Psalm 69 this evening. This is a lengthy psalm and of
course we won't be able to cover the whole psalm tonight. I believe in these first several
verses we'll see again the clear gospel of our Savior. Just kind of take it a verse
at a time and get as far as we can get tonight. Save me, O God,
for the waters are coming in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I'm come into deep waters where
the floods overflow me. If we could get in get some realization in our minds
and hearts of what's being described here. This is panic, isn't it? Have you ever been in over your
head, literally, and not been in control? Maybe you're a good
swimmer and that didn't bother you that much. Spiritually speaking,
we can't swim. But I'm a decent swimmer and
I've been in situations before where I thought I was in trouble.
And somebody was there, I was out fishing, wade fishing, and
my buddy David was there, and he took hold of me. The current
had me. And I think maybe he saved my life that day, but you get the picture, though.
It's trouble, it's panic. This is time. It's resignation to the fact
that there's no fixing this on our own. That's what this is. The waters are coming into my
soul now, Lord. It's you or nothing. It's you
or I'm a goner. That's when a sinner cries to
God. That's when he does, right there. And we'll put that off
now. We may be sometime coming to
this place. The waters are into my soul now,
but there's... You remember what our Lord said
to Saul. He said, is it hard for you to
kick, to kick against the goat? We'll kick against it, won't
we? We'll look for every possible way to find some comfort, some
refuge, some hope in anything but Christ. A ship hits an iceberg
in the middle of the ocean. Now you picture this. I'm talking
about the waters coming in into my soul. A ship hits an iceberg
in the middle of the ocean and immediately there's concern.
Everybody felt it. What was that? Alright, we need
to fix this. We're going to have to fix it. We got a problem here. But the
ship's architect says there's no fixing this. We're not going
to be able to fix it. And then the level of concern
raises a little bit. What are we going to do then?
The next thought is how much time do we have? This is a big ship. It's gonna
take a long time for it to sink. Surely help will come before
we'll sink. Nobody's ever heard, there's no way this ship's gonna
sink. If it does, there'll be plenty
of time. Some calculations are made and it's determined that
you don't have as much time as you thought you did. The next thought is, how close
is the nearest ship? Let's find somebody, let's get
on the Let's send the call out now and find who the closest
ship is that we can contact to come help us. It gets a little bit more dire. And then it starts to sink in, no pun intended, It's going to take a whole lot
longer for the nearest ship to get there than it is for the
ship to sink. We're in trouble. The level of concern is raised
even more then, but they're still not panic yet. They're still
not panic yet. We have lifeboats. You see, that's
how we are spiritually now. We've got all these options.
We've got all these things to fall back on. We'll just have to have those
lifeboats ready, and we'll wait next to the lifeboats until help
does come. Maybe there's been a miscalculation.
Maybe we do have time, but we'll be ready to get in the lifeboat.
Wait a minute, there's not enough lifeboats for everybody. And by this time, the ship has
begun to list. And even people that don't know
all about this are starting to realize something's wrong here.
But there are still many who don't even know the extent of
the problem. But you do. You know. And you're getting
more and more concerned about it. You know it's bad. But you
still haven't panicked yet. Somebody surely was wrong. There's
been a miscalculation. The time for the ship to sink,
there was a miscalculation. The time for help to arrive.
The ratio of people to lifeboat. Somebody made a mistake. But
there will come a time, there will come the time when you will
realize, I'm going in the water. And people can't live in this
water. To go in the water is death. It's a matter of the relationship
between you and the water. You see, that's why our Lord
says, come now, we need to talk about you and the water. We need
to talk about your problem. Come now, and we need to talk
about it. It's a matter of the relationship, the juxtaposition
of you and the water. That's what David is talking
about here. The waters come in now. It's come into my very soul. And when the waters begin to
rise to the point that you know that they will overflow you and
there is no time, there is no other ship, there is no lifeboat
for you, that's when you will cry to God. You will cry to Him.
