We're looking again at Psalm
35. We'll look at the latter half
of it, or beginning verse 11. It says, False witnesses did
rise up. They laid to my charge things
that I knew not. They rewarded me evil for good
to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were
sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting,
and my prayer returned unto my own bosom. I behaved myself as
though he had been my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily
as one that mourneth for his mother. But in my adversity they
rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. Yea, the abjects gathered
themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear
me, and cease not. With hypocritical mockers in
feast they gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt
thou look on? Rescue my soul from their destructions,
my darling, from the lions. I will give thee thanks in the
great congregation. I will praise thee among much
people. Let not them that are mine enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that
hate me without a cause. For they speak not peace, but
they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in
the land. Yea, they opened their mouth
wide against me and said, Aha, aha, our eye has seen it. This hast thou seen, O Lord,
keep not silence, O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself
and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my
Lord. Judge me, O Lord, my God, according
to thy righteousness, and let them not rejoice over me. Let
them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it. Let
them not say, We have swallowed him up. Let them be ashamed and
brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Let
them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves
against me. Let them shout for joy and be
glad that favor my righteous cause. Yea, let them say continually,
Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity
of his servant. And my tongue shall speak of
thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long." Now,
as we have been pointing out and hoping that we can be clear
how we approach these Psalms is that these are the prayers
of Christ. There are several things that
stand out in these things that we have read this morning that
testify to that very fact, and of course we will get to those False witnesses did rise up.
They laid to my charge things that I knew not." Now, of course,
we know the Lord knows all things, so He's not speaking about His
knowledge, but He's talking about things that were not true of
Him, things that He didn't do. That's what they laid to His
charge, and we know that that is true. in that the Pharisees
paid false witnesses to come in and bear witness against him
and say that he did things that he didn't do. And of course,
they thought they had a pretty good case against him in their
own law, but at every time that they brought the law to bear
upon him, he showed them what the law actually was, and they
didn't like it. See, men don't like what the
law is. They like what they think the
law is. Because what men think the law is, is a rule, a standard
of rule, and it says here, well, you can be a pretty good person
if you'll do most of these things. And that's how most people look
at the law, is it not? They say, well, you know, we
didn't 100% do it all, but we did pretty good. I mean, look,
we can check off about, you know, five or six of these things at
least. And we're doing pretty good and we can pat ourselves
on the back. But that's because they want the law to say what
they want it to say. But what the law does is condemn
us. What the law does is testify
to what we really are. And that's why the Lord said,
he that has broken the law in one point is guilty of them all.
So where does that make us to stand? I mean, if we really believe
that, You know, what checklist would do us any good? Because
if we broke one of them, then we're guilty of the whole thing.
So, you know, what kind of a state does that put man in? It puts
him in a hopeless state. See, most preaching today doesn't
tell folks they're in a hopeless state. They tell them, oh, well,
you've got something you can do about it. See, you can do
something about your state, but I'm here to tell you this morning
there's not a thing in the world you can do about your state.
If the Lord Jesus Christ does not in mercy come to you and
deliver you out of the state that you're in, you will never
get out of it. You know, He's not waiting to see what we're
going to do, but He's the One who is causing His people to
come unto Him, to call upon Him. False witnesses did rise up.
