In his name we pray. Amen. Good morning everyone, let's
turn together to Psalm 40. As we continue there today and
the things that I'm going to say today, I've said throughout
the weeks already in this text and then next week I'm going
to really focus on some personal examination. For us. as the temporal reality of verse
17. But as we've seen and as I've
said, when David wrote this song, he was writing out of his own
experience. He was crying out to the Lord, he was remembering
to trust in the Lord, he was remembering to wait in the Lord.
He was remembering the deliverance of the Lord. He knew that God
alone through his promises and power would sustain him and overcome
his enemies. And he had no idea, he had no
idea that as he penned these words and as he sang them half
naked in front of the assembly, that he would, yeah, you know
David's story, right? That he would, that these words
were inspired by God the Spirit to portray Jesus Christ. But
we know that. How do we know that? Because
we have the words of Christ. We have the gospel accounts. We have the writings of the apostles. I read Ephesians chapter four
as we started our service this morning and we see that what
Christ has done is accomplished redemption. He has established
his covenant with his people and he has perfected it once
and for all. And we await that marriage. We
await that consummation. We await that intimacy. We await
that glorification. But in the meantime, as he ascended
into heaven, he said he was sending the spirit, the paraclete or
the one that goes along the helper. He was sending the spirit that
the spirit would testify of him. And in the testifying of him,
he gave the church, the apostles, the pastors, the shepherds, the
evangelists, the teachers, in order to equip the church to
do the work of the ministry. And so there are two elements
of living a Christian life when it comes to the assembly and
when it comes to every day. And that is to continually remember
and exult in the truth of Christ, who he is and what he accomplished
for us. to worship Him in spirit and in truth, to praise Him for
His glorious grace. As we recognize and remember
that this is because of His eternal love for us, then in like manner
we are to live out this life in love. toward others, with
no exceptions, under no conditions. And the picture of the church
doing that is made up of relationships within the home, the husband,
and the wife, and the children, and everyone else who are even
single people, but we're making a picture present for the sake
of the glory of Christ in everything we do. And beloved, I'm telling
you right now, we, as far as we've come as a people, in our
understanding of the Christ-centeredness of all these things, we are still
so far away that we don't even know what we're talking about. And yes, there is practical truth
in and for the life of the believer in Psalm 40. And yes, that is
what David was writing about. But God the Spirit was writing
about Jesus Christ. And I've already said all the
things that I'm going to say today, but I'm putting them all together
in one message so that you can see it. Because there is a sense
in which sometimes we are too heavy in one of the areas of
our Christian growth and our Christian lives. We're either
too heavy in pushing learning Christ into a system of theology,
or we're too heavy in ignoring any teaching about Christ into
a system of pragmatism. And when we do
either in such an unbalanced way, we have forsaken the full
counsel of God's Word. And so this is a trial for us
every single day, isn't it? It's a trial for us to believe
that God is our Deliverer, that Christ is sufficient, that the
Word of God is sufficient, that there is ever going to be an
out from these things that we experience, this life that we
live. So it's real easy for us then
to get into the little Christian-ese circles and to get into the little
Christian-ese groups and to get into the little Christian-ese
bumper sticker clubs. You know what I'm talking about.
I don't know if there is one, so I'm not mocking any bumper
sticker club, but I'm just saying, it's real easy to get into that mindset,
or I'm just gonna do Christian things, and I mean, I'm one of
them. I mean, I made these signs, I have scripture on my wall,
nothing wrong with that, but sometimes we think that those
things are developing us in a spiritual sense. That we're doing so many good
things relating to Christian things that we are just living
Christian lives. But we're not living Christian
lives if we're not suffering. And working through suffering
and knowing and being honest about who we are and realizing
that we're not here to put a face on for somebody else. We're here
to be honest about who we are. We're here to live life together,
to answer needs as they come up. We're here to learn how to live
effectively for the glory of God. So we come to this psalm today
and the scripture will show us, as I was starting to say just
then, the scripture will show us that there is a sense in which
no matter how hard we try to learn and to live according to
the gospel, there's really one power amongst
us in our learning, and that is to be reminded of Christ. It is to be reminded of Christ
every single moment. And sometimes it's easy for us
to say, well, wait, wait a minute. There is some things that we
need to know. There are. We're not going to
forsake the learning of doing and being. But our rest comes
not in the doing and the discipline. Our rest comes in the reminder
of whose we are. and who He is. And that's where
the apostles, when they say, it's a piece that surpasses all
understanding. Well, tell me what you did. Tell
me how you did it. Tell me how you made it. Tell
me what worked for you. I'll rub the Jesus oil over here
and sniff the Jesus powder up here and sprinkle the Jesus,
you know, I mean, no, I don't know. I just looked at His face
and I changed. I just looked at the cross and
I'm happy. It's stupid, right? It's absurd. It's illogical. It's irrational.
