Alright brethren, Psalm 116. We looked at this last time. I want to look at it again. You know the setting of this
psalm is in verse 3. It's great affliction. Great
affliction and we hear Christ speaking here. Let's hear the
Lord speaking. Verse 3. The sorrows of death
compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found
trouble and sorrow." We know this was true of our Lord on
the cross. The sorrows of death compassed
Him. The pains of hell got hold of
Him. Everywhere He looked, all about
Him was sorrow and trouble. This was everything that night
leading up to the cross. It was everything that he suffered
in those three hours on that cross. And there was nobody to
help. There was no one about. He was
bearing this for his people. He's bearing what we deserve.
You sitting here that believe him, that's what he was bearing
for us. Now look down at verse 10. And
I want to stay with our Lord all the way through. I don't
have points, really, I just want to go verse by verse. But I want
to look at Christ in it, and then I want you to, we'll apply
it a little to us. Verse 10, now stay with our Lord
here. I believed, therefore have I spoken. Now what did he just
speak? We saw this great sorrow and
this great affliction he was in, and he said, I believe, therefore
have I spoken. Back in verse four. Then called
I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver
my soul. As our Lord suffered, as the
perfect faithful servant of our Father, the righteous, holy servant
of God, He believed God. He believed every word the Father
promised him. And it's very important because
he's representing all of us, his people, and he's believing
God as the righteous, perfect, faithful one. And he believed
God. And we've seen all through these
Psalms our Lord cry to the Father. Prophetically, we've seen it
all through these Psalms. And sometimes he cried to him
as he walked this earth. Sometimes he cried to him from
the cross. That night, this is a song that he would have sung
more than likely. with his apostles before he went
to the garden. And we know when he went to the
garden, he cried, I believe, therefore I cried unto the Lord.
And then on the cross he did as well. Now, when we suffer,
when you and I suffer, it's not going to be anything like what
Christ suffered. You know that. But as we suffer,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and call on him. Believe on Him
and call on Him. And if we believe on Him, that's
what we'll do. We'll call on Him. He'll sanctify
it to our heart when He sends the trouble and you will call
on Him like never before. Like never before. And the Father,
He will raise us in every trial. Just like He did when He brought
you to call on Him the first time, and He raised you to see
Christ crucified in your room instead, and He lifted your heart,
made you believe Him and trust Him, strengthened you inwardly,
He'll do the same for us in every time of suffering. You believe
Him and you call on Him. You look to Him and you call
on Him. That's what our Redeemer did. Turn over to 2 Corinthians
4. The same Spirit that spoke in
our text and spoke to the psalmist, gave him this word to write.
He also spoke, the same spirit spoke in the apostle Paul. And
he moved Paul to quote our psalm. And Paul was talking about when
he suffered great affliction, why he believed, he believed
the Lord, and why he spoke. He spoke to the Lord, he prayed
to the Lord, and he spoke his word faithfully. Because he believed. And look what he said here now.
Watch what he said. He's telling how we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. We're just clay pots and the
excellency of the power is not of us. We have absolutely no
sufficiency of ourselves. That's me, you, all of us. Our
sufficiency is of God. Every hour of every day. Constantly. And the Lord will prove that
in his people. He'll prove that in his people.
And he did in the Apostle Paul, verse 8, he said, we're troubled
on every side, yet not distressed. How could that be? How could
that be? He believed God. He called on
the Lord when he was in this shape. We're troubled on every
side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair.
persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh. Christ said, Paul said, we're
dying every day and the only reason we're upheld is Christ
is our strength. He's the life in us. Now watch
this. So then death worketh in us,
but life in you. We having the same spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore have
I spoken. We also believe and therefore
speak. Here's what we believe. Here's
why we're calling on the Lord. Here's why we trust him. Here's
why we call on him. Knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall
present us with you. For all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. And for this cause, because the
Lord is working in His people, we believe Him, we call on Him,
and He's the life working in His people. And for this cause,
we faint not. It's for His people, for the
glory of God. Though our outward man perish,
the inward man is renewed day by day. Now that's the same thing
that our Lord's saying in our tape. When he suffered, he believed,
he called on the Lord, and the Lord was his strength. Now go
back with me to Psalm 116. Verse 10, I believed, therefore
have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. Now,
while the Lord Jesus was going to the cross, there was all kinds
of things done to Him. When He was in that hall of Caiaphas
that night, they smote Him, they blindfolded Him, they hid Him,
they did all kinds of things. And then on the cross, they were
going all about the cross. And they were surrounding him.
