Psalm 43. I believe that this psalm is
actually a continuation of Psalm 42. To me it is pretty apparent
that it is, but it has been set forth as another psalm, and that
is quite all right. Psalm 43 says, Judge me, O God,
and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me
from the deceitful and unjust man. For thou art the God of
my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why
go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh,
send out thy light and thy truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring
me unto thy holy hill and unto thy tabernacles. Then will I
go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy. Yea, upon
the harp will I praise thee, O God, my God. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my God. Now, of course, we know this
phrase is found, of course, twice in the preceding psalm, and that's
one of the reasons it leads me to believe that this is a continuation
of that same psalm. But again, these are the words
of Christ as he stood as a substitute and for the people of God, as
He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin,
as He underwent all these things in our behalf. He had nothing
to be gained for Himself in coming into the world. Now, you know,
you listen to a lot of people, they give all kinds of theories
as to why God created man. what God needed and what He did
and this kind of stuff. You can just count all of that
stuff off because there's no such thing as God needing anything. God never stands in need because
He's perfect. And He doesn't stand in need
of anything and the only reason He ever does anything is because
it seems good in His sight. And whatever He does do is good. Whether you and I judge it to
be good, or we don't. It doesn't make any difference,
you know, whether you like it or you don't like it, or whether
the world likes it. And of course, you know, as we
mentioned there a minute ago, and I think it's pretty well obvious to anybody with any sort
of spiritual understanding, is that the world is an open rebellion
against God. Now, it has always been so, but
by the Lord's grace and in His mercy, He has subdued that in
some measure at least over time, but I believe what we're seeing
in the present age is just a moving back of that restraint. And when
you look around and you see all this stuff going on around you,
it makes you scratch your head and say, what on earth is going
on? Well, what's happening is the Lord is showing man what
man is. He is revealing to us what we
are by nature. And so when you see some of the
most ridiculous stuff happening, you can just say this for a surety
that if God did not restrain you, you would be right in the
middle of it. You'd be just like they are. And there wouldn't
be a bit of difference between you and them except for the mercy
and kindness of Almighty God. And so the Lord came into this
world as one who had need of nothing, had need of no one,
but he created the world for the purpose of bringing glory
to his name according to his purpose. And I think the Bible
is completely clear about that from the beginning to the end.
It starts off as in the beginning God. Now I don't think any really
is not needing a lot of commentary on that, but if a man would just
come to those first few words in the Bible, he'd have to fall
around and worship, would he not? In the beginning, God, I
mean none of this that we see or that we are could be were
it not that God was in the beginning and that He's made it according
to the good pleasure of His will. Remember we were talking yesterday
about the polar bears and how that, you know, it's an amazing
thing that a polar bear can survive in the climate that they do and
thrive in it. Now, if they evolved into that situation
as some of the brilliant people tell us that they did, I mean,
how did they ever get to that place? I mean, it's just an amazing
thing that, you know, how could they have ever gradually have
evolved to be able to do that? And I know these people's got
all these explanations for us as to how that is, but you know
us numb folks, it just, We just have to say, well, even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in Thy sight. And He made them like
that. And so we don't think that there's any mistakes been made
or shall be made. But the Lord came into the world
for the purpose of satisfying the claims of justice that His
law, that He gave, set forth and put man in a place of condemnation. Now, that causes men to scratch
their head and puzzle, and they can't figure out, well, why did
God do that? Look, it doesn't make any difference
why God did that, but the thing that matters is that we give
Him glory that He did do that, and that He has manifested the
glory of His grace in the giving of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and who comes into the world, and in our behalf, And I'm glad
that he did because you see, he came into the world as a perfect
man. And he came into the world in
order to stand in our room instead as the perfect man that we are
not. Now we sang that song there a
moment ago about the Canaanite still in the land. And the Canaanite
is still in the land. And the Canaanite will overcome
the land. if it were not that the Lord
did go before us and drive him out. I mean, that's the only
way that the children of Israel could have taken the promised
land was that the Lord went with them. I mean, we see in the book
of Joshua what happened when they went in the power of their
own might, did we not? and they were driven back. But when the Lord went with them,
they were victorious. And so we rejoice that the Lord
Jesus Christ would come before the Lord and say such a thing
as, Judge me, O God, and plead my cause. The Scripture says that he learned
obedience by the things which he suffered. And that passage
of Scripture causes me great consternation in my mind as I
contemplate it. How could such a thing be? But
nonetheless, it is set forth before us that he experienced
what it is to be a perfect man in a world that hates the way
of God. Now, you think sometimes that
you get a little upset with the way that things are, but see,
there's a secret part of you that kind of likes some of that.
