Let us turn again to God's Word
in that Psalm that we were considering this morning, Psalm 22. The 22nd
Psalm. And I want to take for our text
this evening the last verse of the Psalm. Psalm 22, 31, They
shall come and shall declare His righteousness unto a people
that shall be born that He hath done this. They shall come and
shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born
that He hath done this. Earlier we were looking at the
opening verse of the Psalm, those familiar words, My God, My God, why hast Thou
forsaken Me? Why art Thou so far from helping
Me? And from the words of my roaring
words, taken up by the Lord in his cruel death upon the cross,
mentioned both in Matthew and also in Mark's account of the
crucifixion. And we consider then those opening
words of the psalm in terms of the cry, the cry of dereliction,
the Lord deserted, feeling forsaken. of his gods, but then we also
consider that verse as very much a prayer and a prayer of faith. We see something of the reality
of the faith of the Lord Jesus, even in the midst of all those
doleful sufferings, forsaken and yet not forsaken. He still
uses that language of appropriation. He can say, my God. My God, he
says. He's a forsaken saviour and yet
his God is very near at hand. What a paradox. And I said this morning with
regards to the contents of this psalm As we see it divided into
two sections really. The first part being the cry,
the prayer and the second part being the answer that the Lord
grants and the deliverance that the Lord grants. And I say the
pivotal words are those that we have in verses 21 and 22. That's where the change comes. From verse 1 to 21 we have the
prayer of Christ and then at verse 22 through to the end we
have the answer of God. And so those two significant
verses, verse 21 Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast
heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy
name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation, will
I praise thee. There in that opening clause
of verse 21 we have another petition as it were, another part of the
prayer, the cry of the Lord. Save me from the lion's mouth,
and then that assurance that he has not pried in vain for
thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns and then that
determination to declare that name and to praise God in the
midst of the congregation. It's an interesting expression.
that he uses here, speaking, as we have it in the A.V., the
horns of the unicorns. But as I said this morning, the
margin gives another alternative reading, and the alternative
is the wild bulls. Probably a better reading. Thou
hast heard me from the horns of the wild bulls. And previously the Lord speaks
of the bulls. Verse 12, many bulls have compassed
me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round, they gaped upon
me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. He goes on to liken these who
are the crucifiers of him, Even to dogs, for sixteen dogs have
compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. But thou, as he makes his requests
known unto his God, so the answer comes. He does not pray in vain. Thou hast heard me, he says.
Thou hast heard even from the horns of the wild boars. And then he goes on to declare
the name of God unto his brethren and to praise God in the midst
of the congregation. And then right through to the
end in the words that I read for our text, the closing verse
of the psalm, Thou shalt come and shalt declare His righteousness
unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." And
again I remind you of that final clause, the word this, introduced
in the translation, indicated as is the wont in our authorised
version by the use of italics, that's a word that's not a translation
of any Hebrew word. The psalm literally finishes
with the words, he hath done. It is finished. The finished work of the Lord
Jesus, that's what the psalm is concerned with. It's the way
in which Christ there upon the cross did accomplish salvation.
His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. However, the Lord himself says
my meat is to do the will of him that sent me. and to finish
his work upon the earth as a man. What was his necessary food?
What was it that sustained him? What was his meat? To do God's
will and to finish the work that God had given to him in the Eternal
Covenant. Had he not willingly become God's
servant, though he was indeed the Eternal Son and equal to
the Father, yet in that covenant he willingly becomes the servant. And so he comes not to do his
own will, but the will of Him who has sent him. And he can
say, as we read there in that great high priestly prayer of
John 17, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And then again, as we
read in the concluding word of our public reading. John 19.13,
he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghosts. Now, in Christ we see complete
salvation. Complete salvation. Because he
who thus was obedient and died is the same that is raised again
from the dead, vindicated by the Father, As we were considering
only last Thursday evening, He is declared, He is determined,
He's marked out as the Son of God according to the Spirit of
holiness by the resurrection from the dead. He was delivered,
says Paul, for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. All the work of Christ, it's
complete. Nothing to be added to it. It
is a finished work. Well, as we come to consider
the text at the end of this great psalm tonight, verse 31, they
shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people
that shall be born that he hath done this. I want to take up
the theme of Christ and the law. Christ and the law. And what do we see here? Two
aspects. to that relationship between
Christ and the law. Remember, as he was made of a
woman, he was made under the law. He's not just the seed of
the woman. He is that. He's the seed of
Abram. He's the seed of David. But he's
also one who is under the law. And two things. First of all,
here we are reminded of Christ's obedience to that Lord of God. when He comes. It's stated so
clearly there in Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of the time
has come, God's appointed time. He sends forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. But here we have the first part
of that work that He accomplished as one subject to the law of
God. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto
a people that shall be born. We see Christ's obedience. What
does he come to accomplish? A righteousness. And what is
righteousness? It is obedience to God's holy
and righteous law. Remember those words that we
have in the 45th chapter of Isaiah. that great eighth verse there. Drop down your heavens from above,
let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation. And let righteousness spring
up together, I the Lord have created it. Here we have righteousness
and salvation and it is all the work of God, it's all the creation
of God and from whence does it come? It's poured down. from
the very heavens. It's the promise of the coming
of Him who is the Lord, our righteousness. Again there in Isaiah's book
we read, the Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He
will magnify the law and make it honorable. And so as we've
said, we have that word that the Lord utters in His great
prayer, As He speaks to the Father, I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. All the first part of His work was really there accomplished.
