In our Bibles, again, to Psalm
40. I titled the message this evening, The Patient Savior.
I want us to see this evening how patient our Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished the salvation of his people. No sinner could be
saved unless our Savior had been so patient to endure everything
that must be endured, to do everything that must be done at the exact
time in which it must be done. Nothing could have been done
too early, nothing too late. He patiently accomplished all
of the salvation of his people right on time. I'm thankful for
our Lord's patience, aren't you? You think of the patience he
displays with us and our sin and our weakness and our failures.
I'm thankful for his patience. And it took that same patience
to save us from our sin. Now, the words of this Psalm
40 are clearly the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. The writer
to the Hebrews told us that Hebrews 10 we read to open the service.
These are the words of Christ our Savior. This is the Savior
speaking. And the first thing I want us
to see as he speaks to us here is his patience to produce the
righteousness of his people. Verse one, he said, I waited
patiently for the Lord. He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. These words, I waited patiently for the Lord. Is there
any doubt whose words those are? That could only be the words
of our Savior. None of us has ever waited patiently
for one thing, not one thing. Now, we've had to wait on the
Lord, haven't we? We've had to wait on the Lord to accomplish
his will, but we never did it patiently, did we? We all like
to talk about the patience of Job. That's just a common saying. Patience of Job. But I'm telling
you the patience of Job doesn't compare. Job often was impatient. He often complained. Our Savior
never did. Not one time. He patiently waited
to save his people. And he waited a long time to
save them, to redeem them. He looked forward to redeeming
them for a long time. Proverbs 8 gives us a description
of our Savior. Before creation, before anything
was spoken into existence, when there was only God, we read of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's speaking in that chapter
and He said at that time, when there was only God, He rejoiced
before His Father and His delights were with the sons of men. Before
the world was even created, His delights were with the sons of
men. He looked forward to saving His people great delight from
eternity when there was only God. And he waited patiently
until the time to redeem came. All throughout, after creation,
all throughout the Old Testament, when all those sacrifices were
being offered that were required by the law, none of those sacrifices
ever pleased the Father. None of those sacrifices did
anything to take away the sin of his people. But our Savior
waited patiently. He says in verse six, Sacrifice
and offering thou didst not desire. The father was never pleased
with those sacrifices. Because the death of an animal,
an animal's blood can never take away God's anger against men.
They have a different nature. The only value that's found in
those sacrifices is this. They were pictures of Christ.
They were pictures of the sacrifice of Christ who would please his
father when he came to redeem his people. The blood of Christ
would take away the sins of his people. The death of Christ would
satisfy God's justice. But all during those thousands
of years, all those millions of animal sacrifices, our Savior
patiently waited until the Father's time came for him to appear.
And when that time came, he willingly came as the Father's servant.
Read on here in verse 6, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou didst
not desire, mine ears hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin
offering hast thou not required. Now he says here, mine ears hast
thou digged. You know, that refers to the
law of the bond slave. A slave who had served his master
long enough to work all of his debt, he could go free. But during
the time that he had been a slave, if he had been given a wife and
they had children together, Well, the wife and the children still
belong to the master. Now, the slave can go free and
he can leave his master. He can leave his wife and his
children behind. But he could say, I love my master. I love
to serve my master. I love living in my master's
house. I don't want to go free. I love my wife and my children.
I don't want to leave them. I want to be with them. So I
choose, instead of going off to be a free man, I choose to
be a slave to my master. so I can be with my master, so
I can be with my wife and my children. And if a person chose
to do that, they were a bond slave. That's what a bond slave
is. And the way everybody knew that that slave, he wasn't a
slave being forced to do this against his will. He wasn't working
off a debt. The way everybody knew he was
a willing servant, he was a bond slave, is his master would take
him down to the town square. They had a post or something
there, and they put his ear up against it, and his master would
take an awl, He bore a hole in that. You girls got your ears
pierced. Remember you got your ears pierced
and they do that, you know, and you're little and you scream.
