we would invite you to turn to Psalm 25. We'll read the Psalm in its entirety. Our text will be verses six and seven from Psalm 25. As we find that reference within our Bibles, we remind ourselves of a truth that we trust and pray that this congregation will never ever forget. that this is the very word of God given by inspiration, a word that is infallible and is inerrant and that is authoritative over our doctrine and over our life. The flowers fade, the grass withers, but the word of the Lord abides forever. So we read tonight from Psalm 25, a Psalm of David. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame. Let not my enemies exalt over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Make me to know your paths, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me. For you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble. and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. O guard my soul and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. And again, it is to verses six and seven that we especially turn our attention this evening. Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord. a congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. It should never be done in an overly critical spirit, but you can tell a lot about a person if you will listen to their prayers. You can tell what a person has in their heart, what weighs heavily on their heart, what concerns them, what their desires are, what their hopes are. You might even say you could tell what a person's dreams are by what they pray. You can tell what their theology is. You can tell what they believe about God. You can tell their innermost conviction about what they believe about God, and not only about God, but also anthropology, also what a person believes about humanity, about themself, about their own person. All of that expresses itself in our prayers. You could say that a person's worldview, that is their comprehensive scope of reality, what it is and what its purpose is, also evidence itself in a person's prayer. And we have the opportunity this evening, and we have the opportunity all throughout the book of Psalms, to listen to men pray. And not just any type of men, but holy men. Men, yes, sinful men, yes, but holy men of God. And so we have before us this evening a Psalm of David. And underneath the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we are allowed to enter into the prayer closet, so to speak, of David, a man of God's own heart, but a man who was a sinner. And we get to listen to him pray. And we find instruction, and we find encouragement for the Christian life. especially this evening in verses six and seven. As David cries out, Lord, do not remember my sins, but do remember your mercy and remember me. And so we consider this portion of the word of God underneath this theme this evening, a request for the Lord's mercy. We'll notice, first of all, the direction of the request, then secondly, the content of the request, and then thirdly, the basis for the request. So you have a man of God, David himself, and in a passionate sort of a way, he's making a request of the Lord through the vehicle of prayer, and he's saying, Lord, have mercy upon me. We'll notice the direction, the content, and the basis. First of all, then, the direction of the request. We can say this about the direction of the request, that this request for the Lord to remember mercy flows out of a troubled saint. When you turn to Psalm 25, and as you see David there through the literary work, you should notice that he is David, yes, but he's David in the position of a troubled saint. This troubled saint, David, is trusting in his God, even in the times of trouble, and especially in the times of trouble. And that is the characteristic of the child of God, of the mature child of God. And that is our exhortation also tonight, because we confess that we do live in troubling times, and we become troubled ourselves in the midst of those troubling times. It's especially at such troubling times that we are to trust in our God. So notice what David says in this alphabetical acrostic psalm beginning at verse one. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Now you'll notice also, in contradiction to the damnable lie of the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, that saints of God in this earth and on this life who exercise faith still experience trouble. And so let no one ever tell you that the saints of God do not experience difficult times. You can think of David in this psalm. You can think of Job all throughout his life. You can think ultimately of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The exercise of faith does not eliminate the experience of sufferings and troubles, but it does impact. It does impact how we experience the troubles that we encounter within this life. It impacts especially the direction to which we look as we experience trouble and as we find ourselves in times of distress. This is a troubled saint who is trusting in his God, but who is also suffering for his sins. Not suffering underneath the wrath of God, Oh, David is a child of God. David is a believer in his Lord. David is a forgiven man because of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The guilt of David's sins has completely been dealt with from the eternal decree of the council of redemption and the forthcoming sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not suffering the condemnation of God, but he is suffering chastisement for his sins. Yes, he mentions his