All right, brethren, let's go
back there to Psalm 69. I said Thursday night that we have
so many brethren that are suffering some really heavy, difficult
trials, bearing some heavy burdens. really heavy hearts. I usually don't mention things
because you can't mention everybody and I don't want to leave anybody
out. But I know Martha is headed down to Virginia. She went down
there last Sunday. Her parents are dying. And her
mother is really close, they think. Christoph and her went
down there this morning. No Cheryl is sick and last night
when I went to leave the church I got a text from Kevin and Kimberly
and a large wildfire had started not far from their home and they
had to go down to the church and spend the night without an
air conditioner and all they could do was watch. They don't
know, still don't know yet if they have a house or not. And
they said it came at least within a hundred yards. So they just
don't know. But I've talked to Ms. Shelby just about every week. My mother is watching her mother
die. But I want to preach about the
joy set before us. joy set before us. This was the
next passage I came to in the Psalms and as we read this text
I want you to remember this is Christ speaking. This is Christ
speaking and remember this. This is Christ speaking as he
is suffering sorrow and shame and pain like nobody else ever
suffered. This is while he's suffering
his trial that he says this. He's suffering the shame of the
sin of his people that he bore in our place. He's suffering
the reproach of his enemies. the pain and agony of the cross,
the pain and agony of being forsaken by God, the judgment, the wrath
of God who He loved, He's bearing. I want to go back and read a
little bit of this psalm to just familiarize you with what's happening
here. We looked at this a few services
ago, but verse 1, He cried, Save me, O God, for the waters are
come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire where there
is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. My eyes fail while I wait for
my God. Verse 7, he says, For thy sake
I have borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I
am become a stranger unto my brethren. I am an alien unto
my mother's children. Verse 14, deliver me out of the
mire. Let me not sink. Let me be delivered
from them that hate me and out of the deep waters. Verse 19,
thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. Mine
adversaries are all before thee. Reproach has broken my heart. I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take
pity, but there was none. and for comforters, but I found
none. But what did they give him instead?
They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink. There's no sorrow that compares
to what our substitute suffered. Not any. I know we suffer heavy
trials and I know our hearts ache. And we go through some
serious, serious suffering. But brethren, our Lord suffered
like nobody else. He suffered like nobody else.
But in the midst of this incomparable suffering, in the midst of this
incomparable shame that He was bearing, this trial like no other
trial, He declares what was going to come from his finished work.
And in doing this, he's declaring the joy that was set before him,
which helped to strengthen him to endure this trial, this cross. These three things are the joy
that was set before him. Now don't forget, he's suffering. And he's remembering this and
speaking of this as he suffers. First of all, God would be glorified
and magnified and praised. He says in verse 30, I will praise
the name of God with a song and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord
better than an ox or bullet that hath horns and hooves. That's
what he remembered. That was the joy set before him
as he suffered. Then he thought about this joy. His people would be given life.
They would be made to rejoice in salvation. He says, verse
32, the humble shall see this. He's talking about himself. They're
going to see my cross. They're going to see me on the
cross and be glad. And your hearts shall live that
seek God. For the Lord heareth the poor
and despiseth not his prisoners. And then thirdly, he thought
of this joy, when all the work is finished, when he's created
the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness,
all his people shall be saved, all shall be gathered together,
and all shall praise God, everything that lives in that new heaven
and new earth will give God the glory. He says, verse 34, let
the heaven and the earth praise him. the seas, and everything
that moveth therein. For God will save Zion. He will
build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and have
it in possession. The seed also of His servant
shall inherit it, and they that love His name shall dwell therein. Now this is our Lord Jesus declaring
the joy that was set before him as he endured the cross. The
Hebrew writer tells us this in Hebrews 12 too. He says, as you
run this race, God has set before you. Look unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame and is at the right
hand of the throne of God. Here Christ declares what that
joy was. This is the joy that was before
him. This is the joy by which he endured the cross, despising
the shame. And He's teaching you and me,
brethren, as we suffer trials, while you're in the middle of
the worst suffering, and you don't know what God's doing,
and you don't know if He's gonna bring you out, or if He's just
gonna leave you. You don't know what He's gonna do. And it hurts,
and it's sorrowful, and instead of that besetting sin of feeling
like, I don't deserve this. Instead of that besetting sin
of, why is He doing this to me? Lay that aside and look to Christ
on that cross and remember the joy that was set before Him.
