“From the Mire to the Choir!”
December 10, 2006
Pastor Steve N. Wagers
GardenviewBaptistChurch
Jacksonville, FL
“From the Mire to the Choir!”
Psalm 40: 1-5
Pastor Steve N. Wagers
December 10. 2006
Sermon Outline
1. A Condition So Grievous!
A) The Sin that Haunted Us
B) The Sin that Held Us
2. A Condescension So Gracious!
A) A Descent into the Pit
B) A Deliverance from the Pit
3. A Change So Glorious!
A) Marvelous Blessings
B) Multiple Blessings
Over the past couple of years, the word Christmas has become a word of controversy. Many retail stores refuse to greet their customers with the traditional greeting, “Merry Christmas” for fear of offending those of other religions.
In Illinois, state government employees were forbidden from saying the words “Merry Christmas” while on the clock. In Rhode Island, local officials banned Christians from participating in a public project to decorate the lawn of City Hall.
A New Jersey school banned instrumental versions of traditional Christmas carols. In Arizona, school officials ruled it unconstitutional for a student to make any reference to the religious history of Christmas in a class project.
In our day and time it would be hard for someone who is not a Christian to find the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas has become a time of widespread commercialization instead of a time of worshipful celebration.
Politically correct or not, allow me to go on record today and tell you what Christmas is all about. Let me sum it up in the words, God came to us and took out of the mire and put us in the choir. It is about God giving His Son. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ coming to this earth.
Someone has well said, “Had our greatest need been information, God would have sent an educator. Had our greatest need been technology, God would have sent a scientist. Had our greatest need been money, God would have sent an economist. Had our greatest need been pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer. However, our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent a Savior.”
In Psalm 40, we are reminded of the real meaning of Christmas. Now, I know that some of you are thinking, “What does Psalm 40 have to do with the Christmas story?” I realize that it is not the familiar Christmas passage, but Psalm 40 describes, defines and details what Christmas is all about.
It tells of the day that God came to us. It tells of the day when Jesus took us out of the mire and put us in the choir. It tells, first of all, of:
1. A CONDITION So GRIEVOUS!
In Psalm 40 we have a picture of sin, and a sinner. We find the picture of a sinner helpless, hopeless, and lost without God. It is a picture of what our lives were before we were saved.
The picture is found in verse 2. Our past condition is graphically described as being in a “horrible pit” and the “miry clay.” From that description we see:
A) The Sin that HAUNTED Us!
The Psalmist describes, in verse 2, of being in a “horrible pit.” The word “pit” is used in various other scriptures to describe a graphic picture. In Jeremiah 38:6 the word is used to describe a hole dug in the ground to be used as a prison or dungeon.
In Psalm 7:15, the word is used to speak of a pit for wild beasts. In Psalm 28:1 the word is used to speak of a grave. In our text, the word is used to describe the pit that we found ourselves in before God saved us. We were in the pit of sin that haunted us.
Before we were saved we were slaves to sin, to self and to Satan. Ephesians 2:2 says that, before our conversion, we “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.” In other words, we were bound by sin, and we were bound by Satan. We were slaves to sin.
The Psalmist describes it as being a “horrible” pit. The word “horrible” speaks of much more than a dirty or nasty condition. The word “horrible” speaks of a “roaring sound.” The Hebrew word literally means, “The pit of noises.”
Adam Clarke defines it as the “sounding pit, where nothing was heard except the howlings of wild beast or the hollow sounds of winds as they reverberated from the craggy sides.”
The “horrible pit” reminds us of the sin that haunted us. There was the howling of a sinful conscience. Like the howl of a coyote in the distance, sin haunts the guilty sinner. Like a bloodhound on the trail of an escaped convict, the feelings of guilt dog the conscience every waking minute.
After the massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day, August 24, 1572, Charles IX of France never recovered from the fatal shock. He told his doctor, “I don’t know what ails me. My whole frame seems in a fever. I see nothing around me but hideous faces covered with blood.” At night he would awake to a “concert of screams, groaning, howling and furious voices, menacing and blaspheming just as they were heard on the night of the massacre.”
I don’t know about you, but I well remember when I was a slave to my sin. I well remember how my sin haunted me. I well remember the guilt that I carried. I well remember the fear of being exposed, and the fear of my sin finding me out. I well remember feeling dirty, defiled and despicable. I, like you, was in the“horrible pit” of sin that haunted me.
Secondly, he speaks of:
B) The Sin that HELD Us!
Not only does the Psalmist tell us that he was in a “horrible pit,” but in the “miry clay.” The “miry clay” describes the sludge that collects at the bottom of a well or cistern.