enemies, in verse 2 and verse 3. So David is surrounded by his enemies and you can think of the life of David. He was a man you might say to some extent of constant sorrow. He was a man who already when he was a teenager most likely as he was called upon to play the beautiful melody of his harp to soothe the depression and the angst that Saul experienced in his own stress. So David would come and play these wonderful melodious sounds. And how did that work for David? If you would have asked David, David would have been able to recollect the day in which a spear was hurled at him, nearly piercing him through, but instead lodging itself in the wall. David would have been able to testify of the running fleeing as King Saul basically expended all of his energy and all of his focus just simply to try to kill the anointed of the Lord. And then once Saul was removed and as David established his throne, yes, there were many, many blessings of God's favor, but then there was also as a result of David's own sin, his own fall on one idle evening covered by a continual a transparent or rather non-transparent cloak of lies and of webs of deceit, David experiences all types of internal unrest within his own house. So he has his enemies. He fought the Philistines, he fought the Canaanites, but David does not play the victim card here. He traces, he traces it all back to his own sin. Now we are certainly not saying that every negative experience that we have in this life is a direct result of some personal sin that we have just prior committed. But we can say with absolute confidence based on the word of God that sin is the cause of all that is distressing. You see what this does is this enables David to avoid a victim mentality. He doesn't come in prayer and say, Lord, I am in distress, but I'm a believer, so I'm not sure what's going on here. I think I've been mistreated. I think I've been wronged. But rather, he acknowledges that he is a sinner. You'll notice this especially in verse 16, 17, and 18. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Now this sounds like a man who is in need of a counseling session or two, and indeed he is. The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble. But then notice this, and forgive all my sins. How often when we find ourselves in a time of distress, do we say everything that David just said in those two verses? Accept that last phrase, and forgive me for all my sins. So the direction of this request is from a child of God who is trusting in his Lord, and yet who is acknowledging his own sinfulness. And he brings his request to a covenant Lord. This is emphasized with repetition. I try to point out to my own congregation, every time you see the title Lord in all capitalized letters, a pause for an extra time there. Of course, all of the divine names are means of God's self-revelation and reveal characteristics about God. But when you see Lord as it's translated here, and you notice it's sprinkled all throughout the Psalm, and the Holy Spirit never engages in unnecessary repetition. This is not just a stuttering, I don't know what else to say, so I'll throw in another Lord. This is a emphatic, an emphatic, of all of the emphasis upon Lord, Yahweh, Covenant God, the faithful, unchanging God. And this congregation is especially the name, not the exclusive name, but this is especially the name that the faith of the child of God needs to hold onto in times of distress. When the world seems to be absolutely chaotic, when nothing seems to make sense, whether it's in my personal life, or whether it's in a congregational life, or whether it's in a corporate life, or a national life, or a global life, the Christian says, Lord, Yahweh, the unchangeable God of covenantal faithfulness, as deliverer and as redeemer, All hope is placed in the Lord as all of ours should. David here in Psalm 25 is really emulating Psalm 121, verse one. And I wanna ask you, as I've asked myself, where do we look in times of trouble? Do we look to ourself, some self-help motivational guru? Do we look to those around us? Sure, they can be of some assistance, but can they really help us? Do we look to our neighbors? Do we look to the government? Do we look to man? Do we look to humanism? Do we look to secularism, materialism? All of those are completely empty. Psalm 121 verse one gives us the answer. I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord. maker of heaven and earth. May I pastorally ask you tonight if that is your answer also? Does your help come from the Lord? Do you look to him and do you cry to him in times of trouble, in times of distress, as you recognize your own sin? Do you say, Lord, help? Well, that's David's direction in his request. And then you'll notice what he asked. A troubled saint who is trusting in his God, suffering for his sins, turns to the covenant Lord and ask for forgetfulness and remembrance. And it's really a wonderful construction within these two verses as remember is used three times. Remember your mercy, remember not the sins of my youth, and then remember me. We're going to invert them. Look, first of all, at the request for a forgetfulness of sin. David knows that his trouble, his distress, whatever it may be in this specific context of this psalm, is linked to his own sin, that is, his own heart of rebellion against God, and his own thoughts and actions, words, even inclinations, and congregation. Just in passing, let us be clear that inclinations that are sinful, that are contrary to the moral commands of God, are still sin and still bring upon a person guilt. So we have to root deeper into our hearts than just our external actions or our verbal words, but even the whole disposition of our soul. and the inclinations or the desires that come out of that that are contrary to the word of God, these are the sins that David remembers. And he asked God not to remember them. More specifically, David says, remember not the sins of my youth. Now, for some of us, those days were quite some time ago. For others of us, those days are the ones in which we live. Well, why does David mention sins of his youth, his transgressions, his missing of the mark from his youth? It certainly is not because he has attained moral perfection. 