It is quite a wonder, a wondrous
thing. We read there in the Gospels
that the angel was sent to minister unto
Christ in that hour. That's a mystery unknown unto
us, how that the God of the universe
lacking no strength or power, yet became weak for our sake. And he did that to demonstrate
what we are by nature. And that in the flesh dwelleth
no good thing. But he was not merely a man. He was a man as much so as any
one of us are. And this is that mystery which
cannot be fathomed how that He who was and is a man is that
one at the same time God. And that's that thing that we
declare. And the world scoffs at it and
says it couldn't possibly be true. And we say you're right. I mean, in the reason of man,
such a thing couldn't exist, could it? I mean, how could that
be? Couldn't possibly be true. How foolish is that, to think
such a thing? But yet, that's the very thing the Lord would
reveal. And that is the very basis upon
which our hope is built, because if the Lord Jesus Christ is not
who He said He was, then we don't have any hope whatsoever. Paul
said, You know, our preaching's vain. I mean, we might as well
do something else. Because if these things be not
true, then where do we stand? And so we stand upon a, those
things that we believe are not make-believe. You know, in the
minds of many people, the gospel is almost like a fairy tale that
they choose to believe. But when you read the scriptures,
you understand that's not the basis. That's not what faith
is. It's not something we choose to believe. It's something that
has a basis and a foundation, which has been shown to us in
such fashion that we can't help but believe it. I mean, you know,
because the faith that we've been given is at which rests
in that very thing which Jesus Christ has undertaken. And apart
from faith, a man can't receive it. I mean, he can't believe
it. And how does a man believe the gospel? You can't talk a
man into it. Because if you could, then somebody
else could come along with a stronger argument and talk him out of
it. So it's not a thing that men
can persuade men of. Yet we've been sent into the
earth to plead with men, to cry out to men, to show to men the
truth of God. Why will you die, O house of
Israel? I mean, we say to men, you know, here's Christ. He's
lifted up. He's high and lifted up. He's
the Savior of sinners. Why will you not fall down and
worship Him? Why will you not embrace Him?
And of course we know what the answer is because we know that
we would be just like them if it wasn't for the grace of God.
I mean, why do we believe except that the Lord has caused us to
believe? And we worship Him on the account
of it, just as Brother Al brought out there a minute ago about
Jacob and Esau. I mean, Esau was probably a good
enough guy. Seemed to be a pretty decent
fellow. I mean, you know, when he could have brought revenge
on Jacob after coming back after all those years. I mean, could
he not have harbored ill in his heart? I mean, Jacob See, he
figured, because he knew his own heart, see, Jacob knew how
he was, he knew if the shoe was on the other foot, and Esau was
coming to him after what he did to Esau, he would be, you know,
kind of upset. And so he sent out the women
and the children and the flocks and all that stuff ahead, and
he came up dragging the rear, because he didn't want to have
to face Esau, he wanted to soften him up a little before he got
there. But when it came to him, He was glad to see him. And you know, the idea is so,
when you think of Esau, you don't, you know, we like to think that
the Lord, he's, when we say he hated Esau, we
kind of think, we try to make Esau out to be a villain. Well,
Esau wasn't necessarily a villain, he just was not an object of
the Lord's mercy. Now, who's sufficient? Paul said,
who's sufficient for these things? How can we fathom such a thing
as that? Because you know, one of the
things that's ingrained in the minds of a child, when we were
children, see, we show the work of the law written in our heart,
even as children, because we believe in something called fairness. Do we not? I mean, isn't that
just part and parcel of us? I mean, you never had to teach
your kids what was fair. They just kind of knew what was
fair. They knew it wasn't fair if their brother got a bigger
piece of cake than they did. They knew that wasn't fair. See,
they believed in that. And that's just part and parcel
of who we are. And so men in their natural state,
they say, well, that wouldn't be fair. For God to love Jacob
and hate Esau, that doesn't seem fair. But the Lord is the one
that made Jacob and Esau. And is it not the Lord's right
to do with his own as he wills? And what can a man say about
that? And I believe this, I believe till a man comes to that place
where he recognizes that he can't really bow down and worship God.
Because as long as a man holds out a standard by which he says
this is how God has to be, then he's not falling down and
worship him who said I am. Moses said, who do I tell I'm
sent me? He said, I am. When they came to take the Lord
Jesus in the garden, And they said, we look for Jesus
on Nazareth. He said, I am. And the scripture says they all
fell backwards because of who he was. So you see, it's not
about being fair or whatever. It's whatever the Lord sees fit
to do. Now some people say that's a
hard doctrine. I believe it's a glorious doctrine.
