looking once again at Psalm 102.
Of course, as we looked at this
last week, and we noticed that these words are indeed the words
of Christ. They are the prayers of Christ. They are made evident that He
is that one who is speaking here because he was that one whom
the Lord was pleased to bruise for our sake. And beginning there
in verse 10, he says, because of thine indignation and thy
wrath, for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down. My days are like a shadow that
declineth and I am withered like grass. But thou, O Lord, shalt
endure forever in thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt
arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea,
the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure
in her stones and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall
fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth of
thy glory. When the Lord shall build up
Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer
of the destitute and not despise their prayer. This shall be written
for the generation to come and the people which shall be created
shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold
the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those
that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord
in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem. When the people are gathered
together in the kingdoms to serve the Lord, he weakeneth my strength
in the way, he shortened my days. I said, oh my God, take me not
away in the midst of my days, thy years are throughout all
generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundations
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They
shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall
wax old like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change
them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end. The children of thy servant shall
continue, and their seed shall be established before thee. Now the Lord came into the world
for one reason, primarily to do the will of his Father. And
it is that the will of the Father to deliver the people that He
gave to His Son from before the foundation of the world. Now
that's a glorious thing. Now a lot of people, and this
is the natural man, he looks at creation and some men are
moved as they look at creation to consider that, well, there
must be a God and there must be a God who created it. And
then he starts to think in his natural mind, well, why did God
create it? Well, he must have had something
in mind when he created it, and so he begins to think, well,
because he delighted in the beauty of what he created. And then
some tell us, well, he created man. Why did he create man? And
I've heard some say, well, he created man because he was lonesome
and he needed somebody you know to be a friend to him and he
wanted to befriend somebody and so he said well I think I'll
create man and lo and behold man messed it all up because
God created the world and he put man in it and he had all
his big plans for what he was going to have the world to be
and Adam messed it up and then the Lord said well What am I
gonna do about this? And he thought and he thought
and he come up with a plan that he would do something to rescue
man. Now that's how the natural man
thinks of these things. Because he does not understand
and men cannot understand by nature the glory of God in the
creation of the world and the purpose for which God created
the world. He created the world for his
glory. and everything that's in this
world is unto the glory of God. Now, some men can't see that.
They say, well, that couldn't possibly be to the glory of God. All this wickedness and all this
stuff is going on. Now, be I know this and understand
this, wickedness is wickedness in the sight of God and he hates
wickedness. Yet he has created the wicked
for his own purpose. And He has ordained all things
to come to pass according to the good pleasure of His will.
Now it is by the grace of God that a man's given understanding
to rejoice in that and to magnify His name because you see, He
will have the glory. Man doesn't like that really.
He wants to share a little bit in it. Well, surely there's something
that a man can do to persuade God to do something. I mean,
isn't that just normal? Isn't that how people think?
I mean, let's just all pray. Let's get us a prayer chain and
a prayer letter, and let's do all these things, and we'll cause
God to hear us. And we'll rub the lamp enough,
and lo and behold, the genie will pop out, and he'll give
us just exactly what we want. That's how men think by nature,
is it not? You've thought that way. So have
I. I mean, we've thought, well,
you know, I mean, I grew up basically thinking that was the way it
was. I mean, if you prayed hard enough, you could get God to
do stuff. That's what you wanted to do.
I mean, if you was behind in a football game, you could pray
and God would call somebody to score a touchdown and you'd win
the game. And buddy, you know, That's how
you thought. That's how the natural man thinks.
I'm not amazed that people think that way. That's just natural.
But you see, when God in His mercy is pleased to awaken men
to see and understand that He had a purpose in the creation
of the world, which didn't have a thing in the world to do with
any of that. but he would bring glory to his name. He said, I'm
a jealous God and I will not share my glory with any. There's
not a thing in this world that a man can do to earn the favor
of God or to cause God to do anything according to the good
pleasure of his will. And that just puts man into a
place where he don't like to be. because he has no control. Brethren, we have no control,
but here's the glorious thing, is that there is a God who is
in control of all things, and he has favor upon his people. Now, the whole work that he did in the nation
of Israel, as Brother Al's been carrying us through, and we've
seen all these things that the Lord unfolded to Israel, and
we see the weakness and wickedness of Israel on every page of the
Scriptures. Now what do we learn from that?
