Now, if you'll take your Bibles
and turn me to Psalm chapter 38. Psalm chapter 38. Just let y'all know that didn't
cut into any of my time. So in case you children were hoping
that didn't cut into any of my time. So I'm going to take still
the same amount. Psalm chapter 38, Psalm chapter
38. We'll be looking at verses 1
through 22. We'll be looking at this entire psalm, not necessarily
verse by verse, but we'll be going through this psalm together. Now, the title of the message
is Remember the Cross. Remember the Cross. I get that from the title of
this psalm itself, a psalm of David to bring to remembrance. As I read this psalm earlier,
truly, truly this psalm does bring to remembrance our sin. Truly this psalm does bring to
our remembrance our need and necessity of God to be our Savior. Truly. We don't know exactly when David
wrote this psalm and it really doesn't matter when. But I'll
tell you what God intended us not to know so that we may understand
that this is for us as well as for him. But this psalm of remembrance.
is better seen not from our eyes, but from the eyes of Christ Jesus
on the cross. Is it not the ministry of the
Holy Spirit of God to guide us into all truth? Is it not the purpose of the
Comforter to not only quicken our dead souls to give us life,
not only to give us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and to
forgive us our sins by His blood and righteousness, but it is
also the ministry of the Holy Spirit to cause us to remember
the person and work of Christ constantly? In John chapter 15,
the Lord Jesus talking about the Spirit, He said that the
Spirit of God shall lead you into all truth. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth. You want to know truth? It is
in a person. Jesus Christ is the truth. In
John chapter 15 and verse 26, He said, The Holy Spirit will
not speak of Himself, but He will testify of Me. Of Me. And did our Lord Jesus Christ
not say that all Scripture, He began to expound unto them all
the Scriptures beginning at the Law of Moses, and expounded unto
them all the Law and the Psalms and the Prophets concerning himself. Concerning himself. This is no
comfort. There is no comfort. There is
no assurance. There is no peace to know the
mercy of God for sinners unless the Holy Spirit in grace teaches
us to see by faith that great and sufficient offering of Christ
on the cross. You'll have no comfort unless
you can see Christ and Him crucified. There is no comfort in what you
do for God. There is no comfort in your works. There is no comfort in the law. There is only comfort for the
sinner, for the truly guilty sinner before God. The only comfort
and knowledge of mercy is to be found at the cross of Christ. It's the only place. And here, in this text, the Spirit
of God reveals to us, by the prophecy of David, the sufferings
of Christ for sin. And we know that this offering,
this sacrifice of Christ was something that God had ordained. It was something that God had
determined to do. Peter told those Jews, he said,
you by wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory,
which was ordained of God. It was ordained of God that he
be crucified. It was ordained of God that he
die. Flip over, hold your place here,
flip to Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13 and look
at verse 8. This is a prophetic language,
but it's one that's written not necessarily of just future things,
but it is the gospel. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ at the beginning of the book it tells us. And in verse
8 we read this. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship Him." Now, who is that? That is the beast. That
is the Antichrist. All of the people that dwell
on the earth, friends, that is all who are earthly. All who
are of the earthly, fleshly nature. All false religion is Antichrist. And all those who follow false
religion, All those who are ignorant of the righteousness of God trying
to establish their own righteousness, these are the ones that follow
antichrist. They follow false religion. Whose names are not written in
the book of life. This book of life is the eternal
purposes and decrees of God. It is the book of God's election.
It is the book of God's predestination. It is the book in which all of
His elect children are written in the book of life. And all
those that are of the world who worship the beast, who worship
after false religion, who think that they can please God by their
works, they are not written in that book. And friends, this
is not a book where God gets an eraser, and He erases one,
and He writes it back, and He erases again, and writes it back.
