All right, let's turn back now
to Psalm 6. We've titled this, The Voice
of Weeping. The Voice of Weeping. And verses
1 through 7, we have the voice of weeping, the voice of travail,
the voice of supplication. Now the title says this is to
the chief musician on Neganoth upon Shiminith, the psalm of
David. This is a stringed instrument,
supposedly Shiminith meaning the eighth string, the bass string. This is a deep, deep subject, deep, deep subject. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in thine
anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. Correct
me not in thine anger, neither correct me in thy hot displeasure. Has there ever been the cry of
our heart? There been a cry of your heart?
The psalmist doesn't say, Lord, rebuke me not. He says, rebuke
me not in thine anger, in thy hot displeasure, in wrath. He knows what he deserves, but
he needs to be corrected. Verse 2, he cries, have mercy
upon me, O Lord. Who calls out for mercy? You
know who calls out for mercy? Those who have no ground to stand
on in themselves. Those who need mercy. You children
never corrected by your parents and
you realize I'm at your mercy. I'm at your grace. Have grace on me. Have mercy
on me. Verse 2, for I'm weak. O Lord,
heal me. We hear from the cry of it what
weak means, doesn't it? O Lord, I am weak. Heal me. I
am weak. I am undone. I need to be healed.
Heal me. For my bones are vexed. My soul also is sore vexed. But Thou, O Lord, how long? Who
calls out to be healed by the Lord? Those who are made to see
that sin is what we are. Sin is the soul sickness. It's the loathsome disease through
and through. This is what Psalm 38 7, My loins
are filled with a loathsome disease. There's no soundness in my flesh. Now listen to the sorrow and
listen to this desire for the presence of the Lord. Verse 4,
Return, O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for thy mercy's sake,
for in death there's no remembrance of thee. In the grave who shall
give thee thanks? I'm weary with my groaning all
the night I make my bed to swim. I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because
of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies. Now listen to this voice of triumph. Listen to this voice that changes
everything right here. Verse 8. Depart from me, all
ye workers of iniquity. That's the express words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, as I just read to you in Matthew 7 and
Luke 13. We'll look at it again. Depart
from me all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice
of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication. This is the reason why he has
the power in judgment, Christ has, to say, depart from me all
you workers of iniquity, because the Lord God hath heard the voice
of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed
and sore vexed. Let them return and be ashamed
suddenly. Now do you see that first of
all, these are the words of the Savior, the sufferer, the Lord
Jesus Christ who suffered for his people, who suffered the
sins his people owed. This is the voice of weeping. Not that Christ is weeping now.
He's not weeping now, but this is the voice of he who wept. I want you to Look over at verse
Isaiah 53. The psalmist says, O Lord, rebuke
me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. You know why the Lord doesn't
chasten His children and correct His children in the strictness
of His anger? When we think of anger, we don't
think of the right way of our God. Our God's anger is It's
just, it's not a passion like our anger is a passion. God doesn't
do anything about passion. But the reason he doesn't pour
out any wrath upon his children is because the Lord's heard the
voice of Christ's weeping. Christ is he who came forth and
suffered for the sins of his people unparalleled to any other. This is what lamentation, is
it nothing to you, all ye that pass by. Is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by, 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." Look at Isaiah 53.10. Our Lord
did no sin. There was no guile in His mouth.
There was nothing but perfection in Him. And the Scripture says,
And because it was so, because he was that spotless, perfect
lamb of God, look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It was the purpose of God to
break him, to break him in the place of his people. He hath
put him to grief. when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. We're talking about the soul,
men give the soul all kinds of different names and try to define
the soul. The soul is life. He's given
his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong days. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand." That means when He bore the travail in His
own body, when He bore the wrath, when He bore the vengeance of
God in the place of His people and satisfied everything His
people owed, the purpose of the Lord in saving His people, it
prospered in His hand. He brought it to pass. He accomplished
it. And look, he shall see of the
travail of his soul. Travail of his soul. I'm reminded
when I'm, when I'm trying to find how to, how to express the
message, how to, how to speak forth the word from God to you. And I'm, I travail. in it. I'm reminded in that by
how I don't know anything of the travail that Christ suffered.
