to the part of the meeting tonight,
and we're getting into Psalm 31. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for your word. Thank you for the comfort that
it brings to us. Even though we are sinners and
deserve no comfort from you, you have been so gracious to
give us your word, lavished your mercy and your grace and loving
kindness upon us from your word, all in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray, Lord, that we would truly know him and that we would
know him and so have eternal life in him. And we pray this
in Jesus' name for his sake and for your glory. In his name we
pray, amen. Okay, Psalm 31. The last three
times we've been in this chapter, we've been looking at verses
one and two. And so let me continue on here
with verse three, and I'm going to move more rapidly through
the rest of the chapter than we have been going. But Psalm
31, we looked last time at how this psalm and all the psalms
in some way point to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this psalm
in particular is, as many of the psalms are, it is direct,
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ under the distress that he suffered
for us, for his people. And so in Psalm 31, we see the
theme of the psalm in verse one, which we've read and looked at
a lot, but here it is. Here's the theme of this psalm.
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. That's the theme. He's
telling us here in his own case and by example that for us he
suffered, for us he prayed, for us he died, and in all of this
he trusted his God and his Father, and in his prayer he prayed,
let me never be ashamed, and deliver me in thy righteousness."
It was righteousness, it was a righteous thing for God to
deliver his son. It was a righteous thing for
God to deliver him up, to deliver him from death, and to deliver
him and his people with him in their justification. All of God's
works are righteous, therefore we know it was a righteous thing. But it was righteous, especially
considering the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and his obedience
and his faith in God, his Father. So it's a righteous thing, and
all of God's people are delivered in righteousness. I want to read
Daniel chapter 9, verse 16 with you. And Daniel chapter 9, if
you haven't read this recently, I encourage you to go back to
Daniel and chapter 9 and read this. It's a confession of Daniel
of sin. And Daniel was one of those people
in the Bible that we can't really find anything he did that was
wrong. And yet, such a humble man, he
confesses the sins of his people and his own sins before God.
And in verse 16 of Daniel 9, he says, O Lord, and this really
stands out prominent in his prayer. He said, O Lord, according to
all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy
fury be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem, thy holy mountain,
because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem
and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. So
here we see that even though Daniel was confessing his own
sins and the sins of the people of Jerusalem, he's asking God
to deliver them in his righteousness. to forgive them in righteousness.
And this is the gospel. This is the theme, the mystery
of the gospel that God has, in the Lord Jesus Christ, delivered
his people in righteousness. What a blessing that is. So verse
two of Psalm 31, he says, bow down thine ear to me, deliver
me speedily, be thou my strong rock for a house of defense to
save me. So, not only in this psalm is
the theme, trusting the Lord, under the greatest possible affliction,
when all hope, when all outward evidence of hope, reason for
hope, was gone, in the human perspective, there's no cause,
no reason for hope, yet the theme of this psalm is trusting God,
the Lord Jesus Christ trusted God. And we know this from Hebrews
chapter two, it says, I will put my trust in him. But here
it's clear that he's speaking about trusting God, but he also
says in trusting God, he was asking him. This is what trust
does. We ask God and we wait on God
to deliver us, to save us, to hold us up, to bring us out,
to provide for us, to protect us, to give us everything, to
guide us in our life, everything. We put it all on the table in
his hand. So he says, bow down thine ear,
because for God to look upon the things of earth and heaven,
he has to humble himself. Deliver me speedily. My case
is urgent. Make your answer in my case a
speedy answer. Be my strong rock. Be thou my strong rock. I don't
have any other defense. No other durable, enduring, stable,
unmovable, and unchanging defense except the Lord. And that defense
is what he's talking about. He says, for a house of defense
to save me. God defends his people, and that
