Well, we are a blessed people,
for sure, to be here today, together, together. Looking at Psalm 143,
I hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications,
and in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
And enter not into judgment with thy servant, For in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted
my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Therefore as my spirit
overwhelmed within me, my heart within me is desolate. I remember
the days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I amuse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty land. Selah. Hear me speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the
pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness
in the morning. For in thee do I trust, cause
me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto
thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine
enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is
good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's
sake. For thy righteousness' sake,
bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy, cut off mine
enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul, for I am
thy servant. Now, as in all these Psalms,
we understand David to be the writer, but Christ to be the
speaker. And surely this is the prayer
of the Lord. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my supplications, in thy faithfulness answer me, and in
thy righteousness. The Lord prayed in our behalf. And whenever
we feel and understand and know ourselves to have weakness in
the place of prayer. And if you've never felt weakness
in the place of prayer, I doubt that you've ever prayed. Because
it is in the place of prayer that the Lord teaches us how
weak we really are. I mean, you know, how often have
we set out to pray and found ourselves unable? How often have
we sought to worship the Lord and found no ability within ourselves
to do so. Now some would say, oh well something's
wrong with you. But the reality is that's just
the work of the Spirit of God teaching us what we are by nature.
Because it is the work of the Lord in the place of prayer to
bring us down to humility before Him. There's no place for pride
in the place of prayer. because it begins with worship
and it's carried out with the spirit of worship or it's no
prayer at all. We can't boast in anything as
we come before the Lord, but to boast in the righteousness
of Christ. And so the Lord humbled himself
before the Lord. He who was one with his father
and was in no wise less, than the eternal God with all power
in heaven, earth, and hell. And yet, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto the cross for our sake, and he became our
substitute. He entered into our infirmities,
though he was without infirmity. He was a lamb without spot, without
blemish. He had no lack. There was nothing
that he needed. He came into the world as a perfect
savior. But for our sakes, he became
weak. He became as we are. Now that
really can't be comprehended. I can't comprehend it. I'll tell
you right to start with. It is outside the realm of my
thought process to consider that the Lord Jesus Christ became
weak for our sakes. That he became as one who needed
his Father, though he was one with the Father. And yet, he
says here, hear my prayer, Give ear to my supplications.
What did he pray for? You know, when we pray, we generally
pray for stuff that we want, do we not? I mean, stuff that's
gonna benefit us in some way. The Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for our sake. He supplicated the Lord in our
behalf. He prayed not for the world,
he said, but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world.
He said, thine they were, but thou hast given them to me. And
so the Lord has made supplication for us. And he cries to his Father,
hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications. In thy
faithfulness, answer me. And in thy righteousness. Now, one thing that we, needs
always to be in our understanding is that God is righteous in all
of his ways. He is not in any wise does he
ever entertain any concept of unrighteousness because he is
righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ was righteous.
There was no unrighteousness in him. And yet for our sakes,
he became unrighteous in the sight of God, did he not? But
you see the grounds upon which he stood and upon which he was
able to enter into that place of prayer in our behalf was because
he was righteous. And so he says, answer me and
in thy righteousness and enter not into judgment with thy servant
for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Now by and large men don't believe
that. Most people think they've got
some ground to stand on. Well, surely when all things
are said and done, I can tell the Lord, well, Lord, I did the
best I could. Now, wouldn't you say that's
probably about the most common thought that men have is that
they have some, something, you know, well, I wasn't as bad as
These other people over here, I mean, Lord, I did something. You hear people all the time
that despise the gospel of grace. Say, well, there's gotta be something
for men to do. Well, what would it be? Let me
ask you that. If you think there's something
that men can do, to cause themselves to be acceptable
in any fashion before Almighty God. Tell me, what would it be? Well, we would bring our obedience
to Him. Well, really? I mean, so you
think the Lord would take an obedience that was not perfect?
Is your obedience perfect? I mean, have you, with every
breath that you've breathed, sought to be obedient to God? Do you think He would accept
anything less? Would you bring your faith? A
lot of people say, well, you gotta have faith. Well, would
you bring your faith? I mean, if you today, if I ask
you to stand upon your faith, Before God, would you be satisfied
with that? Because you see, faith, that's
not perfect. No faith at all. The Lord said
if you had faith as the grain of mustard seed, you could say
that this mountain moved it. Now, a lot of people have thought,
well, what we need to do is work up, if we just, we need to get
us some faith, and if we got faith, we'll move this mountain.
