Alright, we're looking at Psalm
38. Psalm 38. This is the Psalm of David to
bring to remembrance. O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy
wrath, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. For Thine
arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore. There
is no soundness in my flesh because of Thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities
have gone over my head as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for
me. My wounds stank and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled, I am bowed down
greatly, I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled
with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken.
I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord,
all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from
Thee. My heart panteth, my strength
faileth me. As for the light of mine eyes,
it is also gone from me. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. They also that
seek after my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my
heart speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day
long. But I as a deaf man heard not,
and I was as a dumb man that opened not his mouth. Thus I
was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope.
Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise
they should rejoice over me. When my foot slippeth, they magnify
themselves against me. For I am ready to halt, and my
sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare mine iniquity,
I will be sorry for my sin. But mine enemies are lively,
and they are strong. And they that hate me wrongfully
are multiplied. They also that render evil for
good are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing that good
is. Forsake me not, O Lord, O my
God. Be not far from me. Make haste
to help me, O Lord, my salvation." Now, the title of this psalm
is interesting. This is a psalm of David, to
bring to remembrance. Now, what is he bringing to remembrance? I believe he is bringing to remembrance
Christ. Now, you know, in a lot of churches
you will see up on, carved into the front of the table that is
at the front of the meeting house, it says, in remembrance of me.
And the Lord told His disciples to remember Him, to do this as
often as you do it in remembrance of Me. And so it is that the
Lord has given us memorials throughout the Scripture to remember Christ. And so David has written a psalm
here, I believe, to bring to remembrance. Now, David as a
man and not knowing and understanding all things clearly as you and
I do in retrospect, could surely not have known and understood
all the things that I'm speaking about here concerning what he
wrote. But as the Scripture says, it was revealed to the prophets
of old that not to themselves did they write these things,
but for those who were to come. And by the grace of God, we live
in that age when the Lord has been pleased to reveal the truth
of all these things that were leading up to this. We are not
waiting for another age when there is something else going
to be revealed to the sons of God. God has revealed Himself
to the world in Jesus Christ, and there is nothing left to
occur, nothing yet to come except that fuller revelation of our
standing in Him. But He has shown us who He is. Now, we see through a glass darkly,
and then one day face to face, for we shall see Him as He is.
But we believe that in the words of David, though David spoke
these words, and they are indeed the words of a man with a regenerated
heart, a man who knows himself to be what he is and knows that
his only help comes from the Lord. But I believe that they
are indeed, as we have said so many times concerning these psalms,
they are the prayers of Christ. Because remember that Christ
came into the world for our sake. He came into the world to bear
our sin. In fact, the Scripture says He
was made sin for us. Now, that's a hard thing for
us to grasp. how that He who was without sin,
He was pure, He was never tainted with sin in any fashion, yet
to undertake our redemption, He became sin for us and He has
been touched with the feelings of our infirmities. So there
is, He knows what it is to come before God as a sinner. Now,
I can't really wrap my mind around that completely. Because that
seems such a conflict of things, how that he who is holy and without
sin could yet come unto the Lord feeling the weight of sin as
a sinner before Almighty God. But yet the Scripture plainly
teaches us that that is true. He was the type of Christ in
that the sin of men, Our sin is imputed to us through
the first Adam, and the righteousness of God is imputed to us through
the second Adam, even Jesus Christ. And so it is, dear brethren,
that as David speaks of his own sin, no doubt, and even as you
and I can see ourselves as sinners throughout the course of reading
this psalm nonetheless, We must see the full glory of what it
is that David is speaking of. Here we see Christ revealed and
the trouble that Christ underwent for our sake. O Lord, rebuke
me not in Thy wrath, neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. For Thine arrows stick fast in
me, and Thy hand presseth me sore. Now, when a man is convicted
of his sin, he cannot find any relief from the things that men
try to help him with. They say, oh, well, you'll feel
better tomorrow. You know, take two aspirin and
go lay down and get up tomorrow and you'll be fine. Well, it
doesn't work. You know, the remedies of men
cannot take away the conviction of sin. And it presses us sore,
even as upon Jesus Christ, as He bore the weight of all of
our sin. Think of that. I mean, we're
pressed down just considering our own sin. Consider Him who
bore all of the sin of all of His children before Almighty
God. I mean, thine arrows stick fast
in me. Have you ever got in a bunch
of sand spurs and did they just get in your... clothes, but they
got actually stuck in your skin as well. I mean, we used to go
barefooted most of the time when I was a kid, especially in the
summertime, and be in the field, and sometimes you might step
into a bunch of sand spurs. And even though your feet would
have gotten tough, you know, by going without shoes, nonetheless,
sometimes you get in them and those sand spurs just stick right
in you. And you've got to pull them out. I mean, that's the way sin is.
