All right, let's go to Psalm
39. I got into my office yesterday about 10.30 and I thought I had
about an hour's worth of work left to do and was going to go
home and watch Arkansas play football. And I got to looking
over my notes and I began to think about how many brethren
I have who are suffering in trials and I just began to think I need
a message that will comfort them. So I scrapped everything I had
and ended up staying until about 10 o'clock last night. But I
do think the Lord gave me a message and I hope it will be a comfort
for you. I've titled this Lessons from
the Silent Sufferer. We're told here at the beginning
of Psalm 39 that this is to the chief musician, even to Jedithon,
a psalm of David. Jedithon means praise. He was
a Levite. It appears he was the chief musician.
And David's the writer here. Everything that we're going to
read about David suffered. And David, these things that
he said applies to David. But the words that were given
here were given by the Spirit of David's Lord. And it's truly
the Lord Jesus that's speaking. And only the Spirit of God could
do that, give something that applied to David and applied
to the Lord Jesus. You see down in verse 9, He says,
I was dumb. I was silent. I opened not my
mouth. Isaiah 53.7 says, As a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so Christ openeth not His mouth. This is our substitute as He
suffered as the representative of His people. And I think it's
delightful that He lets us listen in on His thoughts in His heart
and why He did what He did and what He said and why He said
it, what He experienced. As a man, in our flesh, I think
it's delightful that He lets us hear it and teaches us through
it. How do we suffer in trials? How
do we suffer in trials? More specifically, how do we
use our tongue when we suffer in trials? We learn everything
valuable from our Savior. Everything of value we learn
from Him. And here he teaches us some things about how to suffer
and how to best use our tongue while we suffer. The first thing
we see here is our Lord teaches us to suffer in silence. He teaches us to suffer in silence.
He says here, chapter 39 verse 1, I said I will take heed to
my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth
with a bridle, with a muzzle, while the wicked is before me.
I was dumb with silence. I held my peace, even from good,
and my sorrow was stirred. Our Lord Jesus is the holy God-man
who knew no sin. He's the holy God-man who knew
no sin. It was His holy nature. at all
times to sin not with his tongue. That was just his nature, not
to sin. And not even to sin with his
tongue. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And his heart,
his nature, his soul was holy through and through. And so it
was just his natural way not to do anything sinful, not to
sin with his tongue, but especially, he said, I will keep my mouth
with a brottle while the wicked is before me. Remember what our
Redeemer endured at the hands of the wicked? Back in Psalm
12, it says that the wicked say with our tongue will we prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is
Lord over us? That's what the wicked say. With
our tongue will we prevail. Who's lord over us? They stripped
Christ. They pressed the crown of thorns
on his head. And the scripture says they vehemently
accused him. They were enraged as they were
accusing him. Herod questioned him with many
words. Scripture says, but he answered
him nothing. They blindfolded him, and they
struck him on the face, and they asked him, and they said, prophesy,
who is it that smote thee? You know, that would appeal to
our pride. He knew. He knew who smote him. He's the
omniscient Lord. He knew who smote him. But he
didn't say anything. He didn't say a word. Pilate
said unto him, Whence art thou? Where did you come from? But
Jesus gave him no answer. And Pilate said to him, Speakest
thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have
power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? And Jesus
answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except
it were given thee from above. Our Lord never defended himself
against their lying accusations. He never did. He bridled his
tongue even in his heart. It wasn't like he just wasn't
speaking it but he was thinking it in his heart. He didn't even
think it in his heart. Even though by his silence it
says his sorrow was stirred within him, still he didn't speak a
word. Could you and I do that? Could
you do that? We should. Ain't no doubt we
should. But He teaches His people here,
He's teaching us to take heed that we sin not with our tongue,
especially when the wicked are before us. But there's no way,
brethren, that we can do that in perfection. There's just no
way you can do that in perfection. This is another example of how
Christ Jesus the Lord is the perfect righteousness of His
people. In all of this, he sinned not.
