Well, once again we come to the
Psalms. What a blessed place that is
to come when the Lord is pleased to give us eyes to see and ears
to hear His truth that He has so graciously recorded in these
pages for us. Psalm 88 Psalm 88 says, A song or psalm
for the sons of Korah to the chief musician upon Mahalath,
Leanoth, Mashkel of Heman the Ezraite. Now we don't know who
those people are and probably never will. And we could probably
spend a lot of time studying who they are and never really
discover it. People often have opinions about these things.
But as we've mentioned many times, this is a song for the sons of
Korah. And every time I read that, I'm
reminded of the grace of God. Because Dathan and Abiram, the
scripture indicates, who were compatriots with Korah. And when the Lord caused the earth
to open up and swallow all Korah and Dathan and Abiram and 250
men who had gathered themselves together with them to oppose
Moses. It seems to indicate that the
families of Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up at the same
time because it specifically mentions the fact that their
families were with them. But we read later on in the book
of Numbers the sons of Korah died not. Why was that? Now, there's only one explanation,
and it's simply the grace of God. The Lord said, I'll show
mercy to whom I will show mercy, and whom I will I'll harden.
And no man can boast of his standing in the presence of God in the
blessing of God, except by that explanation. It's simply the
grace of God, simply the mercy of God. There's not one thing
that made the sons of Korah different than the sons of Dathan and Abiram,
but the grace of God. May we ever remember that when
we read these titles. O Lord God of my salvation, I
have cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer come before
thee, incline thine ear unto my cry. For my soul is full of
troubles, and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. I am counted with them that go
down into the pit. I am as a man that hath no strength. Free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou remember'st no more,
and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the
lowest pit, in darkness in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon
me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves, sayest thou? Thou hast put away mine acquaintance
far from me. Thou hast made me an abomination
unto them. I am shut up, and I cannot come
forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of
affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon
thee. I have stretched out my hands
unto thee. Wilt thou show wonders to the
dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Shall thy
lovingkindness be declared in the grave, or thy faithfulness
in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in
the dark, and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
But unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer
prevent thee. Lord, why castest thou off my
soul? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? I am afflicted and ready to die,
for my youth up. While I suffer thy terrors, I
am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me daily like water, they compassed me
about together. Lover and friend hast thou put
far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. Now this is a,
some have said a very depressing psalm, and it would be for sure
if one did not know who it is that's speaking in this psalm. Even though this psalm is written
by a human being, by someone who the Lord
directed to pin these words upon a page of some sort, these words
are the words of Christ. They're the prayers of Christ.
And I think it's pretty obvious, really, to anyone who has been
shown uh... the fact that jesus christ a
man of sorrows and pointed with great and uh... you know we don't like group
uh... anymore than he did he didn't
delight in grief he didn't you know some people uh... like pain
so they say and they get pleasure out of suffering pain. Well,
most people are not like that. That's an aberration. That's
something deeply wrong in somebody's mind that would have an enjoyment
in pain. Pain's not meant to be enjoyable. Grief is not meant to be a thing
that one would rejoice in. And while we read that, for the
joy that was set before and the Lord endured the cross, despising
the shame. and he sat down on the right
hand of the Father. He did not come because he loved
the suffering that he bore for us. He didn't look forward to
that. It was not a thing that he delighted
in. It was a thing that caused him
great grief. And we need to understand that, that the grief which the
Lord Jesus Christ was acquainted with was not his own. He had
no reason to grieve. He had no reason to be sorrowful. for he daily delighted in the
presence of his Father. And he was without any need,
had no lack whatsoever, yet for our sakes, the scripture says,
he became poor. That is, he was brought down
to the lowest ebb that is possible for a human being to be brought.
