All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. As I told you, I was
contemplating dealing with the believer's afflictions. And then this verse came to my
mind, the affliction of the afflicted. In verse 22 it says, I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee. You that fear the Lord, praise
Him. All you seed of Jacob, glorify
Him and fear Him. All you seed of Israel. Here's a declaration to the To
the brethren, here it is, praise the Lord, give glory to the Lord,
fear the Lord. Why? What's the purpose? He gives
us the reason for this praise, the reason for this fear. Four,
he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither has he hid his face from
him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. Now, as you read this Psalm of
David, you cannot help but know that this psalm is a messianic
psalm. It is a psalm of Jesus Christ. You can read that the very first
verse. Look at the first verse and tell me if you don't see
this. What are the first words? My God, my God. Why hast thou forsaken me? These are the very words of Jesus
Christ upon the cross. In verse 7 and 8 we read the
words of those that mocked him. He said, All they that see me
laugh me to scorn and shoot out the lip. They shake their heads
saying, He trusted in the Lord that He would deliver him. Let
him deliver him seeing he delighted in Him. Those are almost verbatim
what they said to him at Calvary Street. He trusted in God. Let's see if He'll deliver him. In verse 16, it tells us, Several hundred years before
the Romans perfected crucifixion. Hundreds of years before the
Romans perfected this torture. Look what it says in verse 16. For dogs have compassed me, Gentiles,
and that who did it. The assembly of the wicked, there's
the Jews, have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. Verse 18, we even read of the
game that the Romans played at Calvary's foot. They part my garments among them
and cast lots for my vesture. Even so it is in our text, our
Lord here is speaking. And here Christ in our text is
declaring His victory over death. But throughout the psalm, he
has cried this. Help me, O God. Deliver me, O
God. Verse 2, verse 11, verse 19 through
21, constantly crying. Here is Christ crying out to
God for mercy, for help, for deliverance. But now in verse
22, we see his confidence, his hope, his assurance that after
his death, that God would deliver him. God would save him. For though he should die, he
still was confident in that he would speak to the congregation.
Look at that in your text. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren, even though I must suffer, even though he's going
to die. Yet he swears this. I will declare
thy name unto the brethren. To my brethren in the midst of
the congregation will I praise thee. Now it is true that the
saints of God praise Him. This morning we desire to praise
Him. We desire to give Him glory and honor. We desire to preach
His gospel. But these are not the words of
Christ's saints, but of Christ. How can I be so confident of
that? We'll go to Hebrews chapter 2. Look at Hebrews chapter 2.
The Apostle Paul declares this to be the fulfillment of prophecy,
of Christ's words. Hebrews chapter 2 and look at
verse 9. The Apostle says, but we see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels. What does
that mean? He was made a man. We see Christ
as He was made a man. For what purpose? For the suffering
of death. You see why he was made a man?
That he might suffer death. But not just suffer death but
be crowned with glory and honor. That he by the grace of God should
taste death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things to bring many sons to
glory. To make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. For both he that sanctified Christ,
those and those who are sanctified, that's us, all of one, were sanctified,
were made one with Christ by God. For which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto Him. This morning I want you to behold
the captain of your salvation. The captain of your salvation,
who through His flesh, through His death, that He suffered,
that He should bring many sons to glory, that by His perfect
offering for sin He made our salvation perfect. I like that text. You are complete
in Him. Now if you're complete, what
are you missing? You're not missing anything. He made this salvation
so perfect that nothing was missing. Nothing was lacking. And by his
one offering, Paul says later in Hebrews 10, by his one offering,
our captain, he said this, have perfected forever them that are
sanctified. The word sanctified means set
apart in this sense that you were made holy. Holy for the service and worship
of God. And you know all that stuff in
the Old Testament, they were commanded to sanctify themselves
through ceremonies and rituals. The law and the furniture and
the priests and the worshipers were said to be sanctified. But
we know this, by those outward things they were not sanctified.
They were not made holy by these outward ordinances. by washings, but by the washing
away of our sins by Jesus Christ. He said the blood of bulls and
goats could never remove sin. But see, it's God that sanctifies us.
It is God who set us apart for His worship and service and it
is God who makes us meet to be partakers of the divine nature.
