Well, what a joy it is to gather
again tonight with you. I love Sunday evening services
wherever the Lord allows me to worship. On Sunday evening, it
is a very unique group of people who come back that I think have
a special hunger for the Word of God and it is always easier
for me to preach on Sunday evenings, quite frankly, because of the
receptivity within the hearts of those who come. And I trust
that tonight the Lord will greatly bless us as we look together
into His Word. This morning we considered our
sovereign Savior from Revelation chapter 5. And tonight, I want
us to take another look at our all-glorious Savior from a different
perspective. I want us to consider our suffering
Savior with unique focus upon His sin-bearing death upon Calvary's
cross. As you have your Bibles, I want
to invite you to turn with me to Psalm 22...Psalm 22 as we
will consider our suffering Savior. I want to begin by reading some
of the verses from this long psalm. I don't want to use all
of my time to read the entirety of this psalm, although I do
want us to look carefully, Lord willing, at each of the verses
in this psalm. It's a very lengthy psalm in
many ways, but there are great truths here for us to see. Psalm
22, this is the reading of God's inspired inerrant and infallible
Word. My God, my God, why have You
forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the
words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day, but You
do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet you are
holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel, and
you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered
them. To you they cried out and were delivered. In you they trusted
and were not disappointed. But I am a worm and not a man,
a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me
sneer at me. They separate with the lip. They
wag the head, saying, commit yourself to the Lord. Let Him
deliver him. Let Him rescue him because He
delights in him. Yet you are He who brought me
forth from the womb. You made me trust when upon my
mother's breast. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my
mother's womb. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded
me. Many strong bulls of Bashan have
encircled me. They open wide their mouth at
me as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted
within me. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd and my tongue cleaves to my jaws and you lay me in
the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me,
a band of evildoers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and
my feet. I can count all my bones. They
look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among
them. And for my clothing, they cast lots." It is very easy for
us to see that this psalm is distinctly a messianic psalm
that finds its fulfillment in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and specifically His sin-bearing death on our behalf. Of all the reasons to believe
in the inerrancy of Scripture, I believe that the greatest reason
is fulfilled prophecies. in the Bible. Only God knows
the future and only God ordains the future. And the reason that
God knows the future is that He has already predestined the
future and what He has foreordained, He brings to pass. Much of what
God has foreordained, He has recorded in His Word and He sovereignly
brings it about. Every fulfilled prophecy in the
Bible is yet one more clear, objective affirmation of the
veracity of the Word of God. And nowhere is this more true
than in those prophecies that were fulfilled at the first coming
of Jesus Christ. It is estimated that some 100
plus prophecies have already been fulfilled at the first coming
of Christ and they stand as authentication and documentation that the Bible
is in fact what it claims to be the very Word of the living
God. And more than that, many of these
fulfilled prophecies concerned the death of Christ upon the
cross. This is what makes Psalm 22 so
amazing. It was written one hundred years
before Jesus was nailed to Calvary's cross and died in the place of
all those who had put their trust in Him. It was written hundreds
of years before death by crucifixion was even invented. And yet as
we read this psalm, it reads as though one is standing at
the foot of the cross and is looking up at our Savior as He
is dying in our place and is recording what He hears and what
He sees, unique to this psalm as well. is what our Lord was
thinking as He is hanging upon the cross. We are allowed to
go into the soul and into the heart of our Lord and to understand
something of His meditations and something of His thought
processes as He underwent that ignominious death on our behalf. Some unbelievers would say that
Jesus knew of these prophecies and therefore chose to say and
do what was recorded in order to give the appearance that He
is the Messiah. But we must remember that so
many of the prophecies recorded here were fulfilled by the enemies
of Christ, those who stood the most to lose. by their fulfillment. As we look at this psalm tonight,
many commentators point out that there is no episode in the life
of David who is the author of this psalm that matches up with
his own life. This psalm is so messianic that
it is as though it bypasses David as there is no known fulfillment
and focuses uniquely upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As you look at this psalm in
your English Bible, you will note the many divisions of this
psalm as this psalm is broken out by stanzas. And there are
more stanzas than I will have time tonight to to pull together,
and so I want to give you five headings for this psalm that
will help us walk through this psalm that speaks of our suffering
