It's good to be back with you
and send our greetings from Ashland. Debbie said to make sure to say
hello. The only reason I could come
down here without her is because we have a new grandbaby, because
she's been babysitting all weekend. But it's good to be here. I want
you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22. As I said, I sort of did the
introduction to this message in the Sunday school hour. But
this will be a message in and of itself entitled The Psalm
of the Cross. Now, if you take your Bibles
and you study at any at all, you'll know from right off from
this Psalm, Psalm 22, the very first verse, you'll see words
that are familiar to you. These are words that our Lord
stated upon the cross in that time on earth, the fullness of
the time, as Paul, by the Holy Spirit, related it in Galatians
chapter 4, that he was upon that cross suffering unto death for
the sins of his people. The Scripture said, as identifying
him in the beginning of his earthly pilgrimage in his conception
and birth, that his name would be called Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins." And always remember what the
name Jesus means. In the Aramaic it would be Yeshua,
and it's a derivative of the Old Testament name Joshua, and
it means Jehovah, that is God, our Savior. And any time you
see the name Jehovah, it's the covenant name of God. It's the
name of promise, of salvation. the God who justifies the ungodly. Here, when he says, My God, My
God, it's God Almighty, because this verse is stating and declaring
a separation between the Father and the Son. So we're going to
look at this Psalm of the Cross. I won't be able to comment a
whole lot on each verse, obviously, because we'd be here too long.
But this psalm of the cross is a psalm of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. It's the gospel of God's salvation
by His free and sovereign grace and mercy in the glorious person,
meaning who He is, and the finished work, that means what He accomplished,
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This psalm describes His crucifixion,
His suffering unto death for the sins of His people, for He
was made sin. The sins of his people were charged,
accounted to him. He, in his person, as God and
man in one person, became totally and legally responsible for all
the sins of all of his people in all generations. That means
the first one that ever came to saving knowledge of Christ,
who I believe was Adam, Then go on unto Abel, and then to
the last one in the future who will come to a saving knowledge
of Christ before he comes again. All those sins of all those people
were accounted to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's a psalm of
his crucifixion. But it's also a psalm of the
fruit of his sufferings and death. It's a psalm of his victory.
This psalm describes Christ's darkest night, as one commentator
said, in the first part of it. And it begins with this lament.
He says, verse 1, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see that. Then you look at
the final phrase of it, verse 31. It says, the last line, He
hath done this. That means He accomplished something.
in his death. His death was not just an attempt
to save his people from their sins. His death was not just
a token of God's love and God's desire to save people. His death
was the accomplishment of salvation. Now, when you look at religion
today, even that which comes in the name of Christianity,
whenever they preach the death of Christ, most people now, whenever
they believe it or receive it, That's what they think. They
think, well, his death is a token of God's love and desire to save
everybody. His death was just God's attempt
to do so. Or his death was just a great
example of how we should give up of our... No, sir. You're
not going to find that in this Bible. Now, that's not there
from Genesis to Revelation. His death is... From the very
first revelation and prophecy of his death in the book of Genesis
chapter 3, And verse 15, it's described and revealed as an
accomplishment, a finished work that brought about and brings
about the salvation of his people. So you think about that as you
look at the Scriptures. But it describes his darkest
hour and it describes his greatest victory. It's finished. This
psalm also describes the first, as one commentator said, the
first light of morning in Christ's victory. where he says, God has
answered him in his good pleasure. And it sets forth Christ in all
his offices. He is our great prophet to reveal
the glory and the word of God to us. He is our high priest
who paid his vows unto the Lord, which means simply this, that
he did and finished all that he agreed to do. He is our king
who rules over all nations and disposes of all things for the
glory of his Father and the good of his people. This psalm is
the first in a trilogy of psalms. Psalm 22 and 23 and 24 go together. Psalm 22 describes the sufferings
of our Savior on the cross and the victory that he accomplished
as the representative and substitute of his people. Psalm 23 describes
the shepherd who leads and guides his sheep into the fold. And
then Psalm 24 describes our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, who reigns
over everything. You can divide this psalm up
into two sections. The first section is his suffering
unto death. The second section is his victory
unto glory. Just look at it again. Verse
1, he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, when
he says that, he's not asking a question for information. This doesn't mean that Christ
was on that cross ignorant of what he was there for. In fact,
he told his disciples over and over again why he came into the
world. He came into the world to put
away the sins of his people by his death. He told them, he said,
for this reason I came into this world. So when he says, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's not just asking a question
out of ignorance. He's stating a fact that he,
God the Son incarnate, was forsaken by God the Father. God Almighty. Now, why was he forsaken? It
was because of the sins of his people charged to his account. He was separated from the Father.
