That's a good song. Let's turn
to Psalm 88. Under the old covenant, high
priests were taken from among men. And God tells us why. He said in Hebrews 5.1, they
are ordained for men in things pertaining to God. that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins. And two, who can have compassion
on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that
he himself also is compassed with infirmity. Christ is the
high priest who offered the gift and sacrifice for the sins of
his people. He is that offering with whom
God is well pleased and accepts his people And since he suffered
as a man, compassed with all our infirmities, touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, tempted in all points like as
we are, yet without sin, he is able to have compassion on us
and strengthen us when we are ignorant and straying. He is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows what we
suffer because he suffered it infinitely greater. He's able. He's able to comfort. He's able
to strengthen. Now Psalm 88 beginning to end
is a psalm of Christ's suffering on the cross. Some call it the darkest psalm
of all the psalms. You know, Psalm 22 is a very
dark psalm, but about halfway through it switches to some joy. Well, this psalm beginning to
end is full of suffering and sorrow. But Psalm 88 and Psalm
89 were penned by brothers, Heman and Ethan, both Israelites. And they really, these two Psalms
really go together. This Psalm is penned by Heman,
his name means faithful. And in this Psalm we see Christ's
faithfulness as he bore the suffering and shame of the cross. The next
psalm is penned by Ethan and his name means enduring. And
there Christ is still enduring the cross. When you get towards
the end you see He is still suffering on the cross. But however, He
begins to praise the Father's faithfulness in His covenant
mercies to Christ and to His people in Christ. He starts to
praise the Father. Christ speaks of the Father's
covenant promise to Him over in Psalm 89, 27, and He says,
this is God the Father's word to Christ, His covenant to Him.
After He suffered, after He satisfied justice, after He died, this
was God's promise. I make Him my firstborn, higher
than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for Him
forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with Him. His
seed also will I make to endure forever in His throne as the
days of heaven. Now today we are going to look
here in Psalm 88 and again behold Christ's perfect suffering in
place of His people. And as we see this we are going
to see that it is by His obedience unto death that He justified
us, that He is perfection of everything required of God for
His people. We see it in what Christ suffered
here. He suffered being touched with the feeling of our infirmities
and so He is able to comfort us. We have not a high priest
that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but
was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Now
the psalm begins showing Christ's faithfulness in the midst of
the cross. We see His faithfulness right away and you just picture
your Redeemer on the cross suffering in darkness and we see His faithfulness
right away. He says in verse 1, O Lord God
of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee. Let
my prayer come before thee. Incline thine ear unto my cry. This unparalleled suffering he
is enduring, cut off from God, fierce wrath of God. And he cries
out, O Lord God of my salvation, O covenant God of my salvation,
O sovereign God of my salvation, on the cross Christ is the servant
of God suffering in place of His people, and He must be faithful,
He must be obedient even to the death of the cross. And there
we find Him perfectly faithful in that perfect suffering that
He's enduring. He begins owning God the Father
as the Lord God of His salvation. It's to no other that He cries,
to none but God. He said, I've cried day and night
before Thee, And we see His perfect meekness, His perfect humility
here. He says, let my prayer come before
Thee. Incline Thine ear unto my cry. Let my prayer come before Thee. That's meekness, isn't it? You mean the sovereign Son of
God who came down and went to the cross, took the form of a
servant that much that He prayed to the Father and said, let my
prayer come before Thee. Yes, He did, representing His
people. The only way Heman, as a man,
could continue to cry in faith to the Lord God of his salvation
is by Christ's faithfulness. If we read this as Heman suffering
this, and he probably did suffer some of this, but the only way
he could continue crying to the Lord God of my salvation, the
only way you and I will do so is by Christ who suffered this
perfectly, and by Christ who intercedes for his people, by
Christ who strengthens us and keeps our faith sustained in
the midst of all our suffering. You know, prayer is put in the
heart by the Lord. It's put in the heart by the
Lord. This is wonderful. This is absolutely wonderful
and it's beyond me and I'm sure it's beyond you when you think
about this, but prayer is put in our heart by God. Listen to
this. This is why Christ came and redeemed
us. He said in Galatians 4, 6, He said, because your sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Now hear that. In Galatians 4,
6, it's the spirit of His Son Himself within our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. He sent the Spirit of His Son
into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. Then in Romans 8.15,
it's the Spirit of adoption, that same Spirit that makes us
cry. He said, you've not received
the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the
Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. There it's
us crying. And then in Romans 8.26 the Spirit
Himself makes intercession for us with the Father because we
don't know how to pray as we ought. Likewise, the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
Is this not the only reason that Peter's faith did not fail when
he denied Christ and went back to his fishing nets? Christ said,
I've prayed for you. Christ was the intercessor at
God's right hand. He was the spirit within Peter
that kept Peter in faith. And he was that one who was creating
that groaning in Peter even when Peter looked like he was going
away. The only way you and I are going
to pray to God and pray in faith in the midst of great suffering
By the Spirit of our Lord. By the Spirit of our Lord. He
is both our intercessor at God's right hand and He's the one in
our hearts working, keeping, sustaining faith in Him. He's
the perfect faithful one. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He is. Now His faith was perfect
faith. He prayed to God and none else
in perfect meekness. with no sin while He was burying
our sin and being cut off from God. Now that's faithfulness.