defense that he gives is their salvation. And here it's a good
reason to visit my favorite places in Scripture in Romans chapter
8. And you know this, well, if you haven't memorized it, go
for a long walk, print it out, hold it, Read it about a thousand
times until it puts it in your memory, because doing that will
instill it in you in ways that you hadn't really appreciated
before. But listen to this in Romans chapter 8. He says, what
shall we then say to these things? to the things he just talked
about, the Spirit of God interceding in our hearts, Christ interceding
in heaven, and God predestinating his people from before time to
be conformed to the image of his Son. He says, what shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now that's exactly what the psalmist
is praying here, defend me. You are my fortress, defend me,
save me. So he says, if God's for us,
who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? If God gave Christ for his people,
he'll give everything to his people. There won't be any failure. Everyone for whom Christ died
will be given an eternal inheritance. No possibility that God would
offer up his son, deliver him up to the curse and to death
with our sins, pay for those sins and make a full remission
of them, and then not give us everything that is God, because
he gave his son. He gave him, he will give us
everything. And then he goes on, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now, I read this
verse here, especially tonight, because in Psalm 33, we're going
to see this. Can anyone lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
Well, no, because it's a rhetorical answer here. He answers it, he
says, it's God that justifieth. If God, in the presence of His
glory and in His holiness, when Christ offered His blood in heaven,
in the holy place, God justified us and then raised Him from the
dead, God is saying, then who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? What a glorious, glorious gospel
truth this is. No one can bring one accusation
against one of God's elect. God himself has justified them,
not for anything found in them, not for anything to be found
in them, but only for what was given by the Lord Jesus Christ
for them. He gave himself. He was delivered
up. And then look at verse 34. And
who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again. So we can't be condemned because
Christ wouldn't have died for nothing and he's the one who
died. In fact, he rose again, which proves we're justified
in him. He says, after he was raised again, he says, who is
even at the right hand of God, exalted and enthroned and given
all power on the throne of God at his own right hand, And then
he goes on, who also makes intercession for us. This is the full argument
and the assurance given to every believer. Now, Psalm 31 is crying
out to this God. Who are God's elect? They're
those God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world.
So how long has it been since no one can lay a charge to God's
elect? Well, as long as they were called
God's elect. And how long was that? It's from
eternity. They were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And God has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, 2 Timothy 1.9. So there's no possibility
that one charge could ever be laid to any of God's elect from
the beginning of time, even before time began. because they were
always God's elect, and therefore they were justified. It's like
that argument Jesus made to the Sadducees about the resurrection.
He says, haven't you read how God spoke to Moses out of the
bush when he said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? He's not the God of the dead,
he's the God of the living. And God is not the God of the
ungodly, He's the God of those justified, who have been justified
in the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore they are holy by Him. Christ
pledged Himself for His people, God accepted that pledge. He
was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, therefore they're
justified in Christ. And God knows them, known unto
God, I mean, How does it put it in, let me think of the, oh,
let's see. I gotta think of the words now.
He says, the foundation of God standeth sure, the Lord knoweth
them that are his. So here you have it. They're
proof that God is for his people, none can accuse them, none can
find fault with them, because God has justified them, and he
did it in the Lord Jesus Christ. He delivered up his son for them.
Now back to Psalm 31. So he says, bow down thine ear
to me, deliver me speedily, be thou my strong rock for a house
of defense to save me. The Lord Jesus Christ stood alone
before God. The whole world was against him.
