Alright, back to Psalm 38. We'll read in the heading there at
the very top. It says, A Psalm of David to
bring to remembrance. The psalm of David to bring to
remembrance. That's the purpose for which
David wrote this psalm, is to make us remember. Now our Lord
obviously gave David these words, and he gave them while David
was under heavy affliction. Some think it was during bodily
and mental trial that he was enduring. But this psalm is to
bring God's saints to remember that Christ experienced everything
we experience. And by doing so, He both made
reconciliation for our sins and He's able to comfort us in all
our need. This is what we are to remember
from this psalm. Christ experienced everything
we experience. And by doing so, He both made
reconciliation for our sins And He's able to comfort us in all
our need. And since we're remembering our
Lord at His table this morning, I've titled this, Remember. Remember. We'll remember Christ bore God's
wrath so that His people never will. We remember that Christ suffered
in our place so that he both made reconciliation for our sins
and is able to comfort us in every trial. And we remember
that Christ knows what it is to suffer alone. So he's able
to help when no one else can. Now first of all, believer, remember,
because Christ bore God's fierce wrath, Because Christ bore the
fierce wrath of God as our substitute, you and I never will. He bore that fierce anger of
justice so that you and I never will. Psalm 38.1 begins, O Lord,
rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me
sore. Believer, have you ever thought
that God was rebuking you in anger? That He was rebuking you
in His fierce anger and His hot displeasure? Have you ever thought
that? God chastens His child so that
we feel it. We experience it. He arranges
everything in providence. Everything is at His disposal
in providence to chasten you and I. And He does so. And sometimes
we think that God's chastening us in fierce anger. It may seem
like that. But that's never the case for
the believer. God does chasten those He loves. The Scripture
says, Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. That's the only ones
He chastens, whom He loves. If you're chastened, God deals
with you as with sons. But God never punishes His child
in hot displeasure. He's not punishing His child.
He's not angry with His child in the fierce anger of His justice.
And the reason is, is because when the Lord laid on Christ
the iniquity of all His people, Christ bore the fierce anger
of God's holy wrath. Christ bore the fierce anger
and the hot displeasure of God's unyielding justice. Now we're
accustomed to reading Lamentations 1. Turn there with me. We read
Lamentations 1. Because we get from that we get
the We get here the words of our
Redeemer on the cross Give me a second Look here Lamentations 1.12 This
is Christ speaking from the cross. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me. Wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. You see he was afflicted. Christ
was afflicted in the day of his fierce anger. Look at Lamentations
3 verse 1. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. I am the man that hath seen affliction
by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned.
He turneth his hand against me all the day. Verse 12. He hath bent his bow and set
me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of
his quiver to enter into my reins. But like our psalm, lamentation
is a lamentation of remembrance. There's something we need to
remember from this concerning Christ. Look at Lamentations
3 and look at verse 19. Remembering, remembering mine
affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall, my soul
hath them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. This I
recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. Now here's what
Christ teaches us from what He suffered. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed. Christ can say that of Himself
and He says that of His people in Him. It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They're new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It's good
that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. You remember in Christ all God's
people have already borne the wormwood and the gall. In Christ
on the cross, we've already borne the fierce wrath of God's rod
of holy justice. And remembering this, brethren,
Christ will have us to know that it's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. Because His compassions fail
not. Justice is satisfied. Mercy is ours. And Christ teaches
us by the cross. When you look to Christ on the
cross, there's something you learn looking to Christ on the
cross. The Lord is good to them that wait for Him. Christ on
the cross waited. He waited on the Lord till justice
was satisfied. And did God our Father faithfully
answer our Redeemer? Yes, He did. The Lord is good
to them that wait for Him. So wait on the Lord. Now remember
this, for the sake of Christ and His finished work, God is
not angry with His people. God is keeping His people. He
said in Isaiah 27.2, Sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine. He is talking about His people,
His church, His vineyard. I the Lord do keep it. I will
water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night
and day. Fury is not in me. Not toward His people. Because
Christ bore the fury. So fury is not in Him toward
His people. Look at Isaiah 51 in verse 2.
