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The River ChurchSermons

Mercy Forever

Chuck Lindsey · Sunday, 26 July 2026 · 54:47 · 9,016 words

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Psalm 139 says God knows us completely—he sees every thought, word, and action before it happens, yet he loves us and treasures us. The sermon calls listeners to let this truth move from head to heart, trusting that God controls our days and cares for us. It invites those who don’t know Christ to repent, believe in his work, and follow him, and encourages everyone to rest in God’s perfect knowledge and love.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

david 37 baby 13 random 8 perfectly 11 counselor 7 drain 5 conception 7 completely 13 amazed 7 weaving 4 marvelous 5 lord 73

Topics

Prayer 6 Sin 1 Faith 1 Salvation 1 Hope 1 Sanctification 1 Love 1

Scripture referenced 13

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 139 0:49 Psalms 139 5:09 Psalms 139:1 5:26 Hebrews 4:13 7:02 Psalms 121 14:04 Psalms 121:3 14:04 Psalms 139 16:47 John 10:28 19:27 Ephesians 3 21:34 Ephesians 3:18 21:34 Hebrews 13:5 27:57 Psalms 23 48:07 Psalms 139:16 48:47

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 7 lines, 0:35. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Mitchell, and thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Good morning to you. Good to see all of you here this morning, and wonderful to spend some time together today.

If you have a Bible, I'm going to ask you to open it up to the book of Psalms right there in the middle of your Bible.

The book of Psalms, chapter 139.

We come to one of my favorite Psalms. Have I ever said that before?

I think I've said it almost every week, but that's what it is.

It's just a beautiful Psalm.

And what a blessing these words are.

I pray genuinely that you will leave here today floating because of the words that are in this.

I just want to say this. These words are real.

This is true. This is what it actually is.

And I pray that you will allow it to get into your heart.

There's an 18-inch journey that has to happen.

You know what I'm talking about?

It's 18 inches from your brain to your heart, and it's a difficult journey, but it changes everything.

It's one thing to hear it.

It's another thing to let it in and for it to be a part of your life.

And so let's go to the Lord.

Let's ask him to speak.

You believe that, right?

He can speak to you today because he absolutely can and will if you need him to.

So let's ask him to speak, and let's go to him together now.

Lord, thank you so much for this morning.

Thank you for what you did at camp this past week and so many people's lives as they heard you.

And responded to you through faith and baptism and beginning to follow you.

Lord, I pray this morning that you would open our hearts to hear from you, Lord, and from your word.

I pray that you would speak to us, Lord, that all other distractions would fade away and that we would come away and hear from you for a few minutes.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you that you love us as we will see this morning.

Help us to hear you.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Who knows you?

Who really?

Knows you best.

An interesting question.

Do you know you?

You're like, uh, that's an interesting thing, isn't it?

How well do you know you?

I mean, I live with me, and I'm just going to tell you, I don't know me all that well.

I feel like sometimes I feel like I'm crazy because I don't know me all that well.

I'm surprised by how dumb I am, you know.

But if I'm being honest, what I know of me is I don't even like what I know of me very much.

To be honest, I was talking with our deacons this week, and I just said, listen, I don't want to be like me anymore.

I want to be like him.

That's what I want.

I don't know how you feel about you.

I am not having a pity party, okay?

So just know that.

But I don't really understand.

I genuinely don't understand how anyone who knows me likes me.

I mean that because I don't like me.

And then you go even a step further.

I'm annoyed with me, right?

But you go a step further, and I don't know how people who...

Who know me, like me, and love me, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

But it especially doesn't make sense in terms of the Lord.

And the reason for this is because the Lord knows me perfectly.

He knows me completely.

He sees every rebellious thought.

He sees every selfish thing.

He knows every way that I am not like him, even though I really, really want to be like him.

He sees it all.

There's no...

And while I'm not hiding anything, I feel like a miserable sinner all the time.

I don't just say that to you.

I feel that way.

I want to honor the Lord in everything that I do.

But he sees it all, and he knows it all.

And not only does he accept me, but he loves me.

And it seems pretty clear from Scripture, and I don't understand this.

He knows me this well, and he loves me.

And it seems like he actually likes me.

It's so weird.

It's crazy.

Psalm 139 is what that is.

I mean, it's David essentially being amazed that God knows him so well,

and yet loves him and likes him.

And David is just overwhelmed by this fact.

And so take a look at what it says.

Verse 1, David says,

The word searched is a word that means to thoroughly examine.

It means to really...

To...

To...

To know something so well, right, that that thing, you know, the ins and outs, you know it completely.

And it's describing how well God knows you.

It's describing how well he knows me.

He knows us completely.

As in, there is nothing about you that God does not know.

He knows you better than anyone else.

Better than your spouse or your children or, as we said a moment ago, better than you.

He knows you better than you.

And the way that it's written in Hebrew,

it's both something God has already done.

