Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 34 in our hardback hymnal, number 34. Come we that love the Lord. Let's
all stand together. ? Come we that love the Lord and
let ? Number 23, I'm sorry, did I say 34? It's 23. Let's start
over. I'm sorry, that's dyslexia, isn't
it? Oh, it's digital hymn number
34. Number 23. Come we that love the Lord, and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne. Let those refuse to sing, who
never knew our God, but children of the Heavenly King, may speak
their joys abroad. The hill of Zion yields a thousand
sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the
golden streets. Then let our songs abound and
every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground to fairer worlds on high. Please be seated. We're marching through Emmanuel's
grounds to fairer fields on high. Abraham looked for a city whose
builder and maker was God, a city which hath foundations. That's
the believer's hope, isn't it? Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 23, Psalm 23 for our call to worship. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want for anything. That's what that, where he provides
everything in this life and for the life to come. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. He causes me
to look to Christ. That's what that verse means.
And that's our hope tonight, isn't it? That he'll lead us
to green pastures and feed us with the bread of life. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death. Now I know this Psalm is read
at funerals And this is a believer's hope that when that time comes
for us to pass from this life, that though we walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, he will be with us. We'll fear
no evil and his rod and his staff will comfort us. But in fact,
the child of God is walking every day through the valley of the
shadow of death. That's our, that song we just
sang, that's our experience. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever and ever and ever." Oh, what hope. I want us to pray for Ryan's
grandmother, Joyce Hardman. You all know her. Joyce and Daryl
have been here many times. Joyce is having some physical
problems that could be serious. She's going to have some tests
tomorrow. So her and Daryl are very concerned and as is Ryan. So let's pray together. Our merciful
heavenly father, We are thankful that you've once again brought
us here to this place where we're able to open the word of life,
your word, the one that causes us, Lord, to have faith and hope
in thy dear son. Lord, how we pray that you would
be pleased to send your spirit in power and cause us, Lord,
to rest all our hope and all our salvation in thy precious
promises, which are made yea and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. We do pray for Joyce and we ask
Lord for your hand of comfort and peace to keep her and cause
her Lord to find her hope in Christ. And we pray the same
for Daryl. We pray for the doctors and ask
Lord that you'd be pleased now to give them the wisdom to make
a good diagnosis and provide proper treatment. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. Number 176. from the hardback
temple. Let's all stand together again.
176, break thou the bread of life. Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me, As thou didst break the loaves beside the sea. Throughout the sacred page, I
seek thee, Lord. My spirit asks for thee, O living
Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease,
all fetters fall, and I shall find my peace, mine all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth, that
saveth me. Give me to eat and live with
Thee above. Teach me to love Thy truth, for
Thou art love. O send thy spirit, Lord, now
unto me, that he may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
thy word. And in thy book revealed, I see
the Lord. Please be seated. Oh, that's my prayer. That's a good
hymn. Thank you, Tom. As we were singing
that hymn, I was thinking about Luke 24 when the disciples on
the road to Emmaus were walking with the Lord and they didn't
know who he was. And when they got to their home, they pleaded
with him to stay. And the scripture says, in the
breaking of bread, their eyes were opened. And that's what
we've come to do, to break God's bread. and hope that He'll open
our eyes and cause us, as we just sang, to see the Lord, to
see Him. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 22, Psalm 22. And I've titled this, A Faithful
Savior, A Faithful Savior. Now, most Bible scholars will
tell you that there are 22 of the 150 Psalms that are Messianic. And I think we've clearly discovered
that all the Psalms are Messianic. But the truth is that you don't
have to be a born again child of God to see that this Psalm
clearly speaks of what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered on Calvary's
cross. This is the Psalm of the cross. I hope that we'll have our eyes
open so that as believers we'll see more than an unbeliever sees
in this psalm. And that the Lord will be pleased
to not just cause us to see how closely this psalm was fulfilled
in the cross, a thousand years. A thousand years before the coming
of Christ, David wrote these words, and they clearly tell
us about the things that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered on
Calvary's cross. But more importantly, more importantly,
they tell us of his faithfulness. That's what I want us to see,
not just to identify the verses that speak of those things that
took place on Calvary's cross. An unbeliever can see that. With
any knowledge of the Bible, they can see that this is surely prophetic
about the sufferings of Christ. But an unbeliever will fail to