I read this to you quite a bit. This is one of my favorite passages. Isaiah 51, 22. In the context,
it's talking about something else, but it applies spiritually
to every believer for the sake of Christ and what He bore on
the cross. Look at Isaiah 51, 22. Thus saith thy Lord, thee
Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people. Don't
you like that? That's who the Lord is. He's
the Lord that pleads the cause of His people. Behold, I've taken
out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of
the cup of my fury, and thou shalt no more drink it again.
But I'll put it into the hand of them that afflict thee. You see that? Justice is satisfied,
brethren. My brothers and sisters, hear
this. When we're chastened by our Heavenly Father, Christ says,
look to me on the cross and remember, it's not punishment. When you're
chastened of the Lord, Christ says, look to me and remember,
it's not punishment. It's not punishment. Christ already
bore that. It's not wrath, it's not hot
displeasure because Christ extinguished that toward His people. Because He bore all God's fiery
arrows. He bore all the fiery arrows
of God's justice on our behalf. Our Heavenly Father is chasing
us in love. You know why? You know how Hebrews
12 begins? It begins telling us to look
to Christ, look to Christ. Run the race set before us looking
to Christ, that we might be, that we might follow after Him.
Run looking to Christ. And then it tells us why, if
we turn out of that way, it tells us why God chastens us. It says
for our profit, that we might be partaker of His holiness,
of Christ's holiness. Christ is the holiness we have
to have. He is our sanctification, our
sanctifier. When God chastens us, brethren,
it's because we're trying to turn away we're not supposed
to turn. It's not wrath, it's not hot
displeasure, because Christ has already satisfied God's justice
toward us. He's borne that wrath. It's God
chastening us to turn us in love so that we might be be made to
profit by making us partake of Christ our holiness. That's why
He turns us. All right, secondly, Psalm 38. Go back to Psalm 38. When our guilt and our sin is
heavy upon us and we become heavily tried, tempted, tried, tested,
remember, The Hebrew writer said, in all things it behooved Christ
to be made like unto His brethren. In all things it behooved Christ
to be made like unto His brethren, that He might make reconciliation
to God for us, and for in that He Himself has suffered, being
tempted, being tried, He's able to succor them that are tempted. Now let me make a statement.
I want you to think about this. This doesn't really fully give
us the truth of the cross, but this will help us to understand
something. When a man's debts are legally transferred to another
before the bank, they're constituted his debts. Before the bank, those debts
cease to be the man, they cease to be the debts of the man who
incurred those debts. And they become the debts of
the man who agreed to pay those debts. They become his debts. The bank looks to him just like
he's the one that got himself into debt. They don't care. He
just has to pay it. The debt's his now. It's all
his. Sin and iniquity is a debt that
every sinner owes to God. You who are without Christ, you
have sinned and committed iniquity against God and you owe Him a
debt. And it's a debt you cannot pay. You owe God blood. You owe God death. And it's not just physical death,
it's eternal death. You owe Him an eternity under
God's wrath is what you owe Him. That's something you and I can't
pay. We can't pay it. Christ was made of a woman. Scripture says it behooved Him
in all points to be made like His brethren. Christ was made
of a woman. It behooved Him to be made of
a woman. He had to be made of a woman. And he was made under
the law. He had to be made under the law. And that was important to prove
that he knew no sin. He was not made of a man like
you and me. So he was not sinful from the
birth, from his mother's womb. He was made of a woman. He's the woman's seed. He's the
last Adam. He's the only other man besides
Adam who came into this world without sin. Holy and righteous,
without sin. So it was needful He be made
of a woman and it was needful He be made under the law to prove
that He is righteous and He would not sin. He knew no sin, He did
no sin, and He would not sin. And it was needful It was needful. It shows us, brethren, that He
is that spotless Lamb of God that was pictured in all the
Old Testament covenant on the Day of Atonement. He is the spotless
Lamb that was pictured. He is that spotless Lamb. So
He was fit to take the place of His people. He didn't know
anything. He said in Scripture, I paid
that which I didn't owe. I didn't owe it. I restored that
which I took not away. But in perfect obedience, Scripture
says by one man's obedience we're made righteous. And by perfect
obedience he willingly came to the garden of Gethsemane and
presented himself to the Father to be made sin for us. in type under the covenant that
spotless lamb was brought to the high priest to transfer the
sins of Israel upon the lamb. Christ in obedience, perfect
spotless lamb of God in obedience comes to the garden of Gethsemane. It's time now. He said, now is
my soul troubled. the time had come. He said the
hour has come. And He went to the garden of
Gethsemane to present Himself to the Father to be made sin
for His people. I'm not saying it was necessarily
done in the garden of Gethsemane. I don't know when it was done.