I don't even come into the, into the, even understanding the travail
he suffered. I think about myself standing
beside my wife when she had my children. I didn't travail. I didn't travail. Was I, was
I, was my soul vexed? Was I tried? Was I in distress
because of she was in travail? Of course I was. She's my wife.
I love her. But she did the travailing. Christ Jesus has done the travailing
for His people. He's done it. He says there in
verse 54 and verse 1, Sing, O barren, thou that did not bear. You didn't
do the travailing. He said, I've done it. I've done
it. Therefore, he says, back in verse
11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, God says, will I divide him a portion with the great
And he shall divide the spoiled with the strong, because he hath
poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bared the sin of many and
made intercession, session for the transgressors." That word
intercession, so much more than him just praying for the transgressors,
he's the intercession. He's the fitness for the transgressors. He is that fitness. His presence
is the intercession for the transgressors. Therefore, He said, I'll divide
him as spoiled with the strong. And He's going to pour this out.
He's going to do this. Now listen back in our text.
Psalm, listen to the Lord Jesus declaring triumphantly after
He bore all that grief. He was compassed about with all
His enemies. He was made the sin of His people.
And in triumph, when He came out of the grave, This is our
Lord's all-victorious cry. He said, depart from me all ye
workers of iniquity. He's heard my voice. He's heard
my supplication. The Lord hath heard my supplication.
The Lord will receive my prayer. We've seen this through and through.
Hebrews 5-7 tells us, "...who in the days of his flesh, when
he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death, was heard in
that he feared." He's the Son of God, but he came in the form
of a servant. Being found in fashion as a servant,
he humbled himself. And though he were a son, yet
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being
the perfection of that obedience, being the perfection, bearing
the sins of His people in His own body on the tree, He became
salvation unto all them that submit to Him and trust Him and
cast all their care into His hand. And He says, He's heard
my prayer. He's heard my supplication. And
He says, and the Lord will receive my prayer. We saw this back in
Psalm 2. Look back there with me. The
Lord said, I've set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, Psalm 2-7,
and the Lord God himself, Jesus Christ, declares the decree,
the Lord has said unto me, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I'll give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession. You'll break them in pieces with
a rod of iron, dash them like a potter's vessel. Now you note
Psalm 6 back there in verse 8. Depart from me all ye workers
of iniquity. Now in these words are the end
of Christ's travail. This is the declaration that
he has accomplished a victory for his people, that he has seen
of the travail of his soul and satisfied. Now look at, he says
the Lord has heard my voice, my weeping. My supplication. He hears, he'll receive my prayer. And this is what he says there.
Let all my enemies be ashamed. Let all my enemies be sore vexed. Let them return and be ashamed
suddenly. Let them be turned backwards.
Every one of them. You note Psalm 6, 8. Depart from
me all ye workers of iniquity. This is the word of power. And
these are the exact words of Christ Jesus. We know this is
the travail of our Savior. Let me read to you again Luke
13. Luke 13, 27. It's going to come many into
His presence. In an instant, suddenly, men
are going to draw this last breath on this earth and come into His
presence. And everybody comes into His presence trusting in
their own righteousness, trusting in their own works, coming to
Him in their sin and rebellion against God. This is what He's
going to say. Verse 25. They're going to say,
Lord, Lord, open to us. And He shall answer and say to
you, I know you not whence you are. Verse 26. Then shall you
begin to say, We've eaten and drunk in thy presence. Thou hast
taught in our streets, but He shall say, I tell you, I know
you not whence you are. Depart from me, all you workers
of iniquity." Suddenly, in an instant, they'll be sore vexed. They'll be turned back suddenly
in an instance. There'll be weeping and gnashing
of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the
prophets in the kingdom of God and ye yourselves thrust out.
But listen to this, the Lord says, but there's coming some
from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from
the south, and they're gonna sit down in the kingdom of God. Now listen to what I have to
say to you, and this is what I want you to get from this.