We learn from that the nature of man, do we not? I mean, when
you see wickedness in the earth, and you have a tendency to look
at it and say, oh, those terrible people. all those wicked politicians
up there in Washington and all of these things. And men look
at all these things, they think how they wouldn't do stuff like
that. But you see, the only reason
that any man on the earth is not the wickedest of men doing
the wickedest of things is because of the grace of God and the mercy
to keep him back from it. God will restrain that wickedness
which is not unto his purpose. Because men will naturally run
to it. Adam didn't need any encouragement
to eat of the fruit. All he needed was an excuse.
He didn't need any encouragement to eat the fruit. He just needed
an excuse. He just needed an opportunity.
And so we're not amazed at the way Adam went, because Adam went
the way of all men. Men by nature will sin. They will go contrary to the
way of God. Now, we say they go contrary
to the way of God, and surely they do, because God has set
an order and a decree in the earth, and he has set the bounds
of men that cannot pass. And His will will be done. But
make no mistake about it, men will be held accountable for
the things that are in their heart and the things that they
do. Now some people grow, they don't like to think of that.
You know, they either want to go off one way or they want to
go off the other. They say, well, God doesn't have
any control over the things men do. Or they go the other way
and they say, well, we just do anything we want to do and it's
all right. No, the things that you want
to do are not all right. There is a way that seemeth right
to man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And you can
look at the things you want to do and most of the time, the
things you want to do are the very things you should not do.
I mean, you know, when somebody cuts you off in traffic, What
you want to do is you want to run into them or you want to
do something. You know, you can just get mad. That's what you
want to do. That's the way men think. It's
the way we are by nature. But it's only by the grace of
God that those things are restrained in us. You know, why haven't
we committed murder, robbed a bank, done any number of things? Why? Because God kept us back from
it. The wrath of man shall praise
him. Remainder of wrath he will restrain. He is a gracious God. And indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world with one purpose, which was to fulfill
the will of his father, to do that which the father appointed
him to do. There was no escaping that. You know, we've often thought,
I've thought it, I said, well, you know, if I'd have been there,
buddy, I'd have done something. No, I wouldn't have done anything
if I'd have been there because the Lord had ordained those things
to come to pass. I couldn't have been there any
more than you could have been there because the Lord ordained
for you to be here. Some people say, well, I could
have been anywhere this morning. No, you couldn't. You're here. Why are you here? Because God
ordained that you would be here. Well, I could have not come today. No, you couldn't. You're here. The things that occur are the
things that God has set in motion and caused to occur. Did you
decide to come here today? You absolutely did. Did your
hand turn the key in the ignition? You sure did. But you see, all
of these things occurred according to the good pleasure of Almighty
God to fulfill His purpose. Oh, you know that we should be
included. in the covenant of promise, that
we should be among those who look at those things that the
Savior did and rejoice. Because we didn't know to do
that. You couldn't have done that.
I mean, a man, you can tell a man, well, you need to believe. Well,
sure he does. No, I wish men would believe.
I wish I could do something and cause men to believe. You know,
I wish I could cause my children to love the things of God. I
wish I could. But the reality is that apart
from the grace and mercy of God to turn a man's heart to seek
after him, he won't do it. And what a blessing it is to
be among the saints of God. The Lord Jesus Christ came. with
this purpose and to fulfill the will of his father. And he said,
because of thine indignation and wrath, all of these things
came upon him. As he spoke, as we looked last
week about, he says, I'm like a pelican of the wilderness.
Mine enemies reproach me. They are mad, they're sworn against
me. I've eaten ashes like bread, mingled my drink with weeping.
He bore our sorrows and our griefs. He was acquainted with grief. He came to know what it was firsthand. He learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. Because of thine indignation
and thy wrath, the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ
that it might not be poured out on us. Just like as Brother Al
brought it out there a moment ago. The wrath of God was poured
out on those 24,000 that died at Baal Peor in order that his
wrath be not poured out upon the multitude that was left. You see, they were just as prone
and apt to have done what all the rest of them did, but God
restrained them, kept them back. He preserved them according to
the good pleasure of his will. The Lord Jesus Christ bore his
indignation that we might be spared in thy wrath. And he says,
for thy has lifted me up. You see, he said, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all men unto me. Now we know that all men don't
come unto him, even though he is lifted up. Why is that? Because
the Lord doesn't give all men ears to hear and eyes to see.
But what he meant was, or what he means in what he said, this
is not what we say he meant, this is what he meant. He would
draw all of those whom he would draw unto himself if he be lifted
up. And he was lifted up. As Moses
lifted up that serpent in the wilderness and he said to the
children of Israel, look, and the plague will be stayed. Now
there were some people that died in the plague. The serpent was there. But you
see, some men looked, and they were healed. Now were they healed
because they looked? Well, according to the action
that the Lord ordained, that could be said to be true. But
you see, they were healed because God appointed them unto the salvation
which was set forth before them. And he said, look unto me. He
said, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and
I'll give you rest. See, old men are not laboring.
