turn this morning to Psalm 6. Please continue to pray for your sister church in Sugar Land. We are Good Shepherd, and we need to continue to grow. We continue to receive Kim Kee support, and we continue to receive Presbytery support. We are hopefully gaining some momentum. but continue to pray for your sister church in Sugar Land. Let me read to you Psalm 6, if you would stand for the reading of God's holy word. Psalm 6, O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger. nor chasten me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am pining away. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are dismayed, and my soul is greatly dismayed. But you, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, rescue my soul. Save me because of your lovingkindness, for there's no mention of you in death, in Sheol, who will give you thanks. I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with my tears. My eye has wasted away with grief. It has become old because of all my adversaries. Depart from me, all who do. Iniquity for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard my supplication. The Lord receives my prayer. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back. They will suddenly be ashamed. The word of the Lord. Let's ask God to bless this word to our hearts. Oh, Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight this morning. Oh, Lord, our God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Well, in California, We don't have Sunday school yet in Sugar Land. We are thinking about it. We are wanting it. But we don't have it. And so we've talked about it. And one of the things that we've talked about is what we used to do when I was in California. And we were in California at 11 o'clock. We had worship service early. We had Sunday school second. And then Mr. Sousa would stand up. We'd sing one verse of a hymn. And then we would go through the children's catechism. And there came a point in time where Mr. Sousa got stuck. And when I mean he got stuck, he got stuck on one of the questions. He got stuck on question 55. In question 55, I know Pastor Johnson knows it. But who will be saved? And the answer is only those who repent of their sins, believe in Christ, and lead a holy life. What a wonderful answer. What a good question to be stuck on. Who will be saved? Well, I thought about that for years and years. That definition, what a great definition of salvation. But one of the things I think that I was taught, and some of you may be able to relate to this, I think when I heard the gospel, I was told, if you have repented, if you have believed, then you're saved. And so I walked around in my life and I was going, I'm saved. But I never thought about that leading the holy life part. I never saw that part worked out in my own life. But I'm saved because I've been told if I've repented, and I've been told if I believed, past tense, that I'm saved. Well, as time went by, got to be around 22 years of age, and I began to go, you know, there's some present tense in this thing that I'm missing. Let me read it to you again. Who will be saved? Only those who repent of their sins. Only those who believe in Christ and lead holy lives. Only those who repent of their sins in the present tense. Not those who have repented and never continue to repent. Only those who believe and continue to believe, only those who lead a Christian life and continue to lead a Christian life, those are the ones who can be assured of their salvation. Negatively put, let's put it really to the point. I have no hope of salvation if I have repented, but I will not repent now. I have no hope of salvation if I have believed, but I will not believe now. I have no hope of my salvation if I have led a holy life, but I will not lead a holy life now. Everybody likes to sing, Jesus loves me. 189, Trinity Hymnal, turn there, you can read it. Fourth verse, if you love him, if I love him when I die, he will take me home on high. Not if I have loved him, I love Him when I die, He will take me home on high." There's a present tense to our salvation. In this text we're going to look at this morning, there's a present tense in our attitude toward sin. Now just by way of introduction, I want to give you a couple of passages. In Matthew 5 for the second, the attitude says, "'Blessed are those who mourn.'" Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Those who mourn, how often do they mourn? They mourn all the time. They never stop mourning. They never cease to mourn. We mourn over sins. In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story about the public and tells them about the Pharisee, the tax collector and the Pharisee. And the Pharisee is at the front. He's very proud of himself. I thank thee that I'm not like other men. like that guy back there sitting by, he's standing right there behind Mary. He's right behind Mary. God be merciful to me, the sinner, the tax collector says. And how often does he say it? It says he says it over and over and over. So we have a person who is always sorrowing over sin. We have a person who's always mourning over sin. Calvin even puts it this way. He says that in the Psalmist's mouth, there's always a place for him to remember his sin. I was reading with Evan last night. We went through Psalm 25. I said, notice, there's three different parts of this Psalm where he talks about his sin. What would we do if we had a worship service where we stopped and we repented of sin three times, not just once? It would be entirely appropriate. So now, before you say, now, Pastor Wheat, listen, you're just all somber, you're just all, or we just, you know, we just read it. We just read it. You know, in some confessions of sin here, they take out that little phrase, miserable offenders. They take it out. Pastor Wheat, you just told me I'm a miserable offender. Yeah, you are. You're a miserable offender. You're the foremost of sinners. You need