He has already searched you.

But then it's also something he continues to do.

He continues to search you.

Do you know that?

Let me just say this to you.

Whoever you are, whether you know the Lord or you don't,

the truth is the same.

God has searched you completely.

He knows everything there is to know about you.

And he continues to do so.

He always knows you completely.

Even if you don't.

He doesn't know you completely, right?

And this means he already knows everything you do, everything you think,

every way you respond, everything you want, everything you like, everything you hate.

I mean, on and on we go.

Nothing is hidden from the Lord.

We know this, Hebrews chapter 4, verse 13.

All things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

Now, please notice that when David says this,

he's not saying it with terror in his voice.

It's like, oh man.

The Lord has searched me.

He found it all.

You know, David's not saying it with terror.

In fact, if the idea of God searching you terrifies you, something's wrong right here.

You need to go to the Lord in confession of sin and get those things straight.

It shouldn't terrify you.

It's not meant to terrify you.

It's meant to actually say to you, he knows you so well.

David is amazed.

And he's saying, I cannot believe it.

Lord, why?

Why would you know me?

That well, why would you care so much to look at me?

It's it's something I echo to God.

I don't know why you search me.

I don't know why you know me.

I don't know why you like me.

I don't know why you love me.

Well, he continues in verse two.

You know, my sitting down and my rising up.

You understand my thought afar off.

Let me ask you a question.

How much does someone have to know you?

How much does someone have to love you to notice when you?

Sit down or when you stand up, um, when two people fall in love.

This is the kind of stuff that they notice.

Look at the way he sat down.

Isn't he so cute.

Did you see the way she stood up?

Isn't she so beautiful?

Stop it.

Right.

I quit that.

Right.

But I mean, this isn't sappy, romantic puppy, love kind of stuff, but the point is meant to say there is an interest that the Lord has in you that you don't fully comprehend.

You don't understand.

How much he sees you.

You don't understand how much he knows.

You don't understand how much he likes you.

You don't understand how often he is continually.

He is with you.

It's more than you realize.

It's more than you understand.

And the way that I know that is, is because it would change the way that we live.

If we really understood, you know, it's, um, less like that puppy love thing.

Maybe it's more like, um, when your children begin to.

Walk for the first time, you know, they're crawling around and you're waiting for them to walk or like for us, the season we're in watching our granddaughter, you know, trying to stand up.

I'm like, I'm watching everything she's doing.

She has my interest, you know, continual, you know, I don't, we don't have to do anything.

We'll just sit there and watch her, you know, it's just amazing.

And David is saying that you, you, you see everything.

Lord, you see when I, when I sit down, when I, when I rise up, he says this, you understand.

My thought a far off.

And this is truly something amazing.

The Lord understands our thoughts before they arrive to us before they are formed in my brain.

God has already seen, known, and heard them.

This is amazing.

Sometimes I don't even understand my thoughts.

Anybody, please don't leave me alone up here.

Right?

Like, I don't know what I'm talking about.

I don't know what I think.

Sometimes I think I feel a certain way and I realized I just need a sandwich.

You know what I mean?

Like, that's just the problem.

I just, I'm hungry.

You know, sometimes.

I think, you know, this, this is one thing and it's, it's just that I'm hurt.

And so I'm looking at everything a certain way, right?

Like, I don't even know me.

I don't even know my thoughts.

Right.

And I think who does well, the Lord, he's never confused.

He, he understands all of this perfectly.

Even when I can't figure out what's going on in me, he knows perfectly what's going on.

He is what no counselor can ever be.

Every human counselor, let me just say to you, every human counselor has to figure

out what is going on inside of you.

They, they, they try to listen.

They, maybe they try, they try to do their best.

They're trying to figure out what's going on up here in here.

They're trying to figure it out.

He doesn't have to figure it out.

He already knows.

He knew before you ever felt the way you felt.

He already knows.

And so let me just say to you, if you're ever looking for a counselor, go to one that relies

on the one who sees everything.

Don't waste your time with people that have to try to figure it out themselves.

They can't do that.

There's only one who knows.

He knows you and sees it all perfectly and can illuminate the way.

And any good counselor is going to rely on him and his ability to see correctly.

Don't waste your time with anybody else.

He does not have to figure you out.

He knows you.

He already knows completely what's going on in you, even if you don't know what's going

on in you.

Now, verse three says this, you comprehend my path and my lying down.

You are acquainted with all my ways.

The word comprehend is a word that means to sift.

Right?

So it's sort of like everything you feel, everything you think, everything you want,

every way you're, you know, afraid, everywhere you hurt, all this stuff.

It's like the Lord spreads it all out and knows exactly what it is.

You and I, don't we have such trouble doing this?

I don't know, right?

This is the thing I have such a hard time doing.

I don't know why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling, or I don't know why I'm thinking the way I'm

thinking.

I can't sort all this out.