They were gnashing upon him. And they were saying, Isaiah
tells us what they were saying. They said, he's stricken of God. He's smitten of God. He is afflicted
of God. They said, he trusted in God.
Let him deliver him if he'll have him. For he said, I'm the
son of God. They're mocking him. They're
mocking him. They're just standing there wagging
their head at him. and just mocking him. That's
all they were doing. Now sinners will oppose our gospel. We got a lot of enemies without
that will oppose the gospel. And they'll oppose you, and they'll
speak all manner of evil against you. Especially if you suffer
outwardly. That's why they were doing it
to Christ, because he was suffering outwardly. But hear Christ speak
right here. Verse 10, I was greatly afflicted,
I said in my haste, I said hurriedly, all men are liars. Now listen,
the word haste makes some people think that David is saying he
made a mistake. Now, there's no doubt when he
was in that great season of unbelief, this is where a lot of people
think he wrote this from that experience. When he was in that
season of unbelief, he even doubted the word of Samuel that Samuel
gave to him. Remember when he thought Saul
was going to kill him and he fled and went into the land of
the Philistines? He said, you know, he'll kill
me and the best thing for me to do is flee into the land of
the Philistines. But that's not what our Lord said. It's not
what our Lord said. Our Lord heard those words and
He hastily, that means hurriedly, said, all men are liars. What
did He just say before that? I believe. I believe. These men are lying. I believe
God. I believe His word. I believe
the Lord God that sent me. And these men, what they're saying,
they're lying. I believe Him. I'm His. I'm doing His work.
I trust Him. I believe Him. That's what our
Lord Jesus said. He was greatly afflicted by men
saying all those things about Him, but He believed the word
of His Father, and therefore He called on the name of the
Lord. The same Spirit of God was in our Lord, and the same
Spirit was in Paul. And again, Paul quoted or said
something that it sounds just like this verse. And I believe
it's exactly what it gives light for this verse. Go over to Romans
3 and look at verse 3. You can listen to men or you
can listen to God. You can get in God's Word and
listen to God or you can listen to men. And the devil's desire
is to destroy our faith. The only way to resist him is
steadfast in the faith. It means we are going to have
to get in God's word and we are going to have to hear what God
says and believe God and call on God and trust God. And you
are going to face all kinds of opposition when you are trying
to declare the gospel to men. And they are going to hate you
and they are going to constantly speak evil against you. They
may do it for years and years and years and years and years. Paul said in Romans 3.3, What
if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith of God without effect? This is what some people will
say when they hear about the sovereignty of God and able to
bring the gospel to his people and effectively work in his people.
They'll say, but what about these people that don't believe? They
must make the word of God of none effect. Paul said, God forbid. Let God be true, but every man
a liar as it's written. that thou mightest be justified
in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. That fits
the context of our psalm a whole lot better than saying David
made a mistake. Christ Jesus the Lord heard all
the cries of the men around him saying what they were saying
and he said let God be true and ever man a liar. He trusted the
Father. I believed therefore I called
on him. I called on him, and he heard
me. He heard me. You go to the Lord. You trust
the Lord. You believe on the Lord. In all
times of suffering, by his grace, here's what God's going to do.
When the trouble comes and the trial comes, you'll start hearing
all kind of talking and all kind of voices, and there'll be a
lot of them that would destroy your faith, completely destroy
your faith. You go to God, and you believe
God. You call upon the Lord. Let God
be true, and every man a liar. You trust Him. You commit all
your care to Him. You resist steadfast in the faith,
no matter the objections, no matter the opposition. You go
to God, and you believe God. You go to God, and you believe
God. Trust Him. Now we've seen in John's gospel
the submissive spirit that our substitute had. We've been looking
at this in John 18, when those soldiers came to arrest him.
Now hear him speak in this psalm. Verse 12, what shall I render
unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Now look at Christ
before he went to the cross. looked at him before he went
to the cross. He's facing the cross. He's facing the suffering.