Well, Chris, you mean that's when God's people will cry to
Him? No, I mean everybody. Everybody's gonna cry. For some,
it's gonna be too late. There is such a thing as too
late. It's undeniable from the Word of God now. Many will not
know until it's too late that the waters have overwhelmed them.
And God said, when your fear cometh to those who refused his
counsel, when the waters come into your soul and your fear
comes and you realize you're overwhelmed, your desolation,
your desolation cometh and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind
when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then you're going to
call upon me. I'm not going to answer you.
You're going to seek me early then. You've got a lot on your
plate now but then you won't. There won't be anything else. They'll seek me early but they
will not find me. For that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord. Now that's true of
all of us by nature. That's our problem. And everyone
sooner or later is going to cry to God. Even those who yet trust in themselves,
what are they gonna do? They're gonna say, Lord, Lord,
what do you mean we can't come in? Lord, Lord, look, we. But by God's grace, his elect,
because of his sovereign mercy, they will see their condition
before it's too late. That's what's happened to David
here. He sees right now, the waters are all the way into my
soul now. It's God or death. They'll see their condition before
it's too late. They'll cry to God for mercy now come now That's what we see in the verse
3 there I'm weary of my crying I'm crying and I'm just gonna
keep crying He'd been crying a while hadn't he I'm weary of
crying. My cry is getting weaker and weaker. God can still hear
it He heard it before you ever cried it My throat is dried,
my eyes fail while I wait for my God. We were waiting on other
help before. We were looking at our options
before, but now we're waiting on God to do something. Because
if he don't do something, it ain't gonna get done. You see
where he is? This is important now. Look at it, he said, while I
wait for my God. It used to be, how could God
let something like this happen to me? Now it's, He's my God. I'm waiting on him. And I'm weary
of crying. I've been crying. I'll cry until
he saves me. They couldn't shut Bartimaeus
up. How come? He didn't have any other hope. He was in a panic. His only hope
was passing by and he couldn't let it happen. He couldn't let
him go. We need to acknowledge also now
that these are the words of our Savior. We recognize some of
the language that is concerning the cross and the Lord's suffering
there. Look at verse 21. They gave me also gall for my
meat and in my thirst. They gave me vinegar to drink. You remember where it said in
our studies that they did that and they did it to fulfill that
scripture right there. This is the Lord speaking all
the way through this, and we'll see that in other language here.
And so this is interesting. Now this is the gospel. This
is substitution right here. Because you see, I know why the
waters are coming into my soul. I was born in trouble. I was
born in trouble. By God's grace, I know why they
came into my Savior's soul. It's because he took my place
as the sinner. Though he knew no sin. Though
there was no sin in him, my sin was on him. the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all Isaiah 53 6 and so the language
here of my Savior is the same as mine I can say this is me
and I can say it's him because we were in the same place I saw
that somewhere I never I never had seen it before we'll look
at it in a minute same place that's where I am by nature and
that's where my Savior is verse 4 they that hate me without
a cause are more than the hairs of my head They that would destroy
me being my enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness
and my sins are not hid from thee. See these waters that we're
talking about, they're not just an inanimate natural threat like
physical water is. They're active, purposeful enemies. He's still talking about the
water. It's our enemies. Spiritually speaking, we know
what these are, my own wicked heart. That's the main one. Notice
the last part, my sins are not hid from thee. That's all of our other enemies
are what they are because of our sin. Satan wouldn't have
anything in me except for my sin. The law of God is my natural
enemy because I'm wretched and sinful. Though the law is good, it was
death to me by nature, but only because of my sin. You see, sin
is the real problem. That's the water now. That's
my sins. There's one word in this passage
here, verses four and five, that lets us know that this is our
Savior speaking and not me, not you. You know what that word
is? Wrongfully. My enemies hate me and attack
me and threaten me wrongfully. That's gotta be Him. This has to be the Lord Jesus
because all of our enemies are pursuing, they're pursuing me
also. It's his language, but his enemies
are my enemies. But they're pursuing me rightfully.