to mourn all the time. You need to be sad all the time, but that's not all of it. You're not just somber and sinful. The second part of the beatitude says, for they shall be comforted. Do you want the comfort? Think about the comfort, the comforter. Who's the comforter? The Holy Spirit's the comforter. The Holy Spirit is not somebody who comes along and does what your grandma does, pat you on the back and says, you'll be okay. The Holy Spirit comes along with a carpenter's belt with nails in it, a hammer, two by fours, and he fortifies you. I like that part. So I'm gonna be sad and I'm gonna be comforted at the same time. Jesus was a man of sorrows. Jesus was a man of great joy all at the same time. And that's what this life is like until we get to heaven. So here's this man, God be merciful to me, this sinner, and what does he do? Well, he goes home rejoicing. He goes home with God's face shining upon him. He goes home with that benediction we like to hear, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his what? His peace. All of you know that. Remember Hannah? Hannah heard the benediction and she went home happy. Hannah heard the benediction, she went home and she conceived. Well, that might be a way. Wow, that was pretty good. That wasn't planned. Now, as we look at Psalm 6, it's a penitential psalm. And David's sorrowing over sin in this psalm. We don't know the sin. And, you know, you and I, if we sat down in Sunday school class, we might come up with a few. Right? We might come up with a sin with Bathsheba, we might come up with a sin of murdering somebody, we might come up with another sin of not disciplining a son, and so on and so forth. But David right now is fleeing from his son Absalom, who is taking over Jerusalem, and David's getting out of Dodge. And he's sitting in a camp, if you will, out of his hometown, and he's sorrowing at night over sin. Everything's getting settled, but he's very unsettled, and he's miserable. He feels God's hot displeasure. He feels sick. His body's in terror. His soul is in terror. He's grief-stricken, and he's without sleep. And he said that. Did you hear what he said? Return. Where are you? I need you. And so what I want to show you at the end of this is that he's going to argue with God for mercy, but he's absolutely certain that he will receive it. He's absolutely certain that he will receive it. So arguing with God for mercy and being assured of God's mercy. Those are the two points. First, arguments with God for mercy. Argument number one, God be merciful to me because of your unfailing love. That's that word loving kindness there in verse four. Return, O Lord, rescue my soul. Save me because of your loving kindness. You know, that's just a big old word. What in the world does that mean, loving kindness? Well, it means that God has made a covenant with David and he's saying, look, look, you have made a covenant with me. You have to keep it because your love is unfailing. You're the one who came to me. You're the one who made these promises to me. You're the one who called me out from the sheep field. I will make you a great nation. Lord, do you remember you said that? You said your kingdom will endure forever. I believe that Lord, I'm gonna hold you to that. He's arguing with God for mercy. He's arguing with God who's steadfast and loving and makes commitments that he always keeps. Lord, you don't have to do it, but you do have to do it because that's your character. You have to do it because you promised. You promised, and so many of the problems I'm having, Lord, are the consequences of my own sin, but Lord, I need the mercy. If you don't save me, you won't be acting according to who you are. If you don't save me, you won't be acting according to your promises. And I can just hear David thinking to himself, Lord, if my covenant brother, Jonathan, can make a covenant with me, if my covenant brother, Jonathan, can protect me from his crazy, green-eyed, jealous-filled man, his father, King Saul, then you can protect me. And if this man can find me when I am out lost and alone and need encouragement, surely you can find me and encourage me. And you and I are to make these arguments. We are to understand God is a God of unfailing love. I have sinned, Lord, but you're rich in mercy. But God, God made us alive. God is the one who raises up in Christ Jesus. God is the one who puts us in the vine. I need your mercy. I need the Holy Spirit to come along with that carpenter's bag and those two by fours and those nails. And I need that nail gun to put strength into me. You're the one who made me one of the sheep. All of you who come to me, Jesus said, I'm just reminding you, Lord, what's been said to me. You're not gonna lose one, are you? I'm one of yours. Can anyone pluck me out of your hand? You said nobody could. Isaiah 49, 15 says, I have engraved you on the palms of my hand. Lord, you have engraved me on the palms of your hand. Are you gonna forget me? You can't forget me. Look at your hands. Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me your promises. Think about those promises. There they are. You're the one who gives rest. You're the humble one. You're the gentle one. You're the one who gives a light burden. That's what I need, Lord. I'm not making any of this stuff up, am I? I'm not making any of this stuff up, am I? We watch the news lately, and everything on it's made up. This is real. I mean, listen to this. This is real. You need to come to church. I told the group on Friday night about the Sunday school class. I said, you need to come to church every Sunday morning for one of the main reasons is we come to worship and we worship, but it's a time of reorientation. Reorientation back to the truth. All week long, what do you hear? You hear lies all week long. You don't know who's telling you the truth. And you come back to church, and what happens? You get a man who reads the Bible to you, and you're