Because I'd rather the Lord be the one to decide these things
than for me. Because brethren, you don't want
me to be deciding your fate. I certainly don't want me to
be deciding mine. Because I'd choose the wrong
thing a thousand times. But oh, that the Lord, in His
mercy, See, he had plenty of reason to hate Jacob if it was
on the basis of, I mean, well, he had great reason to hate Jacob,
but he had great reason to hate Esau. I mean, men think that
they have something that makes them worthy in God's sight. But
there's nothing in a man. It's just like when, again, Brother
Al brought out about the Lord sending the men to these nations
and they slew the men, the women, and the children, everything.
Killed them all. Now, in the minds of the enlightened
society in which we live, that would just be terrible, wouldn't
it? But the reason we think that
is because we think that men have intrinsic worth of themselves. We don't have anything that God
hasn't given us. And if the Lord doesn't soften
our heart and bring us to Him, we'll not seek Him. We'll go
contrary to His way. Now a man thinks that he won't. A man thinks he can serve God
and do what God would have him do any time he gets ready. But
that's not true. because only by the mercy of
God can a man come to him. And we see that in his dealings
with Jacob. Jacob was a conniver. Jacob was
a man who you wouldn't want to be buddies with, especially not
a business partner with him, because he'd be the one that'd
take, I remember I was thinking this week about an old song that
I had heard, just a silly old country song, You Always Leave
Me Holding the Bag. And I don't know if you have
heard that song or not, but anyway, that's the kind of person that
Jacob was. He'd leave you holding the bag.
I mean, you know, he was not a good man in that respect, but
the Lord chose Jacob. And he showed mercy to Jacob,
and he blessed Jacob, and he made Jacob a righteous man according
to his righteousness. And so that's the work of the
Lord. And we give Him praise and thanksgiving
and hopefully that we would not be those that would think that
we have some standard or place from which we can judge the Lord.
You know, people, they get mad and say, well, I don't thank
God. I think that was terrible that God did this. Well, where's
the platform? See, in order to cast judgment
upon someone, you have to be at least on their level. You
can't be below them. And so you don't have any right
or reason or place or station that you can ever cast aspersions
on what God did or does. Whatever he does is right, and
we'll worship him because he's God. And may he be praised. May our hearts ever be humble
before him. Because brethren, there's no
doctrine on earth that will humble a man before God than that. And
a man doesn't have nothing. He doesn't have any standing.
He has no place to come into the presence of the Lord. Only
by the grace of God. Now, we're looking in Psalm 109. And I had mentioned to you as
we looked at these Psalms that there was kind of a theme, you
know, in each one of these Psalms we've been looking at, 106, 107,
108. And 106 was nevertheless. The Lord pointed out all the
things that Israel did and He said nevertheless. And then in
Psalm 107 He pointed out that they called upon His name and
He heard them. The mercy of God is manifested
in both cases. And then in Psalm 108, it speaks
of the Lord's triumph. And all of those things go together
to make up the redemption of God's people. And so, we come
here to Psalm 109. And it kind of shifts gears.
This is a psalm that is what the scholars call an imprecatory
psalm. That is, it is a breathing out
of judgment. And there's only one... I believe
these are the words of Jesus Christ because He's the only
one who has the standing to pass these judgments. You and I don't
have that, except as we look in the Word of God and we say,
even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. But as far
as it being our prayer, see, what did the Lord say? He said,
forgive those that do ill against you. He said, pray for them that
despitefully use you. So that's not, he hasn't called
us to be judgmental. He hasn't called, now that doesn't
mean we don't exercise judgment, but it means we're not judgmental.