This took a fall. He climbed that thing and bore
a hole in his ear. And he'd endure that. He just
endured it. He didn't pull away, he endured
it. Because he loved his wife. Because he loved his children.
Because he was a willing bond slave. Well, this is what the
Savior said to his father. He said, I'll be your bond slave.
I will willingly come. He's the master of the house.
He's the prince of glory. And he said, I love my wife.
I love my children. I love my father. I'll be his
willing servant so I can redeem my wife so I can redeem my bride
so I can have my children. All those that the father's given
me, I will willingly be your servant so I can do everything
that's necessary to have them with me forever. Christ, our
savior became a bond slave. Now, there was a matter of debt
here, but it wasn't his debt, was it? No, it was the debt of
his wife, the debt of his people, the sin debt of his bride. And
he willingly came and became a servant to take that debt away
so he could have her with him forever. And just like that bond
slave was pierced through his ear, Christ our Savior came willingly,
didn't he? He willingly went to the cross.
But more than this, his ear was pierced, wasn't it? He was pierced. Oh, how he was pierced. And we'll
get to that in a minute, how he suffered. But the point is
here that he willingly came to be the servant, to redeem his
bride, so he could be with her forever. And when he came incarnate,
he didn't get heaven sent. Our Lord Jesus patiently endured
everything that was required so that he could establish righteousness
for his people. Verse 7, he says, Lo, I come,
and the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to
do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. The Lord Jesus kept the law for
thirty-three and a half years. We read he lived about thirty-three
and a half years as a man. His public ministry lasted about
three and a half years, and he patiently endured that whole
time. It's hard for us to imagine the
patience it took to endure the contradiction of sinners against
himself. But he did. He always patiently endured it.
He never rushed things. He never got ahead of things.
He just waited until all things were accomplished. He did not
give up the ghost until everything was accomplished. He didn't give
it up one second early. He waited. All that suffering,
the suffering of living as a man, the suffering of the cross, He
patiently endured it all and didn't give up the ghost not
one second earlier so that his people would be made righteous. I know our Savior died to be
our Savior. Our Lord died to be our Savior.
But there's something we can learn from that example, isn't
there? Not to rush things and just wait. Just wait on the Lord's
time. He'll do it perfectly. He'll
do it perfectly. Our Savior endured all of His
life. You imagine how He had to be
patient to endure being around men like us. He patiently endured
that. But during all that time, He
was not silent, was He? No, He was a man of prayer. At
the end of verse 1, He says, He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. Our Savior was a man of constant
prayer, and He knew He would always be heard. He patiently
waited. He knew God's will would be done.
There was never a doubt in his mind about that. He knew God's
will would be done. But he still prayed, didn't he?
He still prayed. He still talked to his father.
One time, he prayed publicly. And he said he was praying publicly
for this reason, so everybody standing around would know the
father always heard him. Then he went to the garden to
pray. As his body suffered, just the thought, of being made sin,
the thought of becoming the sacrifice for sin. And he suffered, his
body suffered, but he patiently waited and prayed that his father
would strengthen him. Now, the man, Jesus, needed that
strength. God needed no strength, but this
is the God man. And the man needed to be strengthened,
to endure this, to be able to accomplish this salvation. And
he patiently waited. And the father heard him, didn't
he? Sent angels to help him. We read of the Savior spending
whole nights in prayer. I don't know if any of you suffer
with, I don't have it bad, but I suffer sometimes with a touch
of insomnia. To our shame, I think I've got
a cure for it. Just try to pray. You'll be asleep
in 20 minutes, five minutes, who knows? Our Savior spent whole
nights Now, we don't know the words
of those prayers. None of them are recorded in scripture for
us to know, but we can be certain of the subject of those prayers.