It's through the work of Christ These chosen sons, these are
called in the scriptures, the elect of God, were made holy. They were sanctified by the will
of God and by the death of Jesus Christ. You that believe, you
have He perfected. You hath he perfected, you that
are sanctified, set apart by the will of God, sanctified by
the blood of Jesus Christ, you are made perfect by the captain
of our salvation. Therefore, all who are sanctified
are made holy by the sufferings of Christ, which holiness comes
to us by the experience of grace in the new birth. I declare unto you the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the gospel of his suffering and death, the
gospel of his resurrection. I know this when I preach this
gospel, I have no power to give it to you. I have no power to
make you see Christ by faith, none whatsoever. I know this. I couldn't give it to myself.
I can't give it to myself. But I also know that all that
are in Christ. You have been quickened from
the dead to life. And all because of his offering. His offering. I also know that
all of those that are without Christ, you cannot by your own
power come to Christ. Cannot buy your own will except
the Lord give you strength. to do it. No one can hear this
message that Jesus says, I declare it. He says, I will declare thy
name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation while
I praise thee, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is making a declaration
of his gospel, but I know this except he give you power. To
hear it, you can't. I remember when the Lord spake
that parable in parables, his disciples asked him, he said,
why do you speak of parables? Why are you speaking riddles? He
said, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom, but to them it is not given. So as we approach
this gospel, I pray that every one of us would recognize. It
takes the power of God for us to see these things. I'm going
to declare it to you, but I know this unless you hear Him declare
it to you. There is no way it's going to
be effectual to you. It's not going to have any power.
It's going to be useless. So I ask you, who do you believe
on Christ? Have you heard his voice? When
I say that, you know, I think of J.D. quite often, that night
that he came in to us and I think it's one of the clearest conversions
I've ever seen. I don't think I've seen one clearer.
But when he heard the gospel that night, he said to me, I
didn't hear you. I did hear my shepherd. When
you hear him declare the gospel to you, when he declares it unto
his brethren, there's a noticeable thing that happens. They will
fear and praise the Lord. They will give glory to God. To us who believe on Jesus Christ,
we believe because He has spoken to us. We have heard His voice. We find Him to be all our salvation. He has declared unto us and we
have believed by His grace and mercy. Therefore, we may rejoice
and take comfort in this. He is not ashamed to call us
brethren. That's an astounding statement,
isn't it? How often, you believer, are you ashamed of yourself? How often do you doubt that you
can take him as your brother? We doubt and fear that he's my...
Sometimes I fear that he's not my brother at all. How could he take me? He'd take
me. But He said this to me, I am
not ashamed to call you my brother. How is this possible? Consider this, that the Son of
God, the risen glorified Savior, is our brother and He's not ashamed
of us. Consider then that God, who is
our Father, is his father you understand that he said this
i go unto my god and unto your god unto my father and unto your
father why because he is our brother Therefore the sons of
God, heirs and joint heirs of Christ, all praise him. Isn't that what he says? I'm
going to declare thy name to my brethren in the midst of the
congregation. I'm going to praise you, and
this is going to happen. You that fear the Lord and praise
him, all you seed of Jacob, glorify him and fear him, all you seed
of Israel. All those who have heard the
gospel, praise and give glory to God. You that are saved, who saved
who? Who saved you? Was it a cooperative effort?
Did you have any part? Is there anything you can claim
that distinguishes you from any other son of Adam? Is there anything
you've done? No. We praise Him. We glorify Him. We reverence
Him. Now false religion of this age,
they don't fear God, but reserve the glory for themselves. These are such people who worship
wrongly. And suppose salvation is some
cooperative effort by their obedience and the obedience of Christ.
