He finds that he really doesn't
understand much of anything. You know, we all have certain
doctrinal positions and thought things, some of them that we've
been taught ever since we were knee high. And the unfortunate
thing is a lot of those things we have been taught or things
we wish we could forget, because they are things that intrude
into our minds and actually keep us from seeing the truth of God.
Now at the same time, there are many things that we have learned
in the course of our lives that are precious truths that the
Lord uses to remind us. of how wonderful and precious
His Word is. But I'm convinced of this, and
that is that no man can have an appreciation for the Word
of God apart from the work of God in that man. And I believe
that it is a true thing that anybody can read the Bible, and
anybody can kind of have a knowledge of the Bible. And really, it's
a shame for people that claim to believe the Bible to be ignorant
of the Bible. You know, whether you love the
Bible or not, if you claim to believe it, you ought to at least
read it and see what it says. You know, there's a lot of people
that say, oh, we believe the Bible. And so you say, well,
what's the Bible say about it? Well, I don't know what it says
about that. Well, how do you know you believe the Bible? You
know, we think we believe the Bible. I mean, I believe that
this book, contains the Word of the living God. It is the
Word of God. I believe that. But when I stand
up and I say I believe it, I believe it because He said it. I don't
believe it because I know everything that's in it. But it is a shame
if we don't know what's in it, isn't it? I mean, you know, I
remember one fellow was waxing eloquent
about how that he read the Bible every day on his knees. And Charles Spurgeon told him, he
said, well, you know, he said, you'd probably get more out of
it if you'd go sit in a nice comfortable chair. Because, you
know, it's not how we come and read. It's not some accurate
way of reading the Bible that is useful to us. But what is
useful is when the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and
He causes us to see it, and He causes us to hear it, and He
causes us to believe it. That is a wonderful thing, a
glorious thing. And that is what we desire as
we look into the Word of God, that it might be precious to
us, that it might not just be something that we do. You know,
I remember as a young child we used to have a system whereby
they used to grade us on what we did. We'd fill out this little
card as to what we did each week when we went to the meeting.
And one of the things in there was getting your daily Bible
reading. Now that's a good habit. Everybody
ought to have a habit of reading the Bible every day. Because
I know this, if you don't have a habit of doing it, you probably
won't do it very much. Because everything we do, we
do habitually, do we not? I mean, pretty much everything.
We kind of get in a routine of things. And there is certainly
nothing wrong with having a routine of reading the Bible. But you
can take that to a place where it is not really what it should
be. And I can remember many times
as a young kid thinking, well, you know, I didn't get my daily
Bible reading today. And I'd grab the Bible and I'd
just open it up and read a verse and then I'd go get to bed. And
then that way I could say, well, I read the Bible. Now, I don't
know, the Lord, I mean, He can use something as foolish as that,
can He not? I mean, how many times have we
seen things in the Scripture that we weren't looking for?
I mean, the Lord is able to to apply His Word as He sees fit.
And so each time that we read this book, we ought to be reminded
of all of those things, that there is not a thing in the world
that we can get out of this book unless the Lord gives it to us.