The subject of those prayers was his work of the redemption
of his people. He patiently prayed all night
about it. And then he patiently prayed and talked to his father
from the cross. You think of the patience in
the midst of this horrible, unimaginable suffering, You think of the patience
and the compassion of the Savior. You say, Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they're doing. Father, into thy hand
I commit my spirit. And the Father heard, because
he always does. The Savior waited patiently,
didn't he? And he never waited in vain.
And you know what? His people won't either. You
will never wait upon the Lord in vain. Just call on Him and
wait. You'll never wait on Him in vain.
Because of who Christ is and what He accomplished for His
people, the Father will always hear His people. Now, if you
don't know this already, you'll find it out. The Lord won't answer
quickly. Seldom will He answer quickly.
But He will hear. He'll hear the cries of His people,
so be patient. and keep crying for Christ's
sake, knowing that for Christ's sake will be heard because of
his patience, what he accomplished for his people. He patiently
accomplished all the righteousness of his people and made them righteous,
made them accepted of the father. Second, this goes right with
that. The savior patiently endured the cross. He patiently endured
all the suffering of the cross until his father was satisfied
and the debt was paid in full. Verse 2 says, He brought me up
also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay. Now at
the time here that David was writing, jails were just pits. I mean, they were just big holes
in the ground. Like, you know, you see in a
dungeon in a movie. Well, that's what a pit is, only
much, much worse. It's just a deep hole in the
ground. And the only opening is at the very top of it. The
opening at the top of the hole is the door and the window. The
only door, the only window. That opening was just open to
the weather, rain and snow and everything came down in there
making the bottom of that pit just a muddy mess. The bottom
of that pit was never cleaned. So it's just a muddy, filthy
mess, just a combination of mud and human waste. Eventually,
that muck, it just got thick. I mean, the prisoners, I'm sure,
didn't have boots, but you just walking out in boots, pick your
foot up, it'll just pull your boot right off. Pull your sandals
off, you're just stuck down in there. You couldn't climb out
of the floor just because of the muck of it just holding you
down. The walls were tall, straight up, slimy. Even if you could
get on good footing on the floor, you could never climb up those
walls. They're just slimy, gross. The Lord describes this pit as
a horrible pit. That word horrible means noisy,
noisy destruction. So the Savior says he's in a
slimy, muddy, corruptible pit that's like a loud tornado of
filth and destruction. Now, when did the Son of God
have to endure something so awful, be in this awful pit? Well, first
he endured it as a man. You imagine And we can't really
imagine this, but the Son of God, the Son of God, humiliating
Himself to appear as a man, to appear in the likeness of human
flesh. And if that wasn't humiliating
enough, He had to live among sinners, surrounded by sinners
in this cesspool of sin and corruption. Just how horrible that was for
Him. And he lived in the noise, the destruction of the noise
of man's false religion, constantly hearing the noise of self-righteousness. He never missed a Saturday to
tend to. The noise of the self-righteousness
of that had it grieve his soul. The only example I can think
of is take one of our little children who are used to the
comforts of home, a nice bed, good food, good roof over their
head and suddenly forcing them to live in a sewer all by themselves. All of the suffering he endured
as a man. But second and most importantly,
Christ suffered in this pit when he was made sin at Calvary. Look
at verse 12. He says, for innumerable evils
have encompassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Now the father made Christ guilty
of the sin of his people. When he made him sin, he made
him guilty of the sin of his people. That's this innumerable
evils he talks about. Now I think about just my individual
sins, just mine. They're innumerable. Now you
take that innumerable sin of a host that no man can count. That's the innumerable sin, the
innumerable evils that took hold upon our Lord. That's the weight
of the sin our Savior endured. And it was unimaginable. Listen carefully. The Savior
did not only bear the weight of all that sin. Christ the Savior
bore the guilt of all that sin. Now he never sinned, but he was