Now, we can't describe or get into the intricacies of all of
that and what that means. We just know it's so. We know
there was a legal separation between the Father and the Son
because God hates and cannot tolerate sin. The Bible says
we're sinners. and the soul that sinneth must
surely die." The only reason that we're all on our way to
death in some form or fashion at some stage in our lives is
because of sin. That's the wages of sin. That's
death. You see, what that means is this.
The only thing that we can earn is death, and that's at our best. And that's why salvation must
be a free, sovereign gift from Almighty God. That's why Christ
himself is called a gift. The Bible in Romans chapter 8
verse 32 says, he that spared not his own son, but freely,
freely, spared not his own son, but gave his son for us all,
how shall he not with him freely give us all things? So here's
that separation. He says in verse 1, he says,
Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my
roaring? O my God, verse 2, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and
am not silent. What he's talking about there
is that God could not just look over sin. God could not just
pass over it. Some people believe, well, I'm
a sinner, I'm not perfect, but I haven't done anything that
deserves eternal damnation. My friend, you're fooled. You're
just fooling yourself. All sin demands death. This proves
it. When the holy, harmless, undefiled,
sinless Son of God was on that cross for sins He did not commit,
sins charged to Him, God could not answer Him or hear Him. That's
the separation. And if you stand before a holy
God without Christ, without His shed blood and His righteousness
imputed to you, accounted to you, then you stand there in
your sins, and this is what you'll hear. He will not hear you. He
will not accept you. He will not receive you. There's
only one way that you can come before a holy God and be accepted,
and that is in the person and based on the finished work of
Christ. And that's it. There's no other
way. He goes on, he describes all the ridicule that he went
through. Look at verse 3, but thou art holy. Well, in verse
3 he describes the glory of God. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. In other words, this is God's
holiness in operation. You see, God cannot receive sinners
not because He's mean and hard and harsh. It's because He's
holy. He's just. He's righteous. God
cannot look over sin. He's holy. And he says in verse
4, Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst
deliver them. Speaking of Israel of old, when
they trusted in God, they were delivered. Verse 5, it says,
They cried unto thee, and were delivered, they trusted in thee,
and were not confounded when they looked unto the Lord. And
that's the way it is with us. When we look unto Him alone,
we're not confounded, we're not ashamed. But look at verse 6. Now, in verse 6, he begins to
describe the ridicule that he suffered from wicked men, from
us, basically. He says, But I am a worm and
no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people. And 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 he delighted in him. You see,
that's the ridicule of sinners towards the Son of God. We esteemed
him not. He says in verse 9, But thou
art he that took me out of the womb. His trust was not in men,
it was in the Lord. He says, Thou art he that took
me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when
I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the
womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. He was anointed
of the Lord from the beginning. He pleads to the one whom he
trusted, his Father. Even on the cross he said, Into
thy hands I commend my spirit. He says in verse 10, he said,
I was cast upon thee from the womb, thou art my God from my
mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, for there is none to help. And then in verse 12, he
describes his agony on the cross. He says, many bulls have compassed
me, strong bulls of Bashan have beset me around. What he's talking
about is the strongest and most ferocious of creatures. You see the kind of trouble and
terror and agony that they put him through. Who was that? Who
is this boy, this boy of Bashan, like the Pharisees, the religious
men and women of the day? And then he says in verse 13,
they gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring
lion. I am poured out like water, and
all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melted. He said, It is melted in the
midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, like a piece of a broken pot. My tongue cleaveth to my
jaws. Remember when he said, I thirst?
