This morning, as we continue our study of Psalm 119, we have come to the 11th stanza of the psalm, verses 81 through 88, and in doing so, we have actually arrived at exactly the halfway point of the psalm. It is a long psalm. However, while these verses may be in the middle of the psalm, They tell us about the lowest point in the psalmist's life. Lowest point in his life. And the reason I say this, that this is the lowest point in this man's life, is because as we have followed the words of Psalm 119, we have come to understand that the writer was the target of intense persecution. He's told us that he's being held captive in a foreign land, taunted and mocked for his faith in the scriptures and the God of Israel, slanderously lied about by those who hated him, constantly under the threat of being murdered by men he refers to as Gentile princes, who had the authority to put him to death at any moment. Now, that is the backdrop of this entire psalm, and the message that the psalmist has been giving us over and over again is that even under the weight of all of this, all of this affliction and persecution, the Word of God has been his refuge, his delight, the source of his strength, the meditation of his soul, and everything else he can think of by way of encouragement. And although the psalmist has previously told us how difficult this ordeal has been for him, even telling us at one point in verse 25 that he felt emotionally crushed under the weight of it, and then in verse 28 said that it's brought him to tears. He's told us that, it's been hard, yet in the verses before us, in the 11th stanza, he reveals a certain darkness of his soul that he really hasn't told us about before. In describing these verses, and how dark it was, Spurgeon wrote this, this octave is the midnight of the psalm and very dark and black it is. How right he is. The reason for such midnight darkness is that the psalmist reveals for the very first time that he felt like he was abandoned by God. it felt to him that God had just forgotten him now in reality God had not abandoned him and God had not forgotten him and this man knows it because he knows what the word of God teaches but it sure felt to him like God had just forsaken him and just left him in his troubles because in spite of constantly crying out to the Lord for deliverance, he continues to be severely persecuted by his enemies, with no rescue by God in sight. Now, notice how bleak a picture the psalmist paints for us, as he tells us about what he was going through in the dark night of his soul that he was enduring. In verse 81, for example, he says, my soul languishes for your salvation. I wait for your word. Now, the thought behind this word languishes, it may be translated differently in your English version, but the thought here is that he's just worn out, he's exhausted, he's drained of energy as he keeps waiting for God to deliver him from his enemies. In other words, he's telling us that he's just grown weary in anticipating God's intervention. It hasn't come yet, and he's weary. He's tired. He basically says the same thing in verse 82. My eyes fail with longing for your word while I say, when will you comfort me? He tells us that his eyes have become strained, figuratively speaking, from looking for some indication that God was at work fulfilling his word by rescuing him, but he sees nothing. No evidence that God is doing anything to set him free from his persecutors. And all the time he's looking, straining to see if there might just be some glimmer of hope on the horizon. He tells us at the end of verse 82 that he's been praying. This is his constant prayer. He asks God, when will you comfort me? He's asking, when will you save me? When will you intervene and deal with my enemies? He keeps asking this, but he receives no affirmative answer from God. His troubles just continue and it leaves him feeling as if God has just abandoned and forgotten and forsaken him. And folks, we know this is exactly what he's thinking and what he's feeling because of what he tells us in verse 83. He says, I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. Now, a little bit later when we get to this verse, I'm going to explain what that means, but right now, just trust me, essentially what he's saying is that he feels like a bottle hung in a room and just left there and forgotten. In other words, he feels as if God has just hung him out to dry and then forgotten all about him. In and of itself, this is a terrible, terrible thought to have going through your mind. This thought that God has just forsaken me. Just forsaken me. And He doesn't care about me anymore. And that's what this man was feeling. But in his case, the problem wasn't just this horrid feeling of abandonment, as bad as that is. His problem was also a matter of life and death. His life. and his possible death. Notice what he tells us about his situation in verse 85 and then verse 87. We have to put this together. He says, the arrogance have dug pits for me, men who are not in accord with your law. And then in verse 87 at the beginning he says, they almost destroyed me on earth. Now what he's telling us here is that his persecutors have actually dug a pit in the ground and they were threatening to kill him and just throw him in the pit and just leave him there. No wonder this man is feeling so low. No wonder he's feeling so desperate. He's on the verge of being murdered, and God is nowhere in sight. That's what's going on. Now, you may never, I hope you never go through anything as life-threatening as the psalmist went through, but you know, if you're a believer, you know what it's like to go through a time of deep darkness, a time when you feel as if your prayers aren't being answered, as if God is ignoring you, and you are just