Now, there are people in the earth whom the Lord has appointed
to suffer much grief and heartache. uh... some people will have relatively
little grief in their life and some people it seems like that
the lord just puts one thing after another after another after
another and we said we wonder how on earth could they possibly
bear up in this and and they couldn't a man cannot bear up
in in the depths of grief unless somebody holds him up You know,
it's impossible for a man to bear up grief. Now, you often
hear men who say, well, you know, I just, you know, just gritted
it out and I got through it, you know, and all that kind of
stuff. Well, what they don't know, is that the Lord, in His
mercy, in some measure, upheld them. Because otherwise, grief
would destroy man. It's not in the makeup of men
to be able to bear grief on their own. But yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
He did do that. He bore our grief without age. How do we know that? Well, when
he was under the time of his greatest grief and need, he said,
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And yet, because
he is that true God-man, that man who is without any failure
or without any lack of strength and yet he became weak and I,
you know, man can't explain that. That's just the way that it is.
When the last moment of his expiring breath he said, my God, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. Never did his faith in his father
fail. But yet never has any man ever
bore such a forsaken place as the Lord Jesus Christ bore. And
He bore it for us. He said, O Lord God of my salvation,
I have cried day and night before Thee. Let my prayer come before thee
and climb thine ear unto my cry for my soul is full of troubles
and my life draweth nigh to the grave. The Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world with one purpose and that was to die for
sinners. The death that he bore was an
awful thing, but keep this in mind, that even though there
was a moment of time whenever the Lord Jesus Christ breathed
out his last breath, when his heart pumped its last time, there
was that moment which men call death. But the Lord Jesus Christ
died every day that he was upon the earth because he bore death,
our death, which was a summons of death. He came into the world
with death hanging upon him. I don't know, you know, what
understanding that he had as a young man. I mean, he had all
understanding, we know that. But as a young man, I mean, there
was a development phase in which he went through just like any
man would. And he learned obedience by the
things which he suffered. And I don't know how the intensity
or whatever of the knowledge of his impending death there
could have been or was as a young child. But I know that he came
into the world and was given a knowledge of the purpose that
he was to fulfill. as he reasoned with these men
in the temple. And they marveled at his wisdom. And so he came with one purpose. He lived his life for one purpose.
Now, we know that we're all going to die. It's appointed unto men
once to die and after this to judge. But we don't live for
our death, do we? I mean, we don't look forward
to that. I don't know of anybody that
just can't wait until they die. You know, everybody wants to
put that off as long as they can. That's just the way the
Lord made us. He gave us a desire to live.
But He gave us the reality of the fact that we shall all die. And one needs only look around
him to know that that is a true thing and we shall not escape
it. But we don't live for death. That's not a date we've got marked
on the calendar and we say, man, you know, we're moving towards
that. Although we know that there is a day, we don't know when
it is. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he knew that there was a day. appointed for him to die. And
he knew what that day was. And he ordained that it be that
day. But he died for us. And he bore our grief, which
was the death of him. I mean, he died, as someone has
said, of a broken heart. Now, I think sometimes men get
a little bit too sentimentality-oriented when they say things like that.
He did die because of the grief and heartache that was upon Him
on the account of the sin of His people. That was what brought
Him down to death. Nothing could have slain the
Lord of glory had He not ordained that it be so. But He purposed
that it would be. For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draweth nigh unto the grave. That was the prospect
that he had. Now, you know, you and I, we
look forward to the prospect of, you know, gaining this world's
goods in some measure and having a comfortable life. And we look
forward to seeing our grandchildren grow up and our children prosper.
And we look forward to all sorts of things. And we live for these
things, but the Lord Jesus Christ lived for this. He lived for
that. very purpose of laying down His
life for our sake. Now, that's just incomprehensible. The man that says, well, he comprehends
that, he understands that, doesn't know what he's talking about
because you can't really grasp that. But yet Christ, because
of great love wherewith He loved us, He gave Himself over to that. And He saw the prospect of that
which He would gain by this, the glory of the Redeemer of
His people. I am counted with them that go
down into the pit or into the grave. I am as a man that had
no strength, yet He had all strength, did He not? But He was as a man
that had no strength. I mean, He became weak for our
sake. free among the dead like the
slain that lie in the grave. Now, I thought about that a little
bit, free among the dead. Now, the word literally means
to be adrift, means to be without bounds. And when a man is dead,
in some ways he's set free and that he's set adrift in that
death. In other words, he's like in
a measure like a leaf carried down the river. I mean, he's
long for the ride. He's there. And so I believe,
you know, the Lord is just speaking here about the fact that he is
caught up in death. I mean, he's in that death. and
while he had the power at any time, if it so pleased him to
have called the angels to come and rescue him from that, yet
he purposed not to do that. Free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more
when they are cut off from thy hand. Now that's, you know, death is a condition from which man
has no power to rescue himself. That is, he's in it. I mean, that's it.
