Next Tuesday to see the oncologist
again. The Lord's people, I tell you
what, you listen to his preaching and you'll never know anything's
going on. The Lord's got some people on
this earth that just, whatever God sends their way, they take
it and keep on honoring Him and glorifying Him. He's got some
that way. Alright, I'm going to deal with
this psalm as much as I can. This psalm, 22nd psalm. It's
called the psalm of the cross. The psalm of the cross. The 22nd
psalm. Mr. Spurgeon said that this psalm
may have been actually repeated word by word when our Lord was
hanging on the cross, hanging on the tree. It begins with my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But now look down at the
last verse. And they shall come and shall
declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born,
those that is born of God, his elect, and they'll all say he
hath done, that he hath done, he finished it. That's what their
word means. He done it. It's done. All of
us say it's done. That He hath done this. He hath finished this. Started
out with my God, my God. And then we all say He has finished.
It's done. Only those born of God know that
and understand that. You know, this is David's, the
psalm of David, but it's about our Lord Jesus Christ. It's obvious
to see that. And before us in this psalm,
we have a description. Both of the darkness that our
Lord Jesus Christ passed through, and then the glory of the cross. The sufferings that he went through,
and the glory that follows. Now I had a time getting through
this today, may have a time getting through it tonight. But when
he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art
thou so far from helping me? Why art thou so far from helping
me? And from the words of Myroi,
Now what is the great cause? What is the cause of such a thing
as the Son of God, one with the Father, loved of the Father,
beloved of the Father, obedient to the Father, loved His Father. What was the cause for Him to
say such a thing? My God, my God, Why hast thou
forsaken me? What would cause our Lord to
cry such a thing? What would make Him cry such
a thing? I know this, that there was no cause in Him for God to
forsake Him. He had no sin of His own. He
had always done that which is right. Always went about doing
good. Healing the oppressed. saving
sinners, calling men to Himself. There is no cause in Him. He
had no sin. So why was it that caused this
great cry to come for our Lord Jesus Christ and for His Father
to forsake Him at such a time as this? There can only be one
answer. Because he was not dying for
himself. He was not on that cross for
himself. He was not on that cross for
anything that he himself had done. He was there for what somebody
else had done. What his people had done. He
was there as a lamb. He was there as God's offering. He was there as God's sacrifice. He was there as one who stood
in the place of other people. The scriptures tells us that
He was numbered with the transgressors. There were two transgressors
on every side of Him. on both sides of Him. And then
when He's numbered with the transgressors, you just look at yourself. And
He was numbered with us. He identified with us. And He,
the Beloved, the reason why this cry come out from the cross was
because our Lord Jesus Christ was not bearing His sin, but
the sin of His people. For the sin that He bore in His
own body. There's on by our sins. And I'll tell you what, the sentence
of death is on sin. And our Lord Jesus Christ faced
the sentence of death, not for Himself, but because God made
Him to be sin, who knew no sin. He was made sin and He faced
death, being forsaken of God, because He was dying, facing
our death. We'll never have to die because
He died. Huh? That's why when a believer leaves
this world, he just started living. And I'll tell you why. And then He
bore our judgment. He wasn't judged for Himself.
He was judged for somebody else's sins. Oh my! And when he suffered hell,
and that's what being forsaken of God is. That's what forsaken of God would
be. And being separated from God
for just a moment of time for him, it would have been an eternity
like for him, because him and his father was one. Martin Luther
was sitting one day, and he looked at that, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And he looked at it, and he looked
at it, and he looked at it, and he pondered, and he pondered,
and he said, how? Can it possibly be God forsaken
God? But that's what happened. And
I tell you, he wasn't forsaken for himself. He was forsaken
for somebody else. and I bless his holy name. I'm
glad he was forsaken for me. Glad he suffered my death. Glad
he bore my sin. Oh my. Bill, he's separated from
God. And then look what our Lord said
here in verse 2. I cry, oh my God. He calls him
my God. He told Mary, he said, I got
to go to my God and your God. Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
and you don't hear me. And in the night season, and
I don't quit crying. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He
prayed in the daytime of His life. He said, the night's coming
when no man can work, and He prayed. He constantly prayed,
continually prayed, and often times went and prayed all night.