spiritually weary and exhausted and you feel like giving up. Well, that's exactly how this man felt. But listen closely, because in the midst of such darkness, such sadness, what is, as I told you, essentially the lowest point in his life, the psalmist offers us some great encouragement. Great encouragement that we all need to hear. And this encouragement is the primary message and lesson of these verses. He tells us that in spite of how he felt, in spite of these feelings of being abandoned by God, he didn't give up. He didn't forsake his faith. He didn't cave in to these thoughts of being forsaken by God and then stray back into a life of sin. He didn't do that. And here's the point of these verses. He, instead, clung to the Word of God. He was determined to trust God's Word regardless of how he felt and regardless of how bad the situation was. Notice how often in the Psalm this man affirms his faith in the Scriptures, the written Word of God. He tells us specifically what he did with what we would call the Bible. Verse 81, at the end, he says, I wait for your Word. Verse 83, at the end he says, I do not forget your statutes. Verse 87, once again at the end, I did not forsake your precepts. Verse 88, revive me according to your loving kindness so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth." Now what he's telling us in these statements is that in spite of all that he was going through with no end in sight and no indication of God's imminent deliverance, he still had complete and unshakable confidence in the Word of God. He even ends this stanza by asking the Lord to enable him to continue to be loyal to the Word of God. That's what he means, revive me that I might keep your word. Now, friends, here's a man who's worth listening to. Here's a man who's worth learning from. Because here's a man who knows what to do when feeling down and feeling deserted by God. And that's precisely why he includes these words, gloomy though they might be, about himself and the low point in his life. This is why he includes these verses in the Psalm. See, He does it in order to teach us that no matter how hopeless and dark things might appear, no matter how emotionally low you get, the right thing to do, the godly thing to do, the thing that God will give you His grace to do, is by faith, look to His Word. Look to His Word for hope and for encouragement. That's exactly what this man did. And by his example, that's what he's teaching us in this stanza to do and the way he does this is by giving us from his own experience several courses of action that he took in relation to God's Word when he felt abandoned by God we're gonna look at the first two courses of action that he took this morning and then Lord willing next Sunday we'll finish this but notice the first course of action that he did he fixed his hope on God's Word He fixed his hope, his confidence on the Word of God. Verse 81, My soul languishes for your salvation. I wait for your word. As we've already noted, he begins this stanza by telling the Lord, and that's what he's praying. He's telling the Lord that he's grown weary. He's grown exhausted, waiting for Him to save him from his enemies. He speaks of his soul. What does his soul mean? Essentially, it means his inner man. His inner man has grown faint. It's grown weak while he waits for God to deliver him. And the reason, he says, for such weariness of soul is because he's been waiting for God to bring about the fulfillment of his word, but it just hasn't happened. Now, how long he had been in this predicament, he doesn't tell us. But no matter how long it was, he continues, he says, to wait on God to fulfill his word. Notice, he says at the end of this verse, I wait for your word. He means that he has fixed his hope on a specific word from God, a written word, what we would call a promise from God in his word, that he will help him by coming to his aid. But so far, it hasn't happened, that's why he keeps waiting. Now, he doesn't tell us what specific promise in scripture that he had in mind, what promise he fixed his hope on, but it could be any number of verses because the Bible is filled with promises that God will rescue his children from their affliction, that he will comfort them, that he will give them his grace, that he will save them ultimately from their enemies. One of these promises, just for example, one of these promises which I'm confident this man certainly would have been familiar with is Psalm 34 verses 6 and 7. Here's what David tells us. This poor man, meaning himself, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them. And so this man, even though he is weary and he's drained from waiting, he continues to believe that God will keep his word and will save him and rescue him out of all his troubles just as he has promised to do. He essentially says the same thing in the very next verse, verse 82. He says, eyes fail with longing for your word, while I say, when will you comfort me? My eyes fail with longing. Figuratively speaking, he says his eyes have given out. He has been looking so hard he's just strained them. There's a strain for his long-sought-for deliverance to come in fulfillment of God's promise, whatever promise that was. And all the while he's been looking, he tells us that he's been crying out to God in prayer. When, O Lord, will you comfort me? When will you finally arrive and rescue me? Now, this is a man, I think we could all agree, who's in a rough place. A place where he is waiting and waiting and looking, and looking, and longing, and longing, and praying, and praying, but there's nothing, nothing that he sees happening, nothing going on, no evidence that God is about to act, or is in the midst of acting, or that he's even heard his prayers. But listen, this man isn't the only