Be sure to get this. Because Christ has suffered for
his sin, because he's put away the sin of his people by the
travail of his soul, all power in all judgments is. He says,
the Lord hath ordained a day in which He's going to judge
this world in righteousness by Christ. It's going to be Christ
who's going to say, depart from me. I never knew you. Depart
from me, ye workers of iniquity. I never knew you. This same word,
because Christ has satisfied justice for His people, this
same word of power and judgment is given to our Lord so that
in power He speaks and he makes his children behold. The workers of iniquity is this finger, and this finger,
and this hand, and this arm, and this feet, and these feet,
and these thoughts, and everything I am in myself. And by making us to behold, He
says, depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity. And He mortifies
the deeds of this flesh through His Word of Grace in our hearts. He mortifies my members which
are on this earth when He speaks this Word in power. Now, that's
the first thing I want to say. This is the Word of Christ our
Savior. And because He so seeth the travail of His soul, by His
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify. Meaning, He
justified His people at the cross. He justifies His people when
He comes and speaks in our heart through the Spirit by the Gospel.
And He clears us in the court of our conscience. And He justifies
us all the days of our dwelling on this earth before God. The
Lord hears his cry, and his cry is for justice, for that which
is right. And he's satisfied that which
is right for his people. And he says this, he says when
he speaks into the heart, verse 8, depart from me all you workers
of iniquity. You see, there is an old man
in my flesh. There's an old man in the flesh
of every every believer. And we don't know this old man
of our flesh until that word of power comes to us and God
speaks in our hearts. The scripture says we were enemies
in our minds by wicked word. And he's going to say, he's going
to say, just as this word is a word of judgment in verse 10,
let all my enemies be ashamed and sore vexed, let them return
and be ashamed suddenly. This is his word of grace for
his people. Let them return to Me. Let them be drawn to Me. Let them be ashamed of their
flesh. Let them be ashamed of their
righteousnesses. Let them be ashamed of their
sin. And let them suddenly behold, I'm all their righteousness.
You behold this intercessor, listen now. That's what we need
to be corrected. And that's the first hour, this
is what He does when He comes. And then we need to be corrected
like this all the days that we dwell on this earth. And He corrects
us from our sin, He corrects us from our righteousnesses,
He corrects us, making us behold there is absolutely nothing good
in our flesh. I went over there this week,
and I got that puppy. I've seen this puppy that we
got for the kids. I was talking to Scott and Joe. I got this dog over and got over
there. They were Amish or Mennonites.
I don't know which one. The Mennonites are basically
the liberals of the Amish, long and short of it. the free willers
of the Amish. And it's all legalism. It's all
trying to put one thing as abstaining from this and that. That's what
we are in our flesh. And we got to constantly be taught
by the Spirit of God not to look to our sins and not to look to
our righteousnesses. To be constantly shut up to Christ
and Him alone. And when He speaks this word
in our hearts, for the first time, He makes us to see suddenly,
and He makes us return unto Him from being cast out in the wilderness
of our sin and total ruin. He brings us to behold in Himself
when He speaks. This is Him, when He said, Depart
from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. This is how
He knows His people. This is how He creates this fruit
in His people. He speaks into their heart and
says, leave all your sin, leave all your righteousnesses, and
cast all your care upon Me. And now this is what happens
when He does it. That word there at the end, let them return and
be ashamed suddenly. I look at this, let my child
be repulsed and ashamed of the present object of his pursuit.
You know what the present object of our pursuit is? Our flesh. Oh, I'm not pursuing my flesh.
Yes, we are. Yes, we are. We are. That's what we're pursuing is
our flesh. And God's got to save us from it. Every hour, I will
perish headlong pursuing our flesh. But when he does this,
this is what he brings us to cry out, verse one. Lord, oh,
rebuke me not in thine anger. Chasten me not in thy hot displeasure. This thing comes as rebuking.
Whom the Father loves, he chastens. He corrects. He turns us from
ourselves. And it's not pleasant. It's not
pleasant, but he turns us from ourselves. And by His voice He
brings us to confess we don't have any good thing in us. Look
at verses 2 through 3. This is what He brings us to
cry out. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. When are we going to cry for
mercy? When He's made us to behold, I'm weak. Just a little weak like one man
is able to bench press more than another. No. That next word says,
heal me. I'm completely undone. I'm completely
unrighteous. I'm completely sick in sin. Look at verse... Oh Lord, heal
me. My bones are vexed. When are
we going to be vexed in our sore displeasure when He says to us,
you're vexed. Everything about you is vexed.