Savior. And my desire is tonight that
our hearts would be drawn all the more closely to the Lord
Jesus Christ, that our hearts would love Christ all the more
because of what we read here, and that we would be encouraged
in the midst of our suffering to know that we have a Savior
who has walked this world of woe and is intimately and personally
acquainted with what it is to suffer while living here upon
this earth. He is a Savior who is a sympathetic
Savior. And when we come to Him in the
midst of our suffering, He knows what that is like as He has gone
before us and has suffered in our stead. As we begin to look
at this psalm, I want you to note first Christ's separation. In verses 1 through 5, this psalm
begins with a rhetorical question meant to show the rejection and
the abandonment suffered by Christ. upon the cross. This begins,
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? These are the very
words of our Lord as He hung upon the cross at high noon,
as the sky became dark and black, and as our sins were transferred
to Him, Him who knew no sin, God made to be sin on our behalf,
there was this separation between the humanity of Christ and the
holiness of God as He bore our sins. It is repeated twice, my
God, my God, which speaks something of the deep urgency and the desperation
that He felt as He was estranged from His Father with whom He
had had intimate fellowship throughout all eternity past. This saying, my God, my God,
why have You forsaken me, is the fourth of the seven sayings
of Christ from the cross. And the first saying was, Father,
forgive them for they know not what they do. That was spoken
in the morning hours. And then He said, today you will
be with Me in paradise. And then He said in the morning,
woman, behold your son, and son, behold your mother. But at 12
noon, the sky became dark as midnight as Christ bore our sins
in His body upon the cross as the Lamb of God who would take
away the sin of the world. And He cries out this saying,
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Then in the afternoon,
there would be three more sayings. I am thirsty. He would say, it
is finished. And then finally, Father, into
Your hands I commit my spirit. But in this saying, my God, my
God, Jesus has never addressed the Father in this way. It has
always been that He has addressed Him as Father. In fact, even
earlier upon the cross, Jesus said, Father, forgive them. for they know not what they do.
But now Jesus addresses the Father as God. It is a reflection of
the distance and the separation and the breach that there is
of relationship now between the Father and the Son as the Lord
Jesus is bearing our sins. 1 Peter 2 verse 24 says that
He bore our sins in His body upon the cross. And in 2 Corinthians
5 verse 21, it says that Him who knew no sin, God made to
be sin for us. Jesus is now suffering abandonment
by the Father. He who has been in the very bosom
of the Father. He who has been face-to-face
with the Father throughout all eternity past is now suffering
this separation. At the end of verse 1, he says,
far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. By that He means My deliverance
is a long way off. He cries out to God, but there
will be no rescue by the Father as He hangs upon the cross because
this is the predetermined will of the Father that He die. And as He cries out, Jesus is
saying, My deliverance is a long way off. There is no escaping
this. There is no deliverance from
God. In verse 2, he says, Oh my God! I cry by day, but you
do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest." You may
say, well, I thought Jesus was on the cross for only six hours,
and that He was from nine in the morning until three in the
afternoon. But the mention of day in verse
2 speaks of the first three hours in which the sun was shining,
and the last three hours from noon until three The sky was
dark and that is the reference by night as He says, I have no
rest. No rest from the intense suffering
that He is enduring upon the cross. Earlier, He has heard
the voice of the Father from heaven say, this is My beloved
Son, hear ye Him. But now the heavens are as brass
and there is no voice from heaven as Jesus cries out. In verse 3, Jesus in His heart
and in His soul says, yet you are holy. He focuses upon the
holiness of God as He hangs upon the cross. He knows that His
Father is holy and there is no other way for sinners to be received
into the presence of the holiness of the Father in heaven except
by the cross. There is this enormous gulf between
the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man, and Jesus knows the only
way that sinners may come to God who is holy is through this
very death that He is dying. In verse 4, here are unspoken
thoughts of Christ upon the cross, in you, in you, God the Father. Our fathers," referring to the
patriarchs, trusted. They trusted you and you delivered
them. The father never abandoned the
patriarchs. Think of Abraham as he came to
offer Isaac upon that altar and how the father was there and
provided the lamb or the ram and the thicket. They put their
trust in the Father and God never failed them and God never abandoned
them. Jesus is confident as He cries
out to God that God also will make good on all of His promises. In verse 5, to you, Jesus is
saying this to the Father, to you they cried out. and were
delivered. In you they trusted and were
not disappointed." This is the very meditation of Christ upon
the cross, that others had trusted in the Father and the Father
delivered them and that He too would trust in the Father despite
the difficulty of the moment, despite the silence from heaven,
despite the separation that He is feeling. from the Father.