It's ignorant. Paul would say that. That what
we preach is foolishness to the theologians. Foolishness to the
disciplined. Foolishness to the religious.
It's foolishness. No matter what I tell you Romans,
no matter what I tell you Corinthians, no matter what I tell you Ephesians,
no matter what I tell you Galatians, I'm telling you right now, you
need to listen to what I say and by the way, what does he
say? Anybody who doesn't say that they should adhere to what
we tell them to do, count them not as a brother until they come
around. But I'm telling you now, all
that is for naught if you're not remembering the foolishness
of the cross of Christ. And so now we can look at Psalm
40, although I've said everything already in the teaching over
the last month or so, I'm going to say it again in one teaching.
And I've broken it down to like four segments, Christological
segments, and I don't like that. So I broke it down into like
eight segments. And so last night about 9.30, I broke it down into
17 segments. Every verse, every verse of Psalm 40 is Christ.
representing him and his work. So let's dive in. If I have time,
I'm gonna give us an application in preparation for next Sunday. Psalm 40, verse one. And this may be quick. There's
not a lot of exposition that needs it. It's just gonna be,
here it is, this is who Christ is. It may be a 10-minute message,
but it may be a 17-minute message, or it may be a two-parter. Who
knows? We're just gonna go. absorb it and breathe it in.
And beloved, those who are not listening to the sermon are missing
Christ today. They're missing Christ, and thus
they are missing the promise of God unto them by hearing Christ. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined to me and heard my cry. We know what David was saying. He had faith. He trusted. And this verse foreshadows the
need for faith and to trust in God's deliverance, who is Jesus
Christ. So this faith is about Christ. See, our faith isn't that that
saves us. Christ saves us. Our faith is in the faithfulness
of Christ. And it is a God-given gift. It
is not something that we muster. It is not something that we grow.
It is not something that we find inside of us or around us or
with us. It is something that God grants
us. How do we get it? Where is it found? In the hearing
of Christ. So beloved, if there is ever
a moment where you felt that your faith was waning, the best
thing you can do is to not seek discipline. but to seek the gospel
in its simplest form. Because the Spirit of God in
you will testify to the Spirit of God teaching through His Word,
and you will be at peace, and you won't be able to write an
essay about it. Your joy will be full, and as
Peter says in chapter 1, it may be inexpressible. What's going
on with you? Oh, I don't know. I'm okay. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus teaches
about the importance of persistent prayer and faith in God. Jesus
had persistent prayer and faith in God the Father. And this God
in whom we believe will bring justice and deliverance to his
people. So we must cultivate faith. by looking at the faithfulness
of Christ, by knowing that it is through Christ alone and in
God's timing and purposes. Like we see that Pastor Trey
has been teaching in Ephesians 1 for a long, long time. You
know, God, after the counsel of his own will, Jesus says in
John 3, as the spirit wishes, he blows. this new birth, this
new idea, this spiritual awakening, this regeneration, this impossible
divine work that every religion of the world has tried to understand
and replicate. And yet we as believers in 2023
seem to push it down and stifle it. We're really, really good
at getting the quick answer. We're really good at asking Google
and Siri and chat AI and whoever else might give us a quick answer when it's written right here. Verse two. He drew me up from the pit of
destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure. We know what David was in. We
talked about the pits and the bogs. We talked about patiently
waiting and the struggle that it was. Imagine the patient waiting
and the faithfulness of Christ as He waited for the cross. And
the cross being that pit. The despair, the death that He
did not deserve in His body. The torment of His flesh. Have
you ever been close to death? Have you ever thought you were
going to die? I have. It is horrific. It is horrific. I can't imagine
knowing crucifixion, knowing justice, knowing wrath, divine
wrath was awaiting me and knowing what it was. See, our anxiety
is fear about the future. Typically because we're listening
to a script in our head that tells us lies about it, not the
truth. Christ did not have anxiety about
the cross because of an unknown script. He had absolute certainty
of the cross and its severity. And he knew that the Father would
rescue him out of the pit. In Acts 2, Peter talks about
the death and the resurrection of Jesus, emphasizing that God
raised him up, releasing him from the agony of death, from
the pit of despair. So we as believers can take comfort
knowing that Jesus Christ has conquered death. We ended our
entire sermon last week on that issue. Jesus has conquered death,
He's conquered sin, and we do have eternal life in Christ Jesus
who has been raised out of the pit. And if Christ has been raised
out of the pit of death, we too are alive. We too are alive. Beloved, if there's nothing that
inspires you, that should. Verse 3, He put a new song into
my mouth. a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord." We
know David sang about the goodness of the Lord. We know that we
sing about the goodness of the Lord in prescription of Colossians
3 and other places in scripture, that we sing to one another and
teach one another in our singing and praising and testimony about
the goodness of God. But oh, beloved, this is more
than just about what David This verse anticipates Jesus
Christ walking the earth and spreading the good news. Speaking
about the Father's work in redeeming His people through the one who
He has sent. Claiming to be that very one.
