Here in Psalm 118. And the title of my message is
found down here in verse 22. That's where I'm gonna, that's
why I'm using this particular psalm tonight, because our Old
Testament pictures of Christ continue within. And I use things
that I get from Brother Henry Mahan and some of his studies.
But, you know, Martin Luther said about this particular psalm,
he said, this is my psalm, my chosen psalm. He said, I love
them all. I love all the Holy Scriptures.
For it's my consolation. It's my life. But this psalm,
this 118th psalm, is nearest to my heart. have a particular
right to call it my own. It saved me from many a pressing
danger, and it is my friend, dearer to me than all the honors
and powers of the earth. Would to God that all men would
claim the psalm as especially theirs. And that verse there,
verse 22, That is mentioned several times in the New Testament. Our
Lord himself was the first one to use it. And quote that particular
verse out of Psalm 22nd verse. But he's the chief cornerstone.
Said the stone which is the builders refused has become the headstone
of the corner. But now I just want to go down
through this and make some comments on it as we go. and hopefully
we'll see the Lord Jesus Christ in this psalm. The first thing
David says, and this is a Psalm of David, he wrote it, but it's
also about our Messiah, about our Lord Jesus Christ, our dear,
blessed Savior. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord.
Oh, and what for? For he is good, and his mercy
endureth forever. His mercies All His spiritual
mercies, all His temporal mercies, you know where they come through?
All spiritual blessings are given us in heavenly places in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says He is good.
God is good. I mean, He is good. We think a lot of things are
good, but God is good in His nature. That's his very nature
to be good. When Moses said, Lord, show me
your glory. You know what God said? He said,
I cause all my goodness to pass before you. That's what I'm moving. Cause all my goodness to pass
before you. And I tell you what, in all goodness
that we have in this world comes from him. Every good and perfect
gift cometh down from the Father of lights. Every good and perfect
gift. And then, Look what it says here
in verse one, that in his mercy endure us forever. You know,
when God is good, shows us his goodness, he shows his goodness
in us, and he shows his mercy to us. You know, I'll tell you,
if you know who you are and what you are, you know you're an undeserving
sinner, that you deserve nothing from God. And then when he turns
around and gives you mercy, new mercies every morning, and he
gives it to wondrous mercy. I mean, wondrous mercy he gives
to the most undeserving sinners whatsoever. That publican said,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. And if you know what you are
by nature, And how desperately you know that you need God's
mercies. And that's why they're eternal
mercies. That's why, you know when he said he caused his goodness
before him? You know what he said his goodness
was? He said, I'll have mercy. I will have mercy. Not only will
I have mercy, but I'll also have compassion. Well, who will you
show that to? People that don't deserve it.
Huh? People that don't deserve it.
And then look what it said in verse two. Let Israel now say
that his mercy endureth forever. Now when he's not, when he talks
about Israel here, he's not only talking about Israel that he
brought up out of Egypt, but he's talking about spiritual
Israel, all of God's people, all Jew and Gentile. I'm gonna
show you, and you've seen this before. Look in Romans chapter
two. Look in Romans chapter 2. I want you, you know, we've seen
this, but here's the thing about it. I seen a big sign the other
day, a big billboard said, you know, pray for the peace of Israel
and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And they teach that in fundamentalism
and teach that in premillennialism that you always, if you run across
a Jew, pat him on the head because he's son of Abraham. And pray
for Jerusalem so when Christ comes over there, he can set
up his throne and won't have to destroy anybody. But that's
as foolish as you can get. Because when he talks about God,
you know, his mercy endures forever. Let Israel say it. Let Israel
say it. Now, I'm gonna tell you who Israel
is. Look there in verse 28. For he is not a Jew. which is
one outwardly, and has nothing to do with it. Neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. That really don't
amount to anything. But now listen to this, but he
is a Jew, which is one inwardly, in the heart now, listen. And
circumcision is out of the heart. God takes the uncleanness off
of your heart. And that's where the issues are.
the heart, and it's in the Spirit, and not in the letter. The Lord
don't have nothing to do with it. Whose praise is not of men. We can't praise men for what
God's done for us. God gives all the glory for circumcising
our hearts, taking the uncleanness away from our hearts, and putting
the Spirit of God in us, and thus we're a bunch of Jews. Spiritual Israel. Ain't you glad
dad? Next time I run across a Jew
somewhere, I'm gonna say, I'm one too. Well, what tribe are
you from? Jesus Christ. Oh, God has chosen his elect. Chosen his precious people. Entered
into a covenant of mercy with them. Covenant of grace with
them. And I tell you what, they're all of, they're only his people.
And now look what it says there in verse three. Let the house of Aaron now say
that his mercy endures forever. Now when he says the house of
Aaron, Aaron was the first high priest and all the Levites, his
descendants were priests over the tabernacle and served in
the tabernacle. But now when he's talking about
priests here, they were the only ones allowed to go into the holiest
of holies in order to the high priest. with the sacrifice of
others, but we are called priests of God. I mean, the Scriptures
tells us clearly and plainly in 1 Peter and over in Revelation
that God made us priests unto himself. But now, what do we
offer? We don't offer no sacrifices.
We don't have no blood sacrifices. We don't sacrifice anything that
we have in our hands to him. We don't sacrifice anything.
Sacrifices that we make before him are spiritual sacrifices.
It's the fruit of our lips. When we offer Thanksgiving, when
we offer praise, when we sing songs that honor Him, those are
all spiritual sacrifices. And I tell you, we're called
priests and I tell you what, and you know how we got into
the holiest of holies? By the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Huh? We all get to go there. We don't have to have somebody
go for us now. We can go ourselves. Let us come boldly unto the throne
of grace, to find mercy and obtain mercy, to find grace and obtain
mercy in the time of need. And I'll tell you what, we especially
offer the sacrifices of praise unto Him, We offer spiritual
sacrifices. What I'm doing right now is a
spiritual sacrifice. There's no, it doesn't add anything
to me, and it won't add anything to God, it won't add anything
to anything. The only thing we offer is our prayers, our praise,
and our thanksgiving. And that's all God will accept.
People who want to come with something in their hand, as the
old hymn writer said, in my hands, nothing I bring. Simply to the
Lord Jesus I claim. Now look what else it says here
now. Now verse four. Let them that
fear the Lord say His mercy endures forever. Now, you know they used
to talk about God fearing men. They'd say that there's a, he's
a God fearing man. That's a God fearing family.
And that's what we need to return to that, God-fearing. You know,
I'm a real God-fearing person. And what that means is they've
become conscious of their sin and their need, and they're deeply
conscious of God's mercy and the need of God's mercy. And
that's why, let them that fear the Lord say His mercy, endure
it forever. And I tell you what, beloved,
he said, if the Lord shouldest mark iniquity, who'd be able
to stand? But he never stopped there. He
said, but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared. Now look what he said here in
verse five. And I called on the Lord, Davis
said, I called on the Lord in my distress. Out of distress,
in my distress, the Lord answered me and set me in a large place. Now when the Lord heard David,
he took David and set him on a throne. That's what it means
in a large place. Set him on high. Gave him a large
house. Gave him a large room. I mean
his house. He set him in a large place.
And I'll tell you something else, beloved. And our Lord Jesus Christ. You think David sat on a throne.
And God gave him a large place. He gave the Lord Jesus Christ
the highest place. And the largest name, the largest
dominion of anybody in this universe is His own blessed Son. Huh?
I mean, He exalted Him when He raised Him from the dead, exalted
Him and set Him down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
And then our Lord Jesus Christ, because He is so large, and when
we were in our distress, called on Him, He would call on Him,
and our Lord Jesus Christ, which became our shepherd, He made
us lie down in green pastures. We lie beside the still waters. And I tell you what, and ultimately,
ultimately, since Christ saved us out of our distress, ultimately,
we will be in glory with Him forever. Oh, I tell you, God
sent Him in His own right hand, exalted Him. And then, oh, listen,
I love these two verses right here. Listen to this. Verse six
and seven. The Lord's on my side. Well,
need to say anything else? The Lord's on my side. Well,
what else you gonna say? If God's on your side, if God
be for you, who can be against you? The Lord is on my side. He's always gonna be afraid.
What can man do unto me? And the Lord, listen to this
now. The Lord taketh my part. with them that help me. Therefore
shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. Oh, the Lord's
for me." That's the most blessed thing, that God be for you. If
God be for us, who can be against us? It's God that justified us. It's Christ that died. Who's
going to do anything to the charge of God's elect? And I tell you,
man can do nothing more than God says, you can go this far.
