Turn to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Read verse 14 with me. We'll
make some comments about other verses in the chapter but let's look at this
for just a second. Notice that it's written in the
first person, I. First person singular. I will
praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and thy
that my soul knoweth quite well." In one of the commentaries that
Tim James wrote, he said this. He said, when I was a young preacher,
I was instructed by some more experienced men, more experienced
pastors, preachers, to be careful not to overtype. the Old Testament. I suppose they felt that I might
be seeing Christ where they thought that he wasn't. And a little later he went on
to say, but I kept seeing stuff that to me spoke of Christ. He just couldn't help it. I had
a similar experience to that one time. After seeing Christ
and trying to speak of him and the things about him from a passage
of scripture, a person whom I highly respected walked up to me and
said, young man, you can take some things too far. It, because of the respect that
I had, it devastated me. I mean, it really got to me. I took it seriously. And although
it shook me up at the time, I was much like Tim, a whole lot like
Tim. I kept seeing Christ everywhere.
Kept seeing him everywhere. I kept seeing stuff that to me
spoke of Christ, like Tim, and in all of those occasions, all
I could think was that our Lord himself declared himself to be
the subject of all the scripture when he said to the Pharisees,
you think you have eternal life, but there are they that speak
of me. all of them. And I want to start
by remembering, reminding both you and myself that this psalm
is from the pen of King David as he was inspired by the author,
the Holy Spirit of God. That's who's speaking here, not
David. David wrote it, but these are
not David's words. It's written in the first person
singular. I want you to see that. If you
look in this verse, it's written from the point of view, I, me,
and my. I am fearfully made. Those are
the words that show that the person speaking is the character
in this story. It's speaking of Him. And this
Psalm, though written by David, it's evident that he was directed
by God's Spirit to say a world of things about Christ and concerning
Christ in this chapter. I want to give you a couple of
examples of that, what I'm trying to say in Acts. After Christ ascended into heaven,
back into heaven, Peter stood in front of about 120 disciples,
and he said this concerning the betrayal of Christ by Judas,
okay? Peter was talking about the betrayal
of Christ by Judas, and he said, men and brethren, this scripture
must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost, By the
mouth of David, the Holy Ghost spoke through David. David wasn't
speaking his own words. He was speaking of those that
he had been inspired and given by the Spirit of God concerning
Judas, which was the guide to them. that took Jesus when they
came to take him. Judas was guiding them, and the
scripture that Peter was referring to was Psalm 41 and verse nine. Now very quickly, I want you
to look at it with me. Psalm 41 and verse nine. Look at what it says. It says,
yea, my, my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did
eat of my bread and lifted up his heel against me. We would
have never known that that verse was talking about a man who would
betray Jesus. And it's written in the first
person singular. And those are the words of Christ.
David wrote that verse, but it becomes clear from the Apostle
Peter's words that there was one greater than David speaking
there. Through his pen, through his
pencil, if you will. These are the words of Christ.
They're a prophecy of Judas betraying him. And while it may be true
that what David said could be true of David himself to some
extent, It was dictated, if you will, by God's spirit through
the mouth of David in the first person singular, my friend who
ate my bread. Another example, well, let me say this, and if
that'd be true, The verse we just read, and if you want to
turn back there, in verse 14, 139-14, what is said there, all those things that I've said
being so, are the words of Christ. Now, how many times have we read
that before and looked at ourselves? Only creature on earth has got
thumbs, wonderfully made inside. Everything's coordinated, and
that's what we think about. But this is talking about Christ. He's fearfully and wonderfully
made. There's another example. In the
book of Acts, Peter was speaking on this occasion
concerning the resurrection and the ascension of Christ. And
he quoted David from Psalm chapter 16 by saying that David spoke there concerning And listen and
notice that it's also written in the first person. Through
David, our Lord said, I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice. This got to be the words of Christ.
And my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell. Not another man on the face of
the earth can say those words. Neither wilt thou suffer thine
holy one to seek corruption. We're all gonna see it, but he
didn't. He's the only man that never did. Thou hast known me,
known to me, made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt
make me full of joy in thy countenance. And here's still another example.
Psalm 22 and verse 18. Listen, they part my garments
among them and cast lots upon my vesture. David couldn't say
that, but it reads my garments. He wrote it. that he was speaking
the words of Christ there as he was inspired by God's spirit. Now, if you're back to 139 and
verse 14, I want you to see these words as those from the very
mouth of Christ. It says, I will praise thee as
Christ speaketh. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Marvelous are thy works. He's speaking to the Father.
