Looking at Psalm 102. This is
a prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and poureth
out his complaint before the Lord. Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and let my cry come unto Thee. Hide not Thy face from me in
the day when I am in trouble. Incline thine ear unto me in
the day when I call, answer me speedily. For my days are consumed
like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart
is smitten and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat
my bread. By reason of the voice of my
groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. I'm like a pelican of
the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert.
I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Mine
enemies reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against
me are sworn against me. For I have eaten ashes like bread,
and mangled my drink with weeping. 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, and 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 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 and the kingdoms are to serve the Lord, He weakeneth
my strength in the way, He shorteneth my days. I said, O my God, take
me not away in the midst of my days. Thy years are throughout
all generations. Of old hast thou laid the foundation
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 servants
shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee."
Now this is a glorious psalm if you understand who it is that's
speaking, who it is that is the afflicted. This is a prayer of
the afflicted. Well, who was afflicted? He was
afflicted. He was taken before his tormentors. He was as a sheep before shearers
as numb, so openeth not his mouth. And this is a prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ as he suffered in the behalf of his people. He
was afflicted. And he was a man of sorrows,
the scripture says, and who has known sorrow like his. Even though,
you know, we have each one, as every man who's born into this
world has had a measure of sorrow, there's not anybody in here that
has not from time to time in their life had something that
made them very sorrowful. But nothing compares to the sorrow
that the Lord Jesus Christ had. And he had no reason to be sorrowful
except that he took upon himself our sorrows. He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. And so he sorrowed in our behalf
when he didn't have to. Nothing compelled him to do so.
accept his own purpose and his own will. But as a man, he came
and he walked among us that he might be tempted in all points,
tried in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. And
this is a prayer of a man who is in such a state as that. And he says, hear my prayer,
O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Now he was continually
praying. Many times we read in the scripture
that he continued all night in prayer. uh... he uh... had a
great bargain and those that have great burdens or compelled
to pray uh... a man that doesn't have any burdens
he doesn't pray. I mean what does a man need to
pray for if he doesn't have any burden? I mean if nothing's weighing
upon his mind a man's not going to pray. That's just the nature
of men uh... now perfectly We should be in prayer all the time.
In fact, the scripture says pray without ceasing. But I never
met anybody that did. Did you? But the Lord Jesus Christ
did. He was continually in communion
with His Father. Why? Because He was one with
His Father. And all things that the Father
willed, He willed. But yet as a man he experienced
the sorrows of this world and he underwent those things and
the scripture says that he learned obedience as a son. Now that's an amazing passage
of scripture if you pause and consider it. He learned obedience
by the things which he suffered. That is those things which he
experienced. He experienced and understood
and not that he, it was not understanding, but he had the full, we can't,
no man can say he doesn't know about these things because he
underwent them. Now he ordained them. He directed
them, He created them according to the good pleasure of His will,
but He underwent them. The very same thing, just as
He made the law that said, the soul that sinneth shall die.