Sometimes the Lord's like, listen, the reason is your pride was injured.

That's why you're responding.

This way.

And I never saw it, but God did because he sifts it all out.

And someone might say, oh, you're justified feeling that way.

No, that's the right way to feel.

That's because they're a human being.

They're a person.

They don't see correctly.

God says, you're proud.

Your pride got injured.

You're embarrassed.

That's why you're responding this way.

You see how different it is.

God sees it so clearly, comprehends it perfectly, and he can speak into everything perfectly.

It's why he is called the counselor, the counselor.

Now he sifts our path.

Meaning our lives, what we're really about, what we're doing, what we put our effort into.

God just discerns between all of that.

He knows what you are doing.

He knows what you should be doing, right?

He knows all of that, but he also sees when no one else does.

And that's what David says.

Now he says, the Lord knows my lying down.

So he sees it all.

Even when you don't, even when you're asleep or you're at rest or whatever, right?

He sees, he watches over us.

We saw it a couple of weeks ago.

Psalm 121 verse three, he who keeps watch over you does not sleep.

What's the point?

You always have his attention.

You never have to try to get the Lord's attention.

If you are his, you have his attention always.

David goes on and says that the Lord is acquainted with all my ways.

Now I feel like if somebody was acquainted with all of my ways, they wouldn't want much to do with me.

Okay.

You have idiosyncrasies, right?

You have little.

You have little ways that things affect you.

You have all this stuff, right?

All the little things that no one else would notice.

All the little things that no one else would see.

How could anybody possibly know you this?

Well, it's the Lord alone.

He knows all of your ways.

Nothing is hidden from him.

Not one thing.

He knows what annoys you.

He knows what frustrates you.

He knows what blesses you.

He knows about all, all of it.

And he not only knows all of your ways.

He also knows all of your says.

And, um, he knows what you're going to say before you say, I just thought it rhymed.

And so it was fun.

All right.

Uh, look what he says for.

There is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Oh Lord, you know it all together.

The words are not even there yet.

They're not even formed in your mind yet.

And the Lord has already heard them and already knows them before they're formed in your mind.

He's heard them.

This is sobering, isn't it?

Like to think that the Lord knows what you're going to say before you say it.

It's a little bit sobering, but it is also comforting.

Sometimes I have.

I have no idea what to say.

How about you?

Sometimes I don't know how to pray.

I don't know what to say to God.

I don't know how to pray.

I don't know how to, I don't even know how to ask.

I'm just like, Lord, I'm a mess.

I don't know what the mess is.

Even.

I just don't even know.

I need you to somehow discern in all of this.

I don't even know what to say.

He knows the Bible tells me that he understands what I mean.

Even when I don't know what to say.

Do you know the Bible tells you he will pray for you when you don't know what to say.

When you don't know what to pray.

You ever been there?

I have no idea what to pray.

And it's like the Lord takes over.

He knows exactly what I need.

Now, what is this information meant to do for you?

Why is the Lord telling us this?

Is it just to give you information?

Like, oh yeah, yeah.

I know what Psalm 139 says.

No, no.

It's meant to amaze you.

It's meant to overwhelm you at the goodness of God.

This information is meant to make you stop.

Right?

And realize how loved you actually are.

It's not just information or there's no transformation.

It's got to make its way into your heart.

You've got to actually believe that the Lord loves you like this.

That he actually likes you.

That he's happy with you.

That he's content with you.

That he wants to be with you at all times.

To realize that all you're trying to find from other people is really only found in him.

It's meant to make us worship in thankfulness.

That though God knows me so completely.

He loves me.

And seems to even like me.

Well, David says he doesn't just know us.

He protects us.

Look at verse 5.

You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me.

The word hedged is a Hebrew word for an enclosure.

Or in modern terms, it would be like a safe or like a vault.

So the idea, right?

The picture here is of him taking something precious in his hands, which is you.

And then he takes his other hand and he puts his hand over you to protect you.

That's the picture here.

God's protection.

And this is what the Lord has.

Done for you and I, who are his people.

We are in his hands, which means that we are always safe and we are always protected completely.

And you say, well, does that mean nothing bad is ever going to happen?

We talked about this a couple of weeks ago.

No, no.

Things happen in life because we live in a broken world.

But God never lets those things just be random difficulty, random evil, random problems.

He takes every single one of those things.

And what does he do with it?

He works it together.

The scripture say for our good and his glory.

He works all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

Do you love him?

You see, how do I know if I'm saved?

Do you love him?

If you love him, you're saved.

You don't love him.

You're not saved.

That's just the end of it.

Heaven is for people that love the Lord.

They're going to be with him forever.

And you want to be with him because you love him.

You don't love him.

You're not saved.

You need to be saved.

But for those who are saved, he takes everything and he works it together for your good.

It means everything in life.

If it happens, he works those things into something useful.

We are in his hand.

Jesus said this in John 10 verse 28.