one. who's ever gone through something like this. What he experienced is something that is common to all of God's people. Every believer knows or will know at some point in their lives those lonely times of suffering when you look to the Word of God and you claim some legitimate biblical promise. I'm not saying something that you just pull out of context and try to make it sound like what you want it to sound like. You claim some legitimate biblical promise to God's people, and though you constantly cry out to the Lord to deliver you from your pain and your trouble, you see nothing in response. It feels as if your prayers are going no higher than the ceiling, and that the Bible isn't proving itself true in your experience. I can very vividly remember a time like that that I went through in relation to our granddaughter Lila's illness. In the early days of her illness, when we weren't sure what it even was, and if we did know what the treatment would be, there were times when I would pray and seek God on behalf of Lila, and her condition only got worse. it seemed it only got worse, and I felt as if the Lord wasn't even there. I sensed nothing of his presence. It felt as if God had abandoned me. I knew that he hadn't, but that's how it felt. It was a very dark time, and there was just no indication that he was listening to my prayers, no indication that he was doing anything in relationship to the situation. I would appeal to him as a loving father who loves and cares for his children, but the more I prayed, the darker things seemed to get." So, what do you do when you find yourself in a situation like that? Well, you do exactly what the psalmist did, and that's the point. You continue to fix your hope on God's Word, and you persevere in your faith. even when you see no evidence of his word being fulfilled in your life, and you feel nothing spiritually. You persevere, you continue, you steadfast in your faith, in God's word, even when there's nothing going on emotionally in your heart. You remind yourself that the Christian life is to be walked by faith and not by sight, because although God hasn't seen fit to deliver you right now, He will. in His perfect time and in His perfect way. He will do it, why? Because His promises are true. And He is always faithful to keep His promises to His children. I remind you that it was our Lord Himself who said when addressing the Father in John 17 in His, what we call His high priestly prayer, He said, Thy word is truth. Thy word is truth. And it was the Apostle Paul inspired by the Spirit of God who told Titus that God cannot lie. God cannot lie. If somebody says to you, is there anything God can't do? Yes, he cannot lie. He cannot lie. His character of holiness will not allow him to lie. And to the Romans, the Apostle Paul said, let God be found true and though every man be found a liar. Romans 3, 4. I love that verse. Listen, God is true and every man is a liar. God keeps his promises and this is what you have to fix your hope on. This is what you have to remember when you find yourself suffering with no end in sight and no evidence that God is hearing your prayers, reacting and responding to it to fulfill his word to you. You cling to the fact and it is a fact. that God tells the truth he always keeps his word and you believe this and you cling to it even if you cannot see or feel anything happening now if you've not gone through something like this and you know Christ you will you will it was the Scottish Puritan Samuel Rutherford who said these wonderful words, believe under a cloud and wait for him when there is no moonlight nor starlight. Let faith live and breathe and lay hold of the sure salvation of God when clouds and darkness are about you. That's a great truth. Look, there will be times when clouds and darkness are all about you, when it seems as if God is being indifferent to your pain but that's when you have to be steadfast by faith and fix your hope in his word in the Samuel Rutherford put it believe under a cloud and wait for him a lot of what we do is believing under a cloud and waiting for him but you know what genuine faith true faith it's like that we are called to trust God's Word even when everything looks hopeless I think the best illustration of this is the story in the Old Testament of that great man of faith he is known as the man of faith it's Abraham we read in the book of Genesis that God had promised to make this this man this man Abraham though old and childless he promised to make him into a great nation with a countless number of children and even though at times Abraham he did struggle with this promise He did struggle with it, but he believed God. He came through the struggle, even when all looked hopeless. I want you to see Romans 4 verses 17 through 21. Paul writes concerning Abraham, As it is written, a father of many nations have I made you. In the presence of him whom he believed, even God who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not. Now watch this, in hope against hope he believed. so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken so shall your descendants be without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb yet with respect to the promise of God he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully assured that what God had promised he was also able to perform notice the expressions that Paul uses to describe Abraham's faith. In hope against hope. What does that mean? It means that he believed, he believed God's word when it all looked hopeless. That's what it means. He believed, he had hope in the word of God when it looked hopeless. He was an old man, his wife was an old woman, they were childless and God said, you're gonna have many, many, many descendants. You won't even be able to count