Let's turn, brethren, to Psalm
40. I wonder if there's anybody here
who truly has a heart to cry unto the Lord. If so, I can assure you, I can
assure you from the words of Psalm 40 that the Lord will hear you. I can assure you of that and
He'll save you. Whether you're a sinner calling
for the first time or whether you're a sinner who is born of
Him and is in the midst of a trial and crying upon Him. Whoever
calls upon Him from a true heart, the heart He's given, I guarantee
you our Lord will hear you And He'll save you. Psalm 40 are
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. We easily recognize verses 6
through 8. He says there, Sacrifice and
offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Christ is the willing bondservant. We saw the law of the bondservant. He's the willing bondservant.
His ears been opened. And he said, burn offering and
sin offering as thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. And we know the Hebrew writer
tells us these are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
tells us in Hebrews 10. Now I want you to listen to what
our Lord Jesus declares in verse 1. Listen to this carefully. He says, I waited patiently for
the Lord. I waited, but not just any kind
of waiting. I waited patiently, patiently
for the Lord, for the Lord God, for God His Father. And He inclined
unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God. And because Christ patiently
waited, and because God heard his cry and did these things
for him, Christ declares, many shall see and fear and shall
trust in the Lord. If the Lord's made you truly
call upon Him, if the Lord's made you truly call upon Him
as you wait, I assure you the Lord will incline His ear and
He will hear and He will do all these things for you because
the Lord Jesus Christ patiently waited and was heard. I want to talk about why the
Lord waited. Why the Lord waited. We look
at four things here concerning Christ and then one thing concerning
us. Why was Christ patiently waiting?
What Christ manifested by patiently waiting? What He endured as He
patiently waited? What He accomplished by patiently
waiting? And then we'll hear His word
to us. First of all, why was Christ
patiently waiting? It says there in verse 1, I patiently
waited for the Lord. Why? Why was He patiently waiting? Because in verse 6, He said,
Sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire. Mine ear hast thou
opened. Burnt offering and sin offering
is thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it's written of me. I'd like to do thy will,
O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. The Son of God was sent forth
by God the Father to be the head of His sinful people. You and
I by nature are disobedient. We're disobedient. We've never
patiently waited on God by nature. That's just opposite to us by
nature. We do not patiently wait on the
Lord. We don't like to wait, period. And we certainly do not wait
patiently as the Lord Jesus Christ did. We certainly don't. And so we're sinners, brethren.
We're fallen in sin. There's not one of God's elect
that's ever done the will of God from a holy heart in perfection. Not one fallen sinner. We wait impatiently. If this
was written solely of man, it would say, I waited impatiently. It was necessary that the Son
of God come, take flesh like His brethren, that He might do
the will of God from a holy heart as God's obedient servant. That was absolutely necessary. Absolutely necessary. Patiently
waiting. Patiently waiting upon God His
Father. This was not only necessary,
This was the very character of our Redeemer. This was the heart
of our Redeemer. Holy, without spot, without blemish. This was His holy heart to wait
upon His Father. He was perfectly believing His
Father. He was perfectly trusting His
Father. He was doing what His Father's
will was and He was waiting on His Father. to answer his cry when it was
the very right time for it to be answered. That's trust in
the Lord. That's believing on God. That's
serving God obediently, perfectly, faithfully. He patiently waited
because he had this sure hope. He had a firm expectation of
what God promised God would fulfill. He's the perfect believer, our
Lord Jesus Christ is. He is the Holy One who is the
head representing all His people. He perfectly waited patiently
upon God expecting His help and His assistance. Well, isn't He
God? Couldn't He do for Himself? Yes,
He's God. But no, He couldn't do for Himself
in this situation because He took the form of a servant. And
he's representing his people. He's serving for his people.
