be here with you. Been a good
while since I've been this way. I was thinking I was probably
my mid 20s when I first came here. I'm not in my mid anything
now. I'm about the end of everything. Marvin asked me about a year
ago if I would be in this conference. He said, I'll make it to where
you can be back on Sunday. And he called me a couple months
ago, I think it was, and said, would you care to do it by yourself?
Well, here I am. You pray that the Lord bless
his word. One thing I know, God has promised
to bless his word. not always my comments on it,
but he has promised to bless his word. And that's why we make
much of the word of God. And I know you make much of it
here. We make much of it at Bethel. He said, my word will not return
void. He will bless it. It will accomplish
what he has sent it to accomplish, and it will accomplish this next
three days what God has sent it to accomplish. And I also
remember what he said to Peter. He said, Peter, feed my lambs,
feed my sheep. And I have learned over the years
that in order to feed the lambs and feed the sheep, that all
I have to do is exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as I exalt
Him, the sheep will be fed and all will be well. Now if you'll
turn to Psalm 22, I have thought of many messages
in my And over the last weeks, I've had several of them I've
thought about bringing, but I settled on three messages. Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm
24. Christ our substitute, Christ
our shepherd, and I'm gonna end with Christ our king. We have
a king. We have a king that rules heaven
and earth and he's our king. He's our king, gracious king,
righteous king, merciful king, our king. But tonight I want
to start with our substitute. This is holy ground. This is
holy ground. The son of God being offered
up in sacrifice for our sins, being offered up to God Not offered
up to me. Christ is not an offer to me.
He's a gift. Eternal life is a gift of God.
And you know eternal life has a name. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is eternal life.
And he offered up himself to God. Isaiah 53, when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin. To put our sins away. So this is what this has to deal
with. our substitute. In this Psalm, we have the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute, and we see his success
in this Psalm. It says in Isaiah 42, my servant
shall not fail. He shall not fail. He cannot
fail. He will not fail. It's impossible
for him to fail. If anyone perishes, For whom
Jesus Christ died for, he failed. But no one's going to perish
for whom the Lord died for. He put away their sins. There's
no charge against them. They're justified. They're justified. Now, when I look at the cross,
when I look at the cross of Christ, here's one of my first thoughts.
What a wretch. What a wretch I must be for such
a person to have to come into this world and die such a death
that I might be saved. What does that say about me?
What a wretch I must be when I look at Christ on Calvary and
see the torment He went through and what He had to do, what He
had to achieve in order to save a wretch like me. What does that
say about me? What a wretch I am. You know,
the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Paul would have choked to death
and went to hell before he had cried and said, Oh, wretched
man that I am. But when God saved him, when
God saved him, he said, Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ.
That's who? The Lord Jesus Christ. I see
God's holiness at Calvary and I see God's hatred of sin. but
also see God's love hanging on Calvary's tree. I see God's love
for me. I see God's love for the whole
elect of God, an innumerable company of sinners, every one
of them sinners. You know, Christ died for sinners.
He didn't die for anyone else. He died for sinners. He died
for the ungodly. And if that doesn't fit anyone
here, then I have no good news for you. I have good news for
sinners. I have good news for the ungodly. I tell you, when
the Lord opened my eyes and I saw that, that gave me such hope
and such joy because it fit me. It fit me. I am a sinner. I'm ungodly. You know what ungodly
is? Unlike God. I'm as unlike God
as it can be. God is holy, I'm sin. God is
light, I'm darkness. God is life, I'm death. I'm ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly.