them. like the sand of the sea, like the stars in the sky, but he believed God. Paul also said he didn't waver in unbelief. What an incredible statement. He didn't waver in unbelief. He also said he grew strong in faith, being fully assured that what God had promised he was able also to perform. So if you're going through a time where it just seems like God's Word is of no effect, It's just not effective in your life and your prayers don't seem to be answered. Just take heart. Remember that He always keeps His promise. He always keeps His Word. Even if He doesn't do what we want Him to do, when we want Him to do it, He will do it at His perfect time and in His perfect way. So fix your hope on His Word and believe that, as I said, He'll do it. at the time he deems fit and the way he deems fit. He'll come to your rescue just as he told you he would. So, what do you do when you feel as if God has abandoned you? As if you're going through this terrible crisis and he's nowhere to be found? You do what the psalmist did. You fix your hope on God's Word and you don't waver. But as this man moves on in the stanza, he tells us about a second course of action that he took when feeling abandoned by God. He not only fixed his hope on God's Word, but he refused to forget God's Word. He just refused to forget it. Refused to neglect it. Verse 83, Though I had become like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your statutes." Now, in addition to this weariness of soul that he's just told us about, now he says that he had become like a wineskin in smoke. So, we read that and we go, what in the world does that mean? How does one become like a wineskin in smoke? And whatever it is, what does that feel like? Well, in order to know what this man is talking about, we need to have a little understanding concerning the ancient world. Because the background of this statement by the psalmist is that in ancient times, containers for wine were made out of the skins of animals. But when a wineskin bottle was not being used, it was usually hung from a beam in one's home, and if hung there long enough, being unused, neglected, just hanging there, it would eventually get shriveled and charred from the smoke that was coming from the fireplace in the home. And when that happened, it rendered the wineskin just useless. So, in light of this ancient custom concerning wineskins, the issue that we're faced with is an interpretive question. We are faced with an interpretive issue. We need to try to figure out in what way the psalmist had become like a wineskin in smoke. What does he mean by this? Is he saying that he had become spiritually shriveled up, spiritually weakened, emaciated, so that he was just wasting away and therefore he was just useless to the Lord? Is he saying that? Well, that's what many interpret this comparison between himself and the wineskin in smoke. That's how many what many believe he's talking about that he's just useless useless to the Lord however I want you to think through this because there's really nothing in the context of this psalm to suggest that the psalmist have become useless to God or that he even felt useless. Why do I say that? Because in the previous stanza, he wrote about himself being an encouragement to other believers. I remind you, in verse 74, he speaks of himself being an example, a model of one who is handling affliction well. Verse 74 says, may those who fear you, meaning believers, see me and be glad because I wait for your word. What he's saying is, may your people look at me and see how I'm handling things and be encouraged. That doesn't sound like he's useless to me. Secondly, he made a prayer that he could teach some believers or the believers some great lessons of what he had been learning in his trials what he'd been learning from God's word notice verse 79 made those who fear you turn to me and I told you when we went over this the thought seems to be not turn to me but return to me in other words there have been some believers who upon hearing these these slanderous lies about this man had turned away from him they believe these lies but now his prayers may those who fear you turn back to me may they return to me even those who know your testimonies." In other words, may they come back, see that I'm not what these persecutors have said, and may I be able to teach them some great lessons about what I've been learning during these trials. So in light of these statements about blessing his fellow believers by his example and by his instruction that he hopes to give them, it doesn't seem likely that he would now just a few verses later be saying that he felt useless to the Lord so what is the interpretation well I think a better interpretation and one that certainly fits the context is that this man is telling us that he feels like a neglected wineskin, who's taken in a lot of smoke from the flames of a fireplace in that he feels completely forgotten and just overlooked by God. He feels just like an empty bottle that's been left to hang on a rafter that nobody cares about anymore. It's just been left there, it's ignored, it's forgotten. And you know what? I believe that is the right interpretation because that fits the context exactly. Notice, and I say that because notice the very next statement of what he says. He says, I do not forget your statutes. You see what he's doing? He's making a contrast. A contrast between how it appears to him as if God has forgotten him, but here's the contrast, but Lord, I've not forgotten you. In other words, even though it feels as if you've forgotten and you've neglected me and you've overlooked me, I will never forget your word. I'll just keep believing it. I'll keep trusting it. I'll keep looking to your promises and I will keep obeying what you say." What a