What a glorious thing it is to
hear the Word of God. I was thinking as Brother Al
was speaking about Moses not having an inheritance and being
called out as a servant of God. And that's, of course, plainly
revealed in the Scriptures. Paul said the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. And if we understand the purpose
of the giving of the law, then, and I believe only then, can
we understand the glories of grace as revealed in the Gospel. Paul, of course, obviously and
clearly was given, probably among all the disciples, the clearest
view of that. He was that one who was taken
up into the third heaven. where he saw and heard things
that were unlawful to utter. But he was given an insight into
the fact that the law was a servant to bring us to Christ. We were not made servants of
the law because Christ came to set us
free. Now, of course, those that oppose some of the things that
we teach, they would say, well, then you don't believe that the
law is of any use. No, the law is of great use.
And we need to look at the law, because it reminds us what we
are by nature, and drives us to Christ, who is our righteousness. and we uh... we desire that uh... his law will be written upon
our heart hidden in our heart that we might know what we are
by nature and that we might see christ in christ alone is our
great high priest uh... we're looking in psalm eighty
six so this is a prayer of david bow down thine ear oh lord hear
me for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. O thou my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee daily. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For thou, Lord, art
good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy unto all them
that call upon thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of
my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. Among
the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there
any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name. For thou art great, and doest
wondrous things, thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O Lord,
I will walk in thy truth. Unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord, my
God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forevermore. For great is thy mercy toward
me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen against
me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul,
and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a
God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous
in mercy and truth. O turn unto me, and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant,
and save the son of thine handmaid. Show me a token for good, that
they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, because thou,
Lord, hast opened me and comforted me. What a glorious psalm this
is, and I believe it clearly. as a man's given eyes to see,
this is the prayer of Christ. David surely penned it. It says
here it's a psalm of David. But the Lord spoke through David
and gave him those words. And you know, when we think of
the Lord Jesus Christ as He walked among men in the earth, and the
Scripture says that He learned obedience by the things which
He suffered. I don't suppose any verse in
all the Scripture ever causes me more consternation than thinking
on how He who was perfect in all of His ways, lacking nothing,
needing no one, and yet the Scripture says He learned obedience by
the things which He suffered. And that's an incredible thing
to think about. But the Lord Jesus Christ would
in all points be identified with His people. And it was therefore
necessary, not that God was under some obligation, but in the scheme
of redemption which the Lord ordained, it was necessary in
order for Him to be just and the justifier. Now some have
presented that as though the Lord had to do that. The Lord
didn't have to do anything. But the Lord would would justify
His people according to His own law. He didn't have to do that. I mean, it's in the Lord's power
to do whatever He wanted to do. He could have just said, My people
are... I'm going to receive them. He
could have done that. But in order for Him to do that, He
would have had to have said, Well, my law doesn't count for
anything as He has given it unto men. So therefore He justified
His people according to the law. And so we see, you know, the
mercy of God revealed in that and we see the wonders of how
He brought these things in Christ as the Son of God, as the Son
of Man, as He walked among men. and fulfilled the law in its
job and tenor. I mean, there was never a bit
of obedience or a bit of disobedience, nor was there ever any fault
or weakness in the sense of the intent of the Lord to do the
will of God. Now, the Lord came into weakness.
Because our flesh is weak, and in all points He was tempted
like as we are. So He did have weakness in this
flesh, as all men have weakness. But there is never a weakness
in the resolve of the Lord to do the Father's will, because
He said, I came. to do my Father's will. So we
know that He was never in doubt about whether or not He would
do the Father's will. That was His purpose. But as
a man, He was confronted with all of the same weaknesses of mind and thought
that we are. What a glorious thing! It goes
beyond our ability to comprehend it. We say with Paul, who's sufficient
for these things? I mean, how can we, as mere mortals,
enter into considering the eternal God becoming mortal and walking
among men as a mortal man? That's just beyond our comprehension. But he says, buy down thine ear,
O Lord. Hear me, for I am poor and needy. the lord jesus christ was not
poor in the sense that we think of me and it'll be a poor was
he'll be cattle on a file meals i mean he said you know at all
uh... of the creation is my he said
i made it for my own purpose paul said he was reach yet for
our site he became even onto the death of the crop And so
he cries out for us. He says, I am poor and needy
because he became poor that he might identify with us. And so
his prayer is a prayer for us. It's a prayer that he learned
obedience by the things which he suffered. He said, Hear me,
O Lord, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy. Now, that word holy, most times
people, I think, predominantly people have the wrong idea about
when we see the word holy set forth what it exactly means.