Secondly, we see the fullness of suffering that Christ bore
on the cross on behalf of His people. In verse 3, He says,
here's why He's crying out, He says, for my soul is full of
troubles. and my life draweth nigh unto
the grave. I am counted with them that go
down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no strength,
free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave,
whom thou rememberest no more, and they are cut off from thy
hand. He suffering under the fierce wrath of God, and as doing
so, he suffered soul trouble. soul trouble. He said that on
his way to the cross. Now is my soul exceedingly sorrowful,
even unto death. And he suffered it to the full.
He says my soul is full of troubles. That's not hyperbole when Christ
is speaking. He suffered the fullness of trouble. Christ's soul was full of troubles.
Troubles heaped upon one another. One upon another upon another.
His soul was filled full with troubles till it contained no
more trouble. It was full. Perfect suffering.
Perfect suffering. This is the perfect fullness
of soul trouble which you and I deserve for our sins. The perfect fullness of soul
trouble that we deserve for our sin. We sorrow over our sin. We're ashamed of it. We sorrow
over it. But never so perfectly that we can be accepted of God
due to our sorrow. When He bore our sin and the
curse we deserve, Christ suffered perfectly. He had soul trouble
perfectly. Our repentance is full of sin.
Our repentance is full of sin. Christ is the perfect righteousness
of our repentance and of our sorrow and of our shame. When
He talks about being touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
being in all points tempted as we are, it's in every point. And He's the righteousness in
every point. Whatever we suffer, When you
are suffering, whatever it is, you can take that suffering and
look to Christ. And you keep looking to Christ.
You search the scriptures. You look to Christ. And you will
find He suffered what you are suffering. And take that suffering,
and as painful and sorrowful as it is, look to Christ and
realize how perfectly He suffered. and how perfectly faithful he
was in that suffering. Have you ever been shut up where
you can't open your mouth? You just can't open your mouth.
You can't say anything. That's a burden on us. That just goes against everything
that's in our sin nature. Think about our Lord who was
perfectly innocent. And He opened not His mouth.
He couldn't. Because if He opened His mouth
to defend the fact that He was perfectly righteous, He's going
to condemn His people, His bride. And He can't do that. He had
to suffer silently. When you have to suffer silently,
no, you're not doing it anywhere remotely like Christ did. And
I'm not making light of suffering. I know this. You don't want to
go to your brethren and say, well, you ain't suffered like
a... But just use it to see Christ and know how perfectly He suffered
in perfect faithfulness in every point, in every way. And you'll
find consolation in all your trouble when you see Him. He's
your perfection of it. Because what we do is when we're
suffering, we see sin and we see ourselves not being like
Him. And then you see Him suffering
it perfectly and you think, oh, I'm so thankful. He's my only
righteousness. He was counted, He was imputed,
He was numbered with them that go down to the pit. Scripture
says He was numbered with the transgressors. That's what He's
saying here, that He's suffering a living death on the cross and
He's saying, I'm numbered, I'm counted as a dead man while I'm
alive. I'm counted here with these transgressors. Now men, sinners, sinful men,
counted Him to be a transgressor. But brethren, when God made him
bear our sin, God numbered him with the transgressors. He numbered
him with you and me, his elect who are the transgressors. And
made him to be the only one God looked to, to bear everything
that our sin deserved. And that's what He was suffering
on that cross as our sin bearer, as our substitute. He was alive,
but He was suffering that second death. And as He's suffering
that second death, being cut off from God, He is perfectly
faithful and holy, looking only to God. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful? He said
there that this cutting off was from or by God's hand. He said,
Whom thou rememberest no more, cut off from thy hand. I'm just
like a man that's just cut off in the grave. He was suffering
that on the cross. And yet in that fullness of soul
trouble, in that cutting off, in that living death, He continued
praying to the Father with unwavering faith. Unwavering. Our faith and our prayer is not
our righteousness. Our faith and our prayer is full
of sin. It's full of sin. Our faith is full of sin. Our prayer is full of sin. It's
not even acceptable to God except in Christ our intercessor, in
Christ our righteousness. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. We don't need Him just to Just
to be the author of our faith. We need Him to be the beginning
and the end. The only one God's looking to.