Nevertheless, Jesus will continue upon this cross to put His trust
in the will of God and into the hands of the Father. Upon this cross, Jesus bore our
sins and He suffered our separation from God. And we who have put
our faith and our trust in God will never know any separation
from God the Father as Jesus knew upon the cross. Because
Jesus was separated from the Father upon the cross, you and
I will never be separated from God throughout the entirety of
our Christian lives and throughout all eternity future. This is
Christ's separation and how we praise Him and bless Him tonight
that He endured this this painful separation from the Father that
you and I will never be separated from Him. I note secondly, Christ's
scorn, beginning in verse 6. As Christ suffered upon the cross,
He was the object of intense ridicule and rejection by man. What a painful death it was that
our Savior endured. And verse 6 said, Jesus is the
speaker, but I am a worm and not a man. This is a figure of
speech as he identifies himself as a worm. Jesus is speaking
of His own helplessness as He is nailed to the cross, how weak
He is in His suffering. This term of a worm, it is a
term of derision. As He is suffering shame upon
this cross, I am a worm and not a man. Of course Christ was a
man and retained His full humanity, sinless. The idea here is that
He no longer has the appearance of a man. He has suffered so
much, His beard has been plucked from His face. The whip has opened
up His back. A crown of thorns has been crushed
into His skull. The blood is flowing. He has
been beaten and He has been whipped. Isaiah 53, 14 says, His appearance
was marred more than any man. It goes on to say, Jesus says,
He is a reproach of men and despised by the people. No man was ever
more hated or more rejected than the Lord Jesus Christ. What a
paradox this is. No one has ever been more loved
and no one has ever been more hated than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no middle ground with
Christ. There is no sitting on the fence. You either love Him
or hate Him. You either adore Him or abhor
Him. And here our Lord as He is hanging
upon the cross. He is dying not as a hero, one
to be revered, but He is dying in the appearance of a criminal
and one who is despised and full of reproach. Verse 7, all who
see Me sneer at Me. The idea is they are looking
down their long nose upon Christ with contempt. They separate
with the lip. They wag the head. Both of these
are mocking, belittling gestures as the multitude that has gathered
around the cross upon which He died. And as people were traveling
into the city to celebrate the Passover, as they see Him, they
separate with the lip. It's a mocking gesture similar
to sticking out the tongue. They wag the head. It is an arrogant
cocking of the head to show despite to the one who is hanging upon
this cross. In verse 8, we read, this is
what they are saying to Him as He hangs upon the cross, commit
yourself to the Lord, let Him deliver him. This is gross sarcasm. They are quoting His own preaching
as Jesus has called others to put their trust in God. They
are now turning it into His face as if to say, you've told others
to put their trust in God and God will deliver them. You take
a dose of your own medicine. You commit yourself to this One
to whom you direct us and let God deliver you and then we will
believe in you. In verse 8, he goes on to say,
let Him, referring to God the Father, or this is what they
are saying, let Him, God the Father, rescue Him, referring
to Christ, because He delights in Him. And the mocking is this. You say the Father delights in
you? Then let us see the Father delight
in you. Let us see Him rescue you from
this cross and deliver you out of this hour of death. The very sneer of Satan himself
is coming through these mocking cries. In verse 9 we read something
of Christ's secret thoughts as He is hanging upon this tree. Yet you, as Jesus is thinking
and directing His thoughts to the Father, yet you are He who
brought Me forth from the womb. You made me trust when upon my
mother's breast." He is reflecting upon His own virgin birth. He
is retracing all the steps of His life from the very beginning
of His sinless birth, all of those steps that would lead up
to this very hour in which He is hanging upon the cross. And He has always trusted in
the Father. That is what He is saying in
verse 9. You made me trust. I have always trusted You, Jesus
said. I have always been about my Father's
business. And I continue to put my trust
in You, even as You have turned Your back upon me as I'm bearing
this sin. In verse 10, upon You I was cast
from birth. You have been my God from my
mother's womb." Again, Jesus is reiterating and reaffirming. as He is hanging upon the cross.