absolutely guilty of sin. The sin of his people is now
his sin. You'll notice he doesn't say,
the sin of my people, which was just legally transferred to my
account, has taken hold upon me. He doesn't say that, does
he? He didn't say Frank's sin has
taken hold upon me. He didn't say Earl's sin. He said, my sin, mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me. How the Savior patiently endured
being made sin. Because if he didn't, it could
not be taken away. He patiently endured. He endured
the guilt of sin. He endured everything that sin
is with the exception of committing it. He felt the shame of it. He said, I'm not able to look
up. He's one with His Father, but He said, I'm not able to
look up to Him, because He felt the shame of sin. He endured
the justice against that sin, and He endured it patiently,
waiting until the Father's justice was satisfied. And He didn't
come down from the cross not one second earlier. Not one. You know, prisoners down there
in that pit, with the slimy walls and the muck at the bottom of
it, they could never have climbed out of that pit, of their own
power, they could never escape that pit. Lord Jesus Christ is
God. He had the power to come down
from the cross. Those Pharisees said, come down from the cross
and we'll believe you. Come down. Well, he could have
done it. He had the power to do it, but
he couldn't do it. Not if he's going to save his
people from their sins, he couldn't. patiently endured all of that,
the suffering, the mocking, he endured it all patiently until
justice was satisfied and his people would be saved. He patiently
suffered everything God had for the sin laid upon him until he
drank the dregs of the cup of God's fury dry so that there's
none left for his people. The reason he patiently did that
is so he could be with his bride forever. Remember, he became
the bond slave because he wouldn't leave his bride. He must be with
her forever. He took the damnation. He took
the dregs of the cup of God's fury and drank it dry so there's
not a drop left for her. So she can be with him forever.
And the father accepted that sacrifice. He never had pleasure
in all those Old Testament animal sacrifices, but he had pleasure
in the sacrifice of his son. Father was pleased, so he lifted
him up out of that pit. When justice was satisfied, he
lifted him out of that pit. He raised him up from the grave,
and he exalted him on his right hand in glory. Look here at the
end of verse 2, he says, He brought me up also out of a horrible
pit, out of the miry clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, and
he established my goings. Now he's established as King
of Kings and Lord of Lords. And now he can say, verse three,
as he sits there on the right hand of the Father, he can say,
be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help
me. This is the Savior making intercession
for his people. Because when he says me, he doesn't
mean just him personally sitting there in glory. He means my body,
my people. Make haste to deliver them from
going down into the pit because you found a ransom. Because I'm
the ransom, I went there for them, and here I sit, making
intercession for them. And His people can make the exact
same plea. Deliver me from going down in
the pit, because Christ is my ransom. Because He went there
for me, deliver me for Christ's sake. And the Father will always
hear that plea. He is so pleased with His Son,
He will always hear that plea, deliver me for Christ's sake.
Because Christ satisfied justice for His people. Then thirdly,
after the Savior patiently endured, in verse three, he enjoys the
victory. He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto
our God. Many shall see it in fear and
shall trust in the Lord. Now here, this is the son of
God says he's, he's put a new song in my mouth. Now God's eternal. So how can he sing a new song?
Well, he sings a new song by singing that same old, old song
of redemption in a new way, in a new way. Salvation's eternal. Christ our Savior knows that.
He was there in the covenant of grace. He was there when it
was done, when it was accomplished. He knows he's the lamb slain
for the foundation of the world. His people have always been saved
in him. But after the cross, After the resurrection, after
the Father lifted him out of that pit and brought him back
to glory, now salvation has been accomplished in time. And there's
a man in glory to prove it. There's a man in glory to prove
it. Now, the Son of God has always been in heaven. Even here on
earth, He said He was in heaven, didn't He? And He came here to
this earth from heaven. But He was in heaven as God.
He wasn't in heaven as a man, he was in heaven as God. The
Father prepared him a body in the womb of the virgin. And he
was born in that body. Born of a woman, not born of
the seed of Adam, so he'd partake in Adam's sin. Born of the seed
of a woman. And in that body, he established
righteousness for his people. In that body, he obeyed God's
law perfectly. And in that body, he satisfied
justice for his people. It was in that body, he was sacrificed. In that body, he suffered and
died. In that resurrected body, he
went back to glory. He sat down because the work
was finished. And now, for the first time,
there's been a man in glory. I know other believers are already
there. Abel, Abraham, Elijah. I know they were all there. But
the book of Revelation tells us they weren't there in a body,
were they? No, they're there in a spirit. They'll get their
body in the resurrection. They're there in spirit. I know
that, but not in a body. But the Lord Jesus is in heaven
as a man sitting upon the right hand of God because he's won
the victory. He's accomplished the salvation
of his people. And that man is in glory as the
high priest of his people. He didn't just enter into glory
for himself. He entered there as the guarantee of the salvation
and the glorification of His people. He entered there as the
guarantee of the salvation of everyone for whom He died. And
He says here, many will see Him. That many is all the host of
God's elect that no man can count. They're all going to see Him.
They're going to trust Him. They're going to join Him in
singing this song. And this song is a song. Now, it includes all the blessings
of faith in Christ. Verse four, he says, blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not
the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Who is the blessed man? It's the man that trusts the
Lord. I can say this without fear of contradiction to everybody
here. If you trust Christ to be all of your salvation, You're
blessed. You're blessed of God. If you
won't turn aside to man's religious lies, that religion that pumps
up the flesh and gives pride to the flesh, God's blessed you. God's blessed you. But you won't
turn aside from that because you've got faith in Christ. If
you can't find any hope in this message that Christ died for
everybody, if you'll just accept Him, if you'll just decide to
accept Him, you'll be saved. If you can't find any hope, any
peace in that message because you find you can't do anything
for yourself, but you need Christ to do it all, you're blessed
of God. If you can't find any hope, when
some false prophet tells you, you know, just take the first
step toward Jesus and He'll do the rest. If you can't find any
hope in that, you're blessed of God. You think about that
poor prisoner down there in the bottom of the pit. Some Pharisee
comes up there. Get up and looks down there.
He said, now you take the first step and I'll go ahead and bring
the rest of the way up. What good does that do that poor
fellow down there? He can't take the first step. But you're blessed of God. If
all of your hope is in Christ, that he did it all. He paid it all. He did everything
that God required. and I'm complete in Him. I've
got no other hope, no other plea, but Christ. You are blessed of
God. God has truly saved you, given
you a blessing of His grace. This song goes on, verse five.
He says, many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which
thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward. They cannot
be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and
speak of them, there more than can be numbered. Now this new
song got a whole lot of verses. There's a verse for every work
of God. There's so many verses, I can't
even speak of them all. They're too many, too many to
mention. That's why we're going to spend eternity singing. But
let me just give you a few verses that I know are in this song. There's a verse in this song
for each part of God's work in saving sinners. There's a verse
of God's electing love. Almighty God chose to save somebody. And He didn't choose to save
good people. He chose to save sinners. There's a verse of that.
Oh, what glory that God would choose to save sinners. There's
a verse of justification in Christ that sinners are made not guilty
in Him so that they have never sinned. There's a verse of sanctification
in Christ. We've been made holy just like
Christ. There's a verse of God's calling
his people out through the preaching of the gospel. They hear the
gospel and he gives them faith. And they don't hear just the
voice of a preacher. They hear God. They see Christ
in the word and they believe. God gave them that faith. There's
a verse of the new birth where God causes a new, holy, righteous
man to be born in his people, born with a seed of the word
of God. And then there's a verse of God's keeping grace that keeps
his people to the end and will glorify them with Christ so that
not one of them will be lost. See, this song just goes on and
on and on. The glory of God found in salvation
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And then there's a verse, he
says here, thy thoughts which are to us. There's a verse of
God's thoughts for his people. He inclines his ear when we cry. Almighty God inclines Himself,
lowers Himself to hear the cries of His people. Almighty God takes
the time to think about His people. Here's the one ruling the universe,
and He takes time to think of His people. If you look over
in Jeremiah 29, I can show you what His thoughts are. When you
read that, you think, I wonder what God thinks about me. That might cause me to worry
if God spends too much time thinking about me, he might change his
mind and cast me out. But Jeremiah tells us this is God's thoughts
of his people. Jeremiah 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts that
I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. God's thoughts of his people
are thoughts of peace, thoughts of salvation, thoughts of an
expected end, glorification with Christ because God thinks upon
His people in His Son. The only thing God thinks about
His people is what Christ has done for us, what He's done in
us, the victory over sin that He's won for His people. That's salvation in Christ. That's
what He's accomplished for His people. But if his people are
going to be saved, if his bride is going to be with him forever,
somebody's got to tell him about it. Somebody's got to preach
Christ to them so they know him, so they'll come to them. And
I can tell you who that preacher is. That preacher is the Lord
Jesus Christ who patiently, patiently teaches his people everything
they need to know. I was talking to a man today.
He had coached a I don't know the junior high, what age they
were, but girls basketball team. Right now, he's just so patient. And his friend told me, yeah,
you ought to see him when he's coaching. His blood pressure
is dangerous. And he said, that's true. That's
true. He said, I tell these girls,
and tell these girls, and tell these girls, and tell these girls.
This is what you do. This is what you do. This is
what you do. And in practice, they do it. They do it. They
do just exactly what I tell them to do. And they get out there
on the court, and it's like they've never met me. And they don't
do anything I tell them. And he said, it takes more patience
the more I go. I just can't do it. I thought that's me. As an insult
to middle school girls everywhere, that's me. How often do I go out in the
world and act like I've never met the Lord? I've never heard
from Him, never read His Word. Yet our Savior patiently, patiently
teaches His people everything we need to know. And everything
we need to know is Him. Here's His message. I've stolen
this outline from our Lord before. Here's what He's preached. Here's
His outline, verse 9. I preach righteousness in the
great congregation. No, I've not refrained my lips.
Oh Lord, thou knowest. Here's his outline. I've not
hid thy righteousness within my heart. I've declared thy faithfulness. I've declared thy salvation.
I've not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the
great congregation. Christ teaches his people. Now
I know he uses pastors and elders to do it, but only Christ teaches
the heart. And He teaches His people everything
they need to know. And it's always Him. He says
here, He preaches righteousness. Well, whose righteousness does
He preach here? He says, I've not hid thy righteousness. He's not hid the righteousness
of God. He teaches us that He is our
righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our
righteousness. This is the righteousness that
God will accept. He'll accept us in Him. And then
He declares thy faithfulness. He declares His own faithfulness,
His patience to do everything that's required to save His people
from their sin. It's not our faithfulness. Now,
we should be a faithful people. We should be faithful. But our
salvation is not found in our faithfulness. It's found in His
faithfulness. And then He declares salvation.
And when He declares salvation, all He does, He just declares
Himself Salvation is not a steps 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, you're saved.
Salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a person. Remember that
body? The Father prepared for our Savior.
He was born in that body. When he was 8 days old, his mother
and his foster father brought him to the temple to be circumcised,
fulfilling the law, fulfilling righteousness. And that old man
Simeon saw an 8 day old baby. And he said, now let me depart
in peace. Mine eyes have seen by salvation." Here He is. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you'd have it, look to Him. Go to Him. Then He declares God's
loving kindness. And when He does, this is what
He declares. It's not that we love God, but that He loved us. And here's how we know it. Look
to Christ. He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
That's how we know God loves sinners. He sent His Son to redeem
them. Then He declares God's truth.