That's the way the wrath of God is upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
as arrows that stick fast in me. They're not easily removed. And thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. Now who's sin? is Christ speaking
of. He's talking about our sin, but
He didn't say, there's no rest in my bones because of their
sin, did He? He didn't come to the Lord and
say, well, this is an old bunch of sinners here, and I'm going
to bear their sin. No, that's not what He said.
He said, I'm going to bear my sin. Because he said, I love
my people so much I identify with my people and their hidden
in me and I have union with them and I will bear my sin. He said, it's my sin. You know, sometimes when kids
are growing up and they do things and maybe they tear something
up, or they go into a store and they break something, and the
parent He pays for what that child broke. Why? Now, did he
break that? No, he didn't break it, but you
see, his child did. And he loves his child, and he
will be responsible for his child, even so Christ is responsible
for our sin. He paid the price. Why? Because He loves us. Because
we belong to Him. And so He said, There is no rest
in my bones because of my sin. I mean, what was it that pressed
him down in the garden of Gethsemane? It was the sin of his people.
But he didn't say, Lord, you know, I'm just doing this as
a good gesture. No, he says, I am feeling this
sin. I am bearing this sin. And I
am gladly for the joy that sat before me. I endure the cross. What is the joy? That He might
gather His people unto Himself. That was the joy that was with
Christ. And so He gladly took our sin. For mine iniquities are gone
over my head. It's a heavy burden. They are
too heavy for me. Now the Scripture says that the
angels came and ministered to Him. Now here again is the thing
that I can't comprehend how it is, but it demonstrates the weakness
of the flesh. It demonstrates that in the flesh
dwelleth no good thing. And in Christ, as a man, as a
mortal man, He was pressed sorely down. And had He not been divine
as well as human, He would have been overcome if He had come
just as any other man. He could not have borne that
sin, but He did it. because of who He was. But as
a heavy burden, they're too heavy for me. I can't stand it. It's
crushing me. And Scripture says that He sweat
as it were great drops of blood. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. Whose foolishness? He said, it's
my foolishness. He looked upon your foolishness
and He said, it's mine. He said, your wickedness is mine. It belongs to me. I take it because
I love you. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long. The Scripture says that he was
a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And so he mourned over
these things. For my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness. in my flesh. Is that not what Paul confessed
in the book of Romans, the seventh chapter? He said, oh, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? He said, this body, this
rotting body of flesh that's upon me, I'm filled with a loathsome
disease. It's bearing me down. Even as
Christ said, there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and
sore broken. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart I have groaned. There is no soundness in my flesh.
There is no quietness in my heart. You know, quite often we just
want to get away from everything. You know, when things are just
bearing down upon us, and you know, it doesn't seem like anything
else could happen, and guess what? Something else happens.
And you know, sometimes trouble seems to come in bunches. When
one thing tears up, everything tears up. And the person that's
supposed to fix it, he left. And you can't get a hold of him
on the phone. And all of these kinds of things.
And troubles multiply. Well, the Lord knows all about
that, as it says here. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart, Lord, All my desires before Thee and
my groaning is not hid from Thee." He says, I've laid it out before
you. There's nothing hid, nothing
held back. There's no soundness in my flesh.