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.

David is amazed by the protection of the Lord.

Are you amazed by this?

You love him.

You're in his hand.

You're safe.

You're going to make it ready.

You're going to make it.

You're going to be there with him.

You're trusting him.

Not you.

You're trusting him.

You make it.

God speaks about it in the past tense.

Whom he has justified.

These he has sanctified.

Those he has sanctified.

These he has also glorified.

God already sees it.

He's outside of time.

You're standing there.

You made it.

High fives all around.

David is amazed by the protection of the Lord.

Now, the realities of these things is causing him to burst out in worship.

It's making.

It's making its way from his head into his heart.

He begins to worship.

Watch this verse six.

He says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high.

I can't get hold of it.

I can't attain it.

Have you ever heard something so wonderful?

It's like you fully.

You can't fully grab it.

Maybe what we just said in the previous verse was that for you.

It's so wonderful.

You're like, I can't get hold of it.

I feel like I'm hearing it, but I don't know how to get it into my heart.

I can't grab it.

This is where David's at.

He says, the depth of all this is too.

Deep for me.

The height of all of this is too wonderfully high.

I cannot grab hold of it completely.

Now, let me just say something to you.

This is so important to hear.

This is going to be one of the many joys of heaven is that you will.

You and I will continue to deepen in our understanding of his love for us forever.

This is amazing.

Paul said there is no limit to the depth of the love of Jesus Christ for you.

Like you, you've not even scratched the surface of how much.

You understand his love for you.

He prayed for the Ephesian Christians in Ephesians chapter three, verse 18.

He said this.

He says, I pray that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints.

What is the width and length and depth and height?

Watch this to know the love of Christ, which passes.

It surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The first time I scratched the surface with understanding how much he loved me.

That was the day I came.

That was the day I was born again.

That changed my entire life.

I have followed him ever since.

I suddenly became aware.

He didn't just love the world.

He loved me.

Everything has changed.

And do you realize this is something you're going to continue to understand for for eternity.

It's going to keep it goes past our knowledge, our ability to even understand.

It's going to keep expanding.

One person said to understand the love of God is like trying to drain the ocean with a cup.

I want you next time you're at the lake.

Just try it.

Try to drain the lake with the cup.

You might get in trouble for that.

I don't know.

Right.

But it's not going to happen.

You're not going to drain the lake with the cup.

You're not going to drain the ocean with the cup.

You're not going to drain your understanding of the love of God.

You can deepen all your lifetime in your understanding of the love of God.

And you'll still every single moment of every single day.

You can go deeper into understanding how loved you actually are.

But notice David worships the Lord with what he does understand.

And I would encourage you to do the same thing.

Worship the Lord.

Even if you don't understand everything.

Worship him with what you do understand.

Lord, you are so good.

Now, in verse seven through 10, David is amazed that the Lord not only knows him and protects him.

He's amazed.

Watch this.

That the Lord wants to be with him.

What a thing.

God wants to be with me.

I feel that.

Okay.

You love me.

Okay.

I will accept that.

And maybe you even like me.

Okay.

I don't understand, but I accept that.

But now you actually want to be with me at all times.

That I don't know.

I don't understand.

I don't want to be with me at all times.

I can't get away from me.

But the Lord does.

Look at verse seven.

David says, where can I go from your spirit, from your presence?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

How close is the Lord to us as his people?

He is always with us.

David asks a rhetorical question.

The question is this.

Even if I wanted to get away from you, even if I tried to run from you, you would still be with me.

You would still be there.

He gives more examples.

Look at verse eight.

If I ascended into heaven, of course, right?

You are there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning.

So literally the first ray of light in the morning.

If I rode that ray of light to the other side of the world, you would be there.

If I may, if I dwell in the uttermost parts, the depths of the very ocean floor, even there,

your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

Do you know what David is actually asking in this question behind it?

Is this maybe a question you've asked Lord at what point?

Do you give up on me?

That's the question.

Lord, at what point have I gone too far?

At what point do you deny me?

At what point are you tired of me?

At what point, Lord, will you leave me?

How far is too far?

David says, because I am yours, you're always there.

Have you found this to be true of the Lord?

Have you ever tried like Jonah to run from the Lord?

And the whole time you were running, I've heard some of your stories.

The whole time you were running,

the Lord was saying, turn around, turn back.

I love you.

Don't go this way.

And then when you got there and everything's burning down,

the Lord said, come on, let's go.

I'm going to bring you back.

I'm going to restore, right?

Have you found this to be true?

Like Jonah running from the Lord?

I'm going to do my own thing.

I'm going to do my own.

I'm going to go my own way.

And like Jonah, when you got to wherever it was you were running to,

the Lord was right there calling you back.

He was there as you ran telling me to turn back.

He was right there when you burned it down.

Like David, you found he did not forsake you.

He did not give up on you.

Have you found this to be true about the Lord?