Job said, if a man dies, shall he live again? Now, you often
hear that scripture preached on in funerals, and usually the
thought is, well, sure, If a man dies, yes, he can live again.
But what Job meant was, if a man dies, can he live again? The
answer to his rhetorical question was no. A man can't live again. I mean, when you die, there is
no power or part of you or anything else that is within you that
can reanimate itself. Now you take a seed, a grain
of corn, now it's living at one point in time on that cob, but
some point in time along the way that seed dies. It becomes
lifeless and it's just that, it's just a seed. and it's cast
into the ground and guess what? Life springs forth from it. Or
you can cut a tree down. And you know if it's some tree
that you wanted and you accidentally cut down, that thing will just
die and never come back. But if it's some old tree you're
trying to get rid of, that thing will keep sprouting back up,
you know, and you can't kill it. But when a man dies, dear
brethren, he's not going to sprout again. When a man dies, that's
it. And the Lord underwent that for
us. Whom thou remember's no more.
Now, a man, the Lord knows the place
of the graves of every man, but the scripture says that the name
of the wicked shall rot. The Lord remembers them no more.
Now death is the place of forgetfulness. You don't believe it, I bet you
can't tell me 25 people that's buried right over here in this
cemetery. Now you might if you sat down
and really thought about it, but you've forgotten most of
them. Even people that you knew, you
don't think about them. I mean, death is a place of forgetfulness. And a man needs to understand
that apart from a man being in Christ when he dies, he's a forgotten
man. I mean, he has no hope. He has no expectation. That's
laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. That's depressing, isn't it?
It is to me. But that's the place where the
Lord Jesus Christ said, You have put me by thy hand, O Lord. And
notice there's no rebellion. You know, you and I often get
kind of perturbed, well, why do we have to die? I mean, everything's
going along so great, why can't we just keep on going? And every man from time to time
will have questions before God and not be exactly happy perhaps
that the Lord took a loved one from him or whatever. But that's natural to men to be that
way. The Lord Jesus Christ, however,
He never had any. You don't see Him rebelling against
the way of God. You're not angry at God. He's
crying out to the Lord. He's speaking forth the truth. He's describing to us what death
is. Now, you know, most people, I
mean the common concept of death is, well, you know, we're just
going to die and everybody's going to wake up and going to
go to a better place and all of that? You ever been to a funeral
where they did not go to a better place? They always go to a better place,
don't they? Well, brethren, everybody does
not go to a better place. I mean, that is the thoughts
of men. Thou hast laid me in the lowest
pit, in darkness, in the deeps, in a place of separation from
God. You see, that's what death is.
Death is not to be a thing that is considered enjoyable. It's not. It's a dark thing. It is a place which is separated
from God. He's life. Death is the antithesis
of life. Now he said, I kill and I make
alive, make no mistake about it, that death cannot exist apart
from the decree of Almighty God. And a man cannot die except the
Lord causes his death. I was talking with a fellow just
yesterday, in fact, and he's of the mind that the devil is
the one that causes people to die. and you know i've talked
to him before and i tried to persuade him different but it
just reminded me of the fact that men don't understand who
the god of life and death is because he said i kill and i
make alive, i the lord do all these things and fear not him
who is able to kill the body but fear him who is able to cast
both soul and body into hell and that's what he's talking
about here is soul and body being cast away from the Lord. Thy wrath lies hard upon me and
thou hast afflicted me with all of thy ways. He understood it. The heartache. Thou hast put
away mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an abomination
unto them. I am shut up and I cannot come
forth. Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
experience exactly that? When all those who were with
Him, and He was with every day, and they professed their love
for Him, and they professed their knowledge of who He was, but
they all forsook Him and fled, and on top of that, He became
an abomination to them, did He not? As Peter denied that he knew Him. and
cursed, and only by the grace of God.