And then he prayed in the night season of death that come upon
him. I tell you, you know, you think
about the night season when death was coming upon him. When he
said, let us, he went over the brook seed run and he said, let
us go into the garden where he often resorted. He went into
the garden to get semen. And you talking about praying.
He prayed until his sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood. And he came back and asked those
men to pray with him. They fell asleep and he went
off and prayed again. And he came back and asked them again.
And he went back and prayed the third time. And he said, you
don't hear me. You don't hear me. I ask that
this cup be passed from me. But your will has got to be done.
And I'm going to submit to your will. I'm going to bow down to
your will. And you know, and I tell you,
when our Lord was in this dark, dark, dark hour of desertion,
when God wouldn't hear Him, He was calling on His Father. He
was calling on His God and God wouldn't hear Him. But all the days of His life,
His faith as a man, as a man, He believed God and He believed
Him perfectly. Even in his dying hour he believed
his father and he believed him perfectly. You know why he believed
him perfectly? Because we have to have perfect
faith and he's the only one that ever had it. I mean when he was
forsaken of God, he never quit. When he said, God you don't hear
me, he never quit. He never quit trusting. He never
quit believing. He never quit looking. Even forsaken
of God. So he believed perfectly. And
he believed perfectly for his elect. That's what it means when
we live by the faith of the Son of God. We live by His faithfulness,
by His perfection. Everything our Lord did was perfect. Even the fact that He stung on
that cross and quoted this psalm. Oh, then look what He says here
in verse 3. Look what He says in verse 3. Here's what, here's why our Lord
seems to marvel here. And everybody knows a father
and son are one. He said, this is why I'm forsaken. This is why I cry unto you and
you don't hear me. Why you don't hear me when I
cry? When I cry out to you? Because you're holy. You inhabit
the praises of Israel. You're holy. Now here's the situation. How
can the holy God forsake him and be silent to his cry. Because
the answer comes back that you're holy. You're holy. And wherever sin is found, God's
holiness has to be manifested. Oh my, he's silent to the cries
of our Lord Jesus. Now it was God's mercy. It was
God's love. It was God's grace. It was God's blessed mercy and
grace that gave us His blessed Son that sent Him into this world
to die for us. But it is also the holiness of
God was manifested there. God cannot even express His love
And without His holiness. And holiness said, I cannot come
to your rescue. I can't. Justice said, I can't. Truth said, I can't. I can't
hear you cry. I can't do it. Because I'm holy. And that's
something that this generation don't know anything about. It's
the holiness of God. Why have you forsaken me? Because
you're holy. I've got sin on me. I can't come
and save you from that. When Isaiah saw how holy God
was, you know what he said? I'm undone. When John saw how
holy Christ was, he said, I'm as a dead man. When Job said,
I heard about you with the hearer to the ear, now my eye sees you,
I've whored myself. So if men when they see the holiness
of God they bow down and they feel like they ain't gonna be
able to live. You imagine what it was Christ when he was bearing
the sin of all of his elect for all time and all eternity from
the Adam to the last soul that lives on this earth. You imagine
what how much sin was on him and how God was looking at him. I tell you, outside of Christ
now, listen to me, outside of Christ now, God cannot look at
anybody. He's holy. Oh my! God must be just. And He must be holy. If He's
going to express His love to us, He's got to do it just and
holy. That's what it means to be a
just God and a Savior. You go all the way through the
Bible and everybody that's ever been saved was saved by a just
God and a Savior. The first thing you see is His
justice. When Adam sinned, His justice drove him out of the
garden. But as a Savior, He clothed him
before He sent him out. As a just God, He told Noah,
prepare an ark. And I'm going to destroy the
world. That's His justice and His holiness. But His blessed
love and grace was expressed in that ark. And that's the way
God forsook Christ and all the storms of God's wrath come on
Him. So that God can come down and
say, I justly condemned him in your place, in your stead, because
I'm holy. But because he was willing to
bear your sin, bear your death, bear your judgment, bear your
hell. He said, I'll tell you what I'll do. You believe him
and I'll be a savior to you. Huh? There's no other way it
can be, can it? Can't be any other way. And then
look what he says here in verse 4 and 5. I tell you, our Lord here pleased
the past dealings of God with his people. He said, our fathers
trusted in thee. They trusted and thou didst deliver
them. They cried unto thee and were
delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. Our
Lord goes back and He pleads the dealings of how God dealt
with the saints before. Three times He says, they trusted,
they trusted, they trusted. They trusted. And they never
left off trusting. They trusted. You saved them. They trusted and you saved them. You delivered them. They cried
unto you like I do, but they got saved. They were delivered.