His disciples forsook him and fled. Peter denied him. Judas
betrayed him. The high priest conspired unjustly
together against him. And the Romans were also against
him at the instigation of the Jews, the Jewish leaders. So
everyone was against him, and he stood before God. And it was
to God that he made his plea. He made his plea to him to defend
him because that was the only hope he had. It was the only
one he trusted, the only one who could deliver him. In fact,
the one whose will it was, he came to fulfill in giving himself
for his people. And therefore he goes to the
one who gave him this task to do, to save his people. He entrusted
them into his hands, and now he comes back, defend me. I'm
doing your work. I'm fulfilling your will, and
even though I'm carrying the burden of my people, save me
and save them with me. So he goes on, verse three, for
thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake,
lead me and guide me. Now, I mentioned this last time,
I believe, that here where he says, for thy name's sake, It
encompasses all that God is. Throughout scripture, we read
these different names of God, and each one of them describes
God in his character and his work and in his nature. So, for
example, Jehovah Jireh, God will see and see to it. God will provide. In other words, that was what
Abraham told Isaac in Genesis 22. Or he is called Jehovah Nisi. He's the one who was the banner
over Israel when Israel was fighting against the Amalekites, or not
the Amalekites, Amalek, yes, the Amalekites in Exodus 17. And Moses said, called on the
name of the Lord Jehovah Nisi, our banner. And there's Jehovah
Tzidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. So all these names describe God,
the Lord. But we don't know God. except
by these names, and these names apply to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's our shepherd, he's our righteousness, he is our provision, the one
God has provided for us. And all these things we see that
the Lord, in fact it says in Exodus 13, 31, he's the Lord
that sanctifies thee, maybe it's 31, 13. Now it's 1331, I think. The Lord that sanctifieth thee.
Whatever it is, His name is the sanctifier. We know that applies
to the Lord Jesus Christ. So all the names of Jehovah in
Scripture direct our attention to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it is only in the Lord Jesus Christ that we know God. Therefore,
when He says here, in Psalm 31, for thy name's sake, He's talking
about the name by which God is known, which is God in Christ. We don't know God except in Christ,
but knowing Him in Christ, we know Him fully. And that's something
that we lose sight of, we don't appreciate, and we don't realize
that when God says in Colossians 2.9 that the fullness of the
Godhead dwells in Him and you are completed in Him, He's telling
us everything, everything God is, Christ is. And everything
Christ is, God is in Christ, and he is to us and for us. So this is unspeakable comfort
and assurance, isn't it? And we could go on and on. Jesus
told Thomas and Philip, he said, have I been so long time with
you and you haven't known me? If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. And so all these things tell
us that Christ is the visible, the revealed God. No man has
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. John 1 verse
18. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the
one here whose name's sake For thy name's sake, deliver me for
your name's sake. And so God is showing us in this
scripture here, thou art my rock, my fortress, therefore for thy
name's sake, lead me and guide me. For Christ's sake, lead me
and for his sake, guide me. And of course, it was the Lord
Jesus Christ who cried to his father for his father's glory. Remember in John 17, glorify,
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee." He was asking
God to glorify him in the salvation work he gave him to do, so that
he in turn would glorify the Father. This is the way the persons
of the Godhead work. They glorify Christ, and Christ
glorifies his Father, and the Godhead is glorified in them.
All right, now in Psalm 31, he says, pull me out of the net
that they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength. So pull me out of the net that
they have laid privily for me, for thou art my strength. Now,
in this verse, what we see here is that, speaking about the Lord
Jesus Christ in this prayer here, this psalm, they laid a snare
for Christ. They laid a snare for his life,
they did it secretly, they did it privately, they didn't want
to be known in their council, and they took wicked counsel
together. They had to do it privately because
their way and their charges were false. These men were false and
they were full of deceit, in contrast to God, whose ways are
always right and holy. Remember, Judas betrayed Jesus
at night. It was at night that he went
out. And the soldiers took him at night in the Garden of Gethsemane,
and they judged him in the night at the high priest Annas first,
and then Caiaphas. And then their charges were false
and they were laid against him with evil intent. And they did
it lawlessly. They didn't even follow their
own law. They led him, according to Isaiah
53 verse 8, they led him from judgment and justice. Therefore they did everything
secretly, out of the public view, and out of the scrutiny of justice,
so that their words and their ways and their motives would
be hidden. Now, it turns out that you can
see through the progression of what happened in the crucifixion
of Christ, by the time the public became aware of it, and they
were clamoring, they were saying, crucify him, crucify him, it
was because the groundswell of support had already been produced
in the religious rulers and in the political rulers. They took
him to the high priest first, where they put together the charges
against him, and the formal charge, and sent that off to Pilate,
who then sent it to Herod, and then Herod back to Pilate, and
by the time it was mid-morning or something like that, the government
and the religious rulers were all in league together. Even
though Pilate was a reluctant participant, he was a willing
one. He was not entirely unwilling. He was just carried away by the
force of his own desire not to lose his life and not to lose
his control over the people. So he went along with it. So
he was still sinful in what he did. But the point here is that they
did all of this until they had such a momentum of government
and religion working together that the people just fell in
line. And this is the way it works throughout history. The
government and religion work together until the people just
roll over with their agenda. And so we see it there in the
crucifixion of Christ. They'd started out privately.