There is something in this book each time we come there as the
Spirit of God leads us and teaches us by it. So may we be a people
who love the Word of God so much that we actually read it and
look at it. I do not want somebody telling
me how much they love the Bible if they do not read it. That
is kind of foolish. way to think of it. But anyway,
we're in Psalm 22, and this is probably, of all the
Psalms, most surely and plainly the expression of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And as we see, His crucifixion
set out before us in this psalm. And he says in verse 6, But I
am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. A worm, as we spoke a week or
so ago about that very subject. The Scripture speaks of men as
worms, Well, we don't like that sort of a thought, do we? Because
we like to think of ourselves as a little higher form of creation. See, that's what men, they always
say, well, you know, we're the Cadillac of the creation. And
surely the Lord has been mindful of men because it pleased Him
to do so. But He's not mindful of men because
they're men. He's mindful of them because
He made men to be mindful of them. In other words, they didn't
bring anything to the equation. They didn't have something that
caused Him to take notice of them. He made them to be what
they are. He made Adam just like He made
Adam. Adam was to be Adam just like He was Adam. And so all
men are made to be what they are. And God is going to have
glory from them. But when we consider ourselves
before the Lord, We are as the lowest of the low. I mean, we can't look out at
the women and say, well, there's those dogs out there. Lord, we're
better than the dogs. We're not better than the dogs
except for one reason, and that is because God made us a higher
level of consciousness than He did the dogs. But you know, Solomon
said that men, just like the dogs, they all die. I mean, you
know, all of this creation, everything we see is in a measure all just
temporary. And we don't have any life except
the life that's been given to us. We can't keep it going. We can't add to it. We can't
take from it. Only the Lord can do those things. But I am a worm, and this is,
of course, the Lord Jesus speaking. And he is speaking in the realm
of the place as he is standing as a man before God. Now, if
a man doesn't understand his powerlessness before Almighty
God, then he doesn't understand himself. Now, a lot of people
will talk about how much power they've got before God. You know,
they can come to God and they can basically back God into a
corner and get Him to do things. I've heard men talk about, you're
going to hold God's feet to the fire. Well, that's a foolish
thing to say because number one, He made the fire and He made
you, and you're not going to hold Him to anything. You can't force God's hand. You
can't back God into a corner. You can't cause God to do anything
because He's God. And if you could cause Him to
do something, you'd be God. So you can't do that. Now He
is pleased in His mercy and in His kindness to hear the cries
of His people. And He does indeed respond in
the manner in which men understand what a response is. He does respond
to the cries of the brokenhearted. He does hear those that call
upon His name. He is merciful, and He does help
those whom He would be pleased to help. But as we consider ourselves
before the Lord, we have no power. We are but worms or maggots,
a reproach of men and despise of the people. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ, as He stood in the room instead of His people as their
substitute, as that One who was fully and completely identified
with them, He was identified with them even in the measure
in which He stood as a worm before God. Now, it just blows my mind
away to even begin to pause and consider how He who, the Scripture
says, created the worlds would yet come and be made in the likeness
of human flesh, and walk among men, and take upon himself the
very nature of man, so much so that he can say, I am a worm,
I am the lowest of the low. Now he is the highest of the
high, is he not? God has given him a name which
is above every name, but yet he has stooped to the lowest
of the low, and took upon himself our sin. and calls himself to
be as a maggot before God for our sake. Any man that doesn't marvel at
that, can I explain the intricacies of that? No, not at all. I can't
even imagine it. But yet it is true. A reproach
of men and despise of the people. He came to his own and his own
received him not. Even his disciples were aggravated
with him from time to time, were they not? They didn't believe
what he said. They didn't even know who he was. Not really. Remember Philip? Philip, have
I been so long time with you and you haven't known me? You
don't even know who I am. They didn't know why he came.
Well, Lord, this time you're going to restore to the kingdom
of Israel? Is this it?" They didn't know. And so he was
a reproach of people, despised of the people. He was not what
they thought. John the Baptist sent word. He said, are you helmets
to come or are we supposed to be looking for another? Because
this thing isn't working out like I figured it was going to.
I mean, we thought you, if you were the Messiah, well, surely,
you know, you're going, when are you going to take over, and
when are you going to put these Romans down? Are you the one
that's coming, or did I get this wrong? I'm in prison. I mean,
they think I'm going to cut my head off any day now. Are you
Him? He was despised. You see, even
His own disciples could not watch with Him for an hour. No man
could stand with Him. The most brave and courageous
and strong of His disciples said He did not know Him. No. I do not even know who He is. No, I was not with Him. Not me.
