Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 38 from the Spiral Gospel Hymnal, number
38. Let's all stand together. Of every sinner saved by grace,
You who by faith God's Son embraced, Tell all who hear Your voice
below The debt of love to Christ You owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee All that I am, Lord, owe to Thee I owe a load,
O Christ, to Thee He left His Father's throne above And came
to earth on wings of love Thus he lived, the perfect man, And
so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee, All that I am, for hope to be, I know alone, O Christ,
to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire,
And died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, To save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee, All that I am, for hope to me. I go alone, O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rose, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee All that I am, your hope to me I know alone, oh Heaven, Christ will quickly come,
And bring His ransomed people home. There we shall see His
lovely face, And chant the praises of His grace. Please be seated. Evening. Let's open our Bibles
together to Psalm 122, Psalm 122. It's good to have
Donald and Jeanette Briggs with us from Grenada. I asked him,
I said, well, how long are you guys here for this time? And
he said, well, we bought a one-way ticket. I said, well, that's
a good thing. That's a good thing. Psalm 122. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand
within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is builded as a city
that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the
tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give
thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set thrones of
judgment and thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace
of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love
thee. Peace be within my walls and prosperity within my palaces.
For my brethren and companions sake, I will now say, peace be
within thee. Because of the house of the Lord
our God, I will seek thy good. Let's pray together. our merciful, loving Heavenly
Father, how good it is to be in my house,
and how good it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, and
for the declaration of thy judgments that have been satisfied in the
sacrifice that Christ made of himself on Calvary's cross, that
peace be within thy walls, Lord, we pray that that peace would
reign in our hearts, that you would give us the faith to rest
our hope in Christ, to set our affections on things above. Lord,
forgive us for being so prone to wander and so quick to set
our affections on the things of this earth. Thank you for
the hope of eternal life. Thank you for the forgiveness
of sin. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the promise of
your spirit. Lord, we're completely dependent
upon you to bless us with your grace and with your mercy, to
increase our faith, to grow us in your grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, it's in his name we pray,
amen. Let's all stand together once
again and sing hymn number 158 from the hardback timinal, 158. Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, With
all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love In these
cold hearts of ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls how heavily they hold
to rich eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues. And our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this foredying rate? Our love so faint, so cold, ? Come Holy Spirit heavenly dove
? With all thy quickening powers ? Come shed abroad the Savior's
love ? And that shall kindle ours Please be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm
120. Psalm 120. Everything we believe is infinitely
beyond our understanding. Never is there a time when I
stand here to preach that I feel like I'm talking about anything
that I really understand. And that is especially true tonight. I want to try to preach a message
on the distress of Christ, the distress of Christ from Psalm
120. What our Lord went through in
coming to this world is beyond our comprehension. That's such
an understatement. For the God of glory to come
and live among sinful men and to suffer the contradiction of
sinners and to deal with the unbelief of even of his disciples,
he marbled once at their unbelief. It's just beyond anything that
we can even begin to understand. And yet it's glorious to believe
what he did. Notice in Psalm 120 that it's
called, the title of the song is a Song of Degrees. You see that? Those titles are
actually in the inspired text. You know that. And the next 15
hymns, the next 15 songs are called Songs of Degrees. That word degree means ascent. And the understanding is that
these were congregational hymns that were sung as the believers
went into the house of God to worship. As they went up to Jerusalem,
it was a call to worship. It was a processional hymn that
the congregation joined in singing as they approached God. And the proper understanding
of these hymns is to see them as the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ as he ascends to Mount Calvary in order to ascend back
into glory. These are songs of degrees. They are songs of ascent. The word here is actually literally
going up. And as the Lord goes up before
his father here, he's praying these prayers and singing these
psalms as our advocate with the father. He is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. And as that passage in Hebrews
tells us, the result of that, and I hope that the result of
this message will be that we, understanding that we have a
high priest who has been touched and been tempted in every way
that we are and yet without sin, will cause us to come, therefore,
boldly before the throne of grace, that we might find help in our
time of need. That's the message tonight, that
we understand or that we believe that our Lord suffered the distress of sin
and of sinners in order that we might approach God in worship. Notice in Psalm 121, I will lift
up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. Notice
in Psalm 122, these are all songs of degrees. These were songs
of ascent. These were called to worship.