see the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ expressed in this
Psalm. And those who find themselves
not being faithful, I wonder if that's you. How many times
we make promises, promises to God, promises to man, and we're
just not faithful, are we? And here the Lord said in 2 Timothy
2, verse 13, if we believe not, he abideth faithful. for he cannot deny himself. And so the hope here is that
as the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who sits upon the throne,
as John saw him in Revelation, whose name is called faithful
and true, that as he is, so are we, and that in him, we have
our faithfulness before God. In this psalm, we have the Lord
Jesus Christ on three occasions expressing the agony that he's
experiencing. And then at the end of each one
of those expressions, he declares his faithful trust in the Father
in the midst of his trials. 1 John 3, verse 9 says, whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in
him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. So there's
our hope. Our hope is that if his seed
remaineth in us, If the root, as Job said, if the root of the
matter is in us, then the fruit of that will be faith in terms
of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for our faithfulness before
God. And that in Him, by virtue of
our union with Him, we are without sin, perfect, sinless in the
sight of God. Faithful. Faithful. That's why
the Lord's gonna say to every one of his children, enter into
thy kingdom, I've been prepared for you, my faithful servant. He's not gonna say that because
of how faithful we are. He's gonna say that because of
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and because of the
faith that he gave us to see ourselves in Christ. Now, in the first two verses
of this psalm, the Lord declares His conflict. And then in verses
3 through 5, He expresses His trust in the Father in the midst
of His conflict. That's the first. That's the
first one. The second one in verses 6 through 8, He expresses
His conflict. And then in verses 9 through
11, He declares His trust in the Father in the midst of that
conflict. And then the third, I said there
were three, 12 through 18, the Lord Jesus Christ expresses His
conflict. And then in verses 19 through
21, He declares His trust in the Father in the midst of that
conflict. And then the rest of the Psalm
is His praise and His people's praise. for God's faithfulness. The Lord Jesus Christ was faithful. He was faithful to all the covenant
promises that he had made with the Father in eternity past. He was faithful to fulfill all
the promises of God. The scripture says, are yea and
amen in Christ. So he was faithful to fulfill
all the promises for his bride. And there's our hope. Our hope
is hanging all our desires and all our hope and all our righteousness
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it begins with a cry of agony
that you and I cannot begin to imagine. One thing that I have
come to believe is that if the Lord Jesus Christ experienced
This kind of agony, having been forsaken of the Father for just
a brief time, what sort of agony does eternal separation from
God? Eternal separation from God.
That's an agony that cannot be, I mean, I don't even like to
think, I don't want any part of that. But the truth is that that God
is too holy to allow sin to go unpunished. He will by no means
clear the guilty. So either we will be forsaken
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ for that short period of time
or we will be forsaken of God for all eternity. And what our
Lord expresses, we don't really We're so accustomed to sin. We're so dull spiritually. We're so used to being out of
sorts and out of fellowship with God that we don't feel. Unless the Spirit of God really
pricks our hearts and causes us to cry out, we'll be so dull. And yet, this is the cup. that
our Lord prayed about in the garden of Gethsemane when he
said, Father, if there be any way this cup can pass from me,
let it be. Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done.
And he sweat great drops of blood there in the garden. What was
the cup? It was the bitterness of being forsaken of God because
he was going to become sin. God made him sin for us. You know, I was thinking about
all those Old Testament sacrifices. And the Lord speaks of those
Old Testament sacrifices as a sweet-smelling aroma. He speaks of them as a
sacrifice that is well-pleasing to God. He reveals Himself in
the Shekinah glory when the blood is placed on the mercy seat and
God says, here I will meet with you. The Old Testament blood
sacrifices are never spoken of that I can think of. of being
forsaken, forsaken of God. And yet here
our Lord says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Lord, you've turned your back
on me. And what happened on Calvary's
cross? The sky was blackened like the darkest of nights. The
earth shook. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
cut off from His Father. What's the difference? Those
Old Testament sacrifices did not become sin. Turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1. the law. That's the Old Testament
types and ceremonies and sacrifices that God gave to the children
of Israel before the coming of Christ. Remember how Hebrew starts
out? God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake unto our fathers by the prophets, that's
the law he's talking about, hath in these last days spoken us
to it by his son who is the express image of his person. So the fullness
of the Godhead bodily has been made flesh and we beheld his
glory. And now he says, for the law,
having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image
of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers there are perfect.