It wasn't what the Lord was teaching them. The Lord was teaching them
that they had no faith. If you had faith, you could do
that, but you don't have it. And apart from faith, it's impossible
to please God. But there is but one faith, one
Lord, one baptism. There is but one that is useful
to the sons of God. And what is that faith? It's
the faith of Christ. That's our faith. We don't have
any other. I mean, what faith do we possess?
But Christ, He is our faith. And He confesses for our sake. So that whether you have ever
prayed this prayer or not, the Lord Jesus Christ has declared
it before God in your behalf, in thy sight shall no flesh be
justified. And whether you thought you could
be justified before God or not, Christ has interceded in your
behalf. And he says to Peter, I have
prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Because Peter, you
can't be justified before Almighty God in your strength. You have
thought that you could. But I'm gonna demonstrate to
you that you can't. But see, your faith will not
fail, Peter, because that faith which you will come to understand
is your faith is me. And that's what he said to Peter,
was it not? When he said to Peter three times,
remember? Peter denied him three times,
and the Lord came to Peter, and he said, Peter, do you love me? Three times he's asking, Peter,
do you love me? What Peter had to confess, in
his heart he knew, did he not? That he had not loved him, but
he said, Lord thou knowest. Thou knowest that I love thee.
And how did the Lord know that he loved him? Because Christ
was that one who perfected love and gave it to Peter. That was
how. Peter knew that he couldn't,
he had already demonstrated the fact that he didn't love the
Lord, had he not? Three times. But you see, the
Lord would show Peter that it's not your strength, Peter. It's
not you, Peter. It's not your ability, Peter.
But it's me. Feed my sheep. Oh, the Lord entrusted
the feeding of his sheep to one who denied him. Why? Because Christ was his strength.
Christ was his power. Christ was his all in all. Oh,
what a glorious thing. No man living shall be justified. No man by living, no man in his
living, no man in any way can be justified before Almighty
God. For the enemy hath persecuted
my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Now, just this morning,
as Brother Al read through that the litany, or part of it at
least, of the curses that the Lord had brought upon Israel
and the things that he told Israel, these are the things that I'm
gonna do to you if you don't walk in my way. Well, all of
the reproaches of the people of God have fallen on Christ. And all of those curses that
was placed upon Israel have fallen upon Christ. He has borne those
things. All of those things came upon
Him. As He says here, the enemy hath
persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit
overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. Oh, how can it be? that he who
has all things became desolate. You ever been desolate? You know,
I don't know if I've ever been totally desolate. I've been decimated
from time to time. Paul said he was cast down, but
he was not destroyed. But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ
was destroyed for our sake. He was brought lower than a man
could possibly go. You couldn't have gone low enough
to have ever borne your own sin, let alone the sin of all of God's
children, which was laid on Christ. He said, therefore is my spirit
overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I muse, I think on, I meditate on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
in a thirsty land, sela. Christ has thirsted after righteousness
for our sake. Now we, in a measure, do we not
thirst after righteousness as the Spirit of God works in us?
But how imperfect is that thirst? I mean, we can be thirsting for
righteousness one minute and satisfied with the world in the
next. But you see, Christ, he thirsted
for the righteousness of God at all times. And he thirsted
for it for us. He did that for us. My soul thirsteth
for thee as in a thirsty land. Selah. Hear me speedily, O Lord.
My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest
I be like unto them that go down into the pit. How weak was the Lord in our
behalf. Scripture says that the angels
ministered to him in that time. Now, I don't claim to understand
that. I don't know how it could be.