And somehow Christ has done His part and they then must do their
part. But we who are sinners know this,
we could have no part. We have no part. When Moses He
told him, he said, when you make an altar of earth and you take
stones and you put them together, he said, don't touch the stones. Don't put a hammer to them. Don't
put a chisel to them. Don't knock off their rough edges. The moment you put your hand
to it, it's defiled. It's no longer acceptable. It's
the same with Christ. You put your hand to Christ,
it is of no effect. You've ruined it. You've despised
it. We who are sinners by nature
and rebels by choice, we confess that in our flesh dwelleth no
good thing. So now behold then the cause
of our salvation. What is the grounds? We've heard
his voice. He's declared unto us his gospel. By the power and grace of God
we now believe on Jesus Christ. We now reverence Him. We now
fear Him. We now glorify Him. But what
is the grounds of this? How then may we know our praise
is accepted? How do you know that you are
accepted before God? Well behold the cause of our
salvation and the grounds of such sinners to be accepted with
God. Is not a product of our works
or will, but rather the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. The
only only hope I'm going to have to stand before God is what he
did. That's it. All my hope is resting upon Jesus
Christ and him crucified. That's it. Now look at the cause. Verse 24 for. The word of Christ speaks in
the cause of our worship and praise to God. For he hath not
despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath
he hid his face from him. And when he cried unto him, he
heard. Now the object of our praise and glory is the Lord. That's the object of our praise. Truly, God is worthy of being
praised by nature. But there's a far greater reason
to praise him because of this, because he hath not abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted. What or who is this? That's a
question then he's talking about the afflicted. Who is the afflicted? And what then is his affliction
that made him acceptable to God? God did not abhor that affliction.
Matter of fact, he magnified it. He glorified that affliction. So who is the afflicted and what
is the affliction? And we confess this, that we
are often afflicted. Aren't you? You that believe,
you're afflicted. We are often in great pain and
sorrow. We are afflicted. We are weak
in the flesh, always prone to sickness. We are afflicted by this world.
We are attacked by Satan and by our sinful nature that constantly
wars in our breast. We are constantly under affliction. But I want you to know this,
no amount of affliction that you endure, no amount of suffering
that you face in this world is going to make you acceptable
to God. I know these are foolish people,
don't have any understanding. They say, well, I've suffered
hell on earth. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. One man has
suffered hell on earth and I'm fixing to show you. Christ is
the only one that ever did that. I remember reading this article
one time. This woman, she was on drugs.
And she had a vision. And she believed with all of
her heart, with all of her soul. Consider, she believed the vision
that she had. That if she plucked her eyes
out, God would accept her. And she did it. She plucked her
own eyes out, believing, trusting that God would accept the affliction
of the afflicted. But I want you to know God does
not demand an offering of carnal sacrifice for sin. He tells us that in Hebrews 10,
I believe he said sacrifice and offering that would it's not.
I don't want your bulls. I don't want your goats. I don't
want your suffering. Your suffering cannot pay for
seeing. Why do you think hails eternal?
Because they cannot pay. Cannot pay. Hebrews 10 you'll turn there
and said for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not
the very image of the thing can never buy those sacrifices which
they offer year by year continually make the comers there into perfect
you know what those sacrifices you put all that blood together
and how many sins did it remit none I know you've got some men
that even I maybe even believers who think that somehow in the
Old Testament they were saved differently And somehow those
animal sacrifices had some power. I just read it to you. They had
no power. They were saved the same way
you are by looking to the offering of Jesus Christ. They look forward
to it. You look back at it. But we both
are saved the same way. Therefore, what does God desire
of you? Perfect righteousness. But we are sinners. What offering can you bring to
God? What sacrifice have you done
that God is going to be accepted? Well, you know, I've joined the
church. So what? I've been baptized. Who cares? That will not make you accepted
with God. If that's what you trust again. Why? All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. All of them. You have not done
one good thing. If you have, name it. Now listen,
that may be good in comparison to me. I don't doubt that you're
better than me. But you don't need to be better
than me. You need to be as holy as God is. And so, then this affliction
is not the saints, then who is it? It is the affliction of Jesus
Christ. I told you from the beginning,
this psalm is all about Him. You can't help but see it is
about Christ. My God, my God, why is thou forsaken? That is not, you can't find a
clearer text when Jesus Christ proclaimed that from Calvary's
tree. Now the Son of God, the Son of God, He is one with the
Father and the Spirit, this one who is afflicted. He is one in
will, in power, and all the attributes of God. Yet the purpose of the
Father in the election was the election of grace, the work of
the Father. I love to see this. Salvation is a complete work
of God. It was the work of the Father
to choose His people in love, to predestinate them unto the
adoption of children. That is the work of God the Father.