I could raise my hand and say, that's me. That's me. I see mercy and truth have met
together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other at Calvary
over me. Over me. And over all those whom
the Lord saves. I see my emancipation from sin. I was a slave to sin. We are
a slave to someone. We're not our own. We're not
our own. We either belong to Satan, we're
under the power of darkness, or we belong and under the power
of the Holy Spirit, bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're not our own. Never have been. Never have been. Oh, I see my emancipation from
sin, from Satan and the curse of the law. hanging on Calvary's
tree. The curse of the law is very
real. Now there is no other curse, the voodoo curse and all these
other stupid curses, no such thing as a curse, but there is
a real law curse. Cursed is everyone that continues
not in the things written in the book of the law. I haven't
continued in any of them. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
set me free. And everyone who believes, he
set us free from that curse. It's a real curse. And he has
set me, he's emancipated us from sin, Satan, and the curse of
the law. And I see this at Calvary. I see this in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, let's take a trip to Calvary. I can't think of any better way
to start a conference than at the cross. at the cross of Christ. Now a question is asked. Why? He says, why? My God, my God. Here's ownership. He owns God
as his God. He doesn't say, he doesn't cry
to a God. He says, my God. There's only
one God. Christ is here as a man. As a
man, he says, he's my God. My God. It's personal. It's very
personal. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? If we can understand and answer
this question, why, we will understand the gospel. Why God forsook his
son, Jesus Christ, on Calvary Street. Why? I'm looking at why. There's some of you here, I don't
know everybody here, but there's some of you here who believe
the gospel. I'm looking at why God forsook his son that he might
not forsake you. He forsook him that he might
not forsake me. That ought to make us rejoice.
My, how that ought to make us rejoice. I think sometimes I
say there's people in hell that hasn't done some of the things
I've done. And yet God saved me. God saved
me. My God, my God, our Lord never
let go of God being his God. He never let go. As Job said,
though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's faith. That's faith. Our Lord never
quit believing as a man. Someone said, that he was God
as if he were not a man, and he was ever been a man as if
he were not God, and yet he's one undivided person. And here
he is, a man, hanging on Calvary's tree. Our mediator, our representative,
hanging on Calvary's tree. Christ always had a perfect relationship
with God, always. But when he was made sin for
us, As it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He was made to be sin
for us. God turned His back on His Son. God forsook His Son. Because
that's what He's saying here. Why hast thou forsaken Me? Why
are you so far from helping Me? From the words of My roaring. You know what hell is? Someone
said hell is to be forsaken of God. is to be forsaken of God. He said in verse two, I cried
in the daytime and in the night season and I have received no
answer. Our Lord was never silent. He
was always casting his care upon his father. Always, even in the
darkest hour, he was never silent. What an example we have in Christ,
praying in time of trouble, Always praying in time of trouble. His
faith would shine brighter as the night grew darker. And the
reason he was forsaken, he gives in verse three, after asking,
why have you forsaken me? He gives the answer. Thou art holy. Thou art holy. I said God is holy, and I'm what? Sin. What was Christ made to
be? Sin, what I am. That I might
be made what He is, the righteousness of God. He said, Thou art holy. He didn't
say you are unjust or unkind, but you're holy. You're holy. You know the word holy, one of
the meanings of it is this, other than. Other than. God is other than me. God is other than me. Light,
I'm darkness. Life, I'm death. Holy, I'm sin. God's other than. He's other
than me. And the Lord Jesus Christ, what
he does here, he justifies God in his dealings with him. He
said, you are holy. You can do no wrong. All your
judgments are right. They're right. He never charged
God with folly. God is never at fault in any
of his actions. All his actions are done in holiness. Whatever the Lord does is holy.
He's holy in all his works. The scripture says this. Here's
what's going on. Here's what's going on. He is
of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. and he made his son
to be sin for us. When he did that, he had to forsake
him because that's exactly what God has to do to me. That's exactly
what he has to do to me. And then listen here, how Christ
identifies himself with his brethren. He calls them here his forefathers.
He said, our fathers trusted in thee, Our Father is trusted
in thee. He takes courage in the fact
that God delivered them when they cried to him. He takes courage
in that. You know, I take courage in reading
the word of God and seeing not only the beginning of a matter,
but the end of a matter. We see how God tries his children
and how every time he has delivered his children, We see how he tried
Job and Job went through such a difficult, difficult trial.