Because the Lord said, Peter I have prayed for thee. You know, men say that faith
is a work of men. That is, men, you've got to have
faith. But the Lord said to Peter, Peter,
I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. But if you had to describe
Peter's actions there, wouldn't you say that his faith failed?
But the Lord said your faith fails not. Why? Because his faith
wasn't in what Peter did, but it was in Christ. See, the Lord The Lord was Peter's
faith. He was. And even though the people
whom he loved often consider him an abomination, yet his love
for them never changed at all. Because he knew, he said, Peter,
Satan has desired to have you. He wants to sift you as wheat. but he's not going to be able
to do it. The sifting may come, but he cannot have you. I'm shut up and I cannot come
forth. Now, the willingness of the Lord
to die for us is explained here, he says, I'm shut up and I cannot
come forth. Now, he had the power to come
forth, did he not? But he had not the desire to
come forth. It's just like when, you know,
if you asked a mother to plunge a knife into the heart of her
newborn baby, she would say, I cannot do it. I can't do it. The Lord loves his people even
unto death. Having loved his own, he loved
them, the scripture says, unto the end. Whose end? His. Unto
the end. Mine eye mourneth by reason of
affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon
thee. I have stretched out my hands
unto thee. The Lord did pray. rising up a great while before
day, the scripture says. He went up into a mountain to
pray. He told his disciples, you wait here and I'm going to
go over there and pray. Because you see, we come together
many times and pray together. And I'm sure that the Lord prayed
with his disciples. But you see, the scripture mentions
his solitary prayer. because He prayed for us. He
prayed not for the world, but He prayed for those whom the
Father had given Him out of the world. He said, Thine they were,
and Thou hast given them to Me. And I will bear their sin, and
I'll bear their grief, and I'll bear their heartache, even unto
death. Mine eye mourneth by reason of
affliction. He wept. Shortest verse in the Bible says
Jesus wept. Lord, I have called daily upon
thee. I have stretched out my hands
unto thee. And thinking about that, you
know, Jesus wept. I mean, we weep for many things.
Sometimes we weep tears of joy. But weeping is generally considered
to be a time of sadness. And the Lord wept. The Lord wept
because of sin. He wept because of death. He
wept because He knew that Lazarus had been brought down to this
very pit. And He wept for him. Now we know that he had power
over death, did he not? And he raised Lazarus from the
dead. But it was because the only reason
that Lazarus was able to come out of the grave was the power
of God and the fact that Jesus Christ bore his sin and wept
for him. Lord, I have called daily upon
thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee, Will thou show
wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise
thee? Now, the rhetorical answer to
this question is no. Will thou show wonders to the
dead? I mean, are the folks in the cemetery, are they seeing
any wonders performed? No. They're not seeing any wonders
performed. Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared
in the grave? I mean, you ever walk by the grave and
heard the praises of God coming up out of there? I believe, dear
brethren, one day you will, or you won't, but it will happen. The grave shall be opened, and
those who are in the Lord shall praise Him forever. I believe
that's true. But the loving kindness of the
Lord is not declared in the grave. I mean, you're not going to be
witnessing and magnifying the name of the Lord in the grave.
That's going to be the cessation of all that. Or thy faithfulness in destruction.
I mean, is the faithfulness of God seen in the destruction of
his people? You know, they tell us they,
the world says that Jesus Christ died for everybody, that he loves
everybody. But then they say, but, you know,
some of them's going to perish. Well, that doesn't make, you
know, that's a poor description of love and the faithfulness
of God. I mean, if the, The Lord said,
except a man be drawn by the Father which has sent Me, draw
him, he cannot come to Me. And yet, some tell us, well,
the Lord is drawing all men. Well, what does He do? Quit with some? I mean, what
happens? Does He fail? What happens? No, it's not in His purpose.
