Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 31. The title of the message this evening,
The Substitute Speaks. Now, we know it was David who
wrote these words down on paper, but this is Christ, the sinner's
substitute, speaking through David. I don't want us to just
hear the words that the Savior says, the substitute says. I
want us to listen to what He's saying, to hear what He's saying.
And if the Spirit will enable us to do it, we'll find comfort
for our souls. As we go through this, I think
you'll be able to see clearly. You'll be able to hear the Savior's
love and care for His people as He's suffering for them. These
are His words, the thoughts of His heart as He suffers and dies
for His people. And now He's on the throne to
guarantee they have everything that He prayed for them. So let's
look at this, beginning at verse 4, the substitute speaks. He
says, pull me out of the net that they have laid privilege
for me, for thou art my strength. Now, the Savior talks like he's
in a trap that's been set for him, like a bird or an animal
that gets caught in a trap. And I suppose, humanly speaking,
he was. The Jews had set a trap for him.
They'd set many traps for him. This one finally worked. But
we know really everything that's happening is happening under
his direct control. No one ever did anything to the
Lord against his will. Nobody ever did anything against
his will to him or to anybody else. Everything that happened
at Calvary was happening according to God's eternal purpose. They
were just carrying out God's purpose. But the enemies of God
didn't know that, did they? They thought they had finally
taken the Lord and everything that was happening here was as
a result of the smart trap that they had laid. You know, all
throughout our Lord's earthly ministry, Satan and man had tried
to take the Lord by force, didn't they? But they never could do
it. Every time they tried, he just passed through their midst.
But now they thought they had taken the Lord not by force,
but with their guile and subtlety. And that's the way Satan always
works, isn't it? He came and deceived Eve with
subtlety. Same thing happened here. They
thought they'd set up this trap in subtlety. But in reality,
Christ didn't go to the cross because He was trapped. No, He
went there in His power to save. He went there because He had
the power to save. He wasn't held on the cross because He
was in a trap. He wasn't held on the cross by
Roman nails. He was held there by His love
for His people and His power to save them. Even as He suffers,
He cries for deliverance. Now, the Father did deliver Him,
didn't He? He did deliver Him in mercy.
He didn't deliver him until he had satisfied all of God's justice
against the sin that was laid upon him. Christ was delivered
from their trap because he finished all the work of redemption. He
says here, Thou art my strength. The Savior had divine strength. He had the strength of God to
be able to finish this great work. The only person who could
finish this great work of redemption is God in human flesh. And he
did it. God had to do this work of redemption
because it's bought at too high a price. It had to be the blood
of God was shed for the redemption of His people. Now that's what
the Savior says. Now do we hear Him? If we do,
we'll draw some comfort for our souls. His people have a sure
hope of deliverance too because Christ our Savior was delivered.
His people have a sure hope of deliverance. All the traps that
our enemies set for us will be delivered from them, will be
delivered from every trouble, every trial, every snare, because
the Lord is our strength. And we ought to be able to rest
in that, shouldn't we? He's already delivered us from our greatest
problem. Here as he suffers and dies, he's delivered his people
from the greatest problem we'll ever have, the problem of our
sin. He's redeemed us from our sin. He set us free from the
power of sin. Now I reckon He's able to set
us free from the power of every other enemy we ever come across
too, don't you think? We have a sure hope of deliverance
because our Savior was delivered in justice. All right, verse
5, He says, Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed
me, O Lord God of truth. Now these are the final words
of the Savior from the cross. He said, Father, into thy hand
I commit my spirit. He gave up the ghost. These are
His final words. And he gave up the ghost in confidence. He said, Father, I commit my
soul to thee. And he had complete and utter
confidence the father would accept him because Christ knew he was
the perfect sacrifice. His sacrifice had put away the
sin of all the people that he came to save. There's no reason
that the father wouldn't accept him. God is holy. He will always accept righteousness. And the sacrifice of Christ made
his people righteous. So we will always be accepted
in Him. And if we're listening to what
the Savior is saying, we can draw some comfort here. These
are the dying words of our Lord, but they're the living words
of a believer. These are the living words of
a believer. Into thine hand I commit my spirit. That's how we live,
committing our all to Him. It's up to Him to save us. It's
up to Him to keep us. It's up to Him to bring us to
glory. Our soul is committed to Him. That's how the believer
lives. Committing all to Christ. These
are words to live by. They're words to die by too.
