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[0:00] As the Lord helps me, I would like to direct your attention to some thoughts found in Psalm number 18. And I would like to announce my text, verses 4, 5, and 6.

[0:13] That's Psalm number 18, and verses 4, 5, and 6. But in order for us to more or less get to the connection of some of these verses, friends, I would like to begin reading with the first verse and read through the sixth verse.

[0:30] David utters these particular words, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and my horn of my salvation and my high tower.

[0:53] I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine enemies. The sorrows of death come past me, and the floods of the ungodly men made me afraid.

[1:09] The sorrows of hell come past me about the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God.

[1:22] He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him even into his ears. That's Psalm 18, verses 4, 5, and 6.

[1:35] If you will also notice, friends, the title to this particular psalm. In fact, this psalm is practically almost word for word to the utterances of which we read into the second book of Samuel, where we read something very similar introducing these words as we read in the title of this particular psalm.

[1:57] You notice here it says a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this psalm in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

[2:14] And he said, Certainly by now we all are well acquainted that David was a man of many experiences. But to the experiences and the hardships and the trials which he experienced in this life, friends, were sanctified and blessed to the soul.

[2:33] Oh, friends, then a person is able to praise God for the trials and the difficulties which lay into their pathway. That is when the Lord sanctifies them for our own good.

[2:44] This psalm, friends, was that of which David uttered, no doubt in the later part of his life, when he began to look back upon the many deliverances of which the Lord had granted unto him.

[2:58] Oh, when I think upon this thought, oh, it's sad today. Especially when I think some of those whom we would believe are the people of God.

[3:10] As they come nearer to the end, do they seem to experience so much darkness? When in one respect I realize it is all of grace. And it's not easy for a man to stand here and say how things would be, especially, I don't know how close death is to me.

[3:28] But we, naturally speaking, when we feel quite hearty and health, we at least feel, well, it is a little bit off. But nevertheless, friends, as David became near his end, he looked back upon to the many deliverances of which the Lord had brought him through and had brought forth praises.

[3:49] I think of Jacob as he gathered his feet up into his bed, looking back upon his checked and tried pathway, how that the Lord had proven to him to be his salvation.

[4:02] And how Moses there was able to go up into the top of the mountain and there to be kissed to death. For I realize Moses was an exceptional character. But oh, that we now might know what it is to be prepared for eternity.

[4:18] That there might be that progress in our own soul here upon to the face of the earth. That we might see more and more steadfastness in our own heart.

[4:29] More comfort, more assurance of the Lord's work within us. And now we find here that David here spoke very good of his God. Yes, David was acquainted with his God.

[4:43] Now let us notice here in verse 2. In fact, friends, you will notice there are seven expressions here which David speaks about his God. In verse 2 of this particular psalm, he refers to him as my rock.

[4:58] He refers to him as my fortress. He refers to his God as my deliverer. He refers to him as my God. My strength.

[5:09] He refers to him as my buckler. My salvation. And my high tower. Now I'm going to ask you a question. Is David using some fanciful language here to describe something of God of which he had heard or been studied in some school?

[5:28] No, David was speaking out of his own soul's experience. What a mercy to be able to say this evening hour, my God is my salvation. He is my buckler.

[5:40] He is my deliverer. He is my strength. He is my fortress. I have found all of these things and proven them in my own soul's experience.

[5:51] Now when we come to the words of our text, we find something of the experience of David. Now if we could look upon to this experience, which is found in these particular verses, and we would say, yes, he certainly knew something of the sorrows of death.

[6:11] He knew what it was to be compassed about from time to time, especially when Saul and the Israelites, even his own son Absalom, but friends, they had a far more meaning to David than that.

[6:25] Remember, the Bible is a spiritual book. It has a spiritual application. And to those who are of a spiritual nature, they will find the spiritual application to it.

[6:39] And to those who are only of a carnal nature, they'll try to delve into some of these things and try to figure out some of those things of which man was never intended to know. But what a mercy when the word of the Lord is made life to you.

[6:55] When do the experience of these who are written in the Bible you find to be the very experiences of your own soul? Now I want you to notice here in verses 4 and 5, David uses, or the psalmist uses, four metaphors to describe something of his experience.