He had lived the life. And what was the life that He
had lived? Why, it was a life of complete and utter subjection
to God's law. It was his active obedience. We have to remember the different
offices of the Lord Jesus. He is not only a priest who comes
to make sacrifice, he's also a king and he's a prophet as
well and There, at the beginning of that
17th chapter in John, it's as if the Lord is looking back upon
his prophetic office. How does that chapter open? These
words, spake Jesus. These words. That's the words
that we have in the previous three chapters. That great valedictory
discourse, as we call it. He'd spoken these words. He'd
spoken these words to his disciples. Let not your hearts be troubled,
he says. Well, they're not to be afraid.
He begins to tell them he's going to depart from them. But he will
not leave them comfortless. He speaks of the gracious ministry
of the Holy Ghost whom he would send unto them. It is expedient. for you that I go away, for if
I go not away the Spirit will not come. And we have all those
words contained in those remarkable chapters, the prophetic ministry
of Christ as he preaches and teaches these words. Spake Jesus
and then he lifts up his eyes to heaven and turns from addressing
the disciples, turns from addressing men and begins to address his
father in heaven and so in a more particular sense there he begins
to enter into his priestly work and so we see first of all in
that chapter out as a priest he prays he is a praying priest
and then he goes on in the following chapters chapters 18 and 19 of
john we see him as a sacrificing priest That's the great work
that he has come to do. What is it? Who is it? What does
John the Baptist, who is the forerunner of Christ, say? Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. This is
the message of John, the greatest of all the prophets of the Old
Testament. Behold, the Lamb of God. This is that one, the Lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world, before ever God
had created. All of creation, you see, is
to this end that this one might come. He is the Lamb slain and
all is building up to that great event when he will not only be
the sacrificing priest but be the very sacrifice. he's going
to bear in his own person all that punishment of the sins of
his people and so in the Old Testament we have all the preparation
as it were we have all the Levitical laws all the types, all the figures,
all the shadows and all pointing forward to what we have spoken
of here in this 22nd Psalm all the importances of that work that Christ comes
to do in the great sin atoning sacrifice but we have to observe
and it is important that previous to the sacrifice there is the
life that he lives how vital is the life that he
lives he has not only come to die for sinners but he also came
to do for sinners, and His doing is so vital to the salvation
and the justification of sinners. What is the righteousness that
God requires in justification? There in Deuteronomy 6, 25, it
shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments
before the Lord our God as He has commanded us. Here is righteousness,
the observance, the doing of all that the Lord our God has
commanded. And it's to be done before Him.
It's to be done under His all-seeing and all-searching eye. It's not
just a matter in that sense of the doing, it's a motivation
also. Man looks on the outward appearance,
the Lord looks upon the heart. the obedience is to come from
the heart of man and man's heart is so desperately
wicked but here is one you see who comes to obey that commandment in perfection The law demands righteousness. Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law that the man which doeth these things
shall live in them. The words of Romans 10 5 and
similar words in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 12 arcing back to
Leviticus 18 and verse 5. The law requires obedience, but
it must be a perfect obedience. And there is only one who has
ever rendered that obedience to the Lord of God, and that's
Christ. He is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Oh, His righteousness, a perfect
righteousness. Why, this is the name whereby
He shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. And how strange
it is what God is doing in the person and work of his only begotten
son. God manifest in the flesh. Why
God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. That we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Here is the exchange.