They laid to my charge things that I knew not. They rewarded
me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul. Their purpose was
to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't enough that they could
just silence Him. They wanted to destroy Him. They
wanted to destroy His followers as we see with that one who called
himself a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And he went about seeking to
destroy every place he could find people that were followers
of Christ, Saul of Tarsus sought to have them destroyed. But we
know that was not the Lord's purpose. They rewarded me evil
for good to the spoiling of my soul. But listen to what he says
here. He is pointing out what they
did. They bore false witness to Him. They were out to destroy
Him in every way. But as for me, He is speaking
about Himself. He said, this is what they did
to me, but He said, this is what I did. And how do we know? I know these are the words of
Jesus Christ. Because there is not a man alive,
there is not a man alive that can honestly in every case, have
this mind about Him. Now you may want to, but you're
not going to have it. Now you can breathe out threatenings
and slaughters because you've got the laws written in your
heart. You see, the work of the law
is written in your heart, meanwhile accusing or excusing one another. In other words, you can excuse
yourself while you accuse others. You can look at what they ought
to be doing, And you can be mad at them, and when somebody does
you wrong, you can take the law and say, well, the law says an
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, brother, I'm going to
enforce that. And I'm going to seek to destroy my enemies. That's
just the natural way of men, showing that the law is written
in our heart. We can't escape it. You see,
you know what right and wrong is. I've shared this before,
but how you can know right from wrong is that you might believe
that it's alright for you to steal something from somebody
else. You might convince yourself that you've got a right to it.
Or, you know, maybe they did you some wrong thing and so they
deserve for you to take it. Or whatever you want or however
you want. You know, you can come up with
a thousand reasons to do things that you think you ought to do.
But you let somebody take something from you, and how do you think
about it then? You say, well, that's sorry,
no good. He stole something from me. See, we know what the law
is. That's not the issue. Men know
right from wrong, but the problem is that they don't love the right
way by nature. We love the way that is against
the way of God. So what does he say here? He
said, when they mistreated me, when they bore false witness
against me, when they did these things to the spoiling of my
soul, but as for me, when they were sick, He said, when they
were in need, He says, I humbled my soul. My clothing was sackcloth. I was in mourning. He said, not
for me, but for them. When they were sick, when they
were hurt, when they were in need. I behaved myself as though he
had been my friend or brother. This very one that hated him,
he said, I was as sick as they were. I wanted to bear their
sickness. I wanted to bear their burden. That's what he said. I bowed down heavily as one that
mourned for his mother. The depths of sorrow gripped
me. Indeed, he was acquainted with
grief, for he bore our griefs and he carried our sorrows. But
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God. Well, there was no beauty
in him that we should desire him. It was not in us to have
pity upon him. But yet He had pity upon us.
But in my adversity, they rejoiced. Isn't that true? I mean, they cheered when Pilate said,
Crucify Him. In other words, the crowd
said, Crucify Him. set forth this man Jesus and
said, what would you do with him? And that's exactly what
men do today. It's what every man will do apart
from the grace of God to change their heart and cause them to
see Him as the Savior of sinners. They will say, crucify Him. We
don't care about Him. We want to live our life. We
want to go our way. We want to do whatever we want
to do. See, that's what we're put here
for in the minds of many is to have a happy life. That's why God made us, didn't
He? So we could have a happy life. So we could enjoy it. So we could improve ourselves
and the lives of all of our fellow men. Isn't that what we're put
here for? No, we're put here for one reason and that is to
bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ. And we will bring glory
to the name of Jesus Christ either as those who by His mercy call
upon Him or as those who despise Him are turned away from Him
and destroyed. Now that's just the way that
it is. But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and which of us
could not say that we were among them, and gathered themselves
together, yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me,
and I knew it not. Now he didn't mean that he didn't
know that it happened. He means it was not the thing
that he put his focus on. They tore me with hypocritical
mockers. In feasts, they gnashed upon
me with their teeth. They plucked out his beard and
spat upon him. They beat him with many stripes. Lord, how long wilt thou look
on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my darling, that
is, my being, me. And of course, as the Lord, you
know, it's impossible in the Grace Gazette this week. I tried
to set this forth. But you know, the Lord Jesus
Christ was a perfect man, but He was perfectly God as well.
And we can't really grasp that. I mean, all we are is mortal
men. We are creatures of a span. We are made of the dust of the
earth. Jesus Christ is the only begotten
Son of God. He has neither beginning nor
does He have an ending because He is life itself. He said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by Me. He is the life. The Father has
given that the Son might have life in Himself. You see, we
don't have life in ourselves. Now, a lot of people, they make
a mistake, I believe here, in the consideration of man when
they say that man has an immortal soul because they believe that
man has some sort of spark of life in him that just goes on.