And then He bore the curse of that very law which He set forth. See, the law is not some decree
that's set forth in the earth that even the Lord has to abide
by. In other words, the law, some
people think about the law as if the law guides what God does. The law does not guide what God
does. God guides the law. He is the
law. He made the law. There'd be no
law if there was no God. But that's one of the reasons
why we know there is a God. Because there is a law. And the
scripture says that He's written His law in the heart of men. Why is it that a young child
knows that it's wrong when another child takes his toy? Why is that? That's because the law of God
is written in his heart and he knows it's wrong to steal, to
take something away. But oh my, we see the opposite,
the other side of that in play at the same time because when
he gets ready to take you know, a toy from another child, then
he thinks it's all right, doesn't he? Why? Because of the corruption
that's in his heart. But he can't erase the fact that
he knows that it's wrong to steal. Every thief, there's not a thief
in the jail that does not know that it's wrong to steal. Now
they can justify in their mind why they went somewhere and stole
something because somebody didn't really need it. You know, you
ever had anybody say they took something because you know it
was just sitting there and nobody was using it? So I mean, I had
as good a right to take it as anybody else. But if it had been
their possession and somebody came along and took it, what
would they say? Oh, sorry, Joker, he stole my
stuff. So everybody knows what the law
says, because this law of God is written in the hearts of men,
they cannot escape it. And that same law that they would
use to condemn somebody else is the very law that condemns
them. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He
underwent these things in the behalf of His people. And He cried unto the Lord, O
Lord, let my cry come unto Thee, not to somebody else. See, the
Lord didn't seek aid from men. Now, we in our weakness, we do
seek help from one another, and that's not necessarily a bad
thing because we're all in the same shape. But the Lord Jesus
Christ couldn't receive help from men because men couldn't
offer Him any aid. And so it is that He cried unto
His Father, Hide not Thy face from Me, In the day when I'm
in trouble, and he was in trouble, was he not? I mean, he was in
trouble from the beginning because they hated him without cause. He came unto men seeking to do
good, and at every turn they came and they tried to trip him
up and tried to destroy him, tried to take him captive in
one way or another. In the day when I call, answer
me speedily. Now isn't that what we desire
when we're in trouble? I mean, you know, if we're having
a problem, we want deliverance then, don't we? We don't pray
and say, Lord, you know, I got my, I got this ailment, but Father,
just, you know, next week or next month will be all right
if you'll do something about it. No, we're praying, we want
something done speedily. That's just the nature of man.
And so it is that when a man's in distress, he needs something
done then. And so when the Lord cried out
to His Father, He needed that at that point in time. Answer
me speedily, for my days are consumed like smoke. I'm just become a vapor. They've
gone away. You know, the older you get,
the more you can understand something of that, my days are consumed
like smoke. I mean, you know, they just go
away. What is smoke? I mean, you know, can you capture
smoke? I mean, do you have any smoke
from any fires that you've seen in the past? No, it all just
goes away, doesn't it? I mean, you can't keep smoke.
I mean, I guess you can put it in a jar and you could keep it
for a while, but if you put smoke in a jar and you come back tomorrow,
it won't be there, because it goes away. And so it is that
the nature and way of man is consumed, but even more so in
the case of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He was consumed for our
sake, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten
and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread. Now,
the Lord prayed and fasted and prayed. He prayed for 40 days.
Now men look at fasting a little different, I believe, than what
the scripture speaks about fasting. Now there were prescribed fasts
in the scripture. And there is such a thing as
a prescribed fast. But the fasting of the sons of
God is not done, is not prescribed. There's not a time, the scripture
does not say on the third day of the month at four o'clock,
from four o'clock to such and such, you should fast. That's
not what the point of fasting is. Although that was laid down
in those ways that men might learn what fasting was. But the
fasting of the Lord Jesus Christ was not that he set out to fast,
but that he set out to pray. And because he was in such earnest
prayer for forty days, in other words, he didn't just sit around
and play tiddlywinks while he fasted. He prayed, and because
he was in such a state of continuous prayer before God, he forgot
to eat, or that eating was not on his mind. He didn't eat because
he didn't want to eat. Eating wasn't what was occupying
his mind. And so it's not the doing without
the food is the purpose of fasting, but it is the fasting is that
which causes us to do without the food. Now, I'm not telling
you that there's not, you know, a measure in which a man might
set out to not eat in order to focus his mind, but the purpose
is the prayer. It's not the fasting. You see,
some people get caught up in fasting and they just, well,
we're fasting. I mean, they even say there's
health benefits in fasting, and maybe there is. I could probably
do with some of that. You know, we could all probably
do with doing without food, but what would be better? would be
to be in such a place of desire to pray and commune with the
Lord that eating moved from our mind. Now, we wouldn't last long
at that. I wouldn't go very far before
I needed something to eat or wanted something to eat or did
eat. But he says, I forgot, by reason
of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleaved to my skin. And so he was dehydrated. When the devil came to him, it
was a real temptation, was it not? When he said, you know,
I'll give you something to eat. You'll fall down and worship
me. But just like Brother Al pointed out, he basically said,
I have bread to eat that you know not of, meat to eat. Now,
you know, it's always an amazing thing to me that He who created
water and made man with the need to hydrate Himself, yet He was
thirsty for our sake. He's the living water. And yet, when He hung on the
cross, He said, I thirst. by reason of the voice of my
groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. I'm dried out. I'm like a pelican of the wilderness. I'm like an owl of the desert.