reoriented back to the truth. This is when we come to worship. You've done it before, Lord. You've forgiven me before. Forgive me again. Lord, You're the one who said that if we sought You with all our hearts, that we'll find You. I'm not saying anything new. Keep your promises, Lord. Be true to your character. The first argument, be merciful to me because of your unfailing love. Second, argument number two, be merciful to me because I cannot worship you if I am dead. I'm getting older, folks. John's a little older than I am. Right? He's just a little bit older than me. But you know what? This is just from the gut, man. This is from the gut. I feel like I've learned more in the past three years than my entire life. I'm going, Lord, let me live a little bit longer. I can't tell people about Christ if I'm dead. That's what David's saying. Look at what he says in verse 5. There's no mention of you in death in Sheol who will give you thanks. That phrase there, no mention of you, it means to remember. Nobody can remember you. And it's a word that's used in the liturgy and it literally means used in the formal worship of God. David is one person thinking about everybody coming to church. And he's thinking about himself coming and worshiping God and really raising the roof on who God is and the glory of God because God's been so merciful to him. He doesn't want to die because he wants to go to church and tell everybody about God's mercy. The argument goes something like this. Lord, if you don't save me out of this calamity, there's going to be one less person in the worship of God on Sunday morning. There's going to be one less person to stand up and sing, oh, for a thousand tongues, to sing my great Redeemer's praise. I like Psalm, Hymn 172. This is John Newton's great hymn that you don't think about. Let us love and sing and wonder. Let us praise the Savior's name. He has hushed the law's loud thunder. He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame. He has washed us with his blood. He has brought us nigh to God. One less person, Lord. In Psalm 22, Jesus is on the cross. And you go read Psalm 22 and it's just, there he is going through these waves of suffering, just waves of suffering. Then he gets to verse 21. In the New Testament, he says this, it is finished. In Psalm 22, 21, he says, you have heard me, the idea is he's answered me. I know it's over, it's done, my work is done. And then he says this before he lays his life down, he says, I will declare your name to my brothers in the great congregation I will praise. Jesus is absolutely certain He's going to rise from the dead and declare God's glory to His brothers. He's absolutely certain. He goes into the tomb. Three days later, He rises from the dead, and guess what He does? He gets with His brothers, and He declares God's glory, and He raises the roof doing it. He declares to His brothers the glory of His Father. And it seems to me that David knows the shorter catechism. It seems like David knows that his chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. One commentator asked this, what's wrong with death? Well, didn't we just say, what's wrong with death? Didn't we just say, why are you here today? Think about that. Why am I here today? We're here today because we've been bought with a price. You do not belong to yourself. You belong to Jesus Christ and you are to glorify God with your body. You're to glorify God with your mind. You're to glorify God with every word that comes off of your lips. I'll refrain this part a little bit, but it's like, I remember when I started getting a better idea of what it meant to be a Christian. I was making all of $6.09 an hour at the quote, what they used to call the chest hospital. You old guys know what I'm talking about. And with all my money, I was buying everybody that I knew a $55 Bible because I wanted them to read the Bible. I had just read 50 chapters of Genesis and I was going, wow, I must be a different kind of person now. Never did that before. I'm telling everybody that moves about Jesus. I'm telling everybody that moves about His mercy. I'm telling people at my master's program. I'm telling people in the gym. I'm telling people in my family. And people are annoyed with me. Some people got annoyed with me. I tell y'all, some of you guys know this. I'm a little bit, probably not quite as big as I used to be. And so I could probably get away with it in the gym telling guys that we're giants, because I was as big as they were. But I did have to kind of get it reined in a little bit. And the Holy Spirit and the people of God kind of rallied around me and helped me learn not to be so caged. Just couldn't stop talking about Christ. But if you want to know about Him, And you ask me, I'll tell you. Because I love to tell the story of unseeing things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because I know it is true. It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. You're a new creature in Christ, brother, sister. You're a new creature in Christ. You're in the vine. You have power working in you. You can't sing the new, new song if you're dead. Argument number three, God be merciful to me because you care. Now look at verses six and seven. He says, I am weary with my sighing. Every night I make my bed swim. I dissolve my couch with tears, my eyes wasted away with grief. It has become old because of all my adversaries. David's pouring it all out here. He's not leaving anything unsaid here. Why does he do this? Doesn't God already know all of this? Yeah, he does. He knows it all. But David knows God cares, and so he tells God everything. Isn't there somebody in your life that you don't mind telling everything? I have memories of telling some people everything. David's telling people, telling God everything. David's the one who said in Psalm 55, 22, he said, cast all your cares on the Lord because He sustained you. In 1 Peter 5, 7, Peter