Look at what he's saying now. He had said the Lord Jesus loved
him from before the foundation of the world. He prayed that
high priestly prayer and he spoke of the glory he had with the
Father before the world was. The Father entrusted a people
to him. The Father gave him this great work to do. And when he
came as God's righteous servant, God the Father was with him throughout
his life. When he was in the womb, when
God was protecting him, and when he was born, God, Herod wanted
to kill him right away. Before, he was just coming into
the world, and Herod tried to kill him, and the Lord protected
him. All through his life, he's trusting
the Father as the righteous, faithful one, trusting the Father,
and the Father protected him the whole way through. And when
he entered his public ministry, the Lord poured the Spirit out
upon him without measure. And all through his public ministry,
the Lord was giving him all these benefits. And he comes to that
time when he's supposed to face that cross, and he says, What
shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits to me? Look
at verse 13. I will take the cup of salvation. In John 12, 27, he said, Now
is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Shall I say,
Father, save me from this hour? He said, For this cause came
out unto this hour. When he was in the garden praying,
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits? He
said, O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me except I
drink it, thou wilt be done. And then he told Peter, Put up
his sword, Peter. the cup which my father has given
me, shall I not drink it?" You see, that cup of affliction for
him is the cup of salvation for his people. That's the cup of
salvation for us. But he had to drink that cup
of affliction for us for it to be the cup of salvation to you
and me. So he said, verse 13, I will
take the cup of salvation and I will call upon the name of
the Lord. I'll take this cup And I'll do
it calling on the name of the Lord, trusting my Father. I'll
pay my vows unto the Lord. I'll pay to the Lord what I vowed
to pay Him for eternity. I'll fulfill the everlasting
covenant I promised Him I would fulfill. Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His saints. That's the joy set before Him
right there. How He endured the cross, despising the shame. Because
in His death, all God's saints, everyone God sanctified in Him
and divine election died. And that was a precious death
to our God, because by one offering, He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. We died in Him. There's some
people here that died in Him that night. You died in Him. We rose in Him. In the new birth,
He gave us that sweet cup of salvation. Now what do we say?
Now what do we say? What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits to me? I'll take the cup of salvation
and I'll call upon the name of the Lord. When he brings you
this gospel and he reveals to you what he's done for you, it
may be a cup of affliction he gives you at first to reveal
your sin to you, but when he shows you what he's done for
you, you willingly take that cup of salvation. And it's a
sweet cup. It's a sweet cup. And then when
He works providentially and this cup of affliction comes to you,
whatever it is, that's the cup of salvation too. Each trial
makes us die a little bit more to this world and each trial
makes us live a little more to Him. Each trial makes us die
to this world, each trial makes us live a little more to Him.
That death is precious in the Lord's sight. So let this be
the spirit. When the trial is coming, are
you in it or are you coming out of it? I'll take the cup of salvation
and I'll call upon the name of the Lord." When Paul was in bonds,
when he was afflicted, men were preaching to add to his affliction. Remember what he said? He said,
I'm just thankful Christ is preached. But he said this, I know that
this shall turn to my salvation. This is a cup of salvation for
me. Through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ." There was a lot of people, a lot of people. The ones that
were preaching and trying to add affliction to his mind, 100%
convinced Paul was a wicked man. Every one of them. Paul said,
I know. What did he do? He said, let
God be true in every man alive. God's promised me I have salvation
in Christ, and I trust Him, and I believe Him, and I'm going
to continue following Him. Let God be true. I know that
shall turn to my salvation through your prayer. God's people are
going to pray for one another. And the supply of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ He's going to keep His people. It's going to
turn to your salvation, whatever the cup is. Now, believe in God
and behold what great things He's done for us in Christ, seeing
how He's made us righteous, how He's made us holy, how He's satisfied
the law for us, and then by His Spirit given us an understanding
of all this. This is why we're willing to
give ourselves to Him, to serve Him, whatever the sacrifice cost. whatever it cost you. You have
to leave your home, you'll do it. You have to leave a life
you had that had a lot more appeal and a lot more money involved.