tremendous truth! What an incredible truth this man reveals concerning what to do when you cannot and do not sense God. And you feel as if he's forgotten you because you haven't received any relief from your suffering. Instead of ignoring the Lord and then turning away from him and his word, which is exactly what Satan will suggest to you, The right thing to do is to be loyal and faithful to the Word regardless of how you feel. Obeying God's Word even when you feel nothing of the Lord's love for you and you feel nothing in your heart of tender love towards Him. That's exactly what true Christians do. See, a true believer, one who has been genuinely converted to Jesus Christ will never completely forget the Lord or His Word, no matter how bad his circumstances might be. Now there might be some hiccups along the way, might be some bumps in the road, but he will never completely and ultimately forget the Lord and His Word, no matter how bad it gets. But that's not the case, and I want to clarify something, it is not the case with those who merely profess faith in Christ, but have never actually been converted. You see, unbelievers, when they are in trouble, when they go through something like this, they do turn away from whatever association they might have had with Christianity, assuming they had some association. And I want you to understand this, because sometimes it's puzzling to us. We look at somebody who made a prayer of salvation, and we think, well, for sure they're saved, but then there's no evidence in their life, and trials come, and troubles hit them, and you see nothing, nothing. But sometimes we'll still say, well, no, I know they're a believer, especially if they're related to us. We don't want to think that they might not be saved, but reality is, if they turn away from the Lord, and there's no evidence in their life, and trouble causes them to retreat rather than to come close to God, then you have to conclude that it was an empty profession. You see this so clearly taught in a parable that Jesus gave. In fact, in Pastor Joe's Sunday school class today, he mentioned this parable, but it's an important one. It's a parable about a man who sowed some seed upon various types of soil. Now, let me explain. You hear this word parable. What is a parable? A parable is an earthly story. It's just a story, but it has a heavenly meaning. It has a spiritual lesson. that comes with the story. And so, later in explaining the spiritual message, this heavenly meaning of this parable to his disciples, Jesus said that the seed represents the Word of God. He spoke of a sower who sowed some seed. The seed is the Word of God. Specifically, note this, not just Bible teaching in general, it is specifically the gospel message of salvation. how to be saved, what it means to have a relationship with the Lord. And it goes out to many individuals. The sower sowed the seed of the word. And the various soils that Jesus spoke of, he tells us, they represent different individuals and their heart responses to the gospel when they hear the gospel. And one of those heart responses, he said, is likened to the soil of rocky ground. Here's what Jesus said concerning his parable about the seed being sown on hearts that are like rocky soil. In Mark chapter 4, I'm reading from there, it's also in the Gospel of Matthew, but Mark chapter 4, starting in verse 5 and 6, here's the story, at least part of it. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil. and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil and after the sun had risen it was scorched and because it had no root it withered away now that is part just part of the parable that Jesus told but as I told you he gave an explanation because there's a a message behind this there's a teaching lesson behind this earthly story here's his explanation his interpretation of the kind of person who receives the gospel like rocky soil receives seeds sown on. It is found in verses 16 and 17 of Mark 4. He said, in a similar way, these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places who, now watch this, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary. Do you get that? They're only temporary. Then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately, they fall away. See, what our Lord is teaching is that there are certain individuals who, when they hear the Gospel message, they seem to receive it eagerly, enthusiastically. Jesus said, immediately, they receive it with joy. They don't think much about it. It's just, yes, that's it. That's them. They want it. And for a time, they look like they're the real deal. They look like they're real Christians. Now, this is not to say that everyone who receives the word with joy immediately is not a Christian, but these people are. They are enthused. They want it. They receive it with joy, but they're not real Christians. In reality, their response to the gospel is very emotional, it's very superficial, it's just very surfacy. And if there's any change in their lives at all, and there might be, all it is is external, and it doesn't last long. It's just external, it's just on the surface, it's just outward stuff. I remember speaking to a man years ago who I seriously questioned his salvation, he was a very self-righteous person, and he proceeded to tell me of the changes in his life. But all the changes were external. It's all the things he didn't do anymore, but there was no humility there. There was no teachable spirit. He was just very proud and very, very confident in what he thought was right about everything. Well, this type of person is like that. If there is any change at all, it's just on the surface, just external. And you know what? The proof that this person is not a Christian is it doesn't last long. It doesn't last