[7:14] The first metaphor that he uses in verse 4, there is the shadows of death come past him. The second metaphor is the floods of the ungodly men made me afraid.

[7:27] Then the third one is found in verse 5, the sorrows of hell come past me about. And then fourthly, the snares of death prevented me. Now here is the language of a soul who has been quickened into the divine life.

[7:46] Now every one of us, friends, are sinners by birth and sinners by choice. Because we are sinners, friends, then we are under the condemnation of God's holy law.

[7:59] We are guilty. And therefore, friends, coming under the guilty of God's holy law, the Lord has said, and what he says, friends, is not altered, the soul that sineth, it shall die.

[8:16] And to all of those who are outside of Christ, they are under the condemnation of the law and under the condemnation and wrath of an almighty God.

[8:26] Now who can stand before his justice? No man can. But isn't it a mercy that the Lord there comes and condescends the descending of his spirit to the awakening of men to their lost and undone state before God?

[8:48] I don't like to make reference to what I have prayed for. I hope that they are recorded in heaven. But I could not help but pray that the Lord might show us our sins which proved to be grievous in his sight.

[9:04] Friends, what a mercy if God would show it. Painful and crucifying to the flesh, but profitable to the soul, glorifying to the God, and much more profitable for our own, for our own self, into the final end.

[9:20] Now we find here is a description of one who is brought to see something of himself and of his sins before God.

[9:33] I would like to describe these four metaphors of which are found here in this particular psalm. The first, as one who is bound as a condemned malefactor before the Lord.

[9:46] We know what it is at times to hear in our papers of those who have to go to capital punishment. For the most part they seem to go quietly.

[9:59] And yet, friends, we can imagine at times there are those who go with much rebellion. And we can imagine at least the description here is one who is being led as it were to the gallows or to be executed.

[10:19] I wouldn't say, friends, certainly, that soul which is quickened into divine life and who is brought to see himself as a sinner does not rebel against the Lord but rather is brought submissively before him.

[10:36] But what are these bonds then? These are the bonds of self-condemnation. In other words, it is this recognizing and saying before the Lord, I am a sinner.

[10:51] My own sins, my own departings are these which bind me to condemnation. It is like a man standing before the judge and a prosecuting attorney stands there and accuses this man before the judge and he lays all the bare evidences there before the judge and before the man.

[11:14] prior with faith, prior to coming there to be examined, the man might say, well, I think I can find some excuses. I can bring up some things that they possibly, there's lots of things they don't know.

[11:29] But to his amazement, the prosecuting attorney delves into everything the man has done wrong and exposes it and gives all the evidence of the man's guilt. and the man has nothing to say.

[11:44] He is, as it were, bound for the execution. Now let us notice the sorrows of death come past me. I realize, friends, looking this up in the original, it seems to also express the labor that a woman goes through into the bringing forth of birth.

[12:03] And so, when our sins are exposed, there is a labor, there is the pain, there is, as it were, giving birth to our many sins which thou lay before the eyes of deity.

[12:17] This is what the psalmist is describing. The sorrows of death come past me. The second metaphor, and I would believe, friends, there's something which is progressive in here.

[12:30] It is first a knowledge of our sin, and then being brought in true guilt before the Lord. The second metaphor is that of which is described as in the measure of an overwhelmed mariner in a foaming sea.

[12:49] Notice the description he gives. The floods of the ungodly men make me afraid. Looking at this in the case of David, friends, there were times when they were the floods of the ungodly men in the margin you don't notice, Belial.

[13:06] And don't think for one minute, friends, that all of those who followed David there prior to him being king were saints or godly people, for on one occasion we read to the men of Belial.

[13:17] Sometimes, friends, they brought trouble to David. On one occasion they was ready to stone him. And then, no doubt, we don't know what was all in back of that time when David was persuaded to go down into the land of the Philistines.

[13:33] Oh, friends, these accusations which sometimes come into our own soul. The accusations of the ungodly Satan which comes and speaks to us about our sin.