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. He says, For
dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked hath
enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and
my feet. What happened to Christ at Calvary?
He says, I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me.
They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.
You remember when they had his garments and the Roman soldiers
cast lots to see who would get his garments. And he says in
verse 19, here he prays for deliverance. He says, but be not thou far
from me, O Lord. Be not thou far from me, O Lord.
Oh, my strength haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from
the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from
the lion's mouth." Now, that's the agony, the description of
what Christ actually suffered. You know, someone told me one
time they were talking about the exchange that took place
at Calvary, that legal exchange, Christ as the substitute for
his people. He who knew no sin, he was made
sin. Our sins were legally accounted
to him, and his righteousness legally accounted to us. And
someone said to me one time, said, well, Christ's death on
the cross was more than a legal exchange. And I didn't know what
they were talking about, but here's what I would say to that.
His death on the cross was totally and exclusively a legal exchange. But now that doesn't mean that
he didn't suffer. That doesn't mean that he didn't
hurt in sorrow. That doesn't mean that he didn't
feel pain. He felt all of that, and that's what's described here
in these first verses. The pain and the sorrow and the
suffering unto death, agony that we can't even begin to imagine
that Christ went through for the sins of his people. And that's something we need
to understand. He knew no sin, but he felt the effects of sin.
He was made sin. He wasn't made a sinner. His
human nature and his nature of deity was not contaminated with
our sins. But in his humanity, he felt
the full measure of pain and sorrow for all the sins of all
his sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And that's what's described there. That's that
dark night. So here's where I want to major
on. Now look here. He was heard of the Father. He
accomplished what He set out to do. Look at verse 21. He says,
Save me from the lion's mouth. I remember back in Genesis chapter
4, and I mentioned that this morning, when the Lord spoke
with Cain, and He said, If thou doest well, thou wilt be accepted. What is it to do well according
to God's Word? It's to come to God as a sinner
seeking mercy in Christ. In fact, in the context of Genesis
4, the only way in that context that you can look at doing well
is what Abel did. What did Abel do? He came to
God to be accepted and to worship God with the blood of a lamb. Now, that blood of the lamb back
then The animal itself meant nothing as far as able salvation. But that animal, the blood of
the Lamb, typified, pictured and foreshadowed and foretold
of the blood of God's Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember
when John the Baptist came into the world and he began preaching,
he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of
the world. That's the sins of God's people all over the world.
And God told Cain, He said, if you do well, you'll be accepted.
What is it? Bring a lamb, bring the blood.
That means plead Christ. It means come to God as a sinner,
knowing that I deserve death and condemnation, knowing that
I cannot earn my salvation at any stage, at any time, to any
degree, that I'm totally at the mercy of God in Christ. Plead His blood and His righteousness
alone. That's it. Throw away any sin,
I don't care, the best of them. The greatest preacher that ever
preached on this earth, the one who lived the best on this earth,
the only hope for that person's salvation is the blood and righteousness
of Christ. That's what it is to do well.
Well, when God told Cain that, he said, and if you do us not
well, sin lies at the door. And the picture there is like
an animal, like a lion, like a lion that's ready to crouch
and kill you. In other words, if you don't
have Christ, sin's going to make an end of you. Sin, I don't care.