And here's the reason why. Job needed that trial and the
church needed Job to go through that trial so we could see the
hand of God dealing with his children in every generation. We can read the word of God and
we can take courage When we see that God has delivered Abraham,
God delivered Jonah, God delivered Noah, we can see God delivering
them all the time. And then when we are in trouble,
when we are going through a heavy trial, we can take courage that
God will deliver us. He'll do it every time. In His
time. But He'll do it every time. Every
time. And our Lord identifies Himself
here. He said, our fathers He's not ashamed to call them brethren. Can you imagine that? He's not
ashamed to call me his brother. Several years ago, I was working
someplace and I lost my job. And for the first time in my
life, I stood in the unemployment line. And when I stood in that
line, at first, I felt embarrassed. I'd never been unemployed. I'd
never drawn an unemployment check. And at first I was embarrassed.
And this scripture came to me. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. I thought I have no business
being embarrassed standing in this line. If Jesus Christ is
not ashamed to call me brethren, I shouldn't be ashamed to be
standing in this line with these men who also lost their jobs.
I learned a lesson. And I needed to learn that lesson.
I realized I needed to lose my job so I might learn that lesson.
And it's amazing how God teaches us, isn't it? He puts us in such
situations that we experience the scripture we're reading. We talk about sovereignty, we
talk about God being sovereign, and then one day God takes from
us without asking, if He can, and we actually experience sovereignty.
And we bow to it. If we're his children, we bow
to it. It's one thing to believe a doctrine, it's another thing
to experience the God of the doctrine. To experience God. Job said, by the hearing of the
ear, I've heard of thee. Everyone in here can say that.
Everyone in here can say that they've heard of God. You've
heard doctrine, you've heard truth. But now a few of you can
say, mine eye seeth thee. Now I see you. I understand. It's not that I understand the
sovereignty of God, but I understand God who's sovereign. I'm beginning
to have some understanding of God who is the sovereign of heaven
and earth, who does as he will, when he will, with whom he will,
and he doesn't ask anybody's opinion. When God created the
heavens and the earth, you know what he did? He created Adam
last. and gave it all to him. He didn't
create Adam first and ask him what he thought. He did it all. He did it all. He created it
all and created this Garden of Eden and he took Adam and he
put him in the garden. Beautiful garden. And Adam had
no say so. Just like I have absolutely no
say so in salvation. That is absolutely between the
father and the son. And that's what we see going
on here, here in Psalm 22. I see my salvation happening
right here in Psalm 22. Between the Father and the Son,
it really struck me months ago, and I believe the Lord had pressed
this upon me, because it just struck me so strongly, that when
I die, and I stand in glory, I had nothing to do with it. Nothing. I'm there by the grace
of God. I mean 100% by the grace of God. It is your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. The inheritance I have, I have
in Christ, is all given to me. I didn't work for any of it.
You don't work for an inheritance. By definition, it's given to
you. It's something you didn't work for, an inheritance. I'm not going to get through
all this, but I'm going to go as far as
I can. But he trusted, he said, our fathers trusted and our Lord
trusted. He trusted the promises of God.
You know, our Lord, I mean, this is, I mean, I'm over my head. I'm over my head trying to, you're
trying to preach such a mysterious person, God in human flesh. The son's given, but what? The
child's born. The son's given, but the child
is created. What a mystery. But listen here, in Psalm 50,
15. Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I'll deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me. Our Lord trusted him for that.
And we are to trust him for that. We are to trust him for God to
fulfill every one of his promises. He's never broke a promise. Never
broke a promise. If he ever broke a promise, he
has to cease to be God. He said, they cried unto thee
and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. In other words, they were not put to shame by
their faith and hope in God. And he's saying, neither will
I. Neither will I. He says in Isaiah 51, 7, where
the Lord God will help me. Listen to the confidence of this.
The Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore
have I set my face like a flint. And we know in the scriptures
it said he set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. I
know, I know that I shall not be ashamed. He knew he was not
going to be ashamed. He knew he wouldn't fail. He
knew he was going to succeed. He knew that. Then he says here, now listen
how he identifies. Listen how our Lord identifies
himself with us, with his brethren. But I'm a worm. We like to think we're somebody,
don't we? Until God saves us. Then we realize we're a nobody. I'm a worm, a maggot. That's
what he's saying, I'm a maggot. and no man, don't even call me
a man, don't even look like a man. A reproach of men, despised of
the people. What did God call Jacob? The very God that called Jacob
a worm. Here in this verse is calling
himself a worm. That's identification. That's
identification. He said, I am a worm, I a worm. Our Lord never lifted himself
above his brethren. He made himself, it says in Philippians,
of no reputation. Made himself of no reputation.
The only person, the only person who has a reputation made himself
of no reputation. He didn't come to, he did not
come to get the approval of men. He came to die. Jesus Christ
is the only person who ever came into this world to die. Everybody
that I've ever known, including myself, we try to live, we try
to keep on living. I know rich men who have spent
all their money trying to live another day. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to die. Peter said, you're not gonna
die. He said, I'm gonna die for this cause I came into the world.
This is why I came. I came to die. I came to die
that you might live. Without Him dying, we don't live. He says here that He was no man,
no man. You know what it says in Isaiah
52, 14? As many were astounded at the,
His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more
than the sons of men. He was unrecognizable. He's not
like this picture you see that they draw and call it Jesus Christ
and they got a loincloth on him. Our Lord was unrecognizable. He was beaten so much. They beat
him to the point where if we don't stop, he's not going to
live. I'm sure that's how they thought. His visage was so marred more
than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. He didn't
even look human. He didn't even look human. He
was hanging there naked. He wasn't hanging there with
a loincloth on. Part of the shame of the cross
was hanging there naked. When God came to Adam in the
garden, And Adam heard the voice of God in the garden in the cool
of the day. And God said, where are you? He said, I've hid myself. And he said, why? You know what
he said? I was naked and afraid. Who told you you were naked?
This is how we stand before God. We stand before God naked and
open. Nothing hid. And our Lord is
hanging on that cross. Beaten, just severely beaten
and hanging there naked. Shame of the cross. Shame of
the cross. Despised of the people. Despised,
listen, I thought about this a while ago. Despised not only
of the people, but despised by the people he came to save. What
about the Apostle Paul? Nobody hated Jesus Christ and
despised Jesus Christ more than the Apostle Paul. Nobody did. Despised of him. We, none of
us were born into this world in love with God. No one is born
into this world loving God. We are born into this world,
as the word of God says, with an enmity in our minds against
God. We are born with hostility in
us toward God. That's how we are born into the
world. We do not love God until the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And we're born of God. Then we
love God. Then we can say that we love
the Lord when He sheds His love abroad in our hearts and we realize
for the first time, He first loved me. But He's despised of the people. You know, we live in a day right
now that this Jesus is real popular, but the Lord Jesus Christ is
not popular. This Jesus has been, now it's real popular on television. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
not popular, except by those whom he saves. Only by those whom he saves.
No one else likes him. He said, the world hates me.
That's what he said. The world hates me. And it'll
hate you too. If they hate me, they'll hate
you. Now if you want a real good look
at humanity, you see what happened to Calvary, the Jews there and
the Roman Empire, they're just representative of the whole human
race. You know, God just needs to give us an example of the
whole human race right there. They laugh at me, he said. They
mock me. They mocked his faith in God. They wagged their heads
in disbelief. He said he's the son of God.
Look at him. Would the son of God look like this? Would the
Son of God let this happen to him? He said he's the Son of
God, let's see if God'll have him. His own disciples left him. They
left him. But here in the midst of all
this suffering, and all this pain, I can't even begin to imagine
the sole suffering of our Lord under the wrath of God. He suffered
our hell, that's what happened. He suffered our hell. But here
in the midst of all this suffering, we have this cry of hope. Verses
9 and 10, he said, you are the one who formed me in my mother's
belly, I'm yours. I'm yours. I'm yours. You took me from her
womb. I'm yours from the beginning.