Lord, all my desires before Thee and my groaning is not hid. My
heart panteth. My strength faileth me. As for
the light of mine eyes, it is also gone from me. Those things that would cause
me joy. I don't have them anymore. I
mean, you know, really, the last days of the Lord's life were
a great grief to Him, were they not? Because those who were closest
to Him, Judas, I mean, the Scripture, even though Judas was a devil,
he knew Him from the beginning. Yet, he was still. a friend in the sense that they
accompanied together. Again, we can't really get this,
but the Lord knew what was in the heart of Judas, but yet He
spoke to him kindly. He walked among them. As the hour of His trouble came
upon Him, the light of His eye was taken away. Think about the
multitudes that followed the Lord Jesus and seemingly received
Him with joy and everything. But there came a time when they
didn't gather like that anymore. They didn't want to be associated
with Him. And no doubt the Pharisees were
stirring up you know, people against him and threatening people
to cast them back in the Scripture. As they had already said, they
would cast people out of the synagogue if they said that he
healed them. Remember the blind man? He said,
you know, I don't know. I can't explain what it was,
but you'll have to go ask him how it happened. All I know is
once I was blind, now I can see. But the light of his eyes, that
is, humanly speaking, there was nothing that could give the Lord
Jesus Christ a place of rejoicing in this world. There is nothing worse than when
men bear false witness against you and say things that are not
true, and yet they were constantly bringing these things upon Him. My lovers and my friends stand
aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. all of His disciples, even the
closest ones. Even the very one who said, Lord,
I'll stand with you. But he didn't. My lovers, my
friends, they stand aloof from my sore. That is that thing that's
bothering me. That thing that's weighing down
upon me. You know, when leprosy in those days was considered
that you didn't want to get near somebody that had leprosy because
you'd get leprosy. Now, I don't know that that's
necessarily true. I think they've kind of shown
that that's not necessarily true. I mean, you could get leprosy
by having contact with other people, but it's not like if
they touched you, you'd get leprosy. But it was considered to be that
way. And so what he's saying here basically is that I'm like
a leper. Nobody wants to get close to
me. They want to keep me at arm's length. They stand aloof from
my sword. My kinsmen stand far off. And
if a man is really under duress and conviction of sin, it's hard
for other people, especially those who've never known what
it is to be gripped with their own sin, can identify with. Some people think it's silly
when a man speaks about being a sinner and unworthy of the
least of the Lord's mercy. They say, oh, what do you want
to talk like that for? I mean, if you're just making
it up, then don't do that. But if you feel yourself to be
a sinner, that's just a natural thing that we know ourselves
to be sinners, is it not? I mean, that's not an unusual
thing. for those who are awakened by the Spirit of God to confess
their unworthiness? No, we're not trying to impress
somebody by how unworthy we are. Some people do. They want you
to know how terrible they are and all that kind of stuff. I'm
not talking about that. But the natural man can't identify
with what it is to be convicted of sin. He just thinks, well,
go take you a holiday, you know, go on vacation and you'll be
alright when you come back. And you're just kind of weighed
down under things. Well, no, that won't give you
relief when the Spirit of God is convincing you of your sin. They also that seek after my
life lay snares to me. Now listen. He said, my lovers
and my friends, those who are closest to me, they've forsaken
me. But it says, on top of that, they that seek after my life
are laying snares for me. They're trying to capture me. And that's exactly what the Jews
were doing. And they that seek my heart speak
mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. They
took counsel together, did they not? I mean, they met together.
How can we stop this man? We have got to come up with some
way to end this. And so it was as they got Judas
to betray so they could take him captive. But I as a deaf
man heard not, and I was as a dumb man that opened not his mouth.
He says, As a sheep before shears is dumb, so openeth not his mouth. He didn't say it. He didn't hear
it. He wasn't listening to it. In other words, he knew what
they were saying, But he means he turns a deaf
ear to it. It didn't have any effect on
him. He says, I was as a deaf man, I didn't hear them. I wasn't
listening to them. Sometimes you have to do that.
When people try to tell you things that aren't true, you just have
to turn a deaf ear to them. Let them speak what they want
to, but don't listen to it. I was a dumb man that opened
not his mouth. Thus, I was as a man that heareth
not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs." The Lord Jesus came
not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. You see, He didn't come reproving
the world. Now, His very presence naturally
actually reproved the world, did it not? When the Spirit has
come, will He not convince the world of sin, righteousness,
and judgment? That's one of the reasons why
people hate the preaching of the truth, is because it magnifies
their own wickedness. See, men don't want to hear that.
When you tell somebody just what the Scripture says, if it's contrary
to what they think is right and good, then they get mad about
that. And that's much of what we see
today in our society. is that people, they're not rebelling
against what you say, they're rebelling against God. If you're
saying what God's saying and they don't like it, I mean, if
you say Christ is the only way of salvation and a man cannot
be received into the presence of God apart other than through
Him, that's not an acceptable message to a lot of people, is
it? In fact, there are very few of these politicians that would,
on the one hand, claim to be followers of Christ, but you
would be hard-pressed to get one of them to stand up in a
public place and say that, would you? Why? Because it is not politically
correct. It would be political suicide,
and they know it. Well, dear brethren, we are not
called upon to be politically correct. We are called upon to
bear witness of Christ. And so, he says, I was as a man
who here is not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. I'm not
condemning anybody. What grounds do we have to condemn
somebody? I can't condemn somebody. But
if God says something, I can say what God said. And that's
not me saying it's wrong. That's God saying it's wrong.