Here is the reproach of the people. See, no man stood with Him. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him. Let him deliver
him, seeing that He delighted in him." Is that not what the
thieves on the cross even said? The people standing around the
cross? They said, Well, you know, if
you are so high and mighty, why don't you come down off of the
cross? They laughed at him. Let him deliver him. Seeing he
delighted in him, he said he was trusting the Lord. Isn't that one of the most painful
things that we deal with? If we desire to serve the Lord,
and our own conscience accuses us of this, And of course, other
people from time to time say, well, if you were really a Christian,
you wouldn't act like that. I mean, you wouldn't do that. You know, if it was really true.
And that's painful to us, is it not? Well, think of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I mean, here He is truly delighting
in the Lord every day, and yet He's accused falsely of not trusting
the Lord. And yet, our distrust was laid
upon Him, was it not? Our unbelief was laid upon Him,
was it not? I mean, are not all those things
an affront to God? And did He not take them upon
Himself? Did He not become our unbelief? Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, But thou art He that took me
out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast." Now, you know, isn't it a crossroads? That's not the word I'm looking
for, but it's coming together of the Lord being a reproach before
Almighty God, and yet having a complete and utter faith in
the one he knows has cast him off. Now, that's an amazing thing,
because he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And
yet in the midst of all of that, he says, you've made me to hope
in you. See, the man who's caused to
believe in God can't do anything else. I mean, it's not a decision
that a man makes, well, I'm going to believe in this. Now, the
world says you can believe any time you get ready. Well, I'm
here to tell you, you can't. But I'm here to tell you this,
that if God gives you faith, you can't not believe. You can't
be done. I mean, you can be like Jeremiah. He said, I'm tired of this stuff. I ain't going to preach again.
No, sir. I'm going to be quiet." But he
said, you know what? He said, the Word of God came
to me and it was like a fire in my bones and I could not be
silent. And so is the faith of God's
elect which is given to them that they cannot do anything
else but believe Him. Job said, though He slay me,
yet will I trust Him. Now what is that? Is that the
work of the man? Is that the man doing that? No,
it's the work of God. Why could Job say that? Because
God wrought it in him. And so it is that the Lord Jesus
confesses, but thou art He that took me out of the womb. Your
hand of mercy was upon me from the first breath, yea, even before
I drew my first breath. While I was yet in the womb,
you loved me. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast, even as a little infant of days."
Do you know when the Lord started watching over you? Some people say, oh, well, I
remember the day and the time. Well, let me tell you, you can't
remember the day and the time when the Lord began to show mercy
to you if you belonged to Him. Because when you were upon your
mother's breast, He caused you to hope in Him. Now, you didn't
know that. You didn't know what it was. I believe this is an amazing
thing. Now, the Lord brings men out
of total darkness into the light. But He begins His work even when
they are in the darkness to bring them to the light. And the Lord
Jesus confessed, He said, you made me to hope when I was upon
my mother's breast. Can you imagine that, thinking
about that an infant of days? Remember when the Lord Jesus
as a young boy, about twelve years old, or maybe younger than
that, I think it was about twelve years old, when He was in the
temple. And he reasoned with the scribes and the Pharisees,
and they were amazed. How did he have that way? He
had that because God gave it to him. You see, God gives men
what He wants them to have when He wants them to have it. And
sometimes He gives children an understanding that even adults
don't have. He sometimes does that. How does
He do it? Does He do it because they learned
it? No, He does it because He does it, because it pleased Him
to do it. What a glorious thing! And the
Lord said, when I was upon my mother's breast, I hoped in thee. I was cast upon thee from the
womb, thou art my God, from my mother's belly. And I believe
that be true for all of God's people. Be not far from me, for
trouble is near, for there is none to help. You know, we live in a day and
an age when there's all kind of help for everything, isn't
there? I mean, we don't worry about getting sick, do we? Ah,
we'll just go to the doctor and he'll prescribe something for
us and we'll get better. And well, we've got to have surgery,
so we'll go have surgery and everything will be alright. But
you see, the reality is that there is none to help. Now, men
can help you do stuff. I mean, if you have a flat tire,
somebody can stop by the side of the road and they can change
that tire for you. But you know, when the troubles
of life grip your soul, there is nothing in the world that
can do anything for you. You cannot be helped. When the
sorrows of death encompass you round about, Nobody can do anything
for you. But that's a good thing. Because
you see, in those times is when the Lord shows us that He is
indeed that One who is our Helper. And so that's what the Lord is
confessing here, for there is none to help. There's nobody
among men that's going to do anything for me. Many bulls have
come past me. The strong bulls of Bashan have
beset me round about. I think we've talked about the
strong bulls of Bashan before. There, a certain region is spoken
of in the book of Deuteronomy where they grew these cattle
that were evidently really strong and mighty cattle. And they had
a reputation of being untamable cattle. They were like Burmer
bulls and stuff like that. You just couldn't do much with
them. They were just going to do what they were going to do.