No. This is an eternal book. This
is one that God had purposed in eternity, written down with
the pen of God, and is perfect and unchangeable. And in this book has all the
names of His saints from the beginning of time to the end
of time. Known unto God are all his works from the foundation
of the world. Not known unto me. I don't know
who God's people are. And you don't either. God does. It's his book. He wrote it. And it's settled. of the Lamb. This book is of
the Lamb. That means it belongs to the
Lamb. Remember this morning? We went to Revelation chapter
5, and I showed you that the Lamb hath prevailed to open what? The book. The book. This book. Why? Because he took it from
the hands of God, as was his right. Jesus Christ had risen
from the dead, accomplishing God's will, and he took the book
of God's providence and election, and he took it down and opened
it up because he was worthy. It's his book. And it is a book,
notice, of the Lamb slain. I cannot stress this enough.
This is the sum total of the gospel. A lamb slain. A sacrifice given for sin. God is holy and demands blood. He demands it. Problem is, our blood is so vile
and full of sin, it could accomplish nothing for our souls if we died
in hell forever. But this one man, Jesus Christ,
who is God in the flesh, without controversy, Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And it was God, the Son, in the
flesh, was offered by God, to God, and for God. He is the Lamb slain. He is the Lamb slain for all
of His people. All those written in that book?
The Lamb died for them. He was slain for them. And notice
when He was slain. Look at this. As a Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. This Lamb was already purposed
and in the mind of God slain. Sinners, behold the Son of God, the Lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. Behold Him. Behold Him. He is the Lamb of
God. When Adam rebelled and robbed
God of all, tried to rob God of His glory, God was not surprised,
was He? God wasn't taken by surprise.
He wasn't wringing His hands. Oh, what shall I do now? Adam
sinned. What can I do now? No. By no
means. Adam was never meant to be the
salvation of the human race. He was your Father. And when
he sinned, you sinned in him. He was a representative man.
He represented all of us. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. My son was born dead in his trespasses
and sins, just like his father. Just like my father. Just like
our father. Adam was never meant to save
anybody, neither was the law. But Jesus Christ was always God's
slain Lamb. He was purposed from the beginning
to be the surety, the representative, not of all men, but of all the
elect that God had chosen. John 8, 39 says, But all that
the Father hath given me, I will lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. And all that God had purposed
concerning Christ, all that He had predestinated to life and
faith, must, needs be accomplished by the offering of Christ. It
wasn't enough that God purposed Christ to be the offering. That's
why John wept when he saw the book sealed and nobody could
open it. God had already purposed these
things, but if nobody could give it to me, then it could not be
mine. But Christ has come. Christ was
purposed to come. And He has come. And He successfully
accomplished all that God gave Him to do. He accomplished redemption. How? By the offering of Himself
to God. What good would it be if God
purposed something and it never happened? How could you trust
Him? If God says, I want this to happen,
and it doesn't happen because somebody did something, or somebody
thwarted His will, what kind of God is that? That's not my
God, and that's not the God of this book. The God of this book
said, I will do all my pleasure. All my pleasure. And who will
stop me? You? You won't stop God from
doing what He wills. And God willed that His Son die
on the cross for the sins of His people, and He did exactly
that. And without His blood, there
is no remission of sins. Do you suppose that there is
any other way to appease God? Will you approach God in any
other way? Is there anything that you can
do to merit eternal life from the hand
of God? Do you suppose that you could
grab that book from the hand of God? Are you worthy? I'm not
worthy. In case you're wondering, you
want me to give you the answer, you're not worthy either. Do you suppose your religion
is going to be good enough? Do you suppose your parents'
religion is going to be good enough? No. No. Do you believe like most
people that Jesus paid for all the sins of all men without exception,
except for the sin of unbelief? Do you suppose that somehow Christ
accomplished part of the work of God and somehow you're supposed
to finish it? What a foolish thought that is.
What a foolish and ignorant thought. Who ever heard of faith paying
for sin? Faith, my faith never paid for
one sin. My faith received all the payment
from Christ. And you know what? He gave me
the faith. I didn't even have the faith.