For then would they have not have ceased to be offered because
that the worshipers once purged should have no more conscience
of sins? Why were those sacrifices continuing to be made year and
day after day, year after year? Why? For 1500 years, the Jews
made sacrifices every day. Why? Because they were still
conscious of their sins. And here's the glory of the gospel.
The glory of the gospel gives the people of God a clear conscience. A clear conscience. Isn't that
what we saw? When the Lord comes down, he
causes the mountains to melt away. Cast them into the depths
of the sea. Religion is all based on fear
and laws and judgments and guilt. And the gospel is all based on
forgiveness and freedom and grace. That's why the Lord said, don't
be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to
Egypt. Don't go back to the law. For
in those sacrifices there is a remembrance of sins every year. For it is not possible for the
blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins." Why wasn't it
possible? Because they didn't become sin.
That's why the sacrifices are never spoken of in the Old Testament
as being forsaken of God. To the contrary, they are accepted
by God in light of what Christ would accomplish when he came
to fulfill all those types. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith sacrifice and offerings, thou wouldst not.
But a body thou hast prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above when he said sacrifice
and offerings and burn offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldest
not neither hadst thou pleasure therein, which are offered by
the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. Twice this Old Testament passage
is quoted. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. By the which will, we are made
holy. We are sanctified. He that sanctifies
and they that are sanctified are all as one whereby he's not
ashamed to call them his brethren. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, once for
all. That's why the Lord goes on to
say, come to the throne of grace boldly. And that word boldly
doesn't mean with brashness or cockiness. It means to come with
confidence. Confidence in what? Confidence
in who? Would Paul say, I know whom I
have believed. I'm persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed. The Lord Jesus Christ became
sin. That's why God forsook him. God
made him sin who knew no sin. And it pleased the Father to
bruise him and to make his soul a sacrifice for sin. Now, here's
why. Here's the hope that we have
to not have guilt. Yes, we're unfaithful. Yes, we
can't keep our promises. But we have a faithful advocate
with the Father. That's why John said, the little
children, I write unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous
one. And now he's declaring, my God,
my God, out of the depths of his soul, we can't, we don't,
we can be forsaken. We can lose fellowship with God,
we'll never be forsaken. He was forsaken that we would
not be. I will never leave you nor forsake you. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring, O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, I'm
not silent. Lord, I keep crying out. And
that's the conflict now. It begins with his being cut
off from the Father because of being made sin. And then here's the part of the
psalm that the unbeliever won't see. That when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, but thou art holy, but thou art holy. You see, even
in the midst of him being cut off and forsaken for the father,
he knew that the reason he was being forsaken was because of
the sin that he was bearing. And he declared, God, you're
holy. That's why. You're holy. We're establishing your holiness. And we're establishing the holiness
of your people. That's what sanctified means.
We just read it in Hebrews chapter 10. And so he says, but thou
art holy, O thou that inhabited the praises of Israel. and every
conflict that you and I go through, whatever it might be, and whatever
conflict we might see in this world, however horrible it might
be, we can respond to every conflict with, but thou art holy. But
thou art holy. People ask you, well, why does
God do what he does? Because he's holy? That's why
he does what he does. Because he's holy, that's not
changed. And regardless of my circumstances or the circumstances
of this world, the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of his agony
of being forsaken of God said, but thou art holy. Oh, what comfort. What peace? We can't understand holiness. We can't explain holiness. We
can't get into the mind of holiness. But we can believe that our God
reigns and He hath done whatsoever He wills and it's all because
He's holy and nothing has ever challenged or changed His holiness. Not one bit. Not one bit. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
when we forget that, and we do, we forget. We complain, don't
we? We get out of sorts. We have thoughts of why, God,
this is happening, and we forget. But here we have a faithful Savior
who, in the midst of the greatest of any trial, being forsaken
of God, I don't know. Like I said, we're
talking about something here that we can't understand, except
that the Lord Jesus Christ had perfect fellowship with the Father
for all eternity. And that was what he prayed in
the garden. He knew that when he went to the cross, he was
gonna bear the sins of his people. He knew that those covenant promises
that he made to the Father were gonna be fulfilled. and that
he was gonna be cut off, that his bride be not cut off. But
thou art holy, thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers
trusted in thee, they trusted and thou didst deliver them.