You say, well, I'm not as bad as some people. You're comparing
yourself to the wrong people. You've got to compare yourself
to Christ. You see, the standard of righteousness at judgment
is not how you compare with other people. It's how you compare
with Christ. And you don't measure up, and
I don't either. So that's what he's saying here. Save me from
the lion's mouth. Like a lion, ready to crouch
and to kill. But look at verse 21. He says,
For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. That's
poetic language. And it simply means this. God
heard his Son on the cross. And when God hears in this way,
that means acceptance. That means salvation. Look at
what he says in verse 22. He says, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise
thee. Now what does that mean? Well,
who are his brethren? Well, that's his church. That's
the people for whom he died on that cross. That's the people
whose sins were laid upon him. That's the people to whom he
gives righteousness that he established on the cross. They're his brethren. You remember he said one time
he was preaching. in a certain town, and after
he'd gone into a house, and some of them came in, they said, now,
your mother's outside and your brothers are outside, and they
want to speak with you. You remember what he said? He
said, who is my mother? Who are my brethren? Them that
do the will of my Father. Well, what is it to do the will
of his Father? Well, the Scripture says that's
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's his brethren. Now, how's he going to declare
the name of God to his brethren in the midst of the congregation.
Well, on the cross, the name of God, a name is that which
identifies and distinguishes you. Now, that's not so much
true today in our culture. For example, if I'm in a crowd
of people and somebody hollers out the name Bill, there's going
to be a bunch of us turn around and say, well, he may be talking
about me, he may not be. You can do that with just about
any name now, right? You see, names are something
for our children we pick out, because we like the sound of
it and we may like the meaning of it. But when it talks about
the name of God, it's talking about that which identifies and
distinguishes God and separates Him above everybody. And so when
it says Christ will declare His name, not only in the preaching
of the gospel, that's up, but on the cross. We see God identified
and distinguished in no other way, like He's never been before. Think about it this way. If you
were an artist, and you created a work of art, painting, a sculpture,
and you were good enough, you might have a distinguishing mark
in that painting, or on that piece of sculpture, that somebody
might look at that and say, I know who did that. They say some of
the great artists, you can do that, like a man like Van Gogh.
An expert could look at Van Gogh's paintings and didn't have his
name on them. They'd say, that's Van Gogh. Well, you see, that's the
way it is with God. Think about it. When God created
the world, what a glorious way to identify Himself in His power,
in His wisdom. And think about God's providence. About halfway today, believe
in God's providence. I heard some folks the other
day talking about, well, you know, it's the Lord's will. And
then they'll talk about free will, and they'll talk about
man doing this and man doing that. You can't have it both
ways, you see. Well, God's providence Joseph
recognized that. Remember when he saw his brothers
after they sold him into Egypt and he arose in that? And he
said, ìYou meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.î And
we quote Romans 8, 28, ìAll things work together for good to them
that are called according to their purpose.î Them who love
God and are called according to His purpose, I believe that.
And I see Godís providence everywhere, and itís a glory. It identifies
it. there is nothing that identifies the name and glory of God like
the cross, like the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because
on that cross we see in the person and finished work of Christ how
God can be both a just God and a Savior, how he can be both
a righteous judge and judge righteously and take care of the problem
and the matter of sin in a holy and righteous and just way, and
still at the same time show mercy and grace and love to a sinner. See that right there? That's
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You say, well,
preacher, I don't understand that. Well, let me give you another
illustration on that. I want you to listen very carefully.
If you ever get caught speeding, and probably you have, The first
thing you're thinking of, first thing you're thinking of is,
do I know somebody who can get me out of this? Am I right? Who
can get me out? Is there anybody I can call? Do I know a judge? Well, let's
say you do. You know the judge. You go up
before the judge and they look at you and say, well, that's
my old buddy, Jim Casey. Jim, I've known you ever since
you were that high. Your daddy was one of my best friends. I'm
just going to let you off with a warning. Now let me ask you,
did that judge show mercy? He did. Was justice done? No. Justice was not done. Because if justice had been done,
what would have happened? Well, you did the crime, so you
do the time, or you pay the fine. You see, yeah, we like judges
who show mercy. But when they do, they pervert
justice. Now, God can't do that. Because
you see, he's not impressed, he's no respecter of persons,
he's strict justice and holy. God must do right. And I'm a
sinner. I deserve death. I cannot earn
salvation by my best works. No, listen, even the best obedience
that I can muster up cannot even pay for one sin that I've committed.