Old men are not heavy laden. Old men are not, they don't see
themselves to be sinners. Oh, well, every man knows he's
done some things wrong. You wouldn't find anybody. You
couldn't find anybody that would say they never did anything wrong.
But you see, it's not about whether or not you know you've done something
wrong. It's the one against whom those wrongs were committed.
That's the important matter. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. You see,
true repentance is that which is wrought in a man's heart when
he sees that his sin is against God. It's not that he's just
done some bad stuff. But he has been an affront in
the eyes of Almighty God by the things that he's done. And he
comes by the grace of God to hate the very thing, that garment
that's spotted with the flesh. He sees himself to be corrupt
before Almighty God. Why is that? It's because Christ
has borne the wrath of God in his behalf. You see, a man cannot
come to hate his sin apart from the grace of God poured out upon
him and that which is wrought by the hand of Almighty God in
pouring out His wrath on Christ. You see, Christ prayed for His
people. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou hast given them to me. And those were those
for whom He prayed. And when He hung on Calvary's
cross, He made an atonement for the very same ones, those whom
He loved. He was lifted up on the cross. Thou hast lifted me up, but,
He says, and thou hast cast me down. Because you see, He was
cast down before Almighty God as He bore that wrath. And He
underwent what it was to be destroyed. See, men don't have any understanding
by nature, and we have very little even though we've been given
some comprehension of the wrath and destructive purpose of God
upon sin. Men have no understanding of
the nature of the wrath of Almighty God. And the only way that we can
begin to have any glimpse of it is when we see what He did
to His only begotten Son. And if a man does not believe
that God will judge sin, then he's never looked at Calvary's
cross. Because there is the evidence
of the fact that God hates sin. He said, my days are like a shadow
that declineth. And I'm withered like grass.
It's going away. You know, the shadows get long
in the afternoon as the sun goes down. But they get to a place where
they're long, but then all of a sudden they disappear because
the light has gone away. And the light was taken from
the Lord Jesus Christ when he said, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Now I can't really comprehend
that. I mean, he who was the light
of the world, and the scripture says in hymns, no darkness at
all, and yet darkness came upon him. How could that be? except that he underwent that
for us. You see, he experienced that
darkness in our behalf. I'm withered like the grass,
he said, I thirst. He was dried up in his body. See, the Lord, the sufferings
that the Lord Jesus Christ underwent were indeed physical. And that
was a terrific thing. I mean, crucifixion, as I have
read about it and things I would know and understand intuitively
about it, is an awful way to die physically. But the anguish
that gripped the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ far exceeded
any consideration that we might have of the suffering that he
had in his body. Because not only did he have
that terrible suffering in his body, but he had the same suffering
in his mind and heart as he poured out his soul unto death even
before he went to the cross. As the scripture says, that he
sweat as it were great drops of blood because of the anguish
that was upon his heart for the things that he bore our sin and
it crushed him like grapes in a wine press. And he says, I'm
dried up. He said, I'm withered like grass.
But thou, O Lord. Now listen, in the midst of his
suffering, you know, in the midst of the greatest, grandest display
of human suffering that could ever be set forth before men,
the Lord Jesus Christ gave glory to his Father. Even though he
said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But yet he
said, into thy hands I commend my spirit. You see, his faith
never wavered. He was perfect in all of his
ways. I don't comprehend it. I can't
explain it. I don't understand it. But I
know that it's true, that he says here, that I have been cast
down, I'm withered, but thou, O Lord, shalt endure forever
in thy remembrance unto all generations." Because the glory of God was
His goal. Who for the joy that was set
before Him. What was the joy? The joy that
He could do the Father's will. And what was the Father's will?
To bring many sons unto glory. And He rejoiced in that. As a
strong man to run a race, He was glad when he looked upon
those things, and he shall see of the travail of his soul and
shall be satisfied. But thou, O Lord, shalt endure
forever in thy remembrance to all generations. You see, there's
never been a time in the earth when the witness of God has not
been present with his people. When he called Noah to come into
the ark, and he destroyed the whole world, the presence of
God was known unto all generations. And those eight souls that were
in that ark, as they went through that storm, I don't know what
went through their minds, but I know one thing. They had to
be thinking, oh, what a great deliverance has been given unto
us. I don't think they had any idea
of what the extent of the destruction was, but they had to have some
understanding of rejoicing that they had been delivered from
whatever it was that was going on around them. And so the witness
of God is truth. The remembrance of him has been
unto all generations, but in all generations from the beginning,
when he called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees. And he didn't
say, Abram, well, I wish you'd go down here and do this. And
would you? See, Abraham, some of these preachers
today, they say, well, Abraham had a decision to make. And he
made the right decision. There was no decision about it.