Man has no life at all except that which is given to him in
Christ. And so we do not. We have no
passion or manner in which we can live except that which is
given to us in Christ. We live because He lives. We
don't have life in ourselves. We will continue to live through
eternity because He gives us eternal life. And our life is
hidden in Him. And He bestows the life upon
us. Adam and Eve were put in the
Garden of Eden. The Lord put two trees there
and He forbade them to eat of one and He never forbade them
to eat of the other. And the one was the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil that He said, in the day you eat it,
you shall surely die. Now that was prophetic. You see,
it wasn't the Lord saying, if you eat it. He said, when you
eat it. You're going to die. Because
he knew what was in man, does he not? He made man to be exactly
what man would be. But he said there's another tree,
the tree of life. Now we don't have any indication
that man was ever prevented from eating of the tree of life. He
did need the tree of life. But the tree of life is Christ.
He is the life of God's people. And we live because He lives
and for no other reason. And so here He is as this One
who has eternal life, but yet is walking among men as a perfect
man. And He is crying out to His Father.
He says, Lord, how long will you look on? I mean, I'm being
destroyed here. See, He felt the feelings of
our infirmities. He knows if you've ever been
in distress and trouble, the Lord Jesus Christ has been in
a deeper state of it than you ever have. He knows what that
place is. And here He is. I will give thee
thanks in the great congregation. I will praise thee among much
people, even while He's in the midst of these troubles. Even
while these men are caring about him and seeking to destroy him,
he says, I will give thanks in the great congregation. I will
praise thee among much people. Let not them that are mine enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the eye that
hate me without a cause. Now, he is not here praying specifically
for himself. But he is praying as a man in
this distress, but keep in mind that he is God, and he is holy,
and he has one desire, and that is that the name of the living
God be exalted forever. And he said, Let not them that
are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me. Don't let those things
that are, don't let this false witness stand forever. And it
won't. Because he won't let it. Because
he's just in all things. Neither let them wink with the
eye that hate me without a cause. Now you know, one of the things
I guess that is the hardest for men to bear is to be disdained. Isn't it hard, I mean, when somebody
just disdains you? I mean, they just, you know,
have no regard, do you? They make fun of you? Well, he
says here, neither let them wink with the eye that hateth me without
cause. Don't let this disdain come upon me forever. Because,
you see, In the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the destruction
and pain and suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, He bore our
sin and our sorrow, but that was not the end of it. But He
came forth from the grave, you see, as that one triumphant. This is what He is praying for
here, is let not this thing be its final the final resting place,
let not my soul be caught up and destroyed by these that gnash
upon me. But He said, bring me back from
that. Deliver me. For they speak not
peace, but they devise deceitful matters against them that are
quiet in the land. Yea, they opened their mouth
wide against me and said, Aha, I have seen it." We have seen
Him in His distress and His trouble. He said, but don't let that be
the final chapter. Because you see, the Lord Jesus
Christ came into the world to accomplish a purpose, and He
would not rest until that purpose was done. And that purpose was
not simply that He come and suffer and die, but that He might take
unto Himself the glory that was His from before the foundation
of the world, and He might manifest Himself as that glorious Savior. And you see, he prays for that. He prays, don't let this be the
final chapter. Don't let this be the end word. But he said, let me be brought
forth, for they speak not peace. They devise deceitful manner
against them that are quiet in the land. Now he was led as a
sheep to the slaughter. He didn't open his mouth, the
Scripture says. He was the quiet in the land,
was he not? I mean, couldn't he have stood
up? in the judgment? And could he not have brought
forth every ground and reason why they were the ones that needed
to be destroyed and not him? Did he not have the better case?