I mean, there's a secret part of you that kind of, you know,
is not really all that upset about it, but you want, I mean,
you know, when we get around one another, we want to be upset
about it and act like, you know, we're just, wouldn't even ever
give thought to any kind of thing that would be out of the way.
But by nature, that's the way we are. But the Lord Jesus Christ
never had one inkling of consideration entertaining the thought of going
contrary to that of being a perfect, holy, and upright man. And only
He could say, Judge me, O God. and plead my cause. How foolish
are men, and I've met a few of them in my life, who, they just
like, they almost couldn't wait to get before the Lord and plead
their cause and say, Lord, you know, and they believe that when
the Lord, you know, when they stand before the Lord, they're
gonna have something to say. I mean, they're gonna be able
to tell the Lord, well, Lord, I always tried to do what was
right. In the first place, no man is
going to stand before God. All men are going to fall on
their faces before Him. Because the Scripture says that
the heavens and the earth flee away at His presence. Now if
the heavens and the earth flee away at His presence, how would
it be possible that any man could stand before God and even open
his mouth at all? to plead His cause. I mean, if
you don't have somebody that's your advocate, if you don't have
somebody that will plead your cause before Almighty God, I
guarantee you, you will never be able to plead your cause.
It won't be pled. But we have one who can stand
before the Father and say, Judge me. Oh God, because he had no
sin. Neither was God found in his
mouth. But for your sake and for my
sake, if we be those that belong to him, he undertook for us. And he says, they stand with
me. I am their advocate. I'm their one who stands in their
room and place. Plead my cause, oh Lord, against
an ungodly nation. He came to his own and his own
received him not, did he not? I mean, he walked among his kin
people, the people of his own flesh, the people of his own
religion, if you want to say that. And they despised him. They turned
their head away from him. He said, plead my cause against
an ungodly nation. Where do you have to go to find
an ungodly nation? Oh, let's go over there to Russia.
There's an ungodly nation. Or what about Iran? I mean, buddy,
that's an ungodly nation, isn't it? Yes, sir. But boy, you listen
to the radio and you hear some of these talk show hosts and
they're telling you what a godly nation that the United States
is. Well, brethren, they're looking
at the wrong thing. Because there's no such thing
as a godly nation. None at all. Now, comparatively,
if you want to compare one to the other, you might, but you
see, that's of no use. That might do us some good. We
might get some benefit out of, you know, saying, well, we're
better than them or whatever, but that's of no use when you
come here to what he's saying here. Judge me, O God. Again,
plead my cause against an ungodly nation. What nation's he talking
about? He's talking about the nation
of mankind. Because you see, none I did pity
him. No man did enter into helping
him in any wise. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful
and unjust man. Who's that? The deceitful and unjust man.
See, only the Spirit of God can teach a man who that is. But
when the Spirit of God teaches a man who that is, he sees that
man every day when he looks into the mirror. And he knows that
I am a deceitful and unjust man. Apart from the grace of God,
I would follow after that. I would embrace it. But the Lord
Jesus Christ, in our behalf, said, deliver me from the unjust
and deceitful man. Don't we need to be delivered
from the unjust and deceitful man? We need to be delivered
what? From our own sinful flesh. And
He has done that by promise and by expectation. Our hope is that
the day comes when we shall be completely delivered from this
old sinful flesh. For thou art the God of my strength. Why dost thou cast me off? Why
go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? And
you know again, and we've mentioned this before and I'm probably
like a broken record going over this, but it's just, I don't
know what else to say but what the Scripture says is the Lord
Jesus Christ entering into imputing our unrighteousness to Himself
and His righteousness to us and bearing our sin and carrying
our grief and our sorrow, He would say such a thing as, Why
dost thou cast me off? See, He was cast off for our
sake. He felt being cast off. He felt what it was to be isolated. He felt what it was for the heavens
to be dark. He felt what it was to agonize
over sin, though not the sin of his own, but the sin of his
people. But he understood it. He experienced it. Why do I mourn him? Because why
are my enemies triumphing over me? Have you ever said that?
You ever felt that? That's the way of man. And would
it not be a normal thing then for one who's bearing the griefs
and carrying the sorrows of men to experience that very same
thought? Because of the oppression of
the enemy. Who is the enemy? The enemy of
the people of God is all that would set itself against the
way of God. And we see ourselves as the enemy.