He's being the obedient servant that his people can't be. That's
what he's doing. And he never once murmured in
discontent. Not one time. Do we have a problem
with that? We can't talk about the weather
without murmuring. Can we? We murmur because it's
cold and as soon as it gets hot, it's too hot. We murmur because
it's dry. As soon as it rains, it rains
too much. We murmur. He never impatiently murmured
against God his Father, not one time. He waited in faith. He waited in hope. He waited
in resignation. He waited in confidence that
God would help him and deliver him. Don't you think it's amazing
when you think about it that the Son of God took flesh and
put Himself willingly in this place. God came down and put
Himself willingly in this place of where He had to cry unto the
Father and wait on the Father to give Him help. I find that
absolutely amazing. He did it for His Father and
for His brethren. He was brought into such a trial
And he had to cry out to God and he had to wait on God to
help him. But it was necessary to fulfill the will of God. It was necessary. And it was
necessary he do this perfectly to fulfill the will of God. And
Scripture says it's by that will, by His will, that we're sanctified. by Him fulfilling the will of
God that were sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ one time. One time. We ought to ask God
constantly for more grace to make us patiently wait to see
what the Lord is doing. And to wait on Him and to be
able to receive what He's doing gladly. To patiently wait. We need grace to do that, don't
we? We need grace to do it. But we know this, that whatever
God does, it's the right time. I don't know why we get impatient. Whatever time God does something
in, it's the right time. And Scripture says, of every
believer, all our times are in His hands. So why do we get, and I'm gonna
tell you now, I can put on a pretty good show for you, but I can't
even do that really all that well. But you can ask that woman. I'm not patient about anything.
Oh, I struggle with impatience, impatience. But here we have
my perfect patient waiting. He's right here. This is what
we're looking at. And you who believe, this is
your perfect patient waiting on God right here. And you can
say that, you can go down the whole law of God, and I'm talking
about going through all 600 commandments. And you can say, right there
on the cross, that's my perfect perfection of that commandment
right there. Well, what was He manifesting
by patiently waiting? What was he doing? He was fulfilling
the will of God. We see that. What was he manifesting? Verse 9. He said, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid... And here's
the righteousness he's talking about. I have not hid Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. Who is the great
congregation? That is His people. That is this
whole world. But specifically His people.
His people. The Son of God came to manifest
God. That is why He came. God is the
Spirit. You can't see God. The Son of God, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit were spiritual. Before Christ
came, you couldn't see God. But Christ came to manifest the
fullness of the Godhead in a body. That's who He is and that's what
He's manifesting. So when you look at Christ, you
see God. You see God. The old preachers
used to say, He's all man as if He was not God and all God
as if He was not man. He's the God-man. And there He
is. There's God in human flesh. That's
a mystery. God came down and dwelt among
us in human flesh. But you think, He's here to manifest
God. He's here to manifest God's attributes
and God's character and He's here to show us God. He said
He came to show God's faithfulness. That would never be manifest
if He was impatient. That wouldn't be manifest if
He was impatient. God's faithfulness. God's faithful. He's faithful to His people.
And for that reason, He's patient with His people. He came to manifest
God's loving kindness. God's loving kindness could not
have been manifest if our Lord Jesus Christ grew impatient with
His disciples. Here He was being falsely accused. You need brethren to stand with
you when you're falsely accused. When my brethren are accused
falsely, I'm going to, Lord willing, stand with them because I've
been blessed through them so much by their preaching. And plus, I know where their
hearts at. I'm not going to make them to
be offensive if they say something wrong. And you're not either. Neither are you. God's people
are not going to do that to one another. We're going to stand
with one another. We're going to stand with one
another. You need that. But this thing got so heated, it got so
hot whenever our Lord's being accused and His disciples left
Him. Imagine if our Lord Jesus Christ
grew impatient with that and began to rail on them for that.