The Old Testament saints, they trusted in God. Those Abraham
trusted in God. What did he trust? He looked
ahead. Not having a full revelation
like we have, he knew that God was going to send a Messiah.
And he put all the hopes of his salvation in the accomplished
work of that Messiah. You see, this goes contrary to
the idea that Christ died for everybody and makes an offer
of salvation to everybody. That's not, this is just the
opposite of that. No, He's saying, Father, the
Father's trusted in you and I'm trusting in you. Trusting in
you to do what? To save me and my people. To fulfill your promises. I'm
fulfilling mine. And now I'm trusting that you're
gonna fulfill yours. What was God's promise? I'll
not allow my Holy One to see corruption. I'll justify your
people based on what you do. I will put away their sins by
your sacrifice. I wouldn't, I didn't put them
away by those blood sacrifices of the Old Testament, but I'm
gonna put them away now. And the Lord Jesus Christ is trusting
his father right to his dying breath. Father into thy hands,
I commend my spirit. Here's our hope brethren. Our
hope is that the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to his father. In
the midst of his greatest conflict, he remained faithful. And when
we believe not, he abideth faithful, for he cannot deny himself. He
cannot deny himself. Look at verse 5. They cried unto
thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. Now what's the Lord Jesus Christ
saying? I'm trusting you and I'm going to be delivered. I'm
trusting you and even in the midst of being cut off from you,
I'm not confounded. I'm not confused. I know how
this is going to end. I know what the result is going
to be. It's going to be you raising me from the dead and I'm going
to be the firstborn among many brethren. And in my resurrection,
so my church is going to be raised from the dead so that they're
going to have fellowship in my suffering and they're going to
know the power of my resurrection. So the first conflict is verses
1 and 2 and the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. David
said in Psalm 37, I have been young and now I'm old, but I
have never, ever, ever seen the righteous forsaken or their seed
begging bread. Never. We have the hope of knowing
that we will never be forsaken. For it is written, I shall never
leave you. nor forsake you. I forsook my
son that you would never be forsaken. Look at Psalm, go back with me
to Psalm 9. Psalm 9, I remind you of this
verse that we looked at a few weeks ago at verse 10. And they that know thy name will
put their trust in thee for thou Lord has not forsaken them that
seek thee. What is it to seek him? It's
to trust the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ for all
your acceptance before God. And the Lord said, those that
seek me, I'll never forsake them. Turn to me to Isaiah chapter
54. I'll show you another verse that
we looked at recently. It's good to be reminded of these
things, isn't it? Where's the... I hate when I
do this. Isaiah 62, I'm so sorry. Isaiah
62. Look at verse 4, thou shall no
more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land anymore be termed
desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. My delight is in her
and thy land Beulah married. For the Lord delighteth in thee
and thy land shall be married. Oh, what a faithful husband.