Man can come and he can do some things to you, say some things
about you, and maybe even hurt you sometime. But here's what
he said. He said, I'll not let a man can
only go so far. Saul tried to kill David countless
times. And David never got a hair on
his head touched by Saul. And I tell you, look what else
he says. The Lord took my part. What part did he take? All of
it. What part did he leave out? None
of it. He took our part against sin,
took our part against God's justice, took our part against death,
took our part against hell, took our part even against ourselves
and our flesh. He took our part, oh my. And He's gonna reign until one
of these days, the last enemy that's against us, well death
shall be destroyed once and for all. And you know when that's
gonna be? When the resurrection takes place. When the last enemy
is destroyed, death. When the judgment's done and
death and hell is cast into that bottomless pit. Death is over and done with.
And you know all the people that's gonna live? It's the Lord's people. That's right, that's right, I'm
telling you. Our Lord took our part. Ain't no enemy, ain't no
enemy gonna come against us. Life or death, angels or principalities,
nothing can defeat us or separate us from the love of God in Christ.
And then look what he said here in verses eight and nine. These
are the last two verses I read, and we're going down through
there. You'll see what I'm trying to do here. It's said here, it
is better to put trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
man. It's better to put trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in princes. Now, you know, if a
fellow's got any sense at all, God gives him any sense at all, it's a wise thing. A wise thing
to trust only in the Lord. He's got the will. He's got the
power. He's got the immutability. He's
got the promises. He's got everything that we need.
And now he says, don't put no trust in man. I've often, I thought
when I looked at that today, I thought, well, how many times
have I failed people because I'm a man? Man does not have
any of the attributes of God. And how many times have you put
your confidence in a man, and that man lets you down. And when
you put too much confidence in them, you get discouraged when
they fail you. You get in despair. You get sometimes
say, why would they do that? Why would they say that? How
would they treat me that way? So I tell you what, when you
don't, that's why the Lord said, put your trust in the Lord. Put
no confidence in any man. I tell you, you know, man, the
best man, the best man that ever lived, the scripture says, altogether
vanity. And I tell you, men have feet
of clay, and I have learned the hard way, and I know you have
too, that you put your confidence in a man, and when you see him
say or do something, and phew, well, well. And you say, why'd
I put my, Lord break me of that. I'll tell you what, and then
not only that, it's better to put trust in the Lord to put
confidence in Princess. Now when he talks about Princess,
what's he talking about? He's talking about our leaders.
He's talking about the powerful people, the power and the, what
do they call them, movers and shakers. All the powerful people
and all the things you know. They get out there, won't everybody
hear what they gotta say? He said, don't you put no confidence
in the princes. Don't put no confidence in anybody
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Government's come and government's
go, but Christ stays the same. Huh? And I tell you, I ain't
watched the news since January, and only what I get's run across
my phone, and I try not to read it. It just, as you says, I won't
tell you what I say. I won't tell you how I feel.
But it ain't good. It ain't good. Because you know,
the minute you look at a prince, or somebody in a position of
power, you'll say, That's all you do. And that's
all we need to do from now on. Just don't say nothing. Just
shake your head. Just shake your head. Oh my. Now look on down
here now. In verse 10 and 12. This is,
this is, Now I stopped at verse nine, so you know now I'm gonna
take it up here and that y'all follow me. All nations come past
me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.
They compass me about, yea, they compass me about, but in the
name of the Lord I will destroy them. They compass me about like
bees, they are quenched as the fire of thorns, for in the name
of the Lord I will destroy them. Now all the nations around Israel
And around Judah, where they were all enemies of Israel, completely
surrounded by them. And when David faced God's enemies,
and the first enemy he faced was Goliath. And he slew Goliath
when he was just a lad. But he did it in the name of
the Lord, and he did it in the power of the Lord. And I tell
you, he defeated them. But these verses especially mention
our Lord Jesus Christ. Because you think about Him,
how many people was compassed about Him. How many, you know,
you go to Psalm 22, and you look there at Psalm 22, all the dogs
that got around Him. All the bulls that got around
Him. And here He says that, He said, I was, He said, who hath
believed thy report? For he said, he shall come out
before him as a root out of dry ground. There's no comeliness,
no beauty about him that we should desire him. He is despised and
rejected of all men. All men. And I tell you, he comes
up here and then all these people and enemies of our Lord, they
were like bees. You know, have you ever been
attacked by a bunch of bees or a bunch of hornets or a bunch
of yellow jackets? We was off way down to a place called Hell
Hole digging ginseng years and years ago. And we was down in
there and a fella stepped in a whole nest of yellow jackets. And he was covered up with them.