Whatever it is, David said, shall I sacrifice to the Lord that
which cost me nothing? I'll pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people. He heard the voice of
my supplications. I love him. I believe him. I'll
call upon him as long as I live. That's what he said in the first
two verses. He's heard me. He's answered me. He's delivered
me. I love him. I'll call on him the rest of
my days as long as I live. How long is that going to be
believer? Forever. Because you're never going to
die. It's going to be forever. I believed him and so I've spoken
and I'll speak of his faithfulness in the presence of his people. All that night when they were
saying all those things, Christ just kept speaking the faithfulness
of God. He just kept speaking the truth
of the Lord. And so will His people. I'll walk before Him
in the land of the living. I'll walk before Him knowing
I'm before Him. Protected by Him, hedged about
by Him, always wanting to please Him. And I'll give Him all the
praise for making me do this. This is what, every time you
take the cup of salvation, whether it's affliction, or he's giving
you that sweet cup, showing you how he's brought you out of the
affliction. Every time, a little bit more, that's where he brings
you. That's where he brings you. We have to be patient. Let patience
have a perfect word. Trust God to grow. Trust him
to give the early rain and the latter rain. And wait on him,
and he'll do it. Now, verse 16. O Lord, truly
I am thy servant, I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid,
thou hast loosed my bonds. Now let's stay with Christ here
for first. The Lord Jesus Christ was God's
willing bondservant. You remember in Isaiah 42 verse
1, the Lord said, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, and
whom my soul delighteth. Now the bond servant, the willing
bond servant, he was somebody who loved his master and wanted
to serve his master. And so when he could go out free,
he wouldn't. He wanted to serve his master.
So they took him to the doorpost and they put a hall through his
ear. They opened his ear. Well, go to Isaiah 50 and look
at what our Lord said. I'm thy servant, truly I'm thy
servant. Isaiah 50 verse 5, he said the
Lord God hath opened mine ear. That's what they did to a bondservant,
they opened his ear. He said, the Lord God has opened
my ear and I was not rebellious, I was willing, I'm the willing
bondservant, neither turned away my back. I gave, I willingly
gave my back to the smiters. and my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For
the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore
have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
ashamed." You hear him speaking of how he believed him. He believed
him. I believed him, therefore I've spoken. He's believing God
and he's speaking it. He's near that justifies me.
Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who's
my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold,
the Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment. The moth shall
eat them up. Now, that's what he believed. That's why he said, let God be
true and every man a liar. If the voice speaking is not
saying, look to Christ, and trust Christ, and follow Christ, it's
a voice of opposition. Putting anything between you
and Christ, it's a voice of opposition. But if he's saying, go to Christ,
trust Christ, that's all brethren want for one another. That's a brother speaking to
you. Trust you to Christ. Go to him. He'll save you. He's
the master. Well, look, the Lord Jesus, according
to the flesh, was the son of the handmaid. He was the son
of the Lord's handmaid, according to the flesh. When the angel
told Mary the Son of God was in her womb, do you remember
what she said? Luke 1 at 138, Mary said, Behold, the handmaid
of the Lord. Christ said, I'm the son of thine
handmaid, Lord. She said, Be it according to
thy word, Lord. She didn't understand what the
Lord was doing. He came and said, The Son of God's in your womb.
You're about to give birth to Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. She said, be
it unto me according to thy word, Lord. I'm just your handmaid.
After our substitute suffered a while, he went there, and what'd
they do? We saw Sunday, what'd they do?
They bound him. They led him away. He went to
that cross and the Lord put all the sins of His people on Him.
He made a curse for His people and He bore that bondage, that
curse that we would have borne. And then they wrapped Him in
garments for the grave. And they put Him in the tomb.
The Lord said, You loose my bonds. He came out of that grave. He
came out alive. and he ascended to the Father,
and all his people came out and ascended to the Father in him.
He said, Oh my Lord, you have loosed my bonds.
I am the son of thine handmaid. Now, when he comes to you and
gives you grace and makes you know your head, and this is what
he keeps on renewing, you know you are renewed in knowledge
after the image of him. that created your new man. And this is what he's going to
keep teaching you. There's two things that's required to make
a sinner a willing bond servant. Two things. One, you've got to
be born into the master's house. That's one way. You can be born
into a house and be a servant. That's one way. All God's children
are born again into his house And we're sons. We're sons. We're
sons of the handmaid. Who's the handmaid? His church.
His church is preaching this gospel through which Christ is
making us be born again. We're all born again of God,
sons of the handmaid. And by His grace, He makes you
willing to be a servant of the Lord. The second way a sinner
could be made a servant was he's bought. He's purchased. Our Lord
Jesus redeemed us. He bought us out of captivity.