And that's the way it is with the whole human race falling
in that. Now, how in the world, how in the world is God going
to show me mercy? He will not show me mercy at
the expense of His justice. He will not show grace at the
expense of truth and righteousness. How's He going to do it? Well,
there's only one way, and that's what this psalm is talking about,
the way of the cross. Somebody's got to pay for the
crime. Now, this person who pays for
this crime is one who committed no crime. He knew no sin. He's totally perfect in himself. But he went to the cross to satisfy
the justice of God so that mercy and love and grace is found in
him. God must be a righteous judge
as well as a loving father. And that's what he means, I'll
declare thy name unto my brethren. That's the glory of the cross.
It's not just a token. It's not just an attempt. It's
the glory of God in Christ. Look at verse 23. He says, you that fear the Lord.
To fear him means to trust him. It means to worship him. It means
to reverence him, serve him, praise him. All ye that see of
Jacob. Jacob is an emblem of sinners
Saved by grace. That's what Jacob means. Jacob
was a scoundrel. That's what he was in the Bible.
God said in Malachi 3.16, He said, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know what
I am? I'm a son of Jacob. I'm a sinner
saved by the grace of God. Jacob didn't earn salvation.
Jacob didn't deserve salvation. But God saved him. How did God
save him? By his grace. through the promise
of the coming Messiah. And so he said, The seed of Jacob,
glorify him, and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. Israel
there is not talking about the nation Israel on earth. It's
talking about believers, spiritual Israel. If you're a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're justified in him by his
blood and righteousness, you're a member of a spiritual nation
called spiritual Israel. Verse 24. He says, For he hath
not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto
him he heard. Our Lord was afflicted on the
cross because of the sins of his people charged to him, and
the Father heard him. And when he sends his Spirit
to afflict us for our sins, to convict us, to bring us into
where we know our guilt and our depravity and our deservedness
of death, He'll hear us because we'll run to him and beg for
mercy. He says in verse 25, My praise shall be of thee and the
great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear him. When Christ says he will pay
his vows, what that means is he will accomplish what he promised
to do. He promised to save His people
from their sins, and He did it. Verse 26, the meek shall eat
and be satisfied. What is it to be meek? It's to
be submissive to God's Word. It's to be obedient. It's to believe in Him. And they'll
eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart shall live forever. There's no eternal life
outside of Christ. Verse 27, all the ends of the
earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord. God has a people
out of every tribe and nation. It's not just limited to the
Jews or to the Gentiles or to this nation or this group. It's
all who come to Christ. And all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before thee, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and
he is the governor among all nations. That means God's in
control. People look at this world as being out of God's control.
It's not. He's on the throne. We get all
upset over everything. We get upset about who's elected
president. God's still on the throne, friend.
He didn't come down. He didn't step down this last
election and say, we'll let it go to pot. No, he's in control,
and he's controlling. We may not understand how it's
all going to work out, but he does. He knows, for he determined
the end from the beginning. And verse 29, all they that be
fat upon earth shall eat and worship. Now, to be fat back
then is not what we think of it today. To be fat means to
be full and complete, to be satisfied. And he says, All they that go
down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive
his own soul. We can't save ourselves. Only
God can save his people. Now look at verse 30. He says,
A seed shall serve him. What does that mean? That means
Christ has a people. They're called his posterity. Hebrew word here, seed, designates
the whole line of one's descendants and offspring. Christ the God-man,
who is the seed of woman according to his humanity, he has a generation
of his own. He has his own seed. It's not
a physical seed, for he fathered no physical children. I don't
care what the Da Vinci Code says. He fathered no physical children
in this world. His descendants are spiritual,
a spiritual people. They are the sons of God through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Galatians chapter 3 with
me. In Galatians chapter 3, they're
identified in this way, in verse 26. He says, for you are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. In other words, if you
believe in Christ Jesus, if He's your hope, as I said this morning,
if you glory only in the cross, that is, His finished work for
your whole salvation, then that means you're a child of God.