He's the perfect righteousness of his people. He's the perfect
man that James spoke about. You remember over in James chapter
1, verse 26, he said, If any man among you seem to be religious,
and he bridleth not his tongue, he goes around boasting about
his works, and boasting about his goodness, and putting down
others, and exalting himself over others, and defending himself
and his actions and all of these things. This man deceives his
own heart. This man's religion is vain.
Christ didn't do that. He said in James 3 verse 2, If
any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and he's
able to bridle the whole body. Do you and I offend anybody? Do we ever offend anybody? Our
Lord Jesus Christ never, with a fault of His own, offended
anybody. He never did it. He's the perfect
man. He's the perfect man. Now when
you and I suffer, brethren, it's okay to talk to our brethren
about our suffering. It's okay to have a brother or
sister you can fight in. That's good. That's fine. How
else would we know to pray for one another if we didn't tell
one another our trouble? That's fine to do. But never
speak against the Lord's providence. Never speak against His providence.
And that's what so much of of men's defending themselves and
murmuring about the situation and how things are. So much of
that is murmuring against God's providence. Because God's worked
it. Whatever it is, He's brought
it to pass. And so much of it is speaking against His providence. And especially whatever you do,
don't do that before the wicked. Don't do that before the wicked.
They're just looking for an excuse to be able to say, that's why
I don't believe their gospel. That's why I don't believe what
they preach right there. Look at Him. Look at what His gospel
has done for Him. Look at how He talks. So never,
never do anything like that in front of the wicked. Whenever
you suffer, try to first consider Christ and this contradiction
of sinners that He endured. Consider how He suffered silently
before His offenders. And that way, you'll have a bridle,
you'll have a constraint on your tongue. Think of Him, consider
Him, lest we say something we shouldn't say. The Scripture
says, Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth. Take
a little fire, just a little spark, and it will grow into
a raging flame. And He says this, The tongue
is a fire. It's a little member. But it's
a fire. It's a world of iniquity. The
tongue among our members defileth the whole body. It sets on fire
the course of nature and is set on fire of hell. So, as brother
Jack Shanks used to say, it's one of his classic statements.
He used to say, take every opportunity you can to shut up. That's pretty
good advice. And then, as Robert Hawker suggests
here, we see it's profitable to be silent. We see grace kindle
our Lord's heart to use His tongue to go out to God His Father. As He mused, He turned from His
situation and spoke to God the Father. Look here in verse 3.
My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned. And then spake I with my tongue. But look who He spoke to, ìLord,
make me know to know mine end, and to measure of my days what
it is that I might know how frail I am. Behold, Thou hast made
my days as a handbreadth, and mine age is as nothing before
Thee. Verily every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show, they are disquieted in vain. He heapeth up riches,
and knoweth not who shall gather them. By this petition, our Lord
Jesus teaches us the best use of our tongue during suffering,
and especially when we are before the wicked. and that is to go
out to the Father, speak to the Lord in His name. Lord, make
me to know mine end. That's when His tongue spoke.
He spoke, Lord, make me to know mine end, the measure of my days,
what it is that I might know how frail I am. You know, our
substitute often said things, not because he needed to know,
but he said things for the benefit of his people, to teach his people. Very often, at Lazarus' tomb,
Scripture says He lifted up His eyes and He said, Father, I thank
Thee that Thou hast heard Me, and I knew that Thou hearest
Me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me. You see, He
knew and He spoke what He spoke, not for His benefit, but for
the benefit of those who were near Him. When He hung on the
cross and He said, Why hast Thou forsaken Me? He knew why he was
being forsaken. He said it's because thou art
holy. He knew. He knew why. But he said that
for our benefit to teach us why he was forsaken. And His petition
here is not for His benefit. And it's not to know the hour
of His death. It's not to know the place of
His departure. It's not to know the means that
God had appointed for His death. He's the only man that ever walked
this earth that knew all that beforehand. He knew all that
beforehand. He said, when it came time for
Him to go to the cross, He said, the hour has come. He knew it. He knew it. From eternity, He
knew the means and He knew the place would be that cursed cross
because He entered into a covenant with God the Father to be made
a curse for His people so that He might deliver us from the
curse. He knew He was going to the cross. He knew He was going
to bear the sins of His people and be made a curse for us and
bear the punishment that we deserve. He knew that. from eternity. And he knew the moment. The moment. He knew the moment when he was
going to give up his spirit. He's the only man who laid down
his life. Nobody took his life from him.