Now, it does mean when the Scripture speaks about God as being holy,
it doesn't just mean that He doesn't have any sin. It means
that He has set apart in such fashion that men cannot even
approach unto Him. I mean, when those angels fly
around His throne crying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
they themselves cannot approach unto Him. See, no creature can
approach unto the Eternal God. The thing that separates between
men and God is His eternality. He is. See, a man can never say,
I am, because of the fact that he's not. You know, we're finite. We're of a span. I mean, we have
a beginning and we have an end, except the Lord might give us
you know, that eternality. But even in the eternal life
that we have, it doesn't approach unto that which he has. Because
the scripture says he has life in himself. Our life is his life. He gives it to us. We don't have
life in ourselves. And this is the place where I
think that a lot of people really get confused about what man is. They think of him as being this
creature that's eternal. Well, men are not eternal. Men
are finite. And unless God gives them life,
they won't have it. He is our life. Preserve my soul,
he said, for I am holy. Now, I believe there are several
ways in which we can look at this. He says, I'm holy because
I am set apart. He came into the world to accomplish
a particular task, and that was what He has come to do. But He
prays this prayer for us, does He not? He says, for I am holy.
Now if He's holy, and He has hidden us in Him, then that means
that we're holy. We're set apart in Him. We're
sanctified. through the blood of Christ.
He's made us that. O thou my God, save thy servant
that trusteth in thee. Now some folks have confidence
in their ability to trust in God. I don't have any in my... I know that I won't trust God.
I know that the father's thing from my mind is to trust God. I'll trust in all kinds of stuff
before I'll trust in God. But the Lord in His mercy constrains
us by His Spirit to trust in Him. But the Lord Jesus Christ
never had any inkling of not trusting in the Lord. I mean
even in the hour of His greatest anguish When he said, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Yet then he said, Into thy
hands I commend my spirit. He trusted God even in the midst
of being abandoned by God. Oh, what a glorious thing! Save
thy servant that trusteth in thee. Be merciful unto me, O
Lord, for I cry unto thee daily. The Lord Jesus Christ as a man
understood what it was to need the mercy of God. Now I can't
really wrap my whole mind around that thought, but yet the scriptures
plainly set forth the fact that he cried out for mercy. Now we
needed mercy. He as a man And being a perfect
man, in one measure, we could say he didn't really need mercy.
Because you see, mercy is that which is bestowed upon men that
don't deserve something. If somebody deserves something,
it's not mercy. And most people think that they
can gain the mercy of God by doing something. Well, that wouldn't
be mercy, would it? No, God shows mercy to those
that don't deserve it. He shows mercy to those that
deserve to be destroyed. That's mercy. And He said, I'll
show mercy to whom I will show mercy. And so in this prayer,
the Lord as a man, He recognizes that it is God alone who can
show mercy. Be merciful unto me. Lord, if
you don't show me mercy, then I'm not gonna have it. For I
cry unto thee daily, continually. That's what that means. I cry
unto thee continually. I don't just figure out a time
each day that I cry unto thee. That's the idea some people have
about it, or maybe once a week we'll go and cry out to God.
No, the man who is the Spirit of God works in, who's been given
eternal life, he cries unto the Lord continually. It's not like
there's a switch you can turn on or off. You can't help it. I mean, you're going along and
the Spirit of God convicts you of something that you're doing
or that you've done, and it just goes over you like a dark cloud. Oh God, have mercy on me. I mean, what am I? Why am I like
this? Be merciful unto me, O Lord,
for I cry unto thee continually. Rejoice the soul of thy servant,
for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. That is the place,
is it not, where we would come? Lord, do I lift up my soul? I
don't have anybody else. There's nobody else I can turn
to but unto you. For thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon thee. Now, the average person out here,
and especially in the religious world and perhaps culture where
we live, and have men raised up. And many people, they just,
they wouldn't disagree with that. And they, I'd say most people
would say, oh yeah, the Lord, He's always ready to forgive.
And they figure that just like whenever they get ready, they
can call on the Lord and He'll forgive them. Because He's ready
to forgive. I mean, that's how they think
of it. See, they think that it's just like God's a big vending
machine, and if they go up there and put the right money in the
slot, then the goodness of God's going to come out. That's not
what He means there. No, the Lord is ready to forgive. He said, you know, He has no
pleasure in the death of the wicked. The Lord is full of mercy. But that mercy is sovereignly
dispensed. And unless the Lord is pleased
to work in a man's heart to cause him to know he needs that forgiveness,
then he'll never call upon the Lord. There'll never be a man
who can say in the day of judgment, well, Lord, you know, you wouldn't
forgive me. No, that is not going to be the
thing. The Lord did not come into the world to condemn the
world. Nobody is worse off by the Lord Jesus Christ coming
into the world as the Savior of sinners. There has never been
a man made worse off because of what he did. No men are in
a bad condition unless the Lord shows mercy and lifts them out
of it, they will perish. But He is good and ready to forgive. We can tell men without any equivocation,
call upon the Lord and thou shalt be saved. It's a true thing.
Now again, that doesn't mean that that's just up to you, but
it does describe how God is. See, folks think because God's
ready to forgive that then it's up to them whenever they get
ready to get it. No, it's when God's pleased to
give it. But He is pleased to give it
to those that call upon His name. He's good and plenteous in mercy
to all them that call upon Him. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer
and attend to the voice of my supplications. What a glorious thing that the
Lord would hear the prayer of His people. Now we know, and
thankfully, that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for me says I pray not for the world but I pray for them that
thou hast given me out of the world and he's prayed in our
behalf he's given the Lord's given ear to his prayer he heard
him and we thank the Lord that he did