David knew it well.

In many ways, David ran from God

through the terrible sin of Bathsheba

and the murder of her husband, Uriah.

He had run from God.

He did what he wanted.

He lied.

He ignored God.

He even determined he wasn't going to speak to the Lord anymore.

And please hear me.

It caused so much pain, so much damage in David's life.

But in the end,

David found that the Lord had never left him.

He descended into hell itself through these wicked decisions.

But even there, the Lord was there calling him back.

Now, let me answer a question.

Does this mean we should just go do whatever we want to do

because the Lord will be with us?

No.

David destroyed his life.

Seriously, he destroyed his life.

He dealt with the tragic consequences of what he did

for not just the rest of his life,

but his kids dealt with it, you know, on and on.

Like,

generations later,

they dealt with what David did.

Sin devastates our lives as people.

It's like lighting fire to your house.

You're going to burn everything down,

even if you get out safely.

The emphasis here is not on our faithfulness.

The emphasis here is on God's faithfulness.

Please hear this.

If, and it's a big if,

if you are his,

he is always with you.

Hebrews 13, 5,

he himself has said,

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

You've made mistakes.

Of course, you failed.

Of course, you have.

You have had many fleshly moments

and rebellion towards God.

Of course, you have.

He is still with you.

He still loves you.

You say, why?

Why?

Because he is good.

Because he is faithful.

He's still there.

You haven't driven him away.

He's still there.

Why?

Because he's faithful.

If you're his, he hasn't given up on you.

But let me just say to you,

if you're running from the Lord,

turn around, turn around,

because you're burning stuff down,

as you go, turn around.

God wants to rescue you.

In verse 11, we learn that

even in the darkest of times,

the Lord is there.

But he says, even if I,

if I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me,

even the night shall be light about me.

Darkness is a picture of,

we can't see, we don't know what's going on.

It's a picture of danger and trouble and hopelessness.

David says, darkness is just gonna fall on me.

It's all gonna fall in.

Have you ever been there?

Like stuff's going on in life

and you're like, man, this is it.

It's just gonna swallow me up.

It's too much.

It's like fear of what might happen.

It's crushing under.

I don't know what's going to happen.

I don't know what the end of this is gonna be.

It's just gonna swallow me up.

The darkness is gonna fall on me.

It's gonna consume me.

God, you're my only hope.

The point here is even in the darkest of times in life,

the Lord, he's there.

And he brings hope in the midst of all of that.

That's the words.

Even the night shall be made to be light about me.

It reminds us that the Lord can bring hope

in the midst of hopelessness.

He can bring joy in the midst of trouble.

And when there's no path and no way,

the Lord can create a path and he can create a way.

He can heal when it feels impossible.

He makes light to shine in darkness.

He works all things together for good to those who love him.

You might say, well, how does the Lord do that?

Look at verse 12.

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you,

but the night shall not hide from you.

The night shines as the day.

The darkness and the light are both alike to you.

This is how the Lord does this.

For you and I, we do not see clearly in the dark, right?

Our neighborhood had a power outage this past week.

It was planned.

And then we didn't plan for it at all.

So we probably should have.

That might've been a good idea.

But normally there's a little bit of like ambient light

from things in my house, you know,

and there was nothing, zero.

So of course, when I got up to the bathroom, I died.

You know, I tripped over something and died, you know?

So, but I was,

it was wild because it was like,

I felt like I was doing this, like in my own house.

You know, I cannot see anything,

but that's what it is sometimes in life, right?

Like the picture here is of our ability to see

or to understand what is happening in life.

I don't see, I don't know what's coming.

I don't know where we're going.

I don't know what's going to happen.

I cannot see sometimes, right?

Hear this.

He sees perfectly.

He sees perfectly.

His vision is not obscured by this in the,

in the slightest.

By anything, nothing.

Though you see nothing, he sees perfectly.

In the, in the darkness,

he sees just as clearly as in the light.

They are alike to him.

There, there is no difference is the idea.

And this means that in the darkest of times,

when you don't know what to do, where to go,

if we turn to him, he will lead because he sees.

And he will guide because he sees,

and he will show us the way because he sees.

He tells us exactly what we need to do because he sees.

Now, beginning in verse 13,

we have one of the most powerful evidences in the Bible

that life begins at conception.

What do I mean?

Well, we are told in our world that after conception,

a baby is not a baby for a period of time.

It's a clump of cells or something for a period of time.

And that period of time is different

based on whatever view is held.

You may not know this.

You may know it.

Within the pro-abortion movement,

there are a few major views,

on when a baby is actually considered a baby.

And they are shocking.

They fall into six categories.

The first one is this.

They would say personhood begins at birth.

So a baby is not a baby until it's born.

They would say that the reason for that is,

is that a baby is not a baby

until it can survive on its own independently

and be able to enter into social relationships.