[13:46] Remember, friends, Satan is a liar, but there's times when he gives, I'm going to put it this way, half the truth. He will certainly want to point out your sins and tell to you you are hopeless in your own state and he tells the truth but he never points you to the Savior.

[14:05] If your hopelessness, if your sins drives you in prayer before the Lord of which we hope to notice in a few minutes, friends, that is not of the evil one. But I can assure you, friends, that the Satan will want you to love your sin and not to hate it.

[14:23] He will want you to continue in your sin and not to grieve under it. But oh, the deceitfulness of our own heart, the deceitfulness of man.

[14:35] Oh, friends, is there not times when there are the floods of the ungodly men? They make us afraid. And like David, on one occasion he felt that he would finally sink under the hand of Saul.

[14:50] And on another occasion he says, aha, so they would have it. so we find here there is those floods as one like a mariner, ready as it were to be overwhelmed as with the sea, to sink in our own sin, to sink in complete despair.

[15:13] Then let us notice the third metaphor. We find this one described in the fifth verse. The sorrows of hell come past me about.

[15:25] I understand once again that this metaphor seems to follow the thought, here is a stag or a deer which is being surrounded by a group of hungry dogs.

[15:38] Maybe they have already drawn some blood. And by the drawing of blood, friends, it makes even them more thirsty for the life of that particular deer or stag.

[15:50] I believe we've all read little articles about how sometimes the wild beasts attack one another, especially in the jungle. And it seems as if for the most part a deer can be quite defenseless when it comes to being surrounded.

[16:06] And at once when it is wounded, friends, there is not much hope for it. Then they begin to launch upon it and they bring it down. They bite into its jugular vein and they soon have its life.

[16:19] Here is the description of which David, the man after God's own heart, of whom the Lord would not allow to go on in an unconverted state, but quickened his soul without a doubt in the very early state.

[16:36] And as Paul, as he was brought to realize at times when he was surrounded with the enemies, such as Saul and Absalom, for as he viewed sometimes those stags, those deers, or those hearts out into the wilderness being surrounded by the angry dog, he thought of his own soul.

[16:54] How at times, too, he is surrounded. Notice the expression. In my, the sorrows of hell come past me about. Now the word hell in the Old Testament sometimes can easily be interpreted the grave or death.

[17:12] And certainly, friends, if we have any light upon the truth and upon ourselves, we know that there is that sin which brings death. And if our sins remain upon our person, it will bring us into the pit of hell.

[17:26] Oh, friend, has the sorrows of death and of your own sins, as it were, at times come past you about and brought you in very guilty, feeling as if, and if the Lord should send me to hell, he is just doing so because of my own sin.

[17:50] Oh, friends, sin is no light thing. If you think sin is light and think there can be no, as it were, brought to the bar of justice and no condemnation to be felt in your own soul, then it was a useless thing that Christ had died upon Calvary.

[18:08] It was of no avail than that he should have suffered such agonizing death if sin was not that of which man make it. Recently, in our papers, there was an article of the present ministry and the article said something of this nature, that hell is one word which is almost extinct from the general pulpits today.

[18:31] They want to speak of a God of love and of mercy. Well, friend, I don't want to repeat which I have often said, but do you know the mercies of God? Do you know something of the love of God?

[18:45] Do you really believe that God is a God of love? It is displayed at Calvary. It is displayed in the giving of his own dear son. There's where his love is displayed.

[18:57] But we find the reality of these things when the Lord commences a work of grace. The sorrows of hell come past me about. Then notice the last metaphor to which he uses.

[19:12] He speaks of the snares of death prevented me. We probably ought to once again think, remember, in those days, friends, they didn't have the modern instruments that we have in capturing things.

[19:28] And neither was there the laws of the land to prevent certain things. Remember, men lived often upon the fields. And there were certain birds of which they no doubt would like to use for their food.

[19:40] And they would spread a snare that is a trap. And in these particular traps, they would try to catch these particular birds. I do remember it as a little child and I wouldn't recommend it to our little ones.

[19:56] But sometimes we would often spread a snare to catch a little sparrow. We would put some food in there and fix up some type of a trap hoping some way we could capture one.