I mean they covered him up. All you seen was this yellow
cloud around him. And everybody left him to himself. I mean,
you know, ain't nothing you can do. You know, you're trying to
get away from him, get away from him. But I, bless his heart,
that was one of the awfulest things I've ever saw. But this
is what they said about our Lord. You think a bunch of yellow jackets
getting on his back, you think about all the people like a bunch
of bees buzzing around the Lord Jesus Christ trying to destroy
him. And then he goes on to say this
about him. And he said, not only that, but he says, they're like
thorns. He said, they're like a bunch
of thorns. Thorns are very, very painful. But all thorns are fit
for is to be burned. But oh my, how they can cause
great pain. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the name of his God, in the name of his blessed Father, he called
on God, God, glorify me. Glorify me. You sent me to glorify,
now you glorify. And I tell you what, he called
upon God, trusted in God, and God accomplished His purpose,
and Christ has defeated all these things that was against Him. All of them is against Him. Huh?
Oh my! Christ destroyed all our enemies,
and He destroyed all of His own enemies. And now look here in
verse 13 and 14 with me. Oh my! He said, I'll destroy them. He
said, I'll destroy them in the name of the Lord. Christ said,
oh, Father, you sent me to glorify you. And he did. I mean, they
gathered around him everywhere he went. Everybody that was anybody
turned thumbs down on Christ. Only kind of people that got
around him was people that did not amount to nothing as far
as the Jews were concerned. A bunch of fishermen, unlearned
men, just a bunch of nobodies. But that's who sinners is one
who is drawn to Christ. And okay, now look here in verse
13 and 14. Thou hast thrust sore at me that
I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and
song and has become my salvation. You know, it's in the name of
the Lord and power of our Lord Jesus Christ that his enemies
were destroyed when they came on him. And like David said,
you know, he said, when my enemies came upon me, the Lord helped
me. The Lord is my strength, my song, my salvation. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, raised him from the dead, set
him at his own right hand, and now, beloved, we say, the Lord
helped me. The Lord is my strength, the
Lord is my song, the Lord is my salvation. That's what we
say in our Lord Jesus Christ. Then look here in verse 15, yeah,
verse 15 and 16. The voice of rejoicing in salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of
the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. When David
was ascended to the throne, all Israel rejoiced. Oh my, they
rejoiced, they were so happy. And the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
the way it was, and that's the way he is with us. You know that
he's raised to his throne and all heaven and earth now rejoices. on account of the victory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember when I talked about
there in Revelations, I believe it's 4 and verse 5 and verse
2, when that great white horse come out through there, with
that sword on his side, going forth, conquering end to conquer.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. Here He comes, conquering end
to conquer. And I tell you what, you know,
on account of the victory of our Lord, of what? Open up ye
doors, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come
in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord mighty in power, the
Lord mighty in victory. And they said, that's why our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now he's at God's right hand,
and you talk about doing valiantly. And is exalted. God said, the
Lord said unto my Lord, set it at my right hand, till I make
you enemies of your footstool. And oh, look at this one now. Verse 17 and 18. David said,
I shall die, but live. How you gonna die and live, David? I shall not die, but live and
declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore,
but he has not given me over unto death. David, like all of
us, know that he has to die physically, as all men die. But he also said
that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever, and I'll
be satisfied when I awake in his likeness. And that's what
he said. He says, I shall not die, but
live, and declare the works of the Lord. And our Lord Jesus,
our priest on a Sunday, whosoever believeth on me shall never die.
Never die. The body will, but we'll never
die. That's what David is talking about. That's what our Lord is
talking about. And this is, and then he says he has chastened
severely for our sins. You know, we were chastened for
our sins, severely chastened for our sins. Christ was. By
his stripes we are healed. God laid the rod to his back
in his wrath. God poured out his wrath on him,
chastened him severely for our sins. bruised for our iniquities,
wounded for our transgressions. Oh, He did it, He did it. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, He said, He shall not die, but live. And
when He was buried, He said, He shall see no corruption. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, though He died, He forever lives. And because He lives, we live,
we live. And then look here in verse 19. Open to me the gates of righteousness,
and I'll go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This gate of
the Lord into which the righteous shall enter, I will praise thee,
for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation. Now, who
in the world can enter into a place where there's a gate of righteousness?