We who believe have eternal life because our substitute died.
So we can face the death of these bodies in the same confidence
our substitute faced the death of his body. In absolute confidence. We can face the death of these
bodies in confidence because Christ died for us. The death
of a believer is a blessed event. We looked at this a few weeks
ago. Blessed are all those who die in the Lord. Is that such
a blessing to die in the Lord? Why? Because if we die in the
Lord, we leave this awful, horrible place of sin and death and darkness
and go be with Him. There can't be a greater blessing
for a human being than that, to leave this place and go be
with the Lord. If we believe Christ, our dying
words can be, Father, I am, I commit myself. That was David's confidence. Now David's the one who wrote
these words, Christ is the one who said them, but that was still
yet David's confidence on his deathbed, wasn't it? His confidence
was the Lord had redeemed him by an everlasting covenant. He
said, this is all my salvation. This is all my hope. And it's
sure. And it'll be ours, too, if we
believe on Christ. There is no better reason for
confidence than redemption in Christ. All right, verse six. He says, I have hated them that
regard lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord. Now only the Lord
Jesus Christ could say this in truth. Now, we hate But let's
admit it, we don't hate sin like we should. We trust the Lord. Now we do, by God's grace, we
trust the Lord, but we don't trust him like we should. Christ
the Savior did. Now, he says here that he hates
those that have hated those that regard lying vanities. Can that
do away with Jesus loves everybody? No, he doesn't. He hates somebody,
doesn't he? He hates those who sin. He hates
those who lie on God, who lie on themselves, who will not trust
in the Lord. They're hated of the Lord. But
He loves His people. Now, where can we find some assurance
in what our Savior said here? Well, our comfort is this, that
the believer is in Christ. Whatever it is He did, the believer
did in Him because He's our representative. The Lord Jesus Christ hated sin. He's perfectly holy. We don't
hate sin like we should. He hated it for us. He was perfect
for us. He hated sin so much, he gave
himself to be a sacrifice to put the sin of his people away,
to give his people perfect life and perfect faith. He always
trusted God. No, we trust God, but not like
we should. He did. He did. He trusted God for us and gives
us perfect faith so that we'll never perish. We'll never be
hated of God. All right, verse seven. He says,
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. For thou hast considered
my trouble. Thou hast known my soul in adversities. And hast not shut me up into
the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a large
room. Now, these are the words of the Savior as he's suffering
on the cross, as he's suffering. We just can't imagine how he
suffered. We just know the very tip of the iceberg, what he suffered.
And in that suffering, he said, I will be glad and rejoice in
thy mercy. Now, remember, it wasn't God's
mercy to set Christ free from the cross. He was made sin. Father turned
his back upon him, he didn't have a drop of mercy. He had
all of God's justice. But it was also God's justice
that set him free. The death of Christ satisfied
God's justice. The death of Christ paid the
sin debt. And God's justice said he must
go free. He went free in justice. So the mercy that he is rejoicing
in as he suffers on the cross is mercy for his people. I told
you as we listen to what he says, we're going to hear his love
and care and compassion for his people. As he suffers, he's rejoicing
in mercy for his people. He's rejoicing in the mercy that
he's purchasing by his death for his people. He said the father's
considered his trouble. He considered everything that
Christ suffered as enough. That's enough to pay the debt.