He is contemplating how He has always put His trust completely
in God the Father, every step of His life, every step of the
journey, especially during His public ministry as there were
many threats upon His life. He continued to put His very
life into the hands of the Father as He was doing the will and
the work of God, and God delivered Him. So many times from the angry
mobs, they would try to run Him off a cliff or stone Him or take
His life. Our Lord was unshakable in His
trust in the Father as He hung upon the cross. And what an example
for us. Even when he trusted in God,
in the midst of his pain, in the midst of the difficulty of
this hour, he would not be shaken in his trust in God. And so it must be with us as
well. As our Lord died, so must we
live, that in the midst of our trials. and tribulations, in
the midst of our discouragement, in the midst of our difficulty,
we must never waver in our firm alliance with God and to continue
to put our trust in Him, knowing that God's time of deliverance
is perfect, knowing that God has a perfect time schedule for
our lives. This is Christ's scorn. And many of you live in families
in which there are unbelieving family members who scorn your
faith in Christ. Many of you go to work and are
surrounded by unbelievers and you suffer scorn there. Many of you have friends who
are unbelievers who belittle your faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You are in great company tonight
as you are identified with your Savior as He suffered the very
same scorn only exponentially more than any of us here tonight. But not only Christ's separation
and Christ's scorn, I want you to note third in this messianic
psalm, Christ's suffering, beginning in verse 11. This psalm now details for us
the extreme suffering of our Lord as He hung upon the cross. The scorn was emotional, but
the suffering here is physical as our Lord is suffering on every
level. Here is a graphic picture of
death by crucifixion hundreds of years before it was invented. Isaiah 53 gives us the theological
interpretation of the cross. But Psalm 22 gives us the graphic
portrayal. of the cross. These are the heads
and tails of the same coin. Isaiah 53 interprets the cross. Psalm 22 describes the agony
of the cross. In fact, this has been called
the gospel according to David. This has been called the fifth
gospel. Let us read now, beginning in
verse 11, Christ continues silently to speak to the Father as He
hangs upon that tree. Verse 11, as He opens His soul
to the Father, be not far from me, for trouble is near. Jesus is consciously aware that
He is surrounded by trouble on every side, that trouble is now
pressing in around Him. He understands that this trouble
comes by the Roman soldiers, by the Jewish Sanhedrin. by the
Pharisees, by the scribes, by the priests, by the jeering crowd,
the very crowd that had earlier on Sunday said, hail Him, hail
Him, is now crying out on Friday, nail Him, nail Him. How quickly
the crowd turns and is easily manipulated by certain leaders
within that group. And Jesus continues to point
His heart and His soul to the Father. Be not far from me, for
trouble is near, for there is none to help. He is dying all
alone upon that cross. The shepherd has been struck.
The sheep have been scattered. Only John, the Apostle, remains
at the foot of the cross. His mother is there. A few other
women are there at the cross. But they have all dispersed and
they have all gone and Jesus now as He is lifted up from the
earth, He is suspended in midair as though separated from both
heaven and separated from the earth. He is abandoned by God
and man and even His own disciples have fled. As there are times
in which you may feel that you have been abandoned by other
friends, rejected by family, you have a Savior who is very
sympathetic and who underwent that very same suffering. Verse 12, he says, many bulls
have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
This is a figure of speech. in which he is likening this
angry mob scene to bulls. They are acting like animals
with animalistic instinct. As the blood begins to flow,
it's like sharks in the water and they are now ready to charge
him, as it were, and gore him. These bulls are likened to the
strong bulls of Bashan. This was the fertile plateau
east of Jordan, rich farming land that had the fattest bulls,
the strongest bulls of all those in the region. And these bulls
with horns that depict the base brutality of the sinful nature
of men, they are now ready for the kill as they continue to
to cry out after they have said, crucify Him, crucify Him. Now they long to see Him put
to death. upon the cross. Verse 13, they
open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lion. Many different animals are represented
here to depict the base brutality of the crowd. First the bulls
in verse 12, now they are like lions. And in verse 13, Jesus
is aware that their sinful passions have been so stirred. that they
are ready to shred Him and to devour Him and to tear Him apart
if they only could. In verse 14, I am poured out
like water. It speaks of His loss of strength,
that is draining from Him upon the cross as He's having to pull
Himself up in order to breathe and then to sag back down and
collapse and then pull Himself back up in order to continue
the breathing process. And as He does, His strength
is leaving, His life is passing, the blood is flowing. And he
says, I am poured out like water. He is like a drink offering that
is now being poured out upon the altar before God. He is utterly spent. Physically,
he is reduced to an exhausted state. But spiritually, He is
now bearing the heavy load of the sins of all of His people
upon that cross. It is a crushing weight that
has been dropped upon His sinless shoulders as He is now bearing
our sins, the heavy weight. And under the judgment of God,
and under the wrath of God, He is being poured out like water. are out of joint. His bones have
been pulled out of socket as He is extending Himself upon
the cross. He is in excruciating pain. Verse 14, my heart is like wax. It is melted within me. When a heart comes under extreme
stress, the fluid begins to build as a lubricant in what is known
as a pericardium sac around And when it is under extraordinary
stress, when the heart is just pumping away, fluid, water-like
fluid surrounds the heart to try to serve as some kind of
a buffer. And as Jesus is bearing our sins
under this extreme pain. around His heart, the water begins
to build up and one of the soldiers will take a sword and thrust
it through His side and we read in John 19 that not only blood
but water will come gushing out. It is a testimony to the endurance
that He sustained upon the cross. Verse 15, my strength, Jesus
continues to be the speaker here in an autobiographical way. in
a self-reflecting manner. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd. He is suffering extreme dehydration. His energy is evaporating. He
is like a piece of pottery baked in a furnace until it is so hardened
and brittle as it is dried up. And my tongue cleaves to my jaws. The extraordinary thirst of our
Lord. He will cry out in John 19, 28,
I am thirsty as His tongue is now stuck to the roof of His
mouth. Verse 16, for dogs have surrounded
Me. Here is another figure of speech
to describe the angry crowd that has gathered around Him. Not
only are they like bulls and lions, but they are also like
dogs, for dogs have surrounded me. The next line defines for
us who these dogs are, a band of evildoers encompasses me. In the first century, wild dogs
would just roam the streets looking for anything that they could
eat. And they would devour even that
which is unclean. And the dogs were unclean as
they spread disease from place to place. But they were ferocious. And they would fight for any
scrap of food. And they would fight each other.