And it says they were not confounded, they were not brought to shame. They weren't brought to shame.
And I'll tell you, they trusted and trusted and never left off
trusting. They trusted Jehovah, God our
Savior. And I'll tell you that plural
pronoun there says our fathers. Our fathers. That shows our Christ's
oneness with Him and His oneness with us. Not only is He one with
them back there in the wilderness when they trusted in Him, but He's one with us who even
now trust in Him. Oh, He's one with us. And I would
not say this, I would not use this next verse if it wasn't
in the Bible. I just wouldn't do it. I just
wouldn't do it. I wouldn't use this. What he says in verse 6, but
I am a worm and no man. Let me ask you a question. Would
anybody stand up and call Christ a worm? Could you find it in your mind,
in your heart, in your will, in your faith to say, You know
Christ is a worm. But that's what he says about
himself. He said, I'm a worm. I'm a worm. Now I can see me
being a worm. But he said, I'm a worm. and no man. I'm not a man. How in the world could he say
that? Reproach of men and despise to
the people. I can't even think about it.
I would not if it wasn't there. If it wasn't to be seen. He had
not said it himself. I wouldn't dare call Christ a
worm. I call all of you worms. But that's what Christ... He
so identifies with us that He calls Himself a worm. Look in
Isaiah 41. Look in Isaiah 41. You think
that He is not... Isaiah 41 in verse 13 look at it now For I the Lord thy God will hold
thy right hand saying unto thee fear not I will help thee listen
now fear not thou worm Jacob and you men of Israel, I will
help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel." He said, I'm like Jacob. If it wasn't in the Bible, I
would be afraid to say it. How in the world You're talking about humiliation.
You're talking about abasement. You're talking about a miracle.
This is the one that said when Moses turned around and said,
you told me to go down and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. Who am I going to say sin? You say I am that I am. He went from I am that I am So
I'm a worm. I can see me being that. I have
no problem seeing myself a worm, but Lord Jesus Christ so identifying
with us, so coming to you, talking about coming down. Has none of
us ever, ever, ever been brought so low as he was to call himself
a worm. He is made lower than the angels. And the angels stand around God's
throne and praise Him and do His will. They are created beings. And he was made Lord than any
angel. Not only that, but he took upon
himself the form of a servant. He identified himself with Jacob
the worm. Now, could you imagine what they
thought if he quoted that from the cross on the day that he
was hanging on that cross? Could you imagine the people
around that cross? Did he just say that I'm a worm
and no man? And anybody that understood the Bible
and knew what the scripture said, their mind automatically went
to this song. Went to this song. And you know, he was forsaken. Took the lowest, lowest place
that a person could possibly take. That we could have the highest
possible place with him. I just can't get my mind around
that. I just can't. My faith fails me right there.