1 John tells us, if anyone says he is without sin, he is a liar. So it's not as if David says, well, I haven't committed any sins in quite some time, but I remember way back in the past when I was a child or a teenager, then I committed some. But he focuses all the way back upon the sins of his youth. Perhaps it is because the sins of one's youth are those of ignorance, those of a certain rashness, those of following after the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. But one lesson we learn from this, we oftentimes are either too generic in our confession of sin or too specific in our confession of sin. The air of being too generic is just kind of attaching that appendix to our prayer. Oh yes, and forgive me for all my sins. If our confession of sin is never anything more than that, we have missed an understanding of what confession is. It's not just a blanket at the end of the prayer. Oh yes, forgive me for all of my sins. We may be able to intellectually, theoretically, wax eloquently about original sin, total depravity. We may be the most adamant theologian in that disconnected type of a way. But what a man is in prayer is what a man is. But yet on the other, hand, sometimes we can be overly specific. And we mentioned just the most recent sin, you know, the one that we committed on our way driving here to church when we became frustrated and angry at the slow drivers who clearly don't understand the importance, the necessity of arriving to church properly on time. And so as we come into the sanctuary, maybe we sit and we reflect and the Spirit of God convicts us and we say, yes, Lord, forgive me for my anger. But you see, what David does is he sees the organic whole of his sinfulness. Do not remember, Lord, my sins, especially those of my youth. But now think about this for a moment. Perhaps, perhaps, We have been so trained and educated in the Christian community by home, by school, by church, that we think it's no big deal to ask for the forgiveness of our sins. And while we should certainly be thankful for such an education, upon what basis does David make this request? What is he asking the Lord to do? Lord, do not remember my sins. Why would the Lord not remember your sins, David? And same thing when we pray, when we pray, Lord, forgive me for not only my sins, but also my sinfulness, my depravity, my iniquity. Why would the Lord forgive us? It is because of the glorious transfer that took place in the accomplishment of redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. And woe to anyone who tries to preach about the forgiveness of sins without making a beeline, as Spurgeon used to say, for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way in which David can bring forth this petition, and the only way in which God will hear this petition, is if it is centered upon that substitutionary atoning sacrifice that was typified all throughout the Old Testament. understood by the people of God as signifying that the Lamb of the Lord Jesus Christ would take away the sins of the world. And so what he's asking, do not remember it has this sense, not that the Lord would somehow all of a sudden have a memory loss, all of a sudden be stricken with dementia or Alzheimer's and forget and be like, oh, David did what? No, that's not it at all, but rather blot out my transgressions, forgive, Cancel, cover. And that of course points us back to that most holy of scenes on the Day of Atonement when the high priest would enter in once a year. with the blood of a lamb, and he would move to the mercy seat that was upon the Ark of the Covenant that symbolized the special presence of God with his covenant people, and he would take that blood and he would sprinkle it on the mercy seat, making a covering so that when God looked down in his holiness and in the Ark of the Covenant, there were the 10 commandments, but he would not then see in the sense of his judicial dealings, he would not see the sins of the people. He would see the blood, the blood of the sacrificial lamb. And congregation, when you and I ask for the forgiveness of sins, let us always make sure it is on this ground. For the blood of the sacrificial lamb do not remember my sins. This is what Isaiah prophesies, or rather the Lord speaks through Isaiah. Isaiah 43, verse 25. The Lord is speaking here. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake. It is the Lord who blots them out. It's not we who blot them out. Boys and girls, I'm sure you don't make many mistakes in your schoolwork. I used to make mistakes in my schoolwork. Now I just don't do schoolwork. I still make mistakes. I just don't do schoolwork. But have you ever had an eraser that didn't work? An eraser, I don't know what it was, but an eraser that wouldn't actually remove the lat of the pencil mark you had just written, but would just smear it all around. And the more you try to scrub out your wrong answer, the messier it gets. And so maybe you keep scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing, and then all of a sudden the paper rips. And now things just went from bad to worse. Now you've got a mess on your hands and your paper is ruined. That's what happens when we try to blot out our sins. David had tried that once also. You remember the sin that he committed with Bathsheba and he tried to cover it up. And it went from bad to worse as he tried to blot out his own sins. Sadly, many of us try to do that. We try to blot out our own sins. We try to hide it. We try to erase it. We try to fix it. But Isaiah 43, the Lord says, I blot out your sins. And so the gospel of free grace and through the Lord Jesus Christ is certainly not this. Don't go out there and try to deal with your own sin. Don't try to atone for your own sin. Don't fall into some pharisaical, legalistic, absolute miserable situation of thinking, how can I make things right between me and God? That's a futile exercise that will lead you into spiritual despair. But rather with a faith-filled soul, hear the proclamation of your covenant Lord. I blot out your sins. And of course, that is done only by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then that text goes on in Isaiah 43, and the Lord says, and I will not remember your sins. And so the simple proclamation this evening, if you or I sit here tonight, exercising faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, even in the midst of distress and trouble and sorrow, then the proclamation is, the Lord has forgotten your sins for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. But on the other hand, also, if we sit here tonight, without that faith within our soul, Without that act of clinging to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, then the solemn declaration is, my friend, whoever you may be, you are still in your sins. You can try to hide them. You can try to erase them. You can try to deal with them. You'll just make them worse. But if you and I repent and believe the promises that God will forgive us of all of our sins for the sake of Jesus Christ. David says, Lord, don't remember my sins. Instead, remember your tender mercies and your loving kindnesses. You'll notice that in verse six. Remember your mercy as the ESV has it and your steadfast love. And certainly it's not my point to criticize the ESV, wonderful translation. But these words in the original are plural words for emphasis. Remember your mercies. Not that God has multitudes of different kinds of mercies or also your steadfast love. These are plurals, a super abundance of mercy. And at times we need to be reminded that our God is a God who in and through the Lord Jesus Christ gives grace upon grace, as John 1 makes clear. And so my question to the chief of sinners, whoever you may be, wherever you may be, do you believe that God is a God of mercy? Do you believe that God is a God of steadfast love? This steadfast love is that unique word, that special word that ties into covenantal faithfulness and kindness. And not just a faithfulness and kindness that stands by observing someone's plight, but a faithfulness and a kindness that takes action to redeem and to rescue. It's a pity. It's a tender-hearted compassion that is based upon a bond, a bond that was made, as we'll see in a few moments, from all of eternity. But this is what David appeals to, that which the Lord spoke of in Isaiah 49, verse 15. There again, the Lord is speaking through Isaiah to his people, and he says, can a woman forget her nursing child? And I always found it absolutely remarkable that as exhausted as a mother can be in the middle of the night, at the most awkward time, 2.30 in the morning, when all the mother wants is a little bit of sleep, a little bit of rest, and the mothers here in the congregation, you can think of this, and you can verify my analogy and my illustration. The infant child cries. And what do you do? Do you forget about the child? Oh, you go to the child. You care for the child. And the Lord builds upon, because there's a bond there, a bond that moves one to action. The Lord says, can any right-minded mother forget her infant child? There's an internal emotion that propels one to action. And then the Lord says, rhetorically, the answer is, of course, no. And the Lord, he continues and says, can a woman not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. And now there is among our five children, there is kind of an internal debate among them. You can ask the one who's here, she'll verify this analogy. And every single child who's been part of a multiple sibling situation has always wondered, who's mom's favorite? Who's dad's favorite? And the answer of any good parent is, I love you all the same. And yet isn't there something about a mother's little boy? And I'm certainly not implying that the Benjamin of the family, Benjamin was the youngest, the youngest boy. So we have a Benjamin, his name is Jude, mother's little boy. And mother would kill, figuratively for sure, perhaps literally. if her little boy was in danger. And the Lord builds on that and says, a woman will sooner forget her little Benjamin than I will forget you. And may that comfort your soul tonight. Lord, do not remember my sins. Remember your covenant faithfulness. See, that is the basis in our third point for the request. The request is based entirely upon mercy. Notice in David's prayer, there is absolutely no place for his