulnerable. We're easy targets. Loving, humble people are easy targets for evil doers. You know that? And so instead of resorting to the normal sinful tactics of unbelievers for self-defense in their hostility, we entrust ourselves to the Lord and his protection by prayer. That's what the psalmist is doing here. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies. The next request is a prayer for God to give him faithfulness in danger. Now look at verse 10. This is that prayer request. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. In verse eight, he asked the Lord to cause him to know the way in which he should walk. In verse 10, he's asking the Lord for something more. Not only that I may know the way that I should walk, but that I may actually do thy will habitually. Teach me to do your will, that is the right thing, according to your revealed will in scripture, Lord. Teach me to walk in the righteous way. And there's a difference between knowing and doing, isn't there? Lots of people know what the right thing is to do, but they don't do it. James distinguishes the two in chapter four, verse 17, when he says, therefore to him who knows to do the good and does it not to him, it is sin. We need the grace of divine illumination morally, and we need the grace of divine strength to walk in the righteous way, to obey God's commandments. And toward that end, The psalmist praises the Lord's spirit, verse 10b. And I'm convinced this is a reference in the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the blessed Trinity. Thy spirit is good. It's by the Holy Spirit that I am enabled to do your will, oh God. You know, It says in Psalm 119 verse 32, I will run in the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Lord, this is a real admission that I don't have what it takes in myself to obey your commandments, Lord. The only way that I'm gonna be found living the godly life in obedience to your revealed will is if you enlarge my heart, if you give me your Holy Spirit." And of course that's true theology. Those devoid of the Holy Spirit are hostile to God and His law and cannot keep God's commandments. Only when God gives the Spirit to a person is that person changed from the inside out and enabled and really made to keep God's commandments from the heart. Augustine said on this verse in Psalm 119, delight in righteousness is a gift of God. With it, we are not cramped by fear in the observance of his commands, but led into the broad freedom of love." How true. In other words, the theologian is telling us that without the gift of delight in righteousness, we are afraid to keep God's commandments. which amount to love. But when God gives us the most blessed gift of all, the gift of the Spirit, we are freed to run in the way of God's commandments. And only then the fruit of the Spirit, as you know, Galatians 5, is love. So the fourth prayer request is for faithfulness to God's revealed will in my trouble, danger rather. Look at the next petition in verse 11, which amounts to a prayer for vitality in my trouble. Quicken me, oh Lord, for thy name's sake. For thy righteousness' sake, bring my soul out of trouble. Quicken me means simply give me life. And the commentators are divided whether he means physical life, in which case he's praying for survival in this world, or spiritual life. But in either case, clearly, he looks to the Lord as the source of life. Now listen, this is a little profound and deep, but he acknowledges what Christians have understood for hundreds and hundreds of years. that we only live by virtue of our participation in God, who is life itself. And so he prays for that communion with the God of life. We have too little appreciation, I'm convinced, of our dependence on God for life, even our physical life. And it's the Lord who hears our prayers to survive another day and to thrive in spiritual vitality. for His namesake, for His glory. Which means, Lord, if you answer my prayers to quicken me, this will glorify You because Your righteousness will be seen in saving me. And Your goodness will be on display. And then finally, the last prayer request is a request for relief from all oppressors. Verse 12. of thy mercy cut off my enemies and destroy all them that afflict my soul for I am thy servant." Lord, mercifully destroy millions of people. That might not make sense at first. But as David Dixon, the Puritan, said in his commentary, mercy to the Lord's oppressed children and justice against their enemies go together. And the work of justice on persecutors is a work of mercy to the oppressed. This is another example in the Psalms of that principle. While the wicked flourish and the righteous are oppressed, things are not as they ought to be. And the psalmist prays for reversal of circumstances when the righteous are blessed the most and the wicked go down to their deserved ruin. In other words, he's looking forward to the final end of this present age when divine judgment falls without mercy on the wicked persecutors of Christ's body, his church. And that is a prayer that will be fulfilled one day when Jesus comes back from heaven to this earth. This final deliverance is the heritage of everyone who can sincerely say, can truly say with the psalmist to the Lord, I am thy servant. Obviously not by perfect servant because I'm confessing my sin, but your trusting, loving, dutiful servant. And so we have worked through all 12 verses of Psalm 143. It has richly blessed my soul to study this. And I pray that the Lord will bless you as you have heard and are thinking about this wonderful prayer to the Savior of sinners. That is Psalm 143. I want to conclude the sermon then today with just two brief applications. Number one, Take this, take this to heart. This will really, really mean a lot to you and be very helpful if you will. Not your supposed righteousness, but God's grace qualifies you to pray for his mercy. I'm convinced there are people who aren't thinking so clearly that imagine to themselves, you know, I just don't feel holy enough to pray to God and ask him for anything. I just, I haven't done so well lately. I have a burdened conscience about my own sins. I can't, I can't pray. Why should God hear me? Listen, That's not the way it works. The God to whom Christians pray is the God that is the savior of sinners like you and me. That's like saying, I can't go to the doctor. I'm sick. I got to get better first. Then I'll go to the doctor. If you will come humbly, then he'll welcome you. James 4, 6, God gives more grace. And this is why he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We come to God through Christ because we need a mediator between us and the Holy God. But listen, we come to Jesus Christ directly. Isn't that right? We don't need a mediator between us and Jesus Christ. All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him, the hymn says that we sing. There's another hymn that fits here. Jesus sinners doth receive is the first line. But one verse goes like this. On God's grace we have no claim, yet to us His pledge is given. He has sworn by His own name. Open are the gates of heaven. Take to heart this word and live. Jesus, sinners doth receive. David did commit adultery. David did commit murder. David's son Absalom revolted because he, as a judgment from God upon David, the father who was not exemplary in these ways. And his son turned out to be the bigger sinner. But David prayed anyway to the Lord, who is full of love and mercy. And we should too. And then, having prayed and poured out our hearts to the Lord who hears and blesses sinners, patiently await your deliverance. Patiently await your deliverance. When you pray like this, it doesn't mean that immediately after you say, Amen, you're in heaven. No. The psalmist remained a while in the crucible of suffering in this life. As the psalm says in another place, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30 verse five. Well, brethren, I'm here to tell you that the morning is almost here. Don't lose heart. Commit your way to the Lord in prayer and wait patiently for Him and He will arise as your Deliverer. Praise God.