Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 69. I titled the message this evening, Restored in Christ.
Notice there's a title given to this psalm, it's Shoshanim. And that means, that word means
upon the lilies. This psalm is going to show us
the beauty of Christ, the lily of the valleys, as he's among
the thorns, among the sin of his people, the thorns upon the
cross. I'm sure as you notice as I read through this psalm
a few moments ago, there can be no doubt this is Christ speaking
from the cross or speaking at least of the cross. I took my
title from the end of verse four when he says, then I restored
that which I took not away. And I want to look at four things
in this psalm this evening that Christ restored to his people.
And he didn't take those things away. We lost all of these things
in the first Adam and they're all restored in Christ the second
Adam. So the first thing is this, Christ
restored righteousness for his people. Now, Adam in the garden,
by his sin, he lost righteousness for his whole race, everyone
he represented. It's all the whole human race.
He lost righteousness for those people. And after he sinned,
Adam was not able to stand in the presence of God anymore because
he was unrighteous by his sin. Now all of us lost righteousness
in Adam. All of us sinned when Adam sinned
because we were in him. So none of us can stand before
God. Now without a mediator we can't because Adam made us unrighteous. God didn't do that, did he? God
didn't take unrighteousness from anybody. God warned Adam what
would happen. He warned him, Adam, you got
the free run of this garden. I created a perfect garden for
you. You got free run of it. There's one rule. There's one
law. Don't eat of the fruit or the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the only rule. And God warned Adam, and the
day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Sure enough, Adam
ate that fruit in open rebellion against God, knowing full well
what he was doing. Adam wanted to be God. Adam,
not just did he want to know good and evil, Adam wanted to
be the one to say what's good and evil. That's what he was
doing. See, God didn't take righteousness from anybody, did he? God, Adam
did that. By his own rebellion, Adam lost
righteousness. He lost life. And I thought as
I was preparing these notes, you know, Adam didn't just lose
righteousness. Like I lose my keys sometimes. Maybe I'll find them. Eventually,
it's possible I can find them again. That's not what we mean. When Adam lost righteousness,
he lost all righteousness by his sin. He died so that righteousness
is unrecoverable from anything that we do. So God sent his son
to restore what he took not away. The Lord Jesus Christ restored
righteousness for his people. by obeying the law as their representative. He restored righteousness to
his people by suffering for their sin and taking their sin away
and making them righteous. This is what he refers to in
verse one. Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my
soul. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I'm come
into deep waters where the floods overflow me. Now the Savior here
describes being in a flood. I saw some pictures of some folks
that down there in Florida were warned to evacuate. Warned and
warned and warned. They didn't do it. And buddy
for long, the floodwaters started rising, didn't they? Started
rising up above their house. They were in a flood and they
couldn't stand. They couldn't stay put. The floodwaters
was just sweeping them away. Well, the Savior here is describing
being in a flood. The water has quickly risen up
over his head and he can't stand still. He has no standing, the
water's over his head. I know when you're in water over
your head. For a little while, you can swim, can't you? For
a little while, you can tread water. But just so we know how
bad this is, how real this suffering is, Christ said, I sink in the
deep mire. I'm sinking in the muck and the
mire, the deep filth of the sin of my people. Christ suffered
as the substitute for his people. He took their place in the muck
and the mire of their sin. And for a time, for a short time,
he had no standing before God. He had no righteousness before
his Father for a time when he cried, I thirst. That's what
he was showing us. I thirst for righteousness, something
that I do not have. He couldn't stand before God
until He put all that sin away that had been laid on Him. And
when the sin of His people was finally completely put away by
the blood of Christ, all that was left was righteousness for
His people. Their sin had been removed. This
is how He made His people righteousness. He hath made Him sin for us who
do no sin, that we, His people, might be made righteous. Might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. I'm here to tell
you, he got the job done. Look at verse 13. But as for
me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God,
in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me. In the truth of thy
salvation, in truth, deliver me out of the mire and let me
not sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate me and out of the deep waters. Let not the water flood
overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not
the pit shut her mouth upon me." And the father answered that
prayer, didn't he? The father delivered his son from the mire
because he put the sin of his people away. Christ went into
those deep waters for his people, but they didn't sweep him away.
