Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 20. Thank you, Art. Now, believers pray. Prayer is the heartbeat of a
believer. We're reminded in Scripture several places to pray. Prayer
is faith in God. Prayer is dependence upon God.
Prayer is glorying in God. We pray for many things. But
have you ever thought of praying for Christ? Somebody asked, do you have any
prayer requests? Have you ever thought to say,
yeah, let's pray for Christ. That's our subject, the church's
prayer for Christ. The heading of Psalm 20 says,
is to the chief musician a psalm of David. Now the Holy Spirit
gave these words to David, but it shows us the prayer that Christ,
our true David, and our true King, taught His church to pray. Now while on this earth Christ
constantly prayed to the Father, and He taught His disciples to
pray, And he taught us what to pray. You remember, he said,
when you pray, he said, you pray, Father, hallowed be thy name.
How is his name going to be hallowed in Christ? He said, pray, thy
kingdom come. How is his kingdom going to be
established? And how is his kingdom going
to be brought to his people in Christ and by Christ? He said,
pray that His will be done in heaven as it is in earth. How's
His will going to be done? By Christ. And so the Lord taught
us to pray for Christ. That's what He taught us to pray.
And then when they went to the Garden of Gethsemane, you remember
in Matthew 26, it said in verse 38, He said unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. tarry ye here and watch
with me." He meant pray with me. And he went a little further,
and he fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as Thou wilt. And he came again to his disciples
and foundeth them asleep. And he said to Peter, What, could
you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you enter
not into temptation. Now, Psalm 20 is a prophecy of
the prayer of the Church of Christ in this His day of trouble. That's what this psalm is about. It's a prophecy of the Church's
prayer for Christ. The assurance that we have is
that God will hear our prayer is given in this psalm. It's
given right here. So we'd be wise to pray for Christ. And it tells us how to do that.
It tells us how to do that. Now, we know what Christ prayed. What did His disciples pray while
they struggled with sleep? What did the church pray? First
of all, the church prayed for Christ to be heard. Look here
in verse 21. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. the Lord here, thee in the day
of trouble." Now, all the days of Christ were trouble. He's
the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But when he went
to the Garden of Gethsemane, this marked the beginning of
THE day of trouble. This was THE day of trouble.
What was taking place in the Garden of Gethsemane? Well, it
was in the garden that the first Adam was tested, and he failed,
and he plunged all his house into spiritual death. And so
it was in a garden that the last Adam was tested. But he succeeded,
and he continued on to the cross, and he saved every member of
his house. And then remember this too. Remember
the picture that was in the old covenant ceremony. You remember
the lamb that was to be offered as the offering and the sacrifice
for atonement, that lamb was to be put up and examined so
that it could be seen to be perfectly spotless and without blemish.
And then that lamb was to be brought and to be presented to
the high priest. Well, Christ is the Lamb of God,
and His whole life was the examination of Him under the law. He was
made of a woman, made under the law. And throughout His life,
He was found to be without spot and without blemish. And when
he came to the garden of Gethsemane, our Lord came to present Himself,
the Lamb of God, without spot, without blemish, to God so that
he who knew no sin might be made sin for his people. That's the
only way he was fit to be that sin-bearing Lamb. And so the
day of trouble began in the garden of Gethsemane when our Lord came
to that garden. He said this, He's described
this way, as him being heavy and sore amazed. As him being
in agony. What was the curse that God gave
to Adam? He said, in the sweat of your
brow, you're going to earn bread. You're going to earn life by
the sweat of your brow. You know what Christ did in the
garden? He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. Christ
was made a curse for his people. His soul was exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. This is where He began to bear
everything for His people. And in that garden, Christ told
His disciples to pray. He told them to pray, and then
He went further and He prayed to the Father. Now, we saw what
Christ prayed. What did His people pray? His
people prayed, Lord, hear Christ in the day of trouble. Lord,
hear Him. Now you catch this. Christ is
the advocate for His people with the Father. He's the intercessor.