This is the congregation singing these hymns as they approach
their God. that Psalm 123, unto thee lift
up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. And as we read
earlier in Psalm 122, I was glad when they said unto me, let us
go into the house of the Lord. If reading this Psalm and believing
the things that are said here are blessed of God, it will,
cause us to have the faith and the assurance that we can come
into the presence of our God and find acceptance based on
what the Lord Jesus did when he went into the house of worship. Go back with me to Psalm 120.
In my Distress, I cried unto the Lord
and he heard me. The word distress here is most
often translated trouble. In my trouble, I cried unto the
Lord and he heard me. It's also translated adversity. In my adversity, I cried unto
the Lord and he heard me. It's also translated affliction. In my affliction, I cried unto
the Lord, and he heard me. It's also translated the word
anguish. In my anguish, I cried unto my
father, and he heard me. How can we possibly understand
the anguish, the affliction? the turmoil, the adversity, the
trouble, and the distress that the Lord Jesus Christ experienced,
culminating, of course, at the cross, but in every part of his
life. I thought of an illustration
that I believe has some biblical basis to it. I don't know of
anything more disgusting than to come across a rotting corpse
of an animal that is filled with maggots eating on that rotting
flesh. The smell, it's just disgusting. It's just something you back
away from quickly, isn't it? If you ever see such a thing. Turn with me to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a, the whole psalm
speaks of what our Lord suffered on Calvary's cross when it begins
with my God, my God, why hast thou? forsaken me, this is his
distress. His distress is that when he
became sin, when he bore our sins in his body upon the tree,
that he was cut off from his father. And in verse six, he
says, but I am a worm. Now you can look up that word.
It is the word maggot. It's not an earthworm, it's a
maggot. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I have become a maggot. Now, I thought, what would it
be like to be turned into a maggot? And I thought, well, you know,
I guess I'd do what maggots do, you know? I'd eat on rotting
flesh and I wouldn't know any better. But then I thought, what
if you became a maggot and as a maggot you maintained the same
consciousness that you have right now? How horrible would that be? And how And how desperate and
how much in distress would you be crying out to be delivered
from that place? And yet that's exactly what the
Lord Jesus did. He maintained the total consciousness
of God. And yet he came into this world
and became one of us made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And the entire time he was here,
he was completely consciously aware of the glory of his father
and of his own glory. He says, but I am a worm and
no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. Despised of the people, a man
of sorrows. suffering the contradiction of
sinners, bearing the griefs and carrying our sorrows. He was
oppressed and he was afflicted. He told the disciples when they
came back from Sychar, after he had ministered to that woman
at the well, he said, I have meat to eat that you know not
of. You can satisfy yourself with
the things of this world, but my satisfaction can only come
from the Father. And he lived in this maggot-filled
world, having become one of us. And he declares here in Psalm
22, I have become a maggot. And in our text, he's crying
out, in my distress, I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me. Turn with me to Mark chapter
14. You know, we're accustomed to the rotting
flesh of this world. And perhaps that's the conflict
that we have as believers with two natures, having a new nature
We still live in a world that feeds off the decaying flesh
of sin, and yet we have a new nature that despises those things,
and we live in constant conflict. Our Lord's nature was not sinful
like ours. He was fully man and fully God,
but his humanity was not filled with sin as ours is. He bore
our sins. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. And he owned our sins as his
own. And on Calvary's cross, he suffered
the shame and sorrow and indignity of that sin like no one ever
has. And that was the culmination
of his distress. But his whole life here, His
whole life here would have been a life of distress. You have your Bibles open to
Mark chapter 14. Look at verse 32. Our Lord's in the garden of Gethsemane. And you know that was an olive grove is what was there
at Gethsemane. I think still is. I think there's
some very old olive trees there in Gethsemane. And the word Gethsemane
translated means olive press. So there must have been some
sort of mechanism there for taking the olives and pressing the oil
out of the olives. That's exactly what the word
Gethsemane means. And when our Lord goes to Gethsemane,
He's being pressed out. He's anointed with the oil of
gladness above his fellows and he's suffering now the distress
of bearing the sins of his people. And he cries out in Mark chapter
14 at verse 32, and they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples,
sit ye here while I shall pray. And he take with him Peter and
James and John and began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy. And he said to them, my soul
is exceedingly sorrowful unto death, tarry ye here and watch. And he went forward a little
while and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible,
the hour might pass from him And he said, Abba, Father, all
things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless,
not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh and findeth
them sleeping, and said unto Simon, said unto Peter, Simon,
sleepest thou? Couldst thou not watch with me
for one hour? How often we're just like that,
aren't we? You know, here we are, living
in this world, and we just don't even begin to understand the
distress. With our distresses, we have
distresses, but our distresses are nothing like His were. They're
nothing like His were. It wasn't just burying all the
sins, it was God, holy, undefiled, sinless, omnipotent, all-powerful, sovereign
creator and sustainer of the universe living among maggots
and becoming a worm and the distress of that in order to save us. And then we have no real concern
for what he's going through to be saved. We just sleep on, sleep
on. At one place, the scripture says
that the Lord said of his disciples when they did not have the faith
to do what he told them to do, he said he was amazed at their
unbelief. How oftentimes the Lord is amazed
at us. Well, matter of fact, that passage
is in Mark chapter one, let's turn there, or Mark chapter six.