That's enough to redeem your people. So the Father set the
Savior in a large place. A large place is a well-defended
place. It's a large, flat place where
you can never be defended by your enemies again. A lot of
times when Scripture speaks of trouble, it's talking about being
in a narrow, straight place where you're just being squeezed to
death. That's how trouble and trial
feels. It just feels like you're having a life crushed out of
you. But here, all that pressure's removed. He set it in a large
place. The Father set Christ in a large
place where there's no more fear, no more worry, no more crushing,
no more threat of enemies when he set him upon the throne of
glory, where no one can question his royal authority. He set him
in a large place when he gave him a name which is above every
name. And one day, every knee's going
to bow to that name. Now here's our comfort in times
of trouble. The same Lord who considered
the suffering of his son considers the trouble of his people. When you're in trouble, he knows. He knows. And he will have mercy
on his people for Christ's sake. Father, when you're in trouble,
do not turn his back on you. He turned his back on your substitute,
so he'll not turn his back on you. He'll have mercy on his
people for Christ's sake because he's well pleased with Christ
the Savior. And he will eventually deliver his people and set them
in a large place because we cannot perish. God's people cannot perish. Christ already died for them.
Mercy is coming. Christ purchased it. Mercy deliverance
is coming because the substitute died. All right, verse nine. He continues with this same thought.
He says, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye is consumed with grief,
yea, my soul and my belly. And we know our substitute didn't
receive any mercy from his father as he was hanging upon the tree.
What he experienced was pure suffering, pure suffering. He
suffered so much trouble. He said, trouble is all I can
see. Trouble has consumed my eye. Trouble is all I can see. Suffering had filled his soul
and filled his belly. It was just trouble filled his
whole being. So it's all he could see and
all he could feel. But yet he was in the end accepted
in justice because when his suffering was over, that sin was put away. And we'll find comfort for our
souls if we hear what the Savior says. The Lord will have mercy
on His people for Christ's sake. In the darkest of hours, when
you can't see anything. If you can see anything, all
you see is trouble. You just cannot see any way out. You don't see any way that the
Lord is ever going to bring good out of this. When you're in so
much darkness, when you're being just squished by the turmoil,
and you cannot feel anything but trouble, it filled your whole
being. Just trust. Just trust in the
Lord. Trust in His mercy. Trust in
His promise. Trust in His grace. God will
have mercy upon His people. Christ earned it for them. You know, a lot of times we feel
like I'm in trouble, this darkness, this awful situation. The Lord's just given me what
I deserve. The Lord has mercy on His people. The Lord doesn't stop us from
going into trouble because we live right. The Lord doesn't
deliver us from trial because we've, you know, finally made
up for whatever it is bad we did. No, the Lord delivers His
people because He's merciful. He gives us what we do not deserve.
The Lord will be merciful to His people. You can trust Him
because Christ earned it. He purchased it for His people.
And we will have times of trouble, but they'll be turned into victory
because of the Lord's mercy. There's going to be times of
sadness and weeping, but the Lord's going to make us glad
and his mercy. There's gonna be times we have
sorrow and we're brokenhearted and we think it will never end. My brother and my sister will
have joy again because of God's mercy. He has mercy upon his
people. Trust him. All right, verse 10,
he says, for my life is spent with grief and my years with
sighing. My strength faileth because of
mine iniquity and my bones are consumed. Our Savior's life was
spent in grief. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we just can't enter into
all the grief that He endured. He had to become what we are
to be our substitute. God had to become a man. He had to appear in human flesh
to be our substitute, to redeem us. We can't imagine the grief
that that entailed, what grief He suffered. Every day He was
a man of sorrows. Sometimes just think about the
Son of God walking amongst us. Of course He was full of sorrow. Of course He mourned over the
sin and the unbelief that were just all around Him. He's a man
of sorrows. But that was especially true
at Calvary, wasn't it? Our Savior mourned over going
to the cross. He mourned over the thought of
being made sin for his people, so much so he thought he'd die
right there. He didn't think his fleshly body could take it. But yet he went, didn't he? He
went in joy, despising the cross, despising the shame for the joy
that was set before him to redeem his people. And if we'll listen
to the man of sorrows, we'll find some comfort for our souls
here. We who believe, We mourn over
sin. Not as much as we should, but
we do. We mourn over sin. We mourn over our sin. We mourn
over the sin in the world around us. Think what a wonderful place
it would be to live without sin. We mourn over these things. But
we don't mourn over this sin like somebody doesn't have any
hope. Christ took the sins of his people away. He paid for
them. He put the penalty of it away.