And this verse anticipates this gospel growth of the Christian
faith. as Jesus taught, and taught, and taught, and then died, and
then rose, and then ascended, and left the apostles here to
teach, and teach, and teach. Here is the work that is greater
than these. Isn't that amazing? It's funny how we get all quirky
sometimes in certain circles, not just in our world, but in
other countries as well, that I've seen people get all quirky,
and they want to get so uber-spiritual, and they want to find ways of
just tapping into the supernatural. You want to tap into the supernatural,
listen to the gospel, read the Word of God, and then share the
reality of what God is showing us. Take every opportunity to
teach what God teaches you to others as it fits the occasion. We don't impose the Word of God
on people. It's not the sword like that. In Acts 16, we see Paul and Silas.
What did they do when they were arrested? I can't believe I'm
arrested. No, they sang praises. They praised
God. They praised God. I live in a surreal state most
days. And I've been going through journals for about a year, old
journals, high school journals, middle school journals. Yes,
I have them. I keep everything. And I found an entry yesterday
from August of 1990. Oh, so poetic. It was ridiculous. But I was bemoaning the attitude
of life is a bed of roses type sentiment. There's something in there that
struck me, though. As stupid and as foolish as I was in my
ignorance, thinking I was wise, a sophomore, right? That's exactly
the day. Yeah, I was a 10th grader. And
I'm sitting there and I'm reading this. At the end of it all, I
said something like this. No matter what life brings, it
is a day-by-day journey to find your sufficiency and your identity,
these are my words, in the person of Jesus Christ. No matter what. My God, I had a greater faith
when I was a kid. You know why? Because my problems
weren't that bad. I might have had a few girl problems,
might have had a few truck problems, might have had a few dog problems,
but that was about it. Money in the bank, food in my stomach,
fit as a fiddle, you know, that kind of stuff. No problems. We can tell of the Lord. Christ
tells of the Lord. Paul and Solace praised God in
their suffering because they knew Christ is the song. And what was the outcome of that?
What was that? Was it an explanation? Was it
an apologetic defense? Was it a debate that Paul and
Silas did? They just sit down with the jailers and say, hey
guys, let me tell you. Let me put it up here on the whiteboard
for you. Let me give you some evidence. No, they sang praises. And as they sang praises, they
proclaimed the person of Christ in their praises. And God the
Spirit regenerated the jailer. Evangelism is not a lesson on
academics. It's the work of God to save
His people. Blessed is the man, verse 4, who makes the Lord his
trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray
after lying. You know how I preached that a couple of weeks ago. We don't find sort of what we're
looking for, sort of what we're talking about a little bit today.
We don't find these These alternative ways. We don't look to the world. We don't find wisdom in alternative
ideas. We don't reject the gospel. And
say, yeah, that's good, but we need this too. People who continually
suppress the gospel, let me say this, let me check that. Believers
who continually suppress the gospel because of their pain,
or because of their disposition, find themselves in such isolation
emotionally and mentally that the only thing they have at the
end of the day is a supernatural work of God to impose upon them
His presence and purpose and power. And then they're drawn back to
the scripture, like Psalm 40 or Hebrews chapter 1 or whatever
it may be for you. This verse, chapter four, I mean
verse four, encourages trust in the Lord and warns against
following the proud or those who believe in lies. But it also
foreshadows the teachings of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus,
when he taught in the world, he emphasized the importance
of knowing God. Doesn't that what Jesus preaches
in John 17? This is eternal life, verse three.
that they know you, the one true God, and the one whom you have
sent." This is Christ. Matthew 5, when Jesus is preaching,
I believe the full painting of Christian
living. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. I am poor and needy, but the
Lord takes thought of me. You are my help and my deliverer.
