Psalm 18. The title of the message
this evening is The Deliverer Suffers. You might recall that
last Wednesday, we looked at how the believer has a rock. We have a fortress, a high tower.
We have a deliverer in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have that place
of safety and protection in Christ. And we have it because of how
Christ suffered as the sinner substitute at Calvary. And tonight
I want us to attempt to get some glimpse of the depth of the sufferings
of Christ. To see how he accomplished that
salvation for his people. Because how he accomplished the
salvation of his people tells us why we have such a safe hiding
place. Why we have such a good hope
of eternal life in him. Psalm 18 verse 4, here's the
Savior speaking. He says, the sorrows of death
encompass me. and the floods of ungodly men
made me afraid." This is Christ speaking as he suffered at Calvary.
He says, the sorrows of death compassed me. The sorrows of
death compassed me, surrounded me. Now we know the Lord Jesus
certainly was full of sorrows. He was a man of sorrows. He was
acquainted with grief. And that was nowhere more true
than at Calvary as he bore the griefs and carried the sorrows
of his people. all of the sorrows of his people.
He bore them all at once. How he sorrowed, the Holy Son
of God sorrowed at being made sin. We can't imagine what that
was like for him. We've always been sin. He was
made sin. How the Savior sorrowed as he
suffered for sin, being separated from his Father. But more than
that, the Savior here is telling us why he had to die. This word
sorrows means ropes or bands. The bands of death got hold upon
him because he had been made sin for his people. The only
way death can have a grip on anyone or anything is sin. Where there's sin, there must
be death. Christ was made sin for his people.
That's how those bands of death got hold upon him. and the floods
of ungodly men that came upon him. That is the floods of the
sin of his people being suddenly all at once heaped upon the Savior.
That word flood, I looked it up, it means torrents. It means
just an unstoppable, turbulent wall of sin that would destroy
everyone, anything in its path. Anyone except the Lord Jesus
Christ. It didn't destroy him. but how
it made him suffer, how he sorrowed over it. And I looked and looked
and looked at this statement. He said it made him afraid. Now,
is it wrong to say that the Son of God was afraid of anything? I don't know. He said it. He said He was. He
was afraid. That flood of sin that was coming
upon Him grieved his soul so much that in the garden of Gethsemane,
he thought he'd die right there. He was so sorrowful. Human language
cannot express what the Savior suffered at that time, how he
was afraid. The burden was so great. The burden of sin placed upon
him was so great. Only the Son of God would not
be crushed by it. He wasn't crushed by it, but
it was awful. It made him afraid. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, life himself, the one who has
all life in himself, really died. He had to suffer and then die
because he was made sin. The snares of death, he said,
prevented him. That word prevented, usually
we look at it as meaning go before, but here, the best meaning of
it means that it hastened to him. Those sorrows, the snares
of death, hastened to meet him as he suffered. The Savior suffered
untold agony, untold. But it wasn't enough that he
just suffered. He also had to die to satisfy
justice for the sin of his people. And once that awful, horrible
suffering was over, Christ died. They took a dead body down from
the tomb and a dead body lay in that tomb. They took a dead
body down from the cross and lay in the tomb dead for three
days. Christ our Savior suffered like that. He suffered for the
sin of his people so that their sin would never cause them to
die eternally. That's why he died, so his people
would never die. This word sorrows David uses
literally means birth pain. Christ bore all those sorrows
willingly so He could give birth to, so He could give life to
His people, life that would never be lost. They would never die
if He gives them life. But in order to ensure His people
would never die, that they'd never suffer judgment for their
sin, Christ had to suffer all of God's judgment for them. And
like I said, human language isn't good enough. We can't describe
how deep and awful the sufferings of Christ were. We can't explain
it. Our human minds cannot explain
it. But here under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David describes
the sufferings of Christ as a violent storm sent by God. I want us
to try to see something. We can't fully understand it,
but let's see if we can't see something of the depths of the
sufferings of Christ for this reason. so that we get some glimpse
of what it takes to save a sinner like me. What does it take to
put sin away? We think of sin far too lightly,
don't we? Look at these sufferings of Christ to see this is what
it takes to put sin away. At the end of verse 7, David
says, God was wrath. That word wrath means his anger
burned hot. God is holy. So God's angry with
sin and he will punish every sin with the A holy fury, even
when that sin is found upon his son. And that holy fury, David
begins to describe it here in verse 8. There went up a smoke
out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals
were kindled by it. Now God is so angry with sin,
David describes him as breathing fire, as smoke coming out of
his nose because he's so angry with sin. That's the fire of
God's wrath against sin. But this fire is not a flash
fire. I was a teenager and I was on
the back deck. You are on vacation, so you don't
know about this. But I was lighting the grill
and there was a flash from that grill. And I woke up on the other
side of the deck. I'm like, whoa. You know, my
friend came over, we're going to grill hamburgers, and he said,
what happened to your eyebrows? My eyebrows were gone, just singed,
you know. This is not a flash fire, and
it's gone. This fire of God's wrath against
sin burned long and slow. David says coals were kindled
by this, that long, high heat from those coals. You know, the
fire of hell is never quenched because our suffering could never
put even one sin away. But Christ suffered all that
fiery wrath of God for the sin of His people in just a matter
of hours because of who He is, because He's holy, harmless,
and undefiled. He suffered until the fire went
out. The fire went out because He
suffered until sin was gone, but He suffered it. Verse 9,
He bowed the heavens also and came down. and darkness was under
his feet. Now the cross was an act of God.
The father bowed the heavens down. The father came down and
he personally administered justice. Yes, men were doing what they
wanted to the body of Christ. They were showing this is what
man thinks of God. This is what man thinks of God's
Christ. But that was just the tip of
the iceberg. The father came down and administered justice
in the soul of his son. And Christ suffered alone in
the darkness of God's wrath. Yes, there was physical darkness. The sun refused to shine on this
act that was going on. But worse yet, there was spiritual
darkness. Christ battled the forces of
sin, the forces of darkness without any light from his father's presence.
Verse 10, and he rode upon a cherub and did fly. Yea, he did fly
upon the wings of the wind. The father flew swiftly to justice. And he didn't hold anything back.
David says he rode upon a cherub. You know, we think of cherubs
as those cute little fat childlike angels, you know, that we see
on cards and stuff. A cherub is a very frightening
sight. People who saw a cherub were
scared out of their wits. A very frightening sight. This
is the judgment Christ endured at Calvary. It was a terrible
thing. We would be scared to death if
we could see it and have any idea what was going on there.
Verse 11, he made darkness his secret place. His pavilion round
about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At
the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed,
hailstones and coals of fire. Dave is describing an awful storm,
a very powerful storm. It has both black, thick clouds
and brightness. You know, some of the most powerful
tornadoes are seen in a backdrop of bright sunshine, blue sky,
yet this horrible, awful, dark tornado cloud coming. And those
dark, powerful clouds just swirled around our Savior as He suffered
Like someone in dark floodwaters at night just swirling around
them so you can't see where you are. Before we left this evening,
I turned on the news and saw last night in America's heartland,
tornadoes just swept through, wiped out homes and trailer parts
and it's in the middle of the night, just darkness and everything's
swirling around them. Nobody could see anything. Nobody
could tell what was going on. That's something of how our Savior
was suffering, just this awful swirl and torrents of God's wrath
around Him. Yet He suffered, willingly. He willingly suffered, pressing
on for the light, pressing on for the joy that was set before
Him to redeem His people from their sins. He willingly suffered
all this to put away the sin of His people because He loves
them. He loves His people. You see,
that's what makes the sufferings of Christ so glorious, so awesome. You know, we don't want to ever
be guilty of describing the sufferings of Christ and playing on our
emotions. I mean, it's an emotional thing,
but we don't want to play on our emotions so that we somehow
pity or feel sorry for the Savior. This is what makes the sufferings
of Christ so glorious. It's who he suffered for. He
suffered for sinners like you and me that we might remember. Oh, that's who he suffered for.
And why did he suffer for? Why did he suffer for those sinners
who were dead in sin, who were rebels against him, who sinned
against him, who shook their fist in his face and said, I
won't have you to reign over me. Who spit in his face and
plucked out his beard. Why did he suffer for people
like that? Because he loved something. with an untold, unfathomable
love. He loves his people and he was
determined to put their sin away. That's why he suffered. Now verse
13, the Lord also thundered in the heavens and the highest gave
his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. There was a time you
remember the father thundered from heaven. This is my beloved
son and whom I'm well pleased. You're not saying that now, is
it? No, the silence from the father was deafening. Just deafening. Where was the father? Well, he
wasn't speaking. He didn't speak at all. The silence was deafening
as the Savior, the substitute, suffered. Because now, the father's
thundering justice upon his son. Spurgeon said, suddenly, the
terrible artillery of heaven was discharged. God rained down
hail and fire. fiery hail, God's raining down
upon his son, thundering upon him and his anger and his fury.
Now this is just like what the Lord did in Egypt. Remember one
of the plagues against Egypt, one of the plagues against sin
was hail, fiery hail. That was being thundered upon
Christ our Savior because he was made sin for his people.
It's like the hail that Isaiah told us about. It's going to
sweep away the refuge of lies that everyone has built for themselves,
rather than believe on Christ. Christ was suffering all that
for his people, so he would bear the judgment for their sin. And
they never have to. Verse 14, Yea, he sent out his
arrows and scattered them, and he shot out lightnings and disconfited
them. The arrows of God's justice disconfited
his son. It broke him. It put him to death
because God's arrows never missed their mark. And aren't we thankful? God's arrows never missed their
mark. The only arrows God ever shoots
at his people are his arrows of mercy and grace that pierce
the heart, that give a new heart, that wake us up and cause us
to see the Savior. Those arrows of grace are the
only arrows God ever shoots at his people, never an arrow of
justice because all those arrows of justice were fired upon our
substitute and none of them missed their mark. This is the depths
of the sufferings of Christ. He bore all that wrath from fury
and hatred of sin from his father. Back up at verse 15, or I'm sorry,
verse five. He says, the sorrows of hell
compassed me about. The snares of death prevented
me. And here the sorrows of hell surrounded our Savior. Now that
doesn't mean that after Christ died, he went to a place called
hell. No, he went to the grave. Christ
didn't have to go to a place that's called hell. He suffered
hell for his people. In just three hours, he suffered
hell for his people on the cross. He suffered the absence of God's
favor. And when the time of that suffering
was over, when his suffering accomplished what he came to
do, to put away the sin of his people, he went to the grave. And the cords, the bands of the
grave wrapped around the Savior. Just like those bands, they would
wind around the body of the dead before they buried him. The Lord
Jesus Christ really died because he was made sin and the bands
of the grave, the bands of death grabbed hold upon him. But you
know, his sacrifice put away all the sin charged to him. I
know that so, because yes, the bands of the grave, the bands
of death got hold of him, but they couldn't hold him forever.
Lazarus, when he was raised from the dead, he had to be set free
from those bands, didn't he? The Lord said, loose him and
let him go. Nobody had to loose the Lord by his power. He broke those bands of death
off of him. The grave couldn't hold him.
He came out of the grave because the sin charged to him was gone.
In verse 6, the Savior tells us more about his sufferings.
And this may have been the darkest hour. He said, in my distress,
I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice
out of his temple. My cry came before him, even
into his ears. Now, Christ was made sin. He
was suffering as a sacrifice for sin. He cried out to God,
didn't he? But he wasn't heard. Now God
heard his cry. He knows everything that's going
on. But he would not respond to that cry with any hint of
mercy, with any hint of love. Christ the Savior was receiving
strict justice without any mixture of mercy or grace or love. And
notice when Christ was suffering for sins, he was the sacrifice.
He didn't cry to his father, did he? No, he cried to God. My God, my God. He didn't cry,
my father, my father, why have you forsaken me? He cried, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was forsaken for the sin
of his people that was charged to him. But when the time of
suffering was over, when the price had been paid, the price
for sin had been paid, the Savior cried again. And Bob, this time
he cried to his father. He said, it's finished. Father,
not my God, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Sin
had been purged. Justice had been satisfied. Now
he could call God his father again. Now he could be accepted
in that father and son relationship in love again. I don't want to
get too far ahead of myself, but this is a good time to say
this. This is why every believer can call God our Father. Christ put our sin away. Justice
has been satisfied and we can be heard and accepted in a loving
relationship of father and son, father and daughter. And when
the Savior made that cry, it's finished. Father, into your hands
I commend my spirit. The father heard that cry and
he responded to it with love and respect and acceptance. Look
what happened when he heard that cry in verse 7. Then the earth
shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills
were moved and were shaken, because he was wrong. Now if you look
over Matthew chapter 27, here's the fulfillment of what
David's talking about here. Matthew chapter 27, verse 50. Jesus, when he had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent, and the graves were
opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and
came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into
the holy city, and appeared unto many." Now, you didn't have to
be a biblical scholar to watch this happen and to know This
man that just suffered and died, this man who just gave up the
ghost, he had to be the son of God. He's not just a prophet. He's not just a reformer. He's
not just a good preacher. This is, he's not a mere man
of any kind. This is the son of God who gave
himself as a sacrifice for the sin of his people. You don't
have to be a biblical scholar to know that because look at
verse 54. Now, when the centurion and they that were with him watching
Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things that were done,
they feared greatly saying, truly, this was the son of God. This
was the son of God who just suffered and died for the sin of his people. Now, in closing, I want to give
you five results of the Savior's suffering, five results of Christ's
suffering. Number one is this, as the result
of Christ's suffering, The purpose of God in salvation was finally,
fully, clearly revealed. Verse 15. Then the channels of
waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered
at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. You know, in the drought that
they've been having out west, The water just keeps going down
and down and down, and they're discovering things down at the
bottom of those lake beds. They never knew were there. There
are boats down there and artifacts and channels running through.
They never knew were there. They couldn't see them until
all that water was taken away. This is what happened when Christ
died. The Lord Jesus died. He cried, it's finished. He gave
up the ghost. We just read this. The veil in
the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Now, why did that
happen? When that veil was torn in two
from top to bottom, the foundations of salvation were revealed. They
were always hidden while the temple stood, while the temple
was in use. The foundations of salvation
has always been Christ. He's always been the foundation.
But while the temple was in use, that foundation was hidden, wasn't
it? It was hidden in type and picture. But when Christ died
as a sacrifice for sin, We say, now I see. Now I see what all
that was about. Now I see Christ is the way of
salvation. Now I see I don't have to come
to God through the types and ceremonies of the law. I come
to God through Christ. Now I see I don't need a high
priest, a man who represents Christ. I have Christ himself. That's how I come to God through
him. Now I don't have to bring lambs and goats and bullocks
and things to Sacrifice on this brazen altar in order to come
into God's presence and be accepted. Now, the way to God is wide open. You can be a tall sinner, you
can be a short skinned sinner. You can be a skinny sinner, you
can be a fat sinner. You can walk, you can crawl,
you can roll. The way is torn from top to bottom. The way to God is wide open in
Christ, the Lamb of God, who's already been sacrificed for the
sin of His people. The way's wide open. You don't
have to be a priest from the tribe of Levi to come into the
Holy of Holies in God's presence. Every believer's been made a
priest in the gospel. You come to God by Him. You don't need
to wait for one specific day of the year to come into the
Holy of Holies in the presence of God. You don't have to wait
till the Day of Atonement. You come to God anytime, at all
times, boldly. You come into His presence boldly
to find grace to help in time of need. Because the sacrifice
of Christ is ever fresh, it's ever powerful. You know, you
think that high priest on the day of atonement, he, I don't
know, if he crawled under, he scooted around, whatever he did,
he went from this side of the veil to this side of the veil,
where God dwelt, where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt, where that
mercy seat covered with blood was. You reckon he held his breath
and he went in there? Is God going to strike me down? Did
I do the million details right I was supposed to do before I
got to this point? Is God going to strike me down? You don't have to come
to God in that kind of fear. Don't you hold your breath before
you come into the presence of God. You come boldly in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His sacrifice is always powerful. He's died. He's put away the
sin of his people. Christ died for you, your sins
cleansed. You're accepted. You come to God wholly. The foundation
of faith, the foundation of salvation was revealed when Christ died.
He's the foundation. Second, the death of Christ delivers
his people from every danger to our souls. His death delivered
his people from the stormy waters of our sin, verse 16. He sent
from above. He took me. He drew me out of
many waters. Those great waters of God's judgment
would have swallowed us up, wouldn't it? They'd have drowned us for
sure. But God, He reached down. He sent from above and He took
me. He plucked me out of there and
brought me out. He delivered His people from
those great waters by suffering those great waters for them.
There is no danger to the soul of anyone for whom Christ died.
No danger. He delivers us from them all.
Thirdly, the death of Christ delivers us from all of our strong
enemies. Verse 17. He delivered me from
my strong enemy and from them which hated me, for they were
too strong for me. Now every enemy is too strong
for us. I mean, we're so weak. We're
so frail and fickle. What enemy do you think we can
take on and handle? Not one, but that's all right,
because Christ delivered his people from every one of them.
We've seen this over and over again, his sufferings. Seen it. Christ, that's an enemy too strong
for us. Try not to sin for just one second.
Can't do it, too strong for us. Try to live forever and not die.
Can't do it. I don't care how many vitamins
you take. You can't do it. Sin is reigning over us. It's
too strong for us. But Christ set his people free
from the power of sin by being made sin for us, suffering and
dying for us. Christ set his people free from
death. Christ set his people free from the sting of death.
Now, these bodies are still going to die because they're full of
sin, but the believer will never die, never die eternally. because
Christ already died for us. Then there's the grave. We can't
set ourselves free from the grave. Those bands of the grave are
too strong for us, but not for our Savior. He broke them off
and rose again by His own power. And He's going to do the same
thing for every one of His people. He's just going to speak one
day and the graves are going to open and everybody's going
to come out raised. He'll deliver His people from
the bands of the grave. And then Satan, there is an enemy
too strong for us. Christ our Savior crushed his
head. He crushed his power, took his
power away at Calvary. So we have nothing to fear. We
don't have to fear any of those enemies. The death of Christ
delivered us from all of our strong enemies. Fourthly, the
death of Christ delivers us from that awful storm of judgment
against our sin. Verse 18, they prevented me. in the day of my calamity, but
the Lord was my stay." You know, Isaiah told us about that overflowing
scourge of God's wrath that will come, come in judgment, destroy
every refuge of lies. It will destroy any refuge other
than Christ. And those things are preventing
us. They are rushing towards us. But the believer can say,
Christ is my stay. I'm hiding in Christ. I'm safe
in Him. He's my shelter. He's my refuge.
That horrible storm is going on outside there. He's bearing
it all and keeping me safe in Him. I'm hidden safe in Him. There's deliverance and safety
in Christ because of His death for His people. Verse 19, He
brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because
He delighted in me. Now, this large place means a
wide open place, a place of liberty. It's not a place that's small
and confined and we're being crushed by it. We're being crushed
by all the weights and demands of the law. No, we've been set
free in Christ, in a large place, free to serve Christ. And lastly,
as the result of Christ's death for his people, the Father accepts
his people. accepts them because he delights
in them. He delights in them with good
reason. Christ our Savior made them righteous. Verse 20, the
Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to
the cleanness of my hands, hath he recompensed me. Now, none
of us can say that that is our experience, that we've done anything
righteous in these bodies, but every believer has done nothing
but righteousness in our Lord Jesus Christ when He obeyed the
law. We did too. We obeyed it in Him.
Christ is our righteousness. It's not anything we've done.
He is our righteousness. Christ's obedience is our obedience.
His righteousness is our righteousness. Christ is the righteousness of
every believer. And here David calls it My righteousness
is mine. If I'm not righteous, if I don't
have a perfect righteousness, God will never accept me. David
here calls it my righteousness. David, how'd you get that? How
can you say that? It's mine because Christ gave
it to me. He gave it to me. In Christ, I'm righteous. In
Christ, I have clean hands. Now, the only way any of us can
say that is in Christ. Verse 21. For I have kept the ways of the
Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments
were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.
I was also upright before him and kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed
me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands in his eyesight. You see, I've departed from the
ways of the Lord. I've wickedly departed from God
in Adam and in all my own actions, but not in Christ I haven't.
In Christ, I've kept the ways of the Lord. And not just outward
laws now, I've kept His ways, His ways, I've kept them inwardly. In Christ, I haven't wickedly
departed from God. In Christ, I draw near to God.
See, we're saved not by putting the law away from us, not by
ignoring the law. No, we're saved through the law.
through Christ's obedience to the law and him imputing that
righteousness to us. So the Lord will reward everyone
for whom Christ died. He will reward them with salvation. He's going to give them eternal
life because they earned it. They earned it in Christ. In
judgment, God's going to give everyone exactly what they've
earned. Exactly. God's gonna damn everyone
who refuses to believe and bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's just it. It's just exactly what we deserve.
But God's gonna give eternal life to everyone who believes
on and trusts in Christ. He's gonna give them eternal
life. And that's just. It's only right. Because that's
what they earned. In Christ. In Christ. This is
so amazing, I love to think about this. God gives his people righteousness. He makes them righteous. And
then he rewards them for having it. Now that's grace. God gives his people righteousness
and then rewards them for having it. That's the salvation that
we have through the obedience and the suffering of Christ our
Savior. That's what it took to save sinners
like you and me. What a salvation He's provided,
our Savior's provided because of His suffering for His people.
And that's what we're going to remember right now as we observe
the Lord's table. So Wayne, you men come and distribute
the bread.