Let me get you to turn to Psalm
22. Now, whenever the Apostle Paul was
writing to the church at Corinth, he said, I have received of the
Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord, the
same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, he'd break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which
is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. And after
the same manner also, he took the cup. And when he had supped,
saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft
as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as ye eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till
he come." This morning we've come here to remember Christ
Jesus, the Lord. We've come to remember His broken
body in this unleavened bread. We've come to remember Him shedding
His life's blood in this cup of wine, which was
shed for many for the remission of sins. Our text here in Psalm
22 are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as He suffered on
the cross. The Spirit of God moved David
to pen these words. All these years before, our Lord
actually came and suffered on the cross. And yet, if you have
a marginal reference, and you look here, you will find that
throughout the Gospels, this psalm is referred to over and
over. You'll find here the very treatment
that the soldiers and the enemies of Christ engaged in was carried
out to the letter by them years later. I realize this is very
holy ground. This is a look at Christ as he
suffered as the substitute for his people. You need to be perfectly holy and perfectly faithful, and you
need to die for the punishment of your sins, and you need to
be raised to the right hand of God to have eternal life. That perfect faithfulness, that
perfect holiness is not just when times are good, it's all
the time. It's not just when you do something
you think is good. It's all the time. It's not just
in word and work. It's in very thought. It's all
the time. We see here the faithful one,
the holy one, the believer whom God looks upon. and receives
and rejoices in. And this is the one in whom God
receives those who trust Him. Trusting Christ is trusting that
God's not looking at me. God's looking at His Son. God's
looking at Christ and He's pleased with Christ. And what I see here
in Christ is what God sees me as in His Son. We're going to
see something about what true holiness and true faithfulness
and true righteousness is. Our text begins here with, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And it ends in verse 31 with
these words, He hath done. And that's translated or recorded
in John 19.30, our Lord's word from the cross, it is finished.
It is finished. Everything in between here is
our Lord's His prayer to God, whether it
was audible or in his heart or what, I don't know because it's
not all recorded. But this is the Word of God,
of Christ our Lord. Now, we see here He begins, My
God, My God, Now I want you to understand that Christ is God.
He is God with us. He's Immanuel. He is the Son
of God in human flesh. We're looking here at Christ
the surety, Christ the substitute, Christ the representative, Christ
the holy and faithful Son of Man is who we're looking at here.
He came as a man because he had to do what what his people couldn't
do. And here he is doing that. And
he begins here, and as the son of man, he cries out, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now we know these are the
words of our Lord on Calvary's cross. And the Redeemer tells
us how forsaken he was. Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of my roaring,
Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in
the night season, and am not silent. He cried in the dark
in the garden of Gethsemane. He cried from the cross. But
he says here, thou art far from helping me, and from the words
of my roaring. But he tells us why he was forsaken. The Lord tells us why he was
forsaken. Verse 3. But thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. First thing we see
here is the Savior declaring that he was forsaken of God because
God is holy. Christ came to manifest the righteousness
of God. That's what he came to manifest
that God might be just and the justifier. God is both just and
God is the justifier of all who believe. For God to be satisfied
toward those for whom Christ died. Toward those that He gave
to the Son before the world began. For God to be satisfied toward
them. Christ had to be made sin. And He had to bear the justice
that we deserve. Sin separated all God's elect
from God. Sin completely separated all
God's elect from God. This is what the Lord said through
Isaiah. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God. Your sins have hid His face from
you that He will not hear. Christ Jesus, His own self, bear
our sins in His body on the tree. Peter was writing to believers
when he said, our sins. He was writing to those that
had been called by His grace, who believed on Christ alone. And he said, He, His own self,
bear our sins in His own body on the tree. Look over at Isaiah
53, verse 10. Here's why God would not hear
His Son, why He forsook His Son. Isaiah 53, 10. It pleased. It satisfied. It declared God
just and the justifier to bruise Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. God made Christ's soul
an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. That purpose, that good pleasure
of the Lord that he purposed from the beginning shall prosper
in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied, propitiated, atoned. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquity. The Savior
was forsaken by the Father when He was made sin for His people
because God's holy justice demanded He be forsaken. Now, I want you
to behold you who believe God. Behold your holiness. Behold
Christ, your holiness. Not only did He make satisfaction
to God for your sin, not only did He completely, totally justify
His people from all their iniquities, but here's the Holy One. Here's
Christ Jesus who was called of the Holy Spirit, that holy thing
formed in the womb of the Virgin. Here is this One who knew no
sin. Here is the faithful one who
was set forth of God and faithfully manifested the righteousness
of God. And here in the midst of this
unimaginable suffering, fulfilling the very purpose for which God
sent him, dying under the wrath of God, he declares that because he was made sin,
God's just to forsake Him. Now you think about that. If there was ever a verse of
Scripture that ought to make us shut our mouths for boasting
of some pretense of holiness in us, that's it. If there's
ever a verse of Scripture that ought to make us glory in Christ
our holiness with God, this is it. This is it. That's faithfulness. That's faithfulness. Christ Jesus in the midst of
this soul agony, forsaken of God, declaring God's holy to
forsake Him. And that He's been forsaken because
God is holy. Now, you start thinking, you're
a little holy. And I start thinking, I'm a little
holy. And we come into some trial and some agony. And we start
saying, why me? Why me? Why am I suffering? God's
holy. This one said, in perfect righteousness
with no sin intermingled, he said from the very depths of
his heart, Thou art holy. That's why I'm forsaken. Thou
art holy. Christ made himself of no reputation. That's the second thing we see
here. Now you watch this. Verse 4. Our Father is trusted
in thee. He's talking about Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob. They said, our fathers trusted
in thee. He's identifying himself as the
son of man. He's identifying himself as one
with his brethren. But listen now, watch it. Our
fathers trusted in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver
them. They cried unto thee and were
delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. But I am a worm and no man. a reproach of men and despised
of the people." I want to read to you what Charles Spurgeon
wrote on this in the Treasury of David. Listen to this. He
said, this verse is a miracle in language. How could the Lord
of glory be brought to such a basement as to be not only lower than
the angels, but even lower than men? What a contrast between
I am. That's who he is. The I am. But what a contrast
between I am and I am a worm. Yet such double nature was found
in the person of our Lord Jesus when bleeding upon the tree.
He felt himself to be comparable to a helpless, powerless, downtrodden
worm passive while crushed and unnoticed and despised by those
who trod upon him. He selects the weakest of creatures,
a worm, which is what all flesh is, worms, and becomes when trodden upon,
writhing, quivering flesh, utterly devoid of any might except strength
to suffer. This is still Spurgeon. Now listen.
This was a true likeness of himself when his body and soul had become
a mass of misery, the very essence of agony in the dying pangs of
crucifixion. Man by nature is but a worm. But our Lord puts Himself even
beneath man, on account of the scorn that
was heaped upon Him, and the weakness which He felt, and therefore
He says, and no man. The privileges and blessings
which belonged to the fathers, He couldn't obtain, while deserted
by God, and common acts of humanity weren't allowed him. He's forsaken
by God and men. For he was rejected of men. He
was outlawed from the society of earth and shut out from the
smile of heaven. How utterly did the Savior empty
Himself of all glory and become of no reputation for our sakes. Verse 7, All they that see Me
laugh Me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they
shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver
Him. Let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him. And the
Lord is not answering Him. The Lord's not answering him.
The Lord has forsaken him. And the men have forsaken him.
And they're saying, you trusted in the Lord. They're mocking
him. That's making yourself of no
reputation. Declaring himself not only lower
than the angels, but lower than men, and comparing himself to
the lowest thing on this earth, a worm. Now, what was it that
you and I were bragging about? What was it we were complaining
about? The Hebrew writer says, consider
him. that endured such contradiction
of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your
minds." You've not yet resisted unto blood against sin. Here's
the third thing we behold. We behold His faithfulness, the
faithfulness of Christ to God. Now, this is Christ Jesus, the
Son of Man. This is the faithful man, the
holy man, and he's in the midst of some indiscernible suffering. He owns all his strength and
all his dependence upon God who has forsaken him. But he doesn't waver. Listen
to this. Verse 9, But thou art he that
took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from
me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help." You see something here about
how he tried the winepress alone? alone. The only thing he had
from God at this time was wrath and forsaking. And the only thing he had from
men is what we read here. Many bulls have come past me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. Now listen to this, I'm
poured out like water. You know what, Israel, when you
read about them very often, when they were in consternation of
spirit and they were seeking God's face and they would take
water and they would pour it out, you know what they symbolized
by that? Well, what good's water that's poured out? It's unstable. It goes into the dust. And it's
absolutely good for nothing. And he said, I'm like water that's
been poured out. And all my bones are out of joint. Not broken. Not broken. Just pulled out of joint. Just
pulled out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted in the midst of my
bowels. The heart's the seed of courage.
The heart's the seed of, you know, be of, you've got a courageous
heart. He said it's gone. It's melted like wax. Verse 15, He says, My strength
is dried up like a pot shard. You take a clay pot and you put
it in a kiln where it's heated up and just leave it there. I
don't even know what that looks like. I know what it looks like
when you leave something in the oven too long. But he says, my
strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my
jaws. And see that next word? Thou,
he's talking to God, Thou has brought me into the dust of death. Those men that did what they
did, did only what God determined before to be done. They did what
the Son of God agreed to be done in the everlasting covenant of
God's grace. This is that which This is that being made sin and
this forsaking and this knowing what men would do when they turned. This is that for which he prayed
in the garden of Gethsemane when he sweat as it were grapes, drops
of blood and he said, Lord, strengthen me, deliver me. Not from it, not so he wouldn't
suffer it, but to get to it. to get to it, to be able to endure,
just to get there. He says, for dogs have come past
me, the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced
my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones. They
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. But look at this faithfulness.
In the midst of all that, God hasn't answered him. God's forsaken
him. And all these men around about
him have enclosed him and done all this evil upon him. But verse 9, he says again, But
be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to
help me. Deliver my soul from the sword
and my darling from the power of the dog. That word darling
means my soul. Deliver my soul. His soul was
forsaken by everybody. There was no one who sought after
him as a friend. To help him. To say one word
to help him. Or care for him or comfort him.
Not God the Father. and not any man. This is what the psalmist says
in Psalm 142-4. Refuge failed me. No one cared for my soul. I looked
on my right hand, but there was no one who would even know me. Now you get that. Consider this
now. In order that his sinful, vile,
God-hating children Us who were enemies in our minds
by wicked works, who were depraved and hated God and didn't want
to have anything to do with Him. In order that we might have a
refuge from such awful wrath, awful
torture, awful hell, Christ suffered in our room instead without a
refuge. Without a refuge. Verse 21, he says, Save me from
the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the
unicorns. Now, between this verse and the
next verse, there's a marked change. Turn with me to Luke
23. There's a marked change here.
The horns of the unicorn represents Christ's strongest enemies. His strongest enemies. That's
Satan and all his principalities and powers. the Sanhedrin of
the Jews, Herod, Pontius Pilate, all the others that we don't
even know of. As he bore their terror, he faithfully
called on God. And he says, you heard me from
the horns of the unicorns. He's saying, I've cried. I've
cried unto you with strong crying and supplications. I've cried
unto you. And now, He says, save me from
the lion's mouth. I think that he's probably saying,
save me from this last enemy. The lion is the most, the lion's
the king of the jungle. Save me from the mouth of the
lion. What is that? It's death and
the grave. And he said, You've heard me
here. I've cried unto you faithfully
through all this suffering." And he says, now I cry unto you
to save me from the lion's mouth. And I think this is what he said.
This is how it's recorded in the Gospels, Luke 23, verse 46,
of what he meant. When Jesus had cried with a loud
voice, he said, Now this is still the faithfulness of Christ the
Lord. He said, Father, into Thy hands, into Your care, into Your
trust, I commend my spirit. And having said thus, He gave
up the ghost. And His last, that was His last
prayer. I've cried unto You to save me
from all this. Now Father, save me from death
and the grave. And with that, he trusted the
Father until the end. And he gave up the ghost, trusting
the Father to save him from the grave and from death. Now, that's the holiness, the
faithfulness, the righteousness that you have to have. If you
want to come to God on your own, That's what you gotta have. You ready to meet God? You see
how holy He is? You see how righteous He is?
You see how faithful He is? You see how He will by no means
clear the guilty? Believers come to Christ one
way. Trusting that when Christ did all this, He did it for me. And now, I'm accepted of God
in Him. I've completely fulfilled the
law in precept and penalty because He obeyed it in every title and
He died to the justice of it and satisfied it. I'm not trying
to fulfill the law. I have. I've completely established
it. because Christ established it
for me. And I believe Him. That's what
faith does. Believes Him. Now look, whereas
Christ highly exalted God in all of this by making Himself
of no reputation, by taking upon Him the form of a servant, by
being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man by humbling Himself and being obedient unto death,
even this death of the cross. Perfect obedience. And seeing
as how in all of this he highly exalted God. Philippians 2.9
says, Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given
him a name which is above every name. that at the name of Jesus
every knee should, that means shall, bow. Of things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth and every tongue should,
shall, confess he's Lord to the glory of God the Father. You
know, he said if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. That's
what he said. He is the express image of God. He's the the bodily express image
of the invisible triune God in human flesh. That's who He is. And now our Savior says this.
Look at our text, verse 22. He's risen. He's risen. He's
seated now. God faithfully He did what He
promised the Son. He delivered Him from the grave
and from death. He says, verse 22, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. This is still Christ speaking.
You know, let me show you this. Turn over to Hebrews 2. I want
you to see this now. Hebrews 2. How can these vile
sons of God you and me, how can we be called his brethren? Somebody this holy and this righteous
and this perfect. Someone who died and is yet risen
again. How can somebody so, God is so
satisfied with us, so accept, so in so much pleasure, how can
we be called his brethren? He said, I'll declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation I'll praise
thee. Look at Hebrews 2.10. For it became Him, for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both... Here's how He can
do it. Here's how He can call His children, those He died for,
His brethren. For both He that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee." That look familiar? That's Isaiah. I mean, that's
from this Psalm 22. When he was raised, he said,
I'm going to declare your name to my brethren. To my brethren. He sanctified them. He made them
holy. He made them righteous. He made
them accepted with God. And He's not ashamed now to say,
they're my brethren. And He said, and I'm going to
sing praises unto thee in the midst of the congregation. Now
you take note here, back in our text. King Jesus is as successful
in sending forth His witnesses in spirit and in truth as He
was at making His brethren the righteousness of God. And you
make sure you get that. Christ is as successful in sending
forth His witnesses in spirit and in truth as He was at making
His brethren the righteousness of God. He sent forth to declare
the righteousness of God. He did it on the cross and he's
doing it now through his preachers, through his gospel, through his
messengers. And he's doing it in truth just
as he did it in truth on the cross. God's holy. We're not talking about somebody
that does something underhanded. We're talking about God of heaven
and earth. Sovereign God. If he spoke heaven
and earth into existence, he can send forth a pastor after
his own heart who knows the truth and preaches the truth. You remember
when our Savior first ascended? And He came to Mary Magdalene,
and she was all excited and wanted to embrace Him, you know? And
He said, Touch Me not, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.
But He said, Remember the first thing He said to her? Go to My
brethren. Go to My brethren. And He said
this, Say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father. to my God and your God." He's
saying, you go tell my brethren, my brothers and my sisters, I'm
going to my Father and to your Father. Now I'm going to tell you something. He's going to sing praises in
the midst of the congregation. And from His throne in glory,
God the Father has given all government into the hand of His
Son, Christ Jesus the Lord. And He sends forth the Holy Spirit
just like He did on the day of Pentecost. And He continues to
quicken and make alive and make new and create His people in
righteousness and holiness and draw them to the feet of Christ
the Lord. He speaks these words into their heart and they hear
Him and they follow Him. And here's the effectual command
that He speaks into the heart when He makes His children willing
in the day of His power. Verse 23, Ye that fear the Lord,
how are you going to fear the Lord? It's going to be by the
Spirit of God's grace. It's going to be by Him teaching
you in the heart. And here's what He teaches you
that He's made to fear Him, to be in reverence of Him. Ye that
fear the Lord, praise Him. That's going to be the first
sign you've been called out of darkness into light. You're going
to stop praising man, and your will, and your way, and your
works, and your self-sanctifying, and your self-justifying, and
you're going to praise Him. Him. And He says, All ye the
seed of Jacob. That's who He died for. the seed
of Jacob. We saw this morning, those who
are called by His grace are one in Christ and if you believe
on Him, you trust Him by His grace, you're the seed of Abraham,
the children of Abraham, the children of Jacob. And He calls
them all. He said, I know them by name.
And He says, ye seed of Jacob, glorify Him. See, He's the prophet,
priest, and king. He's the preacher too. You know
that? And he says, And fear him, all
ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. He said, He hath not
despised nor abhorred my affliction. That's what he's saying. Neither
hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he
heard. Now you think about this now,
you think about this, alright? Listen to this now. There was
never a man so afflicted as our Savior in body and soul, from
friends and foes, by heaven and hell, in life and death, nobody
ever afflicted like He was. But in all those afflictions,
God sent them in love. He sent them in love on His Son,
on Christ. The load that was laid upon Him
and everything He had to bear, the forsaking of God and all
that forsaking of men, being left completely, totally alone,
all had an end to the glory that Christ Himself desired preeminently
above everything else. God gave him what he desired
and what his desire was is for the Father to be glorified and
his children to be saved, his brethren to be saved. And through
it all, in all of it, as it was happening, you know what he's
telling us here? He was still the matchless jewel of God Almighty
the whole time. The whole time. What's that mean
to me? What's that mean to you, believer?
It means if he experienced that as our covenant head and representative,
and he's able to say, he didn't despise me. He didn't despise
me. He heard me all along. Then you
can take courage. He's hearing you. He hasn't despised your affliction.
He's centered in love. because don't you want the chief
end to be that he receives all the glory and your brethren are
saved? He says, verse 25, My praise
shall be of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows
before them that fear Him. Now, if Christ's praise is of
the triune God, If the Son of Man's praise is of the triune
God, who do you think those are going to praise who are born
of His Spirit? Who do you think they're going
to praise? They're going to praise Him. And here's His promise to
us, verse 26. This is, the meek shall eat and
be satisfied. You know what we see on the cross?
You know what we just looked at? Meekness. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because you're holy. Because
I'm a worm and no man. But Lord, though I'm rejected
of men and you've forsaken me, I trust you. I've cried out in
all this affliction while I was facing that awful strength of
the horns of the unicorns. And now, Lord, as I'm facing
the last enemy, death in the grave, I just cast my care into
your hands. And into your hands commend I
my spirit." That's meekness. That's a broken and a contrite
heart. And the Lord won't despise that.
And that's the heart he's going to put in his people. Not to
that degree, but to a degree you're going to be broken. If
we were broken, we couldn't be broken to that degree. We couldn't
handle it. That's why he came. But this is what he says, the
meek shall eat and be satisfied. Those who aren't meek say, now,
you hadn't told me anything about what I need to be doing. I'm
telling you. You need to bow and kiss His
feet lest He be angry. You think you're king, but you
need to bow and kiss His feet. I'm telling you. And that's the
only way God's going to receive you. The only way. And until
you've been made meek, you'll never be satisfied. And you'll never eat this bread
and drink this blood. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart shall live forever. All the ends of the world shall
remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before Thee, all His people. He's going to bring
them all to worship Him. And not only that, but in the
end, every mouth is going to confess that He's Lord. And then
He says, for the kingdom is the Lord's. The kingdom is the Lord's,
and He's the governor among the nations. Do you think Barack
Obama was? Do you think the British Prime
Minister was? Did you think the kings of this
earth were the governors of this world? They're not. He is. He is. He's the governor among the nations. And all they that be fat upon
the earth shall eat and worship, and all that go down to the dust
shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul."
You're going to come before him. You're going to come before this
king. Now these are the facts about him. This is who he is.
This is a person. You're going to see this person
face to face with your own eyes one of these days, whether you
believe him or you don't. Because His name is going to be announced.
The trumpet is going to be blown. And the King is going to walk
into His throne room with His train following behind Him, with
the seraphims and the cherubims praising Him. And His presence
is going to fill the temple with such awe that you are going to
hit your knee and say, He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
But it will be too late then. If it's only then that you bow
and kiss His feet, it'll be too late then. He says, but this
is the promise. Listen to me now. A seed of people,
of children, shall serve Him. They shall. And it shall be accounted
to the Lord for a generation. And every time you go over there
and you read when the Lord would say, this generation shall not
pass away till they all be fulfilled. He's talking about the generation
of His people. He's not going to lose any of
them till He's fulfilled this promise. They're going to all
be brought to worship Him. Every one of them. And He says,
they shall come and shall declare, Lord, hadn't we done many wonderful
works? Not this seed. This seed is going to come and
declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born. And here's what they're going
to say. That it is finished. You know what I say to you every
time I preach this gospel to you? Look to Christ. It's finished. He finished it. He accomplished salvation. That's
easy enough. Everybody here can understand
that. There's a difference between not understanding and not believing. There's a difference between
not understanding and not believing. Christ Jesus shall call His people And they
shall come and they shall declare His righteousness unto a people
that shall be born. And our message is, it is finished. It is finished. All right.