You can read it in the Gospels. He said, Father into thy hands
commend I my spirit. And he gave up his spirit. He's
the only man that ever did that. And he knew the moment he would
do it. He knew it would only be after he had fulfilled everything
that was written in the Scriptures. He knew it would only be after
he had fully satisfied the justice of God in the place of his people.
And then, when God said enough, that's when he would die. But remember this too, brethren.
Our substitute was touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
That Scripture doesn't just mean that He feels sorry for you and
me and He's touched by it in that way. It means when He walked
this earth, really and truly, He was touched with all the feeling
that our sinful infirmities caused. And yet He did it without sin. Suffering was really suffering
to Christ. Pain was really pain to Him.
Sorrow was really sorrow to Him. He was truly made flesh like
unto His brethren. And that's what this shows us.
We see His humanity here. He ribbed the Son of God, who
is God, who is the Spirit, who is the invisible God, was made
flesh and really and truly dwelt among us as the God-man in full
humanity. His petition here is to show
you and me, His people, to show us that He really was a man like
those He came to save. He asked to be reminded here
how short and how frail His life was on this earth. Scripture says in Hebrews 5.8,
though He were a son, Oh, He is the Son of God. He is God
Himself. Though He were a son, yet when
He took flesh and He became a servant, serving on behalf of His people,
serving in place of His people as our head. It says, yet He learned obedience. He experienced obedience. He experienced what it is to
obey by the things which He suffered. Brethren, in order to be a merciful
high priest to his people, to be able to comfort you and me,
he had to be touched with all the feeling of our infirmities.
He had to be, the high priest was always taken from among the
people, from among the brethren, and he's one taken from among
his brethren. He's one who knows everything
we suffer in intimate detail because he He walked there. He
suffered what we suffer. And even the feelings that cause
you and me to sin and that is from our infirmity due to our
sin, He experienced that but without sin. So He's touched
with all the feeling of our infirmities, brethren. And when He was touched
with that, He experienced how frail and how weak Our flesh
really is. He knows. He really and truly
knows that we are dust. He knows when He said the spirit
is willing but the flesh is weak. He experienced that. He knew
that. And He knows that about us brethren.
And He is saying these things He is saying here to keep us
in mind of that. to teach you and me that and
keep us in mind of that. Our days are short, very short. At our best state, we're weak
as vapor. At our best state, we're weak
as vapor. Look here in verse 5. Behold,
thou hast made my days as a hand breath, mine ages as nothing
before thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. You know what a hand breadth
is? If you take those four fingers right there and spread them out,
that's what I'm told is a hand breadth. That describes our life
as very, very short, doesn't it? That's how long your life
is right there. Pretty short, isn't it? He says,
mine age, that's the duration of my life. It says nothing before
thee. You think if we only compared
our life, the duration of our life, if we only compared it
to Methuselah, who lived to be 900 years old, our life would
be nothing. The duration of our life would
be nothing, our age. But compare it to eternal God. Compare it to eternity. Scripture
says yesterday was like a thousand years to Him. A thousand years
was just as yesterday to Him. We are small. And our time, the whole of time,
when time is all completed from beginning to end, compared to
eternity, that has no beginning and no ending. Time is just going
to be a little capsule in the midst of eternity. We are nothing. We are just small brethren. So
he says this, verily, that means this is for certain. This is
so important for you to learn and me to learn. Verily, every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Think about that
for a while. Just stop and think about that.
That's what the word means. Most imagine, this is what most
people think, at certain times when I'm at my worst, then I'm
kind of weak. That's not what he said. He said
every man at our best state. And that best state means every
man when he is settled and he's most founded and he's most strong,
every man at his best state is altogether vanity. It means altogether weak as a
vapor. Weak as a breath. That's you and me. When we're
the strongest we can muster, we're weak as vapor. We make plans for the future.