[20:07] I don't recall if we ever were successful. But we would make a snare. Oh, now David is brought or the psalmist is brought to realize the snares of God's holy, not the snares but to the truths of God's holy law, but to the snares of my own sin have made me a captive.

[20:31] And therefore, there is no escape. Oh, friend, who worked in the synagogue, can you go to the law? Well, friend, if he would go to the law and even if he would fulfill the law to its utmost ability, utmost demands, which is impossible, yet, friend, remember, there's your past sins.

[20:58] And it is a mercy sometimes, I know it grieves me, but our past sins sometimes are brought before us. I suppose there's a reason to always keep us in the humble place so that there might never be any proud appearance within us because we've got nothing to boast.

[21:17] And certainly, friends, our past sins and our past shortcomings, we do not want to extol them. Neither do we want to talk about them. Neither do we want to display them. They are agreed to us.

[21:30] And so, the psalmist finds himself in a most sad state and most predicament. But here's a mercy, friends. The Lord wounds so that he might heal.

[21:44] Now, the salve that for the sake of our young children, the salve in your medicine cabinet, friend, is only brought out when there's a wound. The salve remains and stays there until the wound is made.

[22:00] Now, the salve of which I want to speak about a little about is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the mercy, friends. If there was no wounding unto the part of God of the Holy Spirit in our own conscience, and bringing us in guilty before the Lord, there would be no room for the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

[22:25] If there was no revelation of sin, that is itself, I know there's sin, but I'm speaking of the revelation of it, if there is no revelation of sin, then there will be no revelation of the Savior.

[22:41] Men aren't saved before they're lost. They aren't healed before they're wounded. Oh, there's many religions like our one song speaks about it and warns us not to be found like unto those who want to be healed without being wounded.

[22:58] But, friends, I realize when these are wounds come, and the Lord begins to reveal the nature of sin, we don't realize it is the Lord's word. But we find, friends, when a person is brought into this position by God the Holy Spirit, then there is the nature, there's going to be the exercise of faith.

[23:20] Faith is that, friends, of which rightly sees my sin, and faith is that of which brings me and drives me to the throne of grace. Here's the language of faith, not to the comfort of faith, but it is something of the eye of faith.

[23:40] Notice here now in verse 6, in my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. Oh, such is the language of those who are quickened to do my life.

[23:56] In my distress, with the thought of my sin, with the compassing of the floods of ungodly men, with the sorrows of hell, with the dread and the snares of death compassing me, and bringing me in guilt to be for the Lord.

[24:15] Oh, friends, here we find the living soul. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. Now, when we look at verse 6, friends, we find something here which is progressive.

[24:31] Notice here he says, in my distress I called upon the Lord. Then, secondly, he cried unto my God.

[24:43] Now, the word Lord, friend, is a very strong word in the original Hebrew. It actually means the great Jehovah I am.

[24:54] You remember when the Lord appeared unto Moses of old, he says, as to my name Jehovah, I have not yet declared it or had made known of it unto my people, unto Israel.

[25:10] We find here with the greatness of his sin, the man needs a mighty God. Therefore, he says, I called upon the Lord.

[25:21] the meaning is, I called upon the great Jehovah, who is the captain of the host of God, who is the mighty I am.

[25:33] Oh, when our sins are real and the power of it and the condemnation are real, we want a real Savior. We want a real God. Nothing short but a true and manifestation of a God to my soul will ever satisfy such living desires or such guilt.

[25:53] Then he notices here he cried unto my God. First call and then cry. Oh, friend, do you know something of this?

[26:05] Do you remember the first inklings in your own soul when you begin to pray? When your prayer was a little different and you begin to call upon God? And then as the weight of your sin, and of the silence of heaven, and of the heavens were just brass, and your load became greater, it brought out a cry, didn't it?

[26:31] Oh, there was an ache, there was a cry in your own soul, and notice it, my God. Oh, the deeper one is brought into these things the more they want God, and the more that faith begins to venture upon to the fact that you begin to realize, but I've got to be my God.