His righteousness becomes the sinners and their sin becomes
the Lord's. And He bears the punishment that
was their dessert and in exchange He gives them His righteousness. Oh, the wonder of it. Remember
the language of the Apostle, how Paul brings out these precious
truths time and time again, words that we have there in Romans
5. He's speaking as in 1 Corinthians
15, of the two men that God sees, two Adams, the first Adam, the
last Adam, the first man of the earth, earthy, the second man,
the Lord from heaven. And this is what he says in Romans
5, it's so similar to 1 Corinthians 15. There at verse 18, Therefore
as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Oh, that's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus. And that's the great message.
that he's preached by the apostles. Think of the preaching of Paul
in Acts 13 where we see him there at Antioch in Pisidium. What
does he declare by him? That he's by Christ. All that
believe, all that believe are justified from all things that
they could not be justified from by the deeds of the law. What
is Paul's message? and Paul knows it, this is his
own experience, his great desire to be found in him, he says,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. No wonder Paul announces that
great message with such clarity, by him all that believe are justified
from all things that they could not be justified from by the
deeds of the Lord He is the Lord our righteousness and this is
the message you see they shall come and shall declare His righteousness
unto a people that shall be born all those not yet born when David
is writing these words But the psalm is a prophetic psalm, it's
a messianic psalm, it's looking forward to that seat of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That people that should be born
in the mercy and the goodness and the grace of God come to
be born again in the appointed time. The Lord's obedience then, to
the law. But I said to make mention of
two things, two things with regards to Christ and the law. There's
not only the obedience, the righteousness, but secondly, and this really
is the great theme that runs right through the psalm, it's
the sacrifice, it's the oblation. It's the oblation that Christ
renders to that holy Lord of God. And that's how he finishes the
work. It's obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. He hath done this. All it is finished. The work is finished with his
dying. Finished, all the types and shadows
of the ceremonial law, says the hymn writer. words that we have in Hebrews
of course Hebrews is a most significant New Testament book when it comes to the work of Christ and that
sin atoning sacrifice what do we read here in Hebrews Hebrews
10 at verse verse 4 following it is not possible says Paul
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith
sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared
me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure
Then said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book which is written
of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice,
and offering, and burnt offering, and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not, neither hath pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. It is quite clear that what the
Apostle is saying here is that those Old Testament rituals,
those ceremonies, those sacrifices, all that was offered there under
the liturgical law, animal sacrifice could never take away sin. It
was only a type. It was only a foreshadowing. But then Christ has come. And
He's taken away the first. All that is gone. That He may
establish a second. And we are sanctified through
the offering, He says, of the body of Jesus Christ once and
for all. Or we can think of the language. of Isaac Watts in that hymn,
that 125th hymn in the book. Not all the blood of beasts on
Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or
wash away the stain, but Christ, the heavenly lamb, takes all
our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood
than thine. There is the great sacrifice
for sin. There is the fulfilment of all
the ceremonial law. But more than that, more than
that, we can think in particular of
that Sinaitic law, that that was given on Mount Sinai, those
Ten Commandments. that were written in tables of
stone and now Christ has come as the surety and he has answered
all the demands of that law that the sinner has transgressed all
those commandments concerning man's duty to God and to his
neighbour And are we not those who are the transgressors of
those holy laws of God? Christ has come and he has answered
all that the Lord demands. He has made the great sin atoning
sacrifice and yet he has done this so willingly, he has done
it voluntarily. He says therefore that my father
loved me because I lay down my life that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my father. And this is why the
father loves him because he willingly submits to satisfy that broken
law and this is what he is doing
when he utters those words upon the cross he said it is finished always answered every aspect
of the demands of the Lord of God he's not only lived the life
of perfect obedience and honored it by that obedience but he has
also honoured it in terms of all his dreadful penalties because
he has died the just for the unjust and he utters it is finished
and he bows his head and he yields up the ghost, gives up the ghost
commends his spirit into the hands of God his Saviour and
we're told with regards to those words in John 19.30 to give up
that the original indicates a voluntary act on his part it's very much
a voluntary act it's not that his life is being taken from
him but he is giving it up, willingly yielding it up and what is it that the Lord
Jesus Christ is doing here? He is dying as a substitute.