Such places were commonly found in the bottom of disused cisterns in the Holy Land. The bottoms were filled with a deep, slimy, clinging mud that, like quicksand, would pull someone deeper, and deeper into its grasp. It is a picture of how sin haunts us, and holds us.
It reminds us that sin never promotes us up, it always pulls us down. It reminds us that sin never elevates, it only isolates. It reminds us that sin never lifts, it only lowers. Sin will always take us further than we want to go; keep us longer than we want to stay; and, cost us more than we want to pay.
It was Victor Hugo that told the story of a man caught in quicksand. One moment the man was walking in safety, then his path begun to cling to his feet. A few more steps and he was bogged down to his knees. He then began to struggle frantically; but, the more he struggled, the deeper he sank. Soon, the treacherous sand had reached his waist. By this time, the victim had become desperate. He now realized that he was slowly being swallowed by a hideous, blind mouth that is without any mercy.
He cries for help, but there was no response. He looks at the clouds floating in the blue, and the birds as they soared above his head, and they seem to mock him. He prays, he shrieks, he curses. He struggles with every ounce of his strength, but the implacable mouth swallows him all the more faster. At last, his final wail ends in a gulp. The cruel sand has filled his mouth, and his futile struggle was over.
Sin is like the “miry clay” that pulls us further and further down. It haunts us and then it holds us. But, it haunts us because it holds us.
When the Psalmist spoke of being in the “miry clay” he was presenting the picture of someone in a condition that they could not get of themselves. He was depicting a person who was helpless and hopeless. The more they struggled to get out, the deeper and deeper they would go in.
This is the person who tries to do better; they try a little bit of religion; they try to turn over a new leaf; but, the more they try, the more they fail, and the more they sink deeper and deeper into the “miry clay.”
For years I have heard people utter the infamous words, “I can quit anytime that I want.” However, when they attempt to quit, they discover that they can’t. Why? They are in a “horrible pit” in the “miry clay.”
Sin is haunting them. Sin is holding them. They find themselves in a condition so grievous. However, thank God we move from a condition so grievous to:
2. A CONDESCENSION So GRACIOUS!
In verse 2, the Psalmist testifies, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay.” Those are some of the most thrilling words in the Bible. Those words give us the picture of what Jesus has done for us. Those words give us the real meaning of Christmas. For one thing, those words describe:
A) A DESCENT into the Pit!
I want you to carefully notice what the Psalmist does say, as well as what he doesn’t say. He says that the Lord “brought me up.” He does not say that the Lord “pulled me out,” or that the Lord “lifted me up.” He says that the Lord “brought me up.”
In other words, the image is not of an outstretched hand, or of a rope lowered to pull the helpless victim out of the pit. The Psalmist said that the Lord “brought” him “up.”
You know what he is saying. He is saying that when he could not help himself, and when he could not get out of the pit himself, the Lord came down into the pit and carried him out. He was saying that the Lord got down into the pit with him and “brought” him “up.”
I think about a man who was walking and fell into a pit. He was all alone for several hours when suddenly a priest walked by. The man shouted, “Father, I’m in this pit, can you help me?” The priest took out a piece of paper, wrote a prayer and threw it into the pit and walked on.
Then, a doctor walked by. The man shouted, “Doc, I’m in this pit, can you help me?” The doctor took out a piece of paper, wrote out a prescription, threw it into the pit and walked on. Finally, after several hours, his best friend walked by. The man shouted, “Hey Joe, I’m in this pit, all alone, can you help me?” Suddenly, his friend jumped down into the pit with him. The man said, “Are you crazy? You can’t help me now, we’re both in the pit.” His friend said, “Relax, I’ve been down here before and I know the way out!”
Thanks be to God, when I was sinking deep in the pit of sin the Lord Jesus came and got into the pit with me. What makes it so glorious is that He not only knows the way out, but He made the way out, because HE IS THE WAY OUT!
That is what Christmas is all about. We were in a “horrible pit” in the “miry clay.” Our sin haunted us, and our sin held us. We could not get out, but we just kept sinker deeper and deeper into the pit.
But, when we couldn’t get to God, God came to us, that first Christmas morning, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. And, when Jesus stepped out of Heaven, He stepped into our pit, condescending to men of “low estate” and “brought us up” out of the pit.
Christmas is all about the day Jesus left the glory place to come to the gory place. Christmas is all about Jesus leaving the wonders of Heaven to come to the woes of Earth. Christmas is all about Jesus leaving the place of splendor to come to a place of sin. Christmas is all about He, who was veiled in deity, came to earth veiled in humanity. In other words, Christmas is all about the day, HE CAME TO ME!
