Psalm chapter 22 and verse 22
through verse 26. And the title of the message
this morning is a promise declaration. A promise declaration. Here we
have in verse 22, we know this to be the declaration of the
Lord Jesus Christ through prophecy. He says, I will declare thy name
unto my Brethren, in the midst of the
congregation will I praise thee. Now the whole of this chapter,
though written by David in a time of great trouble, yet we know
surely that these words of this chapter are meant for the Lord
Jesus Christ in prophecy. This whole of this chapter. We
see in this chapter the words of His agony and suffering upon
the cross as He bear our sins in His own body on the tree.
The sinless Son of God was made sin for us, and thus the justice
of God forsook Him. The floods of hell covered His
soul, and there we see in verse 1 His cry, My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me? We know that this is the words
of Jesus Christ as He suffered on the cross. He said these exact
words. And so these words all are the
words of Christ as He suffered. And in this chapter, He argues. It seems that He is making His
case before God. And He says, Our fathers trusted
in Thee. They trusted and You did deliver
them. They cried unto You and were
delivered. They trusted in Thee and were
not confounded. He refers God back to Israel. He said, look, you've delivered
our fathers that cried unto you, and now I cry, and you will not
deliver me. Why hast thou forsaken me? And
he gives the reason why God has forsaken him in verse 6. He says, but I am a worm and
no man. a reproach of men and despised
of the people. He was forsaken of God and man. And as he suffered alone on this
cruel cross, he says in verse 14, I am poured out like water
and 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 posture. My tongue cleaveth to my jaws,
and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Who brought
Him into the dust of death? It was the Father. It was God
who brought Him in. The dust of death. And even then,
in this lowest estate, listen very carefully, this is altogether
important for us to understand. Even in this low estate of our
Lord Jesus Christ, as He bore our sins, listen, He never failed
to trust God. When have we ever trusted God
in our low estate? How often have we forsaken to
trust God when we are down? We would look for any and everyone
else to deliver us. Is that not our first instinct?
To look to someone else to deliver us instead of crying to God?
But the Lord Jesus Christ in His perfect righteousness never
failed to trust God. Though He was made sin, He Himself
did no sin, thought no sin. He was sinless. Therefore, we
can see that God imputed our guilt to Him. Our sin was imputed
to Him, and He truly suffered the full measure of holy vengeance. And when God was finished, when
God was satisfied with His offering, when sin was atoned by His blood,
Jesus gave up, before He gave up the ghost, He gave this testimony
to us. It is finished. What a testimony. It is finished. It's done. Salvation
accomplished. Redemption accomplished. Righteousness
accomplished. It's finished. All righteousness
that we lost in Adam, Christ restored. He restored it. And all the sin of Adam's race
that we could never pay, Jesus paid it all by His one offering
to God forever. How do we know this is so? How
do you know this suffering was effectual, powerful? How do you
know His redemption was accepted? Because God raised Him from the
dead. There is an empty tomb and God
says, I'm satisfied. There is no more sin to be paid
for and He raised Him from the dead. And God hath highly exalted
His Son, and given Him a name that is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father." Listen, you will either bow now or you will bow
then, but you will bow. You will. This is so. The most hardened atheist who
curses God's name now will bow to Christ. And I tell you, that's
so. Whether he likes it or not, he
will bow. He won't like it, but he will
bow. He will bow because God has highly exalted him. And so
then, God did hear the cry of His Son, didn't He? He said,
Save me! Deliver me, deliver my soul from
the sword and my darling from the dog. Isn't that what God
did when he was finished? When justice was satisfied, that's
exactly what God did. God did answer Christ's prayer.
He did deliver him. He did save him. The faith of Christ. was well
established in the love, grace, and justice of God. So that after
His soul was made an offering for sin, He trusted God would
see His seed. Isn't that what Isaiah 53 tells
us? He shall see His seed. You think if there was any chance
of the Lord Jesus losing His seed, losing His children, would
He offer Himself? No. But trusting God would see
his seed. Trusting God would save his people
after his death, he saw his seed. He trusted God would prolong
his days. He trusted God would raise him
from the dead. He trusted that God would put
all things into his hands, and the pleasure of the Lord should
prosper in his hands. He trusted in these things. Christ
believed God. And Christ trusted His throne
would be forever established and He would be king and destroy
the enemies of His people and save them that God had given
Him. that His victorious death, in
His victorious death, trusting God, these are the words of Christ.