But the work of God the Son was to save them. According as he the father had
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love having
predestined us under the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ. You see how that's the work of
the son. Seeing the elect were by nature
depraved sinners wicked and evil. In order for us to be made holy,
Christ must do something for us. What did it take to make
you holy? You that believe, you are, I
just told you, you are sanctified. You're sanctified by the will
of God, by the blood of Christ, by the effectual work of the
Spirit. You are sanctified. Christ then
must do something to make you sanctified. What did he do? He
must remove your sin and give you righteousness. Those two things are necessary.
He must accomplish your righteousness and remove your sin. That's what
the scripture testifies of doesn't you that believe, listen, he
hath. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. Where's your transgression? How
far is your transgression removed from you? Can you measure that? East from
the west? You can't measure it. That's
how far he's removed your sin. In Jeremiah chapter 15 verse
20 God says I sought for the iniquity of Israel and there
was none. None. No iniquity. No iniquity. And so then how did he do this? He was made flesh. Christ our
representative was made flesh for us. The scripture is declaring
that his obedience has obtained righteousness. Go to Romans chapter
3. The affliction of the afflicted
Christ must come to be afflicted and when his affliction, what
did he do with this affliction? He first of all obtained your
righteousness. Look at verse 21. But now. The righteousness without
the law is manifest in that great. Righteousness without the law. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now, how is your righteousness
made? By the faith of Jesus Christ. And then look unto all and upon
all them that believe. It is the righteousness of God
that Christ made is both imputed to you. What do I mean by imputed?
Charged. It's charged to you. If a judge
comes up and says he charges you with guilt, then you you're
charged with guilt because you are guilty. But see, God charges
you with righteousness. Now, how can God charge you with
something that you know? How is that possible? Because he made your righteousness
and then he charges you with it. God can't charge you with
something that ain't true. All right. He would be unjust. He says unto all. You that believe
I charge you with righteousness. And then not only does he charges
with righteousness. Upon all, he actually gives us
this righteousness. When Christ made our righteousness,
where were you? Where were I? Where was I? I
was in him. And whatever he did, I did. God
charged me with whatever he did. Whatever he did was righteous.
Therefore, God charged me and said, well, whatever he did,
Fred did. And there was a day when God
actually gave me his righteousness. It was the day of my new birth.
He gave me a holy nature. that Christ made. Christ made. His righteousness is imputed
and imparted to us who believe. Therefore, we praise God for
the righteousness that he's obtained and the righteousness that he
gives us. But what of my sin? He charges
me with righteousness and he gives me righteousness, but you
know what? I'm really a sinner. How can he do that? How can he
charge me and give me a righteousness when I, by nature, am nothing
but guilty? I'll tell you how. Look at verse 23 of Romans 3. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Isn't that true? Being justified freely by his
grace. You know what justified means?
Innocent. That's what it means, innocent.
Being made innocent by the grace of God. By the grace of God. Without merit, that's what that
means. You didn't merit being justified. And here's how through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, behold, justice demanded payment for
the sins of sinners. Therefore, Jesus Christ, by his
offering, has made redemption. He's bought redemption, he has
paid the redemption price whom God set forth to be the propitiation. The propitiation. That has to
do with that mercy seat we sang about at the beginning of service.
Mercy seat. You remember how the priest was
to go in and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat before God for
the sins of the people. Christ is our mercy seat. God made him our mercy seat and
he has sprinkled his own blood. He said through faith in his
blood. This is how we experience this
through faith in his blood. To declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. He's saying this to declare his righteousness for all the
sins of everybody that went before all of his saints in the old
dispensation. He said the sins that are passed.
He said he's already taken care of that. To declare, I say, at this time,
not just then, but right now, at this time, I declare his righteousness. That he might be the just, that
might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. So then we are redeemed. Our
sin has been atoned by the affliction of the afflicted. The affliction
of the afflicted. And by faith in his blood, we
are made righteous. We are justified before God. Our sins are past. They were charged to Christ and
he endured. The wrath of God now wants to
focus on his affliction. How much was Christ afflicted
so that we might be made righteous? What did it take? For God to
save a sinner. I think 2nd Corinthians look
at this 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Look at verse 19. To it. that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. That's
wonderful, isn't it? He said, I'm not going to charge
them with their sin. It's their sin. I'm not willing
to charge him with it. Not imputing their trespasses
unto him. And hath committed to us the word of reconciliation,
Now we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you
by us and Christ said be you reconciled. Well how then can we be reconciled?