We would have seen His loving kindness. His mercy and truth was being
exhibited. He said, you know, mercy is our
salvation, mercy, forgiveness, mercy and truth. The upholding
of the law, the establishing of the law, not letting the guilty
go free. Mercy and truth are being met
together. That's what He's declaring, He
said. How God's just and justifier. What if He got impatient and
came down off that cross one second before God said justice
is satisfied? Our sins, God would have never
been declared just and justifier and our sins would have never
been expiated and God propitiated on our behalf if He grew impatient
in His waiting on the Lord. See how important waiting can
be? That's what He's doing. But He waited in perfect obedience. We talked about the law this
morning and the obedience that it requires. I'll tell you when
we find out we're not patient in waiting is when we start to
suffer. We're going to find out in just
a minute what he was enduring while he was waiting. But he
was patient, perfect in his waiting, and he never resisted the Father's
will. Never. In any of this. When they were putting a crown
of thorns on him, and when they were nailing the nails, he never
resisted even. He was patiently waiting on God,
his Father. Now thirdly, look at this. What
was he enduring as he patiently waited? He says, withhold not thou thy
tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. And that's another way we see
his tender mercies and his loving kindness and his truth. God was waiting to show that
in how He dealt with His Son. But here He says, now look, this
is why He says this, For innumerable evils have compassed me about,
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able
to look up. They are more than the hairs
of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Brethren, have your
iniquities ever caused you to not be able to look up? Have
you ever You found yourself so guilty that you just can't look
up to God. Well, here is the good news of
this. Our Lord Jesus Christ knows, He consciously is aware of what
that is. He knew no sin and He did no
sin at all, ever. Never rebellious. We are watching
him here perfectly, patiently wait on the Lord. But he bore
our sins in such a way that the Scripture says he despised the
shame of it. He consciously is touched with
the feeling of that shame of our iniquities. And he knows
it. He can comfort you. He knows
what you are feeling. He knows God's chastening hand. That's what was taking place. You know, and this is what I
was getting at a while ago, when we start to suffer, that's when
we really grow impatient. And it don't take much for us
to suffer and we're really impatient. If we just are having to wait
a little longer than we want to wait, that's just too much
for us to bear sometimes. We grow angry and everything
else. Our Lord Jesus Christ is bearing, He's standing before
God the Father and having to be looked upon in a way He abhorred
being looked upon by the law. He's standing before
the Father and actually the Father has turned His back on Him. so that he cries, My God, My
God, why hast thou forsaken me? That was not in sin that he cried
that. That was not impatient murmuring
that he cried that. He was crying that to tell us
the reason is, as he said, because you are holy. God is holy. God is holy. And so as he suffered
there, brethren, unimaginable, I mean, I firmly am convinced
that the stripes he was bearing from men, the crown of thorns,
and the spitting in his face, and the plucking out the hairs
of his beard, and all of these things that we look at and say,
that is just unimaginable pain he was suffering. But brethren,
that is just to give us some idea of what was going on between
him and the just judge of heaven and earth. when justice was being satisfied. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
He was sweating great drops of blood. He was sweating blood. That's the kind of pressure and
soul agony our Redeemer was experiencing. And what did He pray? Not My
will, but Thine be done. Not my will, but Thine be done.
And then all these innumerable evils that men were doing to
Him, that He was surrounded by it. All these wicked things they
were doing. And again, that's to give us
some idea of the unseen things that we can't see that was going
on. That the devil was doing. Don't you know the devil was
tempting him on the cross and trying to get him to do anything
he could get him to do that would be impatient and make him not
wait? We have no idea what he was suffering
on the cross, but we get some idea of the wilderness, the temptation
in the wilderness. We get some idea of it through
what he was enduring when he was compassed about evil, wicked
hands that were doing things to Him. And when He was made sin for
us, the Lord laid on Him the iniquities of all His people.
When justice forsook Him on that cross, He experienced the weakness
of our flesh. And this is what He was saying
here, My iniquities have taken hold upon Me so that I'm not
able to look up, therefore My heart faileth Me. My heart faileth
Me. This was the horrible pit. This
was the miry clay that our Redeemer went to. This is what I deserved. This is what you deserve. And it's because God is so righteous
that He says, He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth
the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. The
Lord doesn't do that. The Lord does not arbitrarily
condemn anybody. No one. No one. And He does not arbitrarily save
anyone. It's got to be done in justice
and in righteousness. What did Christ accomplish by
patiently waiting? He made intercession for His
sinful people. We're told that in Isaiah 53.