And our little mustard seed He gives us is just looking to Him. To be the one to represent us
to God. Because He suffered perfectly. He prayed perfectly. He interceded
perfectly. And as He did it, He was justifying
His people from all our sins. So He alone is the author and
finisher of our faith. He is the captain of our salvation. Perfectly consecrated through
the things He suffered. And He learned obedience through
the things He suffered. He perfected obedience through
the things He suffered. So that He knows what we feel
when we're suffering. So He can give us the comfort
we need. And you know what the comfort
always is? It's Him. It's Him. Showing us again what
He's done for us. Now thirdly, notice here that
he honored God by owning that all his suffering was of God's
hand. Now this is so important. Verse 6, Thou hast laid me in
the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth
hard upon me, and Thou hast afflicted me with all Thy waves. Selah. Think of that. With all
God's waves. Verse 14. Lord, why castest thou
off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? I am afflicted and ready to die
from my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors, I
am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me daily like water. They compassed me
about together. Now Christ suffered at the hands
of ungodly sinners. He suffered at the hands of men
who hated Him, rejected Him, nailed Him to a cross. No doubt
about that. But Christ honored the Father
by acknowledging this was God's eternal purpose. This was God
who did this. It was God. It was God's hand
of righteous judgment on Christ on the cross because he made
him bear the sin of his people. It was God's hand. He was judged
by God on behalf of God's elect. It's the fierce wrath of God
that he was bearing. That was the wrath and the hand
that that satisfied justice, the hand of God, the mighty hand
of God. All God's waves of justice went
over our substitute, all of them, all the waves of justice. For
every offense, every thought, every sin, every act, everything
of His people beginning to end, all the waves of God's justice
crashed upon our Redeemer. And God cast him off because
God's holy, His justice had to be honored, as we saw this morning.
He had to be satisfied toward His people. His people had to
die. And so Christ is bearing that living second death under
the fierce hand of God, that God might be merciful to justify
us from all our sin. And when God the Father chastens
you and me, we may think it's God's fierce wrath. We may think
that. We may feel like that. And if
it's for our sin, it's certain that God is displeased with our
sin as He was with David. It's not always for our sin.
Sometimes it's to prevent sin coming forth. Sometimes it's
just to teach us to be more dependent upon Him. There's a lot of different
reasons God chastens His children. But it's never wrath. It's never
wrath. Christ suffered God's fierce
wrath to the full satisfaction of justice. And He says, fury
is not in me toward my people. God shall never pour out His
fierce wrath on His believing child because God in Christ satisfied
His justice. What is it then? What is it when
it feels to us, you know, it's so painful and it's so You can't bear up under it. What
is it? It's God's chastening, loving
hand. It's God's chastening, loving
hand, the loving hand of our Father. He's teaching us by experience. He's making us to know that it's
God's everlasting love for which we're not consumed, for which
we're not cut off. He will not allow you to perish
with this world. He is turning us to Christ to
keep us partaking of Christ's holiness. You know what that
is, truthfully? Peter said, your hearts were
purified through faith in Christ. And that's when He makes you
partake of His holiness. He turns you in faith to Christ
and purifies your heart, purges you to behold He is your righteousness
and your holiness. We just sang it. The only righteousness
and holiness of His people. Spurgeon said, our griefs are
waves which wash us to the rock. They're not God's fierce wrath. They're waves. but their waves
to wash us to the rock." We saw that in that Cano knight woman.