And as Jesus, hanging on the cross, looks down at the crowd,
He sees that unclean dogs have surrounded me," he says. These
are vicious attack dogs, scavenous dogs who roam the streets, and
now they are ready for the kill with him. A band of evildoers
encompasses me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. This is a most striking description
of crucifixion, the Romans' form of capital punishment. It was
the electric chair of the first century. It was such a horrific
death that it was inhumane. It was so violent that no Roman
citizen could suffer such a horrible death. It was brutal. It was
barbaric. It was intended to make a public
example out of someone who would not submit to the yoke of Rome
and to make a public statement. And so, we read, they pierced
my hands and my legs. Oh, what a fulfillment. This
would be in a thousand years as our Lord would be laid out
upon that torture rack of a cross. There His hands and His legs
would be nailed to that cross and then be hoisted up and lifted
up to die. Verse 17, Jesus reflects, I can
count all my bones. He is painfully aware of all
of His bones. He can count them one by one
by one, and the reason He can count all of His bones is because
He can feel all of His bones because they are pulled out of
joint and they are throbbing with pain. They look, they stare at Me. The people gaze at this gruesome
sight. Perhaps it is even the bones
that are coming out of His skin are staring at Him as well. Verse 18, they divide My garments
among them. Therefore all of His clothing
has been removed. He hangs in the humiliation of
His nakedness before His own mother who birthed Him. before
the handful of women who stand at the foot of the cross. All
of His clothing has been removed. They stare at His nakedness.
For My clothing they cast lots." It has become a game for these
Roman executioners. It's just another day at the
office. It's just another assignment. And they will be paid a salary,
but they can also Anything that they can take from the crucified
victim, they can have that as their own possession. And so
they divide up what were His garments. They are cold. They are clinical. They are calloused. They have no feelings for this
One who is dying for the sins of His people upon the Here is
the immense sufferings of our Savior. What a price He paid
for our redemption. There is no cheap grace here
as it cost Him His very life. It was a death that was protracted
upon the cross as He suffered physically on our behalf, but
even more, He suffered spiritually. as upon this judgment tree, Christ
became a curse for us under the law and He suffered the torment
of the damned in hell. on our behalf, that you and I
would never suffer the torment of the dam. Jesus suffered it
in our stead upon this cross. He bore the full force of the
wrath of God that was due us. It fell like a heavy judgment
upon Him. He was smitten of God and afflicted. Isaiah 53.10 says, the Lord was
pleased to crush Him. putting Him to grief. There is now therefore no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He took that cup emblematic of
the wrath of God that was handed to Him and He drank the foul
dregs to the very end. And there is not a drop of wrath
that remains for you and me. Upon that cross, upon that judgment
tree, Christ became our sin and as He became our sin, He absorbed
the wrath of God upon that sin as He suffered in our stead. Think of what our Lord endured
upon that cross to secure your salvation and mine. Fourth, please note Christ's
supplication Beginning in verse 19, here is the silent prayer
He offered to God. It is not recorded in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, or John, but we have it here in the book of Psalms. As Christ hung upon the cross,
this was His prayer silently to the Father, but You, O Lord,
be not far off. He continues to agonize the separation. between the Father and Him. Christ is the speaker, the Father
is the object. Oh you, my help, hasten to my
assistance. This suffering is unbearable
within His sinless humanity that is now bearing our sins. Verse
20, He silently cries out to the Father, deliver my soul. from the sword," the sword here
emblematic of death, my only life from the power of the dog. Earlier he has referred to the
dogs, plural, those unclean members of this crowd who are after him,
but now the definite article, the dog. And perhaps this is
a reference to Satan who is inciting the angry mob and the power of
Satan and the power of the dog being unleashed upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Genesis 3 verse 15, we read
that Satan will bruise the heel of the Messiah and the Messiah
will crush the head of the serpent. And here now we see that Christ
is aware that the dog, perhaps the devil, is bruising His heel
as He hangs upon the cross. Verse 21, save me from the lion's
mouth. Satan is referred to in 1 Peter
5, 8 as a roaring lion seeking someone
to devour. And Satan is circling the cross.
