Turn in your Bibles again to
Psalm 22. Not too long ago I used to say,
because all our salvation is of the Lord, then all we can
do is thank God and praise Him for His grace. It's actually
not true, and I'm sorry. We can't even do that without
God's activities within us. The old man of our flesh will
always be in enmity with our God, no matter what mercies He
shows us. All our salvation must be by
the grace of God, even our thanks and praise. This is why in Isaiah
57, when the Lord rebukes Israel for their idolatry and speaks
of their restoration by His grace, He says, I create the fruit of
the lips. Last week we saw that the culmination
of our suffering actually rested in the communion that we have
with our Lord. Nothing had physically changed
in our Saviour's situation, just as often is the case for ourselves. And yet the very presence of
God had rewarded his faith and had comforted his agonised soul. This week, by God's grace, we'll
be looking at the second half of Psalm 22 and the way that
this reward, this appearing of our Father in the midst of our
sufferings, refreshes our souls and inspires fruit to His glory. Let's read Psalm 22. 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, and
am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praise of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto
thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a
reproach of men and despise of the people. All they that see
me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they
shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver
him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But Thou
art He that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope
when I was on my mother's breast. 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, for there is none to help me. Many bulls have compassed
me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me around. They gape upon me with their
mouths as a ravening lion, a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured
out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is
like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength
is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth under
my jaws, and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me about. 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.
But be thou not 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 hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of
the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord,
praise him, all ye seed of Jacob, glorify him, and fear him, all
ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither has he hid
his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in
the great congregation. I'll pay my vows before them
that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. Your hearts shall live forever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For
the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is governor among the nations.
All they that be fed on the earth shall eat and worship. All they
that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can
keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him. It shall
be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come
and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born,
that He has done this. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray your mercy upon us this morning. We desperately need
your grace to open our ears and our minds and our hearts that
we might understand your words today. We pray, Father, that
you would speak to the hearts of your people, that you would
speak comfort and refreshment to their souls. and that you
would just bless this gathering again. Just another Sunday, but
I pray you would walk amongst the Seventhly Father. What a
miracle of grace it is. Pray your mercy upon us. I pray
for our pastor while he's away, and just pray you send him back
to us refreshed and encouraged. I just pray now that you'd be
with us, Heavenly Father. In the name of our great Saviour
and King, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. I want us to begin where we left
off last week at the end of verse 21. As I said in last week's
sermon, our Lord's whole focus changes suddenly from His afflictions
to praising His Father in Heaven. While His physical situation
hadn't changed, it's obvious that our God had drawn near to
Him and in doing so had restored Him spiritually and inspired
Him to witness of the Father's glory in the salvation of His
people. I'll just read the last part
of verse 21. For thou hast heard me from the
horns of the unicorns. It was based on the cross work
of the Lord Jesus Christ that our God reconciled us to himself
before the foundation of the world. And he made us recipients
of all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. And yet in this
life we are promised suffering, especially for the sake of the
Gospel. However, it's by this intimate
drawing near of our God in the midst of those sufferings that
all faithful witness has its foundation. Here in our text,
our great forerunner reminds us that these sufferings do produce
glory for God within us. The great encouragement for all
the saints is that our God reigns And so even our suffering somehow
is fruitful for our good and for God's glory. The Apostle
Peter in 1 Peter 4.16 says, Any man suffer as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. Do you notice there, we are to
glorify God for the sufferings that he brings into our lives.
We can only do this by the grace of God as He strengthens us in
our sufferings and as He causes us to share that experience with
one another. Just as our Lord does here in
verse 22. I will declare thy name unto thy brethren. In the
midst of the congregation will I praise thee. We certainly were in Christ before
the foundation of the world, but what an amazing miracle.