When he said judge not that you be not judged, he didn't say
hide your head in the sand and don't look at things and see
if you know right from wrong. But what he meant by that was
don't be in a, don't put yourself in a position to condemn someone
according to your standard, because our judgment's in the hand of
the Lord. We commit judgment into his hand. Lord, thou knowest. I mean, you know, many is the
time that we would like to breathe out some threatening against
a person. But that's not what we're called
to. The Lord hasn't called us to that. But he is in this passage,
in this Psalm, I believe that the Lord is setting forth judgment
as only he can. And this is a Psalm of David,
as David was the mouthpiece of the Lord. Psalm 109, Hold not
thy peace, O God, of my praise. For the mouth of the wicked and
the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me. They have
spoken against me with a lying tongue. They compassed me about
with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. For
my love they are my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer. For they have rewarded me evil
for good, and hatred for my love. Set thou wicked man over him,
and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged,
let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few, and let
another take his office. Let his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually
vagabonds, and beg, let them seek their bread also out of
their desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all
that he hath, and let the stranger spoil his labor. Let there be
none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor
his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off,
and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before
the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them
from the earth. Because that he remembered not
to show mercy, but persecuted the poor needy man, that he might
even slay the broken in heart. As he loved cursing, so let it
come unto him. As he delighted not in blessing,
so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing,
like as with a garment, like with his garment, so let it come
into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. Let
it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a
girdle wherewith he is girded continually. Let this be the
reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak
evil against my soul. But do thou for me, O God the
Lord, for thy name's sake, because thy mercy is good. Deliver thou
me, for I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within
me. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth. I am tossed
up and down as the locust. My knees are weak through fasting,
and my flesh faileth of fatness. I became also a reproach unto
them. When they looked upon me, they
shaked their heads. Help me, O Lord my God, O save
me according to Thy mercy, that they may know that this is Thy
hand, that Thou, Lord, hast done it. Let them curse, but bless
thou when they arise. Let them be ashamed, but let
thy servant rejoice. Let mine adversaries be clothed
with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion
as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord
with my mouth. Yea, I will praise him among
the multitude for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor
to save him from those that condemn his soul. Now, these words, I
think specifically, are spoken in relation to Judas Iscariot. Now, Judas Iscariot is a singular
figure in Scripture. There's not another person that
I know of spoken in Scripture that is singled out to manifest
the sovereign purpose of Almighty God in the reprobation of a man
than Judas. The Lord said with his own lips,
it would have been better for this man never to have been born. Now that is a That's an astounding thing when
you think through it, think through it as men would. And Judas, now
one thing that you understand, and Brother Al, again, he alluded
to this in what he was saying, the Lord hardened King Sion's
heart. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.
The Lord hardened Judas' heart. But keep in mind that the heart
that the Lord hardened was not a soft heart. In other words,
the Lord didn't take a man who was just wanting to serve the
Lord with all that was within him and harden that man's heart.
Pharaoh, the Scripture says, hardened his own heart. And the
Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. And Judas was a man, he was a
conniver. The Scripture says he was a thief
from the beginning. The Lord chose him. I mean, did
the Lord choose him and then was surprised? No, he knew what
he was. He said he knew what he was from
the beginning. He chose him as a thief. He chose
all the disciples, but he chose a thief in their midst. And I
believe that he did that for several reasons, not the least
of which is to teach us the natural depravity of men by nature and
what they will do, the depths to which they will go, even in
the face of the greatest of mercy and tenderness and truth set
before them. And Judas Iscariot was such a
person. And he is typical, I believe,
of the nation of Israel. Because if you think on what
Judas did, Judas was but a, if you wanted to boil it all
down into a nutshell, of what Israel did to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The scripture says he came unto his own, who's it speaking
about? It's talking about the nation
of Israel. He came to his own people. The people who had read
these scriptures from the time they were children had been taught
them and knew all these things that the Messiah would come.
And when He came, and they claimed they were looking for Him, and
when He came and dwelt in their midst, they said, we will not
have this man to rule over us. We want another one. We don't
want this one. We want something that's going
to be more like what we think the Savior ought to be. This
man, he's not right because he's speaking out against our sin.
I mean, we're righteous men. We don't deserve to have somebody
come along and point out our sin. See, that's the way religious
men are, is it not? I mean, you can't just go in
any church in the land and preach about the total depravity of
men because they won't have it. They don't want you to tell them
that they're wicked by nature. that they wouldn't seek the Lord,
that they despise the way of God, they'll rise up in anger
against that. See, that's what men hate about
the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that it lays the axe to the root
of all of man's righteousness. Gives a man no place to glory.
He can't stand upon any foundation except the grace of God. It's
the mercy of God. But I stand here to confess to
you today that there's not a one of us, if we believe the gospel
of Jesus Christ, that do so apart from the mercy of God snatching
us as brands from the burning. I can't believe it and wouldn't
believe it, except that He gives it to me. And He causes me to
believe it and I can't believe anything else. Now, I might turn out to be the
biggest betrayer in the end. I might turn aside from the Lord,
but that'll be all on me if it is. But right now, I have to
confess to you, I believe the things of God, and I don't believe
that the Lord will forsake me. I know He won't. What a glorious
thing when our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and righteousness. We can stand. Now, it is true
that we can't climb up a ladder into heaven and read our name
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We'd like to be, we think,
well, man, if I could just do that, you know, I'd feel more
comfortable about it. But you see, our comfort's given
to us by the Spirit of God who bears witness. How does He bear
witness? Because He gives us a love for
the things of God. And a man who has a love for
the things of God could not have gained it any other way except
the Lord gave it to him. And if the Lord gives a man that,
he'll not take it back from him. If his son asks of him a piece
of bread, will he give him a stone? And so it is. The tenderness
and mercy of God towards his people is beyond the words of
men to describe. But this Psalm here is set forth in no uncertain
terms as an abject judgment. I mean, there's not a shred of
mercy in this. You know, I mean, if you pick
this up, and this was the only thing that you ever read about
the Bible, you would be, man, look at that. You know, there's
no hope. There's no help. But this is
not meant to be that which ministers peace unto the people of God,
but it is given to minister, to show us what men are by nature
and that the judgment of God, the scripture says that the Lord
will by no means clear the guilty. He will not at all acquit the
wicked. That means he will not just write
off your sin as if it never existed. There had to be a payment for
it. And so that's what Jesus Christ came into the world to
do, was to be that payment. Payment God cannot twice demand,
first at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine.