and unleashing all of the power that He has as the Prince of
this world and the God of this age against the Lord Jesus Christ. Save me from the lion's mouth,
from the horns of the wild oxen. And now at the end of verse 21,
everything pivots. Everything shifts. Jesus says to the Father, You answered Me. Literally, You have heard Me. Though He has suffered this breach
and alienation from the Father upon the cross, and though there
is only silence from heaven. and there is no visible communication
from the Father. Nevertheless, the faith and the
trust of the Son and the Father is unwavering. And Jesus says, you have heard Me. Jesus knows. that on the other
side, He will be raised from the dead. Jesus knows that for
the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising
the shame. What an example for us as we
find ourselves in the dark valleys of life that we should never
question God. We should be resilient in our
trust and in our faith in God and in the midst of our pain.
And when it seems that God is a long ways away for us to be
resolute that I know that God has heard me and that I know
in God's perfect time, God will answer. This was the hope and
the certainty of Christ as He hung upon the cross. He knew
that He would not die in vain. He knew that His death would
be a victory for the salvation of you and me. And from this,
He would not be turned away or thwarted. Finally, I want you to note Christ's
salvation. Beginning in verse 22, this now
looks to the other side of the cross after the resurrection. It looks to the salvation that
Christ has secured for His people in the proclamation that Jesus
will make in the upper room to His disciples. And it speaks
of the glorious triumph of this shameful, suffering, sin-bearing
death that He endured upon the cross. Please note. Now the glorious triumph on the
other side of the cross. How we thank God that this is
recorded in His Word. How we thank God that He has
made known to us something of what was going on in our Savior's
soul. As He is hanging upon the cross,
He knows what will happen on the other side of His death.
He knows that the Father will raise Him up. He knows that He
has authority to take up His life again. He said, I have authority
to lay it down and I have authority to take it up. He knows that
the Holy Spirit will raise Him out of that tomb and He will
come walking out a risen, living, victorious Savior, even as He
hangs upon the cross. Note now in verse 22, Christ's
salvation. Christ is the Speaker, and this
is what will transpire after His death. In verse 22, I will
tell of Your name to My brethren. It speaks of Jesus' post-resurrection
appearances to the disciples and to His followers in the upper
room and on the road to Emmaus. This says that Jesus will tell
to the disciples of the glorious things that God has done through
His death and through His resurrection. Would you not have loved to have
heard Christ proclaim His own death to His disciples and His
resurrection to His disciples? That is what verse 22 is saying.
I will tell of Your name to My brethren, brethren referring
to the true believers. In the midst of the assembly,
I will praise You." Jesus in that upper room, Jesus on the
road to Emmaus, will declare the greatness of the Father to
all of those who have put their trust in Him. Verse 23, you who
fear the Lord, that refers to that believing remnant of His
disciples. You who fear the Lord, praise
Him. Jesus is the worship leader here.
Jesus is pointing His believers to praise the Father because
it was the Father's plan that He would die upon the cross for
our sins and there was no other way of salvation but by the cross
there would be redemption for all who would believe in Him. All you descendants of Jacob.
referring to the believing remnant in Israel, glorifying Him, referring
to the Father, and stand in awe of Him, all you descendants.
Jesus here even turning the focus away from Himself to the Father,
that the cross was The predetermined plan of the Father, and it was
by the foreknowledge of the Father that Jesus would suffer for our
sins. And so Jesus points these early
believers to the Father. Verse 24, for He, God the Father,
has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. It is difficult to know, but
the afflicted here probably refers to God the Son, He who suffered
affliction upon the cross. He is saying, the Father has
not despised me and He has not abhorred the affliction that
I suffered as the afflicted. It was a part of the Father's
plan for the salvation. He goes on to say in verse 24,
neither has he, referring to God the Father, hidden his face
from him, referring to God the Son. But when he, God the Son,
cried to him, God the Father, for help, he, God the Father,
heard. That's what he said at the end
of verse 21. You answered me. You heard me.