I mean, was he not the better mediator? Was he not the better
lawyer in that stand? I mean, he who wrote the law,
could he not have stood there and accused every one of them?
and destroyed him with the breath of his mouth at that time, but
he was quiet. He didn't say anything. But the
Scripture says that when he comes again, he will not be quiet then, but he will destroy the wicked,
the Scripture says, with the breath of his mouth, because
he will speak forth judgment. He said, let that not be. Yea, they opened their mouth
wide against me and said, Aha, I have seen it, we have seen
this wicked man. But do not let this be the testimony,
Lord, that I am left with here in this earth. This thou hast
seen, O Lord. Keep not silence, O Lord, be
it far from thee. Lord, help me." You know, I am amazed that often
to us, because in our lack of understanding, we can't really
grasp how it is that the Lord could be praying to His Father,
and yet He's one with the Father. Now, I can't explain that, neither
can anybody else. But it's an amazing thing here
how that He prays for the success of that which He was going to
do that could not fail. Now, people often say, well,
you know, if I believed what you believe, I never would pray.
Because, I mean, if everything is already predetermined and
predestined by an Almighty God, then what's the point in praying?
That's because we don't know what prayer is. Prayer is not
you trying to get God to do something. Prayer is the work of the Holy
Spirit in you conforming you to the will of Almighty God.
Because if you pray anything according to His will, He heareth
us. You see, the Lord would have
us to pray according to His will. Now, do we know what His will
is? No. I don't know what His will is, except I know He will
glorify Jesus Christ. If you ever want to pray according
to the will of God, pray that God will magnify the name of
Christ. I can tell you that is the will
of God. And you'll be praying according to the will of God.
Now, when He brings you into conformity with that will and
you have that desire, brethren, you'll be blessed. You'll be
given the desires of your heart. Because those things will come
to pass. He will cause the desires of His people to come to fruition. This I have seen, O Lord, keep
not Silas. Lord, be not far from me. Oh, don't let them overwhelm
me. Stir up thyself and awake to my judgment." Now, have you
ever prayed such a prayer as that? I mean, are you anxious for the
Lord to awaken unto your judgment? There is a sense in which we
could be if we look to the judgment as that. Our judgment and our
righteousness is in Christ, and we do look forward to the fact
that God's justice shall stand. That is the reason we believe
that we shall be justified, is because Christ has fulfilled
the law. But he is saying, here, awake to my judgment. Look upon
me, a righteous man. and awake to my judgment, even
unto my cause." What cause was it? He said, I cannot do mine
own will but the will of Him that sent me. That was His cause. Now, you know, people say all
the time, and I laugh about it at least, they say, well, you
know, we always try to do the right thing. We are just trying
to do the right thing or whatever. And I mean, that is not true.
I mean, we are not trying to do the right thing. We are trying
to do the thing that will help us the most. I mean, realistically,
honestly, even if it is that we are going to do something
for somebody else to get some benefit from them for doing something
for them. Isn't that kind of the way it
is? I mean, the Lord is able to subdue. the wickedness of
His people are, and He does cause His people to do according to
His will. And He does indeed work in us
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. All of that is
very true, but that is because of His working in us, not because
of what we are producing. Because He is the One. that brings
it to pass. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
stood alone in the judgment seat of Almighty God, all by Himself,
and He said, I am righteous. And there is silence in the heavens. Because who could bring forth
an accusation against Him? Because He is. And so when he
calls upon God to judge him according to his righteousness, he can
do that. Let them not rejoice over me.
Let my triumph be seen. Let them not say in their hearts,
ah, so weak would we have it. Let them not say we've swallowed
him up. Don't let the wicked triumph.
And the wicked will not triumph. For the Lord Jesus Christ has
prayed that they won't. You can be sure that the wicked
will not triumph. The day of the wicked is short,
coming to an end. Let them be ashamed and brought
to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt. Why? Because the hurt was not specifically
his, but his defending his people. You see, the hurt that is coming
upon him is that which is heaped upon him because of who he is,
and he so closely identifies with his people as those whom
he loves that he knows that his enemies are theirs and vice versa.
So he is standing in the room instead of his people. And he
says, they rejoice at mine hurt. They rejoice. And they would
have me destroyed. They would destroy my people.