Just think about it, especially considering our fallen state
and the sin which indwells us, that our Lord regards us as brethren. It's on the basis of all that
we've just read about in the first half of this psalm that
our Lord and Saviour can fellowship with us and that He can continue
to witness within us. See, he's not ashamed to call
us brethren because through his cross work we really are spotless
and blameless before a holy God. We really are above reproach
and therefore we really are accepted in the beloved. Brothers and sisters, it is by
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are made
partakers of the new nature and really are children of God, joint
heirs with Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit,
the Lord continues to witness within His people, but that's
not all. Through our experiences of God's
presence in the midst of our sufferings, and the witness of
his grace within us, we're now inspired to encourage each other
with the same good news that we've experienced. This is how
he continues to witness in the midst of the congregation, in
the midst of his church. When our God has drawn near to
us in our suffering, when he's restored and he's rewarded our
faith, Our inner man desperately seeks to witness to others of
what we have experienced. This is what Church is really
about. Two or three gathered together
in His Name, gathered by God, gathered together praising God
for His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Church isn't just the
sermon. It's the continued witness of
Christ in the midst of the congregation, whether it's from the pulpit
or whether it's in our conversations. Speaking to His Father in Heaven,
still nailed to the cross, our Lord's desire and His confidence
is that His substitution for his people will be the witness
of the Holy Spirit both in our hearts and amongst his church. The basis of our witness and
the central theme of church is exactly the same as Paul declares
in 1 Corinthians 2. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look at verse 23 and 24. You that fear the Lord, praise
him, all ye seed of Jacob glorify him, and fear him, all ye seed
of Israel. 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. Our great Saviour begins by declaring
his witness to those that fear the Lord, those who have met
God in a saving way. This is why he addresses both
the seed of Jacob and the seed of Israel. We know that Jacob
and Israel are the same person, but Jacob didn't actually become
Israel until he had experienced the saving grace of God. Our Lord is witnessing to every
saved child of God, encouraging them to praise and glorify and
fear his Father in Heaven. He's encouraging us to worship
our faithful God in spirit and in truth. The presence of our Father is
not only refreshed and comforted our Saviour, just as it does
in our own lives, it's also confirmed His success in the saving of
His bride, the Church. Now all victory, all success,
all comfort, and especially all witness proceed forth from the
very presence of his God. This is the inspiration for all
evangelism. If it's not from a very real
experience of the grace and presence of God, then it's just a theory,
whether it's accurate or not. Here our Saviour encourages those
that fear the Lord to praise Him, But not only is the Lord
directing our praises towards our Father in Heaven, He is also
declaring that all our salvation rests completely upon His substitution
for us at the cross. There is no doubt that the Lord
Jesus is that afflicted one in verse 24. But the encouragement
is to all of us, isn't it? an encouragement that we put
all our hopes and all our trust in His faithful Father. Christ in Him crucified is the
fountain of all the blessings of God toward His chosen children. But it's not only His witness
in the midst of the Church here on earth, it's also His witness
in heaven. Look at verse 25. My praise shall
be in the great congregation I will pay my vows before them
that fear Him." Our Lord works in the hearts
and the lives of His people that they in turn might witness to
others in His Church. However, there is another realm
in which our Saviour glorifies His Father through the testimony
of His people, and that is in heaven, in the great congregation.