He's the mediator. The only way we can come to God
and pray is through Christ. So even as His people are praying
to God for Christ, they're praying through Christ. Lord, hear Him. Isn't this what we pray every
time we pray? Lord, hear Christ. I want Christ to present my petitions
to the Father. Don't you? We want Him to be
heard. And then look here. The church
prays for Christ's defense. Verse 1, the second part, they
say, The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. The name of the
God of Jacob defend thee. Christ is God. He's God. And He didn't need defending
as God. But when He was on this earth, Christ took the form of
a servant. And when He took the form of a servant, as that faithful
servant of God, representing all His people, He totally depended
in perfect faithfulness upon God His Father. That's what he
did for his people, for help, for strength. And so the church
prayed, the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Now, the word
name of God, this means the honor, the authority, and the character
of God. The honor, the authority, and
the character of God defend thee. Everything we know about God,
we know from His name. We've got His name all through
the Scripture. And everything God does is His
name. God's name is holiness. His name
is goodness. His name is mercy, truth, power,
wisdom, justice, faithfulness, on and on and on. That's the
name of our God. Everything He is and does is
His name. We could put any of those words
in place of this word name. Listen, the holiness of the God
of Jacob defend thee. The goodness of the God of Jacob
defend thee. The mercy of the God of Jacob
defend thee. The power of the God of Jacob
defend thee. But when we say the name of the
God of Jacob defend thee, all that God is and all that God
does is included. The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. Why did they say the God of Jacob?
Why did they include that? The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. Well, by His own honor, By his
own authority, by his own character, by his own name, God made a covenant
to Jacob. Jacob is used here as supplanter.
That is his name when he is used as the supplanter, the sinner.
And God made a covenant to him, with him, ordered in all things
and sure, leaving nothing in the hands of Jacob, telling Jacob
that God would defend him and save him. According to his name,
he could swear by no greater. He swore by himself. By my name,
I'll save you, Jacob. And Christ is his namesake. Christ
is his namesake. Christ is the one in whom his
honor and his character and his authority is seen. The fullness
of the Godhead dwells in Christ. And so it's by Christ that he's
going to accomplish this. When they're praying in the name
of the God of Jacob, it's the same as praying according to
your covenant, God. That covenant you made in Christ
for your own authority and your own power and your own character.
Defend our Savior and our Substitute. And another reason is this. Jacob
is the name of Christ. Now, normally in Scripture,
He's called Israel. Israel. At this point, he's bearing
the sin of his people. He's bearing the sin of his people.
And also, all the people that he's laying down his life for,
going to the cross for, they're all God's Jacobs. We're Israel. But in our flesh, as sinners,
we're Jacob. That's what we are. Israel, it
means, as a prince, we prevailed with God. Why? Because, like
Jacob did, we just held on To Christ, he said, Lord, have mercy
on me. And that's how you prevail with God. But in ourselves, we're
Jacob. And right here, Christ is going
to lay down His life for all His Jacobs, and He's taking their
place as the one Jacob. And we're playing in the name
of the God of Jacob defending. Alright? And then the church
prayed for God to send help from His presence in heaven. Look
at verse 2. Send thee help from the sanctuary,
and strengthen thee out of Zion." The sanctuary is the holiest
of holies. That's God's presence. That's
His presence. You remember the tabernacle.
The tabernacle had different rooms in it. And there was a
second veil. And behind that second veil,
after you went through that second veil, that was the holiest of
holies. And that represented the presence of God. That's where
God actually said, I'll meet with you over the mercy seat,
that mercy seat picture of Christ. And so scripture tells us this,
Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which is the figure, the picture of the true. He's entered into
heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God. That's the
sanctuary. That's where the holiest of holies
is, God's presence. That's where Christ is. And that's
where we pray, the church prayed for help for Christ in the day
of his trouble from God's presence. And Zion is the same place, that's
the same place. Hebrews 12.22 says, You are not
come to the mount that might be touched. You haven't come
to an earthly mountain. You haven't come to Mount Sinai.
You've come to Mount Zion. And it says, Unto the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is God's church
in glory. This is where God abides, where
God dwells. Zion, Mount Zion. That's where
the Gospel goes forth out of, from that Mount Zion. That's
where He draws His people to, according to the prophecy that
He would do in the last days. These are the last days. God
hath in these last days spoken us by His Son. These are the
last days. He's sending the Gospel out of
Zion. He's drawing His people to Him
in Zion, where we put our affections on things above, not on things
on the earth. Zion is not an earthly place. It's a heavenly
place. It's where God is. So that's
where we pray for help. Now, did God hear Christ? Did
He hear His church praying through Christ? Know what Luke 22, 43
said, In the garden of Gethsemane there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. Strengthening him. Now what does that tell us, brethren?
That tells us It gives us assurance that God
is going to hear His people through Christ. Now, we don't need to
pray for Christ's defense in the sense that they did here.