I'm a worm. I'm a worm. Christ calling himself
a worm. Now I tell you, I remember hearing
a preacher say one time, He said, worms get up and brag about one
another, brag to one another. I accomplished this and I accomplished
one worm bragging on another worm. And I said, boy, I understood
it clearly and I identified with it. I said, yeah, that's me,
that's me. And I read this today and I've
read this before. I'm a worm and no man. Then look
what it says here. A reproach of men despised of
people. He trusted in the Lord that he
would deliver him. Let him deliver him seeing he
delighted in him. Oh my. I want you to shoot, they've
asked me to score and they shoot out the lip and shake the head
and he trust on the Lord and He would deliver him. Let him
deliver him. Now I want you to look and keep this and look over
in Matthew 27. There's five things over here. Five things. You might find more. In Matthew 27. In verse 39. of the things they said about
our Lord Jesus Christ. They laughed me to scorn. They
shoot out the limb. They shake their heads. All these
things were told and did at the cross. He trusted in the Lord
that He would deliver him. Let Him deliver him. Now look
here in verse 39. Here's the first thing. And they
that pass by. I want you to notice here. They're
just passing by. Passers-by They reviled him They reviled him
Said the awfulest things to him and the awfulest things about
him And they were wagging their heads. Oh, yeah, we're grow you're
getting what's coming to you. Oh They reviled him And then
look what he says there in verse 40 I And they said, you said
that you could destroy the temple and build it again in three days.
Save thyself. But listen to this. If thou be
the Son of God, come down from the cross. If you're really the
Son of God, if you're who you say you are, what in the world
are you doing on that cross? What in the world are you doing
there suffering on a cross? If you're the Son of God, no,
the Son of God wouldn't go through that. If you be the Son of God, come
down. Come down. Then look what he
says there. And likewise, when he said over
there the dogs and the bulls of Bashan, these are the dogs
he's talking about. These are the men here. They
cut out the lips and shook the lips at him. Likewise also the
chief priests mocking him. With the scribes and the elders.
Everybody that's anybody. Those are those dogs, those bulls,
those great men it's supposed to be. Look what he said. Look
what they said about him. He saved others. But he can't even save himself. And this is one of those things
that they used against Him. And they had on that King, King,
King of the Jews. And if He'd be the King of Israel,
and they always put an if to it, if He'd be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, then we'll believe Him. That's
what the scriptures mean when the cross is foolishness. And
there's looking for a sign. This is a sign they're asking
for. If He's really the King of Israel, let Him come down
from the cross. That'll give us a sign. And He saved others.
Let Him come down from the cross. Then we'll believe Him. If He
had got off that cross, they still would not have believed
Him. There ain't nobody gonna believe
Christ. I don't care how many miracles
they say they see and I don't care if he would have got off
that cross they still would not have believed him. You know the
only way you can believe Christ is for the Father to reveal Him
and for the Father to give you faith. If he would have got off that cross
they wouldn't have believed Him. They wouldn't have believed Him. And then if he would have got
off that cross Every one of us would be lost today. Every one
of us would. Huh? And those five forms are
taught here that they taught our Lord Jesus Christ with. Then
oh my, here's that one that he just quoted. Oh my. Here's the fifth one. He trusted
in God. He said he trusted in God. Let
God come and save him now. And here's what they said, if
God will have him. Oh, if God will have him, let
God come and save him now. He trusted, he trusted in God.
Let him come and save him now. If God will have him. If he'll have him. You reckon
God will have him? For he said, I am the Son of
God. Five things they charged our
Lord Jesus Christ with there. Five things. Now let me hurry
and I'm going to say a couple of other things. And I'll finish
this next week. Because that's just too much
for me. And he said here in verse 9 and
10, look what he said. They quoted Psalm 8 when our
Lord was on the cross. But then our Lord says, but thou
art he, talking to his Father, talking to God. But you're the
one that took me out of the womb. Thou madest me hope when I was
up on my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Now what is he
talking about here? That means that our Lord Jesus
Christ is talking about His incarnation. Talking about His virgin birth.
How He was wondrously, wondrously begotten of the Holy Ghost. The
Holy Ghost is going to come upon you, Mary. And that holy thing
that is born of you shall be called the Son of God, the Son
of the Highest, the Son of David. And how come He was in that womb?
Because God prepared him a body. What did he prepare him a body
for? To live in. To suffer in. To be tempted in. To die in. To go to the grave
in. And a body to be raised again.
And a body that says it's the right hand of God right now.