long. See, like the soil that they represent, these people have hearts that are stone hard. Stone hard hearts. So the gospel never really penetrates their hearts and transforms their character. And the proof, as I said, that they aren't true Christians and they were never converted to begin with. They're not people who were saved and lost their salvation. That is impossible. Jesus said that when affliction or persecution does come because of their identification with God's Word, they fall away immediately because they depart from the faith. They're not going to be persecuted for something they really don't believe in. They're not going to go through this trial and have affliction for Christianity, for Jesus Christ, when they don't even know Him personally. And the reason for this is because only true believers, note this, will endure affliction for their faith. Only true believers will not forget the Word of God when persecution comes. Only when one has been truly converted to Jesus Christ, will they be willing to pay the high price of suffering for Jesus Christ. They will. They'll never completely, ultimately ignore the Word of God, regardless of the cost or how low they get, or like the psalmist, when they feel forgotten by God. You see, true believers continue in the faith, and not through any boasting, on our parts, we remain loyal to God's Word regardless of the circumstances, good or bad. Why? Let me tell you something. Perseverance in the faith is a mark, a quality, of what true faith is all about. Because the nature and makeup of true faith is that it continues. And how do you get true faith? It is the gift of God to you. That's why there's no reason for our boasting, We're not people who just have such great faith in and of ourselves that we hang on. No, the Lord hangs on to us. And the faith that he's given us is faith that doesn't quit. That's why we continue. That's why we don't walk away and forget God's word when we're in trouble. Our Lord made this abundantly clear in John chapter 8, when he said in verse 31, If you continue in my word, you are truly disciples of mine. True disciples continue in the word. And Job illustrated this. Job. Who went through more suffering than Job? He lost basically everything. His children, his property, his health. And yet Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though he slay me... Folks, that's the purpose of the book of Job. It is God's lesson to Satan that true believers follow and love the Lord, not for what they get out of the Lord, whether the Lord has been blessing them with good health or not. They just love him because of who he is, not because of how they benefit. So Job said, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Now, like the psalmist, you may feel forgotten. You may be going through something like that right now. You may feel neglected by God. You may feel like an overlooked bottle left to take in smoke from a fireplace without the Lord paying any attention to you. But I assure you on the authority of God's Word that God has not forgotten you. This feeling of being overlooked, this feeling of being neglected by the Lord, it's just that. It's a feeling. That's all. It's only a feeling you have. It's not something that's true. It's not something that's factual. See, our feelings, our emotions can never be relied upon. Never. They can deceive us, and they often do deceive us. But God will never deceive you. God will never mislead you. His Word is true, and He has promised that He will never leave you, that He will never forsake you. You know this. In giving His last commission to the apostles, Jesus said, and it applies to all believers, I'm with you always. even to the ends of the earth. Wherever you go, I'm there. I'll never abandon you. If you go to the furthest part away from Jerusalem, and that's what he was talking about, they were in Jerusalem. Everything else is foreign missions. If you go to the ends of the earth, I'm with you. And to the struggling Hebrews, struggling with persecution from friends and family and even government coming down upon them, confiscating property, throwing some of them in prison. The inspired writer says this in Hebrews 13 verses 5 and 6, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. Let that sink in. I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. So that we may confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? The question is, what will man do to me? The answer is, Nothing that the Lord won't give me grace to handle because he doesn't forget me. He'll help me So true believers never ultimately forget the Word of God We never ultimately walk away from it in the sense that we permanently forsake it. However, I caution you don't just rest in that Because there's another type of forgetfulness of scripture that some Christians are very prone to fall into during the difficult times of life and that is the type of forgetfulness that temporarily does neglect, and does disregard, and does ignore the Lord and His Word, and tries to get through a crisis in their own strength and their own power. And why do we do this? Because we are sinners who can so easily fall into the sin of being so self-absorbed that we don't think about anybody else and anything else but ourselves and our pain. And we're going to figure out the way to be delivered from this. So if you find yourself these days thinking that God has abandoned you and that He's no longer interested in you because He hasn't come through yet to rescue you in your crisis, I warn you, be careful. Don't fall into the sin of being self-absorbed in your pain. Don't fall into the sin of being so self-absorbed that you neglect the Word of God. It is easy to go there. Remember the psalmist example. When he felt forgotten by God, he made it a point