Let us turn together in the word
of God to Psalm 55. Psalm 55. Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me
and hear me. I mourn in my complaint. and
make a noise. Because of the voice of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked, for they cast iniquity
upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is sore pained within
me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness
and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, oh, that I had wings
like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then
would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. Selah. I would hasten my escape from
the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, oh Lord, and divide
their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go about upon the walls thereof. Mischief also
and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst
thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets. For it was not an enemy that
reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that
hateth me, then that did magnify himself against me, then I would
have hid myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked unto the house of God in company. Let death seize
upon them and let them go down quick into hell, for wickedness
is in their dwellings and among them. As for me, I will call
upon God and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at
noon I will pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. He
hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against
me, for there were many with me. God shall hear and afflict
them, even he that abideth of old, sealer, because they have
no changes, therefore they fear not God. He hath put forth his
hands against such as be at peace with him. He hath broken his
covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother
than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer
than oil, yet were they drawn swords. Cast thy burden upon
the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. But thou, O God, shalt bring
them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall
not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee. May
the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word and help
us to consider this evening. Verse number 22. Cast thy burden
upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer or
permit the righteous to be moved. We know this is a psalm of David
and some believe as when he was fleeing from Saul and that's
why he speaks about that relationship that was had prior to the distress
that he was feeling at this time. He says that if it was an enemy
then he could understand it, he could bear it, but he says
it was him that was with me, a man of mine equal, my guide,
mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked unto the house of God in company. We know that
this also has a prophetic tone to it, speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ and Judas Iscariot and how he was with the Lord Jesus
Christ and yet he betrayed him, the one who walked with the Lord
Jesus. greeted the Lord Jesus with a
kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane. They walked in the temple together
and yet he lifted up his heel against him and was a traitor
and despised him and was the means by which Christ
was delivered into the hands of evil men. And so David, as
he begins, he begins with a prayer. We know that scripture is full
of prayer. We know that Christ gives us
that example of the necessity of prayer. And we know in our
own lives that prayer is so vital and yet it's so often neglected.
How often we try to deal with things ourselves before we come
to the throne of grace. how often we run when we should
be kneeling. And the psalmist tells us here
that he was a man of prayer like Daniel, as we discussed a few
weeks ago. He prays here in the morning
and in the noontime and at the evening. But he speaks of this
casting thy burden, casting thy burden upon the Lord. It seems
that what he was experiencing in his life was a great burden
to him. We know a burden is something
that is laid upon someone, something that is heavy, that is oppressing,
that causes difficulty. And we see that there was much
going on in his life at this time, so much so that he felt
that he would be like a dove and fly away. He says, oh that
I had wings like a dove and then I would fly away and be at rest.
And sometimes in our lives it can be like that. We can feel
that the only option is to run away. The only way of getting
rid of this burden, this stressful environment, this stressful situation
is to run. We can look at the birds sitting
on the chimneys and we can think like David here, oh that I had
wings and I could fly away like them and be at rest and all of
my problems would be gone away. But we know such is man that
even if we run, our problems will follow us. And as we mentioned
on the Lord's day of Jonah, how he brought problems, even greater
problems upon himself by trying to run away from the Lord. And so a burden is that which
is laid upon somebody. That is a weight that is given to be carried. But it says here to cast thy
burden upon the Lord. And Christian life is a life that has to be walked
out And it's a life where we are tested and proved and tried
day by day to see what the genuineness of our faith. And Christ lays
burdens upon his people to test them and to prove them, to see
how they are able to bear up underneath the test and the trial. And the experiences that we pass
through may be likened unto burners. They may not literally be a physical
weight but they may feel like they are a weight. They may feel
crushing and oppressive. And they may be difficult for
us to carry and to walk out. The word burden I looked up can
be also translated a gift. Cast thy gift. You see a burden
if we're speaking physically is something that we are carrying
a physical thing and it is given to us and therefore
it is presented to us by Christ as a gift for us to carry. That's maybe hard for us to understand
but if you think of gold, fire to gold is a gift. because it
purifies it. It makes it better than what
it is and what it was. It must be placed above the flame
in the heat to remove that dirt and that dross that is within
and then it is scraped off. And so the burdens that are given