I know it was done on the cross. But He came there to the garden
of Gethsemane to be made sin for His people. He was presenting
Himself to the Father, the spotless Lamb of God, to be made sin for
us. Right there, right then, He was
the just laying down His life for the unjust. It's why His soul was exceedingly
troubled even to the point of death. It was considering the shame
of sin that He was about to bear before His Father. and the punishment that would
follow. And that's what made him sweat
great drops of blood. That's soul trouble. I've never experienced that kind
of trouble that made me sweat blood. Now when He made him sin for
us, This is all that really matters. In the eye of God, before God, it was such a real transfer that God saw him as being the
only man bearing sin in place of his people. And it was such a real transfer
Christ owned our sins to be His own sin. The debts ceased to
be the debts of His people. And it became His debt. That is the only reason, the
only reason that God in righteous anger judged Christ in place
of His people. That's the only reason. It's
the only way that every scripture concerning judgment can harmonize
with what took place on the cross. It's the only way. was for Christ
to bear the sin of His people. That's the only way God could
judge Him justly, and it harmonized with every scripture where God
speaks of judgment. In Amos 5, 7, God is condemning
sinful man. And He says, Ye who turn judgment
to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth. That's what He
accuses us of. He says, Seek him that maketh
the seven stars in Orion. He's saying, Seek the Lord that
is his name. And listen to what he said. For
I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins. Now what do you think he would
say is our manifold transgression and our mighty sins? Here's what
he said. They afflict the just. They afflict men who are just,
who've done them no wrong. And then he says, seek good and
not evil that you may live. He's calling that evil to afflict
the just. Verse 15, he says, hate the evil
and love the good and establish judgment in the gate. Now what
did he mean by that? This is your great transgression
and your great sin. They afflict the just. What did
he mean? Why does God hate that so badly? God said in Proverbs 7.15, He
that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just,
even they both are abomination to the Lord. You know, if it
was our son, Our daughter, who went before a judge, and they
had done nothing against the law. They were righteous. They had done nothing to break
the law. And that judge condemned them when they were innocent. You
and I would consider that judge an abomination, wouldn't we?
I would. I sure would. Or if a man that
had murdered my son stood there before that judge, and he was
guilty, and that judge said, he's innocent. That judge would
be an abomination to me. You see, in natural things, in
things that apply to us, I think we fully understand what righteousness
is. We get that righteousness is
doing to the wicked what's just and doing to the just what's
just. We understand that's righteousness. That's what was taking place
on Calvary's cross. Christ came, this is the preeminent
dominant thing above everything else that was taking place on
the cross. Christ was manifesting the righteousness of God. If the devil can get you and
me to somehow hedge that and back off of that and make it
unrighteous what was taking place on the cross, he won the day. What took place on the cross
was absolutely righteous. It was absolutely righteous. Scripture says, this is the language
of Scripture, God made him sin. He laid on
him the iniquity of us all. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. Now remember, it was not by imputation. That is not even the definition
of imputation. God will only impute what a man
has been made by a prior act. Romans 5.13 is so clear on that. If you just sit and look at that
scripture, really think about what it says. When it says sin
is not imputed, when there is no law. That's how God imputes. A man has got to be made sin
by a prior act before God will impute sin to him. God didn't
make you sin by imputing sin to you. He just did not. You were made sin by one man's
disobedience. That's why God imputed sin to
you. The only reason God imputes righteousness
to us is because Christ made us righteous by His obedience.