There He is. His faithfulness is not seen
in destruction. but his faithfulness is seen
in the mercy of deliverance. The faithfulness of the Lord.
You see, in the day of the resurrection, the mercy of God will be on display
as he brings forth his people from the dead. But in the death
itself, the faithfulness of God is not seen. That doesn't mean
God's not faithful when people die, but it just means that the
death of a man is not designed to demonstrate the faithfulness
of God. Shall thy wonders be known in
the dark? I mean, how shall a man believe
in Him of whom he's not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You see, the wonders of God are
not declared and are not known in the dark. I mean, a man doesn't
just walk along one day on the way to fishing, and all of a
sudden he knows all the truth of God. Now, Saul was on the
road to Damascus, walking on in his darkness, and the light
shone upon him. But you see, the Lord said, you
need to go down to the house of, I can't call them, Ananias. You need to go down there. And
they had some things for Saul. So it's only in the light that
the wonders of God are set forth, and thy righteousness in the
land of forgetfulness. I mean, is the faithfulness of
God seen when you walk by? Do you think of the faithfulness
of God when you walk by the graveyard? No. but you do know by the grace
of God of the faithfulness of God in the hope of the resurrection
of those who are dead. But unto thee have I cried, O
Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee, or come
before thee. Lord, why castest off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? I am afflicted and ready to die,
for my youth while i suffer but there's i'm straight and i'm
overwhelmed while i suffer but there are now paul said knowing the terror
of the lord we persuade that is we set forth truth before
them knowing the terror of the lord our god is a consuming fire
it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
god And we understand that by the grace of God. We see that.
We tremble in fear before Him. Now, most of the world is not
trembling in fear before God. They're not concerned over it. I've shared with you about Brother
Curtis Collins one time telling me about having been to a went
to a church somewhere, and the guy was teaching Sunday school
class, and it was on the fear of God. And the guy stood up
and said, well, he says here, the fear of God. He said, well,
I'm not afraid, I'm not scared of him. What an ignorant thing
to say. I mean, that's a man that shows
the fact that he does not know the Lord. Because if a man knows
the Lord, he will indeed be fearful in his presence. Because he's
been given an understanding that God is the High and Holy One
who is lifted up. Who can give a man death or life
according to the good pleasure of his will. And what can a man
do about it? Not one thing in the world. And so we can't help but fear
God. I mean, there's nothing we can do about it. While I suffer
thy terrors, I am distracted. The Lord knew the power of the
Almighty God, and He understood as a man what a great power that
is. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me.
Thy terrors have cut me off. And as we said, He did experience
that. be cut off from the Lord. I can't
think of a more terrible state for a man to be in than to be
cut off from the presence of the Lord. I mean, that is the
definition of death, is cast out from the presence of the
Lord, cut off from the presence of the Lord. They came round about me daily
like water. They compassed me about all together.
That is the enemies, his enemies, those who would set against him.
The terrors of the Lord were set against him. When the enemies
of God spoke against him and they constantly harangued him
and constantly put questions before him. Now, he answered
every one. But nonetheless, he bore the
heartache of those questions that were put before Him. They
came around about me daily like water. They were just constantly
after Him. From the time He came on to the
scene, they were plotting against Him to destroy Him. They compassed me about together.
Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, those whom were
my closest acquaintance. my closest friends, you have
caused even them to turn their backs on me. And how often, dear
brethren, as we consider the anguish of our Lord for our sake,
or we put to grief in thinking that it is our sin that caused
His pain. And how can we be ashamed of
him who died for us. What a glorious Savior he is. Brought unto death for our sake.
Acquainted with prison. Poured out his soul unto death
that we might live. What a wondrous Savior he is.
What a great deliverer He is the deliverer from the grave.
If a man dies, shall he live again, not by his own power?
Men are not immortal. Men are finite beings. And apart from the grace of God
to give a man life, he shall abide in death. Separation from
God forever. That's an awful place to be.