Psalm 69, I want to read through
this with you. And as we read through it, you
will recognize several places from the New Testament. And in
fact, before we read it, I'm going to point out some of those
to you. In verse four, it says, they
hate me without a cause, and that is quoted by the Lord Jesus
in John 15, 25, when he told his disciples that it was fulfilled
that was written in their law, they hated me without a cause.
So this is fulfilled in the New Testament when the Lord Jesus
Christ in the days of his flesh was hated by those that were
around him and those who were in his company and many others
in that time. And then in verse 9 of Psalm
69 it says, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. Now that
reminds us of what happened in John chapter 2 when Jesus made
a cord and drove out the money changers when he came into the
temple and told them that they had made his house, his father's
house, a house of merchandise. And it was a house of prayer.
But he drove them out. And that's what that verse is
quoted there in John 2. And then also in verse 9 of Psalm
69, it says, the reproaches of them that reproached thee are
fallen upon me. And that's quoted in Romans 15,
where it says, even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written,
reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. So that, again,
is a New Testament passage that refers back to Psalm 69 to show
us that every one of these that has been quoted in the New Testament
is referring to Christ. Then in verse 21 of Psalm 69,
it says, they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink. And you will recognize that as
what was said in Matthew 27 and John 19, when Jesus said, I thirst
in fulfillment of scripture, and then they brought him the
vinegar and the gall to drink, adding cruelty to his sufferings
already. And then finally, in verses 22
through 23, it says, let their table be made a snare for them.
And that's quoted in Romans 11, where the apostle Paul refers
to that as prophecy of the Jews who would reject Christ and God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, through the prophet David, would intercede
against them. So these things are, demonstrating
for the New Testament that this psalm is all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. In fact, I don't find anything
in this psalm that I can relate to the experience of David. A
lot of commentators want to take each of these psalms and try
to find in David's experience where this psalm happened, but
I don't think it's possible in all cases. It may be in some
cases, but in this particular case, I don't find it. Where
in Scripture, in the Old Testament, does David ever say the things
that we just said that were in this psalm? I don't find it.
So I'm going to take the approach, as I believe this psalm is talking
about, the Lord Jesus Christ exclusively. exclusively. And I don't mean that exclusive
of his people, but I do mean that exclusive of the experience
of an Old Testament saint like David. Even though David in the
Psalms does speak as a prophet out of his experience, I don't
think God has given us, or at least not to me, enough here
to be able to relate it to a historical experience of David's. So with
that, let's begin with verse one and read through this psalm.
And since we've already done this, we know as we read these
words, they apply to the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His
flesh. In particular, they apply to
the Lord Jesus Christ under the sufferings of God in the days
of His flesh. He says in verse one, save me,
O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep
mire. where there is no standing, I
am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me." When
we think of floods, we think of Noah's flood, and we will
see other places where this is mentioned to indicate here what
the floods mean. Verse 3, I am weary of my crying,
my throat is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. Notice in this verse that the
Lord Jesus Christ had reached the end of his strength. My throat
is dried, my eyes fail while I wait for my God. There's no
standing in verse two. Here in verse four he says, they
that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine
head. They that would destroy me being mine enemies wrongfully
are mighty. then I restored that which I
took not away." What a blessed revelation that is of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says here in verse 5, O God,
Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from
Thee. Let not them that wait on Thee,
O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that
seek Thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because
for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my
brethren, and an alien to my mother's children. For the zeal
of thine house hath eaten me up, it's consumed him, and the
reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. When
I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my
reproach. I made sackcloth also my garment,
and I became a proverb to them. They that sit in the gates speak
against me. That would be the rulers of the
people, those who sit in the gate. And I was the song of the
drunkards. That would be the lowest of the
people. the shameful. But as for me, my prayer is unto
Thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God, in the multitude
of Thy mercy, hear me in the truth of Thy salvation. Deliver
me out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered
from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the
water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and
let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. You can see here that