He came to where we were. He came to the muck, and mire of this sinful world to help poor, lost, helpless and hopeless sinners who could not save themselves. The sinless Son of God got down into the pit with us to save us and bring us up.
At the birth of Christ, God stepped out of the pages of the Bible into a stall where they stabled oxen. Christ stepped out of the pages of the Written Word to become the Living Word. Christ stepped out of the promise to become the fulfillment. Christ stepped out of prophecy to become history. Christ stepped out of the glory He shared with the Father, and became flesh in a world defiled, depraved and darkened by sin.
That is the real meaning of Christmas. Jesus became flesh. He became one of us. We couldn’t see our way out of the pit; we couldn’t get our way out of the pit; and, we couldn’t find our way out of the pit. But, Jesus came and got into the pit with us and “brought” us “up out of an horrible pit.”
Not only was there a descent into the pit, but:
B) A DELIVERANCE from the Pit!
I don’t know about you, but I well remember the day when I was in a “horrible pit” and in the “miry clay.” I well remember the day that I could not get to God. But, oh blessed thought, I also well remember the day when the Lord Jesus “brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock.”
In other words, He not only got into the pit with us, but He “brought” us “up” “out of the pit” and “set” our “feet upon a rock.” He not only descended into the pit, but He delivered us from the pit.
I was sinking deep in sin,
Far from the peaceful shore;
Very deeply stained within,
Sinking to rise no more.
But the Master of the Sea
Heard my despairing cry,
From the waters lifted me,
Now safe am I.
In verse 1, the Psalmist describes the time that He “heard my cry.” In other words, he cried out to God, and God not only heard him, but God helped him. He came to where He was, and in spite of who he was God “brought” him “up” out of the pit.
There was a day when He “heard my cry.” We were apart from God. We were away from God. Sin had destroyed our fellowship with God, as well as our relationship to God. We could not get to God because of sin.
Thus, our sinful, sorrowful, sick, and sad condition cried out to God. Our sin cried out for a solution, and the solution could only be found in a Savior. That is why we read in Matthew 1:21, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
In other words, the solution for our sin was not found in turning over a new leaf, but in getting a NEW LIFE! We were in a “horrible pit” in the “miry clay.” Sin haunted us and held us. We were going further, further and further down.
But, God sent Jesus to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He came to Earth to descend into our pit so that He might deliver us from our pit. He didn’t come to save us in our sin; He came to save us FROM our sin. That is what Christmas is all about. God looked at a condition so grievous and offered condescension so gracious.
As a result, we find:
3. A CHANGE So GLORIOUS!
I read about an old pioneer who traveled westward across the Great Plains until he came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the Grand Canyon. He gawked at the sight before him, a vast chasm one mile down, 18 miles across, and more than 100 miles long. He gasped to himself, “Something musta happened here!”
When I look at my past condition, when I at the “horrible pit” and the “miry clay” that I once found myself in; and, when I look at the day that Jesus saved my soul, I have to say, “Something musta happened here.”
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought
Since Jesus came into my heart.
I have light in my soul,
For which long I had sought,
Since Jesus came into my heart.
We were slaves to a condition so grievous; yet, we were saved because of condescension so gracious in the person of Jesus Christ. As a result, because of what Jesus did for us, we find a change so glorious that has resulted in:
A) MARVELOUS BLESSINGS!
Look at what God did for us. Notice the progression of these marvelous blessings. In verses 2-3, we have been brought up, we have been cleaned up, we have been set up, we have been held up; and, we have been tuned up.
In other words, God not only did what we could not do; but, He did what only He could do. We could have never changed our helplessness and hopelessness. We could have never gotten out of the pit of sin that haunted us and held us.
Had it not been for Jesus we’d still be in the pit. Had it not been for Jesus we’d still be sinking deeper and deeper into the “miry clay” of sin. Had it not been for Jesus we’d be in hell, or still on our way to hell.
But, aren’t you glad for the day that when you couldn’t get to God, God came to you. He brought you up, he cleaned you up, He set you up, He held you up, and now He has tuned you up. Verse 3 says that “he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.”
In other words, Jesus took us out of the mire and He put us in the choir. Once we had no reason to sin because of sin; but, now we have all the reason to sing because of salvation. Thus, what Jesus did for us is something that we should summarize, emphasize and advertise. We are to sing it, shout it and share it wherever we go to whoever we see. We are to tell of the glorious day when Jesus got into the pit with us so that we could get out of the pit with Him.