God says I'm not willing to charge your sin to you. But it had to
be charged somewhere. God could not take your sin and
sweep it under the rug. He could not ignore it. You and I do that all the time.
Why? Because we are unjust people.
We're unjust. God is no such thing. How then
shall we be made reconciled to God? For, this is how, for he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The justice of God could not
just forgive our trespasses without payment. But in Romans three,
it tells us that Christ being made a propitiation in the same
vein here, he says, in order for God to be just in the justifier
of the ungodly, Christ must be made sin for us. Christ must be made sin. God must charge him with sin. Now, God can't charge somebody
with sin who has none. That would be unjust, wouldn't
it? God cannot condemn the innocent. And yet, here's the miracle.
Christ had no sin in himself. Christ knew no sin in Himself. Christ felt no sin in Himself. Christ fought no sin in Himself. Yet the miracle is that God made
Him to be sin for us, so that He might actually punish
our sins. Every sin you have made is not
excused, it's punished. But the glory is, it's not punished
in me. He was punished in Him. He was
punished in Christ. Our sins were made His own. So much so that He said this,
Oh God, Psalm 69 verse 5, Oh God, thou knowest my foolishness
and my sin is not hid from me. Psalm 69 is just like Psalm 22. It is a messianic Psalm. It is
Christ speaking. Friends, what is the definition
of hell? It is the absence of God's mercy
and kindness and love and long-suffering. It is absence all of the goodness
of God. And it is strict justice. It is strict justice. So then this in our text, we
hear the righteous son of God cry in his distress, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God forsook his son and he
suffered hell. He said this in our text, I am
a worm and no man. I have trusted in thee from the
womb, yet he suffered. He suffered more than any man.
You read Leviticus chapter three, you can do this. Go home and
read Leviticus chapter three and see the words of Jesus Christ.
Listen, I'll give you the first verse. He says, I am a man that
has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. Now, let me ask
you, have you ever seen the affliction by the rod of the wrath of God?
Have you ever experienced the wrath of God? No, he said, I'm
the only one. I'm the only one. Behold, the
affliction. The one who is afflicted is the
sinless son of God. Who was wounded for our transgression,
bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was
opponent and by his stripes we are healed. See, then the affliction
of the afflicted Christ was for our sins. Was at this hour the
son of God suffered the full weight of God's wrath alone. Alone. So then believer, our God justifies
us freely by his grace. And justifies us by the offering
of his son. What then is the verdict of this
affliction of Christ? Look at your text again. Go back
there. He hath not despised nor poured
the affliction of the afflicted. What does that mean? He's accepted
it. God has accepted the offering of Christ fully and completely. He is eternally satisfied with
his offering. Go to Isaiah 53, we read it this
morning, Isaiah 53. I often think, how did it look
to God's people when Christ was being crucified? When those women stood at the
foot of the cross and they were looking up at their Lord and
their Savior, do you not suppose they thought it was a bad thing?
They thought, this is horrible! The disciples, they said, Peter
had just left. He went back fishing. He just
said, I'm done. There's no hope now. I'm going
to go fishing. And all of his disciples went
back with him. Went back to their regular trade.
This is over. When Christ met them on the road
to Emmaus, they were sad. And he said, why are you so sad?
He said, Are you a stranger? You ain't heard what happened.