And think on these things because when the trial is over, this
is what God is going to do. This is the joy set before His
people, same as it was the joy set before Christ. First of all,
our Lord Jesus looked to the joy of glorifying God His Father. He knew God His Father would
get all the glory in this. He said, verse 30, I will praise
the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
When He says I will do it, He means, right then He was doing
it, but He meant when I'm done with this, when I finish this,
I will praise the name of God with a song. I'll magnify him
with thanksgiving. And this also shall please the
Lord better than an ox or bullet that hath horns and hooves. This
was the joy set before our Lord Jesus, that by finishing the
work God gave him to do, he would praise the name of God and magnify
his holy name. God would get all the glory.
And you notice here when he connects this with this also shall please
the Lord. This shall please the Lord. This
will bring satisfaction to the Lord better than an ox or a bullock
that hath horns and hooves. He's speaking of praising and
magnifying God's name in a way that no Old Testament sacrifice
ever brought satisfaction. That's the glory we're talking
about. The glory, the satisfaction, the pleasing of God that no covenant
law sacrifice ever brought to God. It's by Christ fulfilling the
law. It's by Christ honoring the law
for God and for his people. The sacrifices of bulls and goats
never pleased God. They never satisfied God. Look
at Hebrews 10. They never brought pleasure.
They never satisfied justice. They didn't praise God's name.
No pleasure of glorifying God in His holy character. Look here. Why? Because they never put away
sin. Look at verse 4. It's not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. And burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. This is what the whole book's
been talking about. I come to do thy will. And he
said, this is going to bring pleasure to God. Look at Isaiah
53. And look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That means it brought satisfaction
to God because of his justice, because of his honor, his character,
his glory. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in Christ's hand. The pleasure Christ said this
will please Him better than any of those Old Testament sacrifices.
His name's going to be honored. His name's going to be praised.
He's going to be glorified by this, and I'll sing of it. He'll
see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied, pleased. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities.
In the midst of sorrow like no other, this joy that our substitute
looked to was the joy of praising and magnifying God's holy name
by finishing the work God gave him to do. What else do we think
he's gonna sing about? He finished the work, he brought
satisfaction, he brought pleasure to God because first of all,
it was the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose. But what
he did, how did he praise God? How did he magnify God's name
by what he did? He showed that God is the sovereign
of heaven and earth. Whatever God purposes, that's
what he brings to pass. And that brought satisfaction
of God. That pleased God that he was glorified like that. To
show that when he purposes it, he does it. It was the fulfillment
of God's covenant. It was the fulfillment of his
promises, the fulfillment of his prophecies and his word.
It magnified and praised God's name, showing that he's immutable,
he's true, he's faithful. Whatever he says, you can trust
him. Don't put your trust in man,
he said. We're disappointed when we do
it. If you trust me, if I trust you,
we're more than likely going to disappoint each other. But God is immutable, He's true,
and He's faithful. When He says He doesn't lie,
that doesn't mean He keeps things out of sight. That doesn't mean
that He just hedges on the truth a little bit when He's telling
you something. It means He don't lie. Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my word shall not pass away. My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that's gone out of my lips, he said.
Believer, we have hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began. Where do you see it? Look to
Christ on the cross. He's magnifying God's immutable,
faithful truthfulness. It was the fulfillment of God,
of declaring God's righteousness, that God's just, He does everything
right, He does everything justly, and that in the process, He justified
the people from our sin. The Lord is well-pleased. He
said, this will please God better than any of those sacrifices
did. The Lord is well-pleased for Christ's righteousness' sake,
He said, He will magnify the law and make it honorable, and
in doing so, He magnified God's name. This is what Christ was
talking about when he said, think not that I came to destroy the
law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy, I
came to fulfill. He said, I came to do for God,
for my people, what my people could not do. I came to fulfill
it. He said, I say unto you, verily
I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, not one jot, not
one tittle of my law shall in any wise pass till all be fulfilled. He had to do it to show that
God is true. He's faithful. What He puts in
His Word, He does it. It was the fulfillment of the
salvation of God's chosen people. It praised and magnified God's
name for His everlasting, sovereign, saving grace and love. It showed
that God's grace never changes, His love never changes. He saves
those that He has grace upon. He saves those He loves. We see that in Christ, the mercy
of the Lord's from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him and his righteousness unto his children's children.