Before that, before the baby's born,

they would call it a potential,

a potential person, not an actual one.

It's horrifying.

It goes on, right?

Another popular kind of in categories,

another main view is viability

is kind of the meaningful line.

And so common view holds that

the sort of moral legal status increases

as viability increases.

So the point when the fetus could survive

outside the womb is the idea.

22 to 24 weeks, they would kind of say,

because before that existence is entirely dependent on the baby.

It's completely dependent on the pregnant woman's body.

And so to kill the baby while it's completely dependent

on the pregnant woman's body is a non-issue.

The third general view is sort of a developmental view.

So many pro-choice people see moral status

as increasing gradually through pregnancy.

So kind of tied to some milestones

like detectable heartbeat, brain activity,

fetal sentience, so the ability to feel pain.

They would say prior to those sort of

in their minds measurable things,

it's not moral.

It's not murder in any way.

Number four would be sort of the consciousness idea.

So more philosophical,

but the idea that personhood requires

the ability to have consciousness,

self-awareness, and the ability to have interests.

So they would say that that is a later developing thing

in a child, untrue,

but they would say it's a later developing thing in a child.

And so it really does not matter

until that threshold is met of consciousness.

Maybe the worst one in my opinion is suicide.

The fifth one, which is bodily autonomy

is separate from personhood.

What do I mean?

They advocate, they follow philosopher Judith Jarvis Thompson's

famous violinist argument,

and they sidestep the idea of when is it a baby?

They sidestep that question,

and their argument is that even if a fetus

is a person from conception,

no person has the right to use another person's body

without their consent.

So abortion is justified on the basis of autonomy,

bodily autonomy.

Lastly, there's the relational view.

And so some argue that a fetus becomes a baby

when it is named and wanted.

And until that baby is named and wanted,

it is expendable.

Each of these is horrifying

and would not be tolerated for even a second

by its proponents if they themselves

became this sort of dependent in need kind of person.

They would never allow for that.

Something is unspeakably wrong with us

as a society when we cannot conclude

that the murder of children in the womb is evil.

Well, of course, God's word cuts right through

the rhetoric of our society and tells us

that God began to create us at the moment of our conception.

Even before, look at verse 13.

Verse 13, for you formed my inward parts.

You covered me in my mother's womb.

Please hear this.

Every person, every single person that has ever existed

has been formed by the Lord God himself, his hands,

it was not simply cells multiplying.

It was not random stance.

The Lord God formed your inward parts himself.

You think about it this way.

He is the orchestra leader who tells the cells

what to do, when, and how.

He both created it all.

He's the active organizing agent of it all,

directing it all, and is his hands

actually implementing these things.

But not only that, right?

But as the verse says, he also created an environment,

of protection for the development of that life.

It's called the womb, and it is a marvel of creation.

We're so familiar with these things we kind of forget,

but I mean, a child is protected and sustained

within the womb.

I mean, it is amazing, and it is God's doing.

It is his creation for the protection and growth

of children, of people.

It's incredible.

David goes on, verse 14.

He says, I will praise you, for I am fearfully

and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works, and that my soul

knows very well.

There are three words David uses here

to describe a human being being created.

Each one is so important.

He says the word fearfully.

I am fearfully made.

This has nothing to do with being afraid.

This is the word that refers to seeing something so amazing,

it takes your breath away.

It's so shockingly amazing that you don't know what to do.

That's what David says.

The word astonishing might be a good word.

You, ready, have been astonishingly made.

You have been shocked.

Shockingly, it takes our breath away

when you really understand what God did in making you.

Now, the word wonderfully there, a beautiful word.

I pray you will remember this.

Our world needs to hear it.

Every person around you needs to hear it.

The word wonderfully in Hebrew is such an important word.

It means unique.

It means distinct.

It means there is no one else like you.

It is the opposite of the word mass produced.

It is one-off.

It is handmade.

David is saying the Lord has created each and every one of us uniquely made by God.

I want you to think about that.

You are not just one of eight billion random people.

You have been designed.

You have been made intricately with God's hands.

You've been poured into by the living God himself.

You are handmade by God.

Does that change your worth when you understand he knit you together?

The word made there in the Hebrew text is perfect tense, first person.

It is singular and active.

It means that you did not just come about.

You didn't just evolve into what you were.

God actively molded and made you into who you are, what you are.

You did not come through the randomness of evolution or even just by the biology or systems of your parents.

You were created by God himself.

His hands did this.

You are the product of his hand.

He gifted you.

He gave you your personality.

He called you.

He gave you himself.

Well, this causes David to burst out again in praise.

Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.

The word marvelous means difficult or extraordinary.

It's talking about miracles.

He says, marvelous are your works.

It's literally God's workmanship.

You know, you go to like an art fair.

You see someone's handmade furniture.

You see it and you think, my goodness, this is amazing.

What an incredible detail.

We talk.

We talked about it last week.