Look at your text. These are the words of Him who
trusted God, of Him who suffered for our sins. I will declare
thy name unto my brethren. Does that sound iffy? Does that
sound as though that there is any speculation on the part of
the Lord Jesus Christ as to His purpose after His resurrection? No. He said, I will declare My
name to who? My brethren. My brethren. And
this is the first thing I want us to see. To whom Christ declares
His promises? To His brethren. To His brethren. See that Jesus was made bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. The Son of God made the
Son of Man for a purpose. This is the purpose. That He
should call you brother. That He should call you brother.
Wasn't this always His delight? He said, My delight, in Proverbs
chapter 8, He said, My delight was among the sons of man. It was always Christ's delight
to be your brother. Your brother. Go over to Hebrews
chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Look at verse 10. I like this. For it became Him. for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."
It became Him. In other words, it was proper
for Him. It was necessary for Him who
made all things, by whom all things consist. It was proper
and fitting that He should become a man in order to be our representative. the captain of our salvation. He must have taken our nature
in order to represent us. Therefore, He who made us holy. And we who are made holy are
made holy by one man. That's what He said. For both
He that sanctified and they who are sanctified. The word sanctified
means made holy. He that maketh holy and us who
are made holy are all in one man, Jesus Christ. And because of this, listen,
He is not ashamed. He is not ashamed to call you
His brother. Is that not astounding? that
the God of heaven should call you brother. That's just right
and fitting for you to call Him Lord. That's just right and fitting
for you to bow to Him as God. But He condescends so as to save
us by representing us as a man and therefore He's not ashamed
of you. I'll tell you what, are you ashamed
of you? I am ashamed of me. There are so many sins that move
through me and my mind and heart that you would despise me if
you knew them. But He's not ashamed. He's not
ashamed to call me brethren. Why? Because through His sufferings
I'm made perfect. Through His sufferings we are
made righteous. And because of His victorious
salvation, Upon the cross, Jesus is not ashamed to call His people
brethren. Those who believe on Him, not
having our own righteousness which is of the law, but the
righteousness by our union with Him, which is by grace and not
by works, will, or merit, He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Jesus, you remember when He was
in that house and those Jews came to Him and said, Hey, your
mother and your brethren are without. They want to see you.
You know what He said? He said, Who is my mother? Who
is my brethren? They that do the will of my Father,
the same is my mother, my brother, and my sister. What is it to
do the will of God? It is to be righteous. How are
we righteous? Only through Christ. And so in
Christ we are His mother, His sister, His brother. You can't
get much more closer than that. We are His family. His family. We are His sons. And the Son
of God declares to us the name of the Father, for no man knoweth
the Father but the Son. O come to the Father, through Jesus
the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. And His brethren believe His
gospel. Are you His brethren? Are you
His brethren? This gospel is declared to His
brethren. Isn't that what He said in our
text? Look at it again. I want to know if I'm in this. I want to know if I have part
and parcel of this declaration. He said, I'm going to declare
something. I'm going to declare a promise to someone. Who is
this promise to? He said, unto My brethren. This is not for everyone. This
promise is not for everyone. This promise is to the brethren. And He'll do it in the midst
of the congregation and praise God. Now, what are the characteristics
of His brethren? I want to know my portion in
this. I want to know if I am in Him. I want to know that. Do you? I don't know about you, but I
have often doubts and fears. And my greatest fear is that
I'm not found in Him. That's the greatest fear I have. And so what do I do? I turn to
Him and see. Turn to the book and see if I
have part in this. If I'm His brethren. So first
of all, he describes his brethren. Here it is in verse 23. Two things. You that fear the Lord, praise
Him. All you seed of Jacob, listen,
glorify Him. You see, those brethren, they
fear and they glorify God. This is a nature, the nature
and character of the brethren of Christ. First of all, the
fear. They fear the Lord and praise
Him. Now, this fear, what is it? What is this fear? When I say fear, most our minds
turn immediately to terror. When I say fear the Lord, that's
where my mind, even though I know the definition of this word,
but I promise that's the first thought that comes to my mind
is terror. But you should fear Jehovah. You should be terrified of God.
Martin Luther said that, he said, I will have nothing to do with
an absolute God in myself. Standing before God in yourself,
that is terror. Sheer terror. You should be afraid
of God. God is an all-consuming fire.
His eyes are a flame of fire. And He sees and knows our thoughts
and motives, and He will judge the wicked. I like what our brother said
on Wednesday, that God saves us from Himself, by Himself,
to Himself. He saves us from Himself. Behold the blackness of Sinai. You remember that mountain, when
God descended on that mountain of Sinai to give His law, that
Scripture said that Moses feared an exceeding quake. And in Exodus 19, Moses said
this to God. He said that the people of Israel
could not come up to the mountain. For thou chargest us, saying,
Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it. God said to Israel,
Come up! Well, we can't come up. You've
set bounds. There's no possible way for us
to ascend without dying." And he said, yeah, you're right.