And he said, The strong bulls of Bashan have beset me about. They gait upon me with their
mouths as a rambling and roaring lion. They would destroy me,
he said. They have gaped upon me. There
is nothing we can do. You know, it is a helpless feeling
to be trapped in a pen with a bunch of towels
and you do not know what they are going to do. Now, especially
if you were in a bull ring and you had a wild bull and he was
intent on crushing you, what are you going to do about it?
He said, that is where I am at. They gaped upon me. I am poured
out like water. I do not have any strength. All
my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. I find no power in my flesh. My strength is dried up like
a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death." Is that not what he said? on the
cross when He said, I thirst. He said, I don't have anything to
help me. No one is with me. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up. My tongue
cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust
of death. For the dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked
have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. Now, he suffered physical harm,
physical pain. He said, I thirst. But you know,
the greater thirst that he had was not the thirst for water,
as a man would thirst in the natural sense, but the thirst
for the presence of God, which was denied him in that time for
our sake. But he bore that for us. But you see, he says, the dogs
have come past me. They've gathered around me. They're
barking and ravening and they're trying to tear at me. They've
enclosed me. They've pierced my hands and
my feet. How graphic is that? He was pierced,
was he not? He was pierced for our sake.
in his hands and his feet. I may tell all my bones they
look and stare upon me. You might think of that as I
count my bones. I look at myself, I'm skin and
bones. I'm dehydrated. I'm hanging here naked before
the world. They look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them, cast lots upon my vesture. How
can somebody read this and then read what it is that what happened to the Lord Jesus
Christ and not fall in amazement? That hundreds of years before
this ever occurred, that it's recorded here by David, exactly
what occurred when the Lord Jesus went to Calvary's cross, exactly.
You know, the Romans didn't read this. They said, well, now we
need to pierce his feet and his hands because we've got to fulfill
this Scripture here. No, they didn't read that. No,
some of them, at some point in time, they came up with a novel
idea. They said, you know what would
really be a good way to execute people would be to crucify them. And over time, I don't know if
the first time they did it, they probably didn't do it like they
did later on. It was a learning process. They
had to learn ways to really make it painful. And they perfected
their craft to the point that they got to
this place. But who was it that put in the
first Romans' mind, if the Romans were the ones that invented crucifixion,
I suppose they were. Maybe not. Maybe they borrowed
it from somebody else. They said, well, that looks like
a good idea. We'll start doing that. But the first folk that
ever came into a man's mind to do it, where did it come from? Why did it get there? It got
there because it was the purpose of God to cause His Son to hang
on Calvary's cross and to be pierced in the hands and the
feet. And it was the invention of man at some point in time
to bring that to pass. But make no mistake about it,
it was ordered by the hand of the Lord. Because you see, it
was the purpose of God to send His Son to suffer and bleed in
the behalf of His people. And it was in the mind and purpose
of God to cause David to write these words that would describe
exactly how it would take place. They part my garments among them
and cast lots upon my vesture. Oh, they wanted the clothing
of Christ. Isn't that the way that men are
today? They want the religion. They
want the outward coverings, do they not? They're willing to
pay a high price for it. They gambled for these things.