All the pleasure of the Lord prospered in Christ's hand. He
pleased God, he magnified God, and the gospel of his finished
work glorifies him to the highest. This is the song that Christ
sings, our gospel that goes forth. This is it. This is it. You want to talk about the songs
that he talks about he'll sing? It's not the songs that men wrote.
It's the psalms that are the inspired word of God. These are
the songs that glorify him. This is the sweet psalmist of
Israel speaking. This is Christ speaking. This
is him singing praises to God while as yet he hung on the cross.
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified of all
of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst
of the church while I sing praise unto thee. That's what Christ
was doing on the cross. And He does this, He leads His
people. Look at Revelation 14.1. He said,
I looked, let me make sure that's right, Revelation 14.1. He said, I looked, and lo, a
lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him 144,000. That represents
his particular people an exact number without any being left
out. Watch this. They were with him, and having
his father's name written in their foreheads, and I heard
a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice
of great thunder, and I heard the voice of harpers harping
with their lamps, and they sung. Who sung? The Lamb, and the 144,000,
and the harpers. They sung, as it were, a new
song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders,
and no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed
from the earth. All the people that know this
song is redeemed, but Christ is the one leading this song.
He's the lamb who redeemed us, and he's the great choir master
too. He's the one leading this song. I'll praise him and magnify
him, he said. So brethren, when you're suffering,
and you're suffering hard, difficult, painful trials, and you don't
know what God's doing, you don't know how long it's gonna last,
you don't have anybody that can comfort you, there's nobody but
Him. Remember, this was the joy set
before Christ, and this is the joy set before you. Whatever
God's doing in this trial, though you might not see it and I might
not understand it, God is bringing praise and glory and magnifying
His holy name. That's what He's doing. Now brethren,
that will comfort you in a trial. That will help you look to that
joy and endure the cross. It will. Oh, sing unto the Lord
a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His
holy arm hath gotten Him the victory. Let's remind ourselves
of that joy when we suffer. And secondly, our Savior looked
to the joy of making His people live, making His people rejoice
in God for our salvation. He says in verse 32, the humble
shall see this and be glad. And your heart shall live that
seek God For the Lord heareth the poor and despiseth not his
prisoners. The joy set before our Redeemer
was to give his people eternal life, to save us from our sins
and give us eternal life and make us glad in him. That was the joy set before him.
The joy set before him is what he shall surely bring to pass.
He says there with no uncertainty, the humble shall see this. See
what? Everything he's been talking
about right here in this song. They're going to see me on this
cross. They're going to look upon me whom they've pierced
and they're going to mourn for their sin. You know what he does
by that look? He makes us humble. We're not humble by nature. He
said the humble is the only one that's going to see this. We're
not humble by nature. How are we going to be made humble?
He said, they're going to see this. They're going to see this
cross. They're going to see me on this cross. They're going
to see me bearing their sin. They're going to see that it's
their sin that put me on this cross. And they're going to mourn
for me. As one mourns for his only son. But you know what that
sight also does? He says, and they're going to
be glad. They're going to be glad. Oh, to see Christ, to really
see Christ and to know that He was bearing my sin, that He was
there bearing my sin, while that cuts me and makes me to mourn
because I put Him there, it makes me so glad because He put away
my sin forever. And look what He said here, your
heart shall live that seek God. What's life? We're dead by nature. But Christ is our life. He's
the one that enters in and gives us life and makes us live. He
makes us live. And in the midst of the trial
right now that you're going through, who's gonna renew you day by
day in the inward man? Who's gonna, you're gonna have
days where all you can think about is all the negative and
your knees buckle and you can't catch your breath. But why is it on some of those
days you feel so renewed and so comforted and you see God
in His glory and you see what Christ has done and you know
everything's alright? He renews us day by day. He renews
us day by day. And letting you see the old man,
and his sin, and his worry, and his blame, and his self-justifying,
and his self-condemning, and his envy, and his wickedness,
and his maliciousness. And then renewing you inwardly
to behold Christ. That's how He makes you put no
confidence in your flesh. That's how He makes you put all
your confidence in Him. You see Him and you live. You live. There's none that seeks
God. What's going to make you seek God? God our Father said,
I'll draw each one to my Son and Christ makes you willing
in the day of His power. That's how He makes you seek
Him. The joy set before Him is that all His people shall see
our great God and our Savior and all He's done for us in Christ
and be glad and our heart shall live. That was the joy set before
Him. to give us life and make us glad. Here was the joy. He says, for
my sake, for my sake, because of my blood, my Father, who's
holy and can't look upon sin, is gonna hear my people. He's
gonna hear them. That was joy to our Redeemer.