All power in heaven and earth is His. But we pray for His name. We pray for His glory. We pray for His honor, for His
character. We pray that the triune God in
Christ Jesus be in everything that He does in this earth, that
God be glorified. And we have the assurance by
that, knowing God heard. He heard. He sent forth an angel
to strengthen Him. God didn't come forth and strengthen
Him. He sent His angel because God's dealing with Him in justice
now. But He strengthened Him. He strengthened
Him. And we're going to see more about that assurance in a minute.
Here's the second thing. The church prayed for our substitute
as Christ went to the cross. Look here in verse 3. Remember
all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice, Selah."
The cross was the day of trouble for our Lord. The cross was the
day of trouble for our Lord. Christ willingly gave Himself
to be made sin for His people, to be made a curse for us, to
bear the just judgment, to suffer the fury of divine justice for
all those that the Father gave to Him. And as church pray, remember
all thy offerings. You want to pray, Lord, remember
all my offerings, or you want to pray, Lord, remember all Christ's
offerings. Christ's humiliation coming from
heaven to be formed in the lowest parts of the earth. Scripture
describes as the womb of a virgin. That was His offering. His humiliation
was His offering to God. When He was doing good and bearing
with evil as He walked this earth, fulfilling all righteousness,
that was His offering to God. When Christ was working the miracles
in the earth and preaching the gospel in this earth and establishing
His church in this earth, that was His offering to God. When
the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected by men and He continually depended
upon His Father in perfect faithfulness, that was His offering to God.
And all the deeds of His righteous life, all the time He walked
this earth, all those deeds were His offering to God. And they
all were summed up and all culminated and all came to their height
on the cross. And there He is, offering Himself
on that cross. By one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." There is His offering. All these
things are His offerings. And they are all summed up in
that offering right there. Now look, and the cross was His
burnt sacrifice. All those offerings of the Old
Testament and that burnt sacrifice in the Old Testament, they all
pointed to Christ. They all showed us some aspect
of what Christ was accomplishing for His people on the cross.
Under the law, when they brought that burnt sacrifice, you remember
we looked at it in Leviticus 1. When they brought that burnt
sacrifice, every part of that burnt sacrifice from limb to
limb was burned with fire. Every part of it. There is no
part of our Savior that was not burnt with fire on that cross. Not a part. He endured the fire
of shame, when He bore our sins. Hebrews 12 says He despised the
shame. But He bore it. That was fire
in Him. He endured the fire of God's
judgment in His soul. That was fire. He bore the fire
of the thorns pressed down upon His brow. You know how much fire
is in a thorn when it sticks you It feels like fire. Imagine a crown of thorns pressed
down on your head. He bore the fire of his visage
being marred beyond any other man. Torture. He bore the fire
of reproaches as they filled his ears. Reproaches of some
he was dying for. He bore the fire of the vinegar
in the gall on his tongue. He tasted the fire. What about smell? Just think
about what it must have smelled like on that hill of death. Old dry bones and skulls and
things laying around. He bore the fire of the stench
of death while he hung on that cross. And he bore the fire in
his soul when he endured being completely, totally forsaken
by God. What's hell? It's fire. It's fire. Do you know what that
fire signified in the burnt offering? Acceptance. Acceptance with God. That's what was happening. Christ
was accomplishing the acceptance of his people with God. Look over at Job and
Job 6. To your left, just a couple of
pages back. Job was a type of Christ in his
suffering. You just hear Christ saying this.
Now listen. Job 6. And look at verse 2. Oh, that
my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances
together. For now it would be heavier than
the sand of the sea. That's the weight that he bore.
Think how heavy all the sand of the sea would be. Now look
at this. Therefore my words are swallowed
up, because the arrows of the Almighty are within me. The poison whereof drinketh up
my spirit. The terrors of God do set themselves
in array against me. Does the wild ass bray when he
has grass? Or loeth the ox over his fodder? Can that which is unsavory be
eaten without salt? Is there any taste in the white
of an egg? Now listen to this. The things
that my soul refused to touch are my sorrowful meat. What did Christ not touch? Sin. He didn't touch sin. And He said
the things I refuse to touch is what I'm being fed. Oh, that I might have my request,
that I might have my prayer answered. What was he praying for? That
God would grant me the thing that I longed for, even that
it would please God to destroy me, that He would let loose His
hand and cut me off. Now, when Job prayed that, I'm
sure Job was praying it just because he wanted to be free
from that suffering. When Christ fulfilled that prophecy
and prayed that in his heart, he was doing it that he might
accomplish the glory of God and the salvation of his people.
Cut me off. That's faithfulness, brethren.