Now that's a glorious thought. Because you see, that sin which
Jesus Christ has expiated is taken away. And the Lord remembers
it no more. It's as if it never occurred.
But there is not an acquittal, there is a payment that is made. And so the psalm begins, Hold
not thy peace, O God, of my praise. Now this, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He came into the world, He came into the world to do
His Father's will. And His desire as a perfect man
from the time that He was born was to do His Father's will.
Isn't that what He told His mother? When his mother came looking
for him when he was about 12 years old, and he had got separated
from them, and they found him in the temple reasoning with
the scribes and the Pharisees. And he said, well didn't you
know that I had to be about my father's business? Didn't you
understand that? Because you see, that was what
he was called to do, to do the will of God. Hold not thy peace,
O God, of my praise. For he says, the mouth of the
wicked and the deceitful are opened against me. Now I'm not
going to go through every one of these verses again, but they
compassed me with their hatred. The Lord Jesus Christ was a man
who should have been loved and lauded and and embraced. And we say, well, you know, if
we'd have been there, we would have, we'd have been different.
I mean, you know, we wouldn't have been like them old Jews
and maybe, you know, we'd have been different. Well, we wouldn't
have been any different unless the Lord caused us to be different.
You know, because the scripture says that no man pitied him. They hated him. When he came
into the temple and he read the scriptures, And they thought,
wow, never a man spake like this man, this man, there's something
really about this. But then when he pointed out
the sovereign grace of God in showing mercy to the Gentiles
and bypassing, and not showing mercy to the widows in Israel,
but showing mercy to a widow of Zarephath, a Gentile woman,
they said, wait a minute, what's this guy saying? We're the Jews. We're those chosen people of
God. We're those that are deserving of the Lord's love and mercy.
These Gentiles, they're not worthy of anything. But you see, they
had no understanding. And they spoke evil against Him.
They have rewarded me evil for good, hatred for my love. And
then He speaks, I believe this is specifically speaking, of
Judas, because if you remember what the Lord said to him, He
said, Set thou a wicked man over him, that is, over Israel, and
let Satan stand at his right hand. Let Satan stand at the
right hand. What did the Scripture say? It says, Satan hath entered into
his heart. And so Judas went out, and he
betrayed the Lord. When he shall be judged, let
him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin. You remember what Judas did when
he realized what he'd done? He had natural sorrow. But you
see, the natural praying of man is sin inside of God. It's not
received. The Pharisee, he prayed. Scripture
says he prayed thus with himself. Why? Because he couldn't pray
with God. The Lord heard the sinner's prayer, but he didn't
hear the prayer of the righteous man. Because you see, that prayer
is an abomination unto the Lord. When a man comes bringing his
righteous deeds to the Lord and says, Lord, look on what I've
done. I've shared this with you several times, but I remember
my old neighbor. I asked him one day what was
his hope of entering into eternal life. And I said, what is going
to be your plea when you come before the Lord? He said, well,
I'm just going to tell the Lord I always tried to do what was
right. I told him that's not enough.
But that's what people think. By nature, is it not? Well, I'll
just reason with the Lord. I'll just tell him, you know,
this here. But that's an abomination unto God for a man to bring his
righteousness into the presence of God. There's nothing but that
which is holy can come into the presence of God. And if Jesus
Christ is not entered into that place in our behalf, and we're
not standing in Him as our righteousness, we don't have any. And our prayer
will be sin. He said, let his days be few.
And this is why we believe, or I believe, and I think many others
believe that this scripture is speaking particularly about Judas. It says, and let another take
his office. Now you remember when Peter stood
up with the disciples in the book of Acts, the first chapter
around, I think it's around Acts, verse 20. He said, he quoted,
he said, it's written in the Psalms about this man, Judas,
that let his bishopric be taken by another person. That is, that's
the word office. That's what that word means.