You can. You should come, but you can't.
You can't. And you remember what Israel
said when that mountain was on fire? They were afraid. They
said, oh, no, Moses, you go up. We'll stay back here. You go
up for us. And they feared, so they had
a terror. But I tell you, that didn't last long, did it? It
wasn't a few days, and there they were. They were terrified,
and then they went from terror to, what? Complacency. Well, the mountain's always on
fire. I guess we can just go ahead and Moses is dead. We'll
build our own altar and we'll commit fornication. See, they
didn't care anymore. That kind of fear does not last. It comes and it goes as quickly
as it came. That kind of fear never saves.
James said, it's like a man looking into a mirror and then straightway
forgetting what he saw. That's what it is. You look in
the law and you go, Oh God! Oh, I'm afraid! And then pretty
soon, oh well, I'm just walking along and I forget what I just
saw. So today you might fear God like that and sure enough
you'll turn around and you'll forget what you even heard this
morning. That kind of fear doesn't save. I know a woman who was
in a car wreck, and she was very fearful. She was, Oh Lord, if
you kill me, I'm going to hell and everything. And she was afraid.
But as soon as she was healed, as soon as she was alive, she
went back to her vomit. As a dog returns to her vomit. That's what happens with this
kind of fear. And so this fear of terror, It
never saves. Remember Pharaoh. Every time a plague came, he
feared. When his magicians couldn't heal
or stop it, he feared. And he called Moses and said,
Moses, okay, okay, I let you go. I'll let you go this time.
And sure enough, when the plague was gone, he said, I will not
let you go. See, that kind of fear never saves. So what is
this kind of fear? This kind that I'm talking about
is not terror, but reverence. I pray that my children fear
me, but not with terror. I desire that they reverence
me. that they respect me, that they honor me. This is the kind
of fear that I want in my children, but this is exactly how God says
of His children. They reverence Him. They honor
Him. They seek His glory. And when
the Holy Spirit begins a work of grace, He surely does abase
the sinner and cause us to tremble. Isn't that right? When He first
comes to the center, He exposes us for what we really are. And
we do tremble before God and His holy perfections. That
moves us to do what? Sue for mercy. To plead for mercy. That's what this fear does. It
moves us to plead for mercy. But then He doesn't leave us
there, does He? He reveals to us that Jesus is
the Christ. He reveals to us of His perfect
salvation. And then, the soul begins to
pine for Christ. We hear of our sin, then we hear
of this perfect salvation, and you know what we desire? I want
that. I want to be in that. I want
to have a part of His salvation. And so we begin to long for it. This is the kind of fear of His
brethren is that we long to be found in Christ and have His
righteousness in blood. We begin to seek and to know
Am I one of His? Oh, if I could be but a doorkeeper
in the house of God. If He would just make me one
of His servants. For I'm not worthy of His election. I'm not worthy of His blood.
I'm not worthy of His grace. This is how a sinner comes to
Christ. In reverence. Demanding nothing
of God. recognizing we deserve nothing
but hell. But how sweet then is the sound
of the gospel to the sinner's ears. I came not to call the
righteous, but sinners. to repentance. Sinners. That's
who He came to call. That's who He came to save. Christ
came to save sinners. And we come confessing what?
Sinners. Sinners. Sinners. That's me.
That's me. I need mercy. I need to be found in Him. And
we come in reverence seeking all our salvation to be found
in Him. You know what leads men to repentance?
The goodness of God leads men to repentance. What is the goodness
of God? Is it not displayed in Christ
alone? That's the goodness of God. That
God justifies sinners by a representative man, Jesus Christ. And all who
believe on Him are His brothers. Are His brothers. He brings us
low And we begin by grace to reverence Christ. It was the
Father who chose us, it was Christ who redeemed us, and it is the
Spirit that calls us. Do you not see that we glorify
God? That's the second thing. We reverence
Him by believing on His Son. Isn't that what God said to do?
Isn't that what God commanded you to do? Believe on My Son. Whosoever believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Is that not clear enough for
you? That's God's command to you. Sinner, believe His Son. And you who believe His Son,
you have this promise. You have glorified God. in Christ. Now, you and I both
understand this. We have never glorified God in
this body. In our actions, we have never
done it. When our flesh, we confess, dwelleth no good thing. We confess that my righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Always, always, always. It never gets better, does it?