to disregard his feelings. And that's exactly what he did. And that's what you have to do. Disregard your feelings by refusing to forget the word of God. Refusing to neglect it. Refusing to ignore it. He made sure that he was diligent to think about it. to study it, to obey it, even though he was going through such a struggle like this that he didn't even know if he was going to live to see tomorrow's sun. So how about you? In your struggles, in your trials, whatever it might be, in your crises, have you neglected the Word of God? Are you doing that now? Just withdrawing from Scripture, have you been lax and careless? In turning to the Bible, in reading it in your quiet time, in believing it, in meditating on it, in obeying it, in applying it to your life. I don't care if you don't feel like doing it, do it anyway. Regardless of how forgotten you may feel, the fact is you are not forgotten by God. You are to trust Him to deliver you at the time, as I said, He sees fit and the way He sees fit. And in the meantime, you are never to forget or neglect His Word. Now listen closely. The reason no true believer will ever be abandoned by God is because Jesus Christ has already been abandoned by God the Father for us. That's the heavy doctrine of the atonement. While dying as the substitute for sinners on the cross, Jesus cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Folks, that was a rhetorical question. Jesus knew exactly why he had been forsaken by God the Father. Because in dying for sinners, God the Father placed on Christ our iniquities. He was crushed and bruised in our place. And God in His righteousness and holiness and justice and disdain for sin, He turned away from Christ. and He withdrew His fellowship from Him. He who knew no sin became sin for us. At that moment, those hours on the cross, God the Father literally abandoned Christ. And it didn't just feel like He had abandoned Him. He did abandon Him. He did forsake Him. It wasn't a matter of feeling. It wasn't mental gymnastics. It was a real abandonment. This was the payment for sin. This was hell itself. Total separation and abandonment. The wages of sin is death, Scripture says. Not simply physical death, but all kinds of death. Death means separation. In this case, it means eternal separation from God's presence and God's fellowship. And Jesus experienced this on behalf of those who would believe in Him, so that we who do believe in Him would never experience the Father's abandonment. He paid the wages of sin so that we won't. That's the grace of God. This is why God will never forget one of his children. This is the theological foundation of what the psalmist is telling us. But if you're not one of his children, if you've never been converted, you might have some type of association with Christianity. I assume you do if you're here. But if you've never been converted, then you're in danger of being abandoned from Him forever, because of your sin. If you die, as Jesus said, in your sins, meaning without trusting Him as your Savior and Lord, you'll have no other opportunity to be saved. Don't let that happen. This may be the last sermon that you'll ever hear. What a sobering thought. So, come to Him today, repent of your sin, turn to Christ while you still have the opportunity. In Romans chapter 10, verse 21, Paul said that of Israel, God says, all day long, my hands are outstretched to a disobedient and obstinate people. And God's hands are outstretched to you, inviting you, come to Him before it's too late. trust Christ so that you'll never be abandoned let's pray I urge you this morning as you have listened to the Word of God to apply it to your life so easy to just leave rush off to to lunch and to not think about what we've heard no matter what you're going through no matter how you feel the truth is that if you're a true Christian, God has not forgotten you. He's not overlooked you. He loves you. Christ died for you. That's the greatest proof of His love. And this is a time of testing in your life. So what do you do? You cling to the Word of God. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Thy word is truth. God who cannot lie. Though every man be a liar, may God be found truthful. He is. Trust Him. Trust Him. He'll bring you through the right time in the right way. Now, if you don't know Christ, if you don't know Him, and let this be a call from God to you to come to Him. Turn from your sin. Finally, trust Christ, His death on the cross. Surrender to His Lordship. Stop running your life. Let Him run it. as you trust him to be your Savior and your Lord. Father, we thank you that this man, this psalmist, though so low in his life, wrote these words to us. And they do encourage us, Lord. We've been there. There'll probably be other times when we're all at some point there. Help us to remember these great truths. Lord, help us to not neglect Your Word. I pray for any believer now who is in the throes of being self-absorbed and neglecting their time in the Word and trying to fight through battles on their own. I pray that Your Word and what they've heard today will bring them back to reality. We'll snap them, Lord, to be sobered up spiritually that they'll get in the Word of God, that they'll not neglect it, they'll not ignore what your word says. Pray to that end. And I thank you, Lord, that true faith, true saving faith, the faith that you give us, means we will never ultimately forget you or forsake you. Lord, I pray for those without Christ. I know there are some who have heard the gospel and the appeal to respond to the gospel so many times that they don't seem to hear it anymore. I pray that you'll break through that hardness, and that you'll soften their heart, bring about regeneration, salvation. This we pray in Christ's name. Amen.