He put the power of it away. It can never kill His people.
Christ was made sin for His people. Now that's not just poetic language. That's real. That actually happened. The Savior says here, My strength
faileth because of mine iniquity. He died because of what He called
mine iniquity. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ had
no sin. He did no sin. He never committed
a sin, but he was made sin. He was made sin. The sin of his
people became his. It was his price to pay. And
thank God he had the precious blood to pay it. He paid that
sin debt, took it away. He took the sin of his people
away from them. So that sin can never damn his
people. So, somewhat like our Savior,
we'll go through this life, men and women of sorrow, men and
women of mourning. We're going to have a lot of
sighing, a lot of grief in this life. Jan and I were getting
ready to come over here this evening, and we sighed just in
stereo. I said, you hear that? We're
just... In this life of sighing, and
grief and sin and death is over, there's going to be joy in the
morning. There's going to be joy in the morning. We'll be
able to say, just like our Savior did, into thy hand, I commit
my spirit. Close our eyes and say goodbye
to this world of sin. Open them in glory and behold
the face of our substitute. I reckon we won't remember the
sign anymore, will we? All right, verse 11. I was a reproach among all mine
enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine
acquaintance. They that did see me without
fled from me. How the enemies of our Lord mocked
him as he suffered. It's horrible for us to read
about. It was horrible for him to endure.
But I'll tell you what was worse than that. All of his friends
perished. Remember when Judas came with
that band to betray him? He came up and kissed the Lord.
You know what the Lord said to him? To Judas now! You know what
he said to Judas? Friend. Betrayed from a kiss by his friend. Then Peter, who swore he'd never
leave, Peter swore he'd die with him and all the other disciples.
They ran away just as fast as they could, didn't they? And
left the Lord alone. The sheep fled and the shepherd
was smitten as their substitute. And you know our Savior would
not have had it any other way. Peter couldn't have gone to die
with them. We'd have given Peter a little bit of credit, wouldn't
we? No, he had to suffer alone. But that betrayal still hurt
him. I don't read him ever responding. As he hung there on the cross,
I don't read of him responding to his enemies mocking him, do
you? He just turned a deaf ear to them and that's all. He heard
Peter denying him. Just look at Peter. The look
on the master's face made Peter go out and weep bitterly, didn't
he? Look over at Psalm 55. Psalm 55 is a psalm that David
wrote about a man named Ahithophel. Ahithophel was a close advisor,
wise advisor, dear, dear friend of David's who ended up betraying
him. But this is also Christ speaking through David. Psalm
55 verse 12. For it was not an enemy that
reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that
hated me that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have
hidden myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company. And that's the
one who betrayed him. That's the one who ran away from
him and left him alone. And it hurt to have his friends
betray him like that. But our Lord endured it willingly.
Still yet, after they betrayed him, after they ran away from
him, what did he do? He set his face like a fin to
go to the cross and die for them. What a friend. Well, here's some
comfort for us from the words of our Savior. We shouldn't be
surprised if the same thing happens to us, happened to our Master,
shouldn't we? When our friends forsake us, they just utterly
shock us at the things that they're doing and saying. Take some comfort. our Savior considers. He knows.
He knows it's happening. He knows what it feels like.
He's touched with the feeling of our infirmity, and He's able
to comfort us. And He will, too. You know why
He will? Because the believer always has a friend that sticks
closer than a brother. He will never leave us or forsake
us. What a friend. So enjoy your
friends. I hope We all be a friend to
one another. Enjoy your friends, but trust
in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. He'll never
let you down. Even recently, I've seen that happen. Don't be that guy. Don't be that friend that betrays
your friend. Be a better friend than that.