Let his office be taken by another. That is, the place that he was
appointed to. And then, of course, they went,
and I believe, I believe hastily, and I think that they actually
got the, they jumped the gun a little bit in appointing Matthias
as the supposed twelfth apostle, because Paul was the twelfth
apostle. He was one born out of due time.
But nonetheless, they went that way. It was ordered of the Lord
to be that way, but to bring out this very fact that this
was written in the Psalms. So that's why I believe this
is having to do with him. Let his children be fatherless,
his wife a widow. I mean, you couldn't, if you
went down a laundry list of awful things that would occur in the
life, of a man, this would be the worst thing. There's not
a thing in here that would speak blessing to a man, is it? He
said, let his children grow up and be fatherless and let no
man even have pity on them. Just let them be cast out, let
them starve to death. He loved cursing, so let it come
unto him as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far
from him. As he clothed himself with cursing,
so let it come unto his own bowels like water. Now remember, scripture
says that his bowels burst out when he hung himself. Speaking
of Judas. I mean, that's kind of graphic
in its description. But when the Lord passes his
judgment on a man, there is no reprieve of it. Let this be the
reward of mine adversaries from the Lord and of them that speak
evil against my soul. And then the Lord speaks. and
in his humanity. But do thou for me, O God, the
Lord, for thy name's sake. Now notice that he doesn't ask
the Lord to bless him for his sake, but he could have, could
he not? I mean, because he was that perfect
man. He did do everything that the
Lord said, but he did not ask the Lord to bless him for his
sake. He said, bless me for thy name's sake. And that is the
point at which we come unto the Lord, because thy mercy is good. Deliver thou me, for I am poor
and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. Oh, it's hard for
us to comprehend how the Lord could speak such words. I'm poor
and needy. Yet he possessed all things.
Oh, what a glorious thing. I'm gone like a shadow when it
declined. I'm tossed up and down as a locust. You know, when the flight of
locusts are going along, they don't really have any power.
The wind blows the locusts in wherever it wants to go. I mean,
the locusts, they might get up and fly, but they can't really
direct where they're going. The wind blows them where the
Lord would have them to go. My knees are weak through fasting.
Help me, oh Lord, my God. Oh, save me according to thy
mercy. That they may know that this is thy hand. that thou,
Lord, hast done it. Now, is that not a picture of
that which the Lord said, that Peter said, that ye have taken
him by wicked hands, have crucified according to the foreknowledge
of God, according to the purpose of God, ye have taken him by
wicked hands, have crucified and slain? O Lord, that they
may know that you have done it. And it is the Lord who has brought
this to pass. Let my adversaries be clothed
with shame and let them cover themselves with their own confusion
as with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord
with my mouth. Yea, I will praise him among
the multitude. For he shall stand at the right
hand of the poor to save him from those that condemn his soul. The Lord Jesus became poor for
our sake. And the Lord stood by him. The Lord received him, even unto
himself, as that perfect substitute. And he received sinners, even
in the present time, not in their sin, but in the righteousness
of Christ. The only way that a man can come
unto the Lord is in righteousness, but the only men who will come
to the Lord with that righteousness are those who know themselves
to be sinners. How does a man come to know himself to be a
sinner? Only the Lord can teach him that. I mean, you know, every
man knows he's done wrong things, but you see, David confessed
what it is to know when a man knows he's a sinner, he says,
against thee, and thee only have I sinned. See, a lot of people
feel like they've sinned against other men, and they've done things,
you know, they shouldn't have done, and this, that, and the
other. But when the Lord brings a man to the place where he understands
that his sin is egregious, not for all of the things that men
can come up with, but for one reason, because it is against
a holy God who said, This is my will and purpose and this
is my commandment. And we have transgressed those
commandments. And it is against the Lord that
our sin comes up. But thanks be unto God that it
is the Lord who has provided the lamb for sacrifice. And in
spite of and in keeping with, probably not shouldn't say in
spite of, in keeping with the Lord's judgment. He has sent
his son into the world to be a payment for sin, that he might
be just and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus. Glorious, a wonderful thing. Oh, that the Lord might give
us faith today, that he might cause us to fall on our faces
and cry out to him for mercy. And you know I believe that when
a man seeks the mercy of God, he'll find it. Judas didn't seek
the mercy of God. Judas sought consolation in himself. And he hung himself. He said,
well, I'll end this. I'll put myself out of my misery.
And that's what he did. And the judgment of God was upon
him. May the Lord help us.