That's true imputation. But that definition completely
falls flat and becomes wrong when we say that just like God's
righteousness, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, our sin was
imputed to Him. I didn't make Him sin. and therefore
my sin was imputed to him. He made me righteous, therefore
his righteousness was imputed to me. That's the true definition
of imputation. It is not to make somebody something
by imputing it to them. It's not. Now we're talking about righteousness
before the seat of God. We're not talking about holiness
of heart. We're not talking about what
takes place in a man's heart. We're talking about before the
law, before the judgment seat, before the judge of all the earth.
That's what we're talking about here. However he sees it, that's
how it really is. That's what we're talking about
here. So what was the prior act? If God will only impute sin when
a man has been made sin by a prior act, what was the prior act? He hath made him sin for us who
knew no sin. That was the prior act. Well,
I don't understand how that could be done. Guess what? Do you understand how God who
is spirit, who is invisible could be made flesh and dwell among
us? Can you explain that? Are you that audacious to say
you can explain that? God's bigger than we are. God
is... If God couldn't do things that you and I, it's beyond our
comprehension, He wouldn't be God. But I don't know how it was done,
but I do know this. What was done was, in the eye
of justice, he was constituted sin. So that God was just to pour
out justice on him. I do know that. That was a must
for God to be just and to manifest His righteousness in punishing
Christ in the fury of His wrath and justice. The righteousness
of God ceases to be manifest unless Christ was made sin for
us. Find me one place in Scripture
where it says God imputed our sin to Christ and that's how
Christ was made sin. You won't even find it say that
God imputed sin to Christ. It doesn't say it anywhere. Imputation
is always spoken of as sin being imputed to us because Adam made
us sin and of righteousness being imputed to us because Christ
made us righteous. But it's never spoken of in regard
to Christ and how He was made sin. That's just fact. We're going to go with men. Here's
what we ultimately will do. We'll go and we'll read commentaries
by uninspired men and we'll go, well I'm going to go with that
instead of going with the very Word of God. The issue at the cross, the issue
at the cross is perfect righteousness being manifest. If you call it
righteousness for a judge to pour out judgment on an innocent
man, then that's your view of righteousness.
It's false and it's wrong and it's not the God of glory. God
of glory does right. He made him sin. And we know
it because it's the only reason God forsook His Son on the cross. The only reason. Christ said,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because thou art
holy and I'm a worm and no man. Clay, you shouldn't say that.
I didn't. He did. This book is Christ speaking. These Psalms are Christ speaking. There are some ways I don't see
how it could be Christ speaking. But that don't change it. Even when God withdrew His presence
from our substitute, please don't miss this point. When God withdrew
His Spirit from the first Adam, that corrupted the first Adam.
But let me tell you something about the first Adam. The first
Adam was only a man. The last Adam was the God-man.
And when God forsook him and God withdrew His Spirit from
him, Christ was of such strength that He bore Himself up in holiness
of heart and continued faithfully looking to God His Father to
fulfill His covenant. That's what you find throughout
the Psalms. That's what I love about the Psalms. If you could
just see Christ on the cross, while He's telling you what He's
bearing, you hear Him saying constantly, but Father, I'm looking
to You. When this is all finished, when
justice is satisfied, You're going to fulfill Your covenant
and raise me. and bring me out from under this.
He had to faithfully repent. He had to faithfully be faithful.
He had to do everything that his people have to do. And he had to be the righteousness
of it. He's the faith of our faith. He's the repentance of
our repentance even. He bore the sin of his people,
but he never transgressed against God. God withdrew from our substitute
in fierce, hot displeasure, and He tread the winepress of the
fury of God's wrath all alone. And in that moment, Christ was
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. With everything that our sin
causes us to feel, Christ was all heaped upon our Redeemer.