And that my soul knoweth quite well. There is no doubt that
it can be said that David and every other believer that the
Lord made us, He made us. He knows what we're made of. And in verse two, look at that. He knows our down sitting and
our uprising. He knows our thoughts. The believer
knows and can say, verse seven, look at that. Where can I go
where you're not? Verse eight, if I send into heaven,
you're there. Depths of hell, you're there.
If I dwell in the other parts of the sea, he's there. Verse
11, not even darkness can hide me. He's everywhere and in all
places. He's present at all times and
he sees and he knows all things. We as believers, excuse me, are
aware of and can say those things of ourselves, but only to some
degree. for lack of a better term, just
as David may have seen those things as he penned them, as
he wrote them. But when we say those things,
we can't say them with any purity of thought. And these thoughts, the recording
of Christ's thoughts, are pure thoughts. He has an appreciation
for them as a matter of experience. All those things should be kept
in memory to inspire us, but there's a far greater subject
to be considered here. If we can see that one greater
than David is the one speaking, as I've given examples, There
is such a delight and comfort to be found in just the slightest
glimpse of these expressions being His words. The one speaking
says that the Lord has covered me in my mother's womb. Look
at verse 13. Thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb. This can be generally true of
every one of us if considered only as referring to the formation
of this human frame. But the terms fearfully and wonderfully
made implies a lot more than just an ordinary act of creation. If we consider this to be the
person of Christ and see the other passages in this chapter
in confirmation, all of these expressions in this chapter correspond
in their context and make perfect sense. Christ, from verse 14
up, if you go back and read the first 13 verses, He's extolling
the virtues of the Father. Perfectly. He knows them because
He is God. He is God. In Hebrews chapter
10, Paul wrote this. He said, Wherefore,
when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body, a body, body, body, body hast
thou prepared me. He was quoting Psalm chapter
40 and attributing those words to Christ and speaking of himself. How was that body prepared? Is there any answer to that? The angel explained it when he
announced it to Mary. He said, the Holy Ghost shall
come upon you Mary, and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee, Luke chapter one. And it was a miraculous conception
and unexplainable. There is no explanation. Here
was a body prepared and that truly can be said to be fearfully
and wonderfully made. It was contrary to procreation,
being totally without the intervention of a human father and without
any act of the mother whatsoever. She was totally passive in it,
totally passive. Nowhere in scripture is it ever
said that Christ was begotten of a woman. It does say that
he was made of a woman. Made of a woman. Fearfully and
wonderfully made. Christ is called the man. The man from heaven. And he was
fearfully and wonderfully made. Look at verse 15. He was made
in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
What's that talking about? He was curiously made. That's
what I just said. Conceived of the Holy Spirit,
God the Father's Spirit. Where's that dark place? It's
in a mother's womb. It's in his mother's womb. That's what that's talking about.
I'm just cocksure. In verse 16, he says to his father,
but your eyes did see my substance. You may have a marginal note
in your Bible for substance. That means body, body. He was
made in secret, curiously wrought. He said to his father, your eyes
did see my substance, my body. What is his substance spoken
of? It's his members. Look at verse 16. My substance
was not hid when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest part of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." What's that
talking about? What's that talking about? What
is his substance? It's his members. It's his elect. That's his body. We are the body
of Christ. We've been given to Him in eternity. And we were given to Him in eternity. Get this now. We were given to
Him in eternity when yet we were imperfect. Look at it. When we're
imperfect. And before ever having done good
or evil, every single one of them, look at it, were written
in a book. Written. That means what it says,
written. That can't be said of any other
man. If this verse applied only to
our members, our fingers, our toes, our heart, our organs,
and the miraculous function of all of them, then the members
written down for us would all be the same. Five fingers. to a hand, a liver, a heart,
an ear, an eye. But the members written for Christ
were his people. That constituted his body, and
that is fearfully and wonderfully made. Written, his members were, written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, before one of them ever existed. That's
what that verse says right there. David wasn't fearfully and wonderfully
made in that sense. That's fearfully and wonderfully
made, on my word, how wonderful it is. Here is God Almighty, being the Son of God, conceived
of the Spirit of God, perfectly holy and without sin, becoming
a man to enter this cesspool of humanity, sinful humanity,
having entered this world through the womb of a woman, being born
of a virgin, he grew, now listen to this, God grew and waxed Wax strong. He grew in maturity. Knowledge, it even says. Being filled with wisdom and
the grace of God was upon him. Scripture. You say that's impossible. It's not for him. Because this
man, the man, is fearfully and wonderfully made. As an infant,
this man was the God-man. Brother Don, he used to say that. And he says, you can't say it
slow. You got to say it fast, the God-man. He's neither God
nor man, but he's God-man. God and man. Some folks try to
describe that union by using fancy terms like, well, it's
just a hypostatic union between God and man. No, sir. You can't explain it that way.