Mark chapter six, verse one. And he went out from thence and
came into his own country and his disciples followed him. And
when the Sabbath day was come and began to teach in the synagogue
and many hearing him were astonished saying, from whence hath this
man these things? This is God. This is God. This is the one who said, let
there be light and there was light. This is the. This is the God
who left his throne of glory. And. Was born in a barn placed
in a stable. Lived among worms and And then Isaiah, the scripture
of the Lord calls us worms, doesn't he? He said, he said, he said,
you, Jacob, you worm, I've come to help you. I've come to save
you. And here he says, and when the
Sabbath day was come and began to teach in the synagogue, many
hearing him were astonished. From whence hath this man these
things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that
even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the
carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph,
and Judah and Simon? And are not his sisters with
us? And they were offended at him. They were offended at him. You know, he's come among maggots,
and yet he's not getting his sustenance from the rotting flesh
that the other maggots are eating. He's getting all of his from
his father. I've got meat to eat that you know not of. And
they're offended at him. Say, you're just one of us. You
look just like us. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet
is not without honor, but in his own country and among his
own kin and in his own house. You've become too familiar with
me. You've not considered really
who I am. Your familiarity has made you
contemptuous. And he could do there no mighty
works, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and
healed them. And he marveled because of their
unbelief. And he went around about the
village teaching. He marveled at their unbelief. Here's our
Lord living in this world, suffering the distresses of all
that the father has placed on him and all that Well, Isaiah chapter 41, turn
with me there. Turn with me there. Isaiah 41. Verse 14. Fear not, thou maggot
Jacob. You see, the Lord had to become
one of us, didn't he? Fear not, thou maggot, Jacob. And ye men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel.
I'm going to become a maggot. I'm going to suffer the distresses
of being made in the likeness of sinful flesh and living among
sinners and being rejected by sinners and living in this world
of rotting flesh. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
five. Hebrews chapter five. Look at verse seven. We're talking about the distress
of Christ. We suffered distress in this
world, but nothing like He suffered. Nothing like He suffered. Scripture says in Hebrews chapter
5 verse 7, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard
in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey him, believe on him. This is what these songs of decrees
are. It's the Lord Jesus Christ going
before his father in worship. As our forerunner, he is going
before us. He's making the way for us. He's the veil that was rent.
He's going into the holies of holies. He's putting his blood
on the mercy seat. He's providing himself as the
way. Look back with me, you're there
in Hebrews 5, look at Hebrews 4, verse 14. Hebrews 4, verse 14. Seen then
that we have such a great high priest that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? Christ
is all, it is finished, That's our profession. We believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're looking in faith to Christ. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. His distresses were so much greater
than ours. Here we are. maggot Jacobs who
are accustomed to eating rotting flesh. And the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I become a worm. I become a maggot. I've come
down into this world. What the condescension of the
of the incarnation of God when he became man and dwelt among
us. This is the distress beyond any
distress that you and I can possibly comprehend or experience. What's he say? Let us therefore
come with confidence. I know the word boldly there.