Do not delay, O my God. We must see our spiritual need.
Christ saw his spiritual need in his humanity. It was to depend
upon the faithfulness and the promises of the Father. He did
not put his trust in other things. Look at his wilderness experience,
his temptation. Had every opportunity to escape
everything and to have this world and everything in it right here.
Listen, everything in this world that we accomplish is in the face of eternity. I hadn't
done that in a long time. It's a wake up call. Be careful to not lose sight. It's not about this. None of
this stays. None of this matters. And none
of it will be remembered. None of it. Remember that time
I wrote that joke and everybody laughed and peed themselves?
No. It's not important. It's like that ant that you didn't
see walking into this building on the ground. Verse 5, you have multiplied
Oh Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward
us, none can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told. This verse highlights the
innumerable deeds, the wonders, and the thoughts of God toward
His people. And in doing so, it anticipates the prophetic
promise of God's love and grace through Jesus Christ to His people.
It talks and discusses and exposes the reality of the resurrection.
When Jesus goes into town to raise Lazarus from the dead and
all of the faithful there to see, all of his enemies there
to ponder, what will he do? He'll make a fool of himself. And he says, Lazarus, come out. Unbind him and let him go. One of the most powerful phrases
in John's gospel to me. Because it is what God does for
us. He unbinds us and sets us free. This is a wondrous deed. This
is Christ. God being rich in mercy, Paul
talks about this in Ephesians 2, because of the great love
with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our
sins and trespasses, He made us together, alive with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, He might
show the immeasurable, can't measure it, riches of His grace
and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. has multiplied the wondrous deeds
of God in perfection. This incredible grace and love
for His people, this celebrates Christ. Beloved, we should be in awe
of God's wonder and His deeds. We should be in awe of His thoughts
toward us. We should be in awe of the fact
that the God of creation purposed to reveal His essence by creating
this world and the people in it. We are stained by fiction. We are stained by scripts that
we think. We are stained in our worship
by everything that the world has offered. And beloved, there
is no escaping that. We are not going to be able to
empty our mind of these things. We are stained in many areas,
but at this point, we can stop for a minute and go, wow, I know
that I'm not seeing this fully, but one day I will. But for now,
I will breathe in the essence of God's glory and I will know
that there is so much more that I will know. And until I get it all, In the
incomprehensible way that I can't have it, I will tell of what
I do know. Verse 6. In sacrifice and offering
you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt
offering and sin offering you have not required. That's an easy one, right? We
go to Hebrews chapter 10 and we saw that, we looked at that
even, we spent some time on this. And we see that this is talking
about Christ, that all of the shadows and types were not the
real, right? It's like if you order a car
or something, it's going to be a couple of months before they get it,
and they give you a brochure. with the car on it. Or they give you
a little model of your car. It's not the car. It's a depiction
of the car. It's a representation of what
the car will look like. It could even feel like it. It
could be even like a 1 to 20 scale. You could open the doors
and beep beep, beat the horns and stuff like that. It could
be really interesting, but you're not driving it to Savannah. Because
someone will take it from you. Or throw a brick through the
window. It's not the real. The sacrificial
system was never intended to serve any purpose except to point
to the perfection of the death of Jesus Christ, the God-man.
It was not bulls, it was not goats, it was not any of these
things, it was not God saying you must do all this stuff and
you must be all these things, you must have this heart and
this affection. No, it is not the point. The
point of it was to show the futility of we as human beings trying
to appease God in any sense. through any act, through any
act of worship, through any sacrifice, that there is nothing that satisfies
God except absolute justice and justice can only come to me and
to you through mercy and mercy is only possible when righteousness
is upheld and righteousness is only upheld when Jesus Christ
became human and lived a perfect life and loved the way we should
have loved and then died an absolute perfect substitutionary death
in our place. That's why it's called a good
story. Beloved, that's why it's called a good story. Once and
for all, a body. I hadn't even gotten to that
yet. I'm ahead of myself. It's the next verse, right? God has opened my mouth. He's
opened my eyes. He's opened my ears. This is Jesus Christ. The
author of Hebrews emphasizes this, that Jesus came to do the
will of the Father. And in doing so, he abolished
the picture of the sacrificial system. Because he himself is
the perfect sacrifice. Beloved, Jesus is God's glory. We have seen His glory. Glory
is the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus
is the only way to know God. And what is it about Jesus that
shows us everything we need to know about God? Is that Jesus,
though He was God, though He was the creator of the world,
though He was the most magnificent and is the most magnificent of
all things and the head of all things, He sacrificed Himself. He became nothing. That is our mind, according to
Ephesians. And to our Philippians. Paul's right. That is our mind.