But let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify
themselves against me. Now, you can't pray a prayer
like that. Can you? Wouldn't you feel pretty much
ashamed if you went in before the Lord and started praying
such a thing as that? Because He told you not to. He
said, do good to them that despitefully you should pray for them. If a man sues you at the law
to take away your coat, give him your coat also. If he compels
you to go with him a mile, go with him too. Now that kind of doesn't sit
well, does it? No, really, I mean, be honest.
Do you think that's right? I mean, you believe it's right
because you know the Lord said it and you believe that it is.
But I mean, in that old natural man of the heart, I mean, does
that sound like a good thing? Well, I know we believe. I mean,
if a man smacks you on the right cheek, what do you do? You ball
up your fist and hit him back. I mean, that's just natural,
is it? You don't have to ever teach a child that. Never! There's not a child born that
doesn't have to be taught the opposite of that. Of course,
that's in our nature. It's what we are. But you see
here, the Lord Jesus Christ, He prays for His glory, and you
and I couldn't pray a prayer like this. We can't say, Lord,
clothe them with shame. Lord, destroy them. Lord, let
thy wrath come down from heaven upon them." Now, we'd like to,
and we might from time to time even do such a thing as that,
but we can't rightly do it because the Lord hasn't called us to
such, because we're all sinners. And therefore, you see, the Lord
has ground upon which to condemn us. You see, He had a ground
as the Holy God to condemn the woman taken in adultery before
Him. Did not the law say that she should be stoned? And did
he not, as Almighty God, have the right to condemn that woman? But what did he say? As a perfect
and holy man, and as a demonstration of the mercy of Almighty God,
what did he say? Neither do I condemn thee. Go
and sin no more. Oh, what a glorious God! What
a glorious Savior! What a glorious man! who walked
among men and demonstrated to men the perfection that He demands
from those who walk upon the earth. And how far from that
we all come. See, when you see the Lord Jesus
Christ not condemn that woman, you see a perfection that you
will never have in yourself, but one which you desire. Because
He demonstrated the very perfections of a perfect man and a merciful
God. Let them be clothed with shame
and dishonor and magnify themselves against me." Now here's a contrast.
See, he's contrasting those that oppose him and then he's going
to speak about some that don't. Now we never contend that there
are not men who seek the Lord. Because there are. We never contend
that there are not men who love the law of God. Because there
are. But what we contend is that no
man by nature does these things. It is only according to the grace
of God and the mercy of God bestowed upon him. So that if a man calls
upon the name of the Lord, it is because the Lord Called him,
because the Lord opened his mind, opened his heart, opened his
very being. It is what the Lord said to Nicodemus. He came to him by night. Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Such
is the work of the Spirit of God in the people of God to call
upon His name. Let them shout for joy and be
glad that favor my righteous cause." Now there are men in
the earth that do that. But there is no man in the earth
that ever has done that on his own. You see, that is what the
difference in preaching of the sovereign grace of God and preaching
of the works and free will of men is. Now those that would
declare that man has a free will to do whatever he wants to, they're
right in some fashion. Man can do whatever he wants
to, but whatever he wants to do is go down the path to destruction. That's what he wants to do, and
that's where he will go, except by the mercy of Almighty God.
He arrests him just like he did Paul on the road to Damascus.
And he causes something to happen. And Saul of Tarsus, when he left
out from Jerusalem that morning, or whenever it was he was going
that way, the furthest thing from his mind was that he was
going to exalt the name of Jesus Christ. He didn't have any desire
to do that. In fact, his desire was the opposite. But you see, so great is the
mercy of God that there was a point in time, and I don't know where
the spot was on that road, but there was a spot. In other words,
there was one spot where Paul was or Saul at that time. He
was walking like this, and he was breathing out threatenings
and slaughters against God, and he took another step, and he
was flat on his face on the ground, and a great light shone around
him. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord in mercy said, I
am Jesus. whom thou persecutest, it is
hard for thee to kick against the pricks." And the Lord in
mercy stopped. You know, you see these little
roadside memorials where people have been killed in car wrecks
and stuff like that. And there's not one of those
by the road to Damascus up there. I don't think Paul ever put one
up. But I'll tell you, if Paul ever knew of a spot where he
would give glory to God and was going to physically mark it,
it would be that spot on that road because it was there, dear
brethren, that the Lord opened his mind and heart. is not made to see these things
as dramatically as the Apostle Paul. And, you know, a lot of
people, they worry about that as they go along their journey.