the Lord is asking God to deliver him both from his enemies and
the other sufferings that will come upon him, the deep mire,
the water flood that overflowed him, and so on, the pit. Verse
16, Hear me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness is good. Turn
unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. In Psalm
51, David prayed, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to
the multitude of thy tender mercies. Here the Lord Jesus is saying,
He's using the same reason, the same plea that David used in
appealing to God to forgive his sin. He says in verse 17, and
hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me
speedily. Notice how he identifies himself
as the Lord's servant. That's the humble place, that's
the place where he's doing his father's will. Draw nigh unto
my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach and
my shame and my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before
Thee." The shame and the reproach and the dishonor he had, what
was that? What was that for? He was the
Lord's servant. Well, he speaks of it earlier
as his foolishness and his sins, and all that he bore, the reproaches
of them that reproached thee fell upon him. In verse 20, reproach
hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. And I looked
for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters,
but I found none. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their
table become a snare before them, and that which should have been
for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened
that they may not see, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon
them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them, Let their
habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents. For
they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they talk to
the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Notice here the
Lord is saying that God has smitten him, and yet they're talking
to his grief, just like Job's friends. Add iniquity to their
iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them
be blotted out of the Book of the Living, and not be written
with the righteous. But I am poor and sorrowful. Let Thy salvation, O God, set
me up on high. I will praise the name of God
with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also
shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath
horns and hooves. The humble shall see this and
be glad, and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord
heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let the heavens
and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moveth therein.
For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah, that
they may dwell there, and have it in possession. The seed also
of His servants shall inherit it, and they that love His name
shall dwell therein. All right. It's a fairly long
psalm, but the bulk of it is grouped together in things that
are more easily understood if we take it a little at a time.
So the first thing we're going to look at here is in verse one.
He says, Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my
soul. Now, David, in his own experience,
we know, was a noble warrior. He was not weak. He was not a
coward. He was courageous and strong.
So for him to say these words, and especially for them to be
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was in no way a coward, and
who was in no way weak, except that he was weakened by, as we
read in this psalm, by the reproaches that came upon him and the trouble
from God's own hand. We see then that because he was
strong, in fact, he is the Almighty. He's the son of David, meaning
he was the king, and he was anointed as the Christ, the prophet and
priest and king of his people to save them. He was mighty to
save. If we were to look at Psalm 89,
we would see that. But here he's saying that he
was in a condition where all of his strength was used up because
of the trouble he was in. And so he makes his plea to the
Lord to save him. And this is the way that everyone
who needs salvation needs God to save them because there's
no one else who can save them. They can't do the smallest part
in their salvation. This is the way that we pray.
Save me, oh God. So you see here that this is
the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, and certainly it is his
prayer to be delivered from both his enemies and the trouble that
he was in here in this psalm. And we see here that he speaks
of himself. He says, save me, O God. So, we know therefore that the
trouble that came upon him was great, it was great indeed, wasn't
it? Because it took all of his strength
and he was out of strength. It used up all that he had. He
expended all that he had and he needed the Lord, his God,
to save him. Now that's making himself of
no reputation as a servant and as a man. In fact, he says in
Psalm 22, I am a worm and no man. If you were to remember
that, he says, In Psalm 22 verse 5, they cried to thee, the fathers
trusted in thee, our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted
and thou didst deliver them, they cried to thee and were delivered,
they trusted in thee and they were not confounded, but I, he
makes himself lower than all of God's people, I am a worm
and no man. a reproach of men and despised
of the people. He was despised of the people.
And so we see this here in Psalm 69, verse one, save me, O God. He says, for the waters are coming
into my soul. Now, the water's here coming
into his soul. Think about that. If you've ever
experienced that, where you're swimming along and it seems like
you run out of strength and you're afraid you're going to drown.
It's a terrible feeling, isn't it? Where you just you can't
make yourself go anymore. And you might have reached that
point at some time and you're younger years. As a child that
happened to me on a couple of occasions where it seemed like
I just couldn't go further and thought I was literally going
to drown. and kind of gave up, but in God's
mercy he kept me alive and I didn't drown. But here he says, the
waters are coming into my soul. So that's the experience of a
drowning person when they have expended their strength and they
give up because they have no more strength and the water enters
into them. and their lungs now are full
of water. And he's speaking about the same
thing by an analogy of whatever the waters represent here coming
into his very soul. It overcame him. What was coming
upon him completely overwhelmed him, and that's why he's crying. He has no strength left, and
he is going to die. And he's crying out to the Lord,
save me. Save me, for the waters are coming
into my soul. So it's not just his body, but
his soul. And this is important. In Psalm
53 it says, I believe it's verse 10 or 11, he says, that has made
his soul an offering for sin. And in Matthew 26, when he's
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he tells his disciples, my soul
is exceeding or very heavy. And he was sorrowful. In Isaiah
53, he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. So it
was his soul. The Lord Jesus did suffer in his body. No doubt
about that. He suffered in his body. And
in fact, if you listen to these words in Isaiah 53, you can see
the degree to which he suffered in his body. In fact, look at Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52 in verse 13. Listen to these words. He says,
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. And the servant he's
talking about is Christ. And prudently means not just
wisely, but it means successfully, prosperously. In all that God
gave him to do, he would prosper, like Joseph prospered in all
that Potiphar gave him to do, or all that the prison keeper
gave him to do, or all that Pharaoh gave him to do. Everything Joseph
did prospered because he dealt so prudently. David was the same
way. He dealt very wisely and he was
able to overcome the Philistines on behalf of King Saul and on
the behalf of Israel. So we know that there are men
in scripture who have dealt very wisely. Here he says, my servant
shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled
and be very high. And this is Isaiah 52 verse 14. He says, as many as were astonished
at thee, astonished, his visage was so marred, that's his appearance,
his physical frame, was so marred more than any man. and his form
more than the sons of men. Why? Because men did that to
him. Men marred his outward body,
crown of thorns on his head, their fists and their open palms
slapping his face, they plucked out his beard, They tore his
clothes from him. They beat him. They eventually
nailed him to the cross. And they thrust his hands and
his feet through with those spikes that held him to the cross. And
then they would pierce his side. All these things left him absolutely
bloodied more than any man, is what it says here. More than
the sons of men. And then he goes on, he says,
so shall he sprinkle many nations, the king shall shut their mouths
at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see,
that which they had not heard shall they consider. Jesus told
the Pharisees in John 8, 28, he says, when you have lifted
up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I did not speak these
things of myself, but doing my Father's will. And so it was,
in Acts chapter 2, when Peter preached that sermon, how that
by the predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge of God, the
Jews took Christ by wicked hands and killed him. And then Peter
is preaching in his sermon, he says, let it be known to all
the house of Israel, to all Israel, that God has made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And what happened
there in Acts 2, around verse 37, is that they cried out and
they said, what shall we do? What shall we do? So they were
brought under that conviction of themselves being the murderers
of Christ. And so then they cried out to
God for mercy, because he was exalted to be a prince and a
savior, to give that repentance to them. And so we see that,
you know, that that was fulfilled, what Jesus said. And that's what
this is speaking about here in Isaiah 52. As many as saw him
would be astonished. He was more marred than any man.
And it was through this breaking of His body and the shedding
of His blood that He would sprinkle many nations. He would wash them
from their sins. Thou hast loved us and washed
us from our sins in Your own blood. The people in Revelation
1, verse 5 say, the Church of God says that. So these kings
here in Isaiah 52 are saying that. The Spirit of God is telling
us of Christ's certain success because these kings would bow
down to Him. These people of Israel who thought themselves
to be kings were brought low by the preaching of the gospel
and the Lord saved them. And they saw that in the sufferings
of Christ was all their hope. That's the way God would sprinkle
them. So he says here in Psalm 69, back in Psalm 69, Save me,
O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep
mire where there is no standing. I am come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. He had nowhere else to turn.
No one else would help him. No one else could help him. He
had set his face like a flint, and now he is under the wrath
of God. Look at Psalm 88. In Psalm 88
and verse 6, it says this, Psalm 88 verse 6, Thou hast laid me
in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps, thy wrath lieth
hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves." Do you
see that? The waves. So here, the waves,
and back in Psalm 69, it was the waters, the deep mire, coming
into the deep waters, and the floods were overflowing him,
in verses 1 and 2. Here, those waves are referring
to the wrath of God that came upon him. Look at the same Psalm,
Psalm 88, verse 16. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me,
Thy terrors have cut me off, They came round about me daily
like water, They compassed me about together. Lover and friend,
hast thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness.