We make plans for the distant future. And we talk about the
future like we're guaranteed we're going to have it. We don't
even know what's going to happen today. We don't know what God
has in store today. Much less tomorrow. Much less
next year. We don't know any of those things.
Scripture says, what is your life? It's even a vapor. It means
it's vanity. What is your life? It's a vapor
that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. And so
we ought to say, if the Lord will, if He's willing, we'll
live and do this or that. If He's willing, we'll live and
do this or that. You see, we're vapor. We're vapor. And so our walk, brethren, everything
we do, because we're vapor, everything we do, all our works is vanity
seeking vain things. We're just vapor seeking vapor. That's all we are. Look here,
verse 6. Surely every man walketh in a vain show. It means in a
vain image. Not the image of God, but in
the semblance of that image, which we lost in the fall, when
we fell in Adam. In a vain show, acting as if
we're sovereign, acting as if we're in control of our lives
and of tomorrow. It's a vain show. It's a vain
show. Look, surely they are disquieted
in vain. What does that mean? Surely we
roar loudly and we protest and we rise up early and we stay
up late and we worry and we toil and we labor for vain things
that shall not satisfy and shall not last. For example, he heapeth up riches
and knoweth not who shall gather them. I was talking to Melinda about
this billion dollar powerball jackpot. I'm being honest with
you, I would hate to win that. I would hate to win it. Do you
know, if you won that, the moment you won that, do you know how
much burden, do you know how much weight would come up on
you and how much worry would come up on you? You can take
$500 that you didn't have yesterday and get $500 today, and all of
a sudden, it's like you can't part with it. Oh, we got to save
that. I can't do anything with that.
Well, you didn't have it just the day before. But the moment
you get, and if you had that kind of money, the moment you
got it, you would be worried about how to keep it. How am
I going to keep the government from getting it? How am I going
to invest it? How am I going to keep other
people knowing I got it? Because there will be a stream
of folks knocking at my door. I have relatives I didn't even
know I had. That's what the Lord told a parable. Remember about
a man whose ground brought forth abundantly? And when it brought
forth abundantly, immediately he was overcome with trouble.
He thought within himself saying, What shall I do? I have no room
to bestow my fruits. I don't have barns enough to
put all this in. What am I going to do? And then
he thought, I know what I'll do. He thought within himself,
I know what I'll do. I'll tear down those barns and I'll build
bigger barns. And so that's what he did. And
the Scripture says, And I'll say to my soul, Soul, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night, not many, many years, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee. Then whose shall those things
be which thou hast provided? That's what our text is saying.
All these riches you've heaped up, whose are they going to be
now? They're not yours anymore. So is he that lays up treasure
for himself and is not rich toward God. And so our Lord said to
His disciples, take no thought for your life what you shall
eat, neither for the body what you shall put on. Brother Kevin
just read it. That's not what we ought to be
worried about, what we ought to be wringing our hands over
about what we're going to eat, what we're going to put on our
body, and what we're going to do in this life. That's not what
we ought to be worried about. Every wicked, defiled, ungodly,
spiritually dead sinner in this world are worried about those
things. And you and I who believe have a heavenly Father who's
doing everything in this world, working it all together for our
good according to His purpose, And He knows exactly what we
need. And everything we have, He's
given it. There's nothing we have that
we didn't receive of Him. And He's given everything we
need. Why would we worry about anything? But our Lord said,
here's what we ought to be seeking preeminently at all times. We ought to be seeking the Kingdom
of God. We ought to be seeking Christ,
the King of the Kingdom. We ought to be seeking His righteousness
at all times. And I'll tell you who's worst
of all about this. Sinners who are religious, walking
in a vain religious show. They're the worst. They're the
worst. They're laboring to heap up righteousness
that they think is going to be riches in the day they stand
before God, and God says it's not even righteousness at all.