My trouble is what it is rightfully. And here's what I was talking
about a while ago. I saw this, like I say, somewhere I never
had seen this before. This is what that thief on the
cross said that the Lord revealed himself to. He said, we're in
the same condemnation. Have you ever noticed that before?
I know you've noticed the words that I have to, and you probably
did. I just, but listen to the Luke
2339. One of the malefactors which
were hanged, railed on Christ saying, if thou be Christ, save
thyself in us mocking. That wasn't a sincere cry. That
was a mockery. But the other who we know from
other scripture had been railing on the Lord before. answered
that thief and rebuked him saying, does not thou fear God seeing
thou art in the same condemnation. There's more to that than just
we're both hanging on a cross. There's spiritual teaching here
now. And we indeed justly. We in this mess because we deserve
it, but not him. That's that word wrongfully in
our text. He's in the same condemnation
that we are by nature, but wrongfully in a sense. Now God can only
do what's right, we understand that. But wrongfully in this
sense, he don't deserve it. I do deserve it. I'm in this
condemnation rightfully. That thief said to the other,
you're under the wrath of God. And so is he. So is the Savior. But you deserve it. And he don't. You see how that applies to our
text? And like I said, I've read that
so many times. I've never seen him say, in the
same condemnation, my Savior was in the same condemnation
that I am under by nature. Now I'm never condemned by God,
but we are, Paul said, a child of wrath by nature. even as others,
in the same sense that we're talking about. We deserve His
wrath. We deserve it. We earned it. We're guilty. Oh, 1 Peter 3.18, For Christ
hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. He suffered
wrongfully for those that It would have been right if they
had suffered for their sins. And he did it that he might bring
us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the Spirit. In our text there, he said, I
restored that which I took not away. That's spiritual language,
isn't it? He didn't rob God of anything,
but he paid him back for me. I was the robber. Well, As I said, verse 5 identifies
the ultimate enemy, my sins. My sins. All of my other enemies
are what they are to me because of my sins. And yes, this is
the language of the Savior too. We can't pick and choose now.
This is clearly prophetic language coming from the person of our
Savior. And he said this because he bore
our sins. It's not real complicated. We
make things way more complicated than the scriptures do. The scriptures
are pretty plain about this now. It's clear why he called them
my sins, because he took my sins upon himself. He took the guilt
for them. He owned them for himself. Now
think about this. This is not a great illustration
in a lot of ways, but for this particular point, I think it's
a real good one. Now you listen, Vicki and I will
very soon most likely be cosigning on a loan for a car for one of
our children. And she is incurring that debt. Her name is gonna be on it, okay? But the moment that she defaults
upon it, if that's the case, whose debt is it? It's not like
it was mine, it is mine. It's mine. And as I said, the illustration
of a cosigner is not a perfect one in the matter of our sin
and our Savior, but it's a pretty good one concerning this aspect
of it. The problem in that scenario
is that our child is unable to pay, if that be the case, but
the debt is mine. That's why he said my sin. I'm
the problem, but he's responsible. He's my surety. And he agreed. Not in the. Unlikely case that I might default,
but knowing that I would. Knowing that I would. He said
I'll repay it. Put it on my account. What the Lord refers to as his
sin is my sin, just like my righteousness before God is his righteousness.
We see that in the scripture, don't we? He was made sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. My righteousness before God is
His righteousness. My righteousness is not like
Christ's, it is Christ's. Are we clear on that? It's not
like His. His righteousness is my righteousness.
There's just one righteousness, and it's His, but I call it mine.
Because He gave Himself for me that I might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. I never did one single thing
to deserve God's blessing. And my Savior never did one single
thing to deserve God's wrath. And yet He bore it for me that
I might be forever blessed. Is that clear? I believe the
Scriptures are clear about that, whether we are or not. Verse six, let not them that
wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not
those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel,
because. This is so rich with gospel.