He gave me that. To believe on Christ is not of
the will of man, but of God. As many as received Him, John
says, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God, which
were born, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of
man, but of God. But of God. And all who receive Christ by
faith are born of the will of God, And we see by faith that we have no righteousness
of ourselves. But our righteousness comes from
the work of Jesus Christ. His righteousness is our righteousness. His offering for sin is our offering
for sin. And just as He was accepted,
so is everyone who believes on Him. They're accepted. Now, look
at this text, hurriedly. Look at this text in verse 38. And see this with an eye of faith
to that offering. Now, we're looking at that offering
of Christ for sin. And this is Christ speaking. Oh, Lord! Rebuke me not in thy
wrath, neither chasten me with thy hot displeasure. For thine
arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones."
Notice this, "...because of my sin." What? My sin? What we deserved, dear believer,
Because of our sins and rebellion and shameful wickedness, we deserve
everything this verse says. We deserve His wrath. There is
no doubt in my mind, my guilt and my sin deserve nothing less
than hell itself. And I'm not talking about one
sin. I am talking about all my sins
deserve nothing less than God's hot displeasure with me. They deserve nothing else. We by nature deserve God's rebuke. And truly, Christ was the sinless
Son of God. He was perfect. They could find no fault in Him. But yet He who was without sin,
who knew no sin, bore all of our sin. The law pictured this, if you
remember, in that sacrifice of the great day of atonement, the
priest himself had to purify himself in a ceremonial way which
pictured the purity of our high priest Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
is the great high priest after the order of Melchizedek, which
means He didn't have a beginning or an end. Christ is the eternal
high priest that offered the sacrifice to God. And what was the sacrifice? It
was the sacrifice of Himself. He was the Lamb of God. And that
Lamb, that Lamb that they offered, it had to be a pure, spotless
Lamb. You ever heard of that going
through with a fine-tooth comb? Well, that's exactly what they
did with that Lamb. They would take a comb and they
would look for one black hair in that Lamb. That's exactly
what the rulers of Jerusalem did when they tried to trip up
our Lord Jesus Christ. They tried to find a blemish.
They tried to find a spot. And what did they find? When
Satan himself tempted the Lord, what did he find? Nothing. Nothing. He said to them boldly
in the middle of them all, which of you can find fault with me? Which of you convinces me of
sin? You take ten seconds, you'll
find my sin. Take ten seconds, look at me,
you'll find out my fault. They looked at him for 33 years
and they found no fault in him at all. He was the everlasting
spotless Lamb of God. He said of Satan, the prince
of this world findeth nothing in me. Findeth no fault. The Lord Jesus
Christ had no inherent sin to be rebuked of. He did not deserve the hot displeasure
of God. Matter of fact, he was always
the delight of the Father from eternity. Yet Jesus Christ, in love to
his Father and his people, willingly submitted himself to be our sin
bearer. Jesus Christ endured the rebuke
and displeasure of God for His people. Scripture says in Hebrews
12, 2, He endured the shame. People don't blush anymore, do
they? They don't have any blushing.
There's no modesty, is there? Why? Because there's no thought of
God in their minds concerning sin. He bore our shame. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Second Corinthians chapter five
and verse 19. To wit that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself. Not imputing their trespasses
to them. Is that not something that strikes
awe in you if you are a sinner? God was not willing to impute
my sin to me. God was not willing to charge
me with my sin. But where did it go? How in the
world can God not impute sin to the sinner? How can He not
charge sin when you and I are actually, literally, guilty of
our sins? How is that possible that God
could lift such a sanction against us, such a judgment against us,
if He is just? How can God be just and still
justify the ungodly? How is that possible? Verse 21,
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. Do not imagine for one minute
that God can have mercy at the expense of his justice. That's what some of you are hoping. Some of you are hoping is, gee,
I just hope I squeeze in. I just hope God lets me and I'll
do what I can, I'll do my best. God's just and He must punish
sin wherever it's found. God cannot have mercy without
judging sin. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion and will by no means clear the guilty. Well, how can you have mercy
and judgment? How can you have righteousness
and peace? How is that possible? only if God takes our sins and
gives it to His Son. In other words, we need a substitute, one who can pay for our sins. One who can be accepted by God's
holy justice. Therefore, with mercy towards
God's people, He imputed all of our sins to Christ who knew no sin. And here we see our Lord as our
suffering substitute, dying in our stead. Hebrews 5, 7 says, Who in the
days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong cries, For thine arrows stick fast in
me. There is no rest in my bones
because of my sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over my head, and as a heavy burden they are too heavy for
me. Behold the greatness of this.