They're trying to heap up this riches of a holiness that they
think is holiness that God says is not even holiness at all. Our Lord said, many, many are
going to stand before me in that final day. And they're going
to say, Lord, didn't we prophesy? Didn't we preach in your name?
Didn't we cast out devils in Your name? Oh, we disciplined
folks. We made folks act right in Your
name. Didn't we do many, many wonderful
works in Your name? And the Lord said, and then I'll
say, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew you. We see the problem in this psalm
right here. Here's Christ Jesus, the Son
of God. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the righteousness
of God. He is the fulfillment of the
law. He's the end purpose for which the law was given to bring
His people to Him. to rest in Him. That's why the
law was given. It wasn't given for you to try
to come to God by your obedience to the law. The law was given
to declare us guilty, show us our sin, so that we flee to Christ
and cast all our care on Him. The end of the law for righteousness
is Christ the Lord to everyone that believes in Him. When you've
come to Christ, you've come to the end of the law. That's the
end purpose for which God gave it. And here He was in our midst,
standing right here in our midst, walked this earth in front of
us, before us, and what did we do? When they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. Isn't that us? That's not just a Gentile heathen,
that's you and me by nature. We weren't thankful. We became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened,
professing themselves to be wise. They became fools and they changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image like the corruptible
man. Look at this world right now.
Look at this country right now. Everybody in this country thinks
they're smarter than God. You know how we know that? Because
we are legalizing things God forbids in His book. And not
only legalizing it, but men are rejoicing in men that do those
things. We try to put God out of our
memory. What are you seeking in this
life? What are you looking for in life? Everything in this life
is vanity. You and I are a vapor and everything
in this life is a vapor. It's going to be here and gone
that fast. If a man gains the whole world
and dies without Christ, he loses the most valuable thing he has,
his own soul. So instead of making all these
plans for the future, and what we're going to do in the future,
you and I ought to be concerned about our soul. And that day when we're going
to stand before God, because it might be today. It might just
be today. Here's the third thing. We see
our Redeemer's heart on this earth when He walked this earth,
and this is the heart He gives His people right here. Our suffering
Savior waited for nothing in this world. He waited for God
His Father. Look at verse 7. And now, Lord,
what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. My hope is
in Thee. Is Christ your only hope? If
Christ is your only hope, then you know what He was talking
about right here. There's nothing in this world
that I'm hoping for. I've been around long enough
to know nothing in this life lasts. It's not going to give
you any satisfaction. Momentarily, it may give you
some fleshly gratification. That's it. That's it. My hope
is Christ. My hope is seated at the right
hand of the Father. What am I waiting for? I'm waiting
for Him. I'm looking for Him. I have my
eyes on Him. And He prayed to be delivered.
He said in verse 8, Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make
me not the reproach of the foolish. Our Lord Jesus knew no sin and
He had none. And for that reason He was fit.
And the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of all His people. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And when He did that, before
God, before the judgment seat of God, those sins became His
sins. And He owned those sins to be
His sins. Do you know how important that
is? Do you know what a blessing that is for His people? This
is the only way that God can say to you and me and command
you and me to own His righteousness as our own righteousness. It's
the only way. God said He died unto sin once,
but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. God wasn't supposing that we
died. It was all real before God. It
was a real transference of our sin to Christ. He really owned
those sins and He really was punished in the place of His
people for those sins because He owned them as His. And He
really died. Did He really die? Did God really
die? That's how real He was bearing
the justice of God. That's how real He was bearing
the sin of His people. And so He says to you and me,
He died under sin. He died under sin. That's the
only reason a man can die. And that's the only reason our
Lord Jesus died. But now that He lives, He lives
under God. And He tells you and me, God
wasn't supposing. You were in Christ. You who He
chose and put in Christ before the world was made. You were
in Christ. And when Christ died, you died. And when Christ arose,
you arose. And God says, so you impute to
yourself what is fact. You died when He died, and you
arose when He arose, and now you live under God. You're dead
under sin, but alive under God. That's a real certain thing,
brethren. And it's because Christ owned
our sin as His own. Now what are we waiting for?