He bought us with His precious blood. And it's beholding how
He loved us and laid down His life for us and by His precious
blood bought us that makes us willing to be His servants. Willingly. And that makes us
say, Oh Lord, You gave me life and You loosed
my bonds. You loosed all my bonds. He does
this over and over. He makes you see it, all these
little deliverances, all these little redemptions. It reminds
you of that great redemption and that great loosening of your
bonds. Lord truly I'm thy servant, I'm
thy servant, I'm the son of thy handmaid, thou hast loosed my
bonds. Verse 17, I will offer to thee
the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon thy name,
the name of the Lord, and that word call also means praise.
I'll praise him as long as I live. That's what he said in verse
2. The sacrifice of thanksgiving. Now listen, it's Christ himself. He's the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
He gave Himself. He's the offering. He sacrificed
Himself. All those old covenant offerings
pictured Christ Jesus. And as we give thanks to God
for what He's done, and we have to give Him thanks for everything. He said, in everything give thanks
for this is the will of God concerning you. That means it's the will
of God concerning you to thank Him for everything. But it means
also in everything, give Him thanks because whatever it is
that's in your life right now, that's God's will for you. Thank
Him for it. Because it's salvation. In some
way, it's salvation. And whatever it is you needed,
it's salvation for you. Thank Him for it. It might be
breaking your heart. Thank Him for it. It may be rejoicing
your heart. Thank Him for it. But as we're
thanking Him, God receives our thanksgiving through Christ Jesus,
our intercessor. He's the one pictured in that
thank-off. We come to God's house through
His name. Through His name. thanking Him
through His name. By Him, therefore, that's what
the Hebrew writer said, by Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to His name. I was going to save this for
the next message. but I'll go ahead and give it
to you now. I read this story about this little girl, and I
think it was set in England maybe, and they were, her mother was
very poor, and they were put out on the street, and it was
cold, cold, cold, and they did not have a place to go in and
get out of the wind, and they had no shelter whatsoever. And
the mother passed by a cellar, and the door was just almost
off the hinges, and she pulled that cellar door off the hinges,
and she set it up against the wall, and it got down under it
to block the wind. And the mother was complaining
a little bit about how cold it was, and the little girl said,
Mama, what about those dear children that don't have a cellar door
to block the wind? That's giving thanks for everything.
Thank you for the cellar door. That's all I got. Thank you for
that, Lord. Thank you for that. And he said, and do good and
communicate, supplying the needs of brethren. He said, don't forget
that, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. And if we're thankful,
we'll try to do good to one another and we'll try to provide sacrificially
whatever the other needs. Verse 18, I'll 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. Are we
going to stay with the Lord right here? Are we going to look at
the Lord Jesus first right here? He's the head of the church.
He's the prophet, priest, and king. He promised the Father,
this was His vow in the covenant of grace, that as the prophet,
priest, and king of His people, He was going to draw all His
people to His house. And He would go on by His Spirit
through His Gospel, give them all the heart to believe and
bring them to praise God and give Him all the glory. That's
what He promised. That's what He promised the Father.
If you're here tonight by His grace, by His power, by His Spirit,
that's why you're here. And if you hear this Word, it's
because He's speaking to you. Blessing it to your heart. That
was Christ's vow to His Father. God the Father said in Isaiah
42, He said, Behold My servant, He said, He shall not fail nor
be discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth and the
Isles, the Gentiles, shall wait for His gospel. When He came
here, He set judgment in the earth on the cross. And He began
setting judgment in the hearts of His people, and He began with
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And after He arose, He
started sending forth His gospel to the Gentiles. And we've been
waiting on this gospel ever since. He's still been spreading His
gospel to us, setting judgment in our hearts, giving us discernment
to know He is all in all. And when He's called the last
one in, He'll present us to Him blameless. Only one way you're
going to be blameless when He comes, that's in Him. That's
in Him. If we try to be blameless in
ourselves, we'll be spotted. It's only in Him. So this is His command. Has He
gathered you here and He's done His work, made you see He's done
His work for you? What's His command then? Here it is, the
end of verse 19. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord. Give Him all
the glory, give Him all the praise, give Him all the thanksgiving.
Amen. All right, Brother Gray, let's
praise Him.