And when He declares God's truth, all He does is declare Himself.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the truth of God. He is the truth
that shows us how God can save sinners and still be God, still
be just and holy. Christ declares righteousness.
He declares the righteous character of God. Here's how God can be
righteous and still save sinners. It's in the person and work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we need to know about
who God is and how God saves sinners is found in Christ. He must teach us of who He is. Brethren, today is the day of
salvation. Today is the day that the Lord
is still waiting patiently to bring all of his people to himself.
I can't close without this warning. There is a day. There's a day
coming. I don't know when it is, but it's coming. When the
Savior's patience will wear out. Verse 14. Let them be ashamed
and confounded together to seek after my soul to destroy it.
Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward
of their shame, but say unto me, Aha! Aha! Now you can't read
those verses and honestly say God loves everybody and Christ
wants to save everybody. Can't say that. I know that appeals
to man's nature, but it does not agree with the Word of God.
Christ the Savior is praying against somebody here, isn't
he? He's praying against somebody. He's praying against those who
refuse to believe on Look over Psalm 69. He's praised that they'd
be ashamed, that they'd be found without a sacrifice, without
a covering, that their guilt be revealed. He prays they'd
be driven away from God. Look what he says here, Psalm
69, verse 20. Reproach hath broken my heart,
and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity,
and there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me
also gall for my meat, 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. Make it so that
they can't see me. Make their loins continually
to shake. Fill them with fear. Pour out thy indignation upon
them. Let thy wrathful anger take hold upon them. Let their
habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents. for
they persecute him whom thou hast smitten. They talk to the
grief of those whom thou hast wounded, add iniquity into their
iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness. He's
not praying to everybody be saved, is he? Let them not come into
thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the
book of the living, and not be written within the righteous. That's serious matter. The Lord
praying against someone But today is the day of salvation. But
God's patience with sinners won't last forever, will it? It won't
last forever. I said this Sunday when we preach, we must preach urgently. This
is an urgent matter. Come to Christ. Right now, right
where you sit. And if you do, look back in our
text, Psalm 40. Here, we'll close with this,
the Savior's prayer. for his people. Verse 16. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. But I am poor and
needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tearing, O my God. The Savior says here, I am poor
and needy. Be my help. Deliver me. Tearing not, O my
God. Now at Calvary, that was Christ,
wasn't it? He was made poor and needy. He
called himself a worm and no man. He said, I'm not even worthy
to be called a man. That's what he suffered for his
people. But Christ isn't in the pit anymore, is he? He's not
suffering anymore. No, he's risen from the dead
to never die again. So who's he talking about here?
He's talking about his people. He's making intercession for
his people. He is so much one with his people when he prays
for them He says me. Now this is our Savior still
patiently interceding for the salvation of his people. Nothing's
changed from the beginning of the song. The Father still always
hears it. Then all of those people will
be saved. Christ here prays that everyone
that seek the Lord find it, that they find joy in salvation. Everyone
who seeks Christ is going to be glad and rejoice because they
will be saved. They'll be saved because that
is the Savior's prayer for them. And the Father always will hear
the Son. So they will continually say,
the Lord be magnified. Let the Lord be magnified because
he is all my salvation. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for recording these precious words of our Savior. How we thank
you for him. How we thank you for his person,
his character, his love, his mercy, his pity. How we thank
you for his righteousness that makes us accepted. How we thank
you for his blood that cleanses us from all sin. Father, I pray
that you would reveal Christ the Savior to each heart here
tonight. Don't let us leave here tonight without faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to seek him. we seek after him, that we hunger
and thirst after him, and that seeking we may find him according
to thy will, my goodness and mercy and grace to thy people.
Cause us to leave here with that great song on our lips. Let the
Lord be continually magnified. It's in his precious name we
pray and give thanks. After Mike leads us in singing
a closing hymn, if some of you men before you leave would set
out the tables and the vestibules so we could have our celebration
Sunday, I would greatly appreciate it.