In verse 25, Jesus is still the speaker, from you, God the Father,
comes my praise in the great assembly. And the great assembly
here may be distinguished from the assembly a few verses earlier. The great assembly may here,
in fact, refer to heaven and Christ's return to the right
hand of God the Father, and as Jesus returns back into glory,
Jesus giving praise to the Father and the Father giving praise
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Read Hebrews 1 verses 5 through
13 when you go home tonight, and we see something of the praise
that the Father gives to the Son upon the Son's return to
glory. In verse 25, I, Christ as the
Speaker, I shall pay my vows. And before those who fear Him,
probably the vows offered by the Son to the Father during
His sufferings upon the cross, a vow of continued service to
the Father on the other side of this death. Now in verse 26,
the psalmist speaks. Christ is no longer the Speaker.
The psalmist now records what is made known to him concerning
the other side of the cross and the triumphs and the accomplishments
of the finished work of Christ. The afflicted shall eat and be
satisfied, referring to all those who come to put their faith and
trust to Christ. As living bread from heaven,
they will never hunger again. And as living water, they will
never thirst again. And all who eat of Christ will
be satisfied in Him. And they will never hunger and
never thirst again. Those, referring to His disciples,
who seek Him, referring to Christ, will praise the Lord, referring
to the Father. And now the psalmist gives this
exhortation to us and to all who read this psalm, let your
heart live forever. Let your heart live as you feast
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will live forever. You will
have eternal life if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
27, all the ends of the earth will remember. and turn to the
Lord and all the families of the nations will worship before
you. Please note the certainty of
this, will remember, they will worship you and Jesus will not
die in vain. A vast number will turn to God
as a result of His death upon the cross. All those whom the
Father chose and gave to the Son in eternity past are those
for whom Christ died, and they will all be called by the Spirit
into relationship with the Father through the Son, and they will
become worshipers of the Father. And it is certain from the ends
of the earth, the families of the nations. will worship you."
What a triumphant death it was that Jesus secured upon the cross. Verse 28, for the kingdom is
the Lord's. He rules over the nations. All the prosperous of
the earth will eat and worship, even those who have all that
this world has to offer, who appear to be without any needs
in their life. They will eat of the Lord, these
who prosper, and they will taste of that which the world cannot
provide for them. And they will be satisfied. And
even the prosperous will worship the Lord. They who are used to
being the object of the focus of other men, they will worship
the Lord. Even those who have everything
will realize I have nothing unless I have this Christ and believe
on Him. Verse 29, all the prosperous
of the earth will eat and worship all those who go down to the
dust. That's a euphemism for death.
will bow before Him, the reference is heaven. All who put their
trust in this crucified suffering Savior, though they go down to
the dust, they will awaken in the presence of the Lord. They
will graduate to glory and they will worship the Father and not
a one of the sheep for whom He laid down His life will ever
be lost. My sheep hear My voice and I
know them and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them from My hand. For
My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all and
no one shall pluck them from His hand. I and the Father are
one." At the end of verse 29, he says,
even he who cannot keep his soul alive, even the rich who cannot
buy an escape from death, they too will die. But those who put
their trust in Christ among those who are prosperous, their soul
will never be more alive than five seconds after their death
as they will be in the very presence of God. In verse 30 now, he looks
down the corridor of time, down throughout church history. He
sees future generations who will be told of this death of Christ
and His sufferings, and there will be a posterity who will
believe in the Lord Jesus generation by generation. Oh, the efficacy
of the power of the cross in the death of Christ. Verse 30,
posterity, referring to future generations, will serve Him. There will be power in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ to save a remnant out of every future
generation. It will not be limited to the
first century. It will not be simply an early
movement in the first centuries of the church, but all the way
down to the end of the church age, the power and the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to save. And those that
it saves, they will serve Him. It, referring to posterity, will
be told of the Lord to the coming generation. No one can believe
in Christ until they're told of Christ. And they will be told
of the Lord and they will be saved when they believe and they
will serve Him. Verse 31, they, referring to
these future believers, and by the way, you and I find ourselves
right here in verse 31. This plural pronoun, third person,
they, includes all future believers down through the centuries, from
generation to generation. You and I are a part of this