He made intercession for the transgressors. That's what He
did. He accomplished interceding for us on behalf... He did this
on behalf of His people. And so now, by Him, all our enemies
are destroyed and His people are saved because He intercedes. He gets whatever He asked the
Father for. He purchased that right as a
man, as the God-man to get whatever He asked the Father for. And
here's what He asked the Father for, right here. Verse 13, ìBe
pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul
to destroy it. Let them be driven backward and
put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward
of their shame that say unto me, ìAha! Aha!îî How could men
get all upset? I'll probably get emails from
this. How could you say that Christ
would pray for that? Isn't that sinful? No, that's
perfect justice. You know Scripture says, Revelation
says that whenever the day of judgment comes and men are cast
out into outer darkness forever, you know what the host of heaven
is going to do? Praise God for His righteousness,
for His being just. Because man who perishes and
is condemned, he earned what he got. The wages of sin is death. He earned it. And God justly
gives a man whatever he's earned. That's what He gives. You won't
find it any other way anywhere in the Scripture. If you can
find me a place where God condemned anybody for any other reason
than the man's own earning it by his wages of rejecting Christ,
I'll do whatever you want me to do. I promise you, you won't find
it. God's righteous. He's righteous. And this is what
he accomplished also. But because that's what he accomplished,
don't forget this now, that means he conquered all the enemies
of his people. Because he conquered all our
enemies and he prays for all his enemies to be cast down,
he conquered all our enemies. Do you know that in Hebrews 10
when it says he's sitting there now waiting until his enemies
be made his footstool? Do you know who His enemies are?
You know, Scripture says every knee is going to bow and every
tongue is going to confess that He is King of kings and Lord
of lords. Do you know who His enemies are that are going to
be made to bow? Every single person on the planet. Every single
person ever born in history. Some are going to bow in justice
and condemnation. They are going to bow They never
would bow in this earth. They are going to be made to
bow and confess He is Lord. And you and I who were enemies
in our minds by wicked works, yet who He chose by His free
and sovereign grace, we are going to bow to. But this enemy that
He has come out is going to be put down. God is going to prevail. Christ shall not fail. And so
by His intercession, He's procured our salvation and everybody He
prays intercedes for shall be saved. Look at this next thing
He prays here, verse 16. Let all those that seek Thee
rejoice and be glad in Thee. Let such as love Thy salvation
say continually, The Lord be magnified. He accomplished salvation
for His people so that all His people are going to be given
a heart to seek Him. All His people are going to be
given faith to rejoice in Him and be glad in Him. And all His
people are going to love His salvation. They're going to be
brought to rejoice in His salvation. They're going to be brought to
say continually, The Lord be magnified. That's the difference
between Will works religion and true religion. One is glorifying
man, the other is glorifying the Lord, magnifying the Lord.
That's right. And all His people say, the Lord
be magnified. He accomplished this And it's
a guarantee that it's going to be in all His people. And He
did this by patiently waiting upon the Lord. On that cross,
there's perfect, perfect obedience. Patiently waiting till justice
was satisfied. So that all His enemies are conquered
and all His people are saved. Now, let's hear His message to
you and me. Go back now and look at verse
17. He says, I'm poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Are you poor and needy? I'm poor
and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and
my deliverer. Make no tearing, O my God. And
what does He teach us the Lord did for Him? Look back now at
verse 1. He says, I waited patiently for
the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. Look at Hebrews 5 and verse 7. Hebrews 5, 7 says, In the days
of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save
Him from death, He was heard in that He feared. God inclined
unto him and heard his cry. His fear and his reverence were
seen in him patiently waiting. And God heard him because he
feared. He patiently waited. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered. If he's going to
not only reconcile his people, but also be able to comfort his
people, And he's going to have to experience what it is to obey
as a man. And that's what he experienced.
He learned this and he says, by the things which he suffered
and being made perfect, he perfected obedience. He perfected obedience
for his people. He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all them that obey him. Oh, I wish I could
get this across to people, brethren. What is it we are to do if we
want to be saved? What is it we are to do? People
always want to know, what must I do? What must I do? Obey Him. Obey Him. What does He say? He says, believe on Me. He that believeth. He's not ashamed
to confess me in baptism. He shall be saved, He said. Believe
on Me. The one thing man can't do is
stop trying to do things to save himself and trust the Lord to
do it. And He said, My cry He heard
because I patiently waited on Him. I believed Him. I trusted
Him. I waited on Him. And he says this, he brought
me up, Psalm 40 verse 2, he brought me up also out of a horrible
pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and established
my goings. In Gethsemane the Lord sent an
angel and strengthened him. On the third day the Lord raised
him in newness of life, he walked out of the tomb. And now God
has raised Him glorified as the God-man and given Him all power
over all things above, in and below. He's got all power over
all as the God-man. His salvation is accomplished,
it's finished, His work is done. He's seated at God's right hand.