says it like this, cast all your cares or anxiety on the Lord because He cares, not sustains, but cares. I like the word cares. I'm gonna stick with that word during the rest of the sermon. Has God not cared for you? Has God not opened up the scriptures and shown you who Jesus Christ is? That's God's care for you. He reveals Jesus Christ to us, that's God's care for us. You know, we have people in our lives, I mean, there's people right now in my life that I would really, really love if I had the power to change certain things. I love them, I care for them, but I don't have the power to change things. There's other people in life who have power but don't care. But our God is powerful and willing to care. He is both at the same time. I love this illustration. I heard this years and years ago, probably when I was 30. I chalk these things in my mind and remember them when I, you know, God helps me remember them when I need them. But there's a story about a young man in a railroad station, and there's all the trains going back and forth, sort of like an airport, and they all have their baggage, and all the women and men are getting on and off the trains, and this little boy's riding his bike, and he falls down. And his trousers are caught inside the chain and the sprocket. And the more he tries to get out of it, the more tangled he gets. And so men are walking by who have big arms and strong biceps and triceps and veins popping out, and they have all their baggage. And you can tell they're very able and powerful to help him, but they're unwilling. And then finally, there's one man who comes along, and he stops, and he takes the young man, and he calms him down, and he takes the pants out of the chain. He picks the young man up, and he sets him on his back. and he bids him good day. He's able and he was willing. And our God, he's able and he's willing to care. Why does God tell us that he owns a cattle on a thousand hills? Why does God tell us that he knows every hair on our heads? Why does God tell us that He knows every time a sparrow hops? And why does God tell us that He knows every star by name in every galaxy? Do you know how many stars that is? Do you know how many names that is to remember? Every evening it says that in Isaiah 40 that He calls them out and they come out like so many puppies at night on leashes. Does He tell us that because He wants us to know how smart He is? Well Jesus tells us this, he says, are you not of much more value than these? Now friend, are you not of much more value than a hare? And bless Don there, he can't even hardly lose anymore, right? Are we not of much more value than a sparrow hopping? Are we not of much more value than a star? God can't even talk to stars, but he can talk to you. and you can talk to Him. This God of ours, He's invested in us, and He loves us, and God cares about our greatest care. Here we see David is casting all his cares on the Lord. He's bringing every sin before the Lord, whichever one we can pick. But there came a point in time in David's life where he had to cast his greatest care on the Lord, which is sin. then he can bring all the other sins. But there came a point in time where he had to cast his sin on the Lord. And your care and my greatest care in this life is sin. Well, what is sin? We have all kinds of definitions. It's defiance. It's indifference. It's disregard. You know, somebody told me one day, Pastor Weed, I don't have a bad relationship with God. I don't ever call on His name. Well, that's a bad relationship with God because those who call on His name have a good one and those who don't, they do not have a good relationship. Sin causes us to walk around with a big old guilt bag on our back of care. Well, sin is not only our greatest care, but sin is a great care to God also. I heard a man one time put it this way, and I never forgot it. He said, what will God do to deal with his own anger against us for our sin? What will God do to save us from himself? Because that's what he's doing. He's saving us from ourselves. Well, let me tell you what he would do. He keeps his word. We can go run back to Genesis 3 15. We can track it all the way through the New Testament. And God is keeping his word. What does he do? He's telling us he's going to send a deliverer. And David is looking for the deliverer who's on the horizon. In fact, he's going to be his greater son. He's looking for him. And you and I, we have the wonderful opportunity to look back to him. This one, this Jesus, God, the father sent to take care of our sin so that we can have a relationship with him through Jesus Christ. That's peace with God. He carries our burdens and our sorrows on himself. In Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan writes about a pilgrim, they call him Christian. And Christian's on his way from the city of destruction to the celestial city. And he leaves without his family. He leaves without his wife, he leaves without his kids. He's going it alone. They haven't believed about the city that God is going to destroy, and so he's on his way to the celestial city. He's told that he's going to be carrying this great care on his back until he gets to the place of deliverance. And when he gets to the place of deliverance, he does. He looks up on this cross. There's this man there, and his body's broken, and his blood is pouring out. And when he sees this man on the cross, his greatest care falls off his back. it falls to the ground and it rolls down into the sepulcher. And Christian just stands there in wonder and amazement at this man on the cross. And these are Bunyan's words, he says, this is beautiful, he says, the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. The springs that were in his head Sent the waters down his cheeks. What a great way to say this man began to cry tears of joy. Three shining ones stand before Christian and all three of them say at the same time, peace be to you. The