The Lord said, Abram, come out of this place. And Abram did. Why? Because the Lord called
him. You see, when the Lord calls men, they come. All that the
Father giveth me, the Lord Jesus said, shall come to me. All of them. Not part of them. But all of them, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me,
who's he talking about? Those whom the Lord calls. Him
that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. Now that's a true
statement all by itself. But unfortunately it's been co-opted
by those who would try to make the Lord say something that He
didn't say. But it is true. Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out." Is it not? Have you ever
known anybody that came to the Lord and the Lord said, get away
from me? It's not going to happen. You see, when a man knows himself
to be in need of mercy and he seeks the one who is the author
of mercy, he will be heard. The Lord hears sinners. When
a man knows himself to be a sinner and he applies unto Christ, the
Lord will receive him. How do we know that? Because
the Lord said He would. He said, come unto me all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Not I'll try, not I'll hope to,
if you'll only let me. He said, I will do it. What a
glorious Savior He is. The testimony of the Lord is
true in all generations. The remembrance of the one whose
name shall endure forever. Who, what is the name? What's
the name of God? Huh? People, you know, you look
in the scripture and the Lord, he's called himself many things. But he said there is a name which
is above every name. And at that name, every knee
shall bow, and every tongue confess. There is the name which has been
shown to us, because the name, you see, is indicative of the
authority and power of the one in whom that name is vested,
and He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. The Alpha
and the Omega, and His name is Jesus. What a glorious name. He's the Savior of sinners. And
this is a name that's been declared to all generations. Now, they
didn't know those syllables. I mean, Abraham didn't know those
syllables, did he? You know, there's a group of
folks that teach that if you've got to know the name, I mean,
the actual, you know, Hebrew syllables. And if you don't know
that name, I mean, if you can't say that, then, buddy, you're
out. I mean, you're not in. It's not about the syllables,
but it's about the person. It's about the One who is the
everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. The government shall
be upon His shoulders. The same One who appeared to
Philip when Philip said, Lord, show us the Father. He said,
Philip, if I've been so long time with you and you've not
known me, He said, He that has seen Me has seen the Father.
How are you going to see the Father? You can't see the Father
except as you see Him in Christ. But if you have seen Him, you
see, if you've seen Christ, then you've seen the Father. And when
you pray to the Father, you've prayed in the name of the Son. Oh, what a glorious, what a wondrous
Savior He is. and his remembrances be to all
generations. There shall not a generation
arise in the earth. You know, people get all worried.
Oh, the government, you know, we're going downhill, and communism's
coming, and they're going to take prayer out of the schools,
and they're going to burn the Bibles, and they're going to
do all these things. Let them do all those things. The world
cannot affect the purpose of Almighty God. to deliver His
truth to all generations. If they burn every Bible tomorrow,
and sometimes I almost wonder if it wouldn't be a good thing
if they did, because People wouldn't get so caught up and worried
about fighting about this thing and that thing and this version
and that one and this perversion and that and all this kind of
stuff. Listen, the Word of God is a living Word. It can't anymore
be captured in the pages of this book than the man in the moon. He could be real. Listen, The
Word of God is living, it's quick, it's powerful, it's sharper than
any two-edged sword. David said, Thy Word if I hid
in my heart, then I might not sin against thee. And that's
the only place that the Word will do you any good. I love
studying the Scriptures, but they won't do me a bit of good
unless the Lord puts it in my heart. Yes, He causes me to delight
in those things that are revealed in the pages of this book. Oh,
that His name might endure forever, and it will, thy remembrance
unto all generations. Thou shalt arise and have mercy
upon Zion. Now think of all the nations
in the earth. And the Lord said to the nation
of Israel, He said, I didn't set my love on you because you
were more than any people. He said, you were the fewest
of all. You're just a straggly bunch out here. But he said,
I loved you because I loved you, because it seemed good in my
sight. Now we know that Israel is but a type in foreshadow,
a picture in the Old Testament of that people which the Lord
has chosen in Christ from the beginning. The Lord didn't change
who his people were. In other words, he didn't choose
Israel, and then he said, well, I'm gonna choose another people
over here. No, the people of God are the people of God from
the beginning. They're not all Israel, which
are of Israel, but the Lord said, thy and remnant are mine. We see that in that passage Brother
Al pointed out this morning. The Lord has a people among the
people. that call themselves Israel,
but we, by the grace of God, that Zion, the church of God,
those whose names are written in heaven, that's the true Zion
of God. That's the people of God. That's
the people that all of the scriptures would indicate. You can't understand
the Old Testament if you're not given an understanding of the
New Testament. I had a fellow tell me one time,
well, you've got to know the Old Testament in order to know
the New Testament. I said, brother, you've got that
completely backwards. You can't have a clue about what
the Old Testament is about until you know what the New Testament
is about. Because Christ came to shed light on those things,
to show us what they were. I mean, when the priest went
into the Holy of Holies, that didn't accomplish anything. The
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. In those
things is a remembrance made of sin. Every year they went
back over and over and over and over again. But when Christ came,
He brought the fulfillment of all those things which those
priests had labored for years to set forth. Christ did in a
moment. He has obtained eternal redemption
for us. and He does ever live to make
intercession for us. I heard a guy today, in fact,
on the radio, and he was talking about how that the Lord is up
in heaven praying for us. He's ever living to make intercession.