[26:51] There is that want of a familiarity which a living soul wants with God. So we find prayer is brought. Once again, friends, when the Lord begins, he finishes.

[27:06] He brings this soul, as it were, under the convictions of sin, so that he might reveal the solution of the Savior. earth. Now, where is this remedy coming from?

[27:18] Notice in the words of our text, he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him even to his ear. He heard my cry, and my cry came before him.

[27:34] Excuse me, he heard my voice out of his temple. His temple, of course, was the place of God's dwelling place. Who is this person of whom the Lord, of the Spirit here is speaking about?

[27:49] It is the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the mediator, who was at the right hand of God the Father. Because of his condescension, and because he was truly God and truly man, friends, he can hear.

[28:06] He is one who can hear the cries and the sighs of a soul, because he also was tempted and tried, as we hope to notice a little later. And so he does hear. Now, in his humanity, and remember his humanity and his Godhead are both in glory, how came he into this temple?

[28:28] The temple, then, friends, is that place of which is described here, which was once upon the face of the earth. The temple in everything describes the person and the work of Christ.

[28:41] You remember the high priest there on the once time of the year, entered into the most holy place that is upon the day of atonement. Now, Christ, when he came upon the face of the earth, he did not sacrifice a sacrifice, but he gave himself as a sacrifice.

[29:03] In other words, Christ was the sacrifice. And as there was no priest worthy to offer, he was the high priest and he offered himself. He went after the offering of himself.

[29:17] As the sacrifice upon Calvary, he died, he laid in the grave, he rose again by his own power, and after seeing of his disciples for a period of forty days, he ascended into glory.

[29:33] a type and a figure of the high priest upon the face of the earth, who entered into the most holy place on once a year. Christ, by his one sacrifice, entered into heaven at the right hand of God the Father, and entered into the most holy place there upon the mercy seat.

[29:56] And there he is, as an accomplished word. There's where he is. So we find that he hears upon the ground of the accomplished work of Christ, upon his finished work, upon that of which he had satisfied justice.

[30:17] Now we find here in this particular psalm not only the description of a soul under the convictions of sin, who knows what it is to cry unto the Lord and for deliverance, we find one also who is the description here of one, who was in all points tempted and tried like we are, only without sin.

[30:44] I read Psalm 22, which is a description of the sufferings of Christ. Certainly, friend, no one can read Psalm 72 without believe it's speaking prophetically of the pathway of Christ.

[30:58] You remember recently, this was on Wednesday evening, I tried to speak from those words where Paul says that he might know Christ and be brought into the fellowship of his sufferings and be conformable to his death.

[31:13] Now, when we look at these words which are found in verses 4 and 5 of this particular psalm, we do not only find the experience of a living soul, but we find the experience of him who was afflicted in all of their afflictions, which is the Lord Jesus Christ.

[31:36] Now, we see then, as a soul is brought to see of the sufferings of Christ in the substitutional way, now the sufferings of which the man went through, as we tried to describe to begin with, friends, there was no, he could not be his own substitute, oh, that we could see the substitutional work of Christ.

[32:02] Let us notice here, does not this also describe the sufferings of Christ? Now we view him here in these words, a description of his substitutional work, or a vicarious work of Christ.

[32:20] The sorrows of death come past me. remember, friends, when Christ was upon the face of the earth, one of the very climaxes of his sufferings was when he went to Gethsemane.

[32:36] We read there that he was amazed. The agony of which Christ went through, friends, is something we cannot seek to describe. Our words fail.

[32:48] Only as we are brought in to see something of the nature of our sin and feel the pressure of our condemnation do we know in the measure of what Christ went through. But remember, friends, his agony was far worse than the consciousness of our sin because he was sinless.

[33:07] The agony of my sin, friends, I see that I'm just. I know that our God is rightly just condemning me because it is my sin. But remember, friend, he had no sin.

[33:22] Oh, friend, if we could only enter into the fact that he bore our sins and our sorrow. Notice the language of which we, I think it was on Good Friday, we tried to speak about. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death.

[33:37] There's the language of the eternal Son of God. Then looking after the words of our text, the sorrows of death come past me. Why did Christ go into such agony there in the garden?

