Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 54. I titled the message this evening,
Salvation in the Betrayed Savior. Now, when we very first look
at this Psalm, it's easy to see how, especially these first two
verses, would be the words of every believer. David says, Save
me, O God, by thy name. Judge me by thy strength. Hear
my prayer, O God, give ear to the words of my mouth." Now,
these could be the words of every believer. You know the situation
that David was in here after he wrote this psalm. The Ziphites
had betrayed him. They went and told Saul where
he was hiding. He felt so betrayed, he thought
they were his friends. And this would be our prayer
in the face of an enemy, in the face of someone that we feel
has betrayed us and we're confused, we're hurt. Lord, save me, help
me. But chiefly, primarily, this
is our prayer. Lord, save me. Lord, save me
from my sin. Lord, save me from you. Save
me from your justice. Save me from condemnation. And
save me in justice. There is no real salvation unless
justice is satisfied. Any so-called gospel that declares
salvation without justice being satisfied is not declaring a
certain salvation. So our prayer is, Lord, save
me by your name. Now remember the name of the
Lord tells us who he is. So we pray, Lord, save me by
your name. What we're really saying is this, Lord, save me
by your nature, by your character. The Lord is holy. Holiness is
the chief attribute of the Lord. So if God's going to save sinners,
he's going to do it in holiness. Sin must be put away. We must
be made actually holy for God to accept us, because what He
does is going to be done in holiness. He's righteous. His name is Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. So our prayer is, Lord, save
me by Your name. Be my righteousness. Make me
righteous in Christ. If I'm righteous in Christ, that's
a sure salvation. If I'm the righteousness of God
in Him, That's a sure salvation. That's the salvation I'm interested
in. And then the Lord's nature is gracious. God is gracious. So when God saves sinners, He's
going to do it in grace, isn't He? It's not going to be merit.
It's not because we deserved it. It's going to be by grace. No sinner is saved because they're
good enough for God to save them. That they did something that
made God happy with them. The Lord saves sinners who do not
deserve it. That's the definition of grace.
When God saves sinners, it's done in grace. So our prayer
is, Lord, save me by your grace alone, by your character of graciousness. Don't save me because I kept
the law. Don't save me because I'm a better Christian than somebody
else. Don't save me because I made a decision to let you save me.
Lord, don't look at anything about me. Don't look at anything
that I've done. Don't look at anything about
me because it's all sin. It's all filth and it's all corruption.
So our prayer is, Lord, save me in spite of who I am. That's
grace. Save me by your grace. And salvation
that's done in grace is a sure salvation. That's a good hope.
We have a good hope through what? Grace. Lord, save me by your
grace. And Lord, save me by your strength.
Because I don't have any strength of my own. The word strength
that David uses here means power and victory. Lord, save me, judge
me in the power of Christ's blood that makes me innocent. Judge
me in the power of his blood that washes me whiter than snow.
Judge me in the victory of Christ's sacrifice that makes me righteous.
Lord, see me and hear me for Christ's sake. This is our prayer.
Now, we pray for a lot of different things, don't we? We say a lot
of different things in prayer. We ask for many different things
in prayer. We praise the Lord for many different
things. We thank him for many different things. But I tell
you where the true heart of prayer is. It's in Christ's sacrifice. We ask to be saved. This is our
petition. This is what we ask for. We ask
to be saved in the sacrifice of Christ. What do we thank God
for? Chiefly, salvation in his son. What do we praise God for? Chiefly,
for salvation in His Son, for the sacrifice of His Son. There's
a lot of things I ask for in prayer. There's a lot of things
I thank God for in prayer. But you know, many of those are
things I can do without. Except this one thing. The sacrifice of Christ. Salvation
in Him. I ask God for that sacrifice,
for that salvation. I praise Him and I thank Him
for it in every prayer. See, this is the words of a believer,
isn't it? But if we're going to get what
this psalm is really saying, what this is really teaching
us, we've got to look at it as the words of Christ, as the words
of the son of David, as the words of the betrayed Savior, and see
salvation in the betrayed Savior. I believe I got three. I've been working on two different
messages. I forget how many points I got. I think I, yeah, three
points. Three points. Number one is this,
I want us to see the betrayed Savior suffering for his people. And what does that mean to us?
Verse three, he says, for strangers are risen up against me and oppressors
seek after my soul. They've not set God before them.
David wrote this Psalm after the Ziphams had betrayed him.
They rose up against him and became his enemies. Now the Ziphams
were Jews. These are David's people. David
had been with these people. They knew David. And they went
and betrayed him to Saul. Saul had no earthly idea where
David was. And they went and betrayed him
to Saul. And you know why? Simply because they were trying
to gain favor from Saul. They were just trying to see
what's in it for me. What can I get from Saul? They treated
David worse than the Philistines would have done. The Philistines
wouldn't have sold him out to Saul. But his own countrymen
did. See, they weren't doing what
was best for Israel. David says here, they didn't
set God before them. They weren't doing this because
they thought it was the will of the Lord. Everybody knew it
was God's will for David to be king. Jonathan knew it. Jonathan's
plan was for David to be king. And Jonathan said, I'll be your
right hand man. I mean, everybody knew David. That was God's will
for David to be king. But they betrayed David because
they wanted to gain favor with men. And that error is still
commonly made among religious people today. They're not doing
what they're doing for the glory of God. They're not doing what
they're doing, seeking God or seeking salvation in him. They
use their religion as a way to gain earthly material blessings. I read a story, I never even
remember hearing a man's name before, but I read a story about
this TV evangelist today. He's getting his followers to
raise $54 million so he can buy his fourth airplane. His fourth? He's already got three. He needs
another one. $54 million airplane. And you ought to see the way
this guy twisted himself up trying to say, oh, this is for God's
will. No, it's not. No, it's not. This
is just trying. This is exactly what the Ziphams.
What can I get out of this? Earthly, fleshly, material things. But what's worse, this is a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ coming unto His own. His owners seeked
Him not. They treated Him worse than the
heathen would have treated Him. You know, the heathen would have
just said, well, this is some strange religion and let it go.
Not the Jews. This is a picture of Judas, the
Lord's friend, betraying him for 30 pieces of silver, just
trying to get some of the world's goods. And the Jews cried crucifying. They didn't deliver Christ to
be crucified because they were trying to do the will of God.
They weren't trying to set God before them. All they were doing,
you go back and read their conversations. All they were doing was trying
to protect their place in the world that their religion had
gained them. It wasn't about seeking the Lord,
it was about protecting their place. And I'm telling you, that's
still man's problem in religion today. They're trying to use
religion to get things of this world rather than seek the Lord. Now stop and think about that.
David says here, Selah. You know, nobody really knows
exactly what that word means. Most people say it's a musical
term. There would be some sort of symbols
or something going off here, a musical interlude, some people
thinks of me now, stop and think about that. Stop and think about
what was just said. Stop and think how easy it would
be for you and me to fall into that trap, using religion to
try to gain something from this world, using it to try to gain
social status or gain something from the people gathered here.
Stop and think about how easily that happened. And pray that
the Lord keep us from it. Now, just like David was betrayed,
our Lord Jesus was betrayed into the hands of his enemies. David
by his own countrymen, the Lord by one of his own disciples.
Now, this is such a great mystery to me. Our Lord knew what Judas was
going to do. He told everybody what Judas
was going to do. It was his will that Judas betray
him. But it hurt him when he did it.
Isn't that a mystery? Our Lord knew the Jews would
reject him. He said so throughout the Old Testament, they were
going to reject him and it was his will they reject him so that
the gospel will be spread in the Gentile world. Yet it hurt
him when they did it. He wept over Jerusalem. That
is such a great mystery to me to see the God man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, But the Lord must be betrayed. He had to be betrayed. His enemies were not smart enough
to take him unless somebody betrayed him. They weren't powerful enough
to take him unless he went with them willingly. So he must be
betrayed and go willingly. He also must be betrayed to fulfill
all the Old Testament scriptures. The Old Testament scriptures
tell us the Messiah is going to be betrayed by a close friend.
And they tell us that. So when the Lord is betrayed
and he goes and suffers, we're going to know beyond a shadow
of a doubt. These sufferings of Christ are not an accident.
These sufferings of Christ are not happening so that we'll have
some sort of an example to follow. These sufferings are happening
because this is the eternal will and purpose of God to save his
people through the crucifixion, through the death and the sacrifice
of his son. And when Christ suffered, he
suffered willingly as the substitute of his people, as the representative
of his people. Go back and read the first two
verses now, thinking of them as the words of Christ. Save
me, O God, by thy name and judge me by thy strength. Hear my prayer,
O God. Give ear to the words of my mouth.
Now, the Lord Jesus is God. It's not like he's God. He's
not a special man. He is God. And when he became
a man, he never quit being God. He always had all the power of
God. He created the man. Christ Jesus
created matter. He created food. He gave life
to the dead. He is God. He forgave sin. He is God. But he so fully became
the sinner's representative. the center substitute, that he
became dependent upon his father exactly the same way you and
I are. He prayed to his father and asked his father to strengthen
him. He asked his father to give him the glory that he had with
the father before the world was. He was dependent on the father
to give it to him. Now again, this amazes me to
think about this. I feel foolish talking about
it because who can understand how the Lord Jesus is God. At
the same time, he's dependent upon his father. He is God, yet
he's trusting his father. Look at 1 Peter 2. That was true
all throughout the Lord's earthly ministry. He was known to be
a man of prayer. How often he went and prayed
all night. Some of his prayers are recorded.
Most of them are not. He was a great man of prayers,
depending upon his father. He trusted his father in these
things. That was true throughout all his earthly ministry. And
it was true at the cross, where these are the words of Christ
being spoken from the cross. 1 Peter 2, verse 22. Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. but he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
As he suffered, he committed his cause to the father. He depended,
he trusted that the father would do the right thing. As he suffered,
the savior trusted. He was confident in this. The
whole counsel of God in regarding the redemption of his people
would be done. He knew his suffering would not
be in vain because he trusted in the character of the father.
Now you know what that tells me? That tells me his people
can trust their salvation to the character of the father too.
If the Savior can do it, we can do it in him, can't we? Now he, the Savior suffered knowing
his sacrifice would get the job done, would put away the sin
of his people. He knew it would be accepted, yet he cried. He cried to his father from the
cross. He cried because he was cut off from the father. He cried
because he was suffering alone. He cried to be saved. He cried
to be delivered from this suffering whenever justice was satisfied
for the sin of his people. He cried for that. Yet he knew
his sacrifice would be successful. He said so, John 17, before he
went to the cross. He always knew justice would
be satisfied. He always knew his people would
be accepted in him. Then why did he cry? Have you
ever wondered that? Why did he cry? Well, I'm sure
there's many, many, many reasons. I thought too. He cried for the
comfort of his people. First, Christ suffered for His
people. As He was suffering, He was suffering
for His people, for the sin of His people. He was made sin for
us. What happened to that sin? Very
important question, isn't it? What happened to that sin? If
that sin is still on me, I'm damned. What happened to that
sin? Well, our Savior cried so we
would know His suffering was real. And since he was truly
suffering, he was putting away the sin of his people. And he
cried so that our hearts would be comforted in knowing salvation
in Christ is sure. Because he put away the sin of
his people. There's no sin left for any of
God's elect. There's no punishment for them
either. If there's no sin, there's no punishment. Because Christ
already bore all that punishment. He cried so we'd know he was
truly suffering for the sin of his people. and putting it away
by the sacrifice of himself. And number two, Christ cried
in his suffering so that his people would know he is able
to comfort them when they suffer. When we suffer anything, who
do we have to cry to? The Savior. Isn't it comforting
to your heart to know he's able to comfort the hearts of his
people. He cried out in agony so we would know he's not pretending.
And since he wasn't pretending, he really does sympathize with
his people. They suffer the very same thing.
You know, I've never had a heart attack. I've never had cancer. If one of you has a heart attack,
one of you has cancer, I come visit you. I can tell you I'm
sorry. I can tell you I'm praying for
you. I can be so sorry that you're
going through this. But you know, I don't know where
you're at, do I? I've not suffered those things. Christ our Savior wasn't pretending
to suffer at Calvary. He suffered everything His people
will ever suffer. So now we know Christ is a high
priest who's touched with the feeling of our infirmity. and
he's able to comfort his people, because he told us he's already
suffered the very same thing. That's why he cried, for the
comfort of his people. And what the Savior's crying
for, what he's asking for, is something he's gonna get, the
salvation of his people. And he's not asking God for a
favor. He's asking for justice, for justice. He asked the Father,
judge me with all the strength of your holy fury against sin
until the debt is fully paid so that my people can go free
in justice and they never have to worry about any of their sin
coming back on them because justice has already been satisfied in
my debt. That's what he's asking for.
He's not asking for a favor. He's asking for justice. My brother
told me this story this week. got a late payment or something
on your mortgage. And he called the mortgage company and wanted
to know why this late charge. And he said, you know, I mailed
you the check. And they said, yes, we received check number so-and-so
for this amount. We received it on this date before
the due date. And he said, well, then why is
there a late charge on here? And this is, I'm sorry, this
is what you deal with when you get one of the tape boys on the
phone. She said, we'll do you the courtesy of taking it off.
And he said, no, you won't. No, you won't. You're not doing
me a courtesy. I want justice. The Savior wasn't asking His
Father for a courtesy. He's asking for justice. The
debt's paid because of our betrayed Savior. All right, number two,
I want us to see this. This brings us right to the second
point. I want us to see the betrayed Savior is the victorious Savior. Verse four. Behold, God is mine
helper. The Lord is with them that uphold
my soul. He shall reward evil and undermine
enemies. Cut them off and buy truth. Now the Jews and the Romans,
all the religious world and the heathen world, they all banded
together against God. They found one thing they could
all agree on. We got to do away with this man. But when they
did, they didn't accomplish their will, did they? Now look over
to Acts chapter four. They didn't accomplish their
will. They got together and they did whatever their wicked heart
wanted to do, but all they did was accomplish God's will. And
when it was all said and done, that's exactly what Peter and
John told the Jews had happened. You just accomplished God's will
in this thing. Acts 4 verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers are gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ, for of a truth against thy holy child, Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed. Both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
but the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. That's all they did is they got
together and they accomplished God's will and the redemption
of his people through the sacrifice of his son. Here's another mystery. We know
the father deserted Christ at Calvary. God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? He cried. Yet he also upheld
him. He also helped him. The man,
Jesus, died. But at the same time, he was
upheld. He is victorious because he's
God. With all the power of God, that's
why he raised himself again from the dead. And he ascended back
to the right hand of the Father, where right now he sits upon
a throne. expecting, he's not wondering
if this is going to happen, he's expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. Now we don't see all things yet
put under his feet, do we? But that day's coming. That day
when every enemy of Christ will be destroyed and put under his
foot's coming. And can you imagine the utter
terror the wicked will feel in that day? When they see the one
that they hated, the one they rejected, The one that they mocked
is the one who stands as their judge and their executioner.
And he will put every enemy in a place where they cannot hurt
God's people, where they cannot mar God's creation with their
sin and rebellion ever again. He will destroy them. He'll cut
them off and give them exactly what their evil deserves. He'll
give them exactly what they deserve. No more, no less. In all of creation,
will see the Lord Jesus Christ as the mighty conqueror. He's
the king of kings. This one who is the betrayed
savior is the mighty conqueror. He's king of kings. He had a
time of humiliation and a time of betrayal, but buddy, it didn't
last very long. Now he's only seen as the victorious
savior, victorious over every enemy. And I think it's safe to say
I look forward to that day when every enemy of our Savior has
been put down. But that's not the real comfort
for God's people here. I think if that's our real comfort,
there's something wrong with us. There's something twisted
that we want to see all these people, you know, crushed. That's
not our real comfort. Christ our Savior is the mighty
comfort. Our comfort, the believer's comfort
is in knowing nothing can stop his will. He's the mighty conqueror. Nothing can stop his will for
the salvation of his people. No one can ever destroy them.
Nobody can ever pluck one of mighty of his hand. Nobody can
take their salvation away from them. Now, they may betray you. They may do awful things to you.
They did David, didn't they? They might touch the body. but
only if they're allowed to by God. And he'll never allow them
to touch or to take anything from his people that is of any
value. Ever. Because our Savior is the
mighty conqueror. He won the right to be in control
of everything. And he is. And he rules doing
exactly that. Controlling everything for one
purpose. for the eternal good of His people,
for the salvation of the souls of His people. You see, the sovereignty
of God. I love to talk about the sovereignty
of God. You know, that's not just a point
of doctrine with us that is different from other people. The absolute
sovereignty of God. God's not just sovereign over
the things that I want to be sovereign over. God's not just
sovereign over the things that I just happen to pray about.
He's sovereign over everything. Everything that happens is His
will or couldn't happen without it. Now, that's not just a point
of doctrine that is mean and cold and unfeeling. The sovereignty
of God is a great comfort to His people. What comfort there
is in knowing, yes, we've got enemies, but are God sovereign
over them? The Savior. who suffered and
died, who gave himself for the salvation of his people, is sovereign
over those enemies. I find such comfort in that,
don't you? He's sovereign over every event of our lives so that
one day he will bring us to God. He won the right to do that by
his sacrifice as the betrayed Savior. He won the victory. All right, thirdly, I want us
to see this. I want us to see the betrayed Savior delivered. Verse six, I will freely sacrifice
unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord,
for it is good. For he hath delivered me out
of all trouble, and mine eye has seen his desire upon my enemies. Now, when the sacrifice was over,
there was no more crying, no more tears. The Lord's not up
there crying in heaven over somebody who won't accept Him. You know,
they keep rejecting Him. There's no more tears. There's
no more crying. There's nothing left but absolute victory. There's nothing left for Him
but all the spoils of victory. And even as He suffered, He spoke
of it as a thing done. See, He knew His sacrifice was
going to be successful. He knew what the end of this
thing was going to be. And even as He suffered, He was
shouting in victory. Christ freely offered himself
as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. He did it freely.
Now, I love to think about that. I love to think about the love
that Christ has for his people. He loved his people so much,
he willingly went to the cross to suffer and die, even though
he knew full well what was waiting for him there. He knew full well
the suffering. Sometimes you might say you'll
do something for somebody and you get partway into it and you
think, why did I say I'd do this? This is awful. Our Savior knew
full well what was going to happen. He knew full well what He was
getting into. And He went there anyway because He loves His people. And He praised His Father for
delivering them. Well, of course the father delivered
him. God is good. He's going to do the right thing.
Of course he delivered him. Of course he raised him from
the dead. It's the only right thing to do. Of course he accepted
his sacrifice and accepted everyone for whom Christ died. It's the
only right thing to do. Sin's gone. He made his people
righteous. He made them holy. God's good. He didn't do something wrong.
Of course he accepted those people. And the Savior loves his people
so much, he prays the Father for them. And then he speaks of his enemies.
He's going to see all those enemies destroyed. And he does see the
sin of his people destroyed. He sees all of his people redeemed,
given everlasting life and brought to God. How does this directly affect
you and me? Well, God's elect are one with Christ. Since we're
one with him, we did what he did. That's our righteousness.
When he obeyed God, we did too. That's our righteousness. What
he does, we does. What he does, we have done. And
where he is, we are. We're there in him. That's why
scripture says we're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
because we are where he is. We're in him. That's union with
Christ. All right. Union with Christ. Since Christ
was delivered, Since Christ was accepted, His people are delivered
and accepted too. We who believe Christ are delivered.
We're delivered from sin. We're delivered from the effect
of sin. We're delivered from the rule of sin. We're delivered
from the condemnation of sin. We who believe Christ are accepted
of the Father, just exactly like the Savior. Christ the Savior
was accepted of the Father. That makes us say the very same
thing the Savior said in verse 7. His words are our words. For
he hath delivered me out of all trouble." What trouble have you
been in, he didn't deliver you from? He delivered me from all
trouble. And mine eye has seen his desire
upon mine enemies. So verse six, I will freely sacrifice
unto thee. I will praise thy name. I will
freely give the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to God.
I will freely bow, freely bow, and I'll freely worship him.
I don't worship God because I have to. I worship God because I want
to. I want to. I want to freely bring
offerings. Not tithes, like I've got to
pay taxes. You know, I don't like hearing from the IRS. That's
something I've got to do. That's not the gospel. The gospel
makes me say I'll freely bring offerings. I'll freely bring
my time, my talents, my money, the praise and thanksgiving.
I freely do that. And I know this. I'll see the
desire of my enemies. I'll see them. I'm not talking
just about all the enemies of this life. Those who oppose and
hate the gospel. I was preaching somewhere once
and there was a person in the auditorium. I mean, hating me. Oh, hating me. I knew him. And I told Janet later, she said,
was that hard for you? And I said, no, I mean, I hate
it. But no, no, it wasn't. Because
this is the truth. Whether people hate it or not,
this is the truth. So I'm not just talking about
those people that oppose us, hate the gospel. I do know from
scripture, I'll see them destroyed. I read that. I know that's going
to happen. But as much as it's possible, I pray that the Lord
will enable me to pray for those people. Could be He'll be gracious
to them like He was to me. Could be. Could be we'll praise
the Lord together. But there is an enemy I'm interested
in seeing destroyed. It's this old man. This flesh. This nature of sin. I'm very
anxious to see that enemy destroyed. I'm very anxious to see Adam's
nature wiped out. You look at me now. All you can
see is Adam's image. That's the only thing you can
see in his flesh. I'm looking forward to the day that that
enemy is wiped out and all you'll be able to see is Christ in me.
I look forward to that day, to be made holy, to be made righteous
as he is. That'll make me say, I'll praise
thy name for it's good. In eternity, we're gonna spend
eternity saying, Look what the Lord did. Isn't he good? Oh, he's so good. Look what he
did. All because he was the great
Savior who went and put away the sin of his people. Let's
bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this glimpse into the words, the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who was betrayed for the sin of his people, who freely
gave himself as a sacrifice for his people. Father, we thank
you. We praise you. We confess we
can't understand everything there is to know about how Christ was
made sin, how he put our sin away, how the God man could die. We don't understand those things
completely, but we believe you. By your grace, we believe. We
thank you for his love that compelled him to go to the cross, to suffer,
to put away the sin of his people, that he might have his bride
be with him where he is, forever beholding his glory. Father,
we thank you for your grace that saves those who could never do
anything to save themselves. It's all of your grace. Father,
we thank you for your wisdom that you found a way to be both
just and justify the ungodly. We'd never be smart enough to
figure it out. We only believe it because you revealed it to
us. Father, how we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ that
caused us to go home this evening rejoicing, being thrilled at
the thought of Christ our Savior. It's in his