The scripture says we were. It says, while we were what? Yet enemies. Christ loved us. Now, how were we enemies? Was God our enemy? I mean, did
he say, you know, I hate those people. I'm going to destroy
them. No, he never said that. But you
see, we were enemies in our mind by wicked works. Sin had wrought
in us. An evil heart of unbelief. Sin
caused us to rebel against God and we were in our mind and heart
the enemies of God. We hated the way of God. But
by the grace of God and the power of His Word being applied to
our heart through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, He has brought
to us the Word of Reconciliation. Oh, what a glorious thing, dear
brethren, to be reconciled unto God. Now, it's a glorious thing
for God, indeed, to satisfy His law. But just as He did in the
death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
just as glorious, dear brethren, is the reconciliation that the
Lord has been pleased to bring to His people through the gospel
of Jesus Christ. as the Gospel has come and brought
life and immortality to light in the Gospel. The Gospel doesn't
give life, but it manifests the life. It manifests the light
and it shines upon our heart to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as we see Him
set forth in that Gospel. Oh, send out thy light and thy
truth. Oh, send it forth. Can you imagine
this? The light of the world praying
to his Father. Oh, send out the light. For I
feel darkness in my soul. Oh, send the light. And yet he
is the light. Oh, what a glorious thing. and
thy truth." He said, I am the truth. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. Yet he longed for the truth.
As a 12-year-old lad, as he reasoned with those learned men in the
temple, he desired the truth in his inward parts, even though
he was the truth. And those men didn't know anything
that he hadn't already told them. Yet as a man walking among men,
he longed for the truth, he desired the truth, and he wanted it applied
to his heart. Oh, let them lead me, let them
bring me into thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Because you
see, that is what the light does. The light causes men to worship
the true and living God, to come into his tabernacle. to love
the people of God, to love the assemblies of the saints. I mean,
there's a mystical work that God does when He causes His people
to gather together around the gospel of Jesus Christ and gives
fulfillment to the people of God in a manner which they cannot
gain in any other fashion. Now, the natural man, he sees
church, going to church as just being a thing that you do. I
mean, I'd venture to say, and I'm not, you know, I'm not against
this, but I'd venture to say that thousands upon thousands
of people got up today, got dressed, and went to church because that's
just what you're supposed to do. They didn't get up because
they said, man, I love the assembly of the saints. I desire to worship
the Lord. I want to give Him praise and
glory. I want the name of Christ to be magnified in the earth. See, only the Spirit of God can
cause a man to love those things. And that's what He said He did.
Oh, send out Thy light and Thy truth. Let them lead me. Let
me be led in the truth. Let them bring me to thy holy
hill, to the place of worship. To that place where you are exalted,
high and lifted up. And to thy tabernacles, that
place where you are pleased to meet with men. The tabernacle. Now we know that
God dwells not in temples made with hands, does He? He never
has and He never will. It's impossible that it could
be so. Flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of God, and
neither can men build a sanctuary into which God will come. Now,
he is pleased, however, to dwell with men. He is the high and
lofty one that inhabiteth eternity and dwells with the man of a
broken and contrite heart. You know, that's an amazing thing,
is it not? I mean, that's something that men can't ever comprehend.
Men think that they can, you know, support religion and it'll
give them a little boost for the week. I mean, they can get
a little religion on Sunday and, buddy, they're good until next
week. And they can go back and they can get them a little boost
and they're good until next week. And that's just the mind that
we have by nature. But, oh, you see, the Lord He
moves in the hearts of His people to desire His presence, not simply
in a place that we come together to meet, but for God to meet
with us where we are. And He is pleased to do so. I
can't comprehend it, really. Now, a lot of people think, well,
it ought to be that way. I mean, you know, God created
us. I mean, after all, if we wanted
to meet with God, why, He ought to be glad to meet with us. Isn't
that kind of how people think? Well, I mean, you know, we built
this fine building and we got all this stuff and we're trying
to do things just like the Bible says to do it. I mean, wouldn't
it just seem right that God would just be overjoyed to come down
and be with us? I mean, look at all we did. As he says to, in the book of
Isaiah, he says, all of your righteousnesses, your righteousnesses,
all of the things that you did right, all of the things that
you did good, all of the things that men look at and say that
is proper, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before Him. They count for nothing. Now you
want to get somebody mad, you tell them that. You tell them
that nothing you've ever done has ever impressed God in the
least. He hates even every activity
that you have ever done in the name of religion. He hates it. Men don't like that. Wait a minute. Now wait a minute. That's a little
radical. I've been accused of being a
radical. Of being, you know, getting a little unbalanced. Well, I don't ever want to be
balanced. I want to be off balance. I want
it to be all Christ and nothing else. All the glory of God and
none for men. If that's unbalanced, then so
be it. I want to be unbalanced because
Christ is all. Thy holy hill and thy tabernacles,
then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding
joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise
thee, O God my God. Well, I go to the altar of God.