Faithful husband. Faithful to his bride. In Isaiah
54, there is a verse in Isaiah 54 I wanted you to see. Verse 6, for the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of the youth
When thou wast refused, saith thy God, for a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies I will gather thee. Now,
when was the small moment that God forsook his people? When
he forsook the Lord Jesus Christ. The only time you and I have
ever been forsaken by God, the only time we're forsaken by God
is when he forsook his son. For a small moment, I forsook
you. but now I'm gonna gather you to myself." Oh, we are persecuted. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4,
verse nine, but not forsaken. We are cast down, but not destroyed
for I will never leave you nor forsake you. All right, go back with me to
our text. Verse 6, and verse 6, 7, and
8, again, the Lord Jesus Christ is crying out of His conflict. And then verses 9 through 11,
He expresses His faithfulness to the Father in the midst of
His conflict In verse six, he says, but I am a worm. Now you can look that word up. Most often that word translated
here, worm is translated the word scarlet in the old Testament. Once it's translated crimson. It's the same word that's used
in Isaiah chapter 1 when the Lord says in verse 18, come now
and let us reason together for though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow and though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. So here this word worm is translated
scarlet or crimson. Well, 2,000 years ago, whenever
they wanted to make an expensive crimson garment, they got the
dye for that garment from a crimson worm. This little worm would
crawl up on a tree, always a tree, and attach itself to the tree. and give birth to its larvae
in that, under its belly and in doing so, this crimson worm
would die and turn crimson red. And the larvae would feed off
of that fluid and then grow up to be worms themselves. And you would take these worms
after they dried out and crush them and mix them with certain
liquids and make crimson dye out of them. What a picture. The Lord says,
I'm a worm. I've come and attached myself
to a tree. And in so doing, in shedding
my blood, which they feed off of, if you don't drink of his
blood, there's no part, you have no part in him. My worms, which
I've given birth to, are going to feed off of me. And so the Lord Jesus now says,
but I am a worm. I am a worm and no man, a reproach
of men and despised of the people. And I want to say something as
clear as I know how to say it. There is absolutely no difference
between how much men hate the Lord Jesus Christ right now in
this city, in your family, in my family, than those who cried
on that night, crucify him, crucify him. Those who scourged him,
those he speaks of here, men hate him just as much today as
they did then. I'm more and more convinced of
that. If you don't believe that, you just tell some of your friends
what you believe. Tell them what you believe about
the Lord Jesus Christ. See what happens. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. Verse seven, they shoot out their
lip, they shake their head saying, he trusted on the Lord that he
would deliver him, let him deliver him, see if he delighteth in
him. Men's opinions of the Lord Jesus
Christ are no different today. Particularly those who say that
Jesus came into the world in order to provide an opportunity
for everybody to be saved. Well, God didn't accept his offering. He trusted in the Lord. He thought
the Lord was delighting in him, but the Lord wasn't delighting
in him. The Lord did not receive his offering as a sacrifice sufficient
for the salvation of everybody. For those people who say that
Christ died for everybody, those same people will say that most
of the people that he died for are going to hell. Why? Because God didn't delight in
him. The father delighted in what
the Lord Jesus Christ offered him and accepted it as a full
payment for all the sins of all God's elect. Oh, he's a successful
savior, isn't he? But men say the same thing about
the Lord Jesus Christ as they said then, and they will wag
their tongues at you And they will say the most, I mean, we've
had, Trish and I have had people, if it was legal, if it was legal
to kill us, they would have done it. They would have pulled out
a gun and shot us right there on the spot. It's just that way. People hate
Christ and they will hate you for it. But, here's what they, you know, again,
the religious will read this and they'll say, yeah, that's
the exact quote of the New Testament over there, Matthew and Mark.
And this is a messianic Psalm about the crucifixion of Christ.
But here's what they miss. But thou art he that took me
out of the womb. In all the hatred that men have
for me, My trust is in the Father. Lord, you took me out of the
womb. You caused me to be born. You
were the one that conceived me in the power of the Holy Spirit
and caused me to be born of a woman under the law to redeem them
who were cursed by the law. You were the one that did that.
And it wasn't in vain. It wasn't in vain, it was for
the purpose of saving my bride. You took me out of the womb.
Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast."