But when you look at the intricacy of the human body, the way it's woven together, the way it forms the biological systems and everything that's all taking place.

Listen, unless you are just absolutely determined to deny God at all costs, which many people are willing to do.

The only thing you can come away with when you understand actual biology is God.

You are amazing.

It is shocking.

It takes our breath away to realize what you've done.

Your workmanship is astonishing beyond comprehension.

I would ask you, is that where you're at?

Are you overwhelmed by God?

David says, marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well.

Could you say the same thing?

My soul knows the amazingness of God very well.

Pray you do.

He says, my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

The word frame there refers to your skeletal structure.

David says the Lord was there and he was weaving together your skeleton forever.

Nothing to be attached to.

He says you were made in secret.

He realized before ultrasound machines and 4D imaging, what happened in the womb was entirely a secret.

Like nobody got to look in, you know, and see what was going on.

Now we're like tracking all the progress.

But before that, it was like pregnant child.

You know, we didn't, we don't know what happened in between miracles occurred and they still are.

We think because we can watch it, it's like somehow not miracles are occurring.

It's beyond our comprehension.

But God skillfully, carefully creating in the hidden place.

Watch this.

The words skillfully wrought.

Beautiful word in Hebrew refers to needlework.

It refers to weaving together fabric.

What a beautiful description for, for creation of human beings.

The Lord God himself weaving together muscle and nerves and sinew and joints and ligaments and veins and arteries and tendons and all of this together.

Perfectly playing their part all perfectly so that you can hear the words I'm saying so you can see me so that you can evaluate light and color and sound and thought and all of these things are happening.

Your body's regulating temperature and, and, and breathing.

And you haven't even thought about your heart pumping.

Have you?

How many of you are actively telling your heart to pump right now?

Like, well, I wasn't now I'm a little bit stressed out.

You know, you don't have to do that, right?

God's programmed all of this.

He's created all evolution.

Couldn't do this.

Random circumstance didn't accomplish this.

God himself was at work when no one else saw.

He saw you completely and was knitting you weaving you together.

Look at verse 16.

Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed.

And in your book, they all were written the day's fashion for me when as yet there were none of them.

The word substance refers to all the building blocks needed for human life.

And God, it says we were unformed.

It means he brought all of that together at the before.

Before, before conception, God working, moving.

Very important.

You see that unformed before conception, then God brings it together and is working.

He's working before conception.

Life begins life sparked into being not because of biology, but because God gives life cells divide,

not because of biology, but because God directs, he works and moves is creating each child.

Each person as William McDonald put it.

He said in a speck of watery material, hear this in a speck of watery material,

smaller than the dot over an eye.

All the future characteristics of the child are programmed.

The color of his skin, eyes and hair, the shape of his facial features, the natural abilities.

He will have all that the child will be physically and mentally is contained in a in germ form in that fertilized egg from it.

Watch this will develop 60 trillion cells, 100,000.

Miles of nerve fiber, 60,000 miles of vessel carrying blood around the body, 250 bones to say nothing of joints, ligaments and muscles.

What a horrifying error it is to call it a clump of cells.

Just dishonor what God is doing as he weaves together life.

Now, let me say this to take the life that God is giving.

Please hear this.

We don't give life.

It's not our job to take it.

Not like this in regards to unwanted pregnancy.

Murder is never the right option, especially when there are so many families waiting for a child for adoption.

Unfortunately, in our society, abortion comes down to things just being inconvenient.

It's labeled many, many different ways, but it really just comes down to it's not convenient at this time.

It's tragic.

Now, before we move on, I just want you to see verse 16, the end there, it says, and in your book, they all were written the day's fashion for me when as yet there were none of them.

This is such an important verse to understand.

Do you know that the days were written?

The days that you will be alive have already been set, been written down before you were ever born.

The number of days you have is what it is.

It will not change.

In fact, the word fashioned there in verse 16 is the Hebrew word for cutting stone.

And so this means it's really important.

The number of your days that you will be alive.

It's already decided it's been written in stone.

We would say it is done.

It's not going to change.

What does this mean?

You're not going to die.

Any sooner than the day that God has assigned to you.

You're not, it's not going to happen.

And additionally, flip it around.

You're not going to stay any longer than the day that he has assigned to you.

Right?

This means that your death is not some random thing.

It's not up in the air.

It's not anybody's guess.

It's not a matter of whether you get this or don't get that or whatever.

It's not in the balance every day.

It's not.

It's not up to whether there's another illness in the world or whether there's a,

a drunk driver on the road or whether the doctors say this or medicine says that

it's not up to any of that.

Your day has been written.

And most importantly, please hear this.

It's not even up to you.

It's not up to you to keep you from dying.

It's also not up to you to keep your family from dying.

Their days have been written.

Verse 16 is really, really practical.

It takes the fear out of the randomness of dying in life.

As a kid, I've told you this before.

I used to be so afraid of dying.