first shining one says, thy sins be forgiven. The second shining one doesn't say a word. He just goes over and takes those filthy garments off and he wraps him up in the righteousness of the one who was raised from the dead. And then the third shining one gives to him a role and a seal, the assurance of his salvation. Folks, listen, when you come to Christ, your faith should take hold of these things. Understand the peace that's given to you. Understand the forgiveness of your sins. Understand that you're wrapped up in new clothing of Christ's righteousness, that you stand before God acceptable. And you have the assurance of your salvation. And we ought to follow David's lead. Yes, the greatest care has been taken care of, but now bring all the cares. Bring all the cares. Bring all the heartaches, all the difficulties. God help us. In my home, we have six new puppies born one day before Beryl knocked the tiles off my house. all your catastrophes, all your calamities. Be merciful to me, O Lord. You've cared, and you still care. While we're in a world that's celebrating sin, you and I are once again to be mourning over our sin. But as we mourn, we are comforted. As we mourn, we find ourselves at peace with God. As we, like the publican back there at the back of the church, right beside Mary back there, God be merciful to me, the sinner. He goes home justified. I love to meditate on Jonathan, King Saul's son, you know. If you wanna, you know, guys, you wanna do a study about being a man's man, go study Jonathan. Jonathan says to his armor bearer in 1 Samuel, he says, listen, perhaps, he says, perhaps the Lord will work for us. The Lord is not constrained to save by the many or by the few. And he takes the armor bearer and they knocked dead 20 Philistines. Well, that same guy, when he sees David go up against Goliath and he throws a stone and sinks several inches into his skull and cuts his head off, he says, that's my kind of guy. He doesn't say, I'm going to kill him because he might take my place as the prince and the next king. And so Jonathan makes a covenant with David. And he covenants with David to protect him. He covenants with David to love him. He covenants to be stubborn with his love. And when his dad would kill David, he would protect him. And when his dad would send 3,000 soldiers out to find him, King Saul couldn't find him. But guess who could find him? Jonathan could find him. Congregation. Can you imagine Jesus Christ not finding you when you are in trouble? Can you imagine Jesus Christ not protecting you when you call out to him for it? Can you imagine Jesus Christ not seated on the throne right now and praying down from heaven the grace that you need in this valley? Can you imagine it? It's not true. You can't imagine it, because he will. Well, these are the arguments for mercy. Well, one quick point here and we'll conclude. Assurance of God's mercy. In verses 8 and 9, David is absolutely certain that God is going to spare him and give him mercy. In verse 10, he says this. Here's the certainty. All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed. They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed." How can He be so absolutely certain? Well, He tells us in verse 8 and He tells us in verse 9. He says, the voice of my weeping, He says, my supplication, and He says, my prayers, God has heard and He has received. I know He's heard me. It's just, folks listen, it's just a matter of time. That's what he's saying. It's just a matter of time before God intervenes on my behalf. Tears alone do not change anything. Crying out alone does not change anything. Single prayers do not change anything. But when these prayers and tears of ours lay hold of God, God begins to work. When they lay hold of a God by faith, He changes things. And sometimes He doesn't change the circumstances, does He, right off the bat? What does He change first? Me. Changes me. He shows me He's present. He shows me that He loves me. He shows me that He cares. You know, I said this last week to the congregation, I told some of the folks, Some of us need to know this and put it in our hearts and hold on to it like we've never heard it before. Are you with me? Some of us need to go out and understand, I've got to trust God in this situation where I haven't before. You say, well, you know, here we are back to that present tense thing. You need to walk with Him. You need to take Him at His word. Let me read to you a verse and I'll end here. I'm gonna read several of them to you, but this is, this is, this is hymn 666. In silence my soul is waiting, is waiting for God alone. Deliverance from Him is coming, my rescue or fort in rock. In silence my soul is waiting, secure. I shall not be moved. There's safety in God and honor, my refuge, my rock, my strength. So hide in our God, you people. Pour out, pour out your hearts to Him. Do you need to pour out your heart to Him? He's strong, He's powerful, He's a refuge. There's safety there, safety there. Be silent, my soul, in waiting, secure. I shall not be moved. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you and praise you for your word. We thank you and praise you for giving us, teaching us to argue with you. We thank you for your words that speak to us, and we thank you that we can take these words and argue back with you when you listen. Father, we praise you for being a God of steadfast love. We praise you for being a God who cares about our greatest care and every care. And Father, we pray that you will help us take these things in our hearts this morning and improve them throughout the day. Thank you for this opportunity to reorient our hearts to the truth. May we leave this place and go out and be lights in the world around us in our homes and work and school as school begins here not too many weeks. Help us to be lights to those around us. We'll praise you for it. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.