to us by Christ are like fire given or put under the gold. They're there for a purpose and
a reason to have a benefit to the Lord's people that it may
do them good. But sometimes we try and carry
these weights by ourselves. When I worked on the building
site when I was younger we used to see how much we could carry
and no one wanted to be the weakest. Everyone wanted to be able to
carry more than the other person. And so you would try and put
two bags of cement on your shoulder or three bags and such like to
try and prove that you were stronger than the other person. And no
one wanted to be seen as weak. And so we try to carry these
burdens that Christ lays upon us because we don't want to be
seen as weak. We would rather be crushed by
them than to cast them off to him. And so our pride gets the
better of us and we try and carry the situation, the burden ourselves. We want to feel good. We want to feel that we are a
strong, faithful Christian who is able to withstand this pressure
and this experience that we are going through. And we are stubborn. I don't know if you feel the
same sometimes, but you know in your heart, if only I just
prayed about it, it would be sorted. But you press on. You're
sort of angry that God has brought this thing into your life and
you don't want to pray to him so that he might remove it. And
so you're rebellious. You're like a stubborn mule,
not willing to bow under the load that has been laid upon
us. And so in our stubbornness, we
press on carrying the burden, struggling day by day, trying
to carry it alone because we will not. pass it over to Christ. We want
to walk alone. We want to be a strong Christian,
the strongest Christian. It's just stubbornness and we
don't want to pass it over. Sometimes it takes more grace
to say I can't do this. If you're at school or if you're
at work and the boss or the teacher gives you something to do and
just to say I'm really sorry but I can't do this. It's too
difficult for me. Instead of trying to carry it
and plough on by yourself in stubbornness to say look I can't
do it. It's too difficult. It's too
heavy for me to bear. I can't carry it alone. I can't do what you have presented
me to do. It takes more grace and more
humility to say I'm not able than it does to press on and
to be crushed and to fail and then ultimately to be seen as
failed and have to confess, I couldn't do it. So he says here, cast thy burden,
that what Christ has given you to carry, give it back to him. The first burden that a Christian
carries is sin. We try in our unregenerate life
to pretend that sin is not a load and we go on living as we want
to live and we do what we want to do it's a great blessing when that
sin becomes a burden, when it becomes a weight and we see it
as it is, as we have broken God's law and we've sinned against
a holy God and that sin It's not just a knowledge of it but
it actually becomes a weight within our hearts. Something
that holds us down and makes us buckle and become ashamed. We might try and carry it for
a bit but we can't carry it forever. It must be given. to Christ. In 1 John chapter 1 verse 9 or from verse 7 it says, But
if we walk in the As he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses
us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so the casting of the burden
of sin is confession, it is passing it over to Christ saying that
I cannot bear this anymore alone. This is too heavy for me. I've
tried to carry it. I've tried to cover it. I've
tried to labour with it but I can't anymore. And therefore we come
and we confess our sin to Christ and we unburden our hearts to
Christ and the burden is taken. And it's taken and it's given
to the Lord Jesus Christ who is able to carry that burden. he did carry it and he does carry
it and he bore it alone on Calvary. And there's the difference you
see. We cannot bear our sin alone. We must cast the burden upon
the Lord. Christ bore it alone. There's that verse
that says and he trood the winepress alone in Luke 22 when the Lord
Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane and he prays verse 39 and he
came out and went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives and his
disciples followed him and when he was at the place he said unto
them pray that you enter not into temptation and he was withdrawn
from them about a stone's cast kneeled down and prayed and saying
father if thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless
not my will but thine be done.' And there appeared an angel unto
him from heaven strengthening him not removing the burden from
him not removing the cup from him but strengthening him to
enable him to accomplish that ultimate will of God, which was
to die upon the cross and pay the penalty for the sins of his
people. And he did so alone. But he says to my people, cast
thy burden upon me. I will bear it. I'm stronger than you. I can
carry it. And I am able to do so. but it takes that humility,
it takes that understanding that you can't carry it. The weight
of it is too great for you and therefore you have to unburden
it, unload it and give it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
says in Matthew 11, he says, come unto me All ye
that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take
my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in
heart and you shall find rest for your souls for my yoke is
easy and my burden is light. And so as we have the illustration
of those two animals yoked together and they're casting the burden
upon the Lord and being yoked together with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I've told you before about Kenya and how they yoked
together the strong oxen with the young one. And so when the
young one is tired, the stronger oxen takes the strain and pulls
the load or the plough that is behind. He takes the weight And
so the younger one, the weaker one is enabled to rest and to
just plod on. The stronger one takes the weight,
takes the burden of the plough. And so Christ with his people
takes the weight. He takes the strain. And as we
are unable, it's like we slacken off and he pulls the load. while we as it were recover. And he says my yoke is easy and
my burden is light. And so he says cast thy burden. The first burden that we must
cast for Christ to carry any other of our burdens is sin.