We know that when we meet together when we meet to worship our God
in church, but spiritually we're also gathered with all the hosts
of heaven. But more than that, just as our
Lord promotes the witness within the hearts of his people here
on earth, he does the same thing in heaven. The songs of heaven that we read
of in Revelation 5 They are actually the songs of the personal testimonies
of the saints. Whether in heaven or on earth,
these songs or these personal testimonies, they are not just
our worship of God. They are also the only way that
we can pay our vows to God for His saving grace. Just get your
fingers there and turn in your Bible to Psalm 116. As I said earlier, all our salvation
must be by the grace of God, even our thanks and our praise. We have nothing that we can offer
God in exchange for salvation. If we did, then our salvation
would be a work and not of grace. However, again by the grace of
God, the witness generated in us by His Holy Spirit, through
our experiences of His grace, is how we pay our vows to God. The Apostle Paul sums it up wonderfully
in Hebrews 13.15. He says, By him, that's by Christ,
therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to his name. If you look in Psalm 116, I'm
just going to read from verse 12 to verse 19. again addresses
how we pay our vows. He says in verse 12, What shall
I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I will
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his
people. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant, and the son
of thy handmaiden. Thou hast loosed my bonds. I
will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call
upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the
Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. And what are
these vows? Praise ye the Lord. Brothers
and sisters, our vows, they're just further testimonies of God's
grace in our life and this is exactly how our God continues
to generate His Gospel witness within the earth. It's also this
same witness, the testimony that salvation is of the Lord, that
the saints of God thrive. If you look back there at verse
26 in Psalm 22, He says, The meat shall eat and
be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. Your heart shall live forever.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For
the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is governor among the nations. By the comforting presence of
his Father, our Lord has been inspired to witness within the
hearts of his people, within his churches here on earth, and
within the courts of Heaven. He's also been inspired to encourage
all the saints to praise and worship their Father in Heaven
for their salvation. But now he declares some amazing
Gospel promises. Each one provides eternal sustenance
for God's children. Each one has its foundation in
the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each one has been confirmed
by the presence of God the Father. But without the regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit upon our proud flesh, none of us will
ever be meek and none of us will ever seek God. But what a great
comfort it is to know that when He does come and make us alive,
when He does create that desperate desire for union with our God
within us, that we have Gospel promises like these. What a great
assurance we have in knowing that in Christ all our needs
are met, both physically and spiritually. The Lord said in
John 6.51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. He says
in Matthew 8.7, Seek and you shall find. Again in John 10.28,
I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Our Lord Jesus Christ is himself
the Gospel. He's all our wisdom and all our
righteousness and all our sanctification. He's all our redemption. Our
great Saviour is the way, the truth and the life, and in Him
we have everything necessary for both this world and the world
to come. Another amazing promise we have
here in verse 27 is that no matter where we stray, no matter how
lost we are in this world, no matter how overwhelmed we become
by sin, especially our own, our Lord Jesus will search out and
He will find every one of His lost sheep. And amazingly, He
does it by this same witness, Christ and Him crucified. Remember
Acts 1.8? where his witnesses under the
uttermost part of the earth. Our Lord Jesus is that Good Shepherd
of John 10 who did lay down his life for the sheep. He will retrieve
every one of those lost sheep from the ends of the earth and
by his saving work within them they will worship their great
God. This is why in Revelation 5 In
these songs every kindred, every tongue and people and nation
are being represented before the throne of heaven. Brothers and sisters, our Lord
Jesus Christ is all our salvation. What a great comfort that should
be to us that we really are one with Him. What a great reason
that is to praise our Father in heaven And what great assurance
we should take away from that promise in verse 28, that He
who loves us with an everlasting love really is King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. The presence of our Father has
confirmed one more amazing promise here in verse 28. This great
King who loved us and gave his life for us, He is ruler of all
nations, but more than that, if you have a look there, He
is governor among the nations. What a great comfort we should
have here, that our Lord should dwell amongst His people and
continue, just as His Father did in this psalm, to refresh
the souls of His people by His presence. And this applies, all these promises
apply to the Lord's people in whatever state they're in. If
you have a look there at verse 29 it says, All they that be
fat on the earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down
to the dust shall bow before him, and none shall keep alive
his own soul. At first I thought this fatness
was a reference to the unbelievers and the fatness of their own
righteousness because that's how the scriptures often describe
them. The trouble was I was confused about how they could be said
to worship God. But then I found a beautiful
verse in Isaiah 55. As our God calls his people to
come and partake of the Gospel, he says in verse 2, Wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour
for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness." You see, there are those who really are fat on the
earth through the gracious provision of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
these people really do worship Him in spirit and in truth. And
even though this fatness could be a reference to worldly prosperity,
it could also be a reference to a number of things, couldn't
it? It could be referring to physical prosperity like good
health or some physical ability that you have. It may refer to
spiritual fatness, to an active prayer life and regular communion
with God and a good understanding of the scriptures, whatever our fatness may be.