You know, some folks have been raised in hearing the gospel
ever since they were knee high, and they've never maybe had the
upbringing that Paul did that would set them in just contrary
wise to the gospel. But there is in every person a natural rebellion against the
things of God. You cannot teach a child to love
Jesus Christ. Now you can teach him who Christ
is, and you should. You can teach him that there
is a God in heaven who rules and reigns and is in charge of
all things, and you should. But the Lord alone can change
a man's heart. And it's not always as dramatic
as Paul, but it is just as certain as that of Paul, because the
Lord does come to change men's hearts. And I believe sometimes
that that change takes place in such a way that a man sometimes
can't even really identify the moment that it occurred. But
looking back, he can say, you know, I once was lost, but now
I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. Just like those that came to
that blind man whom the Lord healed and they said, who is
this man? He said, I don't know who he is. I don't know anything
about how it happened or what he did or anything else, but
he says, I know this, that whereas once I was blind, now I can see. And so there are some. And he
speaks of them here. He says, Let them shout for joy
and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Do you favor the righteous
cause of Christ? Oh, brethren, is that not why
we come together to worship Him? Because we do favor the righteous
cause of Christ. We believe it's a righteous cause.
Let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified. which
hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant." Who is the servant
of God? Now, we desire to be the servants
of God, but whose prosperity do we pray for? The prosperity
of Christ, is it not? I mean, we want Him to be exalted,
and that is what we desire. We want the name of Christ to
be magnified and lifted up and to proclaim to the nations. Now,
we don't want somebody going around mealy-mouthed out here
and telling folks what they can do. We want folks to tell them
what Christ has done. See, that's what the preaching
of the gospel is. It's telling folks what Christ
did. Let the Lord be magnified, which
hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant. And my tongue
shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day
long. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
a perfect man, did and does praise the name of the Lord every day. It is His purpose. And it is
His work in the people of God to give us a mouth of praise.
He didn't give us a mouth of complaining. You came by that
naturally. Nobody ever had to teach you
to complain. I mean, when you was a kid, didn't
anybody have to come tell you, now son, you need to stop and
think about whether or not people are treating you fair. I mean,
did anybody ever come, did your mom or daddy set you down and
teach you how to want things to be fair? No. Oh, that's not fair! Where does
that come from? I can tell you where it comes
from. It comes from the work of the
Lord written in our heart. That's where it comes from. See? And so the Lord, in His mercy,
He does visit His people. And I'm thankful that He does.
And He teaches us. He doesn't teach everybody the
same He doesn't teach everybody the same level of understanding. He doesn't give everybody the
same measure of faith. But what he does give to every
one of his children is a love for Jesus Christ. And they may
have trouble expressing it, but it's true nonetheless. You know,
a man can love his wife and have a hard time telling her. Now,
he ought to work on that. But he might, you know. But that
doesn't mean he doesn't love his wife. And neither does it
mean because maybe a person doesn't have the ability or skill or
whatever to express his love for Christ. Nonetheless, when
the Lord works in a man's heart, he calls him to love the way
of God, he calls him to love the law of God, And it calls
him to love Christ as the Savior. Not just his idea of Christ,
but Christ as the Savior. The One who paid the price and
bought something with His own blood. And he will not let it
go. What a glorious thing. What a privilege it is to be
given a heart to praise Him. To love Him. To walk in His way. and to desire the prosperity
of His servant, O that He might work that in us.