The Lord Jesus is left alone. It's dark. He has no word from
God at this point. The heavens are silent. His disciples
have fled. They've forsaken him. Peter had
denied him. And all of the nation that he
came to, his people after the flesh, had crucified him, the
Gentiles with them. And it was all by the predeterminate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Look also at the book of
Jonah, in Jonah chapter 2. Jonah is right after Obadiah,
I know that won't help very much, but is also before Micah. If you find Amos, keep going,
or Hosea, Joel, Amos, eventually get to Jonah. In Jonah chapter
2, remember the situation, Jonah had been cast into the sea. He
was on the boat. He was trying not to go to Nineveh. He went the other way by getting
on a boat that was headed in the opposite direction. And while
he was on the boat with the mariners, the Lord sent a great storm.
And the boat that he was on with all the people was about to be
broken up. They would all perish. Jonah
told them, you have to throw me overboard. In Jonah chapter
1, it says, in verse 16, the men feared the Lord exceedingly. Oh, first, it says, in verse,
in chapter 1, he says, after Jonah said this, he told them
in verse 12, take me up, cast me forth into the sea, so shall
the sea be calm to you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest
is upon you. Nevertheless the men rode hard
to bring it to the land, but they could not, for the sea wrought
and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried to the Lord
and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish
for this man's life. Lay not upon us innocent blood,
for Thou, O Lord, hast done it as it pleased Thee. So they took
up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased.
from her raging, and the men feared the Lord exceedingly.
And then in chapter 2 it says, Then Jonah prayed to the Lord
his God out of the fish's belly, and he said, I cried by reason
of mine affliction to the Lord, and he heard me out of the belly
of hell. cried I, and thou heardest my
voice, for thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of
the sea, or the seas, and the floods compassed me about, all
thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast
out of thy sight, that's darkness, yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. That's the place where sacrifice
is made. That's the place where salvation is given because of
the sacrifice. He says in verse 5, the waters
compassed me about, even to the soul. The depths closed me round
about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to
the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God, when my soul fainted within me.
See, there it is, completely at the end of his strength. He
died, fainted. I remember the Lord, and my prayer
came unto thee. And in thine holy temple, they
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, the lying vanities
of their own righteousness. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I owe, vowed.
Salvation is of the Lord." That was Jonah. And this was, of course,
what Jesus said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth, or in the belly of the fish, so Jesus
Christ, the Lord, would be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. because that was representative of the fact
that he had experienced the wrath of God as Jonah was speaking
there in Jonah chapter 2. So the Lord Jesus Christ in Psalm
88 and here in Psalm 69 is talking about the same thing. His soul
is overwhelmed. His soul has fainted. Now he
is crying out of his soul, save me, oh God. I'm weary of my crying,
this is Psalm 69 now, verse three, I'm weary of my crying, my throat
is dried, mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. Now that's
significant, isn't it? That the Lord Jesus Christ with
all of his obedience, with all of his sinless obedience and
his love for his father as the servant of the Lord would find
himself under such wrath, such judgment. And it was for that
very cause that he claimed to be doing his father's will and
yet he came under the judgment of God that his disciples were
afraid and his enemies took that as a sign that God had forsaken
him and therefore he was not true. And they piled up that
reproach upon him when he was on the cross. And they said,
he said that he trusted in the Lord. Let the Lord come and deliver
him, since he trusted in him. And they mocked him. They wagged
their heads, and they mocked him, and they added pain. He knew those things were true. He knew that God had forsaken
him. And the temptation to mistrust God was there. But he didn't.
He didn't mistrust him, but he trusted him all the way through.