How can we begin to imagine or understand that here was God
depending on a woman that He had created? All things are created
by Him. Nothing that is created was made
without him. The scripture is clear about
that. This is God incarnate who has made of himself of no reputation
and became a servant. And, and here he's, he's seen
in the frailty of a child suckling on his mother's breast, but having
his trust in his heavenly father all along, all along. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, and there is none to help." The Lord Jesus Christ
is casting all His care upon His heavenly Father, knowing
that His Father cares for Him, knowing that His Father is going
to be faithful to the promises that they made in the covenant
of grace. So nothing He's doing is in vain. Now he expresses again this conflict
that he has with men. This psalm begins, the little
print, some of your Bibles may not have it, but the titles to
the psalms are actually part of the text. If you don't have
the titles, then, you know, you're missing part of the text. But
the title of this psalm is to the chief musician upon Now translated that means the
hind of the morning or the deer of the morning. And here we have
the Lord Jesus Christ as the morning star rising to give life
to his people and yet he's being pursued by the hounds. Look what he says in verse 12,
many bulls have come past me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round. Here we have a picture of a doe
deer, that's what a hind is, it's a small deer being surrounded
by these vicious bulls and that's exactly what happened. They gaped
upon me with their mouths as ravening and roaring lion. I'm
poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My
heart is like wax that is melted in the midst of my bowels. My
strength is dried up like a pot shirt. A pot shirt is a, it's
a clay pot or a piece of a clay pot. It's a baked piece of clay. And my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs
have compassed me, and the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.
They pierce my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones. They
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots from my vesture." And we saw that recently. Why
did they cast lots? They normally, they just divided
everything up, but when they got to his robe, They said, it's
without seams. Let us not rend it. And so in
fulfillment of prophecy and as a picture of the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, righteous of Christ can't be rent. You
can't share it with him. It's all one piece and it's all
his. And so they had to cast lots
for that, didn't they? And that's his conflict. Again,
in verses 19 through 21, he expresses his faith, faith in his father. But, but, you see how each one
of these starts out? But be not thou far from me,
O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul
from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me
from the lion's mouth, for thou has heard me from the horns of
the unicorn. The Lord Jesus Christ was confident. We're not always confident, are
we? We're not always faithful, but he was always confident and
always faithful. He trusted his father. And in
all these sufferings and all these agonies, we have a faithful
savior. who turned his heart towards
the Father, knowing that the Father was going to reward him
for what he had done. And to say that Jesus died for
somebody who's going to go to hell is to rob him of his faithfulness,
just to say that he was deceived. He was dreaming. He was trusting
God to reward him, but God didn't reward him. Now we have a faithless
savior. And the rest of this Psalm is
a prayer of praise for God's faithfulness in hearing the prayers
of his son. And he says, I will declare thy
name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation, will
I praise thee. That verse is quoted in Hebrews
chapter two, verse 12. And this is the midst of his
congregation where the Lord Jesus Christ praises the father. and
the people of God bow and worship to the Lord Jesus Christ, rejoicing
that they have a Savior that was faithful so that when they're
not faithful, when they're not faithful, He abideth faithful
for He cannot deny Himself. Ye that fear the Lord, praise
Him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify
Him and fear Him. All ye the seed of Israel, The
Lord Jesus Christ is our seminal head and we are his seed and
we were in him so that everything he accomplished, everything he
accomplished, we accomplished. We're the benefactors of his
faithfulness. Oh, what hope, what hope, what
comfort, what peace. Here's how to get rid of a guilty
conscience, isn't it? Here's how to know that my sins
have been separated me from far as the east is from the north.
God remembers them no more, no more. Verse 24, for he hath not despised
nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he
hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. The Lord Jesus Christ was afflicted
on Calvary's cross. And when he cried unto the father,
the father heard him. And now the spirit of God comes
and makes us to be sinners, doesn't he? Causes us to see that we've
never been faithful. I made the statement a few minutes
ago that we're not always faithful. We're never faithful. We're never
faithful. Not to the level of faithfulness
that God requires. You believe you're faithful before
God? Well, you don't need Christ. You don't need Christ. You just
go ahead and try standing in the presence of God based on
your faithfulness. See what happens. When the Lord makes you to be
a sinner, you realize, you believe that
all your righteousnesses are as filthy rags, that you are
an unclean thing, that you do fade away as a leaf, and that
you're in need of a faithful Savior, one who suffered the
full agony of being forsaken of God, and being forsaken by
men. And yet he remained faithful. And God rewarded him for his
faithfulness. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for the revelation of a faithful Savior. And Lord, we confess to you that
we have no faithfulness to offer you. that would be sufficient
to save our sin sick souls. But oh, what hope we have in
knowing that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous one,
who was successful in being faithful to thee. Lord, look to him, look
to him for everything that thou requires of us. We ask it in
Christ's name, Amen. Number 125, let's stand together. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.