works. There's no place for his good intentions. There's no place for his obedience. He doesn't say, Lord, remember me because I tried my best. He doesn't say, Lord, remember me, because when no one else wanted to go fight Goliath, I went out there. Nothing of himself. Lord, remember not my sins, but remember your mercy. And so when you ask for the Lord's blessing, is it only out of your understanding of mercy? Well, what exactly is mercy? Mercy is the attribute or the attitude of God that moves Him to not give us what we deserve. To not give us what we deserve. And in that mercy, He does not give to us the punishment for our sins that we deserve, but He places that entirely upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, oftentimes, we can become a bit pharisaical. I'm reminded of the parable that the Lord Jesus Christ gave when two men went up to the temple to pray. And if we would have seen the first, we would have said, oh, there's the man, staunch reformer, suitable to be an elder. He's got all the T's crossed and all the I's dotted in his life, and then we listen to him pray. And we nod our head and go, yeah. He says, Lord, I thank you that I am not like other men. I fast, I tithe, I do this, I do that. And I'm not like that man over there. You can tell a lot about a man by his prayer. And then a second man comes into the temple. This man we would not have been so impressed with, at least on his surface-level credentials. Why, he doesn't even go up to the front of the church. He just kind of sneaks in and sits in the back row, and he hangs his head down. In fact, when we look at him, we almost wonder, is he even awake? Is he even interested in the service? Perhaps he's on some type of substance, so that's why he's beating upon his breast. Yes, that must be it. There must be some type of mental issue in him. He sits way in the back. He beats upon his breast. He won't even look up. But, oh, that man is praying, too. That man is praying. He's praying for mercy because he understands he is the sinner. You can tell a lot about a man from his prayer. These mercies are from of old. David ties into the theological truth of the eternal counsel of redemption when from all of eternity before time, before the beginning of Genesis 1 verse 1, God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, In an eternal covenant of redemption, the Father decreed to save a people, a sinful people, and to make them saints, to forgive their sins, to cleanse them, to wash them, to make them new so that they might eternally praise Him along with the Son and the Spirit for all of eternity. And the Son, in that same eternal pact of agreement, said, yes, I am willing, I will lay down my life in its incarnational form to satisfy all of the just demands for those sinners. And the Holy Spirit said, I will also cooperate and I will take that life which Christ will attain upon the cross and I will apply it under their hearts and I will work out their salvation within them, giving the gift of faith and of repentance and justification and sanctification and perseverance of the saints and glorification. And so from all of eternity, God's mercies are everlasting. And David in time, underneath the distress of his soul, he lifts up his eyes of faith and he sees that covenant of redemption. And he says, Lord, your mercies are from of old and you are an unchangeable God. Don't remember my sins, but do remember your mercy and do remember me. And now in closing, those words ought to echo in our mind and trip a trigger of another man who was praying. Do you remember that other man who prayed, Lord, remember me? You see, you can tell a lot about a man by his prayer. He was a man who had spent the entirety of his life, as far as we can tell, involved in thievery and murder, perhaps some type of insurrection rebellion. He was an individual who had been sentenced justly to die by way of capital punishment, and the Romans were carrying out his execution, along with two others. In the middle was our Lord and our Savior. atoning for the sins of the world, by carrying upon himself the condemnation of God. And then the man, underneath the Spirit's work, of course, said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. In essence, echoing what David had said in Psalm 25. In essence, that repentant thief said, don't remember my sins, but remember your mercy, and remember your loving kindness, and remember me. That'd be a fitting prayer for all of us, for any of us, to conclude our day and our days If on our deathbed we were simply able to say with all sincerity of faith, hope, and love, Lord, do not remember my sins, but remember your mercy and your loving kindness in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then Lord, remember me. Because you will remember what the answer the Lord gave that praying man was. Verily, verily, I say unto you today, you will be with me in paradise. Because of mercy, because of loving kindness, because of grace, because of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Our heavenly Father, we do praise and glorify your name. For you are an amazing God in all of your attributes, but especially in this evening as we have considered the attribute of your mercy and of your loving kindness. Lord, we ask that you would comfort our hearts, which often do cry out in the midst of trouble. Lord, help. Do not remember our sins, but do remember your mercy and your loving kindness, and do remember us for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whose blessed name we pray, amen.