He's fearfully and wonderfully made. He was one with the father. He
was with the father from the beginning. And He said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. Picture that man walking on this
earth, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Son, the Father, and the
Holy Spirit are one. Yeah, they are, but they're one
in three. And in that infant carried in
the womb of Mary dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God Almighty cried for his mother's
breast. That's fearfully and wonderfully
made. He's eternal with the Father.
John's gospel tells us that. He said, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
All things were made for Him. And without Him, not anything
made that was made. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten
Son, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is the one greater than
David that that verse 14 is speaking about, fearfully and wonderfully
made. When he was about 30 years old, at his baptism and while he was
praying, God opened heaven and the spirit of God came down in
a bodily shape, it says in Luke, I believe it's Luke, like a dove
on him and a voice declared from heaven saying, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. And that day began his public
ministry and his sojourn on this earth. It lasted about three
years before we killed him, before he gave himself. Both those things
are true. His message was repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand, this man, The Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus Savior, Christ anointed Messiah. The Lord Savior Messiah
came to redeem a people given to Him before the world was ever
created. Look at verse 16 again. I want
you to see something more there. He said, my substance, my body,
was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see
my substance, my body, yet being unperfect, his body was unperfect,
and in thy book all of them, all were written, which in continuance
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. I love that. Do you see your redemption in
that verse? His substance was his body, the
church, the elect, and there he is to redeem because he was
fearfully and wonderfully made. He was without spot, without
blemish, he knew no sin, and he's able to save to the uttermost
those that come to God by him. It was by one man's disobedience
that we got in this mess. Many were saved, many were made
sinners in Adam. And so by the obedience of this
one man, many be made righteous. Believers by the death of Christ,
the death of Jesus Christ, the man, through his death, burial,
and resurrection are made righteous. Here's the spotless one who was
made fearfully and wonderfully made. He was made sin. That's fearfully and wonderfully
made. Made sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God. In him, the Lord Jesus came into
this world to suffer for all the sins, of all who the father
had written in that book. All the sins of all his people
were reckoned to him and all that they should have suffered
on account of those sins, this man suffered eternal death in their stead.
One might ask, can God die? No, he can't. But the God-man
can. The God-man can. I wish we could
get into that. Our sin debt, too huge for us
to ever calculate, was all laid on him, and he paid it to the
last penny. He was summoned to the court
of eternal justice because the sins of his people were reckoned
to him and all that they should have suffered, he discharged. It's done. The whole of that
tremendous debt that was due to God, the debt caused by the
sins of all his people was paid by him. And all of it has been
done by him. because he's fearfully and wonderfully
made. I'm out of time, but I want to
point something out very quickly. It'll float your boat. The salvation of God's elect
is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. And
I would point out that salvation must, must, must, must come through
a new birth. We must be born again. It's a miraculous conception.
Are you hearing this? It's a miraculous being born
again of the spirit of God. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, he
said, except you be born again, you can't see the kingdom of
God. And scripture says, you hath he quickened or made alive
who were dead. Life from spiritual death must
be given to a man or a woman before they can ever know the
things of God. And it comes through faith. And
that faith is a gift. And it comes through the preaching
of the gospel. That's where it's bestowed. Now,
if a believer, one of God's chosen ones, ponders the consequence
of the fact that we have been born again, guess what? We're
fearfully and wonderfully made in him, in him. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. And that don't happen except
in a passive sense. That is given you as a new man,
Christ in you. And that's fearfully and wonderfully
made. It's a stark realization that
even we, and being a child of God are fearfully and wonderfully
made. Flesh and blood, Lord told Peter, flesh and blood, he said,
thou art, who am I? Thou art the Christ, that's what
I know. Peter said that to Christ. Christ told him, he said, flesh
and blood didn't reveal that to you. Who did? My Father, which is in heaven. I'm just gonna leave you here.
But go home, please, and read these words as the words of our
Lord God, the God-man, Christ Jesus. Verses one through 13,
when you read them, hear them as the words of Christ, where
He extols all the virtues of His Father. Lord, I know that you know me,
you know my down sitting and all this other stuff, all the
way through verse 13. And then he makes that comment
in verse 14. And at that point in the latter
part, Christ expresses his agreement with the father and his perfect
holiness and purity of the thoughts and intentions of his own heart. It'll bless your soul. Thank
you.