And when your friends aren't, trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. All right, verse 12. I am forgotten
as a dead man out of mind. I'm like a broken vessel. You
know, as soon as our Lord was buried, doesn't it seem to you
like His disciples just forgot? They forgot everything He taught
them. They forgot everything He said to them. How many times did the
Lord tell them, I'm going to go to Jerusalem and die? Yet,
they were surprised when He did. And He told them, I'm going to
die, but I'm going to rise again the third day. They should have
been expecting it, but they didn't. They thought, well, I'm all on
my own now. The master's died. We're all
on our own. They were so disappointed after they'd been with him all
that time, three and a half years. They were so disappointed. He
didn't set up an earthly kingdom. They just thought he was going
to set them free from Rome. It seemed like they forgot the
master. They forgot everything he taught them. They thought
it was like a broken vessel. That word means something that's
useless or void. They said, well, what was the
point of these last three and a half years? It was all useless.
There's no point to it. When really the death of Christ
is the most useful thing a sinner can ever have. If he died as
our substitute. All right, that's shameful. If
we're honest with ourselves, we can identify with the disciples
there, can't we? That shameful lack of faith.
Well, then where can we get some comfort from what the Savior
says? Well, I have two words of comfort. Those disciples did
forgive, but the Lord freely forgave them. What was the harshest rebuke
he gave to poor Peter? That one who'd betrayed him,
not betrayed him, denied him. As the Savior said, Peter, do
you love me?" That one who had denied him, he said, you preach
the gospel. You feed my sheep. He entrusted
the feeding of his sheep to this man. He freely forgave him. Oh, there's forgiveness with
the Lord. Always there's forgiveness with the Lord. Does that comfort
your soul? That just gives me chill bumps. There is forgiveness with the
Lord. He forgives our sin against Him. You know, our sin is not just
something we go out and do wrong. It's all against Him. It's all
a personal affront to Him. And then second, we can be thankful.
The Lord's not like us. He never forgets. He never forgets
His friends. He never betrays His friends.
He never denies His friends. He suffered and bled and died
for them. He's not going to turn His back
on them now. All right, verse 13. But I've heard the slander of
many. Fear was on every side. While they took counsel together
against me, they devised to take away my life. But I trusted in
Thee, O Lord. I said, Thou art my God. Our Lord's enemies were always
all around Him. He knew they were off over there
sneaking together in some corner, taking counsel together, or they
might trap Him with their subtlety. And when they did, what did they
have to do? They had to slander him, didn't they? They had to
find witnesses who would lie in order to condemn him, because
they couldn't find anything wrong with this man. He's perfect.
And even though they knew that, even though they knew they could
find nothing he ever did wrong, they still plotted to kill him.
And he knew they were doing it. He knew the thoughts of men.
But that never caused the Savior's trust in the Father to waver.
His faith never wavered. He knew he would be successful. He knew that the Father would
be pleased with his sacrifice. So here's our comfort if we listen
to what he's saying here. Our faith is so weak, just like
the disciples after the Lord died. When I talk about what
they did, I'm not being hard on them. We've done the exact
same thing. I'd have done just exactly what Peter did. I know
that about myself. But here's our comfort. We're
not saved by our faithfulness. Saved by the faithfulness of
Christ. His faithfulness to do everything necessary to redeem
us. His faithfulness to work out a perfect obedience that
he would give to his people. His faithfulness to go suffer
and die to redeem his people from their sin. His faithfulness
to call them by his gospel. His faithfulness to give them
faith and life. His faithfulness to keep them
all the way to the end. We're saved by his faithfulness. And we keep trusting him. You
know why we did? Because He kept giving faith
that we wouldn't quit. We didn't quit because He didn't
let us quit. That's the only reason. So when we trust Christ,
when we can say with Him, Thou art my God, then we'd be confident. If God is our God, we've got
nothing to fear, do we? Who should we fear? All right,
verse 15. My times are in Thy hands. Deliver
me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute
me." Our Savior's times were in the Lord's hand. The time
when He would be born was set by the Father. The time that
He would meet a blind man. The time that He would meet a
man with a withered hand. The time that He would meet a
poor mother following the casket where her only child had just
died. The time when He would meet a man up a tree. The time
when he would do everything that he did. The time a woman would
crawl up behind him and touch the hem of his garment. All those
times were in the Lord's hand. Ordered and directed exactly
to happen when they did by the Lord. And the same thing was
true about his death. So many times the Jews tried
to take him against his will and they couldn't do it. You
know why they couldn't do it? His times were in the Lord's
hand. His hour had not yet come. Man is powerless to do anything
against the will of God. And even when His hour did come,
man was still powerless, weren't they? When our Savior's hour
came, they were powerless to do anything except the will of
God. Pilate wanted to let Him go.
You just read how much Pilate wanted to let Him go in the worst
way. His wife told him, you better have nothing to do with Him.
Just let Him go. And he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. He's
the ruler. He couldn't do what he wanted
to do. Because he was doing God's will. The Jews wanted to kill
the Lord Jesus. And when God let them get their
hands on Him, you know what they did? They did exactly what God
determined before to be done. It's just like they read the
playbook and did exactly what God told them to do. They weren't
the ones in control. All this happened because God's
hour of redemption had come. The Jews didn't even have power
to put the Lord Jesus to death. They couldn't even choose that
for Him, could they? He gave up the ghost. He gave up the
ghost when it was finished. He said it was finished. He gave
up. They couldn't even take His life
from Him. His times were in the Father's hands. What's our comfort then in hearing
our Savior's words? Over and over again in this passage
we've seen how Sin is forgiven in the sacrifice of Christ. He
put away the sin of his people. And that is the greatest blessing
that any sinner can ever have. But we also hear this as our
substitute speaks, just like the Savior. Our times are in
God's hand too. Every day, every event of our
life is in the hand of the Lord. He's ordained exactly when all
these things will happen for the most, from what we call the
big things and what we call the little things. Here we've been
expecting a new baby, haven't we? Thought, well, this baby's
going to come two weeks ago. She came exactly when that happened. Just exactly
when God appointed the moment of her birth. That's true of
everything in our lives. And He's taking those things
and working them together to accomplish His eternal purpose
of good for His people. Our times are in the Lord's hand. And we're God's servants. Whatever
it is, however it is that you serve the Lord in your daily
life, you're serving the Lord. And I got big plans. I mean,
I tell you, I got so many things that I want to do. There's so
many things I pray that I'd see the Lord would do. I don't know
if I'll be here to see Him or not. I do know this, we're not going
to leave this earth until our work's done. I worry I'd like
to get this happen and this happen and set this up and have this
happen. I'd like to come to the point where I'm a pretty old
fella and I can retire and we've got a building that's paid for.
We've got everything set up and find some young man God called
up to raise up and be a pastor. I can sit there and listen to
anything. I'd like that. I don't know if that's going
to happen or not. But I can tell you this, I'm not going to leave
one thing undone that God gave me. Not one. And you won't either. Our times are in His hand. And whatever the time is for
us to go through the valley, to go to the mountaintop, to
worry about our friends and loved ones, And the moment that the
Lord calls us home, all those moments are in His hand. And
I'm glad because He never makes mistakes. All right, verse 16. He says, Make thy face to shine
upon thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake.
Now there was a time the father turned his back on his son. All
he could see was a frown of wrath from his father. But the Savior
prayed this, knowing the Father would soon again turn His smiling
face upon His Son, because He knew sin was going to be put
away. Sacrifice was being offered, atonement would be made. The
death of Christ would please the Father. It would please God
to bruise Him. It pleased His justice to see
His Son die as a substitute. So He would turn His face and
shine upon His Son again. Well, there are great, great
comfort for the believer in our Savior's words here. There is a sense in which God's
face was turned against us when Adam fell. But his face shines
in mercy upon his people in Christ because the father is satisfied
with Christ and he's satisfied with everyone who's in him. The
father smiles upon his son and smiles upon everybody who's in
him. So here's our confidence. When we do not understand what's
going on, how many do you ever ask, I ask that question, what
is going on? We feel like the father's punishing us now. We
know he's not because he punished the substitute for us. He not
punishes, but. When it feels like his face is
frowning upon us. And we're like Peter, we see
that face, we won't go out and weep bitterly. Just take comfort
in this. He's not. He's not. Now he may
hide his face for a time. He's not frowning. He may hide
his face for a time to teach us how much we need him. He may
hide his face from us to put us back down in our place so
we'll call on him for mercy. So we'll beg him for mercy. That's
the right relationship between us and God. We're always begging
him for mercy. but he will eventually turn his smiling face upon his
children again, because he loves them. Just remember this, the
words of the songwriter, behind a frowning providence, he hides
a smiling face. He's gonna turn his smiling face
upon his children again. Then verse 17. He says, let me
not be ashamed, O Lord, for I've called upon Thee. Let the wicked
be ashamed and let them be silenced in the grave. Let the lying lips
be put to silence, which speak grievous things proudly, contemptuously
against the righteous." Our substitute endured the shame of the cross,
but he wasn't ashamed, was he? Not his death brought victory,
his death brought glory. There's nothing to be ashamed
of. He was made sin, but he wasn't ashamed because he put all that
sin away. He died a cursed death upon the
cross. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. And he died and he lay in a tomb for three days,
but he wasn't ashamed. He was raised again for our justification,
raised again in victory. And if we listen to our Savior
speak, we'll find some comfort here. No one who trusts in the
Lord will ever be ashamed. The Savior trusted that the Father
would accept his sacrifice and was not ashamed. The Father accepted. accepted his sacrifice. Well,
anyone who trusts in Christ is never going to be ashamed either.
We're going to be accepted in the beloved. No one who calls
on the Lord for mercy will ever be ashamed. It would be, if we
begged somebody for something that we need and they didn't
give it to us, we'd be ashamed, wouldn't we? Nobody will ever be ashamed who
begs God for mercy. At least 25 times in scripture,
maybe more, but at least 25 times, Scripture says those that trust
in the Lord will not be ashamed, will not be confounded. We saw
it Sunday in the message, Romans 10. Whosoever believes in Christ
will not be ashamed. There's no doubt about it. But
the wicked, those who speak proudly against the righteous, and that's
mostly speaking against Christ the righteous one, they speak
so proudly because they say, we don't need him. We don't need
his righteousness. You know what? Those people will be ashamed.
They don't have a covering. And God's going to eventually
shut their mouths because they don't have anything to plead.
Now it's our prayer he do it in repentance. Maybe he'll shut
their mouth and cause them to repent. He may do it in judgment,
but one way or another, their mouth is going to be shut. But
everybody that Christ died for, everybody that calls upon the
Lord for mercy shall be saved. They'll never be ashamed to always
receive mercy. The Savior delighted that his
people, as he was suffering, he delighted, he found joy that
his people will receive mercy. I believe the thing for us to
do then is to call upon him for mercy, don't you? Our Savior
rejoiced in it. We'll rejoice in it too if we
call on him, call on him for mercy. Let's bow. Our Father, how we thank you
for these words of the substitute who suffered and died in the
place of his people, obtained eternal redemption for them. How we thank you for our great
Savior. How we thank you for our sacrifice,
who willingly suffered to put the sin of his people away. Father, we're thankful. And for
his sake, we beg mercy for our souls. beg that she be merciful
to all those who are gathered here together this evening. Don't
let us leave here without your mercy and your grace. We're thankful
to know you're the God of all mercy, the God of all grace.
Be merciful to us, we pray. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ our Savior, Christ our substitute,
we pray and give thanks.