But they tempted him to do that. And so this is significant. Now, and then I want to go on
in Psalm 69 here. He says, they that hate me without
a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They that would destroy
me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. So the trouble of soul is there,
but also the trouble of outward enemies is there. They're accusing
him. They're slandering him. They're
making up falsehoods and accusing him of that. And then they're
holding him accountable for doing the things that they accused
him of falsely. It was not true. But he was guilty. He was guilty. And that's the
reason all of this came upon him. But it was not for anything
he himself did. He was not guilty because of
sin he committed. He didn't know sin. He knew no
sin. In Him was no sin. He did no
sin. All these are direct quotations
from the New Testament. He did no sin. That's in 1 Peter
2. He knew no sin in 2 Corinthians
5.21. And in Him And in him is no sin in 1 John
chapter 3. So all these things were true
of him. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
And it was because he was without sin, it was for that reason,
on that basis, that he then could bear the sins of his people as
the sinless, spotless, holy sacrifice. OK, so he says in verse four,
they that hate me without a cause. There was no reason found in
him to hate him. He did only what was right. He
never sinned. He only did his father's will,
only spoke his father's word. He healed people who were sick. He cast devils out of people
who were tortured by the devils and controlled by them. He raised
the dead. He opened the eyes of the blind.
What did he do that was worthy of hatred? There was nothing
in him. The hatred came out of the heart
of those who hated him. He didn't put it there. They
envied him. They envied him because God was
pleased with him. And they envied him because he
had the praise of his people. So they wanted that praise. They
were idolaters. And they hated him because as
idolaters, someone else was getting the honor. And they hated him
because as those who want to control God, manipulate him,
and demand from him, they wanted to be the sovereign in the place
of Christ. And so all of this was why they hated Him. It came
from them. And that's the way we hate. That's
the reason we hate God. In our hearts, we hate Him because
it comes from us. There's nothing wrong with God's
law, with God, certainly nothing wrong with Christ, and yet they
hated Him. They hated Him without a cause. There was no cause in
Him. And yet, And yet, think of this
in Romans 3 verse 24, it says, being justified freely, that
means without cause, no cause in us, being justified without
cause found in us by God, only for causes found in God. Just
as we hated Christ, unprovoked by what was in Him, but because
of our sin in us, so the Lord has justified us unprovoked,
unmoved, uninfluenced by anything from us, but only what He found
in Himself freely by His grace, without cause found in us. And
so it's a great comfort here that the without cause applies
in this direction too. We did it. We did all of this
out of our sin. But the Lord did all this out
of His grace, out of His redeeming love. So they hated me without
a cause, and those enemies of mine are more than the hairs
of my head. They're innumerable. They that would destroy me, being
my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Those who came against Christ
were many and mighty, and they were wrong. They hated him without
cause. They were his enemies wrongfully.
And yet God, in his predetermined counsel and foreknowledge, determined
that this is the way Christ would fulfill the obedience required
for our righteousness. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. When he was threatened, when
he was persecuted or beaten or hit or spit upon, he did not
threaten back. But in every case, he trusted
himself into the hands of his God and father. He had perfect
faith, perfect faith. and perfect love, love for his
father as a servant. He never deviated. It was his
father's will that he bear the sins of his people. It was his
father's will, just like Judah pleaded with his father Jacob
for Benjamin. He said, I will be surety for
him. So the Lord Jesus Christ engaged with his father before
time began and pledged himself to be surety for his people.
Everything they did, everything we did by sinning, was charged
to him and everything he did in his love and obedience under
the torturous cruelty of merciless men, wrongfully hating him. That was because we, in our sin,
offended God. Unprovoked, we made ourselves
the enemies of God. We hated him. And the carnal
mind is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be.