It's ours in Christ Jesus that we should live in the same way,
should act in the same way. Beloved, we, even as Christians,
are not grasping the reality of true love in this world. And
I will say to you, and I've said this again, in comparison. This
is a comparison. This is not a statement of absolute
fact. But some people can't handle
language that doesn't fit their echo. But there are ways in which
unbelievers, I'm not gonna say it that way, I'm gonna be bold
enough to say, I know more unbelievers who hate God, who love better
than people who claim that they do. I know that, and it's anecdotal. You might say, well, you got
a lot of bad folks. They're not bad people in the context of
how they love the people around them. And if we know what the scripture
says, they're no different than me. And that runs deep, church, and
I hope you're ready. Buckle your seatbelts because
my applied theology training is about to go into fifth gear.
We must understand this. This is the love of God. We're
to love one another. We're to love our neighbor. We're to love our enemies as
Christ loved us. And I don't want us to stand
here and go, oh, this feels so guilty. Okay, we are guilty,
but we stand bold before the throne of grace and go, man,
there's no condemnation. That's what the love of God does
for us in this. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful? Why? Verse 7, Psalm 40. Then I said,
Behold, I have come, and in the scroll of the book it is written
of me. This is so easy. This prophecy, this pointing
to Christ, this foreshadows Jesus' arrival, the incarnation, Isaiah,
Moses. I mean, look at it. I mean, Jesus himself talks about
it in John chapter five. The Pharisees are like, well,
you know, Abraham, and we're Abraham, and we're in Abraham,
and we're, look at us, look how nicely we're dressed, and look
how many Bible verses we know, you know, that old comic strip. Jesus says, you don't know Me,
because you're not of Me. You're of your father, the devil.
How could Jesus say that? He's God, He's omniscient, He
knows them, He has the authority, and He's the only righteous person
that's ever walked the earth. So He has the right to make that
judgment. Most of the time, people who
are hateful, This is a segue here. I mean, I'll segue. This
is a side note here. I'll get back into this in a second. Most
people are hateful. Do it in the name of Christ. Every piece, let me tell you
this, and this is not an exaggeration, every piece of vitriol, disturbing,
disastrous, horrible hate that has ever come into my life has
come from people who sit in the chairs before me. Not you, but
I mean, figuratively speaking, it's come from the church. And
most of you that are shaking your heads, you're like, yeah,
me too. And the town drunk or the town
crackhead sees you on Monday. Hey, Brother James, how you doing,
man? I'm destroyed. I'm so sorry. Let me give you
a hug. I'm so sorry. Who did this to
you? My deacons? Well, that's why
I don't even go to church. Good for you. You see, True story. He wasn't a crackhead, but you
get the point. Definitely wasn't somebody, anybody
who wanted to sit next to them in church. I think the Apostle James had
a lot to say about that. The scripture, Jesus says, you
don't know me, because you can't hear me, you can't see me, because
you're not of me. And they defaulted to Moses and Moses and Moses
and Moses. And he said, you know what? If
you were of my father, you would know me because Moses wrote of
me. I'm written in the scroll. Beloved, we are poor and needy,
but the Lord takes note of us. The Lord takes thought of us. Christ Jesus is the epitome of
who God is. even in his humanity. This is why I'm not a fan of
the Puritans, because they have ruined our society. Because if you step on a roach,
it doesn't die, it just sort of squeezes out. And it spreads,
and that's what's happened in evangelical culture. We've spread
out the garbage. We've stepped on things, and
we've stepped on people, and we've spread out the garbage.