But I believe what the scriptures telling us there is that the
Lord poured out all of His strength. He had nothing left. So much
so that the angels ministered to Him. I mean, He was cast down
for our sake. He was destroyed. He was desolate. He was brought to the end of
Himself for our sake. And then yet, went to the cross. We see the
soul sufferings of Christ in the garden as we sang about a
moment ago in Gethsemane's garden. That's when he poured out his
soul unto death before Almighty God and he sweat as it were great
drops of blood in our behalf. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities
and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. His soul was poured
out like wax and then He bore the cross for our sake. You see, He underwent our sorrows and our griefs And then he paid
the price for our sin. Oh, who can fathom such a thing? I mean, how can it be? Oh Lord, my spirit faileth. Cause
me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning for in thee do
I trust. Now here was one who was cast
out from the presence of God and yet for our sake. He longed for the loving kindness
of the Father, because he delighted to do his Father's will. Calls me to hear it in the morning,
for in thee do I trust. Calls me to know the way wherein
I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Now did not
Christ know the way to walk? I mean, was he in a quandary
as to how to walk? No, but for our sake, dear brethren. You see, he entered into the
weakness of the human mind in not knowing the way of God. That overwhelms my thinking,
to think even of that. And yet, at the same time, he
knew all things. Some say, well, that can't possibly
be true. Well, sure it is. I mean, how can it be that he
was, you know, some have taken issue with Isaac Watt's hymn,
the line that says, when God the mighty maker died for man
the creature sinned, and they've changed it in some hymn books,
because they say, well, that's not true. Well, sure it's true. Well, how could it be true? I
don't know how it could be true. I don't know how it could be
true that Christ as the eternal God died on Calvary's cross. I don't know how that could be.
But I know that the scripture indicates that it's so. He never ceased to be God. See, the ways of God are past
finding out. They're past your comprehension. He dwells in the light to which
no man can approach. Who's been his counselor? I don't
know, I can't answer all the questions. Now, a lot of times
men feel compelled to dig in and answer all these questions
for people. Brethren, you are never gonna
have all your questions answered. I remember when I was growing
up, they always used to say, well, when you die, we're gonna
know all things. No, you're never gonna know all
things. You can't know all things. You're a finite creature. God knows all things, but you
won't. But he'll teach you such things
as you need to know. And brethren, he's told us that
Christ died for sinners. What else do you need to know?
You know, if you're a sinner, And you read that Christ died
for sinners and He took away the sin debt of His people. What
more does a man need to know to rejoice in the glory of God
revealed in Christ than that? He's the Savior of sinners. He seeks and He saves that which
is lost. Deliver me, O Lord, from mine
enemies. I flee unto Thee to hide me.
See, our hiding place is in Christ, even as His hiding place was
in His Father. And yet His Father cast Him out
for our sake. Teach me to do Thy will, for
Thou art my God, Thy Spirit is good. Lead me into the land of
uprightness. Oh, that such could be my prayer,
that such could be Yours. But it is the prayer of Christ
for your sake. See, our obedience is Christ. Let him cast thy deadly doing down, down
at Jesus' feet. See, men often, they want to
be doing something for the Lord. Brethren, Christ has done what
needed to be done. Our doing is not that which causes
us to be satisfactory in the sight of God, but it's that which
Christ has done. I want to be found in Him. That's the only place I want
to be found, is in Christ. I don't want to be found in doing
my performing deeds of righteousness. I want to be found in Christ
and the deeds of righteousness which He has performed in my
behalf. Because those deeds are perfect.
Mine are tainted with sin. The best you'll ever do is tainted
with that. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's
sake, for thy righteousness' sake. Bring my soul out of trouble. Now, why did Christ desire to
be brought out of trouble? Now, if you were in trouble,
you'd be wanting to get out of trouble for your sake, would
you not? I mean, you ever been in trouble?
Well, sure you have. I mean, you ever been in a situation
where you, Lord, help me out of this. Lord, if you'll just
get me out of this, I'll do this, or I'll do that. You never did
that, did you? No, that's just natural. That's the way men are.
They wanna make deals with God. They think they can make deals
with God. See, most people think they can. Now very few people
ever carry out their end of the bargain. They make these deals
and then they kind of forget about what the deal they made.
But Christ Jesus, he has entered into the place of our need and
been in our trouble. And He is that one who desired
to be delivered out of trouble, not for His own sake, because
if He'd have been praying, Lord, deliver me out of trouble for
His own sake, He wouldn't have went to the cross, would He?
No, He gladly bore our troubles, and so when He prays, deliver
me from trouble, He's praying that for your sake. You belong
to Him. Oh, deliver me. out of trouble,
and of thy mercy cut off mine enemies and destroy all them
that afflict my soul for I am thy servant. Now we know that
the Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed over his enemies, but the manner
in which he triumphed over his enemies was in letting his enemies triumph over
him, apparently, in their mind, as far as they could tell. See,
wicked men will always do wickedly. If you want to know why Vladimir
Putin is doing what he's doing in Ukraine, it's because he's
a wicked man. If you want to know why people
that are in our places of government do the things they do, it's because
they're wicked men. Wicked men will do wickedly.