Believer, listen to me. Our Savior did take our sins. Our God did impute our sins to
His charge so that He truly, under the justice of Almighty
God, became guilty for our sins. Imagine the multitude of just
our own personal sin! Imagine the sheer number of them. That every thought, every deed,
every motive of our self is nothing but sin continually. And yet He did not just take
our sins, He took all of the sins of all of His people, of
all time onto Himself. And Almighty God squeezed out
every drop of justice and wrath and vengeance on His own darling,
sinless Son. How can it be? that the sinless Son of God would
take our sin and be forsaken of His own Father for us. One thing about God's people, We know this. We are the most unworthy, filthy
scum on the face of God's earth. And to think my Savior stooped
so low to take my sins as His own. And when he was crucified. So was I. When he was crucified, so was
I crucified with him. Romans 6 6, knowing that our
old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. It was our sins imputed to Him
of the Father, and they were so many that it says that he
was overwhelmed with them. It's like a man being overtaken
in the ocean. Overwhelmed with them. He says, I sink in the deep mire
and there is no standing I am coming to deep waters where the
floods overflow me." That's your sin. How deep is your sin? Deep. We have not yet begun to scratch
the surface of how vile this old man really, truly is. But there's hope for such a man. There's hope for such a man. Because Christ was made sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. How do we know? How do we know
He is successful? How do we know we can trust His
offering? Because at the same time He was
made sin, He was still the sinless Son of God. He was still the spotless Lamb. I know that is deep. It's true. Peter tells us that He was a
Lamb without spot. and without blemish. In closing, let's see this from
Isaiah 53. I've got more, but I know we're.
Running out of time, Isaiah 53. See a great picture of this suffering
here. First three. He, the Son of God, is despised and
rejected of men. Isn't that what we deserve? Yeah. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Isn't that what we deserve? Yeah. And we hid our faces from Him.
How vile is that? He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely, he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed." Notice the ours,
our transgression, our iniquity, our peace, our chastisement,
and his stripes. Those stripes should have been
ours. But by grace, they became His. And you know what? God is satisfied
with that offering. Look at that in verse 11 of that
Isaiah 53. He shall see of the travail of
His soul and be satisfied. Is it not the most detestable
thing, and is it not like spitting in the face of God to not believe
on His Son? If God hath made him an offering
for sin, and God is satisfied with His offering, why is man
not satisfied with that offering? Because he's depraved and he's
a fool. I tell you, believe on the Son
of God. Rest in His offering for sin. And cease from your own works. In that, we may also cry. As Jesus did in the verse 21
of our text, He says, God is my salvation. God is my salvation. Not just part of it, He's all
of it. And because of that, we cease
from sin. I hate sin. Why? Look what it did to Him. Look
what He suffered for sins. You that think lightly of sin, behold Him, stricken, smitten
of God and afflicted. And friends, if you're not in
Christ, you'll bear that load by yourself. You'll bear that
load all by yourself and there'll be none to help and God'll laugh
at your calamity. But all who believe can take
comfort. You take rest. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Sayeth the Lord. Speak comfortably. Speak comfortably to them. For her warfare is over. She hath received double for
all her sins at the hand of the Lord." Double. Christ was the greatest that
anyone could ever give. He was the best offering. and we rest in him. I pray that God blesses to your
hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.