God gave her a great need and when she came to Him, He didn't
answer her at first. And then when He answered her,
He answered in His sovereignty and said, I'm only sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then He gave the sentence
to her. It's not me to take the children's bread and cast them
to dogs. And His silence and His sovereignty and His sentence
upon her. What did it make her do? Cry
unto Him more earnestly. Cast her care on Him more earnestly. And notice here, this is so important,
Christ suffered the winepress of God's fury all along. He did
this all along. Of the people there was none
to help. That means he gets all the glory. Look at verse 8. Thou
hast put away mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me
an abomination unto them. I am shut up and I cannot come
forth. Verse 18. Lover and friend hast
thou put far from me and mine acquaintance into darkness. God
alone is just and he is the justifier. In Christ he is just and he is
the justifier. Man has no part in putting away
our sin. Man has no part in making ourselves
the righteousness of God. It's all Christ alone. Again, you see here, he attributes
this to God. You put my acquaintance away. You put my friends who love me
far from me. You have shut me up. God ordained
this. God said this long before it
came to pass. He said in Zechariah 13.7, Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my
fellow. What did Christ say? You are the one that is smitten
me. It is your hand. And it said long before. He said,
I will awake the sword against him that is my fellow. I will
smite him. And what will happen? Smite the
shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. This was God's
doing. Why? It has to be abundantly
manifest and abundantly clear to everybody Christ had nobody
to help Him. He alone suffered the cross faithfully
and put away the sin of His people. No one was there to help Him.
No one was there to help Him. God determined before His sheep
would scatter when He smoked Christ and it was God who put
His apostles and His disciples far away. Christ is not blaming
them. He is saying, God did this. Thou
has done this. And Christ didn't look to second
causes. He didn't blame His apostles.
He acknowledged God as the first cause. In all our chastening,
He is going to keep His child acknowledging God as the first
cause. Because He is. He is. We will find no correction for
ourselves. And that is what it is always
for, for ourselves. And we're not going to find correction
for ourselves and no comfort looking to second causes. You
can do that and do that and do that and just never come to an
end of it. And we may start out doing that,
looking to second causes, but God is going to shut us up to
Christ. And he's going to make us look
away from the second causes to see that it's God whose hand
is upon us. And everything God brings upon
His child in this life, everything we suffer, His child is going
to get this. We're going to get this. We're
going to learn obedience by the things which we suffer. And here's
what we're going to learn. When He shuts us up to where
we cannot get help anywhere but Christ only, That's grace and
that's mercy. Leaving nobody else to comfort
us but Christ so that our help comes from Christ only. Christ
only. So that he might keep Christ
preeminent in our hearts as our only salvation and our only help
and our only righteousness. That's God's mercy. If we're
opposed by men, remember this. God is the first cause and is
for our good. That's so. That's so. It's for our good. David said,
Shew me I was sin of God, let him cuss me, it's for my good.
It's God's mighty hand. When a loved one dies, take this
for instance, it's God's hand to shut us up to Christ, that
Christ might remain preeminent in our hearts. He shuts us up
so that we have none to deliver but Christ. He shuts us up so
that we see that His compassion for us is weaning us from this
world. He is breaking every tender tie
so that we are made more aware and more conscious of this truth
that that unbreakable union with Christ can never, ever be severed. Ever. It is Christ our High Priest
having compassion on us. turning us from ourselves and
from every other comfort and every other confidence to Him
alone. Shut up to Christ. So long as sinners think things
happen by chance, so long as we attribute it to second causes
and blame things on second causes, there is no turning to Christ.
There's no repentance, there's no forgiveness in Him, no comfort
in Him, only a bitter root springing up within us. We only worship
and repent and pray to God when we come to Him as being the absolute
sovereign who sent the trouble for our good, for His glory. That's the only way you can worship
God. That's the only ones who worship God are those who worship
God as being absolutely sovereign. He sent the trouble. It may be
my own fault. It may not even be a fault. It
may just be that He's growing me in grace. But He's the cause
to shut us up from all else to Him only. to Him only. And when
you see that, and you know that, and you understand that, and
you look away from all second causes to Him only, that's when
you're going to start finding peace and comfort. That's when
you're going to find all your righteousness, all your holiness,
all your strength in Him. That's when you'll find comfort
in Him. And listen, this is not even
something He's going to... None of this is left to us. If
He did, we would never turn to it. This is of His sovereign
hand and He is going to make His child by His grace be shut
up to Him and look to Him. He is going to accomplish this.
And then lastly, I want you to see this. I want you to see Christ's
faithfulness again. By which we are made righteous
and by whom we can be certain. This is the faithfulness by seeing
that we can be certain He will work this in His people. He's
already worked this to make His people righteous and holy. This
is my confidence for you that God's going to work this in you.