And He experienced it. He felt it. He was tempted, He
was tried in all points like as we are. And yet while He bore
that, He was without sin. See how much greater He is than
you and me? He never sinned. Scripture says
He endured the cross despising the shame. He endured a contradiction
of sinners against Himself. He resisted unto blood striving
against sin. He was obedient even to the death
of the cross. How will He know? what you experience
under the shame of your sin and be able to succor you unless
He was in all points made like unto His brethren. How will He
know that? Unless He experienced it. Christ experienced the shame
of our sin and the weakness of our flesh. Look at Psalm 38.3.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger. Neither
is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities
are gone over my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for
me. What is he doing? He is constantly
justifying God's anger against him by owning our sin and iniquities
to be his own. He is vindicating God constantly.
My wounds. my bruises, my stripes, the punishment
I'm bearing for sin, my wounds stinking or corrupt, they fester
because of my foolishness. I know he didn't sin, I know
Christ never committed sin, but he's vindicating God's justice
and saying the reason I'm bearing stripes is because I deserve
to bear stripes. This is just, he's saying, I
am troubled, I'm bowed down greatly, I go mourning all the day long,
for my loins are filled with a loathsome. Take out the word
disease, because that's added by the translators. The word
loathsome means I'm filled with a burning, a parched dryness. It's because the water of life,
the water of God was removed when He was forsaken. He's saying
what He said in Psalm 22, 15. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws.
Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. That's what He's
saying. There's no soundness in my flesh. Christ experienced the weakness
of our flesh. When he came back to the disciples
and they were praying and he said, the flesh is weak. The
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He was saying what he
knew to be true, having been walked in our flesh. I'm feeble, benumbed. I'm sore
broken, exceedingly broken. But now while that's taking place,
see His Holy Spirit, see His faithful inward man in all this. Watch, I've roared by reason
of the disquietness, the reason of the groaning of my heart.
Lord, all my desire, all the longing of my heart is before
Thee. And my groaning is not hid from
thee. He's saying you see my holy inward
heart. My heart panteth. I'm desiring the glory of my
Father while outwardly in His flesh my strength faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it's also gone from me." He's saying, Lord, you see the faith
and fidelity of my heart while at the same time I'm bearing
the sin of my people, I'm bearing the punishment of my people,
and there's no soundness in my flesh. You still behold my heart. The faith of Christ had no other
confidence but the Lord Jehovah, even when He hung in three hours
of darkness, forsaken injustice. The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? He's fulfilling the positive
and the negative at the same exact time. faithfully loving
God and His people as Himself from a holy heart while He's
bearing our sin and the punishment for our sin and paying justice
we owe. It's all in Christ right there
on the cross. He's the righteousness of His
people. So brethren, Christ is our light
and our strength. And because He experienced this,
He knows what it's like when we have no light in our flesh.
He knows what it's like when you come into darkness and you
don't have any light and you feel like the heavens are shut
up against you and God has just forsaken you. He knows what that's
like. Though He were a son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which He suffered. And He perfected
it. You and I sin so much when we
come into a situation like that that God could just cast us away.
Our faith is just non-existent. But He is the one who put away
our sin and He is the perfection of our faith. He never wavered
when He was in darkness. He said, my light is not in these
eyes, my light is not my flesh, my light is my Lord, my strength
is my Lord. And He said it perfectly without
sin. And so when you and I come into that place, number one,
He's our righteousness even when we're in that sin and darkness.
And number two, because He's experienced what it's like to
be there, He's able to come and comfort you. Because He knows. He knows what you need. He knows
what it's like. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. But sometimes, brethren,
Sometimes we suffer in such a way that we feel absolutely, totally
alone. Nobody around us, none of our
friends, none of our loved ones can help us because they just
don't know what we're suffering. And they have no ability to do
anything about it. You ever been there? Where you're
absolutely alone? Your dearest loved one? can't
even enter into it, doesn't even have any idea, you're suffering
alone. You ever notice this? While those we love are not near
and we're made to feel alone in this suffering, is it not
the case that our enemies are always close at hand? They're
always near. But you know what? Christ knows
what that is too. Look here. His loved ones and
His friends left Him to suffer alone on the cross. Verse 11,
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen
stand afar off, but look who was near. Verse 12, They also
that seek after my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my
hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day
long. They were near. But did he open
his mouth? Did he reprove them? Did he speak
out against them? Verse 13, But I as a deaf man
heard not, and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and whose mouth are no reproofs. When he was reproved, he reproved
not again. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. What did he do? He committed
it to God that judges righteously. Look at verse 15. For in thee,
O Lord, do I hope. Get what he said there. I didn't
open my mouth. I was like a deaf man that didn't
hear them. I didn't give them any reproofs. Why? For in thee,
O Lord, do I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God,
for I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me.