I watch and am as a sparrow upon the housetop. Now he uses three
kinds of birds here. And there's some significance
here. Maybe we can see them. But the
Lord made all the creation. for a purpose. Now I don't know
what that purpose is. I look at some various animals
and stuff like cats. Now I often wonder why did the
Lord create cats? Now some people love cats. You
know, they just, I mean, cats is just, they just want to have
a bunch of cats around. And I look at cats as just a
nuisance, you know, as something that we could do without, but
the Lord has a purpose with cats. And I think one of the things
that he uses cats for is to teach men the difference between women
and men. Men are like dogs and women are
like cats. And, you know, men are pretty
dumb, really. I mean, we just kind of, you
know, we just think that, but a cat, you know, they're more
astute about things. They're looking and they're weighing
things up. And so that it is, but getting
off of the subject there on something silly like that, but. He said,
I'm like a pelican of the wilderness. Now, one thing that you see about
pelicans, you don't ever see a flock of pelicans. I mean,
pelicans are just pelicans. And I don't know if the pelican
that he's talking about here and calling a pelican, if it
would be the same creature that you and I would call a pelican.
It may or may not be, but as far as we know what a pelican
is, it is a creature that you just, when you see a, now you
might see several pelicans together, but you're not gonna see a bunch
of pelicans moving around as a flock. like blackbirds or something
like that. But the pelican, as a solitary
creature, that's the way the Lord was in the earth, wasn't
it? I mean, he was a solitary man. He didn't really have any
friends, although he had men who he accompanied with who he
would call his friends. But yet, when the time came for
men to stand with him, where'd they go? They all fled. So were they really his friends?
I mean is that the way a friend acts? Now we know they are weak
in the flesh and the Lord just pointed that out. But he is the
friend and he would have us to call him our friend. And he is
our friend and we are his friend hopefully. in all those things. So he says, I'm like a pelican
of the wilderness. I'm solitary. I don't have anybody
that is with me. Lord, You are my help, my hope.
He said, I'm like an owl of the desert. Again, an owl. You don't
see a flock of owls. You know, you see owls, they're
by themselves. But where does an owl live? I
mean, where does an owl have his movement? It's in the darkness,
is it not? I mean, you very seldom ever
see an owl in the daytime. Why? Because they hunt in the
night. They're sleeping somewhere in
the daytime, but in the nights when they come out. And the Lord
would have us to understand that he was in darkness. He who is
the light of the world was yet in darkness for our sake. He
understood the darkness. He felt the darkness. He knew
what it was like to be separated from the Father in that union
which they had before the world was. I'm like an owl of the desert. I watch and am as a sparrow alone
upon the housetop. Now a sparrow, usually when you
see one sparrow, you see a bunch of them. I mean, they're flitting
around and going around. But he says, I'm as a sparrow
up in the housetop, that is up in the rafters of the roof. And he says, I watch as a sparrow. He sees all things, but men don't
see him. See, you don't know that a sparrow
might be up there. He might have a nest. Unless
he comes out, you wouldn't even know he's up there. But he's
watching all things. The Lord said that even a sparrow
cannot fall to the ground without the purpose of Almighty God being
fulfilled. And so the sparrow, though it's
an insignificant creature, is actually one that the Lord was
pleased to use to show his absolute predestinating purpose in the
earth. Not even a sparrow falls to the
ground without him, but he said, I am as a sparrow upon the housetop. I'm separated from men, though
I see men in all those things. Mine enemies reproach me all
the day, and they that are mad against me are sworn against
me. And what is this madness? He's
not talking about they're angry at me, although they were angry
at him, but what he means is they're mad men. That is, they're not reasonable
men. They have one purpose in mind. It's like the enemies of our
president. I mean, they're madmen. They
just throw all reason to the side and nothing matters but
just to destroy. That's all they think about,
just come up with some way to destroy. That's just the way
that it is. Well, that's how the, I mean,
this is a small thing when we look at the president, but I
mean, this was just a continual thing, even unto death did they
pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, the men that pursued