That He's going to do it. This is His work. This is His
church. He's the head of it. I think I've told you this when
I first came here. It set in on me just how impossible
it is For me to keep anybody here, I can't do it. But He's
going to work this in His people and He's going to keep each one
individually, finding He is our perfection of faithfulness. And
He's going to be faithful to His people. Watch this now, verse
9. Now hear Christ speaking. Mine
eye mourneth by reason of affliction. Lord, I've called daily upon
Thee. I've stretched out my hands unto Thee. to nobody else but
to the Father. Now listen, these are rhetorical
questions. The answer to this is no. Wilt
thou show wonders to the dead? We're going to have to be made
alive to see His wonders. We're going to have to be kept
alive to see His wonders. It's not that He doesn't show
wonders to us after we die. That's not what He's saying.
But He's saying, if I die on this cross and you don't make
me arise, nobody's going to see your wonders. Watch, "...shall
the dead arise and praise thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared
in the grave, or thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders
be known in the dark, and thy righteousness in the land of
forgetfulness?" These are rhetorical questions. He is saying, he believed
the covenant promise of the Father, that when He had satisfied justice,
yielded his spirit to the Father, gone to the grave, that the Father
would raise him from the grave according to His covenant promise.
He believed Him. And that is what He is saying
here. Now watch this. We see it plainly right here.
Look at this. He said all those statements. I am a man that is
dead. I am dying and I am about to
go to the grave and be buried in the tomb. And He is trusting
the Father perfectly. And listen to what He says next.
Unto thee have I cried, O Lord. Lord's not answering him, Lord's
not speaking to him, Lord's not comforting him, he's suffering
in his darkness alone and yet he says, but unto thee have I
cried. Now what's the next word? And
in the morning shall my prayer go before thee. I will arise. I'm praying to you now, Father,
and I believe all your covenant promise that in the morning I
shall arise, I shall arise by your covenant promise. Psalm
16.9 says, Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope,
for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to seek corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life, and thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there
are pleasures forevermore. He said, Right now you do not
answer me, but I keep praying to you, I keep stretching out
my hands to you, and here is perfect faith. When I've gone
into that grave and I've sealed that tomb, in the morning, on
the third day, my prayer is going to come before you. My prayer
is coming before you. That's faith. That's faith. Child of God, believe God. Believe
on His Son. In all suffering, look to how
Christ endured it. So much greater So in perfect
faith, and behold His love for us more and more in what He endured. He's our righteousness, He's
the perfection of sorrow, the perfection of faith, the perfection
of suffering, and He justified His people from all our sins
by the things He suffered. Look to God's hand and acknowledge
He is the first cause. That's enough for God's people.
It just is. That's not even a shadow of a
doubt in my mind. That is enough for God's people.
It's for our good. It's correction. It's to make
us flee to Christ. It's to make us confess our sin
to Him and our need of mercy. And this is the obedience He
makes us learn through suffering. That is it. It's to make us look
to Him only and walk by faith in Him only and find all our
comfort and peace in Him only. And be assured of this as you
suffer, and when it seems like He's not answering, be assured by this faithfulness
of God toward our Redeemer. Our consolation and our strength,
He who is our consolation and our strength, He will see to
it. that joy will come in the morning. Joy shall come in the
morning. Maybe suffering in darkness for
a while, joy will come in the morning. And we will sing though
we suffer. Now I can't end on this sad note. We've got to go to the next psalm.
And as soon as he said this and came to this place, here's our
Lord continuing our Lord speaking. Listen to this. And He's still
on the cross. Here is faithfulness as He was
on the cross in Psalm 88. Here is Him enduring. And this
is how He endured to the end, right here. Verse 1, I will sing
of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known
thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said mercy shall be
built up forever. Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish
in the very heavens. I've made a covenant with my
chosen, I've sworn unto David my servant, he's for the Christ
our King David. Thy seed will I establish forever
and built up thy throne to all generations. That's the promise
that he's promised and that's the joy that's coming. In Christ
he arose and we arose in him. And brethren, He is going to
keep comforting you and making you look only to Him and find
all your confidence in Him, all your salvation in Him, because
His seed are not going to perish because of Christ's righteousness.
And I pray the Lord to help us remember Him now. Brother Greg, can you pass out
these elements and Brother Adam?