You gotten any better since the Lord saved you? You found out
you climb in the ladder of holiness? What a crock! It's just the worst
thing I've ever heard of. I know this, the believer becomes
more aware of his lowest state. The more you grow in grace, that's
what you're going to become aware of, that you by yourself will
never please God. What does this cause us to do?
It causes us more to trust in what Christ has done for us. That's what it does. He said,
look unto the pit from which you were digged, and to the rock
from which you were hewn. You see, we look at both. One
moves us to the other. When we're on top, we look and
see what great depths Christ saved us from. When we're from
the bottom, we look how high His salvation is. It's amazing
how it works together. But that's what God does for
us. And in Him we do glorify God. We do praise God because
He said, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. Jesus glorified God and therefore
we have glorified God. Now look at verse 24. So we found
the character of the brethren. They fear God and they glorify
God. Now then listen to the comfort.
The comfort to the brethren. He says this, 4. You should fear
the Lord and glorify Him and praise Him. 4. He hath not despised
nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he
hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. Who is the afflicted? Christ. Why should you and I
have any comfort at all? Because Christ was not despised,
His offering was accepted of God. He was despised and afflicted,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Because the Lord
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. All we like sheep
have gone astray, yet Christ died for us. And listen, God
did not despise His offering. How many offerings were despised
of God? I'll tell you, every offering
was despised except this one. He said, the blood of bulls and
goats could never take away sin. Though God commanded those sacrifices,
I'll tell you this, God only saw them as a picture of what
His Son was going to do. They were only accepted because
of what Christ was going to do. But now, listen, God accepted
the only sacrifice that mattered. Christ, He did not despise it,
He accepted it. And though God forsook Him for
a moment, He heard His cries, He heard His weeping, and as
soon as justice was satisfied, the veil was rent, the way was
opened, and sinners now have access. You not see that? Because
He was accepted, you are accepted. My whole basis for going to God
at all is because Christ was accepted. That's my whole basis.
I have no other reason that I can approach unto God, but by what
God has done in Christ. And listen, death could not hold
Christ, the grave could not keep its prey, even because sin was
gone. In Daniel chapter 9, it tells
us that the Lord would come and He would make an end of what? Sin. He would reconcile the iniquities
of His people. And He would finish the transgression,
bring in everlasting righteousness. And so now, believer in Christ, This is our hope in our affliction. Are you afflicted? Are you afflicted by your sin?
Are you despised of men? Are you cast out by doubts and
fears of your acceptance with God? Then listen. Because God
did not despise him, He will not despise you. Because He put
away your sins, your sins are put away. Therefore, you have access to
God. Now, anytime you have access to God,
you have access. Free access. And because He heard
Christ, He hears you. He hears you. Even as we abhor ourselves and
repent in dust and ashes, listen, God will never leave you nor
forsake you. That's what Christ declares to
His brethren. He did not despise me. He does
not despise you. He heard me. He will hear you. Now, every believer knows this,
that God, by grace, when He has given us life, He has given us
a new nature. And we have then two natures.
Two natures. And they are constantly in opposition,
one to another. This morning, have you not experienced
that? I have, even standing here in this pulpit. I've been fighting
this whole time. You've been struggling this whole
time. Why? I know you have because
you have another nature. You have an old nature that is
still corrupt. And when God saved you, He did
not bind up that old nature. He did not prop up that old nature. He did not fix that old nature. He put it down. But He did not
put it out. And we have a new nature which
is born of God, is holy, and desires only to please God. And these two are constantly
opposed. The old man of sin will not die
until the body dies. Yet herein is our hope that the
new man shall ascend to God who made it. and shall glorify Him. Therefore, we are afflicted by
our sin, by our foolishness, and long to be rid of it. But
we rest in the Son of God who redeemed us. We rest in Christ
who will never leave us nor despise us. We rest that God hears us. And He will deliver us out of
every trouble. You get that? Every trouble. I know your flesh doubts that.
But is that not our experience? Has He not always delivered us
out of our troubles? This past couple of weeks ago,
my brother Cody, God delivered him out of all his trouble. Did
He not? He took him home. He delivered
him out of all his troubles. Even death is a deliverance for
us. It's not harsh. God's not being
harsh to take us. Matter of fact, that is pleasing
to God. Precious in the eyes of God are
the what? Death of His saints. So this
is not a bad thing. So even death, which is what
men consider the worst, is for us best. Paul said, I have a
desire to depart and be with God, which is what? Far better,
but for your sakes. And so why are we here? We're
here for the lex sakes, aren't we? We're here for one another's
sakes. We're here for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ so
that others might come in and be brethren to Christ. That's
what we're here for. Therefore, let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have." Shouldn't this declaration make us content that God did
not despise Christ and He will not despise you? God did not
forsake Christ, He will not forsake you. God heard Christ and God
will hear you. That's the declaration of Jesus
Christ to the brethren. What more do we need? Is there anything else? Nothing else. Be content then
with what you have. What do you have? I'll give you
some things that you have and I'll close. I've got plenty more
here, but I want to give you some things that you have. Okay? Because of what Christ
did on the cross, Because God did not despise him, he will
not despise you. Let's go to Romans 5 and I'm
going to give you some things, give you four things and I'll
close. What Christ has given his brethren. To you who fear God, to you who
glorify God by faith in Jesus Christ, these things are yours. These things are yours. Romans
chapter 5. Here it is. Here's one of them.