Instead, he defeated them. Instead, he drank the dregs of
that cup of God's wrath dry, and he put all that sin away.
So his people will never be swallowed up. So he has a substitute for
his people. Christ did die, didn't he? He
actually died and he lay in the earth. He lay in the tomb for
three days, but that pit couldn't swallow him up. The earth couldn't
swallow him up. Death could not hold him. He
swallowed death up and he made his people righteous so that
they'll never die. If Christ died for you, if Christ
made you righteous, You can never die. And that's just what he
did. He made his people righteous.
And brother Scott Richardson told us so often this righteousness
is not a pasted on thing. Christ made his people righteous
through and through. Made them and not just so they
look like they're righteous, not just so God says, well, we'll
pretend like they're righteous or legally they're righteous.
He made his people righteous because his death put their sin
away. And I can't go on without pointing
this out. The depth of Christ's suffering
for his people. He didn't just say he went into
these deep waters and the waters were over his head, did he? I
mean, that would be bad enough. But he said the waters came into
his soul. He's describing soul suffering. He made his soul an offering
for sin. The spotless, holy son of God
was made an offering for sin so that he could restore what
he didn't take away and make his people righteous. And salvation
in Christ is a whole lot better than our first standing in Adam.
You know, Adam had a righteous standing, didn't he? A righteousness he could lose.
And he did. He lost it right quick. But Christ
doesn't just restore a legal, righteous standing before God.
Christ makes his people righteous so that they can never be unrighteous
again. This is a righteousness that
you cannot lose. It doesn't depend on you. It
doesn't depend on you to get it. It doesn't depend on you
to keep it. It all depends on Him. So you can never be unrighteous
again if Christ is your righteousness. Isn't that good? Christ restored
what He didn't take away. And His people always stand accepted
before God. Because we're accepted in the
beloved, made righteous in the end. All right, number two, Christ
restored fellowship with God for his people. Sometimes I think
of poor Adam. There he was in the garden. Perfect. Everything was perfect. God came
and walked with him in the cool of the day. We just can't imagine
that. But Adam, by his sin, lost that
fellowship with God. He walked with God. And after
he sinned, God cast Adam out and wouldn't let him back in.
Adam lost fellowship with God. And now there is a great divide
between God and men that we cannot cross. Men can no longer come
into God's presence anytime we want, like Adam did. We can't
go walk with God in the cool of the evening. We lost that
in Adam. You know why we're fumbling around
down here in the dark? We lost light. We lost the light
of Christ's presence. We lost that fellowship with
God in Adam. But Christ came and he restored
that fellowship. He restored that union with God
for his people by suffering in their place as their substitute.
Christ restored that union that he did not take away by being
cut off from his father for his people. Look at verse three.
He says, I'm weary of my crying and my throat is dry. Mine eyes
fail. Will I wait for my God? Now,
Calvary, our Lord Jesus Christ kept crying out to God, didn't
he? But his father never answered. He kept looking and looking and
looking and waiting for an answer. And no answer came. All throughout
his earthly ministry, it wasn't that way, was it? Oh, our Lord
was a man of great prayer. He prayed to his father and he
was always heard. And you go through his prayers
that we have recorded, he's praying to his father. He talks about
his father that night. I go to my father and yours.
My father sent me. But at Calvary, he didn't cry
to his father. He cried out to God. My God,
my God. Why hast thou forsaken me? He
cried that so you and I would know he's suffering what we deserve. He was cut off from the father.
He was completely separated from the loving presence of his father
because he was suffering the separation that his people deserve
because of their sin. But when that sin that was laid
on him was put away, union and fellowship with God were restored,
weren't they? both for the Savior and for His
people. Our text says that our Savior was weary of crying. He
cried so long, His voice just gave out. He couldn't cry anymore.