Because for thy sake I have borne it. I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. You
see that? This is a key verse now. It's
important here to understand something about the original
grammar here. The words ashamed and confounded there, they're
not adjectives. They're not just describing what
we will be in the case that our Lord doesn't answer this prayer
with a yes. They're not just describing what
we will be. These are verbs. They're verbs. And that's, we
have to read it this way, knowing that. It says, let not them be
put to shame. Let not them be reproached. You
see that? That's an action. Let it not
fall upon them. Let them not be condemned. Let
them not be ashamed. Let them not be reproached. Why
not? Because I have borne it. Don't reproach them. Don't condemn
them. I've borne their condemnation.
I've borne their reproach. I've borne all of their shame.
And that's, I'll tell you this. We might pass over that lightly
tonight, but somebody's gonna be singing about that forever
and never get tired of it. I want to be one of those, don't
you? I wish that my sin was not such that right now I could pass
over that so lightly. We're going to be singing about
that from now on, y'all, that Christ bore our reproach. Don't reproach them, he said.
I've borne it. Not I'm going to, not I'm doing
my best, not I'm trying, not I'm going to make it available.
Don't put it on them. It's already on me. Do you see
that? I want you to notice one last
thing in this psalm. Like I said, we could never cover
this tonight and we may pick up where we leave off and we
may just let this stand as the message of this psalm. But here,
I want to notice this one last thing tonight. The Lord blesses
these who wait upon God. Look at it. In verse 6, he said,
let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed
for my sake, for my sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. Don't
let them be ashamed. He pronounces his blessing upon
those, how does he describe them? Them that wait on thee. That's
the first way he describes them. They're also described as those
whose shame he has borne. You see that? That's a pretty
good description. They're waiting on you, and I've
borne their shame. That's who I'm talking about.
Don't let any shame or reproach be put upon them. So he blesses
them now. And here's something important. Our Lord prays for these who
wait upon God, for those for whom he bears their reproach,
just as he did in Luke 23, 34. It says, then said Jesus, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And
they parted his raiment and cast lots. Now he was clearly speaking
of those who stood by that day as he was on the cross. He said,
Father, forgive them. In that context, he's speaking
of those that are surrounding that cross. But notice the language
in verse 20 of our text, and I want to read a pretty good
passage here of our text and just make one point, and we'll
be through a little earlier than that. Reproach hath broken my
heart. I am full of heaviness, and I
believe we will have to come back to this psalm because we're
just going to have to, aren't we? Reproach hath broken my heart.
We think, you know, our heart has been broken. We don't even
know what a broken heart is, do we? I'm full of heaviness,
and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none for
comforters. But I found none, not even his
friends, not even those that he had blessed so much and
spent time with and taught them. They gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their
table become a snare before them. Listen to this. You see the contrast
here? Bless those that wait on you,
Lord. Don't let any shame fall on them. But here, clearly, he's
at the cross now, right? This is cross language. They
gave me vinegar and gall. And let their table become a
snare before them. Let that which should have been
for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened
that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour
out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take
hold of them. That's a little different from
Father forgive them, isn't it? Let their habitation be desolate,
and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou
hast smitten. Notice that now, whom thou hast
smitten. We know who smoked the Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased
the father to bruise him because the father had made a covenant
with the people. He said, I will have mercy. And
this is the only way. And so the father smote his son
and they talked to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded,
add iniquity unto their iniquity and let them not come into thy
righteousness. That's pretty clear language,
isn't it? Let them be blotted out of the book of the living
and not be written with the righteous. He's saying that from the cross
too. Whether he actually spoke those words. A lot of people
say that all these prophetic verses in the Psalms and in other
places that he actually spoke those words and they just weren't
recorded in the Gospels because maybe those who wrote the Gospels
didn't hear those particular words or whatever. But it's clear
the context here. And so he spoke from the cross,
he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Who is he talking to? Somebody right there. He also said, cut
some of them off, cut them off. Don't let them be written in
the book of the living. Don't let them enter with the
righteous into the blessing. How can there be such a difference?