Huh? Who can do that? Who but the
Lord Jesus Christ, has gates of righteousness and can be opened
only by Him, and only opened to Him. It was by His obedience,
by His blood, the gates are open for you and me, huh? Oh, they're
open to Him, the holiest of holies, by Him and His people. And that's
what he says, he said, this gate of the Lord into which the righteous
shall enter. That's the only way we can enter
is through Him, by Him, and because of Him. He's our sanctification. He's our righteousness. He's
the one that finished our faith. He's the author of our faith.
And our righteousness, our righteousness is only in Him. And I thank God
that I don't have one of my own. Because if I did, I'd be lost. He said, here's this gate of
righteousness. Who can go through it? Christ can. Then he says,
we will be righteous, how do they go through? Same way he
did, by, through, and because of him, because of what he did,
what he did. Now look here in verse 22. And
I'm gonna praise him, he said, oh, in verse 21, I'm gonna praise
him because he heard me and become my salvation when we went through
that gate. And the stone which the builders
refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is marvelous. This is the Lord's doing, and
it's marvelous in our eyes. Now, I want you to look with
me in Matthew 24. See where our Lord mentioned this. It's mentioned
in Acts chapter 4, but here in Matthew 20, 24. No, excuse me,
Matthew 21. I'm sorry, Matthew 21. And I believe it's verse 42 that
we want to look at. 21, 42. Our Lord just got through
telling the Jews that everything that they had is going to be
taken away from them. All their hopes, everything. They're all
going to be taken away from them. And he told them how they were
going to have everything taken away from them. And they said,
oh my, how in the world is this gonna happen? Listen to what
our Lord said. Verse 42. Jesus saith unto them, did you
never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders
rejected? All the Jews and all the religious
men of his day, and even to this day, men reject Christ. This is the stone which is the
head which the builders rejected. Now listen to this. The same,
that same stone that they said, we don't want it. We don't have
it. You know, they told Peter, James,
and John said, don't you ever go and preach in this man's name
again. You shut up. We don't want to hear his name.
Don't you go anywhere else and say anything about him. If you
do, we're going to get you. We'll put you in jail and we'll
even kill you. First thing they do, that's what they said, that's
what Peter quoted to them, said, don't you remember what the scripture
says? The stone which the builders
rejected, listen to what he says now. The same is become the head
of the corner. You know, put it right there.
We're gonna have to build on that one. That's the one, that's
the rock that you have to build on. That's the one where the
whole building is gonna be built on. That's where all of God's
work's gonna be built on. And oh my, and listen to what
he says. This is the Lord's doing. God
done this. God done this. He blinded these.
He made them reject Christ. He done it. This is the Lord's
doing. to give us this cornerstone. And I tell you, for all of his
people and his elect, it's marvelous in our eyes. It's marvelous. We delight in it. Oh, he's the,
he's the triad stone. He's the precious cornerstone.
And I tell you, he's the sure foundation. They may have refused
him, but God set him to be the only one. And then here's my
last thing. Verse 24, and I'm done. This
is the day, what day? The day the stone became the
head of the corner. The day that they rejected Christ. But it's also the day that the
Lord made. The day of Christ coming into
this world, the Lord made that day. The day of Christ going
to the cross, the Lord made that day. The day of his blood shedding,
the Lord made that day. The day of his dying, the day
of his burial, the day of his resurrection, everything our
Lord did, it was the Lord's day. Everything, this is the day God
made it, he made Christ to come into this world. And you know
what? We all say, we all say, we're
gonna rejoice in that. And we're gonna be glad about
it. Ain't that right? Huh? Oh yeah, that's the Lord's
doing. That's marvelous. I love it. And we're going to say yes. Amen. Lord, thank you for your day.
Thank you for being with us today. Thank you for being with your
dear people tonight. I thank you that you bless them
to hear, bless them to listen. I'm thankful that I've got a
hearing. And God bless these dear saints.
Lord, bless them. Oh, bless them, bless them. Meet
the needs of their homes, meet the needs of their hearts, meet
the needs that they have on their jobs, things they have to deal
with in this world. Shield them, give them your grace
all around them. Put a hedge around them like
you did Job. And Lord, keep them. And again, we pray for our brethren
that's traveling, and we'll please see them safely, give them traveling,
give them your traveling mercies, and do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Oh, thank you, Lord, for giving
to me thy great salvation, so full and free.