And at one point He did cry, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That's not all He cried, was
it? Sin was put away. What did He cry? It is finished. It's finished. The great transaction's done.
Sin, the sin of God's elect has been paid for. Fellowship and
union are restored. And I know that so because he
was crying out, my God, my God. And before he gave up the ghost,
what did he cry? Father, fellowship has been restored. Father, in
thy hands I commend my spirit. Union is restored. He gave up
the ghost. union with the Father was restored. And when sin was put away, Christ,
our substitute, was accepted, had union, and was heard by his
Father. Look at verse 16. Now he says,
Hear me, O Lord, for thy lovingkindness is good. Turn unto me according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, and hide not thy face
from thy servant, for I am in trouble. Hear me speedily. And he did. He heard him speedily. Christ restored fellowship and
union for his people that he didn't take away. He came and
he restored it. So now his people can come before
God at all times. At all times. Accepted in the
beloved. We can come and cry out to our
Father and be heard speedily. We can come before his throne
of grace at all times to obtain mercy and find grace to help
in time of need because Christ restored the fellowship with
the father that Adam lost for his people. I wonder about Adam. That day, Adam sinned. He was thrust out of the garden.
What we read in scripture, Adam had lived about 900 years after
that. How do you live with it? I have no idea. God's grace is
the only answer I can think of. But because Christ came and restored
that fellowship for his people with his father, you don't have
to suffer. He restored that fellowship with
the father. Thirdly, Christ restored life
for his people Now when Adam sinned, he died. Now I know it
took about 900 years for sin to kill his body, but he instantly
died spiritually, didn't he? What our Lord, what our God actually
told Adam is, the day you eat thereof, dying thou shalt die. You will immediately begin to
die physically, but you already died spiritually. And it wasn't
just that Adam died. when he ate that food, when he
disobeyed God. He wasn't acting on his own. He was acting as
a representative of a people. Every one Adam represented died
in him. God didn't take that life away,
did he? No. Now, it happened by God's will. It happened by God's will. It
happened by God's will for this reason, so that his son could
get the glory in restoring what Adam So this was God's eternal
will and purpose. Adam didn't do something against
God's will. No, that was God's will. God allowed it to happen
for this reason. So Christ would get the glory
and saving his people from their sin. But God didn't take that
life away. Adam did it. Paul told us by
one man, by Adam came death. And all sin is caused by death. So Christ came to restore life
for his people by taking their sin away from He took their sin
away from them by being made sin for them and then suffering
the death that that sin deserved. And when Christ suffered for
the sin of His people, He suffered for it fully until He satisfied
the law's last demand that there be death for sin. His people
were given life. His people have life because
Christ died the death they deserve. Look at verse 4. He says, They
that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine
head. They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully,
are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. Now when we say that Christ was
made sin, please understand me. Nobody's saying that Christ was
made a sinner. No sir. He says here that these people
who are his enemies are his enemies wrongfully. He did nothing but
good to them. He asked them one time, I've
done many good works among you. What work do you stone me for?