This is the one we thought. This is what we thought would
come. This is what we thought this was Christ. How did the
Lord view his death? Look at verse 10. Tell me how
the Lord viewed his death. Yet it pleased the Lord, Bruce. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his 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. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be, what? What is he? What is God? Satisfied. Believer, what does God then
demand of you to be satisfied? Nothing. Be satisfied with the offering
of Christ. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquity. You know this gospel. That God
is pleased with the death of Christ. Are you sure about that? I'm sure that he's satisfied
with his offer. I'm sure that God is pleased
with his offering. And you know what? When he died,
you know, he was thinking about. He shall see his seed. When God saw Christ die, he saw
you die. My debt's paid. My debt to God
has already been paid. He shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. What does
this mean? It's the same thing Jesus said in John 17 when he
said this, as I was given in power over all flesh, he should
give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. He shall
prosper. When he says, I declare thy praise
under my brethren. Is he successful? Now we look
around and we see very few believe this gospel that we've preached.
Very few believe only on the affliction of the afflicted. I was talking to a pastor this
week, and he reminded me of this. I was telling him, I said, you
know, I'm so thankful for those that God gave us in our church.
I long for more to come. And he said this, this church
is full. He said, your church is full.
You don't want to be full of the world. But I'll tell you
this, it's full of everyone that God has chosen to save. Isn't
that something? God is always successful with
his word. Always. My word shall go out
of my mouth, shall not return to be void, but shall accomplish
the thing where into I send it. Therefore, you who believe, who
have faith in his blood, we praise and glorify and fear God, Because
he has seen the travail of his soul and was forever satisfied.
You know, false religion denies that they don't believe God satisfied. They believe Christ did something
and God was partially satisfied, but you must complete it. You
must finish it. No. I tell you that God was satisfied
with his death. You realize that if Christ redeemed
all men without exception, there'd be no hell. You understand that?
If God determined to save every man in the world, there would
be no hell. Why? Because he's satisfied with Jesus'
death. But we know there is a hell and
those that are in it are not redeemed. But we who believe on Christ
alone, our faith is only in the affliction of the afflicted.
My hope is only in that God was satisfied with his affliction
and not mine. And what was God's report of
this victorious offering? He is pleased. He is pleased. He hath not abhorred the affliction
of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face
from him, but when he cried, he heard him. What does this
mean? God raised him from the dead.
How many times in this text, there are at least six times
the Lord is asking for help. Help me, save me, deliver me.
And you know what the end result is? God heard him. And God delivered
him from death. God raised him from the dead. Why? Because there was no more
sin to punish. Isn't that why death exists?
Because of sin? If there were no sin, there would be no death.
You see, that's why the grave could not hold our Lord. The
grave could not hold him because he is risen. He is risen. Therefore, you who are one with
Christ, you therefore are without sin in him. And when we die, what will happen?
What will happen? Our Lord plainly reveals this.
Remember, he said when he had gathered all all the people together,
he takes the goats and he puts them on his left hand and the
sheep on his right hand. And he says to the goat, you
depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. And
he said, Lord, when did we not do all these things for you?
You see the self-righteousness? Even standing before the judgment
bar of God, they're still self-righteous. Lord, when did we not do this?
We always did righteousness. Ah, you did iniquity, depart
from me. But he says to his sheep, he said, come, you blessed of
my father, Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before
the foundation of the world. Why? Because when I was in hunger,
you gave me meat. When I was thirsty, you gave
me drink. When I was sick and in prison, you visited me. What
does this mean? Come and rejoice and enter in
the kingdom of heaven because you're righteous. You know what
the sheep say? Lord, when did we do any of that? He said, when you've done it
unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me. See,
everyone who's really gods, we believe in his righteousness,
in his death. And I know this. We love the
brethren. We love the brethren. Therefore, we rejoice and give
glory to God. We who have heard Christ. He
said, I will declare thy name. Has he declared it to you? Has
Christ spoke to you? What did he speak? What was his
message? Your affliction? No. The affliction
of the afflicted. That's my hope. And I know this
God satisfied with him. My faith in him. I'm so grateful for a sovereign
God, aren't you? A God of sovereign grace. It was in grace he chose me.
In grace he redeemed me. In grace he called me and in
grace he keeps me. Isn't that so much better than
talking about you? I really wanted to talk about
myself this morning. I did. I had to mess it all up for everyone
to talk about me and how much trouble I'm in, how much difficulties
I have. And they're necessary. Your afflictions
are necessary. Don't get me wrong. They are
necessary. I'm not trying to make light of it. But I tell
you, my afflictions seem a lot less when I look at his. And
I praise him for it.