Therefore being justified by faith. Is that not enough? You're justified. You're innocent of all charges. Innocent how? By faith. Listen, you're not justified
by your faith. You're justified by His faith. Now, by our faith, we receive
this justification. We understand it. We perceive
it. We trust in it. But this justification
was obtained completely outside of us. Therefore it cannot be
contaminated by us. Isn't that wonderful? It can't
be contaminated. You're justified. You know God
justified you? Now if I said, Joanne, I justify
you. What good is that? It wouldn't
be any good at all. Somebody else can come along
and condemn you, and I'll say, well, I guess they're right.
I don't know. I mean, they just said something
bad about you, so I guess I'll believe that. I don't know. I'm
not a judge. God said, I justify you. Who then could say anything against
you? You're justified. There's one thing you have. Shouldn't
you be content with that? Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. There's number two. You've got
peace with God. You've got peace. God is at peace
with you. Not because of anything you did.
Again, this is all outside of you. Why are we at peace with
God? Why is man by nature at enmity
against God? How is it that we are at peace
with God? For He by the blood of His cross hath made peace
with God. God's satisfied with His blood.
He's satisfied with you. You're at peace. Yes, but you
don't know what I've done. You're at peace. If you are in Christ, you are
at peace with God. And you know what? We didn't
make that peace with God, did we? I hate that. I hate when
men say that. Make your peace with God. Hogwash.
You can't make your peace with God. Only Christ could make our
peace with God. And he did. So I have peace with
God. I'm justified. I have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, by whom we have access. There's another thing you've
got. You've got access. Instant access. Come to God. A very present help when? In
trouble. When are you not in trouble? If we're not in trouble, it's
probably because we're just oblivious to it. We're really probably
in trouble most of the time and we don't even know it. But listen,
you have access to God in trouble. In trouble. And you have access, how? By
grace. Into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Believer, you have such a glorious
hope. You have a good hope. You know
what that is? That's a confidence. You should
have such confidence to be ushered into the presence of God at any
moment. You should have confidence. And
where does this confidence come from? Christ. You start building your confidence
on you, you're not going to have any confidence at all. What does
the Scripture say in Colossians? Christ in you. The hope of glory. What's your hope of glory? Christ
in you. That's my hope of glory, is that
the Spirit of God has been given to me, whereby I cry, Abba, Father! The Spirit of Christ is in me,
and He has given me this heart for the Gospel of Christ. He's
given me a desire to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law. but the righteousness that's
in Christ. That's all my desire. And listen, not only so, but
you glory in tribulations. You know what? Your troubles
are given to you. Be content with what you've got. Your troubles. Do you not envy another man's
troubles? Well, I wish I had it as easy as Scott. Scott, man,
you've got it made. No, he don't. He's got his troubles and they're
given to him. They're specifically designed
for him. They're not for me. I have my own troubles. But they're
given for us for what purpose? He said, We glory in tribulations,
also knowing that tribulation worketh patience. Patience, experience. Experience, confidence. And confidence
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
your hearts. You've been given a good hope.
And I'll tell you this, this experience of grace that God
works in us by these troubles, it will give us only more confidence. More hope. More assurance. And you know what? The love of
God is giving you. I despise when men cheapen the
love of God. If I were to say to my son, son,
I love all children of the world. I do like children. Not like I love them. You can
bet on that. They're mine. And I love them. And God says that about us. He said, that's mine. That's
mine. That's mine. I love Peculiar love. Redeeming love. Eternal love. So therefore be
content with what you have. What do you have? You have everything.
You have everything. All this other junk is just rusting.
Fleeting. Nothing. You have Christ. Do you have Christ? Do you have
Christ? Are you His brother? Do you fear Him? Have you glorified God in Him
by believing and trusting Him? Then you have everything. That's
what Christ declares to you. That's what He promises you,
His brother. I pray God will bless this to
you.