It's a firm foundation. Never, ever, ever, ever to diminish
or fade or be changed or altered in any way is accomplished. And verse 3 says, And He put
a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. You can
go through the Scriptures and you can find where He says, And
I preached in the great congregation, like we saw here, And He says,
and I'll sing praises unto you in the congregation. Well, didn't
He do that when He walked this earth? Yep. And He's still doing
it. He's still doing it. He's putting this song in the
mouth of His people through the preaching of the Word whereby
He gives us faith to believe on Him and discernment to see
what He's accomplished for us. And that's how He puts this song
on our lips. It's the song of praise unto our God. Do you see it there? He put a
new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. You say, well this
looks like everything a believer, God brings a believer through.
Yes, but Christ is our forerunner. And everything that God's going
to bring His people through, Christ first went through it
as our forerunner. And has entered in and sat down
at God's right hand. And we've entered in and sat
down with Him. And so now He is going to bring you and I to
experience this ourselves. And He says that because He waited,
God heard His cry and raised Him and Christ promises us this. Many shall see. Many are going
to see. They shall see and fear and shall
trust in the Lord. Not everybody. Not everybody. But God's going to bring all
those He died for to see what He's done. He's going to bring
us all to have reverence for Him by giving us a new heart.
He's going to bring us to trust the Lord, to put our trust in
the Lord. Now, all of this is due to our
Savior patiently waiting upon the Lord. All of this is due
to the Lord patiently waiting. That meant He trusted the Lord.
That meant He believed God. That's what's being manifest.
Perfect faith and fidelity is being manifest. The righteousness
of God is manifest by what? The faith of Christ. The faith
and fidelity of Christ. That's what this patient waiting
is. He believed God. He's fulfilling everything he
promised the Father in the covenant, in the eternal counsel of grace.
And God, he's waiting on God to fulfill everything he promised
Him. But justice has got to be satisfied
first. You and I could suffer for an
eternity, we never would satisfy justice. Now here's the eternal
Son of God suffering, and He is satisfying justice. He's satisfying,
but not before God says He's finished. And so He trusted. Now here's what He says to you
and me. Listen to this. Verse 4, Blessed is that man
that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud,
nor such as turn aside to lies. If you'd be happy, if you'd be
happy, trust the Lord. Make Him all your trust. Peter said it like this, cast
all your care on Him. All of it, every bit of it on
Him. There is where you will find
happiness. Waiting on the Lord. Waiting to be moved by the Lord.
Waiting, trusting to be controlled by the Lord. Trusting that the
Lord is going to move you and guide you and waiting on His
time. Trusting Him, looking to Him
alone. And here is what goes with that. And having no respect
to man. Not depending on yourself, your
flesh, your works, your will, your thinking, how you think
things are, nothing. And not any other sinful man.
That's turning aside to lies. You read Isaiah, he said there,
the Lord said, cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostril. Believe on the Lord, make Him
your trust and put all your trust in Him. Go over to Hebrews 11. I'll show
you and I'll end with this. This is what the Scripture says.
We're going to come back to Psalm 40, but I want to show you this.
This is what He's saying right here. This is what the Scripture
tells us to do. And this is what His people do,
but it's only by His grace working in us right here. Hebrews 11. I'm sorry, Hebrews 12. He says, He had given us all
that cloud of witnesses who did this before we came along. And
He showed us how God honored their faith. He did all these
things He did for Christ. So now look at this. He says,
Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth 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's that? That's His people.
And He's our joy. He's the joy set before us, and
we were the joy set before Him. And for the joy set before Him,
He endured the cross. He endured the cross. He patiently
waited on God, enduring the cross, despising the shame, and is now
set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider
him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. You've not yet resisted
unto blood striving against sin. Run this race with patience.
Look into Him. Trust in Him. Our Savior has
done everything we're going to face and He's going to do everything
right, perfectly, in the right time, so we can patiently wait
for Him to accomplish what's best. And if you look back to
Psalm 40, here's why we can be sure that
waiting on Him is what's going to be for the best. Look at verse
5. Many, O Lord my God, are Thy
wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which
are to us worth. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto Thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, there more than can be numbered. God's doing that
for His people. But He's going to do it in His
time. and we're going to have to wait on Him. But it'll be
all good for His people. All good for them. I hope that
the Lord will bless that. Brother Art, if you'll come lead
us in a closing hymn. Brother Jeff, you want to come
up closing prayer when he gets finished singing?