Lord, Have Mercy

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Lord, Have Mercy

If you have your Bibles now, turn with me to Psalm 143. Psalm 143 is the last of what the church has called, for hundreds of years, the penitential psalms. There are seven of those psalms that have been grouped together and called penitential, meaning that when you read the psalm you find a prominent theme of self-confessed guilt. The psalmist realizes he's guilty and that he deserves God's judgment, and so he calls out for mercy with a repentant spirit. And that's a prominent theme in those penitential psalms. Psalm 6, Psalm 25, Psalm 32, Psalm 38, Psalm 51, Psalm 130, are six of the penitential psalms and this is the last of those psalms. And it's especially, as you might have guessed already, verse 2 that puts this Psalm into the category of a penitential psalm. Verse 2…

He Answered, Forgave, and Avenged

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 99 as we continue to make our way through the Fourth Book of the Psalms. The Fourth Book of the Psalms runs from Psalm 90-106. This section of Psalms that we've been studying for the last few Sundays (Psalms 95-100) all focus on worship. And if you've turned to Psalm 99, you can take a peek back to Psalm 98. As we were looking at this Psalm last week, we commented that it teaches us four lessons about public worship. First of all, we commented on the direction of the Psalm. Primarily, Psalm 98 is singing about God, and we made a few comments about that. First of all, we reminded ourselves that even in a hymn or a song when we're singing about God, we're singing to God about God. But we also said that in…

With God in the Wilderness (28) Snakebit

The Lord’s Day Evening Numbers 21:1-9 With God in the Wilderness “Snakebit” Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III The last time we were together in Numbers, we were looking at the overwhelmingly sad and moving passage found in Numbers 20. In the midst of arduous demands of leadership in the wilderness, Moses is going to suffer family bereavement in the loss of his sister, serious opposition and complaints from the people of God, intense frustration from their rebellious spirit, a loss of temper that leads to him displaying publicly a disrespect for God that costs him entry into the Promised Land; and then in Numbers 20 he experiences a second family bereavement in the death of his brother, Aaron, and the subsequent transfer of the high priesthood. By the way, as we reflect on what we studied…

Restore Us, O God

Please be seated. If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Psalm 80 as we continue to make our way through the Third Book of the Psalms. Last week as we studied Psalm 79 together, we saw the lament of the Psalmist for the fall of Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom with it. Tonight we move from that concern in Psalm 79 with the fall of Jerusalem back a couple of centuries in time, to the fall of Samaria in the late eighth century. And the theme of this Psalm is this repeated…

Comfort in Trouble

If you have your Bibles, please open them with me to Psalm 77. Edward Young once provocatively said, “Among my lists of blessings infinite stands this at the foremost: that my heart has bled.” The Psalmist who wrote this Psalm would have understood that, but that stands in stark contrast to the comfortable spirituality of our own age. In our own day, we suffer from a superficial spirituality. It often sustains us in crisis only by denial, only by pretending that it's not happening.…

When I’m 64

I'd invite you to turn with me to the Psalms, to the seventy-first Psalm, which is the penultimate psalm in the Second Book of the Psalms. This is a Psalm for old age. Now, don't take offense! I'm not setting an exact date on when old age is. It's looking older and older to me, as I grow older myself. This is a psalm of old age. This psalmist is looking back on a life in which he can testify to the fact that the Lord has been there for him since his birth. He cannot remember a…

God’s Purpose to Display His Mercy Against the…

God's Purpose to Display His Mercy Against Evil Romans 9:22-29 If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans 9. We come this morning with burdened hearts to the house of the Lord. It's not that there is just a national crisis; our own congregation has been touched in many ways. We have sons and daughter, and sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law, friends and colleagues who have been touched in different ways, the Wares, the Yandells, the Welborns, many others in the…

How Can God Condemn If We Can’t Resist His Will?

How Can God Condemn If We Can't Resist His Will? Romans 9:19-23 If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 9 as we continue to work our way through this great book and chapter. “If God chooses then our choices don't matter.” Have you ever had somebody say that to you before? Maybe you said it yourself, or maybe it was put in the form of a question. If God chooses, then do our choices matter? Paul is going to address this very issue in the…

God Will Judge Justly

Romans 2:5-11 God Will Judge Justly If you have your Bibles, I would invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 2. We will be reading verses 5-11. Let me remind you where we have come from so far. The apostle has announced the theme of this book in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. He has said that the gospel, the gospel that he is preaching is the power of God unto salvation. And in verse 17 of Romans chapter 1, he has specifically said that in the gospel the righteousness of God is…

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Lord, Have Mercy

He Answered, Forgave, and Avenged

With God in the Wilderness (28) Snakebit

Restore Us, O God

Comfort in Trouble

When I’m 64

God’s Purpose to Display His Mercy Against the…

How Can God Condemn If We Can’t Resist His Will?

God Will Judge Justly