They took secret counsel together. They had a wicked intent. They
made false charges. And the Lord is asking here in
prayer. He says, pull me out of the net that they have laid
privily for me for thou art my strength. Now, Christ had all
power. He could, like when they came
to arrest him, he says, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. And he said, I am he. And they
fell down backward. He had the power to deliver himself. But he didn't raise one finger. He didn't speak one word in his
own defense to be delivered. He never once struck out to judge
these men. He was like, in fact, it says
in Isaiah 53, he was as a lamb led to the slaughter. He was
silent before his accusers. He didn't raise a voice. In fact,
Pilate and Herod, he didn't speak a word to Herod. And Pilate was
amazed that he didn't defend himself. So this was evident
to the men who charged him and were going to sentence him to
death and did, that he was not there to defend himself. Now,
there's two reasons for that. Number one, Because he said,
if you seek me, then let these go their way. God's people couldn't
be free unless he delivered himself voluntarily into the hands of
wicked men. But secondly, because he would
never deliver himself, he would trust in the Lord. And that's
the theme of this psalm. In all of the trouble that came
upon him, he always trusted in the Lord to deliver him and he
waited. for him. He didn't raise his
own strength against his enemies. He waited on God. It's just like
if you have a case in this country, in the United States. If you
really want your case to be put into force, you take it to the
highest court in the land and you get a ruling from the highest
court, the Supreme Court of the United States. And once they've
ruled, there's no more appeals. You can't go higher in this land.
Supposedly. And so the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States is the law of the land. Even Congress,
I don't know if this is the way the original framers of the Constitution
intended it, even Congress has to abide by what the Supreme
Court rules. They might make a law and the
Supreme Court says, no, it's not valid. So it's a strange
system. But the point here is that the
decision of the Supreme Court rules in all things. Okay, take
that to a spiritual level. The Lord Jesus Christ took his
case to heaven's court. The supreme judge of the supreme
court took his case, and he appeals to him here. He says, pull me
out of the net that they have laid privately for me, for thou
art my strength. You are my strength. You are
my defense. You are my rock. This is trusting
God. This is the way we are to trust
God like he did. And of course, God delivered
him. Let's go on in verse five. Here's the ultimate expression
of that trust. Into thy hand I commit my spirit.
Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. Now, this is a
wonderful thing, that God is called the God of truth, the
God of truth. He didn't redeem him in some
kind of a compromise to the truth. Truth was exalted in what God
did in delivering Christ. It was exalted. First, he delivered
him up, and then he delivered him from death. He delivered
him up to death, and then delivered him from death. And this was
all in truth. It was for our sins that he was
delivered, but he was justified when God raised him from the
dead because he did this by the will of God and did it in honor
of God's law and in fulfillment of God's saving grace, of his
purpose of grace. So it was a God of truth. And
notice here also in this phrase, Lord God of truth. There is no
other truth, but the truth that is in the Lord our God. And this is something that men
make a mockery of. Men claim science discovers truth. What a shameful idolatry that
is. Science does not discover one
iota of truth. There's no truth discovered by
science. The only truth is in the Lord,
our God, the Lord God of truth. And how do we know truth by the
Lord God, the Lord God of truth? We know it in the one who God
reveals himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I am the way,
the truth and the life. So he's the Lord God of truth.
And we see God's truth. exalted, manifested, made known
in the deliverance of Christ. He says, into thy hand I commit
my spirit, thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. He speaks
of himself with his people as being redeemed. He himself was
the ransom, but God redeemed him from death when he delivered
him from the grave. When his soul, when he was crucified
and died and his body lay in the tomb, God raised him from
the dead. He was redeemed from death. God says to death, I will be
thy plagues. His death was the death of death.
And so death was overthrown in the death of Christ. And so he
speaks this way, and this is the manifestation of God's truth.
Christ, as one with his people, committed himself with them into
God's hand. He committed himself, and with
himself he committed all of God's elect into the hand of God. What
an amazing trust this is. He committed his own life, and
he committed his case before the Supreme Court of heaven,
and he committed himself with his people into the hand of God,
deliver me, Lord God, I've committed my spirit into your hand. He
put himself under the judgment of God and trusted that God would
be just and merciful. Merciful to him and his people,
merciful and righteous in delivering him from death. And so God redeemed
him and them. And it was a righteous and true
and just and gracious salvation. And that redemption was by the
ransom price of the offering that he paid. And that's an amazing
thing. He says in Isaiah 53, 12, therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death
and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the
sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. You see
how the Lord Jesus Christ was fulfilling God's will? He stooped
to take the case of those who had offended God, the transgressors. He took their transgressions.
He bore them. He was numbered as one of them. And in that suffering for them,
he delivered them from their transgressions. He answered all
of God's law and magnified his justice. His life was offered
and his life was the price, the ransom price paid for the release
of his people for their freedom and for the purchase of his bride. Remember in Acts chapter 20 and
verse 28 that The Lord says he purchased the church with his
own blood. Purchased the church of God with
his own blood. So his ransom, his redeeming ransom was for
their life, for their freedom, and purchased them to be married
to the Lord Jesus Christ in a marriage union. And then in verse six,
it says, I have hated them that regard lying vanities, but I
trust in the Lord. Now, a vanity, vanity means whatever
lacks substance. It has no, it doesn't bear fruit. It's empty. It's a mirage, for
example. A mirage is like a vanity. You
look out on the road, down the road, it looks like there's water
out there, but you're in the middle of the desert. There's no water
out there. It's not cool, it's still hot. That's why it looks
like that. The heat waves rise and it gives you the appearance
of water. But that's a vanity. That's a vain imagination of
what's out there. It's not true. It's vain. It's empty. It lacks truth. There's no substance to it. It's
fruitless. That's what vanity is. Now, what
is a lying vanity? Well, a lying vanity therefore
would be anything that's not the truth. In other words, anything
that is not Christ is a lying vanity. All who imagine that
there's salvation by any but Christ tell lies. That's the
fact. And so he says here, I have hated
them that regard lying vanities. The Lord hates those who trust
in any but Christ. And that sounds harsh, but he
says, there's no other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. God's glory rests and God's glory
is made known in what Christ did to save his people. Therefore,
everything else is a lying vanity. It's an idol. And so he says,
but I trust in the Lord so that they who trust in an empty non-substantive,
fruitless falsehood are going to be lost in the end. They've built their house on
sand, but only Christ saves, therefore all of God's elect
only trust Him. They don't trust a lying vanity.
We all trust Christ, don't we? We've come to the end of man's
religion. We've come to the end of it and
we found there's no salvation in it. All there is at the end
of the road in our own attempts to bring ourselves to God is
failure. shameful failure and loss and
ruin untold. And so we've found that to be
true from God's word, and God has arrested our conscience,
and he's put our nose in the dust to show us that all of our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags, full of pride, envy, arrogancy,
hatred, all these things. They arise from our very heart.