Let us come therefore boldly before the throne of grace that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help. In our time of
need, in our distresses, in our trouble, in our sin, in our conflicts,
what we experience doesn't, doesn't, cannot be compared to the things
that he's experienced. Cannot be compared to, that's
what the Lord's telling us here. I've, I, I, I, I know what distress
is. Look at Hebrews chapter two,
Hebrews chapter two, verse 17. Well, begin at verse 16, if you
will. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things,
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor, to help, to come alongside, to provide everything that we
need when we're tempted, when we're tried, when we're distressed. His distresses cannot be compared
to ours. It would be like, that's the
best illustration I can think of. It'd be like you becoming
a maggot, crawling around on some rotting flesh with other
maggots and maintaining the consciousness that you have right now. How
horrible would that be? That's exactly what he did. Exactly what he did. What sort
of distress did he experience? You see, that's why I said we
can't enter into it. We can't begin to comprehend
what that really means. except that what the scriptures
tells us, he's able to help. He's able to sucker. He, we,
we have not a high priest. Who's unable to sympathize with
our afflictions and with our troubles, with our trials. Oh,
he's tempted in all ways that we are yet without sin. Go back with me to our text,
if you will. You see, Christ Jesus, the Lord,
is our dwelling place. He is our habitation. He's the
joy of our portion. He's our rest. He's our hiding
place. He's our hope and he's our comfort. And what he's telling us in these
songs of ascent or these songs of decree, degrees, these call
to worship is that You can come boldly before the throne of grace.
The law's been satisfied. Set your affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. You
have an advocate with the father. He sympathizes, he knows, tried
in all ways that we are. In my distress, I cried unto
the Lord. And he heard me. He heard me. God heard the cry of his son. And his cry was to save him and
to save his people. And there's our hope. Our hope
is not in the the effectiveness or the efficacy or the sincerity of
our prayers. That's not our hope. Lord, I'm
gonna cry to you and I'm gonna obligate you by the sincerity
of my prayers that you would save me. No, my hope is in the
Lord Jesus prayed for me. That's what made the difference
between Peter and Judas. Judas is being referred to in
Psalm 120, by the way. He's the one who sold the Lord
out. He's the one who lied on Christ. And the difference between Peter
and Judas is what the Lord said about Peter. He said, Peter,
I've prayed for you. I've prayed for you. Here's our
hope, brethren. Our hope is not that, oh Lord,
I really mean it. No, our hope is that the Lord
Jesus Christ cried to the Father in his distress, and his distress
was infinitely more than anything that you and I have ever experienced. And the Father heard him. He
heard him. Deliver my soul, oh Lord, from
lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Deliver me, Lord, from these.
What was it like for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is pure truth,
to live among men whose Throat is an open sepulcher. Who are
liars and deceivers and... There's our hope. Our hope is
that the Father heard him and delivered him. Look at verse three, what shall
be given unto thee? Oh, what shall be done unto thee
thou false tongue? What's going to happen? Well,
it's going to be judged, going to be destroyed. And that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross. He put away
the lies, the deceit. He consumed it with the fire
of God's holy wrath. Look what he says in verse four,
sharp arrows of the mighty and coals of juniper. That's what
will do away with it. And that's what happened on Calvary's
cross. when the sword of God's justice
was sheathed into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
fiery wrath of God's justice fell from heaven, eased as it
did on Mount Carmel, when the sacrifice was consumed. And then
when that sacrifice consumed the fire and the fire was quenched,
it was put out. Here's our Lord praying, Lord,
I've come down, I've become a worm. I live among worms. This is not,
this world is so foreign, if we could say, to the place of glory where the
Lord Jesus left. And now he's, He's putting away the sins of
his people. And the sharp arrows of God,
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It was God the Father that
put Christ to death on Calvary's cross. When God the Father saw
our sin on Christ, God had no choice but to forsake him and
to sacrifice him, to put him to grief. And the coals of juniper, I guess
a juniper tree, because of the hardness of the wood or something,
makes particularly hot coals when it's used as a source of
coal. And that's what the Lord's saying. This was a particularly hot fire. And what do we have the hope
of? Well, think back with me to the book of Daniel. when Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow and they were cast into
the furnace, heated seven times its normal heat. And they looked
into the furnace and what did Nebuchadnezzar say? He said,
wait, there's a fourth man. Did we not put three in? But
there's a fourth. And the fourth is like unto the
son of God. And when the men came out, Not
a hair on their head was singed. The smell of smoke, the scripture
says, was not even on their clothing. They were unharmed. Why? Because
that fourth man consumed the heat of the fire himself. And
that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did. He said, he's crying
out in his distress. Here's God who's become one of
us. You know, we pass over that so
lightly, don't we? And the reason is because we
think too highly of ourselves. Well, you know, what's so bad
about becoming like me? Look at verse five. Woe is me
that I sojourn in mesic. Misek was just a foreign land.