The seed of Adam had nothing to do with his birth. He was
formed in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Spirit. He said,
I'm yours. I'm yours. You own me. You own me. From his birth, he was called
a holy child. He was born without sin. The
angel called him that holy thing, that holy thing. And our Lord
took courage in this, that God formed him in the womb of that
virgin. He said, from the womb, I'm yours.
You form me. You form me. He said, in one
place, a body has now prepared me. Be not far from me. He said,
be by my side as I go through this. The enemy, he says in verse
12, they've encircled me. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. This is what humanity thinks
of God. This is what humanity thinks
of God. This is what I thought of God till he saved me. He said the wicked have surrounded
me. They're going to have their go at me. He says here, listen, how he
speaks of his sufferings. And brethren, when we read this,
this belonged to us. This pain and suffering belonged
to us. But it's fallen upon him. It's fallen upon our substitute. I'm poured out like water. In other words, he said, I'm
emptied out completely. He held back nothing. I'm emptied
out. We see here his unresisted suffering. He's the willing substitute,
willing to die, willing to suffer in our place. One day, one day in a little
while, all of us who believe we stand
in glory We're going to really see, we're going to really see
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us, what he accomplished
for us. We have so much sin in us. We're
so dull. We're so dull. One day we're going to see, and
we're going to sing, we're going to sing his praises as we ought
to. We're really going to sing unto
the Lord. We're not going to sing about
him. We're gonna sing unto him. We're gonna sing unto him. But
our Lord here, he says, I poured out like water, all my bones
out of joint. My heart is like wax, it's melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a pot shirt. My tongue cleaveth to my jaw. In one place he cried,
I thirst. I thirst. What did that rich man in hell
ask Abraham to do? He said, if Father Abraham sent
someone to dip their finger in water and cool the tip of my
tongue, I see Jesus Christ taking my
hell right there. I thirst just like that rich
man in hell cried, I thirst. And I'm never going to thirst
like that. No one who believes on Christ is ever going to thirst.
Because he said, I thirst. I thirst. And notice he says,
he says that thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Who? Satan? Men? No, he says, God. God, the Father delivered him
up. He says, you brought me into the dust of death. Now justice
is gonna be taken out on him. Justice. Justice. Can't even grasp that,
the justice of God. Satan had his go at him. Men
had their go at Him. Wicked men had their go at Him.
And now God, God's going to turn the lights out. The lights are
going to go out because this is between God the Father and
God the Son over a multitude of sinners that God's going to
save through His Son. And God's going to turn the light
out because this is between God and His Son. and he's gonna draw
his sword of justice, and he's gonna plunge it right into his
heart. Awake, O sword, against my fellow. God's justice was plunged into
him, and he's the only one who could satisfy justice. You know
why hell's eternal? You know why it's forever? Because
no one there can satisfy God's justice. That's why hell's forever. The Lord Jesus Christ, God in
human flesh, is God Almighty. The way I see it, in my mind,
when I read, I see things in my mind. And I see the judge
stepping off the bench and taking the place of the criminal. and taking the punishment that
belongs to that criminal, dying in the place of that criminal.
Something caught my attention here a few weeks ago in Romans,
I think it's 5.4, but it says that God justifies the ungodly. And it just dawned on me when
I was reading that, it just struck me so strongly that no one else
can do that. You can be guilty of something.