We're corrupt in nature, guilty before God, and condemned before
his just throne. Therefore, we have come to realize
that there's salvation only in Christ. Everything else is an
empty and vain trust. It's a lying vanity. And so that's
the theme of this psalm. Trust in the Lord. I put my trust
in Thee, O Lord. So Christ declared this to his
brethren as our surety. He says, I trust in the Lord. He is our mediator, and therefore
we trust God by trusting Christ, and we trust Christ alone. And
in trusting Christ, we trust God. And that's the beauty of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse seven. He says,
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered
my trouble, thou hast known my soul in adversities. Now, this
is a very comforting text of scripture. Notice, God knows
and considers the trouble of his people. He knows their trouble. He considers their soul in adversity. What great comfort that is. Remember,
if God be for us, who can be against us? God considers the
trouble of his people, and when God considers it in this context,
it's like what Abraham told Isaac when they were going up the hill
of Moriah without a lamb, and Isaac said, my father, the fire
and the knife for the burnt offering, but where's the lamb? And Abraham
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. And then later
he calls that place Jehovah-Jireh, God will provide. God saw, he
considered it, and having considered it, he saw to it and provided
the lamb. which was Christ and Him crucified,
and the ram with his horns caught in the thicket there on Mount
Moriah was just a picture of Him. So when God considers, He
considers in order to deliver His people, and God considers
their trouble. He considers their soul in adversity. God knows. And he considers it
in tender mercy and kindness with the wisdom that cannot do
wrong and a heart that's big enough and a right arm that's
strong enough to deliver them out of every trouble. And when
troubles persist, It's by his hand. He considers our soul in
trouble. He doesn't give us more than
we can endure. And he holds us up. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for the faith of Peter because he prays for all of his people
in their trouble. And so he says here, he himself,
the Lord, our savior, prays as our surety and mediator. He says,
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy for thou has considered
my soul in trouble. His mercy, he's glad about it
because God has considered his soul in trouble. He was delivered. Verse eight. and has not shut
me up into the hand of the enemy that has set my feet in a large
room." In a large room. This sounds like what we just
read in Isaiah 53 verse 12. God has rewarded him with all
things because he poured out his soul to death and he was
numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many. This is the glorious work of
our Savior that he would take away our sins. What a Savior. He hasn't shut him up into the
hand of the enemy. God has not. The case that he
presented in heaven with his own blood was heard and he did
not give the enemy the upper hand. He didn't. The decision
didn't fall to the enemy. It fell to Christ. And then he
goes on here. Let's see, verse nine, he says,
have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is
consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. Everything
in him feels the trouble of his soul. In Isaiah 53, he said,
he poured out his soul. His soul was made an offering
for sin. He was made sin for us and his
soul was made an offering for sin. And that's referring, and
that was back in Isaiah 53 in verse 10. His eye was consumed
with grief, his soul and his belly, everything within him
that would hold his life together was affected at the deepest level. My mouth, my belly, my soul,
all these were the case with him. Because, why? Because he
offered himself. He didn't hold anything back.
Everything that he was was given in sacrifice to God. Now, why
did he do that? Why would the Lord Jesus Christ
give all of himself in sacrifice to God? Well, first of all, because
God is worthy. There's nothing that he had that
God was not worthy of. He couldn't do enough. to worship
God, but also because in giving himself in sacrifice, it was
not only because God was worthy as God in his goodness, but because
God required it in his love and grace for the salvation of his
people, and that thrilled him. That was his joy to give himself
to fulfill the desire of his father's heart to save and have
a people for himself at the highest cost, even the cost of the sacrifice
of his own son. That was in God's heart. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him, to magnify his glory and save his people.
And that was the desire of Christ. That's the desire of his church.