And Christ is the Redeemer of His people. Jesus reads from the scroll of
Isaiah in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4. One of my most favorite
things to teach out of that particular gospel too. We've got to do it. Luke chapter
4, let's look at it. I told you this might be a two-parter. Verse 16, and Jesus came to Nazareth
where He had been brought up. He went home. Hey, let's throw
a parade for Jesus. And as was His custom, He went
to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and He stood up to read and
the scroll from the prophet Isaiah was given to Him and He unrolled
the scroll and He found the place where it was written and He read. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the
poor. That's good. He sent me to proclaim liberty
to the captives in recovering the sight of the blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favor. And he rolled up the scroll and
he gave it back to the attendant and sat down and all the eyes
of the synagogue were fixed on him. In verse 21 it says, And then
he says to them, today in your hearing, this scripture has been fulfilled. He's saying, I am. This is me. And it begs us to go on verse
22, and all spoke well of him. Oh, this Jesus, he's from here. He's the blessing. He's going
to give us what we want. He's going to give us what we desire.
They marveled at his gracious words coming from his mouth,
and they said, Is this not the son of Joseph? And he said to them, Doubtless,
you will quote to me this proverb, physician, heal yourself. What
have we heard at Capernaum? Do here in your own house as
well. What happened at Capernaum? The healings and the things.
And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable
in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there
were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the
heavens were shut for three years and six months. And a great famine
came over the land and killed their husbands. And Elijah was
sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath. in the land of
Sidon to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in
Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was
cleansed, but only Naaman, the Syrian. Now see what's happening
here? There's an obligation on the
part of these Nazarenes, of these Nazareth people, these Jewish
people. This is our Messiah. He owes us this affection. This is ours to claim. Have you
ever heard people say that about God? You ever heard people say
that about you? And the gospel accounts are full
of these things where Jesus goes to His own. He goes to the temple
and they throw Him out. The Pharisees run Him off and
then He goes to Samaria. He goes to Sychar. And by the Spirit of God, all
these wild, crazy, heathen, nasty, garbage people That you can't
even walk on the same side of the street according to good
godly custom. Jesus brings them to truth. Just
like in Elisha's day, just like in Isaiah's day, the people who expected that
their reward was owed to them did not get it. And when they heard these things,
all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. It's what I'm talking
about, the vitriol, just hatred. And beloved, it's not only in
our churches, it's in our homes, it's in our communities, it's
in our workplaces, it's in our government. And some of us are shielded from
it just because of our ability to be shielded from it. Some
of us are shielded from it because of our role in society. But the ones who aren't are suffering
greatly. Jesus Christ is their deliverer
and we as God's people must live as Christ lived. And they filled
with wrath and they rose up and they drove him out of the town
and brought him to the brow of the hill, the cliff, so that
they may throw him down the cliff and kill him. And so Jesus, being
divine, walks through their midst unseen. And where does he go? Back to
Capernaum and heals a lot of people. That's the message. He didn't come for the religious,
for the righteous, for the saved, for the healed, for the good. He came for the sick. He came
to make Mary Magdalene the premier evangelist. Not John. It should have been
John, right? John dared not take that from her. Could he have?
He wrote it. He could have done what he wanted
to. He exalts that occasion because that is gospel. We need to understand that the
scriptures point to Christ. Even the instruction. It's not about earning our place,
it's about seeing Christ, knowing John 17 3, knowing Christ, living
Christ out. And it is a hard pill to swallow,
beloved, when we start to see just the depths of the idolatry
of our unlovingness and our selfishness. But we are not condemned. This
pulpit is not a place to put you in a place of bondage. It
is a place to set you free with joy. Verse 8, I delight to do your
will, O my God, your law is within my heart. This foreshadows the
perfect obedience of Jesus to the Father and his commitment
to fulfilling the will of God, even unto death. Jesus states
in John chapter 4, you know, what does he do? He's talking
with the woman from Sychar. And she becomes the poster child
of the love of God. She becomes the picture of true
righteousness through redemption and mercy. And then his disciples come back
and they're like, what is he talking to her for? Hey, we got
some food. And Jesus says these amazing
words. I have food that you don't know
about. Remember that? Of course, the English ESV says,
that you know not of. We don't talk like that. I have
food that you don't know about. And of course, the evangelist
is like, what food? In his mind, he dared not say
it. He even writes that in. And Jesus continues and says,
my food is to do the will of the one who sent me. I get my
fullness from obeying my father. That's Psalm 40, verse 8. Verse
9, I've told of the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.
Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
This is the ministry of Jesus proclaiming the gospel of salvation
to the coming of God's kingdom. We see it all through the gospel
accounts. In Matthew 4, Jesus is all over Galilee, teaching
and proclaiming the good news, just like he did there in Nazareth. healing people of diseases, showing
His power, showing His love and showing His affection. And as
believers, beloved, we should see Christ in that light. We
should see that even when we're instructed to do likewise, it
is because this is who Christ is. And Christ demonstrates the
love of God by showing compassion to others through acts of service
and most importantly and most powerfully to the sharing of
the gospel. Verse 10, I've not hidden your deliverance within
my heart. I've spoken of your faithfulness and of your salvation.
I've not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from
the great congregation. We saw how David did it. He talked about
it. We see that we're told to talk
about it. We see Peter telling the Jews
in the dispersion to let people know about your hope. Sorry about
that. To tell of your hope so that people can know what your
hope is. Jesus' life, His teaching, His
death, His resurrection, has made known the deliverance of
God. Has made known of the faithfulness of God. Has made known of the
salvation of God. It is not concealed. The faith
is not something to be hidden. that certain types of people
in society are privileged to. The faith is Christ, Jesus Christ. Paul talks about this in Romans
10, that believing comes through hearing the Word of God. Verse 11, as for you, O Lord,
you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love
and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. We know the context
there. We know the application there
for ourselves, that when we look at the folly of just looking
at Christ It doesn't give us any real disciplinary things
or practical things that we do. Just looking at Christ and knowing
who He is and what He accomplished for us, seeing the gospel face
to face in our souls by the Spirit, we find a joy that is often inexpressible. So we can cry out and say that
God is not going to restrain mercy. David understood this,
but Jesus is the epitome of this. He is the mercy seat. He is the
place where God meets humanity. He is the sacrificial lamb. He
is righteousness. And when Jesus, I've already
read Ephesians 2, God being rich in mercy because of the great
love, when Jesus was in the garden, When Jesus was facing the cross,
He knew that God's mercy was His hope, that God's promise
was His hope, that He was being made the mercy seat. What is the outcome of that for
us? What are we to do with that? Are we to do something for God? No. Paul says it right in Ephesians
1. We're to praise him for his glorious
grace. Take good inventory. God help
me. I hate taking inventory in here. But when we reconcile that inventory
with justice, we fail. When we reconcile that inventory
with mercy, we live. Verse 12. This is where some
people get a little flustered. Oh, this isn't about Jesus. Listen
to what verse 12 says. For evils have encompassed me
beyond number. Yeah. Evil controlled Christ's
life by the purposes of God. pushed him to where he needed
to be. That's the point. Evil people hurt God's people. That's the next part. My iniquities
have overtaken me. I cannot see. They are more than
the hairs of my head and my heart fails me. Now David spoke the
truth there. And if I were to adopt that sentiment and tattoo
that on my face, It could never be erased because it would forever
be true. We also know David wrote likewise
in Psalm 51, right? For my sins and iniquities are
forever before me. Cleanse me, O God. Do not hide
your face. Do not take your spirit from
me. He took inventory, he knew. But how is this Christ? How is
Christ seen here? Christ had no sin. He most certainly
did not have sin. But all of our sin was placed
upon him. personally. He who was sinless bore our sins
so that we could become the righteousness of God. So while they were not
His personally, they did not attain to His person, for those
of you who know what I'm saying, ontologically. an experience,
he was not guilty of any sin, but yet he did personally take
them on himself. He put them on himself and he
credited them to himself so they were his iniquities. as if they
were His iniquities. And He died for those iniquities
as if they were His iniquities, but they weren't. So the scales
of justice and the laws and the courts of righteousness said
these were not His sins, but we crucified Him for these sins,
so these sins are forgiven, for He was worthy to die in place
of these sins. So whose were they? They belonged
to those, beloved, who are now free. We're now free. Verse 13, Be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. I believe this foreshadows
the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Take this cup from me. He tells
his disciples, please pray. Sit here and pray. And they've
been up all night. They were tired. Your body gives up. You can't not sleep when you've
stayed up a certain number of hours. It just happens. I hit
you in the head, you can pass out. You stay up all night, you
can go to sleep. This verse illustrates to me
the prophecy of Jesus crying out to the Father, take this
cup from me. You stay and stand watch and
pray, please, I am in great despair. I am grieved in my soul. These
are the words of Christ. But not my will but yours. Verses 14 and 15 depicts Christ
in this way. Let those be put to shame and
disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those
be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me,
aha, aha, we got you, we count you. How many times does that
happen in Christ's life? How many times does that happen
in our lives as His people? You're a liar, you're a manipulator,
people that tell you what you really believe and feel in your
heart. what you really intended. These people don't know, but
they love to destroy you, so they do it anyway. And it destroys
us. It annihilates our confidence. It destroys our very being. And
we are sinners. Imagine the angst and the frustration
and the fear and the pain of being the righteousness of God,
the Holy Anointed One, being the God on the earth. And being maligned and hated.
being accused. They tried to kill Him in His
own hometown. They tried to kill Him in Jerusalem. They tried
to kill Him everywhere He went. They tried to kill Him in Damascus.