You can be guilty of, say, you stole something and you've gotten
caught. You can go to court and they
can pardon you. You can be forgiven and sent
home, but you can't be justified. There's not one person that can
justify you. There's not a judge on this earth
that can justify you. When Biden, and I'm not making
this political, but when Biden pardoned all those people, that's
what he did. He pardoned them, he didn't justify
them. Only God can justify the ungodly. And he does so by taking
their place. The judge taking my place. God suffering the penalty of
his own law. You know it says over in Acts,
I think it's Acts 20, 28, that God purchased the church with
his own blood. It says God did that. Paul says
God purchased the church with his own blood. Now how can that
be? God became a man and God suffered
the penalty of his own law in the flesh. His blood was shed for the atonement
of my sins. And here's what gives me comfort,
is every time I ask the Lord to forgive me of my sins, or
forgive me of a sin or any sin, the blood of Christ answers for
the sins I'm asking forgiveness for. There it is. There's the punishment right
there in the blood. There it is. God can forgive me because
that sin's already been taken care of. Already been taken care
of. Rather than before there was
a sinner, there was a Savior. When Adam heard the voice of
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, there was
not lightning. There was not thunder like there
was at Mount Sinai. Thunder and lightning and smoke.
It was, he, Adam heard the voice of God walking in the garden
in the cool of the day. You know why? Because the matter
had already been taken care of. Christ the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. This matter of sin had already
been taken care of before God created the first thing. You
see, God's a God of order. The fall of Adam was not things
getting out of order. God had already taken care of
that. That's why there was not lightning and thunder crashing
when Adam fell. God provided a Savior before
there was ever a sinner. What a Savior we have. What a
salvation we have. What a God we have. Our God,
the God of creation, is our Savior. And we're gonna see tomorrow
that He's our Shepherd. And we're gonna see that He's
our King. And we're gonna see He's our everything. He is absolutely
our everything. And you go home and you read
the rest of this chapter. And we see that after all this,
this, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are you
so far from the words of my roaring? We find out that he's going to
declare his name to his brethren. In the midst of the church, he's
going to sing his praises. You know if there's any really,
really, for a really true worship going on here tonight, the Lord
Jesus Christ is the leader of it. He's the leader of it. If there's true worship going
on, He's the leader of it. If we're truly singing praises,
praises from our hearts to God, He's the leader of it. I'll praise
you in the great congregation. It will be by His Spirit that
He's leading us in singing and praising Him. And He says here, and let me
close. He says here in verse 30, a seed shall serve Him, Part
of that's here tonight. Aren't you amazed that God saved
you? Henry said one time, when grace
quits being amazing grace, it's not grace anymore. And we don't
stand amazed that God saved me. I've got a big family, and God
saved me. God save me. I've had a friend said to me
once, I wish the Lord hadn't saved you. It's back when I was,
we used to run around, we were worthless. We were worthless. But he said, I wish the Lord
hadn't saved you because we just didn't have anything in common
anymore. But when he was 19 years old,
He was killed in a car wreck. And I would have been with him.
But by God's grace, 50 years later, I'm standing here preaching
the gospel. And I had nothing to do with
it. I had nothing to do with it. Salvation is between a father
and a son over a people. I mean, a worthless bunch of
people. Does that offend you? If you're
a Pharisee, it will. Boy, if you're a sinner, if you're
a sinner, you say, no, it don't offend me. You know, remember
that woman, that Syrophoenician woman? The Lord never gave her
one encouragement at all. You go read that story. It's
not right to give the children's bread to dogs. She said, you're
right, Lord. You're right. I'm a dog. I'm
a dog, you're right. He couldn't run her off. You
can't run a sinner off, you know that? You can't run them off,
not with the truth. Not with the truth. God doesn't
even run them off with a trial, no matter how hard the trial
is. Look at Job. Said, though he slay me, yet
I'll trust him. I'll trust him. He tells us in
verse 31, they shall come. Sovereign grace shall bring them
from among all nations. They're going to declare his
righteousness unto a people that shall be born. He knows every
one of them. I know a couple. The thing about
getting old, you got too many stories. But I know a couple. child when
he was in her mid-forties. They said it was an accident.
No, it wasn't either. No, it wasn't. Nobody's born
in this world by accident. I tell you what, there's nobody
born of God by accident. It might be. Listen, he says,
that they shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born.
There might be somebody born here this weekend. God might
give birth. this weekend. And here's what they are going
to declare that He hath done this. He's done this. Salvations of the Lord from Alpha
to Omega.