And then I came to Christ and it took that fear.

Away, but there was still sort of the win was the problem.

And what, what would happen?

And we talked about that in Psalm 23, but the win for some reason, I, I, for a long

time, I thought that the win was really up to me.

COVID tested that for me.

How about you?

It didn't test it in regards to me.

It tested it in regards to my wife and children.

Were their days really written or was it up to me to keep everybody from dying?

That was the reality of my day in day out every single day.

Were they really going to be safe?

Or could COVID take them out?

We were, were we really in charge of all of this?

Well, listen, Psalm 139 verse 16, not only answered it, but solved it for me.

They can't go home sooner.

I can't keep them here any longer.

We need to be smart, but their days are written.

And this produced a rest in place of early on fear and panic.

Now, side note, let me just say this to you with all of that said, don't be dumb.

Okay.

Don't be dumb because even though you can't go home any sooner than your day, you can

make your day.

Your day is really, really rough until you get there.

Okay.

Don't do dumb stuff.

Don't be stupid, right?

Because if you do something stupid and it's not your day and you're going to deal with

it for a long, long time, be smart.

Things can be pretty rough until your day.

If you do things you shouldn't be doing, but, but listen, when you really know who is in

control of all this, you can relax about what might happen in life because not only is he

in control, he deeply uncomprehendingly loves us.

And that's the point of verse 17.

Look at it says, how precious also are your thoughts to me?

Oh God, how great is the sum of them?

Do you know that God thinks about you?

Do you believe that this is one of the most astonishing things about the Lord?

He thinks about you.

He thinks about me.

He thinks about you.

The God of the universe who holds the entire universe in his hand thinks about you.

Now, the question is, what, what does he think about me?

Do you think about how much of a problem I am?

Do you think about how much I failed him?

How dumb I am?

Is that what God?

No.

David says that the Lord's thoughts about him are precious thoughts.

David is not saying that what God thinks is precious to him.

That's true as well, but flip it around.

That's not what he means.

He means God's thoughts of him are thoughts of preciousness.

What does it mean?

It means the word precious is valuable and costly.

It's the way you think about someone you treasure.

It's the way I think about my wife.

It's the way I think about my kids.

It's the way I think about my parents.

It's the way I think about you.

People you treasure in your life.

That's this word, precious thoughts, costly, valuable.

That's what God thinks about you.

That's what he says about you.

Question is, do you actually believe that?

You see, if you don't believe it, you might be tempted to say, well, yeah, maybe once or twice.

God has thought like that about me.

Maybe once or twice.

God has maybe when I've been especially good, when I, when I, when I didn't drink all week, when I, when I read my Bible all week, when I gave to that charity or when I helped or when I served or maybe at that point, God kind of looked at me and he was like, well,

okay, not bad.

Read the rest of the verse.

How precious also are your thoughts to me?

Oh God, how great is the sum of them?

The word great means numerous.

It's a multitude.

You can't even count it.

It's such a large number.

The Lord does not just think one random good thought about you here and there in your life.

He is continually thinking of your infinite value.

So, so continual.

David says it's beyond comprehension.

Look at verse 18.

If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

And when I awake, I am still with you.

David said, if I tried to count the number of all of these precious thoughts that he thinks about me,

it would be more than the grains of sand that are on the earth.

Next time you're at the beach, I want you just to pick up a handful of sand.

Okay.

Don't worry about what anybody says.

It doesn't matter.

Okay.

Just, just hold it up.

And I want you to let little grains of sand fall out.

And I want you to try and count them.

Just try and count one handful.

Every precious thought.

David says it's more than all the sand on all the shores on all of earth.

It's beyond comprehension.

What God does.

What God thinks about you.

How many precious thoughts.

No other person on earth can be what the Lord is.

Nobody else can give you what he gives you.

And so David says, when I awake, I am still with you.

That's the summary.

God wants to be with you all the time.

I, uh, we're out of time.

I hope you're encouraged by God's word this morning.

If you do not know the Lord, you say, how do I know if I know him?

We said it before.

Do you love him?

If you cannot say that you need to come to God.

The Bible says, repent of your sin.

To God, you need to believe in the work of Jesus Christ for your sin.

And you need to follow Jesus Christ from this day forward.

Those are the three steps.

Repent, believe, and follow.

You are asking questions about that.

And you need help, uh, knowing how to be saved right after the gathering.

Myself and my wife will be up here.

Our deacons will be up here.

We would love to talk with you.

We'd love to try and answer a question for you.

And if you have, if you need prayer for any reason, if you haven't been baptized,

we can schedule that for you.

But, um, you got to hear from God.

Let's pray together.

Let's ask him to put these things into our heart.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for your goodness and your word.

Thank you for the truth of these things.

I pray that Lord, it would move from our head into our heart.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you that you love us.

Thank you for coming to die in our place.

It's in Jesus name.

We pray.

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