And he is dying as a substitute in order to satisfy the law of
God. We have that other prophetic
word in Daniel, in Daniel 9, 26, where we read of Messiah
cut off but not for himself. That's substitution. He's cut
off, he dies. But it's not for himself, it's
not his own sins. Christ has once suffered for
sins. But Christ has suffered the just
for the unjust. He's the just one. It's a substitutionary
death that he has died. And that's what we have here
in the psalm. And how amazing it is, this psalm, it opens with
words that were uttered by Christ upon the cross and it closes
really with words that Christ utters upon the cross seven sayings
the Lord utters from the cross one of them is what we have at
the beginning of this psalm my God my God why hast thou forsaken
me and we can say we have another at the end he hath done it is
finished And throughout the whole of the psalm we see the sufferings,
all the dreadful sufferings that the Lord has to endure. But I
am a worm. And no man, a reproach of men,
and despise of the people, all 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. How they taunt, how they ridicule
the Lord of glory. They gape upon me with their
mouths, As a ravening and roaring lion I am poured out like water,
all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels, my strength is dried up like a putrid,
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. And thou hast brought me
into the dust of death. Oh, as we were saying this morning,
what intensity of feeling here. This is the man. I know it's
God, it's the God-man, but this is a real man. This is Jesus
of Nazareth dying. And what is He doing? Redeeming.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. He's satisfying God's law and
how He has satisfied it. Why? It's all finished. The Lord is
honoured. The Lord is magnified. The work
is accomplished. Hebrews 10, 14, by one offering
they have perfected forever them that are sanctified. By one offering. they are perfect all the blasphemies
of the Romish mass where they talk of a bloodless sacrifice
there's no more any need for any sacrifice when we come to
the Lord's Supper it is to us a feast of remembrance where
we come to think upon Christ and we trust by the grace of
God in a spiritual sense to feed our faith upon him perfected forever Oh, again, remember the language
of Daniel 9 to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up the vision and the prophecy, to anoint the most
holy. What a statement, declaring to
us that well accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There in those portions that
we read John 17 and again in chapter 19, we have the word
finished, don't we? I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
then upon the cross He utters those words, it is finished,
bows his head and gives up the ghost. And the words, the verb
that we have, to finish, literally means to accomplish, to complete,
to complete. And Paul, Paul tells us there
in Hebrews 2.10 how Christ was made perfect through sufferings. There's his perfection, you see.
Oh yes, the obedience of his life, the righteousness that
he wrought by obeying every commandment and living a holy, righteous
life to the glory of God, but all is perfected in his sufferings. He is perfect through his sufferings. And again, we can go back in
the Old Testament, we have it everywhere in the Bible, don't
we? the Lord Jesus Christ is there in that song of Moses in
Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4 he is the rock his work is perfect
his work is perfect he hath done it is finished finished all those types and
shadows finished all the ceremonial laws all the holy Lord of God
that was given on Mount Sinai satisfied. Christ died then as a substitute
satisfying the Lord of God. But here also we see the success
and the fruit of the Lord's death. Verse 30 and verse 31, A seed
shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath
done this. A seed, we read, a seed is to
serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come or they shall
come, that siege. He shall see His siege. He shall
prolong His days. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of
His soul and shall be satisfied. Is it not the same there in Isaiah
53 as we have here in Psalm 22? It's the siege. It's a travail of his soul, he
has not shed that precious blood in vain. All for whom he died can and shall be saved. It's particular redemption. It's
limited atonement. It's a success then. It's a success. It's the fruit of the sufferings
and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. or they shall come. Verse 27,
all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee for
the kingdom is the Lord's and He is the governor among the
nations. Even in our day you see God is sovereign and God
is working out His great purpose. That Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world that one for whom all the world was created, the
glory of God, to be seen in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In all that takes place in the world do we realize that all
is for Christ and all must ultimately be to the glory of Christ, their
success, their fruit. And then also here we have the
preaching of the Gospel. the declaring of his righteousness
unto a people that shall be born and reading this I thought of
another psalm I thought of David and David with his grey hairs
David as an old man remember how David speaks there in psalm
71 verse 9 cast me not off in the time of
old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth, he says.
Verse 18, now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake
me not until I have showed thy strength unto this generation
and thy power to every one that is to come. And what is the great
message that David will declare? Verse 15, My mouth shall show
forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. For I
know not the numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. And the last verse, My tongue
shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. For they are
confounded they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. Oh David the human author of Psalm 22
how he delights to speak of his greater Son and we see the same
in Paul of course his one desire to know Christ his one desire to be found in
Christ not having his own righteousness What did He preach? We preach,
He says, Christ and Him crucified. I determined not to know anything
among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Oh friends,
are we those who delight in this Christ and we want to hear of
His righteousness? It's the only righteousness that
we have. Strange isn't it what we are
if we're saved? We're sinners. And how we feel
ourselves to be sinners. That's what we are. We're sinners. And yet, we're righteous. Because God sees us in Christ. Clothed in that robe of righteousness. or covered by the garments of
salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, we have
no righteousness of our own. All our righteousnesses, our
filthy rags, all our best endeavours, filthy rags, they shall come
and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born
that He hath done this. Oh, the Lord, then bless his
word to us. Amen.