The promise here is that in our fatness we will know the Lord
and we will praise Him for His gracious provision to us. This
also applies to those that go down to the dust. Where to be
fat on the earth is to prosper, to go down to the dust is to
fail or fall or be overwhelmed by something. In Psalm 44 when
the psalmist describes the agony of Israel's afflictions, In verse
25 he says, For our soul is bowed down to the dust, our belly cleaveth
unto the earth. Again, this isn't necessarily
referring to a particular type of suffering or oppression. However,
the same amazing promise does apply. We will know our God. And not only that, we will bow
before him accepting his gracious hand even in the greatest of
our sufferings. It's a promise. We saw this in last week's sermon,
remember? Our Lord will do everything necessary
to bring us to himself. We will have times of prosperity,
but we will also drift away. And in those times, He does use
suffering to draw us back to Himself. I guess the point here is that
the promises of the Lord in verse 26 through to 28, they're to
His saints no matter what their situation is. In the height of
our prosperity or in the depths of our affliction, We will rejoice
in His sovereign care and we will rejoice because we know
from experience that none can keep alive his own soul. This amazing relationship that
we have with our God will continue to promote a witness of His Father's
glory within the earth throughout all the ages until He returns
to wrap up the world. Let's read verse 30 and 31. A
seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted unto the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath
done this. I don't know if you noticed,
but there's five shalls, five of God's shalls in those verses,
and each one is just another promise. In Isaiah 53 there is a seed
promised to the Lord Jesus when His Father has made His soul
an offering for sin. Just as every human being has
a fleshly association with our Father, the first Adam, every
child of God has a spiritual association with our Lord Jesus
Christ, the second Adam. The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter
2 describes the blood-bought children of God like this. But
you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar or a particular people." And then he goes on to say one
of the purposes, that you should show forth the praises of Him
who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. And
that's our purpose, brothers and sisters, isn't it? to declare
God's praises, or as we see here in verse 31, His righteousness. That's the desire of our inner
man, especially inspired by our saving experiences of God. And
it's not just our witness personally either, it's also our witness
collectively as a church. And it's a witness that the Lord
here guarantees will continue until He returns. Because our
witness is actually His witness within us. Our successful Saviour is both
the inspiration and the object of our witness. He is our Gospel. In Romans 1.16 Paul says, For
I am not ashamed of the Gospel, of Christ, for it's the power
of God under salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. Our witness is simply Christ
being crucified, just like Paul's witness, just like the Lord's
witness here, just like the witness of all scripture. In these last
ten verses of Psalm 22, We have our Lord's witness inspired and
confirmed by the presence of our Father. We also have some
amazing Gospel realities, assured realities, that declare to us,
one, that our Lord will be in the midst of His people, His
Church and in Heaven. Two, He will successfully encourage
His people to give all glory and salvation to their Father
in Heaven. Three, he will provide all things
necessary for the life and the salvation of his precious bride. Four, he will do that no matter
what state she's in. And five, he will dwell with
his people and continue this powerful witness until the end
of time. Our Father's presence in the
midst of our Lord's suffering has been a confirmation that
our Lord Jesus Christ is both a sufficient and a successful
Saviour of this people. It's also an assurance that these
precious promises are the outworkings of our Lord's suffering. Brothers and sisters, the witness
of all scripture is Christ being crucified because by His agonies
on the cross He alone hath done all this." Perhaps it could all be summed
up with those three simple words in John 19.30, it is finished. May our gracious God continue
to sustain His witness both within our hearts and throughout the
world. Let's pray.