He says there, Lord Jehovah hears the poor and despises not his
prisoners. All are prisoners. Every sinner
that comes to this world's a prisoner in the bondage of our sin nature
and under the guilt of the law, and we can't free ourselves.
That's so of all of us, but not all of us are his prisoners. He hears the poor. Not everybody's
poor. Not everybody's poor. He has
to make you poor. He has to make you see you've
got nothing with which to pay your debt. He has to make you
bankrupt. He has to make you poor. That's
what the trial's for, brethren. To make you poor. Pooring yourself. Pour in your righteousness. Pour
in your holiness. Pour in your good works. Pour
in any faithfulness in you. Totally destitute of anything.
Not having anything but what He gives you. But when He brought
you down and He made you poor, He shows you Christ and you behold
Christ on the cross. You see Him who was rich yet
for your sake became poor that you through His deep poverty
might be given the unsearchable riches of Christ. And you see
Him on the cross and you hear Him cry out and you hear God
answer Him and hear Him and deliver Him. And that shows you What
he says is true. God hears the poor. He delivers
his prisoners. He does it. And that's great
joy, brethren. What he was doing was for that
purpose so that God, through his blood, would hear him and
deliver his people. How is it God hears us? Why does
he hear us? Why has he continually set his
people free throughout the ages? Because Christ stood as our surety
from before the foundation of the world. He heard Christ, and
so he heard his people. And Christ was given the very
glory to go and set the prisoners free after he'd finished the
work. He said, my soul shall make her
boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
he said, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord,
and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. This is
Christ speaking. This is Psalm 34. He says, verse 6, This poor man
cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his
troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fear him, and delivereth them. Christ saw this through His blood
what God would do for all His people. Hear us, deliver us,
humble us, make our hearts live, make us glad in Christ and His
mercies and His salvation. And so brethren in the midst
of suffering right now, when you just can't pick your hands
up, when you just can't lift your head up, Remember this joy that was set
before our Lord Jesus and know this, whatever God's doing, as
bad as it may seem, as badly as it may hurt, He's saving you
from you. He's going to make you glad.
He's going to make you live. He's going to make you rejoice
in Him and Him alone. He's going to set you free. That's
what He's doing. That's the joy set before us.
Christ Jesus, our Deliverer, set before us. And then look
at this last thing. Our Savior looked to the joy
of finishing the new heaven and the new earth. He looked to the
joy of creating a world in which everything that is alive praises
God perfectly. Wherein dwelleth only righteousness,
nothing but righteousness. And this is for His people. This
is His inheritance, His seed. And He's looking to that joy.
He said, verse 34, Let the heaven and the earth praise Him, the
seas and everything that moveth therein. That's everything. For God will save Zion. That's
what we praise Him for. And will build the cities of
Judah. We're not talking about an earthly Judah. We're talking
about His people, His Zion, His church. that they may dwell there
for everlasting and have it in possession. It's our inheritance.
The seed also of His servants shall inherit it. You know who?
You're a servant of God if you're His. Well, He says the seed of
His servants shall inherit this. Who is your seed? It's not always our natural children.
For some of them are God's elect and some of them don't believe. But those that God uses you to
declare this gospel to and those that God saves through the gospel,
they're your offspring. They're your seed. And God said
they all shall be saved. Every single one of them. And
they that love His name shall dwell therein. Look at Isaiah
65. Isaiah 65. He talks about this
heaven and earth where everything is going to glorify Him. Isaiah
65, 17. Behold, I create a new heavens
and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come
into mind. When in our text, he's speaking
of everything that is now, because in the new heaven and new earth,
there is no sea. He says, let the seas, so he's speaking of
everything now, but he's looking forward to this city that's built,
this Zion that's built, this new heaven and new earth wherein
everything's gonna praise him perfectly. He says, behold, I
created new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not
be remembered nor come into mind, but be ye glad and rejoiced forever
in that which I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,
and her people a joy, and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and I'll
joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall
be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." God will
save Zion. God will save all of His people. He said not one elect child shall
be lost. Not one who Christ redeems shall
ever be lost. He's going to bring the gospel
to each one. He's going to regenerate each
one. He's going to call each one to faith in Christ. He's
going to keep each one. He's going to raise each one.