How can he be, who's he talking to there? Somebody right there. There can only be one answer
here, and that's that he's not talking about the same people.
He's not praying about the same people here. God can't forgive
you of your sins and blot you out of the book of the living
and refuse to allow you into his righteousness. It's two different
people now. And this is so contrary to the
teaching that passes for a gospel in today's religion. Our Lord
knew those that were his from the beginning. He said that Judas
was a devil from the beginning. He knew that before he ever showed
his true colors. And he knew who was his. He handpicked
him. He chose him. He does that with
all of his. That's why he interceded the
way that he did in John 17. Now he said, I pray for them.
For them. You remember in our text there
and. In Psalm 69 six, what he said, let not them. That wait
on the. Oh Lord God of hosts be ashamed.
Same them. Same them. I pray for them. I pray not for the world. But
for them, which thou has given me for their that. And all mine
are thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them. I
pray for mine that you gave me, they're yours, and they're mine. And I'm glorified in them. He's
gonna get glory in this. The them, as I said in John 17,
nine, there's the same them in Psalm 69, six. What's the lesson
here? Well, if you're entertaining
some idea that Christ died with the desire that all men be forgiven
of their sins. He did his best so that all would
be forgiven. That was his desire in dying.
That was his purpose to make it possible for all to be forgiven.
But all he accomplished by his death is to make that wish a
possibility contingent upon your decision. This is what they teach.
If you have any idea about any of that, you need to wake up.
You need to wake up. God's love is in Christ alone.
He does not love everybody. He loves those that he gave to
his son and put in his son from eternity. Forgiveness is in Christ
alone. He's not talking about the whole
world when he says, Father, forgive them. Whoever he was talking
about was forgiven because he always gets what he prays for.
He said, my father hears me always. Forgiveness is in Christ alone.
Your only hope is Christ. And here's good news now. When
you come to Christ, you're coming to a victorious savior. You're
not coming to a wannabe. He doesn't merely hope you'll
be saved. He saved you. That's who you come to. He doesn't
save you because you come to him. You come to him because
he saved you. That's the good news. He said he was just talking
there in John 17 as we quoted. about those that the Father gave.
I'm interceding for them. That's who the high priest represents,
the people of God. Not the Ites, the Perizzites,
and the Hittites, and all the other, the people of God, the
elect. And he said also, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me
I will never, never cast out. No wise, no way will I cast them
out. Now you think about that. I don't
pray for this world, I pray for those you give me. And all of
those are coming now. All of them are coming. This
is a sure covenant. This is a sure salvation. A victorious
savior that cannot, did not fail. I will in no wise cast out. That's
a sure hope now. And as I said, I think I said
this this past Sunday, that tells us two things. If you come to
the Lord Jesus Christ, I know why, don't you? Because of that
verse. Because the Father gave you to
his son before you was ever born. That's why you come. And I know
something else from this verse. If you come to him, he'll save
you. You come to him, he'll save you. If your salvation depends upon
you deciding to come to Christ, then what if you decide to leave
him? No, thank God, his sheep hear
his voice, and they follow him. All of them come to me, he said.
And they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of his hand. Thank God because my Redeemer
took my place. He took my sin. He took my place.
He took my guilt. He took my punishment. He took
the wrath of God that was against me for my sin. And he satisfied
the justice of God. He put paid to the record for
all of my sin. And he is my righteousness. He
did that that I might be made the righteousness of God, which
is Christ's righteousness. I never did anything to be blessed of God that's worthy
of blessing. And he never did anything to
suffer the wrath of God. But he did suffer it. And I am
holy before God because of Christ. Like I said, I'm just like you
now. I'm in the same sinful flesh
you are. We say these things and we say, yeah, that's what
I believe. I believe that. But one of these
days, we're going to realize who he is and what he did. And
we're never going to stop singing his glory. The praises of the
Lamb. And so I pray for enough light
now to be able to sing his praises with some understanding. of the preciousness of that blood.
Let's pray.