That's faithfulness. Cut me off. Now, our text says,
Selah. It says, Selah. It says, remember all thy offerings
and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Now, you stop and meditate on
that. And you stop and think about
that. We're way too hasty. We're in too much of a hurry. The visible church of God has
just run right past the cross of Christ, and have run right
into sin, and trying to work all these works and do all these
things, and left off the cross of Christ. This is what's going
to bring sinners to repentance. We ought to stop and pause at
the cross of Christ the rest of our days and linger there.
Because when your heart is settled on what Christ accomplished on
that cross, then your heart will be settled on a sure foundation. But not until then. Not until
then. Now looky here. The church prayed.
We just saw what Christ prayed for. And the church prayed that
Christ's heart be granted. Look at verse 4. Grant thee according
to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel." The church prayed, Father, cut
him off. Cut him off. Cut him off. Christ suffered because of the
desire of His heart. What was the desire of His heart?
It was His seed. Remember we saw in Isaiah 53,
His children are the travail of His soul. Just like a woman
travails in childbirth to give birth to her children, his travail
was on the cross, and the travail of his soul, of being cut off
in his soul, was his children, his seed. And Christ's desire
was to fulfill the eternal counsel of God. That's what they prayed
here, that your heart be granted, your desire be granted, and all
your counsel fulfilled. His desire of His heart was to
save His people and to save His people by glorifying God, which
was predetermined by that eternal counsel between the three persons
in the Godhead. This is what He was doing on
the cross, fulfilling all the counsel of God. He was praying
to have the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hand, by His work,
to declare God just. And at the same time, that God
is the one alone who justifies His people from our sin. That
God would get all the glory to redeem all His people, to call
them, to preserve them, to glorify them by glorifying His Father. This was the desire of His heart
and that was the eternal counsel of God. Now here's why the church prayed
for that, for Christ. Look at verse 5. We will rejoice
in thy salvation. You grant Christ this, we're
going to rejoice in your salvation. Why was it so important to the
church that God accept Christ's offerings and that He accept
His burnt sacrifice? That He hear His desire to be
cut off and His petition to fulfill all God's counsel? Why was the
church so willing to pray for that? God's acceptance of Christ
is our acceptance. God's being satisfied with Christ
is God being satisfied with His people. God justifying Christ
is God justifying His people. Just look at Christ, plain and
simple, as the one man in all the earth. And He's representing
His people. Everything He does, His people
are doing at that moment. Every second he walked this earth
and when he hung on that tree. So that his people have fulfilled
all righteousness and all our sin is gone and put away. We've
glorified God in the highest because Christ did all of that.
Indeed, God granted Christ the strength to fulfill the whole
counsel of God. He did. Instead of the fire though
consuming the sacrifice, Christ consumed the fire. He drank up
the fire. Justice is satisfied for His
people. Righteousness is obtained for
His people. Reconciliation is accomplished for His people.
And a purchase has been made. His people are the redemption. He's paid the redemption price
and ransomed His people. And He owns them. He bought them.
They're His. And they cannot be plucked out
of His hand. Because He paid His blood for
them. There He is. Now, here's why the church prayed
for Christ. Verse 5. Not only will we rejoice in thy
salvation, in the name of our God will we set up our banners. Here's what it means. By the
resurrection of Christ from the dead to God's right hand and
by Christ's intercession for us, that's the victory of our
faith. By His resurrection from the
dead and by His intercession for us, His mediation for us,
what He accomplished for us on the cross and what He's now pleading
before God the Father for us as our advocate. That's the victory
of our faith. That's what we believe in. That's
what we're trusting Him for. That's our victory. It's not
our faith that's our victory. It's Him who is the object of
it. He's our victory. And so, in
our God, we're rejoicing. We're setting up our banners.
We're serving under His flag. We're flying His flag. That's
what we're doing. We're going to battle. against
Satan and against sin and against all the flesh, our flesh, against
this world, under the banner, under the flag of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that banner is the gospel.
Remember when Moses held up that rod? He called that place the
Lord, our banner. He held up that rod, a picture
of the gospel. And when he held up that rod,
Joshua, a picture of Christ, defeated Amalek in the valley. And when we're holding up this
banner and fighting under this banner, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, Christ comes forth and defeats the enemy. And so
we go forth into battle fighting under His banner, under His flag,
the Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the Lord, our banner. And
look, our petition for Christ is Christ's
petition for us. And so the church asks God to
fulfill Christ's petition. Look, verse 5, "...the Lord fulfilled
all thy petitions." Well, you know, if you want to pray for
your will to be done, pray for Christ's will to be done. Because
Christ's petitions to the Father are representing us. They're our petitions. Whatever
it's His will to do, He's doing it for His people. And so we
Our prayer should be, Lord, grant all Christ's petitions. All His
petitions. Did He do it? Now listen to this.