You're His seed, spiritually speaking. That's a spiritual
generation. And he says in verse 27, for
as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Now when you hear that word baptized, a lot of people think of water
baptism. That's not what that's talking about. The word baptized
or baptized literally means to be placed into. That's what it
means. And that's why we baptize by
immersion. When you are baptized in water,
you're placed into the water. You don't just have it poured
on your sprinkles. You're placed into it. It's an identification
with Christ. But baptized here means union with Christ. And
if you're united with Christ from eternity in God's electing
grace, if you're united to Christ on the cross as He died for your
sins and was buried and rose again the third day, that's union
with Christ at the cross. That's why I don't have any problem
saying we're justified at the cross in that sense. That's when
Christ actually put away our sins and established righteousness.
Now that doesn't deny that God always saw it that way. We can't
deny that either. You don't take one truth out
of the Scriptures to deny another one. You don't set Scripture
against Scripture. The Bible says Abraham was justified
before God before he was circumcised. David who penned this psalm.
said, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity."
Well, who were they imputed to? They were imputed to Christ.
He became our surety. When did He become our surety?
I don't think you can put a when on that issue. Because it's an
everlasting covenant of grace, and He's the surety of that covenant.
So however long that covenant's been in force, that's however
long He's been our surety. So He's our surety. What does
it mean to be a surety for somebody? It means you're responsible for
their death. If you ever co-sign a note, you'll find that out.
You become responsible for that debt. Well, Christ became responsible. Now, were we justified at the
cross? Yes, in this sense, and in this
sense alone. That is the exact time that Christ
accomplished on earth in time what God had purposed and operated
in all the time. And that's what I believe. That's
what the Scripture teaches. So here's what he's saying. We
were united to Christ at the cross. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose again, I arose. You say, how can you say that?
He was my representative. He was my substitute. And then
we're united to Christ in the new birth. That is, when we come
to experience within ourselves the blessings of eternal spiritual
life, and we believe in him. So he says, you put on Christ.
That's what that means. What does it mean to put him
on? That means to believe in him. That means to trust in him. Now, verse 28 of Galatians 3,
he says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. In other words, the human distinctions
that separate us mean nothing in salvation. We're one in Christ. And verse 29, and if you be Christ,
if you, that's a possessive, if you belong to Christ, then
are you Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed is a title for
believers. And he says, and heirs according
to the promise. So back here in Psalm 22, a seed
shall serve him. Now that seed is the direct fruit
and result of his death on the cross. That seed is a direct
fruit and result of the shed blood and imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you this now. The very first believer, the
very first child of God, the very first one who was raised
from the dead spiritually and born again by the Spirit, was
the direct fruit and result of the death of Christ on the cross,
even before it happened in time. That's right. You see, when Adam came to believe
the gospel, when he was born again, it was by pure, sovereign
grace, according to the purpose and power of God, based on the
work of Christ on the cross, even before it happened. Now
that's the power and the glory and the value of the cross. Right there. Look at Isaiah 53. And I'm hurrying now. I'm going
to close here in just a minute. Don't get restless. Isaiah 53. He says in verse 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, He has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his sow
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. And he shall see of the travail of his sow and shall
be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
Now, many people look at those verses and they say, well, see,
it says, shall, shall, that's future. It certainly is. The death of Christ, when Isaiah
penned those words, was totally future. But the power of it,
and the glory of it, and the value of it was already in effect. That's what I'm saying. Look
back at Psalm 22. Look at verse 30 again. A seed shall serve him. Now that's
future. Isn't that right? You mean there wasn't anybody
serving Him at this time? You mean there wasn't anybody
serving Him before this time? You see, here's the point. God
is eternal and timeless. Many times you'll read the promises
and blessings of Scripture in past tense. Many times you'll
read them in present tense. Many times you'll read them in
future tense. But don't take the tense and
make it your standard of fellowship and doctrine. That's what I'm
saying. Because you'll go wrong. I don't
care. You'll find this tense and you'll
say, well, there it is. The death of Christ was future
all through the Old Testament. But He still had a seed who served
Him in that day. Isaiah said in Isaiah 1, except
the Lord of Sabaoth, that means the Lord of a great army, showing
the invincible God who cannot be defeated, hath left us a remnant,
a seed, we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Yes, he had a seed
serving him even now. David was part of that seed. But it was all based upon a future
event at this time, that is, the death of Christ on the cross.