And here's the Lord saying, I'm living among strangers. I'm living among foreigners.
I'm living among maggots. And woe is me. What's it like? And here the child of God is
saying, Lord, I'm a sojourner, I'm a stranger in a foreign land.
And the conflicts that we know and the distresses that we know
and the troubles that we experienced cannot compare to what he did,
what he experienced, cannot compare. But then what's the Lord saying
to us? He's saying, when you get in trouble, come to me, I
understand, I understand. I've experienced what you're
experiencing infinitely greater. You can't even begin to comprehend
how well I know, how much I understand what you suffer with your sin. Come to me, I bore them, I put
them away. I consumed the heat of the fire
for you. I suffered the arrows that pierced
my heart. And I know what it lives to be,
to be living in Mason. And Kadar, look what the next,
the rest part of this verse, and dwell in the tents of Kadar.
Kadar means black, darkness, separation. We think sometimes we can't see
and we live in a, in a, in a dark world, we live in a, A world
that's completely contrary to the things of God? Well, can you just imagine what
it would be like for God to live in a world that was contrary
to the things of God? My soul hath long dwelt with
him that hateth peace. The Lord Jesus experienced this. He came as the Prince of Peace.
He came in order to bring us to peace with God. He came with
the gospel of reconciliation, making himself an offering for
sin. And he said, I did not come to
judge the world. I came to save the world. but
you won't hear my words. Look at the last verse of Psalm
120. I am for peace, but when I speak,
they are for war. Can you relate to that just a
little bit in sharing the gospel with your children, with your
loved ones, with your grandchildren, with your friends? You want them
to have peace with God. And as soon as you tell them
about who Christ is and what he's done, and you make clear
the gospel to them, you can say, I'm for peace. I'm for peace.
We're to be at peace with all men whenever possible. We're
not here to cause trouble. We're here to tell men about
how they can have their sins forgiven. And yet when we speak,
they are for war. They're offended, the offense
of the cross. It's a contradiction. I mean,
it's, well, it's maggots offended because
the one maggot didn't feast on the same thing that they're feasting
on. The rest of the maggots are eating rotting flesh. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and said, my meat is not. I've got meat to eat that you
know not of. And the rest of the maggots are
offended by that. Why can't you be like us? I am for peace, but when I speak,
they're for war. They're for war. And we've been
given this ministry of reconciliation to share with the world. And
we can say, we're for peace. The cause of your distress is
sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ, well,
he bore the hot coals of juniper and the arrows of God's wrath
pierced his heart. And he's saying to us, calm,
boldly before the throne of grace, that you find help in your time
of need. We have not a high priest that
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He wasn't
always tempted as we are, yet without sin, without sin. I don't know What this means. I know what
distress is. I know what trouble is. I know
what affliction is. But only on a very, very small
scale. Very small scale. What I experienced what you experience
is nothing compared to what he experienced. And he says, in my distress,
I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. He heard me. I cried unto him to deliver my
soul from lying lips and from deceitful tongues. And he sent
the sharp arrows and the hot coals and I'm for peace. I'm for peace. We want peace,
don't we? We love the gospel of peace.
We love the prince of peace. We love the one who sympathizes
with our afflictions. Let's pray. Our heavenly father,
bless your word. Forgive us for our for our doubts,
our fears, our unbelief, and cause us, Lord, to look in faith
and rest our hope. And the one who left glory, came
into this sensic world, was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,
called himself a worm in order that he might save from this
rotting, Sinful world of. Of man. Those. Worms called Jacob. Lord, save
us for thy namesake. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Number seven in the spiral. No,
let's stand together number 7. A head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns The highest place that heaven
abhors Belongs to Him I write The King of kings and Lord of
lords And heavens eternal the joy of all below, to whom
He manifests His love and grants His name to know. with all its shame, with all
its graces given, their name an everlasting name, their joy
the joy of