Now, we as the sons of God, we have an altar. We don't, this isn't it. You know, people talk about we're
gonna go down to the altar. Well, that's a bad situation.
If you think you can go to the altar on your own. Our altar
is Christ. He is both the sacrifice, the
altar, and the one who is pleased with the sacrifice. All wrapped
up into one, it's him and him alone. Now when the Lord, as
this is the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, well I go into
the altar of God, he can go into the very presence of God and
he can make an offering. unto the Lord. But he's the only
man who could ever make an offering before God. Now men constantly
in their own power and strength might think that they can offer
something to God. I'm going to give this to God.
Well you may be enabled to give something to God in some limited
sense, but you can't just bring something to God as an offering
if you don't think so, just ask Cain. about that. Cain brought an offering to the
Lord, did he not? But the Lord didn't have regard
to it because it was of the fruit and works of his own hands that
he sought to bring that to him. And you know the natural man
will always hate those whom the Lord receives. He can?t help it. Cain couldn?t
help on the one hand. I mean, he was accountable for
his actions. When I say he couldn?t help it,
a lot of people think when you say somebody can?t help it that
that means they?re off the hook. No, because you can?t help something
doesn?t mean you?re off the hook. It doesn?t mean you?re not accountable
for your actions. It doesn?t mean that You know,
you're not going to be judged on the account of that. It just
means that that's just a recognition of what you are by nature. And
Cain couldn't help what he was. And he came before the Lord thinking
that he could do something for God. The Lord didn't receive
it, but the Lord did receive the offering of Abel. Why? Because
he received Abel. Now, you know a lot of people
talk about, well, he received Abel because of the offering that
Abel brought. No, he received Abel. Now, he
caused Abel to bring a proper offering because it was a blood
sacrifice. But it wasn't the offering of
Abel that the Lord was pleased with. He was pleased with Abel.
Now, again, that makes people mad. Well, wait a minute. You
mean the Lord, He chooses people? You mean to tell me that every
man don't have a fair chance and a square deal and all that?
No, God's not in the dealing business, dear brethren. God's
in the mercy business. He shows mercy to whom He will
show mercy. He draws His people unto Himself. You know, really the only people
I know of that worry about whether or not the Lord shows mercy to them
is the people that the Lord shows mercy to. Because the man that
is not a recipient of God's mercy, he doesn't care. I mean, he's
content to go on his own way. He's not worried about whether
he's one of the elect. He hasn't spent one night laying awake
wondering whether he was one of the God's elect. Only those
whom God pleased to show mercy. And they say, save me or I'll
perish. I need some help. See constantly
night and day that is the desire of God's people. But the natural
man he's content to go his way and he will go his way. Oh he
may be religious and he may get you know stirred up from time
to time about various things but he does The Scripture says
they received not the love of the truth that they might be
saved. It doesn't say they didn't know
the truth to some extent, or they didn't see it, or they didn't
have some regard to it, but they didn't love it. It wasn't a thing
that burnt within their souls. And I always think, when I think
of that term, I always think of Jeremiah. And he said, you
know, I decided I wasn't going to say another word. I'm tired
of going to these people. I'm tired of telling them this
stuff. They won't listen to me. They laugh at me. They throw
me in the dungeon. They do all kinds of stuff to
me. But he said, I could not stop because the Word of God
burnt within my soul like an ember off of the fire. And I
could not be stopped. So it is that the Lord works
in His people. And I'm telling you this, if
you can walk away from Christ, I don't say this flippantly,
but I'm saying you need to go on and walk away from Him if
you can. Because if you desire to do that, Then you give evidence of the
fact that you have never known Him because God's people want
to follow Him. They want to be found in His
presence. They want to be found in a manner
that is pleasing in His sight. That's just the work of the Spirit
of God. He works in us both to will and
to do of His good pleasure. I will praise Thee. Yea, upon
the harp will I praise Thee, O God. My God. Now that's an interesting term,
and I would challenge you to go and study the term harp in
the Scripture and the numbers of times that it's used. Of course,
we always think of a harp as the thing somebody's playing.