the Lord Jesus Christ to death, they hated Caesar with all their
heart. But yet, when they were brought,
when Pilate, they brought before him, and Pilate said, I'm going,
what do you want me to do with your king? They said, he's not
our king. They said, we don't have any king but Caesar. They
hated Caesar. I mean, they wouldn't walk across
the street to spit on Caesar. They didn't care anything about
Caesar. But yet they were mad in their
quest to destroy Jesus Christ. And they came together to do
so. My enemies reproach me all the
day. And they that are mad against
me are sworn against me. And it is still true today that
men hate the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now they like what they
think about the gospel of Christ. So when they can put it in terms
that it suits them, they like it all right. When it comes to seeing what
it is that Christ did when he came into the earth to purchase
a people with his blood and secure their salvation for eternity,
they don't really like that. Now, they like it if it's kind
of an open-ended deal so that men are the ones that make the
deciding choice. Of course, that puts men back
in the driver's seat, does it not? And men can say, well, it's
up to us. We really have the power. But
the fact is that men don't have the power. Christ has the power. And it is in Him that we rejoice. And they are those that have
sworn against the truth of God. I guarantee you this, that there's
one doctrine that if you preach, In most places, you will be roundly
condemned. And that is to say that Jesus
Christ died and paid the price for his people. And not one of
those for whom he died shall ever perish. Natural man doesn't
like that doctrine. Now they like it, okay, if you
tell them that's all up to you. The Lord made it possible for
you to be saved. Well, the Lord didn't make it
possible for us to be saved. He saved us with his own blood
on Calvary's cross. And dear brethren, that's the
message that rings true throughout the scripture. You can't find
a place in the scripture that does not bear that out to be
true. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for those whom thou hast given me out of the world. Now, if it is true that Jesus
Christ died for every individual on the face of the earth, tell
me why it is that when he prayed, he didn't pray for everybody.
He didn't pray for them all. He prayed, he said, Father, 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. Now, dear brethren, it's a glorious
thing when the Lord's pleased to show a man the truth of the
gospel, that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. He's not
the one that tries to save sinners. He's the Savior of sinners. What
a glorious thing it is, for I have eaten ashes, Like bread, mingle
my drink with weeping. Eatin' ashes, you ever eaten
any ashes? I've cooked a few things and
burned them and tried to eat them and I guess that would be
kinda like eatin' ashes, wouldn't it? Not very pleasant. But what
he means, of course, is that there's no substance in the things
in this world. I mean, all these things pass
away. I've mingled my drink with weeping, because He was indeed
a man of sorrows, because of Thine indignation and Thy wrath,
for Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world as a king. We read in the book of
the Psalms, Psalm 2 says, yet have I set my king upon my holy
hill of Zion. Christ is not waiting to be a
king one day, as some of these prophetic experts tell us, that
we're waiting, just waiting for Christ to set up his kingdom.
Well, dear brethren, they're too late. because he came into
the world to establish his kingdom, and he is a king. He was a king
when he came. He's a king now, and he'll be
a king when he comes back. He is the king. And so we're
not hoping he'll be the king, but he has been lifted up. But
not only has he been lifted up, but the same hand that lifted
him up has put him down. And so he's been lifted up and
he's been cast down. Now we've been cast down from
time to time. But because he was cast down,
we've been lifted up. Because in his lifting up, we've
been lifted up. Is that not what he said? And
I, if I be lifted up, will draw men unto me. Now will all men
come to Him? Did He mean every individual
on the face of the earth? No, He meant all of those that
belong to Him. All men, all of those that are
mine, they're going to come to Me. He said, Him that cometh
to Me, all in no wise cast out. All that the Father giveth Me
shall come to Me. And Him that cometh to Me, all
in no wise cast out. What a glorious Savior. Oh, the
Lord might give us a mind today to think on Christ. And when
we read these words of that suffering that He underwent, we might understand
that He underwent these things for our sake. He had no other
reason than the great love wherewith He loved us. What a glorious
Savior He is.