It's enmity against God. And yet the Lord himself has
stepped in and interposed and intercepted us and saved us out
of our foolishness. He the God, our father, his eternal
will was to deliver up his son and lay our sins upon him that
we might be delivered from our sins and the wrath of his of
his anger upon us justly. So he says this in in verse four,
about the hatred that came upon him and how they would destroy
him and they were doing it wrongfully. This was all God's will. This
is what God asked him to do. This is what was in his heart
to do in order to save his people, the Lord's people, those dear
to him. He had to provide himself in their place and answer every
charge of God's holy law and receive the condemnation that
their sins deserve in himself. He goes on, he says, I restored
that which I took not away. The law requires that we do not
steal. But the Lord Jesus Christ in
his holy wisdom understands the law. He understands the spirit
of the law. He understands it's not just
a prohibition to steal. It's actually the spirit of the
law is to give and to restore what we didn't take away. That's
what the Lord did here. He restored what he didn't take
away. What did he restore? What didn't
he take away? Well, all have sinned, all have
offended God's justice, so he took away the offense. And all
have come short of the glory of God. We failed to give God
glory. So he restored that. He restored
the glory of God. He restored obedience to God's
holy law. He magnified the law. He made
it honorable. He restored the honor to God's
holy law in his own obedience. His obedience of shedding his
blood in sacrifice for sinners. by the will of God to save his
people, those he set his everlasting love upon, to save them according
to justice and righteousness, to bring them in grace, to give
them eternal life. We lost life. He restored that. We lost our eternal inheritance.
He restored that. He restored everything that we
gave up by our sin. And he removed the sin against
God. He did all this. He restored
what he did not take away. Verse five, O God, thou knowest
my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee. Now in this
verse, we see something that is very significant and it's
so significant that sometimes when you read commentators, they
cringe at these things and they won't apply it to Christ. How
could Christ say, O God, thou knowest my foolishness and my
sins are not hid from thee? Well, this is very important. This is really the heart of the
gospel right here. That he was made sin who knew
no sin. In order that we might be made
righteousness who knew no righteousness, even the righteousness of God
in him. You see, the reason that Christ
would say this, oh God, thou knowest my foolishness and my
sins are not hid from thee, is because he already before he
came into the world had had so identified with his people that
he joined them to himself so that he took all of their obligations
as their surety. He took all of their debt as
their redeemer. He took all that was promised
by God as in the covenant as their covenant head and all that
by a figure Adam did, and we did in him. When we were, before
we were born, what happened? In Adam we sinned, because we
would be born to Adam. We were his offspring, his seed. And so because God had made us
the children of Adam through blood, then when Adam sinned,
we sinned in Adam, because he was made our representative head. But all these things the Lord
Jesus Christ was made. He was the second Adam, the last
Adam. As in Adam all die, so in Christ
shall all be made alive. As by one man's disobedience
many became sinners, so by the obedience of one, the Lord Jesus,
shall many be made righteous. Now these things are true. This
is what scripture says. A surety, a redeemer, a husband. One who has joined himself to
his wife in marriage. The two have become one flesh.
We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
In Ephesians chapter 5, I want to read this verse with you.
Look at Ephesians chapter 5. He says in chapter 5 and verse
20, I think it's verse 26, but let me get there to make sure.
Ephesians 5, oh no, verse 28. Listen to this. So ought men,
as the Lord Jesus Christ did, loved the church and gave himself
for it. He says, so ought men to love their wives as their
own bodies. Notice. He that loveth his wife
does what? He loves himself. You see that
union? Now, this is expressing here
the intimate, inseparable union between the Lord Jesus Christ
and his people. And when was this union established?
Well, this can be tricky, but if you look at Ephesians 1, Ephesians
1, verse 4, God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. His precious blood, according
to 1 Peter 1, verses 18-20, He was ordained to be the precious,
redeeming Lamb of God for our sins before the foundation of
the world. Now, that's the words of Scripture.
Known unto God are all His works from eternity, Acts 15, verse
18. Everything God does in time,
He already established from eternity. So this union between Christ
and His people predates our creation. Just as because we were born
to Adam before we were born, we sinned in Adam, so we who
were predestinated to the adoption of children by God the Father
before the foundation of the world, We were Christ's seed
and therefore what Christ did when he obligated himself for
us as our surety and our redeemer and as our covenant head, as
our husband and all these things, he's the vine, we're the branches,
all these things, as he joined himself to us then, in that covenant,
so God chose us in Him for that purpose, that we would be united
to Him. Now, in this union between believers
and Christ, there is a cementing bond. There's something that
holds them to Christ. And what that is, is the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many waters cannot quench love. If a man were to give all the
substance of his house for love, it would be utterly condemned.