And the scripture talks about, you know, they played on the
harp in the book of Revelation. But I'm not convinced, and of
course, as you study the Word, I believe that it bears out,
that this can be borne out, that it has to do with the mouth,
with singing. The harp, you know, there is
a form of singing called sacred harp, and it's not talking about
using a harp, it's talking about using your mouth. Because the
praises of God are upon our lips. Oh Lord, let me praise Thee with
my lips, with my mouth. You see, God has blessed His
children with a desire to praise His name. Let the redeemed of the Lord
Say something. That's right. Yea, upon the harp
will I praise thee, O God my God, thy praises shall be upon
my lips. And again, here's this rhetorical
question that we... Why am I cast down? Why aren't
thou cast down? O my soul, why are you cast down? Ask yourself that question. Then
we do get cast down from time to time. Paul said he was cast
down. He said, I'm cast down, but I'm not destroyed. I'm persecuted,
but I'm not forsaken. Why is that? Because I shall
yet praise him. See, there again is that desire
of the heart. Now, being a follower of the
Lord doesn't mean we won't go through dark times. It doesn't
mean we don't constantly have a battle day by day and that
doubts and fears don't enter our mind and would seek to destroy
us, bring us down to destruction. But dear brethren, it cannot
happen. It cannot happen. Faithful is he who called you. who will also do it. He calls
His people. If a man's called by the Gospel,
if he's called by the work of the Spirit wooing his heart and
causing him to desire to come to the Lord, can he fall away? No, that's the right answer and
that's what the psalmist is saying here. Why art thou cast down
on my soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God. He is our hope. Jesus Christ is the hope of the
hopeless. He's the hope of those that don't
have any. If you're not disquieted within
yourself, And you look at the bleak hope and prospect you have. I mean, just think about it.
Here you are, blanky mind out of all things, and you've got
to go in and stand before the Lord Almighty tomorrow. That's a pretty bleak place,
isn't it? I mean, I'm cast down, buddy, when I'm thinking of that. But see, we're not called upon
to think on that. Now, you will think on it, because
that's just the way of man. It's the way of the natural man.
But you see, we're not sent to tell people, oh, think on how much of a sinner you are.
Now the Spirit of God, He's able to teach you what a sinner you
are. But I'm not taking any delight in teaching you what a great
sinner you are. The Lord's our schoolmaster.
He's beating you constantly on the back. He said, Lou, you sorry
thing, look at you. But you see, he's our schoolmaster
for what purpose? To bring us to Christ. Oh, why
art thou cast down? Why? Oh, in darkness, why? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him. See, the man who's cast down
in spirit and soul, Is that one to whom the Lord is pleased to
whisper sweet peace? Yes, because you see all of those
troubles He brought upon you for the purpose of bringing you
to Him. And we talked about old Peter
yesterday and how Peter Peter was, I mean, he's the kind
of fella that you'd really like. I mean, he's the kind of fella
that's just, he's right out there. He's not holding anything back. He's, you know, not playing any
games. He means what he says, says what
he means. And so Peter got out of the boat,
did he? And was gonna walk on the water to the Lord. Now a
lot of people look at that and they say, well, you know, Old
Peter, he'd have done good if he'd just had faith, but he didn't.
And he sunk. And they say, you know, the Lord
was just really disappointed in Peter because he didn't make
it. Just think what it would have
been if Peter had made it. Well, I want you to think about
that for a minute. What if old Peter had walked all the way
to the Lord, and he'd have turned back to the old guys in the boat,
and he'd have done about like that, and he'd have said, yeah.
Do you all see that? Yes, sir, buddy. Don't you ever
doubt old Peter. But you see, Peter is an example
of what we are by nature. Peter couldn't walk on water. He did get out of the boat. By
the grace of God, he got out. But he couldn't walk on water,
could he? Now the Lord did give him grace to walk on water a
few steps, but what was the purpose of the lesson? It was to teach
Peter what he was by nature, just like He taught him in the
denials. But oh, was His purpose to leave
Peter downcast and disheartened? No, because you see when the
disciples, when the women were going back. And the Lord said
to them, tell the disciples. And he said, tell Peter. Tell
Peter. And he came to Peter and he said,
Peter, do you love me? And Peter wasn't boasting. His
head was so low. He said, yeah, Lord, you know
that I love you. He said, Peter, do you love me? You see, Peter
was taught what he was because the Lord said to him, Peter,
I have prayed for thee, and when thou art converted, strengthen
the brethren. Oh, Peter was converted, was
he not? What was he converted from? He
was converted from seeing himself as having strength and ability
to do things for the Lord. Lord, we're going to cut the
head off. Lord, I'll never deny thee. Peter
was brought down to that place. Peter knew what it was to be
cast down, did he not? He knew what it was to be disquieted
within himself. But oh, the mercy of God gave
Peter the strength and grace to stand on the day of Pentecost
and said, men and brethren, this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
The Lord hath made both Lord and Christ. And He declared the
glory of God in Jesus Christ and not Peter. Oh, that the Lord
might teach us that lesson today. That our praise and our glory
might be in Him and not in ourselves.