They wanted these things. They wanted them so bad that
they took parts of them. They didn't want one person to
get all of it. They wanted all of them to have
a little bit. Isn't that the way religion is today? That men
want that covering of some kind. They want something they can
look at and say, well, this is what I've got. Well, that's what
you've got. This is what I've got. And they gamble among themselves. And they argue among themselves.
They say, oh no, our way is the right way. No, this is the better
way. You ought to be doing it this
way. You ought to be doing it that way. They parted my garments.
They cast lots upon my vesture. But you see, not a one of them
wanted Christ. They wanted what He had. They
wanted to track things. They wanted to go outside and
say, man, this is a nice looking garment. I think we'll put this
on. But be not thou far from me,
O Lord, O my strength, haste to help me. Deliver my soul from
the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Be not far
from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste to help me. Because he
knew that only the Lord could help him. But yet the very hand
that would be his helper was the hand that was raised to wound
him. Even as Isaac was put upon that
altar by Abraham, the very knife and the hand that
was raised, though Isaac was spared, the Lord Jesus Christ
was not. in the very hand in which he
trusted, thrust him through for our sake, that we might have
that which Christ would purchase for us. Deliver my soul from
the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Now, he desired
to be delivered for his people's sake. You know, he didn't have a death
wish in the sense that he said, man, I can't wait to die. He wasn't just waiting to die,
but he was glad to die, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross. But it was an endurance. It was
an awful thing. It was a real thing. It was a
suffering time. It was a separation from God
for our sake. But yet, in the midst of it all,
he never once, the thought never crossed his mind not to trust
in his Father, not to call upon Him, and to say into Thy hands,
O Father, I commend my spirit, because I have none other that
will help me. Save me from the lion's mouth,
for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn." Now the
Scripture does speak about unicorns. I don't believe it's a horse
running around with a horn poking out of his nose. I believe rather
it's probably, speaking of some strong animal, probably a rhinoceros. I don't know that would be the
case, but nonetheless it was some animal. That was untameable. In fact, the word unicorn appears,
I forget how many times, but numerous times, about four or
five times in the book of Job, where he speaks about the unicorns.
And it's always speaking about an animal that can't be tamed.
It's an animal with great power. And this was that which was of
great power to destroy. the Lord Jesus Christ, although
it could not destroy his purpose, but it did indeed bring destruction
to his body. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the congregation, will I praise thee?
Because even in the greatest hour of his suffering, it never
occurred to the Lord Jesus Christ to do anything but give honor
and praise to His Father. And thus He shows Himself to
be a perfect man, even in the hour of greatest suffering as
He bore our sins, as a perfect man, as a perfect substitute,
as that Lamb which was without spot and without blemish. And
He is the Savior of His people. And let no man believe or think
that Christ has in any way failed to accomplish exactly what He
set out to do. Now someone said, and it's really
probably not even worthy of repeating, but this sort of thing is rampant
in the minds of many. They said that hell was a testimony
to the failure of God. that the Lord tried to save everybody,
but He couldn't, and so He had to throw them into hell. Well,
let me tell you something. Hell is a testament to the judgment
of God. It's a testament to the destructive
power of God. But God has no failure. He has accomplished exactly what
He set out to do. And all, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He will keep that
which is His. He purchased them on Calvary's
cross. And they belong to Him. And none
can perish for of whom He died. What a glorious thing. Brethren,
that is the place where we stand, and that is what we will declare
to the brethren. We will tell the brethren, look,
Christ has done it all. He has accomplished it, and He
is to be praised. May the congregation of the righteous
rejoice and give Him praise and glory, because He is worthy.
He has done all things necessary for the redemption of His people.