Well, they couldn't name one, could they? No. He had no sin. He did no sin. Neither was any
guile found in his mouth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
perfect, holy, spotless lamb of God, the sinless sacrifice. But in order for him to restore
the life that he did not take away, He must be made sin and
suffer and die as a sacrifice for sin. That's the whole purpose
of lambs, isn't it? Christ, when he came and began
his earthly ministry, how did John the Baptist identify? Behold,
the Lamb of God. The whole purpose of a lamb is
to be sacrificed, put sin away. And that's what Christ, the Lamb
of God, came to do. Look here at verse nine. He says,
For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches
of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. The zeal of his
father's house made our Lord take some rope or some twine
he found laying on the ground, and brought it together into
a braid, and with one man, with this braid, this rope in his
hand, drove out to money changers from his father's house. He just
drove them out. They were over there selling
lambs and trying to make a profit for people coming to offer sacrifices,
just making a huge profit on it. He turned those tables upside
down and one man drove them all out. You think of that. They were scared to death. The
zeal in this man for his father's house, that this be a house of
worship. And that zeal continued at Calvary. The zeal of His Father's
house. The zeal for the glory and the
honor of His Father drove Him to the cross. It just drove Him
so He'd be eaten up and die as a sacrifice for sin. And the
zeal for His Father's house. All those who live in there,
both for the head of the house and the zeal for everybody who
lives in the house. His love for them, His zeal for
them compelled Him to go to the cross and be eaten up and die
so He could accomplish the salvation of those people. And when Christ
was made sin, He was truly made sin. He says here, the reproaches
of them that reproach thee, all this sin, the sin against thee,
all that sin that was sin against God, He says, has fallen upon
me. He was made sin. I said a minute
ago, quoting our brother Scott, that Christ made his people truly
righteous. The righteousness that Christ
gives his people is not pasted on righteousness, is it? No,
we're made righteous. How? By Christ being made sin
for us. When Christ was made sin, sin
wasn't pasted on either. He was made sin. He was made
to be the whole mass of the sin of God's elect. And he shows
us that by telling us how he felt the reproach of sin. In
verse 7 he says, because for thy sake I born reproached, shame
hath covered my face. Verse 10 he says, when I wept
and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. That
word reproach means shame. It means the disgrace of sin.
Now, there's no shame for somebody dying for a sin they didn't commit.
There's not a shame in that. The Savior would not have been
ashamed of dying for sin that was not His own. If He died,
if the Father put Him to death, even though He was innocent,
there would be a lot of emotion involved in that, wouldn't there?
But shame wouldn't be one of them. He might be mad. He might be frustrated at the
injustice of the whole ordeal. He may feel glory and honor,
like the honor of a soldier who dies is a hero giving his life
for those men in his company, or for his country, or for his
family. Oh, there's honor in that. We have a funeral, we give
the widow a flag, we give them medals. Oh, there's honor in
that. But the Savior's not describing
honor. Here is it. He says he feels shame. He feels
shame because he was truly made everything that sin is. Now,
I can't explain that. but he felt the shame of the
sin. And men made fun of his shame.
Look at verse 11. I made sackcloth also my garment,
and I became a proverb unto them. They that sit in the gate speak
against me, and I was the song of the drunkards. I was the song
of those who are drunk on the wine of false religion. And they
sat there and they mocked him. You know how the Pharisees did,
they mocked him. They said, Come down from the cross. We'll believe
you. Come down. You said you'd build the temple
in three days. Come down from the cross. We'll believe you.
And they didn't do it. And that wasn't enough. They
kept mocking him. They said, well, look, look at
him. He saved others. Himself, he cannot save. Boy,
they were right. They didn't know it, but they
were right, weren't they? They were right. He couldn't save
himself. He could not come down from the cross because he was
determined to save others. to save his people from their
sin. And that was shame. Wouldn't
you hate that? Those people, they don't know what they're
saying. I know. And they're ignorant and they're in darkness. But
it hurt, wouldn't it? It hurt to get mocked and made
fun of like that. But I'll tell you what was worse.
The worst thing of it was the shame of being made sin before
his father. He felt all the same shame that
Adam felt. Remember, Adam fell, he sinned,
and Adam and Eve realized they were naked. What's the first
thing? Oh, they were so ashamed, they tried to hide from God because
they were ashamed. This is the shame the Savior
felt. Verse five, this is why he was ashamed. Oh God, thou
knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee. The
guiltiness that you've made me is not hidden from thee. You
see it all. Verse 19, he says, thou hast
known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. My adversaries
are all before thee." You know, us being sinners, that's all
we've ever known, is sin. We can't know the shame that
the Holy Son of God felt when He was made what He hates. When
He was made what His Father hates. The shame He felt when His Father
saw it all. He was exposed completely naked
before His Father when He was made sin. And that's why the
father punished him in justice. But look at Hebrews chapter 12,
Christ, our savior, joyfully endured all of that for the joy
of restoring to his people, the life that they lost in Adam.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, looking under Jesus. the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame. And now he sat down
at the right hand of the throne of God. Now we see, we get some
idea of how truly wretched and vile sin really is when you see
what Christ had to endure to put it away. He had to sacrifice himself.