But love is stronger than death. This is from Song of Solomon,
chapter 8, verses 6 and 7. So here he's talking about in
the Song of Solomon how love is stronger than death. Nothing
can overcome love if it's stronger than death. We know that love
is stronger than sin because when we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. And this is the love of God that's
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit to teach us that
it was because of the love of God for us that He gave His Son,
which obviously was done before the world began. God created
all things by Christ Jesus, but He created all things by Christ
Jesus because He made Him the head as Christ. And as Christ,
He is the anointed for His people as their prophet, priest, and
king. He was already Christ, already the Lamb, before the
foundation of the world in God's eternal will. And if God has
willed it, then God in time is simply bringing to pass what
He already willed in His counsel. In Ephesians 1 verse 11, He works
all things according to the counsel of His own will. So I say all
these things to show that we are united to Christ before time,
And that union is based on the love of Christ, the love of God,
the love of Christ. And that's why in Romans eight,
it says, who can who shall separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord? And then he names everything
possible sin. No, God is justified as Christ
has died. He rose and he reigns and intercedes
for us at the right hand of God. Well, what about persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril, sword, principalities and powers, things
present, things to come. No, no, no, no, nothing can separate
us. Why? Because that cementing bond
of our union with Christ is stronger than everything. It was established
before time, nothing can separate us from his love. The son of
God who loved me and because of that love gave himself for
me. You see, it was the love of Christ
that moved him to do this. But because of this union to
Christ, because of this union now, what we did in sinning,
He did and became obligated to God for because he made himself
a surety for us. He made himself the Lord, our
maker is our Redeemer, Isaiah 54, verse 5. He's the husband. Let me read that to you in Isaiah
54, verse 5. He says, thy maker is thine husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name and the Redeemer, thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he
be called. He's talking about Christ, our maker, our Redeemer,
our husband. And this is before Christ came
into the world. So it was already there then.
And this is because he's God manifest in the flesh. As the
Son of God joined himself to us, that's why he came. Because
the children were partakers of flesh and blood, therefore he
also took part of the same. You see? He took on the seat
of Abraham. He became their high priest.
He became their prophet. to give them God's Word, to reveal
God to them, to show them things that were unbelievably wonderful,
the things that eye hasn't seen or ear heard, but God has prepared
for them that love Him, but God has shown these to us by His
Spirit. You see? Because we were joined
to Christ before time, therefore, in time, the sins of God's people
became the obligation of Christ to pay as the as the one who
would fulfill their, pay their debt. He would receive the wages
their sins deserved, death. That's why he died, because our
sins were made his and and therefore his righteousness is made ours
because of that union. God established before time.
Just like Adam's sin was charged to us, so Christ's obedience
is our righteousness. And His obedience was an obedience
unto death. His blood, therefore, justifies
us. And that's why in verse 5, O
God, thou knowest my foolishness. Now he's praying out of the sense
the felt guilt, the felt shame before God, even before men,
because he's bearing all of the outpouring of God's just wrath
upon him as a sinner. He was numbered, accounted among
the transgressors and put on the cross between two thieves.
This is about the Lord Jesus, isn't it? This is what He did
to save us. He became sin for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Of God are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us righteousness, and
all the other things too, wisdom, sanctification, our holiness,
and our redemption. See, this is the core of the
gospel, isn't it? This is why Christ could say it was my sin. And this is why we can say it's
my righteousness. As Levi was in the loins of Abraham
when he paid tithes to Melchizedek, so we were in Christ when he
bore our sins, when he died, when he was buried, when he rose,
when he was seated at the right hand of God. What a wonderful
Savior. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no hope but Him. Our
hope is that when He bore those sins for His people on the cross
and suffered for them and died and was buried for them, and
then rose again in triumph and justification from those sins,
and then ascended to heaven and took His place at the right hand
of God and seated there in glory and reward, that we were in Him
by your election of us in Him. by His pledge for us to you to
bring us again as our surety, to answer every charge, to fulfill
all debts and all righteousness for us, every demand of the law,
and honor the law in the process of doing so. What a Savior. We can't save ourselves in the
least part, and he's done every part, and we had no part in it
except by the union he made with us, joining us to himself in
eternal love. What love this is, we can't comprehend
it. We pray, Lord, you give us faith
to believe it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.