It's just the way that it is, but Christ is that one who was
interceded in our behalf. And he is that one who triumphed
over all of his enemies. And he prayed to triumph over
his enemies, not for his sake alone, but for ours. See, the
Lord does all things for his glory. He said, I am a jealous
God. Now who can bring a railing accusation
against him? He said, I'm jealous for my glory
and I will have glory. And he has shown it in the demonstration
of his triumph over the wicked. But dear brethren, he triumphed
over the wicked and has given us the benefit of it. See, he
entered into the place to the snare of the enemy and was snared
by the enemy, even though he was the one that laid the snare.
and directed by wicked hands that men would crucify him, yet
he went into that snare, did he not? And he was overcome by his enemies,
and they put him to death. See, Christ was put to death
by men. No man can say, well, Lord, it
was your will that Christ, well, it wasn't the Lord's will. But
you see, men can't use something being the Lord's will as an excuse
for their sin. Men try that. Sometimes you hear,
well, if you believe all things predestinated, then that gets
us off the hook. No, it doesn't. Because God said
you are responsible. He said to Adam, did he not,
in the day you eat, you're gonna die. What did Adam do? He did exactly
what the Lord said he was going to do. Because you see, the Lord
orders all things according to the good pleasure of His will,
but He does all things for His glory, and He does all things
for the benefit of His children, and He causes all things to work
together for good to them that love God, who are what? The called
according to His purpose. And that's for whom Christ is
prayed. And that's those for whom David was given a mind to
record these things in his own life. Because, you see, David
understood that even his prayer needed to be prayed for. You
know, the very best prayer that you've ever offered, it needs
to be prayed for. You need somebody to pray for
your prayer, and Christ has done that. He entered in once into
the holy place in our behalf, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Dear brethren, we stand in Christ
and in Christ alone as those who are without sin. Now many
are those that think that if you say such a thing, is that,
that that means that Those that hear that message then are just
going to go off and do whatever they want to do. And that's because
they don't understand that it's the same Spirit of God that causes
a man to really believe that Christ died for his sin, that
causes him to hate the sin that put Christ on the cross. How can that be? Except that
God is the one who's the author of it and the finisher of it.
May the Lord give us a mind today to remember the Lord's death
till he comes again, because dear brethren, that which he's
performed in our behalf is the only grounds upon which we have
to stand. And so the Lord gave us this, this bread and this wine, this
cup, which is the New Testament in his blood. And he gave it
to his people. And he said for us to eat it,
and to eat it as often as we do in remembrance of him. And he cautioned men. He gave
Paul words of caution. That men not eat this bread unworthily. Now, what is it to eat the bread
unworthily? It's to eat it without a due
consideration of that which Christ has done. Now, if it had to do
with any sin or whatever that we might have committed, then
there wouldn't be any need for any of us to be out here to take
this to start with. I mean, we might as well just
put it away, because if you're gonna wait until you are sinless,
to come and take this that you can say, well I'm worthy to take
it because I've confessed all my sins or I've done this or
I've done that, then you'd never take this. That's not what he
means. But to take it unworthily is
to take it without a due consideration, not discerning the body of Christ. You see this, though it's bread,
the Lord said this is the New Testament. This bread is my body which is
broken for you. Now we don't believe that it's
in anything other than bread. But yet we believe that as we
partake of this we understand that the body of Christ was broken
for our sake. This is not a pipe dream. It's
not just some ritual that we go through. It's not something
that we've made up. to fill up some time, but it's
something the Lord commanded us to do, because He knew the
weakness of our flesh, and He knew that we needed something
that we could hold in our hand, that we could put in our body,
that we could be reminded that Christ did indeed suffer for
sinners. Oh, may the Lord help us today
to take this bread worthily. discerning the Lord's body, discerning
the Lord's blood, that this is indeed that which he did in our
behalf. Oh, that he might help us today.
For the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, you see, as he gave his bread to his disciples, He knew that the hand of the
one that would betray him was on the table. And yet, for our sakes, he had ordained these things
to come to pass.