He had to sacrifice everything that he is, body and soul, to
put the sin of his people away. And since Christ died for that
sin, for the sin of his people, they will never suffer that kind
of shame. Not only will they never die,
they'll never suffer that kind of shame. Because look in verse
six what the Savior prays for his people. Let not them that
wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake. Let not
those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. And you know the Father answered
that prayer. Those people never will be ashamed. They'll never
be confounded because Christ bore all their sin and their
shame away. See, Christ restored the life which he did not take
away by taking away the sin that he did not commit. Now, when
I say that Christ died for sin, I want to be crystal clear about
this. Christ died for the sin of His people. He died for the
sin of the elect people that God gave Him to save. He didn't
die for the sin of every human being to ever live. If He did,
they'd be saved because the sacrifice of God's Son is successful. It put the sin, all the sin laid
on Him is gone. So Christ didn't die for the
sin of everybody. He died for the sin of the elect.
And we know that. because of how Christ prayed
from the cross. It's not recorded here, but you
know it very well, recorded in other places in scripture. He
prayed from the cross. And it always amazes me. Every single time I read it,
it amazes me. These people had beaten him. Beaten his back. They thrust a crown of thorns
upon his head. They mocked him and made fun
of him. They beat him with their fists. They slapped him in the
face with their hands. They just, they beat him. And
then they made him carry his cross until he just stumbled
and fell and didn't have the strength to carry it anymore.
Got somebody else to carry it. Went up to the top of this hill,
laid that piece of wood down on the ground and laid him down
on top of it and drove nails the size of railroad spikes through
his hands and through his feet affixing him to that hunk of
wood. And then picked it up and dropped it down in a socket and
every joint in his body was put out of joint. Can you imagine?
We can't imagine that kind of pain. You know what he said in response
to that? Father, forgive them. Remember what they said. Now,
whoever it was he was praying for right there is forgiven. If it was those that whipped
him, if those who drove the nails in his hands and his feet, those
who were mocking him, I don't know who it was, but whoever
it was he prayed for, I promise you is forgiven. When he says,
Father, forgive them, they're forgiven. On the basis of what
he was doing right then, sacrificing himself for their sin. At some
point later on, they were given faith to see Christ crucified,
to see what was going on there at that time. And I know that
because of who prayed for them. It was the sacrifice praying
for them. Of course they were forgiven. And aren't you thankful
that that prayer applies to every one of these people. They're forgiven. But you know, that wasn't the
Savior's only prayer from the cross. We have a prayer recorded
here that proves to us Christ wasn't dying for everybody because
he wasn't praying for the salvation of everybody. Look at verse 20. reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of happiness. And I looked for some to take
pity, but there was none. For comforters, but I found none.
They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave
me vinegar to drink. Let their table become a snare
before them, and that which should have been for their welfare,
let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that
they see not, and make their loins continually to shake. Pour
out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take
hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate
and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom thou
has smitten. And they talk to the grief of
those whom thou has wounded. Add iniquity under their iniquity
and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted
out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous. That's powerful stuff, isn't
it? See, Christ wasn't dying for everybody, just like He wasn't
praying for everybody. He prayed that the Father take
no pity upon and have no mercy upon somebody. Now, I don't know
exactly who it was He was praying about here, but I promise you
this, the Father had no pity and no mercy upon them. He prayed
that God send some people a strong delusion in their false religion,
that they just swallow up their false religion. That should have
been to their benefit, the law, the ceremonies, the pictures,
the types should have been to their benefit. He said, let it
become a trap to him. Let them be, have a strong delusion
in their false religion so that they'll believe a lie and be
damned. He prayed that some never find
righteousness. He prayed that some never be
made righteous, that they never be given eternal life, but they
died a second death. And they did. See, that prayer
was answered too. But whoever it is that Christ
died for is redeemed from all their sin. Look at verse 18.
Draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine
enemies. Now deliver me, Christ said,
because of my enemies. Christ was delivered because
of his enemies. Because all of his enemies were
defeated. And he is redeemed. He redeemed
his people. He redeemed his people from the
grave because the sin that was laid on him was gone. He redeemed
his people from sin. He redeemed his people from death.
The death, burial and resurrection of Christ redeemed all of his
people from all of their sin. And God's justice demands that
they have eternal life. They're going to have it. Every
one of them will pass from death unto life because Christ died
for them. And look at verse 29. But I am poor and sorrowful.
Let thy salvation, O God, set me up on high. After Christ suffered
and died, he was buried, he was resurrected, and some days, 40
days or so after that, he went back on high, didn't he? Seated
in glory at the Father's right hand, because he did everything
the Father sent him to do. Now before he could sit there,
he had to go through all this sorrow and suffering, didn't
he? Death. But because of that, all of his people are right soon
going to follow him over. They're going to be set up on
high with Christ eternally, having eternal life and being with him
face to face. All right, here's the last thing.
Christ restored joy and gladness to his people. Like I said, it's
hard. to imagine that day that Adam
and Eve were thrust out of the garden and all the sorrow that
they had to live with. And you know, men have lived
in sorrow and fear ever since, all because of that one sin.
But Christ came and he has restored joy and gladness for his people. And this joy and gladness, it's
not a silly emotion. It's joy and it's gladness in
Christ, in Christ. It's because of the salvation
he accomplished for his people. It's not just you took a pill
and you feel happy even though you got no reason to feel happy.
This is a reason for joy and gladness. The salvation that
Christ accomplished for his people. He bore away all of the sorrow
that his people, that their sin brought upon them and he redeemed
them from their sin. He took away everything that
causes them sorrow. So look what he says in verse
30. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify
him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord
better than an ox or bullet that hath horns and hooves. Our Lord
says he will praise the name of the Lord in song. He's gonna
sing in thanksgiving. Redemption's been accomplished.
He's singing in praise. He will see the travail of his
soul. He's gonna be satisfied. He's
going to see those people that He loves. He's going to see them
redeemed. He's going to see them have eternal life. And He's going
to sing in thanksgiving. And His people are going to join
in the chorus. They're going to sing and praise Him too. And
the whole reason for it is Christ died for them. The sacrifice
of Christ pleased His Father. It did what an animal sacrifice
never could do. And the sacrifice of Christ pleases
His elect too. Nothing gives more joy and sin
forgiving through the sacrifice of Christ. And God's sorrowing,
suffering people, they're still going to sorrow. They're still
going to suffer. They're still going to go through
the pain and suffering of this world, but they will find joy
and comfort in one place, in Christ's crucifixion. Verse 32,
the humble shall see this and be glad, and your heart shall
live to seek God. The humble are going to see it Now let's close, look at verse
33. For the Lord heareth the poor and despiseth not his prisoners.
Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything
that moveth therein. Everywhere people ought to praise
and thank God. For, here's the reason, God will
save Zion. He will save his people and he
will build the cities of Judah that they may dwell there and
have it in possession. The seed also of his servants
shall inherit They that love his name shall dwell therein. Those who love the name of the
Lord, they're going to inherit the earth. They're going to have
joy and they're going to have gladness. And the people that
are going to have it is who? Christ's seed. His seed. Christ's
seed are those who were in him when he came and he restored
everything that they lost in Adam and more. That's his seed. And they're going to have it.
And they're going to have it with joy. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for these precious words of Christ, our Savior. How we thank you
for your untold. Mercy, grace and love to your
people. That you would sacrifice your
son to restore to us those things which you did not take away.
You restored to us everything we've lost in Adam and better
is what we have in Christ can never be lost. Father, we thank
you. Father, I pray that you'd cause
your word tonight to go forth in power, to reach the hearts
of your people, to give life, to give faith, to give comfort
and assurance and enable us to leave here this evening in joy. In Christ our Savior. who came
and restored that which He took not away." It's in His preciousness.