They tried to kill Him in Capernaum. They did kill Him on the cross. But they were brought to dishonor
when He rose from the dead. Paul talks about this in Philippians.
God has exalted Jesus Christ. Though He was God, He did not
take that, being God, something to be made known and manifested,
but He became nothing, a slave, obedient, even unto death on
a cross as a criminal. Therefore, God highly exalted
Him and set Him above all things. There's nothing like the hero
dying for the villain, the king dying for his enemies, the God
dying for his rebellious creation, and then those who hate him one
day seeing him back on the throne. Oh! You see the picture of Joseph. That's why I really want to go
to Joseph after this. Get intimidated a little bit and then go back
down. I want to teach the life of Joseph. I think it's important for us as a church
to understand Christ through the eyes of Joseph. But Paul says that every knee
will bow and every tongue will confess on heaven and heaven and on earth
and under the earth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Verse 16, but all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation
say continually, great is the Lord. Jesus Christ is our salvation.
He is our glory. He is our praise. And we see
the marriage supper. Don't get it wrong, beloved.
What is Jesus, the bridegroom, doing at the marriage supper?
Serving His bride. Sharing His glory. Let that sink in for a minute. an expressible joy. 1 Peter 1. Though we go through
trials, though we go through things that hurt, though we go
through pain, our faith in Christ, if we listen, if we remind ourselves,
if we hear this word this morning, it'll be inexpressible. Like
I said earlier, we can't write an essay about why we're joyful,
and the joy may feel like sorrow, but there is a sense of hope
in the midst of it. because Christ is ultimate. And verse 17 in
the final one, to which I will expound a lot next week. Told you 17 points. As for me,
I'm poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are
my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, oh my God. This
verse highlights the reliance of Jesus Christ on the Father.
the totality of His ministry. Everywhere you go, in the Synoptics,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and in the Gospel of John, and with the
expressions of Jesus throughout the apostolic writing and even
the, you know, the church fathers, Polycarp and Clement and others
who were mentored by the disciples, by the apostles, we see the expression
of Jesus in all of these ways that He always put Himself in
subjection to the Father's purposes. And so should we understand ourselves
in light of Christ as our Savior, our Deliverer. The Lord takes
thought of me by sending His Son into the world for me. Look,
this is not maniacal. This is merciful. This is what
heroes are made from. This is what stories of superheroes
are made from. Go to Matthew 11, and then we're
done. Matthew 11, starting in verse... Oh, I'm at Matthew 12, here we
go. Matthew 11, starting in verse 25. At that
time, Jesus declared speaking. I thank you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the
wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. Yes,
Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over
to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the
Son chooses to reveal Him. Verse 28 is the key. Come to
me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me. For I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will, it's a promise, find rest for your souls. Because
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. That's the point of Psalm 40. I pray you see it. I pray you
have it. Pray for me as I seek it too.
Let's pray. Father, we are grateful that
you are wonderful, amazing, loving, powerful. As we come to the end of this
teaching, Lord, let it be clear that it is not me as some expert
guru standing here with any sense. I am beyond sense at this point
in my life. And we are to be in some way,
like Paul, out of our minds. Let us hear and see the gospel
in such a powerful way. that we can tell it to others. Now, we can't just say, the Lord
is my deliverer. Father, I pray for us, for our
individual households, and for the lives that we impact and
touch, and for our minds as they go into so many things every
single day, to think and to seek and to know and to understand.
And Lord, there are things that we just are not going to grasp.
But you have caused us to grasp your love and you have shown
it in Christ. And Lord, there's so many deeper
things that we could see in this text and others, but we thank
you that you've given us this time that we might see it, that
we might meditate on it, that we might know you more and more
each day and that we might rejoice in it. Let our peace be expressed
to those around us in loving kindness. And patience. Father, an openness
to hear other people's pain. To meet other people's needs.
To live as a picture of what Christ has done in redemption. In his name we pray. Amen.