He goes on here, he says in verse 10, for my life is spent with
grief, my years with sighing, my strength faileth because of
mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. Why did the Lord Jesus
Christ grieve? Why was his life spent with grief? And why were his years spent
with sighing? He answers it, my strength fails
because of my iniquity. Now he had no sin of his own,
but he was made sin. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
God charged him with our sins, and that was an imputation. An
imputation means if God imputes it to you, it's yours. It's yours. It's not as if it's yours. It is yours if God says it's
yours, and God made him to be sinned by that act. But that
act was not just an abstract declaration. He felt it. He felt it in himself
so that he was a man of sorrows. He took our sins and he bore
our sicknesses, it says in Matthew eight, verse 17. It says, he
who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
He felt it. He felt it in his soul. He felt
it in his mind. He felt it in his body. He felt
it in his belly. He felt it in his bones. His
bones were consumed here. He says, my bones are consumed.
And, you know, I've heard that bone cancer is the most painful
kind of cancer. I don't know if that's true or
not. But you can see why it would be, because if your bones hurt,
everything hurts at the deepest level. You can't hold yourself
up if your bones are melted. And in Psalm 22, verse 14, he
says, my heart is melted like wax in the midst of my bowels.
He was poured out like water. And so everything was consumed.
And it was all because of the sins charged to him by God. And that was done by the will
of God so that God in his glorious truth and righteousness might
charge us or credit us with His righteousness, his love of obedience
and sacrifice of himself to God in total was credited as the
righteousness of God given to his people by God's grace. That's
the gospel. And then he says in verse 11
of Psalm 31, I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially
among my neighbors and a fear to mine acquaintance. They did
see me without fled from me. Okay, so first of all, he says,
I was a reproach. Now the word reproach means something
that's full of shame. You can see this if you look
in scripture in the book of Genesis, when Dinah, the daughter of Jacob,
was taken and raped by a man in the land, I can't remember
the people that did this, but Yeah, somewhere in Shechem, I
don't remember the guy's name, but they said, the brothers said,
it was a reproach. It would be a reproach to Israel
if this happened, and it was. And that's, you can see how that
would be a shameful thing. My sister, we're not going to
give my sister to you. After this, I don't care what
you give us. You know, they were so angry,
Levi and Simeon, and their anger was cruel. But the point here
is the reproach meant a great and terrible shame had come upon
them. Now, listen to what he says here
in verse 11. He says, I was a reproach. Christ was a reproach. Christ
was that shameful thing. I was a reproach among all my
enemies. Well, I can understand that.
They would think ill of you because they're your enemies. But especially
among my neighbors. That's startling, isn't it? My
neighbors, the people I grew up with, the people in my own
town, my country. They found me to be a shameful
thing, a scandalous and shameful thing, like a... I can't describe it here,
what they're saying. What these people are saying
here is that His enemies, and especially His neighbors, He
seemed to be shameful to them. And why was that? Well, remember
the cross was, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Remember
from Galatians chapter 3 verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us, as it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. So here, The shame
and the reproach come because Christ was taken and he was crucified,
and the cross was a shameful thing. It was a shame. The one
who hung on the cross was receiving the worst kind of punishment
that they could think of, and it was a shameful thing in the
eyes of God's law, too. He was cursed. So he was a shameful
thing. But notice, the cross is God's
glory on display. Now, this is what we learn from
1 Corinthians chapter one. When you read through that, you'll
see the cross is the glory of God on display. Everything about
God is made known at the cross. His wisdom, His grace, His justice,
His righteousness, His truth, His faithfulness, everything
about God is known at the cross and known in its full display. Now, if that's the display of
God's glory, what is it saying then when these people, his enemies
and his neighbors, found him to be a reproach? Well, it means
that they, in the most severe of circumstances, The greatest
possible opposite of anything close to the truth found Christ
and God's glory, the glory of the cross and Christ's obedience
in that to be a reproach because he was suffering. What was he
suffering for? Well, the justice of God required
it. but he required it for the sins of his people. So what they
were calling a reproach was nothing but a reflection of the sins
of God's people being put to death on that cross. And that's why it's so glorious,
is because Christ, though they were not his sins, he took them
and he bore them willingly and voluntarily in obedience to God
out of love and worship to God, amazing grace. But until we see
the cross in God's light, we also will find it and Christ
who died on it to be a great reproach and full of great shame.