When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me. You know
that so. Whenever Christ bore the cross
and He's on His way to the cross and they lifted Him up and they
plunged that cross in the ground and He's hanging there in that
cross, He said there in verse 17, I'm ready to halt my sorrows
continually before me. I'll declare mine iniquity. I'll
be sorry for my sin. I will, I will be sorry for this. I will declare it's mine. I will
be the perfect confessor. I will be the perfect repenter.
But my enemies are lively and they're strong and they're hating
me wrongfully. and those that hate me wrongfully
are multiplied. They also that render evil for
good are mine adversaries because I follow that which good is. On the cross, Christ bearing
the sin of His people was a good thing. It was holy obedience
to take all our sin and all our debt upon Himself and on it all
to be His own and to pay it in full that God might be just and
justifier. That was a good thing He was
doing. But what did we do? What did Scripture say we do?
We esteemed him stricken of God and afflicted. In our hearts,
you thought this when you were dead in your sins and so did
I. That one they called Jesus that was suffering on the cross
was just another man that God was punishing because of his
sins. That's what you and I thought. That's what he means. I'll declare
my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. I
will own this, the Lord said, but my enemies are lively and
they're strong and they're hating me wrongfully. They're rewarding
me evil for the good I'm doing. And that's why he was calling
out to God. He said, he was saying to God, come to my aid so that
my enemies don't triumph in this ungodly mockery that they're
throwing at me. He said, forsake me not, O Lord.
O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord,
my salvation. You will see perfect faith. When have you and I ever borne
this kind of pain and this kind of suffering and this kind of
shame and ever been that perfectly faithful to God without sin? Never. Men want to boast about
their faith. If God was counting your faith
to be righteousness, He'd count it to be sin is what He'd count
it. That is righteous faith right
there. So remember, when loved ones
are nowhere to comfort you, when enemies return evil for the good
that you do, commit it to Him. Commit it to Him. When he said,
I was deaf and I opened up my mouth because I hope in the Lord,
because I'm trusting the Lord to help me. When he said that,
brethren, what he's saying is, when you and I open our mouth
in reproof and when we have to revile somebody and put them
in their place, we're not trusting God. We're not hoping in God. That's what the devil wants you
to do. What should we do? Commit it
to Him that judges righteously. I want to show you something
over here in Isaiah 50. Go there real quick. I'm going
to show you two scriptures and we're done. Isaiah 50 and verse
6. Isaiah 50 and verse 6. Now this
is the Lord Jesus speaking and I want you to read what He says
here. Let's begin in verse 5. The Lord
God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. You remember the willing bond
servant had his ear opened? He came to his master, he wanted
to serve him, he loved his master, he loved his bride and his children,
and he wanted to serve the master. And so he was to bring him to
the door post, and he was to put an awl through his ear, and
open his ear, and put a mark on him, and from then on he was
that master's servant. That's what he's saying. He's
opened my ear. I'm His willing bondservant.
Look here. I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I did not, I hid
not my face from shame and from spitting. Why? Read this next
thing. For the Lord God will help me.
Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Now I want you to turn to Romans
8. Did you catch all that language right there? Those questions
he asked? That was when He was bearing
the cross looking to the Father. And now that He's borne that
cross, and you and I are looking to Him, now here's what we can
say. Romans 8.32, He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things? Now look how similar
the language. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, neckiness, peril, sword, as it's written, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep by the
slaughter. No, in all these things we're more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I am persuaded, neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see brethren, just like he
looked to the Father, and knew that Father was going to fulfill
all His covenant, you look to Christ and just know He has,
He is and He shall fulfill every word of His promise to you and
me. He knows everything we suffer. He is able to comfort us and
He has made reconciliation to God for us. Remember Him. Now let's do so. Brother Rob,