Oh, my soul is also sore vexed. Oh thou, oh Lord, how long? How
long? Oh Lord, it makes us to cry out
for him. I'm vexed. I got a disease in
my flesh. It's as deep as my soul. It's
what I am. It's the life. The life that
I am in my flesh is dead disease. It's loathsome disease. It's
no life at all. And when He speaks this judgment
in our hearts, He brings us to call on Him to save us, not for
our sake, but for His own glory's sake. Look at verse 4. Return,
O Lord, deliver my soul. O save me for Thy mercy's sake. Save me for Your grace. Save
me for the sake of Your glory. When's a man gonna cry that out? when He speaks this judgment
in our heart, brings forth this fruit. Verse 5, He's not only
going to make us confess the worthlessness of our flesh, He's
going to make us loathe it. He's going to make us hate it.
Verse 5, In death there's no remembrance
of thee, O Lord. In the grave, who shall give
thee thanks? What's this death? What's this
grave? As dead as that dirt is that
a man's body is buried in, that's as dead as this grave of our
flesh. Lord, in this grave there's not any remembrance of You. There's
not a single person left in the grave of their flesh who will
call on Him. Nobody will. Until He creates
this fruit in the heart, makes us see that our body, our flesh,
everything about us is a grave. It's a grave. And he says, verse 6, he makes
us to cry, Lord, I'm weary with my groaning. All the night make I my bed to
swim. I water my couch with my tears. My eyes consume because of grief. It waxeth old because of all
mine enemies. Look at Psalm 31.10. Who's he
talking about? He's talking about, I know there's
a bunch of enemies, A bunch of enemies in the world. A bunch
of enemies. But look at this. Psalm 31 10. My life is spent with grief.
My years with sighing. My strength faileth. See that
next word? Because of mine iniquity. Because
of mine iniquity. And my bones are consumed. You
see that? I cry out to God, Lord, correct me in mercy. And I don't
cry out for this mercy until He makes me see I need it, because
all I am is a grave in my flesh. In doing so, He makes me hate
everything I am in my flesh. You know what He said in Malachi
3.18? Look at this, Malachi 3.18. I
want you to see this. Malachi 3.18, the last page before
the New Testament, if you have a Cambridge Bible. Then shall you return, then shall
you return. He said, Lord, make them retire.
It's the same as that's a turning back of His enemies and sending
them away in the day of judgment. This is a making us come to Him
when He speaks His Word in our heart. And what happens when
He does this? And you'll discern between the
righteous and the wicked. Oh, that means I'm going to look
and I'm going to say, Oh, I see now, that man over there is righteous
and that man over there is not righteous. Don't look any further
than the tip of our own nose. Our own nose. He gonna make us
discern between the righteous and the wicked. Between Him that
serveth God and Him that serveth Him not. Who served Him? Christ
did. Who doesn't? I don't. I don't. You know what this is? Look at
Romans 7. Romans 7. I'll show you what
this is. Now Paul put it. Oh, the righteous
man, self-righteous man said, Oh, I serve Him. I serve Him.
I'm serving Him. How dare you say I don't serve
Him? That's what Saul of Tarsus was saying. Do you know what
this voice of judgment is that comes in the heart? Here's what
it is. Verse 9, Romans 7, I was alive
without the Lord, without His Word speaking in my heart. but
when the commandment came. This is the commandment we're
talking about when he speaks this in the heart. Says, depart
from me you worker of iniquity. I'm the one who's to serve God
for my people. Trust all, put all your trust
in me. When that commandment comes, sin revives and this servant,
this so-called servant, dies in our service to Him who is
the servant. And this is what we find out,
verse 18, Romans 7, 18. I know now that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me. How so? The commandment's come. The voice has come. He's entered
in by His grace. Christ has been formed in me
through His voice. There's a willingness there,
but how to perform that which is good, I don't find it. Not
in myself. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that's exactly what I do. Now, if I do that, I would not.
It's no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me.
What do I find then? I find a law, I find a law, that
when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight
in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in
my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me in
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." There's the
workers of iniquity, the sin that's in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. That's who's delivered me. That's
what He's saying. That's what He's speaking. That's
what His gospel is. It's not deliver yourself by
your word. It's I'm delivering you by what
I've done for you. so that He makes us behold in
one word of grace, in one word of power, the death that we are
in ourselves and the life we have in Him that's served for
His people. And this is what He does when He speaks this word.