You can't come to him with your other burdens, with your SOS
burdens until you've come to him first. with your sin burden. When he is dealt with your sin
burden, then he is your Lord, your Saviour. And he will be
enabled to carry your other burdens as you are yoked together with
him. But if you are not yoked together
for him, you will carry your burden alone. Cast thy burden
upon the Lord, upon God, upon Christ, upon Jehovah, and he
shall sustain you. If you've ever watched those
weightlifting programs, Strongest Man and such like, you will see
that sometimes those strong men, they buckle under the weights
that they're lifting. They collapse on the floor. such
as the strain on their body, they're unable to continue. But
Christ says, cast that burden to me and I will enable you to
continue. My yoke is easy. Slacken off
and I will take the strain. I will pull the burden. I will
enable you and sustain you in the trial that I have put you
through. that it is how it is. You see
every burden that Christ lays upon his people is for their
good and for their benefit and as he gives it to them he doesn't
give it to them to buckle them and to destroy them. Although
they try in pride to carry those burdens often by themselves,
but he gives it them so that they will return it back to him. Like David says, I pray in the
morning, in the noon and in the evening. What is he doing? He's
unburdening. He's passing that burden over
to Christ to enable him to persevere in the opposition and distress
that he is passing through. So if we're yoked together with
him, he will sustain us through the pathway that he has caused
us to walk through. And he will never suffer or permit
the righteous to be moved, to slip or to stumble. as the yoke
is yoked around the neck of the young bullet. If it slips, the
other one is able to hold it up and to continue pulling it
and helping it. And so Christ lifts up his people
as they slip and stumble under the loads that they are passing
through. He will never allow them to be
completely buckled and destroyed by the pathway that he has caused
them to walk in. We believe in the perseverance
of the saints. We believe that once we have
been yoked together with Christ, we will reach the final destination
and we will never, ever, ever be lost. Although we may slip
and stumble and fail and be crushed because of our own pride and
self-confidence, yet Christ will always lift us up and stand us
upon our feet. He says, In John 10. Verse 27. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. I and my father are one. And so Christ tells us there
that we are in the hand of himself and in the hand of God. And no
one is able to pluck these sheep of his out of his hand, let alone
out of the hand of Almighty God. And so he will never allow the
righteous who are his people, yoked together with him, to fall
completely out of grace, for he has them in his hand. Sometimes we may feel like that
is happening. We may feel like that we are
not one of the lords and we have completely failed him. you will
notice that if there is life within our souls, that sense
of failure will drive us again to the throne of grace as we
cast that burden, that lack of assurance, those doubts and those
fears, as we cast those burdens again at the throne of grace
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ who will never allow the
righteous to be moved out of the narrow way that leads to
life. And so the way into this narrow
way is to have a sense, a weight of your sin, not your own self-righteousness,
but your sin, which you cannot deal with yourself. It's like
a weight, like you're bearing a heavy burden and you take that
burden to Christ and Christ deals with that burden at Calvary. He pays for that burden upon
the cross. That's the first burden you must
cast. Don't come to him with other
burdens before you come to him with the first burden which is
sin. And as you enter into the narrow
way that leads to life those other trials and temptations
that he lays upon us that we try to carry in self-sufficiency
and we prove that we fail. As he gives them we give them
back. say carry me, carry my burden,
carry me for I cannot walk this way alone. I need thy help, I
need the Spirit's help, I need thy guidance, I need thy strength.
May we prove then that as we do walk this way and we
are given these burdens that we are enabled to lay them again
on the shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ and feel him as
we are yoked together with him, feel him pulling us along like
the ship on the sea as it sails are filled with the wind and
those on the boat feel that moving along. May we be enabled to feel
the wind of the Spirit pulling us along, helping us along on
the narrow way that leads to life. And whatever your burden
is this evening, It's not too heavy for the Lord Jesus Christ. It is too heavy for you. You
cannot carry it alone. Your sin especially. You cannot
carry it alone. It will weigh you down. It will
sink you down into the hell fire for all eternity. Cast your burden
upon the Lord and he shall sustain you. He shall never allow or
permit the righteous to be moved. Well may the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.