[33:51] I hardly know how to express it, but it almost appears that at this particular time, God the Father begins to lay the sins of the church upon him.

[34:03] He begins to see the terrible nature of sin and what it is. And now by the imputation of the sins of his people upon him, he realizes the extreme agony which he's got to pass through.

[34:16] but he's got to pass through it for the redemption of them or else they must have to go through the pit. And the Lord God will never allow one of his chosen child ever to pass into the pit of hell.

[34:31] They may have a little taste of it here, but they will never get there because he is in their place. So we see the sorrows of death come past me.

[34:43] Oh, the floods of the ungodly men made me afraid. Oh, how they taunted him, how his disciples fled, and how they gathered around his cross.

[34:55] Remember, friends, there was no sufferings like Christ. He suffered after the hand of God the Father, of which God's people know nothing about to the extent that he did.

[35:07] He suffered under the hand of Satan as it were the full force. Satan is always tied and kept against God's people. They may be tried and tempted for a while, but not the force of Satan.

[35:21] He suffered after the hand of man, after the Romans, after the Greeks, and even after the hand of his own people, that is the Jews.

[35:33] The sufferings of Christ then in that respect were threefold, far more than any of the children of God ever known upon to the face of the earth. Now where is thy God, they said?

[35:45] Let him trust in God. If he is the Son of God, let God redeem him. Let him come from the cross. And they felt that the very darkness which existed upon the earth was God, as it were, pouring out his judgment upon this blasphemous man who was upon the cross.

[36:02] They thought God was on their side. So we see here then, the floods of the ungodly men made me afraid. the sorrows of hell come past me about.

[36:15] The snares of death prevented me. Oh, can you see now how the psalmist here was answered from the temple? How that the father psalmist was brought here to see the accomplished work of Christ upon cross.

[36:31] To see that there is a mediator. There is the lamb of God at the right hand of the father. how that he is triumphant over sin, over death, and over hell, and over all the enemies which have now been surrounding him.

[36:46] Oh, could our eyes be fixed upon the savior? Could our eyes be fixed upon him who is the redeemer of the church? There is where he is going to answer all the demands of those who call upon him, who cry in the time of their distress.

[37:04] He hears them because he is a compassionate God in and through the savior because God can only hear us as we plead to the name of Jesus.

[37:16] And so that every blessing, every favor, every comfort which flows through your own soul and comes to you, friend, all flows through the mediator because he's in the temple.

[37:30] He is at the right hand of God. He is the mediator. And we can even trace it back further, friends. It all flows from the eternal covenant and the counsels of eternity.

[37:42] Oh, friend, when we get a little glimpse of this, it will melt with a stout his heart. Bring tears to the child of God to think from all eternity there was a plan and how this was accomplished upon Calvary and how that his accomplished worked.

[37:59] He ascended at the right hand of the Father. And every blessing now to my soul, every hope in the gospel, flows through the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[38:12] In my distress I called upon the Lord and I cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple and my cry came before him and to his ear.

[38:25] Oh, what a mercy when the Lord hears. And oh, what a mercy when he brings peace, when he lets us see how that the law is satisfied. Justice is satisfied.

[38:39] Now, friends, as we look upon what we have in the measure tried to cover this evening hour, isn't it a mercy that the Lord, when the work of grace is there, it is complete?

[38:51] I realize not complete as to our own soul's experience, but how that he will complete it. How that he says, when I begin, I finish. I'm the Alpha, and I'm the Omega.

[39:06] I'm the beginning, and I'm the end. No one can shut when I open, and no one can open if I have shut. God is absolute sovereign for all of his ways to his own people.

[39:23] Oh, what a mercy to be wounded. What a mercy to be a sinner. As I have said in times past, and there was one little article read some times back in our Sabbath school.

[39:35] To anybody here this evening hour, if I would ask you, to you who know something of grace, do you regret that God ever convicted you of sin?

[39:46] I realize some were convicted possibly more on one occasion than others. Sometimes the Lord begins very suddenly, brings the soul in guilty.