Back in our text, Psalm 16, when He speaks this word, Let all my enemies be ashamed
and sore of action. You know, every enemy of our
Lord is going to be made his footstool. Everyone. Those who come to him saying,
Lord, didn't we do a bunch of work? Didn't we serve you? Aren't
we the righteous servant? He's going to say, depart from
me. I never knew you. But those who are enemies in
our minds by wicked works, when He speaks this word of grace
in our heart, He gonna bring us to bow at His footstool and
say, Lord, I thank you. You've delivered me. You've delivered
me. And you know what He does when
He does that? He lets us return and He lets
us be ashamed what we are of our boasting. and He makes us
rejoice. But notice this word. I like
this last word. Suddenly. Suddenly. When He does this for His child
of grace, before we faint under His correcting hand, before we're
brought to the point where we can't, we just can't bear up. We're brought
to cry out for His mercy, cry out for it. because He's doing
His correcting in loving kindness, because He's not correcting His
child of mercy in His anger, because He's put that away. Before
He brings us to perish in utter despair, He says, enough. Behold me, look up, look
at what I've done. And you know what happens then?
Peace like a river. We drove over to, we drove over
to the river on one day last week and just to see it, just
to see it flowing. And just like He makes that judgment,
that righteous indignation against ourselves, flow against ourselves,
He speaks this peace and suddenly we behold peace like a river
flowing into my soul. Christ has redeemed me. He's
redeemed me from all iniquity. And this is what He brings us
to cry. Verse 8, he makes us cry this
about our own selves. Oh, depart from me, ye workers
of iniquity. Oh, he makes us look at ourselves
and say, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity. And He makes us rejoice at the
same time in verse 8 and say, Oh, the Lord hath heard the voice
of my weeping. He's heard me. The Lord's heard
my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer.
See that word, He receives my prayer. I said this to you last
time. You can put me right there. because
of what he's done in Christ. If he receives my prayer, it's
because he receives me. And if he receives me, it's because
he's received his Son. He's done it. He's done it. Do you remember, I want you to
look over it real quick, John 8, and we're going to end with
this. A woman caught in adultery. No sin that we perform, no sin
that we commit in this flesh is justified. Absolutely none. And just as our fathers correct
us, just as our fathers chasten us, our Heavenly Father does. All right, he does. But I want
you to get this order. I want you to get this order. It's the order I preach to you.
This is the order God speaks in the heart of His own. And
don't ever forget this order. Don't ever forget this order. John 8, 10. 8, 10. When Jesus
had lifted up Himself, and He saw none but the woman, He said
unto her, Woman, where are thine accusers? Hath no man condemned
thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Get
this order now, Neither do I condemn thee. Why? There is therefore
now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, to them
who are called according to His birth, to them who He's born
of His Spirit, He's spoken this word of grace. He says, I don't
condemn you either because I've put it all away. Now He says, go, go and sin no
more. Go and sin no more. There's nothing
else, absolutely nothing else but forgiveness in Christ. Because of what Christ bore in
His own body on the tree, spoken into the heart of His child by
the Spirit of His grace, that makes us to depart from our iniquity,
the iniquity of our sin and our self-righteousness, and cast
all our caring in His hand. There is nothing but forgiveness
that will do that and make us desire with our whole inward
man to serve God in newness of spirit. There is forgiveness with God
that he may be feared. Do you see it? Oh, the voice of weeping. Lord, we thank you for your grace.
We thank you for your mercy. Oh, we loathe this wretched thing we are. Oh, Lord, cause us to depart
from iniquity. Cause us to depart from what
we are. Cause us to behold that you've
wrought all righteousness for us. Cause all your own, Lord,
to behold because of what you've done in your Son, righteousness
is accomplished. Sin is put away. Make us no more live for this
flesh, no more live for ourselves, for our sins, for our so-called
service to you. But cause us, Lord, to truly
be your servants. Bring forth this fruit in our
hearts, Lord. Know us. Oh, Lord, know us. Cause us now to know you. Father, we've asked it in the
name, the precious, holy, righteous name of our Lord and our righteousness.
Amen.