And he goes on, he says, it shall be accounted to the Lord for
a generation. The Bible repeatedly speaks of
Christ's seed as his generation. It shall be accounted. The word
generation here would refer not to a people living at a certain
time, but to a people in all times characterized by their
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ Himself said this
about Abraham in John 8, and I believe it's verse 56. You
can check me on it. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see my day. He saw it and he was glad. Abraham
was called the friend of God, the servant of God. You see that? This generation refers to the
whole generation of Christ's seed, not just one particular
generation in time. It shall be accounted to him
for a generation. It's all who seek him, who seek
his face. Look at verse 31. They shall
come and shall declare his righteousness. Now, that's future, isn't it?
Well, does that mean nobody up until this time had come and
declared his righteousness? You've got a whole lot of Scripture
to deal with, and that's what you believe. It says, they shall
come, future. They shall, but they already
had come. That's right. All the Old Testament
saints do. Noah was a preacher of righteousness,
the Scripture says. Whose righteousness was Noah
declaring? Not his own. How do you know that? First thing
you read about Noah in Genesis 6 and verse 8 and 9. Noah found
what in the eyes of the Lord? grace. He found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. And how does grace reign? Romans
5, 21. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, did Noah's grace
reign through some other righteousness? Did it reign through Noah's righteousness?
If it did, Noah didn't need grace. If salvation was ever based upon
anyone's righteousness but Christ and him alone in any generation. Let me tell you, son, those folks
didn't need grace. They didn't need mercy. If you
can be righteous by your works, you don't need grace, you don't
need works, you don't need the cross. And I'll tell you, people
can hammer down and holler about they're preaching the glory of
the cross and the value of the cross all they want. My friend,
unless you see that, you don't see its value and glory. That's
so. What generation? His generation. Who is that? It's all His people.
They'll come and they'll declare His righteousness. You see, men
from every successive generation who come to faith in Christ in
repentance of their dead works, drawn by sovereign grace to Him,
they'll come to Him. And they'll declare His righteousness
to a people that shall be born. Was there nobody ever born again?
That's talking about the new birth. You must be born. Was there nobody ever born again
before the cross? No, sir. Adam and Abel, Enoch,
Job. Keep on going. David, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob. They were all born again by the
Spirit. And that was a direct fruit and effect and result of
the death of Christ on the cross before it actually happened in
time. What power and what glory is that? That's amazing, isn't
it? And they don't declare their own righteousness. They declare
His. Look, that He hath done this. Now, that's past tense
there. He hadn't actually done it in
time, but He did it. That's the way God saw it. That
He hath done this. He finished it, Christ in his
perfect life and in shedding his blood on Calvary. That's
the glory of the cross. That's why this is the psalm
of the cross. This is the psalm of salvation accomplished by
the purpose and will of God based on a future event that we look
back to now, a past event, and that is the cross of Christ.
his glorious person and his finished work on Calvary. All right. Let's
pray and then we'll close. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for the blessings of the cross of Christ and the glory of his
person and finished work, and we pray that you will continue
to declare your name a just God and a Savior to your people,
as we know you will, so that they will come unto him and declare
his righteousness that he hath done this. Now, guide us and
direct us in all things. Be with our congregations and
bless us in Your Word, for it's in His name we pray. Amen.