It doesn't have anything to do with me. I'm just a bearing witness
of the truth. For in Thee, O Lord, do I hope.
Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. Now you see, the Lord never abandoned
His hope in the Lord. Now in order to fulfill prophecies
He hung upon Calvary's cross, He said, did He not, My God,
My God, Thou hast forsaken Me? But listen to this, in the midst
of being forsaken of God, and He was on account of sin, in the midst of that, the heart
that beat within His breast never abandoned hope in the Father. Because His last words were,
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Now that doesn't sound
like somebody who gave up, does it? It's one who was trusting
because he could do nothing else. For in thee, O Lord, do I hope.
Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise
they should rejoice over me when my foot slippeth. They magnify
themselves against me. For I am ready to halt, and my
sorrow is continually before me. For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin."
Well, wait a minute. I'll be sorry for my sin. That's
what he said. That's the same thing he said
up there, was it not? He says, my iniquity presses
me sore. He says, my sin. Whose sin? Surely
not his sin. Because he had none. But he said,
as he identified with his people, he says, I am a sinner, O God,
before Thee, for my people's sake. He imputed our sin to himself. I will be sorry for my sin. I'm
glad that he did. Otherwise, how could it have
been taken away? If he did not take it unto himself,
if he did not identify completely with those people that he loved
with an everlasting love, how could he have expiated their
sin? He said, it's my sin. But mine enemies are lively and
they are strong, and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. They gnash upon me with their
teeth. They pluck out my beard. They lash me with many lashes. They put crowns of thorns upon
my head. They hate me without cause. They
are multiplied that hate me wrongfully. What could anybody rightfully
have ever accused the Lord Jesus Christ of? I mean, there's not
one thing in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ that anybody
could bring a righteous condemnation against. He went about doing
good. He manifested the love of the
Father. It all came in contact with Him. I mean, what could anybody really
ever say against Him? Nothing. Everything, every accusation
was against Him wrongfully. They also that render evil for
good. They render evil for good, you
see. And they are mine adversaries
because I follow the thing that good is. That's why the Pharisees
hated him. They said, we've got to get rid
of this guy because he's really getting down to the nitty-gritty
of the thing. He's making us look bad. I mean, if he's going
to set the standard for what's good, then our standard is not
going to be high enough. See, they had enough human understanding
they could get what it was that he was getting at. They're my adversaries because
I follow the thing that good is. Men love evil. They hate the light. They won't
come to the light. Forsake me not, O Lord. O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord,
my salvation." Now, that's the place that every sinner must
of necessity come. That the Spirit of God works
in him both the will and the good of his good pleasure. convict and convince men of sin
in order to toy with them. He doesn't give a man a heart
of hatred of his sin before God. Now, Judas was a man that had
natural sorrow, so much so that he went out and took his own
life. But he took his life in despair, not in faith. He took his life because he trusted
he could see himself for what he is, just like a drunkard when
he's beat his wife and now he's sobered up and he looks back
and says, man, I'm a sorry no count person. And he's right. But you see, that's not to be
sorrowful for our sin before Almighty God. See, David said,
against thee and thee only have I sinned. And only then can a
man, as a man worked upon by the Spirit, when he understands
that his sin is not just being bad, all people know they're
bad. I mean, you know, a little kid
knows he's been bad from time to time. I mean, they don't like
to be corralled in it, but they know when they've been bad. But
that's not the conviction of sin. See, the conviction of sin
is when we hate that which we have committed against God. And
we know that that is that which hangs over our head. And so,
as such a one, the desire, as David's desire was, Lord, cast
me not from Thy presence. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from
me. Don't cast me off. I deserve
to be cast off, but Lord, don't do that. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
showing and manifesting the perfections that is in Him as the Savior
of sinners, as a perfect man, prays this prayer, which is the
perfect prayer for all sinners. Make haste to help me, O Lord,
my salvation. Now what other salvation do we
have? salvations of the Lord. I mean, isn't that what Jonah
said? In the belly of the fish? He
said, man, I mean, he had pretty bleak prospects, did he not?
I mean, there wasn't a whole lot. I don't know what it would
be like to be in a fish's stomach, but I'm sure it would be a pretty
depressing consideration What did He say? Salvation is
of the Lord. We have no other hope. There
is no other place of deliverance. The children of God desire that. They desire to be in the presence
of God. And so it is that the Lord showed
us what it is to trust the Lord in the midst of His trouble.