[39:58] there are others who it is a more of a gradual unfolding of sin and brought to see more and more of the emptiness and the vanity of this world, brought to see more and more your own sin, your own corruption, your own fall.

[40:16] As in my case, it was more of a gradual work until it built up as to be as a burden unbearable to the point that I wish I never had been born into this world.

[40:27] Do I regret those times? I don't. Oh, what a mercy to be able to thank God that he brought you in as a guilty sinner. He condemned you of your sin and you had to pass through the experiences.

[40:43] In the measure of something of the psalmist, the sorrows of death compassed me. The floods of the ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about the snares of death prevented me.

[40:59] Yes, you were bound as a word as a convict to be brought to the execution. And all you could say was guilty, guilty, guilty. But what a mercy you found.

[41:12] There was a compassionate Savior. And the gospel let you know there is mercy to be found of the judge because he hath provided a ransom. He hath provided a remedy.

[41:25] he hath provided a solution for a sinner. One who will come up and stand in your place. Who will walk through the very bitters of waters of which you are commanded to walk through and of which lay before you in eternity.

[41:42] And so the infinite love of the Lord Jesus Christ was this, that he did pass through the sorrows of death. He went through the floods of ungodly men.

[41:55] They didn't bring him down. They couldn't bring him down. But they were cutting to his flesh and trying to him. He was the one who knew it was to have the sorrows of hell to compass him about.

[42:09] And as it were the very taste of hell. And what is hell friends? It is separation from God. What is the greatest grief you would ever think to experience in your whole life?

[42:23] It is to be separated from God. You feel as if you could take hell if Christ was there. It can't go together but yet you feel that.

[42:35] But there to be separated of God, never to see him, never to enjoy his favor, there to be cut off for eternity, is something which grieves a living soul.

[42:48] That very thing of which we grieve over and fear and believe as our portion, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly, obediently, voluntarily, and with joy and delight, entered into that path of being forsaken of God, that he might bring many sons to glory.

[43:12] Friend, it is so great, I almost don't know how to describe it. And as I begin to describe it, what little light I have upon it, I begin to realize what little we seem to comprehend and enjoy and entered into our own soul.

[43:29] No wonder the apostle of old says, oh, that I might know him, that I might be brought into these things for my own self, that I might prove to be brought into the sufferings and the sacrifice of Christ, that I might be brought to these things for my own comfort and for my own consolation.

[43:48] Yes, he does hear, he hears from his temple, from the accomplished work of Christ. Well, friends, I know no more to say.

[44:00] I have to leave it to the Lord again, to make the application to each and every one of our soul, to lead us into this truth. Once again, friends, true religion is more than notions.

[44:13] Something's going to be known and felt. Oh, as I look at that second verse of the Psalm 18, David, or the psalmist, describes the nature of God.

[44:23] Are you a stranger? Are you outside? Do you know him? Or are you a total stranger to him as your rock? Have you ever fled to him as your fortress?

[44:36] When do the gates of hell and condemnation come against you? Have you ever known what it is him for to deliver you? Have you seen him something as my God? Have he given you strength against the temptation and given you strength to walk into the pathway of peace?

[44:53] Have you known to him your trust, your buckler, and your high tower? Oh, friend, would it be that we might know the reality of God here and not wait for eternity?

[45:05] May the Lord bless these few remarks for his name's sake. Amen. Shall we then conclude our service by the singing of hymn number 1011.

[45:25] Hymn 1011. My God, the spring of all my joys, the life of my delights, the glory of my brightest days and comfort of my nights.

[45:37] Hymn 1011. and 11. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011. Hymn 1011.

[45:49] Hymn 1011. My God, the spring of all my joys, the life of my delights, the glory of my bright and home and � or my night.

[46:22] If he is I him God bless you.

[47:08] And with her God I am King My soul could lead this having faith And that transformed in birth Run up with your love guiding My dearly soul Fearless of hell and ghastly death I'd break to every fall The wings of love and arms of faith

[48:14] Should bear me come true May the grace of the Savior and the love of the Father And the communion of the Holy Ghost rest upon all Now and forevermore Amen And the communion of the Holy Ghost rest upon all I am with your body and the song Amen.