This is Isaiah 49, verse 8. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable
time, when all was fulfilled, when justice was satisfied, so
that God could be just to show us mercy, in an acceptable time
have I heard thee. And in a day of salvation have
I helped thee. Speaking of Christ. And I'll
preserve thee He raised him from the dead, and I'll give thee
for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause
to inherit it the desolate heritages." Believer, Christ is our covenant.
We're not trusting in any folks who want to debate, argue doctrine
about the everlasting covenant, the covenant where Christ is
our covenant. He is our covenant. How am I
sure salvation is accomplished? Christ did it. That's how I'm
sure. How am I sure God accepts me? Christ is seated at His right
hand. That's how I'm sure. How do I know that every promise
that God makes to me is yes and amen? Because Christ finished
the work and is sat down at the right hand of the Father. I believe
Him. And I know He's my covenant. He's my guarantor. He's my surety
that this is so. Christ Himself. Now, here's the
third thing. That's why There comes a change
in the voice right here. Now watch this. Before the church
prayed for Christ to be heard, now she sees that He has. And
God's raised Christ from the dead to His right hand. And by
the resurrection, here's what the church now prays. Look at
verse 6. Now I know that the Lord saveth His anointed. You know what the word anointed
means? Christ. It means Christ. Now I know the
Lord saves His Christ. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand." Christ is
the Lord's anointed. The word Christ means anointed,
brethren. This took place for our learning.
By the help God gave Christ all His days, and especially in the
garden and on the cross, and then by the resurrection, we
know that the Jehovah God, the triune God, saves His anointed. And you know what each of His
people are? They're His anointed. Anointed with the oil of gladness.
When we seek His anointed Christ saved, we know He saves His anointed
people. That's how we know it. God heard
Christ from His holy hill, so we know God will continue to
hear Christ now that He's seated in His holy hill. God raised
Christ with the saving strength of His right hand, so we know
for Christ's sake, God will save us with the strength of His right
hand, which is Christ Himself. By God answering the intercession
of Christ, we know God hears the prayer of His people in Christ
and for Christ's sake. He will regard the prayer of
the destitute and not despise their prayer. The Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him
in truth." Whose truth? Christ is. You call upon Him
in Christ and He'll be near to you. He'll fulfill the desire
of them that fear Him. He'll also hear their cry and
will save them. How do I know? He heard Christ. That's how I know. That's how
I know. And so we go forth preaching
this gospel, and as the world opposes us like it did our Master,
we confidently pray to God, through Christ Jesus our Lord, asking
God to hear Christ, because we trust that by the intercession
of Christ our Advocate, God will grant us His promised aid all
the time. All the time. And God's made
His people to have different confidence and strengthen men
in His earth. Look at verse 7. Some trust in
chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name
of the Lord our God. They're brought down and fallen,
but we're risen and stand upright. You know, every earthly weapon
that men put confidence in is represented right here by these
horses and chariots. False religion, idle gods, wheel
works, any kind of fleshly strength whatsoever, all of them are represented
here by these horses and these chariots. They're falling down.
They're useless. They won't help at all. The chariot
and the horse is useless. They're useless. But we'll remember
the name of the Lord our God. Christ Jesus is His name. We
remember Him. And remembering how our Savior
triumphed over His enemies, Through the constant strength of the
Lord our God, we remember the salvation we have in our Messiah
for His sake. This is our salvation. His troubles
were great, but God delivered Him out of them all. That means
my troubles are going to be great, but God's going to deliver me
out of them all. That's why I'm going to have great troubles,
so I can see the greatness of His deliverance. Remembering that in all His trouble,
Christ was heard, that lets me know I'm going to be heard in
all my troubles. Christ our substitute was freed from the sorrows of
death and hell. That means eventually I'm going
to be free. I'm going to be freed from them now in every trial
temporarily, but eventually I'm going to be freed from the sorrows
of death and hell, the grave and everything completely in
body, soul and spirit because He's raised us up together. He
made us sit together. We're risen with Him. We're not
fallen. We're risen and we stand complete in His righteousness.
Now look here. So here's the sum of our constant
prayer and our constant rejoicing right here. Save God. Let the King Jesus hear us when
we call. That's our prayer. How's God
going to hear us? The King Jesus is going to hear
us. And He's going to represent us to God. And God's going to
save us for His sake. Amen.