He's praying up there now. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
praying in heaven. He does make intercession for
us, but you know how He makes intercession? By the very fact
that He's there. that He arose from the dead,
and He ascended back to the right hand of the Father. And His very
presence before Almighty God is the intercession. You see,
He is our intercessor. Not by words. He's not saying,
oh, Father, don't look at what He's done there. I mean, that's
kind of the picture, you know. Well, He's been a bad boy, but
Lord, I want you to have mercy on Him. No. The Father sees the
Son, and He's satisfied. And when he sees the Son, he
sees all of those who are in the Son. And this is that group
of people which he's speaking about when he's talking about
Zion. He said, the Lord, when the Lord shall build up Zion,
I got ahead of myself. Thou shalt arise and have mercy
upon Zion. You see, that's the people of
God. That's the people whom the Lord shows mercy for the time
to favor her, yea, the set time is come. See, the Lord has set
times for things. And they can't occur until that
time comes. I mean, a woman went to the well
just like she did every morning. But you see, the Lord had a set
time. And he said, I must need to go through some area. And
the set time was come. And that woman went about her
business just like she always did. And she had no idea when
she left home that day that she would go back home a woman whose
mind and heart had been changed and transformed by meeting with
the one who co-ordered a set time to come. Zacchaeus climbed
up a tree. He had no idea that the Lord
even knew he was up there or anything else. But you see there
was a set time when the Lord would meet with Zacchaeus. And the time to favor Zion has
come. Yes, today is the day of salvation. There's not another one. This
is it. This is that favored time. The
Lord will set a time, or He has set a time, and He will favor
Zion. He will bring His people unto
Himself. For thy servants take pleasure
in her stones and favor the dust thereof. Now my mama, she was
a very meticulous housekeeper, and she didn't like for there
to be dust anywhere. Of course, there was from time
to time, because she was busy doing a lot of things, but, buddy,
if she saw dust, I mean, buddy, she'd get busy, especially if
you had company coming. She sure didn't want anybody
to think, you know, that there was dust in the house. And so,
you know, she didn't have any favor to dust, and I don't guess
any of us do, but the scripture says that The people of God love
the house of God so much that they even love the dust of it. I mean, even the thing that people
have no regard to. The glorious thing. The Lord
has privileged the people of God. He's privileged them to
be their Lord and to meet with them. when the saints of God come together.
And that's a glorious thing. And you can't explain that to
somebody, and you can't give a man a love for the house of
God. You can't give a man a love for
the assembly of the saints. You just can't do it. You can't
shame a man into it. You can't browbeat him. You can't
do, I don't care what you can do, but when God gives a man
a love for the assembly of the saints, he loves the assembly
of the saints. And he can't brag about it, it's
just the truth. I mean, he can't help it. He
loves even the dust. I've been in some meetings that
the men of the world and people would look at and say, well,
that was about a dry, dull, dead thing. I thought it was great. Why is that? I don't know why
that is. It's just the goodness and grace
of Almighty God to give a man a love for the things of God. And he will cause us love. You know, David said, I'd rather
be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the
tents of wickedness. A day in thy court's better than
a thousand otherwise, elsewhere. What a glorious thing, when the
Lord is pleased, faith resigned. Behold, her set time has come.
This is the day of salvation, brethren. We're not waiting for
another day. You know, we say even so come
Lord Jesus and we believe that he's coming again to gather his
people unto himself. But brethren, we're not looking
for another day to arise other than this day which he has given
us. This day, the day is the Lord's day. This is the Lord's
day. Let us rejoice and be glad therein because he is the God
of salvation and he has visited his people with that salvation.