If Christ has come and He satisfied justice, if God has said enough
and He satisfied justice, and the Scripture says He purged
our sins, He put our sins away, then how do you and I call on
Him? How do we say, Lord, deliver
me from my transgressions? Because that's all we're waiting
on. We still are in this body that's nothing but transgression,
and we're waiting on our Lord to deliver us out of this. That's
all we're waiting on, brethren, you that know Him. Why was Christ
silent? Why did He ask the Lord to deliver
Him? And why was He silent while He
was suffering? Because He knew everything He
was suffering was of the Lord's hand. Look here, verse 9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth,
because thou did it. Remove thy stroke away from me,
I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. And when thou with
rebukest this correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty
to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. What
is our constraint to hold our tongue when we suffer? God does
it. He's the one doing it. And He's
doing it to show you and me that everything that is our very best
beauty, the moment He chastens us, that beauty vanishes. It's
gone. Even our Redeemer, Scripture
says His vision, His visage was marred more than any other man
on that cross. And when God puts His stroke
of chastening upon you, all your beauty vanishes in an instant.
And by that He is showing you and me we are nothing but a vapor. Don't trust this flesh. Don't put any confidence in this
flesh or in anything in this life. You got savings for the
day you retire? If you make it tomorrow, it's
going to be because God made you live. If you make it to the
day you retire, it's because God preserves you. And if you
have plenty in your retirement, it's because God provided it.
It won't be because of anything you did. Don't trust the flesh. Christ
was a stranger and a sojourner here, and so He makes His people
to be. We're just passing through. He
said, verse 12, Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my
cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears, for I'm a stranger with
thee. I'm a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me that
I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. And
in Christ our intercessor, God our Father gives ear when we
call on Him. Are you suffering? Are you in
a trial? I know you've heard me say this
and I know you've done it, but I'll say it again. Call on Him. Go to Him in the name of Christ
our intercessor and He will give ear. He will give ear. He will
give ear. He will spare His people. He
will make you to recover strength before you perish. He will do
it in this trial right now and He is going to do it in the end. Before we perish, He is going
to recover our strength and bring us home with Him. But we have
to wait. We have to wait because only
He can deliver us. Only He can deliver us from the
trial. Only He can deliver us from this body of death. We have
to wait on Him to do the delivering. And that's what we learned from
our Redeemer. He waited on that cross until justice was satisfied. He only uttered seven sayings
from the cross and He only uttered those because it was for the
good of His people to teach you and me something. But he never
uttered a word in defiance against God's providence. Everything
was submission to God's will in perfect faithfulness. So that
as he purged our sins and put away our sins, he perfectly established
the law by his obedience. And he alone is the righteousness
of the believer. He's our hope. He's what we're
waiting on. Nothing in this world. We're
not here to heap up riches. That's not our purpose. I told
you about my grandfather. My uncle used to say he's done
everything he can do to make sure he dies a poor man. And
he did. He did everything he could to
make certain that he didn't heap up any riches. I want to use whatever God's
given me for the furtherance of the gospel Because that's
why I'm here. That's why I'm here. I'm not
here to make a great name for myself. I'm here to serve Him. And I'm just waiting on Him to
take me home. I pray that's the heart He gives us. He's going
to deliver us. He has, He is, and He shall.
You can bank on it. I pray now if you don't know
Him, cast your care on Him. Because if you go through this
life without Christ, I don't care what you accomplish in this
life, you've accomplished nothing. May God have mercy and make you
come to Christ. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. We'll close in prayer and then
Brother Art will come and lead us in a closing hymn. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Make it real to us. Make it effectual in our heart.
Speak to us now effectually, Lord, and make us to know these
things. Help those that are suffering. Help them by turning them to
You and showing them they have nothing to worry about. And pour
grace into their heart. Heal them, Lord. Strengthen them
before they perish. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins.
We're waiting on You to come and deliver us from this body
of death. Come quickly, Lord. We ask You, according to Your
will. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.