And so that's what the Jews, they hated it. They didn't like
the cross and they didn't like Christ because he was hung on
the cross. They considered him to be a total failure and weak
because he was able to be taken this way. But think how ironic
it is that especially Christ's neighbors found him to be a reproach. Those who knew him, where he
lived and his people, they were offended by his sufferings. And
he was also, it says in this verse, verse 11, he was a fear
to his acquaintance. Now it doesn't mean that his
friends, like his disciples, were afraid of him. But what
they were afraid of is they were afraid to own him. Remember Peter? He didn't want to tell anybody
that he was with Jesus. He stood around the fire on that
cold night. And Jesus was in with the high priest. And they
asked him, aren't you one of his? No. Are you sure? I thought
I saw you. No, no, no. He cursed. He swore with it. No, I'm not.
I don't know the man. He was afraid. He was afraid
to own him. And so his own acquaintances
forsook him and fled. So he was left alone. His enemies
found him to be a reproach. His neighbors especially found
him to be a reproach. They despised the very thing
he came to do when he offered himself to God as if he was the
greatest sinner, a transgressor. And so those that are without
fled from him. Those who were out, who stood off from a distance
from him, they looked upon him as one who was plagued by God.
He's like a leper. Don't go near him. Everything,
look at this, God's out to get him. That's what they would say.
He was despised and rejected and we esteemed him not. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. Isn't that what it says in Isaiah
53? So he was a reproach. And when anyone saw him, they
considered him to be a reproach. It says in Psalm 41, all that
hate me whisper together against me. Against me do they devise
my hurt. An evil disease, say they, cleaveth
fast to him. And now that he lieth, he shall
rise no more. So they considered him a write-off. Stay away from him. And they
were happy to see him crucified. In fact, they called for it.
He made himself the object of God's curse so that God's curse
might be lifted from us. God forsook him for a moment
that he might receive us in him forever. And he gave his back
to the smiters and his cheeks to them that pluck off the hair.
And yet, we hid our faces from him. And he did this. We turned
our backs to him and not our face, and yet because of this,
because he was so ill-treated, we are received by his righteousness
in the presence of God, in all of his glory, and we shall see
his face. Now that's a contrast, isn't
it? We considered him a reproach. We hid, as it were, our faces
from him. We turned to him the back and
not the face, both in his instruction and in his sufferings and in
his obedience. And yet he did it, that we might
not be turned away from God's face, but see his face in righteousness. What an amazing grace that is,
isn't it? I'm trying to get my watch to
show me what time it is. It's not working. Okay, so I've
kind of gotten over time. I thought I would be able to
get through more of this. So I guess we're gonna have to finish
up next time. My wife is chuckling because
she knows that's the pattern. All right, let's pray. Father,
thank you for your word. Help us to understand the great
mysteries of the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ delighted
to give himself for his people out of love for them. and love
for his father's glory, to magnify his father's name in the eyes
of his people, even at the cost of his whole soul and body and
self, given in sacrifice to God. Because he worshipped his God,
he loved his people, and he was rewarded with everything. All
the salvation that he desired for them was given to him for
them. and all the inheritance that
He would be rewarded with was given Him for them. Everything
that is God's is given to Him, and all that God is, is in Him,
and we are in Him, and in Him complete. What a glorious salvation! Help us to find the cross, not
a reproach, Lord, but our boast, our glory, what we hold up as
our banner, against all of our enemies, and even though in our
life we suffer trouble and adversity, help us, like the Lord Jesus,
to trust you in all things, knowing that our times are in your hand,
that you will deliver us according to your eternal will, and you
will bring us to light, and you will show yourself strong on
our behalf. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.