He's going to justify each one before His tribunal. And brethren,
we're going to be with the Lord forever in this new heavens and
this new earth. And it's all going to be to the
praise of the glory of His righteousness. We won't have contributed any
righteousness or any holiness or paid one debt of redemption
or contributed one whit of our so-called wisdom to this. It's
all of Christ, every bit of it. Isaiah 66, look there in verse
20. There won't be one left out.
He says, We're Christ's inheritance and he's ours, that's why. Look
at this verse 20. They shall bring all your brethren
for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses
and in chariots and litters and upon mules and upon swift beasts
to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children
of Israel bring an offering and a clean vessel into the house
of the Lord. They're gonna bring my people, not to an earthly
Jerusalem, to heavenly Jerusalem, to that That new Jerusalem John
saw coming down out of heaven adorned as a bride for her husband,
made up of all his people, made righteous by him. They're gonna
bring all my people to this holy mountain. I also will take of
them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord. He makes us kings
and priests by his blood. For as the new heavens and the
new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord,
so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to
pass that from one new moon to another, from one Sabbath to
another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the
Lord. And we'll do it perfectly. We're going to all, today there's
so much sin mixed with our worship. Some of y'all have killed me
since I've been sitting here. It's true. We just think thoughts
and think things we shouldn't think and probably murdered somebody
else while we're sitting here. There's just sin mixed with everything
we do. There won't be any that day.
We're going to worship Him in perfection, perfectly, with no
sin whatsoever. It won't even be brought to mind
anymore. Now go with me over to Hebrews
12, and let me close with this. As we suffer in this race, and
we're going to, because this race is set, God set, He put
all the hurdles in this race. He set every one of them. He
put the valleys in it, He put the hills in it, and we're gonna
go through them. He built the fires we're gonna
go through, rivers we're gonna cross, This is not a foot race,
this is not a hundred yard dash, it's a marathon. Sometimes you're
going to crawl on it, sometimes you're going to just barely be
moving, sometimes you'll be moving a little faster, but you're going
to be moving. You're going to run this race.
But look here what he says, as you do it, look to Christ. Seeing
we compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, Let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin was just so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before Him, what I've been trying to
show you. Endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against Himself, lest you be weary and faint in your mind.
We become so weary, but just look to Christ in that incomparable
suffering, that incomparable travail. Remember that same joy
set before Him awaits you and I at the end of this current
trial, And at the end of this whole race, that's the joy that
awaits us. We're going to see God get all
praise and glory. That's what He's doing. He's
bringing glory and praise to His name. And He's going to bring
you, at the end of every trial that you come through, He says
it yields peaceable fruit of righteousness. He always brings
you to praise and glorify Him for what He did. It's good that
my bones have been broken. It's good that I've been smitten.
It's good that I've been afflicted, that I might learn God's word.
It's good for me." And you glorify God for it. You sing praise to
Him. That's the joy set before. Don't you want God to have the
glory? And then at the end of the trial, You're going to be
humbled, and you're going to see Christ, and you're going
to be glad, and your heart's going to be renewed, and you're
going to know you live forever with Him. He did it for you good. He did it for you good. That's
the joy set before you. You read on in Hebrews 12, He
don't chase anybody but those He loves. That's it. If you're suffering and you're
a child of God, it's because God loves you. That's why. And
it's for your good. That's the joy set before us.
Well, I don't see it. You don't have to see it. I don't
see how he's going to bring good out of evil and things that happen
either. But he can. He did out of the
cross. And before it's said and done,
it's going to be for our good. And then lastly, it's so that
he don't lose one of his people. We're going to all be together
with Christ in the new heavens and new earth. Every seed of
his is going to be there, and we're going to glory in him.
That's what's going to happen at the end of the whole race.
And just try to remember those things, brethren, when you're
suffering. And try to remember them now
that we come and observe the Lord's table. Whatever He's doing,
He's doing it for our joy. For our joy. All right. Who's somebody? Rob, will you
do it?