future generation who have heard of the sufferings of Christ and
have put our faith and trust in Him. They will come. I love that. Spurgeon once preached
out of Matthew that many will come from the north, the south,
the east, and the west, and they will come and they will dine
with Abraham. And Spurgeon said, oh, I love
it when God says they shall come. When a man says he shall, what
is it good for? When a man says he will do something,
he fails to do it. But when God says, I shall. Spurgeon reminds us, God shall. There is no equivocation with
God's shalls. It is guaranteed by His own sovereignty. And here the psalmist says, they
will come. There will be a bride for the
Lord Jesus Christ. They will come and declare His
righteousness to a people who will be born. that He has performed
it. Christ has performed it upon
the cross, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has won salvation for His people and He has performed it. As we come to the end of this
psalm, this extraordinary psalm, I leave you with some words of
application. For those of you here tonight
who are suffering a very difficult trial in your life, it may be
with your family, it may be at work, it may be relationally,
it may be emotionally, financially, spiritually, you have a Savior who knows what
it is to suffer, and He is sympathetic to you in your suffering. He
knows personally what it is to endure the hurt and the pain
of living in this world. Come to Him. Tell Him of your
suffering and He will receive you, not scold you for He Himself
has suffered in this world. Second, for those here tonight,
who would find themselves spiritually lukewarm, marginally apathetic. Perhaps
the fire that once was in your bones for the Lord has faded. Perhaps you've left your first
love. Read this psalm. Hear again of the intense, purposeful
suffering of Christ for you. Let your heart be warmed. Let
your passions be restored. Let your love for Christ be multiplied
as you look upon this suffering Savior. Third, for those of you
contemplating making a great sacrifice for Christ. Look at
the sacrifice that He has made for us. There was no easy way
for Him to serve the Father. It cost Him His very life. And
as you serve the Father, it will come at a high price. C.T. Studd said, if Jesus Christ be
God and died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for me
to make for Him. Every one of us here tonight
should be ready to make any and every sacrifice for the cause
of the gospel of Christ, whatever would be required of us. Whether
it be to cross the ocean and go to a distant land with the
gospel, or whether it be to stand here in Los Angeles. and be a
witness for Christ. It will always cost you and me
a great price to serve the Lord. There is no easy place to serve
Christ. It will always come with the
cost of discipleship, and it cost our Savior greatly to secure
our salvation. Look not for the easy place to
serve Christ. Be like Joshua and Caleb and
say, I want to take on the greatest giants. I want the tallest mountains
to conquer. And fourth and finally, for those
of you here tonight who do not know Jesus Christ, we are thankful
to God that you're here, that you could hear of this suffering
Savior upon the cross. Is not your heart drawn to one
who would love sinners so much that he would willingly take
upon himself the sin and the shame and the scorn and the suffering
on behalf of those who are so unworthy? If you have never believed
upon Christ, all of this which we have looked at tonight is
for sinners, for those who are enemies of God. I call you tonight,
if you have never believed upon Christ, to behold this Savior
who was lifted up upon the cross, who bore the sin of sinners,
who shed His blood to make the only way of salvation. And if
you have never believed upon Jesus Christ, how could you refuse
one who is so loving, who is so giving, who is so forgiving
of sinners through His death upon the cross? If you've never
believed upon Christ, I call you to run to Him, to flee to
Him tonight, to call upon His name. He is the friend of sinners. He will take you in. He will
clothe you with His own righteousness. He will wash you from the top
of your head to the bottom of your feet. He will make you pure
and clean. He will prepare a place for you
in heaven. And when He comes again, He will
take you to the Father's house where you will live in intimate
fellowship with God forever. How could you refuse such an
offer? How could you postpone or procrastinate
coming to one who has so humbled himself on behalf of sinners?
Come to Christ. Believe upon Him and He will
receive you. For Him who comes unto me, I
will in no wise cast out. Let us pray. Father, how we thank
You for such a glorious Savior as Jesus Christ. You have given
to us the very best. You have given to us Your only
begotten Son that He might live in this world subject to all
of the temptations and subject to all of the difficulties with
which we are faced. but yet be so persistent to go
all the way to Calvary's cross and there be lifted up to die
in our stead. What a horrific death it was.
What a painful death it was. Father, I pray that You would
strike our hearts yet again with greater love and greater affection
for this glorious Savior who underwent all of this that He
might restore our relationship with You. I pray that You would
bless Your people here tonight. May they be lifted up into heavenly
places as we have stood at the foot of the cross tonight and
considered the sufferings of our Savior. Father, we pray this
in Jesus' name. Amen.