He prepared him a body. A body that would be able to
die. And I tell you, from the womb,
from the womb, He was God incarnate. And I tell you what, He was the
sinner's only hope. Mary said, this is my salvation. She said about her own son, this
is my salvation. This is my hope. God has gave
us the hope and the consolation of Israel. And He also said, you know, He
said, I was cast upon you from the womb, and I admired God from
the bellies. Then He said in verse 9, Thou
didst make me hope in thee when I was upon my mother's breast. And when He came into this world
as a baby, and He talked about being on His mother's breast,
He knew when He'd come into this world, knew when He'd come into
this world, that he had a work to do, a mission to accomplish,
and it was sure, and it was secure, and that he would accomplish
the work that the Father gave him. You know what our Lord said
Himself? He said, All that the Father
give me. And that's why I come, that's why I prepared Him a body.
All that the Father gives me. They are all going to come to
me. And every single one of them that come, I'm never, there's
nothing that will ever make me cast them out. And I tell you
what, He gave them to me and I'm not going to lose one of
them. Not a one of them. Not a one of them. This is my Father's will that
of all that you've given me, I would lose nothing. If a man
could be lost after Christ died for him, and shed his blood for
him, and was forsaken of God for him, then God would go plum
out of business. It would be impossible. An impossibility. That's what our Lord says, as
a man, God says, you give him power over all flesh. What for? that I should give eternal life. To who? As many as thou hast
given me. Huh? Oh my! I come to Him. You know why?
Because I was given to Him. You know how secure I am? God
said, I'm not going to lose nobody. Alright, this is going to be
my last verse. This is all I can deal with tonight. Oh, look what
it says in verse 11. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and listen
to this, and there is none to help, there is not a helper.
Our Lord's great, great woe that he was going through on this
time on the cross was that God forsook him. God forsook him. And his great prayer was, be
not far from me. Don't go far from me. Although
you forsake me, don't go far. Don't stain your clothes. His
prayer was that God would sustain him and uphold him in this hour. He said there's none to help.
You know why he said there's none to help? Because he has
to tread the winepress of the wrath of God by himself. That's
why. And I'll tell you what. He by himself purged our sins. There's no way to help it. He
was the Lamb slain from the beginning, but he still yet has to die. And our Lord Jesus has a people
he has to pray for. And that's why I said, be not
far from me. Trouble is right here. And I
ain't got nobody to help. You know why I said, he by himself
perjudices you. He said, I tread the fierceness
of the winepress of the wrath of God by myself. Who is this
that comes up from Brasra with his garments stained and red? I am he that brought salvation.
That's who he was. And I tell you, our Lord has
all power. And I tell you, by his own self,
by himself, by himself, He honored God by Himself. He did everything
and by Himself He saves us. He gave Himself an offering,
a sweet smelling savor to God. He gave Himself. And who did
He give Himself for? His people. His people. And oh, may God make you and
all of us understand, oh Lord, oh Lord, bless your holy name
that you did it alone. You did it by yourself. And now
I can trust you. I can believe you. I can cast
myself on you. And I can go to sleep. And your
blessing, what you accomplished on my behalf makes my pillar
at night, the softest pillar, most blessed pillar, to lay down
on, knowing that if I don't wake up in the morning, I'll be with
Christ. Huh? That's a wonderful pillar
to lay down on, what He did. Ain't it? Oh Lord, bless Your name. Our
Father, oh, blessed Father, We stand in utter amazement. We
are lost for words when we read about our Savior in such a state.
We read about the Son of God, Your Beloved, in such a state,
such a condition. And Lord, I wouldn't say these
things if it wasn't in Your Word. Couldn't say them if it wasn't
in Your Word. Lord, we just say what You said.
We just look to You. Oh God, we look to You. Oh, we need You so. Oh, we need
You so. We need Your salvation. We need
Your mercies. We need Your mercies. Give us
faith. Oh, give us the faith to trust
Him all the days of our lives. And Lord, increase our love for
Him. Let us love Him like we've never loved Him before. Worship
Him and adore Him. For He alone is worthy. God bless
these dear saints as they go their way. And do it for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen.