Sometimes believers go through seasons
where you feel like the Lord's left you alone. And in those times, you can't
find any comfort. You can't find any peace or any
assurance. It seems like there are many
evils that surround you. Enemies at every turn. Your sin lays heavy on you. And it's really impossible to
describe how afraid you become. It's impossible to describe how
much sorrow you can be in. It's impossible to describe how
ashamed you can become. Some of you, I'm sure, have experienced
that, know what I'm talking about. Some of you may be experiencing
it now. And you look into God's Word
and you try to find a word, and you pray that God will drop down
something, that He will just speak into your heart and give
you something to comfort you. I'll open His Word, and I caught
a verse that caught my attention in this 69th Psalm, verse 32. The humble shall see this and
be glad, and your heart shall live and seek God. The Lord sends us these seasons
to humble us because we're proud. We're just proud. That's all
we are, proud. We're everything but meek, everything
but humble, full of sin. We forget that in our flesh there's
nothing good. And His hand that humbles us
is often the hand that makes us to feel like He's taken His
hand away from us forever. That's the hand that often does
the best work. But when He humbles us, He makes
us to seek Him. And when He makes us to seek
Him, He makes us to see Him. And then He makes our hearts
glad. Makes us to know we're going
to live with Him. Now this is David's psalm. This is David's prayer. It's
been my prayer. It's been your prayer. What we're
going to see here, David experienced. And some of you can probably Say you've experienced what David
says here. But David's gladness, and yours
and mine, is that this is the experience of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's experienced this. He's been
right here in this. This is His Word speaking to
us. The New Testament declares to us over and over and over,
quotes this Psalm, some seven, eight, nine times. These are
the words of our Savior. This is the prayer of David's
Lord. Now you see at the beginning
up there, it says, this is to the chief musician. Upon or concerning,
that word is, the lily. That's who this psalm is concerning,
the lily. Christ Jesus our Lord is the
lily of the valley. And here, The lily is surrounded
by thorns. Psalm 69, 1. He says, Save me,
O God, for the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep
mire where there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. Isn't it good to know, isn't
it good to know, a comfort to know that your Lord has experienced this so that
when you come to where He is right here, He can comfort you? Isn't that a joy to know that?
Spurgeon said, the standing consolation of the godly is the experience
of their Lord. Our consolation is to know that
our Lord experienced what we've experienced, and He consoles
us. The humble shall see this and
be glad, and your heart shall live and seek God. What is it that the humble see?
That's what I want to answer in this message. First of all,
we see, let me say it this way, you see, you see, you look this
morning and see your Savior, brethren, restoring that which
He didn't take away. See that. Verse 4, He said, They
that hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of Mine
head. They that would destroy Me, being Mine enemies wrongfully,
are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. God's glory was taken away, or
at least attempted to be robbed from Him. The communion of his
people, our oneness with God was severed. Who did that? Who took that away? Well, we know Adam sinned and
we know that as our federal head, we send in him. That's not real
personal to me. In my experience of it, I did
it. I did it. I attempted to rob
God of His glory. I attempted to take that which
belongs to God alone. And I, in doing so, have severed
myself from God. He said that. He said, your sins
have separated you from your God. Can you say that about yourself? Can you say that your sins have
separated you from your God? Do you know that? Some may not
even know that. Do you know that? But He said, I restored that
which I took not away. Christ didn't take away God's
glory. He didn't take away our union with God. But the Lord
Jesus Christ restored God's glory and He brings each of His redeemed
in a sweet union with God. How does He do that? He makes
intercession for us. They were accusing him wrongfully. And truthfully what he's saying
is, and yet I prayed for them. I made intercession for them.
I've restored that which I took not away for them. He was wounded. For what? Our transgressions. He was bruised. For what? Our iniquities. He restored that which he took
not away. He was bruised for our iniquities
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. He fulfilled the
law. He never broke. He satisfied
justice. He never offended. He made His
people the righteousness of God in Him. He restored, upheld the
glory of God and restored His people to union with God which
He never took away. And with His stripes we're healed.
With His stripes we are healed. His intercession restored that
which He took not away. See that. Do you see that? He says that the humble shall
see this and be glad, and your heart shall live that seek God.
Secondly, see that your Savior owned your sin as His own sin. Verse 5, O God, thou knowest
my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee. I was the fool. I was saying
no God. He wasn't. I counted his gospel
foolishness. He's the Word. All we are is sin. All we are
is transgression against God. David could say this and you
and I can say this without reservation. The Lord knows my foolishness.
The Lord knows my sins. They're not hid from Him. He
knows them. All we like sheep have grown
astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, yet our substitute,
Christ Jesus the Lord, He could say of His enemies that accused
Him wrongfully. He could say, Father, You know
I've not done the things they've accused Me of. You know that
the sins they accused Me of, I've not done. But He says, O God, Thou knowest
My foolishness, and My sins are not hid from Thee. Matthew Henry
said, This may aptly be applied to Christ, for He knew no sin. Yet He was made sin for us, and
God knew it, and it wasn't hidden from Him when it pleased the
Lord to bruise Him, to put Him to grief. Now we hated Him without
a cause. We made wrongful accusations
against Him. He said, those that hate me wrongfully
are more than the hairs of my head. We accused Him wrongfully. We sinners were His enemies wrongfully. But God turned His back on our
Redeemer justly. I understand the concern of men
that we dare not charge our Savior with being a sinner. Scriptures are clear. He is the
just one. In Him is no sin. In His mother's
womb, He was that holy thing. There was no guile in Him. He
could have not died for the unjust had He not been just. Yet, in order for God to remain
just in pouring out wrath on our substitute, God had to make him who knew
no sin, sin for us. God says that those who would
clear the guilty and those that would pour out judgment upon
the innocent, they're the same to God. That's the same unrighteousness. God won't do that. God doesn't
deal with anybody unjustly. He deals in righteousness, in
truth. Our substitute had to be made
the horrid thing he was not in his own person. He wasn't sin,
but he had to be made sin. He had to be made what all his
elect are. You see him in the Garden of
Gethsemane. It says, in being in an agony,
He prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great
drops of blood falling down to the ground. I'd like to say that
I know how offensive my sin is to God, but I don't. I don't have any idea. Truthfully,
I don't know the depths of it. All I've ever been is sin. All I've ever known is sin. All
I've ever thought is sin. All I've ever said is sin. All
I've ever done is sin. I've never known sinless perfection
so that I would know the contrast and just how hard an offense
sin is to God. I don't know that. Can't know
it. But my Savior does. The sin which the spotless Lamb
of God was made, the bruising hand of God's justice which He
would justly bear to maintain God's glory while saving His
brethren, was the trouble of soul that caused Him to be in
agony. that caused the agony of this
perfect One who knew no sin. And yet it pleased the Lord to
bruise Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. Try to enter into this. Try to
enter into the faithfulness and love of God our Savior. Try to
enter into the faithfulness of Christ Jesus toward His Father
and toward His brethren. He was made flesh that he might
willingly be made sin. And this was his father's business. He said, now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Now is my soul troubled. You and I have some soul trouble
from time to time. But we've never known perfection. We've never known what it is
not to be without sin, so that we're truly troubled with being
made sin. But he said, now is my soul troubled,
and what shall I say? Shall I say, Father, deliver
me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. That's faithfulness. That's faithfulness. I get so tired of hearing fellas
talk about deny yourself for the brethren and lay down your
life for the brethren and what you ought to do for your brethren.
You should. But we do it as long as it don't
really put too much of a burden on us. As long as it's not too
much of a hindrance to us. That's truthfully He's going to be made sin. This one who knew no sin is going
to the cross to be made sin. To declare His God just and the
justifier and to save His brethren. That's laying down your life.
That's laying down your life. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. For it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He hath put Him to grief. Was it just a legal transaction?
Is that all it was? I don't think a legal transaction
would make a man sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. What caused travail of his soul? What caused travail of his soul? He was offering His soul to God. He was offering everything He
is to God. And those who are humbled by
His grace see our Savior. Our sin, He owned as His own sin. And He makes us glad. and He makes our hearts to live.
Paul said, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our
consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Thirdly, see your Savior praying
to God for you. Look at verse 6. Let not them
that wait on Thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for My sake. Let not those that seek Thee
be confounded for My sake, O God of Israel. Why would His children
be ashamed of Him? Why would we be confounded at
Him? Verse 7, Because for Thy sake
I have borne reproach. Oh, I wouldn't ever be ashamed
of Christ for bearing reproach. Let's see about that. He said,
Shame hath covered my face, and I am become a stranger unto my
brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. He came unto
his own kinsmen, the Jews. They'd been waiting for the Messiah
for years and years and years and years, talking about Moses,
Moses, Moses, Moses, Moses. And when he came, they said,
we don't know who this one is. It won't have nothing to do with
him. His nearest kin, his own household
and his own family. Scripture says they didn't believe
him. Judas, who was called an apostle
who sat at the table with him, betrayed him. Well, but those folks weren't
believers. Peter denied him three times
and left. And when his disciples saw him
going to the cross to suffer death, they fled. You know why? You know why we flee? We don't
want to suffer. We don't want to suffer death.
He went there by himself for those who fled from him. Man of sorrow. What a name! For the Son of God who came ruined
sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! What a Savior! Look at verse
9, For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches
of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. His zeal for God's church, for
those chosen and given to Him by God's grace. His zeal for
them caused Him to journey from Heaven's glory to this sin-cursed
place. And yet, the more His zeal for
His Father's glory shined, and the more we saw it, Like when
He went into the temple and made that cord and began to drive
out the money changers, the folks who were taking advantage of
people in the house of the Lord. He drove them out because of
His zeal for God's glory. And the more He did that, the more our reproach for God
fell upon Him. Verse 10, he says, when I wept, chasing my soul with fasting,
they just looked at me with reproach. Who'd he do that for? You go
back to your leisure, you can read over in Psalm 35, 11, 12,
13, 14. You'll find out those who were
falsely accusing Him. Those who were charging Him with
sin. Those who were spitting in His
face. Those who were nailing Him to the cross. Those who were
rejecting Him. He said, I wept. I chastened my soul with fastening. And all they did was reproach
me for it. He made intercession for his
people and all we did was reproach him. I made sackcloth also my
garment. I liked listening to the theologians,
or reading the theologians that said, I had so much to say about
this, trying to determine the time he made sackcloth his garment
when he put on this covering of humility that made him to
be such a sorrowful figure and all this. when he was made in
the likeness of sinful flesh. That's when it happened. That
was the garment of sackcloth. What you look at in the mirror
and try to pamper and put makeup on and decorate, make all pretty
every day, that's what he, that was what he called sackcloth,
flesh. And he said, the more I did that,
all I did was become a proverb to them. They that sit in the gate speak
against me. I was the song of the drunkards.
If you ever prayed for your brethren, earnestly poured out your heart
to God for your brethren, and then have your brethren treat
you like an enemy. He's done it more. He's done it more. Have you ever sacrificed for
your brethren? I mean really, sacrifice, giving
up something for your brethren, for their good. They didn't know
it, you just did it, tried to help them. And then them turn
around and speak of you as if you never even showed them any
love at all. He's experienced it more. We saw him eat and drink like
everybody else, and when he did that, we called him a gluttonous
man and a winebibber. Did you call him that? Or is
that just those old legal self-righteous Pharisees? I called him that. I did that. That legal self-righteous
Pharisee is mean. when he wept over sinners, separating
himself to pray for his own, going for days without food.
You know what we said about him? He's got a devil. He's mad. He says down in verse 19, Speaking to God, His Father,
He said, Thou hast known My reproach, and My shame, and My dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before
Thee. Reproach hath broken My heart,
and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take
pity, but there was none. For comforters, but I found none. You know why that's good news
for you. Because he knows what it feels
like when you get to that place where you've looked to all your
friends and everybody you can to comfort you, your brethren,
and you haven't found anybody to comfort you. He knows right,
just exactly what that's like. And he's able to comfort you. He said, I looked for that, but
they gave me gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me
vinegar to drink. He said in chapter 50 of Isaiah,
I gave my back to the smiters, I gave my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and from spitting. Verse 14 of Isaiah 53 says, His
visage was so marred more than any man. We were astonished at him. He
was beaten and disfigured more than any man. And we just esteemed
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. And without his intercession
for us. Why is it so important that you see here that in this
he's praying for you? Why is it so important? for him
to say, let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts,
be ashamed for my sake. Why is that so important? Why
is it so important that he says, let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel? Why is that important?
Because if he didn't intercede for us, we wouldn't see any glory
in the shame that he bore in our room instead and for the
sake of God's glory. We wouldn't see any glory in
that. We'd be ashamed of it. But you see, he says here, the
humble shall see this and be glad and your heart shall live
that seek God. Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood.
Hallelujah. What a Savior. Fourthly, I want you to see the
faithfulness of our God our Father and our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look here in verse 13. But as for me, my prayer is unto
Thee, O Lord. Are you easily turned away from
the Lord when affliction comes, when suffering comes, when reproach
comes? Not Him. Not Him. Aren't you
glad? I'm glad He's faithful. He said,
as for me, my prayers unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time,
O God, in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me in the truth of
thy salvation. He says, my times are in your
hands. He says, in an acceptable time,
when all is finished, when satisfaction is made, and not till then. That's
the acceptable time. Not till you're satisfied, God.
Not until full satisfaction has been made. But in an acceptable
time, in the multitude of Thy mercy, hear me, and in the truth
of Thy salvation. Don't do anything against truth.
Don't do anything against the purpose for me being here. Do
it in an acceptable time. Look at verse 14. Deliver me
out of the mire, and let me not sink. Let me be delivered from
them that hate me and out of the deep waters. Let not the
water flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and
let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord, for
thy lovingkindness is good. Turn unto me according to the
multitude of thy tender mercies. Look at verse 29. I'm poor and
sorrowful. Let Thy salvation, O God, set
me on high. We see faithfulness here. We
see the faithfulness of our Redeemer. He represented us in faithfulness
to God amidst all His sufferings. How hot does the furnace have
to get? The furnace of affliction. How
high do the waters have to rise up over you? before God will
look at you and say, you're not faithful. How hot, how high does the water
have to get for a believer? In all our rebellion, in all
our turning from God, in all that we do in the midst of our
suffering, how hot does it have to get before God will say, you're
not faithful. It can't ever get that hot. You
can't ever turn away that far. You know why? Because when the
furnace of affliction was heated by God Almighty, hotter than
it could be heated, to the fullest extent of the satisfaction of
eternal justice, the One who represented you in faithfulness
said, I trust You, Lord. I trust You. And His faithfulness is your
faithfulness. That's how God can look on somebody
with this imperfect little ounce of faith that we have and say,
well, please, in my good and faithful servant, because he's
looking at his son. He's looking at you and his son.
But we see the faithfulness of God our Father here too. Watch
this, verse 30. It's like the clouds roll back
and everything gets bright. Watch this. I will praise the
name of God with a song. We will magnify Him with thanksgiving. What's happened? What's happened? Verse 34, Let the heaven and
earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moveth therein.
For God will save Zion and will build the cities of Judah, that
they may dwell there and have it in possession. The seed also
of His servants shall inherit it, that they that love His name
shall dwell therein. What's happened? What's made
this joyful song? Our God raised him to the right
hand of glory and said, ask what you will, I'll give you the heathen
for your inheritance. And he said, when I'm raised
up, he said, I'll sing in the midst of the congregation of
my brethren. I'll sing this joyful song to them, telling them, Judah's
going to be saved with an everlasting salvation. Zion's going to be
saved. All my elect are going to be
brought to be with me forever. They're going to inherit this
life. Lifted up was he to die. It is finished was his cry. Now in heaven, exalted high. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Now here's the conclusion for
our brethren here, brothers and sisters. Have the waters come
in unto your soul? Have you poured out your heart's
prayer to God to save you? See your Savior who restored
what He took not away. See your Savior who owned your
sin as His. See your Savior praying to God. See the faithfulness of God our
Father and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who raised Him to
the right hand of glory. And hear Him say to you, I'll
save my people. They're going to dwell with Me.
And you that love Me are going to dwell with Me. When He comes, our glorious King,
all his ransomed home to bring. Then anew this song we'll sing. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Verse